The Unexpected Guest
The Unexpected Guest
Had the weather been any better today, the unicorn might have had an excuse to be outdoors instead of being tortured by her friend.
However, Vinyl Scratch found herself trapped and intimidated by the most mundane of personal hells. It wasn't a painful situation per se, but it was a fairly gruesome ordeal for the normally nocturnal unicorn that she would rather just avoid. Unfortunately, what made the problem slightly less troublesome was the fact that Vinyl had caused the circumstances she now found herself in.
Before her was a substance she had long since sworn off drinking. Despite her earlier promise, Vinyl found herself wishing and praying that the substance would magically turn into something more palatable to her tastes. However it was in vain, her magic was for music, not alchemy and the unicorn had long ago come to terms with the fact that divine intervention would not do her any favors.
And so the cup sat there, silently mocking Vinyl with its presence, daring her to try out its knowingly bitter taste.
“It’s just tea Vinyl... it’s not going to hurt you”
“Be quiet Octavia... I’m just preparing myself”
Across the table, Octavia rolled her eyes as watching Vinyl continue to glare pensively at her cup reached a new stage of exasperation.
Her laments about Vinyl’s addictions was nothing new, but the setting in which they were discussing it was. Until recently, Vinyl and Octavia had difficulty meeting up with each other as a result of the unicorn’s nocturnal nature and of the earth pony’s wallflower-like social confidence. Traditionally, they had conversed in a bar well frequented by the musicians of the conservatorium where they could discuss their art in an enlivening environment amongst their peers.
However, that arrangement had run afoul as Octavia started to feel out of place and began to withdraw from the boisterous scene. Whilst it was quite an enriching experience to converse with Vinyl, doing so came at the cost of having to socialize with her mean spirited co-workers. This particular problem, along with an undercurrent of discomfort with her performance at work, had encouraged the earth pony into social exile, at least until Vinyl had intervened.
Presently, in order to see each other while both were cogent and sober, Vinyl would drop by Octavia’s apartment on the weekend, where along with a very late breakfast, the unicorn would catch up with her awkwardly shy friend. It was still an unperfected routine, but both ponies were quickly learning and made a special effort this week in order to catch up on affairs after what had been a busy fortnight of concerts.
Unlike previous occasions, their banter was rather subdued today, though that had more to do with Vinyl’s present caffeine drain than with Octavia’s weariness from her busy schedule. As always, Octavia’s solution to that problem was found in the form of a decent cup of coffee or tea, but to the unicorn’s personal dismay, the earth pony had run out of her second most preferred drink. Worst of all, Vinyl knew not to bother asking if her friend had her favorite drink since she already knew how much Octavia detested energy drinks.
That had left Vinyl with a cup of tea. For all of her adult life she had been avoiding this concoction, which still baffled the unicorn as to why ponies would willingly consume this foul tasting brew. What made it worse was that Octavia evidently believed strongly in trying exotic types of tea. It wasn’t enough that it had to taste bitter, it had to have a certain fragrance that would smell nice in any form, except when it was in a hot and liquidized state.
But how could she turn down the offer? Octavia was quite the wallflower sometimes and some recent experiences had made the unicorn rather cautious about offending her. That sentiment, however, wouldn’t make the tea taste any better.
“My kingdom for a bottle of Red Minotaur right now...” Vinyl sighed
“Oh please Vinyl, don’t tell me you’re still drinking those nasty things”
“You say nasty, I say a lifesaver during a long night shift,” Vinyl pronounced with a chuckle.
Octavia looked up with a less amused look.
“You know those things are packed with way too much sugar,” Octavia warned
Vinyl chuckled.
“Well duh! That’s the whole idea!”
“If you keep it up, they are going to rot your horn,”
“Great...now you sound like my doctor,” the unicorn replied sardonically. “Don’t worry about my health; I’m only down to three a night. That’s an improvement right?”
“From two a night? Depends on your idea of improvement,” Octavia quipped in return.
In other circumstances, the two ponies might’ve started an argument about this, but instead they had a light chuckle. For all their differences, the two got along too well to let simple disputes like beverage choice ruin what was already the most improbable of friendships.
If Octavia was ever asked to describe Vinyl, her vocabulary would have been taxed to find any better suiting words than eccentric and unpredictably insightful. This came mainly for the fact that Vinyl - despite the popular belief to the contrary - was quite interested in classical music, even to the point of sitting in on practice sessions when Octavia and her co-workers were preparing for a minor event. Another misconception was that Vinyl preferred to sit behind the turntable stand in nightclubs every night, but that was far from the case.
As Octavia had long since discovered, the unicorn was at her best when she was experimenting with music and composing something new and fresh without regard for the strict rules of musical structure that institutions like the Royal Conservatorium obeyed. This was almost where the two ponies had commonality. As a composer, the unicorn had a strange and ornate perfectionist sense in her that set her well apart from the usually lazy contemporaries in the Disk Jockey business. The only difference though was that while Octavia had the same level of dedication for detail, Vinyl was able to turn those senses off when the music stopped playing.
Otherwise, both ponies got on remarkably well.
“Well, if you drink those candy drinks every day, I’m sure you can stomach a cup of tea...”
“They are nothing alike”
“Please, Vinyl. Besides, I’m sure you’ll like it if you try it... this is Keemun tea. It’s very expensive”
Vinyl sighed and bowed to the inevitable. Her horn lit up with a dull blue glow and lifted the cup up towards her reluctant mouth.
If there was ever a strong argument to use against the Unicorn, it was to let her know how much something cost. While not suffering any sort of financial problems herself, Vinyl was easily guilt stricken about the idea of wasting anything of a certain value. Octavia, in contrast, was not well off and so for her, this was a rather generous thing to share with Vinyl.
The alabaster unicorn would never know if divine intervention decided to turn in her favor, but just before she took a sip, both ponies heard a thumping sound at the front door. Octavia’s ears flickered in surprise as her attention was suddenly turned to the unknown guest.
