Author's Note
Contest Rules
1) Valentine's/Hearts and Hooves Day theme
2) cannot use the word "cock"
3) must feature flowers
4) must have cover art
5) hard word limit of 5k
6) Story must stand on its own.
Apologies if the second half feels a little too quickly paced.
A Glass Harp to Heart
'Twas the morning of the second day of Marigold's merry journey to the Crystal Empire.
The train that ran from Manehattan directly to the Crystal Empire didn't stop once in its quest, and chugged along at a speed that was both comfortable for the passengers and would get it from point A to B in the desired time. He had boarded the evening before, as did the other ponies, and had spent the night on the train in his own little booth. Quite a few ponies spent the time in the leisure car, engaging in social drinking and playing games to their heart's content, but most ponies chose to do the sensible thing and sleep the night away. It was a real shame that our stallion was hardly sensible when his nerves got the better of him, and had subsequently spent the night fully awake in his booth and doing his hardest to distract himself.
From sunset to sunrise, he thought about what horrible things could happen in the train ride between the two cities. Most of his fears were primarily from what he read in fictional novels; roaming bands of train-robbers, serial killers in his car, a ghost that haunted the halls, or the risk that the train would derail while he slept. Though, he did have the mind to come back to his senses and dismissed those silly thoughts. Even if it only took him 9 hours.
But then his mind, with the absence of those negative thoughts, went to thoughts of his special somepony. Now that was a thought he could get behind.
He didn't know how, nor did he know why, but Marigold was overcome by feelings of pure bliss. The fear-based anxiety was gone the very instant she appeared in his mind, and his heart now raced for another reason entirely; the gorgeous, young mare that owned his heart, and only the bestest of marefriends a guy could ask for. Every time he was near or around her, she'd practically radiate love and beauty - a bit like a normal crystal pony, but she was much better! Or at least that's what he truly believed. He could never get her to believe it no matter how many times he'd tell her.
However, the sappy line of thought and holding her up to a pedestal did bring up one teensy little question:
'What does she see in a boring, earth pony like me?'
And that, dear reader, is why we are truly beginning our story in a less-than-glamorous location.
"Deep breaths...cool it..." Marigold told himself for the final time. There was really nothing quite like having an anxiety attack because you thought your loved one was too good for you. Had he taken the time to actually follow his own advice in lieu of repeatedly mumbling the advice to himself, he'd have calmed down half an hour ago.
"What in the name of Celestia is takin' you so long?!" came the voice of an unseen, frustrated pony just after landing a trio of knocks on the door.
It seemed that half an hour in the claustrophobia-inducing restroom around the time other ponies were waking up was just a bit too long.
"I-I'll be out in a sec!" Marigold calls, casting a quick glance over to the door before looking back into the mirror above the sink, his upper body propped up by his hooves that rested on the edge of the basin. Apart from the bags under his eyes from his sleeplessness, what stared back at him was an otherwise unremarkable, white earth pony. His face and his raven black mane were a little damp as a result of him doing his best to wash away his tiredness and anxiety with cold water.
There must have been something she saw in him despite his rather dull colour-scheme, otherwise she wouldn't send all those lovely, scented letters that he oh-so loved.
And if he wanted to know the answer to that daunting question badly, he had the opportunity to ask her to her amazing face the moment he reached the Crystal Empire! That's it! It was so simple!
"Brrr! Phew! Alright! Time to skedaddle!"
With a look of determination in his eyes, he released his hold on the sink and pushed the door open, finally returning to the outside world. He was a changed pony now, no longer would he allow thoughts of inadequacy plague him, he'd-
-receive a swift, blunt impact to his face. He nursed his snout with a hoof, and shimmied away from the bathroom door before whoever it was could mount another attack on him. Thankfully, there was no need to worry about a second whack, allowing him to register just what was happening. Before him stood his assailant; a rather aged and irate mare, with the weapon, a toiletry bag, clutched in her shaky fetlock.
