Crystal Symphony [CYOA]

With a trembling pause, you raise your eyes at the mare before you and, with a gulp, you speak up, “I will take the blame then, miss!” You nod at such rapidness your head throws you into a fit of fuzziness. You still do it.

This, apparently, takes Cuprum String aback. With a baffling intonation, she moves her head closer, “W-what? Don’t you realize what you are saying, filly? You will be ridiculed by everypony out there, we will be too! No…!”

“We have to put on a good show. For mom and dad!” you insist at her argument still, despite the utter ridiculousness of what you are saying. As long as they remember all their practice, you will be able to guide them!

“Y-you don’t understand,” she says with a pitiful anger, “Murky Note, talk some sense into her please! At least you must understand how ridiculous this all is and… all of you too!”

The stallion pauses, a lingering note whistles through the silenced, heavy air around him. He places his hoof upon your shoulder, a gesture you force to shrug off, as he says with complete seriousness you only seen your mother to resonate and sound like. He says, “We worked weeks, months for this moment, Cuprum String. All of us did, for this exact moment. All we have to do now is to do what we always did… the way we always did. We can’t rely on First Ode alone, and we can’t blame her now either. We have been practicing almost every day, String, let’s do it.”

“Are you all out of your mind?!” she screams, her chest puffed, “If we fail here all of our training will be for naught. Our first major appearance must be mind-blowing; we can’t give a half-rumped performance on our first emergence to the public – it’ll be the end of our orchestra, the end of my and our dreams.”

Murky Note simply shakes his head and, with a slow and creeping step, approaches the door, “I’m going there, either with you or not,” he turns to admonish the rest of the Orchestra, “We can’t wait forever. Let’s go.”

And with that simple gesture, he opens and clanks the door behind him. The ponies look at each other, they glance at String with uncertainty too, and then they start leaving, one after another. Every single one of them leaves the practice room and begins moving into the direction of the scene. Soon, only you and Cuprum String remain.

>What do you do now?

Bump I guess.

>>28904860
Take a deep breath to steady ourselves and follow them.

>>28904860
Come on String, we can't keep everyone waiting.

You take a deep breath. Then, you take another. You then take a step towards the exit, only to stop to look back at absolutely silent, stunned, Cuprum String. There’s an obvious surprise plastered over her face, as she’s unable to believe that not only Note and you, but all of the orchestra were literally bold enough to go upstage. You are uncertain, obviously, and it will be selfish not to admit that they have much more to lose if this performance fails, much more than you. Even though Cuprum String did say that you will be blamed, you know that excuse won’t work.

“Come on,” you say with a warm, albeit uncertain, grin, “We can't keep everyone waiting!”

“How can you be so calm?” she asks you with uncertain grunt. Even with that, she still approaches you.

>What do you do now?

>>28906306
I'm not, really. My father has been looking forward to this concert all month and I would hate from him to miss it. I also want to hear you all play, I bet it's beautiful.

“I’m not,” you say with a bit of a pause, “But, my father has been looking forward to this concert all month-“

“He did?” she locks the door behind herself and takes a deep, heavy breath, “But this is our first ever performance.”

You smile at her, just a bit, “Surely you caught his attention somehow. Or he’s just that nice.”

“Maybe just nice,” she huffs and stops before the steps leader from under the scene. “It’s not often a new orchestra appears, filly, alright? And most often than not they expect them to be good: a grand new page for Crystal Empire!”

“Don’t worry,” you say uncertainly, “Well, worry but not much. I want to hear how you all play and you too… I bet it’s beautiful! You don’t even need a conductor,” you lie, “I’ll be mostly a moral support up there.”

“Right,” she takes a chew on her cheek, “We’re playing the ‘Crystal Ballad’, luckily. You know the tune?”

“But of course,” you answer happily. It’s a piece you know; a piece you will be able to control the flow of.

