Good day

The sun shone bright over the fountain, bouncing off the mirrored water's edge, it danced along the top of the fountain. Surprisingly for such a nice day, there was a evident lack of ponies.

Switchblade gazed around at the few others in the square with him and smiled 'no better time for a day off' he thought to himself, smiling casually as the sun reflected softly off his armor.

Sweet Dreams sighs as she stared over the edge fountain  into her reflection in the water. The mirror mare's horn had a thin dark crack down it. A result of the resent carriage accident she had been in, the doctors said it should heal in time but until then her magic was on the fritz.

She sighs "Ok...lets try this again..' She says before walking towards the middle of the square looking around at the passing ponies. She stood tall as she slowly took a deep breath her horn slowly lighting up as she started to sing.

As she sung the first notes a glowing golden ball appeared infront of her making a small group of ponies start to gather watching in amazement as the ball slowly shapes itself into a sparkling slightly see through unicorn with a white coat and golden mane sung with her.

As the song continued she created more ponies some pegasi, earth pony and zebra some playing instruments, other joining in on the song and then some races that would be only seen in books, sea ponies swam through the air like water their scales shining in the sun like jewels, flutter ponies, ponies with large wings like that of butterfly's spread their wings to the awe of the crowd.

As the music hit its peak a crystal dragon appeared its scales covered and mixed with jewels stretched its wings as Sweet Dreams strained to keep its form a second layer of magic forming over the first on her horn.

She had just enough magic to with the last few notes of the song make the dragons wings sweep outwards making itself and all the other magic created creatures explode in a shower of sparkles. Sweets stood panting in front of the crowd before they all let out a cheer stamping hoofs on the ground tossing a few bits into an old hat she had placed down.

But soon they were gone leaving her a hat full of bits and her sparking horn. Once again she was alone but at least she now had money to pay for her home and a month or so of food, but at the cost of a sore horn and being almost completely drained of magic for the day. "I think the dragon was a bit much this time.." She said to herself.

"I think the dragon was the best part, to be honest." Switchblade said, walking over and sitting on the side of the fountain. "Your music was beautiful by the way." he said, tossing ten bits to Sweet Dreams.

Sweets blushes taking a step back,unlike when she was performing where she was strong and outgoing she was very timid and meek ironic for her large size, some ponies even thinking she could of been a model, if it wasn't for her messy mane something that she often had trouble taming it even with magic so after years of trying she had given up letting it fall naturally only giving it a brush or two in the morning.

Sweets snapped out of her thoughts to squeak out a "Thank you" Her sunset pink eyes nervously looking to the ground before flicking up to stare at the strange stallion. It was rather funny how such a tall mare could be so timid.

She lifted the bits into her hat slowly her horn still slightly sparking, the very tip of her horn blackened,as if it had been lit on fire.

Switchblade watched the mare carefully 'very shy, and it seems like her horn is injured, probably best not to ask, doubt I'd get an answer' he thought, analysing and taking in every detail of this mare. His eyes widened when he saw her horn blacken up "Do you need some help? It's just that the fracture on your horn seems to be affecting your magic there."

She nervously pawed at the ground before her head snapped up at his question, brushing some of her mane in front of her horn trying to hide as much as possible. Sweets shook her head "N-No I'm fine its just a slight crack"

Switchblade nodded "I suppose, but I know just how annoying a cracked horn is." he stated calmly 'really not much of a talker' he thought to himself "Where did you learn how to make such beautiful music?" he asked with kind awe in his voice.

Sweets blushed softly "I...I used to travel around Equestria and I often met ponies or others willing to trade songs and stories." She says explaining of how she often took apart the songs and stories and make her own.

Then she would use her magic to create images to tell the story or to go with the song or even like what she had done today testing the limits of her magic to see how much of her imagination she could cram into a single song and it had turned out well as she had surpassed her last personal record.

"Wow." Switchblade said, clearly stunned "That's absolutely amazing, wish I was that talented with music, but why are you out on the street, if you don't mind me asking, is it a money problem, or out of passion?" he asked politely, trying to remember if he knew her "I'm Switchblade by the way." he added.

