Chapters Once Upon a Time in a far away land there was a Kingdom called Equestria and in this kingdom there was a young mare named Iris. She lived in the basement of a grand manor that belonged to her aunt, Madame Cinch and her two spoiled daughters, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Madame Cinch was one of the wealthiest ladies in the town for she owned a jewel mine up in the hills. Her workers would dig up rare gems and she would sell the gems to local jewelers. Though Cinch was her aunt, she was treated more as a housemaid.
Madame Cinch didn’t want anyone to know that she was related to Iris because of her unique… heritage. Iris’s mother (who was Cinch’s sister-in-law) was a brown Earth pony with a golden yellow mane, tail, and bright green eyes like emeralds. She fell in love and married a…well… a Werewolf. Yes Iris’s father was a giant Werewolf with black, shaggy, fur and huge bright blue eyes. Werewolves were the ultimate predators of Equestria; they had the ability to change from common Earth ponies to wolves. Thanks to this ability, Werewolves hunted down many ponies. However Iris’s father thought it was wrong to eat ponies since they often used their abilities to take care of the world, hence why he married an Earth pony.
Iris was a perfect blend of both her parents. She looked much like her pony mother, similar brown pony body with long slender legs and pony face. From her wolf father she had his big blue eyes, black wolf tail, fangs, big furry ears, black mane, and soft shaggy fur though it was the same color as her mother’s coat.
After her father’s death, Iris and her mother had little to no money to support themselves. They had no choice but to go live with Iris’s Mother only living relative, her sister-in-law Madame Cinch.
Cinch allowed for them to come live with her if they agreed to serve around the house for her. Iris’s Mother agreed to this arrangement. She became Cinch’s personal maid washing all the clothes, the bed sheets, the dishes; she did everything she was told. Meanwhile, Cinch had Iris take care of her prize-winning bloodhounds on their small farm. Being part canine herself she grew close with them and they were her first real friends. A few years later, Iris took on all the responsibilities of the house due to her mother’s illness. Then her mother died a year later. She asked Cinch to raise her daughter as one of her own.
As the years past, Cinch’s Jewel mine was running low. Her jewelry business was making little money and had to lay off most of her workers. She also sold a few of her possessions in order to upkeep her family’s lifestyle. Her only hope now for any money was to marry her daughters off to rich noblemen.
As soon as Princess Celestia raised the sun, Iris would smack the alarm clock hard with her hoof as soon as it went off and get ready for the day. Though there were plenty of spare rooms in the manor, Cinch had Iris live in a tiny room down in the basement. There were no windows at all, hence why she needed the alarm clock to wake her up. She got dressed putting on a long sleeve dark green shirt, a dirty old apron, and a dark purple bandana over her head to hide her huge ears.
She headed up the stairs, stepped into the kitchen, right into the small bathroom to clean herself up. As she stepped out from the bathroom she went right back into the kitchen. She started filling the kettles with water and placing them on the stove to warm up. While she waited for the water to boil, she grabbed a bag of dog kibble, placed it on her back and walked out the door to the backyard.
As soon as she stepped out she was greeted with loud barking from the dogs in the kennels. Cinch owned six bloodhounds that she used in the mines to sniff out any gems. Iris opened the gate and closed it behind her with her back hoof. She opened the bag and poured the kibble into a trough. She tossed away the empty bag and opened the kennels. The dogs came flying out as soon as the door swung open. Most of the dogs made a line straight for the kibble. Two of the dogs ran up to Iris to jump up and lick her face, she giggled from being tickled from their wet sloppy tongues. After they stopped licking, she walked out of the kennel and locked the door behind her.
She stepped back into the kitchen and heard the kettles whistling. She took the kettles off the stove and placed a pan on top. She began cooking eggs with toast for everyone. Once the toast popped out of the toaster she then heard the bells go off. There were three silver bells that hung on the wall right next to the door. Cinch and her daughters rang these bells whenever they needed Iris for anything. Iris let out sigh, her eyes never leaving the toast as she placed it on the three plates. She made a plate for herself as well, but she put a lid over it so none of the mice could get to it. She knew she could eat it later; it would be unwise to let them wait any longer for their breakfast.
She placed the first tray on top of her head and carried the other two on her two front hooves and walked straight out the door on her hind legs and straight up the staircase. Most ponies couldn’t walk on their hind legs, but for Iris it was quite easy. With her elbow, she knocked on a white door that had an image of a silver spoon on the front.
“Come in Iris,” said the voice within the door.
She opened the door by pushing her elbow on the handle and walked right into the room.
“Good Morning Silver Spoon!” she greeted the gray mare in the bed; this was Silver Spoon, Cinch’s youngest daughter. Her fur coat was grey, her mane was…well…silver…hence the name! Her eyes were still quite droopy as she put on her bright pink glasses on to see Iris placing her breakfast on her nightstand.
