Rarity and the Thief

by StormLuna

The Canterlot Music Festival

The day of the Canterlot Music Festival had arrived. Twilight goes over to Rarity's boutique to see her before she leaves for Canterlot. "Twilight, are you not going to the music festival?" asked Rarity

"No, Spike is sick and I have to stay here to take care of him. Besides, I really didn't want to go anyway. Would you tell Colgate and Vinyl Scratch why I couldn't make it?" replied Twilight

"Of course I will let them know. I hope they aren't disappointed that you won't be able to make it. Oh, look at the time, I better go catch the train to Canterlot. I am sorry Twilight, but I have to go." said Rarity

Twilight was kind of surprised that Rarity would bolt so quickly without even saying goodbye. She was wondering what was going on. She headed home to find that Spike was outside throwing up and did not have much color to him.

"Spike, do you need to go to the doctor? You look horrible!" asked Twilight

Spike replied, "No Twilight, I will be fine. Maybe I just need some soup or something."

Twilight rolled her eyes and sighed, "Well ok. It is whatever you want."

At the train station Rarity was waiting impatiently for the train. She was wanting to get up to Canterlot to see when Octavia was going to make a payment as she had already missed one payment and her balance had increased to 158 bits. Finally the train arrives and heads off to Canterlot. It seems like it takes forever to Rarity as she was not pleased about Octavia owing her so much.

Rarity finally gets to Canterlot and heads up to the courtyard where the music festival is set to take place. She bumps into Vinyl and Colgate. "Hi Rarity! Is Twilight coming?" asked Colgate

"No, Spike is sick and she had to stay home and take care of him. It is too bad that Fluttershy was gathering herbs with Zecora and Discord or she could have watched him." replied Rarity

"Yeah, what a bummer. I was really hoping she could make it." said Vinyl

Rarity told them that Twilight wished them the best and that she was sorry that she couldn't make it. She then asked where Octavia was, as she needs to speak with her.

"Octavia?" replied Colgate "She is over there by the stage. She is still being kind of grumpy towards Lyra over that discount."

"Still." replied Rarity "Good grief, is she going to be mad at her forever?"

Vinyl said, "Yeah, I think so. They are no longer going to perform together after this concert. If Celestia wasn't paying all the musicians here so well for their performances, they probably wouldn't have even shown up."

"Wait a minute." replied Rarity, "You guys are getting paid? What do you get if you win then?"

"We each get an awesome trophy!" shouted Colgate "I swear Vinyl, we are going to look so awesome holding our trophies!"

"Hay yeah Colgate! We've got what it takes to win this baby!"

Rarity said goodbye to them and wished them well and then headed off to find Octavia. Since Celestia is paying the musicians she figured that she would be able to collect what she owes her. She bumps into Lyra on her way to the stage.

"Oh, hi Lyra. How is everything going?" asked Rarity

Lyra replied, "Well they would be going better if Octavia would quit being such a jerk over the discount I got on the dress you made me."

Rarity said, "Well I don't know what to tell you. Colgate and Vinyl told me that you two are splitting after this concert. Is that right?"

"Yep." replied Lyra "We are no longer friends because of her attitude. She thinks I have everything handed to me on a silver platter and I have come to the conclusion that she thinks the world owes her everything."

Rarity asked Lyra if she knew where Octavia was and she pointed her hoof over in the direction of where Octavia was. Rarity heads on over there and gets Octavia's attention.

"Hi Octavia," said Rarity "how's it going?"

"It could be better. You could have given me the same discount you gave Lyra, then none of this would be happening." replied Octavia

"So you are blaming me for this?" replied Rarity "Mentioning your dress, when do you plan on paying on your account? I have already assessed the 33% late fee and the 15 bit finance charge. Your bill is now up to 148 bits. If you don't make a payment it will be up to 196 bits ten days from now."

Octavia became very upset. She replied, "Whatever happened to you being the element of generosity? You are just like every other businesspony I have ever known. Always charging late fees, finance charges and circling over me like a vulture until you get your money. Perhaps I should just wait until after the 90 days to pay you. What would you do then?"

Rarity grunted and told her to hurry up and make a payment or she will owe even more and stormed off. She ran into Colgate and Vinyl again and they asked her how her meeting with Octavia went.

Rarity said, "You don't even want to know how it went. I don't blame Lyra for ending their friendship."

Vinyl replied, "What, they are no longer friends? I never would have imagined that happening."

Colgate added, "With them both being in the classical music stuff I thought their friendship would have lasted forever. I guess friendships can end on the most petty things."

Rarity told them they better get ready for their performance and that she was headed to take a seat to watch the performances.

Octavia and Lyra were the first to take the stage. Something just didn't seem quite between them.

Lyra asked Octavia, "Are you ready for this?"

Octavia snapped back, "Yeah I'm ready for it, just don't screw up."

This irritated Lyra a lot but she didn't say anything. Their performance started and for a while it was going fine, then Octavia started playing the wrong notes and their performance sounded horrible. The audience started booing as loudly as they could. They stopped their performance.

Lyra said, "Octavia, what happened, you're usually so good at this."

Octavia shouted, "How am I supposed to concentrate when I see you in that dress of yours that you got the discount on and I got charged full price for mine? Now I have Rarity following me around demanding a payment. Nopony could concentrate with all that going on."

The audience continued to boo while Octavia kept shouting at Lyra. Lyra finally just walked off the stage, taking her lyre with her knowing that there was no reasoning with her. Security had to come and drag Octavia, screaming and shouting, off the stage.

There were several other performances before it was Colgate and Vinyl's turn, which was the last of the night. The audience looked stunned when they saw the two going up there with an electric guitar and drums.

Vinyl asked, "You ready for this Colgate?"

Colgate replied,"Hay yeah! You bet I am!"

They both shouted out to the audience, "YOU READY TO ROCK?"

The audience cheered and shouted, "HAY YEAH!"

Their performance went perfectly and once they finished the audience was cheering loudly and throwing roses onto the stage.

Vinyl said to Colgate, "You know what? Now you're going to be known as the rock star dentist! It won't be long until we will have ponies all over Equestria wanting to have us perform!"

Colgate replied, "Oh yeah, we'll be going on tour!"

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna flew down to the stage.

Luna and Celestia shouted in unison, "This year's winners of The Canterlot Music Festival are Colgate and Vinyl Scratch!

The audience went wild and cheered as loud as they could when they went up to get their trophies. The two bowed down to the crowd and gave huge smiles for the cameras.

"Thank you everypony, we couldn't have done this without all of you, the most awesome ponies in Equestria!" said Colgate

Vinyl added, "Don't worry, we'll be back soon! After this, we're planning on recording an album!"

As they left the audience cheered "Colgate, Vinyl! Colgate, Vinyl!"

Colgate said on the way out, "You know something Vinyl, we really need to think of a name for our band."

"I agree." replied Vinyl "We can discuss that once we get back to Ponyville. We better get to the train station."

Octavia saw how the crowd was adoring the rockstar ponies and this only made her angrier. She stormed down to the train station and waited for the next train. Octavia was not thrilled that she would have to ride home with Rarity, Lyra, Colgate and Vinyl Scratch. She thought to herself, "This is just going to be SUCH A WONDERFUL TRIP HOME."