Only Boys Aloud Sing in Equestria
Only Boys Aloud is one of Wales’ most successful young male choirs. They had been formed by Tim Rhys-Evans in 2010, after the success of the father choir group, Only Men Aloud, and have since become one of the most successful choirs of the United Kingdom. They had performed at many venues since their formation at the National Eisteddfod, from coming in third at ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ and performing for her Majesty celebrating her 60 years on the throne, but they have never received such an unusual invitation to perform than this one.
“Alright boys, can you calm down, please.” said Nick Wayland-Evans as he was conducting the Neath section of OBA for that week, “Now, I have a big announcement to make. Now it would seem that Tim has been given a request for us to perform for a rather big event, however we are not sure how many of you will actually want to go.”
“What’s the event?” asked Joseph Cavalli-Price.
“Well,” said Nick as he tried to find the right words, “here’s the odd thing about the whole thing, it would appear that we are asked to perform for a royal variety show… in the land of Equestria… from the T.V. Show, ‘My Little Pony’.
The boys stared at him for a second, when they suddenly burst out laughing. “You’re fuckin’ joking, aren’t you Nick?” chuckled Mike Lowe.
“No, I’m not Mike.” Nick reassured, “It would seem that our music was… somehow heard over there, and they want us to go over and perform a few of our songs.”
“This just sounds ridiculous!” said Ben Bateman.
“It has got to be some kind of joke.” added Lewis Amphlett-Thomas.
“Well, joke or not, Tim wants us to go over some of our songs for it.” said Nick, standing behind the keyboard, “We’ll start with Gwahoddiad, and work a little on Sospan Fach near the end.”
So for the next few weeks, the boys rehearsed and rehearsed, going over some of their most popular and well-known songs, including some original songs that had been written by some of the older members who were soon to leave. Many of the parents were confused, or had flat out refused the idea of their sons going to perform for what was ‘a girl’s thing in another dimension’, for them, London had been bad enough, however many of the boys convinced them to let them go, just to see what Tim’s face would be like when the joke hits him.
At last, the supposing day arrived. The boys were picked up from their usual drop off points via bus and made their way down to one of the service stations off the Dual Carriageway. As the four buses waited in the car park, Tim and the other captains stood in the middle, as if they were waiting for something. The boys looked out of the windows. “How much do you want to bet Tim’s gonna come back tamping?” Kai Lowe said to Steffan Lloyd.
“I can’t believe he actually believes this, someone’s clearly played a trick.” said Ben Roe.
Just then, the boys began to notice that outside was starting to get a little bit pink. They looked back out the windows to see what was happening, until they spotted something; a small purple and pink spiral was slowly beginning to appear in the middle of the car park, growing bigger and bigger, and judging by the way Tim’s jacket was flapping slightly, it was creating quite a breeze.
The captains walked back onto the buses. ‘Alright boys,’ said Craig Yates after stepping onto the second bus from the right, “now it would seem that we will have to go on foot through that… thing, so take everything you need off the bus and we’ll get going.” The boys were all looking nervous, but they did what they were told as they picked up their bags. Normally, there would be a scramble to get off, but today, everyone was getting off slower than usual, taking glances at the swirling spiral.
When all the boys had gotten off the buses, the clouds were starting to come in, partially covering the sun. “There’s no way this is happening!” Liam Howells muttered to Hefin Murphy.
“Okay boys, quiet!” came Tim’s voice over the babble, “Now listen, when we go through there, I want you all to promise to be on your best behaviours. Just because we are going to a completely different world, that doesn’t mean you can have the right to act inappropriate. You’re representing not just Wales and Britain, but our whole world, so not too much pressure.” He looked at the boys terrified looking faces, turned on the spot and began to walk towards the portal. He stopped in front of it, and held his hand out to touch it. It disappeared as he forced it through, and felt like small electric fuses were zapping it, however he ignored it and led the boys through it.
Tim then felt his foot land on something soft, it felt like carpet, so he pressed on and soon, he found himself in a large throne room, its high ceiling held up by pillars, and along the walls were tall stained-glass windows like the ones found in church. After letting his eyes wander, Tim looked forward and noticed a throne, and sat on it was a tall white unicorn, with wings. She wore a crown over her flowing hair of pink green, light blue and purple, and a golden chest piece with a purple jewel in the centre. Next to her were two other ponies similar to her, but were varied in size. The one that was slightly shorter, was dark blue, with hair and tail that reminded Tim of the night sky as the sparkles were like that of stars. She too had a crown and chest piece, except hers was black. The other was a lavender colour with a rich dark purple mane and tail that had two colour streaks of pink and a lighter purple than her mane.
Tim stepped forward as the boys slowly walked through the portal, their mouths wide open. “Princess Celestia, I presume?” he asked.
“I am.” said Celestia as she bowed to him, “You are of course, Mr Tim Rhys-Evans.”
“MBE.” Tim added, jokingly.
“This is my sister, Princess Luna,” said Celestia, her head inclining towards the dark blue pony, who was bowing, “and this is Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student.” the purple pony had now bowed, “It’s because of her that you are here in Equestria.”
