A Trip to Luna's Moon, or the Equestrian Dream Factory

The large red door to the Bit siblings office swung open.

Golden Bits glanced up from the page he had been perusing to get a look at the pony who was boldly waltzing into the room with a wide grin across their face. “Flicker Light?” Golden Bits said, his muzzle scrunching up slightly. “What do you want now?”

Flicker happily skipped over to the desk and placed a stack of papers down in front of the two bank manager ponies. “I’d like to request some money for my film project.”

Many Bits’ face dropped at the request. “Flicker, we already told you last week that we simply can’t fund your project. It's too expensive and too risky. You don’t even have a theatre.”

Flicker gave a quick shake of his head. “Wrong, you said come back when I have more than just a dream. Well now I do,” He reached into his saddlebag and pulled out a monochrome photograph of the theatre Swindle Gyp had been helping him set up in. “We have a theatre space, and enough room to use as a studio. Now I just need funding for the film itself.”

Golden Bits looked over the photo curiously. “Isn’t that the old, abandoned, haunted theatre on the outskirts of the city?”

Flicker gave off a slightly embarrassed look. “Well… technically… But it’s not abandoned anymore. We’ve set up shop there and have spent the last few days fixing it up. And it’s almost ready. Plus, ghosts aren’t real, so it's probably not haunted.”

The Bits siblings gave each other a surprised, but interested look. Many Bits tilted his head back to face Flicker. “Even still. I’m not sure we can fund something like this. Twenty thousand bits is a lot, especially for something that we have no way of knowing how successful it will or will not be.”

“It will be successful, I promise,” Flicker assured them as he began to pace back and forth. “And it won't be twenty thousand anymore. Now that I have a theatre and studio space, I could probably make do with only ten thousand.”

The Bits siblings exchanged another glance. It was clear that the idea was beginning to hold a little more water for them.

“And how can you be so sure that this film thing really will be as profitable as you claim?” Golden Bits said, his voice still holding clear signs of his reservations. “Ten thousand is still a lot of bits. I’m not sure if we can…”

“Then how about we make a deal,” Flicker interjected before Golden could turn him down completely. “We're going to be holding a grand opening of the FlickerLight Theatre next week. You give me five thousand bits for that now and I’ll pay you back triple after the premier. If all that turns out well, we can talk about getting funding for my bigger projects down the line afterwards.”

Both of the ponies stared at him, dumbfounded. Many Bits raised one of his eyebrows suspiciously. “You’re offering to pay us fifteen thousand bits in exchange for five? Are you sure?”

Flicker gave a self assured nod. “It will give me a chance to get off the ground and have some publicity as well as confirm for both of you once and for all if film has any profit behind it. Furthermore, you make a lot of bits out of the deal in the process…” Flicker held out his hoof and gave his best winning smile. “So? What do you say?”

Golden Bits eyes darted back and forth from Flickers hoof to his brother. “Can you give us just a second,” He finally said, before pulling his brother away from the table.

The two bank managers huddled close together, whispering in hushed tones back and forth. Occasionally, they would glance back at Flicker Light suspiciously before going back to their whispering. After a solid minute of debate, the two ponies spun around to face Flicker with a smile so comically wide Flicker was surprised it didn’t jump right off their faces.

“It sounds like you have yourself a deal!” Many Bits declared, trotting over and giving Flicker’s hoof a strong shake. “We will give you five thousand bits and attend your premier, and in exchange you will pay us back triple of what we gave you. No more. No less.”

Flicker felt his own lips twisting to match their wide smile. “I promise, you won't regret this. Thank you!”

Golden Bits trotted over to his desk and pulled out a checkbook. He flipped through it and pulled out a quill to begin writing down digits. Golden’s eyes glared at Flicker for a moment before jotting down a few numbers. “I hope you are right Flicker,” He slid a sheet of paper across the desk and offered Flicker a quill. “Now would you please sign here, here and here?”

Flicker nodded and took the quill in his magic before writing down his signatures. When he looked up, his eyes were met with Golden Bits intense glaze.

