“So you see, Rarie, we just give it a little more oomph, and we can brighten those colors right up!” chirped Twinkleshine. Her horn glowed intensely as her dress changed from fuchsia to a brilliant hot pink.
“Oh, my!” said an astonished Rarity. “These special effects you learned in acting school are simply dazzling! You think you can give me something in green?”
“I’m afraid not, Rarie. I can’t make an all new color; just bring out what’s already there. But I can go darker,” she said, dimming her horn, and darkening her dress to a dark reddish purple.
“Hmm … this could work,” opined Rarity, “but we’ll need a different flower for your necklace.”
Rarity flitted away from Twinkleshine and sorted through a chest full of accessories. Lyra stopped fidgeting with her beaded necklace and trudged toward Twinkleshine.
“How can you just stand there for so long? Aren’t you bored yet?” she whined.
“Lyrie darling, looking one’s best is simply the professional thing to do!” proclaimed Twinkleshine. “I mean, don’t you fret over your appearance when you perform on your instrument?”
“No, not really,” said Lyra. “Normally either I’m naked, or everypony in the ensemble is wearing the same thing.”
Suddenly, there was a single thump at the door. Lyra and Twinkleshine looked up. They saw the door open, revealing Colgate in her blue spotted bridesmaid’s dress, levitating a notebook in front of her head.
“Sorry, I was a bit …,” she said, pointing at the notebook, “and I kind of …,” she continued, thumping the door with a hoof, “with my …,” she concluded, pointing at her face.
“Oh, don’t worry, Min dearie,” sang Twinkleshine, “you didn’t need to rush on our behalf.”
“Yeah, I know; sorry I’m late,” said Colgate.
“No, really, you didn’t need to rush.” said Lyra with an exaggerated frown, “She’s still working on Twinkleshine.”
“Oh, good,” replied Colgate. “Then we have time to talk.”
Colgate approached Lyra, still flipping through the notebook, as Twinkleshine walked up to Rarity, who was carefully appraising a couple dozen flowers.
“I can’t read all of Twilight’s horn-writing, but look at this,” said Colgate.
Lyra looked at a quick sketch of a pony-shaped creature. Its legs were strangely jagged, and it had insect-like wings. Underneath were some drawings of hoofprints. One pair of the prints seemed normal, another was inexplicably missing the very front, and yet another seemed to have been broken apart and shoved back together.
“This last set of prints looks like the ones we saw outside the changing room,” proclaimed Colgate triumphantly.
“Yeah, I guess,” said Lyra. “But I’ve never seen anything like this around the palace. What are these circles supposed to represent, anyway? Discolorations? Tattoos? Some kind of clothing?”
“I don’t know!” cried Colgate. Rarity and Twinkleshine stopped looking at flowers for a moment to look up at her. She continued in a hushed voice. “This is just Twilight’s copy of a drawing discovered in the ruins of Pomponii.”
“Pomponii?” said Lyra incredulously. “You mean that city that was destroyed at the high point of the classical era? Is that the only record we have of this thing?”
“There were some truly great historians around during the classical era,” said Colgate, slightly offended. “Now according to Ponysius of Unicornassus, these creatures are capable of hiding in plain sight, possess a great deal of low cunning, and feed off of love.”
“Now really,” said Lyra, “do you truly think –“
“They feed off of love, Lyra!” Colgate exclaimed. She threw a sheepish glance toward Rarity and Twinkleshine, and continued quietly. “And they’re here for the wedding! And they’re hiding in plain sight.”
“And that means …” said Lyra.
“I don’t know,” interrupted Colgate hastily, “but that one that was watching us get dressed was really good at hiding. Just think about it. They eat love. The royal wedding is happening. You know that protective spell that Shining Armor is keeping up? It’s to keep them out. But one of them sneaked through. Maybe it even got here before he started –“
“Look, Colgate. You honestly believe some insect-pony from the classical era infiltrated Canterlot Castle so it could feed off the love at the wedding? If you think about it, it’s kind of far-fetched,” said Lyra. “Just because Princess Cadance is copping an attitude doesn’t mean you have to get crazy, too. If we do this wedding one step at a time, we can all get through it.”
Colgate paused for a moment. Rarity picked out a new flower, this one a slightly different shade of yellow, and gleefully floated it up to Twinkleshine’s neck.
“Well, looks like it’s my turn,” said Colgate. “I promise not to bother Rarity with this. But you’d better promise me to keep an eye out for … well, anything. Strange insects. Love eaters. Dark figures hiding in plain sight.”
