While Clear Cut and Fleur were revealing everything to the Special Forces unit assigned to Sparkler’s protection and Fancy, Blueblood and a few other Ex Nobles were walking through the Everfree Forest in the outskirts of Ponyville. One of the Ex Nobles gulped. “Uh, Blueblood? Are you sure we should be doing this? I mean, we’re in the freaking Everfree Forest for Faust’s sake.” They said.
“Oh relax will ya? It’s night time, the monsters are asleep.” Blueblood responded.
“Still, maybe we should go back—“
“No!” Blueblood growled. “This Forest holds the key to getting rid of that falsicorn. And then taking the crown for ourselves. If Auntie Celestia is willing to hoof the crown over to an imposter, then clearly Alicorns are no longer fit for royal duty at all. It’s time to sweep away the old guard and install a new ruler.” He said with a chuckle.
“You mean this is a plan to take over Equestria?” Another Ex Noble asked, shocked.
“It’s the only way to get the treasury unlocked and finally have our Summer Sun Celebration in Canterlot. Where it’s SUPPOSED to be.” Blueblood responded.
The other Ex Nobles glanced at each other, and gulped. In truth they felt this was rather extreme, but they also wanted the Falsicorn gone. And Blueblood had the most solid idea to do so when all else had failed. So they continued on following Blueblood.
The next day, in the ballroom in the castle of friendship, the music faded out, signaling the end to a Harmonic Medleys performance.
Once the new song concluded, the kids, babies, Spike, Raven, Fleur and Fancy all applauded. Sparkler and her bandmates smiled and bowed. Flash smiled and turned to the newest Harmonic Medley, Chroma Keys. “Wow. You really live up to your stage name, Princess Press. You got your part of the song down to a T.” He said.
Chroma laughed. “Flash, Please, just call me Chroma.” She said. “If my fans want to call me that. Ok, but my bandmates are to use my given name Chroma Keys.” She said.
“Whatever you say Chroma.” Sparkler responded. She shivered a little. She still couldn’t believe the best keyboard player to ever exist was a member of their band. Ok, now I can look back at this week and pick something out that WASN’T me wearing a crown. She inwardly sighed in relief. While true that this week wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be, something she could thank the Ex Nobles for because they HATED her. She was still worried that she would have to file this under “weeks she might actually change if given the chance.” Now it was becoming increasingly unlikely she’d have to do that.
Raven smiled and glanced at her clipboard. “Alright, if practice is finished, it’s time for you to fulfill your next Royal duty. Make sure everything is set for tomorrow.” She told Sparkler.
“Right.” Sparkler responded. She lit her horn and summoned the crown. She crystalized the moment it touched her head. After the crown was settled on her head, Sparkler started for the door. “Let’s stop in with Starlight and Trixie and see how their progress goes.” She said.
Raven nodded and the two of them trotted off, after Baby Twilight was safely riding Sparkler’s back. Fancy smiled. “Nice to see her finding her flow.” He commented.
“Was rocky at first but she found her center.” Cadence responded.
“Boy do we have a progress report for you.” Starlight said when the three ponies entered the room.
Trixie, despite her telling Starlight the other day that she WOULDN’T, got her first look at Baby Twilight and started laughing. “Ha! Aww look at poor Wittle Baby Twily.” She said. “This is priceless.”
Twilight deadpanned while Sparkler and Starlight facehooved. “Trixie!” Starlight said sternly.
Trixie continued laughing, until a blast of magic hit her and enveloped her in magenta smoke. The smoke quickly cleared to reveal Trixie was not a pony anymore, but rather a blue FROG!
When the smoke cleared and Starlight, Sparkler saw what they knew Twilight had done, it was their turn to laugh. Twilight too.
Trixie saw them laughing and raised an eyebrow. “What’s so funny?” She asked.
Starlight made a reflective surface appear out of nowhere in front of Trixie to see her froggy self. “What goes around comes around.” Starlight responded.
Trixie got one look at herself and screamed. “Eeek! I’m a frog!” She exclaimed.
“Probably as revenge for laughing at Twilight.” Sparkler responded.
Trixie scowled at the laughing Twilight. “Alright Princess. You had your laugh. Change me back now.” She demanded.
“Yeah. I don’t think she understands that.” Sparkler responded. Twilight was still a laughing mess.
Starlight lit her horn and changed Trixie back into her pony self. “Next time don’t do something I tell you not to do.” She told Trixie.
“Fine.” Trixie responded.
Starlight nodded and turned to Sparkler. “Now that we got that out of the way, progress update!” She said. “Through our spell analysis from the residual energy left behind, we’ve learned that the spell that Flurry used is a spell that we can’t undo easily, but the magic is wearing off slowly and once it does we should be able to get them back to normal.” She said.
“Good.” Sparkler responded.
“Any idea when the spell will wear off?” Raven asked.
“Not for a few weeks.” Starlight revealed.
“WEEKS?!” Sparkler and Raven exclaimed. “Starlight, PLEASE tell me you have a shortcut.” Sparkler pleaded.
“Yep. We do. We can overpower the magic if we fire a concentrated age spell for a continuous period. We’re currently testing to see how much is required.” She explained.
“Couldn’t we just get all the adult horned ponies we can and overcompensate?” Sparkler asked.
“No, because too much magic and we could risk making the affected ponies too old.” Starlight responded.
“That makes sense.” Raven responded.
“Ok, let us know when you have the answer.” Sparkler said.
“Aye aye Sparkler.” Starlight responded.
Sparkler nodded as she Raven and Twilight left.
Out in Ponyville, Sparkler and Raven walked side by side, headed to the area where the actual Celebration was taking place along the way ponies who were passing them waved. “Hey Sparkler!”
“How’s it going?”
“Looking forward to tomorrow!”
“You’re doing great!”
Sparkler smiled sheepishly at the praise she was getting. Raven smiled too. “Sounds to me like IF you needed to be Acting Princess for just a little longer. These ponies wouldn’t mind.” She said.
“It’s nice to know my approval ratings won’t be an issue in Ponyville. Still, this is more Celestia’s angle than mine.” Sparkler responded.
The trio approached the area where the Celebration was taking place. There were tents and ponies bustling around getting everything ready. They eventually made it to the stage and got Flagged down by Vinyl, who was at her DJ station setting it up. “Yo Sparkler! Are the Harmonic Medleys playing tomorrow?” She asked.
“You know it Vinyl!” Sparkler responded happily. “Even got a new bandmate for the occasion.”
“Sweet!” Vinyl responded. “Can’t wait!”
Sparkler smiled as Raven bit her lip. “Ahem. Sparkler, have you considered that maybe you won’t be able to perform tomorrow?” She asked. “If Celestia and Luna aren’t returned to normal today you might have more important things to do tomorrow.” She said.
Sparkler took a deep breath. “Raven, I have spent the past week of my life fulfilling princess duties. And the Harmonic Medleys have been preparing for this since Celestia recruited us. Mark my words, I will not sit this performance out. Whatever’s on the schedule at that time will just have to wait.” She explained sternly to get the point across.
Twilight from behind Sparkler stuck her tongue out at Raven. Raven’s eyes widened, before nodding. “Very well.” She said. “I guess you’ve earned a break after this week.”
Sparkler nodded in approval. Right then, they all heard screaming, followed by a loud roar. Everypony turned their heads to the source…and saw a two story tall monster approaching them. Everypony’s eyes widened. Raven gulped. “W-what is that?!” She asked.
Sparkler stared at the monster. “We’re in trouble.” She said.
To be continued…