“If I hadn’t known she relied on anti-wrinkle potion to maintain a youthful look,” said Rarity as she and Twilight left, “I’d have classified this as a medical emergency rather than a friendship emergency.”
“I can’t believe Lazybug and Crosspatch never brought this up. I mean, did this just happen overnight?” Twilight wondered. “Could this be why the Map called us so late in the evening?”
“Possibly. Do you suppose Winter Squash might have stopped using her potion because it reminded her of the stallion who made it?” suggested Rarity.
“I’d completely understand if she was feeling resentful of the pony who went behind her back for his own petty reasons,” nodded Twilight. “But maybe she still loves and misses him.”
“Do you think Crosspatch noticed last night or this morning?” asked Rarity.
“I don’t know,” shrugged Twilight. “Let’s find her and ask her.”
The only lead they had was that Crosspatch was dealing with some sort of bird problem, so Twilight and Rarity figured they should go where there were trees in town. For a while, they couldn’t see head nor tail of Crosspatch. Then when they started asking around, Octavia, who was sporting a cut cheek, pointed them in the direction of the bowling alley. When they arrived…
“Ouch!” cried Rarity as something rushed past her face and cut her cheek.
It happened so fast, that neither she nor Twilight saw what it was or where it went. But almost as soon as it happened, Crosspatch ran around the building brandishing a butterfly net.
“Bah! It keeps going to the other side of the building!” she complained. “Where’s Lazybug? I need him to cover the other side.”
“Did that bird make a nest up there?” asked Twilight.
Crosspatch nodded, keeping a fixated stare on the bowling alley roof. “I gotta catch it before it pokes somepony’s eye out.”
“By all means, please do,” said Rarity, rubbing her cheek, “but we must ask you something. Have you seen the state your mother is in this morning?”
“I didn’t see her this morning,” said Crosspatch. “I left the house first thing in the morning when I got Mr Kingpin’s message. Why?”
“We just went to see her,” said Twilight. “She’s… she’s showing her age. Her whole face and body are covered in wrinkles.”
Crosspatch took her eyes off the roof. “Huh. She told me her anti-wrinkle potion doesn’t need to be reapplied. Oh, I remember now. She also said it can be effected by her mood.”
“Her mood? Does that mean…” said Rarity, “if she’d depressed, the potion…”
Crosspatch spotted something out of the corner of her eye and swung her net. Something screeched and squawked inside it.
“Gotcha!” she shouted triumphantly, and she ran off.
“Wait, Crosspatch!” called Twilight, she and Rarity giving chase. “Your mom!”
“Can’t stop! I gotta get this bird to Fluttershy’s!” Crosspatch carried on running towards the cottage. “Go find Lazybug and talk to him!”
Twilight and Rarity were glad they knew where Lazybug was. They ran determinedly into the Everfree Forest and along the path to Zecora’s hut.
“Ah. Are you two in a fix?” asked Zecora upon answering the door. “Or seek you Lazybug and Nyx?”
“We need to talk to Lazybug,” said Twilight. “It’s about his mom, Winter Squash.”
“Why, that’s what we’re discussing in here,” grinned Zecora, beckoning Twilight and Rarity inside.
“Hi Twilight and Rarity,” smiled Nyx when she saw them.
“What’s going on?” asked Lazybug.
“We think your mom is missing your dad,” said Twilight. “She…”
“Why would she miss him?!” snapped Lazybug. “Why would any of us miss him?! He was a pompous jerk who wanted to cut his loves ones out of his life just because we didn’t agree with his point of view!”
Twilight scratched her chin. “Yeah, you’re right. That was a ridiculous thing to think. There’s no way she’d miss someone like that.”
“But Twilight, don’t you remember her face?” asked Rarity.
“Her face?” said Lazybug.
“Her potion isn’t working anymore,” Rarity told him. “She’s showing her age now. Crosspatch told us the potion’s effect depends on her mood.”
“She’s depressed?” jumped Lazybug.
“Oh, no. You were right, Lazybug,” groaned Nyx.
Twilight and Rarity blinked.
“Did you suspect your mother might be upset?” asked Rarity.
