The Sounds of Silence

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 5

Chapter 1

It was a beautiful day in the land of Equestria, which is to say it was much like any other. This didn't detract from its glory, however. The sky was a beautiful shade of blue, the clouds were perfectly spaced, and the birds were singing sweet melodies as the residents of Ponyville prepared for another day, one they assumed to be quite ordinary. So, when a new pony arrived with a wagon full of possessions and a smile on his face, most ponies were understandably curious, and many stopped in what they were doing to watch for a minute.

News of the new arrival spread quickly, and before long the most hospitable pony in Ponyville had quickly left the bakery and ran to meet the new arrival. Pinkie Pie bounced up as he began rummaging for something in his saddlebag, and squealed when she saw his C-Cleft cutie mark. “Ohmigosh, are you a music pony?!” she gasped, causing him to jump and spill his bag. A silver flute tumbled out alongside the map he wanted, and Pinkie’s eyes lit up as she squealed again. “You ARE a music pony! I’ve always wanted to meet a music pony because I like to sing but I’ve never had any music to go with it except for the time my friend Spike played the piano and at the Grand Galloping Gala! Oh!” She stopped and put a hoof on her face, eyes twinkling again. “We should throw a doubly fun party to welcome you! I like throwing parties, it’s my talent, see see see?!” She indicated her own balloon cutie mark before continuing on. “I mean I throw parties so well ponies call me Pinkie Pie the party pony! Well they should if they don’t, because it all starts with a ‘puh’ sound! By the way I’m Pinkie Pie!” She stuck a hoof out to him.

It took him a moment to find his voice, face growing even redder than his deep crimson coat. “I, uh, I’m Allegretto. I’m new here from Manehattan to take a break from the music life.” He bent over to pick up his bag’s spilled contents, rubbing his flute against his flank to get some grit off of it, then noticed Pinkie staring at him expectantly. He sighed internally. It really never takes long before someone wants to hear me play. He took a deep breath and played a quick jig, swaying his head side to side as more ponies stopped and watched with rapt attention and growing happiness. Pinkie took up the beat and began to hop to it, giggling as she jumped around him in a circle. He finished with a flourish and bowed to the applause, tucking the flute away as Pinkie shook with excitement.

“Wow, you’re really good! I can’t wait to tell everypony about you! Maybe you can play us another song at your party!” She began to hum the tune again and bounded off to plan another soiree, leaving a very confused Allegretto in her wake. Shaking his head to make sure he was awake, he began to pull his wagon towards the other end of town.

Before he got much farther his attention was called to a cafe by a white unicorn with a very stylish purple mane sitting across from a lavender unicorn with a dark mane, a bright dash of pink in one section. The sight of the color made him shudder as he walked towards them, dropping the harness on his wagon to alleviate some of his back pain. He waved away the waiter and went to their table, bowing his head to them as they eyed him. “Nice to meet you, dear.” The white unicorn said with an air of nobility, sipping a drink daintily as she used her magic to add more sugar and stir it. “It’s always quite the commotion when somepony new shows up. I assume you’ve met Pinkie Pie?”

He nodded and sat, blowing a lock of copper hair from his eyes as he readjusted his packs. “Met isn’t really the word. It was more along the lines of ‘verbally assailed.’” He chuckled as they laughed knowingly, wishing he hadn’t waved the waiter away. The long trip from Manehattan had made him thirsty, but the pleasure of playing for the excitable Pinkie pushed that away for a few minutes. With it lapping at his throat, he sat there and tried his best to not swallow every time one of the unicorns took a drink. “My name is Allegretto, I just moved here from Manehattan to-”

Rarity was instantly upon him, eyes wide with wonder and passion. “Manehattan?! The big city?! Where the streets are paved with talent and everypony is on the cutting edge of every trend? Oh, how I envy you, sir Allegretto!” She pulled away and fanned herself, and Allegretto was again left confused in the wake of another excitable mare.

The purple unicorn giggled as her friend realized what she did, sipping her tea with embarrassment. “You’ll have to excuse Rarity, she has large dreams involving the ‘cutting edge of trends’. I’m going to go ahead and introduce myself before somepony scares you off. I’m Twilight Sparkle, loyal student and messenger to Princess Celestia herself.” Her introduction wasn't without an unnecessary bit of pride, but if her claim was true, he couldn't blame her for it. She nodded her head politely as Rarity managed to recover her composure enough to be part of the conversation.

Allegretto bowed his head and straightened a hoof, bowing to the two unicorns. “Pleasure to meet you both, ladies. Allow me to reintroduce myself. I am Allegretto, a music pony, and I came from Manehattan to escape the pressure of the stage.”

Rarity took a new interest in him altogether. “Ooo, a colt with manners and talent. And one at home on a stage. Oh, please say you come from a regal line!” She laid on the table and gazed at him, and again he felt uncomfortable. She noticed his silence and sighed, taking another sip of her tea. “I suppose it was too much to hope for. Ahh, maybe someday my pony will come.”

He smiled slightly in sympathy for her and turned back to Twilight. “Miss Sparkle, Lady Rarity, do you think you could help me with finding my house? I’m absolutely unsure where everything is, and my map is no help at this point.” He reached his head into his saddlebag and pulled out the map, which was worn and smudged, and Ponyville was almost rubbed off. “It’s from my grandma, but she hasn’t exactly been up to date on anything for a while. I’d appreciate the help, for what that’s worth.”

Both ponies finished their drinks and walked beside him. “It’d be our pleasure, Mister Allegretto.” Twilight said amicably. “Do you know where it’s supposed to be?”

Allegretto tilted his head to think for a moment, slowly walking back towards his wagon. “Somewhere out of the way so I can practice my music without bothering anypony. Close to some woods or another.” He didn’t notice when both unicorn’s exchanged a glance, and when he hitched himself up he caught them looking. “Did I say something wrong?” he asked.

Rarity cleared her throat and motioned for him to follow them, leading him down the main road towards a great treeline. “It seems you’re the owner of the house built near the Everfree Forest. It’s a nice enough place, dear, but you’ll have a neighbor who may not exactly enjoy a lot of noise.” She glanced over at Twilight, who nodded for her to go on. “She tends a lot of animals, and she’s a quiet thing, so if you could maybe not play very loudly…?” she trailed off, allowing him to extrapolate as he wished.

He mulled it over in his head, then cast his thoughts back to some of his larger instruments. His cello, his trumpet, his snare, and his tuba might have to collect dust if he was to stay on the good side of as many ponies as possible. “Okay, I think I can handle that. I should probably practice my woodwinds and smaller strings more, anyway.” He beamed at them, and they both gave him appreciative smiles. He opened his mouth to talk again, when shouting could be heard coming down the main road towards them. A cloud of dust quickly closed in on them, and they could barely make out two ponies neck and neck in the midst of a race directly at them. While his companions didn’t bat a lash, he began to worry as they blazed towards them.

They came to rest right before him, both talking rapidly at him while trying to nudge each other out of the way. One of them, a pale blue pegasus with rainbow mane and tail, took to fluttering above him trying to grab his attention. The other, a pale orange pony with a cowpony hat, was busy scrutinizing him while yelling just as loud as the pegasus. Finally, the pegasus won out. “Dang, Applejack, I told you I’d beat you here to introduce myself first!”

“And ah’ guess ya think ya won, don’tcha? Well, we all know who the fastest pony in Ponyville happens to be, and it sure as sugar ain’t you!” She stuck her tongue out at the pegasus and turned to Allegretto. “Sorry ‘bout that, newcomer. Ah’m Applejack, proud member of the Apple family and best darn apple picker you ever seen!” She held a hoof out to him and smiled smugly at the pegasus.

“Aww, no fair AJ! I wanted to be first!” she whined, lowering her head sulkily. She dropped to the ground and crossed her front hooves angrily.

Allegretto, shaken for the third time in a day, took the outstretched hoof and shook it warily. “Nice to meet you, Applejack. Glad to hear Ponyville has a nice supply of apples. Quite a fan of them, myself. You’ll probably see me quite a bit.” He turned to the sulking pegasus and trotted over to her, whispering in her ear. “If it makes you feel any better, it’s just as big a pleasure to meet you, too.”

She looked over at him and winked, flapping back up into the air. “It’s nothing! If I could’ve flown over here I would’ve won hands down! Nopony flies faster than Rainbow Dash!” She puffed out her chest and awaited his gasp of recognition, his begging for an autograph, his total and utter awe.

Allegretto looked up at her with his head cocked to the side. “Nice to meet you, Miss Dash,” he replied with a grin. “My name’s Allegretto, a music pony. Nopony plays faster than me!” he said, mimicking her stance of bravado while the others snickered at her. He laughed and then winked at her, repairing her broken ego while they all accompanied him towards his new abode. “I already like Ponyville better than Manehattan. It’s so much more personal here, so friendly,” he remarked casually.

Applejack nodded in agreement. “Yeah, mah time in Manehattan taught me that, too. Couldn’t nopony be bothered to spare ya a second glance.” She smiled at the old memory and what it had taught her, the town falling away behind them as they neared his new home.

Rarity cleared her throat and trotted ahead of them a bit, prancing before them. “Well, that’s only if you’re a nopony. One day my name will be all over Equestria, and I’ll be hard pressed to be able to walk outdoors without being swarmed.” She sighed and fell into another fantasy of the glamour life, eyes glazed and half-open.

Allegretto grimaced, his own memories being drudged up with theirs. “Well, you may want to rethink that. Being a nopony is much better than being swarmed all the time. I’ve… seen it happen a lot to some good friends, and it does get to you,” he mumbled the end, as if thought up on the spot. Twilight and Applejack both noticed, and both gave him the same questioning glance. “Oh, you know how it is in showbiz!” he said nervously. “I had lots of famous friends, moving up without me, getting the glitz and glamour!” He paused as Rarity sighed and slipped off into fantasy again. “Then they get mobbed, lose their privacy, and they miss the simplicity of their old lives.” He lowered his head for a minute and became lost in thought, leaving the others to come to their own conclusions.

Rainbow Dash tapped his head twice as they approached his house, a homely hut built into a tree. Nearby was another home, covered in greenery with a river running nearby. “I say we take you to meet your neighbor before you get set up!” she said excitedly before taking off towards the house, the others following suit. Bracing himself for another emotionally taxing encounter, he trudged up with them as they were trying to draw out their friend. “Fluttershy!” Rainbow called, darting up to the windows and knocking on them as the others waited below.

The door swung open with a comforting creak as the resident edged out, a yellow pegasus with a pink mane that drooped over her right eye. She carried a strip of gauze in her mouth as a small white bunny cradled the rest of the roll. “Oh, hey girls,” she said timidly, passing the gauze to the bunny. “What’s going on?”

Twilight waved a hoof towards Allegretto. “This is your new neighbor. He’s a music pony from the big city.” She looked back at him and nodded towards Fluttershy. “Go on, introduce yourself.”

Allegretto stood there motionless, mouth working like a fish. He pawed at the ground and looked down, hoping the blush on his face wasn’t showing. The others stared at him, Applejack and Rarity both smiling. This made him blush more, so he turned back towards the village and tried to compose himself. “I… I’m uh… Alle…Allegretto. N-n-nice to… nice to meet you, Fluh… Fluttershy.” He coughed in embarrassment and went to go inspect his wagon.

Rainbow Dash glanced at her friends, then flew over to land next to him. “Hey, you alright? You’re actin’ kinda… lame. You’re gonna make Fluttershy self-conscious. What, you scared of animals or something?” She waited for a response, but all she got was a clank as he shifted his things around. She huffed and grabbed his tail with both fore hooves, dragging him back to them against his will. “Now, say hi like a normal pony!” she demanded, blocking his escape.

He gulped once and turned back to Fluttershy, his heart in his throat as he tried to find his voice. Her eyes met his, and he was sure all the blood in him was rushing to his face. His mouth failed to produce sounds again, so he stood there gaping before finally forcing out a weak “Hello.”

“Hi…” she mumbled back just as weak, lowering her head much like he did. “I’m…Fluttershy…” Her name was so low he strained to hear it past the thudding of his heart. “I… take care of animals like Angel…” The bunny on her back shot him a glare before hopping down and back inside. “Oh, don’t mind him… He doesn’t really like strangers.”

“Hello,” Allegretto repeated, locked into emotional overload. They all stared at him for a minute before he seemed to break out of it. He realized almost instantly he’d made a foal of himself, so he quickly backpedaled to his wagon and stuck his head back inside.

Applejack opened her mouth to say something before she heard a familiar voice bounding up towards them. Pinkie Pie raced towards them with a basket full of invitations, her confetti cannons firing at full blast. “Hey guys! I’m throwing a party for the new pony in town! He plays music and he’s really good, so I thought ‘Hey, why not throw a party and get him to play for us!’” She looked around and saw him with his head in his wagon, gasping. “There’s that silly filly!”

Rarity raised an eyebrow. “Pinkie, he’s a colt, not a filly.”

She tilted her head in confusion, the narrowed her eyes as she stared at him. “But I don’t really have any names for colts. Ooo, unless I call him a ‘dolty colty’! Oh, that works!” She squealed and started to bounce in place. “Dolty colty, dolty colty, dolty colty!” she repeated, the invitations staying in place by some strange Pinkie miracle. She stopped suddenly and passed all the invites out, confetti firing off again. “I have it all set up and everything! Cupcakes and cakes and punch and music and fun!” She switched gears again and looked around, searching. “Has anyone seen Gummy?”

There was a shout, and they all stifled laughter as Allegretto came up with a new alligator hat, Gummy’s eyes blinking out of sync. “Mrrm mrrrrm mrrrm hrrm mrrm,” they heard, muffled by the toothless gator.

