Episode 4
Cupid's bow
The preparation for the collage concert was putting a strain on everypony, so it seemed. Techi was busy setting up the lighting display, Feather had decided to make some last-minute revisions to her song (which her singer and musicians weren't happy about, considering they've already put it through rehearsal), Thiala can't seem to get her dance routine straight, Melody's panicking over some forgotten lyrics, and even Kandi's having a hard time checking all the food and making sure it's acceptable for the performances.
"And just what are you doing during all this?" Harmony asks, after giving up on trying to get her spaz of a sister's attention.
"What am I doing? What AREN'T I doing?"
Never mind that, then. Clearly Cupie was spazzing too. Harmony rolls her eyes and walks away as Cupie continues on with her problems to herself.
"It's almost too much for me! All single ponies asking for my help looking for a date to bring… all the females in a relationship complaining that their boyfriends won't take them! How am I supposed to deal with so much at once?" Cupie complains, and turns back around. "Harmony?"
"Hey busy bee, you mind taking a break from your relationship crisis's and give me a hand with the gobos?" Techi calls from above. "These things just won't stay in…"
"Did you try clipping the device on the front shut?" Cupie offers.
Techi peeks over to the other side. "Oh… heh heh." She chuckles. "Well that's one more crises you've helped avoid."
"I don't think love between a pony and a machine counts." Cupie notes. "Shouldn't you be behind the scenes controlling the lighting booth anyway? Why do they have you hooking shit up?"
"The idiots who came in here last night did it wrong." Techi explains. "I guess the saying goes… if you want something done right…"
"Cupie! Cupie! We have a problem!" Kandi exclaims, running up to her friend.
"I don't have time for your snack problems, I have four different ponies looking for dates for tonight's show."
"So? That's an even number. Why don't you just match them up with each other?" Techi offers. "Crises avoided, point one for Techi!"
"They're all female, darling."
"And, point lost."
"Well you got another female to add to your list. Feather's absolutely dateless tonight!" Kandi explains.
"Kandi, I'm not going to tell you again, I'm not looking for a date." Feather sighs, now entering the conversation. "Cupie will you tell this girl to leave me alone so I can focus? The guitarist isn't getting the new rift on cue and I-"
"Oh hey, why doesn't she just date the guitarist?" Kandi proposes. "Point for Kandi! What do I win?"
"Again, her guitarist is a female." Cupie sighs. "Feather, if you're having that much of an issue finding a decent date, you could have just told me."
"I am NOT looking for a date! I'm looking for a better band!"
"You know I play the guitar, right?" Techi throws in.
"Don't you have some lights to be hanging?" Feather glares.
"Wait- I'm confused… you want me to find you a guitarist you can date… and that can learn your song in less than an hour?"
Feather puts her hoof to her head. "No. Just…" She walks away.
"Do I get my prize now?" Kandi asks.
"Kandi, dear. Could you please just leave Feather alone? I don't think she's the dating type."
"I know Cupie, that's why she needs your help! She can't find a date for herself, so she needs you to find a date for her."
"I really don't think she's looking, Kandi." Techi reiterates. "Just like those damn school kids weren't looking when they tried to hook this piece of shit up." Techi grunts, fighting with one of the wires.
Cupie returns her attention to Kandi. "Don't you already have a disaster of your own to take care of?"
"Oh, nope. I already checked all the food. It was all bad."
Cupie raises an eyebrow. "Then, what do you expect us to eat?"
"Well Melody's food of course! It's the only thing that tastes good!"
"You can't possibly expect Melody to make enough food for the entire town… she has a performance to do!" Cupie explains.
"Eh, she already said no." Kandi shrugs. "So we'll just have to eat the bad food."
"Then why didn't you- oh, never mind." Cupie sighs. "If you aren't busy, then can you help me scour the town for single guys?"
"Say no more, I'm on it!"
"Thank you!" Cupie smiles. "Here's a list of the girls we need to find matches for, if you want to start with-"
"Don't worry Feather, I'll find you an awesome guy, and he'll play the guitar too!" Kandi proclaims, and dashes off in the opposite direction, not even acknowledging the list Cupie attempted to hand to her.
"Need some help there chika?" Techi offers. "I still have a couple more to connect, but I'll be finished soon. I can head off on a search when I have a spare moment."
Cupie sighs in relief. "Thank you Techi."
"No sweat!" Just hand up the list and I'll tackle it in a second."
"Um, no wings, remember?"
"Heh, oh yeah. Well, I'll just-"
"Techi wait!"
But before Cupie could warn her, Techi lets go of the light and it crashes to the floor.
"Oh crap… Um, Cupie?"
"It's fine." Cupie says, at the end of her patients. "I'll find them on my own."
"Actually I was going to ask if you could help me find the gobo? I think I dropped it in this mess…"
Cupie doesn't respond. She's stiff.
"On second thought, I got it. You go… hunt down your guitar dude or whatever."
