À Deux

by Supermarine_Spitfire

Rating: everyone
Tags: Octavia, Starlight Glimmer, DJ P0N-3, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 2698

After a creative drought, Vinyl and Octavia try an unusual way of collaborating.

Even for accomplished musicians, inspiration is a fickle beast. With little to show for their latest collaboration, Vinyl Scratch and Octavia resort to less-than-conventional ways to stoke their muse.

Originally written for the Writing Snippets posts on /r/mylittlepony (this one specifically). Many thanks to Comma Typer for pre-reading this story; I am grateful for their assistance.

Published 2020-09-24 00:20:00 UTC
Last updated 2020-09-24 00:20:00 UTC

For Two

"Yo, Tavi." Vinyl Scratch cantered over to Octavia Melody's side. Her forehooves slammed on the dining table in front of Octavia, rattling the dishes set there.

Octavia glanced up from her newspaper with a frown on her face. "Good morning, Vinyl. You're up early. Given all the late-night performances you've done this past week, that you are awake before noon is a miracle."

"Tiredness ain't nothing a few energy drinks can't handle!" A sharp crack came from Vinyl's direction as she opened a tall can of the sugar- and stimulant-filled beverage. The unicorn took a long swig of the noxious brew before shooting out an uncultured belch. "Yeah, that hit the spot."

"Vinyl, I'm concerned." Octavia's eyes shifted back to Vinyl's face. "Ever since you came across those energy drinks in Manehattan, you never go a day without taking one. Drinking too many sodas certainly can't be good."

Octavia set her newspaper down on the table and spun it around so Vinyl could read it. "Look here. The paper says the government opened an investigation into energy drink makers."

Vinyl briefly looked down at the newspaper. "Tell you what, Octy" — she smirked as the cellist gritted her teeth — "I'll give up my energy drinks if you give up your breakfast tea."

Octavia snorted. "First of all: do not call me 'Octy.' You know I don't like that nickname. Secondly" — she narrowed her eyes and pressed her ears against her head — "you will have to pry my breakfast tea from my cold, dead hooves."

Her companion snickered at the retort. "Guess I'll keep having my drinks." Vinyl threw her head back to down the rest of her energy drink in two long gulps. She tossed it over her shoulder, where it hit the ground with a metallic clatter.

"You're such a slob, Vinyl." Octavia pulled herself out of her chair and cantered over to the abandoned beverage can. She took a shaky breath before lowering her head towards the can.

A magenta aura surrounded the can before Octavia could grasp it with her jaws. It zipped right past her muzzle before it found its place with all the other recyclables in the recycling bin. Amidst the din of clattering metal and glass, Octavia blinked before spinning to face the table.

Vinyl threw up her hooves and flattened her ears. "What, you'd think I'd make you pick that up with your mouth?" With the can hovering in her magic, the unicorn trotted over to Octavia's side. "What type of roommate do you take me for?"

"The type that keeps her side of the house in careless decay?" An eyebrow is raised. "Speaking of keeping house: you really need to pick up your records. One of these days, I'll accidentally crush them underhoof."

"Alrighty, Mum." Vinyl trotted out of the kitchen. A few faint clicks came past the door, which give way to the buzz of speakers awaiting audio input. "Hey Tavi! Come in here!"

"What is it, Vinyl?" Octavia made her way to the living room. The moment she set all four of her hooves on the wooden floor of the living room, a mighty wall of sound hit her head-on. She clenched her teeth as her legs took her towards the source of the beat. Octavia's hooffalls, which would echo off the walls of their living room on a quiet day, were inaudible under bass and treble.

Directly opposite Octavia was Vinyl's creative space. A turntable coupled with a synthesiser sat on a stand in between two immense speakers. Behind the stand was the disk jockey, a hoof pressing the left side of her headphones onto her ear. She bobbed her head in time with the music heavy with electronic beats.

Rocking her head to the beat, Vinyl fixed her gaze on her roommate. "You know the project we're working on, the one you demonstrated to that School of Friendship counsellor a week ago?"

"Yes! I have my part!" but Octavia coughed violently. Having to raise her voice above Vinyl's music may be second-nature to her after living with her for years, but the strain it put on her voice was a side effect she never acclimated to. "However, I'm at a loss as how your contribution can harmoniously mesh with mine!"

Vinyl's ears perked up at Octavia's coughing fit. She hastily turned down her music. "Right, sorry 'bout that."

The disk jockey's head stopped bobbing. She flashed an uneasy expression at Octavia. "I have an idea for how you can get around your composer's block." A sheepish smile came through. "It requires advanced magic though, which means we need a good and powerful magician."

Octavia's ears cocked back. "Who could we find on such short notice?"

"So, Octavia Melody, Vinyl Scratch: any reason why you reached out to me?"

