You follow Gold Star's instructions and low and behold you find yourself at the entrance of the hospital. You cautiously make your way to room A-12, making sure not to bump into anypony else on your way there. When you reach the door you push it open and see Vinyl asleep in a chair next to Octavia. They're both sleeping so you decide to leave them alone. You're just closing the door when a thought comes to mind, you had practice today. You look up at the clock in the hallway and see that it's almost six and practice starts at six thirty.
With a quiet curse you take off sprinting, going down the halls with the caution of a blind pony in the middle of a mine field. You reach the front doors and fly out of them, taking to the roads and running to the Symphony hall. When you reach it you're out of breath and sweating, not exactly something you would want to make an impression with, but it would have to do for now. You take a step into the building and you're immediately greeted with a most unpleasant sight. Your parents, because fate hates you guts. They turn to face you and you steel your face, ready for anything those bastards could throw at you. What you were not ready for, however, was the look of fear in your fathers eyes.
You ignore them and start walking to the stage, where you see a few ponies already getting their instruments ready. You count seven violins, counting yourself, four cellos, not counting Octavia, a few violas, two basses, a small choir, and a couple other miscellaneous instruments. Some ponies look up and give you blank looks, while others just seem to not care. Rococo looks at you suspiciously, as if thinking your going to do something stupid. You ignore him and just keep walking. You grab your violin from your case and play a few notes, tuning your instrument as best as you could. A pony steps up to the podium in the middle and addresses all of you.
"As many of you already know, since we just held auditions, we will be taking this day to rank all of you and give you new chairs depending on your skill. For know you can all just grab a chair and sit down." At this all of the ponies in the room sit down, you follow suit, not wanting to be left out. You end up sitting next to a mint green unicorn mare and a brown pegasus stallion. The mare is carrying a lyre and the brown stallion has a violin to match your own.
"For now, I will be passing out a piece of music and you will sight read. We will play two pieces, one for brass and woodwind instruments, the small number that we have, and one for the whole orchestra." the conductor says as he starts to pass music out. You lean over towards the mare to ask her a question.
"How will he know how good we are if we play as a group?" You ask. The mare looks at you like you're stupid for a second, but then recognizes that you're new. She leans over in her seat and responds.
"Nopony knows, but he's always right. I'm Lyra by the way." You process the information and just shrug. If the conductor was that good, then so be it.
"I'm Allegro, nice to meet you." You say before returning to your original seating position. By now the conductor has finished passing papers out, and for the first time in a long while, you're scared. You're a good enough violinist, but sheet music often went straight over your head. You dare to look down at the piece of paper in front of you, and your fears are confirmed. You take deep breaths, calming yourself and think of what your violin teacher had once said. 'If you can play an instrument, you should be able to read music just as damn well.' Ok, not really the most helpful quote ever, but the only one you currently remembered.
"Brass and woodwinds will be going first." The conductor says as he raises his baton. The brass and woodwind snap to perfect attention. The baton falls. ((Listen to the whole song here or keep reading, I don't really care, but it's a good song.)) The song seems to end just as quickly as it began, which is unfortunate because now you have to play.
"Oh, yes and because we have a new player I chose to give him first part and the rest of you back up, is that ok?" You nearly faint. The conductor is officially your new worst enemy. He doesn't even wait for a response, the baton rises again. the orchestra readies. You nearly faint again, but you focus on the music. Again the baton drops. The choir joins the orchestra in the beginning. You take one last breath and play. ((Once again you don't need to listen to this))
After the song ends the conductor gives out more sheet music, having the orchestra play them as well. Throughout the rest of the exhausting night you slowly develop a relationship with Lyra finding her ability to pluck the individual strings of her lyre without manic fascinating. When the practice finally comes to an end you once again find your thoughts locked on a certain friend that ran away from you earlier. As you pack up your violin you promise your self that you'll find him.
Cold air hits you as you step out of the towering building, a clock that hangs on the wall reads eleven. The visiting hours of the hospital stopped two hours ago and the dank streets of Canterlot are devoid of any life. With nothing of value to do you trot back to the room in which you had stayed last night and collapse without any further notice, the calm rift of sleep consuming you.