Her bow ran along the strings of the cello, eliciting a low melody that rumbled in harmony with the ones that surrounded her.

Octavia’s ears flicked as she honed in on the sounds around her. As the head of Music-ade’s orchestra float, she had to make sure that the ponies surrounding her would be ready. They were down to just twelve days to prepare before they needed to be on one of the headlining floats.

The music around her would seem fine to an untrained ear, but Octavia was too much of a perfectionist to let that slide. Just from a few seconds of listening she could tell that half of the violinists were a note behind, while the other half had somehow gotten the brilliant idea to play an F flat as opposed to an F sharp. Most of the other instruments were doing fine, they just lacked a certain luster that would catapult them from ‘good enough’ to ‘excellent’.

And as for the lyrist…

Octavia couldn’t contain a sigh.

Lyra had made some progress to be honest. After three pep talks from Octavia — the most recent of which being quite the doozy — Lyra had finally summoned enough courage to begin playing… every fourth note.

Each time the poor mare plucked at the strings of her lyre, she visibly flinched. Her eyes darted around in a frenzy as the fear of somepony watching and judging her took hold. When the realization came that everypony around her was way too immersed in their own music to pay attention to her, she calmed down. It was then that she noticed how far behind she’d fallen, causing her to hurriedly hit the next note and fall into the same trap. It was like a dog chasing its own tail, only much sadder to watch.

Her eyes darted over to the purple figure across the room. Twilight Sparkle — who’d begun doing some of her work in Town Hall lately as a means of relaxing to peaceful music in the midst of stressing over the Elements — was watching Lyra as well, and cringing ever so slightly at the sight before her.

Octavia frowned inwardly as the song drew to a close. The violas hummed the final note, sending it reverberating through the practice hall. Everypony relaxed at once, the beast of their daily rehearsal nearly slain.

As the noise of collective shuffling kicked in, Octavia stood up and cleared her throat. Sighs rippled through the group and were met with Octavia’s barely contained eyeroll. For a group of classical music enthusiasts, they could be too immature at times for her taste.

“All right everypony, I have a few notes.”

The ripple became a wave. Everypony knew that ‘a few’ was the understatement of the century.

Octavia cleared her throat. “I don’t even know where to begin. Treble Clef, are your ears working?”

A skinny brown stallion blinked in recognition of his name. “Um… yes?”

“Then I assume you heard the last note I gave you and the other basses.”

He bowed his head. “Yes…”

“Do I need to repeat it then?”

“...No…”

“Good, then get on it. All the others are following your lead, and you’ve been leading them off a cliff lately.”

“Sorry.”

“Next up, violas.” Octavia’s ears flicked at their collective groan. “You need to come in a lot faster next time. Remember it’s three rests not four.” She turned to the violins. “I don’t even know where to begin with you all. Half of you pay attention to the sheet music, but not the rhythm, and the others pay attention to the rhythm and not the sheet music. Noteworthy.”

The blue stallion in the middle of the violin section rolled his eyes. “Yeah?”

“You’re not putting in enough passion into the music.”

He groaned. “Not this again—”

“You all could, for that matter.” Octavia drew her attention back to encompass the whole of the orchestra. “We really do need that extra push if we want to look good at Music-ade.”

“I get the feeling that’s all she cares about at this point,” Noteworthy grumbled to a pony next to him, seemingly unaware that Octavia wasn’t deaf.

"And I assume this means you don't care about making a good impression with your music, Noteworthy."

His pupils shrunk as he adopted the deer-in-the-headlights face that students had when their teacher called on them.

"Well, no, I do. It's just that..."

"That what?" Octavia arched her eyebrow with demand.

"Well I kinda want to have some fun. I mean, this is a parade we’re practicing for, right?"

Octavia paused. “You mean this isn’t fun?”

Noteworthy fired off an are-you-even-kidding look. Octavia frowned, but turned to face the rest of the musicians. “A-are none of you having fun?”

Several heads swiveled away from her at once. Either Octavia had just become a cockatrice, or none of them could meet her eyes from the discomfort of not wanting to answer. Her chest tightened slightly, knowing which of those possibilities was true.

