My Brave Pony Starfleet Magic: Season 2 (Rewrite)

Lieutenant Sapphire, newbie of Lightning Dawn's unit and having the Scepter of Harmony and Element of Harmony at her disposal. She was very good on the battlefield but when it came to being social with others, she wasn't all that great. In fact, she was horrible. Acting like she wanted nothing to do with socializing with others. Especially today…!

The New Canterlot circus was back in town, and it was said to be one of them most exciting, most magical show in Equestria of old, and now here in United Equestria, with the ponies all genetically altered and having perfected newer arts and stunts, it was even more astonishing than ever.

Grand Ruler and Celestia had gotten tickets for Lightning and all their friends as a reward for bringing in a new swarm of captured changelings, and delivering more friendship and believing reports. Also feeling that watching the show and the way the artists performed would be a nice brush up to studying and devising battle strategies.

All of them were invited to stay in the palace and the next day they would head to the circus.

Early the next morning before, everyone would be heading to the circus soon, and Sapphire was busy reading a book on magical items to see if there was anymore information on her scepter. "Hey Sapphire." Rainbow said. Sapphire looked up and saw he rainbow maned pegasus. "Hi Rainbow."

"You going to the circus with us?"

"No thank you."

"What?!" Rainbow exclaimed. "Why not. It's gonna be great."

"Eh... I'd rather read all day. See ya." Sapphire walked away, leaving Rainbow flabbergasted at her response. Anyway, Lightning, and friends all went to the circus and had a wonderful time. Spike got a little bloated from eating too much junk food, but they all came back to the palace remarking about their favorite acts. Pinkie Pie just loved it all “The acrobats, the clowns, the pony projectile, the high wire-walker! Eee-Hee-Hee! I love the circus!”

“No doubts someone had a good time.” said Starla. Everyone saw Sapphire still walking with a book in his hands. "Hey Sapphire, did you like the circus?" Pinkie asked.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, I didn't go." Sapphire said as she walked away.

"She didn't go?!" Lightning exclaimed. "Why not?"

"Well if you guys have noticed, she's not all that thrilled with socializing, which is ironic." Artie said. It was true. She made friends with Sienna, Mako and Pyrite, the changeling but when it came to making friends with ponies, she wanted nothing to do with it. "Any idea why she's acting like this?" Buddy asked.

"Well, she was in a lab for most of her life. So she must not have have alot of interaction with others, making her anti-social." Rainbow said.

This made everyone feel bad and sorry for Sapphire. They all had to remember that they were his friends and his teachers, in a way.They had to find some way to make her social and cheer her up.

“Oh, poor Sapphire.” said Rarity “I hate to think of him so upset.”

“That makes two of us.” said Lightning “We’re all Sapphire's friends and we have to share our lives with him.”

Rhymey nodded,

“I hear your words, and I agree--
Sapphire is our responsibility.”

“Darn Tootin’.” said Applejack “Must be somethin’ we can do that can cheer her up.”

Pinkie Pie began leaping with joy and glee “I know the perfect way! It’s perfect! It’s so perfect!”

“Pinkie…! Calm down, and tell us.” said Buddy Rose.

“A circus!” cried Pinkie “We could all put on a circus just for Sapphire. We could invite ponies from New Ponyville. She's bound to amke a friend that way!”

A lot of the others liked the idea right off the bat, but Lightning weren’t exactly sure. “Throwing a circus... here in the palace? hat would the Queen and Grand Ruler say?”

“They’d think it was a marvelous idea.” said a voice behind her. It was Celestia and her husband was there by her side. Both of them were smiling proudly. “I agree.” said Grand Ruler. “After all, this is a matter of helping a friend and expressing kindness, is it not?”

“Yes sir!” everyone answered.

The others all agreed. “So be it then.” remarked Grand Ruler. With his and Celestia’s permission, a circus would take place in the main throne room which was more than big enough, and everyone would have their own special jobs to do and acts perform in the circus.

Lightning was in charge of organization and setup, and would act as the ring masters.

“Ooh-Ooh-Ooh…! I call being the pony projectile!” Rainbow hollered

“I’ll be a fantastic clown.” cried Pinkie, and she pulled out a cream pie from out of nowhere and splattered it in her face then made funny faces.

Buddy Rose, Artie and Rhymey all decided to be acrobats. Applejack would be a knife-thrower. Starla would be a trapeze artist. Fluttershy would be an animal tamer. Rarity would make all the costumes and outfits for everyone, and the Spanish twins offered to do the lighting and special effects for some scenes. “This is going to be an amazing circus.” everyone thought, but first came the part of setting everything up without Sapphire knowing, which was going to be really easy as she read herself to sleep and fell asleep in the library.

The next day, after a good night’s rest, everyone got to work and didn’t wake Sapphire up so she wouldn’t see what was happening as they all began to set up for the show.

The throne room was already wide enough, and there was plenty of space to set many things up. While the off duty guards helped rig things up, some of the performers practiced their acts--outside, of course. Though some of them were starting to have a few difficulties in getting things right.

