Lights, Camera, Infraction
The School of Friendship was in a frenzy as the students were busy preparing for a big test that would be taking place in the next week. In the library, Heart, Soul, Ace and Mira were reading at a table. Gallus, Silverstream, Yona and Sandbar were at another table, all trying to cram as much knowledge into their brains as possible before the test. But it was proving harder than they thought.
"Um...true?" Heart guessed at Soul's question, his sister moaning in response.
"That's actually correct, but it doesn't count if you just guess. What if you got this exact same question on the test and guess false? You need to actually have the knowledge."
"Cut me some slack!" Heart groaned, "I'm trying, but there's just so much to remember!"
"Tell me about it," Gallus added, "I'm never gonna remember any of this."
He slammed his head onto the table, Silverstream laughing. "Aw, don't worry. Everyone thinks they're going to fail when they're studying. But just watch. When the test arrives, you'll be able to answer almost every one of those questions."
They all hoped she was right, though they had a feeling it wasn't going to be that easy. It was times like this they wished they were actually interested in some of this stuff, like a certain changeling they knew. Ocellus was sitting at a smaller table, reading her own study book. She was so far ahead that she had decided to keep reading on her own so the others didn't distract her. She was so enthralled by the subject she was studying that she didn't want anything to break her focus. That is, till a bunch of laughter made her look up and see Smolder laying atop a bookshelf right next to her.
The dragon appeared to be reading something, but Ocellus knew that book didn't have any study material in it. And since she was right beneath her, she was able to see Smolder holding a comic book within the pages of the book. "Smolder." She stopped reading and looked down as the changeling flew up to her. "You're never going to pass if you spend all your time reading comics."
She pulled the comic out of her claws, Smolder rolling her eyes, "Come on Ocellus, I've been studying. But it was starting to give me a headache, so I was taking a break."
"You can take a long break after the test," Ocellus pointed out before getting back to her own reading.
"You really need to learn to loosen up," Smolder replied, "You ever hear of a thing called burnout? If you're not careful, you're gonna push yourself too far. Even your big brain isn't indestructible. Overdo it and you'll have an aneurysm or something."
"She does kind of have a point," Soul nodded as she replaced her own book with another. "Everything is at risk of breaking if it's pushed too far. And I honestly can't remember a time you've not had your head in a book."
"So?" Ocellus asked, "I like reading."
"So do I," Soul replied, "And so does Twilight. But we don't spend every waking moment of our lives reading." Ocellus shrugged, returning to her book. But before she could keep reading, Smolder jumped down and pulled it away.
"Be honest," Smolder grumbled, "When was the last time you did something without a book in front of you?"
"I do stuff without books," Ocellus responded, "I...go for nature walks."
She remembered doing that the other week. She had been wandering through a nature trail, looking around for rare birds and trees. But then she remembered that she had had a nature book on her at that time and when she found something, she read about it in the book despite already having read the whole thing.
"I...play video games." She remembered spending an entire weekend with the others, playing a bunch of video games...only to spend most of the time reading the game manuals. "I went to the art museum." She added, remembering going there with some of the more studious students along with Twilight. But she had spent less time looking at the art and more time reading the art's history from a book she had gotten at a gift shop.
"Oh."
"Thought so," Smolder smirked as she took her comic back.
"So what if I like reading?" Ocellus groaned, "I never got the chance to read anything when the hive was under Chrysalis' control. All we were allowed to learn about was how to infiltrate other races and steal love from them!" The others frowned at this, now realizing Ocellus was probably trying to make up for lost time. "Besides, the stuff we learn here will be crucial when we have to make our way in the real world!"
"I doubt that," Smolder jumped back up to the bookshelf. "Who knows what we'll be doing when we're older."
"We're the ones who'll help lead our kingdoms into a new age," Ocellus argued, "That's why we're at this school! When we graduate, it'll be up to us to pass one what we learned here to the rest of our kind!"
"Yeah, when we graduate. Learning all this stuff right away isn't gonna be any different from learning it later. It's not like we're gonna use it now." She was about to start reading her comic, but was stopped when her head scales suddenly started glowing. "Huh?"
"Is Ember calling you?" Soul asked.
Suddenly, Ocellus also started glowing. Only instead of her head, were wings and tail were the part of her that started pulsing with light. "What's going on?"
The others heard this and turned to the duo, now seeing the two glowing. They all gasped, but one was gasping for a different reason. "No way," Heart yelled "You're being called by the map!"
"The map?" Smolder asked as Ocellus and Soul gasped.
"He's right," Soul added, "The Friendship Map must be calling you."
Ocellus went fully wide-eyed as Smolder grinned, "Oh yeah? So it wants to send us on a friendship mission somewhere? That sounds like fun."
"Looks like it," Ace nodded, "You two better get to the castle and find out where you're going." Smolder nodded and headed for the door, only to stop when she saw Ocellus wasn't following.
She spun around, only to see the changeling freezing up, "I can't go on a friendship mission. I'm not ready. I'm still learning about friendship. I'm not ready to try and fix a problem!" She started looking around the library, "There has to be a book somewhere that'll help me figure out what to do. No, no, not that one."
Smolder rolled her eyes and flew up to grab her hoof, pulling her out of the library despite Ocellus' cries. And as this happened, they made their way through the school, only for Flash to see the pair, "What's with the glowing?" He asked, only to recognize the effect on Smolder. "Wait...are you-"
"Going on a friendship mission?" Smolder finished, "Looks like it."
Ocellus then flew up to him. "Please tell me you or another teacher is being called as well!" Flash turned to show her his non-glowing cutie mark.
"Twilight or another might have been called, but if they have it might take them a while to get here." The two leaned back at this, "Celestia and Luna are on vacation, so the girls were put in charge of running Equestria while they're gone."
