Music of Timeby BackslashertonChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 1 Music has always been the one thing that drives me forward in life. If I didn't have music, I wouldn't be the man I am. The man I am, you might ask, is a new-found father and a composer. My name is Zachary Akins, I am married to my beautiful wife, and I play the saxophone. Ah, but you're probably here to figure out why I am important enough to get a book written about me for the Royal Archives. Well, I'll get to that, but first, as with every great story, we have to start from the beginning. “Zachary Akins.” I walked forward towards the podium and shook the principal's hand. We both turned to my left and smiled. The was a couple of flashes as our photo was taken. As the last of the light died down, I turned back to her and smiled. “Congratulations, Zach. You are now officially out of high-school.” Mrs. Brown said to me as she handed me my diploma. “Thank you, ma’am.” I responded. I turned and walked off the stage and sat back down in my seat as they continued with the graduation ceremony. I clapped as my fellow classmates were called up, and hollard when my friends got up on stage. Just as they had done to me earlier. “Thank you. And now, we would like to announce the class of 20110’s students who have received scholarships.” She cleared her throat as she lifted the list. “Lilly Able, to the University of Texas in Austin for excelling in English. John Argile to the Texas Tech, also for English. Zachary Akins to the University of Texas for musical education. Andy…” I stopped listening as I tried to make sense of what I heard. I’m going to UT? My friend Daniel Brown, Mrs. Brown’s son, slugged my in the shoulder as he flipped out in joy. “Dude! You got into UT!” “I did… I got into UT… UT! NO FREAKING WAY, DUDE!” I shouted as we started going mental right in front of the everyone’s parents. Of course, no one said anything. I mean, are you really going to deny to guys from celebrating from knowing they were going to a university? “Now, would all of you whose name was called please come up onto the stage.” Mrs. Brown said. I jumped up from my seat and all but ran onto the stage. “First off, I would like to congratulate all of you on your acceptance into your respective schools.” The audience applauded. “Second, I would like you to know that you will all be added onto the Wall of Honors for your acceptances. Congratulations.” This day cannot get any better! As I finished signing the final document, I started to stretching my hand to get circulation back into it. My god I hate paperwork. Oh well, at least now I own a house. I looked over to my left at my friend, now roommate, Daniel. I could tell he was thinking the same thing. Totally worth it though. “Well, thank you gentlemen. Here are the keys to the house and all the paperwork you have to keep. Have a nice day.” The Realtor said to us. He was a kind, older man. The kind of, ‘Cool Grandpa’ type. He had been very tolerant and helpful with as we looked around for a house. “Thank you, sir. You too.” I said as I rose from my chair and shook his hand. I turned and walked to the door as Daniel did the same. Once we were back in my car, we turned and looked at each other. Then, as if reading each other’s minds, we screamed the same thing. “WE JUST GOT A HOUSE!” Either it was mind reading, or maybe we had just known each other for about nine years. Mind reading sounds cooler though. Now, around this time, we were both seniors in college. So, around 21, almost 22. I almost had my degree in Music Education and Daniel almost had his in Electrical Engineering. Now, I know you’re all excited to get to the part where I do the interesting stuff, but worry not! This is all important and related to the interesting part. Which happens to be this next part right here. “Yeah man, just call pizza place or something. It’s not like we have the knowledge nor the supplies to make stuff ourselves…Yeah that’s fine…Large, not medium...Alright...Okay, later.” I hung up the phone as I turned onto the main street that leads to our house. It had been about a year or two since we bought the house, and I was driving home from work. I was a band teacher at a local middle school and I had just finished our weekly rehearsal. It had gone smoothly, and I was feeling good. We had gotten a lot done and I had some rewriting to do one of the Jazz Band’s songs. It should sound much better with just the bass playing that part instead of the entire trombone section and the bari sax. I quickly grabbed my phone again as I remembered something I needed to tell Daniel. As I started the message, I heard a horn. My head shot up as I tried to swerve back into my lane, only to over-do it. I slipped and skid off the road and through a barricade and into a drainage ditch. The last thing I remembered was looking down at the fence post in my stomach. The odd thing was, I felt no pain. I just felt, sad. I was sad and scared that I was dying. That much I could remember. But that was it. After that, I was gone. I awoke to the sound of panicked shouting and the click of hooves on stone. I didn’t want to open my eyes, for I was afraid I might see what death is. Though, as I lay there, I realized something. The dead don’t feel pain. So why do I? I thought. Maybe you do feel pain in death. A spike of pain went up my spine from my stomach as I felt something come out of my chest. I opened my eyes, fear of death gone, and let out a shout of pain. ‘Shout of pain’ meaning I screamed out in pain like the wimpy band teacher I was. “GRAH!” “The patient is awake! Hold still, creature! You are gravely wounded and require medical attention!” WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?! THAT IS A TALKING PEGASUS TREATING ME! I continued to squirm until two guards came over and somehow restrained my wrists to the cot. Suddenly, I felt an insane amount of pain again as they put some sort of herb into my wounds. “GRAAH” Is this death? Am I being tortured in hell? I don’t think it is. Besides, there was that one quote, “He who know not of sin, shall be forgiven by God.” or something like that. Then again, I also kind of knew about- My thoughts were cut short as I felt a calmness rush over me. The pain was gone, and I felt exhausted. I opened my eyes again to see a white wing drape over me. Before I could questioned it however, a voice spoke to me. “Sleep now. You have gone through a lot of pain.” I could not respond due to me feeling like I’d been up for three days straight. I felt my eyelids droop and my muscles relax. That’s when the darkness took over. I awoke, but I did not open my eyes. I could tell by the light coming through my eyelids that it would be hell to do so. However, I heard some shuffling around next to me. I tried to ignore it, best I could, but curiosity got the better of me. I opened my eyes to prove my earlier point. Ow, that hurts. I blinked several time to allow my eyes to adjust before I looked around the room. I was in what looked to be a castle, as hinted by the view of the giant courtyard with towers on all of the vertices to my left. I shifted my head to the right to see a white canvas blocking me off from the rest of the room. Seeing as that was the only place to the noise could be coming from. I sat still and listened. “...spy from the griffons.” A voice said. “You and I know that griffons aren't smart enough to do that. Not only would they never think of it, if they actually did somehow, they wouldn’t send another creature to do it.” “How about the Minotaur's?” “Even less so than the griffons.” “Well then where is he from? He seems sentient as we could gather from his clothing. Unless he was clothed by his master and he is just a glorified golem.” “No, he felt pain. That much is obvious from his cries of pain.” “Yes, there was a lot of that. Should we check on him?” “It would be best. Two weeks of being comatose, I hope he’s well.” Two weeks?! How the hell was I out for two weeks? My thoughts were cut short as the canvas was tied back and two winged creatures walked in. Well, I say walk, I think the correct term would be ‘trotted’, but my mind wouldn't accept that at the time. The creatures must have seen me looking at them because their demeanor changed completely. “Creature, can you speak.” The blue one asked. “...eugh?” I couldn't form words, as my head was full of mush from trying to rationalize recent events. “Is that another language?” The white one asked. I recognized her now. She was there when I passed out. My brain had started to understand enough to from words at this point. “I...speak...English.” I responded. “Ah, so thou can speak. We are Princess Luna of Equestria, and this is our sister, Princess Celestia of Equestria. Does thou have a name?” “...uh. Zachary...Akins, of Austin, Texas, in the United States of America.” “Where is this, ‘United States of America’?” Princess Celestia asked. “The continent of North America, planet Earth.” “There is no such place. This is the continent of Nominum, on the planet