Second Chances

Second Chances
By Hero541
Chapter 17: I Have A Gift For You

Over the course of the next week, Vinyl had shown marked improvement. She now understood the differences in the music styles, and her compositions were nearly flawless. Josh felt she was ready for work on some equipment type stuff. There was only one problem: she didn’t have much in the way of equipment.

Josh sat in the Carousel Boutique, thoughts racing through his head as to what he could do to combat this issue. Sweetie Belle sat curled up on his lap, sleeping peacefully as he lightly stroked her curly mane. He figured that none of these ponies would even know how to spell synthesizer, let alone have one. They probably didn’t have a jogwheel controller with faders and storage tracks either, and he knew they didn’t have computers either. Kinda hard to have one if there’s no internet connection…

Rarity walked into the room, spotting Josh.

“Hello, darling.” she said, smiling at him.

Josh shushed her, pointing to the sleeping filly on his lap.

“Oh,” whispered Rarity, putting a hoof to her mouth, “my apologies.”

“It’s okay. She had a hard night last night. Couldn’t stop having nightmares, so I picked her up and held her for awhile till she was able to calm down. Still didn’t sleep real well though.” said the human, peering down at the little unicorn in his lap.

“Dear, you need your sleep as well.” said Rarity, placing a hoof on her sister’s, “You can come get me if you ever need her to calm down. You get up so early in the morning now…”

“It’s fine Rares, really.” he said, smiling at the mare, “I don’t wanna trouble you if I can handle it.”

“It’s no trouble at all, darling. You need me at all, don’t be afraid to grab me.”

Josh smiled at Rarity, and the mare returned it. They both sat in silence for awhile, watching Sweetie Belle’s tiny body move up and down with each breath.

“So,” said Rarity, walking over and laying on the couch nearby, “how’re things with Vinyl going so far?”

“She’s showing some serious improvement as of late. It’s incredible how much better she’s gotten so quickly. I think she’s ready for the hardware type stuff now.”

“Hardware?” Rarity asked quizzically, raising a questioning eyebrow.

“Yeah. Like controllers, monitors, loaded tracks. All the same kind of stuff I use back home.”

“Darling, I think you’ll be hard pressed to find things of that nature here.”

“Yeah. I know. I’ve been trying to find a way to get what I need, but there just doesn’t seem to be anything I can do.”

Josh lost himself in thought once more. He knew that Vinyl had a turntable at least, but that’s about all it was. There was no kind of faders or anything on it he could use to really play with the sound when he wanted to. If only he could just somehow trade it out for something else…

“You know, dear,” said Rarity, rising from the couch and heading for the stairs, “if I were you, I’d go see Twilight. She’s unbelievably smart, and an excellent problem solver. If anypony would be able to help you, it’d be her.”

With that, Rarity made her way up the stairs, headed for her inspiration room. Josh mulled over her words. Twilight was smart, that was for sure. However, he somehow doubted she’d know what half the stuff he’d say is. I’ve got nothing to lose though he thought, continuing to stroke Sweetie Belle’s soft mane.

*****

“I’m not allowed to send you home. You know that, right?”

“That’s not why I’m here. Can I come in? I need to talk to you.”

Twilight stepped out of the way, allowing Josh to duck in and enter the library. The unicorn closed the door behind him, then walked out to face the human.

“What can I help you with?” she asked, trotting over to a nearby cushion and patting the one next to her.

“I’m wondering if you can help me get some stuff.” said Josh, walking over and sitting next to Twilight on the small cushion.

“I can certainly try. What is it you need?”

Josh bit his lip, “I need you to try and help me get some sound equipment. It’s for Vinyl. She’s doing absolutely fantastic right now, and I think she’s ready to move on to the hardware side of things.”

“Doesn’t she already have some stuff you can use?” Twilight asked, cocking her head in confusion, “She is a DJ after all.”

“The stuff she uses is… not all that great. I can’t really work with what she has right now. That setup really needs an upgrade.”

“Okay. So what do you need exactly?”

