//------------------------------//
// A Night on the Town 
// Story: More in Common 
// by Batgirl639 
//------------------------------//


A Night on  the Town


The list was hard to read because it had small font and with everypony trying to get in front of you  it was a hard to get a good view. Octavia was shoved on the ground as the large crowd of ponies trampled her. She looked up. Octavia squinted. She could barely read the list.

The following ponies will be this years musical entertainment at the Canterlot Garden Party:
Baritone
Beauty Brass
Concerto
Frederic Horseshoepin
Harpo Parish Nadermane
Vinyl Scratch

Octavia felt her heart break for two reasons. The first reason was she just got kicked in the chest by an excited pony in the crowd. The second reason was she wasn’t on the list.
Octavia felt tears in her eyes as she struggled to get out of the excited crowd of ponies. She had worked so hard. Now she would have to wait about a year to have enough bits to buy a house.
“Yo, Octavia, wait up!” Octavia heard somepony call. She turned around to see Vinyl galloping towards here.
“Isn’t it exciting! I’m going to play at the party!” Vinyl said as she jumped up and down.
“Yea, exciting,” Octavia said half heartedly.
“I know! I’ve never played at a hoity-toity, shmancy-fancy party before! It’s going to be so awesome!” Seeing Vinyl so happy about playing at the party made Octavia feel even worse.
“Vinyl, I’ve played with most of the ponies who were on that list at either the Grand Galloping Gala or last year’s Garden Party. They are all so sophisticated and you are more...juvenile. Are you sure you’ll be able to play with those ponies?” Octavia asked.
“Sure! I get along with everypony, and I’m not juvenile, I think I might be a little older than you,” Vinyl said.
“No, I mean you...aren’t....you like....” Octavia couldn’t say it. What she wanted to say was: “You act like a teenager.”
“What? I can’t hear you,” Vinyl said.
“Disregard, forget I ever said anything.”
“Okay... Wow! I can’t believe it! Playing at the Garden Party is the best thing that could ever happen to any pony!” Vinyl said.
“Can you talk about anything else?!” Octavia snapped.
“Um..... Okay,” Vinyl said quietly.
“I’m sorry, it’s just I...Ugh, just forget it!” Octavia yelled as she galloped ahead of Vinyl who looked like she just found out her name being on the list was a cruel prank.
Octavia started to cry again. “Vinyl has always been so nice to me,” she thought. “And I just snapped at her because I’m...jealous.” Octavia galloped home as fast as she could.
When she got home, she wasn’t sure what to do. She felt horrible for being mean to Vinyl. While Octavia was crying, the phone rang. Octavia hoped it wasn’t Vinyl, but at the same time she hoped it was.
“Hello?” Octavia said when she picked up the phone.
“Is this Octavia?” The colt on the phone asked.
“Yes,” Octavia said.
“Hello, my name is Caesar. I help organize the Canterlot Garden Party. I would like to apologize for a mistake that was made while we picked musicians,” the colt said.
“Yes?” Octavia said as she hoped what she thought was true.
“Yes, the judge in Manehattan didn’t want you to play at the party, but you did such an extraordinary job last year,” Caesar said.
“Yes?” Octavia started to smile.
“I would be ever so grateful if you would perform again this year,” Caesar said.
“Sure, I’ll perform again,” Octavia said as she tried to stay calm even though she wanted to scream in excitement.
“Thank you, you should get a ticket for the party in the mail in a few days. Goodbye,” Caesar said before hanging up.
“Yes!” Octavia cheered. Her celebration was interrupted by a knock at the door. Octavia looked through the peephole  and saw Vinyl Scratch standing there. 
“Oh hey, Vinyl,” Octavia said as she opened the door.
“Um...Hi, Octavia. I’m really sorry about how I acted earlier. I didn’t mean to rub my victory in your face. If it makes you feel any better, I called the ponies who are in charge of the party and told them I wouldn’t perform at the party.... I bought you this,” Vinyl said quietly as she held up a present.
It was pink wrapping paper covering something flimsy that could only be something made of paper.
“Oh, Vinyl, you shouldn’t have,” Octavia said. She took the gift anyway and tore the wrapping paper off of it. It was book full of sheet music.
“I wasn’t sure what kind of things you like, but I knew you liked music,” Vinyl said.
“Vinyl, I really mean you shouldn’t have. You didn’t do anything wrong. I’m sorry I snapped at you. I was just jealous. I got a call from somepony who helps organize the party and he said it was a mistake and my name was supposed to be on the list,” Octavia started to panic a little. She was mean to Vinyl and now her best friend is turning up the chance of a lifetime.
“Vinyl, you have to call back; you have to play at the party,” Octavia said a little louder than necessary.
“You aren’t mad at me?” Vinyl asked.
“No, you didn’t do anything I should be mad about!” Octavia said.
“Alright!” Vinyl said.
“If you want you can come in and use my phone to call back and see if you can still perform  at the party.”
“Okay,” Vinyl said as she entered Octavia’s house and picked up the phone.
While Vinyl talked, Octavia looked at her present. It was a book of cello sheet music for Vinyl’s favorite rock band. The book also came with a CD that had the band’s most popular songs so you can play along with them. Octavia wasn’t a big fan of the band, but decided not to be rude.
“Vinyl, are you sure you don’t want this?” Octavia asked when Vinyl was off the phone.
“No, it’s yours,” she replied with a smile. Octavia smiled back.
“Are they going to let you play at the party?” Octavia asked with a serious look on her face.
“Yea, they said it was no problem,” Vinyl said.
“Good, I was worried for a second,” Octavia said.
“Thanks for the book,” she added. Vinyl grinned.

