Sea Swirl rushed through the deserted streets of Canterlot. The sun had long since set and the Pegasi had managed to dump a decent amount of snow before being allowed to retire for the holiday. As such, it was taking her a bit longer to reach her Canterlot home. Her hooves were starting to get numb from the cold, but she didn’t care.
“I hope she didn’t leave,” she said as she rounded the corner that would put her on her street. She nearly slipped and she felt the bow slipping out of her saddlebag. She recovered her balance and grabbed the bow with her magic, forcing it back into the bag before she continued.
Sea Swirl spied her house in the middle of the street. For a moment, her heart sunk because it was unlit, unlike every other home on the block, but as the Unicorn drew closer, she saw a faint light in her front window. Even though she knew she had left it on when she had left, she chose to believe that it was a sign that Symphony had stopped by and was still there.
Sea Swirl trotted through the snow, doing her best not to break into a full sprint. She hadn’t spent a Hearth’s Warming Eve with another pony in years. She was always left out of the invitations and she had no special pony to spend time with. She was excited at the thought of having somepony to talk to for the holiday, but she knew that Symphony didn’t see her as anything more than a friend. And sometimes, she wondered if the musician even saw her as that. So she didn’t want to blow it by seeming too eager when she reached her house.
Sea Swirl reached her front door and took several deep breaths. “Don’t get too excited. She might not even be here.” She knocked three times and then pushed the door open. “Symphony, I’m home. Are…are you here?”
The silence ate at Sea Swirl. She held her breath and counted each unbearable second.
Two seconds.
What if Symphony hadn’t come over?
Three seconds.
What if she had come over, and then left?
Five seconds.
What if she left because she thought Sea Swirl had stood her up?
Six seconds.
“Yes,” came a soft voice from inside the home.
Sea Swirl nearly squealed with delight, but she managed to stifle the sound. “Glad you could make it,” she called as she entered the house. She lit the lanterns in the main room and light flooded the home.
Symphony was sitting on a couch, her back turned to Sea Swirl. Her purple mane was cascading down the back of the couch and Sea Swirl stared at it for a few seconds before she cleared her head.
“I had nowhere else to be,” Symphony said quietly.
“Sorry I’m kind of late,” Sea Swirl said as she put her saddlebag down by the door. “The store was crazy busy and—”
“And what?” Symphony asked, but Sea Swirl ignored her. She had started to pull Symphony’s gift out of her saddlebag when she had come to a horrible realization:
She had completely forgotten to wrap the gift!
“Stupid, stupid, stupid!” Sea Swirl mumbled as she smacked her hoof against her forehead.
“Is something the matter?” Symphony asked. Sea Swirl looked up at her just in time to see her beginning to turn around. The Unicorn instantly shoved the unwrapped box back in her saddlebag and kicked it out of sight.
“Er, well, it’s…” Sea Swirl scratched the back of her neck and grimaced. “It’s…about your present.”
“Forget it,” Symphony said.
“What?” Sea Swirl asked, shocked at the tone in the Earth pony’s voice.
“I said to forget it,” the musician said darkly. “Give it to somepony else.”
“But it’s for you,” Sea Swirl said, her ears falling slightly.
“Well I don’t want it!” Symphony shouted. She turned back around on the couch and lowered her head.
Sea Swirl stood in the entrance to her home and stared at the pony’s back. She was still figuring Symphony out. The pony was Canterlot through and through, and thus kept her emotions well guarded. Sea Swirl suspected that Symphony was starting to lower her guard around her, but only slightly.
Still, Sea Swirl liked to believe that she knew Symphony well enough to know when something was bothering her. Carefully, she walked over to the back of the couch. She considered putting her hoof on Symphony’s shoulder, but decided that the mare would probably take offense to that.
“Um..Symphony? Is…something bothering you?” she asked.
“This whole stupid holiday is bothering me,” the mare said in a strained voice.
Sea Swirl blinked. Symphony carried a lot of baggage. The Unicorn had realized that in the first few days of knowing her. It was why Sea Swirl tried so hard to be her friend, but something told the Unicorn that this wasn’t about some bad memory involving the holiday. Symphony’s voice usually closed down when she was talking about something like that. Right now, it sounded like she was barely keeping it together.
“Um…why is that?” Sea Swirl asked. She carefully walked around the couch. Symphony made sure to turn away from her so that her face remained hidden.
“I just don’t like this whole gift-giving idea,” she whispered as Sea Swirl sat down on the couch next to her. The Unicorn was careful to keep a decent amount of space between them. She could tell that Symphony was on the verge of getting up and storming out, and she didn’t want to do something that would give her cause.
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I completely forgot to wrap yours,” Sea Swirl said. She forced a weak laugh, trying to lighten the mood.
“I told you I don’t want it!” Symphony rounded on Sea Swirl so quickly that the Unicorn jumped a little. Symphony’s eyes pierced her and she could see the anger burning in crystal blue spheres. For a terrible moment, Sea Swirl was afraid she had pushed the mare over the edge and that Symphony was about to stand up and storm out, leaving Sea Swirl all alone on yet another Hearth’s Warming Eve.
But as Sea Swirl looked into the raging eyes, she saw that the anger wasn’t directed at her. It was suffocating under sadness so thick that she had to fight the urge to reach out and wrap Symphony in a tight embrace.
