Welcome to the show

by Sapphic

Chapters

• Bartering over Bribing
• Insurance
• Mumbles are worse than shouts
• Meeting the Maker
• Lowly times these are.
• Backlash
• Opposition
• Lock up

Bartering over Bribing

It was a quiet night among the street of Canterlot, darkness curling around every corner and bend of the desolate streets that ran through the city. Each of the streets that were lined with normally bustling businesses and cozy housing were now quiet and lifeless at such a late time of night as the residence of Canterlot were all snugly tucked into bed.

The dimmed specs of light the covered the black sea of Canterlot were its street lights, and it was quite the sight to behold if one were looking at the city at such a late hour from a building high up. But even the most enthusiastic of tourists who would wait in the longest of lines were already well in bed by now.

Well, of course there was always one exception.

The sound of a glass bottle hitting a wooden table with a loud thump echoed through the near empty bar, the mare holding it grinning ear to ear with a gleam in her eye that showed her still intact sobriety. She roughly placed the bottle with a collection of others, increasing the small cluster of bottles from two to three.

Seconds later, another bottle hit the table with a much more erratic sound and a stallion let out a gasp for air as he moved his hoof to his mouth, knocking over the still half full bottle in the process and spilling it; letting it pool around two other bottles. The stallion hopped down from the bar stool and ran off towards the bath room, the look in his eye one of nausea.

"Lightweight..." The mare chuckled under her breathe as she watched the sight with mild amusement until the sound of her name being called out interrupted her.

"Vinyl! You gonna drink with us this time or what?" Shouted a feminine voice.

"Yeah," Vinyl replied, her ears perking up at the opportunity for more drinks "be right over."

She upped from the stool and trotted soberly over to a booth set off in the corner of the bar where two other ponies sat together, each of them with drinks in hoof. A light blue stallion eyed her from behind dark sunglasses and chuckled as she went to slide into the booth, taking a seat next to a green unicorn.

"Have any fun?" He asked, gesturing towards the pile of bottles she had just left with a nod of the head. Vinyl merely sighed, looking genuinely sad before answering,

"No, he asked the barkeep for light stuff." She said, climbing into the booth and sitting down with a huff.

"Well not everyone can hold it like you can." He replied, sitting back in his own seat.

"I'm amazed you haven't had liver failure yet." The green unicorn mumbled under her breath while eyeing the drink she was tilting back and forth in a bored fashion.

"Can we just drink already Vinyl?" She asked in a whining tone, "I thought we were coming here to drink, not wait for the world to end."

"We're not waiting for the world to end Lyra," The unicorn said, her face still down in the table, "we're waiting for my landlord to show up for drinks and I don't wanna be too messed up when he gets here to talk about my missing rent."

"Well why did you accept that drinking offer from that poor guy then?" The stallion asked, pointing over to the stallion who just stumbled out of the bathroom, and also getting a stare from Vinyl.

"Shut up Neon." She said simply.

"I still don't see why we can't drink..." Lyra mumbled just before the sound of the bar's door opening up rung out, making every head in the bar turn to watch the new patron walk in. Which, in total, was about six heads.

"Finally." Vinyl mumbled, smiling at the sight of her landlord before waving them over.

The stallion caught the signal, though it would have been hard to miss with the total of six ponies sitting in the bar and the one in the bathroom. He made his way over, brown mane bobbing up and down faintly with every trot, and his simple green eyes shifting to the other two ponies at the table other than Vinyl. He was a rather bland looking individual with a dull, rust colored coat that seemed even more dull with the dim lighting of the bar.

"Hello." He said simply, arriving at the table under the discomforting stares of Neon and Lyra.

Vinyl however, perked up at the sight of him and greeted him with a smile and a nod towards the empty seat next to Neon. Despite him taking the seat awkwardly and constantly shifting his eyes to the other stallion, he seemed to be trying to relax.

Vinyl smiled forcefully, though it looked outwardly genuine to anyone but her friends, before turning towards the bar keep, whom was already watching the party, and nodding as a signal to get the liquor flowing.

"So," Vinyl said, turning back to her party and taking a quick look at all three of them,"guess were all here then." She said with an awkward chuckle before beginning introductions.

"Lyra, Neon, this is Rent Out." She said gesturing towards the stallion who, to his credit, smiled slightly and nodded to them both.

"So, uh, Vinyl. I really appreciate the offer for drinks, but I really should be at home by now. Couldn't we just do this tomorrow night?" His body language suggested that he was just extremely uncomfortable with the situation rather than being tired. Of course, he was probably just expecting Vinyl to be here rather than two others.

Vinyl had weaseled with ponies long enough to know how to go about situations such as these.

"Well, I understand." She said, sounding genuinely sad about him leaving and with enough emotion to make Neon and Lyra cut her glances and stiff up a bit. He seemed revealed at those words, but stiffened at the next ones.

"At least stick around for one drink though. Hate for you to have come out this far expecting booze then not get any." She was playing her cards smart, taking advantage of the seemingly "push over" attitude the stallion had and that she had observed in him as her land lord, and using it to force him into a drink.

All that was left now was to inform the barkeep to bring something a bit "stronger" than usual.

The time came, needless to say, and just as the nervous and anxious landlord was about to order, Vinyl interrupted him, telling the barkeep to bring something that none of the others at the table could recognize by name. She knew the drink all too well however, and grinned when the barkeep brought it back.

"Cheers." She said simply, a grin on her face while she clinked glasses with the other three before downing the liquid that burned at first taste.

She chuckled to herself as she watched the landlord's eyes go wide and his gag reflex trigger, but downed the concoction despite his bodies protests.

The booth that was previously full of quick glances and uncomfortable shifting was now a lively corner in an otherwise dead bar. Shouts and laughter came from them just as quickly as the barkeep kept bringing by new bottles to keep them sated, she didn't care; she was getting paid one way or another and with how intoxicated they were already she managed to slip in a few glasses of water and light beers instead of what they wanted.

Neon had just come to the end of a story, much to the encouragement of Lyra, and was about to begin another until Vinyl stepped in with her original intent for this hole meeting still intact. Her mind was starting to fade from the alcohol, an impressive feat considering what she was drinking was heavier than the others and they were already seemingly wasted.

"Say Rent, you remember that rent I owe ya?" She slurred lightly, getting a brief look of hard concentration from Rent before he nodded.

"Well, I don't suppose you could let me off with a warnin' this time? I'm a bit tight on money as of late." She was internally pleading that he'd be drunk enough to accept her idea.

"Hmm, well I think it's against regulation for me to just wave the entire payment on a bribe..." He said, struggling to pronounce the words 'regulation' and 'payment'.

'Damn.' Vinyl thought.

"...but, I don't think that there's anything against striking a deal. Pay is pay." His smile grew to a wicked one.

Vinyl leaned in a bit, using what was left of her sober side to try and listen carefully.

"I'm listening..."

"Well," He said, "maybe you could, you know, do something for me if you don't wanna pay so bad."

The look the table was giving him encouraged him to elaborate lest the table get angry.

"Nothing like that! Jeez, get yer mind outta the gutters..." He said quickly, his hooves coming off his beer to hold them up in an "I surrender" type fashion.

"I was talking about something like a dare. Course it'd have to be a big one to fill in for your rent, but I think your creative noggin could do it no problem. But if you mess up, can't do it or, or anything like that, then you pay me the rent with a bit extra for, you know, the whole 'Bribing me' thing." He said with a devious smile.

Vinyl slumped at the thought of still having to give some form of payment, the annoyed and flat look on her face was enough to signal that much, but she begrudgingly accepted the offer with:

"Meh, I'm goin to the bathroom."

Neon's head craned as he watched her trot out of sight before he slinked closer to the landlord, a devious idea coming to mind at an attempt to get back at the white mare for a few drinking bets he himself had lost.

"Hey buddy, you wanna get your rent and still wanna watch her squirm?" Neon asked, dipping his black glasses down to look into the landlord's green eyes with his own bold, blue ones.

"That would be great, considering all the noise complaints I have to put up with her renting from me, "His smile only widened at what he said next, "but knowing that crazy mare she'll do anything and everything to get outta payin me."

"That's cause you don't know where ta hit her." Neon said in a drunken sage tone to the landlord, who now had a raised brow.

"You see, what your about ta get into is gonna be a one way fight; because your on offense and you don't know where to hit. Vinyl's tough and not the type to go out easy, so you gotta know where to hit to even get her thinkin' about goin' down."

He paused to take a drink before continuing after a sigh.

"Vinyl has you at a disadvantage right now, but I think I'll even the odds a bit." He said, gesturing for the landlord to come closer and whispering something into his ear.

"Are you sure? That seems awfully easy..." He said in drunken distrust.

"Just trust me when I say that there's no way she'll get through it." Neon reassured him with a coolness about him as he leaned back in his seat.

Meanwhile, Lyra had watched the entire conversation in mild amusement with a mix of disdain, but ultimately decided to stay quiet for the course of it and open another drink with a smile. She now had a bit of dirt on the cocky stallion, thanks to good ear.

The sound of heavy hoofsteps coming turned Neon back to his normal personality and he greeted Vinyl with an all too peppy tone. She looked a bit confused at his greeting, as she had only left for the bathroom, but brushed it off and quickly got back to business with weaseling her way out of rent.

"Alright, so I'll take your whole 'dare' thing over the rent. What's the dare?" She was straight to the point like she always was when she had to do something less than willingly.

The landlord gave a quick, shifty, glance towards Neon before swallowing and saying the words he had been told to say.

"Spend a week," He gulped, "in the Community Theater."

Vinyl stiffed up immediately at just the words he had spoken, her eyes widening a bit as her mind took a second to process what he had said.

"H-huh?" She stammered.

Neon could only smile, and was soon joined by Rent once he saw her reaction.

"Is something wrong?" Rent asked, his brow raised and a sly smile creeping onto his face out of relief that Neon's idea was already working.

"N-Nah, um I just...uh." Vinyl was at a stand still, and was inwardly cursing to the heavens of the pony's choice of dare.

'Anything would have been better than having to sit through a week sitting through ideas for plays to reflect the sadness of today's youth or to some pathetic excuse for a musical performance that has a deeper meaning or whatever else those creeps do down there.' She thought, her situation akin to that of a rock and a hard place.

"S-So just a week of sitting through a theater? N-No problem." She said, laughing awkwardly at her own bluff.

"No no, I know that would be too easy for someone like you, so I was thinking you'd help with the theater too." The drunk landlord said with a giggle.

Both Neon and Vinyl's eyes went wide at that, Vinyl nearly fainting after the words registered.

"You sure? I-I mean she might not know what to-" Neon said, not intending for him to take it that far, but he was only interrupted by the landlord.

"Nonsense, I'm sure we all know how good she is with music. She'd fit right in!" He said happily with a drunken slur.

"I'm not too sure 'bout that..." Neon mumbled, turning his head to Vinyl with an expectant and anxious look.

Her face scrunched up in hard concentration, her mind racing over her options back and forth. On one hoof she could say no and just pay him the money she owed him, and had already gathered on a side note, or she could tough it out and not have to pay the rent and have a little bit of cash left over to spend on herself at the cost of spending an entire week at her version of Tarturus.

"Well Vinyl," Rent Out said with a devious smile, "what'll it be?"

Vinyl let out a sigh after another brief moment of thinking over her options.

"I'll do it." She said sullenly.

Both Lyra and Neon looked a bit surprised at that, Neon even going as far as to gasp. The cocky landlord leaned back and smiled a bit wider, he was getting paid either way, despite the forms of payment being different.

"Vinyl, are you sure?" Lyra asked as seriously as she could after her third.

"Yep," Vinyl said with a more sober tone than the mint green unicorn, "I'll do it."

"Great!" Rent Out said with a drunk horse's enthusiasm.

"But I hope your ready for a night of drinking, cause I plan on getting my headache from booze tonight, that way I don't have to get one from the theater tomorrow!" The white mare said with new found vigor, raising her hoof to signal the barkeep to bring another round.

"Vinyl I don't think that's how that works..." Lyra said, but she may as well had been talking to herself at that point. Vinyl had set herself to doing something, whether it be to get drunk of her flank or to go to community theater for a week, and now she was going to do it.

And soon enough, the barkeep brought the first round of many to come. The first round being a lighter assortment for the other three if they still wanted to drink, but that may as well have been a warm up for the white mare; for as soon as the others didn't want to drink anymore, she immediately told the barkeep to kick it up far more than a notch. The smell of already heavy amounts of beer coming from the corner began to turn into a stench that crept across the entire floor of the bar, becoming so obvious that eventually the barkeep began spraying some air freshener around her station and began to cover her nose whenever she went to deliver another bottle to the increasingly drunken DJ.

The hours passed on and eventually the bar-mare asked them to leave, eventually giving up on them arguing over who would pay the bill and decided to put it on a collective tab. They stumbled out, each of them laughing and giggling incessantly, before they eventually stumbled there separate ways.

"Should I take Vinyl?" Rent Out asked, his eyes struggling to stay open and is body swaying lightly to every slight gust of wind.

"No, I got thish," Lyra slurred, despite the sound of her claim, she was a little less drunk than the others.

"My housh is closher anywaysh." She continued.

The other two nodded a bit too hard and a bit too many times before stumbling away, Vinyl being mindlessly led by the hooves and voice of Lyra; She was far too drunk to protest.

Vinyl's eyes creaked open, recoiling instantly at the bright shine of the light from the window across the room. She groaned in protest and rolled over, rolling a bit too far and tumbling out of the bed and onto the floor, which only resulted in another moan of disagreement. She tried pushing herself off the ground, but found that it felt as though her joints were something equal to rubber.

She laid there for awhile longer, her eyes shut and her consciousness fading until the door behind her opened and the familiar, and for some reason louder than usual, voice rang out to her.

"You up?" The voice was from Lyra, and it sounded like she was screaming.

"Not so loud..." Vinyl replied, her own voice sounding like a shriek.

"I'm barely talking Vinyl, the shower is ready when you are." Lyra said, her voice followed by the sound of a door clicking shut.

The white mare grunted in response before rolling over, finding the carpet suddenly much more comfortable and appealing. She sat there for a few minutes, sleeping through another visit from the mint green mare undisturbed before being forcefully dragged to the shower by the same mare.

Spurred on by her uncomfortable landing position and the chilly feeling of the tile floor of Lyra's bathroom, Vinyl climbed up using the sink and shambled her way over to the shower and even managed to steady herself enough to turn the shower handle to on. The hot water of the shower definitely helped with her headache, and the heat of the water made the bottom of the shower a rival to the bed's job.

That is, until an agitated green mare told her to get out and shut off the hot water; forcing the mare to get out.

Vinyl herself was greeted by Lyra in the living room, who was armed at the mouth with a smirk.

"Have a nice shower?" She asked innocently.

"Yeah actually, the cold water helped wake me up." Vinyl responded honestly, she knew the best way to make Lyra mad was to take it in stride.

"Don't mention it," Lyra said, huffing, "your gonna need to be as awake as possible for your first day at the theater." She said, her smirk back with new found vigor and delight.

Vinyl was beat on that topic.

"Yeah..." Was her only response.

Just as a fog of silence began to roll in, the phone rang out and grabbed both of their attentions. Lyra, being closer to the phone and actually able to use her magic, answered with a very mundane tone. Her eyes lit up when she heard the voice that answered, and a smile slowly crept onto her face as they continued to talk.

"Oh! So good to see you!" She answered, getting a raised brow from Vinyl who patted her head to realize her glasses were missing.

"Uh-huh, she's here...Of course!" Lyra said, levitating the phone over to Vinyl and into her grasp,

"It's your landlord." She said, a snarky smirk on her face.

Vinyl hesitated a bit before sighing and taking the phone from Lyra's hazy green magical grasp.

"Hello?" Vinyl asked, hoping Lyra was just kidding.

"Good to hear you Vinyl! I hope that headache wasn't too bad for you this morning, I know mine was and I also know that you drank a lot more than I did." He said, overly perky.

"What do you want Rent Out?" Vinyl deadpanned, but it didn't even begin to put a dent in Rent's cheer.

"Well, I just wanted to remind you that  today is your first day of..." He took a second to savor the words, "Community theater."

Vinyl groaned.

"Anyways, I even took the liberties to see what your schedule is for your one week and it is as follows; Your first two days will be pretty bland with you just watching some of the theater's ponies preform some of their own stuff. But after that it gets real fun..." He said with joy.

"...and that 'fun' is...?" Vinyl asked.

"Oh, I'll let that be a surprise." You could practically hear the smile on his face, "and before I forget to tell you, I've also gotten into contact with one of the ponies at the theater to inform them of your week long visit, and that they should inform me if you miss a day. They will also be telling me if you don't interact, but I know how you are so I'll only want you to perform once."

Vinyl groaned again.

"Think of it as a one mare field trip." He added.

"Anything else?" Vinyl asked, trying hard not to sound agitated.

"Nothing more than have fun and that I expect you to be present at the theater when it opens - which is in about an hour." He cheered.

Vinyl hung up the phone and tossed it over to Lyra, who had been smiling the entirety of Vinyl's conversation, and continued to do so until Vinyl asked her if she was okay

"Oh, I'm fine," She said with her signature smirk, "I just can't wait to see how long it takes you to cave to the theater and pay your rent." She said cockily.

"Me too..." Vinyl replied in earnest.

A sudden rumble erupted from the white mare's stomach, gurgling with enough gusto to cause the mare to clench her stomach and smile up at Lyra sheepishly.

"Um...so do you think we could..." She began, but Lyra already knew where that was going.

