The Apprentice of Music

by whimsytwist

Chapter Two: All I wanted was a Guitar..

"Hello, may I have your name please?" a voice wafted from behind a large computer. Ebony peered over to see a young grey mare with red spectacles typing away at her over sized computer.

"Um, Ebony Waters," Ebony replied, slightly squirming. The atmosphere in this place wasn't exactly comforting, but this was only the front lobby, right?

"Ebony Waters... Okay, I see! Here's your room key..." the mare handed over a small brass key. "And here's your map, schedule, and all you need to know. Good luck!"

Ebony was about to thank the pony, but saw that she was already intently focused at typing up something on the computer. Shrugging, Ebony walked over to an elevator, pressing the 3rd floor button.

She was grateful to be alone in the elevator, because the awkward company of another pony would be too much for her to bear. As the elevator slowly went up, Ebony took time to ponder the earlier events of today. Why had her father reacted so badly? She was only hiding out in their closet...

Maybe they were hiding something? Ebony shook her head. No, she would try to forget the situation as fast as possible. The event had given her an opportunity to go to the college she wanted early without any further questions asked, and she'd never have to see her stone cold family again. Wasn't it all she'd ever wanted?

The elevator let out a ding!, and Ebony boarded off, grunting as she carried her heavy luggage with her. Once she stopped in front of room 3-12, she inserted the key, and the door gave a satisfying click! as she went in.

Ebony sniffed the room, slightly wrinkling her nose at the musky scent of.. well, nothing. The air was stale and boring, something she was determined to fix. Ebony saw two beds in a separate room, confusing her. It suddenly dawned on her that she'd have a roommate, which made her annoyed. Here, she was expecting to finally have some peace and quiet with her music. Instead of this place being the perfect environment she'd been craving, she was going to have a nosy, annoying roommate. Great.

On the bright side, she had time to decorate exactly how she wanted, even though her personal belongings had been kept to a minimum. She was happy she had come here early now.

Dragging rose pink sheets out of her bags, she proceeded to make her bed, flapping her wings as she hovered over the mattress. Once she had that covered, lazily and picked up the student rule book and enveloped herself in reading the thick, tiny print.

She flipped over to the Pegasus chapter, where she was quickly disappointed.

Rule #1: Pegasi may not fly in the hallways or corridors.

Giving up on reading the material, she instead took out her Book of Inspiration and engrossed herself in it. The Book of Inspiration was a gift from her old mother, who had realized the musical talent Ebony had at her young age. The book was filled with photographs and stories that could mesmerize any pony, and power them with hopes and dreams for the future.

Ebony settled on reading the story about how Luna was sent to the moon, shifting uncomfortably in her ill fitting clothes.

Ebony was so intently focused on her reading that she hadn't heard the door give away another click! as another pony entered the room.

"Ahem," a deep voice snapped her out of the little world she'd thrown herself into. Looking up, Ebony was shocked to see a male standing in front of her, instead of a female. Hadn't she checked off the 'female roommate' box? Oh yea.. In her rush to turn the application in as early as possible, she'd checked off 'any gender' instead.

"Um, hi," Ebony awkwardly averted her gaze from the stallion to avoid any eye contact. However, her eyes felt drawn to him. She shyly looked up into his crystal purple eyes.

"I take it you're my roommate," he sighed. "I don't know why I didn't check off male roommate,"

Ebony eyed his navy blue coat color, before catching herself. "Oh, yes, um..."

"I see you're not a very sociable pony..." he cocked his head slightly to one side. "What do you do in your free time if not interact with other ponies?"

"Hey, what makes you think I'm not sociable?" huffed Ebony indignantly.

The stallion raised an eyebrow. "You honestly make it seem quite obvious, you know,"

Ebony blushed a deep crimson, which shone brightly against her pitch black coat. Nervously twirling a silver strand of hair, she cleared her throat. "Well, yeah. I'm Ebony," she reached her hoof out to shake. "And you are?"

"I'm Quill Parable, but usually I go by Quill," he introduced himself, and shook her hoof. Ebony couldn't help but notice that his mane matched his eyes perfectly. Oh, well. You go through this when you meet a new pony, right? You just want to observe them!

"Wow, I like you're cutie mark," Ebony blurted out when her betraying eyes roamed his body. Just out of curiosity, she wanted to know what his cutie mark was. That's all it was, right? Curiosity...

