Music is Magic
Story 5
Chapter 7: You Screwed Up
By: SleeplessScribe
The well groomed mare looked from me to Vinyl, alternating for a few moments. “I’m sure it’s nothing to cry over, though, right?”
I couldn’t blame Rarity for her lack of knowledge, seeing as how she hadn’t been in our little trio all her life, though it wouldn’t hurt to explain. “My cousin has changed, Rarity. We both exaggerate and tell everyone we all slept in adjacent hospital beds when we were born, but it really feels like we’ve known each other for that long. We know who he is, dear Rarity, and the Beat that just walked out the door is not the same one we know and love.”
Hearing her speak was heartbreaking. The poor unicorn sounded so… hurt. “Maybe I am overreacting… but there’s a big ‘what if’ here. Rarity, if Beat is really sacrificing who he is for fame… how long will it be before he drops Tavi? How long will it be before he drops me?”
She raised her hoof to her mouth and let out a small gasp, though she didn’t actually seem that worried. “Oh, that’s silly. He loves you, he’d never do that!”
I looked back to her again, slowly shaking my head. “That’s just it, Rarity. He’s so different now, we actually don’t know that he wouldn’t do that anymore.” My gaze now turned to the door he had just left through, my thoughts now both on my cousin and his lover.
Rarity decided to join in my embrace, gently rubbing the brokenhearted mare’s back. “I see… then it’s no wonder you’re so shaken up by this.”
After a nod, I helped my friend up and headed for the door. “I’m going to take her home, take care of yourself, dear.”
Vinyl was still sniffling on the way back to her house, and she needed to lean on me for support. “Tavi… am I really overreacting?”
It was a difficult question to answer, but given how little we knew this new Beat, I really couldn’t help but think she was being reasonable. “No, hun. If you ask me, you have very good reason to be afraid. Come on, let’s get you home and hopefully calmed down.”
She wiped her eyes again, taking a deep breath. “I love him, Tavi. I really don’t want this to be true.”
“I know, sweetie, I know.” To be blunt, I loved Vinyl, and I loved Beat. Of course, my history with the mare left a little more than sisterly love in me, but they both were like family, and seeing them happy together lifted me up almost as much as snuggling up with Percy.
Trading words with my cousin next time I saw him was a must, but for now getting Vinyl calmed down and doing something other than worrying was my goal. She managed to stop crying and get into bed, though she did ask for some time alone. I had to question if that was really the best thing for her in my head, though I didn’t dare actually argue with her.
Unfortunately I had no idea where Beat actually was. I heard White Noise telling him to come to where they were keeping the tour bus, but that didn’t mean he’d still be there. The good thing was that all my years in Ponyville gave me a very good memory of the town, and very few changes to the actual layout had been made.
At least that’s what I thought until a thirty minute search turned up nothing. Eventually I decided that he either went back to Vinyl’s or to Rarity’s again, so I checked at the fashion boutique first. He wasn’t there, though I was informed that he just finished his lesson with Sweetie. They couldn’t go for an hour because, while none of her attempts were successful, the little filly came close to pulling off a simple sound spell a few times, and was exhausted. Hearing that perked me up a little, but not enough to accept that I hadn’t yet found my cousin.
I made a beeline for Vinyl’s place, hoping with every fiber of my being that he was there. Sure enough, he was, though he was lying on the couch with quite the empty stare. He did turn to me when I sat in the chair across from him, but it took a little bit for him to say anything.
“Via, am I doing something wrong? Scratch doesn’t even want to talk to me right now.”
Okay, so he really was clueless. “Well honestly, Beat, I can’t blame her after some of the stuff you’ve been doing. You have to admit, it’s not like you.”
My cousin tilted his head, cocking his brow as he turned on his side to face me. “Not like me? What’cha talkin’ ‘bout, Via?”
