A Not-So-Brief Interlude

Parish Nandermane was not in a good mood.

Not only was his performance canceled (well, postponed. But it might as well be canceled!), but his rooms had not been cleaned, his harp was dreadfully out of tune, and he noticed his first gray hair.

He had then broken the thin sheet of crystal used as a mirror, used the shards to pluck his harp, broken a harp string, and was currently trashing his rooms looking for his spare strings.

Piles of sheet music flew across the room, as the harpist feverishly searched the place. He knew he had spares, he knew he had them somewhere, but he didn't know where exactly the spares were located.

“Ponyfeathers! Ponyfeathers and horseapples and hay- oh.” Pulling out a random drawer, he had found the strings. Now, to get them on…

Parish took a deep breath. Harps had to be strung gently, calmly, and carefully. The one time he had tried to put them on while angry sent the harp to be repaired and Parish to the hospital with strings stuck in some very unsavory places.

Clearing off a section of the floor, he reverently placed the harp on the crystal ground. Frowning in concentration, he slowly unwound the damaged string with a pair of tweezers he had designed himself. Pulling the coiled wire away, he kept the frame harp steady with the other hoof. There. The top bit of the string was off. Now, the bottom.

Just as he was bending down to repeat the process at the other end of the harp, a gentle rap sounded at his door.

“I’m beginning to see why Ludwig was so annoyed earlier”, he muttered. “It is the worst to be interrupted-“

WHAM.

That sounded more like a buck. Parish hurriedly leapt up and ran to the door, eager to prevent any damage.

He was greeted by the sight of a long, dark gray tail, and a pair of lighter gray hind legs, which were rising to meet his face.

---------------)|(---------------

“Oh my stars, are you okay? I’m so sorry, I meant to hit the door but you were in the way and I was already bucking and I didn’t see and you opened the door and then I bucked you and you fell and you weren't saying anything and-“

An indigo hoof stopped Octavia’s babbling. “I am fine, Octavia. I do have a slight headache, but I feel quite well otherwise.”

Octavia nodded, wide-eyed. Parish took his hoof away from her muzzle. Just his luck; get a performance canceled, break a string, and get knocked out by a cello player. Lovely.

“Octavia…”he began. “Octavia, why were you bucking my door down?” It seemed a fair question to him. Surely ponies didn’t knock down doors for no good reason.

Octavia blushed. “Well…I sort of got the wrong room…” she said, avoiding his curious gaze.

“ You mean you were looking for your room?” he inquired.

“Not…not as such, no. Here, drink this. It should help with the headache.” She handed him a steaming cup of tea.

“Then why?” he said, sipping the tea.

“I was looking for Ludwig’s room”, the earth pony admitted.

Parish coughed in surprise, spewing tea everywhere.

“Let’s try that again, shall we?” Octavia said, wiping the last of the tea off of her bowtie. “I was looking for Ludwig’s room, because I wanted to talk to him about that tea mare.”
Parish raised an eyebrow.

“Honestly! I was! I met her, and I wanted to tell Ludwig.” Octavia protested.

“All right, but why didn’t you want to tell me?”

“Because Ludwig was the one who encountered her first.” Octavia said defensively.

“Well, while you may have meant to knock down Ludwig’s door-which, by the way, has already been broken-you attempted to knock down mine. I demand to know what was so important about the tea mare that you were willing to wreck an innocent, defenseless door.” Parish spoke in a clear, authoritative voice. He had not spent his career around flibberty-gibbet ponies in power without learning a few tricks. He could command ponies almost as well as the Captain of the Royal Guard himself.

Octavia stood there, with her mouth slightly open, staring in shock. She hadn’t expected Parish to recover from a buck to the head so quickly.

“Okay…Well, here goes. In a nutshell, the mare is named Viridian Blossom, possibly knows why the concert was postponed, and grows crystal flowers. Enough?” she said.

“What makes you think she knows why the concert was postponed?” he asked.

She shrugged. “She seems like she would know.”

“Not a good reason.”

“Well, maybe you should try getting an answer out of her.” While half-asleep and lost, she added in her head.