"Yeah, I'm starved myself. We could stop by Bon-Bon's to get some breakfast; Celestia knows your gonna need it." She smirked.

"That sounds good, but I bet you seeing your little mare friend sounds even better doesn't it?" Vinyl smirked, catching the violent glint in Lyra's eye before rushing out the door with the mint green mare not too far behind her.

Insurance

"But why are you so mad at me for saying it? You guys are going out right?" Vinyl said with a snicker until Lyra pressed her harder into the wall.

"Yeah, we are, but that doesn't mean you gotta say it!" Lyra yelled.

"Why? Are you..." Vinyl struggled to speak through Lyra's tightening grip, "...embarrassed?" She said with her last bit of fleeting breath.

"No! I-I just...Just shut up!" She said, releasing her grip and allowing Vinyl to take in a deep breath of air.

Vinyl loved making Lyra mad, but what she loved even more was watching her fail to come up with a punishment that could actually teach her a lesson. Since Vinyl knew Lyra's weakness was taking everything in stride and teasing her, she would commonly get in trouble with her just to watch her get more flustered.

"Worth it..." Vinyl panted.

Lyra could only sigh before an idea of how to strike back popped into her head.

"Well, we should probably get going if we want breakfast," She took a second to lean down and whisper into Vinyl's ear.

"We wouldn't want you missing your first day of theater would we?"

Vinyl, for the first time in awhile, stiffened. It was ever so faint that even Lyra almost missed it, but she picked it up just in time and nearly shivered in the afterglow of watching the mare become even a little bent out of shape.

"Shut up..." Vinyl mumbled before getting up and trudging over to the elevator, Lyra practically prancing behind her.

It was nearly an awkwardly silent ride down the elevator, but Vinyl had a legitimate question for the green mare for once.

"Hey Lyra." Vinyl said, a faint sullen tone in her voice.

"Yeah?"

"You used to be into this whole theater thing right?" Vinyl had remembered Lyra's early days, before meeting Bon-Bon, where she would go down to the theater and play her lyre to the audience. Those days were now over since Lyra said that "Bon-Bon's the only audience I need." or some other disgustingly love happy phrase like that.

"Yeah, what about it?" She said, her brow raising slightly and her eyes shifting a little to the side to see Vinyl in her peripheral vision.

"Well...what all exactly do you - you know - do there?" Vinyl asked.

Vinyl figured she might as well know what she was in for since she was going to have to go for a week with no breaks. Though she usually wouldn't mind going head strong into something with no knowledge about it, she knew the type of ponies that went to the Canterlot Community Theater, and judging solely on them alone, she figured she might need a way to compensate for her inevitable boredom.

"Hmm," Lyra pondered.

"Well, a variety of things can go on, though I imagine your going to be strictly watching the performances after you get your one participation in right?" She glinted over to Vinyl to see her nod.

"Yeah, figures. Anyways, the performances can range from anything from musicals and plays-"

Vinyl groaned.

"-to interpretive dances-"

Another groan.

"-all the way down to simple classical musical pieces."

Vinyl silently gritted her teeth and tried to contain the scream that was boiling up inside her, and succeeded by simply letting out a calming sigh.

Lyra smirked, taking notice of Vinyl's struggled to keep calm, "Well I can see that your anxious to do this." She said with obvious sarcasm.

"Let's just eat already," Vinyl said just as the elevator door opened to reveal the ground floor, "I wanna have a full stomach before I get there since I'm guessing that the only snacks they're gonna give me are supposed to "symbolize" something." She huffed as she stepped out of the door and made her way across the lobby.

Lyra actually laughed at that one.

The pair of mares trotted along the sidewalk, on relatively glum and the other smirking smugly at the way the other one looked, until eventually sitting down at a small cafe on the corner of the street.

Soon enough, a stallion came over and asked for their orders.

"I'll just take a coffee please." Lyra said, putting on a small smile.

"Can I get a personal cake, two coffees, a muffin in a to-go bag, and three cookies?" Vinyl said, her head stuck behind the menu for two reasons. One, was to read off all the things she chose to get, and the other reason was to avoid the stares of both Lyra and the stallion.

"R-right away." The stallion stuttered after feverishly writing down all the requested foods.

Vinyl put down the menu slowly, her eyes peaking over to Lyra, whom was still staring at her, and then drifting over to watch the three ponies stationed behind the counter begin working a lot more harder than they were before.

She felt a smile creep over her lips.

"I hope you plan on paying for those." Lyra said, looking critically towards Vinyl who replied coolly.

"Would I really do that to you?" Vinyl's question was rhetorical.

Lyra sighed.

"Guess I should have seen this coming when I said I'd take you out to eat." She sounded less mad at Vinyl and more mad at herself for expecting to Vinyl to actually pay. The events from last night were enough proof that she was a little bit cheap.

Vinyl was quick to think of something to talk about, she was a born expert at striking up topics with her over active mind, though she tried to keep it relevant for Lyra's sake. Though, she did have a topic bubbling lightly on her consciousness ever since her mention of Lyra's relationship.

"So, how are you and Bon-Bon anyways? If it's a sensitive enough topic to get you from choking me then it must be a tender subject." Vinyl said with a somewhat concerned look on her face, which was quite the stretch for her.

Lyra immediately tensed.

"I'd...rather not talk about it."

Vinyl had known Lyra enough to see that something was wrong, it was uncommon to see her looking so vulnerable. As a result of seeing such a phenomenon, Vinyl's half-caring look turned more serious as she leaned forwards in her chair and began to pry deeper into the subject so that she could find, and fix, the problem.

"Lyra?" Vinyl had an expectant look on her face with her brow raised.

Lyra squirmed under the white mare's gaze until she finally caved.

"I...I'm nervous." She said, sounding disappointed in herself.

"Nervous?" Vinyl repeated slowly, "You're...nervous." She digested the claim slowly.

"Yeah...I-I'm nervous that she - you know - won't think I'm interesting. She's sweet to me, and real romantic too, but she's got her own bakery in the city, has her own house on the outside of town; she's got stuff to show her success. What do I got, huh?"

Lyra gestured to herself and clearly expected an answer.

"Well, you got her don't you?" Vinyl answered simply.

Lyra froze up at the simply answer, cheesy as it may be, and felt her stomach twist up a little. She digested it ever so slowly, but Vinyl could tell it was an answer that she wanted to hear.

"Yeah...I do." Her frown had slowly turned to a smile, and a big one at that.

"Thanks Vinyl." She said quietly, but loud enough so that Vinyl could hear it.

Vinyl simply smiled, but she jolted a bit at the sound of something clattering from behind the counter at the bakery. The smell coming from back there was heavenly, but the frantic look on the employee's faces evened it out.

"Maybe you should have gotten something a bit smaller." Lyra said, looking back at the counter as well.

"I did say I was gonna be stuffed." Vinyl mumbled in response.

The stallion suddenly burst through the double doors of the kitchen with his hind legs, balancing all of Vinyl and Lyra's order on various places on his body. The to-go bag was gripped in his mouth tightly, the cake on a platter balanced on his back, and the three coffees teetered along his nose stacked in a pyramid like shape. The whole thing looked like a carnival act to any bystander.

"Wow." Lyra said in amazement.

Vinyl herself was watching in a stunned silence.

He staggered his way over to the table, his body swaying sharply every time one of the coffees or the platter on his back began to get off balance, and placed down all of the order in front of the two mares. He then proceeded to smile and wished them a good day before trotting over to another table where other ponies were still a bit in shock from the performance.

"Gotta give him credit," Vinyl said, "he takes his job seriously."

"Yeah..." Lyra said at a near whisper before shaking off the event and getting back to taunting Vinyl.

"Better eat up though, don't want you being late on your first day."

Vinyl huffed.

"Can you please not keep reminding me abo-" Vinyl began before Lyra cut her off.

"Nope. I'm paying for your meal so I get to rub this in as much as I wanna."

Vinyl looked a bit pained at that, but admitted defeat since it was true, but that didn't mean she was going to listen to it. She would just block her out while she stuffed her gullet.

Vinyl staggered out of the cafe with a tight stomach and groaned at how full it felt, even going as far as to clench it with a hoof to see if it would help.

It didn't.

Lyra trotted out behind her, still sipping her coffee and giggling under her breath at the position Vinyl put herself in.

"Don't worry Vinyl, you'll have plenty of time to digest all that when you get to the theater. Hey, you'll even have some nice classical music to help out!"

"Stop," Vinyl said with a pleading tone, "your making it worse."

"Yeah, well you seriously should head over there pretty soon. The theater opens within the hour and I assume you want to fill in your end of the bargain with your landlord. He seems like the type to make sure he gets his payment." She said, making a very good assumption on Vinyl's land lord's personality.

"Well you got that spot on..." Vinyl mumbled, "care to lead the way?"

Lyra giggled.

"I guess if you need someone to send you off, I can do it." Her tone was mocking that of a mother.

"Whatever, let's just go." Vinyl said as she began to shuffle off, getting behind Lyra who took the lead with gusto.

Vinyl and Lyra both arrived at the Canterlot community theater wearing two completely different: Lyra's had not changed at all when coming into view of the theater, though she of course had seen the theater plenty of times by now and was use to it in all its glory. Vinyl however, was actually agape at the sight of the theater.

The Canterlot Community Theater was a publicly funded project that had begun quite some time ago, and at the time, it was the first theater to go up in Canterlot. Of course, thanks to the social status most ponies in Canterlot were at, the project was an immediate hit and received more than double its intended funding - which was not to be considered small by any means. But when most ponies living around get paid more than enough to own two extra homes and hold down their upkeep's, nearly anything is possible to buy.

And buy they did, pouring money into the donation fund in droves which went to hiring more builders and expanding its planned size. Some even say they had such a budget left over after they finished that they had to add even more to the theater.

As a result, the theater was far bigger than most official ones built after it.

However, convenience usually wins over glory and the theater lost most its audience, though not after a spectacular run, to the smaller official theaters that began popping up all over the city.

In the end, the theater truly became a community one in the sense that only those close in the community come to it frequently. But, thanks to its success back in the day, it has become a tradition around the high and mighty city to go to the theater to see one of its quarterly performances - the theater has four major performances a year, each one a seasonal tribute - to pay respects.

"Jeez! This place is huge!" Vinyl exclaimed, her mouth may as well have been scarping the sidewalk.

Lyra looked back barely.

"Oh, yeah it is pretty big." She sounded flat as ever.

"This is the community theater?!" Vinyl asked, making sure they hadn't taken a wrong turn somewhere.

"Yep, don't be worried by its big size though, not that many ponies come to it unless its a seasonal play."

"So how many am I looking at?" Vinyl asked, fearing for the worst.

"Maybe fifty, most of them are for the seasonal performance and are usually in a separate room practicing though, so you're probably looking at ten." She said.

"Really? Only ten?" Vinyl was surprised to hear such a low number for the huge theater.

"Yeah...theater has really gotten less and less popular as the years have gone by." Lyra sounded a bit sad, but it shifted as she looked back to Vinyl and gestured for her to go ahead.

"I'll probably come around here to meet you on your way out, might take you over to Bon's for a little treat for your first day of theater." She said, smiling a little to Vinyl in a bit of condolence.

Vinyl was taken aback by the suddenly nice gesture, but didn't hesitate to decline it and nodded.

"Well I guess I'll see you then." Vinyl said.

And that was it: Lyra turned and walked away, leaving Vinyl to face the theater. She watched the green mare walk away until she turned the corner and disappeared from view, even letting her eyes linger on the spot where she last saw her before turning around and exhaling deeply.

"Let's get this over with." She said to herself before slowly trotting towards the entry.

The ticket booth of the theater was empty, as Vinyl soon found out the hard way by standing near it and asking for somepony. She soon after gave up and tried the door, which to her relative surprise, was unlocked.

The outside of the theater was beautiful, but the inside put it to shame; fancy wooden carvings were on the arms and legs of the couches that were laid atop expensive looking red carpeting that had only grown more attractive with age. Painting fit for the princess's chambers were lining the wall and were only brought out by worn ivory color of the walls themselves. A chandelier sat above the whole lobby, massive in size, and gave light to it all.

A slim carpet, its lining's color similar to that of gold, was rolled out to where two sets of stairs, one set going up and the other down, were on the sides of a single foldout table with a mare leaning on her hoof was passed out cold.

Vinyl approached the table, her head swiveling to look at all the decorations that littered the lobby, and tried waking up the mare with her words.

"Uh, hello?" She said, receiving no answer but silence.

She decided to try again.

"Lady? You with the theater?" She, again, got only silence.

She decided to get more physical after two shots, and sent a hoof to swipe at the mare's supporting hoof which sent the mare's head quickly hurdling towards the table and hit it with a solid smack. She quickly stirred awake and rubbed at her head, groaning a little bit before her eyes shifted up towards Vinyl and she quickly stiffened.

"Oh! H-hello miss, can I help you?" She said with her biggest smile.

Apparently she didn't realize that it was Vinyl that had made her hit her head.

"I-I'm here for the..." Vinyl took a second to clam herself, "for the community theater." She said firmly.

The mare seemed surprised for a second before leaning back in her seat and staring at Vinyl with a raised brow, "Really now?" She asked with curiosity.

"Yeah, what about it?" Vinyl snapped back at the mare's tone, nearly making her tip back in her chair. She was a bit defensive in a such an odd place for herself.

"Oh! Uh-nothing. You just don't really - uh - fit in is all." She said quickly before shaking the look and reaching down under the desk and pulling out a sheet with a list of names on it.

Vinyl probably would've snapped at that remark too if it weren't so true.

"So, uh, just sign your name on the next open space on the list and then you can just head into the theater's lower level." She said, sliding the paper towards Vinyl as well as a pin to write with.

Vinyl took the paper in her mouth and began to write her name, which looked like a heathen had wrote it compared to the cursive signatures above it. She also took a lot more time than usual apparently, since the mare behind the table began to try and spark up some small talk.

"So, how long you gonna be here? Never really seen you here before, but then again I'm usually asleep." She said, almost sheepishly, but definitely nervously.

"Um, I'm here for-" Vinyl began, her speech slightly obscure through the pen in her mouth.

"One whole week!" A sudden voice chimed in, sounding far too optimistic.

Vinyl turned around to see a mare trotting eagerly over to the two.

A mare with a tamed brown mane, that was slightly styled to the point where it accented her face well, trotted along with a smile that brought the best out of her twinkling blue eyes. Her coat was moss green in color, but just the expression on her face made it the whole look she had appear far less bland than it actually was.

"Um, hi. Who are-?" Vinyl began, confused by the mare's sudden entrance, but was once more interrupted.

"I'm Tip Top," She said with a smile, "and I'm assuming you're Vinyl Scratch."

"Yeah..." Vinyl said, still a bit taken aback.

"In case you haven't figured it out already, I'm here on behalf of Rent Out to make sure you're not skipping any of your little wager; and don't worry, he filled me in on all the details." She said with a particular tone that was slightly unnerving.

"Oh...Uh, great?" Vinyl said, unsure of herself.

"Well, I won't let you two waste anymore time hanging around here when you could be in there watching some of the other ponies spectacular performances." She said spectacular with a tone that hinted towards Vinyl enough to tell her she was at about the same stance as her when it came to this place.

"Anyways," The mare behind the table continued, "We ask that you not bring any headphones or cellphones into the theater for respect's sake, lunch will be served at 1:00 and the snacks and drinks can be found to the right of the entrance and will be refilled at 3:00 and 4:30. You're welcome to leave at anytime before so, but the theater closes at 6:00." The last words she said made Vinyl's heart wretch, she was allowed to leave by the theaters policy but not by her own.

"Come on Vinyl, we don't want to miss anymore time standing around when we could be watching the interpretive dance piece they have going on inside!" Tip Top said with glee as she skipped over to the entrance.

Vinyl was following suit slowly when the table mare tapped her on the side.

"I get the feeling you don't wanna be here?" She asked, almost rhetorically.

Vinyl nodded.

"Well, keep your earphones close and their volume low. That mare seems like she's intent on watching you suffer and she somehow isn't bored out of her mind yet after watching the first piece of the day."

She put her hoof up to her chin and looked deep in thought.

"Then again none of them do...maybe I'm just not cut out for this."

'You think?' Vinyl thought to herself.

But she also smirked a little, at least she wasn't alone in her feelings about this place. Vinyl thanked her and headed into the theater, already fearing what was coming based on the music that was playing from inside. But she was prepared, her horn already lighting up and wrapping around her cell phone and earphones.

The source of music was from, just as the mare had told Vinyl before prancing off into the theater, an interpretive dance piece preformed by three ponies each dressed in a strange outfit while moving in a seemingly spastic pattern while striking a variety of odd poses.

"What the fu-" Vinyl began.

"Language please!" The mare said, her tone still sickeningly happy, popping her head over a seat a few rows up from Vinyl and waving her over.

Vinyl, despite all three of her mind, body, and soul protesting to take a seat, trotted over to the mare with the slowest pace imaginable. She took the seat two over from the mare, leaving her a one seat gap to try and get some space between her and the mare's ears so she wouldn't pick up Vinyl's music as much.

The sneaky white unicorn waited for about fifteen minutes before finally slipping in one earphone into her left ear, leaving her right ear open to the mare beside her to dilute any suspicion. After another half an hour she slipped in another one and set to work on focusing all her attention on her music.

