A Stalliongrad Affair! Festivities in the Hoar Witch Estates - The East Wing

[Elderflower]

All three floors plus the basement of the East Wing are open to party-goers. There are a variety of rooms on each floor, though most seem to be filled with art of every variety and lounging areas. It is almost as if the Estate has its own museum here. Or perhaps it is a cabinet of curiosities?

Upon entering the East Wing from the Grand Hall, a notice flickers to life upon the floor:

If it is adventure you seek, then seek no more. Within these halls, magic will melt floors away, create mazes, or turn rooms upside down. You might change shape or lose your form altogether, but fear not! If you are lost, simply say so and you shall be rescued. If you rise to the challenge, however, and find your way back to the festivities, there may be a prize waiting for you!

[Blueblood]

While Grafinya Frostlace's party would draw all and sundry from various parts of the globe, it was the locals who loved her best and were the first to arrive.  For Flying Brick, the event was an extra-special one; the mare had drifted and danced across the roads, from city to city, for the past few years, always living hoof to mouth, but nevertheless happy in her life.  Memories and the missing of home were the only burden she had to bear, but soon that proved too much to let her walk with peace along the open road, however sunny and warm.  The clean snap and chill of the air, the rough cobbles underneath her hooves, she missed these like other earth ponies would miss the earth and air of their family farm

 

And, wouldn't you know it?  On the very day the prodigal mare returned home, she found an invitation to Hoar Witch Estates!  She had fond memories of the head of this enterprise, as her first windfall in her career came when her performance of street acrobatics caught the eye of Frostlace, leading to that mare giving a generous donation of bits in her busking hat!  The nobelemare's habit of drinking with the commoners had led to them sharing a pub on a couple of nights, before Brick set out on the road.  And now, here she was, to be welcomed home!

 

She'd arrived early, from over the garden wall, in fact, to take full advantage of the free food and drinks available.  Flying Brick had never really been in a position to refuse any such offer as that, no matter how humble the fare.  But when such largesse was distributed freely, well!  It was almost enough to shame her with the depth of generosity.  Almost.

 

But, after the first samplings, Brick's restless hooves had driven her off to explore the manor, eventually landing in the East Wing.  The comforts and detritus of civilization surrounded her, without very deeply biting into her impression.  At least, not so deeply as the flickering message from the floor!  It took some time for her to read it, struggling with deciphering the written words.  The gist of it was clear enough, however: Adventure!  Excitement!  Prizes!  Who could refuse?

 

"Challenge Accepted, Grafinya!"  She shouted out, before eagerly bursting through the first door that she could see.  What could possibly await her?  She couldn't find out soon enough!

[PyroBlaze]

Honestly, Yxa was pretty excited about performing his music later, not that it really showed at all. The caribou was looking as strange as always with his colorful spikes of hair and the guitar strapped to his back. He would've brought his axe too, but decided it wouldn't be worth the trouble to try and bring a weapon to a party. 

 

Aside from the strap holding his guitar, the only article of anything clothing related was a pair of sunglasses that were currently resting on his forehead as he lounged around in the hallway. That was doomed to be interrupted eventually, he supposed, and the pony's attitude was no surprise either considering what this wing had been set up for. 

 

He watched the mare barge into one of the rooms, waiting a second or so before shrugging and following after her. 

[Elderflower]

 

It had been...an interesting day for the REA ponies of Canterlot when invitations to the Countess Frostlace’s glamourous event had began drifting down from the sky. Equestria had, after all, faced so many threats of late that on-duty ponies such as Specialist Sugar Star just about had panic attacks when mysterious paper boats had begun floating down into the hooves of the public. At first, she had dashed up into the sky with a powerful flapping of wings, trying to scoop up as many as she could to prevent any potential harm they might cause. It wasn’t until she saw the name written in woefully elegant script at the bottom of the invitation that the golden mare had begun to calm down.

Frostlace, Frostlace…

And then she recalled the rumours that the well-connected ponies in the Canterlot guard had spoken of in the past. Yeah, this well-bred Countess did have a reputation for her eccentric ways. After another of her fellow Specialists approached her and let her know that the REA had actually been given a heads up about the invites (and she had missed the notice because she had slept in and missed her briefing), the pretty pegasus mare switched gears from being panicked and alert to really, really, ridiculously excited. A grand party at a grand house in Stalliongrad!