Poor, poor Beat. I said earlier that we females didn’t come with instructions, but I at least had to teach how to argue without sounding like an idiot. “Come on, cousin! Letting a pony you can’t stand interrupt your date, breaking a promise and basically standing Vinyl up, allowing someone to pull you away from something as important to you as teaching Sweetie Belle, these are things the Beat from three years ago would have said to that.”
I cleared my throat, preparing for probably the most unsophisticated thing I’d ever say. “’Fuck your shit, I got more important things to do!’ That is exactly what the Beat from three years ago would have said.”
He let out a soft chuckle despite the gravity of the situation. “That sounds like something I would say.”
I, however, shot him a glare. “Not anymore it does. If you haven’t noticed, you’ve been presented with all of those things and did the exact opposite.”
Beat rolled his eyes at me, which was not a good sign. If he thought I was trying to lecture him, then this was going to end very, very poorly. My cousin moved himself into a sitting position. He wasn’t exactly glaring, but he most definitely didn’t look pleased.
“I’m just doing what I think is best, Via. What’s gotten your tail in a twist?”
Stomping my hoof was something I found very hard to resist. “Oh, so walking out on your mare and making her cry because she’s afraid that you’ve changed so much you’re not even Beat Tempo anymore is the best thing, Beat? I had hoped that my temper wouldn’t get the best of me in this conversation, but that right there really makes me angry. I can understand if maybe you didn’t realize that Vinyl actually did have a problem with all of this, but you thinking that’s better than prioritizing your girlfriend? That’s just sad.”
Now he was glaring. “Maybe in your world where everything’s high class or utter shit. I’m not like you, Octavia, so don’t try and hold my actions to your standards. It’s true, I could’ve done things a little different, but I’m still me, just famous and rich, now!”
“Beat! Look at you, yelling at me when I’m just trying to help! If you really think you’re still the same pony you used to be, I’m not sure I even want you around Vinyl. I suggest you leave and do a lot of thinking, cousin. I love you, but I love Vinyl too, and I don’t want to see you hurt her, even if you don’t mean to.”
He jumped up at my comment, stalking toward me. “I would never hurt her, Via, and it hurts that you would even imply that!”
“Beat. Leave.”
“Make me.”
Neither of us realized what happened until he was already on the ground. Nopony, including myself, could’ve seen me ever getting angry enough to strike someone else, but there’s a first time for everything. Beat held his hoof to his cheek, standing up without a word and walking out. It really hurt to do that to him, but I meant what I said. As I thought about it, I feared that I may have driven a wedge between my two favorite ponies, but as far as I was concerned, the pony I just slapped wasn’t Beat Tempo.
Despite this, I wanted them together. As I said before, seeing them so happy made me happy, so I guess I was operating on the “everything gets worse before it gets better” principal. The only think that scared me now was my cousin screwing up so bad even a revelation couldn’t fix his relationship with Vinyl.
Speaking of, the sweet mare, though a mess, made her way out of her room with one hoof under her eye. “Tavi? Is everything alright?”
I wanted to nod, but that would, admittedly, have been a little white lie. “Things will be alright… I hope.”
She bit her bottom lip a little, turning her gaze to the door. “That doesn’t make me feel better at all.”
“I know. Is there anything you’d like to do that you think would?”
It took a few moments, but she eventually gave me a nod. “I’d like to have a word with White Noise himself.”
* * *
To be completely honest, I was a little scared to talk to Beat’s manager. However, it’s what Vinyl wanted to do, so I was in no place to argue with her. Beat wasn’t at the tour bus like we thought he’d be, so it was just us and the big guy as he answered the door.
“Vinyl Scratch! Hello, baby! Who’s the lovely lady here?” He raised his brow and grinned at me, though something about the gesture told me he wasn’t actually hitting on me.
I held my hoof out to him, trying to return a smile. “My name is Octavia. I’m sure my cousin has mentioned me at least once?”
He raised his head and let out a loud “Oh” accompanied by a laugh. “You’re that Octavia! I’ve got a lot to thank you for, baby.”
