Celestia paced the length of room for the hundredth time. Normally she never got this nervous about anything. Not even upon meeting the humans for the first time was she this nervous. Not to say she never got nervous. It was just that she managed to contain it much better than this. But this was an unusual time with even more unusual circumstances. A knock on her door shook Celestia free from the groove in the floor.

The doors opened and Luna entered the room. She held her head up high with a dignified look on her face. It was the face that Celestia wore every day and was used to seeing in her mirror. She was only recently growing accustomed to seeing it on her sister. It was the face of royalty that the public saw whenever they saw the princess's.
Luna entered the room quickly and shut the doors behind her just as quickly. She did a quick scan of the room to make sure they were alone before doing anything else. It was only then that she opened her mouth. She sighed a heavy sigh of relief as her royal composure crumbled into pieces. She sat down with a huff and saw the marks on her sister's floor.

“It would seem that I am not the only one nervous of the upcoming arrival,” Luna said.

“So it would seem,” Celestia said. “It isn't even the guests that I am worried about.”

Celestia and Luna talked for only a few moments longer. The day was long gone and Luna had risen the moon well over an hour before. Celestia bid her sister a good night and started her nightly ritual when it came to bed time.

Celestia walked over to an ornate cabinet on the far side of her chambers. She used her magic to open the doors. Inside were a few stands for her regalia. One by one, Celestia floated up her royal hoof wear until each one of them was sitting upon their stands. Next was the piece she wore around her neck. She carefully removed that from her body and gently placed it inside the cabinet. The very last piece to come off was her crown. The most important piece to some ponies.
Celestia removed this piece with her own hooves. What almost no pony knew was that her crown actually held back a secret. Not a big one, but one she still kept closely guarded. As the crown came off her head a few dozen small strands of her colorful mane came from behind her and dangled in front of her face. This was her secret. She had a truly terrible time controlling these bangs of hers. Every time she got them cut they just grew back with a few extra strands as well. Her crown was the only thing that held them back. Only Luna knew this secret of hers, and that was only because she had a similar problem with her own mane. Celestia smiled at the thought of her and Luna with out of control manes. It made her laugh quietly to herself before she settled into bed.

Celestia loved her bed. Of course it was made from only the finest materials from across Equestria, but that wasn't why she loved it so much. That was definitely part of it. She couldn't deny that it was quite comfortable, but that was only a small part of it. It was the memories that lay within every stitch, every fold and wrinkle that she loved so much. As Celestia pulled the covers up her mind drifted back onto those memories.
She saw herself and Luna when they were younger, long before anything happened between them. Back then neither her or Luna could have ever foreseen the Nightmare Moon incident. They were happy back then. Her and Luna played in this bed. They both slept in this bed on the nights when Luna didn't want to sleep alone. It was only now that she was having times like those again with Luna.
Celestia's mind drifted forward a long ways, to thoughts of a purple unicorn. One she would eventually come to call her pupil. Twilight practically grew up in the castle. From the young age when she first came here. Celestia often had their private lessons right there on the very bed where she now lay. It made her smile as she remembered all the laughs she had with the young Twilight Sparkle. This bed helped them both learn so much. Celestia went to sleep with only the happiest of thoughts filling her head. She fell asleep smiling.

Meanwhile, in the rest of Equestria . .

The night passed by quietly and calmly. The stars filled the night sky and shone with all their starry might. The moon rose and fell with Luna. She patrolled the dreams of the ponies. A calm breeze swept through the air and passed over the land. All was good that night.
All of the denizens of Equestria slept soundly. They were snuggled up in their beds sleeping peacefully as the night went on. The night went on and before long it was time for morning. For some ponies, the morning came all too soon. Their wake up would not be a good one.

She just lay there, sleeping. Her head was in the pillow as dreams danced about in her subconscious. It had been a good night, if rather uneventful. But now she was dreaming peacefully and even drooling just a little bit. And then suddenly. . . SMACK!

Vinyl sat up in the bed and the pillow slowly slid off her face. She blinked a few times to get the tiredness out of her eyes. One last yawn and she was finally awake enough to be aware of her surroundings. The first thing she saw as her post sleep vision cleared was a dark maned blur darting about the bedroom they shared.

