Author's Note

As Octavia sat in her apartment, brushing her mane and looking placidly out of her window, a loud beep from across the room snapped her back to reality. She set down her brush and walked over to the intercom, pressing down a button with her hoof.

“Hello?” she spoke, clearing her throat.

“Yo, it’s me,” a sharp voice replied through the speakers.

“Vinyl, you’re lucky you’re the only pony I know that talks like that, or I’d have asked you to actually say who you are.”

“I’d hardly call it lucky: I still just had to listen to you drone on about nothin’.”

“Just hurry up, would you please?” Before Vinyl could reply, Octavia quickly removed her hoof from the speaker button and clicked down the button to open to building doors. With a sigh, she went back to pick up her brush and return it to her room, after which she began to make sure that her apartment was neat and tidy. It was not at all because Vinyl was coming up; Octavia figured that the unkempt DJ probably lived in a filthy excuse for an apartment anyways, so what was a mess to her? No, the mare simply enjoyed having a clean living space and thought there was no reason to leave a mess lying about her apartment.

After she was sufficiently pleased with the state of her apartment, Octavia heard the loud smack of a hoof against her door. Determined to keep composure through the work day, Octavia took a deep breath and donned her best air of contentment and dignity and trotted towards the door. Her composure quickly vanished as she opened the door and laid her eyes upon Vinyl.

“Hey,” the unicorn muttered sheepishly between taking gulps of alcohol from a translucent brown bottle.

“Why in Equestria are you drinking so early in the day?” Octavia ask, confused and disgusted.

“‘Cause there wasn’t anything in my place to eat? I figured I shouldn’t work on an empty stomach... shame, though, ‘cause this was the last of my booze.” Vinyl trotted by the dumbfound cellist as she finished the last swig of her drink. “Got somewhere I could toss this?” Octavia simply stood and stared, still holding the door open, at the unicorn as she waved the empty bottle at her. Shaking her head and trying to give up on understanding the DJ’s strange habits, Octavia closed the door and walked over to Vinyl, taking the bottle from her and dropping it in a recycling bin in her kitchen.

“So you haven’t eaten all day?” she asked, washing her hooves; she had no idea where that bottle (or Vinyl’s hooves, for that matter) had been, and wasn’t about to take any chances.

“Well,” Vinyl started, stroking her chin, “I only got up about an hour ago, so I wouldn’t call it ‘all day’.”

“Vinyl, it’s two in the afternoon and you just woke up an hour ago?!”

“Yeah – are you ears not working or somethin’?”

“I mean...” She let out a long sigh as she dried off her hooves. “Well, never mind that. Anyways, you shouldn’t be drinking on an empty stomach; did you at least think to drink some water before you downed that?”

“Duh, I’m not knew to drinking.”

“I figured as much...” Octavia walked over to her bread box, carefully grabbing two pieces of bread and proceeding to drop them into her toaster. “Now, because I don’t want you grumbling, moaning, passing out, or, Celestia forbid, getting sick, I’m going to at least give you some toast and something non-alcoholic to drink.”

“Aw, Octy, you’re such a saint.”

“And could you please stop calling me that?”

“But your name is too bucking long. Like: Oc-ta-vi-a. So, making a short form for your name is just easier. Plus, it’s only fair: Vi-nyl is only two syll… syllables, and so is Oc-ty.” The grey mare simply sighed and shook her head at Vinyl, who smiled as if having outwitted a genius, when, in truth, Octavia was simply just not in the mood to try and understand the unicorn. After a minute of silence between the two, Octavia set down the toast and a glass of orange juice on the counter.

“There,” she said, motioning to the food, “eat that and then we’ll start working. And don’t forgot to wash your hooves, alright?”

“Alright, ‘mom’.” Octavia walked out of the kitchen to grab her cello case, picking it up and carrying it to the recording room. She switched on the light in the room and brought her cello into the live booth, taking it out of the case and setting it up. There was something slightly unnerving about playing in the small confines of the live booth; she was so used to playing on wide, open stages in grand halls and theatres. Nevertheless, she played just as well in there as she did at live shows; she was good at her craft, no matter where she preformed it.

As she was finishing up tuning her instrument, she heard Vinyl trot into the room and take a seat at the mixing console. The unicorn began flipping switches, watching as lights went on to tell her that all was right with the equipment.

“So,” Vinyl called out from the other side of the glass, “what are we doing today?”

“Well,” Octavia began thoughtfully, “there are three more pieces I want to be on this album… at least for now. So, I believe we should do that, and then we can start going over the tracks individually.”

