It has been one week since the incident with Vinyl, the loser that attempted to hurt her was banished into the depths of the Canterlot dungeon. Vinyl entered rehab and was guaranteed that this would not reflect into her life; meaning as far as the law was concerned, she had never been on drugs to begin with, due to the fact that she was a victim. Her medical record will show that she has had prior interactions with the drugs. Hopefully she will steer clear of clubs with bad reputations from now on. She only recently got through the worst part of withdrawal. I am worried about her, but so long as Octaiva and I help her, Vinyl will get through this. Octavia and I have been practicing our music together everyday since then while Vinyl has been sleeping at my place. Sometimes Octavia stays over to keep an eye on her during a particularly bad day. Today, Vinyl asked if I would reconsider dating her. I answered honestly: until she was done with rehab, I would not date her. Afterwards, she had a better shot than the average mare or woman. Then again, that still wasn't much of a chance. I just haven't moved on yet. I still fear her becoming what I once was, even if I know that she won't, I can't fight it.

The biggest problem I have is I found my thoughts drifting more and more towards Octavia. Something about her seems to have changed. If it was something bad like Vinyl's 'change', she would have probably talked to us about it. She would have had the personal protection of Princess Luna if she told us after all. I think I forgot to mention that. Not too long ago Princess Luna and I began meetings to talk about my nightmares. At first it was simply for the purposes of trying to keep them away; but when they became infrequent and short lived, we started talking about other things. Eventually a bond of friendship formed. I still meet with her, both to help deal with the nightmares, and to talk to a friend.

When I was preparing to meet Vinyls' 'coltfriend', I already had an appointment with Luna regarding my nightmares. Before we got into talking about them, I discussed with her my concerns. That was enough, given the club's history, to get a raid ready to go upon a hidden signal. That signal was never given thanks to an employee of the club attempting to sell drugs to one of the guards. Apparently the employee believed them to be in Blade's pocket. There was an investigation and all those involved in shady business were arrested by the end of the week. Princess Luna had, the next day, personally spoken with both Octavia and Vinyl regarding the incident. I think she was happily surprised to hear that I decided to share my story with them. I believe that she was happy that I was finally moving on, enough to share the story at least. Then again who am I to guess at the wisdom of the lunar princess? Now, if only Luna would slow down on the comments that are driven to be both sexual and benign at the same time, then I might enjoy my trips to the castle a bit more.

Finally though, the week long wait is up. It's time for the orchestra to meet and start doing group practices. I bring my violin to pass the time as I plan to be early to make certain that piano is tuned. There are few things that make a perfectionistic, but one of those things is a well tuned instrument. It's my pet peeve to hear an instrument that is not properly tuned when the player has the skill to tune it. After entering the hall, I am greeted by Maestro who seems perplexed that I would bring a violin when I am a pianist. After explaining the situation he's more than glad that I brought my own form of entertainment. I then make my way to the stage and find the piano that was prepared for me. Just as I thought, it's horribly out off tune. I end up spending twenty minutes tuning it to perfection. Still having time left until the other members would arrive, I find a nice, secluded corner of the concert hall, and begin to play.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fyp74H3kMdI

As I prepare to start another song, I hear Octavia, she is telling me it's time to get down off the rafters and start practice. "Before I head down for practice, why is there a shoe on my head?"

Octavia is surprised. Nothing either she or Vinyl had done before could pull me out of my reverie; but here she had done so, even when a shoe to the head had failed. "That would be mine!" I hear a voice say: it's the lead violinist who is also head of the strings section. He has a light brown coat and light silver mane and tail. He's wearing a basic tux like myself, but has a true tie instead of a bow tie like I do. His name is High Note. "When we couldn't break you out of your 'zone' we decided to try more drastic measures. At the end I threw my shoe at you and there it is."

