Edited on July 28th, 2013 for a missing word. Thanks to bjshnog.
Pinkie Pie stood back and admired her own hoofwork. She was a baker pony, a creator of pastries and confections of the baked variety. The ability to spell names was a very necessary requirement since she loved to celebrate birthdays. She blew a raspberry as she remembered her first birthday cake. What kind of pony forgets to write the birthday pony’s name on the cake? A very bad pony, that’s what! Actually, no. It was probably a forgetful pony, because no pony could be bad, since being bad was a very bad thing, indeed.
It was a large sign, but that was no problem for Pinkie. Traipsing around Ponyville with the party cannon had done wonders to her physique; some might even call her toned, or muscular. A single day of cupcake consumption easily rid her of that, and the next day the cycle would begin anew, just as it always had.
She put down her strawberry cupcake to take another glance at her sign: “Everypony dies.” She was absolutely certain it was a fine sign, crafted with the finest wood ponies could find, and painted with the finest paints from Canterlot. Only the best of the best made it to her hooves, be it pastry or project.
It was going to be a fantastic day. Today was the day of Ponyville’s very first dye competition, hosted by Rarity. It was an effort to bring a little more awareness of the wonders of fashion to their sleepy little town, and what better way to do it than to have the ponies try their hoof at it themselves? To help with publicity, Rarity had explicitly told her to make a sign that said “Everypony dies”, so make a sign, she did.
Her next task would be to walk around town wearing the sign being her usual, boisterous self to promote the competition. It would be held later in the day, to ensure that ponies would set aside time for their little competition. It wouldn’t be very nice for her or Rarity to push ponies to attend out of the blue, so the two agreed on promotion instead.
She pulled a strap with her mouth, securing the harness in place. “Everypony dies.” It was a short, clear message to the ponies about what they would be doing at the competition! Rarity wasn’t here, but Pinkie was certain that even she would approve of the minimalism in the sign. It was a nice wooden board painted with the colors of the rainbow, with a nice red for the text. Pinkie had deliberated on the color of the text for over an hour, but eventually settled on red like her strawberry cupcake frosting.
“Goodness, Pinkie! What in the world is that on your back?” Pinkie stopped halfway to the front door of Sugarcube Corner, and turned to face her employer.
“Hi, Mrs. Cake! I’m helping Rarity with a thing later today, and I made this sign to help her out! What do you think?” She hopped ecstatically over to the counter, allowing the older mare to get a clear view of the sign. “Eh? Eh? Really interesting, right?”
“By Celestia, Pinkie! Does your Pinkie Sense have anything to say about this?”
“Absolutely! My Pinkie Sense tells me that it’s going to happen for sure, and it’s going to happen later today! It’s going to be so huge that no pony will be able to miss it, and everypony will get a front seat!”
“Oh... oh, Celestia.” Cup Cake walked into the kitchen and pushed her husband to the counter, pointing at the sign. “Dear, look! Pinkie’s sense predicted this!”
“Oh, my gosh, the twins! We have to save the twins! We can’t open the shop today, Pinkie, so just find someplace to hide!” Cup and Carrot Cake dashed up the stairs to save their beloved foals.
Pinkie blinked. That was one weird response. It wasn’t in her mental library, but now was a good time to make a new entry. Panicking ponies were not something she was familiar with—happy acceptance was the most common response, and there were a rare few instances where the pony would try to avoid her, but this? This was new to her. She’d have to find a way to please these ponies, but first, she would make a round through town.
She had a job to do, after all.
Pinkie wasn’t entirely sure what day it was today—she had forgotten to check her calendar before heading out, but she was certain today was a good day. It was also a very terrific day for promoting for her friend, too, and she set about doing exactly that.
Strangely enough, there weren’t any ponies outside of Sugarcube Corner. A closed shop wasn’t very attractive to customers, Pinkie rationalized. There was no point in waiting in line if the shop wasn’t open yet, and especially since it was still fairly early in the day and ponies like their quiet time.
The marketplace, though, was bustling at this time. Pinkie trotted through the area, happily making her way to the nearest elevated position. Most merchants, unfortunately, did not take kindly to Pinkie jumping onto their tables to break into a dance routine, so she had to take the next best stage. A small soap box sat in the middle of the market, and Pinkie jumped onto it with gusto.
