Tea Cake looked over all the stallions and mares in the room distastefully, something akin to a light sneer moving across her lips.
As a professional party planner she had often considered the guests to be just as important (if not more important) a set piece as the food, entertainment or decoration, after all the other guests were who you would enjoy the food, atmosphere, and entertainment with. And if she had her way half the riff raff in this room would have been tossed out post haste.
Ah but there was no convincing young miss Sweet Heart, her charity ball was for anyone kind enough to open their heart (and their purses) for the poor, and as far as she was concerned they could be changelings in disguise and still be welcome to her ball for all the money they helped raise.
Walking around Sweet Heart’s ample mansion, the haughty unicorn frowned; every inch of scenery was covered in greasy earth pony business moguls. She knew how it worked, an earth pony manages to shove its talent on the world and after earning a few bits they start to think they can be a part of the Canterlot elite.
“Upstarts all of them” she said as she used her magic to bring herself some punch. Sipping her beverage gingerly, she was half surprised she hadn’t spat out half the punch when she heard a startling and chipper voice from out of nowhere.
“Tea Cake my dear, I have somepony id like to introduce you to” as sweetheart spoke she pointed a cream colored hoof at a brown coated stallion in a business suit with slicked back hair, at his side was a pink filly with a white and slightly purple mane.
“This is filthy rich” she gestured at the stallion, who nodded kindly, “and his daughter diamond tiara” she pointed to a young filly who was looking at her expectantly.
Tea Cake resisted the urge to sigh audibly clearing her throat and offering a tentative hoof she spoke
“good evening I am-“
“Miss Tea Cake, I’ve heard so much about you ma’m you organize all the up and coming events in high society Canterlot” Tea Cake looked down to see the source of the voice was filthy rich’s young filly and forced a smile.
Like I need some clingy upstart brat to tell me about myself
“Why yes my dear, that’s correct, my but you seem to be very well educated in Canterlot affairs.”
Diamond tiara beamed whole heartedly as the older mare lied to her through her teeth.
Thankfully, the little hick went off to the refreshment table for something to eat, leaving her and miss heart to talk to her father.
“I have to say filthy.”
“Um….I prefer rich, sweetheart.”
The businesspony corrected quickly.
“Well Mr. Rich...”
She continued undaunted by the offense he had taken to his first name.
“….I have to say I’m impressed by your donations, I didn’t think id manage to make enough for all the supplies the less fortunate would need, but with your donation we may just make it.”
Filthy smiled humbly at the comment, adjusting tie and hair for good measure.
“Well miss heart, while I certainly can’t claim to be a saint I will say that I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for those who grow up poor. Reminds me of when I was helping my pappy start up our business when ponyville was young and so was I, they were hard times, some people didn’t come out of it as strong as we did” the stallion looked down at the ground sadly remembering many of his friends and neighbors losing their businesses, jobs, and homes back when he was a kid.
Sweetheart gave filthy a reassuring pat on the back, while Tea Cake rolled her eyes , honestly he should have been happy he managed to get this high up at all, not getting all sore over a few less lucky earth ponies.
“well that’s why we’re having this charity Mr. Rich, to give those ponies an opportunity to rise above their poverty”
Sweetheart spoke triumphantly, a wide smile forming along her muzzle, Tea Cake gave another roll of her eyes, though she was really far beyond any interest in the present company giving themselves a pat on the back for all their great charity work.
She was much more interested in a specific sound that seemed to be permeating the room, something that sounded like the grinding of gears, the smashing of pistons, and the roar of coal engines, it felt as if it was getting closer too, soon the rest of the ballroom was invested in the noise as well, wondering if another guest was arriving by train....that is,until they noticed the sounds were coming from below the ballroom.
With an earth shattering “crash” the source of the sound soon made itself known, as a large behemoth of a vehicle rose up from the ground, its front spewing a sickly looking mist that seemed to have melted through the marble floors.
