//------------------------------//
// Chapter 11: Gala Crashers 
// Story: Friendship 101 
// by BrawnyBold 
//------------------------------//

	It was a bright Monday morning as Princess Twilight was getting her classroom ready for another week with her students. Twilight could not believe that it has been this long since she took these ponies in to teach them about friendship. Despite each pony's differences, they were still a good bunch.
Spike quietly walked in the classroom with a loud yawn coming out of his mouth. "Another week of teaching, huh Twilight?"
"Uh-huh!" Twilight cheered. "Isn't it exciting to be a teacher?"
"If you're really obsessed with teaching," Spike finished with another yawn. He was interrupted when he burped out a puff of fire that turned into a ribbon-tied scroll. Spike picked it up and started skimming it. 
"It's for you Twilight." 
Twilight levitated the letter to read what it says. 
"Dear Twilight, in the next two weeks, it will be the Grand Galloping Gala and I believe that it would be delightful that you would bring along your new students. I would love to meet them to see how they have been progressing from your lessons. There are four tickets for each of them. I hope to see you soon."
Twilight started to panic after reading the letter.
"What's wrong Twilight?" Spike was concerned.
"Princess Celestia wants to meet my students at the Grand Galloping Gala!" Twilight breathing went haywire. 
"It's just a meeting with the students, how bad can it be?" Spike gave Twilight a paper bag to breath with. 
After a few deep breaths, Twilight calmed down. "It's not that I'm embarrassed of introducing my students, I'm only concerned of the little progress I made with them and a disaster might happen at the gala."
"This year's gala can't be worse than last year." Spike then remembered the Smooze incident. "Maybe we'll get a break?"
"I don't know Spike," Twilight looked out the window to see her students. "I just don't know." 


	
Two weeks have passed and now the Mane Six and the students are riding a stretch carriage to Canterlot. Rarity insisted that she would make outfits for all of the students for such an occasion. Lone would definitely need one since he doesn't have that much clothing.   
"This is so exciting!" Fireworks yelled as she looked outside of window. She wore a red glittery, strapless dress with red and white stripes on the skirt. Fireworks even wore the ruby necklace that Rarity gave to her to match the dress. 
"Yeah!" Guide agreed. "Not only we'll be attending an exclusive party in Canterlot, we'll also meet Princess Celestia: the teacher of our teacher!" Guide's dress was golden yellow that matched her magic aura. Her mane was extra curly and was held together with a hair piece that was a white star just like on her cutie mark. 
"This will be a complete bore!" Lone moaned. For Lone, he wore a simple white dress-shirt with a black vest. Rarity even made a black fedora to go along with the outfit, but Lone refused to wear it because it will make him look like a dork. That did not stop Rarity from casting a spell that attaches the hat to Lone's head until the Gala is over.
"I'm a little nervous about the Gala," Comfort said nervously while he was fixing his yellow bow tie that went along with his light blue dress jacket. 
"It won't be that bad, silly." Pinkie patted Comfort on the head. 
"Yeah," Fireworks agreed. "think of the Gala like a school dance where all of us will have one night to have fun!"
"Hope so," Comfort trusted his friends.
"So Guide," Fireworks asked. "what are you gonna do at the Gala?"
"I'm sticking with Princess Twilight to help her in case if something happens."
"Boring!" Fireworks whined. "I might find a nice colt to dance the night away." Fireworks sighed from the thought of finding her prince.
"Now don't expect too much at the Gala," Applejack chuckled.
"Indeed," Rarity agreed. "I met the pony of my dreams at the Gala and he was completely opposite of a prince." 
"We all learned that what we needed to have the best night ever was each other!" Pinkie cheered as she hugged Rarity and Applejack.
The ponies laughed from Pinkie's remark from their first time at the Gala. While everypony were laughing and talking, Twilight sat far from her friends as she worried about what could happen to her students. Lone might get mad for some reason and go on a rampage. Guide could demonstrate her magic to prove that she was Twilight's  student and the spell could go wrong. Fireworks will probably get too bored and do some cheer-leading routines that can possibly break her bones or the tables. Comfort's fragile behavior might cause him to get upset if he gets lost. The more bad scenarios Twilight imagined, the more worried she gets. 
