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Metamorphoses

by Orcus

Chapter 3: Chapter 2: The Theater Rolls in

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Chapter 2: The Theater Rolls in

"Twilight! Twilight! Where are you?" the sound of Spike's voice went out through the castle, as he ran throughout it, attempting to find the princess in question. Flapping about loosely in his left claw was a piece of paper.

Entering the main chamber, where the thrones and Cutie Map lied, the purple dragon finally found who he was looking for. Twilight sat on her throne, an open book floating in front of her. She lifted her head as she saw her companion approach.

"Hey, Spike," she welcomed. "What's on your mind?"

"Have you seen what's going on outside?" he asked, slightly worriedly.

"No, I haven't. What's wrong?" she asked, as she placed a bookmark in her book, and closed it, putting all of her attention on him.

"This," he spoke, as he showed the purple mare the paper in his hand.

"Spike, I hardly see how one paper is worth you worrying about..." Twilight said, as she magically took the paper from him.

"But there are, like, hundreds posted all around town," he replied. "They're attached to buildings, fences, posts, windows, inside of other pony's houses... somepony or two must have done it last night. But how in Equestria could they have moved so fast and quietly?"

"Okay, that does sound rather odd," Twilight said, as she finished reading the paper. "But one thing's for sure. Apparently the Theatre Metamorphoses is back."

"The Theater-whatsit now?" the purple dragon asked, scratching his head.

"The Theatre Metamorphoses," the princess repeated. "They're a famous traveling group of actors, actresses, singers, and playwrights that first formed around four-hundred year ago, if I'm correct." As she spoke, she pulled a book off of the shelf from the other side of the room. Its cover was blank and dust-caked, a sign of being untouched for years, until now. Twilight blew the dust off of it, before opening it up to the right page.

"Hmm... their last performance was just over twenty years ago, but they mysteriously vanished after it had finished," Twilight said again, smiling. "I guess this means they've returned, and apparently, they chose Ponyville as their first stop!"

"It said on that flyer that their first performance is tomorrow night, but they're going to arrive today," Spike said again. "When do you think we'll see them?" No sooner had he asked that, the sound of the castle's front doors being flung open could be heard from where the two stood.

"Twilight! Have you heard the news?" the easily-recognized voice of Pinkie Pie rang out throughout the castle. "I don't know if you read the flyers about it, but an awesome traveling theater just rolled into the outskirts of Ponyville!"

The tall doors leading to the chamber where Twilight and Spike stood were thrust open as Pinkie Pie barged in like a wrecking ball, an enormous, excited smile on her lips.

"And you'll never believe the best part!" she cried out, as she zipped up to the alicorn, grabbing onto her face with her hooves, and stared at her dead in the eyes. "Someone I threw a birthday party for about a year ago works with them! He even told me what play they'll do first!"

"That's... great, Pinkie," Twilight said slowly, as she took Pinkie's hooves off of herself. "What exactly is it called?"

"He told me it's an original, called Once Upon a December. Ooh, I can't wait to see it!" she squealed. "I've gotta tell Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Applejack about this! Oh, who'm I kidding. I've got to tell Discord and the princesses about this too! See ya soon, Twi!"

Before Twilight or Spike could ask anymore questions, the hyperactive mare was gone, back out the door in a blur of pink. Spike rubbed his eyes, and looked up at Twilight with an unsure visage.

"So, uh... anything else I should know about the... thing?" he asked her.

"Well, the thing was very popular back in its day..." she said, as she skimmed through the book some more. "The actors in it were said to have the greatest skills in drama of anypony in Equestria, and they only hired the best playwrights and authors to write and direct their original material."

"I wonder if it would be worth watching," Spike inquired.

"I'm willing to bet it would be," Twilight grinned, as she closed and reshelved her book. "Pinkie said they just arrived outside of Ponyville. Do you think we should try to get acquainted with the cast?"


