"A metronome?" I asked and he nodded his head. Putting a hoof to my chin, I thought for a second. "I might have one or two left in the back if you don't mind them being a bit dusty." I told him as I stood up and led him to the back. He followed me into the grey room and his mane again fell in front of his face. The stallion swept the hair aside with a hoof as I searched for the shelf with an M label on it. "So are you fellow musician?" I asked him, hoping that small talk would manage to calm my heart down before it killed me.
"I'm not, actually." He replied as I found the shelf and stood up on my hind legs to get a better look. "I'm needing one for a science experiment of mine." He explained as I grabbed one of the last two from the shelf and held it in my hoof. Blowing the dust off of it, I checked it over real quick before letting him take hold of it with his magic. He again moved his mane out of the way as he looked at the item, his blue eyes making my heart begin pounding in my chest again. I swallowed hard, my throat feeling extremely dry, and started to trot my way towards the door. "Is that all for you or will you be needing something else today?" I asked him, trying to put the feelings far from my mind by checking him out. And not the fun kind of checking out either. I figured up his total and wrote up the receipt as he waited patiently.
"Your total is seventeen bits." I stated and he began counting as he pulled pits out of his saddlebag. "Do you want a bag for this?" I asked him and he nodded as he continued counting. Reaching under the counter, I grabbed some bubble wrap and a paper bag. I grabbed the metronome and began wrapping it up so that it wouldn't get broken. Placing it in the bag, I gave it to him and he gave me another polite smile. "Have a nice day." I said as he trotted towards the door. He turned his head and smiled again as he opened the door.
"You too." He replied as he left the shop. I watched him through the display window as he trotted down the sidewalk. As soon as he was out of sight, I groaned and slammed my face into the desk. My heart sank as I thought about how I didn't even get his name or address. Somepony who seemed to be my perfect stallion had been in my own shop and I'd let him slip through my hooves. How much more stupid could I have been? With a sigh, I lifted my head and looked out the window again. Hoping more ponies would come in, I looked over to the clock and saw that it was still only quarter after ten. With another groan, I let my head fall onto the desk again.
My evening routine isn't much unlike my morning routine but in reverse. After the clock tower chimed for seven in the evening, I stood up and trotted over to the sign in the window. I turned it to closed with a relieved smile and began shutting off the lights in the shop. As much as I liked running my own business, it was always nice to be able to close up at the end of the day and do something I enjoyed. Most of the time it would be reading a book or practicing on an instrument I hadn't played in awhile. But that night was special. You see, that particular night was on a Friday. With Friday came payday at most work places and that meant that there were ponies wandering around with bits burning holes in their saddlebags. And this of course opened up the chance for me to make some more bits doing various things. Of course, jobs for musicians like myself were not always in demand or the best paying but that didn't mean they weren't enjoyable. Trotting upstairs, I made sure to give the cats more food again before heading for the bathroom to freshen up.
Turning on the shower, I reached a hoof under the water and quickly pulled it back as the water was freezing cold. I reached my hoof back in after a few seconds of waiting and found the water to be approaching a comfortable level. Now that the shower was comfortable and I wasn't going to freeze my flank off, I climbed in and hurried as I looked at the wall clock. I was already five minutes behind schedule and just thinking about it made my eye twitch. If there was one thing I could not stand, it was my routine and schedule being messed up. After hurrying though, I was able to get cleaned up and even get a couple minutes ahead of my usual schedule. I wiped off the mirror and reached for my comb. And it wasn't there. I looked around frantically and could not find the comb. As I looked and looked, I suddenly stopped and turned my head to look at the toilet that was directly next to the sink. A pit formed in my stomach and I swallowed hard, afraid to look. Slowly, I trotted over and saw what I'd been dreading. There, in the bowl of the toilet, floated a blue, fine-toothed comb. I felt my eye twitch at the sight. Do you have any idea how unsanitary a toilet is? That comb was now useless to me. No amount of disinfectant would ever make that comb usable again. Well, that just set me back at least ten minutes. Using my hoof, I began attempting to style my mane with some mane gel. Oh Celestia, this was not going to be a good night.
I galloped through the streets of Ponyville, the instrument case on my back not effecting me as I was more focused on getting to the dance hall. Glancing upwards at the clock tower as I ran past, I saw it was five minutes until eight. I was late. That was not good. Definitely not good at all. The dance hall came into sight and I smiled to myself at the thought that I might just make it. Once I was at the hall, I swung open the side door for performers and started putting my trombone together as I hurried through the hallway for the stage. Once I had the trombone assembled, I discarded the case in the hallway and turned to enter the stage. As I found my spot among all the musicians, a shadow over my music stand made me look up. There, towering above me, was the conductor. His brown eyes stared daggers into me as I adjusted my tie with a nervous chuckle.
"You're damn lucky your the best trombone player around." He said as he went back over and picked up the saxophone he had placed against one of the steps on the stage. As I breathed a small sigh of relief, I felt a hoof tap on my shoulder. I turned around and saw a brown unicorn stallion with a black mane smiling at me.
"I thought he was going to kill you for sure." He said with his smile still in place and a small laugh. His deep, scratchy voice was nice to listen to as he laughed.
