Trotting down the dusty streets of Ponyville, Pinkie Pie waved and greeted the cheerful townsponies, who never lost their amicability, even in the presence of royalty.
The couple of royal fillies jumped and laughed as they passed through town. Their visits were always a nice change of pace from the hectic life in the castle, full of maids, guards, chefs, and assistants. It was nice to feel like a normal pony for once.
As the trio arrived at the nearest building from the library, the Carousel Boutique, they could make out Rarity’s melodic voice singing, as she usually did when she worked alone.
Both fillies shared a look; their lips curled upwards, and they promptly burst into a fit of giggles. However, their laughter paled in comparison to the whole-hearted chuckling of Pinkie, the mature one.
Rolling with mirth on the ground, the party pony never noticed the sudden halt of the singing, followed by the door slamming open. The fillies’ giggles rapidly subsided under the gaze of the marshmallow mare, yet Pinkie Pie continued her endless fit of laughter.
“Pinkie Pie on foalsitter duty, oh joy,” Rarity said, snapping Pinkie out her fit. The aforementioned mare rose from the ground with unequine quickness as she fixed Rarity with a frown.
“Hey!” she yelled indignantly. “Why doesn’t anybody believe I can foalsit?! I’ve taken care of Pound and Pumpkin— they love me!”
“I’m not doubting your capabilities, Pinkie,” Rarity explained, “I’m just saying you might not be the greatest authority figure for these two.” She smiled as she turned her attention to the little alicorns—they were so cute—but her smile quickly vanished as she remembered the last time the Cutie Mark Crusaders and the royal fillies were together.
Alicorns had immense power, even little ones like Twilight and Luna. A shiver ran down her spine; horrible things had happened that day.
Though the alicorns didn’t notice Rarity’s discomfort, their chaperone did. “Uh, Rares?” Pinkie said, waving a hoof in front of Rarity’s blank face in an attempt to interrupt her crashing train of thoughts, “You kinda zoned out there— you alright?”
Rarity shook her head quickly. Waking up from her self-induced nightmare, she said, “Why yes, Pinkie dear, I was just… remembering something.”
“Something? What is it?” Luna asked, raising an eyebrow as Rarity inconspicuously began closing the door behind her.
“Nothing of importance, really. Now, enough of myself, how are—”
“Sis!” a squeaky voice called from inside the boutique.
Rarity’s face contorted into a horrified frown. So close, she thought, as the pair of alicorns dashed past her into the building.
“Oh look, Sweetie’s here!” Pinkie’s untimely comment did nothing to alleviate Rarity’s current state of mind— she just stared at the party pony with emotionless eyes. “What?” Rarity groaned at Pinkie’s clueless response; she took a deep breath, attempting to calm her agitated nerves.
Everything will be fine. As long as we— I mean Pinkie keeps an eye on them, nothing with catastrophic consequences for my boutique will happen, Rarity rationalized, trying to suppress the oncoming wave of panic overtaking her.
As soon as her disturbing thought process ended, a trio of overly excited fillies exited the building, almost crashing with Rarity in their mad dash.
The blue, purple, and white blur finally separated, and soon enough, three pairs of eyes bared into Rarity’s soul with such force that her legs quivered under the constant cuteness attack.
“Can we go and play with Scootaloo and Applebloom pleeeease?!” The pressure crushing Rarity’s heart increased tenfold at hearing three tiny voices asking such an innocent question. Rarity was usually accustomed to her sister’s antics, but seeing her doing the puppy dog eyes—which she, as a matter of fact, had taught her sister how to do—along with the royal sisters was unbearable.
Prepared to surrender her will to the supreme masters of adorableness under the unrelenting assault, Rarity looked beside her for support, but she found no one. Pinkie lay unconscious on the ground— cause of death: extreme cuteness.
Incapable of resisting much longer, Rarity opened her mouth and uttered the words she knew with certainty she would regret later: “Yes… but be careful.”
When Rarity heard an excited chorus of ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders plus Royals, Yay!’, she immediately fell to her haunches. As she curled up on the ground in the most unladylike manner possible, her eyes watering, she muttered, “What have I done?”
