Seeking Melodies

by AliziaRoElier

The Apple Family Secret

Ponyville Library - AL 6 - Winter

Five ponies and a dragon watched their orange friend hold the white, tear-streaked mare. They looked at each other then back to the kneeling pair in front of them. Nopony wanted to be the first to ask all the questions on their minds. Fortunately, Rarity finally spoke.

“I’m not sure what’s happening, Applejack, but I’m sure you’ll start explaining?” Rarity asked.

Fluttershy next to her nodded in agreement, “Um... when you like...”

“Ah... ah’m not sure what to say... Twilight, did ya know who this was?” Applejack looked at her friend wearily. Absently, Applejack continued to gently rub Seeking Song’s back.

“No. She just showed up today. She was looking for a place to stay.” Twilight motioned to Seeking Song’s sleeping form, “She did act a bit oddly when we asked her about your family though. Didn’t want to talk about it...”

For a moment, Applejack’s face flashed angrily before changing into remorse, “Yeah... it’s family business and not my place to talk about it. She probably had a good reason for not wanting to tell ya.” Applejack hugged Seeking Song tightly one last time and sighed, “I have to go home. Granny Smith and Big Mac need to know she’s back. And Applebloom needs to meet her big sister,” Applejack rolled her eyes, “That’ll be a lively talk...”

Before anypony could process her statement, Applejack was already out the door and galloping toward her farm. The group blinked confusedly again. Rainbow Dash was the first to break the silence left in the wake of Applejack’s exit. “Sister?!”

The group took a moment to absorb the information. “Well... she seems okay...” Fluttershy finally spoke up in a pseudo-whisper. Uncharacteristically, she walked over to Seeking Song, picked her up, and carried her to her bedroom. The rest of the group followed her into the room.

“I don’t know about this, girls. Something’s fishy about her,” Rainbow Dash declared, “How come Applejack never told us about her. Having extra family around isn’t something you just forget to bring up.”

“You know very well how important family is to her, Rainbow Dash. She probably had her reasons for not telling us about her. She didn’t even explain how Ms. Song was related to them. It’s obvious that she wasn’t born an Apple, neither her name or her cutie mark have anything to do with them. I think we should let her tell us when she’s ready.”

The rest of the group settled around the bed and considered Rarity’s advice. In the face of such potentially interesting gossip, her restraint was due careful consideration.

Twilight nodded, “I think I agree, but if she doesn’t tell us anything for a week we should ask her.”

While the Elements discussed their friend, Spike had been watching Seeking Song. Since her attempt to hide her unique magic, he’d been trying to surreptitiously study her.

“What the hay...?” Spike’s eyes widened briefly. On the bed, Song’s body had slowly faded to gray and was becoming slightly translucent. She seemed to be shivering uncontrollably, and her face contorted into a determined grimace that hinted at great pain. While mares around him continued to debate, Spike climbed onto the bed and put a claw against Seeking Song’s side. He started and his reptilian instincts forced him to shy away from the cold that seemed to suck at the air surrounding the mare. Carefully, he extended a claw again - nopony should be that cold.

Seeking Song’s eyes snapped open before he could touch her again and blank granite replaced her previously pained expression: unyielding, hard, and ruthless. Her color and substance fought to reassert itself against the gray and after a moment’s struggle, white managed to overcome gray. She automatically turned her head to look at the one pair of eyes she sensed were trained on her. Understanding then anger flashed across her face before her expression softened and became almost pleading.

Spike almost spoke. Seeking Song shook her head minutely. Spike sighed and nodded.

Satisfied that he would not speak and that their exchange had gone unnoticed, Seeking Song broke into the discussion around her, “Not that I’m complaining or anything, but how did I get in bed?”

The five mares around her bed fell silent and turned their attention to Song. Fluttershy spoke up, “I... um... moved you after Applejack left.” She paused, “You... um... wouldn’t be able to talk about that would you?”