"Me too, Satch. Me too." I told him as I looked down at my empty music stand. Now I'm sure you're all wondering why I didn't have sheet music. Well, it's quite simple. I can't read it. It's funny really. I can play dozens of instruments but I can't read one note of sheet music. Everything I play is by ear, which at times can be difficult with a whole orchestra around you. But it can actually be very helpful too. You see, while I can't read music, I can 'see' it. The way I can see it is not that different from how you picture a scene in your head while reading a book. Only instead of pictures, I see it as colors. A tuba creates dark shades of blue, while a trumpet creates yellows. My trombone would make shades of green and a clarinet would make bright reds. Together they were like paint on a canvas but instead of an image they created music. As I heard them announce the introduction for the orchestra, a red curtain in front of us raised up and I felt myself relax as I felt my trombone in my hooves. While I may have gotten nervous doing things like oral reports back in school, performing with a band had never bothered me. Maybe it was because when we were all up there it meant I was drawing the sole attention of the audience. The audience in the dance hall applauded as we all looked over to the conductor, a smile replacing his usual scowl.
"In the Mood." He said and I raised the trombone to my lips as everyone else readied themselves. He gave a wave of his hoof and we all began to play.
We worked together like a well oiled machine, the sound coming out like silk. It didn't take but a few seconds for several couples to be out on the dance floor and foxtrotting along with the song. In a way, I was glad that the conductor had picked that particular song to be first. It had always been a favorite of mine since foalhood when grandma would play a vinyl record of it. Now that I was playing it, it was so relaxing for me. I shut my eyes, not needing to see anything other than the colors dancing in my head. Greens, yellows, reds, blues, oranges, purples; they all danced and mixed and swirled in my head. The rhythm dictated what they did, whether they swirled or popped depended entirely on what the song did. As we began to play quieter and quieter, the colors began to rumble and then tremble more than anything else. And then when we all stood up at the finale as the song flared up again, the colors were like fireworks exploding in a sea of darkness. Every color of the rainbow was there and as bright as could be. When the song ended, so did the colors and I smiled as we all gave a quick bow. The applause wasn't the best part of the job but it was a perk. It wasn't often that I was able to play with an orchestra like this one; but when I did, it was always amazing to be able to play with so many other talented ponies. Two mares in the sea of dancers caught my eye and I made sure to smile directly to Lyra and Bon Bon. But then as my eyes continued to scan the crowd, I felt my stomach tie itself in knots as saw a familiar stallion at the bar. His grey coat and purple mane made me feel like I could be sick. He'd been here the whole time. He'd heard me play. Oh sweet Celestia, I was almost certainly going to be sick. I'm not a self conscious pony about my musical skills until I play in front of somepony I like. And there sat the stallion that I had been crushing on all day. Without drawing much attention to myself from the crowd, I waved over the conductor. Explaining that I didn't feel well, I managed to slip away without anypony noticing. Or so I thought.
"You alright, Rhythm?" A mare's voice asked as I sat facing the wall of the dressing area off stage. I turned to see Lyra trotting up to me with Bon Bon not far behind. "Is something wrong?" She asked as she sat down next to me.
"No, nothing's wrong. I'm peachy as pie." I told her but it was obvious to her that it was a lie.
"Don't lie to me now, Rhythm. What's wrong?" Lyra asked again as I set my trombone aside. I sighed as I reached up and rubbed my temples with my fore hooves.
"It's just, there's this stallion that came in the shop earlier after you left. He's really cute and I want to get to know him. Only problem is that he's here." I told her. She gasped lightly and clapped her hooves together as though she had an idea.
"How about I-"
"Lyra, no." Bon Bon said, cutting Lyra off. "You're not playing matchmaker again. Need I remind you of all the times that it has just made a big mess for everypony?" She asked as she gave a deadpan stare at the mint unicorn.
"I've always had a twenty percent success rate most of the time. And my plan worked with Troy and Canvas didn't it?" She asked.
"Barely. If Rainbow Dash hadn't gotten involved too, then it'd probably just be another one in the list." Bon Bon replied with a huff. "I'm just saying that you should let him try and get the stallion on his own."
"Fine." Lyra sighed. "I won't intervene unless Rhythm wants me to." She said as she raised up her right hoof and placed her left over her heart. Bon Bon rolled her eyes at her wife's actions but said nothing as Lyra turned back to me. "Come on, join us for a few drinks and we'll see if the liquid courage won't help you talk to him." I followed them back to their table at the back of the dance hall. The band was now playing another familiar tune that I began humming along to. As we sat down, a waiter came over to take our drink orders. Lyra and Bon Bon both ordered Sea Breezes while I ordered straight whiskey. I heard an amused snort come from next to me and I turned to see Lyra grinning to herself.
"What's so funny?" I asked her.
"Your drink is the only straight thing at this table." She said with a snicker and the comment earned a smack on the leg from Bon Bon. I thought it somewhat funny however and grinned at the statement. The waiter returned with our drinks and I downed mine quickly. After a couple more drinks, I was beginning to get a good buzz and looked over to the bar to see that the adorable stallion was still there. I trotted over, with more than a couple missteps along the way, and hopped up onto the bar stool next to him. He looked over and smiled, clearly remembering me from the shop. I smiled back to him. I stuck a hoof out to him and he shook it with his hoof.
"Swing Rhythm. Pleasure seeing you again." I told him. He smiled again and I felt my heart leap into my throat.
"I'm Test Tube, it's a pleasure seeing you too."