A new young mare sat in the back of Ms. Radish’s class looking woefully bored as she slouched in her seat. Her bright blue mane was a long mop of carelessness and in desperate need of a haircut. She tossed her bangs aside with a flip of her head and cleared the view for her magenta eyes as she scanned her new classroom and her new classmates. The teacher went on an Equestrian history tirade beginning all the way back during the Discordian era. She supposed it was too much to expect that classes would be any more interesting here than her old school’s.
To say she was disinterested would be an understatement. Vinyl had little interest in anything unrelated to music. She let out a silent yawn and continued looking around the class for anything, anything that would keep her from dozing off. She snored when she fell asleep and the last thing she wanted to do was to make a foal of herself on the first of her new school. It was an inevitability for her to play the role of the class clown, it was part of her nature after all, but she would rather keep it for an another day.
Her eyes wandered to the various figures of her classmates, many slouching like she was. Some even had their heads momentarily dip low before jerking up in another attempt to stay awake.
Soon, her glance fell upon the figure of a grey earth pony with a carefully brushed dark mane sitting in the front of the class. Her posture was straight and stiff and her pen furiously scribbled down notes as the teacher droned on.
Vinyl smirked.
Egghead, she thought gazing at the back of the only pony in the entire class who even bothered to take notes. She yawned and turned her interest to the colt that sat to her right. He was a dark purple unicorn with a bright blond mane spiked with way too much mane gel.
He also seemed to have missed the growth spurt that most of the other colts in the class had gone through. Vinyl watched as his head slightly turned to his left, almost imperceptible unless you were looking really closely like Vinyl was. It was only for half a second or less before he jerked his head naturally back to the board. Then he let his head drift to his left again then back then left then back… He went on like this for a good chunk of the class.
Vinyl’s smirk grew just a centimeters before she realized what she was doing. The upturn of her lip fell into a scowl and she angrily tussled up her mane with a hoof.
This is pathetic! She thought furiously. I really need to find something better to do during class than watch eggheads crushing on each other.
She dragged back her attentions and recalled the whole reason she was even at this school.
“Vinyl!”
“Hey, what’s up dad?”
“Do not, ‘what’s up’ me young lady! What is the meaning of this!”
He thrust a scroll of parchment towards her and she caught it in an aura of cyan light and read the neat scrawl.
“Oh yeah. Whoops.”
She watched in bemusement as her dad’s white face literally turned a bright scarlet.
“Vinyl, this has been the fourth school you have been kicked out of! Even by your standards, this is ridiculous!”
Vinyl shrugged nonchalantly, further enraging her father.
“It just wasn’t the place for me dad.”
A long, exhausted sigh left her father’s lips as he reeled in the tendrils of his fury.
“Young lady, I hope you know that was the last private school that was willing to take you in.”
Vinyl nodded slowly, daring to hope…
“I have no choice but to send you to a…" He took in a deep breathe to brace himself. "Public school.”
He said the word ‘public’ distastefully as if he had found a parasprite in his soup.
Vinyl mentally pumped her hoof up victoriously and bit down on her bottom lip to kill the smile that was threatening to take over her face.
“Oh no!” She flared with what she hoped was a convincing tone of anguish. “Anything but public school father! I cannot even bare the thought!”
Her father nodded grimly, completely unaware of his daughter’s underlying feelings that was showing all too well through her horrible acting.
“This is your punishment,” he continued. “Hopefully, this experience will straighten up your attitude while I try finding another proper school that will take you. Do not get your hopes up. You’ve become rather… infamous amongst the Canterlot’s education board.”
Vinyl did her best to look like her world was ending. As soon as her father was out of the room and out of earshot, she jumped up and whooped.
“Yes! No more snooty elitists with sticks up their flanks! I can finally make friends with some tolerable ponies!”
The bell's annoying chime cut into the lecture and Vinyl’s thoughts, cleanly ending it as students got up and stretched, ready to go home.
A couple of ponies trotted up pleasantly to Vinyl's desk, eager to acquaint themselves with the new student.
