*This and the next two were originally one chapter, but the size of the chapter was rather daunting. On suggestion of another I decided to split it into three.
Apparently the small concert was proof enough, because I woke up in the guest bed. Either that or Rarity is too generous to throw a colt who has passed out from sleep deprivation out on the street. No matter. I was happy with the result. I looked out the window. It was still dark. Was it still dark or dark again? The clock read 11 so either I had only slept a few hours, or I had slept a day and two hours.
I stood up. I felt well rested. So that meant I had probably slept for over 24 hours... Which also meant that Rarity wouldn’t be up for a while. So I was alone in the house of somepony that I had only truly met the previous day. We both knew each other from news stories, but that didn’t really count. I had to reset his brain to get into a regular sleep pattern anyway, so staying up all night wasn’t such a bad idea. I wrote a quick note to rarity telling her that I would be a blue coated white maned unicorn named Dolce N. Gabana when she next saw me, and cast the simple spell to change my appearance. I decided to bring back the thread and needle cutie mark. I wanted to help Rarity while I was here anyways, so a fashion cutie mark would work.
I left to find some food. I didn’t think anyone would be open, but one could always be hopeful. One shop still had lights on so I went there. It was called Sugar Cube Corner. I didn’t see anyone behind the counter, but somepony was sitting at the table with their back to me. I opened the door slowly.
“Hello? Are you open?” I asked the pink mass of curly hair sitting at the table. What happened next was one of the most surprising things that had happened in my life...
It turned out to be a mare. A mare that could somehow hover without wings. At first she simply turned around, but before speaking she leapt into the air and gasped. “Hi I’m Pinkie Pie, are you new in town? You must be because I know every every everypony in ponyville, and I don’t know you at all! Should I throw you a party? Wait... it’s too late for a party, but tomorrow!” She said this all in one breath and probably would have kept going, but she found a hoof in her mouth stopping her. I needed food, and couldn’t wait any longer.
“Yes I am new in town, but I don’t really want a big party yet. All I want right now is some food. This was the only place that looked open.” I removed my hoof from her mouth. I was glad that I had thought up a good name for a colt of fashion. “I’m Dolce, who are you?”
Her smile was so large that it was almost frightening. “I’m Pinkie Pie, Ponyville’s premiere party pony, and a purveyor of pastries, pies, and pranks. What can I get you this fine evening?” She let out a cute giggle.
I laughed. “Well that was quite the alliteration.” I checked my saddle bag. and took out 20 bits. “I need something filling that is low in sugar, something that contains blackberries, and as many different kinds of cupcakes as I can get with the leftover money.” With that I set the 20 bits on the counter and watched as Pinkie zipped away and then rose up on the other side of the counter.
“That’s gonna be a lot of cupcakes.” She was wearing a baker’s hat and an apron. “I sense some foreshadowing in your food choices. Will a blackberry tart, a 2 lb bagel, and 10 kinds of cupcakes do? I’ll throw in some cream cheese and zap apple jam to put on the bagel.” She was talking really fast again.
“How about making that 8 ¼ of a pound bagels instead. I don’t think I’ll want to eat a bagel that big all at once. Wait. Foreshadowing? Nevermind.” I smiled. “Though I will probably eat it all before tomorrow night. Are you normally open this late?”
“No...” She looked left and right. “I was working on something and forgot to lock up. Wanna see?”
I nodded.
She was back at the table faster than I could blink, and had unfurled some blueprints. “I’m making an upgraded version of my party cannon so that it can launch tables too! That way I can launch a fully decorated party into an area that didn’t even have tables! It will be the ultimate tool for surprise parties!” Her expression grew serious. “ULTIMATE. INSTANT. SURPRISE. PARTIES.” She giggled and her smile returned. “I should get to bed though. Goodnight sweetie.”
“Wait... what?” I had no idea if she was hitting on me, or just being kind, or what.
“You said your name was Dolce. Dolce means sweet, or kind, or candy!”
“Oh. Yeah. I’m Dolce N. Gabana. Most people don’t use the Italian on me. About the party you wanted to throw for me...” I looked at the calendar on the wall. “I don’t really have a place of my own, but if you tell me a place we can have it on Friday. I should have everything set up by then.”
She handed me my box of food and walked with me toward the door. “Okey dokey lokie! See you then, or maybe before then, I hope I see you before then!”
