A Life in Equestria

Magic Sketch roused himself awake. Rubbing the gunk from his eyes, he glanced at the bedside clock. "Crap, it already past ten!" He rushed out of the bed and hurriedly got everything together. It was already Saturday, the day of the much awaited concert. He ran out of the library before he reminded himself of his magic. Embarrassed, he quickly teleported to Grace's room.

"Hey Magic!" Grace smiled at the stallion as he fell onto her bed. "Are you ready to go? I know I am!" She picked her bags up along with her precious Harpsichord.

"Yeah I'm ready!" He grinned. "Want me to get that for you Grace?" He pointed to the instrument.

"Well knowing you, you won’t let me carry it anyways, so go ahead." She laughed and made sure she had everything she may need. "You know, it is quite a big instrument and we have to raise it up into the clouds an-"

"It's ok Grace. It would be an honor to help you with such an important task as getting your harpsichord to where it needs to go." He smiled. "I only have to levitate it up with us."

Grace laughed softly, "Ok then Magic Sketch. Whatever you say. Come on, we still have to meet Octavia." After having to adjust the instrument around a few times to even get it out of the door, they were off and on their way to town.

The two ponies soon arrived in front of city hall where the grey earth pony was waiting. "There you two are. I was starting to worry you wouldn't come." She grinned.

"Of course we came, none of us would dare to not come. Right Grace?" The stallion turned to the music pony.

Remembering the blink and shut her gaping mouth, the blue mare smiled, "I wouldn't have missed it for the world!"

"Wonderful. Now shall we get going? We do have to get to our final destination before the practicing may start." Both Magic Sketch and Grace naturally agreed and they set off. Magic ended up just teleporting both himself, Octavia and the harpsichord up while Grace, being the pegasus she was, merely flew up into the clouds.

They wandered around the clouds for a while, lost. Apparently no pony was sure where to find the cloudscastle. Octavia spoke up as they passed the same flower shop for the fifth time. "Uhm… Grace, shouldn't you know where it is? You are a pegasus afterall."

"I am a pegasus but I was also born and raised in Canterlot. I've only visited Cloudsdale a few times." Grace confessed. "I really don't know the way to the castle."

Magic Sketch smiled slightly, "It's ok Grace, we don't blame y-"

"Hey, what are you three doing up here?" A deep, rough voice called out, interrupting the stallion from finishing his sentence. "The pegasus I can understand but what business do the earth pony and the unicorn have up here?" A dark grey stallion walked over to them. The shadows left him, light now glinting off of his armor.

"Musical business sir." Grace politely told him. "That's all."

"Then do you need any help finding something? I would love to help you three." The guard smiled at them.

Octavia was the first to speak, "Yes actually. Could you please direct us toward the cloudscastle? We seem to have been having trouble locating it."

"Cloudscastle, eh? That depends in which part of the castle you're looking for." The smile was now gone.

"But isn't it all put together?" Magic furrowed his eyes. “Shouldn’t it be?”

“It was. Until the monster came.” The stallion suddenly got very serious. “It killed so many ponies. There was so much destruction.”

“And why didn’t ponies from elsewhere find out about this? Surely somepony from Canterlot or Ponyville or somewhere else has to know.” Grace tilted her head slightly to the right, as if that would help her understand. She had friends and some family who lived in this city of the sky. She would know if they had been injured or… killed... right?

“It would be dangerous to let the disaster be known throughout the nation. Nopony would ever come here due to their fear and that would lead us to economic crisis. Not to mention how the others would demand to vacuate all of its citizens elsewhere.” The guard answered in his now neutral tone.

Magic Sketch spoke up, “Excuse me but, what is this monster that caused such havoc?”

“It was a great big dragon!” The stallion answered. The eyes of the grey earth pony widened as she gasped.

“A-a dr-dragon?” She stammered. “I-it won’t come back, right?”

“It shouldn’t. It seems to have taken what it wanted. Our best bet is that it won’t come back for a long long time.” He reassured her. To the right of them, Magic Sketch was muttering gibberish about dragons and Grace was just standing in place, shocked.

Forgetting the dragon problem, Octavia recovered and asked, “So where can we find the part of the castle with the stage for performances?” The trio received the needed directions and set off.

They didn’t arrive at the stage until 5:45 pm, two and a half hours late. Octavia sighed, “Oh well. We might as well practice with what little time we have left. Magic, you’re welcome to play with us if you like. Its always a pleasure to hear you play the piano.”

A blush crept onto the stallion’s face.“Well I wouldn’t want to intrude on your duet with Grace Note here…”

“And you really think I wouldn’t want you to play with us.” Grace smiled at the art pony. “I didn’t even know you could play the piano.”

“Yeah.” His cheeks got even redder. “I’ve been playing since I was just a tiny colt.”

“Now you have to play with us. As they say, the more the merrier.” Grace grinned, “And that’s an order Sketch.”

Magic grinned back, “Oh no, not the dreaded orders! Please, anything but those!” He laughed softly, “I’ll do it Grace. For you.” The three ponies went out and managed to find a piano Magic could use for the night. By the time they got back, the trio only had an hour of practice time left.

“Oh dear, I hope you’re as good as Magic tells me you are.” Octavia bit her lip nervously.

