Rhythm and Melody

by NerfedFalcon

Adagio

Strobe was waiting when Vinyl came through the door at about nine o’clock. “How’d it go?” he asked. “You look pretty buzzed. Didn’t think you’d take to classical.” He laughed, a slight distortion coming through until he coughed loudly and caught himself. “Maybe I should’ve gone with you, now that I think of it.”

“Actually...” Vinyl looked at the light bulb hanging from the ceiling. “Do you know of an Earth Pony called Octavia?” He changed into the mare from the concert. “Yeah, that’s the one.”

“What, did you speak to her?” Strobe/Octavia asked, in a mare’s voice that Vinyl assumed belonged to the cellist. “Nah, she wouldn’t’ve. Nopony gets to talk to the orchestra afterwards unless they’re press or actual patrons. Even if you were sent by Prince Blueblood,” he changed into the same Unicorn, “you wouldn’t have been allowed backstage.”

“So it’s just like at the Pit?”

‘Blueblood’ turned back into Strobe again. “Pretty much, only it’s a higher-class place. And if you’re interested in seeing her again, you’re setting your sights a little high. She’s a professional, and she takes her art very seriously. You’d just be a distraction.”

Vinyl thought back to how they’d made eye contact at the concert, but Strobe was probably right, and it was probably nothing more than a coincidence. She could’ve done it with anypony, and surely there were others at the concert not really known as patrons that she could’ve rested on. But the incident kept nagging at her even as she tried to sleep.

The hall was dark, and perhaps made of darkness, stretching off into infinity as far as she could see. Despite no clear light sources, she could make out her own body as though she were standing under the full overhead sunlight of high noon. A single note sounded from somewhere, and she turned around to face it, disoriented by the invisible ground.

A single note sounded from far away, and she turned to where she thought it was coming from. She ran towards it, but no matter how hard she ran, it never seemed to get any louder. It was coming from everywhere, at the same low volume, never changing. Thinking she saw something, she squinted into the darkness, but no clarity came from it.

Turning around, she saw herself, wearing the magenta sunglasses. As she took them off, she saw that her eyes were a different colour, a green that was slowly turning black...

Vinyl slowly opened her eyes, hearing the sound of water boiling. Strobe waved slowly to her. “Morning, sunshine,” he said as he turned back to the kitchen bench. “I got some coffee on the boil. You look like you need it. What’cha dream about?” Vinyl paused. Had she dreamed? She shook her head slowly. “Don’t remember? Happens. Still, at least you get dreams. Even with Chrysalis gone, some things just never change...” He sighed wistfully.

“Well, what about the coffee?” Vinyl asked, smiling wryly.

“I don’t have to eat, I just like to,” Strobe shot back, laughing. “C’mon, drink up. You look like you need it pretty bad.” He poured out two mugs, downing his own in one shot.

“You ever considered giving yourself a coffee Cutie Mark?” Vinyl asked as she picked up the mug with her magic and took a sip. “You make it just as good as Joe.”

He just laughed and turned into Joe, saying, “I could never make it that good if I had to make two hundred mugs a day.” Turning back into Strobe, he added, “Besides, isn’t it a thing among you ponies to have skills besides your Cutie Mark? You can’t get by doing just one thing all your life.”

“You’d think so, having to do so many different things to justify all the Marks you can pull out. But I guess,” she took another drag of coffee, “it’s better to be decent at a few things, just not to the extent of losing sight of your own talents.” Strobe raised an eyebrow at her, and she added, “And isn’t that pretty much what you had me do last night?”

“Far as I can see, your Cutie Mark is music. You seemed too focused on just one part of it.”

“And what would you know about that?”

“I know you’re looking a lot better today than you have in ages, and last night you were pretty chipper too. Even if you don’t want to admit it now, it was good for you.”

“Alright, alright, you can stop rubbing it in now.” Vinyl finished the rest of her coffee and picked up her sunglasses. “What time is it now?”

“Still plenty of time before the club even opens. You can relax.” Strobe poured himself another cup of coffee and sculled it again. “But you know I’m right.” Vinyl just rolled her eyes and put the sunglasses on.
~
When Vinyl arrived at the club at eight o’clock, she was surprised to find another DJ there, an Earth Pony who was at least getting some ponies jumping on the dance floor. He was playing a song that she’d used a few weeks ago, and for a while she let the conversations and the music create a background noise like it had at the concert. She took a look onto the dance floor and saw everypony back away from a single cream-coloured Pegasus who was showing off some impressive dance steps, showboating by keeping his wings tied to his body with a scarf.

