• Published 23rd Dec 2015
  • 715 Views, 19 Comments

Cheerilee's Hearth's Warming Play - Talon and Thorn



Hearth's Warming is just around the corner and Cheerilee decides to put on a play to celebrate the season. However, with unexpected costs, feuds between the cast and young divas will the play survive until opening night? A Lunaverse story.

  • ...
1
 19
 715

Chapter 4: Setting the Stage

“Ok my little ponies, now we’ve done really well in the last few rehearsals so we’re ready to kick it up a notch! Now that the big day’s only about a fortnight away we’re going to run through the play in costume!” There was excited muttering from the crowd, it wasn’t often most of the foals got to wear clothes, let alone costumes! “Now some of you will have already tried on some of your outfits when we measured you, but for some of you this will be the first time you’ve seen them so if you all line up me and miss Trixie will help you put them on.” It had been nice of Rarity to offer to help make the main costumes, given her sister didn’t get a major part, thought Cheerilee. Where possible she’d encouraged the foals to be involved in including their own personal touches in their clothing, Apple Bloom had included her customary bow in her chancellor costume, Diamond Tiara had included a family heirloom hat in hers, Dinky was wearing the cloak Trixie had gotten her for her last birthday and Scootaloo’s wing guards had been her mothers, although they were rather outsized on the filly. The costumes for the extra’s had been put together by various other volunteers, Carrot Top had even brought her some made by the mysterious Fluttershy who lived outside of town. Still most of them would probably need a bit of adjustment to properly fit. “Silver Spoon if you could help us as well?” she asked.

“Sure ma’am,” said Silver proudly walking to the front of the line and picking out one of the sack cloth outfits for the earth ponies she held it up seeming to decide which of the foals it would best fit.

“Can I help as well miss?” asked Dinky brightly.

“Thank you for asking but you’re going to need to be put into your own costume, Silver Spoon should be all the help I’ll need.”

“Ok, miss,” said Dinky sounding a little put out.

“Now there’s a few other things we’re going to do differently this time,” explained Cheerilee as she carefully fitted Scootaloo’s armour around her wings. “You’ve had enough time to learn your lines so we’re not going to allow any copies of the script on stage now, if you have any problems Snails will help you.” She turned to the colt who was standing near the back of the classroom away from his peers with a copy of the script open in front of him, she was actually very proud of the amount of effort the colt was putting into his role, she’d partially suggested the job as make work, but it was good to see he was taking it all seriously.

Cheerilee waved Scootaloo aside and turned to the next filly in line, Applebloom. She reached into the box and drew out the appropriate costume. “Miss!” cried the filly, “It’s all covered in paint!” Frowning Cheerilee looked at the robes, they were almost entirely covered in a bright yellow paint, had something splashed onto it while they were painting the scenery? She searched through the box, it looked like only the one been effected, which was rather suspicious.

“Such a shame!” exclaimed Diamond Tiara insincerely, heightening Cheerilee’s suspicions. “I guess you can’t play Puddinghead now, just as well I’ve been memorising all your lines! My daddy just happened to get a costume made for me when I auditioned as well.”

“Well ah can wear your costume then!” growled Apple Bloom turning to face the other filly.

“No way! It wouldn’t fit you, you’ve got those horrible musclely legs, not like my own petite ones. Daddy told mother that he really liked her legs, and mine are just like hers!”

“These are hard working legs! Apple legs, like all of ma family, made for farming!” she stamped angrily on the ground.

“Children please!” called Cheerilee, “This isn’t that bad, the paint we use is easy to get off coats, and clothes, a wash and it’ll be a good as new.”

Diamond Tiara’s face dropped. “Ha!” exclaimed Apple Bloom, “But what will ah wear today!” she asked nervously.

“We should have a spare background Earth Pony costume or two spare, you can wear one of those until this one is washed. Then I’ll keep an eye on it to make sure no further.. accidents happen,” she glared at Diamond who didn’t make eye contact.

“In addition to the costumes,” cried Trixie putting the last off the outfits on the foals in front of her, “for the first time you will be entertained by the very special effects provided by the great and powerful Trixie! Behold Trixie will make it snow, during, um winter.. indoors!” she rallied. Above the stage a dark cloud formed and snow started to fall, within seconds the ground seemed to be covered in a thick layer of the white material despite the room actually being quite warm. Bee Bop fluttered over towards the stage and stuck a hoof into the material which passed straight through the illusion. She was quickly followed by several other foals interesting in examining the magic.

“Thank you Trixie, it really highlights the scenery the children have made,” she gestured at the wood and cardboard trees, walls and clouds that her class, with some help from Carrot Top and Big Mac, amongst others, had created to illustrate the various scenes of the play. Now they were almost finished the foals acting as the stage hands could get used to moving them in and out of sight as the play progressed and the actors could work around them.

