I walk upstairs, to find Vinyl sitting behind a laptop, with a headset over her ears, her eyes closed. She must really be getting into the beat of that song. She has them up so loud that I can feel the bass pouring out of them, along with something else that almost sounds like a piano. Seems like an odd mix for dubstep, but you never know.
“So, Vinyl, how do you use a laptop with, you know, hooves?” I ask. She can’t hear me though. I say her name once more loudly, before giving up.
“Go up to her and tap the outside of the headset, right in the middle. Makes a really loud boom inside of it.” Doctor Whooves says. I jump because I hadn’t seen him when I had first come up the stairs. He’s sitting in a chair, reading a book.
“How do you...”
He must know what I'm thinking, because he says “no clue. It just works that way. Don’t question it.”
I decide to take his advice on it, and I just try to ignore it for now. I walk up to Vinyl and tap on her headset. She jumps, and slides the headset down around her neck.
“Whaddya want?” she says irritably.
“Just felt like annoying you.” I say.
“Well, It worked. You got my attention, and disrupted me. Now I have to getcha back, pony code. I can tell you were going to ask me something. What was it?” She says, slightly less irritated.
“Just, how do you use a laptop?”
“Like this”
“No really?” The door downstairs opens, and I look at Vinyl, then at Whooves, wondering who it could be. They look like this is normal, so I decide to ignore it.
“Up her, Tavi” Vinyl shouts down to whoever it was downstairs.
“Alright. I’ll be up in a minute” says a high class sounding voice.
“Who is that?” I ask Vinyl.
“Oh, no one. Just Octavia getting home from a concert” she says nonchalantly. I hear hooves coming up the stairs, and then she appears at the top of the stair well. She’s a mare, With a light cream brown coat, a gray main, and steel blue eyes. Her mane is combed back in an old fashioned style. Her eyes instantly focus on me. Without looking away, she says with a hint of menace “And who might you're new friend be, Vinyl?”
“Oh no, not my friend. Whooves’ friend. He needed a place to crash for a while so I invited him to stay here. Problem?” Vinyl says off hand.
“Oh, just you know, the fact that theres a fucking stranger in the house, who is a friend of a pony we don’t really know. Just this little thing most of us have called caution. Ever heard of it?”
“Yeah, I had that a few years ago. But then I found dubstep, and so I threw out caution to make more room for dubstep up in my head” Vinyl says with a completely straight face. She looks at Octavia, daring her to argue.
"Really? So you just let huge stallions we not know in the house all the time? He's so big, he could probably take the three of us on by himself!"
"You forget the fact that I'm a Pegasus, not an earth pony like you and Whoovesie over there"
"Hey!" Whooves shouts in insult.
"Suck it" she says back, smiling. Whooves just looks at her wierd.
“Whatever. But if he becomes a problem, he gets out.”
“Oh, so now I’m just some random pony that you don’t even know?” Whooves says, while looking genuinely hurt.
“I’m sorry, no, thats not what I meant. It’s just that we don’t know this guy really well. I don’t even know his name. He looks familiar, but I can’t place it. And no offense, we’ve only known you for three years.” Octavia says with an apologetic look Whooves. I’m slightly confused by this exchange, for it seems to show that theres something going on between Whooves and Octavia.
“Well, I know him pretty well. His name Mr. Dash. Rainbow Dash’s father. Thats why he looks familiar.” Whooves says, defending me. I feel glad that Whooves is sticking up for me.
“I might not even be here for a while. It all depends on how things work out.” I say.
“Fine. Whatever. Just don’t mess with anything. And never, ever go in my room!” she snaps at me. After she says that, she gives me a look, then walks out of the room, into what I presume is her room.
“Sorry, bro. She don’t normally act like that. She just has to know whatever is going on before it happens.” Vinyl says.
“Ya, no problem. It could’ve gone worse.” I say. Like being stabbed by a controlling pony who hates strange ponies. But I keep this part to myself.
“So anyways, I just finished a new mix. Come here and check it out. Sounds pretty great” Vinyl says, changing the subject quickly. I walk on over by her laptop, and I’m greeted with a screen of confusing sliders, and waves, and a bunch of other things that make no sense to me.
“Put these on” Vinyl hands me her headphones. I reach up and over my head, slipping them over my ears. They’re still warm from her using them. I get them snug over my ears, and she says something that sounds like, Ready? I can't hear here, so I just say ‘play it’, but I can’t even hear my own voice. These must be high quality dj’ing headphones. She gives me a wicked smile, then clicks a few things on her computer and the music starts.
It starts with a simple violin opening, that quickly gives way to heavier electronic sounds. The two voices (the violin and the synths) seem to fight over control of the main baseline, with is extremely heavy and deep. All three leads quiet down, then altogether stop. I start to take them off, but vinyl vigorously shakes her head no. I slide them back up in time to catch one of the heaviest drops I’ve ever heard. The bass doesn't seem to diminish only getting louder and louder until it drowns out the synth and the violin. It pauses for a second, then drops a second time, so loud that it seems to blow my eardrums out. The violin and the synths return, this time in harmony, accompanied by a piano. It all builds into a bone shattering crescendo, then it all goes silent. I wait for a few measures, making sure its over, before taking off the headphones, and sliding it down around my neck.
It seems weirdly quiet in one of my ears, so I kind of paw at it with one of my hooves. I pull my hooves away, and out of the corner of my eye I can see it has blood on it. I shout, startled that my ear is bleeding. Its not a lot, and already I can hear my hearing returning.
“You all right?” Vinyl says. She and Whooves are looking at me worriedly. I look around, and I see that Octavia is walking back out of her room, saying “Vinyl, you made him bleed”
“I’m fine, it’s almost gone already. Anyways, thats a pretty cool song.”
“Thanks bro. Me and Tavi worked on it” Vinyl says.
“Don’t call me Tavi. How many time do I have to tell you?” Octavia says indignantly.
“You and Whooves over there are so
uptight about what I call you. You don’t mind, do you, Dashie?” Vinyl says first to Octavia, then to me. The fact that she called my dashie, my name for rainbow dash, feels weird. If anyone else would have called me that, I would’ve gotten upset at them, but I’m fine with Vinyl calling me that. In fact, her saying it causes an odd mix of emotions. I'm ok with it, butidecide to give her a nick name as well.
“Long as you don’t mind me calling you pon3 (prounonced 'pownie') from now on” I say jokingly.
She stops and thinks for a minute, and says “I like that name. Might use it more often.”
I laugh, then my fatigue washes over me. “ I’m kinda tired. Anywhere I can crash?” I ask.
“Uhh... theres a couch up in Whooves room. I doubt he’d mind sharing a room with you for a little while.” She looks at pointedly Whooves.
“Go ahead. Don’t need to twist my arm like that” he says.
“Thanks.” I say, Then walk up into the third floor, which is like a loft. I find the couch, and lay down. It's surprisingly soft.
I think back on what has happened in the last few hours. I left my home on earth permanently, became a pony, and now I’ve been accepted into this group.
I feel happy for the first time in years, feel like part of a group. Part of a, dare I say it, family. It feels good.
I lay on the couch, listening to Octavia, Whooves, and Vinyl talk about their days, with Vinyl’s dubstep flowing out of the speakers. Right now, it’s a synth and bass heavy sound, similar to the what I liked at home. I think that, But then I tell myself, this is my home now. This is where I belong.