Pinkie couldn't help but giggle as she looked over at Rainbow. "Wow, Dashie, you should have me help with your hair more often!"
Rainbow could only give an exasperated look forward as she and Pinkie continued walking. Her hair, while ordinarily wild, was now a complete mess that even she found unacceptable. "Just... let's just get to your place before Rarity finds us or something."
There was a sharp intake of air as Pinkie glanced to the side with a notable amount of worry. "Yeah... Rarity might go a bit overboard if she sees that."
"And would you please pony down already?" Rainbow sighed, putting a hand to her face. True to her words, Pinkie was still radiating magic as they walked, leaving a trail of streamers and confetti where she went. "We're supposed to be helping Sunset keep magic a secret!" There was a moment before she blushed and raised a hand. "And yes, I know how much of a hypocrite I sound like right now!"
Pinkie blinked for a moment before blowing a raspberry and smacking her head. "I knew I forgot something." Pinkie inhaled probably more air than the human body should be allowed before flexing every muscle in her body. The sight of Pinkie having so much muscle hidden in her slightly tubby physique sent Rainbow's jaw to the ground. She swore she could hear some kind of chanting in the background at the sight of such menacing muscles. The surprising display soon faded as she went back to being a regular girl, with the sound of a deflating balloon.
Rainbow lifted a finger, before shaking her head and turning back to the sidewalk ahead of them. "No. Don't ask. It's not worth your sanity." Pinkie just kept giggling to herself about it as she rounded the corner ahead of Rainbow. When she tried to follow, however, Rainbow found herself running directly into Pinkie's back. "Gah, Pinks, what's the holdup?" When Pinkie failed to even turn towards her, Rainbow's general irritation turned to concern. "Pinkie?"
Looking around her friend, Rainbow's jaw dropped.
Covering the entire street from where they stood up to around Pinkie's house, was an army of small furry creatures. They had large round eyes and came in a plethora of colors. Most notable, though, was how the hair on top of their head matched Pinkie with their near-impossible curls. There was absolute silence as both parties just stared at each other until one of the things in the back popped up above the others. "She has returned!"
"Huh?" Rainbow and Pinkie stared at each other for a moment in confusion.
The little fuzz balls all started to cheer, and Pinkie found herself lifted into the air with a startled yelp. The little creatures then started to carry her down the street, shouting, "the queen has returned!" again and again.
Soon, Pinkie found herself standing at her house, on a small podium made from her neighbor's picnic table. "Hey, isn't this supposed to be in Mr. Gumshoe's back yard?" Before she could question anything more, she looked out at the crowd of critters, most of which gasped and started to bow. One was a little slow, though, and got pulled down into a bow when they were noticed by the one next to them. The whole of at least four yards was covered in party tables, streamers, and balloons.
Only one of the creatures remained upright, ambling as it presented Pinkie's mini-cannon to her. "Party Queen."
"Party Queen, huh?" Humming as she took the party cannon, Pinkie spun it on a finger with a grin that radiated enthusiasm. "I like it!"
Rainbow, however, only just made it over to the 'stage' and looked around at the horde with worry. "Pinkie, what are these things?"
Pinkie was about to shrug when one of the pink creatures hopped up onto the seat of the picnic table and looked up at Rainbow. "We Party Goblins, rainbow one." There was a flurry of motion before Rainbow found several spears made from various items pointed at her throat. "What about rainbow one lets them speak to Queen so freely?"
Darting between Rainbow and the spears, Pinkie gave a shaky smile and held up her hands. "Woah! Easy there! No need for that." Stepping to the side, she moved her hands to gesture to the still shocked Rainbow. "Rainbow's, like, one of my best friends!"
The goblins all started to talk amongst themselves, and many looked confused. "Rainbow one is friends with Queen?" "Queen has not queen friend?" "Is rainbow one Queen too?" "But what Queen of?"
The goblin that had stepped up earlier narrowed their eyes. "Only Queens be friends with Queen. What Queen are you?"
"Uh..." Pinkie looked around hastily before looking up at a cloud that was floating by. "Storms! She's uh, Queen of Storms. Yes."
Rainbow looked over at Pinkie with some concern. "Pinkie."
The crowd all started to mutter louder, some looking at Rainbow fearfully. "Storms!?" "We no like storms." "They scary!" "Why Queen friend with that Queen?"
Pinkie quickly got an idea and waved a hand at the clear sky. "She also gets rid of them! I mean, she wouldn't be a good queen of storms if she couldn't make a nice sunny day as well, now would she?"
