~ Chapter 4: To Find a Fiddle ~
The shadow cast by the sizable shed loomed over Twilight as she approached its double doors. From its outward façade, the unicorn guessed that the barn had weathered many a storm and season. The dark red paint was beginning to chip away from the hard wooden surface, only adding to the deteriorated appearance of the building. It was clear that the old shed could use some touching up and renovations, but the Apple family was usually too busy to worry about simple aesthetics.
Twilight pushed against one of the doors with her forehoof, entreating entrance. The hinges creaked and groaned, allowing the lumber to swing slowly inward. The late afternoon sun poured into the building, illuminating an interior which quite accurately matched the barn’s outward appearance. Stacks of empty boxes and half-constructed barrels lined the walls. An old, rusted plow was tucked away in one corner, presumably retired to this room so it could live out the rest of its days in solitude. A sundry of other farm tools and implements lay strewn about here and there, lacking any semblance of order.
Twilight rolled her eyes, inwardly criticizing Applejack's lack of organization. Taking a few steps into the barn, the lavender unicorn began her search. Even if AJ was right and there was a fiddle hidden somewhere among this mess, it would be no small feat to unearth it. A faint purple aura surrounded Twilight's horn as she gently lifted away some of the precariously placed tools from her path. Even the most ginger of motions seemed to stir up tufts of dust and dirt which formed a thin layer on just about everything in sight; the tools stored here clearly did not see regular use in the fields outside. Lowering her head, the unicorn focused her magic into a simple light spell, hoping to illuminate the room more adequately. Motes of dust floated through the air, catching the light from Twilight's spell. The longer she stayed in here, the more powerful the scent of mildew became. She began to question whether this was the safest place to be digging around, but quickly pushed the notion aside, steeling herself on the task at hoof.
It seemed that a cursory inspection of the shed would not be enough; if there was a fiddle in here, it was surely buried beneath the piles of impedimenta stored here. Resolving to double her efforts, Twilight began pushing aside some of the heavier items in the room.
The barrels and heavy sacks which lined the walls strained the limitations of the unicorn’s telekinesis spell. Twilight's brow was slowly becoming damp with perspiration. Perhaps it was the heavy lifting, or perhaps it was the anxiety eating at her from within with each passing minute. Clouds of dust stirred anew as the barn's contents were haphazardly shoved aside by the lavender unicorn. With the snap of her head, another barrel came tumbling down, bringing along with it an empty burlap sack. For just a moment, Twilight stopped, an unfamiliar sound coming across her ears. Spinning around, she inspected the overturned container more carefully. Using a forehoof, she lifted away the canvas bag which lay atop the wreckage. A spark came to life in her eyes at the sight. There it was.
To be perfectly honest, it wasn't much to look at. It was a fairly plain instrument made of what appeared to be a dark mahogany wood. The frets at the top were an off-white ivory shade, one of which was slightly chipped at the corner. Short scratches covered the body, giving the once shiny finish a worn and aged appearance. Nopony would be able to argue that this tool had weathered its fair share of use. The strings were the only part of the object which seemed in good repair, having been replaced once or twice over the instrument’s lifetime. Judging by the frail condition of the device, it was fortunate that the fall hadn’t caused any damage. Lying next to the body itself was its solitary limb: a long, supple bow resting just beneath the neck.
Twilight's horn glowed once again as a faint aura cradled the fiddle. Using her magic, she turned its body around in midair, admiring how its simple, beaten appearance only gave it an air of genuineness. Twilight's mind drifted for just a moment to thoughts of the countless songs it must have played over so many years. Shaking away the notion, she snapped back to the urgency of the moment. She had a job to do.
Hoisting the fiddle and its bow above her head, she pushed her way out of the barn and into the late afternoon sun. In her frantic search, she had barely noticed how stifling the clouds of dust within the shed had been. It was refreshing to breathe the clean, clear air outside again. She took off immediately for the orchard which loomed just a short distance away. The fiddle above her bobbed up and down with her hurried hoofsteps. Twilight rushed along a path cut between the rows of trees, making her way back to the center where she had last left her friends no longer than fifteen minutes ago. To her relief, they had since returned.
"About time you made it back!" Rainbow Dash greeted gruffly. "We've been waiting for at least seven minutes!"
"Oh cool yer feathers, Dash," Applejack scolded before turning back to Twilight. "Ah take it ya’ll found mah cousin’s fiddle?"
Twilight’s magic floated the instrument and bow from behind her, displaying it for her friends to see. "Yes," she declared with a note of pride, "but no thanks to the awful mess you’ve got in that barn! When this is all over with, I’m lending you my book on proper organization principles."
AJ didn't appear particularly thrilled about the prospect, but masked the sentiment with a quick nod.
"Now Dash, were you able to spot any of the parasprites from the air?"
The pegasus's ears perked up. "Well they were moving pretty quick, but I counted about a dozen of them flying over the East field, and a little less than that in the West one," Dash explained while gesturing in each respective direction.
"Excellent," Twilight concluded. "Applejack, were you able to get those jars I asked you about?"
"Ah reckon this is what ya'll had in mind?" The orange pony slid forward an apple bushel filled with empty glass mason jars, each big enough to hold just about a quart of preserves. A second similar bushel rested a short distance away. Just by eye, it looked like they had about thirty jars to work with.
Twilight smiled as she levitated one of the containers in front of her. "Exactly what I had in mind!"
