Octavia held still until the curtain fell. She moved off stage to find Maestro waiting for her.

Maestro smiled. "An excellent performance my dear! Even better than the matinee."

Octavia smiled. "Thank you Maestro. Have you considered my request?"

Maestro nodded. "Yes, yes. We can move our rehearsal to noon tomorrow. Won't you at least tell me why?"

Octavia looked up at the ceiling. "I'm spending some time with Vinyl tonight. You know...sisterly bonding?"

Maestro narrowed his eyes and looked at her for a moment. He gave a curt nod to the door and Octavia grinned.

-------------------------------

Octavia opened the door to her apartment and trotted in. "Vinyl?"

Vinyl appeared from the bathroom, a comb running itself though her mane. "Hey! You ready for an awesome night?"

Octavia shrugged. "Sure. At least I won't have rehearsal in he morning to worry about."

Vinyl rolled her eyes. "About to have the best night of your life and you're still worried about rehearsals with Maestro." She grinned mischievously. "Isn't he a little old for you Tav?"

Octavia looked shocked. "Don't be so vulgar! Maestro has been my teacher for ten years now." She returned the smile and winked. "Besides, I'm into stallions a little closer to my own age."

Vinyl laughed. "I didn't figure you for a flirt!"

Octavia's smile faded and she began to look nervous.

Vinyl let the comb return to the bathroom and approached Octavia. "What's up?"

Octavia looked at her sister. "Well....this party you're doing...I'm not going to have to worry about...you know..."

Vinyl smiled. "Finding yourself a stallion? Of course not! If any stallion comes up to you that you don't like, let your hoof meet his face!"

Octavia was shocked at the idea. "Just throw a hoof? That's a bit violent."

Vinyl chuckled. "Okay, maybe don't knock him out, but just make sure he knows you're not interested."

Octavia smiled. "Thanks.... What about if I find one that I.....like?"

Vinyl winked. "I'll leave that up to you sis. Just don't leave without me. Don't want you getting into trouble on the first party."

Octavia groaned. "I think I have enough trouble with you here."

Vinyl smiled and shoved her. Octavia shoved back and they laughed.

Vinyl looked up at the clock. "The party starts in an hour. We better get over there so I can set up."

-------------------------------

Octavia looked around at the loft she was standing in. It was a polished wood floor with a glass ceiling, giving a perfect view of the moon. She looked over at Vinyl, who was setting up her sound system. "Is this the sort of place you usually perform in?"

Vinyl shook her head. "Nah! This is some rich pony's kid who just has great taste in music. I usually play gigs in places like old warehouses or in a basement. You know, somewhere private and that can hold a ton of ponies."

Hoofsteps announced the arrival of another pony. Octavia looked towards the door. A white stallion with a jet black mane was walking in.

Vinyl looked up and smiled. "Hey Scooter!"

Octavia walked slowly towards Vinyl and the stallion. How did Vinyl know him? She stopped a few steps from the two.

Vinyl motioned to the stallion. "Tav, this is Scooter."

The stallion rolled his eyes. "That's what she calls me. My real name is Scout." He held out a hoof. "You must be Octavia."

Octavia shook hooves with him. "How do you know my name?"

Scout smiled. "Vinyl talks about you every now and then. You're a cellist, right?"

Octavia smiled. "Yes."

Scout chuckled. "You're right Vinyl. She's very polite. She could teach you a thing or two."

Vinyl rolled her eyes. "That'll be the day. Tav, Scooter here is my agent. He's the one that got me this gig."

Octavia nodded. "An agent? So formal!"

Scout gave her a smug look. "The Fillyharmonic aren't the only ponies with agents. Your sister's got great potential in the music industry. I'm working on getting her a record deal."

Octavia looked at Vinyl. "You never mentioned that!"

Vinyl frowned. "Well you never mentioned me to Maestro."

Octavia narrowed her eyes. How to retort? A smile formed and she glanced at Scout. "You never mentioned you had such a handsome stallion managing your schedule. Isn't he a little old for you?"

Vinyl smiled and started laughing. "Okay. I had that one coming."

Scout looked between the two. "You two are definitely related."

-------------------------------

Octavia stood off to the side as ponies were dancing around the loft. The only lighting in the whole place was a set of strobes, some blacklights, and the moon. And the only thing that could be heard was the vibrations from the bass speakers next to Vinyl. How had she not gone deaf from all this noise?

