Pinkie Pie jumped high into the air, getting a brief glimpse of the creatures in front of her. The line moved at a snail's pace, and it had already been several minutes since the two entered the line. Several ponies had gathered behind them, boxing them in. At this point, they had no choice but to advance slowly with the line, gradually making there way towards the entrance. A large hedge was next to them, and many of the ponies in the line had to resist eating it as they waited. Not that the large gathering of ponies or the convenient food source stopped Pinkie Pie from talking, and Rainbow Dash from nodding tiredly.
"So there I was, surrounded by the royal guard, holding the Princesses crown and trying my best to look completely innocent. It didn't work though, and I knew if I wanted to capture the treasure of Pinkbeard, I would need a plan that would result in me, the crown, Spitfire and three hundred bits worth of cream cheese all leaving that warehouse unharmed. It was at that moment I noticed Gummy sneaking up from behind, and knew exactly what needed to be done. Taking out my magic boomerang, I...." Pinkie was cut off suddenly when Rainbow Dash grabbed her mouth, and physically stopped her from speaking.
"Pinkie, I'm sure that this is an interesting story and I'm sure you spent a lot of time thinking it up, but just for five minutes, could you shut the hay up?" Dash asked angrily.
The pink pony took a step backwards in shock, bumping into one of the creatures behind her. With a quick apology, she walked back forwards. "What's the problem, Dashie? You seem different recently." Pinkie questioned, concerned.
"Look, I just have a lot of work to do. There's training, work, rest, umm, I visited some friends in Canterlot, Still need to teach Scootaloo to fly and on top of all this, I have to take time out of my schedule to come to this stupid amusement park. So forgive me if I have to sacrifice a little of our time together." Dash replied.
Pinkie Pie kicked her hoof awkwardly, "But old Dashie had to deal with all that stuff, and she got on well enough. Plus, old Dashie would have told us if she went to a party in Canterlot. Seriously, how long ago was this? Was I involved?"
Dash shrugged, "It wasn't a party, it was just a small gathering of some friends from flight school. There was no need to tell you guys."
Pinkie Pie tried to sit down and cross her hooves, but was pushed forward by the crowd behind her. "I'm not sure I believe that. I think there's something you're not telling me. But don't worry, Professor Pinkie will solve this mystery."
Rainbow sighed annoyingly, "There's no problem Pinkie, so drop it."
Dash recoiled when a large magnifying glass was pushed into her face. Pinkie sat on the other side, staring intently into the curved glass. She raised an eyebrow knowingly and asked, "Why don't you want to tell me? What are you hiding?"
Pushing the glass away from her, Dash replied, "I'm warning you, drop it Pinkie!"
"Drop what? My magnifying glass? But how will I see you better?" Pinkie wondered, confused.
Dash growled in anger, and grabbed the glass off of Pinkie. With a shout, she threw it on the ground and stomped on it. There was a quick crack as the flimsy frame snapped in two, and the glass broke into a million pieces. Pinkie could only look on in shock. Her mouth fluttered open and closed until she managed to squeeze out, "Did..Did you just break my magnifying glass? It had a wife and foals you know!"
Rainbow smacked herself in the head with her hoof, "I don't care, Pinkie."
"But...but...he was married!"
"You should of dropped it Pinkie!"
"But...NOOOOooooo Mister Reflects! Why did you have to leave us so soon? You were so young! So young."
There was a nervous cough from behind the two ponies, and Pinkie looked up to see that they were at the front of the line. Sitting in the booth in behind them, smiling her face off, was a white unicorn wearing extremely oversized purple glasses. Tapping her hoof on the table, she addressed the two ponies.
"Listen dudes, I don't mean to interrupt anything, cause that just ain't my style, but I feel the need to tell you that the line behind you is getting longer."
Dash glanced back at the line behind her, and blushed. She walked over to the booth, and stood next to Pinkie, who had already gotten there before her.
"That's better. Now, got any tickets you wanna show me?" The unicorn asked.
Pinkie started to dig through the contents of her mane, searching desperately for something in the wild tangles of her mane. She made the occasional chewing sound, but otherwise worked quietly. While she did, Dash stared at the unicorn in the booth intently. Pushing aside her concerns, she asked, "Do I know you from somewhere? You look familiar."
