Lyra walked into the hole-in-the-wall dance club known as Dance Dance Underground. She liked to hang out here on Saturday nights when the crowd was the biggest and the DJs were the loudest. She liked that this hang out cycled through musicians pretty fast. It kept the music new and up to date. She also liked having a crowd to dance with. The more ponies that were there the more she could feel the energy.
She arrived fairly early but there were already a good crowd. She also saw the sign of who was playing tonight. It said “Beats by VO”. Under the V and O were the names Vinyl and Octavia. It sounded like a DJ crew and either the pony was named Vinyl Octavia or there were 2 ponies with each name respectively. Generic music was playing as the musicians set up. Lyra could see 2 performers on stage. One wore distinctive sun glasses (even though the lighting was pretty dim already) with white fur and a electric blue mane. She was setting up DJ equipment and lighting. The other was sitting with a Cello in hand looking very refined in a chair. She had grey fur and black mane.
Lyra had never seen anything like this. DJing was normal but what was a cellist doing here? That wasn’t the type of music that was normally played in this building, or in a nightclub, or maybe ever! The stage was set and the lights dimmed as the music started. It began soft and grew till it was shaking the room. The beat was hard and heavy and Vinyal was hopping on stage to it. Wubs vibrated the room and electronica filled in between. There was something else though. The cello gave a refinement to the melody. Actually if you thought about it the other way around the DJ was adding flair to the cello. It didn’t seem like it should but it mixed very well. Octavia played fast and furious to keep up with Vinyl and yet she did it with ease. Before Lyra knew it she was up and moving to the music.
On stage Octavia could feel the sweat forming as she concentrated on the music. Playing with a DJ was nothing like playing on the string quartet she left. She didn’t have music written on a sheet, it was all improvised. She mostly played the same tune but she changed it slightly each performance. It depended on how she was feeling that night. Vinyl also changed the beats slightly each performance so she had to keep up with that. Doing this though let her creativity flow and produced music she could never do in a quartet.
Vinal moved sliders, flicked switches, and turned knobs. She knew what 100 or so different functions on her equipment would do and could command them with ease. She was in the flow and hearing her friend Octavia killing it on the cello only helped. They seemed to have a wavelength to communicate silently during their performance. Vinyl looked up towards the climax of their song and could see the room moving like a living wave. Her fur stood on end as she finished the song and the set.
“Thank you all! We are Beats by VO. Look for us again soon and have a great time tonight!” Vinyl closed out the show with these words and the house music came back on. Vinyl and Octavia took a bow and started to pack up.
“Great show, good performance. You seemed to be in the groove”, Vinyl called over to Octavia as they were packing up.
“Thank you Vinyl. You supplied that groove that I was in. Yeah this has to be one of our best shows ever. Let’s make the next one even better”, replied Octavia. She had her normal stoic look on her face but after hearing this Vinyl couldn’t help but grin. It was just like Octavia to be thinking about the next show and how to get better. This motivation pushed Vinyl to be her best, and was why Vinyl saw Octavia as the best partner for her.
Octavia finished packing first, she had much less to pack. “I’m going to head on back, I’ll meet you back at home.”
“Catch you there in a bit.”
It might seem mean that Octavia wasn’t helping out Vinyl but she knew that Vinyl didn’t want anyone touching her equipment. It was so precious to her, but also everything was complex to take apart and store. She felt it was easier to just do it herself. She also liked to party a bit before heading home whereas Octavia usually went and rested up.
It was already very late when Vinyl got packed but she spent a few minutes partying with the crowd before heading home. Vinyl hauling her stuff as she walked down the roads of Manehatten. About half way to her apartment she spied 2 ponys slightly into an alley up the road a bit more. The roads were mostly empty so the mostly empty so the movement caught her eye. One was standing over the other looking dominate. Vinyl was curious and walked over and saw that things didn’t look good.
The pony on the ground saw Vinyl who was behind the aggressive pony. “H…Help” he said simply and almost softly.
The aggressive pony must of not heard him or thought he was bluffing because he didn’t turn around and kicked the one on the ground. Vinyl stared for a bit while her mind race. Should she help or pretend she didn’t see it and walk by? She’s never been violent or in a fight, but she wasn’t one to leave someone in need. Vinyl reached inside her packed items and grabbed a record, she flung it as hard as she could and it flew like a Frisbee smacking the assailant in the head knocking him off balance. Vinyl charged in and shoulder tackled him knocking him into the side of a building and down to the ground. Vinyl walked over to the pony on the ground and stood beside him as he stood up. Both of them looked at the assailant as he stood up himself. The assailant looked but didn’t seem to like the odds. He sneered and ran off into the night.
