Dusty followed Sunsweet silently through the streets of Ponyville. Any tense amicability there had been between them before, however fake it had been, was now gone. She wasn’t sure where this Pinkie Pie pony lived, but Sunsweet seemed to know, so she followed. As she walked, she thought back to the conversation they had had outside of Sweet Apple Acres.
“Got hurt?” Dusty said, incredulously.
Sunsweet’s voice sounded hollow, “I don’t really want to talk about it. It was an accident, it happened, there’s nothing I can do about it now.” She began to walk ahead of Dusty, obviously attempting to end the conversation, but Dusty was still confused.
“Wait, but, if it was an accident, that doesn’t make you a criminal. Why would you need to be reformed over something that wasn’t intentional?”
Sunsweet kept walking, she didn’t look back at Dusty when she spoke. “Because other ponies didn’t see it as an accident.” She stopped. “Regardless, it was still my fault. If I had been more… nevermind. Its hardly your business, and frankly, I doubt you care.”
Dusty looked at the pony ahead of her. She would have never guessed her crime would be the violent kind. In fact, besides outright ponycide, it was the very last thing she would have ever assumed. Sure, she seemed to be slightly emotionally unstable, but she certainly didn’t seem like the violent type at all. Just what kind of accident could have happened? Dusty’s train of thought stopped when they arrived at the entrance to a large bakery.
“This is Sugarcube Corner, in Twilight’s book this is where Pinkie Pie lived and worked.” Sunsweet said. The pep was back in her voice now, but she still seemed a little strained. Dusty decided that the best course of action for now would be to just pretend the conversation hadn’t happened.
“Wasn’t that book written like… more than a decade ago?” Dusty said.
“Yes, but since we failed to ask Applejack where Pinkie Pie lived, this is our best lead.”
“There’s no need for that, this is a small town, I’m sure any of these ponies walking around know where to find her,” Dusty said, gesturing to the ponies milling about in the street. It was a bit busier now in the early afternoon.
“You guys are looking for Pinkie Pie?” Almost as if to hammer in her point, a nearby pony chimed in, trotting up to the pair. “Sorry, but I overheard you guys were looking for Pinkie Pie, am I right?”
“That’s right,” Sunsweet said.
“Oh, well you won’t find her at Sugarcube Corner today, she only helps out there on weekends. Right now she’s at the community center, setting up for a big party. Everypony in Ponyville was invited this morning!”
“Thank you so much,” Sunsweet said. After asking for some quick directions, the two headed off to the community center. It looked busy. Ponies were pouring in and out carrying all sorts of decorations. A gray pegasus with a yellow mane tripped while caring a box full of streamers, sending colorful paper strips flying everywhere. Several ponies rushed to her side, helping her up and picking up the streamers.
“Wow, everypony here is so… helpful.” Dusty remarked. The two entered the community center. It was even more busy on the inside. Ponies brushed past them on every side. Sunsweet strained her neck, peering over everypony and trying to get a good look around.
“I can’t seem to see her anywhere, there’s too many ponies in here.” She turned to Dusty dejectedly.
“Looking for somepony?” said a voice behind them. They jumped around to see a bright pink mare; she had a huge smile plastered on her face, her hair was curly and pink, and confetti could be seen sticking out of her huge hair bun.
“You must be Pinkie Pie,” Dusty said.
“The one and only!” Pinkie said with a big grin. Then, she suddenly turned serious, “unless somepony has been impersonating me. Identity theft is serious business.”
“It’s great to meet you, Pinkie Pie! I’m Sunsweet, and this is Dusty Clouds. Applejack told us you might be able to help us.” Sunsweet stuck out a hoof for her to shake. Pinkie took it, but instead of Sunsweet getting shook vigorously, Pinkie Pie shook herself.
“I’ve heard of you two! You’re Twilight’s guinea pigs.”
“We are not guinea pigs, thank you very much,” Dusty huffed. Sunsweet elbowed her sharply.
“Hmm, I suppose you aren’t. You are a bit too pony-shaped to be a guinea pig,” Pinkie tapped her chin thoughtfully, “maybe a better term would be test dummies!”
“We are definitely not test dummies. We’re, we’re… beta testers!” Dusty said confidently.
“Oooh, I like it. Sounds sophisticated. Well, what can I help you two beta testers out with?”
“We were wondering if you could give us a job,” Sunsweet said, “Princess Twilight kind of left us here without any money or accommodations.”
Pinkie gasped, “Oh, silly Twily. Well, you came to the right pony, I always need another pair of helping hooves. We’re preparing a super special double surprise party today, and there’s a lot of work to be done. It needs to be double the special and double the surprise!”
