> The DJ-PON3 Party
>  by touileasaso
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> DJ-Pon3 in the House
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was nighttime at the ever bustling city of Manehattan, and many ponies were now at the Broadhay Theater to watch the play of The Three Musketeers. Among those ponies were Twilight Sparkle and her friends who had been invited by Octavia, who would be performing in the orchestra, to come and watch. Twilight's assistant, Spike, had also received an invitation to come. When the unicorn noticed his joy over it, he claimed that he was excited to see the fight scenes he had heard about from street gossip. Twilight smiled knowingly, obviously aware of his crush on the cellist but kept silent about that. They did not need to wait at the long line to receive their tickets, for they have reserved seats upon one of the balconies.

Twilight and Spike were right now outside of the theater, waiting for their friends to arrive. Orange Sherbet, along with Mosley Orange and Tangerine, and Blossomforth were already waiting for them when they arrived, but Daring Do and Trixie were yet to be seen by any of them. And since Twilight was an organized mare, she was losing her patience and began to, as Spike would say, freak out.

"Where are they!? They should've been here minutes ago!" Twilight asked desperately.

"So they're ten minutes late, big whoop." Spike rolled his eyes. "Seriously Twi, the play hasn't even started yet, and you're already pulling your mane apart."

"What I believe that Spike is trying to say Twilight dear, is that it should not matter if they arrive late. They certainly have seen Octavia's invitation, and they will definitely arrive." Sherbet assured the unicorn.

"But what if they don't!? What if I gave their invitations to the wrong address!? What if they get lost!? What if they never make it here!? WHAT IF-!?"

Twilight's outburst drew some attention from the line to the ticket booth, so Mosley gently but quickly put his hoof over Twilight's mouth to silence her.

"Twilight, please calm down!" he said in concern. "Remember to take deep, slow breaths now..."

After Mosley removed his hoof, Twilight did as she was told, breathing slowly and gently, and seemed somewhat calmer than before.

"Okay, I...I think I'm all right now..." the unicorn sighed.

After a few moments of waiting, a familiar voice called out to them.

"Hey! Over here!"

Everyone looked to where the voice had come from. Blossomforth smiled upon recognizing the pegasus. 

"It's Dar...um, I mean, Honey Do!" she corrected herself, knowing that Daring preferred to be called by her real name, Honey Do, when in public.

"Okay, looks like I made it in time." she noted as she landed.

Twilight's eye twitched. "...what? 'Made it in time!?'"

"Oh no..." Spike groaned. "Here we go again..."

"Do you have any idea how much you kept us waiting!? You were supposed to be here ten minutes ago! What took you so long!?"

"Look, it's not my fault! Some colts thought it'd be funny to make their own graffiti art in the restroom, and I had to clean that mess by myself, so cut me some slack!" Daring protested.

"I...I understand..." Twilight sighed. "Now where could Trixie-?"

The unicorn was interrupted as purple smoke suddenly exploded in front of the group.

"Behold everypony, for the Great and Powerful Trixie has come!" declared the showmare.

Needless to say, Twilight was less than pleased by this sort of arrival for she could tell that Trixie had actually wanted to come late.

"And what's your excuse!? Why did you decide to come only now!?" Twilight demanded, pointing an accusing hoof at the blue unicorn.

"This is how Trixie does things, Twilight Sparkle. For one to make a grand entrance, one must arrive fashionably late!"

"Well, be fashionably on time! Or better yet, earlier! Do I have to drag you here myself next time?"

"Twilight, I hate to interrupt, but the play will start soon. We should be getting to our seats." Sherbet reminded her.

Twilight's eyes widened when she checked the time. "Yes, you're absolutely right! We need to get going!"

Twilight led everyone inside upstairs to their reserved seats upon the balcony. The Grand Hall of the theater was stunning and incredible. Its big red curtains were closed, yet to reveal what was behind it. The chandelier above sparkled each time light was shined upon it. The theater has seats for everyone to sit on, and were very comfortable. The ponies from the orchestra were standing in front of the stage, preparing and tuning their instruments, and it was hard to find Octavia among the orchestra.

"Thanks for the help back there, Auntie." Spike said. "If we kept Twilight talking out there, we'd really miss the show and we wouldn't hear the end of it."

"Does Miss Twilight often act like this?" Tangerine curiously asked from her seat.

"You have no idea..."

"Look! There's Octavia right down there!" Blossomforth told everyone.

Everyone looked to where the cream coated pegasus was motioning, and they did indeed saw Octavia. She, among with everyone else in the orchestra, was dressed properly for the event, with her sporting an elegant, red dress. Upon seeing her friends waving to her from the balcony, Octavia smiled and nodded in acknowledgement.

"Wow, she looks so pretty!" Tangerine smiled.

"Yeah..." Spike agreed with a goofy smile.

"Spike, what was that you were saying about wanting to go to the theater?" asked an amused Twilight.

The dragon blinked in confusion until he jumped in realization. "Oh yeah! I'm really looking forward to see those awesome sword fights! I bet that the musketeers are gonna beat up the bad guys big time!"

Blossomforth shivered. "I don't know...I don't really like violence..."

"Relax, Blossomforth. They're just acting. Nopony's going to get hurt." Daring comforted her.

"But they make it look so real...I'm not sure if I can stand watching any of it..."

"Take it from a pony who performs onstage herself. They just act to make the play look good. Besides, do you think that any play will be entertaining without at least some bit of action?" Trixie pointed out.

Blossomforth thought over what she had said. "...No, I don't think so."

"See? The actors, like Trixie, are professionals. Trixie is sure that they know what they are doing."

Blossomforth smiled in thanks, feeling better by her friends' comforts. Twilight frowned in thought over what Trixie had said to Blossomforth.

"Hey wait a minute, there actually are plays that have no..." she began before the lights dimmed.

"Quiet now. It's about to start." Mosley told everyone in the balcony. Everyone waited eagerly to watch the play and listen to the orchestra as the old unicorn maestro tapped the baton on the music stand to get everyone's attention. With everyone ready, including Octavia with her cello, the maestro levitated his baton and the play began.



My Little Pony, My Little Pony

Ahh, ahh, ahh, ahhh…

(My Little Pony)

  I used to wonder what friendship could be

(My Little Pony)

   Until you all shared its magic with me

  Great discoveries!

 Tricks galore!

  A rich slice of life,

 And a heartfelt score.

 Budding courage

  It's an easy feat

 And magic makes it all complete!

You have my little ponies

   Do you know you're all my very best friends?



After two hours or so, the play ended on a fantastic performance by both the actors and the orchestra. Overall, Octavia was glad that she got this opportunity not only to perform, but to also be able to invite her friends to come and watch.

"Whew, that was some play, huh Octavia?" said Staccato, the pianist from the orchestra.

"Yes, quite indeed." she agreed, putting her cello away in its case.

"Mare of a few words, huh Octavia?" chuckled Bluenote, one of the trumpet players. "Quite different from Harpsichord over there."

"Hey, I resent that!" said the harpist. "That's just my personality!"

Everyone got some good chuckles out of that. For Octavia, it felt good to play alongside these wonderful musicians. Not only did they make music from their hearts, they also enjoy to play it for anyone else to listen to them. And with the accompaniment of a theatrical play, that makes the feeling even better.

With her cello in in tow, Octavia left the backstage to meet up with her friends in the lobby. Gently making her way through the crowd, she managed to spot them waiting for her on one of the benches.

"Octavia! You made it right on time!" Twilight smiled before looking at the cornflower-blue unicorn. "Unlike a certain somepony we know..."

"Trixie already told you that she had arrived fashionably! To enter the theater with finesse!" Trixie proclaimed defensively.

"Now, now girls. Settle down..." Sherbet said to them.

"Please you two, we're in public..." Mosley joined his wife.

Daring led the others away from the arguing unicorns as Orange Sherbet and Mosley Orange tried to calm them down. "Don't mind those two over there, they've got some...complications to work out."

"You were wonderful at the orchestra, miss Octavia!" Tangerine smiled.

"Yeah, you played so well with your cello! And so did everypony else with their instruments!" Blossomforth agreed.

"Not surprising you'd know that, since you mostly paid attention to the orchestra instead of the play." Daring teased the pegasus.

"I...I couldn't help it! Everypony did really good down there! And I love music!" she blushed.

"The music was cool, but so were the musketeers!" Spike cheered. "Did you see how they beat the bad guys but good!? They were like shing! Clang! Pow Pow Pow! Take that! And...that!" Spike kept play fighting around with a wooden toy sword until he accidentally poked one of the orchestra players in the flank, making the stallion yelp in pain and turned his head to glare at the sheepish dragon.

"Oops...sorry..." the baby dragon apologized. The stallion huffed and left with a scowl. Spike was worried that he had made a new enemy. "He won't try to get back at me, right?"

Octavia put a comforting hoof on Spike's head, making him blush. "'Anger at lies lasts forever. Anger at truth can't last.' You were honest when you apologized, correct?"

"Y-Yeah, I was..."

"Then his anger shall pass away soon. After all, anger is not something that lasts forever." She motioned to Twilight and Trixie, both now calm and apologizing to one another, to set a good example.

"I guess you're right...thanks..." Spike fawned.

"I must say, it feels nice to go to the theaters every now and then." Mosley said he rejoined the others along with his wife and the unicorns.

"Yes, it was a wonderful evening." Sherbet agreed. "Now it's time for us to-"

"Yo dude! My homegirl is in here, right?"

"Homegirl?" Blossomforth asked in confusion from the voice outside.

"Mommy, Daddy, what's a homegirl?" Tangerine asked in curiosity.

"She is? OK, thanks for the tip, man!"

"Wait! That voice..." Octavia said in realization.

"You know who that is, Octavia?" Daring Do asked the cellist.

Before she could answer, the front door opened wide to reveal a white, unicorn mare with electrifying blue mane and tail and a mirror image of two bridged eighth notes for a cutie mark. But her most defining feature were her purple sunglasses covering her eyes. Upon seeing Octavia, she grinned.

"Yo! Octi! Long time, no see!"

Octavia's eyes widened when she recognized the mare.

"Vinyl!?"
> The Invitation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight Sparkle, along with her friends, were surprised at the new pony's over the top entrance, but no one looked more surprised than Octavia, who the new mare seems to know, and vice versa. This brought up a lot of questions for the librarian; who was this unicorn? How does she know Octavia? How did she know how to find her? And better yet, why was she wearing sunglasses indoors and at night? What was the point in wearing them?

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Before Twilight could ponder any further on this, an excited squeal pitched through the lobby. Twilight saw that it was Blossomforth who was responsible for that squeal as the pegasus was beaming at the white unicorn like an excited fan filly who has met her idol, which does closely resemble the situation.

"Ohmigoshomigoshohmigosh!" she cheered in excitement. "It's her! It's really her! It's DJ-PON3! The hip-hop DJ! I can't believe it's really her! I'm such a big fan of you! I always listen to your songs! They're absolutely amazing! Can I have your autograph!? Please!?"

DJ-PON3 chuckled at the excitable mare, clearly amused. "Whoa, girl. Settle down there. It's cool to know that I have a big fan around these parts, but you don't have to keep calling me DJ-PON3. That's my stage name. My real name's Vinyl Scratch, but you can just call me Vinyl."

Twilight mulled in thought, the name DJ-PON3 somehow familiar to her, thinking about where she had heard of her before.

Then it hit her.

She had heard about a 'DJ-PON3' back at Canterlot when she had refused to go to one of Moondancer's party and instead studied about magitech development. Even when studying on the tallest towers of the castle with windows shut, she could still hear the beat from the plaza, distracting her from her studies. Twilight had always wondered who in their right mind would actually play such loud music that could burst your eardrums off ever since that day, and now it looks like she had found her culprit.

"So Octi, how's the big city life treating ya, playing tunes for the crowd and all? Ya doing awesome?" asked the grinning unicorn, slinging a friendly hoof over Octavia.

"Y-Yes, I'm doing rather well, Vinyl..." Octavia stammered, much to the surprise of everyone else, save for Vinyl, for they have never seen Octavia look so nervous before.

"Cool! Good to know my homegirl's doing just fine!" Vinyl then looked over to the others. "And it looks like you've been making some new buddies since last time we met. Mind introducing me to everypony?"

Octavia gave a quick nod before leading the DJ to her friends, starting with the purple unicorn and dragon. "Vinyl, this is Twilight Sparkle, the new librarian in Manehattan, and her assistant Spike."

"A librarian, huh? So you keep reading books, scrolls, all that kinda stuff?" Vinyl asked.

"Well yes, but I also have to keep up with my studies as well." Twilight answered her.

"OK, I gotcha. So in other words, you're an egghead."

Twilight frowned upon hearing that. "Excuse me? Egghead?"

The DJ grinned teasingly. "Yeah, egghead. You know, the nerdy, brainy, geeky ponies like you."

"H-Hey!"

