Days later, after it’s been made known that Lyra Heartstrings had returned to Ponyville, Ludwig was walking alongside with Twilight towards his potential new (but still temporary) home in town. Beethoven was hearing the second movement of his tenth in the noonday sun. With a walking stick in one hand, he used the other to conduct the aristocratic melody that was going on in his head. His hand jotted eighth and sixteenth notes that were framed in a symmetrical minuet for the violins. He heard the elegant as they bounced from high on the scale before they danced downward. His mind started to wander off to the other strings and tried to put counter harmonies beneath until he had to stop because there were too many cords being piled up to where it didn't sound good, so he scratched it out.

They were heading towards the small apartment complex because it’s the first chance they’d get to see this open space for themselves, and determine if it’s worthy enough for the giant to stay in. With the blazing sun overhead, the alicorn leads the way towards the building that was close to the Quill and Sofa shop. It didn’t take too long to find the address of the place since it had a sign hanging off from the front that had a picture of a green lyre.

Twilight pulled on Ludwig’s sleeve to get his attention. “Let me,” she pointed to herself saying slowly, “talk with them,” before pointing towards one of the doors where the sign hung overhead.

The Princess of Friendship knocked on the door and waited for a moment until she heard hoofsteps. Before she could get the chance to be curious about what was going on, the door flew open. “Hey Twilight, long time no see,” the mint green unicorn pulled her in a hug. As she did so, she got a good look at the towering being behind her. “Oh… my…” she let go. Staring up in awe, she asked, “Twilight? Is that what I think it is?”

“Hey Lyra,” the alicorn stepped back, “I want you to meet my friend, Ludwig van Beethoven.”

Before Twilight could process what happened, not only did the unicorn quickly disappear, but there was a shout coming from behind. Swerving around, she found that the giant had fallen over with Lyra standing on his stomach.

“Oh Celestia this is amazing!” the unicorn practically vibrated in place. “I mean just wow! You’re a whole lot bigger up close and just look at these clothes! Why do you need so much to cover up? Are you going somewhere fancy? Have you-”

But she was quickly interrupted when Ludwig pushed her away, “OFF!” He swung his walking stick around in which Lyra yelped as she jumped back. Sitting up against a lamppost, he put his free hand around his stomach, “Hurensohn, dieses Ding ist schwer!” he swore under his breath.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Lyra tried to go up to him when she was suddenly paralyzed in a violet light.

Twilight brought her face to face, “Lyra,” she said sternly, “first, calm down. I’m not letting you go until you do.”

“What was that for?” Ludwig demanded as he stood up. “Why did your friend attack me?”

Twilight picked out his conversation book from his suit and quickly scribbled a message for him.

I’m so sorry about that. This is Lyra; I’ve completely forgotten that she has an obsession with Cryptozoology or the study of unknown animals. And by the way, this is the landlady. Give her a minute to calm down.

After the princess showed him the message, she turned to Lyra, “Look, I know this is really exciting for you and I do appreciate for giving him a space to live for a while. However, that was kinda rude of you to just jump on him.” Twilight then manipulate her aura to free her friend’s mouth.

“Well, can you blame me? There’s a creature that only exists in rare fairy tales that’s standing right over there. How can I not get excited?”

“Still, regardless of what he is, you should give him some personal space.” Twilight retorted, “Second, you do know that he can’t hear you, right?”

Lyra gave her a blank look, “Say what?”

“He’s deaf. Unless you write him a note or speak slowly to him, he didn’t hear a word you said back there. Besides, everypony seems to have known that by now, haven’t you heard.”

“Um… not exactly. I thought that he writes music.”

Twilight sighed, “He does. It may not look like it, but trust me, he does. And thirdly, as much as I appreciate you volunteering for this, are you sure you want to take this on. From what I know from Applejack, he’s not the best house guest in the world.”

“Oh please Twilight,” Lyra rolled her eyes. “Under this roof, I had from potential rock stars to divorce lawyers, how hard can it be?”

“So you’re absolutely sure about this?”

“Yeah, oh and Twi, you can let go of me now.”

“Promise you won’t tackle him?”

“I would cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye, except I can’t exactly move here.” Twilight rolled her eyes but released her. Looking back up at Beethoven, she added, “Still, I can’t begin to describe how exciting this is to even see a human up close.”

“Yes, I know. But first, let’s try this again. Get his attention first, unless you have a long message, face him and talk slowly.”

Lyra nodded as she nervously approached Ludwig. Now finding that she didn’t know what to say, she lifted her foreleg and waved for the notebook. Getting the hint, he did and she took it in her magic.

First of all, I’ve been really excited to meet you. I’ve never seen a real human outside of rare stories and pictures. Second, I want to welcome you to my humble apartment complex. If you want, I can show you the studio upstairs before we meet your neighbors.

“That’s what I came here for, to see the room.” Ludwig said, “Show it to me.”

