Chapter 7 Knocking on Vinyl’s Door
Twilight is definitely not pleased with the Pinkie and Spike’s actions when they told her and the rest of the girls about what they did. After giving the both of them a piece of her mind and I assure you that it is not pretty in any way possible, Twilight immediately went to the old stallion’s place and pleaded with him for forgiveness for her assistant’s actions. Despite the old stallion’s insistence that it was nothing to worry about, Twilight in the end managed to ask the both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to help rebuild the old stallion’s store with the latest in soundproofing spells and protection spells so that an incident like that would never happen again. Twilight even bought a piano from the Mr. Harpstrings out of remorse.
Now that the construction of the music store is underway, the library had become the makeshift studio for the band. The basement or to be exact the laboratory is ideal for many reasons. Firstly, Sweet Apple Acres does not have room to actually house the piano. Secondly, the Apple Family’s deal with the farm animal union did not include bands and it is best to not cause any more strikes as it is. Lastly, Twilight is the only pony within the town to have sufficient knowledge with sound-dampening spells and sonic protection spells.
“There that should be the last of the wards needed to hold all the other back-up wards in place just in case if those back-up wards failed to hold the integrity of the other spells.” Twilight wipes some of the sweat off her brow. The last magical ward glowed with a bright purple glow before it disintegrates to be absorbed by the other wards.
“Thank you Twilight.” Granny Smith said as she handed Twilight a towel.
“After all the things that had happened, I better make sure that nothing goes wrong. That’s why I have my check lists here.” Twilight rolls the checklist back and floats it away using her magic. Spike knows more than any other living creature about how Twilight loves her checklists and her obsession with perfection.
Now that most of the laboratory equipment is all gone, Spike could see for once how large this basement really is. Even with the piano in the center of the room, there is a whole lot of room to spare to put many other things and Spike wondered of what did the original tenants planned to use the basement for.
“Y’all don’t mind if we just sit around and listen?” Applejack asked. With winter coming up and most of the apples harvested, the earth pony literally had nothing to do but to just sit around. The other ponies are all busy with their own duties to be present for the cleaning of the laboratory. Rainbow Dash’s job during this time of the year is quite hectic as she needs to coordinate with the rest of the weather teams to ensure that the temperatures are properly calibrated to ensure that the transition from fall to winter is gradual. Rarity have been busy since the beginning of fall as she needs to prepare the winter season fashion clothing for all her customers both Ponyville and Canterlot. For Fluttershy’s case, her duties with the animals in addition to the house repairs had taken up all her time.
“We do not mind! I always like an audience!” Pinkie as always is cheerful.
“Well so far we have gotten like Pinkie covering all the brass instruments and I am pianist of this particular ‘band’…..what other roles that a jazz band even have?” Spike asked the old mare.
“Well there are a few, but the bassist and then the drummer are the most important in mah opinion. Who’d you reckon could play them drums and bassist?” Everyone in the room looked at each other, and it appears that they all had the same answer about one of the instruments.
“I mean we all know somepony who plays the cello, but we are not sure if she plays like the double bass. And she is more classical than anything else, so we are not sure.” Twilight reasoned.
“Yeah, Octavia is nice and all, but she was goin’ to be first chair cellist for the Royal Canterlot Symphony from what ah heard.” Applejack adjusts her Stetson hat while telling Granny her opinion.
“Well, if we do not ask we will never know right? And I am sure that she would be willing to join us!” Pinkie’s rationale is sound in a way. Everypony (and Spike) agrees with the pink pony. You will never know until you ask.
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As they walked towards the home of the two musicians of Ponyville, they could hear the unmistakeable sound of rave music blasting into the air. As they face the door, they could see that the house is literally trembling from the sounds within, and all the plant leaves around the house are also shaking. Everyone looked at each other for a while before Applejack broke the silence.
“Ur….Twi. Why don’t you knock on the the door?” Applejack said as she takes a few steps back from the door and veering clean from the door. Before long everyone except Pinkie had parted from the door, leaving Twilight and Pinkie being directly in front of the door. Twilight sighs and then knocks on the door. She waits for a while, but there is no answer. It was then that she noticed Pinkie bringing out a set of speakers out of nowhere on a trolley. On top of the set of speakers there was a shiny red button.
“Alright everypony, take a seat. I got this.” Pinkie puts on some sunglasses, and putting her arms around her hips. For some reason, almost everyone knew what that device could do and literally jumped for cover, but poor Twilight did not realized the significance of the odd device and just stands flabbergasted at the device, directly in its path.
“Pinkie, what pray tell is that?” Twilight points out at the weird contraption.
“Oh it’s nothing special Twilight; it is just VINYL’S BASSCANNON!” Pinkie shouts and then hits the button with a wide smile on her face. The speakers then open up and smoke started to seep out from the panels, before enveloping the entire speaker in a cloud of smoke. As the smoke clears away, Twilight could see that the four speakers are actually panels, and at the heart of the device a bright luminescent center cackling with eldritch electric blue energy. As Twilight paid a closer attention to the device, she could see five speakers within the core of the machine, with the center speaker being the largest one of them all. The largest speaker appears to have several rings of moving energy, all being focused onto its center and before long there was a bright blue and the pounding sounds of wubs. Suffice to say it was glorious.