“Not enough for her potion to wear off,” Lazybug grimaced. “No I know I’ve got to cancel all my plans and put this party on.”
“A party?” asked Twilight.
“Her birthday’s coming up,” said Lazybug. “I wanna drop everything I’m doing so I can set up a block party.”
“That’ll be perfect,” said Rarity. “We can get Pinkie Pie to he…”
“No, no! I don’t want to get Pinkie Pie involved,” said Lazybug. “I think Mom would appreciate it if I set up a party for her without professional help.”
“Oh! This is it, Rarity!” exclaimed Twilight, her eyes twitching slightly. “This is how we can help with the problem the Map called us for! We gotta distract Pinkie Pie while Lazybug sets up this block party for Winter Squash to show her he and Crosspatch haven’t forgotten her and how happy they are to be reunited! It’s unassailable logic!”
“Alright, alright, no need to get so excited,” said Rarity. “It’s a tall order. Pinkie Pie may be easily distracted, but it wouldn’t shock me to learn she has a Pinkie Sense for knowing a party’s being set up in town.”
“It’s our duty!” insisted Twilight vehemently. “Lazybug, you and Crosspatch can rely on us!”
And so they made the arrangements right there in Zecora’s hut.
When Twilight and Rarity consulted Crosspatch about this, she told them Fluttershy offered to cover for her on the day. After she went off to see to a swarm of hornets, Rarity expressed a thought.
“It seems like Fluttershy was a viable candidate for this friendship mission of ours. Why don’t you suppose the Map didn’t summon her?”
“Oh, she’s got an easy job,” insisted Twilight. “We’ve got to distract Pinkie Pie. That’ll be hard.”
“You wouldn’t think one of our fellow Element of Harmony bearers would be a threat to a Map mission,” said Rarity.
“It makes sense,” said Twilight with determination. “Pinkie Pie may be an expert at planning and throwing parties, but she and I both learned that putting on a party won’t fix everything.”
“You mean that time you wanted to make up for what you accidentally did to Moondancer back in Canterlot?” interjected Nyx.
“Oh, yes,” nodded Twilight. “No amount of help from Pinkie Pie could fix the damage I caused. I discovered pretty quickly what had to be done. I had to tell her she was important to me and our other school friends.
“That’s practically how you had me write that in our Journal,” put in Spike.
“Oh. You still have the Journal?” asked Nyx. “I haven’t seen anyone writing in it in a long time.”
“It’s been getting a bit heavy lately with all the entries we’ve put into it. None of us really feel like carrying it around these days,” explained Spike.
The day came. Crosspatch and Lazybug had gathered the supplies and started setting up their block party outside their house. They were sure there was no danger of their mom looking out a window; she’d become quite a shut-in lately. Fluttershy already had work to do in Crosspatch’s place. A stray dog was whining in a backstreet. He was ill, but whenever anypony got near it, he’d bark at them furiously.
“I’d say Fluttershy’s more suited to that job than Crosspatch,” said Rarity when she and Twilight found out.
“Yeah. Although if it turns out the dog’s faking it, she might not be able to tell,” added Twilight.
Rarity raised an eyebrow. “Whatever gave you the idea that the dog might be fainting illness?”
“Never mind,” Twilight waved the question away and magiced a clipboard in front of them. “We need to go over the list of possible diversionary tactics one more time before we go see Pinkie Pie.”
“Oh, really, Twilight. We’ve got this in hoof,” insisted Rarity. “We’ve got to go. Crosspatch and Lazybug will start setting up soon.”
“Okay,” sighed Twilight. And off they went to Sugarcube Corner.
At first, Twilight and Rarity were a little concerned when Pinkie Pie told them upon their arrival at the bakery that she had the day off. But soon, they found they might have an easier job than they anticipated.
“I got a letter from my sister Limestone,” Pinkie told them when they’d gone up to her bedroom.
“Oh! Have you two got a PSSSD coming up?” asked Rarity. “Or, dare I suggest, a PSSSDWR?”
“Uh, sorry, Rarity,” shrugged Pinkie Pie. “That’s just gonna be a Maud thing. Limestone wasn’t too keen on the idea when I told her about it. She wants our PSSSDs to stay the way they’ve always been. I swear, when it comes to tradition, she makes Applejack look lenient.”
