Breathe in. Breathe out. Repeat. Now, open your eyes and look beyond the blinding spotlights. The roar of the crowd is deafening, but it's music to my ears. I hear them chanting my name: "ADOR! ADOR! ADOR! ADOR!" My heart is fluttering. I rear up, stretching tall and smiling, and they cheer louder. They love me! They really love me… I'm so happy, I could cry.

Tears making me close my eyes, I bow to my adoring audience. Suddenly, the ground shifts under my hooves. I hear a very near voice yell "Aydee!" as I fall to the hardwood. Everything goes silent. Groaning, I slowly open my eyes. My vision is blurry, but there's something above me. I hear the voice again.

"Aydee! What the hay are you doing?"

I recognise the voice, but I'm too dazed to figure out who it belongs to. I realize my glasses have fallen off and quickly grope around the ground beside me, finding them to my right and putting them on. Immediately, my vision and thinking are much clearer and I see my sister, Chaimi, standing over me. "What happened?" I ask.

"You were standing on a barstool and you fell off! Again! That makes the third time this week, Dee!" She hops slightly when she speaks, making her long, straight mane bounce.

"I know, I know" I say as I manage to pick myself up, dusting off my coat with a few swipes of my wings. I look around and see all the stout wooden chairs still flipped up on every table, and the only barstool not neatly in line with the others on the counter tipped over on the floor. I guess that was my bad.

I look back to Chaimi, whose emerald eyes blaze as she stares me down. "Finish setting the place up. We open in five minutes!"

She turns away and flicks the end of her tail spitefully, right in front of my nose. I follow her with my eyes while she leaves the room.

"I'm fine, by the way! Thanks for asking!" I shout after her, but she's already gone, and I'm alone again. I sigh and get back to pulling down the chairs. My so-called "delusions" of fame and glory always cause me to get distracted. I can't help it.

This is the story of me -- Adoran Tailedo -- and my pursuit of fame.

Right now, I live with my sister, Chaimi, and my mama, "Lady" Jay. We don't have much in common, us three. We hardly even look related, in my opinion.

Mama has a light colored coat and her wavy mane and tail are mahogany brown with thin stripes of grey showing through here and there, much like her eyes. Speaking of, her eyes are wide and sharp, like a cat's, and she's got lashes for days.

Chaimi, who's never happy with the way she looks, dyed her mane black and covers up the brown-speckled spots on her otherwise mint green coat. She also wears wigs and contacts and make-up and frou-frou outfits. Her "look" varies so often, I've thought about calling her Changeling.

As for me, I'll be honest: I'm bland, and I'm fine with it. I'm content with my caramel coat, my short, fluffy, chocolate mane-- hay, I'm happy with my glasses and my pointed chin! I'm fine with being average! The only thing I'm not happy with… is my wings. I'm one of the few pegasi in my family, but I'd rather be a unicorn. I mean, I'm not complaining, but… magic.

Anyway, here we are, living in a little apartment in this miniature city and running a corner cafe. Mama works behind the counter, Chaimi cooks and all that, and I… I do the cleaning, plus any odd jobs that either of my family members are too busy to do. Hardly the life of a star, right? Yeah. But, I'm not a star yet. It's practically impossible to get noticed in this town.

TING!

The ringing of the service bell snaps me out of my thoughts. I look down at myself, holding a broom and wearing an apron stamped with the print 'Tailedo Treats Cafe'. I sigh, clutching the pine handle and using it as a pillar to lean on. I glimpse around the dining area indifferently, seeing a few ponies sitting at tables, just scattered about, eating croissants or whatever.

Decidedly finished with the floor, which I was hardly even cleaning anyway, I go into the back room to put the broom away. Turning back to the door, my eye is caught by my distorted reflection in a banged up kettle on the shelf. Compelled by my exigent desire to perform, my surroundings expectantly morph before my very eyes. I'm no longer in a storage area, but now standing before a mystical silver waterfall in the treacherous Everfree Forest, and my reflection is actually the lost prince imprisoned within the silver.

"Lo!" I exclaim, using my best olde world tongue and approaching the reflection. "This image cast before me be-ith not my own. Might I have found the legend'ry Silver Falls, in which His Highness has been confined by the evil sorceress?"

"By heavens! A young pone hath found me and knows my story?" The prince presses his hooves against the barrier of his enchanted prison, seeming hopeful. "Tell me, squire! Tell me you have knowledge of how to free me from this dreadful cage of silver!"

"Yes, Highness. Only..." Pausing briefly, I turn my face away and raise a hoof for dramatic effect. "I fear that the deed you must commit is horrid and it should haunt you for all of your days."

"Speak, fellow! Tell me what I must do! I shall decide whether or not it is too despicable to commit!"

I look back to the prince, realizing that he's not just hopeful, he's desperate. "Well, I fear… you must turn these falls red with another's blood."

The prince grows silent, his expression somber as he drops his hooves. "I see…" He contemplates for but a moment, then comes to a decision. "I cannot remain in this place while my kingdom falls to shambles. If the blood of one will save that of thousands, then I must spill that blood."

His regal horn glows a terrifying red color, he spreads his mighty wings, his eyes burn white and his voice bellows darkly, "Forgive me, aide, but you are the sacrifice this kingdom needs to thrive. LET THE BLOOD FLOW FORTH!"

In an instant, an otherworldly force repels me from the falls, pinning me against a tree. Enveloped in bright light, I shut my eyes and try to call out in protest, to no avail. A moment later, the force steals away from me, back to the falls. I drop to the ground, eyes closed and unmoving while my last breath escapes me. All is quiet.

Suddenly, I hear the clopping of hooves, not from my imagination. My eyes pop open and my fantasy world disappears, replaced once again with the back room. I jump up and swing my attention to the door, which I had forgotten to close. Standing there is a small audience consisting of a gray stallion in a suit, a violet mare with a pearl necklace, and my mother in her apron.

Dumbstruck but humbled by the feedback, I bow my head and shrink backwards, hoping to hide my look of surprise and embarrassment. Ponies were actually watching that? Gosh, I didn't even have any props or effects!... I'm glad they liked it anyway.

"Color me impressed!" The stallion smiles and steps forward. "I have to ask, was that a scripted performance?"

"Yes, are you rehearsing for a play?" the pearl-clad mare asks, genuinely curious.

Before I can answer either of their questions, Mama trots in, laughing her polite laugh and ushering me aside with her flank-- what she does every time I 'need to stop daydreaming and get back to work'.

"That's just like my baby," Mama starts, using the patronizing-tone card already, "putting on a show even while working! Oh, I wish I had that kind of energy at my age."

Drawing considerable strain from every dramatic fiber of my being, I hold in my exasperated sigh, feeling my eye twitch with the effort. Through a clenched grin, I murmur, "Thanks, ma..."