Jazzy opened the door to the stadium. She was barely on time as all the other players had their instruments already out and set. Some of the ponies tuning their instruments by playing the scales and then adjusting as seen fit.
Jazzy spotted her director, a stallion by the name of Lead Note. He was a graying stallion as it shown in his mane. His coat was a natural gray but his mane had traces of the jet black that used to dominate it. His cutie mark was a baton with black music notes swirling about it. Other than that he seemed to be a regular nice unicorn.
Lead Note was reading a note, Jazzy couldn't tell from whom as she was too far away. Whatever the note said however seemed to have the director on edge as his brow furrowed in concern and anger seemed to flash across his green eyes.
"Sorry for being a little late, sir," Jazzy said as she walked up to the elder unicorn. At the sound of her voice Lead Note quickle rolled up the letter and poofed it away somewhere.
"Quite alright dear, if you could get your instrument and be ready as soon as possible we will begin practice," replied Lead Note. After he said his peace he turned and began to give instructions to the other players. Most were unicorns but there were a few earth ponies and pegasi.
Jazzy went backstage to roll her vibraphone from where she usually kept it to on stage. She was hesitant as the memory of her nightmare came at the forefront of her mind. "Hurry up Mellows!" a voice yelled and Jazzy recognized it right away. Besides Blueblood it was the other bane of her existence. It was just a regular orange unicorn but he was always on the move. He wasn't bad but he was a pain in the flank.
"Get off her back Strummer," said the director and Jazzy left a silent thank you as she finally got the courage and rolled her vibraphone from backstage to the back of the other players. Finally in position the director took his baton in his mint green magic aura and the players began to practice.
Meanwhile, Princess Luna began to scout around Canterlot. It finally occurred to her the moment that she left the castle that she had nowhere to start or begin. All she had was a missing pegasus, a note, a lock of mane, and a unicorn friend. The Princess of the Night sighed and landed. Best to ask around to see if somepony had seen her.
A gray brown earth pony with a clover cutie mark was enjoying a smoothie just delivered by a waiter. The Princess walked up to him.
"Excuse Us gentle sir but We are looking for a white pegasus with a messy brown mane and tail with black highlights with a talking smiley face for a cutie mark. hast thee seen her?" Princess Luna asked levitating her bubble pipe right next to her. The earth pony stood stock still and screamed. He ran away from the Night Princess yelling incoherent words along the lines of she is going to eat me.
The Princess just grumbled till she saw a white unicorn mare with a needle and thread for a cutie mark. The dark Princess teleported right in front of her.
"AH!" the startled mare exclaimed almost jumping ten feet into the air.
"Forgive Us, gentle mare but would thee be kind to tell Us if you have seen a white pegasus with messy brown tail and mane and a talking smiley face cutie mark?" At this time the Princess had gotten extremely close to the mare. The said mare violently shook her head and whisked herself around the dark Princess and ran.
Princess Luna simply took her bubble pipe and irritatedly puffed a few bubbles.
In the arena, Jazzy was having a hard problem correctly playing her instruments. Many of the other players gave her glares which only increased the stress on the unicorn. She took a deep breath and tried to concentrate on her music and not what would happen to Chatterjoy if she didn't comply with the foalnapper's conditions.
"Get your head in the music!" hissed Strummer to her quietly. Jazzy just gulped and folded her ears back.
Princess Luna had finally located a pony that told her a possible location of the lost pegasus. Either the dainty blue unicorn was only saying so to get the Princess out of her face or she had actually seen Chatterjoy wander into this desolate area.
"How could that pegasus even wander into the warehouse district?" Princess Luna asked herself, producing bubbles from her pipe.
The air was crisp and a breeze seemed to howl as it gusted by. No movement could be seen or heard and the Princess had to admit to herself that it really did look like someplace where somepony got murdered in one of her Sherlock Pones books. Princess Luna walked down the sidewalk carefully observing the warehouses. Everything was so dull so when she saw a flutter of movement it quickly caught her eye.
Stuck in a closed warehouse door was a pure white feather. Upon closer inspection the Princess concluded that it was most likely Chatterjoy's as it was pure white and pegasus feathers had a certain texture to them. They were softer than most bird feathers; most likely a combination of fur and feather is what caused the different feel to them.
"This must be the location or very near so to wear our young pegasus friend was foalnapped!" declared the Princess bubbling on her bubble pipe with a thoughtful expression.
"We'll break for thirty minutes," said Lead Note. He walked up to the rosy unicorn who was still trying to practice the notes for the first song. "Jazzy, its time to take a break," he said putting a hoof on her back.
Jazzy snapped up, "Of course sir, just wanted to practice a few more rounds."
"Is anything bothering you? Normally you have no problem with these notes," Lead Note asked genuine concern for his player etched onto his features.
Jazzy shook her head and walked off to a nearby water trough where she began to gently sip cool refreshing water.
Princess Luna began to follow a path to the train station. There had been a mud puddle that the foalnapper; she assumed had stepped into and left faint hoofprints. No more feathers were found and this was her only lead. Besides it was most likely he hid Chatterjoy out of town since most of the population consisted of unicorns and the pegasus would stand out.
The dark Princess asked around the train station. She found the engineer and trotted up to him.
"Good afternoon fair colt, We were wondering if thee hast seen any strange ponies in the last twenty four hours?"
The engineer bowed and raised his head again. He was a fairly old pony and he rubbed his chin.
"Now that you mention it Princess, I saw a strange unicorn wear a full black body suit and he was carrying an awfully large sack to. I offered to help him carry it but he was determined to do it by himself. I coulda sworn I heard breathing but I can't be sure, my hearing isn't what it used to be."
Princess Luna huffed on her bubble pipe before replying, "Thank you fair colt, do you know where this strange unicorn that wears black was headed?"
To her disappointment all he knew was the direction south which could leave many towns open to opportunity. It seemed the Princess had gathered all the physical evidence that she could at the moment. Now, she believed it would be time for some dream hopping.
It was a special skill, one that Princess Luna was proud to call her own. The only one else even perhaps capable of learning it would be her sister's pupil; Twilight Sparkle. The foalnapper would be in for a nasty surprise if he told Chatterjoy where she was. It would make it that much easier to find her.
Jazzy sulkily began the walk home. Concert practice went horrible, fortunately she had not cried but her concentration was lacking. Not that it mattered anyway.
She was about to open her door when a poof of magic opened before her eyes. It was sealed with Princess Luna's cutie mark and was most likely coded. She quickly opened it and read it aloud in case the foalnapper was watching her.
"To Jazzy Mellows, We request thou's presence in the throne room. We wish to discuss with you the concert. Princess Luna."
It wouldn't be awkward for the Princess to send a letter to a key concert player. Perhaps she had found some clues. Jazzy didn't want to think about the alternative of the Princess not finding anything.
Opening her door, Jazzy went straight to bed and awaited tomorrow morning.