Flame
I hopped out of Fancy Pants's carriage and turned to give him a kindly wave as he departed, one that he returned with his warming smile. I was pretty sure that just his presence alone could make nearly anything more enjoyable, he just seemed to have this 'aura' about him that lit something inside of people. I waited until his carriage was out of sight before I turned to face the practice building and sighed. I simply stood outside of the building for some time, just looking up at the faded appearance that it had in society. I thought of how I would have to put up with my 'friends' and their snobbish remarks and the 'I-told-you-so-Octavia's' I was bound to face. I even debated leaving right there, just turning around and walking home, calling in sick and spending the day at home.
'Yeah, I think I'll do that.' I thought to myself as I turned around with the intent of going home.
'I'll just go home, maybe even go over to my parents for some lunch...I am pretty hungry.' In the train of thought, and the start of the day dream of a good meal, I hadn't been paying attention and ended up running head first into somepony. I dropped nearly all of my papers thanks to the collision, and my saddlebags for that matter.
I bent over and started picking my things back up and began to apologize to whomever I bumped into.
"Oh, sorry, I wasn't looking where I wa-" I was interrupted by the sound of a scoff, one that was followed by the sound of a very thick and exaggerated Canterlot accent.
"Oh, you'd better apologize, it was just rude of you to do that, you delinquent scum." Whoever it was complained in the thickly accent.
I looked up to see who could have been making such a ridiculous accent, and whoever would put up such a fuss about only a collision, only to see one very smug looking Harpo smiling down on me.
"Harpo?" I asked in surprise.
Harpo was usually one of the first ones to be at practice, I hadn't expected him to be just now appearing. Who knows, maybe he had morning like me, but he probably didn't wake up paralyzed from the neck down after being fed on by a vampire.
"Yes, Miss Melody, it is I, the great Harpo!" He said in the thick accent whilst he struck a very over dramatic pose, supposedly to signify his great glory.
He stood in the pose for a few seconds before I started to lose control of my contained laughter, breaking out in small giggles at first, until I was full blown laughing. He stopped with the posing and joined in on my laughing with a slight chuckle of his own.
Harpo was a very odd member of the supposed 'future elite', if you could even call him one. In a way, he was kind of like a less rich, less famous, Fancy Pants. He really didn't care where you came from, how you like to do things, or what you think of him; He just likes to have a good time, or at least, that was what I thought, his encounter of Vinyl seemed awfully out of character for him.
He settled down on the ground and started helping me in collecting the papers that I had spilled when we ran into each other and tried striking up a conversation.
"So Octavia, what has you coming in at such a late time? You're usually here before the conductor, but lately it seems like you haven't been coming in, and the few times you do, you're usually pretty late." He asked while he gathered together a few compositions.
You remember my statement earlier, on how Harpo is usually one of the first here? Well the only reason I know that is because I'm usually here before he is. I'm one of those pony's who 'doesn't get out much', and practice is one of the few things that I have to get me out of the house, so I usually always come in as early as possible, but ever since Vinyl had come along I found myself getting more and more distracted from practice. But now that I made her leave, I might be able to start getting back to practice.
"Well, I uh, I had some company over recently and they, uh, missed their train so I had to stay a few days." I lied. My lie was pretty clear, anypony could have seen that and probably would have let it sit out of courtesy. Harpo, however, absolutely loves these types of situations, and tends to enjoy slowly extracting the truth from the liar.
"Really? So who was staying over?" He asked with a smug smile.
"Um, it was, uh..." I struggled to think of any relatives off the back, and that only made his smile widen. I know nearly all of my relatives, don't get me wrong, but I have a hard time just bringing on up on the spot. He sat there with this aggravating smile, waiting for me to dig my grave deeper, but unfortunately for him, he wouldn't get that satisfaction.
"Fine, you caught me." I sighed in defeat. "I hadn't been coming lately because I've had some issues with my house guest." I blurted out, his smile widened in victory, but only for a moment, he then put on a more serious look.