“See you then, or before then then Pinkie.” I said while walking out the door. I walked away down the street while she locked up and got ready for bed.
I trotted to the fountain in the center of town. The benches would make for a good place to sit, and the soft trickle would make for some good background noise while eating. I wondered a few things. For one what a zap apple was. The jam looked interesting at least. Second I wondered why Pinkie wanted to throw a party for a complete stranger. She did call herself the city’s premier party pony, whatever that meant. What would I do for money? I couldn’t ask Rarity to pay me. The work I was going to be doing for her was in return for letting me stay, if she let me stay longer, and for the night that she already let me stay if she did ask me to find a new place. I was glad that I had only been asleep for just over 24 hours. Any longer would have been seemed too imposing, and I would feel much worse about it.
I spread cream cheese onto the first bagel and ate it while looking at the moon. I began to sing my favorite drinking song. “♪Once again Luna, just you and I. Sharing this night and all the stars in the sky. I’d share it all with you, but you’re so far away! I cry when I leave you for the light of day.♫” I always found it funny that I didn’t like drinking, but I loved drinking songs. “♪Drink to the moon! Drink to the stars! Drink to the patrons up late at the bars! Drink to fair Luna, the mare of the night. She guides us all home with the perfect moon light.♫”
Another voice joined me as I sang. “♪Sing to fair Luna. Sing to her night! She made to guide us all home with her light.♫” I turned to the mare who had joined me. It was lyra again. She didn’t seem to recognize me in this disguise. “♪When her light fades away, and her sister sun rises, other ponies rise up for the day. I smile and I yawn as I sleep through the dawn, waiting for Luna’s night so I say... The night might not last forever, but faithful to Luna I stay.♫” I turned to her, and decided to have some fun. She already knew that I was in town, so I’ll tell her about my disguise.
“I didn’t expect to see anyone else up this late.” I smiled. “Especially not you Lyra.”
She looked at me oddly. “Do I know you?”
I feigned shock. “Why Lyra! How do you not recognize me?” I held one hoof above my face and moved it slowly down. As it passed my face I returned the fur on my face to its normal color. I then moved my hand back up, and returned my disguise to its full beauty. “How about now?” My favorite smirk had returned to my face.
Her look changed to surprise, then she laughed. “You really don’t want anypony else to know that you’re in town do you?”
“Not yet at least.” I remembered my original plan. “In all honesty I was only planning to reveal it to Rarity as a last resort, but delirium makes you forget plans and do crazy things.” I thought about something for a moment. “How was the song that I played the other evening by the way? I couldn’t really tell in the state that I was in.”
“Honestly...” She smiled. “It might just be because I’ve only heard the record version of it before, but that was the best I’ve ever heard it.” She looked at my cutie mark. “What made you give it up?”
I thought for a moment. “If you already know this much I can reveal that little truth I guess.” I sighed. “I was good at it, but I was never really happy. I only kept at it for so long because everypony was proud of me, but it never felt right. I saw other ponies who had real music cutie marks that were ignored just because I was around, and it made me feel sick. I had a fake cutie mark, and I was taking fame away from ponies who deserved it more than I did.” A single tear trickled down my cheek. “In the end I helped a few of them, but so many others passed by ignored, and forgotten.” Then I laughed. “And if you don’t believe that then I also don’t like being famous. Too many eyes watching you, and the paparazzi are way too annoying.”
Her face was sympathetic right up until I let out the laugh. At that point she went back to being confused. “So... You didn’t want to be famous?”
“Not for something that wasn’t my real talent. What if you were famous for baking pies, but you still had that mark. You wanted to play the Lyre, but no one cared about that. All they cared about was the pies you made?” I looked her straight in the eyes. “It gets tiresome after a while. I still don’t know what my true purpose is, and I’m already an adult.” At this point I noticed that she was still standing. I scootched to one side of the bench. “Would you like to sit?”
At this point she seemed to remember what she had been doing before she stopped to chat with me. She had the slightest hint of panic in her voice. “Oh no. I was on my way home! Bon Bon is going to be so mad that I’m this late!” She began to trot off. “See you around.”
“See ya! When you see me like this, call me Dolce!” I finished off the bagel and spread some zap apple jam on a second one. I took a bite. I couldn’t describe it.
“This. Is the best thing. The best thing ever in all of existence. The king of all jams... and it was free.” I praised the poofy pink party pony from whom I had procured this perfection.