With a certain nod, you enter the stage alongside the last of the orchestra musicians. She leads you to a secluded place and the audience is unable to see you because of your small stature. This might be for the best, as it is more than likely than your parents, both mother and father, would raise a tantrum if they notice you all the way up here – although for completely different reasons. The audience claps their hooves once String approaches the director’s stand and faces towards them. With a hard sigh, she fixates and fixes her suit and hangs you a director’s baton.

Then, she raises her hoof at the audience and, with a professional calmness, says, “Excuse us for the wait, let’s us not waste any longer of your time! Fillies and Gentlecolts, the Ensemble ‘Azure’s Ode’!” Her voice glamorously echoes across the entire hall, the round crystal architecture of the building enchanting her voice to its full potential. You gulp down as applauds, and their echoes, come to a soundless stop.

You raise the baton and the flutes respond softly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLna6-iyrgA

There are so many things to control, so many things to fix to make this performance perfect. As the cold sweat fall upon your shoulders, you fall into a monotony of deep breath ins and outs. A perfect progress of instruments, a perfect flow of tunes and perfect harmony of notes – you are a perfectionist now, you were never one to begin with. But standing here, now, you need this to be perfect. You want this to be perfect. You are not a pony holding a pen, writing a novel with a harsh yet creative push, yet it still feels that way. It feels wonderful, it feels powerful to be standing here and weaving this amazing musical symphony.

You enter a dream zone, the tornado of musical spreadsheets.

There are a few things to fix, even if you do not the performance will be passable… yet still, it is your job now. There’s a little bit of a delay in the piccolos, the violins are playing in a different minor, the basses are following unneeded, long bumps and the drums are not making pauses, breaking the flow like a hammer. There’s also the tuba that needs to enter once in a while, and you are not sure that it will fall in perfect second without your notice.

Even then, you are just one filly and all this need to be fixed in a few, quick seconds. How do you prioritize?

>What do you do now?

>>28906686
First are the drums and piccolos, get that rhythm into shape. Then go onto the violins and bass. Last but not least is that tuba.

Might as well start with the drums – you remember thinking to yourself back then. As you experience a moment or strange, euphorically flash, you close your eyes to have no wall between you and the music. You can hear every instrument in this play, and you can practically sense every musician and their position because of this. You swing your baton at the drums, up and down, up and down, and the required pauses immediately grow in response following the beat of your wave. Good.

You fix the delay of the piccolos soon after, the rhythm of the whole orchestra falling into what you can only call perfection, like clockwork. You follow with a more rapid wave to slow the basses to a perfect pitch without making the unneeded sound they previously did... You are unsure on how to tell the violins of the required change to their minor, there are only so many engagements you can do with a baton of yours… Think Aurora. Tuba can wait!

>What do you do now?

>>28907200
I have little to no idea what are the correct signals, just try to wave at them to get their attention and then point at the basses with a flow-y movement I guess? Holy shit this got hard pretty fast.

>>28907352
Hey mate, you mind if we continue tomorrow? Hoped I could go with through more today but... understandable, people are busy.

>>28907500
I have a vague feeling they might be more lost than busy. Like me.

>>28907512
Yeah, I have no clue either. I was hoping what you said would be enough. Sorry Vince.

It is enough, it's just that we started a bit late and it's night and I'm tired... Which is no excuse, I'm always tired, still. You can't screw up a memory so don't be afraid of that and to suggest things.

>>28907557
It's not the fear. I don't know about other players, but I simply don't know what to say. I'm just throwing random shit around and hoping you could use it as a valid suggestion since the beginning of our conducting.

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>>28907579
Weak prompts, certainly a big problem, sometimes it's hard during specific remembrances. Despite that... hope to see you guys tomorrow then, got myself a day off.
Also a drawing of repaired Aurora.

>>28907694
>spoiler
Fuck yeah, Vince!

>>28907694
Hyp as fuk

>>28908457

You wave at them to grab their attention, tapping your baton through the air with a flow of a feather, requesting them to change their chord to a lesser yet a more suited one. Instead, they react to your gesture by slowing down their play and with that, stumbling entire melody of this symphony. You grunt, trying to act on your hooves alone; trying to be creative. Violins, violins… As if in a flash of inspiration, you raise your hoof in a vertical position - up. With a nudge of a force unknown, energy of musical ethereal, you follow your genius and place the baton upon you is your shoulder, as if you were playing a violin. It is something that you’ve tried and absolutely mastered… in theory.