Lyra grinned madly as she went to get the key before trotting over to the door that leads to the steps upward. For Beethoven, both the door and the hallway for the stairs were big enough for him to crawl upward from. Yet, once the three of them got through the door at the top, Ludwig was able to stand straight up without bumping his head against anything.

The room itself was quite large. It was a little bit bigger than the room he came to Equestria in since it covered a whole floor of the building. While it was a bit stuffy from a layer of dust and a touch warm, it did have some large windows much to Ludwig’s delight. Besides the windows and the thatched roof above him, it was quite bare. Below at his feet, there was a smooth wooden floor that was covered in dust.

Beethoven nodded, “Wunderbar. At last, a real room with space for me to walk around in. Yes, it’s big enough for my bed as well as for my things.”

While he was talking, Twilight wrote a message for him before showed it to him.

Now I know it’s not exactly luxurious, but I think with a little dusting and sweeping, this can be a good place for you to reside in for a while.

“I agree Fräulein. At least up here, I won’t worry about knocking myself out by the beams.” He turned to the landlord, “How soon can it be made ready to move in here?”

Lyra squeed, “If you want,” she said slowly, “I can have this place ready by tonight.”

“By tonight you say?” Ludwig turned to one of the larger windows. “Very good, I have a place to run to with all the money that the orchestra has given me today. Princess Sparkle, how soon can you have that moving party move my things here?”

“Yes!” Lyra pumped her hoof in the air.

“Did you say something?”

“Nothing,” she said quickly. “But don’t you want to meet the neighbors first?”

“What?

Twilight jot down in his conversation book:

She’s asking if you want to meet your neighbors first.

“But I still have work to do.”

I promise that it won’t take long, at least a few minutes at most just to say hello.

The three of them made their way back downstairs, in which Beethoven had to climb out backward for fear of falling over and getting stuck. Once they got out, the landlady went through the door that she came out of and a minute later she returned with a cream-colored mare with a pink and blue mane with curls at the ends.

Lyra asked for the conversation book to write in which she wrote an introduction.

This is Sweetie Drops, but I just call her Bon Bon. She works at The Candy Corn as a confectioner, which means her job is to make sweets. Bon is also living with me.

When Ludwig read the message and asked, “So are you two like those musicians on the other end of town? Like Octavia and her friend?”

The two of them glanced at each other before the one called Bon Bon snatched the pencil and wrote in her very short message.

Something like that.

“Ah, now before I forget, are there any maids in this town? The rooms I stayed in tend to get very messy if left to myself.”

This time, it was Twilight’s turn to write in the book.

I’ve already sent Celestia a message of sending in a maid here, to make sure things are straightened out when you go out on your walks. She'll be here by tomorrow.

“Good,” Mr. Beethoven nodded. “Also, just to give a friendly warning, I prefer not to be disturbed when I’m working, and to expect some noises coming from above your heads.”

Bon Bon looked over to Lyra in confusion, in which she shrugged.

After the candy mare said that she has to go run a few errands, the landlady, the princess, and the giant moved on to the last neighbor whose door was on the other side. After Lyra knocked on the door a couple of times, it was answered by a gray pegasus with a blond mane and the strangest eyes that Ludwig has ever seen.

“Oh, hey Derpy,” Lyra said. “I didn’t think you’d be here already.”

“Didn’t have to go to Canterlot today,” the pegasus said before one of her eyes rolled upwards to the giant standing nearby. “Hey, he looks familiar.”

“Ms. Hooves, this is Mr. Beethoven, he’s going to be moving into the studio upstairs.”

“Really?” her head looked up at him, “Hold on a sec.” She went back inside for a moment before a unicorn filly came out with her, “Dinky, this is the new neighbor that’s moving upstairs.”

The dull purple filly looked up at him before ducking behind her, “Mom, that’s the crazy guy I was talking about!”

“Sweetie, what did I say about judging others?”

“This is different! Have you even heard what he’s been doing at the Apples?”

“What’s going on?” Beethoven asked, “What are they saying?”

Lyra wrote him a note.

Just a little family dispute, nothing to worry about, Derpy is one of the mailmares in town, and that’s her daughter Dinky. They’re known in making muffins, so expect for a whole batch to be at your doorstep by the time you come back.

“Well then,” Ludwig tipped his hat, “Good day ladies.” With that, Mr. Beethoven turned and headed towards another part of town.

_*_

Hours later, Twilight had organized a moving party to move all of Ludwig’s things to the studio. Not to say that there weren’t a few challenges along the way such as figuring out how to get the bed-frame and the legless piano up on the second floor. Yet, the only one that seemed to be missing from all of this was Beethoven himself.

“Where is he anyway?” Spike asked as he carried a box full of his manuscripts up the stairs. “Does he know that we’re moving all of this in?”

“He was here to inspect the studio himself,” Twilight said as she carried a box of his clothes. “I’ve no idea where he could have gone off to.”

By now, the two of them have reached the top of the stairs where about half of the moving party was concentrating on getting the heavy wooden bed-frame through one of the windows. They’ve already gotten the handicapped piano up there and set it in the middle of the room at this point. One of the ponies noticed Twilight entering, “Uh, Princess,” one of the ponies asked: “A little help if you please?”

