Twilight quietly shed a tear as she calmly waited by the royal carriage. Today was a fantastic day for two lucky ponies as her B.B.B.F.F. and old baby sitter were happily married. Sure the Changeling war placed a damper on the ceremony, but the love Cadance and Shining had for each other triumphed over the bugs. Cadance, with a look of joy on her face, quickly gave her a smile and got on the carriage. Shining stayed back a bit and walked towards her loving sister.
“Twilight!” he called. “None of this would have been possible without you, little sis. Love ya, Twily.”
She could feel another tear coming on. She wrapped a hoof around her brother to give him a loving hug. “Love you too B.B.B.F.F.”
She joined her friends and watched as her brother climb into the carriage. As he got himself comfortable in his seat, he looked over at his caring wife with love shown in his eyes.
“Ready to go?” he asked.
Cadance started to nod, but then quickly remembered something. “Oh! Almost forgot.”
She brought out a bouquet of roses beside her and leaned out the window. She aimlessly tossed the flowers into the air, waiting to see which lucky mare would get it. A group of fillies haphazardly scrambled around as they wanted it badly, but not as much as the white blur that viciously pushed them all over.
“It’s mine!” Rarity shrieked. She looked around with her newly caught flowers to see a bunch of angry mares. “Aha. Hello girls,” she sheepishly smiled.
She quickly ran to join her other friends to see off the newly weds as their carriage rode off to their honeymoon. Twilight kept waving her hoof until she lost sight of the carriage, and wiped the last tear from her eyes.
“Now this was a great wedding,” she confirmed.
Her purple assistant, Spike, jumped onto Pinkie’s head to get a better look of the carriage. “Oh yeah?” he challenged. “Just wait until you see what I have planned for the bachelor party!”
The mares gave each other a bemused look before laughing into a fit. Spike only looked around quizzical about what he said. He truly looked like he had no idea what a bachelor party was for. As Twilight gave a last smile, she heard the snap of a clapperboard go off.
“CUT!” a colt yelled out. “That was great everypony. Great job!”
Everypony cheered in the studios as the last scene of Season 2 was done. Sunset Sparkles stretched a little and gave a big yawn as it was a really long day of shooting. She trotted towards her make-up station, with a lot of ponies congratulating her on another successful episode. She congratulated back, saying that each and every one of them helped making the series. She sat down on the fake leather stool and was about to apply some chap stick to her dried lips, when certain pink pony popped out from under her chair.
“Hey Sunset! Watcha doing?” she asked.
Sunset gave the mare a tired smile. “Hey Cherry Pie,” she greeted. “Nothing much, just sitting here. Not doing much.”
Cherry Pie joyfully nodded at her friend’s response. She would nod to anything that is good or neutral. “You know it’s amazing how this show came to be.” Cherry pondered this for a moment. “Actually, I forgot how this started. Can you tell me the story again?”
Sunset sighed as this was Cherry’s 15th time asking that question. It’s sad that she actually gave a bother to count all the questions she asked. She might as well retell the story again.
“Well Cherry, this show was actually based on a series of truth events,” she explained. “The mares that we played were actually real ponies. What’s more is that they were our great great grandmothers. Before President Celestia died thirty years ago, she told her elder daughter, Solaria, to tell the world her and their story. To show the world the meaning of friendship and she agreed to her mom’s dying wish. She tracked us all down seeing how we are direct decedents of our great great grandmothers and asked us if we could be a part of the show. And after months of planning and shooting, here we are at the end of Season 2.” She took a deep breath and exhaled out to her relief. “Does that answer your question Cherry?”
Cherry gave Twilight a knowing nod and quickly bounced off towards the snack table. Sunset shook her head, smiling at her friend’s antics. She never really understood that one. She actually seemed a lot like her great great grandmom, Pinkie Pie. She could imagine that they could be twins, or maybe even the same pony. As she went back to applying chap stick, a white pony with purple flowing mane entered her line of view. She turned around to see the Rarity lookalike, Variety, giving her another happy smile.
“Hey Sunset! Are you as excited as I am for the shooting of Season 3?” she chirped.
Sunset scoured through her mind as she tried to remember what she was talking about. Then it hit her. “Of course I am! We’re doing the Crystal Kingdom episodes in November right?”
“Right on the mark!” Variety gave a twirl in excitement. “I can’t wait to be in the spotlight again. This show has done so much for everypony. I have to say, I would have never imaged to get so much fan mail and love letters in my life until they first arrived.”
