It was going to be another one of those nights, Berry Punch decided for herself early that evening. So, like any good bartender, she just poured her patrons a beer and offered up a listening ear. Well, okay maybe that wasn’t the correct turn of phrase for her current patron but it was the closest comparison.
“I suspect you’re surprised to see me here,” the mare in front of her signed with her hooves as she took a sip of her beer. “Trust me, give it about five minutes and you’ll probably be seeing me walk right out the door.”
Berry suppressed a sigh. “Yes, well Vinyl you do have to get out in public again sometime soon, and to be honest I think this is a good first step. Though I do wish you actually brushed your mane.”
“Yeah? Well, one step at a time Ber,” the unicorn commented in turn. “Just pour me another beer okay? That’s what I pay you to do, right? Not listen to my shitty life and try and help me. Because from where I’m sitting, I think I’m perfectly a-okay. Okay?”
Berry Punch looked understandably skeptical. Crass and rude as Vinyl may have been, she was like this for a reason. The poor mare wasn’t always like this, you have to understand. Vinyl, or D-Pon3 as she also liked to go by used to be quite the party mare and you could still see some traces of that. That scruffy punk manestyle for example, that was a dead giveaway hinting at her former lifestyle. And of course, there were her famous ‘rave shades’ that rested on her forehead.
It honestly pained Berry to see her friend like this, a shadow of her former self. Granted, Berry had never exactly… approved of the mare partying till she dropped -sometimes quite literally- and having to drag the drunken mare home from some club but there was a noticeable difference between then and now. The Vinyl she used to know was vibrant, peppy really. It was like she was constantly screaming at the world that she didn’t give much of a shit and that ready for her or not, here she came. Now though, the Vinyl in front of her was a much calmer and tamer mare.
Berry did, admittedly, wish for Vinyl to be less of a wild mare at times, but not like this. In all honesty, she would take the old Vinyl back any day over… well, whatever this shell was. Suffice it to say, the old Vinyl had her fair share of admirers. Not even a week used to go by that Berry had to listen to her friend brag about the latest mare or stallion -Vinyl swung both sides of the fence- she’d managed to bag. Neon Lights seemed a constant, though Berry knew there wasn’t much of a relationship going on there beyond ‘friends with benefits’. Of course, this was where the trouble started. One night, Vinyl had gotten a little bit too handsy and excitable during a romantic liaison and had gotten bucked in the throat.
Vinyl had been lucky to even survive that. Now she was afraid of her own personality, I guess Berry could say. She hadn’t hit upon any ponies since she’d gotten released from the hospital and it was a lucky month for a club if Vinyl ventured outside of her house for one night only. For the rest of the month, it was instant ramen noodles and being curled out on the couch listening to the muted sounds of the bass backbeat. She hadn’t even touched her machines in ages.
It had taken a lot of begging and pleading and a bit of pulling teeth to just get Vinyl out and on the town twice in a row for tonight. Baby steps, really. Now Berry knew Vinyl had to take things at her own pace, but she wouldn’t feel right if she couldn’t give the mare that little extra shove every now and then, right? It was the least she could do for her friend.
So there she sat at the bar, with a glass of admittedly very cheap whiskey in hand while some old jazz music played in the background. It wasn’t to Vinyl’s tastes, but Berry preferred a little more class in her establishment than a couple of quick and heavy bass drops.
“Ber, you could at least do something a bit… I don’t know, more bouncy I suppose compared to this Coltrane crap,” Vinyl signed. Berry rolled her eyes.
“Hey, the classics are the classics,” Berry replied. “You can listen to ponies jiving and wailing in your own time. My bar, my rules okay? So that means my music. You want to have ponies ears bleeding while they drink their troubles away, go ahead and open your own bar.”
“Might serve you well, anyways,” Berry thought to herself. “After all, you deciding to do something for yourself, without me making you do it, might just be the medicine that you need.”
