Right after the Storm King’s defeat, life was busy in Canterlot, rebuilding from and erasing any trace of the ‘recent unpleasantness’, as many of the look-down-your-nose contingent called it. Tristan and the Wonders stayed in Canterlot for a month, doing free concerts four nights a week at regional parks around the city. We said that this would be our assistance to the rebuilding effort, because we took no pay from anyone, and only a nominal entry fee, which was turned over to the management of whatever park we performed in, to defray maintenance costs. The parks were packed for every performance.
On our off days, we all could be found at Topspin Productions, doing music that I did not have on the phone play lists, but were pulled out of my head and Low Note had written down. Seeing as we stayed in Canterlot for a month, we built up a sizable backlog of masters for later printing up. Topspin was quite pleased at the results, as were we. Once home from Canterlot, we had no intention of leaving Ponyville for a while. A long while, if I had any say in the matter. I’m just the boss pony of the group, nopony ever tells me anything.
Back in Ponyville, I declared a three-week holiday for the whole group, telling everypony to go home for some rest and recreation, there would be adequate security for me, so long as I stayed around Ponyville and the Mane Six. Accurate Strike put up an argument, and I argued back. Vehemently. When he helped me up from the grass, he admitted I had a point. I admitted to a headache and a need to go soak in the hot tub, with Fluttershy’s bath salts, until my bruises faded, and the ache went away. Strike left me a detailed list of instructions, which I found when I dried off. He had the taken the first train to Canterlot.
By the next day, everypony had left for their vacations, except one. Silver Strings stayed with me, saying that I needed at least one body guard. Heck, she could guard my body as much as she wanted! I had a sneaky feeling in the back of my head that this was a setup by Princess Cadance, but if it was, I had no objections. We had fallen in love with each other, and it is a wondrous love to behold. Or so everypony in town told us, because we were seldom seen apart. The ladies noticed, and they were all pleased at the sight, and one, who I will not mention out loud (*coughRainbowDashcough*) who would not stop the good-natured teasing, not even when I threatened to use her as a skeet target. Not much of a threat when it was just me. When it was me and Silver Strings, it was a different story. We worked well together, Strings and me.
There was one chore Silver Strings nagged me to do while we were on holiday, and two weeks in, we went to Canterlot to have the matter attended to. That matter is having my head examined closely by specialist doctors, to check once and for all if the glioblastoma was still there or not. Two days of getting examined by one doctor after another led to one conclusion. They were not sure if it was there or not, my brain structure having some anomalies that confused the doctors. I always knew I was abnormal…
A side purpose of that trip to Canterlot was for Silver Strings to visit a magical research lab. All my talk about radio had given her some ideas she wanted to check out, but the only suitable lab in Ponyville belonged to Twilight Sparkle, and there was NO way Silver Strings was going to go in there unescorted, after warnings hoofed out by both Twilight and Spike.
What she came up with is essentially a two-way radio-like headset, with a talk switch being engaged by an ear twitch. Being a first attempt, it is a ‘party-line’ arrangement, what one says, all hear. It took practice to learn how to work the thing, but I have to say it’s better than what we had before, which is nothing. Strings has an idea for a multi-channel radio, but at her stage of understanding, only a unicorn or alicorn could use it, magic talent being needed to change the channel.
To test the range of the headset, we called upon a friend who could go a long way in a little time, Rainbow Dash. When we returned to Ponyville with a dozen of the headsets, we asked her to try one out, seeing how far she could go before losing signal. She made it from Ponyville to the Crystal Empire without losing signal strength, according to my ears. Declaring the invention ‘Awesome!’, she asked when she could get one. Silver Strings answered honestly that she would have to talk to Twilight Sparkle first, to use her lab to impress the crystals needed to make it work, and she could make one specific to the ladies, without crossing into our network.
Her main problem was getting Twilight’s attention long enough to get what she needed from the lab, so she could work. Twilight and her friends were all abuzz about starting a school to teach friendship. I supported the idea, but I was not sure if I could do more than spot-fill in teaching, what with the success of the music. We would be doing more tours, and I just was uncertain of how much time I would have to devote to the school. Besides, as Miss Cheerilee’s substitute, I was really pinched for time.
Good thing Twilight supported my radio idea and let Silver Strings get all she needed to set up her own magic lab in a room we had excavated off the basement. Silver’s skill in spellcrafting, coupled with my own knowledge that such things were possible, led to the design and building of multiple-circuit radios, or as I took to calling them, magirads. Problem being, it takes a unicorn to fully utilize the multi-channels, because it took a spell to shift ‘frequencies. We also worked on wall models, which, at our stage of development, would need an operator to put calls through, a unicorn operator. Designing the plug and hole board for phone connecting is a real bitch and a half, let me tell you! I just knew it was possible, not how to build one!
Our next tour as Tristan and the Wonders was a long one, taking thirty days to do eleven cities, not counting Ponyville. It is fun to tour, but damn, it’s exhausting! We had little trouble with changelings disrupting the affairs, but we knew there were changelings in the audience, taking in the ambience. No sign of Chrysalis or her ilk, though. This tour was deliberately planned to go in a direction AWAY from her rumored location.
We kept that up for a while, a month tour, followed by an extended time off phase. We needed the break after the grind of the tour. Our popularity soared with each tour, along with sales. That’s why we could take long breaks- we could afford it. It also allowed us to be real ponies when not on tour, integrating with Ponyville as more than just musicians and guard ponies.