“Seriously, Twilight, what’s the deal?”
“I told you, it’s a secret.”
“I hate secrets.”
“You love secrets.”
“Well … I hate not knowing secrets.”
“That’s as may be. I’m still not telling you where we’re going.”
“Do you know how dangerous it is to fly with your eyes closed!?”
“Don’t worry, we’re perfectly safe.”
“Twilight, you flew into a tree just last week! You, safe and flying are not words that go together – yet,” Rainbow Dash finished, not wanting to hurt Twilight’s feelings even as her own frustration mounted.
“Well we’re not flying over trees, so it’s fine.”
She sent up a silent prayer for the patience she had never wanted before. “Twilight.” An edge crept into her voice. “Where. Are. We. Going?”
“You’ll know it when we get there.”
“Argh! You’re so … so … exasperating! And don’t you dare compliment me on my vocabulary!” she added, knowing even without seeing that Twilight had opened her mouth to do just that. She practically heard it click closed again.
Twilight guided her down after a few more minutes and the intricacies of a more urban landscape filled her remaining senses. Rainbow turned her head this way and that, trying to get a bead on where they might be. The accent was wrong for Canterlot and they hadn’t flown far enough for the Crystal Empire. Manehattan maybe? It smelled like a city. She could hear the clip-clop of hooves in tandem with the swoosh-rattle of taxi wheels. She scrutinised the many voices she could hear and resisted the urge to tear off her blindfold.
“Nu-uh!” Twilight chided, pushing down her hoof. “This way.”
“I swear, sometimes you’re more evil than all our enemies put together!”
She responded with a soft, adorable, absolutely infuriating giggle. Putting a hoof over Rainbow’s withers, she led her along what felt like a cobblestone street. Several times Rainbow’s hooves slipped and she cursed at her wrenching ankles.
“Not far now,” Twilight assured. “It’s just down this alley and then down a few steps.”
“This had better be worth it,” Rainbow grumbled.
The street sounds and voices of other ponies faded with the increased echo of their own hooves. Somewhere, Rainbow heard dripping water, like that time she had helped Apple Bloom fix a busted water chute while Applejack and Big Mac were visiting family. Her curiosity, already stretched to breaking point, threatened to snap like taut wire and slash a hole in her face for all the things she wouldn’t say to tumble out.
“Stop.”
“We’re here?”
“Yes.”
Twilight removed her foreleg. She still used a foreleg instead of a wing. It was such a … not-pegasus thing. So small, but Rainbow still noticed. One of the myriad things that made her love this stupid not-pegasus so much.
Once upon a time, Rainbow would have laughed in the face of anypony who told her she would someday lose her heart to a neurotic bookworm of a unicorn instead of the She would have kicked their tail if they had told her that unicorn would then ascend to alicornhood and shyly enquire about dating rituals amongst pegasi in a way even Rainbow wasn’t too dense to miss.
The rat-a-tat-tat of Twilight knocking on a door broke Rainbow from her reverie.
“Password?” said a muffled male voice.
“If you have to ask what it is, you'll never know,” Twilight replied.
The door unlocked. “Hi there, Twiley.”
“Hey Glissando.”
“Haven’t seen you in a while. Uh …” The male voice faltered. “Is she …”
“With me, yes. I’m vouching for her.”
“Actually I was going to say is she really blindfolded?”
“Oh. Yes. That too.”
“Twiley, you’ve been away a while. You know we’re not into anything kinky here –”
“What? Oh gosh, no!” Twilight flustered. “It’s not like that! I mean … I … she … it’s not like that! I’ve brought her here as a surprise for her birthiversary!”
“Her what?”
“Her … ugh, if she takes off the blindfold, can we come in?”
“Blindfold comes off, you come in.”
“Fine.” Irritation frosted Twilight’s words. Rainbow felt her magic untie the blindfold in a few brisk tugs that also removed a couple of strands of hair. “There.”
