The dress that Rarity made for me for the Gala was a rather elegant affair. Where the ones she made for her friends were made to trail off the back, this one was made more to conform around the shape of my body. It was a deep red color, which went well with my coat, which shimmered from the multitude of ruby chips woven into the fabric. With it came a set of bows for both the base and tip of my tails, as well as some sort of paw covering all done up with ruby chips as well. She even managed to work a pair of gems into a neck clasp for it, one a ruby and the other a sapphire which were placed on opposite sides of it. That also was part of the hard work she put into it, as when I reversed the gemstones the entire outfit changed from red with rubies to blue with sapphires to fit my seasonal fur colors.
Needless to say I was impressed with what Rarity had done, both with the design as well as her talents with fashion. It was obviously not a simple spell to pull off and I wondered if it was only through hard work that she could do it, or if it was part of her talent. Either way I was more than happy with what she provided so I pawed over the enchanted gems that we agreed on for the price, as well as a small bag of bit. Of course I knew she would try to turn down the bits as it wasn’t part of the deal, but I was able to sneak it by her with her sister’s help.
I made sure to be very careful when packing it away with the things I was bringing with me to Canterlot. While I wasn’t invited to the wedding, I did want to show up before it to personally deliver the things ordered by the restaurants considering the size of the order. I had wanted to visit the city anyways, but never had a chance due to the threat of Celestia, which longer applies.
I made sure that Selene would be fine with me being gone and that Umbra Rose knew as well. I had everything at the train station ready to be loaded relatively early, and was surprised to find that Twilight and her friends were there waiting as well. Apparently one of the ones getting married was her brother, and Twilight wasn’t happy about being left in the dark about it only to be notified by a letter.
I almost decided to join them in the same train car they were in, but I decided to keep watch over what I brought as it was worth a considerable amount. This also ended up with me sitting in silence as the car I was in was relatively empty. Luckily I was able to keep myself entertained by listening to a mint green mare strumming away on her lyre. I remembered seeing her during my Pinkie Pie party and wondered if she was going to be part of the wedding or Gala.
It actually didn’t take as long as I would have thought to arrive at Canterlot. I had heard about there being a tunnel just prior to entering the city, but the wave of pink energy that passed through the train was a surprise. What surprised me even more was that I identified it as a very high level barrier, but it wasn’t from either of the Princesses. I wondered why it was needed in the first place as I hadn’t heard about any major troubles lately.
This worried me enough that I decided to shift back into my pony shape before leaving the train as I didn’t know what reactions my appearance would cause with this all going on. Exiting the train I found that there were a lot of guards all over the place checking over everything, and I even spotted Princess Celestia looking over the town with a telescope. Whatever was going on, it seemed to be serious and not any sort of drill.
I noticed Twilight talking with a guard in a differently styled outfit. With the look of annoyance on her face I assumed that it was probably the brother I had heard about. I turned back to the guard inspecting the barrels I had brought with me and sighed in annoyance at how long this was taking. Looking around again I noticed that the Princess seemed to be looking this way so I decided to wave at her and turned enough so she could see the cutie mark I was using.
She obviously recognized the description Twilight sent her before as she jerked away from the telescope before shaking her head and going back to her search. I chuckled quietly as I turned back to the guard who was finally finishing up with his search. Something about him felt off for some reason, but I just pushed the thought away as I was finally allowed to pass.
It took me a while to reach the first restaurant I dealt with as the streets were very crowded and it wasn’t easy to navigate through them. When I finally arrived I was ushered around to the back where the chef was eagerly waiting for me. From the sounds I heard inside things were terribly busy for them and with the chef out here was probably getting worse.
Exchanging the barrels they ordered for a bag of bits I looked at the instructions for where I was to go for the second, and larger, delivery. I actually back-tracked a few times and started over a few times before I realized that I had the directions correct, and the delivery was for the castle itself. I wondered how Mr. Rich had set that up as I went through another search by the guards before I was allowed to pass.
The feeling I had from that guard at the train station returned a few times as I passed a guard here and there, and even a couple servants. This really disturbed me a bit as I brought everything around to the back entrance to the castle kitchens. While I was dealing with the chef I caught sight of a pony that surprised me enough to say something that I shouldn’t have. “Huh, I didn’t know that there was a fourth one.”
