//------------------------------// // Epilogue // Story: Knight of Equestria III: Pizzicato and Changelings // by scifipony //------------------------------// I stretched the medallion's ribbon over my neck and let the hunk of metal lay over my chest. My black blouse made the gold appear to magically glow, but unless you looked closely, it was no more than a bangle. The contrarian in me dared anypony to take a close look. I stuck my head through the canvas to the stage to see Coloratura had taken over my boards. Her polished hooves flashed as she mounted two records and mixed in a third with her puce shadow, D-D, assisting her with cuing, an earphone muff to an ear. Just how long had that interlude with Princess Celestia lasted? Illusory rainbow clouds swirled overhead with the music while sparks shot right and left and blazed with the beat. A ghostly earth pony strutted through the sky, then broke into kaleidoscope images. The light show added to the performance, but didn't overwhelm it. One pony had a lot to do with that. I took a shuddering involuntary breath and looked at the audience. I felt completely unfettered. The weird silence in my mind made me shiver. Maybe Celestia had yanked out that metaphorical stake in my heart. I searched for and found the unicorns in green suits wandering purposely through the audience, controlling the light FX. I craned my head and swiftly spotted one white unicorn with an icy blue mane. I was feeling good. No, I hadn't drunk all that much punch. I'd half-bathed in it, but had not drunk much. I danced through the curtain, prancing, bobbing my head, snapping my high held tail. I kept my eyes on Ghost Zapper as I approached the edge of the stage. I reared, wings flared, dragon-dancing on two legs. The crowd cheered and imitated me. Polished hooves flashed in the light. D-D came up and I whispered a song to him. Within a minute, Coloratura faded it in. D-D brought me a large pink ribbon. Still rearing, still dancing, I dramatically tied an outrageously large bow into my hair with my wings. Coloratura had nowhere near my finesse on the 1s and 2s, but she got the three instrumental tracks mixed in and in-sync. I gave her a two-pinions up sign and she ramped up the gain on Octavia's mics as the bassist chomped her rosin bow in her mouth and began plucking the strings for all she was worth, using a pizzicato technique, bobbing her head like a crazy pony. Pizzicato and Changelings for a Pegasus Heart. If my life this week could be a song, that could have been the title of the fugue. Subtitled, A Fugue for a Crazy Pony. Me. Flopsy Mopsy. Coloratura adjusted her mic so it faced down. She mixed in the syncopated trotting beat of her hooves against the stage and D-D brought her a replacement voice mic, adjusting the gain. Rivers Prance by Tomes on a Hack played. I grabbed the fly mic D-D hoofed over with a smile and shoved it down over my head. As I adjusted the boom, a bright golden spot popped on over me. Seeing a flicker in the electric blue nebulosity pulsing around Ghost Zapper's horn, I knew he'd done it. I lifted my medallion for a moment and pirouetted to show everypony, but it was simply bling—to all but one who looked on. I glanced right toward Lower Canterlot where Princess Celestia had left her drink, her black-cloaked figure again limed in a luminescent rose-colored bar wall lined with translucent top shelf spirit bottles, apothecaries of the finest colored salt, and sunflowers in vases. She reared, pedaling her unshod white hooves, holding a new glass of iced blue liquid high in her golden magic. It wasn't lost on me that she'd come here despite her niece's wedding. I dropped the medallion with a bruising thwack against my chest. On my cue, I sung: "We will change this We'll make it through our wilderness We will change this And make it truly fabulous!" As the audience roared, I spread my wings and sprung into the sky. I circled, singing parts of phrases. Over a few stanzas, I spiraled down. Ghost Zapper kept the light centered on me. "Songbird!" cried the audience, sporting more and more horn lights... I had a certain prey in mind and I did not want to scare him away. He worked his illusions in workpony-like fashion, pretty much oblivious to the excited pegasus mare stalking him. The crowd wasn't as oblivious. As far as ten pony-lengths away from him, ponies retreated, clearing a runway. Obvious smiles and sly looks all around showed that they sensed what was about to happen. Ghost Zapper's illusory breezy conga line froze like a string of Hearthswarming lights midair when he realized his anonymity had evaporated. He jerked his head and looked around, then locked his blue eyes on me. I landed with a clatter of my bronze horseshoes. Coloratura faded the song into the transitional intermezzo between stanzas. An instrumental. I flared my wings and danced before the most handsome stallion I knew. He was the only stallion I'd fancied in high school. I didn't have to speak to him now. I had more than words for him. Better. Unlike like the day before, I didn't feel my face heat. I didn't feel tongue-tied. I felt... I felt. Throughout my body. I really did. I felt... hot. I turned a dance of tapping hooves, a swishing black tail, and wings-touching-the-ground into the trot Coloratura performed and mixed in. I circled, my heart racing, my eyes on him and him alone. Was I wrong in my presumptions? Had my Nightmare Moon side frightened him off forever? Did he understand what I was doing? What I wanted? Would he play along? No... Yes. He got the idea. He began to dance. Coincidentally. On cue. I sang, "Like tributaries through the desert sand you flow east and I prance west..." Yes, we were different. Maybe too different to last, but that didn't mean I didn't deserve to go after what might make me happy. Sure, he worked for a company, for somepony else, and I freelanced as a DJ. But when it came down to it, he was my hero. I had asked him to do the one thing that could make a difference to me, to save ponies—and he'd complied. He'd completed me. I'd pranced left. He'd flowed right. And, together, we'd saved... Thousands. Princess Celestia had said so. He could have killed himself. Almost had. He'd won my heart. Hero. "But before we go our separate ways we'll learn what we are and why we are and how we'll spend those very days..." As heroes. He mirrored my dance and went at it with flank-shuddering gusto as the crowd cheered, clattering their hooves and trotting the beat. Ghost Zapper's cohort tripped every light off and dramatically snapped all spots on us after a second of dark. He smiled. I grinned and stepped beside him. I pressed in and he pressed back and we trotted in place, rubbing, dancing as one. His fur was warm and velvety. I wasn't sure if the static electricity I felt might be metaphorical or real. The roar around us was deafening. "Songbird!" I pranced away. I circled him, dancing. His nostrils flared as he breathed as hard as I did. He kept his eyes focused on me, narrowed with that transparent knowing look he now shared with me, shifting his head to the other side as I crossed behind his flank. He was a magnet. I was steel. He snapped his blue tail playfully at my nose. His blue eyes we dreamy, electric, and on me. He grinned. When I came directly in front of him, I stopped and stood. So did he. I mangled the next line and instead sang, "You brought us luck and let us shine." By you I meant him. I was breathing hard. My words were breathy. My heart thundered with every pent up emotion a filly could feel for her colt-friend special somepony. Coloratura got it. She sang, Bring the light of day to the river's flow Make the world's waters glow ...like ...like ...like ...like gold! I leaned forward and kissed him. Without apparent thought, with obvious instinct and pony desire, he returned the snog with a passion. Like circling magnets stuck together, we began to dance, lips wetly conjoined. What revelation! My body felt electrified, burning and buzzing to the music and the rhythm of my heart. Coloratura sang, for my mouth was occupied, "Like gold, be bright, be bold Like the brightest, be the bold! Make the world's waters glow ...like ...like ...like ...like gold! The crowd chanted, "Songbird! Songbird! Songbird!" So these were the tingling sensations the articles in Filly and Teen PONY had said I would feel! And, yes, I discovered that you can smile and kiss at the same time. I wished the night would never end. Author Note Knight of Equestria (4 Books) Next Book: Unmarked Time Next Chapter: Overture