Rainbow blinked, her eyes adjusting to the sudden influx of light even as she was dragged by the foreleg through the doorway and into a dark corridor. Tiny balls of iridescence hovered near the ceiling, casting the place in a sickly green glow that was just enough to stop them falling over their own hooves. Behind them, the door to outside clanked closed.
“You’d think he would cut me a little slack,” Twilight muttered as she pulled Rainbow behind her like a puppy on a tight leash. “I mean, I am a friggin’ princess.”
“Friggin’?” Rainbow echoed. “I’m having a bad influence on you.”
Twilight stopped, apparently falling out of her annoyance with a bump. “Sorry. I just … I wanted this to be perfect.”
“Considering I have no idea what ‘this’ is, it’s not … um, imperfect yet?”
Twilight smiled. “Thank you for trying. C’mon, it’s just up ahead.”
“What is?”
Her smile turned ever so slightly evil. “You’ll see.”
“This had better be twenty percent better than amazing.”
“Are you still saying that?”
“It will be a thing if it kills me.”
Twilight shook her head indulgently. Her horn glowed. The door ahead of them opened. Beyond it was a large room scattered with round tables and an assortment of mismatching chairs. The walls were painted black, strung with black dropcloths like the back of a stage. An actual stage jutted partway into the room, threadbare red curtains drawn. As Rainbow watched, one of the tassels dropped off, hitting the boards with a soft thump.
“What is this place?” she asked.
“The place where magic happens, honey,” replied a deep voice she didn’t know.
“Huh?” Rainbow half turned, but a large pony swept past her to swing Twilight into a bone-crushing hug.
“Sparklebutt! I ain’t seen you in a dragon’s age!”
“Urk!” Twilight eloquently replied. “Hi … Scarlette … rrrrk!”
The enormous mare set Twilight down and caught her when she threatened to fall over. Inadvertently, all the hair along Rainbow’s ruff stood on end. That was her job! She watched, stuffing down her sudden spike of jealousy, as this ‘Scarlette’ character let go of her marefriend and beamed like she had struck oil while digging a sewer-pit.
“Where you been, girl?” Scarlette rumbled.
Twilight coughed. “Princess duties … take up … more of my time than I expected.” Her eyes slid to Rainbow Dash. “Plus I’ve had … other commitments.”
“Huh? Ohhhhhhhhh!” Scarlette turned the full force of her smile on Rainbow. “This your girl, Sparklebutt? Nice mane. I like it.”
“Uh … thanks …” Rainbow struggled to take in the full complement of coloured scarves the mare was drowning in. It was impossible to tell her own mane colour since every inch of her except her face and hooves was draped in a different swatch of fabric. Her bright gold eyes stared out of a face the colour of stormy rainclouds, set beneath a cowprint hat with a wide brim and the biggest, reddest plume Rainbow had ever seen in her life. Nestled atop the feather sat a pair of reflective sunglasses.
“Cute butt too. You brought her to a good show tonight.” Scarlette transferred her gaze back to Twilight and winked. “A real good show.”
“Oh my gosh, is Louis on?” Rainbow was surprised by the sudden fervour in Twilight’s voice.
Scarlette winked. “You betcha.”
Twilight let out a very unprincesslike squeal. “I hoped he would be but … well, you know.”
“No set list until the start of the show, that’s my motto.” Scarlette laughed uproariously. “Well, that and ‘rainbows, darling, rainbows!” She struck a pose to show off her scarves and the swish made several flutter in a way that almost resembled wings. “Speaking of, I’d better get backstage and top up his scotch. Toodles, honey.” She swished away.
Rainbow gave it a moment. “Sparklebutt?”
Twilight flushed crimson. “Shush.”
“Something I should know about?”
“Shush!”
“’Cause if my marefriend has a history –”
“It was a phase when I was a teenager, okay?”
Rainbow blinked. “Huh?”
