Chapter 4: The Nite Shift, Part 2: Business as Unusual
Kwan Do had always considered himself to be a pony always in control of his emotions. He meditated constantly, practiced physical and mental discipline at every opportunity, and in general had a very solid grip on who he was and what he wanted from life. Most ponies considered him stoic, passive, quiet. He had a reputation for being a little different. Not so much strange, but practiced in arts and techniques most ponies don't even take pause to think about most of the time. All in all, if asked, he would without hesitation tell anypony that he considered himself very strong-willed and sturdy.
So, really, flinching was a new thing to him. So was taking several cautious steps in the other direction without turning around. Yet he felt both were prudent, if unavoidable, as Octavia took one look inside Sugarcube corner, and promptly went Hoofcon 3. Even though he wasn't the target of her quite understandable, if slightly exaggerated, rage, every bone in his body told him, quite sternly and with much conviction, "You might wanna take a step back, there, man."
"You… were… partying?" Octavia screamed. Over her shoulder, Kwan could see what was unmistakably Golddusk cowering under a lampshade, as if not being able to see Octavia would make her go away. "You wake me up an hour early to pull a prank on me, then go off and party? We're supposed to be working!"
Now, Kwan knew as well as anypony that Gold had a very surefire way to defuse the situation. All the black Pegasus would have to do would be to look as pitiful and remorseful as possible and say something really heart-wrenchingly sad. This usually had the effect of making Octavia feel rather lousy, and instead of yelling trying to console him. Whether or not he was aware of this, the martial pony didn't know.
However, he was pretty sure the answer was no, especially after Gold's only response to the grey mare's outrage was to pop his head out from cowering under the lampshade, hold out a muffin, and offer, rather sheepishly, "Poppyseed?"
Had anypony bothered to listen, they would most likely have heard the very last twig in Octavia's head snap like a… well, yeah. What followed next was the most varied and impressive array of uniquely different frustrated, confused, and borderline insane expressions Kwan Do had ever seen on a pony before. Then, just as suddenly as she'd snapped, she stopped. Looking rather curiously at the muffin, she paused, then her eyes widened. "Oh, tell me that's not-"
Kwan Do made a note to ask the grey pony that had appeared out of freaking nowhere how she achieved such flight speeds. It could do him well. Golddusk, on the other hoof, just smiled and nodded. "Yup. You should know better than to start sentences she can finish for you."
"Octa-v!" Derpy cheered, bear hugging the grey mare she'd just plowed into the floor with a tackle hug.
Wrestling free of the blonde pegasus's grasp, she righted herself, and straightened her mane. "It's Octavia, Derpy, Octavia."
"Octa..gon?" Derpy asked slowly, having known issues with pronouncing the other filly's name. Most ponies were unsure, however, whether she did this on purpose or not. Kwan Do, in fact, wasn't sure about her at all, only having met her twice on rather, memorable, if confusing occasions.
"I think that is about as close as you're going to get," Kwan Do interjected, as the recognizable spasm in Octavia's eyelid resurfaced. Most ponies in the room turned to look at them. Considering the large amount of… debris… in the room, Kwan deduced that there were significantly more present before Octavia snapped. "Octavia, it might help to remember that even we are not technically on-shift yet. We still have a half hour before our work schedule takes effect. Therefore, losing your temper at Golddusk, while I expect he's had it coming for a little while, may be a bit… unwarranted?"
Golddusk smiled gratefully at the martial Pegasus for coming to his rescue. An expression which faltered as Kwan Do spoke to him, in turn. "And Golddusk, as much as I can excuse your actions, I would expect that you know the boundaries of certain interpersonal relations, however scarce your prior experience in the field may be. It would do you well to, at the very least, apologize. And do remove the lampshade before you do." Having said his piece, he took a small but noticeable step back, to let his words sink in and give each pony a chance to act on them. After all, his cutie mark wasn't a universal symbol of balance for nothing.
Golddusk blinked, slightly taken aback, and feeling more than a bit sheepish. "Um, I guess now would be a good time to get to work, Octavia?" he implored his female friend.
Octavia heaved a sigh. "Oh, fine. I can't really argue with Kwan about this, so I guess you're off the hook for now. Sorry everypony," she added, turning to address the rest of the room, "Looks like party's over for tonight. We have to get to work."
With a loud, collective 'Awwww', the remaining guests departed, and Pinkie Pie went about cleaning up after a relatively successful soiree. "I guess we'll just have to party harder tomorrow!" she cheered, 'La-la-la-ing away to clean up her home, and blissfully ignorant of Octavia's glare.