Fluttershy was performing and act with Spike, and getting him to try and play the horns, but Spike kept hitting the wrong notes. “Oh, Spike, I think your tone-deaf.” she was sorry to say. “Hey, I told you I can’t play the horns.” Spike told her “Besides, there are plenty of other things I can do.” That’s when a rouge pie hit him in the face. Pinkie came along dressed her cute clown outfit. “Oops, sorry!” she giggled “I guess I didn’t see where I was throwing.”

Spike did look funny with all that pie and cream on his face, but he didn’t feel amused at all. He licked some of the cream “Mm, not bad though.” He said and then he went off to get cleaned up.

Twilight and Lightning were starting to have doubts that all this would work. So far all the acts didn’t seem to be going right, but they kept things organized as best they could. Even with the few minor infractions everyone worked hard.

Starla was able to get her timing right on the trapeze, and Applejack’s knife throwing was going really well.

Rainbow Dashes’ act was easily the most successful. Being a pony projectile, she launched herself up, up and up and landed perfectly on the safety net without the use of her wings. “Yeah!” she cried for joy “I’m so going to hit the big top.”

“Well just be sure you take extra care of that crash outfit.” Rarity said. Applejack felt confused “If you made that suit for extreme stunts, then why be careful?”

“Oh, really, Applejack!” replied Rarity “Do you know how hard it is for one to work with such fabrics?”

“Never mind that…” Lightning said “Let’s get back to work or we’ll never be ready by tomorrow.”

So everyone kept practicing, and eventually, they were ready to perform…

…Or so they thought.

The next evening, the room was all set up and extra seats were laid out.

Shining Armor and Cadance carefully carried Sapphire to the throne room and her special seat. “Everyone ready…?” Shining Armor asked. Lightning peeked from behind the curtain and winked at Shining Armor. Their majesties took their seats and Snowflake nudged her rider, waking her up. "Yawn... huh? What the-?" She turned to see the others just smiled cheekily. “What are you all smiling about?”

The sound of a drumroll was heard followed by spotlights going around the room and Rarity’s voice echoed as she announced “Ladies and gentlemen! New Canterlot Palace is proud to present for one night, and one night only, the fabulous, magical, indoor circus!”

Magical illusions of fireworks sparked as the performers all marched out. Sapphire could hardly believe her eyes. “Is this really happening?” she asked with excitement. The royal ones all nodded, and Rarity then announced “And here are your ring master; Lightning Dawn!”

Lightning appeared in a puff of smoke, wearing ring master outfits, complete with top-hats jackets and everything. Lightning welcomed everyone and explained that the show was dedicated to their friend, Sapphire. Now she felt really touched, and didn’t know what to say.

“Without further ado-- let the show commence and our first act will be… the Amazing Applejack!” said Lightning.

Applejack came out on stage, the audience cheered and applauded. Applejack held up eight real, and every sharp knives in her hands. “Watch carefully now and be amazed.” she said as she faced a target, which was a cut-out picture of a changeling with several small targets drawn on it. One-by-one she threw the knives right into the bullseye of each target, even while stand backwards, covering her eyes, or standing on her head. The last knife she balanced it on her finger and spun it fast, and finally she threw it and it hit the bullseye of her last target.

Everyone applauded and she took her bow. “That’s what I get for years of rope throwin’.”

Next Lightning announced “Introducing, Pinkie Pie, the clown of happiness.” and indeed she was. Pinkie sang a silly clown song as she did her act-- throwing pies, pretending to trip all over herself, dumping a bag of flour on her head…

Sapphire never laughed so hard in his life, and neither did the others. When it came to laughter and happiness, Pinkie was just too much, and they couldn’t give her a better round of applause.

The show seemed to be going okay, until when Lightning came out to introduce the next act. “And now, everyone, we must caution you to remain in your seats in perfect silence.” said Lightning. “Remembering at all times that margin between safety and danger is very narrow indeed. Here we have powerful cannon, capable of launching any object at least ten-thousand feet up high, and that object in question to be fired will be none other one of the bravest ponies around. Rainbow Dash the pony projectile!”

The lights shone on Rainbow as she stood proudly holding her hands together and shaking them triumphantly. She had her wings tied up as so she wouldn’t be able to get them undone in any hurry to make her act more daring. She hopped into the cannon, and waited until the giant sunroof in the ceiling above was opened wide. The drumroll sounded, the fuse was lit. Everyone watched with nerves of excitement. Celestia held Grand Ruler’s hand tightly, but just as the fuse was centimeters away from the end… it went out. “Hey!” Rainbow called from in the cannon “What’s going on?”

Lightning checked the fuse “Something’s wrong” she whispered “I can’t get it going.” Snowflake went over and opened her mouth, suggesting her plasma blast. "No Snowflake." Lightning said.

