Second Chances

Second Chances
By Hero541
Chapter 16: Let’s Begin, Shall We?

Josh sat in front of Vinyl, his iPod blaring out music while he discussed the differences between dubstep and moombahton to the unicorn. He’d been helping Vinyl for a week now, and she was showing a fair bit more potential than before. At first, Josh had no idea what to start with as far as teaching the pony about electronic music. She hadn’t heard of any of the kinds of music he mentioned as they began, but now she was getting a feel for the differences.

It turned out, Vinyl had worked at a radio station before she’d moved in with Octavia. The job paid pretty well, and she definitely loved playing the music for the station’s broadcasts. Because of that, she decided to try and become a producer. However, her understanding of how a song is structured and composed was fairly limited, making it hard for her to get patterning and beats down just right. Eventually, she had to move in with Octavia, as she couldn’t really support herself, not being able to do many performances.

Josh first addressed the issue of the differences in types of electronic music. His iPod, which had died long ago, was still on his person most of the time. Vinyl had used her magic to enchant the device, allowing its battery to never die. By using it, Josh could not only discuss with Vinyl the differences in types of songs, he could provide examples as well.

“So, you see,” he said, the latest song fading away, “moombahton is a more animalistic style of music. However, it’s still just a subset of dubstep. Does that make sense?”

“If it’s a subset, why does it have a different name?” inquired the unicorn, her head cocked in confusion, “Wouldn’t it just be easier to call it dubstep?”

“The whole reason it’s called something different is because a few guys didn’t want their music to be called something as mainstream as dubstep.” he replied, readying the next song to play, “They got all butthurt and made up their own name for it. That’s what I’ve always been told, at least.”

“Do you think of it as dubstep?”

Josh thought about it for a moment. He’d made some moombahton stuff in the past, and he didn’t see much of a difference apart from the more aggressive growls and synth in it.

“I suppose…” he said, trailing off in thought.

“Can I ask you a question?” asked Vinyl, peering at Josh, who was deep in philosophical thought about what he believed about dubstep and moombahton.

“You just did.” he chuckled, abandoning the thought for the moment.

“How’d you get to know all this stuff? I mean, you said nopony taught you how to make music.”

“That,” he began, scratching the back of his head, “is a very long story. One I’m afraid we don’t have time for today.”

Vinyl opened her mouth to protest, but as she prepared to speak, Octavia walked in the room.

“Josh,” said the gray mare, smiling at both of them, “your time is up. You may leave now.”

Josh acknowledged Octavia’s words, getting up and placing his chair back to its original place on the wall.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Vinyl.” he said, turning to head down the staircase.

“Wait!” she called after the human, trotting up to face him.

“Can I help you?” he asked, a little impatiently.

“I was wondering… if you’re free at some point tonight…”

Vinyl rubbed her forelegs together nervously, not looking at Josh. If he were to be honest with himself, he found the sight rather cute as the unicorn tripped over her words.

“W-would you like to hang out with me at the l-lake?”

“Vinyl, you cheeky little pony,” he said, smiling at the unicorn mischievously, “are you honestly asking your instructor out on a date?”

“Wha-No!” she said, flushing bright red, raising her hoof in defense, “I just… I really wanna… It’s nothing like…”

Josh knelt down so as to seem less intimidating to the flustered pony, “I was just kidding Vinyl. Calm down. I’d love to hang out with you at the lake tonight.”

Vinyl flushed even redder, but still peered at Josh past her blue mane, “You would?”

“Of course!” he replied, smiling at Vinyl warmly, “I’d just like to know where that came from all of a sudden.”

“Well,” said Vinyl, her blush dying down a little, “we’ve been meeting every day for a week now for lessons. I just figured you might wanna see me for once and not have to teach me something.”

Josh stood once more, not taking his blue eyes off Vinyl’s crimson-magenta ones.

“Makes sense to me. What time do you wanna meet up?”

“How about… 7:30.” said the mare, smiling widely, “Should I meet you at the boutique?”

“No, I’ll come here and get you. It seems more… appropriate that way.”

“O-okay!” said Vinyl, smiling a toothy smile, the squeaky noise occurring once more.

“Am I the only one who can hear that noise or something?” he inquired, looking all around for the source.

“What noise?”

“I swear to God! I’m not crazy!” he said, his eyes widening, “I know I keep hearing a noise!”

Vinyl just laughed at him, rolling on the floor and clutching her gut. Josh initially glared at the mirthful unicorn, but soon, he found it impossible not to laugh himself. Turning, he walked down the stairs and out the front door, headed back to the boutique. All he had to do now was wait for 7:30 to roll around so he could meet his "student" for a night at the lake.

*****

“… so, he wakes up and says ‘Why does my back hurt so much?’,” said Josh, as both he and Vinyl were nearly rolling with laughter, “and I just didn’t have the heart to tell him he got that giant tattoo. I let the girl he took home that night do that for him. She almost laughed him out of the room once she saw it!”

At that, both human and pony completely lost it, heaving with laughter and mirthful tears streaming from their eyes. After a few minutes, Vinyl regained enough control to be able to talk.

“Th-that’s j-just cruel.” she said, wiping her eyes with a hoof.

“It was pretty damn funny though.” replied Josh, sitting back up, wiping grass off his back.

“I could only imagine! I’ll bet you get involved in all kinds of stuff like that when you’re on the road, huh?”

