> Cheerilee's Hearth's Warming Play
>  by Talon and Thorn
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: The Plan
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So girls I know you’re all wondering why I asked you here tonight,” said Cheerilee, leaning back in her chair and looking around at her fellow element bearers. They all sat around a table in a quiet corner of Berry’s bar mostly relaxing after a long day's work. In fact none of them really looked all that interested at all.

“I thought you just wanted to have a drink,” said Trixie sipping her own borbon. “Something to keep out the chill.” She glanced out the window at the wintery scene outside, the weather patrol had been working overtime since the running of the leaves to blanket the town with snow.

“Well there is that,” said Cheerilee, sipping her rather more colourful drink, “but I was also going to ask you for a hoof with something.”

“How can I help?” asked Carrot Top, her ears perking up as she glanced up over the orange concoction in front of her.

Cheerilee smiled at her friend's enthusiasm, but inside winced a little. She knew of Carrot’s tendency to volunteer for things without thinking them through or considering her own responsibilities. She didn’t want to take advantage of her friend. “Well with Hearth Warming just around the corner I thought I’d put on a seasonal pageant!  I’m sure the kids would love it, and it would be educational as well!”

“Oh, I used to love those, I remember we did them every year when I was a foal,” said Lyra, “Didn’t you play Smart Cookie one year?” she pointed at Cheerilee, “I remember you getting so excited over it you ended up throwing up just before it all started. Actually, thinking about it there hasn’t been one for a while has there? Why did they stop?”

“Miss Black Board was never much for the performing arts,” explained Cheerilee, “She was more about the three R’s, but I think the class could do with a chance to flex their acting muscles and I used to really enjoy them as a foal. I’ve asked the Mayor and she agreed we could put on a public performance during the Twelvetide. I just need a little bit of help, so what about it girls? There’s no business like show business!”

In a literal flash Trixie was standing, reared up on the table. “The Great and Powerful Trixie was born to a life on the stage,” she declared, “I’m a natural Clover the Clever! and in no way the reincarnation of Princess Platinum, regardless of what my cousin Sharpy might say!” She paused looking around, her friends were looking up at her with chargrined expressions and the others in the bar were looking rather shocked. She dropped back onto all four. “Uh, this is a play for the foals to act in right?” she asked deflating.

Cheerilee nodded. “But I’d welcome your help with directing, and maybe special effects. I’m sure the foals will love to have you helping them.”

Trixie’s desire to be on stage fought with her love of foals for a few moments. “Fine,” she sighed sticking out her lower lip as she took her seat again, “I'll help backstage,” she almost spat the word, “I'm sure my magic will make it the talk of Ponyville for many years.”

Cheerilee grinned and turned to Lyra. “And I thought you could help the school band put on the music.”

Lyra looked thoughtful for a moment. “Well it is too cold to play outside at the moment, but on the other hoof it would cut into my sleeping time,” she said with a wink, ”After all Bon Bon needs somepony to keep her bed warm this time of year... Ah, what the hay, I’m in!” she grinned.

“I could help with the sets!” suggested Carrot Top, “I’ve got some wood and paint left over from the last few fix up jobs on the farm. It’s not like I’m busy at the moment, not much farming in the snow. Plus,” she bit her lower lip nervously, “I know a scriptwriter who might volunteer his services.”

“Oh, would that happen to be Written Script,” purred Cheerilee as she grinned at the farmer, who blushed in return. Cheerilee knew her friend had her eye on him for a while, apparently that alternative her in the other world had been dating him. Obviously she’s just been waiting for an excuse to talk to him, good for her!

“Oh, um, well maybe,” stuttered Carrot Top, her eyes flicking around the room.

“Well, if you could ask him to help us, it would mean so much. It's for the children after all,” said Cheerilee giving puppydog eyes.

“Well, if it’s for the foals...” said Carrot Top.

“Good,” said Cheeriee, “now as for the rest of you...”

“I’d love to help,” said Raindrops sleepily, her eyes had heavy bags underneath them. Someone had handily arranged a curly straw from her drink so she could sip it without lifting her head from the table. “But Dash has got us working double shifts as it is, Hearth’s Warming is our busiest time, having to melt all that snow overnight.”

“Not a problem,” said Cheerilee, “I know you and Ditzy are busy, but maybe you could deliver some flyers or something while you’re about town?”

Raindrops nodded. “I could do that,” she mumbled.

“Me too!” exclaimed Ditzy Doo, Hearth’s Warming was a busy time for the postal service as well, what with the extra cards and presents. “Have you decided what foals will be playing the founders?” she said with undisguised interest.

“I’ve for a few idea’s, I’m sure Dinky will be a perfect actress, but I’m going to let them volunteer for the roles first, see who’s interested, hold a few auditions,” said Cheerilee. “We could really do with a sell out crowd this year, something beyond just the parents.”

“Why’s that?” asked Ditzy.

“Well since the um, incident, after the town fair things have been a little tight at the school,” explained Cheerilee. Her friends glanced around, not meeting each other's eyes for long, most of the town's population didn’t want to think about the shenanigans they had gotten up to while under the influence of the cursed booze at the fair.

“I thought the funds from the Night Court paid for all the damage?” asked Lyra cocking her head to one side.

“Well, those were for emergency damage, the school house wasn’t damaged that much but somepony, nopony knows who,” her eyes darted around the room, “Vandalised most of the textbooks, particularly, um,” she was glad her coat hid her blushes well, “the biology texts...” she rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof, “Really they’re much more informative now, just not entirely in line with the curriculum. Anyway we had to pay for replacements from our discretionary budget, and it’s more or less gone now.”

“What does that cover anyway?” asked Raindrops looking up at cheerilee.

“Things like school trips,” Cheerilee shuddered a bit thinking about the last trip to Canterlot, maybe there was a silver lining to this after all, “The play ground equipment, the occasional specialist tutor, Miss Bluenote used to help the school band for a few hours each week, the school band’s equipment comes for the same fund actually.”

“Well we can’t have the foals musical development retarded can we,” exclaimed Lyra, “Although if you need a hoof I’m sure I can help out occasionally.”

“Thanks,” said Cheerilee, “I’m sure with all your help the play will go off without a hitch.”





“I think that’s enough maths for today my little ponies,” said Cheerilee looking out at the suddenly joyful faces of her class. Her eyes darted out of the window towards the clock tower, a few minutes until class was due to finish, perfect. “Now, before I let you all go, I have a special announcement to make.” Most of her students ears’ pricked up in interest. “Can anypony tell me what special event is happening next month?”

A smattering of hooves were raised at the question. Cheerilee scanned the room, she was a little surprised to see that Snips’ was one of them, he didn’t often volunteer answers in class, still it was an easy answer. “Yes, Snips?” she asked.

“It’s the all Equestrian barber competition in Canterlot Miss Cheerilee!” he cried excitedly, “And my Mums said I could go if I do really well and pass my history test!”

“That wasn’t exactly the answer I was looking for dear,” said Cheerilee struggling to keep the smile on her face, “But it does have something to do with history. Yes, Silver Spoon.” She pointed to the grey filly.

“It’s Hearth’s Warming, Miss Cheerilee,” said the filly. The rest of the crowd mumbled amongst themselves as they were suddenly reminded of the upcoming season of presents and fun.

“That’s right Silver,” said Cheerilee with a smile, the question was actually a little more complicated that it sounded as the longest night and new years were also next month but they’d already talked about how the class was going to celebrate those two, “And do you all know the Hearth’s Warming story children, how the three tribes came together in friendship to drive off the Windigo and found Equestria?”

Every head in the room shot up and down rapidly. “Yes, Miss Cheerilee,” they all chorused.

“Good because we’re going to put on a Hearth's Warming pageant this year! All of you will get to play a part in the story, and almost the whole of Ponyville will be there to see you!” I hope, through Cheerilee.

The crowd of children suddenly exploded into babbling and hoof pointing, all wanted to give their opinions of this matter at once. “Miss Cheerilee! Miss Cheerilee!” yelled Scootaloo, “Can I play Commander Hurricane! Please! He’s awesome!”

“He was one of the best flyers ever, and you can’t even get off the ground!” pointed out Silver Spoon.

“Well at least I don’t have a spoon shoved up my bottom!” responded Scootaloo turning red in anger.

“Children!” examined Cheerilee, “Those are not acceptable things to say! Apologize now!”

“Sorry,” mumbled Silver looking down.

“Yeah, sorry,” mumbled Scootaloo.

“That’s better,” said Cheerilee giving the fillies a hard stare. “Now anypony can play any role in the play regardless of whether the original founder was a colt or a filly. I’ll be putting up a list of parts by the door and you can write your names next to any you’re interested in. Even if you don’t want to act you can help behind the scenes, or with music, or a bit part. Remember, there is no such thing as a small part, just small...” she looked down at the crowd of short ponies in front of her, “Never mind. That’s it for the day, children. I’ll keep the list about until the weekend to give you some time to think about it, auditions will take place next week!” She smartly stepped aside as the herd stampeded towards the door and the list next to it.





“So who do you want to be in the play Dinky?” asked Firelock. The class had been let out to play in the snow and the show had been the talk of the playground since their teacher's announcement yesterday.

“I don’t know,” said the purple filly looking up from the snowmare she had been building. She cocked her head to the side for a moment. “Momma always said that Private Pansy was her favourite, so maybe I’ll ask to be her?”

“Pansy? Really?” asked the unicorn in surprise, “I’d have thought the most popular filly in school would have wanted a bigger role than that.”

“Most popular filly?” asked Dinky in surprise.

“Sure, everypony’s friends with you, you even got your mark in being friends!”

Dinky glanced back at her flank, it was still a bit of a surprise to see the stars that now covered it, it had only been a few months since she was a blank flank. It was true, her cutie mark did show how easily she made friends. “Well I suppose so, but I don’t see how Pansy isn’t an important part, she made friends with the other founders after all.”

“Yeah, but she was Hurricane’s assistant, I’ve heard of lots of things Commander Hurricane was supposed to have done, but I can’t think of anything Pansy did,” said the filly ariely.

Dinky wracked her brain for a bit, she remembered something about Pansy helping to found the post office so all the ponies could talk to each other, and that was very important, her momma had said so. Still she knew that Commander Hurricane had formed the Equestrian armed forces, and he’d founded Cloudsdale, and he’d had lots and lots of children, it did seem sort of more exciting. “So you think I should ask to be Commander Hurricane? I thought Scootaloo wanted to be him?” she glanced over to where the orange filly was marching back and forth using a stick as a spear apparently giving orders to a bunch of equally armed colts and fillies.

“Well maybe not Hurricane,” said Firelock.

“Clover the Clever?” asked Dinky, she’d been a powerful mage, miss Trixie had said that if Dinky kept working on her magic she could grow up to be a mage to, if she wanted to.

“No!” said Firelock looking shocked, “No, I want to play her! She made a huge burning heart thing! So amazing!” Her eyes took on a glazed look for a moment before she shook herself. “How about you be princess Platinum? She must have had loads of friends, she was a princess!”

Dinky nodded, that made sense, there wasn’t anything better than a princess afterall. Then a thought struck her, “What about Alula? She’s like a princess, wouldn’t she want to play Platinum?” plus she was Firelocks best friend, if she was going to be Clover than it would make sense for her friend to be the princess.

Firelock’s head dipped a little as she looked over towards the hybrid who was sitting quietly at the corner of the playground playing with the snow around her, she used her wings to gather up piles of the cold white substance before using her horn’s magic to carve it into intricate structures. “I asked her, she said she'd get scared at having to act in front of all the ponies.”

“Miss Trixie says that it’s really fun to be in front of a huge crowd of ponies, having them all cheer for you,” said Dinky, she’d like to find out how it felt, another reason to want to play Platinum she was one of the biggest parts in the story.

“I’m sure Alula would love it, if she tried it,” said Firelock perking up a bit, “But you know she can be shy sometimes.”

Dinky nodded. “Yeah, but I think she would like it if she tried it, momma says that the best way to deal with being scared of something is to try doing it.”

Firelock’s brow furrowed for a moment as if deep in thought and then she leapt up as a spark literally leapt from her horn to burst over her head. “That’s it! We can stop Alula being scared by getting her a really big role!”

“Like Princess Platinum?” asked Dinky looking confused.

“No, the narrator! Think about it, there’s lots of lines, but she doesn’t have to do all that much, the audience will be paying attention to the founders rather than her. So she gets to get used to being on stage, and won’t feel too scared.”

“I think that makes sense,” said Dinky doubtfully, “but I’m not sure Alula would sign up to do that.”

“So we don’t tell her! We just sign her up, then she’ll have to do it, and she’ll find out she likes it so much she won’t be scared any more, just like your mother said,” exclaimed Firelock practically hopping up and down. “Let’s go do it now while everypony’s out of the school house.”

Dinky wasn’t entirely sure that was what her momma had meant, but her friends excitement was infectious and she found herself hopping up and down as well. Surely Alula would enjoy being on stage once she got used to it. “Ok! Let’s go!” she cried as they rushed towards the school house.





“Of course I’m going to be playing Chancellor Puddinghead,” announced Diamond Tiara to a small court of foals around her. “She was the leader of the earth ponies, and daddy says I’m destined to be one of the most important ponies in town. Silver can be Smart Cookie, as she’s one of the smartest ponies in class!”

The grey filly smiled at this and nodded with her friend. “Thanks DT, but I don’t really want to be on stage that much, my daddy says you can get so much more done behind the scenes. Helping with the costumes sounds more interesting to me.”

Diamond tilted her head in surprise. “Really! Don’t you want to be out on stage, showing everypony how important a pony you are with the other actors?” her eyes glanced over towards Scootaloo who was stabbing at an imaginary enemy with her ‘weapon’. “Come on, the two most important fillies in town have to be the two most important founders!”

“Well I guess so,” said Silver with little conviction.

“Now wait a cotton picking minute!” came a cry from nearby, Diamond turned to see Apple Bloom flanked by Twist approaching. “Puddinghead wasn’t just some fancy smancy type! She helped to found all the farms in Equestria! She wasn’t afraid to get her hooves dirty!”

“Oh puh-lease,” snorted Diamond, “Are you going to tell me that you think you’re going to make a better Puddinghead than me?”

“Well,” the filly stopped for a moment to think, “Actually, now you say it, ah think ah would be. ah’ve heard Granny Smith say that the Apples are descended from the old rulers of Earth, me and Puddinghead could practically be cousins!”

“The Apples, related to the Chancellor! Nonsense! If anyone should be descended from nobility it should be me!” cried Diamond meeting her enemy muzzle to muzzle.

“Yeah! Well ah got something you haven’t!” cried Apple Bloom in response.

“What!” growled Diamond.

“Ah got faster legs!” she leap over the pink pony and rushed towards the schoolhouse and the sign up sheet within.

“Wha...! Hey come back here!” cried Diamond Tiara running after the farm filly followed by a herd of excited foals.
> Chapter 2: The Auditions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Now children,” announced Cheerilee to her class. “I’m glad to see that so many of you have volunteered to help with the play next month. Now not everypony will get the part they wanted,” there were some looks of dejection from the crowd in front of her, “But if you all try your hardest I’m sure we can have a lot of fun during the auditions. You can try out the roles you’re interested in and see who’ll be best at each of them. Remember even if you don’t manage to get a big role this year we still need ponies to play other parts, lots of different ones, and you might even be an understudy.”

Pip held up his hoof and waved it energetically, “What’s an understudy?” he asked.

“An understudy is a pony who will take on the part of another pony if they get sick and can’t make the play,” explained Cheerilee, “We don’t want that of course, but it helps to have a backup just in case. Now you might be wondering why Miss Trixie is joining us today?” She gestured to the blue unicorn who was currently standing by the door, she waved a friendly hoof at the crowd. “Well, she will be helping me with the play and will be running the auditions while I do some marking.” Cheerilee stood aside.

Suddenly there was a flash and a cloud of smoke appeared at the front of the class causing the foals to gasp. Trixie dramatically lept from the cloud just about avoiding crashing into the front rank of desks, apparently having vanished from the door and appeared in the centre of the room in a split second. “Bonjour, mes petits enfants,”  she cried enthusiastically.

“Good afternoon Miss Trixie,” chorused the class stamping their hooves and grinning at the silly adult.

“It warms my heart to see so many budding young actors and actresses in front of me! I’m sure all of you will have so much fun treading the boards in front of an adoring audience, it’s a shame I can’t be there onstage with you,” she glared over towards Cheerilee who had moved to the corner and was writing in a notebook. The teacher waved a mocking hoof at her without looking up. “Anyway, I’ll be helping you all from *sigh* backstage, but still I’m sure we’ll all have a lot of fun,” she winked towards Dinky, her apprentice. “Now as Cheerilee said we’re going to have some auditions today, she gave you all copies of some of the script yesterday so you should have had time to practise them, now you can show me what you can do.”

“I’ve been really studying for the play!” cried Snails, “I’ve got a book to learn all about the founders,” he waved a colourful paperback in the air in his aura before floating it in front of his eyes and opening it at a random page. “These are all your wives? gasped Smart Cookie,” read Snails, “the sight of them rubbing against each other making her feel, um, strang-ily warm all over.” At the front of the class Trixie’s jaw dropped and her eyes shrunk to pin pricks, “Yes, purred Hurricane,” continued Snails, “and soon you will join them, do not worry I am more than stallion enough to keep you all quite sat-is-fied, he gave an evil wink, which threat-threatened to turn the innocent earth pony's legs to jelly, before rearing up to reveal the truth of the matter as his huge pu-pulsing...” From the front of the class Cheerilee leapt forwards and grabbed the book out of the air in her mouth. The whole class froze for a moment at their teacher's actions, she gared over at Trixie who had frozen in place, before spitting the book onto her desk.

“That is not the Hearth’s Warming story!” she exclaimed rather shrilly. She glanced down at the cover of the book. The title proclaimed it to be Hurricane of the Heart, by Bodice Ripper. The cover showed an impressively muscled pegasus stallion posing in rather abbreviated armour, while a stunning young earth pony mare dressed in a few scraps of gauze was draped over him. A subtitle proclaimed it to be ‘The passionate secret history behind the founding of Equestria’. “Snails did your sister say you could borrow her book?” Cheerilee asked, guessing the book's origins.

