//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: Riddle Me This. // Story: Harmonic Gift From The Stars // by DTavs exe //------------------------------// Two mares walked through the town in complete silence after the trivia contest, they were enjoying the early afternoon breeze, until the party pony finally spoke, “I'm sorry we didn't win Twilight,“ Pinkie said a bit down because Twilight streak was broken. Twilight hugged the pink mare with her wing, “no Pinkie, I'm the one that should apologize for having you disqualified, just so I could win a silly contest, I'm terribly sorry and I hope you can forgive me.“ Softly rubbing her forehead on Twilight's jaw, Pinkie lifted her friend's head, “Oh Twilight, you don't have to apologize either, I should have known that you will go all ‘Twilynanas’.“ “I wasn’t ‘Twilynanas’,” Pinkie raised one eyebrow and put on a serious face, “ok, I was a little ‘Twilynanas’, wait, don’t tell me you are using that term as well,“ Pinkie nodded, “ fine, anyway I need to return to the castle to prepare the music box for our session today, wanna come?“ “Sure thing Twilight, oh and by the way, remember when Celesta told us that we could invite some friends to listen to the music box?” That caught Twilight's attention “yes, why? Do you know somepony?” she asked her. Pinkie jumped on the spot with a grin from ear to ear, “yup, my sister Maud has been asking me to tell her about this reunions and she wants to invite her boyfriend Mudbriar.” Twilight gave her a pensive face, “hmmm, do you think they’ll keep the secret, we don’t want too many ponies know this yet,” “Of course Twilight, they are the best at keeping secrets,” Twilight nodded, “Ok, then I guess you should go and let them know.” “Technically, that won't be necessary,” a masculine voice sounded behind them. “GHAAAA!” with a scream the purple alicorn jumped a few meters from the ground landing unceremoniously on her butt while Pinkie laughed, “why you guys appear out of nowhere?” With a monotone voice and a stoic expression the stallion responded, “technically, we have been following you since the end of the contest,” “What?” Mudbriar blinked and raised his hoof, “technically, we have been following you since the end of the contest,” Twilight shook her head, “No I mean, you been following us since then?” “Nyes” “So you heard everything we were talking about the music box?” “Nyes” Twilight facehoofed, “way to go Twilight, babbling about alien technology in the middle of the street where everypony and their mother can hear me,” Maud’s boyfriend raised his hoof again, “technically, we didn’t know it was alien technology, that is fascinating.” With a defeated sigh, Twilight looked at the couple, “you know what? I won’t get stressed over this, but I can trust you two will keep the secret until we all decide to reveal the secret to everypony right?” The silent couple looked at each other and nodded, “Mudbriar and I promise not to tell anypony about the secret of the music box,” Maud said with a monotone voice and both made slowly the signal for a Pinkie Promise. Twilight turned to look at Pinkie who closed her eyes, smiled and nodded, “ok, I guess that’s good enough, hey that would be like another prize for winning today’s trivia contest.” Once again Mudbriar lifted a hoof, “technically, you weren’t organizing the trivia contest, so you can’t grant prizes for it,” he said while Twilight put on a frown, Maud softly hit him on the ribs with an elbow, he looked at her, then at Twilight and then said putting an effort to genuinely smile, “but that’s not really important now, we greatly appreciate this prize,” Twilight giggled at Mudbriar’s change. Maud smiled nuzzling her boyfriend, “we are getting there, I’m proud,” she whispered to his ear at which he blushed. Both Pinkie and Twilight looked at the scene in respectful silence “Oookay, well we should leave now then, knowing Rainbow and Applejack they raced each other to the castle and the others should be there as well,” and so the four ponies walked their way to the castle. ~♥~♦~♣~♠~ Back at the castle Rainbow and Applejack were discussing who got there first, meanwhile Starlight and Spike were getting the music box and the console ready for the session while Rarity and Fluttershy were putting up the table with the snacks. “Ah touched the door first!” “Yeah? Well I got in first!” “The rules were to ‘git to the castle first’  not to ‘git in the castle first’ you ain’t cheating on this, no way.” “HA rules schmules. I know, I’ll hoof wrestle for the win!” “Oh you’re on, sugarcube.” On the table, Rarity let out a sigh watching two of her friends compete, “I swear darling, if they keep going like that,one day they will fight over who dies last and knowing them, that will make them immortal,” even if that was a complaint, Fluttershy couldn’t help but giggle at Rarity’s comment. The doors suddenly open showing a bouncy pink pony, “everypony shut up, team