Chapter 20 - Gallivanting at the Gala
Ok, I was worried; I will admit that now, at least to myself that is; the weeks following Hearth’s Warming had been stressful to say the least. One of the factors to this was that there were only about two months of winter weather before the abrupt change to spring and I had idiotically volunteered to help Twilight plan out Winter Wrap Up.
Secondly, now that the Crusaders and the rest of the main six could see me, it apparently meant that I was fair game for keeping an eye on the three to make sure there wasn’t any undue property damage during their escapades. I had a feeling that Lyra suggested this to Rarity and Applejack in order to get back at me.
Thirdly, now that I could interact with Bon Bon we would get into joke arguments with each other in front of Lyra, and she kept winning... a lot.
I hated to admit it, but Bon Bon had a much quicker wit than Lyra and a much sharper tongue. It was nice to have someone who could give back as good as they got but she had gotten me good a few times.
Finally, and this was what was causing me the most stress was that I was pretty sure that the creatures from the forest had made their way into Ponyville as I kept catching glimpses of green out of the corner of my eye... The first few days after Hearth’s Warming I had spent the night watching Trixie sleep to make sure they wouldn’t come back for her. This of course confused the heck out of her since I didn’t tell anyone of my suspicions.
The upcoming Gala was thankfully allowing me to distract myself from everything. After a few days, the fact that she was not only going to the Gala but playing at it finally sank into Lyra’s head and she had a miniature freak-out. Which was actually rather adorable. She locked herself in her room for hours at a time practicing the sheet music that had arrived a few days after Hearth’s Warming and would only come out for meals. When she realized that a few of her pieces were solo’s she nearly passed out.
My existence fell into a routine of watching the Crusaders, chatting with the girls during the day, reading and practicing on some of Lyra’s instruments during the night.
The biggest interruption to this schedule was Winter Wrap Up which turned out to be more of a festival than anything with ponies just speeding up the process of Spring. I spent most of the day helping Rarity with building bird nests. We had started with both of us producing separately, but we finally evolved into me making the nests and Rarity making them “absolutely stunning” as it were.
The weeks passed slowly but the day that Lyra had been dreading had finally arrived, the day of the Gala.
^*^*^
The day of the Gala I found myself floating outside of one of the most monstrous contraptions I had ever seen, the Friendship Express. I winced every time I looked at the girly incarnation of the steam powered train. Lyra, who was wearing a lovely gold and silver ensemble, looked at me questioningly.
“What’s wrong with you? I’m the one that should be freaking out about performing in front of all those ponies.” She said with a tilt of her head.
“Meh, I just feel like my masculinity is going to get tossed out the window if I get on that thing.” I said as I pointed a thumb over my shoulder at the locomotive. “Why are we taking a train instead of a chariot again?”
“Because it is faster, if less extravagant, and we would prefer not to spend all afternoon in a cramped carriage, darling.” Rarity said as she trotted up onto the platform. She was wearing what appeared to be a reproduction of her dress from last year, but done up in a light blue with silver filigree. Her tiara looked to either be platinum or white gold with some amethysts embedded in it.
Rarity looked Lyra up and down a few times, “You are looking simply marvelous Lyra, if I do say so myself.” She then ran an appraising eye over me. “Spooky, darling, I still do not understand why you will not let me design a suit for you.”
I sigh before turning to her. “Rarity, there are numerous reasons. First of all, how would I even wear whatever you made for me? Secondly, if I did somehow manage to figure out how to wear a suit, how do you think the Canterlot elite would respond to a floating humanoid suit just showing up at the Gala. Finally, I’m already ‘dressed up’ as it were with these Khaki’s and button up shirt. Even though these wouldn’t have been my choice of apparel for the rest of eternity, I would have preferred a t-shirt and jeans or even some white robes.” I mutter out that last part as Rarity puts on a thoughtful expression.
