Vinyl Scratch was pacing in front of the record store. She would stop every few minutes or so to check her mane in the glass of the shop. She thought over and over, trying to remember if she had put on deodorant after her longer than necessary shower, using her best smelling shampoo and soaps. Scratch's stomach was in knots as she waited for the lovely classical music to stop pouring into the streets. Not that she wanted it to stop because of its classical nature. She had actually come to appreciate the music, at least when her favorite pony was playing it.
It had been three weeks since Scratch had laid eyes on that grey pony. After sneaking around the shop, she finally caught a glimpse of the pony's treble clef cutie mark and immediately ran to Pinkie Pie's home. Of course, talking to Pinkie to get a specific answer wasn't quite as easy as Scratch would have hoped. No offense to the ball of pink cotton, but Scratch just wanted to put a name to the face she couldn't get out of her head. Scratch smiled to herself, repeating the beautiful mare's name.
"Octavia Philharmonica."
The white unicorn swooned at the very name. It seemed to match perfectly with the mare she, for some reason, adored. Scratch looked up the see the colt behind the counter staring at her. Again. Like he always did.
"Now, I know that I'm hard to look away from, but give it a break, bub."
"Lady, when are you gonna quit coming around here and talking to yourself? You've been creeping ponies out for the last three weeks. And for Celestia's sake, quit grinning like that, you look like a crazy pony!"
Scratch had almost immediately stopped listening. The music had stopped. Her stomach lurched into her throat, doing its best impression of one of the tricks The Wonderbolts did. Scratch took a deep breath and marched into the record store. She knew three things at that moment: One, she couldn't hear a thing over her heart beating in her ears. Two, she needed to use the calmest, most suave and mature voice she had. Which wouldn't be easy for a pony that told flank jokes every sixteen seconds. And three, she was going to probably puke when this was all over.
Octavia was in the same space that she used every day. She couldn't say she was a big fan of playing any of her instruments in public, but it was her father's business and he did so enjoy her music. She gently put everything in its proper case when she heard a voice behind her. She'd never admit that she jumped, just a hair.
"Uh, hey." The voice shook with a bit of uncertainty.
Octavia turned around to see an ocean of electric blue mane staring at her. The unicorn's glasses gave her a bit of an intimidating look but her smile seemed genuine.
"Hello."
"Yeah, hey. I've seen you practicing her a lot. I was wondering if maybe you had some time to teach me about some of these instruments. I mean, you know…"
Scratch pointed to her cutie mark and Octavia smiled warmly.
"I would be delighted to."
"Wait, really? I mean... that's, yeah, that's cool. Why don't you gimme your address so I can stop by some time."
Scratch was doing her best to maintain her cool, which was not an easy feat at the current moment. She was half congratulating herself on how suave her address-getting technique was, and half freaking out because it was working. Octavia did as asked, writing her info on a piece of paper. It was all Vinyl could do to not rip the piece of paper out of Octavia's hooves in excitement. Slowly, and a bit shaky, a blue aura surrounded the paper and brought it close to the white unicorn. She stared at it for a moment too long and felt a wave of embarrassed shame flow over her. Vinyl looked up and locked eyes with Octavia. She coughed to turn her head away and found that her mouth was watering for some reason again.
"Perhaps Thursday will work out for you? I have quite the tight schedule, but I always enjoy conversing about and teaching music."
"Thursday's great!"
"Very well. I will see you Thursday Miss… what was your name again?"
"Oh! Right. Name's Vinyl Scratch, m'lady."
"Octavia Philharmonica. Charmed."
"Right on. I'll see ya Thursday, Octy!"
Vinyl tried to walk coolly out of the store, but her excited legs carried her in a much too brisk walk. Octavia stared after Scratch for a long moment, puzzled at Scratch's quick disappearance. After a thought, she grimaced at the floor.
"What did she just call me?"
**********
Scratch's heart was beating even louder in her ears, and it was all she could do to maintain her body from shaking with excitement. As soon as she got out of the store, the adrenaline in her body could not be contained anymore. She broke out into a full on gallop until she was well out of hearing of the store. She ducked in an alleyway and let out the joyous squeal she had been fighting to contain.
"Man, why do I feel like I just ran a marathon and won? This is AWESOME!"
Scratch couldn't explain the feelings that were flowing over her like a waterfall. Here was this pony who she barely knew. She had talked to all of one time. She was literally losing sleep over this pony. And yet she was crouched in an alleyway, barely able to keep herself from doing cartwheels. None of it made any sense. Scratch didn't really believe in love, especially love at first sight. She knew she wasn't in love with this pony. But there had to be something that Scratch was missing. Nopony had ever gotten her attention like Octavia did. Scratch swooned again.
"Aw man, that voice."
It was almost as if Celestia and Luna looked deep inside of the DJ and made the most perfect match for her. Scratch smiled wide; she was giddy as a school filly. She also decided that she should head home at some point, instead of pushing her luck in a weird alley way. Vinyl threw on her headphones and flipped her mp3 player to 'shuffle'. At first, she paid no mind to the songs that played instead focusing her thoughts on Octavia. Lavender eyes were practically burned into her conscience; it was all she could see. She wasn't so much listening to the music flowing into her ears as she was day dreaming about Octavia. The songs switched with Vinyl still away from her music, until a particular patch of lyrics rudely pulled her attention out of another cuddle-filled fantasy.
"You've got it, you've got it,
Some kind of magic,
Hypnotic, hypnotic,
You're leaving me breathless…"
Vinyl Scratch listened intently. She definitely knew how that felt. This song made her think about Octavia. At least, it made her think about Octavia in a somewhat different way. She wasn't sure entirely why, though. After all, there were other songs that she could probably listen to that would be closer to her heart… but that was the beauty of music. Any song could be interpreted in any way by anypony. Scratch smiled and promptly put her mp3 player on repeat. She was going to have a wonderful walk home, with those hypnotic lavender eyes in the front of her mind the whole way.