"Hello," a mare with bright orange curls greeted. Her coat was an easy on the eyes sort of yellow and proudly emblazoned on both sides of her flank were some delicious looking carrots. A sea green unicorn with a turquoise mane streaked with white strode up beside her. Her cutie mark boasted a lyre.
“My names Golden Harvest, but my friends call me Carrot Top. This is Lyra," she nodded to the unicorn beside her who flashed a natural smile. Vinyl grinned back.
“Carrot Top? How’d you got that nick-name?” Vinyl retorted with joking sarcasm as she regarded the pale mare’s cutie mark once more.
“Oh it was when I brought in my art project in fifth grade,” Carrot Top responded seriously, completely missing the friendly sarcasm in Vinyl’s voice. “I created this entire model of the Canterlot Castle out of glue and tooth picks. It wasn’t very good,” she quickly added after Vinyl’s impressed whistle. “I even had a model of Princess Celestia tucked away within one of the chambers. When I tried to bring her out to show my friends, all I found was the top of a carrot.”
Vinyl snorted.
“Seriously? How in the hay did that happen?”
“My little sister,” Carrot Top admitted. There were traces of embarrassment on her face as she relived the moment where she reached in to present the clincher of her project only to bring out a leafy plume with a stub of orange. “She was just a tiny filly back then and she took out the model so she could play with it and replaced it with the carrot she had beem eating. Ever since, everyone’s been calling Carrot Top.”
The story earned an amused smirk from Vinyl as she introduced herself.
“Well it’s a pleasure to meet you. The teacher already introduced me earlier in class but I might as well do it again. The name's Vinyl. Vinyl Scratch.”
"It's great to meet you too Vinyl. Hey, we're going to head to this nearby cafe that sells the best hot chocolate. You wanna come with us?" Lyra asked.
"Yeah sure, that's sounds great," Vinyl nodded and followed the mares out of the school and into the chilly autumn air. They started an easy pace away from the school.
"So what school did you transfer from?" Carrot Top asked curiously. Vinyl only hesitated a half second before she answered.
"... RCADYM," she sighed. She really hated the ridiculously long name it had and the reactions the name usually brought to ponies. Lyra and Carrot-top were no exception.
"RCADYM? You don't mean The Royal Canterlot Academy for Distinguished Young Mares do you?" Carrot-top exclaimed, her expression perfectly matching the shock in her voice.
"Yuup," Vinyl nodded.
"That's one of the most prestigious private schools in Canterlot! What the hay are you doing here in Greyside Public School?" Lyra said as she stopped. “This is the place by the way.”
She pointed her hoof at a little corner cafe with a faded sign that read 'The Cube'. It indeed was a cube. A faded grey slab that looked shabby but somehow cozy.
"Well," Vinyl said as they stepped into the heated interior of the little shop. "Let's just say private school was not my thing."
She smirked as the memory of the headmaster of RCADYM galloping around with her wig on fire surfaced.
Lyra and Carrot Top nodded, not wanting to pry if the new mare didn't feel like sharing the story.
They sat down at a circular worn table and a plain brown mare walked up to them to take their order. As they waited for their hot chocolates to arrive, Vinyl spoke up.
"Actually, it's a hilarious story to tell so I might as well share it," she grinned. "And I'm sure you guys will enjoy it a heck of a lot more than my parents did."
The two mares nodded their heads excitedly as Vinyl began to unfold her infamous crusade against the professors of RCADYM. Their hot chocolates arrived mid-story and by the end of it, Lyra and Carrot Top were laughing their heads off in disbelief of the ridiculousness of the whole story as everyone shared chocolaty mustaches from the drinks.
“Wait, what happened to the wig?” Lyra wheezed, trying to catch all the breathe that escaped from all the laughter.
“It flew off her head and, get this, landed right in front of Princess Celestia!” Vinyl grinned widely. It was a priceless moment to see the shocked expression of Equestria’s ruler as she watched the unbridled chaos unfold, worthy of Discord himself. Truly the pinnacle of her history as a prankster.
“No. Way,” Top breathed, her jaw dropped and the corner of her mouth twitching upwards in disbelief.
