I've said it before and I'll say it again.

Ponies are weird.

I couldn't stop myself thinking that as I looked over my wargear, freshly cleaned. The manitcore cloak was once again 'fluffy', and didn't look like it had it been dragged through miles of mud and ash. The cragodile hide vest, once more bent like supple leather, not creased where mud had slowly accumulated around the scales, splitting only where I frequently bent and moved. The breastplate, which I admittingly had only recently taken to wearing, was once more undented and polished. Similarly, all four of my swords and my single knife were fresh from the armory. Repaired and polished just like the breastplate. While I was glad that my original blade and the blade I had taken in the Cathedral were repaired, I was uncertain how I felt about Emerald's and Sapphire's former blades being repaired.

But short of trying to recreate the damage, there wasn't much I could do about it now. And even if I tried to do just that, I doubted I could get every scratch and chip. And even if I did, it wouldn't be the real thing.

Oh well.

I picked up the cragodile vest, surprised by how light it felt without it being caked in dirt.

It was strange to think, that even now, it was just as good protection as it had being covered in filth.

I donned the hide vest and picked up the breastplate with practiced ease.

I used my magic to adjust the belts, looping them through each other and setting the buckles to the spots I had already worn a crease into.

Next, came something I wasn't so practiced with. Included with my three new swords, came three new scabbards. I had strung them all alongside the semi loose belt that I had used for my first scabbard, creating a intimidating display of four swords lined up with each other.

Hm... I wasn't sure I liked how the ends tended to get crossed with each other... That would get annoying if I had to start fighting.

I'll have to see if I can get another leather strap or cloth to tie them together.

And finally, I lifted the manticore fur cloak and threw it over my withers, effortlessly getting it to settle comfortable and tying the clasp to how I liked it.

I was in a different visitor suite than the one I had shared with Tia the night before. 'Wasn't proper' I was told.

Fair enough I supposed... I didn't want to get in the way of Tia's preparations.

I picked up my knife, still in its own scabbard, and took a breath.

Ponies are weird.

I pocketed the knife in its cloak pocket and turned towards the door.

Oh shit right, the key.

I turned briefly to see the room key I had been given, still sitting on the table where I had left it.

My horn pulsed and it floated towards me.

I left the suite, and shut the door, maneuvering the key so the door locked.

I then tucked the key around my breastplate and into my vest's pocket. It would be safe there.

The evening Sun illuminated the hallway I found myself in. Several servants bustled by, hurrying to some distant destination. But otherwise the hall was empty.

I found myself trotting down the hallway, equally bemused and annoyed on how my life had gotten here.

And I found myself repeating my mantra.

Ponies are weird.

Eventually however, I started to hear the hum of a crowd start to reverberate through the palace walls.

I swallowed a lump that formed in my throat.

Stars... No. Moon, grant me strength for this trial.

I steeled my nerves and marched forward.

I turned around a corner, and suddenly I was in the ballroom. A great many Ponies had congregated, milling about in clumps, speaking amongst each other about who knew what. Some, the few who I recognized as my Captains, wore their armor like I did. While not as clean or as polished as mine had been, an obvious effort had been made to look presentable. Most Ponies I saw however, were dressed in the most gaudy and irritating clothing I had ever seen.

Dresses that made the backside of mares look three times their normal size, stallions who wore utterly ridiculous white wigs that seemed to stack curled locks on top of each other to form towers on their heads. Jewelry was abundant, polished gold encased truly massive sparkling gems that hung off ears, necks, and horns in ever increasingly fanciful patterns.

If I hadn't known better, I would've thought I had wandered into some mass gathering of troubadour and jester.

But no. Said hypothetical gathering would've at least had the benefit of being so absurd for the sake of being absurd.

I was suddenly glad I was wearing my armor, as if it could push back the miasma of pedantic absurdity by being a firm bastion grounded in reason and sanity.

This idea seemed to have some merit, because as I moved forward, the crowd of ridiculously dressed Ponies split to allow me unimpeded passage.

I spotted a group of my Captains, standing awkwardly around each other as the Noble Ponies milled around them.

I nodded to them as I took an empty space for myself within their group.

Most of them looked as uncomfortable as I felt, having also been peasants and proles forced into leadership positions by happenstance, and now having to tend with the frivolities of the aristocracy.

I had fought along these Ponies for months now, surely together we could overcome this challenge as well.

Somepony then started to insist on tapping on something made of crystal, the ringing of which drew everypony's attention.

It was Tia, somehow she had been fitted into a white dress with gold filigree that wasn't nearly as obtuse as the dresses in the crowd around me. Her wings were extended, majestically framing her figure as she held a crystal goblet and a fork in her yellow magic, the fork of which she was tapping against the crystal to make the noise that drew everypony's attention.

"May I have everypony's attention please?" she called out.

Silence fell as the crowd gave the newly risen Alicorn their undivided attention.

"First off, I'd like to thank everypony for coming on such short notice." she smiled. "With... Recent events, it's important for us all to set aside our differences and come together in celebration. Not for the celebration of victory of one side over another, but to cement the cracks that have separated us all for far too long." she flared her wings even wider. "With all that said, I would like to officially open, what I hope is the first of many, my Grand Galloping Gala!"

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

Ponies are bucking weird.