Author's Note

Vinyl awoke to the sound of sharp beeps and the low mumble of a voice near her. Her eyes opened slowly to a bright light and barrage of white, instilling pain and surprise in the back of her head. Attempting to lift her right hoof to cover her eyes, she winced as her hoof shook, pain jolting through her body. The mere thought of more movement was unbearable, so she opted to simply deal with the bright lights and open her eyes. As she looked up, careful to do so without tilting her head, she was greeted by the sight of a tall, beige unicorn looking down at her.

“Awake now, Vinyl?” he asked slowly.

“My eyes are open, aren't they?” Vinyl replied sarcastically, another spot of pain shooting this time from around her muzzle.

“Had to ask; sometimes I forget you even have eyes underneath those shades of yours.”

“Har har, Mix… Now, you mind telling me what’s going on?”

“I came here to ask you that same question. I don’t hear from you in almost a week and then I find out your in the hospital?”

“Right… I guess that does make sense.” Vinyl closed her eyes and let out a deep breath.

“It might make sense to you, but from where I’m standing, I haven’t got the slightest clue as to what happened to you.”

“Well, you see-”

“And before you try to dodge around the issue and lie to me, I’m going to tell you this right now: you're going to tell me exactly what happened, or you can just forget about ever gettin’ another gig in your life.” Opening her eyes again, Vinyl looked back at Mix with a sombre sigh, scrunching her nose slightly, even though it hurt.

“Alright,” she said quietly, “I guess you were going to hear about this at some point… Well, you, more than anypony, have seen how bad it’s been for me to get gigs lately, so I’ve been a bit strapped for bits lately. I realized, with the bill for the rent comin’ up, I should probably check on my bits, right? It’s just that, when I figured out how much I had left, I realized… I wasn’t going to have enough for rent.”

“So you figured,” Mix interrupted her, trying to hide his anger, “that you’d just not get a paying job for about a week? Is that it?”

“You know gettin’ gigs isn’t that easy for me ri-“

“No, Vinyl, getting’ you gigs isn’t easy for ME!”

“I- I know… sorry. But anyways… I knew I needed that money, and quick, so I didn’t want to put all my hope into possibly getting a gig that might pay enough to cover my rent, so…”

“So… what?”

“I thought I could that the dice or cards might be able to pay my rent.”

“You went out gambling?!”

“Just to cover this month’s rent… I ain’t tryin’ to make it a regular thing, ya’ know?”

“I don’t care if you did it once or you did it a hundred times, Vinyl, the point is you were out gambling when you don’t even have the money to pay your rent! And, on top of that, you landed yourself in the hospital, which Celestia only knows how that’s connected. I mean, what, did you get yourself mugged or something after winning a big prize in a shady place?”

“If there hadn’t been three of them-”

“Oh my- you did get mugged! This is just another reason why gambling around here is a terrible idea.”

“But I-”

“Don’t try to justify it!” Vinyl slunk as far back into the hospital bed as was ponily possible, trying to pull herself away from Mix… from reality. Even though her eyes were fixed on the folds in the sheets resting atop her body, she could feel Mix’s eyes on her, boring into her with anger and disappointment. In that moment she wanted nothing more than to disappear and forgot about everything. Mix sighed and brought a hoof to his face, rubbing his eye in exasperation.

“Vinyl,” he began slowly, “you’ve got a problem.”

“I-” she began, twisting her head back towards beige unicorn.

“No. Just listen. You have a problem: you’re drinking and partying has gotten out of hoof, and not just out of your hoof, but mine as well. I could patch things up with the club owners that you pissed off with your drunken antics, and I could cover your flank the odd time you almost missed a set, but I can NOT fix things when you end up skipping out on a buck load of sets because you’re too damn drunken to even walk. I can’t be around to filly-sit for you every single day; I have other jobs too, Vinyl, and, honestly, I wouldn’t lose that much if I just stopped working for you and getting you gigs. But… I like you Vinyl; we’re friends and I’ve always been there for you, and I hate to see you like this. You’re not just ruining your career with all of this, but you’re digging yourself a deep hole.”

Mix was right, and Vinyl knew it; she couldn’t keep ignoring her problems, especially now that her last poor choice had far wore state. The silence between the two stretched on as Vinyl lay there, trying to think of something to say to the one pony that had always been there for her. In her line of work, Vinyl had met a great many ponies, mostly in clubs or at parties, and, such is the way of those worlds, she never really kept in touch with most of the ponies she's met. In fact, Vinyl could not remember the last actual friend she had made. In the end, Mix was all she really had, and he had never let her down before, even if she did nothing but let him down.

“You’re right,” she finally uttered sadly.

