Twilight's Days at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns

It was mid-day, Saturday and Twilight was delighted to get out of her house to do fun activities with her friends or to just do something fun anyway. She'd never been grounded before and would always hate it, even taking her books away would be a less painful punishment as being grounded. Twilight was standing outside of a house in the quiet part of Canterlot. She looked at the sign at the corner of the avenue and the door number, she looked at the Address on the note that Vinyl had passed to her before the start of the weekend. It read, 'seventeen, Hoofington Avenue', it was the right place, the house of Vinyl Scratch.

Twilight approached the door step and pressed the doorbell with her hoof. The chime that it activated could be heard on the other side of the door, but everypony else in the street probably knows that it's not the loudest source of sound in the house. The door was opened and a white unicorn with his black mane tied back stood in its place. He was wearing a pair of big thick reading glasses, they were resting on his muzzle and he had a book hovering by his side, he was using his magic to keep it eye level. He was looking Twilight up and down like he was checking out her features.

He smiled like he recognized Twilight, though they'd never met before. "Let's see. A purple unicorn with a bluish mane and tail and a Starry cutie mark. You must be Twilight Sparkle." He kept his smile, waiting for Twilight's reaction, though what she felt at that moment was obvious by her face.

Twilight's face said it all. She was stunned by the words spoken by a unicorn that she'd never met. A stranger who recognized her just by her features before he even saw her before, but she also looked extremely spooked by him. "Uh... Hi... Um... How do you know me?"

Still smiling, the unicorn explained himself. "How do I know you? Oh, I don't, but I can recognize that you would be you. We were only expecting one purple unicorn was a bluish mane and a starry cutie mark to appear on our door step - depending on weather you'd still be grounded or not because of that annoying brat, Telltale." His smile grew even wider and soon turned into small giggles as Twilight's reactions visible on her face became stronger.

"W-WHAT?! How do you know me? Are you stalking me?" Twilight started to shake and slowly back away, expecting the strange pony to something that is so devastating that she started to remember the stories her mother told her about meeting strangers at night. If this stallion was planning something, Twilight may not be seen again...

"I'm sorry," the stallions smile turned upside down as he realized the fear he was pouring into his guest. "I didn't realize how freaked out you were becoming, please accept my apology." He said calmly. Twilight's fear soon started to disappear as he apologized and started to explain himself. "I know about you because of my daughter, Vinyl. She talks about you a lot and I don't know if you know this, but she really likes you. She's probably told us everything about you she knows." His smile returned as he started to laugh. "We-We could write a book or two on how much we know so far!"

Twilight started to feel stupid. It was so obvious that a friend would talk about you to their parents, but if Vinyl's father knew how much he said he did, then that's a lot and there is much more Vinyl could discover about her to turn the books into a series! She didn't just feel stupid, she felt... Strange, but also surprised. Twilight didn't think Vinyl liked her so much, she didn't even consider Vinyl thinking of her as a good friend.

"Anyway, enough with all the dilly-dally, I better introduce myself." He held his hoof out in front of Twilight ready to shake. "My name is Vinyl Cover, Vinyl's father."

Twilight done the same with her hoof as they met. "I'm Twilight Sparkle; it's a pleasure to meet one of my best friends' parents!"

"You better come in, Twilight, winter is just around the corner and it's becoming colder extremely quick. I don't want you going home with the common cold after visiting a friend’s house for the first time. It'll look bad for us both." Twilight stepped inside and she wiped her hooves on the mat. She smiled at Vinyl Cover and gave a small nod to say, 'Thank you.’ "Vinyl and Octavia are waiting for you in Vinyl's bedroom upstairs. The furthest door down the hall." He directed.

As Twilight was about to make her way up the stairs, she bumped into a mare with a well styled mane. Her mane was electric blue, like Vinyl's and had a grey coat. She was wearing big earmuffs covering her ears, it looked sound tight. Twilight decided to say hello to her, after all, it was her house. "Um... Hello! I'm Twilight Sparkle; it's a pleasure to meet you." The mare completely ignored Twilight like she didn't even exist. "Um, excuse me?"

