Into Your Dreams...

Chapter 5: The Elements

I gently closed her door, as I started back down the stairs to go and put my trumpet away. I looked around for a clock to check the time. I found one in her living room on the first floor where I had laid my trumpet case. It was 2:30 am, which meant I had roughly five hours before she would even begin to stir. I decided to look around her house a bit, since I didn't know how long I was to be staying here. So I packed up my trumpet, tucking it under the arm of the couch, and went off to explore her house.

It wasn't a small house, but it wasn't massive either. Starting from the path to the house, it was red brick, laid sideways, leading to a brick staircase which led to the front porch. Four white pillars held up the roof that extended over the porch from the second floor. There was an outdoor-style chandelier hanging in between the two center pillars in front of a second story window. The entryway had hardwood flooring, and offered four options of travel. Immediately to the left was a room containing a file cabinet, and a desk with various papers on it, seeming to be the office. Straight ahead were stairs to the second floor, or a hallway to the kitchen. To the right an open room room, mid-sized with more hardwood flooring, and only had her equipment in it, that and an old piano. This room had a window looking out on a peaceful lake, as the Everfree forest was on the opposite side of Ponyville. The room led to a carpeted dining room, separated by swinging double doors, and contained a rectangular dark stained table, surrounded by six chairs. Connected to both the entryway and the dining room was a kitchen, which retained the wood floor from the entryway. It had a counter jutting from the wall in the middle, creating a space for another, smaller table with only four chairs around it. It also had windows providing a view of a wooden deck, leading down to a beach down below. Another door was present in the kitchen, to which I assumed led to a basement, but I stayed with the upper two floors for now. From the kitchen was a living room with a grayish rug set in a diamond form rather than running parallel to the walls. There was a couch, an armchair, and a coffee table set on the rug, as it covered most of the floor. In one corner was an old phonograph, in another a cassette player, and in yet another was a CD player. In the final corner rested a reddish stained cabinet going from floor to ceiling holding many of each of the different media options.

The upstairs was very simple. A narrow hallway went from one end of the house to the other on the right, and immediately on the left was the master bedroom, Vinyl's room of course. On the left of the hallway went a stuffy room filled with old-looking things and chests, then a green tiled bathroom with a tub-shower combo, a toilet and two sinks, and at the end of the hallway was a bedroom. On the right were two bedrooms, one with hardwood continuing from the hallway and a deep blue colored rug in the same diamond fashion as in the living room. The second room periwinkle in color and carpeted with a patterned rug with music notes on it.

My exploration of the house killed another hour and a half. 'What to do with three and a half hours,' I wondered. 'I know, I'll go practice some magic outside.' So out I trotted out onto the lawn. I started with levitation first, still wary of teleportation, using potted plants as my test subjects. That didn't need any work I concluded after about ten minutes of juggling eight pots and their flowers, making the flowers hop out and do the can-can. That last part was entertaining though. I then decided to bite the bullet and work on teleportation.

I decided to work on teleportation out back on the beach since sand tended to be a little softer than dirt. It was quite the effort, working the energy back up to face this fear of mine, since my mind was still associating my ending up at the hospital with teleportation somewhat. I chose a spot ten feet ahead of me this time, and envisioned myself there as Twilight had taught me. The same feeling as before took hold, and I felt a spark leap from my horn as I teleported the ten feet forward, this time ending on all fours. 'Phew,' I thought, examining myself, making sure I was in one piece. I then gauged how far the yard was across, finally deciding it was roughly the same distance as yesterday. I wondered, 'should I really be doing this after one successful attempt?' All in the name of experience I thought as I teleported across the beach, and landed on my right feet, then righted myself.

"Must just take experience," I confirmed, muttering to myself.

"Quite." Said a voice behind me. I turned around quickly to see…princess Luna! I bowed quickly, not letting myself think about who had just addressed me to save myself from nerves, too late.

"I see the newcomer knows his manners," She commented, "You learn those spells from Twilight, Joseph?"

I stood back up wondering how she knew my name and that I was new here.

"Uhm," I tried, my throat getting parched, "Y-yes."

Princess Luna smiled at me.

