“I never knew singing could be so... exhausting.”

Sweetie Belle flopped down on the richly carpeted floor of the Canterlot amphitheater. The tiny bit of make-up Rarity had insisted she wear was slightly smeared and runny from her sweat; the spotlight on stage had been a lot hotter and bright than the one for the school talent show, and it didn't help that – in addition to her sister – the audience had included perhaps two of the biggest names in music.

She'd almost fainted when she'd heard that Octavia Melody, one of the most well known classically trained musicians in all of Equestria, and Vinyl Scratch, the legendary DJ PON-3, would be watching her and judging her singing talents. Honestly, if her sister hadn't whisked her away for some last minute pampering, she just might have.

Now that it was over, though, Sweetie Belle felt both severely drained and incredibly accomplished.

She was every bit as tired as if she’d ran here all the way from Ponyville, but she had done it; she finally sang in front of other ponies. What's more, they had actually enjoyed it; ponies had actually cheered for her, just because of her singing!

It almost didn't feel real, even as Rarity picked her up and hugged her, telling Sweetie how proud she was of her. But it just felt so... right.

Something within her stirred slightly, like the feeling she got whenever she would hang around with her fellow Crusaders, or the times she and Rarity actually acted like sisters. It was a feeling like everything was perfectly right in the world, even if it was just for this one moment. She heard her sister gasp, and she looked up in confusion.

Rarity was crying, but she was smiling too. She held Sweetie Belle to her, squeezing her tightly. Only uttering a soft “I knew it.”

Sweetie Belle, now confused (well, more-so than usual) by her sister, asked, “what's wrong, Rarity?”

Rarity, still smiled, set her sister down and wiped her tears away. “Nothing's wrong, Sweetie. I know I say this a lot, but this really is the best possible thing.” Before Sweetie could say anything, Rarity pointed back to the filly's flank.

Still confused, Sweetie turned to follow her sister's hoof, then gasped herself.

There, on her flank, was the image of a musical note, with the base in the shape of a heart. A cutie mark, her cutie mark; she had finally gotten it.

She hugged her sister once more, her joy tempered by tiredness, then yawned hugely. “I did it, Sis. I really did it!”

Rarity chuckled. “Yes, Sweetie, you did. Now, let's go; Princess Celestia said we could spend the night in one of the palace guest rooms, and you've had a busy night.”

“But I'm not–” Sweetie Belle started the usual childish protest to sleep, but couldn't find the energy to finish, breaking into another yawn. “Okay, Rarity.”

Rarity chuckled at her sister, magically lifting her up and onto her back. “Rest up, Sweetie dear, knowing Pinkie, she'll throw you a party that lasts the better part of a week.”

“Mhm.” Sweetie, having been carried like this before, was already shifting into her usual comfy spot and drifting away into sleep.

“And I'm sure your friends will be ever so excited to hear the news. After all, you've all spent so much time looking for your cutie marks.”

My friends...

[hr]

Sweetie's sleep had been dreamless, her mind too exhausted to conjure up any sort of nightmare scenarios or wild fantasies, but the coming of morning had brought fears of it's own.

Once it became clear that her cutie mark appearing had not been a dream, that left one major fear; her friends. And, while Rarity negotiated their train tickets for the return home, she had plenty of time to think about them.

She had met Apple Bloom and Scootaloo because of their shared lack of cutie marks, and they had bonded because of it. Always trying tons of random, silly, or (usually at Scootaloo's suggestion) dangerous things to try and get their marks in anything. They had spent years of their lives on it at this point, even gotten new members if Babs Seed was to be believed. She had nearly ten fillies and colts in Manehatten who had joined, and even in Ponyville, the three of them had talked with a few of the other blank flanks about joining.

They'd even asked Twilight if she could make it something official with some kind of 'royal order' or something. And she hadn't said 'no' either! The Cutie Mark Crusaders had practically been her life for so long, it was weird to imagine not being one anymore.

But now... she had her cutie mark.

She looked back at her flank, staring at the mark on it. She'd lost count of how many times she'd done this trying to make something appear, but now she found herself almost wishing she could make it disappear, just so she wouldn't have to say goodbye to her friends.

“Is something wrong?”

She almost jumped out of her skin as somepony spoke to her; she had been so engrossed in her displeasure, she hadn't noticed anypony around her. As it was, though, she merely ended up on the station floor in an undignified pile of filly.

Once she managed to disentangle her body from itself, Sweetie got a good look at who was addressing her, then found herself wishing she'd stayed in the pile.

Octavia Melody herself was standing there, right in front of her! A pony that her sister had gushed endlessly about, almost to the level of Hoity Toity or Photo Finish, was actually talking to her! And, strangely, she didn't seem to be glaring down at her like she had expected somepony from Canterlot to do. Celestia knew her sister had horror stories of all the upper class ponies that looked down on her for being from a town like Ponyville, after all.

“Are you alright?” There was a slight accent to Octavia's voice, it almost reminded Sweetie of Pipsqueak's Trotingham accent, but she didn't think it was the same. “Miss?”

Sweetie snapped out of her starstruck stupor as she was addressed. “Oh, um, yes, I'm okay. Thank you, Miss Melody.”

Octavia chuckled. “Please, my name is Octavia. I get enough of that 'Miss Melody' stuff from all the ponies I perform for.”

Sweetie blinked. “Um... okay, Miss Octavia.”

Now it was Octavia who blinked, slowly opening her mouth to say something in response.

“Might as well take it, Tavi.” Almost out of nowhere, Vinyl Scratch was suddenly there as well. “You know how fillies can be when they meet ponies as awesome as me, looks like it's the same with you.”