“So are you and Limestone going somewhere for your PSSSD soon?” pressed Twilight.
“Actually,” said Pinkie with a frown, “she and Marble are having theirs before we have ours. Limestone says she wants to come here, to Ponyville.”
“Really?” said Twilight and Rarity together.
“Yeah. And she wants me to stay out of their way when they come.”
“Why?”
“Each PSSSD is only with two of the four of us,” said Pinkie. “Three sisters would break tradition. But I have the day off on the day they’re coming, and it’ll be hard to avoid them. Twilight, you know what I tend to do in my free time. You watched me that time you were trying to figure out how my Pinkie Sense works.”
Twilight grunted in reply. “You spent all your time rolling around on the grass and smelling flowers.”
“Yeah. So instead of doing that, I wanna try and get the hang of staying in,” Pinkie told them. “I’m sure glad you two showed up. At least now I know I won’t get bored.”
Twilight grinned. Their mission was going perfectly.
“If you ask me,” said Rarity, “I think Limestone’s being unreasonable. If she wants to spend a day here in Ponyville, why doesn’t she have a PSSSD you here rather than Marble?”
“Don’t you remember?” asked Pinkie. “When two of us have a PSSSD, we both leave our homes for the dy. I live in Ponyville. It wouldn’t count as a PSSSD.”
Rarity sighed. “I certainly don’t remember your PSSSD with Maud in Manehattan being so rigid.”
“We both had other things to worry about,” Pinkie remembered. “You were trying to find a building to open up Rarity For You, and I was trying to find a gift after that armpit of a shop keep closed the rock pouch store.”
“Well, you sound a little bitt…”
Twilight stopped mid-sentence.
“Never mind.”
“Plus, I had that whole party canon thing,” Pinkie went on. “Hey, remember the first time I showed you that? I…”
Rarity watched with surprise and alarm as Twilight magiced an empty flour sack over Pinkie Pie and tied the top.
“Whatever are you doing?!” she exclaimed.
“No choice,” said Twilight quickly as the bag flailed. “You heard her. She brought up her party canon. She’s got parties on the brain. She’s a threat to Lazybug’s and Crosspatch’s plans.”
“But… but…” stammered Rarity. “Surely this is a step too far.”
“The Map called us for this Rarity,” insisted Twilight. “We can’t fail.”
“Well… you’ll let her out this evening, won’t you? We’ll at least let her attend the party, right?”
Twilight nodded. “We’ll have to miss the surprise, but yeah, we’ll let her out this evening.”
Twilight and Rarity spent the whole day in Pinkie Pie’s bedroom. They barely spoke to each other, and they only had lunch that day because Mrs Cake waked in with a plate of butter tarts. She didn’t seem surprised at all to see that Pinkie Pie had been stuffed into a sack. At last, evening came. Rarity could see Crosspatch and Lazybug’s house from Pinkie’s window. It looked like they’d succeeded in setting up for the block party, and there were lots of ponies gathered in front of the house. She couldn’t quite make out Winter Squash standing in the doorway, but she and Twilight both distinctly heard “Surprise!”
“We’re clear, Twilight,” said Rarity. “Now please, let her out.”
Twilight magiced the sack open. Pinkie emerged holding something.
“There was a cap ‘n’ ball in that flour sack!” she beamed, showing them the toy she found. “Thanks Twilight! That was the perfect distraction!”
Twilight and Rarity exchanged baffled looks.
“Well, anyway,” said Rarity, “there’s a block party outside Crosspatch and Lazybug’s house to celebrate their mother’s birthday. Shall we join in?”
“Does Gummy like his food pre-chewed?” asked Pinkie in response. “Let’s move it!”
When they arrived, Twilight and Rarity were delighted to see that Winter Squash was no longer wrinkly and decrepit. She looked just as they remembered her.
“Thank heavens the potion didn’t wear off completely,” sighed Rarity.
Lazybug noticed they’d arrived and ran up to them.
“Thanks, you two,” he said gratefully. “I wish you could’ve seen her face when we called her outside and she saw all of us here.”