You play the violin the way you want them to play it and, to a lesser surprise, they professionally and strictly follow. Your imaginary violin is guide that they can understand and read, one that can learn and follow. You close your eyes and out of otherworldly, glistering rainbow of your imagination a violin emerges within your mind. With a gesture of your invisible instruments you begin putting the symphony into place, a bit by bit. The instruments in your hooves change and swift form and with every movement of your hooves, with every change, the orchestra manifests inside your mind. The perfect concerto echoes not only from the walls of your mentality, but all across the Crystal Empire.

Standing beneath the brilliant whirlwind of thousand hues, you feel yourself being literally lifted into the air. You feel yourself being alive. A beating of your heart is a musical piece; it is an ode like no other in the world. It is a rainbow-colored sonata of a belonging, of a purpose, of a talent, of a gift, of… You find your entire body flashing, a beacon of light forcing the hall into a momentary, lingering aurora. The orchestra falls silent, and so does the audience.

Cuprum String is looking at you with a blink of a surprise and disbelief. There’s a murmur, a loud murmur, soon after.

“What’s going on?” in one manner or another, they are trying to figure out the incident. You don’t know either.

>What do you do now?

>>28911444
Try to puzzle out what happened. Why did they stop? It was going so well. Was it our fault?

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With a creeping blush you try to swing your baton in their direction to continue yet, they are silent. All was going so well, was it not? The ballad of the Crystal Empire was passing through the highest, most beautiful part. To silence a musician during such a piece takes something incredibly shocking; perhaps the flash you’ve experienced previously…

You look at Murky Note and Copper String with a gentle shrug, uncertain of what to do, “I-Is something wrong?”

“What was that?” a mare’s voice inside the audience sitting repeats in a surprise.

“Is everything alright?” another pony in the audience asks the orchestra.

“Where did the flash come from?”

“It’s alright,” Cuprum String coughs into her shoulder as she approaches the small fence that keeps you hidden from the audience, “Nothing to worry about- Sweet Celestia… It’s even more gracious than First Ode’s.”

“W-what do you mean?” you mutter under your breath as you raise your eyes at the white mare.

“It’s your Cutie Mark,” she says, and your eyes snap wide open. You immediately turn to your flank to face it.

Indeed, it is a Cutie Mark. It is a white star-shaped symbol with a prolonged prism shape above it, representing… something. Inside the star you find pinkies symbols of four instruments: Drum, Saxophone, Guitar and a Xylophone. A Cutie Mark… something you have stopped trying to achieve after several gruesome, unsuccessfully attempts. A creeping smile widens to take over your entire face. You can’t keep your happiness hidden despite the situation.

>What do you do now?

>>28911998
I don't think Aurora can keep from jumping in joy. Our cutiemark! We have to show mom and dad! What if... what if we go and lead the orchestra onstage proper?

>>28911998
Take a moment to just stare at it and soak it in.

You take a long, deep moment to stare and inspect your Cutie Mark. You try not to miss a single small detail on it. Then, you jump up in pure, eternal bliss. It truly felt like the happiest day in your entire life, the purpose of your life! Your special talent was to lead an orchestra, how come you never realized this until now! The hours you spend listening to your classmates and teachers practicing their instruments and guiding them on their mistakes, the days you spend practicing every musical instrument imaginable to then drop them because something was missing… of course something was missing - you were meant to play all of them! And how come you never realized the way to do it was to be a conductor, a lead, the magical, warm air that whistles the filaments of the entire orchestra!!!

You take a yawning breath, and then, you smile at String. You grasp the baton in your hoof and rise to the scene with a head held as high as possible as, prouder than even before. The entire audience gasps as you ascend to face them. Despite an uncertain feeling of the crowd, your primordial happiness and determination overcomes it easily.