“Fluttershy!” Rarity exclaimed, surprised at her friend’s usually forward question.

Song smiled and shook her head, “Thank you. I don’t think I caught your name before...” Song waved in the direction of the library’s center, “that. Actually, I never got any of your names other than Pinkamina’s...”

Pinkie Pie bounced to Seeking Song’s side, “Call me Pinkie. Pinkamina sounds like a rock pony’s name. I’m a party pony. Marshmallow.”

The noun at the end confused Song slightly, “A-alright...” She turned to the rest expectantly.

Twilight stepped forward and gestured to everypony as she rectied their names, “So, the blue pegasus is Rainbow Dash. You know me, Fluttershy, Spike, and... Applejack...” Twilight frowned and reigned in her urge to interrogate Seeking Song, “and the white unicorn over there is Rarity.”

Seeking Song’s eyes narrowed slightly, “You’re Sweetie Belle’s family... aren’t you...”

Rarity gaped, “How could you possibly-?”

Seeking Song cut off her indignant question, “I met her on the way here. She looks a lot like you. I took a guess.”

Seeking Song forced herself to keep eye contact with the mare. In reality, while the resemblance between the two was present, it was another sense that told her that the two were related. In the back of her mind, a clear ringing GΔ emanated from the white mare. It was a pure, bright sound and it reflected a kind and generous mind.

“Oh, well then...” Rarity quieted with a huff.

Fluttershy spoke next, “We’ll... um... let you rest. Collapsing on the floor isn’t a good sign.”

Fluttershy’s quiet words were almost a god-send for Seeking Song. The white mare was reeling from the last half-hour of excitement and her battle with the Curse:Cordantia, but she was hiding it admirably. Seeking Song nodded, “I’ve been travelling all day, it was probably the stress from all that and then Applejack, I just need some rest and I’ll be fine.” She looked at Spike meaningfully.

The group filed out through the door. Spike, the last to leave, turned back and gave Seeking Song a long and piercing look. For a moment, Seeking Song could see the dragon Spike would one day become: ancient, wise... and sad. Spike spoke after a moment, “I don’t know why you didn’t want me to say anything, but what I saw... that can’t be good, Seeking Song. Bucking Discord turned Twilight gray like that and it was horrible enough, but you... I can’t even imagine. It took Celestia and the Elements to fix her but you just... forced it away.”

He turned away and made for the door but paused in the threshold and turned around, “What are you hiding?”

Spike did not expect an answer from the mare and so was surprised when she replied after closing her eyes and slumping in the bed, “I’m dieing,of course.”

Three simple words softly spoken carried a wealth of meaning for the small dragon, some he understood and a great bit more he did not. Seeking Song opened her eyes and smiled sadly at Spike’s suddenly grave, crushed, and too-old expression.

In that moment, he lost a small part of his innocence for bitter wisdom. One day he would face Death, whether his own or of somepony dear to him, and it would terrify him. Cold dread formed in the pit of Spike’s stomach. His friends... Twilight would eventually die. He would be alone one day. Alone.

He walked out of the room, away from the mare that had violently torn his naïve view of the world apart.

---

When he finally faced Death decades later it was not with the all encompassing fear that had struck him when he was just a child. The fully adult dragon faced the Death of his sister with a dignified and quiet bravery. Of all the mourners at the Archmage’s funeral, he alone sat without tears or sadness. He was defiant...

He was remembering a mare from his past. A white mare who had smiled kindly at him while calmly stating her own Death as fact. A mare who’d shown more courage in a single moment than he’d displayed in all his young life. A mare who’d fought and searched to defy the inevitable and had, in a way, succeeded.

“Spike, eventually you’ll realize that Death isn’t that scary at all. You’ll never really be alone, not really. Twilight will always be there, telling you what you did wrong and congratulating you on all the things you do right and so will everypony else you’ll know. Nopony is ever really alone.”

“You’ll have a choice. You can let it win or you can stare into it and refuse it the ability to tear at you. Hurt you.”

