Trip the Light Fantastic

by ponichaeism

6. MAGNUM OPUS

“It is indeed a major effort--the magnum opus, in fact--to escape in time from the narrowness of [the body's] embrace and to liberate our mind to the vision of the immensity of the world, of which we form an infinitesimal part.”
-Carl G. Jung, collected in The Wisdom of Carl Jung

"Townshend finally envisaged this spiritual unity pervading reality, with the band and audience literally moving into a higher spiritual plane at the point where the Universal Chord was struck."
-John Atkins, liner notes to Who's Next

When Vinyl Scratch and Zecora strolled into the offices of Oceanic Musique, the orange-maned receptionist looked up from her desk and asked, "Can I help you?"

"Yeah," Vinyl said, using one foreleg to balance the synthesizer slung over her shoulder. "Where's the auditorium?"

"Down the hall and to the right. But there's an audition in progress...."

"That's what we're here for," Vinyl said, walking towards the hallway. The wheels of the wagon yoked around her middle creaked as she walked.

"We really must apologize, but we're late, you see," Zecora said, "and the audition requires us to be three."

As Vinyl went down the hall and entered the office, an elated feeling settled in her chest and filled her with the overwhelming confidence this was the right course. If even one pony told her to turn away, she would heed the sign and know this was not Meant To Be. But nopony stopped her. Though they looked at her curiously from their cubicles as she passed, not one pony asked her what she was doing. Perhaps they felt, as she did, that she belonged in that building at that exact Moment. She stopped in front of the swinging double doors marked 'Auditorium' and faced Zecora.

"You ready for this?" she asked.

"I am always ready, and yet also never," Zecora said. "I am a block of clay, to be sculpted however it is the universe sees fit. Do not do a thing, but allow yourself to do it."

Vinyl nodded. Absolutely without fear, she pushed the door open and swaggered into the small auditorium. Her yoked wagon trailed at her hooves. Past the eight rows of seats, Vinyl saw Octavia standing in the light of a lone spotlight, surrounded by darkness. The gray mare clutched her cello loosely, shaking so much that Vinyl half-expected her to fall to pieces.

Of the hoofful of ponies in the front row, one in a tweed jacket said, “You can begin whenever you're ready.”

Octavia swallowed heavily and nodded, but didn't raise her cello.

“Is there something wrong?” the music exec asked with a hint of snark.

As Vinyl reached the front row, she called out, “I'll say. She can't play without her backing band, can she?”

The music executives turned to look at Vinyl, as did Octavia. The gray mare gaped at her dumbly and numbly, sweat streaking down her mane and causing her hair to clump to her brow. Vinyl magically undid the yoke. Every eye in the house followed her as she climbed the steps to the stage, while levitating her cart into the air and dropping it onto the polished wooden floor with a thump.

Octavia asked, “What are you....?”

Vinyl lifted her goggles and winked. “Trust me. We got this.”

"Wh--what's she doing here?" Octavia asked, nodding at Zecora.

"Playing the drums," Vinyl replied casually.

The DJ took her synthesizer off her shoulder, shook it so the legs swung down and locked open, and dropped it on the ground. Zecora pulled her djembe drums out of the wagon and arrayed them in front of her. Vinyl magicked the amp out and made it drift over and land next to the synthesizer.

Through bared teeth, Octavia whispered, “But we don't know each other's songs! We don't have any duets practiced....”

Vinyl shrugged as she connected the cables. “Then we'll make our own kind of music. You and Zecora and me, together."

"There is music all around us, if only we play along," Zecora said, stretching her forelegs. "The whole of the world is alive with song."

"Yeah," Vinyl said. "All we have to do is listen to each other and not try to force things. Just go with whatever feels natural. Whatever feels right.”

Because it's all connected, she thought with absolute conviction. All part of the underlying order.

“Are you sure?” Octavia asked, her ears flattened against her skull. “Are you absolutely, positively sure? Because we can't stand each others' music, and--”

“Octavia, the elements of harmony don't change. It's simple math.” Vinyl turned the amp on and fiddled with the volume so it wouldn't drown out the cello and the drums, but balance them and enhance them.

"I was never good at math," Octavia said meekly.

"Anypony who's a musician is good at math, even if they don't realize it. And last I checked, we both had musical symbols on our flanks. This is our destiny.”

The synthesizer growled to life, and when Vinyl heard that sweet, reassuring sound, she knew she was ready for this. She looked at Zecora, the unsculpted clay, and the djembe drums in front of her. They came from a far-off land, and yet they were intimately familiar and could play along to the music just fine, because they were all one, if you went back far enough. Then Vinyl looked at Octavia, who still trembled. The DJ, a fount of calm, willed some of her own to cross the divide between her and her best friend, which she now realized was no divide at all. They were like a coin with two faces, divided yet connected.

“Trust me,” Vinyl said, grinning. “You can do this.”

Octavia gave a curt nod, which Vinyl took to mean her friend was ready.

