Behind the Scenes
“MOMMY!!!”
Twilight’s head snapped up. From outside, Nyx's cry pierced the night. The cry rang loudly in the library, surged deep into Twilight's mind, and broke the mental stalemate that had gripped her. Twilight realized all too late that she had zoned out, that Princess Celestia was gone, that she could hear Spike pounding on the kitchen door, and that Nyx was nowhere to be seen.
Mentally slapping herself out of her depression, Twilight steeled herself into a strong determination. Turning towards the library door, she reached out with her telekinesis, and using the strong emotions welling up inside of her for strength, threw the door aside hard, smashing it into the trunk of the tree outside. With the way out clear, Twilight broke into a gallop and ran as fast as could outside.
Twilight ran through the streets of Ponyville as fast as she could, her heart pounding a mile a minute, with tears in her eyes. Looking up into the night sky, she could still see the sky chariot carrying Princess Celestia and her daughter.
She ran as fast as she could, trying desperately to keep up with the sky chariot as it flew away. Keeping her gaze locked on the sky chariot in front of her, Twilight lit up her horn in a magnificent purple aura as she tried to teleport on to the sky chariot as it flew away, concentrating carefully, and making all the mental calculations necessary for the jump. However, while she was running and concentrating on her spell, she failed to notice a small rock in her way, and her hoof caught, causing her to trip and fall flat on her face.
Picking herself back up on her hooves, and quickly snapping her gaze back to the night sky, Twilight could only watched in shock as the sky chariot disappeared into the distance, beyond her sight.
Twilight’s face showed clearly the pain present in her features. In the end, it simply overwhelmed her, and she screamed. She cried out to the night a single word, in the loudest, most pain-filled voice that had ever escaped her lips.
“NYX!!!!”
Twilight then squeezed her eyes shut tight, as her tears now started to flow freely.
“Cut! Cut! Cut!” She suddenly heard a pony scream out.
The camera then suddenly zoomed out, revealing that the Ponyville behind her was nothing but a film set, inside of a studio. There was a boom hanging just above her head, and several film lights attached to the catwalk above the main set. The camera ponies all turned their cameras off at this order, and the rest of the film crew all looked up from what they were doing.
Twilight’s pained expression disappeared instantly, being replaced by a look of annoyance, and she huffed. “What is it now, Pen Stroke?”
She then turned to face an earth pony stallion, with a light brown coat and a short, black mane. His cutie mark was of a wrapped up scroll, and he was wearing a thin pair of glasses on the tip of his muzzle, and a beret on his head. He sat in a director’s chair, with his hooves crossed over each other, and a megaphone in his hoof, currently resting on his lap.
“Twilight, baby,” he said, in a manner of voice the likes of which only a director could pull off. “You need to give me more emotion. Remember, your daughter, who you’ve come to care about more than anything, has been taken from you, and you fear that you may have just lost her forever.” He then sat back into his director chair again and pushed his glasses up his muzzle. “I’m gonna need at least twice as much feeling as you’re giving me right now. I want there to be more feels in this one word than all of My Little Dashie.”
Twilight still held her annoyed look on her face, as behind her, the sky chariot, holding Celestia and Nyx, had suddenly reappeared, being lowered down on metal cables. Both alicorns had blank looks on their faces as they watched the scene going on beneath them.
Twilight placed her hoof against her head as she spoke to the director, letting out a short sigh before continuing. “Look, we’ve been trying to get this scene just right all day and you’re never happy with it.” Twilight stated. “This is our thirty-second take on this scene today, it’s late, and I’m tired. Can’t we just pack up and try again tomorrow?” She reasoned.
Pen Stroke pushed his glasses up with his free hoof and rubbed his eyes. “Alright, fine then.” He relented. He then lifted up his megaphone, to address everyone in the area. “All right, that’s a rap, people! We’ll call it a day and pick it up again tomorrow!” He then lowered his megaphone again and turned back to face Twilight, who was already starting to walk away. “And for tomorrow, Ms. Sparkle; remember: emote!”
Twilight turned back around to face him and just rolled her eyes at him, in an ‘I know’ fashion, and started walking away again.