"Sorry Twilight, but she hit the nail on the head there." Spike snickered, along with Daring, Trixie, and Blossomforth. Twilight had a sneaking feeling that they would now be calling her that pretty often, much to her dismay.

"Please excuse Vinyl's behavior, Twilight." Octavia apologized. "She rather enjoys teasing others."

"Aw c'mon Octi, ya know I don't mean what I say." Vinyl pouted innocently. "I'm just poking a bit of fun!"

"'Even the slightest of taunts can insult somepony deeply'. Just please be careful with what you say around others, Vinyl."

"Aight, aight. I gotcha." she then looked down at the small, purple dragon. "And a dragon, huh? First time I really see one of 'em...say little guy, can you breathe fire?

"You bet I can!" Spike smirked confidently. "Watch, I'll show you!" he turned around to make sure no one was in the way, took a deep breath and then breathed out green, wispy flames, either startling or impressing the other ponies around them, though Vinyl looked the most thrilled by this.

"Wicked!" She cheered. "I'm telling ya little guy, ya sure know how to be awesome!"

Spike scratched the back of his head, flattered by the compliment. "Gee, thanks! I'm glad to hear that."

"Sure, anytime!"

"Uh, Vinyl? The tip of your mane is on fire." Twilight warned in concern.

Looking up at her mane, Vinyl did indeed catch a small wisp of fire on the tip of her mane. However, instead of panicking, she simply shrugged, licked her hoof and pressed it against the flame, dousing it. "There, no harm done."

"Uh, sorry about that..." apologized a sheepish Spike.

"Ah, it's cool. Don't worry about it, little guy. So Octi, who's next?"

Octavia led Vinyl to the tan pegasus. "This is Honey Do, the head curator of our museum."

"A museum pony! So does that mean you're another egghead?" questioned the white unicorn.

"If you're talking about history, archeology and geography, I guess so." Daring shrugged.

"Cool! I think I'll swing by and visit your place sometime!"

Daring raised her eyebrows in curiosity. "Really? No offense, but you don't really look like the type to visit museums."

"A little bit of tourism don't hurt nopony, right?" Vinyl grinned.

"Guess not. Anyway, this blue unicorn next to me is-"

"I am The Great and Powerful Trixie! We all welcome you to Manehattan, Vinyl Scratch!" Trixie interrupted Daring. Twilight rolled her eyes at this, knowing that Trixie preferred to introduce herself when meeting new ponies.

"Okay, so what do ya do?" Vinyl asked the showmare.

"Trixie wows the crowds with her spectacular feats of magic! They watch in awe as Trixie performs anything never before seen by pony eyes! Everypony leaves entertained and intrigued by Trixie's shows!"

"Trixie, you know you're not on stage, right?" Spike groaned, getting annoyed by Trixie's long introduction.

"The world is a stage!" she proclaimed.

"So you're a showmare." Vinyl nodded. "I guess that means you're a big ham too."

Trixie's eyes widened in shock and irritation. "W-What!? How dare you compare Trixie to a dirty pig!"

Everyone chuckled as Vinyl patted the frowning Trixie's shoulder. "Relax, I'm just pulling your hind leg!" she then turned to meet the next pony, who was beaming at her with admiration. "And so I meet another one of my fans! I didn't quite catch your name yet, ya know..."

"Oh right! I'm so sorry for not telling you earlier! My name's Blossomforth! Like I've said before, I'm a huge fan of yours! Can I get an autograph!? Please!?"

"Sorry girl, but I don't have paper or pen with me right now." Vinyl apologized. "Maybe next time, aight?"

Blossomforth didn't seem let down at all; she just nodded her head, eager to receive the DJ's autograph later.

Vinyl then walked over to the earth pony family, the last left to introduce themselves. "Hey, you guys are looking fancy tonight. So what are your names?"

Sherbet cleared her throat before speaking. "Miss Scratch, I am Orange Sherbet. This is my husband, Mosley Orange, and my daughter, Tangerine. It is a pleasure to meet you."

"Whoa...no way...you guys are one of the bigwigs around Manehattan! Well, you don't really wear wigs, but ya know what I mean, right? Anyway, you guys have your own crib, right?"

Sherbet frowned in confusion. "'Crib'? I'm afraid I don't understand..."

"Hotel. Street talk." Vinyl clarified for her. "So anyway, do you guys have any room left? I forgot to make reservations to any hotel in town, so maybe I could crash in one of your rooms."

"By 'crash' you mean..."

"Just hang around. Again, street talk."

"I think I want to learn street talk..." Spike said to himself, liking how the DJ talked to everyone.

"Vinyl, you forgot to make a reservation again?" asked a concerned Octavia.

"Yeah, about that..." Vinyl began, sheepishly scratching her head. "I was so psyched when I heard about you performing around Manehattan that I just dropped everything I was doing, and I waltzed over here as fast as I could."

"Vinyl, you really must learn to prepare yourself for events such as this..."

"I guess I'm just a slow learner!" the DJ laughed.

'She says it like it's something to be proud of...' Twilight thought sarcastically.

"But still, you can hook me up a room in your hotel, right?" Vinyl asked the Oranges.

"Yes, we should have some rooms available tonight." Mosley nodded. "We can take a taxi-carriage to Orange Catering together if you'd like."

"Cool! Thanks for giving me a hoof!" Vinyl then dragged Octavia along with the oranges with her magic. "Hey Octi, how 'bout you come along with us so we can catch up on old times together?"

"Of course, but...could you please stop dragging me?" Octavia struggled in the magic grip. "This isn't truly necessary, Vinyl..."

"Excuse me, is it all right if me and Spike come along?" Twilight asked. "The way to the library happens to pass by Orange Catering."

"Sure, you two can come along!" Vinyl nodded with a grin.

"Wonderful!" Twilight turned to face the rest of her friends. "What about you girls? Do you need a ride home too?"

"Nah, it's fine. I can make my way home by myself." Daring declined the offer. "Besides, I prefer the exercise over being stuck inside a carriage."

"The only carriage Trixie needs is her own!" Trixie declared, also declining a ride home.

"I...I really don't want to be a bother..." Blossomforth meekly said, pawing a hoof at the ground.

"It's no bother, Blossomforth!" Twilight assured the pegasus. "You're free to come along with us."

"Sorry Twi, but the taxi's full." Spike called from the taxi-carriage Vinyl managed to get the attention of. "There's no room for Blossomforth."

"Oh...that's too bad..." Twilight frowned.

"Now that we have said our farewells, let us depart so we can meet again tomorrow!" Trixie shouted. "Good night!" After finishing her speech, she cast a smokescreen spell, which dissipated quickly to show her running away. Although Trixie was an incredible showmare with great potential at magic, the smokescreen spell is one of the spells she can't quite pull off perfectly, although Trixie was too proud to admit that she needs practice with it.

"Trixie may not like to admit it, but she really needs to improve on that spell." Daring quipped.

"Hey egghead! Get in so we can get this show on the road!" Vinyl called from the carriage, making Daring and Blossomforth chuckle.

"Don't call me egghead!" Twilight said in annoyance as she went to the carriage.

"Where to?" One of the taxi riders asked the passengers.

"Take us to Orange Catering, please." Sherbet told them.

"All right ma'am, shouldn't take too long."

As they were waiting to arrive at their destination, Vinyl spoke up a conversation with everyone inside the carriage, even entertaining Tangerine with some funny jokes she had thought up. Through the short time Twilight had known her, she could see that the DJ was a very charismatic pony. She didn't know if it was her personality, or her friendliness or how she spoke, but Vinyl was a very easy pony to like. She even decided to put aside the minor complaint she had about her for her like of loud music. But one question was still left unanswered throughout the whole night when they had met each other.

"So Vinyl, I've been meaning to ask..." Twilight began, catching the DJ's attention. "How do you and Octavia know each other?"

"Yeah, I also want to know the answer to that." Spike agreed. "I mean, I don't think anypony ever expected you and Octavia to be friends."

"Ha! That ain't the first time I heard that!" Vinyl laughed. "Yeah, me and Octi here were friends ever since we were little fillies."

"Really? So how was she like, Octavia?"

"Vinyl was quite the eccentric when we first met." Octavia explained. "But she also proved to be a valuable friend, always supporting and helping anypony when they need it."

Vinyl nodded in confirmation. "Yeah, that's just how I am! I can't stand it when somepony's all frowns and no smiles. So I do what I do best to cheer 'em up!"

"You play music to cheer ponies up?" Tangerine asked in curiosity.

"Er, well...not exactly, kiddo..." Vinyl chuckled, petting the filly's head. "I help them right their wrongs, and try to keep it that way. You understand now?"

Tangerine's face pouted in uncertainty. "I don't know..."

"Um, don't worry, kiddo. I'm sure your folks will explain better than me."

"Okay..." Tangerine nodded before asking another question. "Miss Scratch, why do you keep wearing sunglasses at night?"

"These?" Vinyl levitated her glasses and propped them on top of her horn, revealing her cerise eyes. "I just like wearing 'em. Like Octi likes to keep wearing that pink bowtie of hers."

"And like Twilight likes to keep making checklists for just about anything!" Spike chuckled.

"Th-That has nothing to do with this!" Twilight denied in annoyance and embarrassment. She was beginning to believe that the DJ's teasing personality was rubbing off on Spike.

"So Vinyl, if I may ask, how did you know where to find Octavia?" Sherbet asked her.

Twilight brightened up at her question. "Oh yeah, I've been meaning to ask about that too! You did barge in at the theater like you knew she was going to be there. So how did you know?"

"That? Oh, I was just flipping through some music magazines, and when I read about the play of The Three Musketeers, I saw Octi's name on the ponies who would be playing the strings." Vinyl answered. "Come to think of it, you and the others were already there when I made it to the theater. Did ya already know Octi was gonna perform there?"

"Actually, Octavia invited us to watch the play and her perform at the orchestra."

"I apologize, Vinyl." Octavia fidgeted in her seat. "If I had known that you would be coming, I would have invited you as well."

"Hey, it's cool! It's also kinda my fault for not letting ya know I was coming." Vinyl waved it off. Suddenly, she paused in thought, a smirk coming to her face. "Hey, I know! Since you had invited your pals to that fancy theater, how about I return the favor?"

"What do you mean, Vinyl?"

"Easy! I'll be playing as a DJ in one of the clubs around here in two days, and you're free to come along and join me!"

"And...what sort of party would that be?" Octavia asked with a hint of nervousness, only barely noticed by Twilight.

"Well, we'll be playing awesome techno music, a lot of ponies will be grooving on the dance floor, lights will be shining and blinking here and there, lots of drinks to choose from, not to mention the many types of stallions you can choose from!" Vinyl answered, giggling at the last comment.

"I-I see..."

"Wait, how did you get to be the DJ of one of the clubs around Manehattan already? You just got here!" Twilight exclaimed in disbelief.

"Me and the club owner are pretty good pals with each other. I'm sure I can talk him to let me put some beats to the party! By the way, feel free to invite the others. They can come along to join the fun if they can make it!"

Twilight had made a mental note to tell her friends about the DJ's invite tomorrow, and to her own surprise, actually eager to come to the party. When she turned to look at Octavia, she got surprised and concerned at how the cellist looked like. She was oddly silent and actually looked nervous, something Twilight never had seen her friend like this before. Before she could ask her what was wrong, the rider had told them that they had arrived at Orange Catering, interrupting what she was about to ask as the carriage stopped to a halt, letting Vinyl and the Oranges out.

"All right Miss Scratch, come along with me to the front desk and we'll see in which room you can check in." Sherbet said as her husband paid the fee.

"Sure, thanks again!" Vinyl grinned. "See ya later, Octi! I hope you'll have a killer time at the party!"

After saying their goodbyes, Twilight told the riders to go to Octavia's home, also wanting to pick up on what she was going to ask the cellist before she was interrupted.

"So Octavia..." Twilight began, getting her attention. "Is everything all right?"

"But of course." Octavia replied with a forced smile. "What made you think otherwise?"

"I gotta agree with Twilight here, Octavia." Spike said in concern. "You just look...out of it. Ever since Vinyl invited us to her party, you've been pretty quiet."

Octavia let out a sigh, dropping her smile. "You and Twilight are very observant. Truthfully, I feel...troubled."

Now Twilight and Spike were very concerned for the gray mare. She stopped introducing her thoughts with a quote (or as Spike would call it, "Words of Wisdom"), her eyes did indeed looked troubled and she was fidgeting nervously in her seat. This was not the Octavia they knew. They knew that they had to help her.

"So what's the matter? Did something happen between you and Vinyl when you last saw each other?" Twilight asked.

Octavia shook her head. "No, nothing like that. We left on good terms."

"Then what's eating you up?" Spike asked her. "Come on, you can tell us."

"Well..." Octavia trailed, then she paused her thoughts. "I'm sorry, I'm feeling too exhausted to speak about it right now. Perhaps we can continue tomorrow."