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"Right," Octavia started, having gathered her group together back at the inn. "It looks like, having cleaned up the mess at, what was her name, Pinkie's house, it looks like our first official task is to ensure that all of the groups have coordinated their contributions properly."
Golddusk blinked. "What is it with you and syllables?"
An exasperated sigh escaped the grey filly's lips. "We need to make sure all the parts of the party match. You know, that everyone is following the same themes?"
Gold looked offended. "I know what the words meant, what I don't understand is why you use such big ones," he huffed.
Twitch, twitch. "Listen, Gold. I can forgive the party, and I'm willing to forget the prank, but we came here to do a job. And I kind of need everypony on the same page to get it done properly. It's only two nights till the Winter Moon Festival. So try to stay on topic, ok?" she pleaded. Gold nodded respectively. "Good. Now, Artimare, I was thinking you could check on the athletics field. The pony in charge, Rainbow Dash, went to bed after the party, but she left me some basic plans and ideas, and I figure you could just go cross-check all of it and make sure they have the right idea."
The purple unicorn nodded, taking a small pile of papers and putting them in a side bag. "Simple enough. Wasn't she also in charge of the opening and closing Wonderbolt performances?"
"Yeah," confirmed Golddusk. "But she's this last Best Young Flyer's Competition's First Placer. She knows what she's doing."
Artimare shook her head. "Not worried about that, kid. I'm more concerned that giving her two really huge parts of the festival to focus on might detract from her work. Some of these notes look a little… weak. How exactly does she want us to make the race course 'twenty percent cooler?'"
Octavia smiled in response. "Actually, Pinkie Pie is also in charge of the events and activities. I think I have some notes from her, too-"
FFFFWWWEEEEEE! Went the saddlebag as Octavia pulled out a small pile of papers, apparently rigged to a small confetti noisemaker. The grey mare all but froze in shock, and fell over. Golddusk followed suit, bowled over in laughter. "Oh my god! That's the greatest expression ever! You should see it, I want a picture want a picture wantapicture…" he continued guffawing as the grey mare righted herself, slowly calming down and supporting himself on the table.
"Done?" Octavia asked quietly.
"Give me a second," he responded, taking a few deep breaths. "Ok, think I'm good. Hoo, that was awesome."
"Hoo," came a response from the rafters. Golddusk glanced up. "Owlicious!" he cheered.
"Oh for… Gold, we need to focus!" she exclaimed.
"Oh, sorry," the black Pegasus commented, the owl landing on his back. "It's just that I thought I left him at Pinkie's, he must have followed me back. Guess he's staying with us. Anyway, what do you want me to do?"
"You are going to take over the decorations. There's still quite a bit to do, as they've only actually just started on some areas, so they've set up a night team. You're going to want to look for a pony named Rarity, if she's still awake. I believe Stallius mentioned her a few times," she added, rolling her eyes. "Just make sure they don't screw it up. And seeing as how you're technically the head of this little gang of workers we've become, you're also responsible for talking with Twilight about coordination. Apparently she has some additional questions for you regarding… well to be honest I don't know, she just said she needed to talk to somepony, and that's your job."
Kwan Do took a step out of the corner of the room. "And what shall you and I be doing?"
Octavia blinked. "Oh yes, that's right. Well, I'm part of the music crew. Hopefully a major part. Did you hear what they did for the Summer Sun Celebration? Birds? Nu-uh. Your job," she added, pointing a hoof at Kwan Do, "Well, Celestia has already sent some guards to keep order around here while the festivities are prepared, to make sure nothing goes south for the winter that isn't supposed to already be there. Can you lend them a hand? You are technically a guard pony."
The brown Pegasus just nodded. "Alright, of you go!" she adjourned them all, taking a small pile of notes and heading off out the door, following Artikare and Kwan. Golddusk followed soon after, but Octavia turned and stopped him. "And Gold, please, if you need help, just ask somepony," she added softly.
Gold nodded. "Yeah, ok," he said noncommittally. Octavia raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything more. Once they were done, he turned his head a bit to glance backwards at the owl. "Ok, Owlicious. Where's Twilight now?"
Without hesitation the bird flew off, with pony not far behind. The bird led him through town, off to a large courtyard with a fountain, where Twilight was busy talking to a pony he knew to be Rarity. The two looked to be at odds over something, but from where he stood, he couldn't quite hear it. He cantered up slowly to get a better listen, and make sure he wasn't interrupting.
"…not going to work? We can't set up lights around the fountain, Rarity, we're doing everything by hoof! That also means no electricity!" Twilight argued.
