Cinny tried not to scratch, she really did, but her head just felt so...weird. Her mane and tail had been styled to what felt like, at least to Cinny, an inch of their lives. The hair felt lighter and somehow tighter on her head, and while it wasn't painful, it was a bit distracting, mostly because it just felt different. More troubling, however, was her tail. The stylist, and by extension Crystal Glimmer, had insisted on doing more with it than merely washing it and untangling it, which was all Cinny would have done if she was 'dressing' to impress. It was considered too little for such a grand party as the Gala. But why they had thought it was a good idea to put some sort of gel in it and wrap a ribbon around it, Cinny would never know.

It made her feel particularly exposed—especially since she had always relied on her tail to cover her hindquarters. With it tied up so, it felt as if more of her behind was exposed to the whole world than she would normally like. On some level, it was kind of thrilling, but thrilling wasn’t always the best thing for her, given her… problem. It took every shred of her will to keep her wings loose and limber, and she was grateful that she had an excellent excuse not to go flying around: the wind would muss up her meticulously groomed coat, and the Gala was tonight.

Besides exposing her behind, though, the stiffness in her tail hairs made it feel like somepony had jizzed all through it and let it dry. She might enjoy sex, but the mussed feeling that came after, from waiting too long to clean up, was something she could have done without. Of course, she was a long way from a shower now, and she just hoped she’d get used to the feeling before long.

After Crystal had ‘helped’ Cinny with her hair—if one could consider the continual badgering, snide comments, and passive aggressive behaviour, ‘helping’—the mare had more or less dropped her on a street corner with instructions to “be back at the townhouse before four” and to “not screw up the Gala or Lucent’s reputation or her mane, or Celestia help her, she would find herself buried in a deep hole out back.” Cinny was pretty sure she was joking about that last comment. But there was little reason for her not to follow Crystal’s… advice. She wanted to look good for Lucent too, and she certainly didn’t want to embarrass her stallion, rich and powerful he might already be. Not that she had particularly hopeful thoughts about that last desire.

At the very least, Lucent had commented favourably on her dress when she had shown him—although Rarity seemed a bit unhappy about that. Something to do with the date not seeing the dress before it was time… or something. It was rather strange, but Cinny had a hard time holding ill feelings against a mare who had so kindly accepted Cinny’s mistakes and forgave her.

She just hoped Twilight would be able to do the same.

Rarity had promised not to tell Twilight, or any of the other Element bearers about what she had wrote, and Cinnamon wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. After all, if Rarity had told them, their anger probably would have gotten, if anything, less violent. Unless they were the sort of ponies who held grudges and their anger just got stronger and stronger over time. That would be bad.

The long and short of it, though, was that it was nearly noon and Cinny had several hours to burn before she was expected to be anywhere or do anything. Perhaps the wisest course of action might have been to return to the townhouse and just quietly read or perhaps work on something, but her inspiration had more or less evaporated the closer they had gotten to the date, and she doubted she’d have the concentration to read, either. That only left the herd to spend time with, but Star Sparkle had been in a fairly grumpy mood from what Cinny had seen of her that morning, and most of the rest of the herd, if they weren’t exactly cold to her, were still warming up—or rewarming up, as it were—to her. Even Velvet was coming around, but she suspected that the only way the wounds were going to heal properly or completely would be after she made her apologies tonight. Needless to say, it wasn’t exactly the least tense homelife Cinny had ever experienced.

Besides, she had other plans.

It just so happened that today was also the one day of the week where Cinny could go to her favourite coffee shop and meet her friends. She had seen far too little of them over the past few months, and Lucent had suggested a few days before that maybe she ought to go spend some time with them. Given how trying Star had been to her during that dinner, Cinny had been inclined to agree—and not simply because Lucent had suggested it while nibbling on her in oh-so-wonderful ways.

But with the Gala literally days away, it wasn’t as if she could just hop into a cab and show up at her old haunts. This had been the first real free time she had got in a week, and better yet, since Crystal was supposed to stick with her rather than running off to some winery or wherever the mare got to in her spare time, none of the herd knew where she was. So it was unlikely that Star would be able to track her down and interrupt them.

Tasseomancer’s Haunt had been one of her favourite places to get a drink and work on some of her writing—in a corner, of course, so no pony got an accidental eyeful, either of her story’s contents or her own inability to repress her desires while writing, and the building felt and looked old. As far as she knew, the place had been standing for nearly five hundred years, and the name came from a time when ponies thought one’s future could be read by looking at the contents of one’s cup. Or so Bitter Brew always liked to tell her, whenever she had been alone and writing. Cinny knew full well that older stallion was trying to catch her eye, but he was never her type.

It was one of her favourite places to be.

Or, at least, it had been.