Josh’s smile slipped a little as he thought about the things he’d done in recent years. At the time, it was all fun and games, but now, it seemed foolish and cruel. All the hearts he’d broken, all the people he’d conned into giving him anything he’d wanted. A wave of guilt hit him as he thought about his past.

“You okay?” asked Vinyl, peering closer at Josh’s face, which had changed expressions rather quickly, “You look like you’ve got something on your mind.”

“I’m fine.” he replied simply, looking out towards the water, watching the sun setting beyond the mountains, making the lake glow a brilliant gold color, “Just thinking about home.”

“What’s it like where you’re from?” asked Vinyl, sidling closer to Josh.

“It has its nice points. A lotta beautiful places all around. It always did rain a lot though.” he said, thinking back to his life in Oregon.

“I love the sound of rain. It’s really soothing sometimes, ya know?” said Vinyl, thinking about the sound of rain.

“It can be. Till you realize it’s been raining for the past 24 hours and it shows no sign of letting up.” replied Josh, chuckling a little.

Vinyl giggled slightly at that. The two then sat in a companionable silence for awhile, one thinking of the other.

“Ya know,” began Vinyl, Josh turning his head towards her, “you never did answer my question this morning.”

“What was that again?”

“How do you know so much about electronic music if you were never taught by anypony?”

“A lot of what I know comes from personal experience.” he said, staring back into the sky, “My style isn’t something I was taught. I just developed it over the course of a few years. The same goes for my knowledge of the genre. It wasn’t ever something I could be taught.”

“How’d you even get started doing this?”

“Well,” he began, his gaze remaining on the sky, “I had a friend who worked at a rave club. He’d said they were in need of a new DJ, and I loved music like that, so I applied to work there. After awhile of being everyone’s go-for, I was allowed to DJ a party one night. I immediately fell in love with it.”

He smiled a little, thinking back on that first dance he ever covered before continuing, “I loved it so much, I decided I’d figure out how to make that kind of music. I had saved up a bunch of money and used it to buy everything I needed, from a controller to a mixer and speakers. From there, I started developing my music and worked the underground for awhile.”

“Is that how you got so famous?” asked Vinyl, listening intently to Josh’s story.

“Pretty much. I got my first record deal from there, then, next thing I knew, I was featured on every major electronic music site and page. Almost overnight I became a dubstep sensation. The rest is history from there, I suppose.”

Vinyl stared at Josh, her mouth agape. He turned his gaze towards the mare, smiling as she looked away, blushing bright red.

“That’s really cool.” she said simply, shifting away from Josh slightly, “I wish I had a cool story like that.”

“You’ve got more potential than you can imagine, Vinyl.” said Josh, grabbing the unicorn’s chin and forcing her head up to look into her eyes, “One day, you’ll have a story like that to tell. I promise.”

“Y-you really think so?”

“Absolutely.” he replied, smiling warmly at Vinyl, “I made it my mission to make you great, and I’ll be damned if I’m gonna fail at that now.”

Vinyl smiled at Josh. For a few minutes, they found themselves lost in each others eyes, unable to look away from one another. Josh couldn’t help but notice how beautiful Vinyl’s coat looked as the bright orange sunlight played off it, making her glow a vibrant color. He felt himself gravitating towards her, bringing his face closer to her own. Vinyl's eyes fluttered closed, awaiting the feeling of his lips against hers…

That sensation never came. Josh pulled away slowly, hearing a small whimper escape the mare as he did so. When she opened her eyes once more, it was to see him looking away and blushing. She smiled at the sight.

“Hey, Josh.” she said softly, standing up.

“Yeah?”

“Last one in the lake’s a rotten dragon egg!”

With that, Vinyl sped off, kicking sand up behind her and into his face. He spluttered as it hit him. Soon, he heard splashing and sloshing, and opened his eyes to see Vinyl in the water, sticking her tongue out at him.

“No fair!” he shouted, removing his shirt and taking his things out of his pockets, “You surprised me!”

“Poor sport!” the unicorn called back, beginning to backstroke across the water.

Josh looked to his left and noticed a tire swing. He ran over to it and placed his foot into the tiny rubber circle, taking careful aim near Vinyl.

“GERONIMO!” he yelled, swinging in a wide arc, landing in the water and causing a huge splash.

He shot to the surface, looking for the unicorn, who seemed to have disappeared. As he turned to look for her, a pair of hooves pressed on his shoulders, forcing him underwater. He grabbed one hoof and pulled its owner under with him. Upon resurfacing once more, he heard laughing and saw Vinyl right in front of him, a huge smile on her face. The two played and splashed for another few minutes, both wearing huge smiles as they enjoyed the water and each other’s company.

After awhile, both agreed that it was probably a good idea for them to head home for the night. Josh collected his things after Vinyl dried him off with her magic. He walked the unicorn mare home, talking and laughing with her the whole way. Octavia yelled at him once Vinyl was inside the house, saying how stupid it was for him to allow her friend to get in the water like that and risk getting her sick. Josh simply apologized to Octavia, saying it’d never happen again.

From there, Josh made his way back to the boutique, turning back to the house once more. He saw Vinyl standing at her bedroom window, waving at him. Josh returned the gesture, and continued back towards Rarity’s place. He was tired and cold, but also happier than he’d been in a long time. I don’t know that I ever want this feeling to end he thought as he made his way down the street.