//------------------------------// // Episode 6: The Big Friend Top // Story: My Brave Pony Starfleet Magic: Season II // by DakariKingMykan //------------------------------// EPISODE SIX Goldwin the statue, brought to life by the magic mask, had studied a lot in the library of the royal palace, and had learned a lot in the many weeks since he first came to life. It was his magical ability to sing and dance so enchantingly that he was dubbed as the new royal court minstrel, but he also wanted to and tried to be helpful with other duties as well. He would serve the Queen and Grand Ruler, or help Cadance and Shining Armor, but most of the time he enjoyed learning and trying new subjects and activities, but sometimes he did feel just a little shut-in, due to him not being able to venture beyond the palace. He could still go out on the terrace, and out in garden and courtyards, but that was as far as he could ever go. Still, most of the time he was just happy the way things were, and so were the others. Especially today…! The New Canterlot circus was back in town, and it was said to be one of them most exciting, most magical show in Equestria of old, and now here in United Equestria, with the ponies all genetically altered and having perfected newer arts and stunts, it was even more astonishing than ever. Grand Ruler and Celestia had gotten tickets for Twilight, Lightning and all their friends as a reward for bringing in a new swarm of captured changelings, and delivering more friendship and believing reports. Also feeling that watching the show and the way the artists performed would be a nice brush up to studying and devising battle strategies. All of them were invited to stay in the palace and the next day they would head to the circus. Goldwin seemed pretty intrigued by the circus as any other, but he knew he wouldn’t be going to see it. Still, he did his best not to let it get to him. Early the next morning before, everyone would be heading to the circus soon, and Goldwin was juggling with three small soft balls. He had recently read a book about the circus and was very intrigued by juggling and thought he would try it. He practiced constantly, and did very well. “Gee, this is fun.” he said as he juggled the balls happily. Then a ball slipped in his hand and knocked him in the face causing his mask to fall off, and he turned back into a solid gold statue. The three balls rolled along the floor and hit Cadance’s feet as she and her husband passed by. “Where’d these come from?” she asked picking them up. Then they saw Goldwin and saw that his mask was on the floor and he was a statue. Knowing what to do, they placed the mask back on his face and said the magic words… “Powers of life, now begin awaken the magic from within!” …And Goldwin came back to life. “Oh, Cadance, Shining Armor.” he said nervously. “I remember-- I knocked my mask off while I was juggling.” “You can juggle?” asked Shining Armor. “I sure can. Would you like to see?” “Oh, we’d love to…” Cadence said “But we have to get to the prison-caverns. We have to make sure all the changelings are accounted for, and their cryogenic detainment is normal so we can send them off to the prison planets.” Goldwin understood and he let them go. “Oh, well, they have their duties.” he said. He was about to juggle again, when Lightning and Twilight came along with Spike and Krysta. Goldwin asked if they’d like to see his act. “Sorry, we can’t now.” Lightning said “We have to deliver these friendship reports to the Queen and Grand Ruler.” added Twilight. Spike let out a belch dropping no less than five reports into his grasp. “And fast too. I don’t know how much more of these I can carry.” He complained. “Maybe we’ll see later when we come back from the circus.” Said Krysta, and then she went off with the others. It was the same story for everyone. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were too excited to be going to the circus that they didn’t even notice Goldwin. Starla, Buddy Rose, and Artie had just emerged from early morning spar training and needed to have a shower before they could go to the circus. Rarity was still asleep in her guest room. She never liked extreme early rising, and Applejack was too busy delivering a shipment of apples to the royal pantry. Even the Spanish twins couldn’t stop to watch. “We’ve got special jobs today.” said Dyno. “Si, we’re going to be providing indoor fireworks for the circus show. We’ll watch your act later.” added Myte, and then they went off together. “Gee, everyone seems to be in such a big rush today.” Goldwin sighed. He was beginning to feel that little bit of sadness again, but then Rhymey came whizzing by and ran right into him. “Oh! Sorry about that Rhymey. I didn’t see you there.” “I’m okay, it’s no worry. No need to be sorry.” said Rhymey. Goldwin asked if Rhymey wanted to see his juggling act… “Later please, if you’ll beg pardon now. I have to meet Fluttershy in the garden now. But if you juggle, practice lots you know-- And maybe you could be in the circus show.” Goldwin felt a little struck that Rhymey had forgotten about one small fact. “Rhymey, how can I ever be in a circus? You remember what Abra Kadabra told us; If I leave the palace, you know that my magic mask won’t work and I turn back into a statue.” Rhymey felt silly. “Oh… how could I forget that fact? Well then, later on I’ll see your act. But now I must go. Don’t refuse me, tallyho.” Then he flew out through a window to take a shortcut to the garden leaving Goldwin all alone. Poor Goldwin felt his sadness really getting to him. He still understood that the others had priorities, but he didn’t like being ignored or feeling left out of things. It was times like this He really wished he could go to the circus with everyone, and be part of their outside lives and not feel so alone like he was feeling now. As he paced around the empty throne room began to sing a soft song. As he sang he crossed over to a window which overlooked the garden, almost like a jailer looking through the bars of his cell. As the song ended, Goldwin walked off with his juggling balls, but his song hadn’t gone unheard-- Fluttershy and Rhymey both were down in the garden and they heard everything! Twilight, Lightning, and friends all went to the circus and had a wonderful time. Spike got a little bloated from eating too much junk food, but they all came back to the palace remarking about their favorite acts. Pinkie Pie just loved it all “The acrobats, the clowns, the pony projectile, the high wire-walker! Eee-Hee-Hee! I love the circus!” “No doubts someone had a good time.” said Starla. As they entered the throne room Goldwin walked past them all looking a little grim and he didn’t even seem to notice them or stop to say Hello. “What’s wrong with him?” asked Lightning. Cadance and Shining Armor came up from the caverns below. Twilight asked her brother “Do you know what’s wrong with Goldwin?” but her brother and his wife didn’t know. “He’s been like that all day.” Shining Armor said. Fluttershy then realized, “Oh, remember earlier?” She asked to Rhymey. Rhymey nodded and explained… “We can tell you what is wrong, We overheard Goldwin sing a song. He’s not feeling very satisfied, because he’s missing things outside.” This made everyone feel bad and sorry for Goldwin. They all had to remember that they were his friends and his teachers-- The only contacts he had with the outside world because he couldn't leave the palace-- and if they ignored him then he was all alone. “Oh, poor Goldwin.” said Rarity “I hate to think of him so upset.” “That makes two of us.” said Twilight “We’re all Goldwin’s friends and we have to share our lives with him.” Rhymey nodded, “I hear your words, and I agree-- Goldwin is our responsibility.” “Darn Tootin’.” said Applejack “Must be somethin’ we can do that can cheer him up.” Pinkie Pie began leaping with joy and glee “I know the perfect way! It’s perfect! It’s so perfect!” “Pinkie…! Calm down, and tell us.” said Buddy Rose. “A circus!” cried Pinkie “We could all put on a circus just for Goldwin.” A lot of the others liked the idea right off the bat, but Twilight and Lightning weren’t exactly sure. “Throwing a circus... here in the palace?” asked Lightning. “What would the Queen and Grand Ruler say?” added Twilight “They’d think it was a marvelous idea.” said a voice behind her. It was Celestia and her husband was there by her side. Both of them were smiling proudly. “I agree.” said Grand Ruler. “After all, this is a matter of helping a friend and expressing kindness, is it not?” “Yes sir!” everyone answered. The others all agreed. “So be it then.” remarked Grand Ruler. With his and Celestia’s permission, a circus would take place in the main throne room which was more than big enough, and everyone would have their own special jobs to do and acts perform in the circus. Lightning and Twilight were in charge of organization and setup, and would act as the ring masters. “Ooh-Ooh-Ooh…! I call being the pony