//------------------------------// // A party plan for the ages // Story: Mind Games // by Brolkier //------------------------------// Up in Cloudsdale, a still disgruntled Spitfire sat behind her desk in her office. “I’m really starting to get tired of that Queen. I need to start recruiting again if we want to have any chance of…” She said aloud to herself, until the sound of somepony bursting through the door cut her off. “Captain Spitfire! Captain Spitfire! I’ve got some news!” An energetic Scootaloo called out to Spitfire. Spitfire placed her hooves together on her desk, just like she did to everypony who came to see her. “What is it recruit?” She asked the filly. “I managed to keep myself up in the air for five seconds!” Scootaloo said with a big smile on her face. Unimpressed, Spitfire raised an eyebrow to the little Pegasus. “Is that it?” “Oh, and Twitters stopped by! He said that something seemed to really upset the Queen today, and she almost caused a panic!” Scootaloo replied. “Really!?” Spitfire asked Scootaloo, a surprised look on her face. “Yup!” Scootaloo replied, sounding proud of herself. “Thanks recruit, and keep up the work on your flying.” Spitfire told the filly, giving her a smile. Scootaloo jumped for joy and hopped out of the office. Turning around in her chair, Spitfire gazed out the window, as she began to think to herself. “This could be the perfect opportunity to start moving my operation along. It’s a good thing I took advantage of that Changeling spy I caught a while back. Having him act as a double agent for us is really going to pay off soon. Guess I should go make sure things on the other side are getting ready as well.” With that thought, Spitfire opened up one of the windows to her office and zipped out into the sky. /)(\ /)(\ /)(\ /)(\ /)(\ Having finished their latest musical number, the Flim Flam brothers proceeded to sell their latest product to the ponies of Rainbow Falls. “That’s right step right up everypony, you don’t want to miss this amazing offer!” Flim announced to the crowd. “Yes indeed, no pony in their right mind could possibly go without the Flim Flam brother’s patented “Bottomless saddle bag.” Flam announced to the crowd. “Especially not anypony who plans to shop at the world famous Rainbow Falls market!” Flim added on. “So step right up everypony and be sure to get yourself one of these amazing bags!” Flam added on. “Supplies are limited.” “But the storage space is UN-limited!” Upon finishing their sales pitch, numerous ponies began raising their hooves in the air, holding up bits so that they could buy one of the bags. The brothers managed to make a few sales, until they saw a pony in the crowd hold up a small pouch of bits. “Some bits for your time boys?” Spitfire called out to the Unicorns. Grinning ear-to-ear, the brothers quickly addressed the rest of the crowd of eager ponies. “So sorry folks, but we’ll be taking a short break from our sales for a moment.” Flim told the crowd. “But be sure to have those hooves ready for this amazing offer once we return!” Flam told the crowd. After bringing the crowd to a halt, the brothers retreated behind their curtain to speak with the Wonderbolt Captain. Spitfire tossed the bag on the ground in front of the Unicorns, whom proceeded to levitate it up and place it in one of their stage drawers. “So what can we do for you today Miss Wonderbolt?” Flim asked Spitfire. “I think it’s time to begin operation: Stealth Glider. The Queen seems to be under some unexpected stress, and should be distracted enough by it for us to make our move.” Spitfire told the brothers. The brothers looked at one another, each raising an eyebrow in interest. “Are you sure now is the right time?” Flim asked. “We can’t very well make a profit off of this plan if it goes south from the beginning.” Flam added. “Oh, I’m positive. It’s now or never. Have you two almost finished the preparations on your end yet?” Spitfire asked the duo. “We’ve almost got everything we need to finish it.” Flim responded. “Judging by the sales we plan to get from this latest product of ours, we should be able to finish it in no time afterwards.” Flam added. “Don’t worry, we plan on making sure everything goes off without a hitch.” Flim told Spitfire. “There’s no way we could pass up an opportunity to have a permanent store in Canterlot. We’ll make sure everything goes smoothly.” Flam told Spitfire. “Good, I’ll leave you two to it then.” Spitfire told the Unicorns, before leaving the tent and flying away. Spitfire looked back as she flew away, watching the brothers come back out from behind the curtain, and begin to sell their latest scam again. “Don’t you worry your greedy little heads. This will go off without a hitch, and when it does, she’ll wish she had never left that pathetic little kingdom of hers.” Spitfire said aloud to herself, as she made her way back to Cloudsdale. /)(\ /)(\ /)(\ /)(\ /)(\ Later that night, Twilight and Spike both lay in their beds, bags of ice on their heads, and still queasy stomachs. “Ugh…..Spike.” Twilight spoke to Spike in a nauseous tone. “Yeah?” Spike responded in the same tone, letting out a belch after he answered. “Was it just me, or did Pinkie really go all out with that party?” Twilight asked. “It was like the party she threw when we first came to Ponyville.” Spike replied. “…..Only much worse.” The two said in unison. /)(\ /)(\ /)(\ /)(\ /)(\ Earlier that day, Twilight and Spike made their way back to the Library, after wandering around Ponyville for a bit. “I still don’t know. Something just seems different with the ponies here.” Twilight spoke. