//------------------------------// // At the Gala // Story: Starlight Glimmer Makes Many Mistakes // by MagicS //------------------------------// Thanks to Spike and Starlight being stuck in Canterlot far longer than they expected or wanted they ended up being around for the annual Grand Galloping Gala. It was only a few days away now and the castle was constantly busy with top-level planners and decorators going in and out. The catering was decided on, the wait staff was busy preparing, the musicians were rehearsing, and Starlight and Spike were bored. Sunset was busy finding the best dress and dance instructor possible, not wanting anypony to show her up at anything, and thus wasn’t bothering Starlight about teaching her at the moment. Both a blessing and a curse as Starlight and Spike had grown tired of sitting around in the castle with nothing to do. Celestia thankfully had not found out about the incident with the stolen Starswirl spell but after that mishap Starlight wasn’t taking any more risks for a while. She had quietly returned the spell with nopony noticing it was ever absent in the first place. “If we asked do you think Celestia would let us come to the Gala?” Spike suddenly asked Starlight from his position lying spread eagle on the carpet. Starlight raised an eyebrow, lifting up her head from her bed’s pillow. “Would you want to go? Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and everypony else told me that the Grand Galloping Gala was boring and stuffy unless something crazy happened.” Spike shrugged. “It would just be something to do.” “Hm. Well Celestia would probably be more than happy to have us.” Starlight said. “You know she’s probably bored at that party more than anypony else. She spends almost the entire time greeting guests.” “Yeah...” Starlight frowned as she thought about that. Celestia deserved a party to let loose at more than anypony but she had to spend it doing that? It didn’t seem fair. “Are you thinking about something?” Spike asked, not fully confident in her tone. “No, nothing right now.” Starlight sat up. “But we know Celestia, right?” “Uh, yeah?” Spike also sat up, giving her a quizzical look. “And she doesn’t like how the Grand Galloping Gala normally is?” Spike shook his head. “Nope, I remember she said they were always awful and she started inviting Twilight and Discord cause she knew they would make them more fun.” Starlight smirked. “Well then, what do you say we make this Gala a bit more fun for the Princess?” The dragon chewed on his lip, mulling it over for a second before sighing. “You know, we probably shouldn’t, and you’ll probably end up messing something up, but on the other claw Celestia really does deserve to have a good time. And she’ll probably be all over any pranks or craziness you have in mind. She loves a good prank too.” “Yes she does.” Starlight sinisterly rubbed her hooves together. “Well of course, Starlight. If you and Spike wish to come to the Grand Galloping Gala I’d love to invite you.” Celestia said while she chowed down on her morning stack of pancakes, Starlight having directly teleported into her dining room while she ate. “Thank you, I’ve heard such great things about the Gala. You really love it, right?” Starlight asked her. With zero change to her smiling, polite expression, Celestia answered her. “Of course. The Gala is the most important party of the year, I love putting it on.” She carefully forked a large bite of pancake into her mouth. “Okay, you don’t have to do that, I know you hate the Gala.” Starlight said. “Yes! I do!” Celestia suddenly exclaimed, dropping her fork to the table with a clatter and burying her head in her hooves so only her long horn stuck out. “It’s so boring and not a single, solitary one of those stuffy rich ponies knows how to have a good time!” Starlight had to hold back from laughing after seeing Celestia get like this. It was pretty funny seeing the noble ruler admit to such things and behaving in such a childlike way. “Well you’re in luck, cause I was planning on making sure this is a very fun party.” Starlight grinned at Celestia. The Princess peeked an eye out at Starlight. “What exactly do you mean by that?” “I’m just saying it would be a pretty fun and surprising party if say… somepony put hot sauce on some of the hors d’oeuvre’s? And maybe set up a bunch of confetti bombs along the ceiling? And switched the musicians sheet music so they were all playing something different?” Celestia had a twinkle in her eye as Starlight went on but she quickly composed herself. Sitting up and coughing into her hoof her face returned to its normal impassive look. “While all that sounds… interesting, I do not know if it would be appropriate to subject my guests to such things.” “Oh but you didn’t let me finish.” Starlight sweetly continued. “And what if somepony perhaps had a spell that could change another pony’s perfume or cologne into, well, any smell they wished.” Starlight smiled innocently at Celestia. “Speaking of which, doesn’t our favorite stick in the mud Sunset love to put on the most expensive perfumes for