Chapter 45: Good Morning My Sunshine
Dear Diary,
I decided that I’m gonna take Miss Tropical up on her offer if she still hasn’t filled it. Now, I know what you’re saying to that. “Summers, you’re trippin! There ain’t nopony you know in the capital! Why are you going all the way there when you got plenty going right here in Cloudsdale?”
And you know what? I’ve been asking myself that for two weeks now. Why should I go? But, I think I know my answer now. I want to see how the other two-thirds live. Keeping my head in the clouds means I only meet ponies that can get up here. Going groundside means I can get out of my comfort zone, try new things, meet new ponies, have an adventure, you know?
The thing is though, Diary, I’m scared. Like real scared, you know? I wonder if Miss Tropical would’ve offered me the job at Steamsations if she knew how much I need you to keep my head on straight? Doc Limbus said that it’s okay to need help, but what if I don’t want to always need it? Maybe if I challenge myself, I’ll build myself up and won’t get lost anymore. Of course, you’re going with me. Even if I fix myself to where I don’t need you, we got too much history to stop now. I love you lots, Diary.
XOXOXO
“Was that really why you moved to Canterlot?” Vinyl quietly asked Summers’ words on the page.
Usually, she’d ask somepony else in the room with her, but everypony else had already gone to bed. At least, she hoped they had. She spied the time: 11 o’clock, two hours after she’d acted like she’d fallen asleep already. Hopefully, nopony would check on her or else she’d get into trouble with Maman again.
“Wait. I’m worried about getting in trouble.” The mare giggled to herself as she kicked her legs under the covers, feeling like a filly.
Still, Vinyl couldn’t put the book down. Not when she’d finally found something closer to the time period she wanted to know more about. Or at least she hoped she was close. Piecing together a cohesive timeline from all the material they’d collected from Summers’ diaries and personal collection was proving to be a daunting challenge.
The earliest ones were easy to sort. They had crude drawings and barely legible hints to help jog the little filly’s memory. The problem was as time went on, the everyday nature of her journaling made it more difficult to tell where it fit in the timeline. What really didn’t help was that Summers never dated anything. If she did, it was buried in an entry and rarely contained the year. Cataloging the order of events wasn’t the mare’s goal though. The disco queen simply lived from book to book for help with recent recollections.
Without any clear order or her magic to help, Vinyl had started pulling journals out at random and pouring over their pages for hours trying to find anything of note. Even if she had her magic, there was no telling if there was a spell that could accurately place them chronologically. Mass manipulation magic wasn’t something she studied, and she was almost certain those spellforms relied on markers themselves.
According to Dapper, they likely had been at least in some semblance of structure at one point, but Fancy Pants had instructed the servants to pack everything of hers away upon her death. With so many memories over her life, they’d chosen to fit the books to the boxes with no attention paid to their arrangement. If not for her crush on him, the DJ would kill him for making this so difficult. She’d read entries ranging from her early childhood to Fancy’s teens. While they’d been interesting on their own, Vinyl wasn’t any closer to answering a single question weighing on her mind.
At least she’d finally drawn a good journal out of the pile. This most recent find was Summers’ entries right before moving to Canterlot, going back and forth about whether to move or not. Summers had stressed out about it so much that she’d become “lost” as she always innocently put it. Some of the later diaries mentioned medication, but Vinyl still wasn’t sure if that solution had only come about later in her life.
Dear Diary,
Moved in today. Super tired from pulling the chariot with Whisperia. Even though Canterlot ain’t that far from home, it’s still a pain pulling everything, especially with how many sisters you have, Diary! I don’t think Whisperia was expecting so much stuff, but I’m glad she helped get me here. I still got a ton of unpacking to do. Hopefully I can get it done before I need to start working.
I’m gonna go pass out now.
“I’m not,” Vinyl whispered as she turned the page.
Dear Diary,
Sorry I missed something like a week and a half. Moving for this Steamsations gigs got me worn down too much to write. I don’t think I’ve gotten lost since coming here, knock on wood, but I almost did today, so I figured I better jot it down.
One of the guests complained about how I talk myself through running the steam room so I don’t forget a step. I don’t like doing it either, but does that turkey want me to skip something important and boil his behind off or something? Totally rude to yell about it! But, I think I came up with a solution. Three guesses what it is Diary.
That’s right! Doc’s old standby, mnemonic singing! Thank you, Doc Limbus!
I’ll songify work so it won’t bother anypony! At least I hope it won’t. If they complain it’s getting too samey, maybe I’ll just try associating the steps with different songs. Make it a dance, right? Suede Shoes is popular with most of the snob clients we get, so maybe I’ll try associating his music with what I need to do at work. I dig his grooves anyway, and there’s a lot to choose from, so it shouldn’t be a problem to mix up the music so I ain’t getting mixed up myself.
Mnemonic. Vinyl had made a note of the word before when she’d found it on the inside cover of Summers’ very first diary, though she hadn’t looked up its meaning yet. In lieu of medicine, Doctor Limbus had written it down with instructions for “memory journaling” as a “mnemonic tool” to help Summers remember things. One of the earliest diary entries was a picture of her and the doctor singing together surrounded by thought bubbles. Was the Sensational Sauna Summers’ career launched by the spa pony singing her way through the workday?
Dear Diary,
The mares in Canterlot are all so beautiful! Ugh! Why? I was copacetic in Cloudsdale, but I tell you what, these fab girls are on another level! Chill everypony! You ain’t outdoing a princess, but sweet Celestia, they be trying! And it’s making me book it back home to hide.
