Veil of the City

by BlueyWaifu

Chapter 8

Faltic had hastily taken his leave from the trio in an attempt to make no compromise for Whimsy. Both Klaven and Restel already knew of Faltic's destination, so they were in no rush to chase him down. In fact, the now duo of changelings retreated back into their room, which was, coincidentally, just beside them. It was still a mystery to Restel and Klaven as to why Faltic decided to follow them all the way back, rather than go straight for Whimsy, but they both shrugged it off as they entered their room. The moment the door closed, both changelings reverted back to their original form with a quick swirling blaze of green fire.

"Ah! Shoot!" Klaven said in a slight panic.

Restel turned around to see what Klaven's commotion was about, only to find him swatting at a pinch of green fire that had caught the bag he was still carrying. Relief flushed over Klaven's body once he extinguished the small blaze. "Forgot I was still carrying that." After which, Klaven promptly tossed the prize bag on his bed.

Restel scoffed with slight amusement at Klaven's pyrotechnics. With a quick stretch, Restel would have gotten onto his own bed, until he looked where it was, and the memory of it being a foam pit came back to him.

"Can we please get my bed back? My poor wings cannot do another night of this. Let alone trying to relax on it." Restel unfurled a translucent wing and coaxed it with his hoof as he spoke.

Klaven approached and stared at the foam pit bed beside Restel, a smile coming over Klaven's mouth. "Didn't Faltic say you were sleeping on the floor tonight? You know, for winning?"

Restel's gradient blue eyes rolled as he huffed. "But it's not tonight, and I want to lay on my bed. Otherwise, I'm taking up yours for now." Restel pointed a hoof at the adjacent bed that Faltic shared with Klaven.

Klaven weighed his options momentarily. The only reason Restel had his own bed was because of how much space he takes when he sleeps. Klaven had never seen another changeling move so much while asleep. Faltic was much more polite, and so was he, to his knowledge.

"Alright, but you're helping me get it back," Klaven offered.

Restel nodded in response. "Fine. Where did you put my bed stuff?"

Klaven was all smiles as he made for the door, shifting into some disguise of a mare Restel had never seen before. "Storage."

*****

"No, put the corner of the sheet under the mattress. They're fitted," Klaven ordered.

Klaven and Restel had managed to bring the bedding back to their room. After a couple of trips and several treks up and down the stairs, they managed to retrieve all of Restel's bed belongings. Mattress, sheet, blanket, and pillows.

Restel yanked the corner of the sheet underneath the mattress, only to watch helplessly as another corner popped loose. Sighing, Restel trotted over to the loose corner of the bed.

Klaven almost looked amused.

Restel grabbed the loose sheet, lifted the mattress slightly, and tucked it back into place.

"There." Restel nodded as he spoke, broadly looking around the bed for any mishaps.

Klaven occupied himself by organizing the foam cubes that now littered the floor, taking up a majority of the floor space. The cubes now formed a rectangle in the most open part of the room in front of the beds, with many others still scattered around.

"Pillow!" Klaven announced to Restel, as he grabbed one from the floor and tossed it on the bed. Upon landing, another corner of the sheet popped free. Restel snapped his look towards Klaven, staring daggers as Klaven chuckled.

"Why?!" Restel huffed.

"Oh you'll be okay, just fold it back in," Klaven assured. "Next comes the blanket anyway."

Restel shook his head as he turned back for the exposed sheet. "Bebehbeh, you'll be okay, memhumhuh, blanket comes next." Restel audibly mocked Klaven as he returned to fix the sheet.

Once folded back into place... again, Restel carefully removed the stray pillow from the bed and grabbed the blanket. "What're you doing with those things?"

Klaven stood, surrounded by a knee-high wall around him, with only a small gap on one side. "Just making where you'll be sleeping tonight more accommodable."

Restel paused for a moment, blanket in hoof, then raised a brow. "Are you making me a dog house?"

"Hey, you called it that. Not me." Klaven chuckled as he continued putting foam cubes into place.

Restel turned back to the bed with a scoff, carefully spreading the blanket over it.

"I uh-" Klaven started, Restel turning to look at him. "-Don't know how I'm going to put a roof over this."

"It'll be just fine the way it is. Four walls to keep you and Faltic out is all I could want." Restel turned back to the blanket, spreading it over the bed.