“Good Morning Iris!” said Silver Spoon while stifling back a yawn. “Thank you for breakfast” she looked over the plate food. She took the teacup and kettle from off the plate and poured herself a cup. She slowly sipped the tea so she wouldn’t burn her tongue “Hmm…Earl Grey my favorite. By the way I left my laundry by the door…” she pointed to a large gray bag with the word ‘LAUNDRY’ across the front “I need that done today so I have clean clothes for school tomorrow”
“Of course Silver Spoon” Iris responded.
Out of all her relatives, Silver Spoon was the only one that was kind of…sort of… nice to her. She was the only one to ever volunteer on occasion to help her out with the chores or at least make her own meals. Iris figured it might be because when Silver was little and got her new glasses she was bullied by everyone at school. She was the only one to comfort her during this time. Diamond Tiara and Cinch did nothing and told her to quit being such a crybaby about it. One day some kids threw a rock at her breaking her glasses and leaving a huge cut on her face. Iris happened to be there, she ran after the bullies barking and glaring her huge fangs at them. They ran away screaming, once they were gone she walked over to Silver Spoon. Tears and blood were streaming down her face. Iris gave her a tissue to cover the cut and carried her on her back all the way home.
They weren’t exactly best friends but Silver Spoon was grateful that despite how her family had treated her she still helped her out.
Iris grabbed the bag with her free hoof and closed the door behind her with one of her back hooves. She walked down the hallway and stopped in front of a pink door with a silver tiara on the front. She knocked on the door.
“UNHHH… finally… get in here Iris!” the voice from behind the door commanded.
She opened the door and inside was a pink mare sitting at a vanity mirror brushing her light purple white striped mane, this was Diamond Tiara Cinch’s other daughter.
“What took you so long? You should have been here ages ago” she glared at Iris with her huge blue eyes. Iris set down her plate on the little coffee table and poured some coffee from the pot into the cup.
“Sorry Diamond Tiara,” Iris said while placing the cup of coffee in front of her on the vanity mirror. “But you of all ponies should know that you can’t rush perfection” she said with a smug grin on her face.
“That’s no excuse Iris. You know better than to keep me waiting,” said Diamond as she continued brushing her hair. Iris simply rolled her eyes annoyed at her cousin’s response but also relieved that she didn’t catch her quip.
She put her hairbrush down and handed over a piece of paper to Iris, “Here is a list of things I need you to do before the end of the day”. Iris took the piece of paper and looked over the list: Pick up dress from Sassy’s, prepare cupcakes for class tomorrow, shine all shoes, wash all clothes, wash bed sheets, pick up books from the library, and drop off broken jewelry for repairs.
“Um…Diamond I don’t know if I can get this all done today” she stated.
Diamond turned away from the mirror to look up at her “What?”
“I said I don’t know if I can get everything on your list done today, I have a lot of other chores that also need to be done”
Diamond rose up “Are you refusing my orders…Iris?”
She let out a sigh “No Diamond! I’m saying I don’t have enough time”
“Hmm…I wonder what mother would have to say about this”
“Seriously Diamond! You’re really going to bother her over…”
It was too late. She stormed right out the room. Ran down the end of the hallway to a set of giant purple doors, Madame Cinch’s Bedroom. She burst through the doors. “MOTHER” she wailed.
Iris was still in the Diamond’s bedroom in shock of what happened. “Really” she thought to herself. She let out an exhausted sigh and grabbed both bags of laundry. She stepped out of the hallway and placed the two bags by the railing. She took the plate of food off from her head and carried it down the hallway. As soon as she arrived at Cinch’s bedroom door she stopped as she heard her voice “Iris! Come here dear” a chill went down her spine. She opened the door with hoof and walked right through.
The room was almost completely dark; the only light source was from the doorway. Iris slowly walked in approaching the coffee table. Diamond Tiara was standing next to the table with a wide, evil, grin spread across her face. Iris set the plate of down on the table. Across from the table was a pale green unicorn wearing glasses and her purple hair up in a bun sitting on a little couch looking down over some papers in her lap.
“Yes… Madame Cinch…you called for me?” Iris stuttered.
Madame Cinch set the papers down on the coffee table and poured herself a cup of tea. She leaned back in to her couch while she continued to stir her cup. The waiting was agonizing. Iris was tense inside, oh sweet Celestia what is she going to say, she thought to herself. Diamond Tiara was also getting impatient, her grin slowly dropped away and became bored. Cinch finally stopped stirring her drink, placing the spoon back on the plate and took a sip of her tea. She rested the cup on top of her lap and slowly looked up with her cold, pale, pink gaze. Looking into her cold stare, Iris felt a chill going down her back. She wanted to look away from those awful eyes, but knew it would just make the situation worse.
“Iris” Cinch finally spoke in a dry tone “Care to explain to me why you refused my daughter’s simple request”.
Iris took a long, deep breath, releasing all the tension inside and began “I’m afraid this is all just a misunderstanding. I did not refuse her requests I simply stated that there wasn’t enough time to do all of them today. I have her list if you want to…”
Cinch lifted up a hoof to signal her to stop “I don’t need to see it”. Her hoof slowly dropped back into her lap.
