• Published 7th Mar 2012
  • 4,012 Views, 63 Comments

Hooves And Dials - That Awesome Brony Guy



The life of Vinyl Scratch is not very well known... What sort of life does she REALLY have?

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Checking My Levels

Checking My Levels

As I watched the clock in the studio run up to the top of the hour and heard the news kick in, I looked out of the studio window, and saw the ponies in the market packing up for the day. Grumbling at the thought of social interaction, I packed up my CDs from the day’s show and put a stack of them into my mouth. The lights kicked in as I walked out of the on-air booth and into the hallway to find the next DJ sitting in the waiting area. I glanced at her for the barest moment as I headed to the library door, unwillingly bringing forth memories of all the concerts we had attended together and all of the on-air giggling we used to share with each other...

“Hi Vinyl!” said a familiar voice next to me.

Well someone knows how to interrupt a good thought...

“Hi Skippy,” I grunted.

Skippy was a rather odd pegasus, with his fresh face and adolescent body, Skippy looked as though he was caught between being a child and joining adulthood. I enjoyed his company but his overly positive attitude got to me from time to time. I had nicknamed him Skippy when he was first hired and it has stuck to him ever since.

“Here, I’ll take that for you!”

Skippy grabbed the stack of CDs from me and began to sort them into their proper places. I was curious as to why, in the name of Celestia, Skippy always sorted CDs for me? I knew that he didn’t really like sorting, but why did he always sort CDs just for me?

I didn’t think about it too much because everything in my brain suddenly dissolved away the instant I looked through the access window between the library and the on-air booth, seeing her put down stacks of CDs onto the table. All of those great memories started coming back… I remembered how many times we had walked around my farm, how many times I had rested my head on hers and played with her mane… Oh Octavia, what did I do to deserve this? She broke my heart but I still longed for her. I was always there to help her and she kicked me to the curb after such a great life together.

We only lasted nine months, but still…

I left Skippy to his work and trotted up the stairs to my office in order to grab my goggles and bag. I was yearning to get over to the tavern to drink the day away with some lovely cider. I had been going to that tavern every day since cider season opened up for the year. Although I might have sounded a bit hung over when I’m on-air I tended to be able to hide it… at least I thought I did. My excitement quickly dimmed due to a sudden recollection that I had a party to run music for tonight… No cider for me.

I trotted back down stairs with my things in tow and my office locked up for the day. My hooves made loud clanging noises as they struck the metal stairs. “Not the best stairs to have right next to the on-air booth,” I said to myself as I brushed my electric blue mane aside. It always fell over my eyes after all the bouncing necessary to maneuver myself down this metal death trap. I said my usual goodbye to Skippy as he asked what Berry Garcia I had played for the day... to which I had no reply.

I was about to leave the studios when I caught a final glimpse of Octavia brushing her mane away from her ears so she could put her headphones on, raise the volume of her microphone and hit the airwaves for her shift. More memories were creeping in and I shook them out of my head before putting my goggles on and going on my way for the night.

--------------------------------------------------Later---------------------------------------------------

Right then, the gear was packed and I was actually looking somewhat decent. It was time to head off to one of Pinkie’s spontaneous parties. I packed six crates of the most up-beat music I owned and left all the Radiohoof and Death Colt for Carrot records at home. I hooked up my cart and scraped my hooves against the ground to gain momentum. It had been so long since my last gig that I forgot how unbelievably heavy all of my equipment was. Where was that dang Skippy when I needed him?

I went out onto the road and began to head off. It wasn’t long though until I heard a certain pink pony bouncing around handing out last-minute invitations right next to the stage in the park.

I saw a rather dashing lavender mare rush up next to me, “Vinyl Scratch, how have you been?”

I turned around to greet her face to face. “Hey Twilight! Wow, last time I saw you was when your friends tore up the Royal Palace!”

Twilight blushed. “Yeah… I’d rather not talk about that. Just wanted to see how you’re doing. What brings you here?”

