What I Did for Love pt 1
What I Did For Love
Chapter 1
The feeling of playing before an entire orchestra is, at first, not an empowering one. For their first concerto a musician feels completely exposed. It’s the stage fright that every performer has to overcome.
Vinyl Scratch found herself practically bored out of her skull as she in the fifth row, listening to the musicians tuning their instruments. When Octavia finally took the stage she let out a massive sigh of relief, glad that the concert could finally begin.
The hall went silent for a few seconds, and then there was an explosion of sound from the orchestra, signaling the start of the concerto. Vinyl herself was not particularly interested, but just as she was bemoaning her boredom, Octavia put her bow to the cello. As a captive audience member, Vinyl could see clearly how skilled of a musician Octavia was. Somehow her expression managed to capture both a firey intensity and the utmost calm. Sometimes she blazed with a dazzling virtuoso display of fast, rapid passages. At others, she was quiet, subtle, making the cello sing with its pure baritone tones.
When the playing ended the ponies in the hall were so silent that the final chord could resonate. Then the hall erupted with a roaring applause. Vinyl, despite her tastes in music, found the performance so rousing that she herself leapt to her hooves, cheering with the rest of the crowd.
Octavia bowed graciously, as various patrons threw flowers upon the stage. Roses, mostly, scattered around her. Vinyl almost laughed to herself – how cliche. Through the crowd, however, Vinyl saw that Octavia had a surprised look on her face. The cellist bent down, and when she lifted her head again she had a sizeable bouquet of flowers in her mouth. At this the crowds cheered even louder. She bowed again before finally departing from the stage, letting the applause settle down. The lights went up, and the doors opened.
Vinyl was grateful for the chance to stretch her legs. As nice as the concert was, she was not the kind of pony to sit in a chair for that long, doing nothing. As soon as the lights went up, she bolted from her seat and tried desperately to get out of the hall before she could be blocked by the crowds.
This, of course, proved to be a largely futile effort, although she was more towards the front than she might have been otherwise. Her first instinct was to get out of the theatre as quickly as possible and go home, but then a bit of simple courtesy occurred to her.
Upon reaching the lobby, she turned for the stage door. There was Octavia, met by a crowd of admirers and holding flowers.
“Hey, Octavia!” Vinyl waved from behind the crowd, trying to get her attention. “Yo!”
Octavia looked up and smiled. “Hey, Vinyl! Glad you could make it!”
The unicorn pushed her way through the crowd (“hey, watch the glasses”) up front. “Hey, didn’t think I’d miss it, would you?”
“I imagined there were things you’d rather do.”
“Eh,” said Vinyl. “Nah. Nice bouquet,” she said, looking at the flowers. “Got an admirer?”
“Actually...”
“Good evening,” said a voice behind her. Vinyl turned around.
She recognized him. Light brown coat, chalk-white mane, that ever formal presentation. Frederic Horseshoepin.
“When’d you get back?” Vinyl asked.
“Just recently,” he said. “And just in time, I think.”
“Thank you for the flowers, Frederic,” Octavia said. “Really, it was such a surprise to see you here.”
“Hopefully a pleasant one,” he said, with a small smile.
Octavia laughed. “So, how was your trip?”
“You’ll have to tell us all about it,” said Vinyl. “And about that guy...”
“It’s quite a funny story,” said Frederic, giving a weak little laugh. “Might take up hiking now to keep in the habit and stay in shape. Anyway...” He looked around at the crowd and the line that was forming behind him. “I wish you a pleasant evening.” He politely bowed his head and exited the line. Vinyl adjusted her large glasses and peered after him.
“Well,” she said. “He seems to be doing better.”
“Frederic!” called Octavia. “Meet for coffee later this evening?”
Frederic stopped and looked back. “I’d be delighted.”
***
“...Suffice to say, I’m a bit more wary of sponges now,” said Frederic, to an amused chortle from Octavia.
“I guess some colorful stuff goes on outside of Canterlot,” said Octavia.
