A light, early-morning fog had settled over Ponyville. Sweetie Belle cut her way through it as she made her way across the town to Octavia’s house.

She looked down at the watch Rarity had given her; five minutes to eight. She had plenty of time. A chill wind blew across the boulevard she walked along, and Sweetie pulled her dark jacket just a little tighter around herself.

Sweetie rubbed at her eyes and yawned as she followed the path she and Rarity had practiced the night before to get ready. Leave it to Octavia to live on the complete other side of the town. Worse, it wasn’t far from her mother’s house.

When she finally arrived, she found Octavia waiting for her outside the thatch-and-wood house, sipping at a cup of coffee. She wore a bright blue saddlebag with a black beamed note on it.

A pony with a coat the same color and identical cutie mark, who Sweetie Belle recognized as Octavia’s roommate, Vinyl Scratch, leaned against the front door, chatting idly with the grey mare. They both quieted down as Sweetie approached.

Octavia pulled out a silver pocketwatch with the symbol of a treble clef carved into the lid. She looked at it and snapped it shut.

“You’re on time,” she said.

Sweetie Belle stopped in front of her. “Did you expect me to be late?”

“Well no, not really.”

Vinyl snorted. “Liar.”

Octavia glared at her roommate, took a deep breath, and turned back to Sweetie Belle. “It’s a good thing you arrived on time, though. You’re going to have to get used to it: the bus waits for nopony.”

“Yeah, about that . . .” Sweetie Belle rubbed the back of her head. “What bus are you talking about? I’ve never even seen or heard of a bus coming through Ponyville.”

Octavia wordlessly pointed up toward the sky behind Sweetie Belle. When the teenaged singer turned, she saw a metal box framed against the morning sun rapidly descending toward her.

As it drew closer, a few features began to appear. It was a large compartment painted blue and lined with large windows on the side; about as large as a small house. The box was pulled by a small team of pegasi stallions, done up in Royal Guard regalia.

The “bus” circled Octavia’s house once before coming to a gentle landing in front of the gathered trio. A door on the side whooshed open to reveal a large compartment with a dozen rows of lumpy, leather seats and an aged driver at the helm.

“This is our ride,” Octavia said.

She moved forward to get on while Vinyl gave her a peck on the cheek and waved. “Bye, honey!” she called in a sing-song voice.

Sweetie Belle’s face flushed and she looked away. “Oh, uh, I didn’t know you two were like that,” she said softly.

Octavia glowered at Vinyl and shook her head. “We’re not. Vinyl just likes to play with that because she knows I find it annoying.”

Behind her, where Octavia couldn’t see, Vinyl mouthed silently: “It’s totally like that!”

Sweetie Belle giggled a little as she followed Octavia onto the bus while Vinyl waved them goodbye. The pegasi in the front checked around them and then took to the air, lifting the bus off behind them. Soon, they were circling Ponyville and flying off toward Canterlot, far in the distance.

Sweetie Belle took a window seat in the back, and sat heavily against it. Octavia, after a moment of hesitation, sat beside her.

“I’m sure you have a lot of questions,” Octavia said slowly. “Most new students do.”

Sweetie nodded. “Yeah, I’ve got one.”

“And what would that be?”

“Well . . . why are we alone on this bus?”

Octavia coughed. “Well, um, usually the questions are more about the school, but okay. This bus is a special one that allows me to commute to the school in a relatively short amount of time without having to live in Canterlot. Your sister, and more to the point, Prince Blueblood, were able to get you a seat on this bus.”

“So you’re important enough to have a bus like this all to yourself?” Sweetie asked.

“That’s about right, yes.”

“Wow.” Sweetie Belle looked out the window and watched fields and trees pass by beneath them. Ponies were out and about, already at their jobs, so the countryside buzzed with work.

“Do you have any other questions?” Octavia asked.

Sweetie shrugged. “I’ll find out most of the stuff about the school when I get there, won’t I?”

“Well I suppose—”

“But I do have one thing to ask: What’s with this magic and why hasn’t it happened until I started singing in front of you?”

