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// Chapter 8: It's My Party..... 
// Story: The Strange Case of Dinky Hooves' Cutie Mark Curiosity 
// by Fluttercheer 
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It did not take long for Dinky to find Lily. After about ten minutes of stampeding through town, she found her pig-tailed friend sitting on the teeter-totter of the playground. Broadly grinning, Dinky galloped to the playground apparatus and took seat on the other side. Lily began the conversation first.
“Why are you smiling, Dinky?” she asked in her soft voice, not yet seeing the surprise on Dinky's flank. A circumstance that should change soon, as Dinky jumped up and onto her seat, holding the white mark into Lily's view.
“So you finally got it now!” Lily commented on what she saw, in a voice that sounded less excited than the situation required, but the grin that formed on her face, as well, now indicated the opposite. “Congratulations, Dinky!” Lily began to cheer for her friend, clapping her hooves. “So, the Cutie Mark Crusaders could help you?”
“Mhm!” Dinky confirmed, finallly saying something again after having just stood there motionlessly, presenting her new cutie mark to the earth pony filly on the other side of the teeter-totter. “The first thing they tried with me didn't work, but after they got me to try out bandaging other ponies, it finally appeared today after school! Bandaging is my special talent!” Dinky sat down again on her end, without the grin leaving her face.
“What are you going to do now?” Lily asked. “We should throw you a party, you celebrate cute-ceaneras here in Ponyville, right?”
Eagerly, Dinky nodded. “Mom and Sparkler already prepare something, I left them right before they started, to meet you!” Laughing, Dinky pushed herself off the ground with her hooves, letting her friend come down from her high position.
“And who are you going to invite to your cute-ceanera?” Lily asked as she was on the ground again.
This was something Dinky hadn't thought about yet in all her excitement, so her face began to show a clueless, puzzled expression. “I'm not sure yet..... Mom and Sparkler will be there, obviously. And I need to invite the Crusaders, they are responsible for it that this could finally happen! And you can come, too, of course.”
Lily gifted her with a smile.
“And then.....” She scrunched her face for a moment, thinking. “And I could invite Button Mash, I guess. And Pipsqueak too. And maybe Peach Fuzz and Train Tracks, I bet they wouldn't mind coming together to the same party.....” Trailing off, she held a hoof at her mouth and snickered, a faint blush on her cheeks.
“And then First Base!” Dinky shouted. “I can't forget him, he really livens up parties! Then Little Red and Bubblegum Brush and, uh.....” She tapped her chin, looking up into the sky.
“And I should invite Carrot Crunch!” Dinky shouted, leaving her thoughtful trance. “And Noi should come, too! And I guess I'm going to invite Fry, even though he might eat most of the food..... But Sparkler and Mom probably have hired Pinkie Pie already to take care of everything, so there should be enough food even for him, I bet Pinkie Pie reckons that he will come.”
Lily did not get a chance to comment on the guests Dinky chose, due to her friend's spate of words, but she approved each choice with a nod. “Those are some good choices, Dinky.”
“Then let's go and invite them right now!” Despite the height, Dinky jumped off the teeter-totter, not awaiting a response by her friend. The ground thundered under her hooves as she came down on it and a split-second later, she already dashed away from the playground. Lily followed her at a slower pace.


Five minutes later, the two fillies stood in front of the door of a house, on which Dinky knocked loudly. As the door got opened, a filly with a long mane of a dark pink came into view.
“Yeah?” she asked. “What is it?”
“A cutie mark, that's what is!” Dinky burst into Bubblegum Brush's light-blue face.
“Huh?” the other filly asked, cocking her head in confusion.
“Oh, I mean.....” Dinky stroke the back of her head, grinning sheepishly. She turned her flank to Bubblegum Brush. “I got my cutie mark today and my cute-ceanera is going to be in the evening and you are invited! Do you want to come?”
Bubblegum Brush lifted a hoof up to her mane and wrapped some strains around it. She let her hoof go round in circles, wrapping more of her long mane around it, while she looked at Dinky and Lily without changing her expression.
“Ok,” she said after a few seconds, taking her hoof down again. Her mane fell into its old position. “I need to fix up my mane first, but I'll be there in a few hours!” She closed the door in front of them, then clopping sounds indicated that she was trotting away from the door.