Zecora, sensing the Moment had arrived, started to beat the djembes. The sound of drums popped into life, and as her hooves hit the skins they weaved a complex tapestry of rhythm that was deep and rich and smooth and propulsive. The DJ behind the synthesizer set the left half of her keyboard to a bass box and the right half to a celestial organ pad, then raised her eyes to the ceiling. She felt the world turning under her hooves, something alive and greater than she or anypony else was. That music cosmic was the same force Zecora's hooves attuned themselves to as they beat those drums. Vinyl banged her head to the beat marching through her mind and through the air. The steady drums hooked her and pulled her along for the ride; they propelled her onward as immutably as the clockwork movement of the stars in the sky. Soon her whole body joined in, and she wasn't entirely sure that when her hooves came down on the keys she was controlling them, or if something unfathomable was speaking through her. The drums, the bass, and the organ joined into a blissful synthesis that filled the auditorium.

Octavia took up her bow and cello, closed her eyes, and with a long sigh she let herself go. She started to play along. The cello's haunting notes meshed perfectly with the propulsive drums, the deep groove of the bass, and the celestial organ. And as the very different instruments complimented each other they forged a sound none of them could achieve alone. They become something more, something complete, something infinite. She and Zecora and Vinyl, as different as they seemed, became completely in tune with each other and the world as they channeled that music so much larger than they themselves were. The bittersweet melody and the propulsive heartbeat rhythm fused into one and settled in Vinyl's chest, easing her heart and relaxing the tension. As the song filled the auditorium, the world seemed so illuminated, and so light on her shoulders as it lifted her burdens. She felt like she was coming home again after a long journey. She raised her eyes to the sky, tears dripping from under her goggles and trickling down her cheeks. Even though there was a ceiling above her, like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon, she saw the light of the stars overhead break through the roof and surround her. The song worked in her and transformed her into something more. It burned in her and gave her spirit a phoenix's wings.

She looked at the ponies in the first row and saw unbridled awe on their faces as the unorthodox symphony filled the auditorium. Tears rolled down the cheek of the pony in the tweed jacket as he watched Octavia summon the most marvelous sounds from her cello; vibrant and mournful and uplifting and forlorn all at once. Vinyl watched in awe as the starlight shone through him and from him. He was made of it. They all were. It illuminated the music executives as it burst forth from their bodies. While Vinyl's hooves worked the keyboard of their own accord, she gazed sidelong at her best friend. The gray mare poured her soul into the song, like a magician writing a spell, which kindled her own inner light until it radiated from her. Zecora was also ablaze with the infinite light as her hooves beat the drumskins, a relaxed passion on her face.

It was then that Vinyl noticed Oceanic Musique had unannounced visitors. By the cosmic light, she saw the princesses Celestia and Luna standing in the shadows just inside the doors, unnoticed by everypony except her. Princess Celestia watched the impromptu band play with a detached, otherworldly expression, while at her side Luna looked decidedly uncomfortable and uneasy in the physical world, a far cry from the confidence she had had in Vinyl's dream. But if Vinyl could talk to her, she would have told Luna to lay down her burdens, the starlight was shining bright from within the princess of the night. It illuminated her just as brightly as it did her sister. So much about ourselves we can't see, Vinyl thought. As she and Luna met eyes, the princess's stoic stare slipped and she returned a knowing smile.

There is goodness and light in everything. The whole universe is filled with it, even the night.

The trio onstage were all part of the cosmic motion, working in concert like the day and the night to carry on the music of the universe. The light wasn't just related to harmony, Vinyl realized, it was harmony. It was the purest archetype of love, friendship, kindness, joy; all these good things stemmed from the same source, were all aspects of the same infinite light. They seemed divided, yet they were the same. Like her and Octavia and Zecora. All insignificant parts of the grand living universe, yet they all had the cosmos within them. Each held a spark of its power: the power to create, to transmute, to perfect. They just had to keep the song going in perfect harmony, and they wouldn't just be of the universe but become the universe itself. As the light shone from everywhere and revealed the inner harmony of all things, Vinyl beamed to herself. She hoped her friends could see it too, because it was the highest good she could imagine. It shone into her darkest inner depths and filled her with the light and the love of friendship. She was so enraptured by the otherworldly ecstasy she felt like dancing to the farthest reaches of the universe, with her friends Octavia and Zecora by her side. There was nothing to stop them, after all.

Because she was limitless. Everypony was.

And so Vinyl Scratch got into the groove of the music cosmic and tripped on the light fantastic, and she swore to herself she would never come down from its embrace again.

~THE END~

"In the twinkling of an eye, all things were opened to me, and I see a Vision limitless, all things turned into Light—sweet, joyous. And I became transported as I gazed."
-Corpus Hermeticum

"He whose mind is thus grandly fixed [towards the Tao] emits a Heavenly light. In him who emits this Heavenly light men see the [True or Perfect] man."
-Zhuangzi, Texts of Taoism

"A true, true friend helps a friend in need, to see the light that shines from a true, true friend."
-Magical Mystery Cure

Comments

[Princess Glitzy]

Haven`t read it yet, but I give you major points for writing all of these in one day. They were all published on the same day so I am assuming. If they were written on different days then I still give you points for writing it.

[ponichaeism]

2477704

Actually I've been working on it for a few weeks, but I'm flattered you think I can churn out 18,000 words in one day!

[Princess Glitzy]

2478115 Why did you publish them all on the same day? What about the suspense of waiting? Incomplete stories annoy me, but keep me coming back for more and I can look forward to the next chapters. Also, your welcome.

P.S. I like your profile pic

[Glazius]

Browsing far later than it was written, but this was a nice experience.