//------------------------------// // Chapter 89 - Celestial Acting // Story: The Master Mev // by kazamacat //------------------------------// The teachers for the School of Friendship, except for Twilight Sparkle herself, were attending to a stage made not far from the school. Starlight Glimmer was with them too. Pinkie Pie descended slowly and happily from an umbrella amidst a collection of confetti and streamers. As she landed on the wooden floorboards of the stage, she said with pride, "Confetti is ready! Hoo hoo!" An annoyed Applejack flung a paintbrush she held in her mouth into its bucket as she told Pinkie Pie sharply, "Wormy apple cores, Pinkie! How many times have I told ya to keep your special effects away from my sets?" "Three hundred twenty-seven," Pinkie answered simply. She gestured with a hoof upon a realization. "Ooh! Unless you just DID. Then it's three hundred twenty-eight." Applejack rolled her eyes and muttered, "Ugh." Meanwhile, Starlight walked next to Fluttershy while telekinetically holding a script. She said, "I can't believe you've memorized your lines already, Fluttershy." "Once you get past terrifying, paralyzing stage fright," Fluttershy began with a shiver and look of such terror in her eyes. Her demeanor changed with matched ease and a pleasant smile as she continued, "...the rest is easy. Now I just hope Princess Celestia says we can do our play." Starlight nodded and smiled in agreement. "Oh! As soon as she sees these fabulous costumes, all she'll be able to say is 'brava!'" Rarity boasted as she pushed a rack of the costumes in question. She wore a length of measuring tape draped over her neck. Rainbow Dash herself said nothing as she fixated her attention on aligning a stage light. From the corner of her eye, she saw the two expected figures of Twilight Sparkle and Spike approach. "Heads up!" she called down to the others. "Here comes our answer." She descended to hover near her friends as they all gathered together. "Wonderful news, everypony!" Twilight announced. "Yeeeha!" Applejack motioned with both forelimbs in celebration. "We get to put on our show?" "Even better. Princess Celestia is gonna be our star!" Twilight announced with a smile. Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Starlight Glimmer collectively gasped. Spike folded his arms and said dryly, "Yeah, that's how I felt, too." "Celestia? Starring in our play? This is huge!" Rainbow proclaimed with a big smile. She stroked the back of her mane and asked with an uneasy smile, "She does know not to raise the sun during the actual show, right?" "Of course!" Twilight said. "And even if by some warped chance that did happen, the sun is only raised once during the show. There's no way she'd raise it six times." Rainbow's entire muzzle twitched—at least it was Monday. Starlight put a hoof to her forelimb in comfort. "It'll be fine, Master. We all know to be careful, including Princess Celestia. I'm sure she hasn't forgotten you." "She was a little nervous at first," Twilight moved on and informed the rest, "but I told her not to worry. With us helping, it'll go smooth as…" "Silk!" Rarity cried in emphatic horror. She blurred away and buried her head into a chest as she rummaged through an assortment of fabric. "I must find the silk! If Celestia is going to be in our play, we have to take everything up to the next level!" The stressed white unicorn proceeded to telekinetically dump the costumes she was so proud of only moments ago into a nearby trash can. "None of these old ideas will do!" Pinkie Pie burst her torso and head up from within the trash can as she heartily agreed, "Yeah! Forget my regular party cannon. For princess-size effects, we're going to need 'Big Bertha!'" She descended back down. A moment later after a crash, she could be seen shoving the cannon she spoke of toward some still undetermined place. "Grr...Pinkie!" Applejack growled. "What?" Pinkie Pie asked innocently. Rainbow darted near Twilight, shoving her mev unease aside and deciding to throw herself wholly into the moment. Her friends were excited; she had an idea and could oversee the sun matter during the actual play. "Our play is gonna be AMAZING! I gotta tell everypony I know!" With a wink, she added, "And even the ones I don't!" With a zoom and a bang, Rainbow Dash left an unusually casual Sonic Rainboom behind to boost her away for her chosen task. The ponies she told were ever so delighted to hear the news and happily helped spread the word even more. Sometime later, Rainbow Dash returned to boast of her success to the others. She swooped into the backstage area where she found them all gathered. "All right! I just finished telling everyone