Chapter Six: Coming Together
The Truth
Chapter Six
The bell over the door jingled as the door to the library opened. Twilight was levitating a book onto a higher shelf when she turned to greet the guests.
“Wel...” Her voice trailed off from the shock. Her magic dissipated and the book landed on the floor with a muted thud.
“Aunt Twilight! Aunt Twilight!” Silver Streamer shouted as he vaulted off the white unicorn’s back and zipped right up to her, jumping on her own back and launching into rapid-fire speech. “Guess what, guess what! Mommy’s Pinkie Sense went off! My mane wiggled three times and my back right hoof was all wiggly! I asked Mom what it meant, and then her mane wiggled three times and her back right hoof went all wiggly! Yeah! And it happened in front of Vinyl Scratch and Octavia! And then Vinyl said ‘Hey’, and then Mom was all...” He gasped loudly, imitating his mother perfectly. “...And then she ran away! She probably went to tell everypony that Vinyl Scratch and Octavia were here! And then Vinyl Scratch introduced herself! She said that she knew you and that she knew Daddy! And then Octavia introduced herself and...”
Twilight, finally coming out of her shock, gently put the tip of her hoof to Streamer’s mouth without breaking eye contact with Vinyl Scratch. “Thank you, Streamer,” she said. She approached the pair with Silver Streamer still on her back, the gray foal silent though his slate blue eyes and his spiked-up mane betrayed his excitement.
“Twilight, it’s been a while,” Vinyl said slowly.
Twilight gathered the white unicorn into a slightly awkward embrace. “It has, Vinyl,” she said. “It’s good to see you.” She turned to the gray earth pony. “Octavia, it’s good to see you too.” She gathered her up in an embrace as well.
“Err, good to see you, too, Twilight,” Octavia said uncomfortably. As Twilight released Octavia from her hug, she heard the sound of hooves on the stairs.
“Mom? Who’s at the door?”
“Pup of a...!” Vinyl lowered her shades as she stared slack-jawed at Twilight’s daughter. “Is that...?”
“My daughter, Ruby Dawn,” Twilight answered. “Dawn, this is Vinyl Scratch. She was friends with your father before he moved to Ponyville.”
“Celestia Almighty!” Her shades still lowered, she trotted up to Dawn as she reached the bottom of the stairs. “You look just like your old man!”
Dawn looked up at her curiously. “Really?”
Vinyl readjusted her shades. “You even wear his hair like he does.” She chuckled. “I kept telling him that a braid doesn’t look good on him, but you pull it off nicely.”
Dawn blushed. “Thank you, Miss Vinyl.”
Vinyl scrunched her nose. “Don’t ‘miss’ me, kid,” she said lightly. “Doesn’t suit me.” She turned to her marefriend. “Tavi, though, you can call her ‘miss’ all you like.” She playfully put on a regal air, half-closing her eyes and raising a foreleg. “She’s the refined, genteel one,” she said in a playful, faked snobbish tone, wobbling her head to and fro as she talked.
Octavia narrowed her eyes and frowned as Dawn giggled. “Oh, stop, you’re going to be a bad influence on the girl.” The gray earth pony looked at Dawn. “My name is Octavia, dear, but Tavi is fine.”
Dawn bowed slightly. “Pleased to meet you, Miss Tavi.”
Vinyl snorted nasally, trying to stifle a laugh as Ocatvia glared at her again. She rolled her eyes away and turned to Twilight.
“I’m assuming that everypony should be here soon?” the lavender unicorn asked.
Vinyl shrugged as she used her magic to take off her shades and put them in one of her saddlebags. “With Pinkie knowing we’re here, yeah.”
As if on cue, the library door opened and a small crowd of familiar faces walked through. All the older mares gasped in shock when Twilight’s guests turned to greet them.
“Hey, girls,” the white unicorn said with a lopsided grin.
“Hello, Vinyl,” Fluttershy said. The yellow pegasus, much to everypony’s surprise, was the first to greet the white unicorn and gather her into a hug. She turned to Octavia and embraced her as well. The others followed suit and exchanged embraces with the guests.