She hadn’t been there in weeks, and the first thing she noticed about the place when she pushed open the door and stepped inside was how dingy the place was. It wasn’t particularly dirty, or particularly dark, or cheap (Cinny had spent enough bits on Bitter Brew’s mochas to attest to that), but it felt run down—old, but not in a good way. For a brief, mad moment, Cinny thought that perhaps the place had gone to seed in the few months she hadn’t been visiting, that her lack of patronage had caused the place to come apart at the seams… then she realized it hadn’t really changed at all. It was exactly the same.

It was she who had changed, however minutely, and now this coffee shop, this place that had, at one time, felt almost like a home to her, wasn’t to her tastes anymore. Suddenly, Cinnamon couldn’t help but realize that she wasn’t just a stranger in the high circles that Lucent trotted around in… she was a stranger in her old world too.

As if things couldn’t possibly get—

“Well, hello, sexy thing,” whispered a voice in her ear. A familiar voice.

Cinny grinned as she pulled the mare into a hug. “DeeDee!”

“Ugh, Cinny!” DeeDee, whose real name was Dawn Dreamer, protested half-heartedly as she returned the hug with equal energy. “You know I hate it when you call me that.”

“Everypony calls you that,” Cinny pointed out as she released DeeDee and took a step back, “even your parents.”

DeeDee rolled her eyes, and sidestepped so Cinny could see the pony still seated at one of the far tables, who grinned back at her like a cheeky colt.

“No hug for me, Cinny?” He chuckled, “I’m hurt, I truly am!”

“Oh shut up and get over here,” Cinnamon said with a laugh as she crossed the intervening distance and gave the requested hug. Gear Quill was, despite his name, an earth pony, not a pegasus like herself, and despite the fact that he seemed to spend most of his time writing extremely technical papers about engineering, he certainly showed the best attributes of his tribe. Besides his muscles and strong back—not to mention handsome hide quarters—he also had a brilliant rainbow mane to contrast with his grey coat. Cinny would be lying to herself—and everypony else—if she didn’t admit that she found the stallion extremely attractive, and it seemed like a cruel twist of fate that the colt only had eyes for other stallions.

“What brings you back here, Cinny?” DeeDee asked as she trotted over with a goofy grin on her face. As if to complete the metaphor for the three tribes, DeeDee was a unicorn; her coat was a dusky shade of blue and her mane was an equally dusky (or dusty, as DeeDee liked to call it) shade of purple, both of which made her orange eyes stand out more. She wasn’t gay like Gear Quill, but Cinny had never really given significant thought to going out with her, although she wasn’t sure why. “I like what you’ve done with your mane, by the way,” DeeDee added with a smirk. “Is that ribbon I spy in your tail?”

Like that’s all you were looking at, Cinny thought to herself with a giggle, before shaking her head and pulling up a seat before the situation became awkward.

“Do I need an excuse to drop in at the old Haunt?” Cinny asked rhetorically as she eased herself into the seat—careful not to muss her tail while she did. “I missed you guys.”

“Well, sure,” Gear said, his grin slipping slightly. “We missed you too… that’s why we’ve been wondering where you got to.”

Cinny’s heart sank. Had it really been that long? Between moving in with Lucent’s herd and the revelations about her novel… it felt like she hadn’t had the time for anything or anypony outside of the herd. She just hadn’t realized it had been so… long.

For a brief, sickening moment, Cinny wondered if she was becoming as stuck up and wrong-headed as Star.

“Whoa, whoa, m’dear,” Gear exclaimed, reaching over across the table and patting her hoof with his. “I didn’t mean to criticize, I’m sure it’s all a bit of a big change, moving and hooking up with your coltfriend’s herd…” Gear looked vaguely awkward for a moment. “We just missed you, is all… How about I get you something to drink, eh? Give you mares a moment to catch up. Still like mochas, I take it?”

“Uh, yes…” Cinny shifted on her hindquarters nervously, and then bent down to her saddle bag to pull out some bits. “... I can pay, I—”

“No need, m’dear,” Gear said with a laugh. Despite his cheer, it seemed a bit forced to Cinny, and it only made Cinny feel even more awkward. surely she should be paying? Between the money coming in from her book sales and the herd allowance that she had somehow started to receive—although who was in charge of the money bags and kept leaving coin purses on her dresser remained a mystery to her—she had more than enough bits to pay for her own drinks.

DeeDee’s eyes followed Gear’s behind as he walked over to where Bitter Brew was working his magic, although Cinny knew the mare was well aware of Gear’s preferences. Once he was out of earshot, she smirked at Cinny. “I’ve missed you too. Had to work through my heat all by my lonesome, and I never thought you’d miss that!”

Cinny blushed. DeeDee was one of those ponies’ who biological cycles never seemed to sync up with the community around her, and since Cinny had been in the same boat, the two of them had always made a point of helping one another out… and Cinny had completely forgotten. She really was a horrible pony.

“Oh, don’t look so glum,” DeeDee’s eyes gleamed with mischievous light. “Just because you weren’t there in body doesn’t mean you weren’t in soul… I daresay that novel of yours helped me more than once.”