Pinkie pulled out a megaphone from her harness, and tapped it a few times to ensure it was in working order before she switched it on. “Attention, everypony!”
The merchants and customers alike stopped their activities to listen to Pinkie Pie. Most, if not all of the ponies in Ponyville were familiar with the influence Pinkie wielded, and for her to come to the marketplace personally meant that this announcement was important indeed.
“Everypony, I have an important announcement!” She pointed a hoof at the sign on her back. “Rarity’s holding a dyeing competition later today, and we’d really appreciate it if everypony could come! Give your best shot at dyeing! It’s open for everypony to try, so even the foals and the elderly should give it a chance!”
The crowd stood in silence as they contemplated this information. Pinkie was known for her various antics, but she never took them beyond a certain point. Some were convinced it was a joke, and looked on nervously. Most of the crowd, however, simply looked on in confusion. The sign on Pinkie’s back looked rather ominous in red text, and to a few it was downright disturbing.
A stallion near the front of the crowd raised a hoof.
“Hello, mister! You got a question?” Pinkie enthusiastically obliged.
“Uh, yeah, I do. What’s the sign on your back mean?” He was really hoping it was a mistake.
“That’s simple, silly! Everypony is going to dye!”
“E-everypony is going to die?” It was one thing to read it, but to hear her say it was another thing entirely.
“Yep! Everypony is going to dye by the time today is over!”
“D-did your Pinkie Sense tell you this?” The legendary reputation of Pinkie’s sense was not lost on the townsponies, as they have had to deal with it for far too long to simply ignore it.
“Of course, silly! Like I said, everypony is going to dye—” Pinkie was met with a cacophony of yells as the marketplace broke into bedlam.
“Oh, Celestia!”
“I’m too young to die!”
“Somepony hold me!”
“I knew she’d be the prophet!”
“Why, out of all things to predict, WHY?!”
Pinkie could only stare on in confusion, the smile still on her lips. This was definitely a new reaction from ponies. What could she do? This whole situation confused her more than Twilight’s insistence on testing the Pinkie Sense. Did the ponies not like it? Well, it wasn’t entirely clear to her if they didn’t like it. They seemed to really dislike the sign, however. Perhaps the color choice was very obtrusive to the eyes?
She took a look around the marketplace. Usually Applejack would have greeted her the moment she arrived, but her stall was mysteriously absent at the moment. That meant she hadn’t gotten the news, and neither had any of her other friends. Rarity would at least expect her to invite Twilight and the others, and she wouldn’t be a very good friend if none of her other friends showed up for Rarity’s big town event.
“I know! I’ll head over to Twilight’s, then Fluttershy’s, then Dashie’s, and then we’ll go find Applejack and get the fun started!”
She lowered herself onto the ground, humming a tune as she walked casually through the crowd of panicking ponies. Completely oblivious to her surroundings, she began to sing under her breath.
“Everypony, everypony, everypony is going to dye~!”
“Ugh, what in the world is making that ruckus?” Spike looked out the window and saw a few plumes of dust rising from the other side of Ponyville. “Wow. For once, we didn’t have anything to do with this!”
“Spike, what’s going on?” Twilight joined him next to the window and stared out to where Spike pointed. “Oh, dear. Is it a stampede?”
“I don’t think so. I didn’t feel the ground shaking, and the last time it happened it was really obvious it was a stampede, even from the library.”
Look, Twilight! Pinkie’s coming to the library! I hope she brought some cupcakes.”
“You can have the cupcakes after you’re done sorting these books, okay?”
“But there’s like, three stacks!”
Twilight stared at him. “Really? Three stacks? You usually do a whole shelf, you know.”
“Today has been weird enough already. I don’t think it’ll be any different if I don’t sort the books today.” He folded his arms and leaned back in his chair. “And besides, Pinkie’s gonna be here soon. That means I’m going to end up sorting a whole shelf of books anyways.” He sighed in resignation and went back to organizing his collection of gems.
