A Day in the Limelight

by Trish Hankins

Chapter 3-Show Starts

As Carrot Top left her home, Lyra and Octavia were deep in conversation. "...and right after the performance I was told I'd be playing at this year's Gala! Can you believe it?" Lyra finished saying, smiling widely.

"Oh yes, playing at the Grand Galloping Gala should be a great boost for your career," Octavia replied, a sly smile forming in response to her implied jab.

Lyra's eyes narrowed. "Well, I can only hope mine isn't as, what's a good word, interesting as yours was. I'm amazed you got your current job afterwards. Thanks to a certain baker we both know, people only got to hear your music for the first half of the Gala."

Octavia frowned a little at the memory, but then sighed. "Well, I am well inoculated to my cousin's antics at this point. And as it turns out, the little music I did perform was enough to secure the position. Enough of the required banter though, I am honestly happy you got the, uh, 'gig.' I mean, how could we be rivals if you don't get the chance to show everypony what you can do?" Octavia said, her frown having slowly morphed into a slight smile as she spoke.

Lyra grinned and said, "Agreed!" She then lifted her hoof into the air, and stared at Octavia expectantly. She rolled her eyes, but raised her own hoof to meet Lyra's nonetheless.

Not even a meter away Vinyl and Derpy were chattering quickly. "...you're right, seaponies are unlikely given we're on land. Hmm...I got it! It's the army of Nightmare Moon come to enslave us!" Derpy said.

Vinyl shook her head and responded, "Naw, that doesn't fit either. I had Princess Luna on the show a couple months ago, and it was pretty clear that whatever made her crazy and evil is gone. Now she's just a shy goddess with a massive case of culture shock." As Vinyl scratched her head with her hoof, she closed her eyes and wrinkled her brow. "Maybe..." She sat in silence for just under six seconds, a record for the mare. "I got it! Maybe it's diamond dogs!"

Derpy immediately shook her head from side to side. "No, they're busy with another war against the gryphons right now. They're leader is on pretty decent terms with Princess Celestia, and their tactics have always been more one of attrition than of sneak attacks." At this, Vinyl stared at Derpy. "Hmm, what about Ciel Gurrier?"

Vinyl looked even more confused now. "Who? Wait, I think I remember hearing that name once...wasn't he some gryphon ruler?"

Derpy nodded, and her eyes went from looking outward to focusing inward. Still in opposite directions though. "Yup. He was a master of sneak attacks and deception, never liked Princess Celestia or Equestria, and was a big meanie anyway."

"But, if he's the same gryphon they taught me about in Middle School, hasn't he been dead for like, hundreds of years?" Vinyl asked.

"Uh, w-well, I-I..." Derpy stammered.

After Carrot Top managed to pick out the sound Derpy had heard, she looked around. Lyra and Octavia were talking about performing or something, Derpy and Vinyl were making crazy theories, and Bon Bon was looking around as well. It did seem, however, that Bon Bon's gaze never came close to the area where Vinyl and Derpy were chatting. Frowning a little, Carrot Top walked over to Bon Bon and said, "Are you the one who insulted Derpy earlier today?"

A bead of sweat went down the side of Bon Bon's head, and she replied, "What? Me? Why would you think that?"

Carrot Top rolled her eyes. "You've been avoiding looking at her, her left eye comes to rest on you every so often, and in my experience when you go looking for who robbed somepony, you ask burglars. I'm looking for somepony who insulted Derpy, and you have a reputation for rudeness."

Bon Bon sighed, and said, "Okay. It's just that I'd just pulled an all-nighter and was about to go to sleep and I was stres—"

Carrot interrupted her. "No. I don't care what your excuses are. You insulted my best friend and are now ignoring the problem. What you need to do is apologize for what you said, and maybe give her a muffin. And if you don't, or do this to her again, and I find out, we will have problems."

Bon Bon gulped, and said, "Okay. I'll own up to it. It's the least I can do."

Carrot smiled. "Good. That's the fi—"

"Everypony, hide!" Vinyl shouted. Carrot listened again and realized the footsteps were much louder now. Not only that, but when she looked down the street she could see a wall of shadows coming closer. The six ponies dashed into an alley, making sure to stay far enough back that it would be hard to see them from the street. For almost half a minute, they stood in silence, the tension growing. Then, they saw the source of their fear. It was an legion of monkeys, all walking on two feet and wearing white military uniforms. They were in a strict formation, and they moved in perfect rhythm.

As they passed Carrot Top's house, ten split off from the main group and went inside. Carrot and Derpy shared a nervous glance, and less than a minute later the monkeys exited, several of them carrying Dinky. There was a light blue aura of magic around the foal's head. Derpy, sweating bullets, asked, "Why isn't she waking up?! Dinky is a very light sleeper!"

Everypony except Vinyl shrugged. The DJ said, "See that aura around her head? I'd bet my shades it's a Sandman spell. It only works on ponies who are asleep, and as long as it's active they can't wake up. Literally nothing you do would wake them up." As she talked, the legion passed other houses. At each one they would sent in more monkeys, and carried out more sleeping ponies.

Bon Bon looked from the sleeping ponies back to Vinyl. "How do you know what spell it is?"

"Uh," Vinyl looked around as her face turned red. "Let's just say I found interesting uses for that particular enchantment while in university." Now everypony was blushing.

Carrot shushed them, then pointed down the alley. Much quieter than they were talking she said, "We don't want to be found now. I think they're heading for Town Hall." She started off down the alleyway, and they followed.

