Mezzo truly loved to play the piano (hell, it’s in his name), so when he and Rarity returned from a complicated and stressful day, it only seemed fitting for him to let off steam by playing Rarity’s piano.

Despite him not playing for the past few weeks, Mezzo picked up quickly and was playing as good as he had ever been. Rarity practically squealed in delight at his playing.

‘Darling, you are truly wonderful behind a set of keys!’ She spoke in a joyous tone as Mezzo stood.

‘Well, thanks, it’s been a while.’ He replied, slightly blushing in the process.
Rarity made food for the 3 of them to eat, as Sweetie Belle went into her room texting somebody, Mezzo looked around and then finally asked
Rarity:

‘Sooooooo… who is this Vinyl Scratch?’

‘Well, where do I start, she’s in senior year at Canterlot high, like us. She’s one of the most popular DJ’s in Canterlot, too. In a relationship with a one
“Octavia” a cellist of Manehattan origin.’

‘Wait,’ Mezzo interrupted Rarity. ‘So a DJ and a Cellist together, that’s a bit weird, don’t you think, seeing as they have different tastes in music and all?’

Rarity nodded her head slightly. ‘Vinyl also has helped us out a few times in the past, it’s complicated.’

Rarity took a few moments to recollect her thoughts, then started up talking again.

‘Although lately she’s seemed to have taken her job too seriously, she’s gotten a lot of money, yet she still asks Sunset to pay out a shit-ton of
money for a record table she broke out of anger, I find it unfair because, well… she has no money and no parents.’

‘Wait, so she’s an orphan?’ Mezzo was morbidly curious to delve into Sunset Shimmers dark past.

‘Well, not necessarily…’ Rarity awkwardly explained about Sunset Shimmer being a pony from Equestria, and also about her becoming a she-demon, and then her becoming friends. It took Rarity almost an hour to get through the back-story, and Mezzo was left with a face of shock, confusion and disbelief.

‘Well… Whatever she is, we are going to save Sunset Shimmer!’ Mezzo Piano stook up triumphantly.

‘Darling, you’re willing to raise 15,000 bits for a girl you’ve met twice?’ Rarity was surprised, yet interested.

‘Well we had only met for a few hours and you’ve let me live here for the rest of the year.’

‘Yeah, well… thatwasoutofmygenerousheartwhatareyoutalkingabout?’ Rarity put on a smile and walked over to the couch, of which she turned on the TV. Mezzo sat beside her, and before they knew it, the time was 3 o’clock. Rarity was lay asleep on Mezzo’s shoulder, she was rather snuggled up towards him. Mezzo chuckled to himself at how adorable she looked, then he too fell asleep.

Mezzo woke up the way he fell asleep, with Rarity’s head lay on his shoulder, the pianist looked up to see an annoyed and slightly suspicious Sweetie Belle stood there, arms crossed, lips pouted, face screwed up.

‘Mezzo Piano?’ she said in a rather harsh tone of voice.

‘Yes, Sweetie Belle?’ Mezzo yawned as he replied.

‘What did you do with Rarity last night?’

‘Nothing, why do you ask?’

‘You two obviously look like an item!!’

‘Yeah well you’re mistaken. All we did was watch TV then went to bed.’

At this point, Rarity started coming to. Sweetie Belle stopped the argument before it had even begun and ran back into her room with a slam on the door.

‘Huh…’ Rarity looked into Mezzo’s eyes. ‘…do I look a mess?’

‘Well, I don’t think you do, but what does my opinion matter anyway?’

Rarity giggled a little bit and clung onto Mezzo’s arm like a monkey would. Was Sweetie Belle right? Does Rarity really think they’re an item?
Nah, its 9.35, too early for thinking.

‘So, what are you going to do whilst I’m at Fluttershy’s, Rarity?’ Mezzo slung his scarf around his neck as he interrogated her.

‘Well, I have a few errands to run, and I have to start making a dress for an important client. I won’t be bored, to say the least.’ Rarity replied, sparking of laughter between the two of them.

‘Listen, I’ll see you later, ok?’ Rarity said, giving Mezzo a tight, yet inviting hug.

‘Yeah, of course you will.’ Mezzo waved her goodbye and shut the door behind him.

