Memories in Manehattan
Harmonia sat awkwardly on the edge of the bed, her gaze shifting back and forth over the bare room, anywhere but at the sobbing unicorn.
What am I supposed to do? she thought. Pat him? “There, there. It’s okay.” Yes, that seems like a suitable response... I feel like I should have more experience at this kind of thing.
Harmonia raised a hoof, placing it against Long Play’s foreleg. She did it again, the movement jerky and stiff.
“There, there,” she said. “It’s okay.”
Long Play glanced at the hoof, then up at Harmonia. His blue eyes were tinged with red, a layer of tears glazing over the surface. “Wh-What are you doing?”
Harmonia hesitated the slightest bit. “Er… Comforting you?”
Long Play’s face twisted the slightest bit. “You’re… You’re really bad at it.”
“Well, excuse me for trying to help!” Harmonia crossed her hooves testily.
“Nah, it’s fine,” said Long Play, wiping at his eyes with a hoof. “I guess it’s just not in your nature.”
Harmonia bristled. “I’ll have you know that I am a very caring pony!”
“Yeah, it shows.”
“I take care of Octavia all the time!”
“Yeah, but who walked her up to see the conductor on the train?”
“I was there too!”
Long Play smiled. “That’s cute.”
Harmonia blinked. “What?”
“The way your muzzle scrunches up when you’re angry.” Long Play’s smiled widened slightly. “It’s cute.”
“My muzzle does nothing of the sort!”
“You get really red when you’re angry. That’s cute too.”
“Stop it!”
Long Play laughed, wiping away the last few tears. “Did your voice just crack? Dear Celestia, you’re the most adorable thing ever. I just wanna pinch your cheeks.” Long Play’s hoof came forward, slowly inching towards Harmonia.
“I swear to the Royal Sisters, Long Play, I’ll slap you all the way to the Griffon Kingdom if you touch me.”
Long Play’s made contact, stopping directly on the tip of Harmonia’s muzzle.
“Boop.”
***
“Long Play, were you crying?”
“No Vinyl. Colts don’t cry.”
“Then why are your eyes red?”
“Why are your eyes red?”
Vinyl crossed her eyes, trying to see her own scarlet irises. “I don’t know. Tavi, why are my eyes red?”
Octavia chewed her food thoughtfully. “Do you eat a lot of red things?”
“I like Red Vines.”
“That’s why,” said Octavia with a satisfied nod. “It’s like when flamingos eat a lot of shrimp and turn pink. Except that it only works on your eyes.”
“Wow,” marveled Vinyl.
Long Play and Harmonia shared a look, then turned back towards their food, laughing softly to themselves.
Octavia glanced at the two older ponies, her purple eyes bouncing back and forth until she worked up the courage to lean over to Harmonia. “Harmonia,” she whispered, “is Long Play embarrassed?”
Harmonia knit her brow. “How do you mean?” She took a sip of her water.
“His cheek is red. But only one is red, so I can’t tell if he’s embarrassed or not.”
Harmonia snorted, spilling a bit of water onto the table and quickly wiping it away with a napkin. “No Octavia,” she said with a laugh, “he’s not embarrassed.”
“Who’s embarrassed?” asked Long Play.
Octavia turned quickly back to her food. Harmonia smiled tauntingly. For a time, the only sound in the room was that of silverware on plates.
“To be honest,” said Harmonia, “I’m surprised that you can cook, Long Play.”
“I live alone in Canterlot. If I couldn’t cook for myself, I’d either be starving or broke. Or both. Probably both.” Long Play took a bite of his pasta, slurping up one of the longer strands. He turned towards Vinyl, expecting a laugh, but the filly seemed lost in thought.
Harmonia’s muzzle scrunched slightly. “Manners could do with a bit more polish.”
“In Neighpon, slurping your food is polite,” countered Long Play. “It shows that you’re enjoying it.”
“Well, we’re not exactly in Neighpon, are we?”
Long Play opened his mouth for a rebuttal, but found nothing. He speared a fork back into his food. “You win this round.”
“Tavi,” said Vinyl. “How did you get purple eyes?”
“She probably ate something purple,” said Long Play through a mouthful of food.