“I wonder who that could be?” the earth pony pondered as she rose to her hooves.
“Maybe the coolness police,” Vinyl joked right away “They are going to take you away for making me drink this!”
Octavia stifled a chuckle.
“I’m sure they wouldn’t mind it either way,” Octavia replied smartly as she cantered to the door.
Curious as to whom it was, Vinyl promptly returned to all four hooves herself and went to catch up with her host. As the unicorn caught up, she saw Octavia already peering through the spyglass and caught the muted surprise.
“Well I’ll be...”
To Vinyl’s surprise, Octavia’s appeared rather excited as she grabbed the handle with her mouth to open the door.
“Melody! What a surprise,” Octavia chimed, again to Vinyl’s now amused surprise.
Standing on the other side of the doorway was another earth pony with a light grey coat that looked to be a few to be a few years younger than Octavia. For what this pony lacked in age though, she seemed to make up for with a visibly exultant personality that strongly contrasted the elder earth pony. Vinyl quickly realized that some of this elation had more to do with the excitement of this stranger finding Octavia.
“Tavi!” the unexpected guest voice exclaimed before reaching out for an embrace.
Vinyl’s ears instantly perked up at hearing that rarely uttered nickname and soon became befuddled when Octavia did not negatively react to it.
To her knowledge, only a select few ponies could ever call Octavia by any shorthoof variation of her name and not get a nasty retort in return. Vinyl barely counted herself within that circle, but she had never seen this mare before.
“Melody! What a surprise,” Octavia gasped once they broke off their embrace. “What are you doing up here?”
“Well I was in the area... so I thought I’d drop in and say hello.”
“Well, you should stay for more than a hello, come on in!” Octavia gestured with a hoof.
Both ponies turned around and found themselves confronted with the obvious white...alabaster colored elephant in the room. Octavia quickly addressed that short coming at once.
“Oh where are my manners?” Octavia continued talking in a cheerful tone “Melody! This is Vinyl Scratch, a close friend of mine in Canterlot... Vinyl, this is Melody Belles, she is an old friend of mine from before I moved to Canterlot.”
“Delighted to meet you!” the younger mare extended a hoof to Vinyl, who greeted it with an unsure awkwardness.
Vinyl hadn't spotted the curious item straight away because of the focus she had on the surprise arrival of the younger earth pony. Now that she had been properly introduced, the unicorn took the chance to take another look over, specifically at the items she was carrying. Much like Octavia would on any given day, the pony sported her own saddlebags – which looked rather large on the small pony – and a blue instrument case. It wasn’t anywhere near the size of her friend’s cello, rather it was only about the size of a small violin.
Curiously, the color of the case was the first thing that tipped Vinyl off. Most, if not all, of the other musicians she knew from the Royal Academy favored the commonplace black cases, but this one was a faded royal blue. But it wasn’t until the light grey pony passed by the unicorn that she noticed another remarkably thing about the case that instantly brought her passing interest into full attention.
“Care to have a look around first?” Octavia offered.
“Sure!” Melody replied cheerfully.
Without hesitation the two earth ponies continued to the living room, leaving a very perplexed unicorn to ponder.
Getting back to the table took some effort on the part of Octavia, who was compelled to give her new guest a tour of her abode.
It was not a long tour, as there was little to be seen in a one bedroom apartment, but Octavia had taken full advantage of the chance to show a pony around the home she had spent an almost inexcusable amount furnishing. In the meantime, Vinyl had returned to the table to continue eating a few biscuits and feeling a little left out. Eventually Octavia reunited with her at the table, but instantly made herself busy again by preparing a cup of tea for her new guest.
“So what brings you to Canterlot, Melody?” Octavia asked as she poured a fresh cup.
“Well, I’ve come to join you at the Academy,” Melody announced.
“Oh,” Octavia smiled “You're going for an audition?”
“Of course,” Melody grinned “I’ve been practicing everyday for weeks for this chance”
The way she said it made the elder earth pony chuckle, it was a delightful reminder of how she was when she first came to Canterlot.
“I remember doing something like that once...” Octavia replied as she sat down “...turned out okay for me”
“Well, you were always a fantastic cello player.”
The two earth ponies chuckled, making the unicorn in the room feel awkward again. It was as if a magical spell had been cast and all of a sudden Vinyl felt like a stranger listening in on a conversation.
In her own defense, the disk jockey had to admit that she wasn’t a classical musician like her friend was, so it was inevitable that some things would make no sense. But at the same time, the unicorn found herself distracted again by the violin case, now leaning against one of Octavia’s sofas. Vinyl couldn’t help but sense some deja vu by just looking at the violin case.
Eventually, the unicorn decided to just ignore the feeling for now and turned her focus back to the conversation.
“And where are you going to stay?”
“Canter-Lodge Inn”
“Oh... That’s a nice place, a lot nicer than where I was staying when I was auditioning...I think I was down the street at...”
Vinyl coughed, politely reminding the two earth ponies she was in the room. Octavia turned at once, feeling a little bemused at the interruption from her friend, but a moment later feeling sorry for the unicorn at being left out of the conversation.
“I’m sorry, I don’t want to be rude but I didn’t take ‘Clairvoyance 101’ when I was in school but...how do you know Octavia exactly?”
It sounded a little rude, but both earth ponies fortunately didn't take offence to the witty remark. For Melody’s part, the earth pony realized that through her arrival, she had evidently halted any discussion her mentor was having with her friend and the aforementioned unicorn was now feeling left out. It was altogether an awkward moment, but the young mare tried her best to strive past this shortcoming.
“I’m sorry,” Melody apologized then started to explain “The short version... Octavia and I both attended the music school in Trottingham-”
“Where as I recall, you went by the nickname ‘Melly Belly’,” Octavia inserted.
Melody chuckled.
“I don’t think there was a single student of Mr. Tipplekeys’s that didn't have a nickname, right Tavi?”
