Chapter Eighteen
And just like that, Hearth’s Warming Eve was upon us and I bade farewell to my friends, boarding a train back home to the wilderness. My parents were keen to find out all about Princess School and when my audition was, and I had been at home for scarcely a day before they’d arranged a piano tutor to see me twice a week. I didn’t really want to spend my short holidays seeing a tutor, but there was no chance of persuading them otherwise.
“It’s your future,” they kept telling me, not that I was inclined to take much notice. My fear of the audition grew as the holidays went on, which meant I spent a lot of my time hiding in my room and trying to distract myself with books and magazines.
Eventually Dad knocked on my door. “Are you okay Cat? You seem a bit worried.”
I opened the door and let him in. “Yeah, I’m okay.”
“I suppose it’s the audition,” he added, sitting on my bed in that awkward way that parents do. He looked at me. “If it really makes you feel that bad, you don’t have to go.”
I knew that Mum would never agree with that view, so I shook my head. “It’s okay. I need to just face up to it instead of hiding away.”
“Do you need extra piano practice? Are you worried you won’t be ready?”
In reality, I was actually totally fluent with all of the music I was going to play, so any extra practice was just to calm my nerves, but I knew that once the panic of the audition hit me I wouldn’t be able to play the music even if I’d done it a million times. “No, it’s not that. Just nerves,” I said, mainly truthfully. “I have extra help at school after I go back so it’s okay.”
He nodded, and I tried my best reassuring smile. “Okay, well, if you’re sure. Your mum and I would love to hear you play, if you’d like that.”
“Maybe after dinner,” I said, getting a prickling suspicion that it had already been decided for me. “I’ll see how I feel.”
“Well, stick in with it, Cat. You’ll do fine, I know it.” He got up and left, forgetting to shut the door behind him, which meant I had to get up and shut it. Grumbling, I returned to the magazine I had already read three times, got bored of it and closed it, deciding to have an afternoon nap. It was raining outside anyway, so nobody would complain.
Soon the holidays were over and I was on my way back to school, dreading the audition in a few short days’ time. My last winter holiday at Buckingham was over, but I didn’t feel too sad; I’d spent nearly all seven of them itching to get back to school so I could see my friends again, so it wasn’t much of a loss. Idly, I wondered whether anypony else would have any exciting news to tell from their holidays. I definitely didn’t, but Fly might have heard back from Oxmare. Starting the new term with a party would be a good way of lifting my mood.
“No, I haven’t. They did say they wouldn’t write until the New Year and it’s only been a week, so I’m not worried,” she told me when I arrived back in our room, unpacking my stuff. “Have you prepared for your audition?”
I opened my mouth to reply, but thankfully I was interrupted by Rarity’s arrival.
“I have amazing news, everypony!” she announced, levitating her suitcases over to the bed. “You will never believe it.”
My heart leapt. She was going to decide to stay in Britannia and open a boutique somewhere so we could all visit her!
“I have asked my parents, and they have consented to allow me to stay here in Britannia over the next holidays! Isn’t that simply marvellous?” She giggled and rubbed her hooves together happily. “Of course, I need to ask the three of you if it would be okay for me to stay with you.”
I was too stunned to speak, stuck halfway between excitement at the announcement and disappointment that it wasn’t what I’d hoped, so Fly went first. “Oh, yes of course. I’m sure it will be fine.”
Miri set about beating Rarity with her hooves. “Why did you have to choose the next holidays! My parents are going on another business trip so you won’t be able to come!”
Rarity pushed her away with magic. “I had completely forgotten Miri, I’m sorry,” she said, sounding apologetic. “You should have told me sooner.”
Sulking, Miri sat on her bed, and Rarity turned her attention to me. “Do you think that would be okay? I’m not sure if it would be fair to ask Fly’s parents to look after me for two whole weeks...”
“It’ll be fine. Good, even. I’m sure,” I stuttered, knowing full well that my holidays were completely open.
“Well, a week at Fly’s and a week at Cat’s, that sounds manageable,” Rarity said happily, lying down on her bed in triumph. “I can finally spend the holidays with my friends! I’m already getting excited and it’s months away!”
