The Background Pony Crew Goes to the Gala

Chapter One: Golden Tickets and Human Clothes

Octavia opened the envelope, expecting notice of some concert she had been asked to play in. What she found exceeded her expectations greatly.

“Hey, Tavi!” Vinyl called, trotting down the street and seeing Octavia’s mouth wide open as she stared at a letter. “What’s up?”

A wide smile spread across Octavia’s normally frowning face. “I-I’ve been invited to play my cello-”

“Pfft, no surprise there,” Vinyl Scratch interrupted, taking off her glasses, “You always get invited to play at places.”

“I get to play at the Grand Galloping Gala!” cried Octavia, pulling a golden ticket from the folds of the envelope.

Vinyl’s eyes widened, and she smiled widely as she spotted a second ticket in the envelope. “HEY! Look what we have here!” she said, snatching the second ticket away with her magic. “it looks like they want you to bring somepony to play music along with you... somepony like... me, you think?”

Octavia snatched the ticket back with her teeth. Setting it back in the envelope, she looked Vinyl in the eye. “No. I would much rather invite my sister Fiddlestick. She is family.”

“Aww, c’mon, Tavi! Just imagine it, you and me, two best friends, playing music side by side in front of the richest ponies in Equestria!” Vinyl said, putting her glasses back on. “We’ll both be famous!”

“Fiddlestick plays a fiddle, Vinyl, which sounds much better with my cello than your- how do you say- ‘wubs,’” Octavia said, walking briskly away from her mailbox and toward her cozy Ponyville home. “Now excuse me, I must start writing a letter to Fiddlestick.”

And with that, Octavia walked inside her home and closed the door. Vinyl sighed and walked away. Ever since Octavia had moved to Ponyville, Vinyl had tried to make friends with her. Vinyl had always wanted to have somepony play alongside her during concerts, and Octavia was the only musically-inclined pony in the town. However, she was a snobbish, high class pony, one who would not dare to mingle her precious cello music with Vinyl's wubs. She also hated Vinyl's guts. That's why she wouldn't play alongside Vinyl.

But Vinyl knew that mixing their music would result in awesomeness. She had recorded Octavia playing her cello once, and remixed it along with a track of one of Vinyl's pieces. The result had been wicked cool. She'd tried getting Octavia to listen to the track, but once Vinyl had explained how she had 'remixed' Octavia's precious music, Tavi had slammed the door in her face, calling from the other side that she needed to burn the CD right away.

Vinyl did. But not in the way Tavi was talking about. Pretty soon everyone in Ponyville had a copy of the CD, and had heard the beautiful music. Except Octavia.

No, Tavi was as steadfast as they'd come. Vinyl knew she'd never get to play alongside her.

“OH. MY. GOSH,” cried a very excited Lyra Heartstrings. “Carrot Top! Look who is going to be speaking at the Grand Galloping Gala!”

Her snout buried in the latest issue of the Ponyville News, Lyra clapped her hooves together in happiness. She sat on a park bench very strangely, with Carrot Top tending plants in a garden beside the bench.

“What is it, Lyra?” she asked, curiously looking at the newspaper.

“Doctor Anthroof! He’s going to be covering special topics about Anthropology! Can you believe it?! It says here he’s the best expert on humans in Equestria! If ONLY I had a ticket to the gala...”

Carrot Top sighed to herself. Lyra had always been obsessed with humans, ever since Carrot had met her. Carrot Top assumed that her belief in humans was some kind of mental disorder due to a traumatic event in Lyra's life. Carrot Top did all that she could to help Lyra's mind heal, even if it meant playing along with her.

"So, you need a ticket...?"

"Well, yea! That's the only way to legally get in," Lyra said.

“Do you want one of mine?” Carrot Top said casually, getting back to pulling weeds.

“Wait-what?!” Lyra cried, “How do YOU have a ticket?”

Carrot Top shrugged. “My coltfriend works there. He gets me a few tickets every year. I can give you one, no biggie,” she said.

Lyra leaped into the air. “Oh, YES! Please!”

Carrot Top smiled. “Okay, then. You could come with me if you want. I’m entering some of my carrots in a produce competition up there. I also want to visit my coltfriend. He works in the gardens.” Carrot Top said, grimacing inwardly. She didn't want Lyra coming along, especially when she wanted to be alone with her coltfriend, but excluding her from activities might make her condition worse.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you!" Lyra cried, jumping off the bench to give Carrot Top a hug.

Getting the air squeezed out of her lungs did not help Carrot Top think her decision was good, but she hugged back anyway.

"I need to go and get ready," Lyra said, galloping away, "See ya later!"

Carrot Top smiled as she watched the cyan mare run away. It felt good to help others, even if it meant sacrificing some of your own time and pleasures. But soon her smile faded into a frown as she thought about something. If this 'Doctor Anthroof' was giving a speech on anthropology, did that mean that there were more human believers? That Lyra didn't make them up? That... perhaps... they were real?

"Poppycock!" thought Carrot Top, "Humans are only figments of Lyra's imagination, nothing more..."

“Hey, Doctor!” Derpy Hooves called, pounding her hoof against a strange blue box in her attic. “Come out! There’s something I want to ask you!”

The door of the box opened, and Doctor Whooves’ head popped out of the crack.

“Good morning, Derpy!” He said. “I’m frightfully busy at the moment preparing for a speech at the Gala. What did you want to ask me?”

