Octaviaverse: Music Duel.

Summer in Equestria could get hot. As in sweating your soul out hot. Lunch time was particularly excruciating. The rays of the sun would hit the ground hard enough to turn ice cream into a puddle in the blink of an eye. Just a few minutes outside would be enough to have anypony sweating and asking for a glass of icy water. Double so for ponies with dark coats and manes, as dark colors heat faster.

Which meant that Octavia was melting by the time she reached the picnic. Carrying her violin only made it worse.

"I thought you said you would bring the cello." Minuette said. Octavia shot her a glare in response. She was not in the mood for debate. Luckily, the shadow was cool, washing all of the heat away as soon she stepped in it. Whoever suggested having a picnic under a tree should be given a medal.

"She came, and thats what matters." Fleur said, moving so as to give Octavia some space to lay down on the small blanket. "Better than staying cooped up in the tree house."

"You're one to talk! I can close the tavern down and you're still up writing! Its like you don't need to sleep or something." Berry said. She opened a small basket, revealing some tasty looking sandwiches. One of them was immediately enveloped in Minuette's magic.

"I forgot to have breakfast this morning. Lots of work." she answered as all of them gave her a look. Repairs on her house had finished yesterday. Flitter and Cloudchaser were a bit depressed about seeing her leave, but quickly got over it once the picnic came up. Specially Cloudchaser.

"Look at that cloud..." She muttered as she pointed a hoof at the sky. The branch where she was lying on was surprising strong, thus able to support her.  Flitter looked up. There was a cloud alright. It didn't really look anything though. Then again, Cloudchaser had a rather peculiar way of looking a things.

Octavia pulled out her instrument. Now that the heat was gone, she was up and read to play her beautiful music. She had been practicing for a while now. It was only natural that she would want to show off at one point or another. She was a musician after all.

"What are you gonna play? Something fancy?" Fleur asked.

"Not really." Octavia placed the bow on the strings. "I composed something a few days ago."

"Really? Lets hear it then!" Flitter cheered. Octavia grinned and started playing. Everypony became quiet as to listen better to to the melodic tune. Octavia closed her eyes in concentration. Minutes passed immersed in melody as the violin played away. It wasn't a violent tune, nor a sad requiem. It was just music, designed to pass the time. But it was wonderful.

Octavia combined the bow with playing the strings with her hooves. It was amazing to say the least. However, as beautiful as it was, all good things had to end, and after a few more minutes, Octavia stopped playing, gently putting the violin and bow back in their case. Her friends all started clapping.

"That was amazing! You composed it?" Fleur asked. Octavia nodded and bowed.

"That I did. It took me a couple of days to practice it though."

"I liked the part where you played with your hooves. I don't think I could do the same thing with my magic." Minuette noted.

"You made in this in a couple of days? Sounds hard to believe." Minuette said, taking a bite out of a sandwich. Octavia smirked.

"Well, when you are a musician of my level, coming up with this things is rather easy." she grabbed an apple that was hidden between the sandwiches. "You just have to imagine the song in your head."

"Sounds hard. You must have been working all day on them." Flitter said. Octavia chuckled. She loved being recognized for her work. Like any good musician.

The rest of the picnic went away on friendly chat. Just Octavia had done a flawless job with her music, Berry had done the same thing with her sandwiches. As heat increased a little, Octavia scooted further into the shadow. She did not need to boil herself alive, thank you very much.

"Where's Hugin?" Berry asked. "I haven't seen him since Fiddlesticks left."

"He flew back to Canterlot. Said he had to go pick up something." Octavia answered.

"He'll be back soon right?" Flitter asked.

"Maybe this afternoon." Octavia shrugged. It was actually kind of nice to not have the constant snarking of her feathered housemate. One of this days she was going to throw her bow at him. But not today. Today, she relaxed with her friends and her music. What anypony else ask for?

"Speaking of picking up things. I'm afraid I need to go pick a copy of a book I ordered." Fleur stood up. "Sorry I have to leave so suddenly, but I have been waiting for this for a while now."

"Now you know how it feels." Octavia thought.

Unfortunately, her smugness was short lived, as one pony leaving was all it took for the picnic to slowly but surely start to disarm itself. Berry left to open the tavern, while Minuette went to continue her work. Flitter and Cloudchaser said something about having to go home before Thunderlane saw them or something among those lines. Either way, she found herself walking back to the tree house, violin on her back, after barely being out for an hour.

At least she got to play her music in front of her friends. That was the important thing right?

"You look hot. And not in the fun way."

Drat.

"I thought you were going to arrive later." Octavia closed the door. Hugin was standing on the table, smirking her face off. At least, as smirking as best as a crow could.

"I hurried up, just to keep you company." Hugin made a dramatic gesture with his wings. "Why, did you miss me?"

"Put this back in its spot."