“Score!” Dinky shouted, stretching a hoof into the air. “The first guest is in the bag! And I already know who I'm going to invite next!”
After Dinky led Lily across Ponville to the next house, a colt with a bright, orange coat and a blue mane opened them.
“Hey, First Base!” Dinky shouted into this face immediately as the door had been opened. Then she proceeded showing him her cutie mark and shoved her flank almost into his face in her excitement, making him tumble back a step. “I got my cutie mark and now I'm having my cute-ceanera! Do you want to come?”
“Uh.....” First Base stumbled to the side a few steps, until he had more room to breath. “S-Sure,” he said. “When is it going to be?” He didn't move his eyes from her cutie mark, the white of it giving him an idea. “What is your cutie mark? Is it a hoofball like mine?”
“I have no idea!” Dinky shot back a response, simultaneously moving her flank out of the way again. “But who cares, it's finally here! The cute-ceanera is in the evening, make sure to show up!” Turning on her hooves, Dinky did not leave him a chance to reply. She already was on the way to invite another classmate as First Base closed the door, a bit dumbfounded by this quick visit.
Next on Dinky's list was Little Red. At first, the chubby filly with the glasses was hesitant about attending, she wasn't one for large gatherings like this, but Dinky's excitement eventually infected her and she finally agreed.
Roughly two hours later, all of the foals Dinky had decided for were invited to her cute-ceanera. On the way back to her house, Dinky trudged behind Lily, her tongue hanging out. She was wheezing a little. They had galloped all over town together, even made a short trip to Sweet Apple Acres to let Apple Bloom and her two friends know of her cute-ceanera, so Dinky was visibly exhausted now.
While Dinky tried to catch her breath, Lily suddenly turned around to her. “Didn't we forget somepony?” she asked.
“Who?” Dinky replied weakly, too tired to give it a thought right now.
“Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Do you want to invite them too?”
Dinky shook her head. “N-Not necessary. They come to most parties in town and especially to every cute-ceanera. They are going to show up by themselves anyway, there's no need to invite them.” A trace of disdain appeared in her voice, but Lily was not sure if it was really there or if it just seemed like it because of Dinky's wheezing.
Not knowing what to think of it, Lily shrugged it off. A second later, Dinky's wheezing stopped all of a sudden and got replaced by a strong gasp. Lily looked ahead, then she gasped, too.
In front of them was Dinky's house, but the two of them barely recognized it. The whole house was wrapped into long, thick streamers of all imaginable colors, a huge banner showing Dinky and her cutie mark hung above the entrance door and the place in front of the house was littered with balloons. What was the most odd, though, was the colorful smoke that came out of the chimney on top of the roof. With open mouths, Dinky and Lily watched it as the colors alternated between purple, yellow and white. Then, shock got added to the surprise, as a shrill voice shrieked into their ears.
“It's smoke in the colors of your coat, your mane and your cutie mark!” Pinkie Pie suddenly bounced up and down in front of them, not doing any efforts to explain where she came from.
Dinky and Lily did not say a word and just kept staring in awe, their hearts racing now.
Pinkie frowned for a moment, then returned to her crazy cheerfulness. “Eh, I know, it's not the exact same colors. Should have seen the face of the pony in the fireworks shop when I told him I need magic wood that produces smoke that has precisely the colors of the coat, the mane AND the cutie mark of Dinky Hooves. No idea why that shocked him so much..... But it's close enough!” She patted their heads, then bounced away and into the house.
As she had disappeared inside, Lily found her speech back. “D-Did she all of this in just a few hours?”
Silently, Dinky nodded.
“How?” Lily asked plainly.
Dinky gulped. “I-It's Pinkie Pie.”
The answer confused Lily even more and she raised an eyebrow.
“You will understand one day,” Dinky continued. Then she cringed. “Or, maybe not..... But you will get used to it.” She shook off the weird feeling, then marched ahead to the door of the house, Lily following close behind.
The inside of the house didn't look much different. Balloons everywhere, streamers hanging from the ceiling and the stair-rails and pictures of Dinky, seemingly hoofdrawn, were hanging on every wall. Dinky and Lily turned right and made their way towards the kitchen. They had a hard time trotting forward, as the balloons covered pretty much the whole floor. Occasionally, they stepped on one of the balloons, the loud bang making them twitch and stopping in their tracks for a few seconds.