Now it was my turn to raise a brow. “Me? What could you possibly owe to me?”
The big stallion patted both our shoulders. “You’re the whole reason Beat is even doing what he does. He goes on and on about wanting to be anything but what you are.”
I drew back a little bit, blinking at his words. “I’m not sure if I should be flattered or offended.”
All White did was shrug. “Anyways, what’d you need me for? Neither of you look very happy.”
I opened my mouth, but Vinyl stepped in front of me. The more I thought about it, the worse of an idea it seemed like to let her actually do this. White Noise was right, Vinyl wasn’t happy, and confronting someone when angry or upset was never a good thing. Fortunately, she was at least managing to keep her voice at a decent tone.
“You know why we’re here. Look, bud, you’ve been with Beat for the least three years when we haven’t. What’s gotten into him?”
He didn’t really give any sort of indicator that he was even listening, and neither of us even knew he was until we were both pulled into the tour bus. White Noise maintained his silence until we both were seated on rather plush, comfy cushions and he seated himself in front of us.
The stallion held his front hooves together and kind of rocked them forward every so often. “I know exactly what you mean. He’s losing touch with himself, and you ain’t the only ones worried about it. The problem is that a manager can’t do as much as you think. I make sure his albums get to stores and I make sure he gets to appointments on time. Outside of that, all I can really do is make suggestions. He’s an adult, so I can’t force him to do much of anything.”
He had a point, but something told me he didn’t truly know how serious this was. “It’s not so much about his money and fame as it is what he’ll do to get more. He’s shown Vinyl that he’s willing to put up with one of his least favorite ponies, interrupt a date with his most favorite pony, break a promise that should’ve been easy to keep, and even let himself get pulled away from giving lessons to a budding singer. Both of us are afraid it’s only a matter of time until he’ll forget our names for a few bits.”
His forelegs crossed as he gave a nod. “Octavia, I take pride in the fact that I’m one of the few celebrities that still remembers their roots. Even in my prime rapping days, I never forgot to send my mom letters and go visit pop’s grave. Still remembered all my old friends and very rarely went against my own personal code. I know how hard it can be sometimes, but one thing I always try to do as a manager is make my stars stick to their own code, too. I’ll admit, I might be to blame a little, too, since I always make Beat second guess. Like a few days ago when I came and asked him about that party he played at? He told me a week ago that day that he didn’t do free shows, but I should’ve just let him get away with performing here free.”
So, we established that White Noise couldn’t make him do anything, but my friend made it clear she wasn’t going to just accept that. “Isn’t there anything you can do to at least make Beat think about this?”
After a few chin taps he finally had a good answer. “I can talk to him about it, maybe make some… persuasive suggestions, but I can’t outright tell him not to do something. Well, I could, but that would probably make him less likely to listen. Anyways, I’ll see what I can do.”
We both gave him a nod, standing and taking our leave. “Thank you, White Noise. This really means a lot to us.”
He gave us a nod and waved as we opened the door. “Yeah, for sure. Honestly, I ain’t got a problem letting him go if it gets too bad.”
Vinyl was the first to go considering I had one more comment. “You know, I really hope it doesn’t come to that, but honestly, it wouldn’t worry me but so much if it did.”
When we got back to my friend’s home, there was a note on the door from my cousin. Apparently he’d found out who to speak to in order to organize the talent show, and it would be occurring in two days. Vinyl let out quite the nasty scoff when we read the part about the two bits per ticket going towards funding his next tour, but decided we would at least go see it to see how Sweetie did.
There were going to be two rehearsals: one tomorrow morning and the other tomorrow night. Beat would be staying with Rarity and her sister tonight to give Vinyl some space and time to think, so I decided I’d stay with her. Neither of us really had anything we necessarily wanted to do, and it was getting late, so we decided to just go to bed. A few extra hours of sleep would do us both some good.
