Music is Magic

Chapters

Chapter 1: Surprise
Chapter 2: Back and Forth
Chapter 3: Something Strange
Chapter 4: The Protege
Chapter 5: Best Night Ever
Chapter 6: Mistakes Are Made
Chapter 7: You Screwed Up
Chapter 8: I'm Still Me

Chapter 1: Surprise

Music is Magic
Story 5
Chapter 1: Surprise
By: SleeplessScribe

I loved living in Ponyville. Everyone was chill, there was no shortage of fun, and Pinkie Pie threw parties at least once a week, and at the most, five times a day. It kept me busy, and even though I didn’t really go out of my way to make conversation, everypony was still really nice to me. I guess being the local DJ just merited respect, but who knows. Today was just like any other day, save for the fact that I was still in bed after 10 A.M. One of Pinkie’s parties ran until five in the morning, and I was exhausted.

Finally, the sun came through the window to the right of my bed enough to keep me awake. Now that I was up, it was time to make the most important decision of each morning: what to do with my eyes. I always wore my goggles on stage, but one of my guilty pleasures was messing with others when it came to my eye color. On random days, I’d put in magenta color contacts to make people question if my eyes were really red or not, and it always made me giggle when I saw their confused expressions.

Eventually I decided just not to mess around. The best thing about being me was the fact that my mane was all natural. I didn’t have to spend a minute in front of the mirror to make it look the way it did, and it was perfect for head bobbing. That also meant that I was allowed to forgo girly morning grooming and skip straight to breakfast. I skimmed through the pantry in the kitchen right across from my room and took out my box of Bale Bites. Ponies were always telling me that I could be rich and famous with my talent, but I loved this town, the gigs I worked at, and living modestly.

Besides, getting too high and mighty would run me the risk of ending up becoming like Octavia. Don’t get me wrong, we were good friends, but her high class, sophisticated ways never set well with me. I got out a bowl and searched around for the milk in the back of the fridge. It smelled fine, though it was getting a little close to the expiration date. As I poured both in, I found myself quietly singing one of my favorite songs.

“La da da da da,
You are the best friend I've ever had,” I’ve had a lot of ponies tell me I had a great singing voice, but working the turntables was always my preferred place.

“La da da da da,
When I'm with you, I could never be sad,
You're like a ray of light shining down on me,
You're like a...” My little trip down memory lane was interrupted by a knocking at the door, and while I didn’t want to be rude, I dove into my cereal just so I could take a chunk out of it before it got soggy. With a mouthful of food I was trying to chew as fast as I could, I made my way to the front door and opened it. I had a mirror near the front door, and as I looked myself, I couldn’t help but think it looked kind of cute with my cheeks puffed out like they were.

Octavia seemed to think so to, as she let out a giggle when she saw me. “Playing chipmunk, Vinyl?"

I swallowed as much as I could, nearly choking on the food. “No! I was just hungry and somepony came to the door in the middle of me taking a bite of my food.”

The high class mare let herself in, cocking her brow at my breakfast. “I will never completely understand you, Vinyl Scratch.”

With a wink, I lifted the bowl, tilting it so more of the flakes came into my mouth. “That’s just how I like it. So to what do I owe the visit?”

A smile spread across her refined face. I gotta admit, it was kind of crazy how two ponies that were so different could have had the kind of… history that we did. Octavia and I had been on off lovers for a while, up until about a year ago when she started dating one of her friends in the orchestra. Besides, I kinda decided I was more into colts anyway. Even with that, Tavi was always a good friend to talk to and a fun mare to hang around, and I think our stark differences actually made things even more fun.

Wait, why am I talking about this?

She covered her mouth with her hoof, letting out a soft yawn. “I have a surprise for you, and I believe you will absolutely love it.”

I cocked my brow at her, leaning forward. “You’re not gonna tell me, are you?”

She shook her head slowly.

Before I spoke again, I finished my cereal. I said it once, and I’ll say it again: I really enjoyed living modestly. “Am I allowed to guess?”

Again she shook her head. “I’d like to ask that you just wait a few moments. The surprise is on its way, and I can’t wait to hear you shriek.”

Backing away was my first reaction. “Why would I want to…?”

I couldn’t even finish my sentence before two sandy-colored hooves set themselves over my eyes. The voice behind me was all too familiar, and the lisp only made it more obvious. “Guess who, Vinyl! I’ve come to eat you, and I’ll only stop if you guess right!”

The minute I turned around and saw those dark green eyes behind those glasses, I did, indeed shriek. I threw my forelegs around his neck, almost knocking him over as his headset and purple beanie fell off. Not that it really mattered, the way he wore it barely covered his black mane.

“Beat! Holy crap, Beat, it’s been way too long!” Beat Temp was a very old friend of mine. We grew up together, and that song I had been singing was actually a song we wrote together. In fact, the only reason we weren’t living together or something was because Beat went further in his career than I did. Plus he was a singer and guitarist, but we still had a lot of fun doing numbers together.

He flashed a bright smile, lifting his hat back onto his head with his magic and setting the headset on a nearby table. His embrace was tighter than mine as he started to laugh. “I missed you, girl. How’ve you been, it has been way too long!”

Octavia decided to join in on our hug, too proud of herself to show her teeth. “I did my best to make sure no one told you my cousin was coming for a visit. I know you two have been friends for a long while, and I wanted to see your reaction when you saw him.”

Against my better judgment I gave the earth pony a quick peck on the cheek. “Well I hope it was worth it, this is the best surprise I’ve ever gotten! Thanks, Tavi.”

Beat smiled again, bringing his cousin into his embrace as well. “As soon as Via told me you were here, I couldn’t get here fast enough. I missed you a lot, Vinyl, and you have no idea how awesome it is to see you again!”

“You don’t think I’m happy? What are you even doing here, Beat? I thought you’d be playing some big gigs in some glitzy city right now.” Of course I really wouldn’t have minded if my friend was taking some time off to see me. In fact, I was kind of hoping that’s what the case was.

He patted my back, finally letting go of both of us. “Vinyl, look, you were the first original Homie. How could I possibly let a chance to come visit you after three long years just slip by? I’ve got a whole week to myself while my manager plans my next tour, so why not spend it with my favorite filly in Equestria?”

The cellist slipped out, giving me a wink. “Orchestra rehearsal. I’ll see you two later.”

Smile is my word of the day apparently, because that’s all we could do. “Aaaw, that’s sweet of you. I’m just… so happy, Beat. It’s like that time back home when your dad went missing for days, and you were so bent out of shape about it that I volunteered to stay at your house. And then, boom, he walks in the door and you’re stuck to him like butter on bread.”

The singer let out another laugh, ruffling up my mane. “You got a point, you were just all over me like that, too. Kinda sad you stopped; you look amazing, girl. So how’s life been treating you?”

“Well I- what the hell?” My statement was interrupted by many shouts, snapping, and flashes. My friend turned around, grabbed both me and his headset and closed the door, hiding in the kitchen with me.

After a long grunt, he hugged me again. “Fucking paparazzi, Vinyl! They’ve been all over me ever since I started accepting interviews.”

I gave him perplexed stare. “I thought you hated doing interviews? At least that’s what you told me when your first big gig in Vanhoover got a lot of attention.”

He simply shrugged. “I thought doing interviews would get them to leave me alone. Boy, was I wrong.”

Looking around, I poked my head out to look through the window beside the door. Every single one of them was still there. “So what do we do now?”

Beat rubbed his chin for a moment, grinning down at me. “You got a back door?”

Our plan worked, and we managed to sneak out while the paparazzi was still trying to get in my door. Without a word, I grabbed my old friend and pulled him down the road into Sugarcube Corner. “This here’s where my favorite party pony works. I’ve done quite a bit for her, so I’m sure she’ll help us out.”

We weren’t even two steps through the door before the bouncy mare was in front of us, hopping up and down like she was on something from a dealer. “Hey, Vinyl! Who’s your friend? Is he new? He looks new! Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie! It’s so great to meet you! What’s your name? Where are you from? Are we friends now? No? Do I have to sing a song?”

After a short silence, the singer turned to me, pointing his hoof at Pinkie. “I like her. Name’s Beat Tempo, nice to meet ya, Pinks.”

She let out a long, drawn out gasp, jumping up and somehow floating in midair until she was done. “You mean like the famous pop rock singer Beat Tempo? I use your music all the time at parties where Vinyl can’t DJ!” Pinkie began to hop in circles around us. Let me be honest, this was probably my favorite mare in Ponyville. Before either of us could say anything, she was in Beat’s face with a wide smile on her own. “Hey! Speaking of, I’m having a party tonight! How would you like to sing at it?”

He reached up, patting the filly’s head. “I’d love to, when is it?”

Pinkie jumped up like a rocket, almost hitting her head on the ceiling. “Well, there’s never a bad time for a party, but if you’re talking about the one tonight it’s at seven! No special occasion, I just love love love throwing parties!” Out of nowhere, she rolled a light blue cannon up in front of us and pulled the string at the top, covering us with confetti. “And this thing here makes throwing parties super easy!”

Beat starting to clap, laughing rather loudly as he put his foreleg around me. “I can see why you like this town! Just having you and Pinkie here already makes this one of the best places I’ve been! I wonder if there are any more Homies here, too.”

I grinned up at him, teasingly flicking his ear. “I’m pretty sure there are Homies everywhere you go, Beat. You are a pretty big star in the music industry, remember?”

Bashfully, he rubbed the back of his head and chuckled. “Ah, stop. I’m not that big, I just give everything I do everything I got.”

Flicking him again was pretty hard to resist. “Which is why you’re so good at it.” Teasing Beat was one of my favorite pastimes, and I couldn’t wait to start doing it again.

Pinkie poked her head out the door, looking back at us. “Looks like the press finally gave up. I think it’s safe for you to start walking around again! See you at seven! Unless, of course, you want a treat! The Cakes just finished baking a delicious batch of chocolate white chocolate chip cookies… mmm” The hyperactive filly began to lick her chops, rubbing her stomach. “In fact, I think I’m gonna go get a few right now!” With that, she zoomed off into the kitchen, leaving my friend and me by ourselves again.

My face may have gone a little red when he put his tail around me, but if it did, it wasn’t deep enough to show. Which is saying something, as pretty much any change in skin color showed through my white coat. “So Vinyl, do you have anything else you’d like to show me? I’d love to catch up with a little friend date.”

I gave him an audible “pfft”, poking his chest. “You’re just saying that because you’ve been dying to ask my out for years, aren’t you?”

Sadly, my first verbal attempt at teasing did not produce the desire effect. Holy crap, that sounded smart coming from me. Anyway, back to the story. With a grin, he began to ruffle my mane in a vain attempt to mess it up. “That may be true, or it may not be. Still, you didn’t answer my question.”

With a giggle, I continued to poke his chest. “I don’t really have any special places to go, but that doesn’t mean I can’t show you around.”

He silently agreed, and by lunch time we had gone through the whole town save for exploring the town square. Unfortunately, word of Beat’s visit spread fast, and while it was nothing like the horde of photographers and reporters, it was a tad annoying to be in the middle of a sentence only to be interrupted by a gushing fanfilly. He didn’t really seem to mind, but honestly, what single, straight colt wouldn’t mind having four or five girls come up to them squealing? Well, not all at once, but I know I counted at least four throughout the two hours we’d been walking.

When we were finally at the center of the town, we both sat on a bench and hoped no more fans would pop up for a bit. Beat put his tail around me again, brushing my muzzle with a grin. “I like this place. It’s cozy and quiet, but I’m really looking forward to seeing what it’s like at night. Unless, of course, you were just blowing smoke about how crazy things can get here.”

I could only speak after my blush had disappeared. My friend was now lying on his back with his hind legs hanging over the side, and he was still grinning. “You know me, dude. I don’t blow smoke when it comes to crazy. Hell, I’m considering finally getting papers for myself so I can back up the whole ‘licensed lunatic’ joke.”

Beat’s giggle, I swear, is one of the funniest sounds in all of Equestria, but I wasn’t left with much time to laugh as he gave his response. “And if you play your cards right, you’ll be too busy blowing something else to even worry about smo- OW”

With a bright red face, I jammed my elbow into his stomach until he started to cough. “Kidding! Kidding! I’m joking, Vinyl!”

The blush began to fade, but I still couldn’t face him even after I lifted my foreleg. “I’m not a machine, Beat. You can’t just try and turn me on like that.”

All of a sudden, he was rubbing his head against my shoulder as his grin returned. “So you’re saying I can turn you on, just not that suddenly?”

I rolled my eyes, putting my foreleg around his head and pulling of his beanie. Before he could say anything, I pressed my free hoof to his head and rubbed as hard as I could, getting more giggles from him.

“Okay, okay, I get it! Uncle, uncle!” We both started to laugh, and he nuzzled me again after we managed to calm down. “This is going to be the best week ever, I just know it.”

I was beginning to hate my coat, as it seemed like my blush was never going to stay gone for long. Beat smiled as he brought his lips away from my cheek, and even though I was incredibly flustered, I somehow managed to look at him. “And I can’t wait to spend more time with you, Vinyl. It’s gonna be rad.”

He held his hoof up, and I stared at it for a minute before grinning and bumping it with my own. “Hell yeah, man. We’re the craziest musicians ever born, how could it not be fucking awesome?”

“Took the words right out of my mouth, babe. Let’s tear this shit up!”

We did another hoof bump, shouting out “Yeah!” at the top of our lungs. It was so great to be with my friend again, and I knew the following week was going to be, combining what we both said, fucking rad.

Chapter 2: Back and Forth

Music is Magic
Story 5
Chapter 2: Back and Forth
By: SleeplessScribe

My friend raised his hoof to his chin, giving me a perplexed look. “That reminds me. Vinyl, we’ve been together for about two hours. Why haven’t we had a jam session yet? Don’t tell me the turntables rusted up your guitar skills!”

I chuckled, teasingly pushing him off me. “Not a chance! True, I’m loving the turntables more than anything, but you know I’m down with a chill guitar jam.”

As… nice as it felt, a part of me wish that Beat wouldn’t kiss my cheek. This was the second time he’d done it, and something about it just didn’t feel right considering we weren’t going out. He jumped up and did some kind of backwards summersault as he got off the bench, grinning yet again.

“That’s my girl! You go get yours, I’ll run to the tour bus and meet you back here. I doubt anypony’s going to want to listen to us out here, but it’s a place to meet.”

I gave him a wink, trotting off to my pad again. “See you then, Beat!” As I walked, I began to think about my career. I loved mixing at the turntables, and making my own music to mix up was one my favorite ways to spend my time. However, my friend’s mention of the guitar brought back many a memory of when Beat and I were young. Many ponies are surprised when I tell them I’m from Fillydelphia, and my friend, while half horsepanic with a mother from Pinto Rico, was also born there.

Both of us had a knack for music, and we actually met when we were about six. The two of us were enrolled in one of the more well-known schools in Fillydelphia: Sonny’s Academy of Performing Arts. Thankfully the music department was divided up by what the teachers specialized in, so you had orchestral, vocal, digital, and contemporary. The organization was a little odd, but somehow they made it work.

While the school did require students to take normal academic subjects, because the main focus was art, we were allowed to choose three performance courses to take part in. Beat and I met in Contemporary class, but we also were in the same Vocals class. Unfortunately, I chose Digital, which was awesome, but Beat for whatever reason went with one of the dancing classes.

He and I had a knack for the guitar, not to mention that we were the singing instructor’s pride and joy, at least in our class. We started meeting up for practices, and sometimes just to hang out. Yes, we were playing guitar at six years old. About six years later, we graduated and did pretty much everything together. That’s actually how I met Octavia as well, since parental issues led her to move in with her cousin. They got along decently well despite their blatant differences, but whenever they did get to arguing, you’d think your eardrums were going to pop.

We started delving deeper into our hobbies when we wrote our first song together, which was a simple birthday gift for his mom with musical accompaniment. Our first few years were mainly comprised of acoustic guitars and improvised lyrics about whatever the hell we were looking at at the time, but it was more fun than you’d think. In fact, that’s where that “La da da da da” song came from; it was Beat’s first song he wrote about me.

My interest in the turntables came up when we were 18 and went to our first club. The DJ there was awful, and since I remembered pretty much everything from school, I used my skills to step in. The idiot was mixing records that should never have been within ten miles of each other, let alone on the same turntable.

After I had saved the day, Beat and I started up a new experiment. He practiced with an electric guitar, and, with the help of both his and my parents, bought the equipment to starting making techno music. I got into the dubstep trend too, but I never attempted to create it myself. Then I started testing out what kinds of sounds mixed best with others, and divided everything I had made into pairs. We found that my electronic talents combined with Beat’s voice and guitar created an amazing mix of techno and rock, and we loved it.

As time went on, we started performing in clubs. Beat got attention from high places first, but I wasn’t far behind. I was offered a contract to DJ for a radio station centered on “dance” music, and I guess that was the best way to describe my work. Beat, on the other hoof, got a recording contract with White Noise, an ironically named, pretty-well known hip-hop artist himself who traded in making music for helping others make theirs.

