//------------------------------// // The Twilight Party List // Story: Twilight Hosts a Party // by Amante //------------------------------// The big, sustained nuclear reaction, more commonly referred to as the sun, quietly broke the horizon. However, just because the sun’s methods were quiet didn’t mean that roosters, alarm clocks, and a whole suite of other things wouldn’t follow its example. Pretty soon, the air in Ponyville was filled with the subtle sound of noise. Noise intended, of course, to wake ponies up. But this noise was completely unnecessary for one resident of the Golden Oaks Library: a purple dragon, diligently getting up from a good night’s rest to get things going, and making sure his “sister” got up on time as well. As he approached her bed, however, he noticed one very important detail was missing from the picture. Where was Twilight? The first place he looked was her study. There were times, after all, when she actually got up earlier than he did. This usually happened when she was excited for something, like their first Winter Wrap-Up, or during an emergency, like that one time they ran out of her favorite coffee. Unfortunately, she wasn’t there either. This left only two possibilities. She was either locked in an epic battle with some ancient, unspeakable evil from a thousand years ago, distracting the beast as her friends got into position to deliver one final blow to vanquish it for good. Or she stayed up too late studying and fell asleep on her desk. He knew the latter was more likely; after all, the former only usually happened on the first Monday of the month, and last he checked it was Saturday. Since, as established, she wasn’t in her main study, that meant she must be in her basement lab. As he descended to the main hall, he noticed Owlowiscious napping on his perch and the door to the basement wide open. He smiled knowingly and went down the stairs. Sure as sugar, there she was, sleeping, surrounded by several stacks of notes, and with books strewn around her. As he approached he noticed the books Twilight read herself to sleep with. Parties? he thought. That seems like a weird thing for Twilight to research. Then again, she has looked up sillier stuff. “Twilight,” he said as he shook her carefully. He received a groan in response, which didn’t really surprise him, so he tried again. "C'mon Twilight, the sun's coming up, which means it's time for you to get up." She released a yawn and opened her eyes. She took in the sight of her number one assistant against the light of the firefly lantern. "Spike?" Said dragon merely smirked in response. "Wha-what time is it?" She gave another nice, long, fulfilling yawn. "Time to get up. Hey, Twilight, why are you reading about parties?" Spike said, pointing to the various party books around the desk. "Huh? Oh those!" Clarity finally decided to join her this morning. "Well, you see, Spike," she began. "I had a bit of a talk with Pinkie last night and she gave me a brilliant idea. You remember how all of our past attempts to get the ponies in this town, besides our friends, more into reading failed miserably? Well, I realized we've been going about it all wrong. "Rather than try and force books down their throats, we should show them how much fun books can be! And what's more fun than a party? So I've decided to throw a party today in the name of Book Appreciation Day!" "Book Appreciation Day? That sounds like something Pinkie Pie would say. And, did you just say you were going to throw a party?" the assistant asked, skeptically. "Well... yes." Spike slumped to the floor, desperately clutching at his sides, as he tried to control his laughter. Twilight adopted a scowl similar to that of a disappointed mother. "And just what is so funny, Spike?" He managed to regain some of his composure. "Sorry," he began as he stood up. "But it's just... you… and throwing parties." A brief pause was had before he was once again on the floor in a fit of laughter. In between guffaws he managed to get out, "What do you know about throwing parties?" "Well, as you can see, I've spent most of the night reading up on anything and everything I'll need for a party. I was even able to make a comprehensive checklist for a 'Thematic House Party' which is what I've decided to classify my party," she said with a hint of pride in her voice. Spike finally managed to make it back on his feet. "Wait, you're actually serious?" Twilight was puzzled by her assistant's surprise. "Well, of course I am Spike." Her expression softened as she looked at her “little brother.” "And I'll be needing the help of my number one assistant to pull it off." Spike sighed. “Fine. If you’re serious, then of course I’ll help you.” Twilight wrapped her hooves around