“Fillies and Gentlecolts!” Cuprum String announced instead of you with a grin of her own, “I apologize for this brief pause, a new Conductor of our orchestra have just received her Cutie Mark! Cheers and love to Aurora Flare.”

“Cutie Mark!” your father’s voice is immediate and loud, akin to an echoing lighting, “Our angel got her Cutie Mark!”

Then, you feel yourself drifting away into the void of your mentality and the soul of your existence that is the imperfect, dark magic. The drift is slow, almost crawling, with a smile that you can raise only here, only now, without the iron maiden that is your crystallized, emotionless body. Your first ever symphony and play follows you silently…

>What do you do now?

>>28912305
Damn that warms my heart. I say it's time to wake up with a new resolve to make the world a brighter place.

You are sincerely happy that you got to remember the past that you actually cherish and love, despite having to digging so deep into your past to get it. It is an absolutely joy to commit to memory of the happiest day of your life, and the sensation of freedom and power, guidance and strength that you felt when you accomplished it...

When this war is over and when Sombra is finally defeated, you are going to do what you previously refused to do no nopony’s fault but your own. You will no longer compromise; you will not longer stand when you can move forward.

It is the life you are fighting for, and while the world is important, you are first fighting for your own happiness.

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*** *** ***

>Body Changes:
00% [-18] Crystalline Debris [Damage]
00% [-05] Gravity Scapolite [Crystal]
23% [+23] Foreign Crystallized Flesh [Crystal]

The twilight mask gradually lifts off your eyes as you feel an incredible, powerful lift and control over your own body. While, maybe, a placebo effect and a pinch of a mental happiness, it’s it still an amazing feeling. It feels as if you found contentment in your crystallized body, a feeling that is pessimistic and sad, yet strangely relaxing. You stand up, your body without a single major crack and fracture – a hard to believe well done job on Red Sulfur’s part.

Talking about Red Sulfur, you find him toying with dim, circular and yellowish crystal gem, one you had in yourself previously. It appears he has removed it none the less. Neither Clover nor Golden Shield can be seen near him.

>What do you do now?

>>28912692
Morning Sulfur, what have you found out so far about the crystal? where did golden went?

>>28912692
>That repaired Aurora
This day keeps getting better. Tell Red that he seems to have a talent in this. Ask if anything happened while we were asleep.

You observe your repairs with a judgemental eye; it is your body after all. With a second glance, you happily settle on the fact that it’s perfect, as perfect as a repair can be. He might not be experienced, but Sulfur sure is talented!

“Morning Sulfur,” you say, packing as much of a gratitude into your crystallized voice as possible.

“Oh,” his voice is less of a surprise and more of a shrinking glumness, “It’s been a few hours, Aurora...”

“Can’t thank you enough,” you find a way with words as you approach him, smiling mentally.

“Yeah, not only tired after that,” he admits and yawns with a jolt of his head, “But was pain with lack of resources.”

“You are talented, then, if you can do this well. Has anything happened while we were asleep?” you pause.

“Yeah,” he mutters meekly, “Something did happened, more troubles as always,” he yawns.

“What... do you mean?”

“Our Centurion took all of Legate’s forces, left a letter to him, and started moving towards the Crystal Empire.”

“Don’t tell me...”

“Yeah,” he shakes his head without aggression, more of a disappointment, “Golden Shield went after him.”

>What do you do now?

>>28913071
How long ago? I know we might be able to catch up with them but I wanted to look for spellbooks to learn some more spells here before our next move.

>>28913184
Oh yes, and express extreme irritation with Mudbrick. I think our best bet is running after Shield. Mudbrick can go march to his own death for all Aurora cares but he will NOT take Golden Shield with him.

“How long ago?” you ask him, fully prepared to jump into a mad gallop.

“About two hours ago,” he waves his hoof and places the crystal upon the ground, “If you want to follow then, you might catch up just in time when they reach the Crystal Empire. I don’t suggest that,” he sighs tiredly.

“What was he thinking?!” your fluent and calm voice cascades into an annoying, irritating grind, “We talked with him, twice, does he want to die or something? I don’t care about him, but I won’t let Golden Shield fall with him!”

