1: The Queen of Hearts Act 1
"There is also madness in not repeating what has failed before."
The queen took her seat in preparation for her favorite play. Her children had worked so hard to make it perfect.
The lights dimmed, and the curtains were drawn. The queen could see the set for the first scene. A house stood on each end of the stage, one red and the other blue. In the middle stood a bridge.
There were six actors on stage, paired off at the three different structures. Under the red house to the right was the Duke of Light and his maid. Under the blue house to the left, the Duchess of Velvet and her butler stood. Under the bridge in the center was the Queen of Hearts and her drone adviser.
A spotlight shined on a drone who told the audience that the play was a tragedy of the loved. Then the spotlight expanded to include the Queen of Hearts, who spoke passionately about coming to a new city so full of love, hopeful to start her family. The drone advised that she not get ahead of herself and focus on finding love first.
Agreeing, the Queen began her search. Looking to the right, she saw the Duke. A spotlight moved to him as he began to talk to his maid. It was evident to the audience that the Duke loved things organized in lists. The maid encouraged him to go out more and meet a mare for the upcoming Grand Galloping Gala, but he insisted has no time in his schedule. The spotlight moved as the Queen turns her attention to the other side of the stage where the Duchess begins to talk. It was very obvious that the Duchess does not focus but prefers to contemplate the mysteries of magic. Her butler insists that she should dedicate some time to finding a stallion for the upcoming ball. The Duchess makes a positive grunt but no one in the audience believes she actually intends to look for love with any commitment.
The spotlight refocuses on the drone and zir Queen who says that she has two great opportunities to begin gathering energy for her new family. The drone asks which one she will be pursuing. The Queen laughs at the foolishness of her advisor, saying that she doesn't need to pick between them if she can pursue both at the same time. The Queen has the bright idea of using the Duchess's form to court the Duke and the Duke's for the Duchess. The drone is very skeptical of the plan. Thus begins the action.
As the Duke crosses the bridge, the Queen gets out of under the bridge in the form of the Duchess and puts herself in his way. Too busy looking at his notes and schedules, he runs over the Queen. His papers are lost into the current of the water below. The Queen apologizes profusely and offers to buy the stallion a meal for his trouble. He tries to decline but she insists.
During their meal, the Queen pretends to be the Duchess by talking about the mysterious of magic in a disjointed manner. The Duke doesn't lack her lack of focus, blaming that lack for why they ran into each other in the first place. The Queen acts more focused while still maintaining her character. The willingness to change causes the Duke to blush a bit because no mare had done that for him.
Her drone took the form of the butler and stands next to the maid. They don't get along.
After that, the Queen does the same thing with the Duchess but in the form of the Duke. The mare runs into the Queen much like the Duke had, but in her case she loses track of a particularly important piece of the puzzle of magic. Angry, the duchess starts complaining about the Queen spending too much time looking at his notes to pay attention to the road. Again, the Queen invites them to eat lunch.
The Queen starts off talking about the importance of schedules and note taking. This causes the Duchess to become angrier as it was this same behavior that had cost Equestria the most brilliant theory of magic ever. The fake duke apologizes and 'tries' to be more casual. This causes the mare to blush as no stallion had ever care enough to actually change in response to her criticism.
Her drone took the form of the maid and stands next to the butler. They don't get along
The meal ends and the Queen rejoins her drone underneath the bridge to talk about the results. The drone says that there was no love and that the Queen should really focus on one. She scoffs at the foolishness of her adviser and says that he just can't see the seeds of love growing. She orders the drone to watch for the royal ponies next day and warn her of their coming.
The lights go out and music plays indicating it is the next day. The first to leave their house is the Duchess who comes to the bridge, looking for something. The adviser tells zir Queen of her guest, and she emerges from under the bridge as the Duke. He (the Queen) makes some excuse about why he was under the bridge. The Duchess gives him a curious look before becoming distracted by all the things she wants to talk about.
The fake duke eagerly listens, saying that his schedule is flexible. They have a conversation a bunch of different things, mostly magic and schedules. The Duchess finds herself charmed by his orderliness, and asks if he will meet her at the upcoming ball. He agrees happily. The words 'Love' and 'Trust' on strings manipulated by changelings in the rafters above the stage float from the Duchess to the Queen.