“I… see.” Octavia blinked. “Um… dismissed, you’re all free to go.”

She saw the relief flood into all of their faces and her chest tightened more. Everypony delicately shoved their instruments into their cases and brushed past her towards Town Hall’s exit. Octavia kept her face mute and refused to speak to them, offering only simple nods of goodbye. Had she done any more her emotions might have betrayed her.

Lyra was among the last to leave, stopping in front of Octavia and offering a light, yet somewhat forced, smile. Over the past few practices she lingered just long enough to have Octavia deliver a new pep talk or give her advice on how to deal with her crippling stage fright.

Though Octavia wasn’t feeling like doing either of those things at the moment.

“Nicely done, Lyra.” She swallowed, thankful her tone didn’t betray her. “You made some real progress today.”

“Thanks, but I know it wasn’t much.” Lyra shrugged and plucked at the strings of her lyre.

“Every little bit helps.”

Lyra’s smile became a lot less forced and she moved for the door. “Bye Octavia. See you tomorrow.”

“Wait.”

Lyra paused. “What’s up?”

Octavia folded her mouth into a thin line. “Are you… having fun at rehearsals?”

A laugh escaped her. “Are you kidding? Octavia, this is like torture for me.”

“No that’s not what I mean. Barring your stage fright—”

“Performance anxiety,” Lyra corrected, preferring to dance around the words.

“—is rehearsal fun? Am I making it fun to be at?”

Lyra’s smile dropped in favor of pressed-together lips. “Well… Octavia you’re a great pony and all, but you kind of make rehearsal feel like a Royal Guard boot camp or something.”

“I see…” She faced the floor, chewing the inside of her cheek.

“Sorry,” Lyra quickly covered. “I didn’t mean to offend you or anything—”

Octavia waved her hoof dismissively, covering well. “Oh no, don’t worry about it. Have a good day.”

Lyra paused, her mouth opening slightly. She looked like she wanted to say something, but the words never came. Waving goodbye, she trotted out of the building.

Across the room, Twilight watched the exchange with a cocked head. With her magic she pushed the dozens of letters before her into a cluttered stack and shoved them into her saddlebags.

Octavia made her way to her cello and Twilight met her halfway.

“Hey.”

Octavia pushed the corners of her mouth up. “Hello, Twilight.”

Twilight’s eyes darted to the right then back to her. “You all sounded pretty good.”

“You don’t think I was being too hard on them, do you?”

“I think you were fine, why?”

Octavia shuffled her hooves insecurely.

Twilight picked up on it. “You’re not bothered by what Noteworthy said, are you?”

She curled her lip, sucking in a breath. “I wasn’t expecting it. I didn’t think anypony was having any problems with how I was running the orchestra.”

“You’re doing fine,” Twilight assured her. “I mean, Lyra’s even starting to play, that has to be a good sign.”

Octavia didn’t respond.

It was Twilight’s turn to shuffle awkwardly. “Look, I need to go. I think I’m about to hit a real breakthrough with the information Princess Celestia gave me.”

“Yeah… that’s fine.”

Twilight nodded her goodbye and trotted to the door, leaving Octavia to her thoughts.

She looked over the empty rows of chairs as she crossed the remaining distance to her cello case. Lifting her bow, she turned it over in her hoof a few times, her mouth slipping into a frown.

“Not fun…” she mumbled to herself

Twilight ensconced herself at her desk, her magic placing several unopened scrolls before her. It had taken her far too long to get around to reading everything that Princess Celestia had sent her. Between the Elements sparking to life — the most recent of which had sent her into another frenzied state that she’d only barely calmed down from — and her acquaintances' personal problems, she just hadn’t had the time.

Now was different. Her cursory glance over them yesterday at Town Hall told her that the knowledge contained in the parchment before her was an untapped gold mine of information. It would be an injustice to let them go unread any longer.

She’d poured over them for the remainder of the day, soaking up anything she could. At least half still remained unopened and those were the ones scattered before her now.

