Don't Knock Till You Try It by Doug_

It was a beautiful day. Celestia's sun shinned, there was barely a cloud in the sky, the music in the radio was relaxing, and the Underscore Family eat their breakfast blissfully. All except one, though. Lily Pip rested her head upon her hoof with a face that could only express boredom as she stared at her food, seemingly uninterested.

"Lily, what is wrong?" asked Doug when he noticed this.

"It's... it's nothing." Lily hesitated. Doug raised an eyebrow at this.

"Lily, I know something is wrong. Just tell me, I am sure it would be fine!" he said to her.

"Well, it's just..."

"Yeah...?"

"It's just..."

"Yes, what?"

"It's..." Lily shut her eyes as she finally got the words out, "It's just that your music is so boring!"

“'Boring'?" Doug exclaimed with a brief laugh, "What's so 'boring' about it?" he asked.

"It's classical music, dad! Classical music is boring!" Lily spat out with a fold of her little hooves.

"Now, I would not say that classical music is ‘boring’, Lily, it is just more… relaxing."

"Dad, it's nothing but a bunch of boring violins!" Lily argued with her hooves spread and raised as a gesture for effect, "Why can't we play some real music?” she grinned towards her father, “Why not pop music, dad?"

"Pop music?! Nonsense! It is nothing but a bunch of those techno sounds and mindlessly repeating the same lyrics over and over! Not to mention the lack of any real meaning in the lyrics, it is nothing but... something we can talk about when you are older."

"Nonsense?!" Lily exclaimed with a slam upon the table, "Dad, this isn't the 800's, this is the 1,000th year!"

"Lily,” Doug paused. “You should not slam the table like that."

"Sorry..." she replied as she shrank under her seat.

"It is okay, Lily Pip." Doug replied with a smile, "Just don't slam the table like that, Robin and I can discuss your punishment chores later."

"Speaking of Robin... where is he?" Lily asked. Doug looked up with a thoughtful expression, making it clear that he did not have an immediate answer.

"I... do not know, Lily. I had not seen him recently..." Doug said aloud as he noticed his room mate's empty chair. He looked about the room for any signs of him, when suddenly he noticed the clock. "Oh, how forgetful of me, I have to get to work! I will find a daycare… about time we do, it seems." he said before he left. Then, the door suddenly opened again. "You are coming with me until I find one, okay? I’m sure there’s one somewhere."

"Yeah, I guess..." she droned before she got up from the table.

"Lily?"

"Yes?"

"Do finish your food, I prefer not to waste."

She rolled her eyes as she turned back around for the table.

Once the two had left the home, there was a small explosive rumble. A small section of the wallpaper opens up, revealing the door to Robin’s Study room. The door slowly opens and he steps out, covering in sparkling soot. “Ack… how embarrassing, I leave my miniling in charge of handling the jewels and they blow up… bad Junpei!” Robin scolded, then looked towards the empty room before him. “Where is everypony…?”

---[({x})]---

The streets of Canterlot, as always, was busy with traffic. They were of high class unicorns, their muzzles held high and their outfits exactly in the latest fashion trend, which was what made a clock-tinkering earthpony and a wrench wielding filly stick out like black sheep. The ponies around them usually try their best to ignore them with a huff, but Doug and Lily never minded it none of the less. It was a rather beautiful city, which slightly justifies the unicorns' pride.

Every building was adorable by it's décor, every shop carefully designed by every detail. "'The Remarkable Flower', 'Trender Hooves'', 'By Day One Way'... how come I only find boutiques that sound like titles of novels?! Seriously, where is a daycare when one needs one...?" Doug slowly asked as he continued to ponder.

"So then I said, 'is that really a dress? Why, I believe it appears to be more of a piece of cloth that survived a hurricane'!" said one of the said high class ponies---a dark purple stallion with a wavy-jelled blond mane and tail, his mane topped with a hat with a orange stripe, and was adorned with a black suit with an orange ascot and yellow sleeve and collar buckles, his cutiemark a yellow six-pointed star with four smaller ones surrounding it---which earned a laugh from his mare-friend.

"Well, if that's a cloth that can survive a natural disaster, then I would want one!" Doug said as he budded into the conversation. The two sighed with recognition and bothersome of the very pony they did recall.

