Staccato Dreams

by Vivace

Chapter 2: Let's hit the Beach! Part 1

Wow, interested enough to read into chapter two are you? I must be doing something right then.. Thank you for your time, please visit my ask tumblr if anyone is interested.

The bass throbbed and the synth sung together in glorious harmony. Beaming lights of various colors and intensities danced across the bar in seemingly random sways, yet oddly matching up perfectly to the tempo of the song. Lighting the dance floor much to the delight of the countless colts and mares, vigorously whirling, spinning and bobbing in unison to the heavy beats.

A light brown unicorn stallion stood upright on the front stage, taking control of the turn table station. The red highlights in his black mane glowing brightly under the black light hanging over his head. His eyes closed and a beaming expression that almost created it’s own light in the dark and musty bar. A pair of pearlesent white bulky headphones were clamped snug over his ears, the letters “V” and “S” inscribed in crimson ruby red on the side along with a backwards eighth note painted black on the bridge.

While the bass that was pouring obnoxiously out of the mountainous speakers was, without a doubt, enough to wake the sleeping dead from a mile away, upon closer inspection, anypony could easily see the stallion’s headphones quaking violently from the deep bass exploding through the high quality headset. One could only barely imagine the level of volume resonating into the unicorn’s ears, as he bobbed his head up and down to the bass, spinning the vinyl records to create that classic scratching sensation that everypony in the building adored so very much.

Staccato’s ear drums stung with abuse, his temples throbbing with pain beneath the snow white headphones. His body was slowly deteriorating under the blasts of sound beating brutally at his every sense. It could only cry out for mercy, begging to stop, but beyond his threshold for pain, in his mind, Staccato could never feel more at peace. He found Nirvana here, under the influence of the music he loved so much, and desired almost nothing else. Such a feeling was unknown to him in the past, but once he had found it, he became addicted to it, and named it “Gioia” Italian for joy.

He was tonight’s DJ, here at the N30N Lounge, and he wanted to share his joy with everypony in the house. As the latest song came to an abrupt stop, just as all songs of it’s type always ended. He carefully but firmly slapped his hoof on the edge of the record, flicking the disc so that it somersaulted high in the air, before catching it expertly on the tip of his horn. The crowed roared in approval, a little trick he had learned from an old friend. “Getting the attention of the audience is half of the job after all” He recalled being told.

A neon red aura surrounded the black vinyl circle, resonating from his horn, as he delicately floated the disc into a random empty case. It was too dark to be able to read the labels on the cases anyways. So the DJ’s that worked here were told to just place them anywhere, as expendable interns would sort them out after the party was over. He carefully slipped the headphones off of his ears, as a high pitched ringing noise echoed through them.

Staccato turned towards the clock on his station, just as it turned to 12:56. “Enough time for one more song” He reached under the turntable with his hoof, retrieving a jet black case that he had placed there earlier. He gazed thoughtfully at the cover with a smile on his face, it was his personal favorite, and he almost always played it during his shift. He continued to stare at the case, chills flowing up his spine in anticipation. It was only when the impatient growls and shouts of the party goers, as well as a beer bottle barely missing his head, did Staccato finally break from his trance and hastily began to place the record on the silver turn table.

As he pulled out the disc, the unicorn still felt the weight of another record in the cardboard container. Surely enough, as he peered through the case, he found another disc. Staccato retrieved the second black circle, giving a small, sad sigh. This song was supposed to be mixed by two DJ’s at once, and in the past, he had done it with somepony else. One pony in particular came to mind. He turned his head to his left, seeing a second turntable station, depressingly empty. His smile faded, and his joy began to fade as well. Another bottle barely nicked the side of his ear, but he refused to budge.

He kept looking towards the empty station dejectedly, almost believing that, if he watched it long enough, she would appear once again to take the space. Like she did with him before so many years ago. Finally, a bottle collided with the flat of Staccato’s shoulder, cracking slightly but did not shatter until it hit the ground, he flinched and recoiled a bit. Looking towards the angry mob, almost ready to attack him. He turned back to the empty turn table once more, gazing at it sadly. Then shook his head vigorously, in attempt to shake off the unwanted memories forming in his head as he moved back towards his station.

“Sorry guys, got a little distracted there..” He mumbled to himself softly as he placed the single disc on the turn table. One last time, he looked at the second record gloomily, before he slid it back into the case, setting it in a slot under the turntable. He set the needle carefully on the disc, the crimson aura of his magic surrounding the arm as it moved. Soon the song kicked off, with a quick succession of tapping snare drums, and the crowd turned back to it’s usual self. Dancing and drinking like there was no tomorrow.

