As the group entered the Gala they where soon greeted by their tall white alicorn host as she said, "My dearest Twilight, it's always good to see you and your friends."
"Princess Celestia, I'm glad to see you too," said Twilight as she ran up and briefly nuzzled her former mentor.
"Speaking of your friends though, I believe you have a new one to introduce me too," said Celestia as she looked to the new girl.
"Oh, of course," said Twilight as she moved next to her saying, "Princess Celestia, I'd like to introduce you to Spinel."
Upon hearing the title again Spinel stepped forward and once again did the Diamond salute saying, "A pleasure to meet you princess, I'm Spinel Facet-4G2A Cut-3YT."
"The pleasure is all mine Spinel, and might I say that is an... interesting last name you have," said Celestia as while she retained her usual royal smile, she still felt slightly unnerved by what Luna said... and also the fact that Luna was somewhere around here watching all this. Celestia wasn't sure which idea freaked her out more.
"Haha, thanks," said Spinel as she gazed at the Princess with a slight grin. Something about the tall white figure seemed to primarily fill her with joy, but also a foreboding sense. It was as if she knew that the mare would be mostly kind to her but also had a rather vicious side deep down, which to be fair wasn't totally wrong.
Celestia also grinned back at her as she thought, "perhaps my sister is wrong after all," any thoughts like that stopped though when she suddenly heard a thud and saw Starlight hit the ground as Trixie immediately rushed to her aid.
"Oh my gosh, Starlight are you OK?" asked Trixie in concern over her potential marefriend.
"I.." began Starlight as she was unsure how to respond as her head ache had suddenly become worse then she had ever felt.
Trixie tentatively raised the mare back on her hooves, as Applejack said, "Need some help sugarcube?" not thinking the show mare could lift the other on her own.
To her surprise though it looks like Trixie's nightly gym trips are doing more for then just making Starlight notice her flanks as she got her back up with minimal effort.
Starlight glanced around at her concerned friends faces before getting to Celestia and having the head ache bear down even more. She shot her eyes and turned her head downward as she now had to fight the urge to vomit before choking out, "I'm... I'm not feeling so hot.. I think I need to lie down."
"Oh of course, you can use my old room in the west wing of the castle. It's far enough away from the Gala to where you'll be able to rest and of course has plenty of books to check out if you get bored," said Twilight as she approached the two before looking at the blue mare supporting Starlight as she said, "Trixie, can you help me carry her there."
Trixie only gave a quick nod as her concerned eyes never left Starlight's pained face.
The three marched as Celestia soon followed behind saying, "Oh dear, I better alert the castle staff in the area to make sure they know not to disturb her."
As the rest watched on, Applejack spoke up saying, "Shoot, don't that just beat all. Made it all the way to the Gala only to get sick the second she walked in. Poor girl."
"I saw she looked a little funny on the train, but I just figured it was because Trixie was looking at her kinda weird," said Rainbow Dash.
"I do hope she get's out of that dress before laying down," said Rarity resulting in glares from the others before she nervously continued saying, "Strictly for her own comfort of course. Not that I'm worried about how pale she looked and that she might get any bile on my gorgeous fabric or anything selfish like that." She then let out a nervous laugh before the others rolled their eyes and looked away.
"Golly, Starlight didn't look very well," said Spinel worried for her friend, as while she didn't fully understand what "sick" meant, she did know something was wrong with her. "Can we go check on her Pinkie?"
"We will, but for now we should probably give her time to settle in and rest for a bit. We can use that time to set up our instruments," said Pinkie as she tried to reassures Spinel, despite her also being worried about Starlight.
"Are you sure we should still do the show?" asked Spinel.
"Of course, Starlight would want us to have a fun time and I'm sure that she'll tell us that when we check on her in a bit," said Pinkie.
"Well... OK," said Spinel as the two walked out to the garden.
This left Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash alone in the hall as they looked at each other before Dash said, "Well you heard Pinkie, no use dwelling on this. Besides, I heard there was some hotshot Griffin here from the new Featherbeak flight team talking trash about the Wonderbolts, and I gotta to prove them wrong."
She then took off resulting in Applejack turning to Rarity saying, "We better keep an eye out in case she gets carried away."
Rarity simply nodded as they both went their separate ways.
Meanwhile in Twilight's old room.
As Trixie laid Starlight in the bed and helped put the covers on her, Starlight looked up at the three mares before her before closing her eyes again as looking at Celestia still made things worse somehow as she thought, "Must be the bright colors of her flowing mane giving me motion sickness or something."
She then rested her head on the pillow as she said, "Thank you all for taking me here... I'm not exactly sure what's wrong with me."
