She stood in the corner of her room, one hoof holding the large cello beside her while the other had a firm hold of the bow string. She was an earth pony mare with a goldish gray coat and a dark gray mane and tail, and her cutie mark which represented her talent was a purple Treble Clef. This mare was none other than the aspiring cellist, Octavia Melody. Her eyes were closed as she took in the silence that surrounded her, taking a deep breath in preparation. After only a short few seconds she began to move her hoof, masterfully gliding her bow across the strings of her cello.
As the silence around her vanished, replaced with the soothing sound of the instrument in her hooves, Octavia smiled. Soon one note became two, then, then three, finally all the notes began to mix together to form a song. Not one that she’d written, not even one written by another, but one created on the spot, fuelled simply by the unshakable anima the cellist had for her music. Her pace began to quicken as she drove herself deeper into her art.
“Oh yes, I must remember this one.” Octavia thought to herself “Would be a pity to allow such a melody to be forgotten.” She thought again, but that was a task for later. For now she continued to play, wondering where this song would take her, and how it would end. With every stroke of her bow Octavia could feel herself drawing closer to the end, the anticipation was almost too much to bare. But she continued to control herself, she knew the end would come, and it would be worth the wait.
But as she grew closer, she began to find that something was amiss. Her rhythm was starting to change, as if it were being altered somehow. “No matter, a simple fix.” Octavia thought to herself, but as much as she tried to bring back the rhythm she had, the worse it seemed to get. As her frustration began to grow, and the focus she had on her music began to fade, she began to hear something.
Bump…Bump…Bump
She couldn’t place where this sound was coming from, not at first, she was still trying to repair the flow of her music. But soon they began to grow louder and faster, it was then that Octavia realized that she was subconsciously trying to match the beat, as a result her melody was begging to parish. It was then that she finally understood what was happening.
“Oh no…” she said as she opened her mulberry eyes in terror, but by then it was too late. In that moment there was an explosion of sound that rattled her room causing her to scratch her bow across the string of her cello. The force behind it proved too much for one of the strings to take, and as a result it snapped under the pressure.
“Oh for heaven’s sakes…” Octavia said with a groan, dropping her bow to her side as she placed her cello on its stand. Even if the string hadn’t snapped, Octavia wouldn’t have been able to pick up where she left off. The sound around her continued to cause her room to rattle with every beat that passed, she was never able to play when it got like this.
Once she was on all four hooves Octavia made her way to the far wall, that which connected her room to the room beside it. Raising a hoof she banged it against the wall several times “Vinyl would you turn that down!” she called out. The pony who was causing the sound was her longtime friend and roommate, Vinyl Scratch, the famous DJ of Equestria. “I had this time spot reserved for practice, you can’t just…” Octavia let out another groan, she knew that Vinyl couldn’t hear her. And if she could then she was doing a fine job at pretending she didn’t.
Letting out a defeated sigh Octavia made her way to the drawer next to her bed. Opening the top shelf she pulled out her noise cancelling headset, a gift from the DJ herself. The moment she placed it over her ears the noise around her was silenced. “Much better.” She said with a content smile as she lay back on her bed. As it was clear she wouldn’t be getting any practice until Vinyl was done ‘wubbing it up’ as she put it, Octavia decided she could enjoy some of her own music as while she waited.
Plugging her headset into her MP3, something she’d bought herself, Octavia selected one of her favorite songs ‘The Swan: Cello Concerto in D Minor’. Octavia closed her eyes as the music began to play, allowing her mind to wonder. This music was what she truly enjoyed, there was no doubt about it, “Much better than those silly wubs that Vinyl obsesses over.” she thought to herself. Octavia never understood why she enjoyed them so much. She had Vinyl try to explain it to her once, but Octavia still didn’t see her side to it. Of all the instruments that were available to her, why would Vinyl decided that these wubs were her true calling?
“Have I ever asked her that?” Octavia thought to herself. She’d known Vinyl for years, and she’d asked her a wide assortment of questions about her choice in music. But it was always in an attempt to understand why Vinyl found said music so appealing. And as she thought about it Octavia realized, she’d never asked Vinyl why she chose to be a DJ in the first place.
“I wonder…” sitting up from her bed Octavia removed her headset, again Vinyl’s music assaulted her eardrums. Ignoring the music for now Octavia made her way out of the door and into the hallway, as she walked down it she passed the door to Vinyl’s room. Even if she’d knocked she knew Vinyl wouldn’t be able to hear her. There was only one way for Octavia to catch her friend’s attention, and that was in another room.
Past the living-room and into the laundry room, the object Octavia searched for was just over the dryer. This was the fuse box which controlled the power to the whole house. Opening it Octavia searched through the switches, it wasn’t hard to find the one she needed as she was the one who labeled it. “Here it is.” She said locking her eyes on the switched labeled ‘quiet time’. The moment she flipped the switch the music that echoed all around the house came to a sudden halt.
