Bruises

(Yeah, what can I say, sometimes I like making blog posts for story ideas based on songs that aren't long enough to stand on their own.)

“Beauty Brass!”

A familiar voice called out to me, one I hadn’t heard since…

“Symphony?”

“I haven’t seen you since the Academy,” the purple maned violinist embraced me.

“Well, there was that Coloratura concert that time in Ponyville,” I reminded her.  Everypony who was anypony in the music business was involved in that one.

“Oh, I forgot that one.  It’s still seems like forever, though,” Symphony said.  She paused, her brow furrowing. “You are Beauty again, right?”

Yes,” I sighed.  “I couldn’t get Bluenote to catch on, and then the Crusaders in Ponyville helped another Bluenote earn his cutie mark, and I didn’t want to end up like Cloudchaser and Cloud Chaser, so I’m back to plain old Beauty Brass.”

“Plain and Beauty do not go together,” Symphony joked.  “You’re still looking as good as ever.”

I flushed in spite of myself and changed the subject to family.  “I heard you have a filly now.”

“Yes,” Symphony said wistfully.  “She’s five.”

“Mine’s three,” I said.  “How does Hill Song like being a daddy?”

“He doesn’t,” Symphony replied, her ears flattening.  “He left me three years ago to try to strike it rich in Appaloosa.”

“I guess that’s why I haven’t seen him at any Yickslurbertfest in a while,” I said.  “I’m sorry.”

“S’okay, I guess,” Symphony shrugged.  “”Last I heard, he’s still broke, but we’re doing all right.”

“I think you’re better off,” I said.  “He was always a bit…”

“Lazy?  Good for nothing?” Symphony cracked a wry smile.

“Well, Auntie Goldie would say he lacked gumption,” I said, pawing the ground a bit.

“How’s the Professor doing these days?” Symphony asked.  “I knew you were trying, and things were… difficult.”

“He’s been gone for…” I paused, trying to figure out how long it had been.

“No, not you too, Beauty,” Symphony moaned.  “I thought that when you mentioned your daughter that you had worked things out.  What possible reason did he have to leave you?”

“Lung cancer,” I replied softly.  “I was never able to convince him to give up that silly pipe of his.”

Symphony was taken aback by that.  “I didn’t… aw, cheese and rice, Beauty…”

“The Academy did an amazing obituary, but a lot of ponies get something in the mail and they think it’s asking for donations.  It’s fine… Octavia saw me last week and even she hadn’t heard, either. You know how Tavi can be about these things.”

Symphony snorted.  “She probably offered to pull strings to get you first chair in the ESO.  She’s such a drama queen that way, worrying about the slightest thing that could insult a friend.  Granted, losing your husband is no small thing, but Tavi probably ratcheted it up to eleven.”

Yes. Yes she had.

“My dad had already made me that offer once himself, you know,” I told Symphony.  “I think turning it down cost me respect in some circles, but earned it in others, depending on how they spun it.”

“Yeah, I know the Canterlot types,” Symphony said.  “Half of them probably started snubbing you for disrespecting the institution that is the Equestria Symphony by turning down an offer from a legend like your father, and the other half started praising you for having the - gumption, to use your aunt’s word - to want to earn the seat on your own merit.  Then when you still didn’t join up, they went back to snubbing you.”

“That pretty much sums it up,” I said.  “So you really haven’t heard from Hill Song since he left?  No desire to see his daughter or anything?”

“I did hear through the grapevine that he was in Corona Park with the mare of his dreams,” Symphony said.

“Funny,” I mused.  “Last time he and I spoke, that’s what he called you.”

Symphony laughed, and I got a brief glimpse of the young filly that I’d dated way back when.  A lifetime ago, it seemed.

“You’ll never guess who I bumped into the other day,” she said.

“Cheese Sandwich?” I guessed, knowing full well that I was incorrect.

“No, silly.  Fiddly Twang.”  My heart skipped a beat.  “She’s a big star now, you know.  Somehow she knew who I was, must have seen me in concert somewhere, but I can’t recall for the life of me when.  Then she asked me how you’ve been, and I put two and two together. When did you two meet?”

A lifetime ago, indeed.  She called herself Fiddlesticks back then.

“We met that summer break when we were in the Academy,” I said, not wanting to go into too much detail.  It had been a turbulent point in our lives, putting it mildly.

“Well, she’s a sweetheart, I’ll say that.  If I didn’t know better, I’d say she still fancied you,” Symphony teased.

“Yeah, you don’t know any better.  She married one of her bandmates and had two… I mean, a foal.  A colt named Pickup.” My hoof was starting to tear a furrow into the ground.

“Yeah, we all got foals, that doesn’t mean we’re satisfied with how everything turned out,” Symphony grunted.  “Hey, you don’t happen to have any pictures of yours, do you? I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”

Of course I did.  Ignoring the innuendo, I retrieved the most recent picture of Pixie I could find from my saddlebags.

“Aw, she’s so adorable,” Symphony squealed.  “She doesn’t look much like her dad, though, if you don’t mind me saying.” Symphony indicated the buttery yellow coat and blue eyes.

“Yeah, Neigh always said he was grateful for that,” I replied.  “She didn’t get his white mane, gray coat, or bad eyesight.”

Symphony shot me a sly look from under her purple mane.  “Y’know, she does kind of bear a resemblance to…”

I tensed up a bit.  I couldn’t help it.

“Me,” she finished.  “Wouldn’t that have been a riot?”

I chuckled nervously.  “Yeah, well… um… you know that the ‘magic of love’ is just an old pony’s tale.  If it were real, I know a number of couples who would have taken advantage of it, that’s for sure.  Celestia knows that Neigh and I talked about it enough when we were having problems.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Symphony’s face was grim.  “Still, it would be fun if it did work, though. It would fix a lot of things.”

“I suppose,” I equivocated.  “The Professor was happier when he found out I was expecting.”

“Hill Song wasn’t,” Symphony said, frowning.  “It was too much responsibility. Doesn’t matter.  I don’t need a stallion in my life to feel like I’m worth something.”

I knew exactly what she was talking about, and felt it every time I looked into Pixie’s eyes.

“You know,” I started “It has been a long time.  We should make sure it doesn’t get to be that long before the next time we bump into each other.”

“I agree,” Symphony nodded.  “Maybe a play date with yours and mine sometime?”

“I’d love that,” I said with a smile.

“It could be just like old times,” Symphony suggested.

“No,” I countered, “But it could be a nice new beginning.”  We embraced again and prepared to go our separate ways once more.