She Woke To Fur Elise

by 71NYL-5CR4TCH


Chapter 3: The Meaning Of Life, As Told By Vinyl Scratch

Vinyl sighed as she levitated her saucer back down to the table before her. It was nice being in such a peaceful environment, at least for a while. Vinyl allowed another deep breath to come into her lungs as she laid back in the couch.

"So, Octavia?"

"Yes, Vinyl?" Octavia replied, looking her friend in the eye.

"What WERE you doing in that club last night? Honestly, because your story doesn't quite check out."

"Didn't your mother ever teach you it was rude to be nosy?"

Vinyl looked downward, a frown now growing across her lips "Um, no, I guess not..."

"Well it is. However, I suppose you deserve the truth, even if it does make you uncomfortable. I have many friends there I suppose. And other reasons..."

Vinyl looked back to Octavia, who's eyes averted her own. She raised an eyebrow, "Like?"

"Well...It's...it's strange..."

Vinyl sat quietly as Octavia bowed her head and looked away, somewhat in shame, somewhat in embarrassment. She took a long breath in before continuing,

"I was always raised to believe that 'fillyfoolers' were lesser, immoral ponies...it's what my parents said, it's what I believed...but not too long ago, I found out a good friend of mine, Lyra, was a...a 'fillyfooler'... Celestia, I hate that word, don't you? It seems so...demeaning, I suppose...anyhoof, I found out she was, let's say, 'into mares', by her invitation to her wedding." Octavia chuckled a bit and looked upward in recollection, "I remember opening the letter and being so shocked...and I didn't know what to think! All my foalhood I was taught they were just bad ponies, but I had known Lyra all my life! She wasn't a bad pony at all! And how could I have known her for so long and not even known she was into mares?! I even knew she was in a committed relationship! I knew the ponies name, Bon-Bon, just not her gender apparently." Octavia chuckled before becoming somber again, "I was very confused for a while...it was the first time the world had showed me that the standards I was raised to believe were just...wrong."

Vinyl levitated her tea back to her lips, taking a sip before pulling a small notepad and paper seemingly from nowhere and nodding quietly, "mmhmm...go on."

Octavia shot an annoyed glanced. Allowing her scowl to change to exasperation, she continued her story,

"Well I ended up attending her wedding as the mare of honor...it was an absolutely beautiful ceremony. After that I just...couldn't find anything wrong with them."

Vinyl nodded, "That's a very cute story, but I didn't ask you why you were tolerant of...um...mares into mares...I asked you why you were at the club. It just doesn't seem like your scene, not because of the crowd, but the atmosphere."

Octavia smirked, "My 'scene'? I suppose it's not, no, but as I mentioned before I played a large roll in Lyra's wedding...and her bachelorette party... It was at Fillyfoolers, and at the time, the club was a nicer establishment. I guess I just grew particularly fond of the club, even though I can hardly tolerate the music they play..."

"Careful," Vinyl warned, "that's my bread and butter you're insulting..."

"Well I hardly see how it's music! It's all repeating patterns and noises! How does one put soul and fire into the press of a key?! Or the push of a button?! No matter how wll you perform, or feel the emotion of the piece, it will not change!"

Vinyl frowned, "Ocatvia, putting yourself into music is important, yes. The only difference is, with my music I put myself in when I write, not when I perform. Have you ever even written a piece for anything other than cello?"

Octavia opened her mouth to speak, but was at a loss of words.

Vinyl leaned in a bit, as if sharing a secret, "Have you ever even written music for the cello?"

Octavia remained silent.

Vinyl gave an annoyed look, "Octavia...you can't feel true emotion in somepony else's piece! Because it is their emotion! Their piece!Music let's you get what's inside of you out, so the rest of the world can hear. It's meant to be broadcast and felt, but not relived. That's why cover bands are always shit."

Octavia giggled. "I suppose you're right Vinyl...my composer writes all of my music...it...it has always been easier to follow than to feel, I suppose..."

The pair remained silent for a moment, Octavia deep in thought, while Vinyl merely stared. She saw so much activity and wonder in the mare across from her, so much emotion that seemed to be sealed in a conditioned layer of society and judgment.