Vinyl Cover walked over to Twilight. "Don't worry, Twilight, she can't hear you." A mischievous smile slowly grew on his face. "Oh how I love to mess with my wife at times. I'm surprised she's still willing to live with me. You might want to cover your ears." He gave a wink towards Twilight's direction and took a deep breath, filling his lungs with air. Twilight got the message and covered her ears with her hooves, pressing them down as hard as she could to block the sound out as much as she could.

"SWEETIE!"

The sudden yell startled the mare. "AH! What? What? What's wrong?" She took the earmuffs of her head and threw them to the side with her magic. She also dropped the book that she held eye level with her magic.

"Heheh!"

"Vinyl! Why would you do that? Again!? You know I don't like it!" The mare started to calm down and her breathing started to return to normal. "You're a funny stallion, you know that?"

Vinyl Cover gave a sigh and then a slight chuckle. "I did that again because you've just completely ignored out guest here." He raised his hoof and pointed in the direction of which Twilight was, leaning on the stair banister.

The mare looked over and discovered the purple filly leaning on the banister. "Goodness! I'm so sorry I didn't see or hear you. You must be Twilight Sparkle; my name is Paper Thin, the wife of Vinyl Cover and the mother of Vinyl Scratch. I was only wearing these because Vinyl was playing her foghorn music that is called 'dub step'."

"Honey, she stopped playing about forty minutes ago." Vinyl Cover laughed.

"Yes but even when she stops playing, there is a ringing sound that remains in our ears as well as our neighbors ears." Paper Thin argued.

"It's fine, Mrs. Thin." Twilight replied. "I understand. Dub step is a terrible music genre in my opinion."

"I think all three of us agree. My husband doesn't like it either. How did she even get into that music? We're so quiet, Vinyl Cover used to create classical and jazzy music, you know, soft kind of music and I write books. We had no links to dub step. How can a filly so loud come from parents who are so quiet. We spend an hour a day reading in silence to relax every day for Celestia's sake!"

"I know, it's very strange." Twilight looked up to the top of the stair case. "I must go up there, I don't want to keep Vinyl and Octavia waiting any longer. They're not even sure if I'm coming or not." She started to make her way up the stairs. "It was a pleasure to meet you both." She said with a smile as she disappeared to the upper floor.

"Ugh! I don't wanna wait any longer, Octi!" Vinyl said in a huff. "I can get you arrested for depriving me of Doughnut Joe's!"

Octavia smiled and shook her head. It was a sort of reaction that a friend would give you if you were being your old stupid self. "So, you're going to get the Royal Guard because according to you, I'm depriving you of Doughnut Joe's?" Vinyl looked at Octavia as if she was stupid because she'd just said the same thing. "I take that expression on your face as 'I've just said that.' so I'll take it as a yes. You do realize if I was depriving you of Doughnut Joe's, I would have to keep you in here so you wouldn't have been able to get the Royal Guard."

"Oh... Ah didn't think of that. Forget about all of the depriving stuff." Vinyl sighed. "Can we just go? I'm hungry and want food. I don't think she's gonna come so we may as well get a move on."

Octavia rolled her eyes. "Damn it Vinyl! How many times do I need to tell you? Doughnut Joe's is not real food, it's junk food, the thing that'll make you fat. If we were going to eat real food, the choice of establishment would've been my choice and we would be going to a real restaurant for a proper meal with a glass of Dandelion Burdock, not a glass of fattening milk with an overpriced dough ring."

Vinyl gave a cocky smile. She knew that Octavia would think she was trying to be clever. "If it's not food, then why is it called junk food?"

"Oh Celestia, will you please just shut your mouth for one day without saying something were you try to be clev-"

"No, you shut up, I'm being serious! Listen! That's not my mothers or fathers voice speaking." Octavia ended her conversation or debate turning into an argument so that they could listen in on the new voice in the house. "Wait, what!? Oh they did not just say that!"

