Nine: The End of the Festival
Throughout the festival, heads turned to the sky as music throbbed from the speakers. Attendants and musicians alike watched in open-mouthed wonder as the sky shattered, shining shards scattering high in the air. Wind whipped through the valley, a cool, wet breeze that moistened dry throats and healed chapped lips even as it gently cleansed sweaty flanks and manes.
The Heart of the Desert silently groaned as a thousand years of flame dissolved. Magic rushed into it, and then back out. Blue and violet lights flared around Vinyl Scratch as she played the wind, flashes and bursts of illumination that made her shadow dance and writhe. "Aww yeah," she shouted over the rising wind.
"This is incredible!" laughed Lyra, rainbows sparking and shimmering with every pluck and strum of her lyre.
Across the Heart, Thunder Axe struck a chord. Lightning flashed and flickered, too fast to tell whether it flowed from her guitar to the clouds or the other way around. She crowed in joy and struck another, and another.
High above them, spiraling down, Raindrops began to sing. The song had no words. It needed no words, was older than words and bigger than words, yet small enough to fit in the voice of a single pegasus mare. It was a song of wind, and of sand, and of desert, of loss and fire and a never-ending noontime of blazingly hot despair. It was a song of rage and pain and terror.
But it was a true song, a song of wind, and that meant it was a song of change. So, as Raindrops sang, it became a song of wind and water, of the fiery sun beating down on distant seas, of tree leaves sweating in the breeze, of tiny wisps of cloud growing up to be towering black walls, wreathed in lightning and speaking in thunder.
The Heart groaned again. The world could not take very much more truth.
The first raindrops hit the ground just before Raindrops did, right in the center of the trio of musicians. Raindrops kept right on singing, and the musicians played and the raindrops sang with her, a song of wind and the thirsting earth quenched at last, of gentle rain, drizzling rain, laughing rain, dancing rain, joyous pounding torrential wall-of-water rain...
From the train station, to the festival grounds, down the ridges and slopes, to the shores of the old dead lake, vast, towering columns of pregnant cloud burst open. From the Heart of the Desert, the old dry heart of the once-shining lake, to the mountains at the far end of the valley, the rain fell, a thousand years of rain, like an ocean had lost its footing and fallen out of the world beyond the sky.
The song went on. Waterlogged, barely able to see each other through the plummeting curtains of cool clean pure water, Raindrops, Vinyl Scratch, Thunder Axe, and Lyra Heartstrings could not play or sing, simply looked at each other and laughed and kicked up their hooves and rolled in the mud--but the song went on, too big and true to stop just because nopony was playing it any more.
They splashed and played in the mud like foals, and when, a few minutes later, Dusty joined them, all he could do was splash and play and laugh with them. Across the valley in the festival grounds, everypony was doing the same. Cheesecake was dancing with Soundcheck, and Awesome Sauce with Carda Chorde, and all of them laughing splashing playing shouting as the song played on and the rain sheeted down.
Down deep in the valley Raindrops splashed in mud, and then in ankle-deep water, and then in knee-deep, and it was starting to be a little bit more difficult to splash--Lyra was shouting something over the rain. "What?" Raindrops shouted back, after a brief pause in which she tried to remember how to make words that weren't "rain."
"--ground!" Lyra was saying. "We're at the very bottom of the valley!"
Raindrops didn't understand for a moment, but then there was a crack of thunder and a flash of lightning, and she realized the old lake bed was rapidly filling. The five ponies immediately struck out for shore, the pegasi flying while the two unicorns and one earth pony half-ran, half-swam.
And the rain came down. It fell and fell, a thousand years of rain filling the lake and turning the dry, stony slopes of the valley to rich red mud. At the festival grounds, finally, one by one, ponies collapsed to the ground, exhausted and giggly and happy, smeared with mud and soaked to the bone. And slowly, as slow to end as it had been quick to start, the rain slackened. Jackelope Valley was still in one of the driest parts of Equestria, after all, and even a thousand years of rain could not last more than a few hours.