Octavia smiled. “I was wondering when you would ask that.”

Sweetie Belle slowly nodded and looked down at her hooves. “I mean, I’ve been singing since I was a foal . . . heck, I didn’t get my cutie mark until I sang at a talent show! Nothing’s ever happened like yesterday before.”

“It’s called harmonic resonance,” Octavia said. “It’s what happens when you use the beat and harmony of music to move to the ‘beat’ of your magic. It’s what can creates shields, like you saw yesterday. If you learn to use it correctly, you can do many things with it.”

Sweetie gulped. “Well, okay . . . but why haven’t I ever seen it before?”

“Usually when a pony activates that type of magic for the first time, it’s under a combined amount of pressure, stress, and calm. It’s not easy to replicate this, but we try in our trial examinations.”

“So what was the knife for, then?”

Octavia draped one hoof over the other on her lap. “I was working on a hunch, and you proved me right. We tailor each test according to the subject, though; you don’t need to worry about me doing it to the other subjects.”

Sweetie nodded and leaned back in her seat. Her mind spun as she tried to take it all in. The test, the power, and the fact that she was on her way to a school all about that.

“So about this, uh, Canterlot Music Meister Academy,” Sweetie said. “It’ll teach me how to control that magic?”

“That’s mostly what it’s for, yes.”

Sweetie put on hoof on her flank, right over the cutie mark. “Good; I’m ready.”

A little while later, just about half past eight, the bus drew within sight of the towering ivory spires of Canterlot. The capital city of Equestria glittered in the morning sun as it woke to another day.

Banners flapped in the breeze from towers that the bus passed around, slowly circling the city toward its eventual landing area. Sweetie Belle pressed her face against the glass of the window to watch the city pass by.

Princess Celestia’s castle passed by, and the bus dove down to a platform under and a little away from the main city. Built into the rocky platform was another large building complete with the spires and gold regalia, though they looked more uniform than decorative to Sweetie Belle.

There were three main towers—the center being the largest—and they all connected to a large, squat building built out of ivory bricks. Banners hung down over it, though none that Sweetie Belle had seen before. Instead of the usual standard with the symbol of Equestria, one of the three pony races, or the princesses, these banners were all colored green and displayed a white music note on them.

“Is that it?” Sweetie Belle asked.

Octavia nodded. “Welcome to the Canterlot Music Meister Academy, Sweetie Belle. You’re one of the lucky few who will ever get to walk its halls as a student.”

“Yeah,” the teenaged singer said, “lucky.”

The bus came in to a landing pad that jutted out from the main building and touched down gently upon it. The door whooshed open again, and Octavia led Sweetie Belle out to the plaza in front of the main building. A large section of wide stairs led up to the front doors.

“Come on, we need to get you checked in,” Octavia told the young singer.

They walked up the front steps together and through the cavernous front entrance into a more modern interior than implied by the outside. They were in a large hall that split off in three directions, all of which continued far off in the distance. Octavia took Sweetie Belle right a few steps until coming into a small office.

Octavia left Sweetie Belle in the front room with a secretary sitting in a large chair with its back turned behind a big grey desk. She nodded to whoever was in the seat, then disappeared behind an inner door. The inner door had the word: “Administration” stenciled on it.

The teenager sighed as she waited in an uncomfortable chair set against the opposite wall from the desk. She was consoling herself with waiting when the large leather chair turned around to reveal its occupant.

A massive and muscled minotaur sat in the seat with a phone in one hand while hefting a large dumbbell in the other. His nose ring may have been gone and the points of his horns ground down, but Sweetie Belle had no problem recognizing Iron Will.

He was heavily engaged on the conversation he was having on the phone. “Listen girl,” he said, “you need to tell him to take a hike; find somepony you really like!”

Sweetie Belle’s rubbed at her eyes to see if what she was seeing was real. “You!” she cried.

Iron Will huffed in annoyance before pressing a button on the phone and turning his attention to her. “How can Iron Will help you?” he said.

