Twilight took her place once again in the middle of the town square, she was beginning to lose patience. If they made her do this again she didn’t know what she would do.
She turned towards her friends and lowered her head, opening her eyes slightly she peaked off to the right. Waiting for the pony standing off to the side to give her the signal.
The pony held his hoof up to a headset with a mic he was wearing, and listened intently to who ever was speaking through the other end. Suddenly he gave her a nod, that was her que.
She heard the pyrotechnics go off and felt the heat as a light burst forth from behind her. Making it look, to anyone standing in front of her, as if she were standing in a explosion of light. She felt the wings on her back slowly unfurl as she raised her head dramatically.
She heard the flares sputter out and the felt the lights dim. She held the pose for a moment before allowing herself to peak, Her friends were standing in front of her looking utterly bored.
She opened her eyes completely and looked off to the side.
“Please tell me were done here…” she asked hopefully to a observing pony sitting in a foldable chair labeled "Director".
The pony got up from the chair and smiled, “That was fantastic Twi! Everypony I think we got what we need, that’s a wrap every pony!”
She heard cheering ring out from behind the cameras, as ponies stomped their hooves against the ground. The director started walking around, shaking hooves with the camera ponies and the others behind the equipment.
Twilight let out a relived sigh and smiled, finally they had been filming this scene for hours. They had already finished filming the rest of the episode, but the director wanted to come back and re-shoot this scene one more time. Which meant in theater language, a couple million times.
Twilight walked over to her friends, even though they had not been a part of the shot, the director had still wanted them to be in positions so that Twilight could really “feel the moment” as he had put it.
Rainbow was staring at the screen of her phone busily tapping away with her nose, probably playing some sort of game on it.
Rarity had begun to poke at her hair, she really did hate having all that product in it.
Pinkie Pie had fallen asleep… standing up. Twilight couldn’t blame her, even though she was just as charismatic and crazy as the pony she played, the part still took a lot out of her.
Applejack was leaning against the pink pony. She too had her phone out, but unlike Rainbow, was busily chatting away with someone on the other end.
Fluttershy was chatting with one of the camera ponies, watching intently as the last shot played back on the tiny veiwing screen. “Ohhhh, Twilight this looks really good!” Fluttershy squeaked excitedly.
“Thanks Fluttershy! What did you guys think?” Twilight asked turning to the others. “Think we’ll be called back for a reshoot tomorrow?” She asked jokingly.
“What no way I totally hit that pig!!” Rainbow put her phone away frustratedly, grumbling something about evil green pigs, and turned to Twilight. “Yeah sure it looked great. I’m sure you were awesome, as usual.”
“I hope we don’t have to come back tomorrow, I just want to relax for a while seriously, all this attention and cameras. The stress is killing me.” Rarity chimed in.
Pinkie Pie continued to snore.
Applejack turned and pulling the phone away from her ear for just a moment and called over, “You looked wonderful Twi! I’m sure their just gonna love the shots they got.”
Twilight turned and looked back at the town, She stared at the buildings recounting all the scenes they had acted out in this place, “I cant believe it… has it really been three seasons already?”
“Ha! and you thought we wouldn’t get three,” Rainbow laughed. “I told you we’re totally radical!”
Applejack turned and shushed the enthusiastic Rainbow Dash before turning back to her phone, “Yes sir, that sounds fantastic! Ill see you then!” Closing her phone, she turned back to her friends. “Hey girls! They want us to appear on Good Morning Equestria tomorrow!”
Rarity groaned, “Do we have to go in character or can I wash this stuff out of my hair already…”
“Oh boy this is so exciting!” Fluttershy exclaimed. “What do they want to talk to us about!”
“Oh probably what its like to be on the show, how long we spend shooting, what our lives are like, am I really as cool as my character,” Rainbow Dash responded, putting on some sunglasses.
They all laughed, waking the sleeping pink pony.
“Mr. Bigglesworth NOOOOO!” Pinkies eyes snapped open as she flung herself into the air suddenly, hovering for a moment above the ground, she looked around. “Oh! are we done?” she chimed happily, dropping back to the ground, completely ignoring her own sudden outburst.
All five other mares burst out lauging, Twilight after subsiding to a few chuckles responded, “Yeah Pinky we got the last shot a few minutes ago.”
“WHAT?!? And I missed it!! we have to do it again!!!”
“NOOOO!” All five mares responded in unison, hoping the director hadn’t heard Pinkies remark. The director however was deeply engaged in selecting a donut from a table off behind the cameras.
Flutershy spoke up, “Pinky if you want, you can come see it over here.” She gestured to the camera she was still standing by.
Pinky smiled her trademark smile, “okie dokie!” She hopped over to where Fluttershy was standing.
Twilight groaned, reaching back she itched at the wings, “alright girls im going to go get these things off, they’re really starting to bug me.”
“Oh I can only imagine, three hours straight with those on. That must be the worst!” Rarity said.
Applejack looked up from her phone which had once again begun to buzz, “Alright Twilight your coming out for drinks with us later right?”
“Of course, you guys come swing by my dressing room when your ready to go!”
Her friends all nodded enthusiastically and after one more round of congratulations, Twilight headed off towards the dressing rooms.
The town they had chosen to shoot the series in was really quite a pretty place. The night sky above her was full of stars and she breathed in the clear country air. She made her way towards the town spa, while it was also an actual place of work, the film crew had set up the dressing rooms inside.
She pushed open the door with a hoof and stepped inside.
“Twilight!”
