//------------------------------// // Vinyl Scratch // Story: Night Out // by Emerald Sky //------------------------------// Vinyl sat in the back room of her club. It was nearly time for her to start her set for the night, so she was busy browsing through her records. She had just finished a bunch of paperwork and taxes which needed paying and she really needy to let loose for the night, so she picked out a selection of more fast paced music for the night Once happy with the selection of music for the night she sat down on the sofa with a drink and relaxed. The door on the far side of the room opened up and a few ponies who would be playing after Vinyl entered. “Hey, you’re here a little later than I thought. Have trouble getting here?” Vinyl questioned. “Uh yeah sorry, we got delayed on the way in.” The stallion was hovering a box of records by him. “No problem, there is a practice room in the back if you want to use it, it’s a good way to warm up before going out there.” Vinyl said as she waved her hoof in the general direction of the room. “Thanks that would probably be a good idea, I haven’t performed for a club before.” The light blue unicorn admitted. “Don’t worry about it, I’m sure you’ll do great. The first times the worst but once you get out there and into it I’m sure you’ll have fun.” Vinyl levitated over her cup of coffee and took a sip. The blue unicorn rushed past the couch and into the practice room, gently shutting the door behind him. “As for you guys.” Vinyl pointed a hoof at them. “Just relax until he is out of there and then you can go in if you need to. Other than that, make sure that you’re ready to go out there when needed and make sure you have a few extra songs in case somepony isn’t ready yet.” Vinyl stood up and headed for her office, she wasn’t in the mood to talk to them at the moment. She entered her office and sat down in her chair and sighed. Even though Vinyl had everything she wanted, her dream was complete and she already had an album in the works she still felt empty. She felt as if she should feel like she was on top of the world yet she felt hollow despite accomplishing more than she had dreamed of, there was definitely something missing, but she couldn’t place her hoof on it. She leaned over her desk and grabbed the clock, she set the alarm to go off in half an hour so that she wouldn’t be late to perform. While she had the time, she thought that she would work on some of the final songs of her album so she could get it out soon. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Half an hour later and with not much progress on her album the alarm went off signaling that Vinyl should make her way back down to the club. She got up out of her chair and left the office, making sure to lock it before she headed down. She went down into the back room where the group of DJ’s were conversing about what tracks they would be playing and about how many times they had performed. Vinyl walked past them and grabbed her box of records for the night and took them out front. As she left the door she saw Neon Lights stepping down from the podium. “Hey Neon, how’s the crowd tonight?” “They’re great Vinyl, I got them real pumped up for ya! This club of yours is becoming a lot more popular each night. Soon this place will be packed and you’ll have to start denying ponies entry!” “Glad to hear it, come by my office sometime tomorrow to collect your pay, anytime after noon should be fine. You wanna play here again tomorrow? Looks like they really liked ya out there.” Vinyl said as she looked out to the dance floor. “Actually I’m playing at a different club tomorrow, how about we make a deal? I’ll play at your club every other night?” “Yeah and what do I get in return for letting you play at my club every other night?” Vinyl said with a smirk. “Well the nights when I’m playing at different clubs I can advertise yours and your album that you will be releasing. How does that sound?” “Not a bad deal to be honest... but would clubs even allow advertising of others? I certainly wouldn’t want somepony advertising another club here so they went there instead of here.” “Hm... you make a point. Well, if they DO allow me to advertise, do we have a deal?” “Of course.” Vinyl said with a smile. “Awesome! I’ll see ya later Vinyl!” he said as he went into the back room. Vinyl walked up to the podium and put her first two records onto the turntable, she slowly faded the current intermission music down and raised the volume of her records. “Hello everypony!!” Vinyl shouted to the crowd. “Let me put on some real music for ya!” The crowd cheered in response. Soon the writhing mass of ponies below began to grow as more and more ponies swarmed in to dance. If there was one thing Vinyl knew more than music, it was how to manipulate the crowd. Vinyl scanned the crowd to judge how well she was doing and it seemed like everypony was having a great time and enjoying her music. Playing music or even just listening to it always made Vinyl feel a bit more relaxed and she certainly needed to feel a bit more relaxed recently. A lot had been on her mind and tonight was just what she needed. She continued to scan the crowd once more, but then Vinyl saw something that took her breath away. Not something, somepony! She was an elegant mare with a long silky charcoal mane, she wore a pink bow tie. The DJ wondered how she didn’t see this mare before since she stood out from the rest of the ponies in the club. She was more elegant had more class plus she was far more beautiful than anything she had seen before. Vinyl snapped her eyes away, doing her best not to get distracted by this mare which had her entranced, but no matter how hard she tried she couldn’t do it, her eyes kept getting drawn to her. She seemed so out of place in a club like this. Vinyl started making some mistakes but luckily nopony had noticed, they were all either too drunk or having too much of a good time by now. Vinyl looked away from the crowd and focused on her turn table, adjusting the levels of the music and increasing the pounding bass more so than it was. The white unicorn took another look down into the crowd and towards the grey earth pony that had her so entranced. When she looked down she gazed directly at said earth pony who was also looking straight at her. Vinyl turned a brilliant shade of red when she realized that she got caught staring. She almost face hoofed when she realised that she was wearing her sunglasses, so