"And what do you want, Underscore?" he asked with a raised eyebrow and unamused green eyes.

"Oh, nothing much Gold Star, just the hurricane-proof cloth and a daycare. I heard you take your children there, right?" Doug asked with a friendly smile.

"Yes, quite so," Gold Star's mare friend replied---an earthpony mare with the same colour coat as her colt-friend's, only a few shades lighter, with a puffy, curly blond mane with three feathers sticking out of the small purple flower pin, two of them yellow and the centre one orange, and a well-groomed, long tail, her neck covered by a white scarf with a rose sticking out, along with a pearly-bead necklace above, and two purple leaf earrings upon her ear, her cutiemark a golden harp---with unamused blue eyes. "All six of them. Or, really, use to with the first three, since they are older now."

"Can you please point the way to one, then, please?" he asked as politely as he could. She gave her love a look, and in a brief moment they nodded. "I suppose. Passed the 'Canterlot Boutique'; on a left turn, you will find Baker Street. There, on the left as the fourth building, is the 'Sunshine Daycare'."

"Thank you, Miss Harp." Doug thanked with a small, polite bow. She rolled her eyes, looked back up with a huff, then the couple walked hoof and hoof together away from the Hearths Warming coloured clockwork lunatic. "Well, that went well." Doug stated with a grin.

"Let's just go, dad..." Lily groaned.

"Allons-y?" he asked in fancy talk.

"Sure."

---[{(x})]---

The door opened with the sound of a bell jingling. “Good morning.” the receptionist mare greeted with a cheery smile.

“It’s 1300,” Doug replied, “And I’m here to drop off my daughter, Lily Pip.”

Lily pronked in place, then giggled happily. The receptionist beamed. “How long would you be dropping her off? A whole day, a few hours, or one?” she asked with a tilted head, her effort to be friendly unfortunately came as a bit scary, making Doug unsure of rather or not he wanted to drop her off.

“The rest of the day, maybe,” Doug answered before he paused as he gently stroked his chin. “I left a note at home for my roommate to receive if he returns home,” he then smiled. “Therefore, he’ll probably pick up Lily before the end of the day.”

“What note?” Lily asked, “We just left the house.”

Doug face hoofed at this. “Of course I didn’t… when I’ll write a note, my roommate should find it.”

The receptionist nodded. “That would still be 15 bits an hour.”

Doug’s eyes snapped open. “Robin’s gonna kill me…” he muttered before he nodded. “You have fun now, Lily Pip.” Doug said with a smile. Lily looked back at the mare’s forced smile.

“... yeah…” Lily replied with unease. One sign-up through paperwork later, Doug was officially ready to open his shop. Lily gulped as he left the doors. “This is gonna be a long day…”

---[({x})]---

It was quiet for a time. Clocks everywhere ticked about, making it impossible to not know exactly what time it was. There were grandfather clocks, wall clocks, hoof watches, pocket watches, cuckoo clocks, alarm clocks, and more clocks than one never even thought existed. Doug would be immune to the old water torture, for he had faced worse. In a way, it made him more tolerant and patient. But, not even he could tolerate it for an eternity, so he always had his relaxing classical music to help. The radio played Luigi’s String Quintet in E Minor, a favorite piece of his.

As stated before, it was a quiet evening, but not until the door opened with the familiar jingle that always made Doug feel excited and joyful. “Ah, hello, welcome to Doug’s Clock Shop, ‘where every clock ticks and shapes in every form’, how can I help you today?” he recited with a smile. Who entered was a mare and her foal, the mare a tan unicorn with a green scarf, and her daughter a dark blue little one with a horn just like her mother. What made Doug surprised by their appearance was a big headphone set the filly wore, her expression clearly zoned out by the bobbing of her head.

“Ah, yes; my clock broke, so I want a new one.” The mare stated as she seemed to have already begun inspecting and analysing every clock.

“Have you by any chance spared your broken clock?” Doug asked.

“No, I threw it away.” she answered.