The walk to Fluttershy’s house was a thought-filled one, as Mezzo was finally alone for the first time in 2 days and could actually let things sink in. Why did Fluttershy want to speak to him and him alone? He barely knows a thing about the girl, she speaks so rarely and really keeps herself secluded from the rest of the group, so she could be anything. Maybe she’s a serial killer who leaves her victims in a shed. Too far? Probably.

Fluttershy didn’t essentially live in a house, more like a cottage, rightly so considering that she lived on the outskirts of Canterlot. Mezzo gave 3 solid knocks on the door. After about a 30 second wait, Fluttershy’s pale hand opened the door a crack and looked towards Mezzo with her striking blue eyes, then finally opened the door fully with an excited smile on her face.

‘Oh Mezzo, I’m so glad you could come!’ Fluttershy hugged Mezzo, whilst it was a rather weak hug, it still surprised him.

‘Well, I’m a bit confused, why did you want me come around, Fluttershy.’ The pianist asked.

‘Well…’ Fluttershy played with her hair for a bit, her eyes darting in all directions, then finally spoke up. ‘I don’t know really, I think I just want to get to know you more.’

‘Sure, what do you want to do?’

‘Ummm, I’m not very sure. I could make you a drink or something if you want.’

‘Yeah, sure, why not?’

The two of them sat for a couple of hours, some moments awkwardly quiet, some moments speaking whatever came to their heads. The afternoon really had some ups and downs for that reason. Mezzo didn’t question where Fluttershy’d parents were, but he was too invested in the surprisingly weird stories she had from her childhood, he really didn’t care. All of a sudden, it was dusk. Fluttershy yawned and looked at the time.

‘Oh goodness, it’s 7 o’clock!’ She alerted Mezzo. To which he responded in a panicked fashion.

‘Oh, shit, Rarity will be worried sick!’ He slung his coat on and headed for the door. ‘Listen, Fluttershy, I’ve got to dash.’

‘Oh it’s alright,’ Fluttershy gave Mezzo a hug, similar to the one he received before. Then she remembered something. ‘Wait, Mezzo.’

‘Yeah, Fluttershy.’

‘Well, you know how Hearths Warming Eve is coming up?’

‘Yeah?’

‘Well…’ Fluttershy froze in position and her pupils shrank, she was obviously terrified. ‘Oh, nevermind.’ She bent back and played with her hair again.

‘Oh, ok. I’ll see you tomorrow at school, right?’

She perked up for that small moment. ‘Right.’

Mezzo started the dark walk back to Rarity’s house. The streets were usually very hard to see through at this time in winter. Mezzo Piano was scared
in case he found a pickpocket in the streets.

He bumped into someone, fortunately it wasn’t a pickpocket, but instead it was Vinyl Scatch, eyes covered with shades (still able to see through the darkness), also a beanie on her head which still left her electric blue hair peek out underneath from.

‘Wait, aren’t you Sunset Shimmer’s friend?’ she asked rather rudely.

‘Why yes I am.’ Mezzo replied nonchalantly.

‘Listen, she still owes me that 15 large, you hear?’

‘We’ll get it sorted out, just you wait.’

Vinyl gave a small, yet friendly smirk. ‘We? Saying that makes you two sound like a couple, I thought you were gay…’

‘Well that would be a wrong assumption, Miss Scratch.’ Mezzo got a tad too defensive over her statement.

Vinyl backed off slightly. ‘Listen, I’m attracted to my own gender myself, so I was just making a passing remark, ‘tis all.’

‘Right.’

‘Also, a bit of a problem, with the whole money situation…’

‘Why, what is it?’ Mezzo got suspicious.

‘Well… I kinda need it in a week.’

Mezzo was devastated.

‘A FUCKING WEEK?! ARE YOU SERIOUS?!’

‘Well I can’t perform at the Heath’s Warming Eve concert with the shitty old table I have now, you’ll need to cough up, sorry, dude.’

‘Bu—We—gah, fine… we’ll sort it out.’ Mezzo felt like hiding in a whole and pulling it in behind him.

‘So, Darling, how was your day with Fluttershy.’ Rarity squealed as Mezzo Piano dragged his bones through the door before slumping on the couch.

