“As the raging thunderstorm continues to rock the ship back and forth, Daring Do watches in horror as Captain Cutlass Cornelius approaches her at the end of the breaking wooden bow. With her wing sliced halfway through from their previous fight, she can’t fly away and instead faces two options. She should either jump off and drown, or face off against a superior foe. The dragon pirate chuckles as he draws closer to Daring Do, sharpening his sword-like claws against each other. With each step Cornelius takes on the weakened bow, a loud crackle can be heard. Now, with only a metre of distance between them, the heroic pegasus closes her eyes tightly and curls into a small ball to think of her options just a little more. Manically laughing, Cornelius raises his bladed claws high into the air. Bolts of lightning strike down on the claws are charge them full with electricity, to the point where the metal starts releasing small bolts of energy to the pouring raindrops that come anywhere close to them. The pirate captain swings down his arms and-”

“Twilight!”

“Spike! I was in the middle of the climax! You threw off my groove.”

“Sorry.  The tickets just arrived and I was a little too excited.”

“Gah…” The mare known as Twilight groans as her eyes break away from the lines of text in the book and turn towards the purple baby dragon standing at her side, holding two golden slips of paper in between his claws. She immediately recognizes them as tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala, the royal ball that she and her friends always look forward to going to. As her purple eyes travel upwards and meet Spike’s large greens, his face turns to a look of discomfort and shame.

“Sorry…” Twilight sighs and takes a deep breath to calm herself down before responding.

“It’s fine… I’m sorry I snapped. It’s just that I wanted to finish this before Rainbow Dash does and spoils it for me. Thanks Spike. What day is it anyways?”

“The day of the Grand Galloping Gala,”

“What?!”

“Yeah, you-”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Frantically, Twilight leaps up from her position and hops from the bed, causing the open book to flop forwards onto the sheets. The alicorn then begins to dart around her large crystalline bedroom chamber, picking up several items scattered at every corner of the room. Her horn glows intensely with several shades of purple as items become enveloped in a purple aura and flung into the middle of the room in front of the dragon.

“I tried to, but you were too intent on finishing your book and beating Dash. I tried to tell you that the ticket delivery was late, but you didn’t listen. Only after I got the tickets and practically shouted at you did you listened.”

“I was thinking I would start getting ready when they arrived, I wasn’t expecting them to be this late.”

“They were.”

“Okay, what do I have? Spike, help! Dress?” Casually, Spike reaches into the large pile and sifts through the items, examining each one quickly and tossing out any toys or random things that accidentally got thrown in.

“Check.”

“Slippers?”

“Check.”

“Earrings?”

“Check.”

“Necklace?”

“No-” Spike’s denial is cut short by a necklace of pearls being flung into his face and dropping into the pile. “Check.”

“Bits?”

“Ten, no, eleven bits,”

“Tickets?”

“Got them.”

“’Daring Do and the Lost Kingdoms of Trihearth’?”

“No, you don’t need it. You’ve had your face jammed in it for a week.”

“I do! Rainbow Dash will not spoil it for me this time.”

“She wo-”

“She will!”

“Fine, I’ll add it to the pile.” Spike turns to the bed and reaches for the book. Upon grabbing it, the feeling of moist sweat and heat surges into his claws, nearly causing him to drop it in reflex. However, instead of adding the book to the pile, Spike instead slips the book under one of the large bed pillows. For your own good Twilight… he thinks to himself. “Check.”

“What else, what else, what else…”

“Your crown,”

“Yes! My crown?”

“Check.”

“That should be it right?”

“Yeah,”

“Good, then let’s go!”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“You just said we-”

“Not the items, you.”

“What?” Confused, Twilight walks over to a large mirror hanging onto the wall to examine her reflection. She sees that she has deep, black bags beneath her eyes and that her mane is a frowzy mess, with purple hairs tangled up in each other and her pink highlights weaving through the cluster and spiking out the back. “Oh.”

“And don’t forget, you have to put on these things.”

“You’re right. Thanks. Go on ahead without me. The others should be at the train station. Tell them to go to Canterlot without me.”

“Will do,”

Meanwhile, at the train station on the outskirts of Ponyville, five mares, each dressed in beautiful, colourful clothing, are quietly standing on the boarding platform. With a train approaching in the distance, the five soon become anxious at the absence of their sixth and seventh friend.

“Where is she?” A cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail amongst the group impatiently asks, “Shouldn’t Twilight have been the first pony to be here?”

“Quit your fussin’ Rainbow Dash.” An orange Earth pony with blonde hair retorts, “She can always catch the next train.”

“But we agreed to wait for her Applejack.” A yellow pegasus with a pink mane and tail gently responds, “What if she panics when she can’t find us here?”

“I know Fluttershy, but I don’t like it when my little sister and her friends are already there without us to supervise them. Who’s idea even was that again?”

“It was Pinkie’s if I recall correctly.” A white unicorn with a curly purple mane and tail answers, “But it’s not all that bad as you put it. How much trouble could my sister, your sister, and Scootaloo cause-”

“A lot.”

“Well… maybe. Yeah, it was kind of a dumb idea.”

“But they would’ve been so bored here Rarity!” A pink Earth pony exclaims, “And besides, I made them all Pinkie Promise not to cause any trouble in Canterlot.”

“Guys!” Rainbow Dash yells, “We’re forgetting the issue at hoof. What are we going to do if Twilight doesn’t show up when the train gets here?”