Now that I was over my disappointment, I was excited too. I made a mental note to contact my parents and ask if it would be okay, but I couldn’t see any reason why not. It wasn’t as if I ever did anything other than mope around and wait for school to start again, only this time it would be revising for exams and waiting for school to start again. That would definitely be more fun with Rarity around, and she’d probably make me actually focus instead of just aimlessly sleeping the afternoons away.
It wasn’t long before I had to go for my final session with Mr Bluejay, who, instead of letting me straight into the classroom as usual, made me sit outside until my name was called. I’d almost forgotten it was going to be a mock audition, which made me feel even more nervous.
“Toccata?” he said through the door, so I opened it and went inside, doing my best to seem polite as he showed me to a chair opposite his desk.
“Hello Toccata, I’m Mr Bluejay. I’m just going to ask you some questions,” he said, keeping his eyes fixed on mine. I looked back, nodding and trying not to look scared.
He just asked me about music, which was quite easy to answer, and then about what I wanted to learn in the next few years, which I didn’t know and he made something that sounded like a small cross on his clipboard.
“Okay Toccata, thank you. Now, would you please show me something on the piano? Have you prepared some pieces?”
The music was already on the stand, so I took a seat and made sure everything was in the right place. I took a deep breath, ignored the pencil on the clipboard, and started to play, making sure I didn’t start to breathe too fast and lose my place or anything. All of the extra practice over the holidays had paid off and I played through both pieces fluently and without any mistakes, although they didn’t sound quite as good as they did when I was totally relaxed.
“Thank you Cat, the audition is over,” Mr Bluejay said once I had finished. “In the real interview, you should probably say thank you before you leave, since they’re giving you the chance.”
I smiled and sat back down opposite the desk, feeling quietly confident. I hadn’t done anything really wrong, so I thought I had a good chance of passing.
“So Cat, how do you think it went?” he asked, looking over the desk at me.
“Better than usual,” I tried, hoping he would agree.
Mr Bluekay looked at his clipboard. “Well, it was better than last time, yes. Your answers to the questions were good, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
I knew a but was coming in a minute.
“You played the pieces just fine, but you didn’t really play them like you enjoyed playing them. Do you know what I mean?”
“I think it was because I was nervous,” I said, looking down at my lap.
“Maybe. Also, you need to tie your hair back for the interview. You keep pausing to get it out of your eyes and it makes you look distracted.” He wasn’t holding back. “When you play, make sure you focus but also make it sound like a performance. The aim is to entertain the listener and show off your skill, not to just get to the end without making a mistake.”
“Okay, I think I know what you mean.” I wished auditions weren’t so hard.
He made me play the pieces over and over until I could play them like a performance. I didn’t like performances either, but it did sound better. As I left, he offered me an elastic band for my hair, but I declined it. “It pulls out your mane. I’ll borrow something better.”
Rarity, of course, had a large number of hair accessories to offer me. I liked the idea of using a clip to pin it to one side, but she didn’t have any in my colour, so I had to settle for a band with a sunflower on it. Miri unhelpfully suggested I use a faux ear maneband, so Rarity hit her with a brush.
“When do you leave? Do you need me to go over your outfit?” Rarity asked.
“Tomorrow morning. My audition is in the afternoon, so I’m staying until the next day,” I said, pulling my interview outfit from my suitcase. It was actually just a few tasteful accessories, but Rarity chose a few others and pretty much replaced everything I’d chosen.
The three of them got up early to wave me off in the morning, which was a nice touch. Miri wanted me to bring back a present, so I resolved to keep something that they gave me for free. I had a map that I think the someone in the school’s office had done, showing me where to go from the train station. Princess School was in a city called Aberneigh, which I knew nothing about except that it took ages and ages and ages to get to on the train from Buckingham. I had planned to pass the time by worrying about the audition later, but that soon lapsed into extreme boredom. I picked up a discarded newspaper and did all of the puzzles and drew glasses on everypony’s pictures, but then that got boring so I stared out of the window at the countryside going past and reread all of the papers I had that told me what to do for my audition.
It wasn’t a moment too soon when the conductor finally announced “Ladies and gentlecolts, we are now arriving in Aberneigh.” I pulled my suitcase off the luggage rack and took everything except the newspaper with me, the hand-drawn map hovering in front of my face so I couldn’t get lost on my way out.