“What?” Lyra gasped. “Why was Princess Celestia there?”
Vinyl shrugged.
“I think it was a surprise visit. It certainly was a surprise. I never seen the headmaster turn so red. Heck, never seen any pony so red before. I couldn’t tell whether she was more embarrassed or angry.”
“I can’t believe you did that at RCADYM,” Carrot Top tried to sound admonishing but the effect was diminished by her suppressed smile. “What was the whole point of it all? Surely you knew it would have gotten you expelled?”
Vinyl nodded and looked around as if there might be someone watching them. Then she leaned in, beckoning her new friends to do the same.
“Can you mares keep a secret?” She asked.
Carrot Top and Lyra looked at each other before facing the white unicorn and nodding.
“Well, the whole point was to get expelled.”
Eyebrows raised and Vinyl realized further explaining was in order.
“I hated RCADYM. Everypony there is just so, so fake. It’s unbelievable. They’ll say one thing to your face and whisper all kinds of crap behind your back. And it’s not just RCADYM, its all private schools.”
“Hey Vinyl,” Carrot Top started out a bit apprehensively. “I hate to be the one to burst your bubble but it’s kind of like that at all schools. Public schools included.”
“Maybe,” Vinyl said nonchalantly taking a sip of the now lukewarm hot chocolate. “I haven’t been around for long enough to really see but I can guarantee you that it is not to the degree of the private schools. It’s not just the two face acts either. It’s like there’s this whole political game going on and if you don’t know how to play it, you’re screwed.”
Vinyl sighed and looked at her now empty mug, wishing for a refill but deciding to hold back.
“It’s suffocating as Tartarus.”
Lyra placed a comforting hoof on Vinyl’s back.
“Well, you’re here now. Greyside can be a bit dull sometimes but I got a feeling with you around, things are going to liven up!” Lyra exclaimed.
Her words revived the blue maned unicorn and she nodded at the truth of the words. Hope blossomed once more in Vinyl’s chest. Maybe, just maybe, this would finally be the place where her life could begin.
“Oh!” Carrot Top cried out in alarm as she looked out the window. Princess Celestia was already bringing down the sun under the horizon and evening was fast approaching.
“I have to get home before dark,” she said, standing up.
“Yeah me too,” Lyra nodded, standing up as well. Vinyl too stretched her legs and got up, reaching at her side for her saddlebag when her hoof only grabbed empty air.
“Whoops.”
“What’s wrong?” Lyra asked, Carrot Top already at the front paying for her drink.
“I think I left my bag at school,” Vinyl groaned. “My wallet’s in there.”
“Oh, don’t worry about the drink. I can pay for it. We’re the one’s who invited you out after all,” Lyra offered generously. For a moment, Vinyl’s pride stopped her from accepting but she swallowed her stubbornness and sheepishly nodded.
“Alright but next time, drinks are on me.”
Lyra laughed and pulled out some bits from her bit pouch.
“Sure. But next time, I’m getting the super hot chocolate.”
“Super hot chocolate?”
“Yup, it comes topped with whip cream, wafers and chocolate shavings.”
“Whip cream, wafers and chocolate shavings?”
Vinyl drooled as a startling clear image drifted about her mind.
“Yeah, they only sell it on Fridays though. We can go next week,” Lyra winked and paid the waitress who smiled and gave her change.
“Cool,” Vinyl smiled. “Thanks for covering me today.”
“No problemo,” Lyra smiled back. “What are friends for?”
They left the easy warmth of the cafe and found that the sun had sunk much lower, its rays smothered by the city’s skyline.
“Lyra and I live in this direction,” Carrot Top pointed to their left. “Where do you live?”
“I live straight down this road,” Vinyl said. “But I gotta run back to school and get my bag.”
“Alright, well I guess we’ll see you tomorrow then.”
“Yup, thanks for inviting me out. That hot chocolate was awesome.”
“Thanks for the stories,” Lyra snorted. “I haven’t laughed that hard since Carrot Top gave herself her own manecut.”
“Ooh that sounds like a story I want to hear.”