We both knew that possible fame came with these gigs, but as the two of us went our separate ways, we made a promise. We meant it as a sign of commitment when we chose a kiss as our way to seal the deal, but we promised never to let the fame go to our heads, and to always remember who we were before our names got big.

Sadly, my radio gig bored the hell out of me. Sure, I made decent bank with it, but there was no excitement whatsoever. All I did was sit behind a desk and mix records, and while I loved doing it, I couldn’t even visually tell if anyone was enjoying it. So, after a while, I quit and moved to Ponyville. Seem like a strange choice? Well, truth be told, I was still trying to find myself in those days, and during that time Octavia had confessed her bisexuality to me, and asked if I’d like to date her as well.

You’d never guess it, but she was actually from Ponyville despite how well she fit in with her current friends in Canterlot. I chose the small town because she hadn’t yet moved to Canterlot, though by the time she had I was in love with the town but no longer with her. Our “thing” was kind of off and on, and I guess Tavi was still kind of figuring herself out, too. I mean, she was a great lover, and fucking amazing in bed, but in the end I decided I preferred di- never mind. I’m getting off track.

Anyway, around that time, some pretty loud noise kept me up one night, and that’s when I discovered Pinkie Pie and her pretty sick night time parties. I asked to take the place of the radio she had set up, and Pinkie just so happened to have a turntable and a set of speakers. Simply put: I had a blast. Everypony loved my music, and thanks to my being a unicorn, I was able to get down with everyone else and still keep the records going whenever I wanted.

With my talent, I became the designated DJ for all of Pinkie’s parties. It was that decision that spawned the goggles. The idea of a daytime nighttime persona split was always cool in my book, so from then on I was Vinyl Scratch when the sun was up, and DJ Pon3 when it went down. The name was actually inspired by one of my favorite artists, Deadman3, and ever since then I was a regular part of Ponyville’s nightly agenda.

Beat and I kept in touch through letters, but actually being able to talk to him was probably the greatest thing to happen to me this year. As I walked right into my closed door, I found myself amazing at how a simple request could spawn a reminiscing of, basically, my whole life story.

Like a smart pony, I opened the door before walking into it this time. Upon further thought, I remembered that my guitar actually played a pretty big role in my music making. I recorded a lot of random stuff I played on it, and nine times out of eleven I was able to digitize it into a fitting techno track. As usual, it was on the stand I had set up in the corner of my bedroom, right next to my record setup.

I grabbed it, turned around, and ended up lying on my back on the bed. My friend winked at me, giggling a little. “It’s not fitting, but you look good in that position, Vinyl.”

It was kind of funny how a kiss messed with my head, but not jokes like that. Reaching up, I grabbed him and pulled him down with me, keeping my forelegs around you. “I got you! What are you gonna do, Beat?”

He began to flail like a maniac, laughing as he did so. “Ah, help! I need an adult! I need an adult!”

His response brought a laugh out of me too after I bonked him on the head. “We are adults, you idiot!”

A grin spread across his face as he turned over, looking at me from over his glasses. “That’s right… we are adults.” He gently began to stroke my mane, and I teasingly pushed him off.

“Hold it, boy. As much as I liked to, you promised a jam session. And you know I’m not about to postpone that for anything.”

My face turned just a little red when I realized what I said. We joked about stuff like that all the time, but we took the action seriously. Beat stared at me for a moment with his own blush. After he stood back up, he nudged my shoulder with a smile.

“At least let me buy you dinner first, babe. Anyway, I changed my mind. I kinda want to hear your new techno stuff, if that’s alright.”

After I was off the bed myself, I made my way over to my shelves, searching through all my records. “Not a problem, Beat. You still have your guitar, don’t you?”

He set down the dark red case, opening it up. Ironically, he had it painted in my color scheme, with the neck being white and pretty much everything else being both shades of blue. I found it kind of odd that his cutie mark was just a microphone, but one doesn’t question those things.

Beat took a little time to tune it before turning his attention to me. “Give your best, and I’ll see what I can play with it. This session’s all about you, Vinyl.”

I scoffed at him, picking up two of my favorite pieces. “You say that every time, dude. Anyway, let’s see what you can do with this.”

With both records in the table, I gave them a test spin just to make sure it was working and lowered the needle. My favorite thing to do was have two subliminal beats behind the main music, one being a digitized instrument of my choosing and the other being, of course, bass. It made my music unique and hard to follow, and I liked it.

My friend had to listen to it for a few minutes before he started to strum. I didn’t even see him put his pick on, though I should have since the strap was purple and stood out like a painter at band camp against his sandy foreleg. Little cheater also used his magic instead of a normal amplifier, but I knew him well enough to know that he didn’t actually use his magic to change how he sounded. At least, I didn’t think he did.

He caught on to my double beat pretty quickly and started strumming once between each combination of bass, and in this case snare drum. Once he got the rhythm, the strums became quicker, and he started playing different notes, and the trend continued until we were playing a full song.

Having magic to keep the records going was awesome, as it allowed me to pick up my guitar and play along. I think I switched out records at least ten times, and by the time we were both done, we saw that we’d been jamming for two hours. We both fell back on the bed, laughing at our awesome time killing. Now it was three o’ clock, and we honestly had no idea what to do for another four hours.

Beat looked at me, playfully poking my horn. “That was awesome, Vinyl! Man, I haven’t jammed like that in forever! Babe, your tunes are even better than they used to be.”

My horn was a very ticklish spot, oddly enough. I let out a laugh before I turned on my side to face him. “You’re way better than you used to be too.”

He narrowed his eyes, scooting closer to me. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

Grinning, I poked his muzzle and backed away. “Nothing. So, what do you want to do?”

I backed away again when I saw his hoof making its way towards me. “Well, it is just the two of us here, and we are technically in bed.”

“Beat, no. No! I said no!” I was running out of bed as his hoof came closer, and it was either fall off or give Beat what he wanted.

His hoof met my stomach and began rubbing softly, forcing me to start laughing like a maniac. I hated being tickled by anyone but Tavi and Beat, since they at least made it fun. Before I knew it, my back was against him and both his hooves were on my belly, rubbing it gently yet viciously. This sucked horribly, but it was so much fun, too, and part of me didn’t want it to stop.

Memories of the stupid fun we used to have flooded my head even after he decided enough was enough. “Oh, damn, Scratch, you’re still so ticklish. I thought you said you grew out of that.”

“Only in the hopes that it’d get you to stop doing it! Beat, you really, really suck sometimes, but I love you for it.” We shared a quick embrace before he ruffled my mane again.

“Yeah, you’re the best friend a colt could ask for, you know that?” He smiled at me, finally getting off the bed. “Say, how about lunch? My treat, Scratch.”

With a grin, I nudged his shoulder with my tongue out and one eye closed. “Of course I’ll go if you’re buying.”

He returned my nudge, chuckling as we went out the door. “And you say I’m the jerk. So, where do you want to go? We have a few hours before we have to be at Pinkie’s, so I can take you somewhere close like Canterlot or something.”

That was a pretty tempting offer considering how much variety there was in that city. Eventually I agreed, and we both got tickets for the train to Canterlot. Luckily, the train ride wasn’t longer than an hour, or we’d probably have been late getting back. I loved the way the trains were organized; Beat and I were able to get a smaller car all to ourselves.

My friend was on his back with his headset on, bobbing his head to whatever he was listening to. His eyes were closed, and a plan for payback hatched in my mind. Stepping as quietly off of my bunk as I could, I slowly made my way over to the end his head was at. It took a lot of effort to keep from giggling as I pressed my hooves lightly against his horn, gently rubbing them up and down.

His eyes snapped open as he jumped up, flailing like he was drowning or something. “Fuck! That’s my horn, Scratch, you know I hate having my horn touched!”

I couldn’t even hear him through my own loud laughter. Forced to hold my stomach while I was on my back, I couldn’t even look at him. “Doesn’t feel too good when someone messes with your sweet spots, does it, Beat? That’s what you get for that tickle attack!”

A grin spread across his face as he approached me, pinning me down. “So you wanna play that game, huh?”

The hooves were already rubbing me before I could even say “no”. Tears formed in my eyes as I laughed uncontrollably, completely at my friend’s mercy. Eventually I managed to pull him down with me but it didn’t stop the tickles.

“This is what happens when you mess with my horn!” Beat himself was laughing too, but my eyes were almost burning with the tears. This was a form of torture worse than whips and chains or waterboarding. Eventually he slowed down, but all four of his legs were still around me.

“Okay, I’m gonna stop. Are you gonna be a good girl?” All I could do was nod, I was still too busy silently laughing to actually speak. “Good.”

After he released me and I calmed myself down, I jumped on him. He was on the ground within seconds, flapping his forelegs like a bird. “I thought you said you were gonna be good!”

“Pfffft, you believed me?” After licking one hoof, I started rubbing his horn, giggling softly at his groan. “Besides, I am being good. All I’m doing is laying on my seat.”

Beat shook his head quickly, looking up at me. “Do I look like a seat to you?”

While it didn’t actually answer his question, the impact from my bounce made him regret even asking. “I’m not getting up until we get there.”

Much to my surprise, he actually started chuckling. “This is why we’re friends, Scratch. We’re both a couple of crazy fools.”

After a quickly laugh, I flicked his horn again. “I second that.”

Now it was time for me to torture him. Touching his horn really got him riled up, but I had an absolutely evil idea that I couldn’t wait to try. It was kind of a high risk high reward, though, as my friend could very well take it the wrong way. His reaction was worth it though.

As he heard my distinct “mmm”, he started to squirm and try to look up at me. “Scratch? Scratch what are you- what the fuck? Ah, she fucking licking me! Help, somepony help! No, mistakes were made! Why did I made the mistakes? She’s crazy!”

His shouting was interrupted by a banging on the door, and a rather angry voice behind it. “Hey! Get a room, you two, this is a public train!”

The thing I loved about having music-based magic was my ability to soundproof things. With a quick burst of magic, I coated the walls of our car with a barrier that blocked all sound from getting through. With that up, I continued my evil licking while Beat continued to scream hilariously, banging his hooves on the floor.

“I like how I’m the asshole when you’re doing stuff like this! If you really wanted to lick me, you could’ve asked when we were in bed earlier!”

I froze mid lick with my tongue still on his horn. The heat on my face told me I was blushing yet again. “Beat, one day we’re gonna end up doing it and not even realizing how it happened. It’s just gonna be like ‘boom, we just did it’.”

He let out a loud laugh, seeming not to care that I was still on top of him until he was done. “Honestly, that sounds like something that would happen to us. So can you get off me now?”

“Nope!” The singer coughed as I bounced on him, giggling as he groaned again. “That’s what you get for messing with me, you butt. You know this is how your teasing always ended.”

“Bah, whatever. Any idea where you want to go?”

I tapped my chin for a moment while I thought. “Oddly, I’m in the mood for pizza. Is that one place in the city still there?”

My friend gave me a nod just as the train came to a stop. “Now can you get off of me?”

Finally obliging him, I got up. It took him a while just to be able to stand as he looked at me. “You. Are. A. Freak.”

Grinning was the least I could do as he said that. “You say it like it’s a bad thing.” I brought him into a tight hug, one eye closed as my cheek pressed against his. “I missed you, man. It’s just… it’s been so long it feels like forever!”

He patted my back softly, his eye closed as well. “It really has been, and I can’t wait to catch up! Letters are nice and all, but it’s great to see that pretty face again.” It was his turn to flick my ear as we got off the train.

Canterlot was always a nice looking place, but not somewhere I could bear to live. The ponies were nice, but way too posh for me or Beat. I did wonder if we’d bump into Tavi though, normally her rehearsals ended around this time. We made our way to the place we pretty much always had lunch whenever we visited here: Pepper’s Pizza Pies.

Try saying that five times fast.

It was one of our favorite lunch restaurants in Canterlot, and although we go to said city for a whole lot, we never missed a chance to chow down here. The best part was that the owner, Pepper Spice, worked here since our first visit, and the pink coated, ginger mare was all too happy to see us again.

“Well if it isn’t my two favorite customers!” She trotted up to us, wrapping us both in tight hugs. “Since when were you as tall as I am, huh?” It was actually pretty awesome that Pepper was only, like, two years older than us. She was one of mine and Beat’s best friends. Third only to Tavi for me.

Beat chuckled, returning the mare’s hug. “Well that’s what happens when we can’t visit for three years. It’s great to see you, Pepper!”

Now it was my turn to hurt her. “Yeah, sorry we haven’t been around. Life just kinda blindsided us.”

Pepper gave us a bright smile, releasing us from her embrace as she adjusted her glasses. Sometimes I wondered if she started wearing rectangular ones because that’s the kind Beat wears. “So, will you two be getting the usual again? It’s been a slow day today, so we have a pretty nice stockpile of ingredients.”

Our eyes widened and remained that way even as I spoke. “You seriously remember that? Pepper, the last time we came here was three years ago, how do you remember?”

She giggled quietly. “It’s the only thing you two ever got! The question isn’t how I remembered, but how I could possibly forget. I assume that would be a yes?”

My friend clapped his hooves together, licking his chops. “Hells yeah! Sign me up for some of that!”

Pepper looked at me for confirmation and skipped off behind the counter when I gave a nod. I half could and half couldn’t resist leaning my head on his shoulder. “Beat, this is the best. It’s like senior year all over again, you know?”

We found our table next to the wall. It was on the left side of the building, with one center row of tables in between this one and the right wall, and we were right near the counter. Just like we used to, we sat next to each other on the same side until our food was ready.

Beat put his foreleg around me and flashed a grin. “It really is, though. You’re right, Vinyl, this really is the best.”

I gave him my own grin when I noticed how close he was to the wall. Turning to lay on my back, I pushed against him and laughed as I made a Beat sandwich with the wall.

“Ow! Dang, you really do need those crazy papers!” He smiled, ruffling up my mane again. His tone made me question the sincerity of his next words, and by that I mean he made me wonder if he was joking or not. “Scratch, seriously, why aren’t we just dating already? We act like a cranky old married couple.”

Alright, that last part told me he was. After squishing him again, I turned over and set my head on the back of his neck. “If we were an old married couple, I’d be playing acoustic at two strums a minute in my rocking chair while you sang bluegrass.”

At the mere mention of country he started laughing. “Don’t you ever say that. I don’t have a problem with hoedown, guit-fiddle country, but you know it’s not my thing. I’d much rather be playing them chords on electric.”

I wanted to respond, but the intoxicating aroma of our food was just way too great. Pepper came out with that large pie, setting the tray on our table.

It was our favorite: green peppers, olives, and mushrooms with three cheeses and extra sauce. Just looking at it had both our mouths watering, and Beat cheated and used his magic to pick up a slice before I was even on the other side of the table. Because of that, I decided to bite a chunk out of his slice, instead.

“Oh man, talk about delicious!” I chewed right in his face, forcing him to actually lift me up and set me on the other side of the table.

“You’re a psycho, Scratch. I love it!” My friend grinned a got another slice, letting me keep the one I had bitten as he chomped his own. “Just as good as I remember!”

We sat there stuffing our faces for at least half an hour, joking on each other and chatting with Pepper. Honestly, it was probably the most fun I’ve had all year. I don’t care if it was only spring, still the most fun all year.

As we got ready to leave, Pepper boxed up a small for us on the house. We got back on the train after a long goodbye, and by the time we got back it was about six thirty. Beat and I decided to check up on Pinkie to see if there was anything we could do, though I was lost in thought. I wish Tavi was here to see me, as she always joked that I used my head for bobbing more than I did for thinking.

If I had this much fun today, tonight was going to be epic.

Chapter 3: Something Strange

Music is Magic
Story 5
Chapter 3: Something Strange
By: SleeplessScribe

Honestly, I was expecting Pinkie to have the entire place ready when we stepped in. Many tables were still bare, and she was still hanging streamers. “Pinkie, you’re late! What’s up? The party’s in half an hour and you’re not even close to ready.”

The mare turned to us, bouncing over with a bright smile. “Well, I’ve been baking treats all day! I told everyone that Beat would be singing tonight, and I got way more RSVPs than usual!”

Beat held out his hoof, speaking before I could. “Why isn’t anyone else helping?”

She let out a giggle, poking his chest. “They’ve been looking for you! Everyone that found out was curious and wanted to know what you were singing, what you were doing here, and things like that! Say, where exactly have you been?”

We turned to each other before chuckling nervously. “In Canterlot. Scratch and I went to our favorite pizza place after a jam session to kill some time. Sorry about that. We’d be glad to help, now, if that’s alright.”

“Are you kidding? I’d love some help! I was afraid I was gonna have to move the back a few hours! I would’ve just used my party cannon, but it’s jammed right now.”

I tilted my head. “Wouldn’t fixing it save you more time in the long run since it can instantly decorate?”

My words prompted a long silence as the mare rubbed her chin. “Oh yeah. Oh well!”

She bounced away, pointing out her various decorations. “Obvious things are obvious! Tablecloths, strobe lights, streamers, that kind of thing.”

