Author's Note

Thanks for all the constructive criticism you guys have been putting in, we really tried to apply it in this chapter.

Hope this chapter turned out better!

Chapter Four

Octavia finished emptying the last box, placing the items on the counter and tossing the box towards the pile of other boxes laying in the corner. She had spend the last couple of days helping Lyra unpack, since she had been gracious enough to invite her along.

“Vinyl Scratch?” Bon Bon looked at Octavia, mouth agape. “You’re gonna take a job with Vinyl Scratch?

“Yes. Is there something wrong with that?”

“Nothing at all, she’s a great mare. It’s just…” She paused as she stretched to put something on one of the top shelves. “you guys are about as opposite as two ponies can be.”

“I’ll admit that she is a bit eccentric, but we seemed to get along well enough. Besides, what better place for me to work at than a music shop?”

“I suppose,” Bon Bon conceded, “just don’t come complaining to me if she starts getting on your nerves.”

“Aw, lighten up Bonnie.” Lyra said, walking into the kitchen. “I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

“If you say so.” Bon Bon said doubtfully. “Either way, I hope you can help her out. I’ve heard that the shop hasn’t been doing too well lately.”

“Oh dear, her business is in trouble.” Octavia suddenly looked very worried. “Do you know what’s wrong?”

“Rumor has it, she spends all of her time partying and is too hungover to actually open the shop the next day.” Lyra said as she started to break down the boxes with her magic. “Guess you’d have to ask her what the issue is, that way you get the real story. Gossip does tend to run wild in this town.”

“Well I certainly hope that isn’t true. If this mare’s gonna be my employer she’ll have to be more responsible than that.” Octavia said, ducking low to place something underneath the sink. “If she is staying out all night partying I’m going to have to knock some good business sense into her.”

“When were you planning on going to go see her?” Bon Bon asked.

“I planned on going over sometime this afternoon.” She replied, closing the cabinet with a gentle kick.

“Well good luck with that. Anyone else hungry?” Lyra asked as she finished with the last box, stacking it in a neat pile with the rest of them.

“I’m starving, how do hay burgers sound?” Bon Bon said as she headed for the doorway.

“That sounds delicious!” Lyra exclaimed, heading towards the door.

Octavia hesitated for a few moments, unsure whether she should follow them. Lyra spoke up before she could respond.

“You can come too, we’ll get ya.” Octavia smiled and followed the mint colored mare out the door.

Following their meal, the trio had returned home and continued with the unpacking. Having finally finished with the massive undertaking, the three now sat around the kitchen table, enjoying their cool beverages.

“Lyra, where on equis did you ever manage to accumulate so much stuff?” Bon Bon asked.

Lyra shrugged. “Guess it kinda just built up over time. Didn’t feel like I had spent this long getting it all packed though.” She said rubbing her chin in thought.

“Well, wherever it came from, I’m just glad it’s all put away now.” Octavia said, taking a sip of her drink.

“Speaking of all put away, do you have everything you need?” Bon Bon asked Octavia.

“Oh yes, thank you for asking. Thank you for allowing me to stay here as well.”

Bon Bon dismissed her with the wave of a hoof. “Oh it’s fine. You certainly aren’t a bad house guest, unlike some of the ponies she’s brought home before.” She finished with a glare towards Lyra, who suddenly found the bottom of her glass very interesting.

“Well if there isn’t anything you need help with, I think I’ll take my leave now.” Octavia said, as she got up and put her glass in the sink.

“Nah, we’re good. Tell us how it goes.” Lyra replied. Octavia nodded before heading for the front door.

Stepping out into the fresh air of Ponyville was an invigorating experience for the grey mare. It was still a shock after being exposed to the congested city of Canterlot for her entire life. Looking overhead, she saw the weather team setting up what looked to be a rainstorm. She’d have to see if her house mates kept a copy of the local weather schedule or not.

Figuring it to be in her best interest, she hastened her pace towards Vinyl’s shop. If she was lucky, she would be able to make it back before the rain started. She silently hoped that the weather team here worked the same way as the one in Canterlot, and scheduled their rainstorms to happen overnight.

As she rounded a corner, the familiar storefront of The F Holecame into view. It looked just as run down as it had before, and as she approached, she saw that the interior of the store was still coated in a thick layer of dust.