"You colts nowadays spend too much time gussying up in the mirror!" she half-yelled and half-croaked as she trundled into the restroom. He couldn't tell if she always sounded like that or whether it could be attributed to her having just woken up. Before he could counter her with a smart-flank comment, she closed the door behind her, revealing the long line of ponies who were undoubtedly waiting for their turn. The collective power of their glares told him that staying quiet and going away would be better for his physical health.
Just as Marigold turned to leave, a conductor entered the car after kindly letting him pass and took a look at the line of ponies outside the bathroom.
"I'm sorry, everypony. We're a few minutes away from the Crystal Empire and we’re slowing down soon. I'm afraid I'll have to ask you all to use the bathrooms they have at the station." he said, which was followed by the displeased groan of the waiting ponies. Marigold took that as his cue to promptly make his way back to his booth, hiding his face behind a hoof.
Around a dozen or so minutes later, Marigold was standing on the main platform of the train station. It was a very pleasant day to be outside, and he was surprised to find that there was nary a cloud in the sky, just like all the photos of the city-state had depicted. A gentle breeze swept through the station, dragging dust and dead grass over the polished, stone platform.
Some minutes before, he was one of the first ponies to disembark from the train, only so he could hide behind a cart full of luggage as the other passengers left the train. He'd rather not bump into any of the ponies he had deprived of their morning ablutions. However, when the coast was clear and everypony had left to go about their day, the milky white stallion held his luggage handle in his teeth and took a look around. It was all well and good that other ponies were gone, but that led to another issue.
He was the only one there.
‘She isn't here to meet me.’ he thought to himself, as his drowsy-yet-concerned eyes darted around, trying to see any sign of his marefriend. He confirmed that the station was indeed deserted after a moment of looking around. Crystal ponies weren't hard to miss even if you tried.
"M-mahee she forgor..." he dejectedly sighed with a mouthful of luggage-handle. That certainly didn't make him feel any better. Did he seriously get stood up at a train station?
But before he could fall into another bout of panic, Marigold heard somepony clear their throat. He could instantly tell from the pitch and proximity that it was somepony very young. And very close. He whipped his head around to locate the source, but saw nopony. How could that possibly be? Was he hearing things?
"'scuse me, mister. I'm down here..."
The stallion looked down at his side and spotted the small, sapphire-blue crystal pony that was speaking to him. The crystal colt reciprocated by staring into Marigold's cyan eyes, boring his way into his mind and soul. This was certainly not the pony he was expecting. Regardless of that, he figured that he could get some information out of the tyke, and promptly set his bag down.
"So, uh." Marigold starts, briefly breaking eye-contact with a blink. "Just how long have you been standing there, bud?"
"Since you got off the train."
'10 minutes. Jeez.' "Right. And you didn't say anything between then and now because...?"
"I wasn't sure if you were the pony I'm supposed to meet."
"And is the pony you're waiting for an earth pony with my colours and cutie mark?"
"Uh-huh."
'Does this kid ever blink?' "And his name is-"
"Margarine, I think."
'For the love of-' "Marigold." he corrects.
"Oh."
Marigold subtly and subconsciously shifted his weight from one pair of hooves to the other, succeeding in remedying his physical discomfort - just not his psychological discomfort.
"Well, I'm here to see a mare: Singing Glass," At long last, the colt blinked in response to the statement, and the stallion suddenly felt more at ease. Feeling as though a hypnotic spell had been broken, he continued, "I'm her special somepony, and I really wasn't expecting to have a - no offence - child waiting for me."
"You're the 'Boy-Toy'." The colt riposted with the expertise of a master swordspony. By no means was it a question so much as it was a declaration of a fact, like 'the sky is blue' or 'the moon is round'. Of all responses that could have come out of the colt's mouth, that was one he didn't expect to hear in a million years of conversation. Marigold was in a state of being that was one step above ‘stunned’.