“Well, I was just wondering if I could come to the Gala with you! I heard that there is an all-you-can-eat buffet, which means all-you-can-eat MUFFINS!” Everyone in Ponyville knew how Derpy loved muffins. Sometimes they would tip Derpy with muffins when she delivered the mail.

Whooves smiled. “Of course you can come! Perhaps Dinky could attend as well. I have enough tickets for that.”

“I’m sure she’d love to come!” Derpy said, giving a small ‘squee.’ Dinky was Derpy's adopted daughter. She loved to play dress up, especially as a princess. She would saunter around the house in a pretty little dress and tiara, holding her head high and talking in a Trottingham accent. Derpy would sometimes play with her too, pretending to be Princess Celestia. When they got tired of holding their heads high and walking like they were in a parade, Derpy would bake muffins and together they would primly eat them. 'These muffins are quite good, my dear Celestia,' Dinky would say. 'Ah, thank you, Princess Dinky. Might I add how ravishing your mane looks?' Derpy would relpy. Princess Dress-Up was Dinky's favorite game mostly because she loved princesses. If she went to the gala, she would have the chance to meet a real princess, Princess Celestia, who greeted ponies when they entered the Gala. Thinking about bringing Dinky also made Derpy think about inviting others, namely her best pals. “Maybe we could invite our other friends to come with us too, like Lyra, Octavia, Vinyl, and Carrot Top!”

The Doctor grimaced. “I don’t think I have enough tickets for that many pon-”

“I’ll go invite them!” Derpy cried, zooming downstairs.

“Oh, boy...” Whooves said, sighing and shaking his head.

Lyra sat in her Ponyville cottage, reading the gala article over and over. The Gala would begin tomorrow night, and she just couldn’t help being over excited. A knock on her door brought her back to reality.

“Who is it?” Lyra called, trotting over to the door.

“Me!” cried a familiar voice.

Lyra rolled her eyes and opened the door. “Oh, hey Derpy. Guess what? I’m going to the Grand Galloping Gala! Isn’t that the best thing EVER?”

Derpy looked confused. “Wait, you are? But, I’m going too, and I was just about to invite you to come along with me!”

“Really? Well, Carrot Top gave me one of her tickets. How in Equestria did YOU get one?” Lyra inquired, scratching her head with her hoof.

“The Doctor has some kinda job there. He said Dinky could come too, so I decided to invite all of my closest friends!” Derpy said cheerfully.

“Well come on in, Derpy!” Lyra said, motioning for the pegasus to step inside her home.

Derpy did so. Her eyes grew wide as she looked around the abode. The walls were covered in pictures of strange creatures Lyra called Humans. Sculpted models of hands were everywhere. Some were couch legs, some were arm rests, and a giant rug on the floor was woven in the shape of a hand.

“Wow... you sure have been decorating this place lately...” Derpy said, feeling as if all the hands were reaching at her, trying to grab her...

“Yup! Lovely, isn’t it? I hoof-crafted all of the furniture, and wove the rug,” Lyra bragged. “Now follow me, I need your opinion on something...”

Lyra led Derpy to a door at the other side of the room. When Lyra opened it, all Derpy could see on the other side was a stairway leading down into darkness. Lyra’s horn flashed, and rows of candles on the walls lit up with flame, which lit the way down the steps. Lyra trotted down, Derpy cautiously following her.

The stairs led to a large hall-like basement. Derpy gasped as she saw what filled it. Shelves upon shelves lined the hallway, every one of them filled with strange objects. Covered in knickknacks, weird toys, and bizarre clothing, the shelves were packed with all sorts of things.

Lyra led her deeper into the place, going past sections of stuffed human dolls staring down at Derpy, wires spewing from metal boxes that scratched Derpy’s wings, and human mannequins gazing with white, lifeless eyes, making Derpy shiver. The walls seemed to be closing inn around her, wanting to trap her down there with all of the creepy stuff forever.

“Isn't this collection of human things just MARVELOUS?” Lyra squealed. “It took years upon years of scraping, spending, and searching, but it has all paid off... I will soon be opening a museum so everypony can see the wonders of human civilization! Ach, everypony will be so thankful that I taught them about what lies beyond this world... Don’t you think, Derpy?”

Derpy blinked, tearing her gaze away from a statue of a weeping stone human with large wings sprouting from its back.  The candlelight flickered.

“Uh, yea... it’s great... now what was it you needed me for?” Derpy questioned, growing more and more uncomfortable by the second.

“I need your opinion on this outfit I’m wearing to the gala,” Lyra stated as they came upon a clothing-filled section of the hall. There was a set of doors between two of the shelving units. Lyra dashed in between them and came out a minute later, dressed in a horrid outfit.

Derpy jumped and cried out as Lyra came into view. She wore a strange set of pants, made from a form of blue fabric with studs set in it, gloves with fingers over her hooves, with the fingers stuffed so it looked like she had hands, a shirt that read “I LOVE HUMANS,” written on the front, and a set of human ears glued to a headband placed on her head.

“W-wow...” Derpy commented, giving a weak smile. “You l-look great.”

“You think so?” Lyra said, one of her real ears twitching, “Bon Bon says this outfit is ‘a crime against ponykind.’ Huh. Some best friend she is. Anyway, I’ve got some more preparing to do for tomorrow. Thanks for coming over!” And with that, Lyra trotted deeper down the hall, toward a large machine.

Derpy shivered and flew as fast as she could out of there.

She felt a small touch against her leg. Whipping her head around, she saw the weeping stone human she had seen earlier. It had moved, and was now in a pose as if it was reaching for her. Giving a scream, Derpy bolted away, going even faster than before.