The Poncho Chronicles IV: Through the Portal

by BRyeMC

Masquerade

Clyde returned to Rarity’s home to see all of the lights in the building were off. It wasn’t too late at night, but he did know she usually went to sleep early sometimes for “beauty” purposes. He quietly unlocked the door, since she gave him a key to it, and walked up the stairs into the hallway. After peeking into her room, he saw that she was sleeping and holding onto all of the blankets and pillows on her bed. He looked at her work station and desk that was in her room and saw that the mannequin with the dress on earlier was bare. He decided not to wake her and quietly closed the door and made his way downstairs to sleep on a sofa.

The next morning, Clyde felt a sudden burn against his chest. With his eyes still closed, he quickly pulled up his hoof to his chest, to only feel a small diamond shaped object attached to a string. Relieved, he slowly opened his eyes to see Rarity standing a few feet away from him and the soda.

“Good morning Clyde darling,” said Rarity with a smile. “You didn’t have to sleep down here last night, you should have woken me up.”

Clyde sat up and slowly blinked to try and force his eyes open. “It’s alright. I know how much sleep means to you.” He looked around and saw that beside her were a double sided saddlebag. “What’s that for?”

“Oh, Twilight came over earlier to tell you your friends are ready to go with something called “Spark”. I told her you were sleeping to rest up for tonight. After all,you are going to a masquerade ball.” She looked away from him.

Clyde knew that look. “Please, don’t be mad.”

“I’m not mad darling.”

“Rarity, please...”

She glanced over at him. “I’m not mad. See?” She gave a fake smile and saw Clyde give a sigh.

“You know why you can’t come-”

Rarity looked at him this time with more seriousness.“That’s not the point darling! It’s a masquerade ball! Just imagine the culture and costumes that I won’t be able to see! It could give me inspiration! Don’t you want me to have inspiration!” Clyde got up from the sofa and walked over to her, who was still ranting about. He placed a hoof over her mouth to stop her from talking for a few seconds.

“I really do want you to come with me, because frankly, I have no idea what to wear to these things, but I can’t risk you getting hurt anymore because of me.” He looked into her eyes as she sighed. He lifted up his hoof from her mouth and placed it under her chin.

“Your costume is in the saddlebag,” said Rarity disappointedly. “I had it made for you some time ago because there was a masquerade party in Manehatten. I forgot to tell you as I was extremely busy that week.”

Clyde smiled at her. “I’ll take you to one as soon as I can.”

Once Clyde fully woke up and ate a quick snack, Rarity and him walked over to Twilight’s home. As he knocked on the door, Wahlburn opened it up.

“Well there you finally are! We’ve been waiting!” Wahlburn led them downstairs where Twilight and Apollo were standing beside Fluffy. Wahlburn ran up to the spot beside Fluffy and waved Clyde to join them. Clyde nodded and turned to Rarity who gave him a hug, nose snuggles, and kiss. Clyde walked up to the end of the line.

“Alright, due to time zones, every one of Wahlburn’s targets are in his stated location,” said Twilight with an non-enthusiastic tone. “Why I bring myself into these messes, I’ll never know, but once you are teleported, you have approximately one hour to subdue the target so when Apollo teleports you back, they come with you.”

The three of them nodded and gave a vocal green light. Twilight walked up to Fluffy and charged her horn, after a few seconds, a bright flash lit up the room and Fluffy was gone. Content, Twilight moved onto Wahlburn and followed the same procedure. Wahlburn smiled at Clyde and gave a salute as he too vanished after a bright flash. Twilight walked up to Clyde next as Clyde looked over to Rarity. She had tears forming in her eyes, but her face was stern to prevent any tears from dropping. As Twilight’s horn began to flash, Clyde saw in the corner of his eyes Rarity run up to him and hug him. Before Clyde could do anything, a bright light engulfed both of them.

Clyde opened his eyes to see he was in a small conference room of a building with Rarity holding onto him.

“Ha! It worked,” said Rarity proudly. “I’m sorry darling, but I told you before. I’m not leaving you again when something dangerous could happen to you.”