“You...uh,” Cinny mumbled. She wasn’t really sure what she was expecting. Of course ponies were going to clop to her work. Celestia knew how many time she had found herself curled up with a good piece of erotica and her free hoof between her legs. Yet suddenly the whole idea just seemed to disturb her. Sweet Celestia, Cinny thought suddenly. Did Rarity do that?

“Mhmm,” DeeDee’s eyes fluttered. “Nothing like a good friend, though…”

“Well, I… I am in a herd now,” Cinny shook her head to clear it of thoughts of a certain white mare touching herself to a story about herself being touched. She didn’t need her wings stiff right now, for one thing, so the sooner she could steer the conversation away from that topic, the better. “So… I mean…”

DeeDee frowned in confusion, “Lucent’s a unicorn, isn’t he?” Lucent was the only herdmember she had introduced to her friends—hopefully, when things calmed down a bit, she’d be able to invite her friends over to meet the rest of the herd. “And didn’t you say most of the herd were unicorns?”

“Yes?” Cinny’s ears twitched in irritation.

“Oh honey,” DeeDee said, “you know we unicorns sometimes take lovers on the sides…”

“I only just joined, I don’t think I should be rocking the boat like that,” Cinny felt like rubbing the sides of her head. Truthfully, DeeDee had warned and/or teased her about that fact, and Star Sparkle had certainly made no bones about it, but Cinny doubted she’d ever be comfortable with it. Her loyalty was to Lucent and her herdmates, she wasn’t about to betray them. “And that’s not me.”

“Yeah, okay.” DeeDee said, looking ever so slightly disappointed, which only made Cinny feel guilty. She didn’t want to hurt her friends.

Cinny nuzzled the mare’s ear gently, hoping she’d understand that she still cared for her as a friend. DeeDee gave a weak smile after a moment, just in time for Gear to return with a steaming cup of mocha, which he placed in front of Cinny with bright grin.

“That’s what I like to see from my two favorite fillies!” Gear said with a chuckle.

“Don’t let Berry hear that,” DeeDee said with a snort, “or you might find yourself missing a few choice parts of your anatomy.”

“Ouch!” Gear winced and clutched his legs together. “But you have to admit, if Cinny hadn’t been snatched up…”

“Who’s Berry?” Cinny asked. The only Berry she knew was a pink mare she had briefly known in university—a friend of Gear’s, but not one Cinny had ever gotten to know particularly well. Then her brain caught up with the rest of what Gear had said. “And what do you mean by… ‘been snatched up’?”

“We’re all very happy for you, Cinnamon,” Gear said, sounding as if he was expecting her to understand some sort of subtext. “But we would have been happy to to have you…”

Cinny stared at him blankly.

Gear stared back, before slowly shifting to a glare that he directed at DeeDee.

“Dawn, Didn’t you tell her?” Gear said, sounding frustrated. “I thought that would have been the first thing out of your mouth!”

“Oh, uh,” DeeDee blushed and looked down at her own half full cup.

“Will some pony just tell me what’s going on here?” Cinny asked, glancing between her two friends.

“We, err,” DeeDee rubbed the back of her head. “We met this stallion, probably the same day as you moved out.”

“Mithril Mail.” Gear supplied.

“One of the Royal Guards, actually,” DeeDee added, before continuing. “Well, one thing led to another and the next thing we know…. uh…”

“We’re a herd, Cinny,” Gear summed up simply. “Me, DeeDee, Ril, and Berry.”

Cinny stared at the stallion for a long moment. For some reason the idea that Gear would have herded, given his orientation… it just seemed so foreign to her. No. That’s not right; she knew full well bent ponies found ways to make a herd relationship work.

No, what seemed strange to her, what seemed impossible, unbelievable, was that her friends would herd without her. She wasn’t delusional, she knew her friends were their own ponies, but… it was as if life had continued on some sort of natural path without her. She certainly liked DeeDee and Gear, perhaps even loved, if she allowed herself to think of them in that way, and she didn’t regret joining Lucent’s herd, but…

“We wanted to tell you,” DeeDee interrupted Cinny’s thoughts. “But we haven’t seen you in ages, and we weren’t really sure where to go to find you.”

“Or if you’d even want to see us, after you had moved in with your herd,” Gear said with a shrug. “After all, we’re hardly nobility.”

“No,” Cinny growled, to her surprise and theirs, judging by their reaction. “Never think that. Never. You’re my friends, both of you. Never think I’m too good for you. Come see me anytime. Everyday even.” Cinny closed her eyes and let out a sigh. It seemed no matter what she did, she was going to screw up somehow. First with her herd, and now, without even realizing it, her friends. “I’m happy for you, really,” Cinny added in what she hoped was a gentler and warmer voice. “Just surprised is all.”

“I think it surprised us all, really.” DeeDee said, sounding very relieved.