Octavia frowned a little, but let go of her bemusement when she realized it was not meant as an insult. Vinyl however, picked up on the name as a bit of a curiosity. To her knowledge, had anypony else said that, Octavia would’ve been infuriated, but somehow this Melody filly got away with it fairly easily. The unicorn ventured to conclude that Melody was more than a mere classmate of Octavia’s and decided that instead of assuming, she could just ask.
“I see... so you were classmates?”
Octavia hummed an incorrect tone before replying.
“It doesn’t quite work that Vinyl... No; I was something like...like a mentor I guess”
“I see” Vinyl replied, she didn’t quite understand, but that was what one said.
“Octavia taught me how to balance better on my back legs so I could play a violin while standing”
“You play violin?”
“Of course,” Melody answered.
Vinyl briefly glanced over at the violin again, then back at the earth pony.
“And you’re here and auditioning to join the Royal Palace Conservatorium?”
“That’s correct”
“You don't say...” Vinyl drifted off and felt her ponders return again.
The sense of deja vu was back again. This time it wasn’t just the instrument case that was pegging her memory, but the exact circumstances she was here. Vinyl had already clouded a longing suspicion but had been too shy to voice it to the others until now. The simple reason had been that, as delightful as the possibility was, the unicorn was not really one that jumped to conclusions.
Vinyl pondered about the right course of action and decided that it was at least worth a look, even if it wasn’t to be in the end.
“That’s a fancy color case” Vinyl started “Mind if I look at it?”
Melody was a little confused by the unicorn’s request, but saw no real harm in letting one of Octavia’s – whom had been her beloved mentor – friends look at her violin and picked herself up to retrieve the instrument.
On the other side of the table, Octavia at once went on alert when she caught the inquiring look the unicorn had on her face. The problem was her expression looked similar to nostalgia, something Octavia did not associate with Vinyl, who seldom held sentiment for old things. That made the grey earth pony guarded and a little worried about why her friend was suddenly interested in Melody’s violin.
“It’s really a hoof-me-down. it was originally my sisters violin, but when she joined the Fillydelphia Conservatorium a few years ago, she decided to get a new one, and so it became mine,” Melody explained as she placed the case flat on the empty part of the coffee table.
“You don’t say...” Vinyl thought again.
Upon closer inspection, the case had seen better days, but that told Vinyl that that it had been used quite a lot. It had its collection of scratches and dents, and the fabric on the case was worn-looking, but it still looked rather new despite its age. One district mark on the case however caught Vinyl’s attention: an odd scribbled engraving on the handle, which bore the uncanny initials ‘V.S’. It was too good to be true now and deja vu it no longer was, Vinyl had seen this case before.
“May I see?” Vinyl motioned at the locks.
Melody wondered about doing that and looked up to Vinyl, only to pick up the same look her senior had noticed just before. Had she known the unicorn a little better, she might’ve read the look a different way and hesitated at the suggestion or even said no instead, the earth pony – who still felt sorry for interrupting her afternoon with Octavia – saw no harm in doing so and opened the case.
“Sure, I don’t see why not”
Vinyl only needed to take one look and gasped.
The unicorn was a believer in coincidence whenever something funny was involved, but this was a whole different feedbag. Never once did Vinyl Scratch ever suspect that she would come across this particular piece of her past, but it was right there in front of her, in all its nostalgic form.
“Well I’ll be... I haven’t seen you in a long time...” Vinyl sensed giddiness surging though.
Octavia’s worries automatically doubled when she saw the look on Vinyl change from curiosity to a very strange sense of warmth for the object. It was almost too scary to believe to see Vinyl become quickly enthralled by the sight of this violin. To her knowledge, Vinyl Scratch had never professed to have played with an instrument before, apart from her turntable, and the idea of the unicorn even attempting to play this one rapidly frightened her.
“I know this is asking a lot, but you don’t mind if I give this a little play?” the unicorn looked up pleading “It’s been awhile”
Melody again was failed by her lack of knowledge on this unicorn and her general naiveté about Canterlotians. Her response however was guarded.
“Do you know how to play Miss Vinyl?” Melody asked.
Despite the awkward feeling from the title she was given, Vinyl almost grinned when she responded.
“Actually as a matter of fact-”
“No, she doesn’t,” Octavia cut her off.
The two ponies turned to face their host.
“Melody, Vinyl has not once in her life picked up a classical instrument and played it well” Octavia announced “...that one time with my cello is enough proof”
Vinyl gave her friend and hurtful look.
“Tavi, I told you I was joking around back then... and don’t you ever know you should never judge a horse until it’s performed all its tricks?” Vinyl declared, then turned the other pony “Trust me, I’m a little rusty, but I can play”
Before the subject could even be argued, Vinyl extracted the violin and bow out with her magic. Once free, Vinyl sat back on her haunches and with closed eyes levitated the instruments into her hooves. On the other side of the table, Octavia feared the worse and braced for the screeching noise. Her ears flopped down, but then she took the further measure of covering them with her front hooves. Now recognizing the apparent error she had made, Melody quickly followed her mentors motions.
“Here goes”
Vinyl’s first attempt ended abruptly when the single note she was played sounded too high. Opening her eyes, Vinyl chuckled as she quickly rectified the error by adjusting her hoof holding the neck for a second attempt.
“Okay, now here we go”
From the moment she started it playing, fours seconds passed before Octavia to started feeling a tad stupid for holding her ears down like she was.
At first, Octavia wasn’t quite sure if she was actually imagining Vinyl playing the violin, but it took an additional few seconds for that denial to be defeated. To her befuddling astonishment, the unicorn was actually playing properly, although as she was by her own admission, a little rusty. With only a few errors, Vinyl Scratch continued to play the opening bars to ‘Rule Equestria’, which not perfectly in tune, thoroughly convinced Octavia that Vinyl was indeed capable of playing.
Melody caught on slightly faster that Octavia did and by the end of the brief performance was actually impressed.
“Wow! That was pretty good, when did you learn to play?” the younger of the two earth ponies got to ask first.
