"Hey, Vinyl, how's it going?"
"Oh, I'm fine," I casually replied. It was another rookie DJ who claimed to be my "biggest fan". It was the same song and dance, over and over. I had begun to tune them out months ago. I barely had to listen to them to formulate responses anymore, I was that familiar with their near-identical speech.
Of course, when I'm at a show that's as important as the Celebration of Equestrian Music, ponies with nonstop questions are commonplace. It was over an hour before the three-day festival even began, and already more than a dozen ponies had come up to me, asking me everything from "how are you today" to "are you single" to "would you like to go in that room over there where nopony is and do something unmentionable". Luckily, that last one was dragged away by security on account of sexual harassment within seconds.
"You know, there are plenty more great musicians here than just me. You should go check some of the other ponies out," I noted. What I actually meant by that was more along the lines of Please go. I'm trying to get this bucking stand up so I can finish preparing.
As the annoying fan left me at peace, I decided to finally truly survey my surroundings. I was in an enormous, rounded room, white and tan on the walls and ceiling. Large marble pillars held the roof up and provided an extra touch to the echo of the music that would soon be playing. Dozens of ponies milled about, some setting up booths, some chatting with each other, some just standing around with walkcolts in their hands.
Just as I turned my head one final time to look at the scene, something caught my eye. The moment I saw it, my legs turned to jelly, and I found the nearest chair-which happened to be a hard plastic seat that just happened to be nearby-and collapsed in it, my gaze still focused on that one spot.
She was beautiful. Just beautiful. Her gray coat looked sleek and smooth, as did her gray-black mane and tail. A large cello was draped across her back. From the cello, my eyes drifted downwards onto a slim body and a treble clef cutiemark that adorned a flank models would kill for.
Sweet Celestia. That is the most lovely pony I have ever seen. Just as those thoughts hit my mind, so too did others that were far less pleasant to me. You're a celebrity! You can't like another mare! If word gets out, your career will be sunk! This thought in particular argued with my thoughts of her, an endless clash in my mind.
Enough! the first one screamed at last. Go talk to her! You'll have nothing in common, trust me. Slowly, I raised myself out of the chair and took a cautious step forward. My legs were once again capable of supporting my weight, so I thanked Celestia silently for that boon and trotted up to the gray mare.
"Hi," I mumbled.
"Hmm?" the pony turned around and spotted me standing there. "Oh, hello! You're Vinyl Scratch, am I correct?"
I nodded. I didn't trust my voice at the moment, especially not after hearing her own. It was smooth, melodic, and extremely pretty.
She extended a hoof in greeting. "Nice to meet you. My name is Octavia."
I slowly reached out with my own hoof, moving it up and down in tune with hers. Clearing my throat, I began to speak. "So, Octavia, do you belong to a music group? I've never seen a solo cellist before."
Octavia smiled, showing off fantasically white teeth. "I work with the Canterlot Professional Orchestra, although I have done work for other groups before."
"Ah. So, what kind of music do you like other than what you play?" I knew from experience that this was a great question to ask a musician if you want to know them better. If they say something you like as well, you'll get along fine. Right. She'll just say classical, and I'll be okay.
"Hmm..." Octavia thought for a second. "Well, there was this one song that I really enjoyed. It's this 8-minute orchestrated- "
Yes! I thought. My career is saved.
"- epic backed up by an electric guitar. It's called The Exodus. It's a bit of a strange song, but I enjoy it."
"Oh, yeah," I replied. "I've heard it, too. I'm a big fan of that one, actually." Right as I said this, I swear Octavia's cheeks went the slightest bit pink. I decided then not to mention that I was the one who had written The Exodus. "Well, I won't keep you from your work. I'll go back to my own booth now."
"Actually, our preparations are done," replied Octavia.
"Oh, really? I didn't think anypony had completed their work already." My mind was in overdrive, trying to work out what to do.
"Would you like to talk about something? I can go over to where your booth is and help you set it up, if you like."
"Sure," I replied without thinking. Oh, Celestia, no, I thought the moment that syllable left my mouth. What am I going to do?
"So then, after that enormous drinking contest, only me and 3 other musicians were still conscious."
"Oh my god," I chuckled, noting that a slight slurr was obscuring my speech. Octavia and I had finished building my stand within minutes, and she had suggested that we go grab a few drinks at the bar before the event began. After that, she had begun to tell me a hilarious story about last year's gala.