The clip-clopping of hooves alerted me to the arrival of the rest of the gang. My frown was replaced with a grin as I watched all the girls trot over. They all had what appeared to be their dresses from the previous Gala but with slight alterations here and there such as the golden pendent around Rainbows neck or the fact that Applejacks hat was dyed green to match the rest of her outfit. Trixie had a low cut dress made from the same material as her hat and cape (both of which she was wearing) while Bon Bon had a simple Pink dress which seemed to suit her rather well. Finally, Spike was wearing a simple black suit with purple bowtie.
“Hello Ladies, you are all looking lovely this evening.”
“Well thank ya’ sugarcube, mighty kind of yah.” Applejack said with a tilt of her hat in my direction.
“Yes darling, thank you. We are indeed fabulous, but it is always nice to hear it.” Rarity said with a flip of her hair.
I grinned as I grabbed Lyra’s baggage with a few tendrils, “Alright girls, let’s get this show on the road.”
Lyra jumps a little bit as I pick up the bags, “Spooky! Don’t let anypony see you carrying those.”
I tilt an eyebrow at her before carrying them through the open door. “Oh settle down, it looks like we have this car to ourselves so you don’t have to worry about explaining it to anypony.”
The girls crowd into the car and claim their seats, making sure not to ruffle up their dresses. The calming murmur of numerous conversations soon filled the train car. I float near the back, listening to Trixie and Twilight talk about how there was so much she wanted the princesses to share with Trixie about magic.
A steam whistle from somewhere near the front of the train broke me from my reverie as the train slowly began to move. I cross my legs and let out a relaxed sigh as I let the conversations around me fade into the background. My calm is broken a few seconds later as I realize that I’m not moving with the rest of the train.
“Twi…” I try to keep the urgency out of my voice as the back of the car slowly approaches.
Much to my dismay she doesn’t seem to hear me and continues chatting with Trixie.
“Twilight.” I say a little louder as I begin moving forward to try and stay ahead of the moving car.
Twilight seems to still be undeterred from her no doubt intellectually stimulating conversation with Trixie.
“TWILIGHT! STOP GOSSIPING WITH TRIXIE AND HELP ME!” The girls dresses rustle slightly in an unseen wind but I seem to have finally captured Twilight’s attention.
All eyes in the train car are on me as I try to fly as fast as I can to keep up with the quickly accelerating locomotive and the muted conversations quickly morph into a cacophonous roar as the girls begin to panic.
“Spooky! Oh no, oh no, oh no…” Twilight starts hyperventilating before she gets a determined look in her eye and a thin line of purple magic streaks from her horn and wraps around my torso. There’s a catching jerk around my navel and I feel as if I had just licked a car battery. As Twilight wraps me in what feels like a live power line, Trixie wraps the bench they had been sitting on in an aura of magic which flashes white for a second before settling into a steady bluish glow.
With a grunt, Twilight yanks me in front of the seat and sets me down just before it. As the seats back comes into contact with my own I feel another quick jerking motion and my back and buttocks fill with pins and needles as I fail to pass through the bench.
As the prickling feeling spreads through the rest of my body and the girls realize that I’m not about to be left behind I look to Twilight. “Well, that was interesting.”
Lyra jumps forward looking a bit confused and slightly worried. “What was that all about Spooky?”
“Well my dear, it seems that your earthly modes of transportation have no hold over me.” I say with a grin. “By the way Trix, what’s the spell you used on the seat? It’s making my butt all tingly.”
Trixie raises an eyebrow, “The same one that is keeping you out of the basement.”
“Oh…I hate that spell…” I grumble a bit as Trixie trots over to the adjoining seat with a smug look on her face.
As everyone returns to their seats, I clear my throat.. “Well now that the excitement is over with, who wants to sing a song?”
Pinkie immediately starts hopping up and down in her seat shouting “OH, me! I do, I do!”
I chuckle, “Alright Pinkie…do you know ‘The Song that Never Ends?”
With a grin that is almost impossibly wide she says, “Yep!”