“When I was a filly...in fact unless I’m mistaken, I believe this violin used to be mine”
That pronouncement came as a surprise to the two musicians. Once she wore off thought, Octavia was quick to respond.
“How can you tell?”
“Well... unless I’m mistaken again... those there are the Initials my parents had carved into the handle” Vinyl said as she caressed that part of the case.
Melody turned the case over to see the handle for herself and caught a look at the familiar looking etching.
“I always thought that was the brand of the violin...” Melody answered and looked up to the unicorn again, “Then why did you stop playing?”
“Well... that’s a long story,” Vinyl casually answered.
“Really?” Octavia replied with a wary glance.
One annoying fault of Vinyl’s was her regretful attempts for modesty; sometimes it just gave away volumes more about what she was hiding. Considering the way Vinyl acted after seeing this violin, it was too much to believe that it was as simple a story as she implied. Octavia wanted to know more and already the earth pony realized there would be no better time to query her friend about this than right now.
“Then why don’t you tell us? Melody you don’t mind, do you?”
“Of course not, I’d love to hear it,” the younger pony agreed with her mentor.
Vinyl smirked at the challenge, but sensed a trip down memory lane might be in order now that she had been reunited with her instrument.
“Well, I guess if you have the time... It started when I was filly...”
It was nothing more boring or uninteresting than attending a society party, at least that was what Vinyl Scratch had long since concluded.
First, there was the always annoying task of donning a petite fitting gown to wear to these functions. The young unicorn groaned whenever she learnt that her parents were invited to a party, because it always meant she would be forced to wear another pink frilly dress at her mother’s insistence. For a tomcolt like Vinyl Scratch, this constituted as a form of torture, one that was compounded by guilt from her mother if she were ever to damage one of her expensive dresses.
Once Vinyl was dressed up and her mane tightly brushed into whatever style was deemed appropriate, she would travel with her parents by carriage to whatever home or garden that was hosting the event. Even if they arrived early – which was seldom the case – they could not enter the party until they had been greeted by the host. In the end though, by the time Vinyl was finally be allowed to canter around on her own, she would already have grown bored of the party.
Despite her family’s love for these events, Vinyl Scratch simply didn’t enjoy going. To her, it simply felt like a big waste of time, especially since these parties never celebrated a birthday, rather were normally put together for boring ‘grown up’ nonsense that felt like an excuse to dress up and act formal. Vinyl Scratch always felt out of place and for quite a number of reasons, the most prominent of which was that there was often nothing for her to eat.
At every event since Vinyl Scratch was able to trot on her own, she had been made to consume tasteless food that seemed perfect for the ever talkative ponies that couldn’t stop gossiping to finish their plates. The food got even worse at ballroom or garden parties, which while still edible – for those with bitter tongues – was served in even smaller proportions and often hard to obtain anyway given how waiters would ignore her. What topped off her displeasure was that Vinyl was always limited to one type of beverage, water, whilst all the grown-up ponies got to drink all kinds of things out of fancy glasses.
Then there was her gripe about having nopony to talk to. One crucial requirement at these social functions was to have an equal, or at the very least somepony with something in common. Vinyl however was a unicorn uncommonly mismatched due to her age. She came from being deemed too young for the older foals and too old to be associating with the youngest foals.
This odd social mismatch often left Vinyl to wander around in the awkward role of the party loner; that one mare or colt who latched from one conversation to the next and was occasionally listened to. But despite her pleasing manners and the willingness to listen, Vinyl was almost always ignored.
This lack of conversation eventually led Vinyl to sit by the music being played. Whenever the unicorn had exhausted her patience with the other ponies, Vinyl would collect what food she found palatable and sat herself in front of the musicians that provided the room or garden with a sound other than endless chatter. It was the one unqualified enjoyment she had, and unsurprisingly, an interest she shared with nopony else at these parties.
This was where Vinyl Scratch first developed her love for music.
Sitting near the performers, the unicorn always listened in, feeling as though she was their only audience in a room or garden full of disinterested ponies. After awhile of just enjoying the music, Vinyl had started to learn about the kind of music they played, from the distinct order in which they played throughout the night, to the sort of instruments needed for a given occasion. However, from early on, Vinyl developed one minor gripe with them and that was their limited selection of music.
While still too young to be educated in the arts, the unicorn started to notice how little variety their music appeared to have. Initially she accepted the constraints as the result of what the limited number of musicians could achieve, but when she was first exposed to a full orchestra for the first time, that impression quickly changed. It wasn’t for a lack of instruments or ponies, it was just that they simply didn’t play anything new.
To her way of thinking, that could explain why nopony ever paid attention anymore. However, that was not enough of a reason for the unicorn to turn away from the one thing about these parties she liked, and so she sat and watched, ignoring everything but these underappreciated ponies playing.
“My dear Vinyl, listening to the band again I see?” an elder voice spoke.
Vinyl did not even have to think twice about who it was and quickly leapt off the grass and turned to face the elder unicorn.
“Daddy!”
He stifled his chuckle enough to clear his throat at being called that.
”Now Vinyl, you know you shouldn’t call me that here”
The unicorn nodded her head down in apology.
“I’m sorry father”
“It’s quite alright dear…” he chuckled “It’s only when we’re out in public”
Vinyl remained disappointed in herself.
“Please cheer up,” her father suggested, then moved on to his query “...so how come you’re sitting here by yourself? Isn’t there anything else to do?”
“No there isn’t,” Vinyl complained politely.
“What about playing with the others?” Her father turned to the group of foals assembled around the far edge of the garden.
“I can’t... all the others call me a blank flank.... and besides, Blueblood is here today” Vinyl went on to explain “He thinks I’m a baby and that ‘babies’ shouldn’t try to talk to him”
“He is a worrisome colt...” he muttered, then he changed topics “...Do you find the music interesting today?”
“Very” Vinyl replied “but I do wish they had more songs to play”
“What’s wrong with this?” he gestured his hoof at the band, playing on despite their talk.
“Its all fine... but I wish they could play something new...”
