What happened after that?

Well, I got Nathan to help me with the stuff. I got him to carry the suits for us, while I more or less carried that idiot Thomas up to his room and hung his suit up on the coat hanger. As soon as I'd done that, I took back my suit and went to my room.

The Friday was... well...

I got up feeling slightly tired, and Nathan was feeling more or less the same way. We can't say the same thing about Thomas though...

*me knocking on his door at 10 in the morning after having gotten breakfast*

"Go away."

*me knocking on the door again*

"Piss off."

*me knocking louder*

"PISS OFF, JACK or NATHAN, WHICHEVER ONE IT IS! I DON'T FEEL WELL!"

"Come on, Coupsie-" Nathan called.

"SHUT. UP."

"You need to get out of bed at some point!" I teased.

"JACK! WHICH PART OF 'FUCK OFF' DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?"

We eventually left him alone for an hour before he finally got out of his room. I would have gone over to do some more teasing about how he was feeling, like he normally would... but he was looking like Kevin the Teenager, so I decided to just steer clear of him.

I did NOT want to be throttled by Thomas.

Anyway, the only thing I can really remember from that Friday apart from that was the admonition that Cadence gave us all at dinner after she had finished court. Especially Thomas.

I think Tom wanted to talk back to Cadence, but the look on her face must've been one similar to that of Cassie, so he kept silent when she ranted about Thomas needing to be able to control himself, control his ego, control the amount he drinks...

Blah, blah, blah. Nothing I haven't told him almost a million times already.

But, with the rant over - and Thomas, while doing the best he could from recovering from his hangover, promised to behave himself - we started to arrange the transport to Canterlot.

"So, I've arranged for a chariot to come from Canterlot to come and take us all to the Castle at half past four tomorrow afternoon," Cadence explained.

"Are you all okay with that?" Shining asked.

Thomas, Nathan an I all gave each other a knowing look, with a smirk on all of our faces when turning back to face the prince and princess.

"Actually, we had a different idea," Nathan replied with a sly grin.

Shining raised his eyebrow at our behaviour. "I'm listening..."

"Well, Nathan thought that we could take the cars," I explained. "We could show these off to the various different ponies that are attending the Gala, and it will also render chariots useless."

"How so?"

"Because," Nathan replied. "If we set off at the same time, and the Gala starts at... six, was it?"

"Yeah."

"If we were able to get to Canterlot first, the cars will be seen as a much quicker and more practical alternative to chariots, but it will also save so many ponies from having to pull the same carriage."

Cadence and Shining seem to think over this for a second. After a few seconds of thinking, and a nod to themselves, Shining answered. "Alright, but as long as you don't pull any stupid stunts."

"We won't," Thomas and I replied back.

"We'll try not to," Nathan replied.

A nudge from me was enough to change his answer.

"I mean... we won't."

"Good."

We discussed various things about the Gala, or more specifically about who was attending.

"So, who's all going that we know?" I asked Shining. "I mean, I know about Pinkie Pie, as I asked her about it and she said she was coming, and all four of the princesses and you will be there, but you know of anyone else?"

"Well, I heard all of Twilight's friends were coming, and Fluttershy was bringing one of her other friends with her, but apart from that, I don't know."

"Well, my brother's coming, as he does every year," Cadence groaned.

Thomas, Nathan and I all looked at each other, and all of us shrugged our shoulders in confusion.

"Sorry, your brother?" I asked with a cocked eyebrow. "I don't remember you mentioning him."

"Oh, right," Cadence replied. "I have an extremely rude, obnoxious and self-absorbed older brother. His name's Prince Blueblood. He's so annoying; he literally complains and whines whenever he doesn't get his way and treats others like dirt all the time. Sometimes when I see the way he acts towards even the guards... if we both weren't royalty, I'd have slapped him."

"Ouch, he sounds like someone to avoid," I commented. "Anyone else you know coming?"

"Well, Auntie Celestia has told me she's inviting Discord as well."

"Discord?"

"He's a draconequus, you may have seen him in Ponyville."