“Alright- cue boring music!” Octavia simply groaned as she closed the door of the live booth and walked back to her cello to begin recording.

**********

Octavia stepped out of the live booth and began walking up to the mixing console.

“I’ve got to hoof it to you, Octy,” Vinyl said casually, “I’ve never seen so much boring music all in one place before.” The cellist simply stared at her, unimpressed, as usual. “I mean, you’ve got over three hours of the stuff on here. Three bucking hours of sleep inducing sounds!”

“Vinyl! Honestly, could you please stop calling my music boring? I know it’s not spastic enough to hold your sorry excuse for an attention span, but some ponies actually have the patience and the taste to listen to classical music.”

“If I have to sit through hours upon hours of this… 'stuff'… then you can deal with hearing my criticism of it.”

“Oh, don’t try to talk like you whining like a filly is anything remotely close to constructive criticism. Besides, what I still haven’t figured out is: if you can’t stand classical music, why in Equestria did you take this job?”

“I just need the money, okay?”

“But I thought you were the ‘Almighty Vinyl Scratch’ that played in all the ‘best’ clubs and really gave ponies a ‘good time’. What happen: You drink all your money away?”

“What’s it to you?!” Vinyl shouted, her face snapping towards Octavia. Behind her large, magenta shades, the unicorn did her best to try and hold back her emotions, whether or not Octavia had any chance of seeing them.

“I…” Octavia tilted her head down and bit her lip; this was the second time in two days that she’d gotten Vinyl angry with her. While she felt fairly justified in her rebuttals towards the DJ’s insults about her music, she still felt guilty that she was getting somepony so angry constantly. ‘Vinyl might mock me and my music,’ she thought, ‘but she never really sets out to try and hurt me. So why am I lashing out at her so much?’

“You’re right…” Vinyl muttered, lowering her head back to the console. “I drank a lot of it away…” Octavia lifted her head back up and looked at the strange sight of a sad Vinyl. The mare always seemed too hot-blooded to Octavia, who imagined that if she wasn’t happy or angry with a situation, she’d simply be bored or uninterested.

“Vinyl…” Octavia began, tentatively raising a hoof towards the unicorn.

“Whatever…” Vinyl grumbled, waving away Octavia’s hoof. “Let’s get to the tracks.”

“R-right.” As she began flicking through switches and continuing to work the strange device that was the mixing console, Vinyl eventually brought the first track they had recorded to the speakers. The two let the song play on in silence until the end of the track.

“As boring as it may be,” Vinyl finally spoke, “I’ve got to admit, I doubt I’d ever be able to write something like that. Kudos, Octy.”

“You really shouldn’t be thanking me: I didn’t compose that song.”

“Wait... what?”

“I guess you didn’t notice then?”

“Notice what?”

“My entire album is well known classical pieces from ponies long since gone.” Vinyl titled her head towards Octavia and gave her a quizzical look from behind her shades.

“So this isn’t really your album?” she asked, secretly cocking an eyebrow.

“What? No – of course it’s my album. I played all the song on my cello.”

“But they’re not your songs!”

“So what? I fail to see what difference it makes if I wrote them or not; I play them just as well, if not better, than any other professional musician.”

“But they’ve got no passion! No soul! Where’s the love for your art? How can you possibly get into a piece that somepony else wrote? How is this album supposed to be any different from any other cello playin’ pony recording the exact same songs?”

“I…” Octavia was shocked and confused; never before had anypony, especially not some DJ that she thought was below her musical standards, told her that she wasn’t any different than any other cello player. Not even just that: Vinyl was telling her she wasn’t any different from any other pony that played classical music. She felt good playing her cello, and not once in her entire life had she given a second thought to playing another pony’s work, so long as it was free range material or she was given permission. If she took what Vinyl was shouting at her to heart, she wouldn’t just be rethinking all the music she had played and replayed today, but all the music she had ever played in her life.

“W-well what about you?” she started, trying to regain her advantage in their argument. “Isn’t DJing just mixing other ponies’ songs together?”

“Wow wow wow!” Vinyl stammered, shaking her head and waving a hoof in front of her face. “While a lot of my standard DJ sets uses other ponies’ music, I at least remix and blend in new elements – my elements; I don’t simply slap down songs and kick back while the stereos do all the work.”

“Still, what ‘soul’ is there in just throwing in some extra sounds and changing parts of the tracks around?”

“I do more than that! There’s tons of complex layering and attention to detail that you wouldn’t even begin to understand. I mean, you can’t just throw one audio track on top of another and hope that it magically sounds good!”

“That’s not what we’re talking about, Vinyl – we’re talking about completely original compositions.”