“She didn’t say I couldn’t borrow it,” he replied defensively.

“You shouldn’t be taking anything without permission,” she scolded, “Plus we won’t be putting on that type of play,” said Cheerilee dropping the book into her drawer, she’d return it to Raindrops, once she’d done a little private research from it herself. “Now if Miss Trixie is feeling better,” the representative looked sheepish, “I’m sure you can all start with the auditions.”

“Um, yes right,” said Trixie trying to maintain her composure. “Now we’re going to try out a mix of auditions some of them will just be one of you reading the lines, and in others we’ll have a whole bunch of you acting with each other, so you’ll all get a chance to try your role with each other. Do you understand?”

Most of the class nodded although one of two looked a bit blank.

“You’ll pick it up as we go on, let’s start with something simple, the narrator. Not so much acting there, you just need to be able to read out the lines clearly and correctly. Let’s see who signed up for that role.” She scanned the list. “Huh, so Snails is up first.” She uncomfortably squeezed herself into one of the foal sized desks. “Whenever you’re ready Snails,” she said, “Just the lines in the script this time.”

“Yes Miss Trixie,” said the colt standing at the front of the class. He levitated the script in front of his face and blinked at it a few times. “Where do I start?” he asked.

“At the beginning,” said Trixie her smile beginning to become a little strained.

“Oh, right,” Snails stuck out his tongue in concentration at his eyes flicked back and forth over the script, after a painfully long moment he started to read. “Once upon a time, long before the peace-peaceful rule of Luna,” said Snails falteringly “and before ponies dis-cov-ered our beaut-i-ful land of Equestria, ponies did not know harm, harminony, harmony?” he looked up at Trixie who nodded quickly. “It was a strange and dark time. A time when ponies were torn apart by hatred!” he continued in a monotone, “During this fight, fightful?”

“Frightful,” corrected Trixie through gritted teeth.

“Frightful age, each of the three tribes – the Pegasi, the unicorns, and the Earth ponies – cared not for what befell, what does befell mean? That they didn’t care if they fell over? Because that doesn’t sound very nice.”

“It means happens! They didn’t care what happened to each other! And no they weren’t very nice!” exclaimed Trixie before bringing herself under control with some effort, “Just carry on you’ve almost finished now.”

Snails nodded and peered at the paper again, “Cared not for what befell the other tribes, but only for their own well-fair. In those troubled times, as now, the Pegasi were the stew-stewards,” he looked up again but Trixie just shook her head and he continued, “of the weather. But they deo-man-ded something in return. Food that could only be grown by the Earth ponies.The unicorns deo-man-ded the same, in return for using their magic to craft bro-bronze tools.”

“How was that Miss Trixie?” asked Snails after a moments silence.


***


“Alula?” asked Trixie looking down at the list, and rubbing her head with a hoof.

“Um, yes Miss Trixie?” said the filly, her eyes lowered.

“You’re up next.”

The girl looked confused and blinked a few times. “I’m sorry?” she squeaked.

“You’re up next to try out for the narrator role, you signed up,” Trixie held up the sheet with her name on it.

“I... I didn’t, I wouldn’t... I... couldn’t!” stuttered Alula. Next to her Firelock rested a calming hoof on her leg. A short way over Dinky looked worried, maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea afterall.

“Now Alula,” said Cheerilee looking up from her work, “You don’t have to audition if you don’t want to, I’m sure there’s been some sort of mix up,” she stood and walked over to the filly her eyes glowing with compassion. “But why don’t you give it a go? You might like it?”

“It is really fun to be on stage,” said Trixie, “To have a crowd cheering your name,” her eyes glazed over a bit.

“Oh, um, alright then,” mumbled Alula getting up from her desk with some effort, a few cheers went up from the class. She stood in front of the class her eyes flicking from foal to foal.

Cheerilee opened her mouth to give a few words of encouragement, but Trixie got there first. “Don’t worry about the audience,” she suggested gently, “They’re just foals like you, imagine them in funny costumes if it helps,” she patted the filly gently on her back before returning to her place in class.

Alula took a deep breath and screwed up her eyes tight. “Once upon a time,” she started quietly apparently from memory, “long before the peaceful rule of Luna, and before ponies discovered our beautiful land of Equestria, ponies did not know harmony.” Slowly her voice picked up strength. “It was a strange and dark time. A time when ponies were torn apart... by hatred!” she announced her voice cracking a little with emotion. “During this frightful age, each of the three tribes – the Pegasi,” she raised her wings, “The unicorns,” she lit her horn, “and the Earth ponies,” she stamped the ground, “Cared not for what befell the other tribes, but only for their own welfare. In those troubled times, as now, the Pegasi were the stewards of the weather.” She raised her head looking forwards her eyes still shut. “But they demanded something in return. Food that could only be grown by the Earth ponies.The unicorns demanded the same, in return for using their magic to craft bronze tools.” She finally opened her eyes to see the class, including Trixie, staring at her open mouthed.

“Yay!” cried Firelock finally breaking the spell, her horn beginning to glow. Around her other foals joined in the applause.

Alula gave a nervous smile.


***


“You’re next Pipsqueak,” said Trixie.

“I am a chancellor!” exclaimed the tiny colt leaping onto Miss Cheerilee’s desk. “I was elected because I know how to think outside the box. Hold on to your hooves!” he crowed, “I have just had the best idea ever! I have decided that the Earth ponies are gonna go it alone! We're going to make ourselves a ship and go somewhere new where we can steal some food.” Trixie frowned, that wasn’t in the script. “We’re going to be pirates, and with me as our fearless captain, what could go wrong?” he cheered. Several of the crowd, including Dinky who was unable to control herself, joined in.

“A very, um, unique interpretation of the Hearth’s Warming story. The earth ponies were pirates?” said Trixie raising an eyebrow.

“Everything's better with Pirates,” said the foal earnestly.


***


“Apple Bloom.”

“Ah’m a chancellor!” cried the red headed filly, “Ah was elected because Ah know how to think outside the box, how to get things done down on the farm.” She paused for a moment and held up a hoof. “Now hold onta your hooves! Ah have just had the best idea ever!” Another pause to let her declaration soak in. “Ah have decided that the Earth ponies are gonna go it alone! We're gonna go somewhere new where we can grow ourselves some apples!  With me as our fearless leader we’ll have all the apples we could ever need, nopony’s going to starve under ma watch!” A number of foals stamped their hooves to show their support.

“That was a good performance,” said Trixie making a few notes on a pad, “A little apple heavy maybe.”

“Everything's better with Apples!”


***


“Now, Diamond Tiara.”

“Thank you Miss Trixie,” said the filly with a wide smile. To the classes surprise she’s actually replaced her normal crown with a felt hat which, while not pudding shaped did look very old. “I’m sure you’re going to be very impressed with me.” She glanced towards the back of the class where Scootaloo was muttering something to Rumble. Tiara cleared her throat loudly before she began. “I am the chancellor!” she exclaimed regally. “because I know how to think outside the box,” she started to march back and forth, “Now hold onto your hooves! I am just about to be brilliant, as always!” She turned back to her audience head held high “I have decided that the Earth ponies are going to go it alone! We don’t need the other tribes! We are going to go somewhere new where we can grow new food, better food! With me as our fearless leader we’ll have everything we could ever need, because I am brilliant!” As before there was a round of applause around the room.

“That was very good,” said Trixie, “You really put your character forwards there.”

“Everything's better with more me!” said Diamond Tiara.


***


“C'mon, Private Pansy, let's get a move on!” cried Scootaloo dashing around at the front of the class.

“Yes sir,” muttered Featherweight hovering alongside her.

“Hurry up, Private! We cannot let anything distract us from the mission at hand. To find, and conquer a new land!” Scootaloo mimed stabbing out with a spear.

“Conquer, sir?” said  Featherweight looking nervous.

Trixie held up a hoof. “Could you try that a bit louder,” she suggested, “We need to make sure the entire crowd can hear.

The colt fidgeted a bit. “I’ll try to,” he whispered. “Conquer, sir?” he managed a little louder.

“Yes conquer! You never know where enemies might be lurking,” continued Scootaloo looking around the class eagle eyed. Diamond Tiara was leaning forwards on her desk apparently captivated by the performance.

“Ok, maybe we could mix things up a bit now,” said Trixie, “Um Bee Bop, can you take over from Featherweight for a bit.”

“ME MISS? OK!” yelled the filly as she bounded through the class. Trixie blinked in surprise.

“Right lets carry on from the last line.”

“Um, yes conquer! You never know where enemies might be lurking,” repeated Scootaloo.

“I DON’T SEE ANY ENEMIES, BOSS. JUST SNOW!” cried Bee Bop spinning around as she tried to look in all directions at once.

“A-ha! What's that?!” gasped Scootaloo staring into the distance.

Bee Bop looked and gave out a piercing scream, almost knocking Trixie from her hooves, before collapsed theoretically to the ground her tongue hanging out from her mouth. Scootaloo tried to continue her lines but burst out laughing instead. The rest of the class joined in stamping their hooves and the ‘dead’ filly sat up grinning.


***


“Silver Spoon?” called Trixie.

The grey filly got out of her chair with a sigh and dragged her hooves towards the front of the class. “Here ma’am,” she announced.

“You can be Smart Cookie and, let’s try Apple Bloom as Puddinghead.”

The grey filly nodded, “I understand Miss Trixie,” she said formally.

“Me too,” agreed Apple Bloom standing up again.

“Good,” said Trixie

“It feels like we're going in circles,” said Silver tonelessly, causing Trixie to flinch a little.

“But that's impossible!” exclaimed Apple Bloom, “Are you suggesting that ah'm reading the map wrong?”

“Absolutely not, chancellor,” said Silver with no emotion. “It's just that no ponies have been this way before, well not since the legendary times. They say the creators took this path back before the first days. It's such a relief to me that you're in charge of this artifact...”

“Relief?” yelled Apple Bloom, “You don't need relief! If anypony needs relief around here, it's me! I'm a chancellor! I keep all the earth ponies safe and fed! You're just my, um...” she shook a hoof to emphasize the point.

“Secretary,” said Silver casually.

“Whatever. You take the map, while ah enjoy some relief,” said Apple Bloom producing an apple from somewhere and taking a bite from it. “Delicious!”

“Yes, Chancellor Puddinghead,” said Silver rolling her eyes. “How was I?” she asked after a moment showing some emotion now her performance was over. The crowd was completely silent. Snips yawned.

“Not bad,” said Trixie with a false smile.


***


“It theels, um feels, like we're going in circles,” said Twist with difficulty.

“But that's impossible! Are you suggesting that I'm reading the map wrong?” said Diamond Tiara stepping towards her fellow actress.

“Absolutely not, your chanthellornessth” continued Twist, starting to sweat a little. She had been undergoing training to try and help her lisping, but she was having difficulty concentrating on her lessons with the entire class’s eyes on her, and Diamond getting in her face. “Ith's, it’s just that no ponies hath been this way before, well not since the legendary times. They say the creators first took this path back before the first days. Ith’s thuch a relief to me that you're in charge of this artithact...”

“Relief?” cried Diamond waving her hooves and a piece of paper they were using as the map, about,“You don't need relief! If anypony needs relief around here, it's me!” she stamped on the, “I'm a chancellor! I'm a bigshot! You're just my, hired help!”

Twist backed away a little from the pink filly her ears flattening.

“Um, err, I’m your, err thec-thecrethary,” mumbled Twist.

“Whatever. You take the map, while I enjoy some relief,” said Diamond throwing the paper at Twist.

“Yes, Chancellor Puddinghead,” concluded Twist as the ‘map’ dropped to the ground.


***


“All I wanna know is why the Earth ponies are hogging all the food!” yelled Scootaloo smacking a hoof on the ground angrily, causing the rest of the actors to take a step away from her.

“We're not hogging all the cakes and chocolate and eclairs and stuff,” exclaimed Truffle Shuffle licking his lips. “It’s you feather headed pegasus that are making it snow all the time!”

“it's not us!” yelled Scootaloo again, “We're not making it snow! It must be the unicorns!” she stuck out a hoof at Tootsie Flute, “They're doing it with their freaky magic!”

“How dare you!” croaked Tootsie “This whole crisis is down to... to you bird... bird brained pegasus and... and,” she turned to Truffle who was looking at her with concern, “and you ug-ugly and brute...” she swallowed, “Miss I don’t think I want to be Princess Platinum any more.”

“Are you feeling sick?” asked Cheerilee, she was worried about the unicorns reaction.

“No miss, but, Platinum was mean and didn’t like the other tribes and I don’t... I don’t want to be like that. I like having friends from other tribes,” her eyes flashed to Truffle. “I was mean to Alula because I didn’t think she could do magic properly because she had wings as well as a horn,” she blushed, “I don’t want to be mean again.”

“Well it is all make believe,” explained Trixie gently, “and Platinum does realise her mistake later on, are you sure you don’t want to keep trying?”

“No, no thank you miss,” said Tootsie Flute, “I think I’d rather be in the band.”


***


“Dinky, you and Firelock can start now,” said Trixie..

“Ok Miss Cheerilee,” said Dinky brightly. “Clover the Clever!” she cried somewhat shrilly, “I need you girl!”

“Yes, your Majesty,” said Firelock giving a bow to the small filly, “Did the other pony tribes see reason as I predicted?” she continued her head bobbing up and down.

Dinky fought against giggling for a moment. “Those other tribes are impossible!” she growled, “I, for one, can no longer bear to be anywhere near those lowly creatures,” she scowled out at the rest of the class starting to get into her role. “The unicorns are noble and majestic,” she attempted to flick her mane over her face, but it wasn’t quite long enough, “We will no longer consort with the likes of them!” she proclaimed.

“That was very good Dinky,” said Trixie.


***


“Now last, but not least, Sweetie Belle,” announced Trixie.

“Coming, Miss Trixie!” announced the white unicorn as she rushed towards the front of the class. She had obtained from somewhere a rather expensive looking purple cape and a tiara rather more ornate than the one normally worn by Diamond. “My sister made a costume for me!” she exclaimed proudly, “She said if I was going to play a princess I should dress the part. Then my daddy said I was always his little princess regardless of what I wore!”

“It looks very nice,” said the magician smiling, “Now let’s get started. Ruby, you can be Clover again this time.”

“Oh, right,” said Sweetie looking down at her script, “Clover the Clever!” she cried, sticking her snout in the air, “I need you!”

“Yes, your Majesty. Did the other pony tribes see reason as I predicted?” said Ruby staring out at the rest of the class with a big smile on her face.

“Those other tribes are impossible!” she announced starting to march back and forth, “I, for one, can no longer bear to be anywhere near those lowly creatures,” she swept her cloak around her imperiously. “The unicorns are noble and whoo!” she exclaimed as one of her legs got wrapped up in the fabric sending her stumbling across the floor before snacking into the ground face first.

“Sweetie!” exclaimed Cheerilee rushing forwards.

“I’m all right,” cried the filly, a little dazedly raising a hoof, “Why are there two of you?” she asked.

“You all did very well,” said Cheerilee distractedly as she and Trixie helped Sweetie back to her hooves. “I’ll announce who will get which role tomorrow, after I take Sweetie to the hospital! Rehearsals will start on Thursday, class dismissed!”





“So Sweetie’s going to be alright?” asked Trixie sitting down on Cheerilee’s settee.

“Yes, luckily she’s got a hard head, she’ll be fine after a good night's sleep, going to have a bit of a bump though,” replied Cheerilee, “That girl’s so clumsy they know her by name at the hospital”. She lifted up a half full wine bottle and offered it to Trixie. The blue unicorn shook her head and levitated her hat off her head before waving her hoof over it, there was a flash and a flask appeared as if by magic, although Cheerilee’s keen eye noticed it was infact from a pocket in the brim.

“I prefer Monsieur Bourbon,” said Trixie taking a sip before offering Cheerilee a try.

“I’ll stick with the wine,” said Cheerilee taking a mouthful, and then leaning back with a long sigh. “I needed that!” She put down her glass and turned back to Trixie. “So what did you think about the performances?”

“A bit mixed, some good, some bad some... something else.”

“They’re only foals,” exclaimed Cheerilee, “I don’t like the term bad, just that some aren’t as good as others, they need some nurturing to let them grow to be the best they can be!”

“So you think Snails should be the narrator then?” said Trixie raising an eyebrow.

“Sweet Luna no! He’s not the public speaking type, I’m sure we can find him something more suitable for his talents.”

“Such as?”

There was a pause. “I’ll think of something. I was wondering about taking the role myself, it is quite a bit for a foal to remember, but Alula seemed to be able to handle it. She really is a lovely speaker when she gets into it.”

Trixie nodded. “Yeah, and it’s quite common for the narrator to be characterised as the princess anyway, given how she looks she’ll be a good fit for that, representing somepony outside of the normal tribes. She seemed a bit nervous at the beginning though.”

“She can be shy, looking how she does some of the other kids expect her to be all knowing, it’s a lot of pressure. I think some of her friends put her up to volunteering. Still being on stage may help her confidence,” she ticked a box the list in front of her. “Now, Princess Platinum, Sweetie’s performance was good but I think she might be another accident waiting to happen.”

Trixie nodded. “What happened with Tootsie?” she asked.

“Her parents have some rather, well, bigoted ideas about blood purity,” spat Cheerilee, “there’s nothing I can do about them, but I’m glad to see that their daughter isn’t following in their hoofsteps. I think the whole thing’s left her a little over sensitive, it’s probably just as well she decided to drop out.”

Trixie nodded. “So of the other two I think I prefered Dinky’s acting anyway, a bit more subtle.”

“Well Platinum’s role isn’t normally that subtle, but I think I agree, a bit of help and Dinky could really be a great actress.”

“I’ll give her a few tips at our next magic lesson. A little advice from the great and powerful Trixie and she’ll be ready for a show on bridleway!” announced Trixie.