“I better hurry up and move this table out of the way, otherwise Pinkie will—”
Twilight was interrupted as the door burst open in a cloud of confetti, rolling through the air and landing on the table. The table creaked under the weight, and Twilight grimaced as she looked up at the pink pony. Thankfully, this table was more resilient than the last one, courtesy of Davenport’s connections.
“Heya, Twilight! There’s a super-duper-riffic competition going on later today and it would be great if you and Spike could attend!”
“Oh, really? Where is it?”
“It’s being held on the grass field outside of Ponyville! You know, where Dashie always practices her flying stunts! Everything’s all set up and all we need now is for everypony to attend!”
“What’s the event about?” Twilight leaned her head left and right in accordance with Pinkie’s dancing, trying to get a good look at the sign.
“Oh, that’s super simple, Twilight!” Pinkie stopped and stood triumphantly, turning to display the sign. “Check it out!”
“Uh... ‘everypony dies’?”
“Yepperoni! Everypony dyes!”
“Are you sure that you might have—”
“Rarity’s going to be so happy when she sees how many ponies show up! And with all the juice I’m going to bring, this party is going to be off the hook!”
“Juice for what, Pinkie?”
“The dyeing competition, duh! Everypony’s going to compete in dyeing!”
“Are you sure you didn’t—”
“Twilight! I’m super serious this time.”
“A... dying competition?” Twilight frowned with concern. Either Pinkie had gone off the deep end, or she really was taking this seriously. Given that Pinkie hadn’t broken out into song, the unicorn could only conclude that the latter was what occurred.
“Yep! A dyeing competition!”
“And you said everypony was in it?”
“Well, I’d really appreciate if everypony could participate, but I know some ponies are really busy today. That’s okay, they can make it to the next one!”
“And... you have a pretty good feeling about this?” Twilight looked at Spike, who merely shrugged his shoulders. He had even less of a clue than she did, so he resumed shelving the books that Pinkie had knocked down, muttering to himself about shelf quality.
“I told you, Twilight. I’m super, duper serious about this.” Pinkie bumped noses with Twilight as she walked straight up to her.
“Uh... huh.” Spike threw a scroll over his shoulder, which Twilight caught with her magic and opened up. She’d have to jot down a new entry for the Pinkie Sense, as this was a brand new prediction: the ability to predict the end of the world.
“I’m so super serious about this that my Pinkie Sense will vouch for me.” She sat down on the table as her tail started to helicopter wildly. “See? This is— oh, wait. I’ve never seen this one before!”
“And this is different from your usual tail movement in what way?” Twilight hastily scribbled down a few notes about rotational differences, pausing every few seconds to look at Pinkie’s tail. Notes were good, diagrams and sketches were even better.
“Well, usually it goes up and down, or side to side, or it just shakes in place! But this time, it’s—woo, look at me, I’m flying!” Pinkie’s tail generated enough lift to carry her into the air, and she started buzzing around the library’s lower floor. “Look at me, Twilight! I’m a flying machine, hear me ‘bzzz’!”
“So your Pinkie Sense is absolutely certain that this... dying competition,” Twilight emphasized hesitantly, “is really going to happen?”
“Yep! Oh, look, there’s the window! Open sesame!”
Twilight rolled her eyes and released the latch on the window with her magic, and the wind swung it open with a few errant leaves. “Look, Pinkie. I don’t think you should tell anypony about this yet. If what your Pinkie Sense says is true, which I really hope it isn’t, we shouldn’t go around causing general hysteria amongst the populace.”
“Ooh, too late for that Twilylyly! I told everypony at the marketplace before I came here, and they all sorta ran away!” She flew out the window and giggled. “Wee! Set course for one-two-three-four Rainbow Dash Lane! See ya later, Twilight!”
As Pinkie flew higher into the sky, Twilight sighed and closed the window again. The window was Rainbow Dash’s preferred entryway, which annoyed Twilight to no end. At the moment, however, she had far more pressing concerns than a rogue pegasus careening through the aperture.
“Spike, take a letter. Princess Celestia should probably know about this.”
