//------------------------------//
// Singing to the Choir 
// Story: Cryo-7 
// by Metal Pony Fan 
//------------------------------//

	"Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Dooo-Ti-La-So-Fa-Mi-Re-Do.  Do-Do-Ti-Do."

Octavia clapped and smiled as Minuette sang through her major scales.  The dust and charcoal colored filly was so energetic now that she had her voice back, her mother was a little worried that she might overdo it.  It would be terrible for her to lose her voice again.  "Ok, Minuette, just a few more, then we'll take a break.  Can you sing a triad?"

The filly spun around and struck a pose.  "Do-Mi-So-So-Mi-Do."

Octavia chimed in with a higher group of notes.  "Fa-La-Do-Do-La-Fa."

A lower group of notes sang forth from the door, at least an octave below either grey pony's voice.  "So-Ti-Re-Re-Ti-So."

Octavia and Minuette replied in unison.  "Do-Mi-So-Do!"

Mother and daughter both giggled.  Minuette happily ran to greet the newcomer, while Octavia opted to remain on the couch and call out.  "Welcome home, Mezzo.  You're really late, did something happen at work?"

"Yeah, you could say that."  The colt lowered his head, letting Minuette clamber up onto his back.  Then, he walked into the living room where his Aunt waited, setting his necklace on a small table near the door.  He would put it in his room later.z

Their quarters were a bit larger than average, since it was a family dwelling.  The main room was the semicircular living room with two couches, connecting to the station corridors via a small foyer.  Along the flat side of the living room,  A kitchen and a small studio connected through large open doorways.  In addition to these rooms, there were four bedrooms and a utility closet.  Two of the bedrooms connected to the living room, Mezzo's and Minuette's, one on either side of the room.  The other two, Octavia's and Vinyl's, connected to the studio.  The utility closet was in the kitchen, mostly hidden behind a pantry, making it a pain to move things in or out of it.

Mezzo sat down on the couch, opposite Octavia.  He shook off his little sister, letting her sit in his lap after dislodging her from his mane.  "I came back earlier, but you guys weren't here.  I ended up going back out."

Octavia nodded.  "I found the carrots.  I'll cook them up tomorrow."  She waved towards Minuette.  "I'll let her tell you what happened to us.  Minuette?  Why don't you tell your brother what you learned today?"

The grey filly tapped her hooves together and looked up sheepishly.  "I learned that it's not good to eat things that I don't know are safe."

Octavia crossed her hooves and leaned against the arm of the couch.  "And, how do you know if something is safe?"

"If mommy or Mitso or Aunt Scratch give it to me," the filly recited, "or if they say it's ok."  She looked up at her brother, and motioned for him to lower his head.  He did so, and she grabbed his ear, whispering into it, "I ate mommy's music plant."

"The music plant?" He asked in concern.  "It wasn't poisonous, was it?"

Octavia shook her head.  "It made her lose her voice, but that was all.  As you can tell, she already has it back.  But, I gave the plant to Growl for safe keeping anyway."

Minuette happily tugged on her brother's mane, pulling his attention back to her.  "Hey, a nice lady helped me when I couldn't talk.  But I didn't get to say thank you.  What should I do, Mitso?"

Mezzo scratched his chin in exaggerated thoughtfulness.  "Well, let me think.  Do you know her name?  That seems like a good place to start."

Minuette nodded rapidly.  "Her name is Ribbon, and she's really pretty.  Her mane is even more colorful than yours, it has all the colors of the rainbow.  Her tail does too."

The colt stiffened.  "Why don't you write her a thank you note?  She's a nurse, so you can have it delivered to medical.  I'm sure somepony would make sure she got it."

"That's a great idea," Octavia added.  "Why don't you go write it now?  Your crayons are still in your room, you could draw a picture to go with it."

"Ok!"  The filly hopped down to the floor, giving her brother one last look.  "Mitso, you have to deliver it, ok?"

He sighed.  "We'll see, ok?  I'll make sure it gets there though."