Clyde stood there in shock. “Why did you do that!”

Rarity frowned. “Why are you so angry with me?”

Clyde shook his head. “I’m not angry at you. You know yourself, that I can’t ever be angry at you for a long amount of time.”

“Then why are you so upset I came along, and don’t give me that same excuse you always tell me. I feel safer when I’m with you.”

Clyde sighed. “I don’t really know then. I just don’t understand why you care about me so much, or even began to care about me when I met you.”

Rarity’s mouth opened in astonishment. “What ever do you mean? Why would you ever say I don’t love you? We’ve been together now for almost two years and every single day since then has been marvelous. Why is that, you may ask? The reason is because you were there beside me.”

Clyde looked at the ground. “But I don’t even deserve someone like you. I’m nothing special compared to others. I can’t fly, use magic, and I’m not even high class like you.”

Rarity laughed. “You’re true about all of those things. Like you said, I once only cared about fame or high society was the way for me. It was you, Clyde, who changed my perspective. Love isn’t about any of those things. Love isn't something you find. Love is something that finds you. It’s about someone who cares about you more than any other thing in the world. The trip from Seaddlee and even South Beach showed me that out of every single one of us on that trip, you were the only one, out of your friends, to care about me and protect me in the slightest when I never asked for it.” She walked over to Clyde and gave him a kiss. “Also, I’m not the only one who loves you. I may love you the most, but your friends and even my family loves you too.”

Clyde looked at her in confusion. “Wait, your family even loves me?”

Rarity smiled. “Of course darling! My father loves having someone who knows sports to talk to. He never had a son and I couldn’t bother with sports, unless I’m watching you at a game of course. As for my mother, she enjoys your help with arduous tasks when my father is just too lazy to help. Even Sweetie Belle likes bragging to her friend and schoolmates about you like how you play for some famous team in Canterlot. I let her wear one of your jerseys you aren’t using that week sometimes, however, it's extremely big on her. I even love wearing it sometimes. Even outside of the stadium.”

Clyde smiled. “I’m glad I have their support then. I know for a fact my mother would have loved you so much too.”

Rarity smiled then put her hoof to her chin. “It’s funny though that during the time of our vacation and your trip to Amsterdam, my parents kept talking about you, like why didn’t Clyde come with us, or how’s Clyde been? That whole week was them trying to ask how you were. I never seen you so lionized by them before.” Clyde looked away from her quickly to hide a nervous expression but then calmed down. To switch the topics, he looked at his outfit.

“So, uh, are you ready to go to the ball, my lady?” asked Clyde in a bow. Rarity smiled at him and nodded. “Wait a minute. You don’t have dress do you?”

Rarity winked at him and pointed to the saddlebags. He opened up the left bag and pulled out a black suit with a purple bow tie. Along with the costume came a black mask with diamonds that were colored purple near the eye socket. In the center of each diamonds had a small gemstone that shined a light blue. Clyde placed it on the floor and turned to his right bag. He smirked as he saw a dress.

To Clyde, it looked like the Gala dress Rarity made about a year before she met him, except this time it was black with purple trimming. The mask she had with it was black also, but hers was embedded with various gemstones that contrasted with the dark mask. Rarity walked over to him and picked it up with magic.

“You don’t think I wasn’t prepared for this event?” she asked in a playful tone. “That client’s dress I was busy with yesterday was actually this one. I had a guess that you would be the one to get to go to the masquerade ball, so I made this rather quickly.” She touched the long fabric and sighed. “I normally don’t wear black, but we do what we must...”

Clyde smiled at her. “It doesn’t matter what color you wear. You’re still the same beautiful Rarity I knew since the first I met you. You don’t even need me to tell you that anymore as my opinion won’t change.”

Rarity levitated her dress above her and walked past him. She brushed her tail on his face as she walked by and smiled. “I simply adore you saying it though,” she cooed.