Today was Rainbow Dash’s day off. Thunderlane, surprisingly, had decided to take initiative for today’s weather schedule, freeing up some time for the day’s weather team. Although Rainbow had a hunch that Thunderlane was just trying to impress some of the higher-ups in Cloudsdale, she couldn’t really turn down the opportunity to seize a day off.
“Aw, hayseed.” She looked at the Wonderbolts banner she had hung up in the living room. Cloud walls didn’t play very well with tacks, and especially not glue, which made hanging up posters and pictures a chore. The banner fell to the floor unceremoniously, and she was tempted to just roll it up into a ball and toss it in the back of her first-floor closet, much like she had done with every other object she wanted out of sight.
And so she did, picking up the banner with a hoof and dragging it over to the closet. She needed a new banner anyways, since this one was out of date. The absence of Fleetfoot on the roster was a clear indication of that, and Rainbow would be able to make the next show in Manehatten, where there would be in no shortage of memorabilia.
And besides, it wasn’t like the world was going to end if she didn’t have that banner for a day, or a week. And the Wonderbolts definitely didn’t need to know that she’d stuffed all their old stuff in the back of a closet. Maybe she could give some of the items to Scootaloo, but most were probably never going to see Celestia’s light ever again.
A slight buzzing sound assailed her ears. It wasn’t any sound she was familiar with, except for a few bugs she had seen on her camping trip with Rarity and Applejack. A bug making it into her home was an impressive feat indeed, as wind currents tended to blow any small object off course, or force them back to the ground. That included insects, which meant that this bug was either one strong bug, or a really big one.
Dash trotted over to the door to see which one of her guesses was correct. As she opened the door, she realized that it was a really big bug—if that bug were the same size as her, pink, and hovering over to her with her tail.
“Hiya, Dashie! Check out my new wheels!”
“It’s your tail, Pinkie.” Somehow, she was not surprised. Why shouldn’t she be surprised? Pinkie seemed to have many methods of getting up to her house in rain or shine.
“I know, right? It’s just working by itself! I guess that’s a good thing, since I can’t stand on clouds! Wait, I can’t stand on clouds! Oh my gosh, Dashie, I really hope nothing bad happens before I can show you this sign!”
“Uh, sign?” Rainbow tilted her head to get a better view of the thing on Pinkie’s back. Since her tail was keeping her afloat, it meant that the sign was parallel with the ground, making it impossible for anypony to see except from below. “Everypony... um. Dies?”
“Oh, yeah, Dashie! Everypony is going to dye, and it’s going to be spectacular!”
The pegasus was no longer comfortable speaking to her jubilant friend, and started to slowly back into her home. “Yeah, well, I’m kind of busy today, you know? Gotta clean out a whole bunch of stuff, nothing you really need to worry about really, so I’ll just head on back in okaybye—”
“Ooh, maybe I can help!” Pinkie stopped the door with a hoof as her tail increased its power to counteract pushing the door. Perhaps Rainbow’s other theory was correct after all: Pinkie Pie was very strong, and big enough. She wasn’t a bug, though—that would be a rude thing to think about Pinkie Pie—and Rainbow sighed, letting the door open full on to let the giggling pony in.
“Wee! I’m a pegasus, except with a tail, so I’m a tail-asus!”
“Alright, Pinkie. What’s the dealio with the sign on your back?” Rainbow picked up a pizza box and flew over to the trash bin, roughly shoving it inside.
“That’s why I came up here, Dashie! I wanted to tell you that there’s a dyeing competition later today in Ponyville, and everypony is invited! As a matter of fact, I’m going to make sure everypony will go, and that’s what this sign is for!”
Rainbow thought back to when she stumbled into Pinkie on her birthday. Pinkie was... a little under the weather, as was evinced in her flat mane, and she had chased down Rainbow all the way to the barn and was only a hoof away from laying the beatdown on the pegasus until they revealed the birthday party.
Was it some sort of sick joke? Or was it seriously payback?
“Uh, hehehe... yeah... that’s, uh... totally awesome.” Pinkie was her usual exuberant self. Things didn’t make sense to Rainbow Dash—was she still angry, but going about this nicely? Going around to everypony in town asking them, kindly, to die?
“Oh, totally! I went to Twilight earlier today and I think she was happy about it, too! Of course, she just started taking notes like she always does, but I think she’s going to participate!”
