“Now, try not tah hurt yerself, Sugarcube. If y’all can’t keep up with me, ah understand!”
“Silly Applejack! Pies are for eating, not hurting!”
Applejack and Pinkie sat at a long table covered with various flavors of pies. The rest of their friends stood on the sidelines, cheering. Applejack closed her eyes confidently and reassured her friend,
“Y’all know what ah mean, jus’ don’t eat more than ya can handle.”
Applejack positioned her head over the apple pie in front of her. Pinkie smiled and picked out a strawberry pie for her to eat first. The referee, a red pony with a white mane and mustache, paced back and forth in front of the wide table as he announced,
“The pony who eats the most pies shall win a V.I.P. seat to our performance tonight. There will be no sabotage of any kind, including pushing, shoving, kicking, pie throwing, pie licking or pie stealing. The most important rule is that everypony must enjoy themselves! On your marks!”
Apple jack placed her hooves on the pie, ready to shove it in her mouth.
“Get set!”
Pinkie Pie sat staring at her pie, licking her lips.
“Go!”
The ponies began eating away! Applejack started chomping away at the apple pie she picked out. It tasted familiar, and if she weren’t in a contest, she would savor every bite. In a few seconds, she finished her treat and set the empty dish to the side. Grabbing the next pie in front of her, she proceeded to take a large bite. A look of repulse crossed her face.
“Yuck! Who could ever like Blueberries?”
Biting through the bad taste, she made sure to keep away from pies with dark colored filling. As she finished the blueberry pie, Applejack looked over at Pinkie to see how she was doing. Her mouth dropped open to see that Pinkie had already eaten five pies! Pinkie was sucking them in like a vacuum.
Six!
Seven!
Eight!
Applejack returned focus on her own pie count. She pulled over two pies and swapped bites between them, emptying both dishes in a few seconds. Sweating, Applejack pulled over the next two.
“Aren’t these pies good, Applejack?!”
Pinkie began making conversation with Applejack, but Applejack ignored her Pink friend and continued demolishing the pies to the best of her ability. That didn’t matter to Pinkie Pie, naturally.
“I think they’re stupendous! The cherry ones are the best, I think!”
‘Six pies down’, Applejack thought as she pulled up another two. She was starting to feel a little full.
“Well, I’m glad I have someone like you to compete with! Most of the other ponies are only on their third pie!”
Applejack had just finished her eighth pie. Annoyed, she turned to Pinkie.
“Ain’t you supposed tah be eatin pies?!”
Pinkie burped and turned to her stack of empty trays.
“Oh, I’m full! I didn’t feel like eating anymore after eleven!”
‘Eleven? Hah! I can beat that number any day!’, Applejack thought arrogantly. She turned to the pies and ate them one at a time until she had eaten eleven pies, each pie harder than the last. Her stomach seemed to be filled to the brim, but she continued eating, remorseful of every bite.
There was only half of a pie more until she had eaten twelve pies and beaten Pinkie. She felt nearly ready to throw up. Her body seemed to be clenching to Applejack as she looked at the last bit of pie. Swallowing her pain, she ate another bite. There was still a fourth of the pie left. She looked at it, and gave in, laying her head on the table. The other contestants had stopped eating as well. The red and white stallion trotted over and observed the empty dishes in front of both Pinkie Pie and Applejack. He turned to the crowd confused,
“Well, I suppose there is a tie this time around! Both of these two mares have eaten a whopping eleven pies!”
The crowd cheered, and then gasped after hearing a large belch from one of the contestants. Pinkie Pie burped up one of the dishes! She scratched her head and looked at the spit covered dish.
“Huh! So that’s where that pie went!”
The crowd cheered for Pinkie. Applejack groaned and slowly walked away from the table. Pinkie joyfully hopped beside her, as if she didn’t just eat twelve pies. Their friends gathered around them, quite impressed.
“Wasn’t that fun, Applejack!?”
“That was amazing!”
“How did you eat the entire dish without noticing?!”
Applejack grumbled to herself and kept walking.
“Well, I reckon it wasn’t really fair, with her bein’ Pinkie Pie and all…”
---------------------------
Stormspell’s Spectacular Showponies were hard at work. It was in their nature to not disappoint the crowd. The second their caravan stopped, they began unloading tons of carnival games to immediately entertain the curious Ponyville citizens. Right in front of everything, a small ticket booth, with an older unicorn manning it. The Pie Eating contest was more of a distraction for the crowd while the rest of the circus was set up. All it took was a large table and a bunch of pre-made pies. Pinkie and Rarity saw the entire thing unfold, since they had been with the group as they entered town.
As the table was moved away, the area behind it was filled with booths, tents, and all kinds of fun activities. The six friends stood together and looked at the quick, but professional setup. Pinkie decided to lead the charge.