After the Duchess leaves, the Duke comes to the bridge and the Queen makes a quick change. Again, it is the same thing just reversed. The Duke becomes charmed by the false duchess's ruminations. The words 'Love' and 'Joy' float from the Duke to the Queen. The real duke says he wants to meet the Duchess again and quickly makes his departure to his house.
The drone joins zir queen on the bridge and congratulates her on successfully forming a love bond with two ponies at the same time. 'Truly a marvel fitting for the Queen of Hearts.' The Queen makes a comment that the two royal ponies are not the only ones falling in love.
Before the drone can ask what the Queen means, the maid crosses the bridge carrying a letter from her master. The two changelings quickly duck under their bridge to hide. The maid makes her way to the Duchess of Velvet's blue house. The butler opens the door with a frown, seeing the servant he hates. The maid announces that the Duke of Light invites the Duchess to Grand Galloping Gala. The butler closes the door shortly and then opens it to say that his mistress accepts the invitation though she was certain that she invited him already.
The lights go out and a spotlight appears over the adviser again. Ze narrates the current problem and the Queen’s ignorance of the upcoming trial of love. The curtains close for the intermission.
The queen in the audience gave great applause to her children's great performance so far.
2: Distant Love
"When you love somepony, you become somepony different."
All the gray unicorns stood in a line flanked by white pegasi and white earth ponies. They marched through Manehattan, flew through the skies of Cloudsdale, and shielded walls of Canterlot. No inch of Equestria did not know the hoof of the Royal Guard, sworn to protect the princesses and do their bidding.
Something, or in this case somepony, was not like the others. Among the almost completely identical male troopers, a white unicorn marched. This stallion did not have the destiny of a replaceable guard.
The stallion in question didn't think too much about why he was the only unique one in the army. Instead, he was focused on catching the eye of the one he loved.
The unusual guard had only seen a picture of her, but it became immediately obvious to him that his destiny was to marry this mare. She was a beautiful pink alicorn princess. He knew he would have to strive to be the stallion such a mare deserved.
Fortunately for him, he was on the fast track to becoming the Captain of the Royal Guard. There were indeed benefits from standing out.
3: Pride
"Ponies make plans, and the princess laughs."
They grew up fast out West. She was only four years old and already considered wise enough to be an elder. The peace treaty between the buffalo and the Apples could have been her coming-of-age test if she wasn't still young. All the different apple foods would be a boon to my family, but they would need more if we were going to move forward in this magic filled world, she reasoned.
One day, the ponies offered to teach the buffalo their ways. Not only was the young buffalo more than willing to learn, she wanted to prove to the chief that she was fit to become a leader. With a blessing from the chief, she left on the pony's train. She had attacked a train before but never ridden in one. On the ride, she dreamed of all the amazing stories of magic and heroism she would learn. Perhaps she could take their ways of magic back to protect her people.
She arrived in Fillydelphia where the ponies led her to Apple Core's Non-Equine Industrial School. It was a very utilitarian building, and by the looks of it, still in construction. There were even beds outside the dorms where there weren't enough rooms for the buffalo and other non-equines.
The teachers there broke her three expectations of what happens at a school based on what the ponies had told her. The first was that they would focus on teaching her new things. Instead, they focused on making her forget what she had been taught. They gave her a new more Pony name, forbidding her from using her birth name. The teachers told her to give up all her stories, customs, and beliefs for pony ones. Worst of all, she was forbidden to contact her parents. The only way to see one's parents during one's four years at the school was to be very sick or for the parents to petition Canterlot that they have their kid for the harvest season. The latter was near impossible and the former happened occasionally as disease ran rampant in the school during the winter months (sleeping outside didn't help).
The second expectation was that she would be learning magic and pony stories. While there were history lessons, they mostly could be summarized as 'in this period there was peace and ponies were very happy they were ruled by the princesses.' Even the pre-Harmony period was boring. The ponies had all these powerful creatures attacking them, and all of them were defeated in seconds by the Elements of Harmony. Ponies always win.