“Well, we’d love to help out! Who’s the party for?” Sunsweet asked excitedly.
“I can’t tell you that, silly filly, its supposed to be a surprise!” Pinkie giggled.
“I don’t think that’s how surprise parties usually work,” Dusty said skeptically.
“There’s nothing usual about a Pinkie party,” Pinkie said, winking. She gestured for the two ponies to follow her. “Come now, there’s a still a lot to do, and the party is in two hours!” They followed Pinkie through a set of doors and into a large kitchen.
“Do either of you know how to bake?” she asked. Dusty shook her head, but Sunsweet nodded. “Well, as long as one of you knows, you can teach the other. I have a recipe for my special surprise-filled cupcakes.” She leaned over to whisper to them, “the surprise is bavarian cream.” She resumed in her normal volume, “I still need two dozen more for the party. If you two could make them I would be the most grateful pony in the whole world.”
“Of course!” Sunsweet said with another one of her salutes.
“I like the can-do attitude!” Pinkie said happily, “just follow the recipe to a T and nothing should go wrong, buuuut if something does go wrong, don’t forget to have fun with it! There’s nothing more fun than the unexpected. Unless the unexpected is a giant cupcake monster that was accidentally brought to life by lightning striking the oven and that eats every pony it sees as revenge for its other cupcake brethren,” She giggled and handed Sunsweet a slip of paper. “The ingredients should all be in the cupboards here, there’s also plenty of extra party snacks lying around if you get hungry. I have to go back in there now, but dont hesitate to holler if you need anything. Ok bye!” And with that she left in a gust of pink hair and loose confetti. Dusty and Sunsweet looked at each other, then down at the recipe.
“Looks easy enough,” Sunsweet said, “as long as we do exactly what the recipe says then this should be easy peasy.”
“I dunno, I have zero experience with baking. Closest I’ve gotten was making haycakes over a campfire,” Dusty shuddered remembering her attempt at haycakes. Chokecherry always made them better. “And that didn’t go well.”
“It’s fine, I can show you what to do. Why dont you start on the batter, and I’ll start working on the cream filling, that’s the hardest part.”
“Yes chef,” said Dusty. Sunsweet giggled.
They got to work, Dusty found that following a recipe was way easier than ‘winging it’ like she had with the haycakes. The batter she made actually looked and smelled appetizing. She was a little proud. Sunsweet came over every few minutes to check on her, but she didn’t really have to do a lot of correcting. In fact, Sunsweet seemed to be having the most trouble out of the two of them. She obviously wasn’t used to doing complex tasks with her hooves, and she fumbled with the wooden spoon quite a bit. After a while, though, she seemed to mostly get the hang of it. In no time at all they had the first batch of cupcakes in the oven.
“Well, that’s the first dozen done,” Sunsweet said, “we should start on the second batch while those are cooking. I’ll also start on the frosting.”
Dusty turned back to her workstation, “Uhh, one thing, I’m out of flour.”
“I’ll go get it,” Sunsweet said, trotting over to the supply room. She came back lugging a huge sack on her back.
“Is that the only size she had? That looks heavy.”
“It. Is.” Sunsweet grunted through gritted teeth.
“Do you need-” Dusty stopped mid-sentence, she could see Sunsweets legs about to buckle. With a quick flap of her wings she was over there in a second, lifting the bag of flour off of her back. It plopped to the ground heavily, little puffs of flour coming out of the top.
“Th- thanks,” she said, staggering.
“Don’t mention it, we can’t have you getting squished on the floor. There’s no way I’d finish this on my own.” Dusty got the flour bin and scooped some in from the bag on the floor. She then dragged the bag back into the storage closet.
“You’re really quick on your hooves,” Sunsweet commented, returning to her side of the counter. She began scooping powdered sugar into a bowl.
“Yeah, well you got to be to be a bandit, ‘else the cops would have your tail.”
“I suppose those skills still come in handy, even when you’re not being a bandit.”
“'Spose so,” Dusty said, she kept her eyes on her work. After a short while, the cupcakes in the oven were done. She placed the next pan inside, then set the freshly baked pan in the refrigerator.
“Those will be done cooling in about an hour, then we can fill and frost them,” Sunsweet said. She had finished with the frosting a while ago.
“What do we do until then?” Dusty said.
“We wait.”
“Well, no duh,” Dusty rolled her eyes, “I mean what do we do while we wait.”
“Hmm,” Sunsweet thought out loud, “Pinkie Pie did say something about party snacks somewhere around here. And I still haven’t eaten today.”