projectile!” Rainbow hollered “I’ll be a fantastic clown.” cried Pinkie, and she pulled out a cream pie from out of nowhere and splattered it in her face then made funny faces. Buddy Rose, Artie and Rhymey all decided to be acrobats. Applejack would be a knife-thrower. Starla would be a trapeze artist. Fluttershy would be an animal tamer. Rarity would make all the costumes and outfits for everyone, and the Spanish twins offered to do the lighting and special effects for some scenes. “This is going to be an amazing circus.” everyone thought, but first came the part of setting everything up without Goldwin knowing, which was going to be really easy as it was already getting to be night and time for him to be a statute again, which was actually his equivalent of sleeping. They all watched him climb up onto his pedestal by the window, and he stretched out and yawned. His bid goodnight to everyone and then pulled off his mask turning back into a statue. The next day, after a good night’s rest, everyone got to work and didn’t wake Goldwin up so he wouldn’t see what was happening as they all began to set up for the show. The throne room was already wide enough, and there was plenty of space to set many things up. While the off duty guards helped rig things up, some of the performers practiced their acts--outside, of course. Though some of them were starting to have a few difficulties in getting things right. Fluttershy was performing and act with Spike, and getting him to try and play the horns, but Spike kept hitting the wrong notes. “Oh, Spike, I think your tone-deaf.” she was sorry to say. “Hey, I told you I can’t play the horns.” Spike told her “Besides, there are plenty of other things I can do.” That’s when a rouge pie hit him in the face. Pinkie came along dressed her cute clown outfit. “Oops, sorry!” she giggled “I guess I didn’t see where I was throwing.” Spike did look funny with all that pie and cream on his face, but he didn’t feel amused at all. He licked some of the cream “Mm, not bad though.” He said and then he went off to get cleaned up. Twilight and Lightning were starting to have doubts that all this would work. So far all the acts didn’t seem to be going right, but they kept things organized as best they could. Even with the few minor infractions everyone worked hard. Starla was able to get her timing right on the trapeze, and Applejack’s knife throwing was going really well. Rainbow Dashes’ act was easily the most successful. Being a pony projectile, she launched herself up, up and up and landed perfectly on the safety net without the use of her wings. “Yeah!” she cried for joy “I’m so going to hit the big top.” “Well just be sure you take extra care of that crash outfit.” Rarity said. Applejack felt confused “If you made that suit for extreme stunts, then why be careful?” “Oh, really, Applejack!” replied Rarity “Do you know how hard it is for one to work with such fabrics?” “Never mind that…” Lightning said “Let’s get back to work or we’ll never be ready by tomorrow.” So everyone kept practicing, and eventually, they were ready to perform… …Or so they thought. Usually Goldwin was supposed to be a statue at night, the next evening it was nearly time to wake him up. The room was all set up and extra seats were laid out. Shining Armor and Cadance moved Goldwin, who was very heavy as a statute, to his special seat. “Everyone ready…?” Shining Armor asked as he put Goldwin’s mask on his face, Twilight peeked from behind the curtain and winked at her brother. Their majesties took their seats, and all four of them said the magic words together… “Powers of life, now begin awaken the magic from within!” Goldwin awoke and felt as if he had overslept. “What happened?” he asked. “I feel like I’ve been asleep for days.” The others just smiled cheekily. “What are you all smiling about?” asked Goldwin, and the sound of a drumroll was heard followed by spotlights going around the room and Rarity’s voice echoed as she announced “Ladies and gentlemen! New Canterlot Palace is proud to present for one night, and one night only, the fabulous, magical, indoor circus!” Magical illusions of fireworks sparked as the performers all marched out. Goldwin could hardly believe his eyes. “Is this really happening?” he asked with excitement. The royal ones all nodded, and Rarity then announced “And here are your ring masters; Lightning Dawn and Twilight Sparkle!” Twilight and Lightning both appeared in a puff of smoke, wearing ring master outfits, complete with top-hats