Frederic smiled. “Well, it’s a big colorful world, outside and in,” he said, taking a sip of his coffee. “Just went to see a bit more of it.” He looked around the outdoor cafe at the Canterlot streets, never too-heavily traveled, especially at night. But this was a nice part of town, when the outdoor lights of the cafes cast a warm glow around the cool streets, making the giant city seem more cozy and personal than it usually was. “You’ve been up to the usual, I take it?”
“Yes,” she said. “I actually had a lovely opportunity to debut a brand new cello concerto.”
“Oh?” asked Frederic, taking another sip of coffee. “It’s a shame that I missed it.”
“Not really,” sighed Octavia. “It wasn’t very good.”
Frederic couldn’t help but chuckle. “It’s nice to be back. Hopefully I’ll be able to find a gig.”
“I’d be happy to help,” offered Octavia. “I know of a musical theatre company that could use a rehearsal pianist next season.”
“Thank you.” Frederic nodded politely. “The time for romantic journeying is over, time to get back to the life of a musician.”
“At least you got your romantic journeying.”
Frederic gave a chuckle. “True.”
“Thanks for coming to the concert last night.”
“Oh, don’t mention it,” said Frederic. “You were wonderful, and I’m sure Vinyl would agree.”
“Mm-hmm...” Octavia said.
“How is the mare with no taste?” he asked.
“Oh, she’s doing fine,” she said with a shrug. “Just doing her usual thing.”
Frederic set the cup of coffee down on the table. He noticed her posture slackened a little, that she was apparently uninterested in this area of discussion. “Is...” He ventured to ask. “Is something wrong?”
“Oh, no,” said Octavia. “Vinyl and I just aren’t together anymore. We decided it was best about a month ago.”
“Oh,” said Frederic, his hooves placed on the coffee mug. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hoof. “We’re still friends, it just... didn’t work out the way we’d hoped.”
Frederic raised his cup and took a sip as Octavia continued to talk.
“I guess that time she cheated on me might’ve been the first sign there was something wrong. We tried ironing out. Both of us, really, but...” She shrugged and looked down with a sigh. “I guess things just don’t work out the way we hope sometimes.” She returned her gaze to him.
“Well, sounds like it wasn’t either of your faults,” he said. “You did everything you thought you could.”
“Yes,” she said. “That... isn’t always as much of a comfort as it should be.”
Frederic nodded. He didn’t say anything, but simply reflected on some of his own past misfortunes – misfortunes that he felt fairly confident in saying were not his fault at all. He was only drawn out of his thoughts by the realization that he was attempting to take a sip from an empty coffee cup.
“Well, it’s been lovely chatting with you,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to get the quartet back together?”
“I think so.” Octavia smiled. “I’m sure Harpo and Brass will be elated to hear you’ve come back.”
“Absence makes the heart grow fonder, I suppose?” asked Frederic with a self-deprecating grin. He nodded politely and stood from his seat. “Well, hopefully we’ll be seeing each other again shortly. Take care.”
He turned to leave, about to head back to his apartment and an mull over the dust the flat had accumulated. However, he was stopped.
“Frederic, there’s just one more thing,” said Octavia.
He stopped. First he turned his head to look at her. She had a moderately puzzled expression on her face, one of measured caution. He slowly turned the rest of his body to face her.
“Yes?” he asked.
“Vinyl told me, a while ago,” she said. “That you knew about her cheating on me right before you left town.”
Frederic took a breath. “That is correct.”
“And you didn’t tell me,” she said. She quickly realized that sentence might be construed to be more accusatory than she might have intended, and added: “not that I’m really complaining. She said that you suggested she tell me herself. I’m just... curious why.”
Frederic sighed and returned to his seat. The empty cup of coffee stared up at him, the dark brown ring lining the bottom.
“I didn’t think it would be right to tell you,” said Frederic.
“Why?”
“Because...” Frederic’s heart pounded in his ears. The honest answer was blaring in his mind, but to put that thought to words was harder than it seemed.
