Beautiful. I haven’t even been awake for a whole hour yet and I’m already covered in sweat. Not even to mention the fact that I’m about to be late to class and I've never been late a day in my life. Not once! Just what did I do wrong to deserve this? I mean, come on. It’s not like I’m a bad mare or anything, so what did I do to deserve having my alarm clock not go off on a day like today? Because of that, I’m now running through the corridors of the music building of the Manehatten college
“Excuse me, mister,” I say in between breaths, as I run up to the elderly teacher who was unlocking his classroom. ”Do you know where the music room is?”
“Third corridor down,” the elderly teacher says politely.
“Thank you!” I say, before running off.
I’m pretty sure he’s muttering something about me being covered in sweat, but I really don’t care right now. I need to get to class. I’m not about to be late if I can help it! Either way, the elderly stallion was right about where the classroom is, thank Celestia.
Coming up to the hoof carved mahogany door, I take a deep breath and gently push open the door. The sounds of instruments being tuned and musicians chatting idly filled the corridor when the door cracked open. It must be a decent sized class to be this loud, but there’s only twenty or so musicians in here. When I had Music in highschool, there was about forty of us in the same period, though not many were string musicians. This time, there’s definitely more strings than brass and woodwinds.
Forgetting to close the door be behind myself after walking into the room, my whole plan of getting into the room without being noticed went up in smoke. Everyone turned around to look at me as the door slammed shut. Some of them shot me looks of disgust upon noticing my sweaty body, while other just looked at me and turned back around in their chairs. Lowering my head in embarrassment, I took my spot on a cold, black, hard, metal chair like the ones I had to use back in highschool, not one ounce of padding anywhere to be seen.
After getting somewhat comfortable, I pull out my lyre from my saddlebags. I begin to tune the four strings to perfection. It only took me about five minutes, but I’ve seen some cellists spend up to half an hour trying to get their instruments tuned to that perfect sweet spot. Even then, they constantly fiddle with their so called “fine tuners” to keep their instruments in tune because the pegs keep slipping. I’ve always found using a little bit violin rosin helps keep the pegs of my lyre from slipping, but most musicians think I’m crazy because of it. Then again, I’m not exactly what you’d call “normal”, but what’s normal in the first place?
Anyways, I’ve already been here at the college for about a week now, even though my classes are just starting today. My friend Bon Bon’s here attending the culinary courses, so I’ve been staying with her, even though I really want to get into the college’s housing. It’s not that I don’t like her or anything, she just starts wearing on the nerves after a while. Plus, I really don’t want to trek my way halfway through the city everyday to get to class.
“Welcome everyone!” A teacher exclaims happily, pulling me from my thoughts back into the world of the waking. “You’ve all have been hoof chosen out of thousands of ponies from all over Equestria to attend the Manehatten College.”
“Therefore, we shall expect nothing but the best from every single one of you,” the teacher continues. “Within the next five to ten minutes, you’ll meet your instructors and the members of your class!”
As the teacher begins reading off the names of all the ponies present over her half moon glasses, I realize she has a striking resemblance to Madame Mayor from Ponyville. Well, okay, maybe their more different than similar, but for starters her mane’s is the same exact style of tight bun and her cutie mark is a music sheet. Plus, their eyes are even the same color! Maybe they’re sisters, but I could be wrong. Either way, within four or so minutes everyones name was called except four of us.
Looking around, I see a mare with a blue mane and a coat that reminds me of a banana strangely enough. The look on her face suggests that she is distracted by something or another. I kind of, oh fine. I really want to know what she’s thinking about. Giving my head a tiny shake, I turn my attention back to seeing who elses name hasn’t been yet called.
About three rows ahead of the banana mare I spot another two mares. The one on the left’s mane is a mixture of both electric and regular blue, but the oddest thing about her mane is that it’s just a spiky mess. True, it probably would look funny on anypony except her, but there it is. At first, I would have thought she plays the double bass, but she has a violin case sitting in the chair to her immediate left, so either somepony had forgotten to get their instrument or she was a violinist not a bassist. But whomever it was sitting next to her seemed to be fiddling with something on the double bass, seeing how the instrument is wobbling all over the place.
“And in my group is Miss Strings, Miss Scratch, Miss...” The teacher says, trying to silently pronounce something but just didn’t seem to be able to, “ Miss Musique? Is that how it’s pronounced, dearest?”
“Yes ma’am,” a annoyingly familiar voice calls out, from beside the spiky maned mare. “You can just call me Octavia if it makes it any easier.”
As the mare said her name, the world as I knew it came crashing down around me. Figures, the one and only mare that’s ever been able to steal my heart for so long it’s ancient history would be in the same group as me. I mean, come on. Why does the world constantly do this to me? It’s bad enough we’ve been in the same music classes since elementary school, but why here? But who knows, I might be able to turn on the good old Lyra charm and win her over... yeah right.
