Music of the Night: Part 7 Ponyville Intermission
Rarity was frazzled. She’d had the worst. Night. Ever. First, she’d been held hostage in her own home, then without warning the two strange stallions had gone. But that was nothing compared to what happened next. While the pale unicorn was making tea to calm her trembling, every window in the entire building exploded violently! She screamed full-throatedly, diving under the kitchen table and covering her head with her hooves.
Ahhh-----ahh----ah----
Something echoed on the breeze, but Rarity’s ears were still ringing from the blast. Wavering back and forth from whatever sonic boom had decided to strike her boutique in the dead of night, she shook her head to steady herself. “What in Celestia’s name!?” she gasped, a hoof resting on her breast as she tried to calm her thundering heart. She peeked out from under the tablecloth. “My windows! My china!” she ran mournfully to her cabinets. Sure enough, her special occasion tableware was in pieces. A few shards sprinkled out onto her when she opened the highest cabinet. She stood in her kitchen, quivering, so overwhelmed she just didn’t know what to do. So, after a long time, she did the only thing she could do. She screamed.
=-=-=-=
Twilight Sparkle emerged from the library, an official-looking frown on her face. In times of disaster, she had to be stalwart and true. She had to help organize the clean-up efforts. She cocked her head over her shoulder, nodding to Spike. Her young assistant sat on her back, quill and parchment ready. Her saddlebags were full of more paper, ink and quills. “Town-wide.” Twilight said as they trotted along. She peered about. Everywhere it was the same. Confused ponies wandering around in their jammies or nothing at all, staring at all the destruction and broken glass. It was as though the entire town had been struck by some sort of sonic wave. “Sound-based.” She said. Spike took notes as she spoke. “Glass, crystal… maybe porcelain as well.” She said observantly. The shop called ‘Pencils and Toilets’ was flooding like someone had installed a waterfall inside.
“Any ideas, Twilight?” Spike said worriedly, scribbling as she spoke.
“I thought maybe Rainbow Dash at first but…” she trailed off, looking skyward. “No, it can’t be. Even her sonic rainboom doesn’t do this kind of damage.” The purple unicorn shook her head sadly. She didn’t like having a conundrum she couldn’t solve. “We need more evidence.”
Madam Mayor Mare was running to and fro, trying to organize search parties to look for wounded, but there was little progress to be made. Everypony had been caught off guard, in the dead of night, and no one had been unaffected. The entire town had been hit. “Twilight Sparkle!” the Mayor said, her pajama hat flapping as she galloped over. “The entire town’s been hit, we need an organizer to help us assess the damage!”
Twilight’s ego inflated juuuust a bit. It wasn’t often her particular skill set was needed. But after Winter Wrap-Up and all the ceremony that had gone with that, everypony knew they could trust her. The confused murmur of the crowd died down and they were all looking at Twilight. She coughed a little. Spike nodded at her, making a go-on gesture. She didn’t want to be bossy, but… if they wanted her help, she would try. “Alright.” She nodded. Faces brightened. When it came to big disasters, Twilight would know what to do. “Send everyone with wings to the rooftops. Look for the edges of the damage, so we can set up a blast radius and find out where it came from.” She gestured to the bend rooftops. “See how the roofs are angled just a bit? That says it was some kind of shockwave. That means it started somewhere. We have to find the epicenter.” Right away wings were snapping open and handfuls of pegasi took to the skies. Twilight turned to the crowd again. “It looks like it only shattered glass and other things similar, but that doesn’t mean nopony was injured. Break into groups and search every home and building.”
“I’ll be on standby!” Nurse Redheart shrieked over the crowd, rushing away with several assistants to wait for injured ponies to be brought her way. Hooves started moving.
“Pay special attention to buildings with more than one floor!” Twilight shouted over them as best she could. “Make sure everypony is accounted for!” Turning to her assistant, she nodded. “We need to contact the Princess, Spike. This is big.”
“You got it!” he whipped out another piece of parchment, setting the notes aside for a moment.
“Dear Princess Celestia,” Twilight recited. When she gathered breath to begin, a high-pitched shriek belted out over the din and she almost tripped over her own hooves. “That sounded like Rarity!”
“Rarity!” Spike hopped right off of Twilight’s back. They turned, running along the street and through the sharp wreckage of the sea of shattered glass and broken streetlamps until they came to the boutique. Because of its design, the building was in shambles. So many windows, just gone. “Rarity!” Spike ran and made to kick in the door like the hero he was. It didn’t work. “Ow!” he hopped about, holding his foot. He tried again, and got the same result. Twilight ran, turned and bucked hard. The door flew open. Spike rushed inside, shouting her name.
The pair found her on the kitchen floor, hooves over her head, quivering fearfully. “Rarity are you okay?” Twilight rushed to her side, magic making a path across the tiles in the broken glass.
