“I’ll need a dozen cupcakes with chocolate frosting, a dozen blueberry muffins… and a tray of fresh fruit scones, some butter, cream, and four pots of jam—raspberry, blackcurrant, greengage and apple please.”
Fluttershy ran through the list of required ingredients while Pinkie Pie bounced around the interior of Sugar Cube Corner collecting the items and packaging then up to take away.
“You’re having a party?”
“Oh… well… just a little tea party for some friends.”
“How many?”
“Erm... I don’t really know how many will be able to come… Some may have other engagements… I still have to invite them… But… erm… maybe five thousand.”
Pinkie Pie’s mouth dropped open. “That’s a pretty big little tea party. You want to feed five thousand friends with only twelve cupcakes? Seems kinda mean. That’s like—one tiny crumb each! I’ll throw in a few extra.”
“Oh… it’s alright… these are only very little friends… They’re bees," said Fluttershy
"Ooooo!" Given this new piece of information, Pinkie Pie jumped up onto the counter, then bent her head down to confront her friend with a full width Pinkie smile. "Does that mean you will be doing the waggle waggle dance again? Can I join in? Can I? It was so much fun last time." She waggled her flank from side to side shaking her bright pink tail high in the air.
"I don't think that's such a good idea Pinkie.” Fluttershy shook her head sternly. “When you tried to do it last time you went too fast and the bees got confused. You sent them off course and they never reached my cottage. And as they didn't get any tea they were very upset. Some of them are still not talking to me."
"Arrr," said Pinkie, turning her smile upside-down into a disappointed frown.
Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, who had been blowing bubbles into their strawberry milkshakes at a nearby table, trotted up to the two adult ponies.
“You said somethin’ about dancin’,” said Apple Bloom. “Can I join in? I like dancin’ and it’s always fun to learn a new routine.”
"Maybe another time, but not today,” said Fluttershy, kindly but firmly. “But you will have to be very careful. The waggle dance is a very precise method of communication. You have to get it just right.”
“And the bees in Ponyville are the really super sensitive type.” Pinkie Pie pulled a face. “You only have to get it an itsy bit wrong and they stop talking to you.” She paused and her face returned to her usual smile. “But they do make nice honey.”
Hollow trees are a favourite nesting site for honeybees, so it was no surprise that a colony had moved into the remains of the tree that had been the Golden Oaks Library. Bees played an important role in pollinating flowers, so they were much respected by ponies as co-managers of the Equestrian biosphere. Their role was as vital as cloud management, building birds’ nests, and conducting the annual baby bunny census. They also made honey, which a few ponies—such as Fluttershy—could induce them to share. However, in general, ponies avoided getting too close. It was well-known that bees would sting if provoked.
Fluttershy walked up to the tree and stopped on the patch of ground beneath the nest. A few bees buzzed down and flew around her head to say hello. Pinkie Pie and the three fillies stayed outside Sugar Cube Corner, aware that the timid pegasus did not like everypony looking at her, but unable to resist watching from a distance.
“What’s she doin’?” said Apple Bloom. “And where did she get that outfit?”
“Shhh…” Pinkie Pie put a hoof across her mouth. “Just watch!”
Fluttershy turned to look in the direction towards her cottage, and up at the sun to judge the angle. Once satisfied she flew up the side of the dead tree, buzzing her wings, waggling her rear end from side to side, while moving upwards in a straight line at an angle to the vertical. After reaching the top of the pollard, she stopped waggling, turned to the left, and flew back to her starting point. Then she set off on another straight waggle run, before curving back again, this time to the right. She then repeated this routine. More bees came out of the nest and buzzed around her.
Twilight Sparkle and Applejack walked by and stopped by Pinkie Pie and the fillies.
“What’s goin’ on here?” said Applejack
“Fluttershy’s sayin' somethin’ to the bees,” said Apple Bloom.
Applejack watched Fluttershy buzzing up and down the tree pollard, her yellow wings and pink tail merging into an coloured blur.
“What the hay is she tellin’ them?”
Her sister scowled. “How would I know? Do I look like I speak bee?”
They watched Fluttershy waggle her way through another two figure-of-eight cycles.
“Well,” said Pinkie, assessing her performance through narrowed eyes. “I don’t know if I got all the details. But I think she said: You are all warmly invited to tea at my cottage this afternoon. There will be cupcakes, muffins and scones with butter and cream and four different kinds of jam. I do hope you are able to come along and I look forward to seeing you—if that’s okay with you.”
“How’d you get all that?” Applejack asked.
Pinkie Pie responded with a smug grin. “Just a hunch.”
“Well, that’s fine with me. Those bees do a top job pollinatin’ my apples. Don’t know what I’d do without them.”