"Sorry, about that. I got caught up in my music and I lost track of time." I say this as I make my way to the edge of the hall, climbing down the far more manageable 7 foot height. I make my way to the stage. An interesting look flows across High Note's face as I work with putting away my instrument. I guess I earned some respect from the quality of my play and the method with which I care for my instrument. As I watch the other musicians take out and prepare their instruments, I wonder how half of them still have instruments to play. They apparently did not know how to take care of their instruments, only a few of them properly check the condition of their instruments. One of the first rules is to always check the quality of your instrument. As a pianist, I need to check my instrument on average every six months. Seventeen of these musicians didn't even check to be sure their instrument was in the best possible condition. Maestro then appears from the main entrance, taking his time as he approaches his stand.

We all form up in attention as he reaches the podium. He takes up his baton and asks, "Are we all tuned and ready then?" As we all nod our agreement, he continues. "Excellent, then let us begin practice. From the top now performers!" As his baton fell, we begin to practice.

Practice was boring. From the sounds I could tell that most of the orchestra followed the music to the note. They do not seem to understand what music is about. It actually left me feeling a little empty inside. It reminded me of when I was a child, back when my mother instilled in me a love of music. Back then she made me play by the note, not by emotion. She wanted me to understand how to follow the music before I learned to guide it. Now I get to hear that at practice. Thankfully, the heads of each section, such as the lead violinist High Note, could not only play the music, but give it emotion to truly go with the music. To make it live and draw in the audience.

After we finish the first round of practicing the music as a group, Maestro has us organize under the leads of each section to try and bring the other performers to a higher level of playing. As any good musician knows, music is alive. It is not simply played by following the notes, things like emotion change the music.

For this part of the practice I was originally supposed to join the harp player, Harpo, and a few odds and ends instruments to discuss play styles with Maestro. However, he says I should go over to the violins and assist High Note. He had heard about my play sessions with Octavia and figured I would be better off assisting High Note who was having a little trouble with the other violinists.

I head over to High Note and let him know what Maestro had said and we get to work. It was at this point that I wanted to rescue the violins from their owners. Besides High Note and the second seat violinist, nopony understood what we were talking about. I honestly thought about getting them checked to see if they were changelings, but I am pretty sure changelings understand emotion pretty damn well. I almost facepalmed when one of the back-up violinists asked for help tuning her violin. On a sidenote, she was a unicorn that proclaimed herself one of the best violinist around. I really wanted to make her hear some real violinists; then again, High note and the second chair violinist were actually really good, definitely better than me by miles. They could probably compete with the best I had ever heard. So apparently that would still do no good.

After about thirty minutes of this discussion, somepony wants to get Maestro's attention. Apparently the hall owners had received an offer from a band. They don't not say which band, but apparently they were big, so I probably have heard about them. They are going to play in town and the hall owners thought of a lovely little gimmick: the orchestra would open up with the songs we had been practicing, then they would come in and play a few songs. Then came the shocker: they wanted Frequency's little group to come in and play an altered version of one of the band's most famous songs. The point was to show how the audience how music evolved on Earth.

"Is this a dream? If so don't wake me up." I say aloud.

"Because this is that good?" High Note asks, apparently having grown accustomed to me after trying to teach the other violinists.

"No, because this is the most insane dream I have ever had. We are going about as far away from classical as you can get with these genres. I know for a fact that Frequency will be playing something in the rock genre, and from the sounds of it the other genre is going to be something like country or early rock."

"Well, it could be nice for a change, we will just have to wait and see." Octavia chimes in.

"Indeed, looks like we have a lot of practicing to do, mostly you Samson. You're playing with all three groups." *Thud*

"... Did he just pass out from excitement, or worry?" Maestro says as darkness claims my mind.

I wake up three hours later with Octavia in the preparation room. More accurately, in her lap. She hasn't yet noticed I am awake, but something seems different about her; something seems...off. I decide to close my eyes and groan a little, just to avoid the awkwardness of the situation should she realize I'm awake. I felt her jolt a bit, not enough to knock me to the floor, but definitely enough to be noticeable. When I open my eyes again, she has moved closer. A lot closer. Close enough that if I had tried to get up without opening my eyes I would have collided with her. She simply stares at me for a moment, as if at a loss for words.

