//------------------------------// // Drone // Story: Filly Friends // by thehalfelf //------------------------------// Drone I’d spent my life in Canterlot, which many ponies in the surrounding area consider to be a big city.  Since Grandma Serenade lived there, I’d also spent a not insignificant amount of time in Manehatten - which is significantly bigger in size and population.  Fillydelphia is supposed to be smaller, and I hadn’t visited in years, but the way it sprawled out always made it seem big to me. Las Pegasus was on an entirely different level. Two of them, to be precise.  About a third of the city was built in the clouds, remnants of its history as a pegasus town.  Bridges of metal and stone stretched between them, allowing those of us stranded on the ground to visit.  As the city grew, both in population and as a tourist spot, the ground city began to grow outward and upward as well.  It now boasted some of the largest buildings in Equestria, many of them piercing the cloud layer to provide another means of travel between. The theater in which Father’s orchestra performed was a newer addition they’d somehow managed to build in a part of the city not covered by clouds.  While the entire carriage ride to the theater door was lit by the patchwork blanket of sunlight and unicorn lamps embedded in the bottom of the city above, the actual walk into the theater was only natural lighting. Vinyl and I walked side by side into the theater, through the familiar process of getting checked in and led to our seats.  We sat in the front row of our little box on Father’s good side.  Mother was already there, as she’d likely arrived with Father and the rest of the orchestra. She stood to hug me as we walked over and smiled at Vinyl.  “Octavia, I’m glad you could make it.  And Vinyl, it’s good to see you again.” “You say that every time, Mother.  I haven’t missed a show yet,” I replied, hugging her back happily. “Hey, Melody,” Vinyl said as I let go.  “It’s good to see you, too.  And, um, thanks for everything you guys did.  Sorry I haven’t come to visit.” Mother motioned for us to sit.  “You could come visit.  I could at least understand it when you were trying to avoid Octavia, but it’s been months.” “Avoiding me?” I said to Vinyl as I sat next to Mother.  “I thought you didn’t know I went to Canterlot U.” “I didn’t,” Vinyl replied, sitting on my other side.  “I just… didn’t want to run into you visiting your folks.  We’ve talked about this.” “I’m teasing,” I assured her.  She pouted at me, but as I turned to survey the crowd and stage below, I felt her hoof creep across my own.  We hadn’t really talked about how to act around my parents.  I honestly wasn’t really sure what to tell them.  We’d agreed to date and we’d kissed a couple of times, but nothing really felt different.  We still sat around the same places and did the same things. A buzzer sounded in the middle of the theater, blotting out all the conversation until it died entirely.  I quickly turned my attention to the stage, all concerns put aside in the excitement of seeing Father’s work.  The entire auditorium stared at a completely dark stage. Tension built in the room as everypony strained their eyes to pick out the musicians in the darkness. Right before I thought ponies were going to stand up and approach the stage itself, a single double bass cried out across the room.  A spotlight snapped on, revealing that section.  The rest of that section joined in, washing the room in a deep, rich tone. A cello chimed in next, followed shortly after by another spotlight.  The entire section started up, layering in over the double bass.  One after another, every instrument chimed in and were illuminated in turn.  As the last instrument added it’s voice to the chorus, the last dark part of the stage was lit.  Father turned to the crowd, offered a tight bow, then turned around and lifted his baton. The opening note bled seamlessly into the first song, a sweeping number that I recognized from other shows.  I unfocused as I normally did during shows, zeroing in the cellist section like I always did.  My favorite cellist, Silver Stanza, was seated right in my field of view.  I watched her left hoof dance across the strings; the right one seemed to move independent of the bow. For a brief moment, I pictured myself playing next to her.  I was clumsy and slow, misplaying notes and never really staying on tempo.  Stanza’s hooves may as well have just been unicorn magic for all they impeded her.  Compared to her, my own hooves might as well have been covered by oven mitts. I closed my eyes and sighed softly.  