The pair grimaced at this, Flash and Starlight having had to calm everypony in the school down when the sun and moon started acting strange two nights ago. They sighed as Flash told them to follow, the pair going with him as he headed out of the school and to the castle. Stepping inside, they made their way through it to the map room and saw the map was active and letting out a bright light. "I'm actually surprised," Flash commented, "Ever since Shroudheart destroyed the Tree of Harmony, we were worried that the map might not work anymore."
"I guess the tree being reborn into our clubhouse brought the map back to life," Ocellus guessed, the two now seeing the faces of Ocellus and Smolder circling around a section of the map. "Does that mean what I think it means?"
Flash squinted his eyes at this, "This is the location you two need to go to." It was a large city on the west coast of Equestria, "Applewood. Now that's a cool place to be sent."
"Applewood?" Ocellus asked, "What's that?"
"It's the Equestria's movie capital. All the best movies are made there." The two smirked, having gotten to enjoy a few movies in their time at the school. "But it looks like you're being sent on your own."
"What?!" Ocellus yelped, "We can't go on our own! We're not ready to do a friendship mission!"
"Clearly, the map thinks you are."
Ocellus whimpered as Smolder patted her on the back. "Would you relax? We can handle this. The map called us cuz it thinks we're the best ones to solve this problem." She turned to Flash, "Right?"
"It hasn't been wrong yet," Flash nodded, "Although I'm still a little concerned about you two going on your own. I'm not sure Twilight would approve of you going without somepony there to keep you two safe."
"So what do we do?" Ocellus asked, Flash smiling back.
"I'll go with you," he replied, "Starlight can handle running the school without me. We'll call it a friendship field trip." Ocellus sighed in relief, glad he was going. "But I'm not gonna help with the mission." Her eyes went wide. "If the map wanted me to help, it would have called me. I'll give a little advice, but you two need to figure this out on your own. That's the only way it works."
Ocellus moaned as Smolder punched her in the shoulder. "Would you relax? We got this. What's the point of all those lessons we had to sit through if we can't use what we learned?"
"I guess...I guess I just never thought I'd be using it this soon."
"You two head back to school and pack what you need," Flash ordered, "I'll send a message to Twilight and tell her what's going on. She'll wanna know about the map working again and I'll also need to tell Starlight you'll be absent from school. Be at the train station in an hour." They nodded and headed out, Flash staying behind as he stared at the map, "You finally start working again and pick two school kids for your first mission. This better be important."
As soon as Smolder and Ocellus got everything they needed, they headed to the station. Their friends were there, all excited to hear what their big adventure was gonna be about. "This is amazing!" Silverstream cheered, "You think this means the rest of us will get picked by the map one day?"
"It's possible," Soul nodded, "But it'll only pick you if it's a problem you can solve. Something like that might not happen."
"It's still a possibility, though!" Silverstream squealed, only for Flash to fly down toward the group.
"Well, Twilight's certainly excited to hear about this." He commented as he landed, "She wants you two to have a complete report when this is over."
Smolder moaned while Ocellus nodded as the whistle of the train caught their attention. Soon enough, the trio were departing from Ponyville as their friends waved them goodbye. Along the way, Ocellus asked a bunch of different questions about to how best approach a friendship quest. Flash asked how many friendship quests Ocellus had been told about and the changeling quickly listed them off. When she reached the last one, Flash smirked.
"That's pretty much all of them."
"But how does knowing about past quests help us in this one?" Smolder asked next.
"A lot of ways. Like...how did each pony discover the reason they were there." Ocellus replied. "That's important."
Flash shook his head at this, "Not quite. Ask yourself this: Did they find the problem, or did the problem find them?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Smolder responded, confusion on both students' faces.
"A lot of the times, the ponies never found the problem. They just did whatever they wanted and eventually, the friendship problem slammed right into them. If you really want my advice, I suggest this: Don't look for the friendship problem. Several times, ponies think they find the friendship problem, only to fix the issue and find out that's not why they're there."
"So what are we supposed to do?" Ocellus asked, "Not look for the problem we were sent to fix?"
Flash shook his head again, "I didn't mean that. Just don't let yourself become laser focused on finding it. If you two see something that might interest you, don't hesitate to investigate. Rarity and Pinkie once found their problem while they were getting lunch in preparation of searching for the problem. You never know where it'll show up."
The girls weren't entire sure what Flash meant by that, but they didn't want to ignore his wisdom. As such, they watched as the Equestrian landscape flew by, the pair excited to see what was waiting for them when they got to Applewood.
And eventually, the large city came into view. Applewood wasn't as big as Manehatten or Fillydelphia, but it was still a rather impressive place. Sitting between a large collection of hills and the western coast, the three marveled as the sight of the city. And as they got closer, they spotted a large collection of metal letters spelling out the city's name located on the hills.
"Awesome," Smolder cheered as Ocellus gulped at the sight. She had never been anywhere this large before.
The train soon stopped and the four walked onto the platform. Flash was a little worried the large crowd would result in them getting separated, but Ocellus and Smolder stayed close to him as they headed for the exit.
"So how do you wanna start this?" Smolder asked, Ocellus putting a hoof to her chin.
"Um...I'm not sure-" She tried to say as they walked into the gate, only for an alarm to suddenly ring out, followed by confetti. "Eep! What's going on?!" The changeling cried as a pony ran up to her.
"Congratulations!" she told her. "You're the one millionth pony. As such, you've won an amazing prize!" She held up a white box with a ribbon, Ocellus blinking at it before slowly taking the box.
Flash and Smolder stared at the sight as they walked through the gate, Smolder whispering, "You don't think this has something to do with the friendship mission...do you?"
Flash shrugged in response, "No idea." He turned back to Ocellus, "What's the prize?" Ocellus opened the box and found it was a bunch of coupons for a tour of a movie studio. "Huh. Wonder if there's a problem at the movie studio."
"You really think we were destined to win these tickets?" Ocellus asked, "That sounds a little far-fetched."