"All right. We understand." Twilight nodded, knowing that she needed time to collect her thoughts.

The rest of the trip was silent, though it didn't take long to reach Octavia's home. The cellist paid her fee before stepping out of the carriage.

"Good night, Octavia. We hope you feel better tomorrow." Twilight said. Octavia nodded, walking inside her home as the carriage rode away to the library.

"Twilight, I'm worried about Octavia..." Spike frowned. "Do you think she'll be all right?"

"Don't worry, Spike. Tomorrow, we'll get to the bottom of things. We'll find out what's troubling her." Twilight assured her assistant.

"I sure hope so..."

The rest of the ride home was quiet, save for the clip-clops of the riders' hooves on the road. Twilight had spent her rest of the way to the library wondering why Octavia was troubled. And once she found out, she would do her best to solve Octavia's troubles for good.
> The Story of Two Musicians
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The sun rose upon the city of Manehattan, stirring everypony awake by its warming light. There were trees full of green and yellow leaves around the library, with some adorning beautiful, magenta flowers. Midway on the steps to the door, there stood two manticore statues, as if they were guarding the library and the unicorn and her assistant who resided in it.

The inside was very spacious, with tables set around in an organized manner; plus, each table had a candlestick to light to help those who needed to read in the dark, and the couple of chandeliers hanging from the ceiling also helped to that a bit. The sun's rays shined through the glass windows, illuminating the cherry wood bookshelves containing books in alphabetical order and sorted genre. The marble floor also added to the shine of the room. The library was three stories tall but only the first and second floor were full of bookshelves, for the third floor served as the living quarters for its current librarian, Twilight Sparkle.

Ever since Octavia's out-of-character behavior yesterday, Twilight decided that first thing in the morning she would go to the musician's apartment, along with Spike, to help with what was bothering her. However, she had remembered that she also needed to tell her other friends of Vinyl's invitation, to let them know of the party the DJ was going to hold. Twilight was at a loss on what to do, for she did not want to choose one friend over another. Fortunately, an answer was already put out for her.

"Are you sure about this, Spike?" Twilight asked in surprise.

"Of course I am." Spike nodded. "Octavia really needs somepony to lend an ear to her, and I really think it should be you."

"But...don't you want to come along with me and help Octavia? Or I could go to my friends by myself, and you could listen..." she suggested, although she was pleasantly surprised at how selfless Spike was being.

The dragon frowned a little, scratching his head. "I really would like to do that, but let's face it: you're the better one at talking and comforting other ponies. You always know what to say. Me? I'd probably just mess it up somehow, and I really don't want that to happen. Plus, I've traveled all over the city with you, so I know where our friends live. So come on, Twilight! I gotta do this!"

Twilight smiled at Spike, proud of her assistant's resolve. She pulled him in for a hug, which he returned. "Thank you, Spike. I'll be sure to let Octavia know of what you've done for us."

So after Twilight gave Spike his backpack filled with bits inside to use the taxi-carriages if he needed to, the unicorn and dragon set out for their respective locations. Spike soon stopped in his steps as he realized something.

"Hey, Twilight?" he called out to her.

"Yes, Spike?"

"Did Vinyl ever tell us where her party was going to be?"

Twilight was silent for a moment, recalling yesterday to see if there was anything that Vinyl had said on where her party was going to be. Try as she might, even with her incredible memory, she could not remember one word on the whereabouts of the party. So the only possible explanation was that Vinyl forgot to tell them where her own party was going to be.

Twilight slapped a hoof to her face in frustration. "Ugh! Seriously, how could she neglect to tell us where her own party is going to take place!?" She was beginning to wonder if this is the kind of behavior that Octavia had to put up with from her friend at times.

"Twilight, it's no big deal." Spike calmed her down. "I'll just go to the Orange Catering Hotel, go to Vinyl's room and ask her about it. Easy."

"Y-You're right, Spike...it should be easy." Twilight sighed in relief. "Well, good luck."

"Yeah, you too."

And so now each went their separate ways to complete their task.



Spike stepped out of the taxi-carriage after reaching his destination, Orange Catering Hotel. No matter how many times he went there, he always gazed in awe at the lavish and luxurious lobby. He had to restrain himself from wanting to leap at the chandelier (not that he could) to have at least a few bites on it, or he would never hear the end of it from Twilight.

Spike shook himself out of his stupor, remembering the reason why he came here  in the first place. Walking to the front desk, he pulled himself up and rang the bell on the table. It didn't take long for someone to answer.

"Hello and welcome to the Orange Catering Hotel! How may we..." Orange Sherbet greeted, pausing when she saw the purple dragon. "Oh, Spike! What a surprise! I didn't expect to see you here so early in the morning!"

"Yeah, I'm running a task for Twilight to ask Vinyl where her party is gonna be while she goes to talk to Octavia to see what's wrong with her." Spike said.

"Octavia?" Sherbet asked in surprise and concern. "She feels troubled? Why?"

"We don't really know. Twilight's gonna see if she can find out." Spike answered. "Anyway, I'm here to see Vinyl. Can you tell me which room she's in?"

"Well, we have put Miss Scratch at Room 402 at the fourth floor, but..."

Spike did not like the sound of that last word, now fearing the worst. "...but what, Auntie?"

"After she had finished her breakfast, she immediately left the hotel, saying that she had some important business to take care of." Sherbet explained.

"What!?" he shouted in shock at the news. Manehattan was a big city and Vinyl could be anywhere in it. How would he find the crazy DJ before tomorrow?

"I do know where she went, though." Sherbet spoke, hoping to help. "I believe she went to Blossomforth's house downtown. Perhaps she went there to give her the autograph she promised yesterday."

"Thanks, Auntie! You're a lifesaver!" Spike thanked in joy. "I'd better get going before she moves away again!"

"Spike wait!" the mare called, stopping him in his tracks. "Why exactly do you want to speak with Miss Scratch?"

"It's about her invitation. She forgot to tell us where her party is, so I have to ask her to know. Now I really gotta get going!" he answered, before rushing out the door.

'Well, there he goes...' Sherbet thought. Knowing that there was nothing she could do to help, she returned back to work, hoping that Spike would be all right.



Twilight was thinking about what she should ask Octavia about her and Vinyl while she was waiting for the elevator to reach her floor. The musician had already said that there was no bad blood between her and the DJ unicorn, so what was bothering her? Was it something personal? Did something else happen between them? Either way, she was going to find out.

The ding told Twilight that she had arrived at Octavia's floor. The elevator door opened up, letting her inside Octavia's penthouse apartment. Her apartment's appearance was exactly what Twilight expected from a musician like Octavia: simple, yet with a touch of elegance. While not quite as fancy as the Orange's level of appearance, it still looked like a fine place to live in. The light brown carpet complimented with the colors of the blue wallpaper, and the couches seemed to welcome any guests that stepped inside. On one side of the room where Octavia displayed her cellos, she recognized that one of them was made from Canterlot judging from its golden-lined borders.

Now Twilight wondered where Octavia was around the apartment. "Octavia? Are you here?"

"Twilight? Is that you?" Her voice came from the hallway, most likely her room.

"Is this a bad time? I could always come back later."

"No, no. It's quite all right. I'll be right out."

After a few seconds or so, one of the doors opened, Octavia walking out of her room. Although she still had her troubled look from yesterday, she seemed somewhat calmer.

"Hello, Twilight." Octavia greeted, before noticing the absence of a baby dragon. "Where is Spike? Does he not often travel with you?"

"Yes, but right now he's running an errand for me." Twilight replied. "Vinyl forgot to tell us where her party was being held, and he offered to go and ask her himself and then tell our friends about it."

Octavia smiled upon this. "I see. How kind of him." She motioned one of her forelegs to the couch. "Please, a have a seat."

Twilight complied, sitting on one of the couches in the living room.

"Would you like to have some tea?" Octavia offered. "I should have some ready in the kitchen."

"I guess I can have a cup or two." Twilight accepted the offer.

The cellist left to the kitchen, shortly coming back with a teapot and two teacups on a tray. She poured the drink on each cup, before giving one to Twilight.

Twilight decided to cut to the chase. The sooner she solves this problem, the better. "So Octavia, you know why I'm here, right?"

"...yes, I do." Octavia muttered.

"Then let me help you. Please. Tell me what's been bothering you."

Octavia sighed, setting her teacup down. "It's about Vinyl."

"Vinyl?" Twilight asked. "But I thought you said that you two weren't mad with one another."

"It's not specifically her, per se. It's something else from her." the earth pony clarified.

"Like what?"

"It's about her invitation to the party that she will be hosting. I'm...not certain if I will enjoy it."

The unicorn wasn't sure if this was something to be so troubled about, but she decided not to question it. "Then why don't you just tell her that? I'm sure that she'll understand-"

"No. I can't do that."

Twilight blinked at Octavia's interruption. "Huh? Why not?"

"Because..." she spoke, closing her eyes. "I don't want to let Vinyl down."

"What do you mean?"

"Vinyl has already said that we met each other as fillies, correct?" Twilight nodded at Octavia's question. "Well then, let me tell you how we have met..."



While my family was not of nobility, we were somewhat wealthy, and we lived a good life together. As a foal, I have always dreamed of becoming a musician, to play music for everypony to listen, to create my own music, and perhaps one day, to perform before Celestia herself. So after begging to my parents, they had signed me up in the finest music class they could find. It had taken me a while to find an instrument most suited for me. After many tests and practice, I had become an adept at the cello. And once I had finished playing my first song flawlessly, I had earned my cutie mark. I couldn't be happier to find the perfect instrument for me.

But of course, like I've said before, I am not a noble. However, my foalish, naïve mind thought otherwise. I admit that as a filly, I was rather...unkind.

"Excuse me, but what are you two doing here?" the grey filly frowned at the yellow unicorn colt and the white earth filly, sitting around one of the tables of the library reading a book.

"Um, we're studying." the filly answered. "Why? Is there a problem?

"Yes, there is. First off, you're not allowed in here."

"Oh yeah? Says who?" the colt challenged her.

"Says me. You're not allowed in here for breaking rules."

"Rules? What rules?" the filly asked. "I didn't know that there were any rules."

"Oh, but there are." Octavia smirked, enjoying the moment. "First off, neither one of you are very rich or nobles. You need to be at least one of those to be here, but you're not."

"But that's not fair! There aren't even that many rich ponies around here!"

"Well, that would be your problem, not mine. And secondly..." she pointed to the colt. "You don't have a cutie mark. No blank flanks are allowed in here."

"SHUT UP! You're not the boss of me!" he snapped.

"So should I go get the librarian and tell her that you've been shouting again? She won't like it..."

Unable to think of a comeback, he could only stand there, glaring at her.

"That's what I thought." Octavia said smugly. Then, she turned to the filly. "Don't think I've forgotten about you. You have to leave too."

"But why!? I have a cutie mark! Look!" the filly protested, revealing a slice of cake on her flank.

"And that's where rule three comes in: nopony with a stupid cutie mark is allowed in here. You have a slice of cake for one? Whatever does that mean, that you eat so much cake that you'll get fat? Heh, what a poor choice of a cutie mark."

The poor filly began to cry, making the colt even madder. "Come on, let's get out of here." he told her. "I promise that she will pay for this." And with that, the two foals had left the library.

Satisfied, Octavia returned back to the task at hoof, getting a book of Beethoofen to practice for the youth musical competition next week. She knew that she was going to win. Compared to her, the other musicians were foolish amateurs who should know their place. And she was going to win to prove it to everypony.

Finding what she wanted, she settled the book on her back and began to walk out the door.

"Excuse me little filly..."

Octavia turned to the voice that called her, the librarian mare. "Yes, what is it?"

"If you want that book, you should come over here to the front desk to check it out." she explained.

Octavia only scoffed at this. Why does she need to do that? It was so tedious and pointless. She will return the book later, so what was the point in it? Still, she did as she was told, reluctantly going through the standard procedures of checking out the book.

"Is that it?" she asked impatiently.

"Yes, that will be all." the mare nodded. However, before Octavia could open the door, the mare called out once again. "Wait, one more thing."

Octavia groaned in annoyance. "What!?"

"Octavia, I would appreciate it if you stopped chasing foals away from the library. If you keep doing that, they won't come back here again."

"It's not my fault, Miss Bookmark. They broke important rules here, so I had to teach them a lesson." the grey filly said with an innocent tone in her voice.

"Come now Octavia, the only rule in this library is to not talk loudly." Bookmark frowned. "And as far as I know, neither one of those foals broke that rule."

"I don't know Miss Bookmark, that colt sure was loud before. And since that filly was with him, she deserved it too." Bookworm was about to scold her before Octavia interrupted her. "Now if you'll excuse me, I must get home to practice for next week. I've already wasted enough time here." And so Octavia closed the door, not giving the librarian a chance to call her again.



Twilight was very surprised at what she has heard. She never would've expected to hear that Octavia, the Element of Kindness, was a bully in her foalhood. She decided to not tell about any of this to Spike.

