One summer morning, Pinkie stepped outside her house and took a deep breath of the warm, fresh smell lingering in the air.
“Ahhhh,” she sighed with pleasure, as her lungs filled up with the freshness of the summer air. “What a wonderful day.”
She walked further into her backyard, marveling at the wonders of what summer brings. “The sun is out, the trees are shining, the birds are chirping…”
She took another deep breath in and out.
“So peaceful.”
Then, Pinkie, pacing around the grass of her backyard, went over what to do today.
“Let’s see. Because of such a beautiful day, I should be able to do something outside. But what? Hmmmm. I could take a walk around the park. Nah, too boring. I could bake up a batch of yummy treats and have a bake sale. Nope, that would make me stay inside for most of the day, and by the time I start the bake sale, it would already be dusk. I could set off some pranks with Rainbow Dash on everyone for the whole afternoon…nah. Too monotonous. Oh, what should I do?!”
Pinkie stopped pacing and thought as hard as she could for an activity to do on this wonderful summer day. And after a couple minutes of hard thinking, she got an idea.
“Aha! I’ve got it!” she announced.
She then ran back inside, went down into the basement, and grabbed some boards of wood that were lying on the floor.
“I’ve been meaning to use these old boards to create a lemonade stand, but I believe that this will be something even better!”
She grabbed a toolbox filled with carpenter tools, such as hammers, wrenches, nails, tape measures, saws, and various other tools. Then she skipped her way back upstairs and out the patio door, and plunked the items down on the ground of the backyard lawn. After she got all the tools, she immediately set to work on a bubble stand that she thought could get as many people interested in blowing bubbles as with buying lemonade. She remembered how to make a stand like that on account of her father showing her how to do it when she was just a kid, round about 7 or 8 years old.
But all that construction was upsetting Pinkie’s next-door neighbor, Aria Blaze, who was studying the music to a segment in a classical opera she liked called “The Magic Flute” in order to train her voice to be in tune again after what happened at the Battle of the Bands. She was so annoyed by the noise of Pinkie’s project that she went over to her bedroom window and opened it so she could talk out of it and be heard.
“Can we lower the volume, please?!” she shouted over the noise of Pinkie sawing and hammering. “I can’t sing with all that racket going on!”
“Oh. Sure thing, Aria!” she shouted back to her.
Aria was still exasperated over Pinkie’s noise, but her pink neighbor’s assurance that she’ll be slightly less noisy gave her some extra relief.
“Thank you,” she huffed. And then she went back to studying the piece.
“Okay, Pinkie,” Pinkie said to herself. “Let’s not make anymore noise. Aria gets easily irritated.”
So, she grabbed another nail, positioned itself onto the wood board, and proceeded to nail it softly to the wood. But while she hammered the nail, she glanced up at Aria’s house to make sure if that is the right level of quietness that Aria would likely tolerate. And it seemed that Pinkie was doing her work at the right level of quietness that Aria would want to tolerate.
Meanwhile, Aria got finished studying the piece that she was about to practice and readied herself to sing it.
“Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages,” Aria announced to herself, giving the impression of someone introducing her during a classical music recital. “We present to you the Queen of the Night’s aria from ‘The Magic Flute’ by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sung by former Dazzling Miss Aria Blaze. Thank you, thank you.”
Pinkie overheard Aria’s mock introduction.
“Mozart, huh?” Pinkie said to herself. “I’ve heard of him before, but never stopped to hear his music.”
Aria then took out a record of a section of the opera, set it down on the record player, and set the needle down on the record. In a matter of seconds, the song began to play.
What Pinkie heard was interesting, despite herself being a girl of pop music. She had hardly heard classical music in her life, and what she heard was unlike anything she had heard before.
And then, after a couple seconds after the music started, Aria started singing. She remembered what happened to the Dazzlings after the Battle of the Bands. She remembered that after the Rainbooms defeated them, their voices were shrill and off-key. But now, Pinkie was surprised to hear that Aria’s voice was not shrill or off-key anymore.
She was also impressed at the voice range Aria had for that particular song. She had never heard Aria sing like that before.
“Wow! She can go really high,” Pinkie said. She really was astounded by how Aria’s voice sounded.
But all this listening and astonishment of Aria’s voice was getting Pinkie off track, so she went back to work, although she still kept her work quiet so she wouldn’t disturb Aria any further. But Pinkie quickly realized that she wasn’t going anywhere at the rate she was working at. So, she decided to go back at the pace that she started with, which was really fast and noisy. So noisy, in fact, that it made Aria mess up on her singing. And she went back to her window, opened it, and stuck her head out of it.
