Inverno’s Opus in A Minor

by CrackedInkWell

4: On the Cliffs of Rainbow Falls in F# Minor

Inverno was stirred awake in the early morning light as the sun shone through the crystal walls of the train. Rubbing his eyes, he slowly opened them to see that the darkness of the night had given way to a landscape that the colt had never seen before. Through the walls and ceiling, Inverno got out of bed with an awestruck view of the towering, steep mountains and its green valleys below. The train followed the tracks on the side of a cliff in which he was able to look out of the wild greenery and clouds that were so close that the colt could swear that he could reach out to touch them.

“Morning kiddo.” Inverno looked over to see Shining walking into their railcar, carrying a tray of what looked like breakfast on his back. “Did you sleep well?”

For the first time, the unicorn colt looked around, seeing that he was alone. “Where’s Professor Key?”

“He’s in the dining car having breakfast. We obviously woke up early, but we let you sleep in. So here you go.” Shining placed the tray down in front of him. It had a glass of orange juice, a bowl of fruit salad, some pieces of toast with butter on the side, and a bowl of oatmeal. “Let’s get you to feed before we reach Rainbow Falls.”

“Thanks…” Inverno looked over at the landscape of trees and mountains flying past them. “Uh, Dad, where are we?”

“Northern Equestria, or more specifically, in a place that’s known as the Yaket Range. At this rate, we should be arriving at Rainbow Falls in less than an hour.”

“Oh… I see…”

Raising an eyebrow, Shining plopped himself down next to his adopted son. “Something on your mind?”

“How big is Rainbow Falls?”

“Not very big as the Crystal Empire. It’s a small place, but really pretty at the same time. If anything, I haven’t exactly been there since… well… after I and Cade got married. We spent our honeymoon there.”

Inverno tilted his head, “What’s a honeymoon?” he asked innocently while picking up a piece of toast in his aura.

“It’s uh…” Shining paused to think of choosing his words carefully. “In a nutshell, it’s a glorified vacation for couples that just got married. A time to… relax, after all the stress of putting the wedding together so that they could have some quality time to themselves.”

Nodding, Inverno munched on his breakfast when he returned to his original idea. “Do you think we might find one of them there at Rainbow Falls?”

Shining sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck. “To be honest… I don’t for sure. All we have to go off is where those boxcars were heading off to. If we’re lucky, really lucky, we might be able to find one of them there. Or at least, somewhere nearby. The thing is that you basically brought back ponies from… hundreds of years back into the present with no idea where they are or what’s happening. Chances are, they might be on the move elsewhere.”

“Where could they go?”

“Try to be in their horseshoes for a moment, Inverno. What if you passed away and someone centuries later decided to one day bring your mind back into a different body – and that you’ve been sent to a different place that you don’t recognize in a world that seems so alien in every way - what would you do if you were them?”

The colt pondered over this while eating the fruit salad. “Maybe… I don’t know… Find some way to go back home, to find out what became of everyone I knew.”

Shining nodded. “Do you see how difficult this is? We’re tracking down ponies from the past that have no clue where they are nor how they got there.”

“But that’s something that I’ve been thinking too. How are we going to find them?”

“By good old fashion detective work. We just have to ask around to see if somepony new came, look for clues to see where one of them could have gone to. So eat up, we’ll be arriving there soon.”

---

Never, in all the music that Inverno saw that he ever could imagine a place like Rainbow Falls. While it was small as his dad described it, his own breath was taken away at the beauty and color of this village in the clouds. As the train rounded a cliff, Inverno saw an island that seemed to stand on its own among the steep mountain range. There were small buildings and houses that were next to cascading rainbows that descend from the heavens, even outright flowing right through the town like water.

Their train slowed down as it crosses a purple stone bridge and stopped right next to a tinny station. As soon as the side doors opened, Inverno rushed out into the crisp, cool mountain air. His ears picked up the simple sounds of chattering locals, the gentle roar of the falling rainbows where it was collected in ponds before flowing off a cliff. Even the buildings of shops, restaurants, offices, and homes were just as colorful as the rainbows with their steep roofs, bright colors, and individuality.

If anything, Inverno’s curiosity made him drew near the pond as two of the rainbows flowed directly into it, dispersing and mixing its colors. ‘I wonder what a rainbow tastes like.’ He wondered as he dipped a hoof into the multi-colored liquid.

