My next day sitting with Twilight was Friday. My friends were too busy to drop by, so the two of us were preparing to go play in the park after our usual reading session. Twilight had been practicing magic again, I had been far too distracted to try to help her. This time she was able to turn a book's page, while levitating it, all by herself, albeit with great effort. Watching her strain and squeeze herself was darkly amusing, I would never dare admit I got a kick out of watching it, and yet, she would do it a little less each time. Her progress was amazing.
We were going out a little late that evening and, as I looked out the window in the study, I could see several very well attired ponies leaving their homes and heading in the direction of the palace. The garden party was a really big event, not quite Gala big but still big. Everypony who was anypony was going to be there, and anypony who was really anypony was going to the pre-party party. Presumably there was another party before that for anypony who was more pony than anypony else, and so on until there was a party held the day after the previous year's party attended by the most elite of the elite of the elite of the elite of the -
I checked my bag before we headed out, making sure there were some bits in it for ice cream later. The money tended to get lost in the shuffle, I couldn't find it but I could hear it jingle when the bag moved. The shaking was somewhere near the bottom so I tore through it looking to find the elusive cash, to no avail.
"Why don't we just tip the bag upside down?" Twilight said, watching me as I went through the bag.
"Because then everything else would fall out. I just want the bits," I said back.
"Well then let me help! I can filter it, really!" she said.
I sized her up briefly before assenting. This would be a big challenge for her, she would have to create a magic filter to block any heavy objects from falling out, just letting the bits come out. Obviously I was going to help her without making a fuss about it, a great way to build her confidence, so I picked the bag up in my forelegs and cleverly held it up in front of my horn to disguise my spell.
"Ready?" I said.
"Ready!" she shouted back, her horn glowing softly as she concentrated.
I could see a wisp of a filter hanging in front of the bag as I turned it over, so I concentrated myself on reinforcing the filter. The bag tipped over and nothing came out, the filter held. I shook the bag slightly and the jingling bits made their way out, landing on the floor in front of us.
As I was preparing to lift the bag back right-side up delicately, as to avoid spilling anything else, a little card fell out of my bag and landed next to the bits. I didn't put that in my bag.
Twilight took a look at the card before I got the chance to, eagerly reading anything with text on it. She cleared her throat and read it aloud.
"VIP Special Garden Party Pass. V. Petalfeather, Curator. Full access." she said, turning to me. "What's a VIP?"
"It means Very Important Pony." I said, wondering at the card. Petalfeather?
Wasn't that the name of the -
Oh gosh.
I looked at the card myself and realized what this was. Burglary, violence, diplomacy, all were totally unnecessary now. Blackmail and subterfuge could suffice, I could either try to bluff my way into the party to see the unveiling or try to find Petalfeather and force her to let me in.
Or, I could politely return it and ask her to give me a favor. Why was the least exciting option always the most reasonable, and always the last one to occur to me? I would still need to bring Twilight along, we'd have to leave now if we were going to make it to the palace in time since there was no way I could afford a taxi.
"Oh hey Twilight, feel like going to a party with me today?" I asked her coyly, looking at the card.
"What's a party?" she asked me.
"You don't know? It's where a bunch of ponies get together and talk about stuff, and then eat tiny little things called hor'duerves," I said, basically summing up every party my parents had ever hosted. My friends and I would host 'gatherings' which were way cooler than parties, if only by virtue of not including adults.
"Why would I want to go to that?" she asked, completely earnest.
"Because... it's being held in the palace museum?" I replied.
She was ready to go within eight seconds, I counted. Smarty-Pants was surprised at the purple and black whirlwind that shot around the room, even as it gathered her up and tossed her onto its back.
Twilight and I left to head off towards the palace, with her in the lead like a puppy pulling on its leash. I had to restrain her constantly, using my voice of course, as she was a very reasonable puppy, but a puppy nonetheless.
We followed the crowds of well dressed ponies as they gradually converged upon the palace grounds, becoming thicker and thicker as they went. I checked the card I was carrying, it mentioned using the side door which I was not familiar with, so we broke off from the crowd as we approached the main steps.
There were a few guard ponies standing around the side of the entrance, an opening in the hedge that served as the palace's outer fence. Two of them were standing in front of the hedge, and one of them came up and addressed us as we got close.
"Excuse me ma'am, this area is off limits," she said to us as politely as possible.
Time to bluff.
"Oh well this card -" I said, holding the ID card up and trying to look innocent. If I was going to pretend like I was a member of the staff, I'd need to be the picture of confidence, since it'd otherwise be extremely unlikely that the museum curator was a teenager with a filly in tow. If I could bluff enough to keep her from reading the card I was in.
She stopped me mid-sentence and looked at the card. Damn. Her eyes opened wide. Double damn, time to run.
"Oh, this is Victoria's ID card! Where'd you find it?" she asked us.
"She left it in my bags, I was going to give it back to her," I said. Twilight remained mum the whole time, staring in awe at the fully attired soldier pony in front of us.
"That's great, I'll go get her for you. Stay right here," the guard said and jogged off. Twilight's eyes followed the trooper as she left, I noticed her slack-jawed adoration resembled her brother's behavior for some reason. Must be a role-model thing going on there.
The guard returned to her post a few moments later and a familiar mare, white with a brilliant pink mane, trotted around the corner. Victoria rushed right up to me and gave me a big kiss on the cheek. I recoiled a bit at the sudden expression of affection, but it was genuine, I could tell. Victoria's face was shining brighter than the sun.
"I knew it! I knew it! I'm so glad it's you, thanks so much Cadence," she said.