The little crystal pony noticed how the older earth-pony froze up at what he said, and his neutral frown transformed into a warm smile, accentuated by the natural sheen of his coat. "Don't worry, Mister! She sent me to show you around so you didn't get lost. And she told me all about you!"
"I-I certainly hope not..." Marigold was still recovering from that verbal duplieren, and was unable to provide a reply more substantial than that.
Not long after, the stallion found that the walk from the train station to the city wasn't as harrowing as he anticipated now that he and his chaperone warmed up to one another. Initial conversations confirming that the weather was, indeed, "quite nice" and how the city positively shone all the time made way for more personal topics to play verbal tennis with. The colt even offered to carry the older pony's bag for him, an offer that Marigold politely declined and settled for balancing the luggage on his back.
Marigold would discover that the cobalt colt with the flamingo mane was the younger sibling of Marigold's marvellous marefriend and the longer he examined the little pony, the more of a resemblance he could see. In essence, the colour scheme for their coats and manes were swapped, and they shared roughly the same snout shape. Why the kid hadn't been brought up in past conversations was most perplexing to him.
'Does she not trust me enough? What else is she hiding from me?' he thought as his ears slowly drooped and his head began to lower. It seemed that his imagination and worries had come back around to pummel him again, but this time, he needn't have to put up with it for long.
"Hey, Mister. What's your cutie mark supposed to be, anyways?" The little one asked, who could see the tell-tale signs of Marigold's lowered emotional state - a thing he was told to look out for by his elder sister. And what better way was there to help than a simple distraction? The question had come along at a good time and worked its magic, making the stallion lift his head.
"Oh, this old thing?" Marigold turned to look back at his rump. The mark was still there - obviously - and he thought about just how he was going to explain it. It was rather tempting for the stallion to simply tell the colt what he did for a living and hoped that it would be enough to satisfy him. The same went for describing the mark itself, but that typically led to the inevitable question of what it stood for, and the barrage of questions that followed after that. All in all, he wasn't exactly sure what to say. Regardless, the white-coated pony brought his eyes back to the city up ahead with a light smile. "Well, how about you try guessing, little buddy."
"I have a name, y'know."
"You didn't tell me."
"You didn't ask." The colt took his eyes off of Marigold's flank and smirked up at him. "Which, for future reference, is something you should have done earlier. It's the polite thing to do."
'Awesome. A lesson in etiquette from...uh...maybe I really should've asked...' With a defeated sigh, he asked, "May I ask your name?"
“You may! My name is Apatite!” the crystal pony replied with a little bounce.
“‘Appetite’.” Marigold said bluntly as he raised an eyebrow.
“Yup!” the colt chirped, having not picked up on the homophone.
“Why? Because you eat a lot?”
“Are you calling me fat?” The little pony scrunched up his nose in frustration. “You dummy! Apatite! Like the crystal?”
“Never heard of it, tubby.” He told the obviously not-fat colt. In response, the little pony groaned and plodded off ahead of the stallion. Marigold had a feeling that he’d grow to enjoy teasing the little tyke, and would pick up the pace to catch up to him, grinning madly as he did.
What could Marigold say about the Crystal Empire that hadn’t already been said or printed in bold on every brochure?
The city was as colourful as it was shiny, and every building seemed to radiate majesty. The stallion was unable to stop himself from looking around in wonder, letting his eyes take in as many shapes and hues as it pleased. He felt as though the tiredness that plagued him all morning was gradually being sucked away by the city. The sun and the cloudless heavens that it occupied only served to make the city go from stunningly amazing to ludicrously gorgeous. If there was one thing he could say about the Crystal Empire, it was that no camera in Equestria could ever hope to truly capture the beauty of the city. Or at least, that was his excuse for neglecting to pack one in his bag.
He mentally kicked himself for that oversight. And Apatite, for an unrelated reason, felt the need to give Marigold a kick of his own.