“Well, yeah. You threw a pillow at me. Why wouldn't I be awake,” Vinyl asked.

“You forget, I have seen you sleep through your own shows,” Octavia replied as she stopped at the end of the bed, still wearing only the night shirt she wore to bed.

“That was only one time, Tavi,” Vinyl said in response. Vinyl took the chance and crept up on Octavia like a wild cat about to pounce on its prey. “And besides, you kept me up that night. Don't you remember?”

“I remember that night all too well,” Octavia said as she looked away. She was only a second away from stepping away from the bed, but a pair of hooves stopped her from going anywhere.

“Good,” Vinyl breathed into her ear, “Then you won't mind a quick reenactment then, would you, Tavi?”

“Oh no,” Octavia said as she pushed her way out of her lovers hooves. “I have a long day of practice ahead of me and I can't spare any time. I know how you get when you're like this. I would be here half the day.”

Octavia's day went exactly as she said it would. She spent the whole day with the symphony practicing for an upcoming event. She was one of the best musicians they had and she knew it. Practice to her was getting rather boring at that point. They had been told they had an event coming up, but were spared the details. Needless to say, this annoyed more than just Octavia. So she spent that day just like she did the past several weeks. A long day of boring practice. Many would think that she would come to hate this, these long boring days, but she did not. She didn't hate them because she knew that her home life with Vinyl Scratch was more than enough excitement for her.

Octavia just finished up her piece. Hers ended just a few moments before the rest of the symphony because of the particular number they were doing. For just a few moments she sat in silence as the composer waved the wand, commanding the ponies to sound off in a precise way. It all ended soon enough and they all began to pack up their instruments. She was already halfway packed when everyone else was just getting started. That was when she saw it. The composer was handed a small note. He quickly read it and nearly jumped out of his coat.

“Everyone, please. Can I have you attention,” He said, tapping the wand on the stand on front of him as he spoke. “I have just received wonderful news. We have been requested by Princess Celestia herself for an upcoming celebration.”

Octavia was stunned. This hadn't happened in such a long time. She had played a few royal occasions before, but never at personal request from the Princess. This was big news indeed. The rest of the ponies there were all having the same thoughts she was.

“Now, now,” The composer started speaking again, tapping that wand a few times more, “Settle down now. There is much to discuss. We have been practicing this number for a long time now, and will be performing it at the celebration, but we will also be doing a few others. We will talk more about tomorrow.”

“Wait, that's it?” A pony Octavia recognized from the symphony stepped forward. She didn't know him well, just knew of him really. A nice stallion who played the violin if she was correct. “Can you give us any more information? When is this celebration? What is it for? Anything?”

“I'm afraid I don't know much more than what I have already said,” The composer replied, “I don't know when the celebration will be held. I will have more information tomorrow. As for what it's for I know even less. But it is not our job to know. It is our job to play music. Now go home, all of you. Get some rest.”

Octavia got home a bit later than usual. Only about a half hour or so. She got caught up talking to some ponies at practice. Gossip. Not something she did, really, but this sudden news had her more than a bit curious. Anyway, she got home to find herself staring at a rather odd sight.

It was all normal. Everything was normal. That was most not normal, especially considering who her housemate was. On any given day when she came home and Vinyl wasn't out doing some gig, she came home to find the house shaking itself apart from the force of Vinyl's beats. But not this time. The whole place was quiet, very quiet.

Octavia slowly opened the front door to her house. “Vinyl,” She called out cautiously. Even when she was out, the house was never this quiet. She would always leave some sort of music playing or some recording going. Immediately, she noticed how dark it was. There wasn't a single light on in the whole place. She could barely see in the dark as the waning light from the evening was fading away.

Octavia set her cello down and walked into the kitchen. She bumped into a few things as she went, but that didn't stop her. She did a quick check to make sure nothing was broken, but kept going. When she did make it to the kitchen, she found another odd sight.
It was Vinyl, but she looked different. She wasn't wearing her trademark shades for one. Octavia turned the corner to see her lovers red eyes looking back at her. But more than that was the setting. A nice cloth was thrown over the table. Candles were set out with their low flames providing the only light in the darkness. Two plates, each of them covered sat on the table.

