“We need more glitter.” Pinkie Pie began searching frantically through her many boxes of party supplies for her famous secret ingredient.
Twilight and Spike looked at each other reassuringly and nodded. If there was one thing that was certain, it was that Pinkie knew how to throw a party. The trio had been up late into the night decorating banners and baking all sorts of goodies. Sleep had only come when they were too pooped to pop a bubble. Morning came very early and they were right back at it.
Pinkie had spent most of the morning making invitations and then delivering them to every pony in Ponyville. She delivered a hoofmade invitation to every filly, colt, mare and stallion in the entire town. As word spread about the party at the castle, the ponies didn’t seem to be all that excited. Some were downright sad as they counted down the minutes until high noon – the start of the party. Regardless of their gloomy dispositions, every pony had promised they would come. It couldn’t be any worse than what they were already doing, they reasoned – plus, there was food.
“Got it!” squealed Pinkie as she found the very last bottle of glitter in the very bottom of the last box she checked. “Now I just need to make sure this cake has enough frosting and we’re good to go.”
She tossed a dash of glitter on the exclamation point of her “Smile!” banner and went to measure the depth of frosting at various strategic points in her tower of layered party cake situated in the center of the entrance parlor. Streamers, like flying buttresses, met the cake tower around the top few layers. There was so much glitter floating around, Twilight felt like she could get lost in the sea of shining sparkles.
“I think that’s everything – it looks absolutely perfect, Pinkie,” said Twilight as she glanced around the room at all their hard work.
“Yeah, there’s no way those ponies could help but smile when they see all this,” said Spike as he attempted to swipe a bit of frosting off the cake before having his claw swatted away by the iron hoof of Pinkie in full party planner mode.
“That cake is for our guests – claws off!” growled Pinkie.
“Oh Pinkie, lighten up,” tossed out Twilight. “The party’s about to start and we need to be all smiles in order to help turn those ponies’ frowns upside down.”
“You’re right, Twilight,” said a still serious sounding Pinkie Pie. “I just need to make sure I didn’t forget anything… oh, wait! I almost forgot the music.” Pinkie darted off into the adjoining room and pushed a small table with a record player on it out into the main party area. “You can’t have a party without party music.”
“Alright then,” said Twilight. “It’s noon and I think we’re as ready as we’ll ever be to get this party started.”
Without even a minute to spare, Twilight, Pinkie, and Spike opened the doors of the castle to the waiting crowd. As everypony filed through the door, it did seem a bit weird that they each looked like they had come ready to attend a funeral instead of party.
It got off to a slow start - a hundred wallflowers all staring at the ground. Pinkie tried her best to get the ponies involved in the various activities – pin the tail on the pony, balloon animals, even bubble blowing. A few ponies cracked a small grin as they ate the delicious twelve layer cake Pinkie had spent almost the entire night working on. It had every flavor in the rainbow, and a few more she just made up.
Twilight did her best to try and entertain her guests. Her “best” effort consisted of recommending one of the books in the library to a young filly, who by the looks of it, was just barely old enough to read. Spike even put on a jester’s cap and was trying to juggle to the delight of none.
Pinkie was getting discouraged, but pushed herself to think of something that would brighten the spirits of everypony present. In her own unique way, just such an idea happened to pop into her head.
“I’ve got it,” she giggled. “I know just what this party needs – a conga!”
Pinkie darted over to the record player and spun the turntable as she dropped a fresh record under the needle. “Alright Twilight, let’s show these ponies how to paaaarrrrr-tay!”
The next thing she knew, Twilight had Pinkie hanging on to her flank and giving her a nudge indicating that she needed to start moving as the music began to play.
“Come on, everypony!” yelled Pinkie “Let’s do the pony conga!”
The music began to hammer out a rhythmic beat as Pinkie shouted out to the other ponies:
“♫Everypony conga! Everypony conga!
I don’t mean to be pushy. Ya gotta grab my toushie.
Just hold on to my booty, or by the mark of cutie.
You pull this ponies heiney, to form a conga liney
Everypony conga! Everypony conga!♫”
(*see note)
Twilight led the way around the room and down the halls of the castle. The line of ponies grew behind her as Pinkie continued to recruit new members for the conga line. Pretty soon the entire party registry was trotting along behind her as she took all of Ponyville on the grand tour.
As the line wound through the throne room, Pinkie caught back up to Twilight. She had a huge grin on her face as she said, “Twilight – I think it’s working! All the ponies finally seem to be having a good time.”
Sure enough, the entire population of Ponyville were bouncing their manes and bobbing their tails to the beat as they pranced along behind their princess. Some of them were really getting into it – a little hoof tapping or ballet twirl accompanied some of the conga line link’s shuffles.
