Her First Bass Drop

by nctransgirl

Intro

Intro

"Alright, ponies, settle down!" Ms. Cantata's voice attempted to overshadow that of the sound of the mingling of fifteen young fillies and colts who had just entered her Music Orientation classroom for the first time. Needless to say, the little ponies were too excited talking about their summer vacations to listen to their new teacher.

In one corner, Bubblegum Pop was babbling on to her minions about her trip to Canterlot as they absorbed every paltry detail of an anecdote about a charming young stallion she met by the name of Fancy Pants. In another, one could listen to Tremolo Pick and his delinquent friends planning their next prank on the lonely colt who sat by himself near the door. Sporting a slicked back turquoise mane that complemented his cyan coat, that pony, the bluest in class, certainly was feeling blue at the moment.

That pony's name was Break Beat, and he was waiting for his best friend to arrive. As he attempted to listen to the indistinct conversations of his contemporaries, he found himself increasingly upset that he could not share his own story with a little unicorn that always seemed to brighten up his day.

Suddenly, in the middle of the chaos that was the Music Orientation class at the Fillydelphia School for Pony Musicians, the sound of metal clattering together permeated the room, and everypony that was present finally began to quite down.The clattering belonged to that of the school bell, which, of course, meant it was time for a new school year to officially begin. All at once, each pony found their seats, which had been neatly alphabetized for them. Once again, Break Beat was dismayed to realize that he was sitting next to Bubblegum Pop, and worse, they were at the front of the class. Once all fifteen ponies had found their seats, Ms. Cantata finally got a word in.

"Hello, my little ponies!" She spoke with a smile.

"Hello, Ms. Cantata." The entire classroom droned back, sans Break Beat, who was digging his hoof into the surface of his wooden desk.

"As you all know, today is the first day of our school year. I hope everypony is as excited to learn as I am to teach! This year, you will all be learning about music theory, from the basics, like the names of notes, to more advanced concepts, such as complex time signatures! We'll be learning about all kinds of instruments, and I'm sure that if you haven't already, you'll find one you'll come to love for sure!" Again, she grinned as she spoke. The classroom let out a collective sigh.

Doing her best to continue smiling, Ms. Cantata exclaimed:

"Let's start with a roll call! Adagio, are you here?"

"...Present." The pony with a whole note cutie mark responded as slowly as the tempo for which he was named. He had never been a particularly active pony - whenever the class played kickball, he was sure to be chosen last. He did, however, possess an extraordinary talent for playing the timpani - an instrument most ponies seemed to take for granted.

"Break Beat?"

"I'm here..." Break Beat's voice was harshly muffled, as he had pressed his face against the top of his desk. "Where is she?", he thought to himself. Break Beat had woken up that morning eager to tell a little filly he knew about the cutie mark he woke up with the month prior to the first day of school. Concerning his talents, he was a bit strange. Put him behind an electronic drum kit, and he'd play polyrhythmic beats all day long. Place him on an honest-to-goodness kit, however, and he'd just sit there, almost not knowing what to do. Perhaps he simply didn't understand dynamics, a problem that could be avoided through the use of an electronic kit. Nopony really knew.

"Bubblegum Pop?" The egotistical filly responded:

"I'm right here, obviously." She pulled a hoof filer out of her saddle bag and began to scrape away. Bubblegum Pop...she was something else. An aspiring singer, and a damn good one, she poured her heart into every syllable of her love songs. However, when she put her microphone down, it felt as though she left her heart onstage, antagonizing every pony in her path, save for her two unremarkable twin goons.

"Right then, moving on..." Ms. Cantata was visibly annoyed for the first time.

While the teacher of this classroom was listing off names, somepony else was in the middle of an activity that took just a bit more action.

A little unicorn was galloping down the streets of Fillydelphia, trying hard not to bump into whatever was in her way, be it mailboxes or ponies, and failing miserably at both, leaving a trail of destruction wherever she went. As she dashed down Horseshoe Street, easily the most crowded road in all of Fillydelphia, she found herself running toward a clover green unicorn stallion who was on his way out of her favorite diner, a submarine sandwich held in mid-air by his emerald aura of magic.

