It was Saturday evening, the night of the party. The day before, Spike had been out delivering the invitations Pinkie Pie had, as Twilight predicted, insisted on making.
“Just in case they forget!” said the pink pony in her bright, upbeat voice and giving Twilight her very own invitation.
“Okay, but something tells me I’m not going to forget,” said the unicorn, floating the hoofmade invitation in front of her. It was pink. Very pink. Balloons of various colours were drawn all over the place, and in the top-right corner, Pinkie had drawn a yellow smiling sun. In the centre, written in dark red, was the invitation message:
Dear Twilight Sparkle
You are invited to Twilight Sparkle’s party on Saturday
7:00 pm, Ponyville Library
At least I’m invited to my own party... she thought sarcastically, rolling her eyes.
During her lunch break, after Spike had delivered the invitations, Twilight had gone back to Sugarcube Corner to pick up snacks recommended by Pinkie and the books she had been studying.
With the food and drinks taken care of, and Pinkie having brought her party music, all that was left was to decorate the place. Twilight had asked the party pony to come round to help after the library was closed for the remainder of the weekend. Luckily, it shut early on Saturday, meaning Spike and the two ponies had an hour to get the place ready.
“Why don’t I just use my Party Cannon?” asked Pinkie, producing the sky blue artillery weapon from somewhere, “This’ll get everything ready in a jiffy!”
“I would say yes to that, but if I ever decide to host another party and you’re not available, I want to know how to do it myself.”
“Oh! Well, young Miss Sparkle, I hope your remember everything teacher tells you about preparing parties,” said Pinkie in what she considered a ‘teacher voice’.
Twilight giggled, “Yes, ma’am! I’ve got everything written down in my notebook,” she said, levitating the aforementioned pad.
“Very good work! You get a star!” said Pinkie and stuck a gold star on the page.
“Uh... thanks,” said Twilight.
Spike tied the final string around one of the stones they were using to secure the party balloons and turned to check Twilight’s progress. His eyes got wide when he saw that she had only gotten two tied and was fiddling around with a third balloon. The dragon approached Twilight, who was looking between the three balloons.
“Twilight, what are you doing?” he asked, “It’s been about ten minutes and that’s all you’ve done?”
“I’m just trying to get them all about the same height,” replied the unicorn, moving the stones around, and then magically untying and retying the strings.
Spike stared at her, “Wha... are you serious? It doesn’t matter if they’re not all the same height!”
She turned her head to him, “But doesn’t it look neater?”
The dragon slapped a palm to his forehead, “It’s a party, Twilight. Who cares about neatness? Did your books say anything about that?”
“Well... no...”
“And did Pinkie Pie?”
Twilight smiled and turned to fully face him, “I guess you’re right.”
“Of course I am,” replied Spike, crossing his arms.
She turned her attention from him to the pink pony who was at a table at one side of the room, working on something, “What’s Pinkie Pie doing, anyway?”
Spike followed her gaze, “I dunno. She was talking about making ‘paper chains’, or something.”
The two watched their pink friend diligently working on a string of coloured rings. She had her tongue poked out of one corner of her mouth and her expression was unusually focused. She almost looked like a completely different pony. Spike shrugged and walked off to tie the balloons Twilight hadn’t done yet.
The purple unicorn approached her friend, “Pinkie?”
Hearing her name, the fluffy tailed pony’s bright-eyed expression returned and her head snapped up, “Hi, Twilight!”
“What are you doing?”
“Making paper chains!” declared Pinkie with a big grin and proudly held up the fifth chain she was working on.
“Huh. So that’s what those things are called. How do you make them, anyway?”
“Oh, it’s easy; just take a piece of paper like this, then put glue on one end, then turn it over and put glue on the other end, then put the two together!” she said, demonstrating.
Twilight blinked. She had watched her friend doing it, but how she was able to grip and manipulate the paper with her hooves was beyond the unicorn’s comprehension.
“Okay, but how do you hold onto the two ends?”
Pinkie tilted her head and frowned, “Huh?”
“You know, so you can put them together?”
“What do you mean? I just do.”
Twilight put a hoof to the side of her head, “Oh, never mind,” she said in a defeated tone. Seeing Spike quickly tying the remaining balloons to stones, she floated her checklist over, unfurled it, and ticked off balloons in addition to food, drinks, invitations, and music. At the bottom, she added ‘paper chains’.
“Are you done making those?” she asked Pinkie.
“Uh-huh! Well, just finishing this last one. Do you want me to make any more? I’ve still got some paper left and I wouldn’t mind. It’s fun making them! Um, not as fun as a party, but still fun! And that’s what parties are all about! I can’t imagine a party that’s not fun. That would be weird. You know, speaking of weird, one time—”
“Pinkie! Thank you. I think we’ve got enough now.”
“Okay!”
