//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 - At the Gala // Story: One is All, and All is One // by Midnight Tales //------------------------------// "I’ll turn sadness and anger into strength" I drifted in and out of consciousness as I was carted off to the dungeons mostly because of a half hourly shot to the face with magic or hoof from what my bruises tell me, but those small moments of lucidity were filled with pain, not because of what small injuries I had gotten but because I probably ruined Millstone and the others lives. It couldn't tell how long I had been in their between the spells they cast on me and the hopelessness that filled my mind, as the sun began to set I was woken up to more guards arguing over some kind of rings before they poured some rancid liquid down my throat before placing rings on all of my fingers, shackles around my hands and ankles as they started searching my body. "Stand him up..." a voice echoed distantly. A transparent blue field filled my vision as I was lifted to my feet, a feeling of nausea overcame me as the field surrounded the rest of my body. in front of my was a white unicorn with what looked like a Roman centurion helmet made from gold with a decorate sun in the centre. "You have been charged with the use of dark magic, resisting arrest and three acc-" The guard said, a shock ran through my skull at his pause "You will look me in the eyes when I talk to you beast... Now as I was saying, you are also charged with three accounts of assault on royal guards, your case will be seen by her majesty Princess Celestia in five days before you are sentenced for your crimes". The next morning I woke up covered in sweat and acrid vomit, two guards pinned me down at my sides while a unicorn blinded me with a pale orange light. "Can you hear me?" a delayed feminine voice called from the unicorn. I tried speaking but my throat and lungs burned sending me into a coughing fit, when I finally stopped I looked back to the unicorn now noticing a red cross on her flank and nodded weakly. "Thank Celestia..." She sighed before telling the guards to get off me and left, locking the cell behind them. I laid there in my own sick and sweat for about an hour, thinking about my short time in Equestria, before I slowly crawled to the edge of the room. The guards returned with what I could assume was the nurse again a few minutes later who washed me up and gave me a once over with her magic. "I think I've found the problem..." She hummed rubbing her chin with a hoof as she focused on my hands for just a sec before looking at one of the guards, "Guard can you tell me how much of the suppressant was added?" The guards gave a nervous smile as he rubbed the back of his head "I may have added a little too much?". In an instant that nurse was possibly the scariest thing in the world, she berated the guard into a quivering wreck of tears and piss in under a minute before he ran away "DON'T YOU RUN AWAY FROM ME! I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU!" the mare yelled as she chased after him even more pissed than before. I suddenly noticed the other guard had come over to my side of the cell and was just staring at the door for a minute before he shook his and left after leaving a wooden plate of brown mush and a cup of water. Over the next few hours I managed to keep down what that brown crap was and decided what I would do. Escape, because there was no way in hell I was going let myself be imprisoned for life or given the death sentence. I learned from one of guards there was some massive party going on tonight to celebrate the construction of their castle, built in honour of the two princesses for defeating some evil villain or something. Anyway the gala would include guests from Zebrica and The Griffin Kingdoms so some guards would be pulled from the dungeons to be extra security detail for the night for either extra protection or a show of strength. I managed to get a guard to give me a piece of chalk to "entertain" myself with if I didn't cause any trouble for him tonight. Stupid rookie. How can he be this stupid? Seriously, It almost makes me feel bad for tricking him... Almost... The chalk was mainly to get other items for my escape as well as making a circle to break down the door and leave no trace of my alchemy. I had started scratched transmutation circles onto tiles for quick access to different alchemy, sadly they had my book so there was a chance some of the tiles won't work at all, and if not. Boom goes the alchemist. The guards had done a surprise check of all the cells in the afternoon, I managed to seal my things behind the back wall before they could search me or my room. After the guards finished their shakedown I decided I would wait until the beginning of the gala to make my escape. This is it... It is finally done Atop a balcony, overlooking crowds of ponies, griffins and zebra, an alabaster alicorn stood horn alight with magic bringing the sun down from its zenith, passing from all vision before the moon began to rise in its place and took its position in the sky. "It is time sister..." A midnight alicorn said, walking out to balcony with a last wink of magic dying from her horn as the moon stood proud of the land. Smiling as she turned to the crowd "Then lets us welcome our guests shall we?" she said as her sister stopped beside her. A silence overwhelmed the crowd as the sisters approached the edge of the platform bringing a calm ambience over all "Greetings esteemed guests! Tonight we celebrate our triumph against Discord, his reign ending with his taint finally removed from our kingdom" the white alicorn spoke loudly. "We invite you all to join us in this festivity of this prestigious night!" her sister continued. They both joined in address "We announce this Grand Gala Open!". Nothing could ruin this night *BOOM* I stood dumbly at the pile of