Twilight Sparkle always told me that I was the best foal sitter ever, “the greatest in the history of all foal sitters.” I beg to differ. She called me kind, caring, beautiful. But I didn’t develop these traits on my own. And as a princess, my mother was often not around. So I had a foal sitter of my own, and she was the best foal sitter of all time. She is one of the greatest ponies that I have ever known.
Her name is Wind Melody. I may not be able to see her much anymore, but I still love her more than anything. I, Cadance, am what I am today for knowing Melody. Before she became my sitter, I was taking influence from my butthead of a cousin, Prince Blue Blood. I was downright snobbish to everypony, insulting, ignoring, using all of them as my slaves because I thought I could, because I was a princess, and I could do what I wanted. Thankfully, my mother intervened and asked for Aunt Celestia’s advice on what to do. Celestia suggested that I get a mentor. It might have been herself, but they felt that it should be a commoner, to show me that royalty weren’t the only people worthy of being near me. And so, Wind Melody was chosen.
She was at the top of her class at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, and she was from humble roots, in Ponyville of all places, showing that she got there the hard way, not by having the most money. I remember first meeting her, taking one look and being in awe that a commoner could show such beauty. Her coat was a gorgeous shade of ice blue; her mane and tail were similarly pale with a greenish tinge, worn in wispy curls. Her cutie mark, one of which I had not yet acquired, was an image of reeds blowing in a wind of music notes. She was just so beautiful in my young eyes that it made me mad. How could not only a commoner be so pretty, but one with a single toned mane? My mane was much prettier, in my mind. But it was Melody that taught me that the real beauty came from within, and outward appearance just followed.
“If you want to be graceful, you need to learn how to walk with balance,” Melody said, smoothly, as she calmly walked down the steps to demonstrate. I tried to copy the way that she held her legs as she walked, but ended up just falling over.
“Melody, why can’t I walk like you do? You have to be using magic. No commoner could be more graceful than a princess.” I was still a little snob at that point. I regret my words to her in the start of our relationship to this day. But I guess I just had to learn how to control myself, and then become a better person over all.
She took my comment in stride, though she rolled her eyes discreetly. “Silly filly, it’s because you are a princess that you are having trouble. I only have to walk to compensate for a horn. You have wings as well. So, you can’t just move your legs like I do, you have to find your own way. Think of how you normally walk.”
So I listened, and walked my normal way. “Now what?”
“Now, maybe put out your wings ever so slightly. I’ve seen pegasi walk like that back in Ponyville. Give it a try.”
I did. I fell over again. She giggled. I got mad at her and yelled at her. “Don’t laugh at me! I’m a princess! If I could fly yet I would show you graceful!”
“I’m sure that you would. But for now, if you wish to be like Princess Celestia, you need to learn how to walk with grace. Oh! That’s it. Try to walk like Princess Celestia.” I tried. It was working better than any other of the attempts. “Maybe, move your legs together a little more. No, not that much. Now you put them out too much. There. That’s it.”
And that is how I learned to walk with grace. Over and over, Melody gave me little suggestions until she decided my gait was suitably graceful. We would do this every day, me having to learn how to do this once again as I grew, which, as an alicorn, was at a much higher rate than the average pony. She also taught me how to do other princess things, per my request, like tea drinking and the royal wave. She also started my lessons in magic. It started with the first tea drinking lesson.
“You don’t know how to lift the cup?” Melody asked.
“Well, no. My lessons haven’t started yet. Auntie Celestia is always busy.”
“Hmmm. Well, no time like the present.”
“What?” I asked excitedly, forgetting my distain for this commoner. “You’d really help me with my magic?”
“Of course, Princess. I, Wind Melody, now take over Princess Mi Amore Cadenza’s lessons in magic! At least the basics.”
“What gives you the right to do that?” I asked her, skeptical.
“Because right now I’m in charge of you. If nobody’s teaching you yet, then I’m the one who’s your first teacher in magic. And if you want to learn proper tea time, you must be able to use levitation.”
“Okay.” And so, we practiced. And practiced. And practiced. Eventually, Melody gave up on the whole tea thing and the magic thing and said that Princess Celestia could do it and she would teach me later.
We finally became friends after that. My stubbornness wore off under the influence of such kindness and patience. I began to stop looking down on everypony a little at a time. Finally, I viewed them as equals. That is when my real learning with Melody began.
I was walking home after being tutored by Auntie Celestia one day when I ran into a servant in the hallway. “Watch where you’re going!” I said in a snobbish way, fuming that someone inconvenienced me.
The stallion of course replied simply, “Yes, your highness.”