“Oh come on!” Octavia heard from upstairs, she couldn’t help but let out a small giggle. After closing the fuse box Octavia made her way to the kitchen, she knew that Vinyl would come looking for her now. Once there she set a pot of water on the stove and turned it on, now was the best time if any for some tea. It was at the very moment that the water in the pot began to boil did another eruption occur behind her.
“What the hay Tavi!” turning around Octavia saw Vinyl standing at the entrance to the kitchen. She saw that she wasn’t wearing her sunglasses, though she rarely wore them when inside the house. “You pulled the plug on me when I was in the zone, you can’t interrupt a mare when she’d in the zone!” Vinyl complained.
“Oh I wouldn’t know what that feels like at all.” Octavia said sarcastically as she turned her attention back to the boiling pot. “It’s is temporary I assure you, I’ll turn your music back on once we’re done here.” She said as she poured the water into a cup.
“Done with what?” Octavia didn’t answer Vinyl’s question right away, instead taking her freshly made cup of tea to the table and motioning Vinyl to join her. Once Vinyl was seated Octavia took a sip of her tea, enjoying the savory taste.
“Did you call me here just to watch you drink tea?” asked Vinyl.
“Always the impatient one.” Octavia thought to herself. “No, actually I wanted to ask you something about your music.” Once she said it she saw Vinyl roll her eyes.
“This again…?” Vinyl deadpanned.
“Don’t worry, this won’t be like the other times.” Octavia assured her. “Since I’ve known you I always questioned how you could choose the turntable over any other form of music.” She said, though the look on Vinyl’s face showed that she already knew this. “But there’s one thing I never asked you...” Octavia trailed off as she took another sip of her tea.
“Why?” Vinyl blinked at Octavia’s question, unsure of what she meant.
“Why what?” she asked.
“Why did you decide to become a DJ?” at first everything went silent, Octavia and Vinyl staring at one another without saying a word. Octavia was right, of all the question’s she had asked Vinyl, not one of them had ever been about the reason for her choice of career.
“You really want to know?” asked Vinyl to which Octavia nodded. “It’s kind of a long story,” she said as she rubbed the back of her head.
“I’ve got time.” Said Octavia. Vinyl nodded back as she leaned back on her seat, it wasn’t a very simply story to tell, so she needed to figure out the best way to explain it.
“I guess I’ll start with where it all started for me.” She finally said after some time of silence “Did you know I play the piano?” Octavia nearly spat out her tea in surprise. The thought of Vinyl Scratch, AKA DJ-pon3 playing a piano was almost impossible to imagine.
“No…I did not.” Said Octavia. “When was this?” she asked.
“Middle school.” Said Vinyl “It was just after I got my cutie mark, I knew then that music would be my life, but I didn’t know what I wanted to play. I tried it all, violins, drums, flute, I even tried the cello once.” It took every ounce of will power Octavia had to not laugh at the image of Vinyl combing her hair back and wearing a bowtie as she played a cello.
“I learned how to play them to some level, but I could never put my heart into it. Then one day, maybe a year after I got my cutie mark I walked into the music room…and there it was. The school had just bought a brand new grand piano, and the moment I first laid eyes on it I knew, I knew that it was calling out to me.” Octavia had rarely seen this side of Vinyl before, this form of passion. That was not to say she wasn’t passionate about anything, but this was different.
“So what happened after that?” Octavia asked finding her interest in this story growing by the second.
“I was quick to pick up learning how to play the piano, even my instructor was surprised at how fast I was progressing. After a few months I was already writing my own music, my instructor said that I was a prodigy, and that meant a lot to me. I even went so far as to enter and win a few competitions.” She added.
“Really now?” asked Octavia “I’ve entered several competitions as well, but I don’t recall ever hearing your name.”
“That’s because I used a pseudo,” said Vinyl “My name doesn’t exactly match one of a pianist, so I used a different name. Back then I would apply under the name Arpeggio.” Octavia nodded in understanding, it did seem to be a better fitting name, one that-
“Wait a second, Arpeggio?” asked Octavia, Vinyl nodded “I lost two competitions to you!” when Octavia was starting to make a name for herself as a cellist she entered a few competitions as well. One was in music writing where she wrote her own song and mailed it in, another was when she played in front of a group of judges who were travelling Equestria looking for young talent. On both occasions she ended up coming in second place to somepony with that name, she’d never met the pianist before.
“Sorry…” Vinyl said with a small and innocent smile.
“No, no…not your fault,” Octavia said with a dismissing wave of her hoof “It’s just the competitor in me.” She said. Placing her cup of tea down on the table, Octavia decided to ask another serious question. “If that is the case then I know a lot about your career as a young pianist. After losing to you twice I decided to read up on you. You were remarkable, and if memory serves you once came in second place when you entered a competitions for adults.” Vinyl quickly nodded to confirm Octavia’s memory.