Sunset giggled a little as she remembered the morning after her first episode. Twilight had came up to Variety for small talk while she was opening her mailbox. Thousands of sealed envelopes cascaded over her. She couldn’t imagine how Junior Ditzy Doo managed to stuff all those letters in that tiny box. As they both giggled about their entire fan’s devotion to the cast, she could see a flicker of a dragon’s tail go by. She turned to see an odd creature with mismatched limbs standing by some ponies. He seemed to be signing autographs for them, giving them all a serene smile.
“Hey, isn’t that Discord?” Sunset asked.
Variety turned around to see the group of colts and mares around him. “You think? He got invited today to do some voiceovers for the next villain. We couldn’t find a King Sombra lookalike so he’s here to pose as him.”
“Shape shifting magic?”
“Eeeyup,” she said in a Big Mac accent. The two giggled a little more before looking back at Discord’s fans. “I say, I think they might be his Star Trek fans.”
Sunset gave her a confused look before turning back to the group. She now noticed the redshirts that some of them were wearing and the golden upside-down V badges they’d proudly wore on their chest. They must be Star Trekkies. As she pondered this, the studio’s bay doors opened to reveal a group of ponies walking in. They were dressed in unusually metallic armor, and wore a helmet with a distinguishable golden visor. Variety looked at them and gave a ‘humph’ and a disapproving look.
“It’s them,” she mumbled.
“Who?” Sunset asked.
“The cast for the Haylo 4 movie,” she sneered. “They always had first dibs on the warehouses we’ve tried to rent for our show production. Now it looks like we got here first. Huzzah!”
Sunset looked at her with raised eyebrows. “You always go over dramatic do you?”
Variety sheepishly smiled as Sunset saw her through her fake hatred. “Of course dear, it’s only one of the many things that makes me interesting. I actually adore their movies a lot.”
“Yeah I guess as much,” Sunset agreed. “Their vfx team is really amazing.”
As she complimented the sci-fi production team, she could see another group of ponies huddled around Almond Fluttershy. The mare was completely different from her show’s persona. She’s confident, not afraid to assert her position, and is always happy to meet new ponies.
“Hey what are they doing here?” Variety asked.
“Must be her older fans. I can see some Terminator shirts on them,” Sunset concluded.
“Oh yeah, didn’t Almond play as the creepy robot in those movies?”
“The robot assassin? Yep.”
As Variety pondered this, a certain rainbow mare zoomed towards them. They both covered their eyes as the mare slowed to a stop, making dust clouds all the way. They coughed a bit before looking at their co-actor, Aurora Dash. She gave a quick salute to the mares and moved into to whisper.
“Hey guys! Didn’t you hear? Vice-Prez Selene is here!” she whispered.
Sunset’s eyes grew larger. “What? She is? I thought she couldn’t make it to the shoot. We had to use the stunt double to act in her place.”
“There’s no doubt about it,” she confirmed.
She pointed her hoof in the general direction of the director’s chair. Upon the chair was their director of the show. He didn’t look like much with his tan coat, but his red mane with its pair of grey stripes lined down in the middle made him look slightly unique. Beside him was an ice blue alicorn with a starry blue mane flowing around. She had a concerned look upon her face as she talked to the director. Selene resemembled her mother greatly, aside from the lighter shade of her coat and her cutie mark of two comets passing over an eight-pointed star, which was over a splotchy background of black. It reminded Sunset of a bear's pawprint.
“Why is she talking to Sentinel?” Sunset asked.
“What you don’t know?” Aurora asked. “There are rumors going around saying that he has the hots for Selene!”
Sunset gave her a bemused look. “Wut?”
Aurora facehoofed at her friend’s oblivious nature. She isn’t the type for gossips. “You didn’t know? They’ve been secretly going out for the past few weeks!”
“But Aurora, you said these are rumors. Are you are sure they’ve been going out?”
“Because I saw them at a café with my own eyes!”
Variety gave a long dramatic gasp. “Please! You have to give us the details! Did they kiss?”
“Variety!” Sunset snapped. This was just a bunch of horse apples to her. “Look for all you know, they could just be friends. Talking about I don’t know, Season 3? She didn’t get a lot of face time so they probably were talking about her cameo in the next season.”
“But Sunset, just look at them!” Aurora pointed at two ponies.
Selene had a very concerned look on her face as she talked to Sentinel, who had as much unease on his. Selene looked at her sister, Solaria, every now and then. She gave Selene a look of disapproving and turned back to the group of news reporters to answer their questions of the country's status. Selene calmly took a deep breath and let it all out.