I had to come up with a quick lie as the chef asked me what I meant, but it didn’t stop me from looking at the pink alicorn that was checking in on things. My business was finished pretty quickly though so I was escorted out again after receiving payment for the delivery. I paused a second before exiting as I thought I caught a glimpse of something flashing green, but couldn’t locate it again when I looked towards the unknown princess.
Since my work was completed I decided to explore the city as well as make sure that my room at the hotel I reserved was ready. I dropped off my packs at the hotel first, while tossing a few spells on them to keep them safe and hidden, and took my time seeing the sights.
Of course I decided to choose the wrong part of town as there were only homes for the wealthy in the area I went through. At least when I went back to the hotel I found an interesting little jewelry shop. I decided to look around a bit due to professional interest and was surprised to find that it was connected to the store in Ponyville. I even was able to spot a few things that included the gems I made myself. I never did have a chance to look at what they did with what I gave them, and I was pretty impressed with what they did with them.
The workers there didn’t seem to know me though so I assumed that their sources for gems are kept quiet. After thinking about it I realize how smart that is for them as it prevents others from trying to steal their supply chain. After some casual chatting with the mare at the counter about their products I made my way back to the hotel for the night.
The next morning things went much better in my exploration as I was able to catch a thestral guard as they were heading off duty. As I thought when I saw him I was correct in assuming that he would know about the more interesting parts of city since that would be where the most problems were. He tried to dissuade me at first, but dropping the name of Lieutenant Rose got him to open up pretty quickly.
His directions led me to the section of the city that looked a bit dirtier than the rest and was under the shadow of the mountain at this time. This made sense as I saw more thestrals roaming around this section of the city than the others as they are finishing up their nightly duties. I got a few odd looks as I waved to them as I passed, probably as it isn’t a reaction they weren’t used to.
Unfortunately this also meant that many of the interesting places in this area were also closing up at the same time. I did make note of a few places to check out later at night as they looked like they could be fun and I’d maybe attempt to drag Twilight and her friends along as well. It was nearing noon when things around the city started taking a turn for the worse as a large black shape appeared outside of the shield.
“What in the world is that?” I stand there and just stare as the mass seems to impact against the shield and I start seeing cracks develop in the barrier accompanied by flashes of green. “Well that definitely can’t be a good thing.” As the shield breaks open in that area the ponies around me start to panic and flee in various directions as the mass starts to spread over the city with parts breaking off from it.
Soon enough it got close enough for me to identify individual shapes in the mass and realize what they were. “Changelings? Here?” I had seen a few in my travels before, but never in such numbers. None of them were really talkative so I didn’t know much about them, but they didn’t seem to be the type to be so obvious. My thoughts were interrupted as they started to meteor down into street in front of me as they started to attack every pony they saw.
When I saw this I narrowed my eyes at them and threw up a shield around me and got in their path to divert their attention from the fleeing ponies. I was wondering where all the guards were during this situation but things had been boring and it had been a while since I could stretch out my abilities. I noticed that the one leading the group in this area had orange eyes while the others were either green or blue.
“Well you seem to know how to pick on defenseless ponies, but let’s see how you deal with someone that has more experience in combat.” I crack my neck as I glare at them as they watch me in confusion. They recover pretty quickly and start to ram into my shield which gave me an idea. Thinking back to when the parasprites were in Ponyville I cast the same spell which I had improved upon since then while allowing my fiery aura to be visible.
When next the orange-eyed one ran into my shield it became stuck to it and couldn’t break free causing the others to pause. “Well what are you all waiting for; get me off of this thing!” At his orders one of the other changelings grab ahold of him, at least his voice suggested a him, but it also became stuck and couldn’t remove its hoof from the other. “Well, well, well. I didn’t expect that to work so well but this is just perfect. Now we can really have some fun now.” At this I start laughing in a way that makes him very worried and his eyes widened dramatically when I shifted back into my kitsune form with full flame effects. “Wh-what are you? What do you mean by fun?”