Pinkie gasped. “Gummy! You silly, he’s not food! He’s a new pony friend!” She took a deep breath. “Don’t worry!” she shouted, making them all jump and spooking Fluttershy, who hid behind Twilight’s flank. “This just mean Gummy likes you!” His retort was muffled again, so Pinkie gently bit Gummy’s tail and pulled him off with a wet plop. “It’s okay, he just brushed, so his mouth is super clean!”

“Consider me overjoyed,” he said in a deadpan voice, then wiped the spit from his face. His sight restored, he saw Fluttershy emerge from behind Twilight and locked up again, trying hard to force a breath past the lump in his throat. Again, the most he could muster was a weak wheeze, so he turned to bury his head again.

Twilight moved next to him and turned back to her friends. “Girls, why don’t you all go help Pinkie with the party? I’ll go make sure Allegretto gets home.” Catching his extremely grateful glance, she trotted with him as he drug his wagon towards his house. When they were out of earshot, she looked at him with the most serious look she could muster. “You’ve got a crush on Fluttershy.”

He gulped, then nodded once slowly. “No use hiding something from Celestia’s number one student.” He tried to get his thoughts in a line before talking, not wanting to dig further into his own grave. “I don’t even know her, though. I just saw her, and my heart just sort of went ‘There she is.’” He sighed and waited for her to mock him like his older acquaintances would have, so the reassuring nudge he got from her was a bit of a shock. “You’re not going to berate me for that?”

She shook her head and opened the door for him, using her magic to help unload his things as quickly as possible. “No, not at all. I’ve known you for how long? Maybe an hour or so at that? And already I can tell you’re a sweet pony, just the kind of colt that Fluttershy deserves. I’m behind you one hundred percent on this, Allegretto.”

He beamed at her as he drug his piano in on its side, trying his best to not hug her right now and forget his instruments. “I don’t suppose you have any spells that’ll help me talk to her, do you?”

Twilight thought, then scanned over his assortment of instruments in the main room. “Why would a music pony need his voice when he can convey how he feels in other ways?”

Thanks to his taxing day, it took him a minute to register what she was implying. Then he followed her gaze to his veritable orchestra, and the gears turned as his grin returned. “I’m going to need some music sheets and a quill.”

Chapter 2

Twilight laid back on the couch, in a total daze as Allegretto tried to catch his breath. Attempting to wrap her mind around what had happened, her body still tingled in pure ecstasy as he cleaned up, gathering scattered music sheets and wiping up puddles of spilled ink. She tried to rise, but her muscles refused to respond as she tried to talk. “That… That was incredible!” she finally got out, causing him to blush again. “I mean… can you do that every time?”

He nodded and went to the kitchen to see if it was stocked with something to quench his still raging thirst. Performances like that always left him drained, and he was sure Twilight would need the time to recover as well..

He was right. That explosion of cosmos in her mind left spots on her vision, and she still felt as if she were floating along a stream of something so beautiful to name it would somehow lessen it. “That… You were… You were the famous pony, weren’t you?” Her head throbbed with the effort strenuous thought brought. “There’s no way you weren’t if you can do that…” She stared at his flute as if it were a holy object, then gazed at him the same way when he set a glass of water in front of her. The utter amazement in her eyes made him blush even more, the heat rising as if he were staring at Fluttershy again.

He nodded again, sipping on his straw as his lungs pulsed dully. “Was afraid you’d treat me differently if you knew I was famous. I get pestered enough to play as it is.” He took another long drink before getting the things for the party together. He had played longer than he thought, and they were both surprised to see that the sun had almost set. “I’d appreciate if you didn’t let it slip. I’m trying to get away from that life, and Fluh… Flutter…” He sighed and inhaled. “Fluttershy doesn’t seem like the kind of pony who’d enjoy being in the limelight.”

She smiled and forced her right fore hoof up before her. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” she recited, accidentally jabbing herself in the face at the end. Rubbing her eyelid, she watched as he picked up his flute. “You know, Pinkie has a piano, if you want to try your piece on there, instead. It might be a bit more poetic.” She tried to imagine what his piece would sound like on the ivory, and almost fell into the majesty of it all over again. It was just something about the passion he poured into it was like a spell, a story unfolding through her ears rather than eyes. There was no doubt in her mind that he would get Fluttershy’s attention at the very least, but one thing bothered her. “Why’d you want to run from something like this?”

He sighed and packed his saddlebags, motioning for her to follow him. Even as new as he was to town there was no way he was going to miss Pinkie’s house, lit up enough to dull the stars, so he could focus more on talking than navigating. “Ponies stopped caring for me and only wanted my music. That feeling that you got, they all got it, and they became addicted. So I ran from that, that pressure of always needing to play with that intensity, to a town where I was sure nopony knew me. I’ll risk it to get… her to talk to me, but I’m also scared, Twilight. I don’t want her to talk to me just because of my music.”

Twilight laughed and nudged him gently. “Pinkie was right, you are a dolty colty. I know my friends, and they’ll appreciate you for you. You know, I was afraid they only like me for my magic,” she confessed, and his raised eyebrow signaled for her to go on. “Oh yes, I was very afraid of that. I thought they’d always want me doing some crazy magic trick for them, like invisibility or something silly like that. But they like me for me. That’s what friendship is all about. I’m not just this horn.”

Her words, while they didn’t erase all his fear, did wonders for reducing them, and the added spring in his step helped keep him positive as Sugar Cube Corner loomed ahead, all his current tension and excitement focused in this one place. He swallowed and steeled himself for his performance, Twilight right beside him as they pushed through the doors to a raucous greeting from almost every pony in Ponyville. All of a sudden the stage life flashed before him, the chorus of greetings and laughter from his old friends and fellow musicians, and his spirits rose even higher. He cantered to the middle of the room where his new friends were, Twilight leaving his side for theirs. “Wow, Pinkie, when you said you throw great parties, you weren’t kidding!” he laughed, trying to take it in all at once. There were pastries and drinks all down the far wall, and a white pony in sunglasses spun records for everypony to dance to. It was all so fun and vibrant he couldn’t help but smile and laugh.

Pinkie beamed at his praise. “I’m super happy you like it, Gretto! You coming here was a great reason to throw a party, I was running out of ideas to throw one! Maybe next I can throw a ‘I don’t have any more reasons to throw a party’ party!” She laughed and hopped once, a limitless fountain of energy and goodwill. “I was going to set up a stage, but Rarity said that putting you on the spot like that was rude, and then Applejack agreed, and then Rainbow Dash said she could play faster than you, and then Fluttershy was all mumbly and we couldn’t understand her over all the thinking going on!”

Allegretto tried to not visibly stiffen at the mention of her name, fighting the urge to glance over at her and lose his hard fought composure. “Well, I’d love to play tonight, Pinkie, but I’m really tired from all the moving. Big shows take a lot of energy, and that’s something I don’t have right now.” He smiled sympathetically and nodded slightly to Twilight, who nudged Applejack. “So, Rarity, I don’t think I ever heard what exactly it is that you do. What does a pony on the edge of every trend occupy her time with?”

“My my, you’re more polite every second, Mister Allegretto! I run a little fashion shop called Carousel Boutique, and I specialize in only the best and finest for my clients!” As she began talking Applejack and Twilight began to whisper to Pinkie and Rainbow Dash, who both nodded and followed them out back. “You’ll simply have to stop by some time so I can fit you for a nice outfit to play music in! Something sophisticated, yet simple in design. Oh, if only we were at my store right now, I could have it done in a flash!” She faded to a quick fantasy, then came back out as a purple baby dragon came up to her. “Oh, Spike, have you met Allegretto? He’s a new resident, and I hear he’s quite the musical talent!”

Spike visibly bristled with jealousy at her praise for him, then seemed to keep it in check as he turned his back on him. “Rarity, Applejack tore her hat helping Twilight and Pinkie out back. Do you think you can help her fix it?”

Rarity put on an air of supreme confidence, trotting towards the back door. “Think? I know I can fix that old cowpony’s hat in a jiff! I’ll be outside if anyone needs me!” She dashed out, leaving Allegretto alone with Fluttershy and Spike.

Spike glared at Allegretto with a look that could wither plants. “You’re new in town, so I don’t expect you to know, but I like Rarity, and one day she’ll realize how amazing I am. So please, don’t get in the way of that.” With a huff he was outside, leaving Allegretto and Fluttershy amidst the bouncing party atmosphere.

Fluttershy lowered her head and turned to the side, wishing for her friends to come back. “Oh, umm, I… I never welcomed you to Ponyville… I’m sorry, I was just nervous…” She tried her best to meet his gaze and establish some kind of relationship, but something in his eyes made her nervous, but in a new way she’d never felt before.

He took a step closer, and his spirit soared when she didn’t retreat like he feared she would. “It’s fine. I wasn’t exactly… You know, I wasn’t a good new neighbor.” It was a true effort on his behalf to finish his sentences and not break eye contact, and if Twilight hadn’t given him that shot of confidence earlier, he wouldn’t have been able to do it. But some hidden steel deep within him decided to show through, and he pushed ahead. “I just get a little flustered around… pretty fillies such as yourself.”

The compliment gave Fluttershy butterflies, and a blush began to creep up her cheeks as she looked directly at him, a strange new phenomenon that Twilight should have been recording for the history books. “Oh, uh… Th… thank you,” she muttered, taking a step closer herself. She’d forgotten her friends had left and focused on him, some strange feeling passing through them both. “I… I don’t really know how to act around colts. There aren’t very many around…”

Allegretto saw Rainbow Dash over Fluttershy’s shoulder, motioning to him that they were ready. He gave her a very minute nod and walked a little past Fluttershy. “I’m sorry, but I can’t hear you that well in here. Do you mind if we head outside, maybe see what the others are up to?” She nodded and stuck closer to him than necessary, not that he complained at all. Every time they brushed it sent an electric tingle across his coat, and as they walked into the crisp night air he swore he could’ve charged a thundercloud. When he saw what his friends had prepared, though, he felt the shock in tenfold.

Lights were strung all around a small stage, only big enough to accommodate him as he played. There was a blanket laid out before it, with all his friends on there, with room for one Fluttershy at the front. She was twice as shocked as he was, so Rarity and Pinkie guided her over to her spot as Allegretto mounted the stage. “I’m sorry we had to spring this on you, Fluh… Fluttershy.” He swallowed and pulled his flute out of his saddlebag, gripping it in his teeth as he said “I hope what I’m about to do makes up for it.” He positioned his flute correctly, took a deep breath, and began to play.

The tune started off soft and slow, the passion he put into it building as the music began to spin its wonders. Each note a clear peal into the night, he began to play louder, and they began to experience what Twilight already had. It was almost indescribable, but his passion spilled over into them, and they felt themselves carried along by the melody as colors blossomed in their heads, a galaxy of swirling lights that suggested the true intent behind his composition. He looked down at Fluttershy, who watched him with growing wonder and adoration. He focused his feeling on her, and the resulting symphony of vibrancy and emotion was powerful enough to make her whole body shiver in delight. His feelings towards her and his gentle kindness were transferred in that fantastic display, and without saying anything in return she reciprocated, placing trust in him with a small smile that filled him with so much elation that he reached a crescendo, the notes spiraling up to the night sky to twinkle with the stars.

He let the song end of its own accord, dying with his own breath as they gaped at him with awe, save Twilight, who had felt it before and was the first to applaud him at the end of the last note. As the others came from their stupors they began to applaud too, replacing the music that had once filled the air. Fluttershy rose and edged up to the stage as he came down, a deep red coloring her face. “That was… very pretty,” she said, and for once she did not mutter or mumble. She took a tentative step towards him, and then rested her head in his neck for a brief moment as the applause continued.

“Yes, yes, very pretty indeed,” a voice called from behind, snapping them out of their precious moment. They all spun to find the perpetrator, a small black pony with a white tuxedo on. They way he held himself suggested an air of egotism, and he stared directly at Fluttershy and Allegretto. “And you know you had shows scheduled all through this season, Allegretto.” He began to trot forward until Applejack and Rainbow Dash cut him off. “Oh, and I see you’ve made some new friends. How quaint. I’m sure they love your music, don’t they?”

Allegretto placed himself protectively in front of Fluttershy, glaring down the new pony. “What are you doing here, Adagio?” he growled, anger flashing black behind his eyes. “I told you in my letter that I was leaving the company and that you should respect my choice. You didn’t have a right looking for me.”

Adagio snickered and shook his head, keeping his cool masterfully. “You had no right to leave. You owe everything to us, Allegretto. Your home, your career, your life. Nopony could rake in the bits like you could, and when you took your leave we saw a sharp decline in the profits.” He tilted his head slightly to the left, thinking deeply. “Of course, demand for you has risen quite a bit. We miss our first chair flute. So, if you return with me now, I suppose we could forget about this little lapse in judgment-”

“He ain’t goin’ nowhere,” Applejack cut in, taking a menacing step towards him. While she was an intimidating sight, he refused to balk, so she pressed on harder. “Allegretto came here ‘cause he wanted to. Ain’t nopony takin’ that away from him, not while Ah’m around, fer sure!” She snorted and began to paw the ground, ready to charge him.

Sticking his nose up at her, he turned and trotted back towards the main road, glancing back to see them all glaring at him. It caused him to smile, and they had to hold Applejack back from charging straight at him for it. “It’s so adorable how you’re all fighting for such a sad little pony. Has he not told you about his old life? That sordid tale of music and entrapment? Oh, it’s quite a story, I’ll say.”

Allegretto snorted and lowered himself closer to the ground, a reserve of patience he had built over the years the only thing keeping his anger in check. “Just leave me alone, Adagio. I’ve made you enough bits to buy a replacement for me, so let me live the rest of my life away from that.”

