“What the hell kinda name even is Hoity Toity? Where I’m from, that literally means a snob.” I quietly comment as I peek at the small crowd formed in front of the boutique.

“From what I’ve gathered it seems to have a similar meaning here. Definitely an odd choice for a name. Why aren’t we going out there?” Luna asks behind me.

“We only need to start stalling once they start getting restless and frustrated. I’d honestly prefer to interact with them as little as possible. Unless you actually want to go out there?”

“No no, that’s quite alright.”

The show is officially 15 minutes late and the grumbles from the crowd are starting to get noticeable. Seems like we only need to buy 30 minutes, probably the best we could’ve asked for. I take the back exit from the stage and approach the crowd with Luna beside me.

“Oh your majesty, what are you doing out here? Aren’t you taking part in the show? Or, was it canceled? We’ve been waiting for quite a while now with no announcements from anypony.” Some earth pony stallion with purple sunglasses does a quick and shallow bow as we approach. Is this the guy? With him being from Canterlot I imagined it’d be a unicorn.

“The show is not canceled but I will admit it’s suffering from a small delay. My knight and I are the last two to go out so it was suggested I come out to mingle with all of you to ease the tension.” Luna replies with a flatter tone than usual.

“Ah yes, and this thing,” He gestures his front left hoof in my direction. “Is the knight you speak of, yes? I’m surprised to hear it will also have an ensemble to parade for us, I wasn’t aware this boutique made accessories for pets.” Well hot damn that might be the first time I’ve been called a pet. Not sure if i prefer that over monster though? What exactly is this douchebag's plan here, surely he isn’t stupid enough to just meet a princess and instantly get himself thrown on the shit list, right?

I feel the temperature in the air drop a few degrees. I quickly squeeze the sending stone in my pocket. “It’s fine Luna, it’d be a shame to have gone through all of this just for you to kill the guy we’re trying to impress. You can just give him nightmares later.” I telepathically call out to her, hoping to prevent an outburst.

“I wasn’t going to kill him. I understand your point, though.” She replies in my mind, after a brief pause she replies to the earth pony out loud. “I would appreciate it if you did not refer to my knight as a pet. In the short time he’s been under my command he has done more good for this kingdom than you will likely ever do in your entire life.”

“I deeply apologize, your majesty. I was just going off of the rumors I’d heard whispering around the vine. Well uhm, right, sir knight may I know your name so I can properly apologize to you as well?” Wait he really wasn’t making some elaborate political play trying to rile her up? Is he actually just stupid?

“Ignis. You can keep your apology though, it’s not the worst thing I’ve been called by a pony. I’m surprised to see such a brazen display of discrimination from an earth pony, though. I know non-unicorns can run into some issues in Canterlot, so it’s a bit shocking.”

“That’s why I want to apologize! It’s precisely because I’m an earth pony that I feel ashamed to have been misled by rumors. I don’t read things like the paper, I haven’t got the time for it. All my news comes through what I hear around me, and the impression I had was that you were… a servant of sorts.”

Insight (Disadvantage)

15 and 17. 15 + 6 = 21.

His voice is an octave higher. His left ear folded while he was talking. He keeps shifting his eyes around. He’s nervous, but about what?

“Interesting. You know I thought it was weird none of the shops in Canterlot had offered to tailor something for me when they sought Luna’s patronage. Sure some of them just likely hadn’t considered it and sure I thought a few were intentionally snubbing me, but ALL of the shops in Canterlot? I mean that’s just crazy, not a single one? You’d almost think that it was an organized effort. You wouldn’t know anything about that right?”

“Wh-what? I’m sure it was just something that hadn’t crossed their minds. I mean.. What would I even gain from doing something like that?” He brings up a valid point. He’d stand to gain nothing from having all of Canterlot fashion snub me. Could he be jealous of the attention Luna gives me? No, surely not.

“Hm, I suppose that’s true. There’d be no logical reason to do something like that. I guess I’ll offer an apology of my own and we can call it even then.” He holds out a hoof towards me and I’m a bit taken aback. Do I grab it and shake it? Do I just fist bump it? I decide to just give him a fist bump. “Did I do that right?”

He lets out a loud laugh, “Yes. That was perfect.”

