(450 years post Celestia)
The instruments hovered on stage, soaring in intricate patterns that did nothing for the sound but served to show off Red Magician’s skill. And, as the violins somersaulted over the cellos and the piano wheeled itself around behind the timpani, the crowd roared its adulation.
Magic had been Red Magician’s talent ever since he’d been a little foal. Telekinesis in particular, using raw magical power to move and manipulate items in the world, had come as easily to him as breathing. By this point, as a young adult colt, he was said to have power unparalleled in the city, excepting only Luna herself. In terms of magical reserves, he would be able to wrestle with the guards themselves. And then there were his spells; why, by this point he probably knew more spells than half the Canterlot scholars; he only had to read them once and they imprinted upon his mind. And for this he was renowned -- feared, even. He was an integral part of Canterlot; his knowledge of magic had been called upon by the guards to help keep out unusual threats or to solve crimes; he had even been praised for his sheer ability and power by Luna Herself. But that was only right and proper.
Music had been Magician’s hobby, not his job, but when he’d learned about the infamous Symphony, he thought it was too good an opportunity to pass up. After all, there were still naysayers in the city, those who didn’t think that his vast magical prowess was really all that impressive. He’d had to talk with one of those recently, an idiotic noble deep in her cups. “Magic? What’s that ever done? Sure, y’can make – make illusions, or mess things up, but ya can’t build anythin’! *hic* All y’all unicorns can only watch when we earth ponies create stuff!”
It was nonsense, but it was such common nonsense that Magician felt obligated to stop it. What could he do, he wondered, to demonstrate that his superlative control of magic would make him the greatest at… well, anything he put his mind to? Well, why not use that magic to play the music that could not otherwise be played? Certainly, he wasn't really a musician, he'd never played in public, but he was a phenomenal magician, and that meant he could do just about anything. That was what magic was, after all. The power to remake and reshape the world however you wanted.
He had transcribed the piece for a large ensemble performance – the Symphony would be played by multiple instruments for the first time in quite a while – and then retreated into seclusion to study the work. He saw it as just a big telekinesis puzzle, a test of using his magic to carefully manipulate a dozen instruments. Yes, it was difficult, but only in the way that remembering an intricate series of directions was difficult. He just had to practice enough to get it perfect. The other musicians might have needed decades to learn one instrument, but his immeasurable telekinetic power would make that quite unnecessary. A few weeks of practice at using the instruments, a few days to memorize the work, and he'd be ready to play.
Luna would love it. The others had failed because, as good as they’d been, they’d had inadequate tools – solo performances of this piece were doomed; it was just too complicated to fit on one instrument. But Magician had the talent to use as many instruments as he wanted. It would be extraordinary.
The instruments settled into an arrangement, the strings above Magician, the brass and wind to his right, the piano rolling to a stop to his left. Magician raised his front hooves, casting a small spell to ripple through his hair and make it look like he’d just absorbed a blast of static electricity. “Red Magician thanks you for your attendance, and will now ASTOUND and AMAZE you! Behold his vast power which will allow him alone to play this piece correctly!”
“Behold!” cried his fancolts and fanfillies from the audience.
Luna looked… cautioning. She sat in her booth at the top of the hall, watching the scene with her inscrutable eyes. She said nothing.
But that was fine. Magician grinned, and his horn glowed – a bright, almost blinding, teal hue. Bows began to move, air began to blow through the brass and wind instruments, piano hammers began to strike. The piece was beginning.
Magician had called it a Symphony for Solo Colt in his advertisements. He felt it was appropriate.
The best part was the ending, the part he’d written himself. It described how Luna had overpowered her sister. And how had she done this? Brute force? Sly cunning? No, of course not! She was Luna Equestris, the most powerful magician in the country. She had won thanks to her superior magical skill. Brute force was for the infantry grunts; cunning for thieves and burglars; but it took an alicorn to overcome another alicorn with magical ability.
And so Luna’s theme transitioned among the instruments, seeming almost… well, magical. It morphed and transformed, overpowering Celestia’s, not in a straight-up bucking match, but in a contest of skill. Celestia’s theme just couldn’t match the transformations that Luna’s did, and it let Luna’s theme run circles around Celestia’s. Luna captured the strings, the brass, the piano, easily deflecting any attack and throwing many of her own.
In the end, Celestia’s theme shrank. It screamed pitifully, but what could it do? Celestia hadn’t anything like the magical muscle of her sister. This was self evident; if Celestia had been more talented magically, she’d have won. But it was Luna that had been victorious, and her theme flared in triumph as Celestia’s was shifted into something unimportant and pathetic, something too weak to bother with – a mare now imprisoned forever in the sun, helpless to touch the world again.