Equis.” “...What do you mean?...I can’t have gone to a different planet from a car crash. That would be impossible.” “We have never heard of a planet named ‘Earth’. The only time when ‘Earth’ is used is to refer to the soil.” Celestia informed me. “...No, there is no way in hell I was transported to another planet. Not from a car crash. There is just no way.” “Are you implying that there is another way?” “No…I…” I sighed in defeat. “It can’t be the same planet either. The only way every human on earth would disappear would be if they all died. The only way THAT would happen would be if we had nuclear warfare. But I guess the whole ‘other planet’ thing is all that makes sense.” “Excuse us, but what is ‘Nuclear Warfare’?” Luna asked. “...Death.” “It is a weapon obviously, but what does it do?” “It turns paradise into literal hell. A burning, scorched, death-filled wasteland.” “How?” “No. I’m not telling. One, I don’t know what you two are, nor would I tell two leaders of a country that information.” “And why not?” Luna asked with slight malice. “The only time it was used on my world, it scarred the world and killed 225,000 civilians! If it is banned on my world, I’m making sure it never exists here!” “What gives you the right to decide what goes on in our country.” “IF IT WAS BANNED ON A WORLD THAT HAS COMPLETELY REVOLVED AROUND WAR FOR FIFTY-THOUSAND YEARS, THEN IT IS THE BIGGEST EVIL YOU CAN IMAGINE!” I shouted. The two were shocked. I turned away from them and faced the window. I heard some shuffling as I assumed they were leaving. I stared out the window and started to cry as I faced the facts. I’m all alone… No more humans... Chapter 2I don’t know how long I lay there. I thought back to what I said and how I snapped. I never was very good at staying calm when I was frustrated or scared. Every so often, a nurse would come to check on my wounds and bandages. I sat up, with no small amount of pain, and looked around the room at what I had around me. To my left, there was a small table with an unlit candle on it as well as some books in the shelf below the tabletop. In front of me, the was what seemed to be a medical cabinet and a table. Atop the table, there was two, black, leather bags. One of the bags had some papers sticking out of the slightly opened top. The other had a wire sticking out with the USB symbol on it. Lying next to the bags, was a red and black, plaid, button-down shirt that had a large, bloody hole in it. I really like that shirt… Next to the table was four black cases, each varying in size. Glad to see they made it, though I’ll have to check them to see if they’re damaged. I was relieved to see my stuff had made it out okay, despite a few tears on the black cases and bags. I saw the canvas sway, as if someone were walking up to it, and I braced myself for what I was about to see. “Hello? Mr. Akins?” The voice I recognized as Princess Celestia’s called. “...” The canvas shifted as the alicorn trotted in. She glanced behind and her and around the room until she saw me watching her. We had a improv staring contest for a couple seconds until she spoke. “Hello.” “Howdy.” I responded coldly. She seem to be taken back for a second before she trotted forward and sat on the floor in front of me. Another staring contest was started. “Did you need something?” I asked. “We just wanted to say that we’re sorry for earlier. We should’ve seen that it was a delicate matter earlier.” She apologized. “And I’m sorry for getting so mad. I’m not the best when I’m under stress. As you can imagine, this is rather…different for me.” I responded, to which she smiled at. “Shall we start over?” “Sure.” I said, returning the smile. “Hello, I am Princess Celestia, of Equestria.” “Hello Princess Celestia, I am Zachary Akins of the United States of America. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” “Well Mr. Akins, is there anything I can do for you?” She asked. “As a matter of fact, there is. Could you help me get one of those black cases over there.” “Oh, of course.” She started to levitate the smallest of the cases over, but stopped when she realised I was staring, mouth agape. “What?” “How are you doing that?” “What, levitation?” “Yes!” “It’s just simple magic. Every unicorn knows how to do it.” She explained. “That’s…Amazing. This new planet…It’s gonna take some getting used to.” She simply laughed at my shock and set the case down on my lap. I opened the case and pulled out the contents. I looked it over and checked all the keys and pads to make sure they still worked. I set it back in and checked the mouthpiece and neck. Once I was finished there, I checked to make sure the reeds were okay and the disinfectant spray hadn’t spilled all over the place. I closed the case and started to latch it, when I saw Celestia with a puzzled expression. “What?” I asked. “What is that that you just pulled out?” “A soprano saxophone. Do you not have these here?” I asked. “No. I take it it’s an instrument?” “Yeah. It’s part of the saxophone family. It’s the third highest of the eight types of saxophones. I also have an alto, a tenor, and a baritone saxophone over there.” I pointed at the other cases. “Could you play them for us sometime?” She asked. “Of course.” I said. “But not now. If it hurts to breath, it’ll hurt even more to play one of these.” “That’s understandable.” She said, nodding. “I’ll play them someday, I promise. Now, could you pass me the others?” I then started explaining the instruments to Celestia while inspecting each of them. She had a lot of questions about the instruments, which then lead to her asking about my life and job, and then about Earth. We talked for hours about everything she had questions for. We then switch over to questions I had about Equestria and her life. “Our parents were the previous rulers, but after they passed, Luna and I had to take their place. Thankfully, they had taught us how to rule before their passing.” “Yeah. My mother taught me how to be polite to everyone and make friends easier. I kinda failed at that earlier when I yelled at you and Luna. I really didn’t mean to, I was just scared and I confused. I’m still pretty damn confused, but I have a feeling as long as I am within this world, I’ll have that swirlin’ around in my head.” I said with a sad smile. “I can imagine so.” “You know, you remind me a lot of her. My mother, I mean.” “How so?” She asked with a confused look. “You’re able to look paste the outside of people and see the inside. You’re also can admit when you were in the wrong. Those, and being polite to those you meet, are the main traits my mother had.” Minus the whole different species thing, I would think you are her. Well, that and the fact that she passed away around nineteen years ago.” I explained. “I’m sorry to hear that.” She said sadly. “How old were you, if you don’t mind me asking.” “Five.” “...Five years old?” I simply nodded in return. “How?” “Car accident. The roads had black ice on them, and she just…fell right off the overpass.” I could tell she didn’t know what some of the things I said were, but she seemed to understand enough. “Where was your father?” She asked. “He died in battle before I was born.” “You talk so easily about this topic. Why?” She asked sadly. “I’ve had nineteen years to accept my mother’s death, and I never met my father. Besides, it’s not easy, it never is. You just have to accept the harshness of reality. Don’t let your pain define you, let it show the goodness inside you instead. After all, it’s easier to see a white circle on black canvas than it is to see a white circle in a dark room.” “That’s rather philosophical. What did you do for a living back home again?” She asked with a small smile. “I was a band director at a middle school.” I said with a matching smile. “Anywho, what time is it?” She glanced out the window. “Midnight.” “Wow. We’ve been talking for quite a while. I should probably get some sleep. I want to try to walk tomorrow.” “Well, the doctors would probably hate that, but I can respect that. Goodnight, Zachary.” “Goodnight Celestia.” Chapter 3Every. Damn. Morning. Once again, I had to squint my eyes as I sat on the edge of the bed. The sun shone brightly through the window, right into my face. I had tried to stand, only to remember I was in a hospital with at least one or two broken ribs. Once my eyes adjusted to the light, I glanced around the room. I saw my bags on the table in front of me. Man, this is gonna hurt like hell. I stood up and tried to walk over to the table, grinding my teeth in pain the whole time. “...Grh, this is so stupid…” I muttered to myself. After an intense amount of pain, I made it to the table and grabbed the papers. I then started the equally painful process of getting back to the bed. Apparently, I was being pretty loud in the process because Celestia, who had been talking to a nurse outside, had come in to see what was going on. “What do you think you’re doing?” She asked, shock evident in her voice. “Grh, walking. Or at least, ah, the very painful equivalent.” I answered with as much