“I thought I told you that I…” Aria began, but the sight of what she thought was a well-constructed lemonade stand immediately cut her off.
“Hey, Ari!” Pinkie shouted to Aria. “Wanna blow some bubbles?! Only 25 ¢!”
“Yeah, right!” Aria shouted back. “As if I would spend a moment of my time blowing bubbles.” Aria scoffed. “Puh-lease! I mean, who in the world would pay to blow bubbles?!”
“I don’t know, Ari, but someone oughta come and blow a few bubbles here and there.”
Suddenly, Aria’s roommate Sonata heard what Aria and Pinkie were talking about.
“BUBBLES?!!” Sonata exclaimed in excitement. She immediately ran downstairs, put on her boots, and ran outside to Pinkie’s stand. In fact, she ran so fast that it looked more like a turquoise blur to Pinkie when she ran up to the stand.
“AAAH!” Pinkie yelped. “Oh, jeez, Sonata! You scared me!”
“Sorry, Pinkie, but I just can’t deny the opportunity to blow bubbles! Maybe it’s my childish instincts.”
“Well, for just 25 ¢, you can blow as many bubbles as you want.”
“Yay!” Sonata felt so much glee and happiness that she started jumping up and down. “Let me just get my wallet.”
“Wait, you have a wallet? Does that mean that you actually have money?”
“Uh, yeah. What do you think we’ve been doing after the Battle of the Bands? Living on the streets like homeless people?” Sonata shuddered at the thought. “We’ve just been given community service around town, and we’ve been paid $7.25 an hour.”
After what seemed like a couple seconds, Sonata got her wallet out. She then skimmed through the money she earned and pulled out a quarter.
“Will this cover it?”
“Yup. That’s 25 ¢ right there.”
Pinkie then took the quarter, opened the cash register that was sitting on the side of the stand, put the quarter in there, and closed it. She then picked up a bubble container, dipped the wand into the soap, and gave it to Sonata.
“One bubble wand, dipped and ready to go.” She tittered at what she said.
“Thank you, Pinkie.” Sonata then took in a big, deep breath and blew into the wand, which let out lots of bubbles, much to Sonata’s delight. She was so happy, in fact, that she decided to pop as many bubbles as she can.
“Hmm. Not bad, Sonata, not bad,” Pinkie remarked. “But there’s a certain special technique that I use whenever I’m blowing bubbles. Wanna know what it is?”
“Oh, boy! Do I?!” Sonata exclaimed.
“25 ¢, please. I can’t just give you something for free, you know. This is business.”
“Okay, then.” Sonata then took out her wallet again, took out another quarter, and gave it to Pinkie. Pinkie then proceeded to put the quarter in the cash register.
“Okay, Sonata,” Pinkie started. “This is what I call ‘The Pinkie Technique’.”
Pinkie then stepped away from the bubble stand and onto an open space so she can demonstrate to Sonata what her technique looks like.
“First, go like this…” Pinkie lifted her right leg up behind her. “…spin around…” She spun around. “STOP!” Pinkie suddenly stopped spinning. “Double-take three times. One, two, three.” Every time Pinkie counted, she looked the other way. “Then…hip bump! Bam!” She bumped her hip to the left. “Bam!” She bumped her hip to the right. “By the way, it’s left then right, not right then left. Don’t forget it, all right?” Pinkie then put her hands on her hips. “Now, it’s time to bring it around town.” As she said that, she twirled her hips. “Briiing it aroouund towwn. Then, you do this…” She jumped up, and made her body look like the letter X. “…then this…” She jumped up again. “…then all of this…” She then did some outrageous motions with her body. “…and finally…” She blew into the wand, and a bubble in the form of a cupcake came out of the wand.
“Ooooooh!” Sonata exclaimed, in wonder and awe.
Pinkie then took in another breath, blew into the wand, and out came a bubble in the shape of a rubber duck.
“Ahhhhhh!” Sonata exclaimed again, still in wonder and awe.
Pinkie, again, took in another deep breath, blew into the wand, and out came a bubble in the shape of Gummy, Pinkie’s stuffed alligator toy.
“Whoa! Cool!”
For the final bubble, Pinkie grabbed the bubble wand with both hands.
“And now, with two hands!”
Pinkie took a great, big, deep breath and blew into the wand. The bubble that emerged was in the shape of a small cannon!
“Oh…my…God!”
Almost immediately after Sonata spoke, the cannon blasted a cannonball that was going for Aria’s house! And unfortunately, her bedroom window was open, and just as the cannonball hit Aria’s house, it exploded making a huge boom.