“T-Twilight’s gonna do it, too?” Dying conflicted with a lot of her schedule, and Rainbow Dash was fairly certain dying was not a pleasant experience.
“Totally, Dashie! Anyways, I gotta bounce! Gonna go tell Fluttershy and Applejack, woo!”
“But what about Rarity?” Dash yelled out as Pinkie floated through the front door.
“Of course she knows about this, silly! She’s the one who suggested it!”
Rainbow’s eye twitched. Had all her friends gone insane overnight?
“Eeyup, that’s a nasty one.”
“Oh... oh, my...” Fluttershy tugged at the medical kit on her saddlebag. “That is a really bad injury. This might take a while, I don’t want to make any mistakes.”
Macintosh laid on the ground, nursing his front right hoof. “T’aint anythin’ to bother ya with, Miss Fluttershy. I can—”
“No way, Mac. I ain’t gonna let you try to ‘walk this off’ like ya did last time. Remember apple buckin’ season last year? You and your harebrained self-help remedies ain’t gonna win you any medical prizes, that’s for sure. Let Fluttershy handle this, ‘kay?”
Big Mac groaned in defeat, lowering his head. “Alright. Just... tell me if it’s gonna hurt, okay?”
“Of course, Macintosh.” Fluttershy used her wings to pull out some bandages from her saddlebag, and sat down next to the stallion. “Now, I should probably warn you, what I’m about to do is going to hurt.”
“Wait, wait, Miss Fluttershy. Aren’t ya only supposed to work with animals?”
“Well, Nurse Redheart trained me for a few months since the Ponyville hospital is a bit understaffed, just in case an emergency comes up and they need extra ponies to—”
“Sugarcube, I think it’s probably best if you get it over with as soon as possible.” Applejack patted Fluttershy’s shoulder. “It’s a shame Doctor Stable’s a bit busy today what with a few foals gettin’ sick, but I’m really glad to have you around.”
“Oh, thank you, Applejack. It’s okay, I’m more than eager to help.” Fluttershy looked back at Macintosh, eyeing his injured hoof. “Now, I’m going to lay your hoof down, okay? Very slowly, and then we can bandage it up.”
Macintosh stretched out his hoof, squinting his eyes in pain. “I don’t think I can...”
“Slowly, now. You can do it.” Fluttershy egged him on gently, bringing out a clean wooden splint to keep the limb straight.
“Look out, everypony!” A shout from above caught their attention. The three ponies on the ground looked up to see a pink pony erratically try to maintain flight stability as she came rocketing down. “Ooh, boy, I’m starting to realize why pegasusususes use wings instead of tails!”
“Pinkie, watch out! You’re headin’ straight for us!” Applejack moved to protect Fluttershy, leaving Big Macintosh open on the ground, eyes wide as he realized where Pinkie’s landing trajectory would take her.
“Applejack, I don’t think this is a good thing!” Big Mac bemoaned.
Pinkie moved far too quickly for their comfort, flailing her hooves about in a futile effort to regain control, before falling straight to the ground, right on the spot where the three ponies stood. Applejack threw her hooves around Fluttershy to protect her, while Big Mac watched as Pinkie flew straight into his injured hoof.
A few minutes of screaming later, Fluttershy had Macintosh’s hoof in a splint, bandaged up and ready to go. Pinkie had suffered no bruises of her own, and landed on her own hooves with perfect grace. Unfortunately, she had landed on Macintosh’s hoof, flattening it out for the stallion.
“Wowie, Big Mac! I am so, so sorry. I’ll bake you a get-better cake later, okay?”
“E... eeyup,” Macintosh weakly affirmed.
“I’m really, really, really sorry. I’m super serious about that.”
“... eeyup.” Macintosh laid back in his stretcher, which was brought out to the farm courtesy of Nurse Redheart, who sat next to it.
“Pinkie, what in the world where you thinking? You could have killed somepony!”
“I’m sorry!” Pinkie sobbed, a stream of tears trailing comically from her eyes. “I didn’t mean to hurt anypony, I just wanted to help promote a competition today!”