The curtains parted, pulled back, separated slowly into individual sprays, then drops, and at last, drop by drop by drop, the rain drizzled down to nothing. Three tired, bedraggled ponies pulled themselves ashore onto a large flat rock, washed mostly clean of the red mud by the rain. Two waterlogged pegasi sat waiting for them. All were tired; none minded.
Above them, the clouds began to come apart, rents and tatters forming as the last of their magic song dissipated. Shafts of golden sunlight descended through the holes in the clouds, illuminating round patches of lake a glowing, deep blue. Slowly, as the sun drifted down in the general direction of setting, the light spilled across the lake to the mountains on the far side.
"What is that?" asked Raindrops, her keen weather-pony eyes the first to see it.
"What's what?" asked Dusty.
"No, I see it," said Vinyl, standing.
Lyra came over to stand beside her. "Whatever it is, it's beautiful."
Everywhere the light touched, the dust-brown of the mountains seemed to dissolve into a chaos of rainbow colors, a kaleidoscope of reds, blues, yellows, and greens. It spread rapidly outward from initial colors, up to nearly the mountains' tops, and down to the edges of the lake itself, then sweeping around the valley.
"It's coming closer," Thunder Axe observed lazily. None of them felt any particular urgency to do anything about it.
From either side, the wave of color swept around the shores of the lake, converging on the five of them; then it was on them, and past them, sweeping up the slopes toward the festival.
"Flowers!" said Lyra delightedly.
And so they were. Ancient, countless seeds of flowers and grasses, lying in wait under the desert for a thousand years, erupting suddenly into shining life, roots twining through the wet mud, petals and leaves reaching for the sunlight filtering down through the rapidly parting clouds, rising to meet the widening expanses of bright blue afternoon sky.
Lyra flopped herself back down and just enjoyed the view for a while.
Eventually, Dusty was the first to break the companionate silence. "So, uh, whatever happened to the jackelope, anyway?"
Lyra sat up. "I'm... not really sure. Last I saw him was when Raindrops carried him up into the--" she gasped. "You didn't drop him, did you Raindrops!?"
"No, I didn't drop him," said Raindrops. She was trying to sound testy, but too tired, too happy, and in much too good a mood to really pull it off. "Once the spell broke, he... just sort of wasn't there anymore."
"So he's still out there somewhere?" asked Vinyl.
Raindrops considered this a long time. "I don't think so," she said finally. "I think... I don't think he made it. I don't think he ever really brought us together to save himself... it was to save the valley."
"Cheesecake won't like that much," said Dusty.
"That's Cheesecake's problem," Raindrops responded.
But, as it turned out, it wasn't. When they finally clambered back into the festival grounds that evening, Cheesecake was ecstatic. "I've sent word to all the papers!" she told them giddily. "The Miracle of the Jackelope! This is going to be a huge tourist spot--we're already getting people asking about tickets for next year's festival!
So they joined the gathering of ponies by the bonfire, and ate voraciously, and told their story ten thousand times. And then the next day Lyra played her sets, and the Daughters of Discord played there, and it was almost as if it had all never happened.
Except there were flowers everywhere, and red caked-on mud all over everything, and the valley was gentle slopes and rolling hills of bright green grass and flowers waving gently in the breeze, leading down to an azure lake, so really it was only the silly ponies at the festival who acted at all like it had never happened.
At least until the very end of the festival. The last attendees were gone, only musicians and techs and festival staff remaining around the bonfire, while the huge bright desert stars floated above them. The air smelled of rosemary and ever-so-faintly of water, and didn't make Raindrops itch at all.
"So this is it," said Lyra from next to her, looking up at the stars. "Tomorrow we all head back to Ponyville."
"Yeah," said Vinyl Scratch. "Back to real life, I guess."
Lyra laughed. "It's been pretty unusual, yeah. Is the festival always like this?"
"Not really, no."
"Didn't think so," said Lyra.
"Hey, you never told us," Raindrops said. "What happened with your music? Are you coming back as a performer next year?"
