//------------------------------// // Chapter 20 // Story: Stages // by Bunnybooze79 //------------------------------// A few weeks passed. Octavia had decided to accept the eccentricities of Maestro Ictus. His praise had effectively alienated her from the rest of the musicians and she realized there would not be any friends to be found there. The best course was to stick with the music and wait for her chance to climb the ladder of fame a rung or two higher. Vinyl was content with her job. She played her shows during the juice shift and was happy. Her relationship with Octavia had normalized again, neither mare ever mentioning the morning they had woken up next to each other. That didn’t stop her from thinking about it though. She was sure that it popped up in Octavia’s mind every once in a while, but never had the courage to actually say anything. Life went on without any startling revelations or any kind of accidents, at least not for the last couple of weeks. _______________________________________________________________ Bon Bon casually trotted towards Lyra’s little newspaper stand. It was her lunch break and she had decided that yesterdays double helping of vanilla ice with chocolate sprinkles had to go by walking it off. She spotted Lyra leaning on the counter of the stand and reading an article. There were no customers to be seen and that meant they could have a moment of peace for themselves. “Hi, there!” Bon Bon greeted the other mare and kissed her cheek. “I wasn’t reading the latest playcolt without you!” Lyra immediately said and whipped the magazine in front of her away. “Mh…you can’t lie to me, you know that right?” Bon Bon smirked. “Sorry.” Lyra retrieved the magazine from the floor and carefully made sure that no damages were visible. “It arrived earlier and I couldn’t resist a sneak peek.” “Anything interesting?” Bon Bon glanced over some of the other magazines on display. “Meh, an article about fake cutie marks. Rather pointless if you ask me.” “Any provocatively posing attractive mares?” “Again meh. I much prefer seeing you pose provocatively.” Lyra grinned while Bon Bon rolled her eyes. “You wouldn’t happen to have the latest Pony’s Digest would you?” Bon Bon asked after seeing that she already read the last edition on display. “Uh, yeah.” Lyra turned to a large brown cardboard box beside her. “It must have also been in the delivery earlier. It’s only for sale tomorrow.” “Oh, never mind then.” “Nah, it’s ok.” Lyra began levitated bundled up magazines out of the box. “I’ll just put two bits in the register tomorrow and nopony will suspect anything.” “Thanks, Sweety.” Bon Bon would have kissed her mate, but she was just out of reach. It would have to wait for later. “So you just came by for the magazine or did you miss me?” Lyra briefly turned to the waiting mare and battered her eyelashes. “Of course I missed you. Haven’t seen you for at least four hours.” Bon Bon replied with a lopsided grin. “But I also wanted to move about a bit. Lose some of those calories from yesterday.” “Heh, I might have an idea how you can move about a bit to lose some calories and it would also fix your cravings for me.” Lyra grinned and levitated another bundle of magazines out from the box. Normally Bon Bon was against talk of that kind in public, but seeing that there was nopony around at the moment she decided to play along. “Really…what did you have in mind, Miss Heartstrings?” she cooed. Lyra suddenly froze while rummaging through the box. “Buck me….” “Lyra!” “No, no…look at this.” Lyra levitated a magazine out of the box and held it up for Bon Bon to see. The sweet maker’s eyes went wide as she looked at the cover. “Buck me indeed….” _________________________________________________________________ Vinyl was lounging about on their couch reading an article about something called radiowaves. It was fairly interesting and she briefly wondered if there was any kind of practical use for it sometime in the future. Octavia was sitting at their dining table writing a letter to her parents, when they heard frantic knocking on their front door. “Are we expecting anypony?” Vinyl asked after they had shared a surprised look. “Not to my knowledge.” Octavia shrugged. Vinyl got up from the couch and trotted over to the door and took a look through the peephole. “It’s Lyra and Bon Bon.” Vinyl said and opened the door. The announced mare’s rushed through the door pulling Vinyl along towards the sitting area. As the door fell closed Octavia noticed that they were both grinning like mad mares. She also noticed that