The more assertive goblin glared even more at Rainbow. "...So the rainbow one makes nice days for parties?"
Before Rainbow could even answer, Pinkie smiled nervously. "Yes?"
Then one spear was back to being pointed at Rainbow. "Prove! Make rain! Prove, Queen!"
Rainbow put a hand over Pinkie's mouth before she could dig their hole any deeper. "Alright then! Just uh, one moment!" The two stepped away from the picnic table, and Rainbow smiled. "Pinkie, you know that little voice in people's heads that tell them to stop?" She then started violently shaking Pinkie's shoulders. "You don't have one!"
Pinkie flinched a bit and raised her hands. "I'm sorry! I just got carried away!"
"Way away!" As the two continued to bicker amongst themselves, the clouds overhead started to darken and swirl, drawing the goblin's attention.
Pinkie looked anywhere besides Rainbow as she pondered. "What if we tell them the truth that you're not a queen? Maybe they'll be nice and just let you leave."
Rainbow's eye twitched a bit as she pointed both hands at her chest. "Are you kidding? They'll skewer me!"
Pinkie started to chew on her fingernails as Rainbow put a hand to her head and closed her eyes. "I know, but they're getting suspicious, and if we don't come up with some kind of magic weather thingie, they'll find out! Can't you think of something?"
A growl left Rainbow's throat as she barely stopped herself from pacing. "I'm trying! I just-" Overhead, the weather was starting to get worse, arcs of lightning dancing amongst the clouds. Goblins were beginning to panic as they stared up at the sky.
Pinkie grabbed Rainbow's shoulders, spinning her around before trying to jumpstart Rainbow's brain by smacking her in the head. "Come on, think! Think think think think!"
"Would you just-" Rainbow threw her arms up, knocking Pinkie back a step and shouted. "STOP!"
The word echoed through the street, and everyone watched in awe as the storm that was building up rapidly started to swirl back into a single spot. There was a poof and the bright blue sky once more shone above. There was a full beat of pure silence as both Pinkie and Rainbow turned around, only to see all the goblins kneeling.
Pinkie smiled a bit and nudged Rainbow with an elbow. "I think they're starting to like you, Rainbow!"
"Gee, thanks." Rainbow stared up at the sky with a worried look on her face. "That wasn't normal."
Before they could ponder the strange weather any longer, the lead goblin raised his spear. "Now, with the return of Party Queen, and the friendship of Storm Queen, we begin Celebration!" There was a loud cheer from the horde before they pointed towards Pinkie's house. "Bring forth the sacrifices!"
Pinkie and Rainbow's eyes went wide as their jaws dropped in shock. "The WHAT!?"
A procession of goblins started out of Pinkie's house. The first wave was holding a large cast-iron cauldron and timber that they quickly set up in the lawn and filled with a water hose. The second wave, however, held all three of Pinkie's sisters, bound and gagged as they were carried over. Maud was stock still, staring impassively. Marble was shivering in fear. Limestone, however, was putting up the most struggle, going so far as to gnaw on the ropes in her mouth. "These three raided eggs! Now, they are sacrificed in name of Queen!" A smaller procession followed out of the house last, carrying a furious girl that could rival Limestone's anger with her own.
Both of them recognized her instantly.
"That's one of the sirens!" Rainbow whispered, trying not to let herself be overheard.
"I'm pretty sure her name is Aria." Pinkie hummed in thought before the lead goblin pointed at the still bound siren.
Pointing to the last sacrifice, the lead goblin looked a little unimpressed. "This one trespass, then she kicked Davie. Not bad as other three, but still sacrifice worthy."
The goblin crowd all turned to one little goblin in the back, a green one, who just looked around for a moment and gave a small wave. "Hoi."
Pinkie darted between the cauldron and her sisters, arms spread wide. "You can't sacrifice them!"
The goblins all looked confused as the lead goblin frowned. "Why not!? They commit crime, they sacrifice!"
"Well, for one, three of them are my sisters!" Pinkie threw her arms over at her bound siblings, making all of the goblins gasp. "I'm not sure what happened, but if they really did start messing with your eggs, there's no way they meant to." Pinkie paused for a moment and hummed. "What do your eggs look like anyway?" A small blue one walked up and held two halves of a burnt cupcake, but the center which had once been gooey was utterly gone. Pinkie's eyes widened as she gasped. "Oh my gosh! I made all you guys!" She rubbed her chin and hummed. "No wonder you see me as your queen."
Rainbow felt her eye twitch. "Wait, you made these guys?!"