The audience was starting to feel a bit dismayed. Lightning decided to introduce another act to cover things up. Lightning peeked behind the curtains, “Fluttershy, where are you?” he called. Spike and Fluttershy’s animals pointed under a tablecloth. As expected, Fluttershy was hiding underneath, feeling much too shy to go out there in front of all those ponies, even if it was just five. “Ah, I should’ve seen that coming.” Lightning groaned. Luckily, Starla agreed to go on while the others tried to help coax Fluttershy into coming out

Lightning came back out and introduced Starla’s act. “Sorry, we’ve had a few minor difficulties.” he said “To keep things going, our next act is the sensational Starla Shine, who will perform on the flying trapeze, with a magic spell cast on her, so she can’t use her wings or any magic, and she has no net below her either. If she falls, it will mean certain injury!”

Starla stood tall and proud on her trapeze high above the cheering crowd, and then she performed her act relying on simple Starfleet training to maintain her balance and posture, as well as do her tricks and stunts. The crowd was amazed. Grand Ruler was especially proud to see Starla putting her training to excellent use. By the end of her routine, the three acrobats, Buddy Rose, Rhymey, and Arite went on next. They were pretty good, but the problem was Rainbow’s cannon still wouldn’t work. Dyno inspected the fuse as well as he could but was still having problems making it work. “Por el amor de Dios! Why won’t this work? Come on chica!” he grumbled.

Fluttershy was still too shy to come out from under the tablecloth. “Por Favor, Fluttershy. You’ve got to come out from there and do your act.” said Myte.

“I can’t!” she cried “What if I make a mistake? What if everyone laughs at me? I don’t think I could take that.”

From the sudden sound of the applause outside, the acrobats had finished their act. “Oh, no!” groaned Lightning. “We’ve got to do something-- but what?”

The longer they stalled, the more the audience was growing a little impatient.

“What’s going back there?” asked Sapphire. None of the others knew, but whatever was going on had to be serious. Suddenly, Sapphire had an idea, and grabbed her scepter

Twilight and Lightning, along with all the others were still baffled and in a panic about what to do. “This is a complete disaster!” cried Twilight.

“There’s got to be something we can put on.” said Lightning. He gazed at each of the others but nobody had any ideas what else to do, but suddenly they heard the sound of music playing and the audience cheering. “What’s going on?” asked Twilight.

Applejack peeked through the curtain. “Come here.” she motioned to the others. Everyone peeked through and saw Sapphire, actually there on the stage. She was waving her scepter which glowed brightly and made large animal (specifically a Jaguin) spirits appear and fly around the room. Each of the Jaguin's blasted a beam of light into the sky which changed into sparkles. Everyone was astounded at that for sure. The spirits roared and returned to the jewel of the scepter. When she finished, and all the performers, except Fluttershy and Rainbow emerged from the curtain cheering as well.

“That was incredible!” cried Pinkie.

“You got some smooth talents.” added Artie.

“Aw, gee, it was really nothing.” said Goldwin “I just felt something was wrong, so I decided why not help out. Just my way of saying thanks to you all. You know, for putting this big show for me...”

Everyone smiled and Twilight and Lightning gave Goldwin another announcement to the crowd. “Let’s give another big round of applause for our surprise guest performer.” said Lightning “…Goldwin, the dancing juggler!” added Twilight

The crowd cheered again and Goldwin took a bow, but the excitement was interrupted when suddenly… BOOM!! Rainbow’s suddenly cannon fired and launched her way up high through her sunroof opening. Everyone watched in horror as she soared up, up, up. “HELP!!” she screamed. “It’s out of alignment! She’ll miss the net!” cried Dyno. He was right too, and poor Rainbow was helpless to get her wings untied from those strong knots. “I’m gonna crash! I’M GONNA CRASH!!” she screamed as she fell like a brick.

“I’m coming Rainbow!” shouted Lightning, but as he prepared to fly up and catch her. Uglydog appeared on a trapezes?

"Uglydog to the rescue." he declared.

"UGLYDOG?!" Everyone exclaimed.

"Ready Lucky Bat?" By his side was a red bat with wings.

"Uh. Ready?"

"Alright!" Lucky Bat grabbed Uglydog and he started swinging on the trapezes. When he gained enough speed. "Lucky Bat away!" Lucky Bat leaped off his back and landed on Rainbow. Using his wings, he untied Rainbow's wings and she was able to fly again. Together they safely landed back on the ground.

This made the crowd cheer the loudest it had all through the show. Lucky Bat smiled sheepishly as Uglydog patted him on the back. "Nice."

Despite all the slight mishaps and delays the circus was a success, but sadly it was all over now, but Sapphire couldn’t thank everyone enough. She made one new friend who like her scepter tricks. “We were happy to do it for you. You’re our friend, and that’s what friends do-- they help one another, especially when they’re feeling down.” added Lightning.

Celestia and Grand Ruler were very proud of everyone for showing such acts of extreme friendship and kindness, as well as learning a good lesson as well…

Sometimes, it takes a little push to help a friend overcome a longstanding obstacle in their life.

It really had been a night for everyone to remember, and Sapphire didn’t know if she would ever stop smiling. Suddenly, they all broke into a song.