Harmonia barely suppressed a smile. “Hush, you.”
“I don’t remember eating anything purple,” admitted Octavia.
Vinyl pouted. “I want purple eyes like yours. They’re pretty.”
The other filly looked down at her food, a small smile playing against her lips. “I like your eyes too, Vinyl.”
Vinyl grinned, evidently pleased at the compliment. A thought flashed across the filly’s face, and she jumped from her chair. “Wait here!” she squeaked. “I’m gonna make my eyes purple.” Vinyl Scratch dashed out of the dining room.
Long Play and Harmonia shared a look.
“Should I go after her?” asked Octavia.
A pause. Long Play shook his head. “Nah. She’s probably just getting something purple.”
“Do you have anything purple?” asked Harmonia.
Long Play thought for a moment. No. Nothing. Everything that he had was either a two-tone red or some variation of the same. Besides, most everything was packed away in preparation for his trip back to Canterlot.
“I don’t think so,” said the colt hesitantly.
Vinyl’s voice carried back to the others. “I found them!”
Harmonia knit her brow. “Long Play,” she said slowly. “There’s one thing.”
Four small hooves sounded against the floor, slipping slightly as they did. Vinyl let out a cry, streaking past the dining room’s entrance in a blur of two-toned blue and white. A low thud sounded through the room.
Long Play was the first to his hooves. He rushed through the doorway, already worriedly hovering over his sister as Harmonia and Octavia were just rounding into the hall.
“Vinyl,” said Long Play urgently, “are you okay?”
“My head hurts.” Vinyl rubbed a hoof weakly though her mane.
“Here, lean towards me.”
The filly complied, leaning her head towards her brother. Long Play gingerly placed a hoof on Vinyl’s head, feeling for anything irregular.
“Nothing’s bleeding,” muttered Long Play, “so that’s good.” He spent a few more moments on his sister, turning Vinyl’s head this way and that, inspecting everything he could think of.
“My head hurts,” said Vinyl softly.
“Well, it doesn’t look too bad,” said Long Play with relief. Then he scowled. “Seriously Vinyl, how many times has Mom told you not to run in the house?!”
“I wanted to get back to the table!”
“You could walk!”
“Long Play,” cut in Harmonia, “she’s okay.”
The colt glared at his sister for a few beats. He reached out, ruffling her mane with a hoof. “Be careful, kid. I’ve only got one sister.”
Vinyl ducked away from the hoof, unable to completely keep a smile from her face. “Okay. I’ll be careful.”
Long Play smiled. “Good.”
Octavia craned her neck around the older ponies, her eyes shining with worry. “Is… is Vinyl okay?”
“She’s fine,” said Long Play.
Vinyl kept rubbing at her head. “My head still hurts.”
“Maybe Octavia could kiss it and make it feel better.”
Every eye in the room snapped towards Harmonia.
“What?” challenged the mare.
Long Play blinked. “Nothing. It was just… Did you really say that?”
“It was just a joke!”
“I’d let Tavi kiss me!” squeaked Vinyl excitedly.
Octavia trotted forward quickly, weaving between the legs of the older ponies. She stopped right by Vinyl, hesitated just the slightest moment, then quickly pecked the top of Vinyl’s head.
“Better?” asked a red-faced Octavia.
Vinyl nodded dreamily. “Yeah.”
Long Play glanced furtively at Harmonia, his eyes lingering on her lips for perhaps a few more moments than necessary. Harmonia did not catch the movement.
“What were you in such a rush to get?” asked Octavia, the blush on her cheeks slightly fading.
Vinyl’s eyes were still slightly glazed over. “Hmmmm?”
“What did you run to get?” asked Octavia with exaggerated patience.
“I came to get…” Vinyl’s eyes snapped into focus, her gaze swiping back and forth along the floor until they locked onto something. “Oh no.”
The others moved in tandem, following Vinyl’s gaze and stopping right on the threshold to the dining room. Shards of purple glass littered the floor. The frames were bent, the handles poking out at strange angles.
“Glasses?” asked Octavia.
Vinyl’s eyes watered, the beginnings of tears forming at their corners. “LP, I’m sorry. I’m really really sorry.”
