For the Record

The blares and beeps of a magic alarm clock shook the room of one young Vinyl Scratch, causing her to jump practically ten feet into the air and crash back down onto her waterbed in a cascading splash of blankets and pillows. Groaning, she fought her way through sheet after sheet, stretching out in search of the Snooze Button. Finally, the tip of her hoof managed to hit its mark, silencing the obnoxious cry of the alarm.

“Ugh…time for another day of…whatever.”

With a quick light blue spark from her horn, Vinyl tossed aside any loose blankets and pillows and stood up on her wobbly bed. She shook her head vigorously, only further mussing up her jet black bed-mane. The marble unicorn stumbled off the waterbed and slowly dragged herself to an end table next to her bed upon which sat her daily effects: a music player with a saddle-like strap, a pair of headphones and a pair of black shades. In a single haphazard magic movement, she wrapped the strap around her body, popped the headphones on and hid her magenta eyes behind the sunglasses.

“Look out day,” Vinyl groaned in deep monotone. “Here comes…Vinyl Scratch…” Vinyl weakly pumped her hoof into the air a few times and spun it around. “Woo.” The clearly-bored unicorn slowly trotted down the stairs of the two-floor shop-apartment build to the Silver Strings music shop her father owned and worked at ‘every day of his life since he was her age’, as the story he constantly told her went.

“Well, look who’s finally up,” joked a tenor voice to Vinyl’s left. Her father, Golden Voice, stood behind the shop counter which had mostly smaller instruments and vintage guitar picks on display. The amber-coated stallion smiled at his lazy daughter. “You know that was the fourth time the alarm went off since nine in the morning. It’s already time for lunch.”

Vinyl rubbed her eyes, still struggling to wake herself up. “Is it really? Wow…well, at least I’m getting a bit better. When was I up yesterday?”

“Two in the afternoon,” her father replied, “and three o’ clock the entire week before that. You are getting better, but let’s try for ten in the morning tomorrow, all right?”

Vinyl groaned once more. “Okay, I’ll try.”

Golden Voice smiled brightly. “That’s my girl. Now, what trouble are you planning on getting yourself into today?”

Vinyl giggled in reply. “No trouble at all, dad. I was just gonna visit Bonnie at her family’s sweet shop.”

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you still had a thing for Bon-Bon.”

“Daaaaad!” Vinyl whined. “It’s not like that! We were only together for a month, but she still had some feelings for that friend of hers from Ponyville.”

“If you say so, kiddo,” Golden Voice replied with a not-so-subtle wink. Vinyl groaned and walked toward the door. “How long will you be out?”

“I dunno,” the marble unicorn replied, “probably a couple of hours.”

“Well, not too late,” her father requested. “I want you to try and wake up early tomorrow.”

Vinyl raised a hoof above her eyes and saluted. “You’ve got it, old man.”

With a small laugh, Golden Voice let Vinyl go on her way as he continued tending to the front displays.

“Welcome to Sweets Galore, how may we-Vinyl!”

The white unicorn entered the shop, shooting a smile to the young shopkeeper. “Hey, Bonnie,” she replied. “I take it Mars and Almond are out picking up the weekly ingredients?”

“You’d guess right,” Bon-Bon replied. “As a matter of fact, you just missed them by a few minutes. It’s funny, they actually figured you’d come by today.”

“Well, I figure I’ve gotta fill these barren hours somehow,” joked Vinyl with a light chuckle. “So, handling the counter okay?”

Bon-Bon gave Vinyl a death glare. “You know, you don’t have to keep reminding me of that one time I slipped up.”

“Bonnie, it’s all either of us talked about for two weeks. I mean, how did you manage to mix up nougat and caramel?”

“I was on two hours sleep, remember?” replied Bon-Bon with an interrogating tone. “You had me up the whole night before.”

“You were the one who wanted to see more of the city,” argued Vinyl.