parties like this?” Princess Celestia’s eyes widened. “I’m in.” Starlight couldn’t help but giggle. “The thought of playing a prank on your student to good to pass up?” “Sunset could simply learn to loosen up a bit. This will be helpful.” Celestia’s eyes noticeably avoided Starlight’s as she said that. “Well I’ll let you finish your breakfast then.” Starlight chuckled. “And I’ll start preparing things for the big night.” "It’s a shame I’ll have to spend most of the night greeting guests.” Celestia sighed as she shoved another bite of pancake in her mouth. “Do promise you’ll keep things going a long enough time for me to see?” “Of course.” Starlight saluted before teleporting away. Princess Celestia continued eating her pancakes for a short while longer, a contemplative frown appearing on her face. “Maybe I should have shot down her suggestions. Most, or even all, of the guests certainly aren’t going to find much humor in these pranks.” Her frown quickly turned into a smile. “Well, that’s their fault.” The night of the Gala had swiftly arrived. Starlight had spent the previous couple of days preparing her surprises with Spike and going through every little piece of food in the kitchens and randomly putting hot sauce or chili powder on some of it. They had fake musical sheets written up that they’d switch out with the real ones once the Gala started and Starlight would briefly sidetrack Sunset before she arrived and use her spell to turn whatever perfume she was wearing into a pungent garlic odor. With another spell put over Sunset to keep her from smelling the change. Now she and Spike had on their fancy outfits and were preparing to head out. Starlight wondered if she would catch anypony’s eye, she knew there was already a lot of talk about her going around the circles of the upper crust here in Canterlot. But so far none had really come to try and make her acquaintance or learn just why she was such an important guest of The Princess’s. “Time to have some fun, Spike.” Starlight said to her friend. “Oh yeah.” Spike snapped his fingers. Starlight smirked at him. “Glad to see you’ve loosened up too.” “Hey, this is for Celestia. I’m making an exception.” “Right. Well we can go down to the party now, it would be best to get there before anypony else so we can watch the chaos unfold from the start. And I just need to stop Sunset outside the ballroom for a moment when I see her.” Starlight said. “Sounds good to me.” Spike agreed and the two made their way down to the ground floor of the castle. Taking a peak out at the main entrance to this part of the castle Starlight could see Princess Celestia standing at the top of a stairway, waiting for the nearly endless line of ponies to come in. Starlight couldn’t help but grimace in sympathy for her. To shake hooves and politely greet every single one while they went on to enjoy the Gala and you had to just stay there? Yeah, Celestia needed Starlight tonight. Starlight and Spike left the poor Princess on her own for now and went into the main ballroom. The caterers were set up, the musicians were ready to start at any moment, and Starlight’s surprises were all set up and undisturbed so far. Confetti bombs hidden under tables that would activate when a chair was pulled out, silly animal balloons that would drop from the ceiling when certain strings around the walls and support pillars were pulled, and a last minute addition in slime bombs that were strategically hidden in every table’s centerpiece that exploded if there was a loud enough sound nearby. “Okay Spike, everything looks perfect in here.” Starlight reached into her dress and pulled out pages of sheet music. “I want you to take this and replace the real music with it while I cutoff Sunset.” She hoofed it over to him. “Well okay but how am I supposed to do that exactly?” Spike asked. “I don’t know, make a distraction. You’re good at stuff like that.” Starlight said. Spike rolled his eyes. “Fine. I’ll think of something.” “Good. I’m off to get Sunset.” Starlight finished as she snuck right out the door. While Spike was left to his own devices Starlight made sure to go right in the direction that Sunset would come from. She hid in an alcove and waited for her target to come into view. It was difficult to hold back from snickering when she thought of everything that awaited the ponies attending the Grand Galloping Gala. While Starlight did primarily do this as a nicety for Celestia she couldn’t and wouldn’t deny the immense amount of pleasure she was going to be getting from the pranking that was about to happen. If only Trixie were here to see this. Finally her target arrived. Sunset looked exceptionally done up in a sleek purple dress. It was a very deep purple bordering on black and it sparkled with the brilliance of inlaid amethysts. Around her neck was a black choker and a heart-shaped red diamond at her throat. Simple and classy black slippers covered her hooves and her mane was styled to be far smoother with a nice wave to it. And as she walked by, Starlight could smell the rosy perfume coming from her. “Sunset! There