The stretch carriage finally made it to the castle entrance. The group exited the carriage to make it to the red carpeted path. The students couldn't help but stare in awe at the Canterlot Castle. Many high-class ponies were making their way to the main entrance for the Gala. Fireworks exploded across the sky from above. Ponies in royal armor blew their trumpets to introduce the guest for the celebration. 
The Mane Six and the students arrived to the staircase where Princess Celestia was welcoming the approaching guests to the Gala.
"Why hello Twilight and friends!" Princess Celestia walked towards the ponies. "It is so nice for all of you to join us once again to the Grand Galloping Gala!"
Princess Celestia turned and noticed the students. "You four must be Twilight's new students. I am so grateful that she is passing on her friendship lessons to all of you." 
"Oh, it's nothing." Fireworks said with modesty. 
Guide tried not to faint for meeting one of the alicorn princesses. Before she could respond, Comfort came in from of Celestia and shake one of her hooves.
"It's so nice to meet you, Miss Princess." Comfort said with a gentle smile. 
"Oh please, call me Celestia." Princess Celestia became flattered. 
"Whatever," Lone groaned. He noticed Guide was giving him a deadly stare as if she was saying 'Don't mess this one up for me!'
"I hope that all of you will enjoy this year's Gala." Celestia bowed and returned to the staircase.
Twilight approached her students after Celestia left.
"Listen, everypony." Twilight had a concerned look. "I know that it's great that all of you were invited to the Gala, but please behave yourselves for this night."
"Don't worry, Miss Twilight." Guide promised. "We'll be on our best behavior," But the other students were gone when Guide turned her head. She gave Twilight a nervous grin. "I'll go look for them." Guide trotted into the crowd to search for her classmates.
"Oh boy," Twilight said with worry.
Fireworks walked pass the guests in order to make her way into the ballroom. She watched as several ponies danced to the elegant music played by the orchestra. Fireworks scanned the area to see if any colts were by themselves. A brown stallion with green mane caught Fireworks' sight as she saw that there wasn't any mares nearby, so it must mean that he is on his own. 
"Excuse me," Fireworks approached the colt. "May I have this dance?"
The colt observed Fireworks to see if he will accept her request. "I'll pass." He walked off without giving a care for his reply.
To Fireworks, that was very rude, but she didn't give up that easily. Fireworks continued her search for her potential dance partner.
Lone dragged his hooves as he grew bored from attending such a boring and snobby party. He searched the rooms of the castle to look for a couch to nap on. 'Maybe I can sleep through this lame night.' Lone slowly made his way down to one of the large hallways.
"Hey you!" a castle guard called out to Lone. The guard approached Lone with a serious look.
"Ponies are not allowed in these corridors without an authorized personnel."
"Fine," Lone whined and turned the opposite direction.
The castle guard grew suspicious of Lone, "Are you even an invited guest?"
Lone flashed a ticket in front of the guard's face. 
"Right here is my proof."
The guard was a bit disappointed for not getting a chance to throw Lone out.
"Just be careful, alright." The guard walked pass Lone. "You never know what could be lurking in this castle, especially on the night of the Gala." Lone watched the castle guard trot to the next corridor.
"Whatever," Lone mumbled and then continued his search for a napping area.
Comfort's time at the Gala could've gone better, if he didn't spend the majority of it getting lost in the crowd. Luckily for Comfort that there are food tables all around the room so he won't go hungry. He continued to explore the party in hopes of finding anypony he knew. 
Something bumped into Comfort and it was Guide who had her mane messed up from frustration.
"Comfort!" Guide wheezed as she was out of breath from running around.
"Guide! Are you okay?!" Comfort quickly escorted Guide to a nearby punch bowl where he gave eight cups to Guide.
"I...have been...looking for you guys all over the place!" Guide said as she was trying to recover.
"I got lost after everypony separated." Comfort tried to explain.
Guide immediately grabbed Comfort by the hoof and pulled him somewhere else. "Come on, we have to find the others before something goes wrong!"
