The Book Of Friendship

by XombieSlayr

Eclipsa Day Part III: The Musical Event

As Omnipotence watched the festival, and all her subjects enjoying themselves and the many activities that had been set up, another alicorn joined her on stage, as Eclipsa had her guitar hosed to get rid of the flames. She was opalescent white, with a flowing teal mane and a line of music for a cutie mark. Her wings were folded gracefully at her sides as her amber eyes seemed to glow like fire. She wore a black bow tie and a strangely, calming smile as she greeted the alicorn princess like an old friend.

"Hello, Omnipotence." The alicorn spoke in a deep, beautiful voice that seemed to sing of its own accord.

Omnipotence turned and greeted the mysterious alicorn, with an air of suspicion. "Hello, Heartfelt Symphony."

Symphony waved a hoof in dismissal. "Please, dear Omnipotence. Symphony is fine." she said simply. "I trust you know why I'm speaking with you?"

Omnipotence sighed. "The opera?"

"Correct."

Omnipotence gritted her teeth as she once again thought of last year's musical event. Hopefully, everyone had remembered to bring their headphones this time. She couldn't afford the costs for having all those ponies receive magical hearing repair because they had "forgotten" today was Eclipsa Day. Yes, forgotten something that was announced with the moon exploding. "Pfft. Forgotten my hoof." she thought bitterly.

"What does she want this time?" Omnipotence asked as she rubbed her temples.

Symphony nodded as she unfurled the scroll she had been carrying and read it aloud. "The lady Eclipsa has asked that this year's musical event would be a rock opera. One that tells the story of how she created rock and roll. She would also like it to be even louder then last year."

Omnipotence looked at her like she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Are you insane!? The music was so loud last year, I got noise complaints from Seaquestria! It nearly caused an earthquake on the western half of the country!"

Symphony only continued to smile. "If you would like to discuss it with her-"

"No! No. It's fine, we'll....we'll work something out. Just be sure everyone has their headphones on this time."

"Of course."

With that, Symphony left to go prepare her band, leaving Omnipotence to go over things in her head, hoping she could stem the insanity of this, before somepony got hurt. Again.

Rock. It just had to be rock, didn't it?

Omnipotence did not hate rock. But she was certainly no fan of it's loud wails and shrill, shrieking tones. She preferred the more mellow jazz or a nice soothing violin solo.

Eclipsa of course, hated such things. So, it was rock or nothing. So a rock opera made perfect sense by Eclipsa's standards.

Omnipotence watched as Symphony made her way over to the band and instructed them on what to do, acting just as carefree and smug as she always had. Omnipotence had a very strange feeling about her. As if she knew something, nopony else did. And that smile of hers, seemed to hide something.

And then there was the fact that, she never wore the headphones.

It was known that the musical event on Eclipsa Day was always ridiculously loud. So much so, that it was required for the listener to wear special headphones that would allow them to listen to the music without fear of going completely deaf. Only Omnipotence and Eclipsa were immune to such a thing, thanks to their vastly powerful magical crowns and adornments, automatically filtering out the noise for them.

But, Heartfelt Symphony was the only pony in the empire, who could listen to the loudest part of each musical event without headphones, and be perfectly fine. Not to mention, she was the one who conducted the thing! She was more exposed to the eardrum destroying decibels more then anyone, yet came out unscathed every time.

And asking her how she did it was useless. She would always say the same thing, every time Omnipotence asked her.

"It's a secret."

Well with her busy with the opera, maybe Omnipotence could find out more about Symphony and her secret. If anything, she would be able to discover why she knew so much, about things only she and Eclipsa would know about.

Plus, it was something to keep her mind off all this, and that was a blessing on it's own.

The Rock Opera

Eclipsa took her seat in the stands. She looked around in worry wondering where her sister was, as others took their seats. She watched as everypony put on a pair of silver, arcane looking headphones, the ones that would allow them to hear the opera without fear of going deaf from its incalculably loud volume. The curtains drew back as the lights dimmed, and a hush passed over the crowd.

A loud, steady drum beat followed by the rising screech of a guitar signaled the beginning of the opera. Eclipsa looked down around the stage and smiled. She had spotted her sister, sitting very close to the stage, with her head ducked down, obviously not wanting to be seen. Symphony led the band in their chaotic rhythm as act I began.

"Hmm." Eclipsa wondered aloud, bringing her popcorn in front of her. "I hope she's not up to anything devious." she joked, as she helped herself to her popcorn, eager to see how both shows played out.

Down by the stage, Omnipotence watched as Symphony led her band in their onslaught of music, every note seemed to vibrate the epicenter of the planet beneath her hooves, and it only got louder. Some in the audience, covered their ears, despite still wearing their headphones, such was the volume of the music that was exploding forth.