I met plenty of solid earth ponies that are built like a brick house, if you catch my drift, Diary. Unicorns are far out and foxy with their magical mojo. Even the pegasi are soaring at cloud nine at all times! There was a stunning cat I gave a wing massage today, and she looked absolutely dynamite, and guess what? Her wing was broken! I look like I dragged myself straight outta bed and here this chick’s putting in work when her wing doesn’t work? Now I don’t got excuses to—
“Wait, what?” Vinyl stopped reading and doubled back to the last few lines. “‘There was a stunning cat I gave a wing massage… her wing was broken!’ Sunny?”
It was a longshot, but there was a chance she was about to stumble onto something incredible. Maybe the two had met before they’d even started at Groovecasters! Her hungry eyes dove into the rest of the entry.
I look like I dragged myself outta bed and here this bird is putting work when her wing doesn’t work? Now I don’t got excuses to skip on doing myself up in the morning. At least I can fly. Poor mare’s gotta walk everywhere while she’s grounded. Next time, world, just shout, “In your face!” I’ll get the skinny.
Gonna make a note here in case I forget:
ASK MISS TROPICAL ABOUT WATER-RESISTANT MAKEUP
Don’t look at me like that, Diary. I ain’t going bananas with it. I want to look good cause I want to look good. Trust me, I ain’t getting anywhere close to how pretty these ponies are.
Vinyl quickly began skimming the diary. The odds of that pony being Sunny were next to nothing, but Sunny’s flightlessness was the only thing Vinyl knew for certain about the mare. As she hunted for word scraps, she grew more aggravated fumbling through pages by hoof.
“Come on you stupid diaries. Give me something to work with!” Vinyl grumbled. She wanted to tear the dampening ring off of her horn, but the last time she’d casted magic had resulted in a migraine. Even thinking about how much the wind hurt on her stitches that day made her head burn.
As Vinyl scanned through page after page, she caught the word “CELESTIA” written loudly in the header or one of them, bringing her search to a halt.
PRINCESS CELESTIA CAME TO STEAMSATIONS!
I didn’t even think I’d ever see the princess personally! Thank
CelestiaHER that I remembered my makeup today because her highness is stunning! Now I get why everypony always looks like a billion bits. If she can just stroll in out of nowhere, you wanna look your best! Everypony, and I mean every pony, was freaking out. She came in totally unannounced, just wanting to relax. I can dig that. She’s got a kingdom to run. Talk about pressure!I hope she didn’t mind my singing. I
garantygaruantieLemme tell ya, Diary, I would’ve lost my head without it. Thank you Doc! My hooves are shaking like crazy just thinking about it still. I had to sing “Princess Celestia came to Steamsations” all the way back home to myself. Didn’t want to forget it before writing it down. Hope nopony heard me. She said she likes keeping her relaxing time on the down low. Maybe that means she’ll come again? That’d be crazy!
That wasn’t anything new to her. She already knew Princess Celestia had met her at the spa. Summers herself had said as much in the recordings. Still, it’d at least given some context to their relationship. She flipped to the next page, the next, and then the final page of the journal talking about a recipe she’d learned from Miss Tropical for key lime pie. No Sunny, no Celestia, nothing.
Vinyl groaned in aggravation as she fell back on her bed. She’d come so close to the start of Summers’ musical career and her time at Groovecasters, but the entries stopped just short. Looking over the cover, it was just a simple Academia brand spiral notebook with a flower pattern on the front labeled Summers’ Diary. No numbers or dates as usual. Summers might’ve bought it in a floral set if Vinyl was lucky. She was willing to stay up all night digging through boxes, but even touching one would set off the alarm wards Fleur had placed to keep her out of the collection.
No. Vinyl would just have to be satisfied with the diary she’d hidden under her pillow. She cracked open the notebook again to see if she could—
“Vinyle…”
Hearing her name called like a haunting specter, she whipped her head around to see Éclair de Lune frowning at her from the door. “Maman! W-what are you doing up this late?”
The mare trudged over to the bedside without a word and motioned for the diary. With a sigh, Vinyl gave it up. She watched with envy as the earth pony reached into the collection and harmlessly placed the diary in a box. It wasn’t fair that Fleur had the foresight to ensure it was only Vinyl who couldn’t touch them after nine.
“Go. To. Sleep,” Éclair instructed firmly. The mare yawned and tucked Vinyl in on all sides so she wouldn’t get up again.
“How’d you know?” Vinyl asked.
“Maman knows when her fleurs are not being good,” she explained with maternal wisdom. “And Princess Luna asked me to check you,” she added with a wink.
“Seriously? Stupid princesses!”
“Do not say such rude things! It means we all care for you. Now, go to sleep or I will sleep in your bed too.”
Vinyl rolled over in a huff. “Fine.”
Éclair laughed to herself. Before leaving, she leaned over the bed and kissed Vinyl on the cheek. “Goodnight, ma fleur de vinyle.”
“Night, Maman.” Even if she’d been caught and had her book taken away, Vinyl couldn’t keep the small smile off of her face. She was half-tempted to ask her to stay anyway.
The air sat heavy around the breakfast table. Fleur had led Vinyl to the breakfast nook in the studio wing and poured two bowls of Choc-Oat-Lots cereal for them. Now, the bigger mare was giving her sister the silent treatment to match Maman and with only the occasional crunch of cereal.
“Okay, I’ll bite,” Vinyl relented. “What is it?”
“Oh, nothing. Just trying to figure out what it’s gonna take to keep your hooves out of the collection at night,” Fleur growled between spoonfuls.
Vinyl dropped her spoon into her cereal and crossed her forelegs. “Come on, sis!”
“Why don’t you come off it instead?” Fleur snapped back. “You wouldn’t even need that ring on your horn if you just got a decent night’s sleep for once.”
“But I’m so close to making a discovery!”
Fleur raised an eyebrow. “So? What else is new? A smart mare like you is always on the verge of a breakthrough. You’re just too stupid to take care of yourself. I didn’t think helping you with this whole diary thing was going to be helping you stop.”
“You made your point.”