“This was the worst. Night. EVER!” Rarity said theatrically, flopping onto her back. “First I get held under house arrest and now this?!”
“House arrest?” said Spike curiously.
“It’s all over town, Rarity. Some sort of disaster has hit all of Ponyville!” Twilight said when she saw Rarity wasn’t hurt. “All the windows and streetlights blew out like a shockwave had hit us.”
“Oh goodness!” Rarity suddenly sprung to her hooves. “Cleff! He’s blind! If he goes anywhere, he could fall or get hurt or cut himself on all that glass!” Her pupils shrank in a panic, and she ran right out the door without saying goodbye.
Twilight noticed Spike sag. She patted his back gently, and he sighed. He’d not taken Rarity’s marriage announcement very well, and even now Twilight could see it hurting him. “C’mon Spike, we have to help who we can in town.” She gestured. Spike climbed slowly onto her back and they were off again, out into the street.
=-=-=-=
Cleff woke in the hospital. The familiar scent of lavender touched his muzzle, fighting to stay relevant amongst the other smells of cheap plastic and stiff cleaners. The sheets he lay in were uncomfortable to his sensitive skin, and he stirred slightly. “Rarity—?” he said hoarsely to her scent.
“Shh.” She whispered, already stroking his chest and then his cheek. “I’m here, sweetling. Right here.” She took his trembling hoof and brought it to her face so he could ‘see’ her. Leaning her face into his touch, she smiled softly. “We found you out in the snow, lying on the bridge.” He cocked his head, but with her coaxing he lay down again. He could hear lots of other ponies beyond the tiny room they were in.
“My throat hurts.” He said softly. It was true, his throat felt like he’d been screaming for hours and then left raw to fester while he was unconscious. He heard Rarity shift, and soon she brought water to his lips. He drank greedily.
“There you are, much better.” Rarity said. “Twilight said some sort of disaster struck Ponyville. You must’ve been right out there in the thick of things!” she coddled him with stroking hooves. His face colored a little. “Do you remember anything?”
“No, I was at home in bed. Then, when I woke up I was here.” He said, the frog still in his throat.
“Really? You don’t remember how you got outside or onto that bride?” she said. He shrugged, a gesture he’d learned from her after having felt it many times. “Goodness, perhaps you were thrown from your home! I’ve heard that tornados can do that sometimes. Pick up some poor unsuspecting pony and then toss them like a hayseed, miles away!” She flung her arms about him, trying not to weep over him. She sniffled, thankful he was alive. Cleff was very, very fuzzy about the night before. He remembered music, and cold. Frowning into Rarity’s chest while he struggled to remember, his thoughts were cut off when she spoke again. “Oh, I recovered your pajama’s from the hospital. Your invitation as well.” She put them next to him so he could inspect.
Cleff frowned, running his forehoof over the invitation several times. “Uhh, I can’t read this.” He said after a few moments. “It’s printed in flat writing.” He told her.
Rarity blushed embarrassedly. It had been a long time since she’d done something that he had to remind her he was not able to see. She snatched it back with her magic, coughing a little. “It’s an invitation to Princess Luna’s Winter Lunar Ball, Cleff.”
“What’s that?” he asked, tilting his head.
“It’s a costume party.” She read from the description. “Princess Luna cordially invites you and one honored guest to the Canterlot Royal Palace to partake in a masquerade ball. Goodness, Cleff! A personal invitation from royalty!” she chided him a little, giggling.
“Princess Luna is the one that came to Vinyl Scratch’s shop all those months ago.” Cleff said vaguely, trying to remember all the details. He sat up a little straighter with Rarity’s help, and the engagement hoop around his neck tinkled with its tiny chain. “I kind of owe her my fame in the opera business.” He said after some thought. “She came in, asking for some of my music by name. After that, all sorts of ponies came in asking for it too, wanting to hear what the princess was listening to.”
“Ohh, well then you must certainly attend and thank her!” Rarity said excitedly.
“It says to bring a guest also.” He smiled broadly at her. “I could introduce you.”
“Oh, we’ve met a few times.” Rarity said mysteriously, chuckling.
“You’ve met the princess?” Cleff said with a gasp. “When?!”
“Oh, well…” Rarity remembered the vow she’d taken not to talk about the battles with Nightmare Moon. All of the mane six had sworn from it, to help the horrible memory pass and help society forget the demon. Their princess was well now, and Equestria should only know her as Princess Luna. “We… we’ve run into each other at a few high society gatherings, is all. She remembers my name when we see each other.” The unicorn tried to come across as bashful.
“Ahh.” Cleff said, catching the lie like a buck to the head. But he didn’t press. If there was anything Rarity was about, it was dresses and crooning over high society ponies in Canterlot. Mentally shrugging, he smiled again. “Well, you’ll have to design a costume for me, Rarity.” He offered.
