Playing the Heart's Strings

Twilight was still fast asleep as the morning died away, the sun reigning over the sky.

Albert had woken up just recently and decided to check up on her. When he entered her room, he found the rest of the group sitting around the bed, while one of the palace’s physicians checked on Twilight,  assessing her condition. After finishing, he turned back to them.

“Her condition is still stable; nothing out of the ordinary is reported.”  After receiving the news, a general sigh of relief was heard around the room. The only one who didn’t participate in it was Spike, who sat at the height of Twilight’s head. He didn’t seem to take notice of anyone else in the room, even Rarity.  The doctor went out of the room as Albert entered.

Pinkie Pie, Bon Bon and Applejack exited the room, waving or nodding to him as they passed by his side. He watched them go.  The three earth ponies had grown closer to each other as time had passed on since he had first met them. Bon Bon and Pinkie were working hard for their business, and they often included Applejack in their operations, as a provider of resources.

Looking back into the room, he saw Rainbow Dash opening a window of the room to escape outside, her rainbow trail marking her path. In the room only remained Fluttershy, Rarity and Spike, looking over the sleeping unicorn, who only emitted shallow breaths.

He sat down next to Rarity, who smiled kindly and levitated to him a cup of coffee, which he received. He sipped the dark drink, finding it quite bitter. He put the cup away and looked at the unicorn lying in the bed.

Twilight held Albert’s right hand between both of her hooves, her eyes looking at it with deep concentration, her tongue sliding out of her mouth as she took in the details.  He sat there patiently while she studied, making the occasional remark, while near them, floating in mid air, a quill took fast paced notes. She finally let go of his hand and looked at him.

“What are you, Albert?”

He recalled Twilight’s question at the time.  It would’ve seem such a silly question, back on Earth.  He was a human. A bipedal mammal male, in scientific sounding words. Nothing ever caused him to think about it deeper than that.

Finding himself being asked point blank that question by a unicorn, a theoretically impossible creature in his own world, however, had made him ponder that just about everyday since then.

Rarity picked up on him.  “Darling, would you mind for a cup of tea? It’d be quite better than this black smudge they gave us. ”

He broke out of his trance and looked at her, shaking his head. He nodded, rising from his chair. “Sure, let’s go.”

They went out of the room, after Rarity invited both Fluttershy and Spike; they declined, electing to stay by Twilight’s side. He followed her in silence, and was surprised when she led him towards the main doors of the castle. He stopped in his tracks.

“Um, Rarity... Are you sure we should be going outside like this?”

She stopped as well, and turned back, lifting her head to look at him, her mane swaying as her head moved.

“You are with me, dear. Everything’s going to be just fine. We won’t stray too far away from the Castle in any case.  Are you coming?”

She opened the door with her blue aura, holding it for him. They descended the stairs leading to the street before the Castle and she led him for a couple of streets where everypony they met stared at him with their jaws wide open, forgetting all their usual ways. He was not sure yet to have taken the right decision but still followed the white unicorn until she stopped in front of a shop.  The letters in the window read ‘PONY JOE’S DONUTS’ and the bell rang as Rarity opened the door into the pastry shop. They both went in and the smell of fresh coffee hit Albert’s nostrils, so different from the castle’s gurge.  They were greeted by a friendly stallion behind the counter.

“Welcome to Pony Joe’s!”

-----

Fluttershy and Spike remained behind in the room as all the others left.  She looked over to the small dragon who was caring for the unicorn lying in the bed. She stood up and walked over to him, crossing around the bed to sit by his side. She smiled softly despite him not looking at her.

“I’m sure Twilight will wake up soon, Spike. They said she was only exhausted.”

He still didn’t look at her, focusing on the movements of Twilight’s chest as she breathed.

“That teleportation would have killed any normal unicorn, you know, Fluttershy? The magical energy needed for such a movement is not simply anything you can pull out from a hat.”  He sniffed, but did not cry, Fluttershy nuzzled him softly.

The yellow pony didn’t find any words to say to him, and so she simply nuzzled him softly, embracing the small dragon, both looking over the lavender mare.