The hours passed painfully slow in a slow, sluggish transition of classical performances and going up for snacks. The line up seemed endless, but with that many ponies with that many ideas bouncing around in this place, Vinyl wasn't that surprised. However, Vinyl was surprised to see how much weirder the performances got. Admittedly the interpretive dance in the beginning was the weirdest by far, but Vinyl's unacquainted taste's were overwhelmed by all the odd plays that followed.

Not to mention the mare beside her who constantly kept tapping her on the side to put in her two cents about every single scene of every single play.

By the time it was six Vinyl had thought she had figured a way to sleep with her eyes open, and it was up to the mare beside her to tell her it was time to leave, but once she was told she was out the door before the sentence finished. She ran into Lyra, who was sitting on a nearby bench dozing off slightly with a smile on her face, and didn't hesitate to go over.

Lyra awoke as she approached, getting up and stretching a bit before speaking up to the approaching white mare.

"So, how was your first day?" Lyra asked, her tone similar to a mother asking her child how their first day of grade school went.

"Horrible, the mare that Rent got to watch me needs to be in the asylum and the pieces need to go their as the entertainment."

Lyra laughed.

Hard.

Vinyl just glared into her as hard as she could until the mare came down from her cackle, pretending to wipe away a nonexistent tear in mockery. It wasn't common for Lyra to have the jump on Vinyl in the teasing game, so she definitely wasn't going to try and hide or suppress it.

"You done?" Vinyl asked in aggitation.

Lyra visibly thought on it.

"Yeah, for now." She snickered.

"I hope you're gonna hold up to that 'treat' thing you talked about earlier, I don't think I can eat another slice of cheese on a cracker for a while." Vinyl said, patting her stomach in sympathy.

"Yeah, it's the least I can do for you. You're lucky Bon-Bon likes you cause she spent the last few hours fixing up something special just for you." Lyra hinted before turning and walking off towards the bakery, Vinyl following close behind.

Mumbles are worse than shouts

The sound of a bell chiming signaled Lyra and Vinyl opening the front door to Bon-Bon's bakery. The smell of dozens of delicious and tantalizing pastries filled both their noses as they walked further into the empty store, each of them trying to be subtle about sniffing the air deeply. The sound of somepony working hard could be heard from behind a door that presumably led to the kitchen.

"Bon! I got Vinyl!" Lyra shouted, trotting over towards an empty booth near the corner.

"Just a second!" A voice replied from behind the door.

Vinyl took a curious look around the store, which was surprisingly empty.

"Hey Lyra, where is everyone? Isn't this a pretty popular bakery?"

"Yeah, it is, but Bon decided to close a bit early. You know, to make sure you're not around any of her frequent customers. You know, doesn't want you scaring 'em off with your inevitable rant about the theater." She said with a sly smile.

"Not true!" A voice, that was presumably Bon Bon, called out in protest.

Vinyl slumped over at just the mention of the theater, her forehead hitting the table with a solid thump that she ignored.

"It was so bad though! The mare beside me would not shut up! Constantly asking me 'what I thought about this piece' or 'if I thought it had a hidden meaning' or whatever." Vinyl said with a fairly good imitation of the mare's voice.

Lyra snickered, recalling her own days of being asked the same questions.

"Well," the voice called out before the front of a pastry cart pushed open the kitchen door, "maybe this will cheer you up." Bon Bon said.

She pushed the cart over to the booth and placed a large platter in the center of the table with a loving smile and lifted up the top with a stylish flair to reveal the most appetizing cake Vinyl had ever seen.

"Enjoy; Lyra told me abut your little situation with your landlord and how you have to go to theater for a week, and me and Lyra both know how you feel about doing anything that the upper crust enjoys." She said with a sympathetic look on her face.

Bon Bon was a sweet mare, in both senses; she owned a bakery and was probably the sweetest thing in there. She cared for anyone who was willing to get close enough to her to be her friend with a passion that would be called odd by many, but not that many ponies would protest against such a passion for acceptance.

Vinyl was too busy ogling the cake in front of her to thank Bon Bon properly, until a sharp jab from the green mare beside her gave her enough of a reminder.

"Oh, uh, thanks a bunch Bon." Vinyl said quickly before returning to the cake.

Bon Bon dismissed the praise with a rather girly giggle and quickly got to cutting the cake into fitful slices for each pony; Vinyl with the largest, Lyra with a fair sized one, and Bon Bon with a small slice. Lyra questioned her marefriend on her choice of getting the smallest slice, but Bon Bon shook her head and whispered something into Lyra's ear.

Something that made her blush wildly.

Vinyl watched on with both curiosity and amusement, slowing her chew to a pace where it looked like she was curious to the mischievous couple. Lyra's blush deepened, but Bon Bon just smiled and encouraged Vinyl to simply finish her pie.

Whatever it was that Bon Bon had said must have been quite something, as it kept Lyra's cheeks red and her voice shaky every time she put in her two cents to the topic at hoof. Which, for the record, was extremely spaced out thanks to the minutes that passed with the constant, silent exchange of glances between the two; Lyra fidgeting in place and Bon Bon with a pair of half lidded eyes.

"So..." Vinyl said, at the end of her wits with the constant shifting of glances between the two, "you two are going steady now right?"

"Well- uh." Lyra stammered.

"Yep!" Bon Bon finished, and with confidence at that.

"Well that's good to hear." Vinyl said pushing her cake away from her at the sound of Bon's confidence. It seemed that how nervous Lyra was didn't matter at this point; Bon Bon seemed to be the dominant of this relationship, and honestly that might've be for the best.

"I think I'll leave now, gotta be sure to get a goodnight's sleep for tomorrow." Vinyl said with a bit of disappointment.

Lyra's eyes went wide with a bit of fear, for some reason, at the mention of the white mare leaving.

"Uh, are you sure? We could stay up all night so you could sleep during theater!" She sounded strangely desperate for Vinyl to stay.

Vinyl shook her head with a bit of disappointment.

"Nah, I would try depriving myself of sleep so I could just sleep when I got there, but there are two many risks. You know, me sleeping in and missing the 'curfew', falling asleep in the theater and having that mare catch me and telling Rent. Normally I'd be down for an all-nighter, but just not tonight." Vinyl sighed.

"Ah...o-okay." Lyra said at a near whisper.

"Don't worry Lyra, we can finish off the cake." She sounded happy, but that wasn't the weird part.

The weird part was Lyra's face when she said it: it was doe eyed and she had enough red in her cheeks to make the rest of her body look slightly more pale than usual.

"And I'll take that as my cue to leave." Vinyl said with a knowing smile, her head the only thing sticking inside the door before shutting it all the way and taking her leave.

The room went silent with Vinyl's leave, Bon Bon's cheerful and happy eyes shifting to bedroom eyes and her smile turning to a sly one as she turned to face an absolutely terrified looking Lyra.

"So- uh," Lyra stammered before her eyes found the cake, "wanna f-finish the cake?" She asked, stuttering horribly.

"I'd love to!" Bon Bon said with renewed innocence.

"But I'd like to finish it upstairs...in the bedroom." She said, leaning in and whispering the rest of her sentence into Lyra's ear with a husky sound in her voice.

Lyra might as well have fainted at that point.

Vinyl made it home just as the final glimpse of sunlight disappeared over the horizon, a tired smile gracing her face as she thought of the awkward situation Lyra must have been in by now. Just judging by how Bon Bon kept looking at the mare gave her some pretty good, and creative, ideas.

"Bon Bon may look sweet, but I bet she's gotta sour side too; and I think Lyra just might be finding that right about now." The white unicorn snickered to herself.

"Well well well, look who finally came back home." A familiar, and for Vinyl, sick voice said with glee.

Vinyl turned around to see Rent Out sitting behind the lobby desk with the smuggest smile imaginable for a land lord. Which, for the record, could be pretty smug.

"What do you want Rent?" Vinyl spat with an abnormally venomous tone, but she was pretty sure they could both see how her tone was justified.

"Hey now, calm down, I'm not here to send you back there - though you will be going back tomorrow - but that's not the point." He began.

"But I did come to ask you how it went; you know, see how you liked it and all that, but judging by how you're talking to me I could make my own guesses. So I'll just ask you my other question: How'd you like my choice?" He smiled.

"Your choice?" Vinyl replied, confused at his meaning.

"You know, the mare I picked to supervise you." He elaborated.

"She's an annoying, overly optimistic, happy-go-get-em' lunatic. Now if that's all, I'll be on my way. You know, gotta get my rest for my day of theater." She nearly yelled, her tone getting only more and more dangerous until Rent's face was becoming genuinely concerned.

He intended for this whole little bet to get under her skin, but he didn't want it to start getting him on her bad side. He had seen how bad she had made other ponies lives for getting at her wrong, and he wanted no part of it.

However, he kept the truth about him and Neon's little exchange of words a secret.

"Alright," He sighed, "just get a good nights rest." He said with genuine sympathy.

Vinyl, however, must have mistaken it for a mocking tone as she huffed and stormed over to the elevator, slammed the button and waited with anger. Rent Out never thought that standing still could look so scary until her saw Vinyl do it, and he let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding the second the elevator doors closed behind her.

"Jeez..." He sighed before taking a moment to think.

"...maybe I shouldn't have listened to Neon." He finally said.

Upstairs in her room Vinyl collapsed onto her bed and tossing her shades off to the side before letting out a huff blew up tufts of her two toned mane, watching as the floated back down to slightly cover up her now exposed eyes. Her glasses had become more of a second eyelid in a way, she was used to seeing the world in purple and only took off her glasses when going to bed or taking a shower, and sometimes not even then.

"Stupid Rent Out..." She mumbled, getting back up and teetering over to the bathroom.

Her knees nearly buckled when she bent down to get a towel out from under the sink, and she barely had the strength to turn the knob of the shower. The theater and Lyra had done a number on her today.

'And I still have a whole week to go too..." She thought before letting out a sound that vaguely resembled a whimper.

She slide down onto the cold tile floor while she waited for the shower to heat, her hind legs folding up and her head nearly falling down to the floor as well. Luckily her neck kicked in at the last second and managed to save her from the fall.

She was fading on the edge of consciousness as she waited for the water to warm, and the only thing that told her the water was ready was a random, rouge drop that strayed onto her face.

The water didn't help her fatigue, in fact it only encouraged it, and so her shower was a long and lacking one. Her mane hardly got cleaned at all, and that was even by her standards.

As soon as she got out of the shower, and gave herself a very sloppy toweling down, she slipped out of the bathroom door and went right to her bed, not even bothering to pull up the covers as she plopped down. Her last thoughts were about the theater, and how she hated it, and also how she had to go back, but what truly haunted her was the sick sound of that mare's voice.

So disgustingly happy.

Vinyl's eyes creaked open one by one to the sound of a hoof knocking on wood, rather energetically at that. She turned and tried to cover her ears up with her pillow, but the knocking kept on until it drove her to the point where she actually got up, stumbled out of her room and to trudge over to the door. She only bothered to reach a few feet from the door before collapsing and letting the door hold her up.

"Who's there?" She said, the sleepiness easily heard in her voice.

"Who else would it be? Or do you have someone else that takes you to theater?" Lyra's voice snapped back, but she didn't sound angry at all for once.

'Wait, does she sound...happy?' Vinyl thought, her eyes widening enough to be considered half lidded as she reached a hoof up to fumble with the lock on the door.

She eventually got it and pushed away from the door and stumbled over to the couch where she collapsed just as Lyra let herself in with an oddly peppy aura about her. She didn't even pester Vinyl when she tried to go back to sleep on the couch, which she couldn't anyway, and instead just sat beside her on the opposite side of the couch.

Vinyl, tired of being silently watched by the mare, eventually decided to ask about her oddly cheerful mood.

"What's not to be happy about?" She responded.

Vinyl immediately cracked open one eye and stared hard at the mare and, despite her eyesight being slightly blurred, and saw a spark in Lyra's eye that gave her one pretty solid answer.

"You got laid didn't you?" Vinyl asked nonchalantly.

Lyra however, went from happy without a care in the world to nervous and panicky.

"W-wha? N-no! what makes you say that..." She said, the blush forming giving the white mare enough of hint to know that was nothing more than a lie.

"Yeah whatever," Vinyl said as she leaned up from the couch, with a small smile growing at the green mare's defensiveness, and trudged off to the bedroom to get her sunglasses.

"I can tell when you're lying, and also when you got laid apparently." Vinyl said with a snicker.

You bring me any breakfast?" Vinyl said, putting the intervention to a quick and painless end.

"Y-yeah, Bon made you a little something." She said, her voice being muffled as she searched through her saddle bag to pull out a small to-go box with "Bon-Bon's Bakery" printed on the front.

"Man she's nice, you're lucky you caught such a good mare." Vinyl said.

"Yeah, wish the rest of Canterlot could see that..." Lyra said with a bit of sadness as she remembered the current position on Mare on Mare relationships.

"Man who cares?!" Vinyl said a bit louder than necessary, "I don't care who you are, if you're that nice you deserve someone good."  She said, walking from out of her bedroom and into the bathroom where she picked up a wash cloth and began running under the water.

"Heh, well at least you seem to get it." Lyra said thankfully.

"Meh, everyone's just too stuck up with their little traditions and looks to realize where all the happiness is at." Vinyl replied, patting her mane down and shaking it dry before coming out to meet Lyra with her hunger on her mind as she eyed the to-go box.

"So what's she got for me; I'm starved." Vinyl said anxiously, but Lyra had other plans.

"You can eat on the way, you've got about ten minutes til you're considered officially 'late' so we might wanna get moving." She said, heading towards the door.

Vinyl simply sighed as she walked behind her.

Bon Bon had made a small stack of pancakes, one of Vinyl's acclaimed favorites, but really anything from Bon's bakery was her 'favorite.' It proved a bit difficult to both open and pour the syrup from the small packets provided and then eat them all while walking through the increasingly large crowds of ponies on their ways to work.

A sudden thought popped into Vinyl's mind.

"Hey, Lyra, why are we going so early to day when I went later yesterday?"

"Simple," She began, her cheeriness having returned to her voice, "the theater's hours differ from day to day thanks to numerous reasons. Some days are shorter than normal, others longer; so the theater is sometimes open from around lunch to six."

She hesitated before she continued.

"And others are open all day...like today." She cringed, and rightfully so.

Vinyl nearly chocked on her last bite as the words came from Lyra's mouth, the syrup not going out so well and hanging on her bottom lip.

"So I'm gonna be there...how long?" She said with hesitance as she licked the dollop of syrup from her lip.

"From now - about 10:30 - until about 7 at night." Lyra said, bracing as she finished the sentence.

But it never came, Vinyl surprisingly just sighed sadly and continued walking towards the theater which was now nearing only a block away. Lyra hesitated and pondered on it for a second before she herself trotted to catch up, her mind drawing a blank on why Vinyl wouldn't pop at the news.

"Meh, it's just now worth it anymore..." She sighed.

"Poor gal..." Lyra said, knowing it took a lot to make Vinyl stop complaining about things because they just 'weren't worth it.'

The rest of the walk went by in a haze of sympathy and sorrow, Vinyl trotting on with her ears down and Lyra with a concerned look on her face. The green mare was also internally debating on whether or not to tell Vinyl about the whole reason she was doing this was because of Neon's influence, but eventually decided to wait til Vinyl was in a better mood; better to be a buzz-kill than one to add insult to injury.

'What do I know? Maybe it won't even be that much of a buzz-kill to her...' She thought hopefully as she noticed the theater coming into view.

'Shame there's no way she's getting out of this whole theater thing though...'

"Alright," Vinyl spoke up, shaking Lyra from her train of thought, "you coming later too or you gonna be busy." The way Vinyl said 'busy' made Lyra think it had some other meaning behind it, but she shook it off nonetheless.

"Yeah, I'll meet you at about 7. See you then." She said, saying her final goodbye before turning and walking away, trying her hardest not to look back.

Meanwhile, Vinyl gave herself some metal preparation.

"Come on. Day 2. This isn't that bad, and I'm already a day in!" She said, her hopes raising a little.

The desk mare was sitting in the same spot as yesterday, though this time instead of being asleep she had her head propped up on her hoof with a bored look on her face. In her other hoof was the pen used to sign in and, judging by the odd motions her hoof was scrawling in, she was doodling on the paper.

She perked up once the white mare came into view, feverishly trying to scribble over the drawing but ultimately failing and giving up.

"Didn't really expect to see you here again." Se said, sounding confused at Vinyl's presence while at the same time offering the pen to her.

"Well I'm not exactly here by choice." Vinyl said with a chuckle, taking the pen and turning the sheet around to jot down her name on the next open slot. She took a glance at the other signatures, counting them up to see how many others were here today.

There were particularly few; about eighteen to be exact.

Though Vinyl didn't choose to, she also took a quick glance at the mare's doodle - a small cartoon version of herself fighting off what looked like a dragon - and smirked.

"Cool drawing." She said, the honesty in her tone being picked up by the mare ad bringing a smile to the previously barren face.

"Thanks..." She said, blushing a bit at the praise.

"Oh, Miss Vinyl! Glad to see you here today!" The shrill and bubbly voice of Tip Top piercing ears of both mares, and consequentially making them both cringe in sync.

Vinyl turned to see the mare trotting over from a side hall to greet the two, and quickly turned back to the desk mare.

"Hey," She began, leaning in close and speaking a something barely above a whisper, "she's my problem so I'll go ahead into the theater; at least she isn't loud in there." She said with a quick smile to the mare, who responded with a friendly nod, before heading into the main theater.

"Oh! Eager for the first performance! Me too!" Tip Top said, quickly following Vinyl.

She turned the corner just in time to see Vinyl take her seat and put on one of her creepy smiles before totting over and taking a seat in the chair besides her.

