After the Summer Sun Celebration was finally over, Nathan's team went to their new home that Princess Celestia gave them as a reward for assisting Twilight and her friends against Nightmare Moon, she had said that there was a spare house in town that should be big enough for the six if a couple of them didn't mind sharing a room. They decided to check the house out to see what it looked like.
At the spare house...
The boys finally found the house that Princess Celestia had told them about, they all saw that the house was kept in a good condition and that it was a fairly good size for all of them, the house was located on the outer areas of Ponyville, rather than being in the middle of town, which the boys didn't mind so much.
"I'd say this looks like a pretty good place to live. This might not be so bad!" Nathan said with a smile on his face, Thomas and Adam agreed as Michael just shrugged. Lee, instead of commenting on the outside, decided to head inside and look around, to see if its as good looking on the inside.
Inside of the house, the boys saw that the house was already furnished with the basic necessities that a house required, such as chairs, tables and cupboards. The boys decided to check out the rooms, so they looked around the house. Looking around, they noted that the house contained a lounge area, four bedrooms, a bathroom, a small dining room and a kitchen where Nathan thought he could make some good meals if he had some nice ingredients.
"So how come someone doesn't already have this house?" Michael asked curiously. Nathan remembered that Celestia told him that the previous owner's family lived in Canterlot and that the owner moved to live with his family. After all the looking around, the group sat down to consider their options for what to do now.
"So what are we gonna do now? So far, I haven't seen anyway for us to go home..." Adam said with a deep sigh, Thomas looked down towards the floor looking upset, Michael just stayed quiet as he placed his hoof on his nephew's shoulder to make sure he's okay. Travis suggested that they just live in Equestria like the other ponies until they find a solution.
"Well... I suggest we keep helping Twilight and her friends. With them being the Bearers of Harmony, whatever THEY'RE supposed to do, I have a feeling something else like Nightmare Moon will happen... and we'll need to be ready." Nathan suggested.
"What about the Everfree Forest? Apparently, the ponies say it's a dangerous place, maybe we can use that place to hone our skills? We can make it safer while we're at it. Doesn't that yellow pony live almost right next to the freakin place? What if one of those manticore things or something become violent and rip her apart?" Michael pointed out, Travis and Nathan agreed with the idea until Lee brought up an important question.
"What do you think we are? Final Fantasy characters? We've got other things to think of, we're not gonna get GIVEN everything. We got a house, we can't be layabouts with it. We gotta treat this life like life in our world." The rest looked at Lee, all surprised that he seriously brought up something so obvious but so necessary. Thomas now had an idea of what he could do and also find out more about the world while doing it.
"Is there a school here in this town?" He asked. Not seeing very much of the town, the group wasn't that sure, but said that it would make sense if there was one. "Well, if there is, I guess that... I could be a student at the school? Maybe I can learn more about how this world works?"
The group thought about it and decided that if Thomas really wanted to, he could, with Michael saying that he would go with Thomas when he was ready to look for the school. Nathan meanwhile, decided to help Twilight in her library and see what he could find in there, after deciding that it was a good idea, he immediately left for Twilight's house.
"So what about us?" Adam asked. Lee thought about it and recommended that they just look around the town or practice their new magic abilities since he thought that all of them should be together if they want to take on the Everfree Forest. Travis and Adam nodded in understanding and went to the door, saying that they'll be practicing in their training spot as they now called it, Lee decided to head out too.
At Twilight's house....
"Spike! Have you finished replacing that lock yet?!" Twilight asked while looking through her books, her and Spike recently noticed that the door lock was broken and was afraid that something may have been stolen, but so far they haven't found anything out of place except some books which were mixed up, annoying Twilight. Spike said that the lock had been fixed for the last five minutes. Spike was about to shut the door after checking the outside lock until Slasha walked up to the library.
"Oh hey! It's... you uh..." Spike felt awkward as he had forgotten Slasha's name after only spotting him once at the Summer Sun Celebration, Slasha looked blankly at Spike.
"...Slasha. Slasha Dragos."
"R-Right! Slasha! Got it! Twilight's new pal, right?" Spike asked nervously.
"That's right. I was wondering if I could come in?" Slasha politely asked. Spike nodded and let him inside, shouting to Twilight that they had a visitor.
"If it's the mailpony, can you tell him I'm busy?!" She looked like she was really focused on searching for any other misplaced books, so she wasn't really paying attention to Slasha entering. Slasha seemed annoyed at first, but then smiled.
"Hello to you too, Twilight." As soon as he said that sentence, Twilight's attention was immediately brought towards the door as she saw Slasha, she was took by surprise as she attempted to nervously explain her little mistake.
"O-Oh, s-sorry Slasha, I thought it was... and I was busy and..." Twilight barely managed to stutter her sentence, Slasha just gave an expression that showed he was getting slightly concerned with Twilight's behavior. He then gave a small nod to show that he forgives the error.
"I was wondering if I could look at some of these books?" He then asked. Twilight said she was happy to let Slasha read some of the library's books after claiming that she owed Team Slasha for their help against Nightmare Moon, Slasha was about to object, but he figured that Twilight wouldn't take no for an answer. With that in mind, he rolled his eyes as he looked through the multiple bookshelves.
Meanwhile, with Eclipse...
