In which Sour Note is not entirely truthful.
"Whoa, Sour! Did you do that?" cried Twilight as her speed through the castle door upped to a canter. Scarlet blazes of banner silk rustled in the breeze.
Sour Note laughed - rather giddily. "Er…ehehe…!"
She flinched at something in the bushes, and added quickly, "Yes."
"That's GREAT!" the princess cheered on, giving Sour a fairly awkward but well-meant hug. "You mastered the color-change spell! Wow, that didn't take long."
"I-I practiced a lot," mumbled Sour shyly.
"But that's wonderful! That's faster than I learned it when I was a filly. Maybe you do have some talent in magic after all!"
Twilight cut off sharply, and gulped, blushing. "Uh, that didn't come out right. But I'm just so happy for you, Sour!"
She grinned at the unicorn, but Sour Note wasn't looking at her after all - she was looking over Twilight's shoulder, into Governor Crimson Lance's flaming red gaze. Twilight fanned her wings protectively.
Then Crimson smiled. Almost. Her mouth kind of flickered at the corners and her eyes looked slightly less steely and cold.
"You there, little one," she said grandly. "Was this for me?"
"Yes, Governor," whimpered Sour Note. Her body had gone weak and her legs were splayed to counteract gravity. Twilight looked surprised as well - and a little wary.
"Well…thank you, then," Crimson Lance replied, examining the fabric with a look of restrained satisfaction.
Sour beamed, glancing back into the bushes. Closing her eyes once more, she snared a dead branch in her lavender tractor beam and held it with a rather strained flourish out in front of her. It hovered there a moment. Crimson Lance began to turn away.
The tip of the branch exploded into a lavish cloud of leaves and long spires of deep purple flowers, hung with shimmering dewdrops, the same as the tallest shrubs in Celestia's garden. Sour Note dropped the branch in what looked like a moment of shock as a wave of red coated the new blossoms.
"The growth spell TOO?" shrieked Twilight. "The two TOGETHER? Sour, I'm so proud of you! You've really thrown your all into this!"
She tackled the unicorn with a teacherly hug, under which Sour Note staggered with another uncomfortable glance toward the bushes.
The sound of metal rapping on stone drew their attention back to the governor, who was more animate now than she'd been all visit - flicking her tail, pacing a bit, and she approached Sour Note with her horn aglow, but she was merely accepting the red bouquet - and she really did smile this time. Twilight had been wondering if she had even known how: apparently, she had.
"This is…quite impressive."
It wasn't a particularly sugary compliment, and she didn't say it in a particularly sugary manner, either - but to Sour Note it seemed to mean the absolute world and more. A pair of tears welled in her grateful eyes, and her voice broke as she cried, "Thank you, Governor!"
Crimson examined the red flowers pleasedly, trotting in a circle around the starstruck unicorn, and the somewhat disgruntled alicorn.
"You will have to show me more of your skills at a later date, little one. And you'll tell me your name then, as well."
"It's SOUR NOTE," snarled a voice which had evidently been unable to stop itself. Berry Buzz had been looking rather annoyed since the proceedings began, and now took a powerful earth pony step towards them.
Crimson Lance whirled on her with an austere gleam glinting off every plate in her armor. Berry fell quiet under that look. Petrichor, who was already quiet, fell even quieter. "H-Her name is Sour Note," Berry repeated softly.
"I wasn't aware you knew her," said Crimson Lance, very slowly indeed.
"Not…not really," whispered Berry Buzz. She reminded herself that this really wasn't a lie.
It was with a very meaningful look that Crimson Lance swung her ivory head back in Sour's direction. Unsure of what to do, Sour nodded in agreement with what the earth pony had said, all of it.
"AS I said," Crimson resumed and concluded somehow simultaneously, "we shall have to speak more soon." She cast a final look at Canterlot's castle, and strode back to the chariot.
A well-subdued Berry Buzz and Petrichor followed. "C'mon…Sour Note, I think you're invited," Twilight smiled back. The unicorn didn't budge.
"Um…I…dropped something - back here - better, uh, look for it," yelped Sour, and darted back into the bushes.
The din of canned sound-stage applause roared from an undetectable source as she pushed her way through the kinked, spiked, forked branches. In a moment she was nose to nose with a clapping draconequus. "Oh, brava, Sour Note. Quite the performance! Encore!" purred Discord, tossing a violet rose that exploded in a puff of crimson smoke.
"Oh, please don't, Lord Discord," wailed Sour Note. "I feel just awful. Her Highness is so proud of me, and I lied to her."
Putting on a sympathetic face, Discord wrapped his lion's paw around her shoulders. "Well, you knew you were going to feel that way when you made the deal."
"But I didn't. I've never used someone else's magic before. Because I didn't exist, see?"
Discord paused. "Ah…I see…I see." He nodded slowly, adding, "Well, neither have I, for that matter."
"But no one's offered to do anything to help me before," insisted Sour Note. "Thank you." Very suddenly she rushed at the draconequus and gave him what was probably meant to be a hug, from someone who had never given one before, nestling under his blue bird's wing. Discord patted her head awkwardly.
"Euh…no skin off my nose," he mumbled. "Well, you'll - you'll have it down yourself in no time. It's easy. Now get back out there…you."
Sour Note glanced through the leaves, whimpering softly as she laid her ears back against her skull.
"Go on, go on!" purred Discord. He snapped his talons. "Before they leave without you." Out of thin air popped a very large caramel-covered apple on a stick, that hovered just long enough for Sour to catch. She took a bite as she trotted out into the open.
Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, ignoring Crimson's rapidly tapping hoof and the metal-on-metal sound it made as it connected again and again with the chariot floor. "There you are! We were starting to wonder. I think the governor wants to go home," she added, glaring over her shoulder.
Grinning widely, Sour Note stepped past her with an obedient nod. "Say," said Twilight, "where'd you get that?"
The candied apple paused in the air. "I...bought it!" Sour lied quickly.
She didn't sound very unconvincing, but Twilight stubbornly decided to remain unconvinced. In Canterlot, of all places, candied apples were for sale? Besides, if any pony looked as though she didn't have money, that pony was Sour Note.
Sour Note, who was now tucked back into a corner of the chariot, powerfully aware of Crimson's approving glances and nibbling on her caramel prize. She looked terribly cozy, Twilight admitted to herself, and, although she wasn't certain that wanting to impress some dull, militant unicorn was the best motivation to learn magic, she was immensely proud of Sour's work ethic. It had gotten her much farther than Twilight had predicted.
The princess calmly stepped to the side of the chariot. Poor, quiet Petrichor was riding this time, whether she liked it or not.