Both of them made their way to the outside gardens where it was quiet and there was no pony around. 
Guide spotted Fireworks sitting on one of the stone benches.
"Ah! Thank goodness!" Guide felt relieved. She pulled Comfort to place him on the seat next to Fireworks.
"Just stay here while I go look hunt down a certain wolf." Guide returned inside to complete her mission.
Comfort turned to see Fireworks with her head down and not saying anything. To Comfort, this didn't feel right.
"Fireworks?" Comfort said with concern.
The yellow mare lifted her head to look at Comfort, revealing that she had been crying the whole time she was in the garden.
"What's wrong?" Comfort asked.
Fireworks wasn't sure if she could tell about her feelings, especially to a colt, but this is Comfort who was asking.
"N-no pony wanted to dance with me." Fireworks sniffed.
Comfort was shocked. "Why not?"
"The colts thought that I was too weird and some even called me names and laughed." Fireworks felt the tears coming back.
Comfort gave Fireworks a tissue he kept in his pocket and she blew a lot of snot out.
As Fireworks continued to blow her muzzle, Comfort thought of a way to cheer her up. He gently wrapped his hooves around Fireworks and gave her a very heart-warming hug to make her feel better. 
Fireworks' only reaction to the hug was relief from what Comfort did.
"It will be alright Fireworks." Comfort said with a quiet tone.
Fireworks felt so much better since Comfort was with her. She remembered Comfort's cutie mark story and understood why he was given that crying teddy bear as a cutie mark.
Comfort continued until it felt like the right time to stop hugging Fireworks.
"Alright," Comfort admitted. "let's fix this night for you." he offered his hoof to Fireworks.
"May I have this dance, my filly?" Fireworks was surprised from Comfort's request.
"I know that I'm not much, but I'm willing to try." Comfort gave a nervous smile.
To Fireworks, it was the sweetest thing Comfort has ever offered her. Although Comfort wasn't as strong as Lone, he was caring and helpful. The only thing Fireworks could do was to take Comfort's hoof and make their way inside.
"Just so you know," Comfort warned. "I hesitated because I don't know how to dance."
Fireworks giggled from such a silly thing. "You played Hoof Hoof Revolution with me before, this shouldn't be different."
Lone continued his search for a nice place to sleep until he made it to an empty room with a velvet couch. As Lone landed on the cushions, it sink his body for only a little bit. The night turned out great for Lone after all despite walking all over the halls to bump into a killjoy castle guard. The quietness of the room finally made Lone doze off into a peaceful slumber.
It felt like an eternity as Lone slept if it wasn't for a mare screaming in his ears.
"LONE!" the mare's voice screamed.
That caused Lone to flip from the couch to land on the floor. He saw that Guide was standing above him with an unsatisfied expression.
"What the heck Guide!" Lone barked.
"It wasn't safe for you to separate from the others." Guide huffed.
"Well excuse me for not getting the memo!" Lone talked back. 
Guide and Lone were about to have a heated argument if it wasn't for the loud thump from the outside. Both of them followed the continuing thumping until they reached a certain door. Lone tried to open it, but it was locked. Guide used her magic to pick the lock and it flew wide open. Inside were several stallions and mares were tied up with green slime. Lone took a closer look to a particular white stallion. 
"Hey!" Lone realized. "You're that castle guard who I bumped into!" Lone removed the green slime gag that was on the guard's mouth.
"Aah!" the castle guard yelled from the pain. "I'm not sure if I should thank you or yell at you."
Guide started to use her magic to remove the green slime from the others. "What happened to all of you?" Guide asked.
"Changelings." one of the mares answered. "They ambushed us one by one and used their magic to impersonate us."
Guide made a dramatic gasp from such a news.
Lone cracked his knuckles from the excitement. "Looks like we got some shape-shifting insects to beat down."
"No," the castle guard stopped Lone. "The changelings will have an advantage because of the large crowd." He joined the other castle guards. "Just stay put while we stop the changelings."
As all of the guards vanished, Lone sat on the ground and pouted. "I wanted to fight some changelings."