And so, the young soldier shelled out the bits for a pretty new dress with ribbons and shoes to match. And what a dress it was! It was made of thin silk with an orange bodice and trailing skirt that faded from pink to a rich yellow: the colours of a sunset! Her shoes were a glittery gold, with rose pink ribbons that wrapped up around her legs, and around her neck was a lovely gold-coloured choker tied in the back with a bow and had a rose-quartz star drop in front. To top off the look, she had her cream-coloured mane in an artfully messy fishtail braid, tied together with pink ribbon to match her shoes!

Perhaps tonight she would meet the Tuxedo Stallion of her dreams...just like Sailor Mare did during the first ball she attended! The thought of such a night thrilled the sweetly romantic young mare as she glided through the cold winds of Stalliongrad, a heavy cloak keeping her warm. Upon entering the Grand Hall, kindly serving staff took her travelling cloak, and a particularly kind mare even fixed a few loose strands in her mane!

Those were the last moments of clarity before she was introduced to the ice wine that the was made here in the Hoar Witch Estates. Sugar had received a glass, and upon her first sip was so so impressed. It was sweet, and smooth! Nothing at all like the strong brews the ponies in the barracks drank. Tasting its sweetness, she assumed the spirit lacked potency...and she had never been more wrong.

After her third cup, the sweet mare’s face was flushed and her heart fluttery. But more than anything, she really needed to find the little filly’s room. So she asked for directions and followed them as best she could...though it was very difficult to focus. Eventually, she went through a set of very large doors, blinking as the floor lit up with some warning or other about...adventure? Yes, she could pick that out. If only the words would stay still, though. Regardless, talking floors weren’t exactly a concern of hers at this precise moment. She really, really needed a washroom. And she was so busy thinking about how badly she needed one that she didn’t even realize she wasn’t alone in this wing!

Which was how she found herself bumping into the particularly muscular backside of a tall, cervine stranger. Face-first.  And just like that, Sugar Star turned from a pretty golden colour to a bright, cherry-red. Because, as flustered and fuzzy-headed as she felt, she hadn’t realized she had bumped into anything until a few seconds after it had even happened, meaning she had been standing with her face quietly pressed into the rump of...well, she didn’t know who - for much too long.

The poor little solider took a few steps back and stared straight ahead, into the void, swallowed by horrified embarrassment while tears welled up in her eyes.

And then the pathetic whimpering began.

“I’m sooooooooooo soooooooooooooooorrrrryyyyyyyyyy!” she wailed

 

[Blueblood]

While Flying Brick was hardly the sort of mare to look back once her face was set towards adventure, she felt it was only courteous to acknowledge the other partygoers behind her.  After all, this was a party, was it not?  What kind of pridurok would go through life without greeting their fellow-travelers?  Taking a glance over her shoulder, she waved cheerfully to Yxa.

 

"Zdravstvvuyte, zherebets!  Or, rather should say, karibu-byk?"  She laughed, her voice booming in echoes around the room.  "Are lost on way to performing stage?  Or perhaps wish to challenge caribou mettle against Stalliongrad challenge?  Da, maybe we shall make race of it?"  She grinned with all the fervor of competition, which was only made all the more shining with humor once the third member of their party entered.  Oh, what a situation!  Brick had the cultivated liver of a Stalliongrad native, so the vodka had rarely hit her so hard as Sugar Star was currently feeling it.  But, she'd seen enough tourists  to know what exactly she was going through.

 

"Ne bespokoysya!"  She called out, in a manner intended to be reassuring, along with a pat on the shoulder as she walked back towards the guard.  It probably would have worked, if her voice was five decibels softer and her hoof not landing with the impact of a thrown cobblestone.  "What is need for shyness?  Not as if we northerners do not like direct appreciation, da?"  She elbowed Yxa knowingly, only distracted from this conversation by the sound of the door closing behind them.

 

From that point on, the magic of the room began to show itself, for the closed door suddenly disappeared behind them!  The room they had entered, once dimmed, now seemed to light up, revealing... A topsy-turvy world!  It was as if the whole room were rotated sideways, with furniture all along the walls, and windows on the floor.  Brick trotted up to one, and looked down upon the exterior.  The wide boulevard stretched out below her, like the sheer drop of a cliff.  "Well, tovarischi, is first challenge."  She pointed up at the opposite wall, where the door out was located, closer to the ceiling than the floor.  "What is plan?"

[PyroBlaze]

"Race? Nah, I'm good. Just seeing the sites." Yxa said, smiling a bit at the mare. "I've got time before my performance, why not see what the lady's got going on?"

