The Night Bard: The End of Dawn

by Iridescence T Wind


The First Note

“Life is for the living.
Death is for the dead.
Let life be like music.
And death a note unsaid.”
― Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems

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"Oh I can't thank you enough Applejack." Fluttershy murmured quietly to her earth pony friend, wings clapped to her sides as usual for the timid yellow Pegasus.

"Once more 'Shy, I am tellin' ya' that you don't have to thank me anymore. I haven't even begun yet." Applejack rolled her eyes as the flustered Pegasus proceeding towards the edge of the same said property, "All ya' had to do was ask ya' know. That's what friends are for, to help each other."

"I know..." Fluttershy began meekly, "I just wanted to show my gratitude for your help... Because of that last rainstorm the duck ponds were completely destroyed where Mr. and Ms. Duckington lived. I would ask Mr. Beaverton for help but he is still a tad, itsy bitsy upset with having to constantly rebuild and destroy his home whenever it clogs up the rivers."

"Maybe he should try not building into the water but on land or over it then, that way he wouldn't have a problem nor would it mess with the river flows and flood my farm... Yet again." Applejack stated bluntly that she wasn't a big fan of the beavers for obvious reasons, being an apple farmer who had to deal with the beavers accidently flooding her farm a quite often during the summer and spring months.

The two arrived at the edge of Fluttershys fence. Applejack noticed a shovel and a small pile of dirt from Fluttershys earlier attempt at digging at the dried hardened mud. Applejack inquired the size of the hole saying, "rather a deep hole for some ducks." But then again Fluttershy also kept a variety of fish and plants that lived underwater, so it wasn't so strange. Applejack waited as Fluttershy flew to her shed, grabbing another shovel before the two of them began their work.

An hour in, Fluttershy dropped out, exhausted with the work much to her own embarrassment. While Applejack didn't resent her, she still felt like she let the farm pony down. So instead she decided to go get Applejack something to drink, Lemonade. A favorite of Fluttershy and a drink she would often serve to guests but still a drink none the less. Applejack thanked her, taking it down in one glug before resuming. This would often repeat every half hour or so as Flutters began to make more of it to keep her friend hydrated as the sun shone down on them.

Soon enough the farmer was near finishing, "Just a few more scoops an' I'm do-" she was cut off as her shovel hit something hard, "What the..?" Applejack finished lamely.

"What?" Fluttershy asked curiously.

"Hit somethin' probably a rock." Applejack put down the shovel and dug at it with her hoof clearing some dirt away, before raising an eyebrow, "A sack?"

Fluttershy looked into the hole, wings perking as she stood on the edge, indeed there was a dark green worn fabric with a slight gash in it where Applejack had hit it.

Fluttershy hopped down as Applejack uncovered more of the sack revealing it to be a tight bundle around something oval in shape about the same size of Angel bunny.

Curiously Applejack prodded the bundle before picking it up and unrolling it into a faded green dirt and bloodstained cloak wrapped around a peculiar crystal that glowed faintly in the setting light.

"What is something like this doing in a place like here, and why is it covered in someponies blood?" Applejack asked not expecting any answer from her companion.

"Well..." Fluttershy began, looking closer at it, "It looks like one of those crystal journals ponies use to store their memories or words in."

Applejack looked at her friend with a look of slight surprise, "How the hay do you know that sugarcube."

Fluttershy looked slightly away, "They were selling them back in the Crystal Empire... Even so, that cloak looks old, far too old to have been recently lost here..."

"Who do you reckon it belongs to?" Applejack asked, somewhat comforted in knowing that Fluttershy had actually took the time to explore the Crystal Empire on those days they had been there when they weren't saving it or getting a games inspector to choose the empire for the national equestrian games.

"No idea, there is a way to find out, but..." Fluttershy looked away as if ashamed to have thought of it.

"What sugarcube?" Applejack pressed her friend gently.

"We'd have to view it..."

It was Applejack's turn to look uncomfortable, "Tha' is a bit intrusive Shy. Is there no other way? What about bringing it to Twi'?"

Fluttershy shook her head, "No... Twilight's busy with the paperwork from becoming a princess... I doubt she would have free time for someponies journal..."

"True... We should let Twi settle into her new job before we bother her. Alright let us find out who it belongs to then..." Applejack noticed how dirty she was, "After we clean up of course..."

Soon enough the pair found themselves in Fluttershy's cottage cleaned up and sitting down across each other with the small blue gem between them. Neither made a move to it, instead Applejack started uneasily, "So... we view it now?"

Fluttershy nodded and Applejack continued, "Well... get it fired up or however ya' activate it..."

Together they touched the stones access rune with their foreheads and vanished into the view of the author's index. Going to the first entry and activating it. It began to play.

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Where do I begin to tell the tale of my life? Explain how and what I did to this princess and my friends. Why I am going to do what I am going to do next, and how wrong I was for doing so. I should probably go and explain a little bit about music first, after all my cutie mark is a score of them.

What is music? Some would say it is a series of sounds played to please the listener occasionally joined by a singer who gives purpose to the music to turn it into a song. I disagree strongly with such a notion. Music is the gate to ones soul. Where you can put emotions that there are no words for into sound and express them with uttermost impunity. Music is, in that way, the soul of the musician. There is a wider variety of notes and sounds than one mouth can express. The instrument chosen, the notes played; and how they played it made all the differences just moving your jaw ever could. With music you could do just about anything with the right notes, open hearts, reawaken or destroy dreams, express your true feelings, or even cast spells with its aid.

And even cause physical harm.

So yes, music is a high strung glory of society. Being able to create music also a big advantage when you don't have any place to go. Being a bard, or a traveling dungeoneer as others put it, is a profession which most overlook in music, often choosing other such professions in the words of tavern-player or traveling minstrel. There lies my profession and title. The Night Bard -- Chosen not by me mind you-- but rather a title earned after a series of events. The fall of princess Luna within the thirty year period between Discords fall and the rise of Nightmare Moon. How do I know this? I was the one to cause it.

Oh, I should probably put a name to my voice shouldn't I? My name was Sonata Requiem. Though my friends, when they were my friends, called me Sona. I am a dark purple unicorn mare with a lavender colored mane which is left often a messy bush. My cutie-mark, as I mentioned earlier, is a score of notes which are nonsense when played. I regularly wear a cloak, usually of green color. My treasure is a flute, violin, and piano, in which I play most of my music when on the go. My eyes... Well they were originally both blue but after an event, the one I cover up most the time with a small patch is another story entirely.

Maybe later I will explain about it and how it got like it is under that patch. Now my build is much like that of an average pony, maybe a bit thinner and taller. But with my overall appearance I am often mistakened for a stallion, much to my own displeasure. Welcome to my story, or the story of Sona, the Night Bard as others will probably call it if they ever find this... And not destroy it...