//------------------------------// // Lemonade and Muffins // Story: To Feel the Music // by Secret Pony //------------------------------// Last time! Vinyl jumped up, holding her sword in-between her and the would-be assassin. "Not this time, Anime Batman!" she yelled, stomping her hoof on the ground for added emphasis. The assassin continued his charge, rushing headfirst into Vinyl, their weapons clashing. Another guard ran up and attempted to behead the masked figure, only to find a limp bolt of cloth where the assassin once stood. Vinyl looked up. "Audible gasp! Octavia how could you?!" The white knight yelled back at her long lost friend with tears in her eyes. "I did it because the narrator has no idea what he’s doing! So I did something! We have to fix this mess once and for all!" She yelled back, fighting back tears of her own. The narrator suddenly stepped down from his magical Narration Booth behind the sky. "Ah-HA! Octavia! I knew it was you! You were the one changing the story! I should have known!" "Of course it was me you blithering moron! Who else could have done it?" Octavia raised her blade and chuckled as she ran forward. "And now you die!" "Hmm...you may have a point, none the less! 'The narrator, being the narrator, narrated the entire following scene while fighting back.'" The narrator said. "'Vinyl looked at the other guard with a look that screamed ‘What the buck?!’ The nameless guard just simply shrugged.' " "Hey!" Vinyl screamed suddenly "Stop reading ahead in the dialogue, I haven't even done that bit yet!" "Oh but you will now! 'And then the narrator jumped behind the nameless guard and borrowed his sword to parry the first of Octavia's many strikes.'" The narrator said. "Damn it! Get back behind the fourth wall!" Octavia screamed, lunging her blade at her omniscient opponent. "'The narrator masterfully parried every single one of Octavia's swings despite the fact that he was reading a book at the same time.'" The narrator said whilst reading from a thick, white book that was obviously marked ‘Script.’ "Now you’re just making stuff up!" The nameless guard yelled. "'Or is he?' the guard thought to himself.'" The narrator retorted while dodging yet another one of Octavia's swings. "Why. Won’t. You. Die?!" Octavia yelled out in finality, giving her final swipe all she had. "'...Only to miss, and smack herself in the face with the hilt of her own sword.'" The narrator cheerfully piped in. "Damn you…" Octavia deadpanned, before smashing herself with the hilt of her own sword and falling to the floor. "And now you see why…wait what was I doing again?" The narrator looked confused. "Oh yeah, returning the story to normal!" The narrator cleared his voice and raised both hands into the air whilst wiggling from side to side like a limp noodle. "And now! Super cool awesome narrator powers, activate!" The narrators voice boomed throughout the whole room, somehow blinding everyone in the room. *** Octavia blinked. “Will you stop calling me ‘Octy’?” She retorted quickly. “No…” Vinyl began, but quickly stopped herself upon meeting Octavia’s glare “Err…I mean, yeah. Yeah, I’ll stop calling you Octy.” ‘For now…’ Octavia grimaced at the look on Vinyl’s face. “The look on your face tells me otherwise, Miss…uhm…I do believe I didn’t catch your name.” Octavia frowned having forgotten to ask her guests name before now. “The names Vinyl Scratch, my lady!” Scratch said proudly before taking a drink of the lemonade that Octavia had brought out. “Holy sunshine! This lemonade is delicious!” “Ah, well thank you Miss Scratch,” Octavia said before taking a sip of the aforementioned lemonade herself. “Now, Miss Scratch, I believe you asked about my cello, am I correct?” “Hmm?” Scratch looked up from the muffin she had been examining carefully. “Oh…Oh right! The cello. Yeah I was wondering if you played it? It seems like a strange instrument for an earth pony to play…but then again…” She looked around the room “How many of these do you actually play?” Octavia sighed. “Sadly, I can not play most of them. In fact, many of them do not even belong to me.” Octavia paused and took another sip of her lemonade. “Uh…yeah I don’t follow…” Scratch gave Octavia a puzzled look “Why do you have all these instruments if they don’t even belong to you? You aren’t