I just give him the creepiest smile that I can as I raise the shield to be entirely above ground and I take a step back rocking it in that direction. When the changeling feels this, combined with my smile he starts to panic. “N-n-no… You wouldn’t!” I just keep smiling as I walk forward as his eyes just continue widening. And then the screaming begins.
The other changelings are frozen in place for a second before they all start to run away from me. That tiny delay was just long enough for me to build up the speed to catch up with the stragglers and add them to the growing mass around me. “Mwuahahahaha! Run! Run little changelings! Run from the Great Ball of Fire!”
I had never allowed myself to have this much fun in years, but having lived in Ponyville for nearly two years had changed me. I kept full control over my powers so that nothing was seriously hurt by my actions like I promised Celestia, but this situation was the first time I felt I could really go all out. The changelings on the other hand would argue with my definition of hurt as they were thrown into a panic as I rolled through their ranks.
Some of them tried to blast the shield down with magic, but by this time I had gathered a small layer of changelings as additional protection so they were hit more than my shield. Their chitin hide was enough to protect them from the blasts as their compatriots were holding back, which helped me conserve my own energies. I found that keeping them attached to the shield when I crashed into anything seemed to drain me more than usual, so I started letting them scatter off whenever I did to give me short rests as well as allow me to see where I was.
I did manage to keep the orange-eyed one with me since I started as he was rather entertaining. “You crazy mare let me off of this thing! Help me! Somepony help! Queen Chrysalis, the Royal Guards, Mommy!” I just kept laughing through all of this as I rolled through the city causing chaos in their ranks, though I sometimes distracted the guards as I rolled on through but luckily the changelings were too busy running and screaming.
I lost track of how many changelings I had rolled over as I traveled through the city. Unfortunately for Citrine Eyes, the orange-eyed changeling, I hadn’t found anyone more entertaining than him. I soon found myself rolling through the areas around the castle and I soon spotted some familiar figures.
Twilight and her friends were fighting their way through a large group of changelings themselves towards a large tower. Since I was here I decided to lend a paw and rolled on in their direction. “Heygirlsnicetoseeyousorrycan’tstaytotalkbutI’monarollhere!” I think I actually gave Pinkie Pie a run for her bits in talking speed there but I was moving too fast to really take my time. Glancing back I saw that my appearance had surprised four of them enough to cause jawdrops in them, while Pinkie was rolling around laughing and Twilight was facehoofing.
I just laughed even harder at their reaction as I rolled on through the area. I kept up spreading chaos among the changelings until I started to feel myself running a bit low on magic. I decided to take a break in a nearby building, but considering the door was closed I had to crash on through it.
Of course doing this drained me of the rest of the energy I had, collapsing the barrier around me and releasing all the trapped changelings that were still there. I was able to get at least one more chuckle out of Citrine Eyes at least as he took of screaming. “Freedom! I’m finally free!” He took off through the city screaming out things like that, though his path wasn’t very stable due to how dizzy he must have been by now.
Looking around the building I was surprised to see that I had crashed some sort of wedding. I noticed that the pink alicorn I had seen before was there, as well as Princess Celestia in a green cocoon and a really big female changeling. “Well fancy meeting you all here. You’re looking a little green there Princess Celestia. I’d stay to chat, but I think I need to head over there and collapse for a while.”
With that I wobbled over to a nearby corner and collapsed into it. I caught sight of Twilight in her friends being led in, but I was too tired to do anything and just fell asleep.
<><><><><><><>
I awake a couple days later to find myself in a rather fancy room and that someone had brought all my things to it, probably Pinkie. I still felt a bit drained, but it was nowhere near as bad as when I was in the hospital and I could feel that most of my magic was already back. Looking out the door I was surprised to find myself in the castle, and that there was a pair of guards at the door, though one left on seeing me.
It turns out that there was a standing request to notify Twilight when I awoke, as she soon arrived with her friends. They brought with them a few messages from the three alicorn princesses as well. The pink one who was named Cadence wanted to thank me for my efforts during the attack, as well as requested to meet with me at a later date. Luna and Celestia also sent messages of thanks, though the Princess of the Sun’s message made it as if she was still annoyed with me. They were all currently indisposed, Cadence for the obvious as it was her wedding, Celestia due to court matters, and Luna because she was still helping the guard which is where she was during the battle.
