The Party Must Go On

Gala woke up that morning, her mane and tail were straight as ever. She was glad that they weren’t tangled badly so she wouldn’t have to brush them out this morning. She did brush them a little, and then she left for Sugarcube Corner.

About halfway there she remembered what had happened with her and Pound two days before. Her face grew red and her mane became poofy. She continued walking towards Sugarcube Corner, but the closer she got, the more nervous she became. She really liked Pound Cake, but she thought things might be awkward between them now.

She saw Sugarcube Corner in front of her on the other side of a small hill. She took a deep breath and continued walking. The nervousness she felt caused her mane and tail to fall flat. She arrived at Sugarcube Corner and saw Pound Cake cleaning the tables as she always did. She stared at him for a minute before knocking on the door.

The expression on his face was a mixture of embarrassment, nervousness, happiness, and he also looked anxious. She noticed that his face was slightly red as well. She smiled slightly and her mane poofed up. She quickly wiped her smile away and her mane and tail became straight again and she knocked on the door.

Pound turned his head and tried to keep a smile from popping up onto his face as he trotted over to the door. He opened the door, “Hi, Gala…” He said somewhat awkwardly.

“Ummm… Good morning, Pound.” She said, avoiding eye contact with him. Her face grew red as she stood in front of him. She could feel him looking at her, so she brought her eyes to his and saw how sad he was that she wasn’t looking at him.

“Look, Gala, I’m really sorry about Friday.” He said.

“What? Why would you be sorry?” She asked.

“I just…. You don’t hate me?” He asked.

“No, of course not. Why would I hate you?”

“I just thought that because you weren’t looking at me, that you hated me.” He said sadly.

“Pound, I could never hate you.” Gala said. She hugged him and he hugged her back. As they broke the hug, Gala hesitantly planted a soft kiss on his cheek. He blushed and looked away.

“You should uhh… You should probably come in now.” He said, realizing that they were still standing in the doorway.

“Oh, right.” Gala said awkwardly, she walked into Sugarcube Corner, her mane poofing up as she did so.

“Hey, ummm, Gala?” Pound asked after Gala had walked in. He closed the door and they both turned to face each other.

“Yeah?” Gala asked.

“Will you ummm….. Will you be my marefriend?” He asked.

Gala’s face lit up and her mane became extra curly and poofy. “Of course!” She said, pulling Pound into a hug. Pound Cake hugged her back happily.

“We should really get back to work before we get in trouble.” Pound said. Gala nodded and made her way to the kitchen. She hummed happily as she started a batch of cupcakes.

Mr. and Mrs. Cake came into the kitchen a few minutes later. “Gala, can I ask why you’re always here so early?” Mrs. Cake asked.

“Well, I really love this job, it’s the only thing I really do, and the only thing I like doing, so I try to get here as soon as I can. What about Pound and Pumpkin? Do you know why they’re always working so early?” Gala asked.

“They’ve always been morning ponies, for as long as we can remember, they’ve been awake before us.” Mrs. Cake said, laughing slightly.

“Speaking of Pumpkin, where is she?” Gala asked.

“The poor darling is still sick.” Mrs. Cake said sadly.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Gala said.

“It’s fine, I’m sure she’ll get over it soon, it’s nothing serious.”

Gala nodded.

“Oh, and Mr. Cake and I have to go on another delivery today, will you and Pound be alright running the store together?” She asked.

“Of course.” Gala replied happily.

Mr. Cake then came into the kitchen and he and Mrs. Cake began baking a large, complicated cake. Once they had finished it, they iced it and left on a train to Canterlot. Gala and Pound ran the store for the rest of the day. Gala would occasionally go and check in on Pumpkin who was upstairs lying in bed. Once the day was over, Gala checked on Pumpkin one last time so Pound wouldn’t have to and then went back downstairs to clean up.