Bon Bon had a large parcel on her back the size of a large picture frame maybe. Lyra’s saddlebags also seemed to be rather heavy judging by the way it lay on her back. “What’s put you two in such a good mood?” Octavia asked and got up from the table. Vinyl stepped away from the two grinning mares and rubbed her neck with a hoof. Lyra had pulled her along with surprising strength. “Oh, we have something for you that you’ll like.” Lyra said and took off her saddlebags while Bon Bon carefully put down the large parcel. “Something to eat?” Vinyl asked hopefully. It was soon approaching dinner time and today was Octavia’s turn to cook. Overcooked noodles or really well done noodles as Octavia would call them were not on her top list of favorites. “Much better!” Lyra opened her saddlebags and levitated a magazine out. She held it in front of the now stunned mares. “Is that real?” Octavia asked with an eyebrow raised. “It’s the real deal. Goes on sale tomorrow.” Lyra explained and chuckled at the slack jawed expression of her friends. “I thought you might be interested.” Hovering in front of the two musicians was the newest edition of Rolling Pones magazine. The cover had two pictures that had been split diagonally with a large banner that read: “Manehatten’s new rising stars!” The top picture showed an all too familiar white unicorn wearing purple sunglasses sitting behind a deck in a club playing music. A large face splitting grin showed that the pony loved what she was doing. One hoof held up high, the other carefully adjusting the dials on her deck. The other picture was less manic, but was the prime example for the refined side of music. A grey earthpony standing on her hindlegs with a cello at her side in one hoof, a bow in the other hoof. Her facial expression was cool and told the viewer that she was in total control of the instrument. The tiniest of smiles possible was barely visible on her lips. “What…how…huh?” Vinyl just gawked at the cover. “Seems like you two are making the right kind of waves.” Bon Bon giggled as the two musicians briefly turned their attention to her with their mouths open and then back again to the magazine. “There is an entire article for each one of you inside.” Lyra said and flinched back as the two mares burst into action. Octavia had been a fraction of a second faster than Vinyl and snatched the floating magazine away with a hoof. A split second Vinyl had latched on to the magazine with her magic and tried pulling it from the earthpony’s grasp. Octavia almost growled as she held on with both front hooves. “Wait, wait.” Lyra broke up the building fight. “I have plenty more.” The mint green unicorn levitated a small stack of the magazines from her saddlebag and plopped it on the dinner table. One of them she then levitated over to Vinyl. “I figured you might want to send a few ponies a copy of it.” Lyra was still grinning at the wide eyed expression of her friends. They reminded her of foals in a sweet shop during Hearth’s Warming Eve. “And we made you something.” Bon Bon pointed a hoof at the parcel next to her. Seeing that Octavia was still unwilling to part with her copy, Vinyl took it upon herself to carefully unwrap the parcel. The cellist watched her every move, impatiently shifting her sitting position about. “Wow… I…wow…” Vinyl was speechless, something that Octavia was now also afflicted with. Bon Bon and Lyra had carefully taken the cover and the articles and had them framed. With a lot of revere Vinyl very very carefully levitated it towards the wall with the most space. A painted picture of a waterfall hung there. Lyra unceremoniously removed the picture and deposited it behind the couch. Vinyl hung the framed articles on the now empty hook and took a step back to properly view it. Octavia had scooted over while still clutching her copy in her hooves. “Eeeeeeek!” Octavia’s sudden joyous outburst shook Vinyl out of her trance. Before she could react the earthpony had slung her forelegs around her friend’s neck and began jumping excitedly on the stop. Vinyl had very little option other than to hop along with her. “We’re famous!” Octavia didn’t know where to look first or what to read first. So many pictures, so many written words. “We did it, Vinyl!” “Told you we would!” Vinyl was released from the cellist’s grip as she stepped a bit closer to the picture frame on the wall. “This is…it is….totally Groovetacular!” Octavia exclaimed as she grinned at her own picture. “Groovetacular?” Vinyl smirked. “That’s one of my words.” “Hmm, you must be rubbing off on me.” Only