Well, it could be worse.

She headed inside, looking around to see if Vinyl was anywhere in sight. After a few moments, she came out from the back of the store, carrying a box of… something out with her. As she turned the corner, she finally noticed that there was another occupant in her store.

“Hey! You came back I see. You here to take me up on my offer?” Vinyl asked with a cheerful tone.

“Well yes, I was considering it.”

“Thank Celestia. I could use the help around here.” Vinyl said, setting the box on the counter.

“What exactly do you need help with?”

“Pretty much everything really. When my dad left me this store, I’d never even thought of owning a business before. I was always too caught up in my music to help out around this place. Guess I should have payed a little more attention, huh?” She turned and started rummaging through the box.

“That does seem to be a lot of responsibility to have dropped on you all at once, I can imagine it’s pretty hard to pick up so quickly.”

“Tell me about it. I’m having trouble just getting ponies in here. Ponyville has never been a very musical town, but I was hoping getting another musician like you in here might help.”

“I’ll do what I can. I’d hate to see a beautiful music shop like this go out of business”

“Yeah, me too.” Vinyl said, wandering around to the behind the checkout desk. “What do you think this place needs?”

Octavia glanced around the inside of the store as she listened to Vinyl. She took note that aside from bad cleaning habits, the prices on some of the instruments were high, even for Canterlot standards.

“Well this place could definitely use a good cleaning, thats for sure. Also some of these prices are outrageous. Maybe the issue isn’t that ponies don’t want to buy, but they can’t.” She ran a hoof along the top of a nearby instrument, knocking off a thick clump of dust. “Or are afraid to.”

“Heh, yeah I’ve been meaning to get around to cleaning up the place a bit. And most of the stuff in here still has the original prices my dad put on em. Haven’t really bothered to change any of them, since I’m not even sure what most of this stuff is.”

“Well, Vinyl, it appears to be your lucky day. I accept your offer and I think that I can help you get this place back in working order. Classical music is my forte, so I’m familiar with most of these instruments, although I will admit I don’t know much about the electronic parts you have here.”

“Leave that to me.” Vinyl replied. “Most of the electronics in here I added once I got ahold of the place. Figured I’d attract more business having a wider variety of stuff to buy. It worked a little, but not enough.”

"You said your biggest trouble was getting ponies in here?" Octavia asked, thinking. "Have you tried any advertisement?"

"No, not really. To be honest, I don't have a clue how the actual business end of owning a shop works." She said, crestfallen.

"Well have you ever thought of asking somepony for help?" A sheepish smile was the only response she got. Octavia sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"For now, let's get this place cleaned up and get these prices fixed. Bon Bon owns a candy store so I'll ask her if she can help you in the business department." Spotting a duster in the corner, she moved to get it, only to be stopped by a white hoof.

"Thanks." The white mare said with a heartfelt look. "I really appreciate you trying to save this place."

"You're welcome. Consider it my thanks for the employment opportunity." Vinyl gave her a smile before turning back to her box.

A couple of hours later, she finally had the dust removed from the display cases, instruments and the front window displays. She thanked Celestia that she was born with a grey coat, because it hid the dust that was now covering her entire body.

Vinyl had been sorting out the back room, pulling out various boxes and bringing them to the front. She put the contents into various display cases or throwing their contents in the trash when there was nothing of value inside.

Octavia made her way to the back room to tell her she was done. The white mare could be heard rummaging through various items. As she turned the corner, she saw that what she had thought was a store room was actually an office. It was still partially hidden under various boxes, but Vinyl had made substantial headway.

“You’ve sure made a lot of progress.” Octavia said, smiling.

“Yeah, I’ve been finding stuff back here I didn’t even know we had.” Vinyl said, heaving a large box from a towering shelf. “I hadn’t even realized there was a desk back here till I uncovered it.”

“Well I’m sure it will be helpful to set up some sort of office space back here. We need a place for filing papers and managing all that other mundane sort of business.”

Vinyl made a face. “Blegh, filing? Do we really need to do that kind of crap?”

Octavia giggled. “Of course, organization is an essential part of running a shop, we’ll need to keep all those kind of things in order.”