Later that day, Octavia started using her gift from Vinyl. Even though rock bands weren’t really her thing, she still had fun playing along with CD. It reminded her of playing with the other ponies at the Grand Galloping Gala or the Canderlot Garden Party, but that was more like a jam session. A few times Octavia played along with the CD without looking at any music so it was like playing at the party.
Octavia was excited about playing at the party with her best friend, but there was one thing that worried her. Vinyl Scratch said she was going to play electronic music at the party, but everypony else was going to play classical music and, once Vinyl Scratch made up her mind, nopony could make her change it.
Octavia decided to practice some classical music for the party. She play a little Fur Elise but thought it was rather boring. She played some more classical music but all of it was so... boring. Even her old favorites.
Octavia wasn’t sure why she suddenly didn’t enjoy her favorite type of music., but she decided not to worry.
“Just like Vinyl said: The style of music is changing.”  Octavia thought. 
The next day was Saturday: The day Octavia and Vinyl Scratch planned to go on a girls night out. Octavia was so excited. Around five o’clock, Vinyl went to Octavia’s apartment. Then, the two of them left together to hit the town.
Their first stop was dinner where they had spicy chili. Octavia needed a refill at least fifteen times because Vinyl ordered the chili atomic spicy even though Octavia wanted them mild. Octavia then ordered a salad which was much better.
Their next stop was the boutique. Vinyl bought a short electric blue dress. Octavia picked out a simple dark purple dress.
Next stop: The movies. They bought tickets to see Batmare. It was about a pony named Bruce Mane who turned into Batmare. Octavia and Vinyl shared a large popcorn. They screamed when the Marecrow used her scare-powder to scare everypony. The only weird part was Bruce Mane was colt and he was Batmare.... It was still a good movie.
“So, where should we go next.?” Octavia asked.
“I don’t know....Oh, I know!” Vinyl said excitedly. Octavia laughed.
“Where?” she asked.
“The salon! It will be so totally wizard!” Vinyl exclaimed.
“Wizard?” Octavia repeated.
The two mares went to the salon. Vinyl got her mane cut first. It was just a little trim so it wouldn’t hang down like Octavia’s.
“How does it look?!” She asked Octavia.
“Great! It’s so...you!” Octavia said.
“Your turn! Your turn!” Vinyl said.
“Me? No thanks,” Octavia said sheepishly.
“Common, please?” Vinyl begged.
“Vinyl, please don’t do the sad puppy dog face. You know I hate that!” Octavia begged.
“Please?” Vinyl asked as she did a sad puppy dog face by puffing her bottom lip out and making her eyes look teary. Octavia sighed. 
“Well...I guess I have some split ends,” Octavia said.
“Hooray!” Vinyl cheered.
Octavia sat in the chair while a pony started cutting. Vinyl whispered things to the stylist while she cut which made Octavia nervous. What made her really nervous was the fact that she was wearing a blindfold because Vinyl wanted it to be a “surprise.”
Snip! Snip! Snip! Every cut the scissors made on Octavias mane made her feel even more uncomfortable. Time felt like it was going very slowly but her mane felt like it was getting short very quickly.
Finally, after the longest five minutes in the world was over, Octavia could look in the mirror. She untied the blindfold, waited for her eyes to adjust to the light, and then-
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”