"Trust me, you don't wanna ignore this. Tell you what, we'll take the tour and if you can't find a problem, I'll get more involved in helping you find and solve this. Deal?"
"Deal," Ocellus and Smolder nodded.
Flash quickly got a map and used it to find the address on the coupons, glad to see the place they were going wasn't actually too far away. They managed to grab a city tram, which they rode to the studio and arrived to find a large group of ponies outside. Flash stepped up to the security booth and showed the guard the coupons, the guards checking their authenticity and nodding before they were let in. He also let in a small percentage of the tour group line, allowing them to gather and look around. The movie studio was a collection of large buildings, likely all filled with different sets, only for a unicorn mare to walk up to them.
"Hello," she smiled, "My name's Hooflights and I'll be your tour guide today. Welcome to Applewood's famous movie lot, birthplace of some of the greatest movies ever made."
The tour began at this, the group following as she began to give a lecture about the history of the lot and how it came to be. Ocellus listened eagerly while Smolder zoned out and Flash half-paid attention. And as they headed into one of the buildings, they discovered that there was already a film in progress. "Here we have the making of a middle ages movie. In it, a heroic knight is fighting against an evil monster."
They saw said pony, dressed in an old fashioned knight's get up and holding a prop sword. At the same time, what appeared to be an animatronic monster was moved into place. "Wow," Smolder chuckled, "That doesn't look convincing at all."
"Just wait until the CG experts do their magic," Hooflight chimed in, "They can make it look so convincing you'd think the knight was actually going to be devoured." But as she said that, a loud banging sound rang out, the group turning to see the monster's back beginning to smoke as its long neck fell to the ground, "Oh no."
"What's happening?" A stallion asked as he ran over to the machine. He was a maroon unicorn with a white mane, tail and beard, wearing a director's hat and round glasses.
Another member of the crew rushed over, opening the back of the creature, "Sorry Mr. Saddleberg, but it looks like one of the motors ran too hot and broke. We must have overloaded it."
"Can you fix it?"
"Yes, but it'll take a day or two." The stallion roared out in annoyance, lifting his glasses to rub his eyes with his hooves.
"What am I supposed to do?! We're already running behind schedule! With this delay, they may end up shutting down production all together!"
"Can't they just do this scene another time?" Smolder asked Hooflight, who shook her head.
"This set building has been booked to allow another film to be made in here in the next few days. If they can't get all those scenes filmed by then, they'll have to leave, let this set be stripped down, wait for that movie to finish, then rebuild the set exactly the way it was. That would take time and money. If these scenes aren't filmed, either the entire movie would have to be stopped or the unfilmed scenes would have to be removed from the script and the whole thing would need to be reworked with what's already been done. And that will likely ruin the film."
"Ouch," Flash flinched, "That is a problem."
"Yeah," Smolder nodded before an idea popped into her head. "Ocellus, you could help."
"Huh?" Ocellus barely replied before Smolder grabbed her hoof and pulled, "What the-"
"Hey! Wait!" Hooflight called out to them, but the drake just waltzed up to Saddleberg.
"Excuse me." The stallions turned to them, raising an eyebrow. "You need a replacement for your monster. Well, here she is."
"What are you talking about?" He asked as Flash and Hooflight rushed up.
"I'm sorry sir," the guide bowed. "I let them get away from me."
"Ms Hooflights," Saddleberg frowned, "You really need to keep better care of your groups." He turned back to Smolder, "This is a movie set, and we can't have kids messing around. So please-"
"Wait sir," the one who had been speaking before jumped down off the robot and moved over to them. "Maybe the dragon's right." He pointed at the changeling, "You have the ability to change into anything you want, correct?" Ocellus nodded, "So...could you become the monster we need?" He pointed at the animatronic and Ocellus stared at it, her eyes scanning over every little detail. Then, in a burst of green fire, she transformed into an even better version of the beast and managed to let out a threatening roar.
They all looked rather impressed, but Saddleberg shook his head, "You might be able to replace the monster, but we can't just have untrained actors appearing. Our budget is already spread pretty thin. We can't afford to hire you."
"Don't worry about that," Smolder replied, "We'll do it for free. We were taught at school to help whenever we can, even if we don't get anything out of it." Ocellus nodded in her monster form and Saddleberg blinked at this, only to see the smiles on his crew's faces.
"Fine," he sighed, "But she has to do exactly as instructed. And no improvising." He turned away and told everypony to start setting up for the shoot. And as he did this, Ocellus returned to normal.
"Smolder, shouldn't we be focusing on finding the friendship problem?"
"What if this is the friendship problem?" Smolder asked, "Right Flash?"
They turned to their teacher, Flash shrugging in response, "It's possible. We get tickets to a tour, find out they have a problem that a changeling can fix and arrive at the perfect time to help. Sounds like the kind of thing a friendship problem usually entails."
Smolder smirked as Ocellus sighed, wondering how a movie shoot could be the cause of a friendship problem. That is, till the pony that had gotten Saddleberg to agree walked up to them. He was a green earth pony with a black and white mane and tail. "Thank you so much. And sorry about Saddleberg. He's been under a lot of pressure to get this movie finished, but one bad thing after another has been stopping it."
"Really?" Flash asked, "What kind of things?"
"Aside from the animatronic breaking down, props have been mysteriously vanishing, ponies have been getting wrong scripts that cause them to waste time learning lines they don't need to, and there've even been issues with the actors themselves. One of the stars had an allergic reaction to some makeup and had to be sent to the hospital."
"Yikes," Smolder gulped, "Talk about a cursed production."
He nodded back, "Most ponies would have given up by now, but we can't."
"Why not?" Ocellus asked.
"This movie isn't exactly planned to be a big blockbuster," he responded, "In fact, almost all of the props and sets are recycled from other movies."
"Oh yeah," Flash turned to the monster. "I thought that looked familiar."