“Don’t stop,” mouthed Pinkie. “We have to keep this going.” She twirled her hoof in the air indicating Twilight should take a few more laps around the castle.
Twilight rolled her eyes, but smiled and soon found herself lost in the rhythm of the conga too. As the line looped back on itself, she passed by Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. She noticed that the three little fillies didn’t seem to be having as good a time as the others. Pinkie saw this too and swooped in to help.
In one swift motion, Pinkie detached Apple Bloom from the back end of the colt she was following, moved the mare in back of Scootaloo up into her place, and diverted the trio in another private direction.
Once they had conga’d clear of the main pack, she asked, “so why the long faces you three? Aren’t you having such a fantastic and awesomely spectacular time at this fantastic and awesomely spectacular party?”
“I guess,” replied Apple Bloom.
“Maybe,” echoed Sweetie Belle.
“It would be much better if we could just get our cutie marks in conga dancing,” added Scootaloo with a frown.
“Now why would you want a silly thing like that?” questioned Pinkie Pie.
“What do you mean?” asked Apple Bloom. “I thought we were supposed to get our cutie marks by tryin’ all sorts of new stuff.”
“Oh silly,” giggled Pinkie. “It’s fine if that’s what you really think your special talent is, but do you really want a cutie mark in conga dancing?”
“Umm – no.” Sweetie Belle tried to keep her balance as the four ponies continued to shuffle around the room.
“Then why be upset when you don’t get it?” reasoned Pinkie. “There’s tons of other things that you could be good at, and you probably already have a bunch of things you like to do -way- more than conga at this fantastic and awesomely spectacular party here.”
“I guess you’re right, Pinkie,” replied Scootaloo. “I enjoy riding my scooter -way- more than this.”
“And I’d rather pick apples all day long than have to go through this here dancin’ line again,” said Apple Bloom with a hint of a smile peeking out the corners of her mouth.
“Well, why didn’t you say so?” Pinkie stopped shaking her rump and spun around to look at the girls. “If you aren’t having fun with this, there’s plenty of other stuff you can do. You just need to find something that you like to do and then have fun doing it.”
“You mean like singing?” Sweetie Belle’s mood brightened considerably.
“Exactly!” exclaimed Pinkie.
“Or bakin’ pies?” asked Apple Bloom.
“Of course!” Pinkie clapped her hooves as she licked her lips with just the thought of biting into a warm, fresh apple pie. She continued, “you girls are the only ones that can make yourselves happy. You just need to start by finding the things that you like doing and go from there.”
“I never thought about it like that,” said Scootaloo.
“Maybe we should try and do more things we already like doing,” chirped Sweetie Belle – her smile growing across her face.
“We may even get our cutie marks faster that way!” exclaimed Apple Bloom.
The three little ponies turned to one another and gave each other a high hoof clap as they shouted in unison, “Cutie Mark Crusaders – having fun!”
Their hoof clap exploded into a thousand colored particles of light bursting out in every direction. The entire room looked like the ultimate glitter party cannon had just gone off. As the particles hung in the air, Pinkie and the fillies gazed around in wonder at the surreal sight. Before they could enjoy the view too much, the energy surged back toward them. It formed into a ball like a million swirling fireflies around Pinkie.
The super party pony levitated off the floor and hung in the air like a giant glowing disco ball. Twilight’s conga line suddenly came to a halt just outside the door to the room as they passed. Twilight charged inside wondering what was going on. “Pinkie – what in Equestria did you do?”
Pinkie laughed and giggled as the magical essence tickled her nose and swam through her mane. Then she just simply shot off out the door and down the hallway. Everypony in the conga line was blissfully unaware of the glowing stream of dust that had gathered above them as they danced around the castle. The ball of glowing particles surrounding Pinkie gathered even more substance as it swept up that essence while she flew down the hallway, up the stairs, around the throne room, and then returned right back to the place she started from.
Twilight was in awe of the magic show happening right in front of her. The light surrounding her friend began to collapse as it was drawn into the gemstone that hung from Pinkie’s neck. As the magic diminished, Pinkie floated back down to solid ground. The last bit of magic essence danced within Twilight’s gem before breaking free and shooting over into Pinkie’s.
“Wasn’t that just the most super awesomeiest thing you ever saw in your whole life, Twilight!” yelled Pinkie as she dove to hug her Alicorn friend.
The two ponies collided in a heap of laughing and tangled manes. Twilight hugged Pinkie and said, “I’m not sure how you managed to pull it off, Pinkie. Not even the element of sadness could stop you from throwing the best conga party ever.”
If you looked closely, however, there was a single spot within the gemstone at the very center that remained dim and barren.