“Ah, but that is just the least of my abilities! I can guarantee that this performance will have the most accurate representation of the fiendish Windigo ever, for who else but I can claim to have met one in the flesh!” Trixie’s horn flashed brighter, and dark clouds seemed to draw in across the ceiling of the schoolroom.

Cheerilee shivered despite there being no change in the actual temperature. “Tri-Trixie maybe you-you should...” she began but then her jaw dropped as the clouds parted and a figure emerged, almost glowing, not from an internal light but from the reflection from its crystalline form which moved, and writhed, in an unnatural way. It was as if parts of it were disappearing to, and being draw from, some other realm. For all of it’s general equine appearance, there was no mistaking it for anything mortal, or even of this world. The creature drew back it’s head and let out a moan. Cheerilee tried to shy back but her limbs wouldn’t move, cold, she was so cold, she could feel the ice growing over her, encasing her until the only heat and life left within her would be the burning hatred in her heart for the spiteful old bitch in front of her. Knowing at the same time that feeling was what was empowering the creature in front of her, and at once that it was the only thing keeping her alive as the ice slipped deeper and deeper into her until at some future moment it would touch and extinguish this last flicker and she would be gone!

“Cheerilee!” came a cry, the school teacher managed to break the paralysis that had taken her to turn her eyes to Trixie who was standing in front of her waving a hoof. “Are you alright?” she asked worriedly.

“I’m...I’m fine,” she replied, her shaking legs barely able to hold her up showing the lie of this statement.

“Sorry, I didn’t think about what happened to you in Noam last month, too realistic?”

“Fa.. far too realistic,” mumbled Cheerilee leaning on her friend. She looked around to see most of her class huddled in small groups against the far wall away from where the illusion had been. With the resiliency of youth a few of them were already starting to step forwards now that the image was gone. Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara seemed to finally notice they were closely hugging each other and separated, turning away from each other muzzles in the air.
“Maybe some-something a little more foal friend-friendly?” she suggested as Trixie gently led her towards a seat.

“Humm,” the magician seemed to think for a moment then conjured up a small cartoonish image of a crystalline pony. Cheerilee jerked her head away in shock. “Maybe not, I’m sure I’ll think of something.” She looked around to see the foals starting to surround the two of them. “Right, um, class, Miss Cheerilee needs a bit of a sit down for the moment.”

“Don’t worry class,” said Cheerilee with false cheer, her coat still pale. “Miss Trixie’s spell was just a bit of a shock, I’ll be fine...”

“Right!” cried Trixie trying to distract the foals, “Now let’s get the show back on the road. We’re going to start from the top, so Alula if you’d like to get on stage and we need the three tribes in the wings for the first scene.”


“Wouldn't it have been easier to use the door, Chancellor?” asked Diamond Tiara as Apple Bloom crawled onto the stage through a window in the set, which groaned a little in protest. There’d been a problem earlier that the window had been to small for her resulting with half an hour of wiggling and a slab of butter being required to free her. A new window had quickly been constructed but it still needed painting.

“It’s ‘Why did you used the window, Chancellor!’” called Snails from the front of the stage.

“That’s a bit too loud Snails,” said Trixie, “you need to make sure the cast can hear you but not the audience.”

“Sorry Miss,” said Snails.

Diamond Tiara’s face crumpled up. “He got it wrong! It was ‘use the door’.”

Trixie picked up her own copy of the script, “Nope says window here, don’t worry you still have a while to get it all down.”

“I was sure...” trailed off Diamond then she shrugged. “Why have you used the window?” she continued.

“The snow has covered all the fields now! The main approach is buried two ponies deep!” exclaimed Apple Bloom, “Ah had to climb up the cliff to the east to get here, That’s how ah got my job, because ah get things done! Just like down on the farm,” she stamped on the ground.

“There are no farms now!” exclaimed Diamond, “We need to reach out to the pegasus and unicorns.”

“It’s ‘other tribes’” whispered Snails.

“No! Its pegasus and unicorn!” cried Diamond Tiara whirling around, “I remember it being changed in the last version of the script!”

“There haven't been any changes to the script since the last rehearsal,” said Trixie.

“Yeah, you’re just bad at remembering things,” said Apple Bloom.

“No! I tried really hard to learn it all, my daddy even came home early from work to help me!” exclaimed Diamond, “There were all those changes in the pages dropped off at my house last weekend... it was you!” she turned to Apple Bloom who smirked a little. “You’re trying to sabotage me!”

“It’s not ma fault you got the scripts mixed up, it's a bad workmare who blames her tools!”

“Whoa,” said Trixie holding up her hooves, “Now I don’t know what going on here but we’ve got a play to get through. Do you think you can remember the old lines Diamond?”

“I, I think so,” said the filly.

“Good, we’ll carry on with this scene then we’ll have a break while the sets get switched around and you can read up on the line again.”

Everypony nodded.

“Good, now where were we?”

“We need to reach out to the other tribes,” said Snails.

