It's another one of those happy go lucky, bright and sunny, nothing crazy going on days in Ponyville. Well, it's like that right now, but we all know that won't last much longer, especially with the pink party mistress herself bouncing around the whole town.
Pinkie Pie is currently going around putting some kind of fliers on every inch of every building, and I do mean EVERY building. With the amount of energy she has, she can literally cover an entire building in ten, no, FIVE seconds flat. Jus watch this.
Pinkie Pie bounces into Sweet Apple Acres singing merrily. "La la la la la! Whee!" she begins to put posters all over all the trees in the orchard. A few moments later, she bounces back out and back towards town.
Applejack steps out of the barn with a bucket of water being held in her mouth, which she drops upon seeing her trees. "Land sakes!"
"What is it, AJ?" Atom asks as he follows her out. His eyes widen a bit as he sees it too. "Woah, whoever did this sure can work fast."
AJ sighs in exasperation. "It was probably Pinkie Pie. She's lucky we're friends, or ah'd be on her faster than a hungry caterpillar on a fresh apple."
"What are the fliers for anyway?"
AJ goes over to one try and rips a flier off of it. "Ah don't know. Knowin' Pinkie, it's probly a birthday for one o' Fluttershy's fish friends at the pond." she chuckles a bit as she brings the flier to her face and starts reading it. "Ponyville town meetin'. Everypony needs to be at town hall at one o'clock."
Atom looks at his watch. "Hmm, that's in ten minutes. We better head over there and see what's up."
AJ tips in her hat in approval as the two of them walk their way to catch what they assume to be a big, important announcement.
Over back in Ponyville, Pinkie continues to put fliers on every visible wall in the vicinity. Guess it's lucky, or unlucky, whichever you think, that that vicinity just so happens to include the weather office. Even better that it's right when we're about to get off of work.
As she posts fliers, she starts humming a familiar tune. "Hm hm hm hm hm hm hm hm of my gypsy tambourine."
As I step outside, everything goes dark as a flier is stuck on my face. "Hey, who turned out the sun?"
She giggles. "Oops. Sorry, Breezy."
"Pinkie Pie, what the heck?" I grab the flier off of my face in annoyance. I begin to skim over it in curiosity. "A town meeting? For what?"
"You'll just have to show up to find out." she says in a teasing yet cheery manner as she bounces away.
The others and I look at each other in a mixture of curiosity and confusion. "Should we even bother asking?" Zeph asks first.
"Not really much of point, because one: it's Pinkie Pie. And two: because she didn't say anything anyway."
"Well, then I guess our only option is to go to town hall ourselves." Drax suggests.
"Hopefully it's something cool this time. These town meetings are always such a drag." Dash says in irritation.
We leave the office in our group as we head to town hall and see what the whole deal is about. At least with Pinkie being involved, it should be interesting. That's always a guarantee.
We walk down the streets with dozens of other ponies doing much in the same, everypony interested in seeing why exactly Pinkie has been unnecessarily putting a ton of fliers everywhere.
We get to town hall a bit later to see the stage set up once again with a big crowd of ponies standing infront of it. We even find a very familiar and large group of ponies.
We approach them from behind. "So, any of you guys know what's up?" I ask.
"No idea." Twilight answers. "We just found the fliers stuck all over the library and came down here."
"Yeah, I hope Pinkie plans to take those down." Dark says. "No way am I gonna do all that."
"Peh, and you say you're one of the fastest ponies in Equestria." Zeph taunts.
Dark turns his head and glares at him. "That sounds like a challenge, Verve."
Zeph smirks at him. "Maybe it is. We ended our last race in a tie, but that one had outside interference."
"Just trying to make it a bit more interesting." Vine points out.
"Well, how's about we have a rematch with no one getting involved, just the two of us?"
Dark gives a smirk of his own. "Heh, you're on."
"Shh, shut up, you guys. It's about to start." Graze says.
Indeed, it is. Mayor Ivory Scroll walks up onto the stage as the crowd goes silent in attention. She clears her throat as she gets behind the podium that is set up.
"Greetings, everypony." she starts off. "I thank you all for coming here on this fine afternoon."
"You're welcome." a pony in the crowd says, getting some chuckles from the crowd.