"I know, I'm not proud of how I behaved as a filly." Octavia said.

"But you're not like that now. Not even close." Twilight noted. "So what happened?"

"'Nopony stays the same forever. They all change in some ways in their lives." Octavia explained. "And I am thankful that it happened to me."

"So what happened? What made you change?"

"I had met a white, energetic young unicorn filly who was excited at learning everything she could at music."

"Vinyl Scratch." Twilight said in realization.

"Correct. Although our first meeting wasn't the most pleasant..."



Octavia was practicing with her cello at her music school with her teacher, having to sit on a chair to play her instrument properly. Although she played well, she couldn't play without a music sheet, still not able to completely memorize music in her mind. She knew that a true cellist has to feel the music and its true meaning. With that in mind, she knew that she had to win the competition. For herself.

"Well done, Octavia." her teacher, High Note, complimented her. "Now let me hear you on fourth position."

Octavia nodded, settling her hooves in fourth position...

WUBWUBWUB WUBWUBWUB WUBWUBWUB WUB!

WUBWUBWUB WUBWUBWUB WUBWUBWUB WUB!

She and her teacher pressed their hooves to their ears, cringing at the sound of the terrible, loud music, if she could even call it that. She couldn't hear herself think with that accursed...whatever it was...playing so loud. Whoever that pony was, he or she had no right to call themselves a musician.

Octavia would not tolerate this. She marched right out of the classroom she was practicing in and went to where the loud noise was being played to give that pony a piece of her mind.

Opening the door to where that accursed music was being played, she had found the culprit: a white filly with headphones over her ears on a turntable, rocking and bopping her head along with the beat. It was a wonder that she didn't make herself go deaf with the awful racket she herself was making.

"Hey!" Octavia shouted over the music. Apparently the filly didn't hear her, for she kept waving along with her music. "Hey! I'm talking to you! Answer me!" To her annoyance, the filly continued to play, as if she didn't even notice Octavia in the room. When High Note joined her in the room, she decided to use him to her advantage. "Mister Note, please make her stop playing this terrible noise! It's hurting my ears!"

The teacher complied, walking up to the DJ filly and gently nudging her to get her attention. "Excuse me, Vinyl?"

The filly, Vinyl, blinked, turning down the music, much to Octavia's relief, and looked to High Note.

"Yo, teach! How's it going? Did ya come here to check out my mad skills?" She exclaimed with a cocky grin. "The new piece I'm playing is gonna blow everypony's minds when they hear it!"

"Yes, quite literally too." Octavia deadpanned, already disliking this Vinyl filly.

"Of course not, it's just an expression!" she laughed. "So what's you name, girl? Mine's Vinyl Scratch. But one day, everypony will be calling me DJ-PON3! The Wubmaster! The queen of beats! And..." she paused, seemingly unable to think of another title. "...meh, something else, I'll think it up later."

"My name is Octavia Melody." the grey filly said, clearly irritated. "And that piece you were playing was ridiculous."

"Octavia, don't talk like that!" High Note scolded her, much to her shock. Why was he, a wonderful cello teacher, siding with this amateur? She knew nothing of music, and he's protecting her?

"Nah, she's got a point, it is kinda ridiculous." Vinyl agreed, shocking Octavia even further. Not that she wasn't happy to hear it, but why would she criticize her own song? "I keep skipping over some beats by accident and I always keep trying to play the beats I did miss, screwing up my whole piece. So in short, I suck! Hahahaha! Sure wish that my teach didn't catch the sniffles! He'd be sure to give me a few pointers!"

"And you're fine knowing that?" Octavia questioned, seeing a perfect opportunity to humiliate her. "You admit that you're terrible at playing music, and you're fine with it?"

"Octavia, that's enough." High Note warned her, not liking his student's behavior towards another student of the school.

"'Course not." Vinyl answered, not affected in the least by Octavia's taunting. "I know that if I keep playin over and over again, I'll eventually get better. Though I don't know if I'll get better at hearing since I couldn't understand a word you said to me while I was putting the Wubs on! Heheh..."

Octavia didn't know what made her most annoyed: that her insult didn't make Vinyl the least bit angry or the fact that the white filly knew that she was there before, and paid her no mind. She was a huge nuisance.

"By the way, are you gonna join in the school's music competition next week?" Vinyl asked, grinning.

"Yes. What of it?" she narrowed her eyes, not liking where this was going.

"I'm joining up in the comp too! We can listen to each other's pieces!" she threw her forelegs around Octavia, much to the cellist's great irritation.

"Just wonderful..." Octavia moaned.

"I know, right!?"

After my first meeting with Vinyl I became even more determined to not let her beat me, my young mind believing that she was not worthy of winning the competition. I practiced on my cello everyday to make sure that I would win. On the day of the competition however, something I was not expecting had happened...

Octavia rolled her eyes in complete annoyance as Vinyl played her turntable onstage. She even proved herself to be downright mad, doing a hoofstand on top of the turntable with her forelegs. What was worse, the audience seemed to be enjoying her performance. Octavia could not believe that they would actually like awful music like that. Well, once she began her performance, they would see how truly wrong they were, and rightfully place her at first with the blue ribbon.

Octavia decided that a little bit of practice before the performance wouldn't hurt. Walking back to her room, she opened her cello case and reached for her saddlebag to pull out her music sheet.

She froze upon feeling that it was empty.

She began to panic, wondering what had happened to it. She needed that music sheet, for without it she could not play at the competition. Did she misplace it back at her home? No, she had checked, it definitely was in there before. Had it flown away? No, her saddlebag was tightly strapped, she was sure of it.

During her panic, she had noticed some paper tied to the strap of her saddlebag. It read "This is payback for making my friend cry. Serves you right."

Anger was added to her panic. How dare those two foals steal from her! They would pay once she had her hooves on them! But she had no time to worry about them, for in a few minutes, she would be playing next. Without her music sheet to guide her, she was sure to lose. Not knowing what else to do, she fell to the floor and cried, feeling defeated.

I truly thought that it was over. That the colt and filly I had bullied at the library had beaten me, and have completed their retribution against me. Fortunately, a certain somepony was willing to help me...

"Hey girl! How's it going in there?"

Vinyl's smirk vanished when she saw Octavia sobbing on the floor. Now looking serious, she walked up to the crying filly and placed a comforting hoof on her back.

"Hey, what's wrong?" she softly spoke. "Why are you crying?"

"What's wrong!? Two rotten ponies stole my music sheet, that's what!" Octavia snapped, tears falling down her face. "I didn't even do anything to them! Now I'll get last place, thanks to them!"

"I see...I'm sorry to hear that, girl."

"Wh-What am going to tell everypony out there? They'll all laugh at me...I don't want to get laughed at..." she sniffed.

Vinyl stood thinking for a moment before smiling, an idea coursing through her head. "Hold on, girl! I know how to fix this mess! Stay here, I'll be right back!" After that, she ran outside of the room in a flash.

'I hope she does something terrible to those two who robbed me...' Octavia thought bitterly.

After a few moments or so, Vinyl came back, bringing in some papers via levitation.

"Is that my music sheet!?" the cellist exclaimed in surprise and excitement.

"See for yourself." Vinyl smirked.

Octavia took the papers without so much a thank you, and began to read over them. As she saw the notes on the sheets, her excitement faded away, her face of joy now replaced with a deep frown.

"What kind of sick joke is this!?" she demanded the unicorn filly. "This isn't my music sheet!"

"I know, I made it for you." Vinyl simply replied.

"For what?"

"For you to use it at the competition out there, what else girl?"

Octavia gaped at her in disbelief. "Now I know you're joking! I've never even played this score before! What makes you think that I will put up a good performance with this!?"

"Trust me, I know that you'll knock them out of their horseshoes! After all, it is my talent!" Vinyl assured her, proudly displaying her cutie mark.

Before Octavia could talk back, one of the teachers had called her to perform onstage. "Octavia, you're up next!"

"This is your chance, girl! Time to show 'em your mad skills!" Vinyl cheered.

'This score had better be good, or I will tell the teachers that she sabotaged my music sheet.' Octavia thought as she made way to the stage with her cello and new music sheet.

Making her way to the center of the stage, Octavia prepared her cello and music sheet, not as confident as she once believed that she was going to be.

'Well, here goes...'

Octavia took a deep breath, and began to play.

The music that Vinyl had written for me was incredible. I had never heard anything like it before. I noticed that she had mixed a bit of her music along with mine to play, and it surprisingly fit well. The fast notes that I had to play entertained the audience very much. The quick change of positions she wrote for me were smooth and graceful, keeping my music in rhythm with the melody. The audience loved what I had played. In fact, it was enough for...

"...and the blue ribbon goes to...Octavia Melody!"

As the audience cheered for her, Octavia could not smile back, for she was too surprised and baffled as to what happened. To her right stood Vinyl, smiling with a red ribbon on her chest. One very important question passed through the earth filly's mind: why did Vinyl do all of that? She was clearly being mean to the unicorn, she had no reason to help her. If she didn't, she would have been the one with the blue ribbon in her possession. Octavia couldn't help but wonder: why?

After the victory ceremony was over, Octavia had wanted to find out from Vinyl herself. She approached the table where Vinyl was happily munching a daisy sandwich.

"Excuse me, Vinyl?"

Pausing from her snack, Vinyl turned to Octavia and beamed at her. "Hey! Girl, you were awesome out there! Ya totally owned the comp! Congrats! You're totally-"

"Vinyl, please." Octavia interrupted, but instead of the harsh tone she has always used on ponies she looked down at, she was now gentle with it. "May I ask you a question?"

"Uh, sure. Shoot!"

"Why did you help me backstage with my problem? I had insulted you! Made fun of you! Called your music complete trash! You could have chosen not to help me. And yet you did. Why?"

"Why?" Vinyl smiled softly. "Because you needed help, that's why. So what if you were a jerk to me and other ponies? You needed help, and I gave it when you needed it the most. I couldn't just leave you there crying, it's not me. And if it cheered ya up in the end, then it's worth it. Sometimes, all you gotta do is show a little kindness."

Octavia was stunned to hear all of this from Vinyl herself. Despite all of the mean things she had done to Vinyl, she was still willing to help her in the end. And she also felt ashamed, having insulted the filly that had helped her win first place at the competition. Looking back, she felt ashamed at every terrible thing she had said and done to other ponies. She wasn't even sure why she did all of that in the first place. Now, it was time for a change.

"Vinyl..." Octavia began, holding the blue ribbon toward her. "I want you to have this."

"What? Why?" Vinyl asked, shocked by her offer.

"I don't feel like I deserve it. That was your music I played, not mine. If anypony deserves the credit, it should be you."

"Nuh-uh. You keep it." Vinyl shook her head, frowning. "I'm not taking that ribbon for any reason you come up with. You won it, you keep it."

"But I must repay you somehow..." Octavia insisted.

"Ah, I'm sure you'll think of something else Octi! Can I call ya Octi?"

"I suppose so, I don't mind..."

After that day, I had turned over a new leaf. I had apologized to anypony I have wronged before, giving them gifts to show that I was serious in my actions. It had taken some time, but I had eventually earned their trust. Only Vinyl was left, and I knew what sort of gift she would love...

Octavia had arrived early for her music class, but it was not meant to show off. She was waiting for Vinyl to arrive so she could give her present to the unicorn; and since their classes start at the time, this would be her only opportunity to do so.

It didn't take long for Vinyl to arrive, with her still looking as energetic as ever.

"Yo Octi! Wassup?" she grinned, before noticing the wrapped gift box beside her. "Hey, nice box. Who's it for?"

"Vinyl, this is for you." Octavia said, giving the box to her. "Think of it as a thank you gift after what you've done for me the other day."

Vinyl raised her eyebrows in uncertainty. "Uh, Octi? You conked your head a little hard or something? I appreciate the thought and all, but it's just a box."

Octavia couldn't help but slap a hoof to her face. "No Vinyl, it's inside the box..."

"I know, I'm just messing with ya!" Vinyl laughed, making Octavia slap another hoof at her own face.

Not wasting anymore time, Vinyl used her magic to rip up the box's walls, revealing a small case inside it. Curious, Vinyl opened the case and gasped, looking overjoyed at what was inside it.

"AWESOME!!! SUNGLASSES!!!" She cheered, levitating the dark, purple sunglasses over her eyes. Then, she hugged the former bully that gave her what she had always wanted. "Thanks, Octi! You're the best!"

For the first time in a long while, Octavia smiled a genuine smile, returning the hug. "You're welcome, Vinyl."



Octavia took another sip from her tea, Twilight listening in awe at her story. In all honesty, she kind of envied Octavia for having such a wonderful friend in her foalhood. Twilight remembered that she kept pushing away possible friends to continue her studies, and now she has regretted it since, missing the chance to have made some friends in her foalhood. The only ones that she truly did consider friends at that age were her BBBFF, Shining Armor, and the best foalsitter ever, Princess Cadence. She had always remembered them both telling Twilight to go out and make new friends. Now, she would completely agree with the both of them.

