"What am I gonna do?" Pinkamenia Dawn Pie moaned. "All four of my friends have really good reasons to go to the gala." She began to point to the pictures on the menu. "Apple Jet and Twilight Swish." Her hoof traced across the page from the caramel apple to the cotton candy. "Fleur de Shy and Rarity..." This time she pointed at the daisy sandwich before letting her hoof drift to the blueberry side dish. "Oh, how do I tell them?"
"Just tell them the truth." Gummy offered as he looked over the menu at "May's Munchies." The duo was sitting outside in the enclosed area of the restaurant. "Hmmm...the gems salad looks good. Of course, it's the only gem related item, so it has to be good."
A beige unicorn stallion trotted over to their table. "Have you made your decision?" He asked.
Still trapped in her conflicting emotions, Dawn was caught slightly off guard. "IT'S NOT A DECISION!" She yelled in frustration, with her sheer volume pushing the waiter back a few inches.
Gummy whispered something to the stallion with an apologetic look. The unicorn nodded in understanding, he had had quite a few ponies throw temper tantrums during his shift, so he had learned how to take it in stride. The dragon then turned his attention back to his mentor. "Pinkster, he's talking about your food choice, not your friend choice."
"I'm sorry." The pink mare apologized to her fellow unicorn. "I'll have combo number 1." She folded her menu and passed it to the waiter.
"I'll have your gem salad. Can I have some extra gems?"
"Of course." The waiter did a little bow and backed away politely. That was the cool thing about May's. They treated you like royalty and offered your favorite comfort food.
And comfort food was exactly what the curly haired unicorn needed right now. "What do you think Gum?" Dawn asked as she rested her head on the table.
"I think we should eat at May's every day." The purple-scaled drake replied. "You could be a raging she-demon and they'll still treat you with the utmost respect."
"I mean the tickets! How do I break the news to them?"
"Oh, you're still on that?"
" I'm still on that? Gummy! If I don't solve this today, it will haunt me for the rest of my life! And then, it will haunt me in my death, so I won't get to live in the fields of Es--"
"Slow down there, Dawn." Gummy cut her off, not about to let his caretaker have a panic attack. "Your friends will understand, all you need to do is tell them."
The waiter brought the ordered items and left promptly.
"But HOW? This wasn't on any exam I took, or in any book I read!" She ranted.
Cloud Kicker dashed past the pair.
"Just eat your sandwich." Gummy insisted. "I'm sure everything will be clearer..."
Lemon Hearts wasn't far behind the pegasus, and she was followed by Diamond Mint.
"...with a full stomach." The cotton-candy-colored unicorn finished, feeling a little pride. "So you do listen to me when I lecture you."
Lyra Heartstrings just ran past as well. Was there a race today?
"Well..."
And there went Sweetie Drops. Gummy noticed she wasn't being particularly stealthy today.
"Ma'am?" The tan stallion called across the lot. "Are you going to eat in the rain?"
"Huh?" Dawn looked around her, it was all sunshine and rainbows....literally. Where had the rainbows come from?
Rose, a tanish-yellow pony with a multi-hued red mane, came to the unicorn's table soaking wet. "Dawn, it's raining down hard. You must have some pegasus friend looking out for you." The earth pony shivered. "What a pony would give." Apparently rested enough, the mare took off again for the shelter of the restaurant.
"That.....was weird." Gummy commented as he watched the mare galloped away.
"Not incredibly." Dawn pointed upwards where she had been staring for the past ten seconds. Up in the sky a hole in the clouds could be seen. "Rose, however out of place she was, was right."
An orange head peaked out from behind the clouds. "Howdy there, Dawn. How's my favorite pink unicorn doing?"
"Apple, what are you doing?"
"Just making sure my favorite student-of-the-princess's meal gets finished in peace." Apple Jet smiled widely.
"AJ. I'm not comfortable accepting any favors in return for a ticket that belongs to-"
"Fine, fine. No need to be sassy about it." The orange filly zipped the cloud right back up, leaving an instant downpour to rain on her friend.
"-Gummy." The unicorn finished with a frown as her bangs fell in front of her face.
"Dawn, mon chou, it's raining." The Element of Honesty stated.
"Oh is it now?" The wet mare snorted. Dawn was not in the mood for this. She looked over to see her yellow friend wearing some time of saddle with an umbrella attached to it. Despite being from Canterlot, Dawn had no earthly idea why anypony thought that was remotely fashionable. Fleur then pulled out another umbrella, one that was identical in color and pattern to the parasol on her flank, and offered it to the other unicorn.
"Here, use zis."
"As I just told AppleJet-"
"I'm not giving it to you. You're just borrowing it until we get to my place."
"But-". As it were, Dawn wasn't going to be finishing any sentences any time soon. She was quickly pulled off to Parasol Boutique, where she was allowed to shake the water out. It accidentally soaked Fleur, but she waved it off, using a drying spell on her coat. Although they hadn't known each for long, Dawn was pretty sure that was out of character for the mare. She watched Fleur with a careful eye. She was definitely after the ticket.
"Besides, you can make it up to me by modeling my newest gown and parasol!"
Seconds later, Dawn found herself standing on the runway she had stood on a few weeks ago. In the same fashion, she was also surprised to find an outfit already on her back. It was a sleek, orange-colored saddle with purple and pink frills attached to it. She still wasn't sure how Fleur managed to do that--All Dawn had done was blink.
"I know it's not much..." Fleur started as she circled the party pony slowly. "...but it really has a sort of elegance to it." She pulled out a small parasol that matched the saddle in color and frilly-ness. "Of course, no gala ensemble is complete without ze appropriate accessories." The parasol was now resting in Dawn's foreleg. How the fashionista managed to be here one minute and there the next was another aspect of Fleur that absolutely baffled Dawn.