him. “Thanks, Spike.” “Okay Spike, according to the books I’ve read, one of the first things that should be taken care of for a house party are invitations! After all, what’s a party without guests?” Spike grumbled as he tried to keep his balance. It is quite difficult to keep holding a stack of scrolls almost twice your height. “So how exactly are you gonna send these invitations anyway?” She smiled at her assistant. “That’s where you come in. I’ve got my list of guests—don’t worry, it’s only around thirty ponies; the books always say to start small—and you can use your flame to deliver the invitations directly.” “Alright, who do we send it to first?” Fluttershy was trotting along the road to Ponyville humming a tune to herself. Her eyes were closed as she was lost in her own daydreams. Because of this, she didn’t notice the plume of flame, coming suspiciously from the direction of Golden Oaks, which coalesced into a scroll, which fell upon her unguarded flank. “EEEPP!” She jumped and crouched to the side of the road, her eyes bouncing around in every direction. This reaction would have been perfectly reasonable if there was a monster nearby, or even another pony, or especially a human (but that hardly ever appeared). Sadly, this was not the case as the only thing present was a lavender-tinted scroll sitting ever so innocently in the middle of the path. She blushed brightly. She approached the scroll, opened it, read it, then immediately closed it. She understood what the words on the letter had meant individually, but seeing them arranged in that order confused her. Frankly, she really didn’t know how to react, so she decided to settle for a barely audible, “Oh my.” Applejack had just finished delivering another swift blow to an unsuspecting tree when the letter appeared in front of her. She wondered who it could be from, then she realized she knew only one pony who could send letters that way. She wiped the sweat off her brow and opened the letter with her muzzle. As she read it, her left eyebrow rose more and more. When she finished, she lifted her head up and just stared for a moment. She stood there in the same amount of time it would have taken her to buck, maybe two trees. Broken out of her reverie she let out a puzzled, “Seriously?” She suddenly realized that she wasn’t hearing any bucks from her brother either, so she looked in his direction only to find him reading a similarly purple letter. “You too, Big Mac?” “Eeyup.” Pinkie had just finished baking a batch of her Crunchy Custard Cupcakes. You’d think crunchy and cupcake wouldn’t work together, but leave it to Pinkie to prove you wrong. Her Pinkie Sense, ever perceptive, suddenly gave her the urge to turn around. As she did, she noticed a streak of fire making a beeline straight towards her. Her eyes widened as her mind connected the dots. “Fire, I thought I told you never to follow me from the kitchen? You know what happened last time you got out, and especially how long it took to clean up the market.” Then again, the dots she connected may not have been for the right picture. Her concern was unnecessary, though, as the flame ceased being a flame and became a roll of purple parchment instead. “Ooooooh, a letter!” She grabbed it with gusto and read it several times over before her head decided to pop back up with a ridiculously wide grin. She gasped a great gasp. “Twilight’s throwing a party! Oh, she might need help with decorations, or games, or food. I gotta get there now and see what I can do!” Several market patrons could easily say that, on that day, they saw a pink streak pass them by. This wasn’t really weird in and of itself, it’s just that the streak was normally rainbow-colored. Rainbow was still exhausted from last night’s debauchery and thus decided to sleep in. Luckily, since it was a Saturday, she wasn’t in charge of the weather schedule and thus, could afford to sleep in. Unluckily, because she slept in, she didn’t notice the lavender scroll that landed on her belly. Rarity had just finished a cup of delicious Earl Grey tea when the letter caught her. This type of mail delivery didn’t particularly catch her by surprise as a number of her Canterlot clients used a similar system. What did catch her by surprise, though, was the lovely purpureus shade of the scroll. She didn’t particularly know of anypony who sent colored letters so this had certainly piqued her curiosity. She grabbed the letter in her magic and opened it. If the color of the parchment surprised her, the contents of the parchment shocked her. “Well, this will certainly make for an interesting evening. But I do hope the poor darling knows what she’s doing.” She pursed her lips. “I wonder if I have an outfit appropriate for such an occasion?”