Valiant

by Four Crazy Stallions

Chapter 4

A loud, but deep note came from some instrument off to the side of the stage. The audience seemed confused, but then delighted at the odd music. Following the note, a melody of wind instruments and piano notes filled the theatre, setting the mood for the play.

Rainbow Dash was sitting between Rarity and Pinkie Pie. She scanned the outskirts of the stage for the source of the beautiful music. She then recalled the incident earlier that day, and directed her attention towards the ground off to the right. A blue pegasus with a slicked back purple mane sat in front of a large, wooden piano, which almost surrounded him on three sides. She peered at the rapid movements he was making. His hooves and his wings struck different keys with speedy precision, creating a wondrous sound.

Blushing at the embarrassing crash earlier, she was glad the piano was still usable. She leaned over to Rarity, who was listening to the peaceful music, and whispered,

“You know, I think that stallion over there should have done the stunt performance instead. I hate to admit it, but that looks hard even for me!”

Rarity took note of Foresight’s technique, but was more concerned with the piano itself.

“Indeed. That’s a Royal Canterlot Piano. It takes years to learn, let alone master. Only a Pegasus can be truly proficient at such a device, however.”

Intrigued by the music, Rarity closed her eyes and went back to listening. Rainbow Dash watched the skilled stallion play. It was seldom that anything impressed her, and she soaked in the bittersweet feeling.

Foresight had been playing for two minutes, and his opening bit came to a close. As the curtains opened, he relaxed and slowed down the tempo, playing a quiet, background music. He had seen this performance more than a few times, and didn’t bother looking up at the stage, even though he very easily could.

A spotlight struck the stage with a brilliant beam of light. Appearing instantly under the bright ray, a young colt lay in an old bed, reading a book. He appeared ill, from the makeup he had on. He coughed a few times, and generally made the audience feel bad for him.

Offstage, Spotlight sat in front of a mirror. A young mare was putting on the finishing touches of makeup on him. He stood bored, and looked himself over impatiently. Novelty approached Spotlight quickly and warned him,

“Spotlight, you’re on in two!”

Spotlight rolled his eyes, having been through the routine many times. Only once had he been late for his cue, and he was never going to live it down.

“I’m aware, Novelty…”

Thinking himself perfectly able to go onstage, he hissed at his makeup assistant.

“Really, Grave Danger? Really? I don’t think five coats of makeup are necessary!”

Trying to dab one last eyelash on the inconsiderate colt, the assistant tried to keep him still for only a moment longer.

“Please, Spotlight, hold still!”

Spotlight decided for himself that he looked perfect, and knocked Grave Danger’s hoof out of the way. He trotted to the area offstage, just outside view of the audience, behind the curtain. He watched as the opening scene proceeded along,

“Back when I was your age, books were called stories! And this is a special story. It was the story my father used to tell me when I was sick and I used to tell it to your father. And today, I’m gonna tell it to you.”

The grandpa was played by Deep Blue, a middle aged stallion.

“Does it got any sports in it?”

The colt was actually played by his son, Red Hot. Spotlight mouthed out the rest of the scene, having the entire play memorized.

“Are you kidding? Fencing, Fighting, Torture, Revenge…”

Spotlight closed his eyes and got into the mindset of his character, West Leaf.

‘Perfect lover. Determined. Wise. Young. Adventurous. I got this.’

Spotlight opened his eyes as the curtain closed. The father and son trotted offstage as the crew rushed in and out, switching the scene from a bedroom to a small farm. Spotlight positioned himself exactly in front of the fake tree, like always. He looked over at Prancer, who was dressed as a young, but beautiful farm filly.

She whispered in a barely audible, but clear voice, “Break a hoof!”

Spotlight didn’t say anything, simply not feeling like returning the favor. He took a deep breath, the curtain opened back up, and he became a completely different pony.

Pinkie Pie’s eyes were glued to the stage, she watched with intensity as ponies she had met only this morning were performing for all of Ponyville, and acting like completely different ponies as well!

Spotlight and Prancer, to be referred to as West Leaf and Butter Cup, were going about their peasant duties, hanging clothes, and farming.

'Butter Cup was raised on a small farm in the country of Trotten.'

The audience jumped simultaneously in shock as a voice spoke in each of their heads. Backstage, Deep Blue and Red Hot stood by a unicorn, who was casting a spell that made their voices appear in the thoughts of everypony in the audience. Stormspell, who was watching the play from behind the audience, chuckled at the always interesting reactions.

'Her favorite pastimes were running, and tormenting the farm colt that worked there. His name was West Leaf, but she never called him that. Isn’t that a wonderful beginning?'