She turned to the voice, and let out a smile, “Hey Spike!”
“Wow they really wanted to get that scene done right huh?”
Twilight rolled her eyes, “Well Final Cut is a perfectionist, sometimes I think he would be better at my character.”
Spike joined her as she trotted down the hall, finally arriving at a door with a sign on it that read, Makeup, She pushed open the door and stepped inside, Only to be greeted by another familiar face.
Celestia sat in a chair as two ponies busily scrubbed at her hai. The colors washing out of it, causing it to return to its original pink hue. She was sitting back her wings folded at her sides, her horn was glowing.
“Hey Celestia!”
Celestia looked over at Twilight and smiled, “Hey Hey girlllll! Are you ready to party tonight?”
Twilight laughed, Celestia played the part of a regal sophisticated princess, and when not on camera it was always amusing to her how much of a party pony she was.
“Were all going out to get some drinks to celebrate later, you want to join us?”
“Hey! How come I wasn’t invited!?”, she heard spike exclaim from behind her.
“Well your not 21, and I don’t think our fans would be to happy with a underage party animal.”
Spike let out a huff and walked out of the room, Celestia laughed, “I would loooove to go, if they can get all this crap out of my hair in the next hour.”
Twilight took a seat next to the large white mare, one of the ponies washing Celestia’s hair went over to Twilight and started fiddling with her wings. Soon one of them popped off, Twilight let out a moan of pleasure.
Celestia chuckled, “That bad huh?”
“You have no idea, what I would kill to just have a fake horn like you, speaking of which I think your having a little malfunction.”
Celestia looked cross eyed up at her horn and let out a snort, “Ha! This damn thing has been on the fritz ever since I dropped it” with that she reached up and pulled the horn off from atop her head.
She banged it agains the side of her chair untill it stopped glowing, the white mare smiled, “there all better!”
The two ponies relaxed in the silence for a moment letting the make up ponies work their magic, after a while Celestias eyes snapped open.
“OH! Twilight I just remembered!” She smilled widely.
Twilight turned to look at her, her other wing was refusing to budge off her side and was wiggling back and forth, peering around from behind it she looked at Celestia.
“What?” she asked taking in her excited expression.
“I got to look at the season four script!”
“WHAT?!?” Twilight asked incredulously, “even I haven’t gotten to look at it yet!”
“Ooooh you wont believe what they have planned first your goi-“
The door to the dressing room burst open and Pinkie Pie came storming in.
“Hold on just a minute! Don’t say another word! We don’t want to ruin it for them!!!”
Twilight and Celestia both looked around the room. They couldn’t see anypony else, besides themselves and the makeup ponies, they turned and shrugged at eachother.
“Ruin it for who?” Twilight asked perplexed.
Pinky Pie turned to look at you, “Oh no one in particular… you just have to be careful… you never know whos watching.”
Twilight and Celestia gazed in the direction the pink pony was staring, only noticing a large rack of dresses. They once again shrugged at each other as the pink pony slowly backed out of the room, giving you the evil eye.
“Well some really interesting things happen then!” Celestia said, eyeing the door as if waiting for the pink pony to burst through again.
“Your all done Celestia,” the pony working on her hair said.
“Same here Twilight,” the pony at Twilights side said, giving the wing one final tug. It came free and the pony tumbled backwards.
“Oh that feels goooood,” Twilight said reaching over and rubbing her side. “Thanks so much you guys!”
Both Twilight and Celestia rose from their chairs, Twilight stretched while Celestia ran a hoof through her now stationary non-flowing hair.
“Oh how I have missed you,” Celestia whispered softly, stroking her hair fondly.
Twilight turned to Celestia, chuckling at the mares actions, “I told the girls to meet me here when they were done but since we're finished early you want to go get them?” she asked a smile on her face.
“Sure!” Celestia responded, her voice giddy with excitement. “Ooo I get to party with the mane six!”
“Hey you’re a big part of the show too you know, don’t discredit yourself!” Twilight laughed at the white pegasus excitement.
The two mares walked out of the room as Luna walked in, “GROOMING PONIES, I REQUIRE YOUR ATTENTION!”
When they were safely down the hall, away from the Royal Canterlot Voice, Celestia turned and looked at twilight.
She chuckled, “Method actors,” she said rolling her eyes. The two burst out into another fit of giggles.
They walked down the hallway and out into the lobby, leaving a tip in the jar at the front desk the two ponies walked out the front door. While filming they stayed at the local inn, The Feedbag, it was a quaint little place and Twilight enjoyed it a lot. It was a nice change from her appartment in Manehatten where the front door was mobbed with paparazzi every day.
AUTHORS NOTE: since some people have requested i make this a little longer. I will, but until i can find an editor and make time to work on this, (I have two other stories that are in progress) I will be leaving this note here. This is just to inform you that in fact when i do pick this back up i will be jumping off from this point into chapter two. Feel free to read the thirty minute version ending, that is all, pony on everyone.
Thanks to a lot of closed door meetings and secrecy, very little people knew that the town that was used as Ponyville from, Friendship is Magic, was a real place. The same could not be said for when they went to film in Canterlot. The last time they had been there a S.W.A.T team had to come and keep fans out of the shots.
As they approached the inn Twilight took a look around, the camera ponies were dissasembaling their equipment and packing it up, they didn’t have to start filming season four for another two months.
She smiled as she looked towards the door of the inn and saw her friends coming out, they all greeted Celestia and Twilight warmly and set off down the road together. Though they were stars in the outside world, here, in this place they could just be simple friends.