“Thank you.” The teacher smiles, turning her attention back to her list of names. “Finally we have Miss Heartstrings! Everyone in my group, please meet me up on the stage after everypony else has left.”
As the teacher sat down onto her haunches, the room filled with the sound of chairs scraping against hardwood as ponies got up and headed towards their teachers. Grabbing my lyre in my magical grasp, I begin navigating my way through the sea of chair legs and forgotten bricks of rosin. Now, you would think it would be easy walking down these aisles, right? Wrong! I swear these chair legs try to trip you, along with all those hostile little round rosin cases that sneak beneath your hooves and cause you to lose control and smash into the pony in front, beside, and behind of you.
After fighting my way through hostile enemy territory without falling on my face, (thank Celestia) I walk over to the stage, being careful not to bump into anypony's instrument. But somepony wasn’t as fortunate as I, seeing how he tripped over a leg of a chair and fell right into the mare in front of themselves flank. It caused quite the mess, with her yelling at him while he tried to stammer out an apology but couldn’t quite get it out. Either way, within five minutes, the room was empty except for the ponies in the group I’m in.
“Here are my rules,” the teacher says as soon as we all hopped onto the stage. “Rule number one: everything that is said or done in this class will stay in this class or I’ll get who ever opens their mouth kicked from the school. Rule number two: Have fun! School’s pretty horrid if you’re miserable all the time. Rule number three, you got five minutes after class begins to show up; anytime after that will get your free campus privileges taken away for a month. There’s no reason why you should be late to class without a note from another teacher or doctor explaining why you were late to class. Rule number four: there will be little activities and the like you will be expected to attend. If money's an issue, then please talk to me and we’ll get it sorted out. So, who wants to tell us about themselves first?”
I raise my hoof.
“My name’s Lyra Heartstring. I’m a street performer by heart, mainly because I love playing my music where everypony can enjoy it.” I say, taking a deep breath before continuing on, “As you can see, I play the lyre. My favorite quote is, “Don’t just practice your art but force your way into it’s secrets, for it and it’s knowledge raise ponies to the divine”, and umm...yeah, that’s about it.”
“Would you mind playing a song for us?” The teacher asks, raising an eyebrow.
I nod my head and begin to play my lyre to the poem that I was singing.
________________________________________________________________________________
LOUD-MAIDENS that float on forever,
Dew-sprinkled, fleet bodies, and fair,
Let us rise from our Sire's loud river,
Great Ocean, and soar through the air
To the peaks of the pine-covered mountains where the pines hang as tressed of hair.
Let us seek the watch towers undaunted,
Where the well-watered cornfields abound,
And through murmurs of rivers nymph-haunted,
The songs of the sea-waves resound;
And the sun in the sky never wearies of spreading his radiance around.
Let us cast off the haze
Of the mists from our band,
Till with far-seeing gaze
We may look on the land.
Cloud-maidens that bring the rain shower,
To the Pallas-loved land let us wing,
To the land of stout heroes and Power,
Where Kekrops was hero and king,
Where honor and silence is given
To the mysteries that none may declare,
Where are gifts to the high gods in heaven
When the house of the gods is laid bare,
Where are lofty roofed temples, and statues well carven and fair;
Where are feasts to the happy immortals
When the sacred procession draws near,
Where garlands make bright the bright portals
At all seasons and months in the year;
And when spring days are here,
Then we tread to the wine-god a measure,
In Bacchanal dance and in pleasure,
'Mid the contests of sweet singing choirs,
And the crash of loud lyres.
________________________________________________________________________________
As I play the last note, I feel light headed. It’s been a long time since I’ve sang that long of a song; most of the ones I sing are short and about tragic losses.
The teacher clapped slowly, breaking the silence.
Looking around, I see everypony else’s mouths were wide open in surprise. Well, almost everypony. Octavia was just staring at me silently. I really don’t see what’s to be shocked about; I mean, come on, my singing voice isn’t that great.
“Who’s next?” The teacher asks, dabbing the corner of her eyes with a hanky.
The pony with the spiky mane raises her hoof.
“My name’s Vinyl Scratch. Everypony can just calls my Vinyl, though. I’m a DJ by night and a violinist by day. I mostly play pop music with my electric violin,” Vinyl says happily smiling to herself as she opens the case to her violin. “But as you can see, I didn’t bring it today because I couldn’t imagine it going well.”
“Would you mind playing a song for us as well?” the teacher asks
“Mind if I go get my Electric Violin then?” Vinyl asks, staring at the teacher, her sun glasses resting on her horn revealing a majestic pair of magenta eyes.
“You got five minutes,” the teacher smiles, nodding her approval.
Sure enough, within five minutes she was back with an amp, violin case, and a bunch of other stuff floating above her head. Now, how she knows where all those cords and whatnot goes is beyond me, but she’ll probably find a way.