“Come on! We’ve only got four hours before the show starts!”
The friends ran to go make the most of their four hours, except Applejack, who groaned and slowly walked behind them.
Rainbow Dash trotted through the paths, looking for something interesting to do. 'Whack-a-duck? Maybe when Fluttershy isn’t so nearby. World’s Largest Giant? After some of the adventures I've had, that doesn’t sound very interesting. World’s Smallest Giant? Why does that sound like a rip-off?'
Rainbow Dash trotted along, until she saw a circle of ponies looking up at a Pegasus. The Pegasus was white with long, sky blue hair. She twirled and spun as she soared through the air. The audience was applauding her.
For what?!?
‘Big deal!’ Rainbow thought. The Pegasus wasn’t doing anything half as awesome as the things she did. Rainbow joined the crowd, and looked bored up into the sky.
‘Done that… Did it… How was that impressive?’ Rainbow’s mind conjured insult after insult, comparing the two’s flying abilities. Trick after trick, nothing seemed to impress her.
Off to the west of the circus, just behind the area where Soaring Sky was doing her stunt presentation, the other half of Stormspell’s Spectacular Showponies were setting up the stage for the performance that night. Muscular Earth ponies pulled large wooden pieces out of the caravans and formed it into a decent sized stage. Pegasus ponies set up a large backdrop behind it, with a detailed picture of a meadow. Stormspell and a few other unicorns touched horns and made a spectacular burst of green, blue and purple magic. Rows upon rows of comfortable, royal red chairs formed in front of the stage.
Foresight rolled out a large, polished piano from one of the caravans with help from some of the other ponies. It was in a U shape, the keys varied in rows above, below and beside one another. Unique valves, levers and handles extended from many spots around the piano. It looked like a very complex machine. Foresight pushed it out until it was in front of the stage, off to the far right. He pulled up a stool and sat down at the machine. He spread out his wings and laid them among various keys, then, in simulation with his hooves, Foresight began moving the four body parts along the piano, creating a beautiful, yet unique sound. One could tell the sound came from a piano, but it had a ring to it, a slight hum, with some keys giving the sound of bells and flutes. The showponies seemed to slow down at the sound, as it pleased them. Then the majority of them cringed as the piano played a horrid note.
“Cut that out! We’re still unpacking!”
Stormspell knew all too well of how easily Foresight’s piano could slow down productivity, and he had slammed his hoof on the keyboard. Foresight silently rolled his eyes and walked away to get materials for polishing and fine tuning his instrument.
Behind the stage, Spotlight and Prancer were rehearsing their lines for the performance. The golden stallion spoke with a tear jerking happiness to the silver mare.
“I told you I would always come for you… why didn’t you wait for me?”
Prancer made herself shed tears as she smiled at Spotlight.
“Well, you were dead.”
Spotlight stepped closer to Prancer until they were only a lip’s distance away and said romantically,
“Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.”
“I will never doubt again.”
“There will never be a need…”
Spotlight stared into Prancer’s eyes, almost identical to the eyes of one who had actually fallen in love. He then dropped the act and stepped away.
“For Celestia’s sake! Is this really the mush that comes out of Novelty’s mind?! Nopony’s going to enjoy this lovey dovey dialogue!”
Prancer closed her eyes and stated her opinion.
“Well, complaining about it won’t do you any good and I’ve yet to see one of Novelty’s plays disappoint the crowd. You colts are so insensitive. I kinda like it!”
Spotlight trotted away, sticking his nose rudely in the air.
“Of course YOU would enjoy this, Prancer. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m taking five!”
Spotlight went to the very back of the line of caravans, where a small station was set up for water breaks. He filled a glass and magically placed it in front of his mouth and sipped it slowly, going over the lines in his head.
‘There will never be a need? Hmm, I think I should modify that a little, to make it more appealing for our male audience. That’ll show Prancer! Let’s see…’ Yeah, you better not doubt my skills again!’ No, that doesn’t sound like West Leaf. Maybe ‘Excuse me, we're in love!’ That’ll work, but I need to say the excuse me bit perfectly! ‘ExCUse ME!’ ‘excuse ME.’
“Um… Excuse me?”
Spotlight blinked a couple times.
“Hmm? No, it needs to be loude-“
Spotlight turned around to see a bright yellow pegasus standing behind him. She hid most of her face with her pink, long mane. He stammered for a second and tried to professionally ward off the wandering fan.
“Oh my! It seems you’re lost! The circus is back that way, I’m sure a smart, beautiful mare such as yourself couldn’t miss it!”
Fluttershy blushed slightly and softly replied,
“Oh, no. I’m not lost. I was just wondering if I could watch some of the crew set up, if that’s ok with you…”
Spotlight saw no harm in allowing Fluttershy near the set-up. He pointed his hoof towards the stage. In his always flirtatious mood, he calmly said,
“It’s more than fine by me if you stay here. I wouldn’t mind getting to know a pretty little thing like you!”