Aria was so shaken up by the sound that it made her storm out of her room, through her house, and out the door to her backyard.
“Uh-oh,” Sonata whispered to Pinkie. “I think we made Aria mad.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” Pinkie whispered back.
Aria began looking around her backyard for Pinkie and Sonata.
“Quick, hide under my bubble stand,” Pinkie whispered to Sonata.
Sonata and Pinkie hid under the bubble stand, and Pinkie put up a “closed” sign.
Aria then started walking over to where Pinkie’s bubble stand is just to interrogate her and Sonata about what just happened.
“I think we should close our eyes,” Sonata whispered to Pinkie.
“Why?”
“Because I learned that if you can’t see anything, someone else won’t see you.”
“Good idea, Sonata.”
After a few seconds, Aria reached Pinkie’s bubble stand. She rolled her eyes at the sight of Sonata doing her “if I can see you then you can’t see me” thing. Again.
“You know that doesn’t work, Sonata,” Aria said, annoyed.
“Oh, man,” Sonata said, feeling discouraged that her philosophy did not work.
“Uh…I’m terribly sorry, ma’am,” Pinkie began. “But this bubble stand is clo…”
“Don’t give me any of that,” Aria said, irritated. “How on Earth could you two possibly make all this noise just by blowing bubbles?”
“Actually, we’re not just blowing bubbles, Aria,” Pinkie informed Aria. “We’re making bubble art! Wanna see my bubble blowing technique?”
“Uh, no,” Aria immediately said. But, Pinkie won’t take “no” for an answer.
“Aw, come on, Ari,” Pinkie begged. “You know you want to. Also, your bubbles won’t look as good if you don’t do the technique.”
“I don’t care, Pinkie. I don’t want to…”
Pinkie immediately stepped over to the same area in which she demonstrated the “Technique” to Sonata.
“Watch carefully, Ari,” Pinkie began. Aria was so ticked off that she face palmed herself.
“There’s no stopping her, is there?” Aria asked Sonata. In response, Sonata shook her head, although still smiling.
“First, go like this…” Pinkie lifted her right leg up behind her. “…spin around…” She spun around. “STOP!” Pinkie suddenly stopped spinning. “Double-take three times. One, two, three.” Every time Pinkie counted, she looked the other way. “Then…hip bump! Bam!” She bumped her hip to the left. “Bam!” She bumped her hip to the right. “By the way, it’s left then right, not right then left. Don’t forget it, all right?” Pinkie then put her hands on her hips. “Now, it’s time to bring it around town.” As she said that, she twirled her hips. “Briiing it aroouund towwn. Then, you do this…” She jumped up, and made her body look like the letter X. “…then this…” She jumped up again. “…then all of this…” She then did some outrageous motions with her body. “…and finally…” She blew into the wand, and a bubble in the form of a butterfly came out of the wand, and flew right to the top of Aria’s head. After a couple seconds, it popped.
Aria wiped the extra bubble soap in her hair off.
“That’s not art,” Aria said to Pinkie and Sonata. “That’s just annoying. Blowing bubbles. Ha! That is the lamest idea I have ever heard.”
That last statement that Aria said discouraged Pinkie and Sonata, so much so that their heads were sagging. Pinkie immediately headed for her house, with Sonata following close behind.
“You should be ashamed of yourselves,” Aria added.
“You just don’t understand the fine art of bubble blowing,” Pinkie muttered to Aria, under her breath.
Once Pinkie and Sonata were inside, they closed the door behind them.
Aria laughed to herself at what Pinkie and Sonata were doing.
“Bubbles,” she muttered to herself. “Art? Psh. As if. It’s just ridiculous.”
Aria eyed the bubble container and the wand sitting inside it. She picked the wand up, and toyed with it. She felt the texture of the wand gripping onto it.
“Hmm. Looks brand new,” Aria muttered to herself. “Well, one thing I’ll say is that I like its bluish purple color. ‘Cause purple’s my favorite color. Heck, it’s my own color scheme.” She looked down at her clothes, seeing that they’re different tints and shades of purple.
Meanwhile, from inside Pinkie’s house, she and Sonata see Aria examining the bubble wand.
“What do you think Ari’s doing?” whispered Sonata to Pinkie.
“I don’t know, Sonata,” whispered Pinkie in response. “But it looks like she’s thinking about blowing her first bubble.”
“Ooh! Let’s sneak outside to find out.”
“Good idea.”
The two girls snuck to the front of the house, out the front door, and quietly made their way to the bubble stand where Aria was still standing, still examining the bubble wand.