“We need to reach out to the other tribes,” repeated Diamond Tiara glaring at Apple Bloom.


“That was terrible!” exclaimed Dinky.

“I don’t think it was that bad,” mumbled Firelock, “We got most of the words right.” The foals were huddled by the stage area while Trixie helped the set ponies move the props on and off the stage. At first they had been a bit hesitant, but they were starting to get the hang of it and pick up speed. At the front of the stage Miss Cheerilee was hugging a large mug of steaming hot chocolate, she seemed to be slowly recovering from her earlier fright and was starting to give instructions to the crew.

“Most isn’t good enough, we need to be perfect!” sighed Dinky. Once word had gotten out how good an actress she was foals had started to come to her for advice on their scene’s. She’d done what she could to help them, but once they realised how hard it could be many of them weren’t so keen any more. The stress was making her stomach feel funny, but it was her responsibility to make sure the play was went well. “We have to be perfect for Miss Cheerilee! Look at her, she must be really worried about the play!”

“Yeah, perfect like you are,” mumbled Scootaloo rebelliously.

“What was that?” snapped Dinky dragging her eyes away from the stricken teacher.

“SHE SAID PERFECT LIKE YOU ARE!” yelled Bee Bop helpfully.

“Miss Cheerilee did say I was a good actress,” she reminded the rest of the class, many of whom made sour faces. “And she put me in charge of the unicorn tribe in the first rehearsal.” The various unicorn extras shuffled their hooves a bit. “Now Diamond, you need to to get your lines right.”

“It’s not my fault!” cried the pink filly looking up from the script, “She gave me the wrong lines!” she pointed to Apple Bloom.

“You can’t prove that!” said the red head sticking out her tongue. Sweetie Belle giggled.

“Besides, you get your words wrong as well Dinky.”

Dinky’s ears lowered for a moment, she had made a few mistakes, but she had so many lines, and she had to keep helping the others get their lines right and act properly, she’d found it hard to get to sleep for the last few days, her brain just wouldn’t seem to turn off.

“Don’t worry,” said Snails, “I’ll help you with your lines,” his horn glowed as he looked down at the script, “I’ve been practising really hard, I can record almost six pages now, even if they don’t say anything about bugs.”

“But you shouldn’t need to!” exclaimed Dinky, “You keep being too loud so the audience can’t hear you, so they can hear the important actors like me!” Snails ears drooped at this. “Now we need to get better. Scootaloo, you need to keep an eye on your hooves, you keep falling over the props when you’re ‘fighting’, Apple Bloom, you need to speak more clearly.”

“Come on ponies,” called Firelock trying to inject some levity into the meeting, “It’s not that bad, it’s the travelling scene’s next, we all know how fun those are!” Many of the unhappy faces perked up at that.

“Actually I think we need to talk about that,” said Dinky.

“What’s up? I think our light dance is great!”

“Yeah, but we keep bumping into each other in the dark, and really it’s just our horns glowing, it’s not that special,” explained Dinky, “I think we should try something else.”

“Like what?” asked Firelock her ears drooping.

“How about a magic show, like miss Trixie does? I could do card tricks! And make things appear from thin air!”

“But what would the rest of us do?” asked Firelock looking around at the other unicorns.

“You could all be my assistants! It’ll be much better than just flashing our horns, I’m sure miss Trixie would help make it really good.”

“I suppose so,” mumbled Firelock, “But I really liked the light dance, it was cool.”

“It was a bit hard getting our names right,” said Sweetie Bell sounding a bit unsure herself.

“That’s settled then,” said Dinky with finality, “We’ll go to ask miss Trixie if we can change our bit of the travelling scene.” She started to march off towards the magician with the rest of the unicorn foals slouching along behind.


“Wow! You weren't joking when you said it was too big were you?” said Trixie rearing back to look at the large tent that had seemed to appear overnight next to the town hall. It looked like it could house a full sized circus.

“Yes,” agreed Cheerilee looking up from a clipboard. “I’ve got to admit I freaked out a bit when it was delivered. There would have been no way I could have got it up in time for tomorrow's show by myself, and I’ve got a lot of experience getting things erect,” she wiggled her eyebrows causing Trixie to make gagging sounds. “Anyway Heavy Roller saw me standing next to it and offered to help, then Big Mac happened to be wandering by,” she gestured at the stallions standing nearby, one of them nervously holding a peg in place while the other hammered it into the ground, “Then the Mayor arrived and before I realised we had a whole work crew! I think most of the parents are helping and then some.” She wasn’t joking, Trixie could see at least two dozen ponies working away at the construction. “It’s not just helping put up the stage either,” She gestured to a small gaggle of unicorns helping to temporarily enchant some lights. “Honeydew even volunteered to provide electric spot lights, I’ve not idea what she’s going to power them with but I can’t wait to see it.”