"But even though it's not expected to be an instant hit, we all think it has to potential to be great either way. This is everyone's shot at the big time." He gestured to the crew as they worked, "This is the first movie for most of us. If we can't get it right here, nobody might hire us again. This movie is make or break."
They nodded at this, "Well, we're happy to help." Flash gestured to himself, "Name's Flash Sentry. And these two are my students, Ocellus and Smolder."
"Nice to meet you," the pony replied, "I'm Demo Reel. You can just call me Demo. I'm with the special effects department, but hopefully I can one day make it big in as a director. So, what brings you-" He didn't get to finish, as Saddleberg called for everypony to get to their places. Seeing this, Demo moved Ocellus into position and explained what they needed her to do, the changling transforming as Saddleberg called action.
Flash and Smolder watched as Ocellus charged into the scene and the unicorn knight began to do battle, swinging his sword round as Ocellus avoided it. She then pretended to breathe fire, the knight raising his shield to defend against the eventual computer generated fire.
When the flames stopped, the knight raised his sword and threw it at Ocellus. His magic remained on the weapon until it reached her chest, stopping inches from the point poking her. That was when Saddleberg told them to freeze. "Replace the sword," he ordered, the sword removed away with magic, Demo explaining to Flash and Smolder that the end half would retract into the blade and they could make it look like Ocellus was stabbed.
"Why?" Smolder asked before turning to Ocellus. "Can you change to make it look like you've been stabbed?" Ocellus didn't move, but was quickly consumed by fire. When it faded, she looked exactly the same, but with the handle of the prop sword sticking out of her chest. The others cheered at this, starting to like how easy it was to do this with a changeling. Saddleberg went wide-eyed, only to quickly shake his head, calling for them to unfreeze. As soon as he did this, Ocellus started acting like she had been stabbed. She staggered around and mimicked attempting to breath fire before falling to the ground, going completely still.
She had to remain like this as the knight spoke with some new characters that arrived on the scene. Things got tricky when she felt an itch, which she tried to ignore and keep from shaking. As soon as Saddleberg said cut, she transformed back to her normal form and scratched like crazy. The others who saw this laughed, all clearly knowing the pain of not being able to scratch when it was really needed.
"Not bad," Saddleberg nodded, "I guess thanks are in order. Now we can move on to the other scenes that take place here."
"Sir," Demo stepped up. "Why not ask them to help with some of the other scenes as well? There are a lot of monsters in this movie, and having Ocellus act with them will make the whole thing look even more believable."
"I'm sure these folks have other things they need to do instead of standing around watching us work."
"Not really," Flash chimed in, "We have nothing urgent to do. In fact, we're pretty sure this is the reason we were sent here. Don't worry about it. You can have us help however you need." The other two nodded and Saddleberg hummed before nodding.
"Very well. It'll take an hour or so to get everything set up for the next scene. Why doesn't Demo show you around? If you wanna help, you might as well know where everything is."
He turned to leave and the four smiled, Demo gesturing for them to follow. They made their way through the sets, showing off everything that was going to happen in the movie and what Ocellus might be able to help with. "Wow," Smolder commented as she flew around, "Look at all this stuff."
"Pretty impressive," Flash added as they saw some of the ponies returning the props that had just been used in the scene they had filled.
Ocellus inspected the props and found the fake sword that had been used. She stared at it and smiled seeing the section of the blade that was meant to fold into it. "Hey!" Smolder flew down, "Stab me." Ocellus laughed and pushed the sword point towards her. But when she did, she found the blade didn't retract into the weapon like it was supposed to. "Hey!" Smolder yelped as she found herself being pushed back, the dull tip of the sword not doing anything against her scales, but did almost make her crash into a pile of props.
Flash and Demo ran over at this, "What happened?"
"We don't know," Ocellus responded, "The sword didn't retract."
Demo took the blade from Ocellus and tried to push it into the sword, only to find it was completely stuck. "Strange. Something must be jamming it."
"Guess it's a good thing Ocellus used her transformation," Smolder giggled, "If she couldn't, you might not have been able to do the stabbing scene."
Flash hummed at this, Ocellus turning to him, "Flash? What's the matter?" The others glanced over at him, but the defender went silent. Ocellus raised an eyebrow, only to realize what it meant. She quickly looked back at the sword, only to remember that Demo said the movie had been running into problems. "You think somepony's trying to sabotage the movie." Ocellus said in almost a whisper.
"Huh?" Smolder responded, "What do you mean?"
"Think about it Smolder." Ocellus countered, "They said they've been having a bunch of problems with filming."
Flash nodded at this, "She's right. Props being lost and damaged. Scripts with pointless lines in them and that animatronic monster breaking down. That's a lot of problems for one movie crew to run into. You heard what Hooflight said. If the movie runs into too many problems, it would have to be shut down."
"But why?" Demo asked.
"Well...that depends." Flash turned to his students, gesturing to them to continue.
Seeing this, Ocellus spoke up, "Well...was anyone against making this movie?"
Demo shook his head. "Not really. Nopony was eager to work on it, so the higher ups put a bunch of us newbies onto the project. Even most of the actors are new at this. This film could be their big break. The only experienced ponies working on it are Saddleberg and a few of the crew heads. But there weren't any complaints about doing it, since it's being made on the cheap."
Ocellus and Smolder shared a glance at this, the drake responding, "Eh...that doesn't sound like a motive to me."
Flash shook his head, "Think a little outside the box, you two." He turned to Demo, "What if it's not the movie that's being sabotaged? Maybe somepony's trying to ruin Saddleberg's reputation." All three stared at him at this, only the defender to add, "He's a big shot Applewood movie maker, right? I'm pretty sure I've seen his name on a bunch of big flicks."
"Yes," Demo nodded, "Saddleberg's one of the greatest filmmakers of our time. He's changed the way movies have been made for years."