A pure and definite silence entered the room, as everypony began to cower in fear of the cold iron monstrosity, until…..with a hiss a door on the side of the dark iron horror opened up, and out of it stepped four rough, metallic approximations of unicorns, their bodies were thin and skeletal, their hides made from the same dark metal as the machine that transported them, pistons and smoke belching billows were dotted along their forms, their horns were circled by three rings, with a ball point at the end, and each of them seemed to be sparkling with barely restrained electricity.
One of the faux unicorns stepped forward, her tiny yellow pupils scanning the room’s inhabitance.
“Bow before the creator, Dr. Iron hand!!”
And with that another figure stepped out of the vehicle, an earth pony, a plan, boring old, earth pony, dressed somewhat oddly wearing a full red jumpsuit complete with black gloves (on all four hooves), over that he wore what looked to be a brown coat complete with tails and a backpack of some sort although few could tell from their position, cowering behind the tables and chairs. All in all he looked as though he could have passed for one of the many gentlecolts that had attended the charity ball, except for one….little detail, over his face the stallion wore a mask of cold, rusty metal completely featureless, completely without emotion, completely unreadable.
He began to look over the crowd coldly, his face betraying no emotion whatsoever, until he turned his glance to Tea Cake, he stopped for a moment. his gaze was locked on her and for a moment, she stopped as well wondering what it had meant…fearing…what it might have meant.
And then he smiled, over his mask a glowing yellow light appeared in the shape of a wicked jack-o-lantern grin, and almost instantaneously after, he began trotting over to her as she had begun to attempt to take refuge behind filthy rich in fear.
A very frightening, very hysterical laugh began to come from the pony his grin coming closer and closer to the terrified unicorn mare.
“Now Cake my dear, is that any way to treat an old friend? Oh wait I guess for you it’s a bit of an improvement, isn’t it?”
“S-stay back….I’m warning you.”
With something akin to a snarl of defiance she shot out a beam of magic towards the sinister earth pony, almost instantly a large, sharp, metal device, built like a clawed, skeletal hand….a bizzar and horrific sight on such a small pony to say the least,had shot forth from the dr.’s backpack and blocked its wearer from the beam.Slowly it moved towards Tea Cake, a dreadful clicking noise accompanied its movements as it pushed back the beam and swooped in to grab her in its wicked talons.
Suddenly as the mare screamed and struggled to escape the arm pulled back into the backpack, with her still in its grip, before its hand formed into a small cage upon its masters back, and with a few glee-filled skips he trotted over to a small compartment on his vehicle and deposited the caged mare. All the while his fax unicorns smiled at their creators apparent joy.
Straightening up, one of the metal unicorns approached their master respectfully and spoke, her harsh metallic voice lowered slightly for speaking to the master.
“What shall we do with the others sir?”
She said gesturing to Sweetheart and filthy rich, both of whom seemed to be in-between charging at the at the villain for imprisoning their friend or cowering in fear he’d do the same to them.
The stallion put a hoof to his non-existent face for a moment, genuinely pondering how best to handle the situation.
“Take them as well, we can’t afford any witnesses.”
He said casually, his creations complied immediately their bolts of yellow energy either electrifying people until they were weak enough to bind or simply trapping them in an impenetrable bubble of energy, some struggled…..some even fought back. Howver each and every attack simply pinged harmlessly off the dark iron hides of the mighty ponies, and soon everypony at the charity ball had been loaded up, either in cages, cuffs, or orbs of energy.
All except for little diamond tiara, now hiding under the snack table, her small size allowing her to go unnoticed for the entire struggle. slowly, tentatively she dared to sneak a peek at ground level were the table cloth that had concealed her had not touched the ground.
She wished she hadn’t, she watched in horror as the faceless stallion looked over the room, his jack-o-lantern grin present once more. Tiara fought back the urge to shriek as he finally looked in her direction. If he even so much as peripherally glanced down she was as good as done for.
