Now, I confess, that right after Sunburst explained to me as to a foal how a place of legend had come to be and that they were planning a music festival for the next week, I returned home as giddy as a school child. Of course, it did take hours to pack up the servants, the violins, the viola, both keyboard instruments, and get my allowance from Celestia to pay for traveling towards the Crystal Empire – but once all that was accomplished, we were heading northward on a contraption that truly amazed me. Fortunately, we managed to go along with Sunburst. Although, I was rather curious what Princess Sunbutt had meant when she’d said she had a few surprises for me, but as soon as I got on board that contraption, that thought was put aside.
“So you say that the machine in the front is being powered by steam?” I inquired Sunburst who answered my question as he sat across from me.
“Yes. It’s called a locomotive in which it has a heat source like say, burning wood to heat up pipes of water to create said steam. Then through some mechanical pistons and gears, it helps push the engine with everything along with it.”
Even now, it still amazes me of how clever ponies had become in the past few hundred years. Out from the windows, the countryside and villages zipped by at extraordinary speeds as if the carriage we were on were being carried by the wind. In either direction too, trails of iron stretched out for miles, following the flow of the landscape smoothly while carrying a whole row of long carriages that could hold at least fifty or so ponies at one time.
“So I take it that this is your first train ride?” the orange with the beard asked.
I giggled, “Are you kidding? Where I come from you had to pay some rather strong ponies to haul you around. That and it took about a few months to get across from one end of Equestria to the other. Here, however, we’ve gotten so far in a matter of hours. And my, it’s getting cold out there.”
He looked out of the window, taking notice of the frost that was forming on the ground. “I think we’ll be there in an hour or so. Although I do want to ask, what exactly are you planning on doing when we get over there?”
“You said so yourself that there is a music festival that’s coming up, did you not? I figured that since I want to see this place for myself, why not do what I do best and give a concert, like I used to do.”
“Really? What are you going to play over there?”
“No idea,” I smiled. “I’ve got to see what their tastes are like before I do that. Which is why I think going to the festival would be helpful to hear what these ponies are looking for.”
“Well,” the tangerine wizard picked up a scroll from his cloak. “Princess Cadance did say that the festival would include performances of older stuff such as traditional music from the Crystal Empire, along with some Buch, Hayden and, well, you. But at the same time, it’ll also have newer stuff like Beethoven, Horseshoepin, and a newcomer called Paganeighni to name a few. Besides, I also heard that some well-known and influential ponies are coming to the festival. And not just musicians either…” He glanced out the windows at the oncoming winter when he asked, “So… what was it like?”
“What?”
“The time period you came from, what was it like for you?”
“You mean besides the Sun Princess expanding her mass from cake?” I laughed. “Well, it was another world away from this one. Back then, I was like a servant, in fact at one point in my life, I was ranked just above the cooks, yet just beneath the valets. It was the reason why I moved away from Saltzburg and stayed in Canterlot because it was the city of musicians. That, and it was a place of opportunity as the Sun Princess was known to be on the lookout for anything new. Why my friend Salieri was from a small town in Istaly where he ended up as court composer for Celestia in which he taught her the keyboard.”
Sunburst seemed surprised at this fact, “Wait, you and Salieri were friends?”
At this, I had a rather sad laugh as I turned my attention towards the waltzing snow. “Out of all of the ponies in court, he was the one that came to every performance I ever did. Even when my operas were doing poorly, he was there every night until they couldn’t be permitted to play anymore.” My nostalgic smile turned into a frown. “The last time I saw him, he was there when I and Schikaneighder were putting on that vaudeville of mine. He bellowed out with a ‘Brava’ from the Overture to the final chorus. In the end, he told me it was perfection.”
This gave the stallion pause for thought, “Are you talking about ‘The Magic Flute?’”
I nodded and told him, “I don’t know why you seem so surprised at this.”
“Well…” he rubbed the back of his neck, “Truth be told, from what I know of Salieri was that he was famous because he was jealous of you.”
Now, this took me by surprise. “What? Salieri the court composer jealous of me? But whatever for? The last time I saw him, he was doing far better than I could. Tartarus, he was teaching his students for nothing!”
“Granted, what I heard is questionable, even to historians. Although there is a legend in which it’s said that Salieri was jealous of you because of your incredible talent, I think? He envied you so much that rumor still has it that he may have poisoned you.”
I looked at him with a deadpanned expression. “That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard in my life. Sure, a couple of weeks ago I was dying and I reasoned that perhaps it may have been something I ate or drank that had made me felt sick. However, the idea that somepony like Salieri would try to murder me? Where did you ever get such an idea?”
“Again, I’m not saying that it’s true because for all I know, what I heard could be biased.”
“I’ll say it is,” I muttered, returning my gaze towards the falling snow, letting the conversation drop to let the sound of the iron tracks rhythmically clank underneath us. Looking out at the barren wasteland, as the snowflakes fell sideways with mountains rise all around us; it brought out memories from my past. “I’ve seen this weather before,” I spoke aloud but I wasn’t aware that I did.
Sunburst tilted his head in the reflection of the glass. “You have?”
