Author's Note
Final Waring: The story you are about to read is currently unedited and contains classical music along with some light m/m shipping. You have been warned.
A Suite on the Streets
Many ponies have different ideas when it comes to relaxing after a long day. For some, it’s through something sweet, warm and comforting to the taste buds and the stomach. Others would sit down for a game of some kind in order that the activity would help them take their minds off of the stresses of the day. And there are those who would rather take their minds off by doing a hobby that would give them time to breathe.
In Harmonic’s case, it all falls in the latter category.
Being on cultural exchange in Saddle Arabia was proven to be more than exhausting for the recently appointed prince. If anything, by the time that he had crawled into his guest room, was looking forward to doing the one thing that he’d longed for all day. It was there on the bed that a small, coffin case held his most precious treasure that he was able to take with him through the sea of sand.
“Am I glad to see you,” he said, putting a hoof on the beaten wood. “I know that you’ve been waiting all day to sing. But just give me a minute and we’ll head out.”
He knew that his method of relaxation was rather unorthodox. Even to the Princesses of Equestria, it was a rather odd way of unwinding that caused a security nightmare for the guards on a daily basis. Not that it was illegal. Far from it, for there was nothing wrong with him playing his violin. Rather, it’s how and more importantly, where he decided to do it that provides the problem.
Once the sun had gone down and the street lamps were lit, Harmonic would throw a cloak over him to conceal his wings and cutie mark while levitated a straw, wide brim straw hat to hide his face. With the case to go on top of his back and to check to see if the Lunar Guards were with him, he headed out of the palace of Bagdad.
However, before he could take the first step outside, he paused, looking towards the shadows. “I know you’re there.” He said, “Only, who is it that follows me tonight?” And out of that darkness, a pair of cat-like eyes opened before a face stepped out into the light. As expected, it was one of the bat ponies from the Lunar Guard that bowed.
“Good evening, Your Highness,” he said. “I’m Sargent Frost, assigned to be your bodyguard for tonight.”
“You’re a new one,” Harmonic commented. “Is this your first time to watch over me?” He nodded. “Ah, looks like you’re getting the front row seat to tonight’s performance.”
“Which is something that I don’t fully understand,” Frost replied. “After all, I know that you can play the violin, but why out there? Even in this palace, there are more than enough rooms for you to play in.”
“I never felt comfortable to have music be locked away from those that would hear it.” He answered. “Look, it’s not something that I can explain, but I have been doing this for a long time, and I do find it relaxing that even I don’t know how to describe. All I do know that it just helps me think and reflect. Don’t worry, I don’t choose crowded places. Only in places where it’s… what’s the word…? Uninhabited, more or less. Although, I do appreciate to have someone there, just in case.”
His newly appointed guard sighed, “Where exactly are we going then?”
“Not sure, just someplace quiet.”
Blending into the shadows, Frost followed Prince Harmonic as he slipped out of the palace and into its ancient streets. In his simple disguise, the violinist walked through down alleyways felt like he was walking into a place that resembled that of a story that one of his tutors had read to him about. The one about flying carpets and a wish-granting genie, of forty thieves and many other tales in which has the same setting as the stones and walls that he was seeing. Of crooked streets and a web of laundry that hang overhead. Of spices that he couldn’t identify along with a few others that he wishes he didn’t.
Harmonic quietly walked past closed marketplaces and chatty hookah establishments. The hidden prince searched and listened for a place in the ancient capital in which all the activity stood still while trying to listen for an echo from his hooves. Eventually, he went down an alleyway that was only lit up by the blue light of the moon. He too was pleased with the acrostics of the towering structures that acted as a sort of enlarged sound box. More importantly, it was a place where only a few ponies come down his way if they should hear him.
After going to the other end of the alleyway, he sat down on his hunches, setting the case down to open it. Taking out the precious instrument and the bow from it, he made sure that it was in tune while double checking to see if anypony nearby would object to him playing there. “Hello old friend,” he said as he tucked the violin under his chin while reaching out for the bow. “I’m feeling rather tired, but I have just enough time for you. So since I don’t feel like improvising, what shall it be tonight? Beethooven? Horseshoepin?”
