Crystal Note - Where life leads us

by TalkingToMyself

Hearth's Warming - Part V

Sweetie Tooth walked through the long empty hallways of the friendship castle back to the entrance. To her, it seemed so silly that this castle was almost as big as the Crystal Palace back home, but only three ponies lived in it. Well, two ponies and a dragon.

It was nice that Princess Twilight had set up the town library in her castle in some of the extra rooms and that she let the ponies from town use the big hall for events sometimes. Just like Princess Cadance at home had given a wing of her palace to the crystal ponies to use as they needed. Maybe the two princesses were so much alike because Princess Cadance used to foalsit Princess Twilight when she was a filly. Sweetie Tooth smiled and decided she would ask one of the princesses about that later.

For now though, she was following a different lead. She had picked up something on her way back from her room that had caught her interest immediately. She perked up her ears and followed the sound of music and the laughter of ponies in between.

She reached one of the big side halls and carefully peeked around the corner. Inside, she saw a dozen ponies having fun together. They all had an instrument and played music together, except for two mares who sang along instead. Sweetie Tooth didn’t recognize the song, but it was so happy and cheery that she couldn’t help but smile. Especially when she recognized one of the ponies inside

“Auntie Lyra!”

She stormed inside and more or less pounced at the surprised unicorn who just had enough time to set her namesake lyre down

“Hey there, Sweetie Tooth! You coming to join the band?”

She caught the filly in a quick hug and everypony giggled when Sweetie Tooth nuzzled in and nodded eagerly

“Can I? That would be so great!”

“Sure thing, everypony who wants to have some fun can join in, right guys?”

Sweetie Tooth turned around and looked into the smiling faces who all nodded in affirmation

“So, what kind of instrument do you play?”

Sweetie Tooth’s ears flopped down a little

“Um, I don’t.”

Lyra just laughed and ruffled her mane with her hoof

“Don’t worry, we’ll help you find one you like. How about violin, like your Mom?”

Sweetie Tooth blushed and her ears sunk down further

“Mommy tried to teach me a few times, but I couldn’t even hold it right. Sorry.”

“Hey, no biggie. There’s tons of instruments you could play.”

“Hey Lyra! How about you send her over here next?”

“Sure thing, great idea! Go on, Sweetie.”

Sweetie Tooth looked around to see who had been calling her over, a little nervous to leave her auntie’s side. But then she saw the pegasus mare and her big smile, so she walked across the room while the other ponies played on their instruments for themselves for a while.

The pegasus mare smile and stretched her hoof towards Sweetie Tooth

“Hi there, I’m Clear Skies. Nice to meet you, kid.”

“Hi Miss Skies. I’m Sweetie Tooth.”

They bumped their hooves and Sweetie Tooth giggled when Clear Skies ruffled her mane with one of her wings

“Save the ‘Miss’ for somepony else, kiddo. Did Crystal Note ever teach you how to play the piano?”

Sweetie Tooth shook her head and took a closer look at the mare

“You know my Mommy?”

“Course I do! Why, we even performed together a couple of times, back when she was still living in Ponyville.”

“Oh.”

Clear Skies pulled back her wing and frowned

“Wait, you mean she never mention me? After all we’ve been through together?”

Sweetie Tooth shook her head and almost sobbed

“Nononono, I’m sure she talks about you a lot, I just didn’t listen! Please don’t be mad at my mom!”

Clear Skies laughed and put her wing over Sweetie Tooth’s shoulders

“Relax kid, I’m just messing with you. I know Crystal Note doesn’t talk a lot.”

Sweetie Tooth looked up at the mare with some trepidation, but Lyra called out from behind her

“Hey Skies, you’re better not teasing my niece over there!”

“Course not!”

Sweetie Tooth giggled as Clear Skies answered far too quickly to hide anything.

The mare winked at her

“How about a free lesson to make up for it?”

“Hm, okay!”

They laughed and Clear Skies led Sweetie Tooth to an old piano, then sat down behind her

“Right. So, piano is easy. All you have to do is push the keys and you’ll get a tone out of it. Way easier than cello or clarinet.”

Sweetie Tooth looked at the black and white keys in front of her and carefully reached out to push one of them. She smiled when she heard a clear, loud tone from it

“That’s neat.”

“And that’s just the beginning, kiddo.”

Over the course of the next hour, Sweetie Tooth learned how to weave notes together on the piano, how to play major and minor triads and even how to move her hooves so they wouldn’t get tired as quickly when she played. She even learned a simple song to practice all of this.

“Nice work, kid. You keep practicing at home and next time you visit, we’ll play together!”

At this, Sweetie Tooth blushed and looked away

“Um, I can’t practice at home. There’s no piano I could play on.”

“Wait, what?”

At this, Clear Skies spun around towards the mare who had just walked in and was surrounded by the other ponies of the band

“Hey Crissy!”

