Fellowship is Madness

by Imperator Chiashi Zane

Golden Ticket, Part 1

“Thank you for helping me harvest the crops, Kajiik. I really appreciate it,” Blueberry Jam lifted a cluster of berries off a bush as Kajiik tucked a bucket under another one and shook it. Iron Hoof did the same to another bush on the other side of the aisle. It was hard work, overall, but both the Zebra and the Guardspony found it rewarding in its own right. Both also had blue tongues from all the berries they had swiped when nopony was looking.

Just as Kajiik was about to swipe another hoofful of the delicious berries, his saddlebags buzzed. He flipped them open and found that his notebook was glowing, “Hey, guys, the Princess sent me a message. I’ll be right back.”

He opened it, and found a half-dozen golden tickets. Tickets to the biggest event of the fall. The Grand Galloping Gala. The letter with it was short, and to the point, My dearest student, I sent you six tickets to this year’s Gala in the hope that you would be able to bring your new friends up to Canterlot. I admit a little bit of selfishness on my part with that, as I wish to show off the Elements of Harmony to the Nobles.
-Celestia Solus Invictus

He smiled. This would be great. He quickly trotted back to the rows of blueberry bushes, “Blueberry! C’mere!”

The purple Unicorn trotted up to him and looked at the six sheets of gold paper in his hoof, “What are those, Kajiik?”

“Tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala. I’ve got six of them, so me, Iron, and four other ponies. I would love to take all of my friends.”

Blueberry looked at him, then blinked, her deep blue eyes gazing at the tickets, “I’m sorry. That’s right in the middle of the last harvest week. I can’t take the time off. I can’t just go get somepony to sub in for me either.”

He sighed and tucked the tickets into his saddlebag, “Ok. If I find you somepony to cover for you, will you go?”

“I dunno. It’s not really my thing, you know,” she waved her arm, indicating the hills covered in blueberry bushes.
__
Outside Sugarcube Corner, Kajiik stared at his daisy sandwich, “I really hope I can convince them to go. These tickets are expensive, and the Princess won’t be happy if I can’t bring my friends. She was really looking forward to having all six of us.”

Iron shrugged, “Yeah, but we can always just get a few other mares and take them.” A scowl from the Zebra ended that thought, then all of the following thoughts were cut off by a sudden downpour. Iron glared up at the dark clouds overhead, even as a blue head poked through, topped by a rainbow colored mane. She seemed to be fighting a giggle.

“What!” Iron was on his hooves, and already going for his crossbow. It was time to go skeet shooting. With a Pegasus target.

He was stopped by a hoof. Green, thin, and wrapped in brown canvas bands. Barkskin smiled down, the looked up at the small hole in the clouds. Her voice thundered out, louder than the actual thunder even, “RAINBOW DASH! GET YOUR LAZY ASS DOWN HERE!”

The blue Pegasus dropped out of the sky and hovered above them, “Hey, boss, you told me to lay out the rain over Sugarcube Corner and start it off.”

“Not until after the Lunch Rush! Can’t you look at the time scheduling instead of just running through your task list as fast as you can!”

The Pegasus shrugged, “Sorry. You should just give me the early afternoon stuff then.”

“Go clean this up and don’t start it again until Two. If it doesn’t start up then, I’m docking your pay. Again.”

As the Pegasus flew off and started pulling the clouds away, Kajiik reached into his saddlebags and pulled everything out, holding it carefully above the wet table until he found his chalk. He scribbled a circle onto the table and set the pile inside it before a bright red light flashed out of it, “Thank Celestia my books are all waterproofed. Just had to evaporate it before the ink started running. Oh, uh, I’ve got something for you.” He handed Barkskin a ticket, “I got six of them. Still working on getting around to all of us, but I’d really like it if we all went together.”

She looked at the golden ticket, “I don’t know if I can. Too much work wrangling these airheads sometimes. And if I leave town for even a day, I know they’ll cause some sort of havoc. I’ll have to stick around to keep them on track.”

“Oh. Well, keep the ticket. If you find somepony to cover for you, I’d love to have you join us.”

She nodded and trotted away, tucking the ticket into her saddlebag.

Fleethoof dropped out of the cloud cover and landed with a soft splash on the wet concrete, “I heard the word Tickets! What for? Should I be happy, or sad that you have tickets?”

“Happy. I’ve got six tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala, and the Princess wants all six of us to be there, but I’m having trouble convincing at least two of our friends to go. Will you be able to go?” He was practically begging with his eyes. Even one Yes would make him happy.

She flipped out a calendar and flipped through it, “Ooh. It’ll be a tough squeeze. If I can convince Cheerilee to bump the Graduation party for the Senior class out one day, I can make it. That shouldn’t be too difficult.”