As everyone else’s eyes within the train car bulge in what I can safely assume is unbridled fear, I steeple my fingers a few times while muttering “Excellent.”
*^*^*
With a bound and gagged Pinkie, we pulled into Canterlot station. After Pinkie was released from her bonds, our group proceeded to make our way to the castle.
We stop at what appears to be a side entrance, “Alright ladies, I’ll help Lyra with her baggage, both literal and emotional, and we will see you inside.” I grab Lyra’s luggage again as the rest of our group continues onto the front entrance.
“So Lyra, are you excited.” I ask as Lyra and I make our way through some side hallways in the castle. She glances up at me and I can tell that one of her eyes are twitching when she looks at the bags that I’m carrying.
“Ha, excited, nervous, anxious and everything in between.”
“Don’t worry too much Lyra, you’ll be fine.”
Lyra grunts in reply as we enter into what appears to be a preparation room that had a few ponies with various musical cutie-marks. As Lyra trots further into the room a certain bow-tie sporting mare runs up to her and wraps her into a hug and Lyra visibly relaxes.
“Lyra, you made it. Oh, I’m so excited that we get to perform together.” She gives Lyra another squeeze before letting her go. “Alright, we’re going to go warm up. You unpack and meet us when you’re ready.”
With that, Octavia and the other musicians exit out into the ballroom.
“Alright Lyra, you calm, cool and collected now?”
“Ah, yeah, I think I am.” She said with only a slight twitch in one of her eyes.
“Ok then, I want you to get out there and break a leg.”
Lyra’s eyes widen and she starts shaking again, “What!? Why would you want me to go and break a leg? Am I really that bad? Oh Celestia! I’m going to mess this up, I just know it.”
As Lyra starts hyperventilating again, I quickly flick her across the nose. She immediately stops yammering and looks at me with those big puppy dog eyes as she scrunches her nose a few times.
“Calm down Lyra, it’s just a saying.”
She lets out a huff and turns away from me, “Well it’s a horrible saying, why would you want anypony to break their leg?”
“Lyra, the saying isn’t about you actually breaking a leg. It’s basically referring to the bend in your legs when you take a bow, so what it saying is I wish you get all the way through your performance and get to take a bow to the audience.”
“Oh…well, that’s much better than. Thank you Spooky.”
“You’re welcome Lyra, now get your furry little butt out there and knock ‘em dead.”
At the look of horror that crosses her face I just sigh in frustration. “You know what, forget it. Just get out there and try your best.”
With that I leave Lyra to compose herself, as I float through the adjoining wall and into the almost empty ballroom. I watch as a few servants set up some last minute decorations. The bright colors of the streamers combined with some rather tasteful flower decorations gives the impression of spring. The musicians have set up on a podium off to the side and are either tuning their instruments or warming up. A few minutes later Lyra joins the players on their raised stage right next to Octavia. She sets her Lyre to the side and plucks a bit on a harp that is set up next to Octavia’s Cello.
After a few minutes of listening to the group warming up with their instruments I see Lyra begin to finally relax which results in lovely melodies being plucked on both her Lyre and the Harp.
The doors swung open as the clock struck eight to let a throng of ponies in, the front of the herd led by seven very familiar mares and one very happy looking baby dragon. I was glad that they had decided to stick together this year instead of going off on their own and getting into mischief.
I joined up with the group, content to just listen in on their conversations as they enjoyed themselves with good food, good company and most importantly good music.
After an hour or so of the group enjoying themselves Rarity excused herself, “Excuse me darlings, I have a bit of business that I have to take care of.” She then makes her way towards what appeared to be the snack tables. I did a double take as I saw a certain blond unicorn chatting at the table with a few other well-dressed unicorns.
“Uhhh, I’m going to go look around a bit girls, I’ll catch up to you later.” I begin to float above the crowd so as not to disturb anyone and have a better chance of Rarity not noticing me. I made it over to the snacks as the other Unicorns Blueblood was talking to left and I caught the end of whatever Rarity was saying.