some kind of instrument thief, are you?” The DJ’s face quickly became one of abject horror. Octavia suddenly felt the need to take an aspirin. “No, I am not an instrument thief, why you would think that I can’t possible imagine, but…” She had meant to continue before Vinyl chuckled. “What, may I ask, is so funny?” Scratch chuckled again. “Lady, with the night I just had, I really wouldn’t be surprised if you were some infamous instrument thief!” She ultimately gave up and started laughing at the ridiculousness of the previous night. Octavia just looked confused. “I fail to see the humor in this, perhaps you should explain. I am inquisitive as to why you were on my roof at all.” Octavia kept her poise and took another sip of her lemonade, waiting for Vinyl to calm down. After a few minutes and several glasses of lemonade later, Octavia was close to losing her temper. “Um...Excuse me, Miss Scratch?” She began, before raising her voice. “MISS SCRATCH!” Vinyl stopped laughing immediately. “Oh…um…yeah sorry ‘bout that.” Vinyl grinned sheepishly. “Its just last night was really weird and stuff.” Octavia did not look amused. “Yes, I figured as much. Well why don’t you recount your evening to me, Miss Scratch, if it is indeed as ‘weird’ as you claim.” Scratch could see Octavia was holding back her anger, but was indeed confused as to why. She picked up her glass to take a drink, only to find it empty. “Oh, it appears we have run out of lemonade. I shall go fetch us some more.” Octavia stood up and quickly walked to the kitchen. “Could you bring s’more muffins too?” Vinyl yelled to her before eating the last of them in one bite. ‘Man these muffins are just as good as the lemonade, I should come over here more often,’ She happily thought to herself. “Why, yes of course…” Octavia grumbled, momentarily regretting not leaving the mare locked on the roof. While Octavia was busy making lemonade, Scratch took the moment to analyze what she had learned of the other musician. ‘Shes definitely a classical one, must be a pretty successful one at that too, to afford such a nice apartment. And this couch! So soft! But then again, she does seem to have a temper issue as well, probably from being raised in a strict home if how she acts is any tip. And what was with her bow? ‘Love stick’? Really? Did she have some weird fetish for instruments or something? Wait a minute…oh…Oh dear Celestia! The Images! Make them stop! MAKE THEM STOP!’ Octavia gave Vinyl a worried glance as she walked back into the room carrying another tray of snacks. The white mare looked like she was having a panic attack. “Miss Scratch, are you alright?” She asked, slightly concerned for her own safety from the bi-polar pony she had so willingly invited into her home. “Ahahahah....” Vinyl nervously laughed “Yeah, I’m okay! You wanted to hear about last night, right? Okay, here goes…” She started trying to move on to the next subject and forget everything she had just thought about. Octavia looked on with a stoic expression on her face. Vinyl cleared her throat. "You see it all began last night when I left work..." The next several hours were filled with Vinyl explaining what had happened the previous night, carefully watching Octavia’s expression, quickly changing the subject when events came up that seemed to bother the grey mare. Eventually, she had gotten Octavia to crack a smile before straight up laughing at the sheer absurdity of the story. “Wait, wait, wait,” Octavia stopped Vinyl while pausing to calm down. “You’re saying he truly expected to escape with a sponge, some chewing gum, and an ear of corn?” She paused again to laugh. “How in Equestria did he think he was going to manage that?” Vinyl laughed too. “From what he told me, the sponge was to keep the door open, the…” Vinyl began to explain the crazy stallion’s plan before she was interrupted by a knock on the door. Octavia looked up at the clock. “Oh dear, is it that time already?” She got off of the sofa. “I’m terribally sorry, Miss Scratch, but I had forgotten that the members of my ensemble were coming over to practice tonight. You’re welcome to stay and watch if you would like, and I would certainly like to hear the rest of your story as well.” Vinyl looked up at Octavia. “Members of your what, now?” She asked, obviously confused. Octavia