The Life and Death of a DJ

by Syn3rgy

Music Academy

So I was finally here, cantering down the hallways I’d only ever seen in pictures, hearing the disjointed yet melodic bouts of music that I’d only learnt about in conversation, catching the glimpses of ponies in groups behind propped open doors playing like I’d only ever read about. It was almost surreal. The narrow hallway I walked down was laden with the portraits of past musicians and the roof above me was aged stone. The building prided its ancient roots, set back in the Dark Age of Equestria, a time when Manehatten was being built to shelter the casualties of war. Apparently, the music academy had been the headquarters for the city council before Manhattan’s ministry building was built.

Turning around a final corner I stopped in front of a door. To the left of it a small silver plaque with the numbers 1003 had been mounted. Pulling out the map, I double checked that I was at the right room. My one hoof traced an imaginary line between the number and the legend at the bottom right of the map.

“Perfect,” I mumbled to myself, folding the laminated paper back up and placing it in my saddlebag. I was in the right place.

---

As the lesson went on and I got ahead in my writing, I had the time to look around at my peers. Almost immediately I spotted Octavia, writing furiously with a pencil in her clenched jaw. As before, her grayish coat had made her stand out. She still hadn’t noticed me yet.

However, another individual, a griffon, placed in the back of the room to not obscure anyone’s view of the professor, also drew my gaze. I’d never seen one before, so I was interested. He was lean, his head and front hooves were that of an eagle, however, as if Celestia had decided that a large four legged bird alone would not suffice, the second half of his body was that of a lion. As I prolonged my gaze the griffon looked up from his paper to stare back. Blushing, I ducked down and got back to concentrating on the professor.

“…Filly’s and Gentlecolt’s, this concludes today’s lessons on tempo, tune and improve. To wrap up the session, I’d like to try a little game with you to see what you’ve learned. Please, everypony group up in pairs and wait for further orders.” In response, the class sprung up enthusiastically.

Making my way through the congregating crowd, I spotted a glimpse of an eagle’s wing through the milling ponies. Smiling, I altered my path and headed in the griffons general direction. As I approached he gave me an amused smile and spread his wings.

“By Gadania’s downy feathers pony, are you sure about pairing up with me? I might eat you, because, ya know, I’m a griffon.”

“Eat me?” I countered. “Well I’d be rather unsatisfying. However, if you’re hungry, I’d recommend our prof…”

This elicited a brief chuckle from the griffon.

“I like you already pony.” He looked down at me from around his beak, fixing me in a stare. “What’s your name?”

“Vinyl,” I said. “And you?”

“Orrick,” he replied, bumping my hoof with his talon. “Do you have any idea what the game is going to be about?” I shook my head.

As if on cue, the professor spoke up again. “Now that you’re all together I’ll explain what you and your partner are going to be doing. Working as a team, you’ll compete against the other pairs in an improved musical showdown. I’ll rate your performance based off what we learned today in the session; the team with the highest score goes on to the next round. To prepare, I’ll give you five minutes to plan, use it wisely.”

Oh, it’s on.

I turned back to Orrick. “Are you prepared?”

“Am I a griffon?” he replied, smiling wickedly.

---

Half an hour before this point, I would have never believed that Orrick was sane. When I had asked him what his instrument was, he pointed to his feathered head. At the time, obviously, I was peeved. I’d developed a slightly competitive mindset ever since I returned to busking at Fourhoof, and had to compete with another musician over the flow of bits. When the first round started, I was already in the mindset that we had lost. You could only imagine the magnitude of awe I felt when Orrick started playing, or singing, I guess, like Dawn had done, except the griffon rhymed every line, giving his lyrics a bite. I would later learn, in the break between round two and three that the rhymed singing Orrick was doing was called rap… and by Celestia I liked it!

Over the course of two more rounds, I slowly got the hang of beating my drums to match the tempo that Orrick was rapping at. Working together, we eliminated all the other pairs; or almost all, that is. One team stood up to us, effectively crushing our show. It consisted of, to my amazement, Octavia and some colt, Flam, if I remember correctly. And now the final round was about to start, and I’d get a second shot at taking that team out.

I turned to Orrick. “Alright, I think it’s safe to say we’ve gotten our battle plan set. For this final round, rap as fast or as slow as you need to, I’ll keep up. We’re going to hit them hard and fast. Octavia might play a wicked double bass solo and Flam might drop the best choruses, but we can crush that with hard hits and sharp words… right?”