As her magic unrolled the first scroll, her thoughts briefly wandered to Octavia. She’d been out of sorts after the rehearsal. The Octavia Twilight had come to know was calm, mindful of her outward appearance, and very respectable. The Octavia the other day seemed so... unbalanced. She may as well have be tip-hoofing over a tightrope.

Could something have...

No, no, no. Twilight shook her head. I cannot allow myself to be distracted. This is too important.

Her eyes honed in on the words before her and she chased away all other thoughts in her brain as she began to read.

Twilight,

Among all the rest of the information regarding the Elements of Harmony, I believe this may be the most valuable in your quest.

The paper rustled as Twilight squealed to herself. After forcing a few deep breaths, she calmed down and looked back down.

The origins of the Elements are very unclear. How they came about and what they really are are shrouded in undocumented history that predates even me. However, I do know where they came from. Within the Everfree Forest lies The Tree of Harmony, an entity comprised of pure crystals where my sister and I first discovered the Elements. Never before had I seen the Elements shine as brightly as they did when they were once connected to the Tree, which means—

“Uh, Twilight?” Spike’s voice invaded her thoughts, snapping her attention away from the scroll.

“Spike!” She swiveled around, fixing her assistant with an annoyed glare. “I told you I didn’t want to be disturbed.”

He cringed inwardly. “I know, it’s just—”

“Twilight!” A green blur brushed past him.

“—one of your friends is here.”

“Twilight!” The blur reiterated, slowing down enough to take a more familiar form.

“Lyra?” Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Uh… what is it?”

Lyra opened her mouth, but a ragged gasp escaped her. She held up a hoof in pause as she struggled to catch her breath from an apparently frantic run. “It’s… Octavia…” she finally wheezed out.

Curiosity tugged at Twilight and she turned her body away from the scrolls. “What’s wrong?”

“She didn’t show up for rehearsal today.”

“Is that normal?” Spike asked as he walked further into the room.

“No, she’s never not shown up before! Heck, she’s so uptight about being on time that she gets to practice early. Everypony is really worried about her.”

Twilight frowned. “I’m sure it’s not that bad. She might just have a cold and couldn’t come or something.”

Lyra bit her lip. “I don’t think so. She would’ve sent a note, or told somepony, or at least have Vinyl stop by and let us know. This is just so unlike her.”

Tapping her chin, Twilight glanced from Spike to Lyra. “So… why are you telling me?”

A shrug wiggled its way out of Lyra. “I don’t know. You just seem to be solving a lot of problems lately so I thought…”

Twilight sighed inwardly.

At the same moment, another pony burst through the door, her electric blue mane flying as she raced in. “Smart Mare, we’ve got a serious problem!”

She creased her lips together. “Let me guess, is it Octavia related?”

Vinyl blinked. “Uh… yeah, actually. How did you know?”

“I just assumed, since she failed to show up for rehearsal.”

Vinyl nodded. “Okay, but believe it or not, that’s not the strangest thing she’s done today.”

Twilight and Lyra cocked their heads in sync, not sure if they believed her.

“I’m being serious you guys… you really should see it for yourselves.” Vinyl angled herself toward the door, waving a hoof at them.

Taking the hint Lyra, Twilight and a curious Spike trotted to catch up as Vinyl walked out. They made it all they way down the stairs and out the door of the library without speaking, Vinyl picking up steam all the way.

“So are you going to tell us was this incredibly strange thing is?” Twilight asked, quickening her pace to match Vinyl’s. Her ears flicked as she heard the distant sound of music.

“It’s… geeze I can’t even explain it. It’s just so… Un-Octavia.”

“You’re making it sound really bad,” Lyra picked up, her tone laced with worry.

“Yeah, well good. You should be preparing yourselves for what you're about to see.”

“Or, you know, you could just tell us. ‘Cause that’s a thing,” Spike quipped.

When Vinyl just kept walking, all three of them sighed. Twilight looked ahead to where they were going, noticing several balloons floating above the town’s buildings. The music she’d heard before had grown louder as well.

“We’re almost there.” Vinyl stopped next to one of the buildings and peered around. “Oh crap, it’s gotten worse.”

