"Are we almost ready?"
"Almost, sugarcube!"
Twilight was at Sugarcube Corner, setting up a party along with her other four friends. They were currently setting up the place for Pinkie's birthday party, as soon as they were sure that the pink pony had not been home. If she came home before they were finished setting up, there was a posted list from the Cakes on the door outside asking her to go get a huge list of ingredients for the bakery. There was no guarantee that THAT would even buy enough time for them, but they could use all the time that they could.
Finally, they had finished setting up. Now all they had to do was remove the note from the door, if it was still there, and wait.
"Alright everypony, that's everything. Now we just have to wait for Pinkie to come back, and we can begin!"
Fluttershy nodded. "Oh, yes. I just hope she hasn't forgotten again. She has a tendency to do that, you know..."
Applejack just waved her hoof. "Ah'm sure she'll come back. She HAS to come back here sometime, I mean, she LIVES here!"
Rarity came down from upstairs, and noticed the conversation. "Exactly, there's no way that she won't come home and see the party! Is sure it'll be divine!"
Rainbow floated down from pinning the last banner. "Yeah, I'm sure she'll come. She did last time!"
Rarity rolled her eyes. "That's because you had to drag her there..."
Rainbow became a little agitated. "Well, it wasn't MY fault she went insane!"
Twilight had to interfere. "Girls! We can't be fighting now! Not when Pinkie could come through that door at any second!"
Applejack nodded. "She's right, we just have to be patient. Ah'm sure she'll come around soon enough!"
Rainbow sighed. "Not ALL of us are great with waiting around..."
Suddenly, there was the sound of steps coming towards the door. Twilight immediately hushed her friends and waited until the door opened. As soon as the door swung open, the five ponies yelled "SURPRISE!", and got a very different reaction. A more masculine one.
"Wow, you guys love me so much, you even threw my party months earlier!"
That's when they all noticed the purple dragon standing in the doorway. They all breathed a sigh of downheartedness.
Twilight was the first to speak. "Oh, sorry Spike. We thought you were Pinkie! We threw a party for her birthday, and she hasn't shown up yet, as you can obviously tell."
"I know. That's why I had to come over!"
Twilight perked up. "Why? Is something wrong?"
"Yeah, I think. I saw her run into Everfree not too long ago! I didn't get too good of a look, but I think her hair was straightened! And we all know what happened last time her hair was straightened..."
Twilight didn't want to think about it. It was exactly a year ago, on her birthday. Things almost didn't turn out so well...
"You know if she's still there?"
"Well, I never saw her come out, but I wasn't watching long enough. Still worth it if she's still there!"
Twilight turned. "Girls, it looks like I'll have to go fetch her."
Applejack was immediately ready to stop her. "Now look here, Sugarcube, I don't think it's safe for you to go in alone. You might run into that cockatrice again!"
Rarity had a concerned look on her face. "I agree, you can't just go off and get yourself hurt! I'm sure Pinkie wouldn't like to hear that you hurt yourself just to find her."
Twilight shook her head. "Pinkie is going to get hurt if we don't do something! I'm going after her, and I don't want anypony else to follow. You could just get hurt yourself."
Applejack sighed. "Alright, just TRY not ta hurt yourself out there, sugarcube. It's a dangerous forest, and it's getting quite dark out already!"
"Don't worry Applejack, and everypony else. I'll be keeping an eye out. Pinkie will be back before you know it!"
With that, Twilight ran out into the open air, leaving the remaining party-goers behind, unsure of what to do next.
"Should we...go after her?" Fluttershy questioned.
Rainbow shook her head. "Nah, I think she needs to do this on her own. Besides, we get to stay here and relax while this whole thing gets sorted out for itself!"
Everyone there gave her a dark look, and she quickly shrunk away.
"Um, how long could she be gone, Applejack?"
"I don't know, Fluttershy. I guess we can only hope she comes back soon..."
A storm was coming. That much Twilight knew. She had to hurry. Getting stuck in a storm inside the Everfree Forest is something nopony wanted, especially one that looked this bad.
