Ryan looked at Vinyl, but never directly focused her vision on her.
“I would,” Ryan said, “But the battery’s almost dead and I have no way to recharge it. Once that’s gone it’s gone for good unless you guys have a convenient spell for that too.”
“Then we wouldn’t have any music,” Vinyl concluded with a frown.
“Yeah,” Ryan agreed just as much. Then an idea of inspiration came to her. “Do you have recording equipment?”
“Yeah.”
“What if we were to record as much as we could from my phone’s speakers?”
Vinyl looked up hopefully, “Will that work?”
“We won’t know if we don’t try.”
“Great! Want to go now? I have all the stuff at my place.”
Ryan shot her a look. “Me? I thought you meant just you. I mean…”
“You don’t want to go out there where?” Vinyl concluded.
She nodded slowly.
“I live on the edge of town not very far away. We probably won’t run into anypony. Besides, this could be your next step.”
“Huh?”
“There’s only so far we can get in here with a few different ponies. You’ll need to start branching out. Like learning to meet new ponies and stuff.”
Ryan was silent for a moment. She knew Vinyl was right even if she didn’t like it. “You sound like you’re planning something.”
“Not really. I just have a roommate who might be there.”
“Your roommate will be fine?”
“She’ll be fine.”
“…alright,” she relented, “Fluttershy?” she called, “Vinyl and I are going to go to her place.”
Fluttershy peeked around a corner looking a bit surprised. “Oh,” she said, “Alright… Do you need me to come?”
“No thanks. See you later?”
“See you later,” she smiled back.
“Alright,” she said, turning back to Vinyl.
“I’ll lead the way,” she said, then heading to the door and opening it for the two of them, where they then stepped out into the sunlight.
“Hey, Wolfe?”
“Why do you keep calling me Wolfe?” Ryan asked curiously.
“Why do you keep calling us horses?” Vinyl retorted.
“That’s what you are.”
“And you’re a Wolfe.”
Ryan looked at her, unamused. She couldn’t tell if that was intentional or not. “Anyways,” she said, “What is it?”
“What kind of music do you got on there?” Vinyl asked as they approached the town. “I’ve only heard a bit of it.”
Ryan, who had been looking ahead to the thankfully clear road, answered. “Mostly rock and electronic. I don’t listen to much recent music with some exceptions. Usually stuff from the 80’s and before… That doesn’t mean anything to you does it?”
“Not at all.”
“Well, imagine those lightning guitars sounding more powerful and much faster than what you heard a while back. That’s what a lot of rock songs are to an extent. But just as many are slower and softer, especially ones made earlier on. Electronic… is harder to describe. It uses a lot of sounds and instruments I assume you guys don’t have. Say, what kind of music do you have anyways? It might make it easier to compare.”
“The most popular genre of music right now is show tunes. You can’t go a day in this town without hearing a group of ponies forming a song just for the heck of it. But we also have a lot of other genres like classical, country, blues… What I do is actually electronic, but like you said, it might not be the same.”
“Maybe. Twilight said her spell translates concepts so we should be talking about the same styles of music or as close as we can get.”
“Heh, just makes me want to listen more,” the DJ said then suddenly added, “And here we are.” She held out her hoof to a simple, unassuming home that was closer to outside of town than the outskirts.
“I think I recognize this house,” Ryan said, “Yeah, this where I first saw you all before I went into the forest. There was a pegasus delivering mail to someone here.”
“I would think that. I first saw you from… that spot over there. And the one you saw was probably my roommate.”
“Mmhm.” Ryan followed Vinyl to the front door but paid more attention to the town that crept much closer to her than usual. She could actually see ponies going about their daily routines in lives. There were so many of them! A sense of anxiousness bubbled up but she turned away, but not before she caught sight of a rather odd moment in the distance. It looked like some small, blur of pink that quickly darted out of view. She glanced back to the spot but there was no sign left over. She frowned.
