The Party Barn was a very large building. For all intents and purposes, it looked like something that a giant could live in comfortably, that is if giants liked living in barns. Of course, all of the tables and chairs would have to be moved as well as the stage, and the kitchen area, and the arcade games... Celestia blinked a few times to refocus on walking in the most regal manner possible down the middle of the shabby red carpet that the propieters of the Party Barn had laid out to lead her to the "box seat" for the upcoming show. Following closely behind Celestia's royal guards was Celestia, but disguised as Sunny Sky. Celestia and Celestia tried not to think about it too hard because it gave them a headache, and Celestia knows that neither Celestia nor Celestia needed another headache at the moment.

Glancing back, Celestia saw that Pinkie Pie had just trotted in behind Celestia, who gave Celestia a funny look. Celestia motioned with her head for Celestia to act natural, which caused Celestia's guards to glance around nervously.

Pinkie Pie zipped over to Celestia faster than either of the Celestias thought possible, seeming to run right through the guards without touching them.

"Hey Celestia! I was worried that you wouldn't come! You're here reeeeal early!" said Pinkie, bouncing on her hooves in circles around Celestia. "Yup! The soldiers will be honored to have you here with them! According to Rarity it'll really really boost their morale!"

"Hey! Sunny Sky, right? You're with the band, right? Of course! Let's get you out of here or the readers will get a headache! C'mon now!" Pinkie said, shoving other Celestia towards the stage.

Both Celestia and Celestia had no clue whatsoever what Pinkie pie was talking ab-

"So, Celestia! Let me show you to the best seat in the house!" interrupted Pinkie Pie, annoying the narrator slightly. But only enough to make mention of it.

"O-okay," said Celestia, caught off guard a little. She followed the pink party pony down the red carpet towards the staircase, and then it would only be an hour until the show started. Plenty of time for other Celestia to help the band set up the stage.

//*********************//

Clone magic had a very distinct feel to it, and with her heightened Pinkie senses, Pinkie Pie could tell that there was a clone of Celestia hiding as "Sunny Sky." Pinkie wasn't sure why "Sunny Sky" was sometimes in quotation marks in her mind. It was just a name, right?

Celestia cloning herself wasn't a problem. No, clones were FUN! No, the issue was with the Pinkie Promise that Celestia had made to Sharp regarding his relationship with Flare.

There was no doubt- a stiff tail and two left-ear slaps meant that somepony had made a Pinkie promise that was bad Bad BAD!

Pinkie remembered the last triple-bad Pinkie promise- it was made by a school bully who had told a younger filly that he promised to find her family and "Beat them with an inch of their lives while you watch and then make them watch as I rip your little head off."

Yes, Pinkie had made sure that the bully's promise would never be carried out. It had turned out that the bully was a victim of an abusive father, and once the father had been taken care of, the rest of the problem went away!

But Celestia's promise wasn't that simple. She had promised that she would help out Sharp with his love life. That promise held no malicious intent, and yet it had set off Pinkie's Pinkie sense. Maybe a few years ago she could just write it off as a coincidence, but now...

From somewhere in her mane, Pinkie Pie pulled out a small tin with her hoof. She held it up in front of her and read the crudely written letters on the side of the tin.

PTMs. Party-Time Mint-als.

Before she made her first batch of PTMs, Pinkie's Pinkie sense could only respond to vague events, such as falling objects in her general area. Then she tried her first mint-al (non-party-time variety) at a party in Canterlot.

Mint-als were originally created by zebras. For most ponies, mint-als greatly increased their mental abilities and memory. Exactly two seconds after eating the first mint-al, Pinkie became aware of a slight pain in her right eye, followed by two left-ear slaps, a half second of the shakes and a twinge in her mane. There was a bomb at the party, and Pinkie had to find it and disarm it before somepony got hurt. She really had no clue how she knew this, but her Pinkie sense had never been wrong before.

And it wasn't wrong about the bomb. In the toilet tank of the little filly's room, of all places, was where pinkie found the explosive spell ball thing. With her brain high on mint-als, Pinkie was able to understand that the spell was set to go off in three minutes, at eleven o-clock exactly.

"Are... you okay? Miss Pie?" asked other Celestia, jolting Pinkie out of her reverie.

"Oh I'm perfectly super-dee-duper fine!" exclaimed Pinkie, pronking on the spot. "I'm just thinking back to an old party I had!"

"Oh. Was it a fun party?" asked other Celestia as they walked through a door to backstage.