Being unicorns made this kind of thing easy, but Beat simply stood there as I picked some of the things up. “Wait, strobe lights? You didn’t tell me this was some kind of rave!”

Both Pinkie and I shook our heads, but she beat me to the speech. “It’s not really! My nighttime parties are just more all-out than ones I put on in the day. It’s like going to a club… without the sex, or the drugs, or the alcohol, or all the bad things clubs are known for.”

He smiled, his curiosity satisfied. “Works for me! I prefer a clean party anyway.”

With our combined efforts, Sugarcube corner was completely set up just after seven. Luckily nopony actually came on time. In fact, it was about 7:40 before anyone else started showing up. Pinkie’s parties always started slow, but once a few more ponies were there, we all started chatting as we set up the stage.

Everyone wanted to talk to Beat, and he didn’t seem all that bothered by it. He still seemed a little unnerved at the sheer amount of others that wanted to see him, but instead of trying to get away like I’d expected, he managed to at least stick around and try to talk to everyone. By eight, almost half the town was there, and every single one of them was jamming.

If a pony wasn’t dancing, they were occupied with a snack or a drink, and that allowed my friend to sneak out without anyone by me noticing. I went to follow him but he shook his head. “Just going to get my guitar. I’ll be back in a minute, Scratch.”

It didn’t exactly take just a minute, but it wasn’t long before my friend managed to sneak himself onto the stage. His horn began to glow as he brought the instrument out of its case, and with one loud strum, he had everyone’s attention.

“What’s up Homies, are you having fun?” After a loud, resounding “yeah” from the audience, he flashed a grin. “Well get ready to get down, because I’m about to fire you up! I’m not one for long introductions, so how about we just jump in and really get this party started?”

He waited for another roar before starting up a song. I didn’t recognize the music, so I readied myself for some new lyrics as he lifted his headset onto his head and lowered the mic.

“From here I can see,
All of my Homies,
It's time to party,
Let's all go crazy…”

I didn’t recognize the rhythm either, but the song was amazing. It only took his first four lines to get everyone jumping and dancing, and I was no exception. The lights were flashing, everyone was lost in the music, and ponies were literally dancing until they no longer could. As time went on, the songs got faster, and in some cases much louder. Don’t get me wrong, it was incredibly fun, but I was a little worried about disturbing anyone that wasn’t in attendance. We’d never gotten this loud before, but fortunately we didn’t have any interruptions before midnight.

As things started to die down and exhausted partyers returned to their homes, those who were left balanced their time between praising my friend and helping Pinkie clean up. Finally it was just us three, wiping our foreheads inside a spotless party room. Beat actually forgot to take his headset off, and needed me to set it back around his neck as a reminder.

“Oh man, talk about crazy! That was awesome, Pinks. You really do know how to throw a party!”

Even my hyperactive friend was too tired to engage in her regular bouncing. “Of course! I’ve been partying ever since I was a little filly, and I always do my best to make them fun! But now I need to go to bed, I’m super tired after all that cooking and dancing and eating and drinking and singing and chatting and moving around and decorating and- mmph!”

I let out a small giggle, poking one of the few remaining cupcakes in her mouth. “I think we get it, Pinkie. See you tomorrow, you crazy filly.”

She waved to us excitedly as we stepped out, smiling as always. “Goodnight you two! Or, would it be good morning! Anyway, good whatever time this counts as!”

Beat waved to her too before we left, needing me to remind him about his guitar too. Once he had it, he joined back up with me. “Scratch, that was the best! Today in general was just the best!”

With a smile, I stopped for a moment to yawn. “It really was. I really hope we get to do that more while you’re here.”

My friend stopped completely, rubbing his chin. “Hey Vinyl, mind if I ask you something?”

I turned around and tilted my head at him. “Sure.”

His brow was furrowed, and his gazed was focused on the ground. That, coupled with the hoof on his chin, made him looked like a living Thinker. Though I didn’t have much time to dwell on that, as his question completely blindsided me.

“Well, we’ve had so much fun today doing stuff together. So… what do you say about calling today our first date? As, you know, a couple?”

Words weren’t coming fast enough, and they were coming too fast at the same time. I think I stuttered for at least a minute while I thought about a response. “S-Sure! I’d love to start going out with you, Beat! In fact, it’s about time.”

I nuzzled myself against him, prompting him to try, once again, to ruffle up my mane. “Well I had to at some point, so why not now, while we’re together? Besides, we’ve both been talking about how much fun today’s been. Why not keep the fun going?”

Beat wasn’t moving as long as I was still against him, I made sure of it. “It just feels right. I’ve known you for so long, and we just… click. I love you, Beat.”

Both his forelegs wrapped around me, and I felt the warmth of a returned embrace. Only this one was much, much warmer than just some hug. “I love you too, Scratch. Guess I have for a while and was just too dumb to realize.”

My hoof met his muzzle too quickly for him to draw back. “Boy, I’ll say. You’re a dummy, but you’re my dummy.”

His lips curled in, forming a thin line on his face. “I’m not that dumb! I’m just not as smurt as my cousin.”

I let out a small giggle before cock my brow. “Smurt?”

“Yes, smurt. Don’t critikize my langage.”

The temptation to mess with his horn again was almost too good to resist as I kept giggling. “You’re awesome, Beat. Don’t ever stop being random.”

We started walking again, and he put on a proud smile. “’Swhat I do best! Well, that and sing. And play guitar. Among other things.”

He stuck his tongue out between his teeth, raising his brows repeatedly and prompting me to playfully push him. My friend tried to push back, but I walked through the door before he could.

I didn’t even bother to raise my hoof with this yawn. “I’m exhausted. I’ll see you tomorrow, Beat, love you!”

Before I knew it, I was slung over his back as he walked over to my room. “What the? Excuse me? Beat, what are you doing?”

He set me down on my bed, taking his headset off his neck and setting it on one of my bedside tables. “Sleeping over. We’re a couple now, so it’s not so awkward!”

Rolling my eyes was all I could do. “Having you in the same bed with me never felt awkward, you dork! If you’re gonna do this, though, I expect a pony pillow.”

After taking off his glasses and hat, he started to pat his chest with his hooves. He looked up at me with a shrug. “Sorry, I can’t seem to fluff myself.”

With another eye rolling, I just grabbed him and pulling him under my blanket. I wrapped me forelegs around him, sighing and closing my eyes. “Beat… I can’t believe how happy I am. A few words have changed everything between us, and… again, I’m just so happy.”

His hoof met my head again, but didn’t proceed with attempting to mess up my hair. Instead he gently stroked it, allowing me to actually rest my head on his chest. “I am too. I’m sure anyone that knows us will probably be saying ‘it’s about time’ when they find out.”

My ears perked up as something came to mind. It left Beat with a face redder than my eyes and his own as big as dinner plates. When my lips finally withdrew from his after about thirty seconds, all I did was giggle and lay back on him. “Goodnight, Beat.”

Vinyl was an amazing kisser. She didn’t even use her tongue, and she still had me dazed. Words couldn’t express how I felt about this beautiful mare, and it just felt… right to be with her like this. Dad always told me that the girl you commit yourself to should be a best friend, and she definitely fell into that category.

Her light snores were just that, light and cute. It was a little difficult to get comfortable with her head on me, but I didn’t dare wake up such an angel. Corny, I know, but that’s what she was like. I settled for softly petting her, closing my eyes and just listening to my marefriend’s small breaths. As I did, I opened my eyes and looked down at her again. A song came to me, and I just had to sing it for her tomorrow.

After one last pet, I closed my eyes for good. “I love you, Vinyl.” In all honesty, I should have written down those lyrics I had thought of. Fortunately, one of my magic talents was using said magic to write without a quill. It was really, really handy for situations like this, so I quickly wrote a reminder on my hat that I could easily erase later. With that worry out of my head, I was able to doze off to sleep.

A loud knocking woke us up. Seeing as how the sun was starting to come up, whoever it was must’ve been asleep as well, or they lived far away. Vinyl stirred and kind of flopped out of bed first, trying to regain her bearings. “I’ll get it, boo.” Boo? Really? That was a slang word I would’ve never hear out of her. It was kind of cute, admittedly, but still weird.

I looked at my hat and grabbed the nearest sheet of blank paper I could find, transferring the words I had thought of to it. As I read through it, I couldn’t wait to show her and sing it, though I thought about surprising her with it as well, which is what I decided to go with.

She came back to me, barely giving me time to erase the words on my hat, put that and my glasses on, and grab my headset before dragging me to the door. A big stallion sporting a nice suit and an expression that put him in contention for Equestria’s most tall and dark stood in the doorway. He was somewhat hard to make out, since his dark brown coat and black hair didn’t exactly make him stand out against the still semi-dark sky, but his deep voice was clue enough for me.

“Had fun last night, did ya, Beat? I thought you didn’t do free shows.”

I gave him a nervous chuckle. “Oh, hey White Noise. Uh, no, it wasn’t actually a show. I was just singing at a party, you know. Just for fun, dude.”

My manager was a lenient guy, but he did have rules. Strangely, though, his rules seemed more focused on keeping me true to my own rules. “Parties still count as shows, bub. Unless you got a good excuse, I’m gonna have to start marking local gigs as free.”

I shook my head quickly, trying to come up with an excuse. “Well, I, uh….”

“It was a date!” My new marefriend stepped in front of me, looking up at the big guy. “Like the sweetheart he is, Beat finally asked me out, and we went to the party together. It wasn’t planned, he just decided to sing while we were there.”

With a nod, I pulled her to me and kissed her cheek. “I’ll charge something small for local stuff from now on. Maybe… five bits?”

He seemed completely uninterested in my offer as he flashed a grin. “Vinyl Scratch! Well ain’t you a sight! I haven’t seen you since you were half my height!” The retired rapper chuckled a little at his unintentional rhyme. “So you two finally hooked up, huh? It’s about time! I’ll let this slide for now, Beat, but you better keep your leash tight, got me? Now that being said, I need you to meet me at the bus in an hour, we got stuff to discuss.”

After I nodded to him, he walked off, leaving Scratch to turn and face me. “What was that all about? Since when did you care so much about the pay?”

Honestly, she had a point. It took a little thought before I actually came up with a reason that didn’t sound like horse shit, and it was actually pretty true.

“I’m not wrapped around the money, or anything. It just… makes things easier. You know what I mean, Scratch? I just don’t have as many worries to deal with when I know I can afford my basics with a little leisure. It’s like what you do. You live pretty modestly, which I respect you immensely for, but I know you still sell records and stuff.”

She rolled her eyes at me, but a small smile grew under her muzzle. “I’d ask how you knew, but you’ve probably seen plenty of my work in stores. You win, Beat.” She nuzzled herself under my chin, prompting me to grin and lick her horn.

As she jumped back, she gave me a teasing glare. “Let’s not start that so early in the morning. Play your cards right, and maybe we can later.” The tip of her tail swatted my nose, and I heard a giggle before Vinyl went into her kitchen.

I hopped over to catch up with her. “I cast my vote for pizza for breakfast!”

She blinked a few times before grinning. “I like how I didn’t even have to ask. Good idea, though. I’ll take it.”

There are two kinds of ponies in this world: the ones that like cold pizza and the ones that say they don’t until they try it. Vinyl and I were definitely the former. A small pizza only had four slices, and we naturally split it two slices each, but we chowed down like we hadn’t eaten in days. Not to mention the fact that it was unlawfully delicious.

After that, our teeth were messes, so we spent about… two minutes brushing them. We took turns showering since apparently she wasn’t comfortable sharing the bathroom yet. It was kind of unfortunate, but I understood. By the time we were all clean and dry, it had been about forty minutes since my manager’s visit. Scratch herself told me she had some things she wanted to take care of and pretty much made me leave without her.

There was no telling what White Noise wanted, and the though actually kind of scared me as I made my way near what I was told was Sweet Apple Acres. The bus was parked next to the road that connected the farm to the town, but unfortunately, Scratch’s place was on the opposite side of Ponyville, meaning I had to book it if I wanted to get there on time.

My place was kinda messy, and while I wasn’t a stickler for neatness, I at least didn’t want it looking like a pigsty. After cleaning up and taking out all the trash, dusting down everything in my living room, and washing the dishes that had piled up in my sink, the place was, in my opinion, completely clean.

Before I knew what happened I was blind and on the floor. I could hear giggling, but my ears had been covered just enough to muffle it to the point that I couldn’t make it out. Though I did have some idea of who my assailant was.

“Pretty unorthodox greeting for you, Tavi.”

The earth pony got up off of me, even helping me up. “Sorry, I’m just… very excited. Is it true, hun?” She clapped her hooves softly, a rather wide smile stretching across her face.

I could only raise a brow. “Is what true?”

She rolled her eyes and twirled around me. “You and my cousin becoming an item! Have you two finally decided to start dating?”

“I- what- how did you find out?”

My friend stopped her twirling and looked at me. “The right rumors, when heard by the right people, spread faster than wildfire. So you’re saying that they are indeed true?”

I slowly nodded, causing Octavia to grab me and pull me into a tight hug. “Oh, that’s just wonderful! You know he’s been fawning over you for years! I can’t imagine how good you two must feel.”

Smiling was the least I could do when she brought this up. “I am really happy. It feels like a weight’s been lifted off of me, like I’ve let go of something I’ve been holding onto for years. And of course, it feels great having a coltfriend. Especially one that I know so well.”

She smiled as well, nuzzling my cheek. “He’ll be good. He treated me like a sister, and I’ve seen how he treated you when you two were just friends.”

Octavia was right, though something was still bothering me now. I nudged her off of me and looked her right in the eye. “Tavi, has Beat been acting… odd at all?”

The high-class mare tilted her head. “Not that I recall. You look worried, though. It something wrong, Vinyl?”

“It’s nothing that big. White Noise came over and asked him about the party last night, and Beat seemed really adamant about making sure he didn’t lose pay on anything. Doesn’t seem like something he’d normally care about.”

All she did was shrug. “It’s common to care about money when you have a well-paying job. Granted, my cousin always was one to enjoy fun more than revenue. I’d ask him about it, but I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”

I gave her a quick nod. “You’re probably right. Thanks, Tavi.”

Chapter 4: The Protege

Music is Magic
Story 5
Chapter 4: The Protégé
By: SleeplessScribe

Well, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. White just wanted to tell me that quite a few tenacious ponies have refused to give me a week of rest. He’d been getting letters and calls ever since I came to Ponyville from interviewers, photographers, and others from that crowd. My manager just wanted to talk to me about scheduling that stuff, but he did agree to let me talk to my favorite girl in the world beforehand.

However, my attention was grabbed by quite a pleasant sound. On my way back to Vinyl’s house, I heard talent itself echoing through the air as I passed by what my mare had labeled as Carousel Boutique. I followed it with open ears, being taken behind the store. There I saw a young filly with a snow white coat and a fluffy mane of pink and purple. Those tunes were coming from the young unicorn as she was doing laundry… well, trying to do laundry.

Her eyes were closed, so I had to speak to get her attention. Granted, I probably shouldn’t have started the way I did.

“That’s a very nice voice you have.” For some reason, I had an urge to add “it’d be a shame if something were to happen to it” to the end of my sentence, but since I had no idea why I wanted to, I didn’t.

The young unicorn jumped up, almost falling into the tub of water behind her. “Hey! You scared me!”

I let out a nervous chuckle as I helped her up. “Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to scare you, I just heard you singing, and I couldn’t resist saying something.”

She smiled at me before gasping, bouncing around me Pinkie Pie style. “Aren’t you Beat Tempo? Scootaloo listens to your music all the time! You’re a good singer!” As it dawned on her, she froze and looked at me. “You of all ponies think I’m a good singer?”

“Well, yeah! You’ve got quite the voice there… um…?”

She jumped up again with a beaming smile. “I’m Sweetie Belle!”

With a smile of my own, I patted her head. “Sweetie Belle. Yeah, you’ve got a beautiful voice for such a young girl. Would you care to sing for me some more? I’ll help you with these chores.” I gave her a quick wink, resulting in her giggling.

“That sounds fun!”

Sweetie, as I said, had an amazing voice. I didn’t really understand her words, something about crusaders, and finding her cutie mark, but the sound was what mattered. She was able to hit both high and low notes I didn’t think were possible for a filly her age, and I was blown away at her apparent lack of a need to breathe. The filly didn’t pause at all mid line, and the pauses between each line were quick. Listening to her was almost like listening to a trained professional, and I found myself hoping that she had more chores to do so that I could hear more.

Unfortunately, the laundry was all she had. “Has nopony ever told you that you could sing before?”

Much to my surprise she actually nodded. “I get told that all the time! I just didn’t think someone like you would tell me that! I mean, you’re famous, for pony’s sake. You know what’s good and what isn’t!”

I have to admit, I was really starting to like this kid. “You’re a diamond in the rough, kid. However, I really want to see what’s gonna happen when we try to cut that diamond. What do you say about taking lessons from me, Sweetie?”

Her eyes lit up as she started to bounce again. “Really? You want to teach me? Are you kidding? Of course! That’s so cool! Yay! Yay! Yay!”