"I'm surprised at you personally Vinyl, I wasn't expecting you to show up today considering how you were hardly awake last time. I'm impressed." She said in a mocking earnest.

"I aim to please..." Vinyl huffed.

"Well, let's make the best of these next few days shall we? Better to have a good time than a bad one right?" She asked, Vinyl only half listening at this point.

Vinyl could only sigh, her attention turning to the stage to catch a lone stallion in mid-stride heading towards the microphone with a piece of paper in hoof. She was in for a treat this time now that she knew the mare beside her was a bit more keen on her antics.

As usual, most of the little performances that the ponies at the theater put on were abstract and a bit too complicated for someone as simple as Vinyl, who eventually just stuck in her earphones at about an hour and a half in. The only reason she hadn't done it soon being because of the mare beside her, but she eventually stopped being so interested in Vinyl and got more into the performances.

The others performances went by a bit more enjoyably - relatively speaking of course - thanks to Vinyl getting some entertainment out of matching some of the performances up to some of her own music instead of their own. She was able to easily to get her music loud enough to block out the theater's, but also keeping it quiet enough to not alert the mare beside her.

Until one certain performer came on stage.

It was a grey mare with a large case strapped over her back, Vinyl at first thought it was a guitar case but soon dashed the idea when she inspected the shape more closely.

Out of the case the mare popped out a cello, or something like that, and set it up. She propped herself up against it, while also having it propped up against herself; it must have required some amount of balance and skill to be able to do something like that. Vinyl also took notice that the mare was an earth pony, quiet the oddity from someone who plays a stringed instrument.

She took grace in lining up the bow to the strings, calming herself and taking a few deep breaths before lowering her head and closing her eyes.

Vinyl smirked as she lined up a perfect track for someone on a stringed instrument and prepared to sicker.

But as soon as the mare pulled the bow across the strings - Vinyl also pressing play on her track - something went wrong.

She could still hear the strings.

They were somehow managing to cut through the earphones and their music and still reach Vinyl's eardrums. Surprise was what hit Vinyl first, but after a few minutes of continued, mashed up, playing; that emotion soon turned into agitation. Not to mention the select genre - classical - was Vinyl's least favorite.

"Stupid classical music, can't even hear my own music through that old, out dated, slop. About time that genre got dropped from music and got put into a section in a museum." Vinyl began to rant silently in her seat, her intended target being herself, but it seemed like another was hearing it too.

Tip Top heard the silent mumbles and looked over to Vinyl. She was used to Vinyl being silent and just trying to sleep through every performance, and she also enjoyed seeing her try and hide her ear phones from her, but actually seeing her complain gave her a devious idea.

The piece soon ended and the grey mare dropped down, packed up her cello, and trotted off stage to the applause of the few ponies in the audience and behind stage. Literally every pony, except Vinyl, had given her cheer.

With the grey mare's leave,  Tip Top got up from beside Vinyl and scooted past her with a growing smile. Vinyl gave her an odd look at first, but eventually just shrugged as she watched the smiling mare trot down the isle of the theater and towards a door on the far side of the stage.

"Wonder where she's off too..." Vinyl mumbled, wondering briefly on some possibilities of where, but eventually just smiling as she could now listen to her music with more comfort now that she was gone.

"Whatever," She said with a smile, "the longer she's gone the better." She finished before raising the volume of her earphones and taking a quick look at the clock on the theater wall.

"I only got three more hours anyways..."

Meeting the Maker

Tip Top silently shut the backstage door behind her, taking great care to not disturb any of the mares and stallions who were in their creative thinking process. As soon as she heard the click of the door, she let go and began feverishly trotting to the back rooms in her search. Rent Out told her if that there was anything else she could do to make Vinyl feel like quitting, then she should not hesitate to do it. Of course, he did sound a bit drunk when he told her this, but she just nudged that fact to the side.

She slowed to a trot when she came to the dressing rooms, taking her time to poke her head into every door to see who was inside. She got a few odd looks from some of the actors and musicians, but she simply dismissed them with her smile and said she was looking for someone.

Eventually, after searching through multiple empty and occupied rooms, she found the room she had been wanting to find. She opened the door and walked in without hesitation, smiling as she saw the pony she had been looking for before she spoke up.

"Excuse me, do you think we could have a little talk? I've got some things you might be interested in hearing." She said, her tone dripping with malicious intent that was masked by cheerfulness.

A grey mare looked up from a desk with a bunch of papers that were strewn about on a table, each one with various marks and scribbled out mistakes that were organized in the pattern of a lengthy song. She quickly stacked them together and tucked them off to the side before turning around to face Tip Top with her full attention.

"May I help you?" The grey mare asked, quite confused at the random mare's appearance.

Tip chuckled a bit and spotted a chair in the corner of the room, grabbed it, and sat directly across from the grey mare while eyeing her outward appearance.

'She's perfect. I'm sure Miss Vinyl out there would love to get to know the mare who's music makes her speak out. Every other performance she has been quiet about, but not this mare's playing.' Tip Top thought to herself.

"I absolutely loved your piece earlier, you seem to be quite skilled with that cello of yours and the fact you play it with no magical assistance makes your skill even more praiseworthy." Tip Top opened, flowing smoothly into her next opener.

She took note of the mare's smile when the compliment came.

"Though it seems not everyone thinks that. There's a particular mare in the audience who thought it horrible and even went as far as to voice her opinion in, dare I say, mumbles." She said with far too much drama in her actions.

The mare's smile faded and was replaced with a stern look.

"Oh?" She questioned.

"It's true, it's true. I think it cowardly to not speak your mind, but even more cowardly to not voice it loud enough for all to hear." She paused before getting down to business.

"Which is why I came here, to offer you a little deal."  She said, letting a small amount of her true intent seep into her voice.

The grey mare looked hesitant for a second, most likely determining whether or not to let this disagreement turn into something more.

"Well," The grey mare began, "I certainly can't let an insult of my passion go by without me taking some offence to it, now can I?" She said with a smile.

Tip Top's smile had grown far bigger than hers though.

Lyra sat in a booth back in the bakery, staring blankly at her hooves that were gasped around a cup of coffee that she had had been holding for the last hour in a half. She was thinking about her talk with Vinyl and about what she said; sure she didn't have to care if the elite disapproved of her actions with Bon, but that didn't mean it wouldn't hurt Bon's business if the relationship went public.

'I just don't think it'd be fair to make her pick between me and success, I mean even if she did pick me we might break up later,' She shivered at just the thought of leaving the mare.

'but success can be a once in a life time opportunity, there's plenty of fish in the se-' Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of glass hitting her table.

It was Bon Bon.

"I don't think warming you up is gonna make a difference of whether or not you drink your coffee. That, and your cup is still full so I couldn't anyways." She said with a cute smirk, but when Lyra didn't react the smile wiped off her face and she took a seat at the booth.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

As curt as the question was, Lyra stumbled for a while to find a response; and at that point Bon knew whatever it was that came out of the green mare's mouth was going to be a cover up  for the real reason.

Lyra sighed in defeat, but still had to work up the nerve to say the truth. She felt embarrassed to ask, and she still had similar feelings about making Bon pick.

"Bon?" She finally asked.

"Hm?"

"Would you pick love, or success?" Lyra asked, her voice fairly quiet for her normal tone. She nearly shut her eyes for the answer, but it came far to quick for her to even react to.

"Easy, love." She said with small giggle, as if the question had been rhetorical.

"R-really?" Lyra stammered in shock, "but there's so many others to-"

"You said love, not a lover. I'd rather have a love filled relationship, regardless of who it's with, than just some silly old date." She said, the look on her face hinting that she knew the true purpose behind Lyra's questions, and the smile suggesting that she was confident with her choice; though it wasn't exactly very 'covered up' to begin with.

Lyra was in awe for a minute, her head still processing the information, but she came around eventually and smiled widely before leaning in confidently and giving Bon a kiss on the cheek.

Bon blushed, a first in the relationship, and returned the kiss quickly before getting out of the booth.

"I'd love to stay and chat with you a little more, but business calls." She sounded sad.

Lyra looked down at the claim, knowing how true the statement was, but she brightened up not to long after and a spark flew from her horn while a green tinge wrapped around the coffee pot.

"Why not make it a team effort?" She said, inwardly shocked at her own actions, but outwardly she seemed confident and determined. Even Bon was stammering for a second, though only a second, before nodding eagerly and setting to work with her new partner; a partner in more ways than one.

A blue mane bobbed up and down in an unexplained pattern, the movements seeming to follow no select rhythm all while following exactly that. It was hard to explain for most who saw it and watched long enough, though most would just think that the mare had a neck problem.

She had a smile on her face and her eyes shut gently with both of her ear buds in, the music just loud enough to be picked up if you sat in the seat next to her and listened closely. She didn't have a care in the world by now: there was only about an hour left in her theater trip today and she had managed to send Tip Top somewhere where she wasn't being annoying plus drown out most of the performances thanks to her being so into her music.

Though, it seemed like it was about to come to an end.

A tap on her shoulder got Vinyl's attention, though the only effort she put into it was cracking an eye open and peering to the side to see Tip Top staring eagerly at her with a smile a mile wide.

Vinyl sighed, taking out her ear buds and letting the mare get inside the row to get to her seat beside her. She waited for Tip to say something, but she was surprisingly silent for the first few minutes; something that threw Vinyl off track and got her on guard.

'She's up to something, I can see it through those ruthless eyes...' Vinyl thought, eyeing the deceivingly cheerful look that Tip Top was putting off.

She decided to just play along with it for now though, she'd just have to deal with the problem when it got there like she did most other problems, but that didn't mean she couldn't ponder about what it could be.

Vinyl's mind could wander, which was both a blessing and a curse to her at times. The upside to such an "active mind" as her friends called it was that she could entertain herself with literally nothing but her imagination for quite the amount of time, the bad side of that was that it usually led to her going a bit too far with some thoughts and got her assuming the worst.

She tried to snap out of it and keep it realistic, like Tip Top having scheduled one more performance than usual just to milk the torture. But of course she got a bit out of hoof and once even thought she was planning to lock the doors, break her earphones, and force her to listen to modern poetry all night, which in Vinyl's eyes was the worst possible situation.

'Thirty minutes, not that much longer left, even the performers are looking a bit tired now.' All she needed was to hold out a little while longer. Tip still hadn't made her move, a fact that frightened Vinyl a bit and left her eyes flicking over to her every now and then, but she remained outwardly calm.

'Ten. She's running out of time.' Vinyl thought, a smirk forming, 'She could be waiting for me though; yeah, that seems like what she would do.' The smile began to fade.

Five minutes were now ticking away as the last performers finished up ad Vinyl began to move.

"Oh Vinyl, do you have a minute?" Tip Top spoke in a sing song tone.

'You son of a-'

"What?" Vinyl thought, interrupting her own thoughts before they got out of a hoof.

"I talked to new friend of mine and may have brought up how you're new to the theater. Well, she was ecstatic about a new theater goer and wanted to talk to you personally after the last performance finishes up!" She sang.

'Liar.'

"Oh really?" Vinyl asked, giving off the impression of interest.

"Oh yes, and I'm sure you'll love her! She has a love for music like you, you know: being practically absorbed in it at all times." She went on, glossing over the sour sounding comment with unsettling ease.

"I'm pretty sure you're wrong..." Vinyl said, but she might as well have been talking to a wall, as the mare simply kept talking without a break in her flow.

"Oh I just know you'll like her," She leaned in and her voice dropped down to a whisper, "and I know that Rent Out would like to know you're making friends instead of listening to music all day..." She said, sickeningly sweet with her tone.

'And, checkmate. Damn.' Vinyl thought, sighing outwardly as she had to agree to the mare's offer or risk losing the bargain with Rent. She took a deep break back in before answering in her most authentically excited tone she could manage.

"Fine." It apparently didn't come out as 'authentically excited' as she had hoped, but she was sure Tip didn't care and would have gone on whether she had sounded excited or not.

"She's in the back - room 18 - waiting for you. Don't have too much fun now!" She said, pushing Vinyl towards the door, but a thought struck Vinyl just as she reached the handle.

'Wait! I've got someone coming to pick me up!" Vinyl thought, remembering Lyra.

"Well I'm sure she won't mind you conquering your fear of walking home by yourself in the dark. Now, you've got a very special pony to meet." She said, her legs not missing a beat in pushing Vinyl.

"What?! No, she takes me to eat-" Vinyl had already been pushed into the door and had it slammed in her face just as she was about to finish her excuse."

"Dinner..." She said, her protest dying down as she turned to stare down the hall at the many rooms, most of them closed with cracks of light shining out from the bottom of the door.

"I guess Lyra's gonna have to wait..." Vinyl mumbled, sighing as she started her walk down the hall while looking at the door numbers, trying to find room 18.

Despite the walk being nothing serious, it was still somewhat nerve racking thanks to the slightly 'spooky' feeling the dark hall gave off. Vinyl felt like she was being watched at all moments, and even took a few nervous glances behind her every few seconds as she delved deeper and deeper into the backstage rooms.

"Room 15," Vinyl read with squinted eyes as she managed to make out the room number in the darkness, "not too much farther." She said, twisting her neck and getting a satisfying crack out of it.

'I really hope this doesn't take long, I was hoping to get back with Lyra to have today's leftovers at Bon's. What's this mare even want with me anyways? Some snoot with some poetic ideas or something that Tip probably overheard and thought that I would just love to hear them..." Vinyl mumbled sourly, trotting slowly past room number 16.

"I still don't know why I even agreed to this bet in the first place, I probably could have just asked for a different bet or smooth talked to him into it if I needed to. How'd he even know to pick something like community theater? Does he go here regularly or something?" She asked herself, approaching room 18, getting more ticked off with every passing second she thought on her situation.

"Well, here we are." She spoke, agitated as she looked at the room number and then the door, "Better get this over with..." She lifted her hoof and knocked three times.

"Come in!" A voice replied.

Vinyl pushed open the door and walked in, her eyes landing on a grey mare with a jet black mane and a pair of piercing purple eyes. A pick bow tie sat proudly on her neck, giving her appearance an even further more aura of high class; though the look was subtle over all.

'You...' Vinyl thought, seething inwardly at just the sight of the mare.

Lyra yawned a little as she came up to the outside of the theater, rubbing her eyes at the tired feeling that had snuck up on her about halfway on her trip towards the theater. The bakery had been busy ever since she started working, and she could only shiver at the thought of working the full day like Bon.

'Though I wouldn't mind working with Bon everyday....' She thought, thinking of what it would be like spending the entire day with Bon Bon in the bakery, just being close to her.

Her vision was interrupted by the sight of a mare leaving the theater, matching the details of the one that Vinyl had described as being "evil" with a big smile on her face. Lyra, seeing no immediate harm in the seemingly innocent mare, decided to approach her and see if Vinyl's ramblings checked out.

"Hello!" Lyra greeted cheerfully, waving her hoof as she approached the mare. She seemed just as confused by Lyra's late appearance, but it seemed like something went off in her head and she approached Lyra with an equally happy wave.

"So you must be Lyra? Vinyl's friend?" She asked, getting within comfortable speaking distance.

"Yep, that'd be me. Where is she by the way, we gotta get back for her din-" Lyra began, only to be rather rudely cut off by an enthusiastic reply.

"She's meeting with one of the performers that she had a particular interest in. I was honestly surprised when she said she wanted to meet her, but she said that she just had to meet a mare who loved music so much."  Her face kept its smile as she spoke.

Lyra immediately picked up on the lie, despite how well she told it. In fact, if Lyra hadn't actually half listened to Vinyl's rambles last night, she could have honestly believed the mare; but Lyra knew it was a lie, so she simply went along with it. After all, the best way to fight a lie is with another lie.

"Really, I didn't know she would get into theater so quickly. Though she was saying how she liked the music last night, but she was kind of embarrassed to show it in front of you; said that you be very 'I told you so' about it." The green unicorn lied with practiced ease.

"Well, she's inside, but like I said, she's talking to one of those musicians so it might be awhile." The mare said, smiling as she trotted past her.

"Feel free to wait inside." She said as a parting word before leaving Lyra to herself.

Lyra made sure to wait until the mare was out of earshot before speaking to herself.

"Jeez, I hate to say it but Vinyl may have been right about that mare. I mean really, just go ahead and lie to me in our first conversation. Talk about first impressions." Lyra sighed before turning and walking towards the theater, ready to wait until Vinyl came out, or magically pry her from another mare if worst comes to worst.

"Care to take a seat?" The grey mare asked, her smile nervous as she gestured to another seat across from her that was meant for Vinyl. Vinyl had a bored expression on her face as she moved over and took a seat, she tried to keep her hate towards the mare suppressed by looking at her with a blank expression while taking in her rather annoyed looking one without care. It nearly made Vinyl snicker, her snooty looking face, but she was too worn to even laugh at the serious looking mare.

Vinyl settled in with a sigh, much to the distaste of the mare.

"So the mare from earlier said you had something to say about my music." She huffed, her demeanor similar to that of a mother just before scolding a child.

Vinyl's lips curled ever so slightly at the mention of the statement.

'Tip Top...' Vinyl inwardly whispered before sighing outwardly. She was given a perfect opportunity to express her feelings about the music, which was probably what Tip Top had wanted her to do so she could get a kick out of it.

"I guess so." Vinyl said simply.

"Well let's hear it then." She snapped.

Something about her attitude told Vinyl that Tip Top had given her a little bit of a spoiler as to what Vinyl was going to say. Vinyl could only sigh, fidgeting in her seat until she found the most comfortable spot in the chair, and adjusted her sunglasses so that they were say firmly in place.

