Florid Deal (My Little Pony Fanfiction)

Chapter 4: Gala

As someone who has constant mental breakdowns, Evening Primrose would know how to patch herself up after a messy moment. She had always been on the more emotional side of things, which is why she always needed her trusty friends to help her out with the more logical side. 

Activity outside her room started to flare up, she took it as her queue to start getting dressed. 

Evening had planned this outfit since she got the invite to the Gala. Princess Celestia had always been one to want Evening Primrose closer to her as a friend, but they were too different in one too many ways for that. Celestia was more outgoing than Evening Primrose, Celestia was also all smiles and love while Evening was more secluded and serious. Ironic.

The dress had more ruffles than Evening had originally ordered, but she figured it looked nice enough. Before putting on her veil, Evening worked on putting her dyed dark purple hair up in a graceful bun. She had always liked buns over a loose mane because her mane always got on her eyes, in her mouth, tangled on her horn, distracted her while flying, made it infuriatingly difficult to get dressed, you name it.

Once the veil and gold flower crown were on, she started to get ready to decorate her wings with the pearls the Seaponies had gifted her. But right before the pearls touched her feathers, her wings started to itch. 

Naturally, she put the pearls somewhere they wouldn't be damaged and proceeded to nibble on the area that itched. It was close to the joint that helped fold her wings, so it wouldn't be all that tricky to fix. 

Not even a minute into nibbling and grooming, someone knocked on her door and walked in. Evening had not heard the door open, or someone knock.

In front of her stood a Noble Pony looking uncomfortable. 

Evening stopped nibbling on her wing and rose her head, equally uncomfortable with the sudden interruption to her grooming ritual.

-"Uh, can I help you?" Evening sheepishly murmured.

The Noble Pony lowered his head, "Princess... uh, the Gala will begin soon and, uh... Celestia wants you to be there to get it started..."

-"Yeah, I'll be there in a sec..." Evening placed the pearls on her wings and tied them well enough so they wouldn't fall off or break with just accidentally bumping into a wall.

The poor pony led her out of her room and into a wide space where everything was set to begin. They came in from a back door and Evening stood next to Celestia while Luna stood on her other side. Princess Celestia's graceful vibes took over the room where they stood, every pony stopped to listen as Celestia started the long-awaited Gala.

Meanwhile, Evening Primrose looked out to the window and out to the moon. At that moment she realized that the real Luna was still on the moon and yet to be released. 

That's not Luna, Evening thought as she looked over at "Luna."

Luna looked back at her, winked, and then turned around to look at the crowd.

At last, Celestia finished and everyone dispersed to the party. Surely, she would go on and enjoy the party herself? That is, of course, unless Evening had hardly any social skills and was always looking for ways to get out of unwanted interactions with anypony. Without any intention to interact, she made her runaway to somewhere she'd have space to breathe.

She coursed the halls without finding anywhere to sit and watch the stars or mess around with any nearby plants. There wasn't much fruit to her search, she realized when she found herself going back to her chambers. Evening just sighed and turned back around to the area where the party was. This usually meant she had admitted defeat. That was her queue to either get drunk and blackout or go and review the Royal Gardeners' job with the rose bushes. The last time she checked, they did a decent job with the roses but the hedges left much to be expected.

Naturally, she didn't want to be harsh with her judgment over the work done by the Royal Gardeners. She would know, she was born into a long-running line of Royal Gardeners of the kingdoms of Earth Ponies. From what she knew before joining the tribes, it had been a stressful job that her ancestors carried for generations. They could never be perfect enough.

At last, she arrived at a quieter point where Evening never thought she could actually want to come: The Library.

The shelves were filled with hundreds upon hundreds of books with all sorts of knowledge. Ranging from the beginning of times to the present day. She assumed there would be a book or two that she could use in future times. So she decided to start browsing Celestia's book selections.

Despite the size, it was really easy to get around once you could spot a marker here and there. She stopped in front of a gardening section and picked a random book. She started to read and shoved it back into where it had been before.

-"Beg to differ," Evening narrowed her eyes and continued walking to the Magic section.

The last thing Evening Primrose expected to see was a little orange unicorn filly passionately reading a book. The little filly didn't acknowledge Evening at first but then stared at her as she opened a book on teleportation.

-"I mastered that last month," the filly piped up from her pillow fort.

Evening looked down at her, "Interesting,"

-"...Oh! You're a princess?" The filly stood up and invited Evening to sit with her.

-"I'm thankful I'm not," Evening replied.

-"Why not? You have a horn and wings, you have magic, and dress fancy for the Gala..." the filly frowned.

-"Let's just say the job doesn't really suit me,"

-"Is it because Celestia is already a princess?"

Evening clicked her tongue, "What's your name, babe?"

-"Sunset Shimmer,"

-"Well, Sunset Shimmer, I respect Celestia but being a Princess sounds like a horrible job. It's always about the face the public sees, not how I feel. So I am happy with my continent-wide business,"

-"Oh..."

-" Yeah,"

-"Well, I guess that's ok too. I do want to be a Princess!"

-"That's great too, just promise me to be a fair ruler ok? You'll do great, I know it,"

-"Thanks! You should go back to the Gala and have fun!" Sunset Shimmer chimed in as Evening got up to stretch.

Evening nodded, "Yeah, probably. Study hard, hope you change the world for the better. Goodbye, Sunset Shimmer,"

-"Goodbye, Not-Princess!"

Evening giggled and left the library and back to the party.

Of course, she had not shaken the feeling of a dark figure stalking her on the way to the library and back.

But she had no intention of confronting it if it didn't come at her first.