“I-It’s okay, Pinkie. I’m fine, see?” Mac used his free hoof to wave at his bandaged one. “I’ll be fine in no time... I hope.”
“You said somethin’ about promotin’ a competition?” Applejack and Fluttershy finished saddling up the pegasus with her supplies.
“Oh, a competition? I wasn’t aware of anything happening today.” Fluttershy raised a curious brow, sharing a glance with Applejack.
“Yep!” Pinkie rebounded from her sobbing, pointing to the sign on her back. “And the sign’s still in one piece, too! That would have been bad, because I think the sign really helps!”
The other four looked on in silence at the sign.
“Er... Pinkie, does that sign say ‘Everypony dies’?”
“Sure does, Applejack. It’s what the competitions all about later today! I already talked to Twilight and Dashie, and they’re gonna attend, too! I think.”
Applejack stood speechless, sharing a look with Redheart and Fluttershy. Macintosh laid his head back on the stretcher and looked up into the blue sky, eyes wide in contemplation. Redheart rubbed her forehead with a hoof, and turned back to Pinkie.
“Everypony dies? Seriously?”
“Of course I’m super cereal about this! Why wouldn’t I be? This was Rarity’s idea, and I’m not going to let her down!”
“Rarity’s idea? Now wait just a minute, sugarcube. This ain’t some lie?”
“Pfft. Why would I lie about something like this? See? It says on the sign! ‘Everypony dyes.’ What’s not to get?”
“Oh, Celestia, this is horrible!” Fluttershy hid behind Applejack, giving the latter a sad look.
“Is this some prank you’re doin’? How do we know it ain’t one o’ those?”
“Look me in the eye, Applejack! You’re the Element of Honesty. Look and find the truth! Ooo, ooo~!” Pinkie stood eye to eye with Applejack, who scrutinized her with her emerald eyes.
“Aw, horseapples, she ain’t lyin’. She ain’t lyin’!” Applejack turned back to Redheart, who was patting Macintosh on the forehead. “Redheart, can ya take Mac to the hospital? I need to make sure Granny and Apple Bloom are okay!”
“And I need to get back to my animals!” Fluttershy took to the skies, her wings beating rather quickly for her usual shy flying.
“Wait, Pinkie, what time is this competition?” Redheart nervously asked.
“Why, it’s later today, of course! I think it’s in like, two hours! I dunno!”
“Then I need to go talk to Doctor Stable!” Redheart and Applejack raised the stretcher to its elevated position, and let the wheels do the rest of the work. “I’ll take Macintosh to the hospital right away!”
“I’ll see y’all later!” Applejack bounded back to the farmhouse, leaving Pinkie all alone.
“Well, gee, they sure seemed really enthusiastic about that!”
Pinkie bounced down the road out of Ponyville, oblivious to the cries of ponies as they ran around, waiting for the end of the world. Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash ran about the crowd, trying to calm everyone down and ascertain their situation. After seeing Pinkie bounce down the road out of town, Twilight had quelled the storm and had everypony follow her out.
Rarity levitated the last of the dyes in place, ready for competing. Several long tables and tubs of water laid out in a row, with dyes strewn about. With all the colors around, Rarity was certain Rainbow Dash would approve of her choice in colors. The dyeing competition would definitely prove to be an event that everypony could participate in. She had taken precautions in safety so that even the foals and elderly could participate in making their own colored cloth.
The only thing left now was to wait for Pinkie to return with news, which did not take very long.
“Pinkie, darling!” Rarity called out as Pinkie bounced down the hill. “How did it go, hmm? Did you tell everypony like I told you to?”
“I totally did! As a matter of fact, here they come now!” Pinkie pointed a hoof at the huge crowd that followed her there, lead by Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the Elements of Harmony. Pinkie and Rarity were assaulted in short order by a barrage of shouts.
“Rarity! What is the meaning of this?”
“What did Pinkie mean when she said it was your idea?!”
“What did I do to you, huh?!”
“I thought you were a nice pony, but I guess I was wrong!”
“Everypony, calm down!” Pinkie had brought out her megaphone again, and stared at the crowd with distaste. “How dare you come out here and start insulting Rarity like that! She just wanted everypony to come to a dyeing competition, and this is how you all treat her?”
