//------------------------------// // Sidetracks: Sour Berry // Story: Crystal Note - Where life leads us // by TalkingToMyself //------------------------------// The café by the market plaza had steadily grown in popularity ever since Sour Berry had opened. At first, mostly tourists from the south had visited but by now, there was a steady crowd at all times. At noon, ponies from the nearby market would come for lunch. In the afternoon, ponies came for tea, coffee and some of Sour Berry’s famous baked goods. Later at night, mostly locals hung around as the café was the closest of a bar or a tavern the Crystal Empire could offer, close enough for a few regulars even to visit almost every night. Tonight was special and all the seats were taken. Sour Berry had his hooves full to keep everypony satisfied and shot a grateful smile to Opal Waves whenever he passed her. The mare had learned of his café from Crystal Note and when business grew, she had taken the offer of a job. Ever since then, she helped three or four nights a week. Crystal Note had been working like this as well to help her fillyhood-friend, but ever since she had adopted Glass Slipper and her sisters, as well as put in more focus on her music career, she simply didn’t have the time anymore. However, she still found ways to help her friend and his café. Tonight, a small stage was set up and Crystal Note was performing. There was a marked difference between her occasional sessions at the market plaza where she would play just for fun and a semi-professional setup like this. Therefore, it had lured many ponies into the café tonight. Crystal Note had started on her violin and had performed her interpretations of old songs from the Crystal Empire, but soon switched to her guitar and singing. Somepony had joked on how Crystal Note had a song for every opportunity and from that, a friendly challenge started. Somepony from the audience would call for a theme and Crystal Note played what song she found would fit best. Often those were songs that she had learned during her travels through Equestria, but the locals still enjoyed them just as much. From time to time, Crystal Note would invite her audience to join in and sing along, and as the night went on it happened more and more often. It wasn’t quite like her time with the Ponyville Music Ensemble, but Crystal Note still wore a beaming smile whenever she got the crystal ponies to join in. Sour Berry watched Crystal Note’s performance attentively. In fact, he had a very hard time to look away and serve his costumers. The way Crystal Note looked on stage, how she smiled when she sang, that beautiful light in her eyes when she was happy… Opal Waves poked his side and interrupted his daydream very abruptly. With a knowing smile, she ‘banished’ the blushing stallion behind the counter from where he could watch while working. He blushed even more when he saw Opal’s husband Flint and their friend Ivory Lance at the counter, both of them grinning widely. He chose to ignore it and threw himself into work once more. By now, it was getting late and the concert would end soon. Sour Berry frowned at that thought, as it meant that Crystal Note would soon leave as well. He had tried to spend more time with her, outside of work, but only learned that he turned into a stuttering mess every time he approached her. He didn’t understand how he had that kind of problems with the mare he had known all his life. Sometimes, he wished he would just be bold and ask her out. But then, he thought of how she might react. She would smile and that smile would brighten up her entire face and make her eyes sparkle so beautifully and… and his brain turned into mush. So instead, he settled for the safe option. He stayed in the background and watched with a goofy smile. When she would ask, he was always there to help, but he didn’t dare anything more. As long as she was happy, he was too. Crystal Note didn’t need to know that there might be anything more. Unfortunately for him, Opal Waves had quickly picked up on his feelings for the crystal unicorn, with Flint not far behind. Even stubborn Ivory Lance had caught up by now. The three of them didn’t have any connection with Sour Berry before Crystal Note had introduced them. Sour Berry had grown up in the same street as Crystal Note, he had been three years older than her and Rose Quartz back then. But since Crystal Note had lost some additional years to Sombra’s curse, she was now physically about Opal Waves’ age and therefore more than a decade younger than Sour Berry. Despite the age difference, the three ponies got along well with Sour Berry, to the point that they tried to nudge him in a certain direction at times. So when Crystal Note announced that this would be her last song for the night, Ivory Lance suddenly called out “I have a request!” Crystal Note rightfully seemed surprised as Ivory Lance had not shown much of an interest in music before, but of course she smiled and nodded anyways as Ivory Lance went on “I have a friend who had a crush for years but never dared to admit it. You think you have a song for that?” Crystal Note tilted her head with a smile “That’s oddly specific, but I think I do. Give me a minute.” She closed her eyes and strummed a few chords on her guitar as she tried to find the right melody for her song. Sour Berry was just as confused as she was, until he saw Flint and Ivory Lance grin at him, the soldier even waggling his eyebrows. Somehow, he managed to blush and glare at the same time. He was about to give them a piece of his mind, but Crystal