The Prank
by UniqueSKD
(This short story is based on the animation of the same name you'll find on my YouTube channel. Check it out, you silly fillies!)
The town of Ponyville.
A sweet and beautiful melodious hymn sounded from within the little cottage house close to the outskirts of Ponyville, its expertly played tune sweeping through the air and falling upon attentive ears of mare and stallions and foals who so happened to be passing by on their way to wherever. A smile would creep onto their faces as they swayed their heads lightly to the delightful rhythm of the cello player inside the cottage, one known to all as Octavia, practicing her instrumental prowess by playing renditions of Beethooven masterpieces, with a little bit of Horzart on the side as a personal treat to herself.
Celestia's golden sun shone through the window of the practice quarters, or so Octavia liked to call this room. After all, it was where she would practice and hone her tremendously respected cello techniques, so as to be prepared for the chance an orchestral session arose and she was the first cello player considered for participation. The warmth of the sun caressed her body as she pulled her bow across her instrument's strings, creating the harmonic sound that filled the otherwise near-empty space with the song she lived to play, and played to live, for without her cello, and without the refined arts of classical music, she had and was nothing.
Her eyes closed as the tune washed over her, causing her mind to drift away as the notes and tempo invaded her realm of imagination and fantasy, and a smile grew on her face as she entered a state of what she could only describe as something close to true enlightenment.
Unfortunately her bliss also meant that she didn't hear the hoofsteps of a particular white-coated, electric blue-haired unicorn approaching the doorway of the room, a pair of bright red eyes peeking around the corner at her upper-classy marefriend. Being so deep in thought with her awakened inner emotions brought to life by the sound of her cello playing, Octavia didn't also hear the unicorn's attempts to cease her mischievous childish snickering.
Vinyl Scratch's horn began to glow a magenta hue as she levitated forth a large metallic pail, filled near to the brim with cold water that she had collected earlier that day from the river close to their home. She brought her hooves up to her face in an attempt to silence another giggle, lest Octavia heard her and Vinyl's oh-so-perfectly-awesome-and-brilliant joke, which she had spent a long time (actually just half an hour) preparing for. Luckily for the unicorn, the gray earth pony was too indulged in her music to acknowledge the DJ's presence behind her.
Calming herself down, Vinyl grasped a firm hold of her bucket, and slowly and steadily she willed it to hover towards Octavia, raising it higher and higher above Octavia's head, the poor unsuspecting cello player still seemingly oblivious to what was happening. Vinyl threw her hooves over her mouth to hold back yet another giggle, her little laughing fit almost causing her to lose focus and nearly drop the bucket there and then. To drop the package upon her target so soon was not part of Vinyl's plan. No, Vinyl wanted to wait until Octavia strung a particularly high note before releasing her magical hold. Since Octavia almost always did cello practice every day, Vinyl had grown accustomed to the music her marefriend played, becoming familiar with the various compositions and so knew when certain pitches and notes were played.
Vinyl rubbed her hooves together inglee, as she waited for just the right moment. The musical score Octavia was playing right now was one of her favorites, and one Vinyl was very aware of. The sudden drop in the melody would come along any second now...
A small crowd of mares, stallions, and foals gathered outside the cottage, smiles plastered on their faces as they swayed their heads to the beautiful music ringing out from the household, theirs eyes closed as they sat and permitted the wonderful sounds to pry into their minds and awaken a variety of fantasies and imaginations...
...which suddenly turned into images of howling banshees and crying ghastly ghosts, as the lovely song screeched to a sudden halt, and an ear-piercing scream erupted from the cottage, frightening the living daylights out of everypony who had gathered and causing them to throw their hooves up to their ears as they ran away to escape the painful noise assaulting their ear drums.
Octavia's mouth hung wide open in shock, her pupils shrunk and her body trembling from a mix of fear and coldness. Her wet hair covered her face, her soaking fur dripping onto the floorboards, adding to the slowly expanding puddle of water beneath the cello player. The only sound in the room right now was that of Vinyl Scratch, the DJ unicorn rolling around on the floor in a fit of hysterical laughter.
Octavia slowly turned her head around to look at Vinyl, her mouth closing and forming a snarling expression that bared her teeth, lips and even her gum-line quivering from the seething rage that was beginning to build up in the otherwise calm and collected earth pony. Underneath her soaking hair, Octavia's eyes reflected the fiery anger she was amassing.
Laying down her instrument and bow, she wrapped a hoof around the handle of the bucket, which had fallen to the ground after Vinyl released her magical hold over it. The white unicorn was still laughing, unaware of the walking embodiment of wrath and fury that was walking towards her. Her giggling fit only started to come to an end when Vinyl noticed a shadow looming over her, but by then it was too late to guard herself against Octavia and she reared back her foreleg and...
"Would you like another ice pack, Vinyl?", Octavia cooed across the kitchen table, a smug smirk on her face.
Vinyl shot Octavia a deadpanned look with her good eye, the other obscured behind a large bag filled with ice to mask the black bruise and soothe the pain it brought. "No, I'm good with this one", Vinyl responded.
Author's Note
The moral of the story, people, is never interrupt somepony when they're playing their cello.