He seemed to stare straight at her, though with his mask it was hard to tell.
she could have sworn his grin had gotten larger for a split second. she had prepared herself for the worst, to be put in chains and tossed into the back of the dark iron machine to be whisked away to celestia knows where, but it never came.
With the crashing of pistons, the grinding of gears, and the roar of coal engines the villain and his followers had left diamond tiara, all alone. she didn’t want to be alone, she wanted her daddy back.
Applejack sighed audibly, frustration reading clearly into her voice.
“Now sugercube, ah understand yer worried about your daddy, and ah understand that yer scared.”
Applejacks expression lightened, a warm, tender, almost motherly tone came upon her.
“But ah need yah ta calm down and speak clearly, tell me what happened.”
A frightened, shell-shocked Diamond Tiara looked up at the farmpony silently. Her hair was a frazzled mess, and her tiara was missing as she had to sell it to raise enough money to get back to ponyville.
Tentatively the young filly took in a breath and began to speak.
“MEANDADDYWEREATMISSSWEETHEARTSCHARITYBALLANDTHENSOMTHINGCAMETHROUGHTHEFLOORANDGRABBEDEVER-“
Applejack placed a hoof over diamond tiara’s mouth. Her family was a good friend and business partner of filthy rich and while she was happy to help when she asked. The young filly desperately needed to calm down and explain things clearly.
“Now one more time sugercube, and this time calmly, and clearly.”
Diamond Tiara looked up at the mare once more, and took another breath of air.
“She’s saying her father, along with the rest of the guests of miss sweetheart’s charity ball have been abducted.”
A powerful, regal, and somewhat familiar voice interrupted. With a startled yelp applejack jumped back as Princess Celestia gently landed next to diamond tiara, Causing the young filly to back away in awe of her majesty.
“P-princess Celestia, it’s an honor, but uh….how didja know about this, an’ howja know Diamond would be here?”
The princess gave a warm, benevolent smile to both girls. Alleviating their tension at least somewhat and opening them up to speak casually.
“Well while the royal guard were investigating the scene of the abduction, I decided to try and ask the ponies around the crime scene if they’d seen anyone leaving the building, perhaps then I could have gotten a witness to the crime to report on it. After asking around I got pointed in the direction of the train driver who took you to ponyville and low and behold here I am.”
The sun princess trotted over to diamond tiara as she spoke. Briefly she was met with a memory of her sister luna, trembling after a particularly devastating fight against discord. Kneeling down to the foal’s level she gently placed a wing over her as she had done to her distraught sister those many years ago.
“Now my dear, please….in the interest of helping your father. Calm down and tell us exactly what happened.”
Pausing slightly, with tears streaming down her eyes, she finally began to explain.
“During the ball, I remember miss teacake looking as though she was listening out for something, after awhile I heard it too….it sounded like a train. In fact I thought it WAS a train until I realized it was coming from the below. Then this huge metal thing came out of the floor, and all this metal ponies came out…”
“Metal ponies you say?”
Celestia interrupted, a slightly confused look very visible on her face. Tiara nodded glumly the image of the dark metal beasts still fresh in her mind.
“They looked like unicorns, except, their horns were all weird. After that an earth pony ended up coming out of the machine, he was wearing a metal mask, but I think he was a normal pony. He grabbed miss tea cake and started ordering all the metal ponies to take everyone else. I think he said something about not wanting witnesses.”
Sympathetically patting diamond tiara on the head, Celestia tuned to applejack. A grim but determined look crossed her muzzle as she gave the order.
“Applejack, gather the other elements of harmony, and then meet me at the library. I think I may have a plan to draw out our mysterious friend.”
…………………………………………………………………………
“Plans!? What are we doing with plans? Some metal-faced creep is kidnapping ponies and we’re just gonna sit here and try and think!?”
Twilight sighed, rainbows enthuisiasm and loyalty to the people of ponyville was admirable. But she had so little patience sometimes.
“Rainbow, I know it’s hard to take in, but we can’t just go around willy nilly trying to look for train tracks underground! We need to be patient.”
