After a batch of pancakes (which were amazing if I say so myself) I decided it was time to check in on Steve and Dawn. It had been a while since I last spoke to them properly, plus, I believe Dawn said she was getting me something.

But as I turned to leave, after saying my goodbyes to Chrome and Luna, who had once again simply let themselves in, I noticed something over on the far side of the room.

"Oh hey, you put those figures on the windowsill." I said, pointing. The two small statues that Celestia and Luna had given me the day before sat on the windowsill, next to the carving I made for Ebony.

Luna smiled. "Yes, we took your suggestion on their placement. The edibles are in the cooler." She said, pointing to the fridge.

I continued my walk to the door. "Aw thanks guys, thought I would have to sort out all that stuff myself. Anyway, I've got to go and check on Steve and Dawn, got some stuff we need to talk about."

We shared a second batch of goodbyes before I left. I could tell they were both interested in what I had to talk to the others about, but they took the polite option and decided not to pry.

I walked down the halls, noticing a lot more guards than usual. Not too many more, they just seemed to be more alert than usual. Instead of casually walking their way around, they seemed to be tense and robotic with their movements. Perhaps it was something to do with the appearance of the changeling Queen. Celestia had probably made the rules and schedules the guards followed stricter, as a way of showing her nation's power to the Queen, without directly threatening her. Yeah that sounds like something Celestia would do, she's a crafty one.

I eventually got to the couple's door, after a very paranoid walk. There was an invisible, giant and silent changeling Queen going about the place; I was constantly thinking that I was going to walk straight into her or something, since I had almost no way of telling where she was. But luckily, I met no Queens on the way there, or at least I didn't think I did, I could have narrowly missed her for all I knew.

I knocked on the door in a slightly polite manner and waited. It didn't take long before Steve answered the door. As soon as he saw me, he gestured me inside.

"Mornin' Dan." He nodded to me as I made my way inside.

I nodded back to him. "Morning. You too Dawn." I said to the mare sat on one of the sofas.

"Good morning Dan!" Should have figured she was a morning person. "How's Ebony doing? He didn't look so good yesterday." She said as me and Steve sat on the sofas, Steve was sat next to Dawn, and I sat opposite them.

I smiled at her concern, "Ebony's fine. He's still out cold, but apparently he just needs his rest."

They both smiled, Steve spoke up, "That's good to hear, 'worry about the little guy sometimes." His expression turned more smug. "But, on another note, Dawn has something for you. Don't you?" He said, turning to the pink pegasus.

She gave him a dead-pan stare. "That was terrible, Rose." She turned back to me. "I got you your instrument, it's in the bedroom." Ooh, NOTE. Wow, that really WAS terrible.

I leaned forward in my seat. "What is it?"

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Go and find out." She said pointing to the door. "There's no way I'm dragging that thing out here. We had to get a unicorn to teleport it in. They ended up putting it in the wrong room too." From her wording, I now had an idea of what this instrument could be.

I stood and walked to the door, with other two just followed me with their heads. "You sure you're okay with me going in your bedroom? Nothing in there I shouldn't see or anything right?" I asked, only half jokingly.

Steve chuckled, "Not anymo-" He was slapped up-side the back of his head by his fiance.

"Just go in, it's fine." Dawn said, in an all-to-innocent voice as Steve laughed. Wow, those two 'getting it on' is something I really didn't want to picture today.

I opened the door somewhat cautiously, attempting to stem the onslaught of unwanted mental-images. I froze.

The bed had been pushed up against the wall to make space for the large, baby grand piano sitting beside it. It was made of varnished, dark colored wood. The whole thing was completely spotless, Dawn was right, it had clearly never been used more then once. What confused me was why the keys were what I would call 'regular sized' if it was made for ponies.

I turned around and faced the couple that were still peaking over the back of the sofa they were sitting on. "Where did you get this?" I asked.

Dawn shrugged. "As I said, it's my mother's. Or should I say, was my mother's; it's yours now. It's been passed down our family for a very long time, but..." She put a hoof over Steve's shoulder. "...I doubt there will be any family to pass it on to." She said with a sad smile.

So ponies and griffins can't have children. What a relief. Also, something else I could have gone without picturing today.

