Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle stood dumbfounded in front of what they assumed was Octavia's house: a two-floor house with a monochromatic color scheme, and walls decorated with drawings of musical notes.

"This is the houe, right?" Scootaloo inquired, tilting her head. "I'm kinda worried because we never really confirmed with Octavia."

"There's only one way to find out," Sweetie Belle stated.

She pressed the button on the door, and the duo began waiting for the

"Say, this house is definitely not what I was expecting," Sweetie Belle blurted.

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. "What were you expecting?"

"Well, Octavia did look like an old fashioned musician, so I thought her house would look a little bit... smaller, I guess?" Sweetie Belle shrugged. "I certainly didn't expect it to look like it came out of a black-and-white film, though."

"Well in my case, I expected a mansion," Scootaloo bluntly confessed. "I don't know why, but I took one look at her and I see "Rich" and if I see rich, I see mansion-"

"I'm flattered you think so."

The duo flinched and turned around to see Octavia standing at the other end of the gate, sporting a small, friendly smile. "And truth be told, I used to live at a mansion before, but it became impractical to pay rent, so we moved to a smaller house."

"Yeah, now that you mention it, mansions don't seem like an easy thing to maintain," Sweetie Belle remarked, Scootaloo nodding in agreement.

With that said, the girls walked into the house and followed Octavia to the second floor. Once there, they went through a black door, and inside they saw a collection of instruments that looked like they had recently been dusted off: a piano, a harp, a guitar, and so on.

"Wow, this is a neat collection," Sweetie Belle chirped, eyeing the piano. "Are these yours?"

"Indeed they are," Octavia nodded. "If you want, once we finish your violin lessons, I can teach you to play any of these instruments."

"I wanna play the drums!" Scootaloo chirped, pointing at the drum set in the corner.

"Okay then. Now, before we begin your lessons, there's something I'd like to know," Octavia folded her arms. "How did your friends react when you told them you were going to practice playing the violin?"

The duo winced and exchanged looks before flashing nervous smiles. "Um, they were okay with it," Scootaloo remarked. "Rainbow Dash was a bit surprised I was going to practice, but she became cool with it rather quickly!"

"Yeah, and Rarity was rather thankful I was going to spend my time doing something else while she worked!" Sweetie Belle said as she rubbed her arm. "She told me this without looking at me, though, so I don't know how much she heard."

"As long as she gave you her approval, it should be fine," Octavia twiddled her fingers. "I wouldn't want to force you girls to do something you wouldn't like."

Then, she got an idea, and looked at Sweetie Belle. "As for whether Rarity listened to you or not, you said she was working, right?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Older siblings tend to be placed on a lot of pressure when it comes to work, and when the younger siblings enter the picture, that pressur ecan cause them to become stressed, and thus, they may end up saying or doing things they didn't mean to."

"And you're telling me this, because?"

"When we first met, you mentioned how you taped some dresses together and how that made your sister angry. Those dresses were part of her job, right?"

"Yeah-"

"It's that same job that allows her to get the money necessary to keep a roof over your head, clothes over your body, and food on your stomach. However, she can lose that job if she causes too many blunders, and even if the blunder wasn't made by her, if it was made by you, she's going to end up taking the brunt from it."

Sweetie Belle frowned and lowered her head. "I guess Rarity wasn't just angry because I ruined the dresses, huh..."

"Don't worry, Sweetie Belle," Scootaloo patted the girl's back. "I'm sure Rarity will forgive you eventually."

.
.
.

"Octavia, are you done playing with your fancy fiddle?"

The grey musician shot a glare at the door, while Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle turned to it with tilted heads. Their expressions went from confused to shocked, however, once they saw a certain silver-haired girl go through the door.

"Silver Spoon?" they asked in unison.

The girl turned around, and focused on the duo as she closed the door. "Sweetie Belle? Scootaloo? What are you doing here?"

"We could ask you the same thing!" Scootaloo remarked. "What are you doing here?"

"I live here," Silver Spoon casually answered. "This is my house."

"And I'm in the middle of something important," Octavia stated, folding her arms behind her back as she threw a stern look at the younger girl. "I'm going to give these two girls over here a lesson on how to play the violin."

"That was today?!" Silver Spoon whined.

"I literally told you that yesterday!" Octavia groaned. "Were you even paying attention to anything I said?!"

"Should we leave and come back another day?" Scootaloo asked, scratching her head. "I feel like we came at a bad time."

"Nonono, you two are fine, just give me a second to wrap this up," Octavia hastily told the duo before she snapped back at her sister, "Listen Silver Spoon, things have changed, okay? I have a schedule to take into account, so please, wait like an hour or two until they leave, then I teach you how to play the violin?"

Silver Spoon stomped the ground. "And just when are you going to let me play with your fiddle?!"

"IT'S NOT A FIDDLE!" Octavia yelled, her eyes glowing green.

The entire house shook from the shout, though it ended just as quickly as it began. Once done, Octavia looked around to see if any of the instruments or the girls had gotten hurt, and once she could confirm this wasn't the case, she took a deep breath and calmly said:

"Silver Spoon, please... come back later."

The girl looked at the violinist with a saddened expression, then walked through the door, slamming it shut once she was outside.

"I'm so sorry for that little interruption," Octavia glanced at the door with exasperation. "Silver Spoon has a bad habit of barging in uninvited."

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo exchanged looks, then the former spoke, "Actually, we might've barged in, too."

Octavia's eyes widened. "What?"

"Yeah, it seems you had plans with your sister, but had to change them once we made plans for violin lessons," Scootaloo pocketed her hands. "I mean, I don't particularly like Silver Spoon or her friend, but I didn't want to ruin her time with you."

"You didn't ruin anything!" Octavia shrugged with a nervous smile. "Besides, Silver Spoon's very patient, I'm sure she wouldn't mind waiting until your lesson's over."

"Octavia-"

"I'm serious, she'll understand," Octavia took out her violin. "Now, how about we begin the lessons?"

Before the duo had a chance to answer, Octavia played a single note in her violin, unleashing the green magic from before that once again went through the girls' ears. They blinked twice, then sat down and said in unison:

"Sure, let's do it."

"Good," Octavia replied, her smile gaining a hint of smug satisfaction. "Now, let's begin."

Octavia sat down as well and handed a pair of violins to the girls. As they began their lesson, though, Silver Spoon watched with shock through the window.

That's not her violin...

Silver Spoon left the window and walked away, scratching her chin as she got an idea.

And magic doesn't come out of violins, so it's probably Equestrian... if that's the case, then there's only one person I can ask: Sunset Shimmer.

Author's Note

Okay, so we didn't even get a hint of Octavia's plan, but Silver Spoon has realized something's wrong with the violin, and is hopefully going to be helped by Sunset Shimmer.

Let's just hope they get there before she gets corrupted...