The Rainbow colored mare scowled. She knew Twilight was right, but it still frustrated her to be so helpless.
Sighing with defeated, submitted, her friends sobering words were finally sinking in and making the situation that much more hopeless.
“I just don’t wanna let anymore kids wind up like diamond tiara, nopony should be separated from their family.”
Twilight put a supportive hoof on her friends shoulder. A kind, understanding smile replacing the frustrated frown she had been wearing moments ago.
“They won’t Rainbow; you know not a single one of us would let that happen.”
“Indeed, simply ruining such a high class affair alone would have been a terrible offense. But leaving a little foal a fatherless is simply…..INEXUSABLE!!”
Spat rarity in her usual posh mannerism. Beside her pinkie pie nodded whole heartedly in agreement, an uncharacteristic frown present across her face.
“I know what you mean rarity, I mean what kinda mean-meanie beanie just goes out and takes someponies dad? That’s just…mean!”
Rainbow dash gave each and everypony present, her brightest grin. She should have known better then to think she was the only one who wanted to put a stop to this. Her friends weren’t the kinds of ponies to take this lying down and she doubted the princess would either.
“Sorry guys, I didn’t mean to lash out, I’m just alittle frustrated is all.”
“Oh….please don’t worry rainbow”
A soft voice quickly replied. The voice in question belonged to the yellow Pegasus fluttershy, resident animal caretaker of Ponyville. Hovering over to her friend, she continued.
“It’s only natural to be worried in a situation like this. I should know.”
Dash let out a small chuckle at fluttershy’s amusing statement. True she was often too worried about the smallest things. But she was always willing to overcome that anxiety for her friends.
“So whatcha reckon this plan of the princess’s entails?”
Applejack inquired with a degree of uncertainty. For whatever reason the orange farmpony couldn’t shake the feeling she wasn’t going to like the princess’s plan. Admittedly it may have been because she’d refused to come forward about it immediately, although something in her gut told her that wasn’t it.
“Well from what you’ve told me, Celestia herself doesn’t really know anything about whatever creature is committing the kidnapping. So my guess is she’d make an attempt to find out more before anything else.”
Twilight responded. Her studious tone making it seems as if she were answering a simple question at the institute for gifted unicrons, rather than a matter of national security.
Meanwhile rarity had put her hoof to her chin. Seemingly in the process of though, before she finally vocalized.
“I don’t understand why the royal guard cannot apprehend that ruffian the next time he strikes. I mean that is their job isn’t it?”
Twilight shook her head.
“There’s not enough royal guards, even if we spread them out into their thinnest they wouldn’t be present everywhere. And we don’t even know what kind of powers it has, for all we know we could be throwing them into a deathtrap.”
“Indeed you are right Twilight Sparkle. I am glad to see both your intelligence and your compassion both burn as brightly as ever.”
Quick as a whip, each and every head turned to the voice emanating from the door. And low and behold standing there in the wooden doorframe of the library was their beloved ruler, craning her neck down to enter.
“Princess, it’s wonderful that you’re here. Do you have what you need to execute your plan?”
While twilight didn’t like the idea of prying too much, she could not help but feel as though she needed to know more about the princess’s enigmatic plan.
“As a matter of fact I do”
Before twilight could work up the nerve to inquire further, applejack moved in front of her and managed to take the initiative for her.
“And, if ya’ll don’t mind me asking. What exactly is this plan of yours?”
Applejack ignored the scolding glance twilight had given her for her bluntness.
“I’m glad you asked applejack, I have gathered you all here…”
The air was practically being sucked out of the room, as each and everypony held a collective breath.
“….to go to a party.”
“WHAT!!?!”
Everyone in the room fell to the floor in exasperation. Except for a certain pink earth pony, who had begun attempting to stuff a cake (that had mysteriously appeared out of nowhere) into a suitcase (that had ALSO mysteriously appeared out of nowhere).