It took Vinyl about five seconds to get everything set up. Which was rather impressive seeing how if I’d had to set all that stuff up, we’d be waiting a good hour or so for me figure out which chords are what then another hour for me to find out what goes where. It would be painful to watch, especially seeing how I wouldn’t accept help from anypony else.
“Okay, this song’s called “Hey Soul Sister” Vinyl says as she tunes her electric violin, which looks kind of funny.
It was really cool to listen to Vinyl basically take a song that would take a couple of other violinists to do normally. But this weird petal thingy would basically loop what she told it to over and over. You really don’t need anypony to sing the lyrics. You could hear them in the music. Which was another cool thing about instruments. They can do the singing for the musician.
“My turn!” The banana pony says, as Vinyl finishes her song. “My name’s Sterling Strings. I’m a TRUE fiddler, unlike Vinyl Scratch here. The first time I’ve ever performed publicly was at the Nightmare Night were Princess Luna first made an appearance down in Ponyville. May I please play a REAL song?”
The teacher nods.
“Thank you!” Sterling says excitedly, getting awarded with a facehoof by Octavia.
I’m pretty sure the song Sterling played was called “Dance For Joy.” It really is a happy song, and I must admit it’s way better than what Vinyl played earlier. Don’t get me wrong, it’s pretty cool that she can do what she did, but it’s still not my cup of tea. Anyways, not even five seconds after Sterling got done playing her song, Vinyl was bashing on it, and away they went into the age old argument over which music’s better.
“Why me...” I hear the teacher moans, through Vinyl and Sterling yelling at one another.
I really don’t blame her, having to deal with two ponies going at one another’s throats is pretty annoying at best. My parents never got along. They were always yelling and bickering at one another. At least there’s only three minutes of class left before we have to go to our next one.
I have drawing next. I chose it mainly because it’s an easy A, plus I kind of like drawing anyways so it’s a win win. But besides my first two periods, the rest really sucks. Well maybe not Equestrian, but math isn’t exactly my things. Pretty much, I’ve been lucky to get a high C in that subject.
DING!
DING!
DING!
DING!
DING!
“Okay everypony, before you all head off to your next class, I’ve got two things to tell you!” the teacher says irritably. “One, there will not be anymore fighting in class! Two, we’ll continue where we left off tomorrow!”
Everyone except Octavia and I made a B-line towards the exit. I really don’t see the point of doing so. All that could come from it would be somepony getting hurt. But that doesn’t stop ponies from trying all the same.
Placing my lyre in my bag, I notice Octavia having issues getting her double bass back into it's midnight blue, hard shell case. Now, I know I probably shouldn't try to help her, seeing how she'll probably just ignore me as all ways but hey, you never know until you try, right? Either way, Super Lyra off to the rescue!
After ignoring my better judgment, I make my way through the maze of chairs to where Octavia was struggling with her instrument. I mean, come on what kind of mare would I be if I just stood and watched Octavia get her flank kicked by some mean case? Well, I'll knew soon enough whether I'm just plain crazy or whether my efforts will be rewarded by recognition from this bassist.
"Want some help?" I ask shyly, approaching the struggling mare.
"Hold on, all most got it!" Octavia says as she seems to make some progress finally.
"Does that case all ways give you problems?" I ask, curiously tilting my head to one side trying to get a better angle to see what I think the problem is.
"No," Octavia sighs shortly, looking down at her instrument halfway into the case tiredly. "May I please have some help..."
"Le...le...let me see what I can do," I stutter confusingly, I had never even heard of Octavia asking for help. Not even in elementary school. She's always been the kind of mare to do everything herself even when she needed help. But it would help if you moved so I can get a better look at the instrument and case itself... "Pardon me."
"Oh, sorry," Octavia mutters, sitting down into one of the hard black chairs to let me pass and get a good look at her instrument. "Please be careful. My Double Bass has been in the family for generations..."
With a nod of my head, I set to work. Okay, the problem was rather simple. She didn't take her bow out of the case before putting her instrument into it. Okay. I must admit everypony makes mistakes but this is just plain silly. Sure, I've never had a use for a case myself, but how hard could it be remembering such a simple thing? Then again, it's always those things that get ya.
"You forgot to take out your bow," I say, magically floating Octavia's bow down onto her lap making her blush like the morning sun.
"Thank you," Octavia says politely, once she got a hold of herself well enough to stop blushing as I put her Double Bass into it's case. The thing fit rather snug in it but that's probably a good thing.
"Anytime," I say shortly, feeling the blood rush to my checks awarding me a questioning look from the bassist.
"I best be heading off to art now..." Octavia says, giving me one last funny look before flinging her instrument onto her back then trotting off towards the door.
"Bye..." I whisper to myself watching the beautiful bassist trot away.
Author's Note
Thank you so much for reading. Please remember to leave a thumbs up, a fav, and a comment if you're enjoying the story so far it really does help me a lot. Have a good day/night everypony!
