As she approached the Ponyville town square, Ditzy glanced up with one eye. The Sun was getting on towards noon. With Corona’s return, most ponies were more careful than ever to be safely indoors when the Tyrant’s Sun reached zenith. Which was why all the mailpony routes were scheduled to put the mailpony in question someplace where they could find shelter (and generally lunch) at noon. In Ditzy’s case, her route would take her by Sugarcube Corner in another few minutes. Good place to wait out the noonday sun and get a lunch muffin or two.
As she pushed open the door, Pinkie waved cheerily at her from behind the counter with one hoof while the other poured batter into a cake pan.
“Hi Ditzy! So glad to see you! I thought you might be stopping by, because my right ear went all twitchy and my knees were achey and that means that a favorite customer is about to show up! Just have to get this in the oven and then I’ll be right with you.” Her rambling was cut off as she grabbed the edge of the cake pan between her teeth, popped open the oven, and slid the pan inside.
Ditzy trotted up to the counter, inhaling the wonderful smell of baking muffins. Pinkie’s head popped up, and Ditzy fished a hoofful of letters from her saddlebags.
“Ok, two letters for you, and a letter and a foal catalog for the Cakes, and I’ll have two carrot muffins.”
“Two carrot muffins coming right up,” said Pinkie cheerfully as she tucked the letters into a niche. “Hey, you going to see the play?”
“What play?” asked Ditzy as Pinkie pulled a pair of carrot muffins out of a display case.
“The one about you, of course!” replied Pinkie, as if it was as obvious as the plate of muffins she was passing to Ditzy.
“What?” Ditzy exclaimed, eyes rolling in opposite directions. “There’s a play about me?”
“Of course,” replied Pinkie cheerfully. “Bluie told me all about it.” With a wave of one hoof she indicated her coltfriend, who was currently at one of the tables eating what looked to be a plate of scones. “Big new play opening up in Canterlot, about the Elements of Harmony saving the world from the Tyrant Sun. Bluie’s got us tickets!”
“Ok…” Ditzy paid for her muffins, rather distractedly, and trotted over to an open table. Instead of immediately biting into the delicious muffin, she began to dig in her saddlebag for the letter she thought she remembered spotting when she’d loaded the bags that morning. Sure enough, there it was. A letter addressed to her, and according to the return address, it was from La Commedia Della Luna Dinner Theatre, in Canterlot. She generally waited until her shift for the day ended to read her own mail, but she was on lunch break now, and she had to know what Pinkie was talking about. She tore open the envelope and unfurled the letter inside.
Dear Dame Ditzy Doo,
We are pleased to inform you that Longest Night, Longest Day, by Double Dash, will be showing for the first time anywhere at our Canterlot theatre on the 25th of October. Dinner will be served from 5:45 on, and the play itself shall begin at 7. Please accept the enclosed tickets to the opening night performance with our compliments, and we hope to see you there!
Encore Performance, Manager of La Commedia Della Luna Dinner Theatre.
Enclosed with the letter were a pair of tickets and a small poster. Ditzy carefully unfurled the poster and found that, just as Pinkie had said, it was a picture of the six of them. Well, sort of a picture of the six of them. Raindrops was shown almost the same size as Big Mac, Ditzy herself was wearing Night Guard armor for some reason, and Carrot Top appeared to have gotten one of her long-held wishes and was blowing up a tree with heat vision.
Ditzy tucked the letter back into her saddlebag and took a bite of carrot muffin as she considered the letter. Somepony, it seemed, had written a play about them. Well, she supposed it made a certain amount of sense. Her friends’ attuning to the Elements of Harmony and defeating Corona really did kind of make them the next Founders.
Ditzy snorted as she finished the first muffin. Trixie would be over the moon about this. That mare lived for attention. She quickly rummaged through her saddlebags, and sure enough, the other Elements on her route had similar letters addressed to them. It would be a treat to see Trixie’s reaction to all this.
As she moved on to her second muffin, Ditzy also moved on to a new question. Did she want to go see this play? On the one hoof, she’d actually lived through the events that would be depicted in the play, and she couldn’t imagine that the play would be anywhere near as interesting as the actual adventure had been. On the second hoof, given how that poster made things look it might be more exciting to watch than she’d expect, and it certainly shouldn’t be anywhere near as scary as the real thing had been. On the third hoof, there was no way that anypony short of Luna herself could keep Trixie from going to see the play, and the friendly thing to do would be to go with her. And on the last hoof, it was free.
