A Stellar Performance

by AppleJTZ

A medium amount of Epilogue

As audience and stage were separated by the thick curtains again murmurs and chatter returned to the theatre hall again. It sounded a little different from before however, being a lot heartier and cheerful. Many of the students were also participating in the banter, talking in a for Crystal Prerp unusually friendly manner with each other. Meanwhile, behind the red wall of fabric, the theatre group was preparing the main act, hastily setting everything up. Despite the hectic and stress however, the atmosphere on the stage felt somewhat lighter, almost as if some of the tension seemed to have been lifted off the students' shoulders. The members of the theatre group walked around, carrying props and practicing their text in a much more relaxed and friendlier way than before.

From the edge of the stage Sunny was watching them. Her backpack at her feet she had crossed her legs, hands put on the crate she was sitting on. Her gaze went over the busy students, many of them wearing a cheerful smirk. The corners of her own mouth refused to drop as well, a big smile having dominated her face from the moment she had left the stage.

“Hey, Sunny!” someone called out to her. Turning her head she saw the boy with the ridiculously long beard approaching her. Despite the very striking costume she almost didn’t recognize him, for the face framed by his fake beard had a much warmer look than during their first encounter. “Nice show you put up there!” he complimented her. Moving his hand under his large pointy hat he scratch his head. “Cinch would immediately close our group if we performed something like that, but if you ever write a similar play again… we’d be happy if you sent us the script.”

Sunny blushed slightly. “Thanks” she politely responded. Another boy suddenly walked up behind him, grinning as he put his arm around his shoulder.

“Come on, dude!” he told him, gently leading him onto the stage. “It’s almost time for your big moment!”

The Star Swirl actor resisted slightly. “I-I’m not sure if I’m up to this” he stuttered. “M-maybe you should jump in…”

“You got this, bro” he assured him, clapping his back.

Sunny looked after them, with a feeling of contentment and pride. A chore of laughing voices then turned her attention to another direction, seeing four familiar girls walk from the changing rooms towards her.

“Did we rock this thing or did we rock this thing?!” Lemon yelled, pumping her fist into the air. From her headphones loud punk music was blaring over the noise from the stage and the audience.

Sunny smirked defiantly at Lemon. “For once, I agree with you” she said, adding in fake mockery: “Though you did rock it with a tad delay.”

Indigo rubbed the back of her head. “I’ll be honest” the usually bold girl admitted in a sheepish voice. “Everytime they didn’t laugh about one of the puns in the beginning, I felt like I was about to throw up.”

“They were probably just not expecting to see comedy at Crystal Prep Academy” Sugarcoat remarked, speaking just as fast as she had on the stage. Sour watched her curiously as she pushed up her glasses.

“Seriously, how do you keep this thing from sliding off?” the girl with the ponytail asked, nudging Sugarcoat’s glasses slightly. “It wasn’t even in the script that I drop them!”

“But it worked!” Indigo reminded her.

“Yeah” Lemon agreed, winking. “All five times!”

Indigo and Sour, while Sugarcoat rolled her eyes. Suddenly all four of them could feel a pair of arms being wrapped around them. Pulling them as closely towards her as possible Sunny gave her actors a tight hug. “Thank you, girls” she whispered, smiling even brighter than before. A little embarrassed, but with happy looks on their faces the others put their arms around her and each other. The five of them remaining in the group hug for a moment, cuddling each other.

“Okay, getting a bit too sentimental” Indigo's voice cut through the moment, the tomboy looking a little annoyed.

With a chuckle the girls let go. Releasing each other they formed a circle, Sunny looking contently at her actors. They all stared back at her, except for Lemon who was moving her head to her music, lost in her own little world. A small yawn then crept up her throat, holding a hand in front of her mouth as it tried to make its way out. “You know, I think I know how Dean Cadence felt when she set up our new time table” she told the others, stretching herself slightly. “Now that the stress is off my mind, I'm feeling kind of burned out.”

“I am surprised everything went so well” Sugarcoat admitted. “Rewriting the whole script into a comedy about students practicing your original play was pretty much of a stunt.”

Sunny shrugged. “Well, my play wasn’t really good, and you guys obviously couldn’t play the way I intended you to” she explained. “So, I thought why not change it into something that you could handle better?”

Crossing her arms Indigo frowned. “I don’t like it if you say it that way” she murmured, a little offended. “Kind of sounds like we threw the towel.”

Putting a hand over her lips Sour giggled girlishly. “Considering the reactions of the audience” she cooed, suddenly punching into her palm with a self-confident smirk on her face “I’d say it was a total knock-out!”

Sunny, Indigo and Sour chuckled, while Sugarcoat grinned a little wider. Their joy came to a sudden halt however when they could hear a furious voice call over the noise on the stage and Lemon’s music.