"I don't like it." Vinyl said simply.

"A bit more if you could, like what part of it you didn't like." The mare said with little amusment.

"Any of it. It sounded like you were just sitting up there scratching a chalkboard." Vinyl said again, her voice still monotone. The mare's reaction was a bit more active; her eye twitching and her left shoulder as well.

Vinyl smiled a little at that.

"Really? Well, since have no real argument against my music, your comment doesn't bother me too much. Somepony's just don't get music." She said smugly.

Vinyl felt a single chain that was holding her anger break a little.

"Don't get it?" Vinyl asked, prompting her to exaggerate.

"I mean, some more simple minded ponies can't really get music and it's purpose. But it's clear that you don't have the gift of music, and so I'm not offended by your ignorant comments." She said with a smug smile, recognizing Vinyl's anger surfacing.

Vinyl's face scrunched in distaste, turning into a foul looking one with her eyes narrowed in behind her sunglasses.

"A gift?" Vinyl began, the chains beginning to unravel in tandem as a small chuckle escaped her lips, "you call your little 'performance' up there the use of a 'gift'?"

The mare took a bit more interest in the mare now, a hint of regret visible in her eyes, but for the most part still disgusted in Vinyl in general.

"Like I said, not everyone gets it." Her eyes looked determined, a purple blockade.

Vinyl managed to stop herself from simply insulting the mare in general, but thought on it briefly.

'She thinks her playing a gift, and claimed I had no gift in music. Well let's just show her how great her little gift is...' Vinyl thought before putting her various high school music courses to good use.

"Want some real feedback?" Vinyl asked, not waiting for a valid answer and actually interrupting the mare as she opened her mouth to speak. Probably just more shameless bragging and slandering.

"I think your song is a piece of emotionless, half-assed slop that I could have pulled out of my trash. You could make a deaf horse's ears bleed and you're nothing but an ignorant, high society, piece of crap that goes to community theater to try and make something of themselves to a crowd of ponies who have a vision of reality more offset than that stupid looking bow tie you're wearing." The anger poured out of her as the grey mare looked shocked; something that only fueled Vinyl more.

"You made even me dislike it, and I had a pair of earphones in, yet you somehow managed to make that garbage reach my ears and then have the nerve to say I don't have the 'gift' of music. Please, your just an immature, spoiled brat trying to sound like your older than the year all of those classics you must adore came out. So yeah, you can take your little 'gift' and go home cause I've got a newsflash." Vinyl had gotten out of her chair and slowly made her way over to the mare, leaning in and whispering with a venomous tone.

"Your music means nothing and so does your opinion." Her voice was a hate riddled whisper by the end of her rant that was bound to have hit home for the grey mare.

And it did, the sound of sniffling soon filled the air as Vinyl continued to hover near the mare's ear, a sickly smile of satisfaction coming to her face at the sight and sound of the high and mighty mare being brought down to a trembling wreck.

"I hope you learned something from my review, cause it was an example of how a real one goes; not one of the held back and refrained suggestions you're probably so used to by now." And with that, Vinyl began her to take her leave, pausing only to look back at the sobbing mare before walking out of the door.

Lowly times these are.

Lyra was dozing off by the time Vinyl came out, she even had to be shaken awake by the mare just to get her to realize it was time to go. She didn't speak at first, only truly waking up to the point of conversation by the time they were out of the doors and a few yards away from the doors.

"So, how was today's life in paradise?" Lyra asked, rubbing her eyes slightly.

To her surprise, Vinyl snickered.

"Boring for the first part, but the ending made it all worth it." Lyra didn't like the sound of Vinyl's voice, and tried to push her to explain but Vinyl was childish when it came it to these types of things.

"I'll tell you when we get back to the bakery and you get some coffee. I don't wanna just be wasting breath on deaf ears." She said with a voice that made Lyra raise a brow, but eventually she just shrugged it off and played along.

"Fine, your probably right about the coffee part though..." Lyra agreed as they turned around the corner, starting towards the bakery.

It was quiet in the bakery, everypony cleared out except for a single straggler and the baker herself who was sitting in a booth with her face down and hooves supporting her like a pillow.

Lyra smiled at the sight and didn't bother to wake her to get the coffee, but rather went into the back and fetched the pot with practiced ease. She went and sat in another booth, away from the sleeping mare, and fetched two glasses and a cinnamon bun that she had made for the white mare as a small incentive to continue with her bet.

She poured the glasses and took a long swig, shaking her head and getting as awake as she could for their talk before pressing Vinyl once more.

"So what was this thing that made today 'worth it'?" Lyra asked, putting the mug down lightly and leaning in with relative interest.

Vinyl smiled and took a sip of her own before beginning.

"Well it all started when this mare played her music, you know; classical stuff, and it got past my earphones so I mumbled a bit about it. Go figure, Tip Top heard me and, near the end of the mare's piece, snuck off and spoke with the mare and convinced her I had something to say to her about her music." Vinyl began, getting a smirk out of Lyra.

"I think I can see where this is going..." Lyra said, only briefly interrupting the story before taking another swig and letting the mare continue after taking a healthy bite of the cinnamon bun.

"So, I tried to split near the end, but Tip managed to catch me and push me back to the backstage area where the dressing rooms, and that mare, were at. I'm kinda glad she stopped me, though I woulda liked to leave early and gotten this cinnamon bun when it was hot, but I think it all evened out. Anyways, I got backstage and walked a bit, Tip gave me the room number of the lady and the lights were off, but I found her room eventually."

Lyra was growing more and more interested in the story as it progressed, wondering what kinda of hell this mare that met with Vinyl was in for.

"I was already kinda pissed since I was staying in that theater longer than I needed to, and meeting up with her only sparked that even more, but I kept it cool for a while." She hastily took another bite and chewed it up, wanting to continue the story.

"She was a real stuffy looking mare, prim and proper with silky smooth hair, all groomed up and fresh-"

"So a polar opposite of you?" Lyra interjected.

"Yeah, literally." Vinyl agreed, "Down to the darn color too; had a real dull, grey, coat."

"So she opened with 'so what'd you hate?' and logically I told her 'all of it'." Vinyl continued.

"That was bound to go over well." Lyra smirked.

"It did; she got a bit pissed at it, even had a little twitch in her eye and her shoulder at it." Vinyl laughed, imitating how the mare looked, getting a hoot out of Lyra as well.

"So she got mad and said she had this whole 'gift of music' thing and said that I didn't, and you know that made me snap a bit. So I gave her a real review and left her in tears."

"Well I saw that coming the second you said 'prim and proper'. So what all did you call her?" Lyra asked, now on the edge of her seat.

"I didn't. I hit her where it hurt and insulted her music, along with a few other things like this cocky little pink bow tie she was wearing. Celestia that irked me, almost as much of the stupid little grin on her face when she get me mad. Though after my little speech her purple eyes were a bit red after the water works started." Vinyl said, paying no particular attention to Lyra as she ate her treat.

Lyra's look had gotten progressively more horrified as Vinyl had gone on with her story.

"Vinyl?" Lyra asked slowly.

"Hm?" Vinyl grunted, her mouth full of cinnamon bun.

"That mare didn't happen to have a treble clef as a cutie mark, did she?" Lyra asked critically.

"I dunno, maybe. Like I said it was dark..." Vinyl answered nonchalantly.

"What did she play?" Lyra followed up.

"I dunno, cello from the looks of it on stage."

That was what sent Lyra off, causing her to stand up rapidly and plant her hooves down hard enough to wake up Bon Bon, startle Vinyl into nearly choking, and even scare the last customer into quickly paying and leaving without wanting to wait for change back.

"Why did you do that?! Lyra screamed, her eyes nearly blazing with anger.

'D-do what?" Vinyl replied in quick confusion.

"Insult Octavia!" Lyra yelled back, her eyes growing narrow and burning a hole into Vinyl's glasses.

"What's the biggie?! You were just laughing at it!" Vinyl said in defense, her own eyes narrowing at the mare's sudden outburst.

"I didn't know you were talking about Octavia!" Lyra screeched, sounding mad enough to hit Vinyl at this point.

Bon Bon at this point had managed to trudge over and put her hooves on Lyra's shoulders, turning her and forcing her to look at her, the look in her eyes enough to calm Lyra down to the point where she could talk in her inside voice.

"Just calm down. She didn't know." Bon Bon said to the now flustered Lyra, though she was definitely still angry at Vinyl, which she eventually began to explain with a bit of encouragement from the baker beside her.

"So do you know her?" Vinyl asked, cautious about what she said.

Lyra shakily sighed, but eventually spoke after a subtle nudge.

"Yeah, she was the first to step up and befriend me when I was at community theater. She's a natural at what she does, even if you can't hear it, she's definitely got a gift at it. I know you don't have the classical ears for it, but trust me on that." Lyra said with her eyes closed, trying to stay calm.

"Oh..." Was all Vinyl could say, looking down at the ground and not knowing quite what to do.

"Yeah, so I want to know word for word what you said." She said, her anger beginning to surface once more. Though this time, Bon Bon didn't stop it, and only looked to Vinyl with a stern look.

Vinyl looked at the two, going back and forth between anger and disappointment before caving to them; sighing heavily as she got into a more comfortable position. She wanted to be comfy for the storm, or at least secure in her seat.

"Alright, here's what I said..." She began, the memory still fresh in her mind.

Lyra sat there mortified at what Vinyl had told her. Every single, heart filled, venom soaked, home hitting insult that Vinyl told her that she had said to the mare that had been at her side from day one at the theater. She wasn't sure how to react, to be mad at Vinyl at saying those things, or to be sad for Octavia at having to hear them; maybe both?

Bon Bon had a similar, though not nearly as severe, look on her face. She seemed to take a bit of understanding to Vinyl though, she could't blame her for snapping on the seemingly arrogant remarks coming from someone like Octavia - it was like expecting an animal to go against its instincts -  though she could feel sad for Octavia.

"So, uh, yeah. That's pretty much all I said." Vinyl said, her hoof now rubbing the spot on the back of her head raw.

"She must still be crying after all that..." Bon Bon said, still wrapping her brain around some of the colorful insults that Vinyl had placed out there.

Lyra seemed to think for a moment before looking dead into Vinyl's glasses with a fire blazing in her eyes.

"You have to apologize to her." Lyra said firmly.

"What?!" Vinyl said, sounding outraged, "Why should I!?"

"Because if you don't, I will never do another thing for you in your life. Not only that, I will purposefully make your life an unbearable hell and laugh as you suffer through it. If you thought community theater was bad, Vinyl, you may very well die from what I will put you through." She was beginning to sound more like some deranged killer at this point.

Bon Bon scooted up next to Vinyl and whispered into her ear.

"She bluffing about that, but I'd still like you to apologize to Octavia." She pleaded.

"Or?" Vinyl tested.

"Or I'll never bake a snack for you again. Even if you pay me." The threat hit hard.

Vinyl stiffened at just the thought and caved near instantly with a heavy sigh and a drooping head. She really hated to be forced to do something, especially when it involved the rich and even more so when having to apologize to them, but giving up snacks for life outweighed that swallow of pride.

"Fine...I'll meet with her tomorrow and I'll try to apologize to her. If she snobs it up and blows it back in my face, I'll try my best to leave but don't be surprised if I come back wet with tears." Vinyl said, her tone dangerous and even Lyra could tell that she wasn't messing around.

One thing was certain, and that was that Vinyl had absolutely not a single problem insulting the high and mighty.

Lyra looked a bit hesitant to accept her "attempt" as a valid deal, but the pressing look from Bon Bon suggested that it was either this or nothing. Even with that on her mind, she struggled to accept; Octavia was a special case that was near impossible to explain to someone like Vinyl. But despite herself, she accepted.

"Fine," Lyra sighed, her head down and her eyes on the table, "but you better try." She said looking back up to the white mare.

"Yeah, yeah. I got it. Now can I get back to my treat? This may very well be my last." She said with a toothy smile, her ability to turn a serious matter to a joke in seconds unnerving the two other mares across from her.

Lyra could only sigh.

"Celestia help me..."

The rest of the night when by in a relativly comfortable fashion, Lyra being the only real one drawing the agreement back into play, but it was easily pushed aside by Vinyl's nonchalant agreement and Bon Bon's encouragement of dropping the topic. Vinyl, in her head, still wondered why Lyra was taking this little scuff up so far, but just shrugged and let the night roll on in its already near awkward state; she didn't want it to be one of those situations where everyone just sat around quietly.

Evntually Vinyl left and went home, waving to the two and giving Lyra a mischevious wink before turning and heading off into the dark. Lyra blushed at the wink, which only furthered when she realized Vinyl hadn't made any hints towards anything lewd.

She shut the door and let out a sigh as she slid down to the floor with her back scraping against the door, Bon Bon coming and giving her a comforting hug the second she saw the mare's distress..

"It'll be fine, Vinyl will come through. I just know it." The baker mare said with a smile, though it didn't help Lyra a bit.

"This is gonna end in a disaster..." She said, head drooping down.

Bon Bon looked at the green mare now in shambles: she was probably the only one who could understand Lyra's obsession over Octavia's emotional safety in the slightest, and it was still pretty hazy even to her. Nevertheless, the tan coated baker was determined to cheer the green mare up.

"Look," She said, giving the green unicorn a nuzzle before leaning back and looking her in the eyes.

"How about I make us some cookies and tea, we head upstairs to my room and we just spend some time winding down?" She smiled with a caring look akin to mother.

Lyra tried her best to seem worried, but she just couldn't help smiling at the mare's attempts.

"Okay..." Lyra agreed, standing up and giving the mare in front of her a tight nuzzle before walking into the back room of the kitchen and up a flight of stairs.

A creak of sunlight peered through the set of heavy curtains that covered Vinyl's windows, the heavy wool blocking out nearly all source of light save for the small sliver near the center where the curtains wouldn't quiet meet. It may have been by a stroke of luck or misfortune, but the crack happened to land right on the sleeping mare's eyes, slowly driving her awake until she was sitting up with a more than displeased look on her face.

She blinked slowly, still groggy at being unwillingly driven to waking, but nevertheless turned her body to the side and stepped off of her bed, nearly toppling over at the sudden need to support weight.

"Too damn early..." She mumbled, patting the nightstand beside her until her hoof hit hard plastic and scooping her shades onto her face while slowly trotting towards what she had memorized as her bathroom.

She didn't bother flipping on the lights, as they would've only served to blind her, but she had memorized the bathroom enough to know where to go and what to twist to get her shower going and her towel set out.

Vinyl struggled to stay awake during the shower; the soft patter of warm water from above serving as a charming replacement for her blanket while she nearly lay sprawled out on the floor, but pushed through and managed to rub through her hair and the necessary parts of her coat before cringing to herself.

She hated this part.

Her hoof trailed up the wall from her sitting position until it hit the know for the shower firmly and twisted it far to the right, sending the water from a comforting warmth to a brutal chill that made her hairs stand on end.

It was a harsh, yet definitely effective, way of waking her up in the mornings that she only did when she needed to be somewhere early - something that she might as well never do - but today was different. Lyra and Bon had seemed serious about her apologizing to that Octavia mare, and since her pastry privileges were on the line, she was going to do that one way or another, even if that snooty grey mare didn't accept it.

After all, Lyra didn't say she had to accept Vinyl's apology.

Vinyl managed to muster a smile as she turned the water off, standing up with a renewed vigor thanks to the chilled water, and trotted out of the shower and into her waiting towel, setting to the task of drying off in mere seconds. She didn't like complex morning routines, so hers consisted of mainly showering, roughly thrashing the towel through her head, and shaking it a bit to get it into place.

Call her simple, but it was both time and cost efficient; and only one of those mattered to her, the other was just an added bonus.

She cast her gaze over to the clock on her wall, the numbers reading about 5:45.

"Lyra probably won't wake up for awhile..." Vinyl thought to herself, trotting over to the built in kitchen of her home and rummaging through a cabinet and pulling out a cereal bar. "but I might as well head over to the theater anyways. Maybe I could catch that snoot before anyone else got there so I wouldn't have to apologize in public."

Vinyl smiled at the thought: even if she was going to be apologizing it would still be on her grounds. So long as that grey mare didn't try and milk it or rub it in, she could probably manage herself and stay calm.

In her moment of though she caught glance of the clock again, realizing that the theater opened at 6 on the dot, she quickly levitated her phone over and trotted out the door, intent on getting there as early as possible.

The morning air still had a small nip to it as Vinyl turned the last corner of her trip, the theater standing tall and proud in front of her as she took a moment to admire it in the early day light. It sort of had a favorable look to it, like ones favorite chair or food.

A gust of wind blew by and reminded the white mare that she was still outside, and was still on a 'schedule' of her own. She estimated it had taken her about twenty five to thirty minutes to get to the theater, and which ever time was right still made her outrageously early to the theater.

"Hmph..." She grunted to herself in thought. "Maybe I'll get to greet her on the way in." She said with a snicker before starting towards the theater, intent on getting this whole thing over with and behind her as quick as possible.

As she trudged forwards through a less than comforting stream of air, she thought she saw the flicker of a light come from the inside of the theater, but the slight tent from the windows combined with those from her glasses made it near impossible to know for sure. Despite that, she quickened her pace ever so slight as she made her way to the theater's doors and opened them slowly.

It was still dark in the theater, the only source of light being that from the outside which may as well have been none at all.

A sudden burst of light nearly blinded her, though thanks to her glasses she only had to squint slightly at the sudden pulse of brightness as she heard a yawn come from beside her.

