//------------------------------// // Sisterly Bonding // Story: The Study of a Winning Pony // by Ponibius //------------------------------// The Study of a Winning Pony Chapter 19: Sisterly Bonding I don’t know what it is about shopping that makes it so enjoyable. Maybe there’s just something wired in our heads that makes us like getting stuff. I mean, logically— “Twilight. Twilight! Yoohoo!” I blinked as I noticed Mom waving a hoof in front of my eyes. “Mom to Twilight, you still in there?” I blinked a few more times, feeling embarrassed over having zoned out. Sometimes I become so transfixed on an idea that everything else in the world fades to the background. “Sorry. I guess I got distracted by something.” Magetrix chuckled. “Big thinker, big thoughts.” I gave the two of them an awkward smile. “Yeah, something like that.” Now that I had been snapped back to reality, I looked around to see rows and rows of magic goods: components for rituals, spellbooks, and various tools intended to assist with spellcraft. Elmanester's Enchanted Emporium was my preferred shop for all my magical necessities. A mare in her late middle age wearing long, brown robes—robes seemed to be mandatory when working at a respectable magic shop—cleared her throat from behind a counter. “Ma’am, would you mind signing here for your new magic circle?” She tapped a hoof on a clipboard sitting on the countertop. “Oops! Sorry,” I said, signing it. “It’s okay.” The clerk checked my signature and, finding it to her satisfaction, put the clipboard back down. A big, flat box was then levitated onto the counter for me. “Here you go, Miss Sparkle. One big, new, fancy magic circle with all the bells and whistles. Just like you ordered.” I picked up the box with my magic. “You mind if I look at it real quick? I want to be sure a few things are exactly how I wanted them.” I had ordered the new circle right after the old one had blown up with the lab. Getting my new circle was something I had been looking forward to for quite some time. She waved for me to go ahead. “Not a problem. We here at Elmanester's Enchanted Emporium pride ourselves on the quality of our work.” “Thanks!” I opened the box and removed some of the wrapping paper and bubblewrap, placing them to the side in a neat pile to make it easier to put them back once I was done. Mom grinned as I worked my way to the actual magic circle. “Twilight, do you remember when you and Shining were kids and you two would just love to pop the bubblewrap? I can still remember how he would make sure that it was evenly split between you two. Then when he was done with that, he would jump all over it while you would carefully pop each individual bubble one at a time, starting at the top and working from left to right.” “I remember.” Magetrix smiled fondly. “Was cute.” “I wanted to make it last as long as I could,” I explained. “And I didn’t want to miss any of the bubbles, so naturally I did it in an organized manner.” Just because popping bubblewrap was fun didn’t mean I couldn’t do it in an efficient manner to maximize the fun potential. I finished pulling off the wrappings to reveal a circle of alternating rings made of brass, silver, gold, and then adamant. Magetrix made a long whistle. “Very nice. Very pricy. Plan on using it?” I looked the circle over to see if there were any imperfections in it. “Well I certainly didn’t buy it just for show.” Mom placed a hoof on my shoulder. “Now you know to be careful with something like that, right? A unicorn’s magical tools are—” “Only as good as the unicorn,” I finished for her, having heard this lesson from everypony. From my parents, to my teachers, to Princess Celestia herself. “I know. I’ll be safe, promise.” “Good.” Magetrix joined me in examining the circle. “Be upset if you were hurt. Too special for that.” “We just want you to be safe, honey,” Mom said. “I know, Mom.” I decided the best move was to let Mom and Magetrix’s concerns for my safety be left at that. I had already assured them that I would be careful, and I couldn't think of anything else to make them feel better. Treading the same ground over and over again wasn’t going to help anything. “The circle looks good.” Satisfied, I started the process of repackaging the circle. A nice and orderly process, thanks to organizational planning. Mom held the box while I slid the circle into it. “So where did you want to go next? And please do say something different than ‘the bookstore.’” She glanced at the dozen or so bags sitting by the doorway. Mom was usually pretty conservative with her money, but she had a tendency to loosen the purse strings when she was out with Magetrix. “I think you’ve done enough damage where that is concerned for one day.” “I only got a couple bags’ worth of books,” I said defensively. “Two of the larger bags.” Mom hefted up the two heavy-duty bags for emphasis. “Books are heavy...” Admittedly, the bags did look like they were straining. Good thing we could use our telekinesis to make sure the books didn’t break out the bottom and spill out everywhere. Mom looked like she was about to say something else when something caught her eye. Turning my head, I saw what had caught her attention. A light-gray unicorn mare about mom’s age had walked through the entrance of the store. Her dual-blue mane was done up in a tight bun, and she had a studious air about her. The mare’s eyes fell upon us, and she smiled. “Velvet, Twilight! There you two are! I’ve been looking around town for you.” Her eyes turned to see that my old tutor was with us. “Oh, and Magetrix too. It’s good to see you all!” “You too, Quill.” Mom gave her a quick nuzzle. I finally remembered the mare. Dad’s longtime chief-of-staff, Quill Scratch. I felt like kicking myself for not instantly recognizing her given how many times I had seen her over the years. It was moments like these that reminded me how long it had been since I had moved to Ponyville. Magetrix put on her own smile. “Good to see old friend. Like old times.” I quickly finished repacking so that I could give Dad’s secretary my attention. “Hi, Miss Scratch.” “I trust everypony is well?” Quill’s gaze fell upon our shopping bags. “It seems Night wasn’t kidding about all of you going out on a shopping trip.” “It seems we’ve had a run of the town, yes.” Mom chuckled. “I’m guessing my husband gave you the passes for Twilight?” “He did.” Quill rummaged through one of her saddlebags and pulled out a pair of passes. “Here you go, Twilight. Night was having trouble getting out of a meeting, so he sent me instead.” I took the passes, looking them over. “Thanks! This means a lot to me.” That was at least one part of my plan that was coming together nicely. With the backstage passes, it wouldn’t be too hard to meet with Vinyl and tell her I wanted to speak with her. It might be a bit tricky to pull off without me sounding like I was some crazy fan, but I had put no small amount of thought into it. Quill nodded. “I hope you enjoy my daughter’s performance, Twilight. She’s so talented!” “I’m sure it’s going to be an interesting night.” All the pieces seemed to be falling into place, though this was really not something I was looking forward to. I didn’t like the picture that was starting to form around my parents, but I couldn’t stop now. I had to know the truth—whatever it might be. Quill’s head tilted as she looked at me. “Twilight, is everything okay? You look tense.” “What? No, I mean yes. I mean I’m fine.” I smiled reassuringly at her. “It’s just been a long day, is all. Just running, running, running all day long. You know how it is.” I laughed, feeling strained doing so. “Do you need to talk about something, honey?” Mom gave me a concerned look. “There should be enough time before the concert for us to have a chat if something is bothering you.” Just about the last thing I wanted to do at that moment was talk to Mom about what I was thinking. If I was wrong about everything, I could really hurt her and Dad’s feelings. If it were true ... then I would deal with that after I crossed that bridge. Right now, I needed to gather more facts, not lay down accusations. “N-no, Mom. I think I just need to take my mind off of everything for a bit by going to that concert.” I quickly shoved the tickets into my saddlebags. “I’d really like to get going now, come to think of it. I don’t want to be late.” “There’s plenty of time to talk to your mom before the concert. Trust me.”  