Eclipse had been wandering around Ponyville for around five minutes. Except for the brief first visit and the Summer Sun Celebration, this was Eclipse's first time exploring about the town. He saw a couple of ponies holding apples walking away from a stall with a slightly bigger, red coloured pony packing the stall away. Eclipse recognized the pony as someone that Applejack talked to in the Summer Sun Celebration, so he assumed that he was either a friend or a relative of hers, so he decided to make friendly conversation with the red Earth pony.
"Hi there, nice weather we're having, eh?" Eclipse said with a cheery smile. The red stallion looked at Eclipse with a seemingly blank expression before looking at the sky.
"Eeyup." Was all the stallion said in reply. Eclipse stayed quiet for a moment in case the pony had something else to add to his reply, yet nothing else was said. After a minute or so, Eclipse decided to speak up again.
"Uh... so... you're uh... acquainted with Miss Applejack? The farm pony?" Eclipse asked, trying to not make the conversation seem dead. The stallion once again looked at Eclipse, but simply replied the exact same way as last time, with this, Eclipse tried to think of a more useful question.
"Could you... tell me where she lives?" Eclipse asked, while hoping that the Earth pony would show him rather than "tell" him.
"Eeyup." The pony answered once again, as he finished packing away his apple stall and began to pull it to his destination. Eclipse offered his assistance with the stall cart, wondering how the stallion would reply to that offer.
"Nnnope."
"WOO! He is NOT a robot! Maybe." Eclipse thought in his mind. He just shrugged as he accompanied the red pony to wherever he was going.
At Sweet Apple Acres....
Applejack was busy doing her usual work, happy that her family had a good time at the Summer Sun Celebration and happy that her and her friends was able to stop Nightmare Moon. After a while of working, she spotted Eclipse and her big brother walking together.
"How's it goin, AJ?" Eclipse asked with a smile and a tip of his hat.
"Just fine, thanks Eclipse." Applejack responded while tipping her stetson hat. "So ah see y'all have met mah big brother, Big Macintosh." Eclipse looked at who she was looking at as it turned out to be the red pony he was talking to earlier.
"So THAT'S his name... anyways, yeah. Nice guy. I was wondering something, AJ..." Eclipse said, catching Applejack's attention, making her wonder what he would say next.
"I was... wondering if I could help out around here?" Eclipse requested. This caught Applejack and even Big Macintosh by surprise.
"Did y'all just say ya wanna work here?" Applejack asked. With a nod from Eclipse, she smiled and accepted his offer as she began showing him what he should be doing.
With Shadike and Gale....
The two Pegasi were wandering around the town, trying to locate the school of the town, if there even was one. They had been walking for a decent amount of time until some friendly townsponies pointed them in the right direction. Some time afterwards they had finally found their destination with a female pony stepping out of the building, Gale decided to make conversation with her.
"Excuse me, miss. Is this the school of Ponyville?" Gale asked, catching the pony's attention. The Earth Pony gave a small sound of surprise upon seeing Shadike and Gale.
"Why, y-yes this is. You are two of those that helped fight off Nightmare Moon, correct? I am surprised that one of Ponyville's heroes is... so young, a-anyway, my name is Cheerilee, the teacher at this school." She answered, trying to keep calm in front of the two heroes. Shadike gave a small smile, though he couldn't really care less about schools.
"My nephew here wants to be a student at this school, if you don't mind. He seems pretty eager." Shadike said, Gale nodded in agreement as Cheerilee looked pleasantly surprised.
"It would be my honor to have this young Pegasus as a student if he is so willing to learn, I'm afraid school won't be starting again for a couple of days with what happened at the Summer Sun Celebration but I will have a letter sent for you when it is the day before it starts again. What is your name?" Cheerilee asked Gale with a smile, Gale told her his name as they all said goodbye to each other and left each other to their business.
"I guess that Tra... I mean, Arcane and Nova must have finished their magic practice by now. Lets hope they didn't pass out or anything from exhaustion." Gale said. Shadike nodded and looked up to the sky, seeing that familiar blue Pegasus flying overhead, making Shadike suddenly pick up the pace, confusing Gale.
"Let's get outta here, before I get made a flying partner for HER." Shadike said with an annoyed expression, confusing Gale.
"I don't think he likes Dash very much..."
At Sweet Apple Acres, during a day of work...
Eclipse, Twilight and Spike was helping Applejack with some work at the farm, with the two ponies working way harder than the dragon. They were all walking with baskets of ripe apples with them as Spike was sitting on top of Twilight's back, examining apples and mostly tossing them away, some hitting Eclipse on the snout, making him resist the urge to smack a dragon. He was distracted however, when Applejack suddenly started a conversation.
"Thank ya kindly, both of y'all for helping me out. Ah bet Big Macintosh ah could get all these Golden Delicious in the barn by lunchtime. If I win, he's gonna walk down Stirrup Street in one of granny's girdles!" Applejack said with a hearty chuckle.
Twilight and Eclipse both smiled, saying they were happy to help, with Spike continuing to toss apples overboard.
"I'm glad the goal is just before lunchtime. All this hard work is making me hungry!" Twilight said.
"Yeah, I'm so hungry I could eat a hor...! A hoooo....ribly large meal, and THAT'S a pretty big hunger so um..." Eclipse quickly corrected with a small cough before he said something he'd severely regret, leaving the two mares and dragon slightly confused but letting it pass. After a while of walking back towards the barn, Spike began to get impatient.
"You guys are taking so long...! I missed snack time!" Spike said with an annoyed tone, Twilight gave a small irritated sigh as she rolled her eyes, stating that Spike had been lounging on her back all day. Eclipse just rolled his eyes, thinking that Spike was just like a silly child that you can't help but smile at.
