“If you want to keep the pace moderately fast, it should be doot doot, dee-doot doot.”
Luna shook her head and scratched out some notes she had on the lyrics for her new song. It was hard to focus on just one melody or theme. Every few lines, Luna would come up with a great rhyming scheme, but it wouldn’t fit into the rest of the song. It happened so much that if she saved up all her drafts, she could probably write a second album.
Luna set her quill down on the Friendship Map. I’m my own boss. I totally could write my second album. She looked around. The irony was not lost on her that in her pursuit to break away from her princesshood, the Castle of Friendship became the place for her band to meet.
“Hey.” Svengallop clapped his hooves. “You listening, Princess? I asked you what you thought of this beat for the trumpets.” He played a short rhythm on his keyboard with the settings to imitate the blaring of trumpets.
Luna furrowed her brows. “You know I don’t like that name.”
Svengalloped shrugged. “If you stopped spacing out, I wouldn’t have to use it, Princess.”
“Ugh, okay, fine,” Luna scoffed and postured up. She wrote out the notes Svengallop played as she listened to it for a second and third time. It was good, but a little stifled.
“No, go a little higher,” she said, “Imagine trumpets you can march to, something exciting and energetic. It sounds like you’re playing for a funeral.”
Svengallop sputtered his lips in frustration, but together they worked on the song.
Splitting her attention between rehearsals and songwriting was tough. Luna was used pouring all her attention into one task, same as how she worked with dreams. But the first few concerts of the tour were all exhilarating, and she couldn’t do anything but think about music.
After Vanhoover, they went across Equestria to Baltimare and performed at another massive music stadium. Then they snaked their way back up to Fillydelphia for a smaller concert. Even though there were fewer tickets sold to accommodate the smaller concert space, Luna was surprised to find a hardcore following in the city.
Apparently, the performance they did last year impressed a lot of ponies. After the concert, Poppin oversaw the photography and autograph session with the fans. For about an hour, Luna stood outside their makeup trailer smiling, signing shirts, and smiling while signing shirts. It was exhausting.
“Yo.” Lightning Dust blew open the doors to the map room. “There’s a letter for you, Luna.”
Luna slammed her notes back down on the map table. “A letter? You went to the post office without me?”
“Uh, yeah… it was in the middle of my flying route.”
“At nyght was to come the pegasus without fail, for to deliver owre mail. Were it kowthe that it resten in that place, we would have made forward erly to take owre wey there ere sonen ryse.”
“What the hell?” Svengallop broke his concentration and looked up at Luna.
She brushed her hair forward, covering her face. “I’m very passionate about the logistics of post offices. But that’s not important, let me see the letter.”
She took it off Lightning’s hooves and unfolded the message. It was from Coco Pommel, congratulating her on her successful concerts, and thanking her for helping her set up her own workshop. Included was a photo of her new designs, hung up in long racks and stacked on spacious shelves.
Behind it all was a letter. Poppin and Luna had talked about improving the look of the band on-stage. Their costumes and instruments looked the part, but they were lacking stage props. Coco Pommel was Luna’s first thought for a solution. The young mare was not just a fashion designer, but an enthusiast when it came to plays, and definitely knew how to dress up a stage.
After their concert in Baltimare, Poppin wrote to Coco asking for her help with upgrading the Nightmare Knights. The answer was an affirmative “yes.”
“Looks like Coco is available this week for designs and consultation,” Luna checked the list of availabilities at the bottom of the letter. “We should go soon if we want any props done before Rainbow Falls.”
“And remember, don’t let your insecurities hold you back.” Mrs Cake waved her spatula around, splattering sweet and gooey batter across the front seats of the lecture room. “If I let mine stop me, I might never have discovered my true calling as a baker!”
Guest lectures.
With a growing student body, the School of Friendship could no longer rely on just five instructors. Since Sunburst handled a lot of the logistics involved in running the school, such as making offers to textbook publishers and responding to letters, that left Starlight free to run interviews and trial lectures.
Half of the work had been completed last year. She had planned and hired a number of substitute teachers from around Ponyville, and they were all eager to show that they could take the next step forward. Octavia was another prime candidate. Originally, the mare was hesitant about teaching, favouring her music career above everything else. But after substituting for a few of Rarity’s classes on etiquette, she decided that teaching music might be equally as rewarding as performing it.
For her and the other substitute teachers, giving lectures expanded their interests in ways they never thought they would like.
And the enthusiasm was more than welcomed. The second semester would be interjected with a two-week Spring Vacation, coinciding with the Rainbow Falls Trader Exchange this year. Starlight hoped to have a roster of new professors selected by the time spring came, long before she’d have to focus on rehearsing with the Knights. But, with winter in its last half, time was running a little short.
“You were wonderful Mrs Cake,” Starlight said. “I think I could hire you right now as a lecturer right now.”
