My Composition For You

by scorpclawFF

Concert

Octavia tossed and turned in her bed. She didn’t want to admit it to herself, but her thoughts were corrupted with sad thoughts of Vinyl
“Or perhaps my thoughts are blessed with thoughts of Vinyl,” Octavia whispered to herself a few times in the night. This time, Octavia didn’t try to hide from her despaired feelings about Vinyl and simply accepted them.
Though, Octavia constantly tried to get the thoughts out of her head, because she knew that she needed plenty of sleep for her concert the next morning. The hours passed, though, and Octavia would’ve been happy if she had any sleep at all.
Finally, at around 3:45, Octavia finally released all of the thoughts and drifted off to sleep. It was a wonderful feeling, but she knew they would come flocking back as soon as she woke up.

The next morning at 7:00, Octavia’s daily alarm clock woke her up. She slowly got up from her bed, stretching her front hooves and shaking the 3 hours of sleep from her drooping eyes. She reached over to her adjacent desk and shut off the obnoxious alarm clock and slowly got out of bed, prepared to do her normal routine.
She first stepped into the bathroom and looked in the mirror, completely expecting the rat on her head that was her hair. It was much worse than it had ever been before, hairs sticking up in every direction, but she knew that tossing and turning in bed for several hours would do that.
Octavia shook herself awake another time before grabbing her comb to make her hair look at least reasonable. She then exited the bathroom, grabbed herself some coffee, and drank it in. After downing a whole cup of coffee, Octavia considered getting another cup, or five, but she knew that she needed to get off her addiction of caffeine, no matter how much she needed it.
Instead, Octavia decided to exit her house without much thought to it. She wanted to go for a short stroll so she could wipe out the sleeplessness in her eyes. In most of her walks, she didn’t have much of a prescribed path to go on, but this time, she felt her hooves take her to one specific place.
Vinyl’s hotel.
Octavia had already been there a few times in the past week, so it wasn’t difficult for her to get there quickly, especially since she had just been there last night. Her hooves subconsciously moved faster and faster until Octavia was going at a brisk walk rather than a stroll. She eventually made it to the large and fancy hotel. She still admired the design of it and imagined how lucky Vinyl was that her career brought her here.
Octavia, again without much thought, entered the luxurious lobby and went up to the fifth floor. As soon as the elevator doors popped open, Octavia slowly went down the hall and made it to room 534. She really didn’t want to disturb Vinyl, since she knew that Vinyl probably had less sleep than she had, if any. Though, she equally wanted to figure out if Vinyl was okay.
She knocked on the door, louder than she wanted to, and waited for an answer. It took a few moment, but eventually, the door opened, revealing a disheveled Vinyl Scratch.
“Hey, Octy,” Vinyl said, rubbing her eyes. “What are you doing here? I thought you said your concert is at night.”
“Well… I had a pretty sleepless night, and I wanted to check up on you.”
“Oh… well that makes two of us. I finally gave up on sleeping an hour ago and had been watching some dumb soap opera that I don’t even understand.”
“Why are you watching that?”
“Because I was too lazy to change the channel. I’m actually glad you knocked on the door, or else I would probably be still watching it for the next few hours.”
Octavia chuckled, trying dearly to lighten the mood. “Oh, okay.”
“Why don’t you come in, Octavia?” Vinyl asked, moving aside so that Octavia would be able to enter.
“Oh, are you sure? I don’t want to interrupt your soap opera.”
Vinyl laughed. “Nah, I could use some company.”
Octavia smiled. “Okay.” She stepped into the large hotel room, and noticed something about it. “Hey… I thought there was no maid service in this building. Did you clean up in here?”
Vinyl nodded her head. “Yeah, I guess when you have a terrible concert and you have no way to get to sleep, then you get really productive with your time.” Vinyl walked over to her kitchen area and opened her refrigerator. “I don’t have coffee, so you won’t be able to down fifty cups of it like you normally do, but I have water and juice and stuff like that.”
Octavia chuckled. “I don’t drink fifty cups of coffee every day, Vinyl.”
Vinyl gave Octavia a straight face. “Oh, so did you finally increase your intake to 60. Ugh… I never thought I’d see the day.”
Octavia rolled her eyes. “No, I’ve actually been cutting back. My parents have been telling me that my caffeine intake is a bit unhealthy.”
Vinyl grabbed orange juice out of the fridge and filled two cups with it before putting it back. “You think? I remember when you first had more than one cup in a single hour. You couldn’t stay in one place for more than a second. I thought it was hilarious.” Vinyl chuckled again before offering a cup to Octavia. “You like orange juice, right?”
Octavia grabbed the cup and smiled. “Yeah, thanks.”
Vinyl went over to her table and sat down. “So, you have a concert tonight? What’s going to be in it?”
Octavia opened her mouth, knowing exactly which songs were going to be played, but she knew that she couldn’t discuss the final song. Instead, Octavia said, “It’s a surprise. Looks like you’re going to have to attend to find out.”
Vinyl gave a heavy sigh. “Aw, come on, Octy. Help a tired mare out. I just want to know what songs you’re playing.”
Octavia rolled her eyes. “Why does it matter to you anyways? The second that I tell you, you’re going to ask me questions, like ‘What’s an opus?’ or ‘What in the world is a piano concerto?’”
“Ah-ha!” Vinyl said, louder than Octavia expected. “So that means you’re playing a piano concerto with an opus in it!”
Octavia tried to keep a straight face, but a smile slowly faded in. “Sure, Vinyl. And it’s the best piano concerto with an opus in it ever.” Octavia tried to keep in a slight giggle, but wasn’t doing a really good job of doing it. “I think you’re going to love it.”
Vinyl laughed along with Octavia, seeing right through Octavia’s sarcasm. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever. I’ll go to your show and be totally confused about what’s going on like I always have.”
Octavia raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean ‘like you always have’? You’ve never been to one of my shows before now.”
Vinyl’s smile faded. “Oh yeah… that’s right.” Vinyl put a hoof behind her neck. “I guess I’ve been pretty busy lately and haven’t had the time to see you perform.”
Octavia finally sat down at the table with Vinyl and took a sip of her orange juice. “Oh, don’t worry about that, Vinyl. You’re going to this one, and that’s all that matters to me right now.”
Vinyl smiled. “Okay.”
The two of them continued to chat for another couple of hours. Octavia was just trying to make sure that Vinyl forgets about her incident the night before, and the ploy was successful, since Vinyl seemed to be smiling and laughing more than ever. Octavia couldn’t have been any happier because of it.

