“You know what, on second thought you’re right let’s just go spar.” It’s already time for us to make our way down to the ballroom and I’m still just as uncertain now as I was when I left this morning. Also a bit more nervous than I thought I’d be, wonder if it’s because of how many ponies will be there?

“Oh we are well past that point, Ignis. It was a massive pain in the flank to get this dress on and we’re going now come hell or high water. Now, go on and make your armor transform into the suit we looked at in Ponyville.” Luna gives the order while floating a crescent moon up to the base of her ear. The moon sticks to the right side of her head while her starry mane has been brushed to the left side.

Tapping the center of my chest twice for dramatic effect I watch as the illusion on the armor ripples and transforms into the suit Rarity designed for me. Glancing over at Nightmare who just looks annoyed and uncomfortable as she fidgets and adjusts the basic purple dress we got for her earlier this week. The purple matches her mane and contrasts with the dark coat nicely. “I’d say the “pain in the flank” was worth it, both of you look good. The ornament at the base of your ear is a nice touch, you didn’t have that in Ponyville right?”

Nightmare seems a bit surprised at the compliment before turning her nose up at me. “It’s not like I did this for you. I just didn’t want to be the only one under dressed!” I should compliment her more often. Her responses are always amusing.

“I’m glad you like it, I thought it was a cute addition to the ensemble.” Luna gracefully accepts the compliment, completely ignoring Nightmare's shenanigans. After that she finally turns away from the mirror and looks me up and down. “Not too bad yourself. Do you want an illusion to touch up the bags under your eyes? You look fine either way but I figured I’d offer.”

Is it that noticeable? I walk over to where Luna is and borrow the mirror. Oh yeah that’s pretty bad. “Yeah I’d appreciate it.”

Her horn lights up and as the dark circles under my eyes clear up I can’t help but to stare at the bright red dragon like eyes that Nightmare gave me a while back. Honestly they’ve kinda grown on me. “There you go, that should last for an entire day.”

“I am once again bestowed a blessing from my merciful Goddess. How can I ever thank her enough?” I give the most over exaggerated and playful thanks I can muster despite my low energy.

She gives me the response I was hoping for when she rolls her eyes and starts walking towards the door. “Oh shut up, you. C’mon let’s not make Force continue to wait for us.”

We walk out of the room and I voice my confusion. “Why is she waiting for us? I figured she’d either avoid the whole thing or get brought against her will with Cadence. If she’s going in with us she should’ve just come down here.”

“Cadence’s wing of the castle is much closer to the ballroom, and as is customary Force sleeps 1 room down from her. So it’s more efficient for her to wait near the entrance for us. Cadence is being accompanied by Shining Armor tonight and that freed up Force to be part of our group. You should be happy, Ignis. You get to be escorted into the ballroom by 3 powerful mares.”

“Is that how this works? Pretty sure I’m escorting you.”

“Not tonight! You are not here as my knight, you are here as my plus one. I should warn you though, there’s a chance Tia tries to make us stand at the entryway and greet the ponies as they arrive. Cadence said she does it every year, and made her do it the one year she attended.”

“I mean that doesn’t sound so bad?”

“Yes, greeting nobles and dealing with their nonsense for 3-4 hours. What’s so bad about that?” Nightmare decides to join in on the conversation.

“Exactly. That is not how I intend to spend my time tonight. Odds are one of the nobles will insult you or make some demeaning comment and I’ll end up going back to the moon for a few years.” The chuckle Luna gives at the end of that sentence actually surprises me. She can already make an earnest joke about her banishment? That’s pretty badass.

“I would rather you didn’t. It’s just words Luna, compared to everything else I’m going through… words don’t really phase me at the moment. Woah is Force wearing a black dress?” We’re just about at the Gala when I spot Force making her way towards us. She’s got a simple black dress that honestly goes really well with her bright red mane. Plus with her fur being white, a black dress must’ve been a no brainer.

“There you are! If you all had taken any longer I was gunna go grab you myself.” Force calls out to us as she closes the distance.

“We aren’t even late though? There’s barely anypony here.” Nightmare responds and after a quick glance around the room I realize just how dead it is. Are we really that early?