Neither Rarity’s drama nor Pinkie Pie’s nonsense were anything strange to Ponyville’s general populace. However, some might have found the way the fashionable mare was wailing on the porch of her boutique quite an unusual course of action to show displeasure towards the new fashion tendencies of Stalliongrad, or whatever Rarity found displeasuring these days. Pinkie’s exaggerated response likely didn’t help matters.
Fluttershy was the first to encounter the odd scene during her daily walk to town. Being the kind soul that she was, she tried to awaken Pinkie’s unconscious form—with no visible response from the aforementioned mare whatsoever—before attempting to snap Rarity out of her trance-like crying. “Um… Rarity, are you okay?” Unfortunately, Fluttershy’s soft voice failed to reach the hysterical mare in her depressed state.
However, the yellow pegasus wasn’t one to give up so easily, unless of course, some monster of demonic proportions was attacking her. In that case, she would flee from the town to find herself a more calm, relaxed environment; her cousins happened to own a nice farm in Minneighsota— monsters didn’t attack there. Nothing ever happened there.
Sadly for the timid mare, no monster happened to be attacking today. Taking a deep breath, Fluttershy shook Rarity’s head, with more force than normal behind her hooves. Astonishingly, she managed to get a response; the coherency of the alabaster mare’s response was debatable.
“Are they still here? Crusaders monster-busters nooo
“Rarity…”
“Magic-bred spiders. Giant fangs, those hateful eyes… No, Twilight, please don’t— ouch!” Rarity was forcefully awoken from her trauma-induced nightmare by a stinging feeling in her left cheek, the pain brought by a powerful slap delivered, much to Rarity’s and various bystanders’ surprise, by Fluttershy’s winning right hook. “Fluttershy!” Rarity yelled, nursing her aching cheek with her hoof. “What was that for?!”
Startled by Rarity’s quick, if expected reaction, Fluttershy hid behind her long pink mane and tried to stammer a truthful response. “I-I, um, you weren’t responding, a-and I… well, did what I usually do with semi-conscious animals.”
“You beat their heads off?!”
Fluttershy’s ears pinned down from the accusation. “N-No, tapping their heads a couple of times usually works, and—”
“A tap? Hear me out, Fluttershy— that was no tap! Why did you slap me?!” Rarity stood up, fixing the pegasus with a stern glare usually reserved for misbehaving fillies. Her glare lost most of its intensity rather quickly, though; it wasn’t easy to be mad at Fluttershy.
“Well, you are kind of big to be awoken by a few taps, so—”
Correction, it was getting easier to be mad at Fluttershy. “Are you calling me fat?!”
“I-um-no, I—”
“Nevermind. Let’s wake up Pinkie— we’ve got something really important to do.” Rarity dismissed Fluttershy’s earlier statement (but kept it in the back of her mind for further inquiry) as she entered her house, looking for a glass of water to throw at Pinkie’s face.
Fluttershy stayed behind, staring at Pinkie with a contemplative frown on her face. Maybe if I slapped her hard enough she would—
Rarity’s poorly timed arrival destroyed Fluttershy’s twisted train of thought. She tried to maintain a demure pose without showing her disappointment, seeing that Pinkie woke up with a start at the splash of water to her face.
“Huh?! Wha?!” Pinkie thrashed her limbs wildly. As Rarity helped her up, Fluttershy sighed softly in resignation. I guess I’ll have to wait until next friday, then. No one is supposed to find out anyways, she thought, fondly visualizing the mask hidden in the depths of her closet.
Pinkie Pie, completely awake now, gave a few test bounces to make sure her coordination hadn’t somehow been damaged by passing out. She quickly stopped, however, due to her sudden recollection of the reason behind her visit.
“Oh by Celestia’s sparkling mane I forgot!” Pinkie yelled, startling Rarity and breaking Fluttershy from her reverie.
“What happened, Pinkie? What did you forget?” Fluttershy asked, recovering from the earth pony’s outburst.
“Well, the Princess was feeling down, so Sunny asked me if I could set up a party to cheer her up, so I was like ‘Yay a princess party’ but not like those Canterlot snobby princess-parties, more like one of Pinkie’s Princess-Approved Premiere Parties! Huh… Do you think my parties have the Royal Seal? Not those royals like Blueblood, I’m talking about the royal seal— do you know how much my finances would improve if I’ve got the Royal Seal? I could—”
“Pinkie… get to the point,” Rarity demanded.
