Faithful Forever

Vinyl had been particularly hospitable to me after I had explained why I needed help (leaving out I was actually a human) despite this reaction however she was inquisitive of me, having never seen me before in Ponyville, which was expected. She seemed to notice my need as a sort of emergency, so had agreed to help me out, on the condition that I “try to keep up with her”. My guess was that she meant to take “no prisoners” on this endeavor.

With a wince at those words I had just nodded my head, and decided to get on with what was needed of me… And so it began.

At first it was a clumsy effort, my still new hooves thrashing around the room, flailing to get control of the many dials and switches in front of me, which weren't that easy to see considering the flashing lights that pumped up my nerves to get my body pulsing with energy, but still slightly disorientating my vision.

With the base, pounding my chest, penetrating my being, while the melodies rang in my ears and caused my arms to involuntarily punch the air, I could feel the beat shaking my leg to stomp the ground below me. I may have only just started to regain control, but that didn't mean that I didn't still slip up every now and again, each time I did I’d get either a bonk on the head from Vinyl or she’d get wound up and blurt out stuff like :

“Hey, Jack, you gotta, feel it man!”

And…

“Dude I’m not wubbing it!”

For a whole day, we went through everything from, cutting and EQ mixing, to beat matching and custom vocals. My ears ringing with pain from the intensity of the sound we had been producing together had me feeling like it had all been worth the hard effort I put into finding my place.

We took a short break and had a cup of coffee in the kitchen with Octavia later that day, and discussed the progress…

“Jack, you got skills, but you gotta home them in, keep coming by and we can get ya up to date, there’s no reason why you can’t make this yo destiny, but ya get too excited over it, level out, chill, feel it and wub on alright?”

I cocked an eyebrow looking at Vinyl with intent to store away everything she said; I leant back on my chair and stared at the worn dirty wooden cupboards behind Vinyl and the stack of dishes that still had yet to be done. Then leaning back forward again I stared at the Black and white checked floor, trying to compose a response while fumbling with the mug in my hoof.

“I understand what you mean, but how do you control yourself? I mean I almost can’t help it, I hear it and I just take off, I love it so much”.

“Yeah I hear ya” She Replied “But ya just gotta reign it in a little bit before you can master this, Personally I cool it, by stepping back while I play one song all the way through, no mixing, then I just get straight back to it”.

At this point Octavia swirled her mug and stared into the blackness of her coffee with sunken eyes that clearly hadn't slept properly for a while. Finding nothing more than her own reflection she said “To be Honest with you both, It was a Valiant effort you made today, your structuring and sense of direction in the music, helps you, but Vinyl is right, just don’t get too wrapped up in your idea’s.

She paused and giggled slightly looking at Vinyl with a knowing look briefly before looking back at me with her deep, Violet eyes.

“This one time I became so enthused with a solo that I had been honored with at the Canterlot Symphony arena that I actually ended up carrying on through the main verse and on-wards to the second solo all without stopping,” she giggled again and continued with “The funniest part was that I didn't even realize until the conductor came over to me at the end to give me a ticking of, and I almost laughed in his face while he ranted on”. She wiggled in her chair from the delight of such a memory, “ah that was a good time dear Jack, one of the best”.

I couldn’t help but applaud her, for such a level headed pony she really knew how to have a good time, it I could tell from the way she spoke so jokingly about her past experiences.

CLANK!

Vinyl placed her mug back on the kitchen table after knocking back the remnants of the Coffee and belched slightly, trying to cover her mouth with a hoof, for a moment I thought I saw her blush, with I wouldn't have expected from her.

“Look it’s been nice hanging with ya tonight Jack man, but I gotta’ scram to a gig I got over in the EvaRockin’ Club on the other side of town, and Pinkie Pie will have my ass, if I’m late”

I was going to say goodbye and leave, but a thought hit me.

“Hey do you reckon I could squeeze in on this?”

“Are you sure about that?”

She looked at me with a wonky unsure grin.

“Well yeah” I fired back “I could do with watching you a little more, and learning from it, and besides it’d be nice to mingle with the ponies in this town, get to know who’s who, and maybe make some friends”.

“Whatever Man,” Vinyl Shrugged

“You wanna have a good time then get ready, because I party hard” She grinned evilly at me and I smirked back at her as if to say “Bring it on”.

It was just starting to get dark and the blue sky of Celestia’s day had turned into an Orange and pink hue to signify that it was soon to be night where Luna would raise the moon. Recently I had begun to really admire the night time and sometimes would just stand and stare at the stars in the night sky with wonderment of what I was beholding.

I walked with Vinyl to the club she had been talking about, with a rather heavy flight case on my back, but holding back the fact that I was actually struggling a little bit (curse my weak legs).

Vinyl didn’t tell me what it was I was carrying but she said it would add an extra explosiveness to the sounds she’d be “Pumping”.

The lights in the near distance seemed to glow a bright assortment of various colours of Red, Blue, Green, Orange and was outlined by pink. (My guess by now was that pinkie must have owned the club, because the large circular building in front of me had a high conical roof with that appeared to be a Cupcake with a guitar shaped layer of frosting onto of it and lit up in glittery Pink lights.

Ponies from all over the town and indeed other towns were beginning to gather outside the place, in the queue to get into the club “Must be really popular place” I thought.

Vinyl as she walked began to drift off to the left hand side of the building, circulating around it until we were at the back entrance, at which point we went to enter.

SLAM!