Quill exchanged a look with Mom. “No need to run off quite yet. Especially if there might be something you want to talk about with her.” I started backing out towards the exit. Running away wasn’t exactly the smoothest way to end this conversation, but it would do in a pinch. “I’m good, really. If I really need to, we can talk when I get back home. Okay?” Mom didn’t immediately reply as she watched me slowly withdraw, and when she did speak it was in a measured and cautious tone. “If you’re sure...” “I am,” I assured her. “Bye, Mom. Magetrix, Quill. Good to see all of you.” “See you back home tonight after the concert,” said Mom. Quill nodded. “Bye. Shame you couldn’t stay and chat for a bit.” “Was nice,” Magetrix said, sounding less than thrilled. “Should do again. Soon.” The way she said it made me feel guilty about leaving so suddenly, but this was something I needed to do. “Sorry,” I said, nudging the door open. “We’ll meet again, and soon. I promise.” With that, I left the store with the intent of going to the arena, cursing my insatiable curiosity as I went. I felt guilty for leaving everypony in such a hurry as I waited outside the arena where the concert was supposed to take place. Sparkler and I had planned on meeting outside a predetermined entrance along with her uncle, but Quill hadn’t been kidding about there still being plenty of time until the actual start of the concert. None of the bands scheduled had even started warming up by the time I arrived. In my quick withdrawal from the magic shop, I hadn’t even had the foresight to grab a book to read. I didn’t have anything else to do, either. Which was all a bit worrying, considering I didn’t really even like the genres of music that would be played during the concert. This could become a very boring, and potentially very loud and irritating, evening. After half an hour of waiting, I considered running to a bookstore and grabbing a book. The problem with that idea was that I had waited so long that I worried I wouldn’t come back in time to meet with Sparkler, and I didn’t want her to feel like I had stood her up. I was reasonably certain I could get back in time if I went right away, but what if there was a line, or I had trouble deciding what I wanted to buy? Would everypony around me be offended if I spent the concert reading? Would I even be able to concentrate on reading when the bands were playing? I could perhaps retreat the hallways to read, but that seemed like a bit of an insult to my parents for getting the tickets for me. I mean they sincerely wanted me to enjoy the concert, right? Not to mention it would be rude to ditch Sparkler and not very responsible of me. The longer I thought about it, the worse it got. The minutes trickled away, leaving me with less time to make a decision. It would have been nice to be able to make a graph of the pros and cons of getting a book or not, but I didn’t have any paper or an instrument to write with. I could possibly go buy some, but that ran into the same problems as getting a book. Any attempts to get organized would only cost me more of my valuable time. If only I had some paper and ink to create a chart with. Then I could plot out what the most time efficient manner to spend my time would be. If only I had something to write with! “Uh, Miss Twilight?” Sparkler asked, sounding strangely concerned for some reason. “What’re you doing with those napkins?” I examined the checkerboard of napkins I had before me. Grabbing some napkins and condiments from a nearby hayburger stand was the best I could get on such short notice. “I’m trying to figure out what the most efficient use of my time would be!” I’d glanced over the carefully drawn lines of the graph I had made. Ketchup packets were not the most precise of instruments to use. Better than the sauerkraut, but still. “If I don’t work out this mathematical formula, I won’t know if I can go to the bookstore and be back in time. The problem is that there are a number of variance factors that I have to account for, some of which I don’t have any hard numbers for due to a lack of scientific data. For instance, I don’t know how likely you are to be early or late for an appointment. I can make some estimates based on your age, sex, and socio-economic class, but the standard deviation would still be too high, resulting in an unacceptably low reliability coefficient! Without those types of things hammered down, I can’t create a serviceable function to figure out when you’ll be here and if I have to time to get a book.” “Riiiight … not to burst your bubble or anything, but...” Sparkler said with reluctance. “Well, we’re already here. I don’t think you have to worry about whatever it is you’re doing anymore.” “What?! I can’t be out of time already!” I briefly lost my telekinetic grip on a dozen of the napkins, and they were immediately blown off by a breeze. “No! My notes! I haven’t had time to even create copies yet!” If only I had a bulletin board and some thumbtacks. I knew I’d forgotten to add something to the supplies list! “Er, right.” She stepped between me and the flying napkins. “But we’re here now, so how about you forget the napkins?” My shoulders slumped as I watched the napkins go. There was no way I’d be able to run through the crowd and catch them all. The crowd had become more dense since I had started. Instead of trying retrieve my work, I reluctantly focused on Sparkler. “We?” “You didn’t think Dee would let her daughter go to a concert without an adult, did you?” asked a stallion who stepped next to Sparkler. Looking at him, it wasn’t hard to guess that he was Derpy’s big brother, Cirrus Doo. He had a darker gray coat and deep blue eyes, but he had the same yellow mane. “Hi, I’m Twilight.” I extended a hoof to him. With everything else I had been distracted by, I had nearly forgotten that Sparkler was going to be escorted to the concert by her uncle. “Cirrus Doo.” He took my hoof to shake it. “So you’re Dinky’s magic tutor? Nice to meet you. Your help’s meant the world to Dinky and Dee, and they’ve had a lot to say about you.” His lips curled into a small, knowing grin. “Especially Dinky, which says a lot given her tendency to shift topics like a magpie in a glitter factory.” “I’m just trying to help a filly in need. Any unicorn with sufficient experience could have done what I did.” My cheeks warmed a bit. It always felt a bit awkward to get complimented on anything I did. I was just giving Dinky some help that any filly her age should get. Sparkler chuckled. “I think you’re doing alright if Dinky asks if both you and Miss Cheerilee can be her favorite teachers.”   “Aren’t we her only teachers?” I asked. “Well ... yes,” Sparkler admitted. “But she likes both of you. So that’s something, at least.” “Yeah, it is, and she’s a great student,” I said. By silent agreement, we all started towards the arena entrance. “Are you two ready for the concert, then?” Sparkler barely contained a squee, a big smile creasing her face. “You betcha!” Cirrus grinned at Sparkler. “I am. I even have my earplugs ready to go so that I don’t have to go into work deaf tomorrow.” I got the sense that Cirrus was here more to spend time with Sparkler than for the concert itself. Fair enough; I wasn’t exactly here to listen to the music either. Family could make you do things you didn’t necessarily want to do. Sparkler stuck her tongue out at her uncle. “DJ-Pon3 is way better than any of that old, moldy stuff you listen to.” “Speaking as an old and moldy thing, I resent that remark.” He shot his niece an amused grin. “Now show some respect for the classics, or the next concert we go to is the Canterlot Symphony Orchestra.” “Ick, forget I said anything.” Clearly not wanting to lose, Sparkler turned back to me. “And you got the backstage passes, right?” I patted my saddlebags. “Sure do. I got them before coming here.” “Cool.” Sparkler maintained a calm and collected demeanour for approximately three and five-eighths of a second before she hopped in place, a big, goofy grin spreading across her face. “I can’t wait to see DJ-Pon3!” Sparkler kept bouncing for a few moments before calming down. I wish I could have had something approaching Sparkler’s enthusiasm for meeting Vinyl Scratch. Thinking about the meeting I was going to try to have with her was making my stomach tie up in knots. It was probably going to take some work just to get her to sit down and have a meeting with me. Especially considering the public venue we were at, but that was something I was going to deal with when I actually saw Vinyl. Right now I had to take care of more immediate concerns. “I was thinking that Sparkler could come down to my seats when DJ-Pon3 is coming on stage,” I said. “Once her performance is done, the two of us can use my backstage passes to see the band. That sound good?” Cirrus nodded. “That’s fine by me.” “Sounds great.” She carefully took the backstage pass. “Oooh! I can’t believe I get to see DJ-Pon3!” “So are we good to go?” I asked. “One thing first.” Sparkler gave her uncle a sweet smile that spoke of foul intentions. “Can I have some bits for the merch booth?” “Taking a note out of your mom’s book and spending my hard-earned money?” Cirrus grinned and pulled out some bits. “Here you go. Just don’t take too long.” “Thanks!” Sparkler took the bits and gave her uncle a quick peck on his cheek before running off. “You gave her quite a few bits,” I noted. “You sure she needed that much?” Cirrus shook his head at his niece. “Just spoiling her a bit, but I think it’s my right as her uncle.” I grinned back. “I can understand that.” I had heard Sparkler had endured a somewhat rough life before being adopted by Derpy. Even then, Derpy was a single mom working on a mailmare’s salary. Sparkler having her uncle splurge a bit on her wasn’t exactly going to spoil her. Sparkler came back to us, to my mild surprise, covered head to hoof in glowsticks; with long bands of phospherecent tubes wrapped all along her body and she even had a few woven into her mane and tail. Either they were cheaper than I realized, or Cirrus had given Sparkler more than a few bits to play with. Sparkler gave us a goofy grin. “So how do I look?” “Like a rave party Hearth’s Warming Eve tree,” I snarked. “What’s the matter, worried we were going to lose sight of you in the stadium?” Cirrus snorted amusedly. “Now I’m worried she’s going to attract bugs like a bug zapper.” “Hey!” Sparkler raised her nose with enough dignity to make any of the Canterlot nobility proud. “I’ll have you know that I look cool. It’s all the rage to do this at DJ-Pon3’s concerts.” She was at that age where a pony cared a lot about what others thought and did—even if half the time they denied it. Still, it was pretty funny how Sparkler was lit up like she was. “C’mon, Sparks.” Cirrus put a hoof on Sparkler’s back to move her along. “It’s time we got a seat. Concert’s gonna start here in about fifteen minutes.” “Yeah, we better.” Sparkler glanced around her shoulder around to me. “See you when DJ-Pon3 goes on. ‘Kay?” I waved at the two of them as they left. “Sounds good, see you then.” I should have followed Cirrus’ example and bought some earplugs. With my seat being only a dozen or so rows from the stage, the music was really loud. I knew better too. Based on some statistics I had read, noise at one hundred and ten decibels for a couple of minutes can hurt your hearing. Your average rock concert tended to create between a hundred and a hundred and twenty decibels. Thank goodness I knew a sound-deadening spell to protect my hearing. I had originally learned the spell to help me study without being interrupted by outside noises, but it worked just fine to keep me from going deaf or suffering from tinnitus for the rest of the night. I just hoped this miserable experience would be over soon. “Woo! I hope this night never ends!” Sparkler hollered. “This is the greatest concert ever!” She then returned to flailing her limbs about in something that was probably the bastardized cousin of dancing. True to our plan, she had come down to sit with me when it was Vinyl Scratch’s band’s turn to come on stage. The first couple of bands had been fairly painful experiences for me. The first had sounded like an electronic keyboard had been thrown into trash compactor while said trash compactor was fighting a horde of autonomous rakes. The second band did nothing but that “wubs” music I had heard about, and it all just sounded the same-ish awful. Needless to say, I didn’t get it. Either that or it was as bad as I thought it was. When it came to be Vinyl’s turn, I didn’t have high expectations, no matter how much Sparkler had talked my ear off about how good she was and how she was supposedly revolutionizing music. Vinyl Scratch and her bandmates came onto the stage to the biggest applause of the night, and quickly set up to play with practiced ease. It wasn’t long until they started playing. To my surprise, I didn’t hate the performance. There was actually a surprising level of variety in the music, and some of the songs had a really nice beat to them. Most of Vinyl’s songs seemed to hybridize genres, and it created some interesting results. I found it fascinating how she had even worked some elements of classical music into the more electronic music that seemed to be her mainstay. “Who's that?” I asked, pointing at an earth pony mare with a light-gray coat as they finished up another song. She carried herself with a lot more distinction than most of her bandmates as she stood on stage with her cello and even wore a pink bowtie. Perhaps she was trying to stand out and make a name for herself? Or maybe she normally dressed like that. “That’s Octavia!” Sparkler yelled over the roar of the crowd. “She and DJ-Pon3 formed Classical Harmony a year ago. Aren’t they awesome!?” “They’re something alright.” I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to define them but they had struck my interest. It was almost to my disappointment when I saw the band start to pack up and leave the stage. Had their set been that quick? “Aw, damn.” Sparkler wiped the sweat from her brow. “Time really does fly when you’re having fun. I can’t believe it’s already over.”’ “We still get to meet the band in a bit,” I reminded her. “Got that right!” She spared a quick glance at the ponies around us as they started filing out and all but pushed me along the aisle. “We need to hurry if we wanna beat everypony else there! We should go right now. Comeoncomeoncomeon!” “Okay, okay! I’m going.” I stepped quickly to keep from getting pushed over by the hyperactive teen. She was almost like a small kid on a sugar rush with how keyed up she was by everything. The two of us started heading towards the section of arena where we were supposed to wait to meet Vinyl’s band. Shame that seemingly everypony else had also decided to head in the same direction. I was fighting my way through the crowd when, next thing I knew, Sparkler was sliding her way through the crowd faster than I was. “Sparkler! Wait up!” I yelled after her. A sense of panic settled over me as I lost sight of her completely in the crowd. “Sparkler!” I was forced to keep moving as ponies crowded around me. I fought down my panic and tried to think calmly; losing it right now wasn’t going to help Sparkler. There were plenty of ponies around and plenty of security placed all over too. That meant she was probably safe. Likely she had kept right on going to where she was going to see Vinyl Scratch, so it made the most sense that I would find her there. At least that would be a good place to start. From there, I could do things like contact security about a missing pony if I needed to. Ideally though, I could find her before it comes to that. Wanting to get a better view, I quickly cast a reverse-gravity spell on myself and then teleported to the ceiling. My eyes quickly scanned through the crowd, but I couldn’t find Sparkler anywhere in the hall. She had either moved on, or I just couldn’t spot here amongst all the other bright, colorful ponies. I would have searched more, but some of the security guards were now giving me odd looks, so I teleported back to the ground and canceled out the reverse-gravity spell. That idea a bust, I moved through the crowd as quickly as I could, keeping an eye out for Sparkler. Eventually, after what felt like forever, I arrived underground at a gate standing outside of the section of the arena designated for staff and performers. Glancing around, I didn’t see Sparkler, though several ponies were standing around covered in glowsticks like she had been. That meant I was probably in the right place. At a bit of a loss, I tapped the shoulder of a speckled, gray unicorn mare. “Hey, have you seen a young mare, high school age with a pink coat and violet mane? Three gems for a cutie mark?” “You mean the cute one with the nice plot?” she asked with a grin. “Um, well, I wouldn’t describe her like that.” I suddenly felt embarrassed. Thinking about Sparkler’s rear end was not something I really wanted to think about given our age differences. “Technically she is attractive, but, um...” “Relax, your sister’s over there.” The speckled pony pointed off towards the wall, and I saw Sparkler standing there, looking about with a hint of anxiousness. “We’re not sisters,” I quickly corrected. “We’re just friends.” “Ah, my mistake. I just figured that considering you didn’t sound like you were dating...” She shook her head. “Never mind.” “Thanks for the help,” I said to her before making my way to Sparkler. Sparkler blinked when she spotted me and let out a relieved breath. “Oh good, there you are.” I fixed her with a firm look. “Sparkler, you ran ahead of me. You scared me.” She smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, I thought you were right behind me. I was working my way through the crowd when I noticed you weren’t there anymore. Didn’t know what to do other than come straight here.” I let out a long breath, feeling both frustration and relief. “Please be more careful next time, okay? I nearly had a heart attack when I lost sight of you.” “Got it.” Sparkled scraped a hoof along the floor, not looking directly at me. “Sorry, again.” “It’s fine,” I told her, pushing down the anger that was welling up in me, now that the fear was dissipating. “You didn’t mean to do it. Let’s concentrate on enjoying ourselves.” Well, at least Sparkler would be able to enjoy herself. I reminded myself why I was here to start with, and I felt my stomach start to twist into knots. I was far too committed to back down now, though. I had a few ideas on how I could convince Vinyl to meet with me. Though I wasn’t wild about the idea, I could always use my fame as an Element of Harmony to convince her to talk to me. Another option was to throw some hints that I knew the truth and wanted to speak with her, since I wouldn’t be too surprised if she knew at least as much as I did about this situation. Assuming she was my sister. There was still very much the distinct possibility I had badly misread the whole situation. After waiting for a few minutes, a young mare with a wide smile on her face and a clipboard floating in front of her stepped out before us. “Alright, everypony that’s here to meet with Classical Harmony, get your badges ready and form a line right in front of me for me to check. Once we have that taken care of, I’ll get you your Classical Harmony merchandise to be signed, and you’ll get to see the band.” Everypony complied with the mare’s directions, and we were all soon processed with professional efficiency. I had a feeling that the mare had done this more times than she could count, given the artificial cheer she presented to all of us and how quickly she moved us along. She led us down a hallway before stopping before a large bin filled with bags stuffed with merchandise. “Here we go! A shirt, poster, hat, and bag for everypony.” She quickly levitated everypony their items. “So here’s how it’s going to go: the members of Classical Harmony are each sitting at a table. Get into the line of the pony you want to see and have sign your merchandise, and please keep moving so that everypony has time to get a turn. Thank you!” With a flourish, she opened a door and encouraged us onwards. Inside were the members of Classical Harmony, a pair of them sitting at each table, waiting for the crowd. I had to move along to keep from getting trampled by the small legion of squealing fans. Sparkler pulled on my leg, drawing me towards the table Vinyl was sitting at. A line was swiftly forming in front of her table, easily the largest of the bunch. The only one that came close was the table Octavia had been planted at. “C’mon! I don’t want to be last in line,” Sparkler pleaded. “I don’t want to come this close only to miss my chance to meet her.” “I’m coming, I’m coming.” I let myself be pulled along into the line. The two of us waited as ponies got to see Vinyl one at a time. Thanks to the ingrained sense of time I had build up over the years, I counted off the seconds, and it seemed that every pony was being given a minute with the DJ before being gently encouraged