"Alright guys-"

"And girls!!"

"Lemme finish, Flare."

"Sorry, Sharpie."

Celestia, in disguise as "Sunny Sky," smiled to herself as she listened to the two unicorns bicker. With a wingtip, she adjusted the fade and reverb settings on her keyboard, trying to make it play a sound like a piano that reversed the note played upon release of the key.

"Anyways, guys and girls-"

"Don't forget the gender neutrals and the-"

"FELLOW BANDMATES!"

Celestia jolted in surprise, accidentally flicking the autoplay switch. Almost immediately, a loud screeching filled the air, drowning out all other sound.

Covering her ears with her wings, Celestia mashed the power button with her hoof, turning her keyboard off and ending the ear-popping death screeching.

"What in the name of Celestia was that, Sky?" asked Flare.

Sheepishly, Celestia replied "The gain was too high... Way too high."

Sharp rolled his eyes. "Ok then. Now that I have your attention, I would like to let you know that I got us a job-"

"Wouldn't the technical term be a gig?" interrupted Flare, doing her best to look innocent.

Sharp sighed, and tried again. "I got us a gig at the Party Barn."

Regolith, with his incredibly deep voice, spoke up from behind his drum set. "How much?"

With an ear perked to better hear the conversation, Celestia readjusted the gain, not sure if spinning the knob to the right or the left would turn it down.

"Fifty bits per hour." replied Sharp.

"Only fiddy?" There was a smashing of a cymbal.

"What do you mean only fifty? The last time we performed it was with Duster, and that was months ago! We got a total of forty-five bits from that!"

"Yeah, but-"

"Fifty bits per hour! PER HOUR!" Sharp said, clearly agitated.

Flare, looking up from tuning her bass with her magic, huffed once, and went back to tuning, plucking at the third string.

"We don't have enough songs to last an hour, Sharp!"

"Not right now we don't! Rego, weren't you writing a song?"

"No. No I wasn't."

"...Flare?"

"I am, but it's not done yet..."

Yes, it was definitely to the right, thought Celestia. But does that mean that I spin the gain knob clockwise or counterclockwise?

"Sky? You have any ideas?"

Since the gain is high... hmm...

"Sky? Eqqus to Sky. Is there any life in there?"

In response to Sharp's teasing, Celestia blurted out her thoughts.

"Since the gain is high, I'll rotate it evenly in both directions. Whichever side hits the stop first is the high side, then from there I can adjust it down..."

Sharp chuckled. "That's all fine n' dandy but do you have any ideas for a song?"

Pulling herself out of her thoughts, Celestia formulated a wonderfully eloquent response.

"Huh?"

"I asked if you had any song ideas. Do you?"

"Uh..." Celestia looked up from her keyboard, and saw that everypony was staring at her. "Well, I do have a few ideas... maybe... uh..."

"Sky, we don't bite. You've been practicing with us every other day for a week now," said Flare, a kind smile on her face. "We're gonna judge you, but we're not gonna kick you out of the band."

Celestia did not have an idea. She had several ideas, some good, some bad. She quickly decided that a ten minute drum solo would not be a good idea, and then had an epiphany.

"What if we had a few straight instrumentals? No singing, just playing. We could make slight variations and end up with a really long piece..." Celestia trailed off after seeing the blank looks on her bandmates' faces.

After a few seconds of dreadful silence, Regolith spoke up, and his deep voice seemed to echo in the small, rocky clearing.

"So, whatcher sayin' is I'ma have ta keep up a beat fer ten minutes or possibly more?"

There was another few seconds of silence, during which Celestia began to sweat.

"...Yes? Maybe?" She readied herself for the scathing criticism that was sure to come.

"Sounds like fun," Rego replied, nonchalantly.

"Then I guess- wait, what?" Celestia was taken aback. This was not how most ponies behaved. In Canterlot, back when she would hold court, the nobles would scoff and get angry if Celestia ever suggested that they do something even remotely challenging. The same could be said for most of the ponies in Canterlot.

But these ponies weren't most ponies.

"As long as Flare's up for it, I'm game," said Sharp.

After a short chord from her now perfectly-tuned bass, Flare raised an eyebrow at Sharp. She turned her head and then raised her other eyebrow at Celestia.

"Let's do this!"

The following cheer could be heard from the edge of Tall Tale.

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

Sharp Wit was aptly named. He was extraordinarily clever, which helped him in school. Upon moving to Tall Tale as a young colt, Sharp had gone out the front door of his family's apartment building to explore his new home only to be head-butted by a grey unicorn filly with a frizzy orange mane. After she helped Sharp back to his feet, she stared at him for a few seconds before speaking up.

"You're new."

"...Uh, yeah... My name's Sharp."

"Mine's Flare. Let's go climb a tree!"

And with that, Sharp had made his first friend. It wasn't until he turned fifteen that he realized just how much he liked having her as a friend, and not long after that Sharp started wanting her to be more than friends with him.

The only problem was that he had no clue whatsoever how to tell Flare how he felt about her once he realized that he "like-liked" her.

It had been two years since then, and Sharp wasn't any closer to talking to her about it. He had tried asking his father, but only got "Just go tell her" as a response, and he couldn't do that.

Sharp knew all about Flare, from her favorite color (sea green) to her cutest quirk (she mimes how she's feeling when she's bored). Flare's mother loved Sharp like he was her own son. Sharp's own parents regularly had Flare over for movie night, and they thought she was perfect. If Sharp was a little bit braver, he would tell her that he thought the same.

Sharp could talk to Flare about anything, except for how he felt about her. And this kept him up to all hours of the night some nights.

