My Composition For You

by scorpclawFF

Dynamic Change

The next couple of days were some of the happiest in Octavia’s life. She was actively engaged in her friendship, growing the bond further every day. Octavia even set up a time with Neon Lights so that she can perform a day before Vinyl leaves for Ponyville. Everything was going pretty well for Octavia at this point.
Three days after Octavia’s encounter with Neon Lights, she was at a park with Vinyl, watching as some of the ponies passed by on the laid-out paths.
“So, Octavia… when are you going to see my show?”
Octavia turned to face Vinyl, broken out of her daydream. “Hm?”
“When are you going to see my show? Two gigs have already passed and you haven’t even asked for a ticket yet.”
Octavia frowned. Even though she was too busy working with Neon Lights and the symphony to even go to her past two events, she had actually forgotten about the concert altogether. “Oh, sorry. I guess I’ve been a bit busy.” Octavia paused and looked up at Vinyl. “Do you have a ‘gig’ tomorrow night? I would really like to go and see you perform. I’ll even get out of one of my rehearsals so I can get there early.”
“Tomorrow night? That’s great! It’s my last show, and all of my finales are the best. I’ll call my tickets manager and make sure that he saves a nice area in the front just for you. Oh, this is so great!”
Octavia smiled, encouraged by Vinyl’s enthusiasm. “I’m glad that you’re happy.” Octavia paused for a moment and finally said, “Hey, Vinyl. I was wondering if you can attend one of my concerts. It’s the day after your final show.” Octavia had set-up her song as the finale of her next concert, but she wasn’t going to tell Vinyl that.
“Oh, of course, Octy! I might be a little tired because of my long week, but I would love to go see your concert.”
“That’s great! I’ll get you a good seat, too. Front row seats are hard to get, but I can get you one for free.”
“Awesome!”
The two continued to talk through their lunch as if their friendship hadn’t “ended” for several years. It was something that Octavia secretly dreamed of, but never mentioned to any of her colleagues when she moved to Canterlot.

Two nights later, Octavia stood waiting in line to get her ‘pre-ordered’ tickets. Vinyl guaranteed the good tickets, but she couldn’t get them to Octavia, so she had to wait in a long line for them.
As Octavia made her way forward through the line, she grew more and more uncomfortable by the mixed amount of character in the crowd. Everybody’s tone was rough, and they used so many curse words that Octavia wondered if their vocabulary included any normal words. She sighed and tried to get through this… for Vinyl.
After a half hour of waiting, Octavia finally made it to the booth.
“Hi…” Octavia uncomfortably said to the colt behind the ticket booth with ragged fire-like hair. “I should have a ticket reserved for me.”
The pony looked down to a notebook and asked, “Name?”
“Octavia Philharmonica.”
The colt looked up to Octavia, looked at her for a moment, and smiled. “Ah yes, Vinyl has talked about you.” The pony grabbed a ticket that was slightly flashier than the rest and handed it to Octavia. “There’s a huge spot in the front for ponies like you. You can’t miss it.”
Octavia grabbed the ticket and said, “Alright, thanks.”
“Have an awesome time, Octavia,” the colt said as Octavia left to finally go to the concert.
Octavia approached the concert area, and finally noticed the massive amount of people who actually went to see Vinyl’s show. She couldn’t help but leave her mouth hanging. She hadn’t realized that Vinyl had become so popular in such a short amount of time. Octavia knew the she could never get a crowd half this size to attend her concerts, even if she went down on her front hooves and begged.
She went down the sides, having a lot of issues getting through the crowds without running into several ponies. The whole thing was on a huge lawn with a large stage in the front. It was similar to when she saw a show featuring Trixie with Vinyl back in Ponyville, except on a MUCH bigger scale.
Octavia finally made it to the front and stood there to bring the whole environment in. To her left was a moderately-sized barred off area with several crazed Vinyl fans. Octavia approached, assuming it was the place that she was supposed to go. When she got there, she recognized the person who was asking for ponies’ tickets to enter the VIP area.
“Hey, Octavia!” Fire Cracker shouted to her. “I didn’t expect you to be here.”
Octavia smiled, glad to finally see a familiar face. “Well, Vinyl invited me to come here… so I guess I couldn’t say no.”
“Awesome. Vinyl hasn’t had a show this good since, well… ever. She just keeps getting better.”
“Well, she was already pretty amazing, so I’m sure I can expect something good.”
Fire Cracker chuckled, swaying his head back and forth as if it were an actual flame. “Oh, you most certainly can. Why don’t you go backstage and wish her good luck?”
“I don’t think that should be necessary. Besides, I don’t want to throw her off or anything.”
Fire Cracker chuckled and turned Octavia around. “Don’t be ridiculous. Listen, my buddy Locks is Vinyl’s bodyguard for the night, so just let him know that Fire Cracker sent you.”
“Uh… okay. I guess I could say a few words of encouragement.”
“Alright! Then just come back here and I’ll let you in.”
Octavia walked off and went behind the curtains. She kept going through when she was stopped by a grey pony with a guard’s uniform on. “May I help you, miss?”
“I’m assuming you’re Locks. Fire Cracker sent me to go visit Vinyl.”
“I see. Are you a friend or family?”
“Friend. Really close friend.”
Locks smiled and stepped aside to let Octavia through. “I see. I think I recognize you. I’m sure Vinyl has a picture or two of you in her room.”
Octavia smiled and passed through, but thought about why Vinyl would keep a picture of her in her room. I know that Vinyl and I are best friends, but I didn’t know that I left that much of an impact on her. Octavia, being her paranoid self, continued to have these thoughts, but didn’t allow them to make her uncomfortable.
Octavia kept going until she finally noticed a door with the name ‘DJ Pon-3’ on it. Octavia hesitated for a moment, but then knocked on the door a few times. She waited a few moments, and the door came open with a bright and happy Vinyl standing in the doorway.
“Octavia!” Vinyl shouted before throwing onto Octavia with a hug. “Oh, you actually came backstage to come check me out. How did you get past Locks?”
Octavia laughed, getting comfortable in her hug with Vinyl. “Fire Cracker helped me get in.”
“Oh, you know Fire Cracker?” Vinyl asked with a smile. “Oh, you’re already being friends with my friends.”
“Heh, yeah.” Octavia loosened the hug so that she could look Vinyl in the eyes. “So, how are you, Vinyl? You nervous at all.”
“Pssht, of course not,” Vinyl said with a slightly less convincing tone. “It’s only my last show, which is supposed to be the best show, in a place where there’s twice as many ponies than usual, most of which are extremely critical of my work. I have nothing to worry about.”
Octavia caught the worry in every word of that statement. “Well… just do your best. And… even if you do your worst, you’re still the best to me.”
Vinyl finally brought out a genuine smile, letting Octavia know that she was actually okay. “Thanks, Octavia.” Vinyl looked up at the clock in her room and said, “The show starts in a couple of minutes. You should get back out there.”
“Alright. Good luck, Vinyl.”
“Don’t even need it.”
Octavia chuckled as she got out the same way that she got in. She went over to the VIP area, and Fire Cracker without even needing to see her ticket. Although there was a good group of ponies in the VIP area, there was still plenty of room for Octavia to move and even stretch her hooves if she needed to. Octavia would’ve preferred sitting down, but she appreciated what she got.