"Oh, boy! So this is one of Fillydelphia's famous dandelion and cheese sandwiches..." He motioned to begin eating his sandwich, and upon taking his first bite, he closed his eyes found himself in Heaven. After savoring the flavor of the provolone, he reopened his eyes...

and saw that his meal was gone. The little unicorn had swiped the sandwich right out of his field of magic with her own, and was now speeding down the road with it.

"Hey! That's my..." The distraught unicorn plopped down on the concrete pavement. "Oh, who am I kidding? Keep it..."

The filly, now with her new sandwich, continued to speed down the road. After a good half minute, she finally saw the upcoming turn onto Starswirl Street. Feeling as if she might make good time, the unicorn took a victory bite out of her meal, and almost immediately spat it out.

"Who puts mustard on a dandelion and cheese sandwich?" She spoke with audible exhaustion and proceeded to toss the sandwich to the side of the road. Once she had done so, she continued to jet down Horseshoe Street until, at last, she reached the turn onto Starswirl Street. Only one more turn to go.

This particular unicorn, as she realized the moment she woke up that day, was late for school.

That morning, the unicorn had woken up in her neon violet room with a spiky bedhead that made her dual-tone blue mane look like, as her mother had once called it, "the embodiment of chaos itself". She had rushed to her bedside mirror to comb her untidy mane, trying her best to undo all of the knots she had made in it through her ten-hour sleep the night before. After only five minutes of combing her mane, she had grabbed her saddle bag and rushed out the door without saying a word to either of her parents, who were eating breakfast quietly in the kitchen all the while.

The pale yellow pony rushed down Starswirl Street, still about a half mile away from the school she had just started the previous year, the Fillydelphia School for Pony Musicians. Tall buildings lined the streets, some composed of bricks, others of glass. Fillydelphia had for decades now been known as a city that blended modern and ancient architectural styles, and a simple residential street such as Starswirl Street was no exception. While she was in her hurry...

"Grand Pause?" Ms. Cantata called out to a black and white filly sitting behind me. Grand Pause, a gray colt, was hands-down the most reticent member of the class and often chose to eat alone at lunch rather than sit with friends he knew he had. Although one could tell him that he should interact with his friends with certainty, one couldn't tell him that his violin skills were anything less than stupendous.

"Right here, teacher." The pony raised his left hoof into the air.

Bubblegum Pop leaned her cherry blossom pink head toward Break Beat, and as if he didn't already know, she whispered into his ear:

"You do know she's not coming. She's probably way too embarrassed to be the only blank flank left to even show her ugly face."

"Bubblegum Pop!" The teacher walked toward the pink pony and frowned.

"Yes, Ms. Cantata?" She feigned surprise at the approach of the wise gray mare.

"I think everypony here would appreciate it just as much as I if you wouldn't interrupt my roll call! Just for that, you get to stay for another minute while everypony else goes to lunch on time. Now, where was I? Oh yes, Morning Aria?" The white-haired teacher returned to her desk. A dainty voice called back at her:

"I'm here, Ms. Cantata..." Her words seemed to trail off into a void as she spoke. It always did. Morning Aria was, for all intents and purposes, the polar opposite of Bubblegum Pop. Visually, she was rather dull, sporting a long, dull cerise mane that complemented her dull mulberry coat. While Bubblegum tended to sing sweet, if a bit cheesy, songs about things like finding the perfect colt, Aria sang songs about the desire to escape from her own loneliness. Any melody of hers, coupled with the voice she possessed, which was more delicate than a flower petal, could easily drive any pony to tears.

Meanwhile, as roll call continued, a splash of water spread out over a relatively insignificant part of the concrete jungle that ponies called Fillydelphia. The tardy filly rushed over a puddle from the previous night's rain, not stopping to notice how very soaked her front hooves were, and quickly made her way to the final turn onto Thunderhoof Road. As she made her way toward the school, she noticed the large words printed on the road: SCHOOL ZONE. The little unicorn was almost there.

"Pizzicato? Are you here?"

"Yes, Miss." The smoky gray colt replied quickly. Another pony that could almost go without a name, Pizzicato's best friend was Grand Pause, and they shared a love of stringed instruments. While Grand Pause was a violin virtuoso, Pizzicato's forte had always been the viola.