"Thank you, Mitso!"  Minuette ran off to her room, closing the door behind her.

Octavia straightened up and moved a little closer to the colt.  "Mezzo, what was that?"

He looked over at her.  "What do you mean?"

"I saw the way you reacted when she mentioned Ribbon.  And, she never said that she was a nurse."  She got off the the couch and nodded towards the kitchen.  "Let's go sit at the table.  I started some tea earlier, it should be ready."

"Yeah, that sounds good."  He rolled off the couch and followed her into the kitchen.  He sat down at the square table at the far end while Octavia tended to a teapot on the stove.  She added the finishing touches to the tea, and he busied himself with retrieving mugs from the cabinet.  He picked out two of them, and floated them over to the table.

Octavia watched the mugs float past her with a smile.  "This is a pleasant surprise."  She stirred a little bit of honey into the tea, then carried it over to the table, setting it directly on the polished, if slightly scratched, aluminum surface.  "When did you learn how to manipulate multiple objects?"

"A few days ago."  Mezzo shrugged.  "It's really convenient, but I can still only move two things at a time."

Octavia poured some tea in each mug.  "I'm sure Vinyl will be happy to hear it.  Has your fine detail control improved any?"

Mezzo nodded and sniffed at the tea.  "A little.  I was able to bend some tiny metal tabs down using magic.  One of them is a bit crooked, but the rest came out ok."

Octavia took a sip of her tea, pulling back when she found it far too hot.  She set the mug down.  "You'll have to show me.  I bet you can't even tell, and you're just being too critical of your own work again."  She gestured to her cup.  "Any chance you made progress on the temperature spell?"

Mezzo shook his head.  "I just can't seem to get that one.  Let me get you some ice though."

Octavia watched as he reached across the kitchen with his magic.  As he retrieved ice cubes from the freezer, two at a time, she asked, "So, how do you know Ribbon?"

The ice clattered to the floor, breaking apart.  Mezzo winced and started picking up the pieces.  "Sorry, just give me a moment."  Once the last piece of ice was moved from the floor to the sink, he got two fresh cubes from the freezer.  He stuck one in each of their cups, then shut the freezer.

Octavia swirled her tea around, watching as the ice quickly melted away.  "I'll ask again, how do you know Ribbon?"

Mezzo sighed and rested his head on the table.  "I ran into her when I was leaving work.  She picked up something I dropped, so I looked her up on the public records so I could go get it back."

The grey mare took a sip of her tea.  It was a much more manageable temperature now.  "That has to be the most concise explanation I've ever heard from you.  But you still have a ways to go, your mother has practically mastered the art of unnaturally short answers.  She probably would have said, 'Y'know, we met and stuff.'  Naturally, I would push her for more information if she gave me an answer like that.  I won't do that to you, but I am here if you want to talk about it."

"Yeah."  Mezzo smiled for a moment, thinking about how laid back his mother could be about things.  Others might mistake it for being aloof and distracted, but he knew it was just her keeping her cool, analyzing the situation, then calmy choosing what action to take.  He always wished he had inherited that part of her, that ability to just sit back and watch things happen.  Bringing himself back to the present, the colt pushed his mane back and held it there.  He wasn't calm like his mother, or his aunt, but he wasn't the type to leave his mistakes untouched.  "I think I need to apologize to her."

Octavia slowly sipped at her tea.  She needed to as well, but she would take care of that on her own.  "What happened?"

Mezzo buried his head under his hooves.  He could see the look on Ribbon's face when they parted ways.  The look of shock when he said it.  "I told her to stay away from me."

"Fair enough."  Octavia could understand that, and felt the same way.  But if Growl was so convinced that Ribbon was a good girl, she had to deserve a chance.  "Do you want her to stay away from you?"

With a groan, the colt sat straight up, back against the chair, eyes closed but pointed at the ceiling.  "I don't know."

Octavia smiled knowingly.  She wasn't a telepath, but it didn't take one to read this colt sometimes.  He wasn't good at sitting still, especially when something was bothering him.    Also, this was the first time she had ever seen him this worked up over meeting a filly.  Telepath or not.  "Do you think she's cute?"

