Chaos.
Two whole weeks of chaos.
The doctor was starting to learn the flaws of this cast that Light managed to slap together. First there was Golden. He was a nice guy, but he couldn't take orders well. He’d do his best, but he’d also do the opposite of what he was told almost impulsively. Dr. Wolf has tried to talk to him about it, but every time he’d ask him to sit down and take a break, he’d keep working. Trying to instruct him was difficult to say the least.
Kirouac seemed to be a great help, since he and Skies could easily lift the heavier props around. Adding that to the fact that most royalty are strong speakers, the king seemed to be a solid pick. However, Doc could see why Canterlot was known for its high arching doorways. It was so Celestia wouldn’t hit her head on them. Seeing the king struggle with the smaller doorways did make the others feel less self conscious about their size.
Well, except for the two alicorns who were worrying about if they were next to be hitting their heads on every doorway.
Linda was a decent actor, except when she was moving. The hard part about her role was that she always had to be bouncing, meaning that she was stumbling across the stage most of the time. Light even had to work a rug onto the set to at least try to keep her from hurting herself.
Schuberry was somewhat helpful, considering that she didn’t have to memorize her lines, but simply go through the motions. However, she somehow got a piano delivered to the theater. Doc and Light had no clue where it came from, but they had no place that they could put it except the stage. Now the mute pegasus was trying to play it whenever she had the chance. The others agreed that she was one of the most talented pianists they had ever heard, but it got in the way of practice several times.
Elytra had one of the biggest problems out of all of them. Apparently changelings need to either imagine the creature they are trying to mimic or have seen them before. So now alongside the fact that she had the most lines to memories, she had to learn all of the extra ponies she had to impersonate, and most of them she couldn’t get a clue of how they sounded. Twilight also started making complaints about her having an endless stomach.
Then there was Quill, the pony that Doc found himself dealing with the most. He was rather critical of the others' flaws in a sarcastic kind of way. His controlling nature found it’s way to pit him against Light on several occasions, and it also rubbed some of the others the wrong way. Doc found himself having to play ambassador most of the time to keep them from fighting.
Admittedly he started to realize that there were a lot of new potential patients in this cast.
Then there was the teddy bear alicorn. Light’s stress seemed to grow the further they got into production. He was trying to juggle all of these tasks, and often failed to look over some of them well enough. He was giving his all, which often made Dr. Wolf concerned about his anxiety. He was in this state of denial about the seriousness of the issues that Dr. Wolf would bring up. However, he would constantly say that it’s a small problem or that it can be easily fixed.
This led to the current date. The day of the play.
Everybody was stressing out about today. They had to make the cake prop for the final scene, make sure all of the props were set up, finish programming the sound recordings for Schuberry’s lines, and make sure that the set was ready.
Dr. Wolf knew that he had to talk to Light about the stressful atmosphere, but it was easier said than done.
He was busy pointing ponies around and making sure their makeup was ready. “Twilight! Help Kirouac with the scale paint! He’s missing a few spots!”
“Of course Light. It’ll only take a minute.” Twilight said as she got out the paint and brush.
“Golden, come here!”
Golden almost instinctively started walking away before Light used his magic to lift him towards him. “Oh… sorry.”
“Golden, I know that your acting has been a little off, but now is the time I need you to pull it together, okay?”
“Yeah, you can count on me.” He said eagerly.
Light gulped as he wiped the sweat off of his forehead. “I’ll try anyway.”
Dr. Wolf winced at Light’s reaction as he tried to talk to him again. “Um, Light?”
“Give me a minute.” He said as he turned to Schuberry, who was happily playing on the piano. “Schuberry, we all love your music, but we need to get ready for the play right now. May you please get Skies to hook you up to the rig?”
She gave a poochie lip as she pointed to the piano.
“I know you love playing, but we only have a little bit of time. Once the play is over, you can play as much as you want.” He tried to assure her before looking around the room. “Where is Skies? And where is Elytra?!?”
Before Doc could offer to help, there was a sudden gust of air as the speedster walked over to Light, carrying Elytra on his back. “Sorry! I saw Elytra sneaking off and I ran and grabbed her.” Skies explained as he dropped the changeling in front of them.
“Elytra! This is the third time you have snuck off for a snack! You’re going to get us all into trouble!” Light exclaimed.
She merely pouted as she rubbed her belly. “But I’m hungry.”
“You’re always hungry. We give you plenty of love a day and you are still hungry!” He pointed out as he was breathing heavily from the stress. “Just wait till the play is over! You’ll have a tidal wave of love!”