Happening simultaneously outside of the school, the student that had woken up late for her first day of school in Fillydelphia was making her way inside with a heavy breath. As she looked around at the stone interior, she started to feel as if she was back home. Pictures of all of Equestria's famous musicians from all over time hung from the walls - she passed Beethoofen in one wing on her way to the main office, and The Wings in another.

When she reached the main office, a stallion behind a desk greeted her with these words:

"Now, little filly, what could your excuse possibly be for being so late on the first day of school?" He turned his head away from her, as if to tell her he was disappointed.

"Hey, I'm sorry. My parents beefed at me all night yesterday, so I couldn't sleep." She told him a half-lie and tried to maintain her poker face. Though it was true that her parents and she had been in a minor confrontation the night before, she slept like the filly she was.

"Well...I guess matters like that can't be helped. Show me your Student ID card and I'll let you on your way to class with a late note." He put his hoof forward to take her card. After putting down her saddle bag, she pulled her card out via a levitation spell and gave it to him. After staring at the card for a moment, the stallion spoke to her with shock:

"Wait, you're the daughter of Mezzo Soprano and Paradiddle? Why, Mezzo Soprano has the most haunting voice in the operatic world! And didn't Paradiddle play drums for Flank Sinatra Jr.?" He grew more excited with each word.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't get so freaked about it; they're not as great as ya think." The pony responded apathetically. "Now, could ya please give me my card and my note? I'm late to Ms. Cantata's class and I miss my friend."

"Well, by all means, here you are, miss." He gave her a signed post-it note and her Student ID card, which she placed in her saddle bag before trotting toward her classroom.

"Room 68..." After reading this from her late note, she checked the number of the door immediately adjacent to her. It read: ROOM 22. As she sighed and made her way down the hall, the roll call continued.

"Tremolo Pick?" The teacher called out the penultimate name on her list. A pony in the back row was losing himself in hard rock music.

"Tremolo Pick!" This time, she yelled. Still no answer. Frustrated, she made her way to the back of the classroom and slammed her hoof on his desk. With a grunt, he took out his pair of red earphones and simply said:

"What?"

"Though this is a music school, we still have rules. No music in the main classroom! We play our music after lunch. Now, give me those earphones. You'll get them back at the end of the class." The angry guitarist sighed and put his earphones on the desk before watching his teacher swipe them away. Ms. Cantata loved teaching - she truly did. But that year, between the infamous Bubblegum Pop and Tremolo Pick, who had just the previous year been suspended a total of thirteen times, she knew she had her work cut out for her.

As she returned to her desk, she called out the final name on her list:

"Vinyl Scratch? Is Vinyl Scratch here?"

Tremolo Pick pointed his hoof at the empty desk he had been sitting next to, which rested in the northeast corner of the classroom.

"Well, I guess we can't have perfect attendance every day..." She marked an X next to the name "Vinyl Scratch" on her checklist. "Now, let's begin our first lesson. This and everything we'll do this week are just refreshers to help you remember the basics, so if you've forgotten anything from Music Kindergarten, that's fine." She drew a crescent shape on the chalkboard and put a colon near it. "Can anypony tell me what this is?" After a brief pause, somepony raised their hoof.

"Yes, Adagio?"

".....It's a bass clef, right?" The lethargic pony replied.

While class was really beginning to start, the unicorn on her way to class was passing Room 46.

"That's right, Adagio!" She drew another symbol, this one more complicated with the last, and turned back to the class. "Now, who can tell me what this symbol is?" A mulberry hoof made its way gently into the air.

"Morning Aria? What's your answer?"

The timid pony replied, "It's...a treble clef. Is that right?" Her voice faded again. Some ponies called it a bad habit, but she didn't really mind.

"That's correct, Aria! Now, who can tell me the diff-" A knock at the door. Break Beat picked his head up and turned around.

Ms. Cantata, obviously disgruntled, trotted slowly over to the door and asked:

"Who's there?" An aggressive voice answered:

"I'm Vinyl Scratch! Is this Ms. Cantata's class?"

The door opened, and in walked a silent, pale yellow filly whose loud blue mane caught the eye of everypony in the classroom. Break Beat's eyes glistened at the sight of his best friend as he waved her way. The entire class went silent as Vinyl's garish mane tossed around with each step she took before occupying the empty seat in the corner of the room.