sarcasm I could spare. Celestia just shook her head and levitated me back into bed. It took me a moment to realize that I was floating. However, and when I did it wasn’t quietly. “Holy crap! What the hell?!” I shouted. “Be still! It’s hard to levitate someone who’s struggling like you are.” Celestia chastised. Once she sat down. I tried to catch my breath from the amount of pain I just experienced. “There. Now, what were you thinking, trying to walk?” “Hey, I told you I would do it yesterday.” I defended. “Yes, but I thought you meant when somepony was there to help you if you fell!” “Well, so did I, but hey, at least we discovered something today.” “And what is that?” “It hurts like hell to walk after getting impaled and comatose for two weeks.” Celestia just gave me a deadpan look in return. I took this opportunity to open the bags I had grabbed. I opened the one with my laptop in it to make sure it wasn’t broken. It looked okay, but I’d have to check it out internally later. I then grabbed my bag of papers and started to sift through the important stuff and non-important stuff. “Junk, pointless paperwork, blank sheet music, sheet music, sheet music.” I said to myself. “What is all that?” Celestia asked. “Mainly sheet music. It has twelve songs I was considering in here, and six songs the students were learning. I wonder how they’ve been.” The smile faded from my face. “I’m so sorry…” “Why are you apologizing?” “I left them. I was their teacher, and I left them.” “Now, you know that wasn’t your fault.” She said sadly, but sternly. “Yes it was! I should’ve seen the other car coming. I was too busy doing the one thing my uncle told me never to do. I was texting and driving. It was all because I just HAD to tell Daniel not to screw up a damn pizza!” She was shocked. I think it was mainly because I had yelled, or maybe because I had cursed at her. “I’m sorry. I just got a little, angry with myself. Can we just, change the subject onto a happier topic?” I asked sadly. “Y-yes. Let’s talk about, uh, this music.” She stammered out. “What about it?” I said while trying to calm myself. “Well, what are these pieces, and why did you want your students to play these particular ones?” She asked. “Well, this one here,” I grabbed the one on top. “Is called'Ignition' by Todd Stalter. It’s a fast and energetic piece. It kind simulates a spark. That spark is the thing that starts something huge. The spark that could start the creation of the greatest creation in history.” “From how highly you speak of it, I wish I could hear it.” She said. “Maybe someday. If you ponies can play all the instruments needed, a band could perform it. If not, I could arrange it for different instruments. Anyway let me show you the rest.” “And this last one is calledBirdland, by Joe Zawinul, however this piece is an arrangement of that for a big band. The arrangement itself is done by Michael Sweeney, but I changed it up a bit because I didn’t like the way it sounded.” “Those sound like amazing songs.” She said, smiling. “They really are. I may just teach people here to play these instruments. Now wouldn’t that be a hell of a challenge?” I said with a laugh. “That it would. Well Zachary, I’m sorry but I have to cut this meeting off here. I need to perform my duties. I bid you farewell.” She said with a smile. “Until next time.” I said with a salute. She just laughed and walked off. I looked around the room and saw a stack of blank sheet music. “I wonder if I could…” “Zachary? I brought you dinner.” Celestia opened the curtain to see me writing on blank sheet music with my laptop open and playing music. “What are you doing?” “Sh! One second.” I leaned my head in close to the speakers as the song reached the end. A smile came to my face as I rushed to write the last of the notes down. “There! That’s all the parts. Sorry, what’s up?” “I brought you dinner.” She repeated. “Dinner?” I looked out the window to see the night sky twinkle with stars. “Oh. I lost track of time. Thank you though.” I said as I took the tray from her. “What are you doing? More importantly, what’s that?” She pointed to my laptop. “A computer. I’ll explain later. Basically, it keeps documents stored along with music and pictures. I was using it to listen to a song so I could write it out.” “And you did that all by listening to it?” She asked. “Well, yeah. My friend is way better at it than me. I can do it enough to write out the music, but he could do what I did in, uh, about twelve hours, in three.” “What song is it?” She asked. “It’s called ‘Molly On The Shore’ by Percy Grainger.” “You have quite the affinity towards classical music.” She said with a laugh. “I did teach it, to be fair. Do you guys have any other music genres perchance?” I asked. “We have what Earth pony farmers are calling ‘Country Music’, Marches, Waltzes, and some others. Why?” She asked. “Just curious. I think I’ll be able to play my sax in a couple of days, if the doctor is correct.” “I look forward to it.” With that, began the longest for days of my life. The next days would crawl by, filled with anticipation and excitement, but it would totally be worth it. Chapter 4“Mr. Akins, the Princess requests your audience at this time.” One of the servants said to me. “Alright. Tell her I’ll be right there.” I respond. I lay down the paper and quill I had in my hand on the desk and rise. I glance at the mirror. I was wearing a simply navy blue suit with a lighter blue tie, courtesy of the castle’s tailor. It had been two and a half weeks since my musical conversation with Celestia. I was moved from the medical ward to one of the guest rooms since I was for the most part healed. After a quick, and embarrassing, run down of why I wore clothes, the tailor was more than happy to make me clothes. However, the tailor decided to make me suits. Not that I was complaining, of course. The suits were very well made and it was a lot better than walking around shirtless in my jeans for an indefinite amount of time. Back to the story. I straightened my tie and started walking down the corridor to the throne room. The guards glanced up at me and nodded. The unicorn on the left’s horn glowed a dark blue and the doors swung open. I nodded back and smiled before entering. Celestia was sitting on her throne, reading through a scroll. She looked up and set the scroll off to the side of her throne. “Hello, Zachary.” She said with a smile. “Hello, Celestia. You called for me?” I responded. “Indeed I did. I brought you here to call you out on a favor you promised me awhile ago.” She said with a mischievous smile. “That promise was…?” I asked with uncertainty. “You promised to play me a song on your instrument whenever you were healthy enough. It has been two and a half weeks, I’m sure you’re healed enough.” I chuckled before responding. “Ah. That promise, of course. How could I have forgotten? I can do that for you, I just need my saxophones.” I said before turning to walk. “No need for that, we already have them here.” She raised a hoof to stop me. “They’re in the corner to your right.” I glanced to where she pointed to see four cases of varying sizes. I looked back to her and smiled before walking over to the black leather cases. I looked over my options and decided to go from the highest to the lowest. It was also because the Baritone sax was my favorite, so I wanted to save it for last. I assembled the Soprano sax and clipped onto my neck strap before walking back to Celestia. “Well, you wanted a show, and that’s what I’ll give. Now, I haven’t played in a week or so, so forgive me if I mess up once or twice.” “That’s quite alright.” Celestia said with a smile. “Alright.” I lifted the saxophone up to my face. “Here we go.” With that, I started to play. She seemed to like it, whether it was the music or more dancing as I played, though I use the term ‘Dancing’ loosely since it was more swaying. After I was done, she gave me a short applause before I spoke. “The Soprano saxophone.” I said, holding up the instrument. “Thank you. Now, I’m going to go grab my Alto sax and we’ll move right on.” After packing away my current saxophone, I assembled the next one before walking back once again. Without a word, I started to play. She seemed to like this one too. I had mostly gotten out of my funk and was back to playing normally, so I decided to do a bit of improv during that song. Once again, she gave me applause when I was over. I walked back over and repeated the same process as I did before. I stood before her again and held up my next saxophone. “The Tenor sax.” I quickly said. Without another word, I started to play. This one was entirely improv, so I had quite a bit of freedom in what I could play, which is the beauty of improv. That’s why improv soloists can put a lot of feeling into their music. Anyway, once I was finished, I received Celestia’s normal applause, but this time I heard some more from behind me. I turned around to see Luna and a plethora of staff members standing in the doorway. Their smiles told me they liked it. I took a bow before