An old green mare walked into the office, levitating some papers.
“I've found them.”
The orange stallion looked up from his work.
“Found who?”
“Those foals from the stories a few months ago.”
As she said that, she set down one of the papers, an old news article.
DISGUISED FOALS SNEAK INTO NEWSPAPER TO CLEAR FATHER'S NAME
He looked at the picture under the headline. It showed a colt and two fillies in the middle of a dirt road. The colt, for some reason, was trying to hide his face under his wing, while the two fillies glared at the camera.
“Oh, of course, the ones that showed some potential as actors. Well, whattaya know?”
“Well, first off, turns out they're from Ponyville, so it might be hard to convince their parents to come all the way here.
“Two of the foals credited Kind Face, that's the green one on the left, by the way, with their costumes, and she confirmed that she made them. Apparently her caretaker is a former actor, so we may want to contact her for a role as well.”
“Good idea.” He had already pulled out a paper and pen, but he put them back. “Come to think of it, perhaps we could visit the place ourselves. Might be easier than trying to find out their mailing addresses.”
As they both walked out the door, Casting Call held up the picture again.
“I wonder why this one's still in costume.”
“Who?” Curtain Call picked it up to look for herself.
“This one, the colt. We both know there aren't any alicorn foals in Equestria.”
Feldspar alternated between bouncing in place and hovering, a huge grin across her face.
“You're coming to Fillydelphia too? Cool! Maybe we can hang out there after the reunion.”
“Oh!” Kind Face turned to her Aunt. “Can we?”
“I don't see why not, but this time, I'm coming along too, if not the three of us.” She gestured to the Stones, who nodded in agreement.
“Oh come on! I only ran off in a big city one time!”
Masquerade shook her head.
“Well I think it's still gonna be great,” Obsidian chimed in. “We could go see the Millennial Bell, or we could all visit Harmony Hall, or we could see that theater together. Hey! Maybe if that audition's at the right time, we could all cheer you on!”
“Maybe,” Kind looked away for a moment, then back at him. “Auditions are usually closed though, so only the directors can see. It keeps outside stuff from influencing them.”
“Oh.” Obsidian’s ears and head lowered a little. “It would have been nice to see you on stage. You're really good. Maybe we could at least see you after you get in the play.”
“Thanks.”
Kind Face looked down a little, hoping that she could come up with a good reason to have not gotten in by the time it was over.
The call came for all to board the train, so they all climbed in. The parents all found seats where they could talk while the foals stayed in the aisle, too excited overall to sit down.
“Hey, come to think of it, what do you think I should look like?”
Obsidian raised an eyebrow and tilted his head. “Look like?”
“Yeah. I wanted to make an impression, so I brought along some of my stuff.”
As Kind Face pulled out a box and opened it to show him, Feldspar stood up and leaned over it as well.
“Ooh! Maybe you could be a zebra like Zecora! You could use these colors for that. Or you could be a unicorn pirate. Or you could be somepony you know like Applebloom!”
“I'll have to pass on that last one. My aunt said I can't be anypony that already exists without their permission.”
“Personally, I think you should just go as yourself,” Obsidian remarked. “I think you look nice as you are.”
“Thanks,” Kind replied, suddenly rather appreciative of the fact that her face was naturally red.
“Oh, I know!” Feldspar's head plunged into box and returned with a minor adjustment.
“Behold!” She flared her wings above her. “Princess Ice Heart of the frozen north!”
Obsidian rolled his eyes. “Feldspar, really?”
Meanwhile, Kind Face giggled. “Let it go, she's just having some fun.”
As the train rumbled along, a steward passed through the cars to make sure everything was in order. So far, it all was.
As he passed through the next car in the line, everything appeared to be in order there as well. There were a couple ponies working crossword puzzles, a few enjoying the view out the windows, a pegasus and unicorn chatting idly with an earth pony, three alicorns playing cards, a colt and a filly playing with Power Ponies figures…
He whipped his head around and stared at the three who were playing cards. After a round of guessing who had any eights, they all looked up at him. As the white one and black one smiled with obviously fake innocence, the red one looked up with a huge grin.
“G’day to you, good sir!”
With that, she picked up her horn and pulled it off as if tipping a hat, then put it back on. The other two fell over laughing.
As the train screeched to a stop, Quartz called over to the kids.
“Alright. We're here. You can put away those cards you brought.”
“Awwwww,” Feldspar whined, “but I'm winning.”
He looked over to them, only to find that Feldspar now had eight horns, one on her nose and the rest continuing up and over her head like a mohawk. Kind Face, meanwhile, had four horns arranged in a diamond pattern on her forehead and two pairs of wings, and Obsidian had two horns stuck to the tip of his real one and another stuck to the bottom of his chin.
“Come on. I thought you were all excited to be here.”
The kids were already packing away the cards and detaching Kind Face's props. Together they exited the train and stepped out into the city.
“I knew I'd seen them somewhere before.”
“What?”
Casting and Curtain both sat on the train waiting for it to depart. Casting was looking through the articles she had that were related to the foals. She didn't have much of course, as she'd thrown out most of them a long time ago. She’d finally found what she was looking for in an old tabloid that Lime Light enjoyed reading.
“Looks like that colt wasn't the one in costume.”
“Wait, are you saying he's…”
“‘Son Rejected by the Sun.’ Granted, I wouldn't exactly trust Lime Light’s choice of papers for even something as simple as a weather schedule, but at least now we have an idea what to look for. Also, it looks like Kind Face is supposed to be blue, not green… unless that's a dye job too…”
She paused and looked through the scant collection of papers.
“Great. How are we supposed to find a foal that keeps changing colors?”