"Come on!" Guide grabbed Lone by the hoof. "We have to warned Princess Twilight about the threat!"
Lone followed Guide towards the grand ballroom. The lights were lowered and slow music played to set the mood for the many couples who were dancing.
Guide scanned the room to locate her teacher or the rest of her friends. "This is horrible!" Guide whispered to Lone. "Changelings attacking during the Gala?! What could be more disturbing than that!?" 
Lone raised an eyebrow after he looked at the crowd of dancing couples. "I think I can." Lone pointed to where he was looking.
Guide looked at where Lone was pointing and she had to agree, it was disturbing.
Comfort and Fireworks had their heads on each other's shoulders as they danced along with the slow music.
Guide could not believe that those two are dancing together, even though they were completely opposite.
While Guide tried to process what she just saw, Lone spotted Princess Twilight talking to the castle guard. Lone believed in no doubt that the castle guard was a changeling because he was his wearing armor. Twilight nodded and followed the fake castle guard to the outside of the room. Lone sprinted through the crowd to the exit, making Guide follow him now.
Twilight and the fake guard arrived at the garden.	
"I don't understand." Twilight looked to see that the area was empty. "Where is Princess Celestia?" It was too late when a green beam shot at Twilight from behind, causing her to fall to the ground. Then, several ponies in armor shot green slime from their horns at Twilight, forcing her to stick to the dirt floor. The princess tried to use her magic to escape if it wasn't for the slime that blocked her horn from doing anything.
"What is going on?!" Twilight demanded.
The fake castle guard approached Twilight. "Oh nothing." His horn light up with green aura. "This is just one of our jobs." Before the fake castle guard could do anything, Lone came tackling the fake with full strength towards a bunch of bushes. Guide joined in with her horn charged to fire several blasts at each of the other attackers. After all of the fake guards were knocked out, they changed back into their changeling form. Guide hurried to free Twilight from the slime.
"I'm so thankful that you're alright!" Guide said with a hug.
"Thank you, now can you please tell me what is going on?!" Twilight demanded.
Twilight was interrupted when she heard Lone punching the changeling to a pulp.
"Yeah! You like that, don't you!" Lone said as he continued punching.
Due to the severe pain, the fake guard finally changed back into a changeling, but that didn't stop Lone from his nonstop punching. Lone was stopped when Twilight used her magic to hold Lone's hooves.
"You're lucky that the princess is here to stop me!" Lone got off from the changeling. The ponies tied up all the changelings with some magic.
"Can you guys just tell me what is going on!" Twilight yelled in confusion.
Guide briefly explained the situation about the changelings. 
A large crash came from the main ballroom along with the sounds of glass and wood breaking. 
The three ponies rushed inside to see that some of the real castle guards were fighting their changeling copies. A blue force field suddenly blocked off the entrances and windows.
"Princess!" one of the castle guards said but ended up getting punched to the face.
''Where are all the guest?" Twilight asked.
"Your friends were able to evacuate them before the emergency force field appeared." one of the mare guards said while fighting another changeling. 
Twilight frantically searched for a safe place for her students since the exits are blocked. She spotted a covered table and used her magic to pull her students towards it. 
"Stay put!" Twilight commanded. 
Before Guide and Lone could protest, Twilight flew out to help fight the changelings.
Little did Guide or Lone knew, Fireworks and Comfort were right behind them. 
"Fireworks?! Comfort?!" Guide yelped. "What are you two doing here?!"
"All we remember was that some ponies were fighting each other and the crowd suddenly ran off." Fireworks answered. "We ended up getting trapped in the middle of this brawl!"
Guide sighed as she figured out a plan. "We can't leave leave this place because a force field is preventing anything from escaping. The best thing to do is to wait until the changelings are all defeated."
Lone didn't pay any attention to Guide because he was looking out of the table the whole time. "I should be out there fighting changelings!"
"You heard what Princess Twilight said!" Guide reminded. "We're suppose stay here where it is safe!"
A changeling was thrown towards the table, causing it to knock over during the collision. This left all four students wide open in the fight. The students saw Princess Twilight holding off a changeling that was larger than her.