“Yep, that just about sums it up.” The griffon cracked his back and stood up as the prof summoned us to the front of the classroom.

“Then by Celestia, let’s do this.” I got up with him and together we met Octavia and her partner.

“Good, in five seconds, the final round shall begin,” the prof said; his voice was carried easily over the hushed crowd. “Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Orrick, Vinyl... begin.”

“We’ll look what we’ve got here Vinyl,

A colt with his ass on trial.

And a filly,

But really,

It’s silly.

She thinks rap is out of style.”

Smiling, I started beat matching, bending the sound of the drums to fit perfectly in tune with Orrick’s Lazy pace.

“But these are cub’s rhymes,

And it’s about time,

That we switch up the beat a bit.

So buckle down you posers,

And let the real bulldozers,

Show you how it’s done.”

I quickened the pace, forcing back my auto drive from making me shoot out on another tangent. Orrick was the center of attention now.

“I draw crowds like The Wonderbolts,

Lyrics that blaze like thunderbolts,

I shine like Celestia,

Ya,

I’m gonna get the best of ya,

Octavia,

You better drop that cello and start runnin’,

Prepare yourself, for an imminent second comin’,

And by Gadania’s tail feathers,

I’m coming in hot.”

I stopped drumming. We’d done our three verses, now it was our opponents turn. The crowd erupted into an explosion of cheering. We’d brought down the roof! As the crowds roaring died down to an energetic murmur, Octavia started up. She seemed unfazed by Orrick’s instigation.

The first note she played seemed to cut through thin air. It was the sound of such total delicacy, like glass, or a thin sheet of ice. However, from the second note on, her tempo increased into a catchy tune that reminded me of the lute playing busker back at Fourhoof. When Flam started singing, he rhymed, but it wasn’t rap. In was jazzy, melodic, yet riddled with an undertone of clever rhetoric.

"I’m no detective, with a pipe and a hat.

But it’s easy, for me to see, where… you exactly lack.

We beat you once, with our sweet tune,

We’ll beat you again, till you swoon,

So buckle down, incoming doom, by Celestia, we're about to seize the room!”

On cue, Octavia broke out into a jiving cello solo that put anything I did a minute before to shame. It was fast paced and turbulent, a level of skill I’d never thought a pony without the aid of magic would be able to do on an instrument of that sort. I sat back on my haunches and stared in amazement as the gray filly played. Flam started up again.

“Octavia and I, were the pinnacle of power,

Your weakling ‘rap’; it’s... gone sour,

Take your spotlight for an hour,

Don’t cower, don’t go.

Sit back and enjoy the show.”

Octavia and Flam came together in harmony, the cello accommodating his voice like red wine and brie cheese.

“Let me tell you a story about a fledgling filly,

She was a pegasi; prime and pretty.

Oblivious to the fact, that there was a world below,

Hidden from her by clouds, as white as snow.

Until one day that filly, did something really silly,

Fell through the cloud cover, landed in a city,

Ruin and rubble; degraded as can be.

Fallout Equestria was her reality.”

As the song ended, the crowd was silent. It wasn’t a disapproving silence… everypony- and griffon – Orrick was amazed as well, were stunned; and I couldn't blame them. I turned to the prof, who had cantered up to stand between us and the other team. In a field of unicorn magic he hovered a piece of paper.

After clearing his throat he spoke. “Vinyl and Orrick. I have to say, I was deeply impressed with how well you two worked together. Your teamwork ability was flawless, even though it took a few rounds for you two to really start working together. This is how life is. When you graduate from the academy, you might be doing collaboration pieces with ponies that you don’t know, and maybe don’t like. As for the music itself, Orrick, your sharp rhymes and aggressive passion was thrown very effectively over the audience, we don’t have meany rappers here at the academy, actually, I think you might be the only one at the moment… please keep it up. Vinyl.” He turned to me. “Your drum work needs some improvement,”

Wait, what?

“But you grasp the concepts very well. A few extra practice sessions, and you’ll be prime.” This threw me off. I needed clarification. The colors in my head were so perfect this time, even though I never had the chance to actually start ‘drawing’ a picture yet.

“Sorry, Professor Treble, could you clarify exactly where I slipped up?”

“Sure. You used a little too much repetition in your beat.”