"Thanks guys." I said, glancing back at the piano. "I didn't even know these existed here. Possibly my favorite instrument of all time, right there." They both looked rather shocked for some reason. "Also, why are the keys so small? Surely a hoof wouldn't be able to play a note without spilling over to the notes either side of it?"

"Dan," Steve said, "Pianos have not been made in hundreds of years. The only ones that are left are ancient. And you say your world had these?"

I blinked. "Yeah, they were pretty common. I had one in my house. I used to play from time-to-time. Now, the notes?"

Steve blinked. "Ah, yes." He shrugged. "This model was designed for unicorns. They can just magic the keys. Though some of the best players are griffins, cus..." He showed off his talons. Dawn rolled her eyes. "But I was never really any good at it. I much prefer that thing you made me."

I laughed. "Yeah... Thanks guys, really, this is incredibly generous of you."

Dawn waved a hoof dismissively, "Think of it as a 'thank you'. For everything you've done for us."

I smiled and looked back to the piano. "...How are we going to get it out?"

There was dead silence for what felt like minutes.

I thought of something. "You said you got a unicorn to teleport it in? Why not just get Feather to do that? She's a unicorn."

Dawn shook her head. "You'd be hard-pressed to get her to use that magic ever again, not after some of the things she's done with it." She shrugged. "She refuses to forgive herself."

I put my hand to my chin thoughtfully. "Hmm, Celestia?"

Steve shrugged. "Yeah, that could work, she always seems to make time for you, for some reason. But she might ask questions."

I nodded. "Yeah, I should- oh, yeah, Luna's in my room right now, I'll just go get her!"

They both beamed as I walked, at a rather brisk pace, out of the door, down the hall and into my room.

I found Luna and Chrome sitting on the sofa together. Chrome had a plate of my food on his lap. His head whipped up from the plate when I walked in. He gave me a guilty look. "I couldn't help myself." He said, his mouth still half-full.

I rolled my eyes. "Don't care." I looked to Luna. "Luna, I need you for something." I said, pointing down the hall.

Luna smiled and nodded. "Lead on." She said, standing. Chrome remained sitting slightly awkwardly as we both left.

While we were in the hallways, Luna turned to me. "What do you need Us for?"

I smiled smugly, "Us?"

She blinked and shook herself slightly. "Oh, sorry. Me."

I laughed slightly. "It's fine." She smiled sheepishly. "I just need you to teleport and/or lift a piano from Steve's room to mine."

She looked slightly confused. "You are using me for physical labor?" I happily nodded, she just rolled her eyes. "You keep mentioning this 'Steve'. Who is that?"

I sighed slightly. "His name is Rosewood. I just call him Steve, but don't tell him that. One day, if I do it for long enough, he will start to identify as Steve, not Rosewood."

She blinked. "Ah, that explains things... Dan, you are very strange. Have I told you that?"

"You've told me that I'm insane, 'strange' is usually included in that package." I said, "How are things going? Like, with you? And Chrome too?"

She sighed. "My sleep schedule is ruined because of Chrome. I have to be awake during the day to see him, but I have to be awake at night to move the moon. Yes some days he goes to work for the day, that lets me sleep through the day, but then I have to flip it back around to see him the day after, and that means staying awake for 24 hours. At first it didn't bother me much, I am resilient. But, it's slowly taking it's toll on me..."

I shook my head slightly. "I can't see a resolution to this. You should just take a while off."

She lifted her head back up, from where it had fallen during her speech and looked at me. "'Off' what? Take time 'Off' Chrome? Or Take time 'Off' my duties?"

I shrugged, "Whichever suits you, I guess. Now, ready that magic of your's. We're here." I said as I let myself into Steve's room.

Dawn was still sitting on the sofa and Steve was whipping something up in the kitchen by the looks of it.

Luna nodded to the two. "Dawn, Rosewood. I am here to help with the piano's movement from here to Dan's room."

They both greeted the princess as I led her the piano.

We both stood before the large hunk of wood and metal. "Here it is. Try not to break it." I said.

Luna's horn lit. "I will be most careful."

The piano lit in her dark blue aura, before disappearing. Luna looked slightly worn out, but quickly left the room. I followed. We found that the piano was now sitting just outside the door, a very startled guard slowly skirted around the piano as we stood in the doorway.