when I am alone and in the shower. The thought had come out of nowhere and Vinyl was glad that Octavia was still too preoccupied with her picture to notice the unicorn’s face turn a deep shade of red. Lyra however seemed to be able to read Vinyl’s mind and laughed once, but quickly hid it behind a cough. Vinyl in response ducked a bit lower and gave the other unicorn an angry look. “Are you ok?” Octavia asked and looked over to the mint green mare. “Yeah.” Lyra coughed once more for effect. “Just something in my throat.” “Need help?” she asked again. “Nah, Bon Bon is here.” The sweet maker patted the other mare’s back, hard. “Ow!” Lyra complained, but a look in Bon Bon’s face told her to drop whatever had been on her mind concerning Vinyl’s thoughts. “You could have told us that you had an interview, Octavia.” The beige mare tried to keep the cellist’s attention so that she wouldn’t see Vinyl’s colorful display that was very slowly beginning to fade. “Interview?” Octavia scrunched up her face trying to remember when she had given an interview. “I don’t remember doing that.” “Well you must have, as those pictures were taken during the interview.” Bon Bon pointed at the pictures. “Those were taken about two weeks ago.” Octavia said after thinking for a moment. “I thought it was somebody from the staff just making those pictures for the orchestra. I didn’t know that it was for a magazine.” Vinyl thought back to anything that might have given her a clue when the pictures of her were made. Any flashlight wouldn’t have been noticed by her amongst the flashing lights during her performance. She most certainly didn’t remember answering any questions. “Nopony asked me anything.” She said when she was sure about it. “Your article was written by a pony named Trenderhoof.” Bon Bon informed her. “He seems to be some kind of big shot when it comes to new and exotic things. You should read what he wrote about you.” Vinyl did just that and opened one of the magazines that Lyra had brought. Octavia did the same and sunk her nose into the magazine she was still holding. She began reading the entire article, but it soon became apparent that Trenderhoof loved himself very much and continuously broke the narrative flow with his personal exploits. Once filtered of his trivial ramblings the article delivered very high praise for Vinyl skill as a DJ. Expertly timed transitions, energetic tracks of her own composition and a high degree of interactivity with the audience. Trenderhoof had given her his seal of approval and urged other ponies to see her performance and dance until their legs hurt. Vinyl felt immense pride as she finished reading. It was a feeling of immense relief and joy that what she was doing was the stuff ponies wanted. She even had it in writing now. Her smug grin was well earned at that moment. Quickly she turned a few pages to read what had been written about Octavia. It was an interview and the answers were not all that interesting. Where she was from, where she wants her career to lead, how she had been given the spot in the orchestra. They were all rather trivial questions and answers. At least to Vinyl who had known the answers already. The last summarized few sentences did however praise Octavia’s skill and the fact that against all odds she had mastered an instrument not really suited for earthponies. The cellist grunted when she finished her article. “If I had known that it was meant for a magazine I would have given more interesting answers.” She stated, but still smiled wide. “We should go out and celebrate.” Vinyl was most certainly for doing so, but Lyra and Bon Bon shook their heads. “We’ll have to postpone that I’m afraid.” Bon Bon said with drooping ears. “Yeah, we have to be somewhere important this evening.” Lyra added. “But how about next week in style? Think you could get us in your club next Friday evening?” “Sure thing.” Vinyl answered. “Something important going on we should be aware of?” Both mares hesitated for a moment and looked at each other. Lyra shrugged and told Bon Bon it was her decision. “I think we should wait a bit still until we have something in our hooves.” Bon Bon said after a moment. “We have something planned, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise.” “Ok, then I’ll organize us a table next Friday.” Vinyl declared. After numerous thanks by Octavia and Vinyl for bringing them the gifts the two mares left for their destination. Octavia proudly declared she would prepare a special dinner for this monumental occasion. Ever since Vinyl’s father had accused