"C'mon guys! We're gonna miss it!" Midnight Sky called to his friends who were still scattered about the place, "and I'm supposed to be doing opening ceremonies!"

Gale came down, dressed in one of the only set of clothes he owned; one of his DJ getups. Sky tugged on the collar of his tuxedo as he waited. Shortly thereafter, Ventus and Taio came down, each dressed in a suit and tie.

"Let's get this show on the road," Sky said. They walked out, and saw a black sports car sitting there, parked right next to the front sidewalk. Gale's jaw dropped.

"All right, who laid down enough cash to buy one of those?" He asked, looking around at the other three. Cars were a fairly recent discovery, and were still wicked expensive.

"I did," Sky said, grinning happily. "Why do you think I've been working so much?"

"Can you even drive?" Ventus asked, staring at the black car longingly with his mouth half-open.

"Yeah," Sky shrugged. "My dad used to let me drive his car, because he had to watch for--"

He paused for a split second, realizing what he was about to say.

"--other stuff," he finished awkwardly.

Nopony seemed to have noticed anything strange, as they were now climbing into the car. Sky moved around and climbed into the driver's seat, then hit the power button. The engine came to life with a quiet but deep rumble. Sky hit the accelerator, and they began to drive away.

"I figured we should show up in style," Sky said as they drew closer to the palace. There were a lot of cars, since the rich always seem to get the Gala tickets first. They pulled up in front of the palace, where the celebrities usually entered through the front doors. There were already ponies from the media there, their cameras at the ready as everypony began to climb out of the car.

Everypony but Gale.

“Oh, come on,” Sky said in exasperation. “You chose this life, Gale.”

“I hate crowds,” Gale said, looking out at the media, who were already taking pictures of Ventus and Taio, even though they weren’t famous. “Especially crowds of newsponies.”

“Regretting becoming so famous?” Sky asked, with a half smile. “Believe me, most of the time I wish I wasn’t either, but you’ve just got to deal with it. Come on.” He got out, and went around to open the other door for his best friend. The cameras started flashing more frantically, and the voices of the media got louder and more excited as Sky and Gale began walking towards the palace. Gale stared at the ground right in front of him, not wanting to make eye contact with any of them, in case they wanted to ask questions.

“I never meant for my music to be heard by so many people,” he said, as the cameras kept flashing, and his light-sensitive eyes were squinted almost shut. “I thought it would only be a couple hundred who ever discovered it, not a couple hundred thousand...”

“Just wait until we’re inside,” Sky said, continuing to move forward. After another minute, they reached the front doors of the palace where Ventus and Taio were already standing, waiting for them. The two guards moved aside to let them in after realizing who they were, but they blocked the other two.

“They’re fine,” Sky said over his shoulder to the guards. “They’re with us.”

The guards apologized and moved aside to let the other two in. The entrance hall of the palace was already decked out with decorations and food, and they could see a couple of other ponies moving around, making some last-minute changes. Gale began to relax, as he enjoyed the temporary silence and lack of ponies.

“This way, guys,” Sky said, beginning to trot across the hall towards the stairs, with the other ponies in the hall glancing at them occasionally. They ascended several flights of stairs, and approached the balcony that looked out over the rest of the palace. Two guards stood there, blocking the path ahead.

“You guys wait here,” Sky told Ventus and Taio. “Sorry, but I can only bring one pony with me. But once it starts, the princess will see anyone.” Looking disappointed, the other two nodded. Sky turned to the guards.

“He’s with me,” he said, gesturing to Gale. The guards moved aside to let them pass. The large balcony wasn’t decorated, but it didn’t need to be. Nopony would really be up here after the Gala started. They turned left and saw two ponies conversing with each other. As Sky and Gale approached them, they began to hear the conversation.

“Is everything ready?” the taller one asked.

“Sure is!” the other yelled in an unnecessarily loud voice. “I might be old, but I can still throw one hell of a party!”

“Good. As soon as Midnight Sky shows up--”

She turned to see the two standing there, who both sank into a bow at once.

“Hello, Princess,” Sky said, still bowing. The alicorn looked between Sky and Gale, smiled, and looked up at her old friend.

“Pinkie, this is Midnight Sky, who’ll be opening the Gala. And this is Gale, otherwise known as Erősszél, or DJE.”

Gale was shocked that the Princess knew his name. He and Sky rose slowly from the ground, as the alicorn pointed at the pony next to her.

“I assume you’ve both heard of Pinkie Pie.”

The elderly mare nodded. The last remaining Element of Harmony besides the Princess herself had become quite old. Her skin was now wrinkled, her hair much less poofy than her youth had permitted. Her personality hadn’t changed much, though, and she was in charge of setting up the whole party. It had been she who invited Vinyl and Gale to be the featured DJs at the main dance.