“You’d let me make something for you, a stallion?” Rarity said, a little aghast. “Even though I make dresses all day? Won’t you be embarrassed that your costume was made by a dressmaker?” she snickered just a little.
“It’s not as though you’ll put a big sign on it that says so.” He ribbed her just a little, grinning. Rarity laughed a little, that musical laugh he loved so much. “It’s settled then! Good.”
“What shall I have you be, then?”
“Does the invitation say anything about costumes?” he scrapped his hoof on the paper a little.
Rarity let her magic pick up the paper so she could read it again. “It just says Lunar Winter Ball.” She tilted her head. “Well, if the theme is night time and winter, perhaps something…” she trailed off, then her eyes lit up. “Oh! Oh! Ide-ahhhhh!” she practically squawked at Cleff. He chuckled a little warily. He’d only heard that particular phrase a few times before, and that was right before Rarity went into an obsessive creative storm. “You rest here, Cleff. Nurse Redheart said she’ll be releasing you in the evening. You’ll report right to my boutique won’t you?” She settled him onto his back again so he might find more rest.
“Of course.” He nodded. Cleff felt her lips press to his cheek, and she began away. “Hey.” He said, catching her with his hoof. She looked at him for a long moment of silence. Then, she lowered herself to really kiss him. He wrapped his hooves daintily around her, the moment quiet and intimate. “See you later.”
“Ta-ta!” Rarity was out the door, walking on sunshine with her creative mojo on full blast. Cleff rested, playing with one of the black feathers that had been lodged in the folds of his pajamas. He worried. Why could he not remember last night? It didn’t take a smart pony to know whose feather he was holding. He was only thankful Rarity had not seen it. She would’ve worried far more. The gaze of the mare of the night was still upon him, and he knew she was from somewhere in Canterlot.
Several Days Later…
Ponyville had been evacuated. With the winter chilling everyone’s homes, Canterlot had become full to the bursting with refugees from the little town. Now the place was crawling with both royal guards and plenty of commissioned workers. Celestia had been quick to hire dozens and dozens of crafts-ponies to fix the entire town, one street at a time. The guards were there to prevent any sort of funny business-- looting and such. Everypony’s homes and businesses were exposed not only to the elements, but wildlife and less-than-upright sorts. Already an under-hooved stallion had been carted away for gorging himself on Sugar Cube Corner’s display case of apple turnovers. (To add to that, he was violently ill later, for stuffing himself had not been the smartest idea.)
Twilight Sparkle was in the midst of all this, puzzling over a massive map. Adjusting her fluffy scarf, she placed colored pins in it by magic. “There. There. There—” she eyed all of the reports and notes she’d gotten from everypony. A vaguely circular shape was forming. “Looks like I was right.” She said to herself, leaning over it. “It didn’t drop out of the sky like an explosion. It was a wave. It started somewhere and went outward like a sonic boom.”
Spike was on his tippy-toes, shivering and adjusting his earmuffs. “Twilight can’t we move into city hall or something?” he complained, giving her the next handful of notes.
“No Spike. Everypony else is out here working in the snow and ice. So are we.” Twilight could see her own breath as she scolded him a little. She unfurled the next few to inspection, placing a few more pins. Red pins were for homes with exploded windows, yellow for foundational or structural damage, blue for leaning buildings, orange for destroyed structures. There was a lot of red, and very little orange. But, after each address was checked off on her town map, she saw the shape forming. “Perfect circle.” She mumbled.
Spike leaned to see, tapping his claws. “Still think the town was attacked? By who?”
“Not sure.” Twilight got a quill and carefully marked an X at the perfect center of the disaster. “That’s it, there.” She said, indicating it in relation to the town. “If someone was trying to just destroy the town, the epicenter would’ve been… well, here.” Twilight gestured with her horn to the town hall behind them. The government building marked the exact center of town, thusly it being a round building (to ensure the “round table” mentality of smaller democratic government for Ponyville… despite the monarchy of the Princesses. It was hard to explain…) “This isn’t centered in the statuary either, so Discord is still in his statue.” She pointed a bit further away from the town on the map, where Discord was held. He wasn’t the culprit. “I can’t think of any reason for this spot. In fact I think there’s a bridge there.” She said, frowning. “We should go check it out.”
Spike nodded in agreement. “Maybe it was just some kind’a—” he gestured in circles with one paw, grasping for a word. “Some kind’a freak accident? Like a super lightning strike or something?” Twilight gave him a look and he shrugged. “I dunno! I’m just trying to come up with ideas.” Twilight put her muzzle under his tail and tossed him onto her back. She cantered forward briskly, and they made their way across town. Spike shook his head at all the damage. “It’s worse than just a wind storm or somethin’, huh Twilight?” he said with a measurement of awe.