“You know that isn’t how it works, Allegretto. Once you are a Concerto, there is no other life. You work for us, you owe us everything. And to shirk that is to welcome disaster upon yourself.” Adagio turned again and began to saunter away towards the main street, to whatever had brought him to Ponyville. “Luckily for you, we are so busy repairing our schedule from your departure that we don’t have time to bring you home this season,” he called back, risking another charge with his condescending smile. “So, you have until then to get whatever this is out of your system. If you’re not back by next summer… Well, just be back by next summer.”

He had finally gone, but the anger in the air still hung heavy as fog as all eyes turned to Allegretto. “Allegretto, what are you keeping from us?” Twilight asked, voicing everyone’s thoughts.

With so many eyes on him, and in light of what happened, he knew that trying to play this off as smaller than it was would be futile. He buried his face in his hoof, and a small sniffle escaped him. “That was my brother, Adagio. He’s not exactly a good apple, to say the absolute least, but I’m not one to talk. We’re both part of a group called the Concertos, a musical troupe on the surface with a terrible core.” He sighed and moved towards the blanket to lie down, Fluttershy trying to perk him up with small, reassuring nudges. They all gathered around him as he began to tell his tale. “My brother and I were orphaned at a very young age, left on the streets with only my flute and his brains…”

Author's Note: I apologize that this chapter seems to move so fast, perhaps even too fast, but when I had a definitive past ready for Allegretto and a major conflict cemented, I wanted to get through the rising action into the heart of the story. I'll try my very best to move more slowly in subsequent chapters.

Chapter 3

The flute was a constant source of tension between us, although at the time I had no idea. Adagio isn’t as musically inclined as me, and it’s one of the only things we had left when the house burned down. Though, being the sly pony he is, he never let me know how jealous he was of me, and me being so young didn’t help, either. I looked up to him, honestly. During those rough times I had to, he was older and my brother.

The jealousy didn’t take such a nasty grip on him at first, either. The first few days when we lived in the alleys he was too worried about surviving to waste energy on it. All he cared about was having food, and while there was some here and there, there wasn’t always enough to feed us both. In a good story, my older brother would colt up and give me the food and wait for his turn, but this isn’t a good story. I had to spend many a miserable night as I watched him chewing on some leftover pastry or flower, and I never wished him ill for it. The way he explained it made everything seem right in the world. “I need the food so I can have enough strength to keep you safe,” he told me one night as he devoured a half-eaten cupcake, and I went along with it because it made sense at the time. It was very cruel, but he always spun it in such a way to make it seem tender and caring. He never raised his voice, or hit me, or anything.

Unless I tried to play, that is.

Adagio never saw the beauty that other ponies say they see in my music. His jealousy and hatred for me tainted it, and to him it was just me trying to be better than him. Of course, it was never like that. To me, there was no way I could be better than him, because he was the pinnacle of pony perfection. But when I tried to explain that to him, he wouldn’t listen. He hit me, and told me that playing my music was bad, because I wasn’t any good at it. But it just made me want to get better, to be something to my brother, so some nights I snuck off while he slept and practiced until Celestia’s dawn. They were those few hours when the world was at peace, when I wasn’t just a homeless pony, and when my stomach didn’t rumble quite as loud.

Every night I practiced, until one night I lost track of time. I was playing a quick serenade to welcome the sun when I heard his voice behind me. I slipped a note, and the piercing blast that came afterwards just made him more furious. He was upon me, a hoof raised up about to strike me, when we heard voices calling. My mistake had gotten someone’s attention. When we looked down the alley we saw a family of well dressed ponies, one of them even carrying a musical instrument with her! My brother realized how he looked and began to pat me on the head, telling me how good I had gotten and to not lose focus at the end. I was confused, to be sure, but elated that he had complimented me. The family called us over then, and introduced themselves. The father, a tan colt named August, looked at me with a kindness I hadn’t seen in a while, and asked me to play again.

I was nervous, so when my brother glared at me and motioned for me to go ahead, I played just a simple melody that any musician could produce. But when I saw that none of them were going to stop me, not even Adagio, I began to play faster and better, until they began to experience that same experience that everypony does when I play my best. It was a busy street, as well, so before long I had gathered a crowd, all floating along on my notes. It was wondrous, a glimpse of the stage life, and I just continued to play for as long as I could.

My brother had other plans, though. His jealousy was eating at him, so in the middle of my performance he pulled on my tail as discreetly as he could. When the flopped note broke the trance that everypony was in, they all stared at me with open wonderment. Despite having made that “mistake”, they all still clapped and threw bits at me. Bits! A rain of little coins, each one clinking on the street, and to my brother, that music was sweeter than any I could have produced. He gathered the bits as the applause began, and his own greed overrode his jealousy. Ponies began to ask if August was my father; apparently he was a major supporter of music, and his daughter was a prodigy all her own. So, when he looked at me and winked, he announced that yes, we were indeed his sons. Both me and my brother were dumbstruck, so when he invited me to the music class he was heading to, I was sure it was a dream.

It wasn’t, and even if it was, I never wanted to wake up. His daughter, Octavia, a gray little filly about my own age with a pink treble clef cutie mark, played the cello with a mastery that belied her years, and so we would often spend long nights in the study, conducting private orchestras for an imaginary crowd. My days were filled with endless music, both mine and hers, and it was glorious.

My brother, however, wanted more than this. He wasn’t satisfied with his life in the background again, so on some days when class was short, he would intercept us at school and take us down to the theater district, and then force us to play for crowds on the sidewalk and then take the bits for himself. And he would always tell us that if we ever told August about this, he’d break both our instruments and any we dared tried afterwards. Since he was bigger than us, we had to accept that, although Octavia had more fight in her than me and resented every second of it. On the way home she’d filch bits from his bag and then we’d later go run off for treats, and we found happiness in even the lowest part of our days. Soon we began to look forward to his forced performances and the shopping we’d do afterwards, and each time Octavia stole a little more from him. “Our rightful share” she called it, and each time we came home in such good mirth Adagio began to wonder.

We were digging our own graves, as it turned out. Adagio didn’t know that we were taking his bits, but he soon realized that he was coming up with less and less every time. His greed expanded like his bags, and the next time we played and transfixed ponies, he would wander through the crowd and steal entire bags of bits, using his immunity to music as a tool to fill his coffers. His profit tripled overnight, and soon he began to leave late at night and not return until midmorning, always tired but with more and more bits. It didn’t take us long to figure out that he was exploiting performers all over Manehattan, each on a different day, each one a little profitable venture. There’s a reason that Manehattan is said to have streets paved with talent, and Adagio began to concoct a scheme to use that talent for his own personal gain.

For months he’d leave at night and bring strange ponies home, always dressed in such sleek and gorgeous clothing that they made August look low-class by comparison. They’d stay in the den all night talking about some business plans they had while Octavia and I sat around the hall corner listening.

That was the birth of the Concertos. A group disguised as a musical troupe who stole from those captivated by our music. Of course nopony knew that at first, so when a new “scout” came to the door a year later asking about Octavia and I, August was so pleased he packed our things for us and sent us with him, never looking back when his door was closed. We were taken to a grand theater hall neither of us had ever heard of before, and we had our first performance that night.

Ponies from all over town came when they heard that the promising street duo had finally made it big, and the hall was packed as we began to play. We were so caught up in our own music we didn’t notice the ushers picking every pony clean, and later that night a party was thrown to welcome us to the troupe. Our lives were just seeming to begin.

We played every event imaginable, even going so far as playing the Grand Galloping Gala once or twice. And each time ponies left with lighter bags and pockets, not even realizing that the price they paid for admission was only half of what they lost. And I was never the wiser, although Octavia thought it odd we were making such a large amount so fast. We never thought to make the connection between Adagio’s late night business talks and our current situation. We never had any reason to. We were famous as famous gets, or at least our music was. Nopony knew us really, but when we were out and about we would always get swarmed and pressured to play, and we loved the attention for a while. It was the perfect validation for two musical ponies.

After another year or so of playing music, we were staying late at the concert hall one night to go over another piece we had been working on when we heard a very familiar voice that sent chills up and down our spines. Both of us quit playing immediately and followed the noise back to our dressing room to find Adagio talking to our troupe leader. What we heard then was almost the same as what they were talking about those few years ago, about the theft of so many bits and how it was all thanks to us, and it was then Octavia decided to let all that courage she had bottled up over the years finally spill forth. She devised a plan for us to escape, and within a week we would be free.

That was the best scenario, but those almost never play out like we want. When the time came, right as we were preparing for our biggest show to date, they made the mistake of leaving us alone to get ready. Grabbing our instruments and enough bits to get us far away, we made a break for the stage entrance. If we’d been a second quicker, if I hadn’t tripped on my tuxedo, then things might’ve gone as planned. But I did trip, and the ushers and our troupe leader were bearing down on us. Octavia had stopped and came to help me up, but we didn’t have time to get away by then. If something didn’t happen, we weren’t going to make it.

So I decided to be the pony I always wanted Adagio to be. I placed myself between them and Octavia and told her to run, that I would be behind her soon. If this was a story, she wouldn’t have ran and we would’ve been through it together, like the brother and sister we’d grown to be. But I thank Celestia every waking moment that it wasn’t a story. She knew that this was her chance and that I was giving it to her, so she grabbed her cello and ran again as I readied my flute. Before any of the Concerto had time to react I played one piercing high note after another, so shrill the lights began to burst and they were forced to cover their ears. I was able to play for an amazing amount of time, but those notes required a lot of effort and I had been running, and Octavia had barely made it away before I dropped to the floor and the Concerto converged on me. The beat me, almost mercilessly, until Adagio appeared and took me to a dark room where they questioned me and beat me over and over. Luckily, I didn’t know where Octavia had planned to go, so I couldn’t tell them. This didn’t keep them from punishing me, but I was content that she was safe and I couldn’t harm that.

The Concerto have quite a long reach, though, and were about to begin the search for her when Adagio forced me into a deal. If I continued to play, never getting paid, a show every week, then I could make up for her and they would let her leave. And I took his offer for half a year. But things had changed. The stage no longer brought me pleasure, so long as I knew that I was playing for ill purposes, and I made the choice to run away, this time making it out much quicker than Octavia had. I left my brother a letter and all the bits I had saved so he could find somepony to replace me, and wished over and over that this was it, that Octavia and I were forever safe and that we could finally live away from the manipulation and thievery. But I should have known my brother was not going to let me win, and while Ponyville is a bit out of the way, he found me again and is probably looking for Octavia as well. I feel that the grace period he gave me is so that he can find and use her as bait for me. I was hoping to spend my life here in Ponyville, but if he finds her, I’ll have to go back. I can’t put her at risk for myself.

He finished his story and looked at them, trying his best to not falter and break down. “I should’ve guessed, and now I’ve put you all in danger. I should try to catch up with Adagio before he-”

Fluttershy put her hoof gently over his mouth, getting his attention as she laid her forehead on his. “No, Allegretto, this isn’t your fault,” she said softly, acting the part of her Element very well. “It’s Adagio’s fault. You just wanted to be happy, he’s the bad guy.”

Pinkie Pie actually had a serious look on her, eyes darting to each pony’s. “I dare that big meanie to come back and take away our new friend. He’s in for a Pinkie Pie pummeling if he tries!” She stood up and began boxing the air with her hooves before smiling a bit maliciously. “I’ll give ‘em a Jelly Jab, and a Cupcake Chop, and a Turnover Toss! Hiya!” she yelled, swinging at the air and raising the mood slightly.

Rainbow Dash shot up into the air above them and puffed her chest out again. “I’m right behind Pinkie! That loser tries to come back here, I’ll rain down the fury of Rainbow Dash! He won’t know what hit him!” She flipped once and hovered above him, flashing such a confident grin that his own confidence was boosted.

Applejack jumped up and straightened her hat, tipping it slightly to him. “Ah’m behind ya, too, pard’. That varmint tries to mosey his way back into our town, and he’ll hafta answer to the Apple family! You got the entire orchard on yer side, now!”

Rarity also rose, clearing her throat. “I can’t say I’ll be much good in a fight or anything so barbaric, but I have a few ponies in high places I can rely on to find Octavia for you. I’ll make sure she stays safe as can be, don’t you worry at all.”

Twilight joined them in standing, Spike on her back. “I’ll send word out to Princess Celestia that Manehattan has a shady music business she should put a stop to. Though, Allegretto, I think I should warn you that this could destroy your chances of being on stage. Once ponies find out that you were a Concerto, even if you didn’t know what they did, nopony will want to take you on.”

Allegretto thought about this, then looked at the friends he had assembled around him. He loved his music, truly, but right now he wouldn’t trade anything in the world for these ponies, especially the one nestled up against him. “Twilight, I choose you ponies over the stage any day. Besides, who’s to say I still can’t play for entertainment?”

They all nodded in agreement, elated at the decision he’d made. They wanted to celebrate at the party, but it had long since winded down and the night air was beginning to nip at them. They all said their goodbyes and went their separate ways, except Fluttershy, who pawed the ground timidly, and Allegretto, who laid on the blanket a while longer and stared at the night sky. “Allegretto, I’m… I’m happy you decided to stay here in Ponyville,” Fluttershy said, and flashed a smile that rivaled every twinkling star. Despite the cold they both felt warm, and the stars pulsed with a cold fire as the moon began to sink. “I have to go back to look after my animals… Are you going to be alright finding your way home?” she asked with a yawn, slowly moving towards her home.