“Excuse me?” a small voice said from behind me. I turned around, lowering the map to see who it was. It seemed to be a pony of about my age, also dragging a large suitcase and carrying a map.
“I-I just happened to spot that you seem to be looking at a map, and I saw your cutie mark, and I just wondered...” the pony said, trailing off and looking at her hooves.
I took in her appearance, trying to work out what she was talking about. Her blonde mane was neatly cut to a shoulder length, similar to her tail, and her coat was a pale purple. Her cutie mark was a musical score that curled artistically.
“Are you going to Princess School? For an audition?” I asked.
“Yes. Are you?” she asked, a little bolder now.
“Yes.”
We stood and looked at each other for a few moments, and she spoke first. “Would you like to go together? Two of us will probably be better at finding it than one.”
I nodded and she broke into a trot to catch up with me as I continued walking towards the station exit, trying to decipher my map.
“I’m Toccata, but all of my friends call me Cat,” I said, smiling at my new companion.
She blushed slightly and looked away. “I’m Senza Sordino.”
“Sorry? Senza Sordino?” I didn’t laugh, because that would be rude, but her name was definitely weird.
“That’s it. I must have been born under an unlucky star or something,” Senza Sordino said, her head bowed.
“Do you like being called Senza Sordino?” I asked, unable to keep a hint of humour out of my voice.
“Not really.”
“Then you should choose a cute nickname, like fashion models have. What do your friends call you?”
She seemed to waver for a moment as we took a turning, heading away from the station.
“Well, my parents teach me instead of going to school, and they always call me by my full name.” For some reason, she said this with a certain amount of unhappiness.
“Then I’ll have to think of something, because I don’t want to keep calling you Senza Sordina.”
“Sordino. It’s not Sordina, it’s Sordino.”
I rolled my eyes. “Come on, let’s just stick to finding our way. I don’t want to get lost.”
“So, Cat, where did you come from on the train?” Senza Sordino asked me as we traversed a busy junction.
“Buckingham, I go to the filly’s school there,” I replied. “What about you?”
“Oh, I got on at Manechester. That’s where I live.”
I didn’t really know where Manechester was, so I didn’t comment and we just kept walking.
“What kind of musical instrument do you play? Or do you sing?” Senza Sordino suddenly said, as if it had slipped out of her mouth by accident.
I looked at her and she seemed to blush. “I play the piano, that’s what I’m auditioning with. And I can’t sing.” I assumed that somepony as quiet and timid as her would play pretty much anything except the trumpet.
“I can’t sing either, and I play the trumpet.”
I was grateful for the fact that between the two of us, we managed to find Princess School, and from there we just followed the signs saying ‘auditions this way’. I checked the impressive clock on the top of the central tower, and worked out I still had an hour before my interview. Inside the buildings, there was a makeshift reception desk that was nothing more than a low desk with two overworked ponies sitting at it, which took away something from the otherwise general grandeur of the school.
“Two more,” the orange pony at the desk said, looking at Senza Sordino and I and then sighing. “Please see my associate,” he said to us.
“Okay, we’ll start with you,” his young-looking friend said, her pink hooves pointing to me. “Name?”
“Toccata.”
She rifled through some papers and then located my name, making a small tick. “Okay Toccata, you’re auditioning on piano?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Perfect. Your interview room is A-88, follow the signs. After, you’ll need this,” she said, handing me an envelope. “It has your room key and directions to your room for tonight. Please leave your luggage in the area behind me and retrieve it when you go to your accommodation.”
I took the envelope and smiled, stepping aside and allowing the process to be repeated for Senza Sordino, who was going to audition in A-60 on the trumpet.
“They’re actually not too far apart, you can go together,” the mare said, before moving on to some ponies who had entered the room behind us.
Once I was free of my suitcase, I tried to work out the various colourful signs that pointed us to our interviews. It seemed that rooms 50-100 were in the east wing, but then there was a huge staircase and I couldn’t work out if 88 was on the top floor or not.
“Just try it and if you get lost, come back here,” Senza Sordino suggested, heading for the easily-visible A-60.
I just shrugged and tried the top floor. The corridor was long but straight, and totally silent. I guessed that all of the rooms must be soundproofed. When I reached the end, there didn’t seem to be an 88, so I turned around sheepishly and went back to the stairs, but I could feel the panic rising. I was sure the room would just be one floor down, but what if disaster struck and I really couldn’t find it?