“The solution here Iris is quite simple…make Diamond Tiara’s requests your first priority. You can do the rest of your chores after that.”
A wide grin spread across Diamond Tiara’s face as she savored her littler victory.
“Thank You Mother”
“Your Welcome dear. You are free to go. I need to speak with Iris alone for a minute”
“Of course Mother”
As she turned to leave, she looked to Iris with an evil look in her eyes and a sly smirk.
Once Diamond closed the doors behind her, Cinch looked back up at Iris.
“How many times must we have this conversation Iris?”
Cinch placed her teacup on the table and stood up, hovering over Iris. As tall as Iris was Madame Cinch was taller than her by a head. She started to walk around the table, stopped in front of her and looked down into her eyes.
“Iris you know how important my reputation is…right?”
“Yes Madame” Iris automatically answered.
“And you know that I love my daughters and that I value their happiness above everything else…right?”
“Of course Madame”
“And you understand why no one can know about your true…lineage. If anyone found out about what you really are and that you were actually family not only would the citizens of this village kill you, but it would destroy my reputation and ruin any possible chance for my daughters to marry any wealthy noblemen… or even a local peasant…right?”
“I understand clearly Madame”
“Then you understand that you must remember that you are a servant first. You serve My Daughters… and me. Not only for our protection but for you as well my dear…is that clear?”
Iris took a moment to pause before she answered “Yes Madame”.
“Good! My laundry needs to be done as well. You may do it after you have finished Diamond Tiara’s requests. That will be all… you are dismissed”
“Yes Madame”
Iris grabbed the bag by door and quickly left the room. Once she closed the door behind her, she slid down to the floor and let out a deep breathe of air.
Equestria’s King, Discord the Lord of Chaos, had just fallen into a deep depression at this time. He was a Draconequus: he had the head of a pony with mismatched horns on his head, big yellow eyes with red pupils, his body was serpentine shaped covered in brown fur, a pale red snake tail with white feathers at the tip, a lion paw for his right arm, an eagle claw for his left, a left green dragon leg, a right light brown goat leg, a purple bat wing and a blue bird wing on his back.
Usually King Discord was a bright, happy fellow who used his magic to take great care of his Kingdom. Over a decade ago ponies were being hunted down by local packs of werewolves. He used his powers of chaos and banished all the werewolves far away from Equestria. Since then, every year his subjects would throw a week long festival in his honor and end it with a grand gala. Being a creature of chaos he loved dancing, playing games, pulling pranks, and having all sorts of fun with his subjects and fellow Royals. You couldn’t find a jollier fellow…that is… until now… before he met… her.
At the castle, in his royal bedroom chamber, King Discord was lying in his bed, sobbing. His face was buried into his arms on top of his pillow that was soaking wet from his many tears.
There came a knock on his majesty’s door.
“GO… AWAY”, he wailed.
The door creaked open; a grand white unicorn with dark blue hair clad in purple and golden armor stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. He slowly approached the melancholy King’s bedside. This unicorn was the King’s Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor.
“It’s just Shining Armor, your majesty”, he proclaimed as he bowed his head.
“Did you not hear me?” Discord said as he lifted his head up towards his servant, tears streaming down his face. “I said to… LEAVE ME ALONE!” he screamed as his head fell down into his arms and continued crying loudly.
Shining Armor looked down at Discord’s pillows and noticed they were all soaking wet. His horn started to glow with a bright blue light and pointed it towards the pillows. In a bright flash the pillows were replaced with clean, dry ones. Discord didn’t notice as he continued to sob into his new pillow.
“Discord I understand that you are upset about what happened with Fluttershy but…”
Discord lifted his head and let out an ear-piercing wail, Shining Armor had to cover his ears from the painful scream. Discord dropped his head back down and continued sobbing, now louder than before.
Shining Armor removed his hooves from his ears and continued, “…but you’re the King! Your subjects need you right now. Rejection is not easy for anyone, but as King you don’t have the luxury to lie around and mope over your broken heart. The Kingdom is in a dire financial crisis and we really need you to pull yourself together and help us solve this!” he stated to the broken King.
Discord’s sobbing started to quiet down. He pushed himself up, flung the sheets off, and sat right up over the side of the bed. He snapped his eagle talons and in a flash a handkerchief materialized in his talon. He lifted the handkerchief to his bright yellow and red eyes, which were now puffy from all the crying, wiping away all the tears. He then blew his nose into the handkerchief and tossed it over his shoulder as it disappeared in in flash.
“You are right Shining… I shouldn’t be bawling like this… but I… I…I”, he stuttered as a fresh wave of tears came streaming down his face. He summoned another handkerchief and buried his face as he screamed, “I CAN’T HELP IT…I LOVE HER TOO MUCH!”
Shining Armor sighed as he watched his king sob loudly into the handkerchief.