Once that was done with the six started asking me all manners of questions regarding what I was doing that day. As I told them I had them all going between various stages of amusement to horror at what I was doing. Of course as I hadn’t shown this much ability before, barring the time I saved Scootaloo, I was left with a threat from Twilight of an examination. I knew she didn’t mean it that way but she tends to go a bit overboard with any type of study.
After I had finished they finally told me their side of things which really told me how much of a threat the changelings could have been. If they could make themselves believable enough to fool not only the princesses, but to also force friends to turn against one that sees through the disguise then they weren’t to be trifled with. I wondered out loud if that odd feeling I got from a few guards when we arrived was linked to them, just to be pounced by Twilight as she had been trying to figure out future counter-measures to them.
She then proceeded to drag me off elsewhere to help out with what she was doing, but thankfully I was saved later on by Rarity as she retrieved the purple unicorn so she could sleep and get ready for the coming Gala. I was able to crawl into bed soon after making sure my things were prepared as well.
I awoke late the next day, as I had been kept up most of the night, by Rarity as she wanted to help me prepare for the event since it would be my first time at such a public event. While she helped prepare me for it she explained the plans that the six had made, and how they were going to stick together most of the night. I decided to do the same except for when I went to speak with Princess Luna.
While fiddling with the gem to switch the outfit colors she noticed that the sapphire design didn’t look as bad as she would have though with my current colors. She muttered something about how the near purple blue of the gem must help it out. Soon enough I head everything on and was waiting in the room for the other to finish their preparations before heading out. They were surprised that I had been invited by Luna, as neither I nor Rarity had told them yet, and were impressed by Rarity’s design for me.
When we arrived at the palace I noticed many of the ponies were giving me odd or fearful looks. I wasn’t sure if it was because word of me had spread, or the opposite but I was feeling a tad out of place. Luckily I wasn’t the only oddball around as Spike had also shown up for this as well.
Princess Celestia was surprised to see me there, since I guess her sister hadn’t said anything. S looked a bit annoyed, but she still greeted me with a message of not causing too much trouble while I was there. After hearing about what happened last time, as well as still being a bit tired from the invasion, I didn’t plan on doing much at all.
I was actually glad that the others were there as I quickly found the event to be rather boring. It was a good thing that they had some tasty food there, even if the portions were so small. I managed to empty a tray of egg halves, filled with some yellow filling that was then covered with the paprika I brought, with the help of Spike and Rainbow Dash. I was about to go off and track down Princess Luna to see why she wanted to see me, when a blond-maned white unicorn bumped into me from out of nowhere and just made a rude comment before continuing on.
I glared after him and noticed that Rarity was doing the same. I realized that this must be that Prince Blueblood she mentioned from her last time here and I couldn’t resist doing something as he still seemed to be as unbearable. I gave a wink to Rarity as I nodded towards the Prince as I cast a small spell on him that I had read about once. Her eyes widened as she realized I was planning something, but it looked like she couldn’t decide between smiling or frowning about it.
We followed after him at a safe distance as he found a group he was looking for and started talking with them. The effects of the spell quickly became apparent as they talked. “So do you have any plans for after the Gala, Prince Blueballs?” The pony slapped his hooves over his mouth as he said this and the area around went really quiet. Prince Blueblood responded angrily to this. “You dare call me Prince Blueballs? Me, Prince Blueballs nephew of…”
He stops when he realizes that he did it as well, and every time he tried to say his name that was all that would come out. Others tried to say it as well to the same effect. Soon enough laughter was rippling through the area at him as his face first went red and back to paler than before. He soon ran out of the ballroom being chased by the laughter of all the ponies around. Rarity did her best to keep from laughing as she said it wouldn’t be ladylike, but she was hard-pressed and still a titter or two escaped.
After reassuring her that it was only a temporary spell and should wear off in an hour I took my leave to try and find Princess Luna. Luckily one of her Night Guard was waiting outside of the ballroom and was about to come and find me so he led me to a private meeting room. I took a seat to wait for her to arrive and thought about why she wanted to see me tonight.