the cellist of using Vinyl as a kind of live in maid and cook, Octavia had taken it upon herself to contribute more in that field. Vinyl didn’t object, but still tried to do most of the cooking. This evening the earthpony would not be persuaded to let her do it however. So she resigned herself to re-read the articles a few more times and look at the pictures. Octavia’s pictures she looked at a few times more often than her own. Every once in a while she would have to shoo Octavia away from the picture frame on the wall and remind her she had something cooking in the kitchen. That evening’s meal would later be described by Vinyl as very well done and extra crispy. Not something she had expected from soup. _________________________________________________________________ The weekend had gone by rather fast and Octavia had been escorted to work by Vinyl. A few hours later the DJ was back on stage at the club making ponies dance. Thanks to the article she had a lot more ponies than usual and she loved it. She held an eye open for any ponies with cameras, just in case other magazines wanted to write something about her. Amongst the bright flashing lights it was impossible to see the flash light of any camera. But she put on her best show anyway. As a new DJ took her place a while later, Vinyl went through the possible options for dinner in her mind. She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn’t notice a shadow being cast over her. “The boss wants to see you.” A high pitched voice behind and above her said. Vinyl jumped a bit and very slowly turned around to the source of the comical voice. His name was Squeak, possibly named so for his voice. Vinyl was sure if it was a nickname or his real name and quite frankly didn’t dare ask. Squeak was a mouse brown earthpony stallion…or possibly two in one, with a white mane so short he could have also been bald. Nearly twice the height of a regular pony and also twice as wide, maybe even more and the only word to describe him was massive. He didn’t have bulging muscles from training and working out, yet seemed to have more strength than anypony dared to find out. He was the club owner’s right hoof pony. Vinyl assumed he also acted as a bodyguard and did other henchpony activities. Something she didn’t want to know about. She only had very briefly talked to the owner and his sidekick once before. At the time he had said to not get in trouble and everypony would be happy. Vinyl very quickly agreed that it was best for all ponies involved. Now being summoned made Vinyl feel uneasy, she wasn’t aware of anything she had done wrong. The massive stallion followed Vinyl as she made her way to the boss’ office. She felt the ground slightly shake with every step that her escort took, but maybe it was just her imagination. Politely she knocked once and entered the room. Big Time sat behind his desk and didn’t even glance up from a few papers in front of him as Vinyl entered. The earth brown unicorn seemed engrossed with whatever he was reading. He also seemed slightly lost behind the large desk and huge chair. In stark contrast to Squeak he was a head shorter than Vinyl and rather thin. His mane had been styled to look like the mane style of the late great Elvis Trottley. The deep blue pinstripe suit he wore with a white vest and red tie reminded Vinyl of the gangsterponies in some of Octavia’s movies. Vinyl began sweating when she was directed to sit in the only chair in front of the desk. Squeak took position in front of the door and cut off Vinyl’s chance of getting out. “Hello, mister Big Time, sir.” Vinyl felt it was demanded of her to be as polite as possible. Big Time grunted once and continued to read the papers in front of him. After a moment he took out an abacus and did a few calculations. He briefly looked up at Vinyl and returned to his calculations. “Take the glasses off.” He requested. The tone of the surprisingly deep bass voice left no room for Vinyl to refuse his request. Vinyl took them off and held them in her now trembling hooves. All she wanted to do was curl up on the floor and hope she wouldn’t be found at the bottom of the river wearing cement horseshoes. After agonizing three minutes Big Time finally stopped his calculations and leaned back in his chair to look Vinyl in the eyes. She tried her best friendly smile, but panic was very clearly seen in her eyes. “You are bad for business.” He stated and watched Vinyl’s eyes go wide. “I uh..sorry?” Vinyl’s heart was hammering in her chest. Somewhere deep down a part of Vinyl rose up like a