Eventually, she had reached the entrance to the forest, but she did not stop. It was getting darker as the sun began setting faster, further shortening the time Twilight had. Hopefully, Pinkie wasn't too far in.
She, luckily, didn't have to go in too far. She found Pinkie in a clearing close to the entrance, and what she say didn't bring up her hopes for cheering her up.
Pinkie's hair was straight. Well, almost. There were some tufts that were still poofy, but not many. Twilight would have to be careful with her words as to not make the situation worse.
"Uh, Pinkie?"
Pinkie turned around, eyes quite visibly red from crying. Her voice was quiet and very unlike her.
"Oh, hey Twi. What brings you out here?"
"Well, you do! Are you ok?"
Pinkie sniffed. "Never better..." Another sniff.
Twilight couldn't help but worry. "Pinkie, I don't think everything is all peachy right now. Do you want to talk about it?"
Pinkie only stared for a while, as if waiting to see if Twilight would leave before she started. Finally, she sighed and spoke.
"Twilight...am I...loved?"
Twilight was quite shocked at the question. Why would Pinkie of all ponies be asking this question?
"Pinkie, why would you need to ask that? Of course you are!"
"Yeah, by you five, for sure. But do any of the other ponies?"
"The Cakes?"
Pinkie changed, quite suddenly, into an agitated mood. "The Cakes?! They have to treat me well! I work for them! Have you seen them interacting with me outside of work? Going out to eat, or shopping, or anything!? How about my parties? Or even my BIRTHDAY!? They almost didn't even trust me with babysitting, even after all of the responsibility I showed them! Don't they trust me?"
Twilight was almost speechless. "But Pinkie, they DO trust you! You watch over their kids now still, right?"
"I had to prove myself first! They tried almost EVERYPONY ELSE before me! Does that sound very trust
Pinkie's attitude was quite shocking to Twilight. She could see more and more tufts of poofy hair beginning to straighten. She was running out of options.
"And everypony else too! Almost everypony goes to them, but no one ever thanks me, or invites ME to anything, or even say anything about my birthday, or...or...I don't know! I just feel so...so used!"
Twilight had no idea how to respond. Emotions were just flying out of Pinkie too quickly to even try and counter them! Finally, she saw a break and tried her best.
"Pinkie, just because the Cakes don't just give you their kids to babysit, or go to your parties, or go out with you doesn't mean that they don't appreciate you. They have jobs too, you know? With a successful business they have going on there, they probably have to work all day just to keep up! Even with you at their side, they can't just slack off work. I mean, how many hours do you work a week?"
Pinkie thought intently, then dropped her tone when she had her answer. "I guess...not as much as I would have thought..."
Twilight kept going. "What about all of the parties you throw? What do they do when you ask them for time off for your many parties?"
Pinkie looked as if though she saw where this was going. "Not a word against it..."
"So, you see? The Cakes have done so much for you, you just hadn't realized their reasoning for everything you said they did!"
Pinkie sighed. "I guess I see what you're saying. Maybe I'm just being a little selfish."
Twilight was quite relieved. She could begin to see Pinkie's hair poof out again, but not all of it. Only about half of it poofed back out. The rest still hung straight, almost matching Pinkie's emotions exactly. Still, it was better than before.
"Pinkie, are you ready to go back?"
"Yeah, I guess. But Twi? What about everypony else? They don't seem to appreciate me either..."
"Pinkie, I'm sure those ponies have their own reasons. Don't worry about it, everypony appreciates what you do here! Especially some couples here who met at your parties!"
Pinkie slightly giggled. "Yeah, maybe you’re right, but I'm still not sure."
Twilight should've guessed it wouldn't be this easy. "What could I possibly do to prove it to her?" she wondered...
Meanwhile, back at Sugarcube Corner...
Applejack was pacing the main hall. "She's been gone for a while, should we go out lookin'? It's almost dark!"
Rarity stepped in to reassure her. "She hasn't been gone for too long, give her a little more time. I'm sure it's not going to be easy to sort out!"
