Speechless.
The auditorium fell silent, only to erupt once more with the cheers, whoops and pounding hooves of Ponyville's assembled population. It seemed like half the town had packed themselves into the town hall for Vinyl Scratch and Octavia's latest show; their popularity as a duo having soared since their performance at Cranky Doodle and Matilda's wedding. Indeed the actual figure of those present wasn't far off half the Ponyville populace, and included ponies visiting from Canterlot and even as far as Appaloosa just for tonight's show.
Nevertheless, Octavia and Vinyl ended this performance as they would any other, big or small. Bowing graciously before the audience's cheers, beaming and waving until the stage curtain fell over them. Those final moments, proud and upbeat, were as important to the performance as any other, after all. Only then, the crowd's joyous whinnies muffled and the stage area itself dimmed without the lights from the main body of the hall, were they permitted to relax. Octavia set her cello down upon its stand and carefully replaced her bow into its case after loosening the bowstrings slightly. Vinyl cut the power to her decks, and slipped the record she'd been working with into a protective sleeve.
They parted from their instruments, those symbols of their trade almost more recognisable as a part of each of them than their cutie marks. Together they moved to centre stage, and stood eye to eye before their dearest friend.
"Wonderful show, Vinyl! Your improvised solo after my slip up in Beethoofen's Ninth was utterly sublime. An ode to joy indeed."
Octavia beamed as Vinyl lifted one foreleg and tipped her glasses, revealing her gorgeous violet eyes just long enough to give an enthused, congratulatory wink. Slipping her shades back on, she leaned forward and embraced Octavia warmly. The earth pony gave a happy sigh, returning her companion's hug. After a long and physically demanding show, there was nothing like the gentle warmth of a loving hug to relax and unwind. To let the adrenaline rush of a public performance subside, and allow peaceful calm to rule in its place.
"Ladies!"
The two ponies jumped slightly, turning their heads in unison to the right side of the stage where a pair of figures were approaching. Mayor Mare, the source of the exuberant call, and another pony trotting along by her side.
"That was simply outstanding, ladies. Marvellous. I cannot remember the last time I saw the town hall so packed full of happy ponies. I shall have to hire you to play at all town council meetings from now on."
The mayor giggled at her own joke, blushing as she realised that no-one was laughing alongside her. She cleared her throat, taking a bashful step back and glancing towards the pony who had stepped on stage with her.
"Anyway... Ms Cheerilee here has a question for you both. I know you must be tired after such an energetic show, but I hope you don't mind listening to this one request before you head for home."
Smiling warmly at the school-teacher, Vinyl shook her head. Octavia beamed in agreement.
"Of course not. How can we help you, Cheerilee."
Taking a step forward, the pink coated earth pony nodded with gratitude.
"Firstly, thank you again for such an amazing performance tonight. Some of my class were in the audience tonight, and I just know it's all they'll be talking about in the schoolyard tomorrow morning. In fact, that's what brings me here. Your music, both individually and together, has been the talk of the town as of late. I know you must be very busy, being so high in demand, but if you happen to have any free time on your calenders... do you think you could come to the school one morning, to talk to the fillies and colts about your music. Your influences, your personal tastes, and how you would encourage them to foster any creative gifts of their own?"
Behind her shades, Vinyl's eyes widened. She winced, withdrawing slightly for a moment as she gathered the courage required to shake her head.
Then...
"Well of course! We would be absolutely thrilled."
Octavia beamed, darting over to her cello case without a second glance towards her partner, opening it up and pulling out an octave stencilled diary. She flipped through it for a few moments, before jabbing her hoof sharply at one particular page and crowing tunefully in triumph.
"Ahah! It just so happens we have a free morning this coming week. Monday morning in fact. Oh... oh gosh, that's tomorrow isn't it. Is that too short notice? I'm afraid after that, we have rehearsals and other commitments scheduled for almost a fortnight."
Cheerilee bounced giddily upon her hooves, shaking her head in glee.
"Oh no. No, that's absolutely perfect. Oh, the schoolponies will be so thrilled. Thank you, thank you!"
Hurriedly the teacher ran up to Vinyl and Octavia in turn, hugging each of them tightly. As quickly as she'd advanced forward, she drew back, grinning from ear to ear. She turned towards the stage door from which she'd come, trembling visibly with delight.
"Oh my. Oh my! I need to go home and prepare. I have to write a lesson plan. I have to make a seating chart so that all the schoolponies can see. Oh, this is going to be simply wonderful."
In a flash, she was gone. Giggling and smiling at Cheerilee's infectious enthusiasm the mayor followed without another word, leaving Octavia and Vinyl alone once more.
"Well, that is wonderful. Won't it be great to have all ponyville's young ponies listen to us talk about our music? Listen to us sharing all our stories and..."
Octavia paused.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Vinyl. Standing perfectly still, facing her head on. She could practically feel the unicorn's stare through her shades. Octavia's eyes widened, and she felt a deep, dark hole opening up in the pit of her stomach.
"Oh."
She swallowed thickly.
"Oh... oh gosh."