As the rest of the crew started clearing out the set for today before leaving, the sky chariot lowered back down to the ground, and Celestia and Nyx both hopped off. When she was back on the ground again, the small, black alicorn filly smiled happily as she looked around. “Good work today, everybody.” She then turned to face Twilight, as she was walking away. “You too, Twilight. I thought you did a great job on that scene.”
Twilight stopped and turned around to face her, while she appeared to be in the middle of casting a spell, judging by her glowing horn. It didn’t seem to be a terribly difficult spell, since she didn’t look like she was concentrating on it all that much, and was just doing it reflexively. For a moment, she just stared back at the alicorn filly, with a blank expression and glowing horn. However, she then smiled warmly back at her and accepted the compliment. “Thank you.” She said truthfully, while removing the illusion spell that concealed her wings.
After that little exchange was done, everyone cleared the set of Past Sins, and made their way outside. Nyx stepped out of the studio building, on to the main lot, where they were shooting for today.
The main lot was enormous, with several studio buildings all around her, all lined up in a row for as far as the eye could see. All of the different studios only made up about fifty percent of the entire lot, however, because the open space was so large. Every studio building looked the same, in that they were all huge, rectangular-shaped buildings, of polished white, marble stone, each with a single doorway, the name or number of that specific studio building, a few windows, and not much else. The studio that they had just been shooting in was Studio 41596.
Stepping outside and looking around the large, empty spaces between each studio building, there were tonnes of different ponies all around her; some rather normal, and some of the most ridiculous shapes and colours that she had ever seen, reading over the scripts for the various projects that they were a part of, or making their way around the lot. There were also several changelings, which took the form of the Mane Six fillies, serving as some pony’s stunt doubles, and characters from other media who were doing crossovers.
“Hey, Nyx!”
Nyx’s ears suddenly perked up when she heard someone call her name. She looked up into the sky, just to her right, to see a pegasus filly, with a light blue coat, and a blue and white striped, curled mane flying towards her. It was her close friend, Snowdrop. When the pegasus filly touched down next to her, Nyx’s smile brightened. “Oh, hey, Snowdrop. How’re things?” She replied casually.
Snowdrop let out a small sigh in response as she touched down on the ground. “Not so good,” she said as she lifted her hoof up to her eyes and removed the coloured contact lenses that she used while shooting to make her look blind, revealing her natural, emerald green eye colour. “I just met with the Silly Filly Studio executives. They turned down our plans for a sequel again.” She then rolled her eyes. “Apparently, they’re just too busy with other projects right now to even consider making a sequel,” she robotically recited the excuse that they gave her.
“Bummer.” Nyx deadpanned. She then gave her friend a reassuring smile and placed a hoof on her shoulder to get her attention. “Well, since we’re both free right now, wanna go somewhere and relax?” She asked her friend.
“Heh.” Snowdrop cracked a small smile on her lips, as she lifted up her own hoof to put Nyx’s back on the ground. “Well, that sounds like a good plan, but we’re gonna want to steer clear of the bar today. Blackjack’s gone full Queen Whiskey.” She then shivered just thinking about it. “It ain’t pretty.”
In response, Nyx also smiled, rolled her eyes, and let out a single, jovial ‘ha’. “You know, usually people with new livers tend to drink less, not more.”
Snowdrop joined her friend in a laugh at that statement. “Well, that’s BJ for you. She’s a walking contradiction.”
The two friends enjoyed another round of laughs at that. “That’s kind of like saying that a flood is wet.” Nyx replied. She then simply rolled her eyes before continuing. “Oh well, let’s just head to the break room for some relaxation then. It will feel nice to rest my hooves after a long day.” She said while she was already in the middle of turning around and walking away. Snowdrop just beamed and followed closely behind her.
As they walked, they passed by a flier on the wall of one of the studios. It read:
Have you seen this author?
Name: Mindblower.