In an aged armchair, Starlight Glimmer sat at right angles to the musical duo. To her muzzle she levitated a hot cup of black tea prepared in the Trottingham fashion with milk and sugar.

Vinyl leaned forward in the sofa on which she and Octavia sat. Turning towards her left, the synthesizing mare grinned at Starlight. "We wanna make a cello-dubstep album. Problem is, even though we're like two halves of the same whole or two sides of the same coin, reaching common ground is really hard." Her mouth lets slip a chuckle. "I mean, Tavi's classically trained while I'm just self-taught."

Octavia rested her hoof on the DJ's shoulder. "You're a great musician, Vinyl. Never forget that."

"Aw, thanks." After flashing a smile at her friend, Vinyl turned back to Starlight. "You see, we get along very well. Combining our musical styles, though? That's a whole other can of worms. That piece we performed for your school? It took us days to put together."

Starlight almost dropped her teacup. "It took that long to make a three-minute performance?"

"We spent most of the time throwing ideas at each other." Vinyl leaned back into the sofa. "You'd be surprised how differently we understand things like dissonance."

"I see." Starlight took a hot sip from her teacup, delicious energy rushing down her throat. "I'm sorry, but how do I fit into all of this?"

"Well, the easiest way of dealing with the communications barrier is to get rid of it." Vinyl jumped off of the sofa, raised her forelegs high into the air. "The two of us may be among the best in our own genres... but what if it isn't the two of us? What if it's just one of us but with both of our talents? With our powers combined, we can finally crank out the best music in the world for all time!"

She stared Starlight down in all seriousness. "So, what I'm saying is: Just fuse the two of us!"

Octavia's mouth dropped open. "Hold on a minute: this is what you meant?" She leapt off of the sofa and stood in between her modern-music friend and the school counsellor. "Do you hear yourself, Vinyl? This is crazy!"

Starlight merely blinked. "It's not too crazy." She set her near empty teacup down on the coffee table. "Fusion spells are a thing. But, they only last for a short time and are very difficult to cast."

"Cool!" Vinyl grabbed Octavia by the shoulders. "C'mon Tavi, this is our opportunity to finish our album."

"But, but what if it all goes wrong?" Octavia brushed Vinyl's hooves off her and spun around. "Starlight, are there any negative consequences?"

"In the hooves of a skilled spellcaster, you have nothing to fear." Starlight rose to her hooves. "I did look into these types of spells back in my, er, unsavoury past. It should be okay."

Octavia's eyes bounced between her two companions. Each had a smile on her face; Vinyl's was the larger of the two. Octavia kept this up for a few moments before she relented. "Very well. It's not like I have much to do anyway."

So she shut her eyes.

"Alright." A soft hum came from the direction Starlight was in. The tinkling of unicorn magic filled everypony's ears. "You'll feel a slight warmth as the spell runs its course; that's intentional. No sudden movements, and it'll all turn out okay. Got that?"

After seconds of that soft hum, a delicate and toasty presence enveloped the Earth pony. It was a presence that Octavia surmised was the magic from Starlight - clearly so: she could feel the experienced mage's raw power.

The magical essence wrapped around Octavia and grew in weight with each passing second. As it grew, another presence - another mind - could be felt faintly, bleeding into the energy that surrounded her. This presence grew ever stronger with Starlight's convulsing magic.

Everything turned to white. Octavia blacked out.

The world was a blur. The pony blinked a few times. Blurry shapes came into sharp focus. A headache subsided, albeit slowly.

"What hap-"

She slapped her forehooves to her mouth. The voice she heard was alien. Although an impartial observer would have described it as soothing, to the pony it may as well be claws on a chalkboard. Her voice did not match what she had in mind: they were two disparate voices, one refined and one raspy.

"What is this?" Her heart raced; her breathing, ragged. "What happened to me? Why do I sound like this?"

"I combined Vinyl and Octavia into you, remember?" Starlight cantered over behind the fused and confused pony. "And it seems they weren't the only ones that got fused."

The hybrid Vinyl-Octavia turned around to face Starlight. Her eyes widened as she dropped to her hindquarters. Soon after, her mouth fell open.

A most curious musical instrument floated in Starlight's magical grip. A cursory look revealed a curved body paired with a slender neck: the tell-tale traits of a cello. Even so, a discerning eye - or a less observant eye with enough time - could pick up on several significant differences between a standard cello and the instrument. Most obvious were the absence of the iconic f-holes and the presence of two turntables, one on each half of the instrument's top side.

"Wha- but how?"

Starlight shrugged, then rested a hoof on her chin. "I'm just as in the dark as you are." The experienced and nervous mage coughed. "Come to think of it, I don't have as much a mastery of the fusion spell as I said I did."

"How convenient you realised that after you cast the spell." The fused pony snorted.