And what about Dinky? Would she enjoy the play, or would it drag up her memories of being kidnapped by Corona again? If Dinky wanted to see the play, then that would be that. Ditzy certainly would have no objection to going to see the play with her little muffin. And of course if Dinky didn’t want to go and Ditzy decided to go, she’d need to find someone else to bring with that second ticket. Big Mac, maybe?
Her second muffin finished, Ditzy took a glance at the clock. There was still almost half an hour until the sun dropped enough for her to leave. As if summoned by her thoughts, a snow-white unicorn with an elegantly styled amethyst mane sidled up to Dinky’s table.
“So, is there really going to be a play about you and your friends?”
“Apparently so,” replied Ditzy. “I’ve got an invitation, and even a couple of free tickets.”
“Lucky,” replied Rarity, shaking her head with an air of mild disbelief. “I wish I’d been one of the ones to go after the Elements. Can you imagine the publicity?” The unicorn, there was no other word for it, preened. “Don’t you think I’d make a fabulousElement of Magic?”
Ditzy grinned a little. "I don't think there's any other Elements of Harmony lying around, Rarity, but if we find one I'll be sure to let you know. There’s enough limelight to go around, even with Trixie hogging as much as she can get her hooves on.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the sun dropped out of zenith, Ditzy trotted out of Sugarcube Corner and resumed her delivery route. It was only a hoofful of houses later that she came to The Official Residency of the Representative of the Night Court of Luna to Ponyville, more commonly known as Trixie’s house. She knocked at the door, and Pokey Pierce opened it.
“Mail’s here,” announced Ditzy, “and I’ve got some news I think Trixie ought to hear.”
“Ah, right this way, then. Sharpish.” Pokey snickered.
Trixie was working her way through a stack of forms as Ditzy trotted up. Upon seeing Ditzy, the blue unicorn’s face lit up.
“Ditzy! So good to see you! What’s the occasion?”
“I think you’ll want to take a look at this,” said Ditzy, pulling Trixie’s copy of the theatre letter out and offering it to her. “There’s one for each of us, it looks like.”
Ditzy quickly pulled out the rest of Trixie’s mail and stacked it on the corner of the desk while Trixie opened and read the theater invitation. As the unicorn read, her eyes widened, and then a smile broke out on her face of a size Ditzy had only previously seen on Pinkie Pie.
“The Great And Powerful Trixie cannot believe her eyes! A play about her! To premier upon the stage of La Commedia Della Luna! This… this is the most wonderful news she has had in weeks!” And she pulled Ditzy into a side-splitting hug.
“Uh, boss, sorry to poke a hole in your bubble, but you’re going third-person again,” pointed out Pokey.
Trixie blushed slightly. “Oops. The… I’m just a bit excited. La Commedia Della Luna is one of the most prestigious and expensive theaters in Canterlot. If this play is showing there, the entire Night Court is going to know about it. And to get free tickets to the opening night performance…” Trixie trailed off, then perked up again. “And all my friends are getting tickets too! This is going to be the best night ever! EEEEE!!”
Trixie’s squeal of delight was interrupted by a cracking noise. One of Ditzy’s eyes swiveled around, just in time to see Trixie’s window shatter.
Huh, thought Ditzy, I thought that only happened in stories.
“And on that note,” said Ditzy, faux-cheerfully, “I’d better be going. Still lots more letters to deliver.”
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The rest of Ditzy’s shift was much less dramatic. Raindrops and the rest of the weather patrol were still hard at work bucking back a thunderstorm that kept trying to drift out of the Everfree Forest into Ponyville, and Lyra had already heard the news (apparently Trixie had run out and told her) and consequently was much more self-possessed when Ditzy came around with the letter. Finally, after a long day’s walking and talking, she’d dropped off her emptied saddlebags in her apartment, and arrived at school to pick up her muffin.
Dinky was in the yard, apparently in the middle of a spirited argument with Pipsqueak. As they drew closer, Ditzy could make out their conversation.
“… tempt me from the salty seas,” continued Pipsqueak in an even stronger accent than normal. “But why do you remain so stubbornly bound to your oaths, Captain? The ponies of the Night Court are worse thieves and brigands than we pirates. Come away with me, and be my Pirate Queen. We shall rule the waves, drink our fill of rum each night, and sleep on beds of silver and samite.”
