Vinyl Scratch’s very first thought when she woke up that morning was why Princess Celestia had decided to raise in sun right in front of her eyes.
The thought was expanded to why there was a herd of buffalo tap dancing on her head. On top of everything else the worst thing was the fact that somepony was shouting at her.
“Stop…..shouting….” It had taken considerable effort to utter those two words. Her tongue seemed to weigh a ton and the taste in her mouth wasn’t helping.
“I am whispering.” A stallion’s voice, somewhat familiar said again at deafening volumes. “Here, have some of this.”
Vinyl cracked an eye open to see what was being offered to her. To her relief she was still wearing her sunglasses, the tinted glasses providing a small degree of protection from Celestia’s sun. A smell suddenly found its way into her nostrils.
“Coffee…” she groaned and tried to sit up from her laying position. It was easier said than done as her balance was off thanks to the throbbing in her entire head. After some effort she managed to pull herself in an upright position and grabbed the offered mug of coffee between two shaky hooves.
The first sip of the bitter hot liquid succeeded in dispelling some of her discomfort. So much that she dared to open her eyes some more to take in her surroundings.
Vinyl sat on a couch that had seen better days a long time ago. She guessed its original color to have once been white, now it was beige verging on brown in parts. The stuffing showed through some rips in the fabric and if there were any springs left she didn’t notice them.
The rest of the room was empty. No pictures, no furniture, no carpet. The only other being in the room was a familiar face. Neon Lights sat on the couch next to Vinyl and watched her drown some more of the bitter coffee.
“Nice place…” Vinyl remarked after regaining some more of her senses.
“Meh, you should’ve seen it when I was living here.” Neon waved her remark off with a hoof.
“You don’t live here?” Vinyl’s brain was still struggling to form coherent sentences and seemed intent on smashing through her skull from the inside out. At least the caffeinated beverage seemed to slowly take more of an effect and the light in the room didn’t feel like it was burning her eyes away.
“Nah, I’m moving out soon, as you can most likely see yourself. Plus I had also told you last night, don’t you remember?”
Vinyl tried to think back to last night. She remembered performing and having a blast while doing so. Things started to get hazy around the time she had won the contest. Everything after that was missing or for the moment not available to her. She shook her head in response to Neon’s question and regretted the movement immediately.
“First time you went drinking?” Neon smirked at the mare sitting beside him. She very carefully nodded.
“Figured that after I had to drag your flank all the way here.” Neon laid a hoof on her back and started slowly tracing circles with it over her coat. Vinyl tensed up as the hoof circled further down towards her flanks.
“Whoa, hooves to yourself.” She warned and scooted a bit away from him out of reach.
“Come on, Vinyl. I thought we could have had our private little post-graduation celebration. I thought we would be having it last night, but I don’t really like my mares unconscious.” Neon Lights scooted a bit closer to her. “Now that you are awake…”
“Yeah, let me stop you right there.” Vinyl cleared her throat with a cough. “Two things, Neon. One, I have a gigantic headache. Two, I don’t swing that way.”
It took a few moments for Neon Lights to catch her meaning.
“You’re into mares?” he asked just to be sure. Vinyl nodded again in response. “Geez, you might have told me at some point in the last, I don’t know…entire time we were in university.”
“I thought we were just friends.” Vinyl had kept her personal life to herself in the time at university. What other ponies did not need to know she never told them.
“Well, it was going to be a friendly celebration.” He tried once more to persuade the white unicorn to party the way he had imagined.
“Sorry Neon, that ain’t happening.”
The stallion sighed and scooted away from Vinyl a bit to give her some more space. They sat in silence for a few minutes while Vinyl drowned the last bit of coffee.
“Oh well, at least I had a few good laughs last night thanks to you.” He said with a small chuckle. Vinyl turned to face him. Her memory was missing a few more pieces it seemed.
“What do you mean?”
“You don’t remember?” Neon grinned smugly. Maybe it was the hangover, but Vinyl somehow really did not like that grin of his this morning.
“I remember you placing fourth.” She said with a smug grin of her own.
“Oh, HA HA!” Neon had raised his voice considerably at his impression of laughing, the effect being that the buffalos in Vinyl’s head did one last tap dance routine.
“Apart from your drunken rambling, the best thing was what you did to that high class mare.” Neon said, but didn’t give her any more details. Vinyl did her best to try and remember, but came up blank.
“High class mare? Who?”
“Octavia Filibuster or something like that.” Neon shrugged.
“Octavia Philharmonica, the earthpony prodigy.” Vinyl corrected him, still desperately trying to remember anything. She had never met Octavia during university, but had most certainly heard about her. Then again who hadn’t?