"So you are still housing her?" He asked with a rather serious tone, all I could do was sigh.
'Oh boy, I guess he's on this whole "Vinyl is a criminal delinquent and you shouldn't house her" train too...'
"Not anymore." I curtly responded, not really wanting to delve any deeper into the matter of Vinyl, I was probably going to be reminded of her enough today anyways. Harpo's serious look only grew deeper after I answered his question and he even started to frown at me, I couldn't decide as to why though. I mean, he already knew about Vinyl, and seemed to care less about her. I thought he would be happy to hear me say she was gone.
"So what did she do?" He asked suddenly, taking me off guard.
"Huh?" Was my only response, he only gave me a somewhat annoyed expression in response and re-asked the question. That was another thing about Harpo, he hated repeating himself, whether it was in a conversation or composition, you rarely heard him repeat himself.
"Well, you said 'not anymore', so I assumed that you kicked her out for some reason." He said as he picked up a small music sheet book and put it in my saddlebag. I gave what he said some thought and understood what he was asking, but why did he care?
"Harpo, the last time I told you I was housing her, you hopped right on along with Beauty and Fredric with berating her. Why should you even care?." When I finished he looked deathly serious, a very rare sight for Harpo.
"Octavia, I didn't berate her, all I did was call her a 'no-talent DJ', and the only reason I even said that was because of how Beauty was acting, you know how she gets when she is mad. I've even heard some of what she does, but then again she was only helping with some other DJ, Nyan Lites or something like that." He explained. I was going to protest more, but his point's were too solid to argue against.
"So why do you care that I kicked her out anyways?" I asked, returning to the previous topic as I stuffed a couple of music sheets into my saddle bag. I could tell he was about to answer, but he cut himself short.
"Look, we really need to be getting into practice now." I had forgotten all about practice in our conversation, but I knew he was right. He grabbed the last of the music sheets and put them in me saddlebags.
"Beauty is visiting her parents tonight, she's leaving right after practice and won't be back until tomorrow, I managed to weasel out of it by telling her I was sick." He said with a grin of triumph. I only gave him a glare.
"How about I pick you up and we talk about this, maybe get some tea or coffee?" I briefly considered denying his offer, but after thinking it through, it might be good if I get this whole Vinyl thing off my chest, more importantly, It might help me stop thinking about it, and her for that matter.
"Sure, come by anytime." I was really bad at setting times so I usually just let people set them for me. Harpo smiled and headed into practice with me following right behind him. I knew practice was going to be particularly long today, it was still going to be the same amount of time, but I knew it would feel like it was a lot longer.
*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*
When I first entered the building I could hear the faint sound of music, ranging from strings to brass, but they were all playing one melody so I figured that we were practicing as a whole for the most part of today and then break off into groups to work on compositions for the symphony to play. That wasn't going to make today any shorter though, usually when we break apart into groups, I tend group with my friends, and I didn't know if I could put up with both Fredric and Beauty together when they got told they were right.
You might say that I'm exaggerating on how they would react. But I'm not. I would go as far as to say I'm not exaggerating enough. Fredric and Beauty were one of those types that get upset unless they get their way and when they want it. But that might not be all their fault, some of the blame could probably put on their parents and how they raised them. I was lucky to have a more sensible father, one that didn't focus only on my image, but also on my personality as a child growing up. With Fredric and Beauty, yes they had their own personality, and I've seen it get through now and then and it was a decent person, but most of the time they were stuck in this moody, arrogant phase. Harpo was a good example of how the elite could turn out, but Fredric and Beauty were an example of how they could turn out as well, and it seems like there are a lot more ponies like Fredric than there is Harpo.
I sighed and walked to the locker rooms and began to take off my saddlebags and place them in my locker. As I was setting my cello on the ground so I could put my saddlebags into my locker I heard some movement behind me and turned to see that Harpo had followed me into the lockers, out of curiosity, I started to interrogate.
"Any specific reason you followed me back here Harpo?" He only grinned cheerfully.