It took me actually pushing my hoof on her head to get her to stand still. “Alright, silly, calm down. Now, I’m only going to be here for a week, so is there somepony I can talk to about scheduling lessons with you, Sweetie?”

She jumped up again, twirling around. “My big sister, Rarity! I’ll go get her right now!”

Sweetie scurried off just for a moment, returning with a gorgeous unicorn sporting the same white coat, but a single toned, dark purple mane. “Hello there. Is this your sister, Sweetie?”

Her head bobbed up and down in a quick nod. The mare herself held her hoof out, a beautiful smile on her face. “Hello darling. You may call me Rarity.”

I took the hoof in my own, giving it a few shakes. “I’d kiss that hoof, but I’m afraid Vinyl might not take too kindly to that.”

She drew back, staring wide eyed at me. “Wait, do you mean Vinyl Scratch? Are you the coltfriend rumors have been spreading out? Everyone in town knows that she hooked up with a celebrity!”

After a whistle, I rolled my eyes. “It only takes one to create a massive snowball. Yes, that would be me. Anyway, I’d like to talk to you about scheduling singing lessons with your little sister.”

Rarity let out a loud gasp. “Are you being serious? You want to teach my little sister?”

I nodded, smiling at her. “Indeed I do. She’s very talented. Are you telling me you didn’t hear her out here earlier? She was pretty audible, even from where I was.”

“I’m afraid I was working on my sewing machine. I couldn’t hear much of anything, unfortunately. Anyway, you mentioned scheduling?”

Another nod preceded my response. “Well, I’m only going to be in Ponyville for a week. I was hoping we could plan a certain time maybe once or thrice a week where I could pop in, and Sweetie and I could spend… oh, an hour, two hours, practicing. Your sister has a lot of raw talent, and she’ll definitely be able to go places if she can refine it.”

Rarity shrieked as she picked up her sister. “Sweetie Belle, did you hear that? Beat could make you a star!”

I threw my hooves up, shaking them quickly. “Whoa, whoa! Not a star, exactly, but she’s definitely going to shine.”

“Can we do it every day?” Being in her sister’s hooves allowed Sweetie to flail hers around like I did when Scratch licked my horn. “Can we? Can we? Can we?”

We both laughed as I ruffled up Sweetie’s mane. “Sadly, I don’t have that much time on my hooves. Rarity, do you think Tuesdays and Thursdays at… say… thee o’clock would work? Maybe for an hour each day? If you’d like, I can talk to Scratch about seeing her every day this week, since I’ll be free for the most part.”

She finally set her sister down, but she was still hopping around excitedly. “That sounds lovely. Just make sure it doesn’t get in the way of your dating.” Rarity gave me a teasing wink, nudging her sister. “Come along, Sweetie. We’ll be seeing Beat later today.”

I waved to both of them as they left. Hopefully Vinyl wouldn’t get worried about how long I had been gone. Lucky for me, she and my cousin were waiting at the door, but neither of them looked very upset. My favorite of the two ran up, wrapping her forelegs around me and planting her lips against mine, leaving my cousin to bring up the rear.

“So you two really have hooked up! Isn’t that just sweet?” She brought herself between us, pulling the both of us into a tight hug. “I can see the joy on your faces. You both look so… happy!”

Scratch and I were thinking the same thing. “We are, Tavi. You said it yourself: it’s about time. So, what exactly took you so long, babe?”

“Well, White wanted to talk to me about persistent reporters and stuff. Regardless of whether or not I’m on vacation, these people still want interviews and crap like that. However, on my way back, I discovered Sweetie Belle. I heard her singing, and now at three every day, I’m going over to be her vocal coach.”

Both pairs of eyes widened as the mares looked at each other, but Via was the first to speak. “Really? You’re going to come here every day to coach little Sweetie?”

“Oh no, just every day this week. Once I’m out on the road again, we’re going to make arrangements for me to come back on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. You know, I think with her already strong talent, I could get her ready for a show by the end of the week!”

Vinyl clapped her hooves together. “I’d love to see that! Now then, what about that other thing?”

I gave her a shrug. “I told White Noise any appointments will not be prioritized over you. If we’re on a date, then they’ll have to wait. Oh ho, look at that rhyme!”

They both patted my back and hugged me again. “You’re a sweetheart, cousin. I told you he’d be good, Vinyl.”

“You did, and he is.” My mare nuzzled against my chest, her smile brighter than the sun itself. It honestly felt kind of awkward, given my cousin’s history with her, but she seemed very perky.

“I’m very glad you two finally started dating.” Octavia took one of our hooves each into hers, closing her eyes. “I care deeply about both of you, and seeing you this happy really makes me feel happy.”

Of all ponies to do it to, Via was probably the worst choice. She didn’t throw a very big hissy fit when I rubbed her head, but the smile faded quite quickly as she shot me a glare.

“Vinyl is one thing, Beat, but I put effort into tidying myself up.”

Both of us snickered at her comment. “Sorry we’re not as neat as you, Via. Come on, I was just playing around!”

“I understand, but please try not to mess up my mane. Again, I put effort into keeping it neat.”

I settled for flicking her ear instead. “Via, you and I never did see eye to eye, but let’s be honest. If you don’t pull that pole out of your ass, one day you’re gonna sit wrong and it’ll go through your brain.”

Contrary to my expectations, she flashed a grin. “I pulled it out already to make room for something… thicker.”

Vinyl’s jaw dropped before mine, but the corners of our mouths were both turned down. My brows turned up as Scratch’s face looked like a cross between disgusted conservative politician and audience member of Who’s Line.

That wasn’t all, either; my cousin’s legitimate laugh sounded more like a demented cackle. “You should see the looks on your faces! Oh goodness, I can’t breathe!”

Immediately my hooves were on Vinyl’s ears, and hers were on mine. In unison we did the greatest, most childish thing ever. “Lalalalalalalala! We can’t hear you! Lalalala! We can’t hear you! Stop talking about your gross sex life! Lalalala!”

She rolled her eyes, crossing her forelegs. “Oh, this coming from the two who lick each other’s horns! So just because I’m more sophisticated, it means I can’t try to have fun your way?”

Now it was our turn to glare. We both started stuttering, tripping over our words until Vinyl finally made herself coherent. “I don’t know how you found out about that, Tavi, but that is not what happened! Beat tickled the hell out of me, so I decided to get back at him with my own form of teasing. He just… happened to freak out and scream like a victim of sexual assault.”

I rubbed my horn gentle, still shaken by that experience. “I still say you went too far. Messing with my horn is off limits from now on.”

The white hoof met my chest with a little more force than I was comfortable with. “If that’s the case, then you tickling is also off limits!”

“Fair enough.”

My cousin smiled as she pushed us closer together. “Now kiss and make up, you two.”

“Tavi… that’s just a little weird.” We both cocked our brows at her, and she let out a nervous giggle.

“I’m just trying to have fun your way. Don’t think that, because I’m refined, I can’t get a little wild when I want to.”

All that did was getting a laugh out of Vinyl and I. “Alright, Via, you win. You can be wild if you want.”

She rolled her eyes at us, walking off. “I need to get back to Canterlot. Congratulations again, Vinyl! Maybe you too, Beat.”

Both of us waved to her as she left, and after she was gone a pair of white lips met my cheek. “You’re really sweet to give that little filly coaching, you know that? She’s a good girl, and I’ve heard her sing too.”

With one foreleg around her, I returned the kiss. “She’s amazing for such a young age. Kind of like you were in school. Don’t lie, Scratch, you were, and still are, a great singer. I’d definitely rank your voice above mine.”

It was adorable how her blushes showed right through her fur. She gave me another kiss, wrapping herself around my neck. “Oh stop, I’m not that good! I guess it’s just natural. I’ve never found singing all that hard.”

I gave her a smile as I nuzzled her cheek. “So, where am I taking my lovely lady this morning? I may be a little too eager to take you out now, Vinyl.”

She smiled as well, affectionately returning my nuzzles. “Anywhere. I just want to spend time with you right now. That’s really all I want, babe.”

Words just could not express how I felt about this mare. I honestly wish they could, because telling this story would be a lot easier. Alas, things are never that easy, and to this day Scratch is still too great for words.

“Well, how about I get that interview out of the way now, so the only thing left on today’s agenda will be Sweetie’s singing? We can go somewhere for a while, come back, and hang out more.”

Scratch rubbed her chin for a bit. “Mind if I come with?”

“Not at all.”

* * *

The stereotypical reporter, though female, was already waiting at my tour bus. Her voice kind of reminded me of Sapphire Shores, but a little higher, and with more of a twang to it. “Hello Beat Tempo! Wonderful to meet you! Name’s Inquiring Mind, and I am just so excited that you agreed to this interview!”

Her light blue hooves grabbed on to one of mine, shaking it rather violently. Through the changes the shaking made my voice go through, I managed to speak. “Nice to meet you too, ma’am.”

Her eyes widened when she saw Vinyl, her rough hoofshake transferring to my mare. “You brought your mare with you too? Hello there, Vinyl Scratch! Almost everyone in Equestria knows your name by now, and it’s wonderful to meet you, too!”

The undulating caused her voice to kinda “bounce” too. “You don’t say?” She let out a loud sigh once she was released. “Can’t say I never wanted my name to be out there, but honestly, not like this.”

Inquiring Mind-man that’s a long name, I’m just going to call her IM-gave my mare a smile. “Well let’s see if I can change that! See, I’m a reporter that wants the truth, not just a juicy story.”

Vinyl and I looked at each other for a minute. It felt like we were reading each other’s minds, and if we really were, it worked. We said, in unison, “If that’s true, than I like you already.”

The reporter pulled out a pen and notepad from under her hat, which revealed that she was actually a unicorn. “Do you mind if I ask you both a few things?”

I looked at my girl, but she shook her head. “Are we taking turns?”

IM nodded, clicking the pen open. “I’ll let you know what questions are directed at whom. Whenever you’re ready.”

“Alright, let’s get started.”

She nodded again, her eyes shifting between us. “One at a time, Beat first. How did your whole music career begin?”

Why did every single reporter I ever talked to have to ask that? You’d think after two or three, everyone would get the picture.

“Vinyl and I went to Sonny’s School of Performing Arts. We both got started when we took the same vocal and guitar classes. Long story short, we started out doing local gigs with acoustics and started experimenting with electronics a little later.”

Scratch picked up after me with a smile. Remembering those days was, admittedly, pretty great. “I started working with digital, and Beat worked an electric guitar. We started writing songs and taking the recordings to local stores. Some of them agreed to sell, and some didn’t, but after some time, Beat got picked up by White Noise and I caught the attention of Electric FM. I started DJing for them, but after a while, it kind of got boring. As for Beat, well it’s pretty obvious where he’s gone.”

The reporter grinned when Vinyl was finished. After she was done jotting everything down, she pointed the pen at her. “What was so boring about working for a big-time radio station?”

She merely shrugged. “It’s just not as fun to me when I can’t see others enjoying the music. I love being a live DJ where I can see all the dancing and partying going on. I guess it’s just more gratifying to me that way.”

IM asked a lot of questions, but very few of them were typical ones that I had answered fifty times already. She seemed very into it, too; most reporters I’ve talked with only seemed to care about making sure their lies weren’t too far away from the truth. There was a little doubt in my mind about Inquiring Mind, but something told me she didn’t twist too many of my or Vinyl’s words. By the time she was done, it was almost noon.

We were given a polite bow as she stood up. “Thank you very much for your time, you two! Things kind of dragged on longer than I would have liked, but I have everything I need now! Thank you again.”

Finally she left, and we both let out long, drawn out sighs. “It wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be, but it still sucked. I regret not putting in my contacts to mess with her.”

I nudged her shoulder with a grin. “One day, you should wear just one of them and really mess with peoples’ heads. Everyone would be looking like ‘dur?’”

She started laughing as I raised my brow and jutted out my chin in an attempt to look as stupid as possible. We honestly had no idea what we wanted to do for three hours, seeing as how a trip down memory lane would probably take longer. Most of the places we went to back in the day were actually in Fillydelphia, and that was a much longer train ride than the trip to Canterlot and back.

In the end, we decided to try and catch up on the sleep we had lost due to my manager’s visit. Unfortunately, the only thing we managed to do was mess with each other and break our own rules. The good part was that I got used to having my horn touched, so Scratch lost a big advantage she had over me. By the time we were both completely exhausted and her bed was a mess, we found we had killed about two and a half hours.

We both stared at each other for a second before I put my glasses back on. “Did we really just spend two hours tickling and teasing each other? Really?”

She rolled her eyes, poking my horn again. “Beat, we spent who knows how long just playing random music yesterday. Are you really questioning our abilities to mindlessly screw around?”

“Eh, you have a point. Well, since we are so good at goofing off, would you like to come with me to see Sweetie Belle?”

“Why not? Not like I have anything better to do right now.”

I cocked a brow at her. “I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic or not.”

After rolling her eyes again, she stuck her tongue out at me. “Half and half. I work when I feel like it, and I don’t feel like it now. So before I decide to just be a butt and stay here, let’s go.”

Vinyl drove me crazy with how well she could disguise her voice. She could be absolutely furious with me and still sound sweeter than sugar, and vice versa, and I was unable to figure out if her calm tone was fake or not. Rather than waste the rest of my energy trying to, I just got up and opened the door for her.

“Ladies first.”

Without a word, and with an upturned nose, she walked through the door. “Look at me, I’m so fancy. I take guys up my-“

I think about half my hoof went into her mouth with how quickly I jumped to stop her. “We will never even remember my cousin said that. She did not say that. I don’t care if she actually did. As far as we’re concerned, she didn’t.”

She just nodded to me, and we made our way to Rarity’s place in an awkward silence. Once we were there, we didn’t even need to knock on the door before the pretty unicorn opened the door for us.

“Hello, Beat dear! Oh, and good afternoon to you as well, Vinyl.” Rarity held out her hoof to her and they shook. It was a little awkward being the only unicorn without a white coat, as well as the only guy around, but it didn’t bother me but so much.

I looked around, but there was no sign of my new friend. “So, where is our little prodigy?”

Before her sister could even answer me, the little filly bolted down the steps. She actually tripped on her way her, but the resulting roll made it look like she just did a summersault. “Ta dah!”

We all humored her and started clapping, prompting Sweetie to bow. “Thank you! Thank you!”

“Are you ready to start, Sweetie? We don’t really need anything except a couple of chairs.”

I hadn’t even realized she was gone until Rarity returned with cushions for all of us. Once we were all seated, I had the filly sing that song for us again, and pointed out the few things she was doing that were hurting her. She had a habit of going from extreme highs to extreme lows, and the only time that was a good thing is when the singer is in an A Cappella band. Well, honestly, it only sounded bad because of Sweetie’s voice.

Things sounded much better when her notes had a flow to them, so we practiced going from high notes to low notes gradually, and once she got that down it was only a matter of more practice. This little filly was a natural, and I was looking forward to continuing her lessons. My next goal was helping her with a unicorn milestone: her special magic.

Chapter 5: Best Night Ever

Music is Magic
Story 5
Chapter 5: Best Night Ever
By: SleeplessScribe

Unfortunately, our hour for that day was already up. To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t even sure I could teach Sweetie Belle how to use magic. For both Vinyl and myself, our first time just sort of happened, so I figured that’s how it was with all unicorns. The little filly really didn’t want me to leave, latching herself onto my leg as we went out the door. It got a laugh from all of us, but eventually she was able to let me go allow me to be on my way.

As we made our way back to Vinyl’s place, she started nudging my shoulder. “So? How did she do?”

I couldn’t help but grin as I gave my response. “Amazing. It just blows me away how such a young pony can open her mouth and have the voice of a pro come out. Babe, I really think we can get her on stage doing a real performance in a few days, you know that?”

She rubbed her chin for a moment. “No harm in trying, but why? You can’t really just… have a show. You have any reason for putting one on?”

All I could do was shrug. My words were slow and drawn out as well, at least my first sentence. “Uh… talent show? I mean, it is kind of unfair if it’s a show all about one pony. Wait… that’s what I do.” I let out a nervous laugh as I realized exactly what I said, rubbing the back of my neck.

“That’s actually not a bad idea. Not only would it give others a chance to have fun, but it might help Sweetie be more comfortable with performing.”

With that out of the way, I nudged myself against her, the grin still on my face. “Well that’s settled, and we still have the rest of the day to ourselves. So… where am I taking you, beautiful?”

She let out a small giggle, poking my cheek a few times with both front hooves. “How sweet, you let the lady choose where to go.”

Most mares would have probably hit me in the stomach before I even finished laughing, let alone let me actually respond. “Since when was Vinyl Scratch a lady? I’ve seen you out burp colts twice my size, girl!”

Now my mare was sporting her own grin as she leaned on me. “True, true. Okay then, what’s the best place for you to take a rowdy pony like me, hm?”

That was probably the worst question she could’ve asked. My grin only grew as I saw her reaction to my answer. “The bedroom.”