"Huh? Why are you here?"

Vinyl turned to see that it was the desk mare who was responsible for the burst of light, or at least she assumed so since she was standing next to a breaker box that was wide open.

"Uh. Hey." Was all Vinyl could say, still a bit shocked that she wasn't the first to arrive.

"Yeah, hey. So what are you doing here?" She asked, obviously not letting Vinyl change subjects.

"I'm, uh, here for theater." Vinyl said, her head lowering and her hoof scraping the floor in a small flush of embarrassment.

"You of all ponies?" She asked, sounding a bit more suspicious than before.

"Yeah, got a problem?" Vinyl asked, getting her old personality back after the initial surprise wore off.

"Not at all. Just seemed like when I first met you, you wouldn't be the type to be here this early." The mare said nonchalantly, rubbing her eyes and walking over to a fold out table that Vinyl hadn't seen in the darkness before. It seemed as though she wasn't as easily intimidated now, perhaps it was the lack of sleep or coffee.

"I'm actually here to settle a little slip of the tongue I had the other day. May have made the wrong mare mad at me." Vinyl said with intentional vagueness, though it still managed to draw some form of interest from the mare.

"And she gets here this early?"

"Supposedly." Vinyl answered.

"Well, I guess I know who you're talking about then..."

The still unknown deskmare unceremoniously took her seat and reached under the table while propping her head up on one hoof, pulling out a slip of paper with a pen clipped on like usual and pointed it towards Vinyl with not a single word spoken.

Vinyl took the pen and began to sign, but noticed a single name above her own.

"Octavia Melody." The desk mare mumbled. "A bit of a big name around the theater, and even bigger around the upper class scene of Canterlot. I've never even listened to classical music, but when you become a standard to be compared to, you've obviously gotten somewhere. Be quite messy if she got your name spoiled up there, could even drive you outta work for good, but she doesn't seem like the type to do that unless you really got to her."

Vinyl cringed at that note, she had definitely gotten to her, but that was why she was here anyways.

She seemed to begin and get comfortable, probably trying to get to sleep.

"Though I'm still a bit confused as to why she comes down to a nearly run down theater like this one. She certainly doesn't need it for the publicity, she already gets passed around the upper crust like fine wine."

Vinyl's nose cringed slightly upon first glance at the name, and the desk mare's statement didn't help it either, but that disgusted look slowly turned into a cool smirk as she realized what that meant.

'Nobody else to see it...' She thought as she finished signing her name and gave the pen back to the desk mare.

"Can I go into the theater?" Vinyl asked, getting a lazily raised hoof from the desk mare that then made a sort of 'shoo' gesture.

Vinyl smiled, turning and trotting almost happily into the main theater, a small smile gracing her lips.

Backlash

Inside the theater wasn't any different from the outside: it was dark and every hoofstep made by Vinyl seemed to echo more loudly than it should have. Even though the rows of seats were near empty every other time she was inside the stage area, it was different when it was completely dark and with no play going on to provide background noise. Luckily, thanks to the desk mare flipping on some of the power breakers, a strip of lights lining the rows of seats provided some assistance in navigation.

"How did she get through here without the lights? Must've been pitch black." Vinyl grumbled, lighting her horn up after nearly tripping over one of the steps descending down towards the front row.

She eventually, with a little help from her horn, got down to the stage and began skimming the wall until her hoof landed on the door leading to the back stage. It was unlocked, so she assumed this was where the mare had gone; either that or the desk mare had come back here without turning on the lights earlier.

The backstage area was even darker than the theater, meaning that it was literally as dark as possible, but a small grunt from Vinyl and a brighter output from her horn made the previous imposing darkness nothing more than a blue hued afterthought. Though the thought that seemed to keep lingering back into her head was how in Equestria this Octavia mare managed to get back here without lights or a horn.

Vinyl brushed it aside as she arrived at room 18, a small sliver of light coming from under the door just like last time confirming her suspicions about whether or not the mare was inside. Vinyl worked herself up, twisting her neck from side to side and letting out a content sigh before knocking on the door.

It was quiet for a few seconds, not even a sound could be heard from the inside of the room as Vinyl leaned her ear up to the door to check. She was even ready to turn and leave until a voice suddenly called out from the inside.

"Come in." It was the same voice from before, of the grey mare, and it was even the same tone she had used before. The same near stoic, feminine tone.

She opened the door, trying not to think on the situation and consequentially make it harder for herself, though it didn't seem to work. She found herself clenching her eyes slightly as she lightly swung the door open so she could be fully seen in the doorway. Though to her surprise the mare wasn't even looking back at the doorway, she was hunched over a desk that had a few pieces of paper crumpled up and scattered around on the floor.

She seemed hard at work with whatever she was doing, and Vinyl had the urge to not disturb her. In fact, she found herself sitting there for an awkward amount of time, as if waiting for permission.

"Do you need something of-" The mare began to ask, turning around only to stop mid sentence the second her violet eyes met a matching shade of sunglasses.

"Oh, it's you." She said, her tone audibly souring, albeit subtle.

"Yeah...it's me." Vinyl said simply, her legs seeming to unlock as she progressed inwards.

"I'm surprised to see you here so early. Come to get a head start on insulting my profession again?" She asked, with assumed sarcasm, though Vinyl couldn't really pick up any difference in tone. Though she did manage to bite her tongue to stop herself from answering with her own sharp remark to the question.

"Ah, no, I'm not." She said simply, holding back her urges.

She figured simple was the way to go with this situation, best to not try and complicate things to much with this mare since she seemed rather literal.

"Oh?" She asked, raising a brow.

"Yeah," Vinyl began, her hoof slinking around to the back of her neck while her eyes jutted down to the floor, finding a new interest in the papers across the floor.

"I, uh, came here to - uh." Vinyl struggled, her throat seeming to refuse to let the words 'apologize' escape her lips.

"To....?" The mare asked, getting impatient.

Vinyl sighed in defeat before grumbling,

"To say I'm sorry..."

"Say again?" The grey mare asked flatly.

"To say I'm sorry."

"That is not any better than before." The mare was obviously running low on patience, and Vinyl was too for that matter; but her brain seemed to utterly refuse to apologize.

"To..." The white mare nearly popped a blood vessel before the words came out, though when they did they came out about as smoothly as a brick on a chalk board.

"...apologize."

There was a brief moment of silence, both of them with looks of near wonder at the words that had just been uttered, one of them doubting that the words had actually came out while the other had an unreadable look on her face.

"'To apologize.'" The grey mare repeated to herself.

"Yeah, so do you accept or what?" Vinyl quickly muttered, her eyes jutting down as her cheeks began to flush red.

"And you're sure you don't mind working here for no pay? I mean I really appreciate the offer, but not paying you seems a bit unethical." Bon Bon said, looking a bit apprehensive at Lyra's offer.

"Well you do make me breakfast, lunch, and dinner; the least I can do is work here a bit to pay for that instead of you wasting stock on me and Vinyl." Lyra said back, confident in tone and posture.

"Still, I'd feel a bit guilty..." Bon Bon protested again, but Lyra could tell she was easing into the idea.

"Okay, how about this: I work here for no pay now since I'm not exactly struggling for money, but if the time ever arises that I do need a bit of extra cash - you start paying me then. Sound good?" Lyra proposed.

Bon's face lightened up at the sound of that deal and she gingerly nodded in agreement, though her face twisted in what looked like confusion in the end.

"Speaking of which, what do you do for money Lyra? You're here all day and I never see you go anywhere else..." Bon Bon bondered.

"Well-"

She was cut short by the sound of the front door opening, a small ring of a bell to accompany it to make sure it was noticed, and a stallion walked in with a rather thoughtful look on his face. It was quite the look, as if he was having an internal battle over right and wrong.

"Rent?" Lyra asked, making sure that it was actually him; his appearance was a bit bland.

"Huh?" He was shaken out of his internal confrontation to look up. "Lyric, is that you?" He asked.

"'Lyra.'" She corrected.

"Ah, sorry. I'm usually good with names, being a land lord and all, but I've had something on my mind for awhile now and I think it's starting to get the better of me." He sounded tired as he trudged over to a booth and plopped down, his hoof holding up his head as he let out a sigh.

"Really?" Lyra asked, trotting over with a small notepad in her magical grasp.

"Just a coffee. Black please," He said curtly before getting back on track. "and yes, I have."

Lyra turned and gave Bon Bon a quick nod of understanding before sliding into the opposite side of the booth while Bon began prepping the coffee pot.

"Care to let it out then? Might clear your head." Lyra suggested.

"It's actually about Vinyl," He began, getting Lyra's attention with those four simple words. "She hasn't spoken to me at all as of late and Tip Top hasn't been telling me anything about what's going on at the theater. The few times I have seen her she's been either mopey or flustered; both of which didn't look natural nor healthy on her."

"Uh-huh." Lyra said simply, encouraging him to go on.

"Anyways, I can't help but a feel at fault here. I was thinking of calling off the deal all together and just waving the payment for this month, it'd put a bit of dent in my paycheck this month but I think I wouldn't mind that if it got her back to her old self."

He leaned in a bit.

"There hasn't been a single noise complaint since she started this whole thing and some of the other tenants are even asking questions about it. Call me crazy, but I think I miss a noise filled apartment building than this quiet one we have now."

"Well you're not the only one you know. Spill the beans to Vinyl about how the theater was his idea in the first place and I guarantee you she'd be more angry with him than with you. But between you and me, I don't think you should call it off." Lyra said, getting a bit of a surprised look out of the stallion at the mention of Neon.

"Really now? Why shouldn't I?" The stallion asked with a raised brow.

"That'd be letting her off easy. Yeah, she'd accept it, but I know it wouldn't sit right with her on the inside." Lyra said sagely.

Bon Bon walked over with a cup of coffee and set it down it front of Rent, smiling all the way before going back behind the counter without a word spoken.

"Just don't take it personally, once the week is over things will get back to normal and I think we will all have grown from it in the end." Lyra ended on a happy note, moving out of the booth and leaving Rent to his coffee just as the sound of the door opening and the chime of the bell triggered again.

"Welcome, please take a seat and I'll be right with you to take your order." Lyra said cheerfully, guiding a couple to a corner booth by the window.

Bon Bon soon walked over to the booth where Rent sat, leaning up against the table and smiling.

"Coffee okay?" She asked, shaking the stallion once more from a session of self thought.

"Oh, uh, yes. A bit sweet for black, but it saved me the trouble of putting in sugar." He smiled, a bit nervous around the mare, but talking with a bit of confidence.

"First batch is always a bit sweet. So, mind if I get your opinion on my latest employee?" She asked.

"Newest? Funny, I thought she must've always worked here with the way she went about seating just now." He said, the impressed look on his face speaking for itself.

"I actually just hired her today." Bon noted.

"Well she looks like a keeper to me." Rent smiled, taking another sip from his coffee. "Quite the wise one as well." He added, taking note of how effortlessly she took the orders of her second customers.

"I'm glad you think so." Bon Bon smiled, turning and begining to walk away.

"I just wish she was that confident in bed..." Bon Bon mumbled, causing Rent to nearly choke on his coffee.

"No."

"What?"

Vinyl couldn't process the simple word that the grey mare had spoken, a single word that had somehow managed to throw her so far off track.

"I said no. As in I do not accept your apology." The mare repeated matter-of-factly.

"Why not?" Vinyl said with a rising tone, the gear in her head beginning to turn ever so slowly as she began to understand the situation that had arisen.

"Because, the things you said are not that easy to forgive, I can not just pretend like you never said them. It's not that simple as just 'dusting off' your insults." The mare explained, her tone was as flat as slate and she didn't show the slightest bit of emotion in denying Vinyl her apology. Not anger, not smugness, not sadness, nor happiness.

She just simply spoke.

Vinyl had now fully realized what was going on, but still couldn't think of a way to react. She had honestly never considered the possibility that the mare might simply say 'No' to her apology.

"What then? Do you want something from me?" Vinyl asked, sounding a bit confused.

"No, I don't want anything from you; including your apologies. Now if you're done, I think it'd be best if you left."

And with that she turned around in her seat and began writing on her pieces of paper as if the whole conversation had never happened, not even hesitating to see if Vinyl had even left the room.

She hadn't either, she stood there still in shock from rejection.

"You've got to be kidding me." She said simply, getting the attention of the grey mare once more.

"Kidding you? I think not." She said, only bother to turn her head to side enough that her eyes could look at Vinyl's glasses.

"So I came all the way out here. got up way too early, and worked up the nerve to apologize to you. And you reject it? Don't you know how this whole thing is supposed to work?" Vinyl asked, sounding genuine enough to confuse the mare.

"What do you mean?" The mare asked.

"I mean, you're supposed to accept the apology and then we go about our lives as mild acquaintances. You know, fresh start kinda stuff?" Vinyl elaborated.

The grey mare could only raise a brow at the suggestion, though her face remained unmoved by Vinyl's almost desperate sounding words.

"Why would I voluntarily agree to make a 'fresh start' with someone who so obviously hasn't a care in the world for me? I believe, if my memory serves me right, that the exact words you used were 'Your music means nothing and so does your opinion.' Sound familiar?" The mare showed only the slightest bit of anger surfacing in her face, though it was quickly masked again.

"It's clear to me what you think of me: your first impression is always the most important one, and I must say that yours was quite a defining one."

"But-" Vinyl began, only to be quickly cut off by the grey mare.

"I don't think that there's anything you could say to me to make me feel any different about you. Not only that, but you've made me somehow feel annoyed in a theater. So I think I will be taking my leave early today." She said, getting up and trotting over to the corner of the room, hoisting a large cello case over her back, and trotting wordlessly by Vinyl again as if not a thing had transpired between the two.

Vinyl stood there for a minute, still mulling over the words the mare had said.

She looked around the room blankly, not looking for anything in particular but just looking for something to rest her eyes on while she processed and could come up with her next move. Her eyes wandered the room, glancing across the various posters of famous musicians, of which none Vinyl had ever heard of, and miscellaneous objects that were scattered here and there to make a cozy looking dressing room.

She surprisingly found her eyes resting on the desk that the mare had been sitting at, a pile of papers pushed off to the edges with a single sheet present in the middle.

Even from afar Vinyl could see the various blotches of ink scattered around the paper, marking that served as corrections or adjustments to the sheet the looked like it could only have been a song.

Vinyl moved forwards without thinking on it to hard, mindlessly walking up closer to the sheet to confirm her suspicions.

'That desk mare did say she was know for her supposedly legendary playing skills...' Vinyl thought to herself, looking over the detailed marks on the sheet.

Despite her...'displeasure' with the mare and her attitude, she had to give her some respect for her just from looking at the piece in front of her. It didn't take a genius to figure out that a lot of work had went into perfecting the sheet, and a quick glance to the other papers revealed that they were all waded up copies of the center paper; each with their own mistakes in them. That alone was enough proof that she had some dedication to the art.

A smirk snuck its way onto Vinyl's face as she took a brief glance behind her before gingerly placing her hoof on top the paper, an idea popping into her head as her horn lit up.

The mare at the front desk had her head hung low, her head bobbing up and down slowly in time to her evenly paced breathing, ever so slowly lowering down towards the table. She occasional shook a bit, her nose scrunching up and her head retreating a few inches upwards, but it was only delaying the inevitable touch down.

She suddenly shook awake, the sound of a door shutting off in the distance managing to wake her just enough, and to also gain her interest.

Her head craned around and stared at the main theater entrance.

'Must be that white mare, Vinyl I think her name was. Guess she found Octavia and said what she needed to say...' She thought to herself before looking up at the ceiling wishfully.

"I bet she's going back home to get some sleep, like most everyone else in town. Wish I could do that..." She said in a haze, a toothy smile creeping onto her face while she dreamed of collapsing onto her bed and diving under the covers.

Hoofsteps grew louder and louder until they made the distinct sound of going from the theater's carpeting to the hardwood floor that covered the entrance for the most part.

"You find her? She should be back i-" She cut herself short as she turned and saw Octavia trotting towards the door, gracefully as ever.

"Octavia? Where are you off to?" The desk mare questioned, a brow raised at the cellists apparent decision to leave - a first for her.

"I'm not feeling all that up to it today. Some... recent events have put in a less than good mood, so I was thinking of taking the day off and just lounging around at home." She said, turning to face the mare with a graceful turn of the neck that somehow kept her mane in perfect shape.

'It's like the world is against me today.' She thought before quickly moving to questioning the decision.

"Well, to each their own I guess but are you sure? You've never gone home early before."

The connection was, at that very second, made in the desk mare's head.

"Was it Vinyl?"

"Whom?" Octavia raised a brow.

"White mare. Purple glasses. Shaggy looking hair with two tones of blue in it." The mare began to list.

"You described her well, and I will admit she had a bit of a role in my decision." Octavia said calmly.

"So she drove you out did she?"

"I'd prefer not to talk about it, if that's okay with you. I think I'll go get some breakfast for once, It's been ages since I had a healthy meal in the early morning. Take care." Octavia said curtly, not giving the desk mare any opening to delve further into the events prior.

'Breakfast too huh? What did I ever do to you karma? Huh? Nothing, that's what.' The desk mare inwardly mumbled as she watched the cellist make her way out the door and down the streets that were just beginning to fill with the early morning's sun.

"That Vinyl must either be a pain to be around, really persuasive, or have messed up real bad to make Octavia leave." She said to herself, taking a sip of her coffee before re-positioning herself on the table, snuggling into her hoof and closing her eyes.

