A New Symphony

by damandan28

Chapter 3: Recognition

Rarity and I kept staring at each other as the silence stretched on. Dash cleared her throat and broke it.

“So...uh...do you two know each other?” Dash asked.

“Do you girls know who this is!?” Rarity asked.

“Um…Bright Side?” Twilight answered with uncertainty.

“Who? No! This is Score. He’s one of the greatest composers in Equestria!”

“What!?” Twilight and Dash yelled in unison. They looked at me and I gave them a weak smile.

“Wait, he didn’t tell you?”

They both responded with flat looks.

Twilight looked over at me, “Is this true?”

“Well... Yes…it's true.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Dash asked.

“Because I didn’t want people to recognize me. If they did, word would spread and it would bring unflattering people here to look for me.”

“Why would people look for you?”

“Let's just say I didn’t retire on good terms.”

“You retired!?” Rarity was surprised. “Why did you retire?”

“The orchestra isn’t all peaches and sunshine. It's filled with liars and deceivers who are only looking out for themselves. I was just so tired of it.”

“Wait a minute,” Dash interrupted. “Aren’t you our age? I thought it took years for composers to get recognized.”

Before I could answer Rarity asked Twilight, “Twilight dear, haven’t you heard of him?”

“Not really. Should I have?”

“Well everypony should, but I thought his ability would impress you.”

“Why?”

“Oh, silly me--his magic ability! He can operate about one hundred instruments at the same time. He is his own orchestra.”

“What!?” She looked at me. “Is that true?”

“Y-yes.” She just stared at me.

“…that’s amazing. That must take an incredible amount of magic, plus the difficulty of remembering every individual note each instrument uses.”

“Well it got easier as I got older.”

“How long did it take you to master it?”

“Hmmmmm…Lets see. Learned to play strings at 7, woodwinds and most everything else at 9, composed at 11. And I guess I learned to play all of them at one go at 13 and then started touring at 14.”

“Wait, you toured at 14?”

“Yeah, my biggest mistake.”

“You seem pretty well off to me,” Dash said.

“Money isn’t everything, obviously. I never had the school experience, never had friends, and never enjoyed any of my childhood. Almost everyone I met used me for their own gain and, finally, I just got sick of it. Can you girls promise me you won’t tell any pony?”

“Cross my heart and hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye,” they said in unison, pantomiming the declared movements. I gave them a confused look while they giggled.

“So how do you know Rarity?” Twilight tried to change the subject.

Rarity replied, “We met while I was in Canterlot with Fancy Pants, before your birthday last year.”

I continued, “I was doing a concert for the Princesses at the time. After meeting with the Princesses, I met Fancy Pants and his friends--Rarity included. Fancy Pants is one of a very few ponies I would call a friend. He's a great pony and we’ve done a lot of charity work with each other.”

“So what will you be doing here in Ponyville?”

“Well, I just moved in last night and I plan to relax.”

“Oh! What house did you move in to?”

“The one over the hill.”

“Wait...the one on the trail?”

“Y-yes. Is there a problem?”

“Oh, no problem, dear. Just the noise was unbearable when it was under construction.”

“Well, I do apologize for that. Is there anything I could do to make it up to you?”

“Well…It would be nice to see you perform, but there isn’t a stage in this town.”

“Well I do have a room I could play in. I’d prefer that at any rate”

“That room must be humongous!” Rarity said, surprised.

“All that construction wasn’t for nothing. Would you like to go now?”

“Sounds marvelous. Let me just grab a few things.”

Rarity went upstairs and came back down a minute later. As we were about to walk out the door, I heard somepony singing.

“We are the cutie mark crusaders.”

I stopped in my tracks and headed back inside, determined to find the source of the voice. Rarity follows me.

“On a quest to find out who we are.”

I finally find the room where the voice is coming from and I look around the corner. There’s a light gray unicorn filly with pink and purple mane and she’s writing something on a piece of paper.

“And we will never stop the journey. Not until we have our cutie marks.”

I stood there in awe of her voice--very rarely had I heard such beautiful singing.

“She has a beautiful voice doesn’t she?” Rarity said. I didn’t notice she was next to me so I yelped in surprise. I quickly regained my composure.

“Very. Is this your daughter?”

“NONONONONONO! This is my little sister Sweetie Belle.”

Sweetie Belle heard the commotion and saw us.

“What are you guys doing?” Sweetie asked.

“Just talking,” I replied. “You have a beautiful voice there, Sweetie Belle.”

“You heard that?” she blushed.

“Yes and it's nothing you should be embarrassed about. In fact, I think you should practice more and see what comes of it!”

“I guess not...but still...I don’t know”

“Well if you ever find out, I live a bit down the trail. If your sister lets you, I can teach you a thing or two.”

“Thank you,” she replied, seeming to really like the idea.

I smiled and then headed on out. Rarity, Twilight, Dash, and I left the boutique and went on the trail towards my house. As we reached the top of the hill before the house the sun was setting. I stopped in my tracks and looked at the sun.

“What’s up?” Dash asked.

“I've never seen the sun set. You girls mind if I sit here and watch?”

They gave each other a sort of funny, adorable smile, but nodded. We sat there a couple of minutes until the sun completely disappeared.

“….so is that it? Everypony said it was the most amazing sight ever,” I say, disappointed.

The girls just giggled as we kept on and arrived at my house.

I started to feel rather hungry, “One song and we head back into town to get something to eat?”

“Sure,” Twilight said nervously. I gave Twilight a suspicious look.

She’s up to something.

We get to my front door and I open it. It seemed darker than usual inside.