A bright red tint formed on her face, though contrary to previous instances of such words, it didn’t stay long. She began to poke my chest, pressing herself against me and making me blush.

“You know what? While I’m not in the mood now, if you play your cards right when you take me to dinner, we’ll go wild tonight.”

I was not expecting that in the least. Let me be blunt; Scratch, in my opinion, is the most beautiful mare I’ve ever met, even compared to Rarity, and she was even better when she was purposefully acting dirty. She knew I was all for that idea, which made me question her sincerity even more; she loved to tease me, and there was no doubt in my mind that she would go to extensive lengths to get a leg up on me.

It took a while before I finally thought up a decent comeback. Even then, it wasn’t that great. “Not a problem. Tell me where we’re going, and I’ll earn it.”

Scratch let out a loud whine, leaning against me as if she’d just fainted. “Gah, but all the dinner places are so fancy. Where can we go that isn’t exotic wines and overly detailed food recipes?”

After flicking her ear, I stuck my tongue out at her. “I know the perfect place. Not sure if you know it or not, but I’m not letting you see until we get there.”

She was in my magic grasp before she could react, and I made my way to her place quickly to grab both her goggles and something to use as a blindfold. Once she was secure, I led her to the train station and we were off to Las Pegasus. It was a much longer ride than the trip to Canterlot, but the reaction I had imagined would be so worth it.

Vinyl didn’t really say anything, and we got many strange looks on the train. I managed to ignore most of them, but finally the whispers got too irritating, and I turned to all the passengers before going into our car. “I’m surprising her, you pervs! It’s not at all what it looks like… yet.”

I had honestly expected a much more angry or offended response, but most of the ponies that heard me just started laughing. It was the reaction I was hoping for, but the fact that I actually got it still took me by surprise.

She continually asked where we were going as if I was going to answer, and eventually she changed to asking for hints. I obliged her, but I kept them vague.

“Alright, um… it’s a place in Las Pegasus that’s really popular.”

The mare blew a raspberry. “That doesn’t tell me anything! What else?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at how fun this was. “Alright, it serves burgers. The good kind that pack hay into the soy. Not only that, but it’s not a fast food place.”

She shook her head slowly. “You’re an asshole. Um… I don’t know.”

With one foreleg around her, I kissed her cheek and toyed with her goggles. They were like Spider Mane’s mask: she could see out of them, but no one could see in. “Then you’ll just have to wait. Trust me, babe, you’ll love it.”

“I hope so. I was only expecting to be blindfolded after dinner.”

At this point, our dirty jokes weren’t even flustering anymore. “Oh, you’re into that kinda stuff, huh? I’ll be sure to remember that tonight.”

Right after I said that, she started stuttering and tripping over her words. It was adorable and hilarious at the same time. “Wait, wait, no! That is not what I meant, Beat, don’t put words in my mouth!”

Oh, she was making it easy for me, now. “No worries, I’ll be putting something much better in your mouth later.”

“Agh! You suck.”

“Nope, but you will be.”

She puffed out her slightly red cheeks, and it made me wish I could actually see her eyes. Just a little bit, though. “Fine, you win. This better be good, though, or I’m not giving you anything tonight.”

“Oh trust me, you’ll love it, babe.”

We continued the rest of the trip in silence, either because Vinyl was too pissed or because she didn’t want me throwing her words back at her in an innuendo. After about fifteen minutes, we were in Las Pegasus. I wasted no time weaving my sweetheart through the crowds of ponies, and before long we were standing before my surprise.

The place was covered in neon lights featuring music notes, guitars, music records, and all kinds of stuff like that. It was two stories tall and also featured outdoor eating areas on two sides. The entire place was brick, which gave it a rustic look I actually liked quite a bit. She seemed to like it too, given her wide-eyed, open mouthed expression.

“The Hard Rock Café? Are you shitting me, Beat? This is like the Coliseum of modern musicians!” Vinyl wrapped herself around me as she showered my face with kisses. “We’re seriously going here?”

With a grin, I fixed her goggles on and returned her kisses. “We are. I knew you’d like it.”

“Oh thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! Beat, you’re the best a mare could ask for!”

As true as that was, I didn’t want her shouting that out to the world. I ruffled up her mane while we made our way to the front door. “Chill out, girl, it’s just a restaurant.”

“I love you, Beat.”

“I love you too, Vinyl.”

The interior was even more impressive. The entire restaurant was based around a massive stage, and there was never even a moment where some famous singer or band wasn’t playing. I’d done one or two gigs here, but you had names like Thousand Hoof Krutch, Deadman3-who just so happens to be the inspiration for Vinyl’s stage name DJ Pon3-, Hay Zonday, Black Saddle, and big shots like that. Before anyone asks, yes Black Saddle still plays.

All the booths were against the walls, with the tables positioned around the stage in rows. The upper area had two sets of staircases leading to it with tables behind a black railing where patrons could eat and enjoy the shows. The walls were absolutely covered in all manner of musical merchandise from pictures to instruments to autographs dating back to when rock was first recognized as a musical genre.

I actually had to hold my girl back; DJ Equixa was the one playing right now, and it just so happened to be one of Vinyl’s favorite songs. It wasn’t long before we reached the front desk, where a rather young looking mare was seated and flipping through a guest book. However, both of us noticed something about her and couldn’t wait to say something.

Almost in unison, we both shouted out. “Inquiring Mind?”

Her smile told me she had already seen us and just decided not to acknowledge it. “Hello again, you two. Bet you never thought you’d see me here, huh?”

I shook my head quickly. “Not ever! What are you doing here?”

She let out a light giggle. “I work here! It’s the perfect way to get interviews with a whole lot of big names. Now, I assume you came for a nice time together, not to talk to me, right?”

Vinyl responded with her own giggle. “Well it’s always nice to run into cool ponies, but yeah, Beat brought me here for a date.”

The reporter gave me a wink as she walked up in front of us. “Great choice. Good atmosphere, good food, just a good choice. Give him a few extra kisses on the way home, Vinyl.”

She gave our friend a sly grin, leaning her head on me. “Oh, if he behaves, I’m giving him much more than a few kisses.”

The temptation was too great to resist. After letting out an “Oh boy!” I began to pant and swish my tail back and forth, which got a good laugh out of both of them. Scratch patted my head and pressed her lips to my cheek, still giggling as she did.

“Who’s a good boy? Huh, who’s a good boy?”

After blowing a raspberry I cocked a brow at her. “I’d be a liar if I said ‘me’.”

“Eh, true.”

IM was still recovering from her giggle fit, but after she was done, she skimmed through another book. “Alrighty, we have a few available tables, two booths, and one spot upstairs.”

I nodded my head to the gorgeous unicorn, and she immediately knew what she wanted. “We’ll take the second floor table.”

The journalist nodded, putting the book down and leading us up. It was the perfect spot as well, with our seats being perfectly aligned with the center front of the stage. “I’ll have a waiter be with you in just a moment. Enjoy, you lovebirds.”

Right after she was gone, and before I could say anything, those white forelegs were around me and the lips were pressed to mine, along with a little more… invasive addition. Not that I minded, Scratch was an amazing kisser, and the tongue only added to her skill.

She sat there and held herself in the kiss for at least a minute before finally breaking it. “Beat Tempo. You are. The best coltfriend. Ever.”

I could feel myself blushing, but I wasn’t flustered in the least. This was a legitimate, heartfelt compliment coming from my favorite mare in the world, and all I could do was chuckle nervously.

“Nah, I’m just trying to make you happy.”

I’ve probably said this before, but I’ll said it again. When that mare put on a genuine, truly happy smile with no hints of teasing or sarcasm, it was the most beautiful thing I could ever imagine looking at.

“Well it’s working, Beat. I’m very happy. I’m even happier than when you first asked me if we could start dating. I just… I love you.”

The waiter was incredibly polite, hanging back and waiting for my girlfriend to finish before approaching us. “Always wonderful to see a happy couple at our establishment. My name is Silver Service, and I’m the obligatory waiter that takes his job too seriously.”

We all were laughing after a moment of silence, and Silver handed us menus. “What can I get you two to drink?”

“Mareller Light, the good stuff!”

“I’ll have the same.” I should’ve known she’d go with that. Mareller was her favorite beer in the world, and if memory served, she always kept at least one bottle at her house.

Silver gave us a nod. “Any appetizers you’d like?”

I simply looked at Vinyl. It was my goal to make her know she was calling the shots tonight. She was still perusing the menu, but she did shake her head. “No thank you, I think we’ll just skin to the entrées.

“Alright then, I’ll be back with your drinks in a minute. No, that doesn’t mean you can get out your stopwatch.” This was the best waiter in the history of waiters.

“Is the Beat Tempo I see?” Oh, for the love of all things sane and peaceful, that accent was unmistakable. Had I known the most aggravating photographer in Equestria was here, I would have never stepped within ten feet of the front door.

The earth pony slammed her hoof between us, her voice unreasonably loud as always. “I have been looking everywhere for a face worthy of my next assignment! ‘Frequency’ needs cover photo, and I need somepony new, fresh, and a magazine virgin on their desk. Photo Finish needs you!”

My eyes lit up when she mentioned the magazine, but I was still half-tempted to bit the hoof that had been thrust into my face. “Wait, did you say ‘Frequency’? That is, like, the biggest modern musician magazine in Equestria! Are you seriously asking to photograph me for the cover?”

“Photo Finish does not ask, Photo Finish tells! You follow, and we waste no time! I need few photos, but they must be good. Make haste!”

She was now on top of our table, though moving her was made easy with magic. “This is Vinyl’s night, so she gets to come, too.”

I would refer to her by… wherever she was from, but I had no clue where you had to be born to get an accent like hers. “No! Just Beat, no unicorn I have never heard of! We go now!”

Photo Finish made a move to grab me, but I pushed her away. “Uh, do you mind, babe?”

Scratch’s head was slightly lowered, but other than that she seemed alright. “It’s not a problem. Go ahead Beat, I’m not going anywhere.”

After a nod, the earth pony grabbed me and half walked half dragged me away.

I had to admit, Beat not refusing the offer was just a little upsetting, but it was at least understandable. Photo Finish rudely shoving herself between us and dragging my boyfriend off? No, fuck that. They were still gone by the time Silver Service came back, and he cocked a brow when he noticed the empty seat.

“Pretty rude of him to walk out on you like that.”

I threw my front hooves in the air and shook them. “Oh no! He was kind of dragged away. I’m just hoping he comes back soon.”

The waiter nodded and set our beers on the table. “Well, I do have others that need to order, so I’ll come back when your friend returns.”

“No need!” The colt was panting, his glasses halfway down his muzzle as he sat back down. “Sorry about that. I was brought all the way to the City of Townsville or some shit, and I booked it back here as fast as I could when we were through.”

I have him a bright smile as I looked through the menu. Everything seemed so good, aside from the stuff they had for species that were more… carnivorous. I’d tasted real meat before, and it was alright, but there was no way I could handle a burger completely made of beef. In the end I went with a soy steak with hay fries and onion rings, and Beat got the same.

With Silver gone again, I was reminded of what I needed to talk to my stallion about. “This whole thing reminds me: what happened with White Noise? Since when did you care so much about the pay?”

He paused for a good, long while, unable to look me in the eyes. “Well, I… I just like to get as much money as I can from my gigs. You know, tomorrow I could fall right off the mountain and lose everything. If that happens, where am I going to be, you know? It’s just nice to have a decent amount of money in case I stop earning it.”

My lower lip made its way left as my eyelids fell halfway. “Uh-huh. No offense, babe, but that sounds just a little bit greedy.”

Beat rubbed the back of his neck. “Mm… I guess you’re right. Doing local shows for free isn’t a big issue, I guess. Again, I’m sorry about the interruption too, beautiful.”

I rolled my eyes, smiling again. “Oh stop. It’s alright, Beat, you don’t need to worry.” I scooted my chair over to the other side of the table, wrapping my forelegs around him and finishing up the business that had been interrupted. Man, Beat knew how to kiss, let me tell you!

Of course, we knew better than to make out for longer than a few seconds in public, and stopped just before Silver brought our plates to us. The mere smell of our food was mouthwatering, and the sight was ever better. The steak was nice and dark, and our sides were golden and drizzled with salt, giving each bite a distinct zing. IM really wasn’t kidding, the food was great!

Thought, it wouldn’t have been a date with Beat if there weren’t some kind of goofing involved. I opened my mouth to chomp down an onion ring, but a fry went into my mouth instead. After another attempt, I got the same result, but this time I actually caught his horn glowing. Eventually I just rolled my eyes and opened my mouth, allowing him to feed me adorably. However, he never did notice me carving up his steak as he fed me, giving me the chance to surprise him with a bit of his own food.

That was pretty much how the rest of the meal went, with both of us feeding the other something other than what we were trying to eat ourselves. It was almost too much fun, if such a thing is even possible. We were both left full and happy, rubbing our stomachs in pleasure.

“So, how was it, babe?”

After a small groan, I gave him a wink. “I think someone’s earned a wild night.”

I was torn between hitting him over the head and laughing as he threw his hooves in the air. “Woo!”

Silver Service came back, a smile on his face and a bill in his grasp. “Enjoyed the meal, I take it?”

We both gave him a nod, stretching our legs. “I’d always dreamed of coming here one day, but it’s even better than I expected.”

The waiter chuckled, setting the bill on the table. “Enjoy your night, you two.”

He turned to walk off, but Beat grabbed him, setting a few bits in his pocket. “A tip fit for the best waiter in the history of waiters.”

“Well thank you! Like I said, I do take my job seriously.”

They exchanged a hoofshake before Beat set the entire bill in bits on the table. “Now let’s hope nopony else catches me on the way back, huh?”

Giggling was the least I could do. “Definitely.”

IM waved to us as we left, giving us a wink. “Goodnight, you two!”

I’ll be honest, the train ride home was a little tense, seeing as how I was really tempted to just jump on him. Ironically, he was the one keeping me down even though my pokes to his chest were just a joke. The whole way there we played around with me trying to get to him and him holding me back with his back hoof, and we were laughing all the way back to my house.

Beat set his hooves in front of my eyes after he took off my glasses, lifting me up and actually carrying me to my room. “My lady need not walk!”

“Pfft, what a charmer.” My sarcasm was more than obvious, even as I nuzzled his cheek. This time, I actually locked the door behind us and closed the window in my room once we got there.

Of course, we got ourselves ready to go to sleep, but neither of us did any sleeping. I kept my promise, and the both of us went absolutely crazy. The first time hurt a little bit, since it was my first, but the entire time, Beat held me close and made me feel a lot better. I wasn’t sure what time it was when we got there, but we had done almost everything a mare and stallion could do without any equipment, and we were both still full of energy. Holy shit, he was amazing, but the way he was left clinging to me and panting by the time we were finally exhausted told me I was pretty damn good too.

It was the first time in a long time that my mane was more of a mess than I normally intended it to be, but it was just a small price to pay. I stroked his cheek with a hoof softly as he wrapped his forelegs around me.

Leaning up, I planted a kiss on his lips with a smile. “Best night ever.”

He returned my kiss, pulling the blankets over us and nuzzling me. “I love you, Vinyl.”

I closed my eyes, leaning against him. “I love you too, Beat.”

Chapter 6: Mistakes Are Made

Music is Magic
Story 5
Chapter 6: Mistakes Are Made
By: SleeplessScribe

A knocking came on the door that morning, but neither of us bothered to get up. I was still up against my coltfriend, and he made it clear he wasn’t letting go of me. Eventually, we both got tired of the persistent rapping and both went to answer the door.

I suddenly found myself deeply regretting not answering the door on the very first knock. The big stallion stood in the door, his mouth completely straight and his brow furrowed.

“Beat, you have a very busy day ahead of you. Come with me right now so we can review your schedule.”

He scratched the back of his head, turning to me for a moment. “Can I at least talk to Vinyl first? I mean-“

“No time, Beat, let’s go.”

My stallion shot his manager a glare, pulling his typical stuff out of my room with his magic. “Alright, but I’m cutting off everyone at noon. I’m sure you’ve heard of my new student I’m teaching, and I still want to spend more time with my new marefriend.”

I gave him a smile and pushed him out the door. “Don’t worry, Beat! Last night gave me a little inspiration, so I think I’m going to get some actual work done today.”

Even as he was being led away, he nodded at me and shouted. “Noon today, I promise!”

After winking at him, I closed the door and let out a loud yawn. While what I had said wasn’t a complete lie, it was more so just the sex that gave me some musical ideas. Admittedly, I was a little upset that Beat was pulled away from me yet again, but it was kind of selfish to want him all day, every day, but how could I not with how good he’s been?

I actually forgot about breakfast until my stomach started growling. It had been at least an hour, and I got at least three song’s worth of music fixed up and playing back. Gotta love those sounds only a computer could make. Again, I loved conventional instruments, but techno music was just more fun, and combining it with real instruments was even better.