"I'm going to write mail to your new place." Klaven stepped out from within the walls of the foam cubes. The walls stood almost neck high now, but there were still a few leftover cubes littering the floor.

Restel was finishing up making the bed, laying the pillows at the head of it, now crawling on top to lay down. "Well, it's not mine yet, it just got finished being built today."

Klaven took a few steps to the window, peeking out from beyond the curtains. "Hey, how long were we doing this?"

Not moving his head to look at Klaven, Restel shrugged with his hooves behind his head. "Don't know. Couldn't have been too long, could it?"

Klaven drew the curtains open, revealing a near-setting sun. Restel turned his head to look. "Huh, look at that." Restel watched as Klaven navigated past the foam cube walls and those that scattered the floor. "Should probably get going to the convention center. Faltic's going to be meeting us there, don't want to keep him waiting."

"But I just got in bed." Restel huffed sarcastically.

"It'll be fun I think. Plus we get to hear all about Faltic's date." Klaven tried to bargain for Restel's attendance. Rather, Restel rolled his eyes. "As if that's a selling point for me."

Klaven briefly looked over to his own bed where the bag still lay. Trotting over to it, Klaven pulled out one of its contents, which was another blue-wrapped candy bar that was identical to the one he’d seen Restel pull out earlier.

"Would you do it for a candy bar?" Klaven asked as he waved the bar in the air.

It got Restel's attention, as he turned to him. Restel's brow scrunched, but he had a smile on his lips. Restel stood up and snagged the bar from Klaven's hoof. "Would I do it for a snack? What am I, a dog?" Restel proceeded past Klaven for the door, donning his usual green coat, gray-maned earth pony disguise with a swirl of green flame. After which, the wrapper had completely burned off, leaving a soft chocolate bar behind, which he popped into his mouth. “He got me two. Sweet.”

"Also, don't forget this," Klaven said as he tossed Restel a pair of fake fanged teeth. Restel caught it with a hoof and looked at Klaven with no more than a deadpan look and a raised brow.

Klaven shifted into his usual garnet coat, black-maned unicorn self, and smiled at Restel, flaunting a pair of fake fangs for teeth as he now hid his real ones.

Restel only facehoofed in response.

*****

The Manehattan Convention Center was nothing short of spacious. Upon entering, the disguised duo of changelings were greeted with a main lobby that was bare in terms of furniture, but nowhere near lacking in other ponies. The volume of the crowd inside wasn't exactly deafening, and both changelings stepped in, finding an empty spot near the door and idly scanning the crowd.

At least, Restel was. Klaven was busy admiring the spot where they'd stopped at.

"Wow, there's a whole fountain in here, plus a waterfall," Klaven stated.

Restel turned to look, and while the fountain that ran along the wall was pretty, finding Faltic took priority. "Could you help me look for Faltic? It could be a minute before we find him in here." Peering over the crowd yielded no results. However, it was easy to cross many ponies off the list when most of them were wearing ridiculous-looking outfits, trying to mimic the look of another pony. Restel scoffed upon seeing a pony attempting to look like Celestia. "Amateur hour in here."

"I'm sure we'll see Faltic when he shows up." Klaven tried to assure Restel, but Restel's unchanging countenance didn't help Klaven think he was helping.

"Yeah, just look for somepony that looks dumb. That's our Faltic," Restel joked, hinting a smile as he said so.

Just beyond the herd of ponies gathered in the center of the room, Klaven noticed a line was forming, and piling up along the wall to their right.

"What's the line for?" Klaven asked. Restel only shrugged his shoulders in response. His curiosity unsatisfied, Klaven started taking steps towards it. "I'm going to go see what's up."

"Alright," Restel said. Surely Faltic would be here by now. If not, then soon. It was at least humbling to see so many other ponies try their hoof at imitation. A skill which changelings knew since before they could speak whole sentences.

With still no sign of Faltic, Restel watched as Klaven tried to peek past other ponies and manage through the crowd. After which, Klaven turned around and made his way back to Restel.

"Sign-ups for the contest." Klaven was smiling an uncomfortable amount as he said that, so Restel thought.

"You really want in on that?" Restel asked, losing hope of saving his dignity.

