Arc 1 Chapter 3: The party before the celebration and the party crasher at the celebration

Through the streets of Ponyville, a unicorn mare with her hands pressed firmly against her ears trudged along, followed by a yellow, pink-maned pegasus mare and a young, pulple little dragon that were excitedly talking to each other without a care in the world. As much as Twilight had appreciated how quickly Spike and Fluttershy had gotten over their rather awkward meeting, and admittedly also admired Fluttershy's desire to learn about dragons, she had wished that they had stopped talking for even a second afterwards. Between the constant chatter coming from behind her and her general frustration with how the day had gone, Twilight barley noticed that the streets of Ponyville were surprisingly empty and couldn't bring herself to care why.

Up ahead, on the edge of town she could see what was to be her and her assistant's dwelling for tonight: Golden Oak Library. Twilight took a moment to marvel at the rather interesting design of the place, as she had never seen a library that was for some reason carved into a large tree. She had asked Applejack about it earlier, after the subject of where she and Spike would be staying pooped up in-between them stuffing their faces. From what Twilight had gathered from the farmer, the library had apparently been built by a unicorn mage like herself, that had decided to retire to the quant little town around the time it was just getting big enough to earn a spot on the maps. This pony had also apparently shared her interest in literature, as upon learning that the town had no library of its own, she opened up her own private collection and her home, that for reasons Applejack couldn't explain was built within a tree, to the public, so she could share its knowledge with rest of the town.

She had also gathered that the library had not had any perminit residents or staff in the years since its founder's passing, just a few volunteers and part time workers the town hired to make sure Golden Oak was getting it's upkeep and the occasional vagrant who couldn't afford the local inn, which at the moment was filled at triple capacity, due to ponies coming in for the holiday. This explained why a public library would have a vacant bed room, something Twilight had wondered about after reading where she and Spike would be staying on the scroll, but had been too swept up in everything else that was going on to go out of her way and question.

'Well, I practically live in a library anyway.', she thought to herself before turning around to face the still chatty mare and dragon behind her. "Well Fluttershy, it was nice meeting you, but we really need to get a move on", Twilight spoke quickly, while pulling Spike to her side with her magic. Before either of them could speak up, not that one out of two of them was likely to, she roughly pulled Spike away by his arm and reached for the door of the library. But as she opened it...

"SURPRISE!!!!"

She was met with deafening and cheerful greeting followed by a barrage of confetti and streamers, that caused the unicorn mare to stumble back, trip, and fall onto her tail while bringing her dragon companion down with her. Looking up, Twilight saw a familiar pink, frizzle-maned pony in front of the doorway with her arms stretched out to pull her and Spike back up.

"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie! Welcome to Ponyville!", the mare, apparently named Pinkie Pie exclaimed while excitedly shaking the duo's hands at speeds rivaling the beating of Rainbow Dash's wings, that left them so dazed to the point they would have likely fell down again if not for the excited mare holding them up. Twilight immediately recognized this mare as the crazy earth pony that had ambushed her earlier today, before running off before the unicorn could even take in what had happened. A pony she had honestly hoped she could just forget about meeting.

Pinkie Pie was roughly the same height as Applejack, though noticibly chubbier, with a bit less muscle mass, and a bit larger in areas that made Twilight's cheeks turn red when she caught herself looking at them for a second longer than she should've, though Pinkie either didn't notice or didn't care. Her puffy and frizzly went down to her hind quarters, like Fluttershy, blurring the line between where her mane ended and her tail, which went down to her ankles, began. She wore a conical party hat with a peppermint stripe design, a tight fitting white T-shirt with blue sleeves and the image of three blue and yellow party balloons adorning both sides of her shirt, and a pink, frilly skirt that went down to her knees with matching pink flip flops.

Pinkie Pie had been countiuing to blabber on as Twilight tried to think of a polite way to get this crazy pony out of her way, while trying to tune out the girl's one sided conversation and the music coming from with an the library that somepony had apparently kicked on after Pinkie jumped out of the door. "And I just know we're going to be the best bestest of friends!!!" Suddenly, both Twilight and Spike were scooped up in a bear hug, and we're struggling to get free. "And we'll go on epic adventures! And fight horrible dragons! No offense Spike. And..."

"Pinkie Pie!"

The looney pony jumped up slightly, as Twilight heard a familiar country accent and looked around Pinkie to find Applejack standing behind her in the door frame with an agitated look on her face "What have we told ya, bout scaring the the bajeezes out of new ponies like that like dat?" Pinkie released her captives, as her bright and happy smile shifted into a nervous and apologetic smile, before moving aside to let the farmer walk through.

"Sorry bout dat Twi. Pinkie Pie likes to put together a little shin dig for ponies when they move in, she's kind of like da town's one mare welcoming committee. She's a bit... odd, but she means well."

