Chapter 23: The Key to Reflections

It’s been roughly two months now since Mina, Wendy and Zoey’s first visit, and a lot has changed since then. The first, was the return of one of my lesser known abilities; Foresight. Essentially, it is an ability that will randomly show me a small glimpse of the future. Not enough for anything useful like, say, changing what I see, but usually just enough to know that something is coming. Back before… well, everything, it usually activated once every five or ten years, but lately, its been active every night, showing me the same thing every time: Two blades, one dark, one light, battling some sort of primordial entity. I can never see who’s wielding the blades, but I’m certain that one of them is Big Sis Kairi.

The second change was in everyone around me in the Tower. Everyone was on edge, using the Simulator constantly, with Big Sis being the worst. I could easily tell that something was wrong, but when confronted by it, all I got were fake smiles and empty platitudes. Its as if they’ve all forgotten the sort of horrors I used to deal with on a daily basis in defense of this world before my, *ahem*, episode. At this point, I only know of one person who could give me answers: Celestia, though, granted, she’ll take A LOT of convince, more then likely. But that’s for later, because right now, I have a secret project that I’m calling Selene.

What is Selene you may ask? Well, to answer that, I need to go back about a month ago…

I hesitantly placed my hands on the piano. It was currently recess at the schoolhouse, but in all honesty, I had no interest in going out. Instead, I had wondered around the building, simply exploring, until I came across an empty classroom with a lone grand piano. I carefully opened the lid, revealing well worn keys. Out of curiosity, I played a simple scale, discovering, to my delight, that it had been kept tuned.

With a soft smile, I closed my eyes and began to sing softly as I played.

“La, la, la
La, la, la, la, la.”

I took a breath, quickly deciding how the song I was making up would go, before continuing, still soft in my ears.

“Gales of song
Guide me through the storm.”

I paused for a moment, hearing light hoofalls on the carpet of the hallway, before continuing.

“On the wings of a small, simple melody
Words take flight and soar
They carry me, a world we’ll see
Looking for a farewell, I pull the threads
A life without you I cannot accept
I can’t tell that lie, I can’t let go”

My playing grew louder, along with my voice, as I weaved words and melodies into existence.

“But now that you’re gone, I have to move on
Seems like everyone just smiles staring at the sun
But what about me?
Tell me how I will know where I should go?
Oh gales, you sing and guide me!”

By this point, I was so caught up in my music that I didn’t hear five ponies silently enter the room, or at least try to silently enter.

“I walk alone, there’s more to life I have to know
It’s just me, lost so far away from home
Alone I shut myself in
Still the winds howl, they call and their voices lead me
Gales of song, guide me through the storm
Let the melody lift me high, I’ll be me!”

I paused in my song, silence descending for a second as I compose myself, before softly finishing.

“Gales of song, please stay by my side
Winds of love, breathe into my life
La, la, laaaa
La, la, la, la, laaaa
La, laaaa, la
La, la, la, la, laaaa.”

Silence rang in the room as I kept my eyes shut, basking in the emotional high I had from just letting my feelings out like that. However, I knew it couldn’t last, so with a sigh, I closed the piano lid, turned around, and found five gaping figures behind me; Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Miss Octavia, and Miss Vinyl Scratch.

“Uh… Were you there the whole time?”

Not gonna lie, I definitely wasn’t expecting anyone to be watching me, let alone what happened next. Somehow, all five of them managed to talk me into recording the song properly in Miss Scratch’s recording studio, under the pseudonym “Selene,” and almost overnight, nearly EVERYPONY had heard it! Apparently, after Miss Scratch played it on her morning show, The Vinyl Scratch, she and Miss Octavia were swarmed with calls during the call-in segment asking where they could get the song, and when Selene would do more. Suffice it to say, when Miss Scratch approached me after class the next day to ask me about writing more songs, I just kinda nodded dumbly, with my jaw on the floor so to speak.

Since then, I’ve been writing and recording songs, getting about six done in two weeks, with the help of Bloom, Belle, and Scoots, of course. Not only did they help me write the songs, they also sang the backup vocals with me. Everything really came together with the seventh and final song we wrote for Selene’s first EP that we recorded today…

“Alright girls, you all ready?” I asked, slipping the headphones on.

Applebloom nodded with a smile. “You know it.”

Scootaloo shrugged. “I guess. I just wish you had gone with my song.”

“Absolutely!” Sweetie Belle cheered.

I rolled my eyes. “I told you Scootaloo, a metal song just isn’t Selene’s style. Not to mention, this is a closing song for the album. Belle’s song fits A LOT better.”

“Fine, fine,” Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Let's just get this over with.”

I nodded as I waved, letting Miss Scratch know that we were ready, before I started playing on the piano before me.

“Whispers falling silently, drift on the wind”
“But I hear you…”
“Our journey now a memory fading from sight”
“But I see you…”
“Unbroken, promises we made so long ago”
“You're still here…”
“Unspoken requiem for a river of tears”

I could see the happy grin on Belle’s face as we sang, in a call and response style, the song she had written. Not only that, it seemed, despite her protests, that Scootaloo was also starting to get lost in the song. We took a breath and forged forward, the CMC harmonizing with me.

“Flowing, winding, toward eternal sea
And yet our hope remains
Guiding, lighting the way
No time for mourning…”

I took the lead once more, returning to the call and response style we had started with.

“Rises on a memory born from the ashes”
“With the heavens”
“To sunset, blood-red skies tranquil after the storm”
“Blessed shadow”

I glanced up briefly to see everyone in the studio lost in the song.

“Turning, winding, always night follows day
The sun will shine again
Walk on, never look back
Through you, we live…”

“Tales of loss and fire and faith
Every word on our hearts engraved
In the dark, you will not stray
Forge ahead till the end we pray”

Our voices fall silent, as I end the song, letting the silence ring for a few seconds before turning to Miss Scratch.

“How was that?” I called.

“Sounds good, girl,” Miss Scratch’s voice came in through the headphones. “I don’t think we’ll need another take.”

I nodded, turning to the CMC, who… Weren’t looking at me or Miss Scratch. Instead, they were staring at Belle, who had her skirt up enough to look at her thigh and was staring at her brand new cutie mark. It was a stylized treble clef, with various musical notes surrounding it.

The silence persisted for a couple more seconds, before we all broke out into cheers for the one of our number who finally found their cutie mark…

That was an exciting moment. None of us were expecting to find a cutie mark when we started recording our songs, and yet, there we were, celebrating Belle finding hers. Can’t say I’m particularly surprised either, considering how often I heard her humming or singing. Anyway, after th-

A flash of light startles me out of my diary writing, followed by a loud THUMP behind me. I quickly whirl around to find a red-haired girl clad in tight, black leather unconscious on the floor behind me.

HUZZAH! The chapter is FINALLY done! Let me tell you, this chapter fought me tooth and nail. It also didn't help that I was in the middle of moving when I started writing it...

ANYWAY! I hope you all enjoyed this Luna-centric chapter. I was very heavily inspired by the anime movie Belle for a good chunk of this chapter, and I'm sure it shows.

In any case, you'll find the songs used in this chapter bellow, along with a color guide to help you figure out who's singing what in the chapter. Until next chapter!
-SoulboundAlchemist

This is Luna singing
This is Applebloom singing
This is Sweetie Belle singing
This is Scootaloo singing
This is all four singing together

Songs used in this chapter:

Gales of Song by Kylie McNeil

Close in the Distance covered by Pealeaf