Pinkie Pie was beginning to lose herself. Never before had all of her guests turned down their invitations, and these weren't just any guests either, these were her best friends! As she leaned out of her bedroom window, Pinkie happened to spot Twilight sneaking around the entrance of Sugarcube Corner. Now what? Watching her friend enter the shop below, Pinkie decided to do a little intelligence gathering of her own. Removing a pre-loosened knot in the wooden floor of her room, she revealed a hole looking directly down onto the shop counter downstairs. Lowering her highly technical piece of surveillance equipment—two tin cans attached by string—she was able to listen in on the conversation below.
“-I don't want her to know anything about this,” came the muffled voice of her purple friend up the cord. Just what are you up to, Twilight? So much for 'hitting the books'.
“Yes of course, I'll be right back,” followed Mrs. Cake's cheery tone. Was she in on this too?
Pinkie Pie leaned back from her end of the cans. “But... we're friends. What would Twilight not want me to know anything about?” She replaced her ear to the receiver.
“Here you go,” returned Mrs. Cake's voice.
“Thanks! And remember, not a word to Pinkie Pie.”
So, this wasn't just in her head after all... She knew something was up; she didn't want to believe it, but here was the proof. They must have thought she was stupid to not see through those lies. She had thrown parties for fish who smell less fishy than those excuses! But why? What did she do to deserve this?
Twilight said goodbye to Mrs. Cake and made her way out of the shop, jumping from bush-to-bush and generally behaving quite suspiciously. Watching her egress from her bedroom window, Pinkie decided to take this surveillance further. Throwing her pet alligator and a length of rope out the window, Pinkie rappelled down the building—despite not needing to—and took off in hot pursuit, with Gummy firmly attached to the back of her head.
Her supposed friend was carrying some kind of package, undoubtedly what she had picked up from Mrs. Cake, and seemed to be on high alert for tails, almost spotting Pinkie a few times. Having pursued her across town, Twilight finally arrived at her apparent destination: the Carousel Boutique. So, the others were involved. She knew it!
Ringing the doorbell, Twilight stepped back and looked nonchalant, while Pinkie watched from within a nearby tree. Rarity emerged from her parlour, looking equally shifty.
“She didn't see you in the sweet shop, did she?”
“I don't think so,” Twilight replied.
“Oh good, I'd hate for her to ruin everything.”
“Me too.”
She could hardly believe her ears... Were these really the friends she had come to love? Sure, Twilight was kind of new to the group, but she had never seemed like this kind of pony, and Pinkie had known Rarity for years. What had prompted this change? Everything had been normal yesterday.
Twilight dropped her package and trotted away, leaving Rarity to surreptitiously pick it up and continue on past the boutique. Elegantly diving from the tree into a nearby bale of hay, Pinkie made after the new courier. After a short journey—made significantly more difficult by the new hay disguise—the two were back in town, rounding the corner just in time to see Rarity approach Fluttershy with the box. Et tu, Fluttershy?
“Have you seen her?” Rarity asked.
“Not since this morning.”
“Me neither. Can you believe she was planning on throwing an after-birthday party today?”
“I'm just glad I was able to come up with an excuse for why I couldn't be there.”
This was inconceivable. Fluttershy would never turn on her like this... Would she? They all knew how much parties meant to her. This was a- a- an anti-party conspiracy!
The two deceitful ponies whispered to each other for a moment longer before the parcel was hoofed over to Fluttershy and Rarity made her exit. Lost in her thoughts of a moment, Pinkie Pie didn't realise that Fluttershy was walking right towards her. In a panic, Pinkie tried to escape, accidental running into a wall, then staggering backwards into the yellow pegasi she was trying to avoid. With a distressed scream—having been assaulted by a sentient bale of hay—Fluttershy flew off into the sky, with the package in-mouth.
Pinkie sighed. “I thought everypony loved my parties...” She didn't understand. Everypony seemed to have so much fun at her party yesterday, so why was this happening now? What had changed?
“Hi, Pinkie Pie!” Rainbow Dash walked past Pinkie, somehow recognising her despite the incredible disguise. There was a moment of mutual panic between the two as they both realised the situation they were in; Pinkie wanted answers and Rainbow wasn't going to give them willingly. “Uh oh.”
Rainbow Dash shot away with her usual speed while Pinkie Pie attempted to give chase in her encumbering disguise. Managing to get free of the bale as she turned the corner, Pinkie spotted a rainbow-coloured tail disappearing around a bend to the left. Becoming increasingly annoyed, she followed in quick pursuit, taking the left turn and galloping after the blue pegasi as fast as she could. Coming around the corner, Pinkie locked eyes on her friend once more, who was already a few houses ahead of her. Wasn't Rainbow Dash wearing a saddlebag just a moment ago? Pinkie didn't care; she wanted answers, not whatever was in that bag.
The chase continued for a few minutes, Pinkie's eyes locked firmly on the rainbow tail waving in the distance. They seemed to be heading towards Sweet Apple Acres... She didn't understand what was going on, but by Celestia she was going to find out.
“What's the real reason you didn't want to come to Gummy's party?!” Pinkie screamed out.
Rainbow Dash looked over her shoulder, too far ahead for Pinkie to make out an expression, but she certainly wasn't flying at top speed. Did she want Pinkie to follow her? Not long after, the two arrived at the large red barn next to Applejack's house on the farm. Rainbow shot through a gap between the barn doors as they shut behind her. Pinkie galloped up to them, furious over this cat-and-mouse game, and hammered on the door with her forehead. “I know you're in there!”
