//------------------------------//
// Canterlot 
// Story: More in Common 
// by Batgirl639 
//------------------------------//


Canterlot


“What did you do to my mane?!” Octavia screamed. 
“I told the pony cutting it to make it look like mine. Isn’t it cool?” Vinyl asked.
“No!” Octavia snapped.
“But I thought you said it looks great?” Vinyl said sadly.
“It looks great on you! That doesn’t mean I want it on me!!!” Octavia screamed.
“Oh...Sorry?” Vinyl said. Octavia gritted her teeth. Vinyl was trying to be nice. She thought I would like it. Octavia sighed.
The two mares left the salon in silence. Octavia told Vinyl that she wasn’t mad, but she was a little annoyed.
“So, do you want to go home?” Vinyl asked.
“Yes, it’s getting late,” Octavia said.
“Can we do one last thing before we go home?” Vinyl asked.
“Sure, why not? What do you want to do?” Octavia asked.
“Roller disco!” Vinyl exclaimed.
“Roller what?” Octavia was confused.
They went to a place where they could do roller disco which was when they put on roller skates and danced to disco. Octavia would never have gotten within ten feet of the roller disco place before she met Vinyl. The two went inside, got their skates, and went to have fun. The radio played a song from Octavia’s CD. Octavia and Vinyl sang along to it.

Octavia groaned as she rolled over in her bed the next morning. She got home at 11:45 PM. She got in bed half an hour later. She didn’t want to get up. After a few minutes of arguing with herself about whether or not she should get out of bed, she got up and went to take a shower.
The cold water that fell from the showerhead helped wake Octavia up. After taking  a shower, brushing her odd mane, eating breakfast, brushing her teeth, and doing other normal morning procedures, she remembered what day it was. She was supposed to go to Canterlot so she could start practicing for the Garden Party with the other members of the band.
She looked at the clock. It was 10:27 AM. That gave her about an hour to pack and get to the train depot on time. She galloped to her room where she packed her things including some sheet music, her bowtie, a manebrush, a toothbrush, and some other toiletries. Then, she grabbed her cello.
It was hard for her to carry the cello on her back and pull the suitcase with her by having the handle in her mouth. She rushed out the door of her apartment and headed for the elevator. She sighed when she saw the out of order sign taped to the door. She turned around so she could look down the huge flight of stairs. She gulped.
She took one step on the stairs. Then, she fell to the bottom.  She quickly opened up the case her mammoth cello was in to see if it was okay. It didn’t appear to have any damage. She plucked the strings. It wasn’t tuned, but other than that it was fine. Octavia picked up her things so she could continue making her trek to the train depot.
She was panting by the time she got there. She saw Vinyl waiting happily on a bench at the depot.
“Woah,” she said. “Ha! What happened to you.”
“I tripped down a few flights of stair,” Octavia said through gritted teeth.
“Sorry ‘bout that. The last time I was at your apartment I was jumping in the elevator. It crashed or something like that,” Vinyl said. “By the way, you are really rocking the new mane cut.”
“Vinyl, where is all of your stuff?” Octavia asked.
“My what?”
“The stuff you’re taking to Canterlot.”
“Oh, I hired a pony to get that for me.”
“Good idea,” Octavia said as the cello slid off of her back.