“Ooh, good idea, me neither,” Dusty said, she began to search the cupboards.
Sunsweet raised an eyebrow at her, “I thought you had haycakes this morning?”
“Uh, oh yeah, besides those, right.”
They searched the whole kitchen, coming up with some chips, dip, and a big bag of pretzels. It wasn’t much, but to a pair of hungry ponies it was a gourmet buffet. Once they had their fill, the last batch of cupcakes was done. They pulled them out and slid them into the fridge alongside the others. They waited a little longer, chatting idly. The tense aura between them had dissipated quite a bit by now. Dusty was glad, she wasn’t good at dealing with emotional stuff. She always tried to stay far away from it. Besides, soon she was going to be back home in Dodge Junction, and she would never have to see this pony again.
Finally, the time came to fill and frost the cupcakes. Dusty attempted to help, but after her first disastrous attempt, Sunsweet decided to do them all herself. Once they were finished they stepped back and admired their work.
“I’m kinda proud,” Dusty said wistfully, “even if we just followed a recipe, we made those.”
Sunsweet rolled her eyes and smiled, “Well, I just hope they taste good. I forgot to taste your batter to see if you did it right.”
“Oh, don’t worry. I already handled that,” Dusty licked her lips, “I definitely did it right.”
“That’s good to hear! Because I need those cupcakes now.” They nearly left their tails behind when they jumped, snapping around to see Pinkie Pie behind them.
“Wh- how did you do that?” Dusty yelled.
“Do what, silly?” Pinkie giggled, “are you finished with the cupcakes? The party starts in fifteen minutes, and I need to set out the rest of the food.”
“Y- yeah, we just finished them a few minutes ago,” Sunsweet stammered.
“Perfect! Come with me.” Pinkie grabbed the cupcakes and rushed out the door. Dusty and Sunsweet followed close behind. As they stepped out of the kitchen, they saw that Pinkie had disappeared. The entire room was pitch black.
“What the-” Dusty said, “why are the lights out? Where is everypony?”
“Pinkie?” Sunsweet called, “where’d you go?”
Dusty felt along the wall for a lightswitch. She finally found it and flipped it on. Immediately, all of her senses were assaulted at once.
“SURPRISE!”
They were surrounded by what must have been nearly a hundred ponies. They were all wearing pointy party hats, and a few of them were holding party poppers that they had fired as the lights came on. Confetti slowly fell through the air as Dusty and Sunsweet stared at the crowd in astonished silence.
“Woohoo! Look at your guys’ faces!” Pinkie Pie popped into sight. She was holding two party hats, which she snapped onto their heads. “You were totally surprised, weren’t you? Hehehe, I can tell. What do you think, do you love it?” She bounced up and down in front of them. Sunsweet was frozen in shock, so it was Dusty who spoke first.
“I thought you said the party didn’t start for another fifteen minutes?”
Pinkie Pie broke out into hearty laughter, falling backwards onto the floor and rolling around.
“Silly, of course I told you that! If I told you the actual time the party started, then the surprise wouldn’t be as surprisey! It is a double surprise party, if I’m to surprise two ponies at once it has to be extra surprisey.”
“Wait, the surprise party was for us?” Sunsweet finally spoke.
“Well, yeah!” Pinkie Pie said, as if it was obvious, “you two are new in town, everypony new in Ponyville gets a surprise party!”
“But.. we aren’t going to be here for that long…” Sunsweet said, trailing off quietly. Pinkie Pie slung her foreleg over her shoulders.
“That’s not what is important. Sure, not every tourist gets a party, but you guys are more than that. You’re on a journey of self discovery, which means Ponyville is important to you, even if you don’t realize it yet. And, if Ponyville is important to you, then you are important to Ponyville. We want to make you feel welcome here,” Pinkie said. She moved in front of Sunsweet, grabbing her face and squishing her cheeks together. She touched their foreheads together, staring with wide, haunted eyes into Sunsweet’s own. “Do you feel welcome?”
Sunsweet looked a little scared, but she nodded.
“Awesome!” Pinkie Pie said, hopping away from her. The ponies in the room cheered. “I hope you like the party, almost everypony and creature in Ponyville is here!” With that, everypony began to move and mingle. Some ponies made a beeline for the snack bar, and others began to mingle. A band started up somewhere on the other side of the room. Dusty and Sunsweet were at a loss for words. They looked around the room at the huge party, then at each other.
“Well, I suppose we should enjoy this. Everypony worked so hard on it,” she didn’t move.
“Don’t you dare try to pretend this is normal,” Dusty said.