There was already a sweaty patch on my back as I headed for the right floor, clad in all of Rarity’s well-chosen accessories. I regretted the understated silk scarf, because it was starting to get a bit slippery, but the band and sunflower did mean I wasn’t incessantly touching my hair. Anyway, I located A-88 and sat down on the plastic seat outside the door, not having any idea how long I would have to wait. It was completely silent in the corridor and I dragged my hooves on the institutional brown carpet, my heart in my mouth. Even after all of the extra support, I knew I was going to blow it. Anxious and tense, I bit on my hooves alternately until I left marks.
Instead of worrying, I tried to focus on the pieces I was going to play. Going through them in my head did help calm me down, but after I’d done each of them twice, I was getting worried that I was in the wrong place. Did they definitely say A-88 and not 86? What about the time? Maybe I got the time wrong. If they were expecting me to arrive earlier, then I would have blown it. Should I knock and apologise for being late and make up an excuse? I decided to knock. If I was late I could just bluff, and hopefully they’d forgive me and let me audition anyway, since I was there. Seemed pointless for me to travel all that way not to audition.
I was just about to get up and knock when the door opened, revealing a relieved colt who looked at me with sympathy before heading back down the corridor towards freedom. He hadn’t asked me to go in, so I just sat and waited. Maybe he was supposed to ask me go to in, but he was sabotaging me. After all, we were both competing for the same thing. If I sat outside and ignored them, they would think badly of me. Maybe they’d think I was late and just disqualify me. Worried, I got up to knock, and the door opened.
“Ah, you must be Toccata. Do follow me,” a rich voice said, and a navy blue hoof beckoned me through the door.
The audition room looked like a classroom with all of the chairs and desks pushed to one side, the blackboard still showing the contents of the previous lesson. Pride of place was given to an ornate white piano, sitting at an angle to the desk, behind which sat three ponies, two of whom looked very important and smart and one of whom looked a little untidy and friendly.
“Take a seat please Toccata,” the navy blue pony said in a well-spoken voice, pointing to the piano. I sat down, rubbing my hooves together to dry them a bit. All three ponies stared at me. There was the navy stallion on the right, just sitting down, an elderly white-and-pink pony in the middle, and the friendly-looking brown stallion on the left. He waved and I giggled slightly, and then remembered myself.
“Well, we might as well get started,” the elderly pony started. “I am Mrs. Sherbet, this is Mr. Plum, and this is Mr. Forte,” she said, introducing the navy pony first. “I’m sure you know why you’re here, so we’ll begin. Have you prepared two pieces?”
“Yes,” I said simply, nodding.
“Excellent. Well, let’s hear them.” With those words, the three ponies picked up clipboards and pencils and waited for me to play. Suddenly the nerves were eating away at my confidence again, and the unfamiliar piano was just begging for me to make a mistake. The music was waiting for me, the pages crisp on the stand, and it was on the right page.
Remembering Mr Bluejay’s advice, I took a few deep breaths, composed myself, and began to play, counting under my breath to keep the rhythm. Once I had started, and shattered the silence with a flow of notes, my nerves seemed to abate. I ignored the clipboards and played, occasionally reminding myself to treat it like a performance and play better. The first piece became the second, and even the fast sections seemed easy after all of my practice. And then, without any fanfare, I was suddenly done, the hard part over and the music fading back into silence, punctuated by the scratching of three pencils.
“Thank you Toccata. Now, would you mind if we asked you some questions?”
The cooler air in the corridor was the taste of freedom, and I didn’t spare a glance for the unfortunate pony hunched up on the chair as I swept by. It was all I could do to suppress a cheer, but that was premature. I was sure that nearly everypony would have played perfectly, and it was really a matter of how well I compared. Not making a mistake was just getting a foot in the door. Nonetheless, it was a huge weight off my chest, and I was bursting to tell the others back at Buckingham about how it had gone. My luggage was waiting and I tried not to show my excitement to the new arrivals waiting at the desk.
The envelope I had been given contained another map with many arrows, showing how to get to the accommodation building and find the right floor. It mentioned lifts, which was good, so I set off.
