DJPon3 never spoke. Vinyl Scratch, the real mare behind the alias, didn’t do it too much either.
This was a problem that a lot of ponies had with Vinyl. Not in an upfront aggressive sort of way, but in a passive bubbling anger sort of way. Ponies who tried to engage with the mare in the purple glasses would, more often than not, find it impossible to fully connect with her. They would talk and talk and talk to fill the time that there conversation partner seemed unwilling to contribute to and, as a result, feel like they were being ignored the whole time. They would feel like their opinions were being discarded as soon as they were presented, due mostly to how they received no input from the pony they were telling them to, especially if she were working a set of turntables as she so often did.
Octavia was not one of these ponies. Octavia had come to realize that the emotions and responses of Vinyl Scratch were rarely, if ever, through her words. More prominently, they were most often expressed through her music. Vinyl may not have spoken much but she was only truly mute when she didn’t have a way to share herself on that deeper level. Indeed it was through such expressions that had ended up putting the silent mare at the forefront of almost all experimental synth, ranging from vaporwave to outrun to lo-fi mixes.
So, when Octavia returned from a shopping trip and found the house absolutely silent, she grew worried. The house, given that it belonged to two musicians one of whom stayed up late and played very loud music, had been soundproofed a long time ago. This caused Octavia to leave the cacophony that was Ponyville at midday and enter into the stark contrast that was the absolute void of sound that was her shared home. The absence of any and all noise rang more alarm bells than any alarm bells themselves would have.
Fretting for her roommate, Octavia wanted to drop the groceries at the door and run to Vinyl’s bedroom to check on her. What she did instead was haphazardly placed the groceries in the general vicinity of the counter and walked quickly with purpose and intent to Vinyl’s bedroom to check on her. One of them had to have a care for appearances after all.
She found Vinyl collapsed on her bed, sleeping, her legs hanging limply in the air while her head rested easily on a pile of old pillows. Her headset, which usually was used to give her a clear feed of what was being played through her speakers, was tightly pressed over her ears with the cord trailing to a lonely music player that rested on her stomach. Octavia watched the player for a moment, watching it rise and fall with the breath of the mare. Then, with a glance to Vinyl to make sure she wasn’t being watched, approached.
Octavia was relieved to find that, even though she’d never seen Vinyl like this before, she was at least still listening to music. Now all that was left to find out was what Vinyl was feeling and why and how it had led her to this situation. Luckily, she knew how to find the answer to at least the first of the three questions, she could simply see what song was being piped into the DJ’s ears.
Octavia moved slowly and silently to the bedside and looked at the small device that rested on Vinyl’s belly, watching the name of the song scroll by slowly, followed by the name of the artist. While she didn’t recognize the song, she did recognize who had made it. She frowned slightly and gave a worried glance to Vinyl, who simply lay in bed unmoving save for the rise and fall of her inhales and exhales.
Colt Noctis
Octavia hadn’t been keeping up with current bands as much as she would’ve liked to, but she knew of this group in passing. They were more on Vinyl’s side of the line than they were on hers, but that didn’t mean she was completely in the dark. Colt Noctis, from what Octavia could remember of the brief article they had received in one of Vinyl’s magazines, was an up and coming group that had a ‘mute violence’ kind of feeling to their music, some ponies going so far as to call it ‘barely contained anger’ or as one pony had put it, ‘sad rage’.
It was unsettling if only because Vinyl would seek out music that fit her current mood and listen to it the rest of the day. So it didn't sit right with Octavia that her roommate's current mood was ‘mute violence’. However, Octavia was nothing if not cautious and so she waited for the next song to play before she made any sure judgements either way.
She cared for Vinyl of course, as a friend at the very least. At the absolute very least it was as a friend. But that didn't mean that she was about to go making assumptions based on a single song by a band she wasn't familiar with. Instead, she watched as Vinyl breathed and realized at some point she’d started to breath in sync with her, Octavia promptly stopped doing so and waited for the song to change, doing her absolute best to avoid thinking about anything at all.
She failed.