to come to our play!" "You...did?" Twilight asked nervously. "Yeah!" Rainbow answered with a smile. "You should've seen how excited they got when they found out Celestia was in it! They said they'd tell their friends, and then their friends would tell their friends. Chrysalis too though she thinks it will be better to still be more discreet and in pony form. Everyone in Equestria is gonna see this thing!" Rainbow finally glimpsed some horrified and nervous looks from everyone she was informing of such news. She descended from her hover and asked Twilight, "Uh, did I miss something?" "Just a bright light of hope being snuffed," Twilight answered. Rainbow frowned but kept quiet. Twilight wasn't finished. The wisteria alicorn continued, "But that's okay. If we can't cancel the show, I know what we have to do." "Be honest with Celestia and give the lead role to somepony else?" Applejack suggested. "Not a chance!" Twilight said firmly. "Huh? Why?" Rainbow asked. They spoke at nearly the same time, and all the friends knew Rainbow was a little behind on what was happening. "Because she's a terrible actress, that's why!" Applejack explained. She turned to Twilight again. "Twilight, you know truth is a huge part of friendship," she said sternly. "And so is making another pony's dreams come true," Twilight replied softly. "Look, I promised Celestia that this time she could be a part of the play instead of just watching it. And I plan to keep that promise." "But...how?" Fluttershy asked. "Acting lessons?" Twilight suggested with an uneasy smile. "Who could teach Princess Celestia to act on such short notice?" Starlight wondered aloud. Rainbow put a thoughtful hoof to her chin and brightened. "I have an idea!" "You want to give me acting lessons?" Celestia asked Twilight Sparkle as they walked together in the school hallways towards a classroom. "I do, but your teacher may surprise you. You have my word, as well as Master Rainbow Dash's, she is uh…" Twilight hesitated. "She's what?" Celestia wondered. Twilight sighed and opened the doors to show Rainbow Dash and Chrysalis. "Alright?" Twilight tried with a hint of nervousness. "Queen Chrysalis?" asked a befuddled Celestia. As during the visit to Cloudsdale, Chrysalis chose her older dark form for this encounter with similar reasoning. Celestia wouldn't have to ponder who she was by the change in her new default appearance, nor would an explanation be needed for the how and the why. Celestia herself would have to entrust Team Awesome. Chrysalis bowed. "I am surprised to find myself here too, Princess Celestia. I promise you no harm—unless you find a critique of your acting skills harmful that is." Celestia blinked. "No, of course not," she replied awkwardly. "If there's anything I can do to be a better Equestrian thespian, I will! What do you have planned?" "It's quite simple, really," Chrysalis said. "I will demonstrate to you how it is done while taking on your very appearance. You will copy. I will tell you what you are doing wrong and what you are doing right. "Worst case scenario," the tall changeling told her with a mischievous smirk, "I will act in your place during the play." Celestia's mouth dropped as she took it in, and then she brightened into a smile. "Quite the motivator indeed. You're on." When Celestia was monotone, Chrysalis would show her what it sounded and looked like to put her in the place of an observer and then what it should actually be like. The same went for over-excited and too quick with her words. The same for moving to close to the Royal Canterlot voice. It was a Celestia Mirror show of good and bad acting. The entire display left Rainbow Dash tremendously amused. She could not help herself. She doubled over in laughter and collapsed to the ground. Spike found himself doing the same. "Ignore them," Chrysalis advised with confidence. "You need to be able to carry on if the audience behaves the same way." Twilight Sparkle could not find it as funny and would flash away to check on the set where the group was trying to fix a broken sun prop. Between all of the action, no one had alerted their master of this fact. So far as Rainbow Dash knew, the play's director was checking in on things in general. At last, Chrysalis felt satisfied with her student's skills. Celestia demonstrated for Rainbow and Spike who were finally settled enough to watch and give their approval as well. Night fell, and the audience started to take their seats. "Okay, okay, okay," Twilight said nervously as she paced backstage amidst her friends. "Celestia's acting is uh...handled. So, where are we with the sun?" "What?!" asked Rainbow Dash with an evident edge in her voice. Twilight paused