She walked over to the desk and stroked her hoof over it, making a thick line in the dust that coated it.

She let out a long tired sigh. “It looks like this room is going to need as much work as the front, isn’t it?”

“Yeah I haven’t done the best job with this place recently, have I?” Vinyl smiled apologetically.

“No, not really.” Octavia quipped with a smirk. “I’ll help you finish sorting all of this. It’ll go faster if we’re both working on it.”

“Alright, that sounds good.” Vinyl said with a smile as she turned back to the box she had just pulled down.

Octavia went back out to the front and retrieved the duster she had used earlier. She began to clean off the desk, gently sweeping around the objects that were sitting on it. A feather caught under one of the picture frames, causing it to fall over. Setting the duster down, she gently picked it up, making sure that it wasn’t damaged.

As she straightened the frame, the dust slid off of the glass revealing the picture that had been hidden beneath it. She glanced over at Vinyl, who was still rummaging through the box. Making her way over, she gently tapped Vinyl to get her attention. She spoke up when Vinyl looked at her.

“I think you may want to look at this.” She said, handing over the picture.

Vinyl gasped when she took in the photo. As she stood there, staring at the picture, wetness could be seen forming in her eyes. She blinked a few times, trying to clear her vision, and eventually resolved to rub her eyes with a fetlock.

“It’s my dad.” She said quietly. “It was the first time he ever let me mess with his music stuff.”

The picture showed a young Vinyl sitting on top of a turntable. Behind her, a tall red-maned stallion with an alabaster coat, perfectly matching his daughter’s, was adjusting some of the dials. The filly in the picture was riveted to whatever he was doing with them, eagerness shone in her eyes.

“My mom took this picture. It was just a few months before she passed.” Octavia instantly regretted showing her the picture.

“Vinyl, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to reopen any old wounds.”

“Sorry? I’m so glad you showed me this again. Honestly it’s nice to have. I don’t have many pictures of my dad, and none with us together. I still remember when he finally told me I was old enough to learn what he did. It was the most exciting day of my life.” She smiled a genuine smile at the fond memories.

“I had always loved the music my dad made, but he never let me in his booth while he was working, he was afraid I’d hit something and ruin whatever he was working on. He didn’t do it to be mean, he just wanted to keep any accidents from happening. I really owe my music career to him.”

She sat the picture on top of the filing cabinet, but continued to stare at it for a few moments.

“I think I’m gonna put this up behind the front desk. Sure, I’m the one that’s running the place now, but this was his shop. He’s the one that started it.”

She picked up the heavy frame with her magic, and walked out to the front of the shop. Selecting a prominent place on the wall behind the register, she levitated it up and stuck it there.

“Now at least ponies are gonna know who’s shop this really is.” She said, smiling broadly.

Octavia followed her out of the back office, happy to see Vinyl doing her father’s memory justice, a small smile forming on her face. It quickly fell as she thought back to her own parents, silently wishing they’d have been as close to her as Vinyl and her father were.

“I’m glad you’re putting him out here, it’s a great way to remember him and what he means to this shop.”

“Thanks-”

A bright flash suddenly lit up the room, followed by a massive BOOM. It shook the entire shop, leaving the windows rattling gently.

“Oh no!” Octavia said, rushing over to the big pane glass window. She looked out the window at the sudden massive downpour of rain. Another flash of light was seen, followed closely by another thunderclap.

“I’ll never make it home in this!” She said dejectedly, sitting down with a sigh. She had been looking forward to getting back to Bon Bon, and proving the cream mare wrong about Vinyl Scratch.

“Hey, no worries, Octavia. You can just stay here with me while this thing blows over. My apartment is upstairs, I’m sure we can find something to eat up there.” Vinyl said, walking over to a closed door near the back of the shop.

“Are you sure? I would hate to impose.”

“Nah, it’s cool. I don’t get much company as it is. Follow me.”

Octavia followed hesitantly as Vinyl led her up the staircase. At the top, they reached another door, which Vinyl pushed through to reveal her apartment.

The doorway opened into a small living room, a couple couches and a television rested in one corner of it, a small table that was covered in magazines was the only other furniture in the room. There was a short hallway to the side that led to a kitchen and another doorway which she presumed would lead to Vinyl’s bedroom. An open door on the opposite side of the room from the hallway showed her where the bathroom was located.