“Good, now all you have to do is actually take it.”
Vinyl threw her hooves up. “Fine! You win! Game, set, and match. Happy?”
“I always am,” Fleur assured with a wink.
Knowing that Fleur was absolutely right burned Vinyl up to no end. She had to admit that the research was starting to get away from her. She’d already missed several days at Cantrips and lab days at Celestia’s school. Still, what else was she supposed to do until she was better? She was still cut off from her magic and everypony kept telling her to stay in bed.
Vinyl took another bite of her unbalanced breakfast and looked out the window as she chewed. She’d been here for months, but hadn’t bothered checking upstairs to see what other rooms were around her. Just above her bedroom was one of the most stunning views of Mount Canterhorn that Vinyl had ever seen. There was even a patio outside, perfectly sized for flyers taking off and landing. Given the sheer size of the entire space, Vinyl wouldn’t have been surprised if Princess Celestia had spent a few mornings eating with Summers and Suede here.
While the hills behind the mansion were still blanketed with a thin layer of snow, it wouldn’t be for much longer. Winter Wrap Up would blow through soon enough, whipping it all away to reveal the acres of grassy knolls leading up to the slopes of the mountain and the walls of the castle. The river and waterfall would probably shine even grander in the world of green. The sheer beauty of Fancy’s oversized backyard was criminal.
“Hey, sis?” Vinyl asked.
“What’s up?”
“Why do rich ponies build big houses?”
“To hold all their stuff,” Fleur answered absently.
“Yeah, but this place is enormous.”
“So are all the other houses around here.”
Vinyl took another spoonful of cereal.
“Did you read something about houses last night?” Fleur asked.
“No.”
“Then why are you asking?”
“It’s just, this place is big. Really big. I get why Fancy might want a huge house since he was a diplomat and all, but why Summers?”
“Rich ponies gonna rich.”
“Do you want a big house?”
“Nah. Cleaning would be a pain.” Fleur crunched down on another chocolaty bite to give herself a second to think. “Also, why are you pinning it on Aunty? It’s called the Suede Shoes Estate.”
“Well, was your house big in Prance?”
“Pas vraiment.”
Vinyl glowered at her sister. “So is that big or small?”
Fleur smirked. “It means ‘not really,’ Vy. Maman didn’t want a lot. Working Prenchmares like her enjoy homey spaces. Don’t blame her either. I wouldn’t wanna take care of much if I had a restaurant to clean on top of a house.”
“Either way, Suede was okay with downsizing and giving this all to Fancy. I guess he might’ve gone with what Maman wanted, but he didn’t have to. It just feels weird.”
“What about you then?” Fleur asked, spinning it back to Vinyl. “Would you want to live here?”
“I… I don’t know. Having a studio across the hall is one of the coolest things ever. And this on top of it?” Vinyl looked back out the window towards the mountain rising above them. Without Canterlot’s buildings and walls obstructing the scene, she could appreciate the majestic cliffside weaving the waterfall through evergreens lightly powdered with snow. The natural serenity sang to her soul.
“It’s pretty nice, isn’t it?” Fleur agreed as she took another spoonful.
“It’s amazing, but it’s so much. Too much. I didn’t even know this was right above me.” Vinyl looked back at her half-eaten bowl of oats. “And here we are eating cheap cereal.”
“The best kind of cereal,” Fleur remarked with a smirk.
“I just… why though? Like, look at all these cushions. Eight ponies could sit here easily, right?”
Fleur looked around the extravagantly large breakfast table. “Maybe they had a lot of guests?”
“But they didn’t! Summers would have pictures for sure, and Fancy said she was always alone growing up. And let’s say they threw a ton of parties before he was born, that still doesn’t explain all of those guest rooms near Fancy’s bedroom. They make sense for Fancy Pants the diplomat, but not Sauna Summers the singer.”
“Why does it matter? They were probably just copying the neighborhood. I mean, the castle is right there!” Fleur pointed her spoon towards Canterlot Castle bordering the back of the property. “What else are a couple of rich ponies gonna spend their money on?”
“But it’s too much! They bought it together, so why would a forgetful mare like her even want a place she could easily get lost in? If anything, she’d want a smaller house like your place above Pâte de Lune!” Vinyl took another greedy bite of cereal to splash some cold milk onto her fiery tongue. She took a deep breath to calm her cranky thoughts. “I’m sorry, Fleur. Stupid stuff like that keeps me up at night.”
“Don’t apolo—well, do apologize for staying up late all the time—but don’t apologize for whatever is eating at you. When you put it that way, it is kinda weird. I wonder if there were signs before Fancy took over.”
“Who knows? If she did, it’d be in her diaries somewhere. It’s why I want to know.”
Fleur stood up from her seat across from the table and walked around to the other side to sit next to Vinyl. She pulled the smaller mare closer to her in a supportive hug. “I know you do, Vy. I know you’re trying so hard to find answers for yourself. That’s why we’re here to help. Within reason.”
Vinyl leaned into the hug. “Thanks, sis.”
“But, have you thought about what happens if you can’t? What if in all of those diaries and keepsakes and junk, you can’t find whatever it is you’re looking for?”
“What do you mean?” Vinyl scoffed and waved off the ridiculous idea. “Of course it’d be in there. She was a packrat. She kept everything and then some.”
Fleur pulled tighter. “What if those aren’t all of them? What if they got lost or thrown away?”
That was a potential Vinyl didn’t want to think about. She shook away the screeching needle in her ears.
“Vinyl, listen to me,” Fleur whispered tenderly, double-checking to make sure they were alone. “I know you like my brother, and I know you’re scared of all of this wealth he’s got if it… gets serious. I don’t know exactly why you’re so scared of it, but I don’t need to know the why. I just need to know you’re scared.”
