A New Dance Craze

The morning light of Celestia's Sun shone through the curtains and into Twilight Sparkle's bedroom, illuminating the interior and awakening the mare in her bed. Sitting up, Twilight stretched her hooves above her head and let out a yawn. With no small amount of sluggishness, she made her way to the door and downstairs, letting her nose lead the way. Her assistant and, she sometimes like to think, younger brother Spike was already awake, brewing a pot of Zebraria's finest Joe, and she made her way down the stairs expectantly.

In the main room, her books still lay across the floor, various tomes opened up, with many bookmarks and tags to denote important pages in the volumes. Still too tired to even think about berating Spike, and instead shuffled towards and through the door to the kitchen. The bags under Spike's eyes spoke volumes when all he could do was mumble, half awake and ready to crash again. After muttering something along the lines of "I'm going to take a shower", Twilight walked to the restroom and locked the door behind her.

After refreshing herself and drying off, Twilight returned to the kitchen to claim her mug of coffee. As she lifted the pot and poured herself the awakening elixir, she examined the newspaper from the day before. Sipping and reading, Twilight gathered the necessary information.

That is, to say, that there was no necessary information in the newspaper that morning.

Sighing, she deposited the mug in the sink and proceeded back into the main library area. Spike had already cleaned up the books, much to her surprise. He probably wants something...

"Oh, hey Twilight! How're you this morning?" Cheery, even when cleaning, and efficient. Yes, something was definitely up.

Nonetheless, she smiled back. "I'm doing fine, Spike. I have an appointment with Fluttershy to help her with keeping some records of animal nesting areas and migration patterns in a bit, and I'm going to be dropping by Rarity as well." Very calmly, she transitioned into interrogation mode. "What were you planning on doing today?"

He just shrugged and chuckled. "Oh, nothing much. I was going to organize the rest of the library, take stock of supplies, and then go to this really cool show later on down outside Sugarcube Corner..."

Yep, he's covering up something... "What was that last bit?"

"Oh, just going to go see this cool show..."

"Did-n't quite catch that."

"I'm going to go visit Sugarcube Corner!"

He still wore a half-sincere smile, and looking everywhere but her eyes. If that's the way you want to play it, Spike, that's the way I'll play it. "Well, since that's the case, I guess I'll just bring these gems I was going to let you use to bake that gem cake you wanted to Rarity..." To emphasize, she hefted a medium sized bag over her back and proceeded towards the door. "See ya later, Spike!"

As she got closer to the door, she turned around. "Alright, I'll give them to you... if you let me know what's going on."

"Oh, nothing. It's alright."

...

What?

This was the first time in... as far as Twilight could remember that Spike had turned down gems. Gems!

"So you heading out or what?"

"Oh, uh-heh. Yeah. I'll, um, see you later, then?"

"Mmhm. See ya."

Well, that was something... different, Twilight thought, as she trotted out the door and towards Fluttershy's cottage. "Spike never turns down a... generous offer of gems." Her gears whirred as she thought of any previously know reason as to why Spike would deny such a hefty bribe. "That bag had at least twenty bits of gems in it!"

The last time Spike had been so cryptic was when he decided to learn more about himself as a dragon and went off into the wilderness to find the Great Dragon Migration. But this was... different. Spike just seemed off to Twilight, and she was determined to find out what the cause was.

Softly, the yellow pegasus landed with a thump and nuzzled her friend. "Thank you so much, Twilight. I'm so glad you were willing to help, even though I know you don't get along with the animals very well..."

The unicorn gave her a pleasant smile in return, replying, "No problem, Fluttershy! I've been meaning to get back into the nitty-gritty of mass book keeping. I felt a little out of practice, and helping friends while learning is the best way I can think of spending a day."

"Oh, well, then you're welcome...?" She gave an awkward smile. "Oh yeah, I have to go. I have some... business to attend to at Sugarcube Corner." And with that, before Twilight could respond, she flew off toward Ponyville.

Once again, this Sugarcube Corner business popped up. What could possibly be going on?

"Sorry, Twi', but Ah got to... uh... go... and visit Pinkie Pie to help teach'er how to back Zap Apple pies! Yeup! Nothin' else! No funny business! Nothin' at all!"

"I just simply don't have time, darling! I'll help you with your formal wear later on, I must go and get ready for the shindig at Sugarcube Corner!

"Twilight, I'd really love to talk about the newest Daring Do, but I just *have** to finish cleaning up the sky before I visit with Pinkie later!*

All the same deal. From every Element of Harmony. They all had something to do at Sugarcube Corner. And Twilight wasn't let in on it.

This was completely unacceptable.

Numerous ponies gathered outside of the bakery, all milling about as things got underway. From the shopkeepers to the streetsweepers, almost all of the ponies in Ponyville gathered in the open area out front in preparation for...

...what, exactly? After donning her Deep Environmental Reconnaissance Panoply, Twilight Sparkle proceeded to observe the goings-ons out front of Sugarcube Corner from her tactically advantageous position on the adjacent rooftop. The events below her were still obscured, mostly due to the fact that she had no clue why many of said ponies had outfits and masks on, along with seemingly random accessories with them.

Soon, however, the screech of microphone feedback erupted from below. Recovering from her impulse to shove her hooves in her ear canals, Twilight brought her binoculars up and scanned the scattering of ponies. It appeared that, in the space of about thirty seconds, somepony had brought out multiple massive stage-style speakers and had hooked up a record player to it. A concert? Why would everypony try and cover up a concert?!

Suddenly, a strange song exploded from the speakers. However, instead of a flurry of motion, as one might expect, instead the lone figure of Pinkie Pie began dancing, shuffling her hooves across the ground outside the bakery.

A voice said something along the lines of drinking a milkshake, and the crowd below had a synchonized seizure.

...

...........

In all of my time as an Element of Harmony,

And as Princess Celestia's personal student,

After fighting against three evils and twice against a self-centered wanabe

I can't help but think...

"This is how Equestria is destroyed."