“It does seem a bit sudden,” Cinny said carefully. She didn’t want to seem like a nagging mother or trying to spoil their happiness because she was bitter or something ridiculous.

“It was, that’s true.” DeeDee agreed as Gear nodded. “But, well, we’re not getting any younger, and Gear and I have been friends for ages, even if he might not be… into me.”

“We make it work, though,” Gear added, before glancing at Cinny’s drink pointedly. Without thinking she quickly took a big glup, only to sputter and wince as the hotter-than-expected mocha burned her tongue and throat. “But enough about us. What about you? How’s it going with Lucent’s herd?”

Cinny flicked her tongue and panted, trying to cool her burnt mouth down while she considered the question. She didn’t want to complain, of course, it seemed wrong to speak ill of her herd, even to her friends… but on the other hoof, if she couldn’t tell her friends, who could she talk to? And yet…

She took a moment to shake herself mentally. If nothing else, she had come here to get away from her problems and worries and difficulties, before she had to plunge into them head long.

So: “It’s great,” Cinny said, trying to make herself sound happier and less stressed than she really felt. “Lucent’s so sweet, and you should see Glint.” Cinny smirked at Gear. “I know you’d like him.”

“I see,” Gear said, and shared a glance with DeeDee, making Cinny feel rather awkward. As long as she had been going to Canterlot’s university, she had always felt particularly close to these two ponies—but now it was as if there was some sort of rift between them. Of course, it was easy to imagine that it was partly from the fact that the two ponies were herdmates now, and she was the only one of the three ponies sitting at the table who was an outsider. Still, she wasn’t so much of a stranger that she didn’t realize DeeDee and Gear were skeptical.

Probably best to change the subject before they pressed it.

“I’d rather hear about you two, though,” Cinny said, hoping she didn’t sound desperate. “How’s everything going with…” Cinny groped for a topic, “your writing, DeeDee?” Like herself, DeeDee was an author, but as far as Cinny knew, her friend still hadn’t made it to the big leagues yet. Yet with so much changing…

“My writing?” DeeDee said with a laugh. “Not nearly as well as you, Miss Top-of-the-charts.”

“That’s right!” Gear said with a grin. “I’ve got to say, I particularly enjoyed the scenes between Applejack and Rainbow… very yummy.”

“Y-you read it?” Cinny stared. Gear had never expressed much interest in reading her erotic work, which was fine because—if she was going to be honest with herself and her writing—she didn’t write the sort of stuff Gear would be interested in very often. Then her brain caught up with what DeeDee had just said. “What do you mean by ‘top of the charts’?”

“Well, maybe not top,” DeeDee said, waving her hoof dismissively. “Surely you know your book’s… what? Twenty-sixth on the bestseller chart?”

“I…” Cinny hadn’t been, in fact, paying much attention. She had been doing her best to ignore the whole thing, barely glancing at the checks she had been cashing into the herd’s account. Was it really selling that well? For a moment, Cinny felt a momentary, perverse, thrill of excitement. Ponies really enjoyed her work! She was a success! Then, abruptly, her excited mood vanished as she realized that, if it was selling well, there was simply no way of hoping that the book was relatively obscure and only a few ponies had read it. “Oh. I see.” Cinny said with a sigh.

“Cinny, m’dear, what’s wrong?” Gear asked softly, sounding concerned and upset. Great, not only had she betrayed her friends, she was hurting them in other ways too.

DeeDee approached from a different angle. “You just told us that we’re you friends, yet you’re clearly bothered by something.”

“It’s… not something I really think I should be talking about outside of my herd,” Cinny said weakly.

“Cinnamon, even if you’re not in my herd, I think I speak for us—or at least Dawn and I—when I say I consider you family. Please don’t be closed to us.” Gear added, making Cinny squirm in her seat. It was hardly the first time that Gear Quill had suggested he considered her part of his family—from her experience, it seemed to be the sort of thing many Earth Ponies did—but it only made her feel more guilty.

Perhaps she should just come clean, maybe she would feel better…

Cinny twitched her wings nervously and glanced over her shoulder to make sure no other pony was listening. Then with a resigned sigh, she leaned in and whispered; “I… made a mistake with that book. I shouldn’t have published it.”

“Why not?” DeeDee demanded, but at least she had the good sense not to shout it out loud. “And since when have you been embarrassed by your clop?”

“It’s less—I’m not—” Cinny stammered and Gear gave DeeDee a hard look, which the mare ignored. “It’s complicated.”

“Then explain it, please Cinny.” Gear said softly.

“It’s… It’s… Lucent is Twilight’s father.” Cinny forced out finally, before taking a long draw from her mocha. It still burned on the way down, but the pain helped her focus… sort of.

“What?” DeeDee gasped, “You mean Twilight Velvet is Lucent’s daughter? And he’s fucking her? Sweet Celestia's behind, I knew nobles got up to some weird stuff but—”

“Ew!” Cinny shook her head vigorously to clear that thought out of her head. Even she found it too much. “No, Twilight Sparkle…”

“You mean, the Twilight Sparkle?” Gear said.

