//------------------------------//
// Talented 
// Story: New to Ponyville; A Young Colt's Adventure 
// by AxtontheMechanist 
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The night had come for the big performances at the Ponyville Talent Show, and the stage was set for the multitude of performances from the younger participants. The judges sat ready in their seats, looking with calculating glances at the drawn curtain, ready for the first performance.

The judge’s panel consisted of a tough crowd of judges. On the far left was an Earth Pony going by the name of Sky Quill, who had been ten years living in the business of judging and such activities that required a judge (like contests). He had seen many things in his ten years as a competition judge, and thus was extremely hard to impress. Next, was a Pegasus who was called Lightning Storm, who had spent quite a few years as a judge, and many years before that overseeing Cloudsdale operations and work sites which meant he had a lot of experience on giving orders and also possessed an amazing judge of character.
The third judge was known as Keen Sights, and was fairly old. However, she had a wit that was as sharp as any sword and this gave her an easy time at judging people. Unfortunately, she was the shrewdest Unicorn a pony could meet and showed it by judging harshly; it was nigh on impossible to impress her. The final judge was none other than Mayor Mare, and although she was fair with her verdicts, she had seen a lot in her time so the participants would have a fairly time to impress her.

As the show was signaled to start, Cheerilee came on stage to announce the start of the talent show.
“Welcome mares and gentlecolts, one and all to the Young Performers Talent Show!” Cheerilee announced, greeting the audience with a low bow “Tonight’s performers will perform their best for our panel of judges and shall receive varied comments. However, only one performance will win the ultimate prize money of an outstanding three hundred and twenty bits! I wish luck to all the performers in tonight’s show. Without further ado, let the show commence with our first performance; Defensive Flight and Scootaloo!”

Cheerilee walked offstage, and the red velvet curtains fell about like red waves to reveal the stage. The stage itself was magnificent, in its own unique way. The colors of the background stage colors were that of a blue and orange clash, with a pure white lightning bolt splitting the display into the two colors. On the stage stood a ramp, which was a blue colour with a lightning bolt of red on it. Trapeze ropes were set way up on high within the stages vicinity, promising the act of acrobatics.

All of a sudden, smoke started trailing onto the stage, and low pitched rock music was playing in the background, giving an air of tension to the stage. All of a sudden, Scootaloo zoomed up the ramp, gaining a huge amount of height in her ramp jump, before doing a triple back flip in the air before landing. She landed on all four wheels making the crowd go wild. After Scootaloo had zoomed offstage for her next move, Defensive had gotten up on the trapeze platforms, and the audience gasped; his wings were tied shut, basically disallowing him flight. As he jumped off the platform towards the first trapeze, the audience watched in awe as he performed a multitude of twists and flips in midair before catching the trapeze, and swinging off to the other side, earning an uproarious cheer from the crowd. 

The final move was now ready, and Scootaloo sped up the ramp for the final jump, the crowd watching with eager eyes. As Scootaloo soared through the air, she jumped off her scooter, twisting in the air, making the crowd take a sharp intake of breath as timed seemed to almost slow. However, before anyone could assume that Scootaloo would fall and get hurt, Defensive sped past on his powerful half-dragon wings, catching Scootaloo before placing her back on her scooter; they had performed a mid air twist before Scootaloo was placed back on her scooter, which sent the crowd wild. The duo landed, and the crowd was stomping down their hooves in appreciation of the spectacular acrobatics and scooter moves performance. The music went down, and the lights focused on the judges, the whole crowd waiting for their verdict on the performance.

Sky Quill went first, giving his comment and score “That was a highly impressive performance, but it could have lasted longer. I am going to give you a seven.” He pulled out a card marked ‘7’ and showed the audience, before resuming to sit in his seat. The next judge was Lightning Storm who had a small smile on his face.

“Now that’s an aerial show to be proud of! I’m going to give you an eight!” He announced placing his card marked ‘8’ in the air before once again sitting down. The third judge was Keen Sights, who had a small glint in her eye.

“An impressive performance, but like Sky Quill said, it could have been longer. I will award you a seven.” She showed her card to the crowd before taking her seat. Last off all was Mayor Mare, who showed her appreciation for the performance.
“A well done performance and an amazing feat for ones of such young age! I award you a nine!” She held up her card, smiling at the duo on stage, before resuming her place on the panel. Overall, this means that Scootaloo and Defensive were at an outstanding score of thirty one.

Defensive and Scootaloo bowed to the audience, who applauded once more, before they walked offstage, the curtains falling shut and readying for the next performance.

Many other performances came that night, from magic shows to dance groups, all vying for the best score from the judge. Finally the last performance was to be performed; Iris and Axton.

Axton was standing ready in hi costume, like Iris. However, Iris was looking nervous and asked Axton “Are you sure we’ll be able to do this?” She looked unnerved at the large crowd that was standing in front of the stage in the viewing stands.
“Don’t worry about it, we look fine and I know that by Celestia we can sing fine, so there really is nothing to fret over. Plus these costumes are epic.” He told her, glancing at their costumes. These costumes fit in with the theme of their song, post apocalyptic wasteland survivors. Good things Rarity helped them out due to Sweetie Belle asking her.

The golden smoke came onto the stage signalling that they needed to get on stage. This golden smoke looked like the sands of the Mojave wasteland from a video game that both of them had played a lot. By now, however, they were on the stage and the backing track was ready and starting. Axton started off the song, both of them looking like a silhouette, their bodies hidden by the golden smoke, which soon started to disperse, revealing a set which looked like a desolate nuclear wasteland, with Axton and Iris in the center of the stage.

The song started off well, the crowd getting into a rhythm of stomping hooves and nodding heads as the song got into its midst. Axton sung for the melody and the rap, while Iris filled in with the harmony and chorus, which they both sung together. Before long, the song was finished, and the judges stood up to give their scores. They received a nine from Sky Quill, an eight from Lightning Storm, an eight from Keen Sights and a ten from Mayor Mare. This put them in the winning place for the competition.

After the show, outside the clubhouse...

“That. Was. AWESOME!” Scootaloo exclaimed, bouncing up and down on the spot “We were like ‘Whoosh!’ and ‘Pshoo!’. You were great, D!” Scootaloo rushed up to Defensive and gave him a big kiss the cheek before saying her goodbyes and heading off home for the night, leaving a blushing Defensive standing there next to the others who were chuckling quietly to themselves. Before long, he said his goodbyes and headed off back to Axton’s house to get some sleep as the acrobatics really took the energy out of him.Iris asked Dark to walk with her, and they walked off into the night together, chatting amiably.

With them gone, Apple Bloom smiled at Axton before walking up to him and giving him a passionate look “Ah was amazed by that performance tonight, Axton. Y’all are pretty impressive.” She sat down with him as they gazed up at the beautiful moon, which hung in the sky like a beacon of beauty.

“I couldn't have done it without that amazing set you and Dark made. After all, a performance is nothing without an amazing stage, right?” Axton turned his head to give an encouraging smile to her.

“Ah guess so...” She turned her head towards him and stared deeply into his eyes before they embraced in a passionate kiss. They stayed like that for a few minutes before they broke away from the kiss, both of them blushing deeply.

“I, uh, guess I’ll see you tomorrow. Thanks again, Apple Bloom, you’re pretty amazing.” Axton said, giving Apple Bloom a small peck on the cheek before going to walk home for the night. He whispered a small “Love you” into her ear before walking off into the night back to his house.

Apple Bloom looked up at the moon for the last time that night with a smile on her face. She thought of one thing before leaving to go home to the barn with her share of the prize money ‘I love you too, Axton’.