“Hey Dashie! Hey, hey Dashie!”
“What is it, Pinkie Pie?” Rainbow Dash, who had been sleeping on a cloud, groaned.
Instead of answering, the party pony held in the air by balloons gave the pegasus an invitation.
“‘You, Dashie, are invited to a superduperilific New Year’s Eve party. Please bring a folding table, a snack to share, and — a universal remote control’?”
“I lost my other one, and this one party cannon won’t work without a remote!”
“Fine.” Rainbow Dash rolled over, away from Pinkie, who squealed happily and floated away.
Pinkie's New Year's Eve Party
Ding dong!
“Comiiing!” Pinkie Pie sang as she bounced to the door, opening it to reveal Applejack.
“Sorry Ah’m late. Ah had t’ bring Apple Bloom t’ Scootaloo’s fer a sleepover,” the farm mare said, trotting in with a bag of apple chips on her back. Setting them on the folding table (courtesy of Rainbow Dash), she asked, “Why d’ya have a doorbell t’ th’ party room?”
“Otherwise, the knocking can’t be heard! I had to soundproof the room after Vinyl had the music too loud and woke everypony up, and it soundproofed the outside noises too.”
“Ah.”
The room was the same one where Gummy’s birthday party was held, except this time, it was decorated in gold, silver, and colored confetti all over. A radio sat on a small, round table next to the folding one.
Twilight and Fluttershy were dancing in the center of the room to the music on the radio, which was live from Times Square in Manehattan. As Sapphire Shores finished “All the Single Mares (Put a Ring on It),” the two sat down.
“Whew!” Twilight said. “I haven’t done this much dancing since I accidentally enchanted those dancing shoes!”
“Which I ate!”
“What.” Twilight turned to Pinkie. “How?”
“I should have said: I ate a replica of the shoes at Rarity’s ‘Got a new, rich client!’ party!”
“Oh. That makes more sense.”
“Pinkie, this punch is divine! Gummy didn’t get into this one, did he?” Rarity said.
“Nope! Otherwise he would be drinking some! He always goes to bed early on New Year’s Eve! He gets cranky if he stays up too late.”
“Maybe if you would feed him food other than desserts all the time, he wouldn’t be such a cranky croc!” Fluttershy said.
“Aw c’mon, Fluttershy! He loves them!”
“Twilight,” Rainbow said, slowly chewing something, “what is this snack you brought? It tastes like cardboard!”
“It’s gluten-free, whole wheat, no salt added crackers! The salespony said they are good for you!” Twilight replied.
“No wonder they taste like cardboard!”
“If you slather them in frosting, they taste delicious!” Pinkie interjected.
“But that undermines the point of them!” Twilight said.
“Who cares!” Rainbow said. “I’m doing that!” Pulling the knife from the container of frosting on the table, she spread a boatload of frosting onto the one cracker. “You’re right, Pinkie, this isdelicious!” Pinkie Pie giggled, while Twilight merely facehoofed.
“Everypony quite!” Applejack shouted. “Granny Smith’s on!”
“—Ah’m so honored t’ be here! Anywho, it’s b’n ‘nother year o’ harvestin’ apples, and this year’s crop o’ zap apples’re the best so far! An’ I couldn’ve made mah famous zap apple jam wi’out mah grandchildren Macintosh, Applejack, an’ Apple Bloom! Love ya all!”
As the ponies in Times Square clapped, so did the ponies in the party room, one of them with pride. “Ah still can’t believe Granny’s in Times Square! She’s so lucky.”
“It’s a good thing she didn’t have to wait hours in the streets like everypony else did,” Twilight said from her seat. “I heard that it’s really cold over there!”
“Granny said that if it wasn’t fer th’ fact that she didn’ have t’ get there ‘til later, she wouldn’t have gone. She said she woulda b’n a popsicle!”
“Okie dokie lokie, ponies!” Pinkie said. “While we’re waiting, why don’t we play a game? We have Scrabble, Twister, Battleship, and Whoonu!” she said, pointing at each of the games (which had been put on another table when no pony was looking) in turn.
“Scrabble,” said Twilight.
“Battleship!” Rainbow and Applejack said in unison.
“Scrabble,” Fluttershy said.
“Scrabble.” Rarity fluffed her mane.
“Okie dokie! I say Twister or Whoonu, but let’s play Scrabble! Dashie and AJ, you guys can play Battleship if you want.” Pinkie Pie placed the red box on another table that had appeared out of seemingly nowhere, while Rainbow Dash and Applejack took the Battleship box to another table.
◊◊◊◊◊
“Are you even sure that’s a word? ‘Kwanzaa?’”
“Yes, Pinkie, it is a word,” Twilight said, writing down her points. “It’s a Zebra holiday.” After double-checking and triple-checking her math, she said, “Here are the results, in order from the least amount of points to the most: Pinkie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and me.”
“I should have known you would win!” Pinkie said. “Oh wait, I did! Silly me!”
“You sunk my battleship!” Rainbow said.
“An’ that’s th’ game!” Applejack said, pulling out the pegs. “Here are where mine were.” She turned her “console” around to show her opponent, who compared the coordinates to the ones she had called out.
“Darn! I was so close!” said Rainbow Dash.
“I almost forgot!” Pinkie pulled out the universal remote control, and then the cannon. Looking at the multitude of buttons, she said, “Now, which button fires it?” She studied the buttons, but they yielded no extra help. “Oh well! Pressing random buttons always works!” And so she did press random buttons.
The punch turned clear, and then back to pink. The Scrabble box, with the game now inside, briefly turned into a raccoon. Everypony’s manes disappeared and then reappeared, and then the party cannon shrunk and grew. This last transformation, Pinkie saw, and idea formed in her mind even as she found the right button.
As the party cannon blew, the pink party pony announced, “It’s a minute ‘til next year!” The others gathered around the radio as Pinkie started pressing buttons again.
“Thirty, twenty-nine, twenty-eight…”
With a POP, the six arrived in Times Square next to Granny Smith, whose mouth gaped open in shock, which started a trend among the other five, excluding Pinkie Pie.
“Twenty, nineteen, eighteen…”
“Come on! Start counting again!” Pinkie prompted her friends, who combined their voices with the voices of thousand ponies, which rang through Manehattan. “Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one! HAPPY NEW YEAR!”