The mare flipped her multicoloured blue mane to the side, and responded. "It depends, you go to much raves?"
Rainbow shook her head, "There was this one about a week ago, but I don't think that's it."
"Hmm, maybe you're a fan of my other works? I tried my hoof at painting for a while, but that was too slow for me."
Rainbow nodded, and turned to Pinkie, "Hey Pinkie, you find those tickets yet?" She asked.
Pinkie shook her head, and looked over to Dash, "I thought you had the tickets silly. I was just checking to see if I still had my spare balloons." Pinkie said quickly, pulling a balloon out of her mane. She blew into it until it expanded, and released it into the air. It drifted free for a while, and all three ponies looked at it stupidly. Eventually, it became a dot against the blue sky.
Dash started to sweat, and her breath came out faster, "Pinkie, you always had the tickets, you're the one who bought them! How could you lose them?" Dash questioned.
"I didn't lose them, I gave them to you!" Pinkie responded happily.
"Pinkie, I don't have the tickets, please tell me you have the tickets." Rainbow begged.
"No silly, you do have the tickets!"
"I don't have the tickets."
"Yes, you do."
"No I don't."
"Yes. You do."
"No. I don't."
"Yes?"
"No!"
"Yeeeees?"
"NO!"
"Relax you two, I have a way to solve this. Just shut up and listen." The unicorn cut in, offering her help.
The two ponies, who had moved shockingly close to each other in the time they were arguing, spun their heads towards the unicorn quickly. Pinkie's childish smile disappeared as soon as she recognised the pony in the window.
"DJ Pon-3! What are you doing here?" She asked.
Dash shook her head, and thought to herself, "The DJ. Of course!"
Vinyl faced Pinkie, and asked, "It's just Vinyl Scratch at the moment. Management won't let me use my stage name. You a fan?"
Pinkie nodded, "Yep, you performed at some of my parties. Well, one of my parties, but it was a pretty good party, as long as you don't count the others."
Vinyl rubbed the back of her head, "Was that the one that ended with the fire? Man, that party was the bomb. All good shows should end like that." She remarked.
"So what are you doing here?" Pinkie asked again.
The unicorn fiddled with some things below the counter, and replied, "It's a long story. Basically, some fireworks went off, ponies got hurt, and my show was ruined. I regret nothing though, the explosions went along with the song perfectly. Anyway, Octavia basically forced me into this to pay for the damages, but I don't see why, that was the best show I've had in a long time."
Pinkie nodded, "You know, it is kind of odd that all your shows end with somepony catching on fire." She remarked.
"Like I said, girl, all good shows end with a bang."
Rainbow Dash interrupted the two ponies, and looked over Vinyl condescendingly. Coughing loudly, she asked. "You mentioned you could help us with our ticket problem?"
Vinyl Scratch fiddled with some more things under the booth, and replied, "Yea, just gimmie a minute, I just need to..." Vinyl disappeared under the counter, and the conversation ended. The occasional spark of electricity could be heard, along with the muffled sounds of the DJ working. After a minute of waiting, and a short argument with an angry goat behind them, the counter started to smoke. Black clouds of the fume drifted lazily into the air, and vanished into the sky. "Ignore that, everything's under control." A shout came out from below. Another minute passed, this time the sound of electricity arcing could be heard, along with the occasional curse from the unicorn inside the booth. Rainbow sat lazily on the ground.
Suddenly, two giant speakers swung out from inside the booth and two more sprung out from the top of the roof. Rainbow jumped in surprise, and, once she was sure the danger was passed, examined them. They were covered in a fine film, and had six major sound point things, Dash wasn't quite sure what to call them. Her attention was grabbed by the white unicorn re-emerging from the mess of wires beneath the booth. Her mane was stuck up from the shocks of electricity, and her coat was covered in a thin black soot. Noticing Rainbow, she asked. "Beauties, aren't they? Three pounds of pure, undiluted sound backed up by two and half pounds of bass. Twelve base sound crystals supported by eight amplifier gems and costing around 2000 bits. It has 140 DBs of sound pressure and is strong enough to knock out a ursa major. It's also the thing that's going to find your tickets."
