Second Lesson- The Beginnings of Bright Valley
As the afternoon sky grew dark over the city, ponies from every corner of Bright Valley converged on the Popcorn theatre. Earth equines of every shape, size, and color poured into the lobby, eager to spend an entertaining night with their families and loved ones on this most important of city holidays. The many spectators waited in the long line to enter, hopeful that these self-professed 'harmony bearers' would create an experience to remember!
"Well, Cadence, this is it!" Silver Swirl sighed as the two mares moved to sit in the royal box. "Here's your girl's chance to prove what they're made of!"
"Don't worry, Silver!" the Alicorn whinnied, flexing her wings. "Rest assured, they'll come through for both you, and your city!"
...
"No! No! I don't want to!!" Posey shrieked as the other girls surrounded her. "You can't make me!!"
"What's gotten into ya, Posey?" Firefly snorted. "Quit actin' like such a fraidy pony!"
"Posey, we need you to stand with us in this play!" Glory pleaded. "Please, you've got to play your part. too!"
"I can't perform in from of all those ponies!" She whinnied in fear. "Why can't Twilight use that invisibility spell on the crowd again?"
"Because the Princesses would detect the spell and consider it an insult!" Twilight replied. "You're going to have to do this on your own!"
"I can't! I can't!" She pleaded. "Let me go, girls, please!"
"Hey girls, I brought that last vase of daffodils you wante-" Peachy trotted into the door, noticing her quivering sister. "Hey, what's wrong with her?"
"Awww, she's having a bad case of stage fright!" Applejack snorted. "We need her to play her part in just a few minutes!"
"Hm, just like Posey to do that!" Peachy snorted, trotting over to look at her sister. "Don't worry, sister! I'll step in and act in your place!"
"W-what?" Posey looked up at her twin, surprised. "What do you mean?"
"Aw, c'mon, sis!" Peachy responded, rolling her eyes. "I've always had to handle things for you because you were too scared to handle things." Peachy looked up at Twilight. "Now let me see her script! I've only got a few minutes to learn it!"
...
It wasn't long before the theatre went dark, and the curtains opened. Before the audience appeared a modern, industrialized town, not unlike Bright Valley. Out onto the stage stepped a well dressed Glory, all decked out in a blue medieval gown and embroidered damsel hat.
"In the days before the Confederacy, in the waning days of old Equestria... the Ponyland Republic was the home of our ancestors. A beacon of hope and progress, the forward-thinking earth ponies of this land lived in the most advanced civilization in the history of Ponykind!"
Out onto the stage, came a white earth mare, with a deep pink mane, and wrapped candy cutie mark. She was followed out by a mare with a yellow mane and coat, and the image of a tea set on her flank.
"Advisor Taffy!" The yellow mare snorted pompously. "Do we not live in the greatest and most sophisticated society in all of Ponyland?"
"Indeed, Minister Crumpet!" The white mare replied. "You run a nation that is envied, even by the nobility of Equestria!"
"This fair land continued to prosper... until the day the dark lord came, spreading his evil over all of Ponyland! The Republic was engulfed in flames, as the dark armies marched over it's towns and cities, destroying everything in it's path!"
Flames soon covered the beautiful streets and homes, causing ponies to flee in every direction. Dark armies of lizard men, armed with spears and axes, marched after their fleeing victims.
"Mwahahahaha! Run, foolish Ponies!" The pony all decked out as a minotaur roared, his rope suspended chariot of midnight gliding across the stage. "I shall cover your republic in a night that never ends!"
The fake fires caused the scenery to 'burn' away, leaving the weeping ponies standing on stage.
"Alas! Our kingdom has fallen into shadow!" Minister Crumpet wept bitterly. "Whatever shall we do?"
"Fear not, noble earth ponies!" A pink unicorn with a blue mane and heart cutie mark decreed. "I, Princess Bangles, come to you with an offer from the Princess of Equestria!"
"Princess Luna sent her niece to offer the earth ponies sanctuary in the land from which their ancestors had originally come. But the hearts and minds of the earth ponies had been hardened by several generation of mistrust and hatred."
"Why should my citizens listen to you?" Minister Crumpet scoffed. "Your princess probably means to lead us back into servitude to Unicorns and Pegasus, no doubt!"
"But you cannot stay in the Republic!" Bangles protested. "These lands are poisoned, and are now home to monsters who prey upon your ponies!"
"Better to die free, in a futile battle against the dark lord," Taffy yelled back, "then to spend the rest of our lives groveling before the magic-using ponies!"
"There was a rift of mistrust between the earth ponies and their Equestrian cousins. It would take an earth pony mare to bring these two sides together!"
...
Far, far away from Bright Valley, another pony was watching the play via enchanted crystal ball. In the very heart of the crystal sea stood a magnificent castle surrounded by palm trees. At the very heart of this Royal Paradise, a lavender unicorn with an aqua mane watched as the play went into it's second act, carefully studying Twilight Shine as she acted out her part on the stage.
"So that's the pony whose replacing you as the element of magic." A white Pegasus with a silver mane called out from behind her. "It seems a bit of a step down from you, Amethyst."
"For good or bad, Tiffany, she is what she is," the princess pony snorted, looking back at her fellow royal. "Mi Amore Cadenza must have seen something in her and the others if she's training them to be the next harmony bearers."
