The Day Before
Since she had met him, Dj ShoutOut that is, Vinyl had been waiting for him to write her, or just to show up at the studio. She had been begun to believe that he wasn't going to take her up on the oppourtunity to get on the "Musical Radar", as she called it. She had almost given up.
'I really hope he shows up, even if he doesn't take make the cut, I still would love to stay in contact...' she thought to herself. She had felt a feeling growing in her. It was like it had started the moment she saw him, spreading from her eyes, straight into her heart. Like a sickness, she felt the feeling take her over. It wasn't very strong, not yet. It was just a mild infatuation, but she had to admit, this stallion had some qualities she rather admired.
'Oh man, he needs to hurry up and get here.'
A sharp knocking pulled Vinyl from her thoughts. She heard it perfectly clearly, although she just stared into space for a few moments. Hearing the knock again she figured she'd aught to answer the door.
'It could be him...'. She pushed herself out from the reception desk she was sitting at, and made her way to the front door of the Studio. When she arrived and opened the sleek oak doors, she was dissapointed to see that it was only the local mail-mare, Derpy.
"Hey Derpy, how's it goin'?" She asked casually.
"Pretty good, thanks for asking!" Said the exctatic mail-mare, with perhaps the largest grin she had seen Derpy flaunt in... well, ever.
"So, why's my fav' mail-mare so happy?" She questioned Derpy out of pure interest, and not because of pity on the wall-eyed mare. Derpy continued to smile broadly and for a moment, looked as if she hadn't heard Vinyl. After a moment, she shook her head and answered Vinyl in a quite jolly tone,
"Oh, nothing really, just another uh.. ordinary day!". Vinyl had decided not to push because she knew from previous experience that Derpy's emotions could change in the blink of an eye, if confronted in a certain way.
"Well, why'd you come to see me at this WONDERFUL studio of mine?". Vinyl asked this with a extremely sarcastic look, and tone, that made Derpy giggle.
"I think I have some mail for you. Usual stuff." Derpy, after stating this, proceeded to shuffle through her mail bag, hanging at her side. She revealed four letters to Vinyl and handed them over.
"Well, that's it! Have a wonderful day Vinyl!" Derpy said enthusiastically.
"You too Derpy, take it easy." Vinyl said this while giving Derpy a genuine smile. She was quite fond of this mare. Not in any intimate ways, she just enjoyed the mare. She was almost like a sister to Vinyl.
Vinyl flipped through the letters curiously, wondering if anything had come from her mysterious stallion friend.
'If I can even call him a friend...'. Seeing that one letter was addressed to the Studio Manager, she tossed it onto the reception desk, not wanting to even think about that marticular stallion at the moment. The mere thought of what he said about her music made her blood boil. Seeing the second letter was addressed to Truffles, for some reason ending up at the studio, she decided she'd take it to his house for him later.
'He never does come to visit me very often.. Heh.' When this thought passed through her mind it formed a small smile on her face. She always did enjoy hanging out with the big lug. He was usually pretty good fun, if he wasn't taking his job all too seriously. Seeing the third letter she felt her heart skip a beat. Maybe even more than just A beat.
'Finally! Ugh, This bonehead better have some good excuse for making me wait.'
She huriedly opened used her magic to pull out the nearest letter opener she could find. When she had sliced open the envelope, she placed the opener back, and pulled the letter out of the small paper package that had delievered it.
'Thank Celestia for Derpy getting this to me.' she thought. When she started to read the letter she was surprised, yet dissapointed. There were only a few words written on the parchment. The words themselves were surprising and slightly dissapointing, but at least she knew he'd be showing up.
"Vinyl,
I'll be at the studio tomorrow in the afternoon. Expect me before 8 but no earlier than 5.
~Dj ShoutOut"
"P.S. You don't have to stare at me so intently. You'll be seeing me more often. Your Manager won't say no to me."
Vinyl stared, jaw agape, at the letter. For one, she hadn't expected him to speak this way. Neither had she expected him to know that she was actually inspecting him as closely as she was, which was probablly not socially acceptable. 'Not that I care' she remembered.
"Well, this could mean one of two things." She thought out loud.
"He could either be totally freaked out, and wanted to delay until tomorrow because he didn't want things to get weird" she paused to take a breath,
"Or, he doesn't mind and just wants to wait until tomorrow so he can make sure he has some good things written for his audition with the Manager and the other musical ponies that worked at the studio on their own radio shows."
"I guess all I can do is hope for the best... And hope to get to know this stallion better."
The rest of the night was spent fnatasizing of the day ahead.
"Maybe he'll even think I'm attractive too. That'd be cool." Vinyl thought aloud.
"I'm sure it would be." The voice of Truffles startled her, as she thought she had been alone.
"Geez dude, don't sneak up on me like that. If you weren't so easy to remember I might have used my magic on you".