"Oh, I'm so, so, sooo sorry!" Pinkie piped in, in an especially high pitched and squeaky voice, complete with puppy dog eyes. "Please forgive me, I..." She countued like this, until Twilight accepted her apology just to shut her up. At which point, Pinkie attempted to give the unicorn mare a leaping hug, only for Twilight to be saved by Applejack, who had casually pulled back the the pink mare by her tail, before the two girls could collide. After another exchange of frustrated glares and apologetic smiles between the earth ponies, they both beckoned Twilight inside to her temporary home.

Upon entering the library, Twilight saw dozens of ponies crammed within the confines of the tree, socializing with one another while munching on party snacks and washing them down with punch. The music within the room was now in full swing. Twilight tried almost immediately to force herself through the crowd and find some safe haven in the library without being introduced to dozens of more country ponies she didn't care for, but to no avail. While none of them really seemed too interested in getting to know the city unicorn that had come to their town, they all insisted on giving her the basic complimentary greeting and introduction. Something that quickly eroded the mage in-training's resolve, leading to her residing herself to her role as the "guest of honor" at the party and more or less giving up on what little hope remained that she was going to get any work done before the mane celebration for the night.

'Who in the seven circles of the underworld, throws a party just before a major celebration for somepony she doesn't even know?', Twilight wondered as she looked around, not sure what to do to pass the time. She had already tried some of punch at the annoying pink girl's insistence, only to almost spit fire from whatever that idiotic mare had spiked it with, so now she couldn't bring herself to try any of the remaining snacks or beverages on the table out of fear what other horrors the pink menace could have hidden inside them. All of the locales had quickly lost interest in her once the introductions were out of the way and the pink mare had finally left her alone to mingle with the other guests, but it was still too loud and busy in the library for Twilight to seriously try and get any work done, so she just stood and looked around trying to fight off boredom.

'Hmm, didn't think those two would be interested in each other, Twilight thought to herself after her eyes wandered over to one corner of the room, where she saw Rarity and Applejack exchanging a passionate kiss with each other. Just on the edge of scene playing out in the corner, Twilight caught a glimpse of her little dragon assistant looking enviously at the two mares as he stood alone, the local ponies giving the dragon plenty of room to himself, as most ponies in Canterlot would. Upon seeing this, Twilight felt twinge of guilt over leaving Spike alone to himself and walked over to him. By the time she had forced her way through the crowd and reached Spike, Rarity and Applejack had broken up their little make out session and had turned their attention to the two.

"Haya Twi!" Applejack greeted and gestured for the duo to come towards them.

"Darling, we really can not apologize enough for Pinkie Pie's rather unruly behavior, but I assure you, she had only had the best of attentions." Rarity apologized for their mutual friend, likely having been informed about the earlier incident outside by Applejack.

"Don't worry about it.", Twilight said trying to avoid getting into yet another conversation with these crazy ponies. But alas, it was of no use.

"How're ya two enjoin the party?", the farm pony asked. "Pinkie sure out did herself, don't ya think?" Applejack then spared a glance away to the mare in question, who was happily dancing on a table in the center of the room, bringing a bright smile to the apple pony's face and the faces of all the ponies around the table.

"Yeah sure." Twilight said dismissively while the two other mares stared at her, before exchanging slightly worried looks between themselves. "Ah, well, this is great and all, but parties like this aren't really my thing. I'm... more the read in silence type..." She added worriedly, hoping she did not offend the locals by implying she didn't like the party their friend had undoubtedly put together at the last moment for a stranger, apparently solely out of the goodness of her heart.

"Come on Twi! It's a party! Lighten up!" Spike budded in enthusiastically. Twilight secretly thanked him for ending an awkward conversation.

"Yeah Twi, Pinkie put a lot of hard work into throwing you this little shindig, you might as well try ta enjoy yourself.", Applejack said, before Rarity rejoined the conversation.

"Twilight darling, I think I know just the place we can go to make you feel more comfortable.", Rarity said, while turning and gesturing for the others to follow her.

Applejack quickly obliged, seemingly already knowing where Rarity was going. Spike followed right behind the two mares, just happy to be around his new crush while Twilight reluctantly joined them .

"Our friend Fluttershy, the local animal care taker, is not much for parties either, so she usually just sits upstairs and reads to herself,", Rarity spoke as she expertly guided the group through the crowd of ponies, like an experienced Canterlot partygoer, to the stairwell leading to the library's second floor. "You've met her already if I'm not mistaken?" Rarity questioned before going on, after receiving a nod from the other unicorn. "But we just hate to think of leaving the poor mare all by herself while we indulge ourselves, so we like to find time to come check on her every so often." The seamstress countinued as they ascended the stairs to the living area of the library. There at the middle of the room, sitting at a medium sized dining table with some of appetizers from the party placed on it was the mare in question reading her book alongside, surprisingly enough, Rainbow Dash, who was haphazardly playing around with a switch blade while leaning back in her seat.