“But I had to keep a steady pace for Orrick,” I retorted.

“Yes, that’s true. But steadiness does not always mean repetition. The only thing you should be repeating is the kicker at the bottom of your drums.”

I went to object, but Orrick nicked me with one of his talons. I bit my tongue.

“Thank you professor,” I mumbled. Sitting back down.

“Now, as a whole, you and Orrick did excellently. I give you an eight out of ten.” I felt my face go red; I knew I could have done so much better. I felt like a total failure.

As if sensing my sudden change in mood, Orrick turned to fix me in a determined stare.

"Rapping is a hard genre of music to perfectly beat match with. If you’re this hard on yourself, all it’ll lead to is your own destruction.” He paused momentarily, as if deciding whether or not to tell me something.

“I had a friend,” he started off slow, apprehensive, “who lost himself to making music. Believe it or not, too much of anything, even composing, can be bad. For a week he locked himself in his room and slaved away at the song he claimed was going to be the best the world had ever heard. He was like a griffon out of Hades. He would only come out to eat, and he didn’t sleep. When he finally finished his song, and put it up online, it didn’t come close to being the best, actually, all it really drew was critics and a few followers. Instead of listening to what the critics had recommended, he lashed out at them, calling them idiots. To put is short, he was enraged, and flew into a fury that eventually got him kicked out of his house. On the streets of Manehatten, he got into all the wrong stuff. Eventually, after a drug deal gone wrong, he was left to bleed out in some alleyway.” He stopped momentarily, and I, darkly interested, tempted him to go on with a hoof wave. “Lucky for him, he was found before he could die and fixed up. After he was let out of the hospital, he went back home to his parents. They let him back in, and he began making music again, rapping…” the hushed air about Orrick disappeared as he turned his attention away from me and too the professor. He was giving our opponents his final mark.

As if I’d just resurfaced from the murky depths of a lake, I snapped back to reality and turned to gaze intently at Octavia. I could tell she was nervous.

“…and my final mark for Octavia and Flam is a nine out of ten.” As if the weight of the world had just been lifted off of her back, the gray filly enthusiastically hoof-bumped her partner and smiled brilliantly.

Comments

[DaMagiks]

Loved the song lyrics dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Vinyl_Scratch.png
Extra points for adding in a griffin and also not making him a villain (I don't seem to read many stories with them in it)

[Xerzes]

Academy.

[Uzlesniz Savage]

Another good chapter bro kepp up the. Good work ma friend

[SkyWalker]

You mixed a few your with you're. Other than that, it was good. Wish we had seen some of Vinyl's thoughts about the new music learning experience. Excellent lyrics too.

[Reggie the Griffon]

Wow that was kinda Epic
and you threw some Fallout Equestria in there witch was awesome

[Vinyl]

and the plot thickens

[Talentless_Brony]

The last paragraph I have done. Feelsbadman.
This is great so far. I can identify with it. S'why I like it so much.

[gcwg57]

Octavia has a double bass not a violin

[mrmayortheiv]

EPIIIIIIICCCCC Rap Battles of Ponies..... Begin!

[KitsuneCurator]

“…Filly’s and Gentlecolt’s,"
Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think the ' are necessary, since the teacher is addressing multiple students.

Interested to see a Griffin at the academy, I was pleasantly surprised when it became a musical battle, did not expect that coming from the story. Good lyrics from both sides, interesting to see how the academy progresses.

[SolidFire]

“Let me tell you a story about a fledgling filly,
She was a pegasi; prime and pretty.
Oblivious to the fact, that there was a world below,
Hidden from her by clouds, as white as snow.
Until one day that filly, did something really silly,
Fell through the cloud cover, landed in a city,
Ruin and rubble; degraded as can be.
Fallout Equestria was her reality.”

Couldn't help but put that in here, loved that little rhyme. And now the colors thing has finally been clarified that it is indeed in her head and that nopony else can see it. Nice touch by having one of the Flim Flam brothers at the academy. Still, my only gripe is not being entirely sure about ages and time gaps every now and again. Exquisite story so far.

~SolidFire

[Banshee]

I think you mean improv, at one point you said double bass and in another you said cello, I'm pretty sure beat matching has nothing to do with being in tune, and "We’ll look what we’ve got here Vinyl"
"now it was our opponents turn"
"In was jazzy, melodic"
"To put is short"
"we don’t have meany rappers"