Twilight grinned as she realised what the yellow pegasus was doing. “Of course—the waggle dance—I’ve read about this. It’s the way the worker bees communicate and tell each other about food sources. When a bee scout finds some nectar laden flowers, she flies back to the hive, and to tell the other workers where it is, she performs the waggle dance. It’s very ingenious. The angle between the waggle line and the vertical honeycomb shows the angle between the path they need to fly and the sun. Bees can tell the position of the sun, even if it’s a cloudy day, because their eyes can sense polarized light—the light scattered from the other side of the sky is more polarized than that coming straight from the sun. And the speed with which she does the dance tells them how far they have to fly. Of course there must be a lot of details about it which we still don’t understand…”
While Twilight was lecturing, further passing ponies had stopped to join the crowd.
“What is Fluttershy doing?” asked Berry Punch.
“She’s asking what sort of jam they would like. And if any of them have any food allergies,” translated Pinkie Pie.
Berry Punch exchanged a puzzled look with Golden Harvest. They both knew that Pinkie was a little loco-in-the-coco.
“Insect societies are really fascinating,” continued Twilight without paying any attention to whether the audience was listening. “There’s a complex caste system. The worker bees have the best life—they get out to fly among the flowers collecting the nectar which they turn into honey. Then there are the male drones… But the queen bee has the toughest job—she just stays in the hive laying eggs.”
“Will the queen bee come to Fluttershy’s party?” asked Pinkie. “She didn’t tell me that she would be entertaining royalty. I would have tested the cakes extra thoroughly if I had known.”
“The workers will take some cake back for her,” said Twilight. “But the queen hardly ever leaves the hive. Only for her mating flight, or before a new queen arrives—then the bees form a swarm—the old queen flies away with part of the colony to start a new hive. They have a very clever way of finding a site for their new home. The scouts fly away to search for a suitable site. Then they fly back to the swarm and use the waggle dance to tell the others where it is. If they think it is a really good site, then they waggle extra hard. The other scouts then fly off to see it. If they agree that it’s a good site, then when they come back they start waggling for this one too. Then some of bees who initially favoured another site, will notice that lots of bees like this one and go to check it out. Eventually enough bees are waggling for one site. At this point the swarm takes off and goes to move into their new home. It’s amazing how all the individual bees follow simple rules, and the net effect allows the swarm to make a collective decision. There is a lot we could learn from them which is relevant to the magic of friendship…”
Fluttershy waggled on. By this point, Lyra Heartstrings, Bon Bon, and a crowd of other ponies had arrived.
“What’s going on?” Bon Bon asked Golden Harvest.
“Fluttershy is doing some sort of modern dance routine,” she replied, rolling her eyes. “Twilight is talking about an advanced friendship spell or something, and Pinkie Pie is being Pinkie Pie.” Berry Punch nodded her head to agree with this summary. Bon Bon shook hers. It was business as usual in Ponyville.
Eventually the yellow pony bee-emulator completed her final waggle and fell to the ground exhausted. The audience rushed forwards cheering.
“That was amazing Fluttershy!”
“Can you do it again?”
“What was it all about anyway?”
“I-I… Eek!” Fluttershy squealed as she looked up and saw everypony looking at her, having previously been too focused on her dancing to notice the crowd of ponies surrounding her. She put her hooves in front of her eyes, and wished she was as small as bee. Apple Bloom saw an opportunity to be helpful.
“She was sayin’ something in bee. It’s a secret code.” She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “What it meant is: you are all invited to tea at my cottage with cakes, muffins and scones with jam and cream.”
“Did you hear that,” cried Berry Punch. “Fluttershy’s having a party! That’s great!” This was greeted with enthusiastic cheers.
“Thank you for inviting us.”
“Can I bring Cherry Berry and Rose too! And Daisy!”
Pinkie Pie meant down and hugged a quivering Fluttershy. “I thought you might need a few extra cakes.”
Fluttershy put her hooves in front of her eyes. “I just wanted to have a quiet picnic with my insect friends, I can’t have a party for everypony in Ponyville! What shall I do?” she whimpered.
“Don’t you worry,” said Pinkie. “A party of extra ponies joining a bee tea party is no party problem which I can’t handle. I’m sure nopony minds sharing every plate and tea cup with a huge swarm of bees.”
She said this loud enough for everypony to hear. Following this announcement the cheering died down a little.
“I… I may have invited a few other guests,” said Fluttershy.
“You did? How many?”
“Erm… A few thousand…”
“More bees?”
“Oh no… I mean the ants.”
“Ants!”
“And then there are the termites…”
Author's Note
Thanks for reading.
More details on bees and the waggle dance: Dancing and Decision Making in Honeybee Swarms