He smiled and suppressed his own yawn, lowering his head. “I think I’ll be fine for just one night,” he said, then sent her on her way with a taxed smile. Trying to fight his sleepiness for a little bit longer, he watched as the stars began to fade and the moon almost fell behind the horizon, feeling a peace he hadn't known for years. When the morning did come it found him asleep on that blanket, with another thrown over him by Pinkie Pie when she woke up and saw him outside her window. Even outside in the cold and damp with dew, his first night in Ponyville was one of the best Allegretto had ever had.

Author's Note: Phew, hopefully I fleshed out Allegretto's backstory enough to allow the story to continue on. I hope this chapter doesn't seem as rushed as the last one, but if it does seem that way, I apologize. Also, if the romantic/touching scene with everyone assembled outside seemed cliche, the reason is I don't have a lot of experience with that sort of writing, so I'm trying to build that. Hopefully as the rest of the characters make their way in and the story goes on it'll all become more refined and fall into place. Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 4

Things were beginning to take a turn for the better, much to the relief of the ponies in Ponyville. After all the excitement of the party and the appearance of a new pony, they were all excited to return to normal and to let Allegretto experience a regular day after his weeks of moving in and getting set up.

It was a bit too much to hope for, as three young fillies had heard of the arrival of a new pony and were eager to get to him to try and earn their cutie marks for playing instruments. “All right, now are we ready to go earn ourselves some cutie marks?!” Applejack’s younger sister Apple Bloom asked as they made their way to Fluttershy’s house, riding on Scootaloo’s scooter. All three had shown a massive amount of interest in trying to get Allegretto to teach them to play, and when they learned he was helping Fluttershy take care of some of her animals, they immediately took off from the Apple’s orchard, shirking their promise to help the oldest Apple, Granny Smith, make some pies.

“I don’t know, I still feel kind of bad for leaving Granny Smith like that…” Rarity’s younger sister Sweetie Belle murmured, her conscious giving her a hard time. “I mean, we promised to help her make pies today, and Applejack’s not going to like it when she finds out we lied to Granny Smith.”

The propulsion and pilot of the scooter, a young orange pegasus named Scootaloo, scoffed and swerved up the winding path to their destination, somehow retaining their balance. “It’s not lying, Sweetie Belle! We’ve helped Granny Smith make pies before, and we didn’t get our cutie marks then, so if we helped Granny it’d only be a waste of her time and ours! We’re doing her a favor!”

Sweetie Belle didn’t seem very convinced, and continued to listen to her berating conscious as they skidded to a halt in front of Fluttershy’s door. Apple Bloom was the first off and began to knock on the door, shouting for the residents. “Fluttershy! It’s me, Apple Bloom! We’re hear to talk to yer colt friend about learnin’ to play some instruments! Hurry up!” The other two fillies joined her in shouting, until it seemed they could be heard all across Equestria.

There was a commotion on the other side of the door and various shouts and squawks, and they heard the flapping of wings as a small, multicolored bird shot out of an open window and disappeared into the sky. Fluttershy answered the door as Allegretto yelled out the window, looking down at the three with a worn look on her face. “Oh, hello, girls. Is it my turn to watch you today?” she asked as Allegretto came behind her, mumbling angrily about a ’prismatic pest’. “Allegretto, we have guests,” she said, and his mood seemed to lighten almost instantly.

The three dashed in past them into a messy room, books and bandages and birdseed everywhere. “Wow, what happened in here?” Sweetie Belle asked them, oblivious to the look Allegretto was giving her. She looked around the room again, watching as Apple Bloom and Scootaloo tried to put some thing back into place. They looked back at their flanks as they cleaned, but when they didn’t see anything they instantly stopped and stood next to her. “You guys have a wrestling match or something?”

Fluttershy’s face turned a bright red as Allegretto attempted to change the subject. “Well, hello there, little fillies. It’s so nice to meet you. My name’s Allegretto. Who are you three?”

Sweetie Belle took a step forward. “I’m Sweetie Belle! I’m Rarity’s sister!”

Apple Bloom stepped forward as well. “Ah’m Apple Bloom! Ah’m Applejack’s sister!”

Scootaloo moved up with them. “I’m Scootaloo, and I’m Rainbow Dash’s number one fan!”

“We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” they all three exclaimed, then ran around in a small circle, kicking up the bird seed and making an even bigger mess. It took a very large measure of control on Allegretto’s part to not react, but he managed to wait until they were done, stopping out of boredom and not exhaustion, to his chagrin.

Apple Bloom noticed that they had made a greater deal of work for the two ponies, and as she looked around at the disastrous mess her friends noticed as well. “Aww fiddlesticks, we jus’ made a bigger mess for y’all…” she whined, waiting to be reprimanded by one of the two. Her friends waited by her solemnly and they gazed up at them with large, sorrowful eyes, a trick of younger ponies to try and lessen their impending punishment.

Allegretto wasn’t about to let that work, but before he had a chance to voice his outrage at them Fluttershy stepped up. “Oh, it’s okay girls. That rainbow robin was a hoof-full anyway. He probably would’ve made a mess even if you didn’t show up.” Her forgiveness caused the girls to cheer and run around again, as Allegretto chuckled and shook his head teasingly at her. She turned, smiling, and placed her head against his, and the second long distraction gave the Cutie Mark Crusaders time to run out behind their backs. When she turned around she noticed instantly, looking across the entire room for them. “Girls?” she called quietly, glancing back at Allegretto for some kind of direction.

There was a loud blaat from upstairs, and the look of pure horror on Allegretto’s face made Fluttershy assume the worst. “My instruments!” he cried, racing upstairs towards the noise with her close behind, almost running down Angel. The bunny gave him an angry glare as he slammed open the door into Fluttershy’s bedroom, and his look of horror before was nothing compared to the one he wore right now.

The girls were all across the room, each one playing an instrument loudly and with reckless abandon. Sweetie Belle blasted another flat note from a trumpet, and the animals downstairs were in a frenzy, their sensitive ears assaulted by one sour sound after another. She picked up a tune, and began to spew mistakes left and right as Scootaloo joined her on the piano, hitting bad chord after bad chord and slamming her hooves as she did it. Apple Bloom was trying her best to keep up with a pair of cymbals, and the crash made him wince every time, his ears crying out for some kind of mercy. In a resounding fit of anger he grabbed his flute from the nightstand and blew one solid, high note that canceled out theirs. They all stopped and looked at him, wearing that same apologetic expression they had tried before.

Fluttershy stood between them, sparing the girls his wrath for the time being. “Allegretto, they didn’t know any better… They were just trying to get their cutie marks. I’m sure they’re very sorry.” She smiled at him, and his anger abated, but didn’t vanish altogether. “Now girls, maybe we should leave Allegretto alone for a minute. Why don’t you run into town with me? I have some things I need to pick up.”

With looks of pure relief, they filed out of the room, trying not to cringe when he passed his furious gaze over them. “We’re sorry, mister Allegretto,” Scootaloo said, her head so low to the ground her mane brushed it. “We just wanted to find our talents…”

Allegretto narrowed his eyes, then took a deep breath and let his anger dissipate completely. He didn’t necessarily approve of what they did, but to be angry about it now wouldn’t solve anything. “Look, just… Just give me a while to get my things in order, then I’ll see about teaching you how to play something.” He caught the grateful look from Fluttershy as they all filed out the door, leaving him with his possibly shattered instruments. “It’s going to be a very long day,” he muttered, opening the lid on his piano.

“Now y'all ought to be very ashamed of yerselves!” Applejack was busy scolding the Crusaders, Rarity and Rainbow Dash on either side. “Y'all promised to help Granny Smith today, and ya ended up runnin’ off to go bother our newest pardner!” She glared at them, having been told the whole story when she caught them out with Fluttershy, who stood a bit away to avoid the yelling. “Now Ah got half a mind to let that colt punish ya as he wants! But it ain’t all up to me, lucky fer you!” She looked to either side of her for one of her friends to step in.

Rarity took point, glaring at Sweetie Belle especially. “Now, that pony is trying his best to fit in here, and he doesn’t need you three making that any harder for him! Now, when he gets here I want each of you to apologize and offer to clean up the mess you made, then you’re going right to the Apple orchard to… to… Oh drat, Applejack, do you have anything for them to do?”

“Ah reckon they could sort the apples into the bushels or sumthin’. But Big Mac said he was gunna do that this mornin’, and I bet he’s done it already.” She thought for a minute, looking to Rainbow Dash. “Ya got any ideas, Rainbow?”

Rainbow Dash snapped out of a daydream and looked at them, befuddled. “Huh? I’m just here because you guys told me to. I haven’t been listening.” She ignored their looks of disappointment, floating lazily on the breeze as Rarity and Applejack continued to list possible punishments.

This continued in much the same way for several minutes until Allegretto finally came along, looking even more tired than before, and what really drew the eye was Angel laid across his back. Fluttershy hurried over to check on her little bunny pal while Allegretto glared at the Crusaders. “You girls best thank Celestia you didn’t break anything. If you had, I would’ve left you to your sisters and Rainbow Dash.” He looked up at the older fillies and blew his mane from his face. “As it is right now, I’m going to ask you not punish them. I actually have something else in mind for them.” He reached into his saddlebags and pulled out three small instruments: a piccolo, a triangle, and bongos. “Now, if it’s okay with your sisters, I have a bit of a deal to strike with you. I want each of you to take one of these instruments and practice a little each day, then at the end of a week I want to hear what you’ve learned.” He smiled when they squealed and ran to take one each, Apple Bloom the triangle, Scootaloo the bongos, and Sweetie Belle the piccolo. They all laughed and began to belt out notes, but being the simple instruments they were, there wasn’t nearly as many sour notes produced. “Now, there’s a catch,” he continued, and they all set down their gifts and looked at him with rapt attention. “This doesn’t mean you can skip doing things to play, and this also doesn’t mean you can annoy ponies with them. If your sisters think it’s the right thing to do, they have every right to take them from you.”

Scootaloo looked at him with a bit of slyness that he didn’t appreciate. “How’re you gonna know if I do anything bad with my instrument?” she said with an air of superiority, tapping a few times on her bongos. “I don’t have a sister who can take mine away.”

He sighed and turned to look at Rainbow Dash. “I hope I can trust you to keep an eye on her sometimes?” he asked. He didn’t know about the Elements of Harmony, much less that Rainbow Dash was loyalty, and a smaller pony than her would’ve been insulted.

As it was though, she just saluted him and somersaulted in the air. “You can count on me, colt!” she said, swooping down to tap on the bongos. This made Scootaloo beam with joy, and it was evident this is what she wanted to happen all along. Watching all these fillies with their older sisters, and in the case of Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo a relationship very close to siblings, made his heart pang for both his corrupted brother and his missing sister, and reminded him of the looming confrontation that was shaping up in a little under a year. According to Twilight, Princess Celestia sent out guards to search the theater hall he had told them about, but the Concertos had long since gone away.

Fluttershy noticed a look she had come to recognize on him, when he was thinking about his past and the Concertos, and went to nuzzle next to him. “I know you’re still worried,” she whispered, watching the fillies play with their gifts. “But that’s a long time from now, and everypony says it’ll be okay. So just trust us, okay?”

He looked over to her, smiling tiredly, and without warning planted a kiss right between her eyes, chuckling when her face turned a vivid red. The Crusaders stopped playing for a minute to whisper and giggle as their guardians exchanged a look of happiness. Fluttershy mumbled something under her breath, and rather than repeat it she leaned against him and nestled her head under his. The Crusaders, seeing that there would be no more smooching, began to play with their instruments again.

Of course, they should’ve realized that music usually signifies a party, and before any of them had realized, Pinkie Pie came bounding up with a kazoo, joining the fillies in their music-making with a gusto Allegretto and Angel wished they could muster. The kazoo playing became erratic after a moment, and Pinkie finally dropped it to laugh. “Oh wow, I can’t believe we’re having a music party! I love music, not as much as singing and throwing parties and baking of course, but it’s my fourth most favorite-est thing ever! Hey…” she said, eyes shifting back and forth between the gathered ponies. “How come nopony came and told me there was going to be a music party? It’s my job to know about all the parties in Ponyville, otherwise I’ll have to give up my Party Pony status!”

Before anypony could respond, Twilight came walking up with Spike on her back holding a book and several scrolls. Allegretto had long since stopped wondering how they all managed to converge at some point or another throughout the day, chalking it up to one of those unexplained forces, like Fluttershy’s talent with animals or Pinkie in general. “Hey, everypony! What’s with the big get together?”

Pinkie was immediately upon her, grabbing her head between both hooves and knocking Spike off by accident. “Oh Twilight, they didn’t invite you either?!” She looked back the rest of them and stuck her tongue out. “You meanies! You know music is my fourth most favorite-est thing ever, and Twilight needs some pony interaction, being cooped up in that dusty old library all day!”

Spike shook the stars from his vision and gathered his literature, walking over to stand with the rest of them, making sure to keep a comfortable distance from Allegretto. While he no longer perceived Allegretto as a threat to his relationship with Rarity, per se, they hadn’t gotten enough time to know each other, and stayed mutual acquaintances for the time being. “What is she talking about?” he asked nopony in particular, adjusting the papers in his arms.

“Pinkie Pie seems to think that we’re throwin’ a party without ‘er,” Applejack responded, and that seemed to be all the explanation that Spike needed as she went over to the unpredictable pony. “Pinkie, ain’t nopony throwin’ a party without you, sugar cube. We was just scoldin’ the littleun’s here, and Allegretto seems to think that givin’ ‘em instruments is gonna keep ‘em outta trouble!” She looked back at him with one eyebrow cocked. “And he better know that Ah’ll be seein’ him if this don’t work.”