Vinyl snorted with derision. She stared at Octavia for a moment longer, a single tear rolling down her snout from beneath her shades. Then she turned, her horn glowing and pulling her headphones up tight over her ears, and she ran.
"Vinyl!"
Octavia cried out after her dear companion. She new it was hopeless, but kept on calling out anyway, long after Vinyl Scratch had vanished from view.
"Vinyl please, I'm sorry."
***************
Vinyl didn't stop running until she was outside the town limits of Ponyville. Even then she kept on running for quite some time, until the pounding drum and bass in her earphones ceased; a fresh playlist of quieter, more mellow new age trance taking its place. She stopped by the edge of the dirt track along which her hooves were pounding, lowering her head and gasping for breath. Her eyes ached, tears having ceased flowing, but her violet hues still dry and irritated in their wake. With a self-pitying sniff, Vinyl magically lifted her shades from the bridge of her snout and rubbed at her eyes with the back of one hoof.
She glanced back over her shoulder. Quite what the unicorn had expected to see, she wasn't sure. Octavia, perhaps, running after her in a desperate attempt to catch up and apologise. But as the summer evening wore on, Celestia's sun sinking low upon the horizon, there was not a soul to be seen upon the dusk-lit path.
Slipping her shades back on once more, but holding them low upon her snout so that she could see over their rims, Vinyl began to walk. Not to run, but to trot slowly and more casually along the path which led out of Ponyville and alongside the numerous orchards of Sweet Apple Acres. She was still angry. Furious really, at Octavia's presumption. She wasn't ready to go back home; to face her friend and whatever feelings they would each have to express when that moment came. She needed her music filling her ears and clearing her mind to think. She needed time. Space. She needed to be alone.
Unfortunately for Vinyl, her solitude didn't last long.
After just a few minutes more of walking, in a break between tracks, Vinyl heard a sound. Hoofbeats, slow, regular and heavy, from behind her. She closed her eyes momentarily, letting slip a heavy, exhausted sigh, and turned her head.
There, walking at a steady pace but catching up to her rather quickly nonetheless, was Big Mac. Bass singer of the Ponytones. A real good voice, and a really nice guy by all accounts.
Soon the powerhouse of a pony had caught up to Vinyl, and rather than simply passing her by with a nod and a smile, or asking what she was doing out here at this time of the evening, he fell into step beside her; slowing his massive strides to match her own pace. Vinyl said nothing, barely even acknowledging him. She didn't want company, after all, or so she thought. She didn't want someone to try and console her, or talk at her. But, to the unicorn's surprise, Big Mac did no such thing. He didn't say a word, nor did he seem any more interested in acknowledging her than she was in him.
They walked together, side by side, for almost an hour. As the sun sank beyond the horizon and the moon began to rise. When Big Mac paused, glanced back towards the now rather distant farmhouse of Sweet Apple Acres, and turned upon the spot, Vinyl didn't even have to think about it. She turned, and began to walk back with him.
Not a word passed between them. But as they made their way back towards the farm, their eyes did meet. Big Mac's gaze full of gratitude. Wordlessly expressing how glad he was of the company on this evening stroll. Vinyl's own eyes mirroring that thankfulness, but with a measure of surprise; unaware how grateful she'd been for the company until she considered how this walk could have gone, had she remained alone. How if Big Mac had not fallen into step beside her, her thoughts might have lingered on what Octavia had done and on how angry she had been.
Instead, Vinyl had found herself thinking about how nice it was to have someone beside her. Someone who expected nothing, and asked nothing of her. Someone who was simply there, at a time when she really needed them.
Sure, right now that pony was Big Mac. But normally, every other day for practically as long as she could remember... who had it been? Who was the one pony she was always able to count on. To trust, and confide the secrets which no words could express.
Before Vinyl knew it, she and Big Mac were at the arched gateway to Sweet Apple Acres farmyard. They looked at one another, Vinyl lowering her shades and slipping her headphones back down around her neck. They smiled, nodded gratefully to the other pony, and parted ways.
Big Mac returned home, and Vinyl Scratch did the same. She walked back to Ponyville with a spring in her step, and approached her and Octavia's house, nervous but determined. The town clock-tower told the unicorn that it was past midnight. Octavia was normally sound asleep by now, but there was still a light on in her side of the house. Nonetheless, Vinyl opened the front door quietly, not wishing to risk waking her companion for no good reason.
"Vinyl!"
She never even made it through the door. Octavia's shriek of relief echoing around their home as the earth pony flung herself at Vinyl Scratch, tackling the unicorn and hugging her tightly where she fell upon the doorstep.
"Oh Vinyl, I'm so sorry... I... I can't believe I did that to you without even thinking. It's just, I... I forgot, you know?"
Before the unicorn could react, Octavia was pouring her heart out to her dearest friend, confessing her wrongdoing while still embracing Vinyl tightly in her arms.