"Octavia?"

"Yes, Vinyl?"

"What do you 'feel' right now?"

"...I...I don't know...confused?" Octavia looked to Vinyl, clearly suspicious of the point of this conversation.

"Why?"

Octavia sighed, "I...I guess I have been living within music my entire life...it's been everything I am...everything I do...so how do I put that into music? My life has no romance, no struggles, no pain nor adventure...how am I to write music about music? And furthermore, why, if all I know of life is music, is the most disheveled, party-going, craziest mare I have ever met giving me the most profound speech of my art I have ever heard?!" Octavia raised her voice, throwing up her hooves.

Vinyl smiled, "My life is what makes my music, and where I go and what I do makes up my life. It just happens to keep bringing me right back to shady places like that."

Octavia sighed, "As is my story as well...but nothing happens at my 'clubs'! It's the same lot of stuffy ponies merely sitting and listening, until I have performed and felt the works of somepony's very heart being poured onto a stage, into an audience, only to be met with 'polite applause'...perhaps that's why I like clubs...you can pour yourself into something and transform a crowd's behavior! When you are finished you can bask in a roar of approval, not a simple pattering of hooves. You can make a club jump, or sway. Dance or come together...there is a reason nopony attends formal concerts with the intention of attracting mates."

Vinyl chuckled before looking into Octavia's eyes. "It sounds to me like I know how you feel right now."

"How?" Octavia raised a suspicious brow. Surely if she didn't know her own head this mare didn't.

"Trapped, frustrated, and above all, bored." Vinyl stated matter-of-factly.

Octavia sat still for a moment, basking in the raw truth of what she was told. It was true, she wanted to escape her classical, stuffy regime and live freely, chaotic almost. She was tired of the order, the rules, and above all, what was right and wrong.

"So I am...but it's not as though I can simply change my life." Octavia scoffed.

"Why not?" Vinyl asked curiously.

"What? What do you mean 'why not'? I have...a job! And friends, and...and an apartment! I have so many responsibilities!"

"So?" Vinyl asked in the same manner, "Can you grasp this concept, Octavia? That you can always just leave? Quit? Move on? That's what I loved about what I do, if one day I just decided 'I'm done with Canterlot, going to Trottingham!' do you want to know how long it would take me? The trip to Trottingham and 30 minutes to pack." Vinyl stated, unamused by Octavia's theatrics.

"How could you do that? Just get up and leave on a whim?!"

"Because whims are your brains way of telling you that now is the perfect time to do it."

Octavia blinked. "Come again?"

"Spontaneity is the way life should be lived. Not 'according to plan'. Plans fail, fate doesn't seem to, it just has bumps in the road. You can't say you failed to get where you're going if you've got no place in mind."

"So...you're telling me...that if I want to do something I should just...do it? Without question?" Octavia sat, wide-eyed.

Vinyl kicked back and put her hooves behing her head, stretching out, "That's my philosophy."

"And...how has that worked out for you?" Octavia put a hoof to her chin, adopting a somewhat smug smile. 'There's no way this mare makes the kind of bits I do, or had anywhere near the grades... Octavia thought.

"Well, I'm certainly not as wealthy as you, or as 'classy' but I'm happy. I'm happy with where I am and what I do, and honestly? I wouldn't trade that for the approval of the princess herself."

Octavia took a moment to think, 'Happy? You traded all of that just to be...happy?' "Do you even care what anypony thinks of you?"

"Just my friends, or ponies that I decide their opinions matter to me."

"So basically, you just run through life with no plan, not a care in the world, doing what you want, when you want, and not giving even a fraction of a buck what anypony thinks about you?"

"Pretty much." answered Vinyl, now closing her eyes and letting out a breath relaxing.

"That sounds...fantastic." Octavia replied, eyes wide open. 'Just being...happy...'

"Then try it. Nopony's stopping you."

Octavia blinked a few times before standing up, a blank expression upon her face. She simply stood, walked around the center table to where Vinyl sat calmly upon her couch, closed her eyes...

and planted a gentle kiss upon her lips.