Long Play was silent, his eyes fixed on the remains of his father’s shades. He worked his jaw, trying to get some moisture into a suddenly dry mouth. Long Play’s magic flared and the pieces slowly floated upwards.
“Long Play?” asked Harmonia.
Vinyl had begun to cry, sobs forcing her to stutter her words. “L-LP, I-I know you said not to get your stuff b-but I s-saw the glasses a-and they looked like Tavi’s eyes and I… I--” Vinyl sobbed wordlessly. Octavia wrapped a hoof around her.
“It’s okay.” Long Play’s words were dry. Then, a bit more strongly: “It’s okay, Vinyl.” The glasses floating before him, Long Play trotted to his room. The door shut firmly behind him.
***
“I see.” Vinyl Record leaned back into her chair. “And he hasn’t come out of his room since then?”
Harmonia shook his head.
Record sighed, rubbing at her eyes with a hoof. She and Gramma Phone had had a perfectly nice outing, having lunch and planning Long Play and Harmonia’s life together, only to come home to this problem. “I thought that we’d lost those things. Why would he hide them away like that?”
Gramma Phone’s worn, warm voice carried from the other side of the room. “Do you really need to ask that, dear?”
Vinyl Record stayed silent.
Harmonia’s brow furrowed in confusion. Yet, she would have left the issue untouched in Melodia Philharmonica’s sharp eyes had not caught the gesture.
“Look around, Harmonia,” said the elder mare. “And use your brain, filly.”
And Harmonia did look around. She glanced at the chairs and sofas, at Gramma Phone and her warm smile, at Vinyl whose head still hung sadly, at Octavia who had not left Vinyl’s side ever since Long Play entered his room, and at Vinyl Record who wouldn’t quite meet her eye.
Then she glanced over the rest of the room, though there wasn’t much else. A fireplace, stacked with wood to stave off the Manehattan nights, the mantle where old pictures of Long Play and Vinyl Scratch and their mother sat, the bookshelf on which sat an old clock, a few books and more pictures of the family.
No, not the family. Harmonia had only seen one picture in all of the house that had the entire family.
“Bright Lights is missing,” said Harmonia.
Vinyl Record kept her gaze firmly on the ground. “I couldn’t stand it. It hurt too much.”
“So Long Play had to keep everything where he thought nopony could find it,” said Gramma Phone. Her eyes locked onto Vinyl Scratch. “But foals have a surprisingly good nose for this kind of thing.”
Vinyl sniffled a bit. “He left it under the bed once. I was trying to find his records.”
“Are you still crying about that?” asked Long Play from the back of the room.
All eyes snapped towards him. The colt stood right at the living room’s entrance, a smile on his face that didn’t quite reach his eyes and a red suitcase standing beside him.
“Are you planning on leaving already?” asked Vinyl Record.
Long Play shifted his weight uncomfortably. “Yeah. I said that I would, remember?”
“I didn’t think you were serious.”
Long Play shrugged.
“LP,” said Vinyl Scratch, “I’m really really really sorry!”
“Don’t worry.” Long Play patted his suitcase. “I’ve got the shades right here. I know a guy in Canterlot who might be able to fix it.”
“You’re going back already?!” Harmonia’s voice carried through the room, loud enough to cause a few of the ponies to jump.
“I--I’ve got work and, you know, I’m sure that the mail’s been piling up at my house. And stuff.” Long Play ran a hoof through his mane.
“You’ve only been here for a day.”
“... I get a lot of mail.”
“When does your train leave?” asked Gramma Phone.
“I can make it if I leave right now.”
The eldest mare considered this for a while, a hoof slowly tapping at her chin. “Then you’d best get going.”
Long Play blinked, surprised. Then he nodded, lifting his luggage a bit more. “Yeah. Yeah, I should. Thanks.”
“Harmonia,” sad Gramma Phone, “I think that you should follow him, just so that there’s somepony there to see him off. Record and I will take care of the fillies.”
“I wanna go with LP!” protested Vinyl Scratch.
But Melodia shook her head. “I’m sorry dear, but you or I would just slow him down. Harmonia can keep pace, though, can’t you Harmonia?”
The mare furrowed her brow slightly, but nodded.