“Maybe I will. Come, Octavia. We’re going to find Viridian Blossom.” Nudging the door open, he stepped out into the hallway. Octavia groaned, but began to follow.

“Now, where would a mare who works with plants and helps out around the palace be?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe the worker’s rooms?” Octavia snarkily replied.

Oblivious to the sarcasm lacing her tone, Parish nodded, and took off at a brisk trot.

“Wait!” Octavia called down the corridor, cantering to catch up. “Do you even know where they are? Couldn’t we just ask a servant for directions?”

“I’m sure we’ll be able to find them on our own!” he merrily replied.

“Okay…I guess… but Parish!” she yelled, falling behind.

“What?” Parish suddenly stopped and turned around.

“Um… what will we do when we find the workers’ rooms?” she panted after him.

“Hm. Good question. I have no idea! Now hurry up!”

Finally catching up, Octavia took a moment to catch her breath before continuing the conversation. “Parish, are you sure you’re feeling okay? You’ve been uncommonly snappish, strangely bubbly, and have seemingly endless energy at the end of a very long day.”

“Octavia, I assure you, I am fine. I’m just not quite myself at the moment.”

Octavia raised an eyebrow. Parish’s head drooped.

“Okay, I have a massive headache and don’t really care what I’m doing. Happy?” he grumbled.

“Let’s leave it at ‘satisfied’. Now, go back to your room and rest. I am the only pony allowed to act differently when freaking out.” Octavia said, seemingly stern.

“All right, Mother. We can leave the staff room search for later.”

“Good. Now, off you go.” Octavia watched him go as he made his way back to his rooms. It would be easier to find Viridian Blossom without an extra pony that may have had a slight concussion.

Hopefully.

She began the trek to the staff break room, the only place where the workers gathered that she had been too. Maybe there was free coffee. You never knew. And besides, that would be the place to find a mare on the staff.

A few minutes later, the sound of approaching hooves distracted her from her thoughts.

“Octavia, it would be better to search together, even if I do have a headache. It really would. We can ask more ponies.”

It was Parish. Of course.

“I agree with him. We, as a quartet, should know this. And we should learn it together,” said Beauty Brass.

He had brought the rest of the quartet.

Fabulous.

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The sun was setting, and the Canterlot Quartet had found no trace of Viridian Blossom. They still had no idea when the concert was, or why exactly it had been postponed. All they knew was that they were bone tired and very grouchy.

“Parish, do you think you could at least try not to stomp everywhere?” Beauty Brass complained.

“Yeah, I thought harpists were supposed to have light, sensitive hooves, not great clunky things!” Octavia added

Ludwig groaned. "Why don't we just go to bed and forget about this?"

The three other musicians shouted in unison, "Because we need to know why the performance was postponed!"

"Fine. But can we not bicker constantly while doing so?"

"We aren't bickering!"

They were so busy arguing about not arguing that they almost missed the deep green tail whisking around a pillar.

"There she is!"

"Let's go!"

"But-"

Ludwig, the sole voice of reason, was left behind as the others chased after the crystal mare. And thus, an odd chain of events began.
First: the group began slipping on the slick crystal.

"Parish! Slow down!"

"I'm trying! Why don't you speed up!"

"We're already flailing! Why can't you-AAAAHHH!"
Second: the group began slamming into the pillars.

"Ow!"

"Hey!"

"Watch out for tha-oof!"
Third: the group hit a particularly unstable pillar.

"Pillar on the left!"

"Got it!"

"Pillar on the right!"

"Got it!"

"Pillar straight ahead!"

"Got-wait what?"

"AAAAAHH!"
Fourth: the pillar cracked.

"There are crystal shards everywhere!"

"I know!"

"Octavia! You're bleeding!"

"I know!"

"You're about to run over a piece of--"

"Owwwww...I didn't know..."
Fifth: Viridian Blossom was quite unfortunate.

"Parish! There she is!"

"I see her! Come on!"

A large piece of crystal flew overhead, gently arcing over the frenetic ponies and outracing their efforts to make it across the floor. It descended gracefully, almost floating. Viridian Blossom was sprinting away from Parish, Octavia, and Beauty in the same pathway as the crystal. Ludwig began to cringe, hiding his face from the inevitable collision.