It was barely a moment longer before the screen on the player flickered, notifying any who could see it that it was changing to another song. Octavia leaned forward on the tips of her hooves to read the name before it began to scroll. This one she did recognize. She’d listened to it a lot going through school.
All Along the Watchtower
Well that was… worrying.
It was a good song, no doubt, it just wasn’t the most… positive one. Especially this version with the sharp painful screeching of the harmonica between verses. Of course that wasn’t necessarily bad it was just… well… it didn't build up the idea that Octavia had been wrong in her initial judgement. Octavia slowly leaned back onto her hooves, mind plodding through thoughts like knee-high tar.
So, she knew the answer to one of three questions. Now she needed the other two.
Octavia began to look around the room to find something that would help her solve this dilemma. It was rather well organized, contrary to what most ponies would assume when they first met Vinyl. Because of this it was rather easy to spot the letter that had been thrown onto the nightstand next to the bed. She approached it and had begun to lift it to read when she became aware that Vinyl had started to stir in her bed.
Acting quickly to avoid being caught in another pony’s bedroom, Octavia took the letter in her teeth and darted from the room as silently as she could. She left the door slightly ajar and made her way back into the entrance room of the home. She had just made it back to the counter where the groceries waited for her when she suddenly became aware of what a horrible thing she’d just done.
Sure she was worried about Vinyl but that didn’t justify going into her room to poke into her personal life. Especially while she was still sleeping in there. On top of that she’d stolen her personal mail which was not only illegal but was also obvious proof as to what she’d done. She looked down at the paper as she placed it on the counter, aghast, wondering what had possessed her to do what she'd done. As she did so, she immediately read the first line. And then the rest of it. She was bad at stopping herself when it came to mysteries. Even more so if those mysteries involved her Vinyl Scratch.
‘Dear Ms. Scratch,
It is our unfortunate duty to inform you that you have been denied your request as the lead musical performance of the Manehattan Charity Ball. While you are undoubtedly overqualified for the place as lead musical performance, we ponies of the board have decided that the leading performance should be taken by a vocal act, as it would be easier for ponies to relate to.
Due to this we are unable to grant your request, however we still have several smaller venues for the day before the main event. If you would be interested in applying for any of these positions do not hesitate to let us know and we will be sure to add you to our schedule, it would be an honor to have to present for the event.
Sincerely,
The Manehattan Charity Organization’
Octavia stopped, confused. That wasn’t bad news, that seemed like excellent news. Sure she hadn’t received the prime position in the event but Vinyl was already exceptionally popular in her own right and had still been given the opportunity to perform at the event. Of course, Octavia knew, it would’ve been a bit of a blow to lose to a vocal act simply because they WERE a vocal act, especially given that Vinyl herself would never be able to fill that roll, but that fact alone certainly didn’t merit the response that it had received.
No, there was something Octavia was missing about this whole thing and by gum she was going to-
No. Octavia shook her head, attempting to dislodge the thought that was taking hold. No she wasn’t. She’d already butted into Vinyl’s personal business too much as it was and for no reason other than being nosy. She was not going to do anything more about it. She regretted how much she had already done. She wished she could go back in time and put the letter back. If Vinyl found out what'd she done there was every chance that she would want to split up for a while, if not forever. This was untenable levels of trust-breaking and to make it worse Octavia, for the life of her, couldn’t figure out why she’d done it.
Enraptured as she was in her mental self-scolding she failed to spot Vinyl as she approached. Failed to hear her over the sound of her own screaming thoughts and it wasn’t until a leg with a coat of stark white entered her downcast field of view that she realized she was being watched. Vinyl, for her part, looked at her with a head cocked to the side, gaze lingering on the letter that she recognized, she’d wonder where it’d gone in her sleep.
Octavia began to backpedal in worry. “Vinyl!” She said in surprise, dropping the letter as if it were the key to summoning Tirek. Luckily it wasn’t, and it fell not unlike a feather to the ground, swinging back and forth on its path downward. “I didn’t- I was just- Well there was- You see it’s-”
Vinyl held a hoof over Octavia’s mouth, stemming the flow of interrupted excuses. Octavia stopped, eyes crossing to look at the hoof that had been placed against her muzzle. Vinyl, seeing this, smiled. Octavia let a slow exhale of unused air escape from her nose as he eyes focused on Vinyl's face instead of her hoof. Then, after a moment of pause, drew in a deep breath to calm herself. She could smell the scent of the shampoo that Vinyl had used to shower. It was the unremarkable smell of daisies. Octavia thought it smelled nice all the same.
