I pulled my head up, viewing my surroundings. Instead of the cartoon version of Ponyville, with street vendors and novelty shops this way and that, there were old, decaying buildings; small cottages; and dirty roads. What was once bright and pink and inviting now had a creepy feeling of abandonment to it. Windows and doors boarded up, with cobwebs draping across exteriors. Broken windows, rotting wood, and faded bricks. There were barely any trees, and the grass even felt dead and dry beneath my hooves.
I began walking around, trying to find something, anything familiar. I had just been abandoned by who I believed to be my new friends, which just seemed unrealistic and disrespectful to me.
Finally, a building caught my eye – something I recognized from the cartoon. The town’s bakery, Sugarcube Corner, was a large cupcake-shaped building. Despite maintaining its shape, it now looked grungy and empty and mundane. The familiar pink of the exterior had faded, and the "cupcake" was missing a few tiers. I pushed the door open lightly. It creaked open, then fell to the floor with a bang.
"Hello? Anypony home?" I asked, feeling my way through the darkness. Corners of the walls were dark and coated in spiderwebs. Spiders, among other creatures, crawled along the floor. The once-shiny pots and pans in the kitchen were coated in a thick layer of carrot-orange rust. The paint chipped, and the wallpaper peeled. It was absolutely horrifying seeing the fate of a beautiful place I once recognized.
Despite all of this, though, the sweet smell of cupcakes wafted through the air. Following my nose led me to the basement, which grew colder the further down I trotted. Why I felt the urge to follow a scent into a supposedly abandoned business’ basement, I’ll never know, but something told me I should. Plus, they smelled so delicious.
I used my new-found unicorn magic to flicker a light as I trotted down the stairs. The basement was in much worse condition than the top floor of the building. A table sat in the center of the room with a tray of cupcakes placed on top. I turned my attention to a note taped to the plate, written in purple glitter ink.
Dear Magical Rocket, these cupcakes are for you. I sure hope you like strawberry frosting! From Viney Art.
Something about this situation was very...dejâ-vu. I shrugged it off and took a bite out of one of the cupcakes. The cake was scrumptious and moist; the frosting was thick and melted in my mouth, but there was something familiar about these cupcakes.
Then I remembered.
I had strawberry-frosted chocolate cupcakes for my twelfth birthday, when I was still a human. I remembered having Marie and a few other friends share them with me. Surprisingly, these memories were strong and vivid, almost like they had just happened yesterday. The feeling of dejâ-vu suddenly doubled, with more memories of what had just happened today floating to the surface. Haven't I seen this exact scenario before, in this world, on another pony?
As if on cue, the tray of cupcakes toppled to the floor. Viney Art's head appeared through a hole in the table, a big grin on her face.
I screamed and dropped my half-eaten cupcake onto the nasty floor. Wordlessly, Viney flew out from under the table and pulled a blindfold onto my face.
"Viney, what are you doing?" I protested.
She probably grinned even wider at that. Even though I couldn’t see her face, the enthusiasm was all in her voice. "It's a surprise! Follow me!" She lifted me under the arms and began to fly.
Viney Art finally got me upstairs. I wanted to trot or teleport, but no, she stuck to dragging me up the stairs, which was a slow and painful procedure. I heard her straining.
Once I got up into the bedroom on the top floor, I was greeted by a loud surprise from everypony I had just met. Viney put me on the ground, or rather, dropped me. I landed on my back, where I felt my mane grow weirdly… sticky. I used my magic to remove the blindfold and discovered that I was glued to the floor, and Viney Art had glued herself to the ceiling.
I didn’t see anyone else. What the heck was going on?!
"Why are you upside down?" I asked her.
She giggled. "I'm not upside down. You are!"
I used my magic to clean up the gluey mess on my body, and found that everypony was glued to the floor.
I groaned at Viney. "What was that?! You do realize that was a dangerous and stupid thing to do, right?"
“Oh, sorry.” She smiled and brushed it off like nothing. "It was a papier-mâché party! That's why Snoodle's in a banana costume-"
She gestured to Snoodle Guy, who was indeed wearing a banana costume made from sticky newspapers and cardboard.
"-and why we were all glued to the floor!" she finished with her classic wide grin.
"Well, why?"
She did a flip in mid-air, then flew closer to me. Our muzzles were almost touching. “For you! To welcome you to Ponyville!"
Viney then landed on the ground gracefully, preening her wings proudly. A dab of glue was on her flank, as well as in her mane, on her glasses, and everywhere else.
“Well, it was awfully sweet, I guess," I finally admitted. "Here, let me help you get cleaned up.”
I attempted to cast a spell to clean up the glue she’d been covered in, beginning with her glasses and ending with her flank. “You know, I’m not someone who really enjoys surprises, but this was, well, something else.”
Something else? I thought to myself. It was a big, unnecessary mess. But she wanted to really impress you, so you can’t fault her for that.
“Well, I wanted to do something big for my new friend,” Viney replied, looking up from her preening. She sounded unusually... shy. I immediately felt guilty for how I had talked to her. “Sorry if it’s too messy.”
I let out a sigh. “It’s fine, but-“
"But what?" she asked.
I gasped and stopped my magic. “Look at your flank!”
“Huh?” She turned around cluelessly, then gasped even louder, nearly jumping at the sight. “It’s my cutie mark!”