“You good?” Vinyl asked, seeing her hesitant stare towards town.
“…Yeah. I’m good.”
Vinyl held her look for a moment longer before fumbling with the door with a light, cobalt blue aura of magic. The two entered.
“It must be pretty cool performing telekinesis and all that,” Ryan commented.
“Probably. I’m used to it already so I wouldn’t know.”
Inside was what could only be described as organized chaos. The floor was littered with cords and paper, the walls with posters of random charts to bands, the spaces dominated with musical instruments and devices. It was somehow fitting for a girl like Vinyl.
“Make yourself at home,” she said, indicating a couch that currently housed a speaker.
“Can’t say it’s not homey,” Ryan replied.
“Vinyl?” a voice suddenly called from another room.
Vinyl turned to Ryan. “And that,” she paused, “would be my roommate...” From around the corner to another room came a gray-coated pony, her dark hair combed properly and her face showing a look of disinterest which quickly turned into confusion at the sight of the human. “…Octavia.”
As Ryan met eyes with the newcomer, she instinctively averted her gaze as a sinking sensation pierced her. The face of the unfamiliar horse went against the hours of practical training she’d put herself through. The anxiousness she’d felt only moments ago outside came back in full force. Some part of her wanted to curl up and hope it left.
But she resisted. As best she could.
She kept her eyes off of the gray horse, looking but never focusing, and took a deep breath before exhaling. Vinyl shot her a knowingly encouraging glance which Ryan returned with a weak smile, if a bit forced. Vinyl nodded.
Octavia, as she was called, took one long look at Ryan then turned back to Vinyl. “What is that?” she asked none-too-pleased.
Ryan swallowed, then asked, “What did she say? I couldn’t understand her.”
“She asked what- wait, did you say you couldn’t understand her?” Vinyl asked.
“I have no idea what she said.”
“Wasn’t the spell cast on you too and not just us?”
“Vinyl?” Octavia said, “Are you talking to it? It’s speaking gibberish to me.”
“Yeah. There’s a translation spell. Long story.” She went back to Ryan.
“She never cast it on me,” Ryan confirmed.
Vinyl flashed a befuddled look. “What? Why not? Did Twilight just forget or something?”
“Twilight?” Octavia asked, “As in Princess Twilight? Just what have you been doing the past week?”
“Okay, give me a second,” Vinyl said to them both. She put a hoof to her head in thought for a moment. “Okay, Ryan? This is Octavia. My roommate. Octavia, this is Ryan, my human friend. I’ve been helping her all week.”
“What? Why didn’t you mention this earlier?” she asked, more confused than annoyed.
“Didn’t seem important.”
“...Sure. What were you helping her with?”
“Uh, Vinyl?” Ryan asked, “What’s she saying?”
“One moment, Ryan,” she replied. “Ryan is scared of ponies,” she then said to her roommate, “and I’ve been helping her get over it. So don’t… be scary.”
“…I’ll admit this isn’t the weirdest thing you’ve done. Why can’t I understand her?”
“She speaks a different language and Twilight must have forgotten to cast a translation spell. Probably because everyone else was already under one or something.”
“You mean Princess Twilight,” Octavia replied, putting emphasis on her title.
“No, just Twilight. We’re cool. Any other questions?”
“I have one,” Ryan reminded.
“Hold your horses, I’ll get to you in a moment,” she said, drawing an amused reaction.
Octavia took another look at the human then asked, “So why is she here?”
“She has a bunch of music from her planet on a tiny record player we’re going to record here,” the DJ smiled.
The earth pony gave a long, hard stare before sighing, “Of course she does. Anyways, I was going to tell you that a friend’s coming over later so don’t go running off again. I’ll be in my space until then.”
“You don’t want to stay and listen? This is literally otherworldly music.”
“I’ll listen to the recordings later. Now, if you’ll excuse me…” She left back to where she came.
Vinyl watched her for a moment before turning back to Ryan. “So what was it?”
“What was she saying?”