Hugin chuckled, but complied, flying towards her and grabbing the violin case by the handle. Octavia went to her desk, preparing her notes for composing.

"Don't you think its a bit hot to be inside?" Hugin said.

"Its hot enough outside to be inside. Let me work."

"You just finished composing something yesterday. Take a break or something."

Octavia ignored him. She had to keep composing. What else was she going to do? Graffiti?

"You cold at least have some lunch first. Helps the imagination." Hugin suggested.

"I just came back from a picnic."

"I meant a real lunch."

Octavia sighed irritated, but complied. She didn't feel hungry. She wasn't Minuette. If she was hungry, she ate. Reaching the kitchen, and with some help from Hugin, prepared a jar with icy water and lemon tea. She wanted some cold tea. The princess had been nice enough to send her some lemon tea. Not her favorite, but close.

"No food?"

"No food."

Placing it on a tray, along with a glass, Octavia brought everything back to the table. Maybe she didn't really feel like composing at the moment. Maybe all she wanted at the moment was a nice glass of ice tea while sitting down. She brought the glass to her lips, eager to have a large sip.

And she would have, had not her windows blasted open, letting in what could be described as a dragon mating with a metallic tower sounded.

The glass went crashing down, spilling tea all over the floor. Octavia nearly fell from her chair had she not grabbed the edge of the table. That, however, left her ears to be assaulted by the infernal sound. In mere seconds she was feeling the beginnings of a rather nasty migraine.

"What is that noise?!" she shouted.

"I think its music!" Hugin replied, flying above her, clearly disoriented by the sound. Just as suddenly as it came, the sound disappeared. Silence returned with a vengeance. It was almost creepy.

"I think I went deaf on one of my ear canals." Hugin rubbed his head with a wing. Octavia winced, still reeling a bit from the sudden noise. She opened one eye. To her surprise, all of her windows were intact. It was a different story once she walked outside though, as she almost bumped with another pony, who was complaining about having to fix his window.

"What happened?" She thought.

"Hey Octavia, come check this out!" Cloudchaser yelled from above her, cheerfully oblivious to the irritation around her. Still a bit dumbfounded by the sudden turn of events, Octavia followed her friend, careful to not bump into anypony of the slowly growing crowd.

A metallic cart had stopped right in front of the town hall. One of the side opened violenty. Almost immediately, a black platform extended from it. On top of it were two loudspeakers, along with a third, table looking box. A unicorn mare, completely white in color except for her cutie mark and mane, walked on stage, wearing a rather stylish set of purple glasses.

"What is all this?" Octavia asked out loud.

"This? Oh nothing..." the mare answered, her horn flicking with magic. "Just the stage for my awesome performance."

"Performance?" Flitter asked. "Are you a magician?"

"Wha-no!" I'm a musician! You can call me Vinyl Scratch..." The unicorn mare, giving a rather dramatic flick of of her electric blue mane, placed a couple of vinyl discs on the table. "Or better yet, DJ-PON3!"

And with that, lights went on and the sound came forth, booming out of the boxes that she placed around her stage. Even in the middle of the day, it was a rather spectacular show show. Some ponies even began tapping their hooves at the rather rhythmic music. Even Cloudchaser had begun dancing a little on the air. But not everypony was amused. Groans of frustration soon came up, but were drowned by the music blasting out of the loudspeakers.

Octavia pulled Cloudchaser down by her tail. The noise was once again raping her ears, promoting the small headache to mild migraine.

"What is this noise?" Octavia asked loudly.

"What?" Cloudchaser asked, just as loudly.

"I said, what is this noise?!"

"What?!"

"What is this racket?!"

Suddenly, everything went silent. The music stopped so suddenly that even some echoes of Octavia' question lingered on the air. Everypony turned towards her. Even the DJ had pulled her glasses up, revealing a pair of rather offended eyes.

"What?"

Octavia cleared her throat, feeling a bit self conscious. That had been a bit more laud than planned.

"I asked..." she walked towards the stage. "What is this all this noise?"

Vinyl blinked a couple of times before giving a chuckle. Octavia couldn't help but to feel a little ridiculed.

"This, my dark colored friend, is not 'noise. Its dubstep."

"Never heard of it." Octavia snarked. Now she knew the name of the aberration.

"Not surprised. Its a rather new genre of music." Vinyl gave her discs a couple spins. The slicing sound was like sandpaper on Octavia's brain.

"Music. You call this music." she snarked.

"Uh, yeah."

"You call this scrapping, loud, shrieking racket...music."

"Yes. I do." Vinyl dropped her smirk. "Is there a problem with it?"

Octavia climbed on the stage, standing right in Vinyl's face.

"There is a problem. Its a very hot summer day here. Naturally, I wanted to cool off with a nice cup of ice tea. And just as I was about to have a nice cold sip..." she pointed a hoof towards one of the speakers. "Your so called 'music' starts blasting away, sending my cup crashing down, along with my tea."

