Octaviaverse: Music Tournament.

A beautiful day covered the land of Equestria. Small flocks of birds flew across the sky, along with occasional pegasus. A soft breeze flowed as well, allowing refreshment from the heat of the sun.  The grass swayed a little, tickling the hooves of those walking on it.

Even for those who had business in town, it was no less encouraging and charming to just stop for a few seconds and enjoy the nice day that they had been gifted with. All of Ponyville was bustling with activity. The market zone, a large of collection of tents selling and being different items and edibles, had ponies coming and going. One of said ponies was Fleur de Lys, who was happily approaching one of the stands.

"Excuse me." she asked the vendor, a brown maned stallion. "Do you happen to sell ink ribbons for typewriters?"

"Of course miss." He pulled a couple of small containers. "Eight bits each."

"Eight bits? Certainly." Fleur smiled as she started digging through a small saddle bag on her left, using her magic to open it. Her smile diminished as she realized that she only had ten bits.

The vendor, seeing her frown, tapped her shoulder, grabbing her attention.

"A beautiful mare like you shouldn't have a frown on her face. Take the two of them on four bits each, ok?"

Fleur was surprised for a few seconds, but smiled warmly. The vendor blushed slightly and awkwardly smiled back while putting the ink tapes in a bag. Fleur thanked him and left, carefully putting her purchase in the saddle bag.

"Ink tapes, peaches, lettuce…thats about it." she told herself as she marked a small checklist. "Now I just have to take all this back home and wait for Berry to bring me the soda bottles."

She stopped right in the middle of the plaza, taking a second to admire the world around her. The plaza was just as lively as the market zone. Lovely couples walked to and from, chatting with each other or simply enjoying each others company. A few children were running about. A few other ponies could be seen on the streets around her, working or just hang with each other.

It was a quite a charming sight.

The smile on Fleur's face grew as she continued her walk. All the good will and beauty around her served to increase her already high good mood.

Then, for the briefest second, a shadow covered her. Fleur was about to look up, when the the owner of said shadow landed right besides. Cloudchaser was grinning widely, bouncing around her like a little child.

"Good morning Cloudchaser." Fleur saluted smiling back at the pegasus. "I see you are in a good mood."

"Yeah!" the pegasus chirped back.

"May I ask why?"

"Because the weather team forgot pull in a whole bunch of clouds, and the managers gave me permission to burst them! There were even rainbows between them when I popped them!"  Cloudchaser giggled with excitement.

Fleur smiled at the childish behavior of her friend. It felt good to seem some pony who took such a positive attitude.

"Hey Fleur." Another friendly voice called. Flitter gracefully landed besides her, careful to not step on her sister. She was carrying a blue saddle bag, which was visibly filled with letters. Resting on her head, right besides her pink bow, was the blue cap that all mail ponies used.

"Hello Flitter." Fleur saluted back. "Delivering letters I see. Is it a permeant job?"

"No, not really. I just wanna stop asking from Thunderlane. We don't see him much lately, so I wanna spend time with him, not ask him for money." Flitter answered, digging through her bag, eventually pulling out a light brown envelope. "In fact, I gotta deliver this one to Octavia right now. Wanna come with?"

"I do!" Cloudchaser chirped.

"I would love to, but I'm afraid that I have to take all this things to my home now. Don't want be carrying a full bag all day now, do I?" Fleur answered, pointing towards her bag with a hoof. "Please do say hi to Octavia for me."

And with a quick goodbye, Fleur continued on her merry way. Luckily, her house was close at this point, so walking a lot was not a concern. As she moved through the town, she passed in front of Minuette's house. All the windows were open, which allowed her to see Minuette moving from one place to another.

"Busy as bee. Better not bother her then." she thought before moving on.

Her house was simple, yet of visible high quality. The tiles were a bright red, while the walls were painted pink.  There were a couple of windows on one wall, behind of which was the kitchen, another on the opposite side, right in her room.

The place was single, large, square floor. No stairs of any kind existed on the inside. It did, however, have a quite a few rooms. A kitchen that was connected to a dinning room, a bedroom and her study, all of them connected to her living room, which served as the main room, with a carpet and a table right in the middle. It was an odd arrangement of rooms for a house, true.

But its how she liked, not matter what any pony said.

Placing everything in the kitchen, save for the ink ribbons, Fleur then headed to her study. It was big for a study. With a single, circular window on the wall opposite to the door.

The room itself had few things. A shelve with a few books, both written by her and that she liked to read, and documents, most of them reviews and short essays that she liked to write. She gave the books a glance and sighted. She loved writing those books. And all the town ponies that read them loved them as well.

Unfortunately, the only way to get published in bigger cities was if the Canterlot critics deemed your work worthy of it. And they would never even consider reading a story that came from a backyard town.

"Maybe I could…" she murmured before interrupting herself. "No. I promised to never use their help again."

Her train of thought was interrupted when a loud knock reached her ears. Without waiting a second, she left her study and headed to the door.

"Hey Fleur!" Berry said. On her back was a small saddle bag, carrying a couple of bottles. "Here's the sodas."

"Thank you very much Berry. How much is it?"

"Nine bits total. But you can pay next time you come to the bar." Berry entered the house, following Fleur into the kitchen. "You are coming soon, right?"

"Of course Berry. I would never abuse your trust like that."

Suddenly a loud thump echoed from the roof. Berry and Fleur shared a confused look before looking up. Their attention was diverted when a flying, gray boulder flew in through the kitchen window, flying right between them and crashing on the wooden table, which, by sheer miracle, didn't break.