 

The caribou froze as he felt something run into his backside, blinking in confusion as he felt it just... stay there... 

 

Once it had moved off, he turned, blinking at the sight of the furiously blushing pegasus. It only took him a second or so to recover, mellowing out again as she cried out her apology. 

 

"S'cool, peg. Like she says, it's all good." Yxa said, giving a nod before the room got all topsy turvy and they ended up on a wall. He blinked at the sight, looking up at the door. At Brick's question, he gestured at Sugar's wings, though he wasn't really sure what to do about himself or Brick. 

[Elderflower]

 

Large, hot tears were streaming down Sugar Star’s face relentlessly. She had never, ever done anything this humiliating in all of her life. And she actually had a habit of embarrassing herself in most social situations! So this was, without a doubt, a doozy. At least, that’s how it felt. So why were these strangers being so calm and so kind towards her? The Specialist screwed up her face in concentration, eyes squeezed shut to try and ignore her full bladder and fuzzy head.

The stalliongrad mare seemed so bold and so kind, and the caribou so unexpectedly chill. Maybe they were right...maybe it was no big deal...that she had planted her face in a stranger’s rear and stayed there.

Nope, yeah, she was definitely humiliated - but at least she was no longer horrified.

“Th-thanks,” she stuttered, then punctuated with a pathetic little sniff, “D-d’you know where the-”

And now the walls were shifting. And the floor. And the ceiling...and nothing made sense any more. Was this because of the ice wine? Everything was gone topsy turvy and now it would be even harder to find the little filly’s room...oh sugar, Sugar, what have you done?!

A focused look from the caribou inspired the soldier, though, to take wing. Good idea! The fuzzy-headed, rosy-cheeked mare flapped her wings once, twice before she began to lift off the floor...for about five seconds, before her wings turned into feather fans. The mare froze, refusing to allow herself to panic. Instead, she looked up at the bull and the mare who were trapped with her, and who seemed to expect this weirdness.

“Wh-what kind of adventure...is...this?” she asked, suddenly so scared she forgot she had to use the washroom.

As if to answer her question, a large, candy-coloured ball began to roll towards the trio from the opposite end of the hall, gathering up every item in its sticky path.

“And um, shouldn’t we be...maybe...run!?”

At this point, Sugar would rather be battling caribou again.

[Blueblood]

It seemed the first plan was to have the pegasus in their party fly up to the door.  Excellent idea!... Except that the pegasus could not fly.  Her attempts earned a sympathetic look from Flying Brick.  "Hit the alkogol' a little too hard, eh Malen'kaya kobyla?"  The earth pony blinked.  Wait, those didn't look like wings.  That was a transformation!  

 

Well, at least nothing had happened to her legs yet.  "Plan B, comrades!"  She called out, even as a giant, sticky ball of... stickiness was bearing down upon them.  Time to show what she could do!  Stepping back to get a running start, Brick leaped for the first piece of furniture on the 'wall', an end table, landing on the legs and springing off again with nary a loss of momentum onto the nearby sofa arm.  The table was knocked over, it's personal gravity apparently sideways as well.  It took but three such jumps for her to reach the door, and she gripped the knob, twisting and turning her body as she tried to open it.  "Little help!  Could you get under me so can brace hooves on antlers?  Will pull you up once door is open!"

[PyroBlaze]

Huh... well, he wasn't expecting that to happen... apparently wings were out, though the other mare had another idea, this one more successful. Yxa watched her dangle from the doorknob for a few seconds before moving forward to try and help her by providing his antlers as a platform. 

 

"May as well climb on now, Peg. Probably be easier than trying to reach you on the ground." He said, addressing Sugar. They really should exchange names, but he supposed that could wait. 

[Elderflower]

 

Nothing made sense, everything was awful, and she really had to find the little filly’s room. Sugar Star was officially having the very worst night ever of her entire life. Flustered and flushed with tears in her eyes, she dashed away from the giant, all-consuming candy ball alongside her unexpected comrades, following the lead of the more clear-headed pegasus. When said mare was positioned atop the caribou and opened the door, Sugar followed the instructions she was given and, pathetically flapping her feather-fan wings, hopped onto the back of the caribou and then up, through the door.

Immediately, panic hit her. This room was cool, and it felt like she was...swimming? The pretty little mare’s dress and mane were floating! How was she supposed to breath?! She tried to turn around and warn the others, but something brushed her leg and made her gasp...wait.