Gazing upward, Starlight continued, "My concentration did waver when the spell was connecting the entities for fusion. I thought about how cello-dubstep music would sound, and looked at your cello and turntable... well Octavia and Vinyl's, since you're not exactly either of them."

"So, who am I, if not Vinyl Scratch or Octavia Melody?"

"As a fusion of those two mares, I'd say you're Scratchtavia."

The singular duo raised an eyebrow. "That sounds dumb."

"Okay, how about Vinyl Melody then? It references both your composite ponies' names yet can be its own thing."

The named pony tapped at her chin with a hoof. "Vinyl Melody. Vinyl Melody... I like the sound of that."

Starlight tilted her head and frowned. "On second thought, 'Vinyl Melody' is too close to 'Vinyl Scratch'. How about V.M.?"

V.M. brought a hoof to her neck. "Fine by me." She then noticed something wrapped around that neck. A downward glance unveiled Octavia's pink bow tie.

"Yeah, you now have everything they were wearing. Vinyl's sunglasses should be on your forehead."

"Is that so?" V.M. looked up, catching sight of a prominent horn protruding from her upper forehead and the glasses perched there. "Guess it's above my horn."

Starlight looked that way too. Her eyes travelled down and met the fused pony's own. There they stayed. An awkward silence permeated the living room.

"So, Starlight, I wanna get to what Vinyl Scratch and Octavia Melody - er, what I wanted to do in the first place." V.M. lit her horn and gently took control of the cello-turntable. As it floated over to her side, the fused pony scanned the room.

"Octavia keeps her bow with her cello, which means it should be right... there!" The bow levitated over to V.M. who wrapped her hoof around it. With the bow in tow, she brought her instrument right next to her body. V.M. reared up on her hind legs and prepared to play.

The bow came into contact with the instrument's strings. A short thud came from the cello-turntable. It was just like one of the ubiquitous beats Vinyl would have incorporated into her music. V.M.'s eyes widened. That's odd. Let's see: what happens if I draw the bow across the strings?

Octavia's finesse came to the forefront this time, as V.M. played a few chords. The warbling notes of the cello filled the room. This time around, the whine of a synthesiser harmonised with each chord she played. The music spilled out from V.M.'s hooves through the fused instrument and out into the living area in an increasing torrent. At the source of the music, V.M. shut her eyes. Let the music flow out. Don't force it. Only by surrendering my will to the whims of my music will I have any chance for inspiration.

Her eyes snapped open. She smirked as she twirled her bow, before bringing it into contact with the tool of her trade. The passes of V.M.'s bow were quicker, more confident. She struck down on the neck every so often, introducing electronic drumbeats into her music with every strike.

V.M. found her head bobbing up and down every so slightly. Come on, my muse!

The bow's motions became a blur. From the cello-turntable came peals of complex chords, bits of cello and electronic sounds all woven together in a tapestry that V.M. could call her own, one that most assuredly will draw the ire of the stuffy Canterlot types whom she, as Octavia, once saw as the arbiters of musical merit. Only with Vinyl's influence did she break free of her creative chains to make some of her greatest compositions.

In the most intimate collaboration V.M. could fathom, her composite ponies had come together to produce this most unusual piece of music. Here, in this unassuming home, would the fusion of two worlds be exemplified. V.M. would bring about Octavia and Vinyl's latest masterpiece, their piece de resistance.

"I got it. I've got it!" The fused pony roared in joyous laughter. "By Celestia, I have my inspiration!" She dropped her bow leg and let out an undignified groan. "Oh, my fricking leg! How does Tavi do this all day?"

Clopping hooves cut through the room's brief silence, gracing V.M. with a wide grin. Her hooves came together in quick, loud clops. "Bravo! Or is it brava?"

"'Brava' is for a mare, but almost nopony cares which one you use." V.M. trotted over to Starlight's side. "Thank you, for your enthusiasm. It really helps."

Blushes flared up on the mage's cheeks. "It wasn't much. You, well, Octavia Melody and Vinyl Scratch, get this a lot."

"You're right there. Still, it means we did well in engaging our audience. Our - my - mission is complete if we get that kind of response from our audience." V.M. set her cello-turntable on Octavia's cello stand. She lit her horn and, with her magic, placed the bow on the coffee table.

Starlight's mouth was ajar. "Is that it?"

"Nah. I just need to write down the melody." Another flash of V.M.'s horn brought a stand right up between the two unicorns. Several sheets of parchment settled on it. A fully inked pen rounded it out as it nestled in the crook of the stand.

"Right." Starlight settled back into her armchair. "Would you mind if I watched you finish your work?"

With a flash of V.M.'s horn, her pen's cap unscrewed before posting on the rear end of the pen. "No harm there. It's always nice to have company."

She glanced down at the parchment and penned the first notes of her creation.