Crystal Ballerina

by BlueSkyHeadLeft010


The Crystal Empire: Part 7

There was something there...
It was feeling around in my head, for lack of better terms, before it leached onto something in my core and pulled. If I could do anything other than just stand still at the moment, I would've gasped or let out a noise, but whatever it was seemed to be peeling off something inside of me, like an extra layer of skin, before it retracted from the spot and let go of its hold on me.

My limbs fell slack at the sudden lack of force upon them, as I stumbled but caught myself before I fell, and I felt my senses returning to me.
I felt disoriented. I shook my head to rid the lingering dizziness as I looked up to find Wade morphing in front of my eyes.
It was rapid, and for a moment it looked like he was glitching, not uncanny to how a computer screen behaves, before I saw his form stabilize again and it turned green.

But that wasn't the worst of it.
"Nyeeeeeeaaaaaaaagggggghhhh...Why am I still sparkly? I don't like it!" He whined in Pearl's voice. My voice. As I saw something bulging out and I grimaced.
"What? I didn't grow antenna or something, did I?" He spoke panicked as he began to rummage through his hair.

I felt sick. I could barely form a sentence to explain as I pointed at him. "Yo-you're eye..." I pointed in shock.
Wade looked at me confused, "What? Whats wrong with my eye?". He said, his expression turning to concern.
I shook my head, "It's all weird. Your gem is supposed to be on your head like mine, but it's green and it's over one of your eyes. Seriously, how do you not feel that?" I asked, tapping it for good measure, and promptly making Wade flinch in response like when one taps the glass of a fish tank.

By then Twilight had finished congratulating Spike as the Crystal ponies hauled him off for a celebration feast, probably, and she looked at Wade confused. "I don't think that's very healthy..." She paused examining Wade closer as she did an aura scan, "or pleasant feeling."
Twilight then frowned, "your inner mana is going crazy!" She gasped in surprise, as she shook her head "it's like there's two distinct forces of mana clashing but not mixing. You might want to get that checked out, assuming you are able to return to wherever your home is."

Wade seemed to be thinking about what Twilight had said before he spoke, "I am, thanks for asking. No, I can't do it on command, it'll happen when it happens. Sometimes I'm in another Equestria for a day, a few days, or even as short as a minute. It's all rather random. And are you sure? I feel fine. Well, as good as I can seeing as I'm currently a girl...but that seems to be an uncomfortable constant these days," I stated with a slump of my shoulders. " No offense, Crystal." He added as he kept poking his gem eye.

I shuddered as he kept doing that. "So, you honestly have no clue when you'll return home?" I asked, as I diverted my gaze from his eye, "Huh... Well you're welcome to tag along; but for the record gems don't have genders, we simply choose what we want to look like." I smirked, hehe... Wade.

Wade blinked as I imagined a variety of thoughts were going through his head at the moment before he looked at his hands and grunted. A small stream of sparks seems to just out from his fingers as I watched them grow an inch or two, but nothing longer... "It made my fingernails longer? What the hell? How does that even work?" He blinked surprised.
"Screw it, this isn't working. Your body doesn't like me trying to change it, I'm gonna stop trying for now before it tries making my hair longer or something. Feh. And yeah, no idea when I'll get sucked back...speaking of, if I don't get to go back before nightfall, I don't really have a place to stay... I stay in a spare room in Twilights castle in my Equestria, but last time I got stuck in another Equestria for more than a day Applejack let me sleep in the Apple's barn. Think she'll mind if I ask?" He asked.

Wait. Did he seriously think we were going to let him sleep in a barn???
Even if he wasn't the most pleasant guy to get along with, we'd never do that to him!
Luckily Twilight intervened.

"Don't worry about accommodations." Twilight smiled as she made her way back over to me, "I just got done chatting with Cadance, who said she really would like us to stay and enjoy the place before heading back tomorrow. The palace is big enough to house several hundred guests, so I don't think we'll have a problem squeezing in one more." She said perky as she looked up at Wade.

I smiled, "Sweet! She'd really do that?! Awesome! I've never gotten to stay at a castle before! " I fist pumped the air, "Well save for maybe Disney World, but that doesn't count seeing as it's not a real castle." I added chuckling...
"Coolio," Wade muttered, trying once again to do some sort of magic. "HNNNGFFG," He grunted, squeezing his right eye closed and forcing a gout of sparks to shower out of the gem.

