The very next morning, Celestia prepared a hearty breakfast of eggs and cereal. Luna decided to stay in for the day to assemble the furniture she brought home, and soon after the dishes were clean, she tied her hair back and set straight to work.
Schuberry (now with her mane neatly brushed) watched the blue pony put out newspapers before setting parts on top, neatly arranged on the ground. The magic brought pieces together and Schuberry used the last space on the parchment to ask, 'no delivery?'
Luna smiled and explained, "I thought you were going to sleep in the guest room, but we never got around to setting up that room. I suppose I panicked a little."
Schuberry was about to write down an answer when she looked at the note, completely covered in her scribbles. She looked both ways, pawing at the paper.
"We'll have to get more parchment, it seems." Celestia joined them and showed them a list. "Schuberry and I are going on a shopping trip, but we'll be back before lunch."
"Make sure you buy her a ballpoint pen." Luna suggested. "The quill seems to be giving her some trouble."
"Good catch." Celestia quickly added that on. "Come along now, Schuberry." She lowered her wing and let the filly jump on her back. As they left the house, Schuberry gave Luna a cute wave.
"I'll see you soon!" Luna called after her. When the door closed, she clamped at her cheeks. "I'm going to spoil her with everything she ever wanted...and more!"
It was chilly for an early August day, but Silver Shores was slightly further north. A small breeze blew as Celestia trotted along, and she raised her wings a little to block it from the filly.
Schuberry streched up to look around. It was a quiet suburban community, and she noticed a lot of old ponies sitting around on rocking chairs on their porches. She wanted to ask Celestia about it, but once again, the lack of parchment frustrated her efforts.
There was a large white building up ahead, and as they got closer, a humble sign explained that it was the Silver Shoals Assisted Living Facility. Celestia entered through a side door, dusting off her hooves and greeting ponies as they made their way down the hall. She struck up some conversation with a pony behind the reception desk, and Schuberry decided to hop off and made a beeline for the snacks.
Celestia was busy asking the pony behind the desk (a certain stallion by the name of Helpful Hoof) to create some flyers for Schuberry. He obliged, and after a few minutes, they had a small stack ready to be posted. As Celestia turned around to collect Schuberry, she saw her nodding along to another filly, who had a pink coat and a fire-like mane.
"I'm here to visit my grandmother, she used to mayor of Ponyville you know." The unicorn proudly boasted. "Hey, you don't talk much, do you?"
Celestia was about to intervene when Schuberry laughed-or rather, did the physical motions of laughing. No sound came out of her mouth. She pointed at Celestia. The unicorn froze, slowly looking up to meet Celestia's eyes, and then galloped off, terrified. Schuberry herself was startled by this and tried to dive under a couch. Her head was too big, however, and she only got her nose to fit.
The alicorn tried her best to stifle a laugh at the scene. "Schuberry, who was that? Did you make a new friend?"
The pegasus slowly pushed back and did a motion explaining that the unicorn just walked up to her and started talking.
"I might have scared half her life away, the poor thing..." Celestia muttered. "Come on, lets get you some supplies." Once again, Schuberry was on Celestia's back.
Normally, the journey to the main street only took a few minutes, but Celestia hung fliers along the way, perhaps a little too enthusiastically, and by the time they finished shopping in the brightly colored shops, Schuberry's stomach was rumbling. She never did have those snacks back at the reception lobby.
Celestia put aside her thoughts on the little pony's shocking metabolism and entered a small bakery. "We can get you a doughnut, but if I feed you too much Luna will notice." Schuberry nodded and asked for a 'Filliez Special Pretzel.' Paying the bits, Celestia found them a table together. Schuberry was actually more interesting to the other customers since the sisters had started to become regulars in the town, though interest in the filly was perhaps due to her association with the massive alicorn.
Celestia noticed Schuberry was eyeing the bakery's upright piano. 'Shetland & Sons' was emblazoned on the side in gold lettering. After finishing the pretzel, Schuberry wrote something down with her new retractable pen and slid the paper across the table. 'I can not can play piano?' The ballpoint pen had helped her writing a little. Celestia nodded, slightly worried that a small filly banging piano keys at random would disturb the other patrons.
Schuberry approached the piano confidently and set the bench, nose slightly turned in the air. She patted down her chest and sat on the bench. After a moment's pause, she pushed the cover up, grunting a little. One, then two hooves gently rested on top of the keys, and she started playing.
Celestia preemptively winced, but was quickly took it back. It was a relatively new piece by Andante in the classical style, and she remembered listening in a concert about a week after the Storm King was defeated. Luna found the piece rather enjoyable, but Celestia, always one to enjoy the present, resented having to sit surrounded by crusty nobles listening to dated music.