“But I already told you, I don’t want—”
“Yeah, yeah. You don’t want to become a monster. Rich Antiquity’s dragon and everything. Blah, blah, blah,” Fleur rattled off impatiently. She pushed Vinyl back and held the smaller mare by the shoulders. “I get all of that. What I don’t get is why you even think you’d become somepony like her when you’re borderline terrified of it. Do you think money is like some siren’s song that will turn you into an entitled narcissist? Ponies don’t work like that, Vy. It’s a load of bull. You could be showered with every bit in the world and you’d still be you. No dusty book from Aunty is going to tell you otherwise.”
“But what if you’re wrong?”
“Then the greed monster got Aunty in the end.” Fleur shrugged her shoulders. “You wanna know a secret, though? You’re not Aunty Summers. You’re Vinyl Scratch, my little, big sister.” Fleur lightly booped Vinyl on the nose and smiled. “You’re never gonna be alone like she was because I’m not gonna let you be all alone no matter what, got it?”
Vinyl sucked in her lips and nodded.
“I was hoping for a smile, but I’ll take it.” Fleur magicked over her bowl of cereal and scooted away for a prime scarf-down position. “Now, let’s get this taken care of and see if we can get you some answers from a bunch of old books.”
Getting answers was easier said than done. After cleaning up breakfast, the two students dove back into the boxes. As luck would have it, the next volumes had been bundled right under it. The bad news was that nothing noteworthy happened in them that Vinyl didn’t already know.
“Look at this this way,” Fleur offered. “Now we know that Princess Celestia became a secret regular at Steamsationals.”
“Great. Now we have it in writing that Princess Celestia likes to sneak out of the castle for spa days forty years ago.”
“Weird right? You’d think she’d just stay in the castle. I hear they have everything in those walls from spas to bowling alleys.”
“I’d be more surprised if my first encounter with Princess Luna up close hadn’t been on the dance floor at Cantrips.” Vinyl leaned back with a groan, putting her hooves over her eyes to suppress the budding headache.
“Need a break?” Fleur asked.
Vinyl took a deep breath and fell back onto the floor. “This isn’t a tired headache, it’s a frustration one.”
Fleur stepped over her sister, blocking Vinyl’s view of the ceiling. “Okay. So need a break?”
Vinyl looked into her sister’s eyes, seeing a hint of concern behind her usual snark. “Yeah, okay. I don’t want to get in bed though.”
“How about we take a bath?” her sister offered.
“It’s almost lunchtime, Fleur.”
“Okay. So how about we take—”
“Knock it off.” Vinyl swatted the taller mare on the fetlock. “I don’t want to have to cover the stitches again.”
“What should we do then?”
Vinyl picked herself up off the ground and trotted over to collection. She climbed over one of the front boxes and opened another one at random.
Fleur followed. “That’s not taking a break, sis.”
“Taking a break from reading. There’s more stuff in here than diaries.”
Rummaging through the boxes was harder without magic. Stuff would flood back as soon as she pushed it aside in a flood of physical memories. The gloss of an old magazine caught Vinyl’s eye from underneath an empty picture frame. The Sensational Sauna Summers boldly strutted across the cover, posing with her head held high, but her eyes looking back to her exposed cutie mark.
Fleur clicked her hooves together. “Oh! Let me see that!”
Vinyl passed it to Fleur as she dipped her head back inside the dusty package. Towards the bottom she spotted a long, black box. She reached inside, pushing a few notebooks off to rescue it from its prison.
“I wonder how many times Aunty made the cover of Trot,” Fleur pondered as she flipped through the pages, browsing the pictures and articles. “Think these coupons are still good? I could use something that ‘every groovy girl’s gotta get.’”
“Will it drive the stallions wild, too?”
“Doesn’t say. Or at least I don’t think it does. I can speak Prench and Ponish. Some of this is gibberish to me.”
“If there’s a stallion with an afro wearing short shorts anywhere near it, then skip it.”
Fleur glanced around the page. “Nope. Just some mare named Soulful Abode rocking a disco suit with some insanely flared sleeves. She’s owning it, but how are you supposed to dance without tripping over yourself?”
“Carefully, I guess.”
Vinyl popped open the gold clasp of the box and was met with a small treasure trove of large crystal earrings. Shifting the jewelry around in her hooves, she saw that they slotted into little indentions in the box. She began trying to sort them by color, matching the pairs.
“Here, let me.” Fleur levitated the rainbow mess out of the container and began to sort them in the air.
“Show-off,” Vinyl complained.
“If you’d just get a good night's sleep for once, you’d be able to do this again,” Fleur fired back. After whipping them around into order, she carefully placed them back in the box except for a pair of rose quartz crystals matching her eyes. She hovered one up to her ear and leaned into Vinyl. “What do you think? Do I look great, phenomenal, or perfect?”
Vinyl rolled her eyes and pushed her away, trying to get the larger unicorn out of her personal space. As she fought back, the glint of a design on the crystal’s exterior caught her attention.
“Wait! Stop, Fleur.”
“It’s a simple question, Vy.”
“Seriously! I think those earrings are enchanted.”
“Really?” Fleur immediately stopped her horseplay by pulling Vinyl into a side hug so they could look at the crystal together in the light. Having her sister smushed cheek-to-cheek wasn’t exactly optimal for inspecting the stone, but at least they were looking at the same thing. “I think you’re right. Can you tell what it is? I haven’t seen this inscription before.”
“Not off the top of my head.” Vinyl went back to the box, seeing if there was a clue. On the underside of the lid was a quill and half-note logo that she didn’t recognize. “Sunny got Summers into cutting-edge technology. My guess would be that these are wearable storage crystals if they’re anything.”
“Cool! Think there’s anything on them?”
“Maybe. Could you grab my headphones?”
After freeing Vinyl from her grasp, Fleur snatched Vinyl’s headphones off the nightstand and popped the side open to the storage crystal compartment.
