Twilight Sparkle’s eyes lit up. “Spike! Spike, it’s all so clear!” she exclaimed to Spike the Dragon, who looked like he was going to throw up. “Can’t you see? Discord’s trying to distract us from what’s important. He knows how powerful our friendships are, and he’s trying to keep us from seeing it. Do you remember what I said the first day we arrived in Ponyville?”
Spike opened his mouth.
Twilight kept going without waiting for him to answer. “I told you that the future of Equestria didn’t rest on me making friends. But the opposite is true! The friendships I’ve made since I’ve been here are what saved Equestria from Nightmare Moon. And now they need to save it from Discord!”
Spike moaned in pain.
“You’re right, Spike,” Twilight said in reply. “I’ve got to fight for my friendships. For them. For me. For Equestria!”
Spike moaned once more.
Twilight finally noticed his pain. “Oh...uh...why don’t you just stay here and rest? I’ll take care of the fighting for friendship thing myself.” She exited the room.
Spike moaned for a third time, and then belched loudly.
“Cut!” the director exclaimed. “That’s a wrap!”
The ponies watching the filming laughed at Spike’s predicament for a second, and then switched to cheering Twilight’s performance. The film crew applauded. And the filming of Season One of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic—which also included the season premiere of Season Two—was now complete. “The Return of Harmony” (Parts 1 & 2) had been filmed out of order. As a new character, Discord needed a Voice, and that human’s restricted schedule forced all his scenes to be filmed first.
“Are you going to explain what a Voice is?”
“I thought you said that this story is being read by animation fanatics. As for the rest of you, an Artist (with a capital ‘A’) creates the look of a toon, and a Voice (with a capital ‘V’) creates the voice and personality, by literally recording the voice for the toon’s first appearance. After that, we only have to possess our Artists and Voices when we’re asked to do something we’ve never done before.”
“...You really shouldn’t have brought up that ‘possession’ business.”
“Um...oops?”
Rainbow Dash walked up to Twilight. “Great scene, Twilight!” she enthused.
“Oh, so you actually noticed a performance by somebody other than you?” Applejack joked, sans accent.
“Hey, this episode was a great chance to play out of character,” Rainbow explained. “This was the sort of drama we don’t get to do nearly enough of. I hope the next season is one big arc. Think about it: a feature episode for each of us! And two or three for you, Twilight.”
“Sure, sure,” Twilight Sparkle said indulgently. “At least we know there’ll be a Second Season, gals.” Looking off stage, Twilight asked, “Have you heard about anything after that?”
Lauren said nothing. This was the end of her participation in the series.
“Hey, did you bother to get permission from any of the humans involved for their use in this story?”
“Well, it’s not like they have to get a toon’s permission to yank them around for anything specified in their contracts.”
“Wow, bitter. I’m going to apologize in advance to you poor readers for any mangling of the personalities of the beloved Friendship Is Magic crew by Dodo here.”
The actual executive producer tugged on his collar. “Ah, well...” He glanced over at Meghan, at this time just one of the writers. “Nothing is in stone yet, but, uh, we’re working on a solo movie for Twilight.”
Rarity had to sit down just to throw up her arms in exasperation. “And there we finally have it! I knew the ensemble approach couldn’t last forever! Welcome to the Twilight Sparkle Show.”
“It’s not like that, honest!” Twilight assured them. “You’re mostly all in the movie, too. It’s just...well, I can’t tell you the details yet.”
“I don’t want to think about it right now,” Applejack said.
“Then stop thinking altogether; the after-show party starts right now!” Rainbow announced. “Come on, gals! Conga line!”
The other members of the main cast spontaneously formed a line and started singing “At the Gala”. They marched off set, leaving the crew to take down the set of Twilight’s bedroom.
“Musical link?”
“Nah. They all know it by heart.”
One member of the main pony cast stayed behind. “Can I walk you to the car?” Pinkie asked Lauren.
“Pinkie, I said no more parties,” Lauren warned. “Last night was the real goodbye.”
