"It's not far, no, but you guys don't have to come along with me or anything.  I don't wanna drag you along on something you're not interested in."  Meadow Lark politely gave an out for that sort of thing since he didn't want to bore his friends.

"What does it matter if they have roots together?  If they work together, it doesn't matter where they came from...only that everything works."

"Well, that explains the grade you got on that last history test." the colt joked.  He hadn't really done all that well himself, but that was beside the point.  "It's interesting to see where things came from and how they developed over time.  Plus when it comes to music, there's a lot of shared history.  I like singing and stuff, so it's pretty helpful being able to look through different musicians from the past and see what influenced them, or the sort of things they came up with on their own."

"If you say so.  Sounds like you'd be better off trying to make music than to learn about stupid history, but I had something to check out in the library on the way home, anyway, so going there will just save me some time." Diamond Tiara was more mad at the history test than Meadow Lark poking fun at her performance.  History taught a pony nothing. One needed to know the present to make history worth learning and nothing more!  Besides, she knew that like one thousand years ago, the Princesses had an argument about tea and that led to the one thousand years banishment!

Either way, she figured that stopping by the library would be the fastest way to get Meadow Lark his stupid newspaper pieces.  Newspapers were just a cheaper kind of book with more useful information on their pages, so a library pony would know how to find them.  She'd be able to get her daddy to pay that silly Twilight Sparkle to get her newspapers...

"I am trying to make music.  That's why I'm looking into the history too.  Haven't you ever done research on something to make sure you know what you're getting into first?" he asked incredulously.  He nodded over to where Silver Spoon was talking with Rosebud.  "Like, I bet Silver had to do all kinds of studying before she got to do any smithing work."

"Research?" Diamond Tiara scoffed at his silly idea of how things should go.  Clearly, he couldn't lead an ant farm to sugar, let alone a group of ponies! "I lead from the front.  I have to get in the mix to know how things are going to go, I can't trust a silly book to tell me how ponies feel and how to make them work together best.  I'll let somepony like you read books for me."

She grinned at the dorky little pegasus.

"Well, at least you admit to needing an adviser..." Meadow Lark rolled his eyes, grinning as well in good humor.  He was careful with his tone though -- he didn't want to cause another misunderstanding between the two of them.  Part of him was rather loathe at the idea of forcing Silver Spoon to keep on playing middle-mare diplomat.

"Think about it this way; you want to try something that's kinda new to you, but other Ponies have been doing it for a long time.  Music, leading Ponies, whatever.  What's a better idea?  Going into it blind and just figuring things out as you go, or reading up on other Ponies' work first to see what you can learn from them?"  he gestured to the books he had laid out in front of him.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:28, Wed 07 Nov 2012.

Diamond Tiara didn't lose her grin for a moment.  He had yet to find another soft spot to fall onto, though, which probably made him feel better as she answered with even greater enthusiasm, "Figuring things out on my own!  What if somepony in the past is wrong?  Somepony on the ground knows how things are, if I really need to ask, and it's better I figure things out myself than expect somepony who was never here to know."

"If they're wrong, then you should be able to spot the issue when you apply it to your own situation.  Then you can fix it, or at least figure out things to not do.  And if they were right, then you can just use their methods."  Meadow Lark reasoned.  "It's kind of different with music, at least.  You need to learn all the stuff that went into it 'cause there's all kinds of rules, and references, and stuff like that.  If you try and just dive in, it doesn't make a lot of sense."

He was, of course, speaking from experience there.  Sheet music was pretty intimidating if one didn't even know the difference between a treble and bass clef.  "Besides, I don't really get a lot of chance to practice, so I need to make up for it somehow."

"Don't get a lot of chances to practice?  Why?" Diamond Tiara looked his way curiously.  She didn't care enough to try to defeat his argument (she had a feeling she and he would never agree on that subject because of their disciplines), but she did find it weird that he didn't think he could practice his music.