Twilight had difficulties from fighting the rest of the changeling army. The large changeling took this opportunity by flying in the air to smack Twilight, making her crash on a stone pony statue. The princess slowly regain consciousness as she saw that the large changeling was about to make another attack.  
A sudden yellow beam hit the changeling on the back of the head. The pain made the large changeling angry as he growled and turned to see who shot that blast. All four of Twilight's students charged at the large changeling with full force.
"Guys! No!" Twilight didn't want her students to get hurt.
Lone pushed the changeling away from Twilight. The large changeling easily picked up Lone and he threw the grey colt towards a table.
Fireworks ran as she made acrobatic flips to make one powerful kick to the changeling's face. He was only ticked off and swatted Fireworks to send her flying in the air.
Guide charged up her horn to make fire a long yellow beam at the changeling. The spell only paralyzed the changeling for only a second and he threw a piece of wall in return.
Lone returned to the fight by giving a sneaky uppercut on the changeling's chin. Anger boiled inside the changeling as he was about to strike back. The changeling was interrupted when he felt Comfort holding on to the legs to prevent any movements. Comfort was then kicked off by the changeling.
Lone grabbed the changeling's arms from behind and the colt still held on even though his captive struggled to get out.
"Sorry," Lone said. "I don't let go."
Guide fired a large amount of beams to the changeling's guts, causing him to get more dizzy.
To finish it off, Fireworks did some spinning kicks before she made a final bucking to the Changeling's face. "That's for hurting Comfort! Jerk!"
The guards were able to round up all the changelings in the ballroom.
Comfort slowly got up after getting kicked to the stomach.
"Comfort!" Fireworks flew next to him.
"I'm fine," Comfort gave a light smile. "it's only a small bruise."
Twilight immediately ran towards the large changeling and cast a binding spell on him.
"What were you four thinking?!" Twilight yelled. "You could've gotten killed from that changeling!" 
"But, we were trying to save you!" Guide pleaded.
Twilight breath heavily from the frustration she was feeling, but she was able to calm down.
"Princess," one of the castle guards saluted. "we were able to take out all of changelings in the room. Once the force field is down, we need you to announce that the situation is resolved."
"I'll be right there," Twilight replied. The guard bowed to Twilight and walked away.
"Just stay right here." Twilight had a stern tone in her voice.
Guide was left with shame in her face for disappointing her teacher.
Once the force field was down, Twilight assured everypony that the changelings were all defeated. Twilight's friends were so glad that  she was safe, but her mind felt guilty for letting her students take on such a deadly creature. How could Twilight allow such young ponies to fight battle that were hers? A real teacher would not accept such a burden. With all of these possible consequences that could happen, Twilight decided to do what is best.
The Gala was declared over and all of the guests returned home for the night. 
Twilight found her students waiting in the halls while some medical ponies were patching bandages. Twilight asked if the medical ponies if they could leave the room so she could talk to her students. The medical ponies followed the princess's request and left the room.
"Thank you all for staying put while I was gone," Twilight said.
Some of the students smiled for the thank you.
Just looking at those expressions made it painful for Twilight on how she should break the news. 
"I appreciate that you guys have been with me when I started these lessons," Twilight sighed with regret for what is about to happen. "But I'm afraid it has to come to an end."
"What?!" Fireworks, Comfort, and especially Guide yelled at once.
"P-princess!" Guide begged. "I apologize for what happened earlier! It was just that we didn't want you to get hurt!"
"I know, I know." Twilight tried to calm her students. "The four of you were brave enough to fight. I'm just afraid of getting all of you involved in another incident like this. I never intended this to happen when I decided to become a teacher. Please understand everypony."
Guide's eyes poured tears from her face as she started to get upset from what is happening. 
"Guide, please." Twilight reached out to Guide, but her student ended up running away and bumping into the rest of the Mane Six when they walked in.
Twilight sighed again as she approached her friends.
"Can you girls bring all them back to Ponyville? I need to make sure everything is safe in Canterlot."
The mares nodded as they escorted Fireworks, Comfort, and Lone to the exit.
'Did I really make the right decision?' Twilight thought.