“Wow!” DeeDee exclaimed, apparently jumping to the wrong conclusion again. “Did you meet her? I—” DeeDee’s mouth froze part way open, in an almost comical fashion, before dropping into a perfect ‘O’ of shock.

“Does… she know?” Gear asked, “Does the herd?”

“The herd does.” Cinny shifted uneasily in her seat. The last thing she wanted to do was to talk about all this, but here she was. “I… I couldn’t live with it. With myself. I hurt them, all of them… the ponies I love… So I confessed.”

“That’s very brave of you,” DeeDee said, reaching over and rubbing her hoof. “And I can’t imagine it was easy on you, either.”

“No…” Cinny blinked, suddenly feeling her eyes burn. “But… I had to… It’s going to be some time before everything goes back to the way things were. If they ever do.”

“But… they must have forgiven you?” Gear prompted gently. “You’re always telling us about how nice Lucent, at least, is…”

“I don’t know if they’ve forgiven me, but…” Cinny wiped her eyes and smiled weakly. “I’m sure I’ll get through this, it’ll just take time. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about confessing to Twilight…”

“When…?” Gear asked, sounding as if he was struggling with his own perverse curiosity.

Cinny sighed. There seemed to be no escaping it. “To… tonight, actually. At the Gala.”

“Whoa, whoa whoa,” DeeDee practically bounced out her her seat. “The Gala? The Grand Galloping Gala? The big one? Why didn’t you say anything before?”

Gear rolled his eyes and shook his head.

“It’s not something I’m particularly looking forward to, DeeDee.” Cinny said, sounding harsher than she had intended. “If things go badly, I might find myself herdless by this time next week!”

“No, you won’t.” Gear shook his head, and pointed his hoof at Cinny. “I refuse to believe that Lucent would be so callous, not from what you’ve told us of him— nor from what I’ve heard of him from his reputation—” Cinny briefly wondered what Gear meant by that “—and, if I’m wrong, and somehow you did kicked out, you’d always have a home with us, isn’t that right?”

“Of course,” DeeDee nodded, “We’d love to have you—” DeeDee flinched as if she had been kicked under the table. Which she had. Gear didn’t have terribly good aim, and his sheepish smile hardly made up for the painful brush on her frog. “—but I’m sure everything will be just fine.”

“Great,” Cinny said half bitterly, half amused, “You’ve gone and jinxed it.”

“Oh hush,” DeeDee snorted in a very unlady-like way. “Let’s talk about something happier, eh? How about you and Lucent—you two thinking of foals yet?” The unicorn brushed a strand of her mane out of her face. “Or you and Glint?”

Cinny blushed and shook her head. It wasn’t really the sort of thought she had allowed herself to entertain over the past few weeks—or months for that matter. For some reason, she simply didn’t see herself as a mother… It wasn’t that she disliked foals—she found Guiding Light to be every bit adorable as her mother described her, but… Somehow she just didn’t see it. Then a thought occurred to her.

“You… you’re not pregnant, are you DeeDee?” Cinny couldn’t think of any other reason why her friend would bring up such a topic. It wasn’t really something either of them had discussed before… although neither of them had access to a stallion before either.

“Me? Celestia’s teats, no.” DeeDee shook her head vigorously. Then she paused. “Berry is, though. Turns out she’s one of those mares…”

“Goodness, I leave for a few weeks and you’re all off on adventures, aren’t you?” Cinny said with an honest laugh. She really didn’t know Berry that well, but it was interesting that she was apparently so eager to start a family. “This… Mithril Mail must be a hell of a stallion if he’s already knockin’ your herd up.” Especially, Cinny thought to herself, since they hadn’t met that long ago.

“Actually…” Gear looked extremely uncomfortable. “I’m…”

“No way!” Gear? A father? But that would mean…

“It helps when there’s another… colt… there.” Gear said, sounding embarrassed. Stallions usually didn’t discuss their sex lives as freely as mares did, after all.

DeeDee giggled, and Cinny couldn’t help but join in. She cared deeply for Gear, but the look on the poor pony’s face was just too much.

“Oooh,” Cinny sighed as she finally brought her giggles under control. “I’m sorry, Gear. But tell me about this Royal Guard you’re all in bed with…” Cinny smiled; if the dreamy look Gear got when she brought up the stallion’s name was any indication, Gear Quill had plenty to tell. “How’d you all meet?”

“Well, it’s a bit of a funny story,” Gear said with a relieved sounding laugh. “You see, I was going to the baker’s and—”

**

Four o’clock came far too soon for Cinny’s tastes. It seemed that she had only just started to really reconnect with her friends when she realized she was very nearly late for getting back to the townhouse. It was, relatively speaking, a bit of a long walk, but flying was completely out of the question. Even she knew it would screw up her coat and mane; as it was, just sitting around and carefully sipping her mocha had, in all likelihood, messed up her coat at least a little bit. It wouldn’t surprise her if more than a few of her feathers had been bent out of position too.