"So what happened? How did you and Vinyl get separated from one another?" Twilight asked.

"Vinyl's father had very important business in Canterlot, requiring him to move there. And he didn't wish to leave his family behind, so Vinyl and her mother had to move to Canterlot with him. We wrote letters to one another, talking about how we're doing with our lives. And you know the rest of the story from here..."

To say that Twilight was stunned would be an understatement. She never expected for somepony like Vinyl to have such an impact on Octavia's life. She had now seen the DJ unicorn in a new light.

"So...now do you understand Twilight?" Octavia asked. "Vinyl helped me see the error of my ways as a filly. It's thanks to her that I have made such success around Manehattan. She's also most likely one of the reasons why I am the Element of Kindness. I...I owe a lot to Vinyl. So I can't reject her invitation. Not after everything she's done for me."

"But...are you sure you don't want to tell Vinyl about this?" Twilight suggested again. "If she is as you told me, I'm sure that she'd understand. Besides, it's just a party, right?"

"I'm afraid that you don't understand, Twilight." Octavia shook her head. "Vinyl is very passionate with her music and festivities. Rejecting to go there would be like rejecting her friendship. Although I admit that I don't know what I'm supposed to do there. I'm...afraid."

"Don't be, Octavia" Twilight comforted her, putting a hoof over her. "You won't be alone in there. You'll have me and everypony else helping you. Trust me, we will all support you to the end."

Octavia couldn't help but smile. "Thank you, Twilight. I truly do appreciate it."



After listening to Octavia, Twilight had to return to the library to continue her job as librarian. Some time had passed by, and Spike still hadn't returned. She was beginning to worry for him. He couldn't have gotten lost, he said so himself that he knew his way around Manehattan. Did he make a mistake somehow?

"TWIIIIIIIIIILLIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!"

Hearing the familiar voice, Twilight immediately ran outside, and she saw Spike running towards her. And he was running as if Tirek himself was chasing after him.

"TWILIGHT!" he shouted, running right behind her. "Is Blossomforth chasing after me!?"

"Um, what?" Twilight uttered, completely taken aback by that question.

"IS BLOSSOMFORTH CHASING AFTER ME!?"

"Um...no?" she answered, not seeing any signs of her pegasus friend nearby.

"Good..." Spike sighed in relief. "I can finally take a breather..."

"Um, Spike? What exactly happened between you and Blossomforth?"

"Well, Vinyl wasn't at the hotel, she was at Blossomforth's place. So I went there to talk to Vinyl..."




Earlier that day...


Blossomforth lived down at the suburbs, close to the hotel and the library, so Spike knew that it would be easy to find Vinyl at Blossomforth's house; it was the one with flowers in the front yard, the backyard and a greenhouse full of many kind of colorful flowers. Walking to the front door, Spike knocked on it a few times.

"I'm coming!" Blossomforth called from inside.

Few seconds later, the cream-colored pegasus opened the door, smiling when she saw the baby dragon at her doorsteps.

"Oh, hi Spike. What brings you here?" she asked him.

"I've heard that Vinyl went here, and I want to ask her something." Spike said. "Is she still home?"

"Yes, of course! Do you want her autograph too?"

"Uh, maybe some other time. I really need to talk to her."

"Ok, come on in."

Walking inside her home, Spike wasn't surprised, but still impressed, to see that everywhere he looked, there was always some kind of flower standing around. Whether they be on the kitchen table, hung on windows, inside vases, neatly decorated along the stairs, or even used as curtains, there were flowers everywhere. And they smelled good. Too good. The smell intoxicated his nostrils, making him want to sneeze.

'I'd better make this quick...' Spike thought, desperately trying to hold his sneeze in, knowing what happened the last time he sneezed. "Uh, so where's Vinyl?"

"She's outside looking at my garden. She also gave me her autograph!" Blossomforth squeed, showing a paper signed 'To one of my awesome, rockin fans, Vinyl Scratch.

"Wow, that's pretty cool." Spike grinned. "Anyway, can I see her? It's really important."

"Of course. Right this way."

Blossomforth led the baby dragon outside to her garden, also filled with flowers. The only type Spike could recognize were the sunflowers. He and Blossomforth had spotted Vinyl near the greenhouse, looking curiously at the flowers around it.

"Vinyl, we have a guest with us!" the pegasus called.

"Yeah?" Vinyl turned her head, seeing the flower-lover along with Spike. "Oh hey, little guy! What brings ya here? Do ya also want my autograph?"

"Actually Vinyl, it's about your party..." Spike began.

"Oh yeah, I'm totally stoked for it! What's best, Octi will be there to enjoy the wubs with me! What about you, ya up to groovin in the dance floor too?"

"I guess so, but I also gotta know where your party is gonna be."

"Whuh? You mean...you don't know?" Asked a confused Vinyl.

"No, because you forgot to tell us where your party was going to be yesterday. You just told us to go see you, and that's it." Spike replied with a flat look on his face.

Vinyl took all that information in pause, before laughing out loud. "I guess I did forget to tell ya! Man, I'm never gonna learn!"

'Octavia must have been really patient to put up with Vinyl for so long.' Spike thought with a sweatdrop.

"Right, so the party where I'll be putting beats on is at a club called The Boom Room, on 34th and Malbec. You'll know it when ya see it."

"All right, thanks for telling me." Spike nodded. "Now all I gotta do is tell the others about it."

"Hold up." Vinyl stopped him. "How 'bout you give me your buddies' addresses, and I tell them where it is? It's the least I could do after giving ya so much trouble."

It was a tempting offer. Even though Spike was sure that he could carry out the task by himself, he didn't want to waste all of the bits Twilight gave to him. He saw no harm in letting Vinyl do the work for him. "Uh, sure I guess. Gimme a sec..."

After giving Trixie's, Octavia's and Daring's (which he remembered to write with her real name, Honey Do) addresses, he felt that his business was done, and that it was time to leave.

"Yo Blossom, what's that kind of flower near the windows?" Vinyl asked, pointing to a green, bushy flower.

"This one? This is ragweed. It carries pollen through the wind. I also have many other wind pollinated flowers around my garden." Blossomforth explained.

Spike tensed up, the mere mention of the word 'pollen' making him want to sneeze. He felt a strong tingle in his nose. 'Oh no...' He attempted to hold it back with little success.

"Ahh...ahh..."

"Hey little guy, what's wrong? You're not looking too good..."

"Aaahhh...aaahhh..."

"Spike? Are you okay?"

"AAAAAAAACCHHOOOOOOOO!!"

Spike let out an accidental flame along with his sneeze, suprising both mares around him. However, it didn't take long for Blossomforth to scream in horror.

"MY FLOWERS!!! MY POOR FLOWERS!!!"

The pegasus stared in sheer terror at the burnt patches of what used to be flowers. Spike, sensing the worst about to happen, slowly tip-toed away from the garden.

"You...flower murderer..."

Spike slowly looked back, and fear completely struck him. The timid, down-to-earth pony looked absolutely terrifying. If looks could kill, Spike would be a dead dragon.

"You did this..." she hissed.

"Blossomforth, it was an accident, I swear it was!" Spike yelped, fearing for his life.

"You will pay!!!"

She grabbed the nearest object she could take: a broomstick. While somewhat a ridiculous weapon, Blossomforth made it look dangerous.

"Dude, start running." Vinyl whispered frantically, also afraid by the mare's reaction.

Spike didn't need to be told twice, going as fast as his feet could run. Blossomforth immediately gave chase, trying to smack the dragon with her broomstick every time she saw an opportunity, with him barely dodging each swing. From another pony's point of view, this scene would've looked comical, but Vinyl was absolutely scared at Blossomforth's other side.

Eventually, Spike had managed to escape to the front door with Blossomforth right behind him.

"Come back here!!!"

"No, get away from me!!!"



"Wow...Blossomforth actually did that?" Twilight said in shock.

"Just ask Vinyl, she was there!" Spike trembled. "Now I'm afraid to go to bed at night...what if she gets me in my sleep!? I can see her doing that!"

"Spike, don't worry. I'm sure that Blossomforth isn't a pony that holds a grudge for so long. I'm sure that she will calm down in time." Twilight assured, patting his head to calm him down.

"For my sake, I hope you're right..." Spike sighed. He was SO not looking forward to go to bed.
> Time to Party
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	This is it. Tonight is the night of Vinyl's party, or she would call herself on stage, DJ-PON3. Octavia wanted for Vinyl's party to be a success, for it to be perfect. Obviously, she had no clue how her DJ friend's party was like at all. Sure, she heard from Vinyl herself how her party was going to be like, but Octavia did not know how to behave in said party. The only parties she had attended were balls, the Grand Galloping Gala once, special celebrations and so on. This was a new experience for her altogether.

Glancing at a photograph on her desk, Octavia saw Vinyl and herself in their younger years, having fun together at the amusement park on one of the rides, 'The Speeding Wonderbolts' if she recalled correctly. Octavia smiled at the photograph, remembering all of the good times she had with Vinyl, even if the excitable unicorn got out of hoof at times. Vinyl was without a doubt an excellent friend. This also scared Octavia, for if the party was a disaster, Vinyl will get upset at what had happened. And Octavia was afraid of losing her foalhood friend.

But Octavia wasn't going to let that stop her. After all, she has her friends to help her through this. She knew that she could count on them.

A soft knock on her door interrupted het thoughts.

"Octavia, are you ready?"

"Yes Twilight, I'll be right out." Octavia said to the unicorn behind the door. "'Time waits for no mare'. I should get going..."

And with that, Octavia walked out of her room to join up with Twilight and her friends at the Boom Room club, hoping for the best tonight.



On their way to the Boom Room, Twilight, Octavia and Spike have already picked up Daring, Trixie, Blossomforth and Sherbet Orange along with her husband Mosley Orange. Their daughter Tangerine could not come, for she had to focus on her homework from school, with the help of her cousin Babs.

Twilight had told her friends what was going on with Octavia, and they all agreed that they should do anything to help her when they can.

Meanwhile, Spike, who was riding on Twilight's back, kept looking back to Blossomforth constantly, as if she would suddenly attack him at any second. This did not go unnoticed by the others.

"Uh, Spike? Are you ok?" Daring asked the dragon in concern.

"Uh yeah! I'm fine!" he laughed nervously. "Just peachy! Just looking around the city, that's all!"

"Okay...?" Daring could tell that he was fibbing, but decided not to push it. Twilight however, had different thoughts in her mind.

"Spike...is this about yesterday?" she questioned him.

"I'm sorry, but I can't help it!" Spike whispered to her. "Blossom was downright crazy! Once you see her scary eyes, you will always remember what they look like!"

"Don't worry Spike, I'm sure Blossomforth will get over on what happened."

"Maybe that's what she wants me to think!" Spike shivered. "I can already see it! She gives me a gem as a way to say that she forgives me. Then after I eat the gem, I fall asleep locked and tied to a table in her basement. Then, she cuts me to itty-bitty sized pieces and turns me into a flower to put on her garden! The most evil plan ever!"

"Spike, don't be ridiculous. Blossomforth would never do something like that." Twilight rolled her eyes. "All we have to do is explain that what happened was an accident, and then everything will be fine."

Spike didn't answer back. He just clung tighter on the unicorn's mane, looking extremely worried for himself.

"Say, Auntie..." Blossomforth began. "I'm pretty surprised that you and Uncle are coming with us. Do you happen to know a lot about Vinyl's kind of parties?"

"Only a little bit." Sherbet answered.

"Oh? So you are somewhat familiar to what Vinyl hosts?" Octavia surmised.

"I suppose so." Mosley nodded. "You see, we have our own special room at the hotel for where some of the more outgoing ponies can 'rock out' as your friend Vinyl would say. So while we're not experts at this sort of festivity, we're not complete strangers to it either."

"I see..." Octavia was hoping to get more insight from her friends later on how Viny's parties were like.

"There it is!" Trixie exclaimed with an outstretched hoof, pointing to their destination. "The Boom Room club!"

"We know Trixie, you don't have to shout it." Spike muttered.

"Good! Now is the time for everypony to initiate a great and powerful entrance! Prepare yourselves!" Trixie's horn began to glow.

"Trixie, wait!" Twilight shouted at her.

Too late, for the blue unicorn had already cast her smokescreen spell, leaving everyone caught in it coughing.

"Why does she always keep doing that?" Twilight said in annoyance, recovering from her coughs.

"Wait, where is she?" Sherbet wondered. "She's not at the entrance to the club..."

Looking to the other end of the street, they saw Trixie galloping away from them.

"Trixie, stop! You're going the wrong way!" Blossomforth called to her, to no avail it seemed.

"Shouldn't we stop her?" Twilight asked.

"'Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes'." Octavia explained. "Trixie will realize her mistake and return."

"Exactly." Daring nodded. "She should be coming back in three...two...one..."

