Finishing the piece, the collage of birds waited patiently for the yellow Pegasus to give her comments on their performance.
Fluttershy smiled, satisfied by the progress they were making. Her animals had sung the piece much better this time; however she’d noticed a few flaws along the way.
“Very good, I’m noticing a lot of improvement,” she addressed. “There are just a few little things I want to point out. Around the middle of the piece, you three come in a little late—” she pointed towards the right of the bird stand, “—you come in right after Miss Feathers finishes her solo, so the moment she finishes her part, you begin.” She turned to her newest pet. “Your solo is much better, but try to relax when you’re singing your part, or else there’s going to be a lot of stuttering, and that takes away from the feel.”
Fluttershy wasn’t a harsh music teacher. No matter how many mistakes there were, she always pointed them out calmly and never put any pressure on her animals. She learned overtime that when she put stress on them—unintentionally, of course—they didn’t sing as well. After pointing out a few more minor errors, she was confident that they were ready to sing the piece again
“We’re going to start again from the top, and after this I’m going to ask each of you separately to play a section of the piece. You’re all doing fantastically! Ready?”
A synchronized nod from all the singers signaled Fluttershy to raise the baton in her hoof and wave it gently. Each bird took a breath and produced a whistle, the combination of all the notes creating a beautiful harmony, much to Fluttershy’s delight. Near the middle of the song, she directed the end of the baton towards Miss Feathers, who began singing on cue. She could tell her voice was much clearer, which Fluttershy was happy with. The expression was there, the feel was there, and overall, her performance was a gigantic step up from what it was before.
Before the solo was over, she saw Pinkie Pie crossing the bridge over to Fluttershy’s cottage. The Pegasus gestured for her animals to stop singing and take a break before descending to the ground to speak with the pink party pony.
“Hi Fluttershy!” Pinkie called out as her usual hyper self. Fluttershy was happy to see her, yet a little confused as to why she’d come.
“Hi Pinkie Pie, it’s nice to see you today,” Fluttershy said. “Is there something I can help you with?”
“Sort of,” Pinkie replied. “I had a question for you about the New Year ceremony. I won’t take up too much of your time!”
“Oh, that’s not a problem at all. What did you want to ask me?”
“You know how each of us has a part to play in the ceremony?” Fluttershy nodded to confirm she was following. “Well I don’t actually have a part in it right now and I’ve been stumped on how I can participate.”
Fluttershy thought for a few seconds before coming up with a solution. “You could bake some cakes to bring, that would be a good contribution.”
“Yeah, I was thinking that too, and I asked if I could, but it turns out Applejack is already bringing apple pies and what not. Apparently one pony bringing desserts is enough, and afterwards I wasn’t really sure how I could participate.”
“Oh, that’s unfortunate,” Fluttershy said.
“But this morning I came up with this super amazing idea on how I could help out!”
Fluttershy was curious now, since she herself couldn’t actually think of any other way that Pinkie Pie could participate. “Really? Um, well then… how?”
“Since you’re doing the music, I was thinking: maybe I could do it with you!”
Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “Wait, what?”
“Think about it, while your animals play their music, I’ll follow along with my multi-instrument thingy!” While Pinkie Pie was confident about this idea, Fluttershy thought otherwise.
“Actually, um… you see, I don’t know if that’s a very good idea,” she said. “The ceremony is tomorrow, and even I am not completely prepared. I don’t think it would be smart to make last minute changes like that.”
“Please, Fluttershy, it’ll be fun! So we mess up a bit, big deal!”
Fluttershy was unsure whether to let Pinkie Pie collaborate with her. Pinkie didn’t even know what songs she had composed yet, and she had less than a day to practice them, except Fluttershy didn’t want to upset one of her friends. She thought for a bit while Pinkie Pie waited eagerly in front of her. Pinkie Pie wasn’t a bad music player, as a matter of fact, she could play a wide variety of instruments very well. Maybe she could learn her songs before tomorrow. Fluttershy had doubt in her mind, but she pushed that aside and made her decision.
“Alright Pinkie, you can do the music with me.” She wasn’t happy with her decision, but if it made her friend happy, then it counted.
“Thank you, Fluttershy!” the party pony lunged forward and wrapped her arms around the Pegasus, which frightened her, having not expected that to happen. Pinkie’s warm grip lifted Fluttershy’s hooves off the ground for a few seconds before she let go of the Pegasus.
“Your… your welcome,” Fluttershy said—still flustered by Pinkie’s surprise seize on her—and brushed a hoof through her mane to fix it after Pinkie’s hug attack made it frizzy. Pinkie however wasn’t looking at her, but past her towards the few trees by the bridge.
“Hey, who are you?” Pinkie shouted over with a little excitement of meeting somepony new. Fluttershy turned to see who it was, but didn’t see anyone there. Puzzled, she looked back at Pinkie Pie.
“Who were you talking to?” she asked.
“I don’t know, I saw somepony by the trees,” Pinkie frowned in confusion. “Or at least I thought I did.”
Fluttershy looked back to do another scan towards the bundle of trees and with no pony in sight, she faced Pinkie Pie once more. “I think it’s just your imagination, Pinkie.”
“I don’t know, I could have sworn I saw somepony… Eh, you’re probably right!” Pinkie’s joyful mood returned and a wide grin was painted on her face. “So since we’re doing the music together now, what are the songs that we’re gonna be playing?”
“Oh right,” Fluttershy recalled. “I have the music sheets in my cottage. My animals and I are practicing by memory right now, so you can have a look at them.”
The pink party pony set off towards the cottage and disappeared behind its front door, and Fluttershy waited outside patiently for her to come back out with the sheets of music she composed. Pinkie came out with two pieces of paper in her mouth just as Fluttershy was starting to question what was taking her so long.
Pinkie’s eyes darted from left to right as she hummed the notes she saw on the paper. Fluttershy was a bit worried by the fact that she didn’t recognize what Pinkie was humming from any part of her song.
“Looks simple enough. I’m gonna go back home and get my instrument thingy. Be back in a jiffy!” and with that, Pinkie darted off over the bridge and beyond, vanishing from Fluttershy’s eyesight. She sighed and brought herself into the air, flying towards her animal singers to continue with the practice. Looking on the bright side of partnering up with Pinkie Pie, she grew confident that things would go well. Pinkie Pie was good with instruments and was most likely good at reading music. She probably just got the notes wrong because it was her first look at the piece.
Fluttershy raised the baton once again and directed her singers from where they left off, but not long after she saw Pinkie wasn’t lying when she said she would be back in a jiffy. It had barely been a minute since she left and she was coming back, now with a huge instrument combo on her back—a number of brass instruments attached together with an accordion behind her shoulder. Fluttershy couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen that thing.
“How did you get there and back so fast,” Fluttershy asked.
“I ran,” Pinkie replied as if it were obvious. “What are we waiting for, let’s get to practicing!”
Fluttershy sighed again and directed her attention to her singers. “Alright everypony, from the top.”