"So is THAT why you're tossing away nice looking apples?" Eclipse asked, Spike just ignored him and kept throwing out apples, until eventually he found a large juicy looking apple. Twilight looked very happy seeing it, either because she was very impressed or she wanted to just eat it right there and then. Her hopes were crushed however, when Spike started chomping on it straight away. Before Twilight could give a piece of her mind though, Spike suddenly belched out a letter bathed in dragon fire, taking Eclipse in slight confusion, Spike opened the letter and began to read.
"Hear ye, hear ye. Her Grand Royal Highness, Princess Celestia of Equestria, is pleased to announce The Grand Galloping Gala to be held in the magnificent capital city of Canterlot, on the 21st day of... yadda yadda yadda, cordially extends an invitation to Twilight Sparkle plus one guest."
Twilight and Applejack instantly gasped and cheered with what Eclipse could describe as a smile of Pinkie Pie glee, even though he had no idea why. He attempted to ask what all the fuss was about, but he got no reply since the girls looked as if they were in their own little world. Spike belched again to reveal two golden tickets.
"I've never been to the Grand Galloping Gala! Have you, Spike?" Twilight could barely contain her excitement. Spike responded by saying he wasn't interested in what he called girly frilly frou-frou nonsense.
"Plus, it's not like he would go without you, Twi." Eclipse said, with Applejack nodding in agreement.
"Yeah... if I actually WANTED to go." Spike responded while rolling his eyes and Twilight smiling to him, thinking about the Gala and stating that maybe a dance there would be nice, Eclipse decided to use this opportunity to see if he could embarrass her by asking who she would dance with, instantly making Twilight act all defensive.
"W-Who said I'd dance with ANYPONY...?! Y-you don't have to dance in pairs, you know...!" Twilight quickly responded, with Eclipse laughing and even Applejack giving a small chuckle at Twilight's slight humiliation, seeing that Twilight was looking irritated at her, Applejack decided to change the conversation.
"Well, ah would love to go the Gala! Land sakes, if ah had an apple stand set up, ponies would be chowin' our tasty vittles till the cows came home. Do you have any idea how much business ah could drum up for Sweet Apple Acres? Why, with all that money, we could do a heap of fixin' up 'round here. We could replace the barn's saggy old roof, and Big Macintosh could replace that saggy old plow, and Granny Smith could replace that saggy old hip. Ah'd give mah left hind leg to go." Applejack said with a smile.
"...you like the word saggy, don't ya?" Eclipse said while looking at the farm, he had to commend her however since those were noble reasons for attending this Gala rather than just heading there for enjoyment like most would with what he has gathered, then again, he had no idea about what the Gala was actually like, so he couldn't say much. Twilight was about to give Applejack the 2nd ticket until...
"AT LEAST BE OUT OF BED YOU LITTLE...!" With that booming voice that Eclipse instantly recognized as Shadike, the four looked up to see Rainbow Dash fall from the air into the ground, looking up at Twilight and Applejack with a nervous chuckle.
"Hey guys! Are we talkin about the Grand Galloping Gala?" She asked while standing, meanwhile Applejack was giving her a mean glare.
"Rainbow dash, you said you were too busy to help me harvest apples. What were you doing?"
"She was friggin' napping here!" Shadike said while hovering next to a branch that had a blanket on it. "She spotted me yesterday when I was on my way home, so she flies to me saying she'll challenge me to stunt flying and if I didn't show than I was a loser! Well, this LOSER arrives at the spot and at the time she asked for... and she's sleeping here like a damn... what's the word... foal!" He continued, looking really annoyed that Dash was pretty much wasted his time.
"Sorry. Tomorrow, definitely." Dash causally responded, annoying Shadike more. Dash then asked about the extra ticket to the Gala that Twilight had, but before Twilight could say anything, Dash began fantasizing about how she would impress the Wonderbolts performing at the Gala by suddenly appearing and doing awesome stunts, hoping to get to join their team. Shadike however decided to get even with Dash and broke her out of her dreaming.
"Wouldn't you get banned from seeing them by interrupting their performance? That's... kind of a stupid way to get their attention." The very instant Shadike said that, Dash's confident look suddenly shattered into shock and then pure anger towards Shadike as she punched him in the face and flew off at a blinding speed, taking Eclipse, Applejack, Twilight, Spike and even Shadike himself in surprise.
"I'LL SHOW YOU! I CAN IMPRESS THE WONDERBOLTS MY OWN WAY!" Dash shouted as she flew off to who knew where, Eclipse decided to see if Shadike was alright. Luckily, there wasn't any major damage but Shadike would definitely have a bruise later, Twilight however looked more disappointed with Shadike rather than worried.
"Did you have to be so... blunt and harsh?" Was the first sentence to leave her mouth.
"I was just trying to make her think more realistically... s'not MY fault she took it badly and decked me." Shadike replied. Applejack decided to try to change the subject by talking about the spare ticket again, asking Twilight what she was going to do with it. Twilight suddenly looked very doubtful.
" I... I don't know anymore, I don't feel comfortable talking about it now... maybe after I get something to eat, I'll feel better." She said with a growl of her belly, her and Spike then walked away together, leaving behind the apples that she had helped harvest.
"Screw this shit, I'm going home..." Shadike said as he slowly flew off, with Eclipse suddenly realizing something soon after, catching Applejack by surprise.
"HANG UP A SEC...!" He exclaimed.