“Not until four in the morning!” Bon-Bon shouted back. “And how was I supposed to know you of all ponies managed to get tickets to see two back-to-back plays; Not musicals, not rock shows, not rave concerts, honest-to-Celestia plays?!”

“My dad kinda pushed those on me anyway,” Vinyl mumbled. “Anyway, that’s not the point. I was actually gonna come in here and ask if you wanted to hang or something, but I can see you’re busy.”

“You can always hang around until my parents get back and take over again,” replied Bon-Bon. “You just have to follow the one rule: don’t touch anything unless you plan on paying for it.”

Vinyl waved a hoof dismissively. “Yeah, yeah, I got it.”

The greenish-grey candy maker deadpanned at her friend. “Vinyl, I want you to swear. Not just any swear, either. I want you to make me a BFF Promise.”

“Bonnie, you can’t just toss out demands for a BFF Promise like that! They have to be important!”

Bon-Bon reached out and pulled Vinyl in close by her mane, holding it down on the counter by a few mere strands. Vinyl Scratch was now inches away and could clearly see the death in her eyes. “Vinyl, whenever you touch one thing, you end up touching everything, and the last six times you did that, I paid for each individual piece of candy out of my own paycheck. Now, you make me that BFF promise NOW.”

Vinyl chuckled nervously and gave a few quick nods. “O-okay, Bonnie! You’ve got it!” Bon-Bon released the marble unicorn, who then proceeded to raise her right hoof to her forehead. “I solemnly swear, by the code of Best Friends Forever, I will follow Bon-Bon’s instructions and not touch anything in the store unless I plan to pay for it.”

Bon-Bon smiled brightly and sighed. “Good. Now, you know the implications as to what will happen should you break your BFF Promise.”

Vinyl recited the code from memory. “If a BFF Promise is broken, the aforementioned BFF who broke said promise is not to be spoken to or associated with by any other BFFs in any way, shape or form. Jeez, who even wrote up all these crazy rules in the first place?”

“Twilight and Lyra of course,” Bon-Bon replied with a grin. “I had to make sure nopony, particularly you, Vinyl, could find a loophole, so I sent it to the two ponies I knew would get it airtight.”

“Stupid Twilight and her fancy library,” grumbled Vinyl as she took a seat next to Bon-Bon behind the counter. “So, where are all the customers?”

“Considering you just walked in here without questioning it, I assume you didn’t see the ‘Closed’ sign before you pushed the door open.”

Vinyl glanced over to the door and saw the ‘Open’ side of the sign. “…Oh, that explains a lot. So then, why are you at the counter if there aren’t any customers?”

“Well, it’s my shift for the rest of the work day,” the confectioner replied. “Or are you losing track of time now, too?”

Vinyl flushed and rubbed the top of her head embarrassedly. “Well, kinda. I’m doing better though! I was up at noon this time!”

“That’s still not good enough, Vinyl. You don’t even have a real job anymore. What happened to that ‘hot-blooded ambition’ you kept going on about?”

“It died when I realized I’d never get a job in Canterlot with a total lack of snobby class,” replied Vinyl. “I think this place was the only one I ever held a job at, and I screwed that by eating the stock. But can you blame me? I mean, you just left the giant lollipops out for everypony to see!”

“So everypony else can buy them! And this can’t be the only place you’ve tried to get work at, Vinyl. What about the Fancy Stallion, the restaurant up the street?”

“They wanted me to wear a suit,” Vinyl complained. “I’m a mare! I don’t want to wear some gender-defining tuxedo!”

“What about a nightclub? Aren’t there any of those around here?”

“Not within travel distance,” replied Vinyl. “Closest one is in the upper circle of Canterlot, and takes an hour to get there.”

“Why don’t you work at your father’s music shop?”

“And have to follow directions from the old man for like ten years? Not a chance, Bonnie!”

Bon-Bon threw her hooves up in defeat. “See, this is why nopony will hire you! You’re impossible to work with! You need to be more flexible!”

“Now if only you’d said that while we were going out-“

Bon-Bon’s face shifted to the deepest shade of red possible. “VINYL!”

