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// The Party Planning 
// Story: Starlight, Sunset, Tempest Team-up Extravaganza 
// by crazyredemu 
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Twilight awoke groggily, one eye opened slowly and looked at the clock, after staring at it blankly waiting for her mind to remember how to read numbers she realized it was time to get up. She managed to pull herself up and out of bed, slowly shuffling into the hallway, her head hung low, unable or unwilling to find the energy to lift it. She normally was an early waker, but today was an exception, she had found out that Tempest’s blimp had a shelf of books and had stayed up late reading all of them. Most of the books had been charts and maps, a few about wind patterns, a money ledger, the real find had been a book about Kobolds: lifestyles and customs. Twilight wasn’t thinking about the books now however, she wasn’t thinking about much of anything other then getting to the kitchen and making herself a cup of coffee, as if brought to life by her thoughts a cup of coffee appeared by her side. She grabbed it in a faint purple glow and brought it close, taking a sip.

Her eyes shot open! This was one amazing cup of joe, she couldn’t believe her taste buds! She looked down, finally seeing who had made this miracle brew appear. “Grubber! This is amazing! Did you make this?”
Grubber smiled from ear to ear at her words. “You bet’cha!” “Why do you think Commander Tempest kept me around?” He paused for a moment, smirking, then added. “Well other then my great sense of humor and dashing good looks.”
She noticed there was a cupcake with white frosting on the tray as well. “You make that too?” Her question got answered with an enthusiastic nodding of his head. She lifted up the treat, cupcakes for breakfast was more Pinkie Pie’s thing but she wasn’t about to spurn her temporary assistant, and took a big bite. Another shock, it was a muffin with whip cream on top, and delicious to boot. “This muffin, is scrumptious!” “You keep this up and you will be the best temporary assistant I’ve ever had!”
“Wow!” Grubber blushed. “Wait, how many temps have you had?”
Twilight stopped still, her eyes glassed over, memories she had repressed returned, memories of three little fillies trying to find their cutiemarks. She shook her head. “Never mind about that, you got that list I made for today?”
“Right here!” He pulled the list from a hidden shirt pocket, instead of being rolled up like Spike would have done, the little hedgehog had folded it up.

“Eccellent! Lets go eat breakfast then get started on that list right away, sound good?” 

Grubber saluted. “YES YOUR HIGHNESS!” He was far more eager about breakfast then anything else.




The early morning air was cool and crisp, their hunger stated the two walked into the already bustling center of Ponyville ready to shop and barter. With all her friends out of town at the same time Twilight had felt a loneliness that hadn’t known since she was a student in Canterlot, even then she had Spike, but it also gave her an idea. She was going to throw her friends a welcome back party! They were all due back on the same day, the odds of that happening were astronomical, Twilight knew this cause she had done the math, twice. She also had a feeling that her three newer friends would show back up on that day as well, things seemed to be convenient like that when you lived in Ponyville. 


Turns out shopping for a party in Ponyville was also convenient, most shops had default lists for all sorts of parties thanks to Pinkie Pie. Twilight was ecstatic when a shop owner would pull out a checklist, and by this point Grubber was already dragging around ribbons and a welcome back banner, up next was plates, cups, and utensils.

“Princess Twilight can I ask a question?” Grubber asked from behind the box he was carrying.

“Of course, and you don’t need to call me a princess.” The humble princess responded while inspecting the thickness of two different plastic cups.

“What’s up with the elements of friendship?”

Twilight set down the cups. “What do you mean?”

“Well, it just, I don’t know.” “Umm, do you really need all six of those things to be friends?”

Twilight could sense what was behind that question. “There are more then just six elements of friendship you know.”

“WHAT!?” Gurbbers head popped out from behind the packages and bags “There’s even more!?”

Twilight nodded, “Usually they can be included as part of one of the six, such as trust, you need to be able to trust your friends and to be trustworthy, but that can fit under loyalty really.” “Sometimes I don’t put my trust in my friends, sometimes I think I know better or that my way is the best way and I blunder about making a fool of myself.” “But even when I don’t show trust my friends show forgiveness, another element of friendship.” “So you see, even if you don’t have all the elements you can still be and have friends.”

“Oh, that’s good, I was worried.” Grubber smiled before disappearing behind the load once more. “You know,” he went on, “You’re pretty good at explaining friendship, you could teach classes about it.”
“Me a teacher?” She was about to snicker but stopped, maybe that was such a bad idea, she would have to ponder on this later, when she had free time. 


The rest of the shopping trip had gone off without a hitch, Grubber did most of the talking telling Twilight all about his life and what led up to him meeting Tempest Shadow, he also went on about what kinds of food he liked, that was a long list. Arriving back at the castle she was greeted by the handful of Stormies that didn’t go to Sweet Apple Acres and the ones that had already finished the jobs around town. Twilight was fine with this however, she was going to have them help her clean up for the party. She was going to invite the entire town.