The alicorn was happy to assist us with her magic, help lift the frame up and through the window, in which the other ponies guide it to settle it in a corner of the room.

One of the ponies, Thunderlane, wiped his brow, “Phew! Is that it?”

“I think so,” the dragon assistant said as he placed his box down, “Unless we’ve forgotten something.”

Rose Luck, meanwhile, looked out the open window in which she spotted something coming down the street, “Hey, the giant is back! And what’s with all the trucks?”

Curious, the entirety of the moving party leaned out the window to see what the mare was talking about. They saw Mr. Beethoven in the lead, and behind him were two trucks being pulled by a couple of stallions, both of the carts they were pulling had on a logo of a keyboard.

Twilight flew out the window and went up to him, “What is all this?” she asked him face to face.

“Something for me,” he said. Turning around to face the drivers of the carts, he told them, “It’s this one here, on the top floor.”

“Of course,” one of the drivers sighed.

The Princess of Friendship was about to ask what exactly did he get, but decided to wait to find out for herself. Both of the trucks pulled over and the drivers unhitched themselves and went to open the back. Twilight saw what was in them and immediately snatched Beethoven’s conversation book.

Please don’t tell me that you’ve bought three pianos!

“I did,” Ludwig said, “Two without legs and one with, for that is for whenever I have guest over.”

Did you honestly spend all your bits on three pianos!

When told that he did, Twilight’s jaw hit the ground.

Are you insane? What you got from the orchestra was enough to last you for a couple of months and you spent it all on these?

“I never once said that I was good with money.”

“But… you… how can…” it was with Twilight’s mixture of shock, anger, and low tolerance for stupidity that Spike step in to pull the Princess away by her tail.

Spike looked up at the moving party from the window, “I’m just gonna take her aside to make sure she’s calmed down. We’ll be right back.”

However, with one look at the pianos being unloaded from the trucks, Thunderlane summoned up the collective thoughts of the moving party: “Oh Ponyfeathers.”

_*_

Dinky couldn’t sleep. Not because of the hoofsteps that trampled overhead of the moving party, that ended some time ago. Rather, it’s because of the noise that is happening right over her bedroom. It was the sound of one of Ludwig’s pianos and the new neighbor was howling like an injured animal. Even when she tried to put her pillow over her head, she could still hear the discorded music penetrating through her ceiling.

It was then that she heard a knock on the door before her mother opened it, “Dinky? Are you asleep?”

With a frustrated grunt, the young unicorn filly sat up, “Are you kidding? With that noise going on,” she then rubbed her eyes. “What time is it anyway?”

“Nearly midnight,” Derpy walked over to her daughter’s bed. “I wanted to check up on you.”

“I don’t know if I can get any sleep at this point mom,” she flopped back onto the bed. “He’s been going at this since for hours now, what’s he doing?”

“Don’t know,” the Pegasus sat on the bed, “But you have to remember from what Lyra said. He can’t hear all the noise he’s making because his ears don’t work.”

“But why does he have to come here?”

“Something to do with how big the studio upstairs is I guess. It’s pretty much the only place in town that he could fit in without bumping his head.”

Dinky once again put her pillow over her head, “Mom, make him go away.”

Derpy sighed before one of her eyes looked up at the ceiling. “I don’t think he’s doing on this just because he’s being mean about it. After all, you know that he writes music, don’t you?”

“Yes I know,” her daughter then pointed an accusing hoof towards the ceiling. “But do you really call that music?”

“Sweetie, I know it’s hard for you. But think for a moment what it’s like in his horseshoes. Can you try to imagine what it’s like not to hear anything? Not the wind blowing or the bells on the clock tower, or the laughter of friends, the voices of your family, or even that piano. Don’t you think it might be frustrating for anypony, and… really sad?”

Her daughter pulled off her pillow, looking up in disbelief, “Sad?”

“I mean. Coming from somepony that could barely see, I know pretty well what it’s like to be as someone that everypony thinks you’re broken.”

There was a pause between mother and daughter.

“Mom, I didn’t mean-”

“It’s okay my little muffin,” she patted her head. “You just have to be patient with someone like Mr. Beethoven. I’m not saying that this will be easy living with a neighbor like him. But I think that without his hearing, it can get rather lonely at times. I’ll tell you what; I’ll have a word with the landlady before I head off to bed. Okay?”

Then suddenly, all went still from up above. For a moment, everything was quiet, but there were no steps to indicate that he moved. Both mother and daughter looked at each other in confusion.

“Or, maybe not,” Derpy said standing up, “Hopefully he’s just going to-”

Whatever Dinky’s mother was about to say was quickly cut off as the piano started back up again. This time, instead of chaotic and disjointed chords being slammed down, it was replaced by a kind of fantasy. Notes now cascaded down into the room like a waterfall in the filly’s bedroom.

“You know what mom,” Dinky said, “Could you wait for a while? I think I might wanna listen to this.