Despite the beginning of the famous Canterlot Festival of the Arts, this particular Thursday dawned with little fanfare. The weatherponies were required to hold the rain until after the events of the day, but they had already moved the clouds into place before the notice from the Princess. Vinyl and Octavia both dragged themselves out of bed far earlier than either mare would have liked. Even living completely separate, their morning routines were remarkably similar. Though her mane looked wild, Vinyl actually had to spend quite a bit of time making sure it was the right kind of wild. A quick breakfast and both ponies were out of the door, nearly colliding in the hallway.
"Whoa! Sorry... Octavia was it?"
"Good Morning, Miss Scratch," the cellist replied, positioning her bow tie back where it belonged and resettling her cello, "I hadn't expected to run into you, almost literally."
"Please just call me Vinyl. I have to get down to the festival to make sure all of my equipment arrived intact and get whatever flying monkeys they provide to set it up on the stage for my first show."
"Flying mon...? Oh, a joke... Well, I just wanted to arrive early to see the other performers and get some funnel cake."
Vinyl just smiled and started walking toward the elevator. Octavia followed close and tried to search for a fresh topic of conversation. She again caught herself staring at the DJ's flank while they waited for the elevator. The unicorn said something that completely missed the other mare's ears and she nodded dumbly before blinking herself out of her early morning stupor, "I'm sorry, what?"
"I said, if you're going to stare at my flank, at least be less obvious about it."
"I-I... How..."
"The door is reflective."
"I-I'm sorry. I was just... erm... admiring your cutie mark?" the cellist suggested half-heartedly. The blush forming under her coat growing obvious.
Vinyl snickered softly as the elevator opened. She stepped inside and waited a few moments as her neighbor just stood there, dumbstruck, "Are you going to get in here or wait for the next one?"
Octavia shook her head softly and nodded, getting into the elevator next to the unicorn. The ride down was quiet, the silence only slightly awkward. The door opened into the lobby of the complex and both mares exited to the streets in short order. They walked together for a time, talking about subjects from the weather to what booths they were most looking forward to and what other performers they hoped would be playing. However, upon reaching the festival, they went their separate ways.
Vinyl made her way to the south end of the complex where her first set would be. A small stage on one of the outlying pavilions, surrounded by booths for the electronic crowd. Octavia's was far at the north end, and she took her time getting there. Passing through various sections, she purchased some new resin for her bow, and several sets of rather expensive strings for the cello itself. They were the only brand she ever used and the only time she could reliably purchase them was at this festival every year. The strings were available through pegasus post, but this was just cheaper and she was able to have a long conversation with the vendor about the merits of these steel strings over other materials and compositions.
About an hour before her first performance, Octavia found herself backstage tuning her instrument. The current performance was a trio of gentlecolts singing in a folksy style. She stole a peek around the curtain as they began a new song and marveled at their peculiar movements. The only other place she had seen such movements was at the science fair when a particularly crazy pony had demonstrated something he called humanitronics. It was incredible to see. The music was quite good too. The harmony capable by the three colts was amazing. She made a note to see if they had any recordings of their music available for purchase after they were done.
Vinyl, meanwhile, was suffering through a sonic nightmare. The music surrounding the stage she was to perform on was incredibly chaotic, and it all came from one pony with more gear than sense. Her equipment had all arrived, but there was a malfunction in one of her speakers. She traced the fault to a blown resistor and replaced it before directing three rather burly earth ponies on where to place everything on the wheeled rack she had prepared. It allowed her to move the rig from place to place at a concert such as this once it was set up. After shouting herself raw over the music to make sure they understood where everything was supposed to go, she slammed her headphones on just to drown out the music while she made sure the wiring was in place and the electronics were properly set for the beginning of the set. It was an older mix of hers, but one she enjoyed immensely. The professional was saving her new mix for the center stage.
Not long after the obviously tone deaf pony finished what could only loosely be called a set was silently glared off stage by his audience, Vinyl's rig was wheeled out to the front and she waved at a few ponies she recognized. Getting a low throbbing beat going first, she smiled, peeked out from behind her shades, and turned on the microphone, "Alright, everypony, good to see you. Let's see if I can't heal some of those wounded eardrums."
With a flashy twirl, the first record landed on its turntable and the show began. The lights on the stage flashed and blinked in perfect harmony with the sounds flowing from her speakers. She heard a slight glitch coming from somewhere and fixed it before anypony noticed. Looking out over the gathering crowd, the unicorn was surprised that so many of her fans had shown up this early. Most of them made owls look like early risers. Nodding along to the music, she let herself go and got lost in the endless stream of music.
The hours of the festival passed quickly. Vinyl spent the time between her sets setting up for the next one and getting drinks and food where she could. Octavia took a little time to browse some of the artist stands and purchase some recordings or a poster here and there. She ended up having a large bag filled with souvenirs when the events of the day finally drew to a close. The two again met at the gate as they began to head home.
"Octavia!" Vinyl shouted to the earth pony with an exhausted smile, "How'd it go?"
The cellist returned the smile with equal exhaustion, "It went well. I had a chance to catch one of your sets in the early afternoon. It was a mix I hadn't heard before."
"Yeah... I have a bunch of 'unreleased' stuff since producing recordings can get a bit expensive."
"I've just never bothered. We should hurry back to the apartments before the rain begins."
As if on cue, the clouds opened and began to drench the mares. Octavia sighed and tried to shelter her bag under her chest and wished she had remembered an umbrella. As she hoped that the rain would not last long so she could actually return home, she felt the drops stop hitting her. Looking up, she spotted the pale blue aura of her companions magic sheltering the two of them from the rain.
"If you don't mind walking home next to me, I can keep us dry."
Octavia smiled and nodded, "Thank you, Vinyl," she said before picking her bag back up as the two wandered down the sidewalk toward their apartments.