//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Memories // Story: In the Background // by Harold_Genhi //------------------------------// It made me feel better to have at least something written on the paper and hearing it in my head showed how truly wonderful it was going to be. I bit at the pencil and felt my brain quickly go blank with the melody as if it passed through some cranial fog. Peering over the stand, I saw that Pinkie had decided to leave, leaving Ditsy and Vinyl left in my study. “Are you ready for Nightmare Night Festival?” Ditsy spoke up to Vinyl. “You betcha! I can’t wait to crank up some Nightmare Techno.” Vinyl chimed. “Is that really all you can really think about?” I interjected. “How about, what are you going to dress up as this year?” “I think quite a bit about techno and parties, probably as much as you think about your cello.” She grinned and nodded at the bow that I still held with my hoof. “As for dressing up, I don’t quite know yet.” “Oh my. Vinyl doesn’t know what she wants to be!” Ditsy chuckled as she flew up and shook her head in an exaggerated panic before falling on her back and laughing, kicking her legs. “Oh yeah? And what are you going to be this year?” Vinyl questioned the giggling grey Pegasus. “Now… now… that is a secret. “ She grinned. “And what about you Ms. Classypants?” Vinyl stared at me. “I was hoping to look completely different and help with the music this year. Maybe win back some of my reputation.” I reasoned. Vinyl jumped back from my words, “Bah! You haven’t lost any reputation. You’re fine and its only you that has lost respect for yourself.” “Vinyl. You weren’t at the Gala. You don’t know how those people looked at me and how the party planner told me of my termination. I was fired.” I pointed out. Deep down I felt something want to pull me down and rope my mouth shut, but my mind had been made up. “I can assure you girl, you haven’t lost any of your reputation as being the best cellist in all of Equestria. Tell you what, why don’t you go down to the park, set up on a hill and play something and see what happens.” The tug in my heart pulled harder. “All they will request is the Pony Pokey.” I retorted. “Ooo! I love the Pony Pokey!” Ditsy bobbed her head in remembrance of dancing on the ceiling at the Gala. She enjoyed the stares she had received amid the flood of animals running around below her. “See…” I pointed out, completely ignoring the heavy tug. “That is Ditsy. Ditsy has and always will rock out to the Pony Pokey. Isn’t that right Ditsy?” Vinyl stated, looking to Ditsy for confirmation. Ditsy had her eyes closed and bobbed her head, humming the tune to the Pony Pokey, even putting her front left hoof in and out then in and then she shook it wildly. Vinyl put her hoof against her face and shook her head. She looked to me, “Point proven.” I tried to gather my thoughts. I wanted to believe her and a part of me knew she had to be right, but another part of me wasn’t going to have any of that. Instead of giving in like I truly felt I was about to do, my body instead scoffed and turned away from them. After that action, there was no way I could change my mind and turn back now. With that decision, my side that trusted Vinyl vanished and I felt my inherent stubbornness take over, though a voice remained in the back, causing a sliver of doubt in my judgment to remain. I just had to leave the room. “You really need to work on being less stubborn it really grinds at some ponies around here. You can at least try to find Eyn Spyyr with me, unless you love that cello more than me.” Vinyl trotted out of the room, annoyed and upset at my stubbornness. It was one of the few times that she had been truly mad at me and I knew there was no joking coming from her lips this time. The voice in the back of my head screamed that I should apologize and when I turned to say it, she had already left the room and the lump in my throat stopped me before even a mouse squeak could be pushed from my throat. Ditsy had stopped bobbing her head and looked between the two of us, seeing as how the cheerful evening had quickly turned sour. Vinyl trotted angrily up the stairs and slammed her door shut. The noise hurt more than seeing her. My stubbornness had finally died out, but it was far too late for that now. I could apologize, but there would be no meaning behind telling her right afterward. It would feel like the only reason I would be saying it would be to make her feel better and no honesty would sit behind those words. “Octavia, maybe you should just trust her. I still love all of your music.” Ditsy stated, the words seemingly broken with confusion. “Thank you Ditsy.” Every noise only hurt me more and I searched for a way to amend the situation. “I didn’t mean for…” I couldn’t finish the sentence; the lump had returned. “You should just apologize.” Ditsy neared me. “I can’t. It wouldn’t mean anything if I said it now. I need to make it up to her. First thing first, I need to trust her judgment.” I took a deep breath, unsure of how this question will be answered. “What do you know about this Eyn Spyyr?” Ditsy appeared confused at first, but quickly snapped back into her senses. “Well he is only spoken of in the legends. He is apparently some alicorn pony that became a hermit. Some believe he is a prince of the kingdom, given that he is an alicorn, but I don’t know. Weren’t you ever told this story when you were a filly?” Ditsy questioned. “I