Pinkie let Twilight’s head go suddenly and scratched her head. “So, if we do bad things, Allegretto gives us instruments?!” she asked incredulously, a twinkle coming to her eye that gave every pony the chills. Without warning she grabbed a hunk of mud off of the ground and chucked it, covering Allegretto and Fluttershy in the wet earth. She was right before him in a second and wiggling excitedly. “I want a xylophone!” she exclaimed, not noticing the glare that Allegretto had been using to no avail all day.

Again he felt anger flare in him, nipping at the back of his head like a hungry animal, but he also realized that anger wouldn’t be the best course of action. Pinkie was just Pinkie, and he couldn’t be mad at her for that. “Sorry, Pinkie, it was an offer for the Crusaders only,” he explained, trying his best to remove the clumps of mud from Fluttershy’s mane. “I mean, if you want, I guess I could find something for you to play…”

Pinkie thought it over for a moment, then shook her head so quickly it was a blur of pink. “Nope! I just realized that if I tried to learn to play an instrument then I wouldn’t have time to write songs or bake or throw parties! You silly music ponies can have the instruments, just leave the important things to the Party Ponies like me!”

He was about to argue his case for learning to play an instrument, then realized that Pinkie was a bit of a handful herself. It probably wouldn’t be in the best interest of everypony involved to give her another facet of Pinkie-ness, so he shrugged and let her decision stand. “If that’s your choice.” He looked back at the Crusaders with a touch of mirth in his eyes. “And I’m serious, girls. I want to hear what you can do in one week, and I’ll be in touch with your sisters to make sure you stay out of trouble.”

Apple Bloom stopped beating on her triangle and stood as tall as she could, her friends joining her almost instantly. “Ya ain’t gotta worry ‘bout us, mister Allegretto! We give ya our word we ain’t gonna use these instruments bad! Cutie Mark Crusaders honor!” They all threw him a salute, seemingly rehearsed because of how expertly timed it was, then continued to produce note after note of happy amateur music.

Rarity watched the girls for a minute, then glanced up at the sky and did a double-take. “Twilight! We’re late for our spa date!” she exclaimed, running over to her magical partner and tugging on her tail. “Come on, now! If we’re any later we’ll lose our reservations!” She didn’t give Twilight time to respond, and barely enough time to wave feebly before dragging her away.

Applejack glanced at the sky herself and nodded once, smiling. “It is gettin’ late. Sweetie Belle, Ah reckon you can stay with us for th’ night. Knowin’ yer sister, they ain’t due home for a while. Spike, ya think ya can handle yerself?”

The tiny dragon puffed his chest out and held his scrolls with an air of importance they didn’t quite have before. “Yeah, I’ll be fine! I’ve had to watch out for myself before, trust me. Don’t worry!” he boasted, then began swaggering off towards the library as they watched him go, trying their best to not giggle as his overly inflated ego. The sunlight was rapidly waning, and the others said their goodbyes as Allegretto, Fluttershy, and Angel made their ways to their respective homes.

Allegretto had fallen back to thinking now that he wasn’t distracted, and Fluttershy tried her best to think of something to say that would make him feel better and to forget his brother, if even for a night. “Umm, Allegretto? Would you maybe help me clean up a little bit? I mean, if you want to…” With his confidence down, hers plummeted as well, and she was finding it harder and harder to talk without mumbling.

Allegretto let a small sigh escape, and lowered his head even further. “Angel and I already took care of it,” he said distantly, not looking at her as his mind raged and his anxiety spoke whispers of doubt into his ear. He knew she was worried, and that made him feel even worse because of his emotional unavailability, but he made a promise to himself to not drag her into his past any further.

Fluttershy looked away at the ground. “Oh…” She walked along in silence for a minute, trying to find another way to get him to talk to her. “I, uh… I didn’t expect you to… to kiss me… Especially not in front of everypony…” she whispered, trying her best to fight the heat rising to her cheeks, and out of the corner of her eye she saw him smile just barely. “And… I’m really happy you offered to help today… with the robin. That was really nice…”

Allegretto stopped at the split in the road that marked their separate ways, one road leading to his house and one to hers. Many a long dusk was spent with them chatting, not wanting to leave each others company for another few minutes, and tonight was no exception. “Fluttershy, can I ask you something?” he blurted suddenly, finally turning to look at her.

“Yes?” she asked, enjoying the light she saw in his topaz eyes. She felt a tingle in the air, a special charge like lightning was about to strike, yet the sky was clear as a bell. She realized that the charge was crawling all over her, and her wings twitched once out of excitement.

He started to speak, then seemed to rethink it. He repeated this several times, and she fought the urge to giggle lovingly at him. Finally, he gathered himself and forced it out. “Do you think I’m a bad pony for what I’ve done?” he asked, ashamed to look at her now that it was out. “I mean, ignorance may make it better, but… I’ve hurt so many ponies. And I’m putting more ponies in danger. Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie, the Crusaders… And you. I can’t… Fluttershy, I can’t put you in danger like this.”

She was shocked and touched by his concern, and that tingle became a charge that wanted to pull her towards him. “Allegretto… I would’ve left if I was scared… And normally, I am scared…” she began, moving closer to him, obeying that charge as her confidence began to rise. “But I’m not as scared when you’re around. You make me feel stronger. And I want to be there for you as much as you are for me.” She drew even closer, and she could tell the charge was passed on to him, because he leaned in as much as she did. Angel seemed to sense what was going on, and hopped back to Fluttershy’s to give them their own precious privacy. “Allegretto, you’re not a bad pony. A bad pony would’ve stayed, and left Octavia for himself, and never would have stood up to Adagio.”

He was unable to break eye contact with her, and now they were so close he could smell the scent of nature that he loved so much on her. “When you were there is the first time I stood up to him face to face. I… I wasn’t going to let him hurt you.”

“And now I’m not going to let him hurt you. None of us are. So you don’t have to worry about it…” She placed her forehead on his, their signal for a heart to heart moment, a gesture of warmth and safety and support. She breathed deeply and tried to transfer her calmness to him, realizing the irony of it but not dissuaded by it. “Allegretto, no matter what happens, I… I…”

He chuckled. “I… I… you too,” he said, and their lips suddenly collided in the last moments of sunlight, and while they both wanted it to happen, it was still a surprise for them both that neither was pulling away. It lasted for only a minute, but time had stretched, and that twilight was nearly an eternity for them. When they both finally did pull away, Allegretto had a new mirth in his eyes, and smiled so warmly Fluttershy wanted to kiss him again. “Thank you, Fluttershy.”

“For kissing you?” she asked, befuddled, and it didn’t even register until after she said it that they’d just become intimate. Once it did, her face flared like the sun and her heart raced like an Iron Pony Competition, thundering in her ears.

He laughed and shook his head. “No, for giving me another reason to fight back against Adagio.” He raised his head to the sky and sighed, watching the stars grow in intensity. “It’s going to be a cold night, isn’t it?” he asked, even as he watched her shiver.

She nodded, her mind racing along thousands of paths of pure joy as she watched her colt with adoration. Her colt. She said it in her head again and again, and the shivers he perceived weren’t of cold, but excitement, as she nodded towards her house. “Tree homes can get very drafty…” she said, leaving the end hanging as she turned slowly down her own path.

Allegretto raised an eyebrow with a mischievous grin. “Miss Fluttershy, what are you suggesting? That doesn’t seem very timid.”

She lowered her head and glanced over at him with a blush. “Well, you make me a little more confident…” she whispered amorously. “And… My bed gets a little cold, too…” she admitted, watching him for his reaction and hoping for a very specific one.

He didn’t say anything, fearing that it would spoil their moment, but rather followed her as they made it back to her house so close they were almost one pony in body and heart.

Author's Note: This is more of a "not moving too quickly" chapter that I used to flesh out the main (mane?) relationship and add the Cutie Mark Crusaders to the tale. Also, I know how it looks, but I'm a bit hesitant about making this "sleepover" sexual rather than intimate. I think I'll just leave it as intimate, and hopefully that won't detract at all from the story itself. So, it is a night of embracing. That is all. Sorry to disappoint, if I did.

Chapter 6

“Forty-seven missed shows. Thousands of bits, gone. And ponies say I’m the bad colt.” Adagio paced back and forth at the edge of a stage, giving a monologue to his brother who lay behind him. “You know, dear brother, at some level I envy you. It must be so easy having the talent. The natural ability to wow others. It makes us without it look oh-so-very drab by comparison.” He turned, and if Allegretto could see past the blinding stage lights, his brother’s vicious grin would have dominated his vision. “I grew so very tired of listening to mother and father praise you for that noise,” he hissed, enjoying Allegretto’s labored breathing more than he ever could a composition. “Day in and day out, that same little metal tube twittered like a bird, and day in and day out mother and father showered you with love, their little protégé. Nobody saw little Adagio, with his ideas and plans for success. No, while I was making my own path, you were being led down yours by the hooves, never even worried about falling down. I had business sense, but what good is that on a stage? How can you show that to thousands and get that praise?” He waited a moment for Allegretto to make some sort of remark, and the silence he got instead drove his hoof deep into his brother’s side.

The resulting moan and coughing made him purely ecstatic, actually hopping around for joy as his brother writhed in pain. “Oh, now this kind of music I could grow to love. This noise is what I long to hear!” He stopped above his brother again, an ear cocked to every wheeze and groan, still wearing a manic grin that made even his bodyguards squirm. “Now, I wonder what your little friends would think of this performance. Ahh, speaking of friends…” He glanced over in the audience, and the only seat occupied was right in the middle of the front row, and held a gray filly struggling against the rope that bound her. “It’s so good to see you again, Octavia, how has the year been treating you?”

She stopped struggling and spat at him, the courage Allegretto sung praises of back in full force. She missed, but the message was clear all the same as she shook the spittle from her lip and resumed struggling. She growled and tried to break out, then slumped back, spent for the moment.

“Ah, what a lovely captive audience…” Adagio sighed, then turned to his still floundering brother. “That joke was in bad taste, wasn’t it?” He thought for a minute, then smiled again, never a reassuring sight. He trotted back to his brother and propped his head up for Octavia to see, and reveled in her shocked expression. “Why is it that families are only brought together in the face of great tragedy?” he lamented, shaking Allegretto back and forth to intensify his pain.

Octavia struggled against her bonds and shot Adagio a malicious glare, rubbing her forelegs raw against the ropes. “You’re not part of my family!” she screamed, her throat already raw from crying. “You’re a monster, a curse! Leave my brother alone! You said if I came he’d be safe!”

Adagio feigned shock, dropping his brother’s head to the floor with a sound thud. “A monster? But, dear Octavia, what about all those days we spent together? The dinners, the recitals. Does that mean nothing to you?” He glanced down, and suddenly swung his hoof against Allegretto’s mouth, further increasing the damage there as Octavia screamed for him to stop. “Then again, ponies did enjoy my brother’s company over mine. Even mother and father.” His voice dropped at the end, the blood from Allegretto shining brightly under the hot lights. He grit his teeth and began kicking with reckless abandon, only caring that he made contact. “How dare you? Nopony makes me second best! I was the eldest, the first, the Alpha! And then you came along and dared to be greater than me! You made mother and father ignore me! I. DON’T. LIKE. BEING. IGNORED!”

He stopped kicking to catch his breath, heaving as blood seeped towards him, already splattering his tuxedo. He leaned down an inch from Allegretto’s battered face, listening to each shallow breath with an air of impatience. “If I couldn’t have the attention and praise, you couldn’t either. So I took it from you.” His voice dropped to a menacing whisper. “I burned down the house and locked mother and father inside,” he confessed, Octavia staring at him in unrestricted horror. He caught her gaze and grinned wickedly, slowly walking towards the edge of the stage. “And then Daddy August found us. Just maybe, dear Octavia, I am cursed, because by some miracle Allegretto got even more attention from you and August. And I was shoved backstage again!”

Octavia threw all her weight forward, ignoring the rope biting into her and the possible bleeding she may have caused. “What did you want us to do, Adagio?! You’re a planner, not an actor or a musician! You don’t have a home on the stage!”

Adagio sneered at her, then gave a nod to one of the guards at her side. The sight of his hoof connecting so solidly with her face cheered him significantly, and he tried to freshen up his appearance as she fought against unconsciousness. “There’s no applause backstage. Great ponies such as me need validation, don’t they?”

Octavia began to thrash, rubbing more and more of her skin raw. “You’re not great! You’re an egotistical devil!” she shrieked, her voice cracking on the last few syllables.

Adagio began to smile again, then turned and went backstage, stomping on his brother as he passed. “Ponies I’ve respected more than you have called me worse. Besides, who doesn’t love a good villain?”

Manehattan was quite the large city, with literally thousands of buildings that could house a psychopathic pony and his captives. Yet this was just a small deterrent for his assorted rescue team, who never tired in their search for the lost colt and his sister. Still, they had virtually no leads for finding where exactly they were hidden, and were forced to search every possible location. Twilight was trying to narrow down their search, but she hadn’t much to go on. “I wish I knew more of this city,” she sighed to Spike, who studied a map intently as the others trailed behind. It had been a long trip to get to the city, and they had traversed a good section of it already in the few days they’d been there. Old buildings, abandoned warehouses; all the places that it would be easy to hide a few prisoners. Twilight looked back at her friends in their ragged condition, and called for a few minute break while they got their bearings.

The Crusaders, who had tagged along for fear of being left alone, all collapsed in a heap as the others gathered around the map, deliberating where to head next. Sweetie Belle groaned and flipped onto her back, staring up at the imposing buildings all around them. “I’m tired…” she whined, a chant that her fellow Crusaders took up almost at once. Ponies all around them began to cast them disapproving glares and gave them a wide berth, whispering amongst themselves as the whining started to evolve into a tantrum, the trio begging to go back to their hotel for the day.

