“Alright, I think we’re all set.” Starlight ticked off the last of the boxes on her checklist, and Rose let out a thankful sigh. She and Rarity had worked their tails off in order to get all the decorations up, including dozens of lights and flower arrangements that hung from temporary pillars set up along the central aisle and also on the more permanent architecture in the area. The group had rolled out a long stretch of carpet down the middle, and garlands of flowers hung between the pillars overhead. The stage was simple, but elegant, with tasteful creamy coloured fabric draped as a backdrop behind the pedestal-like altar where Luna would stand as she officiated.
Rose shook her head to clear it of the morbid thoughts about Jeremy that were once again trying to spoil her mood. She refocused on Rarity’s story of her current client, a celebrity who was supposedly coming to the festival to sing, a Pegasus that was unironically called Songbird Serenade.
“Why, she thought the outfit was marvelous, of course, and ordered twenty for her backup dancers, and even asked for one for her own collection. She seemed so very pleased with my work.”
Applejack smiled at her marefriend, knowingly nodding along. “Well, they certainly looked good to me- not that I know enough about fashion for that to mean something, but mah point stands.”
Rarity beamed, pulling her marefriend in for a quick kiss before the conversations picked up again.
As the day rolled into midday, ponies started to fill the nearby streets- no longer decorating or preparing, but to enjoy the festivities, and for those who were invited- plus a great many who weren’t- a wedding to attend.
“Come on girls. We’d better go and get dressed if we’re going to be a part of this.” Starlight noted, looking at a clocktower a few blocks away. “I don’t want to miss the reception because we took too long talking about the latest issue of ‘insert popular magazine full of useless drivel here’.” Starlight grinned, making hoof-quote motions in time with her mockery of the tabloid industry.
“Yeah, if we ain’t careful, we’ll be featurin’ in the darn things ourselves!” Applejack guffawed. “Ah can see it now: ‘Princess of Friendship left alone by friends- too busy to give a buck!’” She spread her hooves out in front of her and assumed a wide-eyed look of wonder, as if beholding some gospel truth.
“Not like Twi isn’t managing the being alone thing by herself.” Rainbow grouched. “I’ve barely seen hide or hair of her all week.”
Starlight nodded, hopping down from where she had been reclining on the stage. “This thing has really eaten away at her free time. More than even her normal duties did.” The purple mare turned to stare up at the castle again, as if she could spot her mentor through the thick walls and colourful windows. “And to be honest, even before this came up, she was busy all the time anyway.”
“Indeed, but let’s not forget how important our Twilight is to Equestria.” Rarity hummed, dusting herself off and picking up what few items she had left from the stage setup. She carefully placed them in her saddlebags and closed the flaps with a flick of her horn and a toss of her silky mane, then broke into a steady trot. “Come now. It’s time that we cleaned up and got ready for the ceremony. We’ve left it late enough as it is!”
“Alright Rarity! Alright! We’re coming!” Rose laughed, quickly slinging her saddlebags over her barrel and jumping after the fashionista.
“Last one to the castle is a rotten egg!!” Rainbow screeched, before zipping off towards the marble towers.
“Ya darn cheater!! Get back here!!” Applejack yelled, galloping off after her.
Starlight watched them go with a chuckle and a shake of her head, enjoying the usual goofy rival antics her friends shared.
Rose stayed quiet for most of the trip back, thinking about what it meant for her sister to be getting married. What would it have been like for her and Jeremy, she wondered, allowing her contemplation's for a brief moment.
Those thoughts were immediately denied their time on Rose’s mind by a rush of air and the sound of rapidly flapping wings, though not the feathery swish of Pegasi or Gryphons, but the thick leathery fwoosh of dragons.
Rose let out a yelp as something large displaced the air behind her and sent her almost a foot skyward at the force of it’s landing. She twisted in mid-air so that she was facing the new arrival, and was greeted by a mouth full of razor sharp teeth and a scaled head covered with horns as thick as her legs. The Pegasus backpedaled immediately, wings flapping in a madcap scramble for safety from the terrifying monster that had just dropped out of the sky to devour her and her herd….. Rose blinked, momentary lapse of reason due to fear over, and she sheepishly chuckled, looking up into the amused eyes of the now nowhere near as terrifying looking dragon who had frightened her so easily.