there was no way that that mare could have told that she was staring at her. The DJ noticed that this song was coming to an end and that it was the end of her set. She prepared the transmission music so that when the current song ended she could leave the podium for the rookie to take over. Vinyl scanned the crowd once more and noticed that the bow tied mare had left, Vinyl felt a little disappointed until she spotted her sitting at a table on the far side of the room. The song that was being currently played ended and the DJ collected her records and left the stage, as she walked down the stairs she saw the rookie DJ walk out from the back room. “Hey good luck, I’m sure you’ll do great.” Vinyl said as he approached. “Th-thanks.” The stallion nervously stuttered before walking off to start his set. The white unicorn walked into her back room and hurriedly put down her records and then rushed back out towards the bar. “Hi Snowy Skies, how’s everything going up front?” Vinyl asked the bar mare. “Oh hi Vinyl Scratch. Everything is going great out here. We get a lot more ponies buying drinks when you play faster paced music. did you just finish your set?” Questioned the bar mare. “Yeah I just finished my set, it’s that rookies turn to take over now, he said it’s his first time performing for a club so he’s a little nervous. Hopefully he doesn’t mess up since the first night can kinda make or break ya.” “So what do you want to drink? The usual?” “Actually no, can I have two whiskey sours?” The DJ asked checking back over to see if the mare with the bow tie was still sitting at her table. “Two? Ah I see, got your eyes on that cute mare with the bow tie.” The bar mare said looking over Vinyls shoulder to where she was staring before walking off and making her drinks. Vinyl just stood there staring over at the table and the mare who sat there. This was the first time Vinyl had been nervous in a long time. Usually she was confident, but there was something about that mare that gave her butterflies in her stomach and a thundering heart beat. Snowy Skies returned with her drinks and Vinyl took them in her magical grip. She slowly made her way across the club to the table where the mare was sitting, thats when Vinyl suddenly found herself unable to speak, this was a first. ‘What the hay?! I never normally freeze up around mares.’ “Oh it’s you!” The beautiful mare said with a smile, slightly surprising Vinyl. “Is this seat taken?” Vinyl asked nervously pawing at the floor. “No, it isn’t.” The charcoal maned mare said gesturing to take a seat next to her. Vinyl Scratch took a seat next to the mare and placed their drinks on the table. “M-my name’s Vinyl Scratch by the way. I saw you dancing and I thought I would come talk to you after I had finished my set.” Vinyl said as she felt her face lighting up like a hearths warming eve tree. ‘Seriously a stutter?! Good start Vinyl.’ “Vinyl Scratch? Your name suits your talent it seems. My name Is Octavia. I noticed you looking at me from the podium, at first I thought I was just imagining it.” Octavia said as she sipped on her drink. “Well if you don’t mind me saying, you’re not the typical pony we get in these clubs, so you kinda stand out from the rest of the crowd.” “I suppose I do, and I’m surprised that you can see anything in here with those glasses on. By the way I like your music, it’s a lot better than most the stuff I hear being played in the other clubs. How long have you been into making music?” Octavia questioned. Vinyl felt her face growing even hotter than it had before, which she didn’t think was even possible. “Thanks, well I first started getting into music from a young age but I only got into it seriously a couple years ago. I’m actually working on an album right now which should be released soon. So Tavi If you don’t mind me asking what’s up with the bow tie?” Vinyl gestured to the bow tie that was around Octavias neck. “Well when I was a little filly I had an audition I had to go to, so my mother took me shopping. I needed something formal but nothing too fancy. We were browsing this store and when I saw this bow tie I thought it was the perfect thing! At first I just wore it to auditions, but one day I just started wearing it all the time.” “Auditions and concerts? You’re a musician too!?” Vinyl said a little more excitedly than she had wanted to. “Yes I play the cello for the Manehattan orchestra. I actually came here to unwind from performing, I usually go to a club after a big performance so that I can release any stress and tension from my body.” ‘Wow that’s impressive for a mare of her age, I heard that most ponies don’t even get into those orchestras until their early thirties.’ “Wow, you play for the orchestra? You must be talented to be able to get in at your age. I understand what you mean. Sometimes I just listen to music to unwind, can’t say I’ve listened to much classical music before though.” Vinyl said with a grin plastered on her face. “Do you play at this club often?” “Actually I own this place. I saved up enough bits from performing in clubs around Manehattan, saw this place was going cheap so I bought it and converted it into a club. Been going steady since then.” Vinyl said taking pride in this fact. “Wow, that’s impressive. Most ponies don’t think about buying a club until later on after they have retired, I’ve got to say this is probably the best club I’ve been to so far, the atmosphere here is great.” Vinyl slowly moved her hoof above the table and slid it over on top of Octavias hoof, which resulted in both mares blushing. Vinyl watched as Octavia raised her hoof to her face and slowly removed her sunglasses, both mares just stared into each others eyes for a while until Vinyl noticed Octavias gaze lowering to her lips. Vinyl watched as Octavia slowly leant in, her heart was racing and the butterflies in her stomach grew tenfold, but they disappeared as soon as Octavias lips came into contact with Vinyls. Time seemed to stand still as the two musicians passionately embraced, Vinyl raised her hoof and ran it through Octavias silk smooth charcoal mane, Vinyl was suddenly pulled closer into the embrace causing vinyl to let out a small ‘Eep’ of surprise. The two mares broke the embrace and just sat there staring into each others eyes, no words needed to be spoken. Vinyl no longer felt empty, she no longer felt as if something was missing, because she now knew what was missing and she was right in front of her eyes.