I laughed slightly. "I think you almost hit that guy with the piano. So much for being careful, hey?"

Luna rolled her eyes. "There was no harm done." She said, as she lit her horn yet again and lifted the piano about a foot of the ground and began to walk back towards my room. "Where did you get this? I have not seen a piano in this good of a condition in years."

I shrugged. "Dawn gave it to me, as a thanks."

Luna nodded, almost sending the piano into the floor. She acted as if nothing had happened, though she panicked for a second. "I expected as much, you have done a lot for those two."

I didn't have a response so we walked in relative silence till we reached my door. Where Luna teleported the piano inside without even opening the door. I gave her a concerned look as I opened the door, to find the piano in the back corner of the room. Fitting snugly between one of the sofa's backs and the wall. Chrome still had the plate on his lap, but the food was everywhere but the plate.

He gave us a shocked glare. "That scared me half to death you guys!" He looked down at himself, he was covered in crumbs and scraps, luckily it was a dry meal, otherwise he would be in a lot more trouble.

"You're cleaning that." I said as I walked over to the piano and pulled out the small stool. "Thanks Luna!" I called.

She smiled, "No problem. Chrome, clean that up."

Chrome groaned and walked into kitchen, picking up a small dust-pan in his mouth. Me and Luna both chuckled at his suffering.

I turned back, swiveling on the stool, to face the piano. I looked down at the keys. Placing my hands on what I remembered being a pretty nice sounding combination. But Luna tapped my shoulder before I could press the keys.

"You play?" She asked.

I shrugged. "On and off. I know a couple melodies and chords, but no complete songs. I just like to mess with the keys until I find something that sounds good. Why?"

"Just interested..."

I turned to face her. "Do... you play?"

She looked slightly nervous. "I... used to but... the last time I did was before..."

"Aah, okay." I said, slightly uneasy about the topic. "Do you want to try?" I said, offering her the seat.

She tentatively sat down and lit all the keys with her magic. Her breathing smoothed out in what I guessed was near-complete focus.

She then bombarded the piano with probably the most rapid-fire song I had every heard. It was a slow melody, but somehow managed to use basically every key. After a couple minutes the song concluded and she stood. Shrugging, "I've gotten a little rusty it seems..." She said.

Me and Chrome shared a look of collective shock. I looked back to Luna. "Luna, that was amazing. No questioning that. Buuuut magic is kinda cheating in my opinion." Chrome gave me an annoyed look. Luna hid herself slightly at my previous compliment. "See, all I can do is..."

I sat on the stool and placed my hands on the keys again. I played my favorite little tune, it was the introduction to a sad song from back home. But since I knew it so well, I played it much faster than it was supposed to be, changing the whole tone of the song to one that was a lot more up-beat than the original. The whole thing was only a couple seconds long and repeated seamlessly.

I stood, feeling rather inferior. "That's like, the best I know."

Luna looked between my hands and the keys. "Considering your limitations, the speed at which you performed was admirable. Even if the song was..."

"Not as good as yours?" I finished, crossing my arms in mock frustration.

Luna smiled. "That's not what I was going to say..."

"Yeees it was." Chrome said from behind the sofa, still sweeping up his mess.

Luna kicked the sofa discreetly with one of her back legs, causing it to lurch forward and hit Chrome's backside before falling back into position. I shook my head at their antics as Chrome removed his face from the dust-pan.

"Ebony been okay while I was gone?" I asked. They looked at each other.

Chrome looked to me first. "We haven't seen him all day."

I hummed and opened the bedroom door, he was still passed out on the bed. "How long did Celestia say it should take? Was it a couple days or a couple hours?" There was a silence. Clearly no one remembered. Great. "I hope he's okay..."

Updated: 11/11/15
-Fixed spelling
-Fixed grammar

Finally got around to that piano. I'm trying to make the couples seem more realistic in this, by throwing in more casual banter between them.

As per usual, but slightly more so at the moment, I have no idea where this is going. This is a crazy train and I don't know where its going.

I am leaving most song names out of this, so that people will imagine the song themselves. As to not isolate or push away anyone who may have differing musical tastes. That's why, in case any of you were wondering.