That ‘summer of age 9’ also brought Starlight two very shocking surprises. The first one was an honest lovely little surprise she had received one Saturday right before she was to leave from flight practice.
“Okay so if I do the arrow maneuver down towards the hurdles, then you do that springboard launch over the hurdles and we both meet to finish with a simple glide. Does that feel about right?”, Starlight signed as she and Spirit went over their drills for the demonstration that following Saturday for the parents and guardians.
“Yes, but remember that's only towards the end. There's still the beginning part that we still need to work on. ”, Spirit added in response to her wingmare.
“That sounds about right. Good looking out, Spirit Chaser.”, Starlight signed with a smile.
“What are best friends for? For that and….this!”, Spirit signed before springing up and playfully tackling Starlight into the clouds. Tumbling about, the pair ended up landing in a heap on the cloud floor with Starlight on top of Spirit. A slight blush began to creep onto both of their faces as they scrambled off and settled. Chuckling, the pair of ponies went off to the filly’s locker room with the other 5 young fillies and got showered, dried and their individual gym bags together. Chattingering excitedly the entire time (with the exception of Starlight and a much younger filly called Dusty Plains) as they got ready to go home.
When Starlight stepped out of the locker room and prepared to wait for her mother who was picking her and Spirit Chaser up (As Melody would've done so, but her band had a gig in upper Trottingham that weekend and had left the previous evening), Spirit Chaser suddenly pulled on her tail to tell her to hold on.
“What?”, Starlight asked in sign. Head cocked in confusion at her besties’ antics.
“Uhhh….Oh yeah, hold on a second. I Have an idea. Why don't we have a race to see who gets there first?”, Spirit Chaser suggested after physically stammering.
Not sensing her friend's trepidation, but easily picking up that she was merely stalling, Starlight Sonata merely shrugged and nodded.
“Awesome! How about we start from the cloud hoops agility course and end at the lobby.”, Spirit Chaser signed while flying towards the agreed upon start point. Starlight following before counting off on her wings. All of a sudden, two clouds of dust were what was left of the two foals as they sped through the air. Past the exercise equipment and Colt's locker room (to which both girls slowed and shivered in disgust as they passed through the unbearable scent wafting from inside the closed door. Quickly signing to each other the gesture for “gross”). Across the race track and out the entrance doors for the arena. The long hallways of the training grounds make for excellent trailways for the racing girls. When the race concludes with a tie, the pair of them giggle and head on over to where they see Starlight's mom, Moondance waiting with what looked like a leash?
“Hi mama. Wait--why do you have a leash? Did somepony ask you to watch their dog or something?”, Starlight asked as she greeted her mother with a hug.
“Actually lil’ star, I have a bit of a surprise for you. However, Starlight I need you to read my lips carefully. This surprise is yet another tool to help you for..however many years you may have to use it. Now your Daddy and I have been talking about this and planning it for months and it's just now ready. This tool will be your responsibility Starlight. You’ll be taking care of it. Am I understood?”, Moondance explained to her visibly anxious youngest daughter.
“Yes ma’am. I understand completely. But, what is it? What's the surprise tool?!?”, Starlight asked in anxious excitement.
With two quick taps of her left hoof, Moondance stepped aside to allow a semi-squirming half-coordinated ball of golden fluff bound up to her before settling at her side. Big amber eyes looked straight at the shell shocked bundle of nerves that was the apprehensive honey coated filly with the strange metallic pieces in her ears.
“I-Is….she...Is she mine?”, Starlight asked in complete bewilderment as she stared at the juvenile Golden Retriever. It was then that she noticed the vest that the pup wore. In, bright white bold letters, were the words ‘SERVICE DOG. DO NOT PET.’ It was that best that confirmed what she had already suspected. This dog was a service dog. Ordinarily such an act would cause her to get temperamental and start yelling about how she's “independent” and can do things herself, but for some reason she couldn't bring herself to do so while looking at this equally confused puppy.
“So...so she's going to be my aide?”, Starlight asked in a way that made her sound like she understood.
“Yes. Her name is Sunflower. She's 16 months old and has had all her shots. Now darling, you know as well as I that your hearing has only gotten a might worse over the past year and well...this isn't just us supplying you with another resource to help you better yourself, but also I convinced your father that it’d be a great opportunity for you to learn about more responsibility. So...what do you think?”, Moondance explained to/asked her daughter.
A small smile that was present on both fillies’ faces slowly morphed into grins of delight before a squeal of happiness escaped Starlight Sonata. She then slowly let the dog approach her with a cautionary nose. Once close enough to get a good sniff, the dog surprised herself by wagging her tail and smiling in a doggy way. Suddenly, all the caution and nervousness melted away from both pony and dog as the young ones clung to the half-grown dog. Smiling and petting her (despite the vest saying no, as her new mistress, Starlight felt it necessary). Letting the dog’s slobbery tongue lick her cheek. Getting up, Starlight dusted herself clear of cloud pieces and stood tall.
“Thank you Mama. I love her and I promise that we'll take care of each other.”, Starlight signed with a smile.
