Twilight stared as she went over her schedule for a third time and came to the same conclusion. She had checked it over and over and each time came up with the same impossible result. The paper lay in front of her mocking her. Somehow she had to have missed something. If the schedule was right she had… extra time.
“SPIKE!” Twilight called out, “Are you sure we finished that chemistry work?”
Spike came in from where he’d been cleaning the kitchen and nodded affirmatively, before continuing his cleaning in the main room.
“You’re sure?” she asked again.
“Yeah, Twilight. I sent the results off a week ago.”
Twilight tapped her chin as she thought and asked Spike about another task on the schedule. Then another. And another. Each time receiving an affirmative response that they had finished all those things.
“What’s going on Twi?”
“I screwed up my schedule somehow. I have extra time!” she levitated the calendar over to him and he dropped his feather duster to catch it.
“Huh.” He looked over the chicken scratches on the calendar trying to puzzle them out. “I don’t see the big deal, so you have some free time.”
“No, not free time Spike,” Twilight said trotting in a circle around the table she’d been working at, “I schedule my free time. This is EXTRA time. At least three whole days’ worth. How could I have been so irresponsible? Obviously I’m forgetting something important.”
“I’m still not sure I see the problem,” Spike replied scratching his head, “Why not just call it free time and go visit your friends? I mean you haven’t gone to Pinkie’s in a while.”
“What?”
Spike pointed at the calendar. “You’ve barely seen Pinkie at all this month. She’s only on here once and that was for… Actually I can’t tell what this is for… ‘rainbow flavoring research?’ That can’t be right, I’d have wanted to be in on that.”
Spike continued to speculate on what the line said while Twilight looked over his shoulder at the calendar. Her eyes widened as the pieces fell together and she began to get a full on panic going.
“Oh, this is bad,” she muttered, rushing over to a drawer and pulling it open. She pulled out an old calendar and examined it, “Oh, this is very bad.”
“Huh?” Spike finally separated from his musing over the paper to ask, “What’s wrong now?”
“It’s not ‘extra time’ at all!” Twilight exclaimed, “It’s Pinkie time. Those are the hours I set aside in case Pinkie interrupts me for a party or something.” Her eyes darted over the calendars as she pulled them out. “It looks like she hasn’t invited me to some event of hers in over a month!”
“But Pinkie has a party basically every week,” Spike interjected.
“I know!” Twilight’s magic grip on the papers exploded and sent them flying everywhere. “You don’t think she stopped inviting me because she thinks I don’t enjoy them do you?”
“Um, no,” Spike answered, moving to catch as many of the flying sheets as she could, “I mean I love her parties and she-“
“Spike, stay here. I’m going to get to the bottom of this,” Twilight declared, rushing to the library door and out.
“Um, okay… bye,” Spike waved feebly. Then returned to cleaning the increased mess left in the unicorns wake.
—-
Twilight ran to Sugarcube Corner as quickly as she could, in her haste she almost ran over a group of ponies that had gathered outside. Slowing down she recognized her other friends as they turned to face her.
“Lemme guess,” Rainbow Dash started for them, “You just realized Pinkie hasn’t invited you to anything in over a month.”
“Yes!”
“So you’re dashing over here to figure out what’s wrong,” Applejack continued.
“Yes!”
“Because you’re really worried and you want to make sure everything is okay and that she hasn’t suddenly wanted to stop being your friend?” Fluttershy asked.
“Yes!”
“Join the club, darling,” Rarity told her.
“Hubwha?” Twilight blubbered, “You too?”
“Yep, none of us have been invited to anything either. I asked around on the way over and nopony recalls Pinkie throwing ANY parties at all lately,” Applejack explained.
Twilight stared blankly at her friends before putting on a determined expression. “Alright girls, let’s go talk to Pinkie and get to the bottom of this.” As one the five ponies turned and entered the bakery.
Inside the counter was unmanned. They rang the bell and waited. A minute later a pink earth pony walked out of the kitchen with a fresh tray of baked goodies and set them on the counter.
“Hey girls, what’s up,” the mare asked.
It took them a minute longer than it should have to identify the pony in front of them, despite her appearance matching what it always did.
“Pinkie?” they all chorused incredulously.
“Um, yep that’s me. What’s up?” Pinkie asked them over the counter.
“But you… walked into the room.” Rarity stared, temporarily forgetting her manners.
“That’s how ponies get around,” Pinkie said, “Why? Did you think I was sick or something?”
“You never just WALK Pinkie. You hop, or skip, or dance, wherever you go,” Rainbow Dash explained.
“Or float by a mass of balloons,” Fluttershy added.
Pinkie considered this for a moment, “Huh… I guess I do. Wonder when I stopped. Oh well, can I get you girls anything.”
“Um, how about we start with why you haven’t invited us to any of your parties, and move on from there,” Twilight suggested.
“I haven’t thrown any parties,” Pinkie told them.
“Oh, well that makes sense,” Twilight replied, all of them looking relieved for a moment before the words connected and they all stared at Pinkie like she’d grown an extra pair of hooves. “Say again?”
“I haven’t thrown any parties. Well, okay I threw a party for a foal shower but they asked me to and I didn’t have anything else planned. Wasn’t a big thing. But other than that, I really haven’t felt like throwing any parties.”
What followed would later be called the Pink-quistion. Where the pink mare was studied, prodded, and probed for hours while her friends tried to figure out what was wrong with her, or if she’d been replaced by a changeling or something equally outrageous. The conclusion they came to was the most outrageous of all possibilities. Pinkie just didn’t feel like throwing parties at random anymore. Or random anything really. She’d just been being a baker for over a month, and she had no inclination toward changing that.