The following day, Octavia proceeded to the bar early for her shift. Vinyl had told her that her ‘training’ would begin today, and she said something about Octavia being a ‘young padawan’, but the bassist quickly put the confusing thought behind her as she approached her destination. She strolled in through the doors and walked right up to the counter where Berry Punch stood, tending to an early bargoer presumably down on his luck considering his four empty mugs of beer and the slight sway of his body. The two exchanged a simple nod as Octavia stepped into the back room. “Vinyl, I’m here for-“

Octavia stopped and stared at Vinyl, who had been sitting at her desk and holding two small figures in her magic aura. From her perspective, they seemed to be ponies wearing armor, and there were small plastic weapons scattered across the desk as well. Upon noticing Octavia’s sudden entrance, she frantically pulled open the closest drawer and shoved the figures in. “O-Octy! You’re…kinda early.”

“I figured I’d come a bit earlier than I was supposed to so I could start practicing. Bass or not, every instrument is different, after all.” Octavia withheld a chuckle. “So, you have…dolls, then?”

Vinyl’s face quickly turned red. “They’re not dolls! They’re Power Riders! They protect the world from evil by transforming into super-awesome armored heroes!” Vinyl stood up on her hind legs and performed a series of strange arm motions. “HENSHIN!”

Octavia stared silently for a few moments before completely breaking down and collapsing to the floor, laughing as hard as she possibly could. “Oh, my goodness, Vinyl…that right there…I cannot think of the right word to describe what you just did! It was…adorable and absolutely…dorky!”

“I believe the word you’re looking for is ‘adorkable’, Octy.”

Octavia took a few seconds to catch her breath after breaking free of her laughing fit. “Well, it isn’t a real word, but it will have to do.” She managed one contained chuckle before giving Vinyl her full attention. “Now, about practice?”

“Oh, yeah. Hold up a sec.” Vinyl looked back at the case leaning against the wall and lifted it onto the desk with her magic. “Now, this is probably gonna be a bit different than you’re used to.”

“Vinyl, I’ve played bass before, I think I know-“Octavia stopped as the case popped open and an unexpected sight greeted her vision. “W-what…Vinyl, what is this?”

“It’s a bass, duh! Thought you played one of these before.”

Octavia could only stare blankly. Inside the case sat a blue and white Fender Pegadyne Jazz Bass guitar. “Vinyl…I play an upright bass…in a classical orchestra…what in the world made you think I would know how to play a guitar?”

“Psh.” Vinyl dismissed her concern. “All string instruments are pretty much the same, Octy."

“Yes, but with an upright bass, I can, well…lean on it. I’ve trained for years to use the bass’ weight in accordance with my own to maintain balance. This…I don’t even know where to begin with this.”

“Well, then it’s a good thing I haven’t planned any concerts for you yet, because we’ve gotta start at step one: the very beginning.” Vinyl lifted the bass in her aura and held it before her. “Now, I won’t really need to go through the music itself with you. I know you’ve got scales, chords and whatnot down no problem. Your big issue here is gonna be holding this thing. Now-“

The first thing coming from Octavia’s mouth in several minutes was: “How can you just be so…cool and calm about this?” She continued to stare, shocked. “I mean…it took years to learn how to simply balance with my double bass…and you expect me to stand on a stage and hold that…in just my hooves?”

“Hey, some of the greatest musicians have pulled off more impressive feats. You’ll do fine, Tavi. We just need to work at it.”

“So, I’m back to Tavi no-“

“Step one!” Vinyl quickly shoved the instrument over to Octavia, still holding it in her magic. “Now, I need you to stand up straight and get a feel for the instrument. I’ll hold onto it in case you get unstable.”

“Um…okay.” Octavia did as instructed and lifted herself up onto her hind legs. Vinyl levitated the bass directly in front of her and waited. Octavia eyed the instrument up and down at first, trying to study it first. ‘It doesn’t seem…too different from my double bass. Strings…similar shape…probably the same scale, but what are those bars on the neck? I can’t afford to look like an idiot in front of my new employer…but there are just too many questions, and I-“

“Uh, Octy? You gonna try holding this thing or what?”

Octavia shook her head suddenly, returning from her trance-like state of rambling. “My apologies, Vinyl. It’s just that I’m trying to get a better understanding of this instrument. I mean, the most I know about this just by looking at it is that it is a string instrument, but anypony could tell that at first glance. I mean, how am I meant to play this if I don’t have a bow?”

Vinyl stared her down for a moment before nearly falling back in her chair, laughing hysterically. “Oh, my Celestia, Octy! Wow, you really don’t have a clue!”

Octavia flushed furiously. “I fail to see how this is amusing in any way, Vinyl!”

“You don’t play a bass guitar with a bow! You play with your hooves! Or a pick, whichever works for you.” Vinyl looked inside the case and exclaimed ‘Aha!’ before pulling another item forth in her magic: a blue guitar pick. “But first, you need to figure out how to wield the mighty axe before learning how to use it.”

Octavia chuckled. “That was…certainly a sentence.”