Several hours later, Octavia arrived at the Beethoofen Hall. She went onto the stage with her cello and set it up at a chair next to her friend, May, a peach colored mare with a similar-colored mane.
“Hello, Octavia. Are you ready for the concert?”
Octavia nodded her head, timidly saying, “Yeah, I think I’m ready.”
May raised an eyebrow. “You don’t sound like you’re ready. Why are you nervous? You’re one of our best players.”
“Heh, thanks. It’s not the normal music, though. It’s the surprise solo that I have at the end.”
“Oh, you have a solo? That might explain the three… interesting stallions that we have backstage setting up all of this equipment. Do you know them?”
Octavia smiled, glad that she could rely on Neon Lights to show up early to set up. “Yes, I do know them. I asked them to help me out with my piece. You said they were backstage?”
May nodded. “Yeah, just behind the curtains.”
“Good to know. Thanks, May. Have a good concert.”
“You, too.”
Octavia left her cello at her seat and went behind the curtains to find three familiar colts setting up a complex sound system. Octavia smiled and approached the three. “Neon Lights, Fire Cracker, Psych Delic, good to see the three of you again.”
They stopped working and waved to Octavia. Neon Lights approached the grey mare, smiling. “It’s good to see you, Octavia. Did you enjoy the concert last night?”
Octavia sighed. “Oh, I really wish I could have. Poor Vinyl…”
Neon Lights shook his head. “It wasn’t that bad. Vinyl called me a couple of hours ago telling me that you paid her a visit. It’s nice that you can care for our Vinyl when she has a show like that.”
“Yeah, well, she’s my friend, and I’ve known her for a really long time.”
“And we’re going to blow her away with a fantastic song. We just finished up with the sound system, so all you have to do is take center stage, play that cello of yours, and we’ll do the rest.”
“I really appreciate it. I’ll admit that I’m actually surprised that you’re being so unbelievably helpful.”
“We just want what’s best for Vinyl. So… what better way to do it than help her best friend?”
“Perhaps you’re right.” Octavia turned her head back to the curtains, and back to Neon. “I should probably finish getting prepared out there. The concert is going to start in 15 minutes.”
“Alright. Knock ‘em dead, Octavia.” Neon Lights turned back and continued wiring some speakers. Octavia returned to the stage where several ponies were already sitting in their seats, preparing for the concert to start. She went back to her own area, grabbing her music and placing it on the stand in front of her. She then grabbed her cello and bow, formally standing up with it.
As she waited for the concert to start, Octavia scanned the audience to see who was attending. Like always, she didn’t recognize most of the ponies, even if some of them were regular attendants to her concerts. Though, she was only looking for a white coat and an electric blue mane.
Octavia looked around for a good minute and nearly lost hope until she looked at the entrance to find Vinyl walking in. Octavia gave herself a sigh of relief as Vinyl took a reserved seat in the front row. She gave Vinyl a smile, recognizing that she saw her. Vinyl looked up to the stage and returned the smile when she saw Octavia.