I decide I need to do something, and that it would have to be stupid. I roll off of her lap and onto the floor, giving a fake startled noise to add to the act. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine, just give me a moment." I take a few deep breaths and continue. "Would you mind telling me where reality and dream collided?"

"Well, you passed out after finding out you were playing with all three groups at the gimmick."

"Oh boy, Maestro is not going to give the new guy a break huh?"

She laughs a little and says, "Apparently not."

"Well, guess I better go find Frequency and practice a bit with him."

"No need, he said not to bother, you 'know every piece that is going to be played that night by heart so you don't need to practice them' according to him."

"So which songs are they?"

"Well since you decided to get so emotional we decided to keep it a secret for now." She says this with perhaps the most sadisticly-playful grin I have ever seen. "I could tell you, but where would be the fun in that?"

"The best way to win this game is to not play it, I will just have to wait." I say while finally getting up. Octavia looks a little sad, she must really enjoy our little word games. I usually lose, but then again, winning isn't the only way to win. Sometimes, you can win by simply not playing the game at all. Octavia then speaks up.

"Well anyway you better recover quick, Vinyl's friend Lyra is back in town with her marefriend so they invited us out to dinner so that we could meet her."

"Alright, let me just grab my vio... lin" Octavia beat me to the punch. She had gone up and gotten my violin not long after I passed out. Clever girl...

After a quick stop by my home to change my outfit into something less formal, Octavia and I walk to her place to drop off her cello. It surprised me to see her home. It wasn't some apartment like most Canterlot citizens lived in, it was a full on house, closer to a mansion really, second floor and all. It was magnificently decorated. Only one thing seemed out of place in it: a certificate of completion from the Canterlot Rehab Center. Apparently during one of her more 'adventurous' fazes she had gone out and taken drugs. She started like most musicians and used performance enhancers at first. Then she started getting messed up. She was lucky though, she caught herself before it was too late and got back on the right track with help from her parents. It was a sobering reminder that even this mare who seemed perfect and content could make just as big mistakes.

Another thing it reminded me of was the strength of character of these ponies. Even Princess Luna, who went and lost herself to her jealousy and rage had been redeemed, forgiven by most, and was steadily moving on. On Earth, she probably would have been executed before being forgiven hundreds of years later when people realized how stupid they were. Octavia may have been shocked when she heard I had taken drugs, however I was flabbergasted when I heard she had as well. That just gave us, as friends, another link. We had all escaped the clutches of drugs. I did look at Octavia a little differently after hearing that story. I, for the first time, had seen just how strong and weak she could be. It was humbling to say the least.

We then set out. Our destination was another well off restaurant, though at Vinyl's discretion, a less fancy one. This one would have been something like a Red Lobster or a Chilis. Only with better, pony friendly, food. When we first entered we're informed that our party has already arrived; we're on time, but they had arrived a few minutes early. At least we won't have to wait for a table. As we approach we see the three of them sitting there. Vinyl, Lyra and Lyra's marefriend are seated going counter clockwise around the booth. Upon seeing us approaching Vinyl waves and starts moving towards the center, guess I knew where we were sitting. Octavia goes first and I sit on the edge opposite Lyra's marefriend. She's an interesting looking mare. Her coat is white, somewhat like milk in color, it's complimented by her light blue eyes. Her mane and tail have two colors, blue and a dark pink, that seem somewhat styled. She seems to be a little plumper than your average mare, but she wears those ten or so pounds well. She's wearing some rather casual clothing, a pink t-shirt and blue jeans. From my position I could see her tail entwined with Lyra's.

According to some friends of mine, this is a sign of deep intimacy. So either these two are moving fast, or they have been dating since long before I even met Lyra. "So, how are you doing?" Lyra states looking straight at me.

"Doing fine, just had a lovely surprise dropped on my head from the orchestra that I get to worry about, nothing major."