“No more delaying, Tavi, give it a try. Just hold it in whatever way makes you feel comfortable.”

Octavia nodded and reached her hooves around the guitar. One arm found its way under the neck and barely touching the strings, and the other found itself curving up alongside the lower body near the bottom. “Okay, I see where you’re going with this, Tavi. But let me do something real quick to make this a bit easier.”

Octavia prepared to question Vinyl’s actions when something smooth slithered across her back and set down just over her neck. She looked down at the guitar and saw a strip of leather attach itself to two metal notches on the lower and upper parts of the guitar’s body. “There. That’s step two.”

“You had…a strap for it this whole time?”

“Well, yeah. But normally I don’t use it because, well…” Vinyl tapped her horn with her hoof. “Unicorn.”

“Why didn’t you bring it out first?”

“Because step three is the hard part. You need to be able to stand up straight, hold the weight of a ten-pound bass guitar around your neck and maintain perfect balance. Once you accomplish step three, then step four, actually playing it, will be a piece of cake.” Vinyl lifted the guitar up and set it to the side. “I know you’re no pushover, Tavi, but this is gonna take some time.”

Octavia glanced at the guitar, then back to Vinyl. “Wait…if you knew it would take some time for me to learn this instrument, why did you hire me right away?”

“Cuz I couldn’t stand seeing you down on your luck like that.” Vinyl looked down, her face turning a light shade of red. “I’ve been there…and it sucks.” She looked up suddenly and grinned. “And I promised myself that if I ever saw anypony in a situation like I was, I’d pull ‘em out no matter what. ‘Sides, Freddy also told me you used to bus tables part-time. You won’t get paid for being the club’s bassist until you actually start playing shows, so if you wanna pull some bits in the meantime, that’s your job.” Vinyl sat back in the chair. “Other than that, I kinda just enjoy your company. You’re pretty cool, for a classy Canterlot mare.”

“Why, thank you, Vinyl. And I suppose you’re not nearly as…rambunctious as I first anticipated.”

Vinyl mock gasped. “Say it isn’t so! Have I gone soft already? What happened to the wild and exaggerating pony I used to be?” Vinyl flailed her hooves in the air and dramatically fell back into her chair. “I am unworthy…I am dead…”

“Somepony has a flair for drama.”

Vinyl shot up and assumed her previous position and expression. “Yeah, learned it from my cousin. Though she takes it way further than I do. She also somehow manages to pull a couch out of nowhere to collapse onto it.” The unicorn shook her head. “Anyway, not the point. Okay, Octy, you have your choice of work today: you can practice your balance with the bass, or you can hit those tables and make them sparkle like Princess Twilight!”

“But she doesn’t actually…oh, never mind. I’ll just practice balancing for the next six hours.”

Vinyl smiled. “That’s what I wanna hear! But try a bit more enthusiasm next time. Now, I’ve gotta step out for a bit, so Berry’s in charge. Not that she’ll ask you to do anything really, just wanted to keep you informed on the temporary hierarchy.”

Octavia simply nodded, no longer wanting to question her lunatic employer. Vinyl made her exit swiftly, leaving Octavia alone in the office, the earth pony staring the guitar down. “I will make this work. I have to. I love this job thus far, and I cannot afford to let a slight issue of balance keep me from holding onto it!” Octavia walked over to the guitar and carefully slipped the strap over her shoulders. “Okay, step one complete. Now I just need to stand up and-“ Octavia moved to stand, but the sudden attempt to rise with ten pounds of weight on the front most half of her body caused her to stumble and fall in the complete opposite direction. She landed in a pile of papers with a ‘thud’, the guitar now lying on top of her. “Well…I suppose that’s a start. At least I moved it.”

“Moving it is one thing. Holding onto it while rocking out on stage is another story.”

Octavia glanced to the door from her position to see Berry entering. “Bar’s pretty quiet right now, so I figured I’d come and see how the new job is treating you. Plus it sounded like you hit the ground pretty hard. Wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Quite alright, actually.” Octavia looked at her predicament. “Although…perhaps I could use a bit of help getting up. This isn’t exactly heavy, but it is Vinyl’s bass, and I don’t want to damage it.”

Berry nodded and carefully slid the guitar strap out from behind Octavia and lifted it up onto her own shoulders. Octavia quickly stood up and stared blankly. “How…but…you can…”

“Yep. I can hold Vinyl’s bass.” Berry carefully walked over and placed the guitar back in its case and shut it. “Can’t play the thing worth a damn, but I can carry it like that with no problems. Benefits of bartending classes, you learn a lot of balancing tricks.”

Octavia smiled sheepishly. “I don’t suppose you could teach me some of them?”

“Of course!” Berry returned the smile as Octavia’s shifted to one of relief. “But you never technically answered my question before. You like it here so far?”

“Considering I’ve only been here two days thus far and have done almost nothing regarding work or progress, I have to say yes, I am very much enjoying my employment. You yourself are a very kind individual, and Vinyl is…charming, to say the least.”

Berry chuckled. “Yep, that’s my ex for ya.”

Octavia performed a double take. “I-I’m sorry, what was that?”