"Wh-what? What?!" Applejack responded in slight worry.
"Why the hell did Sunbutt only send TWO tickets?! She KNOWS that Twilight has you, Spike and the other girls so that is SEVEN! THIRTEEN if she would think that us guys will wanna come along too! What gives?!"
Applejack looked like she was going to answer, but stopped herself when realizing she could not give a proper answer, the only conclusion she could think of was that Princess Celestia simply ran out of tickets to said, which STILL led to Eclipse feeling suspicious since he would have imagined that Twilight would have been sent the first set of tickets. Nevertheless, he knew he couldn't do anything about it.
"I think we should go after Twi to check on her, Shadike will want some time to cool down, Dash does at least for definite." Eclipse suggested, Applejack nodded in response, saying that they will leave for town as soon as they get the Golden Delicious apples back to the barn.
Meanwhile, back in Ponyville...
Twilight was still worried about what happened between Shadike and Rainbow Dash, she could only hope that they would make up with each other sooner rather than later, she was also trying to think of who give her second ticket to. Spike meanwhile was worried about Twilight, he has seen Twilight often get bothered about stuff in the past, but it wasn't very often he saw Twilight as bothered as she was now. They were wandering around town, thinking of a nice place to eat when a pink blur suddenly blasted out of an open window, tackling over Twilight and also knocking the tickets out of her grip, making them land on the blur's face who then screamed.
"BATS! BATS ON MY FACE! HELP!" The blur shouted, who was revealed to be Pinkie Pie flailing her hooves all around, trying to whack what she thought were bats off of her face. While she was doing so, Gale came out of the building that Pinkie jumped out of.
"PINKIE! There are no bats on your face!" Gale shouted, attempting to calm down the hyperactive Earth Pony, causing Pinkie to realize what exactly landed on her face with a large, beaming smile on her face. To Twilight and Spike, who had managed to pick the tickets back up, it looked like neither Pinkie nor Gale heard about what happened between Shadike and Dash.
"Are those tickets to the GRAND GALLOPING GALA?! It's the most amazing incredible tremendous super-fun wonderful terrifically humongous party in all of Equestria! I've always always ALWAYS wanted to go!" Once Pinkie shouted that, she decided to begin singing about the party and the games and decorations that will be there. Gale looked completely lost about what they were talking about. But before Pinkie could thank Twilight and take the ticket, Rarity suddenly appeared after spotting her, Spike and Twilight with the golden tickets.
"Are these... what I think they are?!" Rarity asked with a gasp, Twilight was about to answer but Pinkie rudely interrupted by saying that Twilight was taking her to Canterlot for the Grand Galloping Gala, making Rarity's emotions go into a mix of excitement, with a hint of annoyance and jealousy.
Rarity then began to talk about how she designs dresses for the Gala every year, but has never properly attended it, she then spoke about how she truly belonged in high society and wants to make an impression.
"I would stroll through the Gala, and everyone would wonder, "Who is that mysterious mare?" They would never guess that I was just a simple pony from little old Ponyville. Why, I would cause such a sensation that I would be invited for an audience with Princess Celestia herself, and the princess would be so taken with my style and elegance that she would introduce me to HIM, her nephew, the most handsome, eligible unicorn stallion in Canterlot. Our eyes would meet, our hearts would melt. Our courtship would be magnificent. He would ask for my hoof in marriage, and of course I would say, "Yes!" We would have a royal wedding, befitting a princess, which is what I would become upon marrying him, the stallion of my dreams." Rarity fantasized with a happy sigh, but then looked annoyed at Twilight, accusing her of denying her of her true love.
"Wait, so Princess Celestia has a NEPHEW? Then, who are the pare...? ...never mind. I don't wanna know how that would work." Gale said with a shake of his head, but continued. "By the way Rarity, Celestia knows we're heroes and that, couldn't we just get an audience any time?"
"Hush, Gale. The grown ups are talking, you wouldn't understand how wonderful this is." Rarity answered, with Gale taking it as a big insult and Spike noticing it.
"Why you...!" Gale walked forward, like he was going to make Rarity eat her own words, Spike however got in front of Gale and prevented him from getting past, saying that that wasn't a good idea. Gale managed to calm down luckily and apologized to Spike, saying he'll let what Rarity said slide, Spike smiled until a little white bunny hopped on his head, stealing the tickets and bringing them to Fluttershy, who was also conveniently wandering around town.
"Oh Angel, these are perfect!" Fluttershy said with a gasp as she looked at the tickets that Angel was holding, she then walked over to Twilight politely asking that if Twilight didn't already have somepony in mind to give the ticket to, that she could have it, making Rarity respond negatively almost instantly.
" YOU?! YOU want to go to the Gala?" Rarity said with a look of disbelief.
"Oh, no. I mean, yes, or, actually, kind of. You see, it's not so much The Grand Galloping Gala as it is the wondrous private gated garden that surrounds the dance. The flowers are said to be the most beautiful and fragrant in all of Equestria. For the night of the gala, and that night alone, would they all be in bloom... and that's just the flora! Don't get me started on the fauna. There's loons and toucans and bitterns, oh my! Hummingbirds that can really hum, and buzzards that can really buzz. White-blue jays, and red jays, and green jays, pink jays and pink flamingos!"
"...now say that three times fast?" Gale nervously said with a look of fear on his face, seeing that Fluttershy didn't even look out of breath. Twilight also looked nervous so she commented how nice it sounded, hoping that would calm Fluttershy down a bit. It seemed to work.