Rainbow snapped her mouth shut, and looked over the speakers carefully. "How exactly is this going to help us?" She questioned, slightly concerned.
"It's simple, my rainbow friend, the tickets are made out of a special material that is sensitive to vibrations. I play some music over these speakers, and the tickets start dancing around to it, and we know where they're hiding. Now before we begin, are you two sure one of you has the tickets?"
Pinkie bounced in front of her, "Of course we're sure, what kind of pony would lie about that? That would be like taking two muffins when the basket says to take one."
With a smile, Vinyl pulled out a large pair of turntables, and placed them carefully on the counter. A tangle of wires found their way into the appropriate slots. The air hummed with anticipation, and Dash suddenly felt very fearful. Standing in front of Vinyl, she asked nervously, "Is this safe, Vinyl? Has it been tested?"
Vinyl flipped her glasses down onto her nose, showing her dark red eyes, "This is, without a doubt, perfectly safe."
Pinkie hopped onto Dash's back quickly, and pointed at the unicorn. "Hit it, DJ!" She shouted.
"Awww Yeah." Vinyl shouted back, and placed her hoof's on the turntable. She flipped a switch on the side, and music started to explode out the speakers.
To say that the music exploded out of the speakers is an understatement. It would be more appropriate to say that every pony, minotaur, goat, horse, donkey, animal, bird, insect and zebra within 500 meters was immediately rendered deaf from the sudden outburst of sound. Everything living thing in sight collapsed to the ground, clenching their ears in pain. The music continued on, showing no relief. The song drummed through Rainbow's ears, causing a painful throbbing in time with the music. Fighting through the pain, Rainbow glanced upwards to find Vinyl Scratch and Pinkie calmly talking to each other over the noise. Neither seemed effected by the loud noise, and the unicorn was even bobbing her head in time with the music. The rainbow mare forced herself closer to the duo, with the intent to stop the pain. When she basically pushed her head into Pinkie's mouth, she could faintly make out what the two were chatting about.
"So Vinyl," Pinkie said, nearly dwarfed by the sound, "How have things been going between you and Octavia?"
Vinyl scratched her chin, and responded thoughtfully. "Actually better than I expected. I thought she'd leave after the first week, at the most. Not many ponies can handle my lifestyle. I think you've found the right mare when she can ignore the large amounts of property damage you make on a daily basis."
Pinkie nodded in response, "That is something to consider. The only person I know who puts up with my damage is Gummy, and he doesn't really count, since he was wanted by the royal guard for a brief period of time."
"What do you think of my music choice?" Vinyl asked. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see two gold slips of paper floating in the air. They bounced in time with the music, and Vinyl was almost fully distracted by their movements.
"You turned the music on already? I can't really hear it. Would you kindly turn it up a bit more?"
Rainbow let out a scream that disappeared into the torrent of painful white noise. Lunging forward, she grabbed the turntables, and ripped the machine out of it's socket. The music echoed for a few minutes, and a loud ringing resided in Rainbow's ears. Every creature there let out a sigh of pure relief, and many remained stuck to the ground, unable to get back up. Vinyl looked down at the disconnected machine sadly. "Aww, the best part was coming up." She remarked.
Pinkie stared at Dash, who was curled up into a ball until the noise stopped running through her head. "Come on, Dashie, the song wasn't that bad." Pinkie said, when she noticed two small shining slips of paper. "See, I told you; you had the tickets. Let's go in!"
Pinkie grabbed the two tickets, and carried them over to Vinyl, who was contemplating plugging her machine back in. The ticket master looked up, and noticed the two tickets. "All right! Hand em over Pinkie and lets get you two in!"
Pinkie placed the papers on the counter, just past the turntables, and Vinyl picked them up quickly. Upon seeing them though, her huge smile started to sink. Staring at the tickets, she asked Pinkie, "Umm, dude, this....this is drawn in crayon. Like, the fillies colouring stick crayon. Where's the real tickets?"
Pinkie appeared behind her suddenly, and examined the tickets from behind Vinyl. "These are the real tickets. Aren't they all like that?" Pinkie asked worriedly.