At this point I was glad that my volume had never exceeded that of the fountain, and that nobody seemed to live near enough to the fountain to have been awoken. I finished off that bagel, spread cream cheese and jam on another and ate it. I looked at the clock tower and it was almost midnight. I decided that wandering aimlessly would be a good way to pass the time.
I passed a rather large tree that had been converted into a house. There was an owl who was sitting in one of the branches. I looked at it, and the owl swooped down and landed on the windowsill next to me. “Who?” It said.
I for one knew that it wasn’t actually asking me anything, but I humored the joke. “Dolce N. Gabana at your service.” I bowed, but when I raised my head I said, “But you didn’t ask that. Did you? I would be able to tell if I had ever figured out how Fauna had done her talking to animals spell...” I shrugged. “Goodbye my avian acquaintance of the night.” I trotted off leaving the owl by his tree. I think it was a he.
Where to next? It was nearing 12:30 or so, and I assumed no one would be awake. This was a rather small town after all. In any big city I might feel that I was in danger being alone out at night like this, but here I felt safe. I liked small towns. Well... I guess it wasn’t literally a small town. It was actually rather large, but it wasn’t like a big city in the slightest. A light was on in an upstairs room here or there, but the streets were utterly empty. It was peaceful walking about with only the moon and the wind as company. I hummed the same song that I had sung by the fountain as I walked. It would probably be stuck in my head for an hour or two, but that didn’t matter. I was at the edge of the Everfree forest at this point. There was a cute tree that had been converted into a cottage, but that wasn’t what interested me. I wanted to walk straight into the forest. There was a simple path, and a light on in the distance. It flickered, so it was probably a fire of some kind. He ate another cream cheese and zap apple jam bagel and walked down the path.
There was a few types of glowing fungi growing along the path as I walked. I probably would have stumbled off of the path any number of times if not for the dim light they gave off. I couldn’t even see out of the dense woods from where I was. It was a bit spookier here than it was in town. I took out my ultimate weapon against fear. The best comfort food ever. Anything containing blackberries. I took a bite and forgot all my fears. The taste brought me back to memories of visiting my grandparents’ house and eating the fresh berries. I trotted on down the path toward the pretty flickering light. I soon arrived in a slight clearing with a cooking fire in front of it. A pot was boiling above it, and it seemed a zebra was stirring the pot.
Even though she was facing away the zebra had noticed me. “You must be brave to be out at this hour, and to venture steadfast when others would cower.”
I liked speaking poetically, but I didn’t like rhyming. “No one else was up. I would be lonely in town. Your fire lured me.”
She smiled. “Most imitators simply rhyme. I’m glad you chose haiku this time. Why are you up at this hour, I ask? I assume it is not to aid in my task.”
“What task might it be? I will help you willingly. Not much else to do.”
“This tincture must be made at night, for it is ruined by sunlight. That’s what makes this potion rare. Just simply stir the pot with care. I’ll get and add the herbs I need. I’ll thank you for your friendly deed.” She handed the wooden stirring rod to me, and went into her nearby hut.
I stirred the pot for the few seconds until she returned. Whatever it was it smelled amazing. “What is in this pot? It smells of sweetness and love. I’ve smelled it before.”
Adding the ingredients she had just gathered to the pot she replied, “It is a potion, each part must be pure. It’s smell is sweet, and it’s function allure.”
She was a bit too cryptic. “My question still stands. Tell me please, I want to know! What is this potion?”
She smiled. “It’s almost done, then you will see. Sit and try a glass with me.”
That still told me nothing. “But can I drink it? Should I blindly trust this brew? We are but strangers.”
I could have sworn I saw her blush, but I couldn’t be sure. “We’ve been talking so long, it seems such a shame, that I don’t even know such a gentleman’s name. I am Zecora of the Everfree. Now my companion what might your name be?”
“Strangers no longer. I’m Dolce N. Gabana. Can I stop stirring?” My hooves were getting tired from keeping the liquid in motion. It was thicker than it looked.
Zecora scooped some of the liquid into a cup and took a sip. “It seems quite ready, won’t you try a cup? We can talk and drink until the sun is up.”
Well... if she drank it herself it probably wasn’t poison, so I consented. “The smell is so sweet.” I accepted the mug that she handed me, “I smell fruit and something else.” I took a sip. “Is that alcohol?”
