The Sound And Fury From Seaddle

by Nic-Fit

A Pretty Dress

Vinyl couldn't stop Tavi from going upstairs to see Lyra, the best she could do now was wait around for the shouting or crying to pick up, then go and split them up.

She had not expected to hear "The Colt With The Thorn In His Hide" coming from upstairs. This, and annoyed grunts. Now thoroughly confused she made her way up to the spare room and walked in. Tavi was sat on one bed with an acoustic guitar, and Lyra on the other with their dumpster gold, even though it was missing some strings.

"No no, you need to press down closer to the frets." Tavi moved Lyra's hoof slightly until it was in the right place.

"Tavi, I didn't know you could play the guitar!" Said Vinyl. Octavia turned to face her with a smirk on her face.

"Classically trained, dear. I can play everything."

As if to prove her point (to be fair, she probably was), Octavia started straight back into the song, singing as she played.

"The colt with the thorn in his hide,"

"Behind the hatred there lies"

"AHAHAHHAHAAHHAHH!"

"Guhh, its too early for this."

"PFFFTAHHAAHA!"

"I swear its like, not even lunch time yet! I wanna stay asleep."

"HEEHAH!"

The door swung open to reveal Tavi laughing like a mad mare, a letter clutched in her teeth. It was a wonder it was still there really.

"How did you bring that without dropping it?"

"I didn't~! I just had to stop to pick it back up. A lot."

"What is it? Whats happening?" Said Lyra, having apparently also woken up.

Octavia passed the letter to them, pointing to one paragraph in particular.

"Lets see..."...due to unforeseen circumstances surrounding our first choice's 'radical-ness', you, as second choice, have been selected to replace him. Be wary, however, Miss Octavia, your own 'departure from the norm' did not go unnoticed during your recital. You will be expected to keep yourself inline with the rest of the orchestra..."...yadda yadda yadda."

Lyra and Vinyl glanced up at Octavia, back to the letter, then back to Octavia again. They tilted their heads in unison.

"I think I can use this to my advantage!" Octavia exclaimed, not noticing the confused looks of the other two. "If I do this right, it'll hit those uptight snobs right at their heart!"

"But Tavi, aren't you one of those uptight snobs?"

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that. Now, here's my plan."

"Plan for what?"

"Oh, I'll explain it later, just listen now.So, here's the plan..."

"Tavi, you realise this plan will take, like, weeks to accomplish! And its ridiculously complex! I don't even know how to put up a shelf, let alone make you a 'stealth amplifier'!"

"Yeah, but think about it, by then we'd be able to do so much more stuff. Think of it more like...exploding onto the scene!"

"But you wont be 'exploding onto the scene', you'll be freaking out rich ponies who have nothing to do with this!"

"Oh but they do...You'll see, Vinyl Scratch, you'll see."

Octavia slowly backed out of the room, not breaking eye contact with Vinyl until the door was closed.

"...What the hay just happened?"

"Lyra, believe me when I say I have no idea."

"Whatever, I'm going back to sleep."

"Good call."

This was it. Three weeks in the making. Today was the day. Octavia had had to endure endless rehearsal sessions with the orchestra, and not least she had to prove she was good enough to play, that took some revision learning all the stuff she used to play before, well, this whole thing. But now she had her plan, her special plan, she had a special plan for this show. It had been hard work, but it would all be worth it today. The day where she would enact her special plan. Did I mention her plan?

"Shhh!"

"I AM 'Shhh'd'! You Shhh!"

"Shut it, both of you! Do you want to get caught?" Octavia hissed.

"We want to go home!"

"But I need you for-"

"Your special plan. We know." Vinyl let out a sigh.

"Lets just get this done and get out of here. There should be a hatch we can hide it in around here."

The hatch opened with a creak, and the three mares dropped off the package in the opening.

"YES!" Octavia exclaimed. Her plan was going to plan!

"Hey! Who's there?" Hoofsteps could be heard coming towards the main door, the security guard's torch light now visible through the cracks in the door frame. Vinyl and Lyra shot their best 'Really?' looks at Octavia, who replied with her own sheepish grin.

"Lets just hide under the seats before I kill you." Vinyl scowled and trotted off into the hall, the others followed.

Octavia met Lyra and Vinyl outside the auditorium. She couldn't help but suppress a giggle at the sight of Vinyl in a dress.

"Be quiet. Why do I have to wear this?" She gestured towards the dress.

"Letter said 'formal attire', remember? You wouldn't get in otherwise."

"Whatever, lets just do this. Have you got all your stuff?"

Octavia tapped her cello case. "All in here. I'll leave at the interlude and change it, then enact my plan proper when the curtain comes back up."

For the last three weeks, every conversation with Octavia had been 'plan this', 'plan that'. It was pretty grueling, and it probably wouldn't even be worth it. But, hey, the sooner they do this, the sooner they can be not talking about her plan, and that was a prize worth working for at this point.

"Meet me by door B at the break, I'll get you backstage. Then we can-"

"The plan. We know Tavi. We...we know."

"Okay then. Door B, Interlude, don't forget." Octavia turned and left to get backstage with the other musicians.

"She has actually lost it, hasn't she." Lyra said to nopony in particular.

"Eeyup." Vinyl responded.

"Girls, here!" Octavia pulled the Vinyl and Lyra through door B.

"Ok, so they've 'accidentally' locked themselves in a cupboard, nopony should notice if you take their places, but try not to stick out too much until we start. Remember, once the song is finished, run like hay." Octavia walked them over to the bandstand, and found them their places: Vinyl was behind a Timpani, and Lyra sat in with the strings section. A brief check revealed exactly what Octavia wanted to see; the amps they had hidden here last week hadn't be taken away. She turned them on, and passed a cable to Lyra, before plugging her newly swapped out electric cello in. They would both be playing through one of Lyra's enchanted effects boxes, the Magic Harmonix Big Mane, for full distortion. This was sure to turn some heads tonight.

The rest of the ensemble began filling into their seats, tuning and what not. Octavia could hear the noise of the auditorium filling up again with an audience. I couldn't be more than minute or two until her special plan would be executed. Oh, this plan. She was a funny mare. A funny, funny, funny mare!

She didn't know it, but Octavia's left eye was twitching.

The curtain drew up, revealing the audience, in all their finery. The conductor walked up to the stand, calling for silence. The whole place was now deathly quiet. Octavia shot a nod over to Lyra.

"IT BEGINS!"

Lyra rolled the volume up on her electric Lyra, and began blasting out the opening notes to an instrumental song she had written: Fluffgun 91. They had been hard at work to make sure it would be ready, and it had paid off. The whole crowd gasped, promptly voiding the entire auditorium of air (probably), and the ensemble all shot Lyra looks of anger and disbelief.

Vinyl and Octavia both joined in after a few seconds, making the song sound fuller, and more powerful, driving it forwards. Angry yells were coming from the conductor, not that anypony could hear them, the song was in full swing now.

The second chorus came around, and suddenly silence. Looking around in the confusion, Octavia spotted the conductor holding the power supply to the amp in his teeth, looking about ready to kill somepony.

"I don't need to be told twice."

"HOOF IT!"

Octavia jumped from the stand, cello in tow, and bolted for the door, closely followed by Lyra and her lyre, and Vinyl, carrying somepony elses drum.

And finally a group of very angry classical musicians, too.

The three mares ran alongside each other, hearing the stampede behind them getting closer and louder.

"THIS WAS ENTIRELY WORTH IT!"

They erupted from the door, and galloped all the way back to Tavi's house, still laden with instruments.

It wasn't a short journey, either.