"Ahem. Twilight, can I talk a sec?" A familiar yet serious sounding voice said, Twilight turned around to suddenly see Dash's face right in front of her, making Twilight jump back in surprise. Before Twilight could say anything however, Dash pulled Twilight away from the group, hoping to talk with her in private. Rarity and Pinkie suddenly became suspicious of what Dash was trying to pull.
"Were you following me, Rainbow Dash?" Twilight nervously asked.
"Yes." Dash bluntly replied, not making Twilight any less nervous. But suddenly, Dash's serious tone suddenly became completely different as she suddenly started begging to be invited to the Gala.
"PLEASE! PLEASE GIVE ME THE TICKET!!!" Dash was practically screaming with how loud she was being, it wasn't long before that shouting allowed Eclipse and Applejack to easily find them.
"What in shivering tarnation is goin' ON here?!" Applejack asked as soon as she saw the unusual sight of Rainbow Dash begging for something.
"TURN OFF THE FUCKIN' BLOWHORN!!!" Shouted Eclipse as he yanked his hat over his ears, hoping to block the ear piercing sound. For some reason though, all of the others except for Gale and Dash gasped in unison, leaving Eclipse confused. "...what?"
"That was a VERY taboo word you just used, Mister! THE WRITER SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF PUTTING THAT IN THE PREVIOUS PARAGRAPH!!!" Said a very angered Pinkie.
"....wha...?" Eclipse and Gale both said in unison, even Fluttershy looked ashamed of Eclipse when he said that, but Fluttershy's gaze suddenly softened when she saw Eclipse and Gale's dumbfounded and confused faces.
"U-Um... girls? I d-don't think they have... heard of the stories... I don't think he... meant to say that?" After hearing Fluttershy say that, Spike and the others realized how confused the two looked.
"Oh... so you two don't know...? N-Never mind... just... don't say words like that in public. It's very taboo." Twilight said with a forgiving look. Gale and Eclipse were still lost in the dust of what just happened though.
"Okaaaaay....?" Was all that Gale said. Eclipse was busy wondering why they reacted the way they did, even IF it was a swear word, but he decided it would be best to not say anything else on the matter.
"PLEASE! TWILIGHT, I NEED THAT TICKET!" Dash continued while grabbing Twilight and shaking her, not even caring about what Eclipse said.
"R-Rainbow Dash! Let go of me!" Twilight shouted as she struggled to get Dash off.
"Please! I need to see the Wonderbolts!" Dash shouted. Rarity then suddenly butted into the conversation, saying that the ticket was hers. Pinkie also charged in, shouting the same thing, even Applejack began to argue since she really wanted to help her family and thought that the Gala was the best chance, which led to all of the girls arguing around Twilight.
"H-HEY! Ladies! C-Calm down alright?!" Gale desperately attempted to calm the girls down, but the arguing girls just ignored him which led to Eclipse taking action by getting in between them, getting them away from Twilight.
"Girls! GIRLS! Lets all stop before this gets outta hoof! I SAID STOP, DAMMIT!" Eclipse was starting to get extremely ticked off that the girls were now starting to act like silly children arguing over a toy.
"QUIET!!!!!!" The surrounding suddenly became deadly silent as the group looked at Twilight, who had been the one to shout at them all. "There is no reason to argue about this! The decision about who to give the ticket to is mine and my decision alone! And I can't think with all this noise and hunger! Now shoo!" Twilight demanded with a grumble of her stomach.
The girls all left with groans of annoyance towards each other as they all glared at each other, leaving Twilight and Spike with Eclipse and Gale, who had not left yet.
"Are you okay, Twi? You looked really exhausted..." Gale said with a worried expression.
"Y-Yes, I'm okay. Just... stress, you know? Sorry you had to see that, Gale and Eclipse, but if you are expecting for me to invite either of you two then..." Twilight got cut off when Gale and Eclipse both said that they were not interested in going, making Twilight do a double take to what they just said, since usually ponies would do anything to go to a Gala.
"It wouldn't be right, not after what just happened with the others." Gale said.
"I don't need to go to a party! I AM THE PARTY!" Eclipse said with a laugh as he removed his hat, which led to Angel the bunny popping out with an annoyed glare as he slapped Eclipse in the face and then hopped off after Fluttershy, leaving Eclipse with a slightly hurt ego. "...little bitch!" He whispered under his breath.
"A-Anyways, don't worry about us with that ticket. Just try to keep calm, you'll find an answer. I bet you will anyway." Gale said with that young cheery smile he seems to have.
Twilight couldn't help but giggle at Eclipse's little fail moment as she thanked the two for cheering her up as her and Spike walked off to finally get something to eat.
At a local restaurant, in the outdoor area...
Twilight may have promised Eclipse and Gale that she would calm down, but that was quickly proving to be very difficult as she had a list of the options she could choose from of who she could take. She spent a while staring at it while holding a pencil with her magic, even Spike with small glances from reading the restaurant menu could see how stressed Twilight was getting from seeing her friends argue like they did.
"N-Now let's see... twelve options altogether...two tickets...! Eclipse and Gale said that I shouldn't worry about them, so I'll cross them off the list... Shadike doesn't look like the type of pony who would go there even IF invited... his nature... scares me, so HE is off the list... Spike, you said you weren't interested in going..." Twilight mumbled to herself as she crossed out the respective names on the list.