His eyes watered a bit and he had to spray himself with his spritzing bottle. Twilight beamed at looked eagerly at her flank. Rarity did likewise, but she wasn’t as expectant as her mission partner. And rightly so; a minute went by, and neither of their cutie marks glowed.
“Twilight,” said Rarity tentatively, “I think this wasn’t our mission. It appears Lazybug and Crosspatch had this problem well in hoof.”
“That’s impossible!” cried Twilight, pointing to Pinkie, who was stuffing her face with cake. “If it weren’t for us, Pinkie might’ve jeopardised this whole thing.”
“Oh, I’d never jeopardise a surprise party,” said Pinkie, crumbs flying from her mouth. “Still, I can’t blame you for taking precautions. After almost spoiling Cadance’s pregnancy for you, I still don’t really trust myself with a secret.”
Twilight, Rarity, and Lazybug blinked. “You knew?!”
Crosspatch and Nyx walked up.
“Something wrong?” asked Crosspatch.
“Crosspatch, did you tell Pinkie Pie about our party?” asked Lazybug.
“Yeah. Where do you think I got all the supplies? I told her we wanted to set the whole thing up ourselves, but I still needed stuff to do it with.”
“We haven’t even found our mission yet!” cried Twilight. “It might have intensified during all that time we’ve wasted! Sorry, everypony. We can’t stay here and join this garden party. We need to…”
“Block party,” corrected Nyx.
“Huh?”
“This is a block party, Twilight. Not a garden party,” said Nyx.
“Oh. Whoops,” Twilight groaned.
“Twilight,” said Rarity, “I didn’t say anything all day just in case you were right about what the Map wanted us to do, but I’ve wanted to ask you this ever since you stuffed Pinkie Pie into that sack.”
Crosspatch and Lazybug both raised an eyebrow.
“You are angry at me, aren’t you?” Rarity asked bluntly.
“F-for what?” asked Twilight, shuddering a little.
“For making an excuse to skip your birthday party when I went on my Canterlot holiday years ago,” pressed Rarity.
“No! I told you, I’m alright with it,” said Twilight with a plainly forced smile.
Rarity wasn’t buying it. “You’ve been acting up ever since I admitted it in The Tasty Treat.”
“I told you, it was the curry,” insisted Twilight. “What you did on your holiday has nothing to do with it. After all, I still had a great time when we all came to join you. Why would I complain about your deviousness?”
“I know when you’re denying something, Twilight,” said Rarity. “You acted the same way when we were all laughing at Discord’s inside jokes. Now out with it.”
Twilight’s eye twitched. “I skipped Moondancer’s party way before you tried to skip mine, and look what happened to her. It would be hypocritical of me to hate you, Rarity.”
“Well, it seems you’ve learned nothing from after your book sorting sabbatical,” snorted Rarity. “If you can’t admit that you’re harbouring resentment towards me, then we shall never accomplish our mission.”
Nyx spoke up. “The friendship problem must be between the two of you.”
Twilight scoffed, but Rarity nodded.
“Of course! Right after I owned up. I thought your reaction was too calm.”
“What do you want?” asked Twilight. “Should I just forget everything that happened between us after that party? Forget how far we’ve both come since then? I won’t do it!”
Rarity gave Twilight a pitiful look. “Discord was quite right about you. You set far too much store by your title. If the Princess of Friendship can’t admit how she really feels to her friends…”
“Rarity, she’s not lying to you,” Nyx interrupted. “She’s lying to herself.”
Twilight and Rarity both looked down at Nyx with wide eyes.
“I am aren’t I?” sighed Twilight.
“You made a good argument for why you don’t want to feel this way,” said Nyx, “but you do. I first noticed when you tried to choke Rarity with that table napkin.”
Again, Crosspatch and Lazybug both raised an eyebrow.
“I’m so sorry, Twilight,” said Rarity. “I should have realised it wasn’t me you were trying to convince.”
She reached out to Twilight’s shoulder, but Twilight swatted it away.
“Okay, I admit it,” she said at last. “I am mad at you for trying to get out of coming to be birthday party… but like I said, I will never forget all the great times we’ve shared between then and now.
This time Twilight reached out to Rarity, and their hug was punctuated by the glowing of their cutie marks.