TwiPie and team MaudBriar incoming!” “WHAT!” both Rainbow and Applejack screamed at the same time, breaking their hoofwrestling competition. Rainbow Dash seemed angry at the couple, “aw great, WE GET IT! You are destined to each other!” she said in a sarcastic way looking at them holding hooves. Applejack fixed her hat, “don’t be like that, sugarcube, it ain’t their fault they always git chosen together for the trivia,” the country mare put a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder. Twilight stepped in front of Applejack and Rainbow, “actually, they are Pinkie’s guest today for the music box, hopefully we can keep the sarcasm to the minimum Rainbow.” The young pegasus rolled her eyes pouting, “fine, sorry.” Everyone gathered around the music box and Twilight explained the music box origin and how it works, “ok that being said, why don’t we let them press the button today?” everyone in the room agreed now they just needed to decide who will pick the first song. Rummaging in her purse, Maud pulled a coin showing it to Mudbriar, “given that there are only two of us, I consider leaving it to luck would be the right decision,” she said in her usual monotone voice. Mudbriar slowly picked the coin rubbing Maud’s hoof, “I concur, I love how solid your ideas are my lovely mahogany,” he stared at Maud’s eyes with a slight smile. Maud put a hoof on his chest, “my ideas are just as solid as your grip when you hold me, my handsome hunk of granite,” she gently rubbed Mudbriar, “I want head.” The stallion blushed, “that is lovely,” he tossed the coin in the air, “then I will get tail,” he said without breaking eye contact with Maud making her blush as well. “Yes you will,” the gray mare said. Everyone else stared at the couple, most of them embarrassed at the display of affection, “um, should we… leave the room or what?” Fluttershy asked, at this the coin fell on the ground showing heads. Pinkie walked between them, ”alright you two, this is a rate T story so this is as much as far as we can get, Maud you get to press the button first,” she lifts her older sister and place her in front of the music box. Maud placed a hoof on the music box, rubbing the outside of the machine, ”smooth, just as smooth as polished marble, but too soft to be any mineral, ”she lowered her head smelling and licking the music box, everyone else in the room except Pinkie and Mudbriar let out a 'bleh' in unison,” lacks any discernible smell and doesn't taste like plastic either, impressive I don't know this material,” she finally pressed the button and the music box came to life  a drum started playing and then an interesting tune. Maud returned to her spot next to Mudbriar, meanwhile Twilight wrote notes about the song, ”so they have two arms, interesting but why would the alien call them blessings of Babylon?” ”What even is Babylon?” asked Rainbow Dash flying over the music box. Starlight levitated Rainbow to her spot, ”it sounds like a name, maybe its parent name or its nation name, that's why they are blessings received from 'Babylon' still sound weird but it's a start.” Fluttershy dipped a cookie on her tea, ”but why would anypony try for sins and false alarms? that makes no sense.” Giggling Pinkie stomped on the pillow, ”that song is CRAZY! I love crazy stories.” ”I don't think that's a story,” Twilight said while taking notes, ”it doesn't follow a plot and is giving just random tips and bits, like that man of Aran, that's probably a place, also a beacon in the veil of the night... IT'S A RIDDLE!” she said clapping her hooves, ”I love riddles and I'm the best at them.” Pinkie stopped in the middle of pouring a shake on her mouth, the liquid stayed in the same position, while the pink party pony reached her sister and hugged her from behind, ”eh NOOoooooo, my sister here is the best at solving riddles,” she returned to her shake having it fall on her mouth. At this point everyone ignored Pinkie's disregard of the laws of physics, ”that will be interesting, how about  a rematch from today, the first to find a solution for this wins,” Twilight suggested to Pinkie's sister, Maud turned to her boyfriend then back and nodded, Twilight levitated a pen and a copy of her notes to Maud, ”this will be fun,” she said clapping her hooves. An alabaster mare let out a raspberry, ”in the name of everything that is fabulous, what kind of plans are nights in the scullery, that's the opposite of romantic,” Twilight kept taking notes. “Didn’t he just said that wise mane ain’t fighting over you?” asked Applejack scratching her head. “No, that was the man of Aran, this is the wise man… I think,” starlight corrected her friend “and now he folded.” “What is ‘gasoline’ is it like vaseline?” Spike asked scratching his head with one claw while grabbing a ruby with the other. Mudbriar stared at the young drake then at her girlfriend like he was asking permission at which she slowly nodded, “technically, they are not the