Klaven nodded. "Yes. If it'll help, we'll make Faltic go first since he's holding us up." Restel's shoulder was nudged as Klaven tried to wager for his agreement. It seemed to work, as the thought of getting Faltic on stage could be pretty funny.

Restel sighed, caving in. "Fine. We'll go with it."

"Yes!" Klaven exclaimed. "Show'em!"

"Show... what?" Restel asked, confused.

"You know what. Show'em." Klaven spoke as if he knew something Restel didn't. Which, he did.

"I swear-" Restel started, before flashing a strained smile, revealing the fake fangs in his mouth. It was enough to make Klaven chuckle in amusement, and it was also enough to break Restel's mock stoicism, breaking his strained smile into a genuine one.

"Oh shut up," Restel said before lightly shoving Klaven's shoulder and having a small fit of laughs. Restel trotted past Klaven for the line, which had only been growing since their arrival. Once in the queue, Restel kept his head on a swivel, trying to find a light blue earth pony somewhere in this crowd.

Many minutes of patience later, Restel and Klaven had made it to the front and were properly entered into the contest.

"I'm Klasp-" Klaven held a hoof to his chest, and then pointed it at Restel. "-That's Resin, and our third isn't here yet. He's Enthrall."

Restel couldn't help but think the mare behind the table gave the lowest effort possible when trying to look like somepony else, with her only wearing a hairband with a unicorn horn on it.

She frivolously wrote onto notecards as she spoke. "Uh huh. And what will you three be?"

Klaven spoke up immediately. "Changelings."

Restel knew Klaven wasn't outright trying to expose changelings, but it was still an odd concept to him that they could just approach somepony, say they're changelings, and have proper context behind it for nopony to bat an eye. Faltic was a completely different case.

The mare behind the table pointed to the escalator halfway across the room. "Well alright Klasp, there's a room just up the escalator there, so you can properly get into costume before the contest." She passed on three lanyards to Klaven and Restel. The third presumably for Faltic. Klaven wrapped his around his neck, proudly displaying 'Clasp' on his chest. Restel took the other two and only held onto them for now.

"And here's this too." Klaven was given a folded pamphlet. A quick glance at it showed that it contained everything about the event.

"Thank you much," Klaven said as he led Restel away from the table and towards the escalator.

"She spelt your name wrong." Restel chuckled as he pointed out Klaven's lanyard.

"Huh?" Klaven held up his name card, and tossed it, only to have it bounce back to his chest. "Oh come on! I should really specify that it starts with a K."

The duo stepped onto the escalator and let it carry them up to the next floor. Restel was turned, looking over the crowd, with nopony matching the description of Faltic's disguise. Klaven, however, was busy looking over the pamphlet for the event. There weren't as many ponies on the next floor, especially when compared to the one beneath them. Again, it was bare of furniture, with the exception of a few chairs further down the space in the corner. Walls were made of glass, and the view of Manehattan from a second story perspective was outside.

Signs in the shape of arrows led the way straight to the room aforementioned by the mare at the table.

Restel stopped Klaven at the door. "Wait. Is this really a good spot to, you know, swirly fire thing? There's gotta be other ponies in here."

"Well... Let's see." Klaven slowly peeked his head around the doorframe. After a second, Klaven felt something pressing to the top of his head, and looked up to see Restel's green head atop his.

"What? I wanted to see too," Restel said.

The two looked into the room, and found that almost a dozen other ponies occupied the space. Strewn about the place were various props, wings, and on a table sat the head of a costume.

"This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen. And I've seen Faltic," Restel mentioned, eliciting a small chuckle from beneath him. Both disguised changelings retreated from the doorframe. Klaven turned to look around for any hidden space to change. It was a long, wide space that stretched from one end of the building to the other. Though there weren't too many ponies on this floor, there was never any sense in taking an unnecessary risk with shapeshifting.

Klaven's eyes stopped on a large banner that sat in the middle of the floor. It was an advertisement for the convention currently going on. Most importantly, it was big enough to where he could hide behind it to shapeshift. Klaven nudged Restel's shoulder, and poked his head in the direction of the banner. "Hey, let's just do this," Klaven said as he trotted off, slipping behind the banner. Once on the other side, Klaven made a quick scan of the rest of the space around him. After not seeing any other ponies around, and briefly stopping himself to take off his lanyard and set down the paper so as not to burn them, Klaven shifted his form into his normal changeling self, minus one feature.