“Okay, I’m sick of being kept in the dark.” Twilight trotted forward, Lyra and Spike at her heels. “Seriously what is Octavia doing that’s so ba—” Her eyes fell upon the sight before her and she froze mid-syllable.

Before her, the entire street had been transformed into a party.

Tables adorned with neon bright table cloths lined the sides, displaying cakes, pies, and candy aplenty. Streamers lined the space between the streetlights, contending for attention with the clumps of balloons scattered around.

A motley of party games were spread around, ranging from apple bobbing to pin the tail on the pony.

Several ponies had already gathered around, swiveling their heads left and right lost in their own confusion. Twilight vaguely recognized them as members of the Music-ade orchestra float. If she concentrated she might've been able to put names to a few faces.

Her attention wasn't on them at all, though. Instead she was focused on Octavia.

Octavia...

Twilight wasn’t even sure the pony she was looking at was Octavia.

She was darting from the tables and games, a mouth-numbing smile blazoned across her face as she exchanged pleasantries with whomever she popped up next to. Atop her head was a pink polka-dot party hat, and her bowtie hung loosely at her neck. Anypony she happened upon found their eyes bulging out with surprise as the usual quiet and reserved Octavia struck up an energetic chit-chat.

“What’s even…” Lyra rubbed her eyes to be sure the sight before her wasn’t a mirage. “I’m so confused.”

“I know right? I mean Octavia’s hosting a party! And not one of those pole-up-your-plot parties where everypony puts clothing on and stuff just to act stuffy, but an actual party.” Vinyl shuddered. “Something’s not right in the universe.”

At that moment, Octavia glanced over at them, and her uncomfortably wide grin only grew.

“Hi girls!” With frightening perkiness, Octavia closed the gap between them in seconds.

“Heeeeeey, Octavia,” Vinyl forced out. She whipped around to Lyra and Twilight. “Okay, here’s the plan. I’ll check Octavia for any alien brain-warping parasites while you guys go see if there’s something freaky in the punch or if somepony caused a rift in the fabric of time. Got it?”

Lyra pinched her lip in confusion while Twilight simply rolled her eyes. As for Octavia, she let loose a single snort of laughter, followed by a giggle.

Octavia actually snort-giggled.

That alone was enough to throw off the three mares, but what came next was even more disarming.

“Oh Vinyl,” Octavia said as her giggles fainted. “You’re such a kidder.”

“Sweet Celestia she laughed at something I said!” Vinyl dug her hooves into her mane. “The brain parasites have taken over!”

Twilight tried to keep a more rational mind than her acquaintance. “Um… hi Octavia… what’s all this?”

“A party, Twilight. What else could it be?”

“Well, yeah, but why?” Twilight looked around at the spectacle before her that must have taken hours to plan, not to mention set-up. “How?”

Octavia’s smile somehow widened. “Well, the how is thanks to that pony over there.” She turned and pointed to an obnoxiously pink mare scarfing down cupcakes a few tables away. “She offered to help set everything up.”

“Oh hey, it’s Pinkie Pie!” Spike realized.

“Pinkie Pie?” Memories flooded back to Twilight. A headache, a sleepless night, a wild party. “Oh… Pinkie Pie.”

“I’m going to go say hello.” Spike ran forward, waving.

“Don’t wander off!” Twilight called after him before turning back to Octavia. “Okay so that’s the how, but what about the why behind this party?”

“I’m pretty curious about that too,” Lyra mentioned. “Care to explain?”

“Yeah, tell us what you’ve done to the real Octavia, brain parasites!” Vinyl demanded. Twilight facehoofed.

To everypony’s surprise, Octavia kept her smile. “I’m just throwing a party for everypony at the orchestra float. I figured it was high time we all had some fun.”

Fun?

Lyra stepped forward. “That’s… really nice of you Octavia, but don’t you think we should be preparing for Music-ade? I mean, the Ursa attack pushed it back another week and all, but we really do need the practice.” She looked to the dirt, ears folding down. “Especially me.”

“Oh cheer up!” Octavia gently patted Lyra’s cheek. “This is a party for pony’s sake. Look, we even have a bouncy castle!” She pointed, directing everypony’s eyes to the left.