"So, the four of us were able to get things going again, managing to create decently passable music even though half our group was passed out."
"So, it ended okay, then?" I asked.
"Until this insane pink pony with this absolutely crazy mane literally hopped up to the stage and whispered to us, 'Hey! You guys should play the pony pokey!'"
I nearly spat a swig of cider out of my mouth. After swallowing it, I began to laugh slightly before asking, "You didn't actually do it, did-"
"We all had way too much to drink and our conductor was sleeping in this bar in that chair right over there." Octavia pointed her hoof towards a seat in the corner. "What do you think happened?"
I attempted to cover my mouth, but was unable to. I burst out laughing, and, after a good three or so seconds, heard Octavia join me. Her laugh was simply adorable. Even with my attempted block on my attraction towards her, I still was unable to deny that fact.
"Anyway, the rest of the night was a blur," continued Octavia after she managed to stop laughing, "but I know by the end the pink pony and her friends somehow destroyed the entire room and set loose dozens of wild animals."
"Oh, yeah," I replied. "I read about that destroyed building in the newspaper."
"And that's why the Canterlot Professional Orchestra is not allowed back next year," Octavia finished curtly.
"I see," I replied. However, as I spoke, I happened to glance at a clock in the corner. "Hmm," I replied. "Looks like we should go back to our own stands now."
Octavia turned around slowly and let her gaze rest on the clock. "Looks like it." She turned back to me. "I had a lot of fun being with you, Vinyl. Would you like to talk some more tomorrow?"
I nodded.
As the celebration began, ponies began crowding my stand, thirsting for a song. I had planned to play The Exodus, but I didn't want to draw too much of Octavia's attention. She wasn't playing at the moment, but if she knew I was the writer of that song, she would realize how much we had in common, and I was still hellbent on breaking my crush on her. If the public knew I had fallen for a mare, I would be labelled a fillyfooler and lose far too many of my fans.
To keep this from happening, I instead played a different song. The first song from Towermania, the entire peice could be played in less than a minute, but was designed to sound better if played three or four times instead of just once.
As the song started up, I let my hooves go on autopilot and thought about the end of my previous encounter with Octavia. I let it lie idle there for ten, twenty, thirty seconds before I realized something strange about what Octavia had said.
I had a lot of fun being with you, Vinyl. Would you like to talk some more tomorrow?
Not "talking with you". Not "sharing crazy stories about strange music events with you". "Being with you". That meant she didn't care what we were doing, she just wanted to be with me...
The shock of hearing several wrong notes brought me out of my trance, and I realized I had gone so deep in thought that my reflexes had faltered and I had begun to miss keys. Quickly, I brought my attention back to the music, hoping that nopony had noticed.
I slowly trotted over to my bed that night. I slowly took off my trademark sunglasses and placed them on the bedstand. I slowly crawled under the covers. The night allowed me time to think...
What do I have to do to stop liking her? I remember hearing once that about a third of all ponies are anti-fillyfooler. That's a third of my fans, all instantly gone. I can't let that happen just for one pony. Even if she is beautiful, and funny, and musically talented, and-Buck!
I nestled myself deeper under the covers. I'm going to have a lot of trouble sleeping tonight, aren't I? I thought to myself. If I hadn't come up with that idea that she likes me as well, then my job would have been so much easier.
After several long, sleepless hours, I finally was able to close my eyes and let my active mind rest from thoughts of pretty gray mares, even if my subconsious covered it for me in a dream.
The next day was nothing but a blur. I can't remember a single thing that happened that day, other than greeting some new fans who were just as annoying as the rest, and learning that one of the cellists in the Canterlot Musical Orchestra had gotten sick and forced Octavia to step in for them. All I can remember is the dream I had that night.
It was a large stage. I had just finished a massive solo on one of my most popular songs, Deity in Flames. The crowd was cheering, and I turned away, satisfied with my performance, when I saw her standing there. Octavia, just out of view of the crowd, smiling and beckoning me towards her. I walked towards her, happy to see a familiar face, when she grabbed me and pulled me into a massive hug. I wrapped my forelegs around her, and we stayed like that, just out of view of the crowd, until she gently kissed me on the cheek and let go.