"Wait a second, the Gala?" Dawn knew perfectly well what this was about, but she wasn't sure how else to act. She didn't want to outright accuse Fleur of bribery. Not only did that seem counter to her nature as the element of honesty, Dawn felt like that wasn't a very friend-like thing to do. But then again, neither was this favor-thing.
"Oh, and what do we have here?" Fleur asked, completely ignoring her friend's statement. "It seems I have managed to create another piece of magnificent fashion!" Suddenly, the Prenchpony was it an identical outfit, save the main color was green instead of orange. "And zey say orange and green don't go together! We match like, oh, how do you say it? Ah! Yes, like two peas in a pod. We will be ze Zinderbellas of the ball!"
"It's Cinderbell, bell of the ball, and the Grand Galloping Gala." Dawn corrected. It appeared Fleur really didn't have a firm grasp on local idoms. To say Dawn was annoyed to find her friend had not ceased her rambling about the gala was an understatement. Fleur had not not heard the pink pony's attempts to interject, appareently. Dawn tried again, a little louder this time. "Although I love your play on words, the ticket--"
"I see you've found me out!" Finally. But was Dawn ever going to get a chance to finish her sentence? "But you are welcome to keep ze saddle and accessories as a little gift."
"I'm. Not. Accepting. Any. Favors." Dawn replied, a little more harshly then she intended.
Fleur looked a little hurt. "I didn't say it was-"
Just then, there was a knock on the door. The yellow pony, a little down-trodden, trotted over to the front of the store to check on it. Surprisingly enough, it was Rose again. "Hello Fleur! I'm so sorry I missed our appointment, what with the down pour and all." She spoke as she trotted into the building. "Sometimes I don't know what to do with those pegasi." She shook her head before finally noticing tension she was walking through. "Oh Hi! I didn't see you there." She gave a little wave to Dawn. "That's a magnificent saddle you have there. Fleur? You don't happen to have any in stock do you? I'm kind of thinking a maroon would do good if you have one."
Dawn took this oppurtunity to remove the ensemble and slip around Rose. Fleur caught the unicorn's eye, causing Dawn to pause. She coughed nervously--which brought the earth pony's train of thought to a halt--before excusing herself more properly. "You seem pretty busy right now." She gestured to Rose while maintaing eye contact with Fleur. "I'll just see myself out." With that, the pink mare was out the door faster than you could say 'ten seconds flat.'
Rose immediately resumed her initial conversation.
Dawn began to walk towards the library, thanking Celestia that Rose had walked in. The tension that had built was unbearable. Much like this entire situation she found herself in. Maybe one of the books at the library would be able to help her figure out how to get herself out of this mess. Not to mention, there were a few more of her things from Canterlot that had finally been sent over... yet somehow it had all ended up at the library. Who was in charge of the mail anyways?
The party planner shook her head. "I never thought my head could be so full!" She exclaimed quietly.
"Are you still on that?" Gummy asked as he trotted beside his friend.
Dawn gave him the stink eye. "Have you not been with me the past two favors? They won't let me get a word in edgewise about how the ticket is yours. Even earlier today, during their dream sequences, they wouldn't let me!" She sighed dejectedly, waving her forelegs about in an exaggerated fashion.
"Perhaps you should just sleep on it. I remember hearing you say your special comforter was arriving today."
"Yeah. The mailmare sent it to the wrong address. That's one of the reasons were heading to the librar-"
The pink mare cut herself off when she noticed all of her stuff in a cart being slowly pulled away by a white earth pony with wavy purple hair.
"Rarity?" Dawn asked, after a long sigh. "What are you doing?"
"I'm...taking...your...things...to...your...house." Rarity replied through clenched teeth. She may have been an earth pony, and thus had magically enhanced strength, but this was probably the hardest load she'd carried yet.
Another sigh escaped the tired pony's lips. "You're not doing this because of the tickets, are you?"
"Well...I mean...I am the...element of...kindness...after...all." The earth pony gave a forced smile. "Right...Angelica?" Her pet bird, which was resting in the mare's mane, simply bent over and pecked Rarity on her head multiple times. "Oh fine," She stopped pulling the cart for a moment. "This is kind of about the ticket."
"Rarity, I'm sorry, really. I can't accept any favors in return for the ticket. You see Princess Celestia actually meant the ticket to be for-"
"PINKIE PIE!!!"
Oh for the love of... A flash of purple came zooming through the sky, landing itself right in between Rarity and Dawn.
"Twilight? What is the meaning of this?" The unicorn asked, exasperated.
"Surprise!" The dusk colored mare exclaimed, along with a hoof-full of other ponies. Dawn glanced around herself to find she was suddenly surrounded by, like, half the town. Rarity, meanwhile, ignored the scene and returned to her task at hoof.
Then, for the second time since Dawn had met her, Twilight burst into song.
"Pinkie is my bestest friend, whoopee, whoopee!"
"Twilight..."
"She's the cutest, smartest, all-around-best pony, pony!"
"Twilight."
"I bet if I throw a super-duper fun party, party,"
"Twilight!"
"She'll give her extra ticket to the gala to me~"
"TWILIGHT!"
"....Yes, Pinkie?"
"At least our other friends tried to be subtle about the ticket."
"Ticket?" Rose, who seemed to be everywhere today, perked up at that word. "Gala?"
"Yeah! Haven't you heard?" The lavender pegasus asked excitingly, despite the massive head-shaking from her unicornian friend. "Pinkie has an extra ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala!"
"The Grand Galloping Gala?!?!" Every single pony within hearing distance shouted, with most of them directly next to Dawn's ear. However, her ringing ears were the least of her problems.
For that was when the true chaos started.