Applejack took a few steps forward and pushed the floating jar aside with a forehoof. "So what exactly is yer plan, sugarcube?"
"Simple!" the unicorn touted. "According to Pinkie Pie, parasprites have some kind of affinity for music. One of us will walk around the orchards, playing the fiddle to get the parasprites’ attention. Once they come out into the open, the other two will snatch them up in these mason jars. If Rainbow's numbers are right, we should have enough to nab all of them!"
Applejack scratched her head in thought. "Ah guess that'll work fine enough, but who's gonna play the fiddle?"
Twilight levitated the fiddle and bow toward the orange Earth pony. "Well you of course!" she said cheerfully.
"Whoh there Twi," Applejack retorted, gently pushing the instrument away. "Ah never said I could play a fiddle. In fact, Apple Fritter’s the only pony in the whole family who’s any good with that thing."
Twilight’s smile faltered at the news.
Rainbow Dash threw her hooves into the air. "Great, so much for that plan!"
Twilight allowed her spell to drift the fiddle back toward herself. "Well not necessarily," she replied thoughtfully. "I have read quite a few books about classical string instruments..."
"Oh come on Twilight," the cyan pegasus countered. "Just because you read a book about music doesn't make you a musician!"
The unicorn's eyes narrowed. "You got any better ideas?" she shot back with conviction.
Dash averted her gaze, not quite willing to admit that she didn't.
"You really think you can play that thing?" Applejack offered sincerely.
Twilight examined the strings running down the neck and along the body. She had seen this sort of instrument diagrammed dozens of times. The book passages were slowly coming back to her. In her mind, she could faintly see scraps of the sheet music which dotted those pages, although it was all gibberish to a unicorn without any musical training. Still, it was something to work with. "It's worth a shot."
Applejack sat down on the ground next to Rainbow Dash. The pair remained silent as Twilight gingerly levitated the bow into place above the fiddle's strings. The unicorn's eyes squinted in concentration, treating the bow as if it were some surgically precise tool. Hesitantly, she lowered the bow onto the strings, slowly peeling across their length. The screeching din which ensued was enough to make all three ponies cringe.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at the display, but remained silent.
Twilight blushed a little. "Well maybe it just takes some getting used to..."
"Ah'll say," AJ offered, rubbing her left ear from the assaulting noise. "Mah cousin Apple Fritter was playin' for four years before she was any good at it."
"Not really helping..." the unicorn sighed.
“Oh,” the orange pony returned, lowering her hat to cover her mouth. “Ah mean… Ah’m sure you’ll figure it out...” She was a terrible liar, but she meant well.
Her friend’s “confidence” in her abilities did little to inspire Twilight, but she wasn’t about to give up just yet. The unicorn’s horn glowed slightly brighter as she used the spell to press down against the strings on the neck. She vaguely remembered seeing a diagram of such chords in her reading; she could only do her best to imitate. Holding the fiddle, the bow, and the strings together was quickly making this magic more complicated that Twilight had initially imagined would be necessary. Focusing herself, she switched her concentration back to the bow, resting it on the strings and dragging it across, this time with gusto.
The resulting note was far more refined that her previous blind attempt. The unlearned ear may even have mistaken it for a proper G chord. The sound was far from orchestral-grade music (although that may be partially blamed on the poor condition of the instrument), but it was certainly a start. Rainbow Dash and Applejack, who had been bracing for another raucous bastardization of music, seemed almost surprised. To be frank, Twilight was a bit taken aback herself.
Dash was the first to break the silence. “Well? Is that it?”
Applejack responded with a quick jab to the pegasus’s side. “Don’t listen to her, Twi. Ah think it sounded right fine. Reckon ya’ll can do it again?”
Twilight returned her eyes to the fiddle once more. The bow lowered back into place, drawing itself across the strings, guided by the unicorn’s spell. She pushed the bow back and forth, invoking the same note over and over, each time the same as the last. Curiosity grasping her, she slanted the bow at a slightly different angle, attacking different strings now. The tune changed from high pitch to low as the bow explored the strings. She shifted the pressure she had been placing on the fretted neck to the only other positioning she could recall from her books. Again, a sloppy chord rang out: sloppy, but consistent. Twilight continued to shift the bow’s angle until she had discovered about three notes which seemed less offensive than the rest. Slowly, she was getting used to holding the fiddle while moving the bow at the same time. A passing thought of admiration came as she considered how Applejack’s cousin managed to play this thing with no magic at all…
The three notes repeated themselves in a rough order and to a crude tempo. The sound could perhaps be considered ‘music’ in the same sense that a splattered can of paint on the sidewalk may be considered ‘art.’
The cyan pegasus, who had thus far been watching in silence, walked over to Twilight’s side to examine the floating fiddle more closely as it played. “Hey, no offense Twilight, but Pinkie Pie had half a marching band on her back last time we tried something like this. Do you really think this is gonna make the parasprites come to you?”
The unicorn did her best to split her attention between the fiddle and the conversation. “Um… Maybe?” she managed distractedly.
WHUMP!
The fiddle stopped playing abruptly as both Twilight and Rainbow Dash spun around. Behind them, Applejack laid splayed out on the ground, facing away from the pair. There was a faint metallic ‘clink’ before the orange cowpony pulled herself off the ground and turn to her friends. A smug smile quickly spread across her face. Balanced in her left outstretched forehoof was a mason jar; inside, a lime green parasprite. “Maybe ya’ll should ask this little fella’ if he reckons this is gonna work!”