A hazy memory in Octavia’s mind appeared; she was reliving what had happened just the previous week.
“We’re sorry Octavia, you must attend this school.” The old colt said “So you can bring honour to our family name.” While he comforted the weeping mare at his side. One of Celestia’s Royal Guards walked over to Octavia, and started to drag her to the Pegasus carriage. Octavia was screaming, trying to resist the strong colt’s pull. It was no use. She started to cry. This was the last time Octavia would see her family for a long, long time.
“Hey, are you okay? Hello?” A young filly was speaking to Octavia. Octavia started to open her eyes, vision blurred, but she could see a white unicorn with a blue mane.
“W-Wha?” Octavia muttered. She was in her dorm bed, confused.
“Oh, you’re okay...that’s good. You were thrashing around in your sleep. I was worried for a moment.” the white filly replied. This filly was a unicorn, no cutie mark. Indeed, none of the ponies in the dorm nor the rest of the students in the school had found their special talents yet. Octavia glanced around the dorm, seeing a couple other ponies in the dorm with them. A mint colored unicorn was practicing a harp up above her.
Two other ponies left the room in a hurry to get dinner from the mess hall, probably because they wasted too much time fooling around the dorm. Octavia got out her bed, and held out a hoof toward the new white pony, “Glad that you helped me out. I was having a terrible nightmare. My name’s Octavia, and yours?”
“The name’s Vinyl Scratch, nice to meet ya’ Octavia.” the white unicorn said, shaking Octavia’s hoof. “So, what instrument do you play?”
“The cello. I think it’s an alright instrument to play, it’s very fashionable for important events,” Octavia replied, “and how about yourself?”
“Well, uhh. I play the turn tables. The DJ, if you catch my drift.” Vinyl said.
“That’s quite interesting, but I’ve never heard of turn tables. They sound like... turning tables... if you would say... Heh.” Octavia scoffed, somewhat indignantly. The white unicorn merely shrugged.
“The mess hall’s going to close soon, I’m going to head down, wanna come with?” Vinyl asked, looking back from the door way.
“I’ll pass. I’m not that hungry anyway. Bring back an apple, if you could.” Octavia said, sitting back into her bed, still a bit paranoid from the nightmare she just had, not a few moments ago.
“Alright, I’ll see what I can do. Catch ‘cha later Octavia!” Vinyl said, trotting out the door and down the hallway.
Octavia started to lay down, looking up at the bunk above her, when a head popped over the
side, hanging down, looking at Octavia. This new friendly, mint coloured pony, smiled at Octavia.
“Heya there, your name’s Octavia, right? Because, I overheard you and that white unicorn talking just a second ago. Not to impose at all, but, you guys were kind of loud.” The new mint pony said, with a slight frown.
“No, no. It’s quite alright. Yes, I am Octavia, and you are?” Octavia asked, waiting for a reply, only to hear a song being played from above. Quite beautiful, to Octavia’s taste, it was pretty good. “You play pretty good, you have a great talent!”
“Ya. I guess that’s why I’m here.” The mint pony said, looking out the window, “Celestia’s School for Gifted and Talented Ponies. Why would this school be made anyway? It takes us away from our families, but I guess it’s all for the best.”
“You have a good point, but, how else would we find our cutie marks? We can’t just paint them on like a piece of art. You got to earn them, by pushing yourself to the limit of what your talented at, so that’s why we’re here.” Octavia said, “I never caught your name though.”
“My name’s Lyra, I am very talented with the harp, but still waiting for a cutie mark. What can ya do?” She replied. She had made Octavia very puzzled, rethinking about why she is here now, from this conversation. The two fillies that had left earlier, had came back, looking like they were stuffed with food, soon to find out, trailing behind, Vinyl Scratch trotted into the room, levitating a apple with her magic. Vinyl hovered it over Octavia’s bed, and dropped it onto the bed.
“There Octavia, that’s what ‘cha wanted, correct?” Vinyl Scratch asked, looking up at Lyra.
“Yes, exactly what I wanted. Thank you, Vinyl Scratch.” Octavia replied. She saw Lyra hop down from above, and landed near the white unicorn.
“Hey there Vinyl, I’m Lyra, nice to meet you.” She said with a big smile on her face. Vinyl jumped back a back, startled.
“Oh hey, nice to meet ‘cha too!” Vinyl replied, then looked at the clock. All the other ponies in the room glanced at it, looking at the time.
“Is there a bed time or something?” Octavia asked out in the blue.
“Ya.. It’s almost ten at night, that’s when we wrap up for the night.” One of the other ponies said.
“Alright. We might as well.. I’ve been kind of worn out for the day. I’ll see you guys in the morning.” Octavia said, starting to lay down on her side, looking at the rest of the dorm. All the other ponies went over to their bed’s, making their selves comfortable. She noticed that Vinyl didn’t have a bunk mate on the bottom. Octavia felt Lyra jump up to her bed, shaking the bunk as she started to fall asleep. All the lights turned out, the school was very dark. Anypony could get lost in this school now.
It was dark, and no pony was awake after 11 at night. Vinyl was thrashing around, trying to fall asleep, but giving up. She threw her hooves up in frustration and she sat up in her bed, looking out at the beautiful night sky.