"Well, I figured it would be less awkward for you to enter with somepony else rather than all alone. Might take some of the attention off of the fact that one of the first chairs is rarely coming if another player enters with them." He answered in a matter-of-fact tone.
Now that I thought about it, it probably would be a bit less suspicious, except to the ones who knew us well, if he entered too. Seeing the two top players enter together would probably be less suspicious than only one entering separately. Maybe they would think we were practicing together on our own time before we got here.
"I guess that is true." I agreed.
I finished unpacking my saddlebags and sheet music while Harpo started to whistle an annoyingly happy and upbeat tune. I re-hoisted my cello onto my back and prepared to go and join the rest of the Orchestra. Harpo followed behind me, still whistling the same upbeat tune as we entered the room filled with about twenty ponies. The conductor stole a glance at us and smiled.
"Ah, Harpo, it seems you have found our missing first chair cellist." He said in a rather cold and annoyed tone. My conductor was a rather bitter pony, he always acted as if you had ruined something great for him. The most you could do was come to practice on time and keep your mouth shut or else he wouldn't hesitate to send you home. I had even seen him kick a few members out of the symphony for back talk
I looked down sheepishly and quickly trotted my way over to my seat, trying to avoid the glances and stares I received from the rest of the orchestra, specifically the ones from Fredric and Beauty. Once I had reached my seat and set up everything needed to play, the conductor began to resume the piece. It didn't take me long to get into the groove of the piece, I usually get into the music pretty quickly, but I kept taking small glances over the shoulder to look at Fredric or Beauty. I guess I might have been a bit self conscious about the whole thing, but I could afford to be when playing. Once you play for a certain length of time on one thing, it becomes second nature to do it, allowing you to multitask while doing it, or in this case, take glances over my shoulder; to me, playing the cello was just about as second nature as breathing.
Eventually we stopped playing and this conductor put his conductors stick on the stand before looking up at us and saying the usual.
"Alright, split into your groups and begin your usual composing." There was no moaning and there was no groaning; we all just got up and went to our usual groups, myself included, and began our conversing and composing.
I noticed that Beauty, Fredric, and even Harpo were rather quick in getting together. I, however, moved at a much more reluctant pace, taking my time in placing one hoof in front of the other, but I knew I was only delaying the inevitable and carried on. We sat ourselves in our usual circle formation down on our haunches with a few sheets of music compositions in front of us. I took to the sheets quickly, adding a few notes here and there occasionally, in an attempt to keep myself out of conversation. Fredric worked on a composition as well, I wondered briefly if it was one he would be playing in the duel with Vinyl. I also wondered briefly if Vinyl could even play piano, or if she was just going with the conversation, it seemed like Vinyl to bluff and exaggerate her own abilities.
"So Octavia, I heard that little street rat of yours is playing Fredric in a little contest." Beauty said innocently.
Her sudden statement broke my train of thought and ,as a result, causing me to make a rather ugly mark on the composition. I looked up to her and planned on retorting, but the look I received from Harpo told me to do otherwise. I decided that, for once, I would play nice, Beauty was still my friend, regardless of how stuck up she was.
"She isn't mine anymore." I responded softly, trying to not make a big deal of what I knew was a big deal to them.
They all stopped, Harpo probably did it for the moment, and looked at me. Even Fredric had stopped writing to look at me. I didn't look up to meet their gazes, mainly because I didn't want to, but also because that would make them continue the conversation, though they would probably continue that anyways.
"So...you finally kicked her out?" Fredric asked slowly. He was probably confused thanks to the time when he had accompanied me to pick her up last night. Now that I think about it, I wish he had stayed, maybe then things wouldn't be so uneasy.
"Yeah..." It was quite between the four of us, that is, until Beauty squealed with joy and even gave me a hug. One big, bone crushing hug.