The ending was a glorious testament to magic, the whole ensemble playing in a grand union that resounded throughout the hall. When Magician ended, he allowed himself a grin. Was that not the greatest performance in the world?
There was no applause.
Magician frowned slightly, watching Luna stand. “My princess,” he began. “I would be honored to know your thoughts.”
“My thoughts?” Luna’s smile was razor thin. “That you are little more than a prospective sycophant. My sister had more magical power than me without the Elements; every pony knows this. Foals know that, without the additional help of the Elements, I would have lost the match. Did you think I would be impressed by a lie? Is that what you think of your ruler?”
“My princess,” said Magician, “After all I have done for the city, after all I still do – considering how absolutely indispensible I am – I would hope by now you would know I am no liar!”
“Being a good magician and a hero has nothing to do with the perfidy you just demonstrated,” hissed Luna. “Do you think that helping in the city’s defense gives you the right to lie? About me? Stick to your spells and your detective work, Magician. Never again will I hear you perform.”
She vanished.
Magician could only stare. “Ah – well, I suppose one must allow the princess her little joke. Fillies and gentlecolts, this great work of Maestro’s, this—“
But it wasn’t working. Ponies were backing away from the stage. There were nervous whispers.
“Now – now see here, maybe you couldn’t tell, but I was quite cognizant of Luna loving the piece. She might not be able to admit such, you know the reputation of the work, but it was quite obvious how moved she was, and…”
It still didn’t work.
He reached out to one of his younger fans, but her mother yanked her back. “You’re not associating with him anymore!” she cried. And then the audience was stampeding out the door, as if pursued by Luna’s wrath.
It was not what one would call a rousing success.
Headcanon: Red Magician continued to use his powers to help the city, solve crimes, and defend from threats. But he never performed again, and he stopped his bragging about how his magical power made him the Best At Everything.
(I think the big problem here is that Red isn't really a musician. He's an awesome mage, but that's not the same thing. It's worth noting that neither Concerti nor Fame went this route, even though 'magic yay!' is one of the more obvious ways to do the ending, because both of them were good enough to know that wasn't what the rest of the piece was leading towards. Other themes in the piece could be seen to reference strength or cunning, magical might didn't enter into it nearly as much. But Red Magician doesn't understand the piece, he sees it as just a huge collection of notes that need to be played with various techniques, and so blundered in his own way. It's perhaps telling that his response to Luna is that he used his own feelings to play the piece {and as he thinks magic is the best thing ever, that's the theme he went with}; the piece is about her, not him, so that was a very bad answer.).
Oh originally Red Magician was Blue Magician, but I thought people might wonder if he was related to Trixie or something, so I changed the name slightly. A few of the Trixie-esque traits still snuck in, however. :-)
Running tab: Things that don't work playing this piece
1. Making the ending about strength
2. Making the ending about cunning
3. Making the ending glitzy and flashy and not really about anything
4. Hoping Luna doesn't show up
5. Making the ending about magical prowess.
And my hypothesis that Luna won't appreciate an insinuation that her sister was somehow inferior to her continues to have support. Really, what Luna said here is right. It should be blatantly obvious that Corona was more powerful than she is.
I do see the Trixie traits here and once again, they caused a failure.
991679
Red might still be related to Trixie, though distantly. I doubt it will ever come up, though it sems like the kind of thing that would make it into Lunaverse fanfics.
...that is a weird thing to think about...
I am eagerly looking forward to the final movement. Though they don't know much about what happened during the battle, they have one huge advantage over the other attempts – Lyra has seen Luna and Corona interact after their battle, although it wasn't Luna doing the battling that time. She also knows firsthand how the elements work, which may help as well.
Just a theory, I guess.
991679
The common theme we're seeing here is that ponies try to make Luna's battle against her sister into a triumphant event. Except that Luna herself knows it as a tragic event.
As she said, this piece is deeply personal to her. What luck that Octavia has a friend who was privvy to Luna's most recent attempt to reconcile with her deranged sister and would have accurate information on the princess's feelings!
Or, you know, one of them could actually ask the princess what the true final movement is like.
992131: While 'asking her' isn't going to come up in the gaidens, one can assume that other ponies have tried it, and it hasn't worked. Luna is of the view that, if the ponies can't understand it from the piece itself (or their own knowledge of her), explicitly telling them what to do isn't going to help. Music has to felt; it can't just be spoken of in a lecture.