"It's OK Starlight, we just want you to feel better," said Twilight.
Princess Celestia nodded before saying, "Indeed. Now I'm sorry, but I have to get back to the Gala to greet the guests, but if there's anything you need feel free to ring the bell on the bedside table and the nearest member of the castle staff will be alerted. I had installed for Twilight after she got the feather flue."
Starlight simply nodded and said, "Thank you Princess," before she heard Celestia walk away and the door close. As soon as she heard that she opened her eyes and was greeted by a somewhat concerned Twilight and a very concerned Trixie who was still holing her hoof. As good as it felt she reluctantly pulled away as she said, "Thanks for bringing me here girls, I think I just need some rest. You two should go back to the Gala."
"NO!" said Trixie as her concern increased. "I can't just leave you alone when you're like this!"
Starlight wearily smiled saying, "Come on Trix, you shouldn't let me being under weather stop you from enjoying yourself. You should go down in that beautiful dress your mom gave you and find a pretty mare to dance with."
Upon hearing this Trxie was about to tell Starlight everything. How she was the only mare she wanted to dance with, how she wore this dress for her, how every moment since they met has been better than the last and how it's only now that she's realizing that the mare laying in bed looking like she's been through Tartarus and back is the mare she wants to spend the rest of her life with. All this and more she was about to say, only to be interrupted as Twilight placed her hoof on her shoulder and gestured for Trixie to come to the side with her.
Twilight whispered into Trixie's ear, "Look I know how much you care about her, but she wants to be left alone."
Trixie then half yelled half whispered, "No, you don't know how much I care about her!"
"Yes I do, Pinkie told me!" said Twilight back in another yell whisper.
"Oh..." said Trixie somewhat embarrassed.
Twilight then shied before whispering in her ear, "Look, what she needs right now is just to rest and relax so now's not the time for you to tell her what it looked like you where about to tell her."
"I guess... but I," began Trixie before realizing she had no answer for it.
"Look, for now we should head out and I'll try and help take your mind off this... and then maybe on Saturday Starlight will just so happen to be sent home early from work and maybe I leave a key under the mat in the castle and there just so happens to be all the ingredients for a nice romantic dinner in my kitchen," said Twilight as she briefly smiled at Trixie.
Trixie smiled back saying, "Thanks," before turning back to Starlight as she reluctantly moved towards the door saying, "Well I hope you feel better soon Starlight."
"Me too and if you need any of us feel free to ask the castle staff to get us and we'll come right away," said Twilight.
"Thanks girls, but I think I'll just need to grab a quick nap and I'll be fine," said Starlight as she weakly smiled at the two mares before they left the room. She then curled up in the blankets and shut her eyes. She thought to herself, "Well this sucks, but I'm glad they left to enjoy themselves." Soon though the voice from the back her head came forward as her thoughts simply turned to, "They left me... isn't that lovely, isn't that cool?"
Meanwhile in the Canterlot Garden.
Luna watched from the shadows of a nearby tree as Spinel and Pinkie happily set up a stage. Luna thought to herself, "Strange, I sense not the slightest bit of ill will from this creature. In fact I haven't sensed anything from her.... but that doesn't make any sense. If I can see her dreams I should at least be able to feel her emotions in the waking world, I-" Luna was then interrupted as she heard a scream of pain echo throughout the psychic realm and realized it was coming from in the castle. "Oh dear, I fear I may have been wrong in the worst possible way," thought Luna before she made her way into the castle to try and find the source of the scream which was starting to become quitter as whatever this thing was it snuffing out the creatures own mind to take over.
As Pinkie hung the last few ribbons on the side of her stage Spinel plugged in her guitar and did a brief sound check. "Almost ready Pinkie," said Spinel excitedly.
"Great, now I just gotta do my sound check and then we can-" began Pinkie but she was quickly interrupted by several shocked gasps and the sound of stuff breaking as the two turned to see Rainbow Dash having a very intense race with some unknown Griffon. Pinkie looked around only to see Applejack and Rarity struggling to move through the crowds to call for Dash to stop. "Shoot," she said before turning to Spinel saying, "I gotta stop Dash before she gets even more carried away. Spinel you wait here and finish up and I'll be back soon."
"No problem Pinkie," said Spinel as she watched Pinkie leave and grabbed her guitar to do a sound check. "I just gotta wait for her right here in the Garden and..." suddenly Spinel dropped the guitar as her arms began shaking. Soon her whole body nervously shook as she simply repeated the words "Here in the Garden." The image from before soon returned to her head as without thinking she stammered out, "He-here in the Garden le-let's play a game," before the image finally became clear along with everything that went with it as the tears began to flow and her Gem began to glow and turn.