“Yeah you’re not late for the Gala, but we agreed to meet here over 30 minutes ago! It’s alright though I got to talk to Spitfire while I was waiting on you all. Can’t believe she remembered me from when I tried out a few years ago.” The pegasus points a forehoof over her shoulder at some other pony wearing a skin tight blue flight suit. Her mane is a bit over the top but it suits her I think. Wonder what she’d think of my hair when it’s not silver?

“Who exactly is that? Her attire doesn’t really seem like it fits under the “formal” category.” I voice my curiosity, but I feel like I should know who she is. I can’t really recall the information if I do know it though.

“Captain Spitfire! She’s the captain of the Wonderbolts.”

“Oh right, that's the team you tried to join and ended up getting a recommendation to be an officer instead. Specialization in maneuvers, right?”

“Aw, you remember that story? Yeah that’s exactly right. They do aerial shows for the public with all kinds of different stunts and tricks that show off their skills. They are technically part of the guard though, so it acts as advertising for us as well.” Now that I’m actually looking I see there’s a few of them in that same flight suit. Interesting parallel to the Blue Angels, but I won’t comment on that out loud.

“That’s pretty smart. Are we really that early? If so, should we go somewhere else for a while and come back?” I don’t really wanna drain my social battery and be ready to leave when everyone else shows up.

“There isn’t really anywhere to go. Most places close up early for tonight, but the bar is open if you wanna get a headstart on that.” We both chuckle knowing what happened last time we had alcohol. “No but seriously, in around 30 minutes or so it’s going to very quickly get crowded in here.”

“Yeah I think I’ll have to say no to the bar. Ask me again in an hour.” I turn to Luna and Nightmare. “Should we go talk to Celestia and see if she wants you to greet ponies with her, or did you want to just slip past her and meet up with her later?”

“As much as I want to avoid that particular conversation it would be a bit rude of me to just sneak in around her. If I do end up greeting ponies I’m just going to go ahead and give you an out. You’re free to go inside with Nightmare and Force and we can just meet up later.” Well that’s kind of Luna, but I don’t really plan on just leaving her out here.

I wave my hand in the air dismissively. “Nonsense. I have no intention of leaving you. I think you will probably end up being asked to stay out here though. This is the first time all three of you have been in an event like this. Force’s knighting ceremony was the only other time but that was a much smaller event.”

It’s almost like she can hear us talking about her because as I finish speaking I notice Celestia on the stairs leading up to the ballroom, and she smiles at us and waves us over. Walking over to her makes us go from the edge of the lobby into the center where we’re actually noticed. Listening closely as we go up the stairs I can make out some of the murmurs. Most of them are making comments about Luna, some are talking about Force, and I hear just one feminine voice go, “That’s him right? The one that fought the rogue queen and rescued you from the hive? Is he really that strong?”

It’s only when I hear that I come to a full stop, causing Nightmare to almost walk into me. She makes some annoyed comment asking why I stopped, but I tune her out as I turn and locate the voice.

Perception.

11 + 6 = 17.

Luckily the lobby isn’t very crowded yet so I’m able to spot two ponies that are looking right at me while whispering to each other. One of them is that Spitfire girl we were just talking about and the other one is an undisguised changeling. I recognize that one, it’s the one that was almost executed but I stopped it at the last second.

Just like that I’m back in the hive again. I can feel my heartbeat rise as I stare at Chrysalis and the corpse on display next to her. Quickly I pinch my forearm and start to remind myself I’m at the Gala. Remember the breathing technique, in through the nose, hold, out through the mouth.

Just as quickly as I arrived in the hive, I escape and return to reality. I realize my hand is wrapped around the hilt of my Moonblade, but I haven’t drawn the blade thankfully. That one was less intense than most of the episodes, luckily.

I let go of my blade and relax my body before making eye contact with the wonderbolt. As soon as our eyes meet I realize Spitfire is tense and looking at me with trepidation. The changeling next to her says something and I think it’s an apology? Then she whispers something to Spitfire that I can’t hear this time and the wonderbolt relaxes before giving me a sympathetic look. Could the changeling tell I was having a flashback from just my emotions? That’s interesting.

“Bladesinger, are you okay? You need to get out of the way, you’re blocking the stairs.” Looking down I realize there are several ponies trying to make their way up the stairs. They actually have plenty of room to go around our group but I think they’re intimidated.

“Sorry, I heard someone talking about us.” I start walking up the stairs again but give the two across the room one last glance and offer a friendly wave while mouthing the word “Sorry.”

