DAY 5: And the Role Goes to...
The day had been going well for everypony in the Apple Family. Big Mac was telling everypony about his date last night, exciting Grannie Smith who proclaimed that she’d finally have grandkids. Nopony wanted to correct her terminology.
The chores for today involved Applejack cleaning the barn while Big Mac helped with repairs around the house. Apple Bloom went to school today, so she didn’t have to worry about anything. Flim and Flam offered to clean the barn in place of Applejack since they still had the Super Speedy Squeezy Cider 6000 parked in there.
“We’d just feel more comfortable if we were cleaning near our invention. No offense, but we really don’t want anything bad to happen,” Flim explained.
“Y’all act like I’m gonna be hitting your contraption with hammers an’ such. I’m just cleaning up around there. You can join me if you like,” Applejack replied. For some reason the Flim Flam Brothers still looked nervous.
“Well, we think you deserve a break. We can handle the barn. Don’t worry about a thing!” Flam told her, hoping that she’d take the bait.
“Listen, this ain’t your farm yet, so while I appreciate your offer, I’d feel better doing it myself,” Applejack explained. “In fact I’m heading over right now.” Applejack went off to the barn while Flim and Flam looked at each other nervously. They saw Applejack just about to enter the barn just before blocking her.
“It’s just, well, we know your family doesn’t exactly appreciate our inventions, so we just don’t feel like you’d like what you see in there.” Flim hoped that would somehow convince her to step aside. Instead, Applejack opened the barn door while the brothers tried to stop her to no avail. They wouldn’t be able to hide it any longer.
“What in the hay is that thing?” Applejack asked as she saw the monstrosity before her eyes. She had expected to see the familiar contraption that they rode on. What she ended up finding however was a vehicle with what looked like several vacuum tubes on top, along with several robotic arms.
“Well, remember how the original Super Speedy Squeezy Cider 6000 could pick and make cider from apples? We decided on a new design that excels specifically in picking apples in a way they can be safely harvested.” Flim and Flam wore a nervous grin on their face as they explained this to Applejack.
“So that how you fellas picked all those apples so fast!” Grannie Smith yelled when she saw the contraption. “Knew ya couldn’t do the work with yer own hooves. Yer too lazy to put effort into anything!”
“Enough!” Flim yelled out, tired of hearing her say that. “Are you for real? Do you have any idea how difficult it is to make things like this? This takes years of study to understand, plus years of experience on designing and actually putting the thing together. What you call ‘lazy’ is what we call ‘skill’. Why, I bet we could build ANOTHER device that makes cider a whole lot better than yours! You’ll see what I mean. Come on, brother!” Flam grabbed his brother and then pushed everypony out of the barn to begin their creation.
“Guess I won’t be cleaning the barn after all,” joked Applejack, trying to lighten the atmosphere.
Big Mac and Applejack were up on the roof, putting up new shingles. The two saw strange lights and heard loud noises coming from inside their barn. Hopefully they weren’t doing anything that would cause a fire.
“I just don’t get those fellas. Why’re they so upset when we call them out for solving all their problems with machines?” Applejack asked her brother.
“Don’t really know. Personally, I like doing work with my own hands,” he replied. Applejack was actually surprised for a moment when she heard him say more than a couple words.
“Hey sis!” Apple Bloom called out.
“Hey Apple Bloom! School out already?”
“Eeyup!” She took off her sack and climbed up the ladder to join her siblings. All of a sudden a loud bang came from the barn. “What was that?”
“Oh, just the Flim Flam Brothers getting their tails in a twist. We called them out on building machines to solve all their problems and they suddenly got upset.” Applejack saw smoke coming from the barn now. Hopefully that old adage wasn’t right and there wasn’t any fire.
“Those machines are actually kinda neat. I know I could never make something that complicated,” Apple Bloom said with admiration.
“Well they need to know that quality comes from the hooves, not some contraption. Hate that kind of thinking.” Applejack hoped to make Apple Bloom know her position on such topics. She wasn’t going to let her little sis be taken in by machinery.