speaking. “Well, I have no idea how long ya’ll have been standing there, but thank you for your applause. I have one more saxophone to show off, so why don’t ya’ll get on in here?” Everyone, or Everypony if you want, trotted in and formed a semicircle around me to watch. I walked back and put away the Tenor before grabbing the Baritone’s case. I looked behind me, everypony was talking to each other and there was a pillar blocking most of their view. Good. I unlatched the four silver latches, and opened the black case. Inside, was a beautiful, gleaming, brand-new Baritone saxophone. I had only had it for about a week, and I had saved up for it ever since I got out of high-school. This eleven thousand dollar beauty was my pride and joy. I assembled it and clipped it onto the harness strap instead of a neck strap, since it weighed a good bit more than the others. Standing up, I turned and started to play as I walked back. Once again, it was all improv. Everypony ceased their conversations as I casually strolled out. I had messed up on a few notes at the end, but none of them seemed to mind. When I finished, they applauded before I spoke up. “Thank you all very much. Now, before I start I would like to say a couple things. One, ya’ll have been a fantastic audience and I hope to perform again soon. And Two, this is my pride and joy, the Baritone saxophone. This beauty is a Yamaha YBS62E Baritone Saxophone. This thing costs around eleven thousand dollars. Now, I think from what I understand, that’s about twenty-two thousand bits. So, yeah. Very nice instrument. Anyway, onto the next song.” I started to play a song I saw someone play on YouTube once, and went off of whatever I could remember. I threw in a bit of improv to fill in the parts I didn’t remember. Once I finished, I took a bow as I received the pony equivalent of a standing ovation. As a joke, I said. “Thank you, I’ll be here all week!” I then turned to put away my saxophone. Once I was finished I walked back over to Celestia and saw that everyone had left except her and Luna. “Bravo! That was a wonderful performance!” Luna said to me. “Well, thank you, my dear. It pleases me greatly to see your enjoyment.” I said, trying to copy her Old English dialect. “You are a wonderful Musician, Zachary.” Celestia said from her place on her throne. “Thanks. Both of you. I really do appreciate it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to head back to my chambers.” “I agree.” Luna said. “I also need to return to my chambers to get ready for the night court.” With that, she bid farewell to both of us and left the room. Before I could leave, however, Celestia stopped me. “What are you doing in your chambers, Zachary? For the past week you’ve been locked up in there, only coming out to eat.” I smiled. “Just a little something I wanted to do.” “Will you tell me what it is?” Celestia asked with a smile. “Nope.” I said simply. “I assume it’s a surprise?” She asked. “Of course. Goodbye for now, Celestia. I will be see you at dinner, correct?” I asked. “Of course.” She said. With that I turned and started down the hall. Today was a good day. Chapter 5“Celestia!” I shouted as I flung the dining room doors open. My loud appearance made Celestia and Luna jump in their seats. “Oh, hey Luna. Ya’ll wanna see something cool?” “Goodness, is that whole reason you came in here shouting like a banshee?” Luna asked. I simply nodded in return. Luna sighed. “Sure, why not?” Oh yeah, I should probably mention something, when Luna get’s around close friends and family, she drops the whole old-english speak. That’s nice because it can get kind of annoying. I then turned to Celestia. “How about you?” “What is it?” “A surprise.” “Is that all you’re going to tell me?” “Yup.” “Alright.” She sighed. “Lead the way.” I smiled and turned before briskly walking down the hall. Once we reached the doors to my room, I turned around and looked at the two. I gave them a few minutes to rest, as they were slightly out of breath from trying to catch up with me. “Okay, Zach, what is it you wanted to show us?” Luna asked. I opened the doors and told them to stand by the doors. I walked over to behind a divider and grabbed my latest project. I walked out from behind the divider and grabbed a stool. Sitting down, I looked up and saw the two looking at me. “I take it that’s an instrument? Luna asked. “Well of course.” I said with a smile. “When have I ever shown anything different?” “Your computer, thing.” Celestia pointed out. “Good point…” I nodded. “Anywho, this is the project I’ve been working on for the past couple of weeks.” I lifted the instrument. “This is a wonderful instrument back home and this one here is no different. I had some nearby woodworkers for orchestral instruments help with it, so it plays really well and in tune.” I said, playing some notes. “And what is this instrument called?” Luna asked. “An acoustic guitar.” I said as I started to play. The princess stared at me as my fingers flew around the fretboard, changing tempos between riffs. as I let the last notes ring. I looked up at them to see their faces of shock. I smiled and let out a chuckle before speaking. “So, guitar, how do you like it?” “It’s, amazing. It also looks incredibly difficult to play.” Celestia said with a smile. “It can be, depending on how you and what you play.” I said, getting up and placing it on the table. I then walked over to my desk and motion for them to sit down. I turned and looked at the papers on my desk before Luna spoke up. “Do you have any other secret instruments you plan to reveal?” “Not yet.” I said, writing out dimensions for another design. “So, you plan on having more?” “Of course.” I said turning around. “I mean, you already have most brass instruments along with a lot of percussion instruments, but only a few string and woodwind instruments. Given some time, you could have bands and orchestra all over the place playing new types of music. I just need to make that though a reality. Which, in a sense, was my job back home. Now I get to do it for others who have less than folks back home. Shouldn’t take more than a month to get the instruments and another month to teach the basics to some ponies. After that, I can go home and ya’ll will have new music to mess around with.” “So that’s what you’re trying to do? Share human music?” Celestia asked. I shrugged. “Yeah. Especially jazz.” I smiled. “Jazz is my favorite genre of music because anything goes.” “What do you mean, ‘Anything goes?’” “I mean, that as long as you play with confidence, people will think that it’s meant to be. That’s what stumps people. When they mess up, they get nervous and freak out, so they stop playing or lose that confidence. Well one day somebody messed up and realized something. They thought, ‘Hey that sounded pretty cool.’ So they showed it to their friends and they thought, ‘You’re right, that does sound cool.’ Then they all got their instruments and started jammin’ to this new style they made up. And that’s more or less how jazz was made.” “Well, as much as we would all love to talk more about human music, we have more pressing matters.” Celestia said, looking to me. “Such as?” I asked. “You getting home.” “What about it?” I said, taking a sip of a glass of water I’d had on my desk. “Well, to be quite honest, Zachary, we don’t think it’s possible. “What?” I said, despair and anger rising. “Why not?” “As far as we know, you get here by accident. And in the chance that your car accident brought you here, it would be far too dangerous to replicate those circumstances to send you back. I’m sorry, Zachary, but there is nothing we can do.” Sorry? At this point, the anger overtook the despair and I snapped. “Sorry? I’ve been stuck here for two weeks and you decide to just now tell me I can never go home? Sorry. ‘Sorry’ she says. Well sorry ain’t gonna cut it, sweetheart!” I yelled at the princesses. “I had a family back home! I had a grandma, a grandpa, and a sister! How the hell do you think they feel?! They’re grandson and brother is dead to them! Fell off of the goddamn road, rolled down a hill, and landed in a lake! Sorry wouldn’t cut it for them either!” I walked over to my desk and angrily gulped down water before smashing the cup down against the desk hard enough to shatter it. However, in my blind rage, I did not feel the glass cut through my skin or the glass in my skin. The princesses just stared in horror as my hand started bleeding. I was about to start yelling again, until I saw their faces. I calmed down a little bit and spoke with a more controlled voice. “I’ll tell you right now, I love this place. I really do. It’s a wonderful place and under any other circumstance, I’d love to be here. But to visit, not to stay. No matter how wonderful it is, it just isn’t home. I hope you understand.” I turned and walked over towards the balcony of my room and stepped outside. Leaning on the rail, I sighed as I looked out at the empty plains of Equestria. Even with the cool breeze, the warm sun, and the wonderful view, I had one thing on my mind. What is death like?