Cherilee grinned and rolled her eyes. “So how about Clover?”

“Only a few to choose from, I think Firelock did the best overall, good projection and confidence, maybe a little too much confidence really.”

“I’ll keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn’t burn down the stage, I’ll think she’ll be fine,” said Cheerilee scribbling on her note’s again. “Not that many applicants for the the pegasus roles either.”

“Just one for Hurricane, Scootaloo, I wonder why?”

“She’s been rather enthusiastic about the role, I think she might have intimidated her rivals.”

“Well Hurricane’s normally shown as the bombastic one, a good fix there then. Now, Pansy, it’s between the mumbler and the yeller.”

“Featherweight and Bee Bop,” corrected Cheerilee.

“Whatever her name is she’s got quite the lungs on her, my ears are still ringing,” complained Trixie.

“You get used to her, given time, still I think it might be better to have somepony who can project to the audience, I did wonder if she’d like the narrator role. Featherweight’s more fitting the stereotype for Pansy but I’m afraid it’s no good if the audience can’t hear him.”

“You’re probably right, I think he’d be happier behind the scene’s.”

Cheerilee nodded. “Now how about Smart Cookie?”

“That’s a tough one,” said Trixie, rubbing her face with a hoof. “We’ve got miss block of wood and the lisper.”

Cheerilee scowled. “Twist has been working on her enunciation recently, she’s come a long way, still being on show doesn’t seem to be helping, probably nerves. She might get over it with some practice. Although she does seem to have problems dealing with other actors. So what about Silver Spoon instead?”

“She reminds me of when my cousin Sharpie tried to act, all the personality of a rock.”

“I don’t know why, she’s not normally like that, I’d have thought she’d be a good actress, I don’t think she’s all that interested in the role really, or it might be nerves?” she shrugged.

“She seemed quite calm to me, maybe she’s just not a good actress?”

“I think she might be worth a second chance. She might get more into it when we’re actually rehearsing.”

Trixie shrugged. “You’re the teacher. Now finally Puddinghead. You know I think I know why you asked me to help you with the auditions now.”

“Their families trying to influence you?” asked Cheerilee looking a little shifty.

“Applejack just happened to wander by this morning saying the Trust had a spare bushel of apples lying about, and if I wanted any before they went off. She also dropped a few hints that she could make council meetings very uncomfortable for me if she wanted.”

Cheerilee nodded. “And the Riches?”

“Well I just happened to be the one millionth customer to Barnyard Bargains this afternoon, I won myself a threshing machine, I don’t even know what that is! Plus he offered to send around some ponies to paint my house, and mentioned the council meeting thing as well.”

“Sorry, but Diamond’s mother is on the school board and you know how much influence the Apples have in the town,” she sighed, “That’s the problem with being a school teacher in a small town, I can’t get away from the parents. I thought they’d be less able to influence you, I didn’t think about the council.”

“It’s not that bad, really they can’t do too much to me, the mayor can keep them in line.”

“Really? She seems so passive to me most of the time.”

“You should see her in a meeting! She hangs those boxing gloves of her’s up in the council chamber, it’s certainly one way to call a meeting to an end. Still I’m surprised the lengths they’re going to get those kids their parts, even Big Mac bumped into me on the way over here and offered to hunt down and hog tie anyone I wanted, Big Mac! I didn’t think he got involved in this sort of thing!”

“Well Apple Bloom is his baby sister, I think he’d do anything for her,” Cheerilee looking into the distance for a moment her eyes glazed and a smile on her lips. “Anyway,“ she said eventually, “We’ll need to make a decision one way or the other.”

“How about that little colt, Pipsqueak or the bigger one, Truffle wasn’t it? That way neither of them gets the role.”

“I don’t think that will work, it’s not that the two families are fighting, it’s that they both want their little darlings on stage, we choose somepony else and they both get mad at us. It’s Apple Bloom or Diamond Tiara,” said Cheerilee.

“Why do I think I’m doomed either way?” said Trixie taking another sip from her flask. “One family or the other is going to make my life hell! Endless queries at council meeting, slowly draining my life away one point of order at a time, I’m doomed! Doomed!” she collapsed dramatically on the settee holding a hoof to her head.

Cheerilee looked over at her overacting friend. “That’s an issue for another time and I’ve got an idea of two how to get you off the hook, but who do you think was better?”

“Hard to say, they were both quite good, and that’s what makes to so difficult. If one stunk then I’d just take my medicine from their family rather than let them on stage, but as it is it’s hard to decide.” She tapped her hoof on the table for a few minutes. “Push comes to shove, I think I’d go with Apple Bloom, I think she got more of Puddinghead’s personality, quite the go getter.”

“I think I agree, although Diamond Tiara’s no slouch in that department either,” said Cheerilee, “So Apple Bloom for Puddinghead, and I think I might have a way to get Diamond Tiara a role to appease her parents.”

“Really?” asked Trixie with interest.

“I’ll need to talk to her and a few other foals, but I think I can get things sorted out so everypony is mostly happy, and your meetings should be no worse than normal.”

“Small comfort really,” said Trixie with a scowl. She lifted up a copy of the script. “This is quite good really, maybe a little highbrow for the foals but given Written Script put it together in a week for free I’m rather impressed. I do like the last section, it’s a fun twist.”

“Yeah, Carrot Top must have really found a way to motivate him,” said Cheerilee with a wink which Trixie stuck out her tongue to, “She certainly looked like the cat that got the cream the last time I saw her, he’s an interesting stallion actually, talented, well read, he got quite an attractive turn to his muzzle, as for his flanks...” Trixie shuddered, “It’s just a shame Carrot got to him first. Oh well, plenty more fish in the sea.”

“Anyway,” said Trixie trying to move the topic onto something she felt a little more comfortable with, “What about the music?”

“That’s Lyra’s department, she’s already composed some of the score, mostly adapted from traditional Hearth’s Warming favourites. Now we know who’s in the band we can start rehearsals.”

Trixie nodded. “You’ll need to keep on her about that.”

“Yes,” said Cheerilee with a sigh, “I do love that minty mare dearly, but organisation really isn’t her strong point, and she doesn’t have much experience with foals either. I’ll ask Bon Bon to try to keep her on track.”

“That should work, although she’ll probably be busy with the shop, tis the season to eat chocolate afterall.”

“True, well I think we’re finished up here,” said Cheerilee draining her glass. “I’ll tell the foals tomorrow and we can hold the first rehearsal the day after.”
> Chapter 3: Rehersals
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Ok class,” said Cheerilee looking around the small room. “You’ve all been very good waiting so patiently for this, but I’ve finally gotten the list of who will be playing the major roles in the play.” Excited mumbled passed through the class as everypony started to guess who had gotten what role, Cheerilee waited a few minutes for the noise to die down. “Now I talked to a few of you during break so some things won’t be a surprise to all of you, but I want to tell you now that all of you were very good, and it was very hard to decide who would get what role. You shouldn't be too disheartened if you don’t get your first choice, maybe you will next year, we might even have other plays next year if this one goes well. Plus even if you don’t get a big role you'll get to be extra’s, then you don’t just get to play one role, you get to play several!” There was another round of chatting between the foals which Cheerilee quietened with a raised hoof.

“First of all the band, Snips, Tootsie, Rumble and Truffle, Miss Lyra will be helping you practice for the show, she should be around soon to talk to you about it,” I hope, thought Cheerilee, she’d reminded Lyra, and more importantly Bon Bon, of the appointment but the bard tended to get distracted by things. “Now, the pegasus tribe, Scootaloo will be Commander Hurricane.”

“Awesome!” crowed the filly.

“And BeeBop will be Private Pansy.”

“WOO HOO!” yelled the other little pegasus causing Cheerilee to flinch a little against the sound.

“For the unicorns, Dinky will be Princess Platinum.”

“Aww!” moaned Sweetie Belle sticking out her lower lip and rubbing at the large bandage covering her head.

“I’m sorry dear,” said Cheerilee, “But you’ll be her understudy.”

“I’m sorry,” said Dinky, trying to keep a lid on her excitement, “I’m sure you’ll have fun being an extra.”

“I guess so,” mumbled Sweetie.

“And Clover the Clever will be played by Firelock,” continued Cheerilee.

The unicorn clapped her hooves together excitedly, a band of flame shooting up and down her horn.

Cheerilee eyed the magic cautiously, her hoof creeping towards the bucket of water near her desk, kept there for just such emergencies, but Firelock managed to keep herself under control and she let out the breath she had been holding. “As for the Earth Ponies,” she looked around the larger proportion of her class. “This was a very hard decision, but after a lot of thought Miss Trixie and myself decided that Apple Bloom should play Chancellor Puddinghead.”

“Yee Haw!” yelled Apple Bloom leaping into the air.

Diamond Tiara clenched her jaw and fumed in silence.

“Ha! I told you me and Puddinghead were practically cousins!” exclaimed Apple Bloom.

“Now as for Smart Cookie,” continued Cheerilee, “this was also a hard decision and I’ve talked to several of you about the role, and we eventually decided that the position would be best taken up by Diamond Tiara.”

“Hey, Miss Cheerilee, that isn’t fair,” said Apple Bloom, “what about Twist?” she said pointing to her friend.

“Thath’s... I mean that’s all right Apple Bloom,” said Twist, “I get nervous when everypony’s staring at me, I think I’ll prefer being an extra.”

“And I want to be behind the scene’s,” said Silver Spoon.

“So, you get to be my minion!” said Apple Bloom grinning at Diamond Tiara.

“Secretary!” growled Diamond, “And one of the first true friends, I never really wanted to be the silly Chancellor anyway,” she mumbled, “Smart Cookie’s much better.”

“Now finally the last main role, the Narrator. Again this wasn’t an easy choice, but me and Miss Trixie decided that Alula would be very good at the role,” she paused, she was a little worried that the filly might refuse based on her nerves. Alula opened her mouth for a moment, then shut it again looking around the class, Firelock was nodding excitedly and most of the other foals were smiling.

“Thank you Miss Cheerilee,” said Alula eventually.

“Aww, Miss Cheerilee,” complained Snails, “I wanted to be the narrator!”

“I’m sorry Snails, but it is a lot to remember and you did have a bit of trouble with some of the longer words,” said Cheerilee gently.

“But... but I figured out how to remember them better, I can use the spell Miss Trixie taught me! I can store four pages at once now!”

“That is very clever Snails, but the script has more than four pages I’m afraid.”

“But I can changes pages, as long as I can look at them!”

“You won’t be able to have the pages on stage with you...” then Cheerilee paused looking down at the dejected foal. “Actually there might be a very important role you’d be perfect for! You can be the prompter.”

Snails tipped his head to one side, “The what?”

“The prompter, it’s the pony that makes sure the actors remember their lines, you’ll read through the script and if anypony forgets what to say you can help them.”

“I... I think I can do that!” he exclaimed his ears perking up.

“Good, I’m sure you’ll be perfect for it, we can talk a bit later. Now, if you could all move your seats into a circle we’re going to have what is called a table read. I’ll put out some copies of the script and...”





“Of all the stupid, pain in the flank, horse apple, bucking stupid...” fumed Cheerilee as she stomped around the deserted classroom shoving tables and desks to the side rather than stacking them neatly.

“I might be going out on a limb here, but I sense you might be a little upset,” said Trixie as she strolled into the room.

“Just how big a tent do you think I’d need for this play?” demanded Cheerilee turning on her friend.

“Uh, I don’t know, big enough for a stage, the kids and maybe a hundred or so audience members?”

“Exactly, do you think I’d need something that looks big enough to hold most of Ponyville?” She grabbed up a catalogue from her desk and waved it in the blue mare’s face.

Trixie bobbed her head from side to side trying to keep the images in focus, it showed a number of marquee tents ranging from family sized up to the scale needed for royal events. “Did something go wrong?” she asked.

“They put the wrong numbers under the pictures! It was my own stupid fault for not reading the full description but I ended up ordering far too big a tent,” the teacher slumped down to the ground.

“Hey, it was a mistake, can’t you just cancel the order?” said Trixie sitting down beside her friend.

“Yes, I could but there’s a penalty clause for booking the tent, that plus the price of the right sized tent would be almost as much as the one I ordered, if I could even book one of the right size. There’s a premium on them at this time of year. Maybe I should have gone to the Apples or the Riches to see of they had one, but given the problems they were causing you I didn’t want to given them a chance to hold one over me.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?” asked Trixie, “I know a few important ponies, I didn’t annoy everypony I knew at court, well not quite all of them anyway, I could pull a few strings?” she suggested.

“No, it was my mistake, I’ll live with it. It’s just with a larger tent we’ll need more of everything else, more lights, seats, more paperwork to show it’s safe. It’ll really blow the budget, but it’s my fault so I’ll take the hit, can’t have the foals suffering because of something I did,” she sighed.

“Can you afford that?” asked Trixie sounding worried.

“Hey I’m a teacher, you know how well we’re paid,” said Cheerilee with a smile. “Don’t worry I’ll survive.”

“I’m sure me and the girls will do all we can to help,” said Trixie nuzzling the earth pony, “Nothing can stop all of us right? Not Corona, not Grogar, certainly not a stupid catalogue.”

“Thanks Trixie,” said Cheerilee closing her eyes for a moment and leaning against her friend, “I needed that. Now,” she said a smile returning to her face as she bounded to her hooves, “We better get ready, the kids will be turning up soon,” she started to stack the chairs. “Don’t mention anything about the tent issue to the class, they’re all so excited about the play, I wouldn’t want to worry them.”

“Mum’s the word,” said Trixie making a zipping gesture with her hoof.

“Good! Now which side of the room do you think would be best to use as a the ‘stage’?”





There was an excited buzz as more and more foals crammed themselves into the classroom ready to carry out their first rehearsal of the Hearth's Warming play. “This is going to be awesome!” squeaked Firelock excitedly, “Everypony is going to see us and love us up on the stage!”

Dinky nodded. It did sound like fun, her Momma had told her all of the parents would come to the play when it finally took place in a month. She’d told Dinky that she’d have to work hard but that she should have fun playing Platinum, it was a big important role. “It’s going to be fun,” she agreed.

“Yeah, Miss Trixie said you were a really good actress, I’m sure you’ll get lots of applause!”

“I don’t know,” said Dinky modestly, “Platinum is a bit mean, Clover is much nicer and she was one of the first friends, she should get more applause really.”

“I like her, she made the fire of friendship! But really she’s a bit of a nerd, Platinum was mean, but it’s sort of a fun mean.”

“I guess so, it is sort of fun to pretend to be mean sometimes, as long as no one gets their feelings hurt for real,” added Dinky quickly.

“Yeah,” said Firelock looking through the crowds to where her friend was standing a little way from the rest of the foals. “Looks like Alula’s feeling shy.”

“Are you sure it was alright to sign her up for the narrator?” asked Dinky a little guiltily, “She might not like it.”

“She accepted when Miss Cheerilee asked her didn’t she? She’ll be fine once she gets used to it. We should go and cheer her up!” suggested Firelock starting to run towards the pale yellow filly. Dinky set off after her friend but found her way blocked by a large blue shape.

“Hi miss Trixie,” she said looking up at the mare.

“Hi Dinky, how’s my favourite foal doing today?” she asked with a slightly false grin.

“I’m excited,” she explained, “I’m going to get to be pretend mean! The princess seems a really fun role to play!”

“That’s good, I hope you brought your A game today, we want to knock the audience's shoes off!”

“I’ll do the best I can,” announce Dinky brightly.

“That’s the spirit!” agreed Trixie, “I told Cheerilee she didn’t have anything to worry about, I’m sure you’re one of the best actors here, maybe even the best.”

“Thank you,” said Dinky glowing a little from the praise. “What was miss Cheerilee worried about?” she asked frowning a little.

“Oh, nothing, just a little mix up with something she ordered, cost the school a bit more than it should have, nothing to worry about really. I’m sure this play will go really well and you’ll make back all she spent, maybe more!”

“Ok,” mumbled Dinky biting her lip, that was a bit worrying, she knew her Momma was very careful with her money, she was never happy when things turned out to be more expensive than she’d thought they would be. Momma tried to act happy but Dinky could tell when she was worried. If miss Cheerilee wasn’t happy like that Dinky would have to do something to try and cheer her up.

“Anyway I better get back to Cheerilee,” explained Trixie, “We’ll be starting the rehearsal soon, have fun,” she said and with a flourish headed back into the crowd towards the teacher.

Looking around for a moment Dinky saw Firelock and Alula and ran off towards them. “Hi,” she called.

“Hi,” said Alula shuffling her hooves a bit.

“I was talking with miss Trixie,” said Dinky, “She said that the play is costing more than miss Cheerilee thought it would and she needs the play to go well to make money.”

Alula looked around the school room. “How much does a play cost?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Dinky considered for the moment, she supposed the costumes and sets and things must cost something. Her momma always complained about how expensive clothes were for foals given they grew out of them, it was one of the reasons why Dinky hardly ever wore anything. Maybe costumes were the same?

“My dad says plays are really expensive,” said Firelock, “he said that nobles are always wasting money on them and that it all comes from his taxes.”

“But why would the school need money?” asked Alula.

“I guess they need it for books and stuff,” answered Dinky.

“And Miss Cheerilee! She gets paid to teach us and stuff, what if the school doesn’t have enough money to pay her? What if we get another worse teacher?” exclaimed Firelock.

Dinky frowned, she liked Miss Cheerilee, she was her favourite teacher. Miss Black Board had been ok, but she’d been a bit old and boring, she prefered Miss Cheerilee, she made everything exciting! Even things like maths and equestrian.

“We need to make sure the play goes really well!” said Firelock, “Or Miss Cheerilee will have to leave and we’ll got another teacher, probably a mean one, maybe one that uses a crop!”

“A what?” asked Alula.

“It’s a thing that bad teachers use to punish foals they don’t like, they smack them on the flanks!” exclaimed Firelock her eye’s wide.

Dinky and Alula stepped back, that sounded horrible!