Cupie makes the decision that being around the festival itself wasn't the most efficient idea, and heads out towards the complexes. She passes by a male she doesn't know, and begins towards him.
"Hi!"
The man turns around. He faces the women who greeted him, smiles, and they kiss.
Cupie stops. So much for that. She trots slowly back home, and levitates a notebook out of the shelves.
"Hmm… no… he's dating Ellen…"
She pulls a pen from nearby, and marks a streak through her book.
"He's too soft… Marci would never go for that. Oh, but he could go with Sam! Wait- but what about Daniel? Yeah, Sam and Daniel, perfect! But wait- Daniele could go with Jessica too… actually, he's probably the only one who could match with Flora. Oh, but Sam and Daniel would be so darn perfect together- it would be a terrible thing to keep them apart!"
Cupie goes through her list, mixing and matching the couples until finally coming out with one final product.
"Half an hour until show time… I have to act fast!" Cupie contemplates aloud.
But no one seemed to have an extra hoof to spare. Feather was freaking out, Techi was overwhelmed with the mess she made, and Thiala and Melody couldn't leave back-stage until their performances were finished. And who KNOWS where Kandi's off to.
"What's this? Is this the four of hearts?" Harmony asks, swiping the paper from Cupie.
"Harmony, you give that back!" Cupie demands.
"This isn't even a card!" She chucks it. "Worthless!"
"This is in no way worthless! This is the solution to the restless hearts of Clantopia. A carefully crafted sheet of who goes with who to the show."
"Oh." Harmony shrugs. "So where they at then?"
"That's sort of the problem… I… haven't been able to find any of them yet." Cupie admits.
"Yet?" Harmony scoffs. "The show's starting soon! How do you expect to get everypony together by your onesies?"
"I really can't, you see, which is why I've been asking our friends to- onesies?" Cupie contemplates.
"Well why didn't ya just say so? Gimmi that four of hearts, I'll go see who I can find on the west side of town, and bring em all over yonder, alright?" Harmony says, swiping the paper yet again.
"Harmony, wait!"
"I'll have whoever I can find here by eleven o' fifty five, okay? See you then Cupie!" With that, the child rushes off.
"Harmony…" Cupie moans. She didn't have time to be fretting though; she may as well start looking for whoever she could find on the east side of town, and fast.
"Sam!" Cupie calls when she runs into her friend. "Sam, thank goodness." Cupie pants. "Quick, I found you… the perfect date!"
"Did you?" Sam excites. "Thank you Cupie! Um, where is he?"
"I'm running a bit behind." Cupie explains. "I'm trying to find the others now though, would you mind tagging along while I do?"
"Um, sure, Cupie."
Cupie sporadically searched the town, eventually finding all but two on her list; Jessica, and Daniel. It was almost midnight, and Cupie figured she'd best lead the rest back before it's too late.
"Yes, she really has put an effort forth to find everypony." Flora comments as she converses with one of the ponies they had picked up. "I'm impressed."
"It's too bad we couldn't find everypony." Sam notes allowed, careful that Cupie wasn't listening.
She didn't hear a thing, though. She was too busy trying to organize in her head who she would have to rearrange in order for them to be with the best possible matches.
"I'm not too worried about it." Ben shrugs. "I've been to a million of these festivals before single, and I say it's just as fun."
"You? Flying solo?" Flora comments. "I can hardly believe that. I imagine all the girls must have been dying for a dance."
"My bud Ben is pretty popular!" Jake adds in. "I'm just as surprised as you that he hasn't found anypony to go with yet."
"Is that so?" Flora questions. "Um, so your name is Ben?"
"Yeah." Ben smiles. "What's yours?"
Cupie reaches the outskirts of the festival just in time to see Harmony with the other two he was looking for.
"Harmony, you found Daniel and Marci?" Cupie says when the foul runs up to her.
"Yeah, but we have an emergency- I think they like each other!"
Cupie peers over. The two were talking, and seemed to be getting along. "What's the problem? Is Daniel already taken…?"
"Worse! The four of hearts says Daniel's supposed to be with Sam. This is all wrong!"
Cupie laughs. "There's nothing wrong with that! Why, this is even better. If they have the chemistry, then that's even better than being matched with somepony because they had nopony to go with. Now if only the others worked out like-" But as Cupie checks over her shoulder, she sees the other six pairing off on their own, dancing and conversing among each other. Cupie smiles. "Harmony, our work here is complete."
"Hold the line- is it midnight yet? I found a male guitarist!" Kandi says, bursting through the crowd. She's dragging a pony with a guitar on her back with her. "He even knows how to play all of Feathers song! Am I good or what?"
"Kid, I'm not a dude. And the reason I know Feathers song is because I AM her guitarist!" She pauses. "Wait a minute- is Feather trying to replace me? Because if she thinks she can tell me what to do with my band-"
"No one's trying to replace you sweetheart, and Kandi, you're an idiot." Cupie blurts. "Besides, isn't your group opening tonight?"