"Don't you just sing or hit a stick off a trash can and that's practice?" she was speaking as much from ignorance as amusement, there.

Diamond Tiara had seen Meadow Lark's home -- the place had the word 'song' in its name and there was a full stage with lots of musical instruments there for use.  One would think he'd have all the opportunity in the world to practice musical pursuits.  "I used to sing a lot, but Mom doesn't really like it." he mentioned with a shrug.  "Like, she never told me I can't or anything, but one time I said maybe I could be a performer like my dad.  She sort of flinched... I think I made her upset or something."

Diamond Tiara sensed his pain, for just a moment.  She knew that dreadful feeling of making her father feel pain.  Still, her dad had never really stopped her from doing something like that.  Sure, she had been stopped from doing a lot of things she had wanted to do, that were bad ideas (or too dangerous, at least in retrospect), but she had never been told that she couldn't do something she felt called toward.

She reeled for words, feeling a little faint. "But, if it's what you want to do, you can't just let her get in the way..."

"Like I said, she never told me I couldn't do music.  I just... it seemed to bother her, so I don't wanna cause her any grief, y'know?"  he shrugged as he rested his chin on his folded forelegs.  "Mom's got it hard enough as it is with the cafe.  I mean, I like music... but I don't need to go around doing it, I guess.  Listening to other Ponies and reading about the history is good enough."

"Meadow Lark, that has got to be the stupidest thing you've ever said." Diamond Tiara had a strange edge in her voice, now, almost like she was angry with him, but it was different.  "Just because you don't want to cause Merriweather any grief doesn't mean you don't have to stop doing what you want!"

She glared at him not flinching from the offense that was sure to be manifesting on his face by now.  For once, she was yelling at somepony for a good reason and she would be cursed to never see the Sun again before she turned away from this cause. "If you feel too bad about how she feels to practice your music, you come over to my house and you practice there.  I don't care if it's your special talent or not, if you like it, then you should find a way to do it!  That's that!"
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 22:17, Thu 08 Nov 2012.

In reply to A Series of Events (msg # 543):

Rosebud shook her head at Spoon's question. "I woudn't need to, I think, even if I did end up making this. The snuffer is just a pliers, see?"

In all honesty, Meadow Lark was pretty surprised to see Diamond Tiara up in arms on the matter.  He'd expected her to be dismissive of the whole thing or just not care in the first place since it didn't really have any impact on her.  When she offered her own home for him to practice at, he perked up with a hopeful smile.

"Really?  That's... that's actually really nice of you, Diamond.  Thanks." he said genuinely.  His ears flattened back after a second though.  "Wait... that Butler isn't going to be hanging around all the time glaring at me, is he?"

Over at the desks, Silver Spoon mulled over the plans a little before she just shook her head.  She wasn't exactly big on engineering and blueprints didn't make a lot of sense to her.  "I don't really get it, to be honest.  But why would you even need something like that?  You're a Pegasus.  You'll just be able to fly up to lamps and posts soon enough."

Rosebud blushed. "Oh, well, I... Um, what if an Earth pony needs to put out a street lamp? Or light it? They don't have magic or anything, and ladders can be dangerous..." she made up excuses.

"Maybe if you play well and wear your hair less like an uncouth ruffian, he won't glare quite as much." Diamond Tiara giggled. "Your mother did teach you how to use a comb, right?"

"What's wrong with my mane?  I like it this way."  Meadow Lark said defensively as he ran a hoof over his head, mussing his already messy mane up further.  Windswept tended to be the default style of Pegasi, but they at least had the benefit of getting it through flight.  He had no such excuse.

"Oh nothing, if you just came out of a windstorm." Diamond Tiara chuckled again. "Now imagine if you put a few minutes into making it look nice, like a pony who doesn't spend all of his time in front of a fan.  It's not like you have to style your mane like a mare does, so you shouldn't complain."