“What are you doing here?” Sweetie Belle said. “The last time anypony saw you, your stupid program made Fluttershy a jerk! My sister told me you didn’t leave until she refused your service.”

Iron Will nodded. “Yes, after the ‘incident’ in Ponyville, Iron Will was forced to give refunds for many of his programs across Equestria. After I gave them the loot, they showed me the boot! So, I ended up getting a job here. Iron Will’s assertive nature and flexible hands make him the perfect secretary!”

“Right . . .” Sweetie Belle said.

A button began flashing on the phone’s console, and Iron Will tapped it and went back to his work. “Iron Will doesn’t care about your disappointment; you need to schedule an appointment!”

The minotaur promptly went back to ignoring her, so Sweetie Belle tried to find something to occupy her boredom. There were various pictures hanging on the wall, and Sweetie Belle decided to focus her attention on those.

One was of Princess Celestia, of course, while the others depicted what were labeled as “teachers”: Sapphire Shores, Octavia, and, surprisingly, Vinyl Scratch. A few more paintings were lined along the wall, but Sweetie Belle didn’t recognize any of them.

What surprised her most, however, was the picture of Princess Luna outlined in gold and hanging over the secretary’s desk. Stranger, the title etched on the frame of the painting labeled her as: “Principal.”

Just then, the inner door opened and Octavia walked out, followed by none other than Princess Luna.

The princess smiled down at Sweetie Belle. “We are delighted that you were accepted into our school,” she said.

Sweetie Belle’s voice cracked as she spoke, “Y-Yeah, I’m glad to be here too. Really glad!”

The princess and Octavia exchanged a look before Luna continued, “I can see you are surprised to see me in this position.”

“Yes, but I didn’t mean—”

“It’s alright.” Luna pointed at the portrait of Princess Celestia on the wall. “When this school was founded to pursue the use of magic in the musical nature, our sister thought that it might be best to have a head of the school who was also skilled in magic. When Twilight Sparkle turned it down, I was asked to take the position.”

Sweetie Belle thought she saw the princess flinch after the last line.

Luna indicated to her own painting. “So here we are.”

“Wow,” Sweetie Belle said.

“I think your exposition was a little lost on our newest student,” Octavia said lightly to the princess.

Luna laughed. “We apologize, Sweetie Belle, we only thought you might want to know, being the sister of the Element of Generosity. We will leave you in the capable hooves of Professor Octavia for your first day of class.”

With that, Princess Luna walked back into her office and shut the door.

Octavia looked down at Sweetie Belle. “Come on, you’re late enough as it is.”

They pushed back out into the hall and started walking farther right. The hall itself had plain white walls arching up to form a seamless ceiling while sitting on top of glossy-black tiles below. The only thing to really look at were the wooden doors placed every ten feet.

As they walked, Octavia reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a sheet of paper. She gave it to Sweetie Belle.

“That’s your class schedule,” Octavia said. “You would do well to memorize it.”

Sweetie Belle looked at the class list. There were two columns marked “Day 1” and “Day 2” and each had four classes under it. Of the eight, four were the normal kind: Math, Literature, Science, and Equestrian History. The others, however . . .

“Some of these classes have funny names,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Oh, they do?” Octavia said in a clipped tone.

“Yeah, there’s Vocal Harmonics, Rhythm Studies, Musical Theory, and Magical Rhythm and Harmony.”

Octavia nodded. “Those are your classes specific to the CMMA. You have one as your first class and one as your last, right after lunch. They factor equally with the more normal classes as far as grades go, but you may find them much more useful overall.”

She stopped in front of a plain wooden door only distinguished from the many other plain wooden doors with a brass set of numbers that read: “23”. Sweetie Belle could hear the dull roar of more teenagers coming from the other side.

“This is my classroom,” Octavia said. “If memory serves, you have my class, well, right now.”

Sweetie Belle nodded. “Yeah.”

“Then let’s go in, shall we?”

Octavia pushed open the door and strode into her crowded classroom at a steady, measured pace with her head held high. Sweetie Belle, meanwhile, slunk in behind her and did her best not to be noticed.