Staccato took a couple of steps back, his smile now permanently wiped from his face. He turned and began to head backstage, deciding that he would not do any mixing to the song tonight. “It’ll sound fine on it’s own.” He said to himself. “They won’t be able to tell the difference anyways.” He slowly trotted towards the back when an unfamiliar voice blasted through the speakers, the music still playing without interruption.

“What?” The unicorn uttered, a little confused. “I don’t remember mixing a second voice into this song..” Staccato turned towards the tables once more, the voice was garbled and distorted, Staccato couldn’t understand it in the slightest. He pulled his headphones back up to his ears, listening to the song closely.

“What is that voice?”

“S-staccato.” It was barely understandable under the loud bass, but he could clearly hear his name being called, echoing softly.

“What in Celestia’s name?”

“..Wake up..” Staccato pressed his hooves against the sides of his headphones in attempt to hear more clearly.

“Staccato.. wake up..” It became more audible now now.

“Wake up Staccato.” His eyelids furrowed in confusion.

“Staccato wake up!” The stallion shook his head, completely dumbfounded.

“What? Wake up?” He spoke back to the voice as if it would respond more clearly.

“STACCATO! WAKE UP!” Staccato’s head popped off his desk abruptly, his light grey eyes now wide open and dilated, hyperventilating intensely. A neon green earth pony with a very bright red mane stood in front of him, a worried expression on his face.

“Sir, are you okay?” Staccato looked around, trying to recollect what had happened. He was in his office, seventh floor of Crescendo Studios. It was spacious, bookshelves lined the walls, and vinyl record cases lined the bookshelves. He could easily see far over the Manehattan city, the skyline clearly shown through the large window that took up the entire back wall. He looked down on his desk that was previously being used as an effective pillow. Hundreds of papers and files were laid out, uncompleted. Hundreds more were stacked high on the corner of his desk, precariously close to falling off the edge. In front of him, the same neon green pony stood with the same worried face.

“Did I fall asleep?” The earth pony nodded slightly. Staccato groaned, squeezed his eyes shut and smashed his head against the desk in frustration. The rebound echoing painfully throughout the acoustics of the room.

“AH CELESTIA BUCKING DAMN IT! HOW AM I GOING TO GET THIS PAPER WORK DONE WHEN I KEEP FALLING ASLEEP?!” He shouted, flailing his legs about, scattering papers everywhere. Immediately he picked up a quill with his magic and began writing again. Deep dark bags were hung under his half drawn eyes, blinking slowly as he fought off sleep. The green stallion didn’t leave, still looking at Staccato with a concerned expression.

“Sir, would you like to take the rest of the day off?” Staccato did not move, his focus concentrated completely on the thousands of pages of paper laid out on his desk. The assistant could see Staccato’s writing ability start to deteriorate, his hoof writing slowly becoming worse and worse. The speed at which he wrote slowing down considerably as his eyes began to close, on the verge of drifting off again.
He noticed the cumbersome pearl white headphones still on Staccato’s head. It helped him concentrate, whether he was listening to violent dubtrot, or calming classical. But it also seemed to help him fall asleep a little faster than usual, so the assistant considered it a little counter productive. He did not argue though, it was not his place to do so, after all, he could never figure out how Staccato could do so much work in so little time. He would not be able to get his attention by speaking to him.

The green earth pony tapped his hoof lightly on the desk, finally the light brown unicorn looked up to him, an annoyed, but thoroughly exhausted look downing his face. He took his earphones off, the red aura enveloping as they were placed gently down on the desk.

“What do you want Glowstix?” Staccato responded flatly, the young assistant brought a hoof to his mouth, clearing his throat before he spoke.

“I think it would be best if you took the rest of the day off sir.” Staccato paused for a moment, then merely shook his head quickly and started back on his papers.

“No no no, there’s too much work to be done, I can’t leave right now.” Glowstix furrowed his eyes, a little astonished.

“Staccato, you’re not going to get any work done if you keep falling asleep like this.” He retorted,
“Just take the day off.”
Staccato didn’t look up from his work, just shook his head again stubbornly. The earth pony rolled his eyes, now he was a little annoyed.

“Sir, you’ve fallen asleep three times today already, and it’s only 12:56.” The brown unicorn glanced at the digital clock on his desk, briefly remembering his dream. A memory that forever danced around his mind. He could not say that it haunted him, because of the joy it brought every time it began, the throbbing bass and the singing synth. The feeling of Gioia, locked in musical ecstacy. But he could not call it a beautiful dream either, for the ending would always leave a sour note ringing in his ears. Bringing back memories he would rather have forgotten.