“Well…I’ve never really thought of it that way,” he chuckled then “Maybe you should write some new music for....”
“Lord Scratch!”
Father and daughter turned their heads to find the source of that voice. Both felt dismay, but for very different reasons; for Vinyl having the precious little time with her father interrupted and for Lord Scratch who had a more informed antipathy for the stallion approaching.
“Ah Hollow Wood, So good to see you,” Vinyl’s father replied with a false grin“...I cannot seem to evade you for long at these parties”
“You hardly make it a challenge,” the fellow Unicorn retorted and bellowed with his ghastly laugh “So are you trying to learn about what the foals are into these days?”
Lord Slate Scratch sighed with his empty chuckle at the bad joke. He decided to answer bluntly though.
“Well, if you want to call it that... Though if you put it that way, I guess you're trying to ask for a favor...again”
“Not really...but myself and a few of my colleagues did want to ask about how the railroading business treating you...care to join us? We would most enjoy your insights”
The unicorn sighed, already deciphering the language as another spoiled noble looking for a share of his business pie. It seemed a little insulting to even beg for a job, considering this was the same drunk that had laughed at his Dodge Junction railway expansion just last year. Yet unfortunately the elder Scratch did have to recognize this as business, Hollow Wood’s father was an old friend of his - not to mention a lot more intelligent than his son - and so he had to take the request with some calculation.
Before leaving, he turned to his daughter again.
“I’m sorry dear... your father has a few business matters he needs to settle while he is here,” Slate then added to himself “...and quite honestly needs to nail a few muzzles shut”
“I understand father” Vinyl said, lying like her father wanted her to.
“We’ll talk later... how about you think about that music thing a little more in the meantime,” her father suggested.
“Okay father”
Lord Scratch turned away and was led by his would-be associate to a group of unicorns and one pegasus who all seemed as gaudy looking as everypony else. She wasn’t angry at her father for putting his work over her interests, Vinyl was long past that phase, but it did disappoint her that he did not immediately correct that annoying fellow that they were having a rare moment with each other.
Vinyl ,however, did take up to his suggestion with some interest and returned her focus to the band playing. This time vinyl listened in with a new ear for detail, wondering how she could go about what her father had almost challenged her to do.
The two earth ponies looked at Vinyl with equal amounts of surprise, yet both had different reasons for being this way.
For Octavia, it was as if she had become aware of her own obliviousness and somehow felt embarrassed for not noticing it before. It only occurred to her at that moment that she had inquired about what kind of family Vinyl Scratch was from, and her surprise showed it. It was all a little more embarrassing than shocking, especially since the two of them had been conversing for almost a year now.
The earth pony had never broached the subject of families with the unicorn, except for a question or two about what her parents did for work. On top of that thought, Octavia realized right away that Vinyl was serious. She had known the unicorn to tell tall tales, but never did Vinyl have the nerve to tell a story this long without cracking up.
Melody ,on the other hoof, took all of this as a complete surprise and without the weight of the revelations that Octavia was fighting with, was free to ask that first predictable question the unicorn was already familiar with.
“Your father is a Lord? Does that mean you’re royalty?!”
As a filly Vinyl had once detested that assumption, but now as an adult, she merely chuckled at the thought.
“Not really. It’s just an honorary title... and besides, it doesn’t work like that. Dad explained to me once that there are about ninety-nine lords and earls and other fuss-buckets ahead of him that will earn the title of royalty before he ever gets it himself.... not that I mind. From my experience you have be a real jerk to be a royal, and I’m not a jerk to anypony...am I Tavi?”
“Only when you’re drunk... or when you're really high on sugar.... and then there was that time when you tried to replace the strings on my instrument with twine....”
”Besides that,” Vinyl laughed at her guilt. It was hard to deny something Octavia had caught her in the act of doing.
“Anyway...” Octavia stifled her own chuckle “My point is, I think we are a little surprised about your family is all we’re trying to say”
Vinyl’s expression returned to a semi-serious state.
“I get that a lot...” Vinyl sighed “back on the playground... at those annoying parties... problem is daddy wasn’t like that, he loves working for the railways”
Octavia again cursed her friend’s humbleness and pried further.
“But what does he do for them?” Octavia asked wryly. In her mind, the earth pony imagined a vision of Vinyl’s father as a kind and gentle rail porter or a ticket inspector, but that was hardly the job for a Lord, was it?
“Well he did some management stuff... you know... tickets and stuff, but-”
“Wait... Miss Vinyl,” Melody interrupted “did you say your father’s name was Slate Scratch?”
“Yeah, what about it?” the unicorn asked guardedly and already didn't like the direction this was going.
One particular reason why she was humble was that she didn't like to boast...unless it was on her own merit, and even then, the unicorn was not sanguine about cheering her own accomplishments. Some of it came from the fact she had an ‘honorary’ lord for a father, but most of her mini-complex came from what Melody had just figured out.
“Isn’t he the unicorn that built the Appleloosa rail line? I mean, the railway for all the western frontier towns?”
“He didn’t build it, he just managed its construction and planned the route.... and occasionally oversaw the bridges being built. You know... management stuff”
“That’s more than just ‘management’ Vinyl, that’s pretty important stuff,” Octavia stated with a wry smile “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
“It’s not exactly something I like to advertise” Vinyl answered and went on “My father never really boasted at the parties, but I guess that’s kind of like him in a way... what he wanted to do was be something other than a stuffy lord in Canterlot. I guess I get some of my attitude from him”
“Not to mention your humbleness” Octavia thought before shrugging off that thought.
“So what does he do now?” Melody asked next.
“Well he finished the line to Appleloosa, I don’t really see him a lot, so I don’t know” Vinyl replied then quickly added “Anyway, we’re getting off topic... now where was I?”
It had not been more than a few weeks since the party, however that was all the time Vinyl needed to develop her interest into a full blown obsession.
That development had started the moment Vinyl came upon the first challenge. How could one go about thinking up new music and putting it in a form that was more everlasting than her short term memory? It was an obstacle for Vinyl, but one that couldn’t be avoided and for her to succeed at all, overcoming this hurdle was essential.