“Girls look,” Fluttershy calmly exclaims, “it’s Spike!” The four others look over to where Fluttershy’s staring and see Spike running towards them from the entrance of the train station.

“Hey everypony!” Spike calls out.

“What’s keeping Twilight?” Dash irritably asks.

“Twilight was sidetracked by that new Daring Do book out. She’s getting ready now and it’s probably going to take a while. She said that we should go without her.”

“Did she finish?”

“No, she’s still getting ready.”

“No, no, no, I mean did she finish ’Daring Do and the Lost Kingdoms of Trihearth’?”

“No, she only got midway through the climax.”

“What?! She doesn’t know that Daring Do’s mother is-” Before Rainbow Dash can finish, the powerful blow of the train horn interrupts her. “The train’s here. I’ll tell ya later.” One by one, the five ponies and Spike walk into the open train car. They each then take a seat inside, with the mares being careful in their positions as to not damage their large dresses.

“Those dresses look great.” Spike remarks.

“Why thank you,” Rarity stiffly responds as she continues to meticulously correct her position, “I worked on these over the past month, including that tuxedo you have.” The small dragon looks down and notices that he is wearing a black suit, much to his surprise.

“Oh yeah, I nearly forgot I was wearing this all day. The thing’s so comfy.”

“Wish I could say the same.” Applejack remarks, obviously scratching her behind underneath her dress.

“So, do you think anything odd is going to happen?”

“What do you mean?” Fluttershy asks.

“You know, your first gala ended in chaos. The second one we went to last year ended with Discord bringing that Smooze thing and nearly sending your friend into an alternate universe. Wouldn’t it be a bit expected that something bad might happen this year?”

“Nah, it was probably just chance. Nothing bad will happen this-”

“Don’t tempt fate!” Pinkie Pie screams.

“What?”

“If you say that nothing bad will happen, something bad will happen! It’s a law of the universe!”

“Or just nothing bad will happen.”

“I bet ten bits on it.”

“Fine, I bet ten as well. That’s how confident I am that we all shouldn’t worry this time.”

“You’ll be so sorry.” The train horn blares three times as the locomotive begins its departure to Canterlot. Starting with a sudden jerk forwards, the train slowly begins to accelerate and head forward on the iron tracks. Spike looks out the window at the orange evening sky and sees Twilight’s enormous crystal palace in the distance amongst all of the various buildings of Ponyville.

“Well Twilight,” Spike speaks to himself, “see you on the next train.”

“Don’t feel do down. We’re all still going to the Grand Galloping Gala still.” Out of nowhere, a bright purple light flashes in the middle of the train car, blinding the six inside with it. A purple alicorn with a sparkly blue dress and a golden jeweled crown emerges from the light as it fades.

“Twilight!” They all exclaim as their vision recovers.

“Sorry,” Twilight replies, “I forgot to check the time.”

“We heard from Spike.” Rainbow Dash responds, “So, you haven’t gotten to the part where it’s reveal that Daring Do’s mother is-”

“Don’t say another word!”

“Oh, right, spoilers…”

“Speaking of which… Shoot! I left the book at home.”

Spike turns to Dash and asks in a whisper, “…Is her mother dead?”

“Shush!”

“Oh, sorry, just curious…”

“Now then, anything important happen while I was gone?”

“Discord’s not coming,” Fluttershy remarks, “he says he’s going to some Bad-Anon group meeting and won’t be back by next week.”

“I’m going to win a bet against Fluttershy.” Pinkie exclaims.

“No you won’t.”

“I’ve recently been practicing lightning manipulation.” Rainbow cheers, “It’s going to be so awesome!”

“Nothing much going on with me,” Rarity adds, “boring, but I like it.”

“Big Mac’s been working out.” Applejack replies, “Soon he’ll be able to buck apples out of three trees with a single buck.”

“Oh! I almost forgot. This year, Cadence will be presenting a historical artifact to us and the media to gain tourist attraction to the Crystal Empire.”

“What is it?” the other six ask simultaneously.

“The Diamond Eye, a large diamond monument that dates back to before King Sombra’s reign on the Crystal Empire. There’s only half of it though, since it broke ages ago and the other half was never found.”

“How big are we talking?” Rarity asks.

“About the size of Big McIntosh if it were still in one piece,”

“Wow!”

“It’s going to be stolen!” Pinkie Pie cheerfully exclaims, “See Fluttershy, it’s destined to happen.”

“Enough of this,” Applejack groans, “I’m already irritated enough with this dress chafing parts of me I didn’t even know I had, do not push it. That diamond is not going to be stolen tonight.”

“Fine. Sorry.”

“Good.”

“For now…”

“Excuse me?”

“Nothing!”

“Hey Twilight,” Spike asks, “Is there anything else special about that diamond?”

Twilight promptly replies, “There is writing engraved into the diamond, but it’s in a very ancient language and that it’s only part of a full message. Scholars say that it’s some form of poem with a very important subject matter.”

“Where do you think the other half is?”

“No idea. King Sombra did a lot of changes to the kingdom all of those centuries ago. The other half may be underneath a hundred metres of ice and snow a hundred kilometres away from the empire, and that’s only if it didn’t make its way out to sea. If that’s the case, it might as well be on the other side of the world.”

“Oh.”

“But there is some hope in finding it, albeit very little.”