He tapped his chin with the tip of the bow, “No… Maybe nothing too complicated or dark like Buch… I could go for something a little bit more relaxing…” Harmonic hummed in thought when the answer came to him. “Or rather…” he put his bow just above the strings. “Something a little more fun.”
Closing his eyes, he let out into the night air, high, graceful notes with the pure voice of an angle. The violinist finding himself able to breathe in its serenity of the melody that bounces on the walls. This welcoming beginning for Harmonic was similar to walking out into a garden where the sun was just warm enough and the breeze just cool enough. Out from this peaceful opening, there were calls of a heavenly bird that sang from the elegant but challenging melody of Moztrot.
‘I bet Octavia would be proud of how far I’m able to remember more of this stuff.’ He thought, ‘After all, I have come a long way from making something up. And even to learn all these new tricks and sounds. Giving me new colors to play with… I wonder how much further that I need to go? What other pieces am I expected as a musician to perform for those recitals? I mean, I haven’t been able to do any solos yet. Perhaps I should ask her about that when I get back home.’
But just as it established a serene beauty, suddenly the melody changed that into a faster, playful one. In a way, this was right in tune to Harmonic’s element. A fluttering of notes that swarm around like flocks of birds. But even in this quick tempo, there was still that melodic harmony that rang out within and vibrated out into the streets on another side of the alleyway. A few ponies as they walked down couldn’t help but take notice of the violinist. The hidden prince couldn’t help but smile as he heard the first coin being tossed into his case. But even still, he still wouldn’t dare to open his eyes while he was playing the haunting melody of a concerto.
‘Come to think of it,’ he thought. ‘It’s astounding of how much things have changed for me. Gone from a beggar with a violin to a Prince. Who could foresee something like that? I couldn’t sure, that before I was doing this in hopes to get a bite to eat. And now… I’m doing this because I wanted to. As a musician, I’m free to do this without fearing if I’ll make enough to survive. And to be learning new things that were unreachable! Not just in music, but a little in magic, in flight, reading, writing, arithmetic, stories, culture, and to be able to meet creatures that I didn’t know existed. Is this incredible luck with all the things that have changed?
‘Maybe… Maybe I have changed. From the freak of nature to having ponies throwing rose petals at my hooves. What was I like before all of this?’ Harmonic already knew the answer as his hooves danced and jumped among the strings while the bow glide. ‘What am I saying? Of course, I know what I was like! I was miserable all the time. Content to be isolated for safety. Thinking that I’m the only one in the world who was an Alicorn and gay, thus giving mobs a reason to tear me into pieces. That I was always hungry, feeling empty all the time that on some days that I couldn’t think straight. Yet, that all suddenly changed overnight when we came to Canterlot. Meeting ponies like Fancy Pants, or mom and Aunt Luna, Twilight, Rainbow, Octavia with her wife, Steel Plated and Cross Bow, and… Color.’
At this point, he and the violin sighed at the mere thought of the artist. The one that really changed his life for the better a few years ago. For a moment, he practically daydreamed of him being in the alley with him, pausing to listen to the intoxicating movement. The Prince could practically see his consort’s smile as he put a hoof over his heart. Taking his breath away.
Memories flooded back as he finished off the solo. He recalled their first date of him painting his portrait. Of learning how to ice skate as well as cheating at it. There was the memory of their first kiss together as well as coming out to the nation on Rainbow Day. With all things considering, his coltfriend had helped him grow as an individual.
‘I wonder what he’s doing right now?” He thought, ‘I know that he hates it when I have to go someplace without him as much as I. This trip, even if it’s for political purposes, still feels rather empty to me. Going anywhere in the world isn’t much fun when he’s not around.’
By the time he played the final note, Harmonic found himself to not only have some coins in his case but a very small audience of four. A very old stallion with a turban, two mares that wore veils, and a colt called out to, “Play more.”
“Oh?” the violinist craned his neck down. “And what would you like to hear me play next?”
“Maybe…” pausing for a moment, the colt thought about his request. “Do you know any dances?”