As I left the theater and went outside, I was immediately forced to dodge a stray soda can. More soon followed, along with jeering boos. I saw a small group of ponies, who must have seen what Octavia and I had done, yelling at me and taunting me for being a fillyfooler. Trying to run, I tripped and landed on my back. While trying to get up, a hoof flew out of nowhere and hit me in the face hard enough to shatter my glasses and make me see stars. I tasted blood as the hoof flew down at me again and again and again.
Waking up in sweat, I immediately grabbed my glasses and put them on, just to assure myself that they were still in pristine condition. Celestia... I prayed for the first time in years. Please, help me. Tell me what I have to do.
"And next up, we have the Canterlot Musical Orchestra!"
I smiled as the enormous group trotted onto the stage, trying and failing to keep my eyes away from Octavia. They launched into their signature song, and I lost myself among both the notes of the music and the one on Octavia's flank.
This was the biggest event of the Celebration of Equestrian Music. On this one stage, over the next few hours, almost everypony worth a flying feather was going to play something. Next up was me.
I looked at the schedule. I still hadn't seen what song they wanted me to play, since I was busy trying to stop thinking about a cute gray mare I knew.
I read the schedule to myself. "Up next, DJ-PON3, with her performance of- Buck." I saw what the song was. "Buck. Not that song, anything but that one. Not The Exodus."
I took a deep breath. You'll be fine, Vinyl. You can do it.
With a flourish, the Canterlot Musical Orchestra finished their song, signaling it was my turn to go up. On shaky legs, I stood up and started slowly walking towards the stage, as the Orchestra walked off and a few ponies rolled my stand up.
I sat down at my stand. The instruments seemed to be taunting me. I gulped, placed my hooves on the instruments, and started playing.
Quickly, I lost myself in the song. Even with the heavy weight on my mind, it brought me to a world of my own, a world where it was just me and the music. I saw Octavia smiling at me. I smiled back, and continued to play the song.
I always liked to connect the feeling a song gives me with the events in my life I was currently going through. The first act of the Exodus felt very oppressive, and it brought the world of music I was in to a dark, depressing zone, where ponies booed me off the stage, just because I had a crush on a mare. The song slowly shifted, from this dark tone, to a more slow and somber one, which reminded me of the crushing loss I would feel when they all left me to my own devices.
No. That wasn't what I thought. What I thought, in truth, was of the crushing loss I would feel if I let Octavia pass by, without taking a chance with her.
As the song neared its conclusion, where it turned into an epic, orchestrated peice of music that inspired confidence, I realized what I should do. Buck the third of ponies who don't like fillyfoolers. They can go form their own colony on the moon for all I cared. When I finished the song, I was going to ask out Octavia. I couldn't let her pass by. I just couldn't.
The song finished its run, and the typical deafening cheering began. I smiled as I walked off the stage, toward the gray mare sitting in a seat that just happened to be next to mine.
"Vinyl! That was amazing! You didn't tell me you wrote that song."
"No, I didn't. Sorry about that."
"I understand. It can be hard to be the center of attention, I know."
Okay, Vinyl. You can do this. Just ask her on a date to some nice place tomorrow. You'll be fine.
"Hey, Vinyl?"
I nearly jumped. Okay, I'll answer her question first. Whatever. "What is it?"
"Would you... like to come with me to the Crying Onion tomorrow?"
My heart froze, yet my cheeks burned. I tucked that line away for use in a song later and managed to force some words out of my mouth. "Will anypony else be there?"
"...No. Just the two of us... Damn it." She turned away. "Yes, it's what you're thinking. I was asking you... on a date. But I can tell you're not interested. Please, forget I asked." Her voice started sounding strained as she talked. Octavia got up and started walking away, the next musical number already beginning.
"Octavia, wait!" I whispered, yet shouted at the same time.
She turned around.
"I'm just surprised, that's all, since... I was about to ask you the same thing."
Octavia's face turned from a look of sadness to one of joy. She sat back down next to me, and whispered in my ear, "Thank you, Vinyl."
"You're welcome, Octavia." Octavia leaned into me, sighing contentedly as she closed her eyes.
I could already see eyes on us. Ponies who didn't like mare/mare relationships. Even the annoying fanboy from a few days earlier, who I met just before I saw the mare now curled up against me, was glaring at me harshly. I almost laughed. If something as trivial as this was enough to make them force themselves to hate my music that they so enjoyed just minutes before, then that's their problem. I was going on a date with Octavia, and right then, that was all that mattered.