“Well,” said Josh, thinking back to his home studio, “I need a controller pad with good jogwheels, faders, and loaded track sets. I’ll also need a good pair of DJ headphones, preferably ones that can handle a lot of bass. Oh, and I’ll need a good computer tower that has at least two monitors and some production software. Plus, a few speakers and things like that.”

Twilight simply stared at Josh. He could have sworn he heard her brain break as her gaze stared right through him. That was about the reaction he expected.

“I don’t even know what half of that is.” she said, finally finding her voice.

“I figured that’d probably be the case.” he said, a little disappointment entering his voice.

“I’m really sorry, Josh.” she said, placing a hoof on his shoulder, “I wish I knew what to do. But, I can’t just find all that stuff here.”

“It’s okay, Twi.” said Josh, disheartened at the thought that he’d failed, “It’s not your fault. I shouldn’t have expected any of you to even know what that stuff is.”

As he walked towards the door, he thought about how he’d never be able to let Vinyl experience what he had back home. The excitement of creating dubstep, setting up everything perfectly, watching it all fall in place. At this point, the last thing he wanted to do was let down the cream colored unicorn…

“Unicorn.” he said, an idea dawning on him.

He turned back to Twilight, “Can unicorns transform things with their magic?”

“Well, yeah.” she said simply, “We can. Why?”

“Maybe, and this is a bit of a long shot, but you can probably just transform some things into what I need.”

Twilight bit her lip, “I probably could. There’s just one problem.”

“What’s that?”

“I can’t transform it if I can’t envision what I’m making.”

Josh’s shoulders slumped once more. Of course, it would probably help to be able to see what you’re making. He sighed, racking his brain for anything that could be done…

“Twilight,” he finally said, unable to think of anything, “this isn’t just for me. It’s for her, so she can move up to the next level. I promised to make her the best, and I’m gonna stick to that promise.”

Twilight smiled at Josh, walking up to him and standing up on her hind legs. She wrapped her forelegs around his midsection, hugging him tightly.

“You really care about her, don’t you?” she said, peering up at him from her position.

Josh said nothing, simply nodding at the lavender unicorn wrapped around his chest.

“If that’s the case, then I’ll do my absolute best to help you. I promise.”

Josh felt a lump build up in his throat as Twilight returned to four legs, still smiling at him. He quickly suppressed the urge to cry, turning to the door and opening it.

“You’d better come with me. We’re headed to Octavia’s house.”

*****

Josh and Twilight stood in the small shed behind Octavia’s house. It was almost completely empty, save for a work table at the far end. Twilight questioned if the building was too small, but to Josh, it was perfect. His studio back at home wasn’t really much bigger than this space anyway.

Once they had arrived at the home, Josh told Octavia their plan to create the equipment they needed for Vinyl. At first, Octavia doubted they’d be able to create everything they mentioned, but Twilight said she could establish a mental connection with Josh and use his image to make it all. Upon hearing that, Octavia agreed to let Josh use the shed as a studio, pointing out that she never went out there anyway. She also agreed to distract Vinyl and give them enough time to work.

“You sure you’re okay with this Twi?” he asked, looking to the lavender unicorn stood beside him, “I can only imagine this’ll take a lot of magical power to do…”

“I’ll be fine.” she said, smiling at Josh once more.

“Thanks again for this, Twilight. It means a lot.”

“If it’s for you and Vinyl, I’m happy to help. Now, shall we get started?”

Josh nodded, then knelt down to be at eye-level with Twilight.

“Now remember,” she said, sitting on her haunches, “it’s important that you not take your eyes off of mine. For the connection to be established and the image transfer to be successful, we need absolute focus.”

“Got it.” he said.

“You ready?” asked Twilight

Josh nodded, then stared into Twilight’s violet eyes. Her horn began to glow as he did so, and a strange sensation filled his head, one that oddly felt like fingers prodding his brain softly. For some time, the feeling persisted, causing Josh to squirm slightly in discomfort. Thankfully, Twilight was quick in her work, and before too long, the odd sensation had begun to subside.

“Think of what you need now and I’ll transfer the images into my own head.” Twilight said, her eyes still locked on Josh's.