By now the audience understood that the voices were part of the performance. Except for one mare in particular, who clenched her yellow head at the sounds that shocked her out of her shyness.

“Wh-what’s happening? Why am I hearing things?! I-I don’t know what’s going on!” Fluttershy panicked.

It took Fluttershy a few extra moments to figure out what it was, and sunk into her chair, feeling the eyes of nearby ponies on her. After a few minutes, she sat back up and tried to not draw any more attention to herself.

The play continued on its way, the audience quite pleased at the performance.

----------------------------

“You seem like a decent fellow, I hate to kill you.”

Spotlight drew his rapier with his front hoof and pointed it at Rusty, one of the lesser stage ponies. Not to Spotlight, however. Right now, he was West Leaf, and Rusty was Indigo Mountain. With a kind grin, he replied,

“You seem like a decent fellow, I hate to die.”

The two stallions had their weapons drawn. They waited for a cue. With an intense opening note, Foresight played a steady rhythm. Aligned with the music, Spotlight and Rusty had a well rehearsed duel. All over the scenery, the two ponies danced, lunged and parried. Both of them were attached to a pole above the stage by a thin, but strong rope.

Pinkie Pie sat in awe as the two actors duked it out. Suddenly, her body started vibrating violently.

Spotlight thwacked at Rusty’s sword, and sent it flying across the stage. Rusty leaped through the air, using the rope to do a backflip before landing. An impressive feat for an earth pony. Above the stage, two pegasi were pulling Rusty along the pole, letting him move through the air as he performed his flip. Spotlight waited for his piano cue. He noticed the music had stopped. Keeping tempo, he then leaped from his spot after his opponent. He began moving through the air as he started a double front flip.

A few things happened at once.

There was a bright flash, and all of the lights shut off immediately, and the audience gasped, but then waited for something to happen, as if it were part of the show.

Soaring Sky, who was pulling Spotlight’s rope, felt her wings give out beneath her. With a scream, she fell twenty feet onto the pitch black stage. Landing with a thud, her legs went numb and she blacked out.

Spotlight continued moving across the stage, and he slammed into some of the stone structure scenery. He received a well deserved thump on the head as he hung in midair.

When the lights came back on, Soaring Sky was laying on the ground, unconscious. Spotlight was dangling on an invisible rope, rubbing his head. Foresight had gone missing, and Stormspell was galloping to the front of the theatre to address the crowd. Stagehands ran onto the platform to help Sky and the other actors. The crowd broke into a panic. Stormspell desperately tried to calm the situation.

“Folks, please! Remain calm; there is no need to panic! I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to cut the show short tonight!”

Novelty, angered by Stormspell’s untraditional decision, ran up to him.

“But, what about ‘The show must go on’?!”

Stormspell gave him an angry glare, and continued to speak. The crowd continued to question and even boo Stormspell and his performers.

“Please, please, folks! If it weren’t such a tight scheduled business, we’d reshedule it some other day! Now! If you’ll all calmly and quietly exit the theatre…"

The crowd angrily got up and began leaving. Twilight and her friends talked as they left.

“Well, that there was a rip off,” Applejack stated.

“I thought it was nice…” Fluttershy commented.

“I LOVED the ending!!! What a twist! Who would have thought it was just a play all along?!” Pinkie exclaimed.

Twilight reasoned, “Guys, I don’t think that was a normal accident! That mare was unconscious!”

The group looked at each other and nodded in agreement. Rainbow Dash had a different theory, though. Fondly remembering her victory earlier that day, she questioned Twilight’s thoughts.

“I dunno, guys. That was the same mare from the stunt show today. I think she just tripped over her own wings and fell. “

Twilight’s mind raced as the pals left the theatre.

“Then why was there a flash? And why did the lights go out? I think something serious has happened here, girls!”

Rarity butted in on Twilight’s curiosity,

“Twilight, darling, I understand your reasoning, but this simply isn’t your business!”

Twilight gave Rarity a determined look, a spark of adventure in her eyes.

“It wasn’t my business to question Cadence when she was acting differently before her wedding! What if there’s more to this than meets the eye? I’m going to find out what went wrong or my name’s not Twilight Sparkle!”

“Ah reckon last time we didn’t listen ta Twilight, we ended up lookin like a bunch o’ fools. Ah’m with her on this ‘un.” Applejack thought out loud.

“Guys, it was just another boring old play! It just so happened that one of the crew was the worst flier in Equestria!” Rainbow Dash scoffed.

Rarity moved closer to Rainbow and scolded her, partially with her stare, and partially with her words.