They stood like that for a long while, until they finally heard the door opening and turned to see Celestia entering the room. She recognized them and smiled softly.

“Hello, Spike, Fluttershy. It’s nice to see you today. “  She looked over to where Twilight lay still. “I’ve been told she will be fine, but will still take some time to wake up.  May I sit next to you?”

“You don’t have to ask that, Princess.” replied Fluttershy, making space for Celestia to join them.

“Thanks for your visit, you brought many clients here;  I even ran out of stock. Come back soon!”

“Very well, I admit that was not the best idea I have ever had, but you must acknowledge he makes pretty delicious pastries, doesn’t he?”

“Yes,” Albert simply answered, while biting on a strawberry muffin, masticating it endlessly as they made their way back to palace.  The guards already knew Rarity well enough and had been instructed about Albert’s presence, so they didn’t have any problem moving at leisure throughout it.

“Let’s just take a stroll through the gardens, darling.”

The Royal Canterlot Garden was home to many vegetal species, trees and a great labyrinth in the middle of it, as well as a varied assortment of statues, one of which had been relocated to a secret place only a handful of ponies knew about, all of them royalty or royal guard.  They came to a halt in the middle of some of these statues, contemplating them.  He remembered Discord and his own imprisonment on stone, and his brain was struck with the impossible idea.

He looked in horror at the statues surrounding him. Many represented ponies; others represented different creatures. They were very clearly showing the signs of the passing of time, some much more than others.  Those were decolored. Cracked. Spent.  He himself had been a statue only a little more than a month ago.  His mind flashed with the possibility that the ones surrounding him could very well have met the same fate.  The one nearest to him was that of a pegasus who seemed ready to take off. He looked at it insistently, as if willing it to tell its story.  The stone remained unmoving and silent.

“That’s just a statue, dear. Nothing else.” Rarity stopped next to him, looking up to the pegasus shaped stone construct. “The Princess herself explained it to us shortly after Discord was sealed again, when Twilight was hyperventilating with the possibility that there might be another dangerous creature trapped in here.  Turns out all of these statues were ones the sisters acquired throughout the last thousand years to accompany and cover for the draconequus.”

She broke apart from the stone pegasus, coercing him to follow with a hoof. “Come on, let us be on our way.”

Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Bon Bon walked slowly out of the castle. The cream colored pony looked around everywhere, amazed by the capital city she had never known.  Pinkie Pie grinned widely seeing her expression while Applejack just walked in silence by Pinkie’s side. The pink pony went forward bouncing with her usual enthusiasm.

“Just you wait, Bonnie, I know you’ll love Joe’s cakes and cookies and muffins and, oh, just everything! I want to see him again so much, we could talk about all that and we could tell him and...”

Bon Bon approached Pinkie and put a hoof in her mouth, bringing the party pony to a halt. She smiled, and Pinkie stopped blabbering, at which point she removed the hoof.

“Gee, Pinkie, you’re even more out of control than usual.”

Pinkie’s eyes locked into Bon Bon’s, as the party pony stopped suddenly. She then smiled even wider, hugging the pastry maker.

“Of course, Bonnie, I want everypony to be happy!  I’d like for everypony to be happy, and when Twilight wakes up it’ll be better than ever!”

Bon Bon slipped out of Pinkie’s grasp, shaking her head. “Ok, ok, I understand, Pinkie. Let’s go wherever it is we’re going, ok?”

Pinkie nodded energetically. “Yup!”  She began to bounce again, looking to her other side.

“You’ve been so quiet, Jackie? What’s up, my favorite cowpony?!”

The farm pony adjusted the brim of her hat. “‘S nothin’ Pinkie. Ya’ll just know Ah don’t like big cities that much. When we come to the Palace it isn’t that big of a deal...”

This time Pinkie crashed into Applejack, locking her with her four hooves. ”Come on, Jackie! Me and Bonnie and all the other girls are here with you, aren’t we? We’ll have fun together!”   As she did with Bon Bon, Pinkie’s eyes glared deep into Applejack’s green ones, until the farm pony relented with a sigh, smiling afterwards.

