The Magic of Music

"Oh dear, I'm late! And I still have to visit Pinkie Pie!" Rarity packed her sewing materials away, then locked up the Carousel Boutique and set out for the Cake's Bakery. "I hope she isn't too upset with me." In a few minutes, she reached the street which claimed the bakery in which Pinkie worked.

*BOOM!!* Suddenly a large, hideous creature flew backward from inside the shop, along with cake batter, confetti, and countless streamers, much of which covered the creature from head to hoof. If those things on the ends of its legs could even be called hooves.

"Wow! I didn't expect you to stand right in the way! You have a weird way of enjoying parties, strange bipedal creature."

"Pinkie! What in Equestria is that?" shouted Rarity as she approached the poofy-maned pony and the squirming lump of cake. "And why would you ever think it was a good idea to shoot anypony with your party cannon?"

"Ik... E haan nema E'xa lovw daaq mefmag eq wka jow," the... something... groaned from beneath the layer of cake.

"Silly creature! You weren't kicked, you were shot with a cannon!" It tried to get up, but the effort was fruitless.  Then its eyes widened at something.

"Yuew u vaf... fuq bio oqgatvwuqg pa? E wkiojkw wka vrann iqnb yitmag hit-"

"Spell? I don't need a spell to understand you. It's just a simple matter of transposing all of your consonants two consonants backward and all your vowels one vowel forward. Easy Peasy!" Pinkie Pie said, as if something like that were as obvious as cupcakes were delicious. Rarity shook her head. Pinkie was being Pinkie again.

"Ykuw uta bio wunmeqj udiow? Wkuw giavq'w puma uqbva!" it cried, quite flustered.

"It doesn't have to make sense to work, now does it?" The creature brought its fore...hoof(?) to its head and groaned, then realized it just smacked itself with a great glob of cake and groaned even louder.

Rarity suppressed her laughter and tried to be nice. "Oh, you poor thing! We simply must get you to a bath this instant! As delicious as you look covered in cake, I can't image the sugar is doing anything good for your skin. Come along!" she ordered.

"But it hasn't eaten yet!"

"It can eat later, once it's presentable," Rarity replied coolly. "But it cannot stay another minute in public looking like that!" The thing apparently agreed, because it immediately got up and followed Rarity.

"Just remember to bring it back in time for supper!" Pinkie yelled after them as they disappeared toward the spa.

"Now then, you're going to need the royal treatment. After being Pinkie Pie'd, anypony deserves the best that bits can buy! I have excellent connections at the spa, so I will make sure you are well set. Ah, here we are!" The two arrived at and entered a large, multi-tiered tent. In the center was a large barrel-tub with a stairwell leading up to the top. Around the outside of the tub were several pony-sized beds, perfect for hooficures and massages. "Lotus! Aloe!"

"Oh, Mademoiselle Rarity!" A blue pony with a pink mane and white headband appeared from behind the tub, followed by a pink pony with a blue mane and a matching headband.

"It has been a while since- Oh my!" The two looked in horror at the mess that was the strange, bipedal creature. "What has happened to this poor thing?!"

"Pinkie Pie shot it with her party cannon! Would you girls be willing to help it?"

"But of course! Anything for you, Mademoiselle Rarity!" They took it to the bath and began to scrub the caked cake away.

"You will have to excuse me, girls. I have a dress that I must finish by this evening, but I will be back shortly." The spa ponies waved goodbye before grabbing a pair of brushes. Rarity walked out, confident they would be finished by the time she got back.

*********************

Dear Princess Celestia,

I must speak with you about the presence of a strange new creature that Fluttershy found in the Everfree Forest. There is something about it which bothers me, but I can't place my hoof on what the problem is. I need your help. Please let me know when you are next available.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle

*********************

*Beep* "Hey Digit. Have you heard from Sleight yet? It's been like, a week since school started, and she still hasn't shown up! I wanna hear those beats again, so if you could give her a call and bring her back, that would-"

*Beep* "Yo Didge! Heard ya pulled some kinda stunt with Sleight! Hope you didn't do anythin' ya might regret later, man."

*Beep* "Good job on losing of the best DJ around. Now I'm gonna have to find someone else to replace her, and you know how hard THAT'S going to be."

*Beep* "Good evening. My name is Horace Lingerson, Krys' grandfather. I understand she attended a party which you hosted recently. I had been pushing her too hard, so I let her go. I thought it would do her good to see her friends again, but she hasn't returned. If you know anything about where she could be, please-"

*Beep*

"Sleight, Sleight, Sleight... It's always about her. It's like they have to have her or no one at all. And now everyone's looking at me to bring her back, as though I even knew how!"