“Well, the first part to fixing the problem,” Mix replied, now calm and composed, “is to admit that it’s there. I know you hate help with things like this, because you feel like it makes you a weak charity case, but you’re just going to have to suck it up this time: I’m paying this month’s rent for you.”

“Mix…”

“This isn’t going to be a regular thing, Vinyl, so don’t go thinking that you can just fall back on me if this happens again. Now, if you’re willing to take the jobs I can get you, I can promise you some real work to help get you back on your hooves.”

“Anything. I promise.”

“This means I’m taking you out of the general DJing scene for a while; we’re going to try and let your awful rep die off. Hopefully, after you go do some proper work, you can get back into being a DJ in the good clubs you used to do sets at before all of this. Can you do that?”

“Yeah… I’ll do it.”

“Good, that’s what I like to hear, because, as it so happens, I already have a job lined up for you.”

“Really?” Vinyl’s eyes lit up at the mention of work. “What kind of work?”

“It’s something that I know you can do, but it’s in a lot more upper-class of a setting than you’re used to.” The sparkle in Vinyl’s eyes faded away and she stopped to think. ‘What kind of work could I be good at in an upper-class setting? I spend all my time in lively, hopping clubs; what place for me is there around a bunch of stuffy, uptight ponies?’ she thought.

“You’re going to be doing some recording for a very well known musician.”

“Wait… what?!” The thought of her, Vinyl Scratch, being able to work with a real, top notch, big league musician would have made her heart soar, if it weren’t likely to soar against her bruised rib cage.

“Yup. You’ll be recording Octavia Philharmonica’s first solo album.” Once again, the joy drained out of Vinyl faster than she could blink. She had absolutely no idea who this ‘Octavia’ was supposed to be, but with such a fancy name, she assumed she must be just another snooty, upper-class type pony.

“Vinyl,” Mix sighed, seeing the unimpressed look on the mare’s face, “you need this work, whether you like it or not. At least look at this as a chance to meet some influential ponies and possibly learn something."

“Learn something? From a bunch of uptight bigwigs? Ha! Like that’ll happen.”

“I don’t care if you think that you’re better than them or if you think that they’re bucking aliens; you just need to be polite and do the damn job, at the very least.” Vinyl scoffed and shrugged her shoulders, noticing a surprising lack of pain in her movement.

“If it means not having to end up here or borrowing money from you again… then I guess it’s gotta be done.”

“Good enough. Now, I’ve got to get going, so you rest up and give me a call once you’re out of here, so we can start you up with Octavia and the recording.” Mix turned around and began walking to the door as Vinyl opened her mouth hesitantly.

“Thanks, Mix,” she said softly.

“You can thank me after you’ve proved that you’re better,” he replied somberly, “but I’ve got faith in you, Vinyl.” As Mix trotted out of the room, Vinyl sighed and tilted her head towards the ceiling, and began staring at the almost unnervingly white surface above her.

**********

While Vinyl had spent less than a day in the hospital, she had decided, on the doctor’s orders (whom she’d normally never listen to), to take an extra day to recuperate. After that, she had called up Mix and got the information on her new job: he gave her Octavia’s address and explained how she even had a spare room made into the recording space for comfort and convenience. Even though she said nothing of it, Vinyl had mentally cursed this pony for thinking of that; she knew there’d be no easy way to slip out for a drink if she couldn’t get back into the apartment without Octavia knowing. She had begrudgingly thanked Mix again for getting her the job and left quickly to go to Octavia’s.

Now, Vinyl found herself in front of an intercom at the doors of a swanky looking building. She clicked the button and the swirl of magic at this end of the device told the other end in Octavia’s apartment that somepony wanted her attention.

“Hello?” a soft, monotone voice rang through the speakers after a brief delay.

“Hey,” Vinyl replied quickly, “I’m Vinyl Scratch – I’m here to record for Octavia.”

“Ah, good. Come right up then. If you didn’t have it already, my apartment number is 218, and please don’t dawdle.” The intercom switched off and a magical click swung the door in front of Vinyl open. She sighed and rolled her eyes behind her massive purple shades. ‘Don’t dawdle,’ she thought, ‘I’ll dawdle as much as I bucking please, Ms Fancypants!’ After a relatively short elevator ride, Vinyl found herself staring at the door of apartment 218. ‘I can do this,’ she said inwardly, trying to reassure herself, ‘I’ve played at all the toughest clubs and dealt with more than my fair share of ponies, so what’s one little uptight musician compared to all that? Nothing! That’s what!’

Raising a hoof she knocked at the door in the most confident fashion she could muster. Within seconds she heard a latch slide out and a deadbolt spring back with a thud. The door was opened by a grey mare with an immaculate black mane, a pink bowtie around her neck, and an air of grace and dignity about her.

“Miss Scratch, I presume,” she spoke calmly, eyeing the other pony carefully.

“That’s me!” Vinyl replied, flashing a huge grin to the grey mare.