“Plenty. What kind do you want to hear?”
“You don’t sound like you’re from around here,” the old stallion commented. “Pardon my observation, but I couldn’t help notice the accent.”
“That is true,” the hidden prince nodded. “I’m not from around Saddle Arabia, merely visiting.”
“Where do you come from?” the colt asked.
Now it was Harmonic’s turn to think about his answer, “Originally, I come from the frozen North.”
“Do you know any dances that are from there?”
After giving a hum, the violinist raises up his bow to the strings, “No, but I’m aware of the style… Let’s see if I can come up with something…”
Harmonic let his hooves to improvise once again as his mind went back to the wandering caravan. A blizzard of scales and lightning trills that would instantly capture the attention of any passerby – just like how the gypsies have taught him with such a dramatic opening. Virtuosity was on full display for a full minute before he could get to the main melody. Letting it be free like fire as the bow goes from one string to the next and freezing at the high trills. And yet, even with all the lessons he has learned along with his experience at improvising, the Prince felt that he was in his element. Letting the instrument’s voice be as theatrical as it wants like a drunken gypsy.
Before he slowed down the tempo in order to play out the melody, Harmonic closed his eyes. In his mind’s eye, he recalled the dances around the bonfire in the middle of the woods with the caravan moving about. The instrument rang out in its passionate beauty as the bow bounced and kicked with the notes of this dance. In this fantasy, however, Harmonic’s mind spotted his beloved dancing around the fire with a long scarf in his front hooves. Silently, but with a flair for the dramatic, his daydream coltfriend hooked the fabric over, bringing him closer to dance with him. After all, how can even his own violin refuse such an offer to such a seductive rhythm?
‘Maybe I should show him how to party like a gypsy,’ he thought. ‘Although, it would be a rather funny thought to turn any part of the garden at home into a caravan camping spot with its wagons circling around a bonfire. Of course, anyone from Canterlot would probably faint at the idea of us doing wild dances, drinking cider from the bottle in the open air. Still, it would be rather fun. Just to let down the whole being a sturdy statue of significance and cut loose. Maybe I could invite Steel Platted and Cross Bow? It’s been a while since we’ve had so much of a decent chat, so maybe I could tempt them with a party? That, or just invite both the Solar and Lunar guard just as an excuse to have fun around a bonfire.’
When the Prince opened his eyes, he found that he had gained a little more of an audience that was tossing coins into his case.
“Phew! That was fun,” Harmonic said as he shook his left hoof about after such an exercise. “So, is there anything you all want to hear?”
One of the mares tossed in a small coin bag into his case, “Play something beautiful.” She requested.
The hidden Alicorn blinked, “Anything specific?”
“I don’t know,” she shrugged. “Perhaps a favorite of yours.”
Humming in thought, the violinist looked into his library of tunes to recall something that was not only beautiful but would also wow his small audience. “Now that I think of it,” he said. “There is one that comes to mind. In fact, there’s a new trick I’ve learned that I wanted to try with.” As carefully as he could, he turned his cloak over to one side so that he was able to lift his left wing to be spread open without showing them his cutie mark. His left hoof back on the string board while his right to ready his bow, Harmonic curved his wing over the lower strings, just barely touching them. “Of course,” he added. “This is extremely tricky so please forgive me ahead of time if I messed this up.”
Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, the violin let out a long, suspended note while his wing plucked out a pizzicato of tiphooving notes. Harmonic concentrated on not only the main melody from his bow but to make sure his wing was able to pluck the right notes as well. All the while, the light, airy piece float above and through the alleyway like a cool breeze on a summer’s day. Even from something so simple sounding, the pizzicato made the sound complex by its very movement on the instrument.
‘Of course, that’s what they would expect out of me anyway if they knew that I’m an Alicorn.’ He thought to himself as he repeated the first phrase. ‘They would want to hear something complicated but graceful from me. Not that I mind, but it’s still very tricky to do. After all, this isn’t easy, much like being a prince. Strange how much ponies expected out of me nowadays the more I think of it. After all, I never really asked to become a Prince. Celestia made it a requirement since she adopted me.’
