Steady as She Flies

by Witching Hour

Chapter 3 - Instrument

Witch stares at the door to Vellum Trace’s labs, an uncertain expression back on her face. Bliss had escorted her downstairs, and told her how to get to the labs before racing back to the Trainer Room… Apparently, the last time she’d had to leave Flash and Cinna in charge, she’d returned to the room with unrolled bandages covering everything.

With a sigh, Witch knocks and then opens the door. She catches a glimpse of what could best be described as a Gold Bloom device in motion before someone shouts, “OH GODS SHUT THE DOOR!” and the door is forced closed against Witch. She blinks in confusion, but then a flash of light comes from the edges of the door along with a resounding boom that rattles the door on its hinges. Witch’s eyebrow twitches upwards, wondering what in Equestria they were doing in the lab.

Before Witch can move again to open the door, it swings open, revealing and older dark red unicorn stallion with a white and black streaked mane wearing a lab coat and lab goggles with heavily tinted lenses. “What do you - Oh! You must be Witching Hour,” he says, pulling his goggles down so he could see Witch properly. “About time! Head Trainer hogs everyone who can wrap a bandage!” he grouses before going back into the lab, but leaving the door open for Witch to follow him.

Witch blinks a few times before she does so, closing the door behind her. Various unicorns in labcoats all dart about, exchanging the light filter goggles for standard clear ones and resuming whatever experiments they’d been working on before the crazy, complicated contraption went off.

The stallion who’d opened the door leads Witch to a back corner with filing cabinets basically forming a half-walled office. She watches in a state of mild confusion as he rummages around on the desk before finally finding the file he apparently wanted. “Ah! Okay… So! Says you have primarily done medical research - I’m amazed Bliss let you leave… Studied Magic Theory with Princess Luna - fantastic… Logic studies - not bad… Music…” He pauses in his outer monologuing to look up at Witch. “Good with sounds, are you?”

Witch jumps slightly at suddenly being addressed. “Um… Yes… My music tutor said I had perfect pitch in hearing and production…” she replies hesitantly

He nods, looking back at the file. “Alright… Well… Much as I want to put you in with Theory and Development right away, we need a good ear over in Sound.” Witch safely assumes that this stallion is Vellum Trace. “You’ll be answering to Piano Treble. Sound Lab is two doors down, on the left,” he continues, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he had yet to introduce himself.

“Shall I report there every afternoon, Mr. Vellum Trace?” she asks, making him blink in surprise before he laughs at himself.

“Excuse me, Miss Witching Hour, for not introducing myself properly, but it seems we both assumed each other’s names correctly without them,” Vellum Trace responds before putting her file back on his desk. Internally, she cringes at the chaos on his desk, her hooves and horn itching to tackle it and organize it properly.

“No harm done… But… My question? Should I report to the Sound Lab instead of here?” she repeats, a little desperation leaking into her tone. Despite her efforts to keep her attention on him, Witch’s eyes flick to the various ongoing experiments, and wants very much to see what they are all for.

“Ah! Yes… Sorry…” Vellum chuckles again. “Check in with me every Monday, but otherwise yes. I’ll let you know if anything changes,” he adds, his dour demeanor returning. He pauses for a long moment, watching her carefully before narrowing his eyes. “Well… What are you waiting for? Sound Lab! Now!” he says, waving his hooves at her as he turns and goes back to his Gold Bloom contraption.

Witch shakes her head before heading out into the hall and going down two doors to the one labeled “Sound Lab”. She knocks, but there’s no response, so she opens the door. A wave of cacophonous sounds assaults her ears, making them lay flat against her head as she cringes in pain. Within moments, the aural attack ends, and a small ivory unicorn mare with a blue-streaked silver mane and tail comes to the door.

“Sorry about that… We weren’t expecting anybody…” she says in a sweet voice. “I don’t recognize you… I’m Piano Treble, Head of the Sound Lab, but call me Treble. New assignment?” Piano Treble asks, peering at Witch with curious light blue eyes as though trying to place Witch in her memory.

“Very new,” Witch says, grateful when her ears stop ringing. “My name is Witching Hour. I just started here today… My mornings are generally with the Trainers, but Mr. Vellum Trace said I should work here, and check with him on Mondays to see if that changes,” she explains.