"Twilight... you're STILL worried about that...?" Spike said with a groan, but Twilight just ignored him, it was obvious that ALL of her attention was focused on the sheet of paper and nothing else.
"That STILL leaves Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Arcane, Nova and Slasha...! Who do I take...?! Rainbow Dash to cheer her up from Shadike upsetting her and let her see the Wonderbolts...? Applejack to allow her to try and help out her family...? Fluttershy to let her see those gardens...?! Slasha to thank him about how he helped against Nightmare Moon and to properly welcome him to the kingdom...?! But Arcane or Nova could be invited for that reason as well...! What if I gave up MY ticket and gave it to somepony else?!" Twilight's stress was starting to build up more and more as a waiter walked up to her table.
"Have you made your decision, Madame?" The waiter asked.
"I CAN'T DECIDE!!!" Twilight screamed in response as she assumed the waiter was talking about the ticket. After Spike quickly snapped Twilight back to reality and said that the waiter was just trying to take her order, Twilight apologized and ordered her food. When Spike and Twilight was about to eat however...
"Madame... are you going to eat your food in ze rain?" Twilight turned around and saw the waiter standing in the doorway of the restaurant and other ponies running indoors, looking around, Twilight saw that it was indeed raining but not above where she was sitting, Twilight then looked up to see a hole in the clouds and saw Rainbow Dash.
"Hi there, best friend forever I've ever ever had. Enjoying the sunny weather?" Rainbow Dash asked, with a nervous face and Twilight noticed instantly. When Twilight asked Dash what she was doing, Dash simply said that she didn't want the rain to bother Twilight's meal, but Twilight could obviously tell Dash was doing favors to get her to give the ticket.
"...you're just trying to get the ticket aren't you?" Twilight accused.
"No! No, I'd do this for anypony! ...except Shadike." Dash replied with a hint of disgust in her voice, Twilight's expression became one full of pity after hearing Dash say that.
"Rainbow Dash, I'm sorry you're upset about what Shadike said, but I am not comfortable accepting unwanted favors, so I'd appreciate it if you close up that rain cloud right now." Twilight simply requested, leading to Dash closing the cloud with a sad sigh, which also let the rain pour onto Twilight as she was about to start eating. After a couple of seconds, Rarity came by, spotting Twilight in the rain.
"Twilight! ...it's raining."
"...no...really...?"
After that short sharing of sentences, Rarity grabbed both Spike and Twilight and dragged the two all the way back to her boutique.
At Carousel Boutique...
Rarity had brought Twilight and indoors, where the first thing that Twilight did was shake her herself dry, causing all of the rain that was soaked in her fur all over Rarity. Twilight nervously apologized, but Rarity went from an annoyed glare to a sudden... almost creepy happy look.
"Oh no, it's quite all right. After all, we are... the best of friends, are we not? And you know what the best of friends do...?" Rarity asked while getting closer to Twilight, making the purple Unicorn back up away from her. But before Twilight could say anything, Rarity grabbed Twilight and pulled her behind a curtain. But before Spike could wonder what was going on, the curtain opened to reveal Twilight with a beautiful outfit.
"You are simple DARLING, Twilight! Now a glorious outfit for the dashing gent!" Rarity happily said, pulling Spike behind the curtain. Before Twilight or Spike could object, the curtain opened again to show Spike in a fancy suit, with Rarity giggling. "Perfect! Now you just need a hat."
"Urgh...I told you, I don't want anything to do with this girly Gala gunk... see you back at the library, Twilight." Spike said as he walked out of the library.
"Oh, who needs him anyway. This is all about you, and how fabulous you'll look at The Grand Galloping Gala!" Rarity said with a smile, the instant she said that, Twilight quickly realized what Rarity was plotting and was about to call her out about it until Rarity wandered towards another outfit.
"And oh, my goodness, what a coincidence. I happen to have an ensemble of my own that matches yours to a T. We would be the belles of the ball, you and I. Everyone would be clamoring for our attention. All eyes would be on us, and then everyone would finally know, the most beautiful, most talented, most sophisticated pony in all of Equestria is Rarity the Unicorn. Ah, and uh... Twilight Sparkle, of course." Rarity said with a giggle meanwhile Twilight just sighed.
"You're just buttering me up so I give you the ticket. Well it's not gonna work. You're going to have to wait for my decision just like the others. Now if you'll excuse me, I've been trying all day just to get some lunch!" Twilight said while removing the fancy outfit, which led to a sudden appearance from Applejack, who grabbed Twilight to bring her to Sweet Apple Acres.
At Sweet Apple Acres...
Eclipse was busy holding a list of different apple themed dishes that Applejack told him to pick up on multiple trays, he had no clue as to why but he figured that Applejack had some reason to ask him to do so, he picked up a large tray of the latest item on the list, a large tray of apple fritters. He didn't struggle much with the weight, but keeping it balanced on his back proved to be more of an annoyance rather than a challenge. Eclipse managed to do so though as he headed outside, walking past Applejack's little sister along the way out.
"Howdy, Eclipse." The young Earth Pony said with a smile.
"Howdy, Applebloom." Eclipse replied with a similar smile.
Eclipse felt happy working at the farm, something he didn't get to do much of back in his world. But after being with the Apple family for a couple of days, he didn't mind putting a few hours of his time helping out the family after seeing how much work the Apple family put into every day. But as soon as Eclipse stepped outside, he found out why Applejack wanted the food to be brought out. He saw Applejack sitting Twilight down at a tree stump that Applejack was using for a table.