“…and I just wanted to apologize for my unladylike behavior last year and I hope you could forgive me.”
The prince huffed and upturned his snout. “As if I would ever pardon such an uncouth commoner such as yourself. You are lucky I didn’t have you thrown into the dungeons. Now leave my sight before I call the guards on you.”
Rarity stares at him for a few seconds before her teeth begin to grind together and I can see the smoke rising from her ears. Blueblood seems to realize his mistake as his tail tucks between his legs and he makes a hasty retreat out of a set of doors leading to the gardens.
I hear Rarity mutter a few very unladylike curses that I’m pretty sure she picked up from me as she makes her way back to our friends.
I just float there, my teeth grinding together and my hands clench into fists. I can’t believe that selfish, ungrateful, spoiled Bastard! How DARE he talk to her like that? The edges of my vision turn grey as I narrow my eyes at the doors that Blueblood made his hasty retreat through.
A few ponies that had approached let out a gasp as the numerous candles on the table go out. I begin to float forward through the table and I hear a tinkling sound as the punch begins to frost over and the surrounding ponies teeth begin to chatter.
The doors blew open at my approach and the rustling of grass and leaves greet me as I make my way into the moonlit garden. The dark greens and blues of the surrounding flora give way to a greyish tinged as I bear down on my prey. I find him sitting on a bench, muttering to himself.
“…Who does she think she is? I should have Aunty throw her into the dungeons to teach her some manners. Bah, I shouldn’t waste my time on a broken old nag like her.”
My vision completely turns to grey as I hear this and I feel my tendrils begin whipping back and forth behind me. The breeze that had followed me picks up and begins rustling the surrounding bushes. Blueblood turns towards me as I see a shiver run up his spine. “Wha...”
I suddenly latch onto his shoulders and lift him up as he lets out a squeal. My tendrils continue to whip around and I see leaves and branches thrown into the air as they pass through the bushes along with some chunks of sod and turf.
Blueblood lets out a high pitched squeak as I bring him up to my face.
I let out a low beastly growl at him, “Listen you punk. I know you can’t see me and you can’t hear me but I’m pretty sure you can feel my intent at the moment. Now if you ever say anything like that to one of my friends again I will make sure you will join me on this side of the veil.”
“I… wha…huh” Blueblood begins to stammer as his head whirls this way and that way.
My low growl turns into an angry wail at the sight of the sniveling little bastard. His hair gets blown back and a few of the lanterns scattered around the garden suddenly go dark as their glass cracks. The patter of liquid hitting the ground greets my ears as my wail comes to an end and I notice there is now a puddle forming on the ground beneath the Prince. I drop him in disgust and he immediately runs off into the night.
The gusts of wind blowing through the garden slowly die down as the shaking in my hands begin to calm. My vision slowly returns to normal as I take what would normally be calming breaths if I could actually breathe anything.
“Ok, Spooky, get ahold of yourself. No need to lose it like that.”
I let out a shivering sigh as I slowly turn and make my way back towards the ballroom. As I float through the doors, I notice they are once again closed, and there was a single long crack running up the leftmost pane of glass.
I float into the room and I let the chatter of hundreds of ponies calm me. I make my way up to the stage and float next to Lyra, who looks at me with a raised eyebrow. I offer a shaky smile and she shrugs and turns back to her Lyre. The gentle plucking of strings calms me as I spend the next hour just listening to the music the performers produce.
As the time passes my anger fades away to melancholy as I just feel drained…and slightly disappointed with myself. As the clock strikes midnight, the band stops playing and the unicorn stallion that had been playing the piano steps forward.
“Ladies and Gentlecolts, if I may have your attention please, their majesties would like to thank you for coming tonight and they hope that you have enjoyed yourselves. As the finale for tonight, the princesses have requested a solo piece from Ponyville’s own Lyra Heartstrings.” He waves a hoof towards Lyra who gives and uneasy smile to the crowd that has gathered in front of the stage.