“Oh, thank the stars, I’m totally freaked out right now,” Sunsweet sighed shakily.
“That makes two of us.”
“Like, it is extremely nice of all these ponies, but… I wasn’t expecting this at all. I’m not good with parties,” Sunsweet looked around nervously, “too many ponies.”
“I’ve never been to a party before, let alone one thrown for me,” Dusty said. She couldn’t figure out how she felt about all of this.
“Really?” Sunsweet asked, surprised, “not one?”
“Nope, not a one.”
“Surely your parents threw you birthday parties as a foal.”
“Don’t got parents, so no.”
“Oh,” Sunsweet got quiet, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”
Dusty snorted, “How could you? I didn’t tell you.” She started walking away, hoping to distance herself from the sudden awkwardness. “I’m gonna go have some cupcakes. Might as well take advantage of the free food while we got it.” She left Sunsweet and made her way over to the sweets table. There were still lots of cupcakes left. She was about to take a huge bite of one when she was approached by a purple unicorn.
“Hello there, you must be Dusty Clouds,” she said. She poured herself a glass of punch with her magic.
“That’s me,” Dusty said, “you another one of Twilight’s friends?”
“Yes! But, I’m not on the friendship council. I’m the headmare at the School of Friendship, the name is Starlight Glimmer.”
“There’s a school for friendship?” Dusty raised an eyebrow.
Starlight threw her head back and laughed. “Why, of course there is. I’m surprised you’ve never heard of it. Ponies and other creatures come from all over to attend.”
“I don’t get out much,” Dusty said, deadpanning, “in fact, this is the farthest from home I’ve ever been. No, scratch that, Canterlot is the farthest, I ‘spose Ponyville is slightly closer.”
“You’re from Dodge Junction, right?”
“Yep, lived there my whole life.”
“It must have been hard,” Starlight said, shaking her head.
“Pardon?”
“I mean, growing up there as a pegasus, it must have been hard, right? Dodge Junction is primarily an earth pony town. Unless I remembered wrong,” Starlight blushed, “sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“No… you’re right. I was the only pegasus there growing up. I don’t mind sayin’ it, I mean, its just a fact.”
“Right…” Starlight said, and Dusty could feel the awkwardness creeping up again. Why did it keep following her around? And why did these ponies keep trying to talk about her past?
“Is there a reason you wanted to talk to me?” Dusty asked.
Starlight laughed nervously, “You waste no time.”
“Its a habit.”
“There is one thing I wanted to say,” Starlight began, “It’s just that, I can relate to you. Several years ago, I was in a very similar position as you.”
“Pinkie Pie threw you a huge surprise party, too?”
“No. Well, yes, she did, but that’s not what I mean. I mean, I used to be a criminal, too.”
“Oh, yeah? What’d ya do?” Dusty was suddenly very interested. A personal friend of the Princess of Friendship is an ex-criminal? Now that was interesting.
Starlight laughed, “I brainwashed an entire village of ponies and stole their cutie marks, and when Twilight thwarted me I went back in time and tried to prevent her from ever meeting her friends, inadvertently creating several alternate timelines in which Equestria is at war or is destroyed.”
Dusty gaped at her, “That’s a… you what?”
“I know, its a lot. Pretty bad, huh.”
“Uh, yeah? I thought robbing banks and pickpocketing tourists was bad, but that’s a whole ‘nother level. I don’t know whether to be scared or impressed.”
“Well, neither I hope,” Starlight said, “I’ve changed for the better since then. ‘Seen the light’ if you will, and I hope the same will go for you, soon.”
Dusty rolled her eyes, “Not this again.”
“I know its hard to accept when you’ve felt abandoned for so long, but you are worthy of friendship.”
Dusty stiffened, “How- you don’t know me. You don’t know how I feel.”
“I don’t,” she said, “but I know how I felt when I was younger. You remind me a lot of how I was back then. I felt like nopony would care about me ever again. I closed myself off from the world, to the point where I didn’t even realize that there already were ponies who cared.” She looked over to Sunsweet, who was chatting happily with a blue pony with a big purple hat. “You should give it a chance, the whole friendship thing. I think that pink one, Sunsweet, over there wants to try, but she’s afraid. She has something weighing on her and holding her back. Maybe you can help each other.”
Dusty scoffed, “It’s been one day, we barely know each other. Besides, she made it perfectly clear what she thinks of me earlier.”
Starlight turned back to her and smiled warmly, “You’d be surprised. Friendship works in mysterious ways. Sometimes it sneaks up on you when you least expect it.”
“Well, in that case, I’ll always be ready for it, so I can strike it down before it even starts.”