“I’ve wrote my own bucking music before!”

“How many albums?”

“Well, I-”

“Have you even finished a single album of original work?” Vinyl slowly closed her mouth and just sat there for a moment as Octavia eyed her smugly. ‘See?’ she thought triumphantly. ‘Not so easy when you’re forced to face the music, is it?’ Glancing over at the mixing table in an attempt to avoid the mare’s gaze, Vinyl continued to hide behind her shades and think. She wasn’t lying about having written her own music before, but the proud DJ had, in fact, composed only one track of her own: a track that no pony besides herself had ever heard. However, she wasn’t willing to admit this fact to the smug Octavia, but it was too late to lie about having even a full album; her silence was a dead giveaway that the cellist had been right.

“See, Vinyl?” Octavia said, breaking the unicorn’s train of thought. “It’s not so easy when somepony else points out your hypocrisy.”

“My… what?” she muttered in reply.

“Ugh… it means that you criticize other ponies based on ideals or standards that you feign having, but, in actuality, are doing the same things you’re criticizing other ponies for.”

“Uh…”

“It’s the pot calling the kettle black! You’re no better than me yet you think you have the right to criticize me.”

“Yeah, I guess doing that wouldn’t really make a lot of sense…”

“Oh, now you think so?”

“Eh, what’s done is done, right?” The unicorn lifted her head back up and wore an expression of indifference; the tension and confusion around her had all but melted away.

“Vinyl…” The cellist huffed with exasperation as she raised a hoof to stroke her temple. “You are simply-”

“Amazing? Awesome? Grand? Awe-inspiringly fantastic?!” A smile stretched across the DJ’s face. ‘At least she’s back to normal,’ Octavia thought.

“Impossible. You are, without a doubt, the strangest pony I’ve ever had to work with.”

“Strange is just another word for unique, so I’ll take that compliment, Octy!” With a groan the grey mare turned away and looked up at the clock. Once again, Vinyl had paid no attention to the time, and Octavia, being a bit of a perfectionist, had insisted on re-recording whole, lengthy songs if she felt they weren’t the best that she could have performed, causing the pair to, once again, work late into the night.

“Apparently,” she muttered, “I’m never going to get the chance to eat dinner with you around.”

“Why not?” Vinyl hummed. “Are you afraid of my table manners or something?”

“Now that you mention it: yes, yes I am. However, what I meant was that we never pay attention to the time and end up so engrossed in our work that we always seem to work late.”

“Octy, we’ve been working together for two days and you talk like we’ve been doing this for weeks.”

“W-well I… they’ve been a memorable two days, so-“

“Oh-ho-ho! So you’re saying I am an interesting pony, aren’t ya’?”

“I never said anything of the sort!” Octavia blushed, thought she wasn’t fully aware why; perhaps the idea of complimenting Vinyl made her comfortable, but at the moment she didn’t wish to waste time thinking about it. “Tragedies are memorable, but it does not make them interesting or pleasant or anything good by default!”

“Aw, now you’re calling me a tragedy? How could you say such a hurtful thing to me, Octy?” Vinyl faked a sniffle and brought her hooves up to embrace herself.

“Oh, don’t give me that. Now, quit your theatrics and shut this place down for the night.”

“Huh?” Vinyl dropped her hooves to her sides and titled her head in confusion. “Weren’t we going to go over the tracks?”

“I-It’s much too late to being going over so much music. Besides… we skipped dinner again and really should have something to eat.”

Vinyl simply shrugged and began shutting off the mixing console, slowly working her way through all of the equipment. Had she been paying more attention she would have noticed the hesitation in Octavia’s voice, but Vinyl, just happy to be done work for the night, hadn’t given it any mind. After the equipment was shut off and Octavia had vacated the live booth, the unicorn trotted out of the room humming, magically flicking the lights off and closing the door behind her.

“So,” Octavia began nervously as Vinyl walked by her, “would you care to get something to eat?” The DJ stopped humming and turned to look at the cellist, confused.

“You’re asking me to come eat with you?” she questioned sharply.

“Well, if you’d like. I just thought, seeing as I’m hungry and planning to go eat anyways, and since you seem to not have much in the way of money or even food, that you might care to accompany me for dinner.” Vinyl remained quiet for a moment, mulling over the idea. ‘I don’t want to look like a charity case,’ she thought hesitantly, ‘but she’s right: I don’t have anything back at my place, and I’m trying to make the last of my bits cover me until I get my pay from this job. I guess it couldn’t hurt to get some free food, especially if she’s straight up offering… but I don’t want her to think that I’m going to owe her anything either.’

