Vinyl Scratch was in her element. Immersed in the music, she was beat-matching her songs together into a mega-mix, and it was going well. She glanced down at her hoof on the board—casual and without even meaning to—and smiled. Vinyl's fetlocks were trimmed very severely. Just like a stallion. The moment she thought the words a tingle of good feelings poured through her.

Inspired suddenly, she dumped the mix off to storage and started work on a new piece. "Gotta get this down just right…"

"What was that, Vinny?" Octavia had been practicing her cello while her housemate worked on her own unique music. Her thoughts ran to just how much her friend had blossomed recently.Vinyl had always been a little quiet, a little withdrawn. I am so glad she met Cheerilee.

Knocking her cans back, Vinyl grinned at her housemate. "I just got kicked in the flank by my muse. Think I might lay down something new." Her hooves and magic moved across the board, adjusting settings, pulling in the samples she wanted to use. "You want to hear this one, Tavi?"

Octavia was near the end of her practice and was encouraged by her friend's enthusiasm. "Sure Vinny, let me have it." She set her bow aside and, with a twirl of the big instrument, rest her cello against the chair. "What hit you this time? 'Her' again?"

Vinyl grinned like a loon. "Duh, she… she just accepted everything I wanted, she didn't just let me be 'me,' she-"

"I know the story, I watched you bloom, Vin." Octavia's eyes traced over the white unicorn, lingering on each of the "blooming" signs one by one. Trimmed fetlocks. Short-cut mane and tail. But it was her friend's attitude that had been the big sign that she was feeling better than ever. "I remember that first day, you came home grinning so much I thought your cheeks would split."

The description helped Vinyl get further into her inspiration. Flicking her deck output to the speaker amp, Vinyl made sure the volume was low enough that it wouldn't blast away half the town. The beat started, she began simple, then set points where she could modify it, adjusting tempo to really shift and delineate the parts she wanted. Sad, alone… I need a way to… of course. The music came alive.

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

Vinyl didn't realize that not only was her music just a touch too loud, but that she had left the window open. She was deep in the one release she had from her life, her music. Harsh rhythm circled around and around, dominating a weak beat. "This is rubbish, I am going to have to start again!"

"I thought it sounded interesting."

The soft voice from behind her startled Vinyl out of her "zone" and she spun around to see pretty harlequin eyes looking at her from a cerise face, all topped with rose-colored mane. Cheerilee. "Uh… thanks, but it needs work. The beat is not coming through enough, the rhythm is dominating it and leaving nothing behind to keep your focus."

The technical lingo left Cheerilee blinking. "But it sounds nice." She grinned. "I guess I am a little too much of a groupie, I have been to all your shows recently." Why am I telling her this? Ugh, she is so awesome. Odd that she ties her mane up like that.

"Really? You see that last one in Mareiland? That is where I got the idea for this. But it just isn't fitting together." Vinyl studied the mare peeking in the window, really studied her. "Hey, I got a gig on tonight in Canterlot, want to come?"

"Already got my ticket." Cheerilee smiled widely. "Have you tried dropping the beat completely?"

Vinyl Scratch froze. Her eyes unfocused and she stared through the pony. Turning in place, she quickly flicked her deck and cut the beat from the output. It was a cacophony, it was chaos and a swirling mix of rhythm without guidance. "Oh buck…" Her hooves moved, bringing more madness into being, adding more and more to it and, at the culmination of the song, dropped the rhythm. Panting, Vinyl was trembling at the power of the tune. "That is my life." Her words were soft, lost in her breathing.

"That was so amazing!" Cheerilee clopped her hooves together excitedly. "Are you going to play it tonight?" She watched the unicorn turn slowly on her seat.

Not smiling at all, Vinyl started breathing again, started just thinking. "If you come, I will." She lifted her shades up to look at Cheerilee without the filter they provided. The mid-morning sun wasn't shining on that part of the house yet, so she captured every line of her visitor without her eyes hurting. "Uh, I am bad at this, you want something to eat? Maybe a drink? Argg, would you like to come in?"

Cheerilee chortled and nodded. "Sure, I was just going to the market to buy some things, but that can wait." She made her way around to the front door. She is so awesome, but I do feel bad about standing Thunderlane up for our date… not that it was going anywhere. The door opened to reveal Vinyl had her shades back on.

"Come in." Vinyl smiled and turned. "Don't mind the mess, Tavi has been out of town—she is on tour—and I prefer a bit of mess when I'm not being bullied into cleaning..." She led the way into the kitchen, inwardly wincing at the two-day-old bowl of rice on the coffee table.