“Woahwoahwoahwoah!” Shining came galloping over as he lit his horn to pick up Inverno away from the pond and getting the liquid off of Inverno. “Don’t do that!”

“Don’t do what? I was just going to taste it.”

“Inverno, trust me, I’m actually saving you here. You do know not to taste a rainbow that’s unfiltered, right?” The blank stares from his adopted son made him realized that he doesn’t. “Look, rainbows, especially when they haven’t gone through some filters are incredibly spicy. As in the ‘Ow my mouth’s on fire!’ kind. Trust me, I tried it once and ended up burning my mouth for a week.”

“Oh… sorry…”

Putting him down, Shining added. “No, it’s not your fault. At times I keep forgetting that you don't exactly know some basic things is all. Look, Inverno, I know the places we’re going to are mind-blowing to you, but you must stay close. Don’t touch or eat something without us saying so. And it goes without saying, don’t talk to anypony that you don’t know.”

Inverno gave his father a flat look, “Isn’t the point to ask around where these composers are?”

“Yes, but just let me and Professor Key do the talking.”

“Prince Armor,” the two of them turned to see Professor Key coming up to them, “I just asked the rail conductor and he said that there was a stole away in a boxcar just yesterday.”

“Did he mentioned what he looked like?” Shining questioned.

“Fortunately, yes. A male deer to be exact. Being in a town like this, he should stick out like a sore hoof.”

---

Hours later and neither Shining, Professor Key, nor any of the guards could find any trace of their mystery composer. Even when they’ve asked the locals if they’ve seen a deer, all it did was sent them on a wild goose chase that leads them in circles. What was frustrating, especially for Inverno, was that he wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone, even if it was to help out. Even when such an occasion did arise, he was cut off before he could get a word out. With each passing minute of asking locals and tourists, with every denied opportunity, Inverno became increasingly irritated.

Eventually, Shining heard alarm bells in his head as soon as he saw the glowing eyes of his adopted son that he excusing himself from the search party. The Prince took Inverno to get some ice cream in hopes to calm him down a little.

However, even after getting a few scoops, the colt’s growing anger didn’t fade.

“Why aren’t you letting me help?” Inverno questioned. “If you didn’t want me to help you out, then why bring me here at all?”

“Look, it’s not that you’re not helpful to us. It’s just that… this is the first time you’ve been outside of the Empire and you don’t exactly know your way around. I mean, this isn’t like the palace or the Crystal streets where it’s completely safe. Because I know for a fact that it’s not guaranteed out here. I’m just trying to protect you is all.”

“I’m fourteen now.”

“Says the colt that shattered everything he touches when he has a hissyfit like an infa-” Too late to realize what just came out of his mouth, he saw Inverno’s expression that gone from near angry to hurt when he said those words. “Inverno, I didn’t mean-” Before he could react, the colt instantly galloped off. “Wait! Inverno!”

But he ignored him as he galloped away. It didn’t matter to him where, as long as it was away from the one that said something so cruel and so careless. It hurt Inverno that Shining, someone that he had come to know as a father, would say that. To bring up that thing that has caused him much pain and grief. A subtle reminder of how thin that line was for him to cross to become something worse than Sombra.

Inverno was galloping blind, his eyes filled with bitter tears that he didn’t notice that he would trip into a sudden dipped that made him tumble over onto a plane of grass when he felt he rammed into something that tripped over him.

“Ow!” a male voice cried out, “Hey, what was that…” the words were trailed away when Inverno continued to cry on the grass. “Sorry uh… are you alright?”

Inverno cleared his blinding tears away to see the stranger that he accidently tripped over. It was a thin-looking creature, from its broomstick legs with solid black, cloven hooves, they were attached to a body that resembled a slender pony, with a pony neck that was connected to a concerned face. A face that was young but ancient at the same time where he had old green eyes and a white mane slick back. Inverno noticed that not only did he had glasses, but he had antlers on his head. Not very big, but noticeable. Within a heartbeat, Inverno instantly recognized that the face was one he took from a tourist.

“I didn’t hurt you, didn’t I?” The deer asked. “I’m very sorry, I honestly didn’t see you.”

“It’s uh…” Inverno sniffed. “It’s nothing.”

“But you’re not hurt, are you?” The colt shook his head. “Here, let me help you up.” The slender creature got up in which he assisted the unicorn as well. “I’ll ask again, are you alright?”

With a good guess of who this might be, Inverno shook his head. “I just… well, not really.”