But Melody had other ideas. “Cadance…”
I hadn’t even seen her. I gulped, knowing that I was in big trouble. Melody had never been angry at me before. “Yes, Melody?” I said sweetly, trying to play innocent. I looked up into stern green eyes, not the sparkling happy ones I was used to.
“I want you to go and apologize to that stallion. I don’t want any excuses. There is no reason for you to treat a pony like that. I don’t care if you were Princess Celestia herself.”
I was surprised. “That’s all you want me to do?” She nodded. “Okay, be right back!” I went and said that I was very sorry for being so rude, and it was one of the most gratifying things that I had ever done in my life. It made me feel so much better. And when I went back to Melody, she was beaming. She looked so proud; it made me feel proud of myself too.
“See? That wasn’t so bad, was it? And it feels good to be kind, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah. You’re right.”
“Anyway, how was your day?” Melody was just back to normal again, just like that! Not like my mother, who stayed angry for days. Looking back, my mother wasn’t very good at mothering. But then Wind Melody came along and filled that void.
Yes, I said it. Melody was like a mother to me. It takes a great foal sitter to be able to stand up to such a standard. If it weren’t for Melody, I never would have opened my heart up to other ponies and discovered my special talent for joining people together in love.
“Melody! Melody! I got my cutie mark!” I said, flying over to my foalsitter.
“That’s great, honey! And what a mark it is,” she said, glancing at my flank with a huge grin on her face. “How did you get it?”
“Oooh, there were two people arguing in the market place over something, I didn’t really catch what, and all of the sudden, a spell just happened and hearts came out of my horn! Then they stopped arguing and went away into a restaurant and got dinner together. I realized that I could make the love inside of ponies bloom, and that’s when this mark appeared!”
“That’s awesome, Cadance! It’s a lovely special talent!”
“I never have asked you how you got yours.”
She paused. She didn’t seem to be willing to answer for a minute, but eventually she sighed. “My talent is for playing the flute. But, I don’t like to perform. So I really don’t know for sure what exactly my special talent is.”
I was shocked! I was sure that somepony as beautiful and well-put-together as Wind Melody would have known what her special talent was! But, as she had taught me manners, I used them and simply smiled. “The flute is a lovely talent! Why haven’t you ever played it for me?”
“Well, I don’t really like to play in front of ponies.”
“But I’m not ponies, I’m Cadance!”
“Oh, alright.” So she took her flute out of her bag and played a small tune that I felt was the most beautiful music at the time, and I was mesmerized and loved her even more than I had before.
“Beautiful.” That was all that I could say, and it seemed to sum it up so perfectly.
It turns out that she was also an excellent singer, and so she gave me lessons in that as well. It seemed like there was nothing that she couldn’t do.
“No, that’s too high. You’re hurting your voice Cadance.”
“Huh? But I want to sing higher, Melody!”
“Hurting your voice won’t help you do that. Sing in your range and the higher notes will come as your vocal cords grow stronger.”
“But you have to push your limits to make a muscle stronger.” I pouted. I thought she was lying about the vocal range thing, and I was very annoyed as she didn’t tolerate lying from me.
“Yes Cadance, but the vocal cords aren’t the same as other muscles. They’re a special muscle, and they have to be treated in special ways.”
So I gained patience learning to sing. I was always struck by her beauty. As I aged, and she aged, though, it became less and less in my eyes. She became like any other pony. I hated myself when that happened. But she still had a special place in my heart, even if she didn’t look as special as she had.
Her days watching me ended abruptly, when I began to go to school for refinement of my magic. I missed her so much, and after that, we only saw each other for brief visits. I found out that she was working at a retirement home in the slums of Canterlot playing her flute to make the ponies there happier. I was glad that she had finally found her calling, but I wished she would make more time for me. We kept in contact with each other over the years, and thus she knew about, how I was Twilight’s foalsitter, my love for Shining Armor, everything that happened in my life through the years. Yet, my schedule was such that we could never see each other. The worst thing came when she was unable to be my bridesmaid and attend the reception to my wedding. I was angry. So very angry. I didn’t know how she could possibly do that to me. Had we really grown so far apart?
But then, I saw her in the crowd as I walked down the aisle. That made everything better. Even if I wasn’t able to speak with her afterwards, her eyes were enough for me.
Later, after my honeymoon, I found out why she had to miss my reception or be a bridesmaid. She was planning my honeymoon. She chose the perfect venue and had Auntie Celestia get it reserved. She planned every meal, a flexible but thorough schedule for the events that we attended. After I knew that she had been doing that, on top of working her new job as a secretary, and volunteering at the retirement home even though they fired her, I understood why she did what she chose to do. I have missed her so much.
And today, I am going to visit her.