Vinyl shrugged. "Nah, I'm fired. Cheesecake said, even if it turned out for the best, she can't trust a tech who sabotages the performances like that. Guess I can kinda see her point."
"That's awful!" said Lyra.
Vinyl shrugged again. "No biggie. I wanted people to hear my music, and now I'm one-fourth of the band that played away the thousand-year-old curse of Jackelope Valley! You think I'll have any problem at all getting ponies to listen to my new experimental solo project?" She laughed.
"Might have a problem if they've heard it before," Lyra mumbled, but Vinyl thankfully didn't seem to hear her.
The three Ponyville ponies heard the distinctive hum of speaker-spells activating. They looked up to see that a circle of ponies had formed around a circle of cables and speakers and amplifiers, and in the middle of that circle the Daughters of Discord were setting up their instruments. "We, uh, have something new for you," Thunder Axe said into the mic. "It's a bit... different from our usual sound, and we wrote it during the festival, so we figured we'd save the first public performance for just the people who made this festival." She looked down at her guitar, stroked it with one hoof, then spread her wings and flapped into the air. "This is for a friend I didn't get to know for very long, and some other new friends I hope will keep in touch."
She played a brief chord, then waited while Awesome Sauce and Carda started playing, a simple, repetitive three-note rhythm on the bass made elusive by the delicate tones of the crystaphone playing tinkling hints of the song of the rain. Strings slowly rose as the volume built, and then the drums kicked in and Thunder Axe's guitar joined Awesome Sauce's bass in harmony, while the strings played a soaring, haunting rendition of the jackelope theme from the Ballad of Jackelope Valley.
The instruments fell quiet for a moment, and then there was a shiver of cymbals and Awesome Sauce returned to the simple, slow rhythm, while the strings played a new melody and Thunder Axe sang softly:
Life is in bloom
The rain washed away the desert's doom
Four voices sang as one
The curse has been undone
Because...
The strings died away, but then the drummer crashed out a beat on the cymbals and both guitars leapt in. Awesome Sauce sang out much more strongly while Thunder Axe carried the rhythm:
Life is in bloom
Let's sing it out now, beneath the moon
I said life is in bloom
The jackelope stopped the valley's doom
For us...
Thunder Axe echoed Awesome Sauce's last line ("for us, for us..."). Raindrops cheered along with the crowd, swept along with the energy of the song. Yeah, it was a different sound for them, less gloomy, less angry, taking the same techniques and using them to be energetic and happy. Maybe it wouldn't work as an everyday thing, but this once? Raindrops thought. Yeah, I think it works. Today's a good day for it.
Strings swelled, joining in on the melody as Awesome Sauce repeated the second verse.
Life is in bloom
Let's sing it out now, beneath the moon
I said life is in bloom
The jackelope stopped the valley's doom
For us...
The audience cheered while the Daughters of the Discord segued into the fanfare they used to end every show. Next to Raindrops, Lyra's voice carried above the cheering crowd as she bounced up and down shouting, "You rock, Carda! Whooo!"
Raindrops laughed. Note to self: Tomorrow I need to make a certain somepony listen to a certain somepony else's entire discography on the way home...
The sky was dark and starry and cloudless, just as it had been yesterday and the day before, but not the day before that.
The moonlight shivered on the placid silver waters of the lake. The young jackrabbit bent to drink. He did not remember as ponies remembered, or know things as ponies knew them. He could not count days or recite his knowledge to himself with an inner voice. His mind was not divided into voices chattering to one another or layers of thoughts and feelings; he was at once simpler and more unified.
Nonetheless, he knew in some sense that when he was small (he did not know that that was two years ago, or even how many seasons had passed) this lake, these nourishing grasses and tasty flowers, were not here, and no rabbits entered this valley. But an enticing smell of water and food had drifted over the hills, and he was one of a few rabbits adventurous or hungry and thirsty enough to follow.
He sat back, his thirst sated. Tiny brown paws rubbed at his forehead. It hurt. He was vaguely aware that his head hurt a lot lately, but did not have the capacity to connect it with the rainbow shimmers that sometimes danced across the water.
