The dusty shelves of Cadance's sacred vinyl hall had not heard this much laughter in ages. Between Cadance constantly thanking the absent Twilight Sparkle for preservation enchantments made to last, and Sombra's... colorful... reactions to centuries' worth of alternative music, the rest of the night sounds of the Empire might as well not have existed.

Humming, Cadance flipped a curl of her long mane back and blew dust off one of her treasures. "Gosh, I can't believe it's been one hundred and twenty three years since I gave anything by Rodeohead a listen... Gods, no wonder I've been feeling so pathetic, huh?"

"Pardon... Rodeohead? Just what are all these things?" Sombra pointed to a dusty vinyl and squinted at it. "Why are the tails referenced in here only nine-inches long?"

"It's the band name, Sombry. Think of it like the name for an acting troupe."

"I see. Was their distinguishing feature their unreasonably short tails?"

"Do you want to listen to music or not?"

"Do you know just how impractical it is to have an nine inch tail?" Sombra said, raising an eyebrow and giving Cadance a pointed look. She silently wondered two things. The first was whether Sombra didn't like the manestyle of the day - she had kissed cold, formal manestyles good-bye and delved into some old habits - and the second was whether she should listen to Amnesiac or In Rainbows first.

"Hey, Sombry, just how many genres of music did they have back when you weren't dead? I'm debating what we should try first..."

"Do lutes count as a genre?"

Cadance calmly placed the two vinyl records she had been levitating down and strolled over to Sombra, radiating a friendliness and spunk that had only recently returned. "Sombry, I love you, but we really need to make sure you get the best possible experience from all my vintage stuff."

Sombra accepted a peck on the cheek and gave Cadance a wary look. "And this is coming from the mare who thought that spraying your fabled 'manespray' directly onto me would make it harder for me to walk through walls?"

"You kept spying on me!"

"I was not," Sombra protested, "I happened to want to locate a book you had been reading to me, seeing as I can't manipulate many objects on my own and you sprayed your own husband in the eyes with that ancient styling product!"

"Okay, first, there's no need to be rude. Second, you spooked me. Third, walking through walls all the time isn't nice."

"I'm dead."

"I know, but it wasn't like the manespray did anything, right?" Cadance beamed innocently at him.

"It startled me..." Sombra mumbled.

"Yah? Well, marriage is about forgiveness, Sombry, and I'm waiting for that any day now." She winked and placed a kiss on his muzzle.

Sombra sighed, and smiled. "You are going to attempt to keep me here until I know all these disc troupes as well as you do, aren't you?"

"Oh, you betcha!"

Author's Notes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yq8D-fAFIo

Reading done by Lotus Moon, and linked in the description.