The young producer began to think of his home setup, all the equipment he used and needed. The prodding sensation in his head soon returned as Twilight began pulling the images away from his mind. He could almost feel them being copied and pulled out as he struggled to maintain constant eye contact with the lavender unicorn. Twilight’s horn glowed brighter as she pulled out everything she could. Finally, with a relieved sigh, the glow died down and she broke eye contact with Josh.

“You get it all?” he asked, blinking rapidly to moisturize his eyes.

“I think so.” she replied, sticking out her tongue and probing her brain for the images.

She turned to face the table at the far end of the shed. Powering up her horn, she focused on the image in her mind. Soon, the table was enveloped in a purple aura and began to shift and change. In the next few moments, a soundboard and mixer sat where the table used to, its buttons and jogwheels emitting a bright blue light.

Josh walked up to the table, smiling at the familiar sight. He turned the synthesizer attached to the board on and heard a bass kick emanate from the device. Pressing a few buttons, he halved the speed of the beat several times, before dropping the frequency. He then turned a knob on the top, causing it to begin to make a wobble sound. A huge smile came across his face as he heard the familiar noise issue forth.

“This is perfect, Twi!” he said, turning the device off and turning back to the unicorn.

She beamed with pride at her accomplishment.

“There’s more where that came from too!” she said, turning back to the table and setting back to work.

*****

“Where are we going, Josh?”

“Just be patient, Vinyl. And no peeking!”

Vinyl sighed as she followed behind Josh, who was leading her by her hoof, blindfolded. She’d spent the majority of her day shopping and spending time with Octavia, an activity she enjoyed from time to time, but one which Tavi made unbearable by forcing Vinyl to stop at almost every shop they came across. Once the two friends had returned home, Josh showed up out of nowhere and said he had something to show Vinyl. From there, he’d placed this blindfold over her eyes and was now leading her to… Celestia knows where.

“Is the blindfold really necessary?” she asked, walking awkwardly as Josh held her front hoof.

“It is if you wanna be surprised. We’re almost there. Don’t worry.”

Vinyl heard the sound of a door opening as Josh pulled her along. They walked a few more feet before stopping on a hard wooden floor.

“Okay, you can take off the blindfold now.”

Vinyl removed the obstruction and looked around the room. Directly in front of her was a new soundboard and mixer, as well at a small, single record turntable. Along with that, there were two bright glowing monitors up above the whole setup, all or which wired into a large gray tower underneath which hummed softly.

“Welcome to your new production studio, Vinyl.” said Josh, smiling at the unicorn mare whose mouth hung agape.

“How… what… why… I-I can’t believe this!” she stammered, rushing forward to examine everything before her eyes.

“Twilight and I got it all set up for you while you and Octavia were gone.” said Josh, watching as Vinyl began playing with knobs and pressing buttons, “It all runs on it’s own. No electricity required! Plus, it’s got all the amenities a dubstep producer could ever want.”

Vinyl hardly heard Josh begin to explain what everything was. She was to enthralled that somepony had cared enough to do something like this for her. She looked to Josh, tears of happiness pricking the corners of her eyes as he pointed to different things on the controller.

“… and these are jogwheels. They’ll be something we’ll work with later-whoa!”

Out of nowhere, Vinyl rushed forward and hugged Josh tightly, tears of happiness falling from her eyes.

“Thank you so so much, Josh!” she said, peering up at him with watery crimson-magenta eyes, “You don’t know how much this means to me!”

“It was nothing, Vinyl.” he said, smiling at her, “Really.”

“It’s not nothing, Josh. Nopony’s ever done anything like this for me. Other than Tavi, no others have even given me a legitimate shot!”

Josh returned Vinyl’s embrace, “Well, then thank God I’m not like most ponies, I guess.”

Vinyl giggled at that, nuzzling Josh’s chest as happy tears began to fall from her eyes. As the two held each other for awhile, Octavia peered through the door, a smile on her face as she looked at Vinyl. For the first time in what seemed like forever, she saw a genuine look of happiness upon her friend's face, a sight which warmed her heart immensely. She silently left the two to their business as they broke apart and Josh continued explaining the setup to Vinyl, the cream colored mare hardly able to hold back her excitement the entire time.