“Sorry, Rares. So I was going to tell you guys about the party, but Twilight and Luna wanted to come with me, so Sunny told me to take care of them, but now I’m late to tell Applejack and Rainbow about the party, Luna and Twily have gone missing, and I don’t know what to do!” Pinkie finally finished her explanation, panting due to the lack of air. Rarity wore a thoughtful expression on her face, while Fluttershy was trying to understand the last couple of sentences.
“Hmm, that barely makes sense. If the Princess was feeling upset, Sunset would’ve wanted to keep the nature of her predicament private, not make a party for all of us to find out,” Rarity said as she paced, trying to shed some light on the matter.
“Well, we are her friends, aren’t we?”
“Why yes, Pinkie, but we are not nearly as close to her as Sunset is. Celestia is more like a mother to her, not only a friend… Anyway, why would Sunset leave the girls with you? She is more than capable enough to take care of the royal fillies— no offense,” she said, smiling sheepishly at Pinkie’s frown.
“Maybe she wanted some time alone with the Princess,” Fluttershy mumbled, causing Rarity to nod in agreement.
“Something quite strange is going on… We’ll have to ask Sunset later,” Rarity said.
“That sounds strange and everything, but it doesn’t help me at all, Rarity. I still have a party to plan and two fillies to look for!” Pinkie yelled in annoyance, the idea of missing the chance of planning a party for her friends terrifying beyond her wildest fears.
“Um, I think I might have an idea that could help us.” All heads turned towards Fluttershy’s direction. The timid mare shrank, hiding behind her mane, from the sudden attention shift. “Well, I’m sure Twilight, Luna, and Sweetie Belle will go looking for Scootaloo first— she’s usually practicing at the park with her scooter. They’ll eventually go to Sweet Apple Acres to pick up Apple Bloom, so if we reach Applejack in time, we might find them there,” she explained, gasping for breath.
Rarity looked at Fluttershy as if she had grown another head, while Pinkie stared in awe, surprised by the fact that Fluttershy had the ability to ramble endlessly.
“Well, that is… If you want to…”
Composing herself, Rarity nodded her agreement and motioned for Pinkie to follow her. “Then it’s settled: Pinkie and I will go and look for Rainbow Dash—wherever she is—while you go tell Applejack about the party, and find the fillies.”
“B-But—” Fluttershy stammered, confused at the sudden turn of events.
“Don’t worry, Fluttershy. I’m sure you can handle the girls— we’ll see you by the Acres!” Rarity called as she walked off, a bouncing Pinkie in tow.
Fluttershy stared at the departing mares. Her legs shook from utter fear, but she forced her limbs to move. The last time she took care of the Crusaders, half her body ended up as stone. She hadn’t had the pleasure of foalsitting the royal pair, but Rarity had filled her in on certain details of their exploits during one of their weekly visits to the spa.
A couple of breaths later, Fluttershy walked towards her execu— err… Sweet Apple Acres, with a steady pace. A weary sigh escaped her lips. It won’t be so bad, she repeated to herself over and over, a little mantra of peace to reassure herself. Applejack will be there, too— she knows how to take care of children.
With that last rationalization, Fluttershy made her way through Ponyville, though what little confidence she had managed to muster waned with every second passing.
What cruel destiny awaited her, she was unsure. One fact remained true, though: it wouldn’t be pretty.
“What about the town hall? You sure the mayor doesn’t need our help?” the blue filly asked, buzzing her wings around, soaring effortlessly.
Sweetie Belle shook her head somewhat sadly. “Not since we screwed up some papers.”
“Of what?”
“I don’t know, it had something to do with a demolition or something,” she meekly explained, lowering her ears as she heard Luna sigh dejectedly. With Twilight and Luna’s ‘acceptance’ into the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Sweetie Belle felt, more than ever, that their adventures just weren’t the same. There was some kind of pressure when the royal pair was around. She didn’t want to disappoint her friends, and while Twilight had reassured her of their friendship countless times, she still felt insecure when suggesting something new to them— a problem she hadn’t had the courage to express to her pals.
Feeling a hoof drape over her shoulder, Sweetie turned around to find Twilight smiling at her encouragingly. “Don’t mind her, I’m sure there’s lots of things to do around here.”