Instead of magic and awesome stories of heroes, they were taught 'useful' skills that would get them jobs in an Equestrian society. Most of non-equines were asked to do majority of the labor in constructing school facilities. Some of them like her went into the city to be maids for pony families. The maids were expected to be quiet and dress in the clothes appropriate for their new role. Those who couldn't get those jobs were sent to the farms to work with the livestock either as ranchers or livestock themselves.
The last expectation was that she would learn something that could help her tribe. Aside from ranching, the job skills didn't translate to tribe life. In fact, they detracted from it. The young buffalo couldn't take anything she had learned back and claim she had become strong enough to be an adult.
That was true until the ponies introduced her to hoofball. She was great at them not just as a player but a team leader. With non-equines of all kinds behind her back, she showed the ponies a completely new way of playing their sports. They were so good that the lesser ponies claimed they cheated because 'no pony could possibly be that good without proper equipment and any sport cutie marks.' The non-equine coach that worked at the Industrial school defended the buffalo's unorthodox tactics the whole way to Nationals. Before the princesses, the young buffalo from west of Appleoosa proved that non-equines could beat ponies, and at their own game. The princess herself had given her the trophy. The trophy had a miniature pony carrying a ball at its top making victory pose.
The princess gave a speech afterwards. The gist of it was 'when ponies come together to play games, no matter who wins, all ponies win.' Ponies always win.
The school allowed her team to return to their homes for a short holiday. On the tribe, the fantasized about how proud the chief would be to see her as a warrior leader. When she returned, the buffalo relearned the one lesson she should have memorized after the first day: expectations are meant to be broken.
The ponies' friendship had eaten away her people. The ponies have given the buffalo cider but taken their pride through addiction. The ponies had given them education but taken their calves like her. The ponies had given the buffalo Harmony but taken their fighting spirit, leaving them incapable of defending against the hostile tribes further west. The only escape from their depression and new found weakness was into waiting hugging hooves of ponies.
The buffalo girl could not face her beloved family while they were like this. She ran back to Equestria but not to school. She was going to stop the Harmony by fighting the princesses. She did the only thing she knew how and threw their trophy with its little pony figurine at the princess. The guards didn't see it coming and the princess was knocked out, blood tainting her perfect white fur.
The guards eventually caught the wily buffalo and put her into jail-cart. The warrior laughed manically all the way to the local jail where they would keep her for the night before transporting her to the new prison in Canterlot. Ponies can lose.
A crow sang outside her cell window. She did not go to the capital the next day. The guards found the jailer unconscious and the bars of the buffalo's cell seared off.
4: Narcissism
"The ponies took solace in that there would only be one pony like the current prince of royals. What they didn't know wouldn't hurt them, the princess reasoned."
One day the prince was walking around the palace carrying a mirror, enraptured by his own beauty.
While he was a prince, he was not an alicorn. Better for the rest of ponykind, as they probably couldn't handle his ego for an eternity. His job was merely to make sure that the other princes and princesses were well cared for. It was easier than it seemed as extended lifespans had come with greater self-reliance. One stopped relying on others when one knew they would fade away in what seemed like a blink of an eye. Only one princess really invested in educating and preparing retainers and even then, she did most of the work for her students.
This left the prince with his other two duties. First was making sure he looked dashing at all angles and at all times. If this meant letting cake fall on a mare, so be it, he believed. The second giving blood samples to the princess's scientists for the future prosperity. She assured him that it would give him the agelessness that he could not achieve through Harmony magic. The other royals valued that the prince would go to any lengths to preserve his image in Equestrian history.
Another day the prince was walking around the palace looking around, enraptured by his own beauty.
5: Love of Life or Contentment
"We enjoy life not because we are used to enjoyment but because we are used to life."
Being a pet cat had its perks. You slept all day, ate regularly, and never had to worry about being eaten by larger predators. This cat knew this and didn't really accept anything as a downside. Sure the new pets grumbled about domestication process and not being able to live their lives independent of their others, but they would learn that this was a merely them misunderstanding a blessing as curse.