"Thats a ten for not breaking anything Cloudchaser." Berry joked. Fleur, on the other hoof, immediately ran towards her fallen friend.

"By Celestia! Cloudchaser, are you alright?!" she helped the pegasus up. "What in the world possessed you to do such a thing? What if you had gotten hurt?"

"Or broken your table." Berry commented. Fleur shot her a glare.

"Its Octavia!" Cloudchaser, panted. "She's mad! Like, really, really mad!"

The walk to the tree house had been short, mostly die to the fact that the two ponies were running, with Cloudchaser flying right above them. As they approached Octavia's home, they saw a blue unicorn walk towards the door, with a decidedly angry face.

"Minuette? What are you doing here?" Berry asked.

"I live a couple of houses away, and I can hear Octavia's tantrum." She placed a hoof on the door, pushing hard. "Alright, Octavia, what's-"

"HOW DARE THEY?! HOW DARE THEY DO THIS TO ME?! ME!" Octavia roared, pacing in the middle of the room, occasionally kicking whatever crumbled piece of paper that was on her way. Hugin and Flitter did their best to stay on the air, dodging the papers as best as they could. One of them went flying straight towards Minuette, impaling itself on her horn. Cloudchaser giggled at that from the window.

"THIS IS AN OUTRAGE! THIS IS AN INSULT! A SCANDAL! A-" The rest of her tirade was cut short as Minuette used her magic shoot the crumbled ball of paper from her horn strait into Octavia's mouth, keeping there as well.

"Alright Octavia, you're mad, I get it. I got when I heard you shouting all the way from my house." Minuette walked towards the musician. "But if you don't calm down and stop shouting, whatever it is that got you riled up will be the least of your problems, got it?"

Octavia's frown didn't disappear, but she nodded in agreement. Minuette removed the ball of paper from her mouth, allowing her to speak freely.

"Sorry for the yelling. I normally don't do it." Octavia started.

"Could have fooled me." Berry said. Octavai shot her a glare.

"I was trying to compose a small piece, in preparation for the summer gala." she pointed towards her desk, where a few papers remained. "Even with Hugin being his usual irritating self, I was managing quite well."

"You barely had three pages in." Hugin snarked.

"Be quiet you. Anyways, I was doing fine, when Flitter knocked on my door to deliver my letters. And she did, and gave me…that." she pointed towards a window, where, crumbled and visibly stomped, was a brownish piece of paper.

Using her magic, Fleur lifter the paper toward her. For a brief second, her mind recognized it as the paper that Flitter had shown her and Cloudchaser earlier, but she quickly discarded the thought, instead reading the letter out loud.

"Dear Miss Octavia Von Clef…" she began. "We have received your letter containing your desire to be the lead musician for this year's summer gala, along with your list of accomplishments and the reminder that you are indeed the best cello player in Canterlot…you sent them your entire resume?"

"Just keep reading." Octavia growled. Fleur raised an eyebrow before continuing.

"Your letter was passed forward to the music council and studied in detail. However, while we indeed acknowledge you as a very talented and accomplished musician, we must inform you that you have not been accepted as the lead musician for the summer gala this year. Hoping that you will join the gala as a guest…the Canterlo Art Society."

"You see what they did?!" Octavia yelled.

"Ps: We return to you the list of accomplishments, since it was not asked for."

"You're throwing a tantrum…over this?" Minuette asked, making sure to emphasize the last words. "Kinda childish, don't you think?

"I am the greatest earth pony musician in Canterlot! I deserve that position!" Octavia replied.

"Nopony is questioning your abilities Octavia. You have done amazing things with your music. But think about what the letter said. Maybe they were looking for something else besides skills." Fleur said.

"Something else? Something like what?" Octavia grouched. "What else could they be looking for in the lead musician for the summer gala?"

"Something you lacked, clearly." Berry commented. Octavia frowned.

"Hugin, we are going to Canterlot. Now."

Flitter landed right besides Berry, both of them in shock. There rest of the ponies were just as flabbergast of the decision.

"Why would we want to go there? Its not like we can change their minds or something." Hugin said, landing on the table.

"Oh yes we can. If we hurry, we shall be there before lunchtime."

"Don't' you think that its a bit extreme? You might makes things worse for you." Flitter said while Octavia picked up some of the fallen papers and placed them on the desk.

"I hardly believe they can make things that worse for me." Octavia said before heading to the door, with Hugin landing on her back. "I will be back tonight or tomorrow morning."

"Aren't you at least going to take anything?" Minuette said.

"I have my old room in the castle. If it becomes necessary, I shall sleep there for the night."

"Your'e coming back, right?" Cloudchaser asked.

"Of course I will." Octavia answered with a grin. "I live here, don't I?"

And before any pony else could say something, Octavia was gone, and Hugin with her, leaving her five friends in the library.

"She didn't even bother to lock the door." Berry noted.

"She's about to rampage the Canterlot Art Society and all you care is if she locked door?" Minuette said. "What if she gets in trouble?"

"Thats exactly it." Berry explained. "I think we know Octavia enough to know that she will get in some sort of mess sooner or later. Until that happens, arguing with her is pointless. All we gotta do is wait till she starts messing up and making sure she learns from not making things worse."

"That is a rather questionable method of helping friends." Fleur said.

"Hey, some ponies need to learn the hard way. Besides, she's going to Canterlot, remember?" Berry joked. "Composure and all that stuff is everything over there. i'm sure she'll behave."

The rest of the bearers shared a worried look between them.

"So…" Berry proposed. "Who's up for a drink while we wait for the inevitable?"