The Phantom Of The Opera - MLPA

The conductor nodded to the solo piano player seated inside the orchestra pit, and with a count off, the mare began to play a lovely melody. When the correct time came, Rarity began to sing, her voice ringing high and mighty through the quiet Opera House.

"Think of me," she sang, "think of me fondly when we've said goodbye." Her voice was forced to stretch when she sang the word 'goodbye', causing her to slowly glissando up to the note she needed to hit, then slide back down in a painfully graceful manner. Several of the cleaning maids had already began putting ear-plugs in to drown out the deathly melodious voice of the soprano on stage, and everypony else was either watching in awe or shushing somepony else. Flim and Flam shot each other a nervous glance as they noticed this, and then continued to watch the mare rehearse.

Rarity continued still. "Remember me," she rolled both of the 'r''s expertly, "once in a while, please promise me you'll try." Again, on the word 'you'll', her voice need that extra little stretch, causing her to once more perform a glissando. She paused and took a breath for a short moment.

Unbeknownst to the crowd of ponies below, the figure in the rafters was quite displeased by Rarities performance, and he did not hesitate to take action against it. As rarity took her breath, he silently dashed over to a certain area of the rafters and began undoing several ropes.

"When you find," Rarity chirped, "that once again you long," almost there, "to take your heart--" Before she could even finish the line, a curtain and the large block of wood it w connected to began to drop from the ceiling, exciting the screams of terror out from the mouths of several mares and colts. Rarity took a moment to notice as it fell directly towards her, eventually hitting her near her flank and causing her to fall over. This caused her to emit her own shriek of confusion and fear.

"Señora!" the conductor exclaimed, shocked and confused by the sudden event as several ponies rushed over to help the wailing maiden out from beneath the fallen stage piece. The strange figure above, silhouetted by a sunbeam coming through a high window, simply stood and watched before promptly leaving the scene as not to be noticed by any of the bystanders to the situation.

Applejack quickly turned to Christine and took her fore-hooves in her own. "He's here; the phantom of the opera..!" she said in a hushed whisper, the only people hearing her being Christine and Granny Smith. She paid little mind to this though, and began to walk off in another dielectric, away from the crowd.

Flam was busy comforting the fallen diva worriedly, occasionally asking, "Are you alright, señora?" While he was busy doing this, Flim shouted up to where the fallen beam had once been, knowing that somepony was supposed to be there. "Fasten, what's going on up there?!" he shouted, a yellow coated earth pony with a messy brown mane rushing over to the scene of the happening. He began to pull the beam back up using a system of ropes and pulleys, innocently shouting back down, "Please, Monsieur, don't look at me! Witty Celestia as my witness, I wasn't at my post!

Granny Smith was still curiously pacing about in one of the areas behind a few stage props when she saw a small letter twirling down towards her from somewhere up above. "Please, sir, there's nopony there!" The pleading shouts still came from the previous room, the old green mare carefully reaching down and picking up the letter. It had a wax seal in the shape of a 3D ponies skull and the edges of each fold were traced with a black outline.

"Or if there is.." Fasten began, his voice mildly unserious as a grin spread upon his face, "He must be a ghost..!" This accusation caused a few gasps and chuckles to come from the small group below, the curtain now safely secured above once again. The two brothers simply ignored the preposterous idea and went on to speak to Rarity.

"Señora, these things do happen..!" Flim chuckled, a smile of hope nervously creeping onto his face as he spoke. A look of anger and disbelief appeared upon Rarity's face as she spoke sternly. "For the past three years, 'These things do happen'!" she said, her voice showing obvious signs of anger. She turned and glared at White. "And you did not stop them from happening! No!" she blared louder than a trumpet, quickly turning and pointing a hoof at the two new managers. "And you two are no better than him!" she spat, causing both Flim and Flam to take a half-step backwards. "'These things do happen.'!" she said again in a mocking tone, letting out a grunt of pure frustration.

Her rant finally ended with a simple threat. "Until you stop these things from happening, this does not happen!" she shouted, pointing a hoof at herself before turning and angrily storming away. As she went, she commanded the serving maid from earlier to bring her Opalescence, then promptly left the building completely.