"Now, Ms. Scratch, since you were so kind as to interrupt my class, perhaps you could tell us the difference between a treble staff and a bass staff." Ms. Cantata glared at Vinyl Scratch.

"Well...aren't notes on the treble staff higher than the ones on the bass staff?" She answered a bit nervously and looked around to see who she was sharing a class with.

"Bubblegum Pop? Great." Vinyl thought to herself. Bubblegum Pop had made up a crazy rumor that Vinyl threw Morning Aria against a wall with her magic on the last day of Music Kindergarten. For such a little pony, Bubblegum Pop had a twisted sense of humor. Looking around, Vinyl saw the filly herself, Morning Aria, who had just finished drawing a heart on a sheet of paper before holding it close to her body with a smile. Vinyl turned away from the innocent Pegasus to see her best friend since Fillydelphia Preschool, Break Beat, who gazed back at her with wide eyes and a wider grin.

"Well, that's correct!" Ms. Cantata nodded her head and beamed. "Notes on the bass staff are typically below middle C, while the notes on the treble staff are usually above middle C." After a brief rest, Vinyl called out:

"Well if the notes on the staffs are above and below middle C, where the heck does middle C go?" She didn't raise her hoof, as usual; it was a time waster.

"Well, you see, technically, any note can be placed on either staff, but you need to add a ledger line to tell a reader what note it is, and the farther away from the staff a note gets, the more out of place the note gets. That's why it's always important to know which notes belong on which staff and how to place them accordingly."

Vinyl placed a hoof under her chin and let out a deep breath, partly because of her sheer exhaustion from the run to her class, and partly because she didn't care much for the lessons being taught to her at all. Why did she even come to this school? She'd played every instrument in the band room, failing at each miserably. The first time Break Beat allowed her to play his drum kit, she broke his favorite pair of sticks. Tremolo Pick's main grudge against her was that she had snapped three strings on a guitar he had only just gotten. Every instrument she touched was cursed as long as she was in direct contact with it...so what was the point? She couldn't sing, couldn't play music...the only reason she even came back that year was to see Break Beat. Some days, she and Break Beat would sit at lunch, and as he would excitedly tell her about the newest beat he'd learned, she would even begin to wonder if she was a musician at all.

The rest of Ms. Cantata's lesson was somewhat of a blur. Vinyl was still gathering her breath by the time the class' first lesson on the treble and bass clef had ended, and that was a good fifteen minutes. Like always, she simply ended up retreating into her own dimension, where, unbeknownst to anypony else, she was trying her hardest to come up with new music unlike anything heard of in ponydom. But what? In the thousands of years that ponies had existed, surely every type of music that could exist already had. Music without instruments...there's an idea. She thought this to herself and wrote it down on paper before realizing: Dang it! That's what a capella is all about. Before she had even begun to formulate this new music, her world was shattered by the ringing of a school bell.

"Alright, everypony! That's the lunch bell!" Lunch bell? Had she really been ignoring class for that long? As everypony, save for Bubblegum Pop and another, almost non-present pony, began to leave the classroom, Vinyl and Break Beat came to the little brown Earth filly's desk, where she sat motionless.

"Hey, ya there?" Vinyl waved her hoof vigorously in front of the pony. "It's lunch time, so why don't ya...ya know...get up and go to lunch?" She walked around for a moment and sighed.

"Because I can't find my way. The halls, they're so black...everything is black to my eyes. The fillies, Bubblegum Pop and her friends...they call me Sight Reader, like it's some sort of joke." She tilted her head down. "I only found my way to the classroom because my mom guided me here..."

Break Beat placed a hoof on the stranger's shoulder. "Well, we'll take you to the lunchroom. It isn't really that far, so no worries!" Break Beat held the filly's hoof and helped her down. "What's your name again? I wasn't really paying attention during roll call, sorry." Break Beat was a very straightforward pony when he wanted to be. "I'm Break Beat, and my friend is Vinyl Scratch."

"Those are wonderful names, both of them! Well...nopony here has ever asked me for my name, 'cept for the teacher. I'm Glissando."

"Well, Gliss...can I call ya that?" Vinyl requested.

"Oh, sure, Vinyl..." Gliss answered.

"Well, Gliss, I know what'll cheer ya up: Some good food! That always cheers me up!" Vinyl spoke as she followed Break Beat and Gliss out of the room and to lunch.