“How many tickets did you end up selling?” asked Trixie stepping aside as Davenport trotted past levitating a pair of chairs still with the price tags attached.

“Almost all of them!” said Cheerilee with a grin, “And we did a second batch given how big this place is, unless there’s a disaster we should make more than enough to cover our costs, and to buy new books and probably employ Bluenote as well, maybe even organise a trip or two somewhere.”

Trixie stuck her head out of the tent and glared in the direction of the nearby Everfree forest. “Did you have to say that?” she asked, “If there’s something I’ve learned in my year here in Ponyville it’s that a disaster is always coming.”

“Oh don’t worry so much, last year was actually quite uneventful as things go in Ponyville.”

Trixie looked at her friend, unsure if she was joking or not. “Anyway, do you think you can spare a couple of ponies to help get my stage over here?” asked Trixie, “It’s a bit of struggle for just me and Pokey.”

“Sure, we’re almost done with the marque now, I’ll send a few over to help. I have no idea where you store that thing between uses, it’s pretty big.”

“A magician never reveals her secrets!” proclaimed Trixie, “Anyway, it’s not that large, we’re going to need to add extensions to get it up to fitting all the foals.”

Cheerilee checked her notes, “Carrot Top and a few of the farmers union members should be here in an hour or so to work on that. You should get a move on.”

“Ay, Ay, captain,” said Trixie giving a salute.

“Steady as she does Mister Trixie,” replied Cheerilee returning the salute. She glanced over towards one of the tents entrances. “There’s Red Splasher, I need to talk to him about signing off this place for fire safety. Ready for the final rehearsal tomorrow morning?”

“Yep, the kids have been coming along marvelously, although I do wonder if some of them aren't taking it a bit too seriously...”

“Dinky?”

“Yeah, she’s normally such a sweet foal, but I think she’s let the part go to her head. She’s been bossing the other foals around for weeks now and she’s getting a bit demanding about her role, she had us put that magic show in, not that I’m complaining but it was rather last minute.”

Cheerilee nodded. “I think it might be nerves, I’ve told her I’m sure she’ll do a good job but she seems to get more and more wound up about it, and it’s affecting the other foals as well. I’m going to have a word with her mother, maybe she can calm her down.”

“I’m sure Ditzy will be able to get through to her,” said Trixie.

“So am I,” agreed Cheerilee, “I better go, see you later.”


“Snails! Time to get up!” called Raindrops knocking on her brother's door. She felt exhausted after her night shift on the weather patrol. It was a careful balancing act at the moment making sure that not only was the town blanketed with snow, but also that the layer was thin enough to remove relatively ease come Hearth's Warming itself so that the defeat of the windigo could be repeated symbolically come the fateful day. She yawned,she had another shift after the show tonight, she didn’t have the time to deal with her brother sleeping in. “Snails,” she called again, “You need to get up, you’ve got a rehearsal in a few hours.” She opened the door and peeked in.

To her surprise her brother was actually out of bed sitting at the small desk in one corner of the room. He was hunched over a mass of papers and his horn was glowing, infact it was projecting something onto the nearest wall, a flicking, flashing mess which occasionally stabilized into what looked like writing.

“Snails? What are you doing?” asked Raindrops moving into the room trying to keep away from the wall full of bottles that contained her brothers various pets.

“It’s not working!” cried the frustrated foal, his horn going out.

“What is?” she asked again.

“My spell! I’m supposed to be the prompter, to remind the cast of their lines, but I’m always saying things too loudly or too quietly. I talked to Miss Twilight and she said that it’s possible to project things from my horn so others can see the stuff I recorded, she could make a whole board and make the pictures move on it, but I can’t get it to work!” He planted his head on the desk. “What’s the point, I’m only needed if somepony messes up and none of the foals never mess up like me.”

Raindrops stepped over to her brother and laid a wing over him. She knew how hard he’d been working for the last few weeks on this play, he wasn’t that academically gifted most of the time but he had really been putting his all into this, spending all his free time studying the script. “You know that’s not right, everypony makes mistakes sometimes, it’s good that they have somepony like you to help them when they do.”

“I suppose,” mumbled Snails not lifting his head. “But no one will know if I do things right, why can’t I be up on stage?”

“You’ll know you were important even if nopony else does. Look at me, Dash gets all the credit for everything that gets done on the patrol but I’m the one who has to get thing organised when she decides to have a nap,” she said bitterly, “And look at dad, he plans everything out and coordinates with the other patrols and no one knows, unless something goes wrong. We all know he’s awesome don’t we?”

Snails raised his head to nod and his sister drew him closer into a hug. “See, you've always got to have someone to make sure things go right, maybe they don’t get a lot of praise, but they’re needed. Look at me and the girls, they only need me if things go wrong.”

“What? But you’re awesome, you're so strong and tough and...” protested Snails.

