Karyn was up early that Sunday. She was awaiting her surprise belated birthday gift from Derpy, and even though it wouldn’t bring her around any sooner, she was still eagerly running about. When she heard the telltale sound of the magical appearance, she sat on the bed and bounced in anticipation.

But she saw nothing. “Derpy?” she said.

“I’m here.”

“Why are you invisible already?”

Derpy shifted subtly. “Because it’s easier than asking you to close your eyes so I can show you your present. Hop on and I’ll take you to Equestria and show you there.”

“All right. Where exactly is your back?”

Derpy nuzzled Karyn with her head to give her a point of reference, which let her slide on. “There you go.”

“Derpy, are you wearing clothes?”

“Yes. Don’t worry, it won’t interfere with my flying.”

“I wasn’t worried about that,” said Karyn, “but why are you wearing them?”

“I’ll show you in one moment.” They were in Equestria, but the sun was setting and the shops were closing their doors for the night. Derpy landed and let Karyn off, then said, “OK, here we go. Ta-da!”

She was wearing a pony’s equivalent of evening clothes. A black jacket was around her shoulders and when she stood on her hind legs, a cravat and cummerbund were seen. At her tail, the outfit was more feminine, flowing into a dress train.

“You look great,” said Karyn. “What’s the occasion?”

“I’m taking you to a concert in Canterlot.”

“Sounds fancy. What am I wearing?”

Derpy ducked into her house and came out with a garment bag. “I’ve got something for you. It’s not quite as froufrou as what Rarity made for you, but it covers you completely, which I know you’ve got a thing about. You can change on the train.”

Karyn took the bag and ran with Derpy toward the station. The hourly Canterlot train was already parked and waiting, and they climbed up into the day car.

“So what is this concert? Some cool pony band?”

“I think there will be some ensembles, but Miss Octavia is the headliner, and she’ll be soloing most of it.”

“Octavia?” said Karyn, opening the bag. “So it’s a cello concert?”

“No, it’s the bassoon.”

“Oh. I thought she was a cellist.”

“Gotcha!” Derpy laughed. “Of course it’s the cello. Everypony knows her for that.”

Karyn thought that wasn’t particularly fair of Derpy to expect a human to know the intricacies of the Canterlot music scene. But of course, she did know that Octavia played cello, so she couldn’t really complain.

“Can you go watch the door while I change? Ask anypony else to wait a moment before coming in?”

“If I must.”

Derpy went to the end of the car while Karyn slinked behind a seat. She took off her shirt quickly and threw the dress over it. It was simple, as Derpy had said, no more than a toga really, but she was covered and in something other than play clothes, so she was satisfied.

Riding the train at night was a new experience for Karyn. The mountain of Canterlot loomed like a giant out of a fairy tale, and the spires of the castle reached out to the stars like a ghostly hand. From the high tower a spark lit and twinkled, and she thought for a moment that a star had burst and fallen, but then saw the break of the moon on the horizon. She had seen Princess Luna casting her spell.

“You know what I like about the train at night?” said Derpy.

“What’s that?”

“The tunnels are less scary.”

Canterlot had two train stations, one of which was very close to Ponyville, a mere one-stop jaunt, and the main junction, the trip to which might take the entire night. The concert was being held between them, so Derpy informed Karyn that they were in for a hike no matter which station they went to, and of course they would take the closer one. They quickly disembarked and started on their way. Karyn was grateful for the simplicity of her outfit, since it let her walk easy. Derpy, however, was soon winded.

“Come on,” said Karyn. “Just make it there and back and you can skip exercise tomorrow.”

That gave Derpy new life, and they soon arrived at the amphitheater. The structure was behind a smaller building, and Karyn could only see the top of the rim until she moved around, but then she stopped walking.

“What’s wrong?” said Derpy.

“That’s impossible.”

From the angle she had first seen it, the amphitheater looked something like the Hollywood Bowl, which Karyn had once visited. Her mind filled in a sloping structure that would be quite large, but then she saw the entirety. It was a rim like a satellite dish, balanced perfectly on one point with no visible means of support. By every law of physics Karyn knew, it should have been falling over.

“Oh, the shape?” said Derpy. “I read about it. It’s supposed to be, um, parasitic, to help with the accoutrements.”

If anything could shake Karyn from her slack-jawed stare, it was Derpy’s language. “You mean parabolic to help with the acoustics. But how does it stay up?”

“Magic, of course.”

Of course. No matter how many times she saw spells being cast, Karyn was still native to a purely physical world, and watching magic used on such a large scale was against her expectations.

In front of the impossible structure was a more traditional layout of stadium seating. Stone benches that were a bit wider than ones on Earth, but still recognizable. Karyn reflected that it was an advantage to the designers that ponies did not need to rest their backs against a panel when they sat.