Unsurprisingly, Applejack was the one who opened the top half of the stable door, her face plastered with a disingenuous smile. “Oh, er- Howdy partner!”
“Mind if I take a look inside the barn?” Sarcasm wasn't a tone Pinkie typically employed, but this had gone too far. She needed answers, and she was willing to be mean to get them.
“Sorry Pinkie Pie, you- uh, you ain't allowed in.”
“Why not? Rainbow Dash went just went in there.” An unfamiliar feeling of frustration began to swell inside her chest.
“Well, she ain't you. Sorry.” Applejack's expression had relaxed to one of neutral contempt.
“What's going on in there?” Pinkie growled between grit teeth, craning her neck to see into the unlit interior. Every attempt to peer over her friend was mirrored, blocking her view.
“Look, you ain't allowed in the barn, sugarcube. This here's my barn, and if ah say you ain't going in, you ain't going in.”
“Why are you being like this, Applejack? This isn't like you.” The anger in Pinkie's eyes was wilting into sadness as frustration turned to helpless confusion.
“Let her in, Applejack,” a voice called from inside the barn. Was that... Twilight's voice?
AJ looked over her shoulder for a moment, before solemnly taking the barn door's ring pull in her mouth and backing up, revealing the shadowy interior. Pinkie Pie swallowed hard. This is not at all where she thought today was going. She cautiously stepped into the barn, squinting into the darkness.
One-by-one her pony friends stepped out of the shadows and into the half-light cast from the open doorway. Everypony was here: Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash, with Applejack moving back to join them.
“It seems that you stumbled upon our little meeting, Pinkie Pie,” Twilight spoke up from the centre of the group. “I suppose that now is as good a time as any.”
“Time for what?” she asked tentatively, her voice quivering with a mixture of fear and confusion; every muscle in her body tensed. “What's going on here?”
“You've lived in Ponyville for a long time now, Pinkie, and you've brought happiness to a lot of ponies during that time...” An ominous presence filled the barn as Twilight trailed off, her steely gaze piercing Pinkie's very being.
“W-What's your point?” she stammered, her eyes flitting between the dimly lit faces of her friends. “Ponies love my parties... It's my special skill.”
“It's your only skill.” Her reply was instant. Calculated. A pinpoint strike to the deepest, darkest neuroses of Pinkie's mind. “This is one town, there are only so many ponies in it. Do you really think that ponies want to go to the same parties day after day? Year after year? Have you never once stopped to consider if the only one who likes parties this much is you?”
Pinkie Pie's jaw hung loose, speechless, winded, as though the words had physically punched her in the gut. Twilight's voice was cold, deliberate and unfamiliar; a far cry from the cheery pony she had partied with yesterday. This... This had to be a joke, right? A cruel, bad joke gone too far. Why would the ponies she considered her closest friends say such horrible, hurtful things to her?
“What- What are you saying?” Pinkie's voice trembled and her body shook, screaming at her to turn around and run away before things went too far.
“I'm saying that maybe it's time for you to move on. Find a new town with new ponies to entertain.” Twilight stepped forward into a sliver of light piercing the wooden slats of the roof, her face starkly lit under the heavy shadow of her fringe. “We don't want you here anymore. You should leave.”
“W-... What?” Her pupils dilated and mouth slowly opened in disbelief once more, her eyes darting between the darkened faces of those that she had considered friends. “Do- Do you all feel this way?”
Silent nods and slow blinks answered her question.
She was paralysed, overcome by the cacophony of thoughts trying to process what was happening. This was so sudden; so unprecedented. The loud, bubbly voice inside her head that always saw the positivity in things was uncharacteristically silent. She blinked a few times and looked around, trying to find something that would make sense of this insanity. Having been in the darkness of the barn for a few minutes, Pinkie's eyes were now able to pick out details in the scene around her. Balloons; streamers; presents; cake. This was-
“-a party?” Her voice was breaking up, tears welling up in her eyes. “You were having a party?”
“A going away party,” Twilight replied matter-of-factly.
Fluttershy took a step forward, standing next to Twilight with her head slightly hunched. “I'm sorry, Pinkie. I think this is for the best.”
Rarity followed close behind Fluttershy; “We all do.”
Applejack followed suit, joining the group with hat in hoof. “Sorry partner, ain't no two ways about it.”
Rainbow Dash took to the air and crossed her forelegs, content to remain in the shadows. “See ya.”
Lip quivering and heart broken, Pinkie turned towards the open door. “Well, i- if that's what you all want.” She took two deep, shuddering breaths before uncontrollably bursting into tears and fleeing the barn in a desperate gallop.
Applejack casually walked out of the barn, placing her hat back on her head as she watched Pinkie run into the distance. At the same time, having heard the earlier commotion, Applebloom exited the farmhouse and walked to her sister's side.
“Was that Pinkie Pie? Why's she cryin'?”
“Don't you worry yourself about her, sugarcube. It won't matter none soon anyhow.”
Barely able to see through a blur of tears, Pinkie Pie clumsily ran through Ponyville, stumbling and sobbing all the way to Sugarcube Corner. Slamming the door behind her, Pinkie shot up to her room and buried her face in her pillow, bawling her eyes out with muffled wails. Gummy awkwardly climbed onto the bed to see what going on, disquieted by the unusual sight and sounds, though unable to do more than simply curl up besides his favourite pink pony.