Applejack couldn't do anything but listen to her. "Alright, but not too much longer, y'hear?"
Rarity nodded. "Alright. Then we go looking for her."
Rainbow groaned. "Can't she get here sooner? I wanna party already!"
Everypony glared at her. "What? You guys want to party too, right?"
Rarity wasn't pleased at all. "Well, SOME ponies value friendship more than parties..."
Rainbow got upset. "What, you think I don't?"
"Not the way you're talking, no."
"Well, maybe I worry in some ways different than you! Ever think of that, you-"
There was a knock at the door, causing everypony to jump in surprise. Applejack got very excited and rushed over to the door. Her hopes dropped like Tom as she opened the door and didn't find Twilight there, but an orange pegasus stallion instead. He had a very upbeat tone to his voice.
"Hi, is this Pinkie's house?"
Applejack was slightly confused. "Yeah, why?"
"Oh, well the entire town was looking for her! We have this huge party for her birthday at the town hall, and we need her to come!" The pony had a huge grin on his face.
"Well, we were just throwing a party for her right here. Didn't show up, though. Don't worry, we have a friend out to retrieve her! If she gets back before its dark..."
The pony's grin dropped. "Oh, no! Will she be ok?"
Applejack waved her hoof. "It's nothing to worry about, she'll be fine. Just don't know why she would just run off..."
The pony was still sad, but suddenly became happy as can be. "In any case, we might want some of your decorations for our party! I don't think we have most of this stuff you got! Oh, I know! We can combine the parties! We just have to figure out a way to get Pinkie over to the hall instead!"
Applejack thought, and had a great idea. "Wait right here, let us back up the stuff we need, and we'll follow you there. I'll just leave something behind to make sure Pinkie and Twilight come too!"
The pony grinned happily. "Great! I'll go tell the others, and you just come over as fast as you can!" With that, he was gone in a blur.
Applejack stared after him before returning inside.
"Doesn't he remind you of somepony?"
Rainbow nodded. "Yeah, he acted quite like Pinkie! And did you notice his cutie mark?"
Rarity cocked her head. "I don't think we had time to stare at his flank, dear..."
Rainbow blushed a little. "I wasn't staring, just...happened to glance at it..."
Rarity rolled her eyes. "Riiiight..."
Rainbow continued what she had tried to say. "You guys, his cutie mark was a party popper! Haven't any of you seen him before?"
Applejack pondered. "Can't say Ah have, sugarcube. What'r you getting at?"
"He runs the party store in town! The one where Pinkie gets all of her supplies! I've gone in there a couple of times with her."
"You don't think he's trying to act like her to...get with her, do ya?"
Rainbow shook her head. "No way, he acts like that ALL THE TIME. Even when she's not around!"
Rarity nudged into the conversation. "Well, I think he's trying to get Pinkie to like him! He's throwing this huge party just for her! Isn't that just adorable?"
Applejack rubbed her hoof behind her head. "Right. Sure. Anyway, we have to get moving, and get everything packed up. Expect a few trips to be made. Once we're all done, I'll leave behind a note and we can wait 'til they come! Sound good?"
Everypony nodded.
"Good. Now, let's get to work!"
Everypony rushed off to a different section of the house, focused on getting this job completed as fast as possible. Who KNOWS when Twilight and Pinkie could get back?
Twilight had just come out of the forest with Pinkie next to her. Pinkie hadn't gotten any better, and was still worrying Twilight.
"Well, at least I got her out of that forest. Who knows what could've happened if she stayed there when the storm hit!"
Pinkie turned towards Twilight. "Twi, can we just go home? I don't want to go to my birthday party..."
"Well, that'll be a problem. The party's AT your house!"
Pinkie didn't look any the happier. "Well, if you could, could you ask everypony to leave? I don't feel like partying right now..."
"But Pinkie, it could cheer you up! Won't you at least stay up for a little while?"
"...Ok..."
Twilight became a little happier. "Maybe the others can cheer her up?" she thought to herself.