Octavia looked into the purple shades and nodded, Vinyl withdrew her hoof and waited for the explanation as to why her roommate was in possession of someone else’s personal mail, particularly hers. Octavia took another breath, if only to cleanse the smell of daisies from her head. They smelled nice, but they were starting to stop her from being able to think clearly, more because of who the scent belonged to than the scent itself. Another pony might've made this extremely obvious. Octavia, though, managed by some miracle to look completely composed.
“Well alright.” Octavia said, beginning into the whole of her story. It was short. Just why she had stolen the letter, why she’d been in Vinyl’s room in the first place, why she'd been worried about her. Vinyl nodded to some unseen rhythm as the story progressed and then, when the story was finished, looked on in an unreadable expression.
Octavia did the same, but she was never able to hold her curiosity as well as Vinyl did and eventually found herself pursuing the questions that she’d wondered about only moments prior. After all, the worst had come out so there was no point in hiding that she still wanted to know why Vinyl was feeling as bad as she was. So she did what she should’ve done at the start of it all. She asked.
“Why are you so... disappointed?" Octavia managed to get out, picking through words carefully as she composed her query. Then, as an addendum, "Is there anything I can do to help?”
In response to the question Vinyl bobbed her head noncommittally before pausing a moment to think. Then, she wound up leading Octavia to the calendar that they both shared. This was clearly something that could not be conveyed with music, at least not accurately. With a noticeable degree of over the top showmanship so that Octavia could pick up on the importance of the actions, Vinyl placed one hoof over the date that had been marked as when she would have to leave to make it to the charity ball and another over the date of the ball itself then she looked to Octavia to see if she was following. Octavia took a moment, but nodded.
Painfully slowly, Vinyl slid both hooves one day backwards and looked to Octavia again who nodded again. Then Vinyl lifted the day she would have to leave to show why she was upset. Octavia leaned forward and blinked in confusion. “My… birthday?” She said slowly. “You don’t want to miss my birthday?” Vinyl nodded slowly, her emotions unreadable behind her glasses.
After a moment Octavia managed to piece the rest together. “But, you also want to help them raise money for the charity? You don’t want to have to choose?”
Vinyl nodded again, as if she were admitting to a crime.
“Oh.” Octavia said, glancing between the calendar and the mare. Vinyl had always put a lot of stock in charity performances, for her to even think her birthday was on par with one was... Then, with dawning realization. “Oh.”
Vinyl flinched at the second exclamation and waited.
“Well… I don’t have anything planned for that weekend. I could just go with you, we could celebrate my birthday during the roadtrip. I usually don’t do much anyway.” Octavia said cautiously, looking for some queue from Vinyl as to whether this would be acceptable or not.
Vinyl waited a moment, waiting for a retraction. When it didn’t come after a minute of silence she dared to hope and looked to Octavia, who was looking to her the same way. “Would that work?” Octavia asked, seeing no answer forthcoming from her silent conversation partner.
Vinyl nodded immediately, beaming.
“Great!” Octavia said, a bit too loudly. “I mean.” She took a moment to collect herself. “I mean great, that’ll work out nicely. I can even see if there’s any available spots open for me to participate in.” Vinyl’s grin remained, unshakable and Octavia became very suddenly aware of how her blush would be less obvious if she were busy doing something. “Well do you want to help me put away the groceries?” Vinyl nodded again and they both began to empty the shopping bags of their contents, the only sound being that of the heavy paper as it was pushed out of the way by hooves and magic. Or was for a while until, eventually...
….
….
….
“Thanks Tavi.”
Author's Note
Colt Noctis is a reference to Son Lux.
All Along the Watchtower is a reference to All Along the Watchtower, as you probably expected.