She couldn’t quite make out his Cutie Mark, but the steps were impressive. She didn’t even know that anypony could cross their legs into one another like he was. Making a mental note of him, she turned towards the bar, seeing a mare chatting with the barkeep. Vinyl laughed and sighed to herself, knowing that the mare was never going to get anywhere; better-looking mares than her had tried to seduce him. She didn’t know if he was married or just didn’t care, but that wasn’t important to her anymore.

A few ponies were sitting at tables or dancing in smaller groups. Overall, she figured that the crowd wasn’t as big as last night, but that tended to change at about quarter past. She knew a lot of ponies only came for her shows, and the thought gave her no small degree of pride. To pass the time, she decided to sit at the bar. She was about to ask ‘surprise me’ when she caught a missed transition in the other DJ’s work, and changed the order to water. She was already having enough trouble; being drunk would leave her on the amateur’s level.

Gradually, the time passed, and the hooves on the dance floor stopped bumping up and down. The DJ said his goodbyes and stepped off the stage, and Vinyl took that as her cue. She headed backstage and put on her sunglasses, stopping the Earth Pony as he came in. “Your tracks are good,” she told him, “but your transitions need work. You’re skipping a lot of beats, and that can kill your whole night. Keep at it, though.” She grinned maniacally, and the Earth Pony became tongue-tied, unable to say anything until he thought she was out of earshot. It was something about being surprised that THE DJ PON-3 would give him advice, but she couldn’t be sure and she didn’t really care.

It was showtime once again.

She stepped out onto the stage as the emcee introduced her, and she took her position behind the stack of equipment. It belonged to the Onyx Pit, and it was probably better than the stuff she owned at home and took to parties. “Good evening, Canterlot!” she shouted, as she had last Friday night. “You all came here for one reason: you want the ultimate party, with the ultimate disc jockey. And now...” As her eyes crossed the crowd, which as she expected had only gotten larger, she stopped, her sentence trailing off as well.

Isn’t that Octavia? What’s she doing in a place like this?

When the grey mare disappeared into the background, she shook her head and cleared her throat. “And now,” she repeated, “DJ PON-3 delivers on your dreams! Let’s get the party started!” The cheer of the crowd rose up, and she switched on her first song of the evening. Though it was fast, the beats weren’t as heavy as some of her songs were, and she caught herself listening to the notes underneath.

She was reminded of Octavia’s solo, and inspired by it, she started to slow the song down with just the drum beat before suddenly starting up again. This created an electric reaction in the crowd, and she smiled to herself as the song ended and the next came on.

Like a bolt from the blue, there was Octavia again. She tried to look away, only keeping an eye on the Earth Pony from her peripherals, hoping that the sunglasses would keep anypony from noticing. Her attention was drawn back to the dance floor by a group of four ponies dressed in white who had taken centre stage and were synchronised in a complex dance to the song.

As she scratched the record twice for the sound effect, she nodded at the group, and immediately Strobe had a light trained on them. It switched colours perfectly to the beat, making the ponies in white seem to change colours as they danced. All eyes in the club were upon them, and that gave Vinyl a chance to look for Octavia again.

She hadn’t been quite right. There was one pair of eyes that weren’t on the ponies in the middle. They were Octavia’s, and they were trained upon her. She noticed the song seemingly coming to an end and turned back to the turntable, turning up a third song.

The dance floor filled out with ponies of all kinds again, and Strobe turned his lights back to the DJ. She watched for the point as the note rose, waiting for the drop. As soon as it came, with the spoken word ‘doomsday’, the lights on the dance floor began to flicker on and off, and the sounds of hooves jumping up and down filled the air.

Through the strobe lights, she couldn’t see any more creative moves, but then again she supposed that the ponies with them wouldn’t be able to do it on what was practically a mosh pit. Suddenly, the song fell back into a more sedate place, and she turned down all the backing tracks besides the straight melody, only turning them back up slowly. Strobe was perfect as always, switching off the strobe until the second drop. The beat had sped up, and instead of a strobe light, he was rapidly changing the colours again, creating a similar effect.