“Rainbow Dash, I do wish you would quit bullying that innocent young mare!”

Rainbow pushed aside the words of wisdom and continued speaking to Twilight.

“Look, I’ll come along with you on your investigation. But just so I can be there when you find out I was right the whole time!”

Fluttershy decided it was a good time for her to speak,

“Excuse me, um… It sounds reasonable... but I have plans tomorrow… Sorry…”

Twilight shrugged, and Rarity declined the investigation as well.

“I apologize as well, Twilight. I don’t have time to run around questioning circus folk tomorrow.”

Finally, Pinkie Pie gave her baffled response.

“Guys, are you loco in the coco?! That was the best ending I’ve ever seen! My Pinkie senses barely picked up the twist ending in time!”

Twilight looked concernedly at Pinkie,

“You sensed a doosie right before that happened?! Why didn’t you tell us?!”

Pinkie giggled.

“Oh, Twilight! You’re so silly! It’s not polite to talk during a performance, especially during a scene as crazy fantastic as that one! Did you see how West Leaf dodged Indigo’s-“

Twilight cared little about the play itself at that point. She knew what she must do.

“If Pinkie sensed a doosie, then something is definitely wrong here. Tomorrow morning, Applejack, Rainbow and I will go over to talk with Stormspell.”

"Bu..." Fluttershy began to mumble, scared for anypony to hear her. As soon as she made a sound, her friends listened close. With all eyes on her, she finished her thought. “B-But the circus… Won’t they be gone by then?”

Twilight looked back at the circus, and smiled upon seeing Soaring Sky being carried away in a hospital wagon.

“They can’t just leave her in our hospital like that. I think the showponies will be stuck in Ponyville for a while…”

-------------------

“Mother of Celestia, what did you idiots do this time?! You clowns are always making me look bad in one way or another! Incompetent crew members, all of you!”

Spotlight walked up and down the stage, ranting after the crowd had left. Meanwhile the crew was taking down the outdoor theatre. Stormspell, stressed out and not in the mood to deal with Spotlight, silenced him.

“Spotlight, I swear to Luna, if you complain about one more thing, you’ll be finding a new group to act for! Nopony knows what happened, so shut your trap! Has anypony seen Foresight?!?”

Novelty, who had been following Stormspell, had a response.

“Foresight is backstage; he was the one who turned the lights back on. He got there surprisingly quick, though.”

Stormspell’s mind went through a timeline of the events that had occurred. He looked towards the sky and mumbled some things to himself. Foresight’s disappearance didn’t add up.

‘I know he’s called Foresight for a reason, but there’s no way he could have predicted such a random disaster!’

Foresight, almost as if mentally summoned, trotted in from backstage. He looked as if the play went uneventfully. Stormspell moved to him and stood eye to eye with the pegasus. Foresight did nothing more than blink at his superior, even through his anger.

“Foresight, I’m sure you’re aware of the disaster that just occurred!”

Foresight nodded, and then grinned for a brief moment.

“I saw that! I don’t know what you did, but you were conveniently away from your piano when the lights came back on. They came back on pretty fast if you ask me!”

Foresight nodded again, and nonchalantly stated,

“Well, that’s because I was the one who turned on the lights. I could tell somepony would have to turn them back on, and I could also tell nopony was going to do so in a timely manner.”

Unable to make any realistic arguments against Foresight, Stormspell stammered. Spotlight took Stormspell’s side with another complaint,

“And you actually stopped playing the music right in the middle of the song. Why can’t any of you just be competent enough to run a simple play!?!”

Foresight moved his eyes towards Spotlight, and remarked,

“Oh no. Did I upset the Studio Drama Queen? Why can’t you just be civilized like the rest of us?”

Stormspell didn’t believe Foresight’s fantastic poker face.

“I don’t know how you did it, but I know you have an awful grudge against Soaring Sky. I have cause to believe you’re guilty, mister; and because of you, we’re going to have to stay here until she recovers!”

Spotlight and Novelty exchanged looks. Foresight seemed confident in his beliefs, and didn’t shake one bit under Stormspell’s rant.

“I doubt there’s any way to convince you I’m innocent, so believe what you want.”

Foresight closed his eyes, and turned away from Stormspell. Spotlight and Novelty both spoke at the exact same time,

“We’re staying in Ponyville?!?”

This had never happened before in the history of their show. The showponies were always on the move, and this was going to be an entirely new scenario for them. Some of the other crew stopped and stared at Stormspell for an answer after hearing about them staying. Foresight stayed to listen to what would happen next. Stormspell lowered his head and spoke to the ensemble.

