Canterlot High School had, it must be said, experienced more than its fair share of hectic and chaotic days, and today appeared as though it had gone through yet another of such moments. The main hallways of the school, which the students and faculty tried to keep as spotless and pristine as possible, now appeared as though a complete riot had passed through it. All over the floor, stuffed in lockers and even stuck to the walls, there was a veritable flood of confetti, of every single colour of the rainbow, though it appeared to be predominantly pink. This was one heck of a mess to have to deal with, but, thankfully, there were a few here who were indeed dealing with it at this very moment. Pinkie Pie, the girl who had set this chaos in motion to begin with, was down on her knees, with a dustpan and brush in her hands, trying to sweep up every single piece of that confetti she could see. But, she was not alone here today, as all of her friends were here to help. For a time, nobody said a word, but, it eventually fell to Pinkie to break the silence between them.
"Thanks for helping me clean this, girls."
Looking to her, Sunset offered a smile.
"No problem, Pinkie."
Rainbow, by contrast, seemed just a touch irritated at having to be here.
"Although, maybe you could, you know, tone it down with the confetti in whatever future party you're planning? Because I don't know about the rest of you, but this right here is more than I need in a lifetime."
Pinkie giggled nervously at that.
"Yeah...sorry about that."
This time, Fluttershy was the one to speak up.
"It's okay, Pinkie. You were just trying to cheer everybody up, same as normal."
Pinkie smiled back to her.
"I'm just glad Principal Celestia didn't send us to detention over this. I was sure she'd be super-mad about it."
Applejack, who had been doing her own sweeping for the last few minutes, paused for a moment to look over to her party-loving friend.
"Well, let it never be said she can' be reasonable. All we gotta do is clean up our mess. An’, ya know...not make another one afterwards?"
Tying up the bag that had been filled up from her own sweeping, Rarity then looked over to Applejack.
"Indeed. Although, if we're being fair, I feel rather responsible for this mess myself. If I hadn't suggested that confetti was the trend..."
But Pinkie interrupted her soon afterwards.
"Oh no you don't! This was my fault, Rarity! I didn't have to go overboard, remember? You never told me to do this, I just...got carried away. You know, like I always seem to do?"
She sounded uncharacteristically dejected after having said that, and Twilight, who was the only one to have not spoken thus far, walked over to her, patting her on the back and gaining her attention.
"Don't worry about it, Pinkie. I mean, look, most of this is all cleaned up anyway. In a little while, we'll all be done, then we can go and get ourselves some milkshakes, if you like."
Pinkie smile returned to that, and she lunged forward, embracing Twilight in a tight hug.
"Oh, Twilight! You know just what I want to hear when I'm down!"
Trying her best to breathe through the impromptu hug, Twilight smiled nervously.
"Yes, ach! Well, what are friends for, ach?"
The other girls giggled to this, but then, when that moment was over, Sunset looked over to Rarity, an expression of curiosity coming to her.
"Say, Rarity? Can I ask you something?"
Rarity, turning from her trash bag for a moment, nodded.
"Of course, darling."
Placing her hands upon her hips, Sunset continued.
"Exactly what did happen to that fashion magazine of yours? You know, the one you were going to use to talk about trends?"
A grimace came to the young fashionista, and she slumped her shoulders.
"Oh, don't remind me! It turns out that Sweetie Belle had stumbled on it while she and her friends were doing some spring cleaning back home. She accidentally knocked over my bag, and apparently was unable to put the magazine back after it fell out."
Rainbow looked over to her, confused.
"What, she just didn't notice it?"
Rarity sighed.
"Worse. It turns out my dear little cat, Opalescence, came across it after it fell and just took it away and tore the thing to shreds! Sweetie got it off her, but by then the damage was done. It was simply trash by that point. I wouldn’t have been able to read it even if I wanted to."
Turning to her, Pinkie walked over, giving her a pat on the shoulder.
"Don't worry, Rarity! It was just an accident."
Rarity nodded.
"I know, darling. But, in truth, I'm more angry with myself, I should have checked my bag before coming to school. Had I noticed then that it was gone..."
But, she was kept from saying anything further, as Pinkie placed a finger upon her lips.
"Ah! None of that! Let's turn that frown upside-down, Missy!"
Smiling widely, the party-lover walked over to the other side of her.
"Look at it this way, even with that whole magazine problem, everyone at school was talking about your trends. I mean, sure, it didn't go as planned, and yeah, we're all stuck here cleaning up afterwards, but it was still pretty fun for everyone, right?"
Hearing that, the girls all looked to one another, confused, and when they turned their gaze back to Pinkie, it was Rarity who finally asked the obvious question.
"Um...Pinkie? Darling? I thought only you did anything with that confetti idea?"
Hearing that, Pinkie snorted.
"Pfft! Nah! There was a whole bunch of people doing it! When I went to the party store, there was loads of people lining up to buy the stuff!"
A look of horror crossed the faces of the other girls, and they looked to one another, clearly terrified at what such a situation might mean. But Pinkie, by contrast, didn't seem that concerned.
"Oh, don't worry about it, girls. I mean, sure, I might have gone a teeny weeny bit overboard, but there's no reason anybody else is going to...right?"
From the looks on the girls' faces, it was obvious that they weren't quite as sure as Pinkie was on that count. The pink-haired girl opened her mouth, ready to give them further reassurance over the whole thing, only to stop when, all of a sudden, they all heard a loud sound from around the corner of the hallway. It was, sadly, exactly the same loud "surprise" sound that had accompanied every single one of Pinkie's prior confetti explosions. And then, before they could react, another one went off, this time in the opposite direction. And then another, and another, and on and on for almost a full minute, before, finally, there was calm. For a time, nobody said anything, because, in truth, they didn’t need to. Though every single one of those sounds had gone by unseen, they all knew what it had meant, and, more importantly, what it would mean for them. Then, after that long and uncomfortable silence, the school speakers flared to life, and the voice of Principal Celestia now echoed through the hallway.
"Miss Pie...could you and Miss Rarity please report to my office...immediately?"
Even a complete novice would have been able to gather the unspoken frustration that lay just beneath the calm tone the Principal had tried to give off during that message. Grimacing, Pinkie looked to Rarity, and the latter merely let out a sigh, taking the broom from Applejack and handing it to Pinkie.
"You start the sweeping...I’ll get the bags."
Giggling nervously, Pinkie shrugged her shoulders.
“Well...maybe all the other people who did that stuff will help us out?”
Thinking on that, a dark grin came to Rarity.
“Oh...I assure you, Pinkie, they will. Oh yes...they will indeed.”
Author's Note
As you can probably guess, this story, and the ones that will follow, is basically me planting my flag in what I consider to be the canonical endings for those ten EG shorts. Or, at the very least, the endings that will be canonical as far as my continuity is concerned. Hope you all enjoy my choices.