Last Seen: 11th Oct 2013
As the two fillies walked together along the studio lot, with both of their heads turned to the side to read the flier, Nyx suddenly bumped into somepony. He was a unicorn stallion, with a dark blue coat, a short black mane, and a multi-coloured cherry blossom for a cutie mark. His horn was also sharp at the tip, instead of rounded, and surrounded by a yellow magical aura. He also had a large stack of papers floating next to him, wrapped in the same magical aura, that he miraculously still maintained his connection to despite the interruption.
When he looked down and saw that he had walked into Nyx, he immediately looked apologetic. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you there.” He said, while Nyx was gently rubbing her head, before turning to face him. “If you don’t mind, could you please tell me where the office for the front page of Fimfiction is?” The unicorn stallion continued. He then turned his gaze towards the stack of papers floating next to him. “I’ve got some stories for them.” He then whispered under his breath, “I really hope they accept them.”
When he was finished speaking and turned back towards Nyx again, and before she responded, he then looked over at Snowdrop behind her, and his eyes immediately widened in amazement. “Oh my god, it’s Snowdrop!” He exclaimed like a stuttering fanboy. “I am such a huge fan of yours. Can I get your autograph?”
Snowdrop didn’t say anything to him in response and simply gave him an awkward look, and unconsciously lifted her hoof to take a step back.
Lowering her hoof from her head again, Nyx took a moment to look the unicorn up and down before responding. “I’m sorry, but this area is only for popular OC’s.” She spoke in a condescending tone, like she was talking down to him. “Fan OC’s aren’t welcome. You’re not important enough to be here.”
Just then, a security pony, with a shaved head, an earpiece, and a black turtleneck sweater with security written on it, appeared behind him. “Sir, you’re going to have to come with me.”
Unnamed OC #301 suddenly tensed up as he whipped his head around towards the security pony. “B-but wait, I am important. I’m the one who wrote this story.” He tried to reason with him. As he was struggling in the security pony’s grip, he then pointed towards the screen. “Look, I’m writing it right now.”
…
…
…
…
Dude, leave me out of this.
While the unicorn stallion was busy arguing with no one, the security pony took the opportunity and whacked him over the head with his hoof, knocking him unconscious. This caused the unicorn’s magical aura surrounding his stories to disappear, causing the pile of stories to drop to the ground, the pages scattering everywhere.
The security pony then picked him up and slung him over his shoulder. He then raised his hoof to his earpiece. “Yeah, I’ve got a pony here with two charges of breaking the fourth wall, and believing that he’s important.” He then turned around and walked away.
When that little situation was over, Nyx and Snowdrop just glanced between each other, both with blank looks on their faces, as if saying ‘what was that all about?’. After a moment of silence between the two of them, they then just faced forward and continued walking along.
As they walked, Nyx stepped over some of the papers that the unicorn had dropped, and saw some of the story titles. ‘Lelouch and Celestia Play Chess.’ ‘Princess Luna Regenerates.’ Who would want to read stories like that?
…
…
…
…
Anyway…
Nyx looked up from the pile of fanfictions again as she continued walking forward, just in time to spot Luna and Discord walking in their direction. Discord had one arm around Luna’s neck as they walked together, with a sly smirk on his face. “And so then I told Sheogorath, ‘Cheese? Are you crazy?’” She heard Discord say as they approached. He then changed his expression slightly before continuing. “Of course, I quickly remembered who I was talking to and retracted my statement. Still got a good laugh out of it, though, and we eventually compromised on cotton gouda.” He then paused briefly again before continuing. “It’s not as good as it sounds.” He deadpanned.
Luna rolled her eyes playfully away from him and giggled as they kept walking. However, when she faced forward again, her eyes then immediately focused on Nyx standing in front of her. She then stopped where she was and simply stared down at the alicorn filly, with an awkward look on her face.
Discord, who was focused on Luna at the moment, gave her a strange look when he noticed her stop. He then looked forward at Nyx and then also looked awkward when he saw who was in front of him, though not as much as Luna did; he tried to play it cool.
After about five seconds of awkward silence, Luna finally spoke up. “Oh… hello, Nyx.” She spoke slowly.
Nyx had an equally awkward look on her face. “H-hi, Mom.” She replied nervously.
This was an incredibly tense situation, so Snowdrop tried to make herself as invisible as possible.