"Yes, well... Anyhoo, you have all been gathered here today for a very special occassion that was suggested by our very own Pinkamena Diane Pie."
The crowd looks at Pinkie, who is smiling happy as she waves to them. "Hi!"
The crowd looks back towards the stage in anticipation and slight worry at hearing this is Pinkie's idea. "Ms. Pie has come up with what I believe to be a very fun idea for the whole town, and no, it isn't a party for once." everypony sighs in relief.
I agree. Parties are fun, but Pinkie's get a bit excessive with how many she has.
"Moving right along. This will be a town-wide competition for a mystery prize."
"Ooh, I like mystery prizes." Ditzy says. "I say the best kind of prize is a sur-prize."
"Hehe, good one, Bright Eyes." Graze says.
Oh, sure. When she makes a pun, it's cute. When I do it, everypony groans. Sometimes I wonder if life would be better if I were a mare.
"Hmm, a competition, huh? Screw the prize, I'm just in it for the feel of winning and shoving it in ponies' faces." Dark says smugly.
Upon him saying that, the crowd of ponies starts walking away, leaving us to our not-so-small group.
"What's their problem?" Ice asks.
"Well, considering it's no doubt some kind of competition that involves physical work, they're not going to even bother since we're all no doubt going to enter." Rhino explains.
"Sweet, makes it easier to win." Dark says.
"It's probably for the best. This competition is rather dangerous for more normal ponies, but I know you, uh..." the mayor stops as she starts counting us off. "Twenty four can handle this."
"Dangerous? Exactly what kind of competition is this anyway?" I ask with suspicion.
"I'm glad you asked, Mr. Breeze. This competition will be a treasure hunt played in teams of two. No bigger and you cannot play solo, only in pairs. So, I'd like for you all to get in your teams before I continue."
Dash looks at me. "You wanna be partners?"
"Sure." I answer happily. "I've got brawn, brain, and looks, and you've got speed. We'll make the perfect team."
"Brawn is right at least." she says jokingly. I love having a mare that can out smartflank me. Provides a fun challenge.
"Well, then I call Twi as a partner." Dark says, pulling her in.
All of the other couples follow suit as they each team up, leaving just Sunny and Pinkie.
The white mare looks around and is saddened "I guess I don't have anypony to be partners with."
Pinkie pops up and quickly wraps around her neck. "Don't be a silly filly, Sunny. I'd LOVE to be your partner."
Sunny's frown turns upside down as she looks at Pinkie. "Really, Pinkie? Thanks."
"Alright, now that you're all in your teams, I shall explain how the game works. Firstly, pegasi are not allowed to fly and unicorns are not allowed to teleport."
"And what if we do?" Dark asks.
The mayor answers by pointing a hoof to the sky were there are several pegasi holding ropes. They quickly fly down and begin tying ropes around the torsos of all the pegasi.
"Hey!"
"Watch it!"
"Not so tight!"
Done with all their tying, the go back into the sky. The mayor smiles at us. "That will make sure there are no accidental flyings. Those pegasi will keep a keen eye on the rest of you to make sure no teleportation is used or that you try to break the rope off."
"Fan-bucking-tastic." Dark says sarcastically.
"Now, as for the game itself, it will be a treasure hunt for one common item that you are all trying to get, a flag to be specific. You will need to travel to several locations to find it first though. Your first one will be given here. Once you find the flag, you will need to bring it back here, and the that brings it back will be our winner."
Hmm, interesting, I actually like it. Gives a nice challenge with both physical and mental problems to solve. This should be fun. I also personally hope the prize is something good. Knowing me, I shouldn't even need to tell you what it is. But I'll give you points if you get it right.
One of the mayor's assistants walks up on stage and gives her a piece of paper. "I shall now give you your first riddle." she clears her throat.
"Sturdy and proud I did once stand
Home to the greatest in the land
Once the scene of an important brawl
But now I'm rarely seen at all."
The teams pay close attention as they try to absorb every detail in the riddle to try and figure it out as quickly as possible.
The mare sets the paper down and smiles. "Good luck, everypony. May the best team win."
Oh, I intend to. May the games begin.
Author's Note: For the record, every riddle I'm using for this was thought up by RLYoshi. Thanks, man.