“Errrrghhhfff...”

She was hardly conscious and her head already hurt. Actually, most of her hurt, but her head was the worst. It took Vinyl a few more moments of waking up to realize she was face down on her bedroom floor. She didn't know how long she had been passed out, but if it had been for a while, that would explain why her body was stiff and painful... hardwood floors aren't very comfortable.

She found the strength to role onto her back, though she regretted it. Her window was open, letting the sun in and making her eyes ache. After a minute or so of squinting she sat up, though her head throbbed again.

Her room was covered with trash, spills, and other remnants of the party she had little memory from. She guessed the rest of her house was in the same state of disarray, so she would probably call a maid later on... but right now she was still trying to fully wake up.

Looking down at herself, Vinyl saw she was wearing a pair of boy shorts and a t-shirt she didn't recognize. How that had happened, she had no idea, but it didn't really concern her. She decided she needed some water, so she tried to stand, and after an admirable display of determination, she was on her feet. With her balance as good as it was going to get, she staggered out of her room with the intention of getting a drink, but froze when she entered her living room.

Octavia was sitting on her couch, reading a book. She hadn't put the book down or turned to look at Vinyl as she entered, though she still acknowledged her.

“Good morning.” It was a greeting that typically should have been friendly, though her tone insisted otherwise.

“Uh, hey... um...” Vinyl had no idea what to say. She didn't know the details of last night, but could remember ditching her original plans with Octavia to throw a crazy party. She was expecting Octavia to never want to speak with her again, or something of the sort. Why was she even here? Actually, that seemed like a good place to start. “What are you doing here?”

“Reading.” There was an awkward silence for a moment, then Octavia set down her book. “Oh, you meant, why am I waiting around in the post-party mess of your apartment?”

“... Yes...”

“Well, at first, I hung around to make sure you weren't comatose, because you had been throwing back shots like they were water before you collapsed.” Octavia stood, and Vinyl looked rather uncomfortable. “Though, granted, any repercussions you were to suffer would have been self inflicted, and on top of that, well deserved...” Vinyl took a step back, and ended up against her wall as Octavia stepped towards her. “So instead, I decided to stay not for you, but for me. To tell you how upset I was, to vent by yelling, or insulting, or Celestia knows what else? No, that wasn't it... To tell you of my newly inspired, and frankly, rather unflattering opinion of you? No, certainly not.”

As Octavia approached, Vinyl imagined a cornered animal could probably relate to how she felt right now. Did that make Octavia the predator, coming in for the kill? No, not quite, Vinyl knew she had brought this upon herself.

Regardless, she was right in front of her now, and she looked livid. “I wanted to tell you that, despite my better judgment, I still like you. Despite the fact that every part of me was saying I should have lashed out at you, all I wanted to do last night was to save you from your horrible 'friends'.”

“They are my friends...”

“Oh, really? One of the women you were fooling around with stole your wallet.” She reached into her own pocket and removed Vinyl's wallet, and handed it back to her. “I recovered it. No need to thank me.”

Vinyl hung her head, and Octavia turned away from her. “I'm a crazy person! Anyone sane would have left, and cut you out of their life, but not me... Clearly my own well being comes second next to a woman who wouldn't know self control if it hit her in the face!”

“Octavia, I'm so sorry." Last night Vinyl had been comfortable with the thought of Octavia cutting her out of her life, as she had put it. In a way she had been aiming for that, but faced with her now, all she felt was guilt. "I swear I'll make it up to you.”

Octavia spun around to face her, and Vinyl withdrew once again, pressing herself against the wall. “I really doubt it, Vinyl. I imagine it's rather difficult to make amends for something you don't remember.”

"Oct-"

"I got my pointless speech out, and I feel better, for whatever reason. So I'm going to go wash the smell of marijuana out of my clothes. I'd appreciate it if you left me alone."

And with that she left, slamming the apartment door behind her.

She had been helping to set up their music stands and chairs, as she did every week, typically without interruption. This was the quartet's weekly practice day, and all four of them always made sure that they were free for a few hours, but someone was pounding on the door to Octavia's house. It made Allegro jump, and Octavia rolled her eyes at his overreaction.

Her neighborhood was a nice one, full of green lawns, fancy mailboxes, and occasionally even white picket fences. Nothing like the mansions that could be found in other areas, but it was still nice, and often times a target for solicitors.