“Oh, thank you, dearie. It was nice to pass down a little bit of what I know. I guess, with the little ones growing up, it’s nice to practice teaching. Who knows, I might need it one day.”
As with all the other guests, Starlight invited Mrs Cake to the faculty lounge for lunch and a short tour of the campus. Though it was the newest jewel of Ponyville, a lot of local ponies still didn’t know their way around the classrooms and dorms.
She let Mrs Cake take her leave and enjoy some coffee and cakes in the lounge before heading off to pick up her last guest lecturer for the day.
The low, monotonous stream of fascinatingly bland facts echoed from the open door like a lighthouse guiding a ship.
“In conclusion, I not only identified the primary crystal structures responsible for the magic-diffracting properties of interlocking igneous rocks in the North Luna Ocean, I learned how to share those results with my colleagues. And that’s just like sharing with your friends.”
Maud’s presentation style was unmistakable, but it was one of her strong suits. With nearly all the other professors, “fun” was the keyword. And while Starlight believed learning should always be fun, the School of Friendship needed some seriousness intertwined with lessons about parties and games.
As the students left their lecture more confused than when they entered, Starlight approached her friend and patted her on the back.
“Nice work, I’m surprised no one fell asleep.”
Maud turned her head. Curiously. “Are you patronizing me?”
“Uh, what? No! I really think you did a good job lecturing.”
“That was a joke.” The corner of her lips twitched upward. “I am surprised how thrilling it is to have students listen to you. It’s like stand up comedy. But I don’t have to be funny all the time.”
“Yup,” Starlight beamed, “I knew you’d be perfect for the job.”
“I just have one question. This isn’t nepotism, right?” Maud blinked. Suspiciously.
Starlight spurted a laugh. “What? I’m just hiring a few supplementary teachers. The school’s expanding, and before spring break, I want to have all the supplementary classes organized. Friendship happens in aspects of life, that’s why it’s important for us to give our students new skills as well as new relationships.”
Maud pointed outside to the hallway, where the pictures of the faculty, which were displayed proudly in the gaps between windows and classrooms. “I’m just saying, you were hired because you were friends with Twilight. Twilight also hired her friends. Then you hired your friends. And now I am here.”
“Well… it’s networking!” Starlight laughed again, though a little more unsure of herself this time. “Anyways, let’s not focus on that. You still want to be an associate professor, right?”
“Can I involve students in my research on rock-based magic capacitors?”
“If you think they can learn something about friendship,” Starlight said, “then I don’t see why not.”
“Excellent, we will make great strides in rockology,” Maud said as she gazed out at the picture of Trixie that could just barely be seen through the door from the podium. “I have no friends who are not already working here. Maybe now the cycle of corruption will end.”
Starlight tensed. “It’s not nepotism!”
Smolder tapped her chin with the tip of quill, letting the ink stain her face. Just when she thought she was becoming an expert in friendship lessons, the Headmare had to throw a curveball at the students. After a week of special lectures, they had to write an essay that synthesized the lessons from at least two guests.
Ocellus sat next to her, already editing her rough draft. Somehow, she had managed to understand the lecture with the pony who only talked about rocks. And apparently, Maud’s lesson worked really well with Octavia’s lesson about coordination and harmony in orchestras. Smolder couldn’t figure it out, so she just took Ocellus’s word for it.
They worked diligently together in the school’s library. But, they were not alone. Over the swoosh of pages flipping, soft whispers could be heard. Smolder looked to the table next to them, where Silverstream and Gallus were working on a group project for another class. Since winter break, they had been pairing up for everything. Studying, group projects, if it involved more than one student, those two made sure to be paired together.
“Hey,” Smolder whispered to Ocellus, “am I missing something? Gallus and Silverstream seem… different.”
Ocellus looked up from her notes and scanned the two. “Different in what way?”
“You know, sometimes we hang out and they act like they’re in their own world.”
Ocellus cracked a smile. “I think that’s pretty normal when two creatures are dating, Smolder.”
Crick. Smolder’s quill snapped under her tensed grasp. “What? When did that happen? Am I the only one who does know?”
“I thought you did.” Ocellus shrugged. “They haven’t said anything, but Silverstream’s always an open book. I noticed right after winter break.”
“Well… now I feel weird about it.” Smolder combed her claws over her dorsal scales. “I can’t remember, but I feel like I’ve definitely jumped in when it was just the two of them. Arh!” She covered her face. “Why didn’t they just say something?”
Ocellus shrugged. “You know, sometimes that’s just how couples like to be. It’s personal. Even with friends, there are things they don’t always share.”
Smolder huffed. “Still, I feel like I’ve been betrayed.” She looked over to Gallus as he held up a one-sixthteenth scale model of Canterlot. Beads of sweat weighed down his feathers as Silverstream painted the finishing touches.
“What did they get up to?” she mumbled.