“Now that you’re all here, maybe I can meet the rest of the brood?”
“Do you have to put it that way?” Octavia asked.
“Tavi, you really need to lighten up,” Vinyl said, giving her friend a sidelong glance as she looked at each of the other four foals present. She turned to Jasper. “Huh. You look just like your Dad, except for the hair and eyes.”
“My name’s Jasper,” the deep red unicorn said shyly.
“My name’s Rose Quartz.” The yellow pegasus bowed her head slightly.
“I’m Crystal Prism.”
“I’m Jonagold!” the peach-colored earth pony exclaimed.
Vinyl smiled brightly. “Awesome to meet all of ya. I’m Vinyl Scratch and this is my friend, Octavia.”
“Nice to meet all of you,” she said.
“Is Miss Scratch the pony that has the key to the music boxes, Aunt Twilight?” Rose asked. “Because you said last week...”
Twilight nodded. “Yes, she is.”
Vinyl leaned closer to Octavia. “Cuts right to the chase, doesn’t she?”
“Can we open the music boxes, please, Aunt Twilight?” Crystal Prism asked. “Mine never opened, and I wanna know what song it’ll play.”
Twilight turned to Vinyl, who just smiled knowingly.
“That’s why we’re here, ain’t it?”
Twilight couldn’t help but smile at the white unicorn’s laid back attitude. “Spike?”
The young dragon emerged from the basement. “Yeah?”
“You’ll need to lock up for the rest of the night,” she said.
Spike frowned. “Why...?” He looked around and noticed the two newcomers. “Oh.” Without another word, he strode over to the front door and locked it, switched the ‘open’ sign around and started to close up the curtains.
“Curtains...?” Applejack asked.
“Considering none of us knew exactly what Red was up to, you don’t want to take any chances alerting the town, do you?” Vinyl asked. Applejack shrugged as Spike ran up the stairs to Twilight’s room and came down a moment later with the six music boxes cradled in his arms. He gently put them on the floor in front of Twilight.
As Twilight looked at each music box, her friends and their children slowly started to form a circle around them. Each music box had a series of tabs and slots, each shaped like an Element of Harmony.
“Hey, Mom,” Dawn said, tapping a hoof on her mother’s shoulder. “Look, mine has two tabs shaped like six-pointed stars.” She picked up the music box with a red crystal shaped like a lightning bolt embedded on the top. “This one has a slot shaped like a six-pointed star on this side, and a tab shaped like a tiny lightning bolt on the front.” She took a closer look. “It looks like there’s a hole shaped like a little butterfly on it.”
“Hey! Mine has a hole shaped like a six-pointed star on one side, too!” Rose exclaimed. “Except mine has a hole shaped like a lightning bolt and a tab shaped like a butterfly.”
Twilight smiled as she watched her daughter waste no time. The young unicorn attached the three music boxes together.
“Jasper, Crystal, come on! Help us put them together!” Dawn said.
“I wanna help!” Silver Streamer said excitedly. Dawn nodded and waved him closer. The other foals closed around the music boxes and after a few moments they had all six of them connected perfectly in a triangular shape, Dawn’s connected to Crystal’s and Rose’s, and theirs connected with Silver Streamer’s, Jasper’s and Jonagold’s.
“We did it!” Silver Streamer exclaimed. He bounded over to his mother, who immediately gave him a high-hoof that he had to jump to connect with.
“Miss Vinyl, do you have the key?” Crystal Prism asked excitedly.
Vinyl Scratch nodded silently and called up her magic. A single key with a hexagonal blood-red gemstone on its bow floated from one of her saddlebags and zipped into the air, its other end sliding into the keyhole.
“Anypony care to do the honors?” Vinyl asked. She glanced at Twilight.
“No, I couldn’t,” Twilight replied. She looked down at the children. “One of you should. They’re your music boxes after all.”
The foals all stared at each other for a brief moment.
“Crystal, you do it,” Rose urged.
“Can I?” Jonagold asked.
“I think Dawn should do it,” Streamer replied. “Her box is the one that has the keyhole.”
