If you're a Canterlot pony, you have to live up to very high standards. Everypony expects nothing but the best out of you, and if you slip up just once, you're in every paper out there. Trust me, I know the feeling. That's why you have to be careful. Act like you're being watched all the time, because you are. Always be on your guard.

~XoXo~

It was my first day at Canterlot Music Academy. I was, of course, majoring in the classical genre, though other ponies there seemed to prefer country, rock, pop, and even that underground music that was suddenly so popular. Everything was going perfectly according to plan. I was happy with where I was, and I had a full scholarship. Everything was set. Even my belongings had been sent up earlier. All I had to do was find my room.

"Hello, I'm looking for dorm 57?" I asked the RA. She was a chunky Pegasus pony, clearly from outside of Canterlot. No Canterlot pony would allow their bodies to look like that.

"Down the hall and to the left," she said. She had a Cloudsdale hint to her voice, but she couldn't have made the flight up there recently with her weight. I nodded in thanks and followed her directions. The dorm was to the right, but I found it easily.

There was a stream of music coming from the dorm; loud, ear shattering music. I pushed the door open, bracing myself for the worst.

What I got was both better and worse than what I had expected. There was a unicorn there, a white one with an untidy electric blue mane, hovering over some sort of machine. The machine is what was producing the horrible music.

"Could you perhaps turn that dreadful thing down?" I asked, wrinkling my nose as I stepped over a sticky puddle of who knows what. The unicorn either didn't hear me or didn't feel like listening, because they kept the volume where it was. She did turn around though, and on her face were the most horrid glasses, if you could call them glasses.

"You my roommate?" she asked. Her voice was raspy, almost masculine, but with a feminine air to it.

"Yes," I said politely. "My name is Octavia,"

"Vinyl Scratch," the unicorn…er…Vinyl said. She turned back to her music…thing, and pressed a button. The terrible music was suddenly made a million times worse. Loud screeching sounds and a steady 'wub wub wub' started to come from the machine and I wished I had earmuffs.

"Please shut that dreadful music off!" I yelled over the noise. Vinyl shut it off, thank Celestia, but she looked smug.

"By the middle of the year, you'll love my wubs. Everypony does," she smiled, her sunglasses glinting.

"I highly doubt that. I am a pony of great sophistication. This…wubs doesn't appeal to me. I have a specific type of music. The classical genre," I turned to my portion of the room. Thankfully, Vinyl Scratch hadn't put a single hoof in the area. Unfortunately, I had to cross the tornado-zone that was her side of the room. Honestly, you would think a unicorn would have some sense of cleanliness.

"Where are you from?" I asked, trying to make conversation. If I was to room with her for the next year at least, I could try to be civil…despite our obvious differences.

"Canterlot, but not the fancy part, you know? I'm from the edge of the city. You know that area with all the jumping clubs?"

"The dangerous part," I nodded. "I've never been there." Respectable mares like myself wouldn't even dream of going near there.

"It's not so bad when you live there." Vinyl used her magic to stack four or five albums on top of each other. "I never had any problems. The trick is knowing how to take care of yourself in a sticky situation. You have to be okay with getting your hooves dirty,"

"Well, it's certainly not for everypony," I said, stepping over something I had never seen before in my life. "Do you have any hobbies?"

"You're full of questions," Vinyl noted. "I like that." She used her magic to bring the weird item to her and she hid it in a drawer. "I'm a disk jockey. I DJ at some clubs, some of them are really shabby, but I've been to some fancy ones. You know the Grand Galloping Gala?"

"Doesn't everypony?" I felt offended that a pony on such a low social ranking would think that I didn't know of the Gala.

"I had a gig there a few years ago," She beamed widely, but I was very confused.

"That doesn't make sense," I said quickly. "I have attended every Gala since I was a filly. I've never heard of anypony by the name of Vinyl Scratch,"

"Does the name DJ-Pon3 ring a bell?" Vinyl asked. "That's my stage name." I rolled my eyes. Stage names were things that classical musicians tried to avoid. Every gig I had ever preformed had listed me on the program as 'Octavia'.

"This mess is horrible," I commented as I finally collapsed onto my own bed. Vinyl looked around and nodded.

"Yup, it's pretty bad. I've never been one for organization." She proved her point by stacking six more albums onto the already wobbly stack on her bedside table, not caring that they were lopsided or near collapsing.

"Will you be attending the fresh-pony ball?" I asked, remembering the flyer I had been mailed last week. The school was holding some sort of dance for all the new coming ponies, and as a young mare, I wanted to make sure I associated myself with the right company. A dance was the perfect way to meet ponies and decide who was to be trusted.

"You have to," Vinyl said. "If you don't go, you look antisocial, and you don't want that over your head on the first day." She tossed some clothes into the drawers on her bed table and admired her slightly cleaner portion of the room.

"I could help you," I offered, scanning the mess.

"Nah, I'll get it. You want a tour? I've been here a few days already."

"That's kind of you," I said. "Just so long as we can return before the fresh-pony ball,"

"Ah, we'll have plenty of time. C'mon,"

~XoXo~

As it turns out, we did have plenty of time. Canterlot Music Academy wasn't too big, and we even stopped for smoothies in the Academy's café.

"This was fun," I admitted as we entered the room. The cleaning staff must have felt sorry for us, because when we returned the mess was pushed away into a neat corner of the room, giving us space to at least walk through to the other side. I instantly went to the closet on my side and found the dress I had ordered. It was from a Ponyville boutique, but the designs had been seen around many Gala events.

It was very obvious that my style was much different from Vinyl's from the second we turned to face each other. She was wearing a simple blue jacket with the hood pulled up. I was wearing my hair pulled up and an elegant purple dress, tied at the front with a pink bow and a treble cleft embroidered on the flank. The dress trailed on, over my tail, and I even had matching earrings.

"Fancy," Vinyl noted. "I guess most ponies do choose to look their best, but that's not me. Gotta show them who I really am, you know?"

Well, at least she was honest.

"Shall we get going then?" Getting ready for this had taken me quite some time, and the dance was due to start soon.

"I guess so," Vinyl faced the ground. "I can understand if you don't want to be seen going there with me," she said quietly.

"Why would you think that?" I asked. Sure, she was very different from me, but that didn't mean I wanted to exclude her.

"You'll see when we get there." She sighed. "Or maybe you won't. Just…whatever you find out, remember the mare that showed you the campus."

"I'll keep that in mind," I promise. "Now let's go, or we'll be late!"