Chapter 1 Music has always been the one thing that drives me forward in life. If I didn't have music, I wouldn't be the man I am. The man I am, you might ask, is a new-found father and a composer. My name is Zachary Akins, I am married to my beautiful wife, and I play the saxophone. Ah, but you're probably here to figure out why I am important enough to get a book written about me for the Royal Archives. Well, I'll get to that, but first, as with every great story, we have to start from the beginning. “Zachary Akins.” I walked forward towards the podium and shook the principal's hand. We both turned to my left and smiled. The was a couple of flashes as our photo was taken. As the last of the light died down, I turned back to her and smiled. “Congratulations, Zach. You are now officially out of high-school.” Mrs. Brown said to me as she handed me my diploma. “Thank you, ma’am.” I responded. I turned and walked off the stage and sat back down in my seat as they continued with the graduation ceremony. I clapped as my fellow classmates were called up, and hollard when my friends got up on stage. Just as they had done to me earlier. “Thank you. And now, we would like to announce the class of 20110’s students who have received scholarships.” She cleared her throat as she lifted the list. “Lilly Able, to the University of Texas in Austin for excelling in English. John Argile to the Texas Tech, also for English. Zachary Akins to the University of Texas for musical education. Andy…” I stopped listening as I tried to make sense of what I heard. I’m going to UT? My friend Daniel Brown, Mrs. Brown’s son, slugged my in the shoulder as he flipped out in joy. “Dude! You got into UT!” “I did… I got into UT… UT! NO FREAKING WAY, DUDE!” I shouted as we started going mental right in front of the everyone’s parents. Of course, no one said anything. I mean, are you really going to deny to guys from celebrating from knowing they were going to a university? “Now, would all of you whose name was called please come up onto the stage.” Mrs. Brown said. I jumped up from my seat and all but ran onto the stage. “First off, I would like to congratulate all of you on your acceptance into your respective schools.” The audience applauded. “Second, I would like you to know that you will all be added onto the Wall of Honors for your acceptances. Congratulations.” This day cannot get any better! As I finished signing the final document, I started to stretching my hand to get circulation back into it. My god I hate paperwork. Oh well, at least now I own a house. I looked over to my left at my friend, now roommate, Daniel. I could tell he was thinking the same thing. Totally worth it though. “Well, thank you gentlemen. Here are the keys to the house and all the paperwork you have to keep. Have a nice day.” The Realtor said to us. He was a kind, older man. The kind of, ‘Cool Grandpa’ type. He had been very tolerant and helpful with as we looked around for a house. “Thank you, sir. You too.” I said as I rose from my chair and shook his hand. I turned and walked to the door as Daniel did the same. Once we were back in my car, we turned and looked at each other. Then, as if reading each other’s minds, we screamed the same thing. “WE JUST GOT A HOUSE!” Either it was mind reading, or maybe we had just known each other for about nine years. Mind reading sounds cooler though. Now, around this time, we were both seniors in college. So, around 21, almost 22. I almost had my degree in Music Education and Daniel almost had his in Electrical Engineering. Now, I know you’re all excited to get to the part where I do the interesting stuff, but worry not! This is all important and related to the interesting part. Which happens to be this next part right here. “Yeah man, just call pizza place or something. It’s not like we have the knowledge nor the supplies to make stuff ourselves…Yeah that’s fine…Large, not medium...Alright...Okay, later.” I hung up the phone as I turned onto the main street that leads to our house. It had been about a year or two since we bought the house, and I was driving home from work. I was a band teacher at a local middle school and I had just finished our weekly rehearsal. It had gone smoothly, and I was feeling good. We had gotten a lot done and I had some rewriting to do one of the Jazz Band’s songs. It should sound much better with just the bass playing that part instead of the entire trombone section and the bari sax. I quickly grabbed my phone again as I remembered something I needed to tell Daniel. As I started the message, I heard a horn. My head shot up as I tried to swerve back into my lane, only to over-do it. I slipped and skid off the road and through a barricade and into a drainage ditch. The last thing I remembered was looking down at the fence post in my stomach. The odd thing was, I felt no pain. I just felt, sad. I was sad and scared that I was dying. That much I could remember. But that was it. After that, I was gone. I awoke to the sound of panicked shouting and the click of hooves on stone. I didn’t want to open my eyes, for I was afraid I might see what death is. Though, as I lay there, I realized something. The dead don’t feel pain. So why do I? I thought. Maybe you do feel pain in death. A spike of pain went up my spine from my stomach as I felt something come out of my chest. I opened my eyes, fear of death gone, and let out a shout of pain. ‘Shout of pain’ meaning I screamed out in pain like the wimpy band teacher I was. “GRAH!” “The patient is awake! Hold still, creature! You are gravely wounded and require medical attention!” WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?! THAT IS A TALKING PEGASUS TREATING ME! I continued to squirm until two guards came over and somehow restrained my wrists to the cot. Suddenly, I felt an insane amount of pain again as they put some sort of herb into my wounds. “GRAAH” Is this death? Am I being tortured in hell? I don’t think it is. Besides, there was that one quote, “He who know not of sin, shall be forgiven by God.” or something like that. Then again, I also kind of knew about- My thoughts were cut short as I felt a calmness rush over me. The pain was gone, and I felt exhausted. I opened my eyes again to see a white wing drape over me. Before I could questioned it however, a voice spoke to me. “Sleep now. You have gone through a lot of pain.” I could not respond due to me feeling like I’d been up for three days straight. I felt my eyelids droop and my muscles relax. That’s when the darkness took over. I awoke, but I did not open my eyes. I could tell by the light coming through my eyelids that it would be hell to do so. However, I heard some shuffling around next to me. I tried to ignore it, best I could, but curiosity got the better of me. I opened my eyes to prove my earlier point. Ow, that hurts. I blinked several time to allow my eyes to adjust before I looked around the room. I was in what looked to be a castle, as hinted by the view of the giant courtyard with towers on all of the vertices to my left. I shifted my head to the right to see a white canvas blocking me off from the rest of the room. Seeing as that was the only place to the noise could be coming from. I sat still and listened. “...spy from the griffons.” A voice said. “You and I know that griffons aren't smart enough to do that. Not only would they never think of it, if they actually did somehow, they wouldn’t send another creature to do it.” “How about the Minotaur's?” “Even less so than the griffons.” “Well then where is he from? He seems sentient as we could gather from his clothing. Unless he was clothed by his master and he is just a glorified golem.” “No, he felt pain. That much is obvious from his cries of pain.” “Yes, there was a lot of that. Should we check on him?” “It would be best. Two weeks of being comatose, I hope he’s well.” Two weeks?! How the hell was I out for two weeks? My thoughts were cut short as the canvas was tied back and two winged creatures walked in. Well, I say walk, I think the correct term would be ‘trotted’, but my mind wouldn't accept that at the time. The creatures must have seen me looking at them because their demeanor changed completely. “Creature, can you speak.” The blue one asked. “...eugh?” I couldn't form words, as my head was full of mush from trying to rationalize recent events. “Is that another language?” The white one asked. I recognized her now. She was there when I passed out. My brain had started to understand enough to from words at this point. “I...speak...English.” I responded. “Ah, so thou can speak. We are Princess Luna of Equestria, and this is our sister, Princess Celestia of Equestria. Does thou have a name?” “...uh. Zachary...Akins, of Austin, Texas, in the United States of America.” “Where is this, ‘United States of America’?” Princess Celestia asked. “The continent of North America, planet Earth.” “There is no such place. This is the continent of Nominum, on the planet Equis.” “...What do you mean?...I can’t have