Two Mares, One Beat
[Author's Note: This is the song that inspired me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuax6IrTXxo I wrote this to go directly along with the song, so I encourage you to listen as you read!]
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The stage was silent for the first time that night; the myriad of lights that had until recently slashed across its surface were dark and cold. The audience sat in dark silence, waiting with baited breath, their eyes riveted to the stage and the hidden figures upon it; a thousand pairs of bright eyes waiting for the finale of the show.
On stage, hidden in the forgiving shroud of darkness, a gray earth pony mare named Octavia held her bow lightly in her right hoof, shifting her weight as she pulled her cello close with the other. Sweat dampened her forehead, causing stray strands of her black mane to stick to her coat; it had been an amazing show so far, an incredible assortment of music the combinations of which had most likely never been seen in Equestria before. Pianos and guitars, drums and flutes, lyres and brass, every instrument that Octavia could think of seemed to have been represented here tonight, all teaming up to deliver one astounding performance after another. Octavia herself had performed multiple times with various groups, and her hind legs ached slightly from standing upright for so long, but it was the only way to play a cello to its fullest.
She threw a glance back to the black mass to her left, and the white unicorn she knew stood in the midst of it; she could just barely make out the silhouette of Vinyl Scratch as she prepped her sound boards and synthesizers for the final performance of the night. Octavia smiled slightly as the red-eyed DJ stretched her legs, slid her shades back into place and put her hooves onto the keyboard before her. And so it begins.
Vinyl touched the keyboard, and a low rumbling filled the arena around them, a bass tone that seemed to vibrate through Octavia’s very core; bright blue light blazed up around the DJ, igniting the blue in her mane and glinting off of her dark glasses as the crowd went wild. Vinyl’s left hoof held the sustained bass note while her right touched lightly on the higher register, sending a few crystal-clear notes into the darkened space that sent the noise from the crowd crashing into awe-struck silence. The DJ’s head swayed gently as she touched the keys, her movements soft and fluid as she played, as peaceful as the color of the lights around her as she wove the music; after a moment, she lifted her hoof up and touched the highest note on the board.
Suddenly, her horn lit up with blue magic, and a switch on the far side of her board flicked to life, sending a record spinning; a burst of loud techno exploded from the huge speakers, and the blue light around her blazed brighter as flashes of white and red joined it, pulsing in time with the new beat. Octavia couldn’t help but grin as she brought the bow to her strings and drew it across, sending the smooth tones of the cello into the air with the beat as a bright white spotlight burst to life around her, and the crowd cheered wildly as the two ponies began to play together.
The lights around them blazed to life, flashing in time with their notes as the classical musician and the techno DJ spun music the like of which ponies could only dream of; Vinyl’s head bobbed wildly to the beat and Octavia found her hips swaying back and forth as she lost herself in the music. After all, just because she was a mare classically trained and skilled with one type of instrument didn’t mean that she didn’t have affection for other kinds of music.
The beats from Vinyl’s board suddenly calmed, and Octavia took the cue; her bow danced across the strings with incredible precision, the notes from her cello flowing around the techno bass like silk as the beats came faster and faster, the deep notes from Vinyl hitting harder and harder as Octavia’s cello sang along with it. More notes came back in, playing around the cello and bass, dancing and swirling about the gray mare, carrying her away on the wings of their deliciously different sounds as the two ponies played. More sounds from Vinyl’s synthesizer joined in, adding yet another layer onto the musical tapestry they were weaving together, and Octavia’s heart began to pound in excitement as the white unicorn touched more knobs, more switches and more keys, essentially playing more instruments by herself than any one pony should be able to. The techno beats became more complex, a series of high, fast notes that quickly overwhelmed the cello and the pony playing it; Octavia threw a grin at Vinyl and whirled her bow around her hoof, drawing a cheer from the crowd.
Vinyl laughed, more seen than heard over her incredibly loud speakers, and grinned as she jammed her hooves down onto the keyboards, sending a blast of bass out over the crowd, the beat stomping out all other sound for a moment only to jump wildly and be joined by the high notes again briefly; over and over again the two beats battled for control, neither gaining ground; the crowd screamed and leaped about as Vinyl Scratch spun her beats more complexly and with more alacrity than any mare Octavia had ever seen; the high and low notes began to leap closer and closer together, accentuating one another as they flowed into one continuous stream… and then everything dropped off.
