"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. Next Chapter: Mumbles are worse than shouts Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 39 Minutes