"It was an AWESOME party, at least until I had to take care of the bomb!"

"...Bomb?"

"Yuppers! Somezebra planted a explodey-bangy spell-thing-in-a-jar in a toilet!"

"...Okay then."

"Nopony was hurt, don't worry! Now, I have most of your sound system all set up, but I wasn't entirely sure where to put it all! Blockbuster is backstage to help you rearrange things to your liking!" Pinkie said as she pronked in circles around other Celestia happily. "I got you smoke machines and lasers and colored lights and confetti and although Rarity couldn't come she insisted that I gave each of you a gift bag with all sorts of stuff in it just don't eat the brown chocolate because it's not chocolate it's really oak soap and it tastes horrible and really froths in your mouth and it took me a whole half-hour to get the taste out of my mouth because Rarity gave me a bag too and a bag for Celestia!"

Other Celestia had stopped in place and was staring at Pinkie. Pinkie grinned back.

"Oh I have really really big lungs!" she said, still grinning. "BLOCKBUSTER C'MON I WANT YOU TO MEET MY FRIEND!"

//*********************//

Sharp was running late. Very late. He should have been at the Party Barn ten minutes ago, but he couldn't help it when he had a new song stuck in his head. A song that the band would be performing in an hour or two.

"Oh but he's gone gone gone. S'why I wrote this song song song... oh how I want him back. I miss you my friend Jack."

Sure, the mumbled lyrics earned him a few looks, but Sharp could not lose this song.

"I remember early training... on a day of raining, we cleanin' our rifles and mopping the floors. Least we were safe while doing our chores..."

Sharp was too focused on the lyrics and trying to not run into anything or anypony as he ran towards the Party Barn to notice that he was being followed.

And even if he wasn't distracted, it would have been quite a feat for Sharp to detect a cloaked zebra.

None of the other ponies that Sharp ran by were able to notice the striped equine following right behind Sharp's tail. How could they? A cloak with an invisibility gem in the clasp kept the zebra out of sight of everypony.

Sharp stoped suddenly at an intersection to let a wagon pass, and the zebra almost ran face-first into his tush.

Not that it would have been a totally bad thing. Sharp's rear was a very nice rear. Not too big and not too small, either. It was just that running into the very nice butt would compromise her invisibility. Normally, the zebra did not care about keisters, zebra, pony or otherwise, but it was hard to ignore such a nice badonkadonk as the one in front of her. Even if he was way too young.

The zebra sighed invisibly, remembering when things were better, before the war. Back when she was known as Recursia, and not Timora.

Recursia had been approached a month prior by a pony from the Ministry of Morale, who told her that her apartment would be raided by zebra spies that very night and that they would give her two choices: die as a traitor to the zebras, or work as a zebra spy. The pony then told her that she could remain loyal to Equestria by becoming a double agent.

She really did not have much of a choice in the matter, and the only thing she hated more than the war was the fact that the equestrian military wouldn't let her enlist.

Just before the last wagon passed Sharp, Recursia quickly slid a bright orange note into Sharp's saddlebags before turning her invisible tail and running off, her mission complete, for now.

//*********************//

On another corner, exactly one block away, a similarly tan unicorn waited at an intersection while repeatedly checking the time on his PipBuck. After two minutes of waiting, he left, heading for the Party Barn at a brisk trot.

//*********************//

Peeking out from behind the red stage curtain, Flare could see that the seats in the Party Barn we are really filling up. It seemed that half of the occupants were from the military, probably back in Equestria for a short leave of absence and then they would be back to fighting.

Sharp had arrived 15 minutes prior, out of breath but excited, as he had created a new song for them to perform. Flare wasn't so sure about her ability to play a song she had just heard about, but she knew she would try.

The plan was to start off with a few familiar and popular songs, then play a bit of the bands own music and then alternate between the two until everyone was tired out from playing.

Flare checked over the wires and her bass one last time. She had a feeling in the pit of her stomach that either this was going to go stupendously well, or horribly wrong.

The band as a whole position themselves on stage as the lights outside the curtain clicked off. Flare watched as sharp took a few steps through the middle of the curtain to start them off. She gave a nod, first to Sky, and then to Regolith. Sherpa stuck his head back in through the curtain, and looked at everypony.

"You guys ready?"

They all nodded in reply.

"Alright. Here we go..."

Author's Note

Expect the next chapter very soon!

Bla bla Errors bla bla tell me bla bla thank you

Happy reading!
-Flare