“Before I came up here, I spoke with Princess Candace of the Crystal Empire about what had been going on between you and … the gardener.” He stopped himself from saying that name again afraid the King would wail again. Discord lowered his paw and claw to look sideways at the Captain, tears continued flowing down his face. “And we’ve come up with an idea to help you move on. Your festival is two weeks away and the entire Kingdom will make sure this year’s the best ever! And for the gala this year…” He pulled a scroll from behind his back and unfurled it for Discord to read. “We’ll make sure that every eligible maiden in the Kingdom comes and presents herself to you. You know, find you someone new.” he said with a smile.
Discord wiped his face and tossed the handkerchief away in a flash again. He grabbed the scroll and read it over. He wasn’t sure about this idea of meeting “eligible maidens”. He loved parties of course: dancing, mingling with others, playing games, and showing off his chaos magic. But now after everything he had been through with Fluttershy, even just thinking her name sent a shot of pain through his chest and more tears weld up in his eyes, he wasn’t sure that he was ready to start all over again. Still what could it hurt?
“I’m not sure about this, but if you think this will help…” he snapped his eagle talon and his signature appeared at the bottom of the scroll. “Then I give you the order to spread the word and start planning the Gala.”
“Right away your Majesty”, Shining Armor levitated the scroll from Discord toward him. “Don’t worry everything will work out, I’m sure of it”, he said as he exited from the room with the scroll floating next to his head.
Word had already spread fast around the Kingdom about the Ball this year. Every single maiden received personal invites to the Gala to meet with the King. Everyone was excited about this turn of events. Usually only Royals and rich merchants went to the Gala, but this year everyone was invited and every maiden had a shot to be the King’s new Queen.
A gray Pegasus mare with yellow cross-eyes flew up to the door of Madame Cinch’s House and rang the doorbell. Iris of course opened the door to greet her, whom she instantly recognized as her old childhood friend.
“Oh Hi Muffins!” Iris said with a wide smile, “I see they already have you working hard at the Royal Palace. Nice Uniform! You’re a mail pony now right?” she asked.
“Announcer actually but just for today. Usually I’m picking up trash around the Palace.” Muffins replied.
“Why only today?”
“Because they need as many ponies as possible to pass out invitations and since I’m from here they had me deliver the invitations for the village since I know the area pretty well”
“Invitations? For what?” Iris inquired.
The gray mare cleared her throat, pulled out a scroll, unfurled it, and began to read aloud, “By the Order of King Discord himself, every eligible maiden in the Kingdom is invited to attend this year’s Grand Gala and present herself before his Majesty!” she said in a loud, clear voice as she handed Iris a golden envelope.
Iris clapped her hooves together and took the envelope from her, “Wow Muffins! That was great!” she praised the Pegasus.
Muffins blushed and looked down her hooves, “Awe thanks Iris, that means a lot”
“Ah Muffins before you go, just what do you mean by ‘eligible maiden’?”
“Oh… well the King really wants a Queen, so every mare in the Kingdom that is of legal age and single is invited to present themselves to his majesty and choose a lucky girl to become his new Queen”
“But he is a King! Shouldn’t he marry a Queen or a Princess? Why not Princess Celestia or Princess Luna? They are the most beautiful ponies in the world!”
“None of the Royal ladies he has met really appealed to him. Besides, the King doesn’t really care about looks anyway, he just cares if he can meet a girl that can make him happy”
“All men say that but in the end they always want a prettier girl. Besides I highly doubt he’ll pick me anyway”
“Why? If anything you have the best shot! Your beautiful, smart, funny, you have super soft fur, you’re the fastest runner, the best tracker, and your loyal to your friends. Seriously I don’t understand why you think so low of yourself”
“You know why Muffins. Because I’m a freak! I’m a pony/werewolf hybrid. I don’t look like other ponies. I have fangs, a wolf tail, and large freaky wolf ears! Everyone looks at me like a monster”
“I don’t”
She gave her friend a warm smile,” Thanks Muffins”
Her cross-eyed friend gave her a great big smile back.
“Anyway I’ve never been to a Gala before, what happens there?” Iris asked.
“OH the Gala is amazing! They serve the most delicious food; play beautiful music all night long, and at midnight they have the most awesome fireworks show EVER!”
Iris stood still pondering over the idea of going to the Gala. She eventually answered “I’ll think it over Muffins, I should let you get back to work, this is a big village after all!”
“Don’t worry about me I’ll get through the entire Village before dinner. See you around Iris!”
Iris closed the door behind her and carried the envelope with her around to the backyard.
Madame Cinch was in the backyard with her daughters, helping them practice their archery skills, if you want to call it that. Diamond Tiara was having trouble keeping the arrow straight in her bow. As she released the arrow it landed a mere foot in front of her. She threw the bow down to the ground and stomped around in frustration. Silver Spoon on the other hand could at least keep her bow straight, but she kept closing her eyes in fear as she released the arrow, the arrow flies and hits the tree behind the intended target. Cinch smacks her hoof to her face at her daughters’ embarrassing display.
