• Published 6th Dec 2013
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Vinyl and Octavia: Ponyville Duet - generalsnaz



After seeing an astounding performance by the charismatic Vinyl Scratch at the royal wedding, Octavia Melody travels to Ponyville to learn more about the DJ and her music. However Octavia ends up starting a life and a relationship she never expected.

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Chapter 3: The Road to Ponyville

Chapter 3: The Road to Ponyville

Without thought, Octavia started to hum a familiar tune. The day-to-day clatter of the train station assured that nopony could hear it but her. She was laying flat on her back on a bench, hoof to her forehead, staring up at the aging wood planks above her. Her hind legs casually rocked back and forth as they hung over the edge of the bench, each swing synchronized to the rhythm of her song. She began to softly sing.

“Love is in bloom… a beautiful bride… a handsome groom…”

Octavia turned to see a train conductor glance as he passed. Flushed with embarrassment, Octavia sat up to a more respectable position and readjusted her trademark bowtie. Beside her, a handful of suitcases, handbags, and other luggage containers, each branded with her own purple treble clef, shaded her from Celestia's rising sun. The cases sat in a disorganized pile, except for the only one that appeared to have been handled with any sort of care: her cello case.

‘What am I doing?’ Octavia asked herself as she rubbed her temples. The question was rhetorical. She knew exactly what she was doing. The real question was: why? Why did she lie awake all of last night? Why did those songs keep repeating over and over in her head? Why did she send a letter to her friends letting them know that she would be gone for a while? Why was she going to an unknown town to look for a pony she hardly knew? Why did Vinyl Scratch interest her so...?

Sighing, Octavia turned to gingerly caress her cello case and began to think back on last night (for the umpteenth friggin' time.) She was startled; that’s how it began. She was startled to hear something so completely different. The music that came out of Vinyl Scratch's strange record player was unlike anything Octavia had heard in Canterlot in all her years of schooling and professional music playing. The music was different, but it was also very… captivating, as Octavia soon discovered. The melodies entranced her like she never expected. The rhythms jarred her body and caused her hoof to subconsciously tap along. It was upbeat, driven. Everypony around her danced with ease, like they knew the song by heart. The lyrics were simple, yet found a way to be dynamic in their use. (Also you must give credit to the purple unicorn with the beautiful singing voice.) They intertwined with the music flawlessly as words and melodies flowed as one. The uplifting chorus of sounds made Octavia... feel happy, for a reason she couldn't explain. And for the first time in her life since getting her cutie mark, music truly moved Octavia.

(In all honesty, it was a really good song. Too bad you only get to read about it.)

But that was just the first one! Vinyl Scratch had no shortage of good music to play that night, and the DJ enjoyed blasting out each and every good song she had. When she wasn't showing off her master skills on the turntables, she was banging her head to the bass or pumping her hooves up ecstatically. The courtyard surged with energy and joy, and she was the source. And that grin... That grin was a thousand times more radiant than it was when Octavia saw it before. This was a pony who loved what she was doing, and the bouncing crowd around her was vindication that she succeeded in doing it right.

"ALL ABOARD!"

A conductor's voice snapped Octavia out of her pleasant fantasies of the unicorn, and she scrambled to get her many belongings on the train. It was rather empty that early in the morning, so she had no difficulty finding a vacant car. After securing her luggage, she plopped herself facedown into a booth in the most unladylike way possible. Exhausted and nervous, Octavia began to take on some troublesome doubts.

'Oh Celestia, this is simply not going to work,' she thought, burying her head in the not-so-comfortable cushion. 'How will I even find her? Is Ponyville a large place? Could I just ask anypony and they would know her? Wait a moment... is Ponyville even the right town!? That is what that unicorn said... right? Oh! She is going to think I am weird, isn't she? I mean, I do not know her in the slightest, but I am tracking her down and... Wait, does that make me a stalker!?!?'

Octavia lifted her head in a panic at her own thoughts just as the train jolted forward and began its slow trek to Ponyville. After listening to the sounds of the wheels chugging along for a few moments, the tired cellist rested her head down again. Knowing the car was empty, she decided to stay laying there and rest for a bit. However, her brief relief was utterly destroyed mere seconds later in a most comedic way.

"Oh mare, Pinks sure can party..." Vinyl Scratch yawned to herself before she jumped face first with a thud onto the seat opposite of Octavia. "Ow," she mumbled from her facedown position. "Thought it'd be bouncier..."