“I am warning you now though, Flicker Light. If this doesn’t work out and we don’t get our bits, you’re as good as dead…” his hard expression softened and his lips twisted back into his wide and overly fake smile. His hoof held out the check and passed it over to Flicker Light who took it warily. “I look forward to the Premier. We will see you soon.”

"Guess who got the money!” Flicker declared, bounding through the front doors of his new theatre, the large check held high above his head in his glowing white magic.

The theatre was already looking cleaner. A few of the windows were still covered in grim and one of the corners of the main room was still littered with fallen debris and soda bottles, but the rest of the theatre had been shaping up nicely. A few more days of cleaning and renovating, and the place would be just like Flicker had always dreamed it would be.

Swindle Gyp had been standing on the upper balcony, overlooking the front room. He gave Flicker a cheerful smile and began trotting down the curved steps towards him. “That's wondrous news! Told you we could get something going here! And you had your doubts about this place,” Swindle gave him a smug smile.

Swindle looked exhausted. Dark bags had formed under his eyes and his swirly mane was a bit of a tangled mess. Not that Flicker could blame him for that, he probably looked just as tired. They had spent the last five days cleaning and renovating the abandoned structure, stopping only for lunch and a few hours of sleep each night. It had been hard work, but it was finally paying off.

“I see you took my advice with only asking for five at first,” Swindle chirped, reading over the numbers that had been scrawled across the check. “Told you it was the only way they’d invest. How much do we need to pay them once this premier is over?”

Flicker scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “Um… Fifteen thousand bits…”

Swindles Gyps head shot straight up. “Please tell me you’re joking…”

“Um… no…”

There was a pregnant pause as the news settled over Swindle. Finally he slapped his hoof against his face. “That’s it! From now on, I’ll handle all the business portions of our little company. You stick to the whole art side of it.”

Flicker felt his smile waver somewhat. “We can still pay that off though, right? We just need to have a successful premier and…”

Swindle gave him a flat glare. “Fifteen thousand in one night?! I mean, maybe if we sell popcorn for double the price…” He tapped his chin for a second. “Actually, that just might work,” He shook his head to move on from the idea. “I’ll need to get some more help spreading the news of the film. We’re going to need a full house.”

“You did say that you had lots of connections, didn’t you?” Flicker said warily, pulling out one of his film reels from his saddlebag and approaching the far door that led into the auditorium.

“Less reputable ones, yes…” Swindle grumbled, slowly following after Flicker. “But one week to pack a theatre full of ponies and make fifteen thousand bits? That… I don’t even know what that is, but it’s not going to be easy!” he paused for a second, deep in thought. “Actually… I think I might know the perfect two ponies for the job…”

Flicker cast him a backwards glance as he pushed open the double doors and moved into the theatres auditorium. “Really? Who?”

Swindle gave him another smug look and moved to hold the door open for him. “Just some… uh… ‘business’ ponies that I know. They can convince anypony into buying anything. Probably could round up enough ponies to fill up all the seats here in only one day alone.”

“Then you had better get them on it,” Flicker said, feeling a little relieved at the idea of having more ponies helping him out. “I’m going to get the projector set up. I want to be able to do a test screening first thing tomorrow.”

Swindle gave a quick salute and a charismatic grin. “You can count on me… and by extension, them. Consider the grand opening of the FlickerLight Theatre a success! Let us handle everything!” he paused for a second. “Will you be sleeping the night at my place again?”

Flicker nodded grimly. “Sorry. Just until I can find a place of my own. I really appreciate you letting me stay with you.”

Swindle gave a quick wave of my hoof. “Think nothing of it. As a business partner, you’re practically family.”

Flicker raised an eyebrow at that? “Not as a friend?”

Swindle chuckled, but the chuckle held little mirth. “Business partners, friends. They’re all the same.”

“Not sure if I fully agree with your logic, but sure,” Flicker mumbled softly, turning back to trot into the Auditorium. “I’ll probably be around in a few hours.”

Swindle gave a final nod before darting off to go find those associates of his. Hopefully they're as skilled as Swindle seemed to think they are.