gone to a different planet from a car crash. That would be impossible.” “We have never heard of a planet named ‘Earth’. The only time when ‘Earth’ is used is to refer to the soil.” Celestia informed me. “...No, there is no way in hell I was transported to another planet. Not from a car crash. There is just no way.” “Are you implying that there is another way?” “No…I…” I sighed in defeat. “It can’t be the same planet either. The only way every human on earth would disappear would be if they all died. The only way THAT would happen would be if we had nuclear warfare. But I guess the whole ‘other planet’ thing is all that makes sense.” “Excuse us, but what is ‘Nuclear Warfare’?” Luna asked. “...Death.” “It is a weapon obviously, but what does it do?” “It turns paradise into literal hell. A burning, scorched, death-filled wasteland.” “How?” “No. I’m not telling. One, I don’t know what you two are, nor would I tell two leaders of a country that information.” “And why not?” Luna asked with slight malice. “The only time it was used on my world, it scarred the world and killed 225,000 civilians! If it is banned on my world, I’m making sure it never exists here!” “What gives you the right to decide what goes on in our country.” “IF IT WAS BANNED ON A WORLD THAT HAS COMPLETELY REVOLVED AROUND WAR FOR FIFTY-THOUSAND YEARS, THEN IT IS THE BIGGEST EVIL YOU CAN IMAGINE!” I shouted. The two were shocked. I turned away from them and faced the window. I heard some shuffling as I assumed they were leaving. I stared out the window and started to cry as I faced the facts. I’m all alone… No more humans...
Chapter 2I don’t know how long I lay there. I thought back to what I said and how I snapped. I never was very good at staying calm when I was frustrated or scared. Every so often, a nurse would come to check on my wounds and bandages. I sat up, with no small amount of pain, and looked around the room at what I had around me. To my left, there was a small table with an unlit candle on it as well as some books in the shelf below the tabletop. In front of me, the was what seemed to be a medical cabinet and a table. Atop the table, there was two, black, leather bags. One of the bags had some papers sticking out of the slightly opened top. The other had a wire sticking out with the USB symbol on it. Lying next to the bags, was a red and black, plaid, button-down shirt that had a large, bloody hole in it. I really like that shirt… Next to the table was four black cases, each varying in size. Glad to see they made it, though I’ll have to check them to see if they’re damaged. I was relieved to see my stuff had made it out okay, despite a few tears on the black cases and bags. I saw the canvas sway, as if someone were walking up to it, and I braced myself for what I was about to see. “Hello? Mr. Akins?” The voice I recognized as Princess Celestia’s called. “...” The canvas shifted as the alicorn trotted in. She glanced behind and her and around the room until she saw me watching her. We had a improv staring contest for a couple seconds until she spoke. “Hello.” “Howdy.” I responded coldly. She seem to be taken back for a second before she trotted forward and sat on the floor in front of me. Another staring contest was started. “Did you need something?” I asked. “We just wanted to say that we’re sorry for earlier. We should’ve seen that it was a delicate matter earlier.” She apologized. “And I’m sorry for getting so mad. I’m not the best when I’m under stress. As you can imagine, this is rather…different for me.” I responded, to which she smiled at. “Shall we start over?” “Sure.” I said, returning the smile. “Hello, I am Princess Celestia, of Equestria.” “Hello Princess Celestia, I am Zachary Akins of the United States of America. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” “Well Mr. Akins, is there anything I can do for you?” She asked. “As a matter of fact, there is. Could you help me get one of those black cases over there.” “Oh, of course.” She started to levitate the smallest of the cases over, but stopped when she realised I was staring, mouth agape. “What?” “How are you doing that?” “What, levitation?” “Yes!” “It’s just simple magic. Every unicorn knows how to do it.” She explained. “That’s…Amazing. This new planet…It’s gonna take some getting used to.” She simply laughed at my shock and set the case down on my lap. I opened the case and pulled out the contents. I looked it over and checked all the keys and pads to make sure they still worked. I set it back in and checked the mouthpiece and neck. Once I was finished there, I checked to make sure the reeds were okay and the disinfectant spray hadn’t spilled all over the place. I closed the case and started to latch it, when I saw Celestia with a puzzled expression. “What?” I asked. “What is that that you just pulled out?” “A soprano saxophone. Do you not have these here?” I asked. “No. I take it it’s an instrument?” “Yeah. It’s part of the saxophone family. It’s the third highest of the eight types of saxophones. I also have an alto, a tenor, and a baritone saxophone over there.” I pointed at the other cases. “Could you play them for us sometime?” She asked. “Of course.” I said. “But not now. If it hurts to breath, it’ll hurt even more to play one of these.” “That’s understandable.” She said, nodding. “I’ll play them someday, I promise. Now, could you pass me the others?” I then started explaining the instruments to Celestia while inspecting each of them. She had a lot of questions about the instruments, which then lead to her asking about my life and job, and then about Earth. We talked for hours about everything she had questions for. We then switch over to questions I had about Equestria and her life. “Our parents were the previous rulers, but after they passed, Luna and I had to take their place. Thankfully, they had taught us how to rule before their passing.” “Yeah. My mother taught me how to be polite to everyone and make friends easier. I kinda failed at that earlier when I yelled at you and Luna. I really didn’t mean to, I was just scared and I confused. I’m still pretty damn confused, but I have a feeling as long as I am within this world, I’ll have that swirlin’ around in my head.” I said with a sad smile. “I can imagine so.” “You know, you remind me a lot of her. My mother, I mean.” “How so?” She asked with a confused look. “You’re able to look paste the outside of people and see the inside. You’re also can admit when you were in the wrong. Those, and being polite to those you meet, are the main traits my mother had.” Minus the whole different species thing, I would think you are her. Well, that and the fact that she passed away around nineteen years ago.” I explained. “I’m sorry to hear that.” She said sadly. “How old were you, if you don’t mind me asking.” “Five.” “...Five years old?” I simply nodded in return. “How?” “Car accident. The roads had black ice on them, and she just…fell right off the overpass.” I could tell she didn’t know what some of the things I said were, but she seemed to understand enough. “Where was your father?” She asked. “He died in battle before I was born.” “You talk so easily about this topic. Why?” She asked sadly. “I’ve had nineteen years to accept my mother’s death, and I never met my father. Besides, it’s not easy, it never is. You just have to accept the harshness of reality. Don’t let your pain define you, let it show the goodness inside you instead. After all, it’s easier to see a white circle on black canvas than it is to see a white circle in a dark room.” “That’s rather philosophical. What did you do for a living back home again?” She asked with a small smile. “I was a band director at a middle school.” I said with a matching smile. “Anywho, what time is it?” She glanced out the window. “Midnight.” “Wow. We’ve been talking for quite a while. I should probably get some sleep. I want to try to walk tomorrow.” “Well, the doctors would probably hate that, but I can respect that. Goodnight, Zachary.” “Goodnight Celestia.”