Quiverpike may be perhaps the most skilled playwright this side of Equestria, but he was an old buck. Many seasons had passed since the brown hide on his skinny body had turned to a faint gray, and a long, thick beard had formed around his chin. A pair of frail, rickety, ready-to-shed antlers hung above a pair of bushy eyebrows, and below them were two chestnut-tinted eyes. There he sat on a wooden chair, in his freshly-pitched tent, the feeling of grass touching his lower hooves. In front of him was a hickory desk, and he was writing on the page of a book, busy trying to add to a play he was creating, the only noise going on in the tent being his feather quill as it scribbled down on the paper.

His head looked to the front of the tent as the sound of jingling bells hit his ears, and a familiar, boggy stench struck his nose. As he expected, in came Carol, her boisterous attire creating quite the racket.

"Good morning, Carol," Quiverpike greeted in a positive voice.

"An' guid morn tae ye," she spoke back. "Ah pit up every poster ye gae me lest nicht! Noo nae pony'll miss th' message."

"Did you see anypony while you posted them all?"

"Ah saw tois while Ah pit them up," she replied. "A body looked loch a dragon ay some sort, an' anither was a braw fellaw gonnae by th' nam ay Eveningstar. He claims tae be an alicorn, ur somethin' loch 'at. Can ye believe it?"

"Was he nice?" the deer asked, as he ran a cloven hoof through his beard, as if intrigued by what she was saying.

"Weel, Ah loch heem," she said back, in a happy tone. "'en again, Ah loch a lot ay ponies. But fur some reason 'at micht be as a crazy as Ah am, Ah hink he's special. There's jist somethin' abit heem 'at makes me want tae chase heem aroond fur a wee while..."

""Chase him around?" Oh, Carol, don't tell me you have a crush on the poor fellow."

"Crush? Nah," she tittered. "Aam jist canty tae see somepony as oot-of-their-min' as me."

"Are you sure it's not somepony that could help you with that little... curse of yours?"

"Ah gave up oan fixin' 'at wretched hex a lang time ago..." she replied, her cheery tone suddenly stooping to what sounded like a grim, sullen one, before returning to its previous state as she spoke next. "Noo, if yoo'll ho ye, aam gonnae fur a brammer nicht sweem. Mebbe catch a fish. See ye suin!"

"Be back by tomorrow night, or you'll miss the opening performance," Quiverpike spoke back, as he watched her move to the entrance. Just as she reached it, the tent flap began to move, revealing the shape of Odyssia, in her guise of a pony, when it was fully open.

"Oaps. Pardon me, princess..." Carol apologized to her for getting in the way, bowing slightly, before continuing the rest of the way out. Odyssia fixated her glasses with her magic, and walked in.

"Hey there, Quiver," the changeling princess said to the deer. "Is your tent to your liking?"

"Can't complain," he responded. "I was just having a pleasant conversation with Carol about last night. Between you and me, I think she may be infatuated with one of the locals..."

"Ah heard 'at!" Carol's distant voice yelled out from outside, causing the old deer to smirk. He went back to writing as he spoke next.

"Do you think you're still up to reciting the opening slogan?"

"Absolutely," Odyssia replied. "Still a little nervous to go on stage for the first time, but I'm definitely ready. I just decided to stop by to see if you have any last inklings of advice you could share with me, just in case the unforeseeable happens."

"You mean like; "if you feel worried, imagine all the ponies being dressed in their underwear?"" he said, as he placed a final period on the page he wrote on, before flipping to the next.

"No, I've heard that one a million times," she chuckled back.

The princess found herself interrupted as the noise of childish laughter, and what sounded like a mock-roar, began to echo outside of the tent.

"Grr! Run, little sheila! Or the big ol' Yowie'll eat you up like beans on rye!" a familiar voice went out. Bursting into the tent soon after, was the small form of a young, purple filly, who stopped the moment she came within a foot of the princess. Looking up to see Odyssia, she smiled, and in a green flash, transformed into a changeling nymph.