Vinyl laughed a little and Berry smiled to herself, she hadn’t seen her friend genuinely laugh at one of her own remarks in ages. So Berry knew that in some regard, she was doing something right.
“It’s the small things, after all,” Berry reminded herself. “Don’t shove her too hard, but make sure she’s out and about in the world, even if it’s only for a few hours drinking a few cheap shots.”
“Oh, now I know you’re just thinking away to yourself, and feeling sorry for me like I’m some helpless puppy,” Vinyl sighed in annoyance. “I’m not useless, I can do a few things for myself. And I will eventually get out in the world again Ber, so why don’t you stop worrying over me and start circle-jerking with the rest of these losers okay? I’m sure they’re in far more need of a listening ear than I am.” she continued. “I mean, that’s pretty much your job isn’t it?”
“I am just saying, Vinyl,” Berry replied. “I’m worried about you, and with good reason, I might add. No, I’m not thinking you’re some helpless little puppy dog, I know you can do a few things for yourself, aside from cleaning you silly mare.”
Vinyl conceded that one. She admitted she wasn’t the cleanest mare around, and housekeeping was basically less of a rule and more of a suggestion that Vinyl didn’t really care for.
“In any case,” Berry continued. “Weren’t you dancing to this song from the Guoxia Province the other day?” she asked having caught the mare dancing to one very strange song Berry couldn’t make heads or tails of. Granted, she supposed it probably would have made more sense if she’d paid more attention to her foreign language studies back in college. Berry chuckled at the irony, for all of the slacking off Vinyl had performed in her classes, she did actually have more than a passing interest in other languages. If only to sing songs from other countries.
“Yeah, so what of it?”
“Why not… Remix it or something?” Berry asked. “Give it a bit of a bump or something. You may have forgotten, but I haven’t. You used to be quite the little starlet on the music scene.”
“Yeah, well sometimes fame sucks, okay?” Vinyl replied. “Where were my fans when I lost my voice? Oh yeah, going on over to ‘the next big thing’ as they called it. They called me a washed-up mess, told me I was history.”
Vinyl looked understandably bitter at all of this.
“So you’re just going to prove them wrong?” Berry challenged in no mood for Vinyl’s shit tonight. “If you want to show them that you’ve still got a bit left in you, you actually need to go ahead and show them understand? So dust off the mixing machines and make some magic okay? There’s only one thing stopping you and that is… oh, you’re not even listening to me anymore are you?” she sighed.
Now Berry was following Vinyl’s gaze, and to be honest she could see what had grabbed her friend’s attention. A dark gray ashen coated mare, with a deep black mane -done up in very nice fashion- that matched her midnight dress perfectly. Very classy, and very interesting to say the least.
“Oh ho ho,” Berry said to herself. “So you are, in fact, a still perfectly functioning red-blooded mare after all eh Vinyl?”
“Evening,” the new mare said in this very upper-class accent that just oozed charm, and made Berry suddenly feel very, very inadequate. “Something to drink?”
“What’s your poison?” Berry asked as she looked at the mare, noting how the bar’s patrons just seemed to clean themselves up just a little at the sight of her.
“Manehatten or a Moscow Mule. Dealer’s choice really, it’s your bar after all,” the mare shrugged. “Surprise me, make it interesting.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Coltrane? Impressive.”
In the mare’s eyes -and Berry knew Vinyl saw it as well- blazed a passion for music. A fire, an unbreakable concentration for her craft. In hindsight, she knew that was the moment Vinyl’s fate was sealed.
“So, you know your jazz?” Berry asked with a pleasant surprise. “Finally!” she said in a cry of victory.
“I take it this is the first time that…”
“It’s been recognized?” Berry asked. “Yeah, most of the ponies here couldn’t care less about the music, more about their drinks. Really, so uncultured. Oh, never got your name Miss…?”
“Octavia,” the mare introduced herself. “Octavia Melody.”
