A Musician Reborn

by Zen

Chapter 5: Denver

Chapter 5: Denver

Vinyl and I didn’t talk much for the rest of the week. I had only approached her once about what she had said to me after Hidden Underground’s recording session and my efforts were met only with a cold stare and a statement saying I should mind my own business. It annoyed me somewhat, and I certainly could have been the world’s biggest douche and pulled the ‘this-is-my-house-and-I’m-letting-you-stay-here’ card to get her to tell me, but instead I dropped it, figuring that if she ever decided to tell me she’d tell me when she was ready. I did feel somewhat guilty though, since this was set off by something I apparently said. I’m no mind reader but whatever it was it was clearly bothering her.

Today I was headed down to a studio in Denver to pick up a new distortion pedal. I was lucky and found one online for really cheap and they offered me the option to pick it up myself instead of shipping it. It gave me an excuse to get out of Longmont again.

I was busy digging through the pantry for something to cook for lunch when Vinyl entered the kitchen and headed straight for the fruit bowl. “If you’re hungry I can make you something.” I offered.

“I’m not terribly hungry.” Vinyl replied, picking up an apple and inspecting it.

“Suit yourself then.” I decided I was going to just make myself a sandwich and forgo cooking. Our conversations had become rather short like this, and as much as I disliked it, I wasn’t entirely sure of how to resolve whatever was between us without knowing what I did wrong.

Vinyl turned to leave the kitchen with her apple. “Hey, Vinyl?” I started before she left.

Vinyl stopped and turned to me, expression blank. “Yes?”

I sighed. “I don’t know what I did or said to upset you so much, but I’m sorry.” Short and to the point.

Vinyl’s expression softened slightly. “Maybe one day I’ll tell you why I was so upset.” She said softly.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” I replied before holding out a hand. “We cool?”

Vinyl looked at my hand and then at me before grasping my hand. “Yeah, we cool.” She said.

Instantly I felt the tension go away, and breathed a small sigh of relief. “Awesome. I’m actually headed down to Denver after lunch if you wanna tag along.” I offered.

Vinyl bit into the apple. “What for?”

“To go pick up that new distortion pedal that I’ve been needing.” I replied, getting what I would need for my lunch. “It’s cheaper for me to go and pick one up in person than it is to ship it, plus I won’t have to wait several weeks this way. I also told you I’d show you more of the state if you were interested, and this would be a pretty good opportunity to see what a world-class American city is really like.”

Vinyl thought for a moment. “Eh, I said I’d come along before and I’m not the kind of mare…er, girl, to go back on her word.”

I smiled. “Cool.”

Half an hour later we were on the road and headed towards Denver. I had some tunes playing through the car stereo like I always do, and Vinyl’s head was bobbing to the beat as she stared out the window at the passing scenery. On the freeway I was pleased to find that traffic was relatively thin for the time of day, meaning the 25 mile jog along the interstate to Denver proper wouldn’t be a hassle.

It didn’t take long to reach the northern end of the Denver metro. “Is this Denver?” Vinyl asked as the open fields quickly gave way to outlet malls and neighborhoods.

“Not quite.” I replied. “This is the Denver metro area, but it’s not the city of Denver.”

“Huh?”

“In many larger cities, especially in the Western world which is where we are, big cities will be accompanied by towns we call ‘suburbs’. These suburbs give all the benefits of living in the big city without having to actually live in the big city. Suburbs are often cheaper to live in because of this. This particular one is called Westminster, and it’s where I spent my first year in Colorado back when I first moved to this state nearly two decades ago.”

“So big cities have smaller towns around them so people can be close to the big city but not have to worry about the problems that come with them?”

“You can say that.” I switched lanes to get around a very slow moving vehicle. “Sometimes suburbs can by themselves be considered big cities. In fact a fair number of Colorado’s biggest cities are suburbs of Denver, and Westminster is one of them with over one hundred thousand residents.”

“Oh wow.” Vinyl said. “We certainly don’t have anything quite like that back in Equestria.”

“From what I do know of Equestria, I think it’s safe to say that our two worlds have very little in common.”

“Believe me, they’re totally different places.”

At this point we were just coming over a hill around the Thornton Parkway area, and as we crested the hill the Denver skyline came into view.

“What’s that?” Vinyl asked, notably stunned by the view.

“That is downtown Denver.” I replied.

“That’s crazy!” Vinyl said. “Sure we have cities like Manehatten and Fillydelphia that have some taller buildings like apartments and stuff but nothing like that! Even those shorter buildings have to be at least twice as tall as anything I’ve ever seen in Equestria!”

“Those three tallest ones are all around seven hundred feet in height. But if you think those are really tall then go to places like Chicago or New York City. There are plenty of cities in this country alone that have towers that dwarf what Denver has.”

