A Day in the Limelight

by Trish Hankins

Chapter 1-Stage is Set

It was 4:45 AM, and the first vestiges of sunlight were tracing through the window and onto Derpy Hooves’s head. Most ponies, including her roommate Carrot Top, were confounded by the fact that Derpy woke up at exactly 4:45 AM every morning. It was especially confounding because the mare didn’t own an alarm clock. To Derpy, it made perfect sense. She woke up at 4:45 AM because it gave her time to get up, eat a muffin, grab her mailbag, and head out to deliver letters.

As the mailmare shook her head, the tiny vestiges of last night’s dream already slipping away, she looked across the room. There lay a Dinky, sleeping quietly with her straw-colored mane spread across the pillow. On the ground near Dinky’s bed was a small sleeping bag, with another sleeping unicorn foal inside it. Derpy smiled as she looked at her daughter and little Ruby Pinch snoozing the morning after their sleep-over. It was good to make friends.

With that thought, the odd-eyed pegasus walked into the hall, making sure not to disturb the sleep of the two fillies. She closed the door quietly, then looked into the open doorway of the room next to hers. Inside slept Carrot Top. Derpy was so glad that Carrot Top was such a good friend. When Carrot had found out that Derpy and her children didn’t have a home, she immediately gave them room and board. The pegasus knew that it had been hard on her friend at times, but hoped that with those struggles there was also wonderful moments as well.

As she sat eating her breakfast muffin, Derpy was reminded of somepony. It was a banana-flavored muffin. His favorite. Derpy put her mailbag on and walked out the door. She shivered immediately. The fall was starting, and the days were getting chillier and shorter. She walked through the carrot garden in front of their house, turned to her left, and walked up to their neighbor’s door.

Octavia awoke to the sound of Johoof Sebastian Bach’s Cello Suite No.1. It started off quiet enough to ignore, but it slowly got louder. Why in Equestria did I choose this as my alarm? she thought. Oh, that’s right, I thought it wouldn’t be a bad thing to wake up to. I was sorely mistaken. Her right hoof slammed down on the snooze button, most likely a little harder than was necessary. The grey mare snuggled against her pillow, trying to shut out her thoughts and go back to sleep. A loud knocking came from the front of the home in three short bursts.

The cellist sighed and got out of her bed. She guessed this day would be starting particularly early. She went into the bathroom, brushed her hair as quickly as she could, put on her signature bow tie, and headed out to the front door. As she walked she pondered, Who could be here at this unseemly hour? When she opened the door, she found a familiar grey pegasus with mail in her mouth.

“Hey there, neighbor! Here’s your mail!” Derpy said in a cheerful tone. Octavia smiled, though she thought it barely resembled one given how tired she was.

“Why thank you, Derpy. Why’re you delivering our mail so early? Usually we don’t get our mail until around noon.” It wasn’t that Octavia wasn’t thankful, of course. Getting her mail this early meant she could take care of all of it before Vinyl even woke up. Then again, even when it was delivered by the regular schedule, half the time her roommate would still be asleep anyway. Octavia had her doubts that Vinyl Scratch had ever even seen a morning before.

Derpy laughed, then replied, “Well, that huge event is today, so I’m trying to deliver the mail as fast as I can so I can go with Carrot. You live next door, so I thought I’d deliver your mail first.”

Octavia’s smile brightened. “That’s very kind of you. How’re your daughters doing?”

Derpy puffed up her chest. “Amethyst is almost done with her second semester at college! I’ve gotten several incredible reports from her teachers! Dinky and I still miss her, but I’m so happy she’s doing well! Dinky is doing good in school as well, and has really made friends with little Ruby.”

“Really? That’s amazing. Well, as you said you have a busy day ahead of you and I wouldn’t want to stall you,” the earth pony said.

“Good point, I better head out. Say ‘Hi!’ to Vinyl for me!” the pegasus said happily.

“Oh, I will, five minutes before the event when she wakes up.” The two mares chuckled a little at her jab, and the mailmare walked away to the next house over. Octavia shut the door and set the mail on the table before going through it. “Let’s see what we have here: hate mail for Vinyl, electricity bill, fan mail for Vinyl, hate mail for Vinyl, water bill, hate mail for Vinyl, bills for the parts Vinyl ordered, fan mail for me, hate mail for Vinyl, and two invitations for today’s event.” She sorted the mail: one pile for the bills, directly in front of her; one pile for the fan and hate mail, to the right; and the two’s invitations, off to the left. Octavia sighed and said, “Well, time to figure out how many bits we’re out this month.”

Bon Bon was staring at the wall, trying with all her willpower not to fall asleep. Because of the big event today, she had pulled an all-nighter trying to make as much candy as she could. It had worked. As the sun barely peeked above the horizon she was awaiting the last of her sweets’ completion. She was straining not to blink, afraid she might open her eyes again hours later, when she heard a loud ding. She walked hurriedly over to the oven and pulled out a tray of treats.