Octavia turned red; her face boiled. (Too soon. It was too soon, Vinyl.)

'What is she doing here!? Wait, this is the train to Ponyville, of course she is on this train! No, no! I have not decided what to say to her!'

Hearing Octavia emit a nervous squeak, Vinyl turned up to face the cellist. The unicorn still wore her large purple sunglasses and probably was in a bit of pain from landing face first with them on. Both ponies lain on their cushions, flat on their stomachs, and stared at each other. Octavia desperately wanted to sit up straight, but, to her horror, a wave of indecisiveness paralyzed her from making a move.

"Sorry. Thought the booth was empty," Vinyl bluntly stated before turning her face back into the cushion. After a brief pause, a muffled snore filled the air.

'Did- did she fall asleep!?'

Octavia didn't have to wait long for an answer. The exhausted DJ snapped back to reality and turned once again to Octavia. Her face scrunched as the pony across from her had triggered some sort of flicker in her brain. Panicking, but finally able to move, the cellist jumped back to a normal sitting position, hoping Vinyl wouldn't notice the awkward way she had been lying. (She did notice.)

"Wait up..." the DJ said after a moment, "do I know you?"

"Ah, hello! Good evening!" Octavia replied in her panic. 'Agh! That's not right!' After mentally kicking herself in the flank, she took a deep breath. It was about time she returned to her more composed demeanor; she had been flustered far too much recently. "I mean: yes. Yes, we met at the wedding last night," she said with the sophistication of a pony who had spent a lifetime mingling with the elite of Canterlot.

Vinyl Scratch sat up and rubbed her chin, checking her hazy and scattered memories of last night for the inclusion of the gray pony Octavia.

"Oh!" Vinyl said with definitive recognition. "You're that mare that fell over."

"Yes, well. *ahem* You proved I was shoved and saved me from being made the fool. Granted, it was still quite embarrassing, but you certainly helped me out by identifying the culprit."

"Not really. That tightwad had nothing to do with you falling over. I just wanted to cause a scene so I randomly picked somepony."

...

"WHAT!?" shrieked Octavia, loud enough to startle the ponies in the adjacent cars. Octavia bolted up and simultaneously activated her lecture mode. "He was innocent!? You picked a fight with a stranger and ostracized him in public!?" Vinyl just snorted and covered her grinning mouth with her hoof to keep chuckles from escaping from her puffed red cheeks. "You cannot just go around blaming somepony for incidents they did not cause! You made him a scapegoat! I cannot believe this! I expected better of you! To think that-" She was cut off by an unrelenting chorus of laughter from the DJ.

"Wait! Bwhaha!~ Wait!" Vinyl gasped between chuckles. "It was a joke! It was just a joke!" She gestured to Octavia to calm down while continuing to howl like a maniac.

"W-what?" the cellist stammered, clearly not catching the hint.

"Filly, I was just messing with you! He pushed you down for real. But, mare alive, you fell for that easily!" Vinyl wiped a tear out from behind her sunglasses. "Heehee! I didn't expect a high class pony like you to yell like that! You're pretty awesome!"

Face flushed red for the third time that day, Octavia slunk down into her seat. She coughed and turned her head pompously to avoid the DJ. Her eyes strained shut as she tried to erase the last 30 seconds of history from ever happening.

'I cannot believe I yelled at somepony who is not my brother...' she thought, surprised and upset at her own actions. "Well... you should not play such tricks. It is uncouth," she finally spouted, still facing away from Vinyl.

"Okay," Vinyl said simply before giggling some more. The two sat in silence for a minute, during which Octavia's mind raced to figure out her next move. She hadn't even decided how to approach Vinyl in Ponyville, let alone how to handle this fated encounter on the train. After coming up with a grand total of zero ideas, Octavia took a peek back at Vinyl. The unicorn hadn't stopped looking her way. Octavia could almost swear she saw the shrouded eyes behind those shades flicker up and down, as if Vinyl was checking her body over.

"Hey, what's your name anyway?" the DJ asked cheerfully after catching her peek.

"Oh, I am sorry. I never properly introduced myself," Octavia replied slowly, as she felt the tension around them start to gradually dissipate. "My name is Octavia Melody, and I am a cello player in the Horseshoepin Quartet of Canterlot." Vinyl didn't seem surprised to the revelation that Octavia was a fellow musician. Well, she had already been eyeing the region around her cutie mark for a while now.

"Octy, huh?" Vinyl piped with a quirky head tilt.