“Be sure to unslot the quartz before putting it in there.”
“I know. This isn’t my first rodeo.” Fleur twisted the pink crystal off the mount and stuck it inside. She switched it on and held the headphones up to her ear. After a moment, her eyes sparkled.
“What? What is it?” Vinyl asked.
“‘Don’t forget to pick up Sugar Bear from daycare at four. Look into spring at Las Pegasus. Tea time with Celly is at 2 today,’” Fleur reported as she listened in.
The DJ looked back at the assortment of earrings. “Wearable memory crystals?” A joyous smile split Vinyl’s face at the extraordinary find.
Fleur grinned at her sister’s glee as she passed the headphones. “Sounds like it. Also, is Sugar Bear what Aunty called Pantsy? That’s absolutely adorable!”
Putting the headphones up to her ear, Vinyl listened in.
“Dapper is busy shopping today, so don’t you dare forget to pick up Sugar Bear from daycare!” Summers stated firmly. “4 o’clock on the dot. Got it, Summers?” There was a brief pause and a click before the sound came back. This time, it was accompanied by the sounds of a crowded street. “Look into spring at Las Pegasus,” Summers whispered. She took a deep breath. “You’ll make this right.” And then there was another click. “Celly has a meeting today, so tea’s at—”
Vinyl paused the note and cycled back.
“Look into spring at Las Pegasus,” Summers whispered. She took a deep breath. “You’ll make this right.”
Fleur noticed the curiosity crawling along Vinyl’s face. “What’s up, Vy?”
“Is she talking about Springstep?” Vinyl skipped forward a bit, trying to hear anything else on the memory crystal. When it repeated, she ejected the crystal and scrambled to put the other one in.
“It’s another morning, You’re next to me lying there…” Summers sang to herself. There was another click. “It’s the first light of morning, I see that you’re—Fancy Pants! Get your little flank down from there right now!” And then there was another click.
“Summers is trying to figure out the lyrics to something in this one.” Vinyl passed the headphones back and let Fleur listen.
Fleur nodded along to the music, but stopped as she listened. “Huh. That’s weird. This almost sounds like Wonderful Moonlight.”
“Should I know what that is?” Vinyl asked.
“It’s one of the love songs on Daddy’s album, Moondance, remember? It goes like this,” Fleur cleared her throat and began to sing.
“It’s the first light of evening,
You’re wondering what you should wear.
I watch as you worry,
And tussle your long pink hair.
And then you ask me, is this alright?
And I say ‘Of course, You’re my Wonderful Moonlight.’”
The DJ’s trained ears perked to the vaguely familiar tune. It was a tender ballad Suede had crooned to Maman, the moonlight being a reference to both her name, Éclair de Lune and her crescent croissant cutie mark. “That is weird.”
“Oh, wait! Come here, Vy, there’s more!” Fleur announced as she listened. She motioned for Vinyl to come closer. The sisters leaned in and perked their ears to hear the headphones between them.
“Okay, Summers. You got this. Deep breath,” the mare reassured herself. There was a rustle of paper and feathers.
“It’s the first light of morning,
Day shines through the window pane.
I nudge you to wake up,
And rustle your long pink mane.
And then you ask me, ‘Is everything alright?’
And I say, ‘Yes. Good morning, my sunshine.’”
The crooning disco queen took a deep, calming breath and exhaled before she continued.
“There’s a magic I hear,
Because you are near,
With power that scrapes the sky.
I feel light as a feather,
When we’re together,
We don’t even need to fly.
And this is all I can ever do,
You’ll never know just how much I… I…”
Summers choked back a sob and whispered, “I love you.” Click.
Vinyl and Fleur sat in silence, letting Summers’ last, lonely note hang in the air along with the soft humming of levitation hovering the headphones between them. They waited for anything else to play, but the memory crystal simply began to repeat from the beginning.
Flicking the power off, Fleur calmly took out the memory crystal and set the headphones on the bed. She looked at the quartz and then at Vinyl. In a swift flicker of magic, she ripped the jewelry case from Vinyl’s grasp and closed it.
“Let’s go see if Maman has started making lunch yet,” Fleur said quietly as she hovered the box on top of the wardrobe, out of reach.
“Hey! What about the rest of them?”
“Let’s take a break, okay Vy?”
Vinyl scoffed. “If you need one, fine. Just get that box down and I’ll—”
“You’ll what?” Fleur asked in disbelief. “Listen to all of them and get even more confused? You said you wanted answers, and here we are listening to Aunty sing Maman’s favorite song Daddy wrote for her, but it’s about some other mare with pink hair! There aren’t any answers here, it’s just a bottomless quagmire of questions!”
“B-but this is my job,” she argued.
Fleur stomped her hoof. “No it isn’t! Your job’s supposed to be archiving that dumb closet full of records. This is just some crazy obsession you have with Sauna Summers!”
Vinyl gritted her teeth. “I’m not obsessed! I’m just trying to figure things out!”
“And how is that going, huh? Just step back for a second and look.” Fleur took Vinyl by her hoof and pulled her to the door. They stopped and turned to the corner filled with rows of old cardboard boxes, some even bigger than her. “There’s years—literally years—worth of books and who knows what else in that mess. And it’s not even in order! You’re already swamped with that impossibly huge record collection, how long is it going to take to make any sense of all of it?”
“I—I don’t know. But I need to try.”
“Why though? Is the secret to stabilizing Cacophony’s runes written in one of her diaries? Did Aunty record your next song on a crystal somewhere decades ago? She already lived her life, but what about yours?”
Fleur led Vinyl to the front of the vanity and unclipped the enchanted earring. The illusion over Vinyl’s head faded away, revealing the red gash and black stitches keeping it closed. Fleur stroked the side of Vinyl’s head, carefully avoiding the cut. “You’re hurt, sis. You’re hurt and you’re not sleeping and you still can’t use your magic. Please. Stop it. Or at least slow down. You’re tearing yourself apart looking for something that might not even be in there.”