‘It was alright, I guess.’ Mezzo sighed as he looked right away from the fashionista.

‘You, guess? Mezzo, what’s wrong?’

‘Well, on the way home I bumped into Vinyl.’

‘Aaaaaand?’

‘She wants us to pay up in a week.’

Rarity tried to scream, but she hit the ground and passed out instead. When she came to, Mezzo had her lay on the couch, with a hot water bottle placed over her forehead. Then she sat up and screamed.

‘Jesus, Rarity, calm down!’ Mezzo covered his ears as he shouted.

‘Sorry darling, but WHERE THE FUCK ARE WE GOING TO GET THE MONEY?!’

‘Listen, you know the concert that the Rainbooms are perfoming in, when is it?’

Rarity managed to collect herself before speaking again. ‘That would be this Friday.’

‘Couldn’t we just make all the money we earn go to Vinyl?’

‘Hmmm, possibly, but the school gets half the earnings, so we would need to raise 30 thousand bits…’

‘Gosh, that’ll be hard, I don’t think major league football games earn that much.’ The two of them should be in a panicked state, but instead they were just utterly hopeless. Rarity pulled a pocket calculator from her shirt pocket and put on her glasses.

‘Well, let’s think of it this way, theres the 6 of us, 15000 into 7 is about 2143 each, that’s not so hard, now. Is it?’

‘But who could make that kind of money in a week each?’

‘True, but the money could still be found from somewhere. I still make money from the dresses, AJ makes money from the farm, and Fluttershy earns expenses from voluntary vet work.’

‘But what about me, Pinkie, Rainbow, and most importantly, Sunset?’

The two of them sat, the gears turning in their heads. Finally, a lightbulb flickered in Rarity’s brain.

‘Mezzo, I’ve got it!!’ Rarity yelled and grabbed Mezzo’s shoulders. ‘Right, so how about we combine both ideas. We get as much as we can from the concert and then me, Applejack and Fluttershy mop up whatever money we need left!’

‘Rarity, that’s a great idea!’ Yelled Mezzo, and they pranced about in Rarity’s front room.

‘We’ll tell the others in school tomorrow. But for now, Mezzo, care for some Chinese, my treat!’ Rarity flashed her credit card from her purse.

‘Oh go on then.’ He laughed as Rarity walked into the kitchen.

Sweetie Belle walked out of her room and slowly approached Mezzo.

‘What do you think you’re doing with my sister?!’ She yelled.

Sheeh, overprotective much?

‘Nothing that concerns you.’ Mezzo said in a joking fashion, but it seemed that Sweetie Belle didn’t find the joke very funny at all.

‘Yeah, if I catch you two doing the same thing you did this morning, don’t expect me to treat you so kindly.’ She turned at sat on the couch, where
she proceeded to watch TV for pretty much the rest of the night.

Finally, at 9 o’clock, the Chinese food had arrived. Rarity gave Mezzo a box of noodles and they tucked in.

‘Oh my god, I’m so hungry.’ Mezzo slurped the noodles and gulped them down rather quickly.

‘I can tell you’re enjoying it.’ Rarity smiled, her eye twitching slightly at the uncivilised manner of eating. She put it to one side.

‘So, it’s the Hearths Warming Eve ball coming up.’ Rarity started making conversation as she drank from her soda can.

‘I know, Fluttershy told me about it.’ Mezzo gulped a mouthful of noodles down his throat.

‘Why, did she ask you to be her date?’ Rarity raised an eyebrow and looked dead into Mezzo Piano’s green eyes.

‘No. She was about to mention something about it, but she didn’t have the guts to say so, doesn’t surprise me…’

Rarity was confused as to why Mezzo was being so oblivious.

‘You do realise she was going to ask you to the ball, right?’ Rarity was close to slapping the guy across the face.

‘Well… I… uh… I don’t really want to talk about it.’

‘Why not, Darling?’

‘Well, I always had a massive fear of rejections; I guess I’m just not very good at those kinds of things. I’ve never had a girlfriend since I was a freshman, and even then it wasn’t serious. So I just don’t ask anyone anymore, for the sake of embarrassment.’

Rarity gave a small ‘aww’ to show sorrow for the pianist. She then blurted out. ‘How could you not go with Fluttershy, have you seen the tit’s on her, they even make ME jealous!’