“Octavia...” he looked up at her. “I didn’t tell you everything about why I left, and what I felt. The honest truth is... I’ve been in love with you.”
Even the crickets seemed to fall mute at that. Suddenly the gentle lights of the cafe seemed to burn like the lamps in an interrogation room where they grill a foal who pulled off a massive candy caper.
“So I couldn’t tell you about Vinyl,” he said. “It would have been wrong. I’d be doing it not because I thought you should know if someone was betraying you. I’d be doing it because...” He looked down. “It would have been because I was jealous. That I thought if I could sabotage your relationship with her, that you might choose me. And if I had done that, well...” He looked back at her. “I’d be ruining your happiness for my own selfish desires. And that’s even assuming you would choose me at all. That’s why I didn’t tell you.”
Octavia’s facial expression had not changed since he said “I’ve been in love with you.” Frederic looked back at his coffee cup, as though desperately wishing it had refilled itself as a reward for his pained admission.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“No, no, it’s...” Octavia said, stopping before ‘alright.’ “I just... didn’t know you felt that way. I mean...” She leaned forward and rested her forehead on her hoof as though massaging away a terrible headache. “Just a lot to take in there...”
“I’m sorry,” he repeated. “I’ll just... I’ll just go now,” he finished, standing to leave. “Just... I just thought I should be honest about how I felt.” There was a pause. “Look, I don’t want this to come between us. Between our friendship.”
Octavia looked back up at him. “I understand. I just need some time to think.”
Frederic nodded and, without another word, went on his way.
***
The door to Frederic’s apartment opened slowly. Frederic lit a lamp by the doorway, illuminating the rest of the room, and looked over the home he had hurriedly left. Nopony had been there since his, and everything was exactly where he had left it, coated now in a fine layer of dust.
He made a note to himself not to breathe too deeply until he’d taken a feather-duster to the place. It was a somewhat surreal feeling, walking into a cold room you’d been before but hadn’t in a while. It was a feeling that was at once familiar and completely alien. Most of all, however, it was relieving.
The piano sat in its corner of the central room, a slightly-battered upright, untouched since his departure. He turned up the lid, which had kept the dust off of the keys, keeping them pristine.
He tapped down on a key, the bright plink of the piano springs echoing through the instrument’s chamber. The instrument could stand to be tuned, he decided.
He turned his head and looked back at the door. There was a pile of mail there, unopened. While he had remembered to pay the landlord in advance for the rent, he hadn’t remembered to ask the post office to hold the mail, and now there was going to be a lot of letters and junk for him to sort through.
The refrigerator caught his eye. It would be an unpleasant task to clean it out, but such was the necessity. He wouldn’t be surprised if there was something growing in there.
He set to work writing a to-do list:
Go through mail
Pay the rent
Get a job
Buy groceries
Tune the piano
Hopefully his friends could help him with getting a job. He had a little money he could use for the rent and groceries for now, but tuning the upright would have to wait.
He returned to his bedroom. His bedclothes were still untidy as they were when he left. It also occurred to him that he’d have to wash them. After puzzling over it for a few seconds, he decided that sleeping on the couch would be a better idea.
As he lay there, his thoughts drifted towards his... difficult conversation with Octavia. She didn’t reciprocate his feelings. That was fine. He’d accepted that, and he could deal with it. He only hoped that she didn’t think less of him for it, and that their relationship as friends and colleagues wouldn’t be hurt by it.
***
Take the sheets to the laundromat was Frederic’s first thought upon waking up. Need to add that to the to-do list.
He sat up on his couch and felt a growl escape from his stomach. Breakfast was his first priority. Then he remembered his distrust for the contents of the old refrigerator and reconsidered. Going to a diner would be a better option.
Diner first, then grocery shopping, he decided. Then I look for a job.
He retreated into his bathroom for a quick shower, heedless of the cold water.
This won’t be easy, he thought. I drop off the face of Equestria and just show up again... I hope the old pub still needs a pianist.