Vinyl gazed at her reflection staring back at her. There were deep bags under her eyes she hadn’t noticed. Probably the only reason she was clean was because Fleur lended her magic to help her keep her wound dry while bathing. The longer she looked at herself, the more exhausted she felt. If Summers were alive, she’d probably be telling her to “chill it” with the reading and take care of herself. Vinyl was constantly trying to make everypony stop worrying about her, but here she was giving them a real good reason to be concerned. She leaned into her sister’s side and turned away from her ragged image.
“I’m sorry.”
Fleur shushed softly and leaned down and kissed the maned side of Vinyl’s head. “Don’t be sorry. I know how important this is to you. I just wish you’d be more confident in yourself without digging through a bunch of books.”
“I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore.” Vinyl closed her eyes and tried to focus. “I wanted to know Sunny’s name, but then I started enjoying listening to Summers talk. I wanted to hear her more, but I couldn’t and now I… I just want to be okay.”
“You’re already okay, Vinyl. I promise. No book is going to tell you that. What you need to do is to take it easy and focus on getting better than just ‘okay’ for a little while.” Fleur hovered the box down from the wardrobe and put it on the bed. “Here. Let’s take a break, get some air, see some other ponies, maybe eat lunch, and then we can listen to whatever else is on them to get it out of our heads.”
Vinyl looked up at her sister. “Our heads?”
The larger mare giggled. “Well, duh! You don’t think I’m dying to know too? I just found out that Daddy rewrote one of Aunty’s songs about another mare for Maman. That doesn’t just happen. Aunty sure did live an interesting life.”
Vinyl sighed as she cuddled up to her sister’s comforting embrace. “Yeah. I wish she was still alive. I have so many things I’d want to ask her.”
“Me too.”
“Apology Anthology? Seasons of Grief? This is so frustrating.” Click.
“Figure out how to get more zap apple jam from Celly.” Click.
“Autumn might be in Manehattan. Maybe Off-Bridleway?” Click.
“Spring turns to Summer, A time of life to… remember? Ugh. Ask Suede about it later.” Click, pop.
Fleur swapped over to the studio microphone and leaned over the turntables. “That’s all there is for that one.”
“Did we already check the matching emerald?” Vinyl asked as she jotted the last line of the most recent memory crystal.
“Yeah. That was the shopping list one, remember?”
“Right.” Vinyl flipped back over her notes with the earring gemstones and contents listed. Her hoof was getting tired transcribing the recordings, but Fleur’s magic was busy linking the stones to Vinyl’s sound system. “How many more pairs do we have to go?”
“We haven’t checked the purple tourmaline or the rubies yet.”
Vinyl nodded as she put her pencil down and stretched. After taking an extended break from the collection, the two had returned to listen to the rest of the earrings. The time away had been welcome, seeing ponies around the mansion, going out to grab some smoothies, and just taking a moment to relax before trying to sate their burning curiosity. They’d decided to move the operation to the recording studio and use Vinyl’s equipment to listen over the speakers rather than crowd around her trusty headphones.
What they had uncovered in listening to the recordings had been enlightening, if a bit spotty. Among the everyday to-do lists and little reminders were hints of a larger project Summers had been working on: Reuniting the Four Seasons.
Springstep, Sauna Summers, Autumn Aria, Suede Shoes rolling in as a standin for winter, and Sunny along for the ride in whatever way she wanted. More than anything, Summers wanted everypony to have fun singing together again. Unfortunately, from the clues she’d left behind, Summers was having just as hard of a time tracking down her old friends as Vinyl was. And just like Vinyl, Summers couldn’t find Sunny.
Of all of her friends, Summers was looking for the mysterious mare the most. It could be hidden away in a diary entry somewhere or on another crystal, but it was clear that Summers cared for her. Deeply. Why? Vinyl didn’t know. Did Suede know? Maybe? Either way, he’d found out eventually considering Wonderful Moonlight was based on it.
“Ready?” Fleur asked.
Snapping back to the present, Vinyl picked up the pencil in hoof and nodded. She silently wished she’d practiced writing with her mouth more as a filly. Her fetlocks were going to be sore in the morning at this rate.
With a spark of magic, Fleur arched a thread of magic between the console and the ruby in her aura. “Hoo… I’m really starting to feel burnt out, Vy. This might be the last one today.”
“That’s more than fine by me.”
The speakers popped as the recording started.
A deafening slurry of sloshy noises and foalish giggles blared over the speakers. Click.
“Testing, one, two, three,” Summers boomed before a final click.
“Testing, again, one, two, three. This thing better not be broken, Sugar Bear! Momma needs her memos.” A toddler giggled before another click and a pop.
Vinyl looked up at Fleur who had stopped channeling. “Was that it?”
“No, but did you write all that down?” Fleur asked. “That was totally adorable!”
“Keep going, sis. You can make fun of Fancy later for chewing gems like a dragon.”
“Trust me, I will,” Fleur assured with devilish glee as she recast the spell.
The sound popped back in with the sound of ponies milling about and a clattering of tableware. “‘Good Morning Sunshine’ or ‘Morning My Sunrise.’ One of the two. You think those are good, Sugar Bear?” There were a few beats, but no response. “Gonna need to learn ya to listen to your momma, Fancy.” Click.
“They rescheduled the ESPA meeting for tomorrow at ten. Also, don’t let Sugar Bear near the recorder until after he’s stopped chewing on everything he can get his dang mouth around.” Click, pop.
“That’s hilarious,” Fleur said. “Also, that was it. Short one, huh?”
“Maybe Fancy accidentally wiped what was on it.” Vinyl made a note of the contents and underlined Good Morning Sunshine. “At least we got a couple or working song titles out of it.”