Note’s singing stopped him in time He watched Crystal Note as she sung with her eyes closed, fully absorbed by her music. Even so, her presence was easily enough to captivate Sour Berry to the point that he completely missed what she was singing. He only snapped out of another daydream when the ponies in the café joined in as she repeated the refrain I don’t know why she’s leaving Or where she’s gonna go I guess she got a reason But I just don’t wanna know Cause for 24 years I’ve been living next door to Alice 24 years just waiting for a chance To tell her how I feel and maybe get a second glance Now I gotta get used to not living next door to Alice Sour Berry felt the blood rush into his head and his jaw dropped. That song was almost too close. She couldn’t know, could she? She didn’t know. When the song ended, she just opened her eyes again and smiled. With a deep bow to her clapping audience, she hopped off the small stage and approached him, utterly unaware of his inner turmoil “That went well tonight, don’t you think? Maybe we can make this a regular thing.” He just smiled that goofy grin for a couple of moments before he noticed she was looking at him and waited for an answer “Oh, yes, absolutely. How about same time next week?” She didn’t even notice his nervousness and nodded happily “Great! I’m looking forward to it!” “Me too!” he just blurted out without thinking. Crystal Note tilted her head at his sudden enthusiasm, slightly confused “Really?” He opened his mouth but when no proper words made it out, Crystal Note just giggled “Ah, always the business pony I see. You hope you can get a full house again.” He sighed deeply and nodded “Yeah, right…” Crystal Note seemed satisfied with this answer and smiled “Well, I’ll better go now. The girls are waiting for me. See you soon, Sour Berry.” “Yeah, you too.” Crystal Note headed to the door, only stopping to share a quick hug with Opal Waves, while Sour Berry returned to the counter, clearly frustrated “You, my friend, are hopeless.” He turned his head to frown at Flint “Kindly mind your own business, would you?” “We’re trying, but you make it really hard to ignore.” Ivory Lance’ grin didn’t really help him make his point. Sour Berry let his head slump on the counter with a heavy sigh. “In all honesty though, why don’t you just ask her out? I mean it’s plain obvious to everypony.” “Everypony except your little mare, that is.” Sour Berry just frowned more. He knew that Ivory Lance didn’t mean any by this and that he wasn’t trying to be offensive, but right now he wondered how long he could take him talking without snapping at the guardpony. “She’s not ‘my little mare’, Ivory Lance.” “Course she isn’t. And you don’t throw no love-struck looks at her either.” Ivory Lance waggled his eyebrows again before he leaned in “So what’s it you see in her? Is it the horn?” Immediately, Sour Berry’s anger flared up and his expression turned hard as stone. Ivory Lance backed away and realized he’d crossed a line there. He reached for his cup, probably to buy some time and think of an apology, but Sour Berry swiped his drink away in one swift, professional motion “I think you had enough for tonight, Private Lance.” The two stallions stared at each other with hard eyes. Lucky for them, Flint reacted before any more harsh words were thrown. He swatted Ivory Lance on the back of his head and grinned “Rookie mistake, Lance. Never annoy the guy who can cut you off drinks.” It was a bad joke, but Sour Berry would pick a bad joke over a fight any day of the week, so he just laughed along and hoped this conversation was over. He went to deal with some costumers, now that the concert was over most of the ponies left as well. When he returned to the counter, he saw right away that he wouldn’t get out of this one as easily as he hoped “Seriously though, there’s some connection. This isn’t just some wild crush, is it? She’s been on your mind a while now, has she?” Sour Berry groaned and rolled his eyes “Since when has my mind been open for debate?” “Since you look like you could use some help from your elders, son.” Sour Berry stared at Flint and shook his head “Then what I’m doing here talking with you? You’re both younger than me.” “Uh-uh, doesn’t work that way, kid. Years in marriage count double, at least.” “Is that a fact?” Sour Berry just laughed when both Ivory Lance and Flint flinched from the sudden voice behind them. Opal Waves had taken care of the last costumer and obviously overheard that last bit “I wasn’t aware that having a loving mare and two wonderful foals made you age faster. If I knew, I would have never said yes.” Sour Berry just laughed harder, so hard he completely missed what Flint said, but apparently, it was enough to appease his wife, since she sat down at his side and joined the curious glances the three threw at Sour Berry “How long have you known her, Berry?” “I’ve known her almost all my life.” Now that the awkward moment had passed, he felt a lot easier to talk about it. He told them how they grew up in the same street when Crystal Note started living with Rose Quartz and her family. Flint and Ivory Lance nodded, but Opal Waves didn’t “There’s more to it than just that, I can tell. This is more than just a foalhood friendship between you.” Sour Berry blushed for a moment, but then decided just to dive right in and get it over with “Yeah, well, actually we weren’t much of friends back then. Most of the times we met, we fought, and Crystal Note beat me up every single time.” The three pony’s jaws dropped down in unison “Crystal Note beat you