“Not today,” Carrot Top blushed. “Maybe another time.” She started pushing Lyra away before the mint green unicorn could say otherwise.
“Bye,” Vinyl waved.
“Byyyeee.” The two mares waved back.
She stared at the retreating backs of her new friends and grinned.
“I have a good feeling about this school,” she said to herself cheerfully.
She turned towards the school and galloped off.
***
She arrived breathless. It was now twilight as Vinyl stepped into the school, glad that it was still open.
She trotted lazily down the empty halls, trying to recall where exactly her class was.
“Er, I think I take a left here…?” She muttered as she peeked down the long hallway of doors. Faintly, she heard voices coming from down the hall. She shrugged and followed them. Maybe she could ask where her class was. The clopping of hooves on the ground echoed loudly in the almost complete silence. The voices grew louder and soon, Vinyl found herself standing before her classroom door. The white numbers 19 was faded but there it was.
Voices could be heard from within, one of them seemed to be yelling but there was no hesitation when Vinyl enveloped the door knob with her magic and swung it open.
The first thing Vinyl noticed was that the window was open, letting in an unpleasant draft. Next thing she saw were the heads of three ponies, turning towards in her surprise. Vinyl took a moment to absorb what she was seeing.
A grey mare with a disheveled dark mane was getting up hurriedly from the floor. Her violet eyes didn’t even meet Vinyl’s before looking away, suddenly extremely interested in the floor tiles. Around her neck was a white collar affixed by a bright red bow tie. Vinyl noticed some of the desks were knocked over and there was a large red outline of a hoof on the face of the grey mare.
Ugh, Vinyl thought with a facehoof. Worst timing ever.
It was obvious what was going on here and she wanted no part in it. She glanced at the bullies, the leader was glaring at her, daring her to say something.
She considered her options.
She could help this unfortunate mare whom she recognized to be the egghead that sits in front of her class. She was sort of leaning towards this option cause the longer she looked at the quiet grey earth pony, the more she felt an inexplicable sense of nostalgia and… guilt?
But what could she even do to help? There were three ponies against one, maybe two if the grey mare decided to fight back. She sized each of the ponies up. The pony standing rather shyly behind leader was a light green pegasus with a long white mane that hugged her neck. A midnight blue unicorn stood next to her. Her spectacles gave her an air of intelligence which was slightly ruined by the snarl she had on her muzzle.
The leader of the trio was a rosy pink pony with a bright scarlet mane so red it was almost as if it was on fire. She was also tall as heck. She seemed to tower above the ponies around her not only with her height but with the dominating way she carried herself.
Vinyl blinked when she saw this mare’s cutie mark. A set of dumb bells.
Seriously?
She inwardly groaned. Seriously, who has dumb bells for a cutie mark?
“Are you going to stand there gawking or are you going to say something?” The redhead finally broke the stale silence. She stepped towards Vinyl, her hoofs clashing with the hardened stone floor and scattering the silence. She stopped when she was right before Vinyl, her chin almost touching Vinyl’s horn.
“You’re the new mare right?”
“Yup,” Vinyl nodded coolly, refusing to let this obvious intimidation tactic work on her. It kind of was but she could at least hide it.
“Well then, lemme give you some advice new mare. Stick your nose out of business that isn’t yours and everypony’s happy.”
Vinyl twitched lightly.
Technically speaking, it was true. This business had nothing to do with Vinyl. Heck, Vinyl didn’t even know the name of the grey mare that still refused to look at anything other than the floor tiles.
There was something tickling the back of mind though. The more she stared at the grey mare, the more she felt she knew her from somewhere.
“Yo,” she called out, ignoring the giant standing before her. “You there with the bow tie. What’s your name?”
The grey mare froze for a second before lifting her head slowly with a look of confusion. Lilac eyes met amethyst ones and for a fleeting moment, Vinyl thought she saw an expression akin to recognition pass by the bow tie mare’s face.
“Hey,” a threatening voice growled, and the marshmallow unicorn suddenly found herself forcibly facing a pissed pink pony.