“Of the Canterlot Symphony Orchestra?” Vinyl signed forgetting for the moment that Octavia may not have even known how to respond. To her pleasant surprise…
“Yes, actually,” Octavia said. “How do you even…?”
“I was at the Gala last year, during that whole mess with those six mares. The party was fun, till it sorta… well, devolved into chaos really. There’s actually no other word for it really. Chaos and discord.” Vinyl replied. “Actually, I must ask really. How do you even know…?”
“Oh, sorry,” Octavia replied. “I have a cousin who’s…”
“Oh, my sympathies. You can talk without the signs. I’m a mute, not deaf,” Vinyl said.
“Oh, oh… I see,” Octavia said. “I won’t pry into how you… well, it’s not my business. Wait a moment, I recognize you… Vinyl Scratch right? The whole music world was agasp when you practically up and vanished a year ago.”
“Oh, so some of them do care!” Vinyl signed back.
“Well, I’m not going to ask questions, your business is your own,” Octavia replied. “I can only presume it’s connected to… well, you know.”
“I thought you said you weren’t going to ask questions?” Vinyl asked.
“Sorry,” Octavia said in apology, having the decency to wince at her own foolishness. “Just know that if you decide to come back, you’re quite welcome to do so.”
“Yeah, I’ll believe that when I see it,” Vinyl remarked. “How do you even know about my work anyways? I don’t take you for the type of pony who would be a fan of dubstep.”
“And I didn’t take you for the kind of pony who would be a fan of classical.”
“Touche!” Vinyl admitted.
“But no, I’m not a fan,” Octavia explained. “However, one of my bandmates Noteworthy is. Massive fan, not a day goes by when I hear him babbling about you. Called you a genius. Well, I’ll take his word for it anyway.” she shrugged.
Octavia could have sworn she saw Vinyl look a bit misty-eyed at this, but elected to say nothing. It might have been just her imagination anyhow.
Berry watched the two banter back and forth over their respective tastes and smiled. Yeah, this -whether Vinyl actually realized it or not yet- was exactly what the doctor ordered. She could see her friend visibly brighten just talking to another musician, even if their tastes in songs wildly differed like fire and ice. She had to keep herself from laughing even as she mixed Octavia’s drink. This was definitely turning out to be quite a night!
Thanking Berry for her kindness, Octavia took a sip of her drink and smiled. “Simply elegant, Berry. Top of your craft.”
“Well, I wouldn’t go that far, but… Uh, I’ll take whatever praise I can get eh?” Berry said with a smug little smile. She turned to Vinyl and smiled before whispering: “Now go get her, just don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”
Vinyl blushed red. “Oh, shut up!” she sighed. “It’s not like that and you know it!”
Berry only laughed. “Whatever you say, dear. Whatever you say…”
“So, what was that about?” Octavia inquired.
“My friend’s an idiot,” Vinyl replied. “She’s basically trying to set me up with you, or thinks I have a crush on you or something like that.”
“Do you?” Octavia smiled.
“Well, I’d think I’d know if I did… right?”
“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind,” Octavia recited. “It’s a funny thing really. You never know it until it’s right up upon you, and even then it’s… too late.” she whispered to herself in a sad tone.
“You okay?” Vinyl asked.
“Yes… Yes. Apologies,” Octavia whispered. “Goodness me, I seem to be a wreck tonight, it has to be the liquor. Makes for loose lips.”
“Failed relationships?” Vinyl asked.
“Yes… Yes, I’ve had at least one,” Octavia admitted. “Or to be more accurate, a relationship that never came to be…”
“I feel sorry for them then!” Vinyl replied. “You are a wonderful pony, and for them to have missed their chance… well, they have only themselves to blame!”
Octavia smiled at her dabbing away at her suddenly wet eyes with a napkin. “Thank you… Oh goodness me, I do seem to be quite articulate tonight. Talking more about myself than should be… proper. And to a pony I barely know at that!”