“Pfff, prodigy my flanks. Just cause she can pluck a few strings with her hooves doesn’t make her anything special in my book.”
“What did I do?” Vinyl asked him with a certain amount of dread building inside her.
“You totally barfed all over her cello.” He answered with a wide grin.
“I did WHAT?!” Vinyl regretted her outburst, the damn buffalo were dancing again.
“It was hilarious. One moment you were just standing there messing around with her instrument, the next moment you drenched the entire thing. The look on her face was priceless, she even started shouting and crying.” Neon laughed a bit at the memory and laughed even more at the shock evident in Vinyl’s face.
“What the hay Neon? That isn’t funny!” Vinyl glared at the laughing stallion, the effect being lost due to her wearing sunglasses.
“Yes it is. She totally deserved it.”
“Deserved it? Why would she deserve something like that? What did she do?”
“Those snooty high class ponies deserve being knocked down every once in a while with their better-than-the-rest attitude and their oh-so-delightful city. Besides she can just buy a new one, bet she has tons of bits just lying around.” Neon shrugged his shoulders.
“That’s your reasoning? Didn’t hear you complaining about it when you were studying in their oh-so-delightful university.”
“Yeah, well I am not stupid. If I mouth off about them as a student I’ll get into trouble. Now that I am a student no more, I sure as hay can say what I really think and get out of here to start my career.”
“Do you know where she lives?” Vinyl asked, but already could have guessed the answer.
“No? Why do you want to know?”
“Because I can’t just leave it like that. I have to do something….apologize or something.” Vinyl put the cup she was still holding down beside the couch.
“Why?” Neon was genuinely confused.
“Because I don’t throw up on another pony’s livelihood and just disappear. I can’t do that.” Vinyl slowly craned her neck about trying to shake some of the stiffness away, no doubt brought on due to the uncomfy couch.
“You still drunk? I really doubt she would want to see you.” He laughed again. Vinyl’s opinion of Neon was getting lower by the minute. They hadn’t really spoken much during their time in university or even hung out that often. Only during the contest last evening had they actually spent more time together. As it turned out it was just meant to get her into bed.
Vinyl got up from the couch on still unsteady legs. She still did not feel too well, but in part that was also due to the revelation of her actions from the previous evening.
“Any idea what she might do with her instrument?” Vinyl asked and stretched her legs out.
“Stick it up her rump?” Neon chuckled a bit, but seeing that Vinyl was in no mood for laughing he continued. “I guess she’ll have it cleaned somewhere. Doubt she would want her preciously hooficured hooves to touch that thing and soil them. Seeing that she can’t use magic, being a mudpony and all, she’ll take it to one of the classy instrument shops around town to have them clean it up. Stallivari’s maybe, that’s on Alicorn Row.”
Vinyl decided not get into an argument about racial slurs with Neon Lights. It would possibly end with her hitting him and she wasn’t in the physical condition to go through with it. Instead she moved towards the door where she had spotted her saddlebags.
“You know something, Fourth Place? You are a real jerk.” Vinyl didn’t even bother to look at him. Totally unfazed by what she had said he laughed again.
“Good luck Vinyl! I’ll let you know when I am rich and famous!”
The white unicorn grabbed her saddlebags in her mouth and wordlessly left the apartment. Outside she took a moment to put them on properly before leaving the multistory building that Neon lived in. The fresh air outside helped her clear her head a bit more. After a few deep breaths she made her way back to her own small apartment a few blocks away.
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When arriving at her own place she carefully opened the front door to the apartment complex to make sure the coast was clear. That last thing she needed right now was to bump into the manager, who would no doubt demand to know where the rent was she owed him for two months.
She could have paid him right then and there, but she had a feeling that she might need the money she had won in the contest later on. Vinyl tip-hoofed past the door to the manager’s office and silently made her way up to the second floor. Stealthily she unlocked her door and slipped inside with a sigh of relief.
“Home, sweet home.” She said as she trotted towards a small two-seater couch.
Her tiny little apartment was nothing even remotely special. It was barely big enough for the couch and her deck she used for mixing and creating her music. A tiny corner was reserved for a small compact cooking area, while the two doors on one side of the room led to her bedroom and bathroom respectively. The bedroom was barely big enough for her bed, the bathroom no more than a shower and a toilet.
Vinyl had never planned to stay here longer than needed and as such had not invested any substantial amounts of money in it. A new mattress was the most expensive thing she had bought while staying here. She kept her home tidy and clean, which wasn’t that difficult considering the size of the place.
After a long shower and a few slices of toast she felt a lot better than before. The headache was now just a nagging sensation in the back of her head and the stiffness in her limbs had been removed thanks to the hot shower. All that was left was a feeling of guilt for her actions towards a pony she didn’t even know.