"So you're making all this scandal because you couldn't hold your cup properly." Vinyl replied. "Its not my fault you don't have magic."

"Excuse me?!" Octavia growled. "All I wanted was to have a nice, relaxing cup of tea.! And me not having magic has nothing to with how well I can old my cup!"

"Oh really? Maybe it wouldn't have fallen you held with magic. Or maybe your'e just jealous because I can use my magic to play some really cool stuff, while you can't, eh Miss Clef?" Vinyl smirked.

"I don't magic to play music. I can perfectly perform and create beautiful music with my hooves. Even the most basic of my practice routines are better than that garbage you call dubstep!"

"Say what?! And what do you play anyway? Let em guess, that old thing that grannies listen to?!"

"How dare you!?"

The crowd of ponies shifted their sights from one mare to the other as insults and arguments flew back and forth. However, far at the end of the crowd, Cloudchaser sat, eating some popcorn while watching the argument.

"Whats going on?" Flitter asked, landing besides her sister.

"Octavia is arguing with the DJ."

Even all the way there, the screaming and shouting could be heard perfectly.

"Think we should stop them?" Flitter asked.

"We should." Fleur answered as she stopped besides them. On her side was a bag, holding what seemed to be a book. The arguing increased in volume. "Before she makes a rash decision or something like that."

The three friends started walking towards the stage, gently pushing ponies out if their way. However, the closer they got, the thicker the crowd would get. Flitter suggested flying there, but quickly changed her mind once she realized that there was no place to land nearby.

"Listen, I'm sorry If my music ruined your afternoon. Maybe if you had your windows closed you wouldn't have this problem!"

"They were closed. Your garbage blasted them open!"

Fleur hastened her pace as the argument heated up. Things were getting out of hoof. She had to act.

"Octavia! I want to show you something!" she called as she reached the stage.

"What thing? Cloudchaser asked Flitter. Octavia all but ignored her friend.

"You should take your dubstep somewhere its liked. Like the slums or something." Octavia snarked. Vinyl was about to retort, but  Fleur beat her to it. Octavia's bow tie glowed with pink magic, which dragged it, and Octavia's head with it, to face Fleur.

"Octavia, you need to calm down!" Fleur chastised. "Remember what happened with Fiddlesticks."

Octavia glanced at Vinyl, who was waiting for a remark to shoot down. She looked at Fleur's pleading eyes. She sighed deeply.

"I am done with this debate." She started approaching the edge of the stage. "I shall leave you to this trashy material."

"So you made all this ruckus and you just walk away? So much for classical music." Vinyl mocked. Octavia was about to turn and reply, but Fleur grabbed her hoof. There was a small staircase on the side of the stage. She walked towards it, doing her best to ignore the unicorn behind her. Maybe she just needed to-

BOOM

Slam!

Everypony gasped as Octavia fell on the ground, hard. Her still ringed from the musical blast that had pushed her from the stage. After a few seconds, the dizziness started to fade, allowing Octavia to hear the only sound that was going on.

Snickering.

"Ups. My hoof must've slipped." Vinyl said sarcastically. "Did you like the free dose?"

Octavia stood up slowly. Her body was trembling, but not from pain, or shame.

It was fury.

"Octavia..." Fleur whispered, trying to stop her friend. But Octavia would not be stopped now. She climbed back on the stage, planting herself right in front of Vinyl, who didn't back down one bit. Tension between the two mares could almost be seen.

"How dare you do that to me." Octavia growled.

"Thats what you get for insulting other ponies's preferences."Vinyl growled back. Octavia was seething.

"I do not call garbage a preference."

""Then you have a problem sister." Vinyl put her glasses back on. "And who are you to start criticizing other's works? Some kinda expert?"

"Compared to you..."Octavia laughed bitterly. "I am an expert among experts."

"Then why don't you prove it then?"

Whispers and murmurs ran across the crowd. Flitter and Fleur exchanged a worried glance.

"Are you challenging me?" Octavia asked.

"What if I am?"

The whispering increased.

"Then I accept your challenge. Tonight, you and me play our best. The loser has to accept that her music is worse."

"And who will be the judge?"

Octavia looked around, finding Fleur, Flitter and Cloudchaser with ease. She pointed a hoof towards them. She was about to name them, but Vinyl got ahead of her.

"Oh no. I saw you talking to the unicorn before. Its not fair if we have your friends for judges right?" she smirked. "How about we pick three ponies at the moment of judging? Let everypony hear our music first."

"Its not going to make a difference. I accept your conditions."

"Its on then!" Vinyl cheered. "You and me, tonight! A clash of music! A duel between artists! This is gonna be awesome!"

Octavia didn't cheer or laugh or smirk. She was angry. She was going to show this mare what a real musician was. After all, it was her special talent.

And talent was everything.