“I don’t know why you came here but get out. And if you tell anypony about this, and I mean anypony, I will personally make sure your life is a living Tartarus here.”
“Woah, chill,” Vinyl chuckled, raising her hooves defensively in a surrendering position. “I just wanted to grab my bag.”
With that she made her way to the back of the class where she saw her saddle bag draped over her chair. She casually tossed it over her back with a quick levitation spell and began digging around her bag. When she found what she was looking for, she stepped towards the windows.
“It’s cold here, lemme shut the windows.”
Before anyone could protest, she shut the window with her magic and began her trot towards the exit.
Glares followed her. When she passed the dark maned mare she dropped a small black ball from her sack and it erupted into thick opaque plumes of smoke upon impact with the ground.
“What the-!“
Vinyl grabbed the grey filly by the foreleg and bolted towards the door.
“Wait! What are you doing?”
Vinyl ignored the protest as she dragged the grey mare alongside her as she jumped into the hallway, slamming the door behind her. She reached into her bag with another round of telekinesis and pulled out a bulging yellow drawstring pouch and brought it into her mouth.
Vinyl let go of the earth pony’s foreleg and began running unhindered. She turned to make sure the egghead was following her and to her dismay, she saw the grey mare had stopped. She forcibly halted as well and spun around towards the halted pony. They had barely made it to the end of the hallway from the classroom.
“Yo, we donf hagh hime oo uhhp!” yelled Vinyl with the bag between her teeth, backtracking to the halted mare. Said mare stared at the white unicorn with quite a cross expression of her own.
“You had no right to butt in like that,” exclaimed the earth pony, her brows furrowed and violet eyes glinting with annoyance.
Vinyl gawked at her. This was not the attitude that she was expecting from the pony she was trying to save. She then glanced down the hallway where, as if on cue, the rose pony burst out of the door, coughing and looking royally pissed as diluted smoke clung to her body.
Her head swung violently towards their direction and for a moment, Vinyl and the pony beside her froze as fury incarnate glared them down.
Vinyl felt her hooves moving before her brain even told her to start running. She vaguely registered the realization that the grey mare was also hot on her tail. Her ears twitched as she heard the heavy galloping of the tall pink earth pony with flaming red hair begin her descent upon them.
When she turned the corner, she remembered the pouch clenched tightly between her jaws and she pulled it out mouth with magic, just barely slowing down enough for the grey pony to catch up to her. As they bounded down the hall, their hooves shattering the holy silence of a seemingly empty school, Vinyl turned her head to see redhead closing in with a startling amount of speed. She fumbled with the sack and readied herself.
The timing had to be perfect. Her eyes met the uncomprehending eyes of the mare beside her before she glanced back and turned over the sack while loosening the drawstring.
Countless small glass spheres of various colours and patterns fell and scattered across the speckled hallway floor, the pitter and patter sounds not unlike the sound of rain filled the featureless hallway. Before redhead could understand what was going on, she found her hoofs slip underneath her as she lost control of her balance and skidded right head first into a closed door with a sickening thud.
Vinyl resisted to urge to go back and check if she’s okay and kept pressing forward. After a few more hurried steps, she realized she had no idea where she was going. She slowed down a bit and silently let the grey mare lead. Soon, they leapt out from the front doors and their hooves now clopped on cold sidewalk pavement.
They did not stop until they had run all the oxygen out of their lungs so many times that their bodies finally shut down and staged a revolution against any more exertion of their of limbs.
They collapsed at a dark corner of an unfamiliar side of town. The moon hovered morosely over the horizon. The streets were ominously empty and more than half the shops had shut down for the day.
Vinyl lay on her back letting the coolness of the concrete seep into her burning, aching body as she panted furiously.
The grey mare was panting heavily as though she had chosen to just sit on her haunches instead of lying on the ground. After a few minutes, their breathes softened and Vinyl finally gathered the energy to speak.
“Why did you stop back there bow tie?” Irritation laced her voice.
The grey mare looked over to the unicorn sprawled over the pavement with bright magenta eyes that pierced through the darkness.
Finally, she broke the eye contact and let out a long sigh.