"Did I tell you about how me and my family went ice skating in Germaneigh this summer? So exotic..."

"Has anyone else heard that Vinyl Scratch threw that pink pony against a wall?"

"What's for lunch today? More hay bacon strips and a daffodil and daisy sandwich? Just like the end of last year..."

Words flooded the cafeteria. Though it was a specialized school - only musicians and the immediate family of musicians could attend - the population of the school was easily over three hundred, and every single one of those three hundred ponies had gathered in the room all at once. It was a wonder anypony got served, Vinyl thought to herself as she got in line behind her old best friend and her new acquaintance.

"Hey, no cutting!" A turquoise filly, at least three grades older than Vinyl, pushed a black pony who tried to force his way in front of her. This school was renowned for the quality of its classes...but students change every year.

"So, Gliss..." Break Beat broke the awkward silence that had engulfed their little group. "I haven't seen you around here...are you new?" He turned to Gliss, as if he could be seen.

"My parents and I moved here in June...they said they needed a change of scenery from Vanhoover." Break Beat's jaw dropped.

"You came all the way from Vanhoover!? But that's on the other side of Equestria!" Break Beat was practically shouting, to the point where Gliss felt the need to cover an ear.

"Yes...but they can manage...they have the money." Gliss replied weakly.

"You said Bubblegum Pop called you Sight Reader..." As Break Beat said the name, Gliss couldn't help but whimper. "But you only just moved here in June. How'd you meet her?"

"Well, my family and I were visiting a musical performance that featured my younger cousin Lyra...every pony in my family plays a stringed instrument, and hers is the lyre. But that's not the point...apparently, Bubblegum Pop's half-sister was there, so her dad took her to see the musical...her half-sister and Lyra were decent friends at the time, so I tried to be friends with Bubblegum, but then she found out my eyes were broken...and she started calling me that mean name..." Break Beat gave Gliss a tight hug.

"Don't think about it too much. Bubblegum's always been kind of a jerk." Break Beat looked away from Gliss and found that he was in front of a selection of foods. "Hey, I guess it's our turn. What do you want, Gliss? They have milk, applesauce, hay bacon strips, daffodil and daisy sandwiches - yum."

"There better not be any mustard on them." Vinyl muttered to herself.

"That all sounds so good! I'll just have the milk and applesauce, though. I'm not really a pony that eats a lot." Break Beat gave Gliss a tray with her requested contents as Vinyl picked her own up.

"So, what do you play, Break Beat?" Gliss asked. As Break Beat explained his family's long tradition of percussion playing, Vinyl chose her lunch - every item.

Once the group had reach the checkout mare, who was wearing the cafeteria staff's mandatory mane net, each of the three pulled out a hoof full of bits.

"Two bits." She demanded this from Gliss, and Gliss paid.

"Five bits." She told Break Beat, and Break Beat paid.

When she saw Vinyl's full plate, she told her:

"I'll need seven bits for that lunch." Vinyl opened her mouth a bit out of shock and shook her head.

"Well, see...I only brought five bits to school today, so if I could get a little compassion, and see ya pay just two bits for a poor filly's meal, I'd be real grateful." This didn't work the last year, and it wouldn't that year.

"Seven bits or take the hay bacon strips back." Vinyl sighed and motioned to place the bacon back in its tray in the food line.

"Now, have a nice day." The mare smiled, not noticing that Vinyl had hidden some of the bacon that was left on the tray into her saddle bag via her magic.

"Now, where do you two want to sit?" Break Beat felt like taking charge today. Vinyl wondered why for a moment before finally noticing the snare drum on his flank. Suddenly, she realized that she was the odd one out. Again. She sighed and trotted up to Break Beat and Gliss and pointed out an empty table in the northwest corner of the cafeteria.

"We could sit over there, it looks like nopony's got that table." Vinyl told each of her friends this, and together, they made their way to the vacant seats.

Once the three cohorts had sat down at their table, they began to eat.

Vinyl took a bite out of her sandwich and grunted. "Stale bread. Just my freaking luck!" She yelled. "Anyways," she said as she set her food down, "What did you do this summer, Break Beat? You know, other than getting your cutie mark..."

