"Woooo! Day off party!"
The sisters had never heard of a day off that didn't coincide with a major holiday like Hearth's Warming. Such a thing was unheard of on the rock farm; their waking hours were typically split between working and eating, with no room for any other activity. Since Pinkie's cutie mark appeared about a week ago, however, their parents had become slightly more lenient. Work days ended minutes earlier, bedtime was pushed minutes back, and on one occasion, Octavia was positive she'd seen their parents show some outward affection towards each other, although she may very well have been seeing things. Perhaps it was that bit of outward affection, though, that had led to today, as Pickerton and Goodie had decided to go on a second honeymoon of sorts, leaving the three young fillies with the house to themselves while they spent the day at Obsidian Lake, a little while away from the farm.
A day off was certainly a new thing for the sisters, and for Pinkamena, a new event or discovery meant only one thing; a party. Her first party had been so successful, even Aquarina had loosened up and had a great time. Since then, she'd made attempts to replicate such a success at every applicable opportunity, and even some that were not so applicable. Her parents, while steadfast in the adherence of her and her sisters to the rules they had placed, wished to encourage their daughter's newfound destiny, even if it wasn't exactly what they'd have expected or even wanted for her. Parties were thrown left and right that week; whether it be for Octavia's newfound interest in playing their mom's old cello, Aquarina's discovery of a geode that led to the earning of her cutie mark, or the simple act of Pinkamena being present for a butterfly hatching from its cocoon, every party was treated with equal enthusiasm by the pink filly. Octavia tried her best to match her sister's effervescence, but such a task proved fruitless.
"Another party, Pinkamena?" Aquarina asked, rolling her eyes. "Don't you think we've had enough parties recently?"
"You can never have enough parties!" Pinkamena replied, her smile radiating in defiance of her sister's grumpiness. "Now c'mon! Those noise poppers aren't gonna pop themselves!" Aquarina glared with disdain at the small, brightly-colored cones in front of her. With a frown, she kicked one over.
"I'm the oldest," Aquarina said. "And I say no noise po-" her sentence was interrupted by a loud burst, as Pinkamena set off a popper right by her ear. Octavia couldn't help but chuckle a bit as the blue filly growled in frustration. She brought a hoof up to hold Pinkamena back, but the energetic little filly was far too quick for her, almost as if the idea of a party fueled her very being.
"Pinkamena!" Aquarina shouted.
"That name is too long!" the pink filly replied with a gigglesnort. "Just Pinkie is fine!" Aquarina made another grab for her, but she avoided it, bouncing high over her head and landing in front of their sister, a noise popper held between her teeth.
"C'mon Octavia!" Pinkie sang around the oral obstruction. "Give it a pop!" She spit the noise popper at her sister, who fumbled a bit before grasping it in her hooves. Octavia looked at the popper, then up to Pinkie, who gave her an encouraging nod. She looked over to Aquarina, whose expression was startlingly grim. She weighed her options for a few moments, looking between her sisters. Finally, she smiled and lifted the popper to her mouth, eliciting a loud "hmph" from the blue filly. She took a deep breath, but then dropped the popper as she was startled by a loud crash from outside.
"Wowie!" Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing. "You must have gotten a really strong popper!"
"That wasn't the popper, Pinkamena!" Aquarina said, rushing to the window. "Something's going on outside!" Her sisters rushed up to the window, the three fillies jockeying for position as they all tried to gaze out the window and discover the source of the crash.
"What are those?!" Octavia gasped, managing to get the prime spot in front of the window and gazing out at the swarm of odd creatures that had knocked over one of their rock carts and was heading towards the food barn.
"Those are parasprites!" Aquarina shouted, shoving her way in front of the window. "I've read about them! They're terrible and dangerous..."
"And adorable!" Pinkie bubbled, popping up between the other two and bumping them out of the way. "Look at those eyes! And those wings! They're so cute and colorful..."
"...And they're going to eat all of our food if we just sit here and talk about how cute they are!" Aquarina yelled. Pinkie's bouncing stopped. She was excitable, but not dense.