The entire class looked over at us, mostly giving us raised brows or looks of annoyance, she also managed to get the attention of the conductor. The conductor went by a silent code, at first he would give you a look, next he would get your attention and ask for you to knock it off, the third time he would move you, and if you dared disrupt a fourth time, he would send you home for that day. Beauty paid them no mind and focused only on the one thing on her mind.
"How did she react when you kicked her out? Gah! I hope that trash was in tears!" Her eyes were sparkling, I found it quite disturbing that she could get so excited over the thought of somepony else crying.
"No, she just left." I said curtly, earning a look of both confusion and disappointment.
"What do you mean 'just left'? Surely she tried to protest or something." She said sounding anxious almost. I almost answered her, but the conductor beat me to it.
"Beauty, Octavia, please clam yourselves and get back to work." The conductor said in his slate voice.
"Octavia, to stop any further disruptions, I would like you to join the group over there." He said pointing over to another group of ponies. I didn't protest, I didn't try to because I knew what would come if I did, I collected my stuff and walked over to the group he mentioned as silently as possible. The group was one of the cozy sorts, Lyra was in it so I was somewhat comforted by not being total unknown in the group. It turns out most of them actually looked up to me both as a player and composer.
The rest of practice passed rather quickly in idle and friendly conversation with my new group, probably because Beauty wasn't in it to rant on more about Vinyl. Most of them were rather open with me, cracking jokes with me and even asking for help on compositions and the hours of practice quickly faded together and before I knew it, the conductor was announcing it was time to leave. He also mentioned that thanks to the upcoming event that practice would not be held tomorrow, as he would be bust helping prepare for the duel. I went to the lockers and got my things quickly, being sure to avoid both Fredric and Beauty, and made for the door.
When I exited the building I noticed it was still rather bright out, and figured the conductor must have ended early for something; Our practice doesn't really have a set amount of time, the conductor said his job was to 'teach until he feels as though we are done.'
I didn't immediately head home, I needed to ask Harpo a few questions about the tea time we intended to have today. I settled on waiting at a bench nearby for Harpo to come out, just enjoying the fresh air and calm setting. I even closed my eyes at one point, relaxing myself in the feel of a nice breeze, that is, until I heard Harpo plop down next to me and let out a deep sigh. I scrunched my nose and kept my eyes closed, trying to enjoy the last dwindling moments of calm relaxation.
"Hey, I'm sorry about the way Beauty acted, you know how she gets sometimes." His tone sounded just about the same as the way I felt.
Annoyed.
I didn't bother opening my eyes to respond, for we had had this discussion many times before about Beauty and her 'behavior'.
"Of course, of course, I know all too well about that." I responded while giving a heavy sigh of my own
While it was true Beauty could be pleasant company, and even a good friend for that matter, at times she was just absolutely unbearable. When something rubbed her the wrong way, even in the slightest, she could, and would, go on forever about it until it was either sent away, burned to smithereens, or fixed to her strict and personal liking.
"Hey, were still up for tea right?" He asked with a newly found bright tone in his voice. I only smiled at it, it amazed me how Harpo could be happy under almost everything, it reminded me of somepony too.
Vinyl. I didn't even bother scrunching at the thought, I didn't even try and push it out, but let it linger there for a moment before smiling again.
"Of course Harpo, what time works with you?" Maybe if I could get this whole Vinyl thing off my chest, it would stop haunting me in my head.
"I'll probably just swing by in an hour or so, I know how you mares are with preparation." He said in a joking tone as he got up from the bench and began walking down the sidewalk, most likely to his house.
I sat there for awhile longer, trying to get back into the tranquil mood, but only found unease, and got up from the bench myself, I had tea to prepare for, and began my walk home.
*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*
I arrived at the entrance to my apartment building about forty minutes later, and was even greeted by the desk mare on the way in. I had just gotten out of the elevator and was walking to my apartment door when I noticed something strange on it. There was a small piece of paper taped to my door, I trotted over and removed the note and started reading it, confused as to what it might be.