“Look Sentinel, as much as I would like to continue our relationship, we can’t see each other again. At least, as lovers,” she frowned.
Sentinel tried to say something but she placed a hoof over his lips.
“Please, let me finish.” Her eyes started to tear up a little. “Solaria already knows about our relationship and has forbid me to go out with you anymore. She’s worried that if this gets out, the public will be riled up. I can’t afford to be the cause of the chaos that might occur.” She peered over at Discord, who in turn gave her an oblivious smile. "I don't want you to get hurt because of me."
“Selene…” Sentinel whispered.
Selene stared into her lover’s eyes for one last time, longing for his words comfort and care. After several passing moments of silence, she quickly broke eye contact and turned her back to him.
“Good bye, my love,” she whispered with tears trailing down from her eyes.
“Wait,” he murmured, his voice growing into a desperate shout. “Wait!”
He suddenly woke up with sweat beading down his forehead. He could feel his heart beating at neck breaking speed capable of tearing apart the molecules of his very being. He groaned loudly as he fell back on his cushy bed. The soft downs of the pillow were comforting but they couldn’t calm his rushing nerves. It all started being a weird dream for him with the Mane Six’s entire life being produced in some sort of Applewood warehouse in Los Pegasus. Then it quickly turned into a nightmare when Selene (or maybe it was Luna) broke up with his dream self.
As he lied underneath the silk covers, he started to feel a bit hungry. He could use a snack after that mess of a dream. He threw off the covers and made his way towards the kitchen. As he walked down the chilly hallway, he thought about himself and Luna. They were really good friends. Really good friends. But they’re not that close to each other as he had thought. He suspected that Luna saw him more like a little brother and less of a potential soul-mate. He could imagine that would be the more likely case. Who was he to think that he could have a chance with one of most powerful goddess Equestria has ever known? Honestly, he felt sick about himself, but he couldn’t help but harbor these feelings for her. She was kind, beautiful, lovely, brave, smart, everything that he could hope for in a marefriend. Yet she always remained out of reach.
He found himself staring at the fridge and its delectable provisions. He browsed through the inventory and found a daisy sandwich lying on a plate. He smiled a bit and surrounded the dish with a purple glow.
“Heh. Come to daddy,” he whispered.
“Oh I’m here alright.”
His eyes grew bigger at the sound of a seductive mare’s voice. Who the buck is in his house? He slowly turned around to face a large mare with a look on her face that screamed ‘I want your soul’. Her wings were folded and her horn was very long. Her luxurious pink mane was flowing in the air despite the fact that there were no windows open . . . wait. Pink mane flowing all by itself? Wings and a horn? Large mare? Oh no.
“Gotcha,” Molestia whispered.
“GAAAAAAAH!”
Luna woke up suddenly and found herself sweating. What a horrible nightmare. She dreamt of Sentinel being an unlucky victim of her older sister. Why did her sister have a faint pink mane instead of her splendid rainbow one? And why did she dream of her preying upon Sentinel? She must of down something horrible in a past life to have this nightmare. Wait a second . . . does she even have a past life? As she sat there with that thought, her ears picked up the sound of somepony stirring next to her. She looked down to see Sentinel calmly sleeping beside her. He was lightly snoring and was hugging the pillow like a newborn infant with its toy. What the buck was he doing in her bed?
Luna had enough weirdness tonight and was about to wake him up until he started to fidget a little. His emotions were that of fear and he ruffled around the sheets uncomfortably. She concluded that he was having a bad dream as well. She decided to not wake him up and let him get his sleep, but as he moaned in the bed she couldn’t help but feel bad for him. A random thought occurred to her that she could probably comfort the colt with a motherly kiss on the forehead. She had no idea where she got the idea, but it was crazy enough to work.
As she moved over to Sentinel’s forehead and puckered up for a goodnight kiss, she suddenly moved a bit too far forward and landed on him. Her lips met with his and he quickly open up his eyes to meet with hers. His skyblue eyes grew larger in realization of what was happening to him. Her arms somehow managed to wrap around him in a hug, and she could feel his and her heart beating together in harmony. A rising moment of panic quickly built up in Luna as they were ‘stuck’ in this awkward moment. She blushed furiously as she tried to find a way to explain this.
Octavia suddenly woke up from her dream. She rubbed her head in shame as she thought about the weird vision she had. Her mare friend, Vinyl Scratch, was sleeping soundly beside her, not being bothered by her sudden waking. Octavia sighed and shook her head.
“I’ve got to stop drinking eggnog fruit punch,” she promised to herself.