“My name is not ‘bow tie’,” she said a curt tone.
A few moments of silence.
“Uh, are you going to tell me your name?”
Silence. This time accompanied with a glare directed towards the unicorn.
“Look if you don’t tell me your name I’m just gonna keep calling you bow tie,” Vinyl said with great exasperation.
“Octavia, my name is Octavia,” she spat out with a surprising amount of vehemence.
Vinyl blinked.
“O-Octavia?” She repeated, a brow raised. A memory flitted past and Vinyl stared stupidly at the mare before her.
“Octavia? As in Octavia Melody?”
Shiiiiiiitttt.
“No way, you can’t be Octavia,” Vinyl protested. How could this mare be the filly she knew so many years ago? Ponies couldn’t possibly change so much… right? Vinyl’s eyes moved to the crimson bow tie around Octavia’s neck and winced at the answer her mind had formed.
“Why ever not Vinyl?” Octavia replied. Her soft, silky voice was now somehow chillier than the sharp autumn wind that cut through their coats.
Vinyl grimaced, guilt weighing her stomach down. She vaguely remembered the grey mare sitting in the front of the room look rather surprised when Vinyl strode in.
Vinyl thought nothing of it but Octavia had recognized her on sight and the tone of her voice made Vinyl think that she probably remembered Vinyl before the teacher’s introduction. Of course she would. Vinyl would have expected nothing less from her.
“I-I’m sorry.”
Octavia averted her gaze out to their surroundings. One of the street lights flickered erratically, threatening to die out.
“It’s fine. I did not expect you to remember me anyways.”
It was a very rare moment in Vinyl’s life when she had nothing to retort back with. Those words damaged her more than anything the red headed pony could have done if she had caught Vinyl.
Octavia got up to her hooves and with a flick of her tail she headed off down the street.
“Wait!”
Vinyl scrambled to her hooves and trotted off after her.
“What?”
Octavia did not slow her pace, nor even turn her head to acknowledge the pony coming up beside her.
“Er,” Vinyl hesitated, trying to find the reason why she called out. She had to say something, anything! “It’s dark out. I should walk you home.” She finished a little lamely.
“No.”
There was no hesitation before the short reply and Vinyl faltered a bit before continuing.
“Look, let’s talk a bit,” Vinyl continued, a strain of desperation leaking out of her intentions.
“No.”
“C’mon Tavi, it’s been years since we’ve seen each other. This isn’t how I pictured our reunion to go.”
“This was not how I expected things to be either,” Octavia replied softly, her fragility of her voice was enough to break Vinyl’s heart. “Please, just leave me alone.”
Octavia’s bangs shielded her eyes from Vinyl’s view but Vinyl could see the small trickle of liquid drip down Octavia’s cheek, leaving behind a faint streak of dampness. Her legs seized up at the sight and she stopped right in mid hoof step. She watched helplessly as the grey figure continued down the street, her shoulders hunched and looking so weak and fragile that Vinyl feared that the icy wind may shatter her to pieces.
***
“Give me another drink Shaker!” Vinyl yelled as she drunkenly pushed her empty mug towards the bartender. She was at sitting at one of the hottest clubs of the Canterlot night life and looking totally sloshed as she draped her body over the counter. On her face was a pair of large purple shades that glinted constantly from the shifting lights that reached them from the dance floor.
‘Shaker’ the bartender sighed. He was a dark blue unicorn with a spiky white mane and a crystal glass filled with deep amber liquid as a cutie mark.
“Vinyl, you do know you can’t get drunk off clean apple cider right?” He had to yell over the bone rattling music in order to be heard.
Vinyl glared at him.
“Yeah, I know. Maybe you can stop giving me regular apple cider and give something a little stronger then huh?”
“You know I can’t do that,” Shaker frowned. “You’re already only allowed here through special circumstance. Have you forgotten that you’re still underaged?”
Vinyl groaned in frustration.
“Yeah I know,” she grumbled, too quiet from Shaker to hear. It has been annoying her many years of how restricted her movements and actions were due to her age. The array of lights coming from the stage along with vibrations of the music set her at ease some. This was where she belonged yet her freedom was limited, even here.
