Ponywatching

by ThunderTempest

Prompt #511: Unaccompanied

Octavia stopped making the hay burgers, and blinked several times.

“Vinyl,” she said, “I do not believe that I have ever heard you sing.”

On the other side of the kitchen counter, Vinyl paused for a minute, the knife she was using to chop up the lettuce hovering in mid-air, surrounded by a blue glow.

“You know,” Vinyl said, “I think you’re right. I can’t remember ever singing around you. Maybe we should go out to a karaoke night or something.”

Both musicians shrugged, and then sniffed the air, pausing while they processed the sharp smell in the air. Octavia turned around to find the pan with the hay burgers on fire, and there was another pause.

Then they both began screaming and running around the kitchen trying to put the fire out, and all thoughts of Vinyl’s undisplayed singing went ignored for a while.

******

Vinyl and Octavia trotted through the streets of Canterlot, having just finished up having a wonderful dinner at a more upscale restaurant to celebrate Octavia’s promotion to the coveted First Chair Cellist of the Canterlot Philharmonic.

“Vinyl, I do feel that that wine is getting to me. I haven’t felt so pleasant in a long while,” muttered Octavia, bumping into Vinyl.

“Yeah, me too,” said Vinyl, “what do you say we go and have some fun, though?”

“What did you have in mind, Vinyl?”

“You’re going to love this, Octy! It’s even musical!” grinned Vinyl, gesturing up at the sign on a bar.

“The...Mug and Mic?” asked Octavia.

“Yep!” said Vinyl, “it’s even amateur night, so anypony can get up and sing!”

Octavia looked undecided for a minute or two, before deciding that one bar couldn’t hurt her reputation that much. After all, the lead violinist of the Philharmonic went on bar binges every other week, and he was still a competent musician. Smiling, and nodding her assent to Vinyl, the two entered, and even though it was getting late in the evening, they still managed to find two seats fairly near the stage.

Several drinks later, Octavia was beginning to see the appeal of cider-it wasn’t pretentious, it wasn’t fancy and there was certainly no punishment for choosing the wrong one like there was with wine. There were no cider snobs, no tastings. Ponies drank it because they liked it, and it went with basically everything.

“Come on, Vinyl!” said Octavia, waving her third mug in the general direction of the stage, “get up there and sing, filly!”

“You asked for it, Tavi!” said Vinyl, who was a bit further into drunkard territory than Octavia was. Swaying slightly as she ascended the few steps onto the stage, Vinyl fumbled about until she found the microphone. The music for Vinyl’s chosen song started, and Octavia bobbed along, and then Vinyl started singing.

******

“Is it over?” asked Octavia, as she removed her hooves from her ears, and Vinyl stumbled off the stage.

“So, how was I? Pretty good, right?” Vinyl asked as she plonked herself back down into the seat next to Octavia.

“That was just...I have no words for what that was, Vinyl.”

“Heh, I knew I was pretty good,” said Vinyl, as she took another swig of her fifth cider.

“Vinyl, I am your friend, yes?” said Octavia. At Vinyl’s nod of assent, Octavia continued, “then, as a friend, I must inform you that...that was, without a doubt, the worst piece of singing that I have ever heard. How have you, of all ponies, grown up without a single sense of the pitch of your own voice?”

“But all these guys seemed to like it,” said Vinyl, the beginnings of a pout forming on her face.

“They were either too drunk to hear you, or covering their ears to save them the pain of listening to your ‘singing’,”

****Time*****

“I’d like to see you do better, miss Perfect McPerfectypants!” growled Vinyl

“I will, then,” said Octavia, finishing her cider off with a single swig, and thunking the empty stein back down on the table. She climbed up to the stage, and after that, her memory got a lot fuzzier. All she could remember was singing something, and as she came down, Vinyl pounced on her, saying something about wanting her singing voice.

Shortly after that, Octavia experienced being physically thrown out of a bar for the first time.

Author's Note:

Written for Prompt #511: “Song Of Storms”
The prompt: And I will open my mouth, and I will sing the song that ends the world.

I like Vinyl and Octavia, apparently.

Comments

[Themaskedferret]

I don't think I'm well read enough to get it...

[ThunderTempest]

5430995 What don't you get?

[Themaskedferret]

5432795 The end. I men, does 'Tavia really rock at singing? Or she's really bad? I don't get why her mind goes fuzzy and then Vinyl jumps her and they get thrown out. Was too vague for me to piece together what happens.

[ThunderTempest]

5433498 Her mind goes fuzzy because she's drunk. She's a pretty decent singer, and certainly a lot better than Vinyl.