Lyra excepted.

“Come on,” said Derpy. “Let’s go see if we can meet Octavia before the concert starts.”

“You know her?”

“Not personally. We’ll just go like autograph hunters and see if she’s there. I’m sure there’s nothing a cellist has better to do before a performance than to hang around and press hooves with her fans.”

They shuffled around to the side of the amphitheater. There was a small alleyway that nopony would notice if they were snooping around, but Derpy, always looking slightly askew, caught it. She ducked down with Karyn following.

The tunnel darkened, but the light of candles could be seen in the distance. When they reached it, there was Octavia tuning the strings of her cello.

“Hi, Miss Octavia!” shouted Derpy.

A piercing note came forth as the cellist turned her head. “And just who are you, may I ask?”

“My name’s Derpy Hooves! I brought my friend to watch your concert for her birthday! Not that that’s today, but at the time I didn’t know, or I would have brought her to the concert you were having then, or, if you weren’t having one, I would have either had to pick a different gift or take her to this one anyway.”

Octavia just stared, as if fearing that their similarly colored coats indicated some forgotten familial relationship. Before she could say anything else, a loud voice came from the next room.

“Yo, Tavi! What’s doing? I hear voices. You’re not seeing some other mare out there, are you?”

If anything, Octavia’s general annoyance only deepened. Vinyl Scratch bounced out of the private room. Even though she wasn’t performing that night, she still had her headphones draped around her neck and her sunglasses on.

“I don’t know who this is any more than you—“ Octavia said, but Vinyl ignored her and looked over her shades at Derpy.

“I know you! I’ve seen you around Ponyville, right? Yeah! You’re that letter carrier. You bring my massive piles of fan mail.”

Derpy didn’t remember Vinyl getting any more letters than most ponies, but put it down to her poor memory.

“Whoa! What’s this?” Vinyl was looking at Karyn, and took her sunglasses completely off. “Are you some kind of Diamond Dog female?”

Derpy got steamed at that, but Karyn was used to it. She introduced herself. “I’m a human from another world. But I’ve heard all about you and your DJ gig.”

“Far out! You hear that, Octy? They know me in other worlds.”

“Oh, Miss Octavia’s just as famous.” Neither musician seemed very happy at that. But Vinyl’s temporary silence finally let Octavia get a word in edgewise.

“Whoever they are, they’re trespassing here. If you’re going to the concert, then—“

Again she was cut off, but not by her marefriend. A unicorn in uniform came rushing down the same tunnel that Karyn and Derpy had used.

“Is anything wrong, Miss Octavia? Who are these intruders? And what is this thing?!” He pointed a hoof at Karyn.

“I’m sorry, sir,” said Derpy. “I just thought it was all right to see if I couldn’t shake hooves with her before the performance. But now that I think about it, she’s probably really busy anyway. We’ll just get to our seat.”

“Wait a moment. You have tickets?”

“Of course.” Derpy pulled them out of her bag, only to find them enwrapped in a magic field and pulled away from her.

“Well, now you don’t.” The unicorn smiled as he said it. “Not only are these contingent on not disturbing the performers, but they are intended for the use of ponies."

Octavia was by no means a mare of the people, but she was certainly not a racist. Perhaps it also helped having Vinyl there and knowing that an explanation would be necessary if she stood idle. She placed a hoof over the unicorn’s chest. “You have jurisdiction over the hooflights outward, but from the stage in is my territory. If you’re going to take their tickets, perhaps they would like to sit in the wings.”

Karyn watched the exchange, bemused. She didn’t know how to act among the high society ponies, so just kept her mouth shut as everything transpired. Vinyl hopped up and said, “Sweet! Some friends to watch the show with, that’ll be awesome.” Then she rubbed the chin of the attending unicorn. “Why don’t you make yourself useful and grab us some drinks and nibbles, K? Make it snappy. Come on, you two. Let’s let Tavi finish tuning and get psyched up. Kick some flank out there, Tavi!”

She gave Octavia a kiss on the cheek, and then hustled everyone else out. It seemed no one could stop Vinyl when she set her mind to something.

The section she took Karyn and Derpy to was slightly below the center stage, and to the audience, it would look like a mere shadow in the crossing beams of the lights.

“So, how’s this for cool?” asked Vinyl. “You fall out of your seat and into the wings with me?”

“It’s great,” said Derpy. “But I do everything in wings.”

Vinyl leaned across to Karyn. “Is she like this all the time?”

“You get used to it. I don’t, but you might.”

The lights dimmed, and there was the low rumble of pony applause from below. From the exact center of the parabolic structure, Octavia, resplendent in coat and tails, trotted to the stage where her cello awaited her. None of them had seen how it got there.

