Truthseeker

by RB_

Origins: The Kid

“This is impossible!” Winter Bell cried, swiping a hoof across the table and sending several of the wooden blocks piled on top of it clattering to the kitchen floor.

Sweetheart…

“It is!” she said. Alone in the house as she was, she didn’t need to worry about talking to her mother out loud.

Her father had bought the blocks for her that morning, so that she could practice her unicorn magic. Well, she’d been at it all afternoon, and so far there had been very little practicing and a whole lot of failure.

Winter Bell sat back on her haunches and folded her forelegs. “I’m never going to figure this out. I’m going to grow up and get old and stuff and I still won’t be able to move these stupid blocks.”

That’s not true at all. You know that.

The filly pouted. “It doesn’t make it any easier,” she mumbled.

Then her ears perked up. “Hey, you’re super smart, and you know all about magic. Can’t you help me?”

I only know about my own kind of magic, her mother said. Yours is foreign to me.

“Well, can you teach me yours, then?” Winter Bell said. “It’s gotta be easier than this!”

When her mother failed to respond after several moments, Winter Bell frowned. “Momma?”

...I might be able to, yes. Would that make you feel better?

“Uh-huh.”

All right then. Listen.

A sound slowly faded into existence, quiet and low. Winter Bell wasn’t sure how she was hearing it; it didn’t seem to be with her ears, as strange of a thought as that was.

Can you hear that?

Winter Bell nodded.

That sound is the block’s essence. It is like your hoofbells; just as each one rings at a unique pitch, so too does everything else, just not in a way you can hear normally. Our world is a song, Winter Bell; that is the block’s note.

“It’s pretty,” she mumbled.

You have a note too, Winter Bell. Listen.

She did, and slowly a new sound eclipsed the old one. This one was short, and quick, and rang high.

“That’s me?”

It is, her mother said. It’s the most wonderful I’ve ever heard.

Winter Bell giggled. “Stop it…”

Never.

“So everything has a note like that?” Winter Bell asked. “Like, everything everything?”

Everything in this universe.

“Cool,” Winter Bell said. She thought for a few moments. “So what does that have to do with magic?”

Do you remember how I said that each note was the essence of the object?

She nodded.

Well, if you can change that note, then you can change the object. And to do that, you need to harmonize with it. Let me show you. Pay attention, now.

Bell closed her eyes and focused on the sound. The block’s sound had returned, and it and her own formed a chord.

Then, abruptly, her note began to change. Winter Bell could feel it happening, too; not physically, but on some other level. It was as if someone else was flexing a set of muscles she’d never even known she’d had.

Her note grew lower, and quieter, and its tempo changed until it matched that of the block’s. The two began to resonate.

There, her mother said. Can you feel it?

“Uh-huh,” she whispered.

Now watch this.

Bell felt her invisible muscles flex again, but instead of just her own note changing, both notes did, remaining in resonance even as the pitch changed and the tempo increased.

Winter Bell opened her eyes. She gasped.

The block was floating a foot off the table.

“Am I… doing that?”

Yes, you are, her mother said, although I’m the one controlling it. Would you like to try, now?

“Yes!”

Then by all means, go ahead. The two notes returned to normal, and the block came clattering back down onto the tabletop. Try to mimic what I did.

Winter Bell nodded. She could still hear her note, and the block’s, so she concentrated inward. She felt out for the same invisible muscles she’d felt flexing when her mother had done it, and pulled on them. Slowly, gradually, her note began to change.

You’re doing wonderfully, sweetheart.

Winter Bell bit her tongue. The note continued to change, growing lower and quieter, approaching the block’s but not quite reaching it, until…

She let out a grunt as the two notes finally began to resonate.

Excellent job! You’re a natural. Now, try and change the block’s note. You’re going change how it interacts with this planet’s gravity, but for now, just try to match what I did…

Winter Bell nodded and pushed again. It felt easier, this time, as the two notes began to bend.

Gently, now—

The block shot straight up into the air until it hit ceiling. Startled, Winter Bell released the note, and the block fell back down onto the table. She winced when she saw the dent it had left in the ceiling, and prayed that her father wouldn’t notice.

That was… good, her mother said. You’ll need to learn some control, but with a bit of practice… Are you okay, Winter bell?

Winter Bell didn’t answer for a few moments; she was too busy being gleeful and emitting a quiet “eee”-ing sound.

“I did it!” she said, once she’d calmed down a bit. “I really did it!”

You did, her mother agreed.

“I can do that with anything?” she asked.

Anything you want.

“What about the table?”

A low, thumping sound faded into her awareness.

“What about the chairs?”

High-pitched and sporadic.

“The whole house!?”

Loud and complex, comprised of several other notes.

I wouldn’t recommend trying to lift the house, though, sweetheart. I don’t think Noteworthy would approve.

Winter Bell giggled. “What about everything?”

Everything?

“Everything.”

Her senses expanded, and Winter Bell gasped.

Her mother had said that the world was a song.

She’d been wrong. The world was a symphony. A symphony of bells.

So enraptured was she by the music that she didn’t notice the flash of light across her flanks.

Comments

[TheStratovarian]

The song that runs underneath eh? But it does explain why on things.

[RainEStar]

I really like this. A symphony to control the environment.

[Spade_McTrowel]

Nice. :)

[SaintAbsol]

You know, going back and rereading this story (since it's awesome still), it only occurs to me now that we know about Winter's Bell's adoptive space whale eldritch momma; but... what happened to her biological mother? I'm assuming she had one, since Bell isn't half-eldritch like Pinkie, but only her father is ever mentioned; I almost wonder if she died, given how violently protective Winter Bell is of Noteworthy in the 'Her Mother's Daughter' chapters.