"We're best friends! Wouldn't y'all agree, Twi?" Applejack asked Twilight, who already knew where this was going.
"...I'm out." Was all that Eclipse said after gently placing the tray on the stump and walking off straight away, disappointed that Applejack would stoop to something so childish, he understood WHY she was doing it, but he would've thought that Applejack would know better than to try to basically buy Twilight's invite, the last thing that Eclipse saw was Twilight running away from the farm back towards town, leaving behind a shamed Applejack.
"Back in town, in front of Golden Oaks Library...
Twilight had finally had enough of these constant favors that her friends kept throwing at her, she decided it would be best to just go home read a relaxing book. But to her dismay, she entered the library to see two ponies, one being Fluttershy, who was humming a song while cleaning the entire library along with her animal friends and the other being Slasha, casually reading another magic book but also glancing over it wondering what the heck Fluttershy and the animals were doing this for.
"Fluttershy... not you too...?" Twilight said with a look of exhaustion, which caught Slasha's attention.
"...you okay, Twi? You look like you got dragged through town and back again." Slasha said with a slightly worried look.
"Maybe it's because I WAS..." Twilight thought to herself, but gave a look to Slasha to show she felt fine... Slasha already knew how much a bad liar she was, but didn't say anything, Fluttershy then finally noticed Twilight.
"O-oh, well, hello Twilight. I hope you don't mind, but we're all doing a little spring cleaning for you." Fluttershy said with a smile with one of her birds looking like it wanted Slasha to shift places so it could clean the chair he was sitting on.
"Oh... sorry." Slasha said as he moved.
"Fluttershy... it's summer." Twilight said with a blank stare at Fluttershy. Fluttershy said that it was Angel's idea to do it because Twilight was Fluttershy's best friend as Fluttershy put it, but Angel gave an annoyed look as Slasha and Twilight turned to look at him, they easily saw that Angel was not in the mood to clean anything.
"Shy..." Slasha said with a tone that showed Fluttershy that he didn't appreciate liars that much.
"Oh... y-yes, we ARE just doing this for the ticket..." Fluttershy quickly admitted. Twilight then bluntly said that she is not accepting any more favors and then asked for Fluttershy and her animals to leave the house, eventually Fluttershy did, leaving only Twilight and Slasha in the library with Spike being upstairs, or so they thought...
"So what was THAT abou...?" Before Slasha could finish his question, a bunch of random ponies stormed into the house yelling surprise to Twilight, during all the chaos, the two Unicorns noticed that Pinkie seemed to be leading the group of ponies, making Twilight groan and Slasha confused.
Twilight is my bestest friend
Whoopie, whoopie!
"Pinkie..." Twilight said as Pinkie started singing.
She's the cutest, smartest, all around best pony, pony!
"Pinkie." Slasha said as he also also attempted to quiet her down.
I bet if I throw a super-duper fun party, party!
"Pinkie!" Both Twilight and Slasha were getting annoyed.
She'll give her extra ticket to the Gala to me!
"PINKIE!!!!!" Twilight screamed at the top of her voice, finally getting Pinkie's attention and almost bursting Slasha's eardrums. Pinkie then asked Twilight what was wrong in a very casual tone. "At least the other ponies tried to be subtle about the ticket..."
"Ticket...?" Slasha asked.
As soon as the other ponies realized that Twilight had a spare ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala, they began to swarm Twilight with random favors and forced compliments, all of the noise attracted Spike's attention, making him wake up from his nap and run downstairs wondering what was going on. The next thing that Spike saw was Slasha shoving some ponies out of the way, allowing room for Twilight to run outside.
"Come on!" Slasha shouted as he moved the crowd aside. Twilight grabbed Spike and fled outdoors with Slasha slamming the door as he exited the library, buying them an extra few seconds as he followed Twilight and Spike. While they were running, they ran past both Arcane and Nova, almost knocking them over, but Slasha and Twilight didn't have time to stop and say hi or sorry since the crowd was catching up to them.
"So... what the hell... was THAT about?! What's this about a dumb ticket?!" Slasha questioned while running, Spike decided to explain to Slasha whats been going on since Twilight was focusing on running. "So let me get this straight...! This Gala business has sent everyone into a big dog pile, basically? WAIT! Why are there only two tickets to begin with...?!"
When Slasha said that, Twilight had finally thought about it and wondered why DID Celestia only send two tickets, but didn't have time to think about it fully. They kept running until they eventually got to a dead end, when they turned to run the other way, they saw that the pony swarm had caught up to them.
"Oh great...! NOW what?!" Spike shouted, afraid that the crowd was going to end up mauling them to pieces. Slasha then looked to Twilight and saw her charging a spell, but before he could ask what she was doing, Twilight's horn flashed with a blinding light as she, Slasha and Spike instantly vanished, leaving behind a confused crowd.
Back at the library...
"Twilight... warn us when you are going to do that...!" Spike said, looking all woozy and dizzy. Slasha, meanwhile, looked like he was about to be sick since he wasn't use to the sudden feeling of disappearing and reappearing in an instant.
"Spike! Lock the doors! Slasha, are you okay?" Twilight asked Slasha with a worried expression as Spike began locking down the place.
"I'm fine... I think. That felt weird... I knew I shouldn't have skipped that advanced magic book about teleportation...!" Slasha replied looking a bit green, making Twilight feel worried yet a bit relieved that no major problems happened with her teleport since she wasn't that experienced with the spell. She turned around to get a glass of water for Slasha when she saw the the rest of her and Slasha's friends gathered up in the library, including Shadike...