I see Rarity poke her head through the stage curtain and mouth something to me, looks like she’s ready to get this thing started. I look back towards Hoity, “Looks like the delay is over and we’ll be starting momentarily, it was nice meeting you.”

As we walk away and go back into the boutique so Luna can put her dress on she quietly mutters. “So he was completely lying right?”

“Oh almost certainly. I’m sure he had involvement, but I really don’t see why. Unless he fancies you and he’s jealous of me. That’s really the only thing I can think of. I bet he was going to show up to whichever shop you decided to go with and personally measure you.” I channel the enchantment on my armor and have it take on the appearance of the tuxedo Rarity showed me earlier. “Also Luna, can you use an illusion to make my hair silver? I told Rarity not to change the colors because I was hoping to have solved this whole hair color issue by now.”

She ignites her horn and I watch as my hair shimmers and turns from its fiery look back to the original silver. “Done. It’ll stay for 24 hours.”

“Thanks. That dress really does suit you by the way.”

She gives me a soft smile and we make our way to the backstage of the catwalk. Luna asks Rarity a question I was about to ask. “So what exactly do we need to do here? Just walk to the end of the platform and walk back?”

“Oh look at the two of you! It’s even better than I imagined! Yes, you’ll both just slowly strut to the end of the platform, do a quick spin and slowly strut back. Ideally the two of you could lock your arm and wing together, or just lean against each other.”

I can’t help but raise my eyebrow in suspicion. Is that Equestria’s version of holding hands? I’ll let Luna decide what we’re doing, she’s more familiar with whatever Rarity is asking. I just look at Luna and shrug my shoulders. “Nay, Ignis will lead the way down and then stand aside as I reach the end. Then I’ll lead us back in.”

And that’s exactly what we did. After waiting a few minutes for all of the girls to have their turns going out I led the princess out.

Performance (Disadvantage)

Oh fuck.

16 and 8. 8 + 5 = 13.

Nothing went spectacularly wrong, but there wasn’t any grand reaction for us either. Once we turned around to head back in there were some murmurs among the crowd. Oh… her cutie mark is on my back. Ah it’s fine.

The evening ends with all of us spread out in Rarity’s living room. Apparently Spike showed up at some point, no clue what he was doing the rest of the day. “Take a letter Spike. Dear Princess Celestia, today I learned…” I tuned out after that. Something about pressuring friends. Why does Celestia have her do these reports?

Once she’s finished speaking Spike lights the letter on fire. It’d be so funny if Celestia was just lying and all he does is legitimately just light them on fire. “Yo Twilight, me and Luna need a place to crash for the night, you got a space at the library?”

“There’s a spare bed in the basement that I use for when I’m immersed in my experiments or magic studies. It’s just the one though…”

“That shouldn’t be a problem, Twilight Sparkle. You won’t even notice we’re there.” Luna responds before I can. Guess I’m sleeping on the floor tonight.

I’m just glad this whole ordeal is over now. It’s just relaxing travels with the princess for the next couple of weeks.

I’m interrupted from my thoughts by Luna as I lay down my bedroll on the ground a few feet away from the bed. “Ignis what are you doing?”

“Going to sleep? Did you have something you wanted to discuss?”

“This is the last night we’ll have a proper residence for a few weeks and you’re going to forgo sleeping in a real bed?”

“Well yeah, there’s only one bed and I’m not letting you sleep on the floor.” I look at her confused.

“Neither of us will sleep on the floor. This bed is just big enough for both of us, surely you’re not too shy to simply share a bed? We’re only going to have 1 tent once we’re out in the unexplored west, so you’ll be sleeping next to me anyways.”

“....Have you been planning for this all along? You could’ve just left me in Canterlot and flew to the Thestral cave in a day.”

She glances away and paws at the bed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. This seemed like a good opportunity for a vacation, we’ve had a very stressful few weeks. Plus you’ve already slept under my wing once…”

Standing up I stare at the bed for a few seconds. It’s just barely wide enough for both of us. After a brief sigh I look at Luna. “Fine… scoot over.”

Author's Note

Super short chapter, but we got everything wrapped up. Still trying to decide if I wanna take the trip to the thestral colony day by day or just skim over 3-4 days at a time.

Either way it'll probably be a few days for next chapter, probably Saturday night or Sunday afternoon.

Thanks for reading!