The stallion whispers to her, “Whenever you’re ready Lyra.”
She nods and then takes a deep breath. Slowly, the yellowish aura of her magic begins to pluck the strings of her Lyre and a soft tune begins to fill the air. I close my eyes as I listen to the strings dance upon the air.
My eyes jolt open as the melody is stopped by a harsh twang. I turn to Lyra who is staring in disbelief at the two strings that have broken in the middle of her instrument.
The crowd begins to mutter softly as she sits there, staring blankly at her broken instrument.
“Lyra…Lyra snap out of it, you need to do something.” When she doesn’t respond to me, I prod her softly on the shoulder. All she does is continue staring at the damaged instrument in her lap.
The muttering begins to get louder and I notice our group of friends making their way towards the stage, looks of worry on their faces.
I look around hurriedly and my sight falls on the harp set up next to Lyra. “Lyra, please, snap out of it.”
When she still refuses to answer I quickly glide behind the harp and place my fingertips against the strings. With one last glance at Lyra I slowly begin to Play. As I pluck the individual strings, I slowly begin to sing, even though I know only Lyra and our friends can hear me. With each note struck I lose myself to the song, let all of my anger and sadness wash away from me.
I barely notice that the lights in the room have dimmed and the hush that has fallen over the crowd. I slowly pluck out the last few notes of the song and as my hands fall to my sides I look to the crowd. I’m greeted by a few sad smiles mixed with some neutral expressions. Slowly a few hooves start to stomp the floor as applause slowly breaks around the hall.
I turn to Lyra with a small grin which vanishes as she rushes off the stage and gallops into the side room. I rush off after her as the applause slowly dies behind us. I pass through the wall to find Lyra sobbing quietly in the corner.
“Lyra?” I slowly float closer and place a hand on her shoulder. “Are you ok?”
Her sobbing dies and she sits there for a second.
“Why?” Her quiet question takes me by surprise.
“Huh?” I blink a few times before she whirls around, swinging a hoof through my arm and lower chest.
“WHY? Why does everything go wrong? Why does everything I touch break?”
I’m taken aback by her sudden outburst. I’ve never seen her like this before, sure I’ve seen her being gloomy and melancholy but she’s never openly wept like this before.
She looks up at me, with tears running down her cheeks but her forehead has scrunched in anger and her teeth are slightly bared.
“AND YOU! It all started when you got here, my life was just fine until you showed up. I had friends, I had a nice house with a nice roommate, and I made enough money to live on. But that all changed when you showed up, my roommate confessed to me when I was perfectly happy just being friends, I end up in the hospital and you push me into stuff that I don’t want to do.”
Her tears have dried as she stands and pushes a hoof through my chest a few times.
“Get. Out. Of. My. Life!”
As she runs out of the room, I feel a cold tingle run down my cheek. I reach up to touch my face and as I pull my hand away I see a thick grey liquid staining my fingers.
“I guess I can cry.” I mutter sadly.
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this.....is ALIVE!!!!
On a scale of 1 to 10, I flipped my shit as soon as I saw this in the feature box.
Poor Spooky...
gordonandthewhale.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/its_alive.jpg
Well Spooky time to drown yourself at Donut Joes. If you can eat donuts.
Spooky...You're alive!!! I mean not literally but you know...
2947906 In a manner of speaking. He's a ghost, remember?
Its baaaack. And just as good as Ever
Over reaction much? "Spooky" has caused a few bad things, and I understand, sometimes the commentary is highly unappreciated. However, the good things he did heavily outmatch the bad.
so what it saying is
1. So what it is/it's.
I cant help but feel like you just foreshadowed something from Lyra's past. Or it could just be me over thinking again. I prefer to think the former.
IVE BEEN WAITING SO LONG FOR THIS!!! THANk YOU!