Rarity's version of arguing sounded a bit more like whining with facts. "But, but, it would look so tacky to just have streamers and ribbon! How are we supposed to get everypony's attention when Princess Luna takes the stage to raise the moon?"
"I haven't figured that out yet, but we can't just go back on the whole theme now! Maybe if we used a big lighting spell or something!"
Before Rarity was able to reply, Golddusk stepped up and chimed in, "Excuse me, Twilight?" as he spoke, Owlicious flew up and landed on Twilight's back, grabbing her attention.
The purple unicorn all but rounded on him. Seeing who it was, however, her expression brightened. "Golddusk, hi! Listen, can we get your opinion on this? What do you think Luna would like as far as her stage goes?"
"Stage?" he asked slightly quizzically. "What stage?"
Rarity huffed. Something he was sure she'd had practice in. He didn't really care too much for her from the few minutes they'd talked… "The stage she's going to raise the moon from, of course?"
This got Gold's attention, and he almost laughed. "The princess doesn't raise the moon from a stage, silly. Duh." Rolling his eyes, he cracked a smile.
The white unicorn twitched. "And what, pray tell, does she raise the moon from?"
He couldn't stop himself. Stifling a laugh, he told her, quite simply, "The sky."
Rarity looked ready to explode. And Twilight having to hold back a snicker or two didn't help, either. "Look, if you're not going to be helpful, then you can just leave," she snapped.
Twilight laid a hoof on her friends shoulder. "Look, I'm sure he means well. And we're both pretty tired, anyway. Let's just have a quick chat over what we want done, and let the other ponies know who he is, so he can take over from there. Now, Golddusk, how exactly does the Princess go about raising the moon every night?"
He nodded, having chortled quietly to himself, sufficing the out-loud laughter he'd had to suppress. "She flies with it, actually. It's rather majestic. Of course, that's when she actually starts raising the moon. It gets pretty funny if you wake up early enough to watch in the castle. Well, you know what I mean."
Twilight tilted her head in confusion. "What do you mean, funny?"
Golddusk grinned, like most ponies do when they know something others don't and get to pause a second right before telling them. "She kung-fu's the sun."
"…what?" both unicorns asked, exchanging slightly worried glances.
That he got a laugh out of. It was proving to be a really entertaining night. "It's actually the most adorable thing I've ever seen. See, she's still kind of a little kid at heart, even if she's older than everypony except her sister and plays the part of royalty really well. Every night she flies out above her balcony and pretends to karate chop and kick the sun while it's going down, like she's beating it up. She even makes kung-fu action noises."
Their confused expressions showing no sign of going away, he continued, kind of hastily, "But when she actually raises the moon it's gorgeous. She just kind of floats there, against the backdrop of stars and black sky, flapping her wings slowly while she concentrates. Then, almost out of nowhere, the moon rises up behind her, if you're looking at it right, and when it's full, it circles her entirely. Even if it's not full, she still looks the picture of grace and majesty when she's working," he concluded, rather dreamily.
The two fillies watched as he stood there a moment, lost in space, then Twilight shook him slightly. "Um, Golddusk? Back to Equestria?"
The black Pegasus shook his mane. "Sorry, bad habit. Listen, the stage is a good idea, but I seriously doubt she'll even set hoof on it unless she has to. She's not that great with crowds, yet. She's still a little… out of touch with society, I should say. I think she'd be a bit afraid to stand up in front of so many ponies all at once. Better off just letting her do her thing," he mused, making an effort to sound sure of his reasoning.
Twilight seemed to understand. "Right, I guess that's something we hadn't thought of. She's been writing letters here, and making suggestions, but without her actually in Ponyville to help direct, we needed somepony who knew her well enough to fill us in on these things."
"Well, I guess that's all you're going to need from me for tonight, then?" Rarity asked, slightly less whiny. Twilight nodded, and they said some goodnights. "I will see you tomorrow, Golddusk. Be sure to drop by my shop so I can get you an outfit done up for the festival. We can't have you trotting about one of the year's most important events as the Princess's liaison without some kind of formal wear." She trotted off before he could say anything.
Twilight just smiled when he turned to ask her. "Oh, I wouldn't worry about it. She's not the best for nothing, you know. Anyway, I had some questions about some of the other places we've done decorations for, I was wondering if you could offer some last-minute tips before we move on?"
"Oh, definitely. That's what I'm here for, apparently. Where do you want to start?"
"I was thinking the main hall. I know you've been there earlier, I was wondering if you'd had a chance to mull any of it over. The work we've done, I mean," she elaborated, cantering off and leading the way.
"Yeah, I found Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash there, but to be honest, I got so distracted by that party pony that I didn't even notice the décor," he explained.