I looked back at my massive cart and back at her as if it was obvious. “Oh, just spinning some tunes for Pinkie’s party tonight.”

I was wondering if this would be a good opportunity to let the awkward silence carry on for a few seconds and then excuse myself. I’ll let her think for a couple seconds just to let the time pass. One… two… three-

“Did you know that Octavia is going to be here later tonight?”

Well so much for that idea- wait WHAT? I felt a wave of panic wash over me. “Oh uh, really? That’s cool I guess. I-uh, hope she has fun.”

I really wanted to turn tail and trot away out of nervousness, but I Pinkie promised that I’d do this show. I wasn’t very keen on seeing a betrayed Pinkie Pie; I’ve seen how violent she gets when she tries to shove a cupcake into somepony’s eye. I decided to swallow every single emotion I was feeling right then, slap a smile on and go set up.

It wasn’t long until I had all of my equipment set up and was halfway done with unloading my crates of music. I had hoped to be ready by now but I was drained of energy and just wanted to get this done.

I loaded my first track up and put the needle down onto the record. Right when the music started I saw a line of dust coming up from a blur running towards the dance floor. As the dust settled I noticed Pinkie Pie had dragged a rather perturbed Rarity over for a dance. She spun the helpless, dusty mare up into the air and swung her around merrily until I heard a great crash followed by a loud buzzing noise. Rarity looked bewildered as she popped her head out of my smoking and fizzing speaker.

I was about to yell at her until I saw Twilight and Pinkie trot up and help Rarity out. I would’ve let them all have it but as I looked upon Twilight’s apologetic gaze, all my thoughts of anger and stress simply vanished. For some reason I could never raise my voice to her.

As I was pulling some spare parts out of my cart I started mumbling to myself about Skippy again.

I wondered what that boy was up to…

-----------------------------------------------Skippy-----------------------------------------------

Octavia yelled from the other studio, "Skippy, I could use some help explaining what’s going on with the Gala this year if you wouldn’t mind coming come on air with me."

I dropped what I was doing and happily trotted in as she put her headphones on and signaled me over to the microphone. I fell silent as the on-air light came on and she potted up the mics.

"You are listening to one oh five point three The Horn right here in the small town of Ponyville. You just heard a live session from The Indigo Fillies recorded by our very own Skippy!"

I blushed and snickered as I pulled the microphone away. I didn't make a habit of showing off my recordings, but Octavia sure did love the sound of what I recorded. It was all about the manual EQ-

"So Skippy tell us, what's planned for the Grand Galloping Gala this year?"

I immediately yanked the microphone over and did my usual on-air hello to Octavia and made her laugh a couple times before I got on subject.

"Well ever since the... ground shaking... success last year, a friend of mine called Pinkie Pie is now head of preparations. We'll be seeing a much livelier crowd!"

I paused for a moment as I saw Octavia holding a hoof to her mouth in an attempt to hide her snickering. She had played as part of the quartet at last year’s event and had first hand knowledge of how horrible things turned out that night.

"Well let's get back to the music here with a new song by The Hoof And The Heart!" said Octavia as she lowered the microphone levels back down and took her headphones off.

I moved the microphone away as Octavia and I started to lose ourselves in laughter "Pinkie Pie?! Really?" she said as she clutched her sides.

I tried to keep from laughing for a few seconds as well so I could reply. "Yep, really! Pinkie Pie has been planning this ever since the princess herself sent her a letter the day after last year's Gala."

Octavia snorted a bit more until she recomposed herself enough to get back to business.

"Hey could you grab something from the Jazz section for me?"

I perked up my ears and smiled. "Sure!" I trotted off to the library and started skimming the shelves. I enjoyed the artists that Octavia chose; she always had a good ear for the right music. I grabbed an album and chuckled at the album art where nothing but an owl looked back at you. "Look! Owloysius!" I said to myself. Continuing to chuckle, I opened the door to the on-air booth and placed the CD on top of one of Octavia's stacks. After she thanked me, I decided to do some commercial editing in one of the production rooms.

