On the desk were piled and massed books of spells, counter-spells, failsafe spells, protections, shields and antimagic, books of wrinkled covers without names and the many hoovescripts within which the ink had dried. And there were more here in her room where daylight was the weakest, leaving shades on the sides to fade. The window was open, the broom in his claws Spike almost danced, made it fly on the floor and skim the working place in a slim puff of dust. He almost whistled while at work, turned on himself in a little spin and gave a fin for the faint music playing outside. It was less than a murmur filling the air.

Leaving his broom the baby dragon inspected the walls, the furniture, the beds. All was quite clean, quite neat in the light. There lacked nothing but a mare, so he approached the window to lean and listen to the town, to that tone afar and he sighed.

Then only did he notice Applejack with her Stetson hat in her teeth running wild towards the library, tail whipping the air in her gallop, somewhat distressed. The hat was hanging close to her forelegs, threatening to make her trip. He took no more peek, left the window and rushed to the stairs, reached them the moment the brave mare opened the entrance wide and plunged right through, in a final leap, right on the wooden floor. From the upper steps of the stair Spike watched her get up, look around to the shelves, under the table, lift the chess game to check under it. "Twilight !" She called and her voice was joyous.

"She's outside!" Spike called her, finally getting her attention and he noticed her warm smile. "She went to check on the music thing, while I have to stay here with Victory."

And the dragon pouted, crossed his arms. He had looked away, glanced at the mare who had barely listened. She was still trotting around, trying to figure out between the rows of books where her magical friend could be hiding. It took a few more seconds when she finally realized, took her muzzle away from the books :

"She went to check the music!"

He wasn't sure if that was a question, once down the stairs the dragon was about to answer when he saw her leap to the door, skid fast and turn, as if still looking. Her smile was somehow nervous, somewhat not.

"Ya stay there! No going outside, no music! Close them windows like the sandmare wanted in."

And she was still looking, Applejack was still looking for Twilight somewhere on the ceiling, on the wood of walls and around until she faced the outside. "What is going-" Spike watched her leave in a sudden gallop, so fast that she had barely taken time to put her hat back on her slightly disheveled mane. And he couldn't help but feel like she was having fun. The young dragon couldn't help but feel cast aside from something great. "-on" he finished in the empty library, facing the open door and the music so appealing outside, like a party.

He went to the door, felt his heart pounding. Going out, disobeying, but he shut the door and, he thought, he should have felt sad but couldn't. There was something really happy floating around, as he approached another window to close it. There was something really happy keeping his spirits up and high.

"Eh" he suddenly noticed, his eyes catching the chess board and its pawns in a mess, "She didn't ask about Victory." And he felt relieved, went to put the game away.

She was running straight towards the music and she repeated, as a far stretched leitmotiv, "it's to find Twilight! It's to find Twilight!" A voice hardly convincing as she approached. Colts and fillies had almost filled the mane place, facing the Town Hall most ponies were there dancing and clapping at the performance. The cowmare slowed down, saw those pegasi flying low and hovering, so happy, she was feeling so happy, she looked desperately at the last ranks for a purple leg or a dark and striped tail to catch.

There she was, her unicorn friend barely emerging from the crowd, pressing towards the center and her horn tipped still over those manes, then disappeared. "Twilight!" Applejack screamed so happy to see her, and her ideas were overlapping furiously. She yelled louder, "Twilight!" and didn't dare make one more step towards the crowd, towards the music that made her thrill.

In a sort of hurry the mare looked around, locks of her straw mane flying on her face and she didn't care, she caught sight of an overhang and not even knowing what she had in mind, almost instinctively the cowmare ran to it. She bit the chord decorating it, the slightly lighter chord she had thrived for, and pulled it, taking the whole overhang down. Ponies around her, for the few still walking to the crowd, didn't even notice.

Her knot done Applejack checked those head again, tried to catch amongst horns the most purple one. It felt like a game, it felt like she was playing, she had almost forgot why she was doing that. There afar, at the center of the place, the musician had been lifted on a pedestal of some sort and was playing in plain sight.