"...and that's how I saved Hearths Warming Eve," Derpy whispered to everypony else as they reached an alleyway connected to the Town Square. As they got about halfway down the alley, they stopped to see what was going on. On the far end of the Square from them was an open-air cage. Inside were the citizens of Ponyville, all fast asleep. After a monkey group brought in a pony, they went out to the square and got into formation. Currently, about half the square was filled with monkeys standing at attention shoulder to shoulder. Directly in front of Town Hall were two figures. One was a dark blue unicorn with a silly hat and cape. Her eyes were only half open, and she was breathing heavily. Next to her was a monkey, though he was at least twice as tall as those he commanded, and much thinner. He was wearing yellow robes with a red trim, and meditating on a red staff.

"Look at how many of them there are!" Lyra said, her voice quavering a little.

"Yes, I think we should try getting a hold of the Bearers. They should be able to deal with this." Octavia said. Her voice was calm, but her legs were trembling.

"That sounds like a good idea, I bet Rainbow Dash can help," Derpy said, her voice steadying out as she talked.

"I don't want to, but I think I agree. There's no way we can take down this many primates. Besides, it's their job to do stuff like this anyway, right?" Vinyl grumbled. They all looked at Carrot Top for her opinion, but somepony spoke before she could.

"What is wrong with you ponies!?" Bon Bon said angrily. "Don't you get it! They're in Las Pegasus so it would take them hours to get here from train, and even then there aren't any running this late. This situation isn't going to solve itself, and we're the only ones who can help!"

Octavia closed her eyes and sighed. "I don't know if we can realistically do anything Bon Bon. I mean look at us, who would ask a cellist, disk jockey, lyrist, mailmare, carrot farmer, and confectioner to 'save the day'?"

"You say that, but when Nightmare Moon foalnapped Princess Celestia, or when Discord turned the laws of physics into guidelines, who stepped up then? It wasn't some legendary heroes! It's wasn't the police or the guards! It was a baker, librarian, fashionista, animal caretaker, apple farmer, and weather manager!" Bon Bon said. As she spoke, Lyra's face went from a frown to a smile, Derpy broke out in a small grin, and Vinyl's expression became one of confidence and delight.

Octavia's expression however, did not change. "You make a good point, but they had the Elements of Harmony."

"Harmony shmormony! It's like Twilight said in her speech today: if somepony can help, it's their responsibility to do so!" Bon Bon said.

Carrot Top nodded. "I agree with Bon Bon. It is our duty to help. But we can't go in blind. We need a plan. Octavia, I'll leave that to you."

"Okay, I guess we must then," Octavia spoke as she shrugged. "Alright, what do we know?"

Vinyl burst into speech. "Well, an army of monkeys led by some big monkey and that traitorous magician have put a heavy duty sleeping spell on the whole town but us and caged them for nefarious purposes!" the DJ said very quickly.

"Good work summing that up Vinyl. So, how do you know she's a magician? Sure, her outfit is odd, but there are other options," Octavia asked.

Bon Bon groaned. "Ugh, we know because she's been to town before. Her name's Trixie, and she's a stuck-up two-bit illusionist who made outrageous claims, and when she was revealed to be lying she got ran out of town."

Lyra chuckled. "Yeah, she really ticked off Bon Bon. What she just said was mostly true, but she is really good at magic. I don't know how strong her music is, but her control better than mine by a good margin."

"Interesting. So she's pretty much a known factor then. Good. What about the big, uh, monkey that seems to be in charge?" Octavia asked. Her answer was a four blank stares.

"Ooh, ooh I know!" Derpy said excitedly. "His name's Sun Wukong, the Monkey King. He rules the Monkey Republic to the south. He's really strong, but a meany too."

"Oh, uh, alright then. Okay, what about our main objective?" Octavia asked. She stared into space as she thought. "Alright, I think I have it. So, two of us to rescue the townsfolk from the cage. For that we can have a unicorn levitate a pony up, and Derpy can grab them fly them out. Lyra, how strong is your magic?"

Lyra looked down. "Not very. My control is goof enough, but I've always had trouble with heavy things. Vinyl should do it."

Vinyl flashed her usual grin. "Yeah, I got this one. It might get a little hairy near the end, but with what's at stake I can deal with stress."

A small smile formed on Octavia's face. "I knew you could handle that. Next we'll need—"

"Wait Octy!" Vinyl said. "We should use my, uh, secret project! If somepony could go get it and wheel it over here, we'd have an ace-in-the-hole!"

"That works good. I was already going to head back to the house for a different mission, so Lyra can come with me and operate the machine. That leaves Bon Bon and Carrot Top for the dangerous part. You're going to have to distract the monkeys while both of the other groups carry out their missions." Octavia said. "Does that work for you two?"

Carrot Top brandished her left hoof menacingly. "I think I can handle that."

Bon Bon looked from side to side. "Uh, I don't know how much help I'll be. My first and last fight was two hits: they hit me and I hit the pavement."

"Don't worry Bon Bon! Just do what you're good at, and I know you'll succeed," Lyra said while brandishing a smile.

"Wait, look!" Derpy said, pointing at the cage. The last of the townsponies were thrown in, and the final monkeys locked the gate behind them. As they joined the large formation, it now looked from the air like a perfect square.

"Well, that's going have to be it for planning!" Carrot Top said. "Let's go everypony, we don't have much time!" Octavia and Lyra headed towards the former's house, Vinyl and Derpy trotted to another alley to make their way around the square, and at Carrot's gesture Bon Bon stayed where she was. She joined Carrot near the end of the alley, and as she did she saw the Monkey King's eyes open and a toothy grin spread across his hairless face.

Comments

[Frankie]

I guess I was wrong.
Look like this monkey king plans to enslave the entire town of Ponyville. I didn't think Trixie would be powerful enough to cast a spell of this magnitude. I can hardly wait for the next part.

[Trish Hankins]

Thank you for the confidence boost! Writing processor, away!