jackets and everything. Twilight and Lightning welcomed everyone and explained that the show was dedicated to their friend, Goldwin. Now Goldwin felt really touched, and didn’t know what to say. “Without further ado-- let the show commence!” said Lightning. “And our first act will be… the Amazing Applejack!” said Twilight. Applejack came out on stage, the audience cheered and applauded. Applejack held up eight real, and every sharp knives in her hands. “Watch carefully now and be amazed.” she said as she faced a target, which was a cut-out picture of a changeling with several small targets drawn on it. One-by-one she threw the knives right into the bullseye of each target, even while stand backwards, covering her eyes, or standing on her head. The last knife she balanced it on her finger and spun it fast, and finally she threw it and it hit the bullseye of her last target. Everyone applauded and she took her bow. “That’s what I get for years of rope throwin’.” Next Lightning announced “Introducing, Pinkie Pie, the clown of happiness.” and indeed she was. Pinkie sang a silly clown song as she did her act-- throwing pies, pretending to trip all over herself, dumping a bag of flour on her head… Goldwin never laughed so hard in his life, and neither did the others. When it came to laughter and happiness, Pinkie was just too much, and they couldn’t give her a better round of applause. The show seemed to be going okay, until when Lightning and Twilight came out to introduce the next act. “And now, everyone, we must caution you to remain in your seats in perfect silence.” said Lightning. “Remembering at all times that margin between safety and danger is very narrow indeed.” Twilight nodded and showed giant cannon to everyone. “Here we have powerful cannon, capable of launching any object at least ten-thousand feet up high, and that object in question to be fired will be none other one of the bravest ponies around. Rainbow Dash the pony projectile!” The lights shone on Rainbow as she stood proudly holding her hands together and shaking them triumphantly. She had her wings tied up as so she wouldn’t be able to get them undone in any hurry to make her act more daring. She hopped into the cannon, and waited until the giant sunroof in the ceiling above was opened wide. The drumroll sounded, the fuse was lit. Everyone watched with nerves of excitement. Celestia held Grand Ruler’s hand tightly, but just as the fuse was centimetres away from the end… it went out. “Hey!” Rainbow called from in the cannon “What’s going on?” Twilight checked the fuse “Something’s wrong” she whispered “I can’t get it going.” The audience was starting to feel a bit dismayed. Lightning and Twilight decided to introduce another act to cover things up. Lightning peeked behind the curtains, “Fluttershy, where are you?” he called. Spike and Fluttershy’s animals pointed under a tablecloth. As expected, Fluttershy was hiding underneath, feeling much too shy to go out there in front of all those ponies, even if it was just five. “Ah, I should’ve seen that coming.” Lightning groaned. Luckily, Starla agreed to go on while the others tried to help coax Fluttershy into coming out Lightning came back out and introduced Starla’s act. “Sorry, we’ve had a few minor difficulties.” he said “To keep things going, our next act is the sensational Starla Shine, who will perform on the flying trapeze, with a magic spell cast on her, so she can’t use her wings or any magic, and she has no net below her either. If she falls, it will mean certain injury!” Starla stood tall and proud on her trapeze high above the cheering crowd, and then she performed her act relying on simple Starfleet training to maintain her balance and posture, as well as do her tricks and stunts. The crowd was amazed. Grand Ruler was especially proud to see Starla putting her training to excellent use. By the end of her routine, the three acrobats, Buddy Rose, Rhymey, and Arite went on next. They were pretty good, but the problem was Rainbow’s cannon still wouldn’t work. Dyno inspected the fuse as well as he could but was still having problems making it work. “Por el amor de Dios! Why won’t this work? Come on chica!” he grumbled. Fluttershy was still too shy to come out from under the tablecloth. “Por Favor, Fluttershy. You’ve got to come out from there and do your act.” said Myte. “I can’t!” she cried “What if I make a mistake? What if everyone laughs at me? I don’t think I could take that.” From the sudden sound of the applause