"So what's he doing here?" Smolder asked, "If he's such a great filmmaker, why's he working on a movie barely anyone's talking about?"
"Mr Saddelberg's been...going through a bit of a rough patch. His last few movies haven't been the box office breakers he's known for. A lot of ponies think he's starting to lose his touch. So instead of giving him a big project, he's been cut back to doing this small-time flick."
"And what would happen to him if this film was cancelled?" Ocellus asked, Demo putting his hoof to his chin in response.
"I...don't know. But I don't think it'd be good for him. It might even force him to retire."
The trio grimaced at this, the two students fully frowning as Flash watched them react. Taking a deep breath, he spoke up, "Ocellus. Smolder. What do you want to do?"
"Us?" Ocellus asked while pointing at herself.
"You were the ones sent here. It's up to you to decide how you wanna proceed."
The girls shared a glance, Smolder shrugging in response. "I don't know. I'm not an idea dragon."
Ocellus bit her lip, her brain turning gears before she said, "Smolder, you look around and see if you can find anypony that's sneaking about or trying to cause problems. I'll keep helping the film. If our mission is to make sure the film is finished, I'll do as much as I can to get it done." Smolder nodded, liking that idea.
Flash agreed that it was the best course of action, Demo also wanting to make sure the film was completed. "Here," he gave Smolder his crew pass. "This should stop anypony from wondering why you're walking around. Just try not to draw too much attention to yourself."
"You got it," Smolder nodded again before flying off while the others began to make their way back to the film site, arriving as they finished setting everything up. Saddleberg was sitting atop his director's stool as the actors got into position. He spotted them and called out to Ocellus, showing her a book of the monsters they would need her to become for them. Ocellus quickly flipped through the picture book, showing images of the costumes and animatronics that were intended to be used. Beside each of them was a simple description of what each creature would be expected to do.
As she read through the book, Saddleberg called action and they watched from the sides as the scenes were filmed. It took them thirty minutes to get to a scene involving one of the creatures Ocellus would need to become, Saddleberg having them move to a set that was supposed to represent a dark river. "Bring in the sea serpent." Ocellus quickly transformed, morphing into a long red snake-like creature with feathers on her head that were several meters long.
She slithered into the water, gasping when she felt how cold it was. "You could have used warm water!" She grumbled as she saw the murkiness of the water, really not wanting to dive into it. She had gills, but wasn't happy about using them in such filthy looking muck. But she knew the film was counting on her and dived, completely submerging herself as Saddleberg called action. The actors stepped toward the river, looking exhausted despite being well rested. They made their way closer to the water and checked it, seeing it was murky and likely not safe to drink.
One got even closer and used his magic to dunk a cup into the water. He sniffed the water he brought back up and shook his head before throwing it back in. "And turn," Saddleberg instructed with the actor moving away. "And...cue the monster!" Ocellus' snake tail shot out and wrapped around the unicorn's leg, making him cry out as he felt it being pulled. The other actors spun around and saw this, gasping before drawing their weapons.
The knight raised his sword at this, Saddleberg calling out for them to freeze. "Alright, Ocellus. Release him and change your tail to be shorter." Ocellus did so, unwrapping her tail off of him and transforming the way he wanted. At the same time, a member of the crew used her magic to wrap the actor's leg up with a piece of rope that looked just like Ocellus' tail. "And...action."
The knight quickly swung the sword down, pretending to cut the end of the sea-serpents tail. The now shorter tail began bouncing around before being pulled back into the water. Flash smiled at this, impressed by Ocellus' acting skills. But as her head burst out of the river, Flash noticed the light around them shift and looked up, only to see one of the lights swaying back and forth...only for its rope to suddenly snap.
Everypony heard this, only to see Flash zip up to the falling light and kick it away just before it hit the water. "Ocellus, out of the water!" The changeling didn't need telling twice and reverted back to her normal form, flying out of the water as Flash manage sure nothing else electrical could fall in.
"What happened?" Saddleberg cried as Flash carried to light over to him, the director now seeing the snapped cable. "It's a miracle nopony was hurt."
"You okay?" Demo asked, Ocellus nodding.
"That's it," Saddleberg sighed, "The last thing the studio needs is a lawsuit. If that light had hit the water, she would have been electrocuted. I'm gonna have to stop you from continuing to assist us."
"What?!" Ocellus gasped, "but I'm fine!"
"Only because Mr. Sentry was able to react in time. If it happens again, he might not be so quick. I'm sorry, but I've made my decision. The rest of you, try and get things set back up for the set monsters. And make sure none of the other lights are gonna crush my stars."
He walked off at this, everypony frowning. Ocellus felt herself about to cry, thinking this could mean her friendship mission was going to be a failure. That is, till an actor ran over to one of the set crew. "What the heck was that?! Thanks to you, our movie's gonna be cancelled!"
The set crew glared at him. "Us? How is it our fault?!"
"You're in charge of making sure everything is safe!" another actor yelled, "You should have checked to make sure those lights were properly secure!"
"We did!" another member of the set cried out. "Those lights were perfectly safe!"
"Clearly not," the knight actor yelled, "Come on, how hard is it to keep everything running smoothly? How are we supposed to put on an oscar winning performance when you can't do the simplest of tasks?"
"Simplest?!" One of the camera-ponies growled, "How would you know?! You've never done a day of hard work in your life! If you saw how much work getting everything set up was, you wouldn't be complaining!"
The ponies all began yelling at this, making Flash, Ocellus and Demo grimace. "What do we do?" Ocellus asked as she turned to Flash, "Can't you break them up?"
"This is your mission," Flash replied, "You need to find a way to help everypony make peace. If you don't, this movie'll never get made. And everypony might lose their shot at continuing their filmmaking careers."
Ocellus gulped at that, "Oh dear. I hope Smolder is having better luck then."