same, though they are made using the same main substance it being ‘petroleum jelly’ they are used for different purposes, vaseline is used for cosmetic purposes meanwhile gasoline is used to fuel machinery by non magical races like donkeys, minotaurs or griffons.” Spike munched on the ruby, “oh, nice,” he said swallowing the jewel. As the song ended, Twilight kept furiously making notes meanwhile Maud just wrote a few words and folded the paper, ‘what is all this nonsense, this riddle might be one of the toughest I’ve ever heard, oh sweet Celestia, Maud is already done? That can’t be it’s only been a few seconds... seconds? Yeah I should hear the song again maybe I can find a solution then… no you are not supposed to hear a riddle twice, but what does this mean AAAAH I can solve this I know I can,’ where the thoughts inside Twilight’s head while her mane began to frazzle and her pupils to shrink. Starlight cleared her throat, “well, do you have you ans-” “I NEED MORE TIME!” shouted Twilight startling everyone in the room. “Darling, you know we have limited time, maybe we should just hear the second song.” Twilight gave a defeated sigh, “yeah you are right, this song is just a mess, I don’t think it has any meaning.” Maud gave Starlight the paper she wrote on her answer, “hmm but you just wrote here ‘nonsense’ what does this mean?” “It is simple, I did not recognize any order on the lyrics, there was no discernible pattern that could have any meaning, it is my understanding that this is not a riddle at all,” Maud said without blinking. Starlight nodded, “A tie it is,” Twilight opened her mouth to respond but  starlight quickly put a hoof on her muzzle, “I said a tie it is,” Twilight rolled her eyes and nodded, “well, with that settled why don’t we let Mudbriar turn the music box on now?” Mudbriar approached the music box and pressed the button and a soft mellow tune started playing Pinkie stopped eating cake, “Ooooh that sounds pretty” resuming her cake. “Hopefully this song will make more sense than the previous one,” the purple alicorn said while pouring herself a cup of tea to calm her nerves, she sipped her tea and at that moment the first verse of the song played, she spit some of the tea, “AW COME ON! He is he but the other he is also he and they are all together? Why are you doing this to me music box? Have I treated you badly?” she said while kneeling in front of the music box. Twilight’s friends felt bad for laughing but watching Twilight’s outburst like this was pretty entertaining when it didn’t involve an ‘end of the world catastrophe’ nonetheless they knew they had to calm her before she blows a  fuse, Rainbow picked her and both flew to her spot, Fluttershy covered her on a blanket and Rarity gave her a cup of tea without paying much attention to the song anymore. “You know Twilight,” Starlight began, “I think it’s a good thing that songs like this exist, maybe trying to find a meaning to a song is just too overrated, what if there is no actual meaning and they just put a bunch of words into the music to sound nice. Spike kept listening to the song not paying attention to the girls trying to calm Twilight, “this song is hilarious,” he said laughing at the funny lyrics, not understanding half of them, “hahahahaha goo goo g'joob, that's silly, that's not what a walrus sounds like... is it?“ he looked the girls still trying to calm Twilight then to his other side to Maud and Mudbriar who shrugged at the question not knowing the answer either. Once the song finally reached its final verse, the group managed to calm Twilight who looked worse for wear, but at least the tick on her eye stopped and was breathing normally now, the stoic couple stood up and approached Twilight,  in a cold fashion Maud said “this was a fascinating experience, we are thankful that you shared this with us, we will take our leave now, we have... unfinished business, Mudbriar and I.“ “See you later,“ said Mudbriar and both left the room leaving everyone else wondering what they were going to do. Rainbow broke the silence, “they are totally gonna bone, aren't they?“ the group looked at her and some of them laughed. Pinkie jumped in front of Rainbow waving her arms, “Dashie mind the story's rate please, we don't want the author to get in problems.“ Spike got off the sofa and poked Twilight with his claw, “hey Twilight, what's a crabalocker?“ Twilight made a double take, “a what?“ “A crabalocker, the song mentioned it,“ Twilight lifted her hooves shaking her head not knowing the answer, “what about fishwife? is it the wife of a fish? or what about por-“ Spike started but Pinkie covered his mouth with her hooves. “What part of 'rate T' don't you understand? and don't finish that question, I'll tell you later,“ everypony else looked at her confused for the whole deal, but not dare to ask about it, knowing that even if she didn't make sense, maybe, just maybe not making sense it's not that bad. To be continued