They quickly put on their costumes and looked back at each other. They placed the masks over their face and walked out the door of the room they were in. When the door opened, Clyde and Rarity saw a massive crowd of ponies all dressed up in various suits, dresses, costumes, masks, headdresses, and other exotic clothing. Rarity looked at all of the different ponies in awe as Clyde led her through the crowd into the ballroom where the ponies were headed.

After battling through the crowd, Clyde and Rarity walked into the fairly small ballroom for the number of guests and looked around. In the middle of the room was a large statue of an unknown pony Clyde never had seen before. The walls were covered in famous paintings from the Mannerism era. A large staircase, that also had two sets of stairs at opposite sides of the platform, connected to the floor above them, which had a few ponies in dark clothing overlooking the crowd. Rarity was looking all over the room admiring the walls, paintings, and other guests outfits as Clyde looked up at the ponies behind the railing of the floor above them.

“The target has to be one of those dudes up there,” said Clyde. Rarity paid no attention to him as she was studying a painting on the wall near her. Before Clyde could do anything, one of the ponies on the floor above began speaking to the crowd. Clyde didn’t understand what he was saying, but the crowd applauded so he assumed it was something good. After the pony from the top floor bowed, music began to play and many of the guests grabbed a partner close to them and began to dance with them.

“A dance!” said Rarity in excitement, her eyes shining through the black mask. She pulled Clyde with her as she made her way to the main dance floor.

“What?” replied Clyde, “I can’t dance!”

She stopped dragging him and faced him to look eye to eye with her. “Clyde darling, it’s not that difficult. All we do is touch necks and sway in place.” She leaned forward and wrapped her hoof around the back of Clyde’s neck. “Lean forward and sway.”
Clyde did as he was told and together, they followed the lead of the other ponies and danced until the music died down. At first, Clyde was hesitant on dancing in front of so many ponies, but nobody seemed to look at him as they were too focused with their partner. Clyde also noticed Rarity’s joy in it so he started to enjoy it more.

Once the music completely stopped, the pony above them from before stood near the railings and spoke down on the crowd. The crowd cheered again and another pony from the group above them stepped forward. He spoke in a different language Clyde couldn’t understand either, but he only spoke for a few seconds and said a certain word Clyde knew. T-arlin.

“Alright honored guests!” said the pony who stepped up next. He kept rambling on as Clyde looked down to think. He knew that had to be T-arlin and thought the voice reminded him of some other pony he knew. He shook it off and quickly looked at Rarity.

“There he is,” said Clyde. “I’m going to find a way up there from another room and tackle him down.”

“What?” said a concerned Rarity. “You’ll get hurt!”

“Not if I land on him. I want you to stay here.”

“B-But Clyde-”

“No, please, just this once.” Rarity disheartenedly nodded and gave him a small kiss before he ran off. He ran into the main foyer they came into the ballroom from and looked for an alternate way to get to the top floor. He saw a small staircase to his left and ran up it. Once he reached the top, he followed the hallway. As he walked, we was able to see the ballroom to his left below him past the railings. He looked at Rarity standing in the middle of a group looking up at the orators above. As he reached the end of the narrow hallway, he saw the small group about twenty yards from him. He looked down at the ballroom floor again and this time he noticed Rarity looking at him. He smiled at her and walked up to the group.

The two ponies who already had spoken turned to face Clyde as T-arlin stopped talking and looked at him. The ponies below shifted their gaze to him.

“Look who it is,” said T-arlin with a serious tone. Instead of a normal, traditional, eye mask most of the guests, Clyde, and Rarity, wore, T-arlin had a full mask that covered his whole head.

“You knew I was coming?” asked Clyde.

“Not you, but someone. Arlin has spies everywhere, including the one you had “purged” of all thoughts.” He laughed as Clyde stood there confused.

“Wait, Twilight’s spell didn’t work?”

“Not entirely. It did work, but luckily for us, it used his second teleportation device we gave each spy that entered the Verona area. Arlin and his unicorn clones were able to fix his memory lost and he told us about your resistance group.” T-arlin looked down at the crowd and smirked. “I see you even brought your girlfriend with you.”

“Well, we won’t be long here anyways,” said Clyde. “You’re coming back with us.”