"Why, thank you," Quill smiled. "I couldn't help wondering, but, what is your cutie mark?"

Ebony blushed again, her ears flattening against her head. "Well, you see, um..." she mumbled, unable to contain her embarrassment. For the love of Celestia, she was eighteen, where the hell was her cutie mark?

Quill caught on fast, noticing her discomfort. "Ah, I see. You're flank still remains bare," he took out his blue sheets and started making his bed.

Ebony was filled with annoyance and sadness. Quill had a really cool splatter-ink cutie mark, while her dumb flank remained blank. Why couldn't the stupid skirt cover her flank? This was the price she had to pay for wearing a skirt the size of underwear...

"Um, if you'll excuse me," she hesitated. "I must go now.. Bye!" she grabbed her small amount of bits and dashed out the door, ears reddening. For some reason, she just had to totally impress her roommate. So, off to the music shop with her!

Ebony winced as her bare hooves touched the ice cold tiles of the front lobby. Even the ponies in Ponyville wore horseshoes to give the slightly higher elevation. But, since her family had been 'dirt poor', clothing and shoes were out of the question.

Ebony hurried out the door, determined now to find her cutie mark. Hopefully, it would be an awesome one, and not anything... boring. Like an old mare in Ponyville had her cutie mark as a plastic shovel, which meant she had a talent for making little plastic shovels out of plastic. Like, seriously? However, she could never forget how the mare had always worn her cutie mark with pride and dignity... Oh how amazing it must be to have your very own cutie mark! To wear it just like a prize trophy every day.

Wandering around the streets of Manehatten was definitely harder that Ebony had made it out to be. Luckily, she still bore the city map she took from the train station. Reading it was difficult too, though she was surprised at how well she got around.

After many more minutes of map-reading and fast-paced walking, Ebony found herself in front of a tiny shop with a music note on top. The small letters read "Orias' Musical Emporium", which was highly unbelievable, considering the cramped space. Whoever this "Orias" was, he wasn't very bright.

Ebony entered the shop, and the tiny bell gave out a tinkling jingle. She surveyed the shop, smiling at the familiar instruments hung up on display. Though there was almost no room to move around, she managed to get herself to a corner where a guitar was hanging from.

Muffled voices filled the room, like somepony's mouth was covered by something. Looking around, Ebony saw nothing except the instruments. Huh.

Ebony coordinated her wings so she could hover and grab her desired guitar, while not dislodging any instrument from it tight spot on a shelf. Once she got her guitar down, she squeezed herself passed the multiple racks of instruments and made her way over to what seemed like the register.

A silky black mane poked out from behind it, but that was all she saw.

"Um, excuse me? I'd like to purchase this guitar," Ebony spoke out, though she wasn't sure the pony heard her. "Um, excuse me? I said I'd like to-"

"Yeah, I heard you," a mare's voice poked out from behind the register. "Just give me a second, alright?"

Ebony stood, frozen. To be honest, the voice nearly scared the living daylights out of her. It just came from.. nowhere..

"Okay, you may now purchase the guitar. That'll be sixty bits, please,"

Ebony squirmed. Even her life savings wasn't enough to cover the price. "Oh, well, I guess I don't have enough money..." she sighed, a pang of sadness hitting her heart. "I'll leave, then.."

"Hold up!" a louder, much more exciting voice rang through the air. "No pony is going to leave this shop upset! Octavia, what did I tell you? Always make the customer happy-"

"And fulfill their every musical need," the brown mare repeated, obviously bored. It seemed like she got a hyper lesson every day.

"Yup!" Shades of an electric blue mane appeared, as well as a white coat.

Ebony's eyes widened when she realized that it was DJ P0N-3, and the other mare must be been Octavia!

"Now, what was it you wanted to buy?" grinned the DJ, looking at her with energy filled red eyes.

"I, um, uh... Er, I, um, kinda, ah.." Ebony stuttered, nervously grinning.

"Aw, it's a fan!" cooed the white mare lovingly. "I'm Vinyl Scratch, or better known as DJ P0N-3!"

"Oh, um, well, you see, um, heh, er.." Ebony was still struggling to form a proper sentence, before being interrupted by Octavia.

"She said she'd like to purchase the guitar, but doesn't have enough money," Octavia said. An unamused expression clung to her face.

