//------------------------------// // 20: The Fifth Symphony in B Major. // Story: Inverno in F Minor // by CrackedInkWell //------------------------------// The next day, Professor Key carried on his back a piano transcription of Beethooven’s Fifth Symphony. While confident with today’s lesson, he was a bit nervous about how Inverno would react considering what happened yesterday. Signature paused for a moment and adjusted his glasses. 'What do you have to worry about?' he thought to himself. 'This is a necessary evil after all. It has worked with your past students before, why should this be any different?' Key continued onward towards the music room, 'Other than the fact that I’m taking a huge gamble. The colt could literally break me in two if this goes wrong. No, I have to get this right. He has to get it right. But if it fails… At least I had a fulfilling life.' As expected when he entered through the door, Inverno was waiting for him. “Morning, Professor Key,” he said, Signature taking note that he has a better attitude apart from yesterday. “What are we doing today?” “I have a special assignment for you,” the elder stallion said, taking the sheet music off his back. “I want you to take a look at this, and play it for me.” “Um, before I do that,” Inverno said, going over to the organ bench which, as Key Signature noticed, it had what looked like hoofwritten music laying there. The younger unicorn picked the music up by his magic and gave it to his teacher. “What’s this?” the Professor asked as he took the music in his hooves. “It’s something I wrote,” Inverno explained, “It’s uh… It’s a memorial to the Crystal Ponies from what Papa did to them.” The gears in Key’s complex mind turned, forming an awful idea, “So, like a musical form of an apology?” The young unicorn nodded, “Yeah, it took me days to get it just right.” Now the Professor knew what to do, “How about this, you play this,” he gave Inverno the piano transcript, “And I’ll take a look through what you’ve written here.” “Alright,” Inverno said, taking the symphony into his aura. “Now let’s see what…” he trailed off when he opened up to the first page of the Beethooven masterpiece. The colt stood still for a moment, flipping through several pages as if he couldn’t believe what he’s seeing. “What am I looking at?” he questioned himself, “What is all this?” “That,” Professor Key answered, “Is a transcript of Beethooven’s most famous symphony, his Fifth Symphony. I want you to play it and see what your impression of it is.” Inverno looked at the elder Earth pony as if he lost his mind, “Are you serious?” “I am. Unless it’s a little too complex for you-” “No, I can play it. It’s just…” “It’s just what?” Inverno shook his head, “I don’t know. I’ve never seen music like this before.” “But can you play it?” the Professor inquired. “Just give me a moment,” the colt said as he climbed to the piano bench, putting the music on the stand, Inverno studied it for a moment. But before he could play, he saw that his teacher had moved to pry the lid of the piano open and propped it up. “Continue,” Key said, taking a seat next to the piano. Inverno put his hooves on the piano and played the first eight notes before the Professor interrupted, “Louder,” he said. The unicorn played louder than that, but his teacher wasn’t satisfied, “No, louder than that!” “But I don’t play louder than that,” Inverno told him. Sighing, his teacher replied, “Inverno, I’m going to take a wild guess and say that you’ve been taught to make music a beautiful sound, right?” The colt nodded. “Forget that. I do not want a beautiful sound. With some music, perhaps, but not with this, this piece does not want beauty. You see here,” he pointed to the “sFz” marks. “This is Sforzando, it means to play as loudly as possible. So with each note, I want you to really attack it. Play again.” Inverno repeated the first eight notes, still not fulfilling what his teacher wants. “No, no, that’s not it at all,” Key shook his head. “It looks like you need some motivation.” The young unicorn watched as he saw his teacher took hold of his music into his mouth and trotted to the other end of the piano where Inverno could see him. “So, if I’m going to motivate you into what the composer had in mind.” his teacher said, taking the first sheet into his hooves. “Allow me to present to you, a gift.” To Inverno’s horror, he watches the first page of the music he worked for days being torn up. “What are you doing?” Inverno asked in alarm as he saw the Professor grabbing another and tearing it to pieces. “STOP IT, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?” he shrieked. “Motivating you,” was all his teacher replied after ripping the third page, moving onto the fourth. “LEAVE IT ALONE!!” Professor Key paused as he saw that Inverno’s eyes were glowing. “What do you feel now?” his teacher asked. “Dread? Sadness? Rage? Do you want to kill me?” Key held up the fourth page and ripped it. “Forget beauty for a moment, forget all the etiquette you’ve been taught. None of that matters now,” he held up the fifth page and saw Inverno’s horn glowing. “Play for me what you feel. Tell me that I’m the monster through music; rip me apart through the music you have. Now play!” Inverno, giving his teacher the death stare, lifted his forelegs up in the air, how that blood red aura was on his hooves, slammed the first eight notes down on the keys. For a moment, it was as if the piano could barely withstand the beating that the enraged colt was giving. Beethooven’s Fifth Symphony rang out its fiery melody not just in the Music room, but it even echoed in the crystal corridors. It was so loud, that it got the attention of the Palace staff, from maids to Guards, from servants to the Royal couple, the palace was filled with the music of the piano. The staff made their way, each investigating where the sound was coming from. A crowd of the Crystal Palace staff clustered before the open entrance of the Music Room, they were astounded to find that all this noise was coming from the colt that each and everyone was trying to avoid. Inverno was attacking the piano, yet the music was still clear. He was playing on it so hard, that everypony was worried that the piano might collapse beneath him. Yet, they noticed, sometimes the volume of the instrument fluctuate from crashing thunder to a gentle song and back Soon enough, even Cadence and Shining Armor came to the Music Room. Even when they both entered the room, neither of them made the effort to stop the young unicorn from playing. _*_ At the height of the musical crescendo, Inverno slammed his hooves at the final notes. Huffing, he felt like he had fought and survived a bloody battle, he was taken completely by surprise when the next sound wasn’t his teacher saying, “Again,” but it was applause. He turned around, for a moment it was as if the entire Palace was cheering. He turned to his teacher, finding that he was stomping his hooves as well. “Now that,...” he said, “...is exactly what I wanted.” “That was amazing,” Cadence said as she trotted up to the little colt. She noticed something as she approached the young unicorn. “Wait… What’s that?” she asked, pointing to his flank. Confused, Inverno looked down as what she was pointing at. It was his cutie mark.