Before Applejack and Rarity had a chance to reprimand their siblings for their outburst, Fluttershy spun around and glared at them, a foreign emotion rolling off of her as the three instantly fell into silence. The others stared at her with a touch of fear as she fought the urge to scold them, and the whispers from around them increased. “Look at them,” they heard above the rest. “I can’t believe they allow those fillies to act so outrageously. I pray they aren’t going to the production, too.”

Fluttershy broke her Stare and spun to face the ponies they heard, two colts walking towards the theater district in distinguished attire. “Did you girls hear that?” she asked, taking a few steps after them. The others were silently coming to the conclusion that all the stress had finally broken her as she began to hyperventilate, turning to them and back, her mind racing. “A production…” she began, gaze flicking to each of her friends to see if the were following the same train of thought.

Applejack went to their emotionally cracked companion and put a hoof on her. “Fluttershy, Ah don’t think we’re followin’ ya. What do ya say we listen to the girls and give up fer the day?” She tried to steer her back to the group, but she wouldn’t budge, and Applejack was contemplating forcing her to take a break. “Sugar cube, Ah ain’t playin’. Yer mind’s run off, ya need a break.” She put a bit more force into her pushing, and almost stumbled onto her face when Fluttershy stepped away. “Fluttershy…” she growled, taking a menacing step forward.

Fluttershy backed away in fear and tried to hide behind her mane, then glance back down the road and gathered a minute amount of courage. “No, please listen…” she said, trying to plant herself firmly and failing. “Maybe it’s the Concerto…” She trialed off, hoping vehemently that they were coming to her point of view.

Rainbow Dash sighed and dropped her head in exasperation. “Fluttershy, that’s the fifth time you’ve thought that, and for the fifth time, it’s just going to be another regular play. Those tend to happen a lot in the theater district,” she said with emphasis, her exhaustion making her sour. Optimism was fine and all, but she was fed up with all the boring shows and false hope.

Twilight nodded reluctantly, placing herself slightly in front of Applejack to stop a potential scuffle. “Rainbow’s right, Fluttershy. I know you want to find him more than any of us, but we can’t keep chasing every little hunch. We need all the time we can get.” She knew that Fluttershy didn’t want to walk away from possibly finding him, and truth be told she didn’t either, but it had been a few days, and with a pony as sadistic and manic as Adagio there was no telling what could have happened.

Fluttershy was fighting tears, and it broke their hearts to see her that way. Amidst her crying the day decided to catch up with her, and she dropped to the ground and whimpered, still glancing down the road. “Please…” she pleaded, losing the fight against weeping.

Rarity went to help her up, then glanced down towards the crowd gathering outside the theater hall. “Why don’t you all go and take your break? I’ll go with her. I absolutely love the arts, anyway.” She tried to keep the accusation out of her voice and for the most part succeeded, and Fluttershy gave her such an appreciative smile it made her forget some of her own tiredness. “Come on, Fluttershy. Lying on the ground isn’t something a pegasus should ever do, never mind a mare.”

The others were shamed into silence, watching the pair make their way to the growing crowd. Pinkie scratched at the ground with her hoof, uncharacteristically quiet. “We’re the silly fillies now, huh?” she finally said, dropping everyone further into guilt. She seemed to realize this and kept quiet again, instead joining the others in silently deliberating on whether or not to follow them. The decision was made when the Crusaders found new reserves of energy and began after them, living embodiments of the fickle minds of young ponies. With no reason not to, they all raced off to catch up to them, merging into the massive crowd around the entrance.

Adagio peeked from behind his curtain, ecstatic at the turn out of his greatest production. His cast milled about behind him as the final touches were added, and he shivered in his costume. For once, he was going to be center stage, and the mere thought sent him into another little spasm of glee. He was beaming as he turned to his “antagonists”, both bound on the floor behind him. “Oh, put on a smile, you two. After all, this is your return to the stage in a little over two years.” He giggled and pranced in place, ignoring the scathing glares from them both.

“Four minutes until curtain,” the floor director called, sending the two into quakes of fear. Adagio took great pleasure in this, a bit reluctant to leave them to prepare for his debut. Still, the job of an actor requires a great deal of self-sacrifice, so he took a mental snapshot of their terror and went off stage left. They, on the other hand, were dragged deep backstage for the final act, and sat in darkness as the narration began.

Octavia looked at her brother and cringed internally, almost moved to tears again. The damage done to his mouth was severe, and if he didn’t get help soon, probably permanent. His remaining teeth were wildly out of place, and his lips were so swollen it was a wonder he could bear to mumble back to her. Adagio had been thorough in his abuse, and it chilled her to wonder what he had in store for them. “Allegretto, how do you feel?” she asked, trying to calm them both down, or at the very least take their minds off of the play.

“No’ vurry gud,” he mumbled, trying his best to smile at her without reopening his wounds. “Ish shucks being de ba’ guy.” While Octavia feared for them both, he only worried for her safety, already prepared for whatever his brother had planned for him. It didn’t keep him from being terrified, but it did give him the conviction to not show it as much. “How do yu feel?” he asked in return.

Octavia didn’t answer, instead listening to the applause as the curtain opened and the play proper commenced. When she heard Adagio, she closed her eyes and leaned back against the wall. “I don’t know how to feel. I guess I’m scared.” She opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling, then managed to smile when she felt Allegretto’s weight against her flank. “You’re scared too, huh?” She put an hoof around him, and together they listened to the play roll on, waiting for their grand finale.

“I can’t see anything from here!” Spike moaned as the play began, flitting from position to position along the balcony to gain a better vantage point. Finally, he gave up his endeavor and sat back in his seat, pouting as the play continued out of his sight. “Why’d we have to get such high seats, anyway?” he grumbled loudly.

Twilight shushed him and glanced at the stage, feeling an odd sense of recognition at the lead role as he hammed his lines so badly it could’ve passed for parody. He was too loud at some points and too quiet at others, and most times he was obviously ad-libbing. “How could anypony let him on the stage?” she murmured as the crowd whispered uncomfortably amongst itself. The premise of the play itself was fine: an ancient court was trying to decide the fate of two villains, with the lead convincing everyone that they were worthy of maximum punishment. But with this lead, the entire play fell apart as even the other actors tried not to cringe when he spoke.

Rarity made a disgusted noise and let her forehooves hang over the railing, blowing her mane out of her face. “And to think we paid for these seats!” she muttered, trying her best to not get up and leave in a huff. “I have half a mind to go demand for our money back…” She looked down towards the exit and saw that several others were thinking to same, the rows slowly but surely emptying out. The lead continued on as if he didn’t notice, caught up in his own acting, and more and more the rows began to file out. “I have a feeling this play is going to drag on and on,” she whined, settling back in for a long few hours.

Octavia awoke with a start, her vision completely pitch black as she heard a voice calling out. She tried to get up and get some sense of direction, but when she realized she was bound and heard the faintly familiar noise of Allegretto snoring it all snapped back to her and she settled back against the wall. Adagio prattled on and on about how evil they were, and she had to laugh at how badly he acted, then stifled herself when Allegretto began to stir. She put a hoof on his head and stroked his mane, trying to lull him back asleep as the floor director kicked her flank. “Hope you’re ready for show time,” he said menacingly, motioning towards one of his crew to begin opening the curtains. He stepped back into shadows and the light blinded them, finally revealed to the remaining crowd and the final act of the play.

Allegretto stirred and opened his eyes groggily, glancing at the crowd assembled before them before turning to look at Octavia. “Ish thish de final ac’?” he slurred as two great colts in stage-armor pulled them center stage. They paid no mind to their injuries, and when they threw him on the ground the jolt mashed his teeth, eliciting a cry of pain that seemed to capture the audience. He tried to push himself up as blood began trickling out his mouth, but failed and let Octavia take him against her. “Ish hursh sho bad…” he whimpered, the edges of his vision darkening. He could vaguely hear Adagio screaming, something about their evil ways and how justice would always find a way, before he slipped into unconsciousness again.

“Oh dear Celestia!” Twilight cried as she recognized Allegretto past his horrid injuries, the entire crowd ablaze with interest for these convincingly done-up prisoners. They all leaned against the railing as far as gravity would permit, watching as Adagio called for their immediate execution. Her mind reeled, unable to process what was happening as the guards called for an executioner, the entire cast almost radiating glee. The hooded pony drug an ax behind him, heavy and rusted and flecked with Celestia knew what, and as he raised it above their heads the audience gasped and began to mutter in sympathy for the poor ragged villains. She scanned the crowd, and when she looked back to the stage Adagio was literally bristling with rage. She felt a tug on her tail, and had to tear her gaze away as Adagio stormed towards the front of the stage.

“How can you show sympathy for these bloody monsters?!” he screamed at the assembly, shocking them into silence. Even his own cast was stunned, and the executioner lowered his ax as his boss carried on in what could only be described as a tantrum. “You should despise them, and hate them! They are embodiments of pure sin, with no purpose other than to waste time! Why do they always get all the attention?!” He fumed and turned to order their immediate beheading when he came face to face with a very smug and angry looking Applejack. “What-” he began, before stars shot across his vision as he rocked back on his hooves. He stared at her incredulously as his cheek swelled, his rage redirected at the new show-stealers. “You’re not telling me fate is smiling on them again?!” he exclaimed, feeling his fury bubble over tenfold. He glared at Applejack with this unbridled chaos, his cheek still aflame with pain, and began to advance. “You little-” He was cut off again by another blow, this one so fast and unexpected he staggered to the left. When the starbursts faded and he looked up, Rainbow Dash had taken a position next to Applejack, both of them grinning at him menacingly as their friends tended to his captives. His entire cast was still frozen in shock, watching their leader with open wonder. “You idiots! Do I have to tell you to stop them?!” he roared, his rage ripping and snarling inside him.

Slowly, they shook themselves out of their paralysis at began to advance on the group, the executioner still dragging the ax behind him as the crowd watched on, still believing that the play continued on as the new heroines were surrounded. The cast was suddenly surrounded by a purple glow, being lifted up into the air by a straining and huffing Twilight. When they reached the scaffold, the curtain ropes were covered in a blue glow and began to snake their way around the cast, hanging them in a great mass as the curtains swung shut, leaving Adagio to meet his just fate out of the spotlight again.

Author's Note: Phew, I apologize for the wait! But I have a few more stories in the making, so hopefully I can make up for it in the near future. And I guess it goes without saying that the next chapter will probably be the last, so I'll be sure to end it as well as possible. Enjoy!

Chapter 7

“Oh, so is this the part where I beg for mercy?” Adagio snarled, backed against the wall underneath his dangling cast. “Is this where the ‘villain’ gets his comeuppance, his swift karmic due?” He braced himself as Applejack and Rainbow Dash headed the advancing group, both itching to put him in a worse state than his brother. He felt this, and began to shiver in fear, yet his eyes were still aflame with rage. “It’s time I have center stage! It was my night to shine, and you all ruined it! Why am I the bad pony for this?!”

Applejack feigned a charge, smiling when he flinched away. She nodded back to Octavia and Allegretto, being tended to by Fluttershy and Pinkie, and her smile began to droop. “Ah ain’t never seen a good pony do somethin’ like that to ‘is own kin. Ah ain’t never seen nopony do anything like this, matter of fact.” Her gaze held a rage that rivaled his own, though she was much better suited to express it than him, and she advanced a few steps alone. “And ya ain’t gonna be doin’ it again!” she declared, bristling as he tried to not flinch.

Rainbow Dash stepped up beside Applejack, taking careful note of her still bandaged wing. “Leave some for me, AJ. I have a wing to pick with him, too.” Together they began to close the distance, taking their own time to make him suffer the anticipation. “Now, begging for mercy? Up to you. I would, though.”

Adagio again tried to not flinch, failing spectacularly, and his own false bravado began to crack. He was about to scream for help, despite how much the idea sickened him, when a small noise drew his gaze up to his bound group. Most everypony else was too focused on him to notice, but what he saw returned some of his courage, enough to allow him to sit back and beckon them. “Well, if we’re going to do this, best do it quick.” He flashed a warped smile that caught them off guard, then laughed at them as they paused. “It’s never good to have second thoughts, dears. So come on, what are you waiting for?”

“Colt’s got a mouth bigger than he should,” Applejack grumbled, quickening her pace without Rainbow in an attempt to still that infuriating mouth. She was so set in shutting him up she didn’t hear a rope snap, and if Rainbow hadn’t grabbed her and pulled her to a stop the executioner ax would have embedded itself clean in her skull. As it was, though, it only nicked her hat and a few strands of mane, yet the shock of it dropped her to the ground as her heart hammered, staring at the nearly upright ax.

Adagio cursed his bad luck, being forced to do the deed himself, and gripped the ax shaft with a dead glare directed at Rainbow. “I should’ve had the High Notes kill you when we had the chance!” he hissed, wrenching the weapon from the ground. Adagio wasn’t the most muscular pony, though, and he could only keep it aloft for another second before it crashed back to the ground. Huffing, he tried to swing the weighty thing, and only managed to scrap it a few inches before his fore hooves gave out and it clanged uselessly to the floor. “There’s a reason I keep those large imbeciles around,” he muttered, ignorant to the recovered and now advancing Rainbow and Applejack. When he finally noticed them, they were upon him, and so great was his ire he barely batted an eyelash. “This is supposed to be my finale, right? The swan song of the antagonist?”

Rainbow raised a hoof and grinned at him, her one good wing outstretched in excitement. “Probably,” she answered, waiting for some last act of cowardice before they exacted their revenge. Oddly, it saddened her when he didn’t back down, and her sorrow turned to fear when his eyes filled with hatred. “You’re not in a good spot to be so full of yourself,” she accused with little conviction, lowering her hoof warily, seeing Applejack do the same from the corner of her eye.