"For what? I just brought back your ID card," I said back. Honestly, her sudden outburst was out of place, except for the fact that this pony didn't do anything in half measures.
"You did?" she asked, looking down at me as I pulled the card back out and held it in my mouth for her to examine. "You did! That's even better, haha! Perfect, couldn't have gone better if I had planned it!" she exclaimed.
This wasn't going anywhere even close to how I had planned. In truth, one of my fantasies involved Twilight and I beating up a group of about a dozen guards as they rushed us one at a time, battling our way to the statue to rescue it from the tyranny of the royals. We had some terrible one-liners rehearsed, like Twilight pulling a rug out from one of the soldiers and shouting "Have a nice trip, see you next fall!", or me throwing ninja stars and pinning a guard to the wall, and then saying "Stick around, I'm a sharp-shooter."
I think Twilight's storybooks are rubbing off on me.
"Oh, since you're here, would you like a quick tour? I'm sure I could slip you in to see that statue you wanted to see," she said. She leaned down in front of me and gave me the biggest, most obvious wink in the history of bad acting. This pony was a character, and didn't care who knew it.
"What do you think Twilight?" I asked. I looked over at her to see she was gone. "Twilight?"
She was already most of the way up the stairs to the side entrance, Victoria and I ran to catch up with her as the guards politely stepped to the side. Never get in front of a charging bull.
Fortunately, Victoria managed to restrain the filly by taking her to the various exhibits which had been put out for the party and explaining them all slowly and calmly. I patiently waited and listened alongside her, but I couldn't concentrate. I kept looking at the other statues and pots and kept wondering which one it was. There didn't seem to be any statues of a princess, except the big one of Princess Celestia that was always adorning the doorway.
Party guests had started to filter in, talking to one another and eating the snacks that some waiters were carrying around. Victoria began to develop a crowd around her as she discussed the exhibits, each of the ponies politely stamping their hooves after each explanation. I tried to remain inconspicuous, and my lack of a dress meant I may as well have been invisible to these snobbish types.
Finally, after most of the guests had entered and most of the exhibits had been explained, Victoria whispered in my ear. "All right, time for the big show. Want to help me bring it out?"
Ah, of course. It was such a big deal, she had left it somewhere else and would unveil it once everypony was here.
"Of course! Just lead the way!" I nearly shouted. "Twilight, let's go!" I said, turning to find, once again, she had dashed off on her own.
Fortunately, she wasn't too far away. The same guard from earlier had come in to the party hall and Twilight was attempting to talk to her.
"So you're a soldier right?" Twilight asked her, very bluntly and directly.
"That is correct ma'am," the darkly colored trooper answered back.
"My brother's gonna be a soldier too! Do you know him?" Twilight did not break eye contact with the trooper as she stared up at her.
The guard shot a quizzical look at Victoria. I saw Victoria nod out of the corner of my eye, and the guard turned back to address Twilight.
"I might. Want to go check the duty roster? He might be on duty today," she said, heading over towards a list on the wall with names scribbled on it. Twilight turned back to me.
"Cadence, I'm gonna be over here checking up on my brother. Will you be okay without me?" she shouted at me. I just waved at her, and she hopped after the guard towards the big list. I figured she'd be all right with the guards watching her, and it'd give me enough time to get a look at that statue in private. I wasn't quite sure why I didn't want Twilight to see it all of the sudden, it seemed silly since it was a statue and she'd never understand it herself.
I tried to ignore all that as the excitement built up from my stomach, anticipation better than a million incoming presents all at once. I also had to pee.
Victoria led me away from all the pretty party ponies towards a glass doorway in a darkened corner of the party hall. A sign on the door read "Exhibit Storage: Staff Only", no light came through the doorway. She opened the door and stood aside, playfully stating, "After you."
I walked in the room and she came in just behind me, the darkness around me preventing me from seeing the statue. A voice, not Victoria's but very similar, came from behind me.
"Well, this is it. Are you ready?"
I suddenly wasn't sure. I wanted to see it badly, just, asking the question seemed so strange. To her, wasn't this just a very rare piece?
"I'm ready"
A light came from above as a skylight slid to the side, magic opening it and allowing the fading sun to illuminate the room in a shaft of light. In the center, perfectly lit, was a stone statue.
Except, the statue wasn't restored. I could see some hooves, standing in a reared-up pose, and what appeared to be the base of a sword attached to the podium. There was some plaster infilling that made up most of the body, with more stone making up a foreleg. The head was missing. The statue was almost totally incomplete.
"What? I don't understand, you said I could see the statue!" I said, preparing to protest. I did not turn around, I could not look away from the statue.
"You can see it. Only you know how. Go on, do it," came the voice from behind me. So familiar, why couldn't I turn around to see it?
No time, I knew what she meant, somehow. I closed my eyes and concentrated again, bringing about the sight beyond sight.
As I looked at the statue in my other vision, a million specks of light brought out its true form. The base of the statue was quite accurate, outlined by stars against a black background of space. The statue stood in the pose of a warrior, and that of a poet, with one hoof gripping her sword in a down position, and the other hoof extended outwards in the universal sign of forgiveness.
I was no art critic, but I understood the meaning just the same. The statue had been commissioned to remind all those who saw it that the only good warrior is the reluctant one. The Princess held her hoof up first, the sword was the tool of last resort. She would always try to give life, and only give death if there was no other way. I studied the body of the statue in detail as I moved my gaze upwards towards the face.
The details of the sparkles which composed the piece in this realm were amazingly accurate. Finer than any painting, I could see the wrinkles and curves of her face. Her expression was one of mourning. Her face was mine.
The statue's likeness was a mirror image of my own.
And the void swallowed me up, and I was lost.