“Children!” called out Cheerilee breaking up the conversation, “Settle down Children, we’re almost ready to start.” The whole herd turned to face her. “Good, now this will be the first rehearsal so you can get a feel of for acting your parts, not just reading them.” She gestured to a chalked out area at the back of the classroom. “That will be our stage. I hope you all spent time working on your lines, but if you can’t quite remember them all you can keep your scripts with you for the moment.” Several of the actors looked quite relieved at this, learning lines was hard. “Now we have a special guest here today, Mr Written Script,” she gestured to a light purple unicorn stallion standing next to him, “He wrote the script and he’s here to make a few changes to it to better fit your personalities. Miss Trixie will be helping me as well and Miss Heartstrings will be working with the band.” Trixie gave a deep bow to the class and Lyra reared up with a smile strumming her lyre, producing a single pure note which floated over the room in a rainbow of light causing the class to ooh and ahh appreciatively. “Good now if the band could go with Miss Heartstrings and the rest of you sort yourselves out by tribe, the pegasus should go to that wall,” she pointed towards one side of the room, “The earth ponies to the other side and the unicorns in the middle.”

The class quickly split up into it’s respective tribes each group buzzing excitedly.

“Good!” cried Trixie, “Now before we start I think we should have a quick acting exercise to get you all in the mood. Now this is the Hearth’s Warming story so it’s going to be very cold all the time so you’re going to have to get used to acting cold.” The blue unicorn started to blow into her hooves to warm them up and drew her cloak closer around her as if even the enchanted garment couldn’t deal with the imaginary cold. “Al..all of yo-you try as well,” she stuttered through chattering teeth.

After looking confused for a moment the foals all started to, shiver and stamp to keep out the cold. Tails were tucked up tight for warmth, feathers were fluffed up, and the entire class pretended to be freezing. Trixie moved through the crowd giving suggestion and encouragement.

“This is a good idea,” said Cheerilee to Trixie as she followed behind shaking with the imagined cold. “I didn’t know you were so good a teacher.”

“I’ve got quite a few younger cousins, and this teaching lark isn’t that difficult,” she said grinning at Cheerilee’s scowl.





“This is the new land we've been searching for!” exclaimed Scootaloo walking to the front of the stage area and looking into the distance.

“IT'S SO PRETTY! LOOK AT THAT BEAUTIFUL MEADOW, WE CAN CALL THAT BIT PONYVILLE!” cried Bee Bop fluttering off the stage and pointing into the corner.

“And we’ll call that pile of mud over there Hoofington! And we’ll send all the really smelly ponies there!” adlibbed Rumble, causing a ripple of laughter to spread through the hall.

“Hoofington, that’s a good one,” said Written scribbling at his notes.

Cheerilee glared at both the small and big colts around her before gesturing to Scootaloo to continue.

“I proc-proclambe?” started Scootaloo looking down at the script on the ground in front of her.

“Proclaim this new land to be Pega-sopy-lis,” shouted Snails from the front of the stage.

“Thank you Snails,” said Cheerilee, “But as we’re using the scripts we won’t need a prompter at the moment, just read through the script quietly as we go,” the colt pouted, “Don’t worry we will need you in later rehearsals once we don’t have the scripts on hoof.”

“You can give me a hoof with changing the script,” offered Written, after a moment's hesitation the colt hopped onto a chair near him.

“Proclaim this new land to be Pegasopolis,” said Scootaloo.

“Maybe put a pause before the city's name,” suggested Trixie, “and put more force on it. Proclaim this new land to be... Pegasopolis!”

Cheerilee nodded. “What would sound better, now if we had lights they’d moved onto the unicorns, the pegasus should then move to the back of the stage to give them space.” The foals shuffled around with only the minimum of pushing and shoving. “Good now, Dinky,” she prompted.

The purple filly stepped forwards and glanced for a second down at the script before starting to speak. “I’ve never seen such a rich land! Ore of all kinds, copper, silver, gold!”

“The mana lines are stronger than any I have ever sensed before, your majesty!” added Firelock her horn glowing.

“This land is perfect for us,” continued Dinky, “In the name of the unicorns, I hereby dub this land... Unicornia!”

“Very good Dinky,” said Trixie, “You too Firelock, although sensed should be asensed, its means to look at something using magic. Now like before the lights will move to the earth ponies this time and the unicorns should move to the back.” Once again the children shuffled around the stage, Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara jostled each other as they made their way to the front.

“The air! The trees! The dirt!” exclaimed Apple Bloom, “This land is perfect for growing all the food we’ll ever need!”

“Hey! That was my line!” cried Diamond.

“We’ll ah thought it sounded better coming from Puddinghead given all the farms she set up.”

“Miss!”

Cheerilee sighed. “How about you have another line Diamond? How about ‘We’ll be able to build homes and shops, perfect to trade with other species? That’ll make the earth ponies a little less one note,” she glanced over at the unicorn script writer who shrugged and started to scribble on the paper in front of him.

“Fine!” exclaimed Diamond stepping in front of Apple Bloom, “We’ll be able to build shops and houses, perfect to trade with other species.”

“In the name of the Earth ponies,” said Apple Bloom pushing past her follow actress, “I think I'm gonna call this new place,” she paused and the seconds ticked by, “Earth Pony Land!”

“Maybe just Earth,” said Diamond.

“Maybe a shorter pause before Earth Pony Land Apple Bloom,” suggested Trixie, “Now we want just the three rulers stepping forwards to the front of the stage, everypony else moves to the back but stay in your tribes. You’re all angry with each other so snarl at each other, wave your hooves or stamp them, scratch the ground, things like that.” The foals happily complied and the room was filled by echoing sounds of anger. “Good, just keep it quiet, mime it.”

Cheerilee nodded and gestured at the foals playing the rulers. “We found our new home!” they all chorused.

“I was here first!” yelled Scootaloo.

“No I was,” said Dinky.

“Were not!” cried Apple Bloom.

“Was to!”

“I’ll fight you all for it!” growled Scootaloo very convincingly causing Apple Bloom to take a few steps back while Dinky turned to face the pegasus.

“Please your majesty,” called Firelock, “There is no reason to fight.”

“CALM DOWN!” yelled Bee Bop, jumping up and down.

“We can talk about this,” said Diamond a little sulkily.

“That was very very good children,” said Cheerilee stamping her hooves. “Now there’s going to be a big fight scene between all the tribes,” several of the cast looked very interested at that, “but we don’t want a repeat of the incident between Pip and Ruby in the first scene,” she glanced over at the two slightly bruised foals sitting sulkily in the audience. “So we’re going to have to be very careful how we do things,” she looked around the stage for inspiration.

“Miss!” said Dinky, “Maybe we could have a snowball fight? If the windigo are making it all cold there could be snow around, and as it’s cold out so we wouldn’t even have to use magic to make the snow, we could just bring some in from the outside.”

“That is... a brilliant idea Dinky, we’ll have a snowball fight,” she glanced around the school room kept nicely snug by the wood stove in the corner, “maybe not right now, but we can all get together in our tribes and decide what we’re going to do in the fight. I’ll talk to the earth ponies, Trixie can talk to the pegasus, and...” she glanced over at written who was busy scribbling on the paper in front of him, “Dinky, you can be in charge of the unicorns. Give yourselves ten minutes to decide what you want to do then we’ll all get back together again.”





“So what are we going to do in the snowball fight?” asked Sweetie Bell, “Maybe we could put all our aura’s together and make one huge snowball to drop on the others?”

“Maybe, but I don’t think that would look right,” said Dinky chewing her lower lip, “We want a long fight not something we just win. We really need to make a spectacle that loads of ponies will want to watch, it’s really important that lots of ponies come to the show.”

“Why?” asked Sweetie.

“Because otherwise we’ll get a new teacher and she’ll use a crop on us!” explained Firelock.

“A what?”

“It’s not important,” said Dinky trotting back and forth nervously, “it’s just important that the play goes well.”

“Ok, I’ll do as well as I can, but well, I havn’t done much acting before.”

“Just do what Dinky tells you, both miss Cheerilee and Miss Trixie think she’s a really good actress,” said Firelock.

“I’m not that good,” said Dinky humbly.

“Yes you are, or Miss Cheerilee wouldn’t have put you in charge!”

“I guess that’s right,” she swallowed with difficulty, it was worrying that it was up to her to make sure their teacher didn’t have to leave. Still it did feel a little good to have all the foals around her looking towards her for leadership, and her teachers had said how good she was at acting. She really wanted to make her momma proud of her as well.

“Ok,” announced Dinky, “during the snowball fight why don’t you two,” she pointed to some of her classmates, “put up a field to stop us being hit, and then the rest of us, with me in front, will run across the stage towards the, um, pegasus,” she knew Scootaloo was a good fighter, she’d be the most impressive in the fight, “Then we let one of the snowballs through heading to you Firelock, and I’ll leap up and push the ball aside at the last minute and pretend I got hit, then you all gather around me and I’ll sort of stagger to my hooves to lead you on again.”

The other foals nodded with a range of enthusiasm that sounded cool, but many of them were veterans of many a snow ball fight, it didn’t sound like something they could do in a pitched battle. “Are you sure Princess Platinum would do that?” asked Sweetie, “She didn’t seem very nice.”

“I’m sure she would,” said Dinky with certainty, “and I’m the best actor here afterall.”





“Hey Snails,” called Snips levitating his trumpet alongside him.

“Hi Snips,” said Snails not looking up from the pages in front of him. “How did the band go?”

“It was good, miss Heartstrings can make really good music, she got a bit worried when she found out only Tootsie can read the musical squiggle things, but she wrote out the music in normal letters that we all know and we worked with that.”

“That’s good,” said Snails continuing to study the script.

“Do you want to come over to my place? Mum made a batch of her festive shortbread and I’m sure she’ll share it.” Around them the foals were slowly drifting off either in small groups or as they were collected by their parents. The adults were putting the room back into order for tomorrow's lessons.

“Can’t,” said Snails raising his tired eyes from the pages in front of him, “I got to learn the script.”

“Isn’t Mr Script changing it?” he asked.

“Yeah, but this is the latest version, I’m the prompt, I need to know it all, it’s very important.”

The plumper colt looked at the thick wad of papers. “That looks like a lot.”

“It is,” signed Snails, “It makes my head hurt.”

“I’m surprised there’s room in your head for all that,” said Silver Spoon as she wandered over, “Or maybe not, it’s not like you use it for much.”

“Hey!” said Snips putting himself between the filly and his friend, “Snails knows lots of stuff, he knows all about all sorts of cool bugs.”

“So nothing useful then,” teased the filly before turning away towards her father.

“Don’t listen to her,” said Snips turning back to Snails, “You’re plenty smart.”

“I know,” sighed Snails, his sister told him that all the time, but everything seemed so hard sometimes. He turned over another page covered in red changes.

“You sure you don’t want to come get cookies?”

It was tempting, but Snails really wanted to prove his sister right and Silver Spoon wrong. “Maybe next time, my sister will be here to collect me soon,” he turned back to the script and tried to focus on the words.
> Chapter 4: Setting the Stage
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Ok my little ponies, now we’ve done really well in the last few rehearsals so we’re ready to kick it up a notch! Now that the big day’s only about a fortnight away we’re going to run through the play in costume!” There was excited muttering from the crowd, it wasn’t often most of the foals got to wear clothes, let alone costumes! “Now some of you will have already tried on some of your outfits when we measured you, but for some of you this will be the first time you’ve seen them so if you all line up me and miss Trixie will help you put them on.” It had been nice of Rarity to offer to help make the main costumes, given her sister didn’t get a major part, thought Cheerilee. Where possible she’d encouraged the foals to be involved in including their own personal touches in their clothing, Apple Bloom had included her customary bow in her chancellor costume, Diamond Tiara had included a family heirloom hat in hers, Dinky was wearing the cloak Trixie had gotten her for her last birthday and Scootaloo’s wing guards had been her mothers, although they were rather outsized on the filly. The costumes for the extra’s had been put together by various other volunteers, Carrot Top had even brought her some made by the mysterious Fluttershy who lived outside of town. Still most of them would probably need a bit of adjustment to properly fit. “Silver Spoon if you could help us as well?” she asked.

“Sure ma’am,” said Silver proudly walking to the front of the line and picking out one of the sack cloth outfits for the earth ponies she held it up seeming to decide which of the foals it would best fit.

“Can I help as well miss?” asked Dinky brightly.

“Thank you for asking but you’re going to need to be put into your own costume, Silver Spoon should be all the help I’ll need.”

“Ok, miss,” said Dinky sounding a little put out.

“Now there’s a few other things we’re going to do differently this time,” explained Cheerilee as she carefully fitted Scootaloo’s armour around her wings. “You’ve had enough time to learn your lines so we’re not going to allow any copies of the script on stage now, if you have any problems Snails will help you.” She turned to the colt who was standing near the back of the classroom away from his peers with a copy of the script open in front of him, she was actually very proud of the amount of effort the colt was putting into his role, she’d partially suggested the job as make work, but it was good to see he was taking it all seriously.

Cheerilee waved Scootaloo aside and turned to the next filly in line, Applebloom. She reached into the box and drew out the appropriate costume. “Miss!” cried the filly, “It’s all covered in paint!” Frowning Cheerilee looked at the robes, they were almost entirely covered in a bright yellow paint, had something splashed onto it while they were painting the scenery? She searched through the box, it looked like only the one been effected, which was rather suspicious.

“Such a shame!” exclaimed Diamond Tiara insincerely, heightening Cheerilee’s suspicions. “I guess you can’t play Puddinghead now, just as well I’ve been memorising all your lines! My daddy just happened to get a costume made for me when I auditioned as well.”

“Well ah can wear your costume then!” growled Apple Bloom turning to face the other filly.

“No way! It wouldn’t fit you, you’ve got those horrible musclely legs, not like my own petite ones. Daddy told mother that he really liked her legs, and mine are just like hers!”

“These are hard working legs! Apple legs, like all of ma family, made for farming!” she stamped angrily on the ground.

“Children please!” called Cheerilee, “This isn’t that bad, the paint we use is easy to get off coats, and clothes, a wash and it’ll be a good as new.”

Diamond Tiara’s face dropped. “Ha!” exclaimed Apple Bloom, “But what will ah wear today!” she asked nervously.

“We should have a spare background Earth Pony costume or two spare, you can wear one of those until this one is washed. Then I’ll keep an eye on it to make sure no further.. accidents happen,” she glared at Diamond who didn’t make eye contact.

“In addition to the costumes,” cried Trixie putting the last off the outfits on the foals in front of her, “for the first time you will be entertained by the very special effects provided by the great and powerful Trixie! Behold Trixie will make it snow, during, um winter.. indoors!” she rallied. Above the stage a dark cloud formed and snow started to fall, within seconds the ground seemed to be covered in a thick layer of the white material despite the room actually being quite warm. Bee Bop fluttered over towards the stage and stuck a hoof into the material which passed straight through the illusion. She was quickly followed by several other foals interesting in examining the magic.

“Thank you Trixie, it really highlights the scenery the children have made,” she gestured at the wood and cardboard trees, walls and clouds that her class, with some help from Carrot Top and Big Mac, amongst others, had created to illustrate the various scenes of the play. Now they were almost finished the foals acting as the stage hands could get used to moving them in and out of sight as the play progressed and the actors could work around them.

“Ah, but that is just the least of my abilities! I can guarantee that this performance will have the most accurate representation of the fiendish Windigo ever, for who else but I can claim to have met one in the flesh!” Trixie’s horn flashed brighter, and dark clouds seemed to draw in across the ceiling of the schoolroom.

Cheerilee shivered despite there being no change in the actual temperature. “Tri-Trixie maybe you-you should...” she began but then her jaw dropped as the clouds parted and a figure emerged, almost glowing, not from an internal light but from the reflection from its crystalline form which moved, and writhed, in an unnatural way. It was as if parts of it were disappearing to, and being draw from, some other realm. For all of it’s general equine appearance, there was no mistaking it for anything mortal, or even of this world. The creature drew back it’s head and let out a moan. Cheerilee tried to shy back but her limbs wouldn’t move, cold, she was so cold, she could feel the ice growing over her, encasing her until the only heat and life left within her would be the burning hatred in her heart for the spiteful old bitch in front of her. Knowing at the same time that feeling was what was empowering the creature in front of her, and at once that it was the only thing keeping her alive as the ice slipped deeper and deeper into her until at some future moment it would touch and extinguish this last flicker and she would be gone!

“Cheerilee!” came a cry, the school teacher managed to break the paralysis that had taken her to turn her eyes to Trixie who was standing in front of her waving a hoof. “Are you alright?” she asked worriedly.

“I’m...I’m fine,” she replied, her shaking legs barely able to hold her up showing the lie of this statement.

“Sorry, I didn’t think about what happened to you in Noam last month, too realistic?”

“Fa.. far too realistic,” mumbled Cheerilee leaning on her friend. She looked around to see most of her class huddled in small groups against the far wall away from where the illusion had been. With the resiliency of youth a few of them were already starting to step forwards now that the image was gone. Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara seemed to finally notice they were closely hugging each other and separated, turning away from each other muzzles in the air.
“Maybe some-something a little more foal friend-friendly?” she suggested as Trixie gently led her towards a seat.

“Humm,” the magician seemed to think for a moment then conjured up a small cartoonish image of a crystalline pony. Cheerilee jerked her head away in shock. “Maybe not, I’m sure I’ll think of something.” She looked around to see the foals starting to surround the two of them. “Right, um, class, Miss Cheerilee needs a bit of a sit down for the moment.”

“Don’t worry class,” said Cheerilee with false cheer, her coat still pale. “Miss Trixie’s spell was just a bit of a shock, I’ll be fine...”

“Right!” cried Trixie trying to distract the foals, “Now let’s get the show back on the road. We’re going to start from the top, so Alula if you’d like to get on stage and we need the three tribes in the wings for the first scene.”