“Wait, Cat!” a voice said, and when I turned around I could see Senza Sordino, hastily grabbing her luggage in a bid to follow me. “How was your audition?”
“It went well,” I replied modestly. “What about yours?”
“Everything was fine, except the mare in charge got my name wrong. She called me Senza Sardino.”
I giggled involuntarily and then felt guilty until I noticed that she didn’t seem to mind. “Sardino? That’s a great name, can I call you that?”
She shrugged. “I suppose... it’s easier than my full name.”
“Sounds like a magician. Sardino,” I said, poking her in a friendly way. “Do you know any magic tricks?”
“No...”
We trotted along together, heading for the accommodation block. There was a timetable in the envelope, which detailed the activities scheduled for the evening. There were tours of the university leaving every ten minutes until dinner was served, and after dinner seemed to be musical games and ways to get to know everypony else.
“Do you think ‘race through the garden with your instrument’ is designed to torture the pianists?” I asked Sardino, and she giggled.
Sordino and I stayed together for the rest of the evening and we got along quite well. The majority of the ponies here for auditions seemed to be colts, which made me a little nervous because I had never been around so many colts before.
“Will you keep in touch until we know which school we end up going to?” Sardino asked me when the games were coming to an end. “I don’t think we’re getting the same train back.”
Annoyingly, Buckingham School had scheduled me to get an early train. “You’re right. I’ll try to keep in touch.”
“Let me write my address on the back of your timetable. Then you write yours on mine. Just send me a letter when you know where you’re going next year.” She smiled at me, her cheeks red from the last round of ‘musical statues’.
When I left Princess School the next morning, I took a detour through the buildings to get a closer look in the light. They were rather grey in the dismal morning sun, but I thought they looked quite impressive. I liked all of the traditional touches, and I could feel some disappointment tugging at my chest when I left the arches and gardens to go back into Aberneigh and towards the railway station. After all of the stress of the audition, I didn’t think that I could handle a rejection. But all of that was put out of my head when I spotted a clock and realised I was a bit late for my train, so I broke into a swift canter.
My return to Buckingham was far from triumphant, to say the least. I had expecting my three friends to be waiting by the gate, bursting to hear about my audition, but there was only Fly.
“Where are Rarity and Miri?” I asked, not really bothering to cover my annoyance. “It’s not even the morning, they should be awake.”
“Oh, there’s been an announcement so Rarity and Miri are doing official Head Filly stuff,” Fly explained. “I’ll tell you when we get back, but first tell me about your audition.”
“They’d better be apologetic...”
While I was telling Fly about my audition and everything else I had done, I noticed that while she was listening attentively, she was dying to tell me something.
“Are you waiting to tell me about this announcement?” I asked, interrupting a long-winded description of the room I had stayed in.
“No, actually.” I could see her excitement, and it suddenly dawned on me.
“Oh Fly that’s so great! I can’t believe it! You got into Oxmare!” I squealed, hugging her too hard. She let out a gasp of pain.
“Thanks Cat. I just have to get straight As this summer and I can go! I can’t wait!” she said happily, hugging me back but gently.
“You got the letter this morning?” I asked as we headed back to the room, a spring in my step.
“Yes. I hadn’t been expecting it at all,” Fly said, smiling and walking round some first years who were roaming the corridors.
“Congratulations! We’ll have to have a party tonight.”
“Yes, especially since it’s two of us who are happy,” Fly squeezed me with a wing. “I’m sure you’ll be accepted, I don’t know how they couldn’t have liked you.”
“Stop it, Fly. They didn’t say when they’d write, so I just have to wait and focus on my exams,” I replied, secretly pleased by the compliment.
Once safely inside our room, I started to unpack my suitcase. Fly told me about this big announcement that had Miri and Rarity so excited that they ignored me.
“Well, we had this big assembly this morning, and the Head Mare was there and she gave us this boring talk about responsibility and how we needed to study effectively for our exams,” Fly informed me as I took various cleansers back to the bathroom. She lay on my bed, on her back, and didn’t do anything to help. “They think that there’s too much gossip and excitement around for anypony to concentrate.”
“Well that’s mainly Miri’s fault,” I said, laughing. “What did they do, send her to the Head Mare and ban her from gossiping?”