“What's all this,” Octavia asked with a slight note of concern in her voice.

“I know how hard you've been practicing lately,” Vinyl said, “I wanted to do something nice for you. This is nice, isn't it?”

Octavia sat down in the chair across from Vinyl. She couldn't deny the beauty in Vinyl's eyes in the candlelight. It gave them a glow that she hadn't seen before in the wild pony. Octavia looked down at the covered plate beneath her and then looked back up at Vinyl.

“Hey, I may not be much of a homebody, but that doesn't mean I can't do anything in the kitchen.” Vinyl responded somewhat defensively.

“Ah, I see,” Octavia said as she lifted up the cover to her plate. She set it aside as she stared down at the immaculately created peanut butter and jelly sandwich that lay on the plate. “What really happened?”

Vinyl's head lowered a bit as a nervous smile crept across her face. “I really did try,” She said, “But my first attempt at real cooking failed miserably. Between the smoke alarms and my music blaring, the fuse blew. The whole house went dark, but then I remembered you had some of these fancy candles. I found the tablecloth and the plates in the box with the candles.”

Vinyl was scratching the back of her head nervously as she spoke. Octavia was just staring at her. This was one of those rare moments that she treasured. Here was this wild pony with the loud music and attitude who always seemed to be as far from civilized as a pony could get, yet here she was trying to do something so wonderfully kind and romantic. It was so unlike her, and yet she still did it.

“Thank you, Vinyl,” Octavia said as she took a small bite of the sandwich. It really was a good sandwich.

“Oh, I don't know about that. I think your ventures into the cooking world should stay in your head.”

Octavia finished her bite and looked up at Vinyl. She took a large bite out of her own sandwich was busy chewing it all. There she was. The same wild child pony that she fell in love with.

“Vinyl,” Octavia said. She motioned with her hoof to move a bit closer. Vinyl swallowed her bit and leaned in closer to Tavi. Octavia leaned in closer to her. The two met in the middle and Octavia gave Vinyl a small gift. Vinyl could feel her tongue move across her cheek as she licked a bit of jelly of Vinyl's face. Octavia leaned just a bit farther so she could whisper into Vinyl's ear.

“My dearest Vinyl,” She breathed, “One thing you have always been able to do is make me smile. Don't ever stop.”

The next day, in another part of Ponyville a certain young Pegasus was having a good day. Well, every day to her was a good day and this day was no exception. The sun was shining brightly in the sky as it was almost every day, unless there was one of those Ponyville moments where all hell seemed to be breaking loose, but it was not a day like that. There was a nice breeze blowing through the sky and she loved the feeling of it under her wings. She was going to have a good time flying today.

“Eh!” A voice called out from below, “Ditzy Doo! Get your ass down here now!”

Ditzy cringed as the words traveled through the air to meet her ears. This was the voice of the postmaster. It wasn't the normal postmaster of Ponyville, though. He was on leave to see some family off in Manehatten. This was his replacement, and not a real nice one at that.

“Ditzy, you have mail to deliver. You best get to it,” The interim postmaster shouted, “And no mistakes this time!”

He scowled at nothing, the world maybe, and walked back into the post office. Ditzy stood up on her cloud and stretched out all her morning kinks. She did a few test flaps of her wings. All was good. She bounced once on the cloud. Good buoyancy, perfect for take off. She bent her knees slightly and got ready for once last bounce off. But as she left the cloud and landed once again the cloud had a negative reaction. A flash of dark in the cloud and Ditzy was shocked. The next few seconds went by in a bit of a blur, but it happened pretty much like this.

Ditzy was shocked from her bouncing on the cloud. She stood there for a second and huffed out a small puff of smoke. She took a step off the cloud and lost her balance. She could not react fast enough as she plummeted the short distance to the ground. Once she made contact with the ground, which was covered in surprisingly soft grass she rolled a few feet until she collided with her mail bag.

Ditzy righted herself and collected a few pieces of mail that escaped her bag. Then she started her day of delivering the mail. She was a Mail Pony after all.