opened her mouth to answer only to be beaten by a soft voice coming from the doorway. “An ensemble is like a band that plays classical music but is smaller than an orchestra.” Vinyl and Octavia both turned to look as a periwinkle coloured stallion with a light blue mane and green eyes walked into the room, followed by turquoise colored mare with a brown mane, and an equally brown stallion with a snow white mane. After a moment, the brown stallion spoke. “Well now Octavia, aren’t you going to introduce us to your friend?” He paused for a moment; his voice was that of an amused music teacher. “Although I never saw you as one to like mares, my dear.” “Ah yes. Wait what?” Octavia’s face proceeded to turn beet-red, whether from embarrassment or anger, Vinyl couldn’t tell. “Calm down Octavia,” the blue stallion spoke up, his voice clearly identifying him as the one who had answered Vinyl’s question earlier. “Fredric was only joking. You know that.” The redness in Octavia’s face lessened somewhat. Vinyl snickered slightly. “Ah, yes of course…” Fredric replied with a small grin on his face. “You must forgive us, Miss…” He paused. “Vinyl Scratch,” the DJ identified herself. “Thank you. Like I was saying, you must forgive us, Miss Scratch, Octavia’s skill in courting is somewhat of an inside joke amongst us, and your being here provided an opportunity I couldn't pass up.” Fredric finished. The three standing by the door chuckled. Vinyl grinned. "Anytime." “Ahem, I do believe that is enough speaking of me as if I am not here.” Octavia, finally having recovered her senses, spoke up before turning to Vinyl. “Miss Scratch, these are my fellow ensemble acquaintances. Harpo Parish, Beauty Brass and Fredric Horseshoepin.” She pointed at each of them as she named them off. Beauty smiled and waved her hoof. “A pleasure to meet you, Miss Scratch.” Harpo spoke in his soft voice. Vinyl smiled back. “I do hope you will be staying with us tonight.” Fredric chuckled. “It is quite rare to see a musical pony here in Canterlot these days, other than ourselves.” Again, Vinyl smiled back. “What about her?” Scratch wondered aloud, nodding her head at Beauty. “Well you see…” Fredric began. “I have a hard time keeping my voice down, so I don’t speak that much!” Beauty bellowed in a tone that rivaled Princess Luna’s ‘Royal Canterlot Voice’. All the ponies present quickly covered their ears. A loud thumping came from the floor, and several ponies outside were staring off into the distance, no doubt searching for the aforementioned Princess. “I can tell...” said Vinyl, her ears ringing fiercely. A moment went by with everypony trying to regain their senses before Octavia spoke up. “Well, now that everypony is acquainted, why don’t we grab our instruments and head up to the roof then?” The others agreed, grabbing the necessary instruments and equipment needed for their pieces as they proceeded to carefully head up to the roof. After a long, strenuous amount of time they had finally carried their materials up the short staircase and collectively decided to take a well-earned break. “Oh dear, I forgot about that.” Octavia said after spotting the pile of objects Vinyl had so generously left on her roof. Vinyl sheepishly grinned and rubbed the back of her head saying something along the lines of an apology before Octavia stopped her. “Oh no, it’s quite alright Miss Scratch” Vinyl gave her a look. “Alright. Look since we’re all musicians here, how about we all just go by our first names. I dunno about you guys, but being called ‘Miss Scratch’ all the time is making me feel uneasy.” The others looked at Octavia. “If its ok with you that is…” Vinyl trailed off. Octavia looked back and forth between her friends and Vinyl before letting out a sigh and agreeing. Vinyl smiled at the others as they smiled back. Somehow, she could tell that they weren’t as stuffy as Octavia. Octavia grumbled something about proper manners and walked over to where the others had began to set up their instruments. Vinyl sat down near the edge of the roof. She was excited; it had been awhile since she had heard a live band, even if it was classical. Music was music to Vinyl, and she loved it all. If Octavia was indeed the one that was playing that song last night, Vinyl knew it was going to be beautiful.