MLP: The Portal 2
Chapter 16: Music Sharing
"So these girls are cool, right?" Evan asked Alex as the two made their way through Ponyville. Alex nodded slowly, tongue in cheek.
"They certainly seem to be. I've only talked with them a few times, but they gave us the invite, and they're musicians, so I thought it'd be cool to have a little get-together with them. You know?" Alex explained.
"Alright man. They better not be total weirdos." Evan said as they approached the house.
"What, like any of your friends are remotely normal?" Alex teased as he knocked on the door.
"You know that includes you too, right? Like, especially you." Evan pointed out.
"Fully aware and true." Alex responded before the door opened. Octavia greeted them with a smile.
"Welcome, you two. Please come in." She said, stepping aside to let them enter.
"Thank you. Octavia, this is my best friend, Evan. Evan, Octavia Melody." He introduced the two of them. They shook hooves politely.
"Hey. Nice to meet you." Evan said with a nod.
"Likewise. Please, have a seat. I'll let Vinyl know you two are here. Would you like anything to drink? Water? Tea?" She offered.
"Ooh, I'll take a tea." Evan raised his hoof.
"I'll just take a water." Alex said with a nod.
"Alright." Octavia said with a smile, going to get the drinks as Alex and Evan sat down on a nearby couch.
"So, Alex tells me that you are a musician?" Evan asked her from across the room. She nodded as she began to prepare the tea.
"Indeed, yes. I play the cello in an orchestra, and I dabble in solo arrangements from time to time." Octavia explained her specialties.
"Ooh, the cello. That's nice." Evan nodded in approval.
"I love the cello. I was telling Octavia that we gotta hear her play a little bit while we're here." Alex said with a chuckle. Octavia smiled a bit.
"You certainly will. I'm just waiting on Vinyl and we can all have ourselves a little showcase." Octavia explained her intentions with a bit of an excited grin.
"Ooh, that sounds like fun!" Evan exclaimed.
"Yes. Let's do it!" Alex clapped his hooves in excitement.
"Vinyl? Where are you? Our guests are already here!" Octavia called out towards the bedrooms. Finally, just as Octavia was serving Evan his tea, she came out with her headphones around her neck and no glasses.
"Dude, her eyes are straight up red." Evan commented in awe as she came over.
"Hey, Vinyl! Nice of you to finally show up," Alex said teasingly, hoof-bumping her. She scoffed at this, then glanced over at Evan. "Oh, this is my best friend Evan." He introduced them quickly.
"Hey, Vinyl. I've heard good things about you. Nice to finally meet you." Evan said with a smile as they shook hooves. Vinyl nodded and winked smoothly in response before going and getting a water bottle from the fridge.
"She winked at me, dude." Evan whispered to Alex.
"She wants your soul." Alex said with a chuckle.
"Thank you again for coming, the both of you. It's been quite some time since we last had guests around here. We tend to annoy the neighbors a bit with our constant need to rehearse." Octavia admitted with a chuckle.
"Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do to keep your skills up." Evan said.
"So, if I remember correctly, you play the cello, Octavia. And Vinyl, you do more electronic stuff?" Alex asked. Vinyl nodded affirmatively.
"That's pretty cool. Have you two ever collabed, done like a whole strings-electronic-dubstep sorta thing?" Evan asked. The two of them shook their heads.
"Only really once or twice for fun, but never really seriously." Octavia answered.
"So you two stay pretty close to your genres then. Do you ever attend each other's shows?" Alex asked. Vinyl snickered a bit, and Octavia rolled her eyes.
"We have in the past. As you can imagine, with our different styles, we have very different opinions of our genres. Vinyl's shows are a little too loud for me, and I believe she fell asleep at my last show." She explained with a small chuckle. Vinyl nodded to confirm this.
"Oh, shoot," Evan laughed. "Yeah, that makes sense."
"Well, I for one would love to see both of your shows sometime. I can equally appreciate both types, because I'm just sophisticated like that." Alex said jokingly. The girls chuckled a bit.
"Well, you're certainly welcome to come. When the dates are out, perhaps I can sneak you a ticket." Octavia said with a sly chuckle. Alex laughed at this.
"Underground orchestra. This is great." Alex laughed.
"Pass me one or two of those two." Evan chuckled.
