"Glorious! Just glorious!" Rarity exclaimed as she looked over the garden party scene. "Everything is perfect! Wouldn't you agree, dear?"
"Quite so, my dear." said Fancy. "You've really outdone yourself."
"Only at Twilight's expense. I simply helped with the execution."
"Of course, there were a few things that needed to be taken care…" he eyed the gardening tools that were now away from the garden setting.
"Indeed. This must be sophisticated and elegant as every member of the Canterlot Elite will be here as well as members of the royal court."
"Rarity?"
Rarity turned around to see Sunset Shimmer wearing a pink chapeau.
"Is this acceptable to wear to the party? I found it in the wardrobe, so…"
"That, darling, is very appropriate. Not to mention that is a Rarity original you're wearing atop your head."
"You made this?"
"One of my many interests when I was living in the castle."
"Wow, you're really good," she smiled.
Rarity giggled, "Why, thank you. Unfortunately, not every pony appreciates what I have to offer…"
There was a huge shout, "Rarity!" Rainbow Dash trotted over fuming while wearing an orange frilly cape and a big flowered hat. Her sisters were right behind her, wearing the exact same thing only they were in different colors. Twilight was wearing pink, Pinkie's was light purple, Applejack had dark blue on, and Fluttershy had pure white. Rarity was also wearing the same outfit, but hers was yellow.
Rainbow demanded, "Why in Equestria do we have to wear this stuff?!"
"Because, Rainbow Dash, as princesses hosting the party, we must look presentable and it'll be easy for our guests to know who to turn to if there's something wrong."
"She's right." stated Twilight. "This is an important event that has to go off without a hitch!"
"Oh… All right… but only for you, Twilight…" RD gave in.
"That's right. We're here for you, even if we're a bit uncomfortable in this here get-up." AJ tugged at the collar.
By then, the rest of the husbands had arrived wearing sportsjackets. Taking a good look at their wives, they suddenly burst into laughter and toppled over.
They glared at them and Fancy knew it was best to break up the laugh-fest, "Alright now, that's enough, gents. We have important guests coming soon and it's imperative that we support our princesses when they get this party started."
"Oh, come now, Fancy Pants. Where's your sense of humor?" Discord composed himself.
"I didn't think he had one." Cheese gestured.
That caused another burst of laughter. This time, their wives joined them, but Rarity was not amused.
She stuck her nose up and humphed, "Don't you dare listen to them, my darling." She wrapped her hoof around his arm.
"Don't worry, my sweet. It'll take more than a couple of gaggling giggling school colts to get me upset."
"Hey!" Flash, Soarin', and Spike objected.
"I stand corrected. Apparently, there is a fun side to that poise and posh image you uphold," said Discord. "You just like to keep it hidden away."
Fancy magically wiped his monocle to his jacket, "You might say that."
Rarity turned her head and pointed out, "Oh! They're here! Places, ponies!"
They turned to see the first guests that had arrived: the aristocratic couple Jet Set and Upper Crust. The princesses bowed their heads in respect as the couple did the same.
"Your Highnesses," spoke Jet Set. "Thank you for your elaborate invitation."
Twilight responded, "We are grateful you could make it."
"We wouldn't have missed it," said Upper Crust, "and our congratulations to you, Princess Twilight Sparkle. We've just heard that you are about to be queen soon. We certainly hope you do as well as your mother is doing."
"Uh, thank you… I certainly hope so, too… Enjoy the party."
The couple bowed their heads once more and went about to take in the scenery. Sunset saw the look on Twilight's face when the snobby mare pointed out that Twilight should act like her mother when she would be queen.
Wow, is everything that intense and expected around here? Poor Twilight. No wonder she was frazzled when we first met and why she wanted me to come to the castle. She wanted to have an actual nice pony who won't give her grief on what she must do.
She kept watching as more guests looking extravagant were coming over to pay their respects to the princesses. Pretty soon, the party was underway as guests mingled, had refreshments, and occasionally played croquet while the orchestra was playing.
Rainbow Dash fidgeted in her outfit as she sniffled and Soarin' took this to notice, "Are you still sniffling?"
"What…" she sniffed, "gives… you… Ah… Ah… Achoo!" She sneezed as a guest passed by and the wig the guest was wearing fell off. "That idea?"
"Maybe you should go inside." he suggested.
"What for? For a couple of sniffles?"
"You did sneeze just now. You might be coming down with something."
She sniffled, "I'll be fine. It's just a garden party. What could happen?"
Soarin' gave an unsure look.
On the other side of the garden, Discord was feeling beyond bored. This party is so bland… We need to make things more exciting… He eyed the croquet match going on and thought, Hmm… Those ponies aren't going to be able to finish up a tournament at the rate they're going… With a snap of his fingers, the croquet ball started to move faster and did loop-de-loops around the pikes, surprising the classy ponies.
Discord chuckled to himself, Oh, that was good. What else can be done…? He saw the refreshment stand and found teapots, Perfect… he thought with a grin. With a snap of his tail, the teapots started moving and tooted out steam, causing a melody to play.
Twilight was too busy talking to Sunset and Rarity to notice the mischief the spirit of chaos was making at the moment, as were the other princesses talking to other guests.
Rarity noticed how well her husband was doing exchanging conversation with Jet Set and Upper Crust, "I'm so proud of him. He's showing his true colors at last and everyone just adores him the way I do."
Twilight and Sunset smiled.
"It would be best if I join in. Excuse me." She took her leave.