Meanwhile downstairs, Twilight was nearing her conversation with Vinyl's parents and was about to come upstairs to her friends to leave for Doughnut Joe's. "It's fine, Mrs. Thin." Twilight replied. "I understand. Dub step is a terrible music genre in my opinion."

Octavia eyes went wide. "Oh, no..."

"How dare she say that about the ultimate genre of music?"

"Sadly, it is becoming the ultimate genre of music! Twilight and your parents are right in my opinion, dub step sounds terrible, but everypony is entitled to their own opinion."

"And classical puts me to sleep." Vinyl started pacing around her bedroom. She seemed to be very effected by other ponies’ opinions who are not the same as hers, but yet again, who isn't these days? "I'll get her back for that clever little comment of hers!" She started thinking quickly before Twilight got upstairs to her bedroom. She needed something to plan that could be planned quickly. "I know! I'll hide behind the door and scare her as she comes in. It's unoriginal, but effective!"

Twilight buts her hoof down on the last step of the staircase, she's on the top floor of the house, she starts to make her way to Vinyl's room where it's suspiciously silent. Twilight stopped moving, looking in the room. Luckily for Vinyl, Twilight stopped where she had a perfect view of her between the door's hinges and the wall. "Great! Right in view! I should be able to scare her easily now." She thought to herself. Vinyl moved away from her wall behind the door so Octavia was in view. Vinyl moved her hoof over her mouth as a hoof motion to 'shut up'. Twilight started to move slowly into the room and Vinyl moved back to her original spot, she started to count in her head. "One... Two..."

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING BEHIND THE DOOR?!" Twilight yelled.

"AHHH!" Vinyl started hyperventilating because of the unexpected shock as Twilight started rolling around of the floor laughing. "Why did ya do that?"

Twilight rolled her eyes and sighed. "Did you really think I didn't know you were about to do the same to me?" Vinyl was silent. "I saw you hiding behind the door through the gap between the door and the wall."

Vinyl stood where she was, still in the corner of the room behind the door, stunned by Twilight's answer. "Wow. That was a first... Ya really observant."

"I've got a question, Vinyl. It came to me as soon as I met you're parents. Your parents prefer more relaxing genres of music such as Classical. They also read in silence. So, how can you be raised by parents who are so quiet and yet you're so loud?"

"I honestly don't know why. Maybe it had somethin' to do when I was really young and I don't remember it." Vinyl started thinking about all of the memories she had about her parents. As far as she could remember her parents had always been quiet. "Nope, I don't ever remember my parents being loud and hyper."

"But your Dad is called Vinyl Cover."

"Yeah, but they don't just put Dub step on Vinyl, they put all sorts of genres like on them like Classical. He also creates covers for albums and stuff." Vinyl's judging face returned, looking at Twilight as if she was as stupid as Octavia. "C'mon Twilight, even if ya don't listen to music a lot because ya to tie in with ya books, ya should still know that Vinyl wasn't just created for dub step. It would be such a waste of materials."

"I didn't know you cared for the environment, Vinyl." Twilight said in a surprised tone. "I didn't think it was your sort of thing. I've never heard of a dub step enthusiast who likes to 'go green'."

"I-I'm not." Vinyl stuttered, obviously lying, gave away by the eye's moving dramatically left and right, looking like she was trying to get out of the conversation. "There are not many plants at the places I go anyway. None, at the parties and not at Doughnut Joe's. The only plants I see every day are the odd one's at school and the one's outside out house planted in the grassy part of the Terrace."

Octavia moaned impatiently. "Ugh! As much as I want to save our planet by listening to all of the 'Global Warming' chaos that's always floating around the media, causing ponies to go crazy with worry, Doughnut Joe's 'food' will be stale by the time Global Warming affects us." At this point, Twilight and Vinyl were both silent, their attention on Octavia. "We've been waiting to go for a while, so can we please just go?"

"Yeah, just wait until we've finished this environment debate." Vinyl turned her head back to look at Twilight. "Now, I'm not interested about the environment, dub step is to hardcore for that stuff."

Octavia interrupted “Vinyl, please can we just walk and talk? It'll save time."