“Well, let’s get this over with!” she yelled. She had also become slightly deaf, and as a result her voice was even louder than it had been in the prime of her life. She began walking to the edge of the balcony, Midnight Sky following. Gale, however, turned to look at Twilight. The Princess was looking sadly after her old friend.

“When I became a Princess, I knew this would happen eventually,” she said with sadness in her voice. “Most of my old friends are gone...”

“How did you know who I am, Princess?” he asked. She looked around at him.

“I knew your parents, before... the incident,” she said, with a mournful expression. “But we’ll talk about that later. You should get downstairs with Vinyl before things start up.”

Gale nodded, galloping away quickly back down the stairs. The captain of the guard walked up to her.

“Are the guards ready?”

“Yes, Princess,” the stallion replied.

Twilight walked over to where Pinkie and Midnight Sky were standing. Her horn began to glow, and she cast a voice amplification spell on the unicorn.

“Whenever you’re ready,” she told him. He nodded, and cleared his throat.

“Fillies and Gentlecolts!”

His amplified voice was heard by the whole crowd, and their volume level quickly died down, as the cameras of the journalists began recording and snapping pictures.

“Let me be the first to officially welcome you to this year’s Grand Galloping Gala! We hope you have an awesome time. Now, come in and enjoy the festivities!”

This was met by a storm of cheering and stomping. The guards moved into position to ensure there wasn’t any shoving to get inside, and ponies began to flood the entrance garden. Twilight walked up to Sky, and removed the voice amplification spell from him.

“I’m not that good with words,” Sky instantly criticized himself. “That wasn’t all that great.”

“You did fine,” the Princess told him. “But you should probably get downstairs, or you’ll miss their opening.

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Gale had plugged his laptop into the immense sound system, and already adjusted the volumes to their optimal levels. He and Vinyl had already been here twice to practice setting up, adjusting the sound to maximum quality for the room, and such.

“You ready for this?” Vinyl asked him.

He nodded. “You get to do the talking, though.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, you," said Gale. His skin had turned a shade of light green. "I’m nervous enough as it is.”

She looked out, and saw that everypony was already in the room talking to each other.

“You know what?” she began, an evil grin spreading across her face. “Talking is dumb. Let’s just start up and scare ‘em.”

“We can do that?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “I thought--”

“If anypony really wants to hear what we have to say, they’ll come up after the party to talk to us,” she interrupted, waving a hoof in indifference. He looked out at the crowd. They were still talking, and some were getting food from long tables that had been set up around the edges of the room. They were probably waiting for some kind of introduction from them.

He smiled. “Let’s do it.”

“You start,” she reminded him.

He put on his headphones, and nudged the master volume even higher with an evil grin. The crowd still didn’t suspect a thing, as they were all too immersed in their own conversations to notice the actions of the DJs. So naturally, when he cut out the main lights, activated the neon lights they had set up, and started the song with a deep frequency bass note all at the same moment, most of them yelled and jumped in fright. After realizing what was happening, though, most of them laughed and cheered as the song continued building up. All of Gale’s discomfort with crowds evaporated as he and Vinyl continued the song they had written together. The crowd was even more enthusiastic than they would’ve been, due to the adrenaline rush of being scared earlier.

“They really are something,” Sky said enviously. He, Ventus, and Taio had grabbed a table to the side of the dance floor. He was bouncing slightly to the beat of the song, which had been going for a couple of minutes now.

“I’m not a huge fan of electronic music,” Taio said with a shrug.

Ventus gaped at him. “You live in the same house as the DJE, and you don’t even like his music??” he exclaimed incredulously. “His fans would all murder you if they knew that.”

“Well, hopefully, his fans won’t find out,” Taio said, glaring at the other two. "If either of you say anything, they'll never find your bodies."

"I don't know," said an amused voice behind them. "I think they'd find my body pretty fast."

They all jumped, and looked around. Princess Twilight was standing there with a sly grin on her face, along with Pinkie Pie, who wasn't paying the slightest attention to the conversation.

"Princess?" Sky exclaimed. "You're down here?"

"Of course I'm down here," she said with a smile. "All of the fun is down here. May we join you?"

"Of course," Sky said, his horn glowing as he conjured two more chairs from thin air. Twilight took one, as did Pinkie, after she realized what was happening.

"They're pretty talented," Twilight said, looking over the crowd of dancing party guests at the DJs. "Vinyl's just as good as her mother was."