When I was satisfied by a hay and daisy sandwich, I returned to my mixing board to add in a few effects to one of my pieces. Let me tell you, when you’re having fun and working toward a goal, time flies by faster than a Wonderbolt. It was actually a little worrying to see that it was now one o’ clock, and still no sign of Beat, so I put what I was doing on pause and left. I was sure it was nothing big, but something must’ve been keeping him since he did say he’d be back by noon.

Not long after I began my search, the sound of clicking and encouraging words drew me to my lover. Our wonderfully polite visitor from last night was conducting her real photo shoot, though I couldn’t tell from his expression if Beat was annoyed or if she was telling him to make those faces.

Regardless, he didn’t look like he was having fun, and Photo Finish just kept snapping away, making him change poses every now and again. Finally, I’d had enough and walked up to them.

“Beat, what is this? You look like you’re about to take a shit while doing yoga.”

The photographer bolted in front of me, leaning to the side every time I tried to look at Beat. “Hey! Let me through!”

“There are magics being made here! Nopony gets through until we are finished!”

She continually pushed me away, but all he did was shoot me a bashful grin and shrug. He mouthed “sorry”, but it was a little upsetting not to see him doing anything. Fortunately, I was given a cushiony seat to sit in as I watched the stupid session. Honestly, I almost fell asleep.

Finally the picture taken ended, and I was permitted to see him again. I’m pretty sure he could tell I wasn’t happy even after our hug.

“The hell was that? You couldn’t even say anything to me?”

Beat bit his lip, doing his best to avoid my eyes. “I’m sorry, Vinyl. I guess I just didn’t want to mess this up.”

I began poking his chest with my brow raised. “What, saying ‘hi’ to your girlfriend would’ve messed you up? Either Photo Finish is being really uppity or you’re spouting a load of bullshit.”

The colt shook his head quickly and backed away. “No, I just didn’t want her to think I had my mind on something other than the photo shoot.”

“What happened to ‘Amazing pony on my mind’?”

Now he was starting to stutter and sweat a little. “You’re always on my mind! You know that!”

All I could do was roll my eyes. “Which is why you forgot all about being back by twelve, right? It was one o’ clock when I came looking for you.”

His hoof collided with his forehead as he groaned. “Are you kidding me? Ah man, I’m so sorry….”

There wasn’t enough anger in me to give Beat more hell than I already was, so I just leaned against him. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, managing to calm down a bit.

“Babe, you’re scaring me.”

He tilted his head as we started to walk away. “What are you scared of?”

He knew what I meant. I knew he did. “You’re really pushing the edge of your promise….”

“No, Scratch, I’m not. You don’t ever have to worry about that. I know who I am, and I know where I came from. That’s something that’s never going to change.”

I kept my eyes closed, trying to keep from falling as I balanced nuzzling against him and walking. “I hope so, Beat. I really, really hope so.”

We went back to the house, and I let Beat lie down and rest while I resumed my work. I didn’t really have that much left I wanted to do, but it was still something. I knew it was going to happen eventually, but that didn’t mean I wanted it to. Beat made it quite obvious he was sorry, but I really didn’t want him to think I was as upset as he believed.

“Vinyl, please, I’m really sorry.”

It took a little effort not to groan or roll my eyes as I turned to him. “Don’t start, Beat. I know you’re sorry, and while I am a little upset, it’s not that big a deal. Of course I’m a little worried about you, but don’t take that as incentive to pour apologies on me. Please, for the love of Beethoofen, don’t do that.”

He gave me a quick nod, leaning his head back. He’d been complaining of a headache, and I couldn’t blame him, considering who he’d been dealing with earlier. Though, we both hoped he could get over it soon, or he’d miss today’s meeting with Sweetie. I mean, he still had a good hour, but headaches can last much, much longer if they’re bad enough.

With him in the current pose he was in, giving him a little “special healing” was a temptation that I really had to fight to resist. Watching him jump as I gave just a little lick was satisfaction enough, and I stuck out my tongue.

“Maybe if you can make it up to me I’ll give you more tonight. I know one lick just doesn’t help at all.” Teasing Beat was still as much as it had always been.

He just swatted at me with a smile, rolling over so he could kiss me. “Last night wasn’t enough for you? For shame, Vinyl, you little horndog.”

I rolled my eyes and returned his kiss, booping him on the nose. “I’m the horndog? Says the guy who took all three spots in one night and shoved his horn up-“

“Ah da da da da! Nobody needs to know about that.”

His reactions had me giggling like crazy now. “Aw, but it felt so good! You know, when you first asked me to try it, I thought it would hurt like hell, but it actually felt pretty great. Beat, if good sex was all you needed in a relationship, we’d definitely win couple of the year.”

Now he was blushing, and I was straight up laughing. “Why are we even talking about this?”

I leaned forward, practically laying on him at this point. “Because I love my Beat and his amazing bedroom talents.”

He gave me a grin accompanied by gentle strokes of my mane. “Well give yourself some credit too, then. You were outstanding considering it was your first time.”

I had to think of some way to torture him as payback for earlier, and while teasing him was a great option, I didn’t want him going over to Rarity’s with a stiffy. In all honesty, that severely limited my choices. Messing with his horn no longer worked, but I suddenly remembered another weakness of his that only corrective laser surgery could’ve fixed. That worked in my favor because Beat couldn’t even take eye drops without flipping out.

Before he knew what happened, he was flailing around, frantically searching for what I had taken. “Scratch, what did you do with my glasses? You know my vision is like… ass/20 or something!”

The description of his sight had me rolling on the floor. Oh yeah, this was ample revenge for what happened earlier. Though his sight wasn’t as bad as he made it out to be, having his glasses still put me in control. With a grin on my face, I lowered the eyewear and raised it up as he tried to grab for it, repeating the process for at least two minutes.

“Come on, Vinyl, this isn’t funny anymore!”

Alright, it was pity time. I lowered his glasses back on his face and he let out a long sigh. “Phew! Thank you so much….”

All I did was shrug as I stood up. “Eh. Come on, let’s get to Rarity’s before we’re late. I know you don’t know her that well, but she’s a stickler for detail.”

Well, she wasn’t as bad as Twilight, but the prissy pony never let appointment breakers hear the end of it. I remember one time she asked me to do music for one of her art shows, and I was ten minutes late. If memory serves, she brought it up each time she saw me for the next three weeks!

It was actually really surprising how good Beat and I were at wasting time. By the time I was finished with all my musical production, our arrival at the boutique left us with very little time to spare, though we were talking along the way as well. Beat, however, did not search for Sweetie immediately, but instead tried to find her sister.

I simply sat in a chair and waited for them, only to have the sweet filly trot up to me with her eyes darting from side to side. “Hi Miss Scratch! Is Beat here yet?”

I should have known she was going to ask that. However, as I patted the little girl’s head, a few questions of my own came to mind. “Well, he is, but he’s looking for your sister right now. Say, do you think you could answer a few things for me, Sweetie?”

“Sure!”

It may or may not have been a good idea to tell her now, but I felt that the sooner she knew, the better. “Beat thinks he can have you ready to sing in a talent show by the end of the week. How do you feel about that?”

She bit her lower lip a bit and backed away. “A talent show? I-I don’t know, Miss Scratch. I guess I’m good at singing, but I’m not good enough to sign in front of lots and lots of others.”

I gave her a soft smile, ruffling up her mane like Beat enjoyed doing to me. “Oh, don’t be silly! You’ve got tremendous talent, and it won’t be in front of lots and lots of others. Beat and I were thinking maybe a few parents and such. Maybe your sister and her friends, too, but that’s about it.”

The young filly began to circle the floor beneath her with a hoof. “I guess it couldn’t hurt to try. What does he want with my sister?”

Okay, that was a big question I was hoping to avoid. There was no telling how Sweetie felt about attempting magic. However, as unfair as it was, I had a secret weapon for sweetening my words, and none of it was actually a lie.

“Well… Beat wants to see if your body is ready to learn its special magic. He really, really thinks your abilities will be like his in the sense that he uses his magic to amplify his voice and create multiple voices at once. Which, might I add, is pretty freaking sweet when he implements that into his songs. Now, I know magic might be a little hard for you, but get this: it’s true that any unicorn that figures out their special magic gets their cutie mark not long after! I got mine just a few days after I learn how to make music with magic, and Beat got his a week after his first concert without any amplifiers.”

At this, Sweetie’s eyes lit up and she began to bounce around me. “You mean I can get my cutie mark if this works? Are you serious?”

I gave a small giggle before patting her on the head. “Why would I lie to you about that? You’ve been wanting yours so bad, I’d never think of giving you false hope.”

She nuzzled herself against me, pretty much squeaking with delight. “Oh yes, then of course I’ll try!”

Again, it seemed a bit mean to me to use that fact to sway Sweetie’s opinion, but it’s not like I was lying. Though, Sweetie Belle was a gamble. She was at the age now where magic was indeed possible, but that didn’t mean it would be very easy. I think I was at least three years older than the filly before me when I finally mastered my magic, so there was no telling if this would actually work or not.

A few moments later Beat came down with Rarity, whom was sporting quite the excited expression as she trotted toward her sister and picked her up.

“My little Sweetie’s finally going to learn magic!”

“Wait, so you’re okay with this?” Rarity’s little sister began to wiggle a little in the elder mare’s embrace, giggling as she was slowly spun around.

The prissy mare let out a giggle. “Of course I am! Sweetie, if you can pull this off, you’ll finally have your cutie mark, just like you always dreamed. Not only that, but you’re always telling me how much you love singing, so why not try and make a career out of doing something you enjoy? It’s the best feeling in the world, and I’d know. I love doing what I do.”

I raised my hoof with my own smile, beaming at the sisters. “I do too.”

It wasn’t long before Beat followed with his own hoof. “Me three!”

Nopony else was given a chance to respond as the door slammed open and the big stallion walked right through like he owned the place. “Beat, you have ten minutes, and I want you out here.”

He began to stutter as he stared at his manager. “Wait, you said we were done for the day!”

White Noise shook his head. “I thought we were, but now others have arrived requesting your presence. Be back at the bus in ten minutes or I’ll have to send them off.”

Beat’s ears fell flat as he lowered his head. He only managed to speak after a very long sigh. “Fine… I’m sorry, Sweetie Belle. Do you think I could come by later and try?”

Now that had me miffed again. I couldn’t be too mad, since the little unicorn had been so excited, but the fact that he went straight to asking was a little irritating.

Sweetie opened her mouth, though it was her sister that actually responded. “Oh, I’m sure we’ll have a little time later for you to stop by! Please, don’t let us hold you up. Go, go now!”

The unicorn shooed my coltfriend out the door, closing it without even letting him speak. Hey, it was now a white unicorn mare convention!

She heard my sigh and turned to me. “Vinyl, dear, what’s wrong? That didn’t sound happy at all.”

I was now sitting like Lyra liked to do, though instead of looking relaxed, I had my face in my hooves. “I’m not! I’m really, really scared, Rarity.”

Neither of us actually noticed the cellist come in until she was already inside, though her lack of a “hello” didn’t make any of us feel obligated to give one.

Rarity set a hoof on my shoulder with quite the worried expression. “Oh dear, what has you so scared?”

“It’s my cousin.”

Vinyl’s face was difficult to see given her current position, but I could still make a little bit out. Fear and pain the likes of which I’d never thought I’d see was in her eyes, and it was all I could do to try and keep her from crying as I wrapped my forelegs around her.

Rarity and I got along very well due to our similar personalities, and we respected each other enough to avoid arguments, so it was no surprise when she didn’t even ask if I was serious or not.

“Why would she be afraid for Beat?”

It was too late, I could hear the muffled crying beneath those white hooved. Pardon my language, but Beat had really fucked up. I couldn’t really blame Beat too much, though; he was a male, and we females don’t exactly come with instruction manuals, so my cousin probably didn’t even realize he was doing something wrong.

I faced Rarity, though I still had Vinyl in my embrace. “He’s been acting very differently. Rarity, when the road he and Vinyl had walked together finally split, they made a promise to stay true to themselves. I’ve seen the way my cousin’s been acting, and I too fear that he’s forgotten that promise, and is starting to give pieces of himself up to gain more fame. I can only hope and pray that I’m wrong….”

Chapter 7: You Screwed Up

Music is Magic
Story 5
Chapter 7: You Screwed Up
By: SleeplessScribe

The well groomed mare looked from me to Vinyl, alternating for a few moments. “I’m sure it’s nothing to cry over, though, right?”

I couldn’t blame Rarity for her lack of knowledge, seeing as how she hadn’t been in our little trio all her life, though it wouldn’t hurt to explain. “My cousin has changed, Rarity. We both exaggerate and tell everyone we all slept in adjacent hospital beds when we were born, but it really feels like we’ve known each other for that long. We know who he is, dear Rarity, and the Beat that just walked out the door is not the same one we know and love.”

Hearing her speak was heartbreaking. The poor unicorn sounded so… hurt. “Maybe I am overreacting… but there’s a big ‘what if’ here. Rarity, if Beat is really sacrificing who he is for fame… how long will it be before he drops Tavi? How long will it be before he drops me?”

She raised her hoof to her mouth and let out a small gasp, though she didn’t actually seem that worried. “Oh, that’s silly. He loves you, he’d never do that!”

I looked back to her again, slowly shaking my head. “That’s just it, Rarity. He’s so different now, we actually don’t know that he wouldn’t do that anymore.” My gaze now turned to the door he had just left through, my thoughts now both on my cousin and his lover.

Rarity decided to join in my embrace, gently rubbing the brokenhearted mare’s back. “I see… then it’s no wonder you’re so shaken up by this.”

After a nod, I helped my friend up and headed for the door. “I’m going to take her home, take care of yourself, dear.”

Vinyl was still sniffling on the way back to her house, and she needed to lean on me for support. “Tavi… am I really overreacting?”

It was a difficult question to answer, but given how little we knew this new Beat, I really couldn’t help but think she was being reasonable. “No, hun. If you ask me, you have very good reason to be afraid. Come on, let’s get you home and hopefully calmed down.”

She wiped her eyes again, taking a deep breath. “I love him, Tavi. I really don’t want this to be true.”

“I know, sweetie, I know.” To be blunt, I loved Vinyl, and I loved Beat. Of course, my history with the mare left a little more than sisterly love in me, but they both were like family, and seeing them happy together lifted me up almost as much as snuggling up with Percy.

Trading words with my cousin next time I saw him was a must, but for now getting Vinyl calmed down and doing something other than worrying was my goal. She managed to stop crying and get into bed, though she did ask for some time alone. I had to question if that was really the best thing for her in my head, though I didn’t dare actually argue with her.

Unfortunately I had no idea where Beat actually was. I heard White Noise telling him to come to where they were keeping the tour bus, but that didn’t mean he’d still be there. The good thing was that all my years in Ponyville gave me a very good memory of the town, and very few changes to the actual layout had been made.

At least that’s what I thought until a thirty minute search turned up nothing. Eventually I decided that he either went back to Vinyl’s or to Rarity’s again, so I checked at the fashion boutique first. He wasn’t there, though I was informed that he just finished his lesson with Sweetie. They couldn’t go for an hour because, while none of her attempts were successful, the little filly came close to pulling off a simple sound spell a few times, and was exhausted. Hearing that perked me up a little, but not enough to accept that I hadn’t yet found my cousin.

I made a beeline for Vinyl’s place, hoping with every fiber of my being that he was there. Sure enough, he was, though he was lying on the couch with quite the empty stare. He did turn to me when I sat in the chair across from him, but it took a little bit for him to say anything.

“Via, am I doing something wrong? Scratch doesn’t even want to talk to me right now.”

Okay, so he really was clueless. “Well honestly, Beat, I can’t blame her after some of the stuff you’ve been doing. You have to admit, it’s not like you.”

My cousin tilted his head, cocking his brow as he turned on his side to face me. “Not like me? What’cha talkin’ ‘bout, Via?”

Poor, poor Beat. I said earlier that we females didn’t come with instructions, but I at least had to teach how to argue without sounding like an idiot. “Come on, cousin! Letting a pony you can’t stand interrupt your date, breaking a promise and basically standing Vinyl up, allowing someone to pull you away from something as important to you as teaching Sweetie Belle, these are things the Beat from three years ago would have said to that.”

I cleared my throat, preparing for probably the most unsophisticated thing I’d ever say. “’Fuck your shit, I got more important things to do!’ That is exactly what the Beat from three years ago would have said.”

He let out a soft chuckle despite the gravity of the situation. “That sounds like something I would say.”

I, however, shot him a glare. “Not anymore it does. If you haven’t noticed, you’ve been presented with all of those things and did the exact opposite.”

Beat rolled his eyes at me, which was not a good sign. If he thought I was trying to lecture him, then this was going to end very, very poorly. My cousin moved himself into a sitting position. He wasn’t exactly glaring, but he most definitely didn’t look pleased.

“I’m just doing what I think is best, Via. What’s gotten your tail in a twist?”

Stomping my hoof was something I found very hard to resist. “Oh, so walking out on your mare and making her cry because she’s afraid that you’ve changed so much you’re not even Beat Tempo anymore is the best thing, Beat? I had hoped that my temper wouldn’t get the best of me in this conversation, but that right there really makes me angry. I can understand if maybe you didn’t realize that Vinyl actually did have a problem with all of this, but you thinking that’s better than prioritizing your girlfriend? That’s just sad.”

