Pinkie Pie bounced. She hopped, skipped and jumped. The floor underneath her was wonderfully springy, way more than her bed back at Sugarcube Corner. It was brilliant! She could get so much air time, even without resorting to her natural talent to distract physics with a cupcake while she did her thing. So tied up in her bouncing, she never noticed the pair of eyes on her.
Pinkie Pie woke up, and thought she briefly saw a pair of eyes over her. The party extraordinaire blinked, and they were gone.
Pinkie gasped dramatically.
“Oh my gosh, balloons!” and just like that, Pinkie was off, chasing after the rubber spheres. Behind her, the eyes continued watching. They blinked once, and then vanished.
“Piinkiee,” the wind seemed to whisper to Pinkie Pie, as she danced in a constant rain of streamers and confetti, “Piinkieee.” This was odd because Pinkie couldn’t remember when she’d felt the wind last.
Pinkie Pie’s ears twitched. Maybe there was another pony here. And another pony meant that she could have a party! And then maybe they could go and find other ponies, and have parties for them, too! Her mind made up, Pinkie Pie set off after the whispering sound on the wind.
Miles seemed to pass. Everytime Pinkie looked around, there was something new, something fun to see, but Pinkie Pie was nothing if not determined. After all, her middle name was ‘Determination’. Pinkie Determination Pie. Okay, her middle name was actually Diane, but that was boring and not fun. But regardless of what her middle name was, Pinkie Pie wanted to find the voice that kept calling her name. Because attached to the voice was likely another pony, and that meant more fun. Pinkie’s ears twitched as another whisper of her name reached them, and she set off once more. It was stronger now, the voice on the wind, and the voice was beginning to sound familiar. Almost like...her own?
There was absolutely nothing special about the area where the voice was coming from, other than the fact that there was a megaphone lying on the ground. There was also not a single other pony in sight, and Pinkie Pie pouted and pondered the peculiar place she now found herself sitting in. Getting back up onto her hooves, Pinkie was about to leave, to go back and see if she could find some sarsaparilla when,
“SURPRISE!” A white pegasus with a blonde mane and tail eerily similar to Pinkie’s own burst from the bouncy and fluffy floor, and not a moment later, a burst of sparkles heralded the arrival of a unicorn with a yellow coat and blue mane, and once again, the man and tail were an exact replica of Pinkies’. So too, were the other two ponies’ cutie marks, differing only in color but otherwise exactly identical to Pinkie’s own.
“Hi! Were you surprised?” asked the pegasus, suddenly right up against Pinkie Pie “Oh wow, I bet this is the first surprise party that you’ve had in a while, so you must be excited are you excited because I’m excited and when I get excited my mouth sort of gets away from me and I’m doing it now aren’t I but it’s all okay because you’re here and now we can get to the fun stuff and hi my name is Surprise!” when the pegasus finally stopped , she was heaving for breath.
“Hi!” chimed in the unicorn, “I’m Party Planner. You must be Pinkie Pie. We’ve been waiting for you.”
“waiting for...me?”
[Time]
“Oh yeah, we were totally waiting for you,” said Surprise, finally having gotten her breathing back under control, hopping over to near Party Planner and Pinkie Pie, and sticking her hoof out, “We just need to touch, and then we can become the ultimate party pony!” Party Planner placed her hoof on top of Surprises’, and after a moment, Pinkie Pie added her own hoof to the pile. There was a spark, and then all three ponies vanished. A single pony reappeared a minute later, and with the sound of a party cannon firing, the pony vanished.
*****
Moon Dancer watched as her friends and family lowered her body into the ground, her spirit standing by the headstone of her grave. Her grave. It was weird to think of it. She still couldn’t believe that she had actually died. It had all happened so fast-one minute, she’d been working in Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns’ library, the next, she’d been pulling the younger students out of the burning building. She guessed that some young unicorn had lost control of a spell-it happened a lot at the school, and it had just happened to find something to catch fire. Still, at least all the students had been saved, even if Moon Dancer had not, when she’d gone back in for one last sweep and been trapped by the flames.
She watched as the pastor began the funeral speech, and turned away to cry as he began talking about her bravery. She found a shoulder and a hug waiting for her, as well as kind, comforting words being whispered in her ear. Not caring who this pony was, Moon Dancer proceeded to bawl her eyes out.
“Hey, cheer up, Moon Dancer,” said the pony, and Moon Dancer wiped her eyes, and looked up. The other pony was a pink alicorn, with an almost improbable mane and tail, and a soft smile on her face, and the most expressive blue eyes that she had ever seen. And just like Moon Dancer herself, the alicorn was slightly transparent.
“I’m Pinkie ‘Surprise Party’ Pie. I’m here to give you an invitation to the big party in the sky, where nopony is ever unwelcome, and the punch never runs out.”