Canterlot Academy Trials

The announcements would proceed as scheduled. Nobody in the room could weed anything out for the moment, however, Grimrose suddenly felt a headache which caused her to rub her hoof against the side of her head.

“Argh…” she muttered, which caught the attention of Nebula.

The stallion turned to her and asked, “...hey, are you alright, Rose? You feel something off?”

“...yeah,” she replied as she squinted her eyes, “I’m getting a bad new vibe more or less. Someone in this room is giving off lots of hostile energy…”

This was both enlightening and alarming. If Grimrose could pinpoint exactly who was the culprit here, then their team would be able to find Bonetail more easily with minimal collateral damage. However, he was also concerned for Grimrose’s general well-being.

“...if it’s too much, we can leave,” he suggested, “There’s no point in staying here if it’s causing you this much trouble.”

“N-no…” the pegasus replied as her voice dropped an octave once again. “We need to…complete this mission for everyone’s sake. Hang on…wait here, and back me up.”

“...Grimrose…”

Grimrose ignored Nebula’s warning’s for the moment as she got up and started trotting through the crowd of noble kobolds. The horns that appeared on her head once more as fangs started to appear out of her mouth. Nebula could see that something was off, but wanted to allow her to carry out whatever it is she had planned before he made a commotion.

‘...I hope you know what you’re doing. I trust you.’

From where she stood, Mei was able to see Grimrose move about through the crowd. The kirin immediately sent a message to Nebula through her magic.

“...Nebula? Nebula, what in Lord Sejon’s name is going on down there?!”

“She’s moving through the crowd,” Nebula replied, “I’m letting her act because she’s the most experienced with this weird stuff out of any of us.”

“...are you sure about this?”

“I am,” Nebula confirmed, “Standby until I give the signal. We don’t want anyone getting suspicious of us.” With that, he quickly shut his horn off to deactivate the ‘call’ of sorts. Thankfully, nobody seemed to notice who he was talking to since they were all focused on listening to Escala continue to rattle off sales numbers and facts.

That’s when Geki had also taken notice as well.

“...hey, Abra.”

“Yes, ma’am?”

“I’m noticing the gloomy one is on the move,” she muttered to her assistant, “Do you think they may have found something?”

Abraxas looked up and noticed that Grimrose’s aura had started to become darker the deeper she went. “...oh no. Ma’am, on my mark, we take cover under this table.”

The elderly kobold tilted her head. “...eh?”

Meanwhile…

Grimrose continued wading through the crowd of kobolds. And eventually, she locked her eyes onto someone in particular: Keebo. Or rather, who the audience assumed was ‘Keebo.’

“You.”

“So you’ve figured me out, then?” the kobold woman dropped all pretenses immediately, and the crowd didn’t seem to notice. “...fine then. I’ll show you!”

Her voice would change to that of an overlapping legion, and with a snap of her fingers, not only did she cause everyone in the crowd to freeze on the spot with blank expressions with white eyes, but revealed ‘herself’...

To be Bonetail.

The outer shell of the female kobold exterior was ripped and mangled apart as Bonetail revealed himself to them. At this, Blue and Mei jumped out into the fray as well.

“A lady?!” Blue bemoaned, “Nobody told us this guy could literally become anyone!”

“We’re the ones in charge here,” Escala commented, being the only other crowd member that wasn’t frozen, “See, we actually knew the whole time you were here…”

“But how?!” Nebula called out as he ran up to the stage, “Who…” his eyes darted back and forth as he stared off into space and considered the horrific possibilities. “...no…no way. No way!”

Bonetail chuckled with his echo-y voice. “Oh…yes ‘way’ little peasant.”

His body would mangle and transform…into the very same young kobold that Blue and Mei had seen earlier with his voice altered to match.

“I had already found you out from the start.”

“You’re kidding me!” Mei screamed, and immediately turned into a nirik with multi-colored flames brewing from her jet-black body. “So you mean to tell me you were fake the whole time?!”

“Nah nah nah!” Blue yelled in disbelief as he held up a claw and shook his head, “Hold on for a second. What about those other kobold kids we saw?”

“...you mean those delicious morsels that were convinced into believing that I was their older brother?” Bonetail commented with a smug expression while in the child kobold’s form, then stuck out his tongue. “...oopsie!”

By now, Grimrose had been focused on staring at the ground as she grit her teeth. Her body slowly changed via a magical metamorphosis that started with her hind hooves becoming goat-like. Though nobody noticed through the tense emotions that were present in the air.

“What about the jackalope?!” Nebula called out with a stomp of his hoof, “Was that a--”

Bonetail immediately took the form of the horned rabbit woman and started skipping around the stage. “...another morsel that I had already consumed and taken the form of long ago? Aw…you’re starting to put it together now, huh?” He stood there in the form of the rabbit lady with his hand on his hip, “You were always one step behind. And now? Well, you’re all about to be next on my menu. It’s how I keep going after all.”

“ENOUGH!”

Everyone looked in Grimrose’s direction…and she was no longer herself.