“Yes,” she said with a smile, “but we’re the elements of harmony, not the elements of beating up the bad guys. We’re supposed to be friendly like Ditzy and Lyra, or helpful like Carrot Top, they only need me if one of the smart ponies like Cheerilee or Trixie, mostly Trixie, have messed up, and then they need me to protect them.”

Snails straightened looking a little happier. “I didn’t think of it that way,” he said, “But I still can’t get my spell to work.”

“Well you’re the mage of the family,” she said playfully poking his horn with her hoof. “Magic’s your thing, but aren't those spells easier if they’re closer to your mark?”

“Yeah, but the script isn’t about bugs.”

“Ok, think of it this way, what would happen if I were to take the script and write on it with jam and leave it outside in summer?”

“Ants would come and walk all over it,” he answered quickly.

“And what would that look like?” she asked, “Could you try to project that?”

Snails’ eyes shot open and he concentrated again, this time a swerling image appeared floating in front of his face, after a second or so it resolved into a mass of tiny black bodies crawling here and there. Raindrops shuddered. Then obediently the creatures started to line up head to tail until they spelled out a message ‘Once Upon A Time’ it read. “I can do it!” he cried breaking the spell, she reached up to hug his sister. “Thank’s sis!”

“No problem Snails,” she said wrapping her wings around him. “Now you better be off,” she swatted him on the flank, “Mum’ll have breakfast ready by now, and you don’t want to miss the rehearsal.”

With another cry of “Thanks,” Snails gallopped out of the room and down the stairs.

“I’ll see you at the show tonight,” she cried after him, before yawning again. She leaned back on her brother's small bed, it seemed rather more enticing than dragging herself all the way to her own room next door. Her eyes started to inch closed, maybe a little nap right now would help. She was just about to nod off when she noticed movement near the pillow. Her eyes shot open as a centipede longer than her hoof undulated casually past, maybe it would be worth moving to her own bed before falling asleep.


“Dinky!” called Ditzy as she started lay the table for breakfast.

“Coming Momma!” mumbled the filly as she staggered into the kitchen. The foal looked bedraggled and tired, her eyes were bloodshot and her mane unkempt.

“Are you alright?” asked Ditzy looking at her daughter with worry in her crossed eyes. “You’re not feeling ill are you?”

“My tummy is a bit wibbly,” admitted the foal, “I couldn’t get to sleep last night.”

“My poor little muffin,” said Ditzy rubbing her daughter's stomach. “You’re all excited about the play tonight?”

“Yes,” said Dinky with slightly forced enthusiasm. She really was glad the play was tonight, she liked being on stage, but it was tiring having to help all her classmates to make sure they were good enough. She’d be happier when it was all over and they’d saved Miss Cheerilee and she wouldn’t have to worry about it any more. “Because I’m the best actress in the play.”

Ditzy smiled at her daughter's assertion. “Good because you’d tell me if you were worried about something, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes momma,” said Dinky not able to meet her mother's gaze, she wanted to tell her about how important the play was, but she knew her mother was busy at this time of year and she was a big girl now, with her own mark, she should be able to deal with problems without her mother's help. She leapt up onto her chair and looked down at the cerial her mother had laid out for her, it didn’t seem that appetizing.

“I’ve got the morning off today muffin,” said Derpy, “So I’ll walk you to the rehearsal today.”

“And you’ll be there tonight as well, won't you?” asked Dinky.

“Of course I will dear, I think half the town will be there the number of flyers I’ve given out, your play is really popular.”

Dinky’s ears popped up and she felt a flicker of excitement in her heart. “So the play will make a lot of money for the school?” she asked.

“I guess so,” Ditzy stopped eating her own breakfast for a moment and looked at her daughter with concern. “But you know the play isn’t really about making money? It’s about having fun.” Dinky nodded. It was a bit fun being on the stage but it wasn’t so much fun worrying about things going well. “And all of your friends having fun as well.”

Dinky’s nod was a little more half hearted. Some of the other foals hadn’t looked like they were having so much fun when she’d been helping them with their acting. They all realised that they needed to do their best to help their teacher, didn’t they? They were still enjoying themselves, weren't they? Even if a little bit less than normal?

“Muffin,” called Derpy, breaking her daughters ruminations.

“Sorry Momma?” she asked looking up.

“I asked if you were ready to go?” said Derpy holding up her daughters scarf.

“Of course,” said Dinky jumping to the ground, her stomach was hurting a bit again but she tried to ignore it.


“Ok, my little ponies,” said Cheerilee looking at her cast. “This will be our last rehearsal, the play itself is going to be tonight. So this time not only will we have costumes, we’ll have lights,” she gestured up to a tower at the back of the tent, Honeydew waved down from the top, one hoof resting on a large spot light, below her her husband Curry was struggling to shift a gigantic potato, the size of a full grown pony, studded with strips of metal and wires, into place. Cheerilee had been a little worried when the eccentric unicorn had volunteered to help with the lighting, she’d sort of expected Honeydew to produce some sort of death ray in place of a lighting system, but she’d actually come through with a very modern system and a method to power which didn’t look like it would fry the actors. Honeydew had even run through the lighting script earlier today without much complaint. Cheerilee knew that the unicorn’s mood could be somewhat changeable and hoped that she’d be ok for the performance tonight.