I just looked at her, my face probably showing my confusion.

"Sorry, you've lost me there. What's a draconequus?"

"It's a weird sort of creature with a pony's head and a body of various other animals, but most of that belongs to a dragon."

"Right. Okay..." I replied, still not quite getting what she was meaning. "What's he like?"

"He's..."

"Am I right in making the assumption that chaos has something to do with his personality?" Nathan asked.

Cadence and Shining looked stupefied; almost as if they were shocked to the core at Nathan's assumption.

"How did you know?"

"I didn't," Nathan admitted. "I guessed from the name and from the way you said he looks. I mean, if you think about it... Discord? Dis-coordination?"

Both Cadence and Shining had their mouths in the shape of an 'o'.

"Well, yeah, he does," Cadence replied. "He was once an enemy of Equestria, over a thousand years ago, by ruling the land in uncertainty and chaos. That is, until my aunts defeated him by using the Elements of Harmony and turned him into stone."

"Yeah, that makes sense - fighting fire with sand in that asp-" I began, before my mind went back on something else. "Hold on. HOW LONG AGO??"

"A thousand years ago, give or take a decade. Why?"

I looked away. I replied to Cadence's question with: "Oh, no reason."

What I was actually thinking was: Winged unicorn sisters, who have the power to raise the sun and moon and have lived for over a thousand years. I really have seen everything.

Wonder if Celestia has sent Luna to the Moon, or vice versa?

"But, he came back?" Thomas asked.

"Yeah, the spell broke when Celestia and Luna were no longer connected to the Elements, but instead to Twilight and her friends. They sent Discord back into stone again."

I burst out laughing, and Thomas did the same.

"Is something funny?" Shining asked.

I stopped laughing after a while. "Oh, I actually kind of feel bad for him. Being stuck in stone as a statue is humiliating enough, but being stuck in stone more than once... he was either unlucky, bad at being a villain, or was so cocky and sure of himself that he never paid any attention."

"Yeah," Shining laughed. "Twilight does say that he's always a bit sure of himself. He was even so sure wouldn't be reformed when they unfroze him."

"So, no waiting another thousand years?" Thomas joked.

"No."

Cadence continued. "His only real friend after he was reformed was Fluttershy, as she was really kind to him and didn't get all riled up and act aggressive like the others, especially Rainbow Dash, did. He never really trusted the others, and they never really trusted him."

"Oh."

We discussed the issue some more, learning that Twilight was setting up the Gala so Celestia could enjoy herself and relax at the Gala for once, instead of having to organise it. I couldn't help but think at the time that because Princess Celestia invited this Discord to the party, this would go completely down the drain.

I mean, I would be proven right later on, but who was I to judge?

Anyway, that's all I can really remember from that day. We talked for a bit more, and then I went back to my room to rest.

The next day, I went did the usual and went to work at the bar again, even though the regular guy that was off sick was back in business. The manager didn't mind, right enough. He said he would take as many hooves - or hands, in my case - as he could get.

I told him that I could only do the up until three at the latest, but he was OK with that as well. Especially when he found out that I was going to the Gala. Judging from his reaction, I guessed it was a big thing to go to the Gala.

Anyway, for most of the time it was quiet, so I got moving stuff around again, like I had the first couple of days I had worked there. Not many customers came in, but when they did, they never sat in there for more than ten minutes anyway.

At around ten past three, Nathan came in to get me. I asked the manager if it was OK for me to go, which he said was alright. He got me my pay and told me to have fun at the Gala as I left.

Much more calm and relaxed than my old boss, that's for certain.

When I got into the castle I went up to my room and put on my suit extremely carefully. You see, I have a bit of OCD when it comes to wearing smart clothing. Everything has to look just perfect... that's why I spent half an hour looking at the mirror and ironing out any minor details that looked off.

If you think that's bad, you should have seen me for my second job interview, after the branch of company I worked before closed its doors...

After deciding I looked OK, I went out and was greeted by the other four.

"You finally ready to go?" Nathan asked in an unimpressed tone.

"Yes, I am."

