Romance and the Fate of Equestria

Chapter One Hundred and Fifty

"All right, cut and we're good!" Angel O'Brien called out.

Soarin' of the Wonderbolts relaxed and helped Blossomforth back to her hooves. Blossomforth was nearly unrecognizable, her coat dyed a white-green and her hair soft, flowing, and pale pink, and at the end of the scene, Soarin' had left her struck down and prone on the floor. Spitfire stood by, guarding a cradle which allegedly contained the infant Snowdrop, though there was no need for anything to actually be within. She too relaxed as the cut was called.

"Well, that was a distasteful scene," Spitfire said. "Were mares really so submissive back in those days?"

"It's a pegasus thing," Blossomforth confirmed. "Way back in the days of the three tribes, pegasi were really patriarchal, and that was pretty hard to excise from our culture. All you can do is make things a little bit better one generation at a time, and, well, we have. I think Snowdrop herself was a big factor in raising pegasus mares up to receiving the respect they deserved."

Soarin' shook his head and frowned deeply. "I can't even imagine a society where stallions hold power over mares. I mean, it's a truth universally acknowledged that mares are overall smarter and faster and have better leadership skills…"

"Wellll, maybe that being a universally acknowledged truth is just as much of a problem as the other way," Blossomforth said delicately. "I think the way to get a society with no problems is when you admit that mares and stallions have the exact same potential."

Spitfire peered at Blossomforth suspiciously. "What are you, kid, some kind of radical?"

Blossomforth shrugged. "Some kind. You don't think men are a little bit marginalized in this country?"

Spitfire turned to Soarin', and he shrugged as well. "I've never known a guy who felt that way."

"Don't go inventing problems where they don't exist, Blossomforth," Spitfire said, the statement carrying the weight of a direct order. "Equestria has walked further than any nation in history down the path that leads to perfect utopia. Your kind of politics just rocks the boat and doesn't help anypony."

O'Brien clapped her hooves together to catch the crew's attention. "All right then," she said. "That's our final scene in the childhood home set. So… that's good. Way to rehearse us into being way, way ahead of schedule, guys! Let's see… I think there's still enough time left today to shoot the footage of the… ah… 'Princess Luna writing a letter' scene, yes." She checked her clipboard. "Woof, we are running out scenes that don't need me in front of the camera."

On a nearby cloud, six friends watched the filming of the scene from above.

"That is not my idea of acting," Rainbow Dash said grimly. "Having to stop every 30 seconds so the crew guys can check the camera and the lighting? That would drive me crazy. It drove me crazy just watchin'! Put me up on stage any day."

"It's not quite as much of a rush as when we did the play," Pinkie agreed pretentiously. "But when you're acting on film, you're creating something that lasts forever."

"Yeah, there's that," said Rainbow, almost licking her lips at the notion.

A set resembling an ancient castle bedroom, appearing to be built from stones and standing out against the city's cloud-based construction, was set into an alcove in a cloud high above. The pegasus crew quickly began setting up the cameras and lights, and the actress in full Princess Luna makeup was ascending a wooden staircase to reach the set.

Angel O'Brien approached her, flying alongside as she walked. "Hey, Imelda. Looks like your makeup got ready early."

"Yeh," Imelda confirmed, in a shrill, nasal accent. "Had koind of a late staht. Nawt really in characta yet."

"Take your time," O'Brien said, nodding. "The set's not quite ready, just be sure your makeup is retouched by the time we're ready to go."

"Of coase."

O'Brien flew away to begin overseeing the set. Her curiosity piqued, Twilight levitated herself to the staircase and began walking alongside Imelda.

"Hey," she said. "Imelda, right?"

"Yeh. Imelda Lahgo."

"Twilight Sparkle," Twilight replied. "Heh, it's a funny thing, Miss Largo, I cast a cloud-walking spell on you every day and we've never really spoken. That's quite the accent you've got there. Where are you from?"

"Meh, somewheh between Vanhoova and… hell itself," Imelda said dismissively.

Twilight chuckled. "Not a fan of Vanhoover?"

"Nah, it ain't fa me." Imelda spoke next in her pitch-perfect impression of Luna: "The glorious kingdom of Applewood is the right land for I and my dreams, methinks." She had slipped back into her natural voice by the end of the sentence, and muttered, "Dang it."

"That's a very good Princess Luna impression," Twilight encouraged. "Even if you lost it for a second there."

"Always takes me a moment," Imelda said sheepishly. "But, y'know, it's all in the acting."

"Oh, I'm sure."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

"What are we looking at here?" Rainbow whispered.

"Princess Luna is writing a letter to Snowdrop," Twilight whispered back. "They're just trying to get as much possible usable footage out of the scene as they can; the actual content of the letter will be added as a voice-over later."

Rainbow stared at the scene; the cameras and lights were trained on Imelda as she pretended to write the letter, her expression occasionally shifting to another emotion.

"Pretty freakin' boring," Rainbow commented. "This moviemaking thing is more tedious than I thought."

"It's all about the final product," said Twilight.

"…How's Snowdrop gonna receive the letter?" Rainbow said suspiciously.

"I would assume somepony reads her mail to her," said Twilight, rolling her eyes.

Suddenly, a poisonous-green lightning bolt cut through the set, shredding a few pieces of equipment and cutting a smoldering line in the set's stone floor, aimed straight for Imelda.

In the split second it took the bolt to appear, Twilight leapt to action with barely a conscious thought, diving toward the set and unleashing a bolt of her own to deflect it, her magenta bolt diverting the hostile green one just as it splintered the desk; the green bolt bounced harmlessly from cloud to cloud for a bit before dissipating.

