Octavia gazed out the window as she ran through her final cello exercise for the day. The view of the campus never got old, though on some days, like today, it was a bit on the dreary side. For the first time this year, it was cold enough that she had to keep the window closed. In the distance, she could see weather pegasi starting to roll in some rainclouds.
Below the window, ponies were hurrying to and fro between the buildings, trying to minimize the time they spent in the chilly air. Along the road in front of the dorm, she could see a few ponies stumbling along, shouting to each other over the hiss of the wind. Brown leaves were being peeled from the tree in front of the dorm, revealing the empty nest of some birds who had already flown south and wouldn’t be back until winter had passed. She sighed. What a lousy day.
The door creaked open behind her.
She kept playing, finishing out the last few bars of the piece. It was a slow piece of music and somewhat melancholy, appropriate for the dreariness outside. At least somepony was there to hear it.
She smiled and put down the bow. She didn’t even need to turn around. There was only one pony who it could possibly be.
“What’s up, Vinyl?” she asked as she stared out the window into the gray sky.
“Hello, Octavia,” Vinyl answered. “I just came by to grab a snack before my next class starts.” Octavia heard Vinyl rummaging around in a cabinet. “Ah crap, I could’ve sworn I still had some oat chips in here. Guess I’ll have to grab something out of a vending machine.”
“You can have some of mine,” Octavia said as she began the process of putting her cello back into its case. “Grab a root beer while you’re at it.”
The fridge door squeaked. “You sure? There’s only one left in here.”
“I’m going shopping again tomorrow,” Octavia answered as she closed the clips on the instrument case and carefully stowed it in the corner. “I was going to pick up some more anyway.”
“Thanks.” Vinyl popped the top and took a swig. “Oh, while I’m here, I thought you might want this.” She held out an envelope with only one of the corners bent over. Presumably it hadn’t been in Vinyl’s saddlebags for very long.
“What’s that?” Octavia said as she took it.
Vinyl grinned. “One of your royalty checks.”
“Of course.” Octavia opened the letter and chuckled. “Four bits.”
“I know, I know, it’s not going to exactly buy you a dozen cellos or anything, but it’s something, right?”
“I do need some more rosin. Or perhaps I’ll use it to buy more snacks.” She put it on her desk. “Speaking of which, how is your new song coming along? The one you were making out of the recording from my violin practice?”
“It’s coming along alright,” Vinyl answered. “I have all the tracks recorded, but I’ve barely done any of the mixing. I would’ve had it done, but I have a big paper due Monday, so I had to put that on the back burner for the time being. And I’ve got a gig on Friday that I wanted to debut that song at, too. It’s gonna be a long week.”
Octavia snorted. “I’m sure you’ll be fine. You’ve been through worse.”
“You know it.” Vinyl nodded. “As long as I don’t get hit with musician’s block or whatever, it should be fine. Besides, I already have the cover for it done. Look!” She rummaged in her saddlebag for a moment and withdrew a napkin that seemed to be colored purely with highlighter. “Isn’t it sweet!? I drew it during my Griffon History class. The professor was going off on one of his tangents about his ‘culinary tour’ through the Griffon lands again. I’ve heard that whole spiel like four times already, so I didn’t miss much.”
“I see,” Octavia mumbled as she examined the napkin. She wasn’t exactly sure what she was looking at.
“You like it?”
“It’s very… bright?”
“You’re holding it upside down.” Vinyl grabbed the napkin and flipped it over. It still didn’t really look like anything. Maybe modern art. “I mean, I need to get it smoothed out a bit.”
“That is true,” Octavia said. She handed the napkin back to Vinyl. Just looking at it was giving her a headache.
“I can’t wait until it all comes together.” Vinyl was smiling so widely that her voice squeaked. “Now that I know what I’m doing, this new EP is going to be the greatest thing to hit the Canterlot electronica scene in years!”
“Vinyl…” Octavia’s voice was stern.
“I know, I know.” Vinyl rolled her eyes. “I’m getting ahead of myself again. But come on, you’re the one who told me that all the crap I went through with that last album would only make the next one better, right?”
“That is true.”