“THIS IS A SCANDAL!”

Startled the four girls turned their heads, alongside a large part of the theatre group. From the side entrance Principal Cinch was walking onto the stage, her high heels furiously clapping on the wooden boards as she approached the girls. The Shadowbolts looked in fright at her, shivering slightly. Only Lemon was oblivious, jamming out to her music without noticing what was going on. Quickly Sour pulled off the headphones from her ears, irritating her for a moment. As Lemon's gaze met the principal’s furious eyes however she quickly caught on, staring at her in surprise.

“You didn’t perform the script I told you to!” the principal yelled straight at Sunny, holding an accusing finger in front of her face. “I expected a dignified play representing the spirit of academic excellence this institution stands for, not this… this foolery!”

Sunny ducked slightly, fearfully looking at the principal. She didn't have a response, only able to stutter and tremble under her hostile glare. Suddenly the other four girls stepped in front of her, staring confidently back at the head of their school.

“You are being rather vague” Sugarcoat noticed, crossing her arms. “It kind of sounds like you didn’t really read the script.”

“And if you read it” Lemon went on, Cinch's moving her head back in surprise as she pointed with her finger at her “You'd know what we played was like, ten thousand times better!”

“Yeah!” Indigo agreed, putting a hand on her hip while waving with her other towards the red curtain. “I mean didn’t you hear the applause? They were literally shaking the theatre!”

Cinch glared angrily through her glasses down on each of them, before calming herself slightly. “The only thing that was shaken tonight was the good name of Crystal Prep Academy” she stated, folding her hands behind her back. “This school has a reputation! A silly little play like yours is not worthy of this stage.”

Sour stared up at the principal, confidence radiating from her eyes. “Well, the theatre group here seems to have liked our silly little play. Am I right?”

But as she turned towards the other students on the stage she found most of them were looking away, in a mixture of fear and shame.

“Cowards” Sour scoffed, pouting.

For a moment Cinch looked rather pleased, but only to look even angrier the next second. Her heavy breathing caused her glasses to slightly slide down, the principal casually adjusting them.“You will all face the consequences for humiliating this school!” she strictly told them, her voice growing louder and more furious a she spoke. “I will make sure you will be accurately punished for this… this…”

“Outstanding performance out there!”

The principal winced, looking irritated behind her. She, Sunny and her gang as well as the whole of the theatre group watched the reporter walking onto the stage, a big grin plastered on his face.

“That was amazing!” he praised the girls, walking past the baffled Cinch right at them. He grabbed Sunny’s hand, the whole girl trembling as he shook it. “Absolutely well written comedy, a good mixture of slapstick and humorous dialogue, with the right amount of cynical elements. And the actors all played their roles as if they were really identifying with their characters! Very well done!”

The constant shaking made Sunny feel a little dizzy, but she seemed happy. “Y-y-you think so?” she asked.

“Absolutely!” he assured her, still shaking her hand. “And it was quite bold, too! A self-critical act about the overconfidence of amateur actors, and on top of that at a school theatre! I wish I could write more than just a short note about it in the newspaper, but I’ll definitely put a more elaborate review on my blog!” Letting go off Sunny’s hand he then turned towards Cinch, who quickly swallowed her apparent shock. “I’m really surprised to see comedy at your school” he told her. “It’s good to see you broadening your horizon. I take it you are also here to congratulate the students for their spectacular work?”

A slightly smug look on her face Sour took a step forward. “Yes, Principal Cinch” she chirped, shoving her smirk into her frowning face. “Do tell him how you were just about to ‘reward’ us♥”

The principal looked down on Sour, while glancing towards the reporter. “This isn’t over yet” she quietly hissed at the girls. She threw one more glare at Sunny, who just smiled confidently in return, before she walked off the stage, trying not to stomp with her high-heels too hard on the floor.

“Well, I better return too for the main act” the reporter told the girls. He gazed over at the theatre group, who were just finishing their preparations, and leaned a little closer to the girls. “Though honestly, after watching the autobiography of Star Swirl three times this year already, your silly little play was the real main act for me” he whispered, winking at them. Sunny blushed slightly, watching the man head for the exit.

“We should get going too” Indigo suggested, pointing with her thumb off the stage. “I’m not a fan of fancy, but tonight I feel like I’m in the mood for some culture.”

“You think we’re gonna sit near a few eggheads who can help me with history?” Lemon asked as they got going, knocking her own head. “Can’t get the names of the presidents in there…”

“It would help you to concentrate if you didn’t put the volume of your headphones on maximum while learning” Sugarcoat adviced her.

As they were about to leave the stage Sour stopped, turning around. “Are you coming, Sunny?” she asked, seeing their director was still standing at the crates.

Sunny smiled at her. “In a minute!” she replied “Just have to take care of something first.”