As he played on, the more he thought of how that what he had shouldn’t have worked at all. They knew that he was partly educated, even with Princess Twilight teaching him how to read and write. ‘Not only that,’ he reflected. ‘But I wasn’t given the chance to be a leader in anything… Well… Technically I don’t even have that much power, to begin with. I mean, I just run the arts. But still. The fact remains that by all accounts, I should have failed.’
However, at the same time, he knew why that he didn’t. After all, Twilight, Rainbow and Octavia weren’t his only teachers. Celestia too had given him the tools and advice to run a very minor, but nevertheless important job in the Equestrian Government. She provided him with an adviser to guide him and a secretary to record every evening: to judge appeals for loans; learn what’s new in the world of film, art, fashion, literature, theater, and music; and on rare occasions, to hear the pleas of artists underneath its current censorship laws. Of course, he was aware that in the pecking order of governing, he was on the bottom, but it was, after all, light work. Thus, giving him time to go on with his life.
‘Then again,’ he added to his meditations. ‘I’m also their errand colt. Heck, I’m only here because none of them, not even Blueblood could be able to come, and I was the only one available. Still, I do get to travel outside of Equestria, so there’s no complaining there.’
By the time he’d open his eyes, Harmonic found himself alone as his audience had already dispersed back into the main streets from either side. However, this wasn’t exactly accurate. In the shadows across from him, a pair of eyes stood there to watch over him.
“How do you like the show, Sargent?”
The bat pony popped his head out into the moonlight. “You play well, Your Grace. Although, I didn’t know that you could use your wings to play the violin.”
I tucked in my left wing as he was saying this. “To tell you the truth, a couple of months ago, I didn’t either. If anything, I didn’t even learn that from Miss. Octavia. Rather, I saw it from the drawings depicting a violinist from a couple hundred years ago.”
“What violinist?”
“Paganeighni,” he replied. “He was a Pegasus that apparently was the very first to use his wing to pluck the strings with while he was playing. Of course, it’s a technique so difficult that only very few had ever done it successfully.”
“If I may ask,” the bat pony inquired. “Is there anything music wise that you can’t do?”
Harmonic laughed, “I can’t play the cello, I can tell you that. And I’m horrible when it comes to brass and wind instruments. The keys I might consider learning but I’m intimidated by going near them unless I cheat.”
The Sargent tilted his head, “Chat? How so?”
“Well, Princess Twilight had taught me a spell in which that if I focused my magic on an instrument, I can have it play whatever music that I am thinking of. I even learned how to make this violin sound like there’s five playing at once or even a full orchestra. However, Octavia forbid that as it wouldn’t seem fair to anyone that I’m able to do this without learning any new skills.”
“Understandable.” His newly appointed bodyguard looked both ways and above to see if there was anypony approaching. “Your Majesty, would it be out of place if I asked a request from you – a musical piece I mean.” The Prince asked him what he had in mind. “Do you know the Song of Forgiveness by Dvorak?”
Harmonic nodded, “Of course, it was one of the earliest melodies my music teacher taught me.” Raising his bow and closing his eyes, he paused for a moment as he tried to recall all the notes of this simple tune. Gently letting the bow touch the strings, he breathed in deeply as he let the bow glide over the strings.
The song itself, to Harmonic, was not only drop-dead easy that had a memorable melody, but it was one of those pieces in which it was perfect. There was no need for double stops, or adding a counterpoint, or even to add a new instrument, nor to decorate the melody as it is just perfect as it is. In the violinist’s hooves, it sounded like something he would play to comfort himself with. Like a friend that was patient enough to listen to everything, you had to say to cry into its shoulder while embracing you in a warm hug.
Halfway, the Prince opened his eyes to see that his bodyguard was enveloped by the sound. Eyes closed, he looked humbled in the moonlight as if meditating or remembering something from long ago. The Sargent was at peace in the gentle music that rocked the air like a cradling lullaby. Such a sight was enough to peak Harmonic’s curiosity.
“I take it that it’s a favorite of yours?” The prince asked after the final downbow.