Like any inquisitive filly her age, her first port of call had been to make an enquiry at the school library. To her astonishment however, the library’s rather comprehensive collection of books on music had nothing that taught Vinyl how one went about recording or composing music. It didn’t deter her though and while she was not a traditionally academic pony, Vinyl decided to continue her enquiry at a higher level; the Canterlot central city library
From here, Vinyl came across her next obstacle. While she did find some books on the subject, none were written in a vocabulary she understood. Considering the type of music she enjoyed, Vinyl had long since ruled out songs with lyrics, but that seemed to make the task harder. Only a few books appeared to address the subject, and all of them were evidently written for somepony far older than her.
Still undeterred and with a dictionary in her hoof, the unicorn continued on and tried to understand the books, but still failed to comprehend the subject. She wasn’t stupid, it was just that there appeared to be a lot of rules to composing and that worried her. After exhaustively reading through a tome on the subject; she still failed to find a proper – and hopefully understandable – explanation on how one went about composing new music.
This particular failure might’ve ended the unicorn’s quest, but a reexamination of the sheet music examples provided in another smaller book didn’t give her any idea on how she might go about it. Rather than try to understand the existing system of notes and symbols that made up the sheet music, Vinyl decided to invent her own system.
Starting with a blank piece of paper, Vinyl would start to hum whatever melody she had in mind and as she sang, let the pencil she held draw a seemingly erratic line across the page. As the pitch changed, the pencil would stray up or down until it reached the end where she would instantly start a new line. It was a basic system, but one for which Vinyl could completely understand and as time wore on, could evolve into a sophisticated system as complex as the real life compositions like in those dusty tomes.
From then on, whenever Vinyl would think of a clever idea or hear a particular song that had something she wanted to incorporate, she would quickly find a blank piece of paper and write it down before her memory faded. She would even sneak papers in her party dress, just so she could study the music being played for new ideas. To all concerned, it was probably the most bizarre change in Vinyl’s personality they had ever seen, but the filly couldn’t have been happier.
One unicorn however, was not.
“Vinyl dearest, would you please put away those scribbles…and stop humming! You're a lady, not a mule! You’ll rot your teeth if you keep that up!”
“Yes mother” Vinyl responded and reached for her saddle bag. She was a little slow in stopping her hum however
“Oh I wish you had left that thing at home... we will be arriving shortly so I want you on your best behavior starting now”
Vinyl sighed and looked out the carriage window at the passing scenery of Canterlot streets. Any prolonged time in a stagecoach was too much for the excitable filly, especially when her mother was in a foul mood. What only made it worse was that it had been of her own mother’s doing; she had simply taken too long getting ready this morning, and how was that the fault of the young filly?
Today, Vinyl had the misfortune of being taken along to her mother’s usual meeting with her circle of friends for an afternoon game of bridge and to gossip about the affairs of Canterlot. The filly unicorn always did everything she could to avoid going along to these abysmally boring tea parties, but occasionally her presence as an otherwise expensive and living accessory was necessary. It was a tedious exercise in social networking that the filly unicorn had become depressingly used to.
“Here we go” Vinyl silently sighed as they turned to leave the street.
Upon leaving the road, the carriage carted up a small drive to the manor and while she continued to groan about what would soon be the beginning of her boring afternoon. In Vinyl’s limited experience of social affair, she realized that if ego could be measured, it would be done so by the size of the residence, as this daunting house somehow seemed appropriate for the owner. It belonged to one of her mother’s close friends, though the term was lightly polluted by the nature of their association.
In contrast to her father, whom had friends of actual common interest, Vinyl Scratch’s mother was clutched dependently onto the old social ladder of Canterlot. Since her marriage, and then induction into equestrian peerage through her husband’s deeds, Vinyl’s mother had strived endlessly to become an important figure. This had resulted in an odd combination of associations and acquaintances, all of whom relied upon siding with the popular opinion to be considered a pony everypony should know.
To Vinyl, it seemed like a great big game of acting, something she might associate with school-yard bullies even.
“Now dearest, please be nice to the Lady of the house, she has wanted to see you for quite a while,” Her mother chided once more for good measure.
The carriage stopped and right away the foot pony jumped off and opened the door for his passengers. Despite her displeasure at being so late, Vinyl’s mother quickly repressed her stressed look and exited the cabin looking ever like the wife of a lord. Awaiting her, another lavender unicorn came down to greet the new guests to her home.
“Lady Brighten Balance” The stern voice calmly announced “I must admit, I cannot wait to hear your reason for being so late”
“I’m terribly sorry... the carriage was awfully waylaid on the way here...and my Vinyl seemed rather slow this morning in getting ready” Brighten responded.
“Your little Vinyl again... I see, and where is the filly?”
Just as she finished the thought, Vinyl Scratch stepped out of the carriage to join her mother, as always five hooves behind and to the left.
“Ah there you are...you know you should have already been out of the carriage by now...and no wonder!” the unicorn spotted a fault already “You’ve gotten round... Brighten, what have I told you about feeding this foal properly... you shouldn’t call yourself a Lady if you’re tardy because of this overfed filly”
“I’m terribly sorry again...I try and try to convince her to be a better lady...” Brighten deferred with her usual excuses “....but all those weird ideas they teach our foals today in school...it’s ruining her upbringing”
“Quite true...” the elder of the two peers pondered “Very well, I hope you have brought your game with you today...because I am really in the mood for a challenge.
“Of course Lady Grand Salary” Brighten pleasingly answered.
“And you young filly?” The lavender mare asked “What do you have to say for yourself?”
“It’s a great honor for you to invite me today” Vinyl bowed her head accordingly. She had practiced it enough times.
“Well at least you haven’t forgotten your manners... though from the way you dress, I wonder how much longer plan on staying that way”
Vinyl took the insult like a grown pony would and said nothing. She had made the mistake before of responding to these prods and the result had been a month of being grounded from ice cream and visiting her friends.