Adagio huffed, still staring them both down with enough black hatred to make the whole congregation feel uncomfortable. Even the audience outside, still waiting for some ending, squirmed and shifted as the mood went even further south than it had been. “I’ve never been in a good spot, you idiot. I’m just good at making the most out of it.” Before they could begin to comprehend what happened, Adagio ripped an inkwell from his costume pocket and splashed it across their faces. He took the opportunity and grabbed Applejack’s mane, holding her hostage as he backed away towards the exit. “It must be painful knowing you’ve come so close to winning and then having it taken from you,” he boasted as they all watched on, helpless. “Such is the wheel of fate. Having crushed me for so long, I am finally at the top of the arc! It’s all coming together! I’m finally going to win!” He snickered, trying to contain gales of laughter, finally not caring and letting loose a howl of mirth that chilled them all, including the audience. “Now, after I get out of here, if I get followed, I swear you’ll never see those musical misfits again. But as it is, I may let you have them back when I’m done.” He was blatantly lying, and they could all tell, but they were at an impasse, not wanting to risk either Applejack or Allegretto and Octavia. Stuck in a moral turmoil, he got close enough to the stage exit that he was nearly home free, another evil grin plastered to his face. “Now, send my poor family over here.” He waited for a moment, then yanked back on Applejack’s mane and fixed his gaze on Fluttershy and Pinkie. “Now, you stupid fillies!”

The two stared him down valiantly, and he didn’t notice until just then that he could only count nine ponies before him, his confidence suddenly gone and his grip slackened on Applejack. He stared at the empty space where they were, until scraping to his right moved his empty stare to watch them both hefting the ax. “Duck, filly!” Octavia screamed, and Adagio only watched incredulously as Applejack ripped free from his grasp and the blunt end of the ax zoomed towards him.

But, I had this all planned out, he thought, and black spots exploded across his vision as he spun and skidded across backstage into the wall, blood trickling down the side of his head. He lay unmoving, and they assumed the worst, but never made a move to go check on him. The ax clanked to the ground for the last time, and brother and sister stood shaking and gasping, their wounds reopening from the exertion. Their rescue team was on the verge of cheering, but this jubilation turned to fright as both ponies dropped to the ground, unconscious.

“Come on, Allegretto, you can do this,” Fluttershy urged, gently pushing her colt towards the stage. He stood stock still as a rock, Octavia already in the middle of playing a piece, and gave her an impatient glance as the crowd began to complain. “Please, Allegretto, you’ll do fine,” she urged again, putting a tiny bit more force behind her nudges.

Shaking and sweating in his new suit, his legs refused to respond as the crowd became more vocal, nearly demanding his appearance. “I… I don’t… I don’t think…” he stuttered, turning back to the crowd gathered behind him. “I… I’m not ready,” he finally got out, sweating even more than he was, his flute sitting alone by his music stand. “I… can’t play right now.”

Rarity huffed and trotted over to him, careful of the hem of her dress, and stared him dead in the eye. “Don’t say I made that suit for nothing, Allegretto! I spent a lot of time on these ensembles, and the Gala only comes once a year! Now, you have a lot of ponies out there waiting for you, and we all went through great pains to make sure it would be as perfect as could be. You have no excuse to not play tonight!”

Applejack chuckled as he was scolded, herding the three Crusaders behind her with their little instruments. “’Sides, ya promised the fillies you’d let ’em play with ya! And ya don’t wanna be lyin’ to them, colt.” She gave him a look of playful sternness, doing her best to keep the three from bolting out onto stage at that moment and disrupting Octavia’s stalling.

Allegretto gulped, his mouth still stiff from all the medical procedures he had to go through, and the final encounter with Adagio played in his head, his stomach churning from the memory and a new case of stage fright. He turned to Fluttershy, done up in her Gala-attire, and some of his anxiety went away. The gears in his head turned, and he actually smiled. “I’ll go, but on one condition.”

“Anything!” Fluttershy promised, all smiles and happy thoughts. Her smile quickly disappeared when he pushed her out on stage with him, and the sudden flood of lights and eyes made her stiffen. “Allegretto…”she whined, trying to press herself into him as the entire Gala gazed at them expectantly. Even with him to draw some strength from, she was wildly out of her element, and tried to get some sort of explanation out of him.

He watched the audience for a minute, still thinking about something, then looked into her eyes and smiled wholeheartedly. “Well, from what Twilight and I read, you’re suppose to do this sort of thing in front of a lot of ponies.” Before she could ask, he motioned for his sister to stop playing, and a hush fell over the crowd. He took a deep breath, and the spotlight fell on them, adding to his stress even more. “Fluttershy… We’ve been… spending time together, for about a year now… And I really do think I… like…” He stopped, an odd look coming over his face, then caught her expectant and innocent gaze and broke into another smile. “Well, no, not like. I don’t like you.” The audience gasped and their friends stood with their mouths open, Fluttershy’s eyes beginning to well up with tears. Before she had a chance to cry, though, he stopped her sniffles with a long and passionate kiss, the entire room thrown into a state of confusion. When he pulled back, he noticed her misty eyes and chuckled. “I don’t like you, Fluttershy. I love you. And I want to, possibly, spend the rest of my life with you. Fluttershy, please be my mare, and together we‘ll make beautiful music.”

She was at a loss for words, so great was her elation, and she could only nod slowly as the audience erupted into cheers and sounds of endearment, her friends cheering loudest of all, and she was rooted to the spot until Pinkie and Twilight came and dragged her backstage. Allegretto took his place next to his sister, finally enjoying the stage, and caught her laughing and shaking her head at him. “You’re a real piece of work, brother. Sappy as can be, through and through.” She winked at him, and together they played the night away, the good mood permeating every pony in attendance.

Adagio woke up to the sound of his door being opened, ponies he didn’t recognize filing in behind his nurse. He made to rise, but his head swam and the weight of his bandages kept him glued to the pillow, forced to lie watch them sideways. “My head hurts…“ he complained, voice groggy but innocent, and he actually managed to smile earnestly as two of them, a crimson colt and a gray filly, sidled up next to his bed. “Who are you?”

The colt smiled wistfully, watching Adagio with a bit of regret, then turned to the filly and chuckled. He turned back, and his wistfulness was replaced by warm familiarity. “Hello, Adagio. My name is Allegretto.” He nodded to the filly. “And that’s Octavia. It seems like you had quite a nasty accident.” He smile faltered at the end, a pained look shooting across their faces, and just like that it was gone.

Adagio moaned and nodded, watching his nurse check his vitals and wishing he could go back to sleep. “I don’t remember what happened. I really don’t remember much of anything except my name.” He shut one eye against the light and rolled his head back towards them, the same earnest smile on his face. “How do you know me?”

Octavia inhaled sharply, trying to not cry as a mix of emotion ran through her. “Well, Adagio, we’re your brother and sister. We came as soon as we found out. We’re all pretty close.” She cringed as she said it, the lie they had fabricated almost literally hurting her, but when she saw that smile on him, it made it slightly easier. “Mom and Dad aren’t around, but we’ve always had each other. We always will, Adagio.”

Adagio closed his eyes for a bit longer than a blink, and when he opened them again they could see a faint shimmer of friendliness behind the exhaustion. “Well, that’s good. I’m really lucky to have ponies like you, aren’t I?” he asked, oblivious to the awkwardness he had created.

Allegretto swallowed the lump in his throat and nodded, his smile faltering. “If you say so, Adagio. We really should catch up as soon as you start feeling better, okay?” He waited for a response, but he had already fallen back asleep, and the nurse motioned for them to leave and to let him rest. On the way down the hall to the exit, he sighed and nuzzled gently against Fluttershy, trying to comprehend the situation they were in. “It’s so ironic, isn’t it, Octavia? All the time he hid something bad he was doing from us, and now…”

Octavia looked back at him, holding the door open for them all to file through. The afternoon sun glanced off the glass door, bathing the reception room in a warm orange glow that was the polar opposite of how she felt. “Is this really the right thing to do?” she asked.

He walked past her, a sunset directly across from them, painting the sky pink, and he stared into it as he mulled over an answer, Fluttershy right next to him. He unconsciously put his hoof slightly on hers, and when she pressed her head into the crook of his neck he began to fill with hope, matching the light that bathed them all. “I don’t know, Octavia, but we have to take responsibility for this. We have to take care of him. We can’t run from the past again.” He smiled and let the warmth of the sun bathe over him, feeling the heat in every part of his body. “We just have to try our best. Hopefully, everything turns out for the best.”

For Allegretto, watching that sunset, with the brother he always wanted behind him, his friends all around him, and somepony he really cared for beside him, he felt a surge of joy and elation, even through everything: all the bad in the past, all the pain and trials, and to him…

Well, he couldn't wish for a more perfect moment.

Author's Note: Endings are really REALLY difficult, doubly so at 6 in the morning. I hope this is good enough, but if anyone has any suggestions, I'm open to them. I'm actually a little sad to see this go, really, and who knows? I may sneak our little lyrical pony into another work. But for now, this tale is told. Enjoy!

Chapter 5

The day seemed to be slow to start because of the clouds hiding the sun. This was a major concern for all of Ponyville, because Rainbow Dash wasn’t scheduled to let it rain until the end of the week, and try as she might these clouds simply wouldn’t stay away; the rolling thunder prompted all the ponies to take shelter for the rest of the day. Work would be almost non-existent and some ponies would be bored out of their minds, but they would all manage to make due.

Twilight, predicting the severity of the storm well ahead of its arrival, worked together with Pinkie to gather all her friends in her library to wait it out safely and comfortably. It took a bit of convincing and a lot more pushing to get Applejack to leave her crops, and she was currently sulking in front of a window, watching as the rain began to pour and her crops waited to be picked. “Ah can’t believe ya couldn’t clear this up, Rainbow Dash!” she said crossly, interrupting their game of Monopony. “Y’all are just sittin’ there, playin’ yer little game, while mah crops are gettin’ drowned!”

Twilight clicked her tongue and tried to decide on buying Conneticolt Avenue, only sparing a small portion of her attention to Applejack’s griping. “Really, AJ, she tried, and there was nothing she could do. We all watched her try it most of the morning. Heck, most of Ponyville did!” She levitated the money she needed to buy the property, then lowered it down again as everypony else moaned. “What? I want to make sure it’s a reasonable investment!” she argued, performing multiple calculations as to her return and how often to upgrade her property if she were to buy it.

Rainbow Dash groaned and flipped upside down, cranky about being stuck inside and her inability to clear the skies. “It’s ponies like you that make this game take fooooreverrrrrr,” she whined, flipping onto her back and leaning halfway off the couch they pulled in from Allegretto’s home. “It’s not like it’s real money, Twilight! Just buy it or don’t!”

Twilight stared at the space for a moment longer, then finally ponied up and sent the money floating over towards Pinkie Pie, who had somehow, certainly without anyone knowing, become the banker, with Gummy sitting on her head to, as she put it, ‘help her count right‘. She took the money, a 200 bit note, and looked down at her haphazard pile of bills. “Let’s see… We don’t have any eighty bit notes…” She tilted her heard a bit and glanced up at Gummy, then smiled and nodded. “Of course! How silly of me!”

Twilight reached out her hoof to take her change, and wore quite the surprised expression when she felt the soft paper of the bottom of a cupcake. She turned it side to side, then glanced up at Pinkie with a confused and disapproving look. “Pinkie, this isn’t Monopony money. This is a cupcake.” She held the pastry as far as she could and wiggled it around a bit for emphasis. “A cupcake.”

Pinkie nodded vigorously, Gummy flopping back and forth, but defying gravity so deftly he barely slid an inch from her head. “Yup! We don’t have any eighty bit bills, so I decided to make cupcakes worth eighty bits! So you get a cupcake!”

Twilight looked to her friends for help, but they all just shrugged, not surprised in the slightest. “What did you expect when you made Pinkie the banker?” Spike asked, his bills fanned out in front of him like a poker hand. He grabbed the dice and threw them with a flick of his wrist, spinning them to land on double threes. “Oh, darn…” he cursed under his breath, reaching for the dice again.

Twilight gaped at them all. “But she’s the only one who has access to any cupcakes!” she argued, still holding the cupcake as she pointed at Pinkie. She looked around again to try and catch some look of agreement, but the others were losing interest quickly and were wandering away from the board.

Pinkie hopped up and laughed, bouncing around the room. “That means I win! I have a monopoly on the cupcakes!” she cheered, grabbing Gummy and dancing in a circle. The others were so relived to be able to leave the game they actually congratulated her, finally free to spend the stormy afternoon as they wanted. The storm raged on angrily, though, and each crack of thunder made them more and more worried.

Fluttershy gulped loudly and buried her head into Allegretto’s mane, trying to not shake and failing spectacularly. While he tried his best project a sense of calm for her sake, storms frightened him, and he began to breathe heavily when the rain became peppered with hail. “Hey, Dash, you deal with weather a lot. What are you predicting this storm will do?” he asked nervously, and was infinitely appreciative when Fluttershy put a wing over him and held him tight.

Rainbow Dash opened one eye and looked at them, huddled together near the doorway like that, and crossed her hooves in thought while all the blood rushed to her head and flushed her cheeks. “The thing is, I’ve cleared clouds way worse than this before. And when I tried, I couldn’t even touch them! It was like I was an earth pony!” She grunted and hid her face in her hooves, completely nonchalant as the lightning struck closer than normal and the thunder rumbled through them all. “I mean, it’s my job to clear the skies! How could I ever hope to be a Wonderbolt if I can’t even do simple pegasus chores anymore?!” She grabbed a cushion off the couch and screamed into it, kicking at the back of her seat as she did.