His bodyguard leaned up against the wall behind him. “I guess I’m feeling homesick already.” He confessed, “My little sis plays the violin too, and what you played was the first song she did at her recital.”
Setting his instrument down, Harmonic asked, “Oh? So when was the last time you were given a chance to visit home? That is, wherever home is for you.”
“I come from a village that’s right next door to Neighagara Falls. A place that’s far away enough that there’s not much of light pollution to drown out the stars in complete darkness. My parents were pretty good I guess, and my little sister has all the talent I lack. Sure, she started to learn how to play the violin before I joined, but sweet Luna, like you, she can melt your heart just by playing a song.”
The prince frowned. For a split second, the Sargent thought for a second that he had offended him somehow. “You’re really lucky.” Harmonic said, “So I take it that this village treated you well?”
He shrugged, “As good as any place to live I guess. Sorry, did I say something wrong?”
“Huh? Oh no, you didn’t. If anything, I was a little jealous for a moment there.”
“Oh? Oh!” his bodyguard realized. “That’s right. I forgot about your personal experience growing up.”
“I’m not mad at you. Just consider yourself blessed that you had a home to go to and a family that you had years to build good memories with.”
“But Sire, you have that too.” The Batpony pointed it out, “Grant it that it was rather late on your part, but you do have a home and a family to go to. Most ponies would sell their souls to have Celestia herself as their mother and Princess Luna as their aunt.”
This put a smile on the Prince’s face. “Yeah… I just hope that this luck would last.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, up until recently, I had the worst kind of luck that you could possibly imagine. Then all of a sudden, I go from a beggar doing this on the street to survive – to being a Prince that does this out of enjoyment. Both because I’m an Alicorn.”
“Frankly Sire, I’m actually grateful that you turned out as you did.”
Harmonic tilted his head, “What do you mean?”
“Considering what I’ve heard about you so far, it’s a miracle that you didn’t turn out to be a villain after all of that. Most ponies with that much misery would swear vengeance upon the world for treating them like… well… crap. But even after all of that, the fact that you didn’t should say something about yourself. I’d say that although you have a minor role in the government, any country would be lucky to have you as their Prince, Your Highness.”
‘I’m diffidently going to invite him to the gypsy party.’ Harmonic thought. “That’s very kind of you,” after a yawn that escaped from his lips, he added. “Okay, one more piece and then I’m going straight to bed. In fact, I already have something in mind.” Underneath his straw hat, his horn glowed that enveloped his violin as he lifted up to be right under his chin.
With his magic still on the sound box, he made it so that a peaceful piano established the opening theme. A melody that was slow but created a serenity in the sounds of nocturnal stillness that glorifies the stars above them. The bodyguard noted that from both ends, there were fewer ponies walking about than before. On the one hoof was a relief for security reasons, but disappointing as hardly anyone was able to hear this.
About a minute in, the violinist took up his bow and draw out an aria that only the strings could sing. Its voice swelled above the chords of the other strings that was if peace itself was given life in this quiet place in Saddle Arabia. Pure notes that came from not just from the heart, but from Harmonic’s soul. This was not something that came from any dead composer, but from the Prince himself, that sang this hymn to the night.
This time, Harmonic didn’t have his eye closed as he watched his bodyguard’s reaction. He looked upward towards the heavens, at the stars that crowned the crescent moon. He looked from the shadows, admiring its gentle light.
In the end, the prince was finished with his song and looked down at his case. “Hmm… Not as much as I was hoping, but I could always chip in.” After collecting the coins and dumping them into a bag, he handed it over to the Sargent. “Hold onto that, once we get back to the palace, I’ll give the Sultan ten times that amount to have it go to charity.”
“You know, Your Grace, it practically astonishes me that you carry around that much wealth on you.”
This got a chuckle out of Harmonic, “And why not? I have been doing it for most of my life,” he said lifting the violin. After putting the instrument back in its place in the coffin case, he locked it up and puts it on his back. “Let’s get back to the palace now. But this time, I’d like you to walk with me.”
Sargent Frost obeyed as they exited out of the alleyway, walking through the quiet streets of the desert capital.