“Probably some salesman...” She left to go answer the door, not expecting anything out of the ordinary.

Yesterday she had confronted Vinyl after her party, and the rest of the day had passed with no contact from her, as had most of today. She had concluded, a bit hopefully, that she wasn't going to try and get in touch, but as she opened the door, she was proven wrong.

Propped up on what appeared to be some sort of built in kick stand was a... subspecies of cello? She didn't know what to call it. It was cello shaped, and cello sized, but the middle portion of it was completely empty, save for the fingerboard that went down the middle. The frame was what made it cello shaped, and when she touched it, she found that it was made of wood. It was definitely some kind of cello, and there was a case for it on the ground next to it, opened up so she could see the bow it carried. There was also an envelope, but she ignored that for now.

Upon closer examination, she saw that there was a pick up on it, as an electric guitar would have, and several dials on the side that could also belong to an electric guitar. Was this an electric cello?

She finally took the envelope and removed the handwritten note that was inside.

Did you know electric cellos are a thing? I didn't, but this guy in town sells them, along with electric violins, violas, fiddles... who knew, right?

You were spot on yesterday, those people aren't my friends. I've kept it that way, actually. I don't like anyone getting too close, but I couldn't keep you at a distance, and I flipped out when I realized that. I've always been that way, and I wasn't expecting that to change like it did, just out of nowhere. I'm really sorry I fucked things up.

I understand if you'd rather not see me, but this cello would sound good with some electronic accompaniment. Come make some music with me?

Even in an apology letter, she couldn't end it without throwing in some unnecessary self confidence. Octavia guessed she didn't apologized for her behavior often. It was a good first try though... right?

Her better judgment was pulling her back into the apartment, telling her to join her quartet, but something else entirely was nagging her to forgive Vinyl and pay her a visit. Who was she kidding, she had already forgiven her... Perhaps it was a bit hypocritical for her to talk about self control, she didn't seem to have any right now.

“Octavia?”

Her violinist was looking around the corner at her, probably trying to find out what was keeping her. She picked up her new electric cello, which was startlingly light, and brought it inside, along with the case.

“Something's happened, I have to go.”

The violinist eyed the instrument. “You have to go now?” Octavia nodded. “Well, we can take this week off, I guess... I'll tell the others to pack up.”

Vinyl had answered the door quickly after she heard the knock, and immediately pulled Octavia into a hug. She ended up dropping her case, but when she looked down she saw it was engulfed in blue magic and safely floating above the ground.

“You don't know how happy I am you're here!”

“Judging by the death grip, a lot?”

“More than a lot!”

Vinyl released her and went back inside, followed by Octavia and her floating case. The bounce in her step was rather cute, Octavia had to admit.

“Let me hook this up to an amp... the guy who sold it to me played a bit, I swear you're gonna love it!"

She bounced into the doorway of the only room Octavia hadn't seen yet, and waved for her to come over.

“You know, you could have just apologized. You really didn't need to get me a gift.”

“I wanted to, though.” Vinyl was unzipping the cello case with her magic as Octavia entered. She wasn't paying attention to Vinyl, instead gawking at the room before her.

“I mean, this can help us bring our genres together, which means we can actually find a middle ground and jam, and that... Octavia?”

The room was probably supposed to be a second bedroom, but it was instead being used as a room to hold all of Vinyl's DJ gear. It was full of speakers, instruments,and other fancy technology that was foreign to Octavia. All of the more high-tech equipment was towards the back wall, consoles with countless knobs and dials, a couple turntables, and a computer monitor attached to the wall at eye level. Vinyl stretched out a glowing hand in that direction, and the monitor sparked to life, along with all of the other technology in the room.

There were several large speakers along the left and right walls, along with different sized amplifiers, a laptop, an electric guitar in its stand, and a keyboard. The entire room was padded with what Octavia guessed was a material made to absorb noise, the padding was even on the back of the door and along the floor.

“You like it?”

“I don't know yet...”

Vinyl chuckled, then ushered Octavia into the room, closing the door after her. “Let me show you how to play this thing.”

Octavia nodded, and Vinyl grabbed the electric cello. She had already hooked it up to an amp, through what looked like a pedal, and everything was turned on.

