Balance of the Mind and Body
Chapter 52: 52. Chapter 52: We're Off To The Gala!
Previous ChapterThe day has finally arrived. Tonight, was the big night event in Canterlot. The Grand Galloping Gala dance has finally come. And all the ponies with tickets were busy getting ready.
In Ponyville, Carousel Boutique was closed as Rarity and her friends will be using the place to get ready. Also, Al, Swift Blaze, Cancer, Dragon, Fang, Star Dust, Colorful Sparks, and Lightning Trails will also be getting ready there. Princess Celestia had sent the uniforms for the ponies earlier that week. The only ones not going to wear them were Al and Blaze as Rarity had made tux suits for them.
Outside, Pinkie Pie was jumping on a trampoline. She was excited as ever to attend the biggest party in Equestria. Twilight was nearby, reading a book. She was going the last minute things on the spells she has been working for. It was kinda hard with Pinkie jumping near by, sounding all excited.
"Pinkie! Please, stop shouting! I'm trying to concentrate!" Twilight shouted towards the pink mare.
Rarity opened her door. She saw Pinkie jumping and said, "Pinkie Pie. Stop that right now. It's time to prepare for the Gala, and I refuse to let you put on your new dress when you're all sweaty."
Pinkie stopped jumping and hopped off the trampoline. She walked over to where Spike was standing. She asked him, "What's Twilight doing?"
Spike responded, "She's got an awesome magic spell she's been working on for the Gala."
"Yea, every time I came over for our study session, her nose was buried deep in that book." Blaze said as he was walking up to them.
Following them was Al and the other ponies on his team. Each one has an excited look on their face. Al could hear behind him some of the chatter between them.
"So, what is everypony has planned to do at the Gala?" Al asked.
"I'm going to hang out with Pinkie. Where ever she is will sure will be lots of fun." Colorful Sparks answered.
Star Dust said, "I'm going to get my sis and take her into the Canterlot Gardens. She will love to see what that place looks like at night under the stars and moon."
"Well I'm going to try and get into the VIP section to try and hang out with the Wonderbolts." Lightning Trails said with determination in his voice.
"What about you three?" Al said, pointing to the Zebra ponies.
"Well, seeing we are the first Zebras in the Royal Guard." Cancer said.
"We will probably be slammed by congratulations from the noble ponies." Dragon added.
"I'll be looking after these two to make sure they don't start any challenges." Fang said.
"Sis! We are full grown stallions! We don't need to be looked after." Cancer said.
"Yea. We promise not to do any challenges at the Gala. Have to be an example for our team." Dragon said.
"We put all of those challenging things behind us. We're now part of the Royal Guard now."
"Then explain why I saw the two of you do a challenge this morning on who can eat their breakfast the quickest. Or how about yesterday when you two raced to see who could get back to the house first." Fang said.
"We are twins." Dragon said.
"It's what we do." Cancer added. "What are you and Blaze going to do there?" He said to Al.
"Me? I am going to head over to the food is. When will be the next time you get to eat such fancy food." Al said, drooling a little bit.
Blaze said, "You do realize most of the stuff will have some sort of flower in it. Which we can't eat. I also don't expect to see any meat there either."
"With us coming, I'm sure Princess Celestia will make sure there is a table of food for us humans. What are you going to do Blaze?"
"Well, honestly, I haven't really thought hard about it. Probably hang out with all my friends. Tonight, I'm just going to have fun." He leaned over and whispered to Al, "I know we both know what most likely going to happen tonight. We are not to prevent it."
Al whispered back, "Why do you think I am going to hang out by the food? It's going to be a dinner and a movie for me. And is going to be in 3D. No, make it 4D. I will be able to smell the food flying."
"Also, I will be going in my pony form. I do have something planned for later in the evening. If everything happens the same way again."
"It's not. We will be there this time. As well as our teammates."
"What are you two whispering about?" Star Dust asked.
"Trying to figure out what meat dishes they might have." Al said quickly.
Star Dust shook his head, trying to get that image out. He walked inside with the other ponies on his team.
Rarity was looking around the area. "Where are the others? It's getting late." She said.
On cue, Applejack and the other rounded a building. The orange mare replied, "Hold your horses, girl. We're here."
Twilight slammed her book closed and said in a happy tone, "Perfect! I'm ready."
Rainbow Dash responded, "You don't look ready for the Gala. Whatcha ready for?"
"For this. Spike, if you would be so kind."
Spike revealed two very shiny red apples from a bag. Pinkie Pie did her thing as to guess what was going to happen. Twilight channel her magic into her horn. As it glowed, the apples received the same aura color around it. They then started to get bigger and change their shape. Once done, the apples were now chariots, but still looked and smelled like an apple. Everypony was amazed at the spectacle what they would be ridding to the big event.
"Alright Phase one is done. Fluttershy, did you bring what I asked?" Twilight asked.
Fluttershy responded in a soft and concern voice. "Yes I did." She revealed eight mice in her saddlebag. Twilight picked them up with her magic. Fluttershy stuck her hoof toward them as she said, "Will they be safe, Twilight?"
