“…and so we welcome you all to our celebration.” The Princess Celestia paused at the tumult of cheering and pounding hooves in applause, waiting until it had died down enough to continue. “Our chefs and bakers have outdone themselves today, so please help yourselves as much as you like.” There was another hearty cheer at this; royal cooking was not to be taken lightly. It was to be taken in as large a quantity as decorum would allow, if you were one of those who cared about such things.
Pinkie Pie would never be counted in that number. “Cupcakes and pie and cake and sandwiches and ooh ooh ooh, Derpy, looklooklook!” Bouncing around, she nudged the smoky grey Pegasus Pony and pointed to one side.
“MUFFINS!” they shrieked together, laughing, and took off in a blur for the buffet line.
“Now them two are gonna work that poor baker til he’s all frazzles and dust,” Applejack laughed. “Hey Apple Bloom, what say we mosey on over thar and put a couple'a pies to the test?”
The little yellow filly looked up at her sister and matched her grin for grin. “Betcha ah can eat more than you!”
“Yer on, girl!” They trotted off to join Pinkie and Derpy in the line, the filly’s hairbow bouncing about as she turned her head from side to side, trying to take in all the sights at once. Twilight Sparkle watched them go as she stood with the rest of her friends; at an unspoken agreement, they had stuck together after arriving for mutual support to avoid being overwhelmed by the massive crowd. Each of them had been allowed one guest: Pinkie Pie had gotten Derpy to come along at the last minute. Rarity and Applejack had both brought their sisters, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. Rainbow Dash had brought Scootaloo along, and the little filly had hardly uttered a word, her wide eyes taking in all the strangers as she huddled next to her bigger friend. Spike stood beside Twilight Sparkle, and Fluttershy, stating that she could use the assistance (and protection), had brought Angel, her pet rabbit.
“Now I don’t have to worry about getting…um…lost, in the garden,” Fluttershy stated. “Angel said he’d help me out.”
“Ooohkay,” Spike muttered. “Whatever you say, Fluttershy.” The little dragon looked around the room with an unimpressed expression; having been born here and lived here, for at least a short while, all the bustle, noise and pomp were old hat to him. “C’mon, Twilight, let’s go get somethin’ to eat, huh? I’m starving!”
“Go ahead, Spike, I’ll catch up with you later.” Twilight glanced back at Rainbow Dash and offered a smile. “I have to admit, I don’t have much of an appetite; I’m a bit nervous about later. How about you?”
Rainbow, her gaze on the open ballroom floor where the dances – and songs – would be performed later tonight, started abruptly. “Huh? Oh, nah,” she said. “This thing’s a piece of cake. One two three, easy as pie. Right, squirt?” She glanced down at Scootaloo beside her.
“Rainbow,” the little filly said in a small voice, “this place is really big.”
“Well duh,” Rainbow Dash laughed. “It is a palace, kiddo.”
“And there are a lot of ponies here…”
“Yeah. So? This is what it’s like to perform for a crowd.” Rainbow leaned down and nudged the filly. “Hey, don’t freeze up on me, squirt. I need my number one fan to help cheer me on tonight, right?”
Scootaloo jumped as if poked. “Oh! Oh yeah, sure! No problem, Rainbow Dash!”
Rainbow laughed again. “Relax, kiddo, they’re all gonna be staring at me instead of you. You have nothing to worry about.” She stuck a hoof into the filly’s forelock and applied a grade A-1 noogie. “Why don’t you go with Rarity and Sweetie Belle and get some grub, huh?”
“Okay, sure!” Scootaloo began to bound away and stopped short, looking back. “You want me to bring you something?”
“Nah, help yourself. Never perform on a full stomach, kiddo.” Rainbow paused. “Tell you what, you save me an apple for when it’s over, okay?”
“I’m on it!” With a squeal of delight, Scootaloo tackled Sweetie Belle, and they took off, Rarity casting a knowing glance over her shoulder before following them. “Sweetie, you mind your manners, do you hear me?!”
“But she started it…”
Rainbow chuckled quietly, then turned back to see Twilight Sparkle examining her with a critical eye. “What?”
“You arenervous.”
The cyan pegasus snorted. “Yeah, ya think?”
