Vinyl and Lyra stood in front of the rundown records store. “The Broken Record” was labeled. Lyra couldn't decide if the title was supposed to be ironic or it was just a cruel coincidence.

“Are you sure she is in here?” she asked her partner.

“Sure as Celestia´s day,” Vinyl replied.

“Well, looks like she´s doing well.” Right on queue, the second “o” in the sgin feel down. “I thought you said you two studied together.”

“We did and we were actually pretty good. But after Octi got her musical Cutie Marks things went kinda downhill. She lost the touch, she wasn´t able to focus on her music anymore and abandoned school. She tried to keep that job as party musician but she eventually couldn´t play any instrument anymore. Last thing I knew, she opened this record store to saty close to music the only way she could.”

“That´s sad,” Lyra commented and she remembered the Doctor´s word, about how thigns weren't supposed to be this way. Lyra couldn't really understand since she only had one set of memories but something in the back of her mind, some nagging feeling, kept telling her something was off. It was a feeling she often felt at work when she couldn´t find an address or delivered the wrong package. It was an uneasy feeling. “Let´s go, Vinyl.”

“Umh why don't I wait for you out here?”

Lyra looked at Vinyl confused and the other unicorn avoided her look while scratching her leg.

“Is something wrong, Vinyl?”

“I haven't talk to Octavia in a while. I...don't know what to say.”

“...did something happened between you two?”

Vinyl looked at Lyra and noticed the way she was looking at her. “Ugh! Not that way, idiot!”

“You started it...” Lyra murmured, remembering their previous conversation.

“Look, I just...something did happened and I don´t wanna talk about it. But the thing is, I don´t think she will be too thrilled to see me.”

Lyra approached her and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “That may be the case and I don´t know what to say to make you feel better but, right now, the Doctor needs us to walk into that store and talk to that mare, okay?”

Vinyl sighed. She didn't even knew why she was doing this. Running all the way to Canterlot, breaking into palace and looking for a pony she didn´t even knew. But it was too late now to turn back. SHe sighed once more and walked across the street, towards the record store.

****

Meanwhile, in the down part of Canterlot, the Doctor and BonBon kept searching for Twilight Sparkle. Three addresses some far have been a failure, either abandoned or inhabited by some homeless ponies. Nopony knew anything about this Twilight but in each place the Doctor sniffed the air and then moved forward.

BonBon had no idea what the Doctor was doing, why he licked the ground in each corner or kept looking at every lamppost. He was the crazies he had ever know but somehow there was something oddly familiar about him. A feeling of nostalgia, like being homesick. BonBon couldn't shake it off her mind.

“I think. Wait for it...” He stopped and licked the ground again. “Yes. Definitely this is the way.  I know I said that the last five corners but this is the one. I can feel it. Come along, BonBon. That almost rhymes...”

“Who are you, Doctor?”

He turned around, curious over the question.

“You look like a pony but don´t talk like one. There´s an air around you, like when standing next to the Princess but different. I feel...uncomfortable when around you. Why is that?”

The Doctor approached her, his expression showing concern for her. “I´m sorry. I´m terribly sorry that you feel this way.”

“You know something is wrong, Since you showed up at the store, since we came here, I had this...feeling, This buzzing sound. Why do I keep hearing it?”

“Earth ponies are more connected to this earth. Is part of their unique type of magic, That´s why you feel so uneasy, you can tell something is wrong with Equestria. Call it sixth sense, intuition or whatever. The point is of the three of them, you´re the only one looking me for what I am,” the Doctor.

BonBon tried to catch her breath again, Jay-Jay pecking at her mane. “I still don´t understand.”

The Doctor circled around a few times, like a colt that couldn´t wait for his Hearth's Warming Eve present. “Oh why couldn't you be like Lyra and just, accept everything?”

He finally gave in and hold BonBon´s face with his hooves, pressing his forehead against hers. There was a moment of silence and then BonBon screamed and the Doctor grunted while Jay-Jay escape from them. She struggle don his hooves for less than a minute and he let her go.

“Oh my Celestia. You are...you are...”

“Yes! I´m the thirteen! Actually, I should be the first since I became a totally different species and I will probably start a new regeneration cycle. You okay?”

BonBon catched her breath again, taking a little longer this time. “So...lonely. You are so lonely. No wonder you´re so desperate to get her back, to recover your companions. It must be...”