Klaven wrapped his lanyard back on his neck and reappeared from the other side of the banner as a normal changeling. However, Restel immediately spotted the inconsistency, pointing at Klaven's legs with his hoof. "Where's the holes in your leg?"

"I think ponies would be a little skeptical if we had actual holes in our legs, right?" Klaven held up his foreleg to demonstrate his point.

"And the eyes?" Restel asked. Klaven had retained his normal non-reflective eyes.

Klaven blinked. "Contacts."

Restel was at a loss trying to find any flaws with Klaven's ideas. Especially when Klaven brought up his next point. Smiling, Klaven revealed his fangs, only to take them off, revealing normal teeth.

Restel nodded, looking a little impressed. "Look at you, covering bases and coming up with ideas." Restel ruffled Klaven's webbed-mane as he trotted past, disappearing behind the same banner Klaven had used, and reappeared moments later as a typical changeling, minus the holes.

"Yo, nice cosplays dudes!" Both changeling's eyes snapped to the voice. It was some pony with fake wings, a jungle jacket and a pith helmet showing them a smile. Klaven half waved. "Thanks, yours too."

Restel watched as the pony who complimented them rounded the door into the costume room, then turned back to Klaven, who was proudly wearing his smugness.

"I'd knock that look off your face if you hadn't come up with this," Restel said through his own contagious smile.

"Sounds like jealousy," Klaven mocked.

Just then, a familiar voice reached the ears of the two changelings. It sounded drowsy.

"What're you two doing?"

Both changelings looked to find that a light blue earth pony had approached them. Although the two recognized him immediately as Faltic, there was something off about him.

"Woah. You look completely defeated." Restel pointed out. Even with his disguise, Faltic's eyes had slight bags underneath, and his eyes hung half open.

"And you look like changelings. With... no leg holes." Faltic responded, yawning afterwards, contagiously spreading to Klaven.

"Yeah, that's who we are for the contest," Klaven said after his yawn. Klaven passed off Faltic's lanyard to him, which Faltic looked at the name 'Enthrall' written on the card.

"No, really, you look like you could pass out at any moment," Restel said, sounding a little more concerned for his friend.

Faltic sluggishly waved a dismissive hoof at Restel. "Oh, no, I'm fine. Trust me. Me feeling like this was well worth it." Faltic ended his sentence with a slight smile, and stretched his legs in the process.

"I'd say spill it with what happened, but go put on your changeling outfit, you'll be more comfortable. Klaven and I went behind that banner." Restel winked to Faltic when he mentioned 'changeling outfit,' and pointed Faltic in the direction of the concealing banner.

"Sure, sure." Faltic got the hint. It is a cosplay event, after all. Using the right terminology would keep any suspicion low. Slowly but surely, Faltic went behind the banner, and returned out the other end as a changeling, minus any leg holes. Not having to wear a disguise was less taxing on a changeling's energy than maintaining a fake look all day, so Faltic felt slight relief on his drowsiness.

"Lanyard?" Klaven asked. Faltic looked around, then turned back for the banner he had come from. "Oh. I left it back there." Faltic took just a moment to retrieve his lanyard, and returned to the two with it around his neck. Restel was looking at him half expectantly. "So? Details?"

"Pfft. I'll tell you later." Faltic waved a hoof at Restel again, smiling a little brighter.

"I wait with bated breath," Restel said sarcastically, but paused when he noticed something. Restel pointed at Faltic's face, squinting his eyes. "Don't tell me..."

Faltic started to chuckle as he flared his teeth in a full smile, revealing false fangs. "I got three of them for a reason."

Restel exhaled an exaggerated sigh as he couldn't help but laugh a little. "I gotcha," Restel said as he turned to Klaven. "So what's in that pamphlet?"

Klaven quickly unfolded the paper. "Right. I looked at it on the escalator. The contest doesn't start for another half hour, and there are other small things going on, but it says participants should meet up at the main event's hall before."

"So, pretty much now?" Restel asked.

Klaven nodded as he folded the paper back up. "Pretty much now."

"Well, where's main events?" Faltic asked, suppressing another small yawn with a hoof over his mouth.