The concert started soon after. In their repertoire, there were three songs, each done by a different composer in a different a musical era. The director of Octavia’s ensemble was always fond of putting songs from different times into the same concert, sometimes including modern pieces to create a sense of variety. She always liked her repertoire and agreed that it kept the concert interesting to listen to.
As each song came and went, Octavia thought of her upcoming solo more and more. Though, she also thought of Neon Lights’ words, that she needs to relax and only focus on her cello while they did the rest. For the most part, this seemed to calm her down, but it was technically still her solo, something she had never done in the past. At least, not to an audience of such a large size… and a really amazing mare in the front row.
She managed to shake the thoughts away throughout the third and final song. As it ended, though, the frightening thoughts inevitably returned. She didn’t want to admit it to herself, but Octavia was becoming extremely nervous.
Within her nervousness, Octavia watched as the conductor turned to bow to the audience. After a short burst of applause, the colt approached the microphone in front of him and spoke into it.
“Tonight, you have listened to a variety of music just within these three pieces. One from the Baroque period, one from the Classical period, and even one piece that included some modern textures. This is a normal repertoire for this orchestra.”
He cleared his throat. “However, I would like to take you out of the past for the next several minutes and bring you into the present. One of our fabled cellists, Octavia Philharmonica, came into my office a couple of days ago and requested that she perform one of her own works. I had a listen, and I must commend Miss Philharmonica, because she managed to blend older ideas with some new modern ideas.”
The conductor raised a hoof and pointed to Octavia. “Without further ado, I would like to turn the microphone over to Octavia Philharmonica.”
The crowd began to cheer as Octavia nervously brought her cello to the front of the stage. She nearly tripped over someone’s chair, but managed to keep herself balanced. When she made it to the microphone, she said thank you to her conductor for such a genuine introduction.
She approached the microphone and finally said, “This is a pretty special piece to me. Mainly because it is inspired by a very special pony that is sitting here in this audience right now.” Octavia didn’t want to look down at Vinyl. She was too nervous to even look at her reaction. “She inspired me to put my thoughts into my music, and I couldn’t be any happier that she did.”
Octavia paused to remember her pre-prepared speech. “This piece is called ‘My Composition for You.’ It’s perhaps the most original I have ever thought of.” The audience giggled and chuckled. “It starts with a cello solo, then I have a bit of a surprise backstage that will mix the present with the past. I hope you enjoy.”
Octavia didn’t say everything that she wanted to you, but the crowd’s applause still showed her that they were interested in her piece. Octavia looked down to the front row for a brief second, and she was glad that she did. Vinyl was smiling, cheering along with the rest of the crowd.
Soon after the applause died down, Octavia raised her bow, and began rubbing it against the strings. The beginning brought back ideas from the Baroque age, which is hundreds of years old. Though, as the music went on, Octavia incorporated elements of emotion into the piece, giving it a bit of depth.
The song then became reminiscent of the Romantic age of music, shifting happiness and sadness. In Octavia’s mind, this represents the shift from when she and Vinyl were best friends to when she had to leave Ponyville.
Finally, Octavia’s playing began to slow down and everything began to fade. Though, as she got quieter, a techno beat began to fade in. The beat was catchy and it was something you could bob your head to. The audience, despite their formal backgrounds, began to feel the beat as the music was finally taken to the modern age.
The techno beat was constantly rising and when it finally hit its high point, it stopped, leaving everything in silence for a second. Then, Octavia played a pick-up into the next section. At this point, Octavia was no longer playing like a cellist, but more like an electric guitarist.
Her mood and technique immediately intensified, showing a side of her that nopony had ever seen before. The guitar-like cello played hand-in-hand with the new intense sounds coming from the speakers back-stage. The curtains began to open up, revealing the three DJs at work. They were all smiling greatly as the crowd began to cheer louder than a normal cheer at these type of concerts.
The rock-techno beat continued for another two minutes, changing his volume and pattern to keep things interesting. It was successful, because the audience kept showing the performers that they were engaged in the music, keeping with the beat. Eventually, the electronic music began to die away, and Octavia’s “rock style” playing returned to her original technique.
Octavia ended the piece with the motif that she started off with, representing that after all these years, her relationship with Vinyl has not changed. The music finally began to slow down and fade, ending on a soft, happy note.
Despite the serenity of the ending of the piece, the crowd began to burst into cheers, something that Octavia had never experienced before. She bowed for them as she instructed them to do, which only seemed to make them cheer louder. As she went back up from her bow, she looked back down to the front row.
What she saw nearly took her breath away. Vinyl was yelling her name at the top of her lungs, cheering louder than her row and the row behind her combined. Octavia smiled and tried to stop the tears that were threatening to well up in her eyes. She truly thought that it was a perfect experience, and that nothing could beat it.