The symphony of the stars
Shining all alone in the night
The sun had gone to bed early that day, probably led by one of Celestia’s lullaby. And even if Twilight knew very well that the princess was only using magic to move the big ball of light each and every day, she couldn’t prevent herself of thinking there was something else behind it. Something more beautiful that would still stay unknown to her after having discovered everything that was and could ever be.
The purple alicorn sighed. Her desk was covered with papers and books, but for once, she wasn’t happy about it. And that sole thought was making the whole thing even more depressing.
She had always loved to read and work and learn new thing. As far as her memories could go, she had always been amazed by everything there was to discover about the world. Every time she would open a book, it was like the limits of the universe were being put back once again. And at the moment her hoof was touching the cover of one of the manuscript, she always knew the way she had been seeing things would change forever.
But now, she was stuck there, in her office, at her desk, contemplating all those soulless papers, those reports, and other boring useless stuff that were only telling her the same story every time she dared try to stop ignoring them.
There were numbers that had no other meaning than to say things were going pretty well, or not that well or, in the end, pretty much anything she would want them to say. Just rough numbers without anything to reveal.
And words, lots of words that some bored pony had been forced to write in order to transmit an information that was interesting nopony at all, not even the one who had been writing it. All those words just like that much lost ink were lying on the pages like cadavers in y cemetery that any soul would have wanted to never have to look at.
The purple alicorn sighed once again. She didn’t like handling those lifeless dry forms, but it was her duty to. As a royal princess. And as an Equestria citizen.
So, against her own will, but with courage and the optimistic spirit that her work might be of some use to anypony, eventually, she went back to reading the meaningless sentences she had under her eyes, with a sense of false pride and disgust.
Then, as she was finally ready to accept her fate for the evening, she heard the voice of a certain dragon calling for her.
“Twilight! Twilight!”
He was clearly out of breath and over excited. She could hear in his tone that he had been running like crazy in order to get to her.
“Spike?” she asked, surprised, happy to see the friendly face of her friend and a little frustrated that she would have to motivate herself to do her job once more when she would be finished hearing what he would have to say.
“Ah, Twilight…” began Spike, before having to breath for a while, “Just let me… breath… just a minute…”
Twilight smiled. The dedication of her assistant had never ceased to amaze her. Even more, Spike had never complained once about having to read the same things she was complaining pretty much all the time about. Sometimes, she would have liked to be just like him, to have that strength she thought she didn’t possess, that would make her overcome any obstacle on her path like it was nothing, would it be the most depressing and meaningless job in Equestria.
And she was still hoping she would have the strength, just like Spike, to always do it while keeping a genuine smile.
The same smile she was always so happy to see everytime and that was making her work so much easier and so much worth it.
“You’ve got to come with me.” Spike suddenly told her, seemingly having been able to catch enough of his breath. “You’ve got to see this.”
“Can’t it wait a little?” asked Twilight. “I’ve got a lot of work in front of me right now…”
She had said that with a complaining tone. So much for the everlasting smile and the whole strength thing. But at least she was trying to do her duty like the honest pony she was.
“Forget it! I’m telling you, you have got to see this!” Spike said with the most convincing of tone.
She understood it was serious. There was something in the dragon’s voice that was telling even more than his words. An emotion he was feeling and wanted to communicate. That he was impressed, that something had changed him, that something had touched him. That he thought something was too important for the one he cared for so much to miss it.
“Alright.” Twilight answered, knowing there was no escape anyway. “I’m right behind you, but this has better be important.”
“Oh it is!” replied Spike. “Just you wait, you won’t believe it.”
And he literally pulled Twilight out of the library, being too much excited to accept losing one mere second.
The both of them went through Ponyville, where Twilight saw the streets were empty, right outside the town to a little meadow with a hill in the middle. And all around the hill were all of the ponies of Ponyville, diligently sitting there, very quiet, but all smiling like children being told a beautiful story.
And seeing all those ponies surprised Twilight, so she tried to ask Spike what it was all about, but the dragon put his claw on her mouth and just replied:
“Shhhhh. Don’t make a noise and just listen. Just… listen.”
And given that they couldn’t go any further due to the vast crowd, he made sign to Twilight to sit there and be quiet as he himself sat and stayed quiet, looking in the direction of the hill.
Obeying the signs of her companion, Twilight sat and looked herself at the hill. She saw a pony standing there. And in that pony’s hooves was some sort of huge violin. a cello as Twilight recognized it.