“Eh, no biggie,” Vinyl said dismissively. “Blame it on the booze, makes for loose lips as you said. ...Hell, seems to be getting to me as well, because truth be told I’m… envious of you.”
“How so?” Octavia asked.
“You’re a member of the Symphony Orchestra,” Vinyl said. “Meaning you get all the ‘big gigs’. Me…? Not so much.”
“Yes, well… dubstep is hardly a respected art form now is it?” Octavia said in an almost complete deadpan.
“Excuse me?” Vinyl asked. “I got to play for Princess Cadence’s wedding, via personal request no less!”
“You are having me on!” Octavia shouted.
Vinyl, with a smug little smile, levitated a little photo of her and Pinkie out of her purse. And sure enough, the background was easily recognizable.
“Well, I am officially stunned speechless…” Octavia said before facehoofing as she realized how that could be taken. “...Apologies, again.”
“No, no. It’s fine,” Vinyl said. “Honestly, I hate ponies tiptoeing around me and my condition. I mean, it’s my problem so I’m allowed to laugh a little -so to speak- about it right?”
“Hmmm, true enough I suppose. Oh… Oh deary me…” Octavia said as soon as she was finished with her drink, wobbling a little. “I… I seem to be a little tipsy…”
“So basically you mean you can’t handle your liquor?” Vinyl asked her body shaking with the motions of a deep belly laugh. “Geez, talk about a lightweight! Come on, I’ll walk you back home.”
As Vinyl found, home didn’t seem to be the operative word for where Octavia was currently living. “Oh, right… Canterlot Symphony Orchestra, and the accent…” Vinyl admitted upon arriving at Octavia’s motel. “Of course…”
“Yes… Yes, I admit it isn’t much but all of the hotels in Ponyville were full. Tourist season and all that,” Octavia sighed in resignation. “It’s a bloody bad deal, but I make do.”
“That’s the thing though, for tonight at the very least you don’t have to,” Vinyl replied.
“Whatever do you mean?” Octavia asked.
“You’d consider us friends, right?”
“Well… I mean… I suppose…” Octavia considered. “We haven’t even known each other for a night so acquaintances at the very most I’d think…”
“Close enough,” Vinyl signed with a small little shrug of her shoulders. “Grab your things, you’re staying with me tonight. And that’s the end of it, no arguments!”
Octavia wanted to argue against it saying it would probably be improper or something along those lines, and then she saw Vinyl’s expression and knew this was a mare who would not take no for an answer. “Fine, fine…” Octavia conceded. “Just let me go get my cello okay? I’m not trusting it to be left all alone in a motel room.”
“I know that feeling,” Vinyl agreed. “I know I wouldn’t want to leave my baby, my mixing table, that I paid for out of pocket in some crappy motel room for a night.”
Octavia smiled. That smile was soon to fade as soon as she saw the state of Vinyl’s house. “Goodness gracious Vinyl, do you not believe in…?”
“Cleanliness?” Vinyl asked before flopping herself down on her very messy couch. “Nope, not really. The way I see it, it’s my home so I get to live how I like, right? Make sense?”
Octavia had to roll her eyes. “Yes, be that as it may, I will be taking up shack with you tonight. And in my mind, cleanliness is next to godliness. So to that end,” Octavia said shuddering a little as she picked up an empty ramen cup and tossed it in a nearby trash can. “At least for tonight, I will be making this place something a little better than a hazardous waste dump.”
“Oooh, you going to put on a Prench Maid’s outfit while you do that?” Vinyl asked surprising even herself with her boldness. She gasped, was it even possible that…? No, it couldn’t have been. She’d only just now gotten to know her new friend.
“I saw that!” Octavia exclaimed flushing red.
After giving the place a good dusting, and tossing any trash out into the garbage, Octavia sunk down into the folds of the couch herself. “Really, you seem to have let yourself go,” the mare noted. “I… I apologize if I sound critical or concerned here, but is… everything all right? It’s like you don’t care about… Well, what am I saying, of course you don’t care about what others think of you. That manestyle alone is proof enough of that! ...And by Celestia I’m rambling.”