“I’m Octavia. Now, if you please, come with me: I’d like to get started.” Upon entering the apartment, Vinyl was quick to look the place over. The simple, clean, and white décor of Octavia’s living space immediately set Vinyl off. ‘How could anypony live here?’ she thought, ‘This place looks more like a bucking showroom then a lived in apartment.’ She continued to follow the grey mare down another startlingly clean hallway to the recording room.

“Here we are,” Octavia said, ushering Vinyl inside.

“Now this is a room!” she hollered, galloping straight to the mixing console, shoving a startled Octavia out of the way in her rush. With a grin plastered on her face, Vinyl scanned over the console and began studying the equipment. While she did not have a set up like this at her place, seeing as most of her work was electronic and synthesized, she had a lot of experience with mixing, and had even done a few recording jobs in the past. “You’ve definitely got a sick set up here.”

“Well,” Octavia started, adjusting her bowtie and brushing a hoof across her mane, “I fail to see how my recording equipment could be physically ill, but…” She had stopped, noticing Vinyl staring at her, an unimpressed look coming across strongly even with her shades covering a great deal of her face.

“Sick means that it’s good,” Vinyl sighed, lifting her shades up a tad as she rubbed her eye with a hoof. ‘Sick equipment or not,’ she thought, ‘this is going to be a long day.’

**********

“Miss Scratch!” Octavia shouted as she threw open the door of the live booth. A startled Vinyl shot her head up from the hoof she had been resting on.

“W-what?!” she stammered in shock.

“You were asleep!” Octavia growled.

“You can’t blame me…” Vinyl yawned and stretched out her limbs. “I can’t imagine how anypony would stay awake through that much boring music.”

“Boring?! I’ll have you know that my ‘boring’ music packs entire theatres quite frequently.”

“Huh, I didn’t realize there were so many fancy-smancy ponies that paid just to be put to sleep.”

“Oh! The nerve! To suggest that I put theatres of ponies to sleep?!”

“Look, all I know is when I pack a club, ain’t nopony fallin’ asleep there.”

“I'd hardly an achievement,” Octavia scoffed, throwing her chin up and tossing her head to the side, “that would be like expecting a pony to fall asleep next to an avalanche of pots and pans – which, might I add, would be less of an assault on one’s ears than your pitiful excuse for music.” Vinyl titled her shades down as she gritted her teeth together, trying her best not to let the tidal wave of slurs and curses she had in the mind break through the dam that was her mouth. Noticing the anger bubbling behind the unicorn’s eyes, Octavia fidgeted and lowered her head, looking away from Vinyl.

“I apologize,” she said slowly. “Even though you did brand my music as boring, there was no call for me to be so offensive towards your music myself; it was very improper of me.” Vinyl relaxed, letting out a sigh and readjusting her shades so that her emotions could be hidden once again.

“Whatever,” Vinyl muttered, turning to the dials of the mixing console, “don’t go feelin’ bad about it; I’ve heard a lot worse things from ponies plenty angrier than you.”

“Well then,” Octavia started nervously, “let’s get back to work, shall we?”

“Sure… Uh, I guess I’ll need to cut that last piece, since I forgot to stop recording when you were done playing.” Vinyl began working the console, something that was completely alien to Octavia as she had absolutely no idea how any of it worked. She had the recording studio built into her apartment for ease of access, not with any interest in learning how to use it herself. Whether or not Vinyl was good with the equipment, Octavia had to at least admit she could work it, which was more than she could claim.

As the last piece began playing, Octavia noted a look of disappointment on the unicorn’s face. Her horn began glowing and, using her magic, she began turning knobs and moving sliders. Soon, the grey mare realized that Vinyl was turning up the bass level an amount that she found quite disturbing.

“Still doesn’t feel right,” Vinyl said thought, rubbing her chin with a hoof.

“That’s because you’re ruining it!” Octavia groaned.

“Ruining it? I’m trying my best to fix it! Now… maybe if I mixed in a good wobble bass-”

“Miss Scratch! There will be no ‘wobbles’ in my music!”

“Oh for Celestia’s sake… just call me Vinyl; Miss Scratch sounds so bucking formal.”

“Well one of us needs to be proper, especially with all your loose vulgarity.”

“Don’t know what’cha said and I don’t give a buck.” Vinyl smirked and went back to the dials, returning the bass and other settings to more ‘respectable’ levels. “There… ya’ happy, your highness?”

“Much better, but please, don’t call me ‘your highness’; I may be vastly more acclaimed and proper than you, but I am far from royalty.”

“Whatever you want, Octy.”

“Miss… I mean… Vinyl, could you not-”

“Don’t. Bucking. Care.” Octavia let out an exasperated sigh and began walking back through the door to the live booth.