“Alright,” she finally replied, flicking her mane and flashing a smile as she turned to the door, “I guess I should give you the chance to make it up to me for taking back your invite for drinks last night.” Octavia sighed and shook her head as she began walking towards the door as well; ‘She acts like she’s the one doing me a favour.’

“So, where we goin’, Octy? Not some place too fancy, I hope; can’t stand fancy places: too many stuffy ponies and not enough food.” With yet another sigh, Octavia began leading her guest out of the apartment building. ‘I’m choosing to spend more time outside of work with this mare?’ she asked inwardly. ‘What have I gotten myself into?’

**********

Vinyl lay sprawled across her bed while staring up at the slow-spinning ceiling fan above her. Her room was a mess, littered with take-out boxes, club and show advertisements, and a collection of other general garbage. As she lay silently in the dark, cool room, the unicorn finally took her shades off and placed them down gently next to a lamp and a partially emptied glass of water on a surprisingly clean little table beside her bed. She hadn’t given it much thought, but that glass of water had been sitting on that table, half empty, for months now; if she ever realized that, she would probably look at it with a perplexed stare and wonder if mold could grow from stale water.

‘This room’s kind of a mess,’ she thought wistfully, letting her eyes wander around her darkened room. ‘Octavia would probably faint if she ever saw this.’ The DJ’s eyes widened as she began blinking rapidly for a few second. Eventually, she relaxed and slowly turned her eyes back towards the mesmerizing rotation of the fan blades above her. ‘Why do I care what Octavia would think about my room? For the matter: why am I even thinking about her? I doubt she’d ever come over to my place – I doubt we’ll even spend time together outside of work again. Like, that dinner was sad: I spent the whole time either shoveling my face full of food I didn’t pay for or making bad jokes; Octavia kept looking like she wanted to start a conversation, but gave up on it every time she opened her mouth. Maybe I should have been a better guest… wait, who the buck cares?! She offered me that meal, and I said thank you, and there’s no rule that says I’ve got to like the ponies I work with or that they need to like me. Yeah… who the buck cares…?’ Vinyl sighed and rolled over, not bothering to pull the sheets over herself before she closed her eyes and tried to get some sleep.

*********

Sitting comfortably on her couch, Octavia sipped at some tea she had just made; she had been unable to sleep after returning from dinner with Vinyl. ‘Oh, sure, the dinner was a mess,’ she thought, ‘but I hardly think that is what’s keeping me awake.’ She sighed and looked around her: her pristine coffee table sat in front of her, shining ever so slightly; the piano she seldom played stood against the wall across from her; and her cello, her beloved cello, rested in its case off to the side of the room. The lights were turned half way down, as she was in the mood to sit in a dimly lit room, contemplating and drinking tea.

‘I mean, why in Equestria should I fret over the matter?’ she began the thought again. ‘Yes, I did sit there without making conversation like a nervous school filly but… i-it’s because I had nothing to say… right? Not like anything I talk about interests Vinyl anyways, so why bother trying to start anything? She seemed perfectly content just stuffing her face and making bad jokes… though, I guess, if I was in her place, and having not much to eat lately with practically no money… I guess I’d just be happy to be eating more than a piece of toast… maybe I should have offered her more food earlier… what am I thinking? I was a gracious host! Vinyl does nothing but mock me and complain about my music, and yet I not only looked out for her this morning, but I even took her out to dinner and paid for her meal. I did all that even though she had the gall to criticize me about not writing my own material.’ Octavia stopped and let her eyes drift longingly between her cello and piano, wondering if she was truly missing something by not composing her own works. She stared down blankly at the cup of tea between her hooves, seeing a dull reflection of her eyes in the dark orange liquid and letting out a long, sad sigh.

Totally forgot to put the A/N in when I uploaded this, so here they are:

Another chapter already? Eeyup. Didn't I just upload the first one yesterday? Eeyup... oh well, let the good times roll! So yeah, this story has just been clawing at my mind since it first popped up and I figured, hey, if I've got the will and inspiration to write more, why not?

I've got a few things I want to address about my views on Vinyl and Octavia, both as individual characters and as a ship, and how those views will influence my story, but I'm going to save those for a blog update that will go up just before chapter 3.

Until then, enjoy some more of "Scratches Across the Record"! Hopefully most everyone that's reading this is enjoying it so far (I know I can't please everyone, but I'm trying to make as many happy as possible), and give the story a thumbs up, or follow/track/favourite it if you're really liking it, and drop a comment (hopefully with some feedback) if you've got the time. :)