//------------------------------// // Chapter 22: Before the Trip // Story: Luster Dawn Friendship Successor // by SamSwordsman123 //------------------------------// Luster looked at herself in the mirror of Carousel Boutique as she tried on the outfit that she had planned to wear to the Grand Galloping Galla. Even though it was in a month, she was going on a long trip with her friends and wanted to have the dress already picked out to save a last-minute buy. The dress she had on was a flaming orange like part of her mane and suns like her cutie mark. Taking a look, Luster put a hoof to her chin. “Hmm,” she then smiled. “I think I like it!” “It’s really really pretty! Gallop will probably fall in love with you the moment he sees you in that!” River Song said from behind Luster. The Kirin had come with Luster to provide a second opinion on the dresses she tried on as well as get one for herself. “Whoa, easy River. This is just a dance for fun. I don’t expect us to fall in love or anything!” Luster said. “We’re just friends.” “For now!” River Song said with a smirk. “Don’t you want to find a special creature someday to spend the rest of your life with and have foals?” Luster hesitated. “I never really thought about getting married in my life. I’ve always been more concerned with studying and becoming a powerful spellcaster than anything else.” “Well you need to think bigger! Life isn’t all about spells and books!” River Song said. “There can be so much more to it. If you limit yourself to just a few things in your life, then you’ll get bored!” “Princess Twilight doesn’t have a husband or foal,” Luster said. “Who says you have to be exactly like Princess Twilight?” River Song said. “But I am!” Luster countered. “She said so herself, when she first started out on her journey she didn’t think friendship was important and she was a big bookworm too!” “Okay, you and her were very similar in that regard when she was your age. But that doesn’t mean you’re gonna end up some lonely princess without romance or family.” Luster sniggered. “Princess Twilight isn’t lonely! She has family, she just never married. Some of us aren’t so lucky or don’t have an interest in that. Besides, I’m probably not gonna end up a princess anyway.” “Well I think you and Gallop would be adorable together!” River Song said. “Well, for now I just want to have fun with all of you and learn everything I can about friendship.” “Friendships can always grow into something deeper. Same thing happened with Sandbar and Yona!” Yona said as she appeared pushing a row of dresses to another part of the store. “Now Yona and Sandbar married!” “Yeah,” Sandbar said as he dusted some of the shelves off with a feather duster in his mouth. Luster took another look in the mirror and smiled back at her reflection. Though she did notice something. “Hmm… if I want to impress Gallop maybe I should do something with my hair?” she asked. “So, you do want to impress him?” River Song asked. “Well… I do want to look my best at a formal event, right?” “Well, I’m sure we can find a hairstyle when we get back,” River Song said. “The dress is the important part.” “You’re right.” Luster removed the dress and took it up to the checkout stand. Sandbar immediately set his duster down and walked up behind the register. Luster handed him the bits required to buy her dress and waited until River Song picked out a dark blue dress with running water patterns before leaving the boutique. “Well, now that we got our dresses for the gala, we’ll be way ahead of the others,” Luster said as she carried the bag with their clothes inside. “Yelena and Georgia wanted to wait to get custom orders, but I think we got lucky with the dresses we found.” “I agree,” River Song said. The pony and Kirin wandered the streets toward the Everfree forest. As they walked, they saw a Pony sitting on the streets. He had a black coat, brown mane as well as blue eyes. On his flank was the cutie mark of a chalk board. “Good morning young mares. Could you spare some bits?” Luster hesitated. She tended to be weary of beggars and homeless ponies as many of them were just looking to prey on ponies that were overgenerous and eager to help those in need. But as she took a good look at this pony, she saw he was very much on the thin side with his ribs exposed. There was no mistaking that condition. She lifted her bag of bits from her saddle bag with her magic and gave him ten. “Oh, thank you very much Miss…” “Luster Dawn,” Luster said. “Well I always appreciate a generous pony Luster. The names Blank Slate.” Luster winced at the name slightly. She remembered an old donkey named Cranky Doodle from her fillyhood, and that Donkey hadn’t exactly been the cheeriest of sorts. Many ponies had names that seemed to reflect on their cutie marks, which was a reflection of who they were. That seemed a little ironic, as ponies would get their names before their cutie mark, and somehow those always ended up relating somehow. Luster had been born at Dawn, and she’d gotten a cutie mark with a sun. Her mother and father both had cutie marks of a star and sun as well as names related to those things. “Blank Slate?” she repeated. “Yep, my talent is undefined,” he grumbled. “Or that I’m simply not gonna do anything at all