"Sorry, Twilight wrote my sister earlier about a new stallion in town, and wrote how Rainbow had heard you two talking about Earth, so I assumed…"

"Well yes…I am from Earth, Princess," I confirmed.

"Please, just call me Luna," she asked.

"O-okay," I stuttered.

"Good, I just came to let you know that my sister Celestia and the elements are to pay you a visit today." She informed me.

A thought occurred to me, "Wait, how did you know I was awake?"

"Oh," She blushed slightly, "I heard the beautiful song you played on that shiny bit of yours."

"My Trumpet? How'd you know I played it for Vinyl?" I asked her, eyeing her suspiciously.

"Oh so that's what Pinkie was talking about earlier," She pondered aloud, "Well okay, I started watching after I heard you started playing, the flowers were…interesting," She commented.

"Ah yea…" I felt myself getting red, "Just practicing my…uh…skills…"

"Well, when you're teleporting, don't just think of where, but on your feet as well." She offered.

"Thank you, and nice meeting you pr- Luna."

"Yes, you too Joseph."

She flew off, and I practiced for about another hour. All the intense focus wore me out, so I decided to nap until 8:30. I went and sat on the couch and closed my eyes, falling asleep quickly.

I woke up again at 8:00, as indicated by the clock on the wall between the shelf and CD player. Since I was up, I thought to try my hand at cooking, one of the few things I enjoyed with my father before he left.

I snooped around the kitchen, pulling out the various supplies- or their equivalent- needed for some home-made pancakes. Some of the replacements were funny, actually, one of which being instead of vanilla, there was "Pinkie's homestyle delicious bean squeeze." I checked twice before putting it into the batter, to make sure it wasn't anything weird, but it was honest-to-God vanilla if I'd ever tasted it.

I set up the griddle on the stove and got the spatula ready as I poured the batter on. I flashed back momentarily to my dad and I doing this very same thing on mother's day one year. It was the first time he had let me help out with it, since I was eight and he felt I could handle it. Back to the present, I flipped the pancakes, starting to smell them as the scent almost visibly wafted towards the stairs. I chuckled, loving the physics of this new world. I flipped them again, seeing that they were done, and set them on a plate waiting on the end of the counter, as I could tell by the scent cloud that she would be floating in soon.

It didn't take long for my prediction to come true. I had begun on the second round of four for myself, and watched her being beckoned by the scent, led by her nose until she touched down and opened her eyes. She looked around, clearly confused, until she saw the food all ready for her on the counter. She shook her head, smiling.

"You made me breakfast?" she asked, still smiling.

"You bet! I'll join you in a sec," I replied, taking my pancakes off the griddle.

I watched her, waiting for her reaction as she took the first bite. She closed her eyes and seemed to like it. Upon swallowing she looked over to me, as I took a seat across from her.

"Joe these are amazing! Where did you get the recipe?" Not knowing the pain behind the answer to that question.

"Thanks, it's the recipe me and my...dad used to make…" I said looking off, lost in memories of better times between us.

"Oh, I'm sorry." She replied, pausing in her eating.

"Oh don't be," I said snapping back to reality, "I'm glad to share my recipe with you."

She smiled.

"By the way, Princess Luna found me last night practicing my magic and told me to be expecting her sister and the elements later today." I told her.

"Cool," she replied, "Are you gonna tell them about your being human and whatnot?"

"Believe it or not, Rainbow was eavesdropping on us during lunch and caught me talking about being human and told Twilight, so they all know already."

She "humph"ed in disbelief, mouth full of pancake.

"Well then we need to do some setting up for them before they get here." She said after swallowing.

"Like what?"

"Putting the extra chairs from the basement into the piano room. Maybe you can use you're new 'skills' to help," She joked, doing air quotes with her whole forearm, no fingers and what not.

"Alright then," I teleported right behind her and whispered sensuously in her ear, "I'd love to help out," making her jump as I grabbed her plate and teleported to the sink to start washing up. She gave me the evil eye, but started laughing along with me when she couldn't hold the face any longer. She told me to meet her in the basement once I was done. A few minutes later and I was in the basement picking up folding chairs and taking them upstairs. I took the seven for them and Vinyl took the two for us.

Around two, we heard a knock on the door. I walked up to the door and opened it, and my mind went berserk. There before me were each of the elements of harmony, and Celestia herself standing in front of me, staring at me as I ushered her and the others into the house. We all took seats in the piano room.