He disregarded the thought quickly, it was unimportant at the moment, and other things were more urgent. He continued writing, waving a hoof towards Glowstix in attempt to dismiss him, but he refused leave, concerned for his workaholic boss’s, and, in truth, good friend’s well being. His eyes seemed to twinkle slightly as an idea began to slowly form in his head.

“Maybe you should take a vacation.” he suggested. Staccato shot a sudden glare towards his assistant a abnegated look on his face, startling him a bit.

“What?!” He shouted in disbelief, Glowstix took an involuntary step back, stunned.

“Have you seen the state my company is in? We are on the brink of bankruptcy and you want me to take a vacation?! Why in Celestia’s name would I leave now?!”
The earth ponies eyes narrowed a bit, becoming more and more aggravated every time his friend argued back.

“Have you seen the state YOU are in?! You look like a zompony for Celestia’s sake!” He snapped back. Staccato squinted as his vision blurred from exhaustion, a little surprised, did he really look that bad? He turned to a small mirror on the other corner of his desk. Admitting that he had looked better in the past. The bags under his eyes were deep enough to hold all the apples on Sweet Apple Acres. His mane was a complete mess, he would not be surprised if a live parasprite was making its summer home there. His coat was unkempt unwashed in several different places. He rubbed his head with both of his hooves, trying to massage his temples, but seeming to miss from the lack of energy.

“Besides.” Glowstix continued.

“You’re over exaggerating, we are not on the brink of bankruptcy, and all of us have you to thank for that Staccato. You pulled this entire business back up from the lowest point it’s ever been. One more day and we would have been shut down for sure. But thanks to you, we’re up and running, sure we’re not at full strength just yet but these things take time.” The unicorn dragged his hooves down his face only revealing his eyes, giving a defeated look. He sighed, releasing his magical grip on the quill, allowing it to fall to it’s side on the piles of paper.

“It’s just.. I had to lay off a whole bunch of hard working honest stallions and mares a few months back because of the state we were in... so many ponies now without any work, perhaps not earning enough to feed their families. My only excuse was, ‘I’m sorry, we just don’t have the money to keep everypony.’ and now I’m going off relaxing and taking lazy vacations while they scrap for jobs? That’s just not right..”
He laid his head on his desk, completely tired and now a little depressed. Glowstix looked at him sympathetically, now understanding the situation his friend was in.

“It’s not like you’re doing at their expense Staccato. And those guys all had a degree from some sort of musical college, I’m sure they all have providing jobs by now. Besides, you deserve a vacation.” Staccato stared at him, a little confused.

“Why do you say that?” Glowstix rolled his eyes again, but this time with a bit of a smile, just annoyed Staccato could not recall all of his hard work.

“You worked all through Hearths Warming Eve, the Summer Sun Celebration, and Nightmare Night. You refused to go to the Grand Galloping Gala and you skipped over the Garden Party as well. In fact, I can’t remember the last time you took time off.” Staccato shifted his gaze blankly towards the wall to his right, simply attempting to avoid eye contact.

“Not much fun to celebrate when you have no pony to celebrate with...” He muttered dejectedly.
Glowstix immediately regretted the last part of his statement, remembering sorely that Staccato had no family.

Seven years ago, Staccato’s parents were both lost in a carriage accident a year after he enrolled in Manehattan Musical College. His father was CEO of Crescendo Studios, a highly successful music mixing, producing, and publishing company all in one. Owned by a long line of Staccato’s forefathers. When he was lost, the company quickly began to fall apart. Was it not for Staccato taking charge of his family’s business, it would have surely fallen. It is still a wonder how somepony so young could have managed to get a company so close to destruction back on it’s hooves, even Staccato was surprised.

“Sorry sir...” The unicorn sighed.

“It’s alright Stix, but maybe you’re right..” The green stallion raised an eyebrow.

“Maybe I do need a vacation..” Glowstix brightened his expression, glad his boss finally agreed.

“Where am I going to go though?”

“You don’t have any place in mind?”

“I never traveled a lot Stix, except when I was still making music and we were on tour, but even then, we left so fast that we really never got a chance to dig our hooves in the sand.” He looked towards his old friend.

“Any suggestions?”

“Fillydelphia is always nice.”

“No.. I kinda want to get away from the big cities. Else I might as well just stay here and walk around Manehattan.”

“I hear Prance is nice.”