to move on by the security ponies flanking her table. This, of course, seemed too long for Sparkler, as she craned her neck this way and that, even resorting to hopping a few times to get a better look. Sparkler looked like she was about to explode from excitement when we finally reached the table. She squealed, a unrestrained grin of joy running across her face. “DJ-Pon3!” Words flowed out of her mouth in an unceasing wave, her dam of restraint finally giving under the pressure. “I’m your biggest fan! I mean, I know you probably hear that all the time, but it’s totally true with me! I own all your records and listen to them every day. You are sooo amazing.” She rolled out the poster she had been given. “Pleasepleaseplease, sign this with ‘to my biggest, bestest, most committed fan ever, Sparkler’!” Vinyl Scratch chuckled at Sparkler’s enthusiasm. This probably wasn’t the first time she had dealt with a fan with Sparkler’s energy. “Sure thing, kid.” She levitated her pen and wrote on the poster. “I couldn’t disappoint my best fan ever, now could I?” Sparkler squeed loud enough to make me worry about my hearing and bounced in place. “DJ-Pon3 said I was her best fan ever! Nopony at school is going to believe me!” “How ‘bout I sign the rest of your stuff as proof?” Vinyl offered, gesturing with her pen at her bag of merchandise. “Oh, right!” Barely missing a beat, Sparkler spread out everything onto the table for Vinyl to sign. Once Vinyl finished signing everything, one of the security ponies cleared his throat and motioned for Sparkler to step aside. “Thanks, DJ-Pon3! I love you!” With more than a hint of reluctance, she stepped to the side to allow me to approach the desk.  Now that I was here, I could feel my heart racing. I only had about a minute with Vinyl to do something, but I knew I would need to meet with her longer than that. The trick was to avoid sounding like some crazy fan and getting tackled by the security ponies. About the last thing I wanted was to have to explain to everypony why I was dragged away by concert security and tossed out of the stadium. That was not something I wanted on my record. “Hey!” Vinyl smiled at me, though it was a bit hard to read her with those big shades hiding her eyes. I had to wonder if she recognized me or not. It was perfectly possible that she knew who my dad was, and thus, who I was, though she didn’t show it if she did. I spread out my merchandise in a neat and orderly manner onto the table. I had spent the entire concert thinking of how best to get Vinyl to meet with me, coming up with multiple contingencies to deal with a variety of situations when the time came. It was a shame about the worst thing that could have happened did. I was always afraid that while I was taking a test this one terrible thing would happen, the very thing that I was doing right then as Vinyl smiled expectantly at me—I blanked. I couldn’t recall any of my plans, things to stay, or whatever else I had for a backup. I was choking at the decisive moment! I blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “So, um, I think we might be two notes on the same bar! You know what I mean?” Vinyl raised an eyebrow. “Um, wait, what?” She gestured at the poster. “So there anything you want me to say on this?” she asked, probably trying to ignore my previous comment. “Anything is fine,” I said, feeling irritation and desperation building up in me. I decided to try and be a bit more direct. “So, after some research, I think we might have some common ancestry.” “Err, is that so?” Vinyl’s writing became quicker. One of the security guards gave his compatriot a significant look. Great, so they’re probably thinking I’m some crazy obsessed fan they’re going to need to tackle to the floor. My time was running out fast. “Yeah, um, I wouldn’t mind going over it with you at some point.” I gave her a hopeful smile. The other security pony coughed. “Ma’am, could you please take your things and allow the next pony in line to have her turn?” I needed to quickly think of something to say to turn this around. This was my last chance without finding another way to meet Vinyl. A dozen options ran through my mind, and in my desperation, I grasped onto one of them and blurted out, “I think we might be half-sisters!” Twilight Sparkle: Master of Subtlety. Realizing what I had just yelled out for everypony to hear, I slapped my hooves onto my mouth. Now if they didn’t think I was crazy, they did now. Sparkler somehow, despite standing on a flat surface, managed to trip and nearly fell over. Vinyl blinked behind her glasses. “Hey, chill with that, will you?” she hissed. Before I could figure out what exactly she meant by that, Sparkler zipped over to my side as the security ponies moved towards me. “Uh, whooakay.” Sparkler laughed awkwardly as she grabbed me by the leg and tugged on it. “Sorry, she's—this her first concert seeing you and ... first meeting jitters, right?” I groaned loudly, feeling like a complete dunce as everything crumbled around me. “No, I—sorry. That came out wrong.” I wasn’t quite sure how what I said was supposed to come out right, but I knew that wasn’t it. Vinyl stopped one of her guards by grabbing his shoulder. She leaned in to whisper into his ear. That done, she turned back to the rest of us with a grin. “Right, yeah! Everypony's dream, I gotcha. Look...” She scooped up all the merchandise into my bag and levitated it over to me. “Thanks for coming, and I'll see you next time.” The security guard Vinyl had spoken to moved forward to interpose himself between me and Vinyl. “Move along please, miss. There's a lot of ponies behind you waiting to meet the DJ.” “Sorry, look, we're going.” I moved towards the doorway through which we had entered. “We're not trying to cause any trouble, I promise.” It seemed I had gone through all that work, only to botch it at the end. I just knew I was going to be kicking myself over this for the rest of the week. “We're going, we're going.” Sparkler stuck close to me as we made our exit, and the guard was close behind us. “Dude, we're going. Chillax, alright?” The two of us made our way at a quick walk, but the guard kept following us. It seemed that I was going to be escorted out of here in short order. My ears wilted as I looked to Sparkler. “Let's just get you back to your uncle, okay? Even if I get thrown out, I want to get you to your uncle. Not get tossed out on your plot along with me because I did something stupid.” “Right,” Sparkler said, none too happy. “I think he’s back this way.” She took the lead and led us back into the arena. After climbing some stairs, we arrived where Cirrus was sitting, security guard in tow. Cirrus noticed us and stood to meet us. “Hey, Sparks.” He looked around us and frowned when he saw the guard. “I might have gotten a bit overexcited,” I admitted, sighing. “Doesn't matter. I just wanted to get Sparkler back to you before anything happened.” “Gotcha.” Cirrus eyed the security pony. “‘Sthere a problem, sir?” he said with more authority than I expected. Though that would figure, considering he was a soldier in the Royal Guard. Having a commanding presence was part of the job, especially for a sergeant. “No problem. We just had to keep the line moving.” He paused before murmuring to me, “If you're going to be here awhile, Miss Scratch wanted to talk to you after she finishes with autographs.” That caused