“Are you really going to do this for every street corner we turn? Ugh. When you’re done gawking, I can show you where Glass hangs out all day. The sooner I do, the sooner I can get home and do homework.”
With great difficulty, the stallion slowly pried his eyes away from his surroundings and managed to settle them on the grumpy little colt. “Yeah, you would be the type to want to do homework. On a Saturday, no less.” Another kick to his leg was the only reply.
The stallion continued to follow Apatite through the crystal city and wisely chose to suppress his wonder, lest he waste any more time staring at the architecture like a fat colt at the window of a candy shop. That wasn’t to say that Marigold was completely lost in his own little world. In his possession was a tourist’s map of the city, and as the pair walked along, he noticed that they were approaching what seemed to be one of the more larger grassy parks in the Empire. As they got closer, Marigold could hear a peculiar, yet soothing series of sounds coming from up ahead, as well as the sound of foals and adults alike spending the day on the grass.
“We’re going through ‘Saviour Spike Grand Park’?” Marigold had no idea who this ‘Spike’ fellow was, and why such a silly name had come to grace a rather nice plot of open land.
“Through it?” Apatite snorted, “It’s our destination. Can’t you hear the music?”
After navigating their way out from the main streets of the city, Marigold and his stout guide found themselves with grass under their hooves and the sounds of enjoyment in their ears. There were crystal ponies aplenty, each going about and doing their own things, which primarily consisted on sitting on the grass and enjoying the company of another. The highest concentration of crystal ponies he could see were all sat around what looked like an open air theatre. It was also the source of those strange, yet wonderful sounds. It was certainly familiar to Marigold, but he couldn’t quite put his hoof on where he’d heard it before.
It struck Marigold as a little odd. Everywhere he looked, he noticed that everypony was in pairs, and the ones who weren’t primarily consisted of foals. What was the occasion?
“Ugh. Everypony is so sappy today.” Apatite groaned, suppressing a dry-heave as he led the stallion towards the crowd of amassed ponies. It seemed that whatever performance they were watching had come to an end, as indicated by the thunderous stomps of applause and the crowd of ponies slowly dispersing from the area.
“You mean it’s not like this everyday?” Marigold enquired, scrunching his nose at the colt’s unnecessarily dramatic reaction to his surroundings.
“Of course not, dummy! Everypony is usually normal and perfectly happy, but ever since you Equestrians’ ‘Hearts & Hooves’ day came to the Empire, suddenly everypony acts like they’re trying to one-up other couples in how much they love their mare-slash-colt friends.”
How could Marigold have forgotten? It was Hearts and Hooves day. And he had neglected to bring flowers.
Before he could fall into yet another embarrassing fit of anxiety, Apatite planted both hooves against the white earth pony’s posterior and pushed him through the thinning crowd, towards the stage that they all orbited a few moments ago.
“H-hey!” Marigold yelped, doing his best to catch himself and start walking ahead without the assistance of the small pony. “What gives?!”
“You’re wasting time again!” the colt pointed out, only after relentlessly driving the older stallion through the ponies in their path and ignoring their cries of surprise, and only stopping after the earth pony started to walk ahead on his own. Marigold knew that, despite Apatite’s roughness, he was right and almost seemed like he wanted the best for him - or at the very least, the best for his older sister.
Who, coincidentally, was standing on stage. She was the performer, after all.
Marigold took slow, tender steps up to the stage, as though the short set of crystalline stairs would break under his weight. His heart was beating in his ears, deafening him to all the sounds in the surrounding area, and the only sense that was laser focused was his sight. For a few, brief seconds, the entire world was just a pretty, crystal mare and her instruments.
Singing Glass.
To anypony else, she was a pink crystal pony with a blue mane and a pretty smile, who’s special talent was playing musical glasses. A clear chalice with a pair of quavers within it adorned her flanks, a testament to her skill and talent.
But she was so much more to Marigold. He had travelled several hundred miles to let her know that.