“Yes, we’re going to have to stay here until they release Soaring Sky from the hospital. It’ll take some getting used to, I know. Just keep your heads, get a temporary job and you should be fine.”

Spotlight was not pleased to hear the last bit.

“A job? Are you kidding?”

Stormspell was at about his limit with Spotlight. Raising his head, he turned and looked the actor dead in the eye.

“Yes, Spotlight… A job. We don’t have enough food to sustain us for more than a week, and we need the money we earned tonight to make posters for our next show. If you can live off your share for tonight’s show, then you’re fine. Otherwise, you’ll need some sort of income.”

Spotlight rolled his eyes, and trotted away, no longer interested in the topic. He just wanted the day to end.

“Well, I’ll see you all tomorrow in labor land!”

Stormspell ignored the colt’s dramatic comment and decided to send everyone to bed.

“You know, we’ve got a while to clean this up… Why don’t you all take the rest of the night off?”

Nopony argued with their ring leader. Everyone went to their wagons and fell asleep. Some ponies decided to sleep out under the stars. As was tradition, Novelty, Foresight and a few other stallions stayed up late to play a game of pony poker after every show. Tonight was no different.

-------------------

Foresight walked into the wagon late. It was like a small room, a wagon with four walls and a ceiling. Novelty sat at a pentagon shaped table with three other stallions. The first was a large, dark blue pegasus with a ruffled lime green mane named Tranquil Thought. The second was a bulky earth pony with a pale red coat of fur, and a short, white mane named Overheat. The final was an older earth pony, with gray fur and a ruffled black mane named Ideal.

An empty seat was waiting between Novelty and Tranquil Thought as always. This was all five stallion’s favorite way of relieving stress from the showpony business. They met after every show and had a friendly game of pony poker, using poker chips, never real money.

Tranquil Thought looked up and pulled Foresight’s chair out.

“There he is! Better late than never, right?”

Foresight smiled as he trotted towards the table. This was the one place he felt comfortable and welcomed in his crazy life. He trusted these ponies with his emotions, and allowed facial expressions to appear on his face.

“Yeah, just wanted to put my piano near my wagon before coming.”

Foresight sat down in his spot as Overheat shuffled the deck. He playfully laughed at Foresight as he passed the cards out.

“Haha, Foresight, you’re obsessed with that instrument!”

Ideal chuckled and watched his cards stack up in front of him.

“Well, I imagine it cost more than you make in a year!”

The friends laughed as the game began. Overheat reached over and placed the top card right side up. Tranquil Thought set his cards down immediately.

“I’m not even going to try with this hand, haha!”

Novelty smiled and looked at his cards which he laid down.

“Surely there’s some philosophy about never giving up, no matter how bad the situation?” Novelty inquired.

Tranquil thought for a moment, then smiled as he replied,

“Yes, but there are also many about knowing when you’ve been beaten.”

The group laughed again. Tranquil normally talked with philosophies and included the advice in his sentences. Foresight decided to move the game along.

“Well, I’ll go ahead and bet fifteen.”

Overheat’s forehead wrinkled as he eyed his cards. Nopony could really tell when Foresight was bluffing, since he practiced his poker face all day, every day.

“Ha! Ok, I’m feelin lucky!” Overheat challenged.

Ideal shook his head at his cards and placed them on the table.

“I fold. The best of luck to Foresight. You need it most.”

Foresight looked up, with a more serious face. After an awkward silence, Ideal continued his thoughts.

“Did you really do it?” Ideal asked curiously.

Foresight looked around, everypony watching him. He sighed, and kept his feelings concealed.

“I won’t say why I was backstage while this happened, and I know there’s no way of saying it without sounding suspicious, but I didn’t do it. You’ll just have to believe me.” Foresight said matter-of-factly.

The friends glanced around at each other. Novelty put his hoof on Foresight’s shoulder.

“Foresight, we’re your friends. There’s nothing you can’t tell us.”

The four friends looked happily at Foresight and nodded in agreement.

“We’re here for you!”

“What are friends for?”

“We won’t tell nopony!”

Foresight looked at the ground. He thought for a moment, and then sighed again.

“I… I just can’t. It’s not that I don’t trust you. It’s just not time yet. It’ll sound crazy.”

Tranquil Thought knew his friend well enough to know he wasn’t going to speak. After a moment’s silence, he put his hooves together.

“Well then, let’s get on with this round so I can get a better hand!”

Foresight smiled at his understanding friends. While they were different in many ways, and he wasn’t very good at conversing with them outside of their poker games, he was grateful for what he had. The friends enjoyed themselves for a good half hour before calling it a night. They had a long day ahead of them.