me to blink. Had she recognized me after all? If not, then things could get very awkward, very soon. “Um, okay. Did she say where?” “She said to just keep this on you.” He pulled out a glowstick on a necklace and offered it to me. “She'll come find you.” I took the necklace and examined it. Extending my magical senses, I detected a unique magical signature. It seemed that Vinyl Scratch, or somepony working for her, had put a rudimentary tracking spell on it. The spell wouldn’t have worked very well at major distances, but it would serve over a few city blocks just fine. “Err, thank you.” I put the glowstick around my neck. “I'll keep a hold of it.” It seemed that Vinyl really did want to see me. What that meant exactly, I wasn’t sure, but it was something I could work with. More than getting thrown out of the stadium, anyways. Sparkler leaned in towards me as the security pony departed. “Sooo...” she said conspiratorially. Cirrus gave me a teasing grin. “And here I thought Sparks would be the overeager fanfilly.” “This isn't what it looks like,” I insisted, knowing where this was going. “I dunno.” She shot a mischievous grin to her uncle. “It looks like you just got something extra after a small whisperfest with security instead of getting tossed out of the building. ‘Sthat supposed to look like?” “Nothing—I mean it is nothing.” I rubbed at my eyes. “There isn’t anything going on. At least not what you’re implying.” “I'm not implying anything,” Sparkler said innocently. “I'm just saying that it looks like you got a calling card for a discreet meeting later with a high-profile celebrity.” The nature of the conversation made me very aware that we were talking in public about this, adding to my embarrassment. “It’s personal business, I assure you.” Sparkler smirked evilly. “Aren't all discreet meetings? Think I could be invited?” “Behave, you,” Cirrus said, nudging her with a wing. “And no.” “What? I didn't imply anything.” She gave her uncle the innocently guilty look. “You're the ones whose minds're filling in the gaps with strange and unusual conclusions.” Cirrus rolled his eyes. “Riiight. And you wonder why Dinky came up with The Brat Song especially for you.” Sparkler replied by sticking her tongue out at her uncle. He made an amused snort as he ignored her and turned to me.  “Well, if there aren’t any problems with security, I guess that's that. This goof—” He wrapped a wing around Sparkler, “—is out past her bedtime.” Looking around, I noticed that most everypony had filed out of the stadium by now. “Wow, it is getting late, isn't it?” “Holy hay, you're not kidding.” Sparkler put a hoof over her mouth to stifle a yawn. “Time flies in a good concert.” Cirrus nodded. “Right. Time to head back, then.” He motioned Sparkler to move down the stairs, but stopped to look to me. “I'm guessing you've got your own things to do after things wind down here?” “Yeah, don't worry about me,” I assured him. “I’ll be fine.” “Well, it was nice to meet you then,” he said. “Feel free to drop by tomorrow if you're in the neighborhood.” “I’ll consider it.” I waved as the two of them moved to depart. “See you later.” Sparkler yawned, giving me a lazy wave as her uncle nudged her along. “You too.” I watched for a bit as the two of them walked off, Sparkler with her goods in hoof and the intricate pattern of glowsticks illuminating her body while her uncle hugged her with his wing. It was nice to see the two of them having some family time. At least Sparkler had gotten to have a nice night enjoying her favorite band. Shame that left me with the question of what to do next. I wasn’t sure if I should wait for Vinyl out here in the stadium, the hallways, or even outside. Unfortunately, the guard hadn’t given me more elaborate instructions. With little else to do, I headed to one of the concession stands inside one of the stadium’s hallways. After waiting in line for a few minutes, I stepped up to the counter. The concession stand pony nodded at me and spoke with a voice that hadn’t quite broken through puberty yet. “Thanks for waiting, what can I get you?” “Could I get some nachos and a soda?” Yes, I know nachos weren’t exactly the healthiest thing I could have gotten, but I needed some comfort food thanks to the stress I was going through. The waiting wasn’t helping in the least. I jerked when somepony suddenly tapped on my shoulder, speaking with a strangely unremarkable and unmemorable voice. “Hey. Make it a double? I'll pay you back for it.” I turned around to look at the pony. The pony wore a dark hoodie lined with reflective material typical for a safety vest, with a pair of saddlebags covering her cutie mark. I had to concentrate to look at her for some reason. It was like she was the least interesting thing in the hallway. Under the hood I saw a familiar white-coated mare smile from behind her sunglasses. “Vinyl?” “Shhh!” She put a hoof over my muzzle. “You have any idea how hard this spell gets when my cover's blown?” I blinked and examined her more closely, using my magical senses this time. It didn’t take me long to recognize a spell I had used in the past: the background pony spell. That would explain why I hadn’t noticed Vinyl even though she was right behind me, and why she wasn’t being mobbed by fans right at that moment. I doubted her outfit alone would have fooled an arena filled with DJ-Pon3 fans for very long. “Oh, sorry. One sec.” Vinyl probably didn’t want to risk her spell by directly addressing the concession stand pony. I turned back around to the concession pony.  “Could you make that a double, please?” “Sure,” the cashier said with a shrug, before turning around to prepare our order. “Cool. Here's a few bits.” Vinyl levitated a few bits over to me. “Thanks.” I took the bits and added a few of my own to pay for the snacks. The pony at the stand took the bits and gave the artificial smile of a pony working in fast food. “Thanks for coming, have a nice night.” He pushed our order forward, and I picked it up. Vinyl grabbed her tray and cup when I offered them to her. “Ooh, score! These are fresh.” The two of us stepped out of the line to let the next pony in line step up. I had to concentrate to keep track of her. The background pony spell kept making me want to turn to more interesting things, like other ponies walking past us or some of the posters lining the hallway. “That is a bit lucky given we’re near the end of the night.” “Yeah. Usually I just get the dregs, if there's any left at all.” She started digging into her nachos like she probably hadn’t had anything solid to eat for half a day. I took a few bites of my own nachos, though less enthusiastically. “So ... I think we have a few things to talk about.” “Yeah, yeah—nachos first, talk later.” Vinyl took a few more mouthfuls. “Seriously, I like, never get any good food from the stand. Stuff's usually closed by the time the crowds die down enough for me to get in line.” “Not a big surprise I guess, considering you seem to be the final act at concerts.” It felt a bit eerie to casually talk about something like this to a pony who was probably my half-sister. I’d been waiting for this for days now, and here we were, just talking, eating nachos. How in the world was I supposed to broach the topic that we had the same father and— “Hello!? You listening to me!?” Vinyl waved a hoof in front of my face. “Huh?” I shook my head. “Sorry, lost track of everything. The background pony spell probably isn’t helping me either.” “Egh, it’s cool.” She had finished up her nachos during the time I had lost track of her and tossed the container into a nearby trashcan. “Oooh, that's the stuff.” She smacked her chest and let out a loud burp. “Cool—so. 