up?” “No way!” Sour Berry shrugged and rubbed the back of his head "Well, I started most of our fights if I'm honest." "You picked fights with a filly who was younger than you, and you lost?" Sour Berry just laughed at Flint's expression and nodded "She beat colts twice her age and size back then. When she had to, she could stand her ground against a soldier even." Flint and Opal Waves stared in disbelieve, but Ivory Lance just nodded after a moment "Yeah, I can see that." All three stared at him "Don't forget he's talking about the mare who charged at a pack of Windigos. And she was still an earth pony back then." Sour Berry nodded at that "That made a huge difference. You're probably too young to remember, but we relied heavily on the fact that she was quicker and stronger than all of us when we stole food from the troops." They conversation died down for a couple of minutes as neither of the four wanted to go deeper down that road. Eventually though, Opal Waves spoke up again "And she never noticed how you felt about her?" "How would she when we were fighting all the time? And the last time we met before she vanished, that was the one time I really thought she would break my legs or something.” He summed up what happened that night and again, Opal Waves and the two stallions stayed silent afterwards. They knew of course that only a few days later, Crystal Note had vanished out of the Empire. Back then, most ponies thought she had run away and abandoned them, but Sour Berry had been sceptic. He was sure that Crystal Note would never leave her sister Rose Quartz behind. He still didn’t know exactly what happened in that night, but from what he had learned so far, his guess had been right. “She came back one day to apologize. Out of nowhere, I didn’t even know how she knew I was here. She was so… different.” The three listened as Sour Berry told his story, staring at the drink he still held in his hoof “Don’t get me wrong, of course she was different because she was suddenly a crystal pony and all, but it was like she was a different pony altogether. She wasn’t that confident and energetic filly anymore. She acted so demure, so shy. She was afraid of me. She wasn’t even all through the door before she started crying and apologizing.” Sour Berry shook his head and Opal Waves asked what the other two were thinking “What happened then?” “I don’t know. We started talking. She asked me of the time she had missed, of ponies we knew back then. She cried whenever she learned that one of them was gone, now.” Ivory Lance snorted and shook his head “She didn’t get angry at all?” “No. Not even a little bit. She was just sad, and she apologized for everything.” “What in Celestia’s name happened that night that left her so broken?” “I don’t know. But whatever it was, she lost a lot of herself but at the same time… she grew more herself than ever.” Opal Waves nodded, she understood what Sour Berry was trying to say “She was always compassionate. She helped ponies whenever she could. But when I saw her that day, it was like she simply couldn’t not help. Whatever changed her coat and gave her a horn, it magnified her like that.” Flint and Ivory Lance nodded along “But you still have a shine for her, Berry. No matter how much she changed.” “Yeah. Guess some ponies never learn.” “What do you mean?” Sour Berry sighed and shrugged “Back then, it was the rebellion. It was always most important to her. Then, it was travelling and her music. Now, she’s got three fillies who mean the world to her. It seems like, there’s always something else, something bigger and I can’t compete.” “So you don’t even try?” “She barely even knows I exist, Flint. What am I supposed to do?” “Well, she won’t know if you don’t tell her. Back when I first met Opal…” His wife laughed and patted Flint’s shoulder “You were so helpless back then.” “But I was persistent.” “That you were, true.” Opal Waves leaned against him and from the other side of the counter, Sour Berry knew that this was what he wanted as well “You have to take a risk, Sour Berry. Running away won’t solve your problems. You need a good strategy and then go for it.” Sour Berry laughed and finally refilled the old soldier’s cup “And what strategy could work for me, Corporal Lance?” Ivory Lance grinned when Sour Berry called him by his old rank and took a long draw “You should focus on getting more intel first. Those three fillies? I bet they could tell you a thing or two.” “I don’t want to get between her and her daughters, Lance.” “Never said you should. But you know, they might give you something to work with. I bet they know what’s her favourite food or her favourite place in the Empire. Then you can use that to your advantage.” Opal Waves and Flint snickered at that “You think he should cook for her?” “Well, why not? Sour Berry can cook, bake, does his own laundry and keeps his house clean. He’s the perfect housemare and a good little wife, he just has to make Crystal Note see that as well.” The three of them burst in laughter and even Sour Berry couldn’t hold back “Okay Lance, now I know you really had enough for today. Back home to your wife and kid with you.” He saw his three friends off and turned off the lights in his café, before he made it to his bedroom. Before he fell asleep, what Ivory Lance said stuck in his head. Not the part about being a wife, but about spending more times with the fillies. “Maybe I should fix up a batch of cookies and visit them tomorrow.” He blinked when he heard his own idea and hid under the cover “By all stars, I really am a good little wife.”