“That’s insane…”

“That’s human engineering.”

By this point we had entered Denver city proper. If anyone wants to pass through Denver on Interstate 25, the main north-south freeway in the state, there’s two things that need to be known. There’s a stretch along the freeway that circles around downtown Denver that is always under some kind of construction and along this stretch the freeway is almost always clogged. Today was no exception. Once the freeway began to circle around downtown traffic began to slow down as vehicles darted across lanes of traffic to exit the highway and as vehicles rolled down the on ramps to merge with the interstate. We passed a number of local landmarks including Six Flags at Elitch Gardens theme park and the Sports Authority Field at Mile High Stadium. As we passed the stadium and reached the part of the highway that was being worked on, I pointed towards the south end of downtown. “See those two domed structures?” I asked.

Vinyl looked over where I was pointing. “I think so.”

“The one with the golden top is the State Capital building, and the other one is the city hall.”

“The city hall huh? Looks totally different from the one in Ponyville. But what’s a State Capital building?”

“It’s the place where the Colorado state government convenes to discuss policies and write new laws.” I explained. “Think of it like Canterlot Castle or any town hall but on a much bigger level; it’s where all the important people go to make sure that the state is properly run.”

“Have you ever been there?”

“Several times.” I moved a lane over to avoid a large pothole in the road. “I’ve even been to the top of the dome. Pretty good view from up there.”

“Not like the views from the top of those taller buildings I’d bet.”

“Oh no, nothing like the amazing views you can get from some of those taller towers.”

“Do you think we could stop by here on the way back?”

“Sure. Downtown has a lot to offer to visitors.”

“Like what?”

“For starters there’s a pedestrian mall named 16th Street Mall. It stretches from one end of downtown to the other and it’s lined with restaurants, retail stores, gift shops, banks, and plazas.”

“Do other big cities here have these malls?”

“A few, some more famous than others.” I replied, moving over for a stopped emergency vehicle. “There’s the Mall in Washington, D.C., the nation’s capital, but instead of having shops and restaurants along it, the Mall is just one gigantic strip of grass lined with trees and benches.”

“Sounds like something an Equestrian city would have.” Vinyl commented.

“I wouldn’t know. Now it’s not really a ‘mall’ per se but there’s also the Las Vegas Strip.”

“Las Vegas Strip?” Vinyl echoed.

“Yes, the Las Vegas Strip.” I said. “As the name implies, it’s a strip along a very busy road in the desert city of Las Vegas. This strip is several miles long and is lined with hotels, resorts, clubs, casinos…you name it, it’s got it. It’s one of the state of Nevada’s, and America’s, biggest tourist destinations.”

“Sounds like fun. Where is it?”

“The city of Las Vegas is a good half day’s drive to the west in the southern part of Nevada. The quickest way to get there is to drive all the way across the state of Utah and part of Arizona.”

Vinyl stared ahead for a moment before shaking her head. “I sure do have a lot to learn about this place if I’m gonna be here for very long.”

I laughed. “America just happens to be one of the biggest nations on Earth and it’s not uncommon for people who have lived here their whole lives to get confused about where some places are. Geography just happens to be something I’m fairly good at.”

“Speaking of, I still find it hard to accept that humans don’t have cutie marks like ponies do.”

I shrugged. “Humans are incredibly versatile creatures, plus there’s that certain lack of magic on this planet. Even something as small as a cutie mark would totally change the way human society functions as a whole.”

We chatted idly for a bit after that, and before long we had reached the exit we wanted. I carefully maneuvered the tricky off ramp that dumped traffic onto Colorado Boulevard and entered the correct turning lane. The intersection at Interstate 25 and Colorado Boulevard was home to a smaller, although much shorter, cluster of office towers and apartment blocks.

“Is this a different city?” Vinyl asked as we turned onto Colorado Boulevard and headed north.

“There is actually a really small town a few blocks up that’s completely surrounded by Denver, but no we’re still in Denver.” I replied. “Though this area does look like it belongs to a different city, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah. You know, I couldn’t help but notice that this part of the city looks so much nicer.”

I laughed a bit again. “Yeah Denver’s funny like that. In American cities the parts of town that are often worse off are the southern parts, while the northern ends are usually better off. For some reason Denver’s got it backwards.”

“So the south end is wealthy and really nice instead?”

“Pretty much.”

I followed Colorado Boulevard up a few blocks from the freeway exit and turned off into a parking lot. One of the buildings had a sign that read “Guitar Center”.

Vinyl pointed to the sign as I found a place to park and stopped the car. “This is where we’re going?”

“Yup.” I unbuckled myself and got out of the car, locking it once Vinyl had also exited the vehicle.