phoenix. She had seen the club packed full today, she couldn’t possibly be bad for business. “The club…the club was full during my set, Sir.” “Yes, that is true.” Big Time agreed and pursed his lips. “And that’s the problem.” “I uh… huh?” “We don’t charge admission.” Big Time explained slowly. “We make our money by selling ponies drinks.” “I made them dance, sir. You made more bits in the last hour and a half than you usually would.” Vinyl’s backbone had decided to turn into diamond all of a sudden, as she drew herself up to full height. “Interested in how much bits I am making?” Big Time leaned forward. “It’s not good being too nosy.” Vinyl’s backbone turned back into pudding and she tried to make herself as small as possible. “But you are right.” Big Time gestured to the papers before him with a hoof. “I have sold a lot of drinks during your performance. A lot of juice to be more precise.” He leaned back again and Vinyl relaxed by the teeniest tiniest amount. “Juice doesn’t bring in money.” He continued. “We make the best profit with the sale of alcoholic drinks, which we are only allowed to sell in the evening.” He shuffled the papers on his desk around until he found something buried beneath them. With his magic he levitated a magazine in the air and turned it around that Vinyl could see the cover. It was very familiar to her as she had spent most of the weekend staring at it with Octavia. “More ponies are coming to your show during the juice shift than to the later shows.” He nodded to the magazine. “Now that you have made the cover, you will no doubt be attracting even more customers. Do you have a good idea how we can get more bits out of them?” “Put me in a later show?” Vinyl asked with hesitation. “That’s what I have been thinking as well.” Big Time stroked his chin for a moment. “But you are still reasonably new to this business. Do you think you can manage a two and a half to three hour show?” “O..of course, sir!” Vinyl scarcely believed what was happening. “Very well.” Big Time dropped the magazine back on the table and shuffled his papers. “Next Friday you have the nine o’clock shift. That’s our prime timeslot. Do not disappoint me.” With a wave of his hoof he dismissed her. “I won’t, sir.” Vinyl had trouble bringing her voice to work. Had she just been promoted to the main attraction? She got up and slightly tripped over her hooves as she walked towards the door. Squeak opened it for her and let her pass. As the door closed behind her, Vinyl’s lips curved into a grin that would have made Pinkie Pie jealous. She bolted towards the exit as fast as she dared and could not wait to tell Octavia the news. ________________________________________________________________ „Alright, alright.“ Ictus tapped his hoof against his stand to silence the musicians talking. “Quiet down, I have some things to address.” Octavia was glad that they would start playing music again after their lunch break that she had eaten alone in her room. Ictus’ favoritism towards her had pretty much isolated her from the other musicians. None of them dared to say anything to her out of fear that they would possibly incur his wrath. She endured her loneliness by visualizing her goal in front of her. This was her best chance at being noticed by the orchestra in Canterlot. Vinyl also kept assuring her that it was just an uncomfortable phase and that it didn’t matter if she made friends with the other musicians or not. “I have some good news and some bad news.” Ictus levitated a magazine out of the box at his side. Octavia shrunk a bit as she recognized it. “First of all congratulations are in order for Miss Philharmonica.” He held the magazine aloft for all to see. “I wager that it is because of her talent that we have been noticed, because it certainly wasn’t because of any of you lot.” Octavia felt the looks of the other musician’s burn holes in her coat. She swallowed hard and was about to protest the praise being given to her. Ictus never gave her the chance. “Now for some more good news.” Ictus dropped the magazine back into the box. “As you all know Princess Celestia attends a special performance three weeks before the summer sun celebration every year. What you might not know is that the orchestra playing is not the Royal Canterlot Orchestra.” Ictus began pacing in front of the musicians. Unlike the usual bored or sometimes annoyed looks they usually wore, there shined a light of excitement in their eyes instead. “Each year a different orchestra form around Equestria is chosen to perform.” Ictus gave them a scrutinizing