"Yeah, in a minute, Octi." Vinyl turned back to the debate again. "I've heard most, if not, all dub step tracks and not once have I heard a track about tree life."

"VINYL!" Octavia screamed, she'd ran out of patients. Octavia didn't care if Doughnut Joe's wasn't real food anymore, she was starving. "I've did my waiting! Twelve minutes of it! Those minutes were long and slow as time normally is when you're starving! So if you don't leave right now, I'll drag you out by your constantly moving tongue!" Octavia turned to Twilight with the same glaring eyes. "That applies to you too, Sparklebutt!"

Twilight and Vinyl were speechless. They looked at each other with worry by the threat. Vinyl's smile was the first to return. "Twilight, do you think it's hot when Octavia gets angry? I do." Twilight started laughing at her comment. While Octavia pounced for Vinyl.

"DO NOT GO THERE! GO BACK TO THE ELECTRICAL SOCKET WHERE YOU CAME FROM!"

"AHH! Sorry Octavia!" Vinyl screamed as she bolted down the stairs and out of the front door.

"Yeah, sorry Octavia!" Twilight repeated as she followed Vinyl. Octavia chased after her two mischievous friends. Soon all three were finally on their way to Doughnut Joe's.

The three ponies arrived outside of Doughnut Joe's shortly after they were chased out of Vinyl's house by a psychotic earth pony. When they opened the glass door and wandered inside, Octavia and Vinyl were shocked to see how empty the establishment was on an early Saturday afternoon.

"Now this is strange." Vinyl said quietly, trying not to disturb the peace inside the Doughnut shops walls. "This place is normally thriving with ponies on a Saturday. Why isn't there anypony here?" She asked.

Twilight, who also whispered, gave the answer to Vinyl's curiosity. "They're probably at the castle, wishing Princess Mi Amore Cadenza a happy birthday." Twilight's eyes became wide with realization. "Oh, no! I should have gone if I'd remembered! How could I forget my foal sitter’s birthday?" Twilight's tone started to become sadder and sadder by the second. She felt bad for her mistake.

"Oh, Twi. I'm sure she doesn't mind that you forgot her birthday. Plus, if it's a celebration, it'll be goin' on for hours. You can still wish her happy birthday then." Vinyl started to think back on what Twilight said, and then she realized that she said something that was not said everyday by a filly. "Woah, woah, woah. Did you just say that you were foalsittered by a Princess?" The name didn't sound familiar to Vinyl. "Princess Mi Amore Cadenza? It doesn't ring any bells."

"Yeah, I was foalsittered by a Princess. It's not a big deal." Twilight then thought about Vinyl's words and she was right, not many fillies can say that they were foalsittered by a Princess. Vinyl didn't recognize the name and by the expression on Octavia's face, confused and curious to why she'd never heard the name of a living Princess, neither did she. Twilight decided to explain her. "Princess Mi Amore Cadenza is also referred to Princess Cadence for short. She isn't as famous as Princess Celestia as she doesn't take on as much of a role. Princess Cadence is the Princess of love and is super nice. I should know because I know her personally." Twilight bragged. "I think her name comes up in Sexual Education at some point." Vinyl and Octavia both snickered. "Oh grow up you two." Twilight laughed.

"Ok, ok!" Vinyl laughed as she calmed herself down. "Let’s just take our seats and get served." Vinyl moved towards the counter and rang the bell to request service. A loud grunt came from the other side of the room. In a seat next to the window, there was a yellow unicorn with a brown mane, it was Pork Pie. "Ah, I thought he'd be here." Vinyl mumbled so her friends didn't hear, but it wasn't quite enough as Octavia heard every word.

Octavia's face wasn't giving off a positive expression towards Vinyl. "No Vinyl. You didn't 'think' he was going to be here, you knew. You only dragged us here so we could mess with him. Don't you realize that you're going to make matters with him worse and we'll all get into trouble?"

"Yeah, but he can't do anythin' to us since we found his little secret of underage smoking." Vinyl whispered making sure that Pork Pie didn't hear.

