Muffins giggled and stepped around behind the counter. "You two seem to have made friends. Take your time and just lay down." The alicorn lifted her head as a customer came in, the slumped Sweetie at her hooves. "Hi, welcome to Sweetie Drops Candies!"

Sweetie curled up behind the counter, one hoof reaching down to rub the nursing Nuzzles on the head. The feeling of him drinking her milk was a little strange. It wasn't quite sexual pleasure, but it certainly was pleasurable. There was a dash of maternal protection and delight thrown in that would confuse the mare if the drugs the feeding induced in her system didn't make her so easily just accept it.

Nuzzles only knew the nice mare was letting him feed and, more, she seemed to be petting him. He couldn't believe how lucky he had been to find Lyra and Sweetie, their two names certainly stuck in his head. At last, though, his belly was full and he couldn't take another drop. Letting go of the mare's swollen teat, giving it a few licks for good measure, he looked up at the big gray pony standing over them.

"I thought we agreed you would stay in the dungeon?" Muffins looked down at the now worried-looking pup. Her heart broke as it seemed even plant-wolves were able to use puppy eyes. "Oh don't give me that, what happened?"

"It was all Lyra's fault." Sweetie was recovering from the attack and managed to get shaky hooves under her. "We were working through the dungeon and she found him first. Then… well, he is nice."

"I left a bud in the dungeon, they will grow up into another of me!" Nuzzles was half-hiding behind Sweetie, she seemed better able to stand up against the alicorn. At the very least she was bigger than him.

"You and Lyra will take care of him? I don't want to hear of random ponies accosted by naughty little green puppies." Muffins opened her saddle bags and fished out two of her namesake, offering one to Sweetie.

"They have plenty of milk for me!" Nuzzles poked his head out again to defend Sweetie. "Please don't be mad at her, or Lyra…" The little green pup suddenly had a very large pony crouch down right in front of him. "Eep!"

Muffins reached a hoof out to pet Nuzzles. "You just promise me, no budding unless there is a new owner who understands what it means to take care of one of you. And only feed off Lyra or Sweetie, unless they tell you that you can feed off somepony else."

Nuzzles liked petting and leaned up into the hoof working over his head and shoulders. "Okay!"

"Now, the most important reason for coming in. Sweetie, I want a bag of chocolates please." Muffins got back up and stepped around, coming back to the customer side of the counter.

"Of course!" Sweetie felt relief, she really didn't want to have had to fight for little Nuzzles, but something about the creature just made her feel… protective. She didn't even care that it was likely the nursing that was making her feel so motherly toward him.

Octavia sat in silence. It wasn't the kind of silence that you got home, alone. There were over a thousand ponies in the audience. The silence was pregnant.

The earth pony mare lifted her bow in one hoof, carefully pressing her other to the strings just so, and started to play. Normally she played the classics but tonight was something special. In the crowd, in the front row, the writer of this track and love of her life sat, without her ubiquitous headphones on.

Their eyes locked.

Octavia didn't need to look at the sheets before her, she ignored them and listened to the song as it played in her head. It had extra accompaniment, it had Vinyl.

Vinyl was in awe. She had performed so much she had lost count, but when this many ponies went silent, dead silent, to hear just one mare perform, it was really something. Her glasses were off, even if she still had problems with bright lights she would have had them off. Octavia was looking directly at her, listening to their shared song as the cellist led and the DJ followed.

There weren't words for this music, there was barely even a full accompaniment. The song had been written purely for the cello and as Vinyl listened to the song her lover played, both from her cello and her mind, she realized it was maybe the best she had ever made.

Tears came, Octavia could see, but Vinyl's mind sang on with glory and pleasure. The time shifted, then again, this was not a work based purely off classical music, but drew from all music.

When the last notes of the song slowly drained from the strings and F-holes, the final chord faded to clopping and stomping. The crowd was on its hooves and was banging them against anything they had nearby. Octavia set her instrument carefully aside, stood up. But she didn't take a bow, not yet. Stepping to the edge of the stage, she reached a hoof down to Vinyl, the DJ looking shocked and shaking her head. "Get up here!" Octavia's growl got drowned out by the crowd.

Vinyl couldn't fight it though. Tavi got her way and the unicorn was hauled up, to the surprise of the audience who went quiet again. "You might not have recognized the unique music I performed tonight. It didn't come from the pens of long-past composers." Octavia leaned against Vinyl and gave the mare a light peck on the cheek. "My composer for the night, Vinyl, DJ Pon-e, Scratch."

The applause poured from the crowd as Octavia led her partner into a bow.

"You didn't have to do this." Vinyl's voice was almost lost to the crowd.

Octavia's head was still ringing with song, the tree had loved their performance and was sending them a new tune, one that wasn't theirs. Both mares gave a light blush as they realized that it was another mare with some talent having quite a lot of fun.

"Yes I did." Octavia gave a final bow and turned to give Vinyl a proper kiss, much to the delight of the crowd.

Starry found Starlight sitting in the dining room the next day at breakfast. "Hi, ready to start your new life?"

Starlight looked up sharply, seeing the bubbly unicorn. It was hard to keep dour in the sight of such happiness, particularly early in the morning. "That's just it, what am I going to do with my life?" Her hoof poked at the plate of salad she had made. "I can't even cook. Everypony can cook!"

"Would you like some pancakes?" Starry shivered a little and it was clear to Starlight it was Twinkle talking next. "Please say yes, she only makes them when somepony else is around and they are amazing!"

"Okay, pancakes would be delicious. Thank you Starry, Twinkle." It really wasn't a delusion, Starlight had worked out, there really was another aspect to the mare. "I wonder if the town could use an enchantress. I could help brainwash poor ponies out of bad habits."