“You brought a cheeringsection??”
Rainbow Dash grinned and struck a pose. “Sure. Jealous?”
Twilight groaned. “What? No, I’m not jealous, I just don’t think you understand-“ She broke off as a large, dark form imposed itself upon her vision.
“Greetings once again, Twilight Sparkle! Oh, excuse us.” Princess Luna stood before them, the dusky flow of her mane and tail alight with a glittering storm of constellations. “We do not believe we have actually been introduced to your friend before. Properly, that is,” she added with a quirky smile.
Rainbow Dash grinned back uneasily. “Yeah, sorry about the whole lightning bolt thing.”
“Likewise.” Luna’s eyes flashed with repressed mirth. “Nevertheless, perhaps we could…cooperate at the next Nightmare Night celebration?” Luna glanced around, noting that there was nopony else nearby, and lowered her voice. “I had a couple of ideas for…pranks, and I could use some help in setting them off.”
Twilight stared, disbelieving. “You two pranking together?”
“Oh that’ll be EPIC!” Rainbow Dash stuck a forehoof out. “Deal!”
Luna stood irresolute for a moment, then got the idea and tapped her own hoof daintly with the pegasus. “Deal.” Her voice resumed its normal volume, but still softer than the “Royal Canterlot Voice” she’d initially unleashed upon the world. “Twilight, my sister has spoken to me of your magical prowess, and we are aware of your vast historical knowledge. We should like to enlist your aid in a research project, if you would be willing.”
Twilight gaped for a moment. “O-Of course!” She pranced in place, her tail flickering from side to side. “I’d be delighted!”
Luna smiled. “Wonderful! We are aware you are otherwise occupied this evening, but we should like to discuss some of the specifics with you over dinner, if you would like.”
Rainbow Dash nudged her friend’s shoulder. “Go ahead, Books. I’ll catch up with you later.” She ruffled the feathers of her left wing, displaying the small envelope tucked underneath. “I’ll turn in our songs to the conductor and then I’m gonna go hang out with the band for a bit.”
Twilight pursed her mouth worriedly. “You sure?”
“Yeah, no problem.” Rainbow watched the two of them pace slowly away; in ten seconds they were already neck deep in some discussion about Starbeard the Swirled, or somesuch. As soon as they were out of sight, she began walking slowly around the immense hall, her eyes scanning the figures that moved to and fro. A couple of minutes netted her the target she was searching for, and she trotted over to the unicorn who had been busily scribbling names in a large guestbook next to the doorway. “Hey, buddy!”
“Yesss?” The unicorn frowned momentarily, looking up from behind the short desk where he sat. “I’m sorry, miss, I don’t believe we’ve met…?”
“Not a problem.” Best Young Flier award winner, chump. Doesn’t anybody read the news anymore? “Listen, I’ve got a favor to ask, and you’re the only fella I know who can help me out.”
He blinked. “But of course, milady. What would you ask of a simple scribe?”
Rainbow opened the packet under her wing; resisting the sudden urge to peek at the other songs her friends had written, she fished out her dog-eared copy of her lyrics, written front and back. “I need you to recopy something for me; I didn’t have time to do it over again today.” She placed the paper before him and offered a nervous smile. “I want to make sure the band doesn’t get the wrong side up when they play tonight.”
“The band…oh! You mean the Royal Orchestra.” The scribe’s chest puffed with pride. “Don’t worry. Our conductor is a true master. Given a set of lyrics…any lyrics…he will use his magic to perform a unique and most suitable performance to match your own.” The unicorn levitated a set of spectacles out of a waistcoat pocket and perched them on his muzzle. Peering down at the sheet of words, with half of the lines scratched out or overwritten, he frowned. “Well, he’ll do his best, anyway.”
Rainbow sighed. “Not that one.” She gripped a corner in her teeth and flipped the sheet over. “This one.”
“Oh. Oh! Oh, I see your concern, of course.” The quill sitting beside him glowed bright orange, and lifted from its inkwell to begin busily scribbling on a clean sheet of paper. “Not to worry, milady, I’ll have this done posthaste.”
“Thanks, buddy.”
The scribe paused in his writing and blinked at her again. “Buddy?”
