Vinyl covered her ears as her roommate’s alarm went off and groaned. She took a peek at her own clock, sitting on the floor. It was flashing seven in the morning. Vinyl groaned again when a knock came to the door.
“Vinyl, come on, wake up. We need to go meet our land lord down at the cake shop.” Octavia sounded happy to be awake. Vinyl grunted loudly. “Hey now, I’ll buy you breakfast while we’re there.” Vinyl bucked off her covers.
“Fine. Hey, you gonna take a shower this morning?” She said, rolling over to her hooves.
“I already did, the shower is all yours, Vinyl.” The unicorn listened as the mare trotted away down the hall. She shook her head.
“I really need to find a day to sleep in. I don’t think I’ll be able to wake up early again.” She opened a box and pulled out a towel, then headed to the bathroom. She hung her towel up next to her roommate’s nice and neat towel, without a second thought of it. She then opened the translucent door to the shower and turned on the hot water, followed by the cold as soon as it got too hot for her. She looked around for her shampoo.
“Oh right...It’s still in a box.” She mumbled as she stepped out of the shower and into her room.
“Vinyl! Towel!” She heard the shriek of her friend as she stepped in her room. Vinyl turned her head to see Octavia at the end of the hall, covering her eyes with a hoof. The unicorn pressed her upper body close the the ground, lifting her flank in the air.
“What? Is something wrong, Tavi?” Vinyl said in a playful voice, then laughed and used her magic to take a bottle of shampoo from a box. “Cheer up, you’re possibly gonna see more where that came from.” She said, walking into the bathroom once again.
“Celestia forbid.” The grey mare, still covering her eyes, walked into the kitchen.
Vinyl stepped back into the shower and used her magic to close all the doors behind her. She lathered up some of her shampoo and scrubbed it into her mane. She gave a happy sigh and laid down in the tub, wishing she had time for a bath. The warm water pulsed slightly on her body, giving her a slight massage. She finished up what she had to do in the shower, then met her grey friend in the living room.
“Ready?” She asked with a smile.
“Ready when you are.” The earth pony stood up.
“Oh wait a second.” Vinyl rushed back to her room, then came back wearing her purple shades. “Alright, now I’m ready.” Octavia shook her head and opened the front door.
“After you, DJ.” She said, suppressing a laugh.
“Hey, do you even know where this Cake shop is?” Vinyl asked a little bit later as they walked down a street.
“Oh, are you looking for Mrs. Cake’s shop?” A purple unicorn came up to them.
“Why yes we are, could you hel-”
“WOW! She has a baby dragon on her back!” Vinyl cut off her friend and rushed over the the unicorn. “That’s so rad! Does he have a name?”
“Yeah, my name’s Spike.” The dragon spoke. Vinyl looked closer at the purple and green dragon.
“You are so awesome.” She spoke. Octavia grabbed the white unicorn’s tail and pulled her back.
“I’m sorry about that.” She apologized. “but yes, we are lost and looking for Mrs. Cake’s shop.” The purple pony giggled.
“It’s not a problem. Not the first time it’s happened. The shop is actually right down this road, not too far. In fact,” she pointed with a hoof down the street. “You can see it from here.”
“Oh yes! I see it now, thank you Ms....” Octavia waited.
“Twilight Sparkle. And your friend already met Spike here.” The purple unicorn responded.
“Hiya!” Spike waved.
“Hello to you both. I’m Octavia Philharmonica. This here is Vinyl Scratch.” The grey mare smiled. “We’re new in town.” Twilight smiled.
“Good to hear.”
“Now, we really should get going, we have an important meeting.” Octavia waved at the unicorn and her dragon, while pulling her friend.
“She seemed nice.” Vinyl said, getting on her own hooves and walking next to the mare.
“How would you know, you were gawking at her dragon.”
“Because I’ve never seen one!” The unicorn moaned.
“Hurry up, we’re already late.” Octavia dropped back and pushed Vinyl forward, using her head.
“Hey! Whoa! Wait a second! Personal space!” The unicorn lifted the earth pony into the air, causing her to flail her arms and legs about.
“Vinyl! Ah! Wait! Put me down! Seriously! Stop!” Octavia cried. Vinyl gently set her down then ran off. “You’re so DEAD!” Octavia chased after her.
“Okay! Okay! I’m sorry! Truce!” Vinyl said, bursting into the cake shop, laughing.
“Vinyl, don’t you EVER use you magic on me like that again.” Octavia followed the unicorn into the shop, the fixed her bow tie.
