You raise your hooves and clap them lightly. The spaceness of the room allows for it to echo throughout the whole room, without a doubt heard by the mare on stage.
The musician’s ears perk up, and while she maintains her focused frown and graceful sweeps, she channels the newly acquired confidence from your encouragement and plays more enthusiastically, moving her head with the soft sounds of the cello and losing herself in her own playing.
Vinyl starts clapping along with you. Octavia looks up for a moment, her eyes locking on Vinyl and staying that way for a few seconds. She shoots her a faint smile before bowing her head and focusing on her instrument again.
“She’s so happy on stage,” Vinyl says, staring at the gray mare as though in a trance. “It’s like she’s in her own little world. She’s often in a good mood, but when she’s on stage doing her thing, she’s...” Vinyl smile’s proudly, her cheeks rose. “Something else.”
You nod in agreement, taking a moment to truly admire the art, and the amount of work it must have taken for Octavia to work her way up to this point. You allow the music to take you out of your seat and send you drifting down a river of beauty and serenity. Despite only lasting for one more minute, it's an amazing minute as the movement of the musician’s hoof slows, the notes getting softer and softer until silence takes their place.
You offer another round of applause, and Vinyl takes inspiration by standing on her hind legs and clapping her hooves together energetically. “Woohoo! Let’s go Octy!”
Octavia gives you and her marefriend a smile before grabbing her cello and carrying it offstage, leaving you and Vinyl alone in the auditorium.
“I had a feeling you’d enjoy it. I told you, she’s got wicked talent. I’m sure she’ll succeed.” Vinyl gets up. “Octavia’ll be packing stuff backstage for a while. Let’s head out.”
The pale yellow unicorn walks straight past you. You turn around and find yourself in the fresh outdoors, the sun’s warmth caressing the front of your body. You’re at the front entrance of the theater, and Vinyl is walking off ahead down the road. You rush slightly to catch up with her.
“Thanks for coming along,” she says. “Like I said earlier, I travel often and I'm not around to support Octy as much as I'd like to. But I could tell you gave her a lot of confidence, so thanks for that. Really.”
You two continue to walk for a while, talking and chatting about anything that comes to mind. Then, Vinyl stops in her tracks.
“Oh shoot, Pinkie’s party, I totally forgot!” Vinyl says alarmingly, causing you to remember and admit you had forgotten as well. The mare turns her head to the clocktower just over the row of houses, and subsequently relaxes. “Oh good, we still got an hour.”
She turns back to you with a grin. “Well, since that’s the case, why don’t we do something in the meantime? I know this great place where we can grab a bite to eat.” Vinyl pauses and thinks about that. “Actually wait, we’ll probably be filling up on cake at the party, so we could head to my place instead if you want… I’ll leave it up to you. Whaddya prefer?”
Go to Lunch__________________________________________________________________________Go to Vinyl Scratch’s House