“Oh, I’m sorry about that.”

The colt waved a hoof, “You’re fine, it’s… it’s stupid.”

“I have to disagree. Tears are not stupid. They simply tell us that something is wrong.”

Inverno looked around at the thinner patch of grass that was between an earthy slope and an endless drop with nothing but wild grass that grew on the plane. He asked the deer what he was doing here all by himself.

The deer sighed, “It’s a long story, but suffice to say that… I’m having some very bad days myself. And just needed some alone time. Trying to figure out some things,` you see.”

“Like what, mister…?”

At first, the slim creature hesitated, as if trying to weigh in if he should say his actual name. Eventually, he did. “Maneler. You can call me Mr. Maneler.”

Inverno knowingly nodded. “Okay, what kind of a bad day are you having, Mr. Maneler?”

The deer let out a melancholic sigh. “Oh… Where do I start? There was so much that has happened to these few days alone than I… I’m not sure where to begin.”

“Such as?”

Again, he hesitated. “Well… Let’s just say that I found out that some ponies that are very dear and near to me have… passed away.”

Inverno sniffed again. “You too?”

There was a pause between the two. “Sorry?”

“My father passed away about a year ago. So I… I think I get it. If anything, it’s kinda the reason why I ran into you. And sorry about that.”

“Why?”

“Inverno!” The unicorn froze as he heard Shining’s voice called out. “Inverno, where are you? I’m sorry, okay! I didn’t mean to say that! C’mon Inverno, come out!”

The colt could see the gears turning in the deer’s eyes. “Oh… I see… Someone you trusted said something hurtful, wasn’t it?” Feeling ashamed, Inverno looked down but nodded. “Are you ready to go back to whoever’s calling?”

“No… I don’t want to yet. It still hurts that he would say something like that so careless and…” Tears formed in his eyes once more.

Just then, Inverno’s ears picked up something unusual. It was clear and unmistakable. The sound of a piano being played. When Inverno looked up, he instantly saw that all around him, trees, wildflowers, and bushes sprung all around. It grew so quickly and so high that it blocked out the view of the nearby buildings and shaded them underneath a green canopy. In which he realized that this music was somehow coming directly from Maneler.

Even Maneler was confused at not only the music but even the sudden plant growth from around them. “What the… How…?” He touched the bark of a young tree before it shot upwards. “Am I doing this?”

“I think so… Are you seeing this?”

The deer nodded. Pointing his hoof down the thin patch of grass turned into a natural, dirt path with a growing forest spring up from either side. A thoughtful look came across his face. “Inverno, care to take a walk with me?”

So the colt walked beside the towering deer through the spontaneous nature walk on the side of the cliff. Maneler asked him what had happened to make him burst into tears. “It’s my new dad,” Inverno explained. “He brought up something painful about me. I know that he’s right, but the way he said it and so carelessly just…”

“He didn’t think of how you would feel I take it?”

Inverno shook his head. “First, he brings me out to supposedly help him but becomes so overprotective of me to the point that I can’t actually help, and now this… saying something that reminds me of Papa… It just… hurts…”

As the music played on, with more wild plants spring up from the ground around them, Maneler hummed. “The same Papa that passed away?” Inverno nodded. “Was he ever good to you?”

“Well, I thought so. I mean, he cared about me when he was alive. But after he died, I found out he wasn’t as good as I thought he was. Don’t get me wrong, my new dad has been trying to be a better father, but… I don’t know… Even after what I know about him, I still see him as my Papa. But now it’s… so confusing what I should think or feel.”

Maneler knowingly nodded, “You feel conflicted. I understand perfectly where you’re coming from.”

“How?”

“I know plenty about death, it has followed me all my life and taken away those I loved, again and again. From my talented brothers and sisters to even my own children. I held my daughter in my forelegs until she finally passed on. It’s painful that goes beyond description. Even with my own father’s death, who wasn’t all that good, I still cried, regardless of what he did.”

Inverno’s ears perked up as he dried his tears. “So… You know what’s it’s like too.”

Maneler shared a sad smile, “Yes… at least it's good to walk with someone that’s been on the same path as you are. I know what it is like to lose someone dear to you while the rest of the world sees them as nothing more than a monster. Trust me when I say this, I’ve been there.”

“But what if you have no one to walk down with? So to speak.”

“For that, I turn to the solitude of nature, walk paths just like this,” he waved a thin hoof around of the growing micro forest, “but the best way I find comfort is by creating music.”