'Sup?” “‘Sup?’” I asked. The question had struck me as a bit too casual due to ... everything. “Yeah. 'Sup.” Clearing her throat, she spoke in the cultured tone typical of ponies in Canterlot. “As in, the slang term which serves as a contraction for the phrase 'What's up'?” She grinned at me and returned to speaking in her rougher manner of speech. “C'mon, don't tell me you've never heard that before?” “I have. Just ... not sure what I should say now that you're here.” I sipped at my soda to buy me a second to gather my thoughts. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you since I got to Canterlot, and now I’m a bit at a loss about how to proceed.” “Maybe 'Hi'?” She sipped at her own drink before continuing. “Although we kinda already did that back at the signing booth.” “Sorry about that,” I said sheepishly. “I panicked a bit there.” Vinyl shrugged. “It’s cool. Was kinda funny. That type of thing happens a little more than you'd think.” She looked around at the ponies milling about us. “Though we can't really do your kinda talk here. Kinda a private thing. Ya know?” “I’m going to have to agree with that,” I said. Vinyl sipped her drink until the familiar sound of it being empty came out. “Well, c'mon. Let's get outta here and go to my place.” I couldn’t think of any argument against going to her place. Having our talk in private really sounded like the better idea, and Vinyl’s place sounded as good of a location to go to as any. “That sounds like a plan.” “Cool.” She led the way, and I followed her through the crowd. I worked to finish my own drink and tossed it into a trashcan. No sense letting perfectly good soda go to waste. “Thanks for talking to me, by the way. I can't imagine this is easy for you.” “Eh, I kinda figured this was gonna happen someday.” We exited through the gates of the stadium, and Vinyl dropped her hood, revealing her two-tone blue mane. My ears wilted upon hearing that. “Yeah, I guess you would.” Now I was becoming worried about what we were going to talk about. Well, more worried. Could Vinyl Scratch have been storing up years of anger that she was going to unload on me? It wouldn’t be very surprising, with me being the daughter our father raised while she had been cast to the side thanks to an accident of birth. Could I really blame her for feeling that way if it was true? I could only imagine what that would make me feel like, growing up like that. Vinyl craned her neck to give me a concerned frown. “Why the long face about it? This ain't exactly the end of your comfortable little world if you've lasted this long without knowing.” “It's ... complicated,” I said. I thought for a moment before continuing. “I'm not used to thinking of my parents like this. About their life choices, I guess you would say. There’s just so much I don’t know about, and the stress has my stomach tied up in knots.” She grunted. “Yeah, that's fair.” Silence fell between us as we walked along the nighttime streets. There wasn’t too much we could talk about until we arrived at her home anyways, and I wasn’t into having some generic conversation about what the weather was like. The DJ—no, my ... my sister led me into one of the upper middle class neighborhoods of Canterlot. Living in a area like this helped confirm that Vinyl was doing well for herself. We ascended some stairs for an apartment complex and arrived at one of the doors. After fumbling with her keys, Vinyl opened the door for us and turned on a light. We stepped inside, and I got my first look at the inside of her apartment. It was surprisingly nice and neat, having good modern furniture that gave a sophisticated feel to it. Knowing what I did about Vinyl, I had expected to see clothing and half-empty food cartons strewn about, not a living space that would have made a neat-freak like me happy. It almost looked like the apartment belonged on the front cover a furniture store magazine, and I suspected that Vinyl may very well have hired somepony to decorate her rooms. Vinyl headed to the kitchen and opened her icebox. “Gonna grab somethin' to drink, you want anything?” “Whatever you’re getting would be alright,” I told her. “Got it.” She pulled out a couple of cans and passed one to me. “Go ahead, sit. That’s what the couches and chairs are there for.” “Thanks.” I followed her advice and sat down on the couch while she sat on a big comfy cushion. I took a moment to note that I had been given some canned cider. It probably shouldn’t have been a surprise that Vinyl would favor something with a bit of alcohol in it for this chat. “So ... You have a nice place.” “Thanks.” Vinyl opened her can and sipped from it. “Though Tavi does a lot of the cleaning up. She's kind of a neat-freak.” I pulled on the tab to open my own can. “Tavi?” “Octavia.” She made a vague gesture. “You know, the gray mare playing the cello?” “Oh, right, her.” I nodded. “She seems nice.” “Yeah, she's my PFF for a reason. She's pretty cool.” Vinyl tipped her can back, very quickly chugging half of it. “So...” “Right...” I nursed my can, not sure what to say next. Thankfully, Vinyl broke the silence for me. “Kinda figured you'd show up, sooner or later.” “So you knew? About—” I rolled my hoof vaguely, “everything?” It felt strange how quickly and casually it had been confirmed that my dad had another daughter I hadn’t even known about. Some part of me thought I would have to weasel, confront her, something other than what was happening. Two mares sitting across from one another having a relatively amicable conversation about our families.   “Yeah, Mom told me.” She snorted amusedly. “Somepony had to pay for music college. And some of those Hearth’s Warming Eve presents were waaay too nice for my mom’s secretary salary. I got some sick new gear that made all my friends in school totally jealous.” “How long have you known?” I asked. Vinyl tapped her chin as she thought. “Since I was about fourteen, for sure. Basically once I got old enough to start asking questions and looking for answers. Mom and Dad hadn’t exactly been very stealthy about it.” “Oh.” I suppressed a shiver over hearing somepony else call my dad by the same name. It was awkward to the extreme. Now I had to wonder how blind I must have been to what my dad had I been up to. Had he been more careful around me and the rest of the family, or had I just been blind? “Guess it was kind of hard going through life without a sire?” Vinyl gave an indifferent shrug. “Nah, Mom took good care of me, and Dad was there from time to time when I needed him. He made sure I got into a nice college and paid for everything, for example. Better than how some bastards get treated by their noble sires. Some never get the time of day from them.” “That's good, I guess.” That probably shouldn’t have been too surprising since Vinyl’s mom had been working for Dad since before I was born. It seemed they had made some sort of arrangement they both found acceptable. Flashing me a grin, Vinyl said, “The old stallion also got me the DJ gig for the wedding.” I quirked an eyebrow. “What wedding?” “Um...” She coughed and took a long sip of her drink. “Just some wedding for some big shot nobles. Big paycheck type of deal. It was nice for Dad to hook me up, is all. Don’t worry ‘bout it.” “Oh, I see.”  