He froze, ears twitching back and forth, searching for the source of the faint, musical tone he had just heard. Tiny silvery nubs on his forehead shimmered with gentle iridescence.
He turned and bounded off into the night.
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Yay, jackelopes will be returning to Equestria! Might take awhile, but then again, if they can grow out of the native rabbit population anyway. I'm sure there are plenty of hlessil. In my head the jackelope that passed on is now named El-ahrairah, by the way.
Cool points to whomsoever gets the references I just made, by the way.
Moving on from rabbits, the song in this chapter (and at the end of the last) was, in my head, "A Song of Storm and Fire," or a variation thereof, at least.
Well done! That was a lovely ending
Great contribution to the Lunaverse!
Don't forget to change the fic's status to 'completed'.
Well, now that we're done here, all that's left is a sort of epilogue. Hmm. I wonder if Jackelope Valley has another name in the Celestiaverse....an apple-themed name.
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Let me put it this way: The first Pokemon game I ever played was Silver. After seeing a picture of one online, I got on Umbreon for the *express purpose* of naming it Fu Inle.
Headcanon accepted re: the jackelope's name, though being animals, jackelopes don't really have names.
The song doesn't really feel right to me for this, sorry. It's an okay song, it just isn't... stormy enough.
4434335
Thanks, glad you liked it! And also thanks for the reminder about marking it...
4434517
I'm not sure what you're referring to... Appleloosa is the only thing I can think of, but that's not a valley... Also, like I said in the author's note, the epilogue ended up so short I just included it as part of the chapter.
Lovely some beautiful imagery here. Fragrant might not be happy with that unplanned storm though, so much paperwork
I think that might be wrong
4434734
Glad you enjoyed it!
I kinda figure that, seeing as it hasn't had any weather in a thousand years, Jackelope Valley isn't actually in any particular weather manager's area of activity. That will obviously have to change very soon, though!
And thanks for the catch, I've fixed it.
4434763
Well, Lightning Dust needs something to do so.......
Excellent story, thanks.
This is a nice story.
Lovely imagery, great song and great ending. *Applauds*
4434822
Sounds like a good place for her, too.
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4461744
*bows*
Thanks muchly!
That was really beautiful! I'm so glad I got the chance to read this.
4472905
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
4434517 Appleloosa was destroyed in the Lunaverse with no L6 intervention.
4619983
So.....that's the atrocity that broke Silver Star.
4620318 Yep, no intervention and the war didn't end in less than five minutes.
4626253
Great. Super. We end up with Sheriff Self-Loathing and a broken mare because of it.....
4627785 Not to mention all the dead on both sides.
4628920
This is why I follow this universe: it's more real than the series.
Now, this was pretty nice and I look forward to sining the song when I get to this episode. I loved the use of the Jackalope and getting to see some Raindrops and Lyra development was really nice
A very impressive story, sorry it took me so long to finish it, very moving and fantastic descriptions for the music.
My review hasn't changed since my last comment on this the lst time.
So, here is the first chapter
This is one of the best Lunaverse stories by far. I loved it. It reminds me a lot of Discworld's Last Continent and that isn't a bad thing. Good work.
I don't think this is a good story.
It's not bad, but it sure as hell isn't a meisterstich.
The main thing that I have a problem with is the perspective. Basically the main heroes more or less instantly solve the problem in some unpredictable way and I as a reader am just asking myself what does that mean, when suddenly there is another problem and another unpredictable solution.
Like when Vynil suddenly knows exactly what to do and just so happens to have mastery over the air itself.
It reminds me of Doctor Who where the main character The Doctor knows everything but I as a reader am lost in darkness. You have to have them plan something in advance.
Count in the very fast pace and you can get quickly lost. You have literally one paragraph characters discussing they'll be going to kidnap the jack-something from hospital and two lines later they are already at the hospital. You should take care to somehow empathize the flow of time.
As a reader I would give this story a C
It's not a bad story and people like it so I just won't be ThatGuy
As a writer I give this story also C
It's a good story but could be better