“Besides, this time I know what’s coming. I know just how hard it’s gonna be, and how much it’s gonna take out of me. Besides, this time I’m sticking to the smaller, local labels. I’ll end up back on top, obviously, but this time I’m gonna work my way up to that.”
“It’s good to see you have some perspective.”
“Oh, don’t start up with that again,” Vinyl said. “We both know I got the skill for it. This time I won’t bite off more than I can chew.”
“Have you heard back from any of the labels yet?” Octavia took a seat on the sofa.
“Not officially, no. It’s not like I’ve submitted the finalized versions of any music yet anyway. I just sent out a few demos.” She dumped her saddlebag on the floor and sat on the edge of Octavia’s bed. “It’s looking pretty good though. That album I put out this summer might not’ve been as good as I wanted, but at least it got me some name recognition. They know I can make music, I just have to convince them that my good stuff isn’t just a fluke.” She flicked the tip of her mane. “Which won’t be a problem.”
“If you can find the time, anyway.”
“Well, yeah. But I’ll get it done. After almost killing myself trying to finish that, suddenly scrambling to write a ten-page paper at the last minute doesn’t seem so bad.”
“It would be even easier if you wouldn’t wait until the last minute,” Octavia said with a smirk.
“Pfft. Listen, you talked me into coming back to catch up on my classes, but I’m not that into all this academic stuff. Especially not the stuff that doesn’t really have to do with music anyway. At least the theory classes are useful.”
“I’m just saying, it would be easier to get some of it out of the way so it won’t be hanging over your head while you’re trying to compose.”
“Eh, maybe.” Vinyl shrugged. “It’s kind of hard to do that when I have to get ready for those weekend gigs. Gotta prove to everypony that I can still draw in the crowds, you know?”
“And how is that going?”
“Pretty good, I guess. Lots of ponies were happy to see me doing small venues again where they don’t have to pay their left legs to get in. Then again, I have to deal with all of those ‘fans’ who are all angry that I dared to try and find a wider audience.”
“They think you sold out?”
“Yeah. And honestly, they’re not totally wrong. I mean, I did end up changing things because the label wanted me to.” She sighed and looked down at the floor. “I should’ve known something like that would happen when I first signed on. Ugh. I thought everything I came up with would be so great that they wouldn’t bother trying to make me change anything. And yeah, I already know, you could’ve told me that.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Octavia said, a grin plastered across her face.
“Riiiiight,” Vinyl answered, clearly not buying it. “Well, this time things are gonna be different. I’ll still get to the top, obviously. But this time I’m not gonna almost kill myself getting there.” There was a pause. “Hopefully. I’ll get you a demo copy as soon as I can get it to sound halfway decent.”
“I look forward to hearing it. I’m curious to see what you did with my recordings. Maybe when you finally release the song I’ll get another four bits.”
“Hopefully it’ll be a little more next time,” Vinyl said with a snicker. “Just don’t get your expectations so high. I learned the hard way that they can’t all be winners the first time around. Got to work the kinks out, you know.”
Octavia nodded. “I know, but still, even if it isn’t perfect, I think I’ll enjoy it.”
“Good to know you’re still a fan at least. Anyway, I gotta get to class now. Thanks for the food.”
“You’re” —the door slammed behind Vinyl as she rushed into the hallway— “...welcome.” Octavia started to turn away when she heard the door open again.
“What were you saying?” Vinyl asked.
“Nothing. You’d better get going.”
“Okay. Bye.” Vinyl vanished into the hallway, leaving the door ajar.
Octavia shook her head and smiled as she got up to close the door. She never would’ve thought that she’d ever look forward to hearing the music that Vinyl composed. She never would’ve thought that she’d even consider it “composing”. Or even music for that matter.
Then again, she never thought that she would see a day when Vinyl would actually take her advice about something. Anything was possible now. She might wake up tomorrow to find that the world was sideways. And yet, here she was, still practicing her cello in her room and being interrupted by Vinyl. She glanced out the window and saw Vinyl galloping madly against the wind in an attempt to somehow reach her class on time. Some things never changed.
“And here I thought today would be dreary…”