Why my parents had decided to send me there, I still don't know. I'd ask them, except we don't keep in contact anymore. Anyways, I had just arrived at the Canterlot School for the Musical Arts. My parents, in all their wisdom, had decided to bring me here, they thought I needed more structure and discipline. How was I supposed to know that destroying the radio to find out how it worked, would make them mad? I mean, what's the big deal anyways, if they can just send me to this super expensive school so easily, I'm sure they could afford another radio. But their point was the same, they wanted a more disciplined child, so they sent me to the right place.
I didn't know it at the time, but my next few months would be some of my best. But for now, I was stuck there, in a grand hallway, with other rich kids. All with their various expensive instruments, I knew I was no exception. The other unicorns were already gathering in small groups, even though the year hadn't even begun yet. A few conversations landed on my sensitive ears, but none really interested me, I didn't have any real achievments or things to talk about back then. So I just sat on a nearby bench, my little glasses on. Oh ya, I wore glasses, back then I was kind of shy and a bit of a nerd. But I'd always loved music, and after getting kicked out of every public school in all of Canterlot, I was finally sent here. Now that I look back, I guess my parents did have good reasons for sending me there, but whatever. I was a nerd, one who loved to take things apart, I had no time for theoretical math stuff. I mean who cares what the square root of X is?
Wow I got off track, anyways I remember sitting at that little bench. It wasn't uncomfortable, it was actually pretty comfy. That's when I saw her, the mare who would become one of my best friends at that school. She had a boring gray coat with a short black mane, her purple eyes staring at me from beneath some long black eyelashes. With a flexing of her legs, she waltzed over to me confidently, carrying a large bag on her back. "Why are you sitting all alone?" She asked me.
I was stunned that such a confident looking mare was actually talking to me, of all ponies. "Um, I'm really shy." I remember stuttering out, feeling like a fool for saying it out loud.
"Well then, you need to make a friend, my name is Octavia." She stuck out her hoof towards me, waiting for my hoof to accept it.
I gladly accepted and returned the gesture. "I guess, my name's Vinyl Scratch." My eyes began to wander as she sat down beside me before they landed on what was, or more specifically, what wasn't on her head. Shocked at the realization, I blurbed out like an idiot, "You're an earth pony?"
She nodded, trying to keep the emberassment hidden by shrinking beneath her hair. She must have had long hair at one point, or she would have known her short hair didn't protect her cheeks. Realizing this she grabbed my hoof and swiftly dragged me to a smaller, side hall. The conversations had died down as we had gone farther away, here there was only silence, not even a footstep could be heard.
Without saying anything, Octavia took her bag of her back and unzipped it, a piece of metal I had never seen before was laying inside. Two discs were on the metal platform and a whole array of knobs and switches. She grabbed some headphones that were plugged into it and put them on my head. With a flick of her wrist, a symphony of harmonized and synchronized sound filled me, each beat feeling like heaven. Eventually the song ended and I looked up at Octavia nearly speechless. "That was amazing!" I managed to get out, as I took my own bag from my back. My magic quickly undid the zipper holding it closed, allowing the precision instrument of wood to float out. A bow with white hairs came with it and went lightly across the strings held by the wood casing. A rich noise filled the hall, and one note followed another.
That song came to an end too, we both had a stupid grin on our faces. We knew neither of us were that good, but we had fun and that's whats mattered. Octavia was the first to talk, again, "I don't like it," my hopes came crashing down. Seeing the look on my face, she quickly did a take back and clarified, "I meant my instrument. I'd much rather play a wooden string instrument, such as the one in your possession. But my parents are having enough trouble getting me here, they, by no means want me to play an uptight instrument, as they call it. They want me to rebel against the system as most in my age group do, but I don't want to rebel, I just want to make beautiful noise with a nice instrument.
"Wow, that's deep; ya my parents are rich and are making me play this thing, but I'm having an idea. What if we switched instruments? My parents wouldn't miss the instrument, and your parents would be happy that you're rebelling against something right?" I responded, hopeful.
"That is very intelligent of you Vinyl, I would love to accept this proposal. However, we would need to go to the headmister, to get a room together. I mean we have to teach each other how to play, right?" She had responded, obviously hoping she could get a room with somepony she knew.
"Oh, ya, of course, and it'll give us a nice oppurtunity to at least know somepony here." I had stated, glad she had taken to the idea so well, and stating that I understood the reasons.
Over an intercom, somewhere in the hall we were in, was an announcement. "Students, please remember that food may not be taken from the cafeteria, also classes start in two days." It cut off with a short, yet catchy, jingle then the quick buzz of static.
I remember that first bed, so hard, yet perfect. I flopped down on it as soon as we had entered our new room, it only giving a few squeals of protest. Not so smoothly, I asked for Octavia's age, who responded with a short and curt 15. With no prodding from her I announced I was the same age as her, and made a joke about neither of us being of legal age of consent.
