//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Planning Pie Parties // Story: Rainbow Dash: Rise of the Valkyrie // by PegaVincent //------------------------------// Rise of the Valkyrie Chapter 2 Spike sped through Ponyville, giving everypony their invitations as Rarity ran to Fluttershy’s cottage, giving them their instructions from Twilight. Discord immediately snapped his talons, appearing next to Applejack and taking her away from the stall she was at, and popping into her room and putting her to bed. Big Mac, Granny, and Applebloom were then told by the draconequus to handle cider duty for the rest of the day and to wake up Applejack an hour before the start of the party. As that happened, Spike ran by and gave the three Apples their invitations to the big party. Discord returned to the cottage, and helped Fluttershy to bake the goods for all of the guests, while Rarity decorated Twilight’s castle with balloons and many of those little confetti poppers everywhere, using an enchantment Twilight taught her to set them off at certain times. In the meantime, Twilight had begun a crash course in basic magic for Rainbow Dash, this way the rainbow-maned alicorn could levitate the smallest objects in time for the party. It was difficult for her at first, but once she got over the initial burst of latent magic from her ascension, not only did it become easier for her to learn the levitation spell, she also felt a massive relief from her headache. As the lessons continued, Spike dropped by to retrieve the final invitations to be delivered to the Pie family. Twilight paused the lessons to give Spike a scroll to help him teleport back home before using a teleport spell herself to send the young dragon over to the rock farm. Spike knew not to take too long, as he figured it was going to be around the time for dinner for them. He jogged up to the front door and knocked on it, and it opened a moment later, revealing Pinkie’s father, Igneous Pie. “Ah, hello, young dragon,” he said, having to tilt his head down a bit to look at Spike. “How can I help you?” “Oh, uhm…. My name is Spike, and Twilight sent me here with invitations for the entire Pie family to attend a huge party! She figured Ponyville needed some cheering up, and it certainly can’t be a party without Ponyville’s local cheer meister herself! Plus, there’s going to be a special guest coming along to *really* make the party pop! I hope you all can make it!” Spike explained, smiling and holding out the invitations to the stallion. “Special guest, eh?” Igneous said, intrigued. “Anypony we might know?” “Uh, you *could* say that, but I can’t really say who it is, you know?” Spike said, chuckling. Igneous laughed, taking the invitations from the young dragon. “If my daughter has taught me anything, it would be to never spoil the surprise!” he said, rubbing his hoof against Spike’s head. “Thank you, Spike, you can expect us all to be there.” “Alright!” Spike said, pumping his fist with excitement. He then unrolled the scroll that Twilight gave him, mumbled the words that were scrawled on it, and waved the stallion goodbye before he vanished in a flash of purple light. Igneous shook his head with a smile before he returned inside and closed the door. He made his way to the table, placing the envelopes next to the plates of each of his family members, wanting to save the announcement for their usual mid-meal discussions. Meanwhile, Spike returned to the castle in a similar purple flash and began helping out in the kitchen, making cupcakes for the Pies with rock candy, shaped like gems and in various colors of the rainbow. As the hour of the party neared, Rainbow Dash had gotten a basic understanding of magic to use the levitation spell, and the first thing she picked up outside of her lessons was a party hat to place over her horn, which had the tip cut off by Twilight to allow her magic to seep through during the party. The pair of alicorns then began to put together a spherical container for Rainbow to sit in, allowing her to comfortably wait in the center of a ‘cake’ placed in the room. Applejack arrived approximately an hour before the party was scheduled to begin, and she looked considerably better than before after getting some much needed rest. “Hoo-wee! Ah feel better already!” the farmer said with an extra kick in her step. “Though Ah coulda sworn Ah was talkin’ to Rainbow Dash with a horn on her head earlier today. Must’ve been mah eyes playin’ tricks on me again. Or Ah was just that tired.” “Uh, about that, Applejack,” Rainbow said, as an apple levitated over to her friend. “Thank ya kindly, Rainbow. Now, as Ah was sa--” Applejack stopped short, looking between the apple and her supposedly perished friend. “Rainbow Dash? I…. is that you?” “What do think I am, an imposter?” Rainbow joked, though Rarity gave a slight cough at that. “But… Ah thought you were….” Applejack stammered, unable to process what was in front of her. “Apparently I was for a couple days… but I’m