While the two alicorns continued to simply stare at each other in awkward silence, Discord’s eyes moved from Nyx to Luna, back and forth for several seconds. His expression then deadpanned. “I already told you, I’m not paying child support.” He said flatly.
Another awkward moment of silence.
“Oookay… awkward.” Snowdrop chimed in, her eyes moving back and forth between the two alicorns like she was at Wimbledon, trying to move past this awkward little encounter; although, her awkward outburst only served to make the situation even more… awkward.
Wow, I used the word ‘awkward’ a lot there.
The atmosphere was so tense you couldn’t cut it with a knife. Nobody in the group dared to say anything else, not even Discord.
After another five seconds of awkward (sorry) silence, both groups simply walked around each other and continued in the direction they were heading.
Not daring to look back, the two fillies simply continued walking on, in silence.
A few minutes later, when they felt like the awkwardness had passed, as they neared the break room, they passed by another studio, where there was a pink, fluffy pony leaning against the wall of Studio 8, with a cigarette in her hoof, who the two fillies recognised instantly. While this pony was normally bright and cheerful on camera, off camera she was very different. Her fluffy coat was a much darker shade of pink, and it just hung limply off her body.
Hearing the two fillies approach, the fluffy pony lazily moved her eyes over to look at them, while keeping her head facing forward. While still keeping her eyes on the two fillies approaching her, she then lifted her cigarette to her mouth, inhaled a puff of smoke, and then blew it up into the air.
When the two fillies reached her, they stopped where they were and the fluffy pony turned her head down towards them. “Hey,” she simply said, in a surprisingly gruff tone of voice that you wouldn’t expect from this type of pony, nodding her head once as she spoke. Nyx and Snowdrop simply looked back at her for a few seconds, without saying anything.
Just then, the door to the studio opened up next to them, and a pony poked his head out. “Excuse me, Fluffle Puff. We need you back on set.” He then disappeared back inside just as quickly as he had appeared.
Turning her head lazily towards the pony who called her, Fluffle Puff just let out a small sigh, then dropped her cigarette on the ground and stamped it out. She then placed her hoof to her chest, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. The next moment, she suddenly perked up and she had changed completely. Her dark coat immediately brightened, as did her expression. She had a huge, happy smile on her face, stretching from ear to ear.
She then opened her mouth and let out a single ‘Ah’.
Looking and acting like a completely different pony now, the fluffy pony then turned around and walked back into the open door of the studio, skipping as she went. Nyx and Snowdrop both had confused looks on their faces and simply exchanged looks between themselves, just like they had for everypony they had encountered that day.
“Errr, what?” Snowdrop exclaimed.
After another awkward silence, Nyx just shrugged her shoulders and they faced forward again and continued onward. They walked on in peace, until they met their next encounter.
After they had taken just a few more steps, three large (compared to ponies, anyway) people suddenly landed down in front of them. They were all males; one had an orange jumpsuit, with a Japanese symbol on the back. The second one was a tall creature, wearing what looked like a black tuxedo, with grey skin, elongated arms that looked more like tentacles, and strangest of all, his face was completely blank and devoid of any features whatsoever. The final one, floating behind the first two, was a huge dark spirit, towering over all of them, with red outlines, forming strange patterns all over his body, with what looked like an eye at the centre. He also had several large tendrils protruding from his body. The three of them all looked really strong.
“Hey,” the one in the orange jumpsuit asked Nyx. “Do you happen to know where the crossover section is? We’re kind of running late.”
Nyx and Snowdrop exchanged another quick glance between each other, and then Nyx moved to address them. “It’s over that way; two lots over,” she said, pointing her hoof to her left, their right.
She then turned back to face the three of them again, focusing mostly on the one in the back. “Also, I’m sorry, but your friend behind you is too big; he won’t be able to fit through the doorway.”
Vaatu looked down at the black alicorn filly as she spoke, and he grumbled quietly to himself. “I am the spirit of chaos and darkness. My size grows with the amount of chaos in the universe.”
