Vinyls, Pants, Octaves, and Expensive Tastes

There was polite, and perhaps slightly hesitant applause as Vinyl stepped out on to the large  stage inside the theater.  Years of performing for crowds like this had seasoned her for this sort of thing, and she could step out into the bright spotlights in front of thousands without her heart rate going up one beat.

She waved politely to the audience as she walked calmly over to her DJ setup.  They had legitimate reasons for being speculative.  This was the first time Vinyl had performed for an audience of aristocrats.  She had performed in her fair share of cities, and Celestia knows how many concerts she'd done in her home town of Canterlot, but never to this venue of ponies.  She was looking forward to seeing the results.

As she took her place at her equipment, she stole a glance at one of the many balconies in the theater.  There she saw two ponies she recognized with pleasure.  The first was a large, handsome stallion with a blue mane and mustache.  Fancypants – Her business partner, and long-time close friend.  The other was a white mare with an immaculately coiffed mane of purple.  Rarity Belle, of Carousel Couture – A previous client of Vinyl's from the town of Ponyville.

Vinyl then glanced quickly to her right to see her marefriend, Octavia, standing by with her cello at the ready and an expectant expression of her face, then back to the audience.

…

And she let the silence drag on for what seemed like just a moment too long.  Just long enough to make it awkward.  Although it was not at all awkward for herself, Fancypants, or Octavia.  For this was somewhat of an inside joke between them –  Vinyl wasn't an incredibly well-known mare among the Canterlot elite, but she was nonetheless a well-established and respected pony.  The thing was, she had never enjoyed her establishment for the same reasons other aristocrats do.  She enjoyed it for the fun of messing with the posh and arrogant ponies.  This was just another of those cases.

She looked out over the audience with a half-lidded, seemingly unamused expression. (if you looked close enough, so could just barely make out a slight upwards curve of her mouth)  After a moment, she said, in a neutral, almost sarcastic voice that could be heard all throughout the theater, “Alrighty then.”

She then proceeded to remove her monocle, place it in her collar, remove the collar, and place it somewhere out of sight behind the DJ tables.  She then charged her horn with some sort of spell, and to the crowd's moderate astonishment, sent a small bolt of electricity into her own mane.

There was a buzzing sound and a quick flash of light, after which everypony could see that Vinyl's mane was now styled in a very different fashion from her normal one.  It was spiky, and mostly covered her face from one side.  Many would fittingly describe it as “electric.”  Vinyl then levitated a pair of large, purple-tinted sunglasses on to her face.

Her appearance was now significantly different than what the posh ponies in the audience knew her by.  She looked out over the audience one final time, then over to Octavia, who nodded to her.  Vinyl nodded back, turned to her equipment, flipped some miscellaneous switches, turned some miscellaneous nobs, pushed a few miscellaneous buttons, and soon, the concert began.

The song started out with a soft piano solo emanating from Vinyl's equipment.  Then, Octavia joined in with a peaceful melody from her cello.  This went on for a little while, then the more electronic sounds began.  But these were not the harsh, throbbing, buzz-like sounds often heard in electronic club music that hurt your ears after while, but smooth, upbeat sounds that blended spectacularly with conventional instruments.  Meanwhile, Octavia's cello added an ominous, yet cheerful background accompaniment to the electronic sounds, as if whispering promises of celebrations to come.

As the song reached its crescendo – or 'drop' in Vinyl's case -  the electronic drums, provided by Vinyl's equipment, of course, kicked in, and the DJ began gently bobbing her head to the beat.  The melody was energetic, happy, and overall, made one want to dance.  She glanced over at her marefriend, and could see the cellist tapping her hoof the beat as well.

She looked up to the balcony housing her two friends, and could see Fancypants visibly bobbing his head to the music, a broad smile on his face.  She smiled back at him, and began to bob her own head a bit more animatedly.