As if on cue, a blue blur immediately zipped back, revealing an out of breath Trixie, sweating and panting from all the running. She narrowed her eyes at everyone surrounding her. "This. Never. Happened." And without another word, she quickly entered the Boom Room, not even bothering to try and 'enter fashionably' this time. Spike couldn't help but snicker at Trixie's screw-up.

"By the way, Spike..."

The dragon froze upon hearing Blossomforth's voice, the cream colored pony staring right at him. Spike looked ready to run off again but Twilight gave him a reassuring glance, promising that nothing will happen.

"I've been thinking..." the pegasus continued. "Even though you did burn almost all of my flowers yesterday, I've been thinking that I overreacted for chasing you with a broomstick. So, can we just forget about what happened?"

"Y-Yeah, sure!" Spike agreed in relief. "Man, I really thought that you were gonna-"

"But!" Blossomforth interrupted firmly, making him gulp. Even Twilight looked a bit nervous now. "Don't burn my flowers again. Because if my poor plants are turned to ashes again...Oh no! I promised Vinyl I'd give her this mint chocolate gelato I got from Freezy's Ice Parlor! I have to hurry, before it melts!"

Blossomforth sped away to the club with gelato in hoof, leaving Twilight and Spike behind. After a brief moment of silence, Twilight chuckled nervously from the other side of Blossomforth she never expected to see. "Well...that wasn't so bad, right?"

"Not that bad? Didn't you listen to her threatening me? Personally, I'm glad she didn't finish what she was gonna say, because I don't want to find out." Spike dryly replied.

Not wanting to carry this conversation any further, Twilight changed the subject and suggested joining the others inside the club.

They had seen that the only pony to yet enter the club was Octavia, looking hesitant to open the door. Twilight could sympathize with Octavia, for she also had little knowledge on parties like these. She had wanted to come prepared to help the cellist, reading a copy of 'Partying 101' from her library to get an idea of how these sort of parties work, but she was still confused on many aspects of Vinyl's party theme. At least they would face it together, along with their friends.

The purple unicorn placed a hoof on Octavia's shoulder, catching her attention. "Well, are you ready?" she asked.

Octavia nodded wordlessly, and both ponies opened the front doors to the club.

They cringed at the loud, booming noise in there along with some other techno sounds. Both Twilight and Octavia instinctively pressed their forehooves to their ears to try and drown out the noise, resulting in Spike falling off of Twilight's back with a yelp.

Twilight could only make out what some parts of the club looked like because of the dim lights from the mirror ball on the ceiling, along with the occasional colorful light flashes onstage, where the turntable and sound boxes were, along with a blue earth pony with music notes for a cutie mark operating the music. And the ponies inside were having loads of fun, from many of them dancing on the blinking light dance floor whether alone or in groups, others enjoying drinks at a bar on the corner (one of the few places decently lit), some at tables, chairs and couches talking and laughing with one another, while a few were looking a bit tipsy from drinking a little too much Sweet Apple Cider, from what Twilight could see on the labels on the bottles.

It was hard to find their friends among a crowd this big. She could only spot Sherbet and her husband talking with one another at one of the tables striking a conversation with a green pegasus with a darker green mane and a raining cloud on her flank. It would probably take a while to find the others.

"Wow, quite the party in here, huh?" Twilight shouted over the loud music.

"What?" Spike shouted back. "I can't hear you! The music's too loud!"

"I said that this is some party we're having in here!"

"I still can't hear you!"

Apparently knowing a solution to this problem Twilight's horn began to glow, casting a small barrier inside the three of them, muffling the noise from the club. A very useful spell she had learned from her brother for when she wanted to study in peace and quiet.

"There, that should do it." she sighed in relief. "Now here's what we do: first, we'll need to look for the others around here and stick close to them. It should be easier for us to face this club together, so I think it's best for us to not split up. Once we find Vinyl, we should just do as she says, and the party should run smoothly for everypony to enjoy. And Spike..." she turned to her assistant. "I don't want you drinking anything from that bar other than fresh water. I don't really trust these kind of places with drinks."

"Don't worry Twilight, I know how to take care of myself." he assured.

"Good to hear. Now, any questions?"

"I happen to have one in mind." Octavia spoke up. "Where is Vinyl? Isn't she supposed to be hosting her own party onstage?"

Coming from Octavia, it was an understanding question since she didn't know a thing about Vinyl's parties. Twilight wasn't so sure herself, but she guessed that Vinyl probably needed some time to herself before performing onstage.

"All right. I'll let the barrier down now." she warned Octavia and Spike. The two nodded, getting ready for the musical onslaught as Twilight ceased her magical barrier.

They waited for a moment or so to let their ears get used to the music. Octavia, on the other hoof, was having a hard time doing so. Yes, she had heard her friend's loud music many times, but not at a volume this high. And her ears began to hurt from all the thumping and pounding coming from the music boxes. If this keeps up, she could get a migraine. She shook her discomfort away and did her best to compose herself, remembering that she was doing this for Vinyl.

"Octavia? You're not looking too good." Twilight noted. "Do you need some time outside?"

Octavia shook her head. "I appreciate your concern, but I should be fine. I know my limits."

And so the two ponies and dragon walked around the active club, looking for their friends. Once they had reached a dance line full of ponies, it proved very difficult to get through. Gently nudging them out of the way didn't work, they were having too much fun dancing and listening to the music to talk to them and Twilight chose to not push them out of the way with her magic, fearing she might cause a commotion if she did so.

"Great. This is just wonderful." Twilight groaned. "Now what?"

"We could go around without any difficulties." Octavia suggested.

"True, but our friends could be dancing somewhere in this line, and we have to check to make sure if they're there or not! But just how are we supposed to pass through this line?"

"Hey, I have an idea! Maybe we could dance through!" Spike piped up, catching the attention of the two confused mares.

"What? Dance through? What gave you that idea?" Twilight questioned.

"Think about it, it makes perfect sense! We couldn't get through earlier because we were doing it wrong! But if we dance through the crowd, it'll be easy as gem-cake!"

"Spike, that's just silly. Just because it's a dance line doesn't mean that you have to dance through."

"At least let me try! It could actually work!" the dragon insisted.

Twilight sighed, giving in. "All right, I suppose you can try. But I still don't think it's going to work."

Excited and eager, Spike went up to the dancing crowd, moving his feet and swinging his arms along with the music. As if he were immune to a magical barrier, he was effortlessly dancing through the crowd, much to Twilight disbelief and Octavia's surprise.

"I don't believe it! How is he doing that?" Twilight gaped, her jaw nearly touching the floor.

"'An idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on the situation that rubs against it'. The current situation seemed to favor Spike's thoughts." Octavia surmised.

Even though Twilight was not able to comprehend how Spike's plan actually worked, she decided to question it later and go along with it for now. Octavia opted to go next, although she looked nervous. She was debating on how to dance through the crowd of dancing ponies without making a fool of herself. She did not know how to dance at an event like this, and she knew that imitating somepony else's dancing from the crowd wouldn't work. The only kind of dances she knew were waltzes, tangos, some country dancing she had seen at the Apple Family Reunion and foxtrots to name a few. Sighing to herself, Octavia knew what she had to do: improvise.

Octavia slowly moves toward the crowd, her steps gracefully gliding across the floor, her head flowing smoothly through the crowd, imagining a harmonious song in her head to dance through. She wasn't making any rough movements with her body or jumping around like the ponies around her, she just did what she did best. Even though Twilight and Spike were at opposite sides from the dance line, the unicorn grinned as she could clearly see the dragon fawning at Octavia dancing among the crowd.

Some seconds later, Octavia joined the still-fawning Spike on the other side. Even after making it through, Octavia did not feel pleased with herself, feeling that she was out of place with her dance style compared to the other ponies' dancing. She really thought that she could have done better than that.

Now it was Twilight's turn to pass through the crowd. Although not as nervous as Octavia, she still felt unsure on how to proceed through this. After all, she didn't read anything about this on 'Partying 101'. She had to come up with something new.

'Well, here goes...' Twilight thought.

And then Twilight danced. Or rather, what she would call dancing. Every pony dancing stopped to turn towards the purple unicorn whopping, sticking her tongue out, wildly shaking her forelegs, bopping her head up and down and shouting "Oh yeah! Yow! Ow! Get down! Let's boogie!"

Everypony slowly backed away from the unicorn's awkward dancing. Octavia stifled her giggles to herself, wanting to remain polite while Spike was laughing his head off at what was happening.

Sensing that something was wrong, Twilight stopped dancing to see that she was the only pony on the dance floor.

"Um, I guess I overdid it, didn't I?" she asked, blushing from embarrassment.

"I guess that's another way to get through a dance line!" Spike continued to laugh. Although Octavia felt bad for Twilight, she felt relieved knowing that she could have done worse.



Although Orange Sherbet and her husband do enjoy parties, this is not the kind of party where they'd dance at. Country music and classical dances were more her type of music anyway. Instead, the two earth ponies were having drinks while talking with the pegasus they have met at one of the tables, Medley.

Sherbet had heard about Medley from Blossomforth, since she was also in the weather duty like the Element of Loyalty. Although the pegasus was a serious mare when working, she was completely different when off-duty. Medley was pretty friendly, talking about the return of Princess Luna, the next Grand Galloping Gala coming up soon at Canterlot and the recent Ursa Major (which Sherbet corrected to Minor). Yes, she was very talkative, but she always made her conversations interesting, so the earth pony couple listened to everything she had to say.

"...and believe it or not, she's friends with the Wonderbolts!" Medley exclaimed with a smirk. "She's so lucky! Speaking of which, I've heard that they're coming here soon! I'll definitely be watching them!"

"The Wonderbolts, huh?" Sherbet smiled in interest. "I wonder how Captain Spitfire is handling the new recruits..."

"Knowing her, she's probably whipping the poor cadets into shape." Mosley guessed, making everyone around the table chuckle.

Medley reached for her cup for another sip of grape juice, but frowned when she felt it empty. "Aw, already gone? I'm thinking that these cups are to small..."

"Not to worry dear, I'll get some more for you." Sherbet said, taking the pegasus' cup. "I'll be right back, you two."

Sherbet Orange walked towards the tables where they kept the scrumptious appetizers and drinks, taking caution to not bump into anyone on her way. Reaching the pitcher with the half-full grape juice, she took the handle in one hoof and was about to pour it into Medley's cup until someone accidentally bumped into her, making her drop the pitcher.

Instead of hearing broken glass like Sherbet feared, the pitcher bounced right back up into her hooves. She stood perplexed at what had happened. "The pitcher...bounced...?" Cautiously, she dropped the pitcher again, and it bounced back to her. Sherbet let it drop a few more times as if it was a ball, amazed that such a thing existed. "This is incredible! It makes me wonder what this pitcher is made out of!"

Sherbet looked to the assorted glasses neatly organized on the table, wondering if they also bounced. Now curious, she took one of the glasses and let it drop to the ground.

She widened her eyes at the sight of broken glass.

Sherbet slowly looked around to see if anyone saw that. Hoping that they didn't, she slowly pushed the broken pieces under the covers of the table. 'What was I thinking? Of course the glasses wouldn't bounce!'

Doing her best to remain unknowing of what happened, she filled Medley's cup and went to walk back to her table.

"Excuse me, miss?"

Sherbet froze, thinking that she had been caught breaking the glass.

"Y-Yes?" she replied, turning to face who called her.

It was a black unicorn stallion with a gray mane and a charming smile on his face. Sherbet's fear changed to annoyance, knowing where this was going.

"I couldn't help but notice that you're a bit jumpy in your steps. Why?" he said. "Is it because you're really enjoying the party? Well, if it is, no pretty mare like you has to enjoy it alone."

"No thank you. I'm quite fine." Sherbet politely declined, though she secretly wanted to punch the shameless flirt in the face. "In fact, I was about to..."

"Aw c'mon, you don't need to be like that. We could have some fun dancing together. Heck, I could even introduce you to my friends. I'm sure that we'll all-"

"Excuse me, young stallion?"

"What? Can't you see I'm..."

The stallion stopped talking when he faced Mosley, who was staring right at him with a frown. The unicorn shrunk back as the stallion was taller than him.

"I couldn't help but notice that you were talking to my wife here." Mosley spoke calmly, which actually made him sound intimidating. "May I ask what it is you were telling her?"

"Y-Your wife?" the unicorn stuttered. "Oh, you know! Just...how she was doing and how the weather's like and how the party's like and...I'll be on my way, haveagreatnight!" He sped away, the table cloths flowing from the stallion's quick getaway.

The male earth pony smirked in satisfaction. Mosley then turned to face his wife. "Are you all right, dear? He didn't try anything, did he?"

"Just the usual corny pick-up lines." Sherbet answered. "I'm rather surprised that you didn't strike at him. Celestia knows I wanted to."

"I was tempted to. Now let's get back to our table and rejoin Medley, shall we?"