“Wouldn't it have been easier to use the door, Chancellor?” asked Diamond Tiara as Apple Bloom crawled onto the stage through a window in the set, which groaned a little in protest. There’d been a problem earlier that the window had been to small for her resulting with half an hour of wiggling and a slab of butter being required to free her. A new window had quickly been constructed but it still needed painting.

“It’s ‘Why did you used the window, Chancellor!’” called Snails from the front of the stage.

“That’s a bit too loud Snails,” said Trixie, “you need to make sure the cast can hear you but not the audience.”

“Sorry Miss,” said Snails.

Diamond Tiara’s face crumpled up. “He got it wrong! It was ‘use the door’.”

Trixie picked up her own copy of the script, “Nope says window here, don’t worry you still have a while to get it all down.”

“I was sure...” trailed off Diamond then she shrugged. “Why have you used the window?” she continued.

“The snow has covered all the fields now! The main approach is buried two ponies deep!” exclaimed Apple Bloom, “Ah had to climb up the cliff to the east to get here, That’s how ah got my job, because ah get things done! Just like down on the farm,” she stamped on the ground.

“There are no farms now!” exclaimed Diamond, “We need to reach out to the pegasus and unicorns.”

“It’s ‘other tribes’” whispered Snails.

“No! Its pegasus and unicorn!” cried Diamond Tiara whirling around, “I remember it being changed in the last version of the script!”

“There haven't been any changes to the script since the last rehearsal,” said Trixie.

“Yeah, you’re just bad at remembering things,” said Apple Bloom.

“No! I tried really hard to learn it all, my daddy even came home early from work to help me!” exclaimed Diamond, “There were all those changes in the pages dropped off at my house last weekend... it was you!” she turned to Apple Bloom who smirked a little. “You’re trying to sabotage me!”

“It’s not ma fault you got the scripts mixed up, it's a bad workmare who blames her tools!”

“Whoa,” said Trixie holding up her hooves, “Now I don’t know what going on here but we’ve got a play to get through. Do you think you can remember the old lines Diamond?”

“I, I think so,” said the filly.

“Good, we’ll carry on with this scene then we’ll have a break while the sets get switched around and you can read up on the line again.”

Everypony nodded.

“Good, now where were we?”

“We need to reach out to the other tribes,” said Snails.

“We need to reach out to the other tribes,” repeated Diamond Tiara glaring at Apple Bloom.





“That was terrible!” exclaimed Dinky.

“I don’t think it was that bad,” mumbled Firelock, “We got most of the words right.” The foals were huddled by the stage area while Trixie helped the set ponies move the props on and off the stage. At first they had been a bit hesitant, but they were starting to get the hang of it and pick up speed. At the front of the stage Miss Cheerilee was hugging a large mug of steaming hot chocolate, she seemed to be slowly recovering from her earlier fright and was starting to give instructions to the crew.

“Most isn’t good enough, we need to be perfect!” sighed Dinky. Once word had gotten out how good an actress she was foals had started to come to her for advice on their scene’s. She’d done what she could to help them, but once they realised how hard it could be many of them weren’t so keen any more. The stress was making her stomach feel funny, but it was her responsibility to make sure the play was went well. “We have to be perfect for Miss Cheerilee! Look at her, she must be really worried about the play!”

“Yeah, perfect like you are,” mumbled Scootaloo rebelliously.

“What was that?” snapped Dinky dragging her eyes away from the stricken teacher.

“SHE SAID PERFECT LIKE YOU ARE!” yelled Bee Bop helpfully.

“Miss Cheerilee did say I was a good actress,” she reminded the rest of the class, many of whom made sour faces. “And she put me in charge of the unicorn tribe in the first rehearsal.” The various unicorn extras shuffled their hooves a bit. “Now Diamond, you need to to get your lines right.”

“It’s not my fault!” cried the pink filly looking up from the script, “She gave me the wrong lines!” she pointed to Apple Bloom.

“You can’t prove that!” said the red head sticking out her tongue. Sweetie Belle giggled.

“Besides, you get your words wrong as well Dinky.”

Dinky’s ears lowered for a moment, she had made a few mistakes, but she had so many lines, and she had to keep helping the others get their lines right and act properly, she’d found it hard to get to sleep for the last few days, her brain just wouldn’t seem to turn off.

“Don’t worry,” said Snails, “I’ll help you with your lines,” his horn glowed as he looked down at the script, “I’ve been practising really hard, I can record almost six pages now, even if they don’t say anything about bugs.”

“But you shouldn’t need to!” exclaimed Dinky, “You keep being too loud so the audience can’t hear you, so they can hear the important actors like me!” Snails ears drooped at this. “Now we need to get better. Scootaloo, you need to keep an eye on your hooves, you keep falling over the props when you’re ‘fighting’, Apple Bloom, you need to speak more clearly.”

“Come on ponies,” called Firelock trying to inject some levity into the meeting, “It’s not that bad, it’s the travelling scene’s next, we all know how fun those are!” Many of the unhappy faces perked up at that.

“Actually I think we need to talk about that,” said Dinky.

“What’s up? I think our light dance is great!”

“Yeah, but we keep bumping into each other in the dark, and really it’s just our horns glowing, it’s not that special,” explained Dinky, “I think we should try something else.”

“Like what?” asked Firelock her ears drooping.

“How about a magic show, like miss Trixie does? I could do card tricks! And make things appear from thin air!”

“But what would the rest of us do?” asked Firelock looking around at the other unicorns.

“You could all be my assistants! It’ll be much better than just flashing our horns, I’m sure miss Trixie would help make it really good.”

“I suppose so,” mumbled Firelock, “But I really liked the light dance, it was cool.”

“It was a bit hard getting our names right,” said Sweetie Bell sounding a bit unsure herself.

“That’s settled then,” said Dinky with finality, “We’ll go to ask miss Trixie if we can change our bit of the travelling scene.” She started to march off towards the magician with the rest of the unicorn foals slouching along behind.





“Wow! You weren't joking when you said it was too big were you?” said Trixie rearing back to look at the large tent that had seemed to appear overnight next to the town hall. It looked like it could house a full sized circus.

“Yes,” agreed Cheerilee looking up from a clipboard. “I’ve got to admit I freaked out a bit when it was delivered. There would have been no way I could have got it up in time for tomorrow's show by myself, and I’ve got a lot of experience getting things erect,” she wiggled her eyebrows causing Trixie to make gagging sounds. “Anyway Heavy Roller saw me standing next to it and offered to help, then Big Mac happened to be wandering by,” she gestured at the stallions standing nearby, one of them nervously holding a peg in place while the other hammered it into the ground, “Then the Mayor arrived and before I realised we had a whole work crew! I think most of the parents are helping and then some.” She wasn’t joking, Trixie could see at least two dozen ponies working away at the construction. “It’s not just helping put up the stage either,” She gestured to a small gaggle of unicorns helping to temporarily enchant some lights. “Honeydew even volunteered to provide electric spot lights, I’ve not idea what she’s going to power them with but I can’t wait to see it.”

“How many tickets did you end up selling?” asked Trixie stepping aside as Davenport trotted past levitating a pair of chairs still with the price tags attached.

“Almost all of them!” said Cheerilee with a grin, “And we did a second batch given how big this place is, unless there’s a disaster we should make more than enough to cover our costs, and to buy new books and probably employ Bluenote as well, maybe even organise a trip or two somewhere.”

Trixie stuck her head out of the tent and glared in the direction of the nearby Everfree forest. “Did you have to say that?” she asked, “If there’s something I’ve learned in my year here in Ponyville it’s that a disaster is always coming.”

“Oh don’t worry so much, last year was actually quite uneventful as things go in Ponyville.”

Trixie looked at her friend, unsure if she was joking or not. “Anyway, do you think you can spare a couple of ponies to help get my stage over here?” asked Trixie, “It’s a bit of struggle for just me and Pokey.”

“Sure, we’re almost done with the marque now, I’ll send a few over to help. I have no idea where you store that thing between uses, it’s pretty big.”

“A magician never reveals her secrets!” proclaimed Trixie, “Anyway, it’s not that large, we’re going to need to add extensions to get it up to fitting all the foals.”

Cheerilee checked her notes, “Carrot Top and a few of the farmers union members should be here in an hour or so to work on that. You should get a move on.”

“Ay, Ay, captain,” said Trixie giving a salute.

“Steady as she does Mister Trixie,” replied Cheerilee returning the salute. She glanced over towards one of the tents entrances. “There’s Red Splasher, I need to talk to him about signing off this place for fire safety. Ready for the final rehearsal tomorrow morning?”

“Yep, the kids have been coming along marvelously, although I do wonder if some of them aren't taking it a bit too seriously...”

“Dinky?”

“Yeah, she’s normally such a sweet foal, but I think she’s let the part go to her head. She’s been bossing the other foals around for weeks now and she’s getting a bit demanding about her role, she had us put that magic show in, not that I’m complaining but it was rather last minute.”

Cheerilee nodded. “I think it might be nerves, I’ve told her I’m sure she’ll do a good job but she seems to get more and more wound up about it, and it’s affecting the other foals as well. I’m going to have a word with her mother, maybe she can calm her down.”

“I’m sure Ditzy will be able to get through to her,” said Trixie.

“So am I,” agreed Cheerilee, “I better go, see you later.”





“Snails! Time to get up!” called Raindrops knocking on her brother's door. She felt exhausted after her night shift on the weather patrol. It was a careful balancing act at the moment making sure that not only was the town blanketed with snow, but also that the layer was thin enough to remove relatively ease come Hearth's Warming itself so that the defeat of the windigo could be repeated symbolically come the fateful day. She yawned,she had another shift after the show tonight, she didn’t have the time to deal with her brother sleeping in. “Snails,” she called again, “You need to get up, you’ve got a rehearsal in a few hours.” She opened the door and peeked in.

To her surprise her brother was actually out of bed sitting at the small desk in one corner of the room. He was hunched over a mass of papers and his horn was glowing, infact it was projecting something onto the nearest wall, a flicking, flashing mess which occasionally stabilized into what looked like writing.

“Snails? What are you doing?” asked Raindrops moving into the room trying to keep away from the wall full of bottles that contained her brothers various pets.

“It’s not working!” cried the frustrated foal, his horn going out.

“What is?” she asked again.

“My spell! I’m supposed to be the prompter, to remind the cast of their lines, but I’m always saying things too loudly or too quietly. I talked to Miss Twilight and she said that it’s possible to project things from my horn so others can see the stuff I recorded, she could make a whole board and make the pictures move on it, but I can’t get it to work!” He planted his head on the desk. “What’s the point, I’m only needed if somepony messes up and none of the foals never mess up like me.”

Raindrops stepped over to her brother and laid a wing over him. She knew how hard he’d been working for the last few weeks on this play, he wasn’t that academically gifted most of the time but he had really been putting his all into this, spending all his free time studying the script. “You know that’s not right, everypony makes mistakes sometimes, it’s good that they have somepony like you to help them when they do.”

“I suppose,” mumbled Snails not lifting his head. “But no one will know if I do things right, why can’t I be up on stage?”

“You’ll know you were important even if nopony else does. Look at me, Dash gets all the credit for everything that gets done on the patrol but I’m the one who has to get thing organised when she decides to have a nap,” she said bitterly, “And look at dad, he plans everything out and coordinates with the other patrols and no one knows, unless something goes wrong. We all know he’s awesome don’t we?”

Snails raised his head to nod and his sister drew him closer into a hug. “See, you've always got to have someone to make sure things go right, maybe they don’t get a lot of praise, but they’re needed. Look at me and the girls, they only need me if things go wrong.”

“What? But you’re awesome, you're so strong and tough and...” protested Snails.

“Yes,” she said with a smile, “but we’re the elements of harmony, not the elements of beating up the bad guys. We’re supposed to be friendly like Ditzy and Lyra, or helpful like Carrot Top, they only need me if one of the smart ponies like Cheerilee or Trixie, mostly Trixie, have messed up, and then they need me to protect them.”

Snails straightened looking a little happier. “I didn’t think of it that way,” he said, “But I still can’t get my spell to work.”

“Well you’re the mage of the family,” she said playfully poking his horn with her hoof. “Magic’s your thing, but aren't those spells easier if they’re closer to your mark?”

“Yeah, but the script isn’t about bugs.”

“Ok, think of it this way, what would happen if I were to take the script and write on it with jam and leave it outside in summer?”

“Ants would come and walk all over it,” he answered quickly.

“And what would that look like?” she asked, “Could you try to project that?”

Snails’ eyes shot open and he concentrated again, this time a swerling image appeared floating in front of his face, after a second or so it resolved into a mass of tiny black bodies crawling here and there. Raindrops shuddered. Then obediently the creatures started to line up head to tail until they spelled out a message ‘Once Upon A Time’ it read. “I can do it!” he cried breaking the spell, she reached up to hug his sister. “Thank’s sis!”

“No problem Snails,” she said wrapping her wings around him. “Now you better be off,” she swatted him on the flank, “Mum’ll have breakfast ready by now, and you don’t want to miss the rehearsal.”

With another cry of “Thanks,” Snails gallopped out of the room and down the stairs.

“I’ll see you at the show tonight,” she cried after him, before yawning again. She leaned back on her brother's small bed, it seemed rather more enticing than dragging herself all the way to her own room next door. Her eyes started to inch closed, maybe a little nap right now would help. She was just about to nod off when she noticed movement near the pillow. Her eyes shot open as a centipede longer than her hoof undulated casually past, maybe it would be worth moving to her own bed before falling asleep.  





“Dinky!” called Ditzy as she started lay the table for breakfast.

“Coming Momma!” mumbled the filly as she staggered into the kitchen. The foal looked bedraggled and tired, her eyes were bloodshot and her mane unkempt.

“Are you alright?” asked Ditzy looking at her daughter with worry in her crossed eyes. “You’re not feeling ill are you?”

“My tummy is a bit wibbly,” admitted the foal, “I couldn’t get to sleep last night.”

“My poor little muffin,” said Ditzy rubbing her daughter's stomach. “You’re all excited about the play tonight?”

“Yes,” said Dinky with slightly forced enthusiasm. She really was glad the play was tonight, she liked being on stage, but it was tiring having to help all her classmates to make sure they were good enough. She’d be happier when it was all over and they’d saved Miss Cheerilee and she wouldn’t have to worry about it any more. “Because I’m the best actress in the play.”

Ditzy smiled at her daughter's assertion. “Good because you’d tell me if you were worried about something, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes momma,” said Dinky not able to meet her mother's gaze, she wanted to tell her about how important the play was, but she knew her mother was busy at this time of year and she was a big girl now, with her own mark, she should be able to deal with problems without her mother's help. She leapt up onto her chair and looked down at the cerial her mother had laid out for her, it didn’t seem that appetizing.

“I’ve got the morning off today muffin,” said Derpy, “So I’ll walk you to the rehearsal today.”

“And you’ll be there tonight as well, won't you?” asked Dinky.

“Of course I will dear, I think half the town will be there the number of flyers I’ve given out, your play is really popular.”

Dinky’s ears popped up and she felt a flicker of excitement in her heart. “So the play will make a lot of money for the school?” she asked.

“I guess so,” Ditzy stopped eating her own breakfast for a moment and looked at her daughter with concern. “But you know the play isn’t really about making money? It’s about having fun.” Dinky nodded. It was a bit fun being on the stage but it wasn’t so much fun worrying about things going well. “And all of your friends having fun as well.”

Dinky’s nod was a little more half hearted. Some of the other foals hadn’t looked like they were having so much fun when she’d been helping them with their acting. They all realised that they needed to do their best to help their teacher, didn’t they? They were still enjoying themselves, weren't they? Even if a little bit less than normal?

“Muffin,” called Derpy, breaking her daughters ruminations.

“Sorry Momma?” she asked looking up.

“I asked if you were ready to go?” said Derpy holding up her daughters scarf.

“Of course,” said Dinky jumping to the ground, her stomach was hurting a bit again but she tried to ignore it.





“Ok, my little ponies,” said Cheerilee looking at her cast. “This will be our last rehearsal, the play itself is going to be tonight. So this time not only will we have costumes, we’ll have lights,” she gestured up to a tower at the back of the tent, Honeydew waved down from the top, one hoof resting on a large spot light, below her her husband Curry was struggling to shift a gigantic potato, the size of a full grown pony, studded with strips of metal and wires, into place. Cheerilee had been a little worried when the eccentric unicorn had volunteered to help with the lighting, she’d sort of expected Honeydew to produce some sort of death ray in place of a lighting system, but she’d actually come through with a very modern system and a method to power which didn’t look like it would fry the actors. Honeydew had even run through the lighting script earlier today without much complaint. Cheerilee knew that the unicorn’s mood could be somewhat changeable and hoped that she’d be ok for the performance tonight.

“We’ll be using the proper stage as well,” Cheerilee continued gesturing to the front of the tent where Trixie’s stage had been set up and extended so the entire class could stand on it at once. Flaps of heavy cloth had been used to produce a backstage area. “We’re going to try and run through the entire play in one go, just like tonight. Now everypony put on your costumes and get ready. Stage hooves go get the props from the store behind the stage and get set up for the first scene, miss Trixie will help you. We’ll start in half an hour!”

“Yes Miss Cheerilee,” chorused the entire school before scattering off to their various roles.

“Alula,” called Dinky as she struggled into her costume helped by Silver Spoon. “You’re on stage first, you need to make sure the crowd is paying attention to you, you should move around the stage.” The hybrid pailed a little at this instruction but nodded.

“Dinky,” said Firelock cautiously, “You know Alula doesn’t like being stared at, and Miss Cheerilee said the narrator isn’t supposed to be the centre of attention.”

Dinky sighed as she turned to face her friend. “She’s the only thing on the stage at the beginning, ponies have to pay attention to her and the whole point of Alula being the narrator was so she’d get used to ponies looking at her.”

“I suppose so,” said Firelock not looking convinced.

“I... I’ll be ok,” murmured Alula, “It’s probably a good idea,” she said giving a faint idea.

“Good,” said Dinky, “We want the play to be perfect after all!” Alula nodded again and walked slowly towards the stage, Dinky couldn’t help notice that she didn’t look very happy about it, but she’d have a good time once the actual play started wouldn’t she? Dinky turned to Firelock but her fellow unicorn had already left.





