Playing the Heart's Strings

The three unicorns listened attentively as Twilight told them all about her experience with the human teenager, and the incidents that had transpired recently; while her parents’ faces remained unchanged through her monologue, Shining’s right eyebrow seemed to lift higher as she spoke. Soon, the smell of lemon inundated their nostrils as Spike brought over to the table a set of teacups, placing them on the table, along with some slices of different fruits. Shining and Nachlicht pointedly ignored the beverage, focusing on Twilight’s words, but Stargazer reached for her cup employing a magic colored similarly to that of her daughter; she took a sip from it, her light blue eyes tearing into her daughter’s.

The younger unicorn paused her speech as well to lift her cup up and drink from it, savouring the familiar taste of Spike’s brew, inherited from her own mother. The warmth colored her cheeks and a sense of relaxation filled her.

“I had forgotten about how much this tea helps me. The last days have been quite hectic...”  She stared into the cup, with a pensive reflection giving the gaze back from the reddish liquid.

“I would have liked to meet this human face to face. It’s not all the time that one meets with mystic creatures from ancient Equestrian legends.” Nachlicht drank from his own cup, pouring its content down before looking at his daughter. “Except when it’s about you and your friends, it seems.”  He smirked, reaching over to grab a slice of red apple and biting it. “You lead a pretty interesting life, Twilight.”

She remained silent, still gazing into the tea. Stargazer walked around the table and stood next to her, looking into her daughter, and crossing a white hoof across her neck, pulling Twilight closer to her. The young unicorn closed her eyes, enjoying the warm feeling of resting near her mother’s chest. Stargazer slowly caressed Twilight’s mane with a hoof, which brought Twilight to an even more relaxed state.

Stargazer whispered softly into her daughter’s ear, which perked up when listening to her. “Sleep now, Twilight, you’ll need it. Tomorrow we can discuss things better...” Soon the younger unicorn had fallen asleep, her chest moving slowly, her face locked into a calmer expression. Stargazer turned towards her husband.

“It’s about time we got some rest ourselves as well. It has been quite a long day. Give me a hoof, please.”

Nachlicht nodded, rising from his chair to help his wife carry their daughter towards her room.

Spike was on the verge of sleeping, when a white hoof pushed him. He shook his head and turned to find Shining Armor smirking at him. The stallion patted him on the chest, almost sending him rolling to the floor, if Shining hadn’t contained his strength; he bowed his head in apology and then looked around.

“Hold out a bit, Spike, I need to know where are the sleeping implements. You know, pillows and all that. Got to get something prepared for us, don’t you think?”

The dragon waved a claw weakly, his eyelids only half open, as he walked lazily towards the stairs, with the guard captain behind him. “Whatever.” Opening a door in the book depository, he pulled out sheets, pillows, and cushions for them to arrange bed in the spare room the library had, a quite small but sufficient room for the three to stay overnight.

“Welcome back, Pinkie!” called out Mr. Cake, cheerfully, upon seeing the pink mare entering the business. “We were getting so worried, it’s good to see y--”  The Cake patriarch finally lifted his head from the counter when he received no response from his usually talkative assistant and let out a gasp.  Pinkie’s hair felt flat by her sides, all her puffiness completely gone; her eyes lacked the lively shine they constantly had, and her walk was slow and lifeless. He crossed the counter, small Pound clinging happily to his back and walked next to the young baker.

“Pinkie, what’s the matter?”

The younger earth pony finally seemed to register her mentor’s voice, turning her head to look at Mr. Cake. The stallion felt how her eyes looked through him, not really registering his presence more than on a basic level; the only thing that could be heard on the currently empty room was the sound of Pound’s pacifier being sucked on. She turned her gaze away and walked around the counter, without minding the two pairs of eyes following her upstairs, until her door was closed behind her.

The doorbell rang in that same instant, forcing him to attend to a few customers arriving. His wife soon came out from the kitchen, covered in flour, and sighed.

“We need Pinkie to come back, I don’t know how much I can handle this anymore...”

Mr. Cake finished ringing the last pony, and then turned back to his wife, pointing towards the stairs. “She just came back, but she doesn’t look too good. Her hair was flat and she didn’t even answer to me when I called out to her, instead going straight up to her room.” Mrs. Cake then looked towards the stairs and back to her husband.

“Let me go after it. Take care of the shop some more, I already prepared the confections.”

He nodded, sighing, turning his attention back to the shop. Pound flipped his wings and flew over to his mother’s back, who turned to look at him and smiled. “Pinkie will be happy to see you, young boy. Too bad your sister’s sleeping.”

Reaching Pinkie’s door, Mrs. Cake knocked on it thrice, receiving no answer.  She called once again. “Pinkie, darling? What’s the matter?”  After some more moments of waiting, she slowly opened the door, finding Pinkie lying with her back facing the door, splayed on her bed wth her hind legs crossed one on top of the other. Muffled sobs arrived to Mrs. Cake’s ears. She made her way to Pinkie’s bed and put a hoof on top of her shoulder, feeling Pinkie breathing hard throughout the sobbing.