Doc cleared his throat to try gaining the alicorn’s attention. “Um… Mr Heart, may we talk about…”
“In a minute Doc.” Light interrupted him again as Derpy approached them with a concerned look. Before she could speak, he was already trying to settle her issues. “Now, the track is already mixed and timed. All you have to do is press the button that plays the next line when she’s supposed to speak. You even have a copy of the script with you. All the other buttons are clearly labeled. You have the easiest job here. There is nothing for you to be stressed about.”
Dr. Wolf was happy to see him starting to switch to a more supportive style, but then he heard her new problem. “Well, I am scared about the wire setup. I was wondering if we had enough time for me to practice using it.”
Light looked concerned as he was staring at her in dismay. “Derpy, you spent loads of time practicing with Quill, and you have a pretty smooth touch from what I have seen.”
“Well… Quill always used the controls and had me watch. I never got a chance to try it out myself.”
His eyes widened as he turned to the stage manager. “QUILL!!! You told me you were training her!”
“I showed her how it works.” The unicorn said bluntly as he calmly walked up to the angry alicorn.
“But you didn’t let her use it! This equipment is sensitive and requires a precise touch!” He scolded him, only earning a carefree shrug from the monotone pony.
“That’s why I used it. It was the only way I could make sure it was done right.”
He gritted his teeth in anger as he started to think about seriously hurting his stage hoof. “But you… I… GRRRRR!!!”
Dr Wolf was starting to see the entire group getting stressed as they were a few minutes away from opening the curtain. Derpy looked like she wanted to cry, only to be petted by Kirouac, which summoned a large blush on her face. Skies was trying to ask for help with hooking Schuberry up to her wire rig, looking confused by how this was supposed to connect to her vest. Twilight was trying to get Elytra to do a check on her images while the changeling was begging for another snack before the show.
As Light was starting to yell at Quill, who remained in an emotionless state, Dr Wolf decided that he had to gain control of this situation. “ALRIGHT!!!” He barked loudly, making every creature stop in their place. The doctor took a deep breath to compose himself before speaking. “I know tensions are running high right now, but there is no reason to lose our heads right now. We all have put a lot of work into this play, but we do have to recognize that not everything can go smoothly. Odds are that even I will mess up before the play is over. I think we all need to stop and recognize how much work we put into this in such a short period of time, which is quite a feat. Let’s not stress out about trying to get this play done perfectly, and focus on just delivering this play to the public.”
Everybody was silent for a minute as they thought about what Dr. Wolf said. Light looked the most embarrassed as he was the one who was stressing out the most.
Kirouac simply nodded with a smile as he was adjusting his pink wig. “Yeah. It’s nothing to stress about anyways. Odds are we will be playing for a couple dozen ponies. All we need to do is just do our best and have some fun. How hard can that be?”
Golden nodded as he looked like he was starting to relax too. “Okay… you have a point. It’s not like it’s a major play like last time, right?”
Twilight’s eyes widened when they mentioned this. “Um… well… there may have been a couple of mistakes… and surprises…”
Light instantly looked concerned as he approached his fellow alicorn. “Twi… are you hiding something?”
She blushed as the cast were all looking at her. “Well, I only learned this recently, and I know with my anxiety experience that bringing this news up last minute would have added some more stress, so I wanted to wait until we were all ready for the play before I explained what happened.”
Dr Wolf gulped as he realized how guilty she looked about this. “Twi, what happened? Did your friends return early?”
“Well… sorta? Dash told the other Wonderbolts about the play and her being able to use the recording system, so they let me know that they were flying straight here after their show. And knowing how fast they can fly, they will have been here ten minutes ago.”
Light sighed in relief. “Well, I don’t think that’s too big of a problem. It’s just a few extra ponies. I bet Applejack is here too, right?”
She nodded, but still didn’t feel confident in confessing everything that was happening. “Yes, she is. She did her daily chores and was able to make it with her family. As a matter of fact, this is also where Fluttershy is having her date with Discord. He did assure me that he’s not planning on messing with us with his magic. In fact, he seemed rather genuine about it. Fluttershy promised that she’d keep him from doing anything.”
Quill raised an eyebrow at this new information. “Discord being genuine about something? That’s a first.”
“Well, don’t worry. I made sure that he understood what would happen if he messed with the play. He even, and I quote, let his powers take a holiday at Gravity Falls, and will not be able to use them until morning.” She explained, looking like she had a hard time understanding Discord’s actions as well.
“Well, I guess we can give them the benefit of the doubt.” Dr. Wolf said hopefully.
“Well… now is where things get interesting. Celestia and Luna were very interested in this play, and made sure to get front row seats, along with Shining Armor and Cadence.” She continued, noticing how some ponies were tensing up at the mention of the princesses.
“What? Why are they so interested?” Light asked before Schuberry happily started skipping around the room.
Kirouac looked curious as he walked up to her, handing her a pencil and paper. “Um, how are you connected to Princess Celestia and Luna?”