Aria suddenly made a decision that went against her own principle of being mature. She was going to try to blow a bubble through that one wand that she was still holding. She looked all around the yard just to see if there was no one watching her. She then lifted the wand to her mouth, took a deep breath and…
“That’ll be 25 ¢, ma’am,” Pinkie blurted out, blowing her and Sonata’s cover.
What Pinkie said startled Aria. She didn’t even know that Pinkie and Sonata were nearby. She yelped out of surprise, just like a kid would if a jack-in-the-box had opened in front of their eyes.
Pinkie had caught Aria, who was about to blow a single bubble, even though that went against her dignity of acting mature. But just before she spoke, she resumed acting maturely.
“Who-who would pay 25 ¢ to blow bubbles?” she boasted.
“We also offer lessons for beginners,” Pinkie informed.
“Beginners?” Aria scoffed. “What could be more simple than blowing one stupid, little bubble?”
Aria took out her wallet—which was the same color as her pants—opened it, took out a quarter, and put it down on the stand.
“Here is your stupid 25 ¢.”
Aria dipped the wand in the bubble soap and lifted it up to Aria’s lips.
“Watch and learn,” she said to Pinkie and Sonata.
She took in a deep breath, and blew into the wand, but nothing happened.
“What? What happened?” Aria said to herself.
She took another deep breath and blew into the wand again, but still nothing happened.
“What’s the matter with this thing?” Aria examined the wand, making sure if it’s not faulty.
“Maybe you’re not breathing into the wand right?” suggested Sonata.
“Oh, yeah, sure,” Aria responded, sarcastically. “Like I don’t know how to blow a dumb bubble right.”
For the third time, Aria took a really deep breath, and blew into the wand really hard, and it resulted in a bubble coming out of the wand, but it landed on the ground and popped right on contact.
“Aaaah…just a mere warm-up,” Aria admitted, frustrated.
She took out her wallet again, opened it, and put another quarter down on the stand. She then dipped the wand into the soap, took another deep breath, and another bubble came out of the wand, but it too landed on the ground and popped upon contact.
She took yet another quarter out of her wallet and laid it down onto the table of the stand. She then dipped the bubble wand into the soap and blew into it, but another bubble dud escaped through the wand, landed on the ground, and popped.
“Hey, Aria, remember the Technique!” Pinkie reminded. But Aria didn’t listen to her. She kept on trying to blow the perfect bubble, and paying for every attempt in between.
Pinkie and Sonata tried getting Aria to remember the Technique and use it on blowing proper bubbles, but it didn’t work.
After a short while, Aria breathed in and out for so long that she got a little lightheaded. She had to sit down, just to catch her breath. So, she did, right next to the bubble stand.
Pinkie and Sonata noticed that Aria stopped trying to blow bubbles, and they stopped trying to get her to pay attention to them.
“Uh, Pinkie?” Sonata addressed Pinkie.
“Yeah, Sonata?” Pinkie answered.
“I think there’s something wrong with Aria.”
“Yeah, maybe you’re right. Let’s check up on her.”
“Good idea.”
The two girls went up to where Aria was sitting down, and knelt down so they can be at eye-level with each other.
“You okay, Ari?” Sonata asked.
“You really want to know?” Aria responded, irritated.
“Uh, yeah,” Sonata replied. “I’m your sister.”
Sonata did have a point. Nowadays, people would let their siblings in on whatever problem they have. And Aria had to tell Sonata about what the matter was, especially because they have been together for hundreds of years.
“Well, if you must know,” Aria began. “I feel a little dizzy after having to breathe in and blow out into that darn bubble wand.”
“Yeah, it didn’t look like anything was happening,” Sonata agreed.
“But you know what was missing?” Pinkie chimed in.
“Please don’t say it,” Aria said, irritated again.
“The Technique!” Pinkie answered with such glee that it made Aria cringe.
“Yeah, Ari!” Sonata agreed. “You can’t blow a proper bubble without doing the Technique.”
“Yeah, Ari!” Pinkie joined in.
Pinkie and Sonata were pleading Ari to do the Technique so much that it was quickly making her mad.
Finally, she snapped!
“AAAAAAAAH!!!” she screamed. “Technique, technique, technique, TECHNIQUE!!!”
She stood up, went over to an open space in the yard, and, much to Pinkie and Sonata’s amazement, Aria started doing the Technique. But Aria despised doing it, as Pinkie and Sonata could tell by the tone of her voice. She sounded purely frustrated.