Dear Octavia,
Please come visit the bar soon, tonight if possible. I was going to just talk to you myself, but you weren't home and I needed to get going, so I left you this note. You probably could have guess this, but it is about Vinyl. I won't go into details since you couldn't defend yourself on a piece of paper stuck to your door, but I want to talk to you about this whole mess, so please meet me as soon as you can.
Sincerely,
Shakes.
I sighed outwardly.
'looks like I've got another 'date' tonight.' I thought to myself. But then again, it also might help me to talk to Shakes, one who personally knows Vinyl, and get all this off my chest.
I pushed it aside for now, I needed to get ready for tea with Harpo, and frankly, I needed a shower.
I didn't hesitate to start the shower, my times in there were very peaceful and relaxing which seemed to be getting rare these days. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to enjoy the shower as much as I wanted to because, thanks to me walking home, I only had about ten minutes to shower. I quickly hopped in the shower, thinking only of the time I had to prepare, and nearly screamed from the feeling of the ice cold water hitting me dead on. I recoiled at first contact with the liquid snow, but I stayed in the shower and tried my best to get a quick, cold, shower in before Harpo arrived.
I stepped out of the shower in less than five minutes, giving me enough time to dry off and even partially style my mane before there was the expected knock at the door and it was time for me to leave. I didn't take much time getting things for the trip since it was customary for the stallion to pay, but since it was Harpo I got my purse and headed to open the door. When I opened the door, as would be expected, Harpo was there with his signature smile.
"Ready?" He asked curtly. I knew he was anxious, he was always curt when he was anxious to know something so I didn't hesitate to follow him down and out of the apartment onto the stone sidewalks.
He wasn't talking much on the way to the restaurant, if we were going to one, so I figured he must have been focused on getting there quickly. I too remained silent throughout most of the trip, not finding anything of real importance to talk about. I noticed we were heading into a more suburban side of town, one where the streets were lined with a variety of coffee shops and outdoor tables for ponies to get together and talk with each other. We continued to walk on for a little ways until we arrived at a cozy corner shop with many circular tables out front with white umbrellas overhead to block out the sun. We browsed a variety of the tables until we settled on a table off in a corner, shades by the shadow cast down by the building. Harpo's attitude lightened as we finally settled, he even started up snippets of conversation until a unicorn mare arrived to take our orders.
"Oh, I'll take some Earl Gray please." Harpo said with a smile to the mare who wrote it down on her pad and pencil and then turned to me for my order.
"The same please, and a salad too if you could." I was quite hungry since I had barely eaten anything over the past few days. I had had plenty to drink though. The mare turned away and trotted inside the building to prepare our orders, as soon as she left, Harpo turned serious.
"Well, I think I would like to hear that explanation now." He said in a cheerful tone, but he backed it with a seriousness that I could feel for miles. But that wouldn't mean I would be easy to cooperate with.
"I still fail to realize why you care so much about this Harpo, all I did was take her in, and kick her out. Plain and simple." He sighed and placed his hooves one his temples and sat there for a few seconds, as if putting pieces of a mental puzzle together, before looking back up to me.
"Octavia, I know you well enough to know that you don't just go and let any random street mare into your house without a very good reason. I want to know what that reason was."
"What do you mean?" I asked in an attempt to delay the inevitable.
"What I'm asking is, what did she do to deserve to be kicked out, if she did something good enough to be let in? I mean, you said you were housing her, and knowing you, you had to have invited her into your house, also knowing you, that means that she must have done something pretty big and helpful for you." He explain, I thought it was over, but he continued.
"What I want to know is what absolutely monstrous thing she had to have done to upset you enough to be kicked out." His gaze was serious, more serious than I had ever seen him with anything before.
"Well, you were right about the whole 'doing something big for me' thing." He kept staring at me, as if expecting me to say something else.
"So...what was it?" He asked, assuming I hadn't got the meaning of his stare. I sighed again. I seemed to be doing that a lot these days, I was even starting to wonder if it was healthy to do it this much. I looked back up to him, this time with my own serious gaze, and asked one last question.