Schuberry quickly wrote one word on the paper.
Guardians
Light’s eyes widened when he saw the paper. “They adopted you?”
The mute mare nodded happily.
Twilight nervously scratched her head as this was new information to her too. “Well, Celestia has adopted orphans before.”
“So… is that it? I’ve been in their presence before, and they are very kind and considerate.” Dr. Wolf tried to assure the group to help ease their nerves.
“Oh… remember that peace summit? Well, the issue was rather minor, and they finished yesterday. So Rarity and Pinkie told the diplomats there about the play, and they took the rest of the front row.” She explained as she got to the worst of it. “Now for the main problem…”
“The other problems were little?” Light asked as he started wishing that he could hide in a corner.
“The national newspapers were supposed to be reporting a story about a play called Hamilton with an all star cast. Apparently instead of putting down the Canterlot theater, they put down the Ponyville theater instead. We have more ponies here than last year, and half of them are expecting to see Hamilton.” She finished explaining, waiting for Light to start freaking out and crying.
The whole group was actually silent, staring at their director expectantly as he was frozen in shock, leaving his mouth hanging open.
Skies now looked like he was panicking as well as he turned to Twilight. “Is it too late to cancel the play?”
Quill gestured to the door as he was still in his expressionless state. “If you want to face that crowd, go ahead.”
Dr. Wolf was more focused on Light as this was his play. “Um, Light? Are you sure you can handle this?”
He suddenly snapped out of his trance as he looked at the doctor. He looked like he was going to faint for a minute, but then he managed to put on a shaky smile. “Oh… it’s not a problem… It’s just… a bigger audience. There’s nothing we have to change in the play. No problem whatsoever.”
“Um… pretty big problem if you ask me. We’re now playing for the most important ponies in Equestria, let alone out of Equestria.” Linda pointed out.
“And we’ll do the play the same way we would have if it was just a bunch of normal ponies. Look, in the book I read about play managing, there are three rules. Something always goes wrong, be willing to adapt, and the show must go on. Right now we need to focus on rule number three.”
“But… if we mess up?” Golden asked nervously.
“Then we ad lib, or stick to the script. No matter what happens, the show must go on!”
Dr Wolf gulped as he started fearing the worst, but then again, they already had a crazy cast and a few unexpected mistakes.
How could things get any worse?
“Alright. It’s just a play, and it’s too late to back out. Let’s just do the best we can and see what happens.” Dr Wolf tried to assure the others as he started adjusting his vest.
The rest of the group slowly nodded, looking anxious, but willing to go through with the play.
As the others started to get back to getting ready, Twilight ended up realizing what time it was. “Um, Light? The play is supposed to be starting in a minute, and we need at least a couple to finish setting up the props. What do we do?” She whispered nervously.
Light’s eyes widened as he started looking around. “Um… Derpy! Get to the sound system and turn on one of the right wing spot lights! I’ll stall for a few minutes before we get started.” Light said as he got ready to head onto the stage.
The group could only exchange glances as Quill simply shrugged. “Well, it’s showtime!”
The audience were all patiently waiting for the play to start. Some of them were rather curious about the confusion of what kind of play this was. Some said that it was supposed to be a new best hit, but there were arguments about who wrote the play and who was starring. Royalty was there, so surely it had to be some kind of masterpiece, right?
As they heard a pony walk onto the stage, they all started to quiet down as he started to talk.
“Fillies and…”
A spotlight turned on, giving a startling sound as the pony on stage realized that the light was on the other side of the stage. He quickly ran over into the light, revealing himself as Light Heart.
“Gentle-colts. Welcome to the annual Ponyville stage performance. My name is Light Heart and I am making my official directorial debut.” He said as a hint of anxiety started to show in the alicorn. “I do want to take this time to apologize to anypony who is here to see the musical, Hamilton. But I assure you all that you will enjoy this play just as well.
“Now, I am sure that some of you have experienced some of our other plays which have been… understaffed. Like the amazing story of the dogs who went to rescue their numerous kids… One Dalmatian. Or our musical blockbuster, Newsie. Then there was one of our star’s first opportunities to try out being in a play, Beauty and the Beast. However, he had some serious medical problems at the time, and we couldn’t get another beast, so that play became Beauty. Rarity really enjoyed that play. It was basically a fashion show.”
He was shocked as some of the ponies were giggling at the description of the old plays, making him fear that he may have shared too much information. “Um, but I assure you that this play will surpass the other plays. Now put your hooves together…”
The audience immediately started to applaud as Light frantically waved his hooves to get them to stop. “Not yet! Sigh! Put your hooves together for Doctor Wolf, A Helping Paw!” Light announced as he ran off the stage, ready for his show to begin.