The crystal mare was engrossed in emptying the water out of her array of glasses into a little container, humming to herself as she did so with practised ease. When she was done with the last glass, Marigold chose that as his cue to approach and clear his throat.
“Glass?”
The mare paused and wore a look on her face that indicated that she either recognized the voice or at least acknowledged her name being said - Marigold was unsure as to which it was. She turned her head to face whoever had addressed her, and finally locked eyes with him.
The look of realisation on her face, and the subsequent warmth that was present in her smile was something that burned its way into Marigold’s mind. The pair locked eyes in silence for a moment, with the stallion’s mind completely devoid of all his previous worries. Nothing else in the world seemed to exist anymore, and he wondered if similar thoughts were going through her own mind. If she felt the same joy he did when seeing her or not.
His question was answered the very moment Singing Glass, like all Crystal ponies when they feel love and happiness, quite literally began to glow. The stallion blinked and shielded his eyes as her body was engulfed in light for a few seconds, before lowering his hoof to gaze upon his marefriend.
No longer was she simply a mare with a glossy pink coat and a pretty cobalt mane, but a shining example of a true, glowing, crystal pony. It wasn’t a radical change of appearance, but he noticed that her mane, typically kept in a neat little braid, was let down and had the illusion of being one solid mass of neatly-styled crystal. About as soon as he processed just what he was looking at, the mare leapt from her place on the stage towards him, and enveloped him in a loving embrace. The momentum behind the mare was enough to knock the stallion onto his back, who returned the hug nonetheless.
Marigold was thankful that despite looking like she was made of semi-transparent crystal, she felt like a normal pony. And didn’t weigh like a giant lump of rock.
“You made it!” she squeaked, tightening her hug and nuzzling her cheek against his own. Marigold closed his eyes and returned the gesture, wearing a smile on his lips.
“Yup. I sure did.” he hummed, rubbing her back and letting himself enjoy the moment. As much as he wanted to spend the rest of his life like that, both he and Singing Glass had plans. The mare slowly lifted herself off of her coltfriend, and helped him up onto his hooves. They helped to dust eachother off, and after Glass had patted down the stallion’s mane to something resembling a neat manestyle, the pair were back to standing opposite one another.
“So!” Glass chirped, “How was your journey? And did you catch my performance?” She asked, leading Marigold over to her little folding table and her array of glasses.
And just like that, Marigold felt a tightness in his chest. The easiest thing for him to do was lie, and say that his trip was fine, and that he was there to watch her from the beginning. But that didn’t sit right with him. But the last thing he wanted was for her to feel worried in their first few moments of seeing one another again. The stallion sighed and lifted a hoof to gently rub the lip of one of the wine glasses, but failed to produce the signature sound that they were known for.
“Well…” he started, looking at the seats surrounding the stage, seeing that they were mostly devoid of the previous audience, and those who stuck around were busy chatting or eating lunch. He felt slightly more at ease as a result, and looked up to meet her gaze. He decided to tell her the truth. He told her the story of him being a worrywart on the train, and just how much he let himself get consumed by his feelings and fears. He didn’t let himself ramble on about too many things, only conveying the key moments of his time, before finishing off with letting her know that he only really caught the tail end of her performance because of his delays.
He was silent for a moment, still trying to make the glasses ring by rubbing his hooves around the rim and still failing.
“Oh Mari…” Glass started.
“I know…I just- I feel like there’s nothing remarkable about me. I’m boring, I look boring, and-” He was cut off by the feeling of her lips pressing against the side of his head, before she pulled herself away with a giggle as his cheeks began to burn a bright red.
“Thank you for being honest, Mari. But,” she rested a foreleg on his neck and pulled him in for a side-hug. “You have absolutely nothing to worry about. I love you so so much! And it really concerns me that you think that you need to be more…well, more for me to think you’re worth loving back. You’re my wonderful coltfriend, and I’ll keep on loving you no matter what.”
“E-even if I, like, share the same colour-scheme as the inside of a colouring book?”