"Well, what should we do?" Octavia asked, starting to panic.
"Um...the book didn't say," the blue filly sighed. "But they're kinda like bugs, right? So we just need to find some repellent spray!"
"I dunno..." Pinkie said. "I mean they don't look like any bugs I've ever seen! There's gotta be another way!"
"No!" Aquarina shouted. "There's one way, and it's the way I said!" Pinkie paid her no mind, trying to think.
"How about music?" the pink filly offered. "They say music soothes the savage beast, and these things seem pretty savage! Octavia, get your cello!"
"Are you insane?!" Aquarina cried. "We have a swarm of parasprites attacking the farm and trying to eat us out of house and home, and you want to PLAY MUSIC FOR THEM?!"
"Yep!" Pinkie replied with a smile. Octavia stared at the two as they went back and forth. The others were arguing too much, and nothing was being done about the problem at hoof. She took a deep breath; apparently, it was up to her. For lack of another idea, the young pony picked up her cello and bow and headed outside. All arguing by the other two stopped as they watched her make her silent exit, and it took a moment before they ran out after her.
Octavia stood just yards from the swarm of pests, making herself an obstacle between the and the barn. With one motion, she brought the cello down from her back, planting the endpin into the ground. Pulling herself to a bipedal position, she equipped her bow in her right hoof, propping herself up by her left on the instrument's hoofboard.
"Are you seriously going to..." Aquarina started. Her complaints were muffled by Pinkie's hoof. Pinkie nodded to Octavia, who closed her eyes and started to play. Her tempo plodding, her rhythm steady, her timbre strong, she played with all of her ability. Her eyes were tightly shut; she was hopeful that this would work, but still worried that it would fail. Her only indication that her playing was having any effect at all was the fact that her sisters were not shrieking in horror. Finally, a surprised gasp from Aquarina caused her ears to perk.
"I-it's working!" the blue filly exclaimed. Octavia opened her eyes to see for herself, and sure enough, the parasprites were not advancing. It was quite the opposite, actually, as the astonished filly watched the pests bob in unison to the beat of the music she was supplying. She turned her attention to Pinkie, and her proud smile only pushed her to keep it up.
"Ouh! Idea!" the pink one helped. "Follow me, Aquarina! Octavia, keep playing!"
"But I'm the oldest..." Aquarina offered feebly, before withdrawing her objection and following her sister. Octavia was starting to get a bit nervous, as the parasprites' bobbing was starting to become more lethargic. She worried that the menaces were starting to become bored of her playing, and began trying to come up with a backup idea. Such a measure would not be necessary, however, as Pinkie and Aquarina soon returned, armed to the teeth with their mother's other old instruments, relics of her former profession as a music teacher, as well as a large cart. Before Octavia knew what was happening, she and her instrument had been loaded into the cart by her sisters.
"Wh-what are you doing?" Octavia asked, baffled.
"Keep playing!" Pinkie cried out. Octavia righted herself and looked out to the swarm of parasprites. Sure enough, the music's interruption had started to cause unrest among the menaces. Octavia eeped and got right back to her playing, soothing the creatures once more. Pinkie and Aquarina quickly ducked under the twin harnesses in front of the cart.
"Play!!" Pinkie shouted, before moving her mouth to the harmonica positioned in front of it and beginning to blow. Aquarina followed suit, accompanying her with the large tuba that was wrapped around her. Between the two of them, they were playing about 6 or 7 instruments, the majority of them manned by Pinkie.
"Where are we going?" Aquarina shouted over the sound of her accordion.
"Obsidian Lake!" Pinkie shouted. She played a loud note on her trombone, using the slide to point in the intended direction.