The bass came in again, its notes pounding out a complex pattern beneath Vinyl’s expert hooves; now it was Octavia’s turn to laugh as the sound pierced her core and made her head bob in time even as she snapped her bow back to the cello. She began a melody of her own, the notes smooth and somber as it mixed with Vinyl’s frantic melody behind her, the two sounds weaving into one as they took flight; sweat began to trickle down the side of Octavia’s face, but she didn’t care- the music had her, and she gave herself to it gladly, letting everything else fall away as the crowd looked on, awestruck.
Then, in a blaze of light, both mares stopped playing, and every light on the stage died except for the spotlight on Octavia, who closed her eyes and drew her bow back and forth across the strings as Vinyl provided a touch of bass behind her, the cello singing solemnly to the crowd; Octavia loved the sound of her cello, the soul-touching tonality that only a string instrument could possess and that the cello seemed to possess most of all- she poured herself into the solo, giving it everything she had- as if she ever played any other way- even if it was but a short moment. Her smile was one of pure joy as she let the music flow from her heart to her hooves, rising up and waiting for her partner in crime to rejoin her.
A deep hum heralded the return of Vinyl Scratch, and the lights around her station began to pulse and blaze along with her horn, which spun a record while her hooves danced keys on the synthesizer, hammering out a ferocious beat which Octavia joined with a grin. The beat sped up, and Octavia kept up with it, her cello singing faster and faster as Vinyl pushed them both forward, driving the song towards its conclusion; the purple-eyed mare spared a glance at her colleague and received a point of the other mare’s hoof, the cue she had been waiting for. Bending her forehoof slightly, Octavia touched several strings at once, and when she drew her bow back across the cello it sang in beautiful harmony with itself, a technique most difficult for an earth pony to master but one that Octavia prided herself on.
The audience stared at them in wonder as the beat sped up even more, Octavia playing as she had rarely played before, her mind and heart becoming lost in the swaying, bouncing rhythm of Vinyl’s electronic music and the harmonious contribution of her own instrument- she threw her head from side to side as the music moved her, sending a shining burst of perspiration flying away from her in the bright stage lights as Vinyl matched her movements perfectly, her music rising in intensity as the two mares played with every ounce of their souls, pouring out their love and passion of music for the world to see. The high beat began again, blazing high above them, seeming to soar to the stars themselves as Octavia’s hooves danced and Vinyl’s slammed, the notes rising higher and higher; the lights on stage burned even brighter than they had before, igniting the whole stage in bright white light touched with cool blues and purples, undulating in time with the beat as the crowd began to bounce, the entire gathering of ponies moving in time with the two on stage, all taken by the same spell being cast. Finally, with one final jerk of her head Octavia withdrew her bow from the strings, allowing the DJ’s beats to swallow her in their final soul-pounding crescendo, blasting louder than ever before in their signature hook, then dropping off into complete, deafening silence as the lights on stage flared, and then died with the music, sending it again into the pitch darkness and silence in which it had begun.
Octavia’s ears were ringing from her proximity to the speakers, and the only sound she could hear with any clarity was the pounding of her heart, but even that couldn’t stop what she heard- the applause from the crowd, the cheers and screams and hoots and hollers that washed down onto the stage like a tidal wave as the lights came up and Vinyl Scratch made her way across the stage to where Octavia stood. The crowd surged upwards, everypony standing on their rear hooves as Vinyl reared up and draped a white leg across Octavia’s gray shoulders. She waved to the crowd, and Octavia joined her, waving her bow high as she smiled broadly.
“You were awesome!” Vinyl shouted, just barely loud enough for the earth pony to hear.
“Likewise!” Octavia shouted back.
“I’ll admit, I always thought the cello was… kinda boring!” the white unicorn said with a sheepish grin, and Octavia laughed.
“Doesn’t everypony think that?” Her violet eyes twinkled as she gave the DJ a sideways glance. “And I always thought that techno was soulless electronic slush- so I guess we were both proved wrong tonight!”
“THAT is the truth, Octy! The honest-to-Celestia truth!” She lowered her glasses and gave the gray mare a wink. “And for once, I’m glad I was wrong!”
Octavia laughed, and both mares bowed to the crowd before walking off stage, leaving the ponies in the audience screaming for more.