Walking through the empty auditorium, Flicker Light made his way to the rickety ladder that led up to the lighting box that hung above the back few seats. The lander's rungs made low, creaking noises as he slowly ascended, reminding him that the ladder was the next part of the theatre he was going to need to replace. With his luck, it would end up collapsing on him.

Pulling himself into the lighting box, Flicker placed the film reel onto his magical lantern projector and began the process of threading the film through the machine.

Flicker pulled himself up onto the top of the roof.

When Swindle had first taken him to his place, Flicker had assumed the smooth talking yellow pony had simply lived in a small apartment like he had. He had been kind of right, he supposed.

Swindle lived in a broken down trailer that had somehow found itself parked on the roof of an abandoned apartment complex. The only logical way to get to the place was by climbing the side of the building via the fire escape that lay hidden in a dingy looking back alley.

Despite the oddity of the location, his setup wasn’t really all that bad. The trailer had proven to be more than large enough to fit his purposes, though was perhaps a little small to house two ponies at once. The rooftop around the trailer had been decorated with rows of multicoloured Hearth’s Warming Eve lights, with the strings of light having been stretched from the roof of the trailer to a large, sun umbrella and a rusting, old barbecue. He even had the single best view of the city, with two chairs perched on the edge of the roof that overlooked the vast streets of Coltifornia. It was defiantly a better view than Flickers apparent had had.

“How’d it go with your associates?” Flicker asked, throwing himself down into the chair next to Swindle. “Everything work out?”

Swindle passed him a bottle of Sweet Apple Cider and gave him one of his famous grins. “Like a charm! The premier will be a packed fuller than the Los Pegasus casinos.”

Flicker popped the cap off of his bottle of cider and took a small swig, tasting the sweet beverage as it trickled down his throat. “I set up the projector, so it should be ready for the testing tomorrow. I’m going to head back to the theatre extra early just to do some last second touches.”

Swindle gave him an amused look. “You do know you can just sleep in, right? I mean, there is literally no reason you need to push yourself this much. We’ve made great progress already and we still have a full week to set everything up.”

Flicker looked down at the street below in contemplation. “I just want to make sure that everything goes perfectly. We can’t afford to mess up. My whole life has been building up to these next few days, and honestly, the rest of my life is kind of riding on it too.”

Lowering his bottle, Swindle let out a sigh and returned his gaze to the city far below. “What are you going to do after the premier? Assuming it’s a success, that is.”

Flicker thought about that for a second, though the answer had popped into his head almost immediately. “I’m going to make my movie. A Trip To Luna’s Moon,” He let his gaze wander up to the night sky, where once more, the Mare in the Moon seemed to be looking down on them. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted…”

Swindle was silent for a few seconds, rolling that around in his head. “Why a trip up to the moon? Nothing up there but rocks, dust and more rocks.”

Flicker gave him a smug grin. “We don’t know that. There could be anything up there. That’s what’s so great about film. You can make any reality you want come to life,” His face faltered for a second. “My father first came up with the idea. He wanted to show a story where Celestia and Luna could have the chance to reconnect, to overcome the bitterness and hatred between them and show that tolerance is alway the solution. I think it’s a beautiful message.”

“All those protesters sure seem to think so,” Swindle chuckled, his gaze lingering on a street far below that was currently being flooded with ponies and zebras protesting about the shocking lack of zebra rights. “You hear that they just announced Zebras are getting the right to vote at the election?”

Flicker shook his head. “Haven’t paid much attention to the radio. Been too focused on getting the theatre up and running I guess. But it’s good to hear. Zebra’s don't deserve a lot of the hate they get,” He let himself smile a little. "I'm honestly surprised they are getting the opportunity this year, especially with only a few months left until the election."

Swindle nodded and took another sip before looking back up and over to Flicker Light. “You know, the Lumière brothers seemed fairly successful at their craft from what I could remember. Why didn’t your father ever make this movie of his if he was so passionate about it?”

“Because he let himself believe what everypony told him,” Flicker sighed. “That film simply won't sell. That all it’s good for is being an overpriced side attraction at some traveling circus.”