“I think we both know what you’ll choose when the time comes.”

He wins.

---

Sweet Apple Acres - AL 4 - Winter

“Granny Smith! Big Mac!” Applejack yelled at the top of her lungs, “Get in here! Ah’ve got to tell ya’ll somethin’ important!”

The urgency in her voice summoned her family from their places on the farm post-haste. They assembled in the large family room in the center of the house and started at Applejack’s disheveled appearance. Her stetson was knocked off and dangling below her neck and her mane was windswept and a few hairs had fallen out of the braid. She looked like she’d just run a sprint from the center of town - which she had.

“What happened to you, child? You look more untidy than the barnyard out back!” Granny Smith half-croaked, half-screeched. Granny Smith gingerly sat down in her favorite rocking chair by the fireplace and eyed her eldest granddaughter worriedly.

“Eeyup.” Big Mac was looking at his sister with concern as well, “You run from town or something?”

Applejack nodded vigorously, “Now, brother, don’t’cha go runnin’ off when I tell ya but there’s someone in town you need to see.”

Big Mac turned his head quizzically, “Really, who?”

Applejack grinned, “Applebloom’s biggest sister.”

Big Macintosh’s expression froze and he abruptly seemed poised to run. He began shaking, “Applejack, if this is some kind of joke, it’s downright unkind...” In spite of his warning, his eyes clearly flared with restrained hope. Internally, his heart soared.

“Nope. She’s here. Ah wouldn’t ever lie about this.” Applejack turned to Granny Smith who had been silent during the brief exchange. “Where’s Applebloom, Granny Smith?”

Granny Smith sat down on a couch, her usually borderline senile personality tabled for the moment, “She’ll be home from school any moment now. Applejack, are you sure now’s the right time for this? That filly Applebloom is friends with needs all the friends she can get right now. Taking Applebloom away right now seems downright unkind.”

Applejack straighten up at her grandmother’s seriousness. Her expression fell for a moment before rallying, “Family comes first. Sweetie Belle understood that before. She’ll understand now.”

Granny Smith frowned but nodded, “I suppose.” Under her breath she sighed sadly and muttered quietly, “Though who’s to say she isn’t as good as...”

Big Mac sat down on a couch and motioned to the other end for Applejack to sit on, “How is she? Did you talk to her? When did she get back? Why hasn’t she come here yet?”

“Hold on, brother, one question ata time. Uh... she just got here. Twi said that she’d just teleported into town yesterday. She’s at th-”

“Hold on an apple-picking moment! She teleported? She’s an earth pony!” Big Mac declared forcefully. A small frown graced his face that quickly morphed into loneliness and pain, “She’s still... her... isn’t she? She hasn’t changed?”

Applejack looked at her brother oddly, “Ah’m not sure what yah mean by that, but yeah she’s an earth pony alright. If it wasn’t Twi that told me, Ah wouldn’t have believed it either.” Big Mac nodded and brought his emotions under control and Applejack continued, “She seemed fine when Ah saw her, a bit tired I guess... but she hid it well. If it wasn’t for my Element, I probably wouldn’t have noticed but nopony can lie to me, not even with their bodies.”

Applejack paused, “Um... Ah didn’t exactly talk to her... Yah see, she sort of, well...” Applejack took a breath, “grabbedmeandstartedcryingandAhswearAhdidn’tsayanythingtomakehercryAhpromise.” Applejack said the last sentence in one breath and expected her brother to start yelling. She hadn’t even told him the worst part, that she’d passed out in her forelegs just before she left. To her surprise, he just nodded and considered his left hoof, “Well, I think I ought to go see her then.”

Had anypony seen Big Mac when he left his family’s farm, they would have noticed something rather curious. On his left foreleg, a plain band of gold was clearly visible where before there was no ornamentation at all. In his mouth, he gingerly carried a silver band studded with diamonds and sapphires.