“Did you know that Papa had dragged us all over when I was a child? I had memories that my whole family traveled for years in a stagecoach where we lived almost like gypsies. In a way, it was quite an adventure as we hauled everything we had through the most miserable places in the world. Why I remembered one night that we had to stop the carriage in weather just like this. How cold everything was that we huddled together on the floor with nothing to cover ourselves but our blankets and straw. I don’t think I slept that night as the wind howled on so much that I thought at times that wolves were just waiting out there.”
“Really? How old were you?”
I shrugged, “Probably… nine I think because I remembered writing my first symphony the year before. But I can’t remember where exactly we were traveling to. But I do remember that I and my sister were very sick constantly in the winter.” After a sigh, I got up from my seat. “Well, I’m bored, I wonder if I can get to my piano from here?”
As I got up, Sunburst got up along with me, “Really? You want to play right now?”
“Yes, you did say that we won’t be there in an hour or so. I think I might want some time alone for me to practice.”
He nodded and told me that if I needed him, he would be in that seat. So I walked back, hopping from one carriage to the next until I made my way towards the very back where it was housed as a cargo area. There my fortepiano stood among the boxes and luggage, in which I also found Wilfred polishing the wood. “What are you doing?” I asked him.
“Making sure that this instrument is in good condition when we arrive at the Empire.” He answered. “And what are you doing back here?”
“I thought that since we won’t be at the place for a while that I thought that I might play something to pass the time. Where are the others, by the way?”
“The servants? Well, Mr. Sauté is socializing with the new maid that had come this afternoon, and I’ve sent a notice for Her Highness not to send any more servants until we get back from this adventure.”
This surprised me, “We have a new maid? How come I didn’t know about this before?”
“Well I tried to tell you but you were so excited that you hadn’t given me the chance to explain the situation. Her name, for the record, is Fan Manedelssohn. If you want to get acquainted with her, she and Sauté are in the dining car at the very front.”
“I will, but later, I just want to play my piano for a while.”
“All by yourself?” the unicorn raised an eyebrow.
I nodded, “Yes. I just need time to be alone. So would you please leave me be for a while?”
With a sigh, the butler took his cloth and exited the cargo carriage. It was then that my attention turned towards the instrument, its lid closed like a coffin. I went around to the front of the keyboard, taking out my locket to be placed upon the lid. Now all by myself, I let my imagination take hold as I envisioned my darling wife lying up against my side. And there crawling underneath the piano, my colts tussle about on the floor. My wife, in my mind’s eye, looked exhausted as she had been taking care of the children and wished for some peace.
I placed my hooves on the keyboard as I played something to relax her and sooth my sons. However, my emotions got ahold of my hooves as it played a nocturnal fantasy. Letting them pluck from the lower register a near dreamlike theme. My instrument echoed out like a haunted memory. While alone in that carriage, I really did hope that their spirits were nearby. Telling them in my own way that I missed them so much – and how sorry I was for missing out so much of their lives. Needless to say that by the time I got to the next movement of that fantasy, I felt streams of tears roll down my cheeks.
After bawling my eyes out, I reemerged to find everypony were gathered to one side of the carriage, crowding the windows. Wondering what was going on, I too had to peek through to see, to my astonishment, that the wintry landscape has turned that of spring. It was the same as I went from carriage to carriage until I found Sunburst, “What is happening?” I asked him.
“We’re almost there,” he pointed out the window. “Take a look at it yourself.”
I followed the hoof to a truly stunning sight. There among the rolling green hills was a metropolis of crystal were the center of it towered in the sky. I would have never believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes at the rainbow of crystals that seemed to have grown from the ground itself. “Remarkable,” I whispered.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Sunburst smirked, “Wait until you get to see it up close.”
About ten minutes later, the train slowed down to which it halted in front of a tiny station where the passengers got off. But even that still amazed me as the station too was made out of blue crystal. “Is this all made in one piece?” I inquired, staring at the reflection when Sunburst came up from behind.
“In a way, yes,” he answered. “It’s a sort of a well-kept secret in the Empire. Heck, I’ve watched them build my house and even I’m not fully sure how they did it.”
My attention then was turned towards the shining Empire itself, “You know Sunburst, until hours ago when you showed me that picture of this place, I thought that all of this was mere legend. Even I have been told about this place as a setting in a bedtime story. But now that I get to see it, it puts everything I was told into doubt.”
“Really?” the wizard tilted his head. “How so?”
Before I could answer that, suddenly and without warning, I was scooped up off of my hooves and found myself being carried off by two stallions and a seat. “H-Hey!” I was taken in a full gallop with two guards carrying me. “What do you think you’re doing?!” I shouted. “Put me down this instant!”
However, the armored strangers ignored my plight and kept on running into the gleaming city. Grant it, there were times where I did try to get off, but as soon as I did so, they maneuvered themselves so which my flank kept falling back into the seat. At one point I started crying out, “Help! I’m being foalnapped!” but nopony came to my rescue. While I was pondering what these ponies wanted with me, I was taken towards the very center, towards the towering structure. Down through the large avenues until underneath the legs of the tower, then up through a set of stairs, they took me across many hallways until at a certain room they suddenly stopped and I went flying across, skidding along the smooth, polished floor. I confess I was screaming the whole time until I came to a halt where a pink and a purple face looked down at me.
“Huh? I thought you’d be a little taller,” the pink one said to me.