Standing at an impressive twenty-five feet was a red, blue and yellow castle, bursting to its inflatable brim with air. Twilight creased her lips in a line, surprised she had missed this when they’d arrived.

“Your bribe is tempting, brain parasites.” Vinyl eyed the bouncy castle again. “Very tempting. But I’m not going to rest until you let my friend go.”

Octavia snort-giggled again. “Oh Vinyl, the laughs never end with you.”

“This is seriously weird,” Lyra whispered to Twilight, who could only offer a nod in response.

“Well girls, please feel free to join in. Twilight, Vinyl, I know you two aren’t on to the orchestra float, but please feel free to have fun as well. Everypony’s welcome to.”

“Um… sure, okay.”

“All right, parasites, I’ll play along… for now.”

Twilight sighed. “Vinyl, give it a rest.”

“Kay.”

Octavia gave another cheek-splitting grin. “I need to get going. Have to keep mingling to make sure everypony is having a fun time. Bye girls.” She pulled out a noisemaker, giving it a sharp blow. As the childish noise hit their ears, Octavia darted off.

They each blinked, uncertain about what had just happened.

“Do you think she’s doing all right?” Lyra asked.

“No, of course not! Why do you think I brought you here?” Vinyl demanded.

“Look, I think we can all see something is up with Octavia, but what exactly do you think we can do about it, Vinyl?” Twilight asked.

She replied with a noncommittal shrug. “I dunno, you just seem to be solving all the problems lately and I thought…”

Twilight groaned. “Okay look, why don’t we go around and talk to the ponies here. Maybe one of them knows what’s going on.”

“Right, good idea Smart Mare.” Vinyl inched away. “I’ll go check out those suspicious characters over by the bouncy castle.” She turned, her voice dropping to a low tone as an edgy seriousness took hold of her. “It might take a while, though.”

Before Twilight could open her mouth and say how asinine that sounded, Vinyl was gleefully bounding off. She joined up with Spike, who had just finished waving goodbye to Pinkie as he made his own way to the bouncy castle.

Hmm… maybe Pinkie…

“Well, I’m going to talk with the other orchestra members. Maybe they know something.” Lyra walked off in the opposite direction.

At least somepony will be productive. Twilight turned, expecting to see Pinkie several yards back. Instead she was inches away from her face.

“Ah!” Twilight nearly jumped out of her coat.

“Hiya Twilight!” Pinkie exclaimed, with grin that rivaled Octavia’s.

Twilight took a deep breath to steady her near-heart attack. “You… remember me?”

Pinkie Pie snorted. “Remember you? How could I forget the first pony to let me throw a party in a library?”

Twilight lowered her eyebrows. “Yeah, I let you all right.” She shook her head, not wanting to get off topic. “Look, Pinkie, Octavia told me you helped her with all this and I—”

“Oh yeah, I did!” Pinkie interrupted. “I was walking along minding my own business — well not walking, I hardly do that. It was more like bouncing along — when Octavia came out of the blue and asked me for help to throw a biiiiiiiig party for everyone in the orchestra float and I said ‘okie dokie lokie’ which is something I say a lot and then Octavia got a huge smile on her face because I guess she really likes making ponies happy, but I did think it was odd that she wanted to throw a party with me since she rarely comes to the ones I throw, but I was so happy she was happy that I didn’t really—mmph!”

Twilight’s magic shoved a cupcake in Pinkie’s mouth, mercifully silencing her.

Celestia this one can talk, Twilight thought, sighing in relief.

“Mmmm!” Pinkie happily chewed. “Sho like I wacsh shayin’—”

“I’m good!” Twilight intervened. “Seriously, you don’t need to tell me everything. I just wanted to know if you knew why Octavia was acting so.... strangely.”

Pinkie swallowed. “Ooooooh, okay. Hm…” She tapped her chin. “Honestly, I don’t know. She was just really pushy to throw a party. She kept wanting everything to be fun, fun, fun!” Pinkie paused. “I don’t know the why.”

“You mean you didn’t ask?”

“Heh, no. Since when do I need a reason to throw a party?” Pinkie reached her hoof back to the table behind her and grabbed another cupcake. “The answer is never, by the way.”