She swore her friends set her off on purpose.

Perhaps, however, she could convince Twilight Velvet to help her preen before she had to get into her dress… Probably a bad idea, if only because she doubted it would stay ‘just preening’ for long—and because, frankly, of all the mares in the herd, she suspected Twilight was putting a lot of stock in the outcome of tonight. Probably better not to ask for sexual favours just yet.

The fact that her relationship with Velvet had soured so badly since she had confessed, was, in many ways, nearly as painful as the distance between herself and Lucent. She wasn’t openly rude or mean to her like Star might have been, nor was she passive aggressive… but sometimes, Cinny could swear Velvet was giving her dirty looks when Cinny wasn’t looking. There was anger there, obviously, but there was also something Cinny could only describe as frustration or disappointment. When this was all over, she was going to have to work it out with the mare.

Still, walking back wasn’t all bad. For one thing, DeeDee insisted on ‘escorting’ her back to the townhouse, although Cinny knew she was probably more curious than anything. She had hoped that Gear would want to follow, but as he was so fond of reminding her—and DeeDee—he actually had a job. He meant it jokingly, of course, but before she had sold her first novel, she had always felt a bit uncomfortable when he had brought it up. It still made her a bit uncomfortable, of course, but she couldn’t help but wonder what DeeDee thought, especially since she was now herded with the stallion.

The idea that her friends were suddenly in a herd still made Cinny feel weird. Times certainly changed.

But DeeDee was still a comforting presence, one that Cinny found herself realizing how much she utterly missed.

“You live here?” DeeDee asked in awe as she stared up at the townhouse. “Wow?”

“Sort of?” Cinny said helplessly. She wasn’t sure she felt up to explaining that this was really only one of the properties Lucent owned, and part of her felt more than bit guilty over her good fortune; not everypony fell into a herd that was so… well off. On the other hoof, she also couldn’t help but smile slightly at DeeDee’s expression. Had she looked like that?

“Wow,” DeeDee said again, without pressing Cinny for detail. Then her face fell and looked a bit awkward. “I suppose you’ll be wanting to get inside. Get ready for the Gala…”

“Do you want to come in?” Cinny offered, before she had a moment to think about it. For a second, she felt a brief moment of uncertainty; should she really be offering? After all, it wasn’t as if she had cleared it with Star or Lucent or any of the rest of the herd. Then she mentally shook herself. It was her place too. Sort of. For now.

Cinny swallowed nervously.

“Nah,” DeeDee declined casually, but Cinny could swear the mare gave her a knowing look before shaking her head. “I have to get back to my herd; we’re still feeling stuff out, you know how it is.”

“Y-yeah.” Cinnamon let out a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding in. “But soon.”

“Soon.” DeeDee agreed, before pulling Cinny into hug and nuzzling her cheek. “Come tell us all about how it goes?”

“I will!” Cinny said, trying to sound braver than she felt. Hopefully she wouldn’t be showing up on their doorstep looking for place to spend the next few nights. Maybe she ought to ask where DeeDee lived now… she couldn’t possibly be in the same small apartment she had before.

Or maybe she did. Cinny frowned. It seemed strange to her that she had to remind herself that not everypony had the same means as she did to go where she wanted and do whatever she wanted.

Cinny did her best to keep the farewell short, but it was difficult—far more difficult than she would have expected. Thankfully, the street was mostly deserted, so it wasn’t as if she was making a scene by standing on the townhouse’s doorstep and chatting with her friend. Finally, however, she got inside.

Only to come face to face with a grumpy looking maid, wearing a Pranch maid uniform. Unless Cinny was mistaken, she was the same mare she had met the first night.

“Madame!” The maid exclaimed as Cinny shut the door behind her. “You’re late.”

“Uh, sorry.” Cinny sheepishly smiled as she looked at the clock. Yup, it was long past four o’clock. Blast. Hopefully Lucent would be forgiving. “Is Lucent ready?”

“His Grace is always ready,” The Maid said, sounding as if she had been personally insulted. “You, however, are very decidedly not. Up! Up stairs now!”

Cinnamon was just so glad the night was off to a good start. So glad.

It didn’t take her long to trot up the stairs into the room she had, for most of the time she had been courting the herd, spent the most time in. It wasn’t her room, if it was anypony’s room, it was probably Lucent’s, but she had spent last night there, so it seemed reasonable that was where she’d find her dress. Rarity had, of course, dropped the the dress off as soon as she had finished it, but after that it had been whisked off to some sort of pocket dimension by the servants, and Cinny hadn’t seen it since.

If she was expecting to find Lucent in the room, however, she was sorely disappointed.

