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// Music Is A New Kind of Magic 
// Story: Music Is A New Kind Of Magic 
// by The Pighead 
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Equestria' citizens knew nothing about humans. And it wasn't something derogatory to say, it was just a fact. Because they were not on the same universe, because there was no way for the humans to discover the ponies' world (and vice versa), because even if some ponies had a little bit of knowledge about humans, nopony was really interested about hearing that for a lot of reasons. And it always had been. People from Equestria knew nothing about humans and vice versa, point blank period.

And then, one day, something came and changed the statu quo.

Nopony knew what sort of morbid curiosity led Fluttershy to took this record with this weird cover depicting this human with black eyes with the word « GOBLIN » printed on his face and who was calling himself « The Creator ». Neither when she found it. People only know that after her first listening, she considered throwing it into the trash, but this record revealed itself to be so fascinating that she decided to keep it and that it inspired her enough to write stories. Said stories were supposed to stay something secret (mostly, it was for not scaring people) but let's just said that there were times when Pinkie Pie couldn't just stop talking (hopefully, the others who knew stayed silent).

In fact, it was Pinkie who first discovered (and rather by chance) what was supposed to be a secret. She returned to her home with an other record (at this point, Fluttershy' collection wasn't huge, just ten albums) and it was after 3 days without being seen that she showed up outside again (thanks to the intervention of Rainbow Dash). The next day, the three ponies were on Everfree Forest for checking if there was new records who appeared (it was Tuesday and they were appearing during Tuesdays and, sometimes, also Thursdays).

From there, a ritual was established between the three. Each Tuesday/Thursday, one of them went to the forest, took the new record who appeared, returned to home with it, listened to it and then, lend the CD to one of the two others. It never happened exactly like that, because Pinkie & Dash didn't wanted to listen to music one without the other (it was « more romantic together » or something like that), but it was what had been established. It was the routine of the three during several months and saying it was really pleasant was an understatement.

But, as said above, because Pinkie was Pinkie, she couldn't kept her mouth shut when it came to something she really loved. And one day, when Applejack visited her at the bakery for giving her apples, heard her whistling and asked her what she was whistling, Pinkie couldn't help herself but talk to her about this song about flamingos and their colors made by this person with a weird name, Kero Kero something (she thought that the pseudonyms of musicians and bands were the real names of the persons). It wasn't really supposed to be a secret, it just had no word-of-mouth effect (generally, it's how things became generally known in Equestria). 2 minutes were enough to make the orange pony curious.

And it's at this point that the word of mouth began : first, Applejack, then, her family, then Twilight Sparkle & Spike, then Shining Armor, then Rarity, then Derpy, then Lyra & Bon Bon… well, it's faster to say than after only some weeks, everypony knew about the rumor of the CDs who were poppin' in the forest. Weirdly enough, nopony wanted to know what was their origin or if there was something who made them appear. People who went to Everfree mostly wanted to hear these things they never heard before. These melodies, these voices, these people that they never met and probably will never met at all, but they were curious, they wanted to listen to them, exchange albums with one another, talk about it.

Of course, 99% of the references made in the songs (when they had ones) were not understandable at all for the citizens. That led to the creation of a very funny game in which the ponies came with their own theories about who were these persons name-dropped and what they had done (generally, said theories became so extravagant and unrealistic that everypony was just bursting tears of laughter uncontrollably. Sometimes, they were sadder or scarier ones). But the most interesting thing about that was how, with the music, the ponies saw the humans. And they felt everything it was possible to felt about them.

The humans are offensive. They're funny. They're stupid. They're profound and witty. They make mountains out of molehills. They're emotional. They're weird. They talk about really intelligent things. They are appalling. They don't hesitate to reveal who they truly are, including the worst parts of themselves. They brag about things they probably should not brag about, like absolutely not. They're vulnerable. They think they're giants without realizing that their feets are made of clay (for some of them, the clay was already melting).

They were, for putting it more simply, complex. And, strangely enough, interesting. Nopony imagined anything about them, but the perceptions Equestrians had about humans were not even close to the truth. It also led to a bunch of miscomprehensions (the albums who appeared at Everfree came from all eras of time, by artists of all ages) and also some difficulties to understand the History with a capital « H ». But, again, it wasn't the most important. The most important were the melodies and the words.

It took only a few months before music become the main passion of everypony on the kingdom (when it was rumoured that even Celestia & Discord went two or three times in Everfree, it was a proof that everyone loved it). And even if some disgruntled people feared that this passion led to everypony forgetting about their responsabilities, but nothing happened because everyone was intelligent enough to know how to separate their work and their free time. In fact, everything it did was reinforcing the bonds between the ponies, many of them that never talked to each other before began to discuss about the last things they've listened to, to trade albums with each other…

That even created jobs, if we could say it like that, because the Equestria Daily didn't hesitate to ride the wave and create a column when everyone could talk briefly about the albums they listened to. It received a massive success and, even if nopony here was a professionnal reviewer, the passion was enough for that. But everyone was still paid at the end.

In the exterior, now, nothing seemed to have changed at all, the kingdom was still the same, there were still the colors, the joy, the people who were flying and the threats that often needed to be stopped. But now, if you get closer and you lend an ear, you could hear, between casual talks, some of the citizens humming some little tunes.

The tunes made by people who, while they were busy composing their next songs for millions of fans, don't know and will probably never knew that a state led and inhabited by hundreds of multicoloured ponies who were following them with interest and whose one of their dreams was to seeing them performing, one day. Without knowing who was still alive or who was dead.