Chapter 1
She played the song again, but it still didn’t sound right. Fucking song, Vinyl thought. It had been doing this all day. It didn’t even sound bad, so she couldn’t just throw it out and start from scratch. It just wasn’t the sound she wanted.
Vinyl shook her headphones off. This was going nowhere. She looked at her notes and the list of stuff she still had to do. It was a lot. Staying at Ocatavia’s parent’s estate in Canterlot was supposed to have let her focus, but that clearly wasn’t working out. Also there’s a tip for you kids: become best friends with the rich filly in school, you can get a lot of cool stuff out of it.
She needed a break. She needed a nap. So she headed out the door and down the street. Tavi’s place was just too big and fancy. And too quiet: everypony there was so reserved, even in their own house. Also it was boring.
Now the streets, those had some good sound. Ponies were talking all over the place, hooves clattering on the pavement, carts rumbling along. Clean it up and get it all set to a real beat and you could get some noise going.
Vinyl walked, bobbing her head, just listening to everything around her. Her hooves knew which way to go, no need to pay attention to that. Ugh, she had some dope ideas, but she wouldn’t be able to use them until this stubborn bastard of a song was done.
Songs like that were a bitch because they just ate up time like nopony’s business. Seriously, once she was done she’d probably knock out the next two or three like it was nothing. At least it was a good way to pass a walk. It felt like she’d only just started thinking when she got where she was going. Octavia’s place was cool and all, but this little hut that was run down by Ponyville standards, let alone Canterlot’s, this was special.
“Heya Moonie,” she said to the mare hunched over a table with a bowl of salad and three books open in front of her. A stack of more books sat behind those.
Moondancer hastily gulped her mouthful of salad down when she saw Vinyl. “What are you doing here? I thought you were busy working on that new album?”
“Yeah, but I needed a nap so I came here.” Vinyl plopped herself down in Moondancer’s bed.
“Naturally…” Moondancer stared at her for a moment and returned to her reading.
Octavia’s house was stuffy and muted. The streets were more exciting but a complete mess. But here, here was where the good shit was. She closed her eyes, listening to the rustling of pages turning and the scratch of Moondancer’s quill. Vinyl was pretty sure she didn’t realize she mumbled when she was reading something interesting, but that faint murmur of her voice was music you just couldn’t put on a record.
Vinyl liked it here. Moondancer was chill, and even she needed a break from partying sometimes.
She hadn’t realized how tired she really was. She closed her eyes just for a moment and suddenly Moondancer was poking her and telling her to move. All the light was gone outside. She rolled over to let Moonie be the big spoon. Because sure she acted all annoyed at Vinyl but that didn’t last long once she was hugging her.
Vinyl heard her soft sigh as yellow hooves wrapped around her barrel. Moondancer pressed herself against her from behind, squeezing her tight. Her coat was soft and warm.
Now how was she supposed to stay awake with top tier cuddling like that? She pushed herself back, deeper into her mare friend’s embrace, and sank back into fuzzy sleep.
She didn’t get much credit on songs, but Dream Vinyl was a genius. When Vinyl woke up the next morning, she could hear the answer to her troubles ringing in her head. She grabbed a sheet of parchment with her magic and started scribbling on it, making music the old fashioned way. She didn’t move while she was doing this: she was not a morning pony—even less so when she was snuggling a cute mare. Even musical brilliance wasn’t going to get her out of bed.
Her activity was still enough to rouse Moondancer. She couldn’t look away from the notes she was writing—she had to get the dream down fast or it would disappear—but she let out a quiet “mmmm” as her mare friend squeezed her, to let her know how good it felt. Moonie was too damn soft, she loved it.
Her heart quickened as she wrote the last few notes (which felt like it took forever). It was finally done. Fuck yeah, she thought. Now she could focus on more important things than her silly album, like loving the pony next to her.
“Thanks Moonie,” she said.
Silly little Moondancer never quite understood how important she was in the whole process. “But what did I do?”
“C’mon. You have any idea how boring it is back at my place? I was never gonna get anything done there. Your place is way better. Ain’t nothing like a cute marefriend to get the music going, you know?”
There was an awkward silence. That was okay, you got used to awkward silences hanging out with Moondancer. Still, Vinyl figured a kiss to the top of Moonie’s muzzle wouldn’t hurt. Celestia, the way she reacted to those was always so adorable. Her little genius just did not know what to do with a kiss.
Moondancer didn’t fight it. “I guess. I don’t know much about making music.”
“Yeah, we gotta get you studying up on that at some point. But trust me, you’re a lifesaver.” Vinyl kissed her again. It was kinda silly that she hadn’t already, but even Moonie could only read so many books at a time.
“Thank you too,” Moonie said after a few moments of cuddling. “It gets so lonely in here sometimes, even with the books.”
VInyl smirked. “Well we can’t have that. Good thing I’m here to get the party going.”
“Some party…”
She squeezed Moondancer. “It’s a great party. Trust me, I’m an expert.”