As the evening wore on and the gathered ponies made small talk, Applebloom gave her little brother a nudge and murmured in his ear. “Vinyl Scratch said she wanted to talk to ya in private up in the guest bedroom.” Intrigued by this request, the colt excused himself and headed to the second floor of the farmhouse.
Inside the guest bedroom where two single beds had been arranged, one was occupied by the white unicorn as she flipped through a large book-style holder of various vinyl records.
“You wanted…to see me Miss Scratch?” greeted the colt.
“Ok, first thing is first kid. If you going to keep insisting on calling me ‘miss’, then I might have to start calling you ‘mister’.”
“I wouldn’t…have an issue with that.” smiled Peppermill. A few beats of silence followed this, then Vinyl broke into laughter again.
“You are something else kid. I can see why Dash likes you so much.”
“I try…” Peppermill’s attention was drawn to various records the mare was looking through. He chewed on his lip anxiously for a moment, and almost bit it when the mare spoke again.
“So just for the record kid, what do you think of my music?” Peppermill winced, his mind debating just how to answer the mare. Despite having grown to genuinely like her, she was still a musician who could have a considerably high opinion of her genre of music. In the end, the colt’s honest nature over-rode whatever white lies he might have tried to ply.
“I…don’t really care for it…” The grey chef braced himself for just about anything, but ended up getting a dismissive wave of a hoof.
“Whatever floats your boat kid. Like I told you at dinner, I learned pretty quick that I wasn’t going to impress every pony with my stuff.” Apparently finding what she was looking for, Vinyl levitated one particular record from the stack and placed on a portable turntable she had set up on her side of the guest bedroom.
“I got a feeling this might be a bit more your thing…” Peppermill watched as the mare used her magic to turn on the player. After a few moments, the sounds of a string quartet began to waft through the room. Peppermill was quite impressed, both by the quality of the music coming from such a small device and that DJ P0N3 of all ponies would have something like that among her collection.
“Yes…I admit if I had…the choice I would choose this…over any other option.”
“I kind of figured. You know, this is actually Octy and her band…excuse me, quartet doing a gig at some fancy party in Canterlot. The rest of her pals know about this recording but she doesn’t. It was when she dragged me to one of her things after I convinced her to come to one of mine…”
“You mean…you actually attended an event that…had a string quartet…willingly?” Peppermill was unable to hide a laugh. The idea of such a down-to-earth disc jockey going to what was most likely a high society event was astonishing to him.
“Kid, if I had tried to talk my way out of it Octy would never speak to me again…” The colt slowly nodded, acknowledging the clearly strong bond between the mare. “Anyways, I figured I would give this to you as a kind of ‘thanks for the grub’ gift. You’ve got some serious cooking chops kid, and don’t let any pony tell you otherwise.”
“Vinyl, are you in here?” came the familiar Trottingham accent of Octavia as she poked her head into the room. Peppermill turned to face the mare as Vinyl quickly turned the turntable off.
“Yeah. I’m just hanging with Peppermill.”
“I hope Vinyl hasn’t been offending her with her crude stories. I swear she seems to get into the most bizarre situations sometimes…”
“Geeze, you make it sound like I try to get into trouble.” playfully pouted the unicorn. Octavia simply shook her head as she addressed the colt once more.
“I would like to thank you for the wonderful meal. And may I say that if your parents were here they would be very proud of you. I think…no, I know you have a very bright future ahead of you.”
“Yeah. When it reaches the point where you and I can get senior’s discounts we can get some grub at the kid’s place. Hopefully we will have enough teeth between the two of us to gum whatever you cook up.” quipped Vinyl.
“Vinyl!” gasped the shocked grey mare.
“I can assure you folks…that should the day come…that I try to follow…in my father’s hoofsteps…you both, as well as any other musicians…will be welcome to enjoy my cuisine. “ smiled Peppermill.
“I have one more thing I would like to say to you dear.” insisted Octavia, peering down at the colt. “There is absolutely nothing wrong with a colt enjoying classical music…or any types of music for that matter. Do not let what your friends might say or think change that.”
“Yes, I know…that now.” nodded the colt. “And maybe I will…make an effort to…change my opinion of musicians…as well.”
“Well, that much you might be right about kid…” smirked Vinyl.
“I can’t believe I am about to say this…but I can’t really disagree with that.” laughed Octavia.
“I knew you’d see it my way Octy.”
“Honestly…”