"That doesn't mean we can just tease him, Vinyl. You're taking advantage of him." Twilight pointed out. She didn't think Vinyl could be as cruel as she was being. Twilight knew she and Pork Pie had bickered a lot, but she wasn't expecting Vinyl to scoop down to her level and start the bickering.

Vinyl hit the service bell one more time with her hoof. Joe walked out from behind the curtain that hid the kitchen. Joe looked the same as he did since Twilight could remember. Very scruffy, very greasy and very messy. "Yes, thank you. Thank you for making sure the bell works." He said in a rough voice. Joe opened his eyes so he could see clearly, forcing them open and trying not to dose off. "Oh! Hey Vinyl, it's just you and your friends. Uh... How are you?"

"How are we?!" Vinyl asked in a worried tone. "How are you? Rough night again, huh?"

"Yeah, you know me well, Vinyl, but that's what happens when you become a number one customer, you become good friends with staff." Joe realized he was drifting from the conversation and shook his head to wake himself up to get himself back on track. "Yeah, I had a long night last night. I was asked to bake all of the goods for Princess Cadence's birthday party and the ponies who were attending."

"Yeah, that's the everyday life of Canterlot's best goods baker, but still worth the money right?" Vinyl asked, smiling. Joe nodded back. Vinyl decided to end their chat there since their friends would be waiting. "Anyway Joe," she put the bits on the counter. "Can I have SIX PINK GLAZED DOUGHNUTS PLEASE? TWO FOR ME AND EACH OF MY FRIENDS!" Vinyl shouted, making sure that Pork Pie could hear her. She was mocking him. Vinyl knew his favorite doughnut was pink glazed and she was buying them with his money.

Joe placed six pink glazed doughnuts on a tray and hoofed it over to Vinyl. "That'll be six bits please, Vinyl." He held his hoof out, patiently waiting to be paid.

Vinyl searched everywhere; she didn't have enough to pay the bill. "Uh, sorry Joe, I only have five. I guess I'll have t-"

"Calm yourself, Vinyl. Just give me the five bits and the sixth doughnut is on the house. You're a good customer and I'm not short on money." Joe smiled. Pleased with himself for helping a long known customer and friend.

"Oh wow! Thanks' Joe, you're a life saver." Vinyl picked up her tray with her magic and moved it to a table near by Pork Pie. Neither Twilight nor Octavia approve of Vinyl seating choice. "Come on then, silly fillies, sit down and dig in!" Twilight and Octavia looked at each other nervously. They knew that their time in Doughnut Joe's will only end badly. Vinyl took a big bite out of her first pink glazed doughnut, devouring almost half and shoving it down her thought without chewing or even tasting it. She ate like a pig. "HHMMMM! THESE PINK GLAZED DOUGHNUTS REALLY HIT THE SPOT, DON'T THEY FRIENDS?!"

Octavia was starting to lose her temper again, she seemed to get more and more stressed every time Vinyl tried or succeeded to get Pork Pie's attention. "Vinyl! For Celestia's sake! Will you stop that?" Octavia sighed before continuing talking. "If you don't want to get your cocky white head kicked of your body, I suggest you do so."

"Haha! Octavia, we've known him for a few weeks now and has threatened almost everypony in our class at least once. If he was going to do somethin' then he would have done it already." Vinyl laughed. "Plus, even when he gets his sidekicks to back him up, he still runs away when you threaten him back."

"Vinyl, if he doesn't do it, eventually I will. You're in one of those moods where you annoy friends and enemies."

"Ahem!" None of the three ponies had noticed that Pork Pie had moved from his seat just next to the window and was now standing behind Vinyl, towering over her as she was sitting down. The three ponies turned to face him. "I gave you my own bits to keep my secret a secret, not for you to taunt me. I'm still willing to keep our deal going, but I will get you three back for that. One way or another." Those were his final words as he stormed out of the establishment in an angry mood.

"Yeah," Vinyl laughed, harder than before. "Right!" Twilight and Octavia looked at each other again nervously. They were taking the problem seriously, unlike Vinyl. Vinyl had started something that would make her school life at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns a misery and she didn't know it.