Twilight could only scream and cover her eyes as she was enveloped by a bright blue beam. The door was blasted with the full force of the Basscannon, and like a wounded beast, the house’s supporting structures moaned with agony. Before long, the sounds from within the house stopped. Pinkie pressed the button again, and the Basscannon transformed back to its original form, and a great amount of smoke seeps out from the Basscannon.
“Coming downstairs everypony! Wait up!” Everypony outside could hear the voice from within the house. Granny Smith looks at Pinkie with a look of surprise, awe and confusion, while Applejack rushed forward to drag the unconscious Twilight away from the door. Applejack slapped the purple unicorn a few times, before opening her eyelids to see that they are now pure white. Luckily for Applejack, she could see the unicorn's chest moving up and down a sign that she is alive.
“Pinkie, what in the hay was that?!?!?!” Applejack asked the pink pony, shocked by the sonic savagery of the device.
“Oh Applejack, Vinyl once told me that if she was playing wubs and nopony inside heard the knocks, I have free rein to use the Basscannon to blast the door to tell the ponies inside that they got company. It’s like a doorbell really.” Pinkie’s reply sounds like it was the natural thing to do.
“So…….awesome.” Spike mutters in awe of the Basscannon.
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“Oh, you ponies wanted to find Octy? Well, she’s not home right now. She went out with her cello.” The laid-back DJ Pony answered. Twilight is still lying on the couch, with a pack of ice on her head. The other ponies are at the kitchen table, comfortably seated around the round table. Vinyl then hovers a few glasses of water for her guest with her magic and places it in front of the ponies and the dragon.
“Do you know where she went?” Spike asks the white unicorn.
“Naw, naw, whenever she takes her cello like that, I tend to not ask her about where she is going.” Vinyl shakes her head. Spike noticed that Vinyl has the same magenta eyes as Rainbow Dash, and the way they sparkle reminds him of Mr. Harpstrings’ comment about her eyes. Now that he sees them, he agrees with the old stallion.
“Hm….this gonna be mighty tough. Do you know when she will be back?” Applejack asked before she takes a sip of water. The blue-maned unicorn shakes her head again.
“When she is with her cello, she’s gone for a long time. I would reckon that she will be back very late at night, about the time where I would go out to play at the clubs. You are welcomed to snack on these.” She then hover a plate of carrot sticks in the middle of the table. Pinkie’s expression is that of disappointment, while the others just looked at each other uncertain about how they would calm their pink friend. But then, Vinyl gives a sigh, and everyone was a little surprised by the sigh.
“Well…there is a surefire way of finding Octy. Just hear the cello. She loves practicing for her recitals for her auditions.” Pinkie’s face lightens up at her friend’s reply, and she hugged the DJ pony. Vinyl was taken aback by the open display of thanks, but then she quickly recomposed herself and smile.
“Hey, what are friends for? You are the only pony crazy enough to be trapped in a room alone with me and listen to the full majesty of my music and help me improve my music. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” Vinyl notices that the others are now looking at Pinkie with disbelief. Well, club music is cool, but nopony is crazy enough to listen to it with the full force of several speakers played at once at their loudest and even Vinyl does not listen to her own music cranked up to ten for thirty minutes straight. She tends to listen to them cranked at eight tops and even then take breaks from time to time.
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-At the side of the lake-
Octavia had finally arrived to the only place where she could play in silence. She always prefers to play her cello in her room, but she does not usually have the luxury of doing so. Between her roommate’s wubs during the day, and the nights that the town sorely needs during the night, she is unable to play her cello without any interruptions or distraction. Not to mention that being a struggling musician, she is unable to afford to play in Mr.Harpstrings’ music studio. Of course, Mr.Harpstrings had always offered her free of charge, but her conscience and pride will not allow her to freeload on another pony, especially not one as nice as Mr. Harpstrings.
This is perhaps why she chose this spot by the lake to play her concert pieces and solo recitals. The bright rays of Celestia’s sun gently touching and warming her fur, the smell of the clear body of water gently splashing at the shore, the fresh smell of the leaves……she could never choose any other place to play her room as this place is just beautiful in both sight and soul. As she prepares her cello, she tries to not think too much about all those failed interviews, including the one she had coveted the most: first chair cellist at the Royal Canterlot Symphony. She never told her roommate or anypony else, but she had failed in the audition. Everyone assumed that since she was so good, they would immediately offered her the seat. But alas, that is not the case. Her pride once again will not let her admit her failures.
Focus Octavia, focus , she beckons herself. Before long she closed her eyes and starts to play her song. She starts it off with a rather dramatic and intense chord before she picks some of the strings with her hooves. She paused for a while before she plays a more melancholic tune, sprinkled with a little frustration and anger. She proceeds to play her heart out, and as she channels her emotions through her instruments, she could feel the soft, moisture of flowing liquids from her closed eyes flowing down her cheeks. Whenever she plays by herself she tends to exhibit her full range of emotions physically while putting all her soul into her music. Whenever she is happy, she could feel her muscles relaxing and a smile creeping up her face. This time however, she knows that she is definitely frustrated and angry, as she could feel the frown on her face and her muscle tensing. The tears only enforce her current state of mind.
She tries to think about some of the happier thoughts, but she will always come back to this depressing state. And indeed, she could hear that her cello play is also switching between the two emotions, but the frustration and anger is winning on all fronts. She sobs as she plays alone by the lake, wanting someone to accompany her and understand her plight.