Silence descended between us for a long moment before I thought of something else to talk about. “Your mom seems nice. At least she always struck me as a good pony when I talked to her.” “She's the best,” Vinyl said without a shadow of a doubt. “Coolest mom ever.” With a final gulp, she finished her cider. “Want another while I’m getting one for myself?” I shook my head. “I probably shouldn't have too much. Especially right now.” I wanted to be able to think clearly at that moment, not get hammered. Though I suspected drinking myself stupid would sound appealing soon enough. “Right. But this is a conversation that I don't wanna have sober, so...” Without moving from her cushion, she telekinetically opened her icebox and floated another can over to herself. Telekinesis was useful like that. “Sorry, I didn't want to turn your life upside down,” I apologized. “I just ... wanted to know the truth.” “I get that.” She opened her can and took a sip. “Shining and I had a talk like this years ago.” My ears perked at that. “Shiny knows all about this?” Vinyl nodded. “Yeah. No offense, but he’s kinda more on the ball with noticing this type of thing. So we had a few talks, sent letters, hung out now and again. That type of thing. It’s kinda nice spending time with our big bro.” I shuffled uncomfortably on the couch. My big brother had known about this too? Was I the only pony in Canterlot that didn’t know that all of this was going on? Why hadn’t anypony told me? Maybe the answer was that I had been too dense to see the truth until now? I rubbed at my face, trying to clear my thoughts. “I have so many things going through my head right now it's hard to even organize any of it.” "That bad?” she asked sympathetically. I ran a hoof over one of my forelegs, feeling very uncomfortable. “It's just... My dad is cheating on my mom. That’s a lot to absorb. They always seem so happy together.” “Yeah, I guess. But your mom always seemed cool with it.” She shrugged and sipped at her drink. “Like I said, they haven’t exactly been stealthy about it. Mom always said yours was fine with it, and your mom has always been pretty cool to me.” That last fact surprised me a bit. I would have figured Dad’s kid from an illicit affair would cause plenty of tension. Though there was the fact that both of my parents were patrons of Vinyl. Perhaps Mom was the type of mare that, at the very least, could give Vinyl a break over something that was beyond her control. It hadn’t been Vinyl’s choice who her parents were, after all. I took one of the couch pillows and hugged it to my barrel. “How can my mom be okay with this happening?” Vinyl swirled her can as she thought the question over. “Who knows? Maybe she’s got something going on too.” I rubbed at the sides of my head, the stress of everything now really getting to me. “And your mom is okay with ... being a mare on the side?” Vinyl nodded. “She seems cool with it, yeah. She’s always seemed happy.” I shook my head. “I really don't understand it. It’s so much to digest.” How could everypony seem fine with this situation? Wasn’t this inherently wrong? What should I even do about it? Vinyl made her way over to the couch and sat down next to me. “Hey, you get used to it. It ain’t the end of the world. Trust me. If they’re happy with what they got, then who cares what everypony else thinks?” I stared down at the floor, not wanting to meet Vinyl’s gaze. “I’m not sure I’m happy with it.” “Maybe you should talk with your folks ‘bout it then?” She put a hoof on my shoulder and squeezed it. “They’re good parents, and I know they love you to death. I’m sure they’d be willing to talk to you about all of this.” “That seems like the next rational step,” I agreed. Not like I would be able to sit on these facts without going crazy anyways. This was too big for that. It was how I viewed my parents on a fundamental level, and I at least owed it to my parents to explain everything. The topic of my parents seemed to have been tapped out for the moment, and I decided to change the subject. “So, you’re my half-sister.” “And you're mine.” Vinyl gave me a friendly poke to the shoulder. “Crazy, huh?” “That's one way to put it.” A cautious smile crept its way onto my lips. “This wasn't exactly a conversation I was planning on having in my life. I thought all my siblings were accounted for, but now I have a sister I had no idea even existed until a few days ago.” “I'm not exactly a sister.” She did a neutral shrug. “I mean, aside from biology. Just saying. I mean, you seem cool and all, but I just met you today.” My ears wilted at that statement. That hurt more than a little bit. “That is true. I still feel awful about not knowing about you. It feels like I should have done something. Been a bit more observant, seen the signs, been smarter. Instead we have ... this.” “Is what it is at this point,” Vinyl said sagely. I squeezed at the couch pillow. “I guess I was hoping for a few more answers from meeting you than I'm getting. Instead, it's all as murky as before. If not more so in some ways.” Vinyl leaned back against the couch and stared up at the ceiling. “Why would I know more than you?” “I guess I was hoping you might have worked your way through more of this than I have,” I admitted. “That I would somehow get an epiphany over seeing you and everything would start getting resolved somehow. I guess that was a bit too hopeful on my end.” “Sorry, no epiphany.” Vinyl shot me an amused smirk. “I'm just a DJ.” I gave her a sad smile in return. “I guess I shouldn't have expected to get a philosophical revelation from a DJ.” “Hey!” She shot forward to fix me with a scowl. “I can totally be deep and philosophical!” I couldn’t help but make an amused snort. “Can you? I can't see going to a concert with electronic music doing—whatever it is you do, and getting some kind of profound impact from it.” I gave her a teasing grin. “Other than getting hit with the sheer volume of the music anyways.” “Hey, respect the tunes!” she said, teasingly poking me in the ribs. “Oh, I respect them.” I rubbed at one of my ears. “My ears are still ringing from the noise.” “Maybe you should wear earplugs next time? That’s what I do,” Vinyl said, grinning. “I thought you were supposed to be the smart one?” “I used a sound muffling spell, thank you very much,” I said primly. The two of us let the friendly atmosphere between us stay there for a few seconds before I switched back to a more serious tone. “So, where should we go from here?” “Dunno.” The DJ settled back against the couch. “You seem cool, though.” “You seem alright too.” I thought the matter over for a moment. “Perhaps we could see each other now and again? Maybe write each other? And as much as my hearing may hate me for it, come to some of your concerts? We haven’t exactly been sisters to one another, but that doesn’t mean we can’t try now. I’m not going to pretend that a single talk is going to make everything alright, but if being a sister is anything like being a friend, then I know it’s something worth working at.” “Sounds like a cool idea to me.” Vinyl offered a hoof bump. “I think I’d like having a sister.” “Yeah, think I would too.” I bumped the hoof, feeling like I had at least gotten this right.