Sherbet nodded and walked back with her husband, hoping to not meet anymore shameless stallions around the club.



"Oh, where do I find Vinyl around here? Is she backstage?"

Blossomforth kept searching around the Boom Room looking to bring the gelato she was carrying for her DJ idol. It proved to be a difficult feat for the club was bigger than it looked.

'Maybe I can ask someone around here...' she thought.

The pegasus then spotted someone who looked as if she worked here. The blue earth pony didn't look too friendly, but Blossomforth had to go with what she had if she wanted to find Vinyl.

"Um, excuse me?" Blossomforth called to her over the music.

"Yeah, what do you want?" the mare frowned, already irritated by the pegasus. Blossomforth read from the name tag that she was Palm Spring.

"Sorry to be a bother, but I was wondering if you could tell me if you happen to know where Vinyl...er, I mean...DJ-PON3 is?"

"I don't know. Besides, even if I did, I wouldn't tell you."

"Wh-why not?" Blossomforth asked, hurt by the Palm's tone of voice.

"What are you, stupid?" she snapped. "I can't just tell everypony where the DJ is! The crazy fans will just keep flocking over her and she won't be able to play right onstage!"

"But you don't understand, this is important!" Blossomforth persisted to the rude mare. "I have this important delivery to-"

"I don't care! Now bug off and quit bothering me!"

The earth pony marched away muttering some choice words under her breath. Blossomforth sighed and lowered her head, not even one step closer to discovering the whereabouts of Vinyl. She set the bowl of mint chocolate gelato on a table to rest her tired hooves from all the walking. Maybe she could take a quick break for a while. She could get something to satisfy her parched throat from the-

"Oh come on, who put this here!?"

The cream pegasus saw the same earth pony looking annoyed at a potted plant.

"Whose bright idea was it to put this stupid plant here!? It's ugly! Well I can take care of that..."

She walked up to the plant, grabbed it with her teeth and pulled it out.

"There. Now to throw this out somewhere-"

Palm didn't get to finish what she was going to say, for she found herself face-to-face with Blossomforth glaring daggers at her.

"Oh, what do you want now!?" Palm snapped at her.

"Put that plant back now." Blossomforth growled.

"Why should I!? Did you not take a look at this!? This is absolutely-"

"I said put it back!" the pegasus snapped back, now intimidating the earth pony. "Do it before I do something you'll regret."

"Don't you mean something you'll regret?" Palm gulped, now sweating a bit.

"No. I don't."

Taking the hint, she quickly put the plant back in the pot. "There, it's done! We're good now, right?"

"Don't do it again." Blossomforth warned her, poking her chest.

"Yeah, sure! Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my OW!"

Palm had made some motion with her hooves before poking herself in the eye, confusing the flower-loving pegasus on what that was all about. Shrugging it off, she walked back to the table to where she had set the gelato.

She kept walking and walking until she slowed to a stop...

"Where did I put the gelato!?"

Unknown to the panicked pegasus who searched throughout the club for the missing treat, she had actually put the gelato on top of a music box onstage. The gelato slowly began to melt away...



Graphite stopped to catch his breath from running away from the mare's husband. He felt pretty embarrassed flirting with a married mare, and reminded himself to keep a good distance away from her as to not suffer her husband's wrath. Next time, he should check to see if the mares he talk to are either married or dating.

Walking around for a while, he spotted two mares sitting around a table eating some appetizers. Fixing his mane, he put on a charming smile as he approached them.

"Man, these tables around here are too tall." Spike complained as he tried to reach for the appetizers on the table. "Can't they at least give out some taller chairs?"

"Sorry Spike. I think that this is all they have." Twilight apologized to him.

"I'm afraid that we'll have to do with what we have." Octavia said.

"I know, I know..." Spike sighed. "But it still sucks."

After the unicorn's embarrassing dance earlier, the three decided to fill their stomachs before continuing to search for the others. As soon as they were about to finish, Graphite smoothly walked up to greet them.

"Why hello ladies. Great night we're having, right?" Graphite said.

"Uh, yeah, I guess so." the purple unicorn replied.

"Good, I'm happy you agree. So I've been wondering, do you two beauties happen to have any coltfriends?"

"No, none of us are in a relationship..." Octavia answered, feeling uncomfortable around this stallion's flirtatious approach. She was unsure of how she should speak with this stallion, never having this type of conversation in what she was usually familiar with. Spike, who Graphite didn't notice due to the size of the table, was scowling at the stallion.

"Really? Two beautiful mares and none of you have any coltfriends?" Graphite went on, relieved that he can keep going, or so he thought. "Ah forgive me, I forgot to ask for your names. I'll start: I'm Graphite. And you two?"

"I'm Twilight Sparkle, the librarian in Manehattan."

"I'm Octavia Melody, a cellist for the orchestra."

"A librarian and a cellist, huh?" Graphite smiled. "You two have really amazing jobs, you know that?"

Spike growled at the advances Graphite made towards the two mares. Twilight, he didn't mind too much, but he wants the unicorn stallion to get his hooves away from Octavia. Suddenly, Spike smirked as he came up with an idea to get rid of him.

The dragon crawled under the table, the sheets covering his presence, walked up to where Twilight was sitting and tapped her on her cutie mark twice.

Twilight's eyes widened before narrowing them at Graphite, thinking he had done something no stallion should do to a mare.

"Twilight? Is something the matter?" Octavia asked, noting her friend's glare at the black stallion.

Turning his head to look at Twilight, he was meet with a purple hoof to his face. He staggered out of his seat with derped eyes and a silly smile.

"Thank you very much, please come again..." he muttered before passing out on the floor.

Octavia was taken aback at what Twilight had done. "Twilight, why did-"

"I don't want to talk about it." the unicorn interjected, getting up from her seat. "Let's get back to finding the others."

Without waiting for an answer, Twilight walked off with Octavia following. Spike lifted the covers from under the table, also surprised at Twilight punching Graphite.

"Yikes. I didn't think that she'd take it that far..." he muttered to himself, now feeling sorry for Graphite, before running to catch up to Twilight and Octavia.



"Trixie, what are we doing up here!?"

Daring knew that the blue unicorn could be get out of hoof at times despite having good intentions, but what Trixie was doing right now was downright crazy. Both mares were on the roof of the club, thanks to Trixie picking the backstage lock and climbing the stairs to the roof. Daring followed only to make sure that she wouldn't get caught, although she wondered why she hadn't already called for security to stop her.

"We are up here to assist Octavia's friend, Vinyl Scratch or DJ-PON3, whichever one you want to call her, on her performance for when she appears onstage!" Trixie explained, looking down at the party from a part of the roof that was made from glass. "Trixie is certain that she will appreciate our help, Daring Do."

"I told you not to call me that in public!" Daring snapped. "Besides, don't you think we should ask for Vinyl's permission first before doing something like this?

"First off, nopony's around us, so your identity is safe here. Secondly, one of the best performances is a surprise! Not only will Vinyl Scratch approve of it, but it shall also wow her audience, resulting in a stellar performance!"

"I still think this is nuts."

"Trust The Great and Powerful Trixie, o' ye of little faith, for Trixie knows what she is doing." Trixie grinned. Walking alongside the glass, the showmare noticed a bird's nest perched on top of the glass. "Hmm, this is no place for a bird to rest. Trixie shall put it in a better place."

"Trixie, I wouldn't be doing that. Birds tend to be very sensitive about their nests." Daring warned as the unicorn levitated the nest to someplace else.

"Nonsense, the bird shall be thanking Trixie for moving her home away from the lights and sounds. Now then, all that's left for us to do is wait..."

Daring sighed, reluctantly joining Trixie's side. 'I got a bad feeling about this...'



Twilight, Octavia and Spike had rejoined Sherbet, Mosley and Blossomforth (who they had found running around frantically) to find Trixie and Daring, deciding that it would be easier to search through the club in a group.

"I still can't believe I lost it..." Blossomforth lamented, upset losing the gelato.

"It's all right Blossomforth, I'm sure Miss Scratch won't be mad at you." Mosley comforted her. "She seems to be an understanding pony. After all, we can always get her gelato some other day, it's nothing to worry about."

The earth pony's comforting words worked, as Blossomforth managed to smile. "Yeah, you're right. Thanks, uncle."

"Man, where are we going to find the others in this place? It's freaking huge!" Spike exclaimed, waving his arms in an arc to prove his point. "It could take forever to find them!"

"It's not that big, Spike. But I do agree that this club is bigger than it looks..." Twilight said.

"And I still wonder where Vinyl is in here..." Octavia frowned, hoping to see the white unicorn.

"Perhaps we could ask the employees of the club." Sherbet suggested. "They should know where-"

"Psst! Hey! Over here!"

Looking to who was calling them, they saw an open door showing a smiling Vinyl Scratch motioning them to come in.

"Huh. That was easy." Spike commented.

"Quick! Get in before the crowd sees me!" Vinyl called them. Everyone complied, coming in and making sure no one else was watching.

The excited DJ pony led them backstage through employees and props to her room. Her room definitely described that a DJ was in here. One could tell from the records on the table, music magazines, a red guitar on the corner, the oddly shaped chairs, the ruffled bed and the slightly messy room.

"I'm glad you guys could make it to my show!" Vinyl smirked. "I just know that you're all gonna love it!"

"Vinyl, why did you bring us backstage with you?" Octavia asked her longtime friend.

"So you can enjoy me putting on the beats without anypony messing with ya, since the crowd can get pretty wild at times."

"But we haven't found Honey and Trixie yet! Who knows where they could be!" Twilight protested.

"Don't worry egghead, I'm sure they'll turn up sometime soon." Vinyl assured the purple unicorn, although Twilight frowned at being called egghead.

"Um, Vinyl..." Blossomforth began nervously.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"About that gelato you wanted...I did bring it with me, but I ended up losing it somewhere around here. I'm so sorry..."

Vinyl shook her head smiling, patting the pegasus on the back. "Hey, don't sweat it girl. It's just an ice cream. We can always get some more some other time."

Blossomforth smiled. "Oh, okay. Thanks, Vinyl."

"Sure, anytime. Anyway..." Vinyl trailed, turning to Octavia. "How are you digging the party so far, Octi? Is it awesome or what?"

Octavia was not sure how to answer that. Truthfully, she wasn't enjoying the party very much, what with the lights constantly flashing in her eyes, the loud music ringing in her ears, the kind of crowd she has to deal with, it was all very difficult for her to tolerate. But she didn't want to say that to her friend. Yet Octavia also felt that it was wrong to lie to Vinyl. She had to come up with a different type of answer.

"We'll, it certainly is...unique." Octavia said.

"You got that right!" Vinyl chuckled. "After all, there ain't no party like a DJ-PON3 Party!"

There was a knock on the door, and then it opened to show one of the employees of the club. "DJ-PON3, you're up in five minutes."

"Gotcha, I'll be right there." Vinyl nodded. "C'mon guys, you can all some of the best seats in the house. Just follow me!"

Vinyl brought Octavia and her friends to some seats behind the curtains to watch Vinyl play the turntable.

"You know Twilight, we never really did see how these parties go like, right?" Spike asked her. "Maybe we could find out now and have some fun with it! Who knows, maybe we could get a record to listen to it in the library!"

"Spike, as much as I enjoy new experiences, Vinyl's kind of music is not the type that would help me in my studies, nor would it fit in for the library." Twilight disagreed.

Spike was about to say more, but the voice from the current DJ onstage interrupted him.

"Hello everypony, this is Noteworthy speaking, and thank you for hanging out at the Boom Room tonight! I'm sure we've all had loads of fun listening to what I had to show to such a great audience, but now we're going to take things up to the next level! Introducing, the self-proclaimed Wubmaster..."

"Here I go. Hope you guys enjoy the show." Vinyl said, walking towards the stage.

"The mare with the beats..."

Octavia was trying to convince herself to be calm, hoping for everything to turn out all right.

"She'll knock your horseshoes off..."

Vinyl adjusted her glasses, ready to go.

"Let's give it up for DJ-PON3!!"

The crowd cheered as Vinyl literally somersaulted onstage in front of the turntables.

"Yo everypony, are you ready to rock!?"

Cheers of approval roared from the audience.

"Then let's get this started!"

Vinyl, now DJ-PON3 onstage, cranked up the volume and played the turntable, with all ponies in the audience dancing and jumping along with the beat. Vinyl also joined in the music, shaking her head up and down with the rhythm she made.

Octavia looked upon the crowd and saw that they enjoyed what they were hearing. In a way, Octavia sort of envied them. She didn't want to lie to Vinyl, she truly did want to directly tell her that she does enjoy the music, but that wouldn't be the truth. 'Well, at least the party is going along well..."



Although the view from backstage was good, one could say that the view from the rooftop was even better, being able to see just about everything onstage.

Trixie and Daring could see why Vinyl gained such a reputation. She didn't just play at the turntable, she sang along with the music, she also mingled with the crowd, got off her turntable to dance a bit at times; she even began to spin on top of her turntable on her head, much to the crowd's excitement.