The Doctor extended his hoof so she could stand.

“It is. But even so, I must set things right again,” he said.

“Even if it cost you what you desire the most?”

“That´s what this Cutie mark is telling me I must do.”

******

“Hello? Is anypony home? The door was open!” Lyra called into the darkness.

The store was deserted. It seemed like nopony had bought a record in weeks. You could even see the cobwebs between the records.

“Seems she isn´t here after all, let´s go.”

Lyra slammed the door magically to stop Vinyl for leaving. She then noticed a tiny bell in the counter. She levitated it and made it sound, smiling like a filly for her number while Vinyl rolled her eyes.

“We´re wasting our time, Lyra. Let´s go back.”

“No, we´re not leaving untilt we find her. I told you, the Doctor needs her. Mrs. Octavia Melody, are you in he-”

“No need to yell. I heard you the first time.”

A grey coated mare walked from the storage room. Lyra thought she was the most depressing pony she had ever seen.

“Hi there. Sorry for the noise,” Lyra said.

Octavia ignored her and turned her attention to Vinyl.

“Hello.”

“Hey Octi, long time no see, right?”

Octavia merely nodded and moved to her records, putting them in the right order. Lyra noticed how strange and depressing the whole scene was so she took the word.

“My name is Lyra Heartstrings. You obviously know Vinyl.”

“We´re acquaintances, yes.”

The air was so thick that Lyra felt her own horn cutting the tension.

“Can I help you?”

“Well, yes. Herés the thing we're looking for a pony, her name is Derpy Hooves.”

“Never heard of her but if you're looking for newer artist, the store at the corner has all the latest hits, “ Octavia respond in a monotone tone.

“No, I don´t think she is any famous. She was an old acquaintances of you,” Lyra explained.

“I don't recall any Derpy Hooves. Sorry.”

“Grey coat, blonde mane, mismatched eyes...” Which each description Lyra transmitted from the Doctor to Octavia, all that happened was that Octavia shook her head. “She has a musical note Cutie Mark. A purple treble clef.”

At the mention of the mark, Octavia almost dropped a record. “A good mark. She must be very talented.”

“Your Cutie Mark is also a good one,” Vinyl Scratch commented, scratching her leg.

“It didn´t help me at all. Too extravagant, too arabesque. I wasn't fit for the philharmonic so I went to the clubs. Too soft, too classy. I didn't fit there either. I don't fit anywhere, except here with these old, dusty records.”

Lyra kept quiet, she didn't know what could she possibly answer to that. Vinyl bit her lip almost to the point of making blood come out.

“I´m sorry I can´t help yo. Maybe you should try wit somepony who´s more into the latest trends. I know someone who can put you in contact with Hoity Toity, the fashion pony,” Octavia said.

“You stopped playing,” Vinyl said, all of a sudden. “You just...dropped all your instruments. You abandoned everything.”

“Why are you angry? You did the same thing. The second those candies appeared in your flank you gave up on music.”

“Because it wasn´t my destiny! But music is yours! Just a different type of music!”

“Music come from the heart. If I don't feel it, how can you tell it´s my destiny?”

“Enough you two!” Both mares turned to  look at Lyra, who seemed very upset. “I know how you feel. Trust me. That feeling inside, that something is wrong. But is precisely because of that, that we must help the Doctor. He´s the only that can take this uncertainty we´re feeling. And we need to find this Derpy to help him.”

Vinyl and Octavia remained silent for a moment.

“You know, maybe she isn't a commercial artist and that´s why I never heard of her,” Octavia said.

“Makes sense. Maybe if she´s feeling as usuelles as we do, she never took off with her music,” Lyra said.

“Then, I think I know where we can find her...”

*****

The Doctor and BonBon entered the last building in the list, a dark, unwelcoming store in a alleyway in the slums of Canterlot. The store was filled with poisons, zebra skulls and several other items that obviously weren't acquired by any legitimate means.

“Welcome, travelers. Are you looking for something in particular?”

BonBon startled at the sudden voice, Jay-Jay flapping in response. From behind the counter, a bespectacled figure with an oriental outfit greeted them.

“Actually, we´re looking for a one of a kind object...” the Doctor said.

“And what could that be?”

The Doctor approached the corner and took off the hat from the store clerk, revealing a purple horn.

“A Twilight Sparkle.”