“Very well then... do mind your manners in my house” she sternly warned “Now come Brighten, our game table awaits”
The two elder ponies turned for the door and left the filly unicorn all alone with her thoughts. Having served her only purpose, Vinyl was now free to do whatever she liked, and by that, it really meant to obey the age old pony adage ‘foals should not be seen or heard when un-required’
She really detested that saying, but it did have its advantages.
For all the displeasure that came with visiting some of her mother’s friends, she was at least old enough to be left alone and that meant a freedom of sorts to explore the manor. Now that she was free of her obligations for awhile, Vinyl went looking for the library, where at her own pleasure, she could resume her work on the composition she had started this morning.
Passing by the hallway that lead to the sitting room her mother would enter, Vinyl climbed the stairs and took a right. Her memory served her well and soon the filly unicorn found herself in the household’s library. However, before the unicorn had the chance to even find a comfortable seat, she spotted another colt already in here, no doubt dragged along by his mother for the exact same purpose as Vinyl had just endured. To her dismay it was Feather Script, a colt that she did not enjoy the company of anymore.
“I thought I smelled a blank flank entering”
“What do you want Feather?” Vinyl hissed.
“Well at the moment Vinyl, I would like it if you would be so kind to remove yourself from this library... your presence is only going to stifle my study environment”
Vinyl Scratch sighed. Until he got his cutie mark, this fellow unicorn was actually quite a sweetheart at times, but now he was like the other colts she was alienated from at parties; stuffy, egotistical and just a little too stupid for their own good. However, Vinyl could immediately exploit the last flaw.
“So what is it this time... remedial math... or remedial magic?”
“Oh shut up!” Feather protested “Like you would understand how hard it is to do advanced magic”
Vinyl grinned at the chance to verbally snipe at the colt again.
“True, but you didn’t deny it... I guess it’s important to be honest with yourself”
“Get out!” the colt bellowed louder this time.
“Fine, fine, have it to yourself,” Vinyl sighed.
Without further protests, the filly unicorn picked up her recently deposited saddlebag and passed through the doorway again. She would’ve slammed the door, but the colt had beaten her to that with his magic in grasping the door first.
Now without a quiet place to resume her work, Vinyl instead decided to explore a little more of the house she frequently visited, yet actually knew very little of. It was the one other advantage that overcame the displeasure of visiting her mother’s friends: the delight of exploring a home that wasn’t her own. Trotting back to the stairwell, the young mare continued on and entered the previously unexplored left side of the manor.
Unfortunately, like most rich homes, there was a penchant to make everything look the same, or even symmetrical if it was possible. Passing by the first few doors, Vinyl quickly assumed that the left side of the house might just as well have been a clone of the right side, at least until she almost missed noticing the contents of the next room. Vinyl did a double take and reversed a hoof-step to look inside the room she had trotted by.
Inside, sitting in the center of the room was a grand piano, looking forgotten despite the fact that the room was evidently made to accommodate this instrument. The discovery quickly excited the young filly and without hesitation, went to occupy the room before another annoying colt could tease her out of it.
“Sounds pretty quiet” Vinyl noted as she perked her ears up to listen for any outside noises.
When she failed to hear any sort of noise, the filly reached for her saddlebag and pulled out her notebook full of compositions and cantered over to the nearby seat intended for listeners and returned to her work. With a free hoof, she reached for the pen folded in the pages and positioned it directly above the page. After a deep breath, vinyl resumed her song, humming slowly up and down the octaves, the pen matched the contour of the melody.
After some time however, her mouth felt a little sore from humming and this prompted her to look up at the piano again.
Despite their wealth, her family it didn’t possess one in their home, citing that nopony in their house knew how to play. That did come as something of a disadvantage to the young filly, who by now had started to grow tired of not being able to apply her musical ideas to a real instrument. But right now, through the most mundane of circumstances, Vinyl suddenly felt a twinge in her hindquarters, excited about the chance to finally fulfill that shortcoming.
With her very weak ability to levitate, Vinyl Scratch lifted her music book up and returned to the piano. With a hoof, she lifted the cover and found the line of keys, awaiting somepony to play them. The unicorn briefly weighed the option of using the piano, but inevitably she only needed to look at her book again to realize the potential of this moment.
Without another hesitation she sat on the bench and prepared the book for her first attempt to adapt her hummed melody to a real instrument.
“Here goes...”
Had Vinyl ever thought about it a little more, she probably would have realized that whilst the room appeared soundproof, the floor might not be and therefore detection might occur. This was especially the case if the music room she had discovered was directly above the sitting room her mother and her friends were gossiping in.
“...and then i said to him... that’s not a necktie, that’s a snake that happened to seize up around your neck!” Grand Salary finished her story, to the collective amusement of the other three ponies.
“Oh, I wish I could've had the pleasure of seeing the look on that foolish stallion’s face” A cyan-colored unicorn chimed in what would’ve been awkward in a normal discussion, yet was perfectly normal in high society.
“You must next time... and that hospital really should give you more time to socialize... it is absolutely appalling how hard they have you working” Grand Salary commented. “How in the world do they expect you to keep up your social obligations to me and everypony when they have you treating every broken hoof in Canterlot?”
“Four days isn't that taxing... though I must admit that bat-brained director isn’t doing me any favors by not paying me what I’m clearly worth” the fellow unicorn agreed.
“Oh, that director... You see Brighten, Tendercare... this is what i was warning you about...” Grand Salary started to lecture “Celestia has employed a tyrant at Canterlot General... She should never have been given the ability to select the new director. It’s always those anti-social workaholics she likes that get the top jobs in this city... and what good are they for promoting charity and working with us in the private sector?”
The three other ponies in the room all nodded their approval, even if it was all rather strenuous to listen to the opinion of their senior.
