Ch. 3: Surprises in the Park
Later that day, Megan and Coloratura are rehearsing on stage. Megan played the guitar while Rara sang the Equestrian Anthem like before. Rara’s cutie mark glowed right before Megan’s eyes as she sang. When Rara finished singing, Megan tapped the triangle.
“That was lovely, Coloratura,” Megan said.
“Thanks, Megan,” she said, “And call me Rara. All of my friends do.”
“Applejack told me you had the loveliest singing voice.”
“Thank you. I’m impressed with how well you played the guitar. How did you learn to play?”
“My mom would teach me when I was a kid. She would take the time to give me music lessons.”
As she reminisced about it, Megan begins to feel a little lonesome for her mom
“You miss her, huh?”
“Yeah I do," Megan says as she rubs her arm.
Seeing how melancholy Megan looked, Rara extends her hoof to her hand to comfort her.
"It's okay. You'll see her again someday. I promise."
After rehearsal, Megan and Rara are about to leave to go spend time with their friends. That is until Megan accidentally trips over a pink pony with purple hair and a scarf.
“Sorry about that,” Megan said while getting up.
“Watch it, you hairless ape!” shouted the pink pony.
Rarity and Coco spat out some tea they were drinking when they heard her voice.
“I know that yell!” Coco said.
“Well if it isn’t my two ex-friends from Fashion Week,” said the pink pony.
“Hello, Suri!” Rarity glared.
“Rarity!” Suri glared back.
“Pinkie!” Pinkie said while jumping out of nowhere.
For a moment, Rarity and Suri looked at Pinkie with raised eyebrows. Then, they looked back at each other with glares of intensity.
“Oh no! It’s Suri Polomare,” Fluttershy said.
“Who?” Discord, Megan, and Thorne asked.
“She’s the pony Coco use to work for. She’s also the pony who stole Rarity’s idea during fashion week.”
“Really? Watch me as I throw this thief out!” Thorne said while rolling his sleeves.
Rarity and Suri are still glaring down at each other.
“What are you doing here?” Rarity said.
“Hoping Coco will fail at this Revival after her betrayal!” Suri said.
"Oh you are, are you?"
"Yes I am!"
Suri and Rarity get into a growling match with their faces angrily pressing against each other. Everyone began staring while someone in a black cloak put something in the popcorn machine and trot away.
Thorne grabs Suri and lifts here.
"Hey!" Suri yells
“Time for you to go, Troublemaker!” Thorne said.
Thorne throws her out through the park gate and brushes his claws off. Fluttershy walks toward him.
“Great job, Thorne,” Fluttershy said.
Thorne turns and razed at Discord, making him grit his teeth. Coco is confused until she turns to Rarity.
“What’s going on between those two?” Coco asked.
“Discord and Thorne are fighting over Fluttershy, so beware of the bad blood between them,” Rarity warned.
“I’ll make sure they get separate seats,” Coco said.
Suddenly, carnival music is being heard and two pony clowns in white and red make-up show. One clown is a Pegasus who had on a blue jumpsuit, a pilot cap, and a red nose. The other is an earth pony wearing a yellow jumpsuit with white polka dots and a mask.
“Hello, Everyone!” said the earth clown, “We came to provide a happy performance after the bad feelings that went on.”
The two clowns begin to juggle as foals of all ages gather around them. The Earth Clown juggled the balls until they became a hoop. The Pegasus clown zoomed through, knocking the balls and his partner out of place and into a mud puddle. All the ponies laughed and cheered at their performance.
****
While the clowns are putting on their act, a mysterious shadow showed up with a pair of shears and begin cutting the seams of the costumes.
****
The clowns end their performance with the Pegasus balancing the earth clown.
Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash notice something about the clowns.
“Say! Haven’t we seen you clowns before?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Maybe at another festival you went to one time,” the Pegasus clown said.
“No. I’ve seen you two before,” Rarity said, “but I can’t put my hoof on where.”
Applejack gets a closer look at the earth pony clown.
“Probably your orange hair,” she said, “You remind me of someone I once met.”
“I have that kind of hair,” said the earth clown, “We must be goin’ now. Have a foal’s birthday party to attend.”
The clowns leave through the gate in a hurry.
****
That evening, moments before show time, everyone but Rarity was seated. She was about to get a bag of popcorn when she spotted a familiar, bland unicorn: Zesty Gourmand, the worst food critic in Canterlot, handing out the cuisine she used to say are acceptable.
“Zesty Gourmand?” Rarity called out.
“Rarity, how adequate to see you!” she said.
“What are you doing here?” Rarity asked.
“After every restaurant in Canterlot turned to their usual food, I tried to get every pony to sample my recipes again so Canter.to can be the high culture for the high class again. I’m hoping Princess Celestial will sample some despite the last few times before she rejected it.”
“I hope there’s no hard feelings about that.”
“A noble unicorn like me never holds a grudge, Rarity. Besides, like you said, I had no place to tell others what to eat before trying something. Anyway, I must get back to handing out samples of my cuisine. Ta-Ta.”
Zesty walks away, leaving Rarity to look at her with suspicion on her mind. Deciding to brush it off, she grabs herself a bag of popcorn and heads back to her friends.