“It would be good to see Fleur again..” Glowstix’s eyes widened.

“Wait, you’re not talking about THE Fleur de Lis are you?” Staccato nodded, not really paying any mind to his assistant.

“You know Fleur de Lis?! That beautiful model everypony is talking about these days?!”

“When you don’t have family, you tend to make up with an excessive amount of friends Glowstix.”

“Wow that mare is gorgeous!” The green earth pony blushed a bit.

“D..do you think you could put in a good word fo-” Staccato laughed, interrupting Glowstix.

“I don’t think she’s your type Stix.” He said, trying to contain a laugh. The earth pony recoiled in surprise, then recovered quickly with rage.

“Hey! How do you know what my love life is like?!” Staccato gave a devilish grin.

“I may listen to music all the time, but that doesn’t mean I’m deaf. I hear things around the office.” The green earth pony’s eyes widened again.

“R-really? How.. how much did you hear?”

“From what I gather, you’ve had seven marefriends in the last two weeks, each of them not lasting more than four days.”Glowstix blushed hard red.

“Eight.. One and a half weeks.. three days..” The light brown unicorn gave an apologetic smile to his old friend.

“Sorry Glowstix, we’re very good friends, I honestly don’t think you could keep up with her quirky demeanor.” Staccato chuckled a little, remembering his previous engagement with that beautiful mare.

“Even I have trouble keeping up with her..” He turned to the corner of his office, where a priceless antique phonograph sat, next to it a special shelf, stacked tightly with equally rare and priceless vinyl records. A gift from the tall white unicorn from their last encounter.

“Still need to pay her back for those..” He whispered to himself absent mindedly. The green earth pony gave a disappointed look, then thought back to his friend’s last sentence. His curiosity got the better of him and a rush of blood returned to his cheeks, more red than Big Macintosh.

“Good friends?” He questioned with heavy emphasis on ‘Good’.

“D-did you ever-”

“No.” He uttered simply without another word.

“Oh.” End of discussion.

“But...” Staccato continued, getting back on track with their previous discussion.

“I want to stay in the country, so at least I can get back quickly if something does go wrong.” Glowstix exhaled sharply, looking up to heaven, a little frustrated.

“For the last time, nothing is going to go wrong Staccato, I’ll see to it personally.”

“That’s what I’m the most afraid of.” He muttered. Glowstix stood silent, an agitated look on his face.

“Either way, I want to be nearby, just in case.”

“Okay.. what about Hoofington?”

“Never was a big fan of Califoalnia..”

“Hoofululu?”

“When I said in the same country, I meant the same land mass.”

“Neigh Orleans?”

“During this time of year? It’s so humid it’s impossible to breath.”

“Celestia! You’re making this so difficult!”

“Now do you see why I don’t travel a lot?” Glowstix had one more idea, but he was certain it would never work. He shuffled his hooves on the ground, not sure whether or not he should suggest it.

“You know.. “ He started nervously

“There’s always Canter-”

“No.”

“Come on Staccato! What are the chances that you’re going to see her again?”

“You’ve never been to Canterlot have you?” He responded without looking to him.

“It’s not as large as everyone makes it out to be, it is built on the side of a mountain after all. Sure the mansions are huge and the castle itself is massive, but when it comes to public space, everything is quite small. The roads are cramped, the shops are tiny, and you could suffocate in those restaurants. If she and I decided to go outside at the same time, there would be over an eighty percent chance that we would bump into each other..” Glowstix rolled his eyes for the third time that day.

“Ugh! Fine!”

“Maybe I shouldn’t go at all..”

“NO!” Suddenly, Glowstix’s eyes lit up so fast it almost looked as if he shot lazar beams.

“I know! How about Foalida?” Staccato looked up thoughtfully, seemingly trying to come up with some sort of flaw.

“Come on! The cities aren’t too big, nice sandy beaches, good food, hot mares.” Staccato glared at him.

“O-okay, ignore that last part.” He said nervously. The unicorn looked to the Equestrian sky thoughtfully.

“Hm.. I’ve never been to Foalida before..” Glowstix leaned forward in anticipation, almost falling face first into the ground, but luckily caught himself. Staccato looked at himself in the mirror again, seeing the horrifying condition he was in. But then he looked back at his desk, the thousands of papers he had yet to finish. And of course, when he got back, there would always be even more arriving in his absence, stacking even higher. Again to the mirror, then back to the desk, then back to the mirror, then back to the desk. Finally he sighed deeply before looking back at his assistant.

“Maybe I should just stay here instead...”