“Am I?” asked T-arlin. “I’ll love for you to try-”

Clyde ran at T-arlin in a sudden burst of speed. As he drew closer to him, the two ponies near him tried to stop him. Clyde dodged them and tackled T-arlin into the railings. He began pushing him to make him fall below, but T-arlin quickly stepped to the side and grabbed Clyde by the neck with both hooves and lifted him over the railings.

Clyde heard Rarity scream from below and the gasps from the crowd. He swung the lower half of his body and kicked T-arlin in the chest. T-arlin dropped Clyde who quickly grabbed the railings and jumped over them. He ran up to T-arlin and grabbed the mask. As he pulled it off, he sat there in shock.

“T?” asked Clyde as he looked at Tyrone. “Y-You’re with Arlin now?”

Tyrone shoved him off. “Let me explain.”

Clyde punched his best friend that he knew for so many years now. “Why did you do it! I thought you were my brother until the end T!”

Tyrone shoved him off again. “I told you dawg! Let me explain! It’s not like I wanted to do this!” yelled Tyrone as he began to cry. Clyde never saw Tyrone this emotional before so he sat there confused, angry, stunned, and a mix of other emotions. Tyrone looked through the railings to see the crowd. He turned back towards Clyde. “What does Rarity mean to you dawg?”

“Rarity?” asked Clyde as he looked down at her. He saw her looking up at him and saw her watery blue eyes through the black mask. “I told you guys plenty of times how I feel about her. I would be here forever if I had to recite it word for word.”

“So, you’re saying you would do anything in this world to make sure she was safe? Anything?” asked Tyrone.

“Yeah, of course. I don’t see how this-” Clyde stopped and stared at Tyrone. He felt Tyrone’s pain as something similar happened to Rarity. “Junior was held hostage, right?”

Tyrone slowly nodded. “I had no choice. I had to join Arlin or they would have killed him dawg. Junior may be a little bastard sometimes, but he’s my little bastard mayne.” Tyrone got up and helped Clyde up.

“It’s okay T,” said Clyde. “Is he safe now?”

“Yeah, but only if I follow Arlin’s order.” Tyrone grabbed Clyde again and pushed him against the railings. “I’m sorry dawg, but I have to capture you.”

“What!” Clyde felt the railings behind him start to break and he became nervous. He tried pushing him back but Tyrone was much stronger than him due to his prison service. As the railing behind him finally snapped, Clyde grabbed onto Tyrone to pull him down with him. The room all screamed in horror as Clyde and Tyrone fell towards the marble ballroom floor. Ponies near the area ran away from the imminent impact site. As they were about to fall to the floor, a large tablecloth in a light blue aura floated below them. They hit the cloth and fell through it, slowing down some and landing hard on the marble floor.

Clyde felt a sharp pain go through his shoulder as he landed on it. Tyrone rolled off of him and slowly got up. Rarity quickly rushed over to Clyde who was holding onto his shoulder with his other hoof.

“Clyde darling! I tried limiting the damage from the fall, but I don’t think it worked...” said Rarity sadly.

“It’s nothing,” said Clyde grimacing through the pain. “I’ve been through worse. I bet it’s only sore. I just need to rest it.” Rarity hugged him tightly from the side of him where his shoulder wasn’t in pain.

Tyrone walked up to them and pulled out a small box. “I’m sorry Clyde, but I have to take you. It’s for Junior’s sake dawg.”

Clyde grunted in pain as Rarity looked up at Tyrone. “Don’t take him! He’s your friend!”

“I’m sorry, but I have to.”

“Take me then!” yelled Rarity. “Don’t hurt my Clyde anymore...”

“No,” said Clyde who leaned on her. “Tyrone, if you have to take someone, take me. Rarity to me is Junior to you. I’ll help you get back Junior.”

Tyrone looked at both of them over and over again and sighed. “I’m taking you both then. I’m wasting time or getting Junior safe.”

Tyrone threw a small box on the floor and the three of them were teleported out of the room, leaving the masquerade ball behind them.

* * * * *