“Well,” Glass paused for a moment, finding the right words to say, “the point of a colouring book is to be a means for somepony to express oneself with all sorts of colours and their imaginations. Looking like you’re boring has little effect on who you are inside as a pony, and whom you love. Every little thing makes you special. And that’s why I love you, Mari.”
Marigold was silent once again, removing his hoof from the glass and taking a look at his hoof. Like the sounds of her glass harp, her words resonated with him. With a chuckle, the stallion leaned into her hug and released the breath he didn’t know he was holding.
“Ya know…I sorta forgot you guys have Hearts and Hooves day here now. And -heh- I didn’t bring any flowers.” He sheepishly admitted.
“Oh? Well…I don’t think you have to worry about that.” She giggled, before letting him go.
The stallion turned his head to see just what she was referring to and saw a small congregation of young colts and fillies, all carrying an array of bundled flowers and wearing little flower crowns. Their eyes sparkled in wonder, having bore witness to the romantic interaction between the pair. At the head of the group was none other than Apatite himself, who wore a sly smile.
“I rounded up some of your fans, Glass. They wanted to show that they appreciated your performance today. But…I see that you had a little post-show thing arranged as well.”
The colt grinned at Marigold, who reciprocated with a fake smile.
‘Oh, I’m gonna get you good, tartarus-spawn.’ The stallion thought, before the pair were swarmed with love and bouquets.
The pair had spent time together after leaving the stage, with Glass bringing Marigold all around the city to see the sights. The stallion’s previous query about the “Saviour Spike” individual was answered when they spent dinner eating at a restaurant next to a giant statue of the dragon.
By the time they finished, evening had fallen upon the Crystal Empire. Even when the sun was setting, and when the moon was in the sky, the city looked wonderful. There wasn’t even a need for that many lamp posts on certain streets, seeing that every building seemed to help the light bounce along. The nightlife of the city-state was certainly a lot quieter than that of Manehattan, but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t anything to do.
They both found themselves in Singing Glass’ home and had occupied themselves with making sure that each and every bouquet found a nice home in a vase. And once they ran out of vases, they had to settle for buckets. They had a lot of flowers to take care of.
“I think…I think that about covers all of them.” Glass called to her coltfriend downstairs, placing the final bucket of water and flowers on her bedroom floor.
“I think I’ve got them sorted out too!” Marigold replied, before making his way up the stairs and finding himself in her room. He found her collapsed on her bed, catching her breath from having to lug around the heavy water buckets. Her crystal sheen had faded, but not as a result of any form of unhappiness, and she looked like every other Crystal pony.
He stepped deeper into her room, approaching a desk by her window with a dozen wine glasses arranged next to one another. He could see that each glass had different levels of water inside of them, with the glass at one end having the least water, and each glass after having slightly more until stopping at the end.
The stallion reached out with a hoof, just as he had done back on the stage earlier that day, and gently ran his hoof around the lip of one glass, still failing to produce a sound. The stallion grunted and set his hoof back on the ground.
“I still have no idea how you make them do the thing. The sound.”
“With the glasses?” the mare asked, sitting up in her bed.
Marigold confirmed with a hum and nodded as he continued his examination. He stared at the line of wine glasses and hoped to learn their secrets that way. He heard some shuffling behind him as Singing Glass pulled herself off of the bed and set all four hooves on the ground.
“You’re not gonna make ‘em do anything like that. The trick to it is…” she started as she got behind the stallion, and rested her upper body on his back. The stallion was stunned by her actions, and his face began to glow pink.
She wrapped her forelegs around his neck, and brought her lips close to his ear. “...before you rub the rim…” Singing Glass giggled.
“You have to make it…wet.”
The pair spent the night making sweet music with one another, playing a harmonious duet overflowing with romantic energy, reaching a glorious crotchendo before ever so-slowly settling down for their blissful outro.
Apatite, in the next room over, never slept that night.