The two pegasi looked up from what they were doing upon the arrival of the other ponies, plus dragon. Rainbow Dash and Twilight exchanged glares at each other, before looking away, while Fluttershy nervously put on a smile, attempting to be welcoming towards the new pony and dragon to town.

"Now, did ya two think you can get outta welcoming the new ponies that easily?" Applejack said with faux disappointment in her voice and a playful smile on her face.

"We've met.", Rainbow said offhandedly, while casually tossing her knife into the air and catching it, trying to avoid talking to the unicorn mare, who didn't seem particularly interested in talking to her either. This prompted a more genuine look of disappointment from the farm pony.

"Welp, here's your chance ta get ta know each other better." Applejack ushered Twilight to follow her to the table.

Spike moved to follow the two girls, but was stopped by the hand of his crush on his shoulder. "Spike darling," Rarity said while bending down to meet him at eye level while Spike's cheeks turned red at the sound her voice and crystal blue eyes gazing into his own. "how old would you happen to be? About 8? Maybe nine 9?" She asked.

"Uh, thirteen." He spoke after a moment of hesitation.

The white unicorn raised an eyebrow at his answer and looked at him for a long moment, as if she didn't believe his given age and was waiting for him to fess up the truth. But eventually brushed it off. "Well, I was just wondering if you would like to spend time in more... age appropriate company. After all, you would probably find adults sitting around and talking about boring old adult things dull."

"No, it's fine!" the little dragon tried to play cool, not wanting his crush to think he couldn't hang out with her. She simply rolled her eyes.

"Oh nonsense darling," She said turning towards the next flight of stairs, while lightly grabbing hold of the young dragon with her. "This is no place for a young gentlemen to enjoy himself while at a party." Rarity moved forward, pulling Spike with her as she climbed down the stairs. "But do not worry, I know just the ponies for you to spend time with!" Rarity exclaimed happily, while refusing to let Spike get out a word of protest.

Meanwhile, the other four mares sat at the table in awkward silence. None of them were sure how to get a conversation started and only Applejack seemed to be actually trying. "So Twilight, what do ya think of Ponyville so far?"

" It's... quaint.", Twilight said simply, trying to be polite, even though her first impressions of the town and more specifically, its residence have not been all that great.

"How bout the ponies?"

"They're... like nothing I could have ever imagined."

If not for the background noise of the music coming from downstairs, this would have been followed by a long awkward silence. In this moment, Applejack dearly wished Rarity was still here to start up an actual conversation.

"So, watcha ya think of the party? Pinkie Pie sure out done herself right?"

"Yeah, I've been meaning to ask about that; Does she really throw parties like this for everypony that visits town?" Twilight asked while taking a sip from a cup of punch that was sat on the table, figuring she might as well try to talk to these ponies.

"Oh, well not really everypony that visits. At least not like this. Pinkie does try ta welcome everypony ta town personally, but she only really goes all out like this for ponies that just moved here. Like you sugar cube.

(coughcough) Applejack was uninterrupted by a coughing fit from the the unicorn beside her, who started choking on her drink upon hearing the earth pony's words. Immediately, she and Fluttershy moved to her side, Rarity ran up from down stairs, and even Rainbow got up in case they needed her help. Though she didn't share the worried look the other three had on their faces. "Ya ok there sugar cube?" Applejack asked worriedly while Twilight caught her breath.

"Excuse me," Twilight spoke up after recovering her ability to breath. "did you say whenever sompony moves in?"

Before this conversation could continue, the door burst open, revealing a pink mare with a cake balanced on top of her head and her head lowered about a foot down, so the cake didn't hit the door frame. "How's it going everypony!?" Pinkie Pie shouted excitedly while lifting up her arms to reveal stack of plates and a cake spatula crammed into her right hand, bottle of champagne in her left and six crystal glasses balanced on her arms.

"Pinkie Pie, darling, I was wondering when you would show up!" Rarity excitedly said, accompanied by her hands clapping together, before she turned to the other unicorn in the room. "Me and the rest of the girls thought we might partake in a little cake and champagne, before we freshened up for the Summer Sun Celebration tonight." As the white unicorn spoke, Pinkie Pie had managed to casually walk to the table with all the items still miraculously balanced on her body. The other two mare's in the room, quickly set the table before Pinkie cut the cake. Rarity levitated the champagne bottle over and offered it to Twilight. "Would you like to do the honors darling?"