Nyx just humphed and stuck up her nose at the dark spirit, derisively. “Well then, just go out there and cause some order and come back.” She spoke in a sarcastic tone, as she waved her hoof at him, beckoning him to go.
“Ggggggrrrrrrrrr!” Vaatu grumbled angrily. He then quickly spun around in the air and flew off into the distance, in the opposite direction. As he turned around, one of his long tendrils reached back and smacked Nyx on the flank as he flew away, eliciting a small yelp from the alicorn filly.
After the dark spirit had left, Goku and Slender Man then turned to face each other for a second, gave Nyx and Snowdrop another quick glance as well, saluted them in thanks, and then headed off in the direction they were given.
Snowdrop simply watched the Saiyan and abomination of a thousand nightmares leave, while Nyx gently rubbed her sore plot. When she was finished, the two of them simply turned back and continued towards the break room, hoping they wouldn’t have any more awkward interruptions between now and then. They had actually hoped that there wouldn’t be any more awkward interruptions at all, but with how things usually were around here, that would be a little too hopeful.
They at least lucked out on the first part, with no more interruptions until they reached the break room. The break room, as it was called, was a simple, small and cosy-looking building in the middle of the lot, where ponies could go to relax and unwind after a hard day’s work.
The building itself was comprised mostly of the doorway, a small lobby-like area, and hallway, with several doors on both sides, which led into small rooms where ponies could simply put up their hooves and relax after a long day.
Simply choosing the first door on their left, Nyx opened up the door, and the two fillies walked in. As they stepped through the doorway, the first thing that they saw was Button’s Mom, lying on a couch, located right next the door, with a tired look on her face and an ice pack between her legs.
Turning towards the two fillies that just entered the room, noticing that they were giving her an inquisitive look, she simply let out a small huff. “I just starred in ten NSFW fanfics in one day. My loins are burning like crazy.”
Rainbow Dash, who was sitting on the far end of the couch, reading a Daring Do book, couldn’t help but overhear her, and her eyes drifted towards her. “Pffhh, noob.” Rainbow scoffed.
A moment later, Nyx and Snowdrop continued in, and had only taken a few steps into the break room, when suddenly they were both pushed further, as Blackjack came barging in, with a bottle of Wild Pegasus in her hoof, and her whiskey crown on her head.
“Bow down before Queen Whiskey!” BJ blurted out in a drunken haze. She then immediately fell on her face and passed out.
Picking herself back up and looking down at the drunk pony’s unconscious body, Nyx just narrowed her eyes, unbelievably, as she stared at the pony that was in front of her, and how she was portrayed in her stories. “Oh yeah, and people say I’m over-powered.” She said sarcastically.
Littlepip then suddenly appeared in the doorframe, behind her, peaking her head in. “Sorry about her.” She apologized to the two fillies and everyone else in the room. Her horn than lit up in a green aura, as she mentally grabbed on to Blackjack’s unconscious body. “I’ll bring her back to bed.”
“Oh?! Am I finally getting that threesome with Blackjack that I’ve always wanted?!” Came a voice from down the hall.
Littlepip’s cheeks immediately turned as red as Big Mac’s coat and she tried to disappear behind her hooves. All she said in response was, “Evil,” which she dragged out for as long as possible.
While most of the ponies in the room were focused on the Fallout Equestria stars, Nyx simply continued walking into the room, trying to avoid another awkward moment. Faust knows she already had plenty of those today.
Walking towards the centre of the room, Nyx spotted Derpy, sitting on a couch, with her reading glasses on, quietly reading as usual. The book for today was War and Peace; she had caught up on Diaries of a Madman yesterday.
“Hey, Derpy,” Nyx said to her as she approached her. “Any mail for me today?” She asked.
Briefly glancing up from her book and turning towards the alicorn filly, Derpy simply pointed towards a large pile of letters on the table, in front to her, before returning her attention to her novel.
Turning her head towards the pile of letters on the table, Nyx just scrunched up her nose and slumped. “And how much of that is hate mail, calling me a Mary Sue?” She deadpanned.
Moving only her eyes in her direction, Derpy simply responded, “The usual amount.”