"You have my word."
She places the mice down in an open area. A beam of magic came from her horn and hit them. A big puff of magic cloud covered the area. When it cleared, it reveled the mice were now full size horses. Except, their faces looked to have a similar feature of the mice.
Everypony did not know what to say. Al whispered to Blaze, "I think she used the wrong words in the spell."
Blaze responded in a whisper back, "Yea. I think it would have worked better with Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo."
The two human chuckled among themselves.
"Neat, huh? Don't worry Fluttershy. Your mice friends will be back to normal at midnight." Twilight said as she showed them off.
Opalescence head popped out of a nearby bush. She looked towards the mouse-horses. Even though they looked like them, to her, they still smelled like mice. Very delicious mice. The biggest she has ever seen. Just as the cat jumped out of the bush, Fluttershy tried her best to stop her. The claws in her paws dug into the flank of the closest prey. The animal screamed in pain, shook the cat off, and started to run away. The other seven joined in as they ran away at stamped speeds.
Twilight stuck her hoof out as she said, "Wait! Come back!" They did not stop as they continued into a nearby forest. She turned to her friends. "Those horses were supposed to pull our carriages. How will we get to the Gala now?" She said in a worried tone.
Rarity raised a hoof to her head as she said, "What ever shall we do?" In a sarcastic tone. She walked over to a nearby fence where a couple stallions were hanging out. Using the mare charm, she said to the pair, "Uh . . . ahem. Excuse me. Uh, would you boys mind pulling our carriages to the Gala?"
The first stallion spoke up and said, "We would love to, but we have dates we're taking to the Gala."
"I don't think our marefriends would like us showing up all sweating from pulling carriages. Sorry." Said the other one.
"Oh. Yes. That would be rather rude." Rarity walked away and joined her friends again. She prepared her response of what happened. "Of all the worst things that could happen! This is possibly the WORST! POSSIBLE! THING!" She finished with placing a cushion behind her and falling down onto it.
The mares were all worried now as they had no way to get to the Gala. Train tickets have been sold out and all other carriages have been rented as well. It was also improper to teleport there or even walk all the way to it. They began to discuss other possible methods they could do to get to the Gala.
Al and Blaze watched on, seeing how worried they were getting. "Ladies! Please! Calm down! I was going to save this for another time, but I think it's needed now. Al, is it ready?" Blaze said.
"I wanted to put another clear coat on the body before revealing it. But, yea. I think so." Al replied.
"What the hay are you two talking about?" Applejack asked.
"How about you all go inside and get ready. I will be right back with the surprise." Blaze said. "No Pinkie! I know what you are thinking. You need to stay here and get ready. I'll be back in a flash." He put his hands together and disappeared.
"How did he know I wanted to see the surprise first? Is he also psychic?" Pinkie Pie asked the group.
"I don't think so Pinkie. I think he might be able to predict what you might do though." Al said.
"Oh! Then he has something like my Pinkie Sense. I did not see any twitches to his body though. How does his Blaze Sense work? Oh! Maybe he can actually see into the future and know what is going to happen." Pinkie said, sounding very excited.
"I doubt it Pinkie." Twilight said. "He told us what all his powers can do. He would not hide something like that from us, would he?" She finished as he looked towards Al.
The others joined in looking at the lonely human. Feeling the pressure of their eyes, Al responded, "Don't you ladies have to get ready for your first Gala? Don't want to waste anymore time."
The girls nodded and went inside. Al wiped his forehead to remove the sweat that built up before following them. Blaze reappeared inside a few minutes later. He was close to Spike as he was banging on a door. "Come on, you guys. Let me in!" The dragon said.
Inside the room, Blaze heard Rainbow said, "Sure thing, Spike."
Another voice was heard as a set of hooves slammed on that side of the door. "Heaven no! We're getting dressed." This coming from Rarity.
After a few more minutes, the door began to glow and was soon opened. Spike walked in and Blaze followed. He began to chat with them about how excited he was to go back to Canterlot and to show all the different places there.
Blaze walked up to Rarity as she was magically putting on some long, fake, eye lashes. He asked, "Rarity, um, where are my tuxedos so I can go and put them on?"
"They are in the room to the right of this one. Al is already in there with the other stallions getting their formal wear on." Rarity said.
"Thank you." Blaze left and headed into the next one.
Inside, he saw his team were almost done putting their formal uniforms on. He saw to privacy screens on one side. Al's clothing was draped over one, so Blaze headed over to the other. Behind it, the two tuxedos were on hooks on the wall.
As Blaze was taking his gi off, a voice on the other side of the screen. "Hey Blaze." The voice coming from Star Dust. "What is it that I hear we might have transportation to the Gala issues?"
"No reservations were made as Twilight was going to magically create it for us. She did an awesome job on the carriages. Although . . ." Blaze said.
"The method she planned to pull them ran off as a cat chased them." Al timed in to say behind his screen.