---

Ponyville Library - AL 4 - Winter

Twilight thought she’d seen all of Spike’s moods and faces. She’d raised him, loved him, taught him - made him family in all but blood. The Spike she saw leave Seeking Song’s room was not the same Spike that had entered the room minutes before. Gone was the almost dangerously naive light in the dragon’s green eyes. In its place was a gaze of fear and realization beyond what a child should bear. When Spike met Twilight’s eyes, it was no longer with blind adoration for an older sibling, but with a weightier understanding of what she meant to him and a dose of fear at its eventual loss. Uncaring of how it appeared, Spike crossed the room to Twilight’s side and hugged her tightly.

Fear set into Twilight’s heart and she whispered, “Spike? What’s wrong? What happened?”

The dragon in her forelegs pulled away and tried to smile, “Can I go out for a while... just for a bit... I need to think.”

Twilight’s mind raced, attempting to link a cause to her little brother’s abrupt change in demeanor. Her eyes narrowed and she glanced at the door to Seeking Song’s room suspiciously. She made to go into the room when she felt restraining claws on her chest, “Don’t. It’s not her fault. And she needs to rest. Really needs it. If you have to yell at someone, yell at me. I asked her a question I wasn’t at all ready to hear the answer to.”

Spike let go of Twilight and with a final hug walked out the door of the library to work through his new thoughts.

Soon after he had left, the rest of the group had to depart. Rarity and Fluttershy had obligations they had to fulfil and Rainbow Dash needed to go home to feed her pet, Tank. A part of her wanted to beg her friends to stay. She didn’t want to be alone in the treehouse. In the end, she decided to leave as well.

Twilight went up to her room and retrieved her jacket and favorite scarf. She looked one more time at Seeking Song’s door before leaving out the back door. She didn’t see or hear the large red stallion that entered through the front door of the library and looked around. He hadn’t set foot in the tree for ten years and yet it seemed like the most familiar, comforting place in the world. He knew where to go, having memorized the tree’s floorplan long before the current inhabitants had.

He carefully walked to the guest room door and pushed it open. He’d intended to just leave her band on the bed for her to find, but Big Mac’s plan was completely derailed when he saw her. She was sleeping fitfully in the bed, shivering and nearly quaking though he couldn’t tell whether from cold or nightmares. He gently walked over to the side of the bed and gazed longingly at her face, the face he hadn’t seen for nine years. The face he’d dreamt of almost every night since their second year of high school.

His wife’s face.

In a move that would have shocked anypony that thought they knew Big Mac, he gently laid his wife’s band on the bedside table and got under the covers. He wrapped his forelegs around his wife and carefully pulled her into his chest. Her shivers slowly ceased and a happy sigh escaped the mare’s lips. Big Mac contented himself gazing at his Song’s lovely face and waited for her to awaken.

---

Seeking Song’s rest hadn’t been so profound since she’d been in a coma after her accident near the Griffon Highlands. She was warm - finally, blissfully warm. For so long, her rest had been frigid, no matter what temperature the room or the number of blankets, she was always so cold. She had almost forgotten just what it felt like to be warm and held tightly in-

Wait. Held? Her breath caught and she refused to open her eyes, I’m dead. I calculated wrong. There’s absolutely no w-

“Hello, Seeking Song...” His deep voice quietly reverberated through her head, filling its cold corners with light and warmth. Seeking Song buried her head in Macintosh’s chest and started to cry quietly, I know this is fake. There’s no way he doesn’t hate me. It’s a dream, a cruel wonderful dream but still a dream. She adamantly refused to acknowledge that the deep bass AΔ7 that Song had only ever heard in Macintosh’s presence was soaring joyfully around her.

“It’s alright. It’s okay, everything will be just fine, Song.” Seeking Song could feel a large hoof gently rub comforting circles on her back. In the face of her stallion’s comforting actions, she slowly calmed down and lay quietly against Macintosh’s chest. The slow steady rubbing didn’t stop and Seeking Song slowly came to the realization that she was not dreaming.

