Octavia's Violin Classes

A team of Canterlot guards sped past the Scratch residence toward the mare who collapsed not too far away. Mr. Scratch stood on the front porch of her home, speaking to one of the guards. Meanwhile Vinyl, Octavia, and Lyra listened and watched from the living room.

"It's never been this loud or busy outside our house before," commented Vinyl. "This is the most exciting sleepover ever!"

"Vinyl, there's a monster victim outside. I don't think that's a very good thing," reminded Octavia.

"Maybe not," admitted Vinyl with a shrug. "But it's not everyday you get to help stop a crime."

"We didn't stop any crime," argued Octavia. "We just reported it."

Lyra rubbed her head. "Either way, I could use some rest. After doing that spell twice..." her yawn interrupted her sentence.

"Twice?" repeated Vinyl, her ears pointing up in mild confusion.

Octavia nodded. "The second time was while you left the room. I saw the the monster turn into a pony," she explained gravely.

Vinyl's eyes widened. "You got to tell this to the cops, Tavi!"

"The cops?"

"The guards! If you tell them, it could make it much easier to catch the monster. Come," she grabbed one of Octavia's front hooves and dragged her to the front door.

"Whoa, Vinyl, are you sure about this?" Octavia asked. But Vinyl already dragged Octavia to the front porch.

"Dad, Octavia has something to say to the guard."

Mr. Scratch turned to Vinyl in surprise, then back at the guard. "Sorry about that, sir. My daughter can be a bit loud--"

"No need to apologize," replied the guard, who turned to look straight at Vinyl. "You have crucial evidence?"

"Yes, sir. Octavia saw the attacker herself." She lightly nudged Octavia in front of her. "Tell him, Tavi."

Octavia looked up at the guard's sharp, scrutinizing eyes. She took a deep breath.

"The attacker is a blue unicorn stallion with a short mane. He's dark blue, but not as dark as navy blue."

The guard nodded. "That would explain the lack of major bruises, cuts, or other injuries on the victim. Any more details? Perhaps his height, or the design of his cutie mark? Some sort of defining feature."

"Well, he does turn into a big blue werewolf," explained Octavia. "From what we saw, he strangled the victim in wolf form, then turned into a unicorn and left."

The guard paused for a moment. He opened his mouth, then closed it. "Uh, well, we didn't see any wolf costume at the scene of the crime."

"It wasn't a costume, sir. He transformed somehow!"

Mr. Scratch chuckled warily. "Perhaps you were imagining things," he suggested. "Why don't you fillies get some sleep. It's almost midnight."

Octavia's ears pointed down as she and Vinyl went back to the living room.

"That didn't go as planned," commented Vinyl.

"No grown-up would believe a werewolf was behind it."

"But you would expect them to still look into it. I mean, even if they ruled out werewolves, they could assume he used unicorn magic or something to disguise himself. Isn't that right, Lyra?"

Lyra snored.

* * *

"How did you manage to come back here?" Octavia asked, sipping her glass of apple juice from a straw. She and her violin teacher were back at the Mal d'Amour coffee shop. Her parents were initially wary about letting her leave the house again, but they had to fill in for some fellow musicians at the last second. This gave Mr. Kurenai and Octavia more than enough time to stop by at the coffee shop.

"One of the main customers here gave me a chance to join the Wonderful Blue Sky Organization," Mr. Kurenai explained.

"So you finally believe in the fangires," presumed Octavia. "I wouldn't expect you to be a monster hunter."

"I joined it to be around pretty mares."

Octavia facehoofed. "How do you expect to join the Organization with that motive? Don't you need to be able to actually fight monsters and save other ponies?"

"Already did. You should have seen the weird spider guy I was up against," explained Mr. Kurenai, waving his hooves dramatically. "Yuri was taken hostage, and--"

"Wait, who's Yuri?"

The familiar dreamy expression was on his face again, as he gestured toward a familliar waitress, who was across the room taking other customers' orders. "It is her, my fated special somepony."

Octavia turned to look at the waitress, then quickly turned back to her teacher. "But that's Ms. Aso. Why would a mare like her need you to save her?" She paused for a moment. "Actually, if you saved her from the spider fangire, why isn't she thanking you?"

The smile on her teacher's face became a grimace as he turned to the front counter. "Because he took credit for it."

"Seriously?" replied Octavia, her head slowly turning to look in the same direction her teacher was. "Your getting furious at one pony because they saved a random mare you liked--"

She stopped when she saw the pony he was referring to.

"Oh no, it's him!" Octavia covered her mouth with her hooves in surprise, staring at the dark blue unicorn stallion.

"Yes, it's the same pony who kicked me out last time,"

"It's not that, Mr. Kurenai. It's just..." Octavia hesitated, wondering if her teacher would believe the unicorn was a werewolf. "That stallion is a monster, literally," she whispered.

"Literally?"

Octavia nodded.

"Are you absolutely sure you're using that word right? Because that would mean he actually, physically is a monster."

Octavia nodded again. "I saw it myself."

The two musicians and the puppy took another glance at the unicorn. "That would explain why he wasn't targeted like the rest of the customers here," Mr. Kurenai thought aloud.

"Perhaps we can lure him to a trap. All we need is bait." Octavia scratched her head as she observed the light-haired puppy sniffing the air. "Good idea." Hopping off the chair, she trotted to the counter. "How much for one liter of coffee?"

The coffee shop owner looked up from the coffee mug he was cleaning. "That's a lot of coffee for a little filly."

"It's for my teacher," Octavia explained.

Mr. Kurenai's eyes widened. "Eh!?"

"It's for the plan," Octavia whispered to Otoya. "The culprit will smell the coffee in your breath from a mile away. He will come running, thinking you're just another regular customer. Then, you'll get credit for capturing him." Her teacher nodded.

A mare trotted to the counter. "Did I hear somepony is going to ingest an entire liter of coffee?"

"I'd pay to see that!" exclaimed another customer.

As everypony gathered around the counter, the owner poured two cups of coffee into a large glass. "Here you go."

Mr. Kurenai lifted the heavy glass from the counter with both front hooves. By now, most of the customers had gathered around the violinist, waiting for him to consume the contents of the glass. He took a deep breath, and with a determined face, he began guzzling the coffee.

Everyone watched in amazement as he drank a quarter, then half, then three quarters of the drink without stopping. Once he reached the end of the drink, he triumphantly lifted the glass in the air, laughing as everypony cheered around him.

Then he fainted.

"Um, Mr. Kurenai? Are you alright?" Octavia asked. "He didn't die, did he?" she asked.

Ms. Aso crouched to take a closer look at the fainted stallion. "He isn't dead. The coffee just knocked him out."

"Well, that's a first," commented the coffee shop owner.

"What a spectacular failure," the dark blue unicorn added, casually sipping his cup of coffee.

Octavia glared at the unicorn stallion.