“That’s not nothing.” Fleur winked as she closed the box of earrings and walked out of the live room and turned off the lights. “We still got the rest of the afternoon. Wanna go see if Fluffs is done with her work?”
Vinyl smiled and put her pencil down. “Sure. She still needs to drink her smoothie before Dapper throws it out of the fridge.”
“Exactly! Glad you’ve got your priorities right, sis.”
“Couldn’t have done it without you.”
“Why would you want to?” Fleur asked as she opened the door. “After all, we’re the best of the best—”
“—Better than the rest—” Vinyl continued.
“Ain’t no contest, friends!” Fleur finished
“Ain’t no contest, sisters!” Vinyl finished.
Fleur stopped and turned around. “Sisters?”
Vinyl’s cheeks began to burn slightly. “Why not? Isn’t that better?”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t really roll off the tongue. Nopony says ‘best sisters.’”
Vinyl shrugged. “We could start it. It’s already maximum cheese anyway. Why not go full cringe?”
“I like the way you think, Vy,” Fleur said as she smiled widely. “Best sisters it is!”
The two best friend sisters shared a laugh as they exited the studio, leaving the work behind to enjoy the rest of their day. While questions still bubbled in the back of Vinyl’s head about all the mysteries to uncover in the past, what she really wanted to do right now was enjoy the present with the ponies that were still here after everything. Summers wasn’t going anywhere, and neither was Vinyl.
If you find a simple mistake in the GSP (Grammar, Spelling, or Punctuation), please let me know through a private message rather than leaving it in the comment section. Leave the discussions to discussions. Thank you for reading.
Stats
Page generated in 0.022 seconds
Total duration
879 users online
507,949 hits today, 1,872,792 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
So, Sunny goes to the spa, sees Summers sing about the piping, next Celestia shows up.
...If all that is a red herring to who Sunny is, well played.
And, FFS, Fleur (or anyone really) needs to just slam Fancy and Vinyl's faces together and make them kiss because Celestia knows they never bloody will at this rate.
~Skeeter The Lurker
They're so close, I think they just need to mention it to Luna.
Awesome as always!
Thanks for the update! Helped improve my mood after a rough day at work.
11548470
I'm with you there, and I'm not going for it mainly because it would just be to convenient.
Also, we now have the full truth on why Summers recorded everything: She wouldn't remember it otherwise. Like, at all. And it's hard to tell with how the recordings jump around, but it seems like as the end drew near, it got worse and got worse fast.
I'm scared, friends. I'm scared that we're going to find out that by the time she passed, Sauna Summers was already gone and that her death wasn't the end of the story, but was just the period at the end of the story; everything was already wrapped up and that just made it final.
I'm just going to act as if I'm wrong. I think we'd all prefer it if I was, so why not start early?
I think Fleur has a point. Vinyl has to live her own life, not try and pseudo-vicariously live Sauna Summers'.
11548470
Tempting. It'd get the chapters numbers lower for sure, but April Fools has already passed and I don't like writing joke chapters anyways.
11548548
wgbh.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/16fdced/2147483647/strip/true/crop/480x284+0+0/resize/700x414!/quality/70/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwgbh-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F62%2F5b%2F746f60a940e3bf8bc11982e92417%2Foh-yeah.%20It%27s%20all%20comin%20together.gif
11548619 11548637
Glad to be of service. I hope your week gets better, Autumn.
11548692
Out of order information is rough.
derpicdn.net/img/2018/9/26/1841738/full.gif
11548789
Slowly realizing Vinyl was getting into this territory:
images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59742c403a041155fa409ef0/1615014445263-O19JXP4WZ7WUF7IMBWN8/MLP+7.23.png?format=1000w
11548845
Yeah, she's going full conspiracy theorist with thumbtacks and string. That's, not a great sign. I get it, this IS an interesting mystery, but there's SO much raw data to sift through, most of which out of order and who KNOWS how much of it is irrelevant or worse, a red herring. Thankfully, this is what Fleur is for. To serve as an anchor to reality.
11548846
I mean, certainly there is value to finding out things like where Springstep, Sunny, etc. ended up after they all separated, where they got started, and so on, but no matter how hard you squeeze the lemon, there comes a point where you ain't getting more lemonade.
11548851
That IS the point I'm trying to get at, yes.
11548852
I think this means we're friends now. Is that how that works?
11548853
These parameters are acceptable.
11548853 11548855
Yay! My comments section has led to bonding over lore!
thumbs.gfycat.com/AgedCooperativeAmethystinepython-size_restricted.gif
11548857
What can I say? I love some good lore.
11548845
Who said it needed to be a chapter?
~Skeeter The Lurker
11548857
The cheers for Phycago!
Dragusk?
names are hard
It feels really wrong that Suede took Summer's song meant for another and rewrote it for Eclair. Though we lack any information about the how's and why's, for now my gut feeling is that he shouldn't have done it.
As someone with an archives background, I have totally gotten obsessed with pouring through tons of letters or documents in the hopes of finding one obscure little factoid or name. I totally sympathize with Vinyl here. Though, if Sauna suffered from memory issues, then why didn't she date things more regularly?
Funny thing, when I was first reading through I thought Sunny was gonna be Sauna's nickname for Celestia or something, but as it went on that theory ended up flying out the window.
And awww, baby Fancy Pants sounds so adorable!
11548866
ShadowKrusk.
11548915
media.tenor.com/ubi9dhydNIIAAAAC/starlight-glimmer-nervous.gif
11549268
I know the reasons, but I'm not sure if it will come up naturally in the fic itself. I'll keep this in mind when I do the reflection blog at the end.