you are!” Starlight said as she walked out of her alcove, coming up behind the teenager. Sunset’s head perked up and she looked over her shoulder at Starlight with an angry frown on her face. “What do you want?” “Is that any way to say hi to me?” Starlight said as she threw a foreleg over Sunset’s shoulders. “I just wanted to see what you were wearing to the Gala. We can both make our debut together now.” “I’ve already been to previous Galas.” Sunset said as she gingerly removed Starlight’s leg from her with her magic. “This is actually my first, and I plan to make it a very memorable one.” Starlight grinned. Sunset didn’t notice though thanks to her trying to ignore Starlight. Which was just fine for Starlight. Since Sunset was looking straight ahead now she didn’t notice the pair of spells Starlight fired onto her. One for her perfume and one for her nose. Starlight had to cover her mouth with her hoof to keep from laughing as the garlic odor already completely replaced the normal scent of the perfume. Sunset had no idea what just happened and she’d probably be quite confused the rest of the night about why other ponies were giving her such odd looks and staying away. Starlight might have felt a little bit bad for doing this but at least she wasn’t ruining Sunset’s very first Gala or anything. As the two of them now made their way into the ballroom the festivities were just beginning as other guests entered as well. It was only a matter of time now. Spike watched as the musicians argued for the umpteenth time about what happened to the real music sheets before trying their best to improvise. Starlight’s eyes were glued on Sunset who was glaring at any pony who met her gaze, the poor girl not understanding for the life of her why everypony else walked away and crinkled their noses when she got near. More than one guest was covered in confetti but so far there was nothing loud enough to trigger any slime bombs and all the balloons were currently unnoticed on the ceiling. “Nopony has been unlucky enough to eat any of the spiked food yet.” Starlight said to herself. After which her stomach growled. Spike heard it and looked up at her. “I don’t think we thought that part out very well.” “Hrm. Maybe.” Starlight hoped Celestia would be done greeting guests soon. If the Gala kept on being this boring Starlight was just gonna start activating all the traps herself. And while she was thinking that… “I say, Diamond Ring, what’s that string behind your head?” Silk Sheet asked her good friend, having just noticed the thread hanging there right by the wall. Diamond Ring turned around to look at the string in question, tilting her head. “It looks like a mini rope lever. I wonder what servants it summons?” Without a second thought Diamond Ring tugged on the thread, the net on the ceiling unfurling and allowing dozens of balloon animals to slowly fall to the floor. It wasn’t very impactful, more confusing than anything as the guests watched them float down. However that doesn’t mean they couldn’t lead to so much more. A balloon dog had fallen right behind a young Fancy Pants. Fancy Pants at the moment had been talking to some friends at a table and was completely unaware of the sinister balloon behind him. Taking a step backwards to excuse himself his hoof came right down on the balloon and popped it, creating a loud, well, “pop”. “What the-” Was all Fancy Pants could mutter before the slime bomb in the table exploded. Showering him and all the seated ponies in a disgustingly thick and chunky green slime. “My dress is ruined!” One of the ponies yelled. The poor mare started crying and running from the table… whereupon she ran right into a waiter, causing him and the tray of drinks he was carrying with him to come crashing to the ground, the loud sound of that causing another two slime bombs to explode and cover all the nearby ponies in the gross slime. Like a twisted set of dominos one piece of chaos led to another, more balloons fell from the ceiling as other strings were found, adding to the chaos and the confusion, a slime covered pony ran right into another table and caused all of the confetti bombs in it to shoot off as well. Sunset was downing an entire pitcher of water after having some unfortunate luck with a plate of plantains, unknowingly causing all the ponies in the vicinity to run from her awful garlic smell. The musicians had completely given up on performing a normal piece and were instead competing to see which one of them could play the loudest while a choir of screams from the party guests went off in the background. And lastly, Princess Celestia opened up the large doors leading into the ballroom and stood in the doorway. Happily taking it all in. “Do you think we went to far?” Spike asked Starlight as they hid under a table that had had its traps carefully removed. “Nothing’s on fire, so no.” Starlight answered. “I guess that’s fair.” Sunset would be very angry at breakfast the next day but Celestia had nothing but laughs to give and funny stories to share with Starlight about what she’d seen. Mission accomplished.