“Finally. Now I can get some shut-eye,” the confectioner murmured to herself. She turned to head out of the kitchen and into her awaiting bed, when she heard something. An irritating knock came from her front door.

No. This is not happening. Bon Bon sighed, and accepted the fact that she’d be awake for several minutes more than she had planned. As she walked toward her front door, she spied through an open doorway into Lyra’s room. Her roommate was asleep, snoring quietly with her favorite instrument laying on the floor near her bed. She muttered to herself, “Lazy musicians.” There was no weight to the words however, and on her mouth was a content smile. She shook her head to fling the thoughts away as she opened the door. On her front porch was Derpy Hooves, with Bon Bon’s mail in her mouth. Bon Bon fumed in her mind. She was being kept away from her sleep for this? Mail?! It wasn’t even supposed to get here until noon! Had that idiot forgotten her assigned schedule? What was w—

“Hey there, Bon Bon, I got your mail!” the bubble-brained pony said, completely oblivious to Bon Bon’s inner rage.

“Listen Fish Eyes, I’m very busy. How many letters do you have for Lyra and I?” Bon Bon said in a tone of voice full of barely restrained malice.

“T-two,” Derpy said, her face drooping from a smile into a defeated frown..

“Okay then, I’ll take those and you can go aggravate somepony else today.” Bon Bon said as she took the letters then slammed the door in Derpy’s face. In the last instant before the door closed, she could clearly see the pegasus’s face, hurt and depressed. As she laid her and Lyra’s invitations on the table, she was close to hyperventilating. Then she took a deep breath. “I did it again, didn’t I? Lyra is not going to be happy when she finds out,” she muttered to herself. With that realization, she shambled to her room to catch a couple hours of sleep.

As Derpy and Carrot Top walked into the plaza in front of the train station, Carrot couldn’t help but think everypony in town was here—well, almost everypony. She couldn’t see that weird colt Derpy used to hang out with, or the three Mares who ran the flower shop. Before she could ask her friend about it, the Mayor took the stage, and addressed the town.

“Good day everypony! Today we are here to award these six ponies and one dragon, average citizens who’ve become legends, and have saved Ponyville and Equestria more times than we care to remember. We set up a fund, which quickly met its goal thanks to so many of your generous donations, to give these heroes something back. Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Spike are hereby on an official vacation, all expenses paid, to Las Pegasus!” the Mayor finished speaking in an excited tone. The crowd erupted into applause and cheers. The Mayor stepped aside as Twilight took the podium.

“We’d like to thank everypony for your generous gift! We don’t like,” Twilight said as she was suddenly interrupted by a cough from a cyan pegasus. “Well, most of us don’t like to be called heroes. We just did what anypony would in our situation: what we could to help. Furthermore...” Twilight continued her speech, though her friends had started tuning her out and began their own side conversation.

“Um, do you think that Ponyville will be okay? What if something happens and we’re not here to help?” Fluttershy asked, scared thinking of all her animal friends hurt.

“Pshah! Fluttershy, I think this quaint little town can take three days without burning itself to the ground,” Rainbow Dash said nonchalantly.

“Has anypony seen Apple Bloom? I haven’t seen that filly all day.” Applejack said, worry creeping into her words.

“Hmm, now that you mentioned it I haven’t seen Sweetie Belle since breakfast,” Rarity said, covering her own concern much better than Applejack did.

“Don’t worry girls! I’m sure they’re off with Scootaloo trying to get their Cutie Marks by building a giant paper airplane or something.” Pinkie Pie said. The others nodded, thinking the idea likely.

Just behind them, Rarity’s largest luggage bag opened a little, and three sets of eyes shined from within. The three fillies whispered so softly that none of the adults heard them, “Cutie Mark Crusader Stowaways,” then shut the lid quietly. After Twilight finished her speech, the group grabbed their surprisingly heavy luggage and boarded the train.

Fluttershy didn’t look like her friend’s words had lessened her worry. “Are you all sure that Ponyville will be okay?”

Twilight rolled her eyes and said, “Oh come on Fluttershy, what’s the worst that could happen in one weekend?”

On the edge of the Everfree Forest, two figures watched the ceremony from afar. One was a pony, wearing a large hat. Next to her was a tall being, about seven feet tall. It stood on two legs, and wore a robe of complex yellow and red patterns. In its right hand was a staff as tall as itself. “So then, the Bearers have left. Operation Midnight Coup is a go.”

((Authors Note: And here is where I imagine the theme song starts playing. Wow, who knew adapting a screenplay into normal fanfiction would be hard? Well, I guess anypony with a brain would.))

Comments

[thetrapezoid]

A bit of a long exposition, but I still like it. Faved, and tracked.