Lyra had never really spent much time with Raindrops, especially not without the rest of their friends around. She fully expected to learn many new things about her friend. For instance: Raindrops snored.
And not gentle, soft snoring, the kind Lyra was used to from Bon-Bon. That could be almost soothing. No, Raindrops alternated between grinding growls like an Ursa Major made of lumber mills and whistling like a freight train. Worse still, sometimes, without warning, she’d go completely silent. At those moments Lyra froze, wondering if her friend had stopped breathing, perhaps finally slain by the evil ghost of the spacebeartrainmill that was clearly trying to possess her… and then, just as suddenly as she stopped, Raindrops would start up again, snorting like an offended dragon before settling back into spacebearmilltrain mode.
Lyra rolled on her side and attempted to wrap the thin train-issued pillow around her head. She glared at the peacefully sleeping form of Vinyl Scratch. The moment they’d decided to go to sleep, she’d pulled on a pair of enchanted music-playing earmuffs and dropped off. Lyra had been drifting away in warm cottony thoughts when they were so rudely interrupted by the train crashing into a volcanic eruption—or at least, that’s what Raindrops had initially sounded like. Lyra had spent much of the next three hours trying to find the exactly perfect metaphor for Raindrops snores.
Lyra whickered in frustration and sat up in the bed. She glared at Raindrops, wishing for deadly eyebeams, or at least enchantment-of-silence-inducing ones. She slid to the floor and slipped out of the compartment. The dining car would most likely be deserted at this hour; maybe she could grab a couple of hours of sleep there before the next stop.
She walked down three cars of the gently swaying train. As she approached the door to the dining car, she heard a faint music from within. An ethereal, mournful sound, in her sleep-deprived state it made her briefly wonder whether the evil snore ghost had a more musical friend.
She opened the door of the car to see it was nearly empty; one pony stood in the middle of the floor, engrossed in something between her front hooves. As she was facing away from Lyra, the unicorn couldn’t see what it was. The strange pony had a coat of grayish-cyan and a white tail with mint-colored highlights. She had neither horn nor wings, but she was more lightly built than most earth ponies; judging by the shimmer of her coat and tail, she was most likely one of the crystal ponies of the far north.
As Lyra finished sliding open the door, the crystal pony turned toward her, revealing a cutie mark of a heart-shaped spider web with glistening, jewel-like droplets of dew suspended in it. The haunting music trembled into silence.
“Uh, hi,” said Lyra. “Sorry.”
The crystal pony shook her head. “My practice didn’t disturb you, did it?” she asked. Her voice was soft and curiously flat.
“No,” said Lyra. “My friend’s snoring was keeping me up. I didn’t think anypony would be here, so I was going to try to take a
nap…”
“Sorry,” said the crystal pony. “I can never seem to sleep on trains, and I also thought no one would be here, so I thought I’d get some practicing done. I will go elsewhere.”
“No,” said Lyra. “It’s okay.” She stepped into the room. “You’re very good; I didn’t recognize the piece, but I could feel the tension in the way the strings were distorted, the slight giddiness of the bells, and the underlying frustration in the rest of the percussive voices.”
The crystal pony smiled shyly. “That sort of thing’s easy with a crystaphone.”
Lyra shook her head, looking at the multibranched hexagonal crystal between the other pony’s hooves, visible now that Lyra was farther in the room. To the untrained eye it looked like a rock, albeit a pretty one, but Lyra knew it was a musical instrument, painstakingly grown from the emotion-reflecting crystal that gave the Crystal Empire its name and the crystal ponies their unique appearance. “No it’s not!” she countered. “It takes real skill to get a crystaphone to sound like an instrument at all, let alone multiple different ones, and tying different emotions to each?”
The other mare bowed slightly. “You know your crystaphone. I’m impressed.”
Lyra shrugged. “When I was a little filly, my parents took me to see a crystaphone concert in Canterlot. For weeks after, all I wanted was to play like that mare did. My mother finally tracked down an instrument shop that had one, and I tried it out. Closest I ever got to music sounded like a duck being eaten by wild cat-tubas.” She giggled slightly as she imagined a cat-tuba. “Not long after, I discovered the lyre, and, well…” She turned slightly and gestured with her tail at the lyre on her flank.
“The emotional control is one of the hardest parts,” the other mare agreed. “I’m Carda,” by the way. She held out a hoof.
Lyra shook her hoof. “Lyra. Are you going to the Jackelope Valley Festival?” Carda nodded, and Lyra smiled. “I’m glad. It’ll be good to have a real, professional crystaphonist there.”
“What do you mean?” Carda asked politely.
Lyra gestured vaguely with a hoof. She felt slightly cotton-brained, unsurprising given that it was about three in the morning after a long day of traveling with no sleep. “You know what I mean, not just that crystalcore stuff. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, but, you know it’s all passion and noise. No technique, no artistry.”
“Ah,” said Carda. “Yes, so I’ve heard.” She paused a moment. “You mentioned going to a concert when you were young, do you remember who it was?”