“Good ear?” Treble queries, her ears perking up and eyes practically dancing with excitement. Witch barely nods before Treble’s horn glows with a silvery light which also surrounds Witch, pulling her into the lab without another word. As the door slams, Treble starts dancing gleefully. “YAY! Finally!!! Come this way!” she says, promptly dragging Witch over to another door. Forcibly ushered inside, Witch finds herself in a full sound studio complete with window out into a room with ponies and their instruments.

“What do you need me to do?” Witch asks, mildly bewildered at Treble’s cryptic enthusiasm.

“I need you… to listen. Put these on,” she replies, and suddenly, a pair of headphones surrounded in her silver magic appear in front of Witch just before they’re jammed onto her head. Witch winces slightly and adjusts them herself while Treble looks sheepish and says something… but the headphones completely blocked out the sound.

Witch sighs and nudges one side off her ear. “I’m sorry… What was that?” she asks. Treble chuckles, still looking embarrassed.

“I said ‘sorry about that’... My enthusiasm gets ahead of me sometimes…” she answers, a pink tinge on her cheeks clearly visible through her pale coat. “I’ve been needing someone to figure out what’s wrong with this fanfare for a while, but no one in my lab has perfect pitch since Vinyl left to do her disc jockeying…” Treble elaborates. “I have a feeling she’ll be back, but until then, I still have work that needs doing…”

Witch nods. “Alright… So… I’m listening for something off in the fanfare?” she queries, gaining a nod from the petite mare.

“We make all the music that plays during performances… Squad Two’s the Elements, you know, and we’re trying to make a piece for them that goes with their new routine… Each part emphasizes a different element… Wind, Water, Fire and Lightning; in that order… For one thing, the different sections are fine, but the transitions are too jagged… Another problem is that - Well… Take a listen and you’ll hear it, I’m sure,” Treble explains at length before drawing Witch over to a seat at the sound board.

Witch pushes the earpiece back on, the world going utterly silent, and after a quick questioning look from Treble, the white unicorn presses a button and music fills her ears. The piece was a solid ten minutes, but Witch could immediately hear the problems her new boss had alluded to, along with several others - which she assumes are the unnamed issues Treble said she would hear.

After the rushing finale, Witch pulls the headphones off to hang around her neck. “I see - er - hear the problem… Squad Two works as a team and they each feed off of each other, right?” She pauses only long enough to get a nod before continuing. “The issue with each section and the transitions is that each piece is so separate… You need to have underlying themes of the other elements in each section.” She quickly grabs a pad of paper and starts writing. “Wind fans flames, flames are heat which relates well to lightning, lightning can cause fire and also creates a loud gust of wind from the pressure, water conducts electricity and can be blown about by wind… Water should clash with fire, so the transition between the two should be far more discordant,” she rambles as she writes down musical notations, using the lines of the paper to help keep them arranged like actual music.

Treble stares at her with her mouth agape and her eyes wide as saucers. “Oh… My… Stars…” she says slowly, Witch’s notes now floating before her. Treble’s eyes flick between the notes at Witch quickly before pushing past them and tackling Witch in a hug. “You. Are. AMAZING! I’m keeping you here, even if I have to trounce Ol’ Velly!” she proclaims excitedly before leaving and whisking the notes out the door to the orchestra room. She pokes her head back in. “Give us a few seconds to work something out, and then keep listening… The headphones’ll give you a live feed to the orchestra room when you press…” she pauses, squinting her eyes. “Board to your left, bottom tier, red button labeled L.F,” she explains, pointing a hoof in that direction. Witch looks quickly, spotting it, and nods to Treble.

As the smaller mare closes the door again, Witch takes another look around at the sound board. She hadn’t done over much with the mixing of music, but most of the buttons were clearly labeled. She makes quick notes about the location of each button, and then presses the live feed button. Immediately, the sounds of tuning instruments hits her ears, and she cringes, internally cursing her ears for being able to tell when an instrument is the slightest bit out of tune.