In other words, "I'm going to play a big piece of music about you. It'll be fantastic! By the way, I need you to tell me about yourself so I know what the Hay I'm doing" is very likely to precipitate a bad performance, no matter what the person says.
991794: Glad you liked it that much! :-) Thanks!
991875: Hee hee. That's one way of looking at it.
The fleur de lis historically symbolizes faith, wisdom, and chivalry. I wanted to work at least one of those into here, and I figured that making Fleur able to help other ponies 'understand' things (esp. their own beliefs and their implications) would qualify.
991921: Hmm. That may indeed come up. :-)
992090: Trixie, right? Especially pre-Ponyville, crazy manipulative Trixie.
As for the webisode, I don't think I plan to write it myself, but I agree that it would be very cool to see that scene. Hey, maybe that's where Fleur saw Octy in the first place (all the guards are out powering Armor's shield, so the Shadows are trying to keep order in the town, Fleur passes the school, notices a distinct lack of panic and rioting, investigates, and is perhaps impressed enough to keep tabs on Octy later on.)
992090
Honestly, one could make a whole webisode about what other ponies outside the mane cast were doing during Corona's awakening. Not just Octy.
I hate to be THAT guy but I still think that a dirge which mourns a long-regretted necessity would finally please Luna. She (and possibly the more perceptive of the Bearers) sees her defeat of Corona as a catastrophe, not a victory. Any musical piece about it MUST reflect that.
992268: Fully agree.
Hmm. My guess for the proper ending would be 'Luna's theme is nearly annihilated and the ponies of Equestria save her'.
...
'And then she gets drunk.'
992347: Alcohol: always the proper ending! :-)
992351
Alcohol: The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems.
991679 Love it. What I'm really getting from the repeated attempts is that their all projecting themselves onto the final movement, and on that basis are never going to approach the emotion the composer hoped to attain.
And though I kind of hate speculating on unfolding stories, if Luna wrote the piece (and since she's taken it this personally for this long, I've got to say there's chance) maybe she couldn't finish it? If the pain of imprisoning Corona was too raw and was a last ditch action that felt a hair-breadth from a failure away, maybe she couldn't face it.
Or she's saving that movement to be concluded once she is reunited with her restored sister?
Whatever happens, it's going to be emotional.
Thank you.
First, a "fix nao pls" moment from chapter 9 or 6 depending on how you count:
Octavia was on her feet.
...What are feet?
I love the development so far by the way. I kind of imagine that Greengrass isn't just going to leave it at that though. He's not the type to give up after a single failed plan, we know that from his repeated attempts at element collection. I kind of wonder what he's going to do next.
Continue to love the Octavia/Lyra modern day Equestria chapters. Wonderful relationship, writing, and message overall.
But as I mentioned before that I would hope Luna would mellow out a little over these interlude chapters but she really isn't. If they hurt her why go to the performances? I don't get the destruction that she knows her review must leave on the participants lives as justified for simply not understanding an event that she didn't write an account of. If she really wants to see these performances her going shapeshifted as we've seen her capable of and then delivering her review in private just seems to be the Luna we saw at the celebration in Ponyville in Longest Day Longest Night. Or the Princess who stifled her wrath in Early Reunion to something even more offensive. I just don't see that Princess here and these segments just keep bugging me. Of course I'm not an author in this universe so maybe you've got information I don't.
Anyway this is a great story again. And the part of Luna's characterization doesn't in any means ruin the story for me as I think its great and just added it to my favorites list. Regardless looking forward to the next chapter and major props to you for being able to be so productive and put out this much material this rapidly and for it to be of this quality.
995570: She goes because there is a way to play it correctly, and if the musician actually does it right, she'd want to hear it. But each time she goes, it's just some new caricature of her.
Part of the reason she blasts the artists so hard is that the bad performances are personally offensive. They turn her into a caricature and do even worse things to her sister, and all for... what? Fortisi wanted to overcome a rival, Magician wanted to show how awesome magic was, Stringer wanted to be rich, and that's not mentioning the guy today or Piano Amour, who we'll see tomorrow. They're either completely ignorant about the princess (and playing anyway, indicating that they don't really care about her or their work), or flat-outlying about the princess for their own profit, and Luna sees no reason to tolerate that. (The one exception so far is Concerti, but that was at a party specifically devoted to Luna, and he essentially slapped the guest of honor in the face).