In a blur of blue, a flurry of stars for a brief moment and a gargantuan amount of bright fluffy pink, Pinkie appeared in the doorway, making me leap back a few hoof paces in terror… annoyingly Vinyl didn’t flinch and just turned her head and smirked at me.

Pinkie on the other hand must have been in a good mood, because she continued this scene with…

“Hey There again, oh my gosh and you brought a friend, you’re really good at making friends, in fact just as good as me, well apart from the time when I was young, I didn’t have many friends at the time, but hey that was partially to do with how I got my cutie mark, I’ll tell you it sometime if you want, and we can sit around a camp fire and sing and dance and oh my gosh oh my gosh I could bring balloons with me and we could have a forest party, I bet even the timber wolves would wanna see that don’t cha think?”

Taking a moment to catch her breath, I took my opportunity.

“Hey Pinkie, you sca--- I mean you made me lose my focus”.

The pink mare laughed merrily and replied

“Aw I’m sorry, you OK now then?”

“Yeah I’m fine, I’m here to have a bit of fun, watch Vinyl, get some experience and make friends while I’m here”

“Hehehehehehehe well that sounds supersplendidolicious Jack, I’m sure you’ll have a great time”.

She winked at me and turned back to vinyl.

“Thanks for being early this time, we need some banging tunes tonight”.

Vinyl grinned again

“It’s always banging, Pinkie”.

“Good well then let’s get inside and get setup then.”

Pinkie led on and I followed her into the dimly lit room ahead of me.

The club was amazing to behold, it was a circular layout with predominantly a polished wooden dance floor in the center taking up most of the space, while around the edges of the room, there were red padded bench seats which were tucked up against the walls and cir-cum navigated the room, until they reached the slightly raised up stage area on my left as we walked in. It was incredible with large Sennhorser speakers stacked on top of each-other and suspended slightly high and on either side of the stage, then there was a neon green outlined desk in the middle made of a see through material that made the mixing setup look like it was floating. Looking closer I spotted Vinyl’s cutie mark in the middle of the desk, made of glass and lit up in blue (the colour of her aura).

At present the lights were flashing and a pre-set up playlist was booming throughout the room, whilst the strobes did their best to make the illusion of looking at a black and white artists flip book of a dance scene.

I could feel the sound beating in my chest, and offered no hesitation in allowing it to consume me.

Vinyl and I made our way around to the back of the stage under the cover of the darker lit area’s so as we could avoid being noticed. Once we were around the back, I dumped the heavy flight case that was on my back, onto the floor with a thud and groaned from having the weight lifted off of me.

A few swears and a couple of cable tangle’s later, I finally managed to get everything set up, with (what I eventually found out to be) Vinyl’s Bass Cannon, placed just to the left of her computer and mixing desk.

Now was the time for the party to get really heated. All around the Circular club, I could see ponies, dancing in the most intricate way’s some were by themselves others were with their special some pony, and some were with large groups, I even managed to spot Twilight dancing to no beat whatsoever with a weird squinting face as other ponies backed away and tried to ignore her random movements. The most prominent thing I noticed though was how the room was packed!

The volume was now cranked up to 11 and the floor felt like an earthquake, as the pace of the party in motion started to grow with every song that Vinyl placed on the decks.

As the party went on, Time seemed to slow for a moment as I began to stare at Vinyl, fascinated by the power she held in those two hooves, with every mix she made, and every track she played, I admired how the sweat was dripping off of her, showing just how much effort she was putting down just so that everyone else would have a great time. Something inside me at that moment pinged, something I couldn't put my hand-turned-hoof on. But whatever it was it felt amazing.

All of a sudden I was thrown from my trance, by a sudden frantic shake. Vinyl was staring at me grinning like a pony possessed.

“Yo Jack; get up here with me man”

“Are you serious?” I replied cocking an eyebrow and indeed my head to one side, highly curious as to why she would ask me such a question, seeing as my training with her was only pretty new.

“Yeah man, you gotta get experience somewhere right, heck you wanted this so go get it” she said placing a hoof on my shoulder.

Without another word, she suddenly pushed me hard up to the desk where here decks were playing towards the end of a playlist, for the next set.

Squinting as the lights on the stage blinded me briefly; I looked at the Pear Laptop in front of me and briefly wondered why most items had brand names that were like bad puns of brands back home. Shaking that thought away, I looked back up at the crowd who now were beginning to notice me on the stage and started looking with expectation of me. I almost panicked to get Vinyl back where I now was, but she just waved a hoof as if to say “Well go on, get on with it” which didn't help my confidence, by now the last song of the playlist began to draw to a close so I knew I had to act fast. I felt my ears flop and, my nerves tense up as the pressure began to build up.

Vinyl mercifully stepped up at this point, but instead of taking the reins (no pun intended) she grabbed the mic and began to introduce me.

“Hey what’s going on every pony, Hoping you’re having an awesome time, this is my very special guest tonight…”

She whispered into my ear “What’s your stage name?”

“I don’t have a stage name” I replied frantically shaking my head with a mixture of confusion and frustration

“Come on hurry up, I can’t keep them waiting”

“OK, OK… Um… DJ…D-Drak3?” I said tentatively

“That’ll do” She replied

Turning back to her audience, she went on again.

“Introducing for the first time, DJ Drak3”, she cried as she slowly began to back off the stage leaving me by myself again.

I gulped hard, I knew this was it; I looked back to the laptop to see a pair of pre-loaded tracks.

“Vinyl must have been planning this” I thought to myself.

With a quivering hoof, and hoping for the best…

I pressed the play button.