The great reptile chuckled, a low rumbling sound akin to an earthquake, shaking his head at the skittish pegasus who scrunched up her muzzle behind her mane, hiding her face out of embarrassment.
“Wow, haven’t seen ponies do that in a while.” The voice that spoke was female, youthful but full of a confident charisma that made her sound authorative. If the blood red gem tipped staff in the speaker’s claw was any indication, she was authority, the Lord of all Dragons, in fact.
“Ember. Good to see you again.” Starlight smiled, though her expression quickly became a wary frown. “You do remember which pony I am, right?”
Ember frowned, looking at Starlight in confusion. “Uh, you’re Princess Twilight, right? You invited us?”
Starlight just sighed, shaking her head. “Every single time.” She muttered. “I’m Starlight Glimmer. Twilight’s student?”
“Uh….oh, right, yeah, different versions of the same colour, different butt marks. Both stars, but yours has a swirly blue bit in it.” Ember noted, clearly having to think pretty hard to come up with those distinctions. “Uh…...different mane?”
“Yes, I wear my mane differently than Twilight. Pretty much every pony does.” Starlight sighed, not interested in dealing with this kind of stuff on top of her organization role.
“So who’s this?” Ember asked, looking at the sandy coated mare with the pink mane who was still sheepishly staring at her own hooves.
“This,” Starlight brightened at the possibility of moving the conversation in a less awkward direction. “Is Static Thunder’s sister, Rose.”
“Sup, Rose?” Ember extended a claw in greeting, though she looked kinda odd, her posture a little too stiff. “Sorry about the scare earlier. Total accident. Honest.”
“No it wasn’t.” The larger dragon chuckled.
Rose looked at the offered claw and found herself reminiscing about fingers and their many uses. Like shaking hands without just sticking your leg out and waving it around like a moron once the dragon took hold of it.
Ember and her companion only stayed for a few minutes, before they made their excuses and left, taking off again and flying on up to the palace, leaving the group of friends to continue on their way. They trotted eagerly through the streets, admiring the tastefully chosen decor and open, inviting layout of activities and games for the festival. Pinkie was little more than a blur, seeming to be in about three different places at once at any given moment, soaking in all the smiles and good cheer going around.
As they were passing through the courtyard hosting the largest parts of the festival, the group overheard some familiar voices in the middle of a discussion.
“So, you’ve been building up support among the Gryphon nobles?” The voice of King Thorax drifted through the throngs of ponies. He was standing in front of a ring toss booth, a ring hovering in his magical grip as he talked with a Gryphoness, a brown coated, white feathered hen with dyed purple tips...or perhaps that was a natural colouration….
“Yeah, those dimwits can barely even concentrate on their own country they’ve been lazing around Equestria so long. I don’t think they’ve even set a claw across our border in their entire lives.” The hen groused, spinning her own hoop around her claws. “They’ve pretty much just foisted all the rebuilding and reorganizing on me and left me to it. I don’t think they realize that this reorganization puts me on top. I’ll be the first of a new line of royals, according to the Princesses.”
Thorax nodded, a small smile on his lips. “I know how you feel, Gilda. Ever since Queen Chrysalis left the hive, I’ve been left to pick up all the pieces, with only Pharynx to help- and he’s more focused on security than foreign relationships.”
“Well, this festival should make it a little easier for you to make friends.” Gilda smirked. “You already met up with the Princesses for an official welcome yet?”
“Yeah, they told me to make the most of my time and enjoy myself before the wedding. I hope Static’s okay. She gets nervous in big romantic events.”
“You’d know, lovebug.” Gilda grinned, tossing her hoop without even looking at the pegs she was aiming for. The rule of her coolness held up, and the ring landed on a peg with a clank, spinning around it before settling down. The red and white maned pony brothers behind the prize booth winced at another win, having been made to follow the rules of the festival- which meant no rigging their games.
“Yeah, with her having been in the hive for so long, I kinda got to know a lot about how she works.” Thorax replied, nervously tossing his ring, only for it to bounce off of the peg and drop to the floor. The king frowned, but continued the conversation as he picked up his last ring. “Even with two years of being a pony, she hasn’t gotten over that.”