"A bit of both really." She says softly her hoof scarping the ground "Ponies seem to listen to street performers." She says softly before realizing he didn't know her name. "Oh I'm Sweet Dreams"

Switchblade nodded "Pleasure to meet you, Ms Dreams." he said with a light smile on his face "Lovely weather as well, isn't it. You can't get much better weather for being outside." he couldn't help but be drawn to her cracked horn "I hope you don't mind my asking, but how did you damage your horn?" he asked.

Sweet Dreams smiled a soft somewhat sad smile. She had to fight the urge to lift her hoof to press it to her scared stomach. As she explains that she had been in a resent carriage accident in Manehattan that had nearly broke her horn fragmented memories flashed before her eyes. The most vivid were of the heat from the flames, twisted metal, the scent and taste of what she now knew was blood. The memory of the sticky iron tasting mess mixed with the scent of smoke and burning hair made her almost sick again but she held it down with a smile acting as if nothing was wrong. (sorry took so long it just wouldn't post)

"Ouch." Switchblade said, feeling slightly unsettled at the description "I remember fracturing my horn; it was very similar to your incident, only instead of a carriage it was a burning house falling on me." he said casually, smiling to himself at the memory, no matter how painful it was, he was glad to survive.

Stumble, drift, Stumble, drift, was the pattern of the small darkcoated filly that made her way to Switchblade, happily bounding towards him. "Da! Da! Da!" She cried as she trotted over. "Gu-Guess wha we di' en schwool!" She panted excitedly, flicking her thick black bangs out of her eyes uselessly.

Sweets blinked in surprise and was going to ask what had happened when a young voice called out. Turning she sees a young filly racing towards them. At the sight Sweets broken heart cracked a bit more. She had been about her excuse herself seeing that he was most likely here to pick her up from school when she saw another filly emerge from the crowd.

Bright Sides or more commonly known as Sunny a filly known in Ponyville for her bubbly personality and the fact she could somehow put a smile on any ponies face. But today something wasn't right, Sweets couldn't tell at first Sweets couldn't tell what was wrong but that changed when she got closer. Sunny who normally went around bouncing and skipping even more then a normal filly was slowly walking towards them her hooves dragging in the dirt. Her eyes that shined brightly all the time were now dull and when Sweets looked closer were red and puffy as if she had just finished crying.

Even her large bow that seemed to normally bonce even on the rare occasion when Sunny was still seemed to share the depressed mood as it laid flat on her head looking weather beaten.

But Sweets pushed passed the worry in her mind,put on her biggest smile and waved at Sunny. "Hi there Sunny! How was school?~" She asked To her shock Sunny answered with a flat and depressed "Fine". This was not the filly she normally Foal Sat the one who greeted her with a "Hello Miss Sweets you look extra pretty today!" Bright Sides was always happy to see her, heck she was always happy in general...something was not right.

Switchblade watched Pillow stumble towards them, smiling at the adorable spectacle, he crouched next to her "Guess what you did: hmm, learnt a song backwards whilst standing on your head?" he guessed, purposely saying the most ridiculous thing so that Pillow could correct him.

When he saw Sunny arrive he looked at her, carefully taking note of the eyes "Hi, Sunny. How are you? I haven't seen you in a while."

Giggling, Pillow shook her head, letting her wings droop as always. "Mu-Mul-Muw.." She screws her face up as she tries to say the word with her speech impediment. "Muwtwepecwashun." She sneezes after such a big word for a Filly who can barely say her own name. "We mwoltpwied in geoups!" She says, giggling, looking over to Sunny for confirmation.

Sunny looked up at the male unicorn "Oh Hi Mr.Switchblade,I'm Fine its nice to see you again.." She says but still she didn't smile and instead wipes her eyes with a hoof. She looks over at the other filly nodding slightly "Yeah it was fun I guess..." She says before looking at the ground finding the cracks in it suddenly interesting. At this Sweet Dreams picks her up places her on her back. "Well after such a fun filled day like that how about some after school snacks hmm?" She says before turning to the other two ponies and asks "Care to join us?" She says tilting her head.

Switchblade smiled, knowing that something was wrong with Sunny, and that she needed her friends with her "That sounds like a brilliant idea. What do you think, Pillow?" he asked, casually to the filly next to him.

Pillow nodded eagerly, though her nod was caught halfway through with a slight yawn, which she shook off. "Awd wuv tew. " She giggled, shaking her bangs out of her eyes.