Berry blinked twice. “What was what?”

“What you said…that Vinyl is your…ex?”

“Huh?” Berry thought for a moment, and then chuckled again, flushing slightly this time. “Oh…yeah, I just said that, didn’t I? Damn Freudian slip.”

“But I…Vinyl said she dated Fredrick in high school.”

“Oh, she did. But after they split, Vinyl decided to be a bit…’rebellious’, as it were. One day she just straight up asked me out, and I said ‘why not?’ We were together for just over a year, but we broke it off. We’d always been good friends, but it turned out that’s how it was meant to be. It just felt…” Berry stroked her chin. “I dunno…weird to be anything more than friends.”

“And I don’t suppose you’d get fired for revealing this information to me, would you?”

“What, about Vinyl being a lesbian? Psh!” Berry waved a hoof and giggled. “Nah! She makes it pretty obvious when she hits her other job-I mean, uh…nothing.”
“Other job? What other-“

“Nothing! That was something I wasn’t supposed to tell you!” Berry dropped to her haunches, breathing heavily and rapidly. “Oh, please don’t tell Vinyl, she’ll have a phoenix if she found out I blabbed and she won’t be my friend anymore and-“

“Shh, calm down, Berry.” Octavia moved toward the panicked mare and pulled her into a comforting hug. “I won’t tell Vinyl…but you will tell me just what the hell you’re talking about. What do you mean, Vinyl has another job?”

“She…she actually just left for it.” Berry pulled out of the hug and went to Vinyl’s desk, pulling out an address book. She flipped through the pages and turned it to Octavia when she found what she was looking for. “This is where she is right now. If you really wanna go see the other side of the Vinyl you know, I won’t stop you. Just…tell her you found the address book.” Berry walked to the door and pushed it open. “It wasn’t just that me and Vinyl weren’t ‘meant to be together’…secrets had a lot to do with it to. Please don’t tell her I spilled.”

Octavia made an ‘X’ across her chest. “Cross my heart, Berry. I won’t tell her. But I will go there myself. I don’t suppose you’d be willing to tell me exactly where I’m going?”

Berry shook her head. “That’s something you’ll have to see on your own.”

As Octavia approached the address she recalled from Vinyl’s book, she found herself following the thumping sound of heavy bass. It grew louder and stronger as she arrived before a large building sporting a huge neon sign reading ‘Dropkick Bass’. Sighing and taking a deep breath, Octavia entered what was practically another world through her eyes. Bright, colorful lights flashed everywhere, ponies danced with blinking bracelets, necklaces and glow sticks hanging off their body, and the room reeked of enough booze to give a dozen full-grown stallions alcohol poisoning. Octavia put every possible scenario through her mind. In a place like this, for all she knew, Vinyl could be a waitress, a bartender, a bouncer or, perish the thought, a pole dancer. All thoughts were dashed quickly; however, as the entire crowd roared a cheer as a white unicorn mare with a white and blue mane and violet shades stepped onto the stage in front of a set of turntables. ‘No…that couldn’t be…oh, who am I kidding? It couldn’t be anypony else.’

“Hello, Dropkick Bass! Deejay PON-3 is HERE! Are you ready to DROP THE BASS?!”

The crowd cheered in reply as ‘DJ PON-3’ levitated a record onto one of the slots on the table and after a minute-long slow start; an even louder song began to play. The crowd jumped and stomped in sync with the rhythm, or what Octavia could barely perceive as rhythm over the impossible decibel level of the song itself. ‘Just wait it out, Octavia!’ she shouted mentally, as even her thoughts were practically drowned out by the music. ‘This couldn’t possibly go on for too long!’

Two hours later, Octavia sat against the wall, thanking Celestia the bartender sold magic earplugs. Suddenly, she saw her chance. Vinyl approached the microphone once more. “Okay, you guys, it’s been a fun night, but I’ve gotta get going!” The crowd let loose their waves of ‘awws’ and ‘boos’, and she gave a smirk. “Don’t you worry, kiddies, I’ll be back again tomorrow night! But until then, I leave you in the capable hands of a good friend of mine…MC W1SH!”

A light grey unicorn stallion with a dark grey mane and blue reflective shades stepped up and took Vinyl’s place on the stage as the unicorn mare made a beeline for the bar. She did not, however, expect to be stopped by a familiar black-maned mare with a rage-fueled glare. “O-Octy! What…what are you doing here?”

Octavia took advantage of the temporary lull granted by MC W1SH, and spoke at a normal volume level. “I believe that is the question I should be asking you.”

“Well, I can explain.” Octavia stared her down, awaiting Vinyl’s oh-so-perfect explanation.

“This…is exactly what it looks like.”

Author's Note

New chapter within a week of the first? BLASPHEMY, GRIMOIRE!

But yeah, I'm getting better at this I think. However, I won't be releasing another chapter next Thursday. This time, I aim for Friday, because I have a bit more free time during the week and this weekend than I do next, as I have a job now.

But my general long-term goal is, if it must be later, only a week and a half later. So if you don't see a new chapter next Friday, expect it Tuesday night.