Music is Magic

by SleeplessScribe

Chapter 2: Back and Forth

Music is Magic
Story 5
Chapter 2: Back and Forth
By: SleeplessScribe

My friend raised his hoof to his chin, giving me a perplexed look. “That reminds me. Vinyl, we’ve been together for about two hours. Why haven’t we had a jam session yet? Don’t tell me the turntables rusted up your guitar skills!”

I chuckled, teasingly pushing him off me. “Not a chance! True, I’m loving the turntables more than anything, but you know I’m down with a chill guitar jam.”

As… nice as it felt, a part of me wish that Beat wouldn’t kiss my cheek. This was the second time he’d done it, and something about it just didn’t feel right considering we weren’t going out. He jumped up and did some kind of backwards summersault as he got off the bench, grinning yet again.

“That’s my girl! You go get yours, I’ll run to the tour bus and meet you back here. I doubt anypony’s going to want to listen to us out here, but it’s a place to meet.”

I gave him a wink, trotting off to my pad again. “See you then, Beat!” As I walked, I began to think about my career. I loved mixing at the turntables, and making my own music to mix up was one my favorite ways to spend my time. However, my friend’s mention of the guitar brought back many a memory of when Beat and I were young. Many ponies are surprised when I tell them I’m from Fillydelphia, and my friend, while half horsepanic with a mother from Pinto Rico, was also born there.

Both of us had a knack for music, and we actually met when we were about six. The two of us were enrolled in one of the more well-known schools in Fillydelphia: Sonny’s Academy of Performing Arts. Thankfully the music department was divided up by what the teachers specialized in, so you had orchestral, vocal, digital, and contemporary. The organization was a little odd, but somehow they made it work.

While the school did require students to take normal academic subjects, because the main focus was art, we were allowed to choose three performance courses to take part in. Beat and I met in Contemporary class, but we also were in the same Vocals class. Unfortunately, I chose Digital, which was awesome, but Beat for whatever reason went with one of the dancing classes.

He and I had a knack for the guitar, not to mention that we were the singing instructor’s pride and joy, at least in our class. We started meeting up for practices, and sometimes just to hang out. Yes, we were playing guitar at six years old. About six years later, we graduated and did pretty much everything together. That’s actually how I met Octavia as well, since parental issues led her to move in with her cousin. They got along decently well despite their blatant differences, but whenever they did get to arguing, you’d think your eardrums were going to pop.

We started delving deeper into our hobbies when we wrote our first song together, which was a simple birthday gift for his mom with musical accompaniment. Our first few years were mainly comprised of acoustic guitars and improvised lyrics about whatever the hell we were looking at at the time, but it was more fun than you’d think. In fact, that’s where that “La da da da da” song came from; it was Beat’s first song he wrote about me.

My interest in the turntables came up when we were 18 and went to our first club. The DJ there was awful, and since I remembered pretty much everything from school, I used my skills to step in. The idiot was mixing records that should never have been within ten miles of each other, let alone on the same turntable.

After I had saved the day, Beat and I started up a new experiment. He practiced with an electric guitar, and, with the help of both his and my parents, bought the equipment to starting making techno music. I got into the dubstep trend too, but I never attempted to create it myself. Then I started testing out what kinds of sounds mixed best with others, and divided everything I had made into pairs. We found that my electronic talents combined with Beat’s voice and guitar created an amazing mix of techno and rock, and we loved it.

As time went on, we started performing in clubs. Beat got attention from high places first, but I wasn’t far behind. I was offered a contract to DJ for a radio station centered on “dance” music, and I guess that was the best way to describe my work. Beat, on the other hoof, got a recording contract with White Noise, an ironically named, pretty-well known hip-hop artist himself who traded in making music for helping others make theirs.

We both knew that possible fame came with these gigs, but as the two of us went our separate ways, we made a promise. We meant it as a sign of commitment when we chose a kiss as our way to seal the deal, but we promised never to let the fame go to our heads, and to always remember who we were before our names got big.