“So, a princess created this? I guess she made it so it would be easier for ponies to sleep...” she whispered to herself. Vinyl had too much on her mind. Octavia made her feel like something was rebuilding her spirits. How she felt, and how she acted, she felt like it was love, but couldn’t quite figure it out. It’s been too long without her mothers love, she would have to move on. Vinyl made her way down from her bunk, quietly walking over to Octavia’s bedside. She smiled at Octavia’s cute face, she almost could squeeze it! Vinyl leaned over and gave Octavia a slight kiss on the cheek, trying to leave no trace of her being there. Octavia giggled a little in her sleep, as a reaction to the sensation. Vinyl smiled again to her reaction, then quietly made her way over to her bunk, quietly getting into it without alarming any other pony in the dorm. She felt at ease now, and drifted into a sleep filled with thoughts about Octavia.
Vinyl was disturbed by a loud ringing sound. All though to you,me, and every other pony, the raucous noise, would be grating on the ears. To Vinyl’s sleep addled mind, it sounded like a wonderful cello solo. She opened her eyes, starting to come back into reality, when she noticed the morning alarm had gone off. Vinyl lagged behind a bit, for her morning routine. She noticed all of the ponies in the dorm had made their way down to the mess hall for breakfast, before she even climbed out of bed. She used her magic to levitate a brush over to tame her mane a bit, making it look presentable. Running out the room, she glanced at the mirror, and guessed that she looked fine enough. Making her way to the mess hall, she saw her dorm friends sitting over on the right side of the room. She trotted over and saw a spot made for her to sit down. As she sat down, she noticed Octavia had put on a white collar with a pink bow tie on. Feeling a presence behind, Lyra sat down next to Vinyl, putting down a tray of breakfast in front of both of them.
“We saw you fell behind this morning, so I took the task of grabbing your breakfast for ya!” Lyra said with a smile. Vinyl glanced over her tray; pancakes, toast, an apple, and some water on the side. A pretty good spread for today’s meal.
“Thanks Lyra. I owe ya one. I promise!” Vinyl replied, noticing Octavia talking with some of the other ponies. She started into her breakfast, eating the delicious pancakes; she noticed a faint hint of blueberry in them. Taking her time with her food, she had noticed the two ponies that were in the dorm yesterday, had disappeared from the table. Wondering where they went, she wasn’t focused on her food, until she realized she had eaten everything on her tray. She wiped her mouth and drank some water, and noticed Octavia’s tray was still at the table, but she was too busy talking to other ponies. Vinyl did the kind thing and returned their trays to a rack, where other ponies have put their trays too. She made her way back to the table, and noticed Octavia wanted to say something to her.
“Thank you Vinyl, didn’t notice you took my tray for me.” said Octavia “Until you got back, of course,” giggling slightly at the last part of her sentence. Vinyl blushed slightly, but looked up and smiled.
“No problem, Octavia. Anything for a friend. Just wanted to be nice and help out.” She said, smiling at Octavia. The moment was soon interrupted by a buzzing bell, a signal for everypony to get to their class. Vinyl followed Lyra and Octavia to their assigned classrooms for the time being. They walked into their classroom, and Vinyl noticed what was written on the board, “Music Exposure,” and below it was the teacher’s name, “Professor Hoofholtz.” An odd name, and she had never even heard of this teacher. Some of the other ponies in this class entered the room; as the bell rung, the ponies took random seats. The two ponies from the dorm had appeared in the room, sitting in the same area was the rest of the group.
“Alright, settle down class. Today, I will expose you guys to various styles of music, and instruments,” the professor said, “but I’ll give you guys five minutes to get to know your classmates better, because this is the class you are going to be stuck together for the rest of the school year, so you need to get along,” said the professor, as he stretched back into his leather chair. The other ponies started to socialize across the whole room. A swarm of chatter filled the air of the room. Vinyl approached the two dorm ponies, curious as to what they do.
“Hey you two, you’ve been bouncing off the walls ever since we got here, I’ve never gotten to know your names.” Vinyl said. One of the ponies stood up, tall, presenting herself. She had never gotten a clear look at them up close before. This one dark green coat and lime mane. Her horn pointed out she was a unicorn, along with her hair, in a pony tail.
“Hello, I’m Claranettles. I was sent here in my profession of music, under wood winds. The clarinet is what I play.” she said. As she sat back down, the other pony stood up. Her blue coated friend stood up next to her. Besides from the aqua mane, Vinyl had noticed this filly was a pegasi too! Vinyl was excited to hear what this pony had to say.
“Hey there. The names Blue Tone, and I play the xylophone. Gives me a lot to think about, more fast paced. And don’t let the wings put you off, I still want to fly!” she said, as she shouted near the end of her sentence. Both of the ponies sat back down looking up at Vinyl.
“Nice to meet ‘cha both! I’m Vinyl Scratch, but just Vinyl for short.” Vinyl replied. Professor Hoofholtz slammed a ruler on the desk, making all the fillies in the classroom quiet down. He looked around, putting the ruler down, and got up from his chair.
“Alright class. My name, is Professor Hoofholtz. I teach this class, so you all can find and explore an instrument you guys like. And, it could be what you special talent is!” the Professor said, looking around the room, assuring the ponies were still listening. He started to walk up and down the aisles of the chairs and desk. “To start off today’s lesson, we will study percussion instruments. They are instruments, that you have to hit it, generally, to generate noise, usually to keep beat for the rest of the band to use for their own use.” He walked around the room, noticing how some of the ponies look like they can already play a few instruments. The most potential he saw was in Vinyl and her group; Lyra, Octavia, Blue Tone, and Claranettles. They, were his next legacy.
