Battle of the Bands. Coming Soon to a Theater Near You.

//Featuring Gray Rivers Alton-Yuri with permission. All spritework was originally made by Paul Robertson. I only made edits for Asuka, Nar, Juno, Roy, and Gray. I don't do requests/commissions since I am not the original artist. Human sprites because 1. I love Paul Robertson's work, and 2. I can't do anthro to save my life. [STORY START] "You'll never get away with this De'Landro!" The roguishly handsome hero 'Blast Galverston' growls. He's been tied to a fuel pump as a large earth pony stallion stands a ways away with a lit match. Below the stallion is a trail of gasoline leading to the pump Blast is tied to. The stallion laughs in a deep, gravely voice. "You can't escape this time Blast. Your precious city burning will be the last thing you see before you're blown sky high!" Roguishly handsome hero Blast Galverston grits his teeth. He struggles to break free of his binds, but they're too tight. "Keep strugglin' little man. You'll just die tired." The large stallion grins as he begins to lower the match. It's a tense 5 seconds until- "CUT! CUT! CUUUUUUT!" Everything comes to a halt as a stallion holding a megaphone stomps onto the set. "Where is Alyssia Fenderbun?! She's supposed to swoop in and save the hero!" The man formally known as Blitz Gunderston quickly shimmies out of his bindings, and heads off-set to meet a make-up artist. As he does so, a hastily dressed, and prepared mare stumbles onto the set. 'How typical.' Gray scoffs to himself. This made the 4th time his co-star had shown up late. Granted, he'd shown up hung over plenty of times before, but at least he wasn't 20 minutes late. De'landro walks past Gray on his way to the snack bar as their co-star is beginning to get verbally torn apart by their director. He was a nice guy if you pulled your weight, but slack off even a little, and he made your life hell. It was a bit difficult to tune out the tirade of insults, but Gray was used to it by now. He'd been on the receiving end of one too many angry directors so if he wasn't the target of a rant, good. Gray's just finished getting his make-up re-done when De'Landro approaches him. "Ey Gray. There's a group of people here to see you. They're at the snack bar." Fans? How did they get past security. "Oh. Thanks." Gray nods before he turns to make his way to the snack bar. He doesn't even need to get close to the snack bar to realize just who they are. He can hear the familiar voices of a certain band as he goes to round a corner to the snack bar. Lo and behold he finds the members of Attack on Mango crowded near the snack bar. One of which has a plate stacked with food. This was an excellent opportunity to show his co-workers that he did in fact have fans. "Ah! You must be members of my fan club!" Gray loudly proclaims with his hooves outstretched. The band looks to him somewhat confused. The only mare in the group tilts her head slightly. "Did you call us here just so you could act like this?" This confused Gray. "What? I didn't call you here." The mare now seems just as confused. "What do you mean? We got a letter telling us to meet you here." Gray is then handed a piece of paper by the lead stallion. 'Dear Attack on Mango. Please come to the 'El Estudio Caliente' studio at 1 PM on [DATE]. There is much I want to discuss with you all. Please do not be late. A Famous Actor.' Gray's face contorts. "I never wrote this!" He tosses the piece of paper up into the air. Everyone is silent as they watch the piece of paper slowly float to the ground. It's picked up by a janitor seconds later. "Well, if you didn't then who did?" Asuka folds her hooves, annoyed. Gray throws up his hooves in similar annoyance. "I don't know! C'mon! We'll go ask around." Gray turns on his heels, and begins to march back onto his set. Seeing little other options the band follows. By the time Gray storms back onto the set the rest of the cast are preparing to re-shoot the previous scene. His director opens his mouth to speak, but Gray points to the band behind him, and begins to growl. "Which one of you told them to come here?" Things are silent for a moment before there's shuffling from behind the set. De'Landro smirks from his position in front of the gas pump. One of his minions appears on a piece of rubble behind him, and two set staff walk on-set from behind. All eyes turn to the large stallion as he begins to bellow. "Attack on Mango! You've made it to the semi-finals of the Battle of the Bands! You've done well to make it this far, but now you face the Blade's Troupe! We'll squash you, and take first place to prove our might!" The director begins to frantically wave, point, and shout. "Somebody get a camera on those guys!" A camera swiftly turns to get a wide shot of the two bands (and Gray) on set. Roy opens his mouth to respond, but the director grabs his megaphone and begins to shout. "Wait! Wait! Wait! Hold on! Start from the beginning!" He looks to De''Landro, who begins to repeat himself. This time with the camera focused on him. Gray's jaw drops. Then, closes as his face turns red. "Hello?! Excuse me! Main character right here!" He begins to wave his hooves to try and get the cameraman's attention. De'Landro is cut off as the director shouts once more. "Stop! Somebody get him off the set!" The director violently gestures to Gray. Not long after Gray is escorted off-set by two burly set workers. Thankfully they were nice enough to let him watch from off-camera. The director then steps forwards. "And, ACTION!" De'Landro begins again. When he finishes Roy gestures with his hoof as if to say 'Come at me.' "You don't stand a chance! Back down now and we won't leave you in a heap!" He was just barely able to avoid sweating profusely in front of the camera. One of the set crew rushes forwards, but is intercepted by Nar, who manages to set down his plate of food before rushing forwards. The crewman throws a punch, but is blocked by Nar before he receives an equally as powerful punch in return. De'Landro begins to lumber towards Roy with his hulking form, and his minion prepares to jump to ambush one of the band members. The cameras roll as a brawl breaks out on set. Punches, and ponies fly. Great shots are taken, and best of all, they get it in one take. In the end De'Landro and his goons are defeated, with a badly bruised Roy standing in front of De'Landro as he looks up from on his stomach. "I told you-huff-. You couldn't beat us." Roy then grabs a towel from off set, and tosses it to De'Landro. "You might want to clean yourself up. Don't want dirt on your face when your face ends up in the trash weekly magazine." "Cut! Fantastic work! What a display!" The director begins to clap profusely. Gray is unable to believe what he just saw. As De'Landro and the rest of the set crew are helped up by the ponies that were their enemies just 5 seconds ago Gray stands silently. The group walks past, talking as if they were all great friends. Yet Gray does not move. The set-crew, and director walk past as the entirety of the set simply leaves to go get lunch, leaving Gray to stand on-set, all alone. After a few moments Gray shakes his head, and manages a shrug. "Well. I suppose It's not all that bad. Maybe I could use this to my advantage." Gray then practices his smile for a few minutes before he turns to hurry after the rest of the cast. He needed to be there so he could congratulate his biggest fans, and repair his mildly damaged reputation and pride.