Nights like this one, where he stood over his desk with an old-style fountain pen in his magical grasp.

His tongue stuck out from the corner of his mouth as he wrote the beautiful calligraphic letters of a song. But it was not just any song, for Sharp had written normal songs before, like Background Pony and he had helped Regolith write Welcome to the Dead Club, but this song, Courage to Love, was different.

It was for Flare.

If I woke up one day without you

I would not know what to do.

So lost and so alone,

Without you there's no home

For me...

Sharp closed his eyes and began to sing the chorus quietly.

"Oh Luna,

Celestia on high,

I need courage,

Courage to love.

Oh, courage,

Courage to love."

From somewhere in his room, Sharp heard a sniffle, followed by a rustle. His eyes snapped open and his magic found his bow and quiver. As he turned to see the intruder, Sharp knocked an arrow and drew the string, aiming it in the general direction of where he had heard the noises.

"Don't shoot don't shoot! It's me, Sunny Sky!" Said a voice that did sound a lot like Sunny Sky.

Upon turning to look, Sharp saw that it was in fact Sky.

Relaxing the bow but not setting it down, he asked "What- How did you get in here?"

"Your window was open, and I wanted to talk to you about something." Sky began inspecting her front left hoof with great interest.

"You know there's a door downstairs, right?"

"Mmhmm... but I didn't want to wake your parents." She looked up at Sharp for a second before sitting and looking around his room. "Nice place you got here."

Sharp glared at her. "Sky, just tell me why you're here so I can go get some sleep."

"You weren't sleeping before..."

"Please."

"So, Sharp..." Sky began tracing circles on the floor with her hoof. "Are you in a relationship with someone?"

Sharp's face went from the sandy brown to a dark orange. He stammered "Wh-what do y-you mean?"

"I mean do you have a fillyfriend? Or... a coltfriend?" She continued to trace circles, seemingly oblivious to Sharp's embarrassment.

"Uh... not to be rude... you're very nice and all but-"

"Oh no no!" Sky suppressed a giggle with a hoof. "You thought I was asking you out? No no..."

Sharp's orange-tinted face gained a more reddish hue. "You aren't?"

"No, I wouldn't dare ask you out!"

Sharp's face lost all of its blush, and he snorted. He wasn't sure if she was insulting him. "And why wouldn't you dare go out with me?"

"Because, I'd never be able to compete."

The brewing anger drained from Sharp, only to be replaced by confusion. "What the heck are you talking about?"

Staring into Sharp's eyes, Sky responded "I saw how you stare at her. You're a very handsome stallion, Sharp, and I'm sure she would agree with me. You do know who I'm talking about, right?"

Sharp could only stand there, unmoving, his whole face steadily turning orange, and then red. He could not formulate any thoughts or a response.

Standing up, Sky took a step towards Sharp. "The nice, steel-grey unicorn with the flowing mane that looks like... um..." Sky trailed off.

Sharp found his voice, hidden somewhere beneath eleven thousand layers of embarrassment. "...Like a waterfall made of fire..."

"So you do like her! Perfect." Sky said, booping Sharp on the snoot with her hoof. "I bet that song you were singing is for her too!"

"...Yes..." Sharp's face had achieved terminal redness. If he was any redder, he could pass for a really big apple.

"How long?" Sky asked suddenly.

"Excuse me?"

"How long have you like-liked Flare?"

"A few years..."

"How well do you know her?"

"Uh... I can't..."

"That well, huh? But you haven't told her."

Sharp stared at the floor, not answering.

"I'm sorry for putting you on the spot, Sharp. But I have a proposition."

Sharp's ears perked up, but he continued to stare at the floor.

"You want to be together with Flare. I want to help you. Let me guide you."

Keeping his head down, Sharp looked up at Sky. "You'll help me? What's in it for you?"

"Nothing. I just want to help you. Honest."

Sharp angled his head up until he was looking straight over his nose at Sky. "Pinkie Promise?"

Sky gave him a confused look. "Where did you learn that?"

"Party barn. I was six. Didn't you learn it there too?"

"No, I learned it from a friend a few years ago. Fine, I pinkie promise."

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

Celestia, in her Sunny Sky disguise, was giddy. She hadn't played matchmaker for... for... too many years for her to remember. Ohhhh this is going to be so enjoyable! To help two young ponies get together! Celestia thought to herself. She almost did a little dance on the spot, but noticed that Sharp was staring at her. Celestia still needed to do the pinkie promise.

Going through the motions, Celestia said "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye-ow!" She rubbed her eye which was now sore from a poke that was a little too strong.

Sharp giggled like a little colt for a few moments before he managed to calm down. "Alright, alright, I believe you. Now, can you leave so I can get some sleep? We can talk more tomorrow."

Celestia smiled at him, nodded her head, and jumped out the open window. She hovered there, just outside, for a few moments before saying "See ya!" and disappeared into the night.

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

On the topmost floor of a giant barn-like structure, a certain pink pony shot up from her super-dooper water bed. She looked around, groggy for a moment before her mane audibly floofed into its usual fluffy self. Her mane along her neck was itchy, and her ears were all tingly. Somepony had just made a very important pinkie promise, and she had to make sure that it didn't happen! The fate of ponykind would suffer if... if... -the pink pony's ear twitched while being tingly- if Flare and Sharp were together too early! Pronking out of her bed, the pony shot to her desk to start a plan.

Author's Note

Yes, I know that there's an "insert line break thing here" button, but those don't show up on the ebook format...

If there's any errors let me know so I can fix them!

Happy reading!
-Flare