It was. It was still only about quarter to 2. I was feeling fine. When the sun came up I’d miss my friend moonshine. I shared the cupcakes I’d gotten from Pinkie and we shared them while we drank. Zecora and I spent the night talking. She hadn’t met another pony who enjoyed liquor in quite a while, and I’d never met a zebra. I restrained myself from drinking too much. It was about 20 proof, so I drank three mugs of it. I knew my limit pretty well. Apparently this is the first time that she’d had it in a while, because she didn’t seem to remember her limit. It was a rather fun night in the end. I learned a lot about the forest from her, and we exchanged a few jokes. Around 5 the fire was burning low, and Zecora said she was going to bed. I believe her exact words were “Dawn is near and the fire is dead. This zebra must go to bed.” We said our goodbyes and I started making my way out of the forest.
It was hard taking the path without any light, so it was very slow going. It took nearly a half an hour before I was fully out of the forest. I apparently had taken a different path in than I had taken to get out, because I was nowhere near the tree that had been turned into a house. I could already see the false sunrise on the horizon. The higher clouds reflecting the light that wouldn’t rise for another ten minutes or so. I looked for the small cottage as I walked.
By the time I reached the cottage Celestia’s disc was just rising above the horizon. It was almost 5:50. Fluttershy was already up and tending to the last of the nocturnal animals before they went to bed. She was very dedicated to her animals it seemed.
“Hello” I called out.
My smile faded. I almost immediately realized that I shouldn’t have called out to her. I didn’t like scaring anypony. She moved very very quickly. If the bush she was in wasn’t shaking I wouldn’t have been able to find her. It seemed she was a bit more timid than I had been lead to believe. The story I had heard was that she single hoofedly talked down a dragon, and took part in the defeat of Nightmare Moon and Discord. This was not the pegasus that the stories told me about. Oh well. Tabloid journalism isn’t always very accurate.
I slowly walked up next to her. “Sorry. Did I scare you?”
She stopped shaking as much and removed her hooves from her eyes. Once it was clear that I meant her no harm she responded quietly. “A little, but I’m the one who should be sorry. I just didn’t think anypony else would be up this early.” She was back on four hooves by the time she had finished speaking.
“Normally I wouldn’t, but today is the exception. I’m Dolce N. Gabana, and from the looks of it are you Fluttershy, the element of kindness?”
She blushed a little bit. “Um... yes I am. But... um... how did you know what I look like, if you don’t mind my asking.”
My smile returned. “You’re famous, didn’t you know? You from the short lived modeling career, and all six of you from saving Equestria more than once.” I was fanboying a little bit, but I half laughed at my next statement. “Though I suppose you don’t quite seem like ‘Fluttershy the brave who could stare down a dragon.’ You seem more like ‘Fluttershy the element of kindness who is kind to all creatures.’” My smile grew warm again at the end.
She was mostly avoiding eye contact and hiding behind her mane. “Well. Um. I only had the courage to stare down a dragon when he threatened my friends... but I do love animals.”
“I’d like to learn a bit more about animals if you’re willing to teach me.” If I hadn’t done well in my meeting with Rarity I would
have come here with an animal caretaker’s cutie mark instead. It was something else that I wanted to learn more about, but I’d never had the time.
This surprised her a little. She seemed excited. “Really? You want to learn about animals? Oh,” She caught herself and calmed down a bit getting shy again. “I’ve never had somepony to teach before.”
“Well you have somepony this morning.” I looked at her with my soft smile. “I’ll be in town for at least a few days, and if it isn’t any trouble I’d like to learn as much as I can.”
She spoke softly and clearly. It was a voice learned from years among timid creatures. “It is so good to find another animal lover,” She noticed my cutie mark. “But what do animals have to do with sewing at all?”
I should have thought of that and changed my mark. Why didn’t I? I was usually so much more careful! “They don’t. I’ve found that most animals don’t like wearing clothes, but I don’t have any sewing to do for a few hours, and animals have always been a bit of a hobby.” I thought back and chuckled. “Though in the city I could really only learn about cats and dogs. We didn’t have many birds, or squirrels, or bunnies, or butterflies, no snails, skunks, snakes, opossums, bats, bees, or any of the other cute creatures you have here.” I was truly fascinated by them.
