Octavia rose up in her bed and yawned. She started making a mental list of what she had to do throughout the day.
Okay, morning time. Let’s think of what we have to do today to get ready for the gala. First, breakfast. After breakfast I should go with Vinyl to pick up our dresses. Then I have to go to orchestra. Let’s see… after orchestra I guess we should all meet up at home to go get dinner after we get ready.
Octavia got out of bed and got ready for the day. After spending a significant amount of time trying to straighten her bed mane she went downstairs. Vinyl and Derpy were already at the table eating breakfast.
“Good morning.” Octavia mumbled.
“Good morning.” Vinyl and Derpy both replied.
“Vinyl after breakfast we have to go pick up our dresses.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Thanks for reminding me.”
Octavia went to the counter and started making some coffee. She then put an english muffin in the toaster. After a minute or two the coffee and english muffin were both done. Octavia got out a plate and set the two pieces of her meal on it and sat down at the table.
“Are you guys as excited as I am for the Gala?” Derpy asked.
“Well how excited are you?” Vinyl responded.
“I’m super excited. I can’t wait to go later.”
“Well, in that case I’m a little less excited but I’m still pumped.”
Octavia remembered that she had to play at the gala and said, “I forgot to tell you guys but I have to play at the gala for half an hour or so.”
“Really? That’s pretty cool.” Derpy said.
“I’d rather be hanging out with you two.”
“Well, it’s only thirty minutes so it’s not too long. I mean the whole Gala is like 4 hours.”
“I’d be pretty excited if I was being the DJ for a huge event like this.” Vinyl said. “I think it’s an honor Tavi.”
“Well, I guess you’re right Vinyl. It is a pretty big honor to be performing at the Gala.”
Octavia finished eating her english muffin and started washing her plate. The water washed over her hoofs as she scrubbed the plate. She decided the plate was clean and put it away in one of the many wooden cabinets.
“Vinyl when do you think you’ll be done?”
“Just a minute or so. I’ll meet you at the front door.”
With that Octavia went to her room to grab her bag of bits. She looked at her dresser where she usually left it. It wasn’t there.
Where did I leave it? Maybe in here. Nope. Did I put it by the front door. I guess I better go check.
Octavia walked back downstairs and looked at the small table by the front door. Her bag of bits was sitting there. Vinyl was nowhere to be seen.
“Vinyl!”
“I’m coming!”
Vinyl came running out of the room on the left of the stairs and almost tripped. She came down the stairs a little more slowly. The two of them headed out the door. The fresh morning air of Canterlot was refreshing and the perfect temperature. The early hours of the morning presented few ponies about the streets. The sun had just risen and the bright morning light shined down on the stores. The day proved to be a seemingly good one. Octavia pushed open the doors to the Canterlot Carousel and saw nopony there.
“Do you think she’s here?”
“Probably.” Vinyl said before pressing down on the bell on the counter.
“Vinyl!”
“I’ll be there in a second!” Sassy Saddles yelled from the back room before stumbling into the front of the store. “Oh, Vinyl and Octavia, I have your dresses back here.”
“I hope we didn’t interrupt anything.” Octavia said.
“No, I was just working on more dresses for the Gala. Here are yours.” Sassy said as she showed them there dresses.
“Wow, these are spectacular Sassy!” Octavia exclaimed.
“Yeah, these are awesome!” Vinyl added.
“Thanks, that means a lot to me. Ponies sometimes compliment the dresses but they don’t seem like they care. Just handing out empty compliments you know?”
“You outdid yourself Sassy. How much are these?” Vinyl asked.
“Well they’re seventy five bits each.”
“Only seventy five bits! I’ll give you 100 for mine.” Octavia said.
Vinyl added, “Yeah, I’ll give 100 too. If you’re charging seventy five bits for this level of effort you’re going to go out of business. Especially with these rich Canterlot ponies.”
“Really! Thanks you two, that’s so thoughtful. I can’t believe you’re willing to give me that much. Some ponies complain that seventy five is too much.”
“Well, those ponies are completely insane rich snobs. I can’t believe they would try and get a cheaper deal on this insane quality.”
With that Vinyl and Octavia paid Sassy Saddles, said goodbye, and left the store with their dresses. Now that it was a little later in the morning they noticed that as they walked home more and more ponies started walking around. They passed the market, the bakery, and the community garden. Once they finally got home it was almost time for Octavia to be at orchestra. She realised the time and dropped off her dress only to run out the door immediately after. Fifteen minutes later Octavia burst through the doors to the practicing room, panting. Luckily it was still five minutes until they started.
“Oh thank Celestia.” Octavia gasped.
She got out her cello, a music stand, and a chair and sat down where she normally did. A few minutes later the conductor stood on his podium and looked at them all.
“Hello everypony, today I have an announcement. Some of our best players will be going to perform at the Gala tonight. If I’ve informed you that you’re going you will need to meet at the entrance to the Gala at seven. We will be performing from seven fifteen to seven forty five. Just make sure to bring your instrument and music, they have stands and chairs there.”
Once he stopped talking everypony started clapping for those that made it to the Gala.
“Today we’re just going to be playing through the music we have for our upcoming concert and discussing what we think should be worked on for it.”
Throughout the rest of the morning and afternoon, excluding lunch, they did just that.