"Why are we..." Octavia asked, but had no time to finish the question as the sudden initial movement of the cart nearly knocked her off balance. She used the cello to steady herself, then got right back to playing, the loud resonance of her cello managing to reverberate over the sounds of the other instruments and provide them with their beat. The two fillies in front pulled the cart with ease; pulling one pony and a cello was far less of a strain than the piles of rocks that they were accustomed to. Octavia stared out at the parasprites as they obediently followed the rampaging cart, effortlessly keeping up and eagerly swaying as a whole to the rhythm of the instruments. She watched them, realizing for the first time since this whole thing started that it was she who had initiated this, her original playing that lulled the parasprites into a gentle calm and commanded their attention away from the food that they had been seeking. She sped her tempo up slightly, watched as the dancing of the creatures altered to match it, and listened as her sisters increased their own pace in accordance. Everything felt wholly, singularly right about this. Maybe this was her calling? Perhaps not this exact situation, but the idea of playing an instrument and commanding the attention of audiences and peers alike with the power of her music.
Pickerton and Goodie sat at the edge of Obsidian Lake, where they'd had their first date many years ago. It felt strange being away from the rock farm for such an extended period of time; they typically only went on short trips, and only for essentials such as grocery shopping or medical situations. It was a rare occasion that they took time out of their schedule to relax and enjoy themselves, and even though they loved their daughters with all their hearts, they had to admit that a little one-on-one time was welcome. The happy husband and wife smiled as they stared into each other's eyes, their fixation on each other only interrupted by gazes towards their reflections on the surface of the lake.
"Do you think everything's going well at home?" Goodie asked, breaking the silence. Pickerton smiled, touching a hoof under his wife's chin and raising her attention back to him.
"Our daughters are very mature," he said. "I'm sure they're occupying themselves and keeping everything calm at the farm." Goodie beamed, nodding in agreement. Their faces drifted gradually towards each other's, stopping when their noses were about an inch from each other. It was at that moment that Goodie's ear perked up.
"Pickerton..." she said softly, her smile growing. "I didn't know you'd arranged for live music for our alone time. How sweet..." The stallion paused, tilting his head as he heard what sounded like an orchestra approaching them.
"...I didn't," he responded. The two slowly turned their heads towards the nearby path, where the music sounded like it was coming from. They stared in utter confusion as the Pie triplets' music cart burst onto the scene, a swarm of gleefully-dancing parasprites in hot pursuit.
"Throw me the balloon!" Aquarina bellowed. Pinkie followed her instruction, reaching into the cart and pulling an inflated balloon attached to a harmonica out of it with her teeth. She bounced it sideways to Aquarina.
"Stop playing, Octavia!" Pinkie cried. Octavia did just that as Aquarina undid the knot on the balloon. With all of her might, the blue filly tossed the balloon across the lake. The air expelled from the balloon blew into the harmonica that weighed it down, creating a loud, drawn-out note. The parasprites eagerly followed the new source of music, flying off across the lake until they were out of sight. The fillies in front skidded to a halt, sending Octavia and her cello flying over the front of the vehicle. Pinkie and Aquarina shrieked as their sister was catapulted, and Octavia clenched her eyes shut, waiting for impact with the ground; an impact that never came, as their parents burst into action, mother catching the instrument and father catching the filly.
"WOO!!" Pinkie exclaimed, offering a high-hoof that even the usually-uptight Aquarina couldn't resist returning. "We did it! We did it!! We..."
The two fillies then ceased their celebration, staring at the bewildered faces of their parents, whose date had been interrupted in a way that they never could have expected. Octavia's eyes slowly opened, and she looked up at Pickerton, who looked right back at her. She smiled awkwardly.
"U-um...we can explain..." the gray filly said meekly. "Some parasprites attacked the farm..."
"...And Octavia jumped right in and started playing her cello!" Pinkie bubbled.
"We didn't think we had any repellent spray!" Aquarina added.
"And the music made the parasprites stop so we got this idea to run them off!" Pinkie kept going. "And it totally worked and we saved the farm's food, all thanks to Octavia!" Octavia blinked; it had been Pinkie who had the idea to play music in the first place. Why was she giving her the credit?
"A-actually, it was..." Octavia began. It was then that she noticed everypony's eyes on her. She tilted her head, confused, and followed their stares to her flank, a space now occupied by a cutie mark; a purple treble clef.
