Battle of The Beats

by TheDimensionRift

Chapter: 6

Every partygoer exited Treble’s house and made their way outside. Waiting for them were two DJ booths with their respective owners standing behind them adjusting equipment and placing down speakers. The viewers were murmuring amongst each other, once word of a DJ battle broke out, it seemed as though everypony dropped what they were doing to come see. Octavia met up with her friend while she was in the middle of adjusting her mixer.

“Vinyl, are you sure you want to do this?” Octavia asked.

“Heck yeah! Tavi, I was challenged, I have to accept. It’s okay, I’ll try not to drop the bass on your cousin too hard,” Vinyl replied with a laugh.

“Actually, I didn’t want you to be discouraged.”

“Me!?” Vinyl erupted with laughter. “Your joking right?”

“Treble gets very competitive when it comes to music, he’s a bit like your friend Rainbow.” Octavia looked over at Treble who was wearing his headphones, his expression was a serious one, like the look of someone who’s about to do something life changing. “You’ve seen how good he is, and I can guarantee you he hasn’t even shown half of what He can do—”

“Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh,” Vinyl hushed as she wrapped a hoof around Octavia and brought her in close as she had done before. “Tavi, have we met? Don’t you know who I am? I am the Vinyl Scratch. I’ll win this thing no doubt, you’ll see.”

“If you say so,” Octavia replied with a worried expression. “Just keep an eye out for whenever he—”

“Hello Ponyville how are y’all doin tonight!?” Treble shouted into a microphone, enthusiasm radiating off of his very words. Treble’s words got the crowd of mixed ponies fired up because shouts of cheer and excitement rang throughout the ocean of ponies present. “Alright, that’s what I like to hear, I think I’m gonna like this crowd. Alright look, short and sweet, me and the phenomenal Vinyl Scratch, also known as DJ Pon3, will be performing in a competitive battle of the bands type of contest; and guess what? You lucky ponies get to be the judges of this epic jam out!”

Vinyl listened on at Treble’s announcement, he seemed really good at speaking to a crowd like this, almost like he rehearsed what he was saying. Another thought began to creep into Vinyl’s mind: Is it possible she’s not the first musician that Treble has challenged? “At the end of the night, we’re gonna ask you who you think dropped the bass the hardest and it’ll be up to you all to decide. Does that sound good?” Another roar from the crowd signified that they understand quite well. “I don’t think I heard you clearly, now I ask again: DOES THAT SOUND GOOD!?” The ponies of the crowd practically exploded with noise and cheer after Treble restated his question. “Then let’s get this party started!”

Treble threw on his headphones and began messing with his mixer, using one of his legs, his speakers began emitting a hard kick noise. Soon there was the sound of several hooves stomping in unison, Treble quickly found a rhythm and began bobbing his head up and down to the beat. Vinyl soon found herself doing the same as she watched on, the crowd was into the song even though there wasn’t much to it so far; but she was still confident she was going to win no matter what. Next, Treble did something Vinyl didn’t expect, it was the last thing she would have guessed he would do; he began to sing…or at least, that’s what it sounded like to Vinyl.

“Thought I was gone but now I’m back, guess I got DJ Pon-3 to thank for that

My muse is back with the beat hitting harder than ever

I’ve already moved on from my last endeavor and I’m better than ever

You may think it’s clever, the music I make

But my favorite part of all is when I get to—” Treble paused as he made his words re-loop with a slight echo, the beat began to come alive with several string sounding instruments that began to rise suddenly; when they reached their peak, Treble’s final words re-looped one last time.

“You may think it’s clever, the music that I make

But my favorite part of all is when I get to D-D-D-D-Drop the bass!” Just then, Treble’s speakers exploded with a loud electronic dubstep like bass that sent the wave of ponies into a party frenzy. The bass was so loud and hard that the ground shook from it’s power, Vinyl was almost certain that even Canterlot residents could feel it. Vinyl herself had already placed on her glasses and was rocking her head to Treble’s beat, he looked over at her and gave her a smile, not a usual smile, but one of gratitude.

The beat began to return to Treble’s re-looping words again as the strings began rising once more. Instead of the bass dropping again, Treble only kept the kick of the beat going, never breaking rhythm.

“As much as I like the spotlight, I’m sure there’s enough speakers here for two DJ’s to play at once,” Treble looked over at Vinyl and gave her a grin, “So whaddya say Vinyl?” Vinyl pulled out a record and began spinning it before she slammed it down on the turntable.

“Let’s party!”

Letting Vinyl take the reins of the show, Treble tuned down the volume of his music and watched on at her; the bobbing of her head to the beat; her smile that flashed to everypony present; Treble had never seen nor heard such an in sync pony with music before, no pony but his cousin. He watched how she acted, how free she was, he wanted that; to feel free again, to arise from his slump that he had been in for the last few weeks. Treble could feel it returning, with each kick, each snare, each drop of the bass, Treble could feel something stirring inside him; and it was all because of this pony, a pony who had made such an impact on his life yet he barely knew her personally.

“Hey!”

