The Composer

by Smug Anime Girl

Wonderbolts Blue

Output Jack turned up on the sister's front porch late in the morning wearing a red vest and a big smile. "Schuberry! So good to see you!"

Schuberry nodded happily and lead him into the house. 'Who are they?'

"Remember in my letter, I was talking about the application of technology in music?" He pointed at a white unicorn mare. "She's the friend. And her friend wanted to tag along to see you as well."

"Octavia." The grey mare politely greeted. "I'm the lead cellist with the City of Ponyville Philharmonic Orchestra."

"You can call me Vinyl Scratch, kid. Let's see whatcha got." The unicorn in the sunglasses grinned. She was carrying a few large boxes in her magic. Schuberry eyed it with suspicion.

A few minutes of scanning what limited sheet music Schuberry had written revealed that she had the barest structure of a music. If somepony were to play it, they would need to take breathers between the parchment; there were only a few shattered ideas, but no cohesive work of art. And even if it was, it would sound like a waltz or a grand symphony, not some exciting theme song for Equestria's best fliers.

Output smacked the parchment with the back of his hoof. "This sounds like something Miss Octavia would play."

'That's what I don't want it to sound like it, classical style too boring for Wonderbolts.' Schuberry looked up expectantly at her guests.

"Don't look at me." Octavia smirked. "I'm just an observer."

Vinyl worked away on her machine and the sheet music through a strange device which she called a 'scanner'. "We could increase the tempo, for starters. We aren't working with a real orchestra so we don't have to follow the traditional rules of composing."

Output helped on the side, layering in some low guitar strumming. "This should do nicely."

The work was rather quick, and only a few minutes later, the now much shorter piece was finished. The four ponies listened to the reworked music.

"It sounds like a folk song." Output concluded. He was right; Vinyl had added some upbeat drums and banjos to the sped up orchestra, and the result was an upbeat, but unfortunately basic piece. "Blast."

Vinyl frowned. "I gotta admit, I'm outta my element here."

"Well, you all are." Octavia nodded encouragingly. "That song's only three minutes long. I'm sure there's more we could work on."

The adults turned to Schuberry.

"Come here." Vinyl gestured at the filly. After explaining the basic gist of the controls, she took a step back. "Well, kid, go for it."

Schuberry blanched. Surely such a complicated machine costed the mare a lot of bits. And improvisation required a good understanding of the instrument; a half minute crash course wouldn't do. This was was going to be a disaster if she pressed the wrong button.

"What're you thinking?" Output asked.

'I don't know. This is' Schuberry stopped writing and began to scratch her head. 'In classical music, you have several different movements all with different core tunes. I could do that but this supposed to be a single song. I don't want to ruin the theme we already have set.'

"Don't worry about that." Output reassured. "Just let it out from the heart."

Schuberry's lips curled downward. Early on in the song, the strings section took the spotlight. It was a good place to start. But what of the tune? Something bolder, more exciting was needed.

Octavia stepped in. "Schuberry, remember, it's your song. I did say that there's more to work on, but I let my curiosity get the best of me. You don't have to if you don't want to."

'it fine.' Schuberry politely replied. She picked the strings and slowly programmed in a basic tune. 'How's this?'

"You know what it sounds like?" Output mused. "It's like that friendship theme Princess Twilight uses."

"Hey, you're right!" Vinyl smiled. "It's definitely something to work off of. I think, we don't want to 'reveal' it just at the beginning. We could start of with something similar, and then either ease into it or drop it on our audience like an anvil."

Schuberry was left wondering what an anvil was as Vinyl picked up her headphones and listened to the tune several more times. After getting the basic gist, she stepped back and let Schuberry take the controls again. "C, D, F 'n' E, C-D-C..." She muttered. "How about...CGC, DGD, E, C, G, F, E, D?" She planned and wrote several variations down.

Schuberry meanwhile tried out several different instruments on the machine. She accidentally pressed a button, and a preloaded song started playing. The song was loud and completely unrecognizable as a traditional song, and the little pegasus leaped into the air and fell hard on her back in fright.

'What was that?' She asked after Vinyl paused the song. 'Did I break your machine? I'm sorry if I did.'

"Oh, it's called dubstep. It's what I'm known for. The neighbors especially." The unicorn chuckled. "Sorry for the suprise."

Schuberry didn't seem to mind. As the ponies set back to work, Octavia watched her with a tilted head. The first time she heard Vinyl's music was...a bit of a disaster, really. Their friendship was almost destroyed before it even began. But Schuberry, while also frightened by the music, was far less disgusted than she was. In fact, she looked...curious. And the grey mare would go so far as to say that the little pony was frightened of breaking Vinyl's machine and not of the dubstep itself.

"What you thinkin'?" Output asked.

Schuberry looked back at the stallion and pressed the 'start' button. She had selected a light, airy synthetic instrument. It held the same note, but grew in volume. 'Ease into?'