The room went so very silent, she didn't move as the bad joke rolled through her mind, this was going to be harder than I thought. Not even a grin cracking on her face, she was obviously to innocent. I'd have to fix that soon enough.
***
"No, you see, you have to match up the beats of the next song, to the one playing now, it gives you a smoother transition. Also don't forget to use your samplers!" Octavia lectured me for the tenth time that day.
School had started two weeks ago, and Octavia had dove right into her classes, but I lacked far behind. Apparantly, my new instrument, didn't count in this school. So I was forced to borrow a school instrument, however my grades were picking up. Mostly due to the administration treatening to move me into a different room if I didn't shape up. Needless to say, I'd rather spend an hour practicing every day with Octavia, than failing a class alone.
She had picked up my instrument so fast, knowing almost exactly what to do, and soon finding her own way to support the instrument, and have it support her. Me, on the other hand, I was having more than a bit of trouble learning how to be a Disc Jockey, as Octavia called it, or DJ for short. There were a thousand things to remember at once, and then even more to take in. But I couldn't give up, I loved learning how to be a DJ, for the first time I felt like I was in control of everything.I guess that's what I always kind of wanted, me controlling my life instead of my parents. I wasn't my parents little angel anymore, and the next time they saw me, I'd show them.
The days continued to go by quickly as we spent our days working hard in our seperate classes, both sustainining our grades. We were sustaining as some of the lowest grading students in the school, but the administration left us alone. After all, we were what the school was supposed to stand for, working hard, and playing music. Even though me and Octavia had hugely different tastes in music, we almost never fought. The few times we did, it was about who would take out the trash or something trivial like that.
Each afternoon we'd meet in our room, chat about our day, and study. Oh the math, I hated the math so much, and after thinking about it together. Both me and Octavia finally figured out something about math. It was useless, again who needs to know the square root of the 3rd exponent of a variable, or some other crap like that? Certainly not musicians, but we continued to do our best, even if that was barely scraping by with C's.
Each night we would stow our books and school stuff until the morning. Then we'd swap even more stories, talk about our problems, and personal stuff. And finally, we would practice on our instruments, each tuning the other out completely, yet knowing when the practice had gone on long enough. Most of the time this end came when a hall monitor would bang on our door, telling us it was already 1 in the morning and we had to stop now. Even then, sometimes we would continue playing, ignoring warning after warning until finally getting a meeting with the principal. We like the principal because, unlike most people at the school, he was reasonable and always listened to our side. He usually sided with us and at one point simply began to quote us saying things like, "If the rooms near to them have a problem, they'd speak up themselves. The other rooms never did, but we knew they didn't like it. But me and Octavia liked it, and that's all that really mattered to us at the time.
On Friday nights, while others would waste their time drinking and partying, me and my roommate would listen to each others new pieces. Ya, we each wrote a new song every single week, usually trying to duplicate the others last theme. The outcome was hilarious most of the time, but once in a blue moon a masterpiece of sorts would be born. We knew when we had done such a thing when she played her cello, and I played my synthesizer, and they were in harmony. The newest musical technology, coupled with some of the oldest, working together and flowing easily. When this happened, the staff would come and sit around our door, just out of sight, yet close enough to listen. But we knew they were there because, each time we finished and walked out of the room, the entire staff would be walking around in our hall, talking about the most random things. At one point we heard a question about why crabs had nineteen legs, the answer? Well because butterflies glide obviously! I told you, random, they were talking really softly, but forgot we were music students; we tend to have more discerning ears then most ponies.
Not soon after our routine had been established, finals for the first semester came around. We were so nervous, but something good came out of it. We studied so hard, when we had finally finished we were overjoyed. We embraced and kissed, I remember that short kiss. It wasn't romantic, and neither of us really thought anything of it at the time. But it was memorable, I still remember her amazing breath, the taste of something fine and fragrant. I think it was kind of a lavendar, but either way. It was just a kiss with a friend, who was sharing a moment. It didn't become awkward like it does to so many friends, just another angle for us to explore into together. But for the time being, neither of us wanted to go that way.
The finals came and passed, us both getting really high grades on them. It turned out all of our studying had been useless. In every class, except math of course, there had been a musical test of some kind. Considering we had practiced playing our instruments even more than the nerds at school, we got past easily. They even allowed me to play my deck as an instrument, even though they officially listed me as playing cello. Again, except for math, which we both failed miserably. On one question it asked, What is the square root of 4, my answer? I don't know, why don't you go ask 4? Needless to say, I was happy to say goodbye to that math teacher and say hello to the week long winter break.
Me and Octavia said goodbye to each other and sobbed on each others shoulder. We got each others phone number, something that we, admitedly, should have done sooner. Along with a promise to get a room together again in the second semester, no matter what. Unfortunately my parents would prove to be a major obstacle in the path that I had chosen.
***