"Blast it, Ami! Are we going to simply sit on our hooves and let these usurpers take the elements of harmony from us?!?" Princess Tiffany growled. "We're the princess ponies, descended from Luna and Celestia themselves! Why should we have to give up our power just because the last alicorn gets a nostalgia rush!"
Princess Amethyst picked up her glittery magic wand- forged from Twilight Sparkle's tiara. It housed the element of magic, and had been passed onto her by her mother, the Previous Princess of magic. She and the other princess ponies had never done anything to earn the elements of harmony, they had mere inherited the powers once used by the great heroines of Equestria.
"If they are more worthy than we are, then the elements will pass to them, no matter what we do." The unicorn replied logically, turning back to watch the rest of the play through her enchanted mirror. "And even if the powers of harmony are lost, we are still the rulers of the Ponyland Confederacy. Even though she is subordinate to us, Princess Cadence is far older than we. And we shall do best to trust her judgment!"
...
Back on the stage, Glory continued to narrate as the third act began.
"It was into this chaos, that the most beautiful mare of yellow coat and green mane stepped into the picture. Shy and demure, this sweet pony of the gentlest disposition had an idea that would satisfy both sides! But alas! Poor Cascade was too timid to speak to the leaders of these two mighty nations!"
"Oh, dear!" The quiet earth pony whispered. "I think I know how to save our nation! But what important pony would ever listen to me?"
"And so it was, that a humble, unwitting mare was visited by none other than Princess Luna herself! The noble alicorn, ancient and wise, did come to impart her sage wisdom..."
"Oh, sorry Silver!" Cadence whinnied suddenly. "That's my cue!"
Before the white unicorn could react, the alicorn had disappeared with a *poof* only to have Princess Luna step onto the stage a few minutes later- flanked on either side by a pink and a white Pegasus guard.
"Young pony, be not afraid to stand up and tell thy superiors what thine mind has conceived!" The dark blue alicorn shook her starry mane. "A voice from the humblest of ponies can change hearts, and save thine herd from it's own stubbornness!"
"I-I will try, Princess!" She told her timidly, bowing to the alicorn. Luna then vanished from the stage
.
"There,I’m back!" Cadence whinnied, appearing next to a dumbfounded Silver Swirl. "What did I miss?"
"And so, timid little Cascade went before the terribly important ponies with her terribly important idea. They listened to what the shy pony has to say."
"We could make our own home within Equestria! Where we can live apart, and free!" Cascade exclaimed. "But we can still except Luna as our ruler, and become a herd within a herd!"
"But how can we ensure your loyalty?" Bangles asked. "The republic has had naught but disdain for all but earth ponies."
"But what is to stop the ponies with magic from dominating us?" Taffy asked. "We will be defenseless against their great power!"
"You silly fillies!" Cascade snapped, her confidence raised by their ignorance. "We SHALL be loyal to Equestria for the generous gift of their lands! And we cannot be dominated by the ponies with magic, for we earth ponies have a magic all of our own!"
The mare gestures towards the soil, causing flowers to burst into bloom all over the stage.
"See now! How the riches of the earth come forth at an earth mare's touch! Both this, and the great physical strength and agility we have over the other two tribes, are the gifts B'zkre the horsemaster has allotted to earth ponykind!"
"You speak with great wisdom, fair Cascade." Bangle whinnied, bowing to the surprised mare. "Let it be known that we shall give you and your kin the lands we did promise."
"We too are moved by your plea, small one!" The impressed Crumpet bowed, as well. "And as a token of our goodwill, a sign of trust to our sisters in ponykind, we shall make Bangles our princess, to rule over us in Luna's name!"
"B-but there must still be some proof of earth pony authority!" Taffy insisted, her negativity being drowned out by the other ponies goodwill. "A series of guilds, to protect earth pony interests!"
"And so it was, that the simplest and humblest of mares did bring harmony to two herds who were filled with mistrust. And if such a small and insignificant pony could do that for her herd... what, dear viewer, can you do for yours?"
The curtain came down, and the theater was filled with cheering and clapping. As it rose again, most of the ponies who had been in the performance gave a collective bow, as the curtain came down a second time. Many of the mares, foals, and stallions began filing out of their seats, talking and gossiping about how wonderful the show had been!
...
"Can you believe how well Posey acted?" Sugarberry laughed as she trotted out of the guild master section. "I'm surprised Bright Bouquet’s little girl had it in her!"
"The lighting accented the costumes marvelously!" Bonnie Bonnets whinnied with delight. "Miss Bow Tie and Miss Glory did a fabulous job with the costumes!"
"To say nothing of Firefly and Surprise's scenery and spotlight work!" Up, up and away agreed, her face falling. "In spite of... certain... nagging... interference..."
"...I guess we did stick our noses in where they didn't belong." Night Glider agreed. "I suppose we should apologize to the girls and Silver Swirl, tell them we were wrong!"
"If you wish to apologize, then it's best that we hurry...." Yum Yum started.
"...to the banquet hall, at once!" Munchy finished. “They will be waiting for us there!”
"You know, the message of that play almost makes me want to fight for equal rights for all ponies, regardless of type." Bonnie Bonnets added.
"Even equality of the sexes?" Night Glider asked, surprised.
"Oh, heavens no!" Bonnie snorted back. "Stallions would become even more unmanageable than they already are!"
...
"Wow Posey, I didn't know you had it in you! That was a great performance!"
"Thanks, Firefly! I guess all I needed was the right motivation!"
"Uhh, girls? Shouldn't we let Peachy out of that closet now?"