“I tried to give myself a nickname. I thought it sounded …” She toed the worn-out carpet. “Cool.”
“You thought Sparklebutt sounded cool?”
“Did I mention I was an academic recluse with no social skills?”
Rainbow suppressed a chuckle. “Should we grab some seats, Sparklebutt?”
“Stop it.”
“Whatever you say Sparklebutt.”
“Rainbow, that isn’t funny.”
“I think it’s friggin’ hilarious, Sparkle-”
“I will fill your bed with red ants.”
“Joke’s on you. I barely sleep in it anymore. I’m always at your place.”
“I … okay, you have a point there.” Twilight trotted towards a table near the front of the room. “C’mon. This is the best seat in the house.”
“What even is this place?” Rainbow asked as she followed. “I still have no idea.”
“I used to come here as a teenager.” Twilight’s magic pulled out a chair for Rainbow to perch on. “When I was in school still and I needed to … unwind. You might not have noticed, but I can get a little … stressy sometimes.”
“Never noticed. Not once. Nope.” Rainbow scooched her chair in. “So it’s some kind of show?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re being really obtuse tonight.”
Twilight stared at her. “Did you just use ‘obtuse’ in a sentence all on your own?”
“Why do I love you again? All you do is insult me and keep secrets from me.”
The evil smile made a reappearance. “And do this.” Twilight pressed her muzzle against Rainbow’s, tilting her mouth up for a kiss.
“Yeah. You do that really good.”
“Well.”
“Huh?”
“Really well, not really good.”
“Aaaaand you killed the moment with grammar.”
Twilight’s face scrunched into a frown. “Rainbow!”
“Whaaaat? We were having a moment and then you went all egghead on me!”
Twilight slumped into her own chair and pressed her forehooves over her face. “This is not going how I planned it.”
“We’re here, aren’t we? I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Rainbow glanced up at the stage. “Whatever ‘it’ is.”
Over the next half hour ponies trickled and then streamed into the little room. A scrawny mare dressed entirely in black, her eyes rimmed with kohl so heavy Rainbow couldn’t actually tell her eye colour, trotted over to ask for a drinks order. Rainbow immediately smacked her lips.
“Do you stock Sweet Apple Acres Cider?”
“Sure do.”
Twilight raised her hoof. “Two tankards, please, Mandolin. Put it on my tab. I’ll settle up at the end.”
Rainbow planted another kiss on Twilight as the scrawny waitress ambled away. “I love you, you know that?”
“You love me because I have enough in the royal coffers to keep you in cider.”
“Details, details.”
After at least another twenty minutes, Rainbow’s wings itched. She hated sitting still for this long. “Why did we get here so early?”
“Better to be early than late,” Twilight said primly.
“I’m so booooored!”
“Rainbow!”
“What? This is for my birthiversary, right? So I can whine if I want to.”
“Your birthiverary isn’t actually for another three days. You can whine in three days’ time.”
“Pedant.”
“You –”
“Don’t say it!”
Twilight smiled and sipped her cider.
Eventually, when several ice ages had passed, Scarlette stepped up on stage. A smattering of cheers and hooves against floor and tables followed her appearance. She approached the microphone stand in the centre and crouched a little, but didn’t adjust it to her height.
“Mares and gentlecolts. Do y’all know what time it is?”
“Time to get down!” Twilight yelled alongside everypony else.
“Uh, get down!” Rainbow added a half-second after everyone else.
“Time to get down, get up, get sideways and every place in between!” Scarlette corrected, her voice swooping between pitches so much her neck actually cricked from the movement of her throat alone. “The Serenade Soiree is proud to present, returning once again …” She paused, obviously for dramatic effect. The audience leaned forward. “Louis Hoofstrong and the Hot-to-Trot Five!”
As one, the room whooped and hollered. The curtains pulled back to reveal a stallion standing just at the right spot to step forward, mouth level with the microphone. His husky deep voice crackled from the speakers.