She caught the horn, threw her chord and pulled. A little yelp emerged, and as she pulled she saw a mare dragged by her caught leg. It wasn't Twilight Sparkle, it wasn't even a unicorn, by the time the cowmare noticed she had dragged her close enough to notice how that mare barely cared, simply asked to be freed. "Sorry" she answered, obliging, then looked again and at the first guess, not even a horn but sharp cut hair she wasn't sure were even the right color, she threw her lasso again.

All this time the music had played, so close and so joyful, that her body danced each time she was pausing to aim. Each time she was pulling the wrong mare, she couldn't help it but raise her head to listen, and she was blind to everything else. It took her a second, and another, and then another to guess that the giggle under her hooves, from this caught mare looking happily at her, like a little filly, was the right one. Twilight Sparkle chuckled behind her two hooves on her muzzle, and she was still on her back, looking straight at her friend.

"Twilight! Finally!" Applejack was marveled by her own voice. "Am I glad to see ya! There is something with the music!"

"I know!" Twilight answered in a such a warm smile. "The instrument is enchanted, it makes you feel so very very very happy! I feel like a foal again!"

"So what do we do?" The brave mare grinned in return.

"Join the others of course!" Twilight's face with her eyes close was adorable.

And Applejack nodded, so happy suddenly, not just happy but happy as the last of her worry vanished. "Sure thing!" and she helped her friend get up, rushed past her as they galloped right into the crowd so she could open them a way through it. The chord was left behind, into the street, the knot slightly undone. No more pony was coming in, as if the whole town had joined around the cheerful notes.

With her friend at her tail the farm mare got her way, and she was striding, hopping a bit in rhythm, lulling her head. She asked for Applebloom and quickly got a direction, followed ever more towards the center. There was the unicorn, her coat a magical green so light it seemed to float, and she seemed to dance too as the little lyre hovered around, chords plucked incessantly. "Applejack!" Her little sister called from over the crowd and she emerged, her red ribbon clearly visible. Then she got even a little higher and as they danced their way towards her the two mares noticed the pink legs and mane carrying the filly.

There was the musician, the unicorn on a single hind leg as, face pleased, she played her music and spun. Acclamations, cheers, all erupted at her magic. The crowd was flowing, waves of dances as they pressed around her. The white streaks of her bristle were the score whipping before them. She was angelic, her horn glowing as the mare opened her eyes on her public, and the public treaded upon her art, and she had the largest, warmest smile of all.

Then she got taken down.

All had happened fast, a mare hopping over the crowd, happily, straight towards the musician and jumping right on her for embrace. They had fallen together, taking the pedestal of ponies at the same time, and for a second ponies didn't realize that the music had stopped. The second later, all were silent. Then, like a wave of relief, most simply fell from exhaustion. "Thank Celestia!" Pinkie Pie yelled and fell on her back. As pegasi landed, Twilight Sparkle and Applejack watched each other, and their other friends, and they all wondered what had happened.

The instrument was on the ground, just near the fallen unicorn. "Please, stand back!" Twilight's voice succeeded to make the ponies who had approached give some space. Rainbow Dash landed near, her wings aching, just beside the mare who had ended the party. Three sweets on her coat, the culprit got up and proud of herself, went to poke the head of the unconscious musician. "Help?" Yelped the little voice of Fluttershy still crushed under the unicorn.

"Fluttershy, are you alright?" The young student asked while all mares helped her escape.

"I don't know..." the creamy pegasus was lost. "There was music, and I was happy, and I wished it would never end..."

"Say, Twilight!" The clear voice of Rarity interrupted, "what should we do with this?"

The white mare was pointing disparagingly at the instrument. That got Fluttershy to move and stand up, curious, to approach that lyre that she had seen float forever over her head. She took it between her hooves and both her and Rarity looked at Twilight.

"I guess it's fine." The student proposed. "As long as nopony plays it."

Around her ponies exhausted were lying or walking around, at a loss, and she was like them, as if emptied. But she was surrounded by friends and felt them counting on her. She approached the unconscious unicorn, watched her sleep so calmly now, then looked at this friend who had ended it all. "Do you know what happened?" She asked and before she was even finished she suddenly shuddered, fear engulfing her every parts at the first played notes.