Oh my god its been months! and happy to see this updated! (digs in and reads)
Oh my Celestia! You're alive!
I just HAD to look it up...
Here's what I'm talking about... try to not get it stuck in your head...
YES! IT'S BACK!
, but poor Spooky. 
Geeze, Lyra, overreaction much?
Yay! It's back! It got real gloomy real fast but I suppose it should be expected seeing how it's a story about someone who died...
But still, Lyra going hysterical? Is that part of the plot? Like is she possessed or effected by all the spiritual energy?
Oh and for you kids too young to know the show, here's the song Pinkie was singing on the train:
Jesus christ about time this new chapter came out I was waiting and waiting for the next masterpiece to come out
2948225 I saw this comment and my mom said she would ground me from using the internet if I played the vid
... worth it.
2948204
CATBUG!
OH MY GOD
IT'S ALIVE
Hm, I thought the spell was only temporary, it should be alot harder to make a spell permanent than just last a night.
Nice to see Spooky getting my ghost powers.
Wow, that went bad really fast, I hope Lyra retracts most of it, because unless she's a really good actor, most of that stuff doesn't bug her normally.
Keep up the good work.
I fangirled so hard when I saw that a new chapter had been posted.
2948274
Ah, Lyra will get over it. He just happened to be the poor bastard who approached her first. If it had been any of the others she would have reacted in the same way. It's just a normal human (or pony) reaction to start venting at whoever's there when something goes wrong.
She'll cry it out, realize what she did and then com apologize to Spooky later.
Also, happy for the update!
It's back!
Aaand you've officially lost me.
IT LIVES! MHAAMHAA
actually i'm quite sure that the expression "break a leg" came about because it was bad luck to wish an actor good luck and so they wished the opposite for good luck.
oh, shit I found a nickle!
Aww, what a nice revelation
I'm happy to see that this updated. I'm not so happy about the sad bits, and I feel bad for Prince Blueblood (a little at least), Lyra, and Spooky, but I do think that this was a good chapter.
This, of course, will cause him to begin fading away, and only Lyra's wish for him to stay will save him from oblivion.
You'd better not keep us waiting again. This is the fic that made me make an account, and I want to keep reading it.
What do you plan on doing with your new-found fame?
Well, this story is now officially awesome in my books! Have a fav!
"Pink" is only a proper noun when A) the i is replaced with an exclamation point, or B) it has an "ie" at the end
Why do you keep capitalizing weird things!
I don't even know what to say about these anymore...
Ok, this one is actually kind of understandable, but "prince" is actually only capitalized when it's part of a name (Prince Blueblood), or sometimes a full title (Prince of Equestria), otherwise it's just "prince"
There's also some tense inconsistency sprinkled throughout the chapter
Dat ending
images.tribe.net/tribe/upload/photo/abb/bce/abbbce42-bf43-4d96-8232-5f1a060c145c
2948588
weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/holy-shit-i-found-a-dollar.jpg
Welp
Spooky is going to become a Shadow Person if Lyra doesn't fix shit quickly
Officially best HiE, in my books. I really can't offer any higher praise than that. This is just that good.
It lives! Poor Spooky is going to be a sad/angry ghost and the Galla will explode.
2948379
Well, technically...
Oh, so you're NOT dead?
got done and now I'm sad
damn it whats gonna happen now to spooky? TwT I hope the next update is soon.
Holy balls its back and better than ever. Happy days
The pacing seemed a little fast, but not enough to detract from the story. Nice work!
Dang Lyra, that's just mean.
You made me wait for months FOR THIS?!?
DEAR GOD YOU CAN'T LEAVE IT LIKE THIS!!!!
MOAR!!! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MOAR!!!
Why has it been pretty much a year with only 3 chapter updates?
2948195Why? Now it's gonna be stuck in my head... until I go to sleep in ten minutes
2948195 don't post that anymore
2950402 Don't need to, there's a ten hour version up
And no, I didn't post it.