It was time to do something about that. Sure she could have just left the town like Neon Lights was about to do, but Vinyl wouldn’t have been able to live with herself in peace for a long time. She never meant any harm towards anypony she had ever met, it just wasn’t her nature to be mean.
Vinyl put her saddlebags back on and cautiously stepped out of her home. She was in luck again as the manager was nowhere to be seen. Hurriedly she trotted away from the building towards Alicorn Road. The high class shopping area was on the other side of the city. Taking a carriage would have saved her a lot of time, but she decided to enjoy the warm summer weather and think about what to do on the way there.
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Vinyl Scratch could not possibly stand out anymore as she entered the high class musical shop named Stallivari’s. A minotaur in a shop selling only bonnets would have blended in better. Not that Vinyl cared about it very much as she strode up to the counter in the otherwise deserted shop, carefully trotting around various ludicrously priced instruments of all kinds.
The stallion behind the counter gave her a skeptical look. Vinyl gave him her friendliest smile.
“Hi there!”
“May I help you?” he asked in that tone reserved for customers that one wanted to get rid of as soon as possible.
“I was just wondering if you may have seen a cellist named Octavia Philharmonica recently.” Vinyl hoped to possibly coax some information out of the stallion on how to get in touch with the other mare.
“Miss Philharmonica is an esteemed patron of our business. As it happens she was here this very morning.” He replied to her question. “She was slightly distressed.”
The stallion was unsure about the unicorn in front of him. Maybe she was a reporter for one of the many tabloid papers around town, which would mean he could maybe get some bits into his own pocket if he supplied her with some decent gossip.
“Let me guess. She wanted to have her cello fixed.” Vinyl already knew the answer. Her ears folded down at the thought of a distressed mare barging into the shop and begging under tears to have her prized possession cleaned of the filth covering it.
“Yeeees? How do you know?” he asked with hesitation. Perhaps this mare wasn’t a reporter after all.
Vinyl didn’t know how to answer that. A thought occurred to her on how she could possibly make some sort of amends with the cellist.
“Is it possible for me to pay for the repair?” she asked, to which the stallion raised an eyebrow in surprise.
“If you choose to do so.”
“Awesome. So…what’s the damage?” Vinyl hoped that her idea would not empty her bag of bits too much.
“One moment please.” The stallion left her standing in front of the counter as he went through a door behind him. Only a few moments later he returned with a large book that he put down on the counter. He began flipping to the pages until he found the entry he was looking for.
“Ah, here. The… damage is listed here as the following. Cello laced with acidic fluids. Frame in parts has absorbed some of the substance. Replacement of parts not permitted by owner on account of item being a family heirloom. Magical cleaning required to extract foreign residue. Approximated time needed: 80 hours. Total cost: 1000 bits.”
Vinyl stared at him thinking she had misunderstood what he had just said.
“The cello case was equally contaminated, but Miss Philharmonica had said that it wasn’t important and she had a spare at home.” The stallion continued to inform the silent unicorn.
“A thousand bits? For cleaning?” Vinyl couldn’t help but feel that it was massively overpriced.
“Well the nature of the contamination makes it difficult to clean easily. Seeing that she wanted it to be without replacing any of the wood in the frame the entire process is time consuming and requires delicate care. Something we can provide better than others.” There was a certain pride in his voice when he said the last sentence.
Vinyl thought about it for a moment, before sighing and opening her saddlebags.
You win some, you lose some.
It seemed fitting that her winnings should be used for something she had done in the same place she had won them. She could have used the money for getting started with her own career, but she felt she had to put it to use here first.
“Here are one thousand bits.” Vinyl levitated the bag of bits on to the counter. The stallion merely opened the bag and began counting. It wasn’t too surprising to Vinyl that he would do that and so she glanced around the shop while he counted.
“Excuse me?” he said and brought back Vinyl’s attention. “There are only seven hundred and fifty bits here.”
“Nah, I won a thousand bits. I even have the award here with me to prove it.” She was about to levitate said award out of her bag when he cut her off.
“Perhaps you should ask a certain Neon Lights about the whereabouts of your missing bits.” He slid a piece of paper over to Vinyl. It had been in the bag with the money. With growing anger she read what was written.
Thanks for the bits Vinyl. Consider it payment for my generous hospitality. Neon Lights.
“That mother…..” Vinyl swallowed the rest of her rather colorful description of Neon Lights. He had stolen her money, no doubt while she was sleeping on his couch. She really regretted not having punched him earlier that day, but that some something she could fix as well.
“I’ll be back.” She informed the stallion behind the counter and swooped her bits back into the bag. Without waiting for an answer she stormed out of the shop and ran towards Neon’s place.