Spying the button for the microphone, she presses it and is briefly amused at how everything stops in the other room. “Cellists, I don’t know which one of you this is, but your A3 string is a quarter-tone flat… Please, for the love of the Celestial Sisters, get to the piano and tune it up. Flautists, kindly ensure that your Middle-C is in tune with the piano as well. Don’t make me come in there and show you how.” She releases the button and the sounds from the orchestra members slowly return. She sighs in relief when the cellists determine who was off-pitch, and the offending musician (a blue earth-pony mare with silvery mane and tail) moves to the piano to rectify the matter. The flautists join her and are thankfully capable of adjusting their instruments on their own. Treble smirks at her through the glass, nodding approvingly. Witch blushes, feeling the awkwardness of being the newbie snarking at professional musicians, but shakes it away. Her boss approved of it, so she need not worry about it… She wonders briefly if Treble might even encourage it.

“Alright ponies… You heard our new ears… Now, Wind players; fortissimo during Wind, mezzo-piano for Water, forte for Fire, then mezzo-forte for Lightning. Water-players; mezzo-piano, forte, mezzo-forte, then piano. Fire; mezzo-piano, mezzo-forte, fortissimo, then forte. Lighting; piano, mezzo-piano, forte, then fortissimo.” Witch finds herself nodding along with Treble’s directions. “You’ll have to sight-read the new transitions, gradual crescendo or decrescendo as needed, but this is just to see if we can mix this right… Ready?” Treble raises a conductor’s baton in one hoof, looking around and receiving nods in reply. With a sharp nod, she waves the baton in an upstroke that the orchestra readily responds to.

Witch, listening intently, finds herself greatly relieved at the improvement on the fanfare. It’s by no means a clean run, especially with the transitions being sight-read, and the musicians handling the water theme were still a little timid about playing louder than pianissimo during any part but their own, but they managed to finally find their courage about half-way through the Fire movement. Belatedly realizing she should’ve been keeping notes, she grabs another notepad and starts writing.

Witch still isn’t sure what she expected when Luna had given her this assignment, but only one day in and it’s already shaping up to be far from it.

---

“Come in early Saturday. Let’s grab lunch together. I have something I need to talk to you about…”

The potential topics that Bliss would want to talk to her about had bothered her all day Friday, causing her to accidentally set off one of the Sound Lab’s flash-bang grenades… And her ears were set ringing again when she’d gone to the gym and Pec Bounce had yelled at her for falling from the chin-up bar and hitting her head when her arms gave out because she’d lost count of how many reps she’d done.

Witch is anxious as she approaches the mess hall. The first week as a Wonderbolt (she still has issues coping with that concept) had gone well, aside from Friday’s mishaps. She enters and gets her food quickly, thankfully early enough that most of the Wonderbolts were still wrapping up their morning work. Bliss herself was easy to spot, off in a far corner at a table deserted but for herself, Cinna and their respective lunches.

Witch weaves her way through the steadily growing crowd to the table and slides into a seat across from Bliss. Both greet her with smiles. “Take your time, Witchy. We’re going to be pretty busy after lunch…” Bliss says, prodding her salad around with a fork to cover the leaves in dressing.

Witch simply raises an eyebrow at her boss. “Means we should talk while we have the chance then…” she replies casually as she stirs her pasta, twirling noodles around her fork. Bliss simply chuckles while Cinna looks up from her sandwich with an eyebrow raised, obviously perplexed.

“Too right… So… Your roommate slash patient slash friend should be getting a nice letter sometime soon… The way you talked about her made me think she’d like a tour of the compound… and another invitation to the flight camp, since we couldn’t get around the ‘current’ academy students rule.” Bliss laughs again as Witch nearly drops her jaw into her pasta and Cinna emits a high-pitched, excited noise similar to the one she’d made back when she found out Witch knew Princess Luna.

“Ohmygosh, Monkey’s gonna flip!” Cinna states, practically bouncing in her seat. Bliss reaches over the table and taps the bottom of Witch’s jaw with her hoof, causing her mouth to snap shut. Her eyes remain wide as dinner plates, staring unblinkingly at the Head Trainer.

Witch finds herself trapped on a roller coaster of Monkey’s possible reactions. On the positive side, Monkey may be thrilled that she got the invitation. Conversely, however, Monkey could assume Witch pulled strings to get her such an offer in spite of her protests and to get the Wonderbolts to ignore her ‘cheater’ wings.