Vinyl stared at her, "What, no! Of course not! Why did you think we made our tickets in crayon?"
"But the salespony said that all the tickets were like that." Pinkie responded, looking down sadly. Appearing on the other side of the glass again, she asked slowly, "Vinyl, we're good friends right? Could you possibly let us in regardless?"
Vinyl shook her head, "Sorry, girl. As much as I'd like to, I can't. If I did, my boss would kill me, then Octavia would kill me, then the guard would kill me. I just don't have that many lives to spare. Besides, I'm already on thin ice after they claimed I caused a few busted ear drums. Like, just because I like loud music doesn't mean I go blaring it over the intercom. But anyway, you'll just have to leave. No hard feelings?"
Pinkie shook her head, "No hard feelings." She said as she walked over to Rainbow Dash, who was just recovering from the music. Pinkie kicked her hoof awkwardly, and told Rainbow the news, "Alright, I have some good news, and some less good news."
Dash rubbed some blood out of her ear, and questioned Pinkie, "What's the bad news?"
"The tickets are fake, and drawn with crayon." Pinkie responded.
"What's the good news?"
"I just thought of a way to sneak into the park!"
Dash rubbed her head. "Will this result in us dressing up in a crazy trench coat and pretending we don't need tickets?"
A lightbulb appeared over Pinkie's head, and she shouted, "I have a better idea now. Follow me!" With a hasty movement, Pinkie grabbed Rainbow's hoof, and dragged her into the hedge on the side of the line.
"Pinkie, this plan is stupid, and there's no way in Equestria that it's going to work." Rainbow Dash said.
Pinkie Pie looked up at Rainbow and responded, "Of course this will work, when have trench coats ever let me down?"
Walking awkwardly on her back legs and balancing Rainbow with her front, Pinkie stumbled out of the hedge. The two of them were wearing a large oversized trench coat, with Rainbow standing on Pinkie's shoulders, and Pinkie was completely hidden beneath it's folds. Rainbow's head poked out the top, and she was wearing Pinkie's bowler hat to hide her face.
The two of them stumbled over to the tickets booth, and Vinyl couldn't help but do a double take. "You're a pretty large guy," she commented, "Anyway, ticket?"
Rainbow Dash glanced down quickly at Pinkie Pie. When she had no answer, Dash improvised, putting on a deep voice to mask her own, "Huh, No I don't need a ticket, I work here."
Vinyl nodded slowly, "Sure you do hotshot, I would recognize you, now where's the ticket?"
Dash tried again, "I'm a VIP, we don't have tickets."
"Then you won't mind showing me your VIP pass." Vinyl replied slowly.
Rainbow nearly lost her balance, but recovered long enough to make another excuse, "I actually own the place. Yea, I put a lot of work into this here park. No need to check tickets."
Vinyl jumped back, and wiped her forehead, "Oh, I'm sorry sir, I didn't recognize you, go right in," she said hastily, pushing a button on the side of the desk. "Please forgive me for the mistake, sir."
"Really?" Dash asked surprised.
"Of course not, I've already called security, you have about two minutes to get the hay out of my sight." Vinyl said bitterly.
Rainbow Dash was about to snap back, when she found herself getting pulled away by the mare beneath her. She was helpless to slow Pinkie down, so she simply clung on for dear life as the pink pony sprinted away. They shoved past the line of creatures who had gathered to watch their display. Rainbow blushed, and grabbed Pinkie harder.
Eventually, she slowed, and Dash feel off her shoulders and hit the ground harshly. Watching the stars orbit her head slowly, she asked Pinkie, "Can we go home now?"
Pinkie shook her head, and rubbed her chin, "Not yet, we just need a new plan."
Rainbow tried to scare the stars away, with no success, "Because the last one worked perfectly." She said sarcastically.
"No it didn't. But I have a better plan this time! Follow me!" Pinkie said excitedly, running away from Dash
Rainbow Dash sighed sadly, and followed after the energetic pink pony.
The two ponies sat outside the fence separating them from the inside of the park. Despite being relatively new, the fence was covered in a variety of plants, each one interlocking with the metal frame to create an impenetrable barrier against those that sought to get in without paying. Pinkie took one look at the wall before turning to Dash. "Alright, you ready? On the count of three, you fly over and get in. I'll follow behind."