Decisions are difficult. You have to pick between two things you could have. Ponies take the stress of decision-making away from their pets. Anyways, you can still do almost anything you want and get away with it. Yesterday, I clawed my master's face and tore one of her dresses apart. She screamed but didn't punish me.
The cat watched out the window at the busy ponies, contentment emanating from her throat in the form of a purr.
6: Friendship
"Chaos accepts us, but will we accept chaos."
He was the only one of his kind in the world. Lived long enough to get over that, but he did throw a bit of tantrum when he realized. Like the ponies, he had penchant for changing reality to what he saw fit. It was unfortunate that there wasn't room for two realities in the same world.
One day the ponies had taught him friendship and had him renounce the reality had wished upon the world because it was incompatible with said friendship. He didn't give up his ways easily. He took frequent vacations to the South Continent were things were slightly more to his liking, but only slightly. He preferred chaos that he himself caused. Plus, all the suffering was a buzz kill.
He stopped going on vacations when someone was making things actually interesting in Equestria. Not interesting like those two-bit villains who were crushed by friendship in twenty minutes or less. No, this was a thinker who took their time and who didn't work alone. He made sure to meet this individual while the pet trainer wasn't paying attention.
Because of his friendship with the ponies, he couldn't get involved directly. He did promise not to tattle on the rebel to the princesses. The biggest fear he had was 'would he have to pick a side after this was all said and done.'
7: Parental Love
"What we like is what we know."
Two pegsasi, a stallion and a filly, had entered Rainbow Falls Traders Exchange. He knew anything and everything could be traded here. Was it out of desperation or greed that the stallion sold her? The filly would never know. All she knew was that he left the exchange flying.
The filly was made to scrubbed the floors of an aristocratic family in Canterlot. It didn't take her long to accept the destiny of a servant. There was not much more to pegasi lives than doing what unicorn nobles told them to do, but she hoped that her cutie mark would not be cleaning-related. To get through the hardship of being separated from her family and home, the filly developed many coping mechanisms.
Her owners had a foal. They needed a sitter and she was chosen. The pegasus gladly took the new responsibility as it freed her from some of her prior chores. Caring for a foal had been much harder work but she had a deep-seated desire to be good at it. This may or may not be related to another pony in her life being very bad at raising a foal. She was almost convinced that her special talent was foalsitting after she had shown such a knack for it.
Instead her destiny was completely unexpected for herself, her owners, and the Princess. One day, she had just been walking down the street after getting groceries for the master when she noticed a stallion and a mare arguing. Instead of walking by, the servant urged them to make up. When they continued to yell at each other, the filly began to panic. Memories she wished repressed had resurfaced unbidden. A reality she didn't want to face, couldn't face had reared its ugly head in the form of two acquaintances of the opposite gender fighting. She tried her breathing exercises she had developed for situations like this, but they failed.
Something else had to be done to fix the problem. A happy place needed to exist. One just like in her mind, but in reality.
This had led to a revelation of sorts. A reevaluation that pegasi don't have because they don't have magic. A revelation about replacing other people's reality with their own.
With revelation came power. With power came a new form. The form of an alicorn who could impose her understanding of love upon the world. No stallion and mare would ever fight around her. Come two feet away from each other with critical words and they would find themselves with new feelings they always had.
8: Reciprocal Love
"In running away, we often find ourselves back where we started."
Sheep were never asked or told anything. They were always forced. The ponies sent their dogs barking at them in order to corralled them into their pens. All Equestrian farms that raised livestock were like this.
In exchange of the sheep's obedience and a part of their body at regular intervals, they are given small pins in which to sleep and fields in which to feed for the entirety. During the winter, the sheep just stood back and watched as ponies walked around in their hair and eating warm food.
To say this ram was a little angry about the life he had was to put it lightly. He made sure to escape the first time he could. Unfortunately, the ponies were willing to abandon everything just to find a single sheep.
The ram had heard stories passed in song among the sheep of a road invisible to ponies made by those who wanted to change Equestria. One only needed to see the patterns.