"Heh, sounds like Maestro. He loves to take the new members and throw them into ridiculous situations. For Octy here he had her perform four straight solos on the spot. No practice or anything. She pulled it off well. And these stunts always draw large crowds." Vinyl pitches in looking merry the whole time. "Can't wait to watch it." I feel a twinge of worry fill me, no practice in front of such a large crowd would certainly not be fun.

"Vinyl Scratch going to a classical concert of her own free will? Must be a changeling." Lyra says with a growing smirk on her face.

"Well, before we get too caught up in this little exchange perhaps you should introduce your marefriend to us Lyra?" Octavia brakes in suddenly, attempting to head this discussion off at the pass.

Lyra's face positively beamed with pride as she heard that. "Well guys, this is Bonbon: she is my marefriend and a sweets maker back in Ponyville. We started dating about six months ago and have decided to announce to our friends and her family about our relationship." This catches me by surprise, the way that is worded leads me to believe that her family isn't exactly thrilled with the idea of her being a lesbian. I decide to avoid that question for now.

Vinyl decides to break the ice that has formed from the subtle remark with a question, "So how fun is she in bed?" while looking square in Lyra's eyes. Both Lyra and Bonbon sit there, their eyes wide open. I was drinking something at the time, luckily I caught myself so Bonbon don't see an even more awkward situation, Octavia... has her hand on mine? Okay that is odd.

At this time, I have quite a strange feeling of Déjà vu. Looking behind Bonbon I see stares of pure hatred from a waiter, and a few guests. They look up at the waiter who nods and backs up. The waiters and waitresses seem to disappear rather quickly, so I quickly get out of my seat. If a fight is going to get started now, I would rather be able to stand and at least put up a bit of a fight. They get out of their seats and approach us, popping their knuckles as they do. The rest of my table seems to have noticed and prepares to run. Suddenly, one of them, a rather tall stallion, charges with his fist raised. I prepare to take a massive blow, but it never arrives. The stallion is levitated away in a midnight blue aura, while the other three are held in golden and light blue auras.

Looking to my right I witness their users: Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Also in their company was Princess Cadence, Captain Shining Armor and his little sister Twilight Sparkle, each of whom had also prepared a spell or already cast one. If I was those stallions, I would have also relieved myself in sheer terror. The princesses do not get truly angry often, but when they do...

"Good to see you again Princesses, Captain Armor and friends." I say while turning to face Luna, "It has been far too long since our last conversation my friend." I say with a relieved smile. At least I wasn't going to go back to the hospital.

"Indeed, however thou really need to stop getting into these situations, at this rate we should just move thee to Ponyville so all our trouble magnets get to be in one city instead of two." Luna replies with a little smile.

The rest of the table is flabbergasted, yes I was having a casual conversation with her in the middle of a restaurant as if it were no big deal. If I were a less humble man I would have gone through the motions of abusing this situation. Then again the staff did 'throw us to the dogs' as they say. "Well, we certainly expected this to be a rather understanding restaurant, so surprised that the staff would excuse themselves to the kitchen to watch a fight. It is almost like they believe that makes them innocent or guiltless or something." The staff start levitating out of the kitchen, all stunned into silence. When they come face to face with a very irate Princess Celestia however, they quickly decide fear is the best emotion to display.

"Now then, my little ponies and human, I shall be taking these trouble makers back to the castle to deliver some punishment. Twilight, I will be back to spend time with you again after I take care of this."

"Okay Princess. I will await your return." The purple mare beamed at Celestia while saying this. Twilight Sparkle, personal student of Princess Celestia, sister to Shining Armor, and sister-in-law to Princess Cadence. I had heard a lot about her, she was one the first ponies to be brought into this world and was a heroine to Equestria, though the details of that elude me. Her mane and tail are dark purple with a light purple and a pink stripe running through them. She stands a little smaller than Luna at 5'3" and is wearing a purple vest over a white collard shirt. She is also wearing a somewhat short plaid skirt, coming about halfway down to her knees with. She wore stockings and was wearing a pair of heels.

