• Published 11th Mar 2018
  • 491 Views, 17 Comments

A Night at the Opera - Bronyxy



Rarity and Fluttershy are sent on a friendship mission to Manehattan where they meet Pavatrotti, the greatest opera singer in Equestria and his manipulative manager. Can they help him as he worries about being able to perform at his comeback concert?

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4 The Performance

As the audience arrived, each presented their ticket and Rarity refunded them the cost from the money that Pavatrotti’s manager had paid her, in accordance with the singer’s wishes.

Faced with such unexpected upheaval, the orchestra and the stage hands coped admirably, and although it couldn’t be said that the show started on time, it wasn’t excessively late either. Nopony complained about the delay; they all had free tickets and there was a certain novelty to the idea of open air opera, especially in downtown Manehattan.

Having sacked his manager, Pavatrotti called upon Rarity to see if she would be prepared to introduce him onto the stage. She accepted, of course; the opportunity to introduce the greatest living opera singer in Equestria in front of the Manehattan elite being a once in a lifetime opportunity.

The legendry singer reeled off a succession of the famous and popular songs from his plentiful repertoire and found that he thrived on the informal atmosphere, so many of his concerns having been down to nerves and the pressure he had been put under by his now ex-manager. Having finally had the weight lifted from him, he would recount later that his performance had been more akin to singing in the shower, such was the relaxed state of mind he had achieved.

The concert was flawless and as the evening drew on and the performance built towards its climax, Rarity who was sitting with Fluttershy in what passed for a Royal Box at the side of the stage heard the familiar opening bars to the duet from La Falabella. She looked around to see where the soprano could be and saw to her surprise that Pavatrotti held a forehoof outstretched towards her. Instinctively she drew forward and climbed onto the stage at his invitation as the audience erupted in applause. Some may have heard her sing before, but most hadn’t, and although she regretted not having had the opportunity to rehearse, she knew the part so well it was second nature.

He sang his lines and then she joined in, her pitch perfect timbre soaring above and yet mixing perfectly with his to create a subtle harmony that the composer would have dreamed of hearing from only the best performers. As the song reached its climax, both ponies playing a couple declaring their undying love stared into each other’s eyes and delivered the last few lines together; the gleam in their eyes adding a dimension of genuine attraction that was not entirely for the audience’s benefit.

For a moment it was just them and the song with the orchestra providing the tonal depth to support the promise of their union; him a handsome and powerful stallion, her a beautiful and devoted mare. It wasn’t just the two of them who were caught up in the moment, but the audience too, mares and stallions alike crying openly at the beauty of their love.

When the song ended, they held hooves and shared their bows to receive the standing ovation together as the stage became littered with roses thrown by the adoring fans.

In the sanctity of the Royal Box, Fluttershy joined in with her loudest “YAY!”, and then felt her cutie mark begin to glow in acknowledgement of a job well done.

As she watched, she could see Rarity’s blue diamonds glowing in the same way, their mission complete.

Comments ( 9 )

This was perfectly fine. A bit simple, but still quite enjoyable. And it had a lot of fun Rarity stuff in it :twilightsmile:

8790744
Rarity is such a lovely character and it was fun to put her in the role of main protagonist, with some excellent support from Fluttershy.
I'm pleased you enjoyed it.
:raritystarry::yay:

I really enjoyed this story, but the last chapter felt a little rushed. Also, I don't know if this really counts as a friendship problem, as they were never friends to begin with, and they didn't reconcile at the end, like with all map episodes. Despite this though, I think everything else makes this a really good story. :twilightsmile:

8792793
Thank you for the comments!

I set out to write this from the perspective of a friendship problem between Pavatrotti and his audience; something that had suffered a disconnect following his retirement. Whilst his fans were both eager and impatient to see the great tenor perform again, he was being forced into making a return that he pointedly did not want to because of the loss of his self-confidence. So, when Rarity and Fluttershy helped him overcome his fears, he was able to remake the bond with his fans again; that’s why their cutie marks didn’t glow until the concert had finished and the bond remade.

There has been some elasticity with Cutie Map stories in the series, such as allocating friendship missions to characters beyond the Mane Six, so I set out to explore a different kind of friendship problem and hopefully didn’t push too far away from what the Cutie Map stands for?

Thank you for your kind comments and I am very pleased that you liked it!

:raritystarry::yay:

8793285
I could tell. :ajsmug:

8793289
:rainbowlaugh:

8793293
Oh, that makes sense now. It just seemed to be between Pavatrotti and his manager.

Let me guess: Luciano Pavatrotti's manager is Sevngallop.

This has the feel of a friendship episode, even being a bit rushed as there is only 22 minutes to get the episode in.

Good use of both Rarity's and Fluttershy's talents to achieve the end result.

While there wasn't a friendship resolution, since Pavatrotti and his manager did not reconcile. Pavatrotti did get his life back, and maybe became friends with the theater manager and would have many more performances to come.

9070194
Thank you for your kind words.

My intention in this story was to identify that when Pavatrotti retired, he had disconnected himself from his fanbase and thereby lost his self-confidence. His greedy manager then forced the singer into a position whereby he had to perform again, however this only made him feel worse because he had been forced into it by blackmail.

Consequently, when Rarity and Fluttershy befriended the singer and sent his manager away, they made his concert much more informal which enabled him to relax and remake the friendship bond with his fans and also rebuild his self-confidence.

In this way it’s a kind of Cutie Map adventure mixed in with The Mane Attraction when Coloratura stands up to her overpowering manager Svengallop, and Magical Mystery Cure when the Mane Six lose confidence in their own abilities and rediscover their true selves through the power of friendship.

Maybe I overthought this one a bit, but I’m very pleased you enjoyed how it turned out.

:raritywink::yay:

This story does feel like a friendship map episode though the friendship problem wasn't clear from the start.

I have read the comments stating that the friendship problem was the singer and his fanbase but that should have been a bit more clearer without the author explaining.

Perhaps during chapter 3 have the singer mention about how he consider his fanbase his friends.

Also, maybe you could have used Svengallop instead of just a manager friend of his. Honestly that character hasn't seen the light of day since his debut episode...

Otherwise an enjoyable story.

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