Spin That Record, Vinyl Scratch!
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A young Vinyl Scratch was searching the attic of her house.
Actually, to say that she was searching would be inaccurate; that would imply that she had some specific focus.
Really, she was just wandering around having fun getting into all the things she was normally not allowed to get into.
Her striped blue mane was quickly becoming a dark shade of grey as a result of all the dust she was kicking up, and her white coat was smudged black with some old paint she'd knocked over.
To be fair, however, she had come into the attic looking for something in particular. The problem was, she had quickly forgotten what it was. Not that this had troubled her in the least. So long as she was in the attic anyways, she would have fun, and anyway if she saw it she would recognize it.
Thankfully, this occurred before she was able to break anything. Upon pulling a tarp off of a vaguely rectangular shape, she uncovered a curious device: a square grey box, with several dials, knobs, buttons, and a pointy thingy on the side of the top. Centred in the middle of it was some kind of round, black platform covered in grooves.
The music box. She'd found it.
Of course, she didn't know how it worked. She only had vague memories of it from when she was younger than she was at present. All she knew was that it played music.
She perused it carefully. After a few moments of this, she noticed some cables running out from one side of it. Aha, she thought in triumph; it was powered by electricity.
She took the one she recognized as a power cable and dragged it over towards the first wall socket she saw. Unfortunately, it was just a little too short, and she was forced to push the music box over towards the wall. It was surprisingly heavy, and she was required to push with all the strength her little legs could offer, but she succeeded. She plugged in the music box.
Nothing happened. The little filly was not at all dissuaded, however. She trotted over to the box and examined it. There were a couple other cables, but she ignored them as she did not recognize them and assumed they were for plugging into other kinds of power outlets. Maybe the ones in Canterlot. Everything was cooler in Canterlot, everybody knew that.
Next she looked at the buttons. They were kind of on an angle, so she got up on the platform to look at them. She hadn't quite learned how to read yet, so their specific functions remained largely a mystery to her. Still, the biggest button there was obviously the button to press, simply because it was the biggest and was therefore important.
She pressed it.
The platform under her began moving, nearly causing her to fall forwards. She squeaked in surprise, leaned back to compensate, overcompensated, and fell back on her haunches on the platform.
The platform continued to move, and she moved with it, round and round in a circle. At first she was perturbed by the spinning motion, but soon came to enjoy it. She giggled in joy as she twirled 'round, making a game of seeing how far she could lean out without falling off.
"Hello Vinyl, I came over to see you. Your mother said you'd be up here and what are you doing?"
Vinyl was so surprised that she lost her balance and was sent tumbling off of the music box. She slid to a halt on her back, and when she looked up, she found herself looking into the dark eyes of her greatest friend in Equestria.
" 'Tavi, you have got to try this," said the little unicorn with a grin.
Octavia flipped her carefully-groomed black mane over her shoulder and looked on with disdain as her friend rolled to an upright position.
"I don't really find the idea of injuring myself appealing," she said finally, once Vinyl had gotten to her hooves.
"Oh, that was only 'cause you surprised me!"
The little filly unicorn led her earth pony friend over to the music box.
"Also, that's not what I turntable is supposed to be used for," remarked Octavia.
"Is that what it's called?" Vinyl pressed the button again, and the spinning stopped. "I always thought it was just a music box."
"That's something entirely different," said Octavia, slightly miffed by her friend's indifference. "Please don't do it again, you'll break it. Or yourself."
"Lighten up, 'Tavi!" replied the little unicorn cheerfully before sitting back down and pressing the button.
Octavia watched nervously, chewing a bit of her dark hair in her anxiety. Despite her worries, however, Vinyl did not fall off. As she listened to the happy giggles, she had to admit – it did look fun.
"All right, all right!" she conceded. "I'll try it."
"Lemme just get off…" Vinyl tried to lean off gently, but was still sent tumbling into a stack of boxes.
"Of course, you couldn't have asked me to turn it off…" noted Octavia sarcastically.
"This was more fun!" replied Vinyl as she wriggled back onto her hooves. "Here, get on." She trotted over and turned off the turntable again.
Octavia nervously stepped onto the machine, half-expecting her friend to turn it on while she was midstep, just for fun. However, the turntable remained still. Finally she was able to sit back on her haunches, feeling somewhat insecure.
"All right, I'm ready!" she announced, setting her jaw and preparing for the ride.
Vinyl pressed the button. However, she managed to accidentally brush one of the other dials while she did so.
The turntable hummed to life, and began spinning faster than before. Octavia was completely unprepared, and found herself shrieking as she was whirled about.
"TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF!" she yelled. Vinyl panicked, and slammed her hoof down on the button.
The turntable suddenly stopped. However, Octavia kept moving due to inertia. She was thrown practically halfway across the room, stopping only because she hit an old wardrobe. The impact caused the ancient doors to burst open, releasing a large wad of antique clothes. The little grey filly was quickly buried under them.
" 'Tavi!" gasped Vinyl, and ran over. She dug into the pile worriedly, tossing away shirts and dresses in her haste to find her friend.
Finally she uncovered the little black-haired head. Octavia coughed, sneezed, and finally opened her eyes, looking up into Vinyl's anxious gaze.
She smiled, and began giggling uncontrollably.
Soon they were both laughing out loud, their sides bursting from the force of their laughter.
They whiled away the rest of that afternoon, and many more, in toying with the old turntable. Even when they'd figured out how to make it play music, their favourite activity was always spinning about on top of it.
Many years later, when Vinyl had her own custom turntables, she would recall this memory fondly while starting them up. Her love of music had begun on that day, and, by extension, so had Octavia's. They had gone their own separate ways in the end, but neither had ever forgotten where everything had started.
They had gotten too big to spin on the turntables anymore, but they would always have the memory.