“We’ll be using the proper stage as well,” Cheerilee continued gesturing to the front of the tent where Trixie’s stage had been set up and extended so the entire class could stand on it at once. Flaps of heavy cloth had been used to produce a backstage area. “We’re going to try and run through the entire play in one go, just like tonight. Now everypony put on your costumes and get ready. Stage hooves go get the props from the store behind the stage and get set up for the first scene, miss Trixie will help you. We’ll start in half an hour!”

“Yes Miss Cheerilee,” chorused the entire school before scattering off to their various roles.

“Alula,” called Dinky as she struggled into her costume helped by Silver Spoon. “You’re on stage first, you need to make sure the crowd is paying attention to you, you should move around the stage.” The hybrid pailed a little at this instruction but nodded.

“Dinky,” said Firelock cautiously, “You know Alula doesn’t like being stared at, and Miss Cheerilee said the narrator isn’t supposed to be the centre of attention.”

Dinky sighed as she turned to face her friend. “She’s the only thing on the stage at the beginning, ponies have to pay attention to her and the whole point of Alula being the narrator was so she’d get used to ponies looking at her.”

“I suppose so,” said Firelock not looking convinced.

“I... I’ll be ok,” murmured Alula, “It’s probably a good idea,” she said giving a faint idea.

“Good,” said Dinky, “We want the play to be perfect after all!” Alula nodded again and walked slowly towards the stage, Dinky couldn’t help notice that she didn’t look very happy about it, but she’d have a good time once the actual play started wouldn’t she? Dinky turned to Firelock but her fellow unicorn had already left.


“That was really good,” exclaimed Dinky as the pegasus actors came off the stage, “Just a few changes and it would be perfect, Scootaloo, you just need to be a bit less angry.”

“Hey, who's playing Hurricane here?” asked Scootaloo, “I think I’m playing him just how he would have been a brave pegasus warrior!”

“Well you are good at that but...”

“I don’t need to listen to you, miss bossy boots!”

“I’m not bossy!” cried Dinky, her tummy starting to hurt again, “I just want the play to go really well, I’m trying to help you. Afterall miss Cheerilee did say I was...”

“A really good actor!” parroted Scootaloo, “You’re also a really good bossy boots nag!” She pointed an accusing hoof. “I didn’t ask for your help!” The orange pegasus stormed off past Dinky.

The little unicorn slumped to the ground. She wasn’t being bossy! Scootaloo just didn’t want to do her best! She sniffed a little trying to hold back a few tears that threatened to escape her eyes. She had to make sure that everything went perfect, it was her responsibility. She wanted her momma to be proud of all she’d done on the play. Dragging herself to her hooves, Dinky tried to straighten her costume, she’d be needed on the stage in a minute and she had to do her best, unlike Scootaloo, she thought bitterly.


“Why are you using the window Chancellor?” asked Diamond Tiara as Apple Bloom struggled to get through the hole in the set. She squinted against the harsh beam of the spot light. Actually practising on stage made the whole thing seem a bit more real, it felt like she was tingling a bit, it was sort of exciting. There were rows upon rows of seats set up although at the moment only about half a dozen ponies like Cheerilee and Trixie were present.

“The snow has covered all the fields now!” said Apple Bloom as she dropped to the ground before continuing her lines. It wasn’t fair, thought Diamond, the Chancellor got all the good lines in the play, Smart Cookie hardly got to do anything, plus the Chancellor got to act alongside Hurricane more as well. “Ah’m the chancellor!” continued Apple Bloom almost as if she was reading Diamond’s mind.

We’ll we wasn’t going to stand for it any more, thought Diamond Tiara as she reluctantly stepped out of the spotlight to let Apple Bloom continue her role. Maybe her idea to mess up her costume hadn’t worked out, but she had other ideas. Apple Bloom marched around the set as she talked prodding parts of it with her hoof as she went, she did like interacting with the props, and that would be her undoing! During the first rehearsals Apple Bloom had had difficulty getting her fat flanks though the window built into the set, she’d gotten stuck. Eventually a larger window had been built but the old prop was still around, wouldn’t it be a shame if they got mixed up? Apple Bloom would get stuck again and would be humiliated! She’d never steal another part again as long as she lived.

Suddenly Diamond realised that Apple Bloom had stopped talking and she searched her memory for her next line. “Of course chancellor,” she replied trying to hide a smile.


“That went really well!” said Dinky as she and her fellow unicorn trotted off the stage after the magic show part of the stage. “Miss Trixie looked really happy, I think she was impressed.”

