571 Songs

571 Songs

By: BassTheBrony

6:30 PM, CST

Bryce nearly ran down the stairs, iPhone in hand.  He had heard the garage door open, and that meant food.  Maybe some of that delicious fried chicken from Canes.  He tripped on his own legs, nearly sending himself down a flight the wooden staircase, but thankfully caught himself on the flimsy handrail.  He did, however, send his phone flying down the stairs, which impacted the far wall with a thud, before bouncing off it into the depths of the unknown.  Otherwise called the underside of the living room couch.  He reached the bottom of the stairs, walked to the couch, and reached his hand under the gap between it and the carpet, in a vain attempt to find his beloved phone.  He heard a heavy door slam, and a voice call out.  He debated getting his phone now, or eating dinner.  The decision was made in a split second.  Dinner first.  It's not like his phone was going anywhere, right?

7:00 PM, CET

A DJ pony pounded her head on an empty turntable, which sat in her study.  She always knew this day would come, and she had dreaded it, but what she hadn't know was how soon it would be. She had no ideas.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zip.  Zilch.  Zero.  And it was driving her mad!  She had a gig next week, and nothing new to play!  Those snotty new DJ's from Canterlot were going to love showing her up!   Everypony will think I'm useless!  I'll be a hobo!  Go back to being a nopony!  Her self depreciating rant was halted by a loud thud on her door.  She got up from her moping position and headed to the wooden creation than she had begun to hate over the past few years.  Probably somepony vying for an autograph.  At least if she did terribly at her next gig, these annoying late-night stalkers would cease to exist.  With a resigned sigh, she pushed it open, waiting for an excited squee to assault her eardrums, but it never came.  She looked around.  Nopony.  She half expected a tumbleweed to lazily roll by, the scene was so fitting.  Hmph.  Oh well, nopony to bother her.  She started to turn, but a glint caught her eye.  She focused on where it came from.  A shrub by her doorway.  Shrubs aren't shiny.  Something in the shrub, perhaps?   She stuck her head below the base of the shrub, looking for the source of the shiny.  A black box.  A small, shiny, black box, highlighted with white, covered in a fine layer of dirt.  She tried to pick it up with her magic, but accidentally dropped it.  The little box weighed more than it had any right to, but thankfully it was tougher than it should be, and was unharmed.  Hay, from the sound she heard, somepony had probably lobbed the thing at her door, and it looked unscathed.  Dirty, yes, but not harmed.  She brought it inside and set it on her turntable for later inspection.

7:30 PM, CET

A little while later, she returned with a plate of reheated food and presumably water.  She shoveled a forkful of lukewarm pasta into her mouth, and picked up the box with her magic once more.  She spun it slowly, taking in it's details.  It was slightly longer than her hoof, and just as wide, but relatively shallow.  It was covered in a black rubbery case, which was slightly worn on the edges.  The rubber covered a hard white shell, which in turn held something else.  Maybe it was to protect the innards?  Hard to tell.  On one side, there was a large black shiny spot, which was recessed into the white shell.  Along with the shiny part, there were three small openings on the lower part, and a square within a circle on the upper.  The other side, in comparison, was fairly blank.  There was a shiny picture of an apple, and then the word 'Otter' imprinted into the rubber.  She spun it slowly around, finding a few more things on it.  She decided that the shiny black side was the front, but could figure out nothing else.  Not at least, until she bumped the square-in-a-circle with her hoof by accident, which lit up the shiny black thing.  She jolted back, startled but curious. Why was it all upside down?  What foal would make everything upsi...oh.  She flipped it around, glad nopony was around to see her mistake.  Slide to unlock?  The hay did that mean?  Taking it literally, she drug the tip of her hoof across the lower portion of the shiny part, and much to her amazement, a little grey arrow followed it all the way.  When she lifted her hoof off, the slide thing was gone, and a number pad appeared in it's place.  Passcode?  Well buck.  She tried tapping a few of the numbers, only causing the black box to vibrate and part of it to turn red.  Ok, bad idea.  She stared at the pad for a moment, and upon discovering the 'cancel' option, pushed it.  Or at least, tried too, the edges of the white shell were making it very difficult.  Eventually, she got it to go away.  Not knowing what to do from there, she went about trying to get it to stop glowing.  Something this small couldn't hold enough magic to keep it going long, could it?  She pressed the little square-in-circle button again.  Nothing.  Maybe double pressing it?  Nothi...oh.  Her hopes went up just a smidge when she saw what appeared to be music controls on the top.  Sideways triangle?  Had to be play, right?  But...if it did music, where did the sound come from?  There was no way anypony could fit a quality speaker in something this small, magic or not.  Maybe it plugged into something?  She fumbled with it some more, looking for a place to plug something in.  Her hoof drug across a portion of the top, ripping a segment up.  She panicked, thinking she ripped it.  Upon seeing the cut was way to clean to be a rip, she forced herself to calm down, and looked under where the tab had been.  Was that?  No.  It couldn't be.  But it looked just the right size!  Only one way to be sure.  She grabbed her headphones, a top-notch pair of Wubz.  She positioned the overpriced headphones on her, well, head, then proceeded to untangle the mess of cords.  After a few minutes of failed attempts, she gave up and tried to plug the jack into the hole in the box.  Perfect fit.  By now, the shiny part of the box had gone dark.  Magic save feature, she guessed.  She pressed the little button, then double pressed it.  She pressed the 'play' arrow with her hooftip, and music blasted into her eardrums full volume.  After desperately hunting for the volume control, she discovered that the thin blue line could change it.  Having properly adjusted the volume to a tolerable level, she carried the box to her bedroom and flopped into her bed.  The music was something odd.  She had never heard it before, and thanks to both her job and marefriend, she had listened to an uncountable amount of music, some willingly and some not.  The current track was relatively upbeat, and what she assumed to be the name was displayed under the 'play' triangle.  She liked this song, and it was the first she listened too.  She let the black box drop into her mattress and magicked a notepad and quill over from her nearby desk.  She wrote down the name of the song, All Summer Long, then went back to holding the box over her face, listening to the different tracks.