She began cleaning up the kitchen like she always did. For once, she finished before Pound did and she left the kitchen to help him clean the main store. “Do you need any help?” She asked, when she saw Pound looking under the counter.

“Maybe.” He said.

“What’s going on?” Gala asked.

“There’s a plank of wood from the floor here, it’s propped up. Nothing happens when I push it down, it just pops back up, see?” He said, pushing on the plank in the floor. Gala noticed that behind him, a door opened up in the wall.

“Pound! Look!” She shouted.

“What?” He pulled his hoof of the board and turned around, seeing the door in the wall open to reveal a staircase. “Woah.” He said, staring at the dark, empty space through the doorway.

“Should we check it out?” Gala asked.

Pound shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

“Oh, come on. Don’t be a baby, let’s go.” She said. She walked over to the door and stared down the stairs. The door started closing so Pound jumped through it and followed Gala down the stairs.

“It’s really dark down here.” Pound said. “I can’t even see my hoof in front my face.”

“Careful, the stairs stop down here.” Gala called.

Pound continued walking down the stairs until he stood on a flat surface next to Gala. The darkness was overwhelming and they could hardly see anything. But it wasn’t the darkness that was surprising, it was the smell. Gala and Pound were forced to hold their hooves over their noses and try to breath through their mouths.

Gala couldn’t stand being in such darkness so she removed her hoof from her nose and used it to feel around for a light switch. She found one on the wall near the staircase they had come down. She flicked it on and the room brightened up.

Both Gala and Pound closed their eyes to shield them from the sudden brightness. Gala opened her eyes first and looked around the room. She gasped but didn’t scream. Pound opened his eyes at the sound of Gala gasping.

“What’s wro-” He stopped himself mid-sentence when he saw what was in front of them. He looked around the room. There was a banner hanging by only one corner and he had to tilt his head to read it. “Life is A Party…..” He read aloud. He glanced at Gala who was looking around the room, her mane had poofed up and was almost like an afro.

There were pony skulls astrew on the ground, and they were painted colorfully in different patterns. There was a table that had fallen to its side and knives and other instruments were laying all over the floor. Gala’s eyes were wide, not with fear, but with excitement. A smile slowly spread on her face as she looked around.

She noticed the torture tables, all covered in blood. She noticed the organs strung up on the walls, some had fallen and were lying in piles on the ground. There was a particularly large knife on the ground in front of Gala. The blade was covered in dried blood and it also pretty rusty. The handle was covered with bandages that were wrapped around it. The bandages also had a fair amount of blood on them. Curiosity got the better of her and she picked it up.

“Gala, what are you doing?” Pound asked, staring at her and the strange smile on her face. His eyes shifted from her face to the knife in her hoof.

The smile fell from her face and she looked at Pound. “I… I don’t know.” She looked down at the knife in her hoof and something inside her head told her to unwrap the bandages around the handle. She sat down on the floor, which was covered in dried blood. She slowly and gently unwrapped the bandage from the handle of the knife.

Pound didn’t know what else to do, so he sat down next to Gala and watched her as she unwrapped the bandages. Once all the bandages had come off, a paper fell onto the floor in front of Gala. She picked it up and unfolded the paper. “It’s a note.” She said, stating the obvious.

She gasped. “Pound, look, it’s addressed to me.” She exclaimed. She stared at the note, and for a few minutes she just stared at her name written on the paper in somepony’s writing that she didn’t recognize. Finally, she broke away from her trance and began reading the letter.

“Dear my sweet Gala Amour,

If you’re reading this right now, it means I’m dead. There are so many things I would have loved to do with you. So many things I was waiting to teach you. But, I’m gone now, and so is your father. I’m assuming Rainbow Dash or Discord told you about what happened to us. Or perhaps you discovered it on your own.

I wrote this letter the night we captured Mayor Mare. You had woken up and as I was putting you back to sleep, I took the time to write you this letter in case we didn’t make it. I don’t know what made me think that we wouldn’t make it through the night, but I just had a feeling. But perhaps we lived longer than that and this note is old now.