“So, this baby has way more options than your regular cello, since every little sound is electronically amplified. For example...” Vinyl took the bow and tapped it against the strings, making an acoustic, drum-like sound. Then she plucked the strings a few times, which also resounded loudly, and reminded Octavia a bit of a guitar. “So, there's a lot of new options. The volume is down here, and... don't mess with the other stuff for now.”

Vinyl picked up the pedal and held it out for Octavia to see. “This pedal has a few sound altering effects to it, but my favorite thing about it is the looping effect. It can loop four different things you play, each can be up to 90 seconds long. It's pretty much-”

“Do you think I could mess with it for a bit?”

“Uh, yeah... sure.” Vinyl set the pedal back down. “I'll give you two some privacy.” She flashed a smirk on her way out, though Octavia didn't seem to have seen it.

Vinyl plopped down on her couch and turned on her TV, lowering the volume once she did. She had left the door open, and though Octavia had lowered the volume on the cello, she could still hear her screwing around with it.

It was barely ten minutes later when Vinyl could tell Octavia had turned the volume back up, apparently feeling more confident in her playing. It didn't sound like a cello though, at first it sounded similar to bongos. Curious, she turned off the TV so she could listen.

She was using the looping effect, the bongo sound had most likely been her beating on the strings, and the loop was now keeping beat as she continued. Vinyl couldn't simply sit there anymore, and returned to Octavia, who was sitting on a speaker as she played . She had just finished making a second loop, which was comprised of long, slow strokes of her bow, making a deep, beautiful sound. She continued on to play a non-looping portion, her eyes fixed on her instrument, not even noticing Vinyl.

What she was playing now seemed more energetic, but had the beat and lower sounding portion playing over it, though the contrast had to be completely intentional. The music was strikingly beautiful, and as she continued on, Vinyl was engulfed in it as she watched and listened. She wasn't even aware how long it lasted... long enough for her to get tired of standing, and sit down in the doorway. She never paused in her playing, or erased the loop, continuing to somehow tie everything she played back to the beat she had started with. She was so intently focused, her expression revealing no emotion, but her playing had that covered. Whether intentional or not, there was emotion behind the music, and Vinyl could hear it, even feel it. The performance with her quartet Vinyl had seen definitely didn't quite... have the same weight to it.

Eventually, and rather abruptly, Octavia stopped. It seemed like she suddenly snapped out of a trance... but trance or not, Vinyl was in awe.

“Was that recording? Please tell me that was recording.”

Vinyl had jumped to her feet and ran over to Octavia.

“How would I have known how to record it...?”

“Nevermind, doesn't matter... Octavia, that was great.” She ran over to her equipment, messing with some dials. “I mean, really great. Mind blowing!”

“You liked it?”

“Anyone who couldn't like that would have to be deaf, Octavia.” She turned her back to her equipment and started back over to her. “You could make albums... if you can get out of your little cellist zone and get into it, you could perform live, like a rocker. People would eat that up, slap a leather jacket on you, groove a bit, with some distortion on that cello... or not. Whatever you want! That was amazing, you couldn't go wrong.”

“Well I'm flattered you think it was that good, but I really couldn't perform with this cello...”

“Why not?”

Octavia was starting to shy away from Vinyl, “It's not traditional, classical music. That's what I want to perform.”

“Well, the cellist I saw playing just now wanted to perform hooked up to an amp. You didn't play like that before!” Octavia shook her head, and Vinyl groaned. “Okay, humor me... give me a week." Octavia shook her head again, "Five days? Give me five days. You come over here, I'll record some jam sessions, maybe dress you up and show you how to rock...maybe not, it's up to you. If you hate it after that, I'll drop it, but if not, give it a chance! People will love you. ”

“Vinyl...” 'No' is such a tiny word... two letters, one syllable, quick and easy to say... “All right... fine.”

“Nice!” Vinyl hopped back over to her equipment, muttering to herself as she tried to sort something out that was beyond Octavia's knowledge. She was looking over her new cello, seeing for the first time what a wonderful piece of work it was. It was a high quality instrument, and she already adored it. She was going to make her own music with it, Vinyl seemed to be encouraging that... her own music, free of any expectations, playing whatever she pleased. This was what she wanted, why couldn't she just stop worrying and go for it?

Author's Note

For those who aren't familiar with the electric cello, you definitely should look it up on youtube. They're magnificent.