“Just Octavia being Octavia. Curious but not enough to care. She just wanted to tell me that a friend is coming over sometime. Shouldn’t be a big deal… You good?” she asked more seriously.
“Yeah, I think,” came the answer, “Not feeling my best around her to say the least. Where’d she go? She just came in and out.”
“I would expect that. Takes a bit to get used to. As for where she went, she’s in her room. Probably practicing her cello. Anyways, want to get started now?”
“Sure,” she said, pulling out her phone then powering it on from its week-long slumber, “If she’s playing a cello would it be a good idea to record then? Wouldn’t the sounds interfere?”
“No, we have the walls soundproofed.”
“Oh, so you guys can work on different music at the same time?”
“No.”
Ryan raised an eyebrow. “So… music?”
“Yeah, just give me a second to set some stuff up…”
In a few minutes of magical rearranging a simple but workable microphone set up was put in place against the wall along with a soundboard nearby, not that much mixing was going to be taking place. It was just for touching up if needed.
“Do you always record out here?” Ryan asked, confused.
“No, we have a proper set up in another room. But there’s already all this stuff thrown out here that’s good to go…” she trailed off innocently. “So do you have an idea of how you want to do this?” Vinyl asked, “I could probably come up with something but you’re the expert on that record player.”
“Um… as I said earlier, it probably won’t come out perfect no matter what we do, but I do have an idea. You can turn up the sensitivity on the mic right?” Vinyl affirmed this. “Okay, the speakers on the phone itself are alright but the ones from my headphones are better. If I set the volume up high enough but not so much that it distorts the sounds and then set it to mono, it could come out decent.” She looked at the microphone then at the earbuds in her hand. “Um… you got any tape?”
One roll later found one small ear piece taped into position nearly on the mic, the other one dangling loosely towards the floor. Ryan couldn’t help but laugh. “This is either going to be brilliant or fail miserably.”
Vinyl cocked her head as she grinned. “You seem like you’ve done this before.”
“I once considered going into a musical career but didn’t go too far into it. I still play some bits and pieces of piano and guitar and a few other things.”
“Piano?” she asked interested.
“Yeah. Don’t you have those?”
“We do, but…” she held up her hoof.
“Ah.” She momentarily questioned why they even invented something they couldn’t play but didn’t pay it much mind. “Alright. I have nearly hundred songs on here,” she said, prompting Vinyl to look up in eager surprise, “But I’ll only be able to play so many of them before the battery gets too low.”
She saw the problem. “Okay. Why don’t you just choose what you think are the best. But try to be diverse and cover a spectrum of styles.”
“Sure,” Ryan agreed, “I can do that. Everything from small tunes to extremes.”
“Extremes?”
She pondered a description for a moment, “Some are pretty… unique for better or worse. Usually better. Nothing you would ever hear in a show tune,” she teased.
“Awesome. Start with the most extreme one you’ve got!” she said she slipped on her own headphones.
Ryan thought for a moment before searching through her library. Occasionally checking off songs to use and ones to consider, she smiled when she found her starting point. “You asked for it,” she said,” Ready?”
After a moment of checking, Vinyl called back, “Ready!” prompting Ryan to push the play button on the screen.
Instantly, the operatic choir began.
Over an hour later found Ryan and Vinyl looking over the recordings, the latter having a wide smile. To the phone’s credit, it still had enough juice to carry on longer, but the two had decided on a short break.
“This is awesome,” the DJ said.
“Mmhm.”
“I have no idea how they even managed to record half of this stuff.”
“Mmhm.”
“You have no idea how many ideas this gives me. And I don’t even work in half of the genres!”
“Mmhm.”
“I don’t even care that you’re not listening.”
“This is awesome. How did they make this? This gives me ideas.”
“Oh, whatever.”
Ryan looked up with a smile. She’d never seen Vinyl get this excited before. “Glad I could help.”
“Help? You did a lot more than help. I bet you just changed the face of music in Equestria!”