outside, the acrobats had finished their act. “Oh, no!” groaned Lightning. “We’ve got to do something-- but what?” The longer they stalled, the more the audience was growing a little impatient. “What’s going back there?” asked Goldwin. None of the others knew, but whatever was going on had to be serious. Suddenly, Goldwin had an idea, and grabbed his juggling balls. Twilight and Lightning, along with all the others were still baffled and in a panic about what to do. “This is a complete disaster!” cried Twilight. “There’s got to be something we can put on.” said Lightning. He gazed at each of the others but nobody had any ideas what else to do, but suddenly they heard the sound of music playing and the audience cheering. “What’s going on?” asked Twilight. Applejack peeked through the curtain. “Come here.” she motioned to the others. Everyone peeked through and saw Goldwin, actually there on the stage, and he was not only juggling, but dancing while doing it too-- twirling and flipping as he kept the balls flying and balanced, he even did the impossible and juggled the balls using only his wings, and kicking with his boots. He finished up by balancing all three ball stacked on his head and twirling around on one foot really fast, then flicking the balls up and catching them all at once. The audience cheered wildly when he finished, and all the performers, except Fluttershy and Rainbow emerged from the curtain cheering as well. “That was incredible!” cried Pinkie. “You got some smooth talents.” added Artie. “Aw, gee, it was really nothing.” said Goldwin “I just felt something was wrong, so I decided why not help out. Just my way of saying thanks to you all. You know, for putting this big show for me...” Everyone smiled and Twilight and Lightning gave Goldwin another announcement to the crowd. “Let’s give another big round of applause for our surprise guest performer.” said Lightning “…Goldwin, the dancing juggler!” added Twilight The crowd cheered again and Goldwin took a bow, but the excitement was interrupted when suddenly… BOOM!! Rainbow’s suddenly cannon fired and launched her way up high through her sunroof opening. Everyone watched in horror as she soared up, up, up. “HELP!!” she screamed. “It’s out of alignment! She’ll miss the net!” cried Dyno. He was right too, and poor Rainbow was helpless to get her wings untied from those strong knots. “I’m gonna crash! I’M GONNA CRASH!!” she screamed as she fell like a brick. “I’m coming Rainbow!” shouted Lightning, but as he prepared to fly up and catch her. Fluttershy finally peeked out from behind the curtain, and quickly flew up and caught Rainbow. “I got you!” They were still falling pretty fast due to Rainbow’s weight and her inability to free her wings. So Fluttershy quickly whistled loudly for Spike and her animal friends to move the safety net. The animal all worked together hard, and managed to bring the net to a safe place catching the girls as they landed. This made the crowd cheer the loudest it had all through the show, and Fluttershy only just realized what she had done in front of all those ponies watching. “Don’t be shy. Take a bow.” said Twilight. Fluttershy smiled and bowed graciously, but he cheeks never looked pinker. Despite all the slight mishaps and delays the circus was a success, but sadly it was all over now, but Goldwin couldn’t thank everyone enough. “We were happy to do it for you.” Twilight said. “You’re our friend, and that’s what friends do-- they help one another, especially when they’re feeling down.” added Lightning. Celestia and Grand Ruler were very proud of everyone for showing such acts of extreme friendship and kindness, as well as learning a good lesson as well… Some friends weren’t like others, and weren’t able to do many of the things they could do, and it was very important to share their lives with those friends. It really had been a night for everyone to remember, and Goldwin didn’t know if he would ever stop smiling. (Promo) In our next episode, the changeling captain is acting very mysterious and sends a creature of his own to wipe out New Ponyville by breaking the nearby water dam. Despite some of their best efforts, the ponies discover this creature is stronger than it seems and they may very have to destroy it, despite Twilight’s objections and fears. Will Twilight and Lightning set aside their differences, or will New Ponyville ultimately be washed away? Don’t miss the next exciting episode of “Starfleet Magic!” (Next episode: “Metallic Menace”)