“Thank you.” said Tim as he bowed back, “But, just how exactly did you find out about us?”
“Well you see, I was studying on the theories of other dimensions, and dimensional travelling,” said Twilight Sparkle, “and during one of my practices, I began to hear something traveling through. It took a while, but I eventually managed to track it down to a certain point in the multiverse, and it so happened to be you and the boys performing a few interesting songs. I was just so enthralled by what I heard, I just had to convince the Princess to allow me to ask you to come and perform for her first ever Royal Variety Show. Although I must admit,” she said as the boys continued to walk through the open portal, “I wasn’t expecting so many of you.”
“Exactly, how many boys do you have performing for us, Mr Rhys-Evans?” asked Celestia.
“Well for this, we’ve got nearly the whole choir, so that’s about 130 boys.” said Tim.
Celestia gave Luna a rather awkward look, but shook her head and called one of the guards forward. “Would you escort Mr Rhys-Evans and his party to the hall so that he can be acquainted with the orchestra?” she asked. The guard saluted and led Tim and the boys out through the double doors and down the corridor.
The boys were still shocked over this whole thing, that they were not concentrating as much during the rehearsal with the orchestra. Some of the tenors were off key and Tim could spot out where some were not breathing properly. “Come on boys!” he eventually cried out, “We’ve got to do this right. It’s no different from any other show we’ve done.”
“Yeah, but we’ve never performed to a bunch of horses.” said Thomas Miles.
“I thought Camilla was at the jubilee concert.” said Daniel Davies. Some of the boys gave a laugh, but it died down when Tim banged his fist on the music stand, and the rehearsals continued.
At 9 o’clock, the boys were as ready as they could be. They stood in the wings waiting to go on, as they were the closing performance, after another choir called the Ponytones Quintet. As the applause rang through the gardens, and the Ponytones left the stage, Twilight Sparkle came up to the microphone, “And now mares and gentlecolts, for the closing number, we have a special treat. For the first time in Equestria, we have on this stage, a music choir from a far off land. And to introduce it is the conductor, My Tim Rhys Evans!”
Tim walked on the stage as the applause started, and he could have sworn he saw a lime coloured pony a few rows in front scream and faint. He stood there, wearing his blue velvet jacket and red bow-tie and took the mic from the stand. “Thank you.” he said, “I would like to thank your… princess for giving my boys the chance to perform, because while we have done many shows before, this is one I’m sure will be remembered. We will be performing a few selections of songs the boys have done over the years, including some new ones that have been written by the boys themselves, and to start off, we’ll be doing the English hymn, ‘Gwahoddiad’.
The ponies stamped their hooves as the boys slowly walked on into their positions. The orchestra got ready, and the music started.
The applause rang out throughout as Tim turned to face them. “Now the word ‘Gwahoddiad’ and the song mean ‘I Hear Thy Welcome Voice’, and because the Welsh version is so popular, many actually have believed it to be an actual Welsh Hymn. Our next song is another old favourite of ours.” He turned back to face the boys.
The applause was just as loud as before, as one of the boys, Hefin Murphy stood forward. “Now this song,” said Tim to the crowd, “is one of two original songs that has been written by the boys, and we’ll be performing one of them for you tonight.”
Hefin moved back into place as the crowd applauded yet again. Tim gave him a nod of approval as he explained that the next number will be a compilation song that they had performed for their own Queen. There were ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ as the orchestra played a slow melody.
The boys seemed rather surprised that Katherine Jenkins had just seemed to appear behind them and was performing as well, but they kept on singing. Tim was rather taken aback as well, but continued conducting until the end. “We have one more song for you.” he said to the crowd, “We shall be ending it tonight with our most well-known song, ‘Calon-Lan’.
The noise became deafening as the boys took their bows, thanked the orchestra and walked slowly off the stage. When they got into the hall, they whooped and cheered loudly, until they realised Princess Celestia was standing there waiting for them with Twilight Sparkle, the captains and Katherine Jenkins. “I must, that was an extraordinary performance you young men have done.” said Celestia.
“Thank you for letting us perform for you your highness.” said Tim, bowing to her. He then turned to Katherine, “I didn’t expect you to be here as well.” he said, still beaming.
“Well, when I saw the running order of your songs,” said Twilight Sparkle, blushing as she spoke, “I decided that you needed somepony to help, so I teleported to your dimension, and to Miss Jenkins here, and cordially invited her to take part.”
“It was quite a shock,” chuckled Katherine, “but it seemed rather fun.”
“It was.” said Celestia, “Well now, it is time for you all to return back to where you belong. Twilight, if you would do the honours?”
Twilight nodded and walked over to the centre of the hall. She closed her eyes tightly as her horn began to glow. Slowly, a pink and purple spiral began to appear, getting bigger and bigger. “This will take you back to where you originally started.” she said to Tim as he approached it.
“Well, goodbye.” said Tim as he waved to the Princess and disappeared. The captains followed as the boys walked back through, waving goodbye as they went as well. Before it closed, Twilight thought she heard one say, “I wonder what the cartoon’s like.”