"Do you really want to know?" He took it with full force, letting my words linger there for a moment in his head before giving me one nod of confirmation; One nod of determination.
I started telling him the whole story, save for the 'vampires-are-real' and 'I-was-living-with-one-and-she-bit-me' parts, I wanted to sound believable. Harpo acted just like I expected him to; He laughed, a lot. I will give him credit though, for the first five minutes when I was telling him about the theater he remained serious, but as soon as the words 'I went drinking' came up he lost it. He got more serious about the 'Bouncer-who-tried-to-have-his-way-with-me' lie and even tried comforting me and I did my best to act comforted, but after that it was all downhill. He even fell out of his seat in tears about the time the unicorn mare came back with our teas and salad. The story came to an end and he was still chuckling and wiping a tear from his eye.
"Well Octavia, it sounds like that mare has done quite a few things to help you." He said in between laughs and heavy breaths. He took a few moments to sip his tea and calm down while I finished off my salad before getting to the point.
"Okay, now this is what I think happened, I think you were just in a sour mood from your hangover and made a rash decision."
I had made up a lie about the promise Vinyl had made with me, and it was pretty believable if I do say so myself. I had said that Vinyl promised to help me with a few things with a piece I had been working on, and all she did was goof off and get drunk. It sounded like her and sounded reasonable to kick her out, if we weren't considering the fact she had saved my life.
I sighed and looked out into the streets, watching as a few of the ponies scurried along to get wherever they needed to go. I also noticed that the sun was beginning to set over the building and I figured now would be a good time to head to my other meeting with Shakes. I got up from my spot at the table after I had finished off the last of my tea and said my goodbye to Harpo.
"Well Harpo, as much as I would like to drink and eat some more, I have another pony who 'needs to talk to me' so I must be off." I said as I grabbed my purse.
"I understand, mare troubles right? Well, you go ahead on and meet whoever this 'somepony' is and have a good time." He said with a smile just before taking a sip of his tea.
I waved him off and began to head back to the bar, and probably an angry Shakes.
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YAY! New chapter!
I liked it... I really want to see what happens in the next chapter though. Its gonna be intersting... I dont think Shakes will be totally mad, Well maybe a little erritated because Vinyl most likey didn't talk to her for awhile after showing up after she got kicked out...
But she will be appsalutly like. "You are going to talk to me and tell me what happened because Vinyl is not talking to me!" And Octivia will have to talk with Vinyl... really not sure what will happen after that...
But thats what my take on the next chapter will be... totally intersting...
Then again the next chapter is a mistory to me and its gonna be a fun read when it comes out !
I give you a like, a fave, and a hug.
NOW GO WRITE, PLEASE.
I need to know what happens next...
4425439
Thank you for all three!
As for the writing, it's going well. I plan on uploading every Saturday, maybe earlier if such a thing happens.
4426364 every saturday?
that's great! 
thank you 
4431124
Heh, it's fine if you stop reading it, and I can't thank you enough for reading it up to this point, but do you mind if I ask what made you stop?
I would also like to say that I respect every one of my critic's. The story wouldn't be where it is without them.
Lloyd mlp mlp mlp mlp los mlp mlp mlp mlp mlp mlp mlp mlp
this chapter really made me cringe. the whole segment at the 'rehearsal' felt like a classroom, i felt like octavia was just a child and made it really hard to continue reading. i'll keep going for now, though i hope that you have managed to fix a bit of the atmosphere.
Ponies like laughing at Octavia's story...
So Frederic couldn't even come up with his own insults, he just repeated what Harpo said
put them in my saddlebags.
and would break off .This makes more sense in the context
I tend to group with my friends,
Frederic and Beauty were an example of how most nobles were --> This is just a suggestion you are in no way obligated to use this
- It was quiet between
- Hey, we're still up for tea right?
- might want to re-think this one
probably because Beauty wasn't in it to rant more about Vinyl
Hey, we're still up for tea right
You probably could have guessed this
Mind starts playing Nyan Cat theme ...