They were all minor figures compared to Grand Salary and depended upon her for status, in the hope that one day they might be considered important ponies worthy of their own social circle that begged for their attention. This ,however, did come at a cost: Grand Salary was quite an avid fan of scandal and went on tirades at every chance she got on topics that she felt very strongly about. This had the unintentional effect of attaching themselves to her views, just as it had the effect of making Grand Salary dependant on them for gossip so she could retain herself as a pony ‘in the know’ about the current affairs of Canterlot.
One popular topic that she craved was the news about the royal family ,or rather, the failings that she often sought as evidence of her opinion of them. Like any important pony in Equestria, she was of the rank to attend the gala and even had some pull in getting the attention of Princess Celestia at smaller events. But as the Governor of an important Manehattan bank and feeling herself superior - at least on money matters - Grand Salary felt obligated by a sense of duty to see wrong in everything they did.
Some of her displeasure was focused on Celestia, whom she saw as dangerously naïve for a mare of her post. One example could be found in the stifling banking regulations that the monarch used to fund her pie-in-the-sky initiatives like schools for villages and small towns that the princess was fond of. In an idealistic sense, this was acceptable, but the Princess could have easily found the money elsewhere; such as making the tax system not so biased in favor of farmers.
But what attracted her ire the most was the other members of the royal family, all of which Grand Salary felt woefully undereducated for leadership. For this reason, she had an almost eerie craving for any news on them to gossip about, a task made impossible given her distant position in society compared to those in the know. Fortunately, one of her friends here had a tidbit that she had been waiting for the right moment to divulge and in doing so become the favorite guest of Grand Salary.
“Has anypony heard the news about Mi Amore Cadenza?” The pearl-colored unicorn started to speak, pausing for effect.
The three other ponies all flicked their ears at the same time, suddenly waiting in anticipation for a juicy piece of gossip
“No…but do go on dear” Grand Salary started.
“I have heard from a reliable mare…of a suggestion that our newest royal princess will be becoming a foal sitter... and as the rumor goes... for the daughter of a family friend”
“Scandalous!” Grand Salary spat out “For a family friend? Of whom... the palace or... you surely don’t mean the house of...”
“House of Cadenza, yes... and to make it worse, it might be that...” The pearl unicorn stopped speaking.
Instead of just simply saying who, the pearl unicorn let Grand Salary work it out for herself. She had played this social sport a lot longer than the other two guests, and knew that she needed to give her host a chance to be seen as an intellectual. It didn't take long for Grand Salary to make her educated guess.
“That.... that foal-fiction author?”
A silent nodded confirmed and triggered Grand Salary’s next tirade.
“Oh that’s just typical, the current heir apparent to the throne of all of Equestria is being a foalsitter to a commoner's foal. Oh, what has happened to world around me... has Celestia gone insane?”
“I’m not really sure, Lady Salary. You are more of an expert on the subject than I can hope to be,” the Pearl-unicorn appraised.
Grand Salary took that invitation to continue her lecture, but as she resumed speaking, the old mare started to hear the faintest noise. Ignoring her senses for the moment, she started to talk.
“This is just typical of what's going wrong with the palace... it seems these days Celestia will give anypony she likes wings and a tiara, and its really frustrating to me that if Celestia were ever to fall, we would have a leader who only knows when it's nap time for a little foal and-”
As much as her ignorance tried, the noise - and almost music of a sort – quickly started to become more noticeable and ebbed against her mood at the moment, enough for the old mare to focus her attention to the noise above her head. At the same time, her guests were becoming a little worried at the unexpected pause to her tirade, but they too soon heard the noise from above.
”What in the name of all that is orderly is that dreadful noise!?”
Without really needing to identify the direction of the noise, Grand Salary focused on its sound and to her immediate dismay recognized it for that-
“Who is playing the grand piano!?” She almost bellowed.
The Cadenza controversy quickly became forgotten news as the elder unicorn leapt to her hooves in as dignified a fashion as her station required her to and trotted to the stairwell in the foyer. Predictably, all three of her guests had to follow, even if it meant the feared wrath of Lady Grand Salary’s rage if it was discovered that their foal was playing with their host’s property.
Their canter to the foyer didn't take too long, despite their age and attempt to be dignified as they moved, but from here Lady Grand was less concerned about appearance and more concerned about catching the culprit. What would happen if everypony learnt her house had invited undisciplined foals who did whatever they pleased? It was worse than dealing with boring commoner ponies and their simple thoughts.
As Grand Salary reached the top of the stairs, the noise that attempted to sound like music suddenly stopped, but this did not halt her advance. Right behind the old mare, the three guests followed, all with their separate worries, though one of their number had more reason to fear than the others.
Brighten Balance had every reason to worry. Ever since Vinyl had started drawing those squiggly lines in her notebooks, the filly had the most ornate interest in instruments and a desire to play them. Until a few minutes ago, Brighten had been rather dismissive of the venture, hoping it to be a phase. But now that ignorance was coming back to haunt her and only a miracle from Celestia would deliver her from her worst nightmare.
The quartet of ponies arrived at the doors of the Piano room and with a mighty and unladylike pull, Grand Salary revealed the culprit.
The sight waiting for them couldn't have looked most absurd. Instead of finding a foal at the piano, they found Vinyl beside it with her dress lifted all the way up, exposing and pointing her posterior towards the gathered mares at the door. To top it off, the foal appeared to be grinning in many flavors of delight while she caressed what initially looked to the world like a pair of smudges her haunches.
“Young Lady!” Grand Salary shouted “What uncouth reason do you have for acting like a mule in my house?!”
Vinyl turned around and saw the angry looks, but her happiness overcame this moment of fear and she announced to the world what had just happened.
“I got my Cutie Mark!”
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Awwww man! Aside from the occasional grammar typo, this story is fantastic! When is the next chapter going to be released?
Also RUN FOR YOUR LIFE VINYL!
Stories with Vinyl and Octavia are quickly becoming some of my favorite. I'll be looking forward to reading more of this as it comes out.
Vinyl just has to add 6 sugar cubes to the tea to make it better maybe some milk or cream too.
insert "you don't say" meme here