“I still think the glow dance was better,” mumbled Sweetie Belle.

“You kept tripping over in the dark when we did that,” reminded Dinky.

“Yeah, but at least we all got to do something,” replied the white unicorn.

“You got to do something!”

“I got to hold up a string of hoofkerchiefs, it was boarding,” she complained, “You got to do all the exciting bits.”

“That’s because I’m the best at it! You want the play to be perfect don’t you?”

“I suppose so,” mumbled Sweetie.

“The rest of you enjoyed the show didn’t you?” asked Dinky looking around the circle of unicorn.

There was a mutter of halfhearted agreement which caused Dinky’s heart to sink a little. It didn’t look like her friends were having much fun. Hadn’t her Mamma asked if her friend were enjoying themselves this morning? Was the success of the play more important than having fun, she wasn’t sure anymore. “We better get ready for the next scene,” she said quickly hoping to change the subject. She turned to Firelock as the other foals started to wander away, “You know this is for the best right? That this means we’ll get to keep Miss Cheerilee, right?”

“Yeah, I suppose so,” replied the filly looking away, her apparent lack of enthusiasm caused Dinkys stomach to twist again.


“Can we all stop for a minute!” asked Dinky ducking under a snow ball.

Cheerilee held up her hoof and the barrage slowed and after a moment or two stopped. “What is it Dinky?” she asked, “You know that during the actual play we won’t be able to just stop when we feel like it?”

“Yes miss, it’s just I’ve come up with a way we could make this scene even better!” Some of the foals around her groaned.

“This is the second time you’ve stopped this scene you know, I don’t know if we can make it any better,” said Cheerilee grinding her teeth a little. The sight of her teachers annoyance made Dinky flinch a little, miss Cheerilee must be really worried about not making enough money from the play.

“Well I thought that maybe the earth ponies could build a sort of snow fort in their section and we unicorns could use our auras to push it down on them while the pegasus attack us from the air!”

There was a rumble of excitement around her, that did sound fun.

“I’m sorry Dinky, that does sound interesting but we really don’t have the time to choreograph it right now, and it would take to long to build a fort.”

“But miss!” protested Dinky, “I really think...”

“No!” snapped Cheerilee, and instantly regretted it as the little unicorn's eyes started to mist. Dinky had been very demanding all afternoon but that was no excuse for her to scare her. “I’m afraid we just don’t have the time,” said Cheerilee more gently. “Do you understand?” Dinky sniffed and nodded. “Good, now let's have a break for a minute then we move onto the last scene in the cave, stage ponies switch the sets.”


The rehearsal was finally over and Dinky felt exhausted. She’d tried her hardest, she really had but nothing seemed to go right, she’d forgotten some of her lines near the end after miss Cheerilee had gotten angry with her during the snowball scene. Scootaloo had called her bossy, none of the unicorns seemed to like the magic show, didn’t they all realise she was only trying to make things perfect? Her stomach lurched again, she didn’t like having to feel this way. She looked up to see a crowd of foals standing between her and the exit to the tent.

Scootaloo stepped forwards from the crowd.“We’ve been talking Dinky,” she said carefully, “And just because you’re a good actor doesn’t mean you can be bossy to us.”

“I told you I’m not being bossy!” Dinky looked around at the crowd of foals around her. “I’m trying to make the play as good as I can for Miss Cheerilee!”

“But it’s not fun anymore!” exclaimed Firelock stamping her hoof. “We want to do the stuff we like, not the stuff you want us to do!”

Looking from face to face Dinky saw that many of her classmates didn’t look happy at all. Her mother's words from this morning haunted her again, were the rest of her friends having a good time or not? “But you asked me to help you, because I’m a good actor!” she exclaimed.

“Yeah but we’re not asking you any more!” pointed out Ruby, “Now you’re just telling us what to do.”

The rest of the crowd mumbled in agreement.

Dinky took a step back, her ears drooping.“But... but... I just want the play to be the best, I have to make it the best, I have to help Miss Cheerilee!” she protected.

“We all do,” agreed Firelock, “But you’re just being mean to us now, you won’t let us have any fun at all, you just keep going on about making the play perfect, but if it was perfect we’d be having fun, and we’re not!”

Dinky hiccuped and her hind legs collapsed under her as the pressure that had been building up in her for so long suddenly surged out of her. She started to cry, fat tears starting to leak from her eyes. “I wanted everything to be perfect,” she sobbed, “So I had to do everything, and it makes making my stomach hurt!” The rest of the foals looked at her awkwardly, not knowing what to do. “I’m sorry! I didn’t want to make you angry! I didn’t want to stop you having fun! I just wanted the play to go right!”

Eventually Sweetie Bell stepped forwards. “We all want the play to go right, really,” she said gently nuzzling up against the sobbing foal. “But we all need to work together to do that, maybe,” she bit her lip, “Maybe we kept asking you to help us rather than doing it ourselves, maybe we shouldn’t have needed you so much, we’re sorry.”

