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// Vinyl Prelude: A Night to Forget 
// Story: Never Miss A Beat 
// by TaleweaverTheUnicorn 
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“What up Canterlot!” Vinyl Scratch roared, balancing precariously on her backhooves atop her deck, left forehoof stuck up triumphantly, her music dimmed for the moment. “Let me hear you scream!” The dull roar of two hundred plus ponies almost knocked her backwards, which admittedly wasn’t that hard at this point in the evening. She hopped down, hitting one of the large blue-and-white buttons with her forehoof, grateful to be balanced against her deck again. 

“What’s that? Couldn’t hear ya! You Canterlot ponies too ‘refined’-” She jerked her forehooves twice in quotes, as the music started to kick back up. “- To really let loose?!” She used the cover of the louder roar to duck behind her speakers and take a slug of her drink. It was the dregs of some kind of cocktail, which meant much less juice, and much more alcohol. She felt the buzzing bees in her head intensify their efforts slightly. With a grin she waggled the glass at the cute bartender mare, before spinning back to her tables. She made it a point to always strain the free drinks at her gigs. All part of the image.

Using the tip of her hoof, she flicked another switch,and changed tracks. A nice background beat while her magic clicked away on the pads. She always saved the freestyle for the end, when it was less likely to tick ponies off. Not that it didn’t anyway, but what in Celestia’s name was the point of seeing an artist live if they only played what was in their albums? If nothing else, it was boring for her. She tapped a series of buttons with a deft hooftip. An excitable pegasus launched herself over the crowd, nearly colliding with the intricate lighting setup in the rafters. The dancers below didn’t seem too bothered by the unfamiliar beat, instantly making them Vinyl’s favorite ponies. 

She spun into a new song, something more chill, to start winding down. The dancers' gyrations slowed to match the new beat, like the tide going out. It was like conducting the ocean. She closed her eyes, letting her head bob to the beat. She braced for a drop, which made her tingle with anticipation. She instinctively stretched, standing up on tiphoof before letting herself drop with the beat. The ponies below crashed against the stage, a wave of hype.

In the front row, two caught her eye. There was a pinkish-red pegasus with a wild mid-length mane, who was definitely too young to get into this club, and a Canterlot unicorn with an intentionally messy two-tone blue-and-green mane and those enticingly long legs of the race, who was definitely wearing a fake cutie mark. High Society pony slumming it, maybe? Either way, it made her grin, and she filed them away for the afterparty in the VIP. They were dancing with reckless abandon, the both of them, so she swapped over to another new track, something more experimental. One more, probably, then finish off with one of her classic album tracks. Scratchbaby? Or was that too classic for the audience?

Vinyl ended up doing something from her second album instead, just in case. Never Stop the Music, specifically. She was never sure if the youngest of her fans even cared about her first album. She bowed herself offstage, feeling a little unbalanced on four hooves after balancing upright on her deck for so long. Or maybe it was that third cocktail. Nopony could say for sure. She pointed out a few fun-looking ponies from the crowd to the bouncers for the backstage treatment. Definitely taking the mare with the fake cutie mark, she was hecking cute. The below-drinking-age pegasus, for entirely different reasons, namely hoing it’d make her whole year. She picked a few more of the more energetic dancers, a pair of colts, collected the barmare, and headed to the backrooms.

“You didn’t serve that pink filly anything, did you?” She quietly and quickly checked with the baremare, who shook her head. Good. She’d never fault somepony for coming to hear her frankly amazing beats, even if they had to sneak in. But she didn’t want the pegasus to repeat ALL of young Vinyl’s mistakes, though. Going out clubbing and drinking with fake cutie marks and IDs during her school days certainly didn’t do wonders for her grades, or her life in general. 

Present Vinyl carefully settled herself on a couch, aiming for somewhere between aloof and inviting, glasses still on. Gotta save the eye contact impact for special occasions. These afterparties were half the battle, exclusive enough to make ponies feel special, common enough that nopony felt left out. A delicate balance. That’s the biz, filly.

The chosen ponies filed in, some nervous, some excited, some just drunk. She exchanged hoofbumps with the two colts, a daring red and a shy green. Gave a hug to the I’m-not-fancy-what-do-you-mean filly, who had wandering hooves, and gave a signature ruby eye’d wink to the little baby of a pegasus, who flapped so hard in excitement she nearly smacked right into the ceiling. She never quite wound down enough to take a seat afterwards.

As usual, Vinyl knew how to pick ‘em. They were real fun ponies. The fancy mare, who was apparently named Astral Brilliance, had a great sense of humor, which had somehow survived the horrible personality crusher that was high society. The kid, Wind Orchestra, was so stinking cute, so excited to talk shop. The colts were chill lads, mostly here for the booze and company, which Vinyl totally got.

Vinyl let herself get lost in the moment. Much as this was work, it was fun work. Meeting new ponies, making a friend for the evening, that’s what it was all about. A good bit of flirting with Star, several heart-to-heart discussions with everypony, and a few too many Vinyl themed drinks later, the DJ woke up back in her own bed, the next morning, a haze covering the later parts of the evening.