Spitfire and Soarin' quickly appeared on the scene. "Where did that come from?" Spitfire said sharply.

"There," Twilight said darkly, levitating herself to the cloud that had been the source of the bold. The two Wonderbolts flew after her. "Yeah," she said, "it definitely came from this cloud. I can feel the electricity lingering."

"That was no ordinary lightning bolt," Spitfire stated rather than asked.

"No," Twilight agreed. "Somepony triggered it, and not by accident. Maybe even magically."

"Well, whoever did it is gone now," said Soarin', searching the cloud.

"Grid search, Soarin'," Spitfire ordered. "Let's go." The two of them darted off in different directions.

Twilight started lowering herself down to the wrecked set. "I think we're all very fortunate you were here, Miss Twilight," Angel O'Brien called up to her. "What was that?"

"It sure seemed like it was an attempt on Imelda's life," said Twilight, landing on the stone and turning to the actress for confirmation.

"I… I…" Imelda stammered out. "I gotta go howm." She galloped off down the stairs.

"Imelda, w-wait…?" Twilight called, loudly at first but quickly trailing away.

"Let her go," said O'Brien. "We can't shoot the scene now, and she's freaked out. Wherever she's going, she'll probably feel better there." She bit her lip, overcome by doubt. "Just so long as she comes back…"

Twilight shook her head as her friends rejoined her. "I don't get it. This was a genuine assassination attempt! Who would do that to some actress who's never been in a film before?"

"She's not just an unknown actress," a voice said darkly.

Gilda descended upon them, comfortably curled up on a tiny cloud, her pet chicken perched on top of her helmet. "She had a life before she got cast, you know," she finished.

"Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Gilda?" said Rainbow Dash.

"Imelda's an acquaintance of mine," said Gilda. "And she's royalty just as much as the character she's playing."

"…What?" Rainbow muttered.

"Wait…" Twilight gasped. "Imelda Largo. From Vanhoover. Wasn't Largo the name of the crime boss you worked for there?"

Gilda nodded.

"Are you saying the actress playing Princess Luna is a mafia princess?" Twilight said in astonishment.

"Yup," said Gilda. "This was supposed to be her escape, a great big 'F-U' to her dad. But somepony must have found out, some rival mob or something, and decided to take her out. I've never seen her so freaked. The danger doesn't really feel real until you're right in the middle of it."

"What do you mean?" said Twilight.

"Y'know. Your typical rebellious princess who wanted to get out into the world, never paying any mind to the warnings that leaving the household is liable to get her shot. And now it's happened. From the look on her face, I'd say she's running back to Vanhoover, to the safety of her dad's well-defended compound."

"She can't just disappear!" Rarity exclaimed. "The princess auditioned hundreds of ponies, and not a single other was satisfactory."

"She's scared for her life," Twilight argued.

"Well, we'll have to show her that she doesn't need to be," said Gilda, jumping off of her cloud, walking toward the ponies on her hind legs, and scooping all six of them up in a bear hug. "That she's got a bunch of national heroes watching her back."

"What, us?" Twilight squeaked. "Wouldn't it make more sense for her to be watched by the royal guard, or the Wonderbolts, or…?"

"Oh, she wouldn't be impressed by a bunch of tough uniformed bodyguards who all look the same," Gilda said seriously, setting them down. "She's got that at home. But legendary figures such as yourself…" She shot them a fanged grin. "Might make her feel safer than usual. I'm not suggesting you watch her on the time, of course, just… until we track down the assassin."

Twilight turned to O'Brien, who shrugged helplessly, completely lost.

"Well!" Twilight said with forced cheer. "Gilda invited us here to watch them shoot the movie. Who knew we'd be tracking down an assassin to save the movie?"

"C'mon, Twilight, it's us," Rainbow chided. "Of course we can't watch the movie without saving it first."

"Yeah… yeah, you're right," Twilight admitted gravely. "Well, I guess the first thing to do will be to find Imelda, right?"

They descended the staircase away from the set; halfway down the steps they found Imelda's mechanical alicorn wings, clumsily discarded.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

"We've checked all the public transportation centers in Cloudsdale," Rainbow reported, reuniting with the others on a street corner. "She must have already left the city."

"This is no good," Twilight said, quivering anxiously. "The assassin could have followed her. You're sure you factored in that she might have gotten her makeup off?"

"Kept an eye out for her real color scheme, yeah," said Rainbow. "It was hard, 'cause I've never seen her without the makeup… but I'm sure I didn't see anypony matching her description."

"Rrgh!" Twilight exclaimed in frustration. "If the assassin knows her true identity she'll be even more recognizable if she did wash off… and that's only if the attacker didn't just follow her straight off the set! This is bad…"

"We'll go to the Cloudsdale authorities," said Rainbow. "See if she's been found injured… or worse… if not, we can get them to do the searching for us."

Gilda joined them. "You go ahead and do that, just in case," she said. "But more likely, she's well on her way back to Vanhoover. …I'll take you there. We'll bust into her house and get her."

"What?" Twilight said in alarm.

Gilda spread her arms. "What better way to prove that you guys aren't to be messed with? With the way she's grown up, it'll speak her language."

Twilight peered at Gilda suspiciously. "I'm not sure I'm fond of the way you've started nonchalantly telling us what we're going to be doing."

"What can I say, I'm an authority figure now and it's gone to my head," Gilda said innocently. "You gonna do it or what?"

"Of course," said Twilight. "She's in danger. None of us are gonna turn our backs on that."