We walked into the store and immediately Vinyl entered a state of awe.

“So many instruments in one place…” I heard her utter.

“Don’t have an instrument store back home?” I asked.

“Not like this we don’t.”

“Heh. Well feel free to look around while I go get what I need.”

Vinyl needed not be told twice. She immediately went over to a display that contained several turntables. I walked up to the counter and was greeted by the employee.

“Good afternoon sir.” She said. “How can I help you today?”

“Your website said that you guys have a distortion pedal here.” I replied, giving her the specifics.

“Ah, yes we do in fact have one of those in stock.” She walked in front of the counter and led me over to another display case. Reaching for her lanyard, she took hold of a key and unlocked the case. I looked at some of the other pedals that were on display as she took the one I was looking for.

“This is it.” She held the pedal out for me to inspect. I took it and carefully looked it over.

“Do you mind if I test it on one of these bass guitars?” I asked and gestured to a section of the wall dedicated to ‘used’ bass guitars and amps.

“Go right ahead, I’ll get a cable for you.” The employee walked back behind the counter while I walked over to the wall and selected a guitar and amp.

Just as I was adjusting the shoulder strap of my chosen bass guitar the employee approached me with a cable. “Here you go, sir.”

“Thanks.” I took the cable and plugged one end of the cable into the guitar and the other into the pedal, then took the pedal’s built-in cable and plugged that into the amp and turned the amp on. I played a few notes before making some adjustments on the amp. Once I was satisfied I activated the pedal and played a few bars on each string. I carefully listened to the sound for anything that didn’t seem quite right, but after a minute of playing I could not find anything to complain about.

Satisfied, I unplugged everything and put the guitar back where it belonged, then took the cable and pedal over to where Vinyl was drooling over some equipment. “Like what you see?” I asked.

“This is totally unreal! It’s just like what I use back in Equ-back home.” Vinyl caught herself before finishing her original thought.

I looked into the display case at the turntable that Vinyl was so interested in. It wasn’t particularly fancy or overly laden with technology, and in fact seemed fairly simple. “Huh...”

“Yeah…well I think I’m gonna go visit the little filly’s room before we leave.”

“Alright, just meet me out at the car.” I glanced rather quickly at the price tag of five hundred dollars as Vinyl walked to the back of the store before heading to the register.

“All ready?” The employee asked me as I handed the cable back to her.

I thought for a moment before responding. It would be outside of what I’d normally want to spend for one day but I convinced myself that it was worth it. “Actually, that turntable that my friend over there has been drooling over…” I pointed out the device. “I’d like to buy that as well as this pedal.”

“Of course.” The employee grabbed the turntable and within a minute I was outside and packing the pedal and turntable in the back of the car.

“We ready to go?” Vinyl asked me, just walking out of the store as I was just closing the hatch. Fortunately it didn’t seem like she had noticed the turntable which I was going to surprise her with later today.

“We are. Now I believe you wanted to see 16th Street Mall?”

“If you wouldn’t mind.” Vinyl replied, getting into the front passenger seat.

“Alright then, let’s go.”

I decided to just take Colorado Boulevard up to downtown Denver instead of dealing with the interstate. It didn’t take too long to find a spot to park near the REI sports store.

“This place is so busy.” Vinyl commented as we walked across a bridge.

“Well it’s starting to get into the late afternoon now and some people are just getting off work.” I replied. Indeed there was a fair amount of pedestrian traffic on this bridge and even more headed toward and from the shuttle stop at the north-western end of 16th Street Mall. As we walked I guided us towards the shuttle stop and we very quickly found ourselves in the middle of a stream of people, and before long we were standing in line waiting for the next shuttle. A few moments later one of the large shuttles drove up to the station and we boarded it.

As we picked out some seats next to the doors I addressed Vinyl. “We can stay on this shuttle for as long as we want. Look outside as we move and when you see a spot you want to get off at just say so.”

Vinyl nodded and the shuttle started to move. I leaned back in the seat and gazed out the window at the passing buildings and people. Vinyl sat down next to me and also looked out the window. “There’s so much going on here.” She commented.

“Well we are in the heart of the largest city for hundreds of miles.”

“Is Denver really that isolated?”

I nodded. “Colorado has another fairly large city called Colorado Springs. It’s about an hour south of here on the freeway, and it’s definitely not as large as Denver is, though it’s still a big city. I personally find it to be more scenic than Denver though. But anyways, the next biggest city of comparable size to Denver is a place called Albuquerque, far to the south in the state of New Mexico, roughly a seven hour drive and five hundred miles away.”

“Albuquerque? That’s a mouthful.”