The bell chime of the bakery rang out once more as a new customer entered, though Lyra was too busy to bother seating them at the moment. Bon had just finished about three orders for three separate tables and it was the green unicorn's job to carry them, or rather levitate them, to their tables.

It was easily accomplished, but Lyra didn't want to screw up and made sure each of the plates got to their destinations by keeping her eyes glued to them as they floated across the room and gingerly laid themselves down in front of each of the customers. She even took the precaution of going one by one with the plates rather than all at once.

It was amazing how busy the shop was in the early morning today, flurries of customers had seemingly come in a short burst of business ponies who seemed to be in a major rush. Bon had already stressed what a help it was to have a unicorn as a waitress, and Lyra herself was beginning to see why as well with all these ponies demanding to not be late to whatever it was they were going to at such a horridly early hour.

Then again, she was working herself.

"Any more orders Bon?" Lyra asked, taking a peak back into the kitchen to see the tan colored mare bobbing side to side as she calmly prepared the next order.

"Not yet, but check back in about a minute or two." She said cheerfully.

"I think I heard the bell ring again, if you could, go check and see."

Lyra gave a short nod and put on her best smile as she turned and walked over towards the door, though the smile dropped a bit and her eyes widened at the sight of the customer.

"Octavia?"

Opposition

"Lyra?" Octavia replied with an equal amount of surprise at the sight of the green mare.

Lyra was just getting over her initial shock of seeing the cellist, a shock caused by a wide array of reasons, when she noticed even more customers filing in right behind her. Not wanting to cause an inconvenience for other customers, or cause a traffic jam for the sidewalks on the outside of the bakery, she quickly set herself back to work.

"Here, let me seat you and we can talk a bit more." She suggested, leading the gray mare around the floor and over to a secluded area when only a few other customers were sat.

"Hang on, let me seat a few others and we can get comfortable. I can start off with a drink while I'm away." Lyra smiled, levitating out the notepad and pen.

"Just some tea will be fine." Octavia said curtly, understanding the importance of work all while not wanting to be too much of a burden.

"Gotcha, gimme one sec." Lyra chirped, turning and quickly pacing off and returning to the line of customers waiting to be seated.

Octavia took a small notice of how efficiently Lyra was working, she levitated various notes over to the window to the kitchen all while seating many customers with beaming smile across her face. A quick crane of the head revealed one hard at work Bon Bon who was rushing around the kitchen with a determined look of her own as she mixed and added various ingredients to a multitude of bowls scattered about. She had a bit of powder on the bridge of her noes that gave her quite and adorable look as she scuttled around the kitchen.

It wasn't too long of a wait before Lyra returned with a visibly hot cup of tea and a biscuit wrapped up in a mossy green hue, placing them down quickly but gently in front of Octavia before sitting down with a sigh of relief.

"Sorry for the wait, a little surge of customers came through, but it looks like its died down for now." She said, her smile a tired but happy one.

"Seems like quite the business you have here." Octavia remarked, lifting the cup of tea up to her nose and sniffing it elegantly.

"Well, its not mine, but I'll admit its homely."

"Oh? So you're not the owner?"

"Nope, Bon back in the kitchen is. I'm just pitching in to help get the work load off her; I honestly have no idea how she could handle all these ponies by herself." Lyra noted, taking a quick scan of all the customers drink levels.

"Hm," Octavia hummed in thought. "I had no idea you worked here. Or even worked at all for that matter."

Lyra stiffened a bit at the remark, but breathed deeply and calmed herself down; letting the unintentional insult slip by without comment. She knew Octavia wasn't the best at saying what she meant exactly how she meant it, but knew that she was just stating what she thought without any hate or disdain behind it.

Probably.

"Anyways, what brings you around here at this time? You're usually at the theater by now, even if it is only about half past seven." Lyra asked with raised brow, watching carefully as Octavia paused mid-sip at the comment before continuing with her drink.

"Well, if you must know, I happened to come across a mare this morning. I blue haired devil that had insulted me earlier, apparently wanting to make amends, though after I turned her down she made herself look rather arrogant. So, I left and came here."

Lyra stiffed at the vague description of Vinyl, but made no visible motions.

"So, uh, why did you turn her down?" Lyra asked with an awkward chuckle.

"Hmph," Octavia scoffed. "I can't stand it when someone asks for forgiveness after insulting another wholeheartedly. Forgiveness is earned, not given away." Her tone was rather sour at that point.

"Well, you gotta start somewhere, right?" Lyra halfheartedly suggested.

"To each their own." Octavia said with a slate tone, obviously getting heated.

Lyra didn't need to be told that that was her cue to leave, she didn't need Octavia mad at her and Vinyl. Who would be the median then? Bon Bon?

Lyra excused herself, claiming that she needed to go check up on the other customers, but was actually only getting out of the way of the heated cellist. Though while walking away she couldn't help but think to herself,

'I honestly should have seen this coming, Octavia is the type to hold a grudge so it makes since that Vinyl would get rejected. I wonder how Vinyl will take it though? She's not used to being rejected and she's definitely the type to get what she wants, when she wants it.'

She smirked slightly.

'I guess it'll depend on whether Vinyl really wants it or not.'

She dropped to a frown.

'Though it's hard to see Vinyl really wanting to honestly apologize to someone life Octavia.'

Her ears perked up once more.

'But maybe being rejected was what she needed to jump start the process! Maybe not getting the acceptance was just enough to make her want it just to show Octavia up!'

Lyra patted her head in approval.

"Good ol' brain. Always coming up with good ideas." She said to herself before being shaken from her thoughts by the shouts of rowdy and rich customers.

"Waitress! I need a refill!"

"Me too!"

"I ordered my soup at least ten minutes ago! How long does it take to chop vegetables!?"

"If I don't get my bread sticks I'll sue!"

Lyra nearly jumped at the screams before rushing to work.

"C-Coming!"

A sigh came out of the desk mare as she sat slumped over her desk with a bored expression on her face, casually staring out the front door of the theater at the early hustle and bustle of the streets. It was still a bit dark out, though the sun was definitely peaking its way over the hills afar as it shined down onto her desk, stopping just short of her own self.

Suddenly, one of the ponies broke from the stream of sidewalk traffic and made for the theater's front door. The desk mare, however, didn't perk up or even visibly change in the slightest.

The stallion waltzed into the front entrance with a gusto about him that one could easily call arrogant, his smile permanently smug and his posture exaggeratedly refined.

'Oh brother...' She inwardly sighed, though outwardly she was as unmoved as a statue.

"Ah, Sign In, how are doing today my sweet blossom?" He cooed with his voice dipped in a loving tone, though Sign had seen him pull this act with more than a few mares around the theater.

Rather than giving him the satisfaction of a response, she wordlessly lifted up the sign-in sheet and pen and dropped it on the table with as little care as possible.

"Your silence is the only answer I needed, darling." He swooned, gracefully bending down to sign the sheet, though he stopped mid way through his signature with a set of wide eyes.

"Sign, whom might the 'Vinyl Scratch' be? Did someone new enter the theater while I was away?" He asked, though he didn't expect a response.

"Oh! Is it a she?! Did another mare join?!" He asked with excitement as he spoke to the sky.

"And if she is here this early, she must be as much of an enthusiast as I. Oh, I must search for her immediately."

He turned to face Sign In with a beaming smile and a wicked look on his face.

"Do you have any a clue where I could find this unknown specimen?"

Sign had progressively more and more uneasy as the stallion rant continued, though her mind slowly began to wrap around an idea as a smile crept to her face. She turned and pointed towards the main entrance of the theater.

"In the back dressing rooms, I'll show you a bit later." Sign said simply, remembering Octavia storming out and not a peep was later heard from the white one. Who knows what could have happened in there.

"I thank you darling, please make haste, though do not think that this means we're through!" He pranced onward, leaving Sign In to her thoughts. Her hysterically imaginative thoughts.

"I'll have to head back there in a while. Today might be a bit amusing after all. " She said to herself.

It was fairly slow after the small show Sign got at the beginning of the day, the other theatergoers weren't nearly as flamboyant as the first stallion and if they were they didn't want to show it. They slowly came in one after another and the sheet slowly began to fill up to what was the normal length.

"Might wanna head back in a bit. Vinyl hasn't came back yet and I pretty sure he must be getting antsy." Sign said to herself with a sigh, getting up and trudging over to the ticket booth and grabbing her keys before heading back to the main theater entrance.

As she expected, the theater was in full swing already. Many of the ponies were settled in groups and discussing some thing or another while others were rummaging through boxes and pulling out tacky costumes of all shapes and sizes. It was the morning ritual of the place where everybody grabbed what they needed and lined up the first few performances of the day. After that, all the other performances were scrapped together behind the curtains.

It was honestly amazing how these minds could keep coming up with original content, albeit tacky and cheesy content -  a cliche at most - but it was new content no less. Repeats happened, but they didn't seem to mind and clapped anyways. Though it was definitely the musicians of the groups that stood out. Sign knew that almost every pony here went home and thought of new things, but music could almost always sound different.

She shook herself out of the awe of it all and made her way over to the dressing rooms entrance, not even bothering to get the stallion from earlier.

Sure enough, the second her keys jingled as they made their way up to the door, the sound of stampeding hooves came into ear shot as a stallion lined himself up behind Sign In. He was dressed in a ridiculous outfit, complete with frills and leather and everything else you could want to see out of a medieval Canterlot outfit.

"Are we to see my rose now?" He asked eagerly.

"Roses got thorns you know." Sign In said sagely as she shuffled through the keys before ringing out the correct one.

"But that is what pruning is for, my love."

"I'm not going to talk to you in riddles, so please don't do the same to me." She sighed, pushing the door open and letting the stallion flood in and race towards the back of the hall.

Sign made her way at a reasonable pace, she didn't want to be too close to that mare when he got near her. It was practical suicide if what she thought was going to happen would happen.

Sign made her way back to room 18 just in time to see the form of a stallion be thrown out by a haze of blue; his body landing upside down with his outfit almost comically ruined. Sign stifled a laugh as she stepped over him and into the doorway of the room to see a white figure hunched over and seemingly hard at work with a hoof moving feverishly.

"Mind if I come in?" She asked simply, getting the flick of an ear from the white form as a response.

"Shut the door: if that creep comes in again I might actually hurt him this time." She said, her voice was rather stale but Sign could still obviously pick up her intention to deliver on her promise.

She followed Vinyl's orders and shut - and locked - the door behind her as she stepped through, watching with curiosity as the white mare worked on whatever it was in front of her.

She took no hesitation, and asked in a rather agitated voice:

"You're here about Octavia right?" Not skipping a beat in what looked like pen motions.

"Uhm, not my first reason, but since you bring it up," Sign paused, letting Vinyl take over.

She let out a sigh as she placed the quill down, lifting a hoof up and covering her mouth as she yawned. She looked beat, despite the inability to see past the blockade of purple.

"I pissed her off earlier, like yesterday I think, and now she's mad at me. Turns out my friend knows her and when I went to brag to her about making princess cry, she got mad and threatened me if I didn't apologize. So, I came here and tried just that only to be reject by Miss Snoot and watch her storm out. So, at the fear of my bakery privileges, I'm trying to think of a way to get her to accept that apology." Vinyl said with a gasp for breath at the end.

"And you're doing that by....writing?" Sign asked, taking note of the paper she was writing on.

"Meh," Vinyl shrugged. "it helps me think, even if I don't have a shred of a clue of what I'm putting down."

"You don't know if you're even composing well?" Sign asked, her brow continuing to climb its way up her forehead.

Vinyl sheepishly smiled while her shoulders met her jawline in a larger shrug.

"Heh, I had music classes in the morning when I was in school. I also wasn't a morning type." She laughed a bit.

'This mare...' Sign inwardly eye rolled.

"So, any luck?" Sign asked.

Vinyl sighed.

"Well, none yet. I bet if I had some breakfast I could think of something, but I skipped it to get here early." Vinyl said with a tinge of sadness in her voice, patting her empty gullet with sympathy.

"Really? Why don't you just go get some now?"  Sign suggested.

"I would, but I have to be here all day. Or else Tip will tell on me." Vinyl sighed with annoyance.

"I can cover for you if you need me to." Sign.

Really?!" Vinyl's eyes lit up.

"Sure," Sign shrugged. "I got nothing against you, and between me and you, Octavia was probably the only talent in this building. I'd like to get her back too, all the others are pretty much a toned down version of that stallion outside." She said, gesturing to the closed door behind her.

"Hm, I think I'll take that offer."

"As if you wouldn't."

Vinyl chuckled a bit before beginning to pack up her saddlebags, a vague smile on her face as she stuffed the paper from the desk into them. Sign decided not to press the matter, but kept it in mind as she watched the white mare finish her packing and throw the saddlebags over her back.

"I'm guessing you have something in store for Tip Top?" Vinyl asked, pulling the strap to her saddlebags tight.

Sign shrugged. "Something like that."

"Well, I'll leave you to it." Vinyl said, smiling as she left towards the door.

"My love, you have ret-" A rich accent spoke up, only to be quickly shut back off with the sound of loud boom just as the door shut; leaving Sign standing alone in the room.

"Hmm," She wondered. "how to deal with Tip..." She placed a hoof on her chin and rubbed before smiling to herself and starting towards the door herself.

"I'll deal with it when the time comes." She said cheerfully.

Lyra was in the middle of delivering a notepad full of orders to Bon Bon, trading the small sheet of paper off and taking out multiple platters worth of various foods. She had since begun to get the hang of floating orders off to their tables without needing to look, and had even sent a few off at the same time. She also got a bit of downtime whenever she made a trade with Bon Bon, since Bon had to cook the food.

The bell rung out once more and her head swiveled to the door, her eyes widening for the second time that morning as they landed on a slouched and tired looking Vinyl.

"Vinyl?" Lyra quirked, her voice lowering as her eyes jutted calmly off to where Octavia sat for a moment.

"Lyra? You work here?" Vinyl asked, a brow reaching over the rims of her glasses as she trotted over to Lyra.

"In a way, just started today. But why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be at theater by now?" Lyra asked, taking the occasional look to Octavia's section when she thought Vinyl wasn't looking.

She saw the edge of the daily paper sticking out from the booth, a gray head buried deep inside as she skimmed over the various articles. Lyra inwardly sighed at the sight.

"...but the sign in lady said she'd cover for me today." Vinyl said with a proud smile before it dropped to a frown, bringing Lyra's attention back over to the white mare who had apparently been talking the entire time.

"But the whole apology thing didn't go over all that well, she just kinda said 'No' and walked out..." Vinyl grumbled off throughout the entire sentence, apparently finding her hooves suddenly interesting.

At that moment an idea popped into Lyra's head; a devious and sneaky idea that if she could put into action and go about it the right way, she might just be able to fix all of this mess. She never had liked one of her friends hating another, so she did as much as she could to either fix or prevent the problem; but since preventing was out of the question at this point, she could only hope to fix it.

And with the opportunity that was sitting just around the corner, how could she not see it as fate to bring the two together?

"Oh don't worry about it Vinyl, I'm sure she just needs some time to cool down and then she'll be more than willing to accept your apology." Lyra smiled.

Vinyl smiled at the reassurance, but the smiled quickly faded to an agitated stare as she picked up on the tone of Lyra's voice. A tone that practically screamed 'plotting something'.

"I gotta few tricks to still pull myself Lyra, so you can stop your scheming." Vinyl snapped, though it did nothing to stop Lyra from following through with her plan.

The door bell behind Vinyl rang out and a stallion walked in, patiently waiting behind Vinyl to be seated.

"Eh, alright, but only for now. Anyways, let's get you seated, I got orders to be ready for." Lyra half-lied, all but shoving Vinyl over towards the booth where the gray mare sat.

They turned the corner, Lyra practically breathing anticipation as she ushered the unsuspecting white mare into a booth where the gray mare sat with a newspaper covering her face. Vinyl hit the cushioned seat with a deflating sound, the seats molding under her weight, and looked a bit confused at the idea of being placed into a seat when another was already there, and voice her confusion as so.

"Lyra, aren't there other seats open? I can see one right over there..." Vinyl said, craning her neck, body, and hoof around and pointing to an open table.

A set of gray ears twitched behind the paper as it slowly lowered to reveal a set of purple eyes with a hint of annoyance and anger. Octavia jutted her eyes to the now smiling Lyra with a pen and paper at the ready. She then proceeded to let out a sigh, shutting her eyes as if to gather herself before opening them with a new found tolerance.

"Lyra...are you behind this?" Octavia asked slowly, like a mother asking a foal who had been caught in the act.

A set of white ears twitched this time as Vinyl craned back around, simply staring at the face of the gray mare before breathing out heavily. The action was followed by a sharp inhale.

"I said no plotting!" Vinyl yelled to Lyra, catching a few sharp glances and turned heads from a few other patrons.

"Already plotted." She smirked, not phased by the white mare's outburst that she had seen plenty of before.

Octavia shook her head in disappointment, as if scolding the two, before suddenly getting up and sliding out of the booth. She gently took her cello case by the straps and hoisted it onto her back, nodding to Lyra, and turning to face the exit.

"I think I'll take my leave." She said as she began to take her leave, only to be stopped by a unicorn's protest.

"Not without paying your not." She smirked again.

Octavia felt around her case only to discover the lack of a lump: her purse was missing. Though she didn't have to think to long on it as the sound jingling coins drew her attention to the hooves of a green mare, and in them, her purse.

Octavia sighed in defeat, seeing no other option than to endure Lyra's shenanigans.

"Wow, she sure has you on a leash." Vinyl commented, only to receive a bored looking stare from the gray mare across from her, which of course did nothing to make Vinyl feel regret.