They watched him run off. Vinyl looked over to the other pony. “You saved me! Thank you so much! I can never repay you.” He stopped for a second gathering his thoughts. “Who are you anyways? Are you a super hero?”
Vinyl realized with her headphones and sun glasses she might of looked like a masked hero. Thinking fast and wanted to stay anonymous she answered. “Yeah, I’m DJV. Don’t get into any dangerous situations but be confident because I’m here to keep these streets safe.”
Vinyl went to pick up her record. It was scoffed pretty bad but she put it back and started to walk away. “Thank you again!” she could hear as she walked back to her apartment.
Vinyl had the walk home to think to herself. I can’t believe I just did that. I’m still on a high from the adrenalin. That was more of a rush than my performances. This is dangerous though, I can’t go looking the streets for trouble. Maybe this is a one time thing. By the time she got home she was convinced she shouldn’t do something so crazy. She walked in and the lights were off and everything was quiet. Vinyl had calmed down by now and flopped in bed for some much needed sleep.
******
The next morning Vinyl woke up groggy. She walked out of her room into the kitchen and made some breakfast for herself. As she was eating she remembered last night. It seemed like a dream except her dreams weren’t that realistic. Octavia came in the front door and Vinyl looked up at her. “Good morning. Are you just getting back?” she said jokingly and giggled to herself.
“No, no way. I just went out for a .. walk. I get up earlier than you and need to get my blood flowing. You know how it is”, replied Octavia.
“Heh heh, yeah. I know how that is…” Vinyl giggled back a big unsure.
Octavia went off to her room and shut the door. Vinyl was a bit taken aback by the conversation she just had. Octavia seemed a bit suspicious, but she was as stoic as ever. Vinyl noticed the hesitation as Octavia said she went on a walk. Maybe it was just a weird morning. Vinyl decided to put it out of her mind and not worry about it. She finished up her breakfast.
Vinyl and Octavia were full time musicians. They didn’t have other jobs. Even though they could afford to pay the bills they were by no means rich. In fact they lived rather poor. There was never much food in the pantry and nothing lavish around the house. They had a lot of free time in a day, but it would be a waste if they didn’t practice their trade. Sometimes they had solo appearances too. Octavia often looked up new music to learn or played with her old String Quartet. Vinyl looked up new samples, new beats, stayed up to date with the music scene, and generally looked for inspiration. This wasn’t all day though and right now was a time for Vinyl to do whatever she wanted. She took a long shower to help wake up and because she was still in deep thought about the events of the night before.
Why couldn’t she be a super hero? She didn’t have super powers, but nobody did. There would be no super villains with some sort of natural advantage over her. She wasn’t dumb, if things weren’t in her favor she could always run away. She wouldn’t have to go looking for trouble but things do happen and she might run across another helpless citizen getting beat up. In fact criminals usually weren’t equipped to deal with vigilantes so she should have the advantage in most situations. As long as she could make a rescue she wouldn’t need to take down the bad guy. Just keep people safe. It was her life and she could do what she wanted with it.
As Vinyl was drying off she had convinced herself to start on this possible fantasy life as a super hero. She wanted to be anonymous though so she needed a costume. She couldn’t just have someone make a costume because then it could be traced back to her buying it, but maybe she could modify one so it was unrecognizable. She knew just the person and got on the phone.
“Hi Rarity! I got a job that I know only you can do. I need a new performance outfit. Something flashy but not too intricate. You know what I’m looking for. “ Rarity was excited and got right to it. Vinyl would have it in a few days.
Vinyl was still planning and she needed weapons or gadgets. The record seemed to work well so she made a saddlebag to hold a few records. She needed some way to keep the bad guys bound for police so she got some strong rope and kept a place to hold that on her bag.
Vinyl felt ready to go and would soon be ready to keep the streets safe. She had to keep this a secret, even from her best friend. Vinyl knew she wouldn’t be for it and what if it led to her being in trouble. She couldn’t have her friend being a hostage and she couldn’t have someone wanting to stop her. She would have to hide it even from her best friend. Vinyl felt bad about this realization but it had to be done.
2 days later a special delivery came in and Vinyl made sure she was ready to get it, to make sure Octavia didn’t see what it was. Once she opened it in her room (locked) she got out a sewing needle and some material and went away at modifying the uniform. Vinyl isn’t very good a sewing but putting a big “DJV” across the back wasn’t too hard. She also removed some of the tassels Rarity had put on it and hoped it was changed enough. She donned her costume and looked in a mirror. She nodded liking the look. “Let’s boogie”, she said to herself, then laughed at the corny catch-phrase.