“Yeah, I got that,” Twilight said through her teeth. “Thanks anyway.”

“No problem. I’m going to head over to Pin the Tail on the Pony, wanna join?”

She shook her head. “No, I still need to figure out why Octavia’s acting so weird.”

“Oh, okay.” Pinkie was about to bounce off, but stopped herself. “You know, you’re a really good friend for being so concerned about her.”

“I’m not her friend,” Twilight grumbled. “We’re just acquaintances.”

Pinkie giggled. “Aww, don’t keep telling yourself that, Twilight. You might actually start to believe it.” She waved before dashing off, leaving Twilight with little to do but blink in confusion.

...What did she mean by that? Twilight pressed her lips together in pause, standing still for a while as she tried to ponder the party fanatic’s words.

“Twilight?”

Her ears flicked to attention as she was pulled from her thoughts. Turning around her eyes found Derpy and Bon Bon’s staring back at her.

“What are you doing here?” Derpy asked.

“I—”

“Not that you can’t be at parties or anything,” Derpy blurted out. “I just… you don’t normally…” She folded both her wings over her face. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine, Derpy. I’m here because of Octavia and…” She paused to take in the sight before her. “Derpy, your wing!”

She poked her head out between the feathers. “What about it?”

“It’s… better. I thought it was going to need more time to heal.”

Derpy shuffled her wings back into position. “I thought so too, but I stopped by the hospital earlier today and Nurse Redheart said they were good to go.” She gave them a flutter. “Hopefully this means I can go back to work tomorrow too!”

“You know, if Derpy’s wing is better, then your hoof might be healed too, Twilight,” Bon Bon suggested.

Twilight took a moment to look down at her splinted hoof. She’d been walking on it all day without a problem, so maybe it was time to see if it was ready. She filed that in the back of her mind for later, knowing there was something more important that needed her attention first.

“Hey, you guys wouldn’t happen to know why Octavia is acting so bizarre lately, would you?”

Derpy and Bon Bon shared a look.

“Not really, no.”

“It’s not opposite day, so I can’t think of any reason why.” Derpy shrugged.

Twilight frowned. “Well, thanks anyway.”

“Why don’t you just ask her if you’re so curious?” Derpy suggested.

“I…” Twilight paused. As stupid as it made her feel, she’d failed to think of such a simple idea. “Yeah, I guess I could try that.”

Bon Bon nudged her head to the right. “I think I saw her on the bouncy castle.”

“There’s a bouncy castle?” Derpy asked nervously. Her wings shuffled awkwardly.

“Is that a problem?” Twilight gave her a look.

“Uh… well, bouncy castles and I don’t have a very… charmed history.”

Twilight tilted her head “...And?”

“And let’s just hope this one is fire proof,” Derpy muttered.

Bon Bon put a hoof around her. “Aw, don’t worry, I’m sure it won’t be that bad.”

“You don’t even have to go if you don’t want to. I can find Octavia on my own.”

Derpy thought about it for a moment. “No… I’m never going to get less clumsy if I just avoid everything. Besides, if I can get through some bouncing, then work will be a breeze!”

“All right, come on then.” Twilight turned, setting her sights on the illustrious bouncy castle across the street.

They had to push their way through a mob of ponies, some of whom were enjoying the party and some who were still lost on the fact that Octavia was their host. After bumping and shoving more times then they cared to apologize for, the three of them found themselves at the front of the castle.

The base of the castle constantly pulsed from the jumps of the ponies inside, never getting a moment of respite.

Twilight pulled the flap aside, peering inside. A flurry of colors caught her vision. At least a dozen ponies — and a dragon — were in the midst jumping up and down, goofy smiles plastered on their faces. In the center of it as a gray blur that could only be Octavia.

“Come on girls,” Twilight said, taking the first step. The instant that her hoof hit the slick surface, a vibration rippled through the castle. A wobble shot through Twilight and before she could blink she was face down on the floor, body bobbing with each jump. “Great.”

“Hey Smart Mare, you decide to join me?” Vinyl appeared before her, bouncing away. “I knew even you couldn’t resist the urge to bounce.”