“Well, don’t they make those machines with their own two hooves? And if it actually does the job, doesn’t it mean that their hard work paid off?” Applejack was about to reply to Apple Bloom, but realized that her sis actually had a good point.
“Huh. Never thought of it like that,” she admitted. Whenever Applejack had always thought of hard work, she’d always imagined putting lots of physical effort into something. She’d never thought of it from a mental standpoint however. Those two must have spent a long time studying up on machines and such to be able to build what they could. Applejack had to admit that she certainly could not make anything they could. She sighed, knowing what she needed to do.
“Big Mac, I’ll be gone for a sec,” Applejack told her brother. She went down the ladder and trotted over to the barn, hoping she could say the right words while talking with them. She knocked on the door and waited for a response. Obviously they couldn’t hear her over themselves. She pounded on the door next. No response. She then decided to just barge in, not caring about manners anymore.
“Listen,” she said before stopping. Right in front of her was the most complicated looking device she had ever seen. It was at least twice the size of the original Super Speedy Squeezy Cider 6000, and looked far more intimidating. At the top appeared to be chutes for where apples would be dumped in. Along the way down she saw what appeared to be an oven to heat the cider, along with a freezer on the opposite side for serving it cool. Further down were tubes that contained different additives labeled on them, such as ‘cinnamon’, ‘cloves’, ‘caramel’, and ‘nutmeg’. At the very bottom were five different spouts for different kinds of cider. Needless to say, Applejack was fairly impressed.
“Hah! Got this finished in exactly five hours!” Flim boasted. “Wouldn’t you say that’s a new record, brother?”
“It certainly does seem that way. Much better than any of the other models. I hereby christen thee,” Flam said, smashing a bottle of cider against the machine’s side, “Super Speedy Squeezy Cider 7000!”
Applejack couldn’t help but clop her hooves at the announcement. The brothers, surprised by this intrusion, turned around to see the clopping pony.
“What do you want?” Flim asked dryly.
“I actually came over here to apologize. I know what Grannie Smith said was rude and fairly hurtful to tell y’all. You obviously put a whole lot of effort into making this thing and I know I couldn’t do the same in a million years. So, peace?” she asked them, extending her hoof, hoping that they weren’t still sore.
“Alright,” they said, both shaking her hoof. At that moment, Grannie Smith came in as well, looking at the tower that was their new creation. Her expression was completely indifferent.
“So, you managed to make it that fast, eh?”
“Yes, Grannie, and she’s a beauty!” declared Flim.
“That’s fine and all, but you fellas missed the point! What I was telling you two was that yer stuck in a rut! You only build machines ta solve yer problems an’ don’t try nothing else. At least do something like clean the dishes without a machine, fer goodness sakes.” The Flim Flam Brothers were about to retort, but then realized that maybe Grannie had a point as well. They spent a lot of time making machines to solve tasks, but never actually attempt to do the tasks in the first place.
“Let’s say that we’re both right about certain things,” Applejack said, hoping to compromise the situation. “Now, how about we get ourselves something to eat?”
“I’m good with that,” Flim said. “After all, we’ve been working on this girl for five hours now. I think it’s time for a break.”
“Agreed!” Apple Bloom said. “Can you imagine how cranky you’d be doing all that work without taking a break? You’d probably go crazy!”
Twilight had spent the entire night getting things ready for the play that would soon be tomorrow. She didn’t bother sleeping as she knew that time was running out and that she needed everypony to be here by today. She managed to send letters out to certain ponies that she knew would be able to play the roles well, along with an explanation about why they needed to act quickly. Hopefully none of the changelings delivering the letters were arrested or anything, otherwise she’d be in trouble.
“Hey Twilight! Have a nice sleep?” Pinkie Pie asked while bouncing into the room Twilight had set up to prepare. Twilight just grunted, too immersed with her script revisions and casting call list in order to answer. “I’ll take that as a yes. So, you decided on our parts yet?”
“Yeah,” Twilight answered, not getting the hint from Pinkie’s prodding hoof.