* * *
It always astounded me how Vinyl could consider herself “ready” just by hopping out of bed, showering, eating, and brushing her teeth. It took me at least fifteen minutes to get myself ready with all the preparation I go through. The rehearsal was supposed to be at nine o’ clock, leaving us with a few minutes to spare by the time I was actually ready to leave.
We were told there was a stage set up just outside Cheerilee’s school, and there were quite a few young ones their practicing their acts. Sweetie was there too, and she seemed a lot more excited than I thought she’d be. When we went up to see her, she was trying to couple her singing with magic again. It was actually a little exciting to watch her; with each attempt, she managed to make herself a little louder. It wasn’t exactly a microphone or amplifier substitute, but Vinyl, Rarity, and I all agreed that if she continued like this, she’d definitely be ready to sing by tomorrow night.
The one thing that all of us noticed was that Beat wasn’t there. We asked both Rarity and Sweetie about it and were told that he got tied up with something else, causing my friend to roll her eyes.
“Why does that not surprise me?” It didn’t surprise any of us. Sweetie assured us that she was alright with it, since her apparently “super duper” promised that even if he couldn’t make this rehearsal, he’d be here tonight and tomorrow night. Regardless, we decided to go looking for him.
As we wandered around, we began to hear noises around the local reservoir. With piqued curiosity, we decided to take a look… and very, very soon began to regret it. A large area of the land was covered by ponies, cameras, and microphones with quite a bit of sand spread over the grass. Two ponies, a mare and a stallion, had their backs to the cameras and were leaning on each other, and it wasn’t long before the both of us heard a familiar, and at the time very infuriating song.
“La da da da da,
You are the best friend I've ever had,
La da da da da,
When I'm with you, I could never be sad,
You're like a ray of li-“
“Beat fucking Tempo, how fucking dare you?” I had no time to react before Vinyl was already on him, half crying and half shouting. “How fucking dare you, Beat?”
My cousin jumped up and turned to face her, falling off the stool he’d been sitting on. “V-Vinyl! What’s wrong, babe?”
She was basically screaming as she spoke, tear streaks staining her cheeks. “You said yourself that that song was ours! It is our song, Beat, the first one you ever wrote about me! You’re using what’s basically our relationship on paper for what? A fucking movie promo? That is the last straw, Beat! I really, really didn’t want to think you had changed this much, but you have! You’re not the Beat Tempo I gave my heart and my body to! You’re not even Beat Tempo at all! We are over!
Beat reached out and opened his mouth, but she was already gone. Her tears and anger were much more reasonable now, and while my priority should have been catching up to her and trying to calm her down, making my disappointment apparent to the unicorn before was instead.
He was on his knees, his mouth agape and his eyes wide as he just stared off into space in the direction his now ex-girlfriend ran off to. “Scratch….” Beat held his hoof up for just a moment before it fell back to the ground. “She… she’s gone.”
“Well I hope you’re proud of yourself. In three days you’ve managed to destroy your best friend and break her heart. Do you see what I mean now, cousin? You are not who you were, and if I were you, I’d stop myself right now and turn around before it’s too late. You’re nearing the end of the road… but there’s still time.”
The fact that Beat was at least showing remorse at his loss did indeed mean that not all was lost. Not only that, but this face was further enforced by his next words.
“Via… what have I done? What the hell have I become?”
Now tears began to form in his eyes, and while I probably shouldn’t have been, I was very happy to see them. It sounds awful, but all of this was telling me my cousin wasn’t too far gone, and with a little pushing, Vinyl would have the Beat Tempo she loved so much.
I got down on my knees now, patting his shoulder. “You’ve become famous. Beat, stop letting this be who you are. Look, I need to get back to Vinyl, but maybe now you realize what you had now that it’s gone. It’s not too late to get it back, sweetheart.”
Looking at him now actually made me feel like I was looking at my cousin. All of this was very odd to me, but seeing Beat broken by a simple proclamation helped me see him once again as Beat and not just some celebrity.