“You…you…you can just go out and, and…and buy me whatever you want!” Symphony said as she fought back tears. “You think it’s not big deal. What’s a gift to a pony who can afford everything, right?”
“You stop right there!” Sea Swirl shouted. Symphony was stunned by the forcefulness behind Sea Swirl’s voice, and she was too. She hadn’t meant to yell like that, but she couldn’t back down now. “You think I just went out and bought you something willy-nilly? You think I didn’t put any thought into what to get you? After all the time we’ve spent together, do you really believe I think so little of you? ‘Oh, this is expensive, so I’m sure she’ll love it.’“
Symphony tried to hold Sea Swirl’s glare, but she couldn’t. She hung her head. “No,” she whispered in a voice so soft that Sea Swirl wondered if she had actually heard it.
“Do you think that little of me?” Sea Swirl asked quietly, trying to hide the hurt in her voice.
“No!” Symphony said a little louder. She even managed to look up for a moment, but then she looked down again. “It’s just…I didn’t get you anything.”
“Is that why you’re upset?” Sea Swirl asked. “Symphony, I don’t need anything. I’m—”
“If you are about to feed me some cliché about my being here being the only gift you want, I will get up and leave right this second,” Symphony warned.
“Uh…right,” Sea Swirl said as she snapped her mouth shut.
“I…I tried, Sea Swirl,” Symphony continued. “I really did. I spent all day trying to think of what to get you. I even shared a drink with some stranger who gave me advice.”
“Oh,” Sea Swirl said. She wasn’t sure why she suddenly had a small knot in her stomach.
“And then I came up with something. It…I was excited. It wouldn’t cost anything, but it was still going to be special. And…and then…” Symphony trailed off and looked down at the floor.
“What happened?” Sea Swirl asked.
Symphony reached down and brought up her violin case. Without a word, she popped it open. Her violin was resting inside, and as far as Sea Swirl could see, the instrument looked fine.
“It’s gone,” Symphony whispered as she closed her case. She didn’t put it back on the floor, but allowed it to rest on her lap.
“Um…not a music pony, Symphony,” Sea Swirl offered. “So, uh, you’re going to have to explain. I saw a violin.”
“My bow is missing!” Symphony said. “How am I suppose to play for you if I don’t have my bow? And…I can’t afford to go out and buy a new one.”
Sea Swirl smiled. She shook her head and stood up without a word. She walked over to where she had kicked her saddlebag and pulled out the bow case. She was going to levitate it, but she wanted it to be more personal, so she carried it back over in her mouth. She sat down next to Symphony again, closer this time, and set the case on top of her violin.
“Open it.”
“Sea Swirl, I won’t accept a gift if I don’t have something for you.”
“Just open it, Symphony,” Sea Swirl said. “Please.”
Symphony slowly opened the case and Sea Swirl smiled when she heard the pony’s breath catch. “It…it was you?”
“Yeah,” Sea Swirl said, blushing a little. “Sorry about that. I borrowed it. Figured I’d get it fixed up as your gift.”
“What’s this?” Symphony pulled out the small note that Octavia had given Sea Swirl.
“Oh, that’s just a little something from, uh…Octavia.”
Symphony blinked once, then opened the note. She read it out loud. “’Symphony. Do not give up. Do not stop playing. There is a place for you here.’”
“You okay?” Sea Swirl asked once the mare finished reading the note.
“Yes,” Symphony said as she folded the note back up and set it inside the bow case. She then set the bow case down on the couch and opened her violin case back up. She pulled the instrument out and then stood up on her hind legs. Sea Swirl watched in awe as the Earth pony picked up her refurbished bow and then walked to the middle of the living room with ease, as if walking on her hind legs was nothing special. Then, without a word, she placed the violin under her chin, closed her eyes, and began to play.
Symphony struck a few notes—or were they chords? Sea Swirl could never remember—before she stopped. She opened her eyes and tilted her head slightly as she pulled the bow across the strings. She did it a few more times before she stopped.
“It sounds…different,” she said as she looked at Sea Swirl.
“Uh, that might be because we had to restring it a little.”
Symphony pulled the bow off of her violin, set the instrument down so that it leaned against her back leg, and held the bow up to the light. She turned it slowly so that the light played across the strings. “What did you use to restring it?”
Sea Swirl blushed a little. “Well, uh…the owner said I should, um…” She trailed off, too embarrassed to say anything.
“Did he tell you to use hair from your own tail?”
“Um…yes,” Sea Swirl said. “I thought it sounded kind of sweet, so…”
Symphony stared at her for several seconds, blinking only once. “You did it because you thought it was sweet? Nothing else?”
“No,” Sea Swirl said, confused. “Why? Did I do something wrong?”
Symphony blushed and Sea Swirl’s jaw almost hit the floor at the sight of the expression. “No, it is fine. Thank you, Sea Swirl.”
“So…is everything okay now?”
Symphony looked at the bow in the light for a few more seconds and then she nodded. Without another word, she picked up her violin and started playing again.
Sea Swirl sat on her couch in complete rapture, watching the mare sway gently back and forth to the sound of the most beautiful music she had ever heard.