Captain/Prince Shining Armor has a white coat and a blue mane and tail. He stands tall at about 6'2" and definitely has the build of a guard. His wife, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, also known as Princess Cadence, is a delicate mare about 5'5". Her coat is a delicate pink with soft purple eyes. Her mane and tail have three colors, purple, dark pink and creamy white. Shining Armor probably got some of the most envious stares on his way here to have such beautiful ladies in his company.

"Well. since we apparently won't be getting a decent meal here, why don't we all go someplace else to get something to eat?" suggests Lyra.

"An excellent idea, why don't we all go to Sam's apartment and enjoy some of his amazing cooking instead?" Vinyl chimes in. I resist the urge to kill Vinyl rather well. I don't want to spend money on all those ingredients and I don't fancy myself as that good, but I do enjoy cooking thoroughly. At this point, Luna pipes up before anypony else can say anything.

"A wonderful idea, we would love to partake in some exotic cooking." Well shit, I am not about to deny the monarch of the moon, let alone my friends, such a bonding opportunity. That and I really want to cook all of a sudden. Looking back to the entrance I see Cadence's horn lose its magical aura. Guess somepony wants to try something exotic as well.

"Sure, why not. I'll need to pick up ingredients but that shouldn't be a problem."

"Why don't we move to Vinyl's place instead? Sam's apartment is rather small for this many ponies." Octavia joins in. I am thankful that she mentioned this, my apartment is a mess and definitely won't fit this many ponies. She even gives me a little wink as if to say 'I got your back'. Vinyl says she will take the main group to her home to get things started. Octavia, Bonbon, Twilight and myself are tasked with getting the food. Our groups go our separate ways. My group heads off to the market district to find some ingredients.

After obtaining an enormous amount of supplies, we head toward Vinyl's home to make the food. I decide on making flour pasta with shrimp and alfredo sauce, for Bonbon and Lyra I picked up ingredients to make a little heart shaped cake, and a little something to make some quiche. What can I say? I like making quiche. I may have spent quite a bit of money, but thanks to Twilight's checklists, Bonbon's ingredient finding skills, and Octavia's charisma, we're able to quickly buy everything we need for a price much smaller then I had imagined. I remember the first time I decided to really cook something for myself, It cost me a small fortune compared to what I made and the ingredients were not very high quality. I quickly learned the rules of bargaining, but Octavia is certainly an expert at it. Looks like i won't be cutting back as much this week as I had anticipated.

When we arrive at Vinyl's place, I certainly don't expect what I see. She had repainted it again. This time it's an odd greenish color. Before it was an ugly yellow, the company had messed up making the color back then apparently. It set terribly and had cracked off in a matter of days. This green is an 'okay' house color. She certainly can pick them though. Her house is still one of the biggest in the area. It certainly has the room for our little party. We make our way inside and find that we have even more guests. Vinyl's group had run into Twilight's friends and had brought them back to Vinyl's place as well. I recognize a few of them. First to be easily spotted is Pinkamena Diane Pie, AKA Pinkie Pie; a pink coated mare with a dark pink mane and tail with dazzling blue eyes. She's the premier party mare of Equestria. She loves to throw parties and make others happy. Even by Earth pony standards, she has a lot of stamina. I met her at a few parties in Canterlot that Vinyl had DJ'd. To go with the party mare was her 'coolest' friend Rainbow Dash.

She's interesting to say the least. Her coat is turquoise and her mane and tail are naturally rainbow colored with her eyes being magneta. She's Equestria's self-proclaimed number one flier and the only pegasus to ever create a sonic rainboom. Next up is Rarity. I have seen her at a few of the more sophisticated parties I have been to. She even made a tuxedo for me (a special order). She has a snow white coat, perfectly styled purple mane and tail, and blue eyes to match. She's certainly beautiful and knows how to bring out the beauty in others. I wonder if she magically styles her mane every night being a unicorn.