“I hope so,” Luna countered, receiving an angry glare from Twilight in response. While she wasn’t always grumpy, Luna was the most temperamental of their little group, Scootaloo following closely behind.
“Anyways…” Twilight moved past her pessimistic sister, bumping her in the process. She squinted her eyes, searching for something in particular. “Where is Scootaloo? Doesn’t she usually practice here?”
“Well—”
“WATCH OUT!” As if on cue, the sound of hummingbird-like wings, along with the screech of skidding wheels, interrupted the trio’s conversation. They had inadvertently walked into the middle of one of Scootaloo’s improvised racetracks. The alicorns evaded the incoming projectile rather easily by lifting themselves up with their wings. The unicorn in their party wasn’t so lucky, though.
“Auuugh!” Sweetie yelled in pain, the collision pushing her over onto her back.
Twilight and Luna, after seeing the path of destruction their friend had created, rushed to their side, trying to be helpful in any way possible. Luna helped up Sweetie, while Twilight assisted Scootaloo, who seemed for the most part unharmed.
“Scoots, are you alright?” the lavender filly asked, lifting the scooter in her purple magic.
“…”
“Scoots?!”
“I’m… I’m okay… Twilight.” Scootaloo’s pain-clouded eyes did a double-take as she realized which one of her friends was standing over her. “Twilight! You’re here!” the pegasus exclaimed, pulling Twilight into a bone-crushing hug.
“Urgh, Scoots… air please.” At Twilight’s complaint, Scootaloo retreated from the impromptu embrace, blushing profusely. She wasn’t usually one to be found doing this kind of sappy stuff, but she couldn’t help it. Twilight was especially huggable according to the pegasus hug-o-meter, almost reaching Rainbow Dash in cuddliness. Not that she’d ever admit that.
Scootaloo didn’t notice the purple hoof waving in front of her, nor did she notice Twilight’s somewhat alarmed voice calling her name. It was probably due to the fact that her mind was lost in a constant reverie—in an inner sanctum, one could say. That, and she’d probably suffered a concussion, internal hemorrhage, or something of the sort. That likely being the case, Twilight’s rather unorthodox response after failing to gain Scootaloo’s attention was warranted.
It was common knowledge that pegasi were one of the lightest species of ponies, only following behind alicorns. Yet, one tiny fact that remained unknown to the earth pony and unicorn population was that this little evolutive knick-knack brought with it extreme sensibility. It was sort of a species-wide secret amongst pegasi; no one would’ve taken their ancient, fearsome armies seriously if they had known that they could disarm them simply by poking their sides or rubbing their bellies.
Sadly for Scootaloo, but fortunately for Twilight, her body was ruled by these anatomical rules, and since she was a filly, the effect was even more immediate. The orange pegasus fell once again as her somewhat dormant mind registered Twilight’s feathered appendages tickling her sides.
“T-Twilight, n-n-n-NO HAHAHA! P-PLEASE S-STOP!” Scootaloo half-yelled, half-laughed, trying to push Twilight away from her. After a couple of agonizing seconds, the filly in question finally relented, giving Scootaloo time to regain her breath.
“Don’t— Don’t ever do that again,” the pegasus threatened, eliciting giggles from Twilight, who helped her up in turn. “I’m serious, Twi— you hurt me this time.” Twilight’s face lost its mirth as she approached Scootaloo, afraid that she had damaged her friend in some way. The orange filly smiled, relieved that Twilight had believed her ruse; she took advantage of the alicorn’s lowered guard to get revenge on her tormentor, using her own wings over Twilight’s neck and belly. The perfect plan.
“Ehem!” Luna’s unamused voice, combined with the most serious frown a ten-year-old could muster, interrupted the playful moment between the two. In response, Scootaloo was pushed by Twilight’s alarmed hoof as she laughed awkwardly.
“If you stopped your flirting,” Luna started, her lips curling into a mischievous smile at Twilight’s muted retort, “Sweetie is okay. Can we go now? We’re wasting an entire day’s worth of crusading.” Twilight simply nodded at her sister’s complaint, her cheeks puffed in an adorable pout, while blushing all the way. Thankfully, her coat covered most of the bright crimson color. Scootaloo, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky.