As they had brought half of the way behind them, Pinkie Pie rushed at their side. She broke out in laughter as Dinky stepped on another balloon and let it explode.
“Everything looks nice, but I think that's a bit much, Pinkie,” Dinky addressed her concern to the party mare. “The guests will have almost no room to trot anywhere with all those balloons!” As to confirm what she said, a curse rang out behind her after another bang could be heard, the voice unmistakably coming from her big sister.
Pinkie stopped her laughing and gave her a smug grin “Everything according to plan!”
“Huh?” Dinky looked into her face, puzzled.
As response, Pinkie stepped on one of the balloons herself. She snorted after the bang had dissipated. “Isn't it fun?” she asked then. “You and the other foals can pop as many balloons as you want!”
The answer did nothing to stop Dinky's confusion over the idea, but at least she knew that the balloons on the floor were intentional now. Typical Pinkie Pie logic.
“Uh, I guess..... Maybe?” she answered. Instead of receiving a reply, Pinkie Pie suddenly rushed forward as a slurping sound came from the kitchen.
“Hey, don't you dare touching this!” Her face and the tone of her voice had become slightly aggressive.
As Dinky and Lily finally reached the kitchen, after what had felt like a march through the brightest mine field ever, they saw the reason for the commotion.
At the right side of the kitchen, a big chocolate fountain had been placed. In front of it stood Gallop J. Fry, his mouth smeared with the delicious, brown substance. Pinkie had just finished scolding him for going at the food too early and before any of the other guests arrived. Begrudgingly, he left the scene.
On the table in front of Dinky and Lily, an assortment of sweets had been prepared. A few of them had bite marks, making the two friends scrunch their faces, but Pinkie quickly removed the half-eaten pieces after seeing them.
Aside from Gallop J. Fry., who had obviously just come for the food, none of Dinky's guests had arrived yet. It were another two hours until the start of the party, a time Dinky spent with taking a little nap in her room, while Lily was reading a book. As a shrill call for her rang through the house, Dinky woke up almost instantly, knowing that all of the guests had arrived and that the party was about to start. She stretched her limbs before jumping out of the bed, then did a searching look on her flank. She breathed out audibly, then left her room together with Lily.
The cute-ceanera to celebrate the acquisition of her cutie mark happened exactly as Dinky had imagined it.
The invited foals, and a few more who had heard about the occasion, knocked on the door one after another, each of them having a small present for Dinky. There had been a speech by Pinkie Pie and, luckily, by her mom too. And, of course, there had been tons of food, of which nothing was left after the great feast was over. The rest of the party, that lasted way beyond Dinky's bedtime, was filled with loud music, dancing and some funny party games Pinkie Pie had come up with.
As everything was over, Dinky felt exhausted and stuffed, but happy. Not all foals had stayed for the whole party and now that it was a little past midnight, only Pipsqueak, Diamond Tiara and Peach Fuzz were still here.
Dinky guided the three of them to the door to let them outside. She even offered them to accompany them home, since it had become late and very dark outside, but they rejected this offer.
“Not necessary,” Peach Fuzz said. “I like to trot.” She bent forward and gave Dinky a tight hug. “Congratulations again to getting your cutie mark! Now you don't have a reason to be sad anymore.” Dinky squeezed the other filly, then Peach Fuzz let go of her and galloped out of the door with a bright grin on her face.
Even Diamond Tiara had a hug to give for Dinky before she left, something Dinky wasn't quite used to by the rich filly.
Surprising to Dinky, it was only Pipsqueak who did not offer her a hug. Instead, he just raised a hoof and waved at her a little, barely noticeable.
“Bye, Dinky. I really hope you don't do it again this time,” he said in a strange, sad tone. Having spoken those words, he turned around and trotted out of the door.
Dinky did not close the door immediately. She looked after the colt, his statement lingering in her mind, until he was so far away that it was impossible for Dinky to see him in the dark night. She waited one more second, then she shrugged and closed the door. Noticing how heavy her eyes felt now, Dinky did not waste much time anymore. It had been an eventful day and her tired body made her aware of this now.
Two fast goodnight wishes for her sister and her mom later; one consisting of a casual hug, the other one of a kiss on the cheek, Dinky already found herself in bed. Covered in her blanket and with a content smile on her lips, she closed her eyes and allowed sleep to take her away.
In her last conscious moments, she felt hope that it wouldn't take away anything else.