Fluttershy, shifting uncomfortably, began trotting away as she quickly spoke, trying hard to not offend Spotlight.
“Oh, no… It’s fine, really. I’ll just, um… I’ll just be going then. Thank you.”
Spotlight frowned and continued to sip his water,
‘I should have tried some of those mushy play lines. ‘My dear, not even death could stop our love! You will never have to doubt that we were meant for eachother!’
Spotlight snorted at his thoughts, and refilled his water cup.
‘Mares...’
---------------------------------------
Rainbow Dash had enough. She marched to the center of the open circle, surrounded by a small
crowd of ponies. She looked up and shouted to the flying mare,
“Hey, I could do tricks at least 200% cooler than the ones you got!”
This riled the crowd, eager to see a faceoff. The Pegasus floated gracefully in midair, looking down at the colorful challenger. Treating her as another fan, she began another trick as she replied,
“Dearest, please stay on the ground and let the professional work. Questions can be asked after the performance.”
Rainbow Dash took to the air, expertly hitting one of her wings, causing Soaring Sky to spin out and catch herself. Rainbow Dash zoomed by again, a small rainbow trailing path.
“Listen here, Missy! I do the cool stunts around here! You can’t perform for my crowd unless you can prove yourself!”
Rarity saw the scene taking place a few dozen feet away. She trotted over and shouted at Rainbow,
“Rainbow Dash! Come down from there! You know better than this!”
Rainbow ignored her sensible friend and continued her challenge.
“So, what’s it gonna be? Think you got what it takes to beat me?!”
With an actor’s arrogance, Soaring Sky grinned and nodded her head.
“Alright, kid. I’ll humor you. Show me what you got.”
Rainbow Dash opened by flying up near a long, thin cloud. With a centuple back flip around it, she caused it to whirl out of control and split in two. The crowd went wild at the slightly impressive stunt. She flew confidently in front of the white Pegasus.
“Your move, Big shot!”
Soaring Sky hid how impressed she was, and desperately tried to keep the crowd in her favor. She sped up to the skies, and made a complex series of loops and twirls, which made onlookers dizzy just to watch. She gracefully flew back down, and eyed Rainbow Dash with a smile. The audience applauded and cheered. With a defiant smile on Rainbow’s face, she flew down into the crowd. With expert precision, she zoomed around and in between the watchers. The ponies, while in slight shock cheered louder and louder as Dash made loops and twirls around them. With an expert backflip, Rainbow Dash emerged from the crowd and floated, her face daring Soaring Sky to try and top her feat.
Soaring Sky thought for a moment, and nervously floated for a moment, what she had performed before was her best trick. Improvising, she tried to get Rainbow to chase her, knowing her dexterity would show during the hunt.
“Catch me if you can, kid!”
She took off directly upward. Rainbow Dash broke into a wide smile and zoomed upwards. Shocked by her opponent’s extreme speed, Sky dived to the side, narrowly avoiding the collision. Rainbow Dash made a swift turnaround and thrusted herself towards her fleeing opponent.
Rarity couldn’t bear to watch the unfolding disaster. Dodging one way, Soaring Sky gave a laugh as Rainbow tried to tackle her. She moved around buildings, stooped low into the grass, and hid behind clouds, but Rainbow Dash always stayed just out of reach. Pushing her wings to her limit, a devilish idea came across Sky’s mind. She rushed to the area where the theatre was being set up. Rainbow saw her opening, and she began pumping her wings as fast as they would go. With a direct line to her target, she began closing the distance. At the last second, using her fantastic agility, Soaring Sky moved up. Rainbow Dash then saw that she was moving top speed towards a blue Pegasus, who looked up at her with shock. In desperation, Rainbow tried to bring herself to a stop and move out of the way at the same time. The Blue Stallion predicted perfectly where the Pegasus would land and backed up. Time seemed to slow for a few seconds. Rainbow yanked herself to the right and slammed into a thick wooden object with just enough precision to push herself off to the side and tumble onto the grass.
Foresight called out with fear,
“Help! Somepony!”
His grand piano shifted slightly at the impact. While it was thick enough to take minimal damage from Rainbow’s impact, it began to tilt. It was going to fall over and surely break. Some ponies tried to run towards the piano, but none were close enough. Foresight braced himself to try and support the falling piano by himself, but doubted he was strong enough. He then felt a presence next to him. A soft yellow Pegasus stood braced for impact. With a creak, the piano collapsed onto the two’s heads, and shook in mid air. Foresight and Fluttershy struggled to support the massive, wooden machine. They forced their heads upwards with all of their strength, but felt tire approaching quickly. The burden then felt much lighter as three other crew members helped lift the piano back into its original position.