“Grr, not now Vinyl.”

Vinyl looked her over and nodded. “Yeah, okay. I can see you’re still getting in the rhythm of it. See ya later!” And like that she was gone, to which Twilight could only groan.

Derpy flew in above her, dropping from the air already prepared to bounce up again. Her first foray back into the air looked unsteady, but a few more leaps and she was laughing with delight. Bon Bon wiggled in past Twilight, who still couldn’t get her bearings.

“Doing okay?” Bon Bon asked in mid-jump.

“No!” Twilight shouted, flailing like a fish out of water.

Bon Bon raised an eyebrow as she rose into the air. “Have you never been on in a bouncy house before?”

“I… no,” Twilight realized. “I haven’t.”

“Well…” Bon Bon sprang upwards. “The key is to just keep bouncing.”

“Easier said than done.” In spite of that, Twilight gave it a try. Once her four hooves made contact with the floor, she felt them sink in slightly. The very next instant she propelled herself upward in the highest jump of her life. Her legs flailed in the air hair flew back as she plummeted toward the Earth, only to fly right back up.

“Whoa!” she cried. “This… this is great!” She bounced higher, eye level with the edge of the castle.

“Hi Twilight, good to see you in here,” Octavia bounced next to her.

Twilight suddenly realized that she’d forgotten the whole reason she’d come to the bouncy castle, if only for a brief moment. “Octavia!” she blurted out.

“Haha, yes?”

“Can we talk?”

“Sure!” Octavia bounced in place.

“Uh… outside please?”

A smile plastered itself on Octavia’s face. “Sure thing, race you there!” She launched forward, headed straight for the exit.

“Wait!” Twilight fell down and bounced back up. At the same time another gray mare fell into her field of vision.

“Hey, Twilight! Guess what, no fires so far!” Derpy grinned.

“That’s nice,” Down. Up. “But how do you stop bouncing?”

Derpy shrugged. “I dunno. I usually stop by crashing into stuff.”

Twilight lowered her eyelids. Well, I’m not doing that. As she fell back down to the floor, her horn sparked to life. Lifting off the springy surface one last time she charged up enough power to cast a teleportation spell. At the height of her jump she fired it off, and opened her eyes outside the bouncy castle.

And well above the ground.

“Ahh!” Twilight plummeted, cursing herself for an inept teleport and then cursing bouncy castles everywhere just to spite them before she hit the ground.

Luckily for her she was only a few feet in the air. Any higher and she wouldn’t have been able to land safely. The force of the impact reverberated through her hooves, sending a small sliver of pain down her one injured leg.

“Nice one, Twilight,” Octavia said as she trotted up to her. “But I’ve already claimed victory.”

Twilight’s heart rate steadied before she answered. “I don’t care about that Octavia, I just need to talk to you.”

“Of course, talk away.” Her creepily wide grin returned.

“Why are you doing this?”

There was a crack in Octavia’s facade as the corner of her mouth twitched. “What do you mean? I just wanted everypony to have a fun time.” She tossed some confetti in the air. “You know, because I’m fun!”

Twilight kept a neutral face as the flakes of colored paper fell in her hair. “Octavia.”

For a moment the only sounds were the joyous laughs from inside the bouncy castle and the background noise of the party participants chatting and enjoying themselves.

Octavia looked away.

“Come on, what’s going on with you? You’re not acting like yourself at all. And what’s with putting so much emphasis on being fun?” Twilight paused, the puzzle pieces clicking together. “Wait… is this about what Noteworthy said the other day?”

Octavia sighed. “It… might have something to do with that.”

“I don’t understand, how could what one pony thinks affect you that much?”

“It wasn’t just what Noteworthy said, it was all of them.” Octavia looked to the ground. “They all think I’m not fun, that I’m just in some permanent state of uppityness or something. A-and I don’t want that. I want everypony in the orchestra float to have a good time, Noteworthy, Lyra… all of them.”

“I see…” Twilight pinched her lips together, thinking. “Well, Octavia, for what it’s worth, I think you’re fun.”

She looked up. “Really?”