Do you want her back?

"Hell no! She always got the best gigs, always had the most listeners. Now I'm on top, and I love it! No one's gonna bring me down!"

You sound like you're still jealous of her.

"Psh, as if. Why be jealous of someone who isn't a threat?"

Because she was better than you are, and people still want what she could do more than they want you.

"Shut up!" Digit threw his phone against the wall in anger. "I'm the best now! I'm the guy getting all the gigs! People want MY music, not hers!"

Hm hm hm. You sound very much like somepony I knew a very long time ago. I gave her the power she needed to face her rival, and I can give you what you need to wipe your rival's memory away forever.

"...How?"

With the same magic you used to wipe her from this existence. But I will need something from you.

"......What do I have to do?"

*********************

The spa ponies truly new their craft, and this sort of bath, she realized, was a luxury that would never have happened at home. A bath with lotions and oils, designed for the deep, thorough cleaning of fur was perfect for revitalizing her skin, which had collected all sorts of grime, dirt, and sugary goodness. Food brought to the edge of the tub for nibbling while the ponies massaged all the tension out of her stiff shoulders. It was odd, being tended to by a pair of colorful animals, but by no means was it unpleasant. In fact, Krys felt better than she had since arriving in this strange new land. There was only one thing missing:

Music.

Since she had come here, she hadn't heard a single instrument played, a single rhythm other than the cadence of hooves against the ground. Having come from a background saturated with music of all sorts, the relative silence was both tense and heartbreaking. How could they live like this? She couldn't imagine such a lifestyle.

"Do you have any music?" she asked. The two simply glanced at her and continued working. Right... they can't understand me... So she did the next best thing.

She closed her eyes and sang.

Quietly to herself, but it was enough to act as a bandage for her slightly wounded soul. As she sang, she imagined her voice becoming a violin. The tune began slowly, lilting like a small child in a field. As it swayed back and forth across her tongue, the pace began to quicken slightly. In the back of her mind, Krys could hear a guitar join her as a set of drums beat a soft cadence to the song. Her fingers strummed the air, matching what she heard in the background. She leaned backward, lifting her feet slightly above the waterline to place her toes on the opposite lip of the tub.

Without warning, the song took off, refusing to be restrained. Her fingers held the imaginary guitar in place as her feet drummed against the water like a pair of spoons against someone's knee. In a moment, she resumed the guitar, accompanied by a soft piano to act as a steady foil to the now dancing melody. The song paused for a brief moment, then redoubled its vigor as Krys' hands took control of the fiddle. She could hear every instrument as clearly as if they were being played around her. The pulse of the drums. The piano and guitar working in tandem harmony to carry the song. And Krys playing the fiddle almost tangibly, racing with its carefree melody as though she clutched her grandfather's Stradi. All at once, the music of the fiddle, guitar, piano and drums leapt into the air and vanished, leaving just a trace echo to remind all who witnessed what had transpired. Krys held her imaginary bow high, proud and tired after her vigorous performance. *thunk* *clack* Two little brushes struck the tub and fell into the water beside her.

Then she remembered where she was. She wasn't in a concert hall. She wasn't in her grandfather's studio. Her head turned slowly behind her, where she saw two ponies in white headbands with their mouths agape and their eyes transfixed on her. She lowered her arm sheepishly, embarrassed by her outburst.

"That was..." muttered the pink spa pony.

"You were..." mumbled the blue spa pony. Krys hung her head. She knew she must've looked really foolish to them.

"INCREDIBLE!" they shouted in chorus. She lifted her head and stared, unsure what to think of the unexpected response. "At first we thought you were just something that Mademoiselle Rarity was pitying, but you have an amazing magic!" Magic? What on earth are these ponies talking about? "Your voice was beautiful on its own, but then your claws began to move and glow and the music became even more! And the way you used your hooves to create the rhythm was exceptional! And then at the end, such flair! It was like listening to the Canterlot symphony!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a sec. You mean to tell me that you actually heard what I was pretending to play?"

"Ah, please accept our apologies." The two ponies bowed their heads. "We had forgotten you cannot speak." Krys' gaze turned to her own hands. They said my hands glowed, probably like a Unicorn's horn. Is it possible that here I have magic? The blue pony pointed into the tub. "Would you return those brushes, please?" Krys looked down and grabbed the brushes which Lotus and Aloe had dropped earlier. She mechanically returned them to the ponies who then resumed their work, but her mind was elsewhere, forming a single thought that was both frightening and fantastic.

Could I do that again...?