The room itself was a fairly normal lecture hall, with rows of desks on platforms above each other. Each platform steadily sloped further down until it met the floor of the classroom, which had a wide plaza-like area in front of the modest teacher’s desk and blackboard.

“Class,” Octavia began as she walked down to the front of the classroom, “I apologize for my own tardiness. I was getting our new student, Sweetie Belle, acquainted to the school.”

Octavia smiled to herself. “Be sure to give her a warm welcome.”

Every teenaged pony in the room turned in their seats to stare at Sweetie Belle until she backed away from the door and put herself into a seat near the very back of the classroom.

The stares continued until the lecture began, and then the class seemed to lose interest in her. This was fine until Sweetie Belle turned in her chair to find exactly who she had chosen to sit next to.

Diamond Tiara stared at Sweetie Belle wordlessly as the two sized each other up.

“You!” Sweetie Belle said at last.

Diamond Tiara recovered from her initial shock to glare at the newcomer. “What are you doing here?” she asked. “I thought they only let good musicians into this school?”

“Since when are you into music?” Sweetie Belle said.

“Since my father thought I needed to a better place to focus my talents,” the pink filly answered. “The audition couldn’t have been easier.”

“So you saw the shield?”

“The what?’

Octavia smacked a conveniently-placed ruler on her teacher’s desk to get the two teenagers’ attention.

“Girls!” she called. “I know it’s the first day for both of you, so I’ll be lenient this time, but further disruption or ignoring of the class will send you to the Principal’s office!”

Both Sweetie Belle and Diamond Tiara quickly quieted down and turned their attentions to the lesson Octavia had started to teach. Or at least, that’s what they looked like they were doing.

Diamond Tiara set about doodling in a fancy pink notebook she’d bought the previous day while Sweetie Belle planted her forehead firmly into the desk in front of her.

Octavia droned on about the physical meaning of sound: wavelengths, vibration, pitch, and all that. Sweetie Belle tried to catch some of it, but gave up after a while.

She grumbled a little under her breath about arriving in the middle of a lesson, but stopped caring before long and set about tapping her hoof to a wordless beat on her desk.

“Would you stop that?” Diamond Tiara hissed.

“What was that?” Sweetie Belle said. “I couldn’t hear you.”

“Just stop it,” Diamond Tiara whispered, “I don’t want to get us in trouble.”

Sweetie Belle grinned. “You know, I’m pretty sure I could take a lot more trouble than you. Here, you’re all alone, but Octavia’s friends with my sister, who’s both the Element of Generosity and dating Prince Blueblood.”

Diamond Tiara, outclassed for the first time in her life, bowed her head and went back to her notepad. Her cheeks flushed a little, but she didn’t try to respond to Sweetie Belle’s challenge.

Sweetie herself just smirked. At least one thing was better about her new school.

Octavia’s class eventually ended and Sweetie Belle had to endure two hours of even more boring “normal” classes—Math and Literature—before she was freed for a half-hour lunch period.

The cafeteria was further into the depths of the school and Sweetie Belle got lost on her way there. When she eventually did find the cavernous room filled with the cacophony of dozens of hyperactive teenagers talking to each other, she was by far the last to lunch.

The line to get food wasn’t long, at least, but when Sweetie Belle started looking for a table, her tray held next to her in a field of magic, she only found one empty one.

Or, well, mostly empty.

Sweetie plopped her tray down on the table, and quickly planted herself in the seat farthest from the opposite end of the table.

Sitting there sipping on a juice box was Diamond Tiara. The other Ponyville-ite stared daggers at Sweetie Belle.

“So you mouth off to me in class, but decide to sit next to me at lunch,” Diamond Tiara sneered. “Is this some kind of game you’re trying to play?”

“Hey, lay off,” Sweetie Belle said. “We’re both new here, so you’re the only one I know and the pony with an empty table. Or did you forget?”

Diamond Tiara sighed. “Look, are you just going to spend our time here trying to pay me back for everything I did to you in Ponyville?” She looked away. “If so, just go . . . I’ll leave you alone if you leave me alone.”