“Yeah, we’re all going to die!” A stallion shouted out from the crowd.
“Yes, you’re going to dye! And in Celestia’s name, I’ll make sure every last one of you does, even if it takes me all day!” Pinkie shouted.
“Oh, Celestia, I was right! She’s going to kill us all!” a stallion screamed, sending the crowd into chaos yet again.
“STOP!” Rarity had taken Pinkie’s megaphone, and held it up with her magic. “Kill? What in the world are you all talking about? My competition is about dyeing clothing, not killing ponies! What in the world has you all troubled like this?”
Twilight stepped forward. “It’s Pinkie’s sign! She misspelled the word ‘dye’ on it, so everypony thought we were all literally going to die! As in, dead-die, and not color-dye.”
Rarity turned Pinkie to face her, and looked up at the sign. She frowned and stared at Pinkie, who only smiled and blinked at her.
“Remind me to never ask for your help ever, ever again, Pinkie.”
“Okie dokie lokie, Rarity!”
“So we aren’t all gonna die?” Dash landed on her hooves. “Well, that’s a relief.”
The crowd started conversing amongst itself, before Rarity tapped a hoof on the megaphone, gathering everypony’s attention. “Well, since we’re all here now, how about we all have a nice little competition?”
After a few moments of silence, a few ponies shrugged and walked down onto the field, sitting down at the tables and laughing about the happenings of the day. Pinkie Pie just being her usual self. How could they have ever doubted it? Granted, most of the ponies thought Pinkie was very convincing, but it was all water under the bridge now.
Rarity stepped up to the stage, looking around at the attendance. So many ponies had showed up! Even Applejack and the rest of her family had shown up, though Macintosh was mysteriously absent. Rainbow Dash took up a position next to Fluttershy at one of the dyeing tables, eager and ready to get started. She took a few minutes to show how to dye their cloth, using the water and dyes given to create a unique pattern of colors.
Rarity stood with a smile on her face, and brought the megaphone up to her mouth yet again. “Okay everypony, now that I’ve explained the rules... let the competition begin!”
And then the moon smashed into Ponyville.
Princess Luna sat at the breakfast table, humming to herself. Princess Celestia, reading the current copy of the Canterlot Times, looked up over the rims of her reading glasses at her younger sister, pursing her lips in curiosity.
“I see you’re feeling rather dandy today, Luna.”
“Indeed I am, dear sister.” Luna poked a strawberry with a levitated fork and put it in her mouth, savoring the flavor. It had been a good night indeed, although merging the dreams of every pony in Ponyville was an unexpected affair. Nonetheless, she had herself a good laugh the previous night, and she hadn’t even done anything!
“May I inquire as to why you are in such a vivacious mood this morning?”
“You may indeed, Tia. You see, last night a most strange anomaly occurred. Everypony in Ponyville shared the same dream! Quite unprecedented, and you know how I am. I couldn’t resist looking into it.”
“But Lulu, that’s dangerous! You should have let it be.”
“Ah-ah, I am not done yet! You see, everypony dreamt that it was another normal day in Ponyville, until dearest Pinkie Pie suddenly thought she needed to help the Element of Generosity with a dyeing competition! Oh, it was hilarious, Tia! She hath misspelled the word ‘dye’ on her sign of advertisement, and caused everypony to panic!”
“That does sound quite interesting,” Celestia agreed. She took a sip of her tea and waved a hoof for Luna to continue.
“Quite! And the most interesting thing was that I didn’t move a single hoof for all of it to happen. It happened by itself... well, except for the end of the dream.”
“What did you do?” Celestia asked with a jokingly berating tone.
“I smashed the dream moon into Ponyville, waking them all up. Oh, it was so amusing, Tia! I don’t think I’ll be seeing such a dream ever again.”
“Well, it definitely does sound amusing,” Celestia agreed. “Those silly ponies in Ponyville never fail to amaze me, for certain.”
“So, Tia, want to play a riveting game of moonball?”
“Well, after that story, I’d be foolish to decline.” Celestia smirked at her sister across the table, who returned the smirk with a glint in her eye.