11549268 11549462
I'm just guessing here, but I would surmise that Summers didn't date things regularly because that wasn't required by her system. That is to say, she wrote things down specifically to help with her short-term memory; once it was written down, it was easier to remember (this is the case with me), and even if she forgot the specifics and needed a reminder later, she had her system. She remembered approximately when stuff happened, and she knew exactly which diary to look in, or could at least narrow it down to two or three.
You're an archivist; I'm 100% certain you have a system of your own. I'm also 100% sure you actually write dates on things because you have an expectation that someone might need to reference things later, but you probably also know with a high degree of accuracy, "Oh, that piece of info is here." Unless I'm not correct; that doesn't happen often, but it has happened.
11549589
I suppose that could be it, but I find it helps to sequence things to help keep it straight for later.
11548915
Could well be the case that Suede simply thought it was the most romantic thing he had heard, and felt like it encapsulates how he felt for Eclair. No malice intended, just an artist recognising beauty.
But I'm not averse to the slightly darker idea that he simply did something wrong. Selfish. After all, good people unwittingly hurt those we love all the time. I don't get the impression Suede was a flawless man.
Some people get the wrong idea about complex characters. They think it means giving a Paragon character some colossal flaw that overshadows everything else. A heroic character who wrestles with the morality of ends and means to commit genocide in the name of saving the world. And that has it's place in some kind of fiction I suppose . But I find the more realistic, more relatable, is when good, considerate, gentle people behave out of character as we are all wont to do. A fantastic father snaps at his child instead of showings usual patiencd. A friend tells A mean spirited joke that doesn't quite land And makes things awkward for bit. Someone makes a racist or sexist assumptuon, despite typically being much better than that. An offhand remark that cuts far deeper than it should have done.
I think adds a nice layer to suede that he did something Selfish and self-serving whilst head over heals for Eclair, that wasn't totally respectful for his late wife. For no good reason. No justification. He acted selfishly. That doesn't mean didn't mourn his late wife, or that she wouldn't have forgiven him, or that he was secretly concealing a darker nature . Merely that he wasn't quite as perfect as many have thought. A mistake we often make when thinking thinking about the dead.
I'm wondering if Vinyl will cope if She finds evidence that her heroes did something... Well... Not *horrible*, but little bit shitty. Something that makes you go "Aw, jeez. That was fucked."
11550244
Perhaps Seude did use it because he thought it was wonderful, but here's the kicker.
Everyone believed he wrote it.
It isn't until Vinyl and Fleur find the crystal that anyone had an idea that Sauna worked on the song. So even Seude using the song to begin with feels wrong but that he never credited Sauna for any of it is even worse. It's straight up plagiarism and denying an artist recognition for work they had done. So I do believe that, since Sauna worked on the song meant for another while married to Seude, that Seude felt spiteful to Sauna to steal her work like that. Which, while sleazy and wrong, I actually can understand because learning your spouse was in love with another enough to write a song for them would definitely feel like a gut punch.
11550760
We don't know for certain that Sauna intended it in a romantic song, though by the time it was used by Suede, it had definitely become a romantic song. In fact I'm not 100% sure of the timeline here, the memory crystal might date from that period where she knew Suede and was working with him artistically but before they they were romantically involved, only to be rediscovered and reused by Suede later.
Plagiarism might be slightly strong a word since (unless I am misremembering considerably) Suede apparently rarely sung that song, it was more of a personal thing between him and Eclair: thats why its so special and only came out on rare occasions. If I recall correctly, Vinyl wasn't especially familiar with the song until it was played during that special evening, suggesting that if Suede did "Steal" the song, it wasn't for commercial use, or to pass anything off as his own work to music critics - which doesn't make it okay, but does reframe it somewhat.
Plus, I'm getting the distinct impression that Sauna wrote the song personally for Sunny, not for "Artistic Recognition". Both of them seemed more interested in using the song, what it meant, what it represented. I think focusing on it as the duo as artists and in terms of who should get recognition is possibly not the main point here. It wasn't written for recognition. It was written as an expression of feelings. For Saunda, it was the loss of her friend. Maybe something more. For Suede, it was something personal for his new wife - the wife for whom he threw away everything.
Everything we have so far suggests that Suede was very happily married to Sauna, (though, given Fancy's rebellious youth, it seems possible this wasn't quite the whole story) with Exclair not being jealous of Sauna at all. In fact, Fancy and Fleur seem to have embraced the other's mother as something of a family, which would be a very surprising conclusion if there was really much in the way of hostility there. But there are a few red flags here and there. Suede remarrying a woman young enough to interest his adult son is a bit sketchy. Though perhaps given Vinyl's interest in Fancy, I shouldn't read too deeply into that.
The sketchiness, as I see it, is not so much that he passed it off as his own work, but what he did with it. I'm not sure I believe it was some massive surge of spite after discovering his wife's affair. I rather suspect he simply found the words on a scrap of paper somewhere, and used them without realising their importance and personal nature. Or maybe we are about to learn they collaborated on the project. If indeed, this song wasn't intended to be romantic at first, it may well be the case that Suede was helping her find the "Perfect words" to apologise to Sunny. Especially if he felt his arrival was what jeopardised their friendship in the first place. Though that's a very shot in the dark theory at this point.
Thoughtlessness and selfishness as opposed to raw spite and fury. But I suppose we'll see soon enough.
I'm sticking with my theory that sunny is Celestia.
11551615
Maybe like in the comic where Celestia has her alter ego for surreptitiously checking in on her citizenry without all the bowing and scraping? That's an interesting idea.
Rego, look at these comments I missed! I forgot how fun it was, theorizing down here. This was a big reveal, too. That and all the wonderful Vinyl and Fleur sister time makes for an amazing chapter.
It's curious, though. I commented before on how Sauna thought others were sensational over herself. Here, we see that that applies to appearance as well. She doesn't think she's all that pretty. Everypony else seems to disagree. If nothing else, after all, she has presence.