It was a beautiful day outside. Birds were singing joyful tunes to the pleasant breeze, and the morning could not be more perfect. There were very few ponies all across Equestria who would be wasting the wonderful day stuck inside at their jobs, although most of them would manage to get outside for a few minutes before the day came to an end.

On this beautiful morning, A grey pegasus mailmare with a straw-colored mane who was just beginning her morning deliveries in Ponyville looked up in the sky at precisely 7:02 am after checking her pocket-watch. Focusing her eyes from their normally askew positions, she noticed a slender white figure with a telltale prismatic tail gliding swiftly west through the almost crystaline blue sky. The mailmare smiled to herself before returning her attention to the large package that she was attempting to stuff into a small mailbox.

From above, Celestia smiled a little sadly down upon the town of Ponyville. Had things gone a little differently, she could have lazily spiraled down to the large tree that was the home of her former student for a friendly visit and maybe even some chamomile tea. But now, even this early in the morning, Celestia knew that her former student would be terribly busy. Thinking this, Celestia sighed, and continued her flight onward towards the western side of Equestria.

The first thing that Celestia had noticed when she gave up her power to her sister was that she had a lot more free time. Her first week was spent helping Luna acclimate to her position as the sole ruler of Equestria, and her second week was spent visiting and comforting the sick and injured troops from the ongoing war with the zebras. After the events of that week and the fires that Celestia had accidentally started, she was limited to one scheduled visit per week. Having nothing better to do, the former diarch had attempted to visit her former student, Twilight Sparkle, only to find that Twilight had been busy to the point that Celestia would have to schedule an appointment at a minimum of four months out, all for a single hour of time with her former protégé.

Lost in thought, Celestia did not notice the lone cloud that just so happened to be directly in the middle of her flight path, and so she ran into it, scattering the cloud with a "Floof."

Looking around in a bit of a daze, she noticed she had just flown over the Smokey Mountains and had completely passed the thermo-arcane power plant that adorned the second tallest peak in the range.

Oh well, thought Celestia. I can always turn back. It's not like they were expecting me to show up anyways.

Looking down, Celestia serenely examined the expanse of the Smokey Forest, enjoying the feeling of the wind in her mane and listening to the sounds of the birds and the drum that was beating out a catchy beat...

Celestia paused midflight, straining her ears to better hear the steady snare and bass beat that was coming from somewhere below, in the forest. Curious, she silently glided down into a clearing in the forest, not wanting to disturb whoever was playing the drums. Listening carefully, she determined that the music was coming from the north, and so she began to trot lightly in that direction.

A few times, the drums cut out after an error in the beat only to start back up again a few moments later, leading Celestia northward until she came to another clearing, this one with a few rocks laid about and also with two young unicorns laying on a few of the rocks, obviously bored. On a much flatter rock, Celestia could see a drum set, but could not see who, or possibly what, was playing it.

Peering out from a particularly dense bush, she concluded that there must be someone else playing the drum set, as neither of the unicorns were using their magic, as their horns were not glowing.

All went silent for a few moments as the drums stopped in the middle of a measure. After a moment, Celestia could hear somepony speaking in a very deep, slow voice to the two unicorns.

"How was that, Sharp? I was a little slow through the bridge, but I managed to not miss the cymbals around the last few measures."

Celestia watched with mild curiosity from her hiding spot as the tan unicorn stallion with the brown mane- presumedly Sharp- replied, not bothering to move from his splayed out position on the rock.

"I told you already, Rego! We won't know how good it is until we play it together, and to do that, we need to have Duster back from the military base to play her keyboard!"

On the other rock, the slate-grey mare with the fiery red mane who was laying on her back raised her hoof up from her side into the air as if reaching for something. She groaned, and let her hoof fall back to her side. Celestia watched all this with a blank look on her face, as her mind was elsewhere.

So they need a pony that can play the keyboard? Celestia trotted away from the clearing, watching where she stepped in order to be as quiet as possible. I have a keyboard... but I can't just go joining a band because I feel like it! I have other things that I need to do, like... like... Celestia's mind drew a blank. She huffed in frustration while continuing her trot away from the clearing.

I could just do it for today. I could teleport to the castle and grab the keyboard, and come back here. Celestia stopped walking in order to think.

If they want me, and I enjoy playing, why shouldn't I try to join? It might do me some good.

With that last thought in her mind, Celestia teleported away in a flash of light.

//*********************//

Regolith Pie was not a very tall pony. He was a good three hooves shorter than his friend, Flare, and she was another half of a hoof shorter than Sharp. Despite his size, Regolith was an unusually strong pony, even by earth pony standards. His deep, slow baritone of a voice would suggest that he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but that was not the case at all. Regolith had an amazing memory, which allowed him to excel in most of his classes in school.

Despite his success in school, Regolith's real passion was his drums. His Precious, as he called them. He had originally purchased the old drum set from a pawn shop for about twice of their value- 120 bits. Not even Regolith's parents understood why he wanted only that drum set. At least, not until he first played it. Regolith had a way with his drums; he could bang out beats so fast, it sounded like one long note. He could tap out a quiet pitter patter of a light drizzle, and nopony could tell the difference between his rendition and actual rain. It was as if the drums, or possibly Regolith himself, was magical...

As Regolith recounted his life story in his head for some reason unknown to himself, he almost failed to notice the tall, yellow-white pegasus with a pink mane step out from a bush into the clearing. What was even more surprising was that the mare had a Pegatronix Rat Nest X-2 arcanoelectric keyboard held under a wing. Regolith gave her a once-over, not recognizing her at all. But a Rat Nest was a very expensive keyboard, and the X-2 was limited-edition. There were a total of roughly a hundred and twenty of them made.

Deciding to have a little fun, Regolith jumped over his drum set with one of the drumsticks in his right hoof. He pointed it at the mare and yelled "Who the 'eck are you, yeh bliddy nit?"

//*********************//

Celestia froze mid-stride. This was the make or break point. She could turn tail and make a run for it, or she could reply to the short-yet-surprisingly-intimidating pony in front of the drum set. Wondering if she was going to regret this later, Celestia stepped forward and opened her mouth to reply.

"I heard you were looking for a... board? Keyboard player?"

The grey drummer used the drumstick that had been pointing at Celestia to flick his hair away from his face and out of his eyes.

"An' what if we are? Oh, lemme guess." A bored-looking smile appeared on his face. "You play."

"I do."

"Now, anypony can play. The real question is, can you play well?"

With a harumph, Celestia walked over to a rock that was just below her waistline and carefully laid out her keyboard on top. Both of the unicorns were now laying on their bellies on top of their respective rocks, watching the situation with interest. With a flick of her wingtip, Celestia turned her keyboard on, and began to play a version of Horsegang Mozart, with an autodrum beat. She kept her eyes closed the whole time, focusing solely on the music she was playing, using her wings and front hooves to hit each note perfectly.

When she finished, the grey unicorn mare with the fiery mane spoke up.

"What's your name?"

Celestia was silent for a moment. "Sky. Sunny Sky."

"That was Mozart, wasn't it?"

"It was."

"You live around here?"

"Kind of."

The unicorn raised an eyebrow.

"Fine. How often are you around Tall Tale?"

A small smile came to Celestia's face.

"How often do I need to be around Tall Tale?"

The drummer smirked and said "I like this one! Can we keep 'er?"

The sandy coated unicorn- Sharp, if Celestia remembered correctly- chuckled and replied. "Well Miss Sky, it seems you are now a tentative member of the band. Welcome to Divine Desolation."

Author's Note

This was originally going to be just one chapter but... this happened. If there's any errors let me know so I can fix them! Hope y'all like it!