Both Mezzo and Sweetie Belle gave faces of disgust towards Rarity. She looked at the two of them.

‘What, was it something I said? I mean it, it doesn’t help she wears those skimpy vest tops of hers.’ Rarity spent the rest of the evening staring at her
own breasts from time to time.

Even though Mezzo didn’t care to admit it, he did lock his eyes onto Fluttershy’s chest every now and again.

‘Mezzo?’

‘Yeah?’

‘I would like to help you find a date for the Hearths Warming Eve ball.’

‘Fine, I’d like to see you try.’

‘Oh don’t be so down hearted darling, I always can play Cupid.’

She sat in silence as she thought for Mezzo Piano’s sake.

‘Well put it this way. Since Applejack and Rainbow Dash are going together-’

‘Wait, they are together?’

‘Um, yeah! Did you not see it over this weekend?’

Now that I think about it, they were a little too close to each other on Friday.

Rarity carried on her sentence ‘As I was saying, if you remove me from the equation too, for the sake of being fair and since I have this huge crush on this guy, you are left with Fluttershy, Sunset Shimmer and “your best friend” Pinkie Pie.’

‘Well me and Pinkie did go out in 6th grade…’

‘Who knows, you could give it another shot.’

‘Huh, maybe I could, but I’m not romantically invested in her.’

‘Well are you with into of them, or are you gay?’

‘No I’m not gay. Shut up.’

‘Calm down Mezzo, that’s all I’m saying.’ Rarity chuckled, as to which Mezzo started to laugh too. Soon enough they were in an uncontrollable state of laughter. Sweetie Belle looked onto them with apathetic eyes and continued to watch TV.

After she had gone to bed, Mezzo got ready for bed, Rarity did too, she walked out of her room wearing nothing but a T-Shirt and her panties.

‘Jesus Christ, it’s freezing in this house.’

‘I can tell…’ Mezzo muttered under his breath.

‘What was that?’

‘Oh nothing, I was speaking to myself.’

Once again, the two of them watched TV, yet Rarity tried to keep her distance from Mezzo, which surprised him a considerable amount.
‘You know what, fuck it,’ Rarity switched off the TV and turned to the confused Mezzo.

‘Um, yeah, what is it?’

‘I… don’t know how to say this… but you know that guy I said I liked?’

‘Yeah, I would say I do.’

‘I’m sorry darling, but that person is you.’

Mezzo was gobsmacked. Rarity, the elegant, beautiful Rarity was into him? Another thing was the surprising kiss on the lips from the girl. It was short, it was sweet, but most of all, it was pleasant.

‘I’m going to bed, think things over for me, just about the money, and the ball, will you?’

‘Uh, yeah, sure thing!’ Mezzo just needed her to go to bed, that’s all.

‘Also, don’t tell a soul about what has just happened. I love you, Mezzo.’ Rarity said in an embarrassed, yet heartfelt state. She walked into her bedroom and shut the door. Mezzo sat awkwardly and unable to move, the previous minute had left the guy in shellshock.

Throughout the night, he heard crying from Rarity’s room; Mezzo couldn’t catch a wink of sleep, so he just heard the sobbing emanate from the bedroom door, which was a sign of both sadness and torment wrapped up in one.

How was Mezzo supposed to react to this? She liked him, did he like her too? Did she be so nice to Mezzo, not out of friendship, but out of love?
A buzz came from Mezzo’s phone, who else could it be other than Pinkie Pie?

Pinkie Pie- 01:34
‘We need to talk tomorrow, meet me outside the school for 8.’

Mezzo Piano- 01:34
‘Why? What’s happened now?’

Pinkie Pie- 01:35
‘I can’t really say, it’s about Rarity.’

Mezzo Piano- 01:35
‘Should I be worried?’

Pinkie Pie- 01:35
‘Nah XP’

That usually meant he should worry…

Author's Note

In this chapter, I have 2 secret little references, one is an easy 'PONY.MOV ' one, the other is a much harder 'Sunset Boulevard' reference. If you figured them both out, well done, have a muffin.

Make sure you give a rating and some constructive criticism for this. Thanks and have a fantabulous day!

-TheOldRedHills