All & Nothing

by Aynine

The View From The Top

All & Nothing

By: Aynine

[Disclaimer: I own nothing of the MLP franchise and all rights are reserved by Hasbro and the respective parties involved.]

Chapter 1: The View From The Top

The roar. That thunderous roar of the crowd's ever-jubilant cheering. It's the sound of hundreds, maybe even thousands, of fans showing their joy for the music and its artist. Or maybe it's just them cheering just to cheer, thought Vinyl Scratch as she mixed in a new track and rolled her eyes. More wails of joy brought the volume higher as the new track blared from the stacks of speakers. Her thick headphones drowned out most of the noise, allowing her to focus on the music. The lights flickered from an ambient blue to a pulsing red. The new beat pulsed a powerful bass sound that could be felt by anyone nearby. The pulsing red light was soon joined by a flashing blue, then a green. Each shade bathed the room in its entrancing light momentarily to the beat of the song.

Many ponies in the crowd held glow sticks and lights in their mouths or wrapped around hooves and horns. A black light was always on behind the others to allow certain clothing and coats to stand out with a ghostly glow. They jumped and danced, all undulating to a beat in the song. Soon the music broke and the lights dimmed until it was just a dark blue layered over the crowd. The stage went completely dark. Nice and quiet now, sighed the DJ. A new wave of sound ripped forth from the massive speakers. She rocked her head to the pulsing sounds. The next beat incited more cheering and dancing as the crowd became livelier and the lights turned into a laser show. Various colors phased over the crowd and onto the walls, constantly darting around and crossing each other.

The light would have been bothersome on the platform where Vinyl performed, but she always wore her signature ruby red shades. The thick lenses dulled it into acceptable levels and interesting hues. She could see some of the crowd in the constant light changes, but never more than ten meters back. The constant light changes made it difficult to gauge how many ponies there were. The track began its outro and the fans pushed themselves as hard as they could to the last of the music. It was the end of her set, and the end of her show. Soon the music had ended and the cheering only seemed to grow louder as it did.

"Give it up for DJ-P0N3!" yelled an announcer enthusiastically.

The crowd was brought into an uproar once more. Further increasing the cheering, Vinyl stood up and raised her front hooves into the air, coaxing more cheering. This was it. This was why she made her music--what she lived for. As they cheered and screamed her name and other affections, she gave one last smirk and a nod before trotting off of the stage. Her mind numbed itself to her surroundings as she wandered backstage. Smaller corridors of brick and tile made up the halls she walked down. Another DJ unicorn walked by and tried to casually wave, but the white unicorn moved past without returning the friendly gesture, not even paying attention to anyone or anything but herself.

Reaching the back end of the building, she pushed open one of the large double doors and into the night. She frowned as droplets of water cascaded onto her body. Each one sent a chill down her spine, but the cold was bearable until a sweeping breeze sank its icy teeth into her flesh. The white mare shivered and braced herself. She continued forward out and across the parking lot until the numbness set in and she could relax. She wandered the streets, slowly moving down the sidewalks with her head hung low.

She let loose a loud sigh, muffled by the few carriages and hoofsteps in the late evening. I just don't care anymore... The streets soon came to life as she approached the center of Canterlot. Even in the deep, chilling night, this part of town always bustled with activity. Her head bobbed through the more sophisticated setting. Boutiques, gift shops for tourists, theaters, opera houses. As she passed a particular opera house, a few ponies moved in and out of the doors.

Vinyl stopped and froze her position, the only movement being her breath appearing as a smoky mist in the air briefly and the subtle heaving of her chest. Each time the doors opened, she could hear the faint whine of a masterfully played cello in the distance. After huffing absentmindedly, she continued moving forward, soon forgetting what she'd heard. The lonely walk continued until she reached her apartment. As far as success went, Vinyl's apartment alone stood as a testament to her fame and fortune.

She strode inside and flicked on the lights with her magic. Dropping her shades onto table by the door, she moved forward and sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time. The apartment had been adorned with comfortable and modern furniture of the highest quality. Sofas were positioned in front of a large, flat screen TV with an exquisite, custom surround sound system. It was perfect for hosting parties with her friends.

She wandered over and plopped down on the main sofa and stared at the dark screen, contemplating something to watch and fall asleep to. Friends, she thought, I don't have enough of those. Her magic snagged the remote control and turned on the large screen. She flipped through a variety of channels ranging from advertisements to family sitcoms. For a moment, she stopped on a music channel dedicated to electronic musicians. She had been featured as the number one artist... again.

The fame only elicited another drawn out sigh. Famous and alone. As channels flipped by to listless eyes, she stopped on a channel featuring classical music. Normally, she would've skipped right over it, but this particular channel piqued her interest. She sat up and leaned forward, turning up the volume to better listen. An orchestra played softly through her speakers before cutting back away to an advertisement. Bleh. How can anypony like this stuff?

Clicking the TV off, she wandered to the back of her apartment, passing the kitchen and dining room. She stopped in front of an unusually thick door. Manually pressing a hoof to it, the door obliged and swung open to reveal her studio. Turntables, microphones, speakers, headphones, keyboards, midi controllers--enough sound engineering hardware to set a band for life sprawled into view. Taking a seat at the desk, she stared at it for a moment, playing sounds in her head. She soon set to work on her next hit song.

After several hours of tinkering with beats and various synths, she slammed a hoof on the desk and removed her headphones with magic. "Argh! This isn't working! I can't think of anything!" she complained aloud. She let loose an aggravated squeal afterwards. Her soundproof studio was always a good place to vent her frustrations. "Alright, you know what? Screw it."

She snapped up with a disgusted look and stormed out of the room, heading for the kitchen. Opening the freezer, she snatched some ice cream and a spoon, skipping over a bowl entirely. A private pleasure, she ate ice cream when frustrated and uninspired. The past few months had been rough and she hadn't enjoyed any of her shows. No new music came to mind when it was time to record. She'd slipped into a depressed lull.

As she ate bite after bite of the comforting vanilla ice cream, she began to gnaw on the spoon when she ran out. Her eyes fell to the container. Empty. Tossing it in the trash, she sighed again and wandered down the hallway to her bedroom. A princess sized mattress with fine, silk sheets. She leaped onto the bed, landing and sinking into the blissfully comfortable mattress. Her eyes fixated upon the ceiling. Why am I always alone?

Comments

[Ian_Okazaki]

This is pretty good I'll have to read more when you get more.

[UnderThisToque]

I liked it, but the sentences were kind of long and hard to follow. You have an excellent way with imagery, but I feel like your story needs more structure to make it flow properly .
I also don't like this Vinyl, but I don't think I'm supposed to, ha ha XD Fame has turned her into a whiny pony.
Tracking this!

[Aynine]

201109 I think it would've had a different tone had I included a second character for dialogue. I wanted to write in first person, but I don't know what changed my mind. As for lengthy sentences, I'm not sure. I think I ended up sinking into a bit of repetition more than anything.

[UnderThisToque]

201151

Mhmm, I have to agree with you there. But these are all really easy things to fix too, just through editing.

[Aynine]

201220 This story is more like, "Whatever I feel like," sort of deal, though I try not to be lazy in any of my writing. I'll write and update this when it comes to me, but TQP will continue its regularly scheduled updates regardless.

The drawl it gives off is kind of intentional (which is why I don't really relate to the woes of the reader in this case). I admit, it was somewhat boring to write, but that's to also emphasize the depressed feeling of Vinyl. I didn't expect to publish this at all so soon. I started with a tiny idea and have since expanded it into something a bit more. I'm already writing the next part. :P