Ryan chuckled but couldn’t help but wonder if she really did just revolutionize music. Looking at the systems that Vinyl had, she had to admit that they weren’t as far behind as she’d assumed. The recordings were stored on the system and could be played back quite easily, similar to her phone (though still not close to the phone’s level, of course, as they needed the entire bulky device to hold the sounds).
“Be right back,” Vinyl said, darting off to the hallway. Ryan watched as she slammed open a door and yelled in, “Tavi, come listen to this! …I don’t care, get out here!” She smiled at seeming success and was followed out by a disgruntled earth pony.
“Is it really as big as you’re making it out to be?” she asked, skeptical.
“Yes. Now listen to this,” she commanded.
Ryan watched from her cleared spot on the couch as a speaker was plugged in and began blasting out one of the harsher songs they’d recorded; it was lead entirely by a roaring electric guitar repeating a quick and punctual rift in a rising chord progression.
Vinyl broke out into a wide grin as Octavia tried to process just what she was listening to. Eventually she said, “What-”
“Quiet, it’s getting to a good part.”
She humored the DJ as the song broke into a brief but powerful rift then returned back to the verse. “What am I listening to? And what language is that?”
“Language? No idea. But the lead instrument is a lightning-powered guitar.”
Ryan could be heard holding back a laugh in the background.
“It sounds like harsh white noise,” she said distastefully.
Vinyl rolled her eyes. “That’s because all you listen to is classical. Try something new.”
“I just did,” she remarked with a small smirk.
“Try one of the songs using a cello,” Ryan called out to Vinyl, taking a guess at how the conversation was going.
“Heh, yeah,” she agreed, drawing an inquisitive look from the cellist.
Remembering one particular song they recorded recently featuring only an assortment of strings and singing, she found it and played it back. Instantly Octavia raised her eyebrows in attention, much to Vinyl’s own smirk.
“Alright,” she said after it ended, “The songs might not be all noisy,” she admitted.
“Ha!”
“Ugh. Now then, is there anything else you need?”
“No. We’re good,” she said, satisfied.
“Is your entire purpose of dragging me out here to show off your supposedly alien music?”
“You bet.”
“Of course it is.”
Vinyl smiled at her. “Want to leave your door open a bit so you can hear the music? I’ll turn it up.”
“…sure,” she ceded.
“Ha ha! I knew you were curious!”
“Well now that you’ve shown me some then you might as well play the rest,” she stubbornly denied.
“Can do,” she said triumphantly, turning up the volume slider on the board with the skill only a DJ could have. As Octavia left, Vinyl turned to Ryan, pulling down her glasses over her eyes. “How ya doing out there, tonight?” she called out in a theatrical voice.
“Uh… good?” Ryan a tad bit awkwardly.
“Good?” the pony continued, “When I’m through here tonight you’ll be better than good! This next track had been brought to me, DJ-PON3, all the way from another planet!”
Ryan gave a small laugh, seeing what was going on now. Playing music was only part of being a DJ. You had to be a performer as well.
She shook her head and gave a laugh.
The two listened as another song recorded. It would probably be one of the last ones, sadly, but it they did the best they could. Vinyl stood at her panel, head bobbing to the beat. She vaguely registered the sound of the front door open then close.
“What is that music?” a voice exclaimed in surprise.
Vinyl paid more attention at that. She smiled as she recognized the voice. “Hey. I’m guessing you’re the one Octavia said was coming over? Lyra?”
No answer.
“Lyra?” she asked, a bit of confusion creeping into her voice. “You-”
She shot her head upwards as soon as realization stuck her. At the doorway stood a frozen and wide-eyed aquamarine unicorn who was staring at one particular human.
“Oh no,” Vinyl whispered under her breath.
“Uh… Vinyl?” Ryan asked from the sofa, her eyes nervously darting between the DJ and the newcomer that so-intently held her gaze. She pushed herself into the cushion.