Gilda shrugged. “Some do, some don’t. Never been into romance much anyways. What about the hive though? How are you holding up?”
As Thorax started to explain some of his more recent problems, Rose, Starlight and the Elements got out of earshot and missed the rest of the discussion, though they didn’t miss seeing other Changelings, Gryphons and young Dragons dotted around the festival, exploring the games and food vendors with obvious delight, the dragons particularly distracted by the supply of gemstones that had been brought out for them. They weren’t quite as pleased to learn they had to share, but they did reluctantly agree to do so, as per the Dragon Lord’s instructions.
When they finally made it to the palace, they were met by some maids, who had been instructed to help them get ready for the wedding ceremony however they could. Each pony was led off in a different direction, to separate rooms where their dresses were waiting for them.
“One hour to go…..” Rose beamed, as she looked into the mirror…
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Not so far away, a Unicorn was pacing the floor of her quarters, armour rattling as she waited for the announcement, for the orders that she dreaded.
She didn’t want this.
Ever since she had made the mistake, the mistake of trusting him, she had done everything she dared to slow down his hungry expansionist tendencies. She’d been lenient with those who disobeyed him, chosen to disregard kill orders in order to save lives, even objected to a few plans that had involved outright slaughter of innocents.
But then she had come, with gifts and sweet words from her ‘master’ to the King. That Reindeer…..A few words from her and all of Tempest’s hard work to delay the King were ruined. Now he was gunning for her homeland, and wasn’t tolerating any foolishness on her part- hence why she was confined to her quarters in full armour plate which chafed and made her bleed.
The only other creature in the room was Grubber, the only Jotunn she truly trusted, since he was a runt and often sneered down at by his brethren, making him as much an outcast as she was. He was munching on some food he’d secreted from somewhere, occasionally offering some to the nervous young mare as she passed him by as he sat on her bed.
Tempest couldn’t help but glare at him every time his eating started to annoy her, which was every other pass she made. And why shouldn’t it annoy her? The Storm King was about to launch an invasion of her homeland, making her announce his arrival, the pompous ass, and enslave her people. She couldn’t bare to look the pony slaves he already had in the eye. Their miserable or angry stares ate into her soul and did their best to draw blood with every bite. There had to be some way. Some way to fix this. Some way to stop this. Some way to-
“WILL YOU STOP EATING?!” Tempest’s half strangled scream made the little Jotunn jump in place, sending a bag of potato chips flying all over her bunk. “How can you possibly be hungry at a time like this?!”
Grubber swallowed his last mouthful before starting to clean up the mess he’d made. He looked back at her over his shoulder with a frown. “I eat when I’m stressed. You know that, Temp. Honestly, I always wonder how you can’t eat at times like these.”
Tempest snorted, turning away from her associate before she let her frustration get out of hoof. “Canterlot is in the middle of celebration that’s about to be invaded, and I want to help them, but the moment I put so much as a hoof out of line, the King will have his men kill me.” She looked out of the small porthole, which showed nothing but darkness thanks to the ships concealment. “What do I even do? I try not to hurt them, Gaul kills me. I go after them like he wants, they do their best to kill me and probably do. I don’t do anything, Gaul kills me. I try to run, Gaul hunts me down and takes great pleasure in skinning me alive. I...I’m doomed, no matter what I do.”
“You know we’re in the same boat, right? Not just literally.” Grubber asked, dumping his ruined snacks into a small basket that served as a waste bin. “If I don’t do as he says, Gaul’s gonna use me to play hoofball.”
The image of Grubber being punted around a hoofball pitch wasn’t nearly amusing enough to lift her mood, leaving Tempest as miserable as ever. “It feels like my life is one long nightmare, and I can’t ever wake up.”
Grubber stayed silent, instead just feeling the stillness of the airship as it sat, waiting to fly again.
Tempest could see that city on the mountain becoming her grave. She bowed her head, not wanting to admit how terrified she was. Then she felt the ship lurch, the sound of the engines roaring to life jerking her thoughts right to where they didn’t want to go. She met Grubber’s eyes one last time before a Guard opened the door, instructing them to meet the King.
This was it.
Death was coming to Canterlot.
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