“Mhm.” Twilight said, frowning sadly at the state of Ponyville. She knew it would be rebuilt to its former glory in no time and that all of its citizens were safe, but for right now it was a sorry place indeed.
“There it is.” Spike pointed. They approached the bridge, stopping to observe the scene before setting hoof on it. “Hm.” The little purple dragon turned his head this way and that. There were hoofprints everywhere, the snow had been stirred up, but… there wasn’t much snow there. “Weird.” He said carefully.
“Yes. Whatever happened here pushed the snow back.” Twilight walked forward carefully with Spike on her back, scanning the ground for anything unusual. “I expected burn marks, or a crater or something.” The unicorn could see nothing had struck the ground, for there was no indication of such a thing happening. Spike hopped off of Twilight’s back, walking to the bridge while she examined the road leading to it.
“Hey Twilight, look.” Spike bent and held something high. She cantered over, leaning to see. It was a black feather. “Know anypony with black feathers?” he said, letting her magic take it from his paw so she could turn it over and over.
“Uh uh.” Twilight said with a deep and troubled frown. “But this is definitely a clue.” The purple unicorn had been pretty thoroughly stumped up until now, but— what was that? She saw hoofprints up on the railing of the bridge. She leaned and squinted at them. They were stallion-sized. There was another set as well, muddied. “There were two ponies here recently.” She said.
“Well yeah, lookit all the hoofprints.” said Spike, gesturing to the road.
“But these are melted in place, look.” Twilight gestured at the vague indentations that were made. “Two ponies were standing here when whatever it was happened.” She said, nodding in a way that made it final and fact. Spike rolled his eyes while his mistress tried to grasp at straws with her logic. “But this is really weird, Spike.” She waved her hoof to make him come closer. “Look here. This set here on the railing belongs to a stallion. See how big they are?” she put her hoof out to show him by comparison.
“Uh huh?” said Spike, tilting his head. Twilight lowered her hoof to the other said of hoofprints. Those were even bigger, rivaling that of Big Macintosh. He was arguably the biggest stallion anypony knew of. Twilight and Spike somehow doubted he had anything to do with this, though. “Whoa…” The baby dragon said, looking flummoxed.
“Whoever was here, it must’ve been an enormous pony.” Twilight said with some wariness. She could only imagine what had happened on that bridge. What could have possible exploded with enough force to ruin the town, but not destroy the bridge or vaporize the two that had been here. She sweated as her brain worked overtime. She hated being stumped so, so much!
“At least everypony is safe in Canterlot.” Spike said helpfully when Twilight sighed. She nodded her assent. “There’s no place safer if this was some kind of attack.” He gestured to the big hoofprints. “Luna and Celestia must really have their hooves full with all the refugees!”
=-=-=-=
Celestia blink-blinked when a black scroll morphed into existence in front of her. Royal correspondence from her sister. Automatically, she broke the seal and unfurled it by magic. “Dear Sister Celestia, I’m so sorry you cannot attend tonight’s ball. I was looking forward to seeing what sort of costume you might decide to wear.” Celestia paused to smirk just a little. “With the flood of refugees from Ponyville I know you’re very busy, so I will save plenty of cake and punch for you. We can share it together another night, under the stars.” The solar princess mused about Luna going on with her Lunar Winter Ball despite the disaster, but there was some debate to be had there. A massive party like that would definitely increase morale, and in light of the recent disaster the ball would only swell in numbers because of all the Ponyville residents staying in Canterlot. “I know ponies turn to you in time of crisis, so I will respectfully bow to their wishes, and continue with the ball as planned. Do not worry, I’ll not be offended. With love from your sister, Luna.” She furled up the letter with a slight nod. It popped out of existence like any other royal correspondence did. Luna had a point, as much as Celestia hated to admit it.
Shifting on her throne, Celestia nodded to the guards to allow the next group of ponies into the room. She’d been assigning temporary lodging to hundreds of ponies all day. The citizens of Canterlot had been very giving, opening up inns, taverns, and even their own homes for all the refugees. The city was swelling with the sudden intake of people, but it wasn’t permanent. Another week or so and Ponyville would be restored, according to the reports she’d received. Twilight Sparkle had remained in the town to oversee the work and search for the cause of the disaster that had befallen it. The sun goddess smiled inwardly. Her most faithful student was always investigating every little thing, it made her proud to know how diligent she really was when the bits were down.
Twilight would miss the Winter Lunar Ball, which Luna had no doubt invited her and the other mane six to. But, if she felt her duties were to her home, Celestia would not think to stop her. If she forced Twilight to come relax in Canterlot, she would have no fun at all knowing Ponyville lay in ruin. Not for the first time, Celestia thought of dear Twilight Sparkle as a mortal version of herself. She chuckled, a quiet and chiming sound.
Celestia shook her head with a smile. This night was Luna's ball, and it would surely be one to remember.
End of Part 7