Witch snaps back as Bliss clears her throat while Cinna comically waves her hoof in front of her face, blinking quickly and repeatedly. Bliss then levels a completely serious gaze on Witch. “I know where your mind just went… Look, I know it could backfire. Even if you can get her to believe that others acted on her behalf, it could mean she’ll feel you violated her trust by sharing her predicament with others. As her doctor, it’s an understandable consult… But as her friend, it’s another story entirely…”

Bliss had just summarized Witch’s thoughts exactly, so she nods, sighing and slumping in her seat. “I just don’t know what else to do…” she murmurs, almost too quiet for her lunch companions to hear.

“Well… Just let us know if it goes badly… I may be able to pull another couple strings,” Bliss replies, pressing a hoof to her forehead and rubbing in small circles right behind her eyes in a highly resigned gesture.

Cinna gets up and moves to sit beside Witch, putting an arm around her shoulders and pulling Witch close for a half-hug. “It’ll be okay, Witchy… Even if I have to sic my mom on her…” she adds, leaning her head against Witch’s. Witch leans into Cinna, a weak smile tugging at her mouth.

“Thank you both…” she responds softly.

Author's Note:

Here we go again! Wow Bliss... Way to go with that idea! That should help things, right?
...
Right?

Find out next chapter! As always, thanks for reading! Kindly leave a review if you have constructive criticism or fannish flailing to get out!

Comments

[Calm Wind]

Whoa! you should have told me you were posting this! let me blog about it right now

[Witching Hour]

5984505

I thought my frequent PMs with questions gave it away!

I cannot tell you how much your blog post made me fangirl! I'm so happy you're liking this!

[ConningOfficer]

“Wind fans flames, flames are heat which relates well to lightning, lightning can cause fire and also creates a loud gust of wind from the pressure, water conducts electricity and can be blown about by wind… Water should clash with fire, so the transition between the two should be far more discordant,”

Methinks this is important later... And, I certainly enjoyed the mention of Vinyl Scratch... So, Bliss is interested in helping Monkey check out the Wonderbolts - I'm hopeful that it goes well, but I'm not optimistic, if you know what I mean!

[Sylvian]

Witch still isn’t sure what she expected when Luna had given her this assignment, but only one day in and it’s already shaping up to be far from it.

The subject in the second part of the sentence feels a little awkward. What is it shaping up to be far from it? Has her new assignment gone beyond her expectations? Or did she not believe that Luna had assigned her to a place she'd fit into because it was the Wonderbolts?

Just food for thought, otherwise I am really enjoying this!

[Calm Wind]

Interesting I never really have put much detail into the research and development sections of the compound, it was fun to read

[Amos Anon]

After the rushing finale, Witch pulls the headphones off to hang around her neck. “I see - er - hear the problem… Squad Two works as a team and they each feed off of each other, right?” She pauses only long enough to get a nod before continuing. “The issue with each section and the transitions is that each piece is so separate… You need to have underlying themes of the other elements in each section.” She quickly grabs a pad of paper and starts writing. “Wind fans flames, flames are heat which relates well to lightning, lightning can cause fire and also creates a loud gust of wind from the pressure, water conducts electricity and can be blown about by wind… Water should clash with fire, so the transition between the two should be far more discordant,” she rambles as she writes down musical notations, using the lines of the paper to help keep them arranged like actual music.

Water's technically an insulator, not a conductor. Also, as a musician, I can appreciate what you did here, though I wish that you'd gone more into specifics with this. You talked about the feeling of the music, but when the other character was asking what was wrong with the music, I thought you were going to have Witching point out a section that was out of tune, or out of rhythm with the rest of the piece; it would make more sense to me that that's what would play to Witching's strengths more, given that she has perfect pitch (something that is developed early in childhood, by the way).

[Witching Hour]

9933830
Honestly - I put the perfect pitch part more in this paragraph:

“Cellists, I don’t know which one of you this is, but your A3 string is a quarter-tone flat… Please, for the love of the Celestial Sisters, get to the piano and tune it up. Flautists, kindly ensure that your Middle-C is in tune with the piano as well. Don’t make me come in there and show you how.”

As for the issue about water (conductor v. insulator); I mostly play the mystical aspects by cuff... and this is a magical perspective on something that represents the physical. So... Call it slightly skewed towards the arcane.