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// 2 Jingle by Knight of Cerebus 
// Story: Rhythm and Harmony: The Octascratch Prompt Collab 
// by lyra_lover777 
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																	Prompt: Jingle by Knight of Cerebus 


"I cannot believe they asked me to do this." Octavia pressed her face against the desk a second time, wishing that her forehead had the ability to vaporize commissions for not the seventh time that day.
"Twenty minutes ago you were telling me how good it'll be to have money for a new couch. And the time before that it was a tuning on your viol--chello. And before that it was a new computer for me." Vinyl Scratch lay draped against a saggy, moth-eaten sofa, a ping pong paddle happily dribbling the ball it was bound to by a light string within her magical grasp.
"Yes, and in between all of those times I have remembered how gravely advertising for a half-rate scam of a magician will compromise my artistic integrity! I have played the Grand Galloping Gala. I made Celestia herself weep with my duet of the two sisters! I can do better than making showtunes for some, some--" Octavia sighed. "I don't even know what to call her."
"And yet, here we are." Vinyl said with a smirk, continuing to hit the ball against the flat of the paddle. Both to challenge her talent at the game and to further her point, she shot the ball first in the direction of the grimy, mildewed window sill, then to the dimly lit bulbs of the crooked ceiling fan, and then to her own crummy laptop upon which her precious music mixes were stored.
Octavia pressed her head against the desk. "And yet here we are."
"We could always make it a collab, you know."
Octavia turned her head to stare at Vinyl as if she had grown another head. "I beg your pardon?"
"A collab. It's a stupid jingle and the pony paying you doesn't seem to have an ear for music any more than she did an eye for fashion, if the tacky cape and the depressing trumpets she played were any indication. I'll help you design a slightly-less terribad jingle and we'll split the cash like you were planning anyway."
"Yes, but Vinyl, you know I am capable of writing it on my own."
"Yes, but Tavi, you and I both know it's driving you up the wall that you're gonna have to make a stinker of a song for this crazy pony telling everyone she's saved a town she never visited from a giant bear monster. If you write it with me we can claim you added some class to a terrible jingle I came up with and you'll look good for helping me instead of bad for taking money from some floozy."
Octavia paused, staring at Vinyl in a mixture of disbelief and guilt. "You'd really do that for me?"
"'Course I would! Nopony up top likes my jams anyway, so what do I care what they judge me for? 'Sides, I've been meaning to get us a real tree for Hearth's Warming this year and we both could lose the bits. And what are--" Vinyl paused, rubbing her chin for the right word. The ghost of a dopey smile passed her face for a minute, but just as abruptly it was gone. "Buddies for?"
Octavia's disbelief evaporated, and in its place a warm, touched smile took over her face. She placed a grateful hoof on Vinyl's shoulder, and before she could blink she'd been squeezed in a quick, rough hug. She pulled back in surprise, but her smile returned quickly. "Quite." She said happily.
Vinyl realized what she had just done in an instant. "Well, uh, lemme know what you need when you need it. I'll be on the couch. Yeah, the one...right in front of you." She brushed invisible dust from the front of her coat. Octavia raised an eyebrow, but decided not to pursue the issue. Vinyl staggered back to the sofa awkwardly, and Octavia turned back to the cheesy music with a renewed vigour. "Buddies indeed." She said to herself.