“Of course.” Twilight smiled. “I mean, my way of fun’s probably not the traditional kind, but that’s okay. If there’s anything that I’ve learned from you girls, it’s that everypony has fun in different ways and if the ponies in the orchestra think you aren’t fun, then that’s their loss.” She nudged Octavia. “Okay?”

The corners of her mouth tugged up. “I agree with you Twilight… it’s just…”

“Just what?” Twilight moved in.

“...No, it’s stupid.”

Twilight snorted. “I’ve heard some of the stuff that Vinyl says; whatever you’re holding in isn’t going to top that.”

Her joke got a small laugh. Brief, but it was there; it was something.

Octavia frowned. “I was hoping that after Music-ade some, if not all of the the performers might want to form a permanent orchestra here in town… you know, to play concerts and show the rest of Equestria that Ponyville is more than the backwater village they all think it is. But… that’ll never happen if everypony hates working with me.”

“And you thought throwing a party would make you seem more fun so they would want that too?”

“Yeah… I know it’s stupid.”

“No it’s not.”

Octavia looked up and blinked.

Twilight offered a smile. “You just want to realize your dream; I can respect that.” She glanced around at the chaos of enjoyment that was going on around them. “But maybe you shouldn’t compromise who you are in order to get there.”

“Yeah…” She reached up and yanked the party hat from her head, tossing it to the ground. “Thanks for talking to me… I don’t know what I was thinking.”

They stood in silence for a moment before a blue pony passed in front of them, a wad of cotton candy in tow. Twilight recognized him about the same time he saw them: Noteworthy.

“Hey, Octavia!” he said, swallowing a mouthful of pink fluff. “This party is awesome! I think half of Ponyville showed up for it.”

“Oh… thank you, Noteworthy, that’s great,” Octavia replied, having finally dropped the overly-creepy perkiness act. She paused for a moment, thinking. “Hey, listen, I was thinking that since so many ponies were here we should all get our instruments and give them a taste of what they can expect at Music-ade, what do you say?”

“Are you kidding, that sounds awesome! I’ll start spreading the word!”

Octavia blinked. The fact that he took her suggestion caught her completely off guard and her jaw dropped slightly.

Noteworthy cocked his head. “Uh, Octavia are you okay?”

“Y-Yeah. That sounds good, just let me go get my instrument.”

He smiled. “Cool. We can probably set up right outside Town Hall, come on.”

Noteworthy trotted forward, but Octavia hung back slightly and flashed a smile to Twilight. She responded with a polite nod, encouraging her to go on.

Looks like they’ll all be able to have some fun after all.

As Octavia trotted away, Spike slid out of the flap of the bouncy castle, sweating like a pig.

“Hehe, wow Twilight your friends sure do know how to have a good time.”

“They’re not my… er, forget it.”

Spike stretched out his arms. “So, I take it you’re ready to go home?”

She tapped her hoof. “Actually, let’s stick around for a little while.”

“Really?” Spike furrowed his brow. “But, don’t you have some Element related thing to do?”

“I think I can hold off on that just long enough to hear a few songs.” She glanced at her hoof. “Besides, I’ll need to stop by the hospital before we go home.”

“Well, in that case I think I’ll just scooch over to the buffet table.” Spike made a beeline for the assortment of cakes and pies a few tables down before Twilight could warn him not to spoil his dinner.

She sighed, but it was more on the relieved side than anything else. Glancing up at the sky, Twilight was surprised to see Celestia’s sun wasn’t even at its apex. Looking back down she found herself pondering Spike’s earlier comment.

As it turned out, she did have something Element related to be doing. Before Lyra had interrupted her, she’d been reading about something that may be the answer to her problem.

“The Tree of Harmony…” she whispered softly to herself.

Halfway across town at the in the basement of Golden Oaks Library, a bright light erupted. As quickly as it came, it was extinguished, leaving only a lingering twinkle on the purple treble clef that had given birth to the magnificent light. The twinkling joined the rhythm of four other jewels lying on the same table.

Resting in the center of the five twinkling gems was a single necklace. A magenta six-pointed star that represented the Element of Honesty.

It remained stoically dim and lifeless.