“Well, that is a bummer, for you could have brought it to me so I could fix it; the price depending on the clock and it's damage. But if it were to be a donation, then you would earn a 25% discount instead; the things I am willing to do to keep a perfectly good clock alive, you know. But, as much as it hurts me, I suppose it is already too late. What kind of clock did you have originally, if I may ask?”

The mare looked around for a brief second before she pointed a hoof at the clock that resembled the most to her own. “That one, I think.” she said.

“Oh, a grandfather clock...! Tragic, those are the best kind, but what’s done is done. Would you like that one,” he said as he gestured to the one she pointed at, “To take it’s place, since it resembles?”

“No, I think I’d like something more… different. I always wanted a new clock, anyway.” the mare answered.

“I understand, nothing like something new to brighten every home. Let me know when you come to a decision.”

The mare nodded, then began her search. She searched around for longer than he thought, inspecting every clock and mumbling ‘too big’, ‘too small’, ‘too noisy’, ‘too quiet’, ‘not the right colour’, ‘no, not that one’, ‘maybe this one’, ‘no, this one looks better’, making time stretch further and further. Doug was a patient stallion, though, and could wait for all of eternity. But that didn't seem to be the case, for the burning curiosity in his mind of what music the filly listened to started to bother him. It made him feel slightly hurt, with the filly preferring the headphones over his music, and made him wonder why that was so.

And so, with energy to get up and move his tired body fueled by curiosity, he walked over to the foal while her mother continued to ponder on the perfect clock. “If I may ask, what music are you listening to?” he asked. The filly continued to bob her head about, quietly humming a particular tune that Doug failed to recognize. He tapped her on the shoulder, which made her look over and up to him with ruby coloured eyes that was slightly covered by a deeper, darker blue messy mane, which made Doug almost cringe with adorableness due to her little lighter blue sweatshirt.

“What do you want?” the filly asked with a bratty look, which made Doug step back a bit.

“Oh, um…” he failed to say anything Equestrian, which made him clear his throat to fix that in order restore his composure. “What music are you listening too?” he asked again as he pointed at her head phones. She popped the bubble gum in her mouth he failed to notice earlier before.

“I’m sure you wouldn’t like it.” she replied with a roll of her eyes.

“I’m sure I would.” Doug replied, which earned a huff.

“Fine!” she groaned as she handed him her headphones. Doug had known that his daughter tends to be a bit sarcastic, but he was certainly glad that she wasn’t as sassy as the sea-coloured foal before him. Doug placed on the headphones, and in came a techno sound. He at first hated it, but then thought he should give it a moment, since it would be awhile before the foal’s mother made up her mind. His head slightly moved as a auto-toned voice spoke of razzling and dazzling, which was mostly the same statement over and over. The beat gave him the irresistible urge to bob his head a bit harder.

Then came a long note of the singer’s voice that sounded more like it was played from a keyboard then an actual voice, and right on the strike note after that, he found himself sway a slight bit in the rhythm. As the mare sang some more lyrics, he found himself stepping around in a slight, waltzy dance. Then suddenly, Doug felt the headphones and music suddenly ripped away.

“I said, give it back!” the blue filly yelled once again after the fifth time, the head phones floated between him and her in a red magic aura, with her horn glowing in the same aura. Doug looked at her with an embarrassed smile and a slight blush.

“Oh… sorry, I suppose I had been carried away…”

“Ya think?” she spat. Doug sighed before he walked back to his desk where he awaited for the foal’s mother to turn in her desired clock. He started to feel the urge to doze as time passed, his classical music like a lullaby to him as he weakly fought the urge to unprofessionally fall asleep on his desk. In what felt like an eternity, the mare finally turned in a wall-clock that was half yellow with Celestia and her sun on the one side, and the other a darker blue with Luna and her moon on it, with roman numerals to make it fancy. “I would like to buy this clock.” the mare stated.

“Oh, ‘The Dusk Till Dawn Wall Clock’, that’s one of my most proud pieces!” Doug beamed with recognition. “That would be 25 bits.”

The mare passed her bits, then tapped her filly’s shoulder as a gesture to leave. Doug sighed with relief as the doors shut, with the snappy little filly gone. The next thing that came to mind upon thinking of the filly was her music that he fell in love with. But wait a second, wasn’t it the exact music Lilly and he argued about, he wondered. His eyes widen at the realization.