Octavia began flushing a bright red at this.
“No, no… it’s sweet actually…” Vinyl said. “You’re like a mother hen in some regards. Loathe as I am to admit it, I am… sorta glad somepony’s looking out after me. Even if I’ll never tell Berry about it. Promise you won’t say a word to her?”
“I won’t say a word,” Octavia smiled. “Really though, you must give some… token of appreciation towards Berry, as if you say she’s looking out after you like some sort of older sibling then if I was her, I’d love to know all of my efforts aren’t completely in vain.”
“Yeah, yeah…” Vinyl signed. “I suppose… It’s just I’m the type of mare who likes to look after myself really. I’m stubborn like that.”
And look how that turned out, a nasty little voice in the back of Vinyl’s head said to her. She tried to pay it no mind, but it just kept talking to her. Reminding her of how her carefree don’t give a crap lifestyle just ended up with her in the hospital and without a voice. Absentmindedly, Vinyl found herself walking over to her mixing table and running a hoof along the controls.
“Vinyl?” Octavia asked in a concerned tone. “Are you… alright?”
“I’m… I’m fine…” Vinyl signed.
Octavia looked like she didn’t believe her, but decided not to press any further on the matter. Vinyl’s business was her own, after all.
Vinyl meanwhile was remembering, on how she used to enjoy mixing up tracks -even if only as experiments for the hell of it- on this table and gave a sad little smile. How far she had fallen, she sighed to herself. How far indeed.
“Goddess, I’m pathetic.” she thought to herself. And then she remembered something else. Something her newfound friend had said earlier in the night.
“Octavia… what did you mean when you said you were… envious of me?” Vinyl pressed gently.
“Oh, you caught that didn’t you?” Octavia asked. “...Curse these bloody loose lips of mine… Well, I suppose there’s no other choice than to be out with it. Yes, I’m envious of you.”
“But why?” Vinyl had to ask. “I mean, you have the more respectable art form musically right? By all rights, you shouldn’t even be thinking about me and my wubs.”
“Yes, perhaps,” Octavia sighed. “But then again, classical is only respectable to a certain set, and to the wider audience, and by that I mean the younger crowd it’s your genre of music that’s on the rise. Time and time again, I find myself being pushed from the concert halls in favor of… your music.” she said with no small amount of bitterness.
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry…” Vinyl replied. “It’s not like I mean to push you from your old venues.”
“No, no, of course you don’t,” Octavia said fighting back a bitter laugh. “It’s just the way the dice rolls and all. Musical tastes do change, really. That’s just how life is, really. That’s just how ponies are. You want them to stay with you, but…”
“...They never do…” Vinyl finished.
“You sound as if… Oh Celestia above, you DO know!” Octavia realized fighting back tears.
“Of course I know,” Vinyl signed turning back to look at Octavia with no small amount of sadness. “After my… accident, the one that made me lose my voice that was practically the end of most of my fanbase. They just…”
“Moved on?” Octavia said placing a comforting hoof on her shoulder. Vinyl let out a sharp gasp, feeling the mare’s breath so close to her. “Well, if that is the case than they were not really worth keeping around as fans in the first place, if they’re willing to dump you for the next pony who comes up the block.”
“Yeah, that’s what Berry keeps on telling me.”
“Ever considered the fact that maybe she’s right?” Octavia asked raising an eyebrow.
“Perhaps, yes,” Vinyl replied. “And perhaps Berry’s right. If I really want to prove that I’m not just a one-note pony -if you excuse the pun- then perhaps I need to try something new. What that is, I don’t know yet, but as soon as I find the inspiration…”
“That’s the spirit!” Octavia chorused and in spite of herself, Vinyl found herself grabbing onto Octavia and hugging her tightly. Octavia flushed. “...Um… yes… thank you.”