"Don't worry Pinkie, I'm sure a little bit of partying will cheer you up."
"If only...hey, what's that on the door?"
Twilight examined the note. It didn't look like the note they had posted for Pinkie. She began reading out loud.
"Dear Twilight,
We've moved the party over to the town hall. Trust me, we can explain everything when you get here. MAKE SURE Pinkie comes too! There's more than just the six of us at the party now.
Signed,
Applejack"
Twilight was dumbfounded. Others? Who else was there? Maybe the Apples? She wasn't sure, but she wanted to find out!
"Come on Pinkie. We have to get to the town hall!"
Pinkie didn't answer, but followed still. Night had fallen, darkening the town until Twilight's eyes were quite useless. Luckily, she was a unicorn, and light spells were quite basic. In no time, Twilight had a 3 foot circle of light circling her and Pinkie. As they began to near the hall, a sound of music could be heard, a loud bass. The music became louder as the two mares shortened the distance to the hall. Outside were some forgotten party decorations, left outside to blow in the wind. Obviously, there was a party going on here.
"Looks like they've started without us..." Pinkie said disappointingly.
"Well, you can't put a party on hold, can you?"
Pinkie's sudden disappointment vanished. "Yeah, that's true."
Soon they were at the doors of the hall, the music louder than ever.
Twilight was more confused than ever. "Aren't they afraid that they'll wake up the town?!"
It wasn't until she opened the doors that she knew why the music could be so loud and not disturb anypony from sleep.
It's because there were, most likely, no ponies asleep. It seemed as if EVERYPONY had come to this party! Young, old, shy, outgoing, tall, short, it didn't matter! Twilight had never seen Ponyville come together like this in quite a while, and it amazed her.
"Hey! You guys made it!"
Twilight almost jumped in surprise, which would've been bad, because she would have knocked heads with the floating pegasus above her. After one almost-heart attack later, she finally noticed the pegasus floating upside in between Pinkie and her.
"You nearly killed me there! I almost had a heart attack."
The pegasus' face dropped in sadness, but raised back up as c=he kept speaking. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I never meant to scare you, I'm just SO EXCITED that you finally came! I've been waiting the whole time above this door waiting, so I could be the first to greet you!" He never seemed to take a breath in between.
"Well, thanks! Do you know who set this all up on such a short notice?"
He was surprised. "Short notice? I've been throwing these birthday parties for Pinkie for a few years now! I know EXACTLY when her birthday is!"
"Wait, so YOU are the pony that threw this?"
"Yep! Along with a few others. It's hard to compete, though, knowing she throws the best parties. I at least have to try, and just hope she's not disappointed, knowing she probably has high standards. I wait by the door, as always, and greet everypony that passes through here. But she never comes. So I'm always sad that she didn't make it, but just assume that she must be too busy throwing a party for someone else or something!" Again, no breaths.
Twilight felt a little guilty. "Yeah, that's kinda our fault. We always throw a private party for her, and she just goes to that one."
"Our? OH, your friends! Don't worry about that! The other four are great at parties, so I should expect you to be too! Go on! Have fun! It's what parties are all about!"
"I have to deal with Pinkie first, she's been upset all day!"
The pegasus was aghast. "Pinkie? UPSET?! That can't be! Why?"
"Well, she thinks she's not appreciated for everything she does for the town."
"Not appreciated?1 This whole party's to appreciate her! EVERYPONY is here as thanks for being part of their lives! They've been here quite a few times now, to every party I have. They want to thank you, but you just haven't shown up, so we couldn't."
Twilight turned to Pinkie, whose eyes were wide with astonishment since they had entered the hall. "You see, Pinkie? They threw this whole party for you, and just you! You've done a lot for this town, and they couldn't have expressed their thanks in any better way than a party, right?"
Pinkie didn't know what to think. All this time, she could have seen how much she was truly loved, but never did. How could she have been so foalish to even doubt it? Of course she was loved, but she never imagined that they would go so far as a town party for her! She had ever felt so happy, appreciated, welcomed, and more importantly, loved before. She couldn't have been happier...