look. “It is the chance for the playing orchestra to shine and bring fame and glory to its name. I also should mention that the Royal Canterlot Orchestra’s director is in attendance during the play and that he usually picks the most promising members into his own ensemble.” Ictus very briefly nodded to Octavia. The cellist’s ears had been perked up during the entire speech, greedily absorbing this new very good piece of information. Same could be said for all the other musicians, as their looks of excitement and turned into one of hope for leaving this ensemble and its insufferable director. “I have been told that the choice has been narrowed down to our little ensemble and the one from Baltimare.” Ictus snorted with contempt. “How in Equestria they had even thought to consider Baltimare is a mystery, but we should still not take this lightly. That means extra hours for perfecting our performance.” Ictus stepped behind his stand and began shuffling through the sheets of music in front of him. “Was that the bad news?” A stallion with a tuba asked after a few minutes of silence. “What?” Ictus looked up from selecting a piece to practice. “Oh, I forgot.” He stepped away from his stand and pointed a hoof to a vacant seat in the second row. “We will be needing a new lyrist.” Octavia was all ears for that piece of news as she immediately thought of Lyra. “So if any of you know of a decent lyrist, please inform them to bring their instrument for auditions beginning on Wednesday.” “What happed to our old lyrist?” A mare asked confused. “Did he quit?” “He’s dead.” Ictus replied nonchalantly and returned to his post behind the stand. “Was hit by a runaway carriage yesterday.” Ictus paused for a moment. “Please look both ways when crossing the street. I would hate to have to look for more replacements.” The entire ensemble sat stunned in their seats while Ictus casually flipped through the pages in front of him. After a moment the silence was broken as a mare began sobbing loudly. A few other ponies also had tears rolling down their cheeks and almost all of them had been affected by the sudden news. Octavia folded her ears down and wished she would have at least known the stallions name. She felt bad for not feeling worse, as paradox as that may have seemed. Ictus looked up from the music sheets and frowned at the sobbing mare, who was being consoled by the ponies closest to her. “Oh, come on! It’s not like you were having an affair with him now is it?” “I…was…” she briefly stammered, before sobbing even louder. “Ugh…fine.” Ictus sighed. “We’ll take a thirty minute break.” Maestro Ictus ignored the disgusted looks his musicians were giving him and took his music sheets with him as he moved off stage, no doubt towards his room. Octavia got up from her seat and followed him, finally catching up to him in the hallway leading away from the stage. “Excuse me?” She said and caught his attention. “Octavia, what is it?” His normally gruff tone was a bit less harsh when talking to her. “About the lyrist….” She began, but was immediately cut off by him. “Yes, yes. A tragedy and all that.” He waved the fact that one of his musicians had died away with a hoof. “There will be the obligatory donation tin set up somewhere and I suppose I’ll have to give any who wish to attend the funeral the time off.” Octavia felt uncomfortable the way he so casually dismissed the fact that another pony had passed away. As much as she would have loved to give him a piece of her mind, self preservation eventually won out and she decided to ignore his behavior for now. “No, it’s actually about the replacement.” Perhaps this was a chance for Lyra to get back in the business. “Ah, yes. I had anticipated that you might know a lyrist.” Ictus sighed. “Unfortunately there are rules for the orchestra wishing to play for the Princess. One of them states that the orchestra must be staffed by musicians from the town they originate from. So even if you know a willing lyrist from Canterlot, he or she would be barred from playing with us. They need to have residence in this city for at least a few months. Too little time to import a talented lyrist from outside the city I am afraid.” “But I…” “As much as I would like to bend the rules for you Octavia, my hooves are bound.” He shrugged. “Now if you will excuse me, I have to set up the time for auditions and find us some music to play that will prepare us for what is to come. I’ll see you back on stage in a few minutes.” Octavia watched Ictus continue on his way. She decided that there wasn’t any point right