“Finally,” Crystal Glimmer snapped, leaping up off the bed and onto her hoofs. She was followed a moment later by a mussed looking unicorn— one of the servants, unless Cinny was mistaken—and Cinny did her best to avoid both mare’s gazes. She found it difficult to believe that Crystal would be… fooling around… with a pony outside of the herd. Crystal was, after all, an earth pony, not a unicorn like Star. Although, Cinny felt with a twinge of guilt, it might be partly her fault. She had, after all, monopolized a great deal of the herd’s time, and suddenly Cinny couldn’t help but wonder whether or not the moodiness she had been experiencing with ponies like Twilight Velvet had been affecting the other mares’ relationships too.

Still, if Crystal was ashamed, or embarrassed, she didn’t show it.

“We need to get you dressed!” Crystal said, gesturing with her hoof to the dress that was now hanging on a hook inside the dresser door. It was as beautiful as she remembered it. “Let’s just hope all those treats you’ve been stuffing down haven’t ruined your fit.”

Cinny flinched. Was she supposed to have been watching her figure? She thought they liked the way she looked.

“This is Prim Press,” Crystal continued, smirking somewhat maliciously at Cinnamon’s reaction. “She’ll be helping stuff you into it and—well? What are you doing? chop chop!”

What followed was a blur of fabric, grunting, and swearing the likes of which Cinnamon doubted the room had ever seen. As it happened, she hadn’t actually put on any pounds, much to Crystal’s apparent disappointment, nor had she managed to mess up her coat or mane either. As late as she was, and as apparently unprofessional as Prim Press turned out to be—given how she kept tugging Cinny’s mane and feathers as she forced her into the dress—Cinny had barely lost any time at all. By the time she was carefully putting her false silver feathers on—something she insisted on doing herself—it was only five o’clock, just in time for Lucent to push open the door and stick his head in.

“Well, somepony’s looking very sexy!” Lucent said with a grin, making Cinny blush and look down at her hooves. She knew Lucent liked it, and he had said much the same when he had seen her in it the first time, but it was still lovely to hear.

But she couldn’t help but notice that Crystal looked more than a little crestfallen. When all this was said and done, perhaps she ought to nudge Lucent to spend more time with the rest of the herd, rather than just with her. As mean as Crystal had been to her, she couldn’t help but feel a little bit sorry for the mare… after all, Cinny had managed to completely screw up, yet in some sense had barely been punished at all. Plus, she knew how much going to the Gala meant to Crystal, and it wasn’t like Cinny particularly wanted to go. Especially not with that… confession looming over her.

“Ready to go?” Lucent asked after a moment.

Cinny opened her mouth to reply, but suddenly found her throat closing up on her. This could go badly. It was going to go badly. She just knew it. All she managed to force out was a weak “Yes.”

“Excellent!” Lucent pushed the door the rest of the way open, and despite her worries, Cinny felt a smile creep onto her face. Lucent, being a stallion, was wearing a fairly standard tuxedo collar, and Cinny hadn’t expected anything else… but he really made it work. She couldn’t help but notice that he was wearing a flower in his lapel the exact shade of her coat. The sort of flower she should have given him when they went on their first date. “What do you think?”

“You look…” Cinny groped for a comment, before Crystal beat her to it.

“Wonderful!” Crystal exclaimed, trotting up Lucent and giving him a kiss on his cheek. “Very Handsome. I just hope you don’t end up bringing home another mare, dressed the way you are!”

“Don’t worry, M’dear,” Lucent said, before returning the kiss. “And don’t worry, there’s always next time,” Lucent glanced over Crystal’s head at Cinny for a moment. “I imagine Cinny’ll be all partied out, after tonight.”

The icy claws of panic seized her again. What did he mean by that? Suddenly, all Cinny could imagine was Lucent suddenly dumping her at that Gala, kicking her out of the herd in the most public way possible. Was Lucent madder at her then he let on? Was this whole thing just an elaborate ruse, to humiliate her and publicly make sure everypony who was somepony knew he wanted nothing to do with her?

Cinny forced herself to breathe.

That. That wasn’t going to happen.

She hoped.

Cinny forced herself to breathe. Again.

“Well, come along Cinny,” Lucent said, smiling at her, which for once did nothing to lift her mood.
Together, the two of them trotted downstairs to the main entrance hall, which, despite what Cinny was expecting, was completely empty of any other ponies, including servants. It was in some sense partly a relief, but she still felt almost completely overwhelmed and they hadn’t even made it to the Gala yet.

This was going to end badly.

“Oh Celestia’s—” Lucent cut off with a sheepish smile, and Cinny wondered if nobility wasn’t supposed to swear or something. “Forgive me, Cinny, I need to go fetch something. I’ll be right back—if the cab comes, feel free to hop in without me.”

Considering she felt vaguely paralysed and slightly disoriented, Cinny doubted she was going to be hopping anywhere soon. Out of the corner of her eye, Cinny watched Lucent hurry off down one of the side hallways, and only very briefly wondered what he had gone to get.