"Just like a stallion." Cheerilee muttered the words before thinking. No, bad thoughts. She isn't a stallion, she is your idol, she probably is barely tolerating having you here. Sobering thoughts swirled through her head as she followed Vinyl into the kitchen. "So, uh, what time are you leaving for your show?"

"Just after lunch." Vinyl was using her magic to gather the makings of a sandwich. Putting two together, she also reached for the cider in the fridge. "Want a drink?" One was already floating toward Cheerilee.

"Uh, sure." Cheerilee caught the bottle coming toward her in a hoof and sniffed. No alcoholic bite, phew. She took a sip of the drink and made a sound of appreciation. "Didn't even realize how thirsty I was."

Vinyl's eyes flicked from the meal she was making to Cheerilee, as the other mare took a seat. She looks pretty cute… ugh, no. Last time you tried to make a move you almost lost your best friend. "You like dandelions?" The tasty flowers were stacked high on one sandwich, but she waited for a nod from Cheerilee before doing the same for hers.

"Really like them?" Cheerilee took another, longer pull of her drink. Mare. Mare, Cheerilee. Gah, why do you always do this. She is cute, but she is a mare. "So… uh… want a travel companion for the show?"

The invitation surprised both ponies, each looking away and—at the same time—realizing the other had. "I gotta be up front. I like mares," Vinyl, breathed out noticeably, "I dig that you like my music but…"

"I… I prefer stallions." Cheerilee thought back to college, of her "experimental" phase, if a year of being with various mares in college was a "phase." "But hey, we can just hang out, right? Your music is awesome and it wasn't like I wasn't going to the show anyway."

Vinyl's heart skipped a beat. She prefers stallions, you aren't a stallion. If wishes were ponies, you would be drowning in mares. "Sure. The trip is boring anyway, at least we will have something to talk about." Like how much I want to lick her- STOP THAT!

Cheerilee watched as Vinyl turned her head to just the right angle and something struck her about the way the other mare's mane was up. She almost looks like a stallion. Forgetting her snout, the shape of her mane… Cheerilee, there is no reason to think this, she probably wears it up to help with her work. "Guess I don't need to go home and get my ticket?" She tried to banish her thoughts.

"Nah, it's cool, I can get you in with a band-pass." Vinyl slowly relaxed. "You teach here, right?" Safe topic, yay!

The shift in the topic almost had Cheerilee missing that she would be getting a band-pass to get in. "Oh, yes! I just love teaching all the fillies and colts, helping them learn what they need to excel and find their special talents." It warmed her just thinking about it. It literally was what her cutie mark was all about.

"Got any wanting to try music?" Vinyl cut the two sandwiches and set them on plates. Bringing them to the table she took a seat opposite Cheerilee. "If you want, I could come to the class and do something?"

"That would tickle little Sweetie Belle pink, she loves singing. I tried to get that Countess Coloratura to come and visit, but her itinerary is a little full… or so she says." Cheerilee remembered well the concert that particular mare put on, where she split from her "manager."

"Yeah, she got real popular after she dumped all the fake stuff and just made her music from her heart again. If you want we could catch a show of hers next weekend?" Vinyl froze after she asked the question. It's not a date, totally not, nope. You are such a dunce at this.

She likes mares, she seems a bit alternative, you could just ask her, Cheery. "Sure, that would be cool." Cheerilee blushed a little. It's not like it is a date. Besides, Vinyl is a mare… a mare that looks a little like a stallion with her mane like that... "Do you… do you wear your mane up like that often? It looks good."

Vinyl almost dropped her sandwich. She blinked quickly behind her shades, her brain not quite following the complement past the first hint that it was one. "Uh… thanks. I keep forgetting to get my mane looked at, I kinda let it grow out…"

"You should get it cut short, it would suit you." It would suit a stallion. Cheerilee smiled through her inner turmoil. "What time does the train leave? Do you have much gear to take?"

The change in topic suited Vinyl, at least the part that got embarrassed about her looks. "Just need my deck, they have a speaker stack and amps already there." She gestured back to the living room with a hoof. "And the train leaves in an hour." She likes my mane... The thought had the corners of her mouth pulling up a little more than normal.

"Well, if you want, I could cut your mane?" Cheerilee tried not to sound too eager. "That is, if you are okay with it? I cut my own all the time and I think you would look really cute with it short and I am sure I could do a good job and oh Celestia why am I still talking!" Idiot.