The crowd was starting to get more creative at that point, until the song was nearly over. Catching the cues, DJ PON-3 turned to the second turntable, turning up the volume on another track. This one sounded a lot more gritty, though it clearly had more of a melody to it. And speaking of melodies, there was Octavia again, now at the bar. This time, she wasn’t looking at Vinyl, and she sighed in relief that the awkward eye contact wouldn’t continue. Before Octavia could turn around, she turned back to the dance floor.

The song continued for a second loop, and a couple of ponies took the dance floor again, mocking a martial arts fight with dance moves. Their front and back hooves extended into the air, their strikes and dodges clearly just dance steps, but in a new style. The whole crowd cheered for them as one managed to throw his body into an entire aerial spin, all four legs extended outwards. He shouted something that she didn’t recognise, but sounded kind of like a request for pound cake.

Everypony was in high spirits, and it stayed that way for the rest of the evening. Vinyl didn’t see Octavia again, but she kept looking up from the turntables at every opportunity, seeing if she was still around. Eventually, midnight came and it seemed like the crowd had only gotten larger, with hardly any space between everypony. “Thank you all for coming!” DJ PON-3 shouted. “You’ve all been a wonderful audience. But the weekend’s just getting started, so keep your spirits up! Thank you, and good night, Canterlot!” The roar of the crowd was deafening, and she stayed drinking in the admiration until the crowd started turning away to leave.

She met Strobe at the back door as always. “Why’d you keep looking up?” he asked. “I saw you looking up from the discs a bunch of times. Was there anything in particular going on out there?”

“Octavia... I think she was here,” Vinyl said as she magically lifted her glasses off. “I know, a classy mare like her wouldn’t be caught dead in this part of Canterlot, I thought so too. But...” She trailed off as she saw the same mare standing right in front of her.

“Thought I’d catch up to you here,” she said, smiling. “Performers’ entrance, just like every other venue I’ve played at. Mind you, tonight was definitely a new experience for me. The ambience, the heavy beats in the music... and I take it that I have you to thank for it.” Vinyl took a shocked step back. “A white Unicorn with an electric blue mane... I’d seen posters of you, but in the flesh, it’s really quite different. You’re rather less talkative, for starters.”

That just made Vinyl stammer even more. Strobe raised a wing, stepping in front of her protectively. “I don’t know what you’re doing here...” he started.

“The DJ here came to a concert of mine. I decided I’d return the favour. It was really quite something, you know. And,” she looked at Strobe’s flank, “I take it that you were part of it too. A duet of light and sound, keeping ponies moving for hours... It was certainly a unique experience, I’ll say that much.”

“Don’t make me call the bouncer over,” Strobe said threateningly. “By ‘here’, I meant the back door. Restricted access, don’t’cha know?”

Octavia just laughed, her alto voice not echoing off the brick walls. “Don’t get your feathers in a frizz. I just wanted to say thank you, for tonight and for last night. I’m leaving now.” She turned and walked off into the street, disappearing around a corner.

Vinyl turned to Strobe, silently asking, Did that just happen? “C’mon, let’s get you home,” he replied, putting a wing around her.

As they walked into the street together, Vinyl asked, “Do you want to buy some black lilies?” Strobe shook his head in response, and she turned away, looking pensive.

A Pegasus with a magnifying glass cutie mark watched them, making a mental note of what had happened as he followed them home. He was being paid to find out about the two of them, and he always did what he was paid for. Even if it seemed like a strange request, it came from a wealthy benefactor, and he would carry it out.

He didn’t know what to make of Octavia, since he hadn’t heard the conversation. She’d been there for about a minute, though, and the Pegasus had seemed protective of Vinyl throughout. Since they were going home together, they were clearly more than just colleagues. Maybe he wanted to let Octavia know that she was stepping on his marefriend. That seemed like a good place to start looking into the private affairs of Vinyl Scratch.

Comments

[Rosanne-Faerwing]

So far, loving the story, I cannot wait to hear more about this! I love the idea of the changing strobe, it's really nice to see them treated well after the 'incident' with their queen :-)
Keep up the good work and again, can't wait for the next part ^^