“Girls” she screamed, they looked up at their mother in fear “This is ridiculous! This isn’t that hard. Diamond Tiara a lady must always keep her emotions under control. Silver Spoon quit being a coward and keep your eyes open when you aim”. Looking into her daughters’ faces, which were filled with a mix of fear and shame she felt pity and let out an exacerbated sigh.
“Here let me show you again how it is done,” she said as she stepped in Silver Spoon’s spot. She took out an arrow and pulled it into the bow. She closed one eye as she took aim at the target. She released the arrow, it lands right in the middle of the target. “See girls it is not that hard, just like in real life, as long as you maintain self control you will always hit your target.”
Iris stood by watching the whole scene, as horrible as her cousins were to her she couldn’t help but feel sorry for them. She didn’t understand how Cinch could be so cold to her children like this. However they were her children, she had no place to judge on how to raise them.
Iris cleared her throat loudly to get their attention. All three quickly turned around and gave her cold looks of disapproval. “This better be important Iris, you know better than to interrupt us while in the middle of a lesson” Cinch said with cold disdain.
“Oh…I certainly know better my lady, but I thought you might want to know that we have received a special invitation from the King himself.”
“An Invitation… from the King!” both Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon squealed with excitement.
“We?” Cinch asked in a suspicious tone.
“Well the invitation is addressed to residents of the household and last I checked I am still a resident here,” she said with a sly smirk.
She handed over the golden envelope. Cinch quickly took it from her and torn it open with her magic. She skimmed through the invitation.
“By his Majesty’s Royal Command every eligible maiden in the Kingdom is required to attend the Gala to present themselves before his Majesty”
“Oh my GOSH we’re going to meet the KING!” Diamond and Silver said in union.
“Get yourselves ready girls! We have much to do in preparation, this might be our only chance, if either you wins the King’s heart and marries him we’ll never have to worry about money again!”
“Just imagine… being Queen of all Equestria!” said Silver Spoon.
“Where we would get the best clothes, magnificent jewels, and hundreds of servants doing everything for us.” Diamond Tiara gloated.
Iris listened to their gushing and thought to herself, so… not that much different from now. Oh well…if the King did marry one of them at least they wouldn’t be my problem anymore.
Cinch narrowed her gaze at Iris “I take it you want to come to the Gala too…eh Iris?” she raised one of her eyebrows.
Iris glared right back at her “You read the invitation yourself, it states that ‘all residents’ of the household are invited and I think it would be rude if ‘all of the residents’ didn’t show up to the party” she said with a smirk.
Cinch leaned in closer to her face “Trust me Iris you wouldn’t like it. Its not really a place someone like you would enjoy”
“Well I won’t know until I go and see for myself, besides I already told Muffins that I would see her there. I can’t disappoint my friend like that”
“Muffins, that cross-eyed weirdo friend of yours?” Diamond Tiara mocked.
“She is not weird she is different and yes she is my friend. In fact she is the one the palace sent over to deliver the invitation. From what she told me the Gala sounds like a lot of fun”
Cinch and the others continued to stare at her coldly.
“Plus I think I deserve a night off for always working so hard around here. Doing my chores and doing everything you ask of me.”
Cinch stared at her for a while. Finally she said, “ You are…absolutely right Iris” with a smirk.
“What?” Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon said at the same time.
“Say What Now?” Iris said totally baffled by Cinch’s response.
“I said you are right Iris. You do work hard around here with no complaint and you clearly want to go…so I won’t stand in your way”
Iris stood still filled with complete shock with what her Aunt said. She really wasn’t going to stop her from going? It sounds to good to be true. There had be some sort of catch this. This wasn’t like her to be this nice or generous with her.
“However…”
Yeah it was too good to be true. Of course there would be a catch.
“If you can buy your own gown and make plans for own your transportation for the Gala all while keeping up on your chores around the house. Is that understood?”
Iris initial thought was how unfair this was. Cinch knew very well that she didn’t have any money to buy her own dress and she was going to buy expensive dresses for her daughters. She didn’t even want her to ride in the same carriage with them. Clearly Cinch was doing whatever she could to keep her away and protect her precious image.
Iris took a deep breath and exhaled before she answered “Alright I agree to your terms”
“Excellent” she said with a smile.
“Ok then...um… I’ll just head out to the market and get the groceries then”
“Alright Iris don’t be out too long”
“I’ll be back in time to make supper”
Iris turned around walked though the backdoor into the kitchen.
Once Iris was out of sight Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon walked up to their mother.
“Mother! What were you thinking?” screamed Diamond Tiara.
“That’s not like you at all mother!” said Silver Spoon.
“Now girls I said ‘If’” Cinch said in a sly voice.
“Oh…If…” both the girls said with evil smiles.
“I have an assignment for you girls this week… how do you feel about assisting in Iris’s chores?”
Iris had an idea about how she was going to get to the Gala; but she first she had to go see her friends, Twilight Sparkle and Rarity. Before heading out, she had to run down to her bedroom. She opened her chest and rummaged through it until she finally found it, her mother’s old dress. She rolled it up and packed it into her saddlebag. She grabbed her cloak and bandana then headed out the front door.