“Wow, this is very nice.” Octavia said, turning to look at the furnishings.

“Thanks. It’s nothing much, I like to keep it simple, you know?” Vinyl said, walking into the kitchen. “I’m not sure how much I have in my fridge, but I’m sure I’ll be able to get something going for us.”

As she opened the door to the refrigerator, Octavia appeared in the kitchen behind her, curious to see what kind of ingredients they had to work with.

As she peered inside, she noticed that almost all the shelves were empty, and only a few meager ingredients, inhabited the rest of them. She saw a bit of lettuce, two carrots, a tomato, and a few eggs.

“Heh, guess its a little more empty than I thought.” Vinyl said, rubbing the back of her head.

“Well, it does look you have enough to make an omelet or two.” Octavia said hopefully. “If you don’t mind having breakfast for dinner.”

“Sounds good to me.” Vinyl replied, pulling the ingredients from the fridge with her magic and set them on the counter. “You can wait in the living room while I work on this.” She said, placing a skillet on the stovetop. “Consider it my thanks for helping me get the store cleaned up.”

Octavia simply nodded and walked back to the living room, the sound of something sizzling reached her ears as she entered. Moving over to the table, she hoofed through the pile of magazines that were mostly music oriented. Finding one that looked interesting, she took it over to one of the couches and sat down before beginning to look through it.

As she leafed through the pages, one headline in particular caught her attention.

Oh Celestia, this is bad news.

In bold letters at the top of the page was printed, Royal Bassist Throws Royal Tantrum. Below was a picture of her right as her fist connected with her music director’s face.

How did they even get that? She pondered.

She didn’t remember there being anypony with a camera backstage. Then again she wasn’t thinking clearly at the time, and had been focused on one pony in particular. As she continued to read the article, she found that they had blow things completely out of proportion to the point where they had her storming into the concert hall like a rampaging bull, all because of some made up vendetta she apparently had against the director.

She knew there was nothing she could do to dispel these rumors now. She realized that nearly everyone in Canterlot had read this article by now, but somehow, she no longer cared. There was a time when the opinions of those snobs would have her crawling back, begging for forgiveness, but she was done dealing with them.

“Um Tavi? We may have a problem in here.” Vinyl called out, breaking her from her thoughts.

Octavia turned towards the kitchen, and saw smoke billowing from the doorway. She immediately got up and ran to the kitchen. “What in Equestria happened in here?”

A blue glow suddenly covered the upper part of the room. The glow shrunk down, containing the smoke within a magical bubble. Vinyl went over to the window and opened it, floating the blue ball out the window, before cancelling the spell and letting its foul contents out into the storm. She turned back to see Octavia standing beside the stove, a grimace on her face as she eyed the contents of the skillet.

Inside the pan were the charred and shriveled remains of what could only be assumed at one time was an omelet.

“I might have gone a little overboard.” Vinyl smiled sheepishly.

“How did this even happen? It’s only been five minutes!”

“I may have tried to use my magic to accelerate the process. And well, it didn’t turn out so good.”

Octavia facehoofed hard enough for Vinyl to hear it from across the room. “Well what can we eat now?”

Vinyl returned to the fridge, which was pretty much barren at this point. Closing the door, she opened the freezer. After pulling out a few bags of unknown substances, which were promptly tossed into the trashcan, a triumphant look grew on her face as she pulled two boxes out with her magic.

“There’s a couple of these frozen dinner things.” She said with an apologetic smile.

“Well thats better than nothing, I suppose.” Vinyl started to head towards the stove again. “But I’m cooking this time.”

Vinyl pouted, but relinquished cooking duties to Octavia. She made her way out to the living room, flopping down in her usual spot on the couch. Noticing the magazine that was laying open, she picked it up in her magic and held it up in front of her so she could read it.

Something boring about Canterlot, go figure, Vinyl thought as she read the title of the article on the page.

She was about to flip the page when a name stuck out to her.

Woah. Wait this can’t be her.