"Downstairs. Saw it when Restel and I got here." Klaven took the lead in guiding the other two back to the escalator down. However, only Restel followed Klaven to the escalator. Faltic opted for the normal stairs, trotting downstairs alongside the other two.

"What're you doing?" Restel put his forelegs on the railing as he watched Faltic keep up with them.

"Something to keep me awake," Faltic answered, swerving past another pony who was going up the stairs.

The three reunited at the bottom, immediately returning to the herd of what felt like hundreds of other ponies. The volume of the crowd heightened as they reached the ground again. Klaven retained the role of the leader of the three, and swerved between and through the traffic of other ponies.

Upon entering the main events room, there were a sea of chairs lined up in rows with gaps in the middle and sides. The gaps led up to a stage in the far back of the room. Already at the stage was a small congregation of ponies who were in full costume. Some of which were disappearing behind a curtain to the side of the stage.

"Ooh boy," Faltic said, sharing a look with Restel. Restel was sharing the mood. Partially not wanting to be here, partial cringe, and partial curiosity to just see what is going on. As the three pressed on and passed through the curtain beside the stage, there was another congregation of costumed ponies. Light fixtures and metal trusses lined the walls, and a small staircase leading to the stage.

"Oh my gosh!"

A high pitch voice rang out, and the three changelings swiveled their heads to the source to find a smaller pony running up to them. She wore a black morph-suit that covered her whole body, with the exception of her face, a dark blue saddlebag strapped to her torso, a flimsy pair of wings, and had a wig of a thin mohawk running along her head.

"You guys are changelings too! And you all look amazing!" The filly squealed in amazement for the real changelings.

Klaven was the first to engage in any conversation with the young pony. However, Restel and Faltic looked back at each other again. "Is this what it's like to be impersonated?" Restel spoke quietly to Faltic as they both snuffed laughter with their hooves.

"Yeah, they're special contacts," Klaven said, as Faltic and Restel turned back into their conversation.

"They're so cool! I only have these." The young pony pulled down a pair of sunglasses with blue lenses over her eyes. "Mom said I look just like one, but you guys look way better!"

Klaven laughed slightly and rubbed the young pony's head with his hoof. "You look great."

Restel and Faltic turned their attention away from Klaven and the filly. Rather, they took a few steps towards the curtain that led to the stage as they heard a voice come over the speakers, welcoming guests and announcing the cosplay contest will begin soon.

"You guys are going up pretty early." The young pony pointed out, pointing a hoof at Klaven's chest.

"Huh?" Klaven took his lanyard and held it up to look at.

"Yeah, you get a number, and yours is pretty low." Klaven observed his card, and only now noticed the small number beneath his name. Initially, he just skimmed over it, not thinking much about it.

The announcer on the speakers called out for contestant one, followed by one of the ponies behind the stage with them to walk onto the stage. The faint rumbling of ponies stomping their hooves on the ground in applause reached their ears.

"Didn't know that," Klaven stated, still staring at his card.

"Well, I gotta get back to Mom, I hope you three win!" With that, the small pony turned hoof and ran back to another, fully grown pony. Klaven watched her do so, as the space behind the stage wasn't exactly big. There were still several other costumed ponies gathered in the space, and a line that went out beyond the curtain to where they had come in from.

Klaven turned to see that Faltic and Restel had moved to stand beside the entrance to the stage, and made his way to them, needing to inform them of going out so early.

The voice called out for contestants two and three, being a duo, followed by another couple of ponies going onstage and the not-so muffled applause of ponies on the other side.

Restel peered a side-eye at Faltic. He looked as if his dreariness was returning to him. Restel watched as Faltic yawned once more, and even blinked slowly. Was there a possibility his time with Whimsy didn't go so great? That would be nice for him, but again, Restel would rather try to cheer Faltic up, if anything was wrong. Or, at least, wake him up.

"I hope the audience seeing your natural face doesn't scare them too much," Restel said quietly to Faltic, nudging his shoulder.

Klaven stood beside them, trying to find a point to intervene in the conversation.

Faltic, in response, shoved Restel's shoulder back, attempting to suppress smiling. "I hope you don't surpass the stage's weight limit."