"Oh, why didn't you say so?" Vinyl's cheery voice said.

"Well, you see, um,, er, well, I.."

"God damn it woman!" cried Octavia irritably. "Just talk already!"

Ebony was surprised that Octavia's harsh words actually gave her the power to speak. "I don't have enough money," she continued, more clearly. "But I seriously need this guitar,"

Vinyl looked at her intently, trying to figure the mare out. "You love music, don't you?" she questioned.

"Um, yes, I do," replied Ebony, feeling more sure of herself after the mention of her most favorite thing in the world.

"Where's your cutie mark?" Vinyl asked.

"Um... Well, I didn't find my special talent yet..." muttered Ebony, embarrassed.

"Well, I can tell that you're genuine..." Vinyl thought out loud, pondering something for a few seconds. Then, out of the blue, she squealed with a new idea. "Octavia! I've got an idea!" she jumped around, doing whatever it was she was doing.

"What is it?" Octavia's bored tone came out monotonous.

"This little mare here shall become our apprentice! We shall guide her through the amazing world of music! We shall broaden her love for the food of our hearts, she will find her destiny, we will become..." Vinyl lowered her voice to a deathly whisper. "Her mentors!"

Octavia just stared at Vinyl blankly. She just stared, and stared and stared, unblinkingly. Their little staring contest dragged on, until Vinyl finally burst.

"Octavia, I was having a frickin' moment there! You can't just ruin it by doing nothing! That's terrible!" wailed Vinyl.

"But.. I did ruin it by doing nothing.."

"I can't believe that after all that we've been through, you won't act at a dramatic time like this! I was being truthful! That was an amazing idea!" Vinyl's tears sprung out, yet Octavia remained stoic.

"Vinyl, really?" she sighed.

Vinyl immediately got up and grinned. "Don't mind Octavia, Ebony," she waved the mare away. "She agrees, even though she wants to be a big meanie!"

Ebony raised her eyebrows at the scene that just played before her eyes. The way both Vinyl and Octavia looked and acted.. they couldn't be much older than her, could they?

As if reading her mind, Vinyl asked, "Oh hey, how old are you?"

"Um, I'm eighteen, I've just recently enrolled in Pale Hearts college," Ebony replied.

"Oh... coolio! Me and Octavia attend there too, even though we go on tons of trips for our concerts. We're going to have a concert tonight, you know! Well, I am. Octavia will be there to cheer me on! Right, Octavia?"

"Obviously," Octavia let out the tiniest hint of a smile, showing Ebony that she really did care for Vinyl.

"What year are you guys in?" Ebony asked, poking her hoof at the ground.

"We are officially third years, starting when college starts!" Vinyl proudly boasted and puffed out her chest. "Impressive, right?"

Octavia rolled her eyes. "Uh, yeah, I guess," Ebony smiled.

"Well then it's settled! Me and Octavia shall teach you the way of music and will help you earn your cutie mark!" Vinyl clapped her hooves excitedly.

"Gee, thanks. It means a lot to me, really," Ebony grinned. Her heart was pumping with excitement. Equestria's famous, talented musicians were going to be her mentors? That was truly amazing! There was no way she wouldn't get her cutie mark now.

Comments

[whimsytwist]

Thanks for all of the support so far, guys! I really appreciate it! Please point out grammatical errors and such! And... yeah. Oh yeah!

And then sex happened. The End!

[Slateblu1]

She agrees, even though she wants to be a big meanie!"

missed a quote mark at the beginning there.

I look forward to more!!

one, mainly because i need an excuse to use this meme, and it fits.

"This little mare here shall become our apprentice! We shall guide her through the amazing world of music! We shall broaden her love for the food of our hearts, she will find her destiny, we will become..." Vinyl lowered her voice to a deathly whisper. "Her mentors!"

That whole section gets:
i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/293/715/e99.jpg

[EvilTaco7655]

"Wow, I like you're cutie mark," Ebony blurted out

its your not ''Wow, I like you are cutie mark,''

[Father Figure]

You know, I think Ebony was just looking for an excuse to look at his rear, kinda like "Yeah, that's a pretty cool cutie mark, but damn, dat flank," kidding about that by the way, but I just feel like something will develop.

Really liking the story, even though Octavia was being a slight bitch, aw well, I'm sure in time she'll come around. Keep up the good work, 'cause I want to see chappy three.