Doctor Hooves turned to them and shook his head. "Amateurs." he called them before walking off himself. The two brothers wet simply left standing in place with a look of disbelief and confusion as things went back to normal. White took a few steps forward and looked at them, then with a nod said, "Gentlemen. Good luck. If you need me, I shall be in Australia." He nodded his head once at the final word and began to walk off towards the door.

"R-Rarity.. She will be coming back won't she..?" Flam asked the conductor fearfully, getting nothing but an annoyed shrug in response. Granny Smith had walked up behind him during this short period, holding the fallen letter from earlier. She smiled slightly and turned to talk to the two brothers. "I have a letter, sirs, from the Opera Ghost." she bluntly stated.

"Oh, Celestia above, you're all obsessed!" Flim quickly retorted, his look of disbelief growing even more apparent as Granny Smith began to read. "He welcomes you to his Opera House-" She was interrupted by Flim, "Oh, his Opera House..!" Granny paid, again, no mind to this as she continued reading. "-and commands that you continue to keep Box 5 open, for his use." She pointed a hoof towards one of the viewing boxes in the seating section of the house. She turned to Flam and handed him the letter. "He also reminds you that his salary is due." she finished.

This provoked a very confused look out of Flim and Flam as they looked over the letter for themselves. "His salary?" Flam questioned the proposal. Granny Smith shrugged and said carelessly, "Monsieur Noise used to give him twenty thousand bits a month." Flim's mouth hung agape at this as he snatched up the letter furiously. "Twenty thousand bits?!" he proclaimed, scanning over the letter diligently. "Perhaps you can afford more," Granny Smith spoke slyly, "with the Vicomte as your Patron." Sha began to walk away but stopped when Flim began to shout.

"Madame, I had hoped to make that announcement public tonight, when the Vicomte was to join us at the gala," he yelled a bit louder now, the rage in his voice clear as crystal, "but obviously, we shall now have to cancel, as it appears we had lost our star!" he finished, and with a jerking motion with his hooves, the letter was ripped to pieces.

Flam began to try and think of some sort of solution, and stuttering as he spoke, he proposed something simple. "S-surely there must be a, um.. A, ah! An understudy?" The conductor was quick to respond to this. "Understudy? There is no understudy to Rarity!!" he spat, clearly just as troubled as the two new managers.

Flim turned to his brother and spoke softly, his voice raising though the sentence, "A full house, Flam, we shall have to refund a full house!" "Christine Daaé could sing it, sir!" Granny smith announced swiftly, nearly cutting off Flim last word to an extent. Christine looked up curiously and directed her line of vision to the two managers. "The chorus filly? Don't be silly." Flam said, turning his face away from the group.

"She has been taking lessons from a great teacher." Granny Smith said persuasively, mildly peaking the interest of the stubborn Flam. "Who?" he asked after a moment, his snout raised in the air in a doubtful fashion. Christine took a moment to reply, but spoke sweetly with a smile when she finally did. "I don't know his name, Monsieur.."

"Let her sing for you, Monsieur." Granny Smith pleaded, encouragingly placing a hoof around Christine neck. "She has been well taught." After a moment of thought, he caved and said, "Alright, c'mon. Well, don't be shy, go!" he said after the white mare was a bit reluctant to try. Eventually though, she cantered slowly towards the stage, her eyes fixated on nothing in particular, yet still gazing off into the distance.

As she took her place on the stage, the conductor was getting set up at his stand. "From the beginning of the aria, mademoiselle." he instructed Christine, the choir girl quickly fixing her posture and taking in a deep breath as the piano began to play. "Flim, this is doing nothing for my nerves.." Flam, said to his brother, who had taken his place standing next to him. "Er, well.. She's very pretty." he said back, trying to keep calm as she began to sing.

"Think of me. Think of me fondly when we've said goodbye." Her voice was like a softly flowing river, her range in pitch unmatched by that of Rarity. She could hit the single note that the purple haired diva had a fair amount of trouble on, which was much to the astonishment of the two new managers. "Remember me," she continued with a voice as smooth as silk, "once in a while- please promise me you'll try."

At this point, many of the other actors and singers had gathered around to see the spectacle in motion before them. Christine turned her face towards Flim and Flam and internally smiled at the look of amazement that they had before turning back the other direction and taking a few steps forward. "When you find that, once again, you long to take your heart back and be free.." [[another time skip forward now, much like when the chandelier was unveiled. Imagination time!!]] The lights around the room dimmed as a beautiful white dress faded into life in place of the previous costume Christine had been wearing, a few spotlights aiming towards her now for effect as the backdrop of the stage changed to that of a starry, cloudless night on a beach before a city.