The camera crew were all glaring at us as the director walked over. “Hey, hey, hey! We have a commercial to shoot, can’t this wait? If not, you’d better be here later!”
He got up and walked off without a word, though I caught up with him for just a moment for one last word. “Please, Beat, do the right thing.”
He said nothing, but I didn’t have time to wait around on him. I rushed back to Vinyl’s house only to find the mare face down and bawling on her couch. It really was painful just to look at her like this, but she needed me.
She didn’t even look at me as I rubbed her back. “Why, Tavi? Why the fuck did this have to happen? I really thought Beat and I were meant for each other…. He broke his promise, my hymen, and my heart. I… I don’t even know what to do, now.”
Alright, that second part I didn’t really need to hear, but that did make the situation a little more awkward. The fact that they had already had sex kind of made me more adamant about helping them repair their relationship. My goal was at least getting my friend out of her funk, so I tried taking her to different places to get her mind off of things, and while she seemed to calm down, she never showed any signs of cheering up.
Before we knew it, the sun was starting to go down. I was surprised at both how fast we had spent at least 9 or 10 hours, though I did take her to Canterlot and Vanhoover as well, but also at the fact that we saw no signs of my cousin since this morning. Vinyl noticed it, too, and gave a small pout.
“You asked me to give him a chance at lunch. Well, Tavi, if he really lets himself break a ‘super duper’ promise, I am absolutely done with him. If he screws this up, it’s gonna take a miracle to convince me he can change again.”
Well, that was that. My only hope now was that Beat didn’t decide to go through with doing that promo. If he did, it was all over. We took a few minutes to rest and grab some dinner, but after that was done with, we made our way over to the school. All the participants of the talent show were here, but I bit my bottom lip when I noticed a distinct lack of loudmouthed, glasses-and-purple-beanie-wearing unicorn.
My friend didn’t even say anything. She simply took a seat, and as much as I wanted to speak, I decided against it. It was just our luck that pretty much every other act came up before Sweetie, and neither of us could focus on the fillies and colts performing. Even as it was time for the little unicorn to come up and sign, there was no sign of my cousin.
We were also kind of curious as to where exactly she was, until Rarity kind of nudged her out there. Sweetie scanned the faces before the stage; there weren’t but maybe three or four audience members, not counting us, and we both exchanged whispers about hoping that this tiny crowd wasn’t enough to scare her. Sweetie turned to her sister again with a worried expression, most likely due to the fact that my cousin still wasn’t here.
However, after a few encouraging nods from both Rarity and us, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Everypony else’s eyes widened as they watched the small horn begin to glow. As Sweetie opened her mouth, a faint glow passed over the entire schoolyard, carrying her voice everywhere it reached so it sounded like you were right in front of her no matter how far you actually were.
The song sounded beautiful, but I’m sure I wasn’t the only one paying more attention to Sweetie’s horn than her words. Her song wasn’t that long, only having two verses and a short chorus between the two and after the second, but a loud clapping from Vinyl, Rarity, myself, Cheerilee, who I then recognized to be Lyra and Bon Bon, and the other two spectators that I didn’t recognize.
Sweetie’s eyes had been closed throughout the duration of her singing, but once she opened them her older sister drew attention to her flank. Upon her white coat was stamped a microphone with what looked like two pink sets of sound waves forming the shape of a heart behind it.
The filly immediately screamed out in pure joy, jumping around as if she had pogo sticks implanted in her legs. “I got it! I got it! I finally, finally got my cutie mark! Oh my gosh, can you believe this? This is the bestest day of my life! I got my cutie mark!”
“I’m here! What did I miss?” My cousin’s timing couldn’t have been worse.
As he approached us, all we did was move out of his way and point to Sweetie. “You missed your protégé earning her cutie mark. I hope you’re proud of yourself, Beat.”
His eyes widened at both this amazing fact and at Vinyl walking off without a word. He turned to me, but all I had for him was an icy glare. “You screwed up big time, cousin.”