“No, thank you…” Vinyl replied before releasing her from the hug. “Oh… yes, sorry.”
“It’s… it’s fine…” Octavia admitted. “It… felt nice. Like, really nice. Maybe it’s just the liquor talking or something but that was very nice. Just even talking to you is very nice. Oh goodness me, I’m usually a very articulate pony but look at me now. I’m just babbling nonsense aren’t I?”
“It’s only nonsense if nobody else understands you.” Vinyl replied, the two now very close to one another. Her heart was beating faster, like the backbeat pulse of the bass. “...Isn’t it?”
“Yes… yes, I suppose it is,” Octavia smiled, looking very flushed. Whether that was due to the liquor or something else Octavia didn’t particularly care at that very moment. “I suppose it is, isn’t it?”
And then she closed the gap between them, Vinyl accepting her with a happy eagerness. The beating of their hearts reached a crescendo and just for that moment everything in the world was alright. Vinyl made a note to thank Berry later. But for the moment, she had other concerns.
Morning came and with it the changing of times for one Vinyl Scratch. She’d met Octavia at the station, the mare having to return to Canterlot. “My address,” Octavia said before handing Vinyl a slip of paper. “...And a ticket for my show. I… I don’t know if you’ll be there, as I know classical isn’t-”
Vinyl cut her off with another kiss, prompting a few whispers from Octavia’s bandmates. She ignored them. If they wanted to talk, then she would let them. “I’ll be there,” Vinyl said. “If only for you. Classical isn’t my genre, but I think I can make an exception if only for you.”
“And I think I can make an exception for your wubs.”
That particular statement sent Vinyl into an indescribable high. She simply couldn’t wait for their second date.
And so it was with a smug smile Berry found Vinyl in her bar later that night once more. She would say nothing, and instead just watched as Vinyl happily explained away about her new marefriend, and some of the songs she composed or helped to compose. As it turned out, Vinyl had paid a surprise visit to the record store and to the surprise of everyone had asked for a record on the Orchestria just to see what her marefriend had created.
Feeling like she was on cloud nine, as soon as she could Vinyl made her way back home and began mixing her own sound with that of the Orchestra. Or to be more precise, that of a lonely cello’s sounds with that of her own. In her own words, it was nothing short of a masterpiece.
And of course, Vinyl when the time came paid a visit to the orchestra where she watched her marefriend create art, and if anyone were to talk about a scruffy punk maned DJ at the orchestra? Well, that Vinyl would consider to be a very good thing indeed. After all, if certainly brought more attention to Octavia which of course was the entire goal really.
“You know, perhaps you should listen to me more often, hmm?” Berry asked her friend over lunch. “After all, here you are back at the top of your game and with a new marefriend to boot.”
“Don’t sound so smug Ber,” Vinyl said. “It doesn’t suit you. Like, it really doesn’t.”
Vinyl then spotted Octavia walking over and gestured with a hoof for her marefriend to come meet her oldest friend.
“So, this is the mare who keeps my friend on the straight and narrow?” Octavia asked. “It’s so nice to finally meet you properly, like as friends instead of just patron and bartender.”
“Likewise,” Berry smiled. “Now you hold on tight to Vinyl, okay? Don’t let her slip away. A mare like her, she only comes along once in a lifetime.”
And Vinyl knew she wasn’t just speaking to Octavia. “Of course not, after all, she gave me my new lease on life did she not?”
FIN
Author's Note
So... yeah. This was a fun, if not challenging little piece to write. For one thing, it's been ages since I've written Octavia and her particular personality so half of the time I was just guessing on how she would react to particular things.
And don't get me started on Vinyl. I've never actually written a mute character before, so there were particular things I had to take into account and adapt to. Still, all in all, I think I did a pretty good job writing an origin story for how these two met, don't you?
Well, maybe not but that's what you guys are for. To leave feedback and tell me where I cocked up.