“No, no I was the mean one,” said Dinky sniffing as she looked at the other foals standing around her. “I just wanted to make sure miss Cheerilee didn’t have to leave!”

“None of us want that,” said Apple Bloom, “She’s the best teacher ever!”

“Well thank you Apple Bloom,” came a voice from behind her, causing several of the foals to jump as their teacher moved silently towards them. She looked over at the tearful foal. “Dinky are you alright?” she asked.

Dinky rubbed her eyes with a hoof. “I’m sorry miss, I really wanted to stop you getting fired, but I got all bossy, and mean, when I tried to make things perfect.”

“Stop me getting fired? What do you mean?” asked the teacher her brow furrowing.

“If the play didn’t make enough money you were going to be fired and we’d get a new mean teacher, who’d use a crop!” explained Firelock.

“No pony is going to be using a crop on my foals!” exclaimed Cheerilee. “Where did you hear such things?”

The foals looked around at each other. “Miss Trixie told me that the play cost more than you’d thought, and you’d need it to do well or lose money,” said Dinky.

Cheerilee rolled her eyes, of course Trixie would be the cause of this, and after she’d told her not to talk to the foals about it. The blue mare’s heart was in the right place but she really didn’t know how to deal with foals, how they could misunderstand things. “I don’t think miss Trixie really meant that. Yes, the play is quite expensive,” she gestured at the tent above them, “this is a bit bigger than I’d planned, but it means we can have a bigger audience so we’re making more money anyway. There’s nothing to worry about,” she reached out to hug Dinky now understanding why she’d been acting so strangely recently, “I’m not going to be going anywhere. It’s very nice that you were all so worried about me but you should talk to me about things like this rather than letting it work you up into a tizzy.”

“‘k,” muttered Dinky closing her eyes and enjoying the feel of Cheerilee next to her as she felt the stress flow out of her.

“So we don’t have to be perfect?” asked Scootaloo.

“Not perfect, no, but you should try your hardest, and make sure you have fun as well,” said Cheerilee looked around the cast in front of her.

“Miss,” asked Firelock looking up at her teacher, “Maybe we could make another change to the play?”

Cheerilee raised an eyebrow. “It’s rather late to learn anything else now, dear.”

“It’s something we’ve already learned,” explained Firelock, “Maybe we should go back to doing the glow dance rather than the magic show?”

Cheerilee looked around at the unicorns. “You told me you prefered the magic show.”

“Well, we sort of just agreed with Dinky, because she seemed to know what she was talking about.”

Dinky wanted to argue, to explain that the magic show was more fun than just running around in the dark but she paused looking around. The other unicorns did seem to prefer the light dance, and they had done all the other stuff she’s told them to do, even when they thought she was being mean. “I think we should do the light dance,” she agreed, “that way almost everypony can take part rather than just me showing off,” she admitted.

Cheerilee sighed internally, it was probably a good idea but it would be difficult to set up the choreography and lighting for the dance at such short notice. But the foal was right it did involve more of the class, and Dinky was trying to make amends for her previous behaviour. To be honest the teacher partially blamed herself she should have been paying more attention to the foals’ behaviour and nipped this issue in the bud weeks ago, but she’d been busy with all the organisation. “Ok,” she agreed, “Let’s give it a try and see how it works out, we have still got a few hours until the play.”


As the rest of the foals started to file out of the tent Apple Bloom hung around backstage for a few moments. She’d seen how Diamond Tiara had been looking at her during their scenes, she was sure the snobby pink pony had some trick up her sleeves left to play on her. During the gap between the acts she’d disappeared into the prop store, although Apple Bloom hadn’t managed to see what she’d been doing, she was sure it was something to humiliate her or even stop her appearing in the play. There was no way she was going to let that happen, not with so much of her family coming to watch, not just the Sweet Apple Acres branch, some out of town cousins were going to be in Ponyville for the holidays as well. There was only one thing to do, get her revenge in first, she even knew what she was going to do to her enemy.

Diamond was very proud of the hat that came with her costume, she’d actually provided it herself. Still like the rest of the costumes it was stored away and given how busy Miss Cheerilee was at the moment anypony could get to it. Apple Bloom took out a pouch containing an old Apple family practical joke, powdered rose hips, guaranteed to make anypony scratch like a dog fleas for a few hours. She rolled the bag in her hoof, it would make sure that Diamond couldn’t take part in the play once it started working, Twist would probably be called on to take her place.

Still a worm of guilt gnawed at Apple Bloom’s guts, this didn’t see right really, should she be the bigger pony? Then she remembered that Diamond was no doubt trying to make her look like a fool in front of her family and she set off to carry out her dastardly deed.

Author's Note:

Thanks to Emeral Bookwise, Grass and Clouds 2 and RainbowDoubleDash for their help with this story.

Comments are always welcome.