The next morning as the sun slowly crept above the gray horizon, foals from all across the land awake with excitement. Yes, for the young, Hearths Warming is the most anticipated day of the year for every filly and colt, especially early in the morning. From Applewood to the Crystal Empire, the chant for “Presents!” was cried out to the sleep-deprived parents.
In the palace of Canterlot, however, two Princesses and a Prince were making their way towards the private family room. As expected, inside the large, elegant room where the fireplace blazed, it was nearly filled with presents and gifts from all over Equestria. Boxes and bags of every shape, size, description, and color were stacked along the walls of the room in bows, shiny paper, and stickers that had their names on them.
Luna practically hopped around the room, “It’s bigger than last year’s! Oh, where do we start?”
“I think,” Celestia put a hoof on her sister’s shoulder. “That the first thing we need to do is to sort out which gift belongs to which.”
“Like what we did last year,” Blueblood rolled his eyes as he went towards one of the piles. “By the looks of it, it might take us days to sort this entire thing out.” His horn glowed, pulling on the rope to summon the servants. A butler came to the door, “Send up some ponies to organize all of this for us.”
“Yes sir,” the servant said, but before he left, they heard the sun princess moaned.
“Blue,” Celestia said. “You keep forgetting that the point of sorting this out for ourselves is so that we get the thrill if finding our names on a gift.” She looked up to the butler, “Although, could you send up some ponies to help clean up the wrapping paper that’s no doubt going to end up on the floor?”
“Right away milady,” he bowed as he back away towards the door.
“But auntie,” the white stallion whined, “doing this ourselves is going to take forever.”
“Get to it then,” Celestia pointed to a corner of the room, “Your Auntie Lu is already at work.”
Indeed, the princess of the moon was swimming in the pile of boxes; her tail only indicated where she was. “Oh! What’s this?” suddenly her head popped out as she pulled something out with her magic. A closer look, the gift was bounded up in brown paper and twine. “Wow! Nephew, you must be really lucky today.”
“Why’s that?” he asked as he approached the pile that Luna was almost buried in.
“This one is from Mr. Beethoven, and it has your name on it!”
He blinked, “Wait, let me see that.” Taking the present into his magic, he immediately opened it by undoing the twine. There he found four copies of some rather short sheet music, he raised an eyebrow. “‘Mark Yonder Pomp of Costly Fashion?’” He read aloud. Flipping each of the pages, he wondered aloud, “Why would he give me this?”
“Perhaps it’s for somepony to play it,” Celestia suggested. “Maybe we could get some musicians to practice this a little so we may hear it? I’m curious about what Mr. Beethoven has given us too.”
“As do I,” Luna agreed before diving back in. “But first thing’s first presents!”
_*_
Inside Beethoven’s head, as he walked through the snow, Ludwig improvised the duet of violins for the first movement of his symphony. He tries to find logic and build yet, figuring out a way to stay true to the Baroque sound. He tried singing aloud the double melody this way and that, but it just wasn’t what he was looking for as he headed towards the Golden Oaks Library. The reason for going was partly for research and partly because Princess Twilight had invited him to have breakfast for the sake of the holiday.
Upon approaching the front red door, he tapped it with his walking stick when a familiar dragon peak his head through. He smiled and opened the door widely, “Happy Hearths Warming, Mr. Beethoven,” Spike said slowly when Ludwig ducked and crawled inside.
As he expected, the library was nearly crowded with ponies of the family and friends of Princess Twilight. All around him garland hung on the walls with the colorful tiny lights while he smelled something familiar, “Is that apple strudel?”
Spike nodded. He waved for him to take out the magic scroll. “Yeah, AJ and Pinkie have been in the kitchen nearly all morning making breakfast for everypony. Besides, there are some ponies here that really want to meet you.”
“Like who?” From the corner of his eye, he saw the lilac princess leading two other ponies.
“Good morning Mr. Beethoven,” Twilight nodded, “I would like for you to meet my parents. This is Night Light and Twilight Velvet.”
“Why?” Ludwig questioned.
The gray mare next to the princess steps forward, “Hello sir. We wanted to see you after that concert you gave.”
“The Sixth Symphony?” They nodded. “Well before you go on, where can I get breakfast from? Your daughter here promised me food.”
Night Light motioned his head towards a table to which the giant took the hint. After taking up several pieces of strudel, Ludwig sat on the stairs while Twilight held up his scroll to read off of. The father started with, “I wanna say that what we’ve heard last night was incredible.”
“Beautiful even,” Velvet agreed. “It’s rather amazing that even given your uh… condition, that you were able to put together something so stunning.”
“Vielen Dank.” Both parents blinked before Beethoven clarified, “I mean, thank you. I wrote it before I became fully deaf, all in memory of what I miss most.”
“Missing what?” Ludwig looked away from the scroll, only to find that the three of them hadn’t moved their lips, but did catch that it was coming from another alicorn. This time, this new pony was bright pink. By her side was a familiar stallion that the composer swore that he had seen him before.
Reading the confusion on his face, Twilight introduced Beethoven to her fellow princess, Cadance of the northern Crystal Empire, “And you already have met my brother,” she added.
