The Night of the Ball

Alexander placed a pair of goggles on his face. The black and red pegasus glanced over to Trebass to take one last look at his friend.

"Are you ready?" He asked.

Trebass, the snow white unicorn sitting in a velvet chair, simply nodded. He looked at the watch-like device that was wrapped around his hoof, and the metal bowl on his head.

Alexander took a deep breath, and pulled the lever. Sparks flew from the Eyeglass, the glass box that contained nothing more than a nervous unicorn and a velvet chair. Trebass clenched his teeth and shut his eyes tightly, and in an instant, the room where Alexander was standing had disappeared and was replaced by whiteness.

"Where am I?" Trebass thought to himself He felt as if a waterfall was crashing on his body, rendering him immobilized. He couldn't move his body at all, his entire being was numb.

Suddenly, the whiteness began to fade. Trebass opened his eyes to find his hooves gripping the velvet chair tightly. He looked up and saw what looked like a bathroom stall door. He removed the metal bowl from his head and placed it on the seat of the velvet chair. He look around, he was in a room the size of small toolshed. The floor and ceiling were made of marble tiles. The walls were made of a white wood that Trebass had never seen before. He opened the wooden door and found other s in front of a long mirror that stretched across the room. Marble sinks with metal spouts were lined up below the mirror. It was clear that this was some sort of formal washroom, and he had just come out from a bathroom stall.

"The owners of this place must be billionaires." He thought to himself.

Trebass noticed the stallions were in tuxedos and carrying duffle bags, very large duffle bags.

One of the stallions ran towards him and pushed a tuxedo onto his chest.

"What are you waiting for? Put it on and lets get going!" The stallions yelled at him.

"B-But.." Trebass fumbled with his words but was interrupted by being pushed back into the room behind him.

He fell onto the velvet chair but luckily the metal bowl was not harmed, Trebass sighed with relief. He took off his black vest and hat then slipped the tuxedo on and continued outside to meet with the other ponies. One of the stallions threw a sniper rifle towards Trebass. He caught it and was shocked to see that these sharply dressed ponies were in possession of these dangerous firearms. He knew who these stallions were, they were hitponies. Trebass had experience with guns before, as self defence, but never as a profession. He decided to play along. If he didn't, it would have meant bad news for him. He counted at least ten (10) ponies with sniper rifles, machine guns, and pistols.

A pony wearing a fedora spoke up, "Listen up, we're here for two things: To kill the senator, and to steal the Diamond Bubble."

The sound of guns being cocked and reloaded echoed through the room.

"You, and you, and you, are on sniper duty. You alert us if something goes wrong." The head pony pointed to Trebass and two ponies beside him.

Trebass' eyes widened when he saw the head pony's hoof pointed towards him. He felt a tap on his shoulder, one of the other snipers gestured for him to come with them. He walked with them outside. Trebass looked around, there was nopony in the hallway it seemed. There were marble pilliars lining the walls, the red velvet carpet stretched all the way throughout the hall.

"So what's the plan?" The pegasus sniper asked the other two.

"You go up to the skylight and get an eagle-eye view of the entire ballroom. I'll keep watch from outside on the window sill." The earth pony sniper replied.

"Oh, then I guess you don't need me then..." Trebass said, attempting to walk away.

He felt a hoof grab his arm before he could leave, "You're going to be the distraction. The senator's daughter will be there. If you dance with her everypony will be looking at you, and more importantly not at us."

"But... There's no way somepony as important as her would dance with a plain old unicorn like me." Trebass tried to avoid being mixed into this mess.

"Don't worry, I'm sure a pretty pony like yourself will have no trouble with her at all." The earth pony laughed and opened a nearby window.

"I'll see you two at the front gate when the Diamond Bubble is secured." The earth pony sniper saluted and then ran across the outer window sill.

The Pegasus sniper had already left and Trebass was alone. He decided he wasn't going to need his sniper rifle so he left it under a table just outside the ballroom. The chatter of ponies galore echoed through the empty hallway. Trebass took a deep breath, and entered the ballroom.

All Trebass could see were ponies in dresses and tuxedos as far as the eye could see. He didn't know where to start, any one of these ponies could be the senator's daughter. He began to ask around, "Excuse me, do you know where the senator's daughter might be?" Most of the ponies replied with a simple "No" but one unicorn replied with a helpful answer

"She wasn't feeling to well, so her father escorted her to her room. If you want to meet her, you might not get the chance tonight. But... If your so intent on seeing her, the senator's daughter's room is right down the hall if you exit the ballroom. "

Trebass thanked the unicorn and began to trot over to the senator's daughter's room. He noticed a pony wearing sunglasses and a sharp suit standing in front of the door leading to his destination.

"That must be her body guard." Trebass thought to himself.

Suddenly, he fell over on his side with a loud thud.

"Ow! Why don't yo-" Trebass was cut off by a hoof held against his mouth. He was pulled behind the corner, out of the bodyguard's sight, by a beautiful mare.

"Ssh! Please don't tell my father I left my room, I'm not supposed to be out here you know?" The mare pleaded with Trebass

He simply nodded at her. She was an earth pony, with a light blue coat, pink eyes, a yellow rose for a cutie mark, and a black mane. Trebass was amazed by her beauty, he hadn't felt this way since... He tried not to think about it.

"Who are you?" Trebass whispered quietly.

"I'm the Senator's daughter, Aromé"