“Ah guess you’re right, Pinkie. Ah’m here with all my friends. It’s just that seeing Twilight like that brought me down a little. But she’ll wake up soon enough, right? Come on, girl, let’s get out o’ this mess you put us in!”

Pinkie released Applejack from her hold and the two ponies got back on their four legs, finally making their way to Joe’s establishment. The three entered and looked at the absolutely empty place.  The unicorn behind the bar greeted them amicably and then shrugged.

“Sorry, girls. I’m all out of everything. Rarity and her strange friend came by earlier and the shop was full of clients. It’ll take at least twenty minutes before I’m able to get anything out. You’re free to stay and chat though, or come back if you want, and I’ll give you treats on the house.”

Pinkie and Applejack smiled. “That’s mighty fine of you Joe. Ah suppose we’ll be back later. Thanks!”

“Of course, I don’t want to lose your delicious pastries! Right, Bon Bon?!”

“Sure, Pinkie.”  The candy maker smiled as they ventured outside. They stood on the sidewalk in silence for some moments. Bon Bon looked at the other two.

“Have any other thing in mind?”

Pinkie lifted a hoof to her mouth and adopted an expression of deep concentration.

Rainbow Dash soared over Canterlot. She knew the Wonderbolts weren’t around, but she still felt the need to whip out her wings. She raced through the city’s space, not gathering enough speed for a Sonic Rainboom, but still feeling it as the wind hit back against her face and the resistance built up. She finally made a last turn in mid air and sped off, halting before crashing with the castle. She settled down in one of its towers, looking down to the huge city below, with barely visible little dots walking around the streets.

“What’s going to happen? “  asked Albert once again, as he and Rarity walked around the labyrinth’s border.  “We came here in a hurry, but we didn’t solve anything back in Ponyville.”

Rarity didn’t stop, nor turn to look at him, simply walking on. “I’m sure the Princesses, and Twilight, once she wakes up, will conjure all this. We must simply have faith and be patient, darling.”   They turned into the other side of the labyrinth, ready to make the turn.  He didn’t need to ask just why they were walking in a seemingly pointless route. He did understand it already since Dash made it out of the window and so he just went along with her, given he was in much need of a clear head as well. He tried to avoid thinking about what had transpired to make him the one that had been selected to come through to a new land totally unrelated to him and make him the center of all that was transpiring in such land, but it wouldn’t leave his head as he just followed the white unicorn around in almost total silence.

“Can we go back to the castle, Rarity?”

The white unicorn finally stopped in her tracks, but still didn’t look at him. She didn’t answer until about a minute had passed. “Well, I was sure you’d appreciate a little more fresh air, but I suppose we’ve walked around quite enough. I must be getting antsy. Let us go back, then.”  She resumed her walking, just in time to turn in the other corner, beginning the walk back to the palace proper.  When they were at the stairs, they met with the three earth ponies.

“Well, shucks, if it isn’t the shop raiders.” Applejack smiled, as they got together. “We went to grab a bite from Joe and he was in the clouds with your visit. Took some time before we could get somethin’.”

“Well, I apologize for that, darling. But you had fresh donuts, didn’t you?”

“Oh, sure we did, Rarity! And they were delicious!  The hot, strawberry filling filling my mouth! Uh, delicious! I’d like to go back and ask for more!”

“Pinkie, dear, I absolutely don’t know how you're not a perpetual balloon.”

“Well, duh, I’ve been a balloon before.”

The conversation came to a halt when Rarity opened the doors, only for them to find Celestia herself waiting for them on the other side.

“Hello, my little ponies, and Albert, I trust you’ve been doing fine?”

The ponies rose up from an instinct fueled reverence. Rarity continued talking.

“Sure we did, Princess. Canterlot is such a nice place. I was showing Albert the gardens and the labyrinth, thankfully free of any nasty surprises, ha ha.”

“That’s good to hear, Rarity.  Could I borrow Albert for a while, if you don’t mind?”

They all looked at each other, and back to the Princess. Before anyone else said anything, Albert walked over to her.

“Yes, Princess, I’ll go with you. See you later girls.”

The rest of the group looked on as they both walked away from them. They all could feel a certain heavy atmosphere coming down on them. They elected to go and visit Twilight’s room.