Running for all the ram was worth, he finally spotted one of the patterns on a quilt outside a log cabin beside the Everfree Forest. The owner was a mare to the ram but he had to trust her if he was going to escape to the west where the buffalo lived free of Harmony. Getting inside, the mare threw a blanket over him. He panicked thinking he was tricked, but she told him to calm down and be quiet.
The animal catchers with their animal catching cutie marks knocked on the door. The ram stared through the fabric to see the ponies asking the cabin-dweller if she had seen a lost sheep. The mare made quite the performance of bemoaning the loss of livestock and promising resolutely that she would report if she saw anything.
After they left, the ram got up ready to continue my journey but the mare told me to rest. She made food from a small stash of vegetables she stored in a cabinet. There wasn't enough for more than a day or two. The ram didn't want to impose on the pony who had helped him, old instincts telling him to take from ponies. The mare assured him that his thanks was more than enough.
During the meal, the mare ate nothing, content with just watching the sheep eat the meal she had prepared. He asked if she wanted some, but she insisted that she had already ate. The ram thought she was being dishonest but didn't want to contradict a pony. Ponies put sheep into pens and she could easily turn him into the animal catchers if he offended her, the ram assumed.
After the meal, she prepared a bed for him. It was the only bed in the cabin. He hadn't ever been in a pony bed before, having always slept in an animal pen. Again, he felt like he was imposing, but she insisted that as long as he was comfortable, so was she. He fell asleep with her green eyes watching him.
Knock knock knock
He didn't want to wake up, but when he realized it could be the animal catchers, he quickly got out of the pony's bed. She told him to hide underneath it with the blanket.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
Whoever it was, the ram knew they wanted in and they wanted in now. He was certain that he was caught.
The mare unlocked the door only to have it burst open. The royal guard stormed in neat lines of white and gray. Finally, one walked in that did not look like the others. He was a yellow pegasus and was in charge. Sticking out of his saddlebag was a picture of a purple alicorn that the sheep had seen before on his farm before.
The ram shook in fright. The pegasus asked questions of his benefactor. Every time she would respond, he would ask the next question faster, louder, and angrier than before. After the fourth question, he was done and bucked the mare in the mouth. This sent her flying into the cabin wall and then onto her bed.
When the guards the picked up the body of his benefactor, it was not of a mare but some bug pony. The guards with their prisoner exited the cabin. The pegasus was the last to leave. The ram whimpered, causing the pegasus to stare in his direction. There was a long moment before the leader of the guard unit assumed he was just hearing things. The guard left and closed the door behind him.
The ram took a few hours to get out of under the bed. He saw the indent in the log where presumably his benefactor had hit it earlier. He puked, losing the meal the mare...the bug pony had made for him.
He felt weak. He felt like he couldn't run anymore. He felt like he could faint. He had to live though. For the sacrifice that was made for him by his benefactor.
The ram collected the food he wouldn't have to cook from the bug pony's cabinet, and he just kept putting one hoof in front of another.
He never expected that at the end of his trek to the land where the buffalo roam that another bug pony give him the opportunity to go back and save the one who had saved him. They needed everyone they could get to change Equestria.
9: The Queen of Hearts Act 2
"We tell stories so history doesn't repeat itself."
The queen got her snack and rejoined the audience. The play resumed shortly afterwards.
The curtains raise and the drone narrates that they are now at the Grand Galloping Gala and that the Queen is running late.
The set had been remade into a ballroom with a balcony in the center. The Duke and Duchess stood on either side of the room, both afraid to make the first move. They finally both agreed that the servants should go first. The maid and the butler meet at the balcony and begin talking about their respective masters. Strangely, they find each other charming, a complete contrast from before. It becomes quickly evident to the audience that the maid and butler are falling in love while the royal ponies pine in their respective corners.
Finally both ponies give up on their servants and meet in the middle. At this point, the servants leave the balcony to the Duke's side while the royals go to the Duchess's side. The royals talk and start saying things which get on each other nerves with their respective antics. Before they can completely ruin their opinion of each other, the Duke of Light is announced to the Gala...for the second time.