Her first stop, the Cakes! They were getting a lot of mail lately. Well, more than they usually got that is. Ditzy flew through the clear Ponyville skies on her way to Sugarcube Corner. She passed by Roseluck tending to her flowers and waved to her. She waved back in between watering the flowers.
Ditzy passed by the Cutie Mark Crusaders. It was the weekend so they didn't have school. They didn't see Ditzy as she flew above and waved. The three little fillies were much to bust concocting another one of their “Crusades” to find their cutie marks. Ditzy never did understand where they got these ideas from.

Ditzy finally came up on Sugarcube Corner. She glided down on a gentle breeze and came to a slow halt that ended with no accidents. Ditzy felt so proud of herself. She didn't mess up this time. She savored the moment real quick and then went inside. It was still pretty early in the morning so the popular sweets shop was a bit one the empty side. The Cakes were busy in the kitchen baking up some goodies when Ditzy walked in.

“I wonder who that could be at this hour,” Mrs. Cake said as she heard the front door open and close. She came to the front counter to see the one and only. . . “Ditzy Doo! Haven't seen you in here in while. What brings ya by this early?”

Ditzy reached her into her mail bag and grabbed a couple pieces of mail in her mouth. “You hab sum letters,” She said as they fell out of her mouth and onto the floor. Ditzy looked down at the mail and then back up at the Mrs. Cake. “You have some letters,” She repeated.

“Ooh, wonderful. I wonder who they're from,” Mrs. Cake said happily. She was always in a good mood Ditzy noticed. She handed the letters off and moved for the door.

“Something for me?” Ditzy responded. This was not normal. She didn't get things back when she delivered the mail. Not usually. But now she was curious.

Mrs. Cake disappeared into the back again. Ditzy heard her and Mr. Cake talking back and forth a little, but couldn't understand what they were saying. After a moment or so Mrs. Cake reappeared and held something out for Ditzy.

“That's right. They are leftovers from a batch that we were about to throw out, but then I remembered how much you loved them. Best to eat the quickly, though, or else they'll go bad.”

“Don't worry, Mrs. Cake. They will be gone by lunch time,” Ditzy said. She turned back and left Sugarcube Corner with her prize. This truly was a great day for her.

Mrs. Cake was about to go back and help Mr. Cake when she remembered the letters that Ditzy gave her. She put them on the counter real quick so she could go and grab the muffins. She picked them up and read them on her way to the back. The first one was nothing of importance. An informational pamphlet about some new miracle baby stuff for the twins. She was quite happy with the stuff she had already. She tossed that one in the trash. It was the second one that got her attention, however. She recognized the envelope. She had seen Pinkie get a couple just like it.

“Dear, come look at this,” She said to Mr. Cake. “I think we have a letter from Princess Celestia.”

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Cake,

I have heard much about you and your delicious delicacies from Twilight and her friends, especially that Pinkie Pie. She speaks very highly of you. I have even been able to sample some of your fine deserts myself, so it makes perfect sense to me that I extend this formal invitation to you both.

Would you please be willing to cater an upcoming celebration I am hosting here at Canterlot Castle? It would mean a lot to both myself and Luna. Please, take some time to think it over. If you do say yes, I will send Spike a scroll with more details enclosed.

Sincerely,
Princess Celestia

“You start the cake mixers, dear. I'll go and get Spike,” Mr. Cake stated firmly as he nearly jumped over the front counter. “That is, of course, if we plan on saying yes.”

“Well, what are you waiting for? Go on, hurry up,” Mrs. Cake replied hurriedly, “And hurry back, too. This cake is gonna take the both of us to pull off.”

Mr. Cake bid his wife a quick farewell and rushed out the door and headed for the castle as fast as he could. He had to talk to Spike as soon as possible and then get back to help Mrs. Cake just as fast. As he ran for the castle another thought crept into the forefront of his mind.

“Oh, we're gonna need a babysitter,” He mumbled to himself and started running even faster.

As he rushed down the streets of Ponyville, Mr. Cake brushed past several ponies. Somehow he managed to throw an apology out there for every pony he came across, and ran over. One such pony just so happened to be a white Unicorn with electric blue hair and a thing for vibrating music.