Twilight chuckled a bit. "Yeah, Pinkie has that effect on ponies. Now, let's get going. I'm eager to see what you think of what we've done so far."
Golddusk, too, was eager, until he stepped into the hall and took his first good, long look.
"Oh, FARK no."
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"Right, then, first stop is the racetrack, is it? Now, where is this Rainbow Dash? I hope at least one of these two ponies is awake, I'm not doing this all on my own," Artimare told herself, trotting along the outskirts of Ponyville. She took notice of some of the carnival-esque booths that were being set up by families and small groups, grateful that that wasn't part of her job description.
She'd no sooner reached the center of the racetrack, however, when a loud, boisterous voice called out from somewhere above her, "Look out below!" The purple mare took a short glance behind her, just in time to see the large sports ball headed straight for her. Almost on reflex, she spun around, leaned forward, and gave a hard buck straight back. A satisfying thump told her she'd made contact with her target. A second one told her it had made contact with something else.
Well, that, and a very loud 'Ow!' Almost dreading the poor pony she'd bucked the ball into, she turned around slowly, closing her eyes. She slowly opened one, and saw, rather bemusedly, a blue-and-rainbow colored pony sat, teetering back and forth in dizziness, a soccer ball only a few feet away. Artimare trotted up to help her to her feet. "I'm going to take a stab and say you're Rainbow Dash."
The multicolored Pegasus shook off her dizziness, and snapped back into the air. "One and only! That was quite a kick you got there! Almost as good as a certain cowpony I know. What's your name?"
Slightly bemused at the gusto in which Dash had taken a soccer ball to the head, she answered, "Artimare. I'm here as part of the night shift. Was told to look for you and this other pony named Pinkie Pie?" she finished inquisitorially. "I didn't get a chance to actually see her with the whole thing at Sugarcube corner earlier.
"Yeah, that was crazy, wasn't it? What was that filly's problem?" Rainbow laughed, flitting about as she talked. It was rather distracting.
The unicorn shrugged. "Boy trouble. Golddusk's always been able to push her buttons. And most of the time he doesn't even mean to."
Rainbow's expression fell flat. "Yeah, I know ponies like that. "Well, I'm pretty much ready to call it a night, so howzabout I give you the short tour, and you can take over from here?"
Artimare nodded in agreement. "Sounds good. So what did you mean by 20% cooler?"
Rainbow Dash's eyes lit up, and she went into a small rant about all the suggestions she had for 'improving' the race course. Artimare was glad she wasn't one of the participants, after a few minutes.
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"Birds, birds," Octavia mumbled to herself. She'd taken her instrument of choice with her, a small violin, just in case they'd decided to use bees or badgers or something equally laughable. A royal celebration needed proper music, after all.
Of course, her worries started to prove themselves unfounded, as she came up on the small pitch off to the side of the courtyard, where the band seemed to have been practicing earlier that day. There didn't seem to be anypony left, but she could tell, with the wide array of instruments, and the setup they'd put together, that at least somepony knew that they were doing. The only problem was finding a good place to insert herself into the band.
There were plenty of instruments set in their cases or left covered for the night, marking their places for practice the next day, but Octavia couldn't find anyplace she'd be more than an awkward addition to the group. She then resolved to get up earlier the next evening and speak to the pony in charge, to see what she might be able to contribute. There wasn't a great deal she could do from here.
Taking a gander at her checklist, she saw a small map through what was labeled the 'Everfree Forest', and instructions on how to get to a serpent's lair that apparently had something to do with all of this. Collecting her papers and things back together, she set off out of town, and started walking. And walking. And walking.
"How the hay big is this forest anyways?" she cried in almost dismay, when she stepped out of a rather dense cluster of trees, and came upon a slightly shallow, yet wide, river. She made a note to come back here and wash her face once she'd found this ser-
"Oh, dear, what are you doing out here all by yourself?" cried a rather effeminate voice from somewhere a little to the left. The next thing she knew, she'd been scooped up off the ground, and was traveling busily through the air.
"Help, help! I'm being ponynapped!" she cried, rather distraught. All at once, as if in response, she'd stopped moving. Just long enough to realize she was being held in the air by a large scaly claw. Rather shiny scales, she thought to herself, before she jerked in midair again. Next, she was face to snout with a rather large… well, she assumed this to be the serpent she was looking for.
"Oh, no no no no no!" the purple sea creature cried. "I'm not ponynapping you! I'm just getting you out of this yucky forest! There's a big, beautiful lake just upstream of here, much better!"
Octavia thought to herself, well, that's rather gentlemanly. "Would you happen to be the serpent who has volunteered to perform for Princess Luna's Winter Moon Festival?" she inquired.