“Did I hear you say Vinyl? As in, Vinyl Scratch?” An orange pegasus stallion with a brown and dark blue mane in a ponytail walked up to the two mares.
“Uh...yeah, I’m Vinyl.” The unicorn faced the pegasus.
“Well that’s good, I’ve been waiting for you two. I’m Roofus. Come, sit and we’ll talk.” Vinyl looked over to Octavia, who nudged the unicorn as she walked by. The white pony giggled, then followed her friend and sat at the table Roofus had already sat at.
“Nice to meet you, Roofus.” The grey mare spoke once everyone was sitting.
“And it’s good to finally talk to you both, other than over the phone that is.” He chuckled. “And I hope you’re finding the place comfortable?”
“It’ll be perfect once I get my musical equipment in there.” Vinyl said with a smile. The pegasus smiled back
“Ha, well good thing I love music, and that’s why I thought you two would actually have a great time together. Both of you are music enthusiasts, from what you’ve told me anyway. So I hope having you both as roommates hasn’t caused problems.”
“It’s funny actually, we were friends before we even entered Ponyville.” Octavia looked at Vinyl.
“Oh, so you two met on the train ride over?” Roofus smiled at the duo.
“It was a rough start...” The grey pony started, but was blocked by Vinyl’s white hoof.
“Let’s just say we both said things we shouldn’t have said, and made up for it.” Vinyl aimed a cheeky smile at her grey friend.
“So this musical equipment of yours Vinyl, how heavy is it?” Roofus asked, turning his attention to the unicorn.
“Heavy.” She pushed her shades up. “Too heavy for me to carry with my magic. I was hoping to actually maybe get help to get it down here, but I don’t know a pony strong enough to actually haul the monsters down here.”
“Interestingly enough, I think I know a certain family that has a very strong stallion. He will probably be glad to help.”
“But if it was a two day ride on a train, it would take at least a week for him to walk it all the way down here from Manehattan.” Octavia stated with a concerned look.
“It’s fine, I can wait a week.” Vinyl chipped in.
“I was talking about the stallion. Would he really want to carry something for somepony he didn’t even know?” Octavia placed a hoof on the table. The pegasus laughed.
“Well, because He’s nice and will do favors like that.”
“Wait...” Vinyl said. “Why don’t we just have him take it to the train station, then bring it to our apartment. It’d be faster and easier for him.” The other ponies looked at her in silence.
“I didn’t even think of that.” The pegasus opened his wings as he smiled. “In fact, I’m going to go ask him right now, see if he will do that for us.”
“Wait.” Octavia stopped Roofus from leaving. “What about what we have to owe you for the apartment.”
“Oh right. Sorry.” The orange pony sat back down. “Getting ahead of myself. Right. I’ve gone through this in my head and how about three hundred bits a month?” Vinyl looked over to the grey pony. Even through her shades, Octavia could tell that her friend was thinking the same question.
“Is that for both of us, or each?” The grey mare asked, turning to the pegasus.
“That price would be for both of you. So, two ponies, three hundred bits at once.” Octavia gave Vinyl a nod.
“That’s only one hundred and fifty bits each. I can do that.” Vinyl said, nodding back at her friend. “As soon as I start getting paid...” She added.
“Yes, that will be a problem. At the moment Roofus, we’re a little low on funds. I can’t make the first months-” Octavia started her own thought.
“Then don’t worry about it.”
“-payment...... Sorry, what?” The grey pony shook her head.
“I said don’t worry about it.” The pegasus gave a friendly smile at the girls. Vinyl blinked, completely unsure of what to say. They looked at each other, then back at the land lord. Octavia opened her mouth, searching for words. Finally Vinyl spoke.
“So.. Like.. The first month is free?”
“Sure, why not? Shoot, I’ll give you both the first two months free. I know it could take a while to get your names out there, so yeah, I can take two month credit.”
“Wow.” Vinyl said blankly.
“Two months? That’s very generous of you.” Octavia tried to smile, but the shocked look stayed on her face.
“Yeah, well I want to keep the two ‘stars-to-be’ happy. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to see if I can get Vinyl’s musical stuff here soon.” The pegasus stood, nodded at the two mares then walked out the door, nonchalantly.
“Wow.” The unicorn repeated.
Hey readers! just want to thank you all again for reading! and I don't know if you all noticed, but I thought I'd point it out..
Have you noticed, that all the chapter titles are in fact song titles? that's right they are! (at the moment, mostly country songs, but eh.) and I plan on keeping it that way too. it's fun to see what song titles actually fit the chapter. Again, any input is appreciated!