Now he was glaring. “Maybe in your world where everything’s high class or utter shit. I’m not like you, Octavia, so don’t try and hold my actions to your standards. It’s true, I could’ve done things a little different, but I’m still me, just famous and rich, now!”

“Beat! Look at you, yelling at me when I’m just trying to help! If you really think you’re still the same pony you used to be, I’m not sure I even want you around Vinyl. I suggest you leave and do a lot of thinking, cousin. I love you, but I love Vinyl too, and I don’t want to see you hurt her, even if you don’t mean to.”

He jumped up at my comment, stalking toward me. “I would never hurt her, Via, and it hurts that you would even imply that!”

“Beat. Leave.”

“Make me.”

Neither of us realized what happened until he was already on the ground. Nopony, including myself, could’ve seen me ever getting angry enough to strike someone else, but there’s a first time for everything. Beat held his hoof to his cheek, standing up without a word and walking out. It really hurt to do that to him, but I meant what I said. As I thought about it, I feared that I may have driven a wedge between my two favorite ponies, but as far as I was concerned, the pony I just slapped wasn’t Beat Tempo.

Despite this, I wanted them together. As I said before, seeing them so happy made me happy, so I guess I was operating on the “everything gets worse before it gets better” principal. The only think that scared me now was my cousin screwing up so bad even a revelation couldn’t fix his relationship with Vinyl.

Speaking of, the sweet mare, though a mess, made her way out of her room with one hoof under her eye. “Tavi? Is everything alright?”

I wanted to nod, but that would, admittedly, have been a little white lie. “Things will be alright… I hope.”

She bit her bottom lip a little, turning her gaze to the door. “That doesn’t make me feel better at all.”

“I know. Is there anything you’d like to do that you think would?”

It took a few moments, but she eventually gave me a nod. “I’d like to have a word with White Noise himself.”

* * *

To be completely honest, I was a little scared to talk to Beat’s manager. However, it’s what Vinyl wanted to do, so I was in no place to argue with her. Beat wasn’t at the tour bus like we thought he’d be, so it was just us and the big guy as he answered the door.

“Vinyl Scratch! Hello, baby! Who’s the lovely lady here?” He raised his brow and grinned at me, though something about the gesture told me he wasn’t actually hitting on me.

I held my hoof out to him, trying to return a smile. “My name is Octavia. I’m sure my cousin has mentioned me at least once?”

He raised his head and let out a loud “Oh” accompanied by a laugh. “You’re that Octavia! I’ve got a lot to thank you for, baby.”

Now it was my turn to raise a brow. “Me? What could you possibly owe to me?”

The big stallion patted both our shoulders. “You’re the whole reason Beat is even doing what he does. He goes on and on about wanting to be anything but what you are.”

I drew back a little bit, blinking at his words. “I’m not sure if I should be flattered or offended.”

All White did was shrug. “Anyways, what’d you need me for? Neither of you look very happy.”

I opened my mouth, but Vinyl stepped in front of me. The more I thought about it, the worse of an idea it seemed like to let her actually do this. White Noise was right, Vinyl wasn’t happy, and confronting someone when angry or upset was never a good thing. Fortunately, she was at least managing to keep her voice at a decent tone.

“You know why we’re here. Look, bud, you’ve been with Beat for the least three years when we haven’t. What’s gotten into him?”

He didn’t really give any sort of indicator that he was even listening, and neither of us even knew he was until we were both pulled into the tour bus. White Noise maintained his silence until we both were seated on rather plush, comfy cushions and he seated himself in front of us.

The stallion held his front hooves together and kind of rocked them forward every so often. “I know exactly what you mean. He’s losing touch with himself, and you ain’t the only ones worried about it. The problem is that a manager can’t do as much as you think. I make sure his albums get to stores and I make sure he gets to appointments on time. Outside of that, all I can really do is make suggestions. He’s an adult, so I can’t force him to do much of anything.”

He had a point, but something told me he didn’t truly know how serious this was. “It’s not so much about his money and fame as it is what he’ll do to get more. He’s shown Vinyl that he’s willing to put up with one of his least favorite ponies, interrupt a date with his most favorite pony, break a promise that should’ve been easy to keep, and even let himself get pulled away from giving lessons to a budding singer. Both of us are afraid it’s only a matter of time until he’ll forget our names for a few bits.”

His forelegs crossed as he gave a nod. “Octavia, I take pride in the fact that I’m one of the few celebrities that still remembers their roots. Even in my prime rapping days, I never forgot to send my mom letters and go visit pop’s grave. Still remembered all my old friends and very rarely went against my own personal code. I know how hard it can be sometimes, but one thing I always try to do as a manager is make my stars stick to their own code, too. I’ll admit, I might be to blame a little, too, since I always make Beat second guess. Like a few days ago when I came and asked him about that party he played at? He told me a week ago that day that he didn’t do free shows, but I should’ve just let him get away with performing here free.”

So, we established that White Noise couldn’t make him do anything, but my friend made it clear she wasn’t going to just accept that. “Isn’t there anything you can do to at least make Beat think about this?”

After a few chin taps he finally had a good answer. “I can talk to him about it, maybe make some… persuasive suggestions, but I can’t outright tell him not to do something. Well, I could, but that would probably make him less likely to listen. Anyways, I’ll see what I can do.”

We both gave him a nod, standing and taking our leave. “Thank you, White Noise. This really means a lot to us.”

He gave us a nod and waved as we opened the door. “Yeah, for sure. Honestly, I ain’t got a problem letting him go if it gets too bad.”

Vinyl was the first to go considering I had one more comment. “You know, I really hope it doesn’t come to that, but honestly, it wouldn’t worry me but so much if it did.”

When we got back to my friend’s home, there was a note on the door from my cousin. Apparently he’d found out who to speak to in order to organize the talent show, and it would be occurring in two days. Vinyl let out quite the nasty scoff when we read the part about the two bits per ticket going towards funding his next tour, but decided we would at least go see it to see how Sweetie did.

There were going to be two rehearsals: one tomorrow morning and the other tomorrow night. Beat would be staying with Rarity and her sister tonight to give Vinyl some space and time to think, so I decided I’d stay with her. Neither of us really had anything we necessarily wanted to do, and it was getting late, so we decided to just go to bed. A few extra hours of sleep would do us both some good.

* * *

It always astounded me how Vinyl could consider herself “ready” just by hopping out of bed, showering, eating, and brushing her teeth. It took me at least fifteen minutes to get myself ready with all the preparation I go through. The rehearsal was supposed to be at nine o’ clock, leaving us with a few minutes to spare by the time I was actually ready to leave.

We were told there was a stage set up just outside Cheerilee’s school, and there were quite a few young ones their practicing their acts. Sweetie was there too, and she seemed a lot more excited than I thought she’d be. When we went up to see her, she was trying to couple her singing with magic again. It was actually a little exciting to watch her; with each attempt, she managed to make herself a little louder. It wasn’t exactly a microphone or amplifier substitute, but Vinyl, Rarity, and I all agreed that if she continued like this, she’d definitely be ready to sing by tomorrow night.

The one thing that all of us noticed was that Beat wasn’t there. We asked both Rarity and Sweetie about it and were told that he got tied up with something else, causing my friend to roll her eyes.

“Why does that not surprise me?” It didn’t surprise any of us. Sweetie assured us that she was alright with it, since her apparently “super duper” promised that even if he couldn’t make this rehearsal, he’d be here tonight and tomorrow night. Regardless, we decided to go looking for him.

As we wandered around, we began to hear noises around the local reservoir. With piqued curiosity, we decided to take a look… and very, very soon began to regret it. A large area of the land was covered by ponies, cameras, and microphones with quite a bit of sand spread over the grass. Two ponies, a mare and a stallion, had their backs to the cameras and were leaning on each other, and it wasn’t long before the both of us heard a familiar, and at the time very infuriating song.

“La da da da da,
You are the best friend I've ever had,
La da da da da,
When I'm with you, I could never be sad,
You're like a ray of li-“

“Beat fucking Tempo, how fucking dare you?” I had no time to react before Vinyl was already on him, half crying and half shouting. “How fucking dare you, Beat?”

My cousin jumped up and turned to face her, falling off the stool he’d been sitting on. “V-Vinyl! What’s wrong, babe?”

She was basically screaming as she spoke, tear streaks staining her cheeks. “You said yourself that that song was ours! It is our song, Beat, the first one you ever wrote about me! You’re using what’s basically our relationship on paper for what? A fucking movie promo? That is the last straw, Beat! I really, really didn’t want to think you had changed this much, but you have! You’re not the Beat Tempo I gave my heart and my body to! You’re not even Beat Tempo at all! We are over!

Beat reached out and opened his mouth, but she was already gone. Her tears and anger were much more reasonable now, and while my priority should have been catching up to her and trying to calm her down, making my disappointment apparent to the unicorn before was instead.

He was on his knees, his mouth agape and his eyes wide as he just stared off into space in the direction his now ex-girlfriend ran off to. “Scratch….” Beat held his hoof up for just a moment before it fell back to the ground. “She… she’s gone.”

“Well I hope you’re proud of yourself. In three days you’ve managed to destroy your best friend and break her heart. Do you see what I mean now, cousin? You are not who you were, and if I were you, I’d stop myself right now and turn around before it’s too late. You’re nearing the end of the road… but there’s still time.”

The fact that Beat was at least showing remorse at his loss did indeed mean that not all was lost. Not only that, but this face was further enforced by his next words.

“Via… what have I done? What the hell have I become?”

Now tears began to form in his eyes, and while I probably shouldn’t have been, I was very happy to see them. It sounds awful, but all of this was telling me my cousin wasn’t too far gone, and with a little pushing, Vinyl would have the Beat Tempo she loved so much.

I got down on my knees now, patting his shoulder. “You’ve become famous. Beat, stop letting this be who you are. Look, I need to get back to Vinyl, but maybe now you realize what you had now that it’s gone. It’s not too late to get it back, sweetheart.”

Looking at him now actually made me feel like I was looking at my cousin. All of this was very odd to me, but seeing Beat broken by a simple proclamation helped me see him once again as Beat and not just some celebrity.

The camera crew were all glaring at us as the director walked over. “Hey, hey, hey! We have a commercial to shoot, can’t this wait? If not, you’d better be here later!”

He got up and walked off without a word, though I caught up with him for just a moment for one last word. “Please, Beat, do the right thing.”

He said nothing, but I didn’t have time to wait around on him. I rushed back to Vinyl’s house only to find the mare face down and bawling on her couch. It really was painful just to look at her like this, but she needed me.

She didn’t even look at me as I rubbed her back. “Why, Tavi? Why the fuck did this have to happen? I really thought Beat and I were meant for each other…. He broke his promise, my hymen, and my heart. I… I don’t even know what to do, now.”

Alright, that second part I didn’t really need to hear, but that did make the situation a little more awkward. The fact that they had already had sex kind of made me more adamant about helping them repair their relationship. My goal was at least getting my friend out of her funk, so I tried taking her to different places to get her mind off of things, and while she seemed to calm down, she never showed any signs of cheering up.

Before we knew it, the sun was starting to go down. I was surprised at both how fast we had spent at least 9 or 10 hours, though I did take her to Canterlot and Vanhoover as well, but also at the fact that we saw no signs of my cousin since this morning. Vinyl noticed it, too, and gave a small pout.

“You asked me to give him a chance at lunch. Well, Tavi, if he really lets himself break a ‘super duper’ promise, I am absolutely done with him. If he screws this up, it’s gonna take a miracle to convince me he can change again.”

Well, that was that. My only hope now was that Beat didn’t decide to go through with doing that promo. If he did, it was all over. We took a few minutes to rest and grab some dinner, but after that was done with, we made our way over to the school. All the participants of the talent show were here, but I bit my bottom lip when I noticed a distinct lack of loudmouthed, glasses-and-purple-beanie-wearing unicorn.

My friend didn’t even say anything. She simply took a seat, and as much as I wanted to speak, I decided against it. It was just our luck that pretty much every other act came up before Sweetie, and neither of us could focus on the fillies and colts performing. Even as it was time for the little unicorn to come up and sign, there was no sign of my cousin.

We were also kind of curious as to where exactly she was, until Rarity kind of nudged her out there. Sweetie scanned the faces before the stage; there weren’t but maybe three or four audience members, not counting us, and we both exchanged whispers about hoping that this tiny crowd wasn’t enough to scare her. Sweetie turned to her sister again with a worried expression, most likely due to the fact that my cousin still wasn’t here.

However, after a few encouraging nods from both Rarity and us, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Everypony else’s eyes widened as they watched the small horn begin to glow. As Sweetie opened her mouth, a faint glow passed over the entire schoolyard, carrying her voice everywhere it reached so it sounded like you were right in front of her no matter how far you actually were.

The song sounded beautiful, but I’m sure I wasn’t the only one paying more attention to Sweetie’s horn than her words. Her song wasn’t that long, only having two verses and a short chorus between the two and after the second, but a loud clapping from Vinyl, Rarity, myself, Cheerilee, who I then recognized to be Lyra and Bon Bon, and the other two spectators that I didn’t recognize.

Sweetie’s eyes had been closed throughout the duration of her singing, but once she opened them her older sister drew attention to her flank. Upon her white coat was stamped a microphone with what looked like two pink sets of sound waves forming the shape of a heart behind it.

The filly immediately screamed out in pure joy, jumping around as if she had pogo sticks implanted in her legs. “I got it! I got it! I finally, finally got my cutie mark! Oh my gosh, can you believe this? This is the bestest day of my life! I got my cutie mark!”

“I’m here! What did I miss?” My cousin’s timing couldn’t have been worse.

As he approached us, all we did was move out of his way and point to Sweetie. “You missed your protégé earning her cutie mark. I hope you’re proud of yourself, Beat.”

His eyes widened at both this amazing fact and at Vinyl walking off without a word. He turned to me, but all I had for him was an icy glare. “You screwed up big time, cousin.”

Author's Note

I kind of want to draw Sweetie's cutie mark now, too.

Chapter 8: I'm Still Me

Music is Magic
Story 5
Chapter 8: I’m Still Me
By: SleeplessScribe

Much to my surprise, he seemed rather… okay with what had just happened. He tried to speak, but I pressed my hoof to his mouth. “What, so were those tears this morning just an act? You make me sick, you jerk.”

I turned to walk off, but he grabbed me, a very determined look in his eyes. “This is just a minor setback. Look, Via, I’ve done a lot to prove that I’m still who I am, and while it took a whole lot of pride swallowing and painful decisions, I’m sure they’ll bring Scratch back to me. Please, please, please, please, do something for me? She keeps her goggles in a drawer in her bedside table. In that drawer is a piece of paper with a song I had written for her… please bring it to me? I’ve written a second song that I plan to sing with Sweetie, but that song I’m asking for is what I’m going to sing solo. That may not mean much to you, but I’m going to reveal my entire plan tomorrow… and I’m sure it’s going to drop some jaws.”

Half of me wanted to slap him again and just walk away, but the half that won was the one that gave him a soft nod. Beat let go of me and rushed over to Sweetie Belle, scooping her up in his forelegs and twirling around with her. I would have stayed to watch, but now I was extremely curious.

When I got back to Vinyl’s home, she was asleep on her couch with a blanket completely covering her. I snuck into her room and peeked into that drawer my cousin spoke of, and sure enough, there was a decently lengthy sheet of paper. It was a rather long song, but I decided to read through it anyway.

“Every day, every day the sun comes out,
I know that we will be okay,
Every night, every night the moon shines bright,
I’ll hold tight until the day,

Because I am with you,
And I love all that you do,
I know we're meant to be,

So stay with me,
And together we will sing,
Together we will sing,

Dah dahdah dah dah dah,
Dah dahdah dah ooouuuhh oohhhh,

It doesn’t matter you do; It doesn’t matter you say,
What you say?
Everywhere you go, everything you do,
What you do?
I know we'll make it through,

Stay with me, 'cause I don't need no anypony
Please don’t go
‘Cause I don’t want to be the one left alone….”

I couldn’t even finish it. I didn’t need to finish it to know that he probably wrote this right after the… sex. Honestly, I had half a mind to wake Vinyl up and show her, but decided against it. Now I was curious about the song he intended to sing with Sweetie, but I guess that was just something I’d have to wait to see.

As I made the trip to the tour bus, I began to wonder just exactly what I would do with my friend tomorrow. Heck, I’d be lucky if she even wanted to get up in the morning. In the end, that’s what I chose to be my deciding factor. If Vinyl didn’t feel like picking herself up, I’d let her rest and help set up for the talent show tomorrow night.

The thing is, I’d have to drag her to the show if she still didn’t want to get up. Once I was at the bus, I knocked on the door, but I was met with White Noise instead. Since I was a little eager to get to bed myself, I simply gave him a yawn and the lyrics. “Beat needed these… please make sure he gets them.”