"Of course she is, silly filly!" Pinkie shouted, making the three younger ponies cringe with her volume. "Her mother didn't give her her stage name for nothing!"

"We're not fillies anymore, Pinkie," Princess Twilight pointed out, a benign smile on her face.

"You still look like one," Pinkie pointed out, slyly. It was true; her coronation had been ninety years ago, and Twilight looked as though she hadn't aged a day.

"You still act like one," she retorted.

"Well, this old filly is gonna go dance!!" Pinkie screamed and she jumped up, moving quite as fast as ever despite her old age. The others watched her go, amused expressions on their faces.

"Oh yeah," Sky said, having almost forgotten that his two friends hadn't ever met the Princess in person. "Princess Twilight, these are my other friends, Ventus and Taio. You two, do I even have to say her name?"

She smiled, as she shook hooves with the two ponies at the table. "Pleased to meet you both."

"Likewise," Ventus said, standing up, "but unfortunately, I've got some dancing to do. Excuse me, Princess Twilight. Guys."

He trotted away into the crowd, who were still dancing. Taio looked around at the other two nervously, before quietly saying "I'm gonna go too. See you later." He too vanished into the crowd.

A moment later, the music hit the final twenty seconds or so, and began to slowly fade out. As it repeated the synth lead the final time, Gale smiled with relief. The ponies all looked as though they had liked it. When all of the sounds cut out, they were met by an eruption of cheering and stomping as ponies showed their approval. He switched some of the audio cords around, switched the program on his computer over to his playlist of songs they had selected for the dance, and began playing the first song: an old club favorite by Vinyl's mom, called "Spin That Record, Vinyl Scratch".

A/N: The song links aren't intended as background music for the reading. It's more if you're curious. If you try to play them while you read, it won't fit in the slightest.
-Darkened5ky

"That went really well," Vinyl said, as they sat down behind their booths. "And the ponies loved it!"

"Yeah," Gale said, leaning back in his chair a bit. He put his hooves behind his head in a satisfied manner. "Now for the easy part; we just get to sit here and play older songs." He surveyed the dance floor for a few seconds, before his stomach rumbled loudly; he hadn't eaten dinner before the Gala.

"I'm gonna go get some food," he decided, standing up again. "I'll be back."

He descended the stage into the crowd, trying to locate the tables filled with food. On his way, he passed by the table at which Midnight Sky and Princess Twilight were still sitting.

"So, you guys have moved in now?" Twilight asked.

"Been here about a week," Sky replied. He then glanced around as though he was checking to see who was listening, before lowering his voice.

"Thanks for your help with that, Princess. That guy wouldn't have given us any form of a fair deal."

"No problem," she said, frowning slightly. "The financial council is supposed to watch for stuff like that. I don't know what they're doing down there, but they're obviously not doing their job."

Sky looked around again, even more urgently.

"Don't worry," Twilight said. "My bodyguards will tell me if anyone's listening to us."

"They're here?" Sky asked, slightly shocked.

"They're with me all the time," Twilight said, with a half smile. "Right, Dusk Shine?"

"Of course, Princess," said a new voice that made Sky jump. A sunset-orange mare had appeared next to them, wearing what Sky recognized as grey stealth armor.

"All the time?" he asked, eyebrows raised.

"All the time," Twilight said, nodding. Sky looked around, but the guard called "Dusk Shine" had disappeared again. Feeling slightly uneasy, he returned to their previous conversation.

"How... how is he doing?"

Twilight's face grew even more serious.

"He's doing better," she said. "He's still in solitary for his own and others' safety, but we're pretty sure he can almost always tell what is real and what isn't now."

"And the group?" Sky asked, looking concerned.

"They'll never be as good as they were back in the day, but they're getting along. But I think he's a bit disappointed that you didn't take the job."

"He knew I wasn't going to take it," Sky said dismissively. "He knew I wanted a regular life."

"He also knows what he taught you," Twilight said, looking into Sky's eyes. "There's no such thing as a regular life for you anymore."

Sky opened his mouth to argue, then closed it again, unable to come up with anything to say. They sat in silence for a few moments, before Twilight turned her head, as though listening to something only she could hear.

"Is it that urgent?" she said, and Sky suddenly realized what was happening; he had seen it before.

"Ok, I'll be up there in two minutes."

She turned to look at Sky.

"I'm sorry I can't stay longer to get to know your friends, but I need to attend to this."

"All right," Sky said, shrugging. Princess Twilight stood and galloped through the crowd towards the staircase that led upstairs.

After a few more moments, Sky stood up to find someone he knew. He saw Gale ascending the stairs to the stage platform, holding a fizzing glass of root beer; he had already eaten all of his food.