Returning her gaze to the pile of letters in front of her, Nyx simply said, “Good,” perking up a little, with a sly smirk on her face. Her horn then started glowing, and the next second, her pile of letters erupted in flames. Ten seconds later, it was nothing but a pile of ash.
Snowdrop caught back up with Nyx again after she was finished ‘answering’ her fan mail. She approached her on her right, with her head still facing the way she came. “Boy, Homage really gets into her character, doesn’t she?” Snowdrop spoke to Nyx, without actually facing her. “It’s like she’s playing herself.”
“Only when Littlepip’s not around!” Snowdrop heard Homage call out again from down the hall.
Littlepip momentarily stopped in her tracks, dragging Blackjack with her magic. Her teeth were clenched tightly as she tugged at BJ’s body, and she had an angry scowl on her face. She then picked her head up and started to speak. “For the last time…” She said in a quiet tone of voice; almost a whisper. She then shouted out, “I’m not actually gay!”
Over on the couch, Rainbow Dash lowered her Daring Do book and simply nodded her head playfully towards her. “Damn shame.” She said, in a disappointed tone.
As Littlepip was continuing to drag Blackjack’s unconscious body out of the room, the door suddenly swung open rapidly, knocking her against the wall. Sunset Shimmer then appeared in the doorframe, with her hind legs still in the air from when she bucked the door open, fuming in anger, and breathing heavily. “Alright,” she said threateningly, facing forward again. “Where’s Meghan, because we need to have a serious talk about my future role in the show.” She said while glancing from side to side, around the break room. She then levitated a contract up beside her, wrapped in her teal magical aura. “I have a contract here, promising me that I would become a main character in season five.” She then lowered the contract again and grimaced. “I swear, if I don’t become an alicorn this season, I’m going to be seriously ticked off.”
“Maybe I can help.” Came a voice from behind her. Turning around, she saw M.A. Larson standing there, with a coy smile on his face, as he was passing by in the hallway.
Looking back at him standing there, Sunset then just flipped her mane at him, derisively. “No thanks. Even I’m not that desperate yet.”
After simply staring back at her for a few seconds, Larson just said, “Eh, whatever,” as he shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, with an arrogant smile on his lips. “I’m still making more money than you.”
Sunset just turned back fully to face him, and growled in his direction.
She was then suddenly pushed to the side, knocking her into Littlepip, as an eight bit black mage quickly ran past her. “One side, Red,” Black Mage waved her off as he passed by her, without looking at her.
He then burst into the break room. “Alright, now it’s time for…” He started, in an excited tone, with his arms up in the air, but then suddenly stopped when he saw where he was. “Whoops, wrong story.” He then slowly backed out of the room.
After Black Mage had left, Nyx simply blinked and then took another look around the break room. Rainbow Dash was trying to talk Button’s mom into bed, but the earth pony mare just groaned as she felt a sudden ache between her legs. Littlepip was covering her ears with her hooves, while repeatedly saying, “La la la la la”, while Homage was spouting off more of her nonsense from across the hall. Sunset Shimmer simply lay where she was, on top of Littlepip, grumbling about how better her life would be if she could just strike it big. Derpy was easily ignoring everything around her and was focused entirely on her reading. And Blackjack was still lying down face first in the floor, in an inebriated haze, with a bottle of whiskey clutched in her hooves; while snoring loudly AND breathing softly. Seriously, how was that even possible?!
With Snowdrop joining her by her side again, and giving her friend a friendly, reassuring smile, Nyx let out another sigh, but with a happy smile on her face this time. She then decided to wrap things up. “Well, all in all, this is just another typical day for us.”
“Sure is,” Flash Sentry said as he suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
As soon as she noticed him there, Nyx immediately shifted from her happy expression and started flailing her hooves angrily at him to get away. “Go on, get out of here! Nobody even likes you!” She said as she waved him away.
“Whoop whoop whoop whoop whoop whoop whoop.” He said as he quickly scurried out of the room.
Eeyup, just another day for the ponies of Friendship is Magic; real or made up, everypony’s the same. We may seem as different as the night is from the day, but in the end, we all love MLP.