Sadly, my radio gig bored the hell out of me. Sure, I made decent bank with it, but there was no excitement whatsoever. All I did was sit behind a desk and mix records, and while I loved doing it, I couldn’t even visually tell if anyone was enjoying it. So, after a while, I quit and moved to Ponyville. Seem like a strange choice? Well, truth be told, I was still trying to find myself in those days, and during that time Octavia had confessed her bisexuality to me, and asked if I’d like to date her as well.

You’d never guess it, but she was actually from Ponyville despite how well she fit in with her current friends in Canterlot. I chose the small town because she hadn’t yet moved to Canterlot, though by the time she had I was in love with the town but no longer with her. Our “thing” was kind of off and on, and I guess Tavi was still kind of figuring herself out, too. I mean, she was a great lover, and fucking amazing in bed, but in the end I decided I preferred di- never mind. I’m getting off track.

Anyway, around that time, some pretty loud noise kept me up one night, and that’s when I discovered Pinkie Pie and her pretty sick night time parties. I asked to take the place of the radio she had set up, and Pinkie just so happened to have a turntable and a set of speakers. Simply put: I had a blast. Everypony loved my music, and thanks to my being a unicorn, I was able to get down with everyone else and still keep the records going whenever I wanted.

With my talent, I became the designated DJ for all of Pinkie’s parties. It was that decision that spawned the goggles. The idea of a daytime nighttime persona split was always cool in my book, so from then on I was Vinyl Scratch when the sun was up, and DJ Pon3 when it went down. The name was actually inspired by one of my favorite artists, Deadman3, and ever since then I was a regular part of Ponyville’s nightly agenda.

Beat and I kept in touch through letters, but actually being able to talk to him was probably the greatest thing to happen to me this year. As I walked right into my closed door, I found myself amazing at how a simple request could spawn a reminiscing of, basically, my whole life story.

Like a smart pony, I opened the door before walking into it this time. Upon further thought, I remembered that my guitar actually played a pretty big role in my music making. I recorded a lot of random stuff I played on it, and nine times out of eleven I was able to digitize it into a fitting techno track. As usual, it was on the stand I had set up in the corner of my bedroom, right next to my record setup.

I grabbed it, turned around, and ended up lying on my back on the bed. My friend winked at me, giggling a little. “It’s not fitting, but you look good in that position, Vinyl.”

It was kind of funny how a kiss messed with my head, but not jokes like that. Reaching up, I grabbed him and pulled him down with me, keeping my forelegs around you. “I got you! What are you gonna do, Beat?”

He began to flail like a maniac, laughing as he did so. “Ah, help! I need an adult! I need an adult!”

His response brought a laugh out of me too after I bonked him on the head. “We are adults, you idiot!”

A grin spread across his face as he turned over, looking at me from over his glasses. “That’s right… we are adults.” He gently began to stroke my mane, and I teasingly pushed him off.

“Hold it, boy. As much as I liked to, you promised a jam session. And you know I’m not about to postpone that for anything.”

My face turned just a little red when I realized what I said. We joked about stuff like that all the time, but we took the action seriously. Beat stared at me for a moment with his own blush. After he stood back up, he nudged my shoulder with a smile.

“At least let me buy you dinner first, babe. Anyway, I changed my mind. I kinda want to hear your new techno stuff, if that’s alright.”

After I was off the bed myself, I made my way over to my shelves, searching through all my records. “Not a problem, Beat. You still have your guitar, don’t you?”

He set down the dark red case, opening it up. Ironically, he had it painted in my color scheme, with the neck being white and pretty much everything else being both shades of blue. I found it kind of odd that his cutie mark was just a microphone, but one doesn’t question those things.

Beat took a little time to tune it before turning his attention to me. “Give your best, and I’ll see what I can play with it. This session’s all about you, Vinyl.”

I scoffed at him, picking up two of my favorite pieces. “You say that every time, dude. Anyway, let’s see what you can do with this.”

With both records in the table, I gave them a test spin just to make sure it was working and lowered the needle. My favorite thing to do was have two subliminal beats behind the main music, one being a digitized instrument of my choosing and the other being, of course, bass. It made my music unique and hard to follow, and I liked it.