Chapter 3Every. Damn. Morning. Once again, I had to squint my eyes as I sat on the edge of the bed. The sun shone brightly through the window, right into my face. I had tried to stand, only to remember I was in a hospital with at least one or two broken ribs. Once my eyes adjusted to the light, I glanced around the room. I saw my bags on the table in front of me. Man, this is gonna hurt like hell. I stood up and tried to walk over to the table, grinding my teeth in pain the whole time. “...Grh, this is so stupid…” I muttered to myself. After an intense amount of pain, I made it to the table and grabbed the papers. I then started the equally painful process of getting back to the bed. Apparently, I was being pretty loud in the process because Celestia, who had been talking to a nurse outside, had come in to see what was going on. “What do you think you’re doing?” She asked, shock evident in her voice. “Grh, walking. Or at least, ah, the very painful equivalent.” I answered with as much sarcasm I could spare. Celestia just shook her head and levitated me back into bed. It took me a moment to realize that I was floating. However, and when I did it wasn’t quietly. “Holy crap! What the hell?!” I shouted. “Be still! It’s hard to levitate someone who’s struggling like you are.” Celestia chastised. Once she sat down. I tried to catch my breath from the amount of pain I just experienced. “There. Now, what were you thinking, trying to walk?” “Hey, I told you I would do it yesterday.” I defended. “Yes, but I thought you meant when somepony was there to help you if you fell!” “Well, so did I, but hey, at least we discovered something today.” “And what is that?” “It hurts like hell to walk after getting impaled and comatose for two weeks.” Celestia just gave me a deadpan look in return. I took this opportunity to open the bags I had grabbed. I opened the one with my laptop in it to make sure it wasn’t broken. It looked okay, but I’d have to check it out internally later. I then grabbed my bag of papers and started to sift through the important stuff and non-important stuff. “Junk, pointless paperwork, blank sheet music, sheet music, sheet music.” I said to myself. “What is all that?” Celestia asked. “Mainly sheet music. It has twelve songs I was considering in here, and six songs the students were learning. I wonder how they’ve been.” The smile faded from my face. “I’m so sorry…” “Why are you apologizing?” “I left them. I was their teacher, and I left them.” “Now, you know that wasn’t your fault.” She said sadly, but sternly. “Yes it was! I should’ve seen the other car coming. I was too busy doing the one thing my uncle told me never to do. I was texting and driving. It was all because I just HAD to tell Daniel not to screw up a damn pizza!” She was shocked. I think it was mainly because I had yelled, or maybe because I had cursed at her. “I’m sorry. I just got a little, angry with myself. Can we just, change the subject onto a happier topic?” I asked sadly. “Y-yes. Let’s talk about, uh, this music.” She stammered out. “What about it?” I said while trying to calm myself. “Well, what are these pieces, and why did you want your students to play these particular ones?” She asked. “Well, this one here,” I grabbed the one on top. “Is called'Ignition' by Todd Stalter. It’s a fast and energetic piece. It kind simulates a spark. That spark is the thing that starts something huge. The spark that could start the creation of the greatest creation in history.” “From how highly you speak of it, I wish I could hear it.” She said. “Maybe someday. If you ponies can play all the instruments needed, a band could perform it. If not, I could arrange it for different instruments. Anyway let me show you the rest.” “And this last one is calledBirdland, by Joe Zawinul, however this piece is an arrangement of that for a big band. The arrangement itself is done by Michael Sweeney, but I changed it up a bit because I didn’t like the way it sounded.” “Those sound like amazing songs.” She said, smiling. “They really are. I may just teach people here to play these instruments. Now wouldn’t that be a hell of a challenge?” I said with a laugh. “That it would. Well Zachary, I’m sorry but I have to cut this meeting off here. I need to perform my duties. I bid you farewell.” She said with a smile. “Until next time.” I said with a salute. She just laughed and walked off. I looked around the room and saw a stack of blank sheet music. “I wonder if I could…” “Zachary? I brought you dinner.” Celestia opened the curtain to see me writing on blank sheet music with my laptop open and playing music. “What are you doing?” “Sh! One second.” I leaned my head in close to the speakers as the song reached the end. A smile came to my face as I rushed to write the last of the notes down. “There! That’s all the parts. Sorry, what’s up?” “I brought you dinner.” She repeated. “Dinner?” I looked out the window to see the night sky twinkle with stars. “Oh. I lost track of time. Thank you though.” I said as I took the tray from her. “What are you doing? More importantly, what’s that?” She pointed to my laptop. “A computer. I’ll explain later. Basically, it keeps documents stored along with music and pictures. I was using it to listen to a song so I could write it out.” “And you did that all by listening to it?” She asked. “Well, yeah. My friend is way better at it than me. I can do it enough to write out the music, but he could do what I did in, uh, about twelve hours, in three.” “What song is it?” She asked. “It’s called ‘Molly On The Shore’ by Percy Grainger.” “You have quite the affinity towards classical music.” She said with a laugh. “I did teach it, to be fair. Do you guys have any other music genres perchance?” I asked. “We have what Earth pony farmers are calling ‘Country Music’, Marches, Waltzes, and some others. Why?” She asked. “Just curious. I think I’ll be able to play my sax in a couple of days, if the doctor is correct.” “I look forward to it.” With that, began the longest for days of my life. The next days would crawl by, filled with anticipation and excitement, but it would totally be worth it.
Chapter 4“Mr. Akins, the Princess requests your audience at this time.” One of the servants said to me. “Alright. Tell her I’ll be right there.” I respond. I lay down the paper and quill I had in my hand on the desk and rise. I glance at the mirror. I was wearing a simply navy blue suit with a lighter blue tie, courtesy of the castle’s tailor. It had been two and a half weeks since my musical conversation with Celestia. I was moved from the medical ward to one of the guest rooms since I was for the most part healed. After a quick, and embarrassing, run down of why I wore clothes, the tailor was more than happy to make me clothes. However, the tailor decided to make me suits. Not that I was complaining, of course. The suits were very well made and it was a lot better than walking around shirtless in my jeans for an indefinite amount of time. Back to the story. I straightened my tie and started walking down the corridor to the throne room. The guards glanced up at me and nodded. The unicorn on the left’s horn glowed a dark blue and the doors swung open. I nodded back and smiled before entering. Celestia was sitting on her throne, reading through a scroll. She looked up and set the scroll off to the side of her throne. “Hello, Zachary.” She said with a smile. “Hello, Celestia. You called for me?” I responded. “Indeed I did. I brought you here to call you out on a favor you promised me awhile ago.” She said with a mischievous smile. “That promise was…?” I asked with uncertainty. “You promised to play me a song on your instrument whenever you were healthy enough. It has been two and a half weeks, I’m sure you’re healed enough.” I chuckled before responding. “Ah. That promise, of course. How could I have forgotten? I can do that for you, I just need my saxophones.” I said before turning to walk. “No need for that, we already have them here.” She raised a hoof to stop me. “They’re in the corner to your right.” I glanced to where she pointed to see four cases of varying sizes. I looked back to her and smiled before walking over to the black leather cases. I looked over my options and decided to go from the highest to the lowest. It was also because the Baritone sax was my favorite, so I wanted to save it for last. I assembled the Soprano sax and clipped onto my neck strap before walking back to Celestia. “Well, you wanted a show, and that’s what I’ll give. Now, I haven’t played in a week or so, so forgive me if I mess up once or twice.” “That’s quite alright.” Celestia said with a smile. “Alright.” I lifted the saxophone up to my face. “Here we go.” With that, I started to play. She seemed to like it, whether it was the music or more dancing as I played, though I use the term ‘Dancing’ loosely since it was more swaying. After I was done, she gave me a short applause before I spoke. “The Soprano saxophone.” I said, holding up the instrument. “Thank you. Now, I’m going to go grab my Alto sax and we’ll move right on.” After packing away my current saxophone, I assembled the next one before walking back once again. Without a word, I started to play. She seemed to like this one too. I had mostly gotten out of my funk and was back to playing normally, so I decided to do a bit of improv during that song. Once again, she gave me applause when I was over. I walked back over and repeated the same process as I did before. I stood before her again and held up my next saxophone. “The Tenor sax.” I quickly said. Without another word, I started to play. This one was entirely improv, so I had quite a bit of freedom in what I could play, which is the beauty of improv. That’s why improv soloists can put a lot of feeling into their music. Anyway, once I was finished, I received Celestia’s normal applause, but this time I heard some more from behind me. I turned around to see Luna and a plethora of staff members standing in the doorway. Their smiles told me they liked it. I took a bow before speaking. “Well, I have no idea how long