“Whoa!” Vinyl exclaimed a Mr. Cake shaped blur moved past quickly. She barely heard the apology as her head was still spinning. “Jeez, buddy. What are you in such a hurry about?”

Vinyl shook the whole thing off and walked back over to the table where her better half was sitting. Octavia waved to her as she walked up. Vinyl smiled back and sat down across from Octavia. It was a good day, and Vinyl was happy.
Vinyl was happy because Octavia was happy, and Octavia was happy because of her, so that made her even happier. For a moment her mind drifted back to the previous night. No electricity, no music. Just candlelight and emotions. Normally, that would have driven her crazy, but Octavia found a few ways to distract her until morning came.

“I was going to ask you the same thing,” Octavia said, “You were totally zoned out, as you would say, for a moment.”

“Oh, it's nothing,” Vinyl brushed away the thought. Normally, she would have made a naughty joke, but they were in public and Tavi would just have kicked her under the table for being indecent.

“Well, I just want to thank you again for treating me to a nice breakfast. I really do appreciate it, Vinyl.”

Vinyl smiled. She loved it when she made Octavia happy. “Well, I wanted you to eat something nice before your big day, and we both know how my last cooking venture went.”

Octavia reached out and took Vinyl's hooves in her own. They met at the center of the table and Octavia looked deeply into Vinyl's shades. When she first met Vinyl, she had never before seen a pony where anything like them, and like most ponies she couldn't see her eyes behind them. But now, in that moment, she could. She could make out a hint of red gleaming from behind the purple lenses. It was one of those moments that doesn't come around often. And it was all ruined by a muffin.

It came crashing down from the skies like a comet from the heavens. Vinyl barely saw it out of the corner of her eye as it came down. She quickly pushed Octavia's hooves back and leaned back herself as it hit the table. The muffin struck the table with an audible thud and bounced once before stopping.

“Sorry,” Ditzy said she dropped down to the table, barely hovering above the ground. “Oh my! I'm really sorry. I don't know what happened. I didn't mess anything up, did I?”

“Just the moment, Ditz, just the moment,” Vinyl stated flatly. She slammed her head down onto the table. For a second she stayed there before picking the muffin up and handing it to Ditzy. “Here you go. Just take it.”

Vinyl's outstretched hoof went right up to Ditzy's nose, but she didn't feel her take the letter. In fact she didn't feel anything to do with her hoof. She just kept her head on the table for a solid minute and by then she knew something wasn't right.

“Are you going to take the damn muffin or not,” Vinyl asked as she looked up, only to find that Ditzy was already three bites into the muffin and in its place in Vinyl's hoof was an envelope.

“What the- How did you- When- ” Vinyl stammered, “Whoa. Did you see that, Tavi?”

Vinyl just shrugged off what just happened. She was definitely still curious, but she knew she would probably have forgotten the whole thing by the next day anyway. She just let it go and set her mind on the letter she got. Which was weird. She didn't get letters. This was new.

Vinyl took the envelope up in her magic field and tore the top open to get at the paper inside. She tossed the envelope aside when she had the paper out. She leaned in closer and quickly read through what was written.

Dear Vinyl Scratch,

I have heard from several ponies that you are a pony of music. My sister and I are having a celebration later on and I would like to invite you to come and be my musical guest. I am sure Celestia will have found some old, boring, musical group by now, but I would like something more fun and upbeat, something truly worthy of the party that I am sure this will become. That is where you come in.

Take some time, think it over and then get back me as soon as your able. With you there, I am sure this will be the party of the year!

Sincerely,
Princess Luna

“Vinyl, dear. Are you alright? What does it say?” Octavia asked, noticing that she was in some sort of discomfort.

Vinyl scanned through it once more. She stifled her laughter and handed off the piece of paper to Octavia. She took it in her hooves and read it thoroughly. Her expression gave away how she felt the further down she read. She started with a neutral, yet curious look and that spiraled into the annoyed and quite confused look she now wore.

“What is the meaning of this?” She almost screamed out the words. “Why are you laughing?”