"I certainly will," Octavia giggled. "Now, how about we get this little music sharing session started?" Octavia offered. Alex and Evan both nodded.
"Sure! Who's first?" Alex asked. Octavia stood up.
"I can go first," She volunteered, going over to their equipment area and pulling out her cello. She brought it over to her seat and sat down with it. "I took the liberty of tuning it before you both arrived so there wouldn't be any hassle."
"Well, we appreciate the consideration." Alex said, humoring her with a chuckle. Octavia smiled and began to play.
She began by playing a light melody filled with softer, higher notes. Her eyes closed, her expression showing that she was elated as she played with a soft smile. Then, she changed her melody, playing longer and lower notes. Her eyebrows furrowed as her tune grew more somber.
Finally, she finished there, sitting back and resting again.
"That's about as much as I can do. I can only play other emotions when I'm feeling them in the moment." Octavia said. Alex fell out of his daze.
"Ohh… Oh! You were playing different emotions! I did not catch onto that." Alex said.
"Wow, dude, you're dense." Evan teased him. The girls chuckled a bit.
"That's quite alright."
"But that was really good! I enjoyed it! Sounded great. You definitely know what you're doing." Alex said with a chuckle. Evan agreed with a nod.
"Thank you, I appreciate it. I guess that means you're up, Vinyl." Octavia said.
Vinyl sprang up with a grin, rushing over to her DJ equipment and turning everything on. Alex and Evan turned towards her a bit in their chairs, waiting patiently for her to get started. When she was ready, Vinyl raised up both her hooves from behind the stand, then started off right away.
Immediately, the house began to shake with the loud dubstep music that was playing. Alex leaned back a bit with a smile, nodding along as he figured out the rhythm of the music. Vinyl started off a breakdown that had Evan grooving in his seat and Alex wanting to do the same.
Finally, Vinyl finished up with a bang, raising her hooves again as though performing for a large crowd. She took a bow and came back down. Evan and Alex clapped their hooves.
"Woo, that was loud." Alex laughed, rubbing his ears.
"Man, that was fire!" Evan grinned in approval. Vinyl nodded in appreciation.
"Goodness, I fear I've gone partially deaf." Octavia joked. They chuckled a bit.
"I'm telling ya man, I wasn't fully ready for all of that. That was awesome though." Alex complimented.
"So, it's your turn now." Octavia pointed to Alex and Evan. The two of them glanced at each other.
"You go right on ahead man." Evan said.
"Ugh, alright. Of course you send me to follow that up. Now…should I do something orchestral or do something with bass?" Alex wondered out loud.
"Heheh, whatever you want. This is all you." Octavia encouraged him with a chuckle. Alex groaned with a chuckle, making his way towards the speakers.
"I'll do something with some bass then," Alex decided, scrolling through his phone and plugging it into the speakers. He nodded. "Got a microphone?" He asked.
"Up top." Octavia pointed. Alex went and grabbed it, then began to play Supplies by Justin Timberlake.
Alex nodded along to its intro, singing into the microphone to test its volume. Once he had it figured out, he jumped into singing and dancing to the beat of the song. He rocked back and forth, side to side. The other three nodded along, Evan and Vinyl grooving in their seats as he sang. Alex took a bow once he had finished.
"Alright." He said with a chuckle, indicating that he was finished.
"That was really good! You have a good voice!" Octavia complimented.
"Thank you. You wanna go, Evan?" Alex asked.
"I don't see why not. Put on Sober. Gambino, boy." Evan chuckled, switching places with Alex. Alex played the song of Evan's choosing, and Evan began to sing.
Evan slid around smoothly as he sang, improvising a bit on the higher notes. The three of them nodded along just the same, and Vinyl grinned in approval at the bass drop of the song. When Evan finished, he set the mic down.
"Woo! Let's go boy!" Alex clapped.
"You both have quite a knack for this." Octavia complimented them.
"Thanks." Evan chuckled, sitting back down.
"You two should come with us to the Pony Tones show coming up. I hear it's supposed to be quite something. I'm sure music-lovers such as yourselves would enjoy it thoroughly." Octavia recommended. Vinyl nodded in agreement.
Alex and Evan glanced at each other and just chuckled.
"We'll be sure to be there." Alex said.