Rainbow rapped her forehoof on the desk. “Hey! Posthaste, remember?”
Huddled together with her friends, Rainbow Dash stood to one side of the immense hall and closed her eyes, listening to the royal page finishing the introduction of the final event of the evening. “I wish he’d just shut up and let us get on with it.”
“It’s Royal Canterlot, Rainbow.” Twilight glanced sharply at her friend. “Everypony talks like that at formal occasions.”
“Yah mean usin’ five words when two ‘ud do jest as well?” Applejack snorted. “It’s a wonder ever’pony in this place ain’t run outa air with all the talkin’ they do here.”
“Will you girls hush? He’s done!” Rarity glanced at Twilight. “Well. Who goes first?”
“I…I don’t know. Nobody told me!” Twilight glanced frantically about for a moment. “Who’s got a program?”
“They didn’t give any out,” Rainbow muttered. “This isn’t a school play, Books.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll go first. Come on, Angel.”
Rainbow Dash glanced around in shock as Fluttershy walked away from them toward the center of the room. “I don’t believe I just saw that.”
“Me neither.” Applejack shook her head, then looked over. “Twilight, shut yer yap. Yer drawin’ flies.”
Twilight Sparkle blinked, her jaw still agape. “Huh?”
Applejack leaned over and flicked her foreleg up, shutting her friend’s mouth with a soft pop. “That’s better.”
The lamps in the room began to dim, and from the balcony high above, a series of small spotlights flicked on, bathing the center of the hall with a soft lake of light. Fluttershy walked slowly into it and stopped, waiting for Angel to join her. She closed her eyes for a moment, then looked up at the center of the balcony where the unicorn conducting the orchestra stood waiting.
“Fluttershy, ja?” He flipped through the stack of pages to her song and stopped. “Ach so. You may begin.”
One by one, Rainbow watched her friends walk out into the pool of light in the center of the room, and as each one filled the air with their song…their song, created by them, for them, and about them, she was overwhelmed by the raw depth of their feelings. Fluttershy, whom she was sure would have never dared to set foot in this darkened hall mostly full of strangers, sang not about the animals she loved, but about the simple love of life she had, and how caring for others, even strangers, was the only way she could express herself. Twilight Sparkle followed, and wove a beautiful song of her love of learning, that you could never stop learning, and the wonder of it all was that each day there would always be something new you have never seen before.
Applejack followed, and true to her word, she didn’t sing about apples….exactly. She sang about her family, their love for each other and the land, and how all of them, together, faced every challenge, every failure, and every triumph together. Rarity went next, and her clear voice filled the hall with the wonder of beautiful things, common and rare, and that such things had to be shared amongst us all, or else their beauty was diminished. Her final verse spoke of the rarest of treasures…and revealed it to be her sister, a gem uncut, whose beauty had yet to be revealed.
This last reduced Pinkie Pie, and about half of the audience, to tears, and it was several moments before order was restored. Still sniffling, but smiling, the pink Earth Pony bounded into the center of the spotlight and stopped. “HI EVERYPONY!!”
The sheer exuberance of the shout jerked a startled laugh out of several members of the court, and the reaction began to spread like wildfire as Pinkie’s song began. Not content to simply recite her lines, she began dancing back and forth in a jig as she sank about parties, jokes, and how great it was to eat cake icing off the spoon when nobody’s looking. She sang about the joy of dancing when you feel like it, and that fun was where you find it, if you take the trouble to look.
At last she concluded, missing the last step and sitting down hard with a loud “Eeep!” There were several exclamations of alarm, but Pinkie immediately burst out laughing again, and the crowd joined her, sending her back to her friends with a storm of hoof-stamping applause.
“That was great,” she exclaimed, trotting back to where they all stood. “Did you see the end? I wish I’d thought of that before!”
“Yeah, Pinkie, I think we all saw it.” Twilight smiled at her, and then looked over at Rainbow Dash. “Your turn.”
“Yeah.” Rainbow swallowed heavily and straightened, brushing her forelock out of her eyes. “Here goes nothin’.”
“Don’ worry ‘bout it, sugarcube,” said Applejack, patting her friend on the shoulder. “Just sing what’s in yer heart.”