Walking out of the castle, Cadence and Shining were escorted by members of their guard to the chariot that was waiting for them just down the road. They each gave us a map of Equestria to read, since I highly doubt GPS tracking won't work here.

"See you there," Nathan shouted as we walked down the opposite way to the old chariot depot.

"Yeah, we will. We'll wait on your arrival," Shining replied in an equally loud tone as he shut the door.

"Cheeky bastard," I muttered.

As we continued to the depot, I looked behind and saw the chariot already lifting off. I wasn't worried, however: I guessed that the chariot's maximum speed would be no more than 90 miles an hour, and we had cars that, with the right tuning, could do double that.

Eventually after two minutes of walking, we arrived at the depot. This time, Thomas and Nathan ACTUALLY HELPED ME open the doors. Still took a fair bit of effort, but whatever.

"You know, I'm not entirely sure of what the Canterlot nobles will think of the cars," Nathan said suddenly.

"Well, you never know," I replied, putting a smirk on my face. "We could always go three quarters of the way to Canterlot and then the portal opens again and sends us back onto the M8 - and immediately into the front of a lorry."

Nathan and Thomas both laughed.

"That's possible, but highly unlikely."

"Just as unlikely as it was to come here?"

"...touché."

And so we got in our cars, fired up our V8 engines (or V6, in Thomas' case) and drove back out the lot again. Thomas and Nathan turned left on the way out from the garage, where as I turned right, and after that, we all went our separate ways.

There was three distinct routes to Canterlot from the Crystal Empire, but only two were viable: the first option you could try was following the train line - which was the route Thomas and I took. It wasn't the most direct route, but it was quiet most of the way, and the road from that way was smooth for a mountain road.

Stupidly, Nathan went for the second option: it was the most direct route there, but it involved traversing some parts of the Crystal Mountains, and the road to Canterlot from that side was extremely steep... I reckon a 20% incline or more. It didn't exactly help that Nathan's M3 was rear wheel drive, either.

After about twenty minutes of driving, Thomas was about a mile behind me, and we were a third of the way to Canterlot already. We were coming up to the Galloping Gorge when we could just make out Cadence and Shining Armor's chariot. They had already flown over the Crystal Mountains by the time we left the city, so if we could see them now, we were catching them.

I therefore decided to give it a bit more welly and shifted up to fifth gear. The revs just kept climbing, as did the speedometer... and before we knew it (actually a time frame of 15 minutes), we could see Ponyville. We didn't actually go into the town, because the train line went a separate way, but there was a train leaving at that point, so I wouldn't have been surprised if the Mane Six were on it.

Eventually, it came to the point where I was about to go into the tunnel that took us up the road. I had to drive over the train tracks to get onto the other side, but the only thing that really paid the price for the bump was my spine.

If ponies do end up making cars that can also suit humans, then I swear that the next car I get should have the ride of a Rolls Royce.

Traversing the tunnel was a bit boring. Just turning the steering wheel in the same direction for another twenty minutes will do that to you. I swore could hear the sound of the V6 from Thomas' S4 catch up to me, but that might have to do with the S4's all-wheel-drive system having more traction.

Eventually, after said twenty minutes of more or less boredom, I drove out from the tunnel and was amazed by the sight of the city. While it didn't have the whole crystal effect that made the Crystal Empire stand out, it was still an impressive sight to behold. It wasn't as large as, say, Glasgow, but the architecture made it look a lot cleaner. This was a much nicer looking city than any I'd ever seen before.

There was one thing I didn't like, however: the layout of the city. Its layout was really confusing as I analysed the roads. As I looked at the buildings, the length of blocks of buildings was inconsistent and there were roads that didn't seem to lead to anywhere. There was also no straight road to the castle; in short, navigating the city, unless you were a resident, was a minefield.

Eventually, Coupsie came out of the tunnel as well, and had a similar reaction to myself: impressed at the looks of the city, but confused at the somewhat awkward layout. I winded down my window as he pulled up besides me.

"Alright, mate," I called out to him.

"Alright."

"How about you turn left and I turn right from here, and see how that goes?"