now in trying to inform him that she did indeed know a lyrist from Manehatten. She would have to tell Lyra later and maybe put in a good word for her another day. ___________________________________________________________ The day finally came to an end. None of the musicians had any focus left for music that day, the news that one of them had died had shaken them up too much. Despite Ictus ranting and raving most of the time, he finally relented and let them go home early. Octavia was as always one of the last ponies to leave the building. Despite finishing half an hour early, Vinyl was already waiting for her outside. “Hey, Tavi.” Vinyl looked around for a moment to make sure nopony was within earshot. “What happened? I just saw a lot of ponies come out looking really sad.” “There was an accident on the weekend. Our lyrist was involved and he didn’t make it.” Octavia informed her friend. “Oh crap. That’s really not good.” Vinyl let her head hang for the unknown departed musician. “No, it isn’t.” Octavia and Vinyl held a brief moment of silence. “There may be a silver lining of sorts.” “What do you mean?” It took Vinyl only a couple of seconds to understand what the cellist meant. “Lyra? Do you think she would be interested?” “Only one way to find out.” Octavia set off towards her friend’s home. “It’s this way, Tavi.” Vinyl told her and Octavia wisely chose to let the DJ lead the way. Roughly half a hour later they stood in front of the apartment where Lyra and Bon Bon lived. Seeing that the doorbell was out of order, Vinyl knocked a few times. It took a good five minutes and some more knocking before the door opened. The sight of a slightly flushed Lyra with her mane in disarray told Vinyl that they had disturbed their friends during some special activity. “Oh, hey…it’s you two.” Lyra beamed at her friends. “Sorry, didn’t want to disturb you doing whatever it was you were doing.” Vinyl gave her a apologetic grin. “Nah, we were just….relaxing a bit.” Lyra opened the door further and stepped aside. “Come in, come in.” “Who is it?” Bon Bon asked loudly from somewhere in the apartment. “Octavia and Vinyl!” “I’ll be out in a minute.” Bon Bon quickly replied and dashed unseen into the bathroom to freshen up a bit and remove any mint green hairs from her beige coat. Lyra had no such qualms and led her friends into the small apartment. Vinyl had only been here once before and at the time had been surprised by the rather bare apartment. A small double seat couch and a small card table with two chairs were the only furniture in the living room. What the living room lacked in furnishings the kitchen more than made up for it. Every available surface and space on the floor had been used for Bon Bon’s craft. Greedily Vinyl eyed the counter for anything yummy to snack on, but found them void of anything edible. Lyra let her guests choose where they wanted to sit. Vinyl followed Octavia’s lead and sat on one of the chairs at the card table. Lyra sat down on the couch and tried to brush her mane with a hoof into a more presentable form. She gave up her futile efforts when Bon Bon joined the trio and sat beside Lyra on the couch. “So..” Bon Bon said with a bright smile. “What brings you two here?” ___________________________________________________________________ Octavia had finished her report of the events at her workplace and took a sip of the iced tea that Bon Bon had served them. “Wow, that Ictus pony sound like a real jerk.” Lyra said after a moment. “I actually read about that accident in the newspaper this morning. The harness of the driver broke and the carriage slammed into a group of ponies crossing the road. A few got injured and two died, sort of creepy knowing that it was a pony you knew.” “I didn’t really know him.” Octavia admitted. “I barely remember what he looked like.” Bon Bon sighed. She had grown up here and sadly was accustomed to accidents happening all the time in this city. Thus far she had been lucky to not be involved in any of them or knowing any pony involved. “I guess you are now going to ask me to audition, right?” Lyra asked. Octavia simply nodded and waited for the unicorn to answer. Lyra put a hoof to her chin and thought for a moment. “I don’t think that is a good idea.” Bon Bon stated while Lyra came up with a decision. “Why not?” Lyra turned to her mate beside her. “That conductor…director…whatever… does not sound like a pony you will get along well with.” “Well, it’s not about me getting along with him and becoming best friends.” Lyra shrugged. “It pays well, doesn’t it?” Octavia