"If you ever find a moment; stop and think of me!" she sang, the orchestra in the pit below her quickly bursting into life with a beautiful melody of brass and string instruments. Christine was doing an amazing job, and her voice was absolutely exquisite! As the roar of the orchestra died down, she began to sing again, a new verse now beginning.

"We never said our love was evergreen, or as in hanging as the seas," her voice became soft and tender now, like a freshly bloomed flower, "But if you can still remember, stop and think of me." The crowd before her was in a respectfully silent state as the gazed upon the beautiful songstress before them, a few workers up in the rafters of the House gawking and listening as well.

"Think of all the things we've shared and seen- don't think about the way things might have been.." The song sang by the sweet songstress began to stimulate the senses of a special certain someone in a box near the stage. [[... Why did I just do that..?]] As the grey stallion continued to stare in absolute wonder at the beautiful mare before him, he couldn't help but drift into a deep state of thought whilst the next section of the song began.

"Think of me, think of me waking, silent and resigned." Her voice was still as sweet and light as ever. "Think of me, trying to hard to put you from my mind." The only time her voice would ever fail her was a simple moment on the word 'my'. She went slightly askew on the note she was so sign, but managed to manipulate this error to her advantage and make the song just that much better.

"Recall those days, look back on all those times, think of the things we'll never do, there will never be a day when I won't think of you!" As if she had been singing this for ages, Christine held out the note on 'you' expertly. The crowd of ponies standing or sitting before her all burst into a loud applause of stomping and clapping, their shouts of approval echoing quietly through the Opera House.

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A dark figure paced deep beneath the floors of the Opera House, plotting how he was going to out everything into place as the beautiful mare sung high above him. He paused for a moment in the harshly dim torchlight and listened to the majestically loud voice of the white coated goddess all the other ponies called 'Christine'. It rang deep into the catacombs of the Opera House, as did the sound of the orchestra, but his relishing didn't last long, Nd he continued along his path.

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As the crowd of the ponies cheered and applauded, the grey coated stallion in the booth high above the rest of the crowd leaned forward slightly in his chair. "Can it be.." he wondered, "Can it be Christine..?" He stood up fully and began stomping gladly. "Bravo!" he shouted before taking his leave out the side door in the booth.

As he trotted down the stairs in the main room of the Opera House, he sang softly, but still loud enough for anypony else to hear. [[This is a musical, people, remember?]] "Long ago.. It seemed so long ago, how young and innocent we were..!" He basked in the wonderful memory of his childhood love as he reached the bottom of the stairs. As his front right hoof hit the ground, he sang his last line. "She may not remember me, but I remember her."

At an almost simultaneous moment, Christine began singing the next verse, the crowd having died down shortly after the Vicomte had left. "Flowers fade, the fruits of summer fade," it sounded almost like an explanation, despite the aid of song, "they have their season, so do we, but please promise me that sometimes: you will think.." The song began to slow now, mostly for effect, but also because Christine was going to ad-lib with what sounded like a vocal warm-up of some sort.

In a sense of pitch, it went like this: 1 2 3, 1 3, 2 4. Each time she ran the process though, it went up a few notes before she slowly began to glissando downwards in a melodic fashion, only to end with a loud and high pitched, "of me!" along with accompaniment from the orchestra.

When all was gone and done, the performances received a standing ovation for any ponies who were seated and a resounding applause from theses who had already been standing. Roses were thrown as the crowd shouted "Bravo, bravo!" The two managers who were also in a booth were stomping as well.

"Brava! Magnifica! Stupenda!" Flam shouted proudly at his new leading soprano, his words eventually earning him an awkward stare from his brother. The applause did not stop though, as even the ponies backstage were stomping and clapping happily.

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The chubby filly trotted, which for her looked more like a rushed waddle, down the stairs out front of the Opera House and made her way to a stopped carriage. Seated inside it, next to a nameless colt was Rarity, patiently (well, more or less) waiting for the results of the Opera to be told to her. When the filly arrived at the open window of the carriage, she simply smiled awkwardly and gave a light shrug. Within a second, Rarity performed one of her famous fainting sessions and fell into the arms of the nameless colt.