"Nearly time for the first slow song," Vinyl said as Gale sat down at the booth. "You going to go dance?"

"I don't know," Gale said, shrugging. He took a huge swig of his root beer. "Probably not."

"Really?" Vinyl frowned at him.

"I don't really know how," he said, shaking his head.

Vinyl looked at him, mouth half-open, thinking. Another idea was forming in her head, and a wicked grin slowly spread across her face once again. Gale, who was not looking, didn't notice. As the song came to a close, she walked over to Gale's laptop and hit the space key. After a few moments, Gale noticed the silence.

"Why isn't the next song pla--"

"HELLO, FILLIES AND GENTLECOLTS!!"

The whole crowd looked rather surprised, as they all turned their attention to the stage.

"As you may have all been expecting, the next song will be a slow song. But we're gonna add a slight twist to this one."

This can't be good, Gale silently thought. Knowing Vinyl, this was sure to be either something awesome, or something horrifying. Considering that it was a dance, he knew it would be the latter.

"We're going to let the girls pick a guy to dance with!"

Why do I always have to be right? Gale wondered, gloomily.

The reaction was predictable. The mares all screamed and stomped in approval and excitement; most of the stallions, however, looked as though they had just been clubbed over the head.

"Oh, no," Midnight Sky said aloud. Before anypony else around him even moved, he dove sideways into a blooming flowerbed, using a spell to camouflage himself. Several stallions looked as though they were considering doing the same thing, but none of the rest of them could escape fast enough.

"Get going, then!" Vinyl yelled into the microphone. In a single motion, she turned it off, set it down, pressed space on the laptop, and grabbed Gale's hoof with one of her own. He barely managed to set his root beer down on the counter without it spilling before he was being dragged away from it.

"What're you--"

"You're dancing with me," she said, unceremoniously pulling him down the steps.

"I already told you, I don't--" but he knew there was no talking her out of it.

"I'll teach you," she said, as the song began. "It's easy, look."

She moved his front legs and hooves into the proper positions, and briefly explained how steering worked. Soon, they were slowly revolving on the spot. Once they were actually moving, it wasn't bad.

"See?" Vinyl said, happily. "This isn't so hard."

"Yeah," Gale said, smiling as he remembered something else. "I know I'm at least doing better than Midnight Sky."

Sure enough, Sky had not moved from his spot under the bushes in the minute since the song had began. He knew that if he showed his face, some mare would ask him to dance, even if the song was already deep in progress. He took a peek from under the bush to see Gale and Vinyl dancing nearby, as well as Ventus dancing with a mare Sky had never seen before. Taio, however, was nowhere to be seen.

"So," Vinyl said after a few moments of silence, "are we gonna make some more small talk, or are you gonna tell me what's been distracting you all week?"

Gale was surprised she had asked. She had taken off her glasses, leaving her red eyes, which were very much like her mother's, to stare right into his blue ones.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he said. Most ponies would find it quite odd that he was pretty much scared of a pirated video game.

"I've heard some pretty weird stuff," she said. "Try me."

He hesitated, but sighed in defeat.

"Have you ever heard of The Mask of Death?"

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"Hello again, Midnight Sky."

Sky jumped violently, as he turned over in the flowerbed to look up. A lavender Alicorn was looking down at him, seemingly immune to his camouflaging spell.

"Princess Twilight??" he said, shocked. "Back already?"

"Why are you hiding down here?" Twilight asked. Sky looked away, slightly embarrassed.

"It's Mare's choice for a slow dance," he mumbled, unwilling to make eye contact with her.

Twilight giggled at him. "Not a dancer, I take it?"

"Not really," he replied, sitting up.

"Well, I would force you to do it by asking you, but that's out of the question right now." Her face grew dead serious again.

"What's wrong?" Sky asked, removing the camouflage spell from himself as he stood.

"I need you and your friend, Taio, to come upstairs with me at once. Unfortunately, you won't be returning here tonight."

"Why?" Sky asked, completely stunned by his orders. "What's going on?"

"I don't want to discuss it here," she said, looking around. "Even though my guards are doing a wonderful job, I don't want to risk it."

"We'll have to find Taio," Sky said, looking around. "I'm not the only one who doesn't wanna dance..."

"Fortunately, my guards have done that for us," said Twilight. "Come on."

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"I'm sure I'm just being paranoid," Gale said, as he concluded his story. He and Vinyl were still dancing. "It's nothing to worry about."

"That's a weird glitch, though," Vinyl said. "I played that game a bunch back in the day, and never had it happen."

"It looks like a pirated copy," Gale pointed out. "Pirated stuff can be weird."