“I’m kidding! Jeez, Bonnie, you can’t take a joke, can ya?”

“It wasn’t funny, Vinyl Scratch,” Bon-Bon replied with a pout.

Vinyl continued to grin, but taking note to Bon-Bon’s disagreement of the joke’s comic influence, she toned down her mischievous smile and wrapped a foreleg around her friend. “I’m sorry, Bonnie. You know I didn’t mean it.”

“Yeah…I know.”

Vinyl quickly decided to change the subject. “So, have you been chatting with Lyra lately?”

“I just got another letter from her today,” Bon-Bon answered. “She wants me to visit her in Ponyville again sometime, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to anytime soon. My job sort of keeps me from really leaving Canterlot.”

“Man, I’d love to get out of this dump,” Vinyl complained. “Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got you and dad, two of the best friends I could ask for, but I’d love to see the rest of Equestria for myself. Pictures in books and newspapers just don’t do it justice.”

“Well, I hope we both get what we want,” Bon-Bon stated. The confectioner grabbed two cake-pops out of the bowl on the counter and held one out to Vinyl. “On the house, to our futures.”

Vinyl took the treat in her magic aura and rose up to where Bon-Bon held hers. “To our futures, wherever they are.”

Vinyl Scratch walked back through the double-doors of Silver Strings and greeted her father with a half-hearted wave. “Hey, dad, how was business today?”

“Not bad at all, kiddo,” replied her father. “I managed to sell a set of instruments to a rather well-known young mare for her ensemble.”

“Oh, really? Who was it?” Vinyl asked with genuine curiosity.

“A Miss Octavia Philharmonica.”

Vinyl’s jaw dropped and her mouth hung agape for almost a minute before she pulled herself together. “THE Octavia Philharmonica? Of the Royal Canterlot Orchestral Ensemble? I mean, I don’t listen to that kind of stuff, but isn’t she like, crazy rich and some kind of prodigy?”

“Both are true, and I just sold some of my most quality instruments for a royal sum!” beamed Golden Voice. “Over two thousand five hundred bits!”

“Way to go, old man!” cheered Vinyl, reveling in her father’s great achievement…until she recalled a somber fact and dialed down to zero again. “I mean, yeah…that’s cool.”

Golden Voice walked out from behind the counter and stood before his daughter. “Vinyl, is something the matter?”

Vinyl shook her head, but stopped to think. She knew this wasn't a conversation she could avoid for very long. Her denying shake turned to a slow nod. “I just…I don’t know what I’m meant to be. Bonnie’s got her cutie mark for making candy; even cousin Rarity discovered her talent for finding gems and making fancy dresses with ‘em. But I don’t have anything like that yet. I've been living here in Canterlot for all my life, and not once have I ever found something I think is worth working for. I need to be free, dad! I've got the spirit of a Pegasus in me, and it needs to fly!”

Golden Voice looked down at his daughter and brought her into a gentle hug. “I can’t pretend to know what you’re going through. I've lived here all my life as well and have felt satisfied, but that was only after I’d discovered my talent for singing, and my ability to craft instruments. I want to see you soar too, Vinyl, but I can’t think of any way I’d be able to help you.”

As if having expected a completely different answer, Vinyl gasped lightly, but then silently nodded in acceptance and pulled herself out of her father’s hug, walking back up the stairs to her room. Golden Voice sighed and walked back behind the counter, levitating the ‘Closed’ sign to the front of the door and closing it with his magic. He looked down at the cash register and opened it up, glancing at all the bits inside from his monumental sale before. He’d been debating where this money could go, but with the conversation he’d just had with his daughter, Golden Voice finally came to a conclusion.

Vinyl flicked the lights off in her bedroom and immediately plopped down onto her bed and levitated a pair of studio-grade headphones over to her. She laid down on the pillow and pulled the flexible headset over her ears, magically pushed the ‘Play’ button on her CD radio and drifted off to the sound of light trance.