“Ah oh...”

---[({x})]---

The doors of the daycare closed as Doug left. Lily sighed, and looked down with an uncomforted look. “Oh boy…” she said aloud to herself.

“Okay, wittle cutey, wutey, putity, come right this way~!” the receptionist said in a forced sing song voice, her big smile creeping the little hairs out of Lily.

“Here we go…”

The receptionist lead her down a hall towards an extremely colourful room with a colorfully painted landscape painted on the walls with a big, smiling sun. The room was stuffed with running, screaming foals, all yelling random things as they all played their silly games, such as chase-each-other-around, get-under-covers-and-scream-when-found, and do-a-bunch-of-stupid-stuff, all also known as ‘tag’, ‘hide-and-seek’, and ‘double-dog daring’. Lily looked in horror at what she was about to endure. With a slight shove, Lily was pushed into the room. She immediately turned to address the receptionist. “Is this the wrong room?”

“Nope” The door closed. Lily gulped, and slowly turned back to what she would have to suffer with for the rest of the day. She stood still for awhile until, suddenly, she was tackled by a colt.

“TAG!!! YOU’RE IT!!!” the raspy colt yelled with giddy excitement.

“I’m not even playing!” Lily spat back, but the colt ran away anyway in hope that she’ll chase him; she rolled her eyes at this. Since this was going to be the rest of the day, she decided to test the waters as she treeded through the room, her monkey wrench held up and ready in case of another attack, and in hope that there would be something in the room she could bare to busy herself with. After a full scan of the room, she managed to find something worthwhile.

There seemed to be a blanket tent, protected by a wall of pillows, and a few pieces of a build-it-yourself plastic playground set pieces used as pillars for its support. She decided to check it out in hope that whatever lies in that room was something better than-- Lily’s thoughts was interrupted when a dodge ball hit her head. ‘Well… that.’ she thought to herself. Without another moment’s delay, she trotted her way to the strange new tent. There were three foals inside, each with a different expression of Lily’s arrival.

“P-please leave… we don’t wanna play…” said a shy little brown coated unicorn filly, her mane long and ginger, and her cutie mark a purple book.

“‘Play’? I don’t wanna play.” Lily objected.

“Of course not.” sarcastically replied a puce coloured earth pony filly with a plainly cut blond mane, her cutie mark a file with three folders inside.

“But you guys let me in when I said that!” said a cream coloured pegasus colt with a spiky electric blue mane, who didn’t yet have a cutie mark.

“Fine,” the puce filly replied, “Come in.”

Lily happily crawled in, almost free of the sound of screaming foals. The cream coloured colt immediately closed the tent the moment she went in.

“What is this place?” Lily asked as she gazed around, but quickly found herself bored due to the lack of detail from having nothing but blue cloth to cover their surroundings.

“The quiet tent.” the puce filly replied.

“It’s the quietest place in the entire room you’ll get!” the cream coloured colt added. Lily nodded.

“Thank you, I seriously needed a place more… well, less loud!” she replied. The three other foals nodded in reply.

“I’m Index Form.” said the puce filly.

“I’m Upside!” said the cream coloured colt with a bright smile.

“I’m… I’m Novelist…” said the ginger one.

“But we call her ‘Bookworm’.” Upside added with a friendly hoof around Novelist.

“You do.” corrected Index Form. Lily giggled at this.

“I’m Lily Pip.”

“Welcome to the club!” said Upside with his hooves spread, “Hope you like it here!”

“We have books.” Index informed Lily, then pushed a few to her with with her nose. Lily smiled at this.

“Hey, why do you have a wrench?” asked Upside.

“For protection.” she proudly answered, then levitated it up for all to see. Upside beamed at this.

“That should help us fight off the taggers!” he exclaimed with an excited gasp.

“‘Taggers’?” Lily inquired.

“Don’t ask.” Index told her.

“Um… alright.” she said with a weirded shrug. So, with that said, she began to read the first thing she found with all the concentration she could muster, trying in vain to ignore the screaming foals around her. But, it seemed a bit more peaceful due to her not being able to see any of them, making it a bit more easy to pretend that they weren’t there. The other foals, including the seemingly loud mouthed colt, were all quiet as well, all quietly reading as well. “That’s funny,” Lily said aloud after a long moment of silence, besides the yelling and screaming in the background, “I think I actually… like this.”