Still, she didn’t figure out why she was there, as well as everypony else, until her ears caught something walking in the air. A melody that took her away as soon as her mind perceived it.
It was straight on beautiful. The analytic mind of the alicorn tried to find words to describe what he was given, or feeling, or just living, but it found nothing in the whole vocabulary that could come even close to be able to do it.
The tune was like a caress on the fur, a soft and warm touch that was comforting the body and the soul. It was like the words of her parents comforting her when she was younger. It was like the voices of all her friends, all around her, just being there for her, supporting her, like so many trustworthy formidable family members. It was like the taste of the water when you’re thirsty, or the taste of hay after a long walk outside.
It was like a fire, both warm and bright all at the same time, and so fascinating. It was a call to adventure, it was a call to go beyond the horizon, over the mountains and even further away, like a call telling there was something there to be discovered and to be enjoyed.
And it was like a reminder, a simple message telling that everything was beautiful right here and now. A reminder that everything a pony would ever need to be happy had already been given to him and her. A reminder that nothing the heart of a pony could ever want was more important than what that heart already possessed.
It was saying that life was beautiful. It was saying that life was worth being lived, through the best and the worst. It was saying that the rain should be enjoyed and the sun praised, because both are the source of something great for each and every living soul.
It was saying that there is hope for everypony. And every living thing for that matter, would it be the most miserable and damned one that ever was. Even for the one who had once possessed everything and had now lost it all and even itself.
It was saying that there is hope even in death. And Twilight was believing what she was hearing, not because it made sense, but because she knew it was true, deep down in herself. She knew that she was what she wanted to believe.
Finally, it was making her cry. And the tears felt good. They were running down her cheeks, not drowning pain, but irrigating with joy and love. She was crying over the music she was hearing and just couldn’t prevent it. She knew that the dragon at her side was crying too and she felt like she had never been so proud of that dragon being her friend.
For a little while, Twilight let the music lull her, having lost any will to fight against it. And as her ears and mind were full, her eyes were watching that amazing pony, standing in the middle of the crowd, who was performing that miracle before her eyes. That pony that was standing there like a cold but magnificent star shining alone in the sky, so far away from her. And that sight was the only painful part of the experience, for a reason Twilight wasn’t ready to accept just at that moment.
But as for every good thing in the world, the music stopped, way too soon in the opinion of all the ponies who were listening, but they could see that the artist who had been playing was exhausted, and all that was left to do was to applaud.
Suddenly, from everywhere, a triumphal explosion of applause went off, trying to be as loud as possible, as everypony was trying to give back would it be only a little of what they had been given. And it went on and on as nopony dared being the first one ceasing to honor that pony who had stood there, who had made them that special gift for them. More importantly, they all wanted to make it last, would it be for just a second more, to mark how important it had been for them all.
And by applauding, they were sharing that same feeling of joy for having been there and having experienced that very unique moment in their lives.
As everypony else, Twilight was applauding, as strongly as she was able to, thinking that she would stop only when all strength would have left her body.
She turned to spike who was applauding to and shouted, as she couldn’t be heard otherwise:
“You were right! I had to see this! I can’t believe it, those were the best minutes of my life!”
But that’s only when she realized, just as well as everypony else, that the sun was rising and that the music they had been hearing hadn’t lasted a few minutes or even an hour, but the whole night from beginning to end. Hours and hours they hadn’t even felt. And even if their memories were able to say that they had logically made some breaks between every part of the whole musical, they just felt it had been only one big melody.
As the sun was rising, delivering his morning light, the crowd went wild. Ignoring what they should have done for the day, everypony decided to party together, in honor of the performance, of the musician and just for the heck of it, to celebrate the new day and life altogether.
But twilight didn’t go with all the ponies enjoying herself. She had come back to reality and knew she had a lot of work to do. As boring as it was sounding in her head. And lost in that sea of happy ponies, she suddenly felt some sort of emptiness in her heart, like she wasn’t part of everything that was going on, and so far away from being able to achieve everything all those ponies around here would be able to in their lives.
She sighed, and slowly walked back to the library.
The symphony of the star(s)
Some days had passed since Twilight had heard the music and she was back to her daily work. Or at least so was thinking Spike when he came to see if he could be of some help.
“So… you need anything?” he asked Twilight.
But the alicorn didn’t even answer. So Spike understood that something was very wrong. He had seen that Twilight was working even more than before, but he had felt she was getting bitter and bitter as the time was passing. In fact, it was beginning to worry him a little.