"Wh-why are all of you here...?!" Twilight questioned as she started to back away towards Slasha, Eclipse decided to speak for the group before anypony else had the chance.
"Well, when you hear a fuuuuuu....dge load of screaming and shouting in the middle of town and see two friends on the ground like they got ran over by a herd... well, yeah, Arcane and Nova said what they saw and I've just about had enough of this ticket business... but on the upside, when we found these ladies, they FINALLY seemed to get that they were wrong..." Eclipse explained, though he still didn't look happy, Shadike especially didn't look happy.
"Yeah... when ah saw ya run away from the farm like that... ah realized ah made a big mistake, so... sorry Twi, ah'm not interested in the ticket now." Applejack said, but looked uneasy as she glanced at Shadike and Dash, who were standing as far away from each as possible from what Spike and Twilight saw, eventually most of the other girls eventually apolgized for making Twilight feel uneasy and stressed as Twilight herself said sorry if she ended up disappointing them all. The only one yet to apologize was Rainbow Dash.
"I wouldn't have acted like that if it wasn't for him..." Dash grumbled, quickly setting off Shadike's temper like dynamite.
"YOU WANNA COME HERE AND SAY THAT, BITCH?!"
"TRY IT, TOUGH GUY! I'LL WIPE THE CLOUDS WITH YA!" The noise in the library suddenly jumped to explosive volumes as everypony else quickly restrained both Shadike and Rainbow Dash before they could reach other, with more grabbing Shadike since he drew his swords, actually scaring Dash, but the others managed to keep Shadike from swinging them.
"NOT SO TOUGH NOW, ARE YA RAINBITCH?! WHATCHA GONNA SAY NOW, HUH?!" Shadike yelled as he threatened Dash until the two arguing Pegasi both got hit with a sleep spell from Slasha, who finally got to test that spell from a book he read.
"THAT oughta shut them up a bit for a while... phew..." Slasha said as a bead of sweat dropped from his forehead. It was a while before anypony said anything after that, but the silence was broken as Twilight, with what she saw, decided what she thought was the best option of what to do about the tickets as she asked Spike to take a note, catching the whole group's attention.
"Dear Princess Celestia,
I've learned that one of the joys of friendship is sharing your blessings, but when there's not enough blessings to go around, having more than your friends can make you feel pretty awful. So, though I appreciate the invitation, I will be returning both tickets to The Grand Galloping Gala."
Eclipse and Slasha both smiled as Twilight said aloud what she wanted Spike to write, while the other girls were taken by surprise by what Twilight was doing. Twilight then explained while Spike sent the letter that if all of her friends couldn't go then she wouldn't go either, making all of her friends sadly smile at her. Eclipse, thinking that this was all done, was about to leave with a satisfied mood until he heard Spike starting to make retching noises, making him change his mind, as the group was now worried for Spike as Applejack walked over to him.
"Well wallop my withers, Spike! Isn't that just like a boy? Can't handle the least bit of sentiment." Applejack said, thinking that Spike was just joking, until she felt the glare from the male heroes from behind her, making her do a very nervous laugh as Spike belched out another letter. The group was all ready to listen to what Spike was about to read as Twilight was surprised on how fast the princess replied.
"My faithful student Twilight... why didn't you just say so in the first place? ...wait... there's... twelve... tickets...?" Spike noticed, confused about what he had just read, leaving the others confused, some even annoyed.
"...if anyone needs me... I'll be at home..." Eclipse bluntly said as he took his ticket and then stormed out of the house, hiding the amount of rage that was building in him the instant he found out that this WHOLE situation could have been simply avoided.
"I-I've um... got to be going too... um... s-see you tomorrow, perhaps?" Fluttershy said as she took her ticket and slowly flew off.
"Ah'm goin home too... ah got work ta do... so... yeah..." Applejack also said as she took her ticket and left, understanding how Eclipse was feeling.
"Well, at least we can all go! This is going to be GREAT! Rarity naively said, not even realizing how strange or suspicious the whole ticket situation was as she happily left the house, the same thing for Pinkie as she cartwheeled out the house with her ticket while looking forward to the party at the Gala.
"We'll... just be going home now..." Arcane said as he, Gale and Nova got their tickets and walked off, carrying the sleeping Shadike back home, leaving Spike, Twilight, Slasha and a sleeping Rainbow Dash.
"So... notice how Spike didn't get a ticket?" Slasha asked, not feeling very happy, but at least glad it was over and done with.
"Y-Yes... I did, but I don't understand why... I'll... let Rainbow Dash stay here tonight, since she can't go home right now." Twilight responded, not sure how to feel about the whole situation as she used her magic to levitate Dash up the stairs into the guest bed.
"So... why DIDN'T I get a ticket...?" Spike said with an almost disappointed, almost sad expression on his face. Just before Slasha could try and cheer him up however, Spike burped out yet another letter, making Slasha roll his eyes as he wondered what could it be now.
"And one for you, Spike....huh...?" Spike was truly baffled as he saw yet another ticket to the Gala, he looked really happy as he dropped the letter and ran upstairs with his ticket, completely forgetting the mood of the others mere moments ago. After a few minutes of Slasha trying to put together what just happened, he eventually picked up the letter as he tore it in half and tossed the pieces in the trash as his thoughts was dancing through his head.
"I think you and me need a little chat sometime eventually, Celestia..."