“Reading?” asked Index.

“No, just... quiet, I guess; I dunno.” Lily replied with an unsure shrug.

“It is nice.” Index Form agreed.

“Yeah, some quiet time is nice every once and awhile. I learned that when I first got here!” Upside replied, then gestured to the tent around him.

“Yeah… I guess there is a little too much excitement sometimes…” Lily slowly realized, “Something relaxing, like… like…”

“Classical music?” Index Form suggested.

“Yeah… like classical music…” Lily replied with a smile, but then next came a frown. “Ah oh…”

“W-what?” asked Novelist. Lily opened her mouth to say something before the same colt who tackled Lily earlier entered the tent. Before anything was done about it, he rushed for poor little Novelist and tagged her.

“TAG! YOUR ‘IT’!!!” The colt left as everypony except Lily gasped.

“Oh no…” Index said with terror.

“Novelist, don’t do it!” Upside warned.

“B-but… I’m ‘it’!”

“Who cares!” Upside said as he grabbed Novelist, “He’ll just find another pony to tag, then they’ll chase him! You don’t have to do this!”

“B-but… I must…” Novelist slowly said with a hypnotic, zombie, terrified, tearful look in her eyes. Then suddenly, she got up, and ran out the tent to chase after the energetic, tackling colt. Lily face hoofed in response to this.

“That was a ‘tagger’, wasn’t it?”

“Yep, it was.”

---[({x})]---

“No, no, no, NO!!!” Robin yelled before an explosion of smoke erupted. “Dang it Junpei, I said not to go there!” he scolded. The door to his lab slammed open, then he escaped from the dangerously thick smoke. He coughed as he waved it off with his hoof, then used a Fog-Clearing spell to make all the smoke go away. Junpei walked out with an oblivious, innocent, clearly unaware of the damage it made. “Junpei, I swear to never trust you with anything ever again.” Robin declared to the little miniling. It whimpered under Robin’s scold. Robin coughed before he noticed something on the table. “Oh, look, a note…” he said before he levitated close to his eyes to read.

Dear Robin,

I left Lily Pip in the daycare. Pick her up anytime you want. I wrote down the address behind this note.

All My Best,

- Doug

Robin crumbled the note in his amber magic aura with an angry growl. “Maldición!” Robin sweared. “Doug, don’t you know how much it cost per hour?!” he exclaimed. With a hurry, he ran out of the door towards the address Doug left for him as quick as he could before another expensive hour passed. Once when he made it into Baker Street, he tried his best to calm himself down as much as possible, bringing his best composer before he opened the door.

“Hello.” he said in a very slight dark voice, his angry only showing by a slight bit.

“Hello!” cheerily replied the receptionist.

‘I always hated that smile…’ Robin thought to himself, but chose not to say so aloud. “I’m here to pick up Doug's daughter, Lily Pip.” he said instead.

“Oh, your room mate told me you would be here.” she happily replied. “I’ll go get her right away…” and with that said, she slowly backed away, the smile still there. Robin raised an eyebrow at how scary it looked when she made her way to a dark shadow when she almost turned for the hall way.

“Damn, that’s creepy…”

Meanwhile, Lily Pip suddenly heard her name called the fourth time, with the first three were muted under the sound of screaming foals.

“Oh, gotta go.” Lily said to her comrades.

“Your free.” Index Form said with a slight twinge of envy.

“Yeah, I can’t wait to go to…” Upside empathized, “But at least we get to read… I guess…”

“Hey,” said Lily with a smile, “We can hang sometime, you know.” she suggested. Upside beamed at this.

“Really?!”

“Yeah, sure, maybe we can meet at the park!” Lily proposed.

“Maybe on Thursday?” Index Form suggested.

“Sure, I guess that works.” Lily agreed.

“LILY PIP~!” came the call once again.

“See ya!” she said before she left.

“Lily, come here,” said the receptionist, then whistled a few times and made a few ‘tisk, tisk’ sounds as if she was a puppy, “Come little Pip!”