"Pinkie, are you ok?"
Twilight had noticed Pinkie crying, and sincerely hoped they were tears of joy, and not sadness. Her hope came true, as the rest of Pinkie's hair straightened faster than Rainbow Dash could fly. Although, Pinkie still didn't look happy, but more like in a trance.
"Pinkie, now's not the time to cry! This is a party, we're supposed to be having fun! There's dancing, games, even a pie eating competition!"
She didn't move a muscle, except for the ones in her face that were releasing tears.
The pegasus didn't give up. "C'mon Pinkie, smile! Smile, smile, smile!"
Pinkie continued to cry. The pegasus was running out of ideas. He only had one thing left to try, but it would be quite risky, and would probably ruin everything he had with her. Still, there was no other option.
He walked up to her, and gave her a quick, but passionate, kiss.
It didn't last for more than a few seconds, but it was all that was needed. Immediately, Pinkie shot out of her trance-like state from the sudden sign of affection.
He pulled away, breaking the kiss. “Pinkie, please stop crying. I can't see you like this. It just kills me to know that I was the one who caused this pain, but I'll be the one to end it too!"
Pinkie was still surprised from the kiss, but was even more surprised when she saw who it was from.
"...Poppers?"
"Poppers?" Twilight asked.
Poppers laughed. "Yeah, who'd you expect?"
"Well, nopony, really! I didn't expect it at all!"
"I'm sorry, I just had to do SOMETHING to cheer you up! I couldn't think of anything else!"
Pinkie giggled. "Are you sure you were trying to cheer ME up, and not yourself?"
Poppers blushed through his orange coat. He suddenly found that he couldn't speak.
Pinkie giggled again, except this time at his silence. "Oh, don't act like that. I know you've been ogling at me, Poppers! I've been WATCHING you." Poppers could swear that her eyes were sticking out of her sockets when she said "watching".
"Oh, well, um-"
His thoughts were quickly stalled as Pinkie gave him a peck on the lips. He once again lost his ability to speak. Luckily, Pinkie had finally finished up teasing him.
"C'mon, silly! We have a party to enjoy!"
That's when she grabbed him by the forehoof and both dived into the heart of the party, both expecting tonight to be a night to remember.
They were not disappointed.
Pinkie couldn't remember much about that night, most likely from the fact that she was too mentally exhausted for her brain to process it. Twilight, however, remembered it a little more clearly. She had followed Pinkie around the party from afar, making sure that Pinkie stayed happy, and that "Poppers" didn't have any ideas. No problems were to be had, and Pinkie seemed as happy as she could have been.
Well, at least until she collapsed in exhaustion, right into Popper's hooves. Twilight wasn't very surprised, as she had gone through a LOT of mental stress, including the fact that Pinkie went through almost NO stress every day! Still, she would need a place to rest, away from all the noise and such. Poppers was two hooves ahead of her. He had asked for the use the second floor, which used to be used as an inn, as a place for anypony, either too drunk or tired to make it home, to sleep for the night. They would have their own personal commendations, bathroom, and triple bolted doors, just to be safe from any creepers of the night! That is where Poppers planned to take Pinkie for the night.
Twilight wasn't so sure about allowing him to take her to bed, alone, but was content when he Pinkie Promised that he would return downstairs as soon as he had tucked her in. And like any Pinkie Promise, he was true to his word, back downstairs after no more than twenty seconds.
That left Twilight the rest of the night to get to know Poppers better. Through the continuing conversations, her suspicion for him faded and was replaced with trust. As soon as every trace of suspicion for him had melted away, she excused herself and made use of an upstairs bedroom for the night.
In the morning, Twilight woke up with a headache and sore limbs. Parties always seemed to wear her out. Still, it was quite a fun night.
There was one pony, however, who probably had the most fun out of all the participants. Possibly the happiest mare alive that night. All thanks to a good friend, a REALLY good friend, and one bucking good party!