My friend had to listen to it for a few minutes before he started to strum. I didn’t even see him put his pick on, though I should have since the strap was purple and stood out like a painter at band camp against his sandy foreleg. Little cheater also used his magic instead of a normal amplifier, but I knew him well enough to know that he didn’t actually use his magic to change how he sounded. At least, I didn’t think he did.

He caught on to my double beat pretty quickly and started strumming once between each combination of bass, and in this case snare drum. Once he got the rhythm, the strums became quicker, and he started playing different notes, and the trend continued until we were playing a full song.

Having magic to keep the records going was awesome, as it allowed me to pick up my guitar and play along. I think I switched out records at least ten times, and by the time we were both done, we saw that we’d been jamming for two hours. We both fell back on the bed, laughing at our awesome time killing. Now it was three o’ clock, and we honestly had no idea what to do for another four hours.

Beat looked at me, playfully poking my horn. “That was awesome, Vinyl! Man, I haven’t jammed like that in forever! Babe, your tunes are even better than they used to be.”

My horn was a very ticklish spot, oddly enough. I let out a laugh before I turned on my side to face him. “You’re way better than you used to be too.”

He narrowed his eyes, scooting closer to me. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

Grinning, I poked his muzzle and backed away. “Nothing. So, what do you want to do?”

I backed away again when I saw his hoof making its way towards me. “Well, it is just the two of us here, and we are technically in bed.”

“Beat, no. No! I said no!” I was running out of bed as his hoof came closer, and it was either fall off or give Beat what he wanted.

His hoof met my stomach and began rubbing softly, forcing me to start laughing like a maniac. I hated being tickled by anyone but Tavi and Beat, since they at least made it fun. Before I knew it, my back was against him and both his hooves were on my belly, rubbing it gently yet viciously. This sucked horribly, but it was so much fun, too, and part of me didn’t want it to stop.

Memories of the stupid fun we used to have flooded my head even after he decided enough was enough. “Oh, damn, Scratch, you’re still so ticklish. I thought you said you grew out of that.”

“Only in the hopes that it’d get you to stop doing it! Beat, you really, really suck sometimes, but I love you for it.” We shared a quick embrace before he ruffled my mane again.

“Yeah, you’re the best friend a colt could ask for, you know that?” He smiled at me, finally getting off the bed. “Say, how about lunch? My treat, Scratch.”

With a grin, I nudged his shoulder with my tongue out and one eye closed. “Of course I’ll go if you’re buying.”

He returned my nudge, chuckling as we went out the door. “And you say I’m the jerk. So, where do you want to go? We have a few hours before we have to be at Pinkie’s, so I can take you somewhere close like Canterlot or something.”

That was a pretty tempting offer considering how much variety there was in that city. Eventually I agreed, and we both got tickets for the train to Canterlot. Luckily, the train ride wasn’t longer than an hour, or we’d probably have been late getting back. I loved the way the trains were organized; Beat and I were able to get a smaller car all to ourselves.

My friend was on his back with his headset on, bobbing his head to whatever he was listening to. His eyes were closed, and a plan for payback hatched in my mind. Stepping as quietly off of my bunk as I could, I slowly made my way over to the end his head was at. It took a lot of effort to keep from giggling as I pressed my hooves lightly against his horn, gently rubbing them up and down.

His eyes snapped open as he jumped up, flailing like he was drowning or something. “Fuck! That’s my horn, Scratch, you know I hate having my horn touched!”

I couldn’t even hear him through my own loud laughter. Forced to hold my stomach while I was on my back, I couldn’t even look at him. “Doesn’t feel too good when someone messes with your sweet spots, does it, Beat? That’s what you get for that tickle attack!”

A grin spread across his face as he approached me, pinning me down. “So you wanna play that game, huh?”

The hooves were already rubbing me before I could even say “no”. Tears formed in my eyes as I laughed uncontrollably, completely at my friend’s mercy. Eventually I managed to pull him down with me but it didn’t stop the tickles.

“This is what happens when you mess with my horn!” Beat himself was laughing too, but my eyes were almost burning with the tears. This was a form of torture worse than whips and chains or waterboarding. Eventually he slowed down, but all four of his legs were still around me.