"My cutie mark!" the filly yelped. Pickerton's baffled look melted into one of pride as he hugged his daughter proudly. The rest of the family gathered around, congratulating their youngest member on this discovery.
"This calls for a Cutie Mark Party!" Pinkie yelled. "Let's go home!" She turned to leave, then gave a little smile to Aquarina. "See? Sometimes doing things a different way is good after all!" Aquarina stuttered a bit before giving up and following the rest of the family home. Octavia watched Pinkie for the entire walk. She had already admired her sister; with the realization that Pinkie’s lesson had, in essence, earned her her cutie mark, that admiration only grew stronger.
~~~~~~~~~~
“Okay, seriously, where is Pinkie?”
Rainbow Dash flew impatiently back and forth in front of Sugarcube Corner, taking a moment here and there to glare at the closed front door. Their other friends waited with her; although none of them were as open about it as Rainbow was, they too were beginning to get impatient. To be fair, Pinkie had asked them to meet here nearly 15 minutes ago, and they had all been fairly punctual.
“Ah’m sure she’ll be out any minute now,” Applejack said calmly. “We jus’ gotta be patient is all.”
“Patience ended about 10 minutes ago,” Rainbow said, shooting another glare at the front door.
“Ya say it like yer never late fer nothin’,” Applejack retorted matter-of-factly. Rainbow scoffed.
“The Dash is never late,” she said, stretching her wings. “Because the party doesn’t start until Rainbow Dash is here.”
“I’m afraid I must agree with Rainbow Dash,” Rarity spoke up. “About the lack of patience, that is. I mean, honestly, who is 15 minutes late for an engagement that they planned, and at their own home, no less?”
“Come on, girls,” Twilight said, stepping up. “None of us like waiting...”
“Um...I don’t mind waiting...” Fluttershy said quietly, offering a small smile. “At least it’s nice out.” Twilight gave Fluttershy a look..
“...Most of us don’t like waiting,” Twilight corrected herself. “But I’m sure Pinkie Pie will be out any minute. She probably got caught up doing something important.”
Pinkie, meanwhile, was lying on the bedroom floor, under a pile of pillows. After waking up and making breakfast for herself and Octavia, she had told her that she needed to see her in the bedroom for something. Upon Octavia’s entrance into the room, she was immediately assaulted with a barrage of fluffy ammunition. It didn’t take long for the musician to return fire, and before either of them knew it, the pillow war had extended long past the time that the two were supposed to meet the others.
“Hey Tavi, what time is it?” Pinkie asked, poking her head out from her pile of pillows. Her sister poked her head out of her own pile to look up at the clock.
“It’s 10:15,” Octavia replied, starting to push some pillows off of the pile.
“Whoopsie!” Pinkie exclaimed, bursting out of the pile. “We’re late! C’mon!” With that, the pink pony charged into Octavia’s pillow pile, emerging with her sister on her back. The confused musician held onto Pinkie’s back for dear life as she galloped down the stairs and up to the front door, tossing it open and greeting her friends.
“Hi Twilight! Hi Applejack! Hi Fluttershy! Hi Rarity!” the excitable pony said, bouncing around and shaking her sister up in the process. “Hey, where’s Dashie?”
“Right...here...” came the pegasus’s reply from behind the door. Pinkie closed the door to see Rainbow flattened up against it.
“Double whoopsie!” Pinkie said as she peeled her friend off of the door. “Sorry Dashie!”
“Yeah...don’t worry about it,” Rainbow responded, brushing herself off. “So what’s this meeting all about?”
“Oh!” Pinkie said. “Well, it’s about why my sister Octavia is here!” She knelt down to let her sister slip off of her back, an opportunity she took immediately. The attention of the other five ponies turned to her, and she smiled awkwardly.
“Um...yes,” Octavia said, looking between the five. “There’s a bit of a matter that needs discussing...”
“Is everything okay?” Twilight asked, concerned.
“Not exactly...” Octavia responded. Before she could continue, Pinkie stepped in.
