Octaviaverse: Strings.

Octavia was an irritable pony. It was easy to get her riled up.

Most of the time, she would either just wait the irritation away or play her cello to relax herself, preferably the latter. She could always count on her instruments and her skills as a musician to have a lovely afternoon playing away, composing and practicing. It was refreshing. It was a balm. It was her destiny.

"A shovel..."

So when she had picked the package from the mail office, she was inwardly happy. After being completely unable to play for nearly a week, Octavia was impatiently waiting for the moment when she would cross the door of her house and open the case of her instrument. So when she received a weird box instead of a case, her mind was confused, but a few words from her dear friend Fleur eased her mind a little.

Thats when she opened the box.

"Did you uhh...ordered it?" Fleur asked, clearly worried for her friend. And how could she not? Specially when Octavia was visibly seething.

"No! I did not order it! I didn't ask for a shovel, I wanted my cello!" Octavia raged, nearly flipping the table. "Its been a week already. I need to practice or I will go rusty!"

"Calm down Octavia. This is probably just a mistake. Lets go to the mail office and correct this."

"Its closed."

"Well...then why don't we go have some lunch? There's a restaurant nearby that serves lovely food." Fleur suggested, putting her best smile. Octavia breathed deeply.

"Alright." she grumbled. Fleur beamed. The Four Clovers restaurant had been a recent addition to the town's infrastructure. The ponies had been rather hesitant to enter at first, but after a few couple days of no costumers, the first patrons began arriving and, soon enough, all of Ponyville was enchanted with the food. It was the perfect place to take a grumbling mare.

"You will love it Octavia. Their Daisy Stew is the best in the world." Fleur said, picking up a menu. Octavia followed her example. The selection wasn't very big. There were only five dishes. Octavia rolled her eyes.

"Might as well..." she thought to herself. The waiter approached them, lifting a notepad and a pen with his magic. Octavia placed her menu down, ready to order. She was a bit hungry actually. Maybe Fleur was right and a delicious stew would fix her mood.

"Miss Octavia. Back so soon?"

Or maybe not.

"Excuse me?" Octavia asked.

"You even sound much healthier than before. It would seem that our breakfast special did its job!"

"Wha...What are you talking about?" Octavia asked. "No wait. Let me guess. I was here for breakfast, right?"

"Thats right. A full on, complete apple set breakfast. You seemed to enjoy a lot as well, since you had seconds."

Octavia looked at Fleur, who had confusion edged on her face. Whatever was happening, it was starting to get her as well. But more importantly, it was starting to wear Octavia off. She was going to stop it. And she was going to do it now.

"I...Fleur, lets go, we will be leaving now." Octavia stood up, prompting Fleur to do the same.

"You are not going to order?" The waiter asked, but Octavia was already walking away, soon followed by a very confused Fleur, who stammered some quick apologies and followed her friend. Octavia walked along the town. Lunch was completely forgotten by now.

"Octavia, what are you doing?! We can't just leave like that! That waiter must feel so insulted!" Fleur chastised.

"I think I know whats happening Fleur, and I don't have the time to be polite when I confirm my suspicion." Octavia said firmly, not slowing down. Fleur sighed and plated herself in front of her friend. Octavia tried walking past her, but Fleur would get in her way again. Octavia stopped.

"Fleur, this isn't the time to-"

"Stop it Octavia." Fleur said. Octavia noticed the tone of her friend and shut her mouth. "You have been acting angry and irritated all morning. I know that you are frustrated and all. I would be if the same thing happened to me, but you can't just walk around acting like a jerk to anypony who gets in your way."

"But I-"

"Look. You're saying you know whats going on. Thats good and I want to help you figure this out, but not if you let your temper get the better of you. Are you going to calm down?"

Octavia nodded after a few seconds. Fleur smiled kindly. The earth pony took a deep breath, calming herself.

"Somepony emptied my bank account right yesterday, right?" Fleur nodded. "And now, today, that somepony is using that money to eat apples, even though I hate apples."

"I don't see where you're getting at..."

"When I took the package from the mailing service, there was a fee to pay. That somepony emptied my bank account so it could take the package and walk away with it."