“Okay, I’m gonna stop. Are you gonna be a good girl?” All I could do was nod, I was still too busy silently laughing to actually speak. “Good.”

After he released me and I calmed myself down, I jumped on him. He was on the ground within seconds, flapping his forelegs like a bird. “I thought you said you were gonna be good!”

“Pfffft, you believed me?” After licking one hoof, I started rubbing his horn, giggling softly at his groan. “Besides, I am being good. All I’m doing is laying on my seat.”

Beat shook his head quickly, looking up at me. “Do I look like a seat to you?”

While it didn’t actually answer his question, the impact from my bounce made him regret even asking. “I’m not getting up until we get there.”

Much to my surprise, he actually started chuckling. “This is why we’re friends, Scratch. We’re both a couple of crazy fools.”

After a quickly laugh, I flicked his horn again. “I second that.”

Now it was time for me to torture him. Touching his horn really got him riled up, but I had an absolutely evil idea that I couldn’t wait to try. It was kind of a high risk high reward, though, as my friend could very well take it the wrong way. His reaction was worth it though.

As he heard my distinct “mmm”, he started to squirm and try to look up at me. “Scratch? Scratch what are you- what the fuck? Ah, she fucking licking me! Help, somepony help! No, mistakes were made! Why did I made the mistakes? She’s crazy!”

His shouting was interrupted by a banging on the door, and a rather angry voice behind it. “Hey! Get a room, you two, this is a public train!”

The thing I loved about having music-based magic was my ability to soundproof things. With a quick burst of magic, I coated the walls of our car with a barrier that blocked all sound from getting through. With that up, I continued my evil licking while Beat continued to scream hilariously, banging his hooves on the floor.

“I like how I’m the asshole when you’re doing stuff like this! If you really wanted to lick me, you could’ve asked when we were in bed earlier!”

I froze mid lick with my tongue still on his horn. The heat on my face told me I was blushing yet again. “Beat, one day we’re gonna end up doing it and not even realizing how it happened. It’s just gonna be like ‘boom, we just did it’.”

He let out a loud laugh, seeming not to care that I was still on top of him until he was done. “Honestly, that sounds like something that would happen to us. So can you get off me now?”

“Nope!” The singer coughed as I bounced on him, giggling as he groaned again. “That’s what you get for messing with me, you butt. You know this is how your teasing always ended.”

“Bah, whatever. Any idea where you want to go?”

I tapped my chin for a moment while I thought. “Oddly, I’m in the mood for pizza. Is that one place in the city still there?”

My friend gave me a nod just as the train came to a stop. “Now can you get off of me?”

Finally obliging him, I got up. It took him a while just to be able to stand as he looked at me. “You. Are. A. Freak.”

Grinning was the least I could do as he said that. “You say it like it’s a bad thing.” I brought him into a tight hug, one eye closed as my cheek pressed against his. “I missed you, man. It’s just… it’s been so long it feels like forever!”

He patted my back softly, his eye closed as well. “It really has been, and I can’t wait to catch up! Letters are nice and all, but it’s great to see that pretty face again.” It was his turn to flick my ear as we got off the train.

Canterlot was always a nice looking place, but not somewhere I could bear to live. The ponies were nice, but way too posh for me or Beat. I did wonder if we’d bump into Tavi though, normally her rehearsals ended around this time. We made our way to the place we pretty much always had lunch whenever we visited here: Pepper’s Pizza Pies.

Try saying that five times fast.

It was one of our favorite lunch restaurants in Canterlot, and although we go to said city for a whole lot, we never missed a chance to chow down here. The best part was that the owner, Pepper Spice, worked here since our first visit, and the pink coated, ginger mare was all too happy to see us again.

“Well if it isn’t my two favorite customers!” She trotted up to us, wrapping us both in tight hugs. “Since when were you as tall as I am, huh?” It was actually pretty awesome that Pepper was only, like, two years older than us. She was one of mine and Beat’s best friends. Third only to Tavi for me.

Beat chuckled, returning the mare’s hug. “Well that’s what happens when we can’t visit for three years. It’s great to see you, Pepper!”