“Yeah, it’s definitely not an English word. Albuquerque is a desert city. Pretty place, with mountains on one side of the city and an expansive desert on the other. Albuquerque, and New Mexico in general, is definitely a different place than Colorado.”

“Does each state have its own culture?”

“More or less. There are some states that share enough traits with each other to be grouped together, like the Great Plains states just to the east, and then there’re places like Colorado or New Mexico that are fairly unique in a number of ways.”

“What makes Colorado unique?”

“Colorado has a big focus on outdoor and winter sports and related tourism, plus we have a fairly high government presence compared to a lot of other states. Most other states tend to focus on things like agriculture and industry, while a few give their focus to things like tourism.”

“I see.”

We got off the shuttle after a few stops and began to walk up the pedestrian street, and soon we found ourselves at the Republic Plaza and tower.

“It looks so much taller in person…” Vinyl uttered as she craned her neck to look up the wall of the Sardinian stone-clad Republic Plaza tower.

“Yup.” I replied, looking up at the tower as well. “It’s just over seven hundred feet in height. The Republic Plaza is the tallest tower in the state of Colorado, and until recently it was the taller than anything in all the surrounding states as well.”

“This is incredible. What could possibly need that much room?”

“This building is inhabited by a number of different firms and banks, not just a single company. There’s also an underground level connected to this building here next to it that holds a food court and retail stores.” I point at a nearby staircase that led underneath the tower and the nearby multi-level strip mall next to it.

“Wow. I saw there were two other really tall towers. What are those?”

“Well just around the corner from this plaza is the Wells Fargo tower, primarily used by the banking company Wells Fargo. It’s a very distinguishable building because of its offset and curved roof. Then there’s the former Qwest tower, now called the Centurylink tower. That’s the tall brown one that stands slightly apart from this and the Wells Fargo tower. The Centurylink tower is the headquarters for the cable company Centurylink, hence the name.”

“Do companies name the towers they are based in?”

“Usually only if that is where their headquarters is. There’s another rather interesting tower not far from here. I forget what it’s called, but it’s unusual because it’s partially built around an old cathedral.”

“How far from here is it?”

“A few blocks. Wanna check it out?”

“Sure.”

We left the Republic Plaza and headed north towards this building. The walk took longer than I had anticipated, but hearing Vinyl’s reaction to seeing this building was worth it.

“This is amazing.” She breathed as the structure came into view. “It really is built around that old stone castle!”

“Not a castle, a cathedral.” I corrected her. “It’s a place of worship for one of Earth’s religions. When this tower was built, the community at large wanted to preserve this local landmark, and so instead of demolishing it, the contractors who designed the tower simply decided to incorporate it into the tower’s design.”

“That’s awesome. Is the cathedral still in use?”

“I believe so.” I glanced at my watch. “We should probably start heading back, unless there was something else you wish to see?”

Vinyl shook her head. “Naw, I think I’ve seen enough for today. I’m feeling a little overwhelmed by all this.”

“Alright, then let’s go.”

The walk back to the car was relatively uneventful. Vinyl continued asking questions about different buildings or sights that she spotted along the way while I answered as best I could, and on the drive home she was content to listen to whatever I decided to play through the stereo.

I pulled into the driveway once we got back to my home and opened the rear hatch. Vinyl began to make her way to the front door.

“Hey, I want you to see something.” I called to her, and she walked over.

“What’s up?” She asked, before looking down into the trunk. The second she spotted the turntable she had wanted she gasped.

“I said I was gonna help you get back into making music, and I meant it.” I said.

Once again I found myself within a tight embrace. “Oh, I don’t even know what to say!” Vinyl exclaimed.

“You can stop crushing me.” I suggested. For how small Vinyl looked, she sure had some strong arms.

Vinyl loosened her grip some. “I’ll do whatever I can to not let you down.”

I smiled and hugged her back. “That’s all I ask.”

Author's Note:

So it's been half a year since I last updated this fic...wow. Sorry guys.

Comments

[grantWire]

YOURE BACK OMG!

[Zen]

2768758

Remember that this isn't exactly the reality that we know it to be.

[Zen]

2768683

Yeah..actually I had this chapter finished awhile ago but just didn't upload it. >.>

[Michaelbrony]

.Looks at email.
"A Musician Reborn" has been updated......

[Zen]

2769784

I died.

[Michaelbrony]

2771284

in all seriousness though, are you planning to continue this story?
This is a really good story, and ill like to see more of it.
But if you don't, i totally understand.
also:

[Zen]

2771418

I'm planning on continuing all three unfinished fics...it just may take awhile to get around to it.

[Michaelbrony]

2771431
no worries, take your time. I did wait half a year for an update after all

[djponyfl]

another good chapter.

[Sprocket Jockey]

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!