“Hey, could I get some scotch over here?!” A sweaty light earth pony called out and Shaker moved over to start on his order. After a few mins, he came back to Vinyl with some bits which he threw casually into the register.
“Why don’t you just spill what’s bothering you,” said Shaker, levitating out a bottle of apple cider to fill Vinyl’s glass. He had known Vinyl since she was young filly and rare was times that she let things bring her down to the state she was in tonight. “It might make you feel better.”
Vinyl paused for a moment, watching her glass slowly fill up with sweet scented liquid.
“I met an old friend today,” she said, quietly.
The bartender raised a brow, realizing that this club may not have been the best choice to have a heart to heart chat. The blaring sounds completely swallowed her small words in a sea of sound.
“Wait one sec!” He told Vinyl before his began glowing. With a small flash of blue light, Vinyl found the assault of music had muffled into background noise.
“Alright, continue,” Shaker smiled, glad the spell had worked so well. He no longer had to yell over the noise to be heard and neither did Vinyl.
Vinyl smirked as well and restarted.
“I met an old friend today. She’s actually in my class at the new school I’m going to. ”
She took a small sip from her glass.
“I didn’t recognize her at first,” continued Vinyl. “Heck, I didn’t know it was her until she told me her name. But she remembered me… And she totally hated me. Heh, it’s not like I can blame her though.”
Shaker wiped down the counter with a rag, but his ears slightly twitched to indicate that he was still listening.
“The memory is a bit blurry since we were really young when we first met, but our dads were really close friends…”
Vinyl paused for a second, gathering the memories she had not treaded upon for many years.
“You may not believe me when I say this but I was pretty anti-social as a kid.”
Shaker raised a brow.
“Oh really?”
“Yeah dude,” Vinyl nodded and took an earnest swig of apple cider. “I made no friends at school cause I refused to talk to anyone. My parents eventually noticed and got all worried about it.”
Vinyl vacantly stared at something past Shaker’s head, her eyes glazed over.
“One day we visited Manehatten. One of my parent’s friends owned a summer home just outside the city and at some point of our trip, we took a carriage out and visited him and his daughter.”
“Vinyl, this is Octavia.”
“…”
“Why don’t the two of you go and play together?”
“…”
“Sorry about this… Our filly is a little shy.”
“It’s no trouble. I’m sure they’ll warm up to each other in time. Octavia, why don’t you go show Vinyl your room?”
“Yes papa.”
“I spent the next few summers over in Manehatten after that,” Vinyl said softly, eyes brimming with fond memories. “And every summer I spent with her, the more outgoing I became. She was amazing Shaker. She had this… awesomeness about her y’know? Like she was smart, kind, caring but at the same time, she wasn’t afraid to speak her mind and get things done.
Being with her made me feel like I was all those things too. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have become the awesome mare before you today. Heck, I’d probably still be a prissy little filly too shy and scared to talk to anypony.”
Shaker nodded as he mixed another drink for an awaiting stallion who was giving Vinyl a funny look.
“Hey, aren’t you a little too young to be here?” the sweaty stallion asked.
Vinyl tossed him an annoyed glare.
Shaker took over.
“She’s here on a special permit. She’ s one of our DJ’s.”
The stallion whistled, impressed. Shaker passed him his drink and the stallion thanked him before taking a sip and nodding approvingly. He gulped the rest in rapid succession and handed back the glass before returning to the dance floor.
“She sounds great,” Shaker said. But he had listened to countless stories and he knew that there was more and the rest would not be as happy. He waited patiently for Vinyl to continue.
“But we lived in different cities y’know? I was in Canterlot and she was in Manehatten. We sent each other a bunch of letters and stuff but it wasn’t the same as actually talking to her. But I was just a filly back then and I had no grasp of how large the distance actually was.”
The peaceful reminiscent facial expression on Vinyl’s face darkened.
“Until one summer, my parents didn’t take me to Manehatten. Octavia’s family was going under some hard times and my parents said they didn’t have the time to house us. I didn’t believe them and threw a big tantrum about it. I ended up deciding to just go by myself.