Sweetie Belle squealed in utmost satisfaction. Spending quite a lot of time with her sister and her fluffy romance novels had probably conditioned her to find love everywhere— kind of a mini-Cadance, but with the tact of a little filly.
“Twily and Scoots, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” she sang, making the alicorn blush with even more intensity.
Twilight ran towards the acres, Sweetie following behind to continue her taunt, leaving Scootaloo and Luna to their own devices.
The pegasus sighed, yet a smile never left her face. She grabbed her forgotten scooter, but when she motioned for Luna to step up, she froze dead in her tracks, hypnotized by Luna’s withering glare. It was odd, seeing Luna making a face like that; she almost never got angry, not like this. This was the wrath of a goddess… or maybe that of a goddess in training. How could Scootaloo have wronged her in such a way to be on the receiving end of Luna’s anger?
“Oh… Um… Something wrong, Luna?”
“I’m watching you,” the alicorn said, approaching menacingly until their muzzles were inches apart. Scootaloo gulped and nodded, relieved when Luna nodded back. She stepped on the scooter, shivering as Luna grabbed her back, grateful that her wings had managed to work, despite the fright.
It was the first time one of her friends had scared her like that. Scootaloo pondered the implications of Luna’s statement for a moment, but she didn’t need to. She had seen the same look in Rarity’s and Applejack’s eyes—sometimes even in Rainbow’s—when annoying foals like Diamond Tiara bothered her and the crusaders. It was the glare of a protective sister.
“Come on, Clear Skies! Give me ten more, right now!” the prismatic pegasus yelled, sitting over a cloud with her hooves crossed over her chest in disapproval.
The mare at whom Rainbow’s anger was directed just huffed in response, too tired to form coherent sentences. Rainbow Dash—currently Trainer Dash—tsked at the mare’s behavior, cursing the fact that she was stuck with this slowpoke instead of training the advanced group. When her boss had said that Clear Skies needed ‘special assistance,’ she wasn’t kidding.
“Stop your whining, you’ll never be ready for winter if you keep slacking like that!” Dash kicked the cloud Clear Skies was resting on, forcing her to use her already exhausted wings.
“Aw c’mon, Boss, let me rest a little! I’m not an athlete like you, y’know!” Clear Skies whined, smiling at her superior. Her grin faltered when Rainbow didn’t smile back, but instead rolled her eyes.
“Flattery will get you nowhere, Skies, and that’s not even an excuse! In Ponyville, every pegasus in my squad is suited to work in extreme conditions.”
“Everyone had you as their trainer?” the amethyst pegasus asked incredulously as she descended; her wings wouldn’t hold her up much longer.
Following her subordinate, slightly angry that part of their morning regime was being wasted resting thanks to Clear Skies’ terrible physique, Rainbow replied, “Of course! I’m the best trainer ‘round these parts! Who do you think trained everyone for tornado duty?”
Gloating at the fact that she was chosen to play that important role almost a year ago, she didn’t notice that her comment hadn’t had the expected result.
“Wow, no wonder you couldn’t break our mark.” Like a bomb going off, Rainbow’s temper exploded at Skies’ sassy statement. Sass wasn’t something Rainbow appreciated, especially when someone blamed her for what was, according to her friends and plenty of frightened pegasi, all Thunderlane’s fault.
“They got the feather flu! We could’ve broken your mark any day!” Rainbow Dash turned around, a gesture seemingly proper to end the sudden discussion and continue their work. Only a second after, she realized one tiny detail that had escaped her mind.
“And how would you know? The only pony from outside Ponyville was Spitfire, and I’m pretty sure she didn’t say else anything about our skill.”
“Well, she had to file the report, and… y’know, these things get through.” Clear Skies’ comment did nothing to alleviate Rainbow’s strained mood. While Clear Skies wanted to continue her taunting—having the chance of bothering one’s boss was a rare opportunity—she’d made a grave mistake, misjudging the prismatic pegasus’s actual state of mind, something that Ponyville’s populace had learned through plenty of… not pleasurable experiences.
“‘Ponyville incompetence’— that’s what Fillydelphia’s shopper wrote. You almost failed at getting water to Cloudsdale.” Clear Skies could not have chosen worse words to say at that moment.