“Alas, my dashing rogue,” replied Dinky in an equally fake accent, “I cannot deny that my heart yearns to be with you, but I am bound by my oaths. The Night Court may not be worthy of my word, but I must still strive to be worthy of it. If you will not mend your ways, then when next we meet, we must meet as enemies.”
“So be it, then.”
The two ponies glanced up, and Dinky called, “Hi, Mom!” in her normal voice.
“Hi, Dinky,” replied Ditzy as her foal trotted up to join her. She’d have to have a Talk with Dinky soon. From the language used it sounded as though Dinky and Pipsqueak had been covertly reading some of those romance novels of the sort Raindrops liked. She knew better than most how much trouble a young filly could get into filling her head with that sort of nonsense. But that would have to wait until she’d figured out the proper way to go about it.
After a few quick exchanges of goodbyes between Dinky and her various friends, mother and daughter began the trip homewards. “How was school today?”
“We learnt about international trade. Though Pipsqueak couldn’t understand why we couldn’t just build a bunch of pirate ships and plunder the Zaldians, since they have so much stuff we want. I’m not sure I get it either, for that matter.”
“Interesting,” replied Ditzy. She was sure that there was some sound political reason using pirates to loot the Zaldian trade ships wouldn’t work, but she couldn’t think what it was either. Unable to think of anything else to say, she changed the topic. “I got a letter in the mail today. Apparently, someone has written a play about me and the Elements and how we defeated Corona way back when she first returned, and they sent us two free tickets to the opening night performance in Canterlot. Do you want to go see it?”
“There’s a play about you fighting Corona! Awesome!”
Ditzy smiled. Dinky’s sheer joy made her feel much better. “So I take it you do want to go see the play, then?”
“Of course! I get to see you being awesome on the stage. Or well, not you being awesome, but you know what I mean.”
Ditzy giggled. “Yes, I know what you mean. Well, I guess I’ll tell Trixie and the rest that we’re going.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later that evening, the six Elements of Harmony were gathered together in Trixie’s house.
Trixie opened the discussion once Carrot Top, the last of them, arrived. “So it looks like somepony has written a play about the six of us. Now, I checked with the Princess and we are getting royalties on this. Pretty much the standard figure, five percent of the profits split equally among us. Not going to be a fortune or anything, but it should still make a nice little pile of bits for each of us.”
“Ok…” said Raindrops slowly. “So, how come we didn’t know anything about this? Why didn’t Luna warn us?”
“She found out the same time we did. Some Night Court functionary approved the royalties, set the whole thing up using the same information the Court already had from giving us those rewards for driving off Corona. And on the other side, Luna may technically own La Commedia Della Luna, but she has to leave running it to Encore Performance most of the time. The play never got high enough on either side to cross Luna’s radar before the big announcement. Which was this morning.”
There was a moment of silence, then Raindrops spoke up again.
“So are we going to this opening night performance thingy?”
“Of course we’re going!” shrieked Trixie, her eyes wide. “La Commedia Della Luna is one of the oldest and most prestigious theaters in Canterlot! Duchesses and viceroys go there! The actors are the cream of the crop, the sets are superb, and the food is divine! These tickets are worth at least a hundred bits! Each!”
“Trixie’s right,” said Lyra in a more normal voice, “La Commedia Della Luna is the second-oldest theater in Canterlot, and it’s a toss-up whether it or the Royal Canterlot is the most prestigious. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and not one I intend to miss.”
“Dinky and I are going,” chipped in Ditzy. “I’m not going to pass up a free trip to the theatre with my muffin, not when she wants to go.”
Cherilee shrugged. “Sounds like fun to me. I’m in.”
Carrot Top piped up, “Well, if everyone else is going, I’ll go with you guys. Besides, it looks like I get heat vision in this play. Be cool to see that. And...” She cut off, voice dropping to a mumble.
“And what?” asked Cherilee with a grin. “Speak up, dear!”
“And… I could take Written Script,” replied Carrot Top with a blush. “That… other me… saw something in him, and he should really enjoy a play.”
Raindrops looked a bit torn, but finally assented. “I’ll go. Be fun to do something new. And Snails will like it.”
“It’s settled, then,” said Trixie. “Now, since we’re all here, anyone for cards?”