“Yeah, yeah, coming…” she said in an annoyed tone. One quick trip down the hall later, Lily found Robin. “Oh thank Celestia you’re here!” Lily exclaimed when she saw him. “That daycare was a night--” she stopped, and saw the receptionist smile harder, her eyes staring daggers sharper then the edges of her muzzle. Lily pause, and coward down at the stare with a cringe.

“I know,” Robin whispered to her with a pat on her back, “I know…” they both made to the door, but stopped when the receptionist cleared her throat.

“That would be one hundred and thirty five bits, please.”

Robin’s eyes immediately twisted in anger, but then spun around with a forced polite smile. ‘I’m going to killhim...’

---[({x})]---

“Come on… come on… where is it…?” Doug asked as he twisted the dial through channel after channel on the radio. “Come on… it’s got to be… ah, here it is!” he said in triumph. The techno sounds commenced, and he found himself smiling like a little colt. The lyrics were mindless, none of the sounds came from any wooden instruments, and the singing was completely auto tuned. But as Countess Coloratura began to sing her words, Doug found himself carried away by the beat. He stepped about in the beat as he did before at first, but then it's increase in beat and energy demanded more. He found himself moving with a little more hop to it, as if there were balls in his hooves.

Then, there not only came stepping and slightly prance, but eventually shaking his body about. There was no choreography planned what so ever, just moving his body for the sake of the enjoyment of the Countess. The entire world faded around him, and soon he found himself lost in the energizing melody. And then the bell jingled. His eyes popped open, reality flashed back before him, and in panic he ran for the radio and pulled the plug.

“Ah, h-hello, welcome t' Doge’s Clock Shoe, where every clock tickingling and shapes in ever… e-ever…  every form...!” he stammered in an accent, then breathed, then reformed his composer. “How can I help you today?”

Robin snickered at this. “This is why I love you, Doug…”

“What?”

“Nothing!”

“Oh, wait a second, it’s only you guys. Sorry, I was… um… busy.” Doug explained.

“Were you listening to Countess Coloratura…?” Lily asked.

“No!” Doug replied, but then realized something. “Wait… who is Countess Coloratura...?”

Lily face hoofed. Robin looked amused as his horn glowed. Doug looked back, and saw the plug lift to the out lit.

“No, don’t!” he exclaimed, but was too late as the music turned back on. He froze as the music played loudly through the room. “Oh, um… dang it, the foals must of messed with the radio channel again…”

“Doug, you're the only one who touched it!” Robin said with a stomp of his hoof. “You know I have a Truth Detection spell and a Hoofprint Detection spell, I know it was you.”

Doug bit his lip.

“Dad…? Didn’t you say you didn’t like pop…?” Lilly asked. Doug sighed in reply.

“Robin, please turn it off…” he told his roommate, which earned him a nod and sudden silence from the radio. “Okay, okay, I admit it… I… might of tried it long after our argument, Lily…”

“And you liked it?” she asked. Doug hesitated for a long moment, until suddenly the radio boomed back on again.

“OKAY! OKAY! OKAY! I do like it! Just turn it off already!” Doug exclaimed. The radio silenced once again, and Doug fell to the floor in shame. “I… I suppose the classical does make one a bit… tired, and unable to focus… I admit, pop really is… good, I dare say.”

Lily smiled in reply. “Hey, it’s cool. At the daycare, it was really loud there, and, if I had head phones… well… I guess classical would of helped, because it’s… well… relaxing.” Lily admitted. The two shared an awkward silence for a time.

“So…” Doug finally said.

“So…” Lily echoed.

“Want something to… get the mood back up?” he asked, then gestured at the radio.

“Nah, I think I need to relax a little first…” Lily replied. The two of them then beamed once when the same idea both popped into their heads.

“Techno Trance Music!!!” they both exclaimed in perfect unison, then both laughed. Every drop of fear and regret was gone as he laughed… but then it changed the moment he found himself frozen in an amber aura.

“Oh Doug~!” Robin addressed him in sing song with a sly grin, “Guess who had to pay one hundred and thirty five bits, today…?”

Doug gulped. “Faust have mercy…”