"I'm not having any luck." Smolder grumbled as she lazily flapped around. Sighing as she took another turn, she commented to herself, "Maybe I should head back and-"
Her words came to a stop as she heard voice ring out, "Please, just give me a little more time." She stopped and looked around the corner, where she saw Saddleberg talking to another pony.
The pony was wearing a suit and a frown as he replied, "You've had your time. I'm sorry, but everything is ready to begin filming. Everything except a director. If you can't do it, I have no choice but to give it to another pony. Haybrick's free, so-"
"Not him!" Saddleberg cried, "There's no way that pony came make this movie into a masterpiece! His artsy, smarmy movie style would ruin this film! Please, I'm the only one that could possibly make this movie a blockbuster!"
"Except you're stuck working on this film," the pony instantly countered, "And even if there weren't a flank ton of problems slowing you down, there's no way you can finish this film before we need to start working on ours." Saddleberg looked devastated by this. "I'm sorry, but we need a director by the end of the week."
He turned to leave and Saddleberg just stood there, only to let out a roar and slam his hoof into the wall next to him, turning to leave as Smolder remained hidden. "Huh. So he can't do the film he really wants because he's stuck here..." she whispered, only to go wide-eyed, "No way."
Demo Reel had managed to stop the argument between the actors and the set crew. The actors had stormed off while the set crew got to work trying to prepare everything for a reshoot of the scene. However, without Ocellus, the scene was showing it was not going to work. Demo had removed the broken light from the scene and taken it over to an empty table, him and Flash investigating it.
"It looks like the rope snapped," Demo started as he looked over the frayed ends of the rope. "But I don't get how. The ropes for all these lights were old, yeah, but they shouldn't have broken like that."
Flash nodded, and saw that it looked frayed and weathered from overuse, only to shake his head, "This rope was damaged on purpose."
"What?" Demo turned to him, "What makes you say that?"
"I've seen this kind of damage before. The rope's outer strands were weakened by something. Probably a file or something like sandpaper. Once it was weakened, the rope would begin to stretch under the light's weight and eventually snapped."
"So you think somepony's still trying to sabotage the film?"
"Yup. And they just made things a lot worse for themselves." Demo raised an eyebrow, "That light would have hit Ocellus if I hadn't kicked it away. Even if she moved out of the way, it would have landed in the water and electrocuted her. They've gone from being a nuisance to being a danger. If they're willing to do something like this once, what's to stop them from doing it again? And next time, the pony its targeting might not be so lucky."
"You're right," Demo gulped, "But we still have no idea who it might be."
"I think I know who's sabotaging the film!" They all spun around to see Smolder, the dragon landing and giving Demo his crew pass back. "I know this might be hard to believe, but Saddleberg is responsible."
"What?!" Demo yelped, "W-w-why would you say something like that?!"
"I just heard him talking with somepony," Smolder responded, "Apparently, there's another movie that's about to be filmed and Saddleberg wants to direct it. But he can't, because he's working on this movie."
"Are you sure?" Ocellus asked, Smolder nodding. "That does sound like a reason to stop this film from being made. But couldn't he just leave this movie and start on that one?"
"No," Demo shook his head, "The studio's faced issues with directors abandoning projects halfway through because something else came along. That's why they made every director that works here sign a contract. Saddleberg isn't allowed to make any other movie until the one he's currently working on is finished."
"And if the movie's shut down?" Flash asked.
"Same situation. He'd be allowed to move on. But just because he has another movie he wants to pursue, that doesn't mean he'd purposely sabotage this film. You don't have any solid proof of this, do you?"
"Well," Smolder rubbed the back of her neck, "No. But we'll find it."
"How?" Demo instantly replied, the trio sharing a glance. Flash wanted to make a suggestion, but this was the girls' mission. As such, he shook his head at the two, silently telling them to fix it.
Seeing this, Smolder nodded back before closing her eyes, only to snap her claws, "I got it." She turned to Demo, "You got any recording equipment?"
"Yes," Demo nodded. "Why?"
"Trust me. Ocellus, how good are you are making yourself look like somepony without actually seeing them?"
"Well...all I need is a clear image of somepony to become them. Why?" Smolder rubbed her claws together and started whispering into her ear, Ocellus' eyes going wide, "Y-y-you can't be serious!"
"Come on!" Smolder groaned, "It's perfect. You'd get the proof we need easily."
"But I can't!" Ocellus cried. "If I did what you're suggesting, I'd be no better off than the changelings were when Chrysalis ruled us."
"It'd be totally different," Smolder slung an arm over her, "You'd be tricking somepony, sure, but it would be for a good cause. The map sent you here because you're the only one that can do this."
Ocellus shrunk back at this, only to sigh, "Oh dear...fine. I'll do it. But I'll probably hate myself in the morning."
Saddleberg was at the studio's cafeteria, getting a cup of coffee as he thought about the potential blockbuster he wouldn't get to make. And as he was about to take that first sip, he noticed somepony walk in. It was one of the big bosses of the studio, the same one he had been talking to earlier. The pony spotted Saddleberg and gestured for him to sit down at a nearby table, Saddleberg sighing as he did so.
"Pan Shot!" Saddleberg nodded as he sat down, "What's going on? Come to tell me you've given the film to Haybrick?"
"Nope," Pan shook his head, "I thought I'd let you know the film you're making has been cancelled." Saddleberg's eyes went wide. "With all the problems its run into and the little time you have left, we in the higher ups are deciding to pull the plug."
"Really?" Saddleberg asked a little too excitedly, "I mean...that's too bad. I know nopony really expected it to be a big hit, but I'm sure it would have developed some form of cult following in a decade or two. A shame, really. Those newbies put so much hard work into it and now, nobody's gonna get to see it."
"Indeed," Pan nodded, "On the bright side, it means you're now freed up to start work on the other motion picture." Saddleberg slowly nodded back, "But before we agree to give you the job..." Saddleberg frowned at this, "You were the one behind all those problems...weren't you?"