Schuberry had reached a slightly faster paced movement of the music, pulling Celestia from her thoughts. Schuberry truly had perfectly adapted the piece to the piano. And her playing; she didn't bang on the keys, but she didn't tentatively tap on them either. Each note was coaxed out of the piano gently, and even so, she matched the sheet precisely, as if she were a living metronome. Her repertoire could be easily compared to a professional player, and yet she maintained a childlike attitude about it.
Celestia realized that this foal was that one-in-a-million pony that was gifted with a natural inclination towards music. The cutie mark's early apperance made sense now. If she was asked at that moment what she thought she was listening to, she would have described it as the same feeling as eating the world's airiest, softest chiffon cake. Other ponies were paying attention too, mesmerized by how perfectly each note was played. Even the staff had stopped working to listen in. In that moment, everypony within earshot was brought under Schuberry's spell.
She repeated a certain bar several times, each repition becoming softer than the last, as if she forgot what came after. But she didn't forget; she started playing her own meoldy. It was jarring for ponies who heard the original, but after a few measures, Celestia decided she liked Schuberry's version better. The original had become droll and repetitive after that point, and it had nearly put her to sleep that night, but Schuberry played raw emotion.
For Celestia, this new version was like the memory of an ancient friend calling out desperately, begging to be remembered, even after thousands or millions of years. It was auditory nostalgia. It became desperate, faster and faster she played. As Celestia felt tears well up in her eyes, Schuberry managed to change it once more. The song was comforting Celestia. It would all be alright, there was nothing wrong with forgetting a name or a face.
Something left inside of Celestia as the song began nearing the end. Once again, the song became faster, and more desperate. Celestia felt something inside leave her; it was the only way she could describe it. The strange thing is, she didn't feel very sad about it. The song reached a peak, and Schuberry brought everything crashing down. It was over.
There were a few seconds of stunned silence, then one of the patrons begant to stomp his hooves. Everypony else began to join in, and Celestia was snapped out of her trance. She looked up to see Schuberry's expectant face. The filly was panting slightly.
"That was beautiful." Celestia breathed out.
Schuberry blushed. 'I wrote song for dad, but he no like, ask change it'
Celestia's expression changed from breathless to concerned. "What do you mean, your father asked you to change it?"
'dad need help build music, so i wrote this' Schuberry scrawled back. 'you want listen more?'
"Schuberry?" Celestia asked. "Who...who is your father?"
Twilight was catching a break from the day court in the Canterlot Castle's garden, the one oasis of peace and quiet. Her days had become busy, dealing with nobles and diplomats, and even running Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns became a real chore.
She frequented a certain spot under two ponies dancing and would read out documents out loud as a way to get a fresh perspective on disagreements in the court, as well as venting frustrations at the ineffective system as a whole.
As Twilight paced back and forth, muttering about the Crystal Royal Family visiting soon, a messenger pegasus from the Royal Mail Service swooped in. Twilight let out a screech and accidentally sent her manuscripts flying. "Derpy! Wait, how did you find me?"
"Mailmare's gotta do her job." Pegasus curtly replied. "I think it's from Princess Celestia." She dug in her bag with her snout and handed it off to Twilight's glowing magic. "Toodles!"
"Uh, bye!" Twilight called, shaking her head at the fact that some ponies still refered to Celestia as 'Princess,' and gently broke the seal. "Dearest Twilight, last night I came across a small runaway filly with the most astonishing musical talent..." She read over the rest of the letter detailing everything about Schuberry and her horn glowed. Spike came running out a few minutes later. His Royal Advisor medallion was glowing.
"I'm here!" He huffed. "What's the...what's the trouble...?"
"Celestia's already calling in favors." Twilight sighed, rubbing her face. "Oh, its not that I mind! But Pinkie and I had a bet..."
Spike just grabbed the letter and read it for himself. "She said you didn't have to take this 'quest.' Twilight, did you even read through the entire thing?"
"Uh, no." Twilight sheepishly answered.
"Alright..." Spike groaned. "I'll get the gang."
Twilight nodded. "I'll meet you guys in the throne room." She teleported right into the census office. Endless rows of filing cabinets greeted her. At first, she tried her luck going alphabetically down, but after going through the 'AND' section and finding no 'Andante,' she decided to go through the section reserved for nobles. Brass stanchion posts surrounded the cabinets and there was a spotlight illuminating the small area.
After several minutes of rifling, Twilight found what she was looking for: a small file on this unicorn stallion; his current career and occupational history, living arrangements, and family. As she read over the file, she copied some of the information down, triple checking to make sure she got it right. After she had what she needed, Twilight returned the parchment to its proper place and folded the note she wrote down under her wing.
As she exited the archive, a guard snapped a salute. After checking to make sure there were no ponies around, she pushed a brick in the wall, revealing a dark pathway. She took this secret path to avoid unwanted conversations along the way, emerging from a secret panel from the floor in the throne room. "Good, you're all here. I'm sure Spike-"
"Hi, Princess." Sandbar greeted. His friends stood there, waving.