Satisfied that her daughter liked her surprise, Moondance instructed Starlight on how to tell Sunflower to get on her back. Starlight did the command and soon she was flying with her new service companion on her back all the way home.
1 hour later…
Back home and sitting in the conservatory going over a piece that she had recently learned, Starlight and Spirit were both sitting at the piano bench with Sunflower laying next to them on the floor. Yet the oddest thing occurred when Starlight started to play a fast tempo, yet delicately sophisticated song. Once she started playing, Sunflower got up and started howling in tune and tempo with her music. The only way Starlight heard it was because Sunflower howled just loud enough for it to be heard by her. Glancing away from the piano briefly, Starlight nodded to the dog to let her know that she heard her. Unbeknownst to the trio, Melody had come home earlier than planned and was once again recording them with her own commentary on her little sister and her new companion.
Weeks later something of a bizarre day occurred and when Starlight would later be asked as to the story behind her cutie-mark, she’d change the details due to how odd the actual story happened.
It was a unseasonably chilly summer day when they saw it. A flyer that read of how a travelling symphony was looking for a temporary replacement pianist for an upcoming summer concert series they were performing. Looking at the date and time of the auditions (which were set for a week from that day at 5pm), Starlight felt confident to ask her mother to contact the company organizer and set up a time for her to perform. With the relatively “easy” part out of the way, came the actual hard part: Picking a song to perform.
“No”, Starlight signed as Rain Whip held up another sleeve in her binder with a composition she called “Spring” lay.
They had been at this for 2 days already and time was of the essence. Simply put, in Starlight Sonatas’ mind none of her works were worthy of performing in front of a genuine conductor and orchestra company leader.
“Well my sweet, you've got to have something to perform. Maybe try to think of something new? That might work!”, Rain Whip suggested to his rapidly spiraling daughter.
Write something new? Why hadn’t she thought of that! Mentally slapping herself, she called for Sunflower then gently gave her the ‘fetch paper’ command and soon had a stack of (very slightly droopy) music sheets resting on her stand and a fresh pencil at the ready.
The next few days passed in pretty much the same fashion. Starlight would wake up with Sunflower nudging her. Head to the bathroom to fix herself with bathroom duties. Stalk towards her sister's room and have Sunflower bark loudly to get Melody up. Run away downstairs to avoid the tirade that was Melody throwing pillows at her to knock it off. Fix herself some cereal and feed Sunflower (never in that order). Then head into the conservatory to work on her composition for a majority of the day. Take breaks for friends/family/restroom/food occasionally but otherwise returned to the cool, cushioned piano bench.
Eventually the day came and to say that Starlight wasn't nervous would be an outright lie. She was so nervous, she almost caused herself to have a panic attack (thanks to quick thinking by Sunflower, this was avoided)! Add on to the fact that just that morning, the outfit she was supposed to wear to her performance got messed up via an accidental soda spill onto the chair that the dress was laying across. Freaking out, she and her mother had to rush out to a store at least 30 minutes before her time slot to find a dress that, while fit her perfectly, she hated due to the color (she greatly despises the color orange). After a swift pop to the hoof to “not complain” followed by a hasty payment and rush out to the Trottingham Imperial Music Hall with finished composition in her mother's purse. Starlight barely had time to warm up before her time slot was called.
“Young lady, please introduce yourself and the piece you are performing.”, The conductor said as an interpreter stood beside her and signed the instructions to the little filly at the piano.
“My name is Starlight Sonata. I am 9 years old and today I will be performing an original composition for you.”, Starlight spoke as she readied her hooves and performed a slow, but powerful piece that took her AGES to come up with. Her hooves moved like lightning across the piano.
With the only comprehensive thought on her mind being ‘I can't wait til she hears this!’, Starlight finished her song just as slowly and harmoniously as she started it. Looking up from her sheet music to the conductor, she smiled before standing and bowing. Completely missing the flash of light coming from under her dress.
The interpreter signed to Starlight that she did a spectacular job and that they would be in touch once the auditions results were completed. With a grateful bow, she exited stage left, exactly how her mama showed her years ago.
Backstage, her family and club were there to state the obvious of ‘that was astounding!’, ‘way to go Starry!’ and ‘I’m so proud’ all around. All Starlight wanted to do was get out of that horrible dress and potentially pass out in her bed. As they left to head back to Starlight’s house, the young filly in question couldn't help but feel like something else big happened that she couldn't place a hoof on.
4 hours later….
As she began to get ready for bed, Starlight felt a tugging on her tail by a certain golden pup. Turning to see what her little helper wanted, she almost lost her hoof holds as she finally saw what it was that her dog was indicating to. Right there on her honey colored flanks was a cutie-mark of two light blue feathers and a eighth note atop the cross section.
“OH MY FAUST!! MAMA! PAPA! MELODY! COME QUICK, I GOT MY CUTIE-MARK!!! ”, Starlight Sonata screamed down the hall from the bathroom.
Scrambling towards the bathroom from the sound of Starlight's screams, the other three members of the family were in absolute shock for all of 5 seconds before the house erupted in cheers (and a exasperated “Finally!” from Starlight) of congratulations and talks of planning another cute-ceañera.