with my life. I don’t really plan to.” “Well that’s no fun!” River Song said. “How do you live without a plan to do anything?” Blank Slate shrugged. “Well, better than being miserable all the time so I can’t complain. Its not all bad, better to be blank than sad. Better than nothing, but I’m pretty much just stuck in a state of gray where everything is dull.” “Well, nice to meet you. I hope you find something to brighten your day,” Luster said. She and River Song neared the path to the Everfree Forest where they saw Georgia coming out. With her was the smaller Griffon Luster recalled seeing when she’d visited the School of Friendship on her move back to Ponyville. “Oh, Luster! River Song!” Georgia said as she saw her friends. “Hiya Griffons!” River Song greeted. “How ya doing Iggy?” The smaller griffon hid behind the larger one. Georgia laughed. “No need to be shy little brother. These are my friends. River Song goes to the School of Friendship remember? And Luster is Headmare Starlight’s daughter.” Slowly, Iggy stepped out from behind his sister. “Hello,” he said. “Hi,” Luster replied. “So, where you two griffs headed?” River Song asked. “Well, since we’re going to leave for our trip tomorrow, I wanted to drop Iggy off at his friends house so their family could watch over him,” the black griffon said. “Then I need to head over to Miss Fluttershy’s Sanctuary and make sure she will be okay with all the animals there while I’m gone.” “I didn’t know you worked with Fluttershy!” Luster said. “Oh, I forgot to mention it,” Georgia said. “Yeah, I work at the Animal Sanctuary as a job.” “Huh, that’ a bit of an unusual position for a griffon. Don’t most of you like to be treasure hunters?” Luster asked. Georgia frowned. “Yeah, most of my race has been about treasure for a long time. It’s given us a bit of a bad reputation. I don’t really care for treasure and wealth though, I prefer to help creatures. That’s why I left Griffonstone with Iggy and joined the School of Friendship.” “Well, we just got our dresses for the Gala!” River Song said. “Oh cool! Well I’ll see you guys at the Treehouse. I just need to head over to Sugarcube Corner.” * A few minutes later, Georgia met with Pumpkin Cake and Pound Cake who were overseeing the bakery. Pinkie Pie was once again in Canterlot, helping Princess Twilight plan the upcoming Gala. Cheese Sandwich was there with Lil Cheese though, along with Big Mcintosh and Sugar Belle’s son Big Sugar. The young colt with the pink mane immediately began bouncing up and down, throwing his rubber chicken while Big Sugar walked calmly behind. Iggy smiled lightly and flew over to play with his best friend. “Ah, Iggy! Georgia!” Cheese said as they came in. “Thanks for watching Iggy while I take a little vacation, Mr. Sandwich,” “Sure thing, I’ll make sure he has lots of fun with Lil Cheese and Big Sugar while you’re gone!” Cheese said. Georgia gave her brother a ruffle on the head with her claws, then flew to Fluttershy’s sanctuary. She found the yellow Pegasus flying around handing food to various animals such as rabbits, deer, and squirrels. Several of them ran up to Georgia as she approached and hugged her talons or jumped on her back. "Oh, good afternoon Georgia,” Fluttershy said with a kind smile. Georgia returned the smile. “Is everything alright here? I wanted to make sure you didn’t need any extra help while I was gone on my friendship field trip with Luster.” Fluttershy nodded. “No need to worry. I have the Lord of Chaos here to lend me a hoof, or paw depending on which limb it is.” Discord appeared through a portal and gave Georgia a grin. “I could do all the work around here with a mere snap of my fingers. The food would fly right up to the animals whenever they needed to eat. But my dear kind wife insists I don’t do that all the time since it would leave creatures like you with less work opportunities. But I will be for the duration of your vacation.” Georgia gave the draconequus a slight scowl but shrugged. “Well thank you very much. I appreciate you covering for me.” “Sure thing!” Discord grinned, before bringing his face eye level with hers. “You better keep a sharp eagle eye out for trouble while you’re out there with Luster. Don’t trust any creatures you don’t know. They could easily be Chrysalis in disguise.” “I’ll keep that in mind,” Georgia said before flapping her wings and flying home. Luster and River Song had already returned to the Treehouse of Harmony. Gallop and Yelena were there too. All of them had their saddlebags on their back. “Ah, we’re all here!” Luster said as Georgia entered. “Yeah, let me just grab my bag!” Georgia said flying up to her room and returning a few minutes later once she collected what she needed for the trip. “Well let’s go!” Luster said as she teleported them to Ponyville. They walked to the train station and got on board the one going to the Crystal Empire. But little did they know something bad was beginning there. * Grogar put his hoof on the Crystal Ball, and the image of Starcutter appeared. “Is everything ready?” the former Emperor asked. “Yes… my lord,” Starcutter said. “Very good,” Grogar said. “Begin the takeover of the Crystal Empire. Capture Princess Flurry Heart!” “At once,” Starcutter said and the crystal went blank.