Three unicorn mares with three colorful dresses slung over their backs walked into one of the many spare bedrooms in Canterlot Castle. One by one, they rested their dresses on a massive vanity, stretched out, and relaxed. One sat sedately on the floor. One dramatically sprawled herself out over the bed. And one grabbed a straight-backed chair, turned it around backwards, and slumped forward over its backrest.
“What is with Cadance today?” whined Lyra as she slouched down further, laying her cheek on the backrest. “She wasn’t like this at all when she was our dorm mother.”
“Oh, don’t be that way, Lyrie darling,” sang Twinkleshine, whipping her mane around as she rolled over in the bed to face her friends. “That was years ago! Everypony changes. Isn’t that right, Min?”
“Nopony changes that much,” replied Minuette with a frown, not budging from her spot on the floor. “What I don’t get is how she insists on being so formal about her title, but still calls me Miss Colgate.”
Lyra and Twinkleshine stared at her blankly.
“Oh, come on! I got my DDS last year! She knows I’m a real doctor now; she even wrote a letter congratulating me,” she complained.
“Well then, Dr. Colgate,” said Twinkleshine. “You’d better get your toothy grin and your minty-fresh hair into your bridesmaid dress by the time Cadie gets back, or she might pretend not to remember your name at all!”
“Ouch, I saw that; Moondancer ran off crying,” said Lyra. “Say, now that she’s gone, I guess that makes one of us the mare of honor. I wonder if it’s gonna be me.”
“What a brilliant notion,” said Twinkleshine with a hint of sarcasm. “Why don’t you ask her when she comes back?”
Lyra swallowed hard. “Um … ha ha, no thanks. Not gonna deal with that. Besides, then I’d have to wear the special mare of honor dress that Celestia gave her, and Moondancer ran off in it. It looked better on her, anyway.”
Dr. Minuette Colgate walked up to the vanity and levitated her floral headpiece onto her head. Two other headpieces floated toward Lyra and Twinkleshine’s heads, who then craned their necks to look at themselves in the vanity’s massive mirror. As Colgate adjusted hers, she noticed in the mirror that the bedroom door was ajar.
“Say, did somepony forget to close the door all the way?” she inquired.
The three stared into the mirror at the door. A shadowy figure was lurking there. It scurried away, its hooves making an odd clicking noise down the carpeted hallway.
Twinkleshine dashed to the door and poked her flower-bedecked head out of the door. Nopony was to be seen. Still, she called out, “Listen up you paparazzi! If you want a picture of Twinkleshine half-dressed, you’ll just have to wait for my grand premiere in Brightmane Beach Memoirs like everypony else!”
Colgate scrunched up her face quizzically, and asked, “Is she really …”
“Yep. She’s playing the hot cousin,” replied Lyra.
Lyra and Colgate looked on in the mirror. Twinkleshine’s eyes scanned the hallway as she angrily shook a hoof at nopony in particular. The pair laughed quietly for a few seconds, but quickly stopped when Twinkleshine stepped back into the room and slammed the door shut.
Twinkleshine harrumphed as she strode up to the vanity. She began to put on her dress, and said, “How dare these nosy ‘journalists’ interfere with such an occasion on such a place! And how dare they show such disrespect to such a star! After that candid snapshot of Princess Celestia made that gossip rag, I’d think the palace guards would keep a tighter lid on the whole proceedings.”
Lyra and Colgate stared at her open-mouthed as her glowing horn straightened her headpiece and smoothed out her dress. “Now, Lyrie, Min, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll bet that a certain dressmaker is just dying to see how her charming design looks on a true star.” Twinkleshine held her head high and strutted out the door.
“Wow,” said Lyra. “Who’d have guessed that getting her first real supporting role would turn her into that? It’s like …”
“… like the time she got the lead role in the theater department’s spring play that year?” finished Colgate. “Face it, Lyra. Anypony who knows Twinkleshine would have guessed that she’d be exactly like this.”
“Yeah. That’s classic a Twinkleshine moment, there,” replied Lyra with a smirk. “You know, Colgate, you were right. Ponies don’t change that much. And nopony would ever change as much as Cadance did. I wonder what’s wrong with her.”
Colgate opened the door and looked out. “I wonder what was with that photographer. There seemed to be something strange about him. Something creepy. Almost … unponylike in the way it moved.”
“Dunno. You’re the only pony who got a good look,” said Lyra. “Hey, watcha looking at?”
Colgate was scrutinizing the plush carpet outside of the door. “Another strange thing,” she replied. “His hoofsteps clicked as he trotted away. With carpet this thick, we should hardly hear it at all. And look at these front hoofprints.”
She pointed at the floor. Rather than the expected roundish prints coming to a slight point, the impressions in the carpet were small, jagged, and stick-like.
“Maybe he had a tripod?” offered Lyra. “That would explain the clicking, too.”
Colgate shut the door, and began putting on her dress. “I’m not sure about that,” she replied. “Something about the whole thing gives me willies. It reminds me of something out of that cryptozoology seminar I attended.”
She straightened her headpiece. “Twilight Sparkle went to that seminar, too. And she took lots of notes. Maybe she’ll remember it better than me. She’s Shining Armor’s best mare – she’s got to be around somewhere.”
Lyra protested, “Umm, Colgate –“
“You keep your eyes open, Lyra. I’m going to find out more,” Colgate interrupted curtly. “I’ll be along eventually. Talk to you then. Keep me posted.” She exited the bedroom, softly closing the door behind her.
“And there goes old Colgate being all obsessive and serious,” Lyra said with a sigh. Her dress sitting all alone on the vanity caught her eye. “And here’s little old me, the last to get started on everything. Colgate’s right – ponies don’t change. Not really.”
Lyra put on her dress. The outfit looked radiant, Lyra’s face, less so.
“Then how in Equestria could ‘Mi Amore Cadenza’ have changed so much?” Lyra said glumly.
With heavy heart and head hanging low, Lyra darkened the bedroom’s light and slowly walked away.