Twilight stood there for a moment. "Spike...? Where's...Rarity...and Applejack..."
"Ah well, I flew down to Ponyville and when I was trying to find the Elements, Starlight Glimmer suggested that I bring these six instead." Spike said proudly. "You're the ruler of Equestria now! C'mon, you should have creatures do things for you every once in a while!"
"Thats not how it works, Spike." Twilight shook her head. "Since Starlight suggested it, I'll allow it. But you have to go with them, Spike." Twilight added on. "Just in case. I don't want you creatures getting hurt. Oh, and take this."
"You can count on me!" Spike puffed out his chest and grabbed Twilight's note. "Alright, let's go!"
When Celestia and Schuberry had returned from the trip, Luna was ready and waiting for them with a big smile on her face. "Hello Schuberry! How was your trip?"
Schuberry quickly wrote back, 'I played the piano'
Luna blinked, and laughed it off. "Oh did you now? What song did you play?"
"Sister, she played Andante's Rose's Ballad." Celestia said. "The one you insisted was really good and nearly put me in a decade of slumber? Come. I'll explain over lunch."
Schuberry hopped off Celestia's back and took her usual seat. Luna joined them, slightly doubtful. "Sister, we both were at the debut, there is no way she could have played something like that."
"She did, and not only did she play it, she played a better version. I enjoyed it." Celestia furrowed her brow and rubbed the base of her horn. After a moment, she began to eat.
"Are you sure you're ok?" Luna quipped. "I'll summon Doctor-"
"I'm quite fine." Celestia waved at Schuberry. "You don't seem convinced."
"I'm not." Luna answered bluntly. "She's too young."
"She'll prove you wrong. Just you wait."
The alicorn sisters then wolfed down their food. In the afternoon, with permission from Schuberry, they went back to the bakery. A small crowd gathered, at first to see both ex-princesses, then to look on at the tiny filly by the piano. Schuberry didn't seem to be scared of the crowd as Celestia first feared. Perhaps music brought some level of confidence out of her.
Schuberry asked Celestia what music she ought to play, and Celestia gently told her, "Any will do. I'm sure everypony will love it."
That put Schuberry in a bit of a pickle. She wasn't aware of the affect she had on Celestia earlier. After thinking for a moment, she banged out a relatively short but difficult piece with many short notes. Her little hooves danced across the keys, and when she was finished, she looked expectantly up at Luna and Celestia.
"Well." Luna muttered. "I don't care much for the song, but she didn't miss a single note."
"What song was it?" Celestia nodded at Schuberry to keep playing.
"It was the Violet Etude, also by Andante." Luna frowned. "It's not meant to be played in concert. Andante just mushed some notes together to teach young ponies how to play the piano."
"I liked it." Celestia turned her attention back to Schuberry.
She had begun playing a very slow moving piece, but it wasn't classic. It could be described as a peaceful night with a twinge of hope. As Celestia let the music wash over her, she began to think. It was no secret that her sister had been completely engrossed with old fashion styles and music, but as Celestia went deeper into the rabbit hole, she realized that Luna missed out on a whole thousand years of history. It was so obvious and yet Celestia herself had tried to ignore the pain of what she did to Luna by immersing herself in the present.
Celestia turned to Luna and drew her in a hug. "I love you, Luna."
"Huh-wha? I love you too, now let me listen to the song!" Luna protested. After trying to push Celestia away, she gave up and leaned in.
Schuberry hadn't noticed this interaction and finished the song. As the ponies politely stomped their hooves, she turned back to Celestia. 'Not sure now play what song'
"But you know more songs, yes?" Celestia finally let go of Luna.
'But you no like them' Schuberry explained. 'I have all song build like this'
"Well at least Luna seems to be enjoying them." Celestia giggled.
"I do. What of it?" Luna huffed.
Schuberry thought for a moment, and once again, the bakery was filled with her music. There was a very noticable rythm to this song, with a few very fast notes followed by a long chord and a pause. It sounded quaint and cute, and it didn't take a music critic to tell that this was her true self playing.
Somehow, though, Celestia couldn't feel the music the same way that morning. Schuberry seemed to have closed off completely. She looked around and found the other ponies enthralled with this song. Luna seemed to be in a happy, otherworldly place.
She stopped abruptly.
'Not sure how to complete building song' Schuberry wrote.
Luna looked on, disbelivingly. "Did she just...pull a song out of her-"
As the afternoon turned to evening, the shadows got longer and longer, and soon, the bakery closed. Celestia went home that night with her mind in a swirl of questions. Prominently, why did the Rose's Ballad have such a profound impact on her? Why did Luna seem affected by Schuberry's improvised tune? Luna and Schuberry fell asleep quickly, but Celestia lay in bed for a long time before succuming to her sister's realm.