The serpent gestured grandly to himself. "Why, yes, I am! My name is Steven Magnet, dearie! And I want to share my musical talent with the world!"
She had to admit, he was rather amicable. In fact, he was downright friendly. After he let her down on the shores of the lake, she turned to get a good look at him. And not only was he friendly, he was most likely the best-groomed creature anywhere near Ponyville!
"Ooh, Mr. Magnet, you look dashing! Is that how you're going to appear at the festival, because that looks wonderful!" she beamed at him, rather impressed with his manners and sense of good personal care.
"Oh, yes! I have to make sure I look this good all the time! It's quite a bit of work, you know," she nodded almost sagely, and then broke out a wide smile. "Oh, but go on, you said you'd come to see me! How can I help?"
Octavia nodded and grinned. This serpent was alright. "Well, I'm here to help with oversight and coordination of the musical performances throughout the festival, but seeing as how everypony else had gone home for the evening, I decided to come see you! I do hope I didn't wake you," she added, slightly concerned.
"Oh, of course not!" he assured her. "I'm always up at night, the sun's so bad for my scales! Moonlight is perfect, and the cool air feels so good!"
"Oh, that's wonderful," she agreed. "I'm also a night-timer. I'm part of Luna's court, so to speak, so I sleep at day and work at night. I find it makes things rather easier for me. But down to business," she finished, taking out her violin case.
"Right! Straight away!" Steven agreed, lowering his head to be on level with Octavia. "Now, what did you have in mind?"
"Well, seeing as how their band has been properly arranged, and as I understand it, you as of yet didn't have any instruments to accompany your performance, I thought we could take some time and practice together, and you could run me through the songs you wanted to perform," she explained, testing her bow and strings. Everything seemed in order.
"Oo-ho-ho-ho, an accompaniment! But of course!" he cheered, and took a deep breath.
Octavia cued her bow. This could prove to be a rather enjoyable evening.
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Golddusk was exasperated. How could they expect Luna to like any of these decorations? Sure, she'd be cordial and polite and appreciate their hard work, but this festival was for the princess, and it was her first in a thousand years! The real trouble was, having the heart to tell them.
"Oh, well," he told Twilight, who'd just asked him what he didn't like about the decorations. "Oh, I might as well be honest. You're using too warm of colors, first off! Luna loves darker, more mysterious shades! Bright red ribbons and lots of green just isn't going to work. I can see where you're going, Heart's Warming decorations during a Winter season festival, but no. We need blues and purples, maybe offset with a splash of white here or there, she loves snow, maybe some hanging crystals?" he mused out loud, glancing out over the elaborately and almost completely decorated main hall.
Twilight looked rather taken aback. "But what about all the work we've done already? How am I going to tell all those ponies that they need to start all over?"
Golddusk shook his head. "Oh, I have no idea. I'm just tempted to say screw it and hope she likes it. I honestly don't know if she likes Heart's Warming Eve or not, but I know we don't make it a mass celebration at the castle. We always just got time off to go visit our families and stuff. Who knows what she'll think about it? She hasn't even had a Heart's Warming together with her sister since she got back, oh, what's she going to say?" he paced back and forth frantically. This was proving to be a great deal more work than he had anticipated.
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"I'm telling you, there's no way anypony is going to want to race on a track full of obstacles that could easily get them hurt," Artimare fumed, inches away from Rainbow Dash.
"And I'm telling you, there's no way I'm going to let the biggest deal of the year go on with some namby-pamby hills and hurdles! The Wonderbolts are going to be here, and both the Princesses! We need to look our best! And we can't do that if we're taking it easy!" Dash shouted back.
"It's a party! Not some tryout for the Gymkhana games!" Artimare countered.
The two ponies butted heads, all but growling at each other.
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Octavia couldn't believe it. The serpent had wonderful scales, a grand, effeminate voice, perfect grooming! And he couldn't hold a note! "Um, Mister Magnet, sir, may I pause you for a second?" Octavia asked hesitantly.
"Oh, of course, but just let me finish this piece, it's my favorite!" Steven told her, and continued singing.
She clamped a hoof over one ear as she tried to play along, rather distraught.
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"These decorations aren't going to work at all," Golddusk moaned, his hooves over his head as he lay on the ground.
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"We are NOT going to do the track this way!" Artimare barked.
"Yes. We. Are!" Rainbow countered.
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"Ooh, this is going to be a disaster…." Octavia cried, hiding behind her violin.
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"What else could possibly go wrong?" the three ponies cried in unison, unbeknownst to them.