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. Next Chapter: Backlash Estimated time remaining: 48 Minutes