Vinyl squeezed my hoof until I opened my eyes again and looked over to her.  It was hard to see her in the dark theater and impossible to see her eyes behind the sunglasses she’d refused to take off, but it was plain to me she was worried. I squeezed her hoof back and shook my head.  “I’m fine,” I tried to tell her without speaking.  She seemed to accept my answer, and turned back to continue watching the show.  I did as well, though it rang a little hollow. There was no way I could audition for Father's orchestra. I spent the rest of the show half listening, half planning what I would say to Father.  We were all going out to dinner after the show, it would be easy to talk to him alone there.  All I had to do was explain my reasoning and I was sure he’d get the recommendation removed.  I’d get there someday, but I wasn’t ready yet. As this theater didn’t allow us into the back guts to wait for Father directly outside the ready room, we joined a pack of orchestral family members who claimed a part of the main lobby to wait.  I sat quietly, listening to Mother and Vinyl talk about anything they could that had happened over the last few years. Like normal, Father was one of the last to leave.  Tie hanging untied around his neck and his baton stowed in a briefcase, he walked over to us, visibly tired but with his head held high.  “Well, girls, what did you think?” I walked forward to hug him as Mother answered, “excellent as always dear.” “Yeah.  I haven’t seen anything like that in awhile,” Vinyl added.  A half second later she stammered, “o-other than the Student Orchestra of course.” “You don’t have to pretend, Vinyl,” I said, rolling my eyes.  “We don’t perform anywhere even close to them.” “So, I know we’d planned on going to a really fancy restaurant,” Father said, nodding his head.  We all fell in together and walked toward the theater’s main entrance.  “But I was talking to a local - one of the doorponies - backstage…” “Oh, Celestia, here we go…” Mother sighed, shaking her head in preemptive defeat. Vinyl quickly looked between Father’s hopeful grin, Mother’s dejected gaze, then over to me.  “Wha…?” “There’s a really great street taco vendor on the other end of town, cloud side.  They’re only open after midnight, though.” Mother shook her head.  “So we’re supposed to go to the other side of town, wait until midnight, then eat street tacos?  I was promised fine dining with my daughter and friend.” “I dunno, sounds good to me,” Vinyl chimed in.  “Tavi?” I looked across at all of us.  “I don’t mind, but can we go change first?” “No tacos in formal dress?” Father asked.  He smiled, but turned and started walking back towards the hotel. “I didn’t agree to this,” Mother complained, but she followed along anyway. Our hotel was only a couple of blocks away from the theater, barely far enough to warrant the carriage we initially arrived in.  Vinyl and I shared one room, directly across the hall from Father and Mother’s.  We all stopped together in the hallway, between our two doors. “I might be a minute, sorry,” Vinyl said, glancing at me from the corner of her eye.  “I wanna clean up a bit if we’re going to be walking around.” “Understandable,” Mother said.  “Just knock when you’re ready.” I unlocked and opened the door to our room without another word.  Vinyl was kind enough to let me step in and close the door before she said anything.  “You ready to tell me what’s wrong yet?” “I received a recommendation to audition for a professional orchestra,” I told her in a breathy sigh. “Woah, seriously?!  That’s awesome!”   “Yeah, I-I guess…” I replied. “Oh, wait, is the audition song like super hard or something?  Is that why you’re being so weird?” I walked over to my suitcase and removed the slightly crumpled envelope.  “Not exactly,” I said, hoofing the letter over to her. She quickly skimmed the letter, then handed it back with a whistle.  “Wow, Legatus’, huh?  I bet that audition is going to be super tough.” “Maybe, but I’m not going to do it,” I told her, carefully stowing the letter once again.  I preemptively folded down my ears, expecting a loud reaction. “Why not?” Vinyl asked in a reasonable volume.  “This is what you want to do, right?  It’s a great step and a great chance, you can’t let this go to waste.” I shook my head and slowly raised my ears back.  “Maybe, but you saw the same performance I did, Vinyl.  I’m not nearly good enough to play up on stage with them.” “Filly, are you crazy?  You’re, like, the best cellist I know!” “Seriously?  You only know two, and the other one is Mother.  