The fat joke sent Restel into a small fit of chuckling. "Oh shut up. I can't help that muscle weighs more than fat," Restel mocked, flexing his foreleg in front of him.

"Hey, uh-" Klaven started quietly, but not getting the attention of either one of them.

Faltic swatted at Restel's flexing leg. "I literally beat you in the punching thing earlier today. Put those slim jim's down."

"Slim jim's. You got a slim brain, I'll tell you that." Restel shot back, setting his leg back down.

"Hey! You two!" Klaven spoke a bit more sternly, finally garnering the attention of the two bantering changelings.

"Yeah?" Restel spoke first. Immediately afterwards, the voice on the speakers announced contestants four, five, and six, and the word 'changelings,' which sent visible surprise down Faltic and Restel's bodies.

Klaven smiled sheepishly, nodding his head in the direction of the stage. "We're up."

Once again, Klaven led the two out of the backstage area, and onto the platform of the stage. Faltic and Restel opted to hang back and watch Klaven. Faltic heaved a sigh as they took their first steps on stage. "Oh boy."

Bright lights nearly blinded them as they took their first steps, but their eyes quickly adjusted to the light. Although they could only see the first couple rows of ponies in their chairs, the sound of their applause was much louder than anything the first rows could produce. There was one other pony on stage, levitating a mic near him as he welcomed them to the stage.

Klaven, to neither of the other two's surprise, took center stage as Restel and Faltic stood to the side, watching him and scoffing in the process.

Restel leaned in slightly towards Faltic. "Is the place really this full? I'm surprised so many ponies are here."

Faltic gave one hardy laugh. "And I'm surprised the stage isn't cracking under all the weight you've put on it."

Restel pushed Faltic a few steps closer to Klaven at center stage. "I'm surprised my hoof isn't cracking like thunder, chopping your face in front of all these ponies."

Both of them shared a devious smile. Faltic grabbed Restel's holeless leg, dragging him across the stage with him. "Only thunder there's going to be is when you drop off this stage and land face first on the ground!" Faltic had managed to sling Restel into the side of Klaven, causing Klaven to stumble further stage left.

There was a small murmur of laughter from the audience. Bits and pieces of their banter had reached the ears of the crowd.

"Alright alright, exit stage left. You three really act the role." The stagepony announced, chuckling as he ended his sentence.

"Hah. Ladies first." Restel motioned for the steps that led off the stage to Faltic, who looked at him with a slightly tilted, deadpan face. "That is such a low joke. I'm getting off of here."

With that, Faltic took the steps down, followed by Klaven then Restel. The trio walked back up the aisle along the wall towards the back of the room. Faltic spotted an empty circular table in the back with a few chairs around it, and led the other two to it.

Faltic took his seat as the other two followed suit, adjusting their chairs so that they all faced the stage. The circular table they sat at was in a darker corner of the large room, the farthest away from the nearest pony than they’d been all night.

"I think that was neat." Klaven spoke up, smiling a little and looking over at Faltic and Restel. Both of them looked back at Klaven with a more smug smile. "Oh yeah, really cool," Restel said sarcastically as both he and Faltic snickered.

"Well, I think it's alright. It's like an event dedicated to how well you can be a changeling." Klaven defended himself.

Faltic gestured towards the stage. "Yeah, if the changelings had no concept of shapeshifting. Look at that." All three pairs of eyes turned their attention to the stage, where some gray pony with a giant box on their head stood. The box had a rough drawing of a face on it.

Restel was the first to break into laughter as the other two contagiously joined in. "Who is that even supposed to be?"

"I think... Caballeron? From Daring Do?" Klaven guessed. Faltic jumped in on that assumption. "I mean... kinda? Pfft. I could look identical to him faster than it took her to find that box she's wearing on her head."

Faltic propped his head up on his hoof, letting his weight relax. The slight adrenaline and anxiousness of being on stage was wearing off, and his drowsiness was returning. Faltic heaved another yawn as he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Yo, it's time to tell us how that time with Whimsy went," Restel stated. Faltic saw Klaven nodding his head just past Restel.

Faltic raised his head and stretched his shoulders. "Alright. It went pretty good. I don't know why I get so tired after every time. I thought it was missing a whole night's sleep from going to that campground a while back, but jeez, I feel utterly drained this time."