Crystal Note turned towards Clear Skies as she flew towards her, with Sweetie Tooth following behind

“Hello Clear Skies, long time no…”

“Yeah yeah, warm and fuzzies. Now, care to explain why you still don’t have a piano?”

The ponies giggled, apparently this was not the first time they had this conversation, and Crystal Note smiled

“What would I do with a piano with all the time I spent traveling?”

“Uh-uh, that excuse doesn’t count anymore. I know for a fact that you’ve been staying at the Crystal Empire for a while now. And don’t tell me your home is too small, Lyra couldn’t stop gushing about how you live in a mansion now!”

Crystal Note frowned and looked at Lyra who rubbed the back of her head

“Whoops?”

They just giggled and Crystal Note rolled her eyes

“Okay Skies, I’ll look into it. I seriously don’t get why you’re so adamant about this.”
“Because, Crissy, you deserve something nice for yourself from time to time, but you’d never admit that of your own. Besides, there’s something even more important now!”

Clear Skies reached behind her and swept Sweetie Tooth into her hooves

“Your daughter just had the time of her life learning how to play the piano, and it broke her little heart when she realized she could never ever play again once you took her back home!”

Sweetie Tooth blinked confused at what the mare said and how much she exaggerated. She held close to her, since Clear Skies was still hovering above the ground even with the filly in her hooves

“Can you really look at her and tell her she’ll never get a chance to play at home? Can you?”

At this, Clear Skies held Sweetie Tooth towards her mother and fluttered closer, so the filly was almost touching noses with Crystal Note. Sweetie Tooth looked surprised for just a moment, then she realized what Clear Skies was doing and played along. Within a heartbeat, she switched to a begging expression, with huge pleading eyes, flopped down ears and even a small pout with a quivering lower lip.

Needless to say, Crystal Note didn’t stand a chance.

“Aww, Sweetie… of course we will get you a piano so you can learn playing.”

“Ha!”

Clear Skies flew up almost to the ceiling, raising Sweetie Tooth above her head like a trophy

“She aims, she shoots and she scores! Fillies and gentlecolts, we finally have a winner.”

Sweetie Tooth just giggled and laughed with everypony else, even when she suddenly floated in a cloud of golden magic when Clear Skies let go of her to do a mid-air victory dance. As Sweetie Tooth floated towards the ground and landed safely on Lyra’s back, she didn’t know what was funnier, the dancing pegasus or the fake-annoyed expression from her Mommy.

“You’re playing dirty, Skies. I hope you’re proud of yourself.”

Clear Skies landed in a safe distance and just smirked

“Hey, not my fault you can’t resist the power of unbridled cuteness.”

Everypony laughed, but Sweetie Tooth slipped off Lyra’s back to stand with Crystal Note. She gently tucked at her hoof and Crystal Note leaned down to her

“Sweetie?”

“Mommy, you don’t have to get a piano just for me.”

“Don’t you want to learn how to play, Sweetie Tooth?”

Sweetie Tooth suddenly was very conflicted

“I do, but not if it means tricking you.”

“Aw, don’t worry Munchkin. It’s not like you would be the only one playing when we have one.”

“You know too?”

“I do. Maybe not as good as Clear Skies, but…”

“And you better don’t forget that, Crissy.”

“Quiet, you!”

Another round of laughter filled the room when Clear Skies chimed in. Crystal Note waved her hoof in her general direction, but soon joined into the laughter as well.

“Well, good to see everypony is in such a good mood, but I believe we are here to rehearse today, not for idle chit-chat.”

Two more mares had walked in, a white unicorn mare with frizzy blue mane, shades covering her eyes and a pair of headphones hanging around her neck. The mare who spoke up was an earth pony with an elegant black mane, grey coat and a red bowtie around her neck.

They were greeted by everypony with many smiles, and Sweetie Tooth found out that the unicorn was called Vinyl Scratch and the earth pony’s name was Octavia Melody, the head of the Ponyville Music Ensemble. Sweetie Tooth knew both those names from the stories her mommy had told her, so she watched Octavia Melody curiously. The leader of the musicians called her members back to order, but she was always polite and always smiling. She also had a smile for Sweetie Tooth as soon as she noticed her.

Everypony soon was at their respective instruments again and gathered around the singers. Vinyl Scratch stood at the side of the room and simply watched, smiling nonetheless. Sweetie Tooth wondered if she should join her, but at that moment one of the singers took her hoof and gently pulled to sit with them instead. Sweetie Tooth beamed and smiled gratefully, which made Octavia chuckle kindly

“Very well, Love. On your count.”

Everypony turned to Crystal Note who tapped her hoof on the floor in a slow rhythm. Octavia picked it up with her cello and the others joined in one by one with their instruments. Sweetie Tooth smiled when the melody slowly grew into a song she even recognized. The singers started to sway and hum along, waiting for their cue to start singing. Sweetie Tooth listened and hummed as well, but before long, her young voice joined in wholeheartedly.