I headed to the train station but I got lost and just wandered around for a while, asking for directions and getting less and less sure if I was doing the right thing. Eventually, I got there though it took me a few more hours that I had expected. That was long enough for my mom to notice I was gone. And she knew exactly where I would have gone. She caught me right before I bought the ticket. ”
Vinyl let out a long exhalation and straightened up her back.
“So I didn’t go. Instead, I just cried the whole way home. I cried as I went back into my room and crawled into bed. I cried till I fell asleep and the next morning I just cried some more. That’s all I freaking did. Cried.”
Vinyl bitterly looked at a chip in the counter top.
“Vinyl, you can hardly blame yourself for something like that,” Mixer frowned. “I mean, you were just a filly. Going to Manehatten on your own would have been crazy. That place has not been the safest place to be since the Crash.”
“Yes it is,” Vinyl snapped. “I wasn’t there for her Mixer! I lost contact with her after that and we never visited her again. Then I heard what happened to her dad and I still didn’t do shit for her. I didn’t even find the courage to go look for her. It drove me near mad to think that even if I could find her there was nothing I could say that could make anything better!”
Mixer didn’t say anything. There was nothing that he could say to soothe the frazzled mare. She needed somepony, any pony to blame and for her, she was the best candidate. There was nothing that Mixer could say to make her think otherwise.
“What happened to her dad?” Mixer quietly asked though he had a good idea of the answer.
Vinyl hesitated slightly before answering. Her eyes were hidden behind her shades
“He… passed away.”
There was a heat in her voice, a different kind of anger from the self directed one from before.
Mixer barely registered the thought as he sighed. He scratched his chin for a moment before reaching under the counter and bringing out a unlabelled clear bottle of amber liquid. He took away Vinyl’s empty glass and replaced it with a fresh one.
“What’s that?”
“Apple cider,” Mixer replied simply before pouring a generous portion into Vinyl’s glass.
“Please tell me it contains alcohol,” Vinyl said, peering into the depths of the liquid.
“No,” Mixer shook his head. “It’s a bad habit to drink your sorrows and troubles away. It’s better to drink in celebration. Though I can’t give you alcohol, this stuff’s the next best thing.”
“Celebration? Yo Mixer, were you even listening to me this past hour?” Vinyl asked in disbelief.
“Yup. And I’m telling you to drink up. You’ve been reunited with your friend from the past. That’s plenty reason for some cheer.”
“She hates me!”
“Maybe. Still, there’s always more to a story than what’s been said Vinyl and it seems to me you two haven’t had a proper conversation yet. There’s nothing you can do about the past but it’s not too late to do something about the future.”
“But- but…”
Vinyl’s buts fell into empty air as she could find no words to follow them. Mixer gave an understanding smile.
“It’s scary, I know. Talking is the scariest thing in the world sometimes. But if you even want a chance to be friends with this mare again, you’ll have to do it.”
Vinyl grimaced at the weight of task before her.
Was she even allowed to hope that she and Octavia could be like how they were as foals?
She took a long draught from the glass as her answer. The taste was crisp and clear. So different from the fogginess of the thoughts that hazed her mind.
"It's delicious Mixer," Vinyl murmured, her voice slightly broken. She was glad her shades covered her eyes for it allowed her to freely shed a tear.
“So your name is Vinyl? It’s a beautiful name.”
“…”
“My name is Octavia.”
“…”
“You’re really quiet aren’t you?”
“…”
“Well I don’t want to force you to talk. Do you like music? We can listen to some of the records papa gave me for my birthday.”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“This is my favourite song.”
“…”
“Oh… you’re smiling! Do you like this song too?”
“…”
“You should smile more. You’ve looked so sad since you’ve arrived, I was worried we weren’t doing very well as hosts.”
“…”
“You really like this song, don’t you?”
“…”
“If you want… I can lend you the record.”
“…”
“No, it’s fine. Really. As long as you take good care of it, I don’t mind at all.”
“…”
“Don’t worry about it. Just think of it as a sign of our new friendship.”