“What are you doing?” he asked again, trying another approach. “Are those the reports about the education figures in Las Pegasus?”
He hoped they weren’t, because those were some of the most boring they had to go through. It was mostly grades and grades and even more grades that were basically always the same and that everypony were just happy to see being always the same…
“No, it’s not that.” replied Twilight, with some sort of anger in the voice.
“So what is it? The report about the lack of oil to make the horseshoes of the soldiers shine?”
“No.” said Twilight, clearly upset, “It’s not that either. Just leave me alone.”
Funny thing, it was usually when Twilight would ask to be left alone that Spike felt that he was needed the most. So he decided to take the matter into his claws. Literally, as he took the paper away from Twilight’s hooves to look at it.
“Okay, let’s see what this is all about.” he said, trying to avoid Twilight’s wrath.
But what he saw was no report or anything even remotely related to their work. It looked like a poem of some kind, that wasn’t making any sense, with no beginning nor end, and covered everywhere with crossing-out.
“Are you writing a poem?” he asked Twilight, not sure if it was good or not.
“Yes, no, it doesn’t matter!” she shouted.
And Spike noticed the dark rings under her eyes. He smiled, partially relived to know that she wasn’t angry, but probably just tired and cranky because of it. Still, he still had enough reason to worry.
“Well, if you want my opinion, you should stick with being a princess. I don’t know much about poesy, but that thing looks just ridiculous.”
Spike had said that being just himself and giving his honest opinion like he would for anything else. But he regretted it right away as he saw Twilight cracking down and crying out of exhaustion.
“I know right!” Twilight shouted. “I can’t make it work, it’s useless, I just can’t do it.”
It must be mentioned that Spike wanted to help her. He just didn’t understand what it was all about. So, of course, he thought it was one of those “mare thing” that boys would never be able to comprehend. He thought he should go ask one of their friend for help, like Rarity for example who would know way better what to do, but he knew it would be better to wait a little because he wanted to be certain he could leave Twilight alone without any risk.
So he just came close to her, laid his paw on her head and sat silently at her side.
For a moment, he thought of just saying something, because the silence and the slight cries of Twilight were making the whole thing totally awkward, but something stopped him. Something inside him telling him that it wasn’t the right time. Spike was just growing up, and his experience was telling him that, sometimes, silence is a good thing.
Still, after a few minutes, he couldn’t resist anymore and asked:
“The only thing I don’t understand is why you care so much about a poem. I mean, if you can’t write it, just don’t. It’s easy.”
We should point out that he was incredibly right as well as incredibly wrong all at the same time. But it was at least logical from his point of view. And for some reason, it even brought a little smile back on Twilight’s face.
“I wish I could Spike.” she told him. “It’s just that I have to do it, you understand?”
“No, I don’t.” answered Spike, who clearly didn’t. “But I can go find someone who does if you want.”
Twilight didn’t want him to. In fact, she asked him to stay at her side for a moment. The dragon didn’t know, but she was trying to find a way to explain to him what she was feeling and thinking, which is paradoxal given what she wanted to explain.
“You’re right, I’ve been ridiculous.” Twilight suddenly said, surprising her friend. “I guess I should just be reasonable and give up.”
Those were words Spike wasn’t ready to accept. The words alone were already despicable in his mind, but coming from the mouth of that pony he respected so much, they were just as many knifes trying to pierce him. There was no way he would tolerate it.
“Hold on just a minute!” he said, suddenly becoming emotional, “You’ve never gave up, not even in the face of danger. I still don’t know what the whole deal is with that poem of yours, but I’m certain you can do it, whatever you may be trying to do there. And I’ll help you. You can count on me!”
Twilight smiled. Sometimes, she was asking herself why she had been given such a great friend. At that moment, she was willing to try anything just for him, just to not let him down. Because he believed in her.
“Look.” Spike added, “Just tell me why you want to write that poem of yours and what the subject is and I’ll try to help you write it. You would be surprised, but I do have some talents of my own.”
Actually, Spike had been struggling to write a love letter to a certain somepony and was very proud of the way he had been able to solve the problem. After a lot of work, wanting to make it the most perfect love letter that ever was, had been and ever would be, he wrote: “I love you. Spike.”
The fact that he decided not to give the letter may be proof that he knew it wasn’t really the perfect love letter he had been trying to write, but at least he had been satisfied with his work.