“Thank you, thank you, and welcome, one and all.”
More whooping. More hollering. Whoever this guy was, he was some big deal to these folks. Rainbow looked around at the eager faces. She finished on Twilight, who was staring up at the stallion, an expression of pure rapture turning her from a princessly alicorn to an excited filly again. As if feeling Rainbow’s eyes on her, she turning to meet her gaze. Smiling, she reached across the table to place her hoof over her marefriend’s.
“This is something I’ve wanted to share with you for a while, but … I wasn’t sure it’d be your scene.”
Rainbow arched an eyebrow. Before she could say anything, the stallion on stage lifted a trumpet to his mouth and gave a shrill blast. She jumped in her seat, whipping around. On cue, the five ponies arranged behind him started to play their instruments, and a kind of music wound its way out from them.
Rainbow wasn’t sure what to make of it. It wasn’t the type of music she was used to, for sure, and if it had come on the radio she probably would have changed station to look for something ‘more awesome’. Her musical tastes tended to run to lots of guitars and heavy drumbeats, all dramatic chords and total epicness. If she could imagine herself pulling off the greatest rainboom in the history of ever to it, she liked it.
This music, though … this music was scratchy and the instruments kind of bled into each other in ways that was almost – but not quite – discordant. As it went on, the trumpet emerged from the melee, striking up a tune of sorts, and the trombone and clarinet soon followed, picking it up like they had never heard it before and were waiting for the trumpet’s lead. The bassist plucked rhythmically, his noise thrumming so low that Rainbow swore she felt her chair vibrate. The pianist flicked her gaze between them, hooves moving so fast across the keys that even Countess Coloratura herself would have had a hard time matching her. The piano tickled around the other instruments, twirling up and around their steady, repetitive tune like a single prima ballerina dancing rings around four plodding carthorses.
Suddenly the trumpet burst from the rhythm, leaving the other three stallions to carry it as he trilled his way up to the piano, briefly resting his elbows on top of the lid. The pianist smiled up at the trumpeter, leaning sideways and fluttering a series of high notes on the furthest keys. He twinkled a few high notes back at her, then stooped into such a low note he had to dip his chin to his chest. She responded by leaning to her other side, matching him with low notes of her own that brought her face so close to his that she was able to playfully nip his nose with her teeth.
From there they were off, firing snatches of sound at each other like they were having a conversation through their music. The trumpeter trotted around the piano on his hind hooves, whisking her tune into his tune before she wrested it back and she was in the lead once more. All the while, the other musicians gave them centre stage, keeping up their steady tune in the background.
Finally, the trumpeter held such a long note that the pianist’s hooves were a blur as they ran up and down the keys, high to low, low to high, a swirling cacophony of sound that ended in him tilting his head back in a high note that might have shattered glass.
Silence fell. The performance had come to an end.
All around Rainbow, ponies stomped the floor and their tables, slopping drinks and making the wood creak uncertainly. She felt something touch her hoof. Her head snapped around to see Twilight smiling apprehensively. Her horn glowed, and for a moment they were encased in a bubble that muffled all sound around them.
“Did you like it?”
“I … that was … weird.”
Twilight’s face fell.
“But a good weird!” Rainbow added hurriedly. “Was that … did they make all that up on the spot?”
“Pretty much, yeah. It’s jazz music.”
Rainbow shook her head. “I never thought you, of all ponies, would be into stuff like that. I thought you’d be all about precision and perfect timing and stuff.”
“Oh, I am.” Twilight dropped her gaze to the careworn tabletop. “But … sometimes … sometimes I like the unpredictability of jazz. It’s a safe kind of unpredictability. Nothing can go wrong when you’re listening to jazz, but the music … kind of plays itself through the ponies, instead of the ponies playing the music. If that makes sense?”