“Then I hope Magic doesn’t stretch the truth.” Grace glared jokingly at the red unicorn and continued to warm up on her instrument. The blue mare started to play The Perfect Stallion and soon Magic joined in, adding the countermelody. Octavia sat down as she listened to their improv duet. After a few minutes, the song came to its end. Grace sighed happily as the last chord was played to it’s full length and drifted off.

Octavia broke the new silence, “That was wonderful! If you both play like that tonight then this concert will be a total success!” The corners of her mouth were tugged up into a wide smile.

“Thanks Octavia!” Grace smiled back. “That means a lot to me, especially since its coming from you.”

“See Octavia, I told you I wasn’t joking when I said she was the best.” Magic smirked.

“I never doubted you dear Sketch. Now we must get everything all set up, the concert will be starting in a little bit.”

The blue mare’s eyes widened as she remembered one small detail. “Oh! I’ll be right back you two.” Grace flew off, returning a few moments later with a long black bag on a hanger. She hung it up and proceeded to help the other two put everything they needed into place.

Once they finished, Magic cleared his throat and turned to Grace. Unfortunately, he only saw her tail go by as she rushed into the next room with the bag. Soon after she peaked out from behind the door. “Uhm… Magic. Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course, what is it?” He turned back to look at her.

She came out of the room, revealing the dress she was now wearing. It was made of a dark blue, flowing silk with lace bordering the edge of the neckline. The color complimented the mare’s natural blue shades without making it look to cheesy. Simple, but elegant. “So, how do I look?” The mare finally spoke up after minutes of letting the stallion look her over.

Snapping out of his trance, Magic blushed, “You look beautiful Grace. Absolutely stunning! But…”

“But?” Grace frowned. “Is there something wrong with the dress?”

“No, no! I just feel as if it is missing something.” He thought for a minute before gasping happily. “I got it! Be right back.” He told the confused mare before teleporting away. A minute later, he was back, now with a bag of his own.

“What is with your bag?” Octavia inquired. She was already dressed into her usual concert attire, a simple black dress and her pink bowtie.

“I didn’t want to be the only pony not dressed up, so I got a tuxedo from Rarity. And something else.” He smiled and took a small box out from the bag. Turning to the blue pegasus, he opened it and revealed a silver necklace with a navy blue gem. “I got this for you to wear tonight. It would complete your outfit very well if I do say so myself.” He helped the mare put it on.

“Thank you Magic but you didn’t have to get this for me. No one in the audience will even care about my outfit.” Grace touched the gem, looking at it.

“It’s no problem. If I didn’t let you use it now, it would sit in my closet for another few years.” He laughed softly to himself.

“This is your necklace?” Her mouth dropped.

“Well it was mother’s. I can’t just let anypony wear it.” His response got the mare to grin and hug him tight.

“Magic, you surprise me everyday.” She let go of him and smoothed out the wrinkles of her dress.

“Is that such a bad thing?” The unicorn chuckled.

“With you, it never is.” She said as the trio was told to start their concert.

Grace couldn’t remember a happier time than when she was on stage in front of over a hundred ponies, playing music with her idol and best friend. The pegasus played with the other two for what seemed like only minutes, reality actually being two hours. The three did their bows and exited the stage. “That was amazing!” The pegasus plopped onto one of the couches in their waiting room.

“Good job, both of you. I can honestly say that was one of my best concerts in all of my career. Are you sure she isn’t a professional?” Octavia grinned.

“Nope, she hasn’t had a musical breakthrough yet.” He chuckled.

“Who knows, maybe tonight was that breakthrough.” Grace yawned. “But for now I just want to go home and sleep!”

“Yes, it is quite late. We shall change out of these fancy clothes and then be off. Is that alright with you Octavia?” Magic turned to the earth pony.

“Of course Magic.” She smiled. “You better hurry before she gets too deep into that sleep.”

“Huh?” He turned to see Grace was already snoring away. “Silly mare.” He laughed. Grace was immediately woken up and forced to take the gorgeous dress off. She was too tired to really care though, she was already lost into the world of dreams. Magic Sketch finished changing out of his tux and managed to lift the sleeping mare onto his back. He transported her instruments and her dress with them into the music room. He smiled and carried the mare up into her bedroom.

Grace started mumbling during her sleep, revealing the dream’s nature to the unicorn. “... shmoopy-doo… love you too… silly unicorn…” Magic would have thought she was dreaming of the magenta earth pony if it weren’t for the unicorn comment.

“Which unicorn though? It can’t possibly be me… could it?” He muttered to himself.

“... just like a stallion…” Grace mumbled as he set her down on the bed. Magic sighed and looked at the mare. She was beautiful even when she was face first into a pillow with her hair messily thrown around her.

The stallion smiled and kissed her forehead. “Goodnight darling Grace. We shall meet again soon.” He heard Grace say, “Oh my dear-” before teleporting out of the room, into the library. Magic Sketch entered his room and went to bed. He mentally cursed himself for not staying a moment longer to hear the end of Grace’s phrase. He brushed it off painfully, admitting to himself that it would never be him that she loved.

That night, he promised to himself that he would only love her from afar, as her best friend. Nothing more would he seek out unless absolutely positive that the mare loved him back. But that would never happen, he thought. After an hour of tossing and turning and fretting over the mare’s feelings, he finally slept peacefully.