The unicorn known as Lyra suddenly burst into a huge, unnatural grin.
“Oh no, oh no, oh no,” Vinyl said louder as she watched in horror.
Ryan, unfortunately, heard. “What? What is it?” she hissed, fear turning its face.
Lyra took a step forward, a glint of what a psychologist would call “obsession” appearing in her eyes.
Vinyl snapped out of her stupor at the sight. She’d seen that look enough times to recognize it. And so she did. “Lyra? I need you to listen to me.”
She took another step.
“Lyra! Listen to me!”
“Vinyl?” Ryan anxiously pleaded.
Vinyl hardened her gaze. She took off from her seat and placed herself between the pony and the human. She held Lyra’s head between her hooves and forced her to meet her eyes.
“Lyra-”
“Vinyl!” she interrupted, her voice two octaves too high, “That’s a h-hu-”
“Human, yes I know. Now, I need you to lis-”
“I knew they were real! I knew it! And you have one!”
“Yes, her name’s Ryan. You can’t-”
“HI RYAN!” she exclaimed, causing a harsh flinch from the one being addressed.
“Lyra! Listen to me!” Vinyl demanded, “You can’t do things like that. Or get close to her. Or stare at her. Apparently she’s sensitive to that one,” she added but then went back to her friend, “She has a fear of ponies.”
To her credit, Lyra’s enthusiasm didn’t waver as she curiously asked, “She does? Why?”
“Long story. I’ve been helping her the past week but she still needs everything nice and calm to be comfortable. Can you do that?”
“Yes!” she nodded, then narrowed her eyes, “Wait. You had a human for a week and you never told me?!”
Vinyl facehoofed. “It must have slipped my mind,” she lied, “But now you’ve met her face to face. An actual human. Better?”
Lyra held her glare for a moment before exploding back into an irrationally cheery personality. “Yeah, better. So can I talk to her? Please?” She would’ve made a puppy dog jealous with the look she was giving.
“She speaks a different language and I don’t know the translation spell to cast on you.”
“What language is she speaking?” she asked rapidly.
Vinyl shot her an odd look but asked Ryan, “What language do you speak?”
“English?” she answered weakly.
“She speaks English.”
Lyra looked to Ryan and said in accentuated English, “Hi, I’m Lyra.”
Two sets of eyes bore into her. “How…?” both Vinyl and Ryan said simultaneously.
“I taught myself a few languages for fun when I was researching humans,” she answered brightly.
Vinyl stared incredulously. “…I’m getting you help after this.”
“Funny. Bon Bon says something similar all the time.”
“…”
“Hey, Ryan?” she asked.
“Yeah?” the human answered shakily.
“Can I hold your hand?”
“What?”
“I’ve always wanted to see a human hand. They can do so many thing that hooves can’t!”
Ryan sort of stared at her for a moment before sighing. “Sure,” she said begrudgingly as she held out her hand limply at her arm’s length.
Grinning a grin, she swooped up the hand in her hooves, much to the nervous shock of Ryan. Breathing heavily, she ran her hooves over the hand in a caressing way.
Vinyl watched awkwardly for a moment before breaking in, “Lyra? Want to hear some music she brought with her?”
“Like the kind that was playing earlier?” she asked, her attention diverted, “Sure.”
“Okay, go to the soundboard over there for a second and just play anything. It’s all good.”
“Okay,” she agreed, letting go over the hand which quickly retreated into its owner’s embrace.
“Thanks,” Ryan whispered to Vinyl.
“Don’t mention it. How you holding up?”
“I’d appreciate having a restraining order against her. But seriously, my heart is racing. I’d rather be anywhere but here. But I’m doing better than normal, right?”
“Definitely. I know this must be hard, you’re doing great. You’ll get comfortable eventually; I’m sure of it.”
“Okay,” she simply said to the reassurance.
As a tune came on, Lyra looked back to Ryan and smiled the definition of insanity.
This could be a long day.