Twilight faced Sunset, "Maybe now we can discuss about our…" She pointed to Sunset's cutie mark.
Sunset nodded, "Now's a good time as any…"
"It's so strange, I cannot understand it. Why us? Why do we have a similar dream about each other? Just last night, it stopped as if it didn't need to tell me something anymore."
"Me, too!"
"It's almost as if… we had to meet… but why?"
"That's a great question. I wish I had the answer…"
"Me, too…"
They sighed.
Pinkie and Cheese were admiring the party as Cheese said, "Great party, huh?"
"It would have been better if we did some actual gardening at a garden party."
"Well… why don't we?" he grinned.
Her face widened in happiness.
Rainbow sneezed again and her eyes were starting to get puffy.
She was congested when she said, "Okay… I'm starting to think it's more than a couple of sniffles…" She felt another sneeze coming on and tried to stop it. However, it was inevitable and ended up sneezing on one of the pastries on the table. In mere minutes, one of the waiters took it to serve to other ponies.
At this point in the croquet game, the ball was gaining a mind of its own. When a pony tried to strike it, the ball dodged the mallet, moved away, and started to go around the garden, tripping up ponies as it went. The teapots that Discord had enchanted earlier started acting on their own as well. When a pony tried to get a cup of tea, the teapot squirted at him.
Fluttershy saw this and knew at once who was behind it. She started looking for her husband and found him floating above the party with a table and chairs and having tea. She fluttered up to him and shouted, "Discord!"
Discord gave a calm look, saying, "Ah, darling, you're just in time for tea!" He pointed to the teapot and out popped a mouse's head.
"Is that a dormouse?" Fluttershy questioned.
"Indeed it is! I figured you'd want a furry critter joining us for this fun tea party while everyone else enjoys their boring garden party."
"Don't play innocent with me, 'darling', I know that you used magic on those teapots and the croquet ball! Now, you will fix it right now!"
"But smoochy-poo…" He used his big eyes and pouted, "I was just trying to make things a little exciting…"
"What's exciting for you isn't exciting for others. Some pony could get hurt or worse!"
He crossed his arms and grumbled.
She started using her baby teal eyes and moved her hooves on his shoulders, pleading, "Please… Dissy…?"
He growled, "Arrgh! You never make this easy!" He turned away from her so he didn't have to see her scowling face. "Can I help it if I just want to spread a little fun?!"
"Your ideas of fun could end up getting you into big trouble!"
They started quarreling, which caused a few heads to turn. Twilight saw how this was disturbing the guests, so she quickly headed over to the dilemma. Suddenly, a clump of dirt hit her. She saw who was responsible and shouted, "Pinkie! Cheese! What are you doing?!"
The party couple stopped digging holes in the ground and replied, "Gardening!"
"Well, stop before the dirt hits any of guests and fill up those holes!"
"Aye-aye!" they saluted and started shoveling in the broken ground, only for a flower of a Dragonsneeze tree that was left from the season to be moving away and landing near Spike. The pollen caught the dragon's nose and he ended up giving out a huge sneeze. From that sneeze, his fire caught onto the refreshment table.
AJ exclaimed, "Whoa, Nelly!"
Twilight was about to turn back to Fluttershy and Discord, who were still fighting, when some pony shouted, "FIRE!"
The fire was spreading and ponies were panicking.
Rainbow was flying above with a rain cloud, yelling, "I got this!" But another sneeze came on and she blew the cloud away from the fire onto a crowd of ponies, where it rained on them.
Twilight could see that things were falling apart around her and all under her direction, too. It gave her more reason to doubt that she would be able to handle the huge job of being queen.
Sunset could see the gloom creeping on Twilight's face while others could not. They were either too busy running away or trying to put out the fire.
Fluttershy and Discord were still in the middle of their fight with Discord saying, "…And I suppose none of what you said to Sunblock was true after all?! You only said those things because you knew I was listening in on you!"
"That's not true at all! Everything I said was very real because that's how I feel about you! I only stop you because I care about you!"
"Care…?" he turned his head to face her.
"Yes…" she sighed, finally calming down. "I worry that someday, some pony would want you to go back to stone and that it'll happen and I'll never see you again! Remember what happened with Tirek?"
"Oh… Oh… You're right…"
"So… please…?"
He nodded his head and snapped his tail, causing the ball and teapots to revert back to normal. He even put out the fire and removed the rain cloud. He extended his arms out and she went in them.
"I'm sorry, my love… You deserve better than me…"
"No… I'm sorry, too. I know that you have needs as every pony does. You have magic that cannot be contained for so long…"
They looked into each other's eyes and were about to lean in to kiss when suddenly, there was a rumbling that shook the ground. Out the bushes came a herd of bunnies that rushed passed the ponies that were still there.
Fluttershy turned to her husband and angrily said, "I thought you took care of the bunnies?!"
Discord retorted, "I did! Your precious Angel Bunny must've been hiding more from me!"
"Come on! We have to gather them all up!"
"Maybe we should hear why they're rushing around like this?" he pointed his finger, casting a spell that enabled the bunnies to speak.
"We're late! We're late for a very important date!"
Discord lifted the spell and said, "Well, I can't say I haven't heard that one before."
Twilight was shaking her head back and forth. This party was a complete disaster. First the arrows, and now this… She thought dismally, I'm not cut out for this… And I never will be!
She started running back for the castle. Sunset Shimmer called out to her, but Twilight just kept running…