She waited for a few minutes, then finally brightly smiled when the curtains parted, revealing Vinyl surrounded by several flashing colored lights. Vinyl was behind her turntables and she raised her left hoof in the air, shouting, “Are you all ready to listen to some music?”
The crowd responded with extremely loud cheers. Octavia tried to cheer as loud as possible, but she ended up choking from screaming louder than she was used to. She just resorted to smiling and clapping in order to avoid more embarrassing choking.
“That’s what I like to hear. Let’s hear some wubs!” Vinyl dropped her hooves onto the turntables, and the music began blasting, nearly blowing Octavia away.
Right away, Octavia was nearly off of her feet by the blaring music, not understanding the melody at all. Though, as her ears got used to the immense amount of bass, she began to hear the other “colors” blend in with the music. Octavia couldn’t explain it, but the effect was almost magical.
The techno, melodic line mixed in with some percussive sounds and a few harmonies. Octavia almost felt that the worlds of orchestra and techno had just met for the first time… and they actually got along with each other. She looked up to the player and composer and saw that she was having a great time doing what she loved.
Octavia kept looking up to Vinyl, and after a few moments, Vinyl’s head shifted downward. Despite Vinyl’s eyes being blocked by her glasses, Octavia could tell that she was looking straight at her. This connection evoked an emotion in Octavia, causing to yell out an immense “Woo” to Vinyl, this time without even choking.
It was an immense feeling for Octavia, and she could tell that that immense feeling was being reflected onto Vinyl. Octavia could even see Vinyl laughing as they stared at each other. It was almost as if Octavia was on stage with Vinyl, playing side-by-side with her.

Though, such a connection could not go on for so long. At least… for a pony who should be paying attention to her concert rather than her best friend in the audience.