“Hastiliarius tried to stop him, first; he was the one who got the letter to deliver it to,” he yawns, “To Golden Shield. He had his army with him, of course, but he did not want to end up forcing a fight between Golden Shield’s Squadron and the Manehattan Vanguard. So he let him leave and gave the Legate the letter, basically…”

“I’m going after them,” you raise your voice to a shout as you step forward.

“Shield asked me to tell you to not follow him, and to rest and then, if you can, go to the Hollow Shades instead,” Red Sulfur does not sound impressed, “He asked me to go with you too… Not sure I want to with them bat ponies.”

>What do you do now?

>>28913343
We might as well head to Hollow Shades, Shield is able to defend himself and we might see Lunara. I think that was the bat pony name.

>>28913343
[frustrated golem noises]

Fine. But first I plan on seeing if there's any way of learning new spells in this town. We've been very dependent and creative on only two spells. We need more spells. Maybe there's a teacher who is currently a slave?

With a noise that only a frustrated construction of evil can fabricate, you stamp your hooves and groan. It takes you a short while to calm yourself down, the living, primal energy of your shadow body literally boiling up inside of you.

“Fine,” you say with a shake of your head, “I’ll move to Hollow Shades if that’s what Shield wants. He should be able to defend himself, if all things come to worse. The soldiers will listen to him before Mudbrick, right? He just has to catch up with him, that’s all.”

“That’s basically it, yeah,” Red Sulfur answers you with a shrug of his shoulders, “You want to move now?”

“But first I plan on seeing if there's any way of learning new spells in this city,” you say, “The cursed note has only given me knowledge of two spells... We can’t face Sombra with some telekinesis and light, that’s absurd.”

“The way your magic works is strange, but I never learned about unicorn magic so... don’t take my word for it.”

“Maybe there’s a teacher here who’s currently a slave?”

“Maybe,” he says, “You better off asking that annoying Overseer if you intend to try it. How did you learn your spells before now?” Red Sulfur tosses you the gemstone he was previously holding in his hooves, a rope put through it in a half-assed attempt to make it a resemble a necklace – for convince purposes mostly, it seems. “I did some... experiments, was bored, and I’ve learned a few of the properties of this gem. In short: when you put it inside an enclosed room it creates a strong gravity chamber, room…” he shrugs, “You know? Lifts everything into the air.”

>Item Received:
>Gravity Scapolite Gemstone.

>What do you do now?

>>28913593
I think it's worth asking the Overseer, even if his answer is no. Failing that I say we move on to looking for books.

I will be making a stop here. I'm still open for suggestions for the future update. Thank you all for playing.

>>28904840
fast bump

Bumping your stupid thread from the last slot.

You can return the favour later.

But seriously, you have only 7 posters. Is it really worth it?

>>28912305
That was nice.
>>28912692
>we're not broken piece of garbage now
Truly amazing. Sulfur isn't Ginger, but he's a treasure nonetheless.
>>28913435
Here, my dear QM lies the next thing I wish to see one day. [frustrated golem noises]

And last but not least, I agree with the recent suggestion and I'll add libraries and antique shops as interesting places to look for magic books.

>>28916932

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>>28918507
Thank you, of course, but the next session is not until Friday and I don't really think asking to and bumping the thread myself is that much needed.

Still, I want to see this CYOA until the end and as long as there are a few players, hopefully, we can do so.

>>28919968
Don't mind that faggot. Even if the current thread is dead, there are people waiting for you. Keep it up, work on your prompts, draw more if you wish so.

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>>28919985
Yeah, looking at Vince's earlier stuff he's actually pretty good, he just needs to keep it simple and not plaster all manner of accessories on his poners if you ask me.

>>28920189
Should I cheapen on the details then? Are you saying that my earlier stuff is better, maybe?

>>28920907
I... yes actually. Well maybe not "better" but your stuff from CW is easier to look at than your later stuff. There's just too much going on. Plus you might find it easier to give us some more art if you cut back on the details, which would be awesome. Either way I would recommend losing the black background.