picked up rocks.” I disliked talking about my past. “There wasn’t much time for stories and my parents didn’t need to tell us bedtime stories to get us to sleep, we were exhausted as it was.” “You, girl, need to get yourself some proper literature and read up on him. “ Ditsy nodded at her assessment of the situation. I had to release the stress through a heavy sigh as I sat down at my stool and stared at the barely completed piece of music. If only such a pony existed that could grant inspiration to a struggling earth pony as myself. I had to stare out through the window and feel the irritation of being an earth pony setting in. Vinyl had magic and Ditsy could fly, what could I do that they couldn’t? I sighed as everything began to pile back onto my shoulders along with a helping of desire. To feel the wind below my feet as I soared through the air, graceful and serene was something that I wanted more than anything. Flight had grown into a perpetual desire of mine, to leave the ground and not feel the weight of the world holding me down. I wanted that freedom; I wanted that peace of mind. My mind quickly turned back to Vinyl and how I had acted to her and how I had felt acting like that. The memories were haunting and I had to resolve them before anything else. Ditsy stared at me and almost appeared to know what I was thinking as I saw her spirits lift. “You’re going to go with Vinyl to find Eyn?” She asked, excitedly. I couldn’t believe what I was saying. “You bet I am.” Ditsy squealed and hugged me, almost picking me off the ground with her wings before she bolted out the window. “Don’t leave without me!” Her voice trailed off as the distance quickly grew. I smiled after her, knowing I was doing the right thing, but deep down, my stubbornness persisted to no end. I glanced back at the stairs and slowly made my way to them. Looking up the stairs and at the corner, which led down the hall to Vinyl’s room. My knees began to shake as a misplaced worry filled my body. What if she doesn’t forgive me? It felt like a stupid question seeing as how well we had lived before. I remembered the first time I moved into the duplex and found that my housemate was Vinyl Scratch. It was an interesting time for both of us and many fights were had over the course of the first few weeks. It always boiled down to her music being too loud or that her friends were trespassing on my stuff or had messed with it in some way. Everyday I would find my cello had been tampered with, the tuning being completely off. I had expressed my concerns to Vinyl who gave me only a slight nod to my request. I assumed she had just brushed me off and was about to find some other place to live, but the next night I was awoken to hear Vinyl yelling at somepony. “Why are you touching that?” She yelled. “Cool it Vinyl. I just wanted to try it.” Came a voice from some male pony. “It isn’t yours and it isn’t mine so hooves off!” Vinyl retorted. I could only lie in bed and listen to the scuffle that answered Vinyl’s defense of my cello. I heard my stool shatter as somepony hit it. “Everypony! Out! I heard her holler at her guests. I had never heard her voice sound angry before and it made me feel that I needed to leave the house with everyone else. The temptation became too much and I had to rise out of the bed and make my way over to the door and listen closer. “As for you…” She almost whispered. “I never want to see you at one of my parties again… do you hear me Bassdrop?” I opened the door to see a beaten pony gallop out of the door, limping badly in his left back leg. Silently, my hooves tried to carry me down the steps slowly, my eyes trying to see if Vinyl was okay from what I had heard. I poked my head around the corner and saw that it wasn’t just the stool that was broken, but Vinyl’s signature glasses. She looked at them longingly and fell into a sit. My thoughts swarmed with a varying array of actions to take, but everything felt wrong in this moment. Instead, my body again just guided me toward her, seeing the damage of the fight the further I walked into the room. Little dribbles of blood had formed a path to the sitting white mare. To try not to startle her, I moved around her to try and see her face before I made any noises or touches to comfort her. The further I moved around her, the more I saw the red staining of blood on her fur. Her blue hair had fallen in front of her face and blocked my view of where the blood was coming from. She finally caught on to my presence and looked up quickly, her hair moving away revealing a cut where the glasses has broken against her face and her nose was bleeding, which I assumed was also from the impact which had shattered her glasses. This was the first time I saw her fiery red eyes. I never would have guessed them to be that color given that she perpetually had them. “What do you want?” She asked, still angry and filled with the adrenaline. “Can’t a girl party in peace?” She seemed on the verge of breaking down. “Vinyl…” was the only thing I could bring myself to say before she stood up. “Now that I am single again, I can party my way again.” She strained to sound happy. “Single? You mean Bassdrop was…?” I started. “Yeah. He is my ex-boyfriend.” She breathed in heavy through her nose to not let the blood drip on the floor. “Sorry about your stool. I had a bit of a fall.” She laughed as she began to stuff paper into her nose. “You mean you were the one being tossed around?” I