"That's what I was trying to do until this idiot pulled me off stage." The girl glares. "Shit… it's almost starting, I gotta go!"
Just as the curtains open, reveling the rest of the band, the guitarist leaps on stage.
"What up concert-goers? Who's ready to kick off this full-moon collage with some Lunachick Fringe?" The announcer sounds over the com.
The band starts, and the crowd cheers.
"Oh god… this is a disaster." Feather exclaims as she approaches her friends. "My lead guitarist and my lead singer are missing, and the show's starting."
"Kandi stole your guitarist, but she's up there now."
Feather looks on stage. "Then where's Rika? I told her she wasn't allowed to leave until after her performance, I should have kept a better eye on her."
The music continues to play, but the singer is no where to be seen. From what seems like out of no where, Melody appears from back stage and begins to sing Feather's lyrics.
Feather goes from relieved to angry and back to calm. The crowd wasn't reacting negatively, and it was better than nothing.
"Did she have something to do with my missing singer? I'm going to throw a roof at that girl." Feather snarls.
"Are you going to throw a roof at me too then?" Kandi asks?
"If she thinks she can- wait… what?" Feather asks, looking to her hyper friend.
Kandi shrugs.
The music plays out, and Melody steps off stage towards Feather. "That the style you were going for?" She asks.
"Why you… Where in the world is Rika!"
"Rika?" Melody questions. "I tried to get her to come with me, but she insisted she couldn't leave back-stage, so I chained her to a prop."
Feather's about to pounce on her, when a rush of ponies come towards them.
"Oh my gosh, are you Melody?"
"Your singing was amazing!"
"Feather, that song was fantastic! One of your best yet!"
"Top performance you guys! I can't wait to hear more from the two of you!"
"Feather!"
"Melody!"
The two freeze up; Melody should be used to this by now, but Feather had never seen so much positive reviews from fans.
"Hey hey, now!" Let's back it up! No need to smoother them! There's still plenty of time before the festival ends, now." Techi warns, warding off the crowd.
"Thank you." Feather sighs once Techi brings her, as well as Melody, back stage.
"What can I say, crises avoided!" She smirks. "One point for Techi, score!"
"What's that?"
"Um, nothing." Techi shrugs. "I have to synchronize the lighting cues, but you gals are welcome to stay back here until you're ready to head back out."
They nod.
"We wouldn't want to get bombarded by adoring fans, after all." Melody smirks.
"I'm still mad at you for chaining Rika backstage." Feather says, narrowing her eyes. "But…" She relaxes. "I will say your voice is far more graceful than hers. I think it's more attuned to what I was going for, so, I won't throw a roof at you today."
"Phew. …wait, what?"
"Next time you want to be in one of my composures though please don't pull a stunt like that again." Feather requests.
"Sorry about that." Melody sighs. "It's just, you were being so… I don't know… assertive? And I thought maybe if I showed the same kind of ambition, you'd consider moving your 'putting-it-out-there' suggestion along?"
Feather closes her eyes. "That was quite a response we'd gotten, wasn't it?" Feather contemplates. "Alright, Melody. Let's give this a go."
"While you're at it, do you need a new guitar player? Cause really, I can totally learn the-"
"Techi." Feather interrupts. "We already tried that, remember? Random tomatoes, though they may taste good, is not a positive response from the audience."
Techi rolls her eyes. "Well it was worth a shot."
"Don't you have a song you're supposed to be covering, by the way?" Feather reminds Melody.
"Oh, shoot! I gotta get ready!" She freaks. "Heh… maybe somepony should chain me to a fake tree, huh?"
"Right… I should probably find Rika, now that you mention it." Feather ponders aloud. "Come, Melody. Let's go tell a certain singer she's been replaced."
Melody smiles, and trots after her.
A/N:
How's it going, everypony? Here's some pony codes for you; all of which belong to the members (and previous member) or Lunachicks Fringe. Come to think of it, I may have to change the name of my band now that Rika's gone… Perhaps Lunachicks Melody? Um, nevermind. I can't be giving the new-bee quite that much credit yet, less it go to her head.
Electra (lead guitar)
2S2S000020AAABABFE9E9E000012 BFE00UN183720000000321FEFF00 96FEEE21107F3FCC004CB2
Tempo (drums)
2S2S000000004F09FFC49D002014 93117UN1837404000001506D003E FF7FFF31016D003E515151
Clarity (bass guitar)
2S2S0002004C0021FFC49D002015 C5C5BUN1837300021002K1004C12 4C4D4D2G107F3FCC004CB2
Rika Fringe (lead vocals)
2S2S000000FE8FE90030AA022016 100BCUN1837000000000W00030AA FEFEFE20107F3FCC004CB2
I'll be back next week with a new chapter for you all. Keep reading!
-Feather