“You were great, and from what I had read you could have been the greater than anypony could ever imagine. Now I really must know, why, why would you ever want to give any of that up?” she asked. It was in that moment that Vinyl’s expression seemed to drop, a small frown forming across her lips.
“Tavi, tell me…what’s the best compliment you ever got?” Octavia was confused about the question, but thought about the answer anyway.
“I would say about six month ago, after my performance Mr. Fancy Pants came up to me himself. He complimented my music and told me that I was like a modern-“
“Let me stop you right there.” Said Vinyl as she raised her hoof. “Let me guess, he compared you to some cellist from the past, right?” Octavia nodded. “That’s why.” She said putting her hoof down. The two went into silence again, Octavia feeling even more confused now than before.
“I don’t understand, what’s wrong with being compared to another musician?” she asked.
“I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with it.” Said Vinyl “It’s just, that’s not why I wanted to be one. I loved playing the piano, I loved everything about it, and I was going to set out to be the best there was. But then the compliments I got all turned into them, comparisons, ponies saying that I was like somepony else. At first I didn’t mind them, but they continued, soon everyone was saying that I was another him or a modern her…eventually it started to get to me.”
“I started to ask myself, why did I have to be thought of as some reincarnation of somepony else. Why did everypony have to see me like that…why couldn’t I just be me?” Octavia sat there, unsure of how to answer. She had been compared to other cellists before, she’d always took them as some of the highest praise, never once did she think of it like Vinyl did. But now she’d be lying if she said she didn’t see Vinyl’s point.
“So that was it, you decided to retire because you didn’t want to be compared to another musician?” asked Octavia.
“That’s part of the reason,” said Vinyl “The more I thought of it the more I realized something, these ponies…these other musicians. The reason I was being compared to them was because they were the best from the past. I didn’t retire from the piano because I didn’t want to be compared to them, it was because I wanted to join them. I wanted to be that pony that a future musicians end up being compared to.”
“Couldn’t you have done that if you stayed as a pianist?”
“Maybe,” said Vinyl “But that wasn’t enough for me. There are dozens of instruments out there Tavi, and if you go back into past of each, you’ll find their firsts. The very first musician to ever make themselves known for playing said instrument. These were musicians who couldn’t be compared to another because there was no one before them, and that was something that could never be taken from them.”
“The more I thought of it the more I realized that I wanted to be one of the firsts, to be somepony to master an instrument no one had ever seen before, and to make it famous.”
“And that’s what brought you to the turntable?” asked Octavia.
“I came across it by accident, I had gone in to musical repair shop to have my record player fixed. I’d known the owner for years, and he told me that he was working on something new and asked if I wanted to see it. When I said yes he took me to the back room, and I saw what changed my life forever. It was still the beginning of the techno age, so not many ponies had attempted to make an advance in any technology just yet, but not him.” As Vinyl continued in her story her eyes took to the ceiling, her imagination taking her back to that day.
“He said he was working on a way to enhance how we listen to records, to create a whole new sound. I was stunned, I’d never seen anything like it before, it wasn’t like the turntable I have now, it was much bigger and clunky, but it was still a beauty. With the owner’s permission I started to learn how to play it, each day discovering something new and made some suggestions to how to improve it. It took two years, but finally it was ready, and he wanted me to be the one to unveil it with him. And that summer, DJ-Pon3 was born.” Seemingly out of nowhere Vinyl produced her sunglasses and put them on. Her trademark DJ smile spread across her face as she placed her hooves on the table.
“Then a few months later I met you, and I guess you know the rest.” Octavia found herself a little speechless now. As long as she’d known Vinyl she’d thought that every decision her friend made was on impulse, even her choice in career. Never once had she thought that the truth behind it could have been something so deep.
“That was an amazing story, Vinyl.” She finally managed to say.
“Thanks,” said Vinyl “Now that I’ve said all that I think I should make something clear. I don’t think playing classical music is a waste of time, never have, never will. My choice to leave it behind was because my goal in life required me to take a different route than yours.” Picking up her tea again, Octavia smiled.
“Now that is something I will always understand, more so now that I know a little more about your past.” She said before taking a sip.
“So did you get the answer you were looking for?” asked Vinyl.
“Indeed I did,” said Octavia “Go on, enjoy your music.” She said as she finished her cup. With a node Vinyl got up from her chair and made her way out of the kitchen. “Just one last thing.” Octavia called out causing Vinyl to turn again.
“Yeah?”
“Do you ever miss it?” she asked. Vinyl didn’t have to think about it this time, she knew the answer very well.
“Not at all, I’ve done what I set out to do in my past. Now I’m looking to the future.”
Author's Note
We all have our reasons, not just for the small choices we make, but also for the big ones that define what we want to do with our live. Doesn't matter what the choice, doesn't matter the field, in the end of the day they all share one thing in common, that the decision came from the heart.