Fluttershy is introduced to me shortly after entering the room. I have never before met such a beautiful and shy mare, especially a pegasus mare. I swear to myself right then and there that if anything makes her truly cry, something is going to die. She has a yellow coat, pink mane and tail, carefully styled, and blue eyes. At this point I start to think most ponies have blue eyes compared to us humans and our common brown eyes. Last up is Applejack. A strong mare, she reminds me of my sister. She has an orange coat, blonde mane and tail braided up, and the most gorgeous green eyes. She's honest and blunt from what I had heard from Vinyl, sometimes a real 'party pooper'.

After being introduced I head into the kitchen to be quickly joined by Cadence, Luna and Pinkie. Cadence wants to learn how to make some of the food she had everyday, Luna merely wants to observe, and Pinkie helps bake the cake (read baked entirely by herself in her usual Pinkie Pie way). Cadence quickly gets the hang of how to peel and prepare shrimp while I roll some noodles out of the eggs and flour I had bought. Thank goodness we had bought so much extra food. I had planned it out to be good for two meals, and even with the addition of the five extra mares we should still have had plenty. After about an hour of work dinner is made. Twilight and Rarity quickly set the table as Princess Cadence and I bring out the food and set it around the table. After a few moments of chatting and eating, Pinkie brings out the heart shaped cake.

"How did you make a cake that big with the ingredients I bought..." I ask.

"Don't sweat the details doubty mcdoubterson. Just enjoy the cake! Oh, but wait, it's Lyra and Bonny's cake! So I guess they get to enjoy it!" Pinkie replies.

"But how..." I start to ask but am quickly cut off by Applejack.

"Sugarcube, if you don't want to end up as an emotional wreck don't even bother. Just easier to say it's Pinkie Pie."

"Guess I'll have to." I say, noticing the absolute joy in the couple's faces as they look at the cake and realize we all were very accepting of their relationship. Even though Ponyville is a town famous for being tolerant of just about everything, it still contains those that don't approve of such relationships. Octavia, seated to my right, seems to take a hold of my hand for a brief moment while seeing and hearing the joy in the couple's faces. As I turn to look at her I feel something strange, like magic is being cast upon on me. Quickly turning again I catch a glimpse of a magical aura off of Cadence's horn. She did something, but I am unsure of what she did. I do however notice that a heart has appeared above the heads of the beloved, I guess she just cast a spell to allow their love to be seen as easily as it is felt by them. Even I have to smile at that.

After dinner we all sit in Vinyl's parlor and talk about many things. I mainly sit back and listened. Until Octavia speaks up of course. "Why don't you play us a little music to go along with our drink? It would be wonderful to hear some great music to go along with this." The room seems to agree rather enthusiastically at that prospect.

"Alright, but only because you asked nicely." I sit down at the piano, play a few notes and stop. "Is it me, or is every single piano I touch recently out of tune?" Luna starts giggling quite enthusiastically at that. After about ten minutes I finish tuning the piano, most of it was in good tune, it just so happens that the middle was far from correctly tuned. I sit back down, place my hands on the keyboard, and start to play a song that forced itself into my mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2vO7CbZvAI

Author's Notes:

There is totally a reference to Xenophillia in there, if you haven't read it go do it filly! (Not Safe For Woona)

odd fact: the largest single transaction done by coinstar was for a gentleman in Alabama, it was $13,000, in pennies. I am not making that up, how he got that many pennies to that machine (I suspect it was an actual sorting facility instead, but I do not remember) I don't want to know.

List of changes: Due to an editing fact I had to make Celestia and Luna taller so that Twilight would not be overly small in stature, and still be shorter then Luna (slightly) due note that, hopefully, there should not be any such changes, if you noticed this and went to the comment section to alert me, I did some back editing. Also, I suck at being able to tell apart colors, yay! (seriously, half the colors were appropriately edited by Deadpony, some to more accurate colors, others to the actual colorations, as my laptop looks at colors and doesn't properly display all of them.)