"Oh, you noticed? It's wonderful, isn't it? One day, I was playing along to a Hay-Z song, and the next day, I woke up, and there it was!" He beamed. Vinyl loved it when he beamed; it made her feel like she could almost feel the warmth of his smile.

"Hay-Z? Who's he? A rocker?" Vinyl had never heard of Hay-Z before - surprising, since his album was playing all over the radio at the time.

"No? Dang, Vinny, you need to stop hanging around with your parents and listen to some real music. You're probably fifty years behind the times with all the jazz your dad pumps into your head, you know that?"

"Yeah...I guess so..." Vinyl reluctantly took another bite out of her sandwich. "Hey, Gliss. You're a musician, yeah? What do ya play?"

"Well, I play the harp, just like my dad. I know...it sounds crazy, getting your talents from your parents, but I guess it all works out, you know?" Gliss swallowed a spoonful of applesauce.

"You can play the harp? But h-"

"Vibrations. I can feel the notes crawl up my hooves. And my eyes have only been broken for three or so years, so when they broke, I already knew how to play." Glissando cut Break Beat off. "And I know this might sound silly, but sometimes I think I can almost see the strings, like they're in my soul, as a piece of me."

"Wow...that sounds incredible." Vinyl replied, taking a crunchy bite out of a bacon strip. "What do they look like?"

Glissando paused for a moment, and the indistinct conversations around them began to flood the air. "They look like little beams of light...my parents tell me I have a crazy imagination, but I'm sure that when I play long enough, I see them..."

"Well I believe you. Do you, Vinyl?" Break Beat turned to Vinyl. The music is in her soul... Vinyl thought silently to herself. What's the sound of mine? What does it look like? So many questions...

"Hey, Vinny! You there?" Break Beat yelled in her ear. Suddenly, her mind flew back into reality.

"Uhh, y-yeah, Breaker. And yeah, Gliss, I believe ya..." She opened up her milk carton and took a sip.

"Hey, something wrong? You haven't been talking much today." Vinyl felt a hoof touch her own, that of Break Beat's. She pulled away immediately and exclaimed:

"Nothing's wrong! Why would something be wrong!?"

"Well, I don't know, you just seem kinda zoned out."

"Well I'm fine, Breaker."

The rest of Vinyl Scratch's lunch was relatively silent, as her thoughts raced through her, too many thoughts for a filly to handle. After a few moments, she simply stopped thinking and listened to Break Beat and Glissando's conversation until the end of lunch. Once the lunch bell had rung, each of the students in Ms. Cantata's class traveled in a beeline to the band room.

Each of the school's nineteen band rooms were just as large and full of potential as the last, containing over twenty instruments per room, specialized for each classroom. This year, Ms. Cantata's class was specially designated to practice all of their music in Music Room #8. Vinyl once asked her parents how the school was able to afford all of their "crazy stuff", as she called it, and they simply told her that "Fillydelphia pays for everything". That came as an honest shocker to her, naturally.

Each of Ms. Cantata's students scattered to their respective instruments the second they entered the room, save for Gliss, who was guided by Break Beat to her harp personally. Everypony except Vinyl, that is, who seemed to simply float by the door as though she was lost.

"Why does she even come to this school if she's not a musician?" Bubblegum spoke into her active microphone, and at least five other ponies nodded in agreement.

"She should just drop out."

"She'll never be as good as her parents."

Vinyl turned to the door and shed a tear. As she did so, in came Ms. Cantata, who placed a slightly wrinkled hoof on Vinyl's head. Tilting down to Vinyl, she spoke:

"Now, Vinyl, don't let her get to you. You're a musician through and through - you just don't know how yet. You know, lots of ponies in the music business don't even play music. They write it. Beautiful music. I'm sure you could, too, if you tried." She turned her attention to Bubblegum Pop.

"And as for you, little filly, put down your microphone and sit in the corner for today. You've been very mean to little Vinyl." Bubblegum followed her teacher's orders, tossing the seventy-five-bit microphone on the ground like a trinket and sitting in a chair in the loneliest corner of the band room.

"Now, everypony else." Ms. Cantata picked up her own microphone and spoke. "We're all going to perform Beethoofen's Sonata No. 14 in two months. They call it the Lunar Sonata. I'll be passing around the sheet music for each of your respective instruments in just a moment." She trotted over to her desk and pulled out a rather large stack of papers before walking around the room, handing two or three sheets to each pony. When she reached Gliss' papers, she walked to the harp and whispered to her.