Vinyl blinked, reached her hoof up to her mane. She is cute, too, when she is flustered. "Sure." Trepidation was thick in the one word, but part of Vinyl was aching, screaming for this to be done. A short-cut mane would feel... good. "Uh, let me find some scissors."

"I'll be right back!" Cheerilee broke from the table at a dead gallop. Somehow she got outside without using the door and was across town to her own house before she realized it.

"I… guess I was too scary." Vinyl watched the dust-cloud that was shaped like Cheerilee, fade from the chair. "Well, she was going to the show anyway, guess I will meet her-" She stopped at the sound of galloping hooves coming, loudly, for her house.

Cheerilee threw the door open, her mane-trimming things in her snout. She saw that Vinyl hadn't even moved and, with the aplomb with which she taught her class, trotted into the house with a prance in her step. "Ready!"

"Uh… wow… okay, guess we are doing this. Let me put some music on." Vinyl got up and reached for her deck with her magic, adjusting the volume, she put her whole library on mix. The first up was one of her older, darker pieces. The beat was almost like a march, Vinyl saw Cheerilee unconsciously move her legs to the beat. "Where do you want me?"

Vinyl's blush at what she asked was almost as bright as Cheerilee's for having to answer.

"Kitchen seat is the best spot, we can sweep up anything I cut." Cheerilee felt her body moving with the music, but it felt almost like she was marching off to a sad event. "Uh… can I have something more upbeat? This should be more fun."

The request suited Vinyl, she tapped the controls with her magic and one of her wilder songs started. "This better?" She took her spot on a seat, reached up with her magic and undid the band holding her mane up.

"Goodness, that is a lot of mane." Cheerilee instantly lost sight of the cute almost-stallion look—Vinyl was definitely a mare with this much mane. "How short do you want it?"

The question should have been easy, a mare would always know how long she wanted her mane, it was what mares knew. "Uh, remember how short it was? Maybe a little less than that." Why did I admit that? I am going to look… look like a stallion. The thought brought both embarrassment and an odd desire, a need Vinyl had never let show to another pony before.

Cheerilee nodded, smiling wide. Taking out her comb and scissors, she started to work. "Okay, so a stallion cut? I can totally do that. Anything in particular? Tall spike down the middle… that will take some work to keep styled. How about messy tufts up top?"

The comb worked into Vinyl's mane and the words seemed to become muted. Some ponies liked to be touched in special places, some spoken to in particular ways, but Vinyl Scratch's motor kicked into gear when her mane was teased at. "Uh… low maintenance would be good…"

"Oh, I love this bit…" Cheerilee worked her scissors, cutting free huge lengths of lightning-blue mane. She let it drop around Vinyl and always moved to the beat. "Short and tufty then, I saw a stallion with just this look at one of your shows… but I think I can do something to make it look better." She is totally going to hate this, come on, look how much of her mane is gone! You are ruining her look!

Vinyl barely heard anything now, even the music was faded to background noise. The swish of the comb, the snip of the scissors, was all she could hear. The slight tugging each time the comb worked—just before her hair was trimmed free—was all she felt. "Huh? Uh, sure."

Two more songs passed before Cheerilee had Vinyl's mane where she felt it should be. "This looks awesome, trust me." She brushed down the unicorn's coat, freeing any stray bits of blue. "Do you have a mirror?"

Still in a bit of a daze, her body humming along to the beat of the music, Vinyl got up. "Yeah, in the bathroom, or I could sneak into Tavi's room." Her eyes fell on the blue hair at her hooves. It was everywhere, covering the floor like carpet. Anxiety and panic built quickly. Oh Celestia what has she done? I have a show tonight!

Cheerilee saw Vinyl's panic set in, her heart started beating faster and faster. I went too far, I totally went too far. Outwards, she walked with Vinyl to what was apparently the bathroom; following the unicorn like it was a procession at a funeral. It is a funeral, I killed her mane!

Vinyl lifted her head, now feeling much lighter than before, and looked in the mirror. That is amazing, that… that is me... The traitorous thought destroyed the bad mood, she smiled at how great her mane looked short.

As Vinyl turned her head this way and that, Cheerilee saw the grin she wore. "Uh… do you like-" She got no further, Vinyl's lips were planted on her own and all Cheerilee could see was the electric blue mane, cut just like a stallion's, topping Vinyl's face.

Author's Note

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ They will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

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