“I wanted to write something for that pony who performed that other night, you remember?” Twilight began to explain.
And of course Spike remembered. The music hadn’t left his head since, just as the deep warm feeling kept inside of him since.
“I wanted to try and show her how wonderful she is, how much she has touched me. I wish I could show her how much I appreciate what she has done.” kept explaining Twilight.
But then, she used a slighter tone and added:
“I think I also wanted to prove myself I was capable of doing something great too. But I know I’m not her, so I’ve given up… I mean I’ve come back to my senses about that part.”
Spike still didn’t understand. In fact, that wasn’t making any sense at all to him. And being Spike, he asked:
“So, if you want to thank her… why don’t you just go see her and say thanks?”
“I can’t do that!” replied Twilight right away. “I mean, would she even hear what I would tell her? Would she be able to understand how thankful I am? Maybe she wouldn’t even accept to see me.”
Spike sighed. It must have been a “mare thing” after all, because he was seriously not understanding. But as he was thinking this was just plain stupid, he took upon him to solve the whole thing.
“Twilight…” he began to explain, trying not to sound too patronizing, “You’re the most incredible and awesome pony I know. Of course she would be willing to meet you. And if that wasn’t enough, I may remind you that you’re a royal princess of Equestria. You could summon her if you ever wanted. I mean come on! If you haven’t realized yet, you are one of the most important pony there is in the whole country and beyond.”
Twilight blushed, but even if she knew it was all true, she had something against it.
“I know about all that, but I don’t think I’m that important of a pony. I may be a princess, but all I do all day is work on some boring papers and try my best to convince myself it’s important. That pony has created something nopony else had ever done before. She has had the power to change my life, open my eyes, my heart, my soul and everything! She is great, she is able to do great things. I’m just Twilight, I do magic tricks and work on dull reports.”
“Well, think what you want.” Spike replied. “But you’re still the most important pony there is for me.”
Twilight blushed even harder.
“And if you can’t go meet somepony because you think you’re not important enough, then don’t do it for you.” Spike said. “But please do it for me, because I believe in you and I won’t stand to see you lose your time trying to create something on the paper that is already inside you.”
And saying those words, Spike realized he had no idea what he was talking about and where he wanted to go with it. In fact, he thought he had screwed it up and was already blaming himself for it. He just added, in order to get rid of the whole speech thing:
“And if she doesn’t want to meet you, or doesn’t hear you out, or anything, then we will go back to that poem plan of yours, okay?”
In fact, he was slowly ready to just go back to write the poem, because it was looking suddenly way easier to do than to find the good words to convince Twilight to just go talk with another pony.
But to the dragon’s surprise, Twilight accepted to try.
And so they both went to Canterlot, where the pony had been invited to give a big recital in front of everypony and all the royal court.
Sited in the opera, Twilight heard the music one more time and it was sounding even more beautiful than in her memories. It felt like meeting an old friend and sharing some precious memories together with the assurance to make some new ones in the future.
That music really was the most impressive Twilight had ever heard and so seemed to think all the ponies of Canterlot who made a literal triumph to the performance and the pony who had brought it to them. A genuine triumph, which is probably the hardest type of triumph to get in Canterlot.
At the end of the recital, Twilight, impressed but decided, went to see the artist. There were a lot of other ponies trying to do the same and she began to think she wouldn’t be able to follow the plan until a big white mare appeared at her side.
“Princess Celestia?” said Twilight, surprised.
“Celestia is fine, I already told you.” replied, amused, the sun princess.
“What are you doing here?” asked Twilight.
“I’ve got two tasks to take care of. The first one being to know what you are doing here yourself.” answered Celestia, with her gentle and caring voice.
So Twilight explained everything that had been going on, and how much she wanted to see the artist. But now that she was able to see how many ponies had the same idea, she was about to go back home. Of course she had thought of using her power as a princess to get the access she wanted, but she had felt she had no right to abuse her power in that way, for her personal gain.
“You wish to meet the artist?” asked Celestia, not really asking any question. “I’m curious, but do you know what the name of her symphony is?”
“I didn’t even know it was a symphony.” confessed Twilight.
“Well, in any case, this brings me to the second reason for my presence here.” Celestia told her peer. “You see, I’ve been talking with the artist myself just a little while ago and she has asked, or I should say pleaded me to convince you to accept to meet her. I told her I would try. Would you accept to meet her?”