“Sorry,” Vinyl said, “But she assumed Celestia found some 'old, boring, pony for music. If only she knew how awesome you really were.”

“Well that makes me feel better, but this is still a problem,” Octavia said. “What are we going to do? Princess Celestia wants the symphony, yet Princess Luna has asked for you by name.”

“Maybe we should go and find out what the whole gig is all about,” Vinyl suggested, “Ya know, see if we even want to do it.”

“Oh, one of us is definitely doing something,” Octavia said seriously, “We need the bits to fix electricity, remember?”

“I was trying not to, but thanks for bringing it up again,” Vinyl replied with her face in the table again. “Well, lets go and sort this mess out. Hey, if we both play do ya think we'll get paid separately or what?”

The two mares walked off towards their house and left Ditzy standing there with a mouthful of muffin crumbs. She just kinda stood there for a moment before flying off to deliver the rest of the mail. She just so happened to pass by the castle as she flew. A window was open and she saw Spike as she flew by. She waved at him, but he didn't wave back. He was busy.
Spike was just finishing putting the last few words on the scroll when Ditzy flew by. He didn't even register her as she passed. His mind was a million miles away as his body moved on its own. He had done this so many time he could probably do it in his sleep if Twilight asked him to. He wrapped the scroll up and held it high in one hand. He took a deep breath and exhaled the green flames that would take the scroll all the way to Celestia.

The scroll popped into being in front of Celestia. She took it and read through it real quickly.

“I told you they would. It was almost a certainty. Not even worth betting a few bits on.” Cadence said.

“Okay, Cadence,” Celestia rolled her eyes. “Have you handled the musical arrangements?”

“I have,” She replied, “I got the Canterlot Symphony. How does that sound?”

Luna turned around to face the princess. They were all doing equal work trying to handle the party arrangements. Normally, they wouldn't be doing such things, but the best party planners they knew were unreachable. Pinkie Pie was on her way back, but they wanted the party to be ready by then, and they also wanted it to be a surprise. Cheese Sandwich was nowhere to be found. Celestia sent out some scouts, but so far they have found nothing. And so that left the task up to them. And now Celestia was standing there with a smile on her face at the thought of a symphony.

“As a matter a fact I do,” Luna replied. Her horn sparked with magic and a small flash of light revealed a poster. It was from the walls of her chambers. Luna held it out proudly and smiled at Celestia. “I have already made contact with her and am awaiting a response.”

Cadence leaned in closer to read the oddly drawn letters of the poster. “DJ PON-3? Who in the world is this?”

“Oh, her real name is Vinyl Scratch,” Luna said, “I actually learned of her through a dream, and then I did some research on my own. She will really liven the party up.”

“Absolutely not!” Cadence exclaimed loudly, “I will not have some random club pony you found dream surfing at this celebration.”

Luna stared at her sister for a moment. She was not going to back down. Cadence always stood firm when she made a decision. Impressively so. Annoyingly so. “Care to make a bet on it?” Luna asked after a moment, still staring.

“Simple,” Luna said with a devious smile, “If I lose, I will dress in a ridiculous clown outfit and ride a unicycle through Canterlot telling terribly bad jokes to everypony.”

“You will dress as a sexy Cupid and fly through the Crystal Empire shooting ponies in the butt with fake arrows and telling them to kiss.”

“I like it,” Celestia said as she faced the two other princess's, “But just to make this a little more interesting, if this should end in a draw, or a stalemate, or anything other than one of you winning you both do the embarrassing things you just said. Understood?”

The two stood there each with a look of determination in their eyes. Celestia said what she said and then got back to doing what she was doing. The one thing she didn't like about her job. She hated it, and she wasn't afraid to say so. It was the paperwork. But thankfully a well timed interruption was about to come knocking.

A pair of guard ponies entered the room with another pony behind them. “Your guest has arrived.”

“Ah, yes. We have been waiting for him,” Celestia said, “Thank you. You may go now.”

The two guards left the room and left the other pony with the princess's. He watched the guards leave nervously before turning back around. His head came back to find three of the most powerful ponies in all of Equestria staring him down.

OC, Oh Crap!

by SmokeShadow95

Meanwhile. . .