“Any interesting casting choices?” Pinkie hoped to get something of an answer. The moment she heard about the part of a pony who was the ‘King of Partying’ as Twilight essentially summed up for her, she knew that she needed to have that part.
“Maybe.” Twilight really wasn’t paying much attention. She was trying to cut the script in a way that everypony could memorize their lines by tomorrow. She decided to mix certain interpretations of the story together in a way that could get the story across while not lasting too long. She took the serious nature of the book and tried to combine it with the musical nature of the movie, hoping that the songs would help explain the scenes better than the dialogue that would otherwise take up too much time. What was also very helpful was that most of the songs were actually not too difficult to remember and that the only role they needed to fill that sang multiple songs would be held by Pinkie, who somehow seemed to master songs like no other pony.
“I’ll be letting you guys know who’s taking on what role. Get everypony ready outside of the stage,” Twilight told Pinkie Pie. In a moment she sprinted out, hoping that the faster she got everypony ready, the faster she could know her part.
“Done!” Pinkie Pie yelled out. Twilight walked out of her room and found that Pinkie had somehow managed to gather the entire cast and crew in a matter of minutes. At least she was fast.
“Alright everypony!” Twilight said, not sure if you could greet changelings with that phrase, “I have the new parts for everypony replacing the sick actors. First off, the part of Clopin will be played by Pinkie Pie.” She stopped talking for a moment as she knew it would take Pinkie Pie a full minute to get it out of her system. “Secondly, the part of Esmeralda will be played by Rarity. Third, the part of the Archdeacon I’ll be giving to Fluttershy. It doesn’t have too much of a speaking role, so you won’t have to worry much about stage fright. Also, you’ll be playing a guy, but let’s not worry about that. You girls okay with that?”
“Oh, that’s wonderful! I get to help out AND won’t have to worry about forgetting too many lines.” Fluttershy looked happy about her part. Rarity’s expression said that she already knew that she’d get the part of the gorgeous gypsy woman. She even had her costume on.
“The part of Phoebus will be played by my brother, hope willing that he got my letter and the guards didn’t immediately blast Eric down when he arrived. Same thing for Spike, who I cast to play Quasimodo. I gave him that part since I’ve made him read the book already, so he’s at least familiar with the character. Rainbow Dash, I’ll need you to work with the stagehands. Your speed should definitely help set up the stage for scenes. As for the villain, Judge Frolo, I’ll have Cranky take that part. No offense.” Twilight apologized, hoping she wasn’t casting a bad light on donkeys.
“Ooh! Ooh! What about me?” somepony asked.
“Uh, I’m not sure who you are. All the spots are filled anyway,” Twilight explained.
“Oh come on! Surely you can make an exception for good ol’ Discord,” he told them, teleporting right in front of her. Twilight’s group looked surprised, but none the changelings changed their expressions at all.
“Discord? What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I sometimes crash here at Chrysy’s place,” he explained. “Also, wanna keep away from Ponyville for a little bit after that whole incident involving the super-villains.”
“Alright. Anyway, we don’t have a place for you in the play, so that’s the end of that.” Twilight turned around, but Discord grabbed her by the hind legs and started begging.
“Please? There must be somepony who doesn’t want their role.”
“I don’t,” Cranky spoke up. “I’m too old for all this, and I know I couldn’t get into the character properly. Help yourself,” he said, walking off the stage. Discord performed several backflips out of excitement.
“Woohoo! What character was he?” Discord asked.
“He played the fun-hating villain who wanted to destroy the entire race of people who lived by their own rules,” Twilight explained, trying not to giggle about this. Discord’s excitement suddenly disappeared as he realized that his role was the exact opposite of himself. “Alright everypony! Take a script and let’s get started!”
For the next several hours, everypony went over the script, reading out their lines and learning the stage directions. Twilight hoped that everypony would be able to make it in time so they could do at least one rehearsal before it tomorrow. She seemed confident that she’d made the correct cuts in the script as she saw her friends able to memorize their parts quickly without worrying about another several hundred lines of dialogue. Even Fluttershy seemed to be enjoying her part.