Frederic stepped out of the shower and promptly dried himself off with the tower. He wiped the steam-induced condensation from the mirror and looked at himself. Not different in the slightest. Sometimes it seemed the most awkward part of life was getting back to normal.
He walked to the front door of his apartment. He took one last deep breath and reached his hoof out to the door, when he heard a knock.
Curiously, he opened the door to find Octavia standing there.
“Good morning,” he said.
“Good morning,” she repeated. “I just wanted to see if you were alright.”
“I am,” he said with a polite nod of his head. “It’s...” He looked back into his abode. “Not very presentable at the moment, I admit, but I think I’ll manage. I was just going to go out to get some breakfast at the waffle house down the road. Would you...” He paused, briefly unsure. “Would you like to come with me?”
Octavia smiled. “That sounds like it would be fine.”
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denver.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw1026_small.jpg
Good, good... all goes as planned.
MUY MUY MUY MUY MUY MUY MUY MUY BUENOOOOO!!!!!
Lover's Sinfony - Michael Schenker
Quite refreshing. I knew you'd make a sequel soon enough, and so far it's off to a good start.
"Hopefully his friends could help him *getting* a job." sounds awkward. Works fine but wouldn't "with getting" or change it to "get" work better? There was another minor hiccup but very trivial.
Thumbs up for the return of Frederic Horseshoepin! HOORAY!
Wow! I'm almost tempted to fave this just to spite ScratchTavia fans.
Though some explanation is lacking, I mean he didn't tell Octavia Vinyl cheated on her? What? I'd think as a couple Octavia would be entitled to know about it out of principle, if someone's robbing a bank you don't keep silent because the security guard might lose his job.
Yeah, I don't care much for Vinyl x Octavia either. Freddy needs more support, because the guy can play a piano with hooves. Dude has serious skills. On another note, there also needs to be more Neon Lights/MC W1SH.
1163156 RIGHT ON DUDE!
i.qkme.me/3pmjfk.jpg
I would have liked to see a little more development before Frederic declared his undying love for the cellist, but all in all, this was a very good read. It's nice to see the pianist alive and healthy, though, because in my own fic I killed him off relatively early in the proceedings. dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/shrug_Twilight_Sparkle.png
Awesome as always
As horrible as it sounds, I like to imagine that Frederic doesn't get together with Octavia - simply because it feels too much like a stereotypical happy ending where everything works out and they "all live happily ever after". It's nice to have a break from the usual stuff, even if it is a sadder alternative. This is a great follow-up, bravo.
I feel like a hypocrite for saying this (as I'm on an indefinite hiatus), but, consarnit, where's the new chapter! I want it now DX. Meh, I'll survive another month, but only that long >_>.
Edit: Where's my new chapter :| . Sigh, I guess I'll just have to be content with season three.
1163561
There's a whole story about that before this one, doncherknow. Hardly what I'd call 'not enough development'.
I'm glad to see Frederick getting a little more love as well. It's amazing that as a character he has received nearly the same amount of airtime as Octavia, yet he is rarely referred to in the world of pony fiction.
Also, btw. I'm that guy that keeps posting anonymously on your tumblr. Well most of the posts. Sorry.
Keep up the great work! I am looking forward to more chapters of both this and The Book of Friendship.
Very excited to see a continuation of this story. Looking forward to it. I say take your time. I never see any lack of quality in your writing!
1325599 then don't read the story
. It's what I do when I like how a story ends but the sequel ruins it for me. There is enough closure in the first to be satisfied so...don't read it. Easy as that. I don't mean to sound rude so sorry if I do.
... Somehow, I feel like shipping both Freddy and Vinyl together.
The only problem is that I know next to nothing about music.
And speak of the devil... I found this...
fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/004/f/e/_pc___v_x_f___kiss_me__by_less_then_thre3-d4lc521.png
FredericScratch anyone? I would be immensely interested on how this would turn out.
Hell, I am already writing a AppleFire fic starring Spitfire and Applejack as the main couple, so why not the hoof not do this as well?
I can already sense love in the bloom!
This looks good, moar please dear author!