Chapter 11 : Kick Out The Jams
In which things start getting done
~
"Ooookay then...thank you. I think?" Octavia closed the door and stared dumbfounded at the letter the mailmare had given her.
"What was all that about?" Inquired Lyra.
"Well, we're banned from the auditorium, which is understandable."
"Mmmhmm..."
"And also, Princess Luna wants to hear our music. And she wants a band shirt?"
"Mmmhmm- Wait, come again?"
"Princess Luna saw a recording of what happened with the orchestra, and wants us to send her recordings and a shirt. And to see us play a gig."
"B-b-but we don't have an album! Or a shirt! Or any gigs!" Exclaimed Lyra.
"Not yet!" Vinyl interjected, poking her head out from above the stair case.
"How...How are you doing that?" Octavia asked Vinyl's upside down form, bemused.
"I-I don't know. Uh...help?"
~
The three of them sat around the table contemplating the letter. It was from the Seaddle Guard Force, informing them of the auditorium's decision to ban them until further notice, and of Luna's wishes regarding them. It was...odd, to say the least. Who would've guessed they would have gotten such a positive reaction From royalty, no less!
"So...um...what do we do? About this, I mean." Lyra gestured towards the letter.
"Isn't it obvious? We do what the letter says! We can't let the princess down!" Vinyl stomped a hoof for emphasis.
"Well, as nice as that might be, need I remind you that we have nothing in the way of, oh, I don't know, anything at all?" Octavia countered.
Vinyl sat silently for a moment, stroking her chin. "Hmm, wait here, I have a plan." With that she got up and left the house the dor closing with a thump.
"What is she up to?"
~
Vinyl cantered down the street towards her shop-come-house, greeting ponies she knew as she passed, this was her neighborhood, her domain. There was something in her shop that would help the situation at hoof along. Plus, she really should be checking up on the refurbishment of the shop, it'd been a month and a half since the fire now, so the build should be done pretty soon. She'd still need to re-do the whole shop front inside, though.
"Heya guys! How's it going?"
All the builders waved as she made her way upstairs and into the 'living' part of the building. Taking a chance to look around (she hadn't been home in over a month) she set about her task, entering the room that houses all her music gear.
Now for the tricky part.
~
There was a loud thump at the door, which Octavia answered. Vinyl staggered in with a...thing...on her back, and levitating a box covered in knobs and slidey things and a bunch of microphones and stands all bundled together.
She managed a wheezy "Honeys, I'm home!", and then promptly collapsed on the floor.
"Get up, you were only gone half an hour, you can't be that exhausted." Said Octavia, prodding Vinyl with a hoof.
"Yeah, and you didn't drag all this stuff from the shop."
"If you had told us what you were doing, we'd have been happy to help, Vinyl." Octavia countered.
"...Shut up..."
"What even is all this stuff?" Lyra inquired.
Vinyl gestured to the various pieces now spread around the floor. "Microphones and stuff. Mixer. And this is an 8-track recorder."
"Soo...?" Lyra said, confused.
"We're gonna record a demo!"
"Wait, here? Now?" Octavia interjected.
"Uhh, duh! C'mon, lets set this stuff up."
"Don't we need to go to a studio to record things? Isn't that how it works?" Asked Lyra.
"Well, thats what this is for!" Vinyl explained, patting the 8-track. "We record into this using the microphones, then use the mixer to adjust everything until its right. It wont sound as clean as a proper studio recording, but it'll get the job done, trust me. This is how I make my mixtapes and stuff."
"Well, what do we do?" Asked Octavia.
"Well Tavi, we'll need a room where we can fit all the instruments, and this stuff. So if you guys go and sort that out, I'll set all the recording stuff up and we can get started!"
~
The three of them stood around awkwardly in the newly re-purposed room, occupying what little space there was left.
"So now what?"
"Weeeeelllllllllll, now we record everything. We can't do it all at once, otherwise it sounds weird." Vinyl explained, once again. "So I'll record the drums, then Octavia can do her cello, Lyra can add in the lyre or guitar or what ever, then we add the vocals. After that, I'll level everything on the mixer, et voila, one demo tape!"
"So, which song do we do first? We only have, like, 7 anyway." Said Lyra.
"So thats 7 to go on the tape! I reckon we should do your Fluffgun '91, it'd make a pretty good opener."
"Well, get to it then!" Lyra said, pushing Vinyl towards the drums.
"Uh, Lyra, sweetie, you know I have to set everything up to record if we want to record anything." Vinyl deadpanned. Lyra just grinned sheepishly.
~
"...so I push this slider here up to bring in the guitar." Vinyl pushed said slider up, and the guitar levels increased, as promised. "And there we are! One song recorded onto tape!"
"This is so exciting!" Lyra beamed.
"I must say, I'm getting rather into it now." Octavia added. "So, whats next?"
"We should really make a list...We've done Fluffgun, so how about we record Ponyville?"
"I don't see why not. Lets get to it!" Vinyl returned to her drum kit.
~
"Going back to Ponyville!"
"Don't ask why!"
"Going back to Ponyville!"
"Don't ask why!"
"Going back to Ponyville!"
"Don't ask why!"
"ITS A GOOD A PLACE AS ANY TO GO AND DIE, ITS A GOOD A PLACE AS ANY TO GO AND DIE!"
Vinyl brought the volume down on the mixer, ending the playback. It had been two days, but all their songs had been recorded and mixed. All that was left to do was to duplicate the tapes so they could hand them out.
"Well, what do you think?" Vinyl asked nervously.
"That, was amazing! I was all "Going back to Ponyville", and Tavi was all "Don't ask why", and the drums, and the everything!" Lyra said, very, very enthusiastically.
"Its not the best quality recording, but I'm rather proud of out little project." Added Octavia.
"Well, thats good. All I need to do now is get this onto some cassettes. Shouldn't take more than a few hours, then we can spread our music around!" Vinyl finished with a slight flourish.
~
"Your highness, a delivery for you just came in from Seaddle."
The guard relinquished the packed to Luna, bowed, and set off away from her chambers. Luna closed the door and began to carefully remove the packaging, revealing a letter, and a cassette tape.
"Hiya Luna!
Thanks a bunch for listening to our music. We don't have an album or anything yet, but we recorded this demo tape for you! Also, when we have t-shirts we'll send one too!
Laters!
Vinyl, Octavia, Lyra.
P.S. Tavi says she thinks she should've written the letter. ~ Vinyl"
"Zounds! It seems they work fast!" Luna exclaimed, as she realised what the package was. It had only just been a week since she'd received the letter and video tape from Set Tempo.
She levitated the tape over for a closer look. The cover was a black and white copy of a hoof-drawn mare laughing. The title simply read "Mudhinney ~ Noisey Demos" and on the back was the tracklist.,
"1. Fluffgun '91
2. You Got It (Keep It Out Of My Face)
3. Here Comes Sickness
4. Flat Out Bucked
5. Burn It Clean
6. In 'N' Out Of Grace
7. Ponyville"
She loaded the tape into the cassette player and hit play. The now familiar riff of Fluffgun '91 broke the silence of her room, sounding so much better than the version on the projector footage. Luna grinned.
'Yes, this pleases us greatly!'
Celestia however, was much less pleased to be awoken by the racket emanating from Luna's room, and made it very clear from the entrance she made, definitely one of the angriest room-entries in recorded history.
No doubt.
~