THUD

A shrill cry of pain came from the crystal mare as the shard struck her flank. She fell, sliding across the shining floor. The Quartet flinched as one.

"Oh Celestia..." Octavia whispered.

Ludwig, the only undamaged member of the Canterlot Quartet, picked his way through the crystal debris to the fallen pony.

"Miss? Miss, are you okay?" he asked.

Her eyes opened, and the musicians sighed in relief.

"How stupid are you?" she spat.

"Excuse me?" Ludwig said, taken aback.

"If you wanted my attention, you could've called my name. You didn't have to wreck half the pillars in the castle!"

"Well, that's just exaggerating." Beauty called.

Viridian Blossom glared at them and struggled to her hooves. "I have a very tight schedule already because of the disaster in the theater, and now I'll have to try and regrow these pillars!"

"D-did you say regrow?" Parish stuttered, half-dazed from a chunk of crystal to the head.

"Yes! I was in charge of growing decorations for the concert at first, but then some janitor tripped and broke all of my hard work. I've been frantically regrowing those already, and now I'll need to regrow these pillars on top of that!"

"Viridian-may I call you Viridian?- we are deeply sorry for the extra work we've caused you, but could you please explain what work it is?" Ludwig asked politely.

"I grow crystals. Some are in the shape of plants, while others are furniture or structures. I thought I made that obvious,"she said.

"And... you grew them as decorations for the concert?" he inquired.

"Yes! Everypony in the Palace was excited to see them. But then..." A tinge of sadness entered her angry voice.

"Somepony tripped, you said?"

"Yes. A clumsy janitor tripped over the crystals I was growing to amplify the music, which were sprouting from the main decorations. He pulled everything down, and I've had to start all over." Viridian explained. "I've been rushing around the Palace all day, trying to quickly grow the crystals. If I had been able to work uninterrupted, I would have had it done by the end of the week. But now that you've broken the pillar, it'll take much longer. The structural stability of the Palace is more important than some old music."

"Some old music? Some old music?! As if! We were to perform the great work of the renowned-" Beauty nudged Octavia mid-rant. She coughed. "Pardon me. Go on."

"As I was saying, I'll have to fix the pillar before the auditorium. It'll take another week, at least." Viridian finished.

"Excuse me, but I'm still a bit confused. Why all the stuff about Princess Cadance being very excited when we first met? And why did you knock down my door?" Ludwig demanded.

Viridian shrugged. "Princess Cadance really was excited. She told me to let you know."

"I suppose that does make sense." Ludwig conceded.

"But what about his door?" Octavia interjected.

"Oh, I am dreadfully sorry about that. I was playing tag with the foals of a few servants, and the floors were slippery. Your door was knocked down just like the pillar was shattered." Viridian said. "I rushed off to go let the repairpony know."

"But..why not repair it yourself? You seem like the pony who repairs everything." Ludwig asked.

"I grow the base materials. If it needs a fine touch, or can't be taken out to be fixed, it's my job. But otherwise, it's not my responsibility." she said.

"Well, now that everything is cleared up, can we go get medical help?" Octavia pleaded. "I don't think having shards of crystal embedded in oneself is healthy."

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Two Weeks Later

The pillar had been regrown. The Quartet had each piece perfected and ready to perform. The acoustically beneficial decorations looked beautiful. The mystery of the tea mare had been cleared up. The Crystal Palace's theater was packed with ponies waiting to hear the Canterlot Quartet.

Backstage, the Quartet was tuning up in preparation for their performance.

"Well, even though this concert has been delayed horribly, at least we are definitely ready." Octavia remarked.

"It was miraculous how everything came together after everything broke, wasn't it?" said Beauty.

"It was almost an interlude, wasn't it?" Ludwig said.

"Interludes are brief pieces of music. These past two weeks have been drawn out hard work. How exactly are they the same?" Parish retorted.

"Interludes can be chaotic. And even though they aren't normally the main attraction, they still need to be perfect. That takes work too, doesn't it?" Ludwig replied.

"Well, however you compare it, it certainly wasn't very brief, was it?"