While Sweetie struggled to keep from staring at not one, but two music superstars, Vinyl proceeded to casually drape herself over Octavia's back. It was surreal; the two were literally the exact opposite ends of the musical spectrum, but here they were, together, and neither of them seeming to mind the other. Indeed, Octavia was smiling and chuckling at Vinyl.

“I suppose you're right, Vinyl.”

“Of course I'm right, I'm me.” Vinyl lowered her signature sunglasses, revealing a pair of red eyes as she looked at Sweetie. “You look familiar, kid. Have I seen you before?”

Sweetie gulped, looking around for her sister to maybe get some clues on how she was supposed to act. After all, these were two famous ponies, and there were suppose to be rules when it came to meeting with famous ponies. But they were acting so... normal, like they didn't have any special rules or instructions for it; it was honestly confusing for Sweetie.

“Hello, anypony home in there?” Vinyl waved a hoof in front of Sweetie Belle's face.

She shook herself to wake up again. “Um, I saw you both last night, wh-when I sang.”

“Ha!” Vinyl pointed his hoof at her. “I knew I remembered you from somewhere. You're that filly who rocked the house, awesome job!”

Sweetie blushed a bit, looking away and rubbing the ground with her hoof. “Th-thanks.”

“Hey, don't be so shy about something like that; with a cutie mark like that, you're going to go far, kid.”

Sweetie's mood fell as her cutie mark was mentioned. “...yeah.”

Octavia tilted her head. “I saw you looking at your cutie mark earlier, is it a sensitive subject for you?”

Sweetie, slowly becoming less nervous as the conversation went on, shook her head. “No, it's just... I just got it last night.”

“Awesome!” Vinyl thrust one of her hooves into the air. “You're gonna have a kick-flank party, right?”

“I guess so, yeah...”

Octavia glanced back at Vinyl, frowning slightly, then turned back to Sweetie. “Forgive me for asking, but... is there something... wrong with your cutie mark?”

Sweetie bit her lip and fidgeted. “Not... wrong, really... it's just... well, none of my friends have their cutie marks yet...”

Octavia smiled knowingly. “And you're afraid of what's going to happen when they see yours.”

“Yeah! How'd you know?”

She chuckled. “I have a bit of experience in this area, my dear.

“You see, I was one of the first fillies in my little group to receive my cutie mark as well. Back when I was attending the Canterlot School of the Arts. I'd always had a passion for music, but it wasn't until I first picked up a stringed instrument that I truly understood what music was.” Octavia turned as Vinyl hopped off her back, displaying the purple treble clef on her gray flank. “Music is the rhythm that life moves to given form and sound; I can feel this rhythm and express it when I play my instruments, especially my cello.

“However, once I realized I had this talent, I became... a little... um, shall we say...”

“She got an ego the size of the moon.” Vinyl smirked right through Octavia's glare. “You know it's true, Octy.”

Octavia's face scrunched up in frustration, but she didn't deny Vinyl's claims. “Anyway...

“While I was... acting like I was, I began to distance myself from my other friends, even teased them along with some of the other arrogant colts and fillies that I considered my new friends. After all, I had a cutie mark and they didn't, so it stood to reason that I was somehow better than them for it. A belief that my new 'friends' had no trouble reinforcing every chance they got.”

“So... you were a bully?”

Octavia flinched at Sweetie's words, but nodded. “Yes, I was a bully. A fairly unpleasant one at that; so self-obsessed, so sure of my own greatness, that I thought any challenge was a mere triviality. So, when one of them asked for me to play at her birthday party, I accepted without a thought.”

Sweetie tilted her head, not sure where this was going. “So... did something happen then?”

Octavia gave a humorless smile. “Indeed, something did happen.” She shook her head with a chuckle, apparently remembering it. “Put simply, I choked. I stood in front of a large group of ponies, my first real time outside of a school stage, and I just... couldn't play. And, when I tried to force it, well... the less said about that the better, if you don't mind.

“After that, well, she told me that our friendship was over and the rest of our little 'clique' followed her lead, tossing me out. And, with as horrible as I had been to the other ponies I'd known when this start, all of them turned their backs on me when I came crawling back, begging forgiveness.

“All of them, that is, except one. She still hadn't gotten her cutie mark herself, but she actually listened to me when I said I was sorry. She was the only one that forgave me for all the horrible things I'd said about her. She was the only one I could honestly call my friend back then.”

“What about when she finally got her own cutie mark?”

Octavia chuckled. “Oh, she had her own gift for hearing the same rhythm and expressing it; she just expressed it a different way.” She turned to look back. “Isn't that right, Vinyl?”

The DJ shrugged with a smirk. “What can I say? I love me some bass beats.”

Sweetie blinked, looking back and forth between the two. “Wait, that friend... that was her?”

“Of course it was,” Octavia said with a smile. “And we've been inseparable ever since then.

“The point is, dear filly, your cutie mark is a wonderful thing, but you should never let it separate you from your friends, or worry that your friends won't want to be your friends anymore because of it. If they do, then they weren't really your friends to begin with. And, if you're this concerned about losing them, I'd say they're the kind to stay, just like she was.”

Sweetie looked at the two of them for a moment, thinking on what she'd been told.

“Sweetie Belle!” Rarity called. “Our train is leaving any moment now!”

“Eep!” Sweetie jumped to her hooves. “Sorry, I have to go!” She galloped off toward her sister in a rush, not wanting to miss their ride home.

Octavia and Vinyl watched her go, both smiling as she did.

“She's gonna be Equestria's next big thing, Tavi. You and I both know it.”

“She's got a way to go yet, Vinyl. Let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet.” She chuckled though. “But I won't deny she has the potential.

“I'm expecting great things from the little filly.”