ya’ll have been standing there, but thank you for your applause. I have one more saxophone to show off, so why don’t ya’ll get on in here?” Everyone, or Everypony if you want, trotted in and formed a semicircle around me to watch. I walked back and put away the Tenor before grabbing the Baritone’s case. I looked behind me, everypony was talking to each other and there was a pillar blocking most of their view. Good. I unlatched the four silver latches, and opened the black case. Inside, was a beautiful, gleaming, brand-new Baritone saxophone. I had only had it for about a week, and I had saved up for it ever since I got out of high-school. This eleven thousand dollar beauty was my pride and joy. I assembled it and clipped it onto the harness strap instead of a neck strap, since it weighed a good bit more than the others. Standing up, I turned and started to play as I walked back. Once again, it was all improv. Everypony ceased their conversations as I casually strolled out. I had messed up on a few notes at the end, but none of them seemed to mind. When I finished, they applauded before I spoke up. “Thank you all very much. Now, before I start I would like to say a couple things. One, ya’ll have been a fantastic audience and I hope to perform again soon. And Two, this is my pride and joy, the Baritone saxophone. This beauty is a Yamaha YBS62E Baritone Saxophone. This thing costs around eleven thousand dollars. Now, I think from what I understand, that’s about twenty-two thousand bits. So, yeah. Very nice instrument. Anyway, onto the next song.” I started to play a song I saw someone play on YouTube once, and went off of whatever I could remember. I threw in a bit of improv to fill in the parts I didn’t remember. Once I finished, I took a bow as I received the pony equivalent of a standing ovation. As a joke, I said. “Thank you, I’ll be here all week!” I then turned to put away my saxophone. Once I was finished I walked back over to Celestia and saw that everyone had left except her and Luna. “Bravo! That was a wonderful performance!” Luna said to me. “Well, thank you, my dear. It pleases me greatly to see your enjoyment.” I said, trying to copy her Old English dialect. “You are a wonderful Musician, Zachary.” Celestia said from her place on her throne. “Thanks. Both of you. I really do appreciate it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to head back to my chambers.” “I agree.” Luna said. “I also need to return to my chambers to get ready for the night court.” With that, she bid farewell to both of us and left the room. Before I could leave, however, Celestia stopped me. “What are you doing in your chambers, Zachary? For the past week you’ve been locked up in there, only coming out to eat.” I smiled. “Just a little something I wanted to do.” “Will you tell me what it is?” Celestia asked with a smile. “Nope.” I said simply. “I assume it’s a surprise?” She asked. “Of course. Goodbye for now, Celestia. I will be see you at dinner, correct?” I asked. “Of course.” She said. With that I turned and started down the hall. Today was a good day.
Chapter 5“Celestia!” I shouted as I flung the dining room doors open. My loud appearance made Celestia and Luna jump in their seats. “Oh, hey Luna. Ya’ll wanna see something cool?” “Goodness, is that whole reason you came in here shouting like a banshee?” Luna asked. I simply nodded in return. Luna sighed. “Sure, why not?” Oh yeah, I should probably mention something, when Luna get’s around close friends and family, she drops the whole old-english speak. That’s nice because it can get kind of annoying. I then turned to Celestia. “How about you?” “What is it?” “A surprise.” “Is that all you’re going to tell me?” “Yup.” “Alright.” She sighed. “Lead the way.” I smiled and turned before briskly walking down the hall. Once we reached the doors to my room, I turned around and looked at the two. I gave them a few minutes to rest, as they were slightly out of breath from trying to catch up with me. “Okay, Zach, what is it you wanted to show us?” Luna asked. I opened the doors and told them to stand by the doors. I walked over to behind a divider and grabbed my latest project. I walked out from behind the divider and grabbed a stool. Sitting down, I looked up and saw the two looking at me. “I take it that’s an instrument? Luna asked. “Well of course.” I said with a smile. “When have I ever shown anything different?” “Your computer, thing.” Celestia pointed out. “Good point…” I nodded. “Anywho, this is the project I’ve been working on for the past couple of weeks.” I lifted the instrument. “This is a wonderful instrument back home and this one here is no different. I had some nearby woodworkers for orchestral instruments help with it, so it plays really well and in tune.” I said, playing some notes. “And what is this instrument called?” Luna asked. “An acoustic guitar.” I said as I started to play. The princess stared at me as my fingers flew around the fretboard, changing tempos between riffs. as I let the last notes ring. I looked up at them to see their faces of shock. I smiled and let out a chuckle before speaking. “So, guitar, how do you like it?” “It’s, amazing. It also looks incredibly difficult to play.” Celestia said with a smile. “It can be, depending on how you and what you play.” I said, getting up and placing it on the table. I then walked over to my desk and motion for them to sit down. I turned and looked at the papers on my desk before Luna spoke up. “Do you have any other secret instruments you plan to reveal?” “Not yet.” I said, writing out dimensions for another design. “So, you plan on having more?” “Of course.” I said turning around. “I mean, you already have most brass instruments along with a lot of percussion instruments, but only a few string and woodwind instruments. Given some time, you could have bands and orchestra all over the place playing new types of music. I just need to make that though a reality. Which, in a sense, was my job back home. Now I get to do it for others who have less than folks back home. Shouldn’t take more than a month to get the instruments and another month to teach the basics to some ponies. After that, I can go home and ya’ll will have new music to mess around with.” “So that’s what you’re trying to do? Share human music?” Celestia asked. I shrugged. “Yeah. Especially jazz.” I smiled. “Jazz is my favorite genre of music because anything goes.” “What do you mean, ‘Anything goes?’” “I mean, that as long as you play with confidence, people will think that it’s meant to be. That’s what stumps people. When they mess up, they get nervous and freak out, so they stop playing or lose that confidence. Well one day somebody messed up and realized something. They thought, ‘Hey that sounded pretty cool.’ So they showed it to their friends and they thought, ‘You’re right, that does sound cool.’ Then they all got their instruments and started jammin’ to this new style they made up. And that’s more or less how jazz was made.” “Well, as much as we would all love to talk more about human music, we have more pressing matters.” Celestia said, looking to me. “Such as?” I asked. “You getting home.” “What about it?” I said, taking a sip of a glass of water I’d had on my desk. “Well, to be quite honest, Zachary, we don’t think it’s possible. “What?” I said, despair and anger rising. “Why not?” “As far as we know, you get here by accident. And in the chance that your car accident brought you here, it would be far too dangerous to replicate those circumstances to send you back. I’m sorry, Zachary, but there is nothing we can do.” Sorry? At this point, the anger overtook the despair and I snapped. “Sorry? I’ve been stuck here for two weeks and you decide to just now tell me I can never go home? Sorry. ‘Sorry’ she says. Well sorry ain’t gonna cut it, sweetheart!” I yelled at the princesses. “I had a family back home! I had a grandma, a grandpa, and a sister! How the hell do you think they feel?! They’re grandson and brother is dead to them! Fell off of the goddamn road, rolled down a hill, and landed in a lake! Sorry wouldn’t cut it for them either!” I walked over to my desk and angrily gulped down water before smashing the cup down against the desk hard enough to shatter it. However, in my blind rage, I did not feel the glass cut through my skin or the glass in my skin. The princesses just stared in horror as my hand started bleeding. I was about to start yelling again, until I saw their faces. I calmed down a little bit and spoke with a more controlled voice. “I’ll tell you right now, I love this place. I really do. It’s a wonderful place and under any other circumstance, I’d love to be here. But to visit, not to stay. No matter how wonderful it is, it just isn’t home. I hope you understand.” I turned and walked over towards the balcony of my room and stepped outside. Leaning on the rail, I sighed as I looked out at the empty plains of Equestria. Even with the cool breeze, the warm sun, and the wonderful view, I had one thing on my mind. What is death like?