“That was really good,” exclaimed Dinky as the pegasus actors came off the stage, “Just a few changes and it would be perfect, Scootaloo, you just need to be a bit less angry.”

“Hey, who's playing Hurricane here?” asked Scootaloo, “I think I’m playing him just how he would have been a brave pegasus warrior!”

“Well you are good at that but...”

“I don’t need to listen to you, miss bossy boots!”

“I’m not bossy!” cried Dinky, her tummy starting to hurt again, “I just want the play to go really well, I’m trying to help you. Afterall miss Cheerilee did say I was...”

“A really good actor!” parroted Scootaloo, “You’re also a really good bossy boots nag!” She pointed an accusing hoof. “I didn’t ask for your help!” The orange pegasus stormed off past Dinky.

The little unicorn slumped to the ground. She wasn’t being bossy! Scootaloo just didn’t want to do her best! She sniffed a little trying to hold back a few tears that threatened to escape her eyes. She had to make sure that everything went perfect, it was her responsibility. She wanted her momma to be proud of all she’d done on the play. Dragging herself to her hooves, Dinky tried to straighten her costume, she’d be needed on the stage in a minute and she had to do her best, unlike Scootaloo, she thought bitterly.





“Why are you using the window Chancellor?” asked Diamond Tiara as Apple Bloom struggled to get through the hole in the set. She squinted against the harsh beam of the spot light. Actually practising on stage made the whole thing seem a bit more real, it felt like she was tingling a bit, it was sort of exciting. There were rows upon rows of seats set up although at the moment only about half a dozen ponies like Cheerilee and Trixie were present.

“The snow has covered all the fields now!” said Apple Bloom as she dropped to the ground before continuing her lines. It wasn’t fair, thought Diamond, the Chancellor got all the good lines in the play, Smart Cookie hardly got to do anything, plus the Chancellor got to act alongside Hurricane more as well. “Ah’m the chancellor!” continued Apple Bloom almost as if she was reading Diamond’s mind.

We’ll we wasn’t going to stand for it any more, thought Diamond Tiara as she reluctantly stepped out of the spotlight to let Apple Bloom continue her role. Maybe her idea to mess up her costume hadn’t worked out, but she had other ideas. Apple Bloom marched around the set as she talked prodding parts of it with her hoof as she went, she did like interacting with the props, and that would be her undoing! During the first rehearsals Apple Bloom had had difficulty getting her fat flanks though the window built into the set, she’d gotten stuck. Eventually a larger window had been built but the old prop was still around, wouldn’t it be a shame if they got mixed up? Apple Bloom would get stuck again and would be humiliated! She’d never steal another part again as long as she lived.

Suddenly Diamond realised that Apple Bloom had stopped talking and she searched her memory for her next line. “Of course chancellor,” she replied trying to hide a smile.





“That went really well!” said Dinky as she and her fellow unicorn trotted off the stage after the magic show part of the stage. “Miss Trixie looked really happy, I think she was impressed.”

“I still think the glow dance was better,” mumbled Sweetie Belle.

“You kept tripping over in the dark when we did that,” reminded Dinky.

“Yeah, but at least we all got to do something,” replied the white unicorn.

“You got to do something!”

“I got to hold up a string of hoofkerchiefs, it was boarding,” she complained, “You got to do all the exciting bits.”

“That’s because I’m the best at it! You want the play to be perfect don’t you?”

“I suppose so,” mumbled Sweetie.

“The rest of you enjoyed the show didn’t you?” asked Dinky looking around the circle of unicorn.

There was a mutter of halfhearted agreement which caused Dinky’s heart to sink a little. It didn’t look like her friends were having much fun. Hadn’t her Mamma asked if her friend were enjoying themselves this morning? Was the success of the play more important than having fun, she wasn’t sure anymore. “We better get ready for the next scene,” she said quickly hoping to change the subject. She turned to Firelock as the other foals started to wander away, “You know this is for the best right? That this means we’ll get to keep Miss Cheerilee, right?”

“Yeah, I suppose so,” replied the filly looking away, her apparent lack of enthusiasm caused Dinkys stomach to twist again.





“Can we all stop for a minute!” asked Dinky ducking under a snow ball.

Cheerilee held up her hoof and the barrage slowed and after a moment or two stopped. “What is it Dinky?” she asked, “You know that during the actual play we won’t be able to just stop when we feel like it?”

“Yes miss, it’s just I’ve come up with a way we could make this scene even better!” Some of the foals around her groaned.

“This is the second time you’ve stopped this scene you know, I don’t know if we can make it any better,” said Cheerilee grinding her teeth a little. The sight of her teachers annoyance made Dinky flinch a little, miss Cheerilee must be really worried about not making enough money from the play.

“Well I thought that maybe the earth ponies could build a sort of snow fort in their section and we unicorns could use our auras to push it down on them while the pegasus attack us from the air!”

There was a rumble of excitement around her, that did sound fun.

“I’m sorry Dinky, that does sound interesting but we really don’t have the time to choreograph it right now, and it would take to long to build a fort.”

“But miss!” protested Dinky, “I really think...”

“No!” snapped Cheerilee, and instantly regretted it as the little unicorn's eyes started to mist. Dinky had been very demanding all afternoon but that was no excuse for her to scare her. “I’m afraid we just don’t have the time,” said Cheerilee more gently. “Do you understand?” Dinky sniffed and nodded. “Good, now let's have a break for a minute then we move onto the last scene in the cave, stage ponies switch the sets.”





The rehearsal was finally over and Dinky felt exhausted. She’d tried her hardest, she really had but nothing seemed to go right, she’d forgotten some of her lines near the end after miss Cheerilee had gotten angry with her during the snowball scene. Scootaloo had called her bossy, none of the unicorns seemed to like the magic show, didn’t they all realise she was only trying to make things perfect? Her stomach lurched again, she didn’t like having to feel this way. She looked up to see a crowd of foals standing between her and the exit to the tent.

Scootaloo stepped forwards from the crowd.“We’ve been talking Dinky,” she said carefully, “And just because you’re a good actor doesn’t mean you can be bossy to us.”

“I told you I’m not being bossy!” Dinky looked around at the crowd of foals around her. “I’m trying to make the play as good as I can for Miss Cheerilee!”

“But it’s not fun anymore!” exclaimed Firelock stamping her hoof. “We want to do the stuff we like, not the stuff you want us to do!”

Looking from face to face Dinky saw that many of her classmates didn’t look happy at all. Her mother's words from this morning haunted her again, were the rest of her friends having a good time or not? “But you asked me to help you, because I’m a good actor!” she exclaimed.

“Yeah but we’re not asking you any more!” pointed out Ruby, “Now you’re just telling us what to do.”

The rest of the crowd mumbled in agreement.

Dinky took a step back, her ears drooping.“But... but... I just want the play to be the best, I have to make it the best, I have to help Miss Cheerilee!” she protected.

“We all do,” agreed Firelock, “But you’re just being mean to us now, you won’t let us have any fun at all, you just keep going on about making the play perfect, but if it was perfect we’d be having fun, and we’re not!”

Dinky hiccuped and her hind legs collapsed under her as the pressure that had been building up in her for so long suddenly surged out of her. She started to cry, fat tears starting to leak from her eyes. “I wanted everything to be perfect,” she sobbed, “So I had to do everything, and it makes making my stomach hurt!” The rest of the foals looked at her awkwardly, not knowing what to do. “I’m sorry! I didn’t want to make you angry! I didn’t want to stop you having fun! I just wanted the play to go right!”

Eventually Sweetie Bell stepped forwards. “We all want the play to go right, really,” she said gently nuzzling up against the sobbing foal. “But we all need to work together to do that, maybe,” she bit her lip, “Maybe we kept asking you to help us rather than doing it ourselves, maybe we shouldn’t have needed you so much, we’re sorry.”

“No, no I was the mean one,” said Dinky sniffing as she looked at the other foals standing around her. “I just wanted to make sure miss Cheerilee didn’t have to leave!”

“None of us want that,” said Apple Bloom, “She’s the best teacher ever!”

“Well thank you Apple Bloom,” came a voice from behind her, causing several of the foals to jump as their teacher moved silently towards them. She looked over at the tearful foal. “Dinky are you alright?” she asked.

Dinky rubbed her eyes with a hoof. “I’m sorry miss, I really wanted to stop you getting fired, but I got all bossy, and mean, when I tried to make things perfect.”

“Stop me getting fired? What do you mean?” asked the teacher her brow furrowing.

“If the play didn’t make enough money you were going to be fired and we’d get a new mean teacher, who’d use a crop!” explained Firelock.

“No pony is going to be using a crop on my foals!” exclaimed Cheerilee. “Where did you hear such things?”

The foals looked around at each other. “Miss Trixie told me that the play cost more than you’d thought, and you’d need it to do well or lose money,” said Dinky.

Cheerilee rolled her eyes, of course Trixie would be the cause of this, and after she’d told her not to talk to the foals about it. The blue mare’s heart was in the right place but she really didn’t know how to deal with foals, how they could misunderstand things. “I don’t think miss Trixie really meant that. Yes, the play is quite expensive,” she gestured at the tent above them, “this is a bit bigger than I’d planned, but it means we can have a bigger audience so we’re making more money anyway. There’s nothing to worry about,” she reached out to hug Dinky now understanding why she’d been acting so strangely recently, “I’m not going to be going anywhere. It’s very nice that you were all so worried about me but you should talk to me about things like this rather than letting it work you up into a tizzy.”

“‘k,” muttered Dinky closing her eyes and enjoying the feel of Cheerilee next to her as she felt the stress flow out of her.

“So we don’t have to be perfect?” asked Scootaloo.

“Not perfect, no, but you should try your hardest, and make sure you have fun as well,” said Cheerilee looked around the cast in front of her.

“Miss,” asked Firelock looking up at her teacher, “Maybe we could make another change to the play?”

Cheerilee raised an eyebrow. “It’s rather late to learn anything else now, dear.”

“It’s something we’ve already learned,” explained Firelock, “Maybe we should go back to doing the glow dance rather than the magic show?”

Cheerilee looked around at the unicorns. “You told me you prefered the magic show.”

“Well, we sort of just agreed with Dinky, because she seemed to know what she was talking about.”

Dinky wanted to argue, to explain that the magic show was more fun than just running around in the dark but she paused looking around. The other unicorns did seem to prefer the light dance, and they had done all the other stuff she’s told them to do, even when they thought she was being mean. “I think we should do the light dance,” she agreed, “that way almost everypony can take part rather than just me showing off,” she admitted.

Cheerilee sighed internally, it was probably a good idea but it would be difficult to set up the choreography and lighting for the dance at such short notice. But the foal was right it did involve more of the class, and Dinky was trying to make amends for her previous behaviour. To be honest the teacher partially blamed herself she should have been paying more attention to the foals’ behaviour and nipped this issue in the bud weeks ago, but she’d been busy with all the organisation. “Ok,” she agreed, “Let’s give it a try and see how it works out, we have still got a few hours until the play.”





As the rest of the foals started to file out of the tent Apple Bloom hung around backstage for a few moments. She’d seen how Diamond Tiara had been looking at her during their scenes, she was sure the snobby pink pony had some trick up her sleeves left to play on her. During the gap between the acts she’d disappeared into the prop store, although Apple Bloom hadn’t managed to see what she’d been doing, she was sure it was something to humiliate her or even stop her appearing in the play. There was no way she was going to let that happen, not with so much of her family coming to watch, not just the Sweet Apple Acres branch, some out of town cousins were going to be in Ponyville for the holidays as well. There was only one thing to do, get her revenge in first, she even knew what she was going to do to her enemy.

Diamond was very proud of the hat that came with her costume, she’d actually provided it herself. Still like the rest of the costumes it was stored away and given how busy Miss Cheerilee was at the moment anypony could get to it. Apple Bloom took out a pouch containing an old Apple family practical joke, powdered rose hips, guaranteed to make anypony scratch like a dog fleas for a few hours. She rolled the bag in her hoof, it would make sure that Diamond couldn’t take part in the play once it started working, Twist would probably be called on to take her place.

Still a worm of guilt gnawed at Apple Bloom’s guts, this didn’t see right really, should she be the bigger pony? Then she remembered that Diamond was no doubt trying to make her look like a fool in front of her family and she set off to carry out her dastardly deed.
> Chapter 5: Opening Night
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cheerilee took a quick peek through the curtains. The room beyond was, if not packed to capacity, very full. Row after row of ponies were sitting in seats or even on the floor chatting quietly with each other. Many of them had dressed up for the occasion, Cheerilee didn’t think she’s seen so many well attired Ponyvillians since the gala. There in the centre were her fellow element bearers, minus Trixie and Lyra, and their guests. Raindrops was in the centre flanked by her parents, the yellow pegasus still looked tired but more awake than she’d seemed over the last few days. To her right sat Carrot Top dressed in her finest. Sitting next to her, in a position Cheerilee liked to think maybe a touch closer than was socially acceptable for ‘just friends’, was Written Script with a pink cravat tied around his neck. On Raindrop’s right was Ditzy, the mailmare was talking to Macintosh Apple who was crouched next to her, beyond him was the rest of the local Apple Clan taking up most of the rest of the row. Behind them sat the Riches. Cheerilee’s eyes scanned the rest of the crowd recognising a good chunk of Ponyville’s population, parents and non parents alike. There were even a few strangers here and there, was that Viscount Blueblood sitting next to Pinkie Pie half way back? Had word of her little play even reached Canterlot?

Trying to put the thought aside for the moment Cheerilee turned back to the area behind her. If there could be said to be an aura of quiet anticipation from the audience, it was a much louder aura backstage. In the cramped area over two dozen foals were rushing, tugging at their costumes, trying to get into position for the start of the show. They were barely being controlled by Trixie and Lyra. “Alright my little ponies!” called Cheerilee waiting for the chaos to abate, it didn’t slow one iota, “My little ponies!” she repeated with a bit more force. This time the crowd froze and turned to face her. “Good. Now it’s almost time to start and I want you all to know how very proud I am of all your hard work so far, I’m sure this is going to be one of the best Hearth’s Warming Pageants ever!” she lit her face up with a wide grin, inside she couldn’t help feeling a little nervous, there was still quite a bit which could go wrong, but now wasn’t the time to think of that. She nodded to Lyra, who took her cue and began to herd the band around the back to their spot just off stage.

“Right, positions everypony,” called Cheerilee, “Do we have everypony? Earth ponies?” The small herd of sack cloth dressed ponies nodded excitedly. Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara, the latter holding her hat in her mouth, glared at each other before joining in.

“Pegasus?”

With a hum of wings the flying contingent lifted into the air. Cheerilee deftly nudged Bee Bop so that the excited pegasus zoomed towards the correct side of the stage.

“Awsome!” called Scootaloo.

“Unicorns?” the colourfully dressed foals nodded, several horns flashing in excitement. Alone amongst them Dinky looked down, still upset by her earlier actions.

Cheerilee gave her a gentle smile. “Stage hoofs?” she looked over at the opposite side of the stage where a mixed herd had gathered around Trixie. The unicorn nodded.

“Prompter?” Snails looked up from the papers in front of him.

“Ready!” he cried.

“Narrator?” said Cheerilee, outside she could make out the first few bars of the band's opening number.

Alula stood near the curtain, the little yellow filly looked even paler than normal and her legs were shaking slightly. She looked up at her teacher and opened her mouth but only a slight squeak came out. Quick as a flash Cheerilee was next to the stage struck foal and rested a calming hoof on her back. “There’s no need to be frightened, you’ve done this dozens of times before. Remember what Trixie told you, just think of the audience in funny costumes. Some of them are wearing them already,” she pointed out towards a fat stallion just about fitting into a colourful red and yellow suit.

“Don’t be shy, you’re a really good narrator!” said Firelock encouragingly.

“I’m sorry what I said earlier,” said Dinky hopping from hoof to hoof, “You have a really good voice.

Alula opened her mouth again, looking from face to face around the backstage area. “Ok,” she squeaked, “Ok, I’m ready,” she repeated with more volume.

“Good,” said Cheerilee, first disaster averted. “Ok, everypony break a leg!” she announced, then quickly added, “That’s just a saying, we don’t want anypony to get hurt.”





Around the stage one by one the magical light faded into the darkness and the crowd became silent. Suddenly a spotlight illuminated the centre of the stage, there stood a yellow filly with a purple mane, a simple crown on her brow indicating she was supposed to represent Princess Luna Equestris. For a moment the filly shuffled uncomfortably in the light before glancing into the crowd where a unicorn and pegasus couple sat smiling on with pride. Relaxing a little Alula began to speak. “Once upon a time,” she intoned, “long before the peaceful rule of Luna, and before ponies discovered our beautiful land of Equestria, the tribes did not know harmony. It was a strange and dark time. A time when ponies were torn apart... by hatred!” A loud gasp erupted from a pink pony in the audience. Behind the filly the curtains opened to reveal a horde of small ponies of all tribes going about their daily lives.

“During this dark and friendless age,” continued the narrator, “Each of the three tribes – the Pegasi,” her small wings snapped open, “the unicorns,” her horn glowed brightly, “and the Earth ponies,” she stamped the ground once, “cared not for what befell the other tribes, but only for their own welfare.” Behind her the various tribe members stopped in their actions and turned to eye each other uneasily.

“In those troubled times, as now, the Pegasi were the stewards of the weather. But they demanded something in return. Food that could only be grown by the Earth ponies.” Several of the earth ponies handed over various consumables to the pegasus who flew off with them. “The unicorns demanded the same, in return for creating metal tools.” The same action was repeated although the smallest earth pony didn’t seem keen to part with the carrot he was holding and a brief scuffle broke out until some hissed instructions from off stage broke up the fight. There was some quiet laughter from the audience.