Sour shrugged, then went after the others. As they were gone Sunny sat back down on the crate. Unzipping her backpack she pulled out her laptop, placing it on her legs and opening it. She typed in the password, her desktop popping up shortly after. Using her mousepad she moved the cursor to the icon “Friendship report”, and double-clicked.

A blank document stared at her. Sunny put her fingers on the keyboard, then hesitated. After a few seconds her hands began to move, words appearing on the screen.

“Dear Dean Cadence…”

Author's Note:

And that's the end of this story. Thank you for reading it :)

For the friendship letter, read the corresponding chapter in Dear Dean...

Comments

[jollymusician]

Great job. I look forward to reading more from you.

[DanceCentralPony2]

And we have Sunny writing her first friendship report!

[Regreme]

Very eager to see the follow-ups.:D

[PinkyPie25800]

YES! This was the BEST ShadowBolts story I have EVER read so far! I absolutely loved how you executed each character, you really brought out each of their personalities. I can't even name a favorite in this story, they were all so perfect! I was laughing so much, too, ESPECIALLY during the practice and the actual play! And this wasn't the silly story I expected it to be when I read the summary and the first paragraph or so of the story. It was extremely well written, well detailed, and like I said before, everyone was SO well characterized. Even Cinch and Cadence! And the students at CPA are just what you'd expect them to be. Short and sweet, yet so well written. Goes to show how not all good stories are just long novels. I can go in for PAGES about how great this story is. Best story I have read on FiM fiction yet! And yes, I'm no critic, or expert for that matter, but GOD do I love this!!!

So yes, I give you a 20 out of 10. Congrats, my friend, you just earned yourself a follower :)

[AppleJTZ]

6692728 Aw, you're flattering me Thank you very much!

6690481 I didn't think of it while writing the story, but a few of Shakespear's plays actually have a setup or contain side-story about actors performing a play.

I'm afraid though I don't really get your joke And since I'm a nitpicker: Who is Lemon Zap? ;)

[PinkyPie25800]

6694932 No problem! You deserve it! Oh, and to answer your question, Lemon Zap is the ship name for Lemon Zest and Indigo Zap

[BenRG]

I'm thinking of the fixed smile of faux approval on Cinch's face as she watches Sunny get the 'Outstanding New Talent in Comedy (age 14-18)' award. Then she says a few modest words about Crystal Prep 'encouraging and nurturing the full breadth of artistic talent' all the while, inside, raging and vein-popping. I suspect that she's going to end up naming her first ulcer 'Shadowbolt' after the girls.

6694932
It's a play on words. Othello was the Moor of Venice - A Moor being a North-West African, especially from Morocco and Western Sahara. However, 'moor' is also a verb: the act of tying a boat to a wharf or jetty so it doesn't drift away.

The joke (from the RSC's "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)") is that the actor is so dumb, he (for it is a guy in the show) that he sees 'Moor of Venice', remembers a picture he saw once of a Venetian gondola and immediately assumed that the play was something about boats. He then just skims a one-screen-length Wikipedia summary of the plot of the play and bases his performance on that.

[AppleJTZ]

6697705 Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh.

...a really cheap joke XD But thanks for clearing it up.

[AppleJTZ]

6698731 Wasn't it confusing to read the ending first then? I mean this is kind of the most important chapter.

And thanks, it was what I aimed for.

[ShadowLDrago]

A slightly smug look on her face Sour took a step forward. “Yes, Principal Cinch” she chirped, shoving her smirk into her frowning face. “Do tell him how you were just about to ‘reward’ us♥”

Oh she's milking this for all it's worth.

[MrAskAPirate]

I missed this one somehow back when it came out,
s6.postimg.org/5pzpmopep/Pirate_Approved2.jpg

[Horizon Shine]

Cinch shall have her revenge. The shadow bolts are all doomed

[Animation Crusader]

Friendship report time! I think Sunny learned something really fantastic in this story, and I think it's one of the best lessons that can ever be taught. I loved how the reporter loved the play while Cinch hated it, but can't do a thing about it. You lose again, Cinch!

[AppleJTZ]

7128098 No, I actually meant he wore another person's head on top of his head

Thanks for pointing this out

[MJP]

stop trying to give Sunny Flare a personality, it doesn't work, sunny has no personality

[AppleJTZ]

7553151 They are parallel universes, so I figured they share the same Holiday names.

[superfun]

This was definitely entertaining.

One correction, though:

Though honestly, after watching the autobiography of Star Swirl three times this year already, your sill little play was the real main act for me” he whispered, winking at them

I think you're missing the "y" at the end of the word, there.

[AppleJTZ]

8032596 Corrected, thanks

[Csquared08]

This was nice. I also really appreciate the chapter title. It amuses me.

[Phara_mine]

Marvelous, Shadowbolts 2 Cinch 0