"Hello Joseph, I am princess Celestia co-ruler of Equestria."

"It is nice to m-meet you too P-princess," I stammered a little while speaking, causing Fluttershy to look up at me through her mane, maybe because she does the same thing.

I almost asked how she knew my name, but then I remembered that Rainbow told her.

Celestia nodded, "My pupil here has told me much about you and your talent for magic."

"Oh, I would't say I'm talented-" I began before Twilight interrupted.

"Not talented? You mastered invisibility in the time it took me to show you the book and the two minutes it took me to grab a glass of water!"

"Yes," Celestia looked over at twilight for being rude, "My sister observed your little display with the flowers and practicing your other spells as well."

"Well…Um…" I couldn't handle all the ponies staring at me for some reason. I glanced at Fluttershy again, and she smiled at me and I felt a surge of confidence. "Yes I was practicing yesterday after accidentally waking up Vinyl with my sleep-moaning."

"Sleep-moanin'?" Inquired AppleJack, "I've heard of sleep-talkin', but not sleep-moanin'?"

"Well since my back got bruised pretty substantially yesterday, when I rolled over in my sleep, I must've started moaning from the pain and Vinyl heard and got worried." I responded.

"Oh yea, sorry about that." Pinkie said, rubbing her neck.

"No problem Pinkie pie, honestly."

Celestia cleared her throat, gaining our attention, "Now Joseph, what is this that Rainbow told us about you talking about Earth?"

I looked at Vinyl, who nodded, and sighed. Hope this goes over well.

"Well, yes I was a human, brought here by Vinyl roughly two days ago," I began. "I had met her at the movies after I left my house due to my parents fighting…" and I went on to tell them the whole story of meeting her, the cryptic message, being turned into my preferred pony, not losing their attention for a moment.

"I'm so sorry," Fluttershy, of all ponies, said.

"Ya your life sucks," chimed in Rainbow, earning looks from all the other elements, "What?"

"What she means is that it sounds like you've had quite the rough life darling," Rarity explained.

"Thank you, all of you. It means a lot." I told them.

It was quiet for about a minute until Rainbow spotted my case that I had moved to under the piano before they had got here. I had just felt that a trumpet fit better in a room with a piano.

"Hey you never told me what was in that case," Rainbow pointed out to me.

I smiled to myself, "Alright Rainbow, instead of telling you what it is, you're just going to have to listen for yourself." She bore a confused look on her face as I stood up and got out my trumpet. I could see excitement in Vinyl's eyes as she remembered me serenading her to sleep. Pinkie too seemed to know what my trumpet was, probably from the para-sprite incident, but still probably didn't quite remember the individual sound of a trumpet.

I thought of a song to play for them, and settled for Pachabel's Canon in D. I raised the horn to my lips and felt the same energy pulsing as before. This time I channeled it into my lips and lungs, allowing for better note-tone and clarity, as I started the first note. As some know, the canon starts slow, each note extended for maximum effect with vibrato. I then begin on the faster notes as the note values become shorter, leading to the main theme. I crescendo to it, adding a pause before playing the melody up an octave higher than normal, and it comes out incredibly clean as the harder melody came and I began sweating it as became quite difficult for me to play. I made it through though, and as I played the final few notes. I lowered my trumpet pleased. It then struck me that It was completely silent in the room. I looked around and they just stared back, even Vinyl who had heard me already, was jaw-dropped in amazement like the others.

"Uh…you liked it?" I asked trying to return them to the world.

Again, surprisingly enough, it was Fluttershy who spoke up first, "It was wonderful Joseph!"

"Yes it was truly magnificent," praised Rarity.

"Thank you," I said getting flushed.

As the others awoke, Celestia announced it was time to leave. We said our goodbyes, and the elements all left for their respective houses.
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Hi all. In case your wondering about what the hell is going on in the last chapter, it's all music terminology, and isn't necessary for understanding the rest of the story, so don't worry about it. If you haven't heard the canon, look it up on youtube, there are a crap-ton of video's with it so it shouldn't be hard to find. Just search "Pachabel Canon in D." Until next chapter!

-Skiskinator