"Trixie must say that Vinyl Scratch is a good performer." Trixie complimented. "Although she can be quite a showoff, and ponies might get the wrong impression."

Daring gave a deadpan stare at the showmare. "Trixie, do you even realize what you just said?"

"Of course, that Vinyl Scratch could be a showoff, why?"

"Never mind..." Daring sighed, seeing that Trixie did not get the hint. "So how exactly are you going to make Vinyl's performance better? The audience seems to like it as it is."

"It never hurts to put a little more into what is already great!" Trixie explained. "As for how, Trixie shall just use some of her magician's tricks onstage to wow the crowd even more. Now Trixie shall assist discreetly in Vinyl Scratch's performance!"

Lighting her horn, Trixie focused her magic onstage, where some sparks began flying off. Few seconds later, the sparks turned into flames that rose like a pillar before rising down, exciting the crowd even more. Vinyl was surprised by what happened, but smirked upon seeing the approval of her audience and went along with it.

"Well what do you know? It worked after all?" Daring admitted.

"But of course!" Trixie smirked. "Was there ever any doubt?"

"Yeah, at first I was..."

"But I digress, for this is not Trixie's show! It is Vinyl Scratch's! And now Trixie shall..."

A loud caw interrupted her, followed by another.

Trixie paused at the interruption. "Just what in Equestria was thaAARGHH!!!"

Two bird flew at the unicorn and pegasus and attacked them, pecking them on their heads.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Why are these birds attacking us!?" Trixie yelled.

"The parents are OW! pretty mad that you moved OW! their nest!" Daring answered, trying to avoid the bird that was attacking her. "Speaking of which, why are they attacking me!? I didn't even do anything!"

"Never mind that, we have to escape!"

Daring couldn't agree more with that idea. Both mares ran to the door that led them to the roof, trying to run from the angry birds. They opened the door and quickly shut it before they could get in.

"Ha! Take that birds!" Trixie said triumphantly. "We have outwitted you!"

Unfortunately, Trixie spoke too soon for the birds entered through the small window above the door.

"You just had to jinx it, didn't you!?" Daring snapped at the unicorn.

Trixie could not answer back, for the birds have resumed pecking at them. They ran away screaming with the birds in pursuit.



Everyone watched as Vinyl kept playing the turntable and finished the music with a back-flip and a loud boom that slightly shook the room. Everyone cheered loudly at the unicorn DJ's performance. 

"You see, Octavia?" Twilight whispered to the cellist. "I told you that everything would be all right."

Octavia couldn't agree more. She was feeling more at ease as Vinyl kept playing and performing, and now with the show almost over, it looked like as if things were going to be just fine this time.

Soon after she thought that, two screams came from the side, and out ran Daring and Trixie from the door with two birds pecking at their heads, and everyone turned their heads at the commotion.

"Is that Trixie and Honey over there?" Mosley asked in surprise.

"What were they doing that got birds chasing after them?" Spike wondered.

Trixie and Daring continued to run around while the pegasus used her wings to try and fly away from her attacker.

"Argh! Somepony get this bird off me!" Daring yelled, flying away from the bird.

"Get off, get off! Trixie demands you to get off!" Trixie shouted, waving her hooves around.

Out of instinct, she shot a burst of magic to try and scare the bird away. Not only did it miss, the magical projectile also hit the turntable where Vinyl was at. The magical surge coursed through the turntable and literally shocked Vinyl, her yelps of pain vibrated from the shock, until the turntable exploded, leaving a charred Vinyl on the ground with her mane stretched from the electrocution.

Octavia gasped, putting her hooves over her mouth in shock. "Oh my...VINYL!!" The earth pony got out of her seat to help her friend, however she failed to notice some cables on the ground and tripped over them, getting tangled in the process. One sound box also tumbled over to the floor and broke. Octavia struggled against the binds with little success. "Ugh...gah...I'm stuck!"

"Not to worry, my lady!" Spike said smiling, walking up to help her. "I'll get you out of this in a flash!" he reached his claw at the cables to cut them loose...

"Spike, wait! You shouldn't-"

Sherbet could not finish her warning as the dragon had already cut Octavia free. Now, the headlights began to constantly flash in and out, blinding anyone that looked at them. Some headlights even broke their glasses, the startled ponies below falling back to avoid the shards.

Spike's face paled when he realized his mistake. "Ohh...oops..."

As Daring was flying away from the bird attacking her, one of the malfunctioning lights had shined on her eyes.

"AGH! I can't see! What happened!?" she cried.

Now flying blind, Daring could not see where she was going and crashed into the mirror ball, sending her and the ball on the floor with the ball rolling around. Everyone ran away screaming from the big mirror ball as it crushed tables and chairs in its path.The only object that had survived was the bouncing pitcher.

'Now I'm beginning to wish that the glasses could also bounce so that they wouldn't break...' Sherbet thought.

"Oh no...this wasn't supposed to happen!" Octavia cried. This was the complete opposite of what should've happened! There wasn't supposed to be broken mechanisms and lights, a frightened crowd running for the exit, overturned tables and chairs and her friend hurt on the ground! The very thing that Octavia feared of is truly happening!

"Hey..." spoke a dazed Vinyl from the ground. "What's that noise? I know it's not coming from me..."

Looking for the sizzling noise, they saw some green liquid covering the remaining sound, sparks flowing from it.

"Hey wait a minute..." Blossomforth trailed for a bit before widening her eyes. "That was the gelato I bought!"

The melted gelato caused more sparks to fly from the music box until a very loud boom sounded from it, making everyone cover their ears from the loud noise. Then it blew up, actually in flames. The smokes from the sound box caused the sprinkler alarms to go off, getting everyone inside the club soaked to the bone.

Lifting herself from the floor, Vinyl looked around the destroyed club in shock.

"No..."  she whispered. That one word hurt Octavia more than anything else. She knew that she had failed.



With the mess inside the club, security had to escort everyone outside of the Boom Room. It could take weeks or months to repair all the damage done to the club. While some ponies were leaving for home after a disastrous night, a few had remained behind outside.

Spike was bandaging Trixie and Daring's heads from the birds' pecking while Twilight scolded the unicorn and pegasus for going to the roof of the club, Orange Sherbet and Mosley Orange comforted a distraught Blossomforth who blamed herself for the accident and Vinyl and Octavia sat alongside one another on a bench, both mares upset at what happened.

Octavia felt like the worst friend in Equestria now. Her foalhood friend had generously invited her and her friends to come to her party, and it all ended in a disaster because of her. Sure, some of her friends did unintentionally cause the incident at the club, but Octavia still felt responsible for what happened, thinking that she could have kept a closer eye on her friends so that they would not wander. If she had not tripped over the cables, she could have helped her friend without causing any mayhem. If she had noticed the melted gelato from earlier, she could have stopped it from malfunctioning the sound box it was on. She wouldn't blame Vinyl if the DJ was mad at her for what happened. She could already her her friend's angry words in her head. Tears threatened to burst from her eyes. Still, she owed her an apology for everything that happened.

"Vinyl?" Octavia said. The unicorn didn't respond. Octavia kept talking anyway. "I am so sorry for what happened to you and your party. It shouldn't have ended like this. It should have been the perfect night for you, with your audience cheering for you and asking for an encore. I should have made things better for you, but I only made them worse. If I could go back in time to fix everything that happened, I would do it without a second thought. But I know that's impossible. I cannot change the past. We all have to live with our mistakes..." This time, the tears flower from her eyes. "But I didn't want this to be one of my mistakes...I only wanted to help and support you...and look what happened...now I'll have to live with it forever..."

Octavia spent the next few seconds softly weeping to herself. Now she was expecting the harsh words to come from Vinyl's mouth.

"Hey...Octi...?"

What she didn't expect was the soft, calm voice of Vinyl.

"Could you look at me? Please?"

Octavia complied, staring at the white unicorn's cerise eyes.

"I'll admit it...I'm pretty bummed at the crash that happened back there. And I'll also admit that I'm kinda ticked that you and your friends were sort of responsible for what happened at the club." Octavia cringed at that. "And I'd be lying if I said that this was one of my best shows ever, because we both know it wasn't. And you know what...?"

Octavia braced herself for the words that would end their friendship once and for all.

"I don't really care about any of that."

...

'D-Did I just hear her correctly...?' Octavia thought in disbelief. Looking clearly at Vinyl's face, she saw the her friend was smiling. It was weak, but a smile nonetheless.

"Do you know why I don't care about what happened? Because you were here, that's why."

"B-But because of me-"

"Forget about it. I already said that I don't care." Vinyl interrupted her.

"But why...?" Octavia asked.

"Oh Octi...despite turning from a jerk to a nice filly, you still haven't changed a bit..." Vinyl chuckled. "You always think that it's about the music, the performance and the instrument when onstage, but you got it all backwards. It's not the music that makes the party; it's the ponies that are there to watch you and cheer for you. So you see, I don't care about what happened, you were here for me and that's good enough."

Although tears were still falling from her eyes, Octavia was now smiling. "Oh Vinyl, I thought you were going to..."

"What? Cut you loose? Octi, I was the one who wanted to be friends with you, why would I want for us to stop being friends?" Vinyl questioned her. "...so Octi. Ya think we can do something else tomorrow? No parties or anything, just hang out, ya know?"

Octavia nodded smiling. "Of course, sounds like a splendid idea." the earth put her hooves around Vinyl for a hug with her returning it. "Thank you, Vinyl. For everything."

"Sure, don't mention it." Vinyl answered.

From some distance away, Twilight was listening in on their conversation after patching up Daring and Trixie. Twilight was relieved and happy for Octavia and Vinyl, glad to see that they're still friends despite what happened.

'Speaking of friends...'

"Spike, take a letter." Twilight told her assistant.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I'm happy to inform that I have learned another lesson on friendship. Being a friend doesn't mean that you have to force yourself to do things that you are not used to to please others, showing your support and help is enough to demonstrate how much you value your friendship with one another. It's not always the action, but the thought that counts, for it doesn't matter how little something is worth; what is important is the feeling or thoughtfulness that you are expressing. And once you're a very dear friend to somepony, that friendship will last a lifetime. Whether they be showing you the error of your ways or cheering you up through an unfortunate event, your friend will stand by your side through thick and thin. And that is one of the most wonderful gifts friendship can offer.

Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
> Epilogue: Until next time
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	For the next days while Vinyl Scratch stayed in Manehattan, Octavia and her friends traveled with her around the city to see all the attraction and sights. Vinyl was enjoying every place she visited, from browsing around Daring's museum, watching one of Trixie's performances at Corona Park, looking over Manehattan from the Statue of Liberty Mare, went shopping for what really caught Vinyl's attention and interest, visited an aquarium full of many colorful fish among many other places. And Vinyl and Octavia enjoyed every second of it.

At the end of the week, Vinyl was packing her stuff outside the hotel, ready to return home to Canterlot. Octavia, Twilight, Spike and everyone else was there to see her off.

"Well Octi, it was a blast to see ya again." Vinyl said. "It's been a long time since we've talked with each other."

"Too long." Octavia agreed. "But next time you visit, could you tell me about it first? You do have the habit of appearing unannounced."

The white unicorn laughed. "I'll try, but I make no promises!"

"Translation: she will appear unannounced once more." Trixie whispered to Daring who nodded in agreement.

"Are you sure you can't stay just a little bit longer?" Blossomforth pleaded. "We've been enjoying your company so much..."

"I'd love to girl, but I'll run out of all my moolah if I stay here. So I gotta go now." Vinyl explained.

"Just remember that you're always welcome to come back to Manehattan." Twilight smiled.

"That's right, we shall all welcome you with open hooves." Sherbet nodded.

"Of course, I'll be sure to remember that!" Vinyl grinned. "And hey, you guys are always free to visit me in Canterlot! That place is just as awesome from here!"

"Yeah, I also bet that your parties are killer at your crib there!" Spike exclaimed, amusing everyone ever since he tried to learn 'street talk'.

"You bet! It'll be a party you won't forget!"

A taxi-carriage arrived shortly, meaning that it was time for the DJ to go.

"Well, here's my ride back home." Vinyl said, putting her baggage in the trunk. "Don't miss me too much!"

"Vinyl..." Octavia walked up to her unicorn and hugged her. "Thank you again. I'm glad we're friends."

"Yeah, me too..." she nodded, hugging back.

Separating from the hug, Vinyl got inside the taxi-carriage. It rode away, with Vinyl leaning out the window waving everyone goodbye and they waved back.

"I'll be honest Octavia, Vinyl's a good pony and all but she can be kinda weird sometimes." Daring said.

"I know." Octavia smiled. "And I wouldn't have it any other way."

In her hoof was a picture of her and Vinyl on top of the Great Statue, both of them smiling. It reminded Octavia of the other picture when they were younger. Truly, friendship lasts a long time.