"Oh, uh, sure." Twilight answered before taking the bottle in her hand. She tugged on the cork a few times, to no avail, before finally, it shot off towards the other side of the room, like a comet with a foamy liquid tail following close behind it. The mage in-training then levitated the six glasses to her, so she could easily pour the contents of the bottle into them, before grabbing one in her hand and floating the others to her new "friends". "Cheers, I guess.", Twilight spoke awkwardly as she lifted her glass slightly. Her words followed by the clanging of glasses, as the other ponies happily raised their own to hers, before all taking sip.

Later

Twilight, Spike, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and those little gremlins that caused the juice explosion at Sweet Apple Acres earlier that day, who Twilight had been informed were named Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle, stood among a joyous crowd inside the Ponyville Amphitheater. The group, minus Twilight and Spike who respectively, wore a simple but high quality blue dress and black tux they brought from Canterlot, were all decked out in the finest dresses Rarity could offer; dyed in colors complimenting their personal manes and coats and studded with small bits of gems to make them sparkle in the light of the amphitheater. Five of the six mares, the three fillies, and the dragon looked around the building with starry eyes, while Twilight simply wondered how such a small town had a theater that was big enough to accommodate a crowd of several hundred ponies from both the town's population, a few dozen Canterlot nobles, and have a stage large enough for couple or so platoons of guards could stand on it.

The ponies around them buzzed with excitement at the soon to be arrival of their ruler while sharing drinks, snacks, their own excitement with their fellow ponies. Above them, the pegasi that were not attending the celebration with earth bound ponies, like Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, were doing much of the same while floating. Meanwhile on stage, two columns of Princess Celestia's personal guard stood stoicly on either side of the podium at the center of the stage in their gold plated armour, holding up spears, halbereds, and long rifles topped with bayonets.

Soon enough, the noisy chatter of the crowd was silenced by the booming of royal horns and on stage appeared the town's mayor, followed closely by the only known alicorn left in Equestria, beside Celestia herself and the captain of the guard. Twilight had half a mind to wave at them, but managed to refrain from doing so and nudged Spike, who had not refrained from doing so, as the Mayor of Ponyville began her to speak, while the three fillies and little dragon were lifted up by their respective big sister figures to get a better look.

"Welcome my dear ponies! Welcome all of you, young and old and from here and from far away, to this wonderous honour that has been bestowed upon us by our great, noble, and wise princess..." A cold, unexpected wind from outside began to flow through the amphitheater while the mayor spoke. "has chosen to bless our humble little town with her presence during one of our nation's most cherished celebrations..." As she continued, what started out as a light breeze steadily, but quickly strengthened into a violent and powerful gust that swirled around, knocking off hats, ruining intricately styled manes around, and blowing away that paper that sat on the podium the pony onstage was reading from.

"Uh," the mayor tried to continue while struggling to keep the papers on the podium from blowing away in the wind, which only grew more powerful and violent. "our dearest princess... I mean protector! Who by herself, raises the very sun and moon we need to (Boom!!!!!)..." As soon as she got those words out, the deafening booms and crackles of thunder silenced her while flashes of lightning blinded all in attendance. All around ponies exchanged confused glances and wondered where the freak storm was coming from, and in-between flashes of lightning the crowd caught glimpses of what appeared to be a streams of pure black smoke converging behind the mayor and swirling in a large mass before everypony went silent and the storm seemingly came to a sudden stop.

"Uh... well (caugh) (caugh)," the mare on stage tried to regain her composure, not realizing who stood behind her, until she was unceremoniously slapped aside with enough force to send her crashing into the adjacent guard column and knock two of the large armored guard stallions to the floor.

"Why so silent, my precious little ponies?"

Author's Note

(sigh) Finally! I got the introduction out of the way!

A/N: Okay, again, I unfortunately have to this A/N by saying I'm sorry for taking over a month to get this out. I've been going through a lot of personal crap that gets me down and puts me in such a bad mood, sometimes I just want to lay in bed and sulk in my own misery. But I'm trying to work through all that and hopefully now that the story has finally gotten started, I'll be able to get things going at a decent rate.

One of the other reasons this story has taken so long to get going is that I have been very conflicted on how to introduce characters that my readers will already know with the same set up as their original intoduction, without being repetitive. Part of me wanted to just skim over most of Twilight's introductions to her soon to be friends, and even as I was finishing this chapter, I was tempted to just excise the chunk between Twilight's (proper) introduction to Pinkie and them at the Summer Sun Celebration together. But I that just didn't right to me. I was also conflicted on how far I should go into Nightmare Moon's introduction, before deciding to just get this chapter out and the meat of that for the next chapter.

One thing I'd like to clarify for anyone who might be wondering, is that as this arc goes on I do plan on gradually diverging from canon.

Anyway, I would really appreciate any feed back you'll could give me and I'm honestly curious to here what any of you think so far. In any case, hope you enjoyed the chapter.