Now it was my turn to hurt her. “Yeah, sorry we haven’t been around. Life just kinda blindsided us.”

Pepper gave us a bright smile, releasing us from her embrace as she adjusted her glasses. Sometimes I wondered if she started wearing rectangular ones because that’s the kind Beat wears. “So, will you two be getting the usual again? It’s been a slow day today, so we have a pretty nice stockpile of ingredients.”

Our eyes widened and remained that way even as I spoke. “You seriously remember that? Pepper, the last time we came here was three years ago, how do you remember?”

She giggled quietly. “It’s the only thing you two ever got! The question isn’t how I remembered, but how I could possibly forget. I assume that would be a yes?”

My friend clapped his hooves together, licking his chops. “Hells yeah! Sign me up for some of that!”

Pepper looked at me for confirmation and skipped off behind the counter when I gave a nod. I half could and half couldn’t resist leaning my head on his shoulder. “Beat, this is the best. It’s like senior year all over again, you know?”

We found our table next to the wall. It was on the left side of the building, with one center row of tables in between this one and the right wall, and we were right near the counter. Just like we used to, we sat next to each other on the same side until our food was ready.

Beat put his foreleg around me and flashed a grin. “It really is, though. You’re right, Vinyl, this really is the best.”

I gave him my own grin when I noticed how close he was to the wall. Turning to lay on my back, I pushed against him and laughed as I made a Beat sandwich with the wall.

“Ow! Dang, you really do need those crazy papers!” He smiled, ruffling up my mane again. His tone made me question the sincerity of his next words, and by that I mean he made me wonder if he was joking or not. “Scratch, seriously, why aren’t we just dating already? We act like a cranky old married couple.”

Alright, that last part told me he was. After squishing him again, I turned over and set my head on the back of his neck. “If we were an old married couple, I’d be playing acoustic at two strums a minute in my rocking chair while you sang bluegrass.”

At the mere mention of country he started laughing. “Don’t you ever say that. I don’t have a problem with hoedown, guit-fiddle country, but you know it’s not my thing. I’d much rather be playing them chords on electric.”

I wanted to respond, but the intoxicating aroma of our food was just way too great. Pepper came out with that large pie, setting the tray on our table.

It was our favorite: green peppers, olives, and mushrooms with three cheeses and extra sauce. Just looking at it had both our mouths watering, and Beat cheated and used his magic to pick up a slice before I was even on the other side of the table. Because of that, I decided to bite a chunk out of his slice, instead.

“Oh man, talk about delicious!” I chewed right in his face, forcing him to actually lift me up and set me on the other side of the table.

“You’re a psycho, Scratch. I love it!” My friend grinned a got another slice, letting me keep the one I had bitten as he chomped his own. “Just as good as I remember!”

We sat there stuffing our faces for at least half an hour, joking on each other and chatting with Pepper. Honestly, it was probably the most fun I’ve had all year. I don’t care if it was only spring, still the most fun all year.

As we got ready to leave, Pepper boxed up a small for us on the house. We got back on the train after a long goodbye, and by the time we got back it was about six thirty. Beat and I decided to check up on Pinkie to see if there was anything we could do, though I was lost in thought. I wish Tavi was here to see me, as she always joked that I used my head for bobbing more than I did for thinking.

If I had this much fun today, tonight was going to be epic.

Comments

[Smirkythread]

Good stuff this chapter, though you may want to calm down with the antics a bit.

[SleeplessScribe]

3247327 Well, I was sure I've been repeating it enough, but just in case:
They're both nutcases. Maybe not clinically insane, but they're just a little less than everyday sane.

Things do get a little more serious as time goes on, but it's tagged as comedy for a reason

[Smirkythread]

3247339
True, I do have a question though.

Are we going to see chapters with Beat's POV soon or is that going to be saved till he apparently fucks up?

Also it sucks that I'm the only one who commented so far.

[SleeplessScribe]

3247424 That's usually how it goes. Not often I even get comments :P

I'm currently writing chapter three, and though you WILL see Beat's POV, I'm not exactly sure when a good time to switch will be.

[Smirkythread]

3247430
Usually I would expect just about when he screws things up, like just before or right after.