“What happened, darling?” asked the elder mare in her motherly voice. Pinkie slowly turned back to look at her boss, mentor and caretaker, her eyes red and her nose runny, blowing it in a manner that was almost comical; Cup Cake noted how Pinkie could never stop being a fountain of fun, even if she didn’t feel like that.

“I can’t tell you...” was Pinkie’s answer, with a hoarse voice, as she coughed. The tears still flowed copiously and she hiccuped. “Only that Albert is not coming back. That’s all I can say.”

Mrs. Cake scrutinized Pinkie, her eyebrows rose, marking a perplexed expression in her face.  “He’s not... coming back?  Why, dear?”

Pinkie opened her mouth, but nothing came out of it. She swallowed, an acrid taste filling her throat and the salty taste of tears flowing into her mouth, though the stream coming from her eyes had thinned. “He... died,” answered simply the pink mare. Mrs Cake let out a quick gasp.

She closed her mouth and threw a questioning look towards her assistant. “You’re telling the truth, Pinkie?”   The pink mare slowly nodded silently.

“But how? Why?  She pulled closer to Pinkie, their muzzles almost touching. The younger mare shook her head.

“I think I shouldn’t tell you. I’m sorry, Mrs. Cake...”

A flash of anger crossed Mrs. Cake face, reflecting in her voice, calling towards Pinkie with a gruff tone. “Pinkie, this is serious.”

The pink mare didn’t move an inch or bat an eye. “I know, Mrs. Cake, but I can’t tell you.”

Mrs. Cake snorted, stomping her hoof on the floor. “As you wish.”  She turned back and left the room, shutting the door behind her, which closed with a loued thump. Pinkie looked at the wooden door before turning back to stare at the wall. She didn’t even turn back to see when, some time later, knocks at her door were heard again, and Mr. Cake’s voice called for her from the outside for a good while before finally retreating.

She wasn’t even sure what time it was when sleep claimed her, not having moved from her spot at all.

The first minutes of the evening saw the door of Fluttershy’s room opening. The pegasus herself came out, appearing rather unkempt. Her mane was dishevelled, her eyes were red and puffy and had black bags underneath and her feathers were in urgent need of a preening. When she felt a pull at her foreleg, she looked down to find Angel looking up at her. He tapped his foot against the floor and looked at her with a expression that somehow mixed worry and annoyance. She gave a soft smile to him.

“I’m sorry, Angel... I’ll get to work right now and give all of you a good meal. You deserve it, after these days of loneliness. Don’t worry about me.”

The shy pegasus trotted towards her cupboards, opening them to look for her animal friends’ meals, while humming quietly to herself. A squirrel stood by her side, its little eyes focused intently on her. She turned her attention to her little friend, dedicating a smile to it. “Thank you for your concern, little buddy. I’m fine, though, you don’t need to worry.”  Looking around in the cupboard, she took out a couple of nuts, delivering them to the squirrel, which took them in its paws, threw her a long look which she returned and finally turned its back to her, rising its brown fluffy tail and scurrying out of the house. Fluttershy continued pulling out food, while whistling her song to herself.

After opening her eyes, she found herself in her own room, with her sister clinging to her. Rarity rejoiced in the feeling of Sweetie Belle’s soft coat rubbing against her own. The small filly had her eyes closed and her body pressed against Rarity’s own, which the older sister at first thought of protesting about, but thought better of it, letting herself enjoy her sister’s affection, a small smile tugging at her lips. The feeling of Sweetie’s chest slowly going up and down and her calm heartbeats put her at ease. She couldn’t believe this was the same filly that drove her almost to despair most of the time with her continuous escapades. A stray thought concerning Sweetie Belle crossed her mind, which she almost vocalized, but chose not to, so as to maintain the same level of closeness and peace for a while longer.

After having finished her tea meeting with her sister, the small unicorn had clung out to her, refusing to go anywhere without her. After an almost argument, only avoided due to both ponies’ refusal to fight each other, Rarity relented and allowed Sweetie Belle to skip school on the grounds that she would bring herself up to date with lessons and homework and to not pull it off ever again, to which the filly enthusiastically agreed. Rarity still had a great distaste for it, but she enjoyed her sister’s presence, as their parents were away yet again.

Separating herself from her sister, who moved around nervously, but did not wake up, she pulled herself out of bed; it called back to her, giving her a great temptation of just sliding back into it and never coming out again, but she knew it wouldn’t be healthy.  She stood in front of the mirror hanging in her own room, picking a brush with her magic and working in her mane, styling it carefully until recovering her own style and giving her coat a brushing until she was satisfied with the results.