*********

“So, this is the band?” Octavia asked when she saw the small crowd of ponies with instruments stranding on a stage in what soon will be the Canterlot Garden Party.
“What are those ruffians doing here?” a stallion whispered to the one next to him.
“They’re probably lost,” he replied. He turned to Octavia and Vinyl before clearing his throat. “Excuse me. are you two ponies lost?” he asked.
“No, isn’t  this the band for the Canterlot Garden Party?” Octavia asked.
“Yes, what are you doing here?” he asked. Octavia was about to answer but Vinyl interrupted her.
“We just rolled in from Manehattan. We’re going to play at the party because we are awesome!” she said. Octavia put her head in her hoof. The stallions chuckled.
“May I asked what you are doing with that?” the first stallion who spoke asked as he motioned to the turntable Vinyl was sitting on.
“Well, I’m going to play it at the party. Duh! Some porter brought it here for me,” Vinyl said casually.
“You two?!” the stallion said as he tried to keep himself from laughing. He failed. Him and his friend laughed very loudly and mockingly at the mares. Octavia and Vinyl turned red.
“You’re kidding, right?” one of the stallions asked.
“No...” Octavia said.
“Ha! I’ll speak with Caesar about that! In the meantime, how about you play your instruments for us?” The stallions exchanged evil smiles. Octavia took out her cello and started playing In the Mood. The stallions were impressed, but didn’t show it.
“You know this is a classy party, right?” one of the stallions asked. Octavia glared at him and started playing Fur Elise.
One of the stallions interrupted in the middle of the song and said to Vinyl, “What about you?” All the other members of the band watched as Vinyl started playing music on the turntable. She scratched some records so they squeaked.
“Get out of here! This is no place for you,” one of the stallions said.
Octavia’s heart broke. “Why are they picking on me?” she thought. If Vinyl was disappointed she didn’t show it. She had her sunglasses on so you couldn’t really tell either.
“Hey, Octavia, how does this sound?” she asked. Vinyl started playing another song.
“Great,” Octavia said quietly
“Pardon me, but did she just call you ‘Octavia?” a mare with a blue coat and a brown mane on the stage asked.
“Well sure I did, that is her name, yo,” Vinyl said.
“Octavia, what happened to you?” the mare asked.
“Oh... I had a little problem at the salon,” Octavia said.
“No, not your mane. You used to be quieter; this is the most I’ve heard you talk. You used to hate all other music that wasn’t classical; now you play  jazz so you can prove to us you can play. When you played Fur Elise, you played it like you didn’t seem to enjoy your old favorite song. You also hate electronic music, and now you are telling that pony it sounds great? You really let yourself go,” the mare said.
“And you know me from?’ Octavia asked as she raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, Octavia, you don’t remember? We played at the Grand Galloping Gala,” the mare said. Octavia suddenly recognized the pony with the sousaphone wrapped around her.
“Oh, whatever! This ruffian is still no pony fit to play at the Garden Party. Am I right?” the stallion asked. “You are right,” his friend said. “I remember playing with Octavia at the gala, she had class then, now she is such a ruffian!” another stallion said.
“Well, Tavi and I ain’t goin’ nowhere!” Vinyl said.
“Oh, do hush up. There’s Caesar over there. Hey, Caesar!” the rude stallion called.
“Yes, yes, what is it?I haven’t a lot of time,” the high class pony said.
“These two mares want to play at the party,” the stallion who called Caesar said.
“Oh my,” Caesar said when he looked at Vinyl. “What is your name?” he asked her.
“Vinyl Scratch,” she replied.
“Vinyl, Vinyl, Vinyl,” Caesar said to himself as he read the list of who was playing. “Ahha, you are on the list. You can play.”
“Yes!” Vinyl said.
“And you are?” Caesar said to Octavia.
“Octavia,” she said.
“Octav-wait! what?” he exclaimed.
“Octavia. O-C-T-A-” she started.
“I know how to spell!” Caesar cut her off.
“Octavia what happened to you? How did you get that giant bruise?” Caesar asked. Octavia gulped when she remembered the bruise on her face. She was going to lie when Vinyl interrupted again and said, “Oh, she fell during roller disco last night.”
Caesar looked looked at Octavia’s mane and thought about her doing roller disco. “Octavia, as much as I would like to say your little friend can’t play at the party, I can’t because a judge decided she would play. But, I can say that you can’t perform at the party since it was my mistake saying you could. I’m sorry, Octavia. I can’t have a no-class mare such as yourself ruining this party. It might be worse than when those hill-folk from Ponyville came and ruined the party last year,” Caesar said. “Please, leave now.”
“Hey, hold on! If Octavia leaves, then I leave too. So, you should rethink that decision,” Vinyl said.
“Oh, by all means, you should leave,” Caesar said.
The two mares walked away from the group of ponies. Octavia had her cello with her, but Vinyl decided to leave her turntable because she rented it. The two rude stallions laughed at Octavia and Vinyl as they left.
“I wish they would let you play at the party,” Vinyl said. “What about you?”
“You want to know what I wish?!” Octavia said loudly. “I wish I never met you! I wish you didn’t weave your way into my life and ruin my music career!” Octavia screamed at Vinyl. Vinyl was slightly offended but she didn’t really care. She knew Octavia could say some really mean things when she was upset. This was just like when Octavia's name wasn’t on the list or when she got her mane cut.
Octavia sighed. “Vinyl, I’m sorry. Why can’t I be more like you? You don’t get mad very easily.”
“I guess it’s just one thing we don’t have in common,” Vinyl said.
“What do you mean? We have next to nothing in common,” Octavia said.
“Think about it. We both like music, play cello, like jazz, rock, we even have the same manecut!” Vinyl said.
“Vinyl, the truth is we only had two of those things in common when I met you,” Octavia said. “That mare was right. I have changed.”
“So? Everything changes! Music, fashion, ponies- you name it! Change is good,” Vinyl said.
“But still, we won’t get to play in the party. That was supposed to help my career as a musician. Instead, it did the opposite,” Octavia hung her head.
“So? You don’t know that. Your music career isn’t ruined,” Vinyl said.
“Who knows, maybe something extremely lucky will happen!” she added.
“What? Vinyl, you are the most positive pony I know,” Octavia said.
“Excuse me, ladies,” a white stallion with a blue mane and tail stopped them as he passed.
“I say, aren’t you Octavia he asked?” he asked. Octavia looked at him in surprise.
“Was Vinyl right? Could this be something extremely lucky that was about to happen? This pony looks very important,” Octavia thought.