After ticking off the paper chains, the unicorn went around the library hanging up the final decorations and double-checking everything. After that, she looked around and nodded.
“Alright, seems like everything’s in order,” said Twilight, curling up the checklist, “Thanks for the help, Pinkie!”
“Sure!”
“About five minutes to go. The others should be getting here pretty soon.”
Just when Twilight was saying the word ‘soon’, there was a knock on the door.
“That was soon!” said Pinkie as the unicorn crossed the room to the door. Upon opening it, a blue pegasus flew in.
“Am I... oh great, somepony got here before me,” said Rainbow Dash, an expression of disappointment on her face.
“Actually, Pinkie was here early to help me set everything up,” explained Twilight.
“So I’m the first guest?”
“Technically, yes.”
“Yeah!” exclaimed the pegasus, raising her hoof in the air.
Rainbow Dash landed then walked along the side of the food table, which was pushed against a wall, her mouth watering at the confections laid out, “Whoa, nice spread!”
“My thoughts, too,” said Twilight, “But we’re going to wait until everyone else is here.”
“Mmf, we are?” asked Spike, covering his mouth.
“Spike, did you eat something from the table?” asked Twilight,
Spike removed his hand from his mouth and laughed, “Nope!”
Twilight narrowed her eyes in mock annoyance and turned her head away, “I don’t think you should be allowed to have any cake for that,” she said, and then glanced at him, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.
There was a knock at the door.
“I’ll get it!” said Pinkie.
She opened the door to two ponies, Applejack and Fluttershy.
“Hiya!” greeted the pink pony.
“Hey there, Pinkie,” said Applejack, “We heard there was a party bein’ held here. Mind if we join?”
“Sure! Come on in!” said Pinkie, moving aside to let the two enter.
“Fluttershy! Applejack! Great of you to show up!” said Twilight, smiling.
“No problem, Twi,” replied Applejack, then waved back at Rainbow Dash who was in the air again.
Fluttershy cast her gaze around at the transformed library, “Wow! You and Pinkie did this?”
“Boy howdy! There ain’t even any music and ah feel like dancin’! Ah think we’re all in for some fun tonight!”
“Did you happen to—” Rainbow Dash started to say when there was a knock on the door.
“What’re you sayin’?” asked Applejack.
“I was just gonna ask if you saw Rarity on your way here, but, uh... I guess that’s her now.”
Twilight opened the door, and greeted the last of the guests, “Rarity! Good of you to come! You look great!”
“Why thank you, darling. You look rather good, yourself,” said the white unicorn. Twilight moved aside and Rarity walked in, hair shining, coat gleaming, and eyelashes large.
“So how long did you spend getting ready? An hour?” asked Rainbow jokingly.
“Certainly not!” replied Rarity, “An hour and a half is the adequate amount of time to make oneself look fabulous.”
“What? Oh, wow! I don’t know how other ponies can stand doing that for so long. All you need is a quick bath, run a comb through your hair a coupla times, and there ya go!”
“Well, some of us do care a little more about our appearance.”
“Oh, don’t start arguing, you guys,” said Twilight.
“We’re not arguing,” said Rainbow Dash, “We’re, uh... discussing.”
“I thought this was a party, not a discussion,” said Pinkie.
“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s get started, already!”
Without any further prompting, Pinkie zipped over to the gramophone and turned it on.
Twilight raised a hoof in the air, “The party has officially started!” she announced.
While Twilight, Rarity and Applejack went to the middle of the room to dance, and Spike to the food table to eat, Pinkie motioned for Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy to come closer. She leaned in and said something to them, then nodded towards two small plastic buckets, one red, one yellow. Rainbow Dash smiled and looked at Fluttershy, who seemed a little unsure.
“Um... would everypony be okay with it?” she asked, just barely audible over the music.
“It’s just some fun,” said Rainbow Dash, “It’s a party, after all.”
“...Well... okay,” replied the yellow pegasus, smiling a little.
The two pegasi picked up a bucket each with their hooves. Twilight, Applejack and Rarity stopped dancing and watched with some puzzlement as they flew up and hovered over the three ponies.
“Those buckets better not be full of water!” warned Rarity.
“Yeah, don’t even think about it!” chimed in Applejack.
“Now!” yelled Pinkie and ran in amongst the other three, head turned up expectantly, grinning.
Rainbow and Fluttershy upturned the buckets and spilled their contents. Rarity cried out and reflexively covered her hair with her foreleg, cowering. When no liquids drenched her, she opened one eye and slowly glanced upwards to see confetti floating down.
The buckets hadn’t been completely filled, but there was enough to give a good shower of colour.
“I love being under confetti showers!” said Pinkie, standing on her hind legs, “It’s so fun!”
“Yes, it... certainly is...” said Rarity, delicately brushing confetti flakes out of her hair, “Ha ha ha...”