“And so, mistrust between the tribes grew, and grew, until one fateful day when mysterious blizzards overtook the land, and shattered the tribes’ precarious peace.” There were some oohs and ahhs from the audience as snow started to materialise over the stage. All of the actors began to shake, some of them stamping their hooves together to keep warm. “The earth ponies were unable to farm their land. The Pegasi fared no better, the snow refused to answer their call. Even the unicorns' magic was powerless. Each tribe blamed the others for their suffering,” On stage the various actors started to stomp and glare at each other, some of them equipped with weapons began to point them angrily. It looked like fighting would break out but before it could the curtains swung closed again.

“The worse the arguments got,” continued Alula stepping towards the side of the stage. “The colder it became.” She raised her voice to try and hide the sound of shuffling behind the curtain as the set was changed. “And so it was decided that a meeting would be held to figure out a way to deal with the climate change.”





Trixie quickly used her aura to shuffle various bits and pieces of set onto stage ably assisted by the rest of the stage crew. She kept one ear pointed towards the front where Alula was completing the opening monologue. “Ok, all done?” she hissed as the last of the set was put in place. The foals all nodded and the principle actors rushed forwards to take their places around the large table set in the middle of the stage. Taking a nearby rope in her mouth Trixie yanked on it letting the curtains drop while at the same time grabbing Featherweight in her aura as the colt tried to rush forwards to straighten one last prop.

“I, Princess Platinum of the unicorn tribe,” declared Dinky as the scene started, “Welcome you all to this summit.” She glanced out into the audience and for the first time was struck by how many ponies were watching her, it seemed like the entirety of Ponyville was present. It made excited tingles spread along her back. She struggled to remember her lines as the big spot light at the back lit up the table she sat next to. “Greetings to you Commander Hurricane of the pegasus,” Scootaloo, looking very impressive in her armour glared fearlessly out towards the audience. “and Chancellor Puddinghead of the earth ponies.” Applebloom’s eyes tracked out to her family and she gave a quick wave before turning to scowl at her fellow tribal leaders.

“All I wanna know is why the Earth ponies are hogging all the food!” yelled Scootaloo smacking a hoof on the table.

“We'll we’re the ones doing all the farming!” replied Apple Bloom just as angrily, “Which would be easier of you feather headed pegasus that are making it snow all the time!”

“it's not us!” yelled Scootaloo again, “We're not making it snow! It must be the unicorns!” she stuck out a hoof at Dinky, “They're doing it with their freaky magic!”

For a moment Dinky feared the filly was still angry at her for being so bosy, then she remembered this was just part of the play and struggled to concentrate.“How dare you!” she screeched her voice cracking, she paused for a moment fearful the audience had noticed but they continued to watch impassively. “This whole crisis is down to you bird brained pegasus and you brutish earth ponies,” she cried. As she continued her confidence started to increase, it was actually quite fun to get to say things like this, that she never could under normal situations.

“Bird Brained!” yelled Scootaloo, “I will not stand here and take these insults.”

“Why, where do you normally stand?” asked Apple Bloom sticking out her tongue causing laughter from the audience.

“That’s it! I’m leaving,” yelled Scootaloo galloping towards the edge of the stage.

“Commander, return this instant,” commanded Dinky, “I am sure the Chancellor just couldn’t control herself.”

“Sure, us brutes don’t mean anything we say, your royal snootiness!” yelled Apple Bloom heading off the stage in the opposite direction.

“I am a princess! I won't be spoken to that way!” cried Dinky taking her cue to head towards the third exit at the back of the stage. She tried to keep one eye on her mother sitting in the audience grinning at her filly and failed to notice as she walked straight into one of the pillars making up the meeting room set. Being made of lightweight wood and canvas it fell with a snapping sound. Dinky froze in place, the blood rushing from her face, she’d broken the set! What had she done! She’d ruined the play!

“Don’t worry!” hissed Cheerilee from one side gesturing to the filly, “Just carry on!” Dinky blinked still frozen in shock, she could just about hear a few mutters from the crowd behind her. “Just carry on!” repeated Cheerilee. Finally able to move again Dinky picked herself up and tottered off stage.

Off to the side of the stage the spotlight once again centered on Alula as she continued her narration with more confidence. “And the blizzard raged on...”

There was a ghostly neighing generated by Pip which caused Cheerilee to shudder a little as she reached out to Dinky. “I’m sorry miss, I’m really sorry,” sobbed the filly.

“It’s alright, accidents happen,” she said soothingly as she gestured to Scootaloo and Bee Bop to take their places on stage for their next scene.

“I really messed up!”

Cheerilee’s eyes nervously flickered to the stage, Dinky would be needed back on there in only a minute or two. She’d have to sort this out quickly. “It was just a bit of a trip, if that’s the worst that happens tonight then we’re be doing well.”

“I was mean to the rest of the foals, maybe I don’t deserve to be Platinum.”

“Yes, you do you’re a really good actress,” said Firelock trotting up ready for her scene.

“No, I’m not,” insisted Dinky,” I just broke the set!”

“We’ll we’re not going to use it again anyway,” reasoned Cheerilee.

“I suppose so,” said Dinky brightening a little.

“And yes you were mean,” said Firelock, “but you said sorry and we forgive you. Maybe you can be a bit bossy sometimes, but you meant the best.”

“Tha... thanks,” said Dinky drying her eyes.

“Are you ready to go back on stage?” asked Cheerilee as the pegasus scene came to an end.

“Yes miss,” said Dinky. Firelock nodded.

“Good, off you go!” The two unicorns trotted back into the spotlight.





On the opposite side of the stage Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara were sitting staring at each other waiting for their first scene together.

Apple Bloom glanced at the hat the other other filly had in her mouth. Diamond hadn’t put it on yet, she almost suspected that her rival knew what she’d done, but she hadn’t mentioned anything. The tension was starting to grate on her. “I’m not going to let you sabotage the play,” she snapped breaking the silence.

“I’m not!” exclaimed Diamond Tiara, “I’m trying to get back the role you stole from me!” She glanced over towards the area where the too small window was positioned, ready to be carried on to stage. She felt her nerves twang with anticipation, and a little guilt.

“Ah didn’t steal it, Miss Cheerilee gave it to me fair and square!”

Diamond glanced out towards the audience. “I told my daddy I was going to be Puddinghead.” She turned back and glared at Apple Bloom. “He was so proud, he came home from work early and we went out to get ice cream together!” She’d had lemon, and had laughed when her father had slathered his muzzle in his own ice cream and had made a show of licking it off.

“I thought you were rich enough to get ice cream whenever you wanted.”

“Of course I am!” snarled Diamond, “Just not always with Daddy,” she trailed off, looking down at the ground.

“What... what’s it like?” asked Apple Bloom hesitantly.

“What’s what like?” snapped Diamond.

“To have a Ma and Pa?” Diamond looked up in surprise and Apple Bloom looked away embarrassed.

“It’s... it’s normal, it’s nice, my daddy is one of the smartest, richest, nicest stallions around and I know he thinks I’m the most special filly in the world... it’s just that he doesn’t always have the time to be with me when I want him to, because his job’s so important, Barnyard Bargains is the biggest shop in town afterall.”

“Yeah, the Acres is important to and Applejack has so much to do as well, but at least Granny or Mac’s normally around, or even one of my cousins or some of the help,” she glanced out into the audience where her family were laughing at Dinky and Firelocks antics.

“What’s it like having lots of family?” asked Diamond quietly.

“Well it's nice to always have someone around to talk to, to feel that you’re part of something bigger, helping to feed ponies all over Equestria. Don’t you have any cousins or the like?”

“Only gramps Stinkin and he lives in Mareami now, we don’t see him very often,” her ears perked up, “But he should be arriving for the holidays tomorrow.”

“Tell you what,” said Apple Bloom tracing a pattern on the floor with her hoof, “I won’t do anything to make you look bad in front of your family, if you don’t do anything to make me look bad in front of mine.”

“Well I suppose so,” mumbled Diamond, “Puddinghead might be related to your stupid family after all, and Smart Cookie is kind of better, she was one of the first friends after all, so deal.”

“Good!” said Apple Bloom spitting on her hoof and holding it out.

Diamond Tiara grimaced and gingerly touched the wet limb.

“Now, um, ah may have sort of put something in your hat,” said Apple Bloom awkwardly.

“What did you do with grans hat!” gasped Diamond staring into it.

“That was your granny’s hat?” asked Apple Bloom suddenly feeling much worse.

“Yes, Daddy said I could borrow it for the play, I’ve always really liked it!”

“We’ll ah sort of put itching powder in it,” said Apple Bloom guiltily. “Don’t worry it’ll brush right out given a bit of effort,” she said continued seeing Diamond’s horrified expression.

“We’re on in a minute! There’s no time! You’ve ruined it now, daddy was so proud I was using the hat,” for a moment it looked like the filly was going to burst into tears.

“I really am sorry!” exclaimed Apple Bloom, she glanced around and her eye caught on a discarded copy of the script. “Fill the hat with this!” she cried, “It’ll stop the powder getting on you, we can clean it out during the interval!”

“Will this really work?” asked Diamond as the two of them started to layer the paper into the hat.

“Certain,” said Apple Bloom with somewhat false cheer. “There you go,” she plopped the hat into Diamond’s head. The filly winced for a moment waiting for a wave of itching to pass down her head but nothing seemed to happen.

“I think it’s working!”

“Girls!” cried Cheerilee, “Girls you’re on!” The two fillies heads swung around to see that the unicorn scene had just come to an end.

“I sabotaged the window!” hissed Diamond, “You’ll get stuck!”

Apple Bloom her hooves already carrying her onto the stage suddenly stopped. “What, you... why?”

“Sorry! You did put itching powder in grans hat!”

“Ok, just get on stage, think of something!”

Diamond rushed forwards into the lights, she gawped for a moment looking out into the crowd and all the ponies in it, including her parents. Then back at Apple Bloom. “Why... why are you using the chimney to enter Chancellor?” asked Diamond Tiara hesitantly, “Rather than the door or window?” She nodded hoping Apple Bloom would pick up on her adlib. Nearby she noticed the correct lines flashing in the air in front of Snail’s horn.

“The snow has covered all the fields now!” gasped Apple Bloom as she ran onto the stage her eyes searching the audience for her family. Applejack was smiling back proudly, although Granny Smith looked like she’d fallen asleep, although you never could tell with the old mare. “The snow... um, the snow’s up to the roof now!” she continued trying to remember her real lines., “Ah had to climb up the cliff to the east to get here, That’s how ah got my job, because ah get things done! Just like down on the farm,” she stamped on the ground.

“There are no farms now!” exclaimed Diamond, glad they were back on script now, she struck a pose in the middle of the spot light, “We need to reach out to the other tribes, it’s only together that we can survive.”

“Ah’m the chancellor!” exclaimed Apple Bloom striding forwards to the centre of the stage, Diamond Tiara smoothly stood aside giving her the centre spot, “Ah was elected because Ah know how to think outside the box, how to get things done down on the farm.” She paused for a moment and held up a hoof. “Now hold onta your hooves! Ah have just had the best idea ever!” Another pause to let her declaration soak in. “Ah have decided that the Earth ponies are gonna go it alone! We're gonna go somewhere new where we can grow ourselves some apples!  With me as our fearless leader we’ll have all the apples we could ever need, nopony’s going to starve under ma watch!”

The lights flickered for a moment giving time for Dinky and Scootaloo to rush onto stage. “We’re going to find a new land!” they all bellowed as the curtains came down signaling the end of the first act of the play.





“That was all very good my little ponies!” exclaimed Cheerilee wiping a bit of sweat from her brow. “Although that wasn’t quite how things were supposed to go Diamond Tiara, Apple Bloom.”

“Well, you see I...” started the pink filly.

“Um, well noticed that the wrong window was being used,” added Apple Bloom.

Cheerilee glanced over at the prop, it did look a little tight, how had that happened? “I see,” she said suspiciously.

“It was just at the last moment so we couldn’t do anything about it, so we made up some new lines.” Diamond nodded in agreement, removing her hat from her head and starting to shake it out.

“Well, ok, that was very quick thinking then,” said Cheerilee brightly. “Ok, children, we’ve got fifteen minutes before the second act. If anypony is thirsty now’s the time to get a drink or use the toilets! Stage ponies make sure the next set of props and scenery are ready! Windigo's start to put your costumes on!” The class started to rush off to follow her instructions.

“All going well so far,” said Trixie moving up to her friend.

“So far so good, let’s have a look out front,” the two of them trotted around to the front of the stage. There the audience were standing to stretch their legs and to get get food and drink. In the middle of one of the back rows a white mare Cheerilee didn’t recognise, but Trixie looked at a little suspiciously, was chomping through a huge container of popcorn she must have gotten from somewhere.

The two directors made their way through the crowd nodding to the various ponies they past, many of whom offered them praise on the show so far. Even Trixie was surprisingly humble about the issue, repeating that it was all down to the foals rather than the adult supervision.

“What do you think so far?” asked Cheerilee as they arrived at their friends seats.

“Dinky seems to be doing well,” said Ditzy, “Although she looked a bit nervous.”

“Stage fright mostly,” said Cheerilee not wanting to get into the fillies earlier confession at the moment, she could talk to Ditzy about it later. “I’m sure she’ll get over it.”

“How’s Snails?” asked Raindrops with a yawn.

“We've not really needed him much so far, but he’s been studying really hard, I’m sure he’ll be ready if somepony slips up.” Raindrops and her family nodded at this.

“That’s my son,” said Dewdrops proudly.

“So what did you all think of the band!” cried Lyra suddenly joining the group, “Next stop Canterlot Symphonic, right!”

“There were very good sweetie,” said Bon Bon nuzzling her marefriend.

“Yeah, they are, but this teaching thing is harder than it looks.” Trixie nodded along remembering her brief stint mentoring the unicorn foal population. “I don’t know how you manage it Cheerilee.”

“It’s not easy but seeing their happy little faces makes it all worthwhile,” replied the teacher.

“Still I’m glad I won’t have to be full time music teacher.”

“Yes, with what we’re making tonight I should be able to get Bluenote in at least a few times each month.”

“I might lend a hoof occasionally though,” said Lyra thoughtfully, “Some of them do have real talent.”

Around them the crowds were starting to return to their seats. “We better go,” said Cheerilee, “We need to make sure everything's in place for the second act.”

“I’ll be back in a minute,” said Trixie glancing up into the audience, “There’s somepony I recognise from Canterlot I’d like a word with.”

“Sure, see you soon,” said Cheerilee heading back to the stage.

Trixie made her way towards the white mare with the popcorn she’d noticed earlier. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here, Moonbeam isn’t it,” said Trixie a little sarcastically, “I would have thought you’d be at one of the big Canterlot productions.”

“Most of me is, but I think I deserve a treat at this time of year don’t you?” she tossed another kernel into her mouth and chewed, “As I was saying to Blueblood I don’t know why I like this stuff so much, it tastes like sweetened cardboard. Besides those Canterlot performances can be so overblown, different noble trying to one up each other by sponsoring the bigger performance. I so much prefer something a little more, true, don’t you.”

“I suppose so,” said Trixie, “Although you might be surprised how seriously the kids can take it all.”

“I’m a little surprised to see that you aren't on stage.”

“Yeah, we’ll, I thought about putting a show on to warm up the crowd but... well this isn’t really about me is it, it’s the foals time to shine.”

Moonbeam grinned and leaned forwards to hug Trixie. “I’m very proud of you saying that. I hope you’re starting to recognise that back stage work is just as important as those out in front, representative.”

“Yeah, well I might see my cousin Limelight a bit differently after this little event. Still maybe I’ll get to be on the stage next year?”

“Maybe,” said Moonbeam with a grin, “hadn’t you better get back? It’s almost ready to start.”





The first half of the second act was the journey to the new world. Traditionally this was seen as a chance for the actors to show off any personal skills, each performance put on a unique version of the events and dangers that threatened the tribes on their long travels.

The foals pegasus tribe had decided to show off the various monsters that had been vanquished along the way. Hurricane lead her forces against several creatures, both illusory and costumed. The scene allowed the musicians to show off their talents and had been choreographed so that it ended up looking like something between a ballet performance and a martial arts demonstration.

The earth ponies decided to go with something a little more light hearted, their tribe was pursued by some creature which constantly hid from them, only to sneak up when they weren’t looking. The audience were required to yell out when the creature, played by Button Mash, was about. Finally it was discovered and the whole stage erupted into chaos as the whole tribe rushed around the stage falling over each other, causing the crowd to erupt into laughter.

“Are you ready my little ponies,” asked Cheerilee looking over the unicorn part of the cast. “Now I know we only got to run through this fully earlier but you were trying some things like it last week so I’m sure everything will go just swimmingly!” I hope, she thought. “So off you go and enjoy yourselves!”

On stage the lights went out, leaving the audience blinking in the darkness. Then the spot light illuminated Alula standing on the edge of the stage. “During their journey the unicorn tribe became lost in a deep fog bank and were left cold and alone in the gloom,” she intoned, “With night closing in Clover the Clever knew that she would have to reunite her people before they could continue.”

“Your majesty?” came a wavering voice from the centre of the stage, “June Blossom? Jade? Silvery Sheen? Where are you?” There was a moments silence then a single glowing horn was lit revealing Firelock standing there looking scared. “Please see me,” she sobbed, “Please don’t leave me alone!” Her horn went out and all was dark for a moment. “No!” she announced with more force. “I won’t give up! Look! I’m here!” she called, her horn flashing out a pattern in the dark. The few in the audience aware of horn code could see she was flashing out her name and code for ‘you are not alone’. She repeated the code again and again getting fainter each time, a single dying light in the darkness. Just before it went out for the last time there was an answering flash from the far side of the stage, a name and the same code ‘you are not alone’.

Firelock and the new unicorn’s horns both glowed brightly as they ran towards each other leaving a trail of light zooming across the stage. The lights circled each other for a moment before they returned to flashing together. After a moment a third light came on, again a name and a welcoming message in the darkness.

One by one more the lights started to appear and to meet up, moving in formation sweeping backwards and forwards over the stage like a swarm of fireflies. Last of all the lavender glow of Dinky’s horn was revealed, and the entire cast came to a halt together in the centre of the stage, as one they turned to the audience and flashed out one last message, the code for ‘all is well’ before the light returned and the cast all scampered off stage.