She giggled a little. “I think you and I are the only ones that find skunks and snakes cute around here. I’m almost done with the early morning feeding, but you can help me finish if you’d like.” She led me to a storage area where she kept the bird food. She had a checklist of all the animals that she needed to feed at the time. More than half were checked off. There were a lot of different kinds of bird food. Almost all of the animals that required fresh produce had been fed, and only the pickiest and most timid ones still needed feeding. Fluttershy said she’d do that. She left the bird feeding to me.
All the bird food was clearly labeled with a picture of the bird on the container of food. She even had a map of where they’d probably be. I learned pretty quickly that it is easy to feed woodpeckers, because they will eat right out of your hoof, but their beaks also really hurt... Most of the song birds would eat when offered the different kinds of fruits and seeds, so they were no trouble at all. The last birds I had to feed were falcons. I then learned that FALCONS ARE SCARY. They aren’t mean, but they are very very scary. How scary? So scary that I fell into the stream and lost control of my illusion spell without noticing it. I wouldn’t have noticed at all if Fluttershy hadn’t been staring at me oddly. I looked down at my reflection and saw that my spell had faltered.
I blushed slightly. “So I guess you found out...” Her reaction after that was even stranger, especially for Fluttershy.
I was quickly moved into her house and next to a chest. I was propped against a wall while the yellow filly reached into the chest and retrieved two records, and a poster. She looked at each one, and then at me then she smiled, then she looked at the poster, then at the spot where my cutie mark should be, then she was confused, then she looked at both albums, then she smiled even larger.
“I knew it!” She exclaimed. Loud for her, but not much louder than the average pony’s speaking voice. “I knew the mark had to be fake! No pony believed me, but now I know I was right! This is perfect, PERFECT!”
“Woah.” I softly placed my hoof over her mouth. “Slow down cutie.” She was cute, but that was beside the point. “I take it you figured out who I am. Salieri Star at your service, but how did you know that the mark was a fake?”
She calmed down a bit, and started talking at a more normal rate. “I always thought it was fake because of this.” She pointed to my flank on both of the album covers. “The rest of your coat is the same color, but your cutie mark changed. The wood part is redder in that one.” She pointed to the one on the left. “And the bow strings are yellower in that one.” She pointed to the album on the right.
“I even changed the angle of the bows for a photoshoot once.” I sighed and laughed. “I thought it was funny that no one caught on back then, but I guess one little filly did.” I smiled more with my eyes than with my mouth and looked into her eyes. “Thank you. Thank you for showing me your animals, and thank you for one more big thing.” My expression grew a bit more desperate. “Thank you for not telling anyone about me. So far only you, Rarity, and Lyra know.
I was half begging. “Please help me keep it that way.
Okay... I was fully begging. “I am just in town to learn. If I get my real cutie mark I might even settle down, but if I don’t I have plans to go to several more towns, and I can’t get found out. Please. PLEASE don’t tell anyone.” I put my illusion spell back on. “Just pretend I’m Dolce N. Gabana. Aspiring fashion designer wanting to learn from Rarity the famed fashionista, and visitor to Ponyville.”
“Well... um. I’m not great at keeping things from other ponies. I can’t lie to anypony or anything.”
I thought about this for a moment. “How about this then.” I looked through my saddle bags and quickly found a pen. I was amazed that they had hardly gotten wet at all from my fall into the stream. I signed both albums and the poster by hoof. The same signature that had been ingrained into my hoofs through thousands of repetitions. Salieri Star, to my filly fan Fluttershy. “You can tell ponies that you saw me if you have to, but I’m going to walk off on a path through the Everfree Forest. Just tell anypony that asks that I went into the forest, okay? It won’t be a lie.” I thought about it. “If it’s okay with you I’d like to stop by tomorrow morning around the same time. I’ll leave the same way each day so that it still won’t be a lie.”
She thought for a moment. “I guess that’s okay. At least it won’t be a lie. Besides...” She blushed a little. She was adorable. “It might be fun having a secret friend.”
I didn’t quite know what she meant by that, but I had to get going. “Thank you so much Fluttershy. I have to get back to Rarity’s boutique now, but I’ll see you tomorrow morning. Earlier if you stop by the boutique. Goodbye.” I walked out the door smiling. True to my word I walked down the path into the forest.
I found the fork in the path that had confused me on my way out in the dark, and walked back out into Ponyville. I was near a large apple orchard. The sign above the entrance read “Sweet Apple Acres.” It was almost eight though, so I decided to learn about the place later. I walked straight back to the boutique.