Vinyl placed her notes down on the panel. "Let's see how we can fit this into it..." She turned a few knobs. "That's good, that's good..." The strings joined in, overtaking the synthesized sound. After a quick greeting from the drums, the strings took over completely, and the first 'cycle' played out.

'That's great!' Schuberry smiled widely. 'Let's add more.'

After putting in a short pause, the brass instruments annouced their arrival.

"It sounds just the song's flying with the Wonderbolts." Octavia commented. "Before you add the guitars, give the brass a little more time in the spotlight."

"Sure." Vinyl checked her notes for more variations. "Done. Hey, let's use the original theme for the electric guitar." She quickly typed in the notes, and Schuberry added on the barest hint of the string section. For the second cycle, the brass complimented the guitar as it climbed high into the deep blue sky. "Should we keep the guitar going?"

'I don't want to overuse it, let's let the orchestra take over again.'

The music entered the most exciting stage, dancing among the clouds and showing off to the amazed ponies below. This was the grand finale, the best that the best could offer. It took awhile to reach this point, in the song, but was well worth the wait.

The song came to a close, and Schuberry played it from the start again. And then again. She listened to it no less than five times before she was satisfied.

Output asked, "So, is it good?"

'It wouldn't be good if I said no, would it?' Schuberry wrote. Before Output said anything, she added on, 'I don't mean it was bad. I like it, the ending was a bit too sudden but so was the actual show.'

"Well, that's good then." Vinyl pulled out two records and burned the music onto them. "Hey, we want to submit this to a publishing company, if it's alright with you."

'Sure.' Schuberry took her copy and hugged it.

Octavia helped her friend pack up the equipment. "Are you going to name it?"

'Me?' The idea that she would get to name her own song seemed foreign to the filly. 'How about Vivid Shining Sky?'

"That's a great name!" Output smiled. "Look, the publishing company is called Manehattan Records, they should contact you within a week to negotiate the money you get from this."

'What about you?'

Vinyl looked at Output. "Extra bits would be nice, but I don't exactly need it. Besides, kid, you worked on this."

Output was in agreement. "Trust me, Schuberry, we get plenty enough in the band."

"Lunch is ready~!" Celestia called from the kitchen.

"Oh, sorry." Octavia frowned. "We can't stay, though we'd love to."

"Oh, I understand." Celestia tapped a spatula against the counter. "Well, feel free to stop by anytime. We rarely get any visitors."

"We got a lot of peeping toms though..." Luna grumbled.

The family walked the guests to the door and waved goodbye. Octavia was thanking Vinyl for "holding back" as Luna shut the door. "I overslept again. You didn't turn off my alarm clock again, did you, sister?"

"Look, if that dubstep didn't wake you up, I don't think anything will." Celestia began shoveling the lunch onto seperate plates. "Oh, Schuberry's writing something. Was it fun?"

But Schuberry wasn't writing about her much older friends or music. 'Is lasagna a pasta?'

"I suppose lasagna could be categorized as a distant relative...why?" Luna furrowed her brow.

'Lasagna is the creepiest pasta.'

"I wanted to give you this, but Schuberry was home." Celestia held up an old, tattered book. The binding was barely held together by a few strings of leather.

"Whats that?" Luna raised an eyebrow. "Is it that stupid prank again?"

Celestia shoved it towards her sister. "I promise, it's not. Just open it."

"Very well..." Luna slowly took it. "This is a diary."

"Correct! More to the point, this is Honey Paradise's diary." Celestia grinned.

Luna's eyebrow slowly gained altitude. "Sorry, who?"

"Oh, her dad was in the E.U.P." Celestia sighed. "When you're done, I'll give you another book to read."

"Is this about the war?" Luna asked. Celestia ducked out of the bedroom. "Wait, where have you been keeping these?!" She sighed, and after grumbling for a moment, flipped to the first page and began to read. "It's a day of great celebration, but I do not quite feel like celebrating..."

Comments

[Melody Song]

I want to hear what that music would sound like. I'm not sure where you meant to go with the diary but I'm hoping it's good because it seems interesting. Nice chapter, you did a good job.

[Smug Anime Girl]

10171810
Hey, that's good to hear. Funny thing is I rushed this in like 3 hours and it still ended up 15 minutes late.

Oh and the Diary? I'm just sprinkling seeds, don't pay too much attention ;)

[Melody Song]

10171843
Okay then. I like how it was a diary of a pony that served in the EUP guard though. You know, because the Wonderbolts were formed from the pegasus part of the EUP? I'm not sure if that was intentional but it was interesting.

[Smug Anime Girl]

10171845
Oh, you mean her dad?

[Melody Song]

10171846
Who's dad? I meant the diary Celestia gave Luna.

[Smug Anime Girl]

10171848
The dad of the pony who wrote the diary?

[Melody Song]

10171850
Right. That. Sorry, It's night in my timezone, I'm a bit tired.

[Smug Anime Girl]

10171852
It's 1:04Am here, no worries

[Melody Song]

10171854
Okay then.