Mezzo sighed, slumping over to stare at his tea.  The ice cube was almost completely melted, leaving only a thin shell of its former shape.  "Yes."

His aunt hid her smile behind her mug.  She was expecting an odd look, not an honest answer.  "You always did have a thing for bright colors.  The sky, especially, given how seldom you were able to see it.  Did you tell her that she was cute?  Or, did she, you know... sense it?"

Another sigh, and Mezzo grabbed his tea and chugged it.  He all but slammed the mug down after draining it, and wiped his mouth with a hoof.  "Apparently, I thought it loud enough to drown out my name."

Octavia refilled his mug.  The more she thought about it, the rougher telepathy seemed, for both parties involved.  One side had to deal with thoughts being taken away, and the other had those thoughts forced on themselves, both against their will. "And how did she react?"

Mezzo poked at the mug, rotating it by the handle.  "She locked herself in a closet and started screaming."  After a moment, he clarified, "Not like she was scared or anything.  It was more like...  Remember when you gave Minuette her first bowtie, for her birthday?  She was so happy that couldn't keep it in."

"I remember."  Octavia laughed.  Comparing the telepath to her own daughter, how unfair can you get?  She already felt bad about losing her temper, she didn't need it to be rubbed in that she yelled at a defenseless young filly.  "I wish I would have had a holocam then.  So, how do you go from that, to telling her to stay away from you?"

"It's complicated."  The colt put two more ice cubes in his tea.  He then mimicked Octavia's swirling action with the mug.  "You know that necklace I was working on?  The one I was making out of my limiter?"

Octavia nodded.  He only spent the last year or so working on it.  "I remember it.  That is the same one you mentioned earlier, right?  Did you finish it?"

"Yeah, and, I did."  He scratched at his mane.  "But I dropped it, and Ribbon found it.  She said it was linked to me, and that touching it let her experience my life for a few seconds."

Octavia cradled her half-emptied mug.  Her own reaction to Ribbon's powers came to mind, and she could only wonder how he reacted.  "Is that why you asked her to stay away from you?"

Mezzo winced.  "No.  I think it seemed that way, but..."  He felt his side with a hoof, tracing his own scar, much like Ribbon had.  "Something she said brought up a bad memory.  Things kind of got crazy after that.  I- I think she felt it."

"The burn on your side?"  Octavia put the mug down.  "You've never even told me, or Vinyl, the full story behind that, and Ribbon sensed it from a memory?"

Mezzo shook his head slowly.  "No, I don't think she knows the story.  I think she felt it, the burn, and the pain I remember every time I think about..."  He shook his head, stopping himself.  "I don't want my memories hurting others."

"She is a telepath," Octavia noted, recalling a face in tears after being yelled at.  "And more than that, she seems like a sensitive mare.  You think she was hurt by your memory?"

Mezzo nodded.  "I'm pretty sure she was.  But, I didn't want to remember it either."

Octavia leaned forward to take Mezzo's hoof.  "None of us want to remember Tankra, but we should never forget what happened to us.  What did she say that brought it up?"

"She..."  The colt hesitated.  "She said that ponies hated her for existing."

"That would do it."  The grey mare patted Mezzo's hoof.  "I bet any of the others would have reacted in a similar way."

Mezzo sighed quietly.  "Would they feel like crap about it?"

"I know I would."  Octavia pulled her hoof back.  She did feel like crap about it, her own reaction, that is.  How could she not?  That nurse helped her daughter and was berated until she broke down for it.  A simple apology wouldn't cut it.  "So, what are you going to do?"

"I dunno," he mumbled.  He downed the second mug of tea and sighed.  "I'll apologize somehow.  But I'm not going to go near her.  It's better for both of us that way."  He stood up and moved his empty mug to the sink.  "I'm going to see how Minuette's doing with her note."

As he walked away, Octavia whispered to herself, "Is it better?"  She took another sip of her tea.  "I'm not so sure."