Sweetie Belle didn’t respond, but didn’t move away from the table. Instead, she picked at her food and grumbled to herself.

So now that I show her up, she’s going to act all wounded? Yeah, right.

Sweetie Belle caught a few glances around the room. It wasn’t like there were a lot of openings for a new pony to the school. It was far enough into the year that all the cliques were established and sitting at their respective table.

With a small sigh, Sweetie Belle kept her head down and choked down the school’s cheap lunch until the period was over.

After lunch, the two begrudgingly walked deeper—and left-er—into the school together, when they found out that they shared the next class. In fact, much to each other’s chagrin, their schedules appeared to be exactly the same.

Sweetie Belle did her best to focus on the tiles ahead of her as she walked and nothing else. Had she looked up, she would have seen Diamond Tiara do the same.

The one thing each had underestimated, however, was how incredibly long the journey to the new professor’s classroom would be. It must have been a full ten minutes until both of them arrived at a wooden door with “223B” etched on it.

They both hesitated, but it was Diamond Tiara who pushed it open first, and they both went inside. The classroom was identical to Octavia’s, albeit with a bit more decoration. The lights seemed darker and more posters hung on the walls depicting bands, songs, and what looked like battles.

The students, of course, all turned to look at the newcomers. However, once they saw that the two were the two new students, they scooted in their desks away from the middle of the room.

Sweetie Belle scratched her head as she watched. Surely they couldn’t all hate newcomers that much?

The professor down near the blackboard turned around slowly. He wore a white frock, which contained a pale blue coat. His jet black mane spilled down to his shoulders, though it rose high on his forehead.

He grinned when he saw Sweetie Belle and Diamond Tiara.

“New students?” he said. “You two must be . . . Diamond Tiara and Sweetie Belle, yes?”

The two teenagers nodded. Sweetie Belle’s hair bobbed as she did so, and it threatened to fall over her eyes.

“My name is Naught Note; Professor Note to the two of you,” he called up to them. “Welcome to Magical Rhythm and Harmony.”

With that, he leapt from the bottom floor up to them with a bright flash of light blue magic. Professor Note landed softly just in front of the two new students, with not a single hair or step out of place. He grinned at the two of them.

“This is normally treated as an advanced class, so things work a bit different on the first day,” he informed them.

“D-Different how?”

Naught Note didn’t respond right away. Instead, as if it came from nowhere, the first notes of a song started up. Tendrils of magic snaked out from beneath the professor’s hooves and he nodded sagely to the two girls.

“Every student who is enrolled in my class is required to fight me upon their arrival to the class. You may surrender at any time; most do within twenty seconds. Will you last longer?”

He didn’t give the pair a chance to respond. The tendrils of magic coalesced into three razor-sharp spines. The spines ripped through the air toward Sweetie Belle and Diamond Tiara.

The attack wasn’t focused, so the two were able to leap out of the way before the spines crashed into the door, making three more marks on the already-battered wood.

“I don’t even have an instrument!” Diamond Tiara cried.

“Then give up,” Professor Note responded. “You don’t have to keep going after the initial attack.”

Diamond Tiara looked at Sweetie Belle briefly, then shook her head.

Professor Note grinned. “Oh, you two have backbone! That’s going to give you a few marks in the gradebook!”

The spines sliced horizontally across the air, one aimed at each of the teenagers. They moved in perfect harmony as they whipped out from the professor. Sweetie Belle dove beneath a desk to avoid the attack while Diamond Tiara simply threw herself on the ground.

Professor Note’s song started up in earnest, as the music pulsed out from his magical spines.*

The professor even started to sing along with it, and the size of the spines tripled. Each was now as wide as a pony, though still wicked sharp.

God money, I’ll do anything for you,

God money, just tell me what you want me to do.

God money, nail me up against the wall,

God money don’t want everything; he wants it all!

Sweetie Belle ran out from beneath the desk just as one of the spines lodged in it. Her heart beat fast and sweat started to pour down her brow. She could just give up now, the professor had said. So why didn’t she want to?