“Our mom and dad have been having some money problems,” Pinkie explained. “And the landowner wants to take the farm away, so we need to raise a whooooole bunch of money to buy the farm from them!”
“Oh my goodness...” Fluttershy said. “Um...I would love to help if I could...” The others echoed Fluttershy’s sentiment. Octavia looked at the five ponies, none of which she had even known at all before last night, all volunteering to help without even a second thought. She couldn’t help but smile.
“Great!” Pinkie said, bouncing. “Because I had a perfect idea! I figured we could pool our efforts together and set up an all-day fundraiser festival! And we could get all our friends together and have them do all sorts of things to raise money, and the main event could be a big concert by Octavia and her orchestra, and it’ll be super-fun!” Octavia tilted her head to look at her sister. Had she come up with this on the fly? None of these ideas had come up in their talking last night or this morning.
“What a great idea!” Twilight said. “I’ll start organizing things right away!”
“Ooh, I could auction up my latest designs!” Rarity squealed.
“Ah’ve got some new apple recipes Ah could sell!” Applejack added.
“I guess I could bring some animals by for a petting zoo,” Fluttershy offered.
“I’ll figure something out by the time we have it,” Rainbow shrugged. “And it’ll be totally awesome.”
“And I’ve got some extra books that I could sell!” Twilight said, smiling. “Oh, this is going to be wonderful! We’ll put it on this weekend!” She offered a hug, which Pinkie happily accepted. “Don’t you and your sister worry, Pinkie. We’ll get you that money!”
“Thank you girls so much,” Octavia said, smiling warmly. “Our family would really appreciate it.” Twilight gave her a smile in return.
“Anything for a friend!” the purple unicorn said. She then looked to the others. “C’mon, girls! Let’s start planning a festival!” The others cheered and followed Twilight, as Pinkie hugged her sister. Rainbow, however, hung back.
“Hey Pinkie?” Rainbow said, fluttering up to the sisters. “Uh, is there something else wrong?” It was an oddly intuitive moment for Rainbow, something which Twilight or Applejack might have commented on if they were still nearby. Pinkie, however, paid it very little notice.
“Why do you ask?” Pinkie asked, tilting her head. This question caught Rainbow by surprise; she honestly didn’t know why she asked. She wasn’t used to being in situations like this.
“Uh...I dunno...” Rainbow responded, rubbing the back of her mane. “I just kinda thought you seemed a little quieter than usual, and...”
“Awww!” Pinkie squealed. “I knew you cared, Dashie!” Rainbow’s cheeks turned bright red, and she chuckled lightly. “You’re right, though. Our dad’s a little sick. But it’s nothing serious.” This made Octavia blink; had Pinkie really just lied to her friend? Pinkie once again seemed to pay this no mind as she then patted Rainbow’s head.
“I knew I couldn’t hide anything from a smart cookie like you!” the pink pony said, beaming. Rainbow blushed a bit.
“Heh...yeah!” Rainbow said. “Finally, SOMEPONY says it! I’ll see you later, Pinkie!” With that, the pegasus zoomed off. Pinkie smiled her infectious smile as her sister looked at her, confused.
“Pinkie, why did you say...” Octavia started, but Pinkie placed a hoof over her mouth.
“Did you see how happy it made everypony to know they were gonna help our family?” Pinkie asked. Octavia tried to answer, but her mouth was still covered, so she simply nodded.
“Well,” Pinkie continued, “I sorta figured that knowing how serious things were with dad would make them sad, and I didn’t want to ruin their happiness, you know?” With that, she lowered her hoof and bounced back inside. Octavia just stared, stunned by Pinkie’s selflessness. Even now, she was still learning from her.
“So do you have any preparations to make for the festival?” Pinkie asked as Octavia followed her through the door. “I bet your bandmates are gonna be really happy to help!”
“They probably will,” Octavia replied. “And I’ll send letters out to them immediately. But I have a much more pressing issue to take care of.”
“What’s that?” Pinkie asked, head tilted. Octavia took a deep breath.
“I have to bring Aquarina here.”