Lyra nodded. “Her name was Psyche something.”
“Ah, Psyche Chorde,” said Carda. “I thought it might be her. There’s not that many crystaphone masters who’ve been to Equestria.” She ran a hoof along one of the branches of the crystal. It glowed softly at her touch, and a soft, clear, flutelike tone filled the air.
“That was it it!” said Lyra.
“It’s a funny coincidence,” said Carda. “You know, a crystaphone are made of living crystal. It never stops growing, and every so often you have to trim it. I grew this one from a trimming of Psyche’s.”
“Really!” said Lyra. “That’s amazing! Were you a fan of hers? I still listen to the recording of that concert sometimes. It’s not quite the same, but still so good.”
Carda smiled and turned her full attention to the instrument. “Grandam was good.” Her hooves moved with blinding speed, tapping some branches, stroking others. Music swelled from the instrument, powerful and insistent. Ominous, fast-moving viols, just slightly distorted, laid down a simple, repetitive harmony while cellos, redolent with old pain, swelled above them. Something between bells and a drum beat insistently, adding urgency and energy to the blend, while brasslike voices pompously proclaimed tragic triumph. It was the burning of Jackelope Valley from the ballad Lyra had played earlier that day, but where Lyra had used a touch of spellson to create images of destruction and devastation, Carda’s rendition achieved the same effect with the magic of her instrument alone.
She broke off her playing and turned back to Lyra. “I’m better.”
Lyra struggled to pick her jaw back up off the floor. “That was… wow.”
Carda grinned. “Congratulations. You just got a private concert from the greatest crystaphonist in the world.” She picked up her instrument and walked to the far end of the dining car. “I’ve practiced enough for the night. I’m going back to my compartment to get some reading done.”
As the door slid shut behind Carda, Lyra thought, Wow, ego much? Okay, she’s good. Really, really good. But even Trixie just claims to be ‘Great and Powerful,’ not greatest in the world.
She slumped in a booth, suddenly overwhelmed with exhaustion. Whatever. Music over, sleep time now.
----
Lyra woke with a start as the train lurched to a halt, brakes hissing. She blinked sleepily; was somebody calling her name?
She glanced out the window, stretching painfully. Her back and rear legs were not appreciative of her attempt to sleep in the cramped booth. Something caught her eye, and she stood looking for a moment, trying to figure out what about the view was important.
“Lyra!” someone shouted from far enough away that she could only faintly hear it.
“Dodge Junction Station,” she read aloud from the sign. Her eyes widened. “Dodge Junction!”
She ran for the door to the second-class cars and nearly collided with Raindrops.
“There you are!” said Raindrops. “I’ve been looking everywhere! What were you doing here?”
“I--" started Lyra.
“Doesn’t matter. Come on, grab your stuff! We’ve got to go!”
Two minutes of frantic scrambling later, Lyra stood on the Dodge Junction platform, Raindrops on one side of her and Vinyl Scratch on the other. Lyra and Raindrops had their bags, while Vinyl Scratch was again levitating a sphere of assorted sound equipment twice her size.
“Why do you even have that stuff?” asked Raindrops.
Vinyl Scratch gave her an odd look. “Um, because I’m a DJ?”
“No, it’s a good question,” said Lyra. “Do the techs really need to bring their own equipment? I would have thought the festival provides it.”
“Oh, well,” said Vinyl. She laughed nervously. “I mean, they do, but… you never know, right? Better safe than sorry.”
Raindrops narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “That’s a little--"
The train whistle cut her off. A moment later, the train began to pull away, beginning its long journey back to Canterlot.
“We should get moving,” said Vinyl Scratch. “The train to the valley’s in only fifteen minutes, and we have to go through the station to reach the platform.”
“Fine,” said Raindrops. She looked around, scratching the back of her head with one hoof. “Phew, is it always this… dry here? Makes my coat…” she trailed off, staring at something behind Vinyl Scratch.
“Mare, if you think this is bad, wait until the valley,” Vinyl answered.
Lyra turned to see what Raindrops was looking at. Standing on the platform a couple of cars down were four mares: two pegasi, one carrying a guitar and the other several percussion instruments, one unicorn carrying another guitar, and Carda.
“Omigosh omigosh omigosh,” squeed Raindrops, attempting to hide behind Lyra. “It’s them!”
Oh no, thought Lyra. No no no. She felt a blush spreading across her face. After what I said last night… don’t tell me Carda is—
Raindrops continued to stare. “Oh man, we just rode a train with the Daughters of Discord and I didn’t even KNOW!”
Nicely done. Still a bit short but I'm really enjoying the story being told. Nice work.
Well, after the disappointment with the Gala story, this was a breath of fresh air.
I really enjoyed the scene between Lyra and Carda. It actually makes me interested to see how the Lunaverse implements the Crystal Ponies more. And since this inevitably ends with a diatribe that RDD yells at me for, I'll leave it at that. I also love your interpretation of Raindrops, from her snoring to her fangirling over the Daughters of Discord.