Octavia slowly inched around the edge of the mob until she had a clear shot to Vinyl. She ran over and sat next to her. "Is it always so loud?"

Vinyl looked at her. "Tav! What's up?"

"Does it have to be so loud?"

"What?"

"LOUD!!"

"Loud? What do you- Oh! Just a sec."

Vinyl reached up and pulled something out of her ear. She winced slightly at the increase in sound, but shook it off.

Octavia's jaw dropped. "Earplugs?! You mean you don't even listen to what you're playing?!"

Vinyl laughed. "Of course I can hear what I'm playing! These just make it softer. This music's playing loud enough that I can hear it even with the earplugs in."

Octavia looked down at the earplug in Vinyl's hoof and back up. "Do you have an extra pair?"

-------------------------------

Octavia, at Vinyl's prodding, had taken to the dance floor to mingle. Unfortunately, this meant that Octavia would have to dance. she had never been particularly good at it. Playing the minute concerto in 48 seconds? Easy. Dancing at a party? Four left hooves.

Octavia looked around at the ponies. All of them were dancing away, some performing pretty impressive moves. She tried to copy some of the mares around her. The milder moves that is. She thought she was doing a decent job. And then she heard a snicker behind her. She looked over her shoulder to see a mare and stallion staring and grinning. Octavia stopped dancing, the two ponies turning away now hat heir entertainment was over.

"You've never been to one of these before, have you?"

Octavia looked forward and found Scout in front of her. She smiled sheepishly. "No."

Scout winked. "Don't worry about it. You're used to silent concert halls. If you had had good moves, I would have been suspicious."

Octavia smiled. Scout looked around at the dancing ponies. He looked back at Octavia and smiled. "Follow my lead."

Scout positioned himself in front of Octavia and began to move slowly. Octavia watched his hooves and mirrored the movements.

Scout shook his head. "Don't look at my hooves. Look at my face."

Octavia looked up at Scout. He had a soft smile as he looked at her. "Let your hooves follow the music. Pretend that your hooves are your cello. Make them play to the beat."

Octavia smiled and nodded. He had explained it perfectly. She kept her eyes on Scout and let her hooves begin to move. Without realizing, she began mirroring Scout's moves.

Scout chuckled. "We'll look at that! The concert pony can dance!"

Octavia looked down at her hooves to see them moving in perfect time with the music. She looked back at Scout, beaming. "I'm dancing!" She looked up to Vinyl's table. "Vinyl! I'm dancing!" She knew Vinyl couldn't hear her, but that didn't stop her from yelling it anyway.

-------------------------------

Vinyl slowed the last record down until it stopped. Everypony applauded. Vinyl raised her hooves over her head and bowed. The applause continued for a full minute. Vinyl gave a final bow and motioned for the ponies to stop.

The applause died and Vinyl smiled. "WHO HAD FUN TONIGHT?"

The room exploded in screams.

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!"

The screams were deafening, even with her earplugs in. When the noise died down, Vinyl nodded. "Good. Because that's all I got for you."

"AWWW!!"

Vinyl laughed. "Alright! One more dance!"

"YAY!!!"

Vinyl put on another record and pumped up the volume. The music started and everypony began dancing again.

Octavia walked up behind Vinyl and tapped her on the shoulder. Vinyl turned and smiled. "Looks like you were having fun out there. Scooter's pretty awesome, isn't he?"

Octavia did her best not to blush. "Yeah." She looked out at the crowd. "So does every party want to have another dance?"

Vinyl smiled. "Yeah. Nopony wants the party to end. So I give them one more. What do you call that at concerts? An encore?"

Octavia nodded, her smile fading.

Vinyl pushed her glasses up to her mane. "Tav?"

Octavia shook her head and smiled. "It's nothing. I...I just realized how tired I really was. Thanks for bringing me along tonight."

Vinyl kept eye contact for a moment before smiling, nodding and turning back to her table.

Octavia sat down. She ran over everything her sister had done. Vinyl had mentioned her to her agent. Vinyl got encores with every performance, something Octavia had only ever dreamed of. And what had Octavia ever done for her? She had denied her existence. She had scoffed at her musical knowledge and experience.

Octavia slowly stood and walked towards the exit. She had decided to wait outside. Where nopony would see the pooling tears in her eyes.