Klaven spoke up past Restel. "What'd you do?"

Faltic wore a smile and chuckled briefly. "We cuddled a little."

That answer elicited a groan from Restel as he leaned back in his chair, throwing his head back. Klaven was smiling at Restel's reaction.

"Oh don't be jealous," Faltic said smugly.

"I'm not jealous." Restel started as he leaned back forward. "That's just probably why you feel like that. Sounds more like to me that you're really teasing that commitment part."

Faltic ignored him for the moment, smiling as he went on. "Her mane and coat smelled so nice, and both were really soft and warm. And she still wore that beanie during it."

Restel faceplanted into the table as Klaven just exhaled his laughter through his nose.

"Well I'm happy for you. It sounds like you're making progress,” Klaven offered.

Restel picked his face up from the table, but kept his head on it, his chin now resting on the table. "Whatever. You know what I've said."

Faltic nodded. "I do, I do. And you know what I said. Trust me."

Restel blew a puff of air in response.

The next few contestants went by. The energy had seemingly dimmed somewhat. Faltic had crossed his forelegs on the table and rested his chin on them. The three did still occasionally pick fun at the more 'shoddy' costumes, and gave credit where it was due to the ones that went above and beyond.

"But, c'mon, I could look like Cadence without spending thousands of bits," Restel mentioned.

"We all could," Klaven added.

Faltic had begun to tune out, growing weary of watching costumed ponies cycle through, but the always audible sound of the crowd cheering came and went in waves. Though more than ever, Faltic was ready to get back to the hotel. The trek there wasn't going to be the most pleasant thing, but the reward of his bed made the thought bearable.

Nothing in his body ached. In fact, everything felt fine. It was just his energy. It was chewed away, spending time with Whimsy. Sure, he got his fill of love, the most delectable love he could say he'd ever tasted, what with it coming from somepony he might say he loved.

Oh well, Faltic thought. They'd already discussed their next date, and Faltic was ready for a night of heavy slumbering.

Faltic found his eyes dozing shut, and quickly snapped them back open. Rather than look at the stage, Faltic swiveled his head left, still resting on his hooves. Observing the crowd might offer some escape from the grasp of suddenly crashing asleep.

The lights in the back of the room were off, and making out pony's features was slightly more challenging. Thankfully, having retained his natural changeling eyes, seeing was hardly an issue.

What did catch his eye was a lone pony sitting opposite of the room. Scrunching his brow and peering at her, Faltic began to notice some familiar features: a cream colored coat, an oh so familiar black coat and toboggan, and her mane strewn out beneath her headwear.

Whimsy?

Faltic's head shot up quickly, causing the other two to look over at him.

"You good?" Restel asked.

Faltic hardly turned to look at him. "Yeah... I think I see Whimsy."

Both Restel and Klaven craned their necks to look past Faltic. "Really? Oh." Restel had spotted the lone mare sitting across the room by herself. "Yeah. Looks like her."

"I had no idea she'd be here. I gotta go say hi,” Faltic stated. Though, a hoof on his shoulder stopped him. Faltic turned to look, and it was Restel's. "Dude, no. You already spent time with her today, and we're about to leave anyway. Let it go."

Faltic peered at Restel briefly, before nudging out of Restel's hoof. "I won't be long. I'll just go chat with her and I'll come right back to you guys."

Restel's chest deflated as he sighed. Faltic saw some concern in Klaven's face.

"I won't be long," Faltic repeated before placing his lanyard on the table, then ducking underneath it, concealing himself with the cloth that draped to the floor. Faltic emerged as his earth pony counterpart; Enthrall.

"Whatever." Restel huffed, crossing his forelegs as he watched Faltic trot away from them, headed for Whimsy.

Comments

[Isuvyw]

Great to see you back again!

The tension between Faltic and Whimsy is making me want more. Seriously, all we know about their date is from Faltic's mouth, and then she suddenly shows up in the convention center. I'm begging for the next chapter to resolve this...

[BlueyWaifu]

11785386
The next chapter will be fun, I hope

[Lost_Data]

From the clues I have seen, Whimsy is a Changeling too I’m guessing. I’ve thought of it being like that for a while now, but stating how Faltic is always tired after seeing Whimsy, I really think Whimsy is a Changeling.