12:05 AM, CET

Hours passed, and Vinyl braved the night, going through the bliss that was coming from a shiny box. Eventually, she discovered that the words above the name was the song's creator.  Some bucking exotic names on here.  Not one had she ever heard of.  Must have been some hipster's box.  She had liked every song so far, though, and wrote each one's name down on her notepad.  The ones she particularly liked she put a star by, and made a mental note to somehow record some of these songs onto her own tracks, so she could listen to them full blast.  Among them included Are We The Waiting, by somepony called Green Day, even though the song randomly cut off in the middle of it, some wubz that she really liked called Around the World, by a pony named Daft Punk, and any wub song she could find.   She even found a few for her marefriend to listen too.

3:27 AM, CET

She yawned.  Up all night.  She had counted, and recounted.  One hundred and fifty five songs.  And it was still going.  It was seemingly endless, and she could not be happier.  She didn't have work.  Not until her next gig, at least, and she was more than willing to stay up until she listened to every song.  There was such... variety!  Sad songs, happy songs, headbanging wubz, and beautiful acoustic pieces.  There were incredibly vulgar songs mixed with calm, inspirational ones, there was even one called the Cupid Shuffle, and despite the late hour, she found herself dancing on her bed!  And even more bizzare, it was immediately followed by a love song.  She sneezed, cutting her magic out for a moment.  Smack!  The box fell onto her face, getting an irritated grunt in return.  So now it's a magical black music ninja box.  Just great.

7:49 AM, CET

Dooon't stop, beeliieeevvvinnng.  She caught herself playing the song again, singing the lyrics.  Catchy song, but she had a mission to do.  Four hundred and twelve songs.  And still going.  This had to end soon.  She had a date with her marefriend that night, and she could not wait to show off her discovery.

5:43 PM, CET

She was finished.  She had listened to every song, and recorded her favorites, and one's she thought her marefriend would like onto records, and a few others, just in case somepony else wanted to listen.  And she still had and hour until she had to leave for her date.  She would just need loads of coffee, so she wouldn't pass out in her food, like she had in the morning.

6:45 PM, CET

She trotted out the door, holding her headphones and the box in her magic.  She had been convinced by her marefriend to actually wear something formal for once, and she was incredibly uncomfortable in the sleek dress she had chosen.  Her rear hoof caught the tip of the dress, sending her sprawling into the ground, and rocketing her possessions into the wall of a neighboring home.  She got up, dusted herself off, and began to hunt for the box and headphones.  The headphones, sadly, had shattered to pieces on the wall.  No matter, they could be replaced.  The box, though, was gone.  She searched for a few minutes before she was forced to go, not wanting to miss her date. She could get it afterwords, and besides, it's not like it would go anywhere, would it?

7:15 PM, CST

Bryce's hand closed around his phone, and he pulled it out, then thrust his hand in the air triumphantly.  He started to walk back up the stairs, much less energetic, thanks to a full stomach.  Once in his room, he inspected it for damage, hoping his overpriced iPhone wasn't broken.  After all, it had taken him his left leg to pay for the thing, he couldn't just carelessly lob it at walls, could he?  It was a little dirty, although the battery had been oddly drained quiet a bit. He smiled to himself.  His case did it's job.  There wasn't a Scratch on it.  He flopped onto his bed, plugged into his headphones, and closed his eyes as All Summer Long started to play.

Alright, not really much to say here.  Special thanks to the awesome Varocity for his willingness to edit, and make thousands of lewd comments over shrubs.  Every one of the songs on here, I do have on my own iPhone, and yes, I have sent it rocketing down my staircase before.  The wall was severely damaged.  Hope you guys enjoy!