“How can you stand to even be in the same room with me...?” Seeking Song spoke into Macintosh’s chest, “After Canterlot. After nine years of silence. After... abandoning you right after your parents died. How-?”

Macintosh very gently kissed Seeking Song’s forehead, “I won’t lie. For a while, I was right furious... but I couldn’t stay mad.” He shifted a bit and used a hoof to tilt Seeking Song’s head up to his. He looked at her until she opened her eyes and he forced her to make eye contact, “You were... are... my family. You were then. You are now. And you may have left. You may have done everything you could to force me to let you go, but I couldn’t and I don’t think you did either.”

Macintosh, brushed a hoof down Seeking Song’s muzzle and slowly leaned give her a light, sweet kiss - their first in nearly a decade of separation. Seeking Song almost gave in to the urge to continue but pulled away, “Do you... forgive me? Please say you forgive me. I can’t-. I don’t-. I’m back for good now, Mac. I don’t want to be here and think I’m causing you pain, I’ve caused enough as it is.”

Macintosh nodded and smiled, “I forgive you, Seeking Song. I forgive you for leaving me and our family. I forgive you for Canterlot. And I forgive you for disappearing.” Seeking Song could almost feel the largest weight on her lift away. For so long, she’d lived with the knowledge that she’d as good as tortured her husband and her family. She would have broken into tears again had she been able to, but in her husbands forelegs and all she could feel was a quiet peace.

---

Ponyville Town Limits - AL 4 - Winter

Some minds age quickly. They leave behind childish things for the mantle of wisdom, knowledge, and responsibility. Almost all foals do so by choice - two did not. The first, a child of esoteric knowledge and boundless imagination, was walking through the scenic park that ran near the small creek that signaled the end of the town’s limits. He did not really pay attention to where he was going, but he couldn’t have helped himself anyway. When he finally, inevitably tripped, it was over a soft white filly laying in the snow and staring vacantly down the road to a distant Canterlot - the second foal.

Had anypony seen the two, they would have been unnerved by the lack of response both showed. Had it been any other day, Spike would have been beside himself with embarrassment and worry for the small filly he’d just stumbled over. Today, he just recognized a kindred spirit. He sat next to the filly, and leaned against her side seeking warmth but finding none. In his jumbled mind, alarm bells started to ring but he couldn’t concentrate on them enough and they eventually fell silent.

“Sweetie Belle?” Spike called her name to get her attention. He really needed someone to talk to about what he’d realized or maybe just to get a small sense of familiarity and friendship, anything to weather the storm of fear and unidentifiable emotions raging inside his mind. He received no answer.

Sweetie Belle stared at the far towers of Equestria’s capital city and wondered what Princess Luna was doing. It had been months since the Princess had sealed her magic away and promised to return with a more permanent and less drastic treatment from the loss of her horn. From seemingly far away, she heard a small voice calling out, it’s words unintelligible. She absently reached up and rubbed the jagged, star-shaped scar on her forehead.

“Sweetie Belle!” Spike finally resorted to raising his voice. The filly beside him blinked slowly and looked around in a daze. She gazed at Spike blankly and started to stare. A minute passed... Two... At five, Spike could no longer stay silent, “What? I just wanted to talk to you.”

Sweetie Belle smiled and lowered her head to rest against Spike’s back. She mumbled something inaudible, nodded and spoke up, “Sorry. I was... thinking. What do you need, Spike?”

The dragon moved closer to the filly, the warmth that had been absent a few minutes before had suddenly appeared - almost as if it had always been there but he hadn’t been able to feel it. He wanted to ask her about it but forced himself to put the mystery aside. “Um... this mare... she came to the library today. She was looking for a place to stay. She said she was the original owner of the library.”

Sweetie Belle’s attention fully snapped to Spike’s story, “What happened then?”

“Well, Twilight let her stay. She’s paying room and board and stuff, though. Anyway, first, she takes out this instrument, some kind of flute-”

“An oboe. It’s an oboe.” Sweetie Belle corrected.