“You too? I mean, for me it’s either that, improvising on an instrument or singing. Even when things get really bad, I turn to music like… as if it were a comforting friend. I don’t know if I could explain why or how though.”

Maneler nodded. “It is a funny thing, but when I too am making music, all the answers I seek for in life seem to be there, in the music itself. Or rather, I should say, when I am making music, there are no questions and no need for answers.”

“But still, what do I do now?” Inverno asked, “About my new dad I mean.”

“From what I heard, it sounds like he’s ready to apologize. As someone who has been around grown-ups, you just have to learn how to patient with them. They’re not always perfect, but the ones who are trying to always make the effort to do so. But even that may take time for them to catch on to what they ought to do. I know it can be frustrating, and speaking from personal experience, those like your new dad needs help from you too, regardless if they see it or not.”

“In other words, just go find dad.”

“Uh-huh,” Maneler nodded. “If he’s looking for you, that should say that he’s concerned enough. Take it as a sign of the love of someone that’s trying to mend what’s broken.” Suddenly, Inverno hugged his foreleg, and with a smile, he sat on his hunches to pat his head with the other. “I think that for you, it’s going to get better from here.”

Then just as the piano music ended and faded away, so too did the overgrown forest. As soon as the thick growth of trees were gone, there was a crowd of ponies that were taken aback that the forest that was growing on the edge of a cliff had faded away like mist. Among the said crowd, was Shining Armor.

“Inverno!” He hopped onto the plateau in which he embraced him. “Inverno, I’m so sorry for saying that. I didn’t mean to let it come out like that and…” Then he looked up at the deer with the glasses. “Uh… Inverno… Is this one of-”

“Dad,” the colt waved over to the deer, “this is my new friend, Mr. Maneler.”

---

About an hour later, the Crystal train was set off once again, this time with a new passenger. In the dining car, Shining and Professor Key Signature sat across the table from Maneler with a cup of tea between his hooves. “I just…” the professor began, “oh I can’t believe that I’m actually speaking to Maneler. Honest to Celestia Maneler. It’s so exciting really.”

“Oh, I’m just a composer, professor.” He said meekly.

“A brilliant one, if not groundbreaking at that.” Key retorted, “In fact, how did you do that?”

The deer tilted his head. “Do what?”

“He means that instant forest thing,” Shining said, “seriously, it just grew out of nowhere and it was so thick that even when someone tried to use an ax on a tree, it didn’t do anything other than breaking the ax. I mean, did you not hear all the commotion going on?”

Maneler looked at the prince confused. “What are you talking about? It was all completely quiet inside when I was talking to your son. Nothing at all except for-”

“Some piano music.” Shining interrupted. "That's all we've heard."

“It was one of your own compositions,” the Professor added, “I recognize the tune, ‘I Have Become Lost to the World’ a song of yours.”

Maneler blinked. “Yes, I know about it. But was the song all that you heard?”

“When all those trees suddenly spring up,” Shining explained, “we couldn’t see or hear anything going on inside except for that music that was loud and clear. In fact, the Professor here quickly figured out that it was you before any of us.”

“Yes…” Key hummed in thought. “It was as if your music was actually creating a sort of barrier between you, Inverno, and the rest of the world. Like casting up a literal sound bubble of sorts. So the one question we have is, how did you do it?”

Maneler was at loss for words for a minute. “I… I honestly don’t know. All I remember that I had this… strong urge to comfort your son, feeling so empathetic to his plight that… it just happened. All those trees that came, and the music I recalled, it was as if… it just needs to happen. I can’t explain it myself, but it just did.

“There is one question I have, for both of you. While you two were explaining what’s going on, you said I was one of those that your son brought to life. Tell me, does that mean that they’re others?”

Comments

[musoperatica]

Gustave Mahler as a deer. hmm very interesting...? the forest disappearing reminds of Lerner & Lowe's musical Brigadoon.

[Dan]

Does Inverno know about his dead siblings yet?

[CrackedInkWell]

9052698
Oh he will, I just need to figure out the set up of how he finds out. And I think that when that news does reach him, Maneler should be there to bring him down to earth, so to speak.

[Mix-up]

9059126
I think is't more that the students just see that there is something odd of his other absence of any immersing of any stallion features to him, and seeing that they didn't comment about his eyes I think they were just curious about albeit also goat him for a reaction, like any group of kids would.