She exited her room, entering the workshop, where everything still was in the same state of disarray she had left it in, having been unable to put it in order before her sudden departure. Her eyes were instantly drawn to some pieces of cloth that were cut in a way unbefitting for a pony, lying on a nearby table. She bit her lip, feeling the moisture building into her eyes, and fought it off, picking up the unfinished dress and disposing of it, despite her usual reluctance to do that with perfectly good clothes. Deciding she needed some more tea, she walked into her kitchen.

“We’re havin’ none o’ that, little missy!  Git goin’ now! Ah’ll talk to you later!”

Apple Bloom pouted, but Applejack had already been desensitized towards her sister’s angelic faces and the filly had soon packed up her things and left for school, not without another hug between the sisters. Once the younger sister had disappeared across the hill she turned her attention back to the orchards in which her big brother had had to work almost alone for the last few days, only with some assistance of Caramel as a relief. Applejack felt inside herself the reluctance to work, but shook it aside and trotted towards a section of the field, in which her brother had already set bushels next to the trees.

Approaching one, she put herself into position, and then raised both her legs to give a powerful kick to the trunk. The usual sound of apples falling into the bushels didn’t register in her ears though, and she looked at the containers to find them effectively empty. She bucked the tree once again, being rewarded by the sound of apples falling, but when she turned back, finding that not even half the bushel had been filled. She lashed at the three with her legs, still not achieving anything.

“Y’all be going to rip off the tree if ya keep on, sis,” said Big Macintosh, eyeing the bark that had been peeled off from the tree by Applejack’s careless kicks. She glared at him and snorted.

“What Ah’m supposed to do, then?” screamed Applejack at her sibling, who looked at her with wide eyes, before going back to his relaxed stance.

“Whoa, easy there, gal. Ah can tell yeh’re shaken up, Applejack, and yeh’re not gonna get anythin’ done like that.”

Applejack snorted, fixing her eyes on her brother’s. “Y’all know very well the farm can’t go on with just you.”

He nodded. “Eeyup. But it’s not going to go anywhere either if you’re not at the top of your game. Get some more days, I’ll get Caramel around to help, and call family if it’s necessary. A couple of cousins owe me one favor or two.”

Applejac opened her mouth to answer him, but found herself blocked by his big, red hoof. He looked seriously at her. “Eenope.”

She sat on her haunches, her eyes unfocused, her Stetson being blown off her head by a gust of wind.

Lyra let out a relieved cheer when Twilight declared cleaning was over for the day. However, there was a knock at the library’s door, just when Twilight was proposing for them to go out. Twilight went to open it reluctantly, changing her expression when she saw the three unicorns standing on the other side, one of which Lyra recognized as Twilight’s older brother, the new Equestrian Prince. She heard Twilight referring to the other two as her parents, and a drop of sweat cold feel down her forehead. She fell silent.

Lyra observed the family, including Spike, having an animated talk in silence, while trying to drown the voices on the back of her mind, voices that had not manifested themselves for quite a while. She didn’t register Shining and Nachlicht gazing upon her with curiosity; only the sweat building constantly on her coat. She forced a smile to her lips, the whole family looking at her now. She was soon surrounded by the family, who had recognized her from her presentations, and forced herself to adopt a friendlier stance towards them, despite her inner state.

Lyra caught Twilight’s father’s words in the air, just getting the final question. “... Are you a friend of Twilight, then?”  She turned to look at her marefriend, her mind unable to settle between shock and relief from the fact Twilight had not spoken about her to her parents. She locked herself inside until feeling Twilight touching her neck. Looking straight into Twilight eyes, she affected a cough.

“Yes, yes. I’m sorry... May you excuse me? I’ll come back later, Twilight...” She walked out of the building before somepony or dragon could answer back to her, being received by the chilly air of the night. Her stomach rumbled; she decided to buy some pastries at Sugarcube Corner before heading home.

No lights were on in the first floor, so she opened the door and set her horn alight, using the gleaming to guide herself through the dark corridor. She went up slowly and quietly, heading to her room. She put aside the bag containing what she had brought for Bon Bon and went to the bathroom to clean herself up, before getting into bed. It would be long before she fell asleep, with her mind plagued by a multitude of thoughts and memories, which continued into her dreams. She tossed and turned in her bed the whole night. She finally opened her eyes, immediately sprung from her bed and washed her face in the bathroom. Bon Bon’s steps could be heard in the first floor, but she went to her room, pulling out the box below her bed, and levitated it to her study, locking the door behind her.

She put the box on top of the desk and opened it, taking out a couple of letters to read, charming a candle into life. Her eyes scanned the words that she had memorized anyway, being written by herself and read once and once again for years. She put the letters down and wondered about how Twilight would be thinking of her. Locking the letters away in the box, she levitated her lyre over and began pulling at the strings, closing her eyes. The hours passed as she just concentrated in the music.