"But to have your bank account emptied by somepony else is not allowed." Fleur said. Octavia smirked.

"Exactly. Whoever is doing this has to be disguised as me. Its the only explanation." Octavia said.

"You do realize thats a very flimsy theory right?"

Right next to Octavia, in all her purple glory, stood Berry Punch, now without her bag. The mare was smiling widely, probably from having delivered all of her drinks. Why would a tavern need to deliver alcoholic drinks was beyond Octavia, but she didn't care right now. Berry had questioned her theory. And that was bad.

"Flimsy. Why do you say that?" Fleur asked.

"Well..." Berry answered. "Whoever is disguised as Octavia here would have to be a clone or something. I mean, look at us! We don't wear clothes that can be copied, except miss cello here, and even then, its just a bow tie! How would anypony be able to copy how you look to the point where he or she could enter the bank and just steal your money?"

"I...I mean...wait, you knew?" Octavia stammered.

"I was listening earlier."

"She does have a point Octavia. Your theory is a bit too unreal to be true. There has to be another explanation. Maybe it was all just a big misunderstanding? Maybe the waiter was confused before?"  Fleur said.

"Along with the bank and the mailing service?" Octavia replied. "I don't think so."

A loud grumble was heard. The three mares froze in their place, each of them blushing a little.

"Maybe a little lunch will help us think..." Berry said. "Lets go to my tavern and I'll cook something up."

"You can cook?" Octavia asked.

The bar was predictably empty. It was the the opening hour by the time they arrived and just as Berry had predicted, no patron was on sight. The town itself had gone very quiet, with increasingly few ponies on the streets, a fact that did not escape Octavia. Upon asked, Berry gave a short yet satisfactory answer.

"Its napping time."

Fleur and Octavia sat at the bar while Berry disappeared behind the counter. She pulled different ingredients, bread, sauce, daisies and some yellow grass, all of them in excellent condition. Berry began building the sandwiches, applying each ingredient with expert skill and timing. A loaf of bread  was flipped in the air, giving a couple of turns before falling neatly atop one of the sandwiches.

"Wow. That was..." Fleur said as a plate with one sandwich pushed in front of her. "...oddly stimulating."

"You keep your ingredients under the bar?" Octavia asked.

"Yeah. You wouldn't believe how many times I've had to run back and forth to the kitchen to get the food." Berry answered between bites. "There was one time when I tripped! I ended up throwing everything in the face of some stallion, and boy was he angry! He dropped his food and stormed out, only to slip on the ice outside. It was winter back then. Anyway, I decided to cut the middle stage and brought everything here! I save space and time and have more room for relaxing when working. Neat uh?"

"Eh..right." Octavia took a bite out of her sandwich. "So. Any ideas?"

"We have to check at the bank before we come to any conclusions. I still think this is all one big mistake."

"Then what?" Berry asked.

"Well, they will probably tell us it was a mistake and proceed to undo it. Simple as that."

Octavia rolled her eyes, but said nothing further. The rest of the meal went on in silence, mostly due to the fact that she was in a hurry and was eating as fast as she could. Fleur and berry looked at the mare, concerned at her eating speed.

"You should chew your food." Berry said. Octavia answered with one final gulp, leaving her dish empty.

"I'm ready. Lets go."

The sun was halfway through the afternoon sky by the time they arrived at the bank. Octavia entered at a brisk pace, followed by Berry and Fleur. The employe at box was reading a magazine, visibly bored with the lack of action. Octavia cleared her throat. The employee gave her a quick glance before returning his magazine. A second later, he realized who had just entered and hid the magazine away, all the while giving a sheepish smile.

"We-welcome to the bank! What can I do for you?" he asked nervously.

"I came here earlier, but my account was already empty. I was told to come later. Here I am." Octavia frowned. "Now, what happened?"

"Eh...one second." the stallion disappeared behind the counter, rummaging and shuffling for nearly a complete minute before popping back up, lifting the account book that Octavia had seen earlier.

"Miss Octavia, right? We searched for any mistakes, just like you asked. We even search for the official withdrawal papers." he explained.

"And?"

"And...it is all in order. No problem whatsoever."