“Huh?” said Vinyl. “Oh, she has a stagehoof bring it out ahead of time. Tavi loves to make an entrance.”

Octavia raised a hoof and the concert hall went silent. She positioned the instrument so that the stand was anchored into the stage, and reared on her hind legs. Karyn wondered if they had to construct the cello stronger than humans would.

The first note sounded, and they could feel the reverberations the dish provided. Without any of the complicated electronic enhancements of sound systems on Earth, ponies had achieved the same effect.

Karyn did not expect to recognize any of the music, but she was still able to listen and enjoy. Derpy though seemed to recognize every beat and movement, and Karyn espied her conducting the air.

For some pieces, an ensemble was brought out to accompany her, but mostly she soloed. For what seemed like a climax, she again dismissed all the others and stood alone.

The piece began, and Karyn wore a quizzical look. “Is that from the ‘Four Seasons’ by Vivaldi?” she whispered.

Derpy flipped through her program. “Apparently.”

“How does she know that? It’s a human song.”

“Lyra’s human brought over a bunch of stuff on the last trip to Earth. A lot of it was music, since Lyra can make her living doing it.”

“That makes sense. Hey Vinyl, did Oct—“ Karyn turned around, but Vinyl’s chair was empty. “Did you see her leave?”

“No, and I was looking in every direction. She’s quick.”

“Well, she’s probably eager to get back to her marefriend.”

“I’ll keep a watch in case she comes back,” said Derpy.

The piece concluded, and Octavia took her bow. The ponies gave her another thunderous round of applause, and calls for an encore sprang from the crowd below.

After a suitable delay, she emerged once again, smiling for the first time. She took her time setting up for the encore. Karyn noticed Derpy looking past the stage.

“What is it?”

“Look over at the other wing,” said Derpy. “Do you see a black square there? What is that?”

Karyn stared, but couldn’t make it out. “That hasn’t been there all the concert.”

Octavia finished applying more resin to her bow and clambered onto the cello again. The setting was silent again, except for a low scraping sound that seemed to get closer.

Derpy was now looking at the stage, but her expression fell and her ears collapsed to her face. “Karyn, you might want to cover your ears.”

“Huh? Why?”

Derpy pointed behind her with a wing. Karyn turned to see Vinyl magically pushing a black cube identical to the one that Karyn and Derpy couldn’t identify. Now, the conic shape in front gave it away as a speaker, and what looked like a very powerful one.

Before she even covered her ears, Karyn dove to get behind the speaker to try to deflect some of the blast. Octavia pulled her bow across the strings, and, as if it were her cue, Vinyl sent another spell down the cord connected to the speaker.

The bass had been dropped.

Karyn thought it would be like a bomb going off, but bombs don’t last as long as Vinyl’s repeated thumping. Additionally, whatever magic she used to make the sound was not quite the same as the electronic music that she was, if not used to, aware of. It had the precise frequency to rattle her teeth and shake her guts.

The only enjoyment she got from it was watching the reactions of the ponies below. Some dove for cover as she had, but most realized what was going on and stormed out, throwing their programs to the ground. A few even seemed to enjoy it.

After a minute, the sound waned, and she took her hands off her ears. Vinyl had made herself scarce once more, and Derpy and Karyn couldn’t blame her. It would be a race to see whether the audience or Octavia would be the first to tear off her horn.

“Come on,” said Derpy. “Let’s go back again and see if we can’t comfort Octavia, what with her show ruined.”

Karyn nodded, barely able to hear. They went back down the long tunnel to Octavia’s dressing room. They expected to find Octavia sobbing onto her music stand, or perhaps in a murderous rage, but she was calmly putting away her cello, and Vinyl was slumped in an easy chair, rolling with laughter.

“Were you watching? Huh, Tavi? Did you see ‘em?!”

Octavia sighed. “Yes, Vinyl. I saw them.”

Derpy realized that she was interfering in a couple’s argument, but couldn’t stop herself. “You’re not mad at her?”

Octavia put the bow in the case. “I used to be, the first dozen or so times she did it. I came to the conclusion that being angry wasn’t going to stop her, and indeed nothing was. Now I ask her to confine it to the encore, which seems to work well enough.”

The surly unicorn came galloping up once again. “I’m terribly sorry, Miss Octavia, how such a thing could happen—you!”

He stared at Karyn and Derpy. Whether he thought they were responsible or was just upset that they were in his way again, his glance was hostile.

“Hey, it’s cool, dude,” said Vinyl. “They’re with me.”

“That hardly provides sufficient justification.” He noticed the cord to the speakers draped around Vinyl’s shoulders and hooves, where she was lazily making a cat’s cradle with it. “Were you the one responsible for that cacophony?”