Soaring Sky felt both guilt and pleasure at the near destruction of Foresight’s precious piano, as she flew back to the crowd. She smiled, and looked down. Realization overtook her as the crowd booed, having witnessed the entire thing.
Stormspell was furious, having seen the whole incident. He galloped over to Soaring Sky, where the crowd was and tried to contain his anger long enough to dismiss the onlookers.
“Alright, everypony! Nothing to see here! Show’s over!”
He glared up at Soaring Sky and used his magic to disable her wings. He brought her down to his level, her head hanging in shame. Speaking right through her ‘I’m sorry’ face, Stormspell crammed a two hour lecture into a couple sentences, packing the same amount of guilt and disappointment into each word.
“You’re on clean up duty for the next five shows. If this ever happens again, I’m gonna replace you with somepony half as talented as that poor Rainbow kid over there! It’ll still be an improvement!”
Almost in tears, Soaring Sky galloped away. Stormspell knew the talk was necessary if that filly was ever going to grow up.
Fluttershy sat on the ground, rubbing her aching neck with her hoof. Foresight looked over his piano. There were no obvious injuries on it besides a large dent on the side with a slight crack in the center. After inspecting the piano, he figured he should at least go thank the Pegasus that helped him save it. He walked over to her, and said meaningfully,
“Err… Thank you for your help, I guess. If it weren’t for you, I might be in a hospital right now.”
Speaking with actual emotions was difficult for Foresight, as he rarely had them. Fluttershy smiled and looked up at the stallion. The recent event seemed to relieve her of some of her shyness.
“Oh, it was no problem! I’m just happy I was so close when it happened.”
Foresight smiled at the kind pony. It wasn’t often Foresight met somepony who showed kindness so openly. She didn’t even know him! He was slightly intrigued.
“So, what’s your name?”
Fluttershy stood up and moved one of her front hooves over the other.
“I-I’m Fluttershy. And… you?”
Foresight looked over Fluttershy’s shoulder and saw a black unicorn in a purple cloak. He decided it was time for the conversation to end, despite how pleasant it was.
“I’m Foresight. It was very… nice to meet you. Hope you enjoy the show tonight, Fluttershy.”
With that, Foresight trotted off. Fluttershy took little offense to the rushed Pegasus and looked around at the nearly complete theatre, intrigued at the lights and actors.
--------------------
The circus provided memory after memory for the friends to enjoy. Eventually, all of the games closed down and the showponies directed the crowds to the rows of seats in front of the stage. The six friends had regrouped and were moving towards their seats. Rarity gave Rainbow Dash a scolding look.
“I say it again, Rainbow Dash. I think you deserved your crash after so vulgarly challenging that stunt pony!”
Rainbow closed her eyes confidently and trotted along,
“Stunt Pony?! Those twirls she did could barely be considered stunts! I think the audience liked me waaaay more than that other mare!”
The ponies decided to sit in the third row from the front. As they sat, Pinkie Pie turned to the pony behind her, holding a golden ticket she received for winning the pie eating contest. She was a lone, orange mare, patiently waiting for the show to begin.
“Hey! How would you like to sit in the V.I.P. seat over there? I don’t want this ticket if I can’t sit up there with my friends, even though it would be super duper fun! At least somepony can have the super duper fun seat! What do you say?”
The pony smiled and nodded, taking the ticket and trotting away.
Twilight looked around. She was sitting on the end, and could see slightly behind the stage. A blue Pegasus was talking with a mysterious black unicorn in a purple cloak. After a few sentences, the unicorn trotted away, and the Pegasus looked around cautiously. Twilight peered at him, and then gave the stage her attention as a light blue unicorn introduced himself.
“Greetings, citizens of Ponyville! My name is Stormspell, and welcome to Stormspell’s Spectacular Showponies. Tonight’s performance for you will be “The Princess’s Pride”! A sad story of true love and how nothing can stop its force! Thank you all for coming to see our show! You won’t regret seeing this once in a lifetime performance of Equestria’s finest actors! Now sit back and enjoy the show!”
Twilight immediately recognized the older stallion, and leaned over to Rarity, who was sitting next to her. She whispered into her ear, “Hey! That’s one of my old professors from when I went to school in Canterlot! He taught conjuration and illusion spells. He’s one of the smartest stallions I’ve ever known!”
Rarity nodded in interest, “Perhaps we can talk to him after the show! Speaking of which, it appears the show is starting!”
Pinkie Pie was shaking with excitement, a giant bag of popcorn in her lap. The whole audience could hear her as she exclaimed,
“ohboyohboyOhBoyOhBoyOHBOYOHBOY!!! It’s starting!!!”
The lights turned out, and the night sky overtook the outdoor theatre.