“Good. Then you two would best be off.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.022 seconds
Total duration
1,040 users online
1,626,367 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
I’d let Tavi kiss me!” squeaked Vinyl excitedly.
Octavia trotted forward quickly, weaving between the legs of the older ponies. She stopped right by Vinyl, hesitated just the slightest moment, then quickly pecked the top of Vinyl’s head.
“Better?” asked a red-faced Octavia.
Vinyl nodded dreamily. “Yeah.”
A-DERPING-ORABLE
as for the A/N, sometimes the best ideas happen unexpectedly when soothing comes together just right and goes in a totally different direction.
Now you finally get what it means to be a writer, son. You make me proud. *Sniff*
That is the thing about art... It changes as you go though with it....
Mighty impressive how far you've taken this, considering it was originally intended to just be a one-shot.
Have you had plans to introduce this to EQD?
This chapter is just so adorable
3813048 ADERPABLE!
As others have said, it's a good thing to have that happen to your chapters; it means that you know the characters so well that they take on life of their own and act accodinately. I have it happen a lot in my own stories.
Another good chapter for this story, though I'm rooting for Tavi and Vinyl to get together first (LP and Harmonica are very cute together, you made them well rounded characters, but I really like Tavi and Vinyl
)
I like what your fingers did with this chapter! Let them take over more often
3813275
That sounded dirty
3813376
And now I have an inappropriated picture of Terra and the chapter in my head.
Thank you very much
3813380
Perfect. All according to plan
3813393
Damn you and your evil plan Toadfist! You win this round
Very nice, very nicely done! Improvisation is wonderful, isn't it?
you are truly a great writer and its like your characters are telling you what they would do
im in love with the way each of the characters are portrayed and the two fillies are just the cutest ever
I know how you feel when your hands take over where your mind left off. it always leads you to some place unexpected.
absolutely perfect for this chapter,
I can't wait to read more, I love the characters so much
fillyoctyxfillyvinyl forever
Vinyl broke the glasses, LP cries his eyes out, and suddenly decides to leave just like that. He's anything but a good liar, let me tell you that.
Error perhaps;
“I see.” Vinyl Record leaned back into her chair. “And he hasn’t come out of his room since then?”
Harmonia shook his head.
Record sighed, rubbing at her eyes with a hoof. She and Gramma Phone had had a perfectly nice outing, having lunch and planning Long Play and Harmonia’s life together, only to come home to this problem. “I thought that we’d lost those things. Why would he hide them away like that?”
I can see this incoming. A cute farewell in the middle of the train's window before departing. Anyway, great story, enjoying every moment so far, those that make me laugh and some that are close to bring me to tears. I thank you for this n.n
Stahp hurting me.
psst no plz never stahp this story is perf
All this sugarcoated goodness! Oh my GAWD Filly Tavi and Vinyl are precious!
you are doing great with your story if I could like it again I would
MOOOOOOOAAAAAAR!!!!!! I need more of this!!
PS. You're doing great with LP and Harmonia's shipping I love that it's a love/hate relationship not unlike some regular Octascratch fics out there, but this is different in a very good and original way.
if
Though didn't Long Play already explained to Harmonia why he hid everything? Kinda odd she would ask again now.
Nice story, didn't exactly follow the narrative I was expecting, but all the same, still a nice story.
Like brother, like sister
Worth any pain, I would do the same
What with how this is lining up, and there being two chapters left, I see LP and Harmonia getting together to be near unavoidable.
Vinyl needs her amethyst jewel!
Boop.
NEIGHpon? Really? When I read that, I literally jumped out of my chair and onto my bed saying "I'M FUCKING DONE!!!"
fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/357/9/7/hoof_up_by_comeha-d6z0jqb.png
This deserves one.
4994437
Um.... I think it's infected.
I read the authors not and know exactly what you mean. I do that some times to.
I read the authors not and know exactly what you mean. I do that some times to.
This is going to end tragically I know it!
...
...
...
...
Please let me be wrong...
Awwwww sheeeeet... man that, yes.
All my yes.
Nice job, once again!
AHHHHHHHHH... I died a little when Vinyl cried ;w;
//holds
I love this story