The white mare then tried to leave herself, sliding out of the booth and moving past Lyra - who put up no resistance - and got about half way to the exit before Lyra spoke up.

"Take a step out of that door and I'll make sure you never see another pastry again."

Vinyl sighed in defeat as well, solemnly making her back over to the booth and sliding in. She let out a huff, propping her head up on her hoof and staring away from both Lyra and Octavia.

"Good girl." Lyra commented, enjoying the death stare Vinyl shot at her out of the corner of her eyes.

"Now, may I take your order?" Lyra asked cheerfully.

Lock up

Rent out let out a slow sigh as he fiddled with a pin behind his desk, his hooves idly rolling it from on to the other and back again. He wasn't used to it being so quiet around here, but with Vinyl at theater he was stuck to his thoughts and the occasional tenant walking through. Even some of the tenants stopped by to ask what was with the silence, and when he told them that the usual noise maker was out on business for the week, he got a mix of reactions. Some of them smiled with glee and went to go presumably knit their sweaters or something while others seemed to feel the same way as he did.

The lack of noise was worse than the over flow of it.

He sighed and turned to the clock.

"About noon now." He mumbled with relief. "Time for lunch."

He usually sat at his desk and ate, but he may or may not have purposefully forgot it as an excuse to go out to eat and get away from all this quiet.

He had planned on heading to the bar, a rare thing for him, but he had a small glimmer of hope that he may catch Vinyl there skipping.

'Look at me now, dreaming of finding someone cheating me out of a deal. Silence must really drive me crazy.' He smirked at his inward statement as he pushed through the doors, taking a left and heading down the block on his way to the bar.

Even the walk there was silent.

The silence finally broke once he entered the bar, the sounds of conversation and laughter filling his ears to the point where he cringed a bit as he walked in. They were rough looking and a bit shady, none of them obvious elites of Canterlot but more of the look at the underbelly; the part that held the most flavor and variety but was usually hid away under the standard look that Canterlot tried to put out.

It was almost as good as a replacement for Vinyl, but not quite.

He smiled at the loudness.

He walked up to the bar, taking a seat in the stool and hunching over with a sigh, patiently waiting to be waited on. He kind of felt like an actual worker instead of a landlord who sat back and got money from others jobs. Even though it was considered "work" in legal regards, thanks to all of his tenants, save for one white mare, being responsible citizens, he never had to call in a repair truck but three times: all for the same mare.

"Hello? You there?" A feminine tone called, accompanied by a tap on the shoulder.

Rent looked up to see the bar mare looking at him with half worry and half annoyance.

A sheepish grin ran through his face.

"Ah. Sorry, must've spaced out a bit." He chuckled awkwardly, getting a single laugh - more of a grunt of approval - out of the mare.

"Don't worry about it, happens to me a lot so I can't blame you." She said, leaning on the bar. "So what'd you want?"

"Something to drink and eat, I'm not picky either." He said coolly, though the bar mare just giggled at his act.

"Yeah, yeah. Of course you aren't." She said, turning away and walking off before he could even form a rebuttal, though he hadn't planned on making one anyways.

He briefly turned to look at the crowd of ponies gathered in the bar, each of them characteristically different than the others in one way or another whether it be a hat or mane style.

It was during the scan of the crowd that he saw a familiar pair of black glasses propped up on a stallion head.

"Neon?" Rent asked, getting up and trotting over to the stallion sitting alone in a booth.

"Neon." He said, this time gaining the attention of the stallion, who turned and looked rather surprised at the appearance of Rent.

"Oh hey, it's you. Rent Out was it?" He asked, before getting a nod of confirmation.

"Anyways, take a seat: I could always use a spotter." He grinned, gesturing to the seat across from him.

Rent Out thought on the comment only for a second before sitting down in the seat with a shrug. This wasn't exactly finding Vinyl, but this was definitely finding something: he had thought of calling off the whole bet with Vinyl, plenty of times actually, just for the sake of normalcy back at the apartment but had never gone through with it. Maybe a second opinion was all he needed to follow through.

"So what brings you down here? I hadn't expected a second visit from you to this little slice of heaven." He said, making a sweeping gesture to the bar around him.

"Well, that's just it. I actually came here hoping I catch Vinyl skipping." Rent said with a bit of embarrassment, though it seemed Neon read it wrong.

"Why?" He leaned in. "Do you think she's skipping? Cause if she is all you gotta do is ask and I'll-" He began, but he got shut off quick.

"No no no, that's not it at all. Truth be told, I think this whole theater thing has had a bad effect on her: it's all quiet around the apartments now and she doesn't even look at me anymore. I was even thinking of calling off the-"

He was interrupted by the sound of Neon's laughter.

"Man, I didn't think she'd hate it that much! HAHAHA!" He gasped for air as he toppled over in his booth, getting a few glance and smiles from other faces around the bar.

"Whew," He sighed, wiping a tear from his eye as he sat up," Heh, I thought she might get made but that was just great. I had my worries at first that she was gonna cancel the deal right when you brought up her having to get involved, but I'm glad she agreed to it." He said, still giggling in-between words.

Rent took that as his answer to the "cancel the deal" thing, but it seemed that the stallion had keened in on that before bursting into tears of laughter.

"But about what you said, don't cancel it. I'm sure she sees it as a personal challenge now and that's why she hasn't been skipping. Just enjoy the ride and make amends after it's over. Simple as that." He said coolly, leaning back in his chair.

"Really?" Rent asked, spying the bar mare coming back from the back with plates in her mouth, giving him a perfect opportunity to leave without seeming rude.

"Good seeing you again Neon, thanks for the advice." Even though it wasn't much advise at all, Rent still left the table with a bit more information on Vinyl's thought process according to Neon.

"Think it over." Neon said as parting words, lifting a mug to him before tilting it back and guzzling the brew down.

Rent settled back into the bar stool with a face that was bound to be contorted with self confusion, with the argument inside his head raging against itself he even forgot to thank the bar mare.

She seemed to pick up on it.

"Something the matter? This is the second time you've blanked out on me." The bar mare asked after setting down the plate and reaching under the bar to bring out a pair of glasses and a bottle.

Rent shook himself and felt his face blush this time.

"Eh- sorry, still a bit spaced out." Rent chuckled.

"Any reason why." She pried.

Rent hated to bring a personal problem to a stranger, but it looked like a shot in the dark that might pay off; maybe having his question out of his head would give him solace.

"Well I have someone in a less than likable situation that I can get them out of, but I was the one who put them there in the first place. Part of me says I should in hopes of forgiveness while the other says no since it was a form of payment to me to begin with. And some advice I just got says it isn't my decision to make anymore."

She seemed taken off guard at first but, to her credit, recovered fairly quickly.

"Well whoever was giving you that advice sounds like a less than reliable person to begin with."

He's a bit odd and cocky too, but he's the closest I know to Vinyl." Rent said, accidentally letting Vinyl's name slip out.

"Ohhhhh, so it was Neon's advice then." She said, finishing her pouring and sliding the glass forwards.

"Is that bad?"

"He's a bit of a dunce, you'd get better emotional advice from a door knob than him. It's ultimately your decision whether or not to let it continue so do what you think right. Would you rather get paid properly and hope to make amends at the end, or cancel now and beg forgiveness?"

'Well that just puts me back at square one.' He inwardly mutter, though outwardly thanked her.

"I only told you not to trust Neon, don't thank me for telling you common sense." She smiled knowingly before trotting off to another patron and leaving Rent a bit surprised.

"Well she's keen, I give her that." He muttered before turning to his food.

A muffin sat on a plate, long since cold from not being eaten, and shook as a white hoof hit the table in outrage. It tilted slowly to the side, teetering over and seeming to balance itself until inevitably falling and hitting the plate gently.

"That's still no reason to not accept an apology!" Vinyl shouted, the now annoyed eyes of many patrons staring into her. If looks could cut, she would have been a couple dozen pieces at this point. But, since they didn't and none of the patrons had the nerve to walk up and tell the mare to quiet down, she went on unopposed.

They didn't stop them from leaving however.

"It's a completely sound reason, you just can't handle denial well." Octavia said calmly, her head long sense going back to being tucked into the paper.

Across the way, Lyra stared at them with anger: it was their fault that some of the customers were getting up and leaving, but it was her fault for putting them at the same table. And now that Vinyl was heated up, there was no way she could get her away from the mare, and especially not with her seemingly endless list of things she had to do. It was as if everyone decided to save their problems and ask her all at once the second a scene started.

"Really? You're putting yourself above apologizing? Jeez how egoistic are you?!" Vinyl spouted, this time managing to get the grey mare across from her to fold up her paper.

"I'm not above it. I just don't think you deserve it." Octavia said sharply.

"Oh please, as if you have the right to give them out like gifts. I don't think you understand how this whole apologizing thing works, but then again you probably didn't have to learn it sense you were raised up to think you were always in the right." Vinyl spat back, satisfied she was finally getting under the usually calm mare's skin.

"Thinking I'm in the right and being in the right are two entirely different things." She said, finally getting a bit loud.

"And you're not either of the two!"

"And you are?!" Octavia fired back.

"Don't flip this around on me snoot!"

"Stop calling me that!" Octavia snapped.

"Snoot. Snoot. Snoot." Vinyl taunted childishly.

"You slob!" Octavia said, fainlly being dragged down to the level of name calling by the white mare's antics.

"Old eared coot!"

"Grease haired heathen!" Octavia spat back, ignoring the lack of sense Vinyl's comment even made.

"Grey!"

"White!"

The two bumped heads and seemed to growl at one another, a spark of hate in both of their eyes as more and more of the patrons got up and walked towards the door. Lyra tried to stop them from leaving, but may as well have been trying to stop a train as she was easily pushed aside.

A kitchen door swung open and the entire building went quiet at the strength at which the door hit the wall, leaving a small crack in the wall as a tan colored pony with a bakers hat walked out slowly. Her mane bobbed lightly, not seeming to mind the numerous eyes that were glued to the mare, and a sickly sweet, close mouthed, smile completed the whole look.

She walked easily up to the table where the two mare's still locked eyes, and it wasn't until she lightly cleared her throat that they bothered to turn and acknowledge her.

It was Bon Bon.

"I understand that you two may not be fond of each other," She leaned in close to them both. "but my bakery is not a place to solve those differences."

The tone she used, motherly yet evil, stunned the two as she grabbed them both and tugged them off towards the kitchen, every set of eyes following them as they went.

As soon as the door shut, silence enveloped the bakery and the patrons stood stunned at the scene until Bon Bon popped her head through the kitchen door.

"Lemon bars are half off today and all refills are free as well. Please enjoy your stay!" She said cheerfully before popping back into the kitchen.

Bon Bon effortlessly tossed the grey and white mares onto the kitchen floor, each of them hitting the ground and landing on their haunches with a simple thud as they finally began to get their movement back. They looked like foals at this point, both of their ears laid flat with bigger than normal eyes.

Bon simply smiled to them sweetly before getting back to work and back to preparing the orders that remained.

Eventually, Vinyl managed to work up the nerve to speak to Bon Bon.

"Uh, can we leave now." She asked, almost shakily.

A single look from Bon Bon had her backed up against the wall, the odd part was that it was motherly smiled instead of a death stare, but it looked like they both had the same effect.

"I'm sure Lyra will be back here soon to talk to you two, so wait until then." She said simply before getting back to preparing her pastries.

Sure enough, after about ten or twenty minutes, Lyra came back through the door.

"Wow Bon, didn't know you could handle ponies so well." She said in admiration, getting a blush out of Bon Bon who giggled girlishly at the complement.

"Oh, you flatter me." She said.

Lyra noticed the two still waiting on the floor and laughed lightly before trotting over to them both, a smug smile gracing her face as she looked down on the two like foals. She even took a moment just to stare the two down in silence, hoping to try and get the best of the recent scare Bon had put into them.

"Are you going to speak or just stare at us?" Octavia asked.

Even though her outward appearance had changed from it's normally stoic nature, her voice was still as monotone as ever. In fact, when Lyra tried to remember, the only time Octavia had shown any emotion in her speech pattern was recently when Vinyl managed to provoke her.

"Well, the reason I put you two together was to try and get some apologies in order, but it looks like that isn-"

"Not happening." Vinyl spouted from her wall.

"Seems we agreed on something for once." Octavia spat, shooting daggers at Vinyl only to get a stuck out tongue in return.

"Hmmm...." Lyra trailed off in thought, trying to think of some sort of way to get the two to get along, only to come up without a single idea in mind. The bakery scheme was her first and last plan it seemed.

"I got nothing...." Lyra sighed after about five minutes of pure silence.

"Well, I may have an idea." Bon Bon said with chipper.

The ears of the two mares on the floor perked up in fear at the sound of her voice alone.

"Let's hear it then." Lyra said with a raised brow.

"I'd much rather show you." Bon Bon said, her eyes closed in a sweet smile.

The two mare's found themselves in a familiar situation as they were idly tossed by a caramel colored baker into an open door. It may have seemed dramatic for the two to be rendered motionless from just the interference of the single mare, who for the record had an outward appearance as sweet as what she sold, but to them it was like seeing a mother get angry. They both hit the ground same as last time, only recovered much quicker for a single reason.

It was cold.

Really cold.

Vinyl began to shiver as she let out a pained sigh, watching in interest as her now visible breath floated up and steamed up the insides of her glasses. She quickly wiped them, smudging the insides and blurring her vision ever so slightly, but right now that was the least of her worries as she turned to the pair of mares standing in the door way.

"W-what the heck are you guys doing?" Vinyl chattered.

"I figured if you won't voluntarily be friends, we can just as easily force you to do it." Bon Bon smiled again. In a way she was beginning to remind Vinyl of a certain mare that went to her theater to watch over her; one that had a plastered on smile as well.

"Care to e-elaborate?" Octavia quirked, the cold obviously getting to her as well.

"In short, you two are going to stay in here until you make up to at least become neutral towards one another. And don't try to lie your way out of it, cause it won't work." Bon added playfully.

"Gotta say, I'm impressed." Admired Lyra, stroking her chin as she looked around the freezers interior.

"You can't a-actually be locking us in here, right?" Vinyl quivered, only to be met by the sound of a metal door shutting and the shouts of a green mare from the outside.

"See you at the end of the work day!" She shouted, her voice slightly muffled by the thickness of the door and glass, just before turning and walking away.

A silence soon crept into the freezer, the only sounds present being the breathing of each mare and the occasional shift in ice that made the mentioned jump slightly. They soon had scooted to each corner of the freezer, albeit it was only about three feet between the two, but it was the thought that count. Each of their heads were tucked down into their chests and pressed up into the corner of the small room, as if they were trying to escape each other instead of the freezer.

Lyra trotted cheerfully from table to table, waiting on various customers and sending the orders back to Bon in a small sort of rhythm she had build up over the half hour. Her smile was a real one rather than the fake plastered ones she saw on plenty of the customers she served, but to be completely honest, she didn't much care about them or their orders. She had her dream job, even if she hadn't expected this to become that job a mere day or two ago.

Her thoughts kept wandering back to the two in the freezer, wondering - hoping - that they would become friends. All of the dramatics aside, she really was doing this out of love for the two.

'And maybe to settle some personal scores...' Lyra added in her head.

It was about fifteen minutes later, whilst Lyra sat in an empty booth and helped herself to some snacks Bon had given her as a sort of 'lunch', that the bell rang once more and single customer walked through. Lyra was quick to get up and float her notepad over to her while she trotted to meet the customer at the door.

"Hello and welcome to-" Her sentence cut off as she saw Tip Top standing before her.

"Oh, it's you." Lyra said in general surprise.

Tip Top looked different than the other time Lyra saw her, her smile wasn't near as big and seemed even a bit malicious now; her eyes sparked not with a false sense of cheer, but with a look of determination. It looked a bit weird on her, albeit more natural than her previous happy facade.

"Hello." She said simply, not a drop of cheery in her voice.

Lyra hesitated for a moment before shaking her head.

"Um, here, let me seat you." She mumbled, grabbing a menu and trotting over to the only booth that was still open.

The second that Tip had sat down she began to sniff the air, her nose turned up at first and then quickly down onto the table. Lyra was both scared and weirded out by the sight, but let her continue out of shock.

Finally, she stopped sniffing, her eyes opening slowly as she faced Lyra with she had expected to be slits for pupils.

"Where is she?" She hissed.

"Where is who?" Lyra asked back in a near stammer.

"Vinyl. I can smell her, she was here." Tip said, cranking the creep factor up to about a seven in Lyra's head.

Lyra was no stranger to lying, and if this mare found Vinyl she was bound to take her back to theater, which meant away from Octavia, which also meant they wouldn't be forced into friendship.

"Well this is her favorite booth, we save it for her whenever she's coming over so it would make sense it would smell like her." Lyra smiled.

Tip turned quickly and locked eyes with Lyra, who only looked back with a cool and calm expression, and continued to stare at her until the back kitchen took notice.

"Oh Lyra! Three plates for table two, and tell that mare if she's not gonna order than she can leave. But be sure to say please!" Bon Bon chimed.

"Okay!" Lyra turned back to Tip, "and I think that's your queue to leave, unless you plan on buying something." Lyra said cheerfully.

Tip stared just a few seconds longer before turning and slinking out the door, letting Lyra give way to a sigh of relief as she stared back towards the freezer to where the two mares were unintentionally hidden from that stalker.

She thought a few moments before smirking.

"I'll give 'em til' the end of work." Lyra smiled before going to the kitchen window and taking the three plates. "Just in case."