“Hey Twilight, you didn’t write any stage directions for my Topsy Turvy song,” said Pinkie. “Also, why is the word ‘man’ in here? Why not ‘colt, or ‘pony’?”
“I actually want you to do things the way you would do it. Honestly, I really wouldn’t have been that good at writing the stage directions. Surprised they weren’t there already though/ As for the pronouns, the original play was written by griffons who use the pronoun ‘man’ and ‘woman’ to refer to different genders. If you change too many of the pronouns you start to break the flow of dialogue and the music,” Twilight explained. Pinkie Pie started humming her songs when she heard a familiar voice from behind her.
“Twily!” Shining Armor said, hugging her sister from behind. Twilight, surprised and over alert from lack of sleep, jumped straight out of her brother’s arms and hung onto a stalactite.
“Oh, hey Shining Armor!” she greeted when she regained her calm. “How‘ve you been?”
“Pretty good. I have to admit that I was shocked when I saw a changeling come into my kingdom with a note from you saying that you needed me to play the role of Phoebus in a play in the Changeling Kingdom. I told Cadence about it. Obviously, she didn’t want to come.” Twilight was glad her big brother could come. She remembered that he was his favorite character in the story and was actually one of his big inspirations to becoming Captain of the Guard.
“Did you come across Spike? I sent him a letter to come as well.” As if they were listening, two changelings were carrying the dragon forcefully through the hallway. They dropped him as fast as they could so he’d stop squirming.
“What? You guys can’t handle this much dragon, huh?” Spike turned around to see Twilight and Shining Armor right behind him. Shining Armor looked okay, but Twilight looked like a mess.
“Twilight! I hoped you guys were okay. These two goofs came to the library claiming that you wanted me to play some role in a fake play. I knew that they must’ve been lying since I’d never heard of any book or play like that,” Spike explained.
“Spike! I told you before to read that book. Are you telling me that you lied to me about it?” Spike’s eyes popped open as he just remembered what Twilight was talking about. She had made him read it once, but he just skimmed it and thought about what it’d be like to have a second head.
“Uh, must’ve forgotten the title,” he said, lying through his teeth. Twilight fell to her knees and groaned when she heard this.
“Spike! The play is tomorrow! You’re the only one I could think of for the role!” she told him, confusing Spike for a moment.
“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” Spike asked.
“She means that she was so sure that you’d understood the main character of the book so well that you should play the lead role,” Shining Armor said, stopping his sister before she could say something terrible in her sleep-deprived state.
“Yeah, and you’re a beast,” she said. Luckily Spike couldn’t hear her.
“Twilight, go to bed. You look like you should take on the character of Quasimodo right now,” he told her, concerned for his sister’s health.
“At this rate I might have to. Hopefully Spike gets his rear in gear and read his lines. You doing that, Spike?!” she yelled so he could hear her.
“I am!” he replied rather loudly.
“Hey, Twilight, I think I might have a problem,” Discord said. Shining Armor turned to see who was talking and came face-to-face with the Draconequus for the first time ever. He couldn’t help but stare at all the odd features on him.
“Not now, Discord. I’ve gotta check on the stagehands. Talk to Shining Armor.” Twilight then trotted off, leaving the two alone.
“So,” Discord started, pausing for a moment, “who exactly are you?”
“Uh,” Shining Armor said, trying to regain composure, “Shining Armor, Captain of the Guard and…” He just stood there, looking at the creature with mismatched limbs. “I’m sorry, but what exactly are you?
“Discord, Master of Chaos, Ancient Ruler of Equestria deposed by your current princesses, and a really funny guy,” he answered.
“Okay.” Shining Armor just stood there, not knowing what to do next. “I’m gonna practice my lines over there, alright?” He just trotted off, leaving Discord there, still with a question on his mind. He saw Fluttershy and called out to her.
“Fluttershy, dear, I think I might be having some trouble with the script. See, I have trouble keeping to the lines that are in the script and say things that aren’t necessarily in the story. Is that alright?”