She trotted across the street toward a tall gray manor covered in vines. She knocked on the door. Soon it swung open and a small purple dragon in the doorway greeted her. This was Spike, Twilight Sparkle’s assistant. He had green spikes on his head that went down along his spine to the tip of his tail. He looked up at Iris with his large green reptilian eyes.
“Oh Hi Iris!” he said with a wide smile, filled with small sharp teeth “Come on in I’ll let Twilight know you’re here” he stepped to the side to let her in.
Iris stepped through the doorway while thanking her dragon friend.
Spike lifted his hands to his mouth and shouted up the stairs “Twilight Iris is here!”
“I’ll be down in an minute” Twilight responded.
Iris looked down at the small dragon “How are you Spike?” she asked.
“I’m good…” he opened his mouth wide letting out a yawn “…now that Twilight’s done with her exams and on summer break I’ve been trying to catch up on sleep. Ms. Star Student” he did air quotes with his fingers “Had a lot of late nights studying for her exams…” he let out another yawn while stretching out his arms “…and I was more than happy to stay up to assist with her studies”
“Well I’m sure Twilight is eternally grateful for all your help. Have you heard about the Gala yet?”
“Oh Yeah!” he immediately brighten up with a wide toothy smile “Muffins stopped by earlier and delivered our invitation. You should have seen the look on Twilight’s face when she read it. I haven’t seen her this excited since she wrote that 50-page research paper on the history of the Crystal Empire.”
“Really? I thought she didn’t like parties, she usually avoids them.”
“Yeah but her heroes the Princesses Celestia and Luna always come to the Gala. This is her only shot to ever meet them in person.”
“Oh!” She didn’t think about possibly seeing Royalty other than King Discord himself. She was just curious about going out, seeing the fireworks, eating delicious food, living like a normal pony.
Her ears then perked up under her bandana as she heard a door open and close. She looked up and saw her friend coming down the stairs. Twilight Sparkle was a lavender unicorn, her mane and tail were eggplant purple with a stripe of bright pink and purple down the middle, and her eyes were the same shade of purple as her mane. “Hi Iris! What brings you over?” she asked as she walked towards her.
“Hey Twilight! I came by to ask if you and Spike were going to the Gala?”
“Oh absolutely!” Twilight shrieked with enthusiasm, “Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are going to be there! This might be the only shot I get to met the two most famous and powerful ponies in the entire World!” she said with a huge, wide, smile on her face.
“Yeah, Spike was just telling me about the news. I’m excited for you, not everyone gets to meet his or her hero in person. Anyway I was wondering if I could ride with you guys… to the Gala? If that’s okay?”
“Oh of course you can ride with us! My brother is Captain of the Royal Guard so he is sending us a ride, why do you ask?”
“Well…” Iris started to say, her eyes rolling all over avoiding eye contact. Twilight then gasped in realization “Don’t tell me Cinch isn’t letting you go to the Gala!!!” she yelled in alarm.
“Well… yes and no… you see I asked her if I could go to the Gala and she said I could but I would have to make my own arrangements for getting to and back from the Gala. So that’s why I came to ask for a ride.”
“Not cool” Spike added “But maybe it’s for the best. This way you’ll be going to the Gala with Friends” he said with a smile to cheer her up.
Iris smiled warmly down at him “You know what Spike your right. It will be more fun to go to the Gala with you and Twilight”, she turned her head back to Twilight, “Speaking of friends...Do you have some free time? I’m going over to Rarity’s and ask her for help with my dress, would you like to come with me? ”
“Spike and I would love to come. I was going to her place later today anyway. Let me just grab my dress real quick”
Twilight went up to her room and back a few seconds later with her dress in her saddlebag. “Alright I’m ready. Lets go”
Spike held the door open for the two mares. They thanked him as they stepped out the door. He slowly closed the door behind them and locked the door with a key. Twilight levitated the key from his claw into her bag. The three friends headed straight down the road toward the shopping plaza.
After a while, they finally came upon a beautiful white dress shop. A white sign covered in light blue stones around the edges hung above the door reading “Rarity’s Boutique”. Iris opened the door first and a loud bell chimed as she opened it. She stood aside and held the door open for Twilight and Spike to come in. She slowly closed the door behind them.
A beautiful white unicorn with a curly purple mane and tail greeted the group “Welcome darlings to Rarity’s Boutique! Where every outfit is chic, unique, and magnificent!”
Spike looked up at her with hearts in his eyes, his mouth turned into a goofy smile, and more hearts fluttering around his head. “Hi Rarity” he moaned.
Iris and Twilight rolled their eyes at his behavior. “Hi Rarity” they said greeting her.
“Oh… Iris, Twilight, Spike…I didn’t even notice it was you. Oh wait... let me guess! You’re here to pick out dresses for the Gala!” she said in a rich accent.