To his merit, Meadow Lark seemed to give the critique some serious consideration.  Of course, he ended up acting on it entirely in the wrong manner as he licked his hoof and then ran it over his head again, slicking back his mane with saliva alone.  As gross as that was it only lasted for a moment before his hair quivered subtly and sproinged! right back into the heedless mess it was always in.

"Well, I tried." he gave up immediately with a laugh.  "Maybe you should do something different with your mane instead.  I bet you're the kinda Pony who spends hours at the mirror brushing your hair a thousand times every night.  Why not go for the wind-tunnel look like me?"

"A young mare like myself can't go around with such an uncouth look!" Diamond Tiara huffed.  "If I went around like that, everypony would think I looked stupid.  At least when you do it, no pony was really expecting you to look pretty."

The free period rolled on by as it would and, eventually, the kids were all called back to their desks to finish up their lessons.  There wasn't much else to cover that afternoon and soon enough the bell rang.  Cheerilee stood beside the door as most of the children all hurried out, giving each of them warm smiles, farewells, and reminders to keep on top of their homework.

"Bye Miss Cheerilee~!  Have a good evening!"  Meadow Lark always made sure to give such niceties to their teacher when he could and it was returned in kind.

"See you tomorrow morning, Meadow Lark.  You kids be safe heading home." she returned with a beaming grin.  She was just glad that he and Diamond Tiara worked things out on their own.  Meanwhile, the young colt waited just outside the school porch for Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon to catch up since they were going to hang out together.

Sweetie Belle and Applebloom were still inside by that point talking with each other.  The farmer Pony still had lingering regrets over having unintentionally ditched Xing Ming days prior and remained attentive to her ever since when it came to getting home.  "Hey Xing; Sweetie Belle and me were gonna head into town t'watch Rainbow Dash's contest.  Y'wanna come with us?"

"We figure if Scootaloo is going to show up anywhere, it's going to be there.  She'd never miss a chance to watch Rainbow show off." the little Unicorn reasoned.

Diamond Tiara didn't even look at Cheerilee.  Her thoughts were too far into her evening.  Daddy would probably be able to help with Meadow Lark's story problem, but this trip to the games' shop came first anyway.  Of course, she'd have to do her homework or Daddy would probably want her to do it in exchange for the favor.  It was hardly mean (Daddy surely didn't know how bad the homework was or he would apologize profusely for making her do it), but it still made her groan just a little.

"So, you know where the shop is.  Lead on," she said to her male comrade as she tried to order her thoughts...

"We gotta stop by my house first though.  It's on the way, so it's not gonna be a big side trip or anything."  Meadow Lark mentioned once the girls caught up with him.  "I just need to check in first."

"Geeze, you still need to do that?" Silver Spoon rolled her eyes.  She hadn't needed to check in with her parents after school in years.  The only time she needed to do so was if she was going to be out after curfew for whatever reason.

"Hey, you try having a military mom." the Pegasus rolled his eyes right back.  Obviously he wasn't keen on the idea of being treated like a child either, but it was simply more trouble than it was worth to defy the rules.

--> Meadow Lark and Silver Spoon exit to The Summer Song Cafe

Diamond Tiara just rolled her eyes and followed the colt.  It was stupid, but she knew Merriweather was hiding a mighty wrath beneath her calm demeanor.  Better to not be party to 'corrupting' the boy or something like that, lest she fall to that fury...

Exit to the Summer Song Cafe

Seafoam had sat quietly throughout most of the free period struggling to get to grips with the written equestrian.  It had taken her some time to get beyond page 4 in the first book she had opened.  But since writing was so important to these ponies she had to persevere.

Then suddenly it was packing up time.  Putting the books back where she found them took a little bit of effort and several false starts since she had to remember that they wouldn't necessarily stay if she let them go.

She overheard the talk about the contest.  Perhaps Rainbow was the pony who was flying earlier.  She trotted up. "Is Rainbow the pony who was performing earlier?"