Starry giggled. "Or into them. What about opening a magic school?" Noticing the look from Starlight, the infested unicorn blinked. "What?"

"I… I never… I never went to a school, a unicorn school, myself. I wouldn't know how to run one." Starlight looked a little pensive.

"Well you could turn that around. For a start the Princess is one of the greatest of Princess Celestia's school's alumni, she could certainly start your formal education in more than just friendship." Starry left the kitchen door open so they could keep talking. "And who knows, she might sponsor you to go to Canterlot and learn magic."

"Who's going to Canterlot to learn magic?" Twilight's voice in the dining room startled Starry and she poked her head out. "Good morning Starry, Twinkle, Starlight." The Princess of Friendship was awake and apparently free of the costume she had been wearing the previous day.

"Good morning Twilight!" Twinkle grabbed control again, sticking a mental tongue out at Starry, who then continued. "We were just talking about what Starlight could do. She never went to magic school!"

"I was wondering when that would come up. Starlight, I would be happy to teach and learn magic from and to you, but friendship is the most important lesson first. Without friendship there is no reason to have magic." Twilight settled in opposite her student.

"Good morning, and you are right. I already have plenty of magic, but without friends it is just… boring." Starlight looked dour.

"Right. And while you might know magic, you don't know-know magic. Starlight, you have so much power that, untrained, you had me struggling to keep up. I want you to have friends that will help you want to learn more and gain the kind of magic your potential can really support." Twilight gave a nod to this, producing a long scroll from thin air. "Now, first thing on the list, we really should visit the Crystal Empire, Cadance and Shining have a big event they want me to be at and it would be the perfect time for you to meet new ponies."

"The Crystal Empire?" Starlight looked amazed, she was born and raised a small-town mare and the idea of living in a castle was pretty crazy, but visiting the Crystal Empire to meet the royal family? Madness! "Wait, 'Cadance and Shining'?"

"My brother and sister in-law." Twilight beamed and nodded to the question, seeing the unicorn shocked by the news. "What's wrong?"

"Just… just getting…" Starlight was almost lost for words. She had been such an idiot, thinking stopping Princess Twilight Sparkle from making her friends wouldn't have affected the world. She wasn't just 'raised to royalty', she was apparently born to it. "You are the teacher." Starlight finally got her words in order and smiled.

"Pancakes!" Starry trotted out, setting down a plate stacked high with the breakfast food, levitating over all kinds of condiments to use on them. She sat down herself and started taking her share. "Will anypony else be joining us?"

"Spike is staying at Cloud's, Gel is spending the day working in the basement." Twilight spread a pancake with syrup and started in on it.

As if on cue a blue pegasus poked her head in, a blonde-green maned head poking in above it. "Hi Twilight!" Rainbow Dash and Muffins said together, both giggling at their chorus.

"Just heading down to help Gel, got some new ideas for the dungeon." Rainbow had to fight not to pounce in on the pancakes, she had already had breakfast, made for her by her new marefriend.

"Have fun, and try not to break anything!" Twilight waved a hoof at them only to see Lyra and Sweetie take the place they vacated. "You too?"

Both giggled and nodded, darting off as well.

"What is this dungeon? You don't seem like the kind of princess who needs somewhere for prisoners." Starlight was a little confused but more confusing was that her question made both Twilight and Starry blush.

"Well, uh, it is sort of... a race track." Twilight fished for ways to explain it. "Also an obstacle course, you have to try to get from one end to the other as quick as possible."

"It started off as a game," Starry finished nomming a pancake, "but thanks to an odd spell it has taken a bit of a… kinky, turn." This news made Starlight's eyes go wide. "Yes, whatever odd or strange thing you just thought of, yes."

All three mares stuffed a pancake in their mouths to keep from asking or answering more questions

"Like, hay there Mother of the Forest. I heard you singing a new song. Way gnarly." Tree Hugger approached the huge tree, reaching for it and resting hoof and head against the old bark. "You heard mine?" Shock colored the mare's words before she smiled again and relaxed her energies. "Did you like it?"

The song in that part of the forest surged, a counterpoint to the song Tree had sung woven into the very rustling of the leaves. "Righteous."

"Told you she would be here." Vinyl's voice came from behind Tree and she turned slowly to look back at the white unicorn.

"Sisters of the song, a calm and joyous greeting." Tree's eyes were half-closed as usual, she waited for Octavia and Vinyl to come closer to the tree. "What brings your energies here today?"

Vinyl got close first and raised a hoof, getting a sound clop from the hippie. "We came to see her, and you." Vinyl arched her neck, tilting her head back to gaze up into the branches. The song from the tree was much stronger here, and full of happiness. She didn't even need to think about it, her creative mind already making music in her head for the tree to hear.

"Thank you." Octavia stepped instead to the tree, resting a hoof against the bark. Leaning further the mare kissed the wood. "We thought our lives were complete, but we were missing so much harmony."

A loud thump sounded as a branch hit the ground. The song in each of them changed and shifted, the branch was a gift.

"This is huge." Vinyl approached the fallen limb, noting the way that it had just sort of pinched off at the base. "This is for Octavia, isn't it?"

The music wove those words, not the actual words, but the sound of them, it was like the very forest whispered, 'for Octavia.'

"There is enough, I think." Octavia leaned down and examined the wood, assuming the tree had made it perfect and true, with no knots or imperfections. "Yes, there is."

"I don't grok this, what has mother given you?" Tree was a little confused, her own melody reflecting that.

"A cello. I think I can dry out this wood and make a cello from it." Octavia trotted back to the main trunk and kissed it again, her music soaring with love.

Author's Note

Ah, musical puns... huh? Why would you wish harm-on-(m)e?

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