song 44 F4: Explore and Discover 4:28

As I stood on that stage, I couldn’t help but tear up. Seeing the friends I’ve made sitting in the front row, cheering for me after my first big show here in the Trots casino. I’m sure Cavalier is going to make fun of me for crying but he can shove it, old bastard. As the crowd applaud I gave a bow and placed my violin down on the chair beside me, their praise echoed around the atrium and as I turned to leave the stage. My friends stood from their seats to meet me behind stage, I could still hear the crowd as the curtains fell behind me. I think the next entertainer was a little jealous of the reaction I got but I didn’t mind him.

After closing my door with a huff, I looked at myself in the mirror. Tears had darkened my coat in lines down my face. I used a hooftowel to dry my fur, returning it to it’s dark indigo base. I almost couldn’t tell just from looking at me that I had finished crying, save for the bloodshot eyes.

“You made it kid,” I said to myself whipping a wannabe tear from my eye. “You showed that Stable that you’re more than anypony thought you could be.”

As I was showering myself in praise and confidence boosters, I must have missed my friends entering the room. Their combination of laughter and sympathetic sighs was plenty enough for me to acknowledge their presence. Boomer was the first to speak, the gryphons voice jovial as always.

“Holy shit Phony, that was beautiful. It was better than anything I hear on the radio nowadays.” The gryphon could hardly contain her excitement as her wings flapped furiously, blowing some of my notes around.

“Well thank you, I just-” I was cut off by Cavalier clearing his throat.

“Sounded great kid.” The grizzled pony spoke up, tipping his hat toward me. “I guess I should apologize for calling you a coward all those times. It took a lot of guts to stand in front of all those ponies and pour your heart out.”

“Thank you, Cav, but really it was-” Once again I was cut off, this time by Burning Light.

“That was lovely Cacophony, you’ve made all of us so proud.” The unicorn said, a slight blush in his cheeks.

I couldn’t help but smile at the motley crew in front of me, reminding me of what we’ve gone through.

“Thank you all, I have been so stressed just thinking about how this was going to go. Thank you so much for being here.” I said, delighted that I could finally finish a sentence. “I wrote all of those songs while we were out in the wasteland, I feel like the time we’ve shared together should live on forever.”

“Well don’t get too comfy kid,” the grizzled stallion spoke up with a chuckle, stepping back so he could see everypony in the room.

“What do you mean Cav?” I asked with a slight tilt of my head

“I mean we’ve still got plenty of things to see and I don’t know ‘bout the rest of y’all, but I can’t think of anypony else I’d like to bring along than our little family here.”

Cavalier looked at the rest of the us. We were bruised, scared, maimed, but still able to smile. They all exchanged looks and nods before turning to me. I felt a warm feeling building in my chest when he said that. The old bastard just called us family. I smiled before putting a hoof on the case to my violin.

“Let me just grab my strings.” I said, excitedly to the rest of them.

We agreed that our next adventure would take us through Vanhoover, and without and hesitation I trotted with my friends in tow to grab my violin. As I grabbed it from the props table backstage, the entertainer that went on after me was standing nearby. I didn’t hear as much of a crowd uproar after he finished, but then again, I was in my room. Once he saw me, he cantered toward me. I had no idea what he wanted with me so I made sure to ready my knife with my hoof hidden behind the table. Once within a closer distance, I put on a fake smile to try and coax a reaction out of him and to my surprise he returned a natural smile and spoke once he was a bit closer.

“Hey, Cacophony, right?” he said now standing only a few steps away.

“Yes sir. I don’t believe we’ve met though, you are?” I asked. Noticing he wasn’t aggressive, I put the knife back.

“Well we haven’t, names Fiddlesticks, I just wanted to know your story. I heard you play and I couldn’t help but ask where you learned to play like that.”

I gave a soft chuckle. “It’s a long story sir, I wouldn’t want to bore you.”

“I’m all ears.” He said pulling up a chair.

I looked back to see the group all standing happily behind me, each of them beaming as I gave a sigh. It wasn’t often that I got to relive the times I had with this group, so I didn’t mind thinking back on how I got to where I am today.

“Well…”

Author's Note

This a look into the future that i rather enjoyed writing.

UPDATED 25 APR: I took some time to work on this, and I will be re-reading it from time to time just so I can make sure it reads well and is worth reading.