This has always been one of my favorite rooms; I can grab a cup of hot chocolate and a pile of commercial scripts, listen to some instrumental music, and let the hours fly by while I mix all of the new spots. It wasn't a glamorous job but it certainly was fun to have my voice on the air, even if it was on some silly commercials about a new type of cider from Sweet Apple Acres or some new fashion line from Rarity’s boutique.

I was interrupted when the studio line rang with Vinyl's number on it. I ran over to the on-air booth and opened the door. "Vinyl Scratch on line two!" I hollered to Octavia as professionally as possible just as she was taking her headphones off.

"Can you answer that? I can't answer the phone right now," she said as she quietly turned away and put her ears back.

I was confused, but compliant. I ran over to my editing studio again and answered the phone.

"Skippy! I need you at the park with a new bass driver and some duct tape NOW!"

I heard a lot of worry in her voice, along with a lot of angry ponies in the background. I immediately figured that somepony had broken a speaker that Vinyl forgot to bring a proper spare for.

I hung up the phone and went up the stairs to my office. As I was trying not to kill myself walking up the stairs, I thought to myself how odd it was that I was only a stallion of sixteen years and yet I already had my own office. I let that thought go as I entered my office, grabbed what I needed and set off for the park. Being a pegasus didn't hurt with this sort of job, since I just walked out the door, flew off and in seconds I was preparing to land right next to the smoking wreckage of Vinyl's equipment.

I cringed, thinking about how distressed she would be, hoping to myself that I could repair the damage and get out of here.

"Are you doing okay Vinyl?" asking meekly as I began to pull the broken pieces out.

"Oh I'm fine. I'm just fine..." I looked at her, confused. She seemed preoccupied so I waved a hoof in front of her in an attempt to get her attention..

"Oh hi! Sorry I missed that, what?"

I snorted and looked at her. "I was asking if you were okay." I said while I kept poking around in the speaker case.

"Oh, right. I had someone throw a unicorn into one of my speakers."

I snorted and replied, "Yes I noticed..." I said while I was staring through a hole in the back of the speaker case that was alarmingly similar to the thickness of a unicorn horn. "So what's the occasion? Just another random Pinkie Pie party?"

Vinyl snorted, "Just another random party, but I have a feeling about this one. It's going to be a great night."

I kept chuckling to myself while she was talking, until I replied, "Well you've certainly gotten off to a great start!"

Vinyl and I chuckled together but we stopped as I fell silent from fright. A beautiful ice blue eye was suddenly looking back at mine through the hole in the back of the speaker. I gasped in shock and then realized who it was and quickly removed myself from the speaker to greet the mare.

"Hey! Long time no see." I held my hoof out to shake hooves, but she moved past my hoof and embraced me with tears streaming down her face.

"Oh it's so good to see you, I've missed you so much!" I felt her hold me tighter as I tried to pull away.

Vinyl laughed as I continued to futilely try and squirm away.

Right, didn't expect this...

I finally managed to get away from her reach by extending my wings out, causing her hooves to lose their grip. She looked at me as if I had just punched her in the face, so I tried to defuse the situation and not make a scene. "Look, you're still a friend of mine but I can't do this. Not now."

I grabbed the spare speaker piece that I had brought with me and plugged it in as she quietly sobbed next to me. I tried to divert my eyes as best as I could while finishing the repair. Finally finished, I glanced at Vinyl once more before shooting off into the clouds.

And that is why I hate parties...

-End of chapter one.

Author’s note-
Hope everypony enjoyed the first chapter! First time writing an MLP fic so…hope it was good!
What happened between Octavia and Vinyl Scratch? Who is the pony that found Skippy at the party? What is Skippy's real name? All this and more in the next few chapters!

I’d like to thank my new editors and pre-readers for assisting me in improving this story and bringing it to it’s maximum potential. Thank you FrozenPyro and Dawn Fade! You have helped me iron out all of my derps and D’oh moments and allowed for this story to become really nicely pulled together.