All nymphs of her hive were born with holes in their hooves like an average changeling you were most likely to encounter, but as they entered their adult years, the holes seemingly vanish. Why this happened, no changeling knew, but several popular theories popped up among them.

Joining in on whatever fun the small changeling was having, Odyssia used her magic to lift her up from the ground, and began spinning her around in the air like a loving parent with her child, getting an excited squeal from the nymph, and causing Quiverpike to smirk in mild amusement. Whatever the nymph was running from came into the tent a moment later, stick-like arms outstretched.

It was the swagman. Over his face was one of the finely-carved, painted, wooden masks pilfered from the dressing department, representing a roaring lion. As soon as he spotted the scene before him, he took the mask off, revealing his bag-head.

Swagmen, as they called themselves, were very strange magical constructs. According to legend, they start out as common scarecrows on your typical farm, but if the farm is abandoned, or the scarecrow is neglected for too long, it could form a mind of its own, and simply get up and walk off to pursue its own agenda as an adventuring vagabond. This particular swagman, Clopin, lived as a homeless rover for most of his new life, until he encountered the Theatre a few decades ago, from which he never left. His main job in his new home was to help care for the eggs and nymphs, and when the time of the show came around, he absolutely adored playing as the non-pony villains or monsters, considering his dexterity, and effectiveness at pulling off realistic, but bloodless death scenes.

"Oh, uh... sorry for interrupting anything, milady," he apologized. "I was just having a bit of fun with the little ones. I didn't know that this was Q's tent."

"No need," the changeling princess replied. "It wasn't anything major." Focusing back on the child she was still levitating, Odyssia began to place her back down.

"Put on your disguise, and go run home to your mother, little one," Odyssia smiled, as the nymph's hooves touched the ground. The young changeling looked back at the princess with an admiring glance, before doing as she was told, bounding out of the tent, and morphing back into the form of the purple filly. Clopin was about to do so as well, but the voice of Quiverpike stopped him.

"Swagman, before you go, could you tell Vektor to keep an eye on Carol, and make sure she gets back by tomorrow?" he asked.

"That mozzie fellow? Sure," Clopin agreed. "He creeps the straw out of me, but at least he has his uses, right?"

The scarecrow quickly left to carry out the task, but the second he departed, another shape emerged from behind the tent flap, causing the deer to silently sigh at all the individuals that decided to visit his tent at once.

It was Punica. She was in the form of a dark blue mare with a lighter blue mane, and was wearing a sapphire-blue dress. There appeared to be a look of urgency on her face.

"Sorry to bug you, Odyssia," the maid spoke in her usual gentle voice. "But there's a Princess Twilight Sparkle who wishes to see you, and I wanted to see if you were available or not. If you're busy, I can tell her to come back later, if that is what you'd like."

"The Princess Twilight Sparkle?" Odyssia asked, her composure disappearing for a brief moment the second she heard the name. After regaining it, she straightened herself out, and looked to Quiverpike with a vibrant gleam in her eye's. After he gave a confident nod back to her, she looked back to her servant.

"Tell the princess I'll be with her shortly," she began. "And see if we can meet by her castle, if that's not too much trouble."

"As you wish," Punica replied. As she trotted off, the princess looked back at Quiverpike.

"Did you hear that?" she asked the aged buck. "Twilight Sparkle wants to talk with me!"

"You certainly sound enthusiastic about it," he chuckled.

"She was my idol from when I was a nymph," Odyssia replied. "One of several reasons I wanted to come here was to talk with her."

"What were the other reasons?"

"Mmm... I can't really say yet..." she spoke, enigmatically. "But I thank you for your time, Quiverpike. I'll see you soon."

And with that, the changeling princess left, allowing peace and quiet to return to Quiverpike's abode. Sighing happily, he returned to his work.

Next Chapter: Chapter 3: "...And That is my Sorrow" Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 35 Minutes
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