“First, go like this…” Aria lifted her right leg up behind her. “…spin around…” She spun around. “STOP!” Aria suddenly stopped spinning. “Double-take three times. One, two, three.” Every time Aria counted, she looked the other way. “Then…hip bump! Bam!” She bumped her hip to the left. “Bam!” She bumped her hip to the right. “It’s left then right, not right then left. Don’t forget it!” Aria then put her hands on her hips. “Now, it’s time to bring it around town.” As she said that, she twirled her hips. “Briiing it aroouund towwn. Then, do this…” She jumped up, and made her body look like the letter X. “…then this…” She jumped up again. “…then all of this…” She then did some outrageous motions with her body. “…and finally…” She took a big, deep breath in, and she screamed into the wand at the top of her lungs! “AAAAAAAAH!!!” And as Aria was screaming, a giant bubble emerged from the wand. But that scream wore Aria out so much and wasted so much of her breath that she collapsed and gasped for breath.
Sonata noticed what Aria was doing, and went over to her for help.
“Hold on, Aria. Hold on. Breathe. Breathe,” Sonata told Aria.
“What happened?” Aria asked, out of breath.
“You did it, Ari!” Sonata replied. “You blew a perfect bubble!”
“Yeah, and look at the size of it!” Pinkie added. “It’s bigger than any of us!”
Aria stood up, feeling a little bit better, and looked at the giant bubble that Aria blew minutes ago.
“Wow,” Aria exclaimed in disbelief. “I really did it, didn’t I?”
Aria let out a light chuckle at her creation.
“Now, that’s a bubble,” Aria declared.
“You said it, Ari,” Pinkie agreed. “You see? It is all in the Technique.”
“Yeah, the Technique,” Sonata chimed in.
“Technique? Hah. Pinkie, you don’t think I created that great, big, beautiful bubble with your help,” Aria bragged. “Come on. It’s in my genes.”
Aria went back inside, feeling very proud of what she created. And as she walked over to her house, Pinkie and Sonata started chanting.
“Ari’s got genes! Ari’s got genes! Ari’s got genes!”
“Thank you very much, ladies,” Aria said, as she reached her house.
She then opened the door, went in, and closed the door behind her. Once inside, she went back upstairs to her bedroom, and started the Mozart record up again. Once the song started playing, she sang along with the singer on the record.
Meanwhile outside, Pinkie and Sonata were still chanting.
“All right, Sonata. That’s enough chanting,” Pinkie told Sonata, after a minute of chanting. “We gotta put this stuff away.”
“Oh, man,” Sonata complained. “It’s not even sunset yet.”
“Yeah, but it’s already lunchtime, and I’m getting kinda hungry.”
“Yeah, me, too. Whaddya say we have lunch together? Then, we could discuss how to get more people to come to your bubble stand.”
“That sounds like a plan, Sonata. I like the way you think.”
Pinkie and Sonata went over to Pinkie’s house, but just when the two of them got up to the door, they noticed Aria’s giant bubble moving straight towards her house.
“Uh, Pinkie?” Sonata addressed Pinkie.
“Yeah, Sonata?” Pinkie replied.
“Do you see what I see?”
“Yup. Yup, I do.”
After Pinkie said her answer, Aria’s bubble slowly enveloped her house!
“Aaaah!” Sonata yelped. “Aria!”
“Aria!” Pinkie followed suit.
They both ran up to Aria’s house, which began rising up from the ground by the rising of the giant bubble. They kept calling to Aria in order to make her see what’s going on. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. Aria was still in her own little world, singing along to the Mozart record.
Finally, she finished singing. Once the record finished playing the song, Aria looked out the window and spoke to an imaginary crowd.
“Hello, my friends,” she began. “You are looking at a…”
She noticed something strange about what’s outside her bedroom window. All she sees is blue.
“Uh…what’s going on here?” she asked to herself, confused at what’s happening.
She went over to the window, opened it, and looked all around in order to see what’s going on. And once she looked down, she saw that she was floating in midair on account of the giant bubble that enveloped her house.
“Great,” she muttered.
A couple minutes later, the giant bubble floated so high that it popped with a big, sonic boom.
After the bubble popped, Aria’s house started falling. After a few minutes, her house crashed onto the ground.
“Ooh, this doesn’t look good,” Pinkie said, afraid of Aria’s imminent fury towards her and Sonata.
“Nope,” Sonata replied, equally afraid. “Nope, it doesn’t.”
In order to avoid getting yelled and screamed at, Pinkie and Sonata headed straight for Pinkie’s house.
Luckily, Aria was too shaken up by the impact that she lied down on the floor of her bedroom. She obviously wasn’t going to be yelling at the two girls anytime soon.
“Curse you, Pinkie and Sonata,” Aria drowsily said.