"What?!" Saddleberg yelped, "What are you talking about?!"
"Don't worry," he shook his head, "You won't get in trouble. But it was obvious that you were the one who caused all those problems. Wanting to get out of making that film to move onto this one."
Saddleberg stared at him in shock, only to suddenly smile, "Alright, I admit it. I...didn't do anything." Pan's eyes went wide, as Saddleberg's horn glowed. The next thing Pan knew, something was ripped off his skin from under his suit.
"Hey!" He cried, flinching when he saw the tape recorder and microphone that had been hidden beneath his shirt.
Saddleberg smirked as he turned the device off and removed the tape. "Nice try kid. You changelings are pretty good at impersonating others." Pan frowned as she reverted back to her true form, Ocellus sighing as Saddleberg chuckled, "Where's your friends?"
"Flash and Demo aren't here," Smolder chimed in as she jumped down from the ceiling rafters. "How'd you know it was a trick?"
"I'm guessing Demo told you what Pan Shot looks like. Or somepony showed you a picture of him. And while that would have probably worked on somepony else, a director needs to be able to see every last detail. I assume you didn't know about the mole under Pan's left eye." The two sighed as Saddleberg laughed. "Nice try kids."
Smolder glared at him at this, "But you were the one who caused all those complications. You broke that monster and damaged the light to make it fall."
"Yes, I did." Saddleberg smirked, "Sorry about almost hurting you. Didn't think you'd actually be under it, but you moved into the wrong spot at the wrong place. If you had just kept your nose out of things, you wouldn't have been put in danger."
"Why are you doing this?!" Ocellus yelled, "Ruining Demo and everypony else's chance to make it in the film industry!"
"That film would never get me back into the mainstream," Saddleberg spat, "If anything, it'd make ponies think I'm more washed up than they already think I am. If I want to reclaim my glory days, I need to get my name of a big action film. Something everypony will wanna go see. And I don't care what I have to do to get this film cancelled, I'm stopping it from ruining my career." The girls glared at him, only for Smolder to shine a big toothy grin, making Saddleberg raise an eyebrow, "What?"
"You all get that?"
"What?" Saddleberg asked again, "What are you talking about?"
"Your confession," Ocellus smiled, "Flash and Demo were recording the whole thing."
"How?" Saddleberg looked them over, only to find nothing, "You're bluffing."
"Applewood filmmaking is pretty amazing," Smolder chuckled, "They can turn anything into a recording device." She picked up a salt shaker and screwed off the top, pulling out a hidden microphone. "And it's wireless, so we don't have to worry about you taking the tape from us."
Saddleberg's eyes went wide before he leapt out of his chair and rushed for the exit, the girls watching him run and smiling. The director ran through the studio lot as fast as he could to the sound studio. He quickly pushed through a crowd of ponies at this, trying to reach the recording machine, which stored all the main recordings andcatalogued them for later use.
But as he reached the room and threw the door open, he flinched at hearing his own voice speak. "And I don't care what I have to do to get this film cancelled, I'm stopping it from ruining my career."
Slowly opening his eyes, he found not only Flash and Demo were listening to the recording, but so was the real Pan Shot along with all the other bigwigs of Applewood's movie business. They all turned to him, making him shrink back as they glared at the pony that had risked their studio getting sued.
One hour or so later...
Saddleberg had been escorted off the premises and into the custody of the Applewood Police. The police took him in for questioning, Saddleberg likely facing charges of attempted assault and knowing endangerment. The other ponies working on the film were shocked by what they had learned, but quickly apologized to one another for blaming each other.
"Thank you," Pan Shot told Flash and his students. "You've done us a great service today. Who knows what he would have done next."
"No problem," Flash replied, "Happy to help." Ocellus and Smolder nodded, though they were half expecting to start glowing since they had solved the cause of the problem.
"It's just unfortunate we'll have to shut down production," Pan sighed, making everyone go wide-eyed, "Without a director, we can't hope to complete this movie. In a way, I guess Saddleberg gets what he wants."
"You can't!" Demo cried, "We've worked too hard to let him ruin our chance like this." Everypony else nodded, "We can get the movie finished! We know how it's supposed to end!"
"You want to finish this film without a director?" Pan yelped, "That's insane!"
"Just give us a chance," Demo begged, "We won't ask for anything. We can still get the movie finished on time." The rest of the crew nodded again, Pan staring at them before shaking his head.
"Very well. You can continue filming. But if it's not all done by the time this area is needed for another film, there won't be anything for us to do but cancel it. Understand?" They all nodded and Pan walked away, Demo turning to his new friends.
"Thanks to you, we have a chance to make our dreams of filmmaking come true. I know it might be a little unfair to ask this, but-"
"You want our help to finish making it, right?" Flash chuckled as Demo nodded, the three all sharing a glance. "What do we need to do?"
And so, the filming process continued, Demo taking over leading everypony in their direction. Ocellus reprised her many roles as the film's monsters while Flash and Smolder helped with the set ups. The pair even got to do fill-in roles, appearing as background characters in crowd shots. And without Saddleberg there, not a single problem occurred to slow them down. Not only were they able to keep on schedule, the crew working together managed to get them back on schedule and finish early.
"And cut!" Demo exclaimed, "That's a wrap!" Everypony cheered, the final scene of the movie ending perfectly. Ocellus and Smolder smiled as they watched the actors and crew celebrate together. And as they did this, Ocellus' wings and tail started glowing along with Smolder's scales. The pair gasped and high-fived, Flash chuckling at the sight.
With their mission completed, the three began to head back to the train station. "I guess the map picked the right creatures for the job," Flash laughed, "If it hadn't picked Ocellus, they never would have been able to make the movie in time. And if it hadn't picked Smolder, Ocellus wouldn't have had the guts to offer her help. Plus, you two were the ones who came up with a plan to get bust Saddleberg. Probably wouldn't be how anypony else would have done it, so you girls should be proud of yourselves."