Vinyl started from the top and read the article all the way through, her eyes widening as she read the article, her gaze occasionally flicking towards the kitchen. About halfway down the page, her jaw had come open and hung loosely. When she finished, she gently set the magazine back down on the sofa, her head slowly turning towards the kitchen.

Getting up off the couch, she slowly made her way back into the kitchen, where Octavia was just putting the dinners into the oven. Vinyl came to a stop behind her just as she leaned down to close the oven door. When she stood back up she noticed Vinyl standing behind her and turned with a start.

“Vinyl! Don’t sneak up on me like that!” She chastised.

Vinyl just stared at her for a few moments as her features slowly changed from neutral to that creepy level of happy. Octavia began to wonder if she should be fearing for her safety, when Vinyl suddenly rushed forward and hugged her.

“You are so awesome!” Vinyl released her and danced on her hooves in front of her like a foal on Hearth’s Warming looking at a pile of presents.

“Vinyl, what’s gotten into you?”

“I just read that article about all that stuff you did in Canterlot!”

Octavia sighed and sat down.

“It’s not that amazing.” She said calmly

“Are you kidding? The way they described it, you really worked that music director over!”

“It didn’t happen like that. That article has the whole situation blown completely out of proportion.” Vinyl’s happy mood dropped a little at this news.

“What do you mean?” She asked hesitantly.

“What I mean is, all that really happened was that the music director and myself got into a screaming match and then I lost my temper and hit him. Once.”

“Aww.” Vinyl said dejectedly.

“It’s bad enough as it is without them having to add in all the details! That one stupid mistake is why I had to leave Canterlot in the first place.” She huffed, looking away.

“Is it really all that bad?” The change of tone in Vinyl’s voice made Octavia look back. “Is coming to Ponyville such a bad thing? I know you haven’t been here long, but ponies in this town actually care about each other. Not like those snobby upper class ponies in Canterlot, who only care about helping somepony else if it will give them some kind of edge against the rest of them.” Vinyl actually looked hurt.

“I didn’t say it was a bad thing that I had to move here. I’m still just mad at myself for doing something stupid like that. I was raised better than that, I should have had more self control.” She looked at the floor, gently pawing it. “But something about the way the music director just threw out my piece like I was some schoolfilly who had just written her first scores of music…”

She choked back the emotion that she felt in the back of her throat. Her head snapped up, years of pain flowing out of her as she told her story to Vinyl.

“I spent five YEARS of my life working on that piece. Making sure everything was perfect, going over every score with a fine toothed comb to make sure that all the harmonies worked together. Then the music director just goes and throws it out because some Princess Cadence just happened to be attending and they didn’t want to risk the performance being absolutely perfect by having a new piece in it.”

She dropped her head again, she could feel a few tears roll down her muzzle before landing on the floor with a soft pat sound. Vinyl raised a hoof to comfort the mare, but pulled it back when her head suddenly popped back up.

“It was just like dealing with my parents!” She shouted. “Nothing I ever did was good enough for them! Just because I was born an earth pony instead of a unicorn, it was like I had personally decided to be that way just to spite them. The only time they even paid me any attention is when I started being successful in my music career.”

She started pacing in the small kitchen.

“Even then, they never gave me any kind of praise above ‘Well it’s good to see those bits we spent on music tutors didn’t go to waste’.” A small hiccup broke her rant for a moment. “I mean, what kind of parents barely acknowledge the existence of their child, let alone treat their child like she did something wrong just by being born?”

She sat down and cried openly now. Vinyl was unsure if she should comfort the distraught mare that was currently crying on her kitchen floor, or just give her space. She opted for the first choice and crept closer Octavia. Gently placing a foreleg around the mares back, she awkwardly hugged her, whispering “there, there”.

Honestly she did feel bad for her. Octavia had worked her entire life to gain the adoration of a couple of ponies who’d just as soon leave her on the street corner as look at her. She couldn’t imagine having gone through something like that. Her parents were always so cheerful and loving. A life where they resented her and wanted nothing to do with her was beyond fathoming.

“I’m just so done with them,” Octavia continued through her tears. “I’m so ready to move on with my life, even if that means leaving the orchestra and Canterlot behind.”

She sat there, sobbing against Vinyl’s shoulder as the storm raged on outside and their second dinner of the night began to burn.

“I think I’m going to be happy here.”