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about. Everypony seemed fine to me.” Spike replied, laying on Twilight’s back and popping another gem into his mouth. “Well it’s not just them Spike, I haven’t even seen any of our friends today besides Pinkie. Apple Jack wasn’t at Sweet Apple Acres, and Big Mac didn’t know where she was either.” Twilight told Spike. “I guess now that you mention it that was kinda weird. Also, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard Big Macintosh talk that much.” Spike responded. “Yeah, that was kind of strange, but not uncommon I suppose. I also haven’t seen Rainbow Dash anywhere. Normally around this time of day, she’d be sleeping on a cloud somewhere in the sky. I doubt she’s actually off working somewhere else.” Twilight spoke. “Yeah, but she could be off training somewhere. She did say that she was hoping to get a letter of acceptance into the Wonderbolt Academy at some point. She’s probably just off flying somewhere.” Spike replied. “I suppose you could be right, but what about Rarity and Fluttershy? Neither of them were in their homes when we stopped by to visit.” Twilight asked Spike. “Yeah, it was disappointing that Rarity wasn’t there, but she might have gotten a huge order of dresses and was delivering them, or maybe she was so busy working upstairs that she couldn’t hear us knocking. As for Fluttershy, maybe she was out tending to some animals or something?” Spike responded. “Hmm, I just don’t know Spike, but maybe we can check back on them again tomorrow. Now that we’re back, I want to start reading over some of the books I got from the Griffon Kingdom.” Twilight spoke. “If you say so, but I think it’s about nap time for this dragon.” Spike replied, letting out a yawn. As the two approached the Library, Twilight opened the door with her magic, and was instantly bombarded with confetti and streamers, as party favors sounded off inside. The sound of the party favors going off caused Spike to jump and he landed face first on the ground. “Heya! See, I told you I was going to throw you a party! Were you surprised? Were ya? Were ya? Huh huh huh!?” Pinkie asked Twilight and Spike. Behind Pinkie, almost half of Ponyville appeared to be partying inside of the Library. The entire first floor was packed from wall-to-wall. “Uh Pinkie, you didn’t need to throw this big of a party just for us coming back. We weren’t even gone that long.” Twilight told Pinkie, while pulling confetti out of her mane. “Ha ha ha! There you go again about coming back. I told you that I always throw a party for ponies I never met before, and I just wanted to make sure that you two had a BIG party to come to since this is your first time in Ponyville!” Pinkie told Twilight. “But Pinkie?” Twilight began to ask, before Spike cut her off. “Aww come on Twilight, lighten up! This does seem to be a really great party going on!” Spike told Twilight, while already in a conga line of ponies. “But…” Twilight started to speak again, before Pinkie stuffed a cupcake in her mouth. “Yeah, lighten up downy-miss-downerton! This is a party! It’s time to have fun!” Pinkie told Twilight, before joining Spike in the conga line. Convinced that she wasn’t going to get anywhere with Pinkie at the moment, since she was in her party state, Twilight decided to try and go along with everything. She too joined the conga line, and the party continued on. Two hours later, after having her fill of cake and hot-sauce spiked fruit punch, Twilight started to head upstairs, only to be dragged back down by Pinkie. “Oh no can do Miss party pooper! This party is just getting started!” Pinkie told Twilight. “But this party has been going on for much longer than usual Pinkie, and I’d really like to get to my books.” Twilight replied. “Are you CA-RA-ZY!? We’ve got a lot more partying to do!” Pinkie replied. “But even your first party didn’t last this long.” Twilight told Pinkie. “Well that’s because I had just found out what a party was, and my family got tired really quick.” Pinkie responded. “No, I mean when Spike and I really first came here.” Twilight corrected Pinkie. “Well duh it didn’t last that long, I had just met you two in the streets. I didn’t even have any of my party stuff with me then, but I’m glad that you could still call meeting me, or me meeting you a party!” Pinkie spoke. “No! I mean the FIRST time Spike and I came here! Not when we got back after being gone for a week!” Twilight replied, now getting frustrated. “A week! Feels more like seven years if you ask me. I guess that means the party needs to go on even longer to make up for lost time!” Pinkie told Twilight, before turning her head back to call down to the rest of the ponies still partying downstairs. “HEY EVERYPONY! THIS PARTY IS GOING INTO OVERTIME! WOO-HOO!” Everypony downstairs cheered, as they continued to keep partying more. Twilight let out an annoyed grunt, before she gave up trying to convince Pinkie to end the party. Instead, she decided to try and ask her about her friends. “Pinkie, have you seen any of our friends lately? I couldn’t find any of them today.” Twilight asked. “That’s because Apple Jack’s been planting more and more apple trees outside Ponyville, Rainbow Dash has been busy being a Wonderbolt, Rarity’s with the Mayor, and Fluttershy is in AAAAAAA-pple-LOO-sa!” Pinkie replied, kicking her hooves up in the air like Braeburn did when saying Appleloosa’s name. “Wait, what!?” Twilight asked, immediately confused. “What? What friends? I just met you earlier today, and everypony in Ponyville is my friend. You’ll have to be more specific.” Pinkie asked, confused. “Th-those friends! Apple Jack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy! What happened to them!?” Twilight asked, confused herself. “OOOOOoooohhh!.......I don’t know. Who are they? They sound fun! Especially the shy one! What was her name again?” Pinkie replied, a smile on her face. “But…I…you…we…” Twilight tried to speak, unable to understand what was going on at the moment. “He he he! Well enough about all that, come on! We got a lot more partying to do!” Pinkie told Twilight, before dragging her back down the stairs and into the party once more. Twilight and every other pony continued to party well into the night, until finally everypony left, with Pinkie being the last to leave, as she happily bounced out the door. Too exhausted and full to try to even think about what had just happened, and to figure out about the state of their friends, Twilight and Spike slowly made their way upstairs to bed.