“Just get that last track cut and tell me when you’re ready for the next one.”

“Aye aye, captain.”

**********

Vinyl had managed to stay awake through the rest of the recording session, which was largely due to the fact that Octavia had allowed her to make some coffee for herself. Coffee had no effect on how bored Vinyl was by the music, but, as it happens, she had actually fallen asleep early due to her sleep patterns being affected by her trip to the hospital and her lack of clubbing as of late. As Octavia began packing up her cello, the DJ began checking over the mixing console and making sure there weren’t any glaring anomalies with the recordings before shutting the studio down for the night.

It had, in fact, gotten pretty late as the hours passed the ponies by in the windowless room. Vinyl, not being one to really care about what time it was, never even bothered to check the time, so when Octavia stepped out and noticed the time on the only clock in the room, she scrunched her nose up and sighed.

“Vinyl,” she muttered.

“Yeah?” the unicorn replied, barely paying attention as she focused on the console in front of her.

“You should have told me that it was getting late.”

“I didn’t check- I didn’t care.”

“Well I, for one, have a schedule and like to follow that as much as possible.”

“So sue me. We got a lot of recording done; what’s the harm if we went a little late into the night?”

“I guess you’re used to not sleeping like a normal pony, but I-”

“'-for one am an uptight prude, who’s cello bow is shoved so far up my-'”

“Vinyl! Don’t you dare even start to say things like that!” Vinyl simply laughed as she got up from the mixing console, a smile stretched across her face as she trotted out of the room. As she began to walk down the hall, she turned and looked into Octavia’s living room, seeing a pair of glasses and a bottle of some form of alcohol next to them.

“Expecting company, Octy?” Vinyl laughed as she turned back to watch the grey mare leave the recording room.

“I was going to ask if you would like to stay for a drink…” she replied calmly, walking past Vinyl and towards the door. Octavia couldn’t see it past the unicorn’s large shades, but Vinyl had been caught off guard and her eyes were nervously moving between the drinks and the cellist, who had just reached her door. “However, I feel that such an act of courtesy would be lost on somepony like you.”

“That’s fine,” Vinyl replied, trying to retain her composure, “I don’t really feel like drinking some bucking awful, high class excuse for booze with a prude anyways.” She trotted by Octavia smugly as she held the door open for her with a scowl set across her face.

“I expected nothing less,” Octavia groaned as Vinyl exited her apartment and stepped into the hallway. “Honestly, Vinyl, how you ever got this job is beyond me; Mix is a respected studio owner and I know more than a few quality musicians to work with him.”

“Yeah, he’s quite the pony; I’m glad we’re buds.”

“I fail to see why he would want to put up with you, let alone be friends with you.”

“Yeah, well, doesn’t matter do you, does it? If you don’t like me so much why don’t you…” Vinyl stopped mid sentence, realizing what she was about to say. ‘I can’t give her anymore reason to want to fire me,’ she thought nervously, ‘Mix will be furious with me if I blow this… not to mention I’ll have no bucking money.’ As Vinyl stood there, stuck on her thoughts, mouth half open in mid speech, Octavia simply stared at her in confusion. In all the time she had just spent with Vinyl (which was, granted, not really that long) she had never seen the brash mare simply be at a loss for words.

“Why don’t I what?” Octavia asked slowly.

“N-nothing,” the DJ replied, swallowing her pride. “So, when do you want me to come in for more work?”

“Well, I’d like to take full advantage of my access to an in-house studio, so if you could come back again tomorrow, as I don’t have any engagements planned, that would be… good.”

“Alright… yeah, I can do that.”

“Good.” An uncomfortable silence stretched between the pair, quickly being broken by Octavia nodding and closing the door. For a moment, Vinyl simply stood there, staring at the smooth, oak door in front of her. ‘I know I’m sucking it up and dealing with her for Mix and for the money,’ she thought as she began walking towards the elevators, ‘but why do I sorta wish that I had gotten to sit down for a drink with her…’

First of all, I want to thank each and every person that has chosen to take time from their day to read my story. This is my first story on fimfiction, and my first fanfiction as well - it's also the first thing I've seriously tried to write in Celestia knows how long. -chuckle/sigh-

Second, many thanks to: CoffeeGrunt, for writing Allegrezza; Corey W. Williams, for writing The Vinyl Scratch Tapes (which need to have more of the episodes recorded! Seriously!); and everyone else in the MLP FiM community - you're all amazing people and you've really inspired me to get up off my lazy ass and start doing things again. :)

So, here we go, the start of yet another TaviScratch story! Hopefully this will be one to remember, with some real excitement, emotion, and fun/depressing/complex/interesting characters for you to enjoy.
Comments are greatly appreciated, especially if you've got some good feedback for me.

Once again, thanks for giving my humble little story a chance. :)