There was another long pause as the two of them simply stared out into the dark streets below. After a few seconds, Swindle let out a soft chuckle and raised his bottle of cider in Flickers direction. “Well… To the FlickerLight Theatre, the pursuit of happiness and the bright future ahead of us.”

Grinning, Flicker raised his own bottle and clinked it against Swindles. “To My father… to the future of cinema as we know it.”

Flicker Light unlocked the glass doors to his theatre and pushed them open. The sun hadn’t yet peeked over the tops of the city's skyline, leaving the barren streets of Coltifornia cast in a pale blue light.

The door swung open with a loud creak, making Flicker add 'oiling the hinges' to the mental list of things he needed to do before the grand opening.

He quickly locked the door behind him and trotted across the room to the second set of doors that led into the auditorium. The second his hoof touched the door handle however, he knew that something was wrong. The whole room was cold, as if a gust of wind he couldn’t feel was whipping through the structure. Through the closed doors to the auditorium, Flicker could hear a fast clicking and whirring noise that he recognized all too well.

He flung the doors open in a rush and took in the dark room beyond. His film projector had turned on, and was currently displaying one of his father's first films. A short depicting a train speeding towards the camera.

But that was impossible! Flicker had made sure that everything had been properly set up the night before, he was positive that he would never have left the projector simply running. And even still, if he had somehow forgotten to turn it off, the film would have long since finished.

Somepony had been in here… chances are they hadn’t even left.

Flicker spun around to look up at the lighting box that rested far above his head. For a fraction of a second, Flicker saw something large dart past the small window looking out from the box.

“Hey! Who’s up there!” Flicker shouted, rushing towards the rickety ladder leading up to the Lighting box. He heard a muffled sound of something scraping against the floor above him, then silence.

Ignoring the creaking ladder rungs, Flicker hauled himself into the Lighting box and looked around. Nothing. It was empty save for a stack of film reels and the magical lamp projector that was still playing the film.

Flicker Light nervously took another step into the lighting box, jumping slightly as the floorboards under his hooves creaked. “H-hello? Is anypony up here?” his voice seemed to echo around the small booth, making the space suddenly feel very claustrophobic.

He quickly trotted over to the projector and clicked it off, watching as the magical light emitting from it went dead. Flicker took a long deep breath. It had probably just been some weird accident. A projector couldn’t turn itself on and those noises had probably just been rats. He had seen a few scampering around over the last few days. He would need to make sure to get rid of them before the premier.

“I’m getting myself worked up over nothing,” Flicker grumbled to himself, sitting against the wall of the booth and trying to slow his rapid heartbeat. “It’s not like ghosts are real. I would have seen one by now if there were any here, right?”

For some reason that didn’t make him feel any better.

Thunk.

Something thudded from somewhere beside him. Flicker bolted back to his hooves, his pupils constricting into pinpricks as a sudden wave of fear once more washed over him. That hadn’t sounded like rats.

Thunk.

Flicker took a step back, his breath heavy. He perked up his ears as he tried to pinpoint where the sound was coming from, but it never seemed to come from the same spot twice.

Thunk.

No wait… it was in the walls! There was something in the walls of the theatre!

Yelping, Flicker scampered backwards, expecting the worst. The noise was getting quieter, but the sounds seemed to be coming from closer and closer. He pressed himself up against the window, his eyes transfixed on the wall as if expecting a ghostly figure to pop out and grab him at any moment.

Thunk.

The sound stopped behind the wall right in front of him. He felt his blood run cold. He spotted a small crack in the wall, a hole that led into whatever blackness was behind the wall. Something was shifting behind it. Squirming and looking out at him with dark, beady eyes.

Then it began to crawl through. First were the claws. Scratching and clicking across the wooden surface. Then the muzzle, a long twisted thing with rotting fangs.

Flicker felt himself sigh as the rat pulled itself fully from the wall and hopped to the floor before scampering away into the darkness. Gross and a nuisance? Yes. But he could deal with rats.

Chuckling at his own foalishness, Flicker turned back to the projector and began making sure it was all in working order for the big day. There was no such thing as ghosts, and he really needed to stop working himself up like that.

There was still a lot of work to be done before the premier, but if everything went well, his dream might finally become a reality.