“But –,” protested Lyra.
“Promise!” insisted Colgate.
“Okay! I promise I’ll keep an eye out, and tell you if I see anything weird,” said Lyra resignedly.
Colgate’s intense features softened a bit. “Okay,” she said with a gentle smile.
And without any further argument, she calmly walked up to Rarity and Twinkleshine, and patiently permitted them to fuss over her dress.
Lyra sighed and resumed fidgeting with her necklace. After verifying for the third time that all twenty of the beads were completely identical, her reverie was interrupted by the sound of hoofsteps approaching the door. They seemed oddly sharp – more like a clicking sound than the normal clip-clop of pony hooves. A dark figure, mostly obscured by shadow, lurked behind the half-open door.
Lyra’s mouth hung open wide as the door slowly swung the rest of the way.
The shadowy figure was just Princess Cadance.
She fixed her gaze on Twinkleshine as she strode into the room. She narrowed her eyes as she looked over her newly-altered dress.
“Better,” she said curtly. “Dark colors are much more suitable for a bridesmaid at my wedding.” Her eyes met Rarity’s. “I must not be out-sparkled or out-shined on my perfect day. Got it?”
“Oh, yes, Your Highness,” beamed Rarity. “I understand compl –”
“Now, as for Miss Colgate’s dress,” she continued. “Make it a little darker. And see if you can lose the stupid polka dots.”
Rarity looked at Colgate. Her dress was a deep navy blue with medium blue spots.
“Um, sure thing, Your Highness,” said Rarity, “Just let me –,”
Rarity was interrupted by the door slamming shut. Cadance was gone just as abruptly as she had arrived.
Twinkleshine jumped back as the door slammed. The glow faded from her horn, and the two dresses started turning back to fuchsia and light blue.
“Oh, no, no, no!” squealed Twinkleshine, lighting up her horn. The dresses quickly darkened to near-black, then settled back to dark reddish purple and navy blue.
“Don’t worry, Rarie. I can keep it up on three dresses, no problem,” reassured Twinkleshine.
“Why of course you can!” said Rarity. “Darling, I have every bit of faith in your talents. Now, I need you to make this a hair darker. And Colgate, dear, I need your opinion here; be brutally honest.” She levitated up two nearly-identical purple flower necklaces. “Which color complements your eyes better – lavender or orchid?”
Lyra picked up the notebook from the floor and looked at the mysterious creature drawn on it. Two featureless eyes stared back. “Now did these things really have featureless eyes, or did Twilight just neglect to fill them in?” mused Lyra.
She opened the door and looked out. Cadance was long-gone, but three palace guards flanked the door. One looked suspiciously at Lyra and her notebook.
“Were there always three guards?” she thought. “I’m sure there were just two when I got here. Maybe Cadance left a member of her personal retinue to spy on us.”
She smiled nervously at the suspicious guard, and closed the door.
“Colgate’s got me wrapped up in one of her personal obsessions again,” she said to herself. “This is way worse than when I let her use my mouth to experiment with flossing techniques.”
She sighed and rejoined the group. She now stood between Twinkleshine dressed in dark reddish purple and Colgate in a nearly black dress with barely visible blue spots. With intense concentration, Twinkleshine darkened Lyra’s dress from ‘lemon’ to ‘goldenrod.’ Rarity replaced Lyra’s pink beaded necklace with a slightly darker pink necklace. As Rarity fussed over their headpieces, Lyra realized that the new necklace had twenty-three beads. Furthermore, one of them was slightly smaller than the others.
After Rarity was satisfied with the new colors, and Twinkleshine scrawled some notes about them on the back of a page from Twilight’s notebook, they removed their dresses and put them back on their clotheshorses. Rarity then shooed them out the door so she could work on Cadance’s wedding dress. One of the three guards suspiciously eyed the three bridesmaids, plus the notebook Lyra was carrying and Twinkleshine’s scrawled note. Colgate suspiciously eyed him back.
The three retired to their dressing room and chatted about old times. Their laughter and camaraderie relaxed all of them. But the good cheer didn’t relax them enough to soften Colgate’s perpetually-intense gaze. Nor did it prevent Lyra’s nervous glance from constantly hopping about the room. Nor did it stop Twinkleshine from complaining loudly about those “nosy so-called journalists who ought to be thrown into a dungeon. But not the castle’s dungeon, because we don’t want that type anywhere near the castle, don’t you agree?”