I whistled to myself as I walked down the familiar halls of Manehattens Musical Academy. At this time of night they were abandoned, however, I caught the occasional whine of a violin, or the beat of a drum coming from some of the rooms that I passed by. My room was on the second floor, and at the end of the main hall, nearby Orrick’s chamber. Octavia slept all the way on the other side of the building, which was rather inefficient, especially since the two of us had become very good friends. Yawning from exhaustion, I finally made it to my door; unlocking it with a swipe of my card. After hearing the affirmative beep, I swung the door open and stepped inside. The lights flicked on, except, I wasn’t the one to hit the switch.

What in the name of…?

“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you…” Octavia and Orrick came together in harmony as they sung festively, brightening up the room with their enthusiasm. I tried to hide the blush by covering my face with my front hooves; however, it probably glowed right through, so I gave up and just beamed. “Happy birthday dear Vinyl, happy birthday to you!” As the last remnants of the song echoed around my chambers, I galloped into Octavia, hugging her wholeheartedly before moving on to Orrick. He was a little too tall from me to reach his shoulders, so I just nuzzled his downy chest feathers to show my affection.

“Wow, I was not expecting this!” I exclaimed, feeling tears of happiness brim up in my eyes.

“Why not? It is your birthday, Vinyl!” Octavia exclaimed.

I kicked the ground bashfully.

“Would it be weird if I told you that in the last twenty six years of my life, I’ve not celebrated my birthday once?”

“Yes,” Orrick replied pointedly. “But, since this is the case present, I think we should throw a party for you, a big one, so that it covers all the others you missed.”

“Oh, you don’t have to…” I replied bashfully.

“Nonsense!” Octavia piped in. “We’d love to!” She paused momentarily and looked around. As her eyes honed in on something, her face lit up.

“What?” I questioned, trying to see where she was looking. I couldn’t.

“We’ve got something for you, Vinyl,” Orrick said, drawing my attention away from my search and towards his handsome face.

“You do?”

“Yes!” Octavia said from somewhere behind me. From the way her voice echoed, I guessed she was in the kitchen. Moments later, she was back by my side, a wrapped box at my hooves; or should I say, a half beaten, half tattered box at my hooves.

As if reading my mind, Octavia spoke up timidly. “I hope you don’t mind the job we did, bird beak over there decided to join in and well, those talons of his…”

“Octy!” Orrick glared at his friend in mock annoyance. “It’s not like you tried to stop me, and besides, the job you did wasn’t much better.” He turned to me with a beaky grin “You see those dents?” I nodded. “Well, that was Octavia’s doing.”

“Well at least…” Octavia began; I stopped her before they started at each other’s throats.

“I really don’t care guys. In all truth, I’m just happy you actually got me something.” I pulled off the tattered and beaten wrapping. Underneath, a cardboard box was reviled. It was large, a little longer then my body, and rather heavy.

“What in the name of Celestia is it?” I questioned, puckering my lips.

“Open it up and you’ll see!” Orrick said, reinforcing his claim by pointing at the present.

Shrugging, I used my unicorn magic to take off the tape and open the flaps. Beneath, a bubble wrapped device lay. It was slanted and rectangular. On top, two medium sized circular platforms were divided by an array of buttons and switches. On the downhill side of the device, the words ‘Mixmaster V2.0’ had been stenciled on in digital blue letters. Feeling rather stupid, I turned to my friends.

“So what is it?”

Orrick rolled his eyes.

“It’s a mixer. You plug your iPony into that jack you see beside the title, and it uploads your songs into the device. Then, using the interactive screen...” He stopped and pulled up a smaller device I’d missed. “On this, you create a set list. After everything is uploaded, you mix up the songs with the two turntables, and the buttons and switches.”

I nodded slowly, trying to keep up. Deep down, I knew that I probably wouldn’t use such a complex device, however, I wouldn’t spoil the moment.

“So pretty much you upload songs into this thing and then mash them up?” I clarified.

“Yep. Simple… right?” Orrick said.

“Kind of…” I drawled of.

Not really.

“Oh, I think you’ll get the hang of it.”