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// Prologue - Packing 
// Story: Fiesta Equestria 
// by PageTurner 
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	Pinkie's room was a mess.
It wasn't the sort of mess where you could say, "Oh, Pinkie has some stuff on the floor and her bed isn't made, but she could probably clean it up in five minutes if she could keep her attention focused on it for that long."
No, it was the sort of mess where you would say, "Pinkie's room looks like you need to do an archaeological dig just to find her carpet, if she even has one. Nopony really knows, there's too many streamers and balloons to tell."
If Pinkie was going to find everything she needed in order to travel across Equestria for a whole month, she would need some help.





"Pinkie! How'd you manage to get so much into your room in the first place? I didn't think it was possible for one pony to have so many party supplies!"
Spike was a little aghast at the sheer amount of stuff everywhere. When Pinkie had asked for his help, he'd been hoping that she wanted a recipe or a taste-tester for her new cupcakes. Sure, he helped Twilight reorganize the library on a weekly basis, but that was his job. He wasn't sure if he was being taken advantage of or not. But it was Pinkie he was talking about here, she wouldn't do that to anypony. Oh, why did everything that had to do with her have to be so confusing!
"Well, my room is bigger on the inside, so I guess that's how. But Spike, I really, really, really, really need your help! Cheesy asked me to travel with him for a month and I don't know what to pack or where the things I need to pack even are!"
"But how did everything get so messy? I know that even you have to have some sort of organizational system, even if it's a bit... unorthodox."
"I was looking for my party cannon."
Spike glanced at the cannon sitting pristinely in the one untouched corner of Pinkie's room and sighed.
"Let me make a checklist."





"Party cannon?"
"Check!"
"Saddlebags?"
"Checkerooni!"
"... Wait, eye patches? Why do you need those?"
"For eye patch emergencies, of course! Most of mine are stashed around Ponyville, but I keep a few spares, just in case." Pinkie waved a rainbow assortment of eye patches like a makeshift flag in Spike's face before stashing them in her now-bulging saddlebags. "I had one other, but Big Mac liked his so much that I let him keep it."
"Sure. What about music?"
Pinkie shuffled around some streamers before pulling a hungover Vinyl Scratch out from a leftover banner. Spike decided not to question it.
"I think you're about set, Pinkie. Twilight would want me to double-check, and then triple-check my double-checking, but I think  that Cheese Sandwich has plenty of his own supplies as well."
Pinkie wracked her brain for anything else they might have left off of the list. Balloons? Yup. Confetti? Uh-huh. The Welcome Wagon? Check-mate, but she'd have to remember to put the cake in the oven and the confetti in the confetti cannons this time. Pinkie had a feeling that Cranky Doodle still hadn't totally forgiven her for that, even though he said he did. Wait... CAKE! She had forgotten to tell the Cakes that she would be gone for a month! What if the twins needed foalsitting or she had to work in the bakery?
Pinkie was off like a shot, leaving a bewildered Spike to question, once again, why he had agreed to help Pinkie in the first place. He still had to stop by Quills and Sofas yet for Twilight.





"... And soooooo, I'll be gone for only a month and I hope you don't mind and I'll bring back lots of souvenirs and--"
"Ohhh, that's quite alright, Pinkie Pie. We appreciate you letting us know. I'm sure we'll be able to get somepony to cover for you while you're gone." Mrs. Cake's nervous smile did little to hide the fact that she was internally panicking. Who would agree to foalsit Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake on such short notice? Who would agree to take Pinkie's bakery shifts during what might possibly be their busiest month of the year? Her husband gently nudged her, and her attention was drawn to a certain baby dragon coming down the stairs. She wasn't entirely sure of his foalsitting skills, but as a temporary bakery assisstant...
The gleam in Mr. Cake's eyes was all the confirmation she needed. They might just survive.





At the train station, it seemed like just about all of Ponyville was there to see Pinkie off on her adventure. Last-minute goodbyes were made, Rarity gave her one of her scarves of which she seemed to have a near-bottomless supply, and the train pulled into the station. The door opened and a familiar tall, orange stallion appeared in the doorway.
"You ready to throw some parties, Pinkie Pie?"
His reply was a hug and a smile, the mare's cotton-candy cheeks stretching all the way to her clear, blue eyes. It was then that Cheese Sandwich, Super Party Pony, realized that even if she traveled with him forever, it still would be far too short of a time.