*thunk* *thunk* *thunk*
Sassaflash's head bounced sporadically off rocks as Pinkie Pie dragged her slowly homewards. The furrow in the dusty path behind them was of no concern to the mare, and if her companion had any concerns then he wasn't showing them.
"All I'm saying is that it's nice to have you here, Pinks; Boneless is good company, but he's not too talkative."
"Yea, Gummy's the same." Pinkie giggled.
Cheese Sandwich glanced over his shoulder at Sassaflash. "She's gonna have a doozie of a headache when she wakes up."
"Meh. She'll be fine."
The morning sun was hot; Cheese nodded his head to a gap in the roadside where the two, or call it three, ponies could stop for a drink. Taking off his broad-brimmed hat, Cheese Sandwich sat down on a rock and relaxed with a grateful sigh. Pinkie squatted by the riverbank, gratefully sucking up water with a sound like a broken tap, and transferring the stream into Sassaflash's mouth via the absorbent medium of her tail. Cheese watched with amusement.
Pinkie garbled out a sentence, cheeks full of water. "H'ww m'ch fuuuur'thr?" She chuckled at her own voice, then began to cough as water inched its way up her nose.
"A few miles is all." Cheese replied, once the coughing had stopped. "I was heading to Appleloosa, but it can wait."
"Ooh, what's going on there?"
"It's Sheriff Silver Star's, "Sorry-We-Accidentally-Dropped-A-Barn-On-You-Hope-You-Get-Better-Soon-Party". It's a long story."
"We're walking all the way to Ponyville." Pinkie deadpanned. "We've got time."
Realising that he had a captive audience, and better yet one that might enjoy his ramblings, Cheese grinned.
"Well..."
"...And then the cork came out of the whole thing and we didn't know what to do!"
Pinkie was rapt, "So what did you do?"
"Well Braeburn- Oh, lookie there."
At her companion's instigation, Pinkie looked around. The familiar scenes of Ponyville's outskirts caught her attention and she looked over one shoulder at the pegasus whom she had dragged for several miles.
"Good news, Sassy! We've almost got you home!"
Sassaflash was unresponsive, and rather bruised. That said, it was probably less work to be dragged than to walk, and the headache would've worn off by the time she woke up.
Mostly.
It didn't take too long for the duo of party ponies to realise that careful planning was in order. Cheese broached the subject first.
"How're we meant to make her think this was a dream?"
"Umm..." Pinkie's brow furrowed in frustration, "You know..." she added. "I really hadn't thought that far along..."
Cheese cast about for inspiration, and spotted a bedcover hanging on a washing line...
"I would've sworn... *grunt*... that she wasn't this heavy!"
"Calm down, Pinks! Ponies are looking at us."
Cheese Sandwich was right: it was almost noon, and the street was full of inquisitive faces; most of those faces turned to look at the party ponies as they passed. Some waved at Cheese, some shouted a greeting, but most simply looked on perplexedly. It was the sheet that did it, it had to be, it covered Pinkie's back like barding and dragged along the road as they walked through town.
The hump underneath made her look like a camel.
"Some gentlestallion you are; why am I carrying her?"
Cheese looked confused, "I offered to carry her, Pinks."
"Oh." Pinkie brightened up. "Right." She began to bounce along the street effortlessly, all sign of her exertion gone. Cheese trotted to keep up. The two, or again, call it three, ponies eventually arrived at the Sarsaparilla workshop; the doors lay open from Pinkie's entry the night before. Making their way inside by their respective means, Pinkie pulled the sheet off her back to expose Sassaflash, still unconscious, resting beneath it. Cheese lifted her off Pinkie's back and lay her on the desk.
Pinkie's eyes widened alarmingly. "Sweet Celestia's Sugar Muffin!"
"What? What happened?"
"The party..."
"What party?" The brown party planner was confused, Pinkie hadn't mentioned a party on their way back.
"It's today! I've got to go! I'm sorry, Cheese, can you finish here yourself?"
"Um... I guess so, l-"
"Super-duper! See you soon!" Pinkie had vanished out of the barn doors, and her sentence trailed off into the distance with her.
"Pinkie? Pinkie!" It was no use; she was gone. Cheese looked around the barn in quiet contemplation. He wasn't quite sure where to start.
It would've helped if she'd told me where to put h-
*Pop*
A whiff of burning caught Cheese's attention and he turned to find a scrap of paper on the barn floor behind him. It was a note, written in Pinkie's typical messy scrawl, and in some kind of shorthand, on the back of a sarsaparilla bottle's label:
She st chir
Cheese looked at the chair lying on its side by the worn wooden desk, from the meticulous order of the workshop he had guessed that Sassaflash might be a bit of a workaholic. Pulling the mare upright, he sat her in the chair and rested her head gently on her desk. One more curious look around revealed an out of place box of limes; concluding that he'd done all that he could, he took one. His eye twitched as he bit into it.
"Woah nelly!" Cheese's mane shot out from his head wildly before recoiling on itself like a bunch of springs. "That's a doozie!"
The party pony's head spun as he heard a mumbling from Sassaflash, she rolled her head on the desk. Quietly, Cheese Sandwich edged his way to the barn doors, a lime and a half held in his mane.
As he exited, he pulled the doors closed with the faintest of creaks, and the clock in the square struck noon. Inside the barn, Sassaflash stirred.
Around her, the world went on.