"Are we going to have some other stallions pull them then?" Colorful Sparks asked.
"None were available. According to Rarity." Blaze replied.
"Then how come you don't use your clones and pull them?" Lightning Trails interjected with.
"For two things. One, once the clones poof away, I would feel their tired bodies and ruin the tux Rarity had made. Two, Al and I had a backup plan in place in case something like this were to happen."
"So that explains why we keep on hearing beating and banging down there in the basement." Cancer said.
"We were wondering what you two were up to. How do you plan to get whatever you were making out of there?" Dragon said.
"Already taken care of." Blaze said. He finished putting on his human tux a short time later. With a quick hand sign, he transformed into his pony form.
The magic control with his horn has improved over the past week. It's starting to get easier to do the spells Blaze is learning. Twilight did have to dumb down the lessons quite a bit and make them more horn on learning. First couple of tries with a new spell did cause a little backlash. Twilight was ready though to stop the spell before any serious injury could occur.
Blaze magically applied the pony tux to his body. He stepped out behind the screen to show how he looked. The other ponies were impressed with the overall design and how well their captain made it look.
Al walked out from behind his privacy screen. When he saw Blaze, he said, "Alright. Who are you and what did you do with our captain?"
"The name's Blaze. Swift Blaze. I'll have a martini. Shaken, not stirred." Blaze said in the James Bond style.
"I'm sorry sir, but you are not on the list. Could you please step back and allow these other fine gentlecolts through?" Al said. Sounding like a snob waiter at a fancy restaurant.
"Looks like you won't be joining us. We'll tell you how the Gala goes." Lightning Trails commented.
"How are you going to get there without me? Walk?" Blaze replied.
"Ahh! Here is your name. Sorry about that sir." Al said.
The ponies and humans left their room and went outside. A few minutes later. The mare emerged from the building. Fang was in her uniform and the others were in their dresses. Spike was wearing the top part of a tux. The stallions and humans had their mouths open, staring at their beauty.
"You ladies look . . . wow. You actually took my breath away." Blaze said.
"I could say the same thing with you fine gentlemen. But I know those would look good as I designed them." Rarity said. "Blaze, would you mind changing back to your human form? I would like to show the other how that one looks on you as well."
"Sure thing." Blaze released his jutsu. His human form slowly revealed as the smoke dissipated. It started at the feet and rise up. Once the smoke was all gone, the human was standing with his hands in the pockets of the pants. His hair was slicked back and looked wet.
The mares looked him over. Impressed with how well the human can clean up with the right clothing. The first one to speak was Twilight. "Wow Rarity, you really do have an eye when it comes to designing the perfect clothing for your clients." She said. "Now I really feel bad for having you take that time to redo ours when these were perfect."
"It's quite alright Twilight. After that second showing. I did get lots more orders for similar designs. All of them were wanting it for the Gala as well. I can't wait to see all my designs spread out on everypony." Rarity said in a very happy tone.
"Alright Blaze and Al, where is this mystery thing that is to take us to the Gala?" Applejack asked.
Blaze reached into the left side of the jacket. What he pulled out was a round cylinder object. "Right here is how we're going to get there." He said.
"Beg your pardon, but that just looks like a rolled up scroll. How the hay is that to get us there?"
"The scroll itself is not the actual thing we will be using. It's what's been sealed into it."
"Just bring the damn thing out Blaze! I want to show them all the features you and I have built into in. And under 5 days no less!" Al said.
"Alright, alright. Man, a guy can't bring out the suspense a little bit?"
"Not if we want to get there in time."
"Fine. Alright everypony. Please stand behind me and be amazed at this masterpiece that I am about to reveal." The ponies and human took a safe distance behind Blaze, near the edge of the building. While holding the scroll, he began to do several hand signs as his chakra was being gathered into the scroll. At the last sign, he shouted, "Ninja Art! Summoning Jutsu!"
A big, long, cloud appeared in front of them. After a few seconds, it began to rise off the ground, slowly dissipating. The ponies watched on, trying to figure out what the humans have made. Blaze turned around and looked at their expressions. Almost everpony had their mouths open. Their facial expression ranged from confused, amazed, and exctited.
"Behold, mares and gentlecolts, our transportation to the Grand Galloping Gala." Blaze said with one hand gesturing to it. Al was on the other side, mirroring the motion.
The first pony to speak was Fluttershy. She said, "Oh my."
"What is it?" Applejack asked.
"I've never seen anything like this. Even in Canterlot." Twilight said.
"OHHH! Shiny!" Pinkie shouted, all happy.
"Are those real diamonds!" Rarity said with her eyes big as ever.
Cancer said, "Where did you come up with that design?"
"We never saw anything like that in our travels." Dragon added.
Fang said, "Even I don't know what to make of it."
"It looks spectacular!" Colorful Sparks said.
Star Dust said, "The two of you built that in the basement? And only in 5 days?"
"Very impressive." Lightning Trails said.
Finally, Rainbow Dash said, "How fast does it go?"