“Are we that obvious Twilight?” Iris asked sarcastically while looking over at her with a mischievous grin. She looked over to Iris while raising a single eyebrow at her “I’m afraid so Iris… I’m afraid so”
“Forgive me darlings but I am just so EXCITED about our first Grand Galloping Gala” Rarity squealed with enthusiasm.
“We understand Rarity!” said Twilight.
“We’re excited too” said Iris.
“Right! Any who when I received my invitation to the Gala my brain instantly buzzed with ideas for gowns and I immediately began drawing up some sketches”
Rarity walked over to the counter, everyone followed behind her. She levitated a purple sketchbook with a giant light blue jewel on the cover over to her friends. She opened the book to the last few pages. Iris took hold of the book and held it out so everyone could peer over the pages. Twilight kept flipping through the pages while Rarity stood to the side; her big, brilliant, blue eyes were wide with anticipation.
“So what do you think? Which ones do you like?” Rarity asked.
“These are beautiful Rarity! But…do you really have time to make dresses for all of us...From scratch…in two weeks?” Twilight asked slightly panicked.
Rarity’s ears dropped down, her eyes filled with panic “Oh” the shock in her face was soon replaced with sadness “I suppose you are right…There I go again getting all caught up in the excitement… not thinking things through” she finished with a half-hearted giggle.
Iris placed the book back on to the counter and walked over to Rarity and placed a hoof on her shoulder and smiled down at her “Twilight and I had an idea. We brought over some old dresses that we were wondering if you could modify them to look like new for the Gala.” she said, then she turned to face Twilight.
Rarity gasped with excitement “Brilliant Girls! Reinventing classic retro styles into today’s world of Haute Couture. Follow me to the back and show me what I’m working with here”
Everyone followed Rarity to her studio in the back of her shop behind the counter. Spike made sure to grab Rarity’s sketchbook from off the counter and carried it with him to the back. They walked through the door and down the hallway. At the end they walked into a wide, messy room, filled with mannequins, papers, pens, pencils, measuring tape, and various other fabrics cover the entire space.
Rarity stepped over next to two pony mannequins “If you girls would be so kind to put your dresses on these mannequins while I go grab my supplies to take your measurements”
Twilight and Iris set down their bags and pulled out their old dresses. Twilight used her magic and levitated her old dress over onto the first mannequin. Her dress definitely looked worn out. The front torso was dark red with orange frills around the neck and the short sleeves. The skirt of the dress was the same shade of orange as the frill. A few buttons were missing from the front and one orange button hung loose.
Iris pulled her mother’s dress out and placed it over the second mannequin. Her dress was simple, plain…boring. The front torso was white with short sleeves that ended at the shoulder. The skirt was light lavender with a big pink bow tied around the waist.
Rarity came back levitating her box of supplies next to her head. “Ok let’s see what I’m…” Rarity’s eyes became wide open, here pupils shrunk down to tiny dots. Her jaw dropped. Her box of supplies began to drop. Luckily, Twilight quickly lit up her horn and caught the box with her magic before it touched the ground.
“What’s the matter Rarity?” Spike asked in a concerned tone.
“Our dresses aren’t really that bad, are they?” Iris inquired.
She shook her head back and forth to snap out of her shock “No, No its just they are so, so…plain” she said the last word as if she were in pain.
She stepped over to Twilight’s dress first. She walked around the mannequin, looking over the color, fabric, and other details of the dress. She would occasionally say “Hmmm” to herself.
Iris couldn’t help but notice that Twilight was oddly tense as Rarity examined her dress, worried even. ‘Why’ she thought to herself, ‘She is just looking over the dress, it’s not like an exam, and she’s not going to be graded.’
“Well…” She finally spoke after taking almost 20 minutes looking over the dress. “How do I explain this?” she pondered with a hoof scratching underneath her chin. She regained her composure and looked over to her friends “Twilight your dress is much too…young for you dear”
“Oh!” Twilight said almost relieved “Is that all? But you can do something with it right?”
“Hmmm…I might be able to do something with the red torso part. However I’ll have to replace the skirt entirely and get rid of the frill detail. Twilight how would you feel about the dress being sleeveless?”
“That sounds like a little too much exposure”
“Exposure?” exclaimed Spike “Twilight you normally don’t wear anything!”
Twilight stared down at him with her eyes squinted eyes “I mean it’s too much exposure for a formal event”
“Don’t worry darling! I’ll give you some long gloves to wear you’ll look more elegant that way”
“Ok now what do you think about my mother’s dress?” Iris asked.
“What! This was your mother’s dress Iris?” Rarity said in a panic tone.
“Yeah when she married daddy she wore this very dress”
“OH…Oh my…Are you sure about this Iris? ” Rarity asked concerned. She knew how much Iris had loved her mother.
Iris shifted her gaze back to the dress. Suddenly an image of her mother twirling around wearing it popped into her mind.
“What’s with the dress mommy?” a younger Iris asked her.
“Tonight is our anniversary and I want to look nice for your father” said her mother.
“But why?”