“Um …”
She sighed. “I like order. I like rules. I like it when rules are followed. All my life has been … little rituals and habits and doing things the same way over and over because the same way is the best, safest, most successful way. Precision is imperative in spellcasting. You make one wrong move and … well …”
“Strawberry jam pony.”
“Kind of, yeah. But … I’m still just a pony. I need a release the same as everyone else. When I said I had a rebellious phase as a teenager … this was what I was talking about. It may not be a rebellion the way most ponies think of the word, but for me this was breaking all my entire internal rulebook. This music doesn’t follow conventional rules. It does its own thing. It’s expressive and inventive and … basically all the things I’m not.”
“That you weren’t,” Rainbow corrected. “You’ve come a long way since you were a teenager.”
“Yeah, I have. But sometimes … sometimes you’ve got to have a little jazz in your life.” Twilight met her gaze squarely. “Rainbow, you’re my jazz. You’re the music that plays my heart. You’re the unpredictable part of my life that makes me truly happy just to be alive. So for your birthiversary … I wanted to share this special something with you. I’ve never shared it with anypony else before. I always got too embarrassed or just couldn’t explain it all properly. It sounds so stupid when I say it out loud. But I thought that maybe … of all ponies … you could understand.” She licked her lips. “Because you’re my jazz.”
At that moment, the room swirled around Rainbow Dash. Suddenly all the voices and all the thumping and all the everything else just didn’t matter. All that mattered was the mare in front of her, bashfully sharing this little private piece of her soul.
I love her. The thought arrive in her head fully formed, like she didn’t need to think it for it to be there. I really, really love this mare.
She leaned in, kissing Twilight deeply and forcefully, trying to communicate what this evening meant to her, since she wasn’t sure she could put her thoughts and feelings into words properly either. Twilight had explained herself with music. Rainbow chose to pour her emotions into a kiss that left them both breathless and blinking.
As twilight’s concentration lapsed, the soundproof bubble popped. Rainbow became aware that the shouting was different than before. She looked around, realising belatedly that all eyes in the room were now on their table. The trumpeter stallion on stage pumped a clenched foreleg in the air, grinning so broadly his mouth nearly split his face in two.
“Oh my gosh …” Twilight whispered.
“Now that right there? That is beautiful,” the trumpeter said into the microphone. “Jazz affects different ponies in different ways, folks. Seems these two lovebirds over here got all amorous from me an’ my own wife’s set.” He gestured to the pianist, who was clapping delicately, as if afraid putting too much force behind it might damage her precious hooves. “What’s your name, darlin’?”
Rainbow realised he was speaking to her. “Um, Rainbow Dash.”
“Mighty fine name. Hey, Scarlette, she gots a name you want.”
“Screw you, Louis!” Scarlette called back from somewhere at the back of the room. The crowd chuckled.
“I’m thinking I want to play sumthin’ for you two lovebirds, y’dig?” the trumpeter said, raising his instrument speculatively. “I seem to recall seein’ a young filly who looks a lil’ like your partner there, years ago, alone at that very table. It does my heart good to see she ain’t sittin’ there alone no more.” He winked, clearly at Twilight, and started to play.
It was as diametrically opposite to the last song as was possible. Slow, mellifluous notes oozed from the trumpet. For a whole two minutes, none of the other band members moved a muscle. Then the clarinet radiated a melody to match. The piano chimed in a minute later, so soft and gentle it was like the whisper of silk against fur. She let the trumpet and clarinet take the lead, weaving together a song so slow and pretty, the entire room fell silent and began to sway in time with them.
Rainbow reached across the table once more to clasp both of Twilight’s hooves in hers. For once, she didn’t mind something that was slow. She was content to sit still and listen, as the music washed around her and the mare she was beginning to think she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.
“Happy birthiversary,” Twilight murmured.
“Thanks, Sparklebutt.”
“Rainbow!”
“Heh. Totally worth it.”
Author's Note
Written as a birthday present for the inimitable Gutiuserenade.
Cover art by Shadowring123.