Mostly, she stared at a nearby vase, not really seeing it, as she tried to keep from panicking. It’ll all be over soon. Yet, if anything, the weeks of planning and anticipation only made her anxiety worse. She had been nervous when she had confessed to the herd, too, but this was like a wave crashing over her. It was all she could do to avoid being swept away.

Then, unbidden, a strange, curious sensation swept over her, it was similar to when she got a really good idea, a sudden inspiration about how to resolve a problem with her story… It wasn’t planned, but Cinny found herself opening her mouth and beginning to sing:

At the Gala

I will confess,

to the ponies I have wronged,

all of my sins,

I do not know,

if I will stay strong,

At the Gala,

I hope you can forgive me, Pinkie.

Applejack, Rainbow Dash, I am so sorry,

I hurt you, I know, Fluttershy.

And Twilight…

Amends, I owe you most of all

At the Gala,

My future will be decided,

for better or worse,

It happens tonight.

At the Gala.

Words caught in Cinny’s throat, as she suddenly found herself pausing, as if other ponies were singing their own lines to the song Cinny couldn’t actually hear, but was nevertheless an unwilling participant in. Then, finally:

Into the Gala~
Into the Gala~
And I’ll have the worst night ever,

At the Gala!

Cinny panted and frowned as the urge to sing passed. She had, of course, heard of the Magic of Harmony, and its ability to draw ponies together into a song, or do things like telling mares what they should name their foals. It didn’t happen to everypony, of course, and it had certainly been a first for her… but normally singers were in close proximity to one another, and Cinny was completely alone.

Of course I am, Cinny thought bitterly, it was the first—and likely only—time she’d ever be caught up in the magic of harmony, and she was the only witness to it. Just bucking great. It wasn’t really something she wanted to share with other ponies, despite the seemingly happy tune of the song, but still. It was just her luck, wasn’t it?

She was just about to bang her head against the wall, when Twilight Velvet stepped out of the shadows from one of the lesser lit hallways. “You have a lovely voice, Cinny.”

Hopefully Twilight didn’t notice how high she jumped.

“I… I don’t sing,” Cinnamon said with a frown, as she tried to smooth her dress out and look more dignified than she felt. “That wasn’t me.”

“I guessed,” Twilight stepped close, and the air between them seemed to grow awkward. “I… wanted to wish you good luck.”

“You… do?”

“I like you, Cinny, I do,” Twilight said, “and I think, despite everything, you’re a good pony in your heart.”

“But… what if Twilight doesn’t accept my apology? Or hates me?” Cinny whispered. “I mean… if it was the other way around, I’m not sure if I could.” But Celestia knows she’d like to think she’d give a good shot at forgiving whoever wrote that stuff about her. Probably depending on how hot or clever the whole thing was.

“Then…” Twilight Velvet shrugged, and seemed to consider for a few seconds. “I guess family dinners will be rather awkward. But they’re already pretty tense as it is.” The grey mare half-heartedly smiled. “I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, but we’re not exactly the most functional herd out there.”

“Every herd has its share of problems,” Cinny decided it was best to leave it at that, and not point out that a pony like Star would have been out on her ass long ago. “Where’s Light?”

“Crincile is looking after her for the evening,” Twilight nodded vaguely in the direction of the up stairs. “I love the little filly, but even I need a break sometimes. Plus, it’s good for Crincile too.”

Cinny didn’t ask her what she meant.

“I wanted to wish you luck,” Twilight said again, “and to tell you not to worry too much.”

“Why? I thought you were angry with me.” Cinny winced. Good move, a pony comes to you offering forgiveness and good luck, and you complain about it.

And she wondered why she was in this sort of trouble.

“I’m not… angry. I’m more disappointed, I guess,” Twilight shook her head. “We’ve always seemed to have so many problems, as a herd, especially since… I guess I just thought, perhaps, you’d be more normal.”

“So… you’re upset that I’m damaged goods?” Truthfully, it was a strange way to apologize to somepony. Probably not a technique she should try to use on Twilight Sparkle.

“No, no!” Twilight, at the very least, had the good graces to look horrified. “I just wish, sometimes, that…” Twilight let her voice trail off and her frown deepened, as if she found herself saying more than she wanted to say. “Listen, I should go… I promised Crincile I’d do some editing on one of her papers… Good luck, I’ll see you when you get home.”

Before Cinny could say anything or intercept the mare, Twilight Velvet turned tail and darted out of the entrance hall, leaving her feeling a bit put out and slightly miffed. When this was all over, she was going to have to find out a bit more of what the hay was going on with this herd. But that was a problem for another time.

“Has the cab not come yet?” Lucent asked as he trotted back into the room.

Cinny shifted guilty; she hadn’t exactly been keeping an eye out for their ride. If Lucent noticed, however, he didn’t show it. He only glanced out the window and assumed it had just shown up.

“Well, m’dear,” Lucent said as he pulled open the door into the cool night air, “Let’s get going!”