*******************
"Are you sure you want to do this, Lero?" Rainbow Dash asked cautiously. "I know it bugs you that you can't hear the music, and this is pretty darn impressive, but... choreography? A marching band? It just seems wrong to organize something like this. It's supposed to just happen naturally."
Lero chuckled and ran a finger behind the cyan mare's ear. "At home, we have wild weather and organized parades. I'll admit to preferring nicely scheduled predictable weather, but a musical number where everyone knows in advance what they're doing isn't a bad thing."
Rainbow Dash leaned into the scratching, but she was far from mollified. "What if the song takes over and everyone starts jumping in, and it goes off on its own? You'd be stuck singing the wrong lyrics and doing the wrong dance."
Twilight piped up, "Actually, Rainbow, I'm fairly sure that even if a Spontaneous Musical Number develops from Lero's plan, since it's all pre-arranged then Harmony Theory says the SMN will accommodate itself to the design. It might go on after he's done, but there's no record of an SMN actually negatively disrupting a performance already in progress."
The blue pegasus was still fighting off her worst case of jitters since the Best Young Fliers competition, and she wasn't even in a starring role this time. "Well, what if a song doesn't start up, and things go wrong? Someone drops their instrument, or everyone trips, or something?"
Lero grinned at her. "I've arranged something for that, too. Just in case." He raised a hand to wave at a white pony to the side with a portable turntable around her neck and a decidedly disgruntled-looking gray mare carrying a pair of oversized speakers behind her. "Worst comes to worst, we've got the needle-scratch all ready to go."
"Just like a real interrupted number!" Twilight added.
"I have never in my life so regretted not specializing in a more portable instrument," grumbled Octavia.
Rainbow Dash sighed and leaned against Lero's legs. "I can't talk you out of this, can I?"
Lero ruffled her mane playfully. "Come on, it'll be fun! Now, let's get this show on the road!"
*** *** ***
"One, two, ready, GO!"
Home is where the heart is,
that once was far away,
but now that I've departed,
in Ponyville I'll stay.
It's hard to make a clean break
from friends and family,
but you should make no mistake,
sometimes it works out perfectly.
Plain to see, it's Harmony,
running free with these ponies,
plain to see, it's Harmony,
Elements that welcomed me!
A rainbow was an illusion,
a dream to chase but never find,
but pegasi in azure skies
have brought me peace of mind.
Plain to see, it's Harmony,
running free with these ponies,
plain to see, it's Harmony,
Elements that welcomed me!
*** *** ***
The not-at-all-spontaneous musical number went off without a hitch. It later developed that Honeydew attempted to sabotage things multiple times over the course of the performance, but she ended up tangled up in a torn length of bunting with a stray wolverine inside. The general consensus was that the effort spent in writing everything out ahead of time and practicing had left the musical number with spare mojo for self-defense. Twilight wanted to study the process, but couldn't find anyone willing to be the attempted saboteur for the next go-round, what with the scratching and the biting and the ow-ing.
Rainbow Dash publicly thought it was totally sappy and then that evening held Lero close and sang just for him the verse Lyra had helped her put together.
I used to fly across the sky
untouched and alone
but you arrived and by my side
my heart has found a home.
i love seeing Honeydew get what she deserves
I find it amusing that the Music of Harmony thing has wormed its way into my primary headcanon now. So much stuff is leaking out of Xenophilia into my overall view of Equestria, I never would have anticipated such depth from what initially seemed like a fairly straightforward clopfic. :)
2749547
My Little Von Neumann Machine: Mass Production is Terrifying
As for these latest entries... Well, The Music Man certainly provides some much needed relief from that 3x Death Story Combo I accidentally contributed to. Still, high-quality feels all around.
How, pray tell, does one end up with a stray wolverine tangled up in bunting? I feel there is a story there...
2751475 It's the Noodle Incident Trope. AKA. You really don't want to know... :)
2752287
Knowing as I do about Wolverines, and having as I do a particularly morbid sense of humour, I fully believe I do want to know. And why do I suspect Fluttershy and/or Pinkie Pie were involved?
2752315 We need another one-shot just for this. ASAP.
2752333
Reckons I you've got the right of that. And should a feasible plot come to me, I just might try writing it, too. But I'd nae hold your breath on that count.
Is there supposed to be a tune to that?
can we have a story with honeydew and lero?
2752799
Yes, though with internal variations. I haven't actually written musical notation since elementary school and can't really identify notes by pitch, so other than actually singing it, I've pretty much just got to indicate beats and transitions.
It goes more or less like this:
Dah dah-DAH dah DAH dah
dah dah dah DAH dah dah-dah dah
dah DAH dah-dah dah-dah-dah
dah-dah-dah-dah dah dah.
So, with emphasis:
A rainBOW was an ilLUsion, [Rising tone on 'BOW', drawing out 'LU' and lowering on 'sion']
a dream to CHASE but never find, [rising tone on 'CHASE', lowering on 'never find']
but pegaSI in azure SKIES [rising tone on 'SI' and 'SKIES']
have brought me peace of mind. [slight slowing of tempo, lowering tone on 'peace of mind']
While the chorus goes:
DAH dah-dah, dah DAH-dah-dah
dah-dah-dah dah dah dah-DAH
DAH dah-dah, dah DAH-dah-dah
dah-dah-DAH dah dah-dah dah.
I meant it to be more parade-brassy, but in my head it keeps coming out kinda bluegrassy. Which is very much not my preferred genre.
2749547
Ok... now you've got me going...
####################################################
It was just before the army of Coolly Clones hit the earth pony front lines that it happened. Suddenly, hundreds of single eyes lit up, casting a sinister red-glow on the pony lines. As if the Music of Harmony itself had somehow been hacked, every pony within 100ft started to hear a distorted song in their heads. It was as if a million flies where swarming around them, somehow syncing the modulating their buzz into a strangely alluring electronic voice.
zzzzzz mR cOOLY, tHE aCu zzzzzz
zzzzzz hE’z iN mE, hE’z iN yOU zzzzzzz
…
As the tune continued, the earth ponies whose wills matched their armor held their ground. However, the majority of the others started to run from the front lines in horror or frantically tried various ways to block out what would later be called “The Song.” Eventually, many ponies submitted to the subliminal instructions of the Song, lowering the front of their bodies to the ground, rear held high, awaiting their new Coolly masters.
As The Song started to make itself known to the unicorn line, Prince Shining Armor narrowed his eyes. “Pinky Pie!” he muttered, remembering the long-missing pink pony. “She must have been one of the first to be assimilated.”
With those thoughts, the prince looked on grimly as the cloud of Coolly Clones completely enveloped the earth pony line.
2754430
Perhaps. On the other hand, Earth and Equestria might not be matched on a 1-to-1 temporal scale. And the Faerie temporal mechanics are a crapshoot. He might've been "inside" for a week, or a decade, or a century. Or an hour. Should you really trust ANY senses beyond the brambles?//dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/shrug_Queen_Chrysalis.png
2757700
Trusting time beyond the Hedge is a fool's game.
HA! honeydew xD and hearing (in my head) dash whisper those last lines to him made me love this chapter quite a bit! fave and like
This chapter reminds me of a few Omakes written for Quantum Castaways, which is a fic where Twilight ends up on a weird deserted island along with a human who has been alone for a few years now. The Omakes in question have the human start singing a song, and Twilight, due to the Ambient Harmonics Theory or something, starts dancing along to it even though she protests. Songs include Weapon of Choice and I Like Big Butts, as well as one or two others. They are incredibly great.