After a bit of this, the song proceeded to return to more peaceful and ambient tones.  The only sounds now were coming from Octavia's cello and the piano.  Vinyl closed her eyes and allowed her entire body to sway gently with the beautiful melody now coming from her marefriend's instrument.

After a time, she opened her eyes and began hitting switches and turning nobs again.  The song gradually grew in intensity once more, in a very similar manner to how it did the first time.  But now, it was a bit different.  This time, as the song drew near the crescendo, Octavia was playing a much deeper note that sent chills of anticipation down Vinyl's spine.

The sounds from Vinyl's synthesizers, too, were much deeper notes with nearly twice as much bass as the first time.  Just as the song reached the height of it's build-up, Vinyl rested her front hooves on the table, and slowly lifted her head back with her eyes closed.  She had been looking forward to performing this song in a theater with good acoustics for months.

The song reached its glorious second crescendo, and Vinyl let herself go.  She was now full-on head-banging to the beat.  Her head bobbing in time with each kick, her rear hoof tapping in time with each clap.

This was heaven for Vinyl.  She and her closest friend in the world, whom with she had spent many a warm night, and whom she had traded many secrets with, were bringing together their different styles of art in one spectacular masterpiece.  She didn't care what the aristocrats thought of this display.  Right now, it was only her and the music.

Whenever Vinyl tried to explain this feeling to others, she found herself at a loss.  “Euphoria,”  “bliss,” and “ecstasy” just didn't cut it.  There was no true way to describe it.  Music had a way of conveying emotions that simply could not be written down in words.  Vinyl had dedicated her life to making music with her best friend in the entire world so that she might share these emotions with others around her, and she truly could not think of a better way to spend one's time on earth.

By the time the song wound down and gradually faded away, Vinyl was crying tears of joy.  She removed her glasses and leaned forward to rest against her equipment.  It was then she looked up... and noticed that the theater was roaring with thunderous applause.  Applause...  A crowd of spoiled, arrogant ponies who looked down and scoffed at anything they thought held of shred of unsophistication was applauding for their radical performance.

Genuine... applause...  Vinyl had never sought the admiration or approval of these snobs, but the idea that she and Octavia had moved these sorts of ponies was astonishing even to the laid back DJ.  The power of music truly had no bounds...

She looked over to Octavia, breathing heavily – spent but happy – with an expression that said “That... was... amazing.”

Octavia was wearing a very similar expression, and from this distance, the blue-maned mare thought she could just see a bit of moisture in the cellist's eyes.  They both turned and bowed to the audience from their respective places, and Vinyl looked up at the balcony again to see Fancypants applauding furiously and smiling wider than she had ever seen him smiling before.  Still wearing her exhausted expression, Vinyl wearily saluted her friend.

As the applause and cheers of “Bravo!” finally died down – this took some time – the lights dimmed, and the curtains closed on Vinyl and Octavia.

“I don't think... 'Best concert ever'... does this one justice...” Vinyl said, still breathing rather heavily.

“Indeed... there are no words to describe it...”

They both felt that nothing more needed to be said.  Octavia set her cello down, Vinyl shut down her equipment, and they met in the middle of the now isolated stage, and embraced.

“Is this a good time to ask if you'll marry me?” Vinyl whispered.

The tears were now flowing freely down both of their cheeks.

Octavia responded in a voice so quiet, Vinyl could only just hear it...

“I didn't think you had to ask...”

Author's note~

So, this is what happens when a guy who knows almost nothing of technical music terms tries to write a story in which one of the main focuses is a song.

As of now I still have no pre-readers, so this chapter - like the last one - is probably riddled with blatant and embarrassing typos, so feel free to point those out and nitpick my grammar.

I had the idea that I could make this the final chapter, with the rest of the story leading up to it, but to be honest, I have nooooo idea what I'm doing here!

And if you're interested, here's the song that somewhat inspired this chapter.  Enjoy, and thanks for reading!