"Okay, go for it."

And so I put my foot on the accelerator, driving down the road and turning right at the 90 degree bend to the right, whilst Tom did the exact opposite. After this, I opened the map to the map of Canterlot, and as I feared, it was as complex as a computer game's code is to a five year old.

I tried to make some attempts to navigate the city, but the first attempt led me to a road that wasn't wide enough to fit the car. And I thought London was bad!

The second one got me into a dead end, and reversing out of the spot I was at was a nightmare. At that point, I felt like having a Seat Mii would be much more useful.

Eventually I saw the castle and came to a gate that had these white guard ponies in golden armour standing at attention, so I guessed I was finally here. As I drove closer, the guards' attention turned to my Merc... and almost immediately did their mouths open and eyes widen at the sight of it.

As I got closer, I slowed down to a halt and winded down the window to speak with the guards. "Hi there. I'm here for the Grand Galloping Gala," I spoke calmly to them, whilst showing the one who I assumed was the higher rank my ticket. "What shall I do for parking?"

The guard didn't know what to say at first, which I suppose for what he was seeing, I could understand. He gradually composed himself. "Certainly, Sir. If you take your..."

"Car."

"...car, up that road there, and keep it in a spot while going left."

"Thank you," I replied, winding the window back up. I then gradually drove up the road and parked in an appropriate spot, as the guard had previously instructed, with me getting stares and gawks in the process.

As soon as I got out of the car, I shut the door and started looking around. At no point through any of this did I see Thomas, Nathan, Cadence or Shining, as I did a full 360 degree turn to see if I recognised anyone. At that point, that only meant one thing.

I was first.

I even did some stupid victory dance as I had realised I had won.

No, don't ask me to repeat it. It was stupid enough at the time.

"Right," I said to myself as I leaned against the car. "Coupsie or Captain Sense of Direction... which one's going to arrive next?"

The answer came seconds later in the form of a recognisable red Audi.

I laughed to myself as the Audi drove over to the empty space just behind my car. As Tom got out of his car, I gave him the typical 'L' sign. He didn't even react to it though, which was a disappointment.

"You don't even care, do you?" I asked, still doing the 'loser' gesture.

"No... are Cadence and Shining here?" he asked.

"Nope."

"Yes!" he replied back in a mixture of smugness and happiness.

It took Nathan a few minutes to arrive; during this time, we decided to play a game of blackjack. It was something to do and my phone was only at thirty five percent battery, and I wanted to save that just so the nobles could see if they asked for it.

We got to our third draw, with the score two nil to Tom, when we heard the unmistakable sound of a V8 engine, and thus, saw the blue M3 pull up behind Tom's car.

"Ah, so you showed up, finally?" I asked rhetorically. "Mr. Most Direct Route Will Be The Quickest."

"How was I supposed to know that road was that steep?" he answered in an exasperated tone. "And besides, I still beat Cadence and Shining Armor, right?"

"Yes," I replied, with a familiar object in the sky now coming into view. I pointed at the chariot. "But only just."

Nathan and Thomas also turned to the chariot, which was now just coming in to land.

"So going up the steepest hill I've ever driven up and I still managed to beat a flying chariot?"

"Suppose."

As the passengers got out of the chariot, they tipped the drivers/chauffeurs/pilots/whatever for taking them here. As the chariot flew off again they looked around the place... and Shining was a bit disappointed to see all three of us there before hi. I walked over to meet him.

"I thought you said you'd 'wait on our arrival'?" I mocked.

"No, I didn't. I said I'd see you there," Shining shot back.

"Did you," I said in a sarcastic tone.

"Anyway," Cadence interrupted, in order to stop a bit of an argument breaking out. "Shall we head inside?"

"Yeah, let's go," Thomas replied.

And so we walked up the steps, all the while Thomas, Nathan and I were getting stares from various different ponies. At the time, I was beginning to feel rather nervous.

Okay, Jack. You're about to meet with the most important ponies in Equestria, and you need to set a good first impression to them.

DON'T. FUCK. THIS. UP.