"Yeah," Smolder puffed out her chest, "We didn't pretty great, huh?"
"Yeah," Ocellus giggled, "We were able to help those ponies make their dreams come true and accomplished our mission. I didn't think we were ready for this kind of thing, but I guess we were more prepared than we thought."
"And we didn't need any book to tell us what to do," Smolder bragged, "See Ocellus? Instead of reading about filmmaking, we got to actually experience it. Bet that taught you way more then you could ever learn from a book." Ocellus couldn't help but agree. She had learned a lot during this time. Actually seeing how a film was made up close was nothing like what she had read about the subject.
"Yeah. But I still enjoy reading."
"That's perfectly fine," Flash chimed in, "Just remember to balance what you read with the real world. Learning about something from a book is great, but the real test is how you put it into practice in the real world. And you both put everything you learned from our school to great use." The girls smiled at this, only for the defender to add, "And I'm sure Twilight is looking forward to reading your reports."
Smolder's smile faded, groaning and slumping over as Flash and Ocellus chuckled at the sight. The dragon knew Twilight would definitely want to hear all about their friendship mission. She just hoped the alicorn accepted double spaces, or it would take forever to complete.
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Considered how Ocellus was underused compare to Young Six, I glad she got to be focus along with Smolder.
While this plot is similar to Movie Magic from Equestria Girls, I did not see the plot twist with the director being saboteur coming and I glad you didn't use Canter Zoom and his daughter in this one.
Very fitting that you did this chapter during on-going Writers' strike as well how many Visual Effects artists spoke out about studios' treatment toward them and why CGI in recent movies are not great at all… this chapter is great allegory to current Hollywood situation.
Here's highlights
Ha! Ocellus really spend way too much on books!
Look like those two are being called by the map for Friendship Mission.
Make sense, there's nothing you can do on that episode since it just Celestia and Luna spending their times together.
OH!!!!! No wonder why this chapter is called "Lights, Camera, Infraction" because they are going to Equestria's equivalent of Hollywood!
Yep.
Wait… so the one who been sabotaging the film is… the Director?
I knew Smolder got something on her sleeve!
BUSTED!!!!!!
Wait, Saddleberg? Oh, I get it!! A ponified version of Spielberg, now that's a good one.
Glad to see you continue with the friendship missions (unlike canon) & that book bug & best dragon sister got the spotlight on the very first one!
The twist of who was the culprit was good, as was also how they caught his sorry flank, here's hoping we get a few more of these with the rest of the Young 8 before this series is over!
*stumbles into the Highlights for today's chapter* :
lol case in point there Celly!
SMOLDER/OCELLUS......COME ON DOWN!!!
Huh, nice spin on Hollywood there Banshee!
Me thinks the director whines too much here!
Oh heck no!
Why that little stinker!!!
lol you got played boy!
*and I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for those scaly/buggy meddling kids!*
Smolder *gonna need Spike to double check my work again*
Good chapter all around Banshee, till the next one!
It feels nice to see another map mission since they weren't used in Season 9 at all. But since a lot more was going on at the time that's understandable.
It is really nice to see Ocellus in a center role. She sadly, unlike the rest of the Student 6, never really got to be in the limelight of an episode herself unless she was sharing it with at least two other students or the whole group. I thought it was nice that she had to experience something in the real world instead of relying on her books to provide the answer. This chapter also made me realize that Changelings would be an excellent asset in the film industry. Not only could they be actors, they could do what Ocellus did here and help fill in for props or other special effects.
Ocelus and Smolder do seem to make a good team, and maybe that's why the show kept pairing them together. Ocellus is smart but a bit shy, while Smolder is tough but a bit reckless at times. They help balance each other out. I do kind of wish Ocellus and Sandbar ended up together, since I liked to put them together before him and Yona, but that is a different story.
The villain of this chapter basically being a corrupted pony version of Steven Spielberg was also pretty fun, as was seeing the Equestria version of Hollywood.
I remember Bugs Bunny said that once.
I really enjoyed this chapter, especially the dynamic between Ocellus and Smolder, and the return of the Cutie Map and Friendship Problems. I hope the rest of the Young Six get their chance to be called by the map. Highlights below:
Everyone reading this story: “We do!”
You accidentally wrote “were” instead of “her”
IT LIVES!!!!!!
Oh great now she’s “Twilighting”
🎇CONTINUITY!🎇
I hope so
Did you mean to say “entirely” instead of “entire”?
Did you mean to say “at” instead of “as”?
I wanna see what this creature looks like, it sounds so cool!
Yeah or how about the fact that Ocellus could’ve been injured!
What would that look like? A dragon that just gives out free lightbulbs?
Is this a reference to something?
Did you mean to say “made” instead of “manage”?
Hmmm
My suspicions sense is going off
Interesting, so he has a motive.
I think you and I are starting to have the same idea Smolder 
Now she’s acting like Fluttershy. I think Ocellus has been spending way too much time with the teachers/ Mane 6
WHY YOU ARROGANT LITTLE SCUMBAG!!!
They just pulled a “Viva Las Pegasus”!
I hope the school of friendship gets a early screening of the movie once’s its finished
CURSE YOU HOMEWORK!!
Overall a really great chapter. See you all next week.
11621937
Actually it was mentioned in the MLP comic
nice seeing the kids have a moment
I'm somewhat confused as to how advanced the film-making technology in Applewood actually is. Computers don't seem commonplace in Equestria. Other than that, this was fun.
11652940 Unicorn magic might be a possibility. Seeing as how they had actual film during Hurricane Fluttershy and later on when Twilight was able to expose Countess Coloratura’s assistant, it’s not out of the realm of imagination. Even Las Pegasus seems to have some sort of minor computer system. The jury is also still out on video games aside from that one time Button Mash was playing his game
Instead of code, however, they might be able to utilize a magical source