Omnipotence was undeterred by the sound, as she watched Symphony conduct her band with unhindered grace and elegance, every sway of her hooves, rousing chord after chord from the musicians in perfect timing. She was truly gifted.

But this didn't stop Omnipotence from watching her the entire first act. She saw that it was true. Despite the ear-destroyingly loud music, Symphony wore no headphones, and was completely unaffected by the opera's bellowing volume. But how was this possible? She had to have some trick to it.

Omnipotence watched for an hour, as act one ended, and Symphony took a moment to flip the pages of her music sheets. The absence of sound when the music stopped was a voiceless vacuum which was somehow even more deafening then the music. That's what happens when you listen to such a loud frequency for over an hour. No other sound can register. Even though the music had stopped, nopony dared take off their headphones. As soon as everything was in it's place and the band was ready once more, act two began.

"I don't get it." Omnipotence said to herself. "No headphones, no magic. Nothing. How is she not completely deafened by this ungodly music?" she wondered, putting a hoof to her chin.

As act two unfurled, a more sweet, yet still rough sounding regalia of deepening guitar wails, accompanied the singing of the actors on stage, as they told the story of Eclipsa's discovery of rock music. Symphony conducted it with the same grace as she had before, yet her movements were more erratic and fast paced, perfectly matching the chaotic rock that emanated across the kingdom.

Omnipotence continued to watch Symphony, looking for any sign of her using magic, or a hidden pair of headphones or some other trick that allowed her to withstand the music of the rock opera. But, nothing stood out to her.

Act two ended like the first and act three, would begin shortly after. As ponies left their seats, for the brief interlude before the final act, Omnipotence had grown tired of waiting and watching, and decided to simply go down and confront Symphony directly. Useless as it may be, she would rather get some form of an answer rather then spy on her all day.

"Ah, Omnipotence. I was wondering when you would actually decide to come and talk to me, rather then spy from the rafters." Symphony greeted Omnipotence as she approached, quickly catching her by surprise. The princess looked at her with astonishment.

"You knew I was watching you?"

"Indeed."

"But how? Your back was turned the entire time!" Omnipotence exclaimed, getting frustrated. "And there's no possible way you could have heard me!"

Symphony chuckled to herself. "Oh but I did. I can hear plenty of things. Too many things."

Omnipotence sighed, having grown tired of this game. "Alright, I'm just going to come out and ask then." she said simply. "How do you do it?"

"Do what, dear Omnipotence?"

"How are you not deaf!?" Omnipotence said, almost losing her temper. Eclipsa Day never failed to fray her nerves in one way or another, and Symphony's smugness wasn't helping to cure that.

"Ah. that."

"Yes, THAT!"

Symphony gave a short sigh before she answered. "Sound Magic."

Omnipotence didn't respond immediately. She hadn't actually expected to get an answer. "Pardon?"

"I use a form of natural magic, unique only to those of my bloodline. Sound works very differently for me than anypony else. Something loud enough to deafen, may come as but a whisper to me. The slightest cough from a mile away may alert me to that pony's whereabouts. And then there are the other things I hear..."

"Other things??"

"Voices. Music from things that produce no music. I know the tone of pitch of the color red, or the sweet melody that the feeling of love exhumes. Or the angry, wrought wailing of hate and anger. And then there are other things; comments. From beings that are not ponies. Or any being we know of. They talk quite a lot, though they do not hear me, when I speak to them. They know what's happening, even now as I speak about them. But they do not know I can hear them."

Then, Symphony turned and looked out into the distance, seeing someone that wasn't there. "Or maybe they do..." she wondered.

Omnipotence looked where she was looking, yet saw nothing. "Um, okay, so....sound magic?"

"Yes."

Omnipotence laughed, glad to finally know the truth. "Impressive. I had never heard of such a thing."

Symphony gave her the same gentle smile. "Perhaps we will learn more about it in the next chapter." she said without thinking.

Omnipotence stared at her, once again lost. "E-Excuse me?"

Symphony merely waved a hoof in reply. "Oh, it's nothing you need to know. Anyway I should get back to things before act three begins. Happy Eclipsa Day, Omnipotence." and she left, returning to her stage.

Omnipotence stood there, having learned the truth about Symphony, but now she was more confused about her then ever before.

Comments

[FireheartThePone]

Symphony sounds like me. Can listen to impossibly loud music for ages and be completely fine. She'd probably like to meet Fireheart. Sound magic meets sound magic!

And she's a fourth wall breaker, too. Excellent!