Rainbow looked at the fence. She could probably fly over it easily, but that wasn't the hard part. She turned her attention to her companion, "You know they probably monitor this right?"
Pinkie nodded, and replied, "Come on, Dashie. We have to get in there. We just gotta! So get ready."
Dash sighed again, and extended her wings. "Alright, but if we get caught, I'm leaving you." With that said, Dash took a few steps back. Charging forward, she leapt into the air. Just as she did, someone shouted at her. She turned in the air to see who it was, and caught a glimpse of something running towards Pinkie Pie. She panicked slightly, but kept on track, and landed silently on the other side of the fence. She sat down out of sight, and waited for Pinkie to follow her over.
Pinkie spun around to face whoever had spotted her, and jumped backwards in fear when she recognized him. A large yellow creature with a single eye was running towards her. He was wearing different clothes since Pinkie last saw him though. The cyclops was wearing dark blue pants, made out of thick cloth. He was also wearing a matching jacket, with the words 'security' written on the front and back. His eye was nearly covered by a pair of dark sunglasses that looked awkward against his eye, and on his head he wore a denim hat. Despite all this, he neglected to wear any kind of footwear.
Dwarfing Pinkie greatly, the creature looked down at the pony, and asked roughly, "What are little pony doing?"
Pinkie smiled nervously, and took a few steps back, "Who me? I was just arranging a party for my best friend! She's not here yet though."
The cyclops squinted his eye sceptically, "Little pony no sneaking into park? That makes Steropes very happy!"
Pinkie sighed, relieved, "So you're not Brontes?"
The giant creature smiled, and clapped his hands dumbly, "Little pony knows Steropes' brother? Make Steropes very happy. Is party for brother?" The cyclopes asked.
Pinkie nodded, and Steropes clapped harder, "YAY, Steropes loves parties! Can Steropes party with pony?"
Pinkie looked around quickly, and pointed out a few problems. "Yes, everypony can party. Parties are great! Well, except for bad parties, but they're usually good too. But we can't party yet, there's only two of us, and we have no party supplies."
Steropes rubbed his chin, and took of his glasses, "Steropes knows where party is! Party is in park! Little pony wait while Steropes gathers party things!" He said excitedly
Pinkie shook her head, and responded, "But what if my friend shows up? Then I'll have to leave, and we won't have a super duper party! Plus we still don't have any other guests."
"Steropes knows! Pony can met Steropes in park, have many friends in park. Do not worry about pony's friend while gone, Steropes will be good greeter and tell Brontes about party." Steropes responded while grabbing Pinkie's tail, and lifting her into the air roughly. Pinkie let out a squeak, and Steropes started to spin her around by her tail. She kept going faster and faster, until everything combined into a blur, and she felt like throwing up. Suddenly, the cyclops let go, and Pinkie went flying into the air. Despite the danger, Pinkie couldn't help but let out a happy cheer. Falling down to earth quickly, looked down and saw a familiar looking pony. Directing herself towards it, Pinkie cheered again. Rainbow Dash looked up half a second before a bright pink blur slammed into her. The two went sliding along the ground as the force of the impact forced them to move. Stopping, Pinkie rubbed her back, and rolled off of Rainbow.
Looking over the now crushed pony, Pinkie apologised, "Whoops, Sorry Dashie, guess I accidentally hit you. You all right?"
Rainbow pushed herself to her feet painfully, the stars around her head had returned and she felt extremely dizzy. There were three Pinkies standing in front of her, and she pointed at the one on the right. "How....What...Flying...Me...What?"
Pinkie smiled, showing all her teeth as she did, and Rainbow simply shook her head, "You know what, I don't really care. Your plan somehow worked, amazingly. So good job."
Pinkie looked away from Rainbow to examine her surroundings. Everywhere she looked, there was a range of colours. Creatures of every shape and size wandered through the park, buying nik-nacs from the many shops set up in the park. There were several entrances to the rides scattered around the park, each filled with customers waiting for their turn.
Pinkie looked over everything with the largest smile she could muster, and turned back to Dash, "Come on silly. We can't wait here, there's so much to do!"