Treble was brought back to reality by the voice of his friend, he snapped back and realized that the other DJ was trying to get his attention. Vinyl waved a hoof in his direction and gave him a smile, is it possible she knew what he was thinking? No. She was just bringing his attention back to the music, letting him know he had the stage once more. Treble went to replace the record on his turntable when something caught his attention, out of the corner of his eye was an instrument he had forgotten he had. He put down the record and quickly grabbed the large synthesizer keyboard and quickly hooked it up. Vinyl was still lost in the electronic beat that was blaring from the speaker, her and the ocean of ponies were making similar gestures and jumping to the beat.

But just as they were preparing for the crescendo of the song, the heavy dubstep bass and electric symphonic strings were silenced and replaced by a softer sound. The gentle sound of different expressions, pain, joy, sorrow, glee, a mixture of exploding emotions resonated from the speakers. Many were surprised, Vinyl included; to hear the strong dubstep replaced by such blissful music.

Octavia’s eyes rapidly shrunk as she listened, memories of her childhood flooded back into her mind upon hearing her cousin play the keyboard after all these years. Everyone went silent, to go from club music to a beautiful classical piece left everypony speechless.

‘Tavi said he was into all kinds of music and played a tone of instruments, but I didn’t think…’ Vinyl became lost as she shifted her gaze over to where Treble was playing, his hooves gliding over the keys, each stroke was gentle yet still retained a feeling of power. She was mesmerized, as was the rest of the party, even an on looking Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie closed their eyes and allowed Treble’s playing to command their very thoughts. ‘I hate this kind of music, and yet’ Vinyl thought to herself as she watched her opponent play on the synthesizer with grace. ‘And yet, this has got to be the most epic song I’ve ever heard.’

Treble’s gentle playing didn’t last long however, it soon began to pick up speed and was soon dancing with several symphonic strings that seemed to only enhance the beauty of the song. The unicorn’s work soon pieced together as he now brought up the tempo and threw in several dubstep elements including a kick and a snare. Then, without warning, the beat exploded into an orchestral dubstep mashup, the shaking of the bass and electronic music accompanied by the gentle keys of the keyboard, loud screams and cheers brought the party back to life as everypony was now practically bouncing up and down to the rhythm; activating a strobe light and several lasers only made the crowd frenzy further.

Treble looked over to Vinyl who had removed her glasses and gave him a sly wink as she removed her headphones to better hear the other musician. “Hey, so you ready to come back and give this crowd something worth talking about!?”

“Heck yeah!” Treble had to yell over the loud music, “Let’s do it!” Vinyl began to mix in elements of her own music as Treble eased on his crossfader to help her song fade into existence. Vinyl soon lowered the volume of her song as well, soon calming the song. Treble placed his headphones back on and gave Vinyl a nod which she returned, they were about to perform their grand finale when a loud scream silenced the noise at the party.

“VAIT!!!”

The music was as well as the clamoring of the party guests was silenced by a loud yell. Treble and Vinyl both looked to see an earth pony making it’s way through the crowd with several other ponies following behind. Treble had never seen this pony before, in fact, he can’t recall ever meeting her.

“I, Photo Finish, have arrived,” the earth pony stated as she struck a dynamic pose along with the ponies who accompanied her. Her accent was heavy, Treble could immediately tell she was foreign, or so he assumed.

“Right, right, Photo Finish,” Treble turned to Vinyl who now had her headphones off as well. “And she is?”

“I dunno,” Vinyl shrugged her shoulders as she relaxed on her haunches.

“It doesn’t matter right now,” the mare struck another pose, “I, Photo Finish, found the newest musician who is going to shine all over Equestria right here in Ponyville.” Photo Finish then pointed a hoof at Treble, “You!”

“Me!?”

“You vould make a wundabar musician! When you play ze piano you bring, no, you are…” Photo Finish paused for a moment before striking another pose. “The magics!”

“And your going to turn me into a famous pianist?” Treble questioned with the raise of his brow, yet a slight sense of excitement in his voice.

“Don’t be absurd, I’m a photographer not a manager of musicians. Sorry, I cannot help you.”

“But you said just said—”

“I have a couzin who vorks out of his office in Las Pegasus.” Photo Finish made a gesture and handed a card with some information on it to Treble who withdrew it with his magical aura. “I am going to visit him tomorrow, the train leaves for Las Pegasus in the morning at 10:30 sharp.” There was a longer silence than the previous one, in both Treble and Vinyl’s mind, it lasted longer than it should have. “I go!” the photogenic earth pony galloped out of the crowd and soon out of sight, taking her two lackeys with her.

“What…..what just happened?” Treble stammered as he rubbed an eye with his hoof, slightly confused.

“I’d say you just received a business offer,” Vinyl laughed, as she put her headphones on. “But we’ll talk about that later, right now we got a party to wrap up. And if I remember correctly we we’re just about to perform our grand finale, right?”

“You know it!” Treble laughed as he put on his headphones, “But I don’t know Vinyl, I think it’s up to the partygoers. You ponies wanna keep going!?” an explosion of noise was as good as confirmation as any that Treble received, he gave his fellow DJ a nod. “Let’s do this!”

Author's Note:

No more hiatus, hooray! I will be uploading the ending sometime tomorrow.