No matter how good you’re trying to say I am, I don’t play anything like she does.” “Isn’t that the point though?” Vinyl said, scratching her head.  “Melody is great, but there’s just something different about how you play.  It feels more… I don’t know… technical?  Like, the two of you could play the same song and notes, but they sound different.” “You only say that because you l-like me,” I said, attempting to ignore the hitch in my voice by undressing quickly. “W-Well, uh, not exactly?  I mean no, I was serious!” Vinyl stammered. I turned back to see Vinyl quickly look away from me.  “Why are you so weird?  We’ve talked about this before, we’re naked all the time.” “Yeah, but it’s different seeing you walk around with no clothes on and watching you strip,” Vinyl retorted, slightly more eloquently.  “It’s more… sexy.” With a scoff, I pushed her lightly.  “Weirdo.  I’m going to go wait in the hall, don’t take too long.” “We’re not done talking about this,” Vinyl said as I stepped into the hallway.  I didn’t bother to respond. In my haste, I just about ran into Father in the hallway.  He was sitting against the wall next to his room, staring down the hallway.  As my door closed, he looked up at me.  “Hello, Octavia.” “Father?  What are you doing out here?” I asked, moving to sit next to him. “Melody kicked me out for making an excellent, tasteful joke,” he said with a chuckle. I laughed politely, thinking back to Vinyl in our room.  I’d thought dinner would be the best place to do it, but with Father out here right now, this might be the perfect chance.  “I actually wanted to talk with you about something,” I said. “I thought as much,” Father replied, turning to face me.  “I just didn’t want to push you, is all.” Odd, not how I thought this conversation was going to start.  Maybe he did have a hoof in my recommendation after all.  “So you see why I might be worried?” “Sure, I guess.”  Father shrugged.  “But you should also know that your Mother and I support you, no matter what.” “Then… what if I told you that I didn’t want to do it?”  I looked at the patterned carpet, suddenly unable to meet his gaze without feeling uncomfortable.  It felt like I was letting him down, somehow. “That sounds like something between you and her, Octavia.  She shouldn’t pressure you into doing something you don’t want to, and you shouldn’t do anything you don’t feel comfortable with.”  Father sniffed and shuffled his hooves awkwardly.  I looked up in surprise at his answer to see a reassuring smile. “She?  What do you mean?” I asked, confused.  Last I’d heard, Father’s aid was a stallion. “Were you not referring to yourself and Vinyl being… together?” Father asked, discomfort evident in his voice. “What?” I said, my voice a little shriller than I’d have liked.  “What are you…  Hold on, more importantly, how did you know?” “Sorry, Octavia, I didn’t realize it was supposed to be a secret.  She’s just been staring at you a lot and being more clingy than Vinyl normally is.  I’d just assumed something was going on between you two.  Is there not?” “There… There is,” I admitted, feeling my face flush slightly.  “I was talking about something else, though.  I received an audition recommendation from Bent Bow, my faculty advisor.” “Octavia, that’s excellent!”  Father beamed, almost copying Vinyl’s earlier non-outburst perfectly.  “Where to?” I simply stared at him, almost afraid to answer. It took a couple of seconds, but Father eventually caught on.  Somehow, his smile managed to grow even wider.  “Excellent, positively excellent.  I knew we were looking for a new cellist, but I didn’t realize…  Your Mother is going to be over the moon.” “I want you to take it back,” I said quickly, afraid my nerve would falter. “Why?” Father asked, uncharacteristically cocking his head to one side.  He didn’t seem upset, just genuinely confused. “I can’t do it,” I answered, gaze dropping back to the floor.  “Especially after tonight, I can’t perform at that level.  Not yet.” “Octavia,” Father said, putting on his stern voice, “that is ridiculous.  You are a phenomenal cellist, and we would be happy to add you to our ranks, providing you win out in the audition.  That’s what it’s there for: to weed out the ponies who don’t perform at our level.  But there isn’t a doubt in my mind that you could do it.” “But—” I tried to argue, but he shushed me gently. “No buts, young lady.  I am nothing but confident that you’ll be on stage with me in no time.  Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.  Go get your mare, I’ll get mine, and let’s have some street tacos, hmm?”