Iris’s mother bent down and looked into her eyes “Oh my dear little flower! When you’re older and meet the stallion of your dreams you’ll understand”
“Not the ‘when you are older’ line mommy, that bit is older than you are”
“Yes it is but only because it is true for all youngsters like yourself. Besides someday I’ll give you this dress to wear on a special occasion. I’ll even help you modify it if you want to”
“Darling?” came Rarity’s voice.
Iris snapped back to reality, “Uh! What? Did you say something Rarity?”
“I asked if you were okay with using your mother’s dress. You were just standing still silently staring at it. I was wondering if you were having second thoughts about this?” Rarity asked concerned about her friend.
“Oh…oh yeah I’m one-hundred percent sure about this. Yes…I know she would have been thrilled to bits with our idea” she said with a small smile.
Rarity, Twilight, and Spike noticed that tears were forming in Iris’s eyes. Twilight put her hoof atop Iris’s shoulder to comfort her. Spike walked over and hugged Iris’s forelegs letting her know that everything was okay; she was in a safe place with her friends.
Iris lifted one of her fore hooves to her eyes and wiped away her tears. “It’s okay everypony. I’m fine… I was just remembering…well you guys can probably guess what”
After a few moments of silence, Twilight and Spike stepped back to give her some space. She shook her head before returning her attention back to Rarity. “So…um… What do you think Rarity?”
Rarity was still wiping away her tears as well with a handkerchief. She took a deep breath and began explaining, “Well the dress itself is not awful, the quality and color of the fabric is rather impressive.”
“But…”
“But… the dress I’m afraid is much too small for you. I would have to find a dress your size and perhaps integrate a few pieces from this dress into it.”
“Why don’t you use your magic to make it bigger?”
“My magic isn’t really powerful enough for a spell like that”
Twilight excitedly chimed in “Oh but I can! How big should the dress be Rarity?”
“Oh thank you Twilight! Just a little bigger than Iris herself so I can make the proper adjustments to it”
Everyone stood back to give Twilight some extra space to cast her spell. Her horn began to glow bright purple, beads of sweat were forming on her face. She pointed her horn towards the dress and a burst of purple light shot out from her horn and hit the dress. In a puff of pink smoke the dress and the mannequin were as big as Iris herself.
“Perfect! Thank you Twilight darling” Rarity praised her.
“Sure anything to help my friends” Twilight smiled.
“Alright then lets get to work. Spike would you be an dear and assist me while I take the girls measurements?”
Rarity began taking the girls measurements with Spike writing them down as she went. Afterwards she had them look through some fashion magazines to figure out how they wanted their dresses to look. It was finally dusk, Iris told everyone she had to go and start dinner for everyone. Everyone said their goodbyes and left Rarity’s shop. Iris walked Twilight and Spike back to their house.
Along the way Spike had been deep in thought, often looking back at Rarity’s shop. Iris and Twilight noticed that he had been frequently looking over his shoulder.
Twilight finally asked him “Is something wrong Spike? Did you leave something at Rarity’s? We can go back if…”
“What?” Spike snapped back as he heard Twilight’s voice “Oh ah…no…no I was just thinking about…” he turned looking straight at the shop again while rubbing the back of his neck. Iris walked closer to look at his face. She could see that he was uneasy about something, but what?
“What is it Spike? You know you can tell us or ask us anything right?” she stated.
Spike lowered his claw down to his side. He took a deep breath and then let it back out.
He turned facing Iris and Twilight “Okay you guys know about my crush on Rarity right?”
Iris and Twilight shared nervous glances worried where he was going with this. “Yes” they both responded in unison.
“Well… with the Grand Galloping Gala coming up I was thinking about…finally telling Rarity how I feel about her and asking her to…be…my…date…to…the gala”
Twilight and Iris looked at each other with uncertainty and looked back down at Spike again.
Twilight cleared her throat “Well…um…Spike…I’m sure Rarity would be flattered if you did ask her but…um… just keep in mind she might…well…um”
“She might not feel the same way about you” Iris finished for her.
“Exactly…Thank You Iris”
“I’m sure once I tell her how I feel she’ll definitely say yes”
“And what if she says no?” Twilight asked.
Spike looked down at the ground to hide his face “I don’t know” then he quickly looked back up “But I know I won’t know unless I ask her for sure”
Iris replied “Alright… just remember the worst that can happen is she says no”
“And that we’ll be here to support you no matter what happens” Twilight added.
“Thanks guys, but really I’m ready! I’m sure she’ll say yes when I tell her how I feel”
The three friends finally started walking back to their homes. Iris said good night to Twilight and wished Spike the best of luck with Rarity. She headed straight for the kitchen to fix her supper.
“Welcome home Iris” Madame Cinch was sitting at the table sipping from a teacup.
Iris stood frozen in the doorway in a state of confusion and fear. What was she doing here , she thought to herself. What could I have possibly done? I haven’t been home for most of the day.
“Funny. You go out for groceries all day and you come back with no groceries. Explain yourself” Madame Cinch says in an icy, cold, stern voice.
Un oh Iris thought to herself.