Surprised at first, and not quite understanding what was going on, Twilight decided to not overthink the whole thing and just shouted a giant “Yes! Of course I accept!”.
Suddenly, the purple alicorn was feeling like a child in a candy store with unlimited credit. And in no time she found herself facing the artist she had been so eager to meet.
Twilight wanted to just tell everything she had had in her mind those last days, how wonderful the music had been, how greatly her life had been impacted by the performance, how much she admired the artist, how thankful she was, in the name of everypony ever. Twilight just wanted to shout away every emotion she was feeling and stop only after her last breath would have left her body.
But she was prevented to by the artist who immediately told Twilight, as soon as she saw her:
“I can’t believe it! it’s you, it’s really you!”
At that moment, Twilight’s mind didn’t know how to react. She looked behind her to see if there wasn’t another pony, but as she was alone with that mare, she had to accept she was the one being referred to.
“Hum… yes?” Twilight replied, not sure what she should do or say and certainly not prepared for that situation.
“I’ve wanted to meet you since so long ago, you just can’t imagine.” the mare told Twilight. “Tell me, do you like it?”
“Like what?” asked Twilight, regretting how stupid that must have sounded right away.
“My symphony of the stars. Please tell me you like it, even if you don’t. I mean, you have the right to tell me you didn’t like it, but it would be so great to just hear from you that you appreciated it. You can’t imagine how hard I’ve worked on it. I’ve put everything I’ve got into it and I really, really hope the result is pleasing you.”
“I love it. I truly do. It was the most beautiful most breathtaking most awesome most everything I’ve ever heard. It was absolutely incredible.” Twilight answered, trying to finally get out what she had wanted to say since the moment she had heard the music.
But before her eyes, the mare seemed to just lose touch with reality and almost faint in pleasure.
“I don’t know what to say…” the mare replied with enthusiasm, “Thank you, just thank you so much! You can’t imagine what it means to me.”
“I’m the one who wants to thank you. I swear it.”
“Nonsense.” the mare replied to Twilight, forgetting about being polite or anything, “You’ve have done so much for us all, I will never be able to show how grateful we are to you, I think none of us ever will be able to. But for all it’s worth, thank you.”
This was getting awkward. Twilight still couldn’t understand what she was being thanked for and why the one mare she respected and admired so much was behaving that way. So she decided to flee and think about it with a clear mind later. She invented a duty calling her somewhere else, said it had been an honor for her and was about to leave when, suddenly, she thought of one last thing she wanted to ask.
“Excuse me…” Twilight said.
“Yes?” immediately replied the mare, happy to see Twilight stay a little longer and still being interested in her.
“I’m sorry to ask, but why did you call your symphony the symphony of the stars?”
The mare was surprised for a second, but decided it maybe wasn’t obvious enough or that Twilight had way better preoccupations than to take time to learn about such things.
“Don’t be sorry, I’m more than glad to explain.” the artist told Twilight. “It’s called the symphony of the stars because it’s celebrating you. I know I should have thought of a better name, but sometimes it’s better to keep it simple. So in order to honor the star princess, I created the symphony of the stars.”
And finally Twilight understood everything, and everything was way too much for her to handle right at that moment. The flow of emotion was just too great.
“Is the name a problem?” asked the artist. “I could change it if you want.”
“Oh no.” Twilight answered, trying not to show how touched she was, “I like that name.”
And Twilight fled, not able to hold up her tears anymore, as she was crying again.
For the third time.
Still for the best of reasons.
And yes, she went back to see the artist, learned her name and they finally hugged each other like they should have done already even before the beginning of that story.
THE END
Author's Note
Well, that was... strange. Once again, I wrote the whole thing like some demon was possessing me. (a demon that doesn't know how to write, but still).
At least this time, I had already imagined that story (in a much longer version, but I would have never had the time and talent to make it work) before actually written it.
Just for the story (so I might remember it), I was just finished watching the film "Tombstone" (actually, it was two hours ago... as I write this) and I thought:
"Okay, it's useless for me to write anything now. This film is just too great and there are just so many great film like that, why even bother trying?"
The reste is hard to describe, but long story short, I wrote this. Not sure it has a moral, not sure it stands as a coherent piece, I don't even care at this stage. I'm tired, I need some sleep, I've got to work tomorrow (or today... at least I've got five hours of sleep in front of me).
ps: I used Octavia for the picture and as a tag, but it doesn't have to be her. I just didn't find a better picture to illustrate the story.
