Rainbow Dash asked me this question, and I accidentally answered privately, so she was kind enough to post it for me. Thanks Rainbow Dash!
Hey Lyra you compose REALLY great music! Could i know when you started to play? :) 
rainbowdash-answers
When I first enrolled in school it was mid school year. The music class wanted another string instrument so they tried to assign me a violin, but I had a lot of trouble. I could barely hold the thing and I couldn’t get my hooves to press the strings properly. The other violinists all used magic, but I didn’t know magic yet.
They found an old harp in storage and switched me to that. The original harpist in the class didn’t like me because they dumbed down all of my parts, which I guess is understandable. Pretty unfair from her perspective to be lumped together with me. It went on like that for the rest of the school year.
When I returned the following year, my harp, the old one, had mysteriously had all of it’s strings cut and was severally dented up. The school either couldn’t afford another harp or didn’t care enough to buy one. I knew magic by then, so I could have started over with another instrument, but it meant I would have had to go back a year in music and play with a new class. When I saw that smug look on the other harpist face, I knew she was responsible and I wasn’t about to let her get away with it.
I asked if there was anything remotely like a harp I could play instead. And they brought out this little thing they called a lyre. They said they used it as a prop during school plays but that it was real.
I was completely ready to sit down next to that harpist and show her up something good. But I still wasn’t all that great. And with my parts no longer being dumbed down I’d usually have to choose accuracy or speed. I just didn’t seem capable of both and my grade reflected that.
Halfway into the year, the harpist moved and I was told to switch back to harp. The teacher said she’d dumb down the parts for me again and I was all for it at first. Then the thought occurred to me that all I was doing was jumping around trying to find an excuse to be accepted for mediocrity. It reflected in other areas of my life too.
So I refused. The teacher wasn’t pleased. She told me if my performance wasn’t up to snuff for the end of the year recital she’d fail me for the year. I was sort of defiant in my youth, if you couldn’t tell, so I didn’t take that very well. I kinda blew off all of my other classes, memorized the pieces in question, and practiced every night.
When the recital came, I still made one or two mistakes. And I barely passed for the year because I all but ignored my other classes. But my music teacher said she was impressed at my improvement, and I even got an award for most improved performer. At the end of the day I got my award, when I came home and removed my dress, I noticed I had a cutie mark.
And that is the real story, all jokes removed.
Anonymous