Scootaloo sat with her friends and watched her idol’s dreams crash before her eyes, feeling lower than she ever had before. While the older ponies knew that this wouldn’t affect Rainbow’s chances of being a Wonderbolt in the slightest, some young pegasus weren’t so logical, and it broke her heart to watch Rainbow Dash act so upset. She walked to the couch and began to stroke Rainbow’s mane, watching out the window as the wind whipped up and the upper branches began to creak and moan. It scared her terribly, and she yelped and hugged Rainbow as tight as she could as everyone else found someone to hang on to.

Rainbow glanced around the room and saw everyone huddled together, felt Scootaloo wrapped around her, felt the tree they were in begin to sway, and felt rage bubbling up inside her. Who did this storm think it was, trapping her friends and scaring them like that? How dare it not listen to her?! Didn’t it know who she was?! She was Rainbow Dash, the best flier in Equestria, and some little hurricane wannabe wasn’t going to stop her! She wrenched herself from Scootaloo’s grasp and flipped back off the couch, and before anyone could stop her she threw the door open and marched out into the howling winds, screaming something about ‘showing that storm who was boss’.

The others made no move to stop her, frozen in surprise and still clinging onto one another. Finally, a bolt of lightning struck very close nearby, and the booming thunder shook them into action, everyone shouting and running around to gather supplies to go out. In the midst of all the commotion, no one noticed when another pegasus went missing, sneaking out of an upper window. She barely had enough wing strength to not get blown around while gliding to the ground, and was constantly thrown side to side as she tried to run after her idol.

The ruckus continued in the tree until a loud, ear-shattering whistle made them all stop to cover their ears and look to the source of the noise. Applejack was standing next to Allegretto, and was giving him a appreciative wink. “Sweet apple cider, colt! Didn’ think there was a single pony out there that could out-whistle me!” He bowed, and she turned back to her now captive audience. “Listen! Ain’t nopony doin’ any good runnin’ around in here like a buncha wild stallions! We gotta get organized or Rainbow Dash ain’t gonna be the only one lost out there! Now, we better split up into two groups, one with me an’ one with Allegretto. We got the best whistles and loudest voices, so we can keep everypony together in our group. All right, I’ll take Twilight and Pinkie, Allegretto, you take Rarity and Fluttershy.”

Spike dropped the rain gear he had gathered in a pile in front of them, then spun to look at Applejack with a bit of hurt and outrage. “Hey, what about me?! I wanna help look for Rainbow Dash!” he protested, grabbing a poncho and flipping it over his head. “C’mon, I can help! Just give me a chance!”

Allegretto kept Applejack from responding and nodded, walking over towards the tiny dragon as the others listened to Applejack divvy up the town. He kneeled down and flicked the hood off of him carefully, a little pained that Spike wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Spike, I know how badly you want to help, but we really need someone to hang back and watch the Crusaders. We don’t need them running off like Rainbow Dash did. It’d be a big help, believe it or not.”

The little dragon glared at him and growled, angry beyond belief. “I can help by looking!” he argued still, throwing his arms up as he turned away, watching Applejack, Twilight, and Pinkie run outside towards Whitetail Wood as Rarity began to put her umbrella saddle on. Fluttershy slid up next to her colt and leaned her head on his neck, looking down at the little dragon as he fumed. “I’m so tired of everyone treating me like a little hatchling! I’m a dragon! A dragon! I can handle some rain and thunder!”

“But the fillies can’t, Spike. We need someone to stay back and watch them.” Allegretto moved his hoof slightly to rest on Fluttershy’s, drawing courage from it. The lightning crashed and he cringed, but fought to not show it as he tried to convince his little purple acquaintance to his idea. “We don’t have much time to argue this, Spike. Would you please just do this for me?”

Rarity rushed over and pushed both the ponies out towards the door. “What are we waiting for?! We don’t have time to argue! Spike, I’m trusting you to look after the girls, no arguments about it! We have no time to waste!” She shoved them into the howling winds without giving Spike a chance to argue again, digging her hooves into the ground to fight the drag her umbrella caused. “Oh, when we find that Rainbow Dash I’ll make her pay for what this rain is doing to my mane…” she grumbled, sloshing with her teammates through the mud towards the Apple Orchard.

“Priorities, Rarity!” Allegretto called, squinting against the stinging rain and biting winds as he raised his gaze to the sky. How any pony could ever conceive of going out in this, let alone someone preparing to go straight to the heart of it, was beyond him. And to fly, even! It was a chore in itself to walk, hooves sinking into the mud that covered most of the ground, and he couldn’t imagine how it would feel to be at the mercy of the winds. They were having trouble themselves, with Rarity’s umbrella and Fluttershy’s wings catching more wind than he was, and frequently he had to bite a tail or mane to keep them nearby.

Fluttershy tried to say something to him, but her words were caught by the wind and thrown to Celestia knew where. She tried again, but the timid little thing couldn’t manage to get a word out past the airy barrier. Finally she gave up on talking and pointed ahead, towards the loft of the looming Apple barn, and the huddled shapes that moved within there. The wind died a bit, but when she tried to talk for a third time the sky lit up and thunder boomed so loud their ears began to ring.

Rarity shook her head and ran over to her companions, trying to rush them over to the barn as quickly as she could. “Hurry! I think that may be Rainbow up there!” she cried, taking off towards the barn while Allegretto and Fluttershy tried to understand what was happening around them. Shingles from the barn began to snap off and fly around them, clattering against the ground and bouncing away into the apple trees, which were stripped bare save a few tenacious leaves. They tried to follow Rarity towards the barn, but the mud and water made for treacherous going, and one was forced to balance the other multiple times as they trudged on. By the time they made it into the barn, they were covered in flecks of mud and stuck with twigs and leaves, both feeling quite miserable as they ascended into the loft.

Upon arriving to the second floor, they did indeed find Rarity hunched over something, her frame blocking it entirely. She was muttering things to herself rapidly and tearing bits of her umbrella off to use for this something. Allegretto took a step forward, the floor creaking under his weight, and Rarity spun around to reveal a disheveled and writhing Rainbow Dash, grunting and moaning with pain. Her left wing was flapping around futilely as her right twitched against the floor, mangled and broken with the starts of a splint around it. “What are you standing there for?!” Rarity screamed, turning back to Rainbow Dash to try and calm her down. “I need help! Somepony needs to go get the others, and one of you needs to stay and hold Rainbow down while I try to splint this.”

There was no deliberation, as Allegretto spun to get the others and Fluttershy dashed towards her friend, the storm raging on, oblivious to the going-ons in its borders. Allegretto burst out into the storm proper and ran as quick as he could towards Whitetail wood, ignoring the increase in hail and the wind that was now blowing it right into his face. He fought against it best he could, his coat absorbing enough of the impact to help him push through, but he had to slit his eyes to protect them, and it made for hard navigation when everything farther than a few feet ahead with a roiling gray mess. Still, he had a friend to help, and he wasn’t about to let her down, so he pressed his tongue against his teeth and blew, producing a shrill whistle that barely made it above the cacophony of the storm. He trudged onward towards where his other friends were supposed to be, blowing whistle after whistle as the storm actually intensified, the gale actually making him slide back in the slurry. Something about it caused a bit of a tickle in the back of his head, but he ignored it and whistled again, this time getting some noise in return. Very faintly he could hear Applejack shouting back at him, and his next whistle brought them to him, three dark shapes emerging from the icy curtain.

Applejack had a little lump on her back, and with mounting horror he recognized the purple mane and weakly flapping wings of Scootaloo, his breathing coming faster and faster as they listened to boom after boom of thunder. He grit his teeth and began to shout. “We found Rainbow Dash! She’s in the loft of the barn! We should take shelter there!”

They hurried back as quick as they could, mindful of their possibly hurt little charge, and the storm just seemed to get stronger and stronger as the hail increased in size and frequency. Pinkie, who was usually bouncing and full of vibrancy, could only skip a bit as her mane deflected a vast majority of the hail. Still, it was getting colder, never a good sign for storms, and even she took a shot at complaining. “Grumpy old storm! It’s not winter yet, and this ice isn’t nice!” She slipped and fell headfirst into the mud, coming back up a veritable Pinkie Mud-Pie. “And this mud is a dud!”

They glanced at her friend, unsure if she was trying to be comical or if laughter was just that far ingrained into her mind, but knowing Pinkie the latter seemed much more likely. Nobody had much time to follow that train of thought before lightning crashed in behind them, the pressure and heat tossing them up and onto the Apple property. Applejack and Scootaloo had the worst luck of the bunch, as the lightning hit so close to them that they were thrown against the side of the barn so hard they left indentations in the wood, and the little orange pegasus let loose a wail that chilled them more than the weather could.

Shaking the stars from her vision, Applejack stumbled over to Scootaloo and tried to figure out why she had screamed like that, but she was befuddled from her possible concussion and the dull roar in her ears made thinking that much harder. She was still trying to figure it out as the others dusted themselves off and made their way over, each with varying degrees of pain showing. It took Twilight only a fraction of the time Applejack had been looking to see what had caused the little pegasus so much pain, and it made her stomach turn.

For the second time in a day, Allegretto was face to face with broken pegasus wings, and it did nothing to lessen his shock or sympathy. But while Rainbow seemed to have much more control over how much she let the pain show, the little pegasus hadn’t nearly the willpower, and she was busy crying as Applejack scooped her back onto her and limped into the barn, Pinkie close behind.

“Allegretto, wait for a minute,” Twilight called, and he stopped with one hoof in the barn as she motioned him back to where the lightning struck. The small patch of dirt was easy to find, even as it was turning back to mud, and Twilight stared up at the sky as Allegretto watched her, waiting for whatever it was she was about to do. “Don’t you think it was a little odd that lightning happened to strike us as we were all getting together?” she finally asked, ignoring the downpour for the time being.

Allegretto clicked his tongue once and turned his head slightly as he thought. “Weather can just be unpredictable, Twilight. What, do you think it’s something else?” Still, she had stirred the paranoia in him, and even now he recalled how the storm seemed to be keeping Fluttershy from pointing out where she thought Rainbow Dash was, and now he thought that maybe Applejack’s group may have coincidences like that themselves. “Could it be something else?” he said with a bit of incredulousness.

Twilight answered right as thunder boomed again, then nodded towards the sky as if this proved her point. All at once the clouds began to swirl and precipitation let up around them, building up for a true tempest. The sudden quiet gave way to an all-too familiar laugh, and Allegretto instinctively braced himself as his brother emerged from the rising mist, wearing another smug look that incited the worst in those around him. He was flanked on either side by dressed-to-kill pegasus, and they stopped on the other side of where the lightning struck, staring at them with an oppressive air of condescension. “Well, it’s a shame our ruse was found out so quickly. We were hoping to knock a few of your other friends down a notch, but three isn’t bad, now is it?”

Allegretto snorted and glanced at Twilight, who stood her ground next to him. While he respected her for it, right now he didn’t need somepony else getting hurt on his behalf, and he didn’t think his conscious could take that kind of abuse. “Twilight, please head back to the barn,” he said flatly, and the glare he gave her stopped any argument she may have had. She shot a look at Adagio before galloping off, leaving the brothers to their twisted rivalry. “You said I had a year.” He was on the verge of screaming, it took everything in him to resist the urge to charge.

Adagio inspected a hoof, grimacing at the mud that coated it, then glanced at his brother with that same grimace. “Years, months, seasons. I’ve never been very good at keeping track of things, much less time.” He nodded to the pegasus on his right, who reached into a saddlebag and produced a small present, which he tossed over to Allegretto’s feet. “I did, however, remember a birthday. I wanted to get your opinion on the gift I got for them. Father used to say you had good taste.”

Allegretto eyed them carefully as he bent to open the gift, and when they made no move towards him he focused his full attention on it. The second he did, the ribbon caught his eye, and his heart began to beat quicker as he recognized it as a bow-tie. Trying to not let his terror show, he shifted the lid to the side, and his vision became blurry as he began to cry. “You didn’t…” he whispered, unable to tear his eyes from the contents of the box.

“Not yet, brother, not yet,” Adagio sighed, cantering over to him and looking into the box over his shoulders. “She is such a beautiful little thing, isn’t she?” He lowered his mouth next to Allegretto’s ear, aware of how uncomfortable it made him, and exhaled with faux grief. “Oh, but you know how to make sure we don’t, don’t you? Just come with us, brother. Right now, just follow us, never look back, and she’ll stay safe. They all will.”

Allegretto swallowed the lump in his throat, and tried his best to not sob openly in front of a pony that would and will laugh at his sorrow. He carefully moved the lid back onto the box and made to pick it up, when a quick blow on the cheek kept him at bay. His face stinging and his spirit crushed, he slowly walked towards his escort as his brother grinned so wide his face seemed about ready to split. He kicked the gift to the side and pranced after them, humming to himself and dreaming of the return of his absurd profits.

Twilight had gotten back to the barn as quickly as she could and told her friends of the arrival of Adagio, and as soon as Rainbow, Scootaloo, and Applejack were bandaged as best as they could do they hurried back down to the lightning strike. It still wasn’t quick enough, and Allegretto was long gone before they arrived. The sun finally chose now to begin shining, trying its best to squeeze in a sunset as they tried to find some sign of where their friend may have went. It wasn’t long before Pinkie managed to come across a small present, crumbled and muddy, on the side of the path. Being the type of pony she is, she instantly yanked the top off and let it drop before staring at what lay inside. “I don’t get it?” she said, showing the contents to the others.

A broken cello bow.