This New Rhythm

Story 5

Chapter 2: The Arrival

By: FluttersIsAwesome

"Vinyl? Vinyl? VINYL!"

I jerked myself awake as I heard Octavia calling my name. "Wha?"

She grabbed my head and turned it to the clock. It was 1:10 P.M. I looked up at her. "Crap, how long was I asleep for?"

Octavia smiled. "A decent while, friend. Come on, I already sent in your song, so let's hurry and go see the show."

I nodded and pushed myself up. We both left the house and Octavia led me into Ponyville proper. There was a giant stage set up in the middle of the street, and a huge crowd had gathered around.

Octavia, however, pulled status on them. "Excuse us, pardon. Famous musician here."

As she pulled me along with her to the front of the stage, ponies left and right parted to give us room to move. It was cool watching them move for me, but I felt kind of bad that Octavia was essentially taking advantage of me.

When we got to the front, Octavia smiled at me. "Here we are."

I grinned back. "Yep. This is gonna be cool." I wasn't even half as nervous as I was yesterday, I guess I just got overly worked up. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that although he was a well-known and famous musician, so was I. Even if my fame wasn't up in the same category as his, it was still fame. He was my idol, true, but I didn't get where I was by trying to be like him.

"Hey Octavia, didn't you say the show started at one?"

She shook her head. "No, darling, I said Sly would be arriving at one. They're still setting up right now."

It was as if somepony backstage heard her and decided to make a joke. We heard a loud voice that seemed to come from all directions.

"WHAT'S UP, HOMIES?! ARE YOU EXCITED?!"

We all knew it was Beat. The entire crowd started cheering, and sparks flew up from the stage as he jumped through the curtains and slid on his knees. "Helloooooo Homiiiieeees!"

As the crowd screamed, I took a close look at him. He was just like I remembered seeing on T.V.; his mane was jet black and spiked up, but it had that curious grey streak across it that always made me wonder if he dyed it. His fur was a light tan color which made his cutie mark stand out: a microphone between the two ends of a headset. His trademark headset with the mic attached was on his head as opposed to its ordinary position on his shoulders, too.

It took me a minute to take it in, but I let out a scream too as I realized that I was actually seeing Beat Dubstep in the flesh. True, I wasn't nervous anymore, and I hardly considered myself a swooning fanmare, but that didn't mean I couldn't be excited too.

---

This was always my favorite part of the job. Whenever I came up on stage and looked at the numbers of ponies I was gonna entertain that day, I couldn't help but smile each time. Fame and fortune was great, and all, but seeing ponies that enjoyed my music was much more gratifying.

I scanned the crowd, taking in all the faces, and I saw an ironic sight: my cousin Octavia was in the front row. I decided to make it a goal to catch up with her later.  I winked at her and she waved a little, causing the white unicorn beside her to raise a brow toward her. Now let me tell you, that unicorn had style. I finally took a deep breath and addressed my audience again.

"Wow, this is cool." The whole crowd hushed as I spoke.  "You guys are so awesome, you know that? Nothing in Equestria feels better than walking on stage and seeing all these faces." I decided to cut right to the chase; I knew all the ponies wanted to know about the contest I held, but I had a special surprise. "So I guess you all wanna know who won the contest, right? Well listen up!"

They all leaned forward jokingly as I pretended to whisper. "I chose not one, not two, but THREE submissions! Since I'm staying here for the whole of next week, I decided that I would spend each day with one fan. If you hear your piece in one of my songs, then that means you've won!"

The crowd started cheering again, but I held my hoof up to stop them. "I've set aside the last two days of the week for certain ponies, but the first three will be spent hanging out with the winners. Listen close, because I will ask the winner to come up after each song!" As they kept cheering, I decided to stop holding off. I was here to give my Homies a show, and a show I was gonna give them.

"Alright, guys, what do you say we GET STARTED?!" The crowd went wild and I grinned. "Alright then, let's get ROCKIIIIIIIIN'!!!"

---

I listened as he sang some of my favorite songs. Most of the stuff he did was from his days in Silverback, like "Hero", "How You Remind Me", and others. Then when he had everypony excited, he sang "Unsaid", but something was off about it.

I soon found out what was different.

"Who heard their piece there? Winner number one, COME ON UP!!!!"

I turned to see Pinkie Pie jump out of the crowd and onto the stage. It was hard to tell when she was excited, though, she was always bouncing.

He smiled at her. "And what's your name, Homie?"

When Pinkie grinned, it seemed like her mouth took up over half her face. "Pinkie Pie!"

Pinkie writes music? I thought about it for a moment, and somehow it both made sense and was the most confusing thing ever.

Beat paused for a minute. "Pinkie Pie? Really?"

She nodded, but Beat looked at her and raised his brow. "Uh... okay." I think he was just trying to mess with us by pretending to think her name was dumb, because he put an arm around her and shouted "CONGRATULATIONS PINKIE, YOU JUST WON AN ENTIRE MONDAY WITH SLYCOOOOOOOOLT!"

She began jumping up and down, clapping happily for a time until she decided it was time to get off.

Beat did two more songs and the second winner was Lyra. Octavia patted my back when he finished his last song and my piece didn't come up, but instead Cheerilee came on stage and won Wednesday.

I hung my head, assuming that he just didn't like my work.

---

As the show came to a close and ponies left for their homes, I stepped down from the stage and looked around for Octavia. I found her walking beside that white unicorn and called out to her.

"Via! Aren't ya gonna say 'Hi' to your cousin?!"

She turned to me and motioned for her friend to keep going, then ran up to me. It was always a pleasure to see a smile on her face given how rarely she actually did smile, at least from what I've seen.

I gave her a quick hug and returned her smile. "Now what are you doing here?"

Octavia shrugged apathetically. "Time off. I was bored, so I decided to come visit my friend Vinyl."

So her name's Vinyl. Cool. "The unicorn with the awesome hair? That's nice of you." Then I remembered her submission. "Via, why did you submit a piece to me? I know for a fact you're not into my kinda music."

A scowl quickly replaced her soft smile. "I didn't, Vinyl did."

I backed up, she was starting to scare me a bit. "Oh, it was hers? Sorry... honest mistake."

She scoffed. "If you're going to be here for a week, why only pick three winners?"

A yawn escaped from my breath before I could answer question, and she began tapping her hoof. "Well, I was hoping to spend a day catching up with you, but now I see that you're obviously not interested. As for Friday; I set that day aside so I could meet a certain somepony."

Now she was giving me her full attention. She leaned in and stared right into my eyes. "Really? Who?"

I bumped her head with my own, and my horn pricked her, making her back up. I was so happy I had more of my dad's genes than my mom's. "I'm looking for DJ PON3."

Her hoof met her forehead and slid down her face. "You've already found her, idiot."

My blank stare made her scowl again.

"Vinyl Scratch is DJ PON3, you numbskull!" Her hoof met my head just below my horn with a "clunk".

A light bulb popped up in my head. "Really now? Alright then, may I ask you a favor, Via?"

Her grin frightened me. "Say I'm the better musician, and I'll do it."

Now it was my turn to scowl. We had formed a rival ever since I picked up my first guitar and she her first cello. We constantly fought over who was better, and we considered it a form of surrender to admit the other one was more skilled. Through gritted teeth, I grunted "You're better than me with music..."

Her face lit up and she clapped happily. "I'm glad we've finally come to an agreement. Now, what do you need?" Next Chapter: Chapter 3: Old Friends Estimated time remaining: 18 Minutes