Keep up the good work.
A little short but a good build and a well done cliffhanger, not so sure how I feel about RD snoring, (there's some really complicated literary reasons for it)
but I found the entire scene description dragon lumber mill hilarious!
I think you did a good job with the "lyra snob" thing without it going overboard.
Poor Raindrops, this sin't gonna end well I can taste it, still be careful not to go to overboard, with the fangasm, or ignore me either fine, plus it's you know your sotry, I'll enjoy it either way :)
anyway good chapter overall good set up for the next chapter.
1703617
Thanks!
Since a lot of people have commented on this: I'm doing short chapters on purpose. I could have made all three of these be one chapter, but then the story wouldn't have existed until today. I'd rather put up three or four 1500-word chapters a month than one 5000-word chapter covering the same scenes.
1703812 1703958
Thanks!
I'm planning for the next chapter to be much more from Raindrops' point of view.
Unfortunately, this is Carda's one really big scene, at least in this story. I found myself actually liking her quite a bit, so maybe I'll bring her back in a side-story or non-canon fic or something. Which isn't to say she's going to vanish, just that she's not going to be a major character in the story.
Hmmm.....It makes sense that Luna would have done something more proactive about Sombra.
1704110
Oh I also forgot to mention I loved the design of the crytaphone (not sure hwo to spell it, sorry) and I love the idea of there being enchanted ear muffs/head phones to play music!
1704115
as the canon currently stands to my understanding it was actually Celestia, basically she heard about the problem and dropped a solar flare on Sombra, but I could be wrong.
1704149
Oh, right. That would probably have been the first sign that she was going rogue.
1704115
Like vazak said, I'm running on the assumption that Celestia nuked him as part of her evolution into Corona.
1704149
Thanks! I am proud of both.
Loving the story so far! I really don't mind the short chapters. I like Corda
1704422
Heh, that part *may* have been inspired by a trip I took with my brother, who has sleep apnea...
I just love how you write Raindrops.
When she isn't kicking ass and pissed off about something, she really is just a teenage girl. I like seeing that side of her, and you bring it out so well.
1704655
Thanks!
Next chapter: Raindrops gets pissed off about something.
1703812
...wha...? What'd I do to the crystal ponies in the Lunaverse?
1705029
Nothing...yet.
Okay, the original rant I typed out ended with yet another tired comment on Corona, so I took it down. She really has nothing to do with the story outside of the backstory, so I changed it before I posted. There, I saved you a few minutes.
1704168
That makes a lot of sense especially if we make the assumption that it was around that time where she wasn't as concerned with how much collateral damage she did, and allows writers to play the "never found the body, but didn't think anyone could survive that" cards allowing Sombra to sill be used as a villain latter if someone wants.
1705178
I can't take credit for it, I lifted it straight from the Lunaverse message board. My only contribution to L!Crystal Empire is the crystaphone.
I would *love* to write a fic that makes use of Sombra's massive, but horribly squandered, potential as a villain. Dunno if it would be Lunaverse or Maneverse, though.
Listening to the crystal ponies talk on the show, in that flat, depressed voice of theirs, always creeped me out. You managed to get the same effect here, so that's very well done!
Poor Raindrops. I'd be angry all the time too if I woke up almost a thousand times every night because my brain was starved of oxygen. Oh wait. I do. Or I would if not for my breathing machine. I hope somepony can help Raindrops with that.
Is it just me, or is Lyra the only musician in the Lunaverse who isn't haughty or arrogant? Why does the ability to make pretty sounds give such a huge ego boost?
Vinyl doesn't count, since by her own admission she's a tech. Also, I've never heard a DJ call themselves a musician, for some reason.
Oh, wow. Talk about hoof in mouth disease.
Can we say awk-ward?!
I like Carda; huge ego but with the skill to back it up; creates an interesting character (if frustrating for the other characters to deal with XD)
And the Raindrops-snore is great.
Spcaebearsawmilltrain crashing into an eruptingvolcanodragonexplosion. That would describe my Dad's snoring on the nights he does snore. I know your pain Lyra, whenever we go on vacation there is always that ONE night where Dad will snore.
Finally go into reading this chapter (what's with all these music-related stories nowadays?). And now I want a crystaphone, it sounds like a cool instrument. Much cooler than flugelhorn.
Oh, and still waiting for hearing this "crystalcore".
Don't forget the breakdowns. Breakdowns are important. For some reasons.
Hehehe.
Raindrops snoring... I totally feel your pain, Lyra.
Ha! I suspected who Carda was, that's great. Lyra really stuck her hoof in her mouth there. Love this story and really hope to see it continued.
Man Carda is arrogant, skilled though, and part of the Daughters of Discord, name intentional perhaps?
Where did I put my wah wah horn?
Anyway, I love how this is a chance for two character to interact who rarely get to, Lyra and Raindrops. This helps to cement their friendship and them as characters.