"I'm sorry, Glissando, but we don't have any braille sheets. I'll try to get some very soon...you can manage, can't you?" Glissando replied:

"I'll manage...I can always improvise until they're ready. Thanks a lot, Ms. Cantata..."

"Anything for a student of mine." She walked off to the next student, Tremolo Pick, while words became muffled in Vinyl's mind. She should just drop out. She'll never be as good as her parents. The daughter of Mezzo Soprano and Paradiddle... The words rang through her head. Noticing his friend losing herself again, Break Beat left his Coltland V-Stage drum kit and went to her side.

"Vinyl, really, you can tell me what's wrong. I'm your friend, right?"

"Everyone has to make me sound like I have to be like my mom and dad, and I don't even wanna be! All the music here is boring and old, just like my parents. I could be an awesome musician like you, but I'm just not...I can't even play a dumb chord on a stupid guitar." She burst out and shed a small tear that nearly went unnoticed on her off-white face, her breathing starting to accelerate.

"Please don't cry, Vinyl. I can hear you crying, and I don't like the sound." Glissando's voice shot through the air at Vinyl.

"I'm really sorry, you two...I'm just going to sit in the corner...again." Vinyl walked over to the corner of the room opposite Bubblegum Pop and listened to the cacophony of notes clashing against each other that came from all directions. The one good thing about not being able to play an instrument, she thought for a moment, was that she wouldn't take part in the chaos. After a while, the discord settled down, and each instrument grew closer and closer to synchronization, before, at last, they formed a harmony that resonated deep within Vinyl.

After about ninety minutes of the endless song, the final school bell rang, and Vinyl, Break Beat, Gliss, and everypony else went back to Ms. Cantata's room to gather their saddle bags before heading out to go home. As always, Vinyl and Break Beat had stayed and talked until nearly everyone had left.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Break Beat had asked Glissando.

"Yeah...my mom will be here soon, and she'll get me out. You guys just have a great day, okay?" Gliss smiled at both of the young ponies. Whether she knew it or not, her smile was absolutely gorgeous - however, there wasn't a point in telling her. At least, that's what Vinyl and Break Beat would later agree on.

Together, Vinyl and Break Beat left the door of Ms. Cantata's classroom, and then, together, they left the school, re-entering the vast world of Fillydelphia.

"So..." Break Beat began to ask Vinyl as they exited the school. "Wanna go someplace? Home is so boring." Vinyl finally let out a laugh and nodded.

"Yeah." She smiled at Break Beat. "Let's go."

Comments

[TrollestiaSubject]

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[nctransgirl]

2407090 Awwh~ I'll pick it up, Vinyl!

[Weirdguy]

2407090 "awww" "No words can't describe."

[TheUltimateLyra]

Looking good so far! Can't wait to see more

[Dark Flame]

Well... you sir get a favourite very nice work can't wait to see where you go with this

[nctransgirl]

2407224 Oh, I'm a ma'am, and thank you! I hope you all like it!

[Dark Flame]

2407231 whoops >.< shoula picked up on the name lol I can read all that but not username hmmm slightly worrying haha but you're welcome all the same

[CIA]

th07.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2012/129/6/0/vinyl_scratch_rockin___by_tygerbug-d4vqg9o.png
It seems she got better at guitar throughout the years.
I'm surprised this story didn't get featured, did it?

[nctransgirl]

2408598 xD No, but it is in the "Popular Stories" section right now. When I saw it there, I literally squeed!

[Midnight Words]

I don't really say this to a lot of OCs but I really like how you made Gliss, I really am surprised this isn't featured,

(Dammit Knighty, what are you doing!)

[Nightshade Dawn]

2407090 shhhhhh vinyl don't cry it's okay I'll pick it up.

[I accept headpats]

"Well if the notes on the staffs are above and below middle C, where the heck does middle C go?"

Technically, the proper word for it is 'staves,' just like you'd say 'wolves' or 'knives' rather than 'wolfs' or 'knifes.'
Also, it goes one ledger line above and below the bass and treble staves, respectively.

[I accept headpats]

2536875
Says the one named 'Vinyl_scratch' to Vinyl Scratch.
Really?