Her bass filled alarm tune was getting less and less fun as time went on, especially on mornings like today. Her head throbbed to the beat, and she shut it off as quickly as her pride allowed. Feeling around with her magic, she grasped a water glass, almost spilling it, before finding her glasses. She tossed back the water, grabbed her headphones as well, and rolled to her hooves with a groan. She could smell her breakfast in the other room, so kindly delivered to her not-quite-a-suite room at the Royal Canterlot Hotel by the lifesaving room service colt.

“Good morning darl- dude.” The definitely-not-a-classy-canterlot-pony from last night greeted her, generously slathering syrup over Vinyl’s pancakes, which caused her heart to break just a little. Oh. Right. Her. . . Guest. Her friend for the evening. Who was still here. In her apartment. Should that be awkward? Ponies usually snuck out. And didn’t eat her pancakes.

“Morning to you, filly. Help yourself. There's a minibar too if you didn't see it” Vinyl tipped her glasses down for a wink and immediately regretted it, as the full force of the photons from the lights found the crack in the ocular armor. With her pancakes spoken for, she settled for toast. Bleh. Not even with good jam.

“You hit the front page,” The pony spoke. Astral Brilliance? Was that her name? Fakest name Vinyl had ever heard. ‘Astral’ jerked her head, tossing her the paper, which she caught in a cloud of magic and glanced at. Sure enough, a photo of the packed club, taken while she was wobbling atop her deck. The headline read: ‘Scratch takes Canterlot!’ Not bad, she supposed, but nopony actually read the newspaper. Including her. She tossed it aside, focusing on what was left of her breakfast. “You’re really hitting the mainstream now.” Astral continued, watching her over bites of what should've been Vinyl’s pancakes.

“Yep, that's. . . A thing, for sure,” Vinyl said, focusing on magically wielding a jam-coated knife. She supposed she was happy about that. It’s what she wanted, right? To be famous for her music? Hit the mainstream? “I’d be doing what I do either way.” She shrugged, putting on her best I-don’t-give-a-crap face. Astral smiled, crossing her forehooves on the table.
“I am aware I said this last night, but I loved Scratchbaby. I was disappointed you didn't play anything from it. I used to listen to that album all the time when I was studying for my magic school entrance exams. . .” The filly sighed slightly, smiling, eyes full of memories.

“Hey, right on!” Vinyl said, a genuine grin splitting her muzzle. “Yeah I wrote it when I was wrapping up at school too- Wait, you said when you were studying for it? Like for your entrance exams?” Vinyl winced internally as the mare nodded. How old was she now anyway? “Glad you liked it though. Was too experimental for some. Not really strict electronica or dance.”

“Oh no! I thought it was visionary. Especially that jazzy one, um, DJ By Dusk?” Astral Brilliance gushed, and Vinyl winced again, this time out loud. That had been one of her few tracks with vocals, which she hadn’t been able to replicate since- Well, since then, basically.

“Anything but that. Old work, you know. Makes me cringe. Not enough bass, right?” Vinyl flashed another smile. Unbidden, memories of making that album flooded back. Fiddling around with ‘My Little Pony’s First Deck’ between and after classes. Getting yelled at for making too much noise in the dorms. Her very first concert playing the titular song, for all of four ponies, three of whom were friends, the other- well. She’d slid more from electronica toward dance and dubstep as time went on. Certainly her second album brought in way more bits, but she’d always wanted to mix it up more. . . She was snapped back to the present as the other mare stepped down from the seat she was sitting in. 

“Leaving so soon?” Vinyl said, belatedly.

“I need to return to my duties. Erm, by that I mean my job. The kind normal ponies have.” Star said, subtly-not-so-subtly adjusting her fake cutie mark. “It was wonderful to spend some time with you, Vinyl. Thank you!” She waved a hoof before opening the door with glimmering purple magic, and vanishing through it. 

Vinyl immediately slumped to the table. Her audience finally, finally gone, she slunk over to her bags for a painkiller, and to the sink for a drink, twisting her muzzle sideways to lap straight from the tap. She turned on her music, some chill trance for easy listening. With trepidation, she approached the minibar, only to find it thankfully untouched. Phew, those were bits she’d assumed lost forever, recoverable only by denizens of Tartarus. Her breakfast was unfortunately decimated, and she’d have to wait until dinner for anything else to eat. With a sigh, she tucked her wild mane behind her ears, and did one of the least on brand things she could do, dealing with her mail. 

There was a shaky horn-taken phone picture of the newspaper from her manager, Stellar Wind, with a “gud work babe” typed beneath it. Then a second, “Club 2morrow, big bits fancy neon??” and a follow up ten minutes later with some colorful language. Vinyl hadn’t heard Princess Twilight’s name used as a swear before, so that was fun. She sent back an image of a filly shrugging, just to be irritating. Another offer for a potential gig two weeks off, she agreed to that one without a thought. Seemed chill, and she could use some of that. Not that she’d admit it, even to herself.  Some fan mail. Beneath that . . .

“Hold on!” she yelped aloud. She reread the message. No way! The Manehattan Music awards? Red carpet? The party, the bar, the classy mares, the FOOD? Oh, and an award, maybe. Who cares? She jumped up, catching herself with magic and twirling herself around, ignoring the way her already sour stomach twisted. Now THIS was hitting the big times! She RSVP’d immediately, hesitating over the entry for a plus one. Who the buck would be around at the last minute?