A dreadful silence invaded the bank. Fleur and Berry shared a concerned glance as they could almost see irritation bubble up inside Octavia.

"What...what do you mean it is all in order." she growled. "My money was stolen!"

"But everything is in order. Look!" the banker placed a document on the desk. "You even signed it!"

Octavia looked down. Just as the stallion said, a withdrawal formula laid on the desk, dated with the day before. At the bottom, in clear red ink, was Octavia's signature, in form of her name, written in a curved, beautiful way. Fleur and Berry stood at both sides of her sides, peering down with equal shock.

"Well...there goes the mistake theory..." Berry said.

"Uh...miss?"

Octavia looked back up, her eyes filled with a mixture of confusion and anger. The banker gulped loudly before treading on.

"You might not remember doing it. I mean, you didn't look so good. You must have been sick or something..."

"What do you mean?" Fleur asked.

"Well...she didn't wear her bow tie, and her mane was a bit messy, like if she had been dragging herself on the floor or whatever. She also sounded much different...a lot rougher. You must have been shouting a lot."

The three mares shared a look. Octavia looked back at the paper. An idea slowly formed in her head.

"Can I take this?" she asked.

"You can take a copy. Same information. It just needs to be signed." He answered as he placed another paper on the desk. He quickly filled it with all the information required before passing the quill to Octavia, who signed perfectly in purple. She was about to pull away, when the document, both original and copy, levitated in front of Fleur.

"Octavia, Berry, look." she pointed a hoof at the papers. Berry looked from one document to the next.

"The signatures are different." Berry said.

"What do you mean?" Octavia walked to Fleur's side. The signatures were exactly the same, save for the color. But on closer inspection, the truth was revealed. Octavia's purple signature was smooth, elegant and soft looking, while the other one was written in the same way, yet it was visibly rougher and blocky, with the line trembling at many points. What was nearly invisible became glaringly obvious upon comparison.

"Well what do you know..." Berry commented. "There is somepony pretending to be you."

"You see?" Octavia said. "I was right! And whoever did this probably used the bits to order the shovel!"

"But why go through all the trouble for a shovel?" Fleru asked.

"I don't know. But I am going to find out." Octavia walked out of the bank. "And whoever did this will answer for this."

"Octavia!"

Octavia stopped on her tracks, allowing Fleur and berry to catch up. That voice. It sounded like...

"Octavia, I've been looking everywhere for you!" Hugin landed in front of her. "Minuette had been cooped up in her house all this time and didn't see you and the twins were away visiting family, so I flew up and-"

"Hugin, if this is about the books, you can forget about them."

"Its not that you idiot! Nopony in town wanted all of the books in one go, so I spent the whole morning going from door to door, offering them." he explained. "I barely finished twenty minutes ago. And when I get back to the house, well...go look for yourself."

Octavia trotted away, with Hugin jumping to her back. Fleur and Berry followed her, just as curious by the crow's words. By now the entire town was covered in the orange hue of the sunset, which had started a few minutes ago. The mares didn't take long in arriving to the tree house. Octavia's eyes widened as she saw what Hugin had meant.

And she didn't like it, for laying in front of her home was a cart, filled with a few bags of seeds, a couple of farming tools and a few boxes, all ready to be moved away. The only thing missing was a pony to pull it.

"Wow...your stipend must be something if it can afford all this...." Fleur said. But Octavia didn't listen. She was too busy inspecting the cart, visibly shying away from the bag with an apple symbol on it.

What is all this stuff?!" she asked angrily.

"They seem to be farming tools." Berry said.

"I can see that Berry..." she grumbled. "What is it doing here is what I mean."

"Your copycat must have have it brought here, probably in hopes of picking it up later tonight." Fleur said before giving a short chuckle. "This whole thing is starting to sound like a detective novel."

Octavia had to take a deep, forced breath to avoid responding to that. Hugin flew to one of the boxes.

"So all this here is somepony else's stuff? Then what do we do about it?" he asked. Octavia looked at him, then at her friends and finally, at the bag of apple seeds.

"We put and end to this." She motioned to the tree house. "Everypony come in. I have an idea."