“I thought you said you weren’t phased by words?” Luna teases me as we reach the top of the stairs.

“Oh they were actually mostly saying good things about us, but I heard one of them mention something about me and the changeling hive. When I heard that I turned around on instinct just to see who it was. It was that wonderbolt chick, Spitfire, and the changeling I saved in the hive’s throne room. What’s up Celly?”

“Don’t call me that.” The alicorn gives me a deadpan look before turning towards her sister and they start to talk about whatever boring stuff they talk about.

In the meantime though I lean over towards Nightmare and whisper to her. “Interestingly enough I didn’t hear a single comment about you. Maybe you aren’t as recognizable as we initially thought, even with those dragon-like eyes.”

“I wouldn’t expect any of these ponies to recognize me anyways. I was never in Canterlot, remember? I sealed Celestia away while I was in the small village and then went straight to the old castle in the Everfree. Your concerns would be valid if the Gala was held in Ponyville, though.”

“Well I mean the element bearers are going to be here at some point. In fact that might already be here. I know Celly mentioned un-banishing you from the moon but I don’t remember if anyone told them you’d be attending as a pegasus.”

“Ahem.” Celestia clears her throat and I stop leaning towards Nightmare and look at her.

“Sorry, what were you saying?”

“First of all, no I did not tell Twilight that she would be here. I meant to but was too busy to get around to it. Secondly I was trying to ask you if you’re going to be staying with Luna here to greet the guests?”

“How long is it?” I ask, and Luna looks a bit confused since I seemed so adamant about not leaving her alone to do this. The truth is that if I don’t like the answer neither of us are doing it and I’m dragging my Goddess into the ballroom.

“It should only take an hour at most. The Gala doesn’t officially start until I move on from here into the ballroom.”

I look at Force and Nightmare. “I assume you two aren’t staying here regardless of what I pick right?” They both give an affirmative response. I think about it for a few more seconds and come to a decision. “Nah fuck that. We’re spending this night together, all of us.”

“Well it’ll be a bit crowded if all of us are lingering around in this section of the staircase…” Celestia trails off as she considers her options.

“Nononono. I’m saying Luna isn’t doing this. I know for a fact she doesn’t want to and I think it’d be dumb for us to split up. Make Cadence do it, or hell, make Twilight do it. Better yet, you don’t have to do it at all! You’ll be in the ballroom all night, if any of these bozo’s wanna talk to you they can come find you.”

Luna and Nightmare look surprised while Force is looking at me like I just committed a war crime. Celestia looks like she’s going to get angry but her face slowly quickly shifts into a look of realization and then a soft smile. “I suppose even I need a friendship lesson every now and then. You’re right Ignis, this is an event you’re all supposed to enjoy together and it’d be foolish to split up for such a superficial reason.” She then turns her gaze to Luna. “I hope tonight is enjoyable for you, Lulu.”

I didn’t think I’d get this far. I really expected to get into an argument just now. I’m stammering as I think of a response to the unexpected twist in this conversation. “Yeah. That’s right. I’m right, I’m glad we uh… had this discussion.”

Force barely stifles a chuckle and Nightmare just mutters out. “Poetry, Ignis. Truly you have such a way with words.”

They all continue to tease me as we move on into the ballroom and out of the corner of my eye I just see Celestia shake her head with an amused look. Tonight’s already off to an interesting start.

Author's Note

I always think I'm not giving the characters enough dialogue for proper character development and then I get damn near 3k words into a chapter and realize all we did was sit in a room, walk down a hall, stand in another room, and walk up a small flight of stairs because of how much dialogue there is...

That's probably a good thing right?

Anyways I'm saying that as context for this next statement: At this rate it's to be more than 3 or 4 chapters left for season 1, so I kinda lied last chapter in the author notes... I might have to cut some mane 6 interaction I had planned cause I'm slowly realizing how much I have crammed into this one night. We'll see how I feel when I'm writing the next chapter, half the time I'll be 70% of the way thru a chapter and then realize I didn't like some phrasing in a conversation way earlier in the chapter so I scroll up and either change the dialogue or change the entire fucking scene lmao. I think THAT is the main reason I always cover less content per chapter than I intend too. Alot of unplanned content that just flows into the story via stream of consciousness.

Anyways, thanks for reading! <3