“But that’s not fair!” Jonagold said loudly. “I wanna do it!”
A dark red hoof on Jonagold’s shoulder silenced the peach-colored earth pony. “I want to, too, Jonagold,” Jasper said, “but Streamer’s right.” He looked at his half-sister and nodded. Dawn, suddenly feeling self-conscious, summoned her magic and turned the key.
With a unified ‘click’, all six music boxes swung open facing towards each other. The foals jumped back in surprise and stared warily at their combined mementos.
“There’s nothing,” Crystal said. “It’s just a white block in each box.”
Twilight looked over the foals’ shoulders and her eyes suddenly went wide. “Milky quartz?”
Without warning, and before Twilight could elaborate at her surprise, all six blocks of milky quartz flashed brightly. Everypony shielded their eyes as the harsh glare of white light dimmed to a more tolerable level, and the slow tinkling of a piano began to play.
Jonagold was the first to lower his foreleg and saw a small image of a female unicorn using her magic to play a piano fade into view just above the blocks of gemstone. He glanced at Streamer and nudged him with an elbow. When the gray unicorn looked at his half-brother, the peach-colored earth pony pointed his hoof at the holographic image. As the song continued to play, everypony else lowered their hooves and stared in awe at the floating image.
The image of the unicorn playing the piano spun once slowly as a deeper piano accompaniment began. Twilight chanced a glance at her friends. All of their attention was focused on the floating image of the female unicorn and the hauntingly sad tune she played. Pinkie and Fluttershy had tears welling up in their eyes, and she could see Rainbow Dash fighting back her own tears. Rarity snapped her eyes shut and turned away as the sound of violins slowly rose.
The lavender unicorn looked down to see two earth ponies, one male and one female, playing violins fade into view on either side of the piano-playing unicorn. They swayed in time with the movement of their bows, their eyes closed as they took in the music and let it flow through them.
Twilight could suddenly taste salt on her lips and she realized she was crying. Zircon... she thought as she put a hoof on her daughter’s shoulder. Dawn glanced up at her mother briefly before turning back to the music boxes.
“Mama...” she heard Jasper whisper. Twilight looked up to see him embrace his mother. Rarity sniffled and whispered an apology before turning to look back at the floating images.
She heard another sniffle, and Twilight turned to see Vinyl lean her head against Octavia, shamelessly letting her tears fall. The gray earth pony kept a stoic face, but Twilight could tell she was being strong for her marefriend.
“Damn him...” she heard Octavia mutter.
A flicker of movement out of the corner of Twilight’s eye caught her attention and she looked over to see Jonagold whirl around and press his face against his mother, crying into her chest. Applejack tenderly wrapped a foreleg around his shoulders and lowered her head in a comforting embrace, her stetson slowly slipping off her head and falling to the floor.
“Ah know, Jonagold,” Applejack said in a low voice as the music suddenly paused. In that single moment, all eyes in the room turned back to the music boxes as the female unicorn slowly played the final notes of the song. All three musicians turned and face the direction of Dawn’s music box and bowed silently. Still bowed, they faded from view, and another image flickered in their place. A male unicorn stallion with a deep red coat, malachite-green eyes, a black soul patch and a black mane worn in a braid stood in the center of the triangle of music boxes, facing the same direction as the musicians did before they faded away.
“Daddy...?” Dawn and Rose asked in unison, their voices shaky.
“Zircon?” Rarity blurted out.
“Hey, kids,” Red Zircon's image said.
I feel that this could be a teensy bit better, but until I figure it out, I'm somewhat satisfied with the result. Concrit is welcome, and don't hesitate to be brutal.
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That was so beautiful! Next update please!
I like it. Touching, emotional, and well written. I look forward to seeing how things continue from here.
Loved this chapter, vary touching
I switched the 'your' at the very end to 'Red Zircon'. I felt it too premature, and it didn't seem to fit. I am thinking of putting 'you' back in there, just...now doesn't feel like the right time.
Dude, that piano/violin piece while reading this... it's just... words can't describe it. I felt all my manliness fly out the window. I honestly started crying.
Yet another reason why I love this community.