"Wha- Oct- ...I am sorry, beg pardon?" stuttered the confused cellist. The last time she had heard that nickname was when she was five and that was nearly (*mumblemumble*) years ago.

"Yeah! 'Octavia' has like six syllables, so it's easier to say 'Octy,' ya know?"

...

'What?' the cellist thought, unsure that she had heard correctly. Octavia hesitated before responding, but her lecture mode slowly booted back up and overpowered her reason. "I am... terribly sorry to correct you, but my name has four syllables... 'Ahk - tae - vee - ah.'"

Vinyl's bottom lip pouted out as she thought on this.

"Nah, filly. I'm pretty sure it's six." She replied. "'Ah - ka - tae - vuh - ee - ah.' See?"

"No, I do not see. That is incorrect and does not sound even remotely right."

"No, I'm preeeeetty sure I'm right about this, Octy. I know all about words."

"Well, you are mistaken," Octavia snapped despite herself.

"Oh, so you think you aren't?" Vinyl spat defensively. Their casual conversation had devolved into an argument. Both ponies got to their hooves and tempers began rising. Quickly. It was like chemistry. (Such beautiful chemistry!)

"Why, yes. I did finish class valedictorian and always had perfect marks in Ponyish," defended Octavia.

"Oh, is that a fact?" huffed Vinyl. "So you think that because you are soooooo much smarter than everypony else that you know everything?"

"No! Of course not! But I do know about this!"

"Well, I think you're wrong!"

"Well, I know you are wrong!"

"How can you tell, huh!?"

"My education!"

"Oh, please! Just can it, you snob!"

"*GASP* You had better retract that this instant, you troglodyte!"

"WHY DON'T YOU MAKE ME!? Wait, troglah-what?"

"TROGLODYTE!!! IT MEANS BRUTE!!!" Octavia screeched. Vinyl's jaw dropped at the volume level of the shriek that nearly broke her ears. It was silent for the first time in the car, save for the heavy breathing from the two of them and the constant stutter of the train as it trudged along, unimpressed by their conflict.

"Pfffffttt!!" Vinyl burst. She collapsed to her seat and rolled to the floor, laughing hysterically. "You- HAHA! You- you're even fun to fight with, Octy! Bwahahaha-hic!" She began to hiccup as she pounded the ground, trying to contain herself.

Octavia had a hard time just trying to catch her breath. Her eyes darted from side to side as she tried to figure out what in Equestria just happened. Her throat was hoarse, her hooves were quivering and her neck had goose bumps. This was absurd.

"Oh, my... did... did we just argue over... syllables...?" she managed to ask in her daze.

"Yep!" Vinyl answered from the floor between hiccups. Octavia sat down and stared into her shaking hooves and began to laugh nervously.

'Did I just ruin my chance? ...I think I just ruined my chance...'

"Hey, are you going to Ponyville, Octy?" Vinyl asked as she crawled back into her seat, giggling as usual.

"Wha?" Octavia was put off by the sudden question, but graciously recovered. "Yes, I- planned to visit for- a few days..."

"Where you staying?"

"At the- inn...?" It was a lie. She had no idea. Did Ponyville even have an inn? She hadn't thought that far ahead. Vinyl stopped giggling and leaned forward so that they were face to face. Octavia could almost make out her eyes through the thick sunglasses.

"Can you cook?" Vinyl asked with the most serious of expressions. This surprised Octavia, of course, but what else was new? This whole incident had been ridiculous.

"I- of course?"

"Sweet!" Vinyl jumped onto Octavia's seat and wrapped her hoof around Octavia's neck. "It's settled! You'll be staying with me!"

Octavia blushed redder than she had all day.

'...It's going to be that easy?'

(Yep.)

Author's Note:

Did you like the English lesson?

Chapter 2.5 is during Vinyl's performance at the wedding, and it's nothing but 50 paragraphs of Octavia banging her head and screaming, "OMG I LUV THIS SONG!!"

Also: Vinyl uses 'mane' like you would use 'man.' Like saying "What's up, man?" ---> "What's up, mane?" Do you think that works? /ponyshruggif Edit: Ugh, this stupid idea has ben retconned! All stupid instances of 'mane' as 'man' are now 'mare.' Because it was stupid. ~generalsnaz, circa 2015

Also thirdly: How is my story is like the Hobbit movie? ...it takes way too long to get started! NYUCK NYUCK NYUCK!

10 cookie points to whoever finds the Warcraft reference and the Mario reference.

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