“How woul-” Sweetie Belle cut Spike off, “I met her before school. Her name’s Seeking Song.”

Spike nodded, “Yeah. Anyway, she takes out her oboe and she does flippin’ magic. Bold as anything, I swear, when she told Twi she just about threw a fit. Apparently, Song broke multiple rules of magic.”

Sweetie Belle nodded and schooled her expression to careful neutrality. Inwardly, she was just about hopping with joy, she might have a way to keep her magic, magic she’d only begun to use before her accident.

Spike continued on and his expression, thus far calm and collected turned a bit darker, “Later, we were going to throw her a party... but some stuff came up.”

“What kind of stuff?” Sweetie Belle asked.

Spike paused for a moment unsure how to proceed. After a short deliberation he decided on a question, “Did you know that Applebloom has another sister? Other than Applejack?”

Sweetie Belle’s eyebrow quirked, “No. She never said anything anyway.” Sweetie Belle frowned, Seeking Song had seemed odd but this string of random, potentially earth-shattering coincidences was ridiculous. Spike quickly explained Seeking Song's and Applejack's reactions to the other and Seeking Song's collapse.

Spike’s eyes regained their former dull, far away look. “After all that... nopony was paying attention. She... she was like a ghost. Do you remember what Rarity was like when Discord got to her?” Sweetie Belle shuddered and nodded, “It was like that only so much worse... It was horrible, she was shaking and she looked like she was in pain. And she just... slept through it. It wasn’t even enough to wake her up... who does that? Who can just sleep through something like that?”

Spike jumped up paced furiously, “And then, she forced me to keep quiet, like it was no big deal! Like she was scared to tell anypony! I didn’t get it. And then I had to ask...”

Spike knelt in front of Sweetie Belle, “She told me... she’s dying. And she smiled! Smiled!”

He seemed to deflate, “She’s dying. And she isn’t afraid. Dear Celestia, I’ve never seen someone like her. She’s alone. She’s been alone for a long time but she’s still...”

Spike struggled to express his earlier revelation, “How could I possibly be brave like that? One day, I’m going to be alone. I mean, I knew before that I would live a lot longer than Twilight and the others but... I never really knew. What am I going to do when they’re gone? How can I face them when I know that they’re going to DIE!?”

Sweetie Belle barely reacted to Spike final outburst, only reached out and pulled the young dragon and hugged him to her. She had not thought consciously of what she was doing. She only knew she had to do something - desperately needed to do something. And while she didn’t have any answers for him she could offer him comfort at least.

Spike’s jumbled emotions finally released themselves in a torrent of glowing and burning tears that melted the snow in front of the pair. He wrapped his arms around the white filly next to him and let himself feel his fear and the shadow of loss he knew he’d feel when he lost all his family - when he’d be alone, and he would have to be brave.

Of the two children, only one could hear another set of sounds. Through Spike’s tears and quiet sobs and shudders, Sweetie Belle could hear music. It was coming from the too young and yet suddenly too old dragon in her forelegs.

And it was beautiful.

---

Ziyamba Ulok ‘The City Circle’ - AL 4 - Summer

Far away, a stone obelisk began to hum loudly. The zebras around it immediately turned to it to watch the spectacle that seldom occurred around the revered object. Every Zebrican knew that the obelisks were only illusions. Told through songs and stories and histories only whispered about behind closed door, the unwillingly guarded secrets of the old Composers were alive and well in Zebrican life.

It shone brightly and an unearthly screech of incomprehensible instruments and sounds filtered through the stone. It increased in volume steadily until no zebra could stand to listen without covering their ears with their hooves. The sounds grew and grew until finally in a violent crescendo, the obelisk fell silent.

Almost in unison, all the zebra’s within hearing range bowed their heads respectfully and mournfully. Another fledgling Musician was dead - killed before they could fully harness their musical abilities. Curse:Cordantia had claimed another of the line.