and clenched her teeth in fear, drooping her ears. "Don't worry, Master!" Pinkie stated. "I've got this. To make sure the show's a hit, I've whipped up the biggest, bestest, flashiest fake sun ever!" Everyone gazed on in horror at a mass of fireworks Pinkie lit with the quick clack of a lever. "Pinkie...that looks unsafe," Twilight pointed with a hoof to the prepared fake sun. "Why would untested magic fireworks that I bought in a back alley from Trixie at midnight be unsafe?" Pinkie asked casually with folded arms. The fireworks answered themselves as they rocketed out everywhere, narrowly missing the ponies and dragon present, who dodged clear to the best of their ability. Twilight grit her teeth as she gazed up to see the final, large rocket finish its fuse and blew up from behind the curtain. Applejack ran to douse her painted house props in water. Fluttershy cowered on the floor with Rainbow Dash patting her pink mane. Starlight stood near to watch over them both. Rarity blew the smoke away from her costumes. Spike clasped and hung from one of the still standing lights. Another fell and crashed into the wooden floor. Pinkie Pie blew off soot and smoke from Twilight's own horn. Twilight's eye twitched. "Aaaah!" she screamed. "We got our lead actress to act, and then everything else goes wrong with the props and the set!" She panted in frustration. A curtain fell, and Twilight followed the gaze of her friends to see Celestia and Chrysalis. "What happened?" Chrysalis asked. "Pinkie Pie," Applejack grumbled. "Present!" Pinkie Pie declared with a grin, raising her forelimb. "Regardless of what happened, we need to salvage this!" Rarity reminded everyone. Fluttershy peaked out from a magenta curtain, then turned to her friends to tell them, "Ponies are taking their seats for the show!" Rainbow followed suit from her hover. "Heh heh. Standing room only!" she boasted. "Did I do a good job of advertising this thing or what?" The others bordered on glaring. "Sorry," Rainbow muttered between flapping wings. "Can you use your chaos magic?" Spike suggested with hope as he pointed to Rainbow. "You can't possibly fix all of this fast enough as a pegasus?" "Is that a challenge?" Rainbow asked with fire lighting up in her eyes. "No!" Spike urgently waved his claws to settle her down. "It's Monday, right? And it's for Twilight!" "Focus, Master, please!" Applejack told Rainbow. Rainbow took a deep breath and examined what they had at their disposal. Her eyes flickered to red-on-yellow, and nothing happened. She shook her head. "Not urgent enough, sorry. The set, props, costumes, and stuff don't look good, but a play can go on with all of that, even if it doesn't look picture perfect." "What about the sun?" Applejack asked. "We don't have one at all, and we can't have Celestia raising the real thing." At that, Rainbow's eyes lit up again. "You can do the sun!" She pointed excitedly with a hoof. "My dragon form fire won't cut it. You control the actual path and shape of yours. Just you know, don't burn anything." Applejack gasped. "You're right." "Oh, that's right, our fledglings gifts might help us," Fluttershy stated. Rarity breathed out some rock formations to help prettify the damaged painted house props. Twilight picked up the fallen light and ascended. "Starlight and I can do lighting." Starlight joined her as she levitated her whole body with a confirming smile. "I don't have any extra earth in me for the costumes I'm afraid," Rarity said. "Maybe if I gave them a little breeze, that will give them a pleasant effect, which can make the damage seem not so bad," Fluttershy suggested. "Penny's still frozen, so I have to sit this idea out," Pinkie informed them all. "I really don't think we could use water for anything anyway." She sighed. "Besides putting out fire if Fyra burns anything." "I won't!" Applejack insisted. Rainbow touched Pinkie's shoulder and said empathically with a smile, "I don't think lightning can be much help either." "It will be enough," Celestia gently informed them. "Places, everyone!" Twilight commanded. "Go ahead and enjoy the show, Chryssy," Rainbow said to Chrysalis. "I'm going to help out Pinkie Pie with all the extra stuff." Pinkie smiled and nodded happily as she stood, ready to do her part. Chrysalis transformed into her standard unicorn form with a polite nod to go and join the audience. The damage was noticed by the audience but as the team hoped, it passed for a decent enough play to perform all the same. Celestia's acting even seemed to improve all the more with the added pressure. When all was said and done, many flowers were thrown to the stage, and the entire troupe ended the matter proud and satisfied.