Behind them the audience all stood and stamped their appreciation for the spectacle.





Alula took her place in the spotlight again ready for the final section of the play. Unlike her earlier performances she now showed not a hint of nervousness as she spoke her lines. “And so each tribe overcame the obstacles along the way and all arrived in a new and wondrous land, that nopony had ever seen before.”

“This is the new land we've been searching for!” exclaimed Scootaloo pointing into the crowd.

“IT'S SO PRETTY! LOOK AT THAT BEAUTIFUL MEADOW, WE CAN CALL THAT BIT PONYVILLE!” cried Bee Bop fluttering onto the stage and pointing into the corner. “AND WE’LL CALL THAT PILE OF MUD OVER THERE HOOFINGTON!” That caused giggles in the crowd, even the few members of that township present took the joke in good humour.

“I Proclaim this new land to be... Pegasopolis!” yelled Scootaloo sticking a colourful hoof made flag into the ground. She froze in place as the spotlight zoomed to the side of the stage where the unicorn party was just arriving.

Dinky looked out into the crowd to see all the ponies there waiting for her, she gave a little shiver, then opened her mouth to speak. But suddenly her treacherous mind went entirely blank, with her lack of sleep and the stress she’d completely forgotten her lines! “Um,” she started, sweat began to bead on her flanks and her legs felt rubbery, what was she supposed to say! Next to her Firelock stared and a few whispers could be heard in the crowd. There was a hiss from the side of the stage and Dinky’s head shot around to see Cheerilee pointing down at Snails. The tall foal’s eyes were nearly crossed in concentration but his efforts were not without reward as his horn glowed and words started to form in the air above him, apparently made up of blobby insects. Dinky frowned there was something wrong with them, they looked backwards! Snails seemed to realise his error and redoubled his efforts and the message flipped around.

“I’ve never seen such a rich land!” read Dinky, so very glad for the prompter, ”Ore of all kinds, copper, silver, gold!” she continued with greater force as her mind unfroze.

“The mana lines are stronger than any I have ever sensed before, your majesty!” added Firelock her horn glowing.

“This land is perfect for us. In the name of the unicorns,” yelled Dinky, “I hereby dub this land... Unicornia!”

Finally the lights moved to the back of the stage where the earth pony party were standing

“The air! The trees! The dirt! The apples!” exclaimed Apple Bloom glancing over at Diamond, “This land is perfect for growing all the food we’ll ever need!”

‘We’ll be able to build homes and shops,” responded the pink filly enthusiastically, her hat firmly attached to her head, “perfect to trade with other species.”

“In the name of the Earth ponies,” said Apple Bloom, “I think I'm gonna call this new place, Earth Pony Land!”

“Maybe just Earth,” said Diamond.

“We found our new home!” yelled the actresses playing the three tribal leaders as the lights illuminated the whole stage. The tribes took a moment to boggle at each other.

“I was here first!” yelled Scootaloo.

“No I was,” said Dinky.

“Were not!” cried Apple Bloom.

“Was to!”

“I’ll fight you all for it!” growled Scootaloo gesturing with the spear that came with her costume. “I didn’t battle my way through hundreds of monsters just to be stopped by you two!”

“Please your majesty,” called Firelock, “There is no reason to fight.”

“CALM DOWN!” cried Bee Bop.

“We can talk about this,” said Diamond, “please, we can’t bring the same hatreds to this new land, we need to start over afresh!”

Offstage Cheerilee could almost see the tears in the pleading foal's eyes, she was really good at this! Maybe next year she would make a good Puddinghead. Shaking herself from her thoughts she gestured to the stage ponies who carefully shoved the racks of pre made snowballs onto the stage ready for the fight to begin.

Cheerilee looked up at the device which would be playing the role of the windigo in the performance. It was a tall metal frame, at the top of which were attached three of her class by thick ropes. Featherweight, Pip and Ruby were each covered in strips of blue fabric to try and make them look ghostly. When wheeled on stage the three of them would work together to work the prop. Featherweight provided mobility allowing the three of them to move around the stage a little, Ruby used her magics to surround them in a blue haze which hid the primitiveness of the effect, while Pip had proved to be the best in the class at producing the spooky neighs of the winter spirits.

Carefully Cheerilee and Trixie wheeled the device onto stage as the unicorn generated her winterly illusion causing snow to begin to appear to fall. On stage the little actors eagerly got into their favourite scene, as snowballs started to fly back and forth. A few even made it out into the crowd. One shot towards a surprised Carrot Top’s face but she found it intercepted by Written Script’s aura, with a smile the playwright tossed the ball back onto the stage, catching Sweetie Bell a glancing blow.

After a few minutes most of the ammunition had been expended and the lights dimmed to allow the stage to be cleared.

“And so the paradise that the ponies had found was soon lost,” said Alula mournfully, “Buried beneath a thick blanket of snow and spite. Its beauty turned blizzardy, its wonder, wintry!” She paused for a moment to let the words settle in. “Everypony was forced to seek shelter in a cold and desolate cave. All the three tribes had to huddle together in their self inflicted misery.”

The lights turned back on to reveal the founders and their seconds crouched down amongst a mass of painted rocks looking very disgruntled.

“Commander,” exclaimed Dinky regally, “Could you please stand back and give me my royal space?”

“Oh, I’m sure you need so much space for your fat flanks!” exclaimed Scootaloo advancing on the unicorn.

“Stop!” shrieked Dinky, “Any closer and you will be invading Unicornia! One more step and it will be war!”

“Fine!” yelled Apple Bloom, “You two can have that corner of the cave, I’ll take the rest for Earth Pony Land! Smart Cookie! Mark out our territory!”

With a loud sigh Diamond Tiara took up large paint brush in her mouth and started to inscribe a line on the floor.

“Private Pansy!” called Scootaloo, “Stop that mare!”

“Yes, Clover, protect your realm!” added Dinky.

The three assistants shrugged their shoulders and each took up a brush covering the ground in a mixture of colours, blue for the pegasus, white for the unicorns and green for the earth ponies. Within the now cordoned off areas the tribal leaders continued to yell insults to each other. Above them the foals playing the windigo were once again lowered down into sight, Pip gave another unearthly wail.

“Look, everypony!” yelled Firelock, pointing off stage. “The entrance! It’s frozen over, we’re trapped!”

“Great. Now there's no way out!” yelled Scootaloo.

“Oh, whatever have I don’t to deserve such a horrible fate!” cried Dinky pulling at her mane. “You two have been doing nothing but argue and fight with each other!”

“Me! Ah haven't been fighting nearly as much as you!” shrieked Apple Bloom

“Ridiculous!”

Backstage Trixie stuck out her tongue as she concentrated on altering the illusion of the snow so that it seemed to cover the legs of the three rulers.

“Earth ponies are numbskulls!” growled Scootaloo.

“Pegasi are brutes!” snarled Dinky.

“Unicorns are snobs!” sneered Apple Bloom rearing up on her hind legs. Suddenly there was a single pure trumpet blast and the three rulers froze into position. Their assistants pulled back in horror. Apple Bloom quickly realised her mistake at adopting such an ungainly position as she started to waver, unable to keep her hoofing. Seeing the panic in the farm ponies eyes Diamond Tiara sidled up next to her to provide support.

The foals playing the Windigo were lowered to just above the actors heads.

“W-W-What are those... things?” cried Diamond pointing up as she allowed Apple Bloom to lean against her.

“THEY’RE WINDIGOS” cried Bee Bop.

“Of course!” gasped Firelock, she paused for a moment trying to remember her lines, she glanced off stage to see Snails helpfully projecting them into the air. “My teacher Star Swirl the Bearded taught me about them,” she continued, “They're winter spirits that feed off hatred. The more hate the spirit feels, the colder they make things!”

“Then... this is our fault,” said Diamond with regret, “We three tribes... we brought this blizzard to our home by fighting and not trusting each other. Now it's destroying this land, too.”

“And now our bodies will become as cold as our hearts...,” continued Firelock, “All because we were foolish enough to hate.” She cried pointedly looking out into the audience.

“I DON’T HATE YOU GUYS!” cried Bee Bop, looking around the other two assistants. “I’M ACTUALLY MORE ANNOYED WITH SCOOT... WITH COMMANDER HURRICANE THAN YOU TWO!”

The three of them met up in the middle of the stage and began to hug. Diamond stuck out a hind leg to keep Apple Bloom upright.

“Well, I don't hate you guys either,” said Diamond Tiara.

“Me neither,” said Firelock, her horn starting to glow with pink fire. “No matter what our differences, we're all ponies.”

The entire cast froze in position, even the music stopped. Alula walked onto stage her wings held wide. “And with that the hope and friendship in the founders hearts formed the fire of friendship which drove off the Windigo and...”

“Actually, I can’t do it!” called Firelock the rest of the assistants unfroze and began to huddle against each other again.

Alula turned towards the other actors just as the Windigo were lowered onto the stage again. Ruby’s horn shot out a blue light and Pip gave another ghostly wail as the little hybrid froze in her tracks.

“OH NO THEY GOT THE NARRATOR!” cried Bee Bop, raising her hooves in horror.

“We’re in trouble now!” yelled Diamond Tiara.

“You’ve got to help us!” cried Firelock looking out towards the audience, “We’re only little ponies, we’ve got lots of love, but we need more!”

“Look to your left and your right!” called Diamond, “Take that pony and hug them, regardless of their tribe.”

The crowd buzzed looking around at each other. Gently Carrot Top reached out a leg and wrapped it around Written Scripts withers, he started for a moment then returned the gesture. Further down the line Ditzy almost disappeared under Big Mac’s form, his other leg wrapped around Applejack. Spreading wider and wider the entire audience mare and stallion embraced each other and looked smiling down at the stage.

“COME ON EVERYPONY!” called Bee Bop, “SAY IT WITH US, ‘NO MATTER WHAT OUR DIFFERENCES, WE’RE ALL PONIES!’”

“No matter our differences, we’re all ponies!” cried the crowd.

“LOUDER!” yelled the filly waving her limbs.

“NO MATTER WHAT OUR DIFFERENCES, WE’RE ALL PONIES!’” thunder the audience.

Behind the stage Trixie found herself resting a hoof on Cheerilee’s back while the teacher had her other leg resting on Snail’s head, around them the backstage crew were likewise embracing. “Time for the big finish,” she mumbled as her horn grew even brighter.

On stage Firelocks horn flashed again and a ring of fire shot into the air where it hovered for a second. Then suddenly a massive pink heart shaped flame burst into existence above the stage stretching out over the audience causing gasps of wonder and alarm.

Pip gave out another wail which turned into a yelp as he and his fellow windigo were yanked off stage.

“What was that?” asked Diamond Tiara

“I DIDN’T KNOW UNICORNS COULD DO THAT!”

Firelocks head was locked staring up at the flaming shape above her head her eyes wide and her jaw limp. “So cool!” she muttered.

From the sidelines Snails desperately signaled the correct lines but the enraptured unicorn didn’t pay attention. “Fire is awesome!” she eventually managed.

“All through the night,” began Alula now mobile again and picking up the plot from her stunned classmate, “the three ponies kept the fire of friendship alive by telling stories to one another and singing songs. Eventually, the warmth of the fire and singing and laughing reached the leaders, and their bodies, and their hearts, thawed.”

Behind her the leaders started to move again, Apple Bloom finally returning to all fours and they joined in the group hug with their assistants.

“The three leaders agreed to share the beautiful land,” continued Alula, “and live in harmony ever afterwards. And together, they named their new land...”

From the back of the stage the entire school, actors, extras, stage hooves and Snails all tramped forwards with Cheerilee, Trixie and Lyra at the back.

“Equestria!” they all thundered.

The band struck up a popular winter carol and the cast and audience began to sing as one 
As dawn shines on us every morn
The fire of friendship is reborn
And all the friendships we have made
We cherish in every way
Loyalty binds us and makes us strong
Honesty shows that we belong
And kindness shared will unite us through each day
The fire of friendship lives in our hearts
As long as it burns, we cannot drift apart
Though quarrels arise, their numbers are few
Laughter and singing will see us through

Will see us through

We are a circle of pony friends
A circle of friends we'll be to the very end

Though the winter brings all its cold and storm
The glow in our hearts keeps us warm
The friends we know called our family
Will always see us through

Loyalty binds us and makes us strong
Honesty shows that we belong
And kindness shared will unite us through each day
The fire of friendship lives in our hearts
As long as it burns, we cannot drift apart
Though quarrels arise, their numbers are few
Laughter and singing will see us through

Will see us through

We are a circle of pony friends
A circle of friends we'll be to the very end
> Epilogue: Encore
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cheerilee sighed as she sipped on her fruit juice. Maybe this wasn’t quite the most exciting aftershow party although it was quite rawcus in it’s own way, she thought watching the foals rush around excitedly. Once the majority of the audience had left she had brought out trays of drinks and snacks for the little actors and their families and they were partying within the tent. Of course she’d have to be up early tomorrow to help take the thing down again, it apparently had an appointment back in Canterlot by evening, but that was something to worry about tomorrow.

“Not a bad performance,” said Trixie resting on the seat next to Cheerilee.

“Nope, a few hiccups but nothing’s perfect. I’m quite proud of our little actors and actresses.”

“I might even get used to this backstage thing,” mused Trixie.

“Who are you and what have you done with Trixie!” gasped Cheerilee theatrically.

“I’m not that bad,” protested Trixie, “Well, not all the time. It’s not like I’m going to give up being the star, but it was sort of nice passing on my skills to the foals, watching their happy little faces,” she grinned.

“We’ll make a teacher of you yet, still thanks for all your help. I couldn’t have gotten it done without you, and the rest of my helpers as well.” She pointed towards Lyra, who was sitting off to one side strumming her lyre while a small group of foals looked on mesmerised, and then to Written Script who was standing near the buffet table feeding Carrot Top a choice of goodies from his aura. “I think most of the town helped in one way or another, delivering leaflets, putting up the tent, the costumes, even just by buying tickets. I’m really glad I live in such a close knit community.”

“Yeah, there is a certain something about Ponyville isn’t there. Maybe we can try another play next year, Rhomeo and Juliet? Waiting for Gallopdo? The Unicorn of Oz?”

“Well,” said Trixie clinking her glass against Cheerilee’s, “The whole world is a stage!”





“I’m sorry Momma,” said Dinky safely wrapped in her mother's wings.

“That’s alright muffin,” said Ditzy, “but if you’re ever worried about anything like this in future, you should tell me.”

“I know, but you were busy with work and I’m a big girl now,” she protested, “I should be able to do things by myself.”

“I’m never going to be too busy for you, and you’re always going to be my little muffin,” she gently kissed her daughter's cheek.

“I really did want to help the other foals with the play, but I ended up being all bossy and mean,” she sighed.

“There’s nothing wrong with helping others when you can, but you should make sure they’re having fun as well. You got a bit of a swollen head,” she gently tapped her foal on the head.

“Miss Cheerilee did say I was a good actor.”

“And you were, but just because you’re good at something that doesn’t make you better, or more important than anyone else. A play needs everypony to work together to be good, both the actors and those behind the scene’s, just like the post office need sorters and delivery mare’s, one without the other just doesn’t work.”

“I understand,” said Dinky nodding, she wiggled for a moment and her mother put her down on the floor. “I think I need to apologize to some ponies,” she said. Her mother nodded and Dinky trotted off.

She eventually found Snails sitting with Snips while their families chatted. “Hi Dinky,” he called as she approached. Feeling a little apprehensive she looked back at her mother who was now chatting to Big Mac, Ditzy looked back and gave her daughter a reassuring smile.

“Snails,” said Dinky, “Thank you for reminding me of my lines.”

“Hey, that’s alright,” he said with a big smile, “It was my job!”

“And you did it really well, better than I did, I was too busy trying to get everypony else to do what I wanted to remember my own lines.”

He seemed to think for a few moments before he replied. “Well some of us are good at getting other ponies to do things and some of us are needed to deal with things when they go wrong, but that doesn’t mean we’re any less important. We’re all needed to make sure everything works right. Somepony has to work behind the scene’s even if it might not be than exciting.”

Dinky blinked for a moment, surprised by the level of thought behind the words. “I’m sorry I was mean to you and said you weren't important, you are.” She stepped forwards and hugged the colt a little self consciously.

“I know I am,” said Snails with a grin, “My sister told me! Still maybe next time we have a play I’ll get to be on stage!”





“Diamond Tiara,” called Apple Bloom pushing through a crowd of foals.

“Yes, what do you want?” asked the pink filly, imperiously.

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. “Ah was just coming to say you weren't half bad in the play today, and ah thought you’d like to meet some of my cousins,” she gestured back towards a small group of foals following her, “These are Crumble, Flora, Candy and Gringold, they’re staying with us up at the acres for the holiday.”

“Howdy!” called the little herd waving their hooves.

“And why would I want to meet more of your family?” asked Diamond.

“Well, you did say you didn’t have any cousins of your own, I thought you might like to play with some of mine for a bit?”

Diamond’s jaw dropped for a bit and she blinked a few times before she spoke. “I... well... I...” she cleared her throat, “well I suppose I could play for a bit, it would only be polite.”

“Good,” said Apple Bloom with a smile, “Hey folks, this is Diamond Tiara, she played Smart Cookie in the play!”

“Applebloom,” mumbled Diamond.

“Yeah?”

“Um, er... thank you, you were a good Puddinghead, and maybe you didn’t entirely steal my role.”

“Thanks.”

“As long as I get to play Puddinghead, next year,” she hastily added. “Maybe you’d like to come around to my place somewhen when it’s just me and my parents, I’m sure they’d like to talk to you, daddy is looking to deal with the Trust more and you might like, well, spending time with them.”

“Thats...” Apple Bloom swallowed hard, “That’s right neighbourly of you.”

“Well,” said Diamond looking down and running her hoof over the floor, “It is Hearth’s Warming after all.”