This causes the royal ponies and their servants to become silent. The false duke meets the couple. The real duke accuses the other as an impostor while the false makes no excuse for himself. The Duchess of Velvet suggests that she ask them questions only the real duke would know. The Queen obviously gets them all right while the real Duke fails miserably. The Duchess gallops into her lover's hooves to protect herself from the 'impostor'.
At this moment, the princess of the ponies comes to see what is wrong. The real Duke explains the situation and the princess is surprised about this because she has never seen such perfect disguise before. Casting a spell, she reveals the Queen's true form. The royals and their servant then become very angry at the Queen. The words 'hate' and 'fear' hanging on strings manipulated by changelings on the rafters move from the ponies to the Queen.
Queen screams out as if she was being mutilated. Betrayed by her lovers’ emotions, the Queen of Hearts flees out the balcony window with her adviser.
With the Queen gone, the Gala resumes. The servants begin discussing what happened. They eventually realize that their respective masters have actually never met each other until the Gala. This revelation ends the scene.
The curtains close as the changelings remake the set. When they open, the audience is greet to the familiar sight of the two houses and the bridge.
The scene begins with the Queen of Hearts and her adviser on the bridge. She bemoans the painful existence of a being who needs people to care for her in order to get the energy needed to live. Her adviser tells her that with love often comes tragedy. The Queen then renounces love as starts pounding her chest, causing a cracking noise.
The lights fade on the queen and turn to both houses. In their respective houses, the masters are explaining how their love is not the same. They remember their love being a pony more willing to change, but instead they have inflexible, self-absorbed caricatures. The servants sympathize too well.
The servants then explain to their respective masters that their true love is the creature that fled the Gala by wing. This revelation causes both the Duke of Light and the Duchess of Velvet to cry in anguish of their grave mistake. They both rush out of their homes and towards the bridge.
The lights are still on the houses and all is dark on the bridge. The two royal ponies are lost in the darkness and all that can be heard is a cracking sound.
The real duke and duchess call out for the creature they love but do not know the real name.
She responds, "The one you loved was the Queen of Hearts. She is no more."
With that, there is a sound of glass shattering. A glowing green flame in the same of a heart appears. First the fire illuminates the Queen and then the Duke and Duchess. The royal ponies' faces were of pure horror.
"I am now the The Heartless Queen!" she exclaims as the hole where her heart should be. She throws the flame heart into the current below. The two ponies rush to the edge of the bridge, ready to fetch the heart, but the water explodes as dozens of changeling drones emerge from the water ready to follow their queen.
The ponies cry out to their real love, but there love (represented by words on strings) passes through the queen and burns to nothingness. The Heartless Queen flies away with her children, leaving the love-cursed ponies behind.
The curtain falls and the adviser returns to narrate the ending. Ze doesn't even get to the lesson before the queen in the audience begins applauding loudly at her children's great performance.
She did have a stray thought of perhaps someday sharing this play with the daughter of the duke and duchess, a certain purple alicorn, but she dismissed it as a fantasy.For the narration of the play here: the way you write about these scenes is much too 'tell-y'. narrating exactly what happens would be much more effective than summarising all the events.
Hmmm, yeah, you are right. I will have to think of how to that.
Well, there's also the issue that this amount of focus on a play which is probably of little consequence to the actual story (I say 'probably' because I haven't actually read all the way to this point) is really unnecessary. In other words, the average reader would probably skip this entire section.
Now, if this play were of great importance to the story, it would be different. And I should probably go and read the story up to this point first, actually. :P
You are probably right. This was something very different from what I usually write. I wanted to give the reader the experience of watching a play, full of the props and the gimmicks that come with it.
Or at least, the making of a play. I didn't want to make a transcript of a play. "And the duke enters from the right."
I could probably summarize the whole first act in a single paragraph rather than narrating the whole thing. That way it would take up far less bulk of this chapter.
Yeah, just providing the main story of the play would probably be enough. If you _do_ want to give the readers a glimmer of the play itself, though, showing just the first scene, followed by an ellipses and the summary of the play would probably be your best option.
It would be a good compromise.
This entire part should be in past tense, since it's still narrating past events.
Yeah, I had the wrong mindset. I was imagining it as it was happening, so it turned into present tense.