“Oh, that’s something that happens to everypony,” Fluttershy explained. “It’s called ad-libbing, and actors usually do it when they’ve forgotten a line or the situation requires them to say their lines just a bit differently. Thankfully I won’t have to worry about that. I really just have one opening song in the beginning and I think only one more line after that,” Fluttershy said cheerfully, remembering how nervous she was for the Hearth’s Warming Eve play. “Just calm down and do your best. That’s what I’m repeating to myself, over and over and over and over…” she continued saying, the smile on her face quickly turning into an expression of despair. Discord felt like his question had only been partially answered, but he guessed that would have to do.
“Alright everypony! I want you to find your costumes and wear them while you’re going over your lines. Get into character.” Twilight was hoping that one of the crew members would point out where the costumes were since she hadn’t been able to find the changing room, but was surprised when she saw what the changeling did. Instead of going into a room to change, the changelings transformed into the characters they’d be playing, costume and all with it. Anypony that wasn’t a changeling in there was caught surprised by that. Twilight however, was actually annoyed by this.
“Are you telling me that you guys don’t have any costumes for non-changelings?” she asked.
“Don’t worry, darling. I realized that this might happen, so I sent some of the other changelings out to get my sewing supplies. They should be here soon,” Rarity let Twilight know. “Once it’s all set up, I’ll make sure to-“
“Or,” Discord said, snapping his fingers and giving everypony else their costumes, “we could do that.” Rarity looked shocked to see that her sewing skills would not be needed after all.
“Great! Now that that’s settled, I wanna go over the musical numbers with the orchestra. Are they around?” Twilight asked.
“I think I saw them with the stagehands. I’ll go check that out,” Rainbow Dash told her.
“Great. Now I do have one other thing I’d like to go over. One issue I’d like to know is about lighting.”
“Already taken care of, mam,” a changeling in the crowd answered. “We’ll be getting just the right lighting for the moods. Already went over the script with them and gave cues on what settings to use, even in the case of an emergency script change.”
“Uh, thanks? Who are you?” she asked.
“I’m Gerald, Bob’s brother. I’m the Assistant Director/Coordinator of this play,” he told her. “By the way, Bob didn’t mention how lovely you were. At least, his words failed to do you any justice.” Twilight didn’t have any time for this.
“Gerald, what other duties do we have?” she asked.
“Well, we need to go over the set instructions with the crew. Rainbow Dash really needs to pay attention to that,” he instructed. The stage hands got into position and Gerald got into position to call the scenes he wanted to see.
“Hey,” one of the changelings called out to Rainbow Dash, “I’m Dale, the lead stagehand. Listen, what I’ll need you to do is help get all the major set pieces in position. We’ve already got guys for the smaller stuff, so stick with Eric and Jen and help them put their things in position, alright?”
“That sounds simple,” she replied.
“AND we need to be as quiet and fast as possible. We get twelve seconds total for a scene change, so work with the group and keep all that rainbow stuff to a minimum,” Dale instructed.
“Easy as pie!” Rainbow Dash got in position with her group and waited.
“Notre Dame Courtyard! Feast of Fools!” Gerald yelled. In a flash the stagehands rushed out into the dark stage, setting up the set pieces in a matter of seconds. Rainbow’s group had to place the platform where Quasimodo would get pelted in middle of the set. They managed to get this done in twelve seconds flat. “Good job, fellas. One complaint; Rainbow, we’ll need you to where something black. We can see literally everything you do with your colors.
“Alright,” she responded, and in a moment, Discord snapped his fingers and she was wearing a black suit.
“Now, Bell Tower!” Gerald yelled. The set was ready in a flash. Things looked like they’d be alright after all.
“Hey, what about the goat?” Spike asked. Everypony was surprised by such a random question. “You know, the goat the Esmeralda keeps by her side? Anypony gonna play that role?”
The group looked at Cranky for a moment before realizing that it’d be pretty rude to do so.
“Let’s just have one of the interns play the role,” Gerald told them.
“Yeah, let’s…” Twilight started slurring before she finally passed out from exhaustion. The rest of the cast, seeing that they’d just lost their Director/ Coordinator, decided to keep on doing what they were doing.