The slow song hit the final stanza, and the instruments played their final few notes. As it finished, Gale let go of Vinyl.

"There you go," Vinyl said triumphantly. "You survived." She then trotted forward, and embraced him. Gale, who hadn't been expecting it, nearly toppled over backwards as her front legs closed around him. He managed to regain his balance, returning the hug rather awkwardly with one hoof.

"You've got a lot to learn," Vinyl said, shaking her head as she took a step back. "This probably isn't the last time you'll dance in your life."

"That's comforting," Gale grumbled. Vinyl suppressed a laugh as the next song began. Also an old favorite that had been first played on the night of the 1000th Summer Sun Celebration, it had been mysteriously dubbed "Hot Sauce Cupcakes", leaving everypony wondering what had happened that night. Ventus came wandering towards them through the crowd.

"Hey, Gale!" he said, rather more happily than he normally did. He had gotten into his 'party mood', where he became much more comfortable with making a complete idiot of himself to have fun than normal. "Great party, right?"

"Guess you like my music, then," was Gale's reply.

"Yep," Ventus said, looking around at the crowd. "Where'd Sky and Taio get off to? I gotta make them dance with some girls!"

As the song picked up, however, he attempted to breakdance, but fell flat on his back after the first spin. Gale tried not to laugh, with difficulty.

"Is he always like this?" Vinyl asked him.

"Just thank Celestia that there's no alcohol here," Gale said. "If there was, he'd get a thousand times worse."

As he said this, he scanned the crowd, but Sky and Taio were nowhere to be seen.

"I'm not seeing them," he informed Ventus.

"They're probably still hiding," Ventus said, dismissively. "They know I'm gonna find 'em." He wandered off into the crowd to look for them.

Gale ascended the steps back to the stage, picking up his root beer, which had become slightly flatter in the time he had been gone. As he took a huge swig from it, he felt his digital messenger vibrate in his pocket.

Welcome back, Erősszél!

You have a new message from Darkened5ky.

Slightly confused as to why Sky would be messaging him when they were at the same place, Gale clicked on the message link. What he read was completely unexpected.

Taio and I are leaving. We're taking the car. You guys will need to find your own way home. We won't be back for a long time. I can't say much here, but we're sorry we couldn't stay.

Ventus, I know what you're going to say, and it's false. We're not leaving just to avoid dancing. We have no choice. Again, I can't say more here in case this gets read by the wrong ponies. We'll tell you more when we're back.

-Midnight Sky

Gale gaped at the message for several seconds, before his brain kicked into overdrive. He would've usually said it was just an excuse to get away, but something about the way Sky had worded the message told him that it was no joke. Anyone who knew him could tell you that Sky was one of the laziest ponies alive, and usually liked to keep his messages shorter while maintaining proper Equestrian. But in this message, instead of typing things like 'gonna', he had actually spelled out 'going to'. It was highly unusual for him.

Gale spent the next few minutes of the dance pondering what could possibly be so important that they had actually needed to leave the dance. He couldn't come up with any reason, and eventually gave up. At that point, Ventus came back up onto the stage.

"I can't believe they would just leave," Ventus said, slumping down into Vinyl's unoccupied chair. "Do they know how expensive those tickets probably were?"

"They weren't expensive at all," Gale informed him dully. "Sky was invited by the Princess, and I didn't have to pay anything to get two more tickets. The studio had a lot of extras."

Ventus grunted. The early departure of their friends had completely destroyed his party mood, and he wanted nothing more than to just get someplace else.

"Well, if they were free, then I'm sure you wouldn't mind if I hit someplace else," he said, getting to his hooves rather harder than was necessary.

"So you're just leaving me here with no one to party with?" Gale yelled after him, but Ventus either didn't hear him, or ignored him. He walked out of the doors, leaving Gale to wonder if things could get any worse.

He had no idea how much worse things really were.

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"Why are we here, Princess?" Taio asked, as the heavy iron doors to the throne room swung shut behind him with a loud clang. The Princess had lead them up several flights of stairs to the throne room without saying a single word about what was happening. She turned to them, a grave expression on her face.

"You're here because..." she hesitated, wondering how to phrase this. She had never needed to relay information of this nature to anypony before. "...well, something... something has happened. Something awful."

"What?" Sky asked.

Twilight looked directly into Taio's eyes, as hers started tearing up.

"You're here, because... because..."

"Yes?" Taio prompted, his heart sinking right down into his stomach. The look in her eyes as she stared at him did not bode well at all.

"...it's about your family."

Author's Note

Sorry this took so long. I've mainly been focusing on my other stories lately, and having as many home chores as I do during the summer doesn't help. This was a fun chapter to write, though.