Patchwork

The big day had arrived. It was about a week after Hearth’s Warming, and the stores had all switched their advertisements for the next holiday, which was New Year’s. Octavia and Vinyl were in a carriage on their way to the audition, which was in a section of Canterlot closer to the castle. Octavia fidgeted with her necklace the entire time out of nervousness, and asked every two minutes or so if she’d remembered to put her cello in the back of the carriage. The ponies pulling the carriage were clearly becoming increasingly annoyed with her and would groan every time she asked, but Vinyl, at least, didn’t seem to mind.

“Octavia, you’re going to do great. You’re the best musician I know, I mean, playing-an-instrument wise. And that’s saying a lot.”

“But what if I mess up because I’m nervous? I’ve heard terrible stories about ponies who were completely professional and calm walking into a big audition, but then when they get inside they—“

“Octy, please. That’s not gonna happen to you.” She laughed a little. “Trust me, if being professional is what you need to do to get this job, there’s no competition.”

Octavia sighed. “I don’t just need to be professional. I need to be a good musician, a really good musician. I need to be the best player there, and even if I am, if I’m not good enough they still won’t let me in. I’ve got to be spectacular, I’ve got to—“

One of the carriage ponies cut her off. “We’re almost there.”

“Finally,” another one muttered. Vinyl glared at them and they stopped talking.

As the carriage slowed to a stop and Vinyl helped Octavia unload her cello and music (each contender had to play a five-minute piece of their choosing, along with the sight reading portion of the audition), the earth pony suddenly found herself wishing she had let her family come along to support her. Mostly everypony had to leave after Hearth’s Warming and go back home, but Grandma Melody and Martha and Elliot were still there and had asked to come see Octavia’s audition. She’d ultimately decided that they would only make her more nervous, but now she wasn’t sure anymore.

“Octy?” Vinyl was standing at the door to the audition building, holding it open for her.

“Oh, sorry, sorry! Coming!” Octavia took a deep breath and followed her friend inside. They walked until they came to a room with mirrors all along one wall and a desk set up at the back, where three ponies sat with cold faces— the judging panel, no doubt. There were two stallions; a black unicorn with brown hair tied up professionally, and an earth pony whom Octavia recognized right away as Mr. Woodwinds.

“Octavia Melody?” Mr. Woodwinds asked, looking down at a sheet.

“Yes, sir,” she responded, being careful not to stammer. “Mr. Woodwinds, if I’m correct?” The earth pony nodded.

“And whom, may I ask, is she?” asked the female jude, with a look of distaste. She pointed with her wing to Vinyl Scratch, who was standing in the doorway.

“Oh, that’s my friend, Vinyl,” Octavia said quickly. “The packet didn’t state whether or not onlookers could attend.”

Mr. Woodwinds waved his hoof dismissively. “She’ll have to stay in the lobby, sorry. We can’t afford to risk having ponies cheat, after all.”

“O-oh! Of course,” she said, quickly regaining composure. It hadn’t even occurred to her that somepony would try to cheat to get into the Royal Orchestra. After all, wouldn’t they just be exposed during their first rehearsal if they weren’t as good as they’d claimed to be?

She looked over at Vinyl, who nodded understandingly and walked out to the lobby. “Good luck, Octy. Not that you’ll need it!” She closed the door behind her, leaving Octavia alone with the three cold-faced judges.

“Now then, if you would head over to the music stand, Ms. Melody, your sheets to sight-read are set up on the stand already. You have exactly three minutes to get familiar with the piece before you begin. You tuned your cello before you came, as instructed?” asked the unicorn, in a businesslike tone.

“Yes, of course,” Octavia replied. She tried to quiet her mind while she read the piece— it was a simple enough score, but one mistake could cost her the audition. It was also frustratingly hard to concentrate; random thoughts kept fluttering around her mind in sync with the butterflies in her stomach. For instance, she realized the room in which she was auditioning was probably a dance studio, which would explain the mirrors along the wall.

“Your time is up,” stated the unicorn. “I will conduct you to make sure you keep time. Start when you are ready.” He levitated a baton in the air and started conducting; Octavia gave herself two counts of eight to steady her breathing and make sure she was in proper position, then began to play. She rather liked the piece— it was slow and sweet, and would probably sound fantastic with other orchestration.

Through the audition, the judges made no comments aloud— only scribbled down notes on the sheets in front of them and watched the musician intensely. Octavia knew to expect this, of course, but with so much at stake it made her feel nervous and queasy all over again.

When the audition was over, the judges took her paperwork, asked her a few simple questions about herself (mostly about her work ethic and why she wanted to play in the orchestra), and then let her go.

“You will receive a letter by the end of this week that will state whether or not you have been accepted into the orchestra,” stated the unicorn. “You put down the address where you will be residing tomorrow?”

“Yes, my grandmother’s house. It’s on my paperwork.”

“Then you are free to go now.”

“Thank you very much,” Octavia said, bowing her head in respect to the panel. She carefully put her sheet music in her cello case along with the large instrument, then hoisted it on her back and walked out to the lobby where Vinyl was waiting with headphones on. She quickly slid them off and ran over when she saw Octavia.

“So? How did it go? It went awesome, right?” She bounced up and down slightly in anticipation.

Octavia smiled, reassured by her friend’s predictable behavior. “I hope it went well, thank you for asking. At least I didn’t make any terrible mistakes, as far as I’m aware.”

“See? What did I tell ya?” she beamed, and then proceeded to help Octavia with her case.

As the auditioning nerves faded away, Octavia felt a rush of excitement take their place. “The judges said the letter will arrive by the end of the week, but I don’t think I can wait that long to find out if I made it!”

For some reason, she almost thought she saw Vinyl’s ears droop slightly, but when she rubbed her eyes to check, the unicorn seemed as excited as ever.

“Yea, same here!” she laughed, adjusting her headphones more comfortably around her neck. “Come on, you wanna hit the stores before we go back to your grandma’s house? There’s a ton of stuff on discount now that Hearth’s Warming is over.”

Octavia nodded and smiled. “That sounds wonderful. Although,” she added playfully, “you’d better enjoy your last moments of freedom, because tonight I am making you listen to the classical music I bought you.”

Vinyl rolled her eyes. At least, she seemed to— Octavia couldn’t actually tell, since Vinyl was wearing her tinted glasses.

“Well, we’ll just see about that,” the unicorn responded smugly.

“Well, come on— for the moment, let’s go see how many discounts we can rack up.”

And with a stomach full of butterflies, Octavia walked out the door to enjoy the beauty of Canterlot before the moon was raised for the night.