The big guy gave me a nod. “Goodnight, Octavia.”

The trek back to Vinyl’s home was long and arduous considering the face that I was unaware of how tired I was until I no longer had any goals but sleep. I thought I might even just collapse on the way there, but luckily I at least made it to the house before I clonked out.

Just as I had thought, Vinyl wanted some time to herself when I woke up. Of course, I still had to do my hair, shower, eat, brush my teeth, tune my cello, brush my teeth again, do my hair again, and pet the adorable stray puppy that came up to the house every so often, but once that was over, I was ready.

I gave the broken mare a small kiss on the forehead, which was met with a weak smile. “Th-Thanks Tavi….”

“Of course, dear. I’m going to go see if there’s anything I can do to help out with setting up for the talent show tonight, but I’ll be back, mmkay?”

She gave a small nod, and I only hoped she’d be alright while I was gone. Things were looking just a tad bit hectic as I made my way to the stage, but I actually didn’t get very far before I was pulled aside by my cousin. Two sandy forelegs wrapped themselves around me rather tightly, leaving me unable to return the hug.

“Via, I gotta thank you. Whether you realize it or not, you’re a big reason I was able to realize how much I had actually changed.”

Apparently I was helping a lot of ponies without actually realizing it. “How so?”

He gave a nervous chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck. “Well, thing is… I realized I was becoming more and more like you, which is the exact opposite of what I wanted to do with my life!”

I had a sudden urge to slap him again. “What exactly is that supposed to mean?”

“Well, I’ve been putting up with ponies I really don’t like instead of telling them to fuck off. I’ve been letting others mess with my intentionally messy hair and neaten it, allowing myself to be told what to wear to a degree, and stuff like that. Now let’s be honest, you actually do do all of those things.”

Rolling my eyes was just my natural reaction, but I suppose he did have a point. I had tendencies to be a “silent sufferer”, dealing with things I usually wouldn’t even think of, though for different reasons than my cousin. In all honesty, it was both flattering and insulting that him wanting to be everything I wasn’t contributed so much to his success.

I opened my mouth to speak again, but two pairs of white hooves threw themselves around my cousin as the unicorns giggled excitedly. Sweetie’s mouth was like a motor that had just been fired up.

“Oh, thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you, Beat! Can you believe I finally got my cutie mark? This is the best whole year of my life! And I just know Apple Bloom and Scootaloo won’t be far behind me!”

My cousin picked up the little filly, lightly tossing her up in the air and catching her. “Little Sweetie’s gonna be a big singer!

She began to giggle like crazy, hugging the unicorn as she squealed. “You have no idea how great this is! Everypony’s been congratulating me all morning! This is the bestest thing of all bestest things! Yay! Yay! Yay!”

He continued to toss her and play with her until I cleared my throat. “So, Beat, is there anything I can help with? Unfortunately, Vinyl doesn’t even want to get out of bed, but I don’t feel like trying to force her.”

Beat pointed toward the stage, circling the air slowly. “Ask around, I have some things I need to take care of. Please, Via, if you can, get Vinyl up and bring her here. The talent show is at eight this evening, so that gives us a pretty big window of time, but still, I need her here. You two can get in free, as well.”

Had he not taken off before I could respond, I would have at least given him a “Will do.”

It took a few hours to get everything set up, but by the time we were done, it was noon, and everything looked great. Rarity herself had fixed up a nice pair of curtains for the stage, we got a full set of speakers set up, enough seats for all of Ponyville, just to be safe, a ticket booth, and of course, the stage lights. You’d think this was going to be some kind of televised talent competition with how official it looked.

The unicorn still had not returned, and now my curiosity had yet again been piqued. A part of me wanted to investigate, but the rest of me wanted to preserve the surprise. Vinyl was up and about once I came to visit her, but the first thing she said was not to mention my cousin to her. The two of us decided to do lunch together just to get our minds off of things, so we went to a small café up in Canterlot.

I still couldn’t blame her for feeling the way she did, since there was no guarantee Beat’s plan was going to work, nor that it was actually an attempt to make it up to Vinyl. The topic of almost all our conversations was instead Sweetie Belle, ranging from her new cutie mark to how we thought she’d do in the show, and things like that. It did seem to help, since my friend managed to smile a few times.

There wasn’t much we could really do aside from be lazy, seeing as how Percy was visiting his family. Vinyl had met my coltfriend a few times, and they got along well enough, though having her along meant he and I wouldn’t have been able to “go out”. Granted, a bit of a break from doing stuff was actually very nice. Without any errands to run, coltfriends to go out with, and my orchestra on a break for the next few days with Vinyl working on her own schedule, we weren’t really left with a lot to do once we got off the train back to Ponyville.

We checked on the progress of the show setup, and almost all the little ones that were participating were there practicing. Oddly enough, Sweetie wasn’t there, though both of us thought for sure we’d see her. Asking around only informed us that the little filly was practicing elsewhere, which told me that Beat was probably rehearsing that duet he spoke of with her. I have to admit, I was rather eager to see what he’d do, though I really, really hoped he didn’t end up making a fool of himself in front of the whole town.

It was only a matter of time, a nap, and a few silly games before it was finally time for us to head back to the school for the talent show. When we arrived, everyone including Sweetie and Beat was indeed there. As we made our way to the ticket booth, Beat actually just tore off two tickets and gave them to us, basically letting us in for free just like he said he would.

He even set us up with… back row seats. It was a little confusing, but after a bit of thought, we both facehoofed each other. Being at the back would make hearing Sweetie all the more amazing considering her new talent.

A few minutes later, every single seat was filled, and some spectators even had to stand or bring their own cushions or chairs. We all expected Cheerilee, or maybe even Mayor Mare to come up and do the introduction, but it was my cousin that stood on the stage before the audience.

“Fillies and gentlecolts! Thank you for coming to… to… uh, what are we calling this thing?” He looked to the other adults that helped organize, but was only met with shrugs and head shakings. “Alright, so we don’t have a name for this thing. In that case, allow me to develop a little tunnel vision and title this event the New Mark Talent Show! I’m sure we all know where I got that from, right?”

Beat waited until the loud applause died down, and that was when I noticed his headset was on. Thinking about it made me realize how little attention I actually paid to that. Speaking of, why did he even need that microphone? Recent events made me realize that my cousin’s magic eliminated the need for voice amplification, so I made a mental note to ask him when I got a chance.

“Alright, everypony, before we begin, I’d like to make a few big announcements. The first being that the tour I said the ticket prices would be funding… has been cancelled.” The entire crowd let out a gasp, but he raised up his hoof to quiet them. “Instead, every single bit that this show has earned will be donated to The Song of Hope, a charity that works to bring the joys of music and an organized education to homeless foals all around Equestria!”

This time the crowd responded with both cheers and confused chatter. Beat once again quieted them down, using his magic to hold a clipboard up in front of him. “Allow me to explain: not only are we donating every bit of the ticket sales to this charity, but I am going to personally give 75 percent of my entire bank account to support the shelters and orphanages this charity runs. Why? Because, from this day forward,” he pulled off the paper from the clipboard, revealing that it was actually his recording contract, “I’m giving up my spot on the celebrity tier list.”

Another loud gasp followed as he tore the contract in half, sending both pieces into a nearby trash can. “Now that that’s over, I’d like to review tonight’s participants.”

Beat began to read off the list of the ponies that would be taking part in the talent show, but all I could focus on was the wide-eyed unicorn beside me. “Vinyl? Are you alright, honey?”
She slowly turned to me with a quivering lower lip. “Tavi… what did he just do?”

There were a lot of things I could have said. I could’ve stated the obvious, I could’ve called him crazy, heck, I could’ve even been a-pardon my language-absolute bitch and said he was doing this for the attention, but my gut told me just one thing.

“He tore down the wall between you and him.”

Vinyl opened her mouth again, but something else caught our attention. Beat was now listing of… adults? “Twilight Sparkle will be performing a nice magic show for us, Ponyville’s own Rainbow Dash will be showcasing a series of her latest stunts, Jet Rush will be singing for us what he’s labeled a… ‘clean, child-friendly rap’… if there even is such a thing, I myself will be singing a solo, and to finish off the night, the talk of the town, little Sweetie Belle, and myself will be singing a duet!”

Once again, the crowd began to roar as my cousin gave a bow. He took his leave, and the show began. Let me be honest; Sweetie’s solo, Beat’s solo, and their duet were the only things Vinyl and I actually cared about personally, and of course they would be the last acts of their respective segments. The unicorn began frantically scanning around for him, and I had to pull her down back in the chair.

“Just calm down, sweetie. I know something you don’t, so believe me when I tell you he’s not done proving to you just how much he loves you.”

It took a little bit, but finally it was Sweetie’s turn to sing. Her little song was the same as the one from her rehearsals, and she sounded even more amazing than she did before. By the time she was done, everypony was clapping, and the little unicorn’s face was as red as a beet. Unfortunately, she was pulled back behind the curtain without a chance to even take a bow.

After that, all the older ponies began their acts. Twilight Sparkle’s magic showcase was probably my favorite of all the acts; that unicorn had amazing talent. Once we had gotten through the fluff, it was time for Beat to step up. He had his guitar with him, and he motioned with his hooves to have the speakers turned off.

“Alright, you all, I gotta make a confession before I begin. This is probably the biggest instance of swallowing my pride ever, and this is still a little awkward to say… but I had an ulterior motive for putting on this show. Well, admittedly there’s two. A few days ago, I took on little Sweetie Belle as an apprentice that I tried to teach sound magic to, and you’ve seen the results. This show was meant to build up her confidence, and I’m sure we can all agree with her new cutie mark, she’ll be much more confident than ever before.”

His words prompted many agreeing murmurs and nods. “But I’m going to be honest, that’s not all. Everypony, I’ve made a big mistake in recent days. A long, long time ago, I made a promise to a very close friend of mine, and I broke it. This performance, and my duet with Sweetie, which she knows is for this purpose and was more than happy to help me, is dedicated to that friend.”

Vinyl held her hooves to her mouth, and I honestly really felt bad. Poor thing couldn’t seem to keep her eyes dry for more than a few hours now. Her tears only came faster as he began, and he wasn’t even halfway through his song before she was sobbing into my shoulder. I could tell that they weren’t tears from a broken heart this time, but watching her cry was still a little painful.

Finally he was done, and everyone, including Vinyl and myself, began to clap. He held up his hooves again, but didn’t waste any time speaking before Sweetie popped up before him and he set his guitar aside. As he motioned towards the edge of the stage, one of the pieces Vinyl told me she wrote when she and my cousin were just loafing around one day began to play.

“Well I had lost my way,
And I forgot my name,
Remind me who I am.
All the fame got to my head,
It was just like being dead,
Remind me who I am.
In the loneliest places,
When I can't remember the faces….”

He nodded to Sweetie, whose horn began to glow along with his as she sang the chorus with him. They actually had very good harmony, it sounded amazing.

“Tell me once again who I am to you,
Who I am to you.
Tell me, else I'll forget who I am to you,
That I belong to you.
To you.”

The entire audience began to cheer as they sang, refusing to hold back their applause as the pair sang.

“When I leave my past behind,
And I forget to hit rewind,
Remind me who I am.
When you're not feeling my love,
I'm too busy up above,
Remind me who I am.
Supposed to be your beloved,
Help me not to forget it.
Tell me once again who I am to you,
Who I am to you, whoa.
Tell me, else I'll forget who I am to you.
That I belong to you.
To you.
I'm the one you love,
You’re the one I love,
That will be enough,
I'm the one you love.
Tell me once again who I am to you.
Who I am to you.
Tell me, else I'll forget who I am to you,
That I belong to you, oh.
Tell me once again who I am to you.
Who I am to you.
Tell me, else I'll forget who I am to you,
That I belong to you.
To you.”

My cousin and Sweetie bowed their heads, knocking their hooves together as the audience cheered and applauded. However, one set of applause drowned out all others. White Noise approached the stage, silencing everyone else just by being there.

One would expect him to be rather upset, but he had the biggest smile on his face. “So Beat, I understand you’ve terminated your contract with me?”

He only gave Beat enough time to nod before speaking again. “Alright, I have to have a reason.”

Beat let out a long sigh, finally seeming wary of the audience before him. “Look, White Noise. Being famous and successful is great and all, but it really clouded up my vision. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, as much as I didn’t even realize it, my success made me lose myself. I started taking all I had for granted… and it wasn’t until I lost something more important to me than any magazine cover or paycheck could ever be. As crazy as this is going to sound, I’d rather have a lifetime of Vinyl Scratch, the love of my life, than a lifetime of riches and fame all by myself. I’m done, man. I’m done.”

All at once Vinyl jumped up, running to him and tackling him to the ground. She was in tears but also pouring out apology after apology as she held him close to her. The action brought out a loud “aaaw” from all the spectators, but White began to shoo them off, letting them know the show was over.

Sadly he couldn’t get a word in through Vinyl’s nuzzling and crying as Beat wrapped his forelegs around her. “Beat… it really is you!” She pressed her muzzling into the crook of his neck, the corners of her mouth turning upwards as she cried into him more.

White Noise settled for leaning forward, tapping my cousin’s shoulder. “Meet me at the bus when you’re done.”

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t care about what White Noise had to say, but I couldn’t just say “No thanks, bye”. I mean, it was just a simple request, and there was a possibility he just wanted to send me off. However, with the beautiful-even-when-crying mare on top of me, I wasn’t going anywhere any time soon. Eventually Via and I managed to get her off, though it wasn’t long before the two of us were locked in a long, passionate, and apologetic kiss.

“Scratch, baby… I’m so sorry.”

She pressed her hoof to my lips and gave me a soft smile. “Don’t be… go see your ex-boss, but don’t take too long, okay?”

I responded with a quick nod. “I promise I’ll be back home around ten.”

Her lips met the tip of my muzzle as I began to wipe her eyes. “Don’t be late.”

White Noise was waiting for me outside the bus, but I made it clear that I didn’t want to waste any time. “Look, man, I gotta be somewhere soon. No offense, but please don’t take too long.”

All the big guy did was chuckle before he slipped some kind of shiny medal thingy around my neck. “Calm down, bud. I just wanted to send you off with this. Whether you know it or not, that was a real modest thing you did, giving up your fame and success like that. As a manager, I should be pissed, but I’m proud. Beat, I want you to go now, and never forget why you did this.”

I turned to leave, giving my former manager a nod. “No problem, man. Oh, and keep your mitts off Sweet Belle! That’s my protégé!”

I heard a loud laugh as I made my way back to me new home, and I was on the ground being showered in kisses before I even made it all the way through the door. “You’re not just not late, you’re early!”

Her forelegs were soon around me, her hug so tight it almost hurt. “Of course! How could I not rush home to see my favorite mare?”

Via had apparently been staying with Scratch, but once we were together again, she kissed both of our foreheads and trotted away. “I’ll give you two a few days of privacy.”

As soon as she was gone, our lips were pressed together. Granted, we were going a bit further than just your run of the mill kiss.

“Beat… I’m so sorry I ever doubted you, babe.” Vinyl leaned herself against me, and I settled for lying outside with her under the stars.

“No, Scratch, I’m the one who should be sorry. I broke a promise that meant the world to you… I’m the one that’s sorry, baby.”

She gave me a soft smile, rubbing her horn up against mine. “Well… think you can make a new promise to me?” After a nod, she rested her head against me again. “Never leave me, Beat… can you promise me that?”

“Of course, baby. Why would I ever want to leave you?”

Turns out, soft dirt and grass, coupled with a gorgeous mare as a blanket, made for pretty nice sleeping condition. We both woke up that morning and she actually let me shower with her. I hate to do this but I can’t not say it: Dat Ass, man.

Our morning was spent writing random music together, and that’s when we made the decision: Since I no longer had actual employment, Scratch and I were going to become a duet and sell our own records together. Each afternoon had a new lesson with Sweetie Belle, and now we focused everything on her song writing.

The little filly was actually really good at coming up with lyrics on the spot, and eventually ponies were coming to watch her sing to the music we wrote. After a while, we got permission from both of them to make sub albums with Sweetie’s signing and sell them too. Granted, without a big name like White Noise backing us, we got a little less attention, but with my name on each album we put on the market, we still made a decent profit.

Sweetie and I started doing duets together, and we eventually even got Vinyl to showcase her holy-shit-better-than-sex angelic singing voice. It was also that same day that she started singing with us that she told me about her… odd feelings. A visit to the doctor confirmed her suspicious: our little romp before the break up fixed her up with a foal. It was obviously early, but every mare showed signs at a different time, and Vinyl just happened to show her signs a few weeks after the actual sex.

In all honesty, we were both really scared and excited at the same time. However, there was one issue. Word spread way too fast in small towns like Ponyville! That entire day ponies were congratulating us, and Scratch didn’t even have a baby bump yet!

Regardless, life was awesome now. Our only cares were now the tiny little foal that was growing inside Scratch, our lessons-turned-song-recordings with Sweetie, and staying together.

Life was good, and we were happy.