“Cacophony? Hey, I like that! Maybe I should put it on my display. DJ Pon-3’s Cacophony of Wubs.”

Vinyl’s defiance only steamed the unicorn even more, and he blew his top. “Out of here, all of you!”

Karyn and Derpy headed for the door, but Vinyl didn’t move.

“Excuse me.” Octavia’s voice was not loud, but she made herself heard. “This is my dressing room, and I will not be ordered out by an attendant, nor will my friends, nor theirs. I haven’t asked for your assistance, and when I need it, rest assured that you will know."

“But Miss Octavia, surely you don’t mean that you associate with such persons by choice?”

Octavia stood on her hind legs, just as she did to play the cello. Derpy was amazed at her balance. She pointed a hoof at the attendant. “I suppose that as a cultured musician you think I should be a snob. Perhaps you are right. There’s a low class of ponies that I have no intention of associating with.”

With that, she trotted forward and bodily tossed him from the room.

Vinyl looked over her glasses. “You go, Tavi! Way to defend your mare’s honor.”

A split second later, Vinyl’s glasses were flying off her head, which was jerking backwards as Octavia’s hoof followed through on the uppercut it had delivered. “Don’t think you’re off the hook! You’re still rude and obnoxious.”

“Yeah. But don’t tell me you don’t love it.”

Derpy and Karyn slipped out and went back to the train. If anything, it was quieter than before, with only the crickets for background music, unless that was the aftereffects of Vinyl’s speakers.

Most of the ponies on the train were sleeping, but the girls were still conversing.

“Thanks,” said Karyn. “That was a great birthday present. Definitely not what I was expecting.”

“If I have more lead time next year I’ll plan something even more awesome. Your birthday’s the same time each year, right?”

“That depends on how your spell works.”

The conversation lulled, but Derpy picked it up again.

“Those two sure have a funny relationship. Octavia and Vinyl Scratch, I mean.”

Karyn was deep in thought, then said, “I think I can understand them a little.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Octavia’s not stuck up in personality. But she’s really passionate about her music—you can hear that in her playing. That kind of music, the kind that gets you into the Grand Galloping Gala and other high functions, tends to attract those who are stuck up. So she puts on the façade in order to advance and be allowed to play.

“Vinyl, for her, is something of a forbidden fruit. She doesn’t want to play that kind of music, but she does want to let her hair down, and she definitely doesn’t want to associate herself with snobs, like she said.”

“That might make sense,” said Derpy. “Though I’m not sure how you come by it. But what about Vinyl? What does she get out of the relationship?”

“I can see two possibilities. One is that Vinyl is a lot smarter than she looks.”

“What do you mean?”

Karyn watched the shadows move across the train window. “Assume my armchair analysis of Octavia is correct, and that Vinyl sees that. Now, as a Canterlot unicorn, she’s probably resentful of that upper echelon of ponies. I know you don’t much care for them either. They stay grouped and would gang up on her if she tried any of her shenanigans. But Octavia, both as an Earth pony and as somepony who’s not snooty, is a lone wolf outside of the pack. Vinyl sees the opportunity to have someone to tease and mess with who won’t mind.

“Teasing’s a fine line to walk. Some folks love it, and some always take it personal. Good teasers know how to find the ones who want it. That’s what I get from Vinyl.”

Derpy looked at Karyn. She had never been one for that kind of insight, particularly with ponies. Derpy wondered if she wasn’t growing up a little. “You said there were two possibilities. What’s the other?”

“That Vinyl wants to be in that upper echelon, and hanging out with Octavia is as close as she can get.”

Derpy had an image of Vinyl Scratch, dressed in coat and tails like Octavia, her mane straightened and styled, her glasses discarded, and a smart bow tie added, sitting gracefully at a piano plinking out a serious and precise melody.

She couldn’t contain herself. In the middle of the midnight train, she burst into laughter. Ponies were waking up all over, moaning and tossing pillows at Derpy.

Karyn shook her head. The train barreled on into the night, to the sound of Derpy’s laughter.

Author's Notes:

Here's what you'll see next time!

“I know what you mean,” said Karyn. “The air’s too cold.”

“Maybe Princess Celestia should come here and raise your sun faster for you.”

“I wonder if that would even work. The spell might be different for a round world.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Derpy liked flying in Canterlot. There were few pegasi around, and if she did bump into something, it was more likely to be a skyscraper which wouldn’t demand an apology. If the unicorns on the ground laughed at her, she was high enough that she couldn’t hear it, which was enough for her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hello, Derpy. It’s wonderful to see you again. Shall we go into my office?”

Derpy accompanied her, to the shock of the pony behind the desk.

“Thanks for seeing me on short notice,” she said.

That's coming soon! Don't miss it!