"Yeah!" Pinkie held up the two halves of the shell and put them together. "I um... I was kinda trying to bake a lot of cupcakes using that cookbook the other me gave us, and all of them came out all burnt and gooey. I thought I'd just messed up the recipe, and cause I was all sad, Maud said she would get Limey and Marble to help clean up for me." There was an indignant scream from behind one of the gags. "Which reminds me, Thank you sooooo much for agreeing to help Limey!" The yelling, though muffled, somehow got louder.
Rainbow sighed and gave her friend a small smile. "Pinks, you don't have to do that. Yeah, we're all a bit bummed and mopey, but seriously, we just had a conversation about this."
The lead goblin looked like they were getting increasingly agitated. "So, these three not sacrifices?" They jabbed their spear towards Aria, and one of their eyes twitched. "What of this one? Sacrifice?"
"Of course not! That's just silly." Pinkie waved a hand with a smile as she started to pull Aria away from the goblins holding her.
"WHY NOT!" Lead goblin shouted and stomped as Pinkie hesitated for a moment, shooting Rainbow a glance.
Rainbow looked around herself before an idea struck her. She straightened her back and pointed upward with as much pomp as she could. "The sky is not in position for this sacrifice!"
The goblins all started to look up at the sky, confused. Pinkie, as she moved behind Rainbow, looked over. "Like she says. Sky. Can't do it." Once Aria was next to Pinkie's sisters, she leaned back in for a moment. "Not today."
Lead goblin threw his spear into the air, and it landed with a clatter behind them. "But we have party! Party without sacrifice is no party at all!"
Pinkie's eyes widened. "You've never had a party without a sacrifice involved!?" She looked up in thought for a moment. "Then again, you are, like, a few hours old? That's not too surprising." It was then that an idea struck her, and her smile grew five sizes. "That's it! I, as your Queen, will just have to teach you how to have a superfabutastic party!"
"Queen teach party secrets?" Two of the goblins in the crowd started to talk, quickly spreading to murmurs of agreement amongst them. "I like that idea!"
"But... but sacrifice!" The lead goblin, who was quickly falling out of that role, limply gestured to the still bound quartet before slumping in defeat. "Just want to break something."
Pinkie just smiled as she reached into her hair and pulled out a classic staple of any of her parties, and flicked her arm casually. The goblin looked up at the rainbow coloring of the piñata with a look of surprise as it flew through the air and wrapped around one of the banister rails, where it remained dangling. They stayed that way until they found their spear put back into their hand, and Pinkie held up a blindfold. "Bet you can't break it without looking!~"
Former Lead took a look at the blindfold, and piñata before their eyes narrowed. "Untie Sacrifices. We break colorful paper ball." There was a cheer as the lead goblin was blindfolded, and the other goblins all started untying the other four. The moment she was free, Aria began to bolt down the road, screaming about how Pinkie was absolutely insane.
So, nothing new compared to some of Pinkie's previous first introductions, but that was another story.
After she watched Aira vanish into the distance, Rainbow looked back at the goblins with a small frown. "You think you got this one, Pinkie?" When Pinkie gave her a solid nod, Rainbow cleared her throat. "As much as I would love to stay for your party, I must return to my uh, domain. Some matters require my attention."
The goblins all gave a series of farewells, and one asking if she'd do the windy thing again. Rainbow patted that one on the head nervously before she finally managed to break away from the crowd and headed for her house.
Aria panted as she pressed her back against the brick of whatever building she'd managed to get to. It took her a good thirty seconds of heavy breathing before she dared a glance around the corner. When she saw nothing, she put a hand to her head. "Party Goblins. That crazy girl actually summoned Party Goblins." A shudder ran down her spine as her thoughts continued. "Worse, she commanded them into behaving and letting me go."
She looked at the nearest intersection and started for the library. "Buck this town, I gotta get out of here before it burns to the ground."
What Aria didn't notice as she ran, however, was the state of one of the houses she passed. From the outside, almost everything looked perfectly fine. Its front door told another story as the frame had cracks by the handle and the telltale signs of a crowbar being used.
Inside, the home looked like a tornado had gone through it. Drawers upturned, furniture pulled apart, debris in every direction like someone looking for the T.V. remote. The same held true for the bedrooms, in which one still held the sole occupant of the building.
Posters and Trophies lay scattered across the floor, and several pictures had the faces gouged out. Notably, all of the ones containing the family members with colorful hair that won all of the awards.
It was in that wake of destruction that Lightning Dust looked at the jar in her hands with a hint of awe and a manic grin. "If that's what cracking the lid does, I can't wait to see how much I can make off of it."