"I spend so much time with you, we spend so much time sharing our ideas and our feelings, I sometimes forget that we don't actually talk. That... I mean that you... y-you know. But that's no excuse. No good reason for me to be so thoughtless and selfish, just because I was excited by the idea of sharing our gifts with Ponyville's youngsters. First thing tomorrow morning, I swear to you I will gallop straight over to Cheerilee's house and tell her that we cannot make the appointment. She'll be a little disappointed, I know, but that's entirely my fault. As for the schoolponies, they will never have to find out."
Vinyl waited for Octavia to stop talking. She didn't really have much choice. When finally her companion fell silent though, and released the unicorn from her vice-grip of a hug, Vinyl pulled them both to their feet and looked at the earth pony before her. She removed her shades entirely, and stared intensely into Octavia's eyes.
She smiled. Carefully reaching out and straightening the other pony's bow tie, which had become dislodged during her tackle, before leaning forward and pecking Octavia gently on the cheek.
Octavia's eyes widened, and her cheeks flushed.
"R-really? You mean it?"
Vinyl winked, nodding warmly. Once again Octavia threw her forelegs tightly around the unicorn's body, and this time Vinyl hugged her back.
***************
The following morning, Cheerilee's class squirmed eagerly in their seats as their teacher stood before them to announce two very special guests.
"I am thrilled to present to you all, two of the most musically gifted ponies in all of Ponyville... maybe even all of Equestria. Octavia, and DJ Pon-3 herself, Vinyl Scratch!"
The classroom erupted with cheers and squeals of delight as side by side, Vinyl and Octavia rolled in on one of the unicorn's smaller mobile decks. Near the front of the group, Sweetie Belle looked like she was going to pass out from excitement, and even Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon couldn't help but look on with admiration.
After the applause had died down, Octavia and Vinyl stepped off the mixing deck and stood together before the giddy crowd of fillies and colts. Octavia glanced at Vinyl, the unicorn giving her one final, approving wink, and cleared her throat as she began to address the room.
"Good morning, class. As you know, me and Vinyl Scratch are here to tell you a little about our music, and answer your questions. You're welcome to ask us both anything you can think of relating to music, the arts and being creative. But before we get started on that, I should let you know that whether your question is for myself or Vinyl, I will be doing my very best to answer for both of us."
All the schoolponies, and Cheerilee too for that matter, tilted there heads. Apple Bloom raised a hoof and called out, asking what everyone was thinking.
"Um... why? Has DJ Pon-3 lost her voice?"
Octavia giggled, and Vinyl raised a hoof to her muzzle, smirking silently.
"Well... I suppose you could say that. But in fact, she hasn't lost it, because she never had a voice. You see, Vinyl Scratch is what we call mute. She cannot talk, or make almost any sounds with her mouth."
Cheerilee's eyes widened. The teacher suddenly thought back to all the times she'd seen Vinyl Scratch around town, trying to find a time when she'd heard her speak. When she realised that to the best of her knowledge, there was no such time, she felt her cheeks flush. How had she not noticed sooner? Had anyone known, or was this Vinyl's first time sharing this fact openly in public.
The schoolponies, meanwhile, didn't look shocked. More than anything, they were curious. A dozen or so hooves shot up into the air, and with a warm smile Vinyl pointed at Scootaloo.
"Um... I hope it's okay to ask, Ms Pon-3... Ms Scratch, I mean... but, how can you say what you want to say if you can't talk? How do ponies ever know what you need?"
For a moment, the room fell silent. Octavia and Vinyl looked at one another, and the unicorn raised her eyebrows knowingly. Octavia nodded, and turned to the class with Vinyl's answer.
"Something you probably all know, but don't really think about, is how much can be said without words. To show how you feel. To express yourself, there are a thousand different ways. Anything from a look..."
Behind Octavia's back, Vinyl pulled a silly face. The class erupted with laughter.
"...to a hug."
Vinyl flung her arms around Octavia's neck, the earth pony mimicking being strangled by the embrace. More squeals of giggling mirth.
"...to an act, like giving flowers to a special somepony, or holding out a hoof to help a friend up after they've fallen. And then there's music. Music, and other forms of artistic expression, can convey emotions and meanings for which there are no words, and never have been. With all these different ways to communicate, it really isn't that difficult to say what needs to be said. And for anything else, any times when getting somepony to understand may prove difficult, you know that without even asking, a good friend will always be there to help out."
Octavia and Vinyl each raised one foreleg, bumping hooves. Their gaze met out of the corners of their eyes, and both ponies beamed joyously.
"For the truly important things in life, we don't need words to express them."
The class erupted with cheers and pounding hooves once more, almost louder than the entirety of the town hall the previous night. Loud as the schoolponies may have been though, no-one was more enthusiastic in their support than Cheerilee.
By the time the volume died down again, there wasn't a hoof in the room which wasn't raised, nor an eye that wasn't gazing at the unicorn in wondrous admiration. Octavia glanced at Vinyl, seeing her companion's face flushed and a twinkle of overwhelmed emotion behind her shades. She giggled, realising that in all the time she'd known Vinyl Scratch, she'd never seen the unicorn looking quite so nervous in front of a crowd. Quite so... speechless.
"So... next question?"
By Jeeves