Looking around everypony else was already heading inside seeing it was late and such... I motioned to Twilight, asking her if she wanted to follow, but she shook her head as she turned back towards Wade. Whatever.
My stomach gurgled happily at the prospect of food.
____________________________________
I was about to walk back with Cadance when lo and behold, here came Wade and Twilight.
"-Can't...even..." Wade's eye sparkled as he huffed annoyed. "Get anything besides sparks with this form. This is bogus, I saw Pearl use magic all the freaking time! She could summon a sword thingy like Crystal, and she could do all kinds of other cool stuff... nyeeeaaaaagggghh." He shouted as more sparks flew.

I chuckled a bit at seeing Wade trying so hard to do what was easy to me, "Well dude, sometimes ya just gotta have patience with things like this." I explained, as two crystal guards saluted and opened the doorways to what appeared to be the guest quarters. "I mean, I guess because you're default is human, magic just comes harder..." I frowned, whispering, "Still wish I was one..." I sighed as Cadance, Spike, and Shining Armor came into view and waved us over.
"Still, I can do magic. Sort of," Wade claimed annoyed, "I can levitate stuff... but the exact same steps aren't doing anything in this form. Maybe your magic is different?" He pondered.

Once we got close enough, Spike immediately ran and hugged Twilight who then returned the favor, and then waved to back to me while he hopped on Twilight's back.
"Glad to see everyone's still in one piece." Shining Armor joked.
I laughed too, "Yea, and check this out!" I exclaimed excited, as I withdrew the green centipeedle ball from my pack. Fighting a monster was one thing, but having a trophy was better!

Cadance and Shining looked at it with a mixture of awe and confusion. "We think it was the guardian of the heart before Sombra tainted it." Twilight explained as I handed the green ball to Cadance.
"It's rightfully yours Princess, that is if it still works or anything..." I shrugged.
Cadance smiled uneasy and pushed it back into my hands. "That's quite alright dearie, you should keep it as a trophy for your brave endeavors." She smirked as she turned her attention to Wade and half bowed.
"Thank you again for helping with both the festival and distracting Sombra." She smiled earnestly.

"I... only did what I was able," Wade muttered embarrassed, trying to look her in the eye and failing. "I... wasn't that much help, really..." He said.
Cadance chuckled as she smiled honestly, " And modest to boot!" She playfully punched Shining Armor, nearly knocking the poor Stallion over.
She then lit up her horn and used her magic to open a door to everyone's right. "Come, everypony else is already seated for dinner. Let's not keep them waiting." She hummed as she trotted through the doors like a school filly. Looking over at Twilight I saw her smirk and roll her eyes as I giggled while we followed Cadance.

Wade struck up a conversation with Cadance while we were walking, and we waited, but she motioned for us to carry on.
My stomach rumbled merrily.
"Finally some grub!" I smiled as Twilight laughed. "When are you not thinking about food?" She joked as we sat down and some waiters took our order.
I had a hard time picking, mostly because I'd never been anywhere this fancy, and there were so many choices!
I settled on minestrone soup as Twilight ordered a daisy salad.

"So then, I was like, three inches away from clobbering Wade after he disguised himself as Fluttershy; but lucky for him I'm way cooler than that.." Rainbow Dash smirked next to us as she continued to munch away at some hay fries while we all exchanged stories about our adventures and what we did.
Rarity chuckled as she messed with her sparkly hair, "Well despite our rough encounter with Sombra, I'd say the absolute worse thing was having to make hats out of napkins. Napkins!" She put her hooves on the table, "If I hadn't been in such a rush to keep everypony occupied I probably would've gagged to even have had to touch them." She grimaced, "Such atrocities..." She shivered.

We all stifled a laugh as Applejack took her turn. "I don't know thar' Rarity, I'd say keeping the ponies away from the fake heart was a pain in the flank mahself." She wiped her brow.
"But what about selling the flugelhorns?!" Pinkie whined between bites of candy.
Twilight intervened. "Well personally, I'm just glad it's over..." She added.
Everyone nodded and that was the end of that competition...

"So what now?" Wade suddenly whispered right beside me, making me jump a bit. Since when had he gotten here?!
I shrugged, "Dunno... Usually this is where I kinda kick back and relax at this point." I said, slouching back in my Minotaur-sized chair, "I guess I'll probably head to the rooms soon and take stock of things, perhaps play old mare with Pinkie Pie, etc." I added.
Well okay, I usually would play just one round with Pinkie; but when the cream covered pie dishes came out I am gone.
Wade seemed to nod his head in agreement as the waiters took up our plates and we fanned out to go explore the castle...