Your father and I would just like to let you know that we loved you more than the sun and the moon. We loved you more than we loved each other. You were the most precious thing in all of Equestria to us. Even more precious than Barry. He’s the knife you found this note in. Please keep Barry as your own knife, and treasure him.

I would like to share my secret ingredient with you one day. From fear of dying, I’ll write the secret in this note. The secret ingredient to my cupcakes is, ponies. I know that seems strange, but ponies taste delicious and they made my cupcakes the best in Ponyville, and all of Equestria.

We loved you, and we still love you, even though we’re gone now. We both hope that you love us back. I would have loved to see what kind of mare you would have grown up to be, and what your cutie mark was. Maybe I’ll find out in the afterlife. After many, many years, when you finally come to join me and your father.

Love,

Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich, Mommy and Daddy”

Tears formed in Gala’s eyes as she read the note and her mane, which had been extremely poofy, popped and dropped down to become straight. When she finished it and realized the note was from her parents, she began crying and she couldn’t stop. She dropped the note on the ground and buried her face in her hooves and cried. Pound Cake didn’t know what to do. He decided he might want to read the note so he picked it up and began reading it.

He gasped multiple times through reading the letter and when he finished there were tears in his eyes for Gala’s sake. He dropped the letter on the ground just as Gala had and wrapped his foreleg around Gala in a side hug to try and comfort her.

“Gala, you shouldn’t cry just because your parents were serial killers.” Pound said.

Gala stopped crying and turned her tears streaked face to Pound. Her mane hung over her face and it seemed to part over her eyes so she could see him. “What?” She asked.

Pound was confused. Had he said something wrong? He was just trying to help. He didn’t want to repeat himself so he just stared back at Gala with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth.

“Pound, I’m not crying because my mom and dad were serial killers.” She said.

“Then… Why are you crying?” He asked hesitantly.

“Because this note, and this knife are the only things I have left of my parents.” She said to him. She suddenly gasped. “I’ve got to tell my brothers!” She stood up quickly.

“What? Brothers? When did you get brothers?” Pound asked, having not known about Chocolate Rain and Skittles.

“I’ve always had them, I only met them yesterday though.” Gala said. She picked up the note in her mouth and hurried back up the stairs. About half way up, she ran back down. She dropped the note out of her mouth and back onto the floor. “I’m sorry Pound Cake.” She said, hugging him.

He hugged her back, his mind blank.

“It’s just… This is really big for me, and I need to figure this all out. I have to talk to Discord.” She said. She looked at Pound, waiting for him to answer her, but he continued staring blankly at whatever was in front of him. “Pound?” She asked, shaking him gently.

Pound shook his head and blinked a few times. “No, it’s ok, I understand.” He gave her a soft, reassuring smile. Gala smiled back and hugged him again. She started to leave again, but Pound stopped her. “Wait!” He called.

Gala came back down and stood in front of him. “What is it?” She asked.

Pound brought his hoof up and gently wiped the remaining tears off her face. She smiled at him and he smiled back at her. His hoof was already on her face, and he slid it around to the back of her neck and pulled her closer to him. He closed his eyes and kissed her.

Gala was surprised at first, but then closed her eyes as well and kissed him back. Her mane, which had been completely straight, slowly became curly and poofed up. When they broke the kiss, they were both blushing.

“It’s probably getting late, I should get home.” Gala said after a few minutes of silence.

“Yeah….” Pound agreed. He picked the note up for her and gave it to her. She took it from his mouth and into her mouth, blushing slightly. Pound flicked the light switch and turned the lights off and he and Gala walked up the stairs together. The door opened automatically when they were close enough to it and they walked out into the shop.

“I’ll bring my saddle bag tomorrow so I can bring the knife home.” Gala said to him. He nodded, understanding why she would want to keep it.

They hugged one last time and Gala left the shop and rushed home.