“I know!” Pinkie exclaimed. “It’s just a goodbye walk. Nothing else.” She nudged her nose under the cardboard box of Lauren’s belongings and bounced it onto her back. “See, I’m being useful and everything!”
Lauren smiled warmly. “Alright. It’s this way.”
$ $ $
“What was that?”
“Section break.”
Spike watched all of this with a smile on his face. But on realizing that he was now alone, he ran off to catch up with the pony conga line.
“Say, where’s Pinkie Pie?” Rarity asked.
“Off doing her own thing, as usual,” said Rainbow Dash, “which is fine by me. That toon is weird.”
“Rainbow Dash!” Rarity exclaimed. “One shouldn’t gossip behind one’s back. Although...I wonder how many toys she would be selling if the little girls knew what she was really like.”
“Who’s gossiping now?” Applejack teased.
Fluttershy was there, of course. But she wasn’t saying anything, being only a little less shy in person than she was in character. An exhausted and newly arrived Angel Bunny stood on her shoulder, looking out vigilantly for anybody trying to pull one over on his mistress.
Spike saw the line of ponies enter an extra-large trailer thumping with dance music. Just as he went to follow them through the open door, he was stopped by a hoof held out by Twilight. “Say Spike, this is an adult party in here.”
“Is it?” Spike asked, peeking in to see to see a couple of human Chippendales dancers gyrating around.
“Yeah, you’d be...bored,” Twilight said unconvincingly. “And it’s girls’ only.”
“Oh,” said Spike, looking down. He put on a fake smile. “That’s alright. I got the script for my feature episode in Season Two. So, I’ll just look it over, and go home for the day.”
The door slammed in his face.
“I’ll...be fine.” With a roll of his eyes, he turned and walked away.
“And that?”
“That’s an even bigger section break. It means the point-of-view just changed.”
Twilight made her way to a corner of the trailer and slumped down on the ground, her head in her hooves.
A few minutes later, Rainbow Dash sat down beside her with a couple of drinks. “Hey, are you alright? The performance wasn’t that bad, was it?”
Twilight laughed mirthlessly. She picked up her drink with a sticky hoof and sipped it, rolling the glass between her hooves.
“I didn’t have a way to sneak it into the story, but toons do have limitations in what they can and cannot do. Twilight can’t actually levitate anything when the special effects department is not around.”
“You’ve been a main character before, Rainbow. You know that the execs tell you things. Things you’re not allowed to tell the other toons.”
“Because of the contract! Dun-dun-dun!”
Rainbow nodded.
Twilight sighed. “What I happen to know is about Spike. I’ve been avoiding him because I want to tell him. He deserves to know. But...I can’t.”
“Well you don’t have to be specific, Twilight. Just say, ‘Hey buddy, you might want to tell your sitter that you’ll be “working from home” after Episode 3 of Season 2.’”
Twilight shook her head. “They’re not killing him off. I kinda wish that’s what they were going to do, though.”
Rainbow winced. “That bad? Well...I can’t say that I’m surprised. I’m glad that this show is giving us gals our due, but it’s too bad that the powers that be have decided to couple that with the stuff they’re dumping on the male characters. I wonder if that’s why Lauren’s leaving.” She looked over at Twilight, taking in the sudden haunted look on her face. “Don’t tell me: that’s something else you’re not allowed to tell us.”
Twilight looked Rainbow in the eyes. “I’m scared of where this show is going, Rainbow. I mean I heard all of your stories but unlike you, I’m a brand-new toon. I...don’t like change.” She looked over at the door, imagining Spike standing on the other side. “And I don’t like confrontations.”
“Wasn’t this supposed to be a comedy? When you told me the title, I thought it was going to be a comedy. With Porky Pig.”
“...Me, too. And Porky’s enjoying an eternal retirement in Tucson, with his children, and grand-children, and probably a couple more generations after that. He’s saner than any of the characters in this story. Including us.”
“Especially us.”