Ponyville Public Access

by Justice3442

The Adventures of Purple Smart

Author's Note:

Apple_Crack brings us a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a BRAND NEW REALITY TV SHOW!

With the latest friendship lessons for today finished, Spike, Twilight, and Starlight made their way into the TV room to rest and relax with some quality entertainment. It had become sort of a tradition for each of them to come together and watch TV as a way of increasing their own friendship. Each carried, or levitated in the case of Twilight and Starlight, their own bag of popcorn.

“I’m telling you, Twilight, we could make our own movie theater right here! Some nice chairs, surround sound, snack machines, even a soda fountain!”

Twilight rolled her eyes as she climbed onto the couch, folding her legs under her. “Spike, all we do is watch the public broadcasts in here. And with what is being broadcast, I doubt anypony would consider it movie worthy.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right…” Spike’s shoulders slumped. He climbed onto the couch and sat down, idly munching on his popcorn as Starlight climbed into the couch to his right. Spike snapped his claw. “But what if we made our own movies! We could even broadcast them to the public!”

Starlight rubbed her chin. “That doesn’t sound like a bad idea actually. We could bring decent programming to the TV, and we could spread important messages to everypony.”

Twilight made a humming sound as she tilted her head, absentmindedly levitating pieces of popcorn into her mouth. “I think you two might actually be onto something. We could reach a wider range of ponies and maybe solve their friendship problems before the map actually sends us to wherever the problem is!”

Spike looked between the two mares. “So… Does this mean we get our movie theater?” At Twilight’s nod, Spike’s eyes lit up. “Score! Alright, let’s get this show on the road!” Spike grabs the remote and turns on the TV.

Static… That’s all. No advertisement, no show, no… anything really. Just the fuzzy white static dancing across the screen. The three stare at the TV, waiting for something, anything, to appear. “Is… Is there nothing broadcasting today?” Starlight looks at Spike and Twilight.

Twilight doesn’t take her eyes off the TV. “No, there has to be something. Even if there’s nothing new, those advertisements that ponies put out should still air.”

Spike groans and buries his head in his claws. “Come on, anything is better than static!” A sharp click from the TV snaps everyone’s head up. A thin, white line runs across the center of the screen.

“What is that?” Twilight asks as all three lean forward.

From the TV, a drumroll starts playing. “We now return to…” A deep, masculine voice booms out before five words appear on the screen, three above the white line and two below. “The Adventures of Purple Smart!”

Twilight tilts her head. “Huh, this seems new.” Though she can’t place her hoof on it, something about the name Purple Smart seems familiar…

The white line splits into two. One of the lines swipes down, the other goes up. On the screen, the back of a couch in front of TV can be seen along with the back of the heads of two unicorns. And on the TV on the TV, the same thing can be seen, and so on.

Nothing happens on the screen. No voice, no announcer, just the same image. “Why isn’t anything happening? Shouldn’t we be hearing or seeing something move by now?” Spike asks.

“I’m not sure, Spike, let me check.” As Twilight starts to move from her position on the couch, the left unicorn on screen starts to move towards its TV. Noticing this, Twilight stops, and so does the unicorn. Twilight starts to move forward again, and the unicorn moves again. Twilight stops and studies the screen. Something is very wrong here.

Her eyes widen as she takes in the more minute details of the room shown on screen. Gingerly, Twilight unfurls her left wing and raises it up. The unicorn, now revealed to be an alicorn, unfurls its own left wing and matches Twilight. Twilight flaps her wing, and the alicorn matches her. Slowly, Twilight turns her head to look over her shoulder and the couch beyond… The same one being shown on TV right now.

Starlight and Spike stare with mouths agape as the alicorn on screen, clearly recognizable as Twilight now, stares back at the camera… Or she would be, if there was a camera to be seen. Slowly, Spike stands up and looks over the back of the couch. Onscreen, Spike’s head can be seen peering over the couch. Slowly, Starlight gets up and moves to the left, out of frame of the camera with her screen version doing the same.

Twilight slowly turns back towards the TV, seeing screen Spike peering at the camera. She looks back over the couch just as Spike turns to look at the TV. “Twilight?”

“Yeah, Spike?”

“What’s going on?”

Twilight looks back at the TV and starts slowly moving towards Spike as her onscreen persona does the same. “For once, Spike, I have no idea.” She nuzzles up against Spike, not only to put Spike at ease but herself as well. They both just stare at the screen, waiting for something to happen. A giant eye engulfs the screen, causing both of them to scream. The eye blinks a few times before slowly pulling back as more and more details of a face, Starlight’s to be precise, comes into focus. “Starlight!”

Starlight glances behind her, seeing her onscreen version mimicking her. “What?”

With a flash, Twilight teleports herself beside Starlight. “Do you realize how… Freaky that was, seeing a giant eye appear?!”

Starlight points to where the camera should be. “Everything about this situation is freaky, Twilight! We’re being filmed by some unknown camera, in the middle of your castle no less!”

“I know that! That’s what freaks me out!”

Spike raises a claw. “Umm… Twilight, Starlight?” The mares in question look at him. He points at the camera location. “If this thing is filming us now, what else has it filmed? This is a TV series, remember, so they have to be filming other stuff, right?”

Twilight’s and Starlight’s eyes widen as they turn to look at each other, then the camera. “Oh sweet Celestia…” Twilight mutters.

On the outskirts of Ponyville in a wagon…

A certain unicorn mare laughed uncontrollably at her TV. “Trixie loves this show!”

Comments

[ClockworkMage]

Do not approach the film crew if they become visible.

[MythrilMoth]

Discord's gonna get his ass kicked for this one.

[Seether00]

Reality tv? Boo. Worst type of television.

[MidnightFMare]

"The Truman Twilight zone: Special service" #64, season 3, episode 29.

Yes, I did TWO references at once; covering all the bases for a grand slam.

WHAT'RE YA GONNA DO ABOUT IT?!

[Hopeful_Ink_Hoof]

Well, there's probably clips of Spike posing in the mirror, and if any of them sing in the shower...

[JOEBLACK]

Probably more worried about being filmed clopping (especially together)