Heartstruck

The backstage room was down a corridor and around the corner from the main concert hall entrance.

On the way, I stopped to fill my water bottle, for it had run dry halfway through the concert. I took a long swig and my dry mouth was remedied.

When I arrived at the door to the room that currently housed Vinyl Scratch. There was a sign and a clock mounted on a small baseboard on the wall beside the door. The sign read One at a time for backstage passholders please. Client becomes unavailable at eleven o'clock.

I took a seat at the end of the line of twenty or thirty people and watched as a giddy filly ran out with a signed poster and a new copy of Vinyl Scratch's new album.

I had to play the waiting game.

///***\\

Each other pony in line took two to three minutes to enter, converse for a moment, and then get out of the room the last few of us were getting impatient to enter. I seriously didn't care, as long as I got to see Vinyl Scratch.

Then I noticed the clock on the wall. There was four minutes left for three ponies. I slumped down, but still hoped the bouncer who was a yard away from the door would let me through.

The last pony before me, a black and red mare, left into the room with only a minute left.

'I'm taking the time too literally...' I thought to myself. The clock ran out, and a moment later the mare exited, an ecstatic smile running over her muzzle

I sat up and trotted to the door. I had butterflies in my stomach. I was either about to see my idol, or get denied the opportunity of a lifetime.

"Whoa there filly," the large brown buck restrained, putting a forehoof in front of the door. I had pushed it slightly open, seeing a crack of light from the inside.

"Backstage hour is over," he stated.

"But...," A sad look draped over my face.

"Sorry, but I get paid to enforce the rules, Even if I don't like 'em myself," atleast he was being nice about it.

"It's alright..." I sighed and turned to leave.

"Hey, wait!" I heard a different voice call from behind me. I turned to see Vinyl Scratch in the open doorway to her make-shift room, "I have time for one more".

My face lit up brilliantly. I trotted back down what area of the hallway I was able to cover during my skulking and into the room.

"T-thank you so much" I told her shyly after she closed the door.

"No problem," she said nonchalantly. she callym sontered over to a low-sitting chair, cushioned profusely and sat down. Her purple trademark glasses glinted from the small lantern propped on a table beside the chair.

"So, what've you got for me to sign?" she asked as if it was the first time she had asked or heard the question tonight.

'I never expected this level of politeness..' I thought, levitating off my saddlebags and opening the button-latched flaps. I pulled out the stack of three pencil-stained papers and presented the three on the table before her.

"I drew some stuff I think would be amazing if you signed..." I blushed slightly. I had never shown off my work, but it felt good, and kinda cheap in a way.

with the scraping of a pen, she passed her signature over all three of the papers, seeming to pay little attention to the drawings. Once she was done, she held them each up one at a time with her magic, surveying my art.

"You drew these?" She asked, seemingly impressed.

"Yeah... it's just a hobby, but I draw lots of stuff like this," I explained, leaving out the fact that half of it was the same, same mare, same scenes, same obsession...

"These are... amazing!" She smiled at the second drawing, the self portrait. She picked up the third one, and her smile suddenly dissapeared.

behind her glasses, I could see her eys close for a short moment and re-open again. s tear rolled down her face. Something about the drawing of her and Octavia had quickly made her sullen.

"I-is everything alright?" I asked, concerned for the saddened DJ.

"I-if I tell you...," she let out a small sniffle, "will you keep it a secret?"

"Anything for you, Vinyl," I responded. I didn't have anyone to tell secrets to, so I considered that, on top of my great verbal resistance to be worthy of her secret.

"M-me and... *Sniffle* Me and Octavia... we broke up... three weeks ago..." she bowed her head, removed her glasses, and sobbed into her hoof rested on the cushioned arm of the chair.

I was struck with the pang of emotion I felt years ago, when Lightning Dust had broken up with me.

"I'm so sorry... stirring memories of her... I know exactly how you feel...," I tried to comfort her, filling the air with the exact truth as I sat down next to her.

"I-Its alright... I still love her... it was j-just *sniffle* circumstantial..." she lifted her head, revealing her beautiful sparkling garnet eyes. "W-would you m-mind if I ke- *sniffle* kept this?" she looked towards me.

"By all means, it's yours," I told her.

"Thank you so much..." she let out another sniffle and tried to regain her composure. "So... Are you in school?" she asked, trying to make small talk.

"Yeah... just for my art scholarship though," I replied.

"I'd love to see some of the other things you draw," she told me, wiping away the ceased tears from her cheeks.

"R-really?" the butterflies in my chest swarmed furiously.

"Yeah. When are you free?" she asked. "We can hang".

My mind exploded. Vinyl Scratch, the DJ Pon3, wanted to hang out with me! *super squee!*

"Uuhh...," I stammered, "weekends, and Wednesdays." I told her.

"Cool, where do you live?, i'll stop by sometime," the now smiling mare questioned.

"A half hours trott from here, on Endguard ST. My mom and I live in apartment 83 at the Timberwood Apt. building." i responded.

"Great." she levitated a piece of paper over from a pile on her desk and wrote down the credentials I had supplied. "See you Saturday then."

"I... Okay." i replied, my voice now a tinny squeak.

"Thanks again for the drawing...," she told me.

"No problem." I thought of something she had said earlier."If you and Octavia still love each other, but you broke up because of dire circumstances, why don't you just become friends instead of separating completely?" i suggested.

Vinyl's eyes lit up. "Thanks for the advice. I've been such a scatterbrain since this tour started and I was just stuck in sorrow. I should've thought of that," she jumped up and hugged me briefly before retreating back to her own personal space, blushing slightly.

After we bade out farewells I slipped out of the door. The bouncer was there. He smiled at me and I was on my way.

The crowd wasn't as bad as it had been earlier in the night, but I still had to weave my way through the first block of bodies in the street.

///***\\

I arrived home sometime before midnight. I slipped my saddlebags off, re-filled them with my school supplies in for the morning, and crawled into bed. I could hear the near-silent snoring of my mom sleeping down the hall.

///***\\

I awoke the next five days, ate breakfast, trotted off to the university, attended my classes, and came back home again. I finished all my homework with ease (art assignments aren't hard if you're a good enough drawer) and set off to my sketchbook. It was filled with sketches and renderings of various scenes I had either imagined or re-drawn from pictures.

There was an exceptional amount of Vinyl, and Molto and I watching the sunset.

I still tried to be out at his house as much as I could, but instead of enrolling in college, he stayed home and worked his forge with his dad.

The closer it got to Saturday, the more excited I i got. I was ready with some beautiful pictures I added to my arsenal (admittedly, some of Vinyl), and I had been practicing my favorite guitar cover of one of her more hardcore tracks.

I was just excited to be spending a day with her!