asked in amazement at how she had taken the blows and how she could still laugh after everything that had happened to her. “You betcha Classypants! But a few kicks to the face won’t keep this girl down. He thought I was down and then I jumped him. Made that leg of his bend at quite the awkward angle.” Her nose being plugged began to cause her to slur her speech. She left the room without a word more. Almost everything in the room had been knocked over or damaged in some way, except for my cello. I ran my hoof over the strings and heard that it had still been tampered with, but it was still here. That was the day where my feelings for Vinyl began to shine through. Seeing the broken glasses laying on the ground, I knew I had to do something for her to say thank you. I gathered the pieces together and left that night to find my friend in Canterlot. It was a long and dark walk, but it was a walk that I had made many times before in the dark. The door to the small house came into view. I knocked on it, almost urgently; knowing that time would be needed to prepare my gift for Vinyl. “Yes? What?” Came a sleepy pony at the door. “I need you to repair these glasses.” I said without even a greeting. “Aren’t these Vinyl Scratch’s glasses?” Asked the brown haired pony standing in front of me. “Yes. Can you have them like they used to be before they were broken.” The urgency burned in my voice. “Why is there blood on them?” He asked, peering over the glasses at me. I recounted the story to him as quick as I could. He nodded his head in agreement. “I shall have them fixed in a jiffy, rewind the clock on them, like nothing ever happened to them.” He proclaimed, taking the motto from his shop and the reasoning behind his cutie mark. No matter what he touched he could age or give the appearance of youth to with his skill in crafting and intelligence around the effect of aging. “Thank you Doctor Hooves.” I bowed for his generosity. “Please. Just The Doctor.” He smiled and took the shattered remains of the lenses and frames inside his house. “Come in and make yourself at home.” I snapped out of my memory and found that I had walked up all of the stairs and was standing just in front of her door. She had always been trying to help me, but I hadn’t realized it. My hoof rose as I went to strike her door. I galloped back from Canterlot, the sun was beginning to rise and the glasses were perfectly crafted back to their old glory. I wanted to get it into the house before Vinyl had awaken, but I knew that I had to be faster than I was right now. Oh, how I wish I had wings! I quickly opened the door to the house and looked up the stairs, hoping not to hear her moving around and awake. Nothing. A grin spread across my face as I trotted to the study to wrap the gift for her. Only the door stood between the study and me when I heard my cello being played from inside. My regular defensive mentality that circled my cello kicked in and I ran into the room. Vinyl almost fell out of the remade stool that she was sitting on. “What are you doing?” The defensive tone in my voice bled through each word. Vinyl pulled herself off of the floor. “It was out of tune.” Shame quickly filled me as I realized that I had made a blunder again against her. “So you were just…” “Tuning it? Yeah… Hey, aren’t those my glasses?” She looked at the top of my head where the glasses were sitting. “Oh. I was hoping to surprise you with them.” I took them from my head and held them out to her. The look in her eyes was borderline tears of joy. “I felt that I owed you an apology for the past few weeks on how I’ve treated you.” “Thanks Tavi.” That was the first time she used that nickname for me instead of Classypants, which I still don’t understand since I don’t wear pants nor have I seen any pony take on to that uncomfortable fashion trend from the west. “Tavi”, I liked it more than I should have and it felt like that was when we truly connected. Amid our bickering, just the sight of my cello or her glasses and we knew we couldn’t be mad at each other. “Come in.” Vinyl gruffly spoke, breaking me from my trance again. “Vinyl?” I asked, slowly inching my way in through the door. She sighed and almost felt apologetic about how she was behaving though she had a right to behave as she was. “What is it Tavi?” She asked, her voice much lower than it normally was. “I’m just wondering if the spot for assistant discoverer is still open.” I smiled apologetically. I caught a grin crack at her face though she kept up ‘being angry at me’. “It might be… why? Are you saying you are sorry for being a stubborn pony?” Vinyl asked, messing with me. “I’m sorry for being a stubborn pony.” I knew I meant every word. “Maybe this adventure will inspire me to finish this song.” “That is what I was hoping it would do.” She winked at me and smiled. “You are forgiven.” It was in that moment that we had hugged. It felt great to have her back even though it had only been a few minutes. Those few minutes had felt like forever, even the stairs up felt like a lifetime. In those moments, I learned how important it was to have a friend and how much they can mean to me. I should trust my friends especially when they only want to help me, and maybe I shouldn’t be so stubborn about myself. My heart knew the answer, and I should have listened. Ditsy flew into the room with three boxes of muffins. “Who wants muffins?” Sometimes your friends just know when things will get better.