“Good. Here’s your ticket. Talk to you later.”
__
The Smithy was loud, but not as loud as it had been three days ago, when Hammer Soot was playing her Carillon. The monstrous instrument was sitting there, visible behind the gate, but all the noise was coming from inside the building. He stepped up to the door and looked at the sign on it. It clearly said Open, but there was more text underneath, in rather poor hoof-writing.

He managed to pick out the words Earmuffs, Goggles, and Scarf, as well as what looked like an arrow pointing at a small box of bronze letters and a tack-board.
Quickly pulling on the earmuffs and goggles, he tied the scarf around his muzzle and grabbed the board. The letters stuck to it easily as he pinned in the message Have Ticket to Gala for you. Say Yes please.”

He slung the board onto his back and opened the door. It was like stepping into a blast furnace. Even with the open back and the magical breeze he felt, the air had to be at least fifty-five degrees in there. Sweating under his robes and the bandanna, and half-blinded by the thick crystal glass in the goggles, he barely managed to even find his friend. She was standing at an anvil, hammer in her talon crashing down on a glowing sheet of steel. Beside her, at a second anvil, he saw the back half of a Griffon banging away at another sheet of steel. The roar of the fire was almost crippling up close, and he could see that the ends of Hammer’s talons were glowing a pale orange. He held up the sign so she could see it, and pointed at it.

She continued banging at the steel until it was barely glowing, and thrust it back into the fire before turning to him, and pressing her scarf covered muzzle against his earmuff. He heard a faint, almost overwhelmed, “Sorry. Can’t.” before she went and pulled the sheet of steel back out and went back to hammering it. He almost sat on his haunches to wait for an explanation, but at the last second, he noticed that the floor itself was glowing faintly, and everywhere he stepped left thin hoof-shaped marks on the concrete.

He hurried out, and set the sign down, knocking the letters back into the bin before sitting down on the cool grass to examine his hooves. Slightly seared at the bottom. He stared at the burnt hoof-nail for a few minutes before he heard the door opening and hoof-steps approaching him.

Hammer Soot trotted around him, scarf down around her neck, tucking her hearing aid back in, “Sorry about that. I couldn’t leave the plate in the fire too long, and I couldn’t let it cool down too much either,” she looked at his hooves, “You forgot to put on a set of boots. There’s a bucket of them right next to the scarves. Didn’t you read the sign?”

He shrugged, “Did you write that?”

“Ha, no. That was Master Bruin. His Equestrian isn’t very good, but he’s the best Blacksmith on this side of Canterlot,” she giggled, then her face got serious, “He’s actually the reason I can’t go. The Royal Guard put in a massive order for Etched Mithril plate. We might be done by a week after the Gala.”

“Oh. Is there anything I can do to speed that up? I had tickets for all of us, but everypony else has an excuse not to go. I don’t want it to be just me and Iron there again this year.”

She shook her head, “You aren’t nearly physically fit enough to bend Mithril, and it’s a magically neutral metal, so you can’t do the etching magically either. I’ll talk to him about taking the day off for it, but he’ll probably say no. Now, I’ve gotta get back in there before he starts wondering if I’m on my lunch already.”
She was pulling out her hearing aids before he had the chance to offer her lunch, and back inside before he could stand up, “Well, there goes that plan. What other ponies would want to go?”

Iron Hoof looked at him, “Hey, don’t look at me. I’m actually partially guilty for her being so busy,” he pointed at the door, “One of those Mithril armors is for me. Actually, you know what, I took some metalworking courses in middle school. I’m going to go help her out.”

“Fine. You do that. I’ll go see what I can do to get the others free. Or get replacements. Sweet Celestia, why did you send me so many tickets!”

He stormed off, leaving bits of seared hoof-nail on the grass, before stopping to stare at the Smithy. Mithril armor was expensive as armor came, and was only used for specialty armoring for very specific ponies in a battle. Commanders primarily, but also for the Jesters, ponies who’s sole job in a battle was to be an arrow magnet. If Celestia had ordered every Guardspony armored in it now, after Nightmare Moon, there was something big coming. A war the likes of which he had never even dreamed of.

He knocked on the door to the shop, and heard the faint clomping of leather boots on the hot concrete coming closer before his friend’s voice pushed through the smoky wood, “Yes?”

“I’ll be in the Library. Come find me when you’re done.”

“Ok.” The boots clomped away, and he started for the library, not hurrying, but moving at a fair clip. He needed to find out what sort of threat they might be encountering if Nightmare Moon hadn’t been enough to put the Guard on Mithril Alert, but this was.