Out of the corner of her eyes, Diamond Tiara deftly rolled away from a spine that smashed on the floor beside her.

Oh, right.

Something sparkled in Professor Note’s eye. He grinned and leapt into the air again, using the third spine to support him as he flailed at the girls with the other two.

Head like a hole!

Black as your soul!

I’d rather die, than give you control!

Head like a hole!

Black as your soul!

I’d rather die, than give you control!

The singing had the added effect of turning the pale blue spines into midnight blue javelins of magic that resonated music. Of course, the creepy factor of their professor singing those lyrics was enough to offset both of the teenagers.

Sweetie Belle growled under her breath. In the chaos of the fight, she was having a problem recalling anything to sing.

It didn’t help that the professor’s attacks continued to press them away from the gathered students watching the fight and toward a single corner of the room.

One of the spines slashed at Sweetie Belle’s front hooves, and she had to jump back to dodge it. However, this had the effect of pressing her back to the wall. There was nowhere else to go.

In front of her, Diamond Tiara let out a cry as she tripped while dodging another attack that smashed into the ground beside her. In her fright, the filly found her legs unable to let her up.

The two were trapped in the corner, unable to move away or dodge another attack.

Another tendril of magic raised itself above the frightened Diamond Tiara. The professor made no move to stop himself. Instead, he moved on to the next chorus, which gave Sweetie Belle an idea.

If she couldn’t think up lyrics, why not just use his?

As the javelin-like tendril lashed out, Professor Note sang:

Bow down before the one you serve,

You’re going to get what you deserve.

Bow down before the one you serve,

You’re going to get what you deserve!

Sweetie Belle took her chance and jumped in front of Diamond Tiara and did her best, if squeaky, impression of the professor’s voice.

Head like a hole!

Black as your soul!

I’d rather die, than give you control!

Head like a hole!

Black as your soul!

I’d rather die, than give you control!

Pink magic swirled around the young unicorn as the lancing tendril shot through the air toward the two students.

Just before it could hit, the pink shield returned, blazing to life in front of them. The tendrils sunk into the shield and slowed in their advance. However, they did not stop.

With a mighty burst of magic, the shield popped and the tendrils continued forward.

Sweetie Belle crossed her hooves in front of her face and cried out. However, the expected attack never came.

When she peeked between her hooves, she saw the tendrils had been replaced by Professor Note, standing in front of her.

His smile softened. “Very good.”

The music stopped and the professor’s magic dissipated into thin air.

The professor walked closer to the two teenagers and patted Sweetie Belle on the head. She cringed a little.

“You passed,” he said. “With flying colors, I might add. The two of you lasted far longer than any of this year’s students.”

He abruptly turned around and began walking back toward his desk. “Welcome to my class. Find a seat and take out something to take notes on; we’re about to begin today’s lesson.”

Diamond Tiara and Sweetie Belle exchanged a brief look of bewilderment before finding seats near the back of the room.

When they had sat down and the professor started to drone on in a surprisingly-calm voice, Diamond Tiara slowly looked up at Sweetie Belle.

“Uh, thanks,” she said.

“Don’t mention it,” Sweetie Belle said. “If the ponies here are going to be crazy, we have to help each other, right?”

Diamond Tiara paused. “Right.”

The lecture on the combination of musical and lyrical harmony continued unabated, even as the two newcomers from Ponyville stopped listening.

Sweetie Belle found herself looking at the desk and floor with the marks of fights covering them. The professor must have fought dozens of students right on spots like these, but everypony treated that as normal.

Did she really want to be a part of a school like that? Just what kind of place was the CMMA?

Although . . .

She stared down at her hooves. He had popped her shield like it was made of paper. Like it hadn’t even been there.

Somehow that was far worse than her stopping him. Now, he had not only proved that she was weaker than she thought she was, but that she could improve to a much higher point.

Sweetie Belle clenched her hooves together. She would reach that higher point, and her new school was going to be just the place to do that.