Gasp?

She took a breath, testing the room. Then she took another...she could breathe! This news was so exciting that she didn’t even notice the fact that her shadow was growing...instead, she shuffled back to the door to help the others inside.

“Weekin breathe in here!” she slurred excitedly as the candy ball approached the door and immediately exploded into confetti.

 

-------

 

The cool sensation of being suspended in water washes over the party guests, as the light trickling in from the door stretches their shadows deep into the abyss. This room is filled with paintings of glaring, old ponies who appear to be watching their every move. Clothes, fur, manes and tails...all float up towards the vaulted ceilings, almost as though they're being beckoned...

There is a dissonance in the room. Something that was just off. But what...?

[Blueblood]

Once the antlers were under her feet, Flying Brick bunched up her leg muscles, and powered through the door in a mighty leap!... and somehow took a great deal longer than she expected to reach the floor again.  "What is this comrades?  Is air like water?  Not so cold as dip in the river, though!"  Even as she said that, though, a chill began to seep in through the atmosphere.  Even the cheerful confetti shower that followed the hauling of Yxa into the next room did little to alleviate the grim atmosphere.

Short mane waving like the fronds of an anemone, the earth pony mare looked up at the grim portraits, sticking her tongue out at a particularly pickled-looking one.  "Lighten up, zherebets.  We are having party now!"  She looked around the room, frowning at last.  "I think... we just go to door?"  It couldn't be that simple, not after everything they'd been through so far.  But then again, there was the door at the end of the hall, all they had to do was swim to it.  Seemed easy enough so far...

[PyroBlaze]

What was up with this room now? Yxa looked around as he floated there, relaxing a bit until he heard the earth mare speak up about them getting to the next door. Right, they were doing that right now, he was enjoying the floating sensation despite the weird feeling behind it. 

 

The caribou shrugged, beginning to leisurely swim his way towards the next door. What was even happening in here?

[Elderflower]

 

It was a tough evening to be Sugar Star, but at least as she began swimming towards the far door, the feathers of her feather-fan wings began to fall off one by one until eventually her wings were back to normal. She still felt fuzzy, she still had to pee, but at least she had her wings back! Although she supposed this was her first lesson in not taking the easy route out of these...challenges?

Desperate to use the washroom, Sugar paddled a little harder than the others to make her way to the door. She had to admit, though, that the Stallian pegasus’ high spirits were infectious. The pretty little mare finally cracked a smile and realized she felt almost...floaty. Wait.

Oh, no, yes...she was actually floating. Up and up, every time she moved forwards, she was pulled up! When she looked behind herself, the others were there as well…And then she looked up. Up was not a good place to look. Up was where there was a mouth opening in the ceiling. A weird, toothy grin that opened more and more the closer they got, until they were all suspended and stuck facing this giant, creepy smile in the ceiling.

But nothing was happening…

“Uhhh,” she said smartly, “A-any ideas?”

A quiet, creepy laughing echoed throughout the room, bouncing off the walls.

 

--------

 

Such sullen faces surround you...except for the wide mouth opening in a grin on the ceiling. It beckons you, demanding something of you, but will not say what it desires.

[Blueblood]

(Flying Brick's an Earth Pony, not a pegasus.  Her name's a bit ironic, in that she 'flies' like a thrown brick)

 

So far, so simple a swim!  Flying Brick was almost disappointed.  After the first disorienting, magical, thrilling room there was... this?  Just breathable water, hah!  Foal's play.  Only... now, they seemed to be stopping their forward motion, and beginning an upward motion.  "Eh, is same frontways-sideways thing we are seing again, da?  Is like climbing mountain back in your home country, zherebets?"  She asked Yxa curiously, before her attention was directed upwards.

 

"Ah... never seen like that before.  Is what you call, 'grin without cat'?  I only thought that was in little creepy books for fillies."  Brick was admittedly dumbfounded.  Unlike before, this was not a problem that physical dexterity seemed capable of solving.

[PyroBlaze]

Yxa made a small noise of confusion as they began floating up away from the door. What was happening now? The caribou lazily twisted around in the air, gazing up at the ceiling and blinking a bit at the face he saw there. 

 

"Definitely not something I've seen before, Stal." The caribou said, relaxing in his floating state while waiting for something to happen. "Nope, no ideas Peg. Guess we'll just wait for something to happen." He added, shrugging. After a bit of waiting, he pulled out his guitar and began strumming out a tune he was working on.