back and cooler than ever!” Rainbow happily exclaimed. “Well, Ah’ll be a pig in the shade,” the farmer said, and ran over to hug her friend. As the preparations continued, dinner was being served at the Pie family residence. It was, as usual, rock soup. However, what was unusual for the dinner was an envelope with a purple seal on each of them. “Dad, what are these?” Limestone asked the stallion that sat at the end of the table. “Not much,” Igneous replied, a small grin on his muzzle. “Just invitations to a party in Ponyville, that’s all.” Pinkie Pie simply stared at the envelope, specifically the seal, which had a familiar six-pointed star with five small sparkles surrounding it. “What’s the occasion?” Limestone asked, getting a shrug from her father. “I was not able to receive the details pertaining to the party, save for what’s in the envelope, which I have yet to open,” Igneous said, picking his envelope up and breaking the seal. Upon slipping the invitation out of the envelope, he read it aloud. “’Igneous Rock Pie, you are formally invited to a party in the Castle of Friendship. Please meet at this location at eight o’ clock in the evening, on the dot. Also, please expect a very special guest to be there. The purpose of this party is to help bring a smile back to everypony in Ponyville.’ Well, this might be interesting.” “Yeah, might be a bit of fun,” Limestone said. “Mmhmm,” Marble said softly with a nod. “I’m not going…” Pinkie said, looking away from the envelope and towards the ground. This caused her entire family to look at her with wide eyes. “But… why not?” her mother, Cloudy Quartz, asked. “I don’t feel like going,” the former party pony said. “Pinkie, please,” Igneous pleaded to her. “It seems to me that your friends put quite the effort into getting this party together. I’m sure they miss you, and I’m also sure that they want you to be happy.” “I’m. Not. Going,” Pinkie said a bit more firmly. “Father’s right,” Maud said in her usual monotonic voice, though if one were to pay an extra bit of attention, they might have heard a slight pleading tone to it. “At least go and give it a try for them? If you don’t like it, you can always come back here.” “No,” Pinkie said softly after a moment of silence. “I’m sorry, Maudie, but… I just can’t. I don’t have the will to party anymore. I can’t get myself to smile. Heck, I can’t even look at the sky without crying my eyes out… When Dashie died, my heart just… shattered. Every party I set up, I always looked forward to her coming to it. And she was even the reason why I smiled for the first time in my life… I just…” At that moment, Pinkie began crying at the table. “I just can’t do it anymooooore!” The rest of the family looked at the one member sobbing literal waterfalls of tears from her eyes. Marble finally spoke up after a few minutes. “I-I know this is hard, but… are you really going to let all of this go to waste?” she asked, holding up a round-trip train ticket as well as the invitation. “Marble’s got a point, Pinkie!” Limestone said. “They took their time to make this party so Ponyville can smile again, just like old times, right?!” “Well…. I guess,” Pinkie said, sniffling a bit. “Then why are you sitting here and moping about?! I thought you were the Element of Laughter, for crying out loud!” she scolded her pink sister. “Limestone, please!” Cloudy Quartz said, about to berate her angrier daughter, but Igneous shook his head, allowing her to continue. “Yeah, I get it, it hurts that your best friend died! But, if she hadn’t gone out into space to crush that meteor, then she wouldn’t have been the only one crushed by the meteor! She died so we could live! Now, what do you think she would do if she saw you sitting here with that look on your face?” This got Pinkie to blink a couple of times as she thought for a moment, before looking out through a nearby window and into the sunny sky. A moment later, a small bit of laughter could be heard coming from her. “She’d tell me to get off of my flank and go out pranking with her,” she replied. “Then what are we sitting around here for?!” Limestone shouted, a grin on her face. “It’s time to PAR-TAY!” At Limestone’s declaration of partying, Pinkie’s hair suddenly started wiggling, before poofing out into its usual voluminous state. As that happened, her coat and hair color returned to the same brightness that everypony associated her with. “Yeah! Pinkie Pie is coming back, Ponyville!” she announced to the world, standing proudly on her chair. “And this time, nothing’s gonna get me down!!” “But perhaps we should finish our dinner first?” Igneous asked, a smile on her face. Pinkie laughed nervously and sat down. “Yeah, sounds like a good idea,” she said, with her family nodding in agreement. “Then we shall make our way to the train station once we conclude supper,” Igneous said, and Pinkie smiled widely, a soft squeak emanating from her as she did so. Soon, the Pie family finished their supper, and made their way to the train station.