"Oh, you know you love my surprises." Truffles said sarcastically.
"Didn't know you had a thing for the new recruit, Vinyl."
"Oh come on, cut me some slack. He does look awesome!" Vinyl said this almost beggingly. As if she didn't want to be teased about it. As if it would've affected her at all.
'Since when do I get defensive?..' she thought to herself.
"If you think so I'm not gonna get into it with you, since I know how stubborn you can be." He said teasingly, with a slight smile on his face. Vinyl just scoffed and changed the subject.
"So, what's the mighty Truffles been up to?".
"Actually, I'm heading out. I've got a date tonight." Truffles said with the slightest amount of cockiness.
"Oh, big bad Truff has himself a date, huh? Who's the lucky stallion?". Vinyl was of course, teasing him, but his hesitance to answer kind of shocked her for a moment.
"Are you really going out with a stallion Truff? It's cool if you are, I was just teasing." He took a moment to respond and when he did, a sly grin formed on his face.
"Nah, I was just seeing if I could make you feel guilty over something for once. And it worked." All of this was said while maintaining the smirk on his face.
"You thought I felt guilty? Hah! If you think that then you've got another thing coming big guy." She concluded this with a hearty punch to his shoulder.
"Is that all you've got? I thought the mighty Dj-Pon3 had a bigger bite." This triggered a very unexpected emotional response from Vinyl. She wasn't one to act this way, but Truffles had chose his words poorly, and it made think he was insulting her music. Vinyl began to tear up, and since she wasn't wearing her sun-glasses, Truffles saw it all begun to burst forth. Rushing forward to try and comfort his friend, Truffles placed his foreleg around Vinyl's neck and brought her close. Surprisingly she didn't push him away in disgust of what he had just said to her.
"Vinyl, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean anything by it, I was just playing around." When she didn't respond right away, but he noticed that the tears had ceased, he began to worry.
'I hope she's not angry. If she is, then being this close isn't a good idea...' As she brought her head up Truffles noticed a smirk.
"Hah! Gotcha ya' big lug! You really think you'd make me cry? Not today big fella!" Then Vinyl began to laugh. Truffles just stood there dumbstruck. She got him, and she got him good. He was about to freak out because he thought he had done something horrific.
"Can you not do that to me again? I really thought you were upset." Vinyl noticed the sincerity in his voice and decided to apologize.
"Sorry Truff. I won't get ya like that again. We cool now?" She asked with a small smile.
"Yeah, we're good. Well, I should probably get going. I don't wanna make my date wait for me too long." He said. Vinyl hadn't even noticed that the sun had begun to set. She took a look out the window and decided it was getting a bit late.
"Alright man, have fun. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."
"What wouldn't you do, Vinyl?" To this, Vinyl laughed.
"You know what I mean. Go enjoy your date. Don't make out too much in the resturant though, they might kick you out." Truffles went over to the door and opened it, but then puased to look back to Vinyl.
"Don't set yourself up for hurt on this new guy. I'd rather not see you actually cry." He said, totally straight faced. He was being truthful, he didn't want to see Vinyl sad.
"I know what I'm doing man. You worry about your own love life big boy. I've got myself under control. Now get off to your date before she thinks you flaked." She said this with a small smile, trying to hurry Truffles out so she could get her things ready for tomorrow.
"Alright. I won't be around tomorrow so don't go off on Mister Hotshot." Mister Hotshot was a name that they had come to call their Studio Manager ever since they had learned he was quite the hot head.
"I'll be sure not to. See you later" She said with a smile.
"Bye" Truffles said, and then walked out the door, closing it behind himself.
'Well, I guess I should get all of the machines ready.' Vinyl went around to make sure all of the machines, mixers, and microphones were working correctly. Once she had check them all and they were all where they needed to be for tomorrow she walked to the staircase in the back of her office inside the studio. The staircase lead up to her house, which was two floors of her living quarters, that she had added to the studio so she didn't have to be far from her music, which she was so passionate about. She went off to her kitchen, which was quite large, to get a glass of water. She hadn't had anything to drink since earlier this morning. Once she had gotten it and put the glass in the dish-washer, she decided she'd turn in early.
'Tomorrow could be big for me. Gotta be well rested. But I could never go to sleep without some tunes.' She thought to herself. She grabbed her headphones off of the kitchen counter, since she had left them there earlier in the morning, and then headed upstairs to her room. She pushed open the door, climbed in bed, and put on her headphones. She began to play some light techno she had made to help her mind go blank. Before her mind was cleared of her days thoughts, she waded through her thoughts.
'Can't wait for tomorrow...' The last image she had in her mind before she fell asleep was that of the mysterious stallion she had met only yesterday.
Her relationship with him was going to be more intertwined with her life than anything she had ever experienced before.