nodded again and told her what she earned in a month. “Although there usually is extra pay for special performances. That is if we are chosen of course.” She added. “That could shave off a few months, maybe even a year or more.” Lyra mused. “It isn’t worth it, Lyra.” Bon Bon gave the unicorn an almost pleading look. “Sure it is!” Lyra grinned. “We could have all the bits we need much faster than we had planned.” “Bits?” Octavia shared a look of confusion with Vinyl, who also had no idea where the discussion had shifted to. “I uh… forget what I said.” Lyra quickly waved a hoof, but paused and looked at the earthpony beside her. “Unless you want to tell them.” “Yes, I guess we should tell them.” Bon Bon said after a moment of thought. “Tell us what?” Vinyl’s nosy streak made itself heard. “As you know I would like to set up my own shop making and selling sweets.” Bon Bon began and smiled. “Here in Manehatten it is almost impossible without huge amounts of bits for all the permits. And of course there is a lot of competition all over the city.” Vinyl and Octavia nodded, as they had heard Bon Bon talk about it a few times before. “This weekend we went to a small town near Canterlot called Ponyville.” Bon Bon continued. “It’s a quaint little town near the Everfree Forest, but don’t let that put you off. We talked to the mayor and she said that they rarely have anything happen in their town.” Bon Bon turned a bit to Lyra who just smiled. “Nice and quiet would do both wonders for us.” Despite being a mare born in a large city, Bon Bon very much preferred a nice life out in the open without huge buildings looming over her all the time. “The mayor showed us a nice place that is vacant at the moment. A huge plus is the fact that there isn’t any real competition in that town. There is a bakery that provides ponies with cakes and such, but no real sweet shop. Or so we were told as we couldn’t visit the bakery that day, because of a party going on in there at the time.” “Bon Bon could make a ton of bits there.” Lyra commented with a grin. “Bits are nice, but I’d rather be someplace that isn’t so hectic and aggravating at times.” Bon Bon briefly nuzzled Lyra’s cheek. “No more anger management classes for you.” “What’s keeping you?” Vinyl asked. “Well, we need to buy the house, the equipment, all of the ingredients and new furniture.” Bon Bon explained. “We went through the calculations yesterday and we would be able to afford everything in about a year, give or take a month or two, with our current income.” “Why didn’t you ask me?” Octavia looked from one mare to the other. “I would have gladly helped you out.” “Thank you, but no thanks.” Bon Bon lightly bowed her head to the cellist. “We want to earn it by ourselves.” Octavia nodded back. It made sense to her and she could respect that decision. “With the bits from the orchestra we could afford it a lot sooner.” Lyra sat up straight and looked at the mare beside her. “We could maybe even go there this year already!” “It would be nice.” Bon Bon admitted. “But I don’t want you to do something you don’t like. I don’t think that that Ictus fellow will give you a very nice time.” “Ah, come on. “ Lyra gave her the best smile of confidence she could muster. “It’s worth a little unpleasantness if it means we can realize our plans sooner.” “Providing of course you get the part.” “Please, Bon Bon.” Lyra tapped a hoof against her chest. “I’m the best lyrist they will ever see.” No mare said anything as Bon Bon thought about everything for a moment. Finally she let out a sigh and nodded in agreement. Lyra made a hoofpump accompanied by a loud “Yeah!”. “But!” Bon Bon interrupted her mate’s celebration. “You have to promise me, that if you have too much of a hard time, that you will quit.” “Sure thing.” Lyra grinned and turned to the mares sitting at the table. “I think we still have a celebration planned, how about now?” “Hold on.” Vinyl held up a hoof to stem any sudden celebratory plans before they began. She grinned wide, easily rivaling Lyra’s grin. “I have just the place planned.” “You got us the table?” Lyra asked hopefully. “Yeah, of course I do.” Vinyl had taken care of that as soon as she had gone to work. “Buuuut, I also have the honor of being your DJ for Friday evening. Prime time for 3 hours!” “Vinyl, that’s fantastic!” Octvaia hugged her over the table. “Wow! So you are the number one big shot DJ now? That’s awesome!” Lyra gave Vinyl a hoofbump. “You betcha!” Vinyl grinned so much her cheeks were beginning to hurt. “Next Friday we will have the time of our life!”