Rainbow Dash grabbed the mare by her neck, lifting her in an amazing display of strength. Clear Skies’ destiny was sealed; if there was something Rainbow Dash was known for, it was for being completely loyal to her friends, and the fact that most of her friends lived there made Ponyville one of the few things nobody could ever make fun of.
“Don’t ever say that again,” she said, her voice cold as a Crystal Empire blizzard. The pegasus in her hooves nodded with her eyes closed, presumably praying to Celestia for someone to save her, or maybe cursing her own stupidity— likely both.
“Rainbow Dash!” Thankfully, an elegant voice answered Clear Skies’ prayers as a soft blue glow managed to separate her from Rainbow’s grip.
“What in Faust’s name are you doing to this mare?!” Rarity exclaimed, checking Clear Skies for any injuries— other than psychological scarring. Rainbow Dash, on the other hoof, tried to escape the crime scene before her crazy friend could turn on her. Unfortunately, Rarity’s keen eye for detail, trained by spending a number of years taking care of her own little troublemaker, noticed Rainbow’s attempt at fleeing. With a stern glare, she froze Rainbow mid-flight.
“Oh, Dashie, that wasn’t very nice; look at her, she’s shivering.” Pinkie Pie’s unexpected voice startled Rainbow from behind; Pinkie’s uncanny teleportation abilities were still a mystery to be unraveled.
“Apologize this instant!” She now found herself against one of her lesser-known weaknesses; after spending quite a long time with Fluttershy and her deadly stare, Rainbow had developed a vulnerability against those kinds of psychological attacks. Rarity’s glare, though lacking the hypnotic qualities of Fluttershy’s, had a somewhat similar effect, but no one said Rainbow couldn’t still try to put up a fight…
“B-But Rares, she—did you—”
“I don’t care, Rainbow Dash. Say it.” Rainbow didn’t want to continue arguing with the angry mare, but what her friend was requesting would lose her the small amount of respect she’d managed to earn among her subordinates.
“Argh… I’m sorry, Skies.”
“What was that?” Rarity was quickly earning first place on Rainbow Dash’s To-Prank list. Yes, she had a list.
“I’m sorry, Clear Skies.” Begrudgingly, Rainbow finally apologized to the mare. The response given—a single frightened nod—reassured Dash that her authority wasn’t being questioned.
“I did it, okay? Now why are you here?” Rainbow asked, taking flight a couple of feet over her friends. “We were training for something important!”
“Well, we—”
“Hold up— Clear Skies!” She turned and called her trainee to attention. “I’m going to talk to my friends for a while. You’ve got your exercises, you know what to do.” It was amazing how Rainbow’s mood could switch between carefree and relaxed to strict and serious in the span of a couple of seconds; she really was Wonderbolt material.
“Yes ma’am,” the amethyst pegasus responded, taking off for the nearest cloud.
“Hey! Focus on cloud kicking— you’ll need it.”
“Cloud Kicker? Why should I focus on her?” Nobody saw how and when Rainbow Dash managed to move so quickly, but they knew where she was going.
“Cloud kicking! Cloud kicking, not Cloud Kicker, you useless waste of space!” Rainbow yelled, almost crashing with the terrified pegasus.
Once again, Rarity’s magic came to the rescue, dragging her friend back to the ground as she separated both pegasi.
“Chill out, Dashie, everything is gonna be fine.” Pinkie patted Rainbow’s shoulder while the aforementioned mare muttered nonsensical babble, probably regarding the ridiculous shenanigans she had to deal with every day.
When she finally shook herself off, Rainbow exclaimed, “That mare! I can’t believe she has the gall to say something like that! And after everything I’ve done for her!” Turning to Rarity, she cried, “Did you hear her? Ponyville! A failure! I’ll teach her not to—”
“Please, Rainbow. Relax, take a deep breath. Go on.” Despite her advice, Rarity received a hateful glare from the pegasus, shutting her up immediately.
Rainbow Dash couldn’t deal with this nonsense, not right now. “I really don’t need this. What did you need me for anyways?” Rainbow asked, changing the subject in an attempt to delete all the murderous ideas that were appearing in her head.
“A party!” Pinkie yelled, confetti bursting from her mane