rubble that used to be the cell door. Only moments before I had thrown a tile that was supposed to make the door crumble. Attempting a mixture of alchemy and alkahestry from what I could remember from the show to make a time activated reaction wasn't the brightest idea but it seemed pretty good at the time. I'm really glad I threw that tile... I jumped over the scorched stone debris that littered the hallway but not before noticing a white hoof poking out from underneath the pile of burnt stone. Shit... I can't leave him like this... I quickly moved as much stone off the guard before bringing him up to the quarters at the end of the hall and set the him down on a nearby bunk and took his keys. I searched the room for all my stuff before quickly leaving the dungeons before any guards check out what the explosion was. I began sneaking my way through hallway after hallway in the castle for about an hour trying to find a way outside. Though fate seemed to have another idea for me as I found myself between a patrol of guards and room full of party goers with no place to hide with getting the attention the of guards. Fuck it... Just need to go unnoticed by a room full of people... I slowly the opened the door halfway before peeking inside trying to pick a good moment to go in. Most of the guests were in different groups, the griffins seemed to keep to themselves besides the odd pegasus who wanted to talk with them, the zebra's were talking with some earth ponies and the ponies seemed to mostly mingle with other ponies. Sneaking myself inside and making my way through the party seemed to be easy since everyone stuck with their own groups. As I walked along the edge of the room I heard snippets of a boring conversations about arranging marriages and about party itself. By the time I had gotten my way across of the party I only had a few passing glances. "What manner of creature art thou?" Shit... Turning around only seemed to prove life wanted to make me it's plaything, right in front of me was a black alicorn with a curious look on her face as she looked at me, bowing quickly before deciding to answer her "Uhh... Well your majesty I am a... My name is Edward Elric, and I'm an Alchemist". Well aren't you just brilliant? An Alchemist? That's the best I could come up with? A look of confusion only replaced her look of curiosity "An Alchemist you say? We don't believe we have heard of such a creature before". Ponies seemed to walk a bit closer as they saw the dark princess chatting with me and began to seem a lot more interested in me now, small groups seemed to form around us in the few moments. "Well your majesty if it would please you, I could perhaps talk with you at a later time about myself" I said trying to avoid the attention I was quickly gaining with each passing second. She blushed for a second before speaking "We-". A guard quickly ran over to the princess, not even acknowledging he interrupted her before he whispered in her ear, a look of panic appearing on her face as he finished "Are thou sure?", nodding in reply only seemed to make her panic grow before calming down and looking back at me. Oh shit... "I'm sorry Mr Elric, We must leave..." she quickly spoke before rushing away. Letting out a deep breath I didn't notice I had held in relief, I continued on my exit towards the back of the party. As I made my way through the crowds after ponies seemed to want to talk to me since the princess left seemed to kill off any chance of sneaking around left me with an easier choice of walking straight through the hall and ignoring everyone. As I approached the end of the room I noticed I had walked the wrong way and ended up overlooking a garden through a window instead of finding a door or passage out of the party. As I began to turn I saw the dark princess, another alicorn and a couple of guards back where we were before, looking straight at me with a look of surprise and anger. Looking between the advancing group and the rest of the room I tried to think of a way out, I quickly made my decision as they were only a few metres away and smiled. ~Moments later - Outside~ *BOOM* "SEE YOU FUCKERS!" A figure standing where a window used to be yelled at the stunned crowd and gave the princesses THE FINGER before leaping out the window, making a perfect exit. Nailed it... Over the next few weeks I survived living the woods and escaping guard sweeps of the area, living off any fruit I could find and the odd loaf of bread I took from guard camps I found, I also found one other thing, why those guards were at the farm... It was because of a recent wave of robberies, the guards had been worried about Millstone he his family since Russet started finding gold nuggets and thought they might be next so yeah, I fucked up big time didn't I. Speaking of them I made my way back to the farm and said my goodbyes to Millstone, Honeygold and the kids before leaving to keep them safe from the guards in case they find me again, also it turns out they had first come to the farm because of, though they did have one last thing to say to me. Apparently my name wasn't normal for enough for me, so they all decided a nickname for me that I would forever more be know me as... ...Uncle Shorty ~Present Day - Ponyville Express~ "And that's pretty much it, I got turned to stone a couple of weeks later when the princesses found me knocked out from an experiment I had tried earlier, I'd suggest you never try fire alchemy, you'll live longer and you won't blow up" I said wisely. Yes... Very wise words "Uh... Mr? Was there supposed to be a point to this?". I looked down at the teal unicorn who I held captive for the past two hours "I not sure... It was good to talk to someone though" I hummed before looking back up at the passing landscape. "I guess... but don't you mean somepony?". I smiled down at her and rustled her mane a little before replying "Never...".