Octavia’s smile immediately faded when she heard a loud, high-pitched screech come out of the speakers. She looked up to see Vinyl freaking out, trying deeply to solve the problem, since she is now deafening several thousands of ponies on Canterlot television.
Vinyl grabbed the CD off of her turntable, immediately ending the music and the screeching noise. Out of instinct, she took the damaged CD and tossed it to the side so that it wouldn’t bother her anymore.
Though, the dominoes of misfortune were already falling onto Vinyl’s performance.
The CD launched perfectly into the center of the light, shattering the glass casing. At first, it wasn’t a big deal since she would be able to just pay for it and be on her way. Though, after a few moments, the exposed light began to light into a thunderous fire.
Octavia saw the colors of the flames being flashed onto Vinyl’s white fur. Vinyl ran over to put out the fire, though despite her efforts, the fire started to get worse and worse.
Octavia watched as Vinyl ran back to the microphone and yelled, “Please don’t leave! Help me out here!” Octavia turned around to notice that half of the audience had already booked it out of the lot, leaving her and a few dedicated fans to watch as the flames got bigger. Knowing that no one else was probably going to help her out, even Vinyl’s bodyguards who were nowhere to be found, Octavia decided to take the initiative.
She ran up to Fire Cracker, who was trying to control the chaos as ponies ran rampantly into each other. “Fire Cracker!”
“Octavia!”
“Do you have any water anywhere to put out the fire? That should be the first thing to get done, don’t you think?”
Fire Cracker looked to his left, then to his right. “I believe there’s a hose in the maintenance room backstage.”
“Do you think you can find that and get that started? I need to help Vinyl.”
“I can’t do that, Octavia! If ponies get hurt while they’re running this rampantly, then we can have a lawsuit on our hands.”
Octavia started getting frustrated, not understanding Fire Cracker’s ignorance. “If you let this place burn down to the ground, a few small lawsuits will seem minuscule. Let the rest of your team deal with the crowds, and you can put out that fire, alright?”
Fire Cracker sighed. “Someone not in the profession is thinking a lot smarter than I am. I respect you for that, Octavia.” Fire Cracker ran off and went backstage.
Octavia ran up onto the stage where Vinyl was still combating the flames with hooves. Octavia wrapped her hooves around Vinyl’s center and began dragging her back.
“What are you doing? Let me go!”
“There’s nothing you can do, Vinyl. Fire Cracker’s on his way with a hose to stop the fire.”
Vinyl continued to squirm, though Octavia’s grip was too powerful. “But I can still try to save the show, Octavia. I am not letting my last show end this way.”
Octavia managed to turn Vinyl around to face her. This revealed Vinyl’s unexpected tears running down her face. “I don’t know what I’m doing, Octavia! This kind of stuff doesn’t happen in Ponyville.”
Octavia frowned and almost started crying due to Vinyl’s trepidation. “It’s okay. We’ll get this fire out and we’ll deal with whatever comes after. Together, alright? I’m with you until the end.”
Vinyl let go of Octavia and wiped away a few tears. “Alright. Thanks, Octy.” Vinyl turned around to face the fire, which is still small, but is getting larger every moment. “What do we do?”
“Nothing,” Octavia said, pointing to an approaching pony. “There’s our hero for the day.” Octavia was referring to Fire Cracker, who was holding a heavy hose in his hands.
“Let’s get this thing going!” Fire Cracker yelled before pulling a nozzle on the hose, releasing a bunch of water onto the fire. It was interesting how the fire danced around the water before putting itself out. After only a few moments of spraying, the fire was finally completely out, leaving behind a charred light and curtain.
Fire Cracker turned off the flowing water and dropped the hose to the ground. He turned to face Vinyl and Octavia, and went to comfort the pained performer. “Are you alright?”
Vinyl nodded her head. “Yeah, I’m good. You can go now, Fire Cracker. I’ll clean this up.”
Fire Cracker gave Vinyl a stern look. “Are you kidding, Vinyl? You just had a show like that and you expect me to leave you to do all the work.” Fire Cracker put a hoof to his face. “Octavia, can you please take Vinyl home?”
Octavia looked at Vinyl, then back to Fire Cracker. “Alright. Let’s go, Vinyl.”
Before Octavia was able to grab Vinyl to help her out of the lot, Vinyl quickly stated, “Wait, I can at least help you.”
Fire Cracker shook his head. “Get some rest, Vinyl.” He then went off to tear down the entire charred curtain, with the help of a few maintenance ponies.
Vinyl was left in awe that she wasn’t even allowed to help clean up her own mess. She turned to Octavia and said, “Well… I guess I have to go home.”
“Yeah… I’ll walk you to your hotel room.”
Octavia did just that and accompanied Vinyl all the way through Canterlot to get back to her hotel room. It was a quiet walk, mainly since they both needed time to think about such a crazy event. Eventually, they got back to Vinyl’s room.
“Thanks for walking me here, Octy. I… just needed time to think.”
“You’re welcome, Vinyl.”
Vinyl started to open the door to her room when Octavia stopped her. “You know when you told me that I wasn’t allowed to play my cello for an entire day.”
“Yeah, why?”
“I’m going to do the same for you. You aren’t allowed to check the news at all tomorrow… or for the rest of the week. No newspapers, no newscasts, no nothing.”
“Yeah… I get it. I probably don’t even want to see what they have to say about that.”
“Exactly.” Vinyl made another step into her room more Octavia stopped her again. “Also, and this may seem selfish, but are you still coming to my concert tomorrow?”
“Uh… I don’t know, Octavia. After what happened tonight, I don’t even want to leave my room for at least a few days.”
“Please? It’s a good concert. It’ll make you feel better, I promise. There’ll also be free food.”
Vinyl chuckled, knowing that she can’t pass up free food. “I… guess I can make it. When is it?”
“6 in the evening. We can have dinner after.”
“Uh… sure. That sounds fine.” Vinyl finally stepped all of the way into her room and turned to Octavia. “Thank you so much for what you’ve done, Octavia. I don’t know what I would be going through right now if you weren’t there to comfort me.”
“You’re welcome, Vinyl.”
Vinyl closed the door, leaving Octavia with her thoughts.
She almost felt worse than Vinyl did, mainly because it pained her to see Vinyl as hurt as she was. It was a terrible feeling.