Fly shook her head. “Apparently Miri suggested that the best way for us to get it out of our system was to go on a trip.
I paused. “What kind of trip?” I asked carefully, not allowing myself to get excited.
“A long weekend away,” Fly said, the amusement clear on her face as I grinned like an idiot.
“I can’t wait! That’s going to be awesome! Wait, unless we go somewhere boring...” I squealed, arresting my excitement again.
“That’s what Rarity and Miri are discussing at the moment.”
I smiled. “That makes up for not coming to see me. I don’t mind if it means we get to go somewhere fun.”
The pegasus continued as I put away my empty suitcase. “It’s supposed to be somewhere culturally enriching and educational, but Miri said she would insist on at least one day of leisure so we could enjoy ourselves.”
“I can’t believe Miri pulled this off. If she manages to make it an annual thing, she’ll go down in history at Buckingham,” I replied incredulously. “Then again, if we go somewhere really boring, she’ll be a villain.”
“Can you really imagine Miri letting them send us somewhere boring?” Fly asked with a smirk. “I think that more likely this is going to be Miri’s personal dream destination.”
There was a knock at the door, which I answered. A seventh year I recognised from my maths classes in fifth year was outside.
“Can I help?” I asked, smiling politely.
“Is Miri or Rarity there?” she asked, trying to peer around the door.
“No... why?”
“I was wondered if they knew where we were going on this trip.”
“Not yet, come back when they’re back,” I said, shrugging. “Not sure when that’ll be.” The other pony left, sighing.
We waited on tenterhooks, idly guessing at various destinations. When the door clicked and opened, Rarity had a shock when she found the two of us standing right behind it, waiting for her next words.
“I suppose you’ll want to know where we’re going on this delightful trip?” Rarity said, winking. “Well, thanks to Miri not taking no for an answer, she’s managed to get us four days in Mareis, Prance,” Rarity said slowly, backing away as both Fly and I leapt a foot into a air in excitement, the only difference being that Fly hovered there and I crashed back to the ground.
The news spread like wildfire after Rarity told a few others who came to call at our room, and it was less than an hour before it seemed like every seventh year knew that we were going to Mareis.
“Is Miri on her way back?” I asked Rarity.
The unicorn smiled. “She was supposed to be on her way, by now, but I expect she’s been mobbed by grateful ponies and won’t be joining us until she’s eaten all of her free chocolate biscuits.”
“Well, we can’t hold our celebration party if she’s not back,” Fly said sadly. “It might have to wait until tomorrow.”
“Oh, of course! How was the audition?” Rarity asked, her hooves flying to her mouth as she realised. “I cannot believe I forgot to ask you! I’m so sorry Cat, can you forgive me?”
Her blue eyes were glittering somehow as they looked at me, and I melted. “It’s okay, I had almost forgotten too.”
“So, how was it? I’m sure it went well.”
“Yes, it was great. I’m really confident,” I said, and she gasped and hugged me.
“That’s just fantastic! I know you were really worried about it,” she said, stroking my mane. “I am so proud of you.”
Miri surfaced much later, and had apparently been going from room to room receiving thanks in the form of biscuits and chocolate, some of which she was too stuffed to eat and had to carry.
“Sorry I’m late,” she said, collapsing onto her bed and holding her tummy. “I ate too much.”
“Shouldn’t have visited every room in the school,” Rarity said sternly, taking one of her leftover biscuits and nibbling at it.
“I couldn’t resist...”
Fly and I couldn’t stay angry at her. “I can’t believe we’re going to Mareis! Everypony is so excited,” I said, not hugging her in case she was sick and instead choosing to give her a clumsy hoof bump.
The earth pony grunted. “Don’t act too excited or they’ll cancel the trip. Remember, this is supposed to get it all out of your system, not make things worse.”
The words went in one ear and out of the other, and I was already planning what outfits to take and how much money I thought I’d need. For the rest of the week, we seventh years basked in the jealous glow of the other ponies at school and spent all of our free time making plans for the coach ride. It had been announced to take place in a few weeks’ time, so all of the teachers worked us extra hard to make up for the Friday and Monday we’d miss. Nopony seemed to mind, and the shower of chocolate biscuits that Miri was getting meant that she had to go on a crash diet.