Although, again, all she does is give a bad review and refuse to hire them for government concerts. But as far as she's concerned, if the other ponies won't hire an artist who has offended their ruler so terribly, that's their right -- and they should have that information. She's not going to lie or pretend that a performance wasn't as incredibly offensive to her as it was.
That all said, there's a bit of a twist to tomorrow's bonus that I think might interest you. :-) Not today's, though. Today she's going to again show why ponies fear the night. (But then again, this guy really deserves it).
I found the name Red Magician very fitting for a jack of all trades master of none type character and am glad you went with that. Being a Final Fantasy fan though the image of him that name invokes in my mind's eye has nothing to do with his coat or mane coloration, only his fashion sense.
Since he is no musician, I do sort of felt that his performance should have been described more mechanically. Where it is only the choice of instrument used to play each section that presents the theme and never HOW they are played. The music should convey a sense of mechanical rigidity. Technically flawless perhaps, but containing no more emotion than a player piano. This gaiden also felt a little repetitive. For an Alicorn, a being that could almost be considered as a manifestation magic itself, power and strength would naturally be MAGICAL, so it feels to me very much like only a minor variance on the first failure.
991872
Odd, other than the stage persomance bit, he reminds me a lot more of Twilight than Trixie. He's got that same arogant 'magic is the ultimate solution to everything' attitude.
996835: I see him as a combo of Twi's and Trixie's bad points. He's got Trixie's self-aggrandizing braggart personality and arrogance, and Twilight's 'magic is all that matters' beliefs.
I thought about making it a more robotic performance, but I figured that Magician would be so arrogant and obsessed with magic superiority that he wouldn't be able to stop himself from making 'Magic is Awesome!' a starring theme of the show, and he'd probably go to some effort to work it in.
The distinction between the first, second, and fourth performances that I was going for was basically: Concerti's was the equivalent of a boxer or hitter punching their way through obstacles to get to a goal. Magician's was the equivalent of a martial artist using techniques and flips to get through the obstacles -- not brute force, but applied skill. Fame's would be the equivalent of a thief sneaking around the obstacles. I suppose I could have drawn a better distinction between performances 1 and 4, though, so thanks for the catch.
Wow. I honestly feel bad for Magician. Not so much what happened to him, how it sounds he didn't lose as much due this only being a hobby not a profession, but by the sheer amount of self delusionment this guy has. I mean Twilight has at least tried in the past to do things with out magic and Trixie did lie about the Ursa Major but at least came clean when it become clear that she was out of her depth.
This guy would probably be swallowed by the Ursa and still be shouting "Fear not! This beast is right where I want it! Now that I'm here I'll sure to get a direct hit!"
To be honest... Luna's starting to seem like a flankhole. She knows through history that her reviews ruin their careers/lives over this piece, yet she still goes and still shuns them and still bucks their lives up.
Regardless of, "She can't control what the others do" she knows by now what the association will do. Why she hasn't simply banned the piece of music or explained what the problem is is making her seem like a colossal... jerk. And yes, I know above you said it can't be asked... but I've never bought that. Ever. With any sort of thing like that.
1021381
She probably does rather desperately want the catharsis of hearing her story told properly and respectfully, but isn't secure enough to sit down and talk to anypony about it and reveal just how viscerally heart-wrenching it would need to be (especially since doing so would make her look weak to a very predatory Court). It doesn't help that the only ones offering guesses are rump-kissing sycophants, conceited douchebags, or both.
So it's an open challenge that only gets attempted by the very ponies least likely to approach it with anything resembling the right mindset, and every time they tear off the band-aid wrong, Luna loses her shit because it's probably the single most likely thing in the world to make her do so. I mean, she hears her insane sister screaming bloody murder every time she raises the sun. That's not going to do wonders for her self-control.
1355180
Don't know why you got downvotes when you're correct. Everypony has their berserk buttons, that when pressed makes them act in ways they ordinarily wouldn't. A song that isn't a singing praise of Luna's power or about the triumph of "good vs. evil". Would be cathartic.
991679
You have 5 entries [4 last bonus] But you only have 4 entries. 1); 2); 4); and 5. What was the 3rd one?
There's an almost, fairy tale esque tone to all of this. You know hearing the failure until there was a hero who comes and does the impossible task.
My headcannon: Red MAgician soone left Canterlot and joined three stallions named: Theif, Fighter, and Black MAgician and went on wacky adventures.
As I said eariler, what keeps me entertaine in this story is the fairy tale like of it all. We are told throughout the tale of how othershave failed, each one its own unique story of failure. This buils up wonderful anticipation for when the hero bravely accomplishes the massive task ahead of her. An old trope, but a good one.