Octavia sighed contentedly as she walked through the hallway of the mostly-empty dorm. Exams were a week in the past, and only a small number of students who were taking part in the academy’s summer programs remained on campus. For the first few days things had seemed lonely, but she had quickly gotten used to the peace and quiet. Not having to share a bathroom with dozens of other ponies was also a plus.
For a moment she didn’t realize that anything was amiss. She had walked into the room so many times to find Vinyl asleep on the couch that it wasn’t until she opened the fridge to get a drink that she remembered that they no longer shared the room.
“Vinyl, what are you doing here?” she asked, without bothering to even look up from the fridge.
“Hmuh?” Vinyl made a sniffing noise as she rolled off the couch onto the floor. “Oh, hey. About time you showed up. I’ve been waiting here all afternoon!”
“How did you even get in here?” Octavia asked, more irritated than shocked. “I thought they made you turn in your keys when you left.”
“I told the RA that I had forgotten something under the bed and she let me in.”
“Of course.” Octavia looked back in the fridge to see what damage her food stores had suffered. To her surprise the only thing missing from the fridge was a single root beer. The bag of corn puffs she had left on top of the fridge was nowhere to be seen, though the crumbs scattered in front of the couch were a clue. “How long did you say you were waiting?”
“I dunno, a couple of hours maybe. I kinda fell asleep.” She yawned. “I gotta say, your couch is way more comfortable than the bed on the tour bus. Not as lumpy.”
“You came back here just to sleep on my couch?” Octavia took a root beer out of the fridge. “I would’ve thought that you could afford your own couch to sleep on.”
“Well, yeah. I could afford like, a dozen couches.” Vinyl flicked the tip of her mane. “But that’s not why I dropped in.”
“Oh?” Octavia raised her eyebrow and waited for the explanation.
“I came to thank you for coming to my concert.”
Octavia blinked. “Huh?”
“What, you thought I wouldn’t notice you if you put on a scarf and some sunglasses?” Vinyl patted Octavia on the head, as if she were far more than just a few weeks older. “Here’s a tip. If everypony in the club is moshing, the one pony who isn’t kinda sticks out. I know it’s not really your thing, but if you want to blend in, it would’ve helped.”
“I… I didn’t realize that you noticed me.”
“Yeah, I tried to catch you after the show, but I never got the chance. And now that my tour’s done and I’m back in Canterlot, I figured I should stop in. I know you aren’t really into my style of music, at least not yet, so I… I guess I thought it was cool that you decided to show up anyway. So, thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” Octavia mumbled, still shocked that Vinyl had actually noticed. “I must admit that I enjoyed the show more than I thought I would.”
“Ha! That’s high praise coming from somepony who doesn’t like listening to music from less than a century ago!”
Octavia rolled her eyes, resisting the urge to list off all of the contemporary composers she knew.
“I guess this means that I owe you going to an aria or a concert-o, or whatever it’s called,” Vinyl continued, ignoring Octavia’s consternation. “Who knows, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Just don’t expect it to be any time soon. I’ve got too much stuff going on at the moment.”
“Too much? I thought you said that your tour was over.”
“Oh, it is. We wrapped up about two weeks ago. Now I’m back in the studio putting the full album together.”
“I see,” Octavia said. Normally she would’ve left the subject alone, but against all expectations, her curiosity was piqued. “And how is that going?” she asked.
“Awesome, obviously.” Vinyl paused. “Well, mostly awesome.”
“Only ‘mostly’?” She couldn’t remember the last time that Vinyl had admitted to being less than awesome.
“I mean, it’s been pretty cool so far, but the label wants the album out before summer ends, so it’s been a bit of a rush, especially since the producer keeps messing around with my mixes.”
“Ah, this must be the famed ‘executive machine’ I’ve heard so much about.”
Vinyl just shrugged. “Eh, it’s not that bad. I mean, it’s annoying, but it could be a whole lot worse. So far, the worst bit is that they want me to feature Sapphire Shores singing a verse on one of my tracks. I like her music and all, but she doesn’t know Draft Punk from Foal City. Don’t get me wrong, she’s great and all. We even had lunch yesterday. But it’s just not my style, you know?”
Octavia nodded. “I can see why that would be aggravating.”
“Yeah, it’s a bit of a pain.” Vinyl flopped back onto the couch, her posture indicating that she didn’t intend to move any time soon. “The album is going to be great regardless, but it would just be so much easier if everypony wasn’t bothering me about it.” She waggled her hooves in the air as she grumbled. “ ‘More bass!’ ‘Less bass!’ ‘This song is too long!’ ‘You should write a song about the Grand Galloping Gala!’ Ugh.”
“What’s wrong with a song about the Grand Galloping Gala?”
“Nothing, really. But I already know what I want on the album. I mean, I’ve been planning it in my head for years. The last thing I need is them telling me what to write about. Making a song about that is fine and all, but I can’t just come up with an awesome new song on command.” She was silent for a moment. Then she sat up. “Well, I can, it’s just that it wouldn’t be as awesome as the stuff I wanted to do to begin with. And my debut album needs to have all the most awesome songs.”
Octavia gently shoved Vinyl’s legs out of the way so that she could sit on the sofa. “You didn’t expect making an album for a major label to be easy, did you?” She couldn’t help but smirk a little.
“Well, no. Not easy easy.”
“Just easy for you?” Try as she might, Octavia couldn’t quite keep the snark out of her voice.
“I thought it would be easier than it ended up being,” Vinyl said carefully. “But it’s nothing that I can’t handle. It’ll just take a bit more work than I thought.”
“If you’re so busy, why did you wait around for me? Couldn’t you have just checked later to see if I was here, or left a note or something? Or did you just miss my couch that much?”
“I just needed a break, I guess,” Vinyl answered. “After the tour finished up, I thought I’d have a few days to relax a bit, but nope, I had to go right into the studio and get the ball rolling. When you weren’t here I figured it couldn’t hurt to just hang around and clear my head.”
“I see.” Octavia watched as Vinyl rolled over and wiggled as if she were trying to get settled. “I suppose that everyone needs time to relax, even superstars.”
“You could say that.” In the distance, the bells of the clock tower began to ring. Vinyl groaned. “I guess I should head back to the studio. If I’m not back soon they’ll probably give me a bunch of grief over being gone for so long.” She got to her hooves with lethargic slowness and shuffled towards the door. “I hope you don’t mind that I crashed here for a bit.”
“No. As a matter of fact it almost felt… nostalgic having you in the room again.”
Vinyl paused halfway into the hallway. Then she turned back to Octavia with a grin on her face. “You miss me, don’t you?”
Octavia scowled at her, but couldn’t help smiling at the same time. “Only a little.”
“I knew it! Thanks for letting me crash here, by the way. I really needed some space.”
“You’re welcome,” Octavia said. “To be honest, it was nice to see you again. Though next time you drop by, I would appreciate it if you let me know ahead of time.”
“Next time?” Even through the glasses, Vinyl’s eyes lit up. “You mean you don’t mind if I crash here again?”
“Listen, I don’t want you making a habit of it, but if you really do need to unwind, I suppose it wouldn’t kill me to let you borrow the couch.” She eyed the patch of crumbs in front of Vinyl. “Though I would appreciate it if you left my snacks alone. I’m sure that someone as successful as yourself can buy your own bag of barbeque corn puffs.”
“Point taken,” Vinyl said. “Besides, I prefer the hot and spicy ones anyway. Next time I come by I’ll pick up a bag of them. And a bag of barbeque puffs for you.”
“If I had known you would reimburse me for all the food you’ve eaten, I would’ve kept a tab,” Octavia said with a half-chuckle. “But I appreciate the gesture.”
“Maybe I can pay you back for all that other stuff with a tour of the studio. They don’t let just anypony in there, you know. It really makes the workstations at the Academy look barebones. It’s pretty sweet. I know you’re more about live performance than recording, but hey, it’s music, so I figured you’ve gotta appreciate it at least a little.”
“Perhaps if I have the time, I will take you up on that offer. But for the time being, I have had a long day and would prefer to do some relaxation of my own.”
“Say no more, I get the hint.” Vinyl trotted out the door and gave an exaggerated bow. “I’ll get out of your mane now. I really do need to get back to the studio anyway. The producer will have my tail if I take much longer. See you later.”
Octavia nodded. “I suppose I will. Hopefully next time you come by you won’t be having such a rough time with your album.”
Vinyl winked. “Thanks. And thanks again for coming to the concert. It really does mean a lot to me.”
“You’re welcome.”
Vinyl nodded, grinned, and trotted down the hall as if she were in a great hurry to get somewhere. Octavia watched as she vanished down the stairwell. Gratitude was the last thing that she had expected. Well, she had half expected a note of some kind, probably with one line of thanks and a dozen more of gloating. She had never thought that Vinyl would’ve taken the trouble to actually show up, much less sound sincerely grateful.
“Why would she be so happy about me being there?” she mumbled to herself as she closed the door. “And why on earth did I offer to let her come again? Though I suppose she really is working very hard...” As she closed her mouth, the dorm felt very quiet, and she felt very tired.
She went to the window, and could see Vinyl walking down the path away from the dorm. The unicorn didn’t seem to have the same bounce in her trot that she usually did. However hard she tried to hide it, everything was taking a toll on her. Octavia sighed and closed the curtains.
I wonder how long it will be before she decides she needs another break?