“I have heard so much about you,” the princess of love reached a hoof out to him; only he didn’t reach his hand out to shake it. “Um… Well firstly, I think I speak for everypony here that we’re all impressed with your latest symphony. It fit pretty well with the holiday and I can’t wait for the record of it to come out.”
“You’ve heard my symphonies?” Ludwig asked.
She waved her wing over to Shining, “You can thank my husband for introducing them to me. In fact, you have a surprising effect on not just on the empire, but on Equestria as a whole. It’s really never seen before.” The giant raised an eyebrow so she continued, “You see, the youth over where we rule over have always wanted to hear something new. They once considered the classical stuff like Buch and Moztrot to be tiresome and not worth listening to. Then when your records came along, the parents told us that your music had an interesting effect on their lives. From them, they told me that these symphonies are teaching them patients and the importance of listening. Your music is able to emphasize their conflicting emotions, especially among teenagers to channel their feelings constructively. And I think you’ve might have sparked a craze in the empire in which more of the young want to learn how to play an instrument.
“With all of this in mind, I do have two questions to ask of you. How did you do it?”
Beethoven thought for a moment before replying, “I’m not sure why your ponies like my music, but I think it might have to do with one of the very few lessons that Herr Mozart had taught me.”
“And that being?” Shining inquired.
“He told me a story that I would never forget,” Ludwig explained after taking another bite of the strudel. “Herr Mozart told me that years ago, the Emperor of Austria had plotted a surprising duel at improvising the piano with another virtuoso. Clementi, I think it was, who after going first, had proved that he was able to improvise more brilliantly, faster, and did technical feats that nobody had done before until that night. Mozart was stunned that this pianist had outplayed him before he got to the piano, yet, on that night he won all the same. Do you know how?”
The Sparkle family shook their heads.
“When Herr Mozart sat down at the piano, he didn’t impress everyone by playing quicker by Clementi’s technique, because there was no point in that. Instead, he played to where it moved them to tears, and that was the secret. Anyone could play the right notes and learn how to play even the most difficult of pieces – but to play it without passion or express an emotion would be forgettable. That’s why my music stands out, even from this new music. It has impressive technical feats of sound, but hollow in real emotion.”
“I see,” Cadance nodded. “One last question, now that the sixth symphony has been played, what’s next?”
“If everything goes right, and I am able to go back to my home, I would like to have the Philharmonic play the rest of my symphonies, my seventh, eighth, ninth, and perhaps my tenth. Other than that, I want to put together a few other things.”
Twilight’s mother raised an eyebrow, “And that being?”
After taking a bite from his breakfast, he said, “I want to personally play my fifth piano concerto. Organize this country’s best string players to play out some experimental pieces for my string quartets. And I want to organize a quartet of singers, along with a choir to perform my best vocal works such as my Choral Fantasy, a Mass in time for the first day of spring, all of which would be merely practice for the ninth.”
“What’s a mass?” Night Light inquired.
“It’s…” Ludwig trailed off as he thought for a moment, “I sometimes forget that no one in this world has even heard of Christianity. Well… to put it in the most simplistic of terms, a mass is a holy rite in which we Catholics take time to worship and remember God. It is why I wanted to play my finest work on the first day of spring, for it is the most sacred day of the year in which would be a perfect time to sing it in the original Latin tongue.”
“Now that would be interesting,” Twilight commented, “I mean, hearing a piece of music in a language that’s completely unknown to us. Of course, chances are that we might need you to help pronounce the words. Oh! Speaking of which, Mr. Beethoven, I have a present for you.”
“That being?” Ludwig asked as he finished up his breakfast.
“Well, I have something that would interest you, a spell really, in which I think you would defiantly like. To put it simply, there is a way to temporarily restore your hearing.”
When Beethoven read this, he dropped his plate, sending it tumbling and smashed on the wooden stairs. “What did you say?” the old man grabbed the scroll.
“The good news,” Twilight explained, “is that I have found a spell that, if it works, could be able to restore your hearing to make it as clear as the day you were born for an entire day. While it would require all the princesses to compensate such an enormous amount of power, I’m afraid that there is a downside. That is if it works, it’ll only work once. You see, the spell will enhance whatever sensitive part of your eardrum is left, but in doing so, it’ll permanently damage it to the point where if it works, it cannot be undone nor attempted again. Which means that you’ll have to choose carefully a particular day in which you’ll be able to hear again for a full twenty-four hours.”
Ludwig looked at the scroll in disbelief, “You can give my hearing back?”
“I’m only 87.274216945% sure that it will work,” Twilight told him honestly. “After what’s been going on, and that you’ve let us hear to some amazing music, it’s the least we could do.”
“Well then,” the giant stood up, “I’ve already decided the exact day. But for now, for such news, I would like to return a favor.” He walked over toward the kitchen, ducking through the low arch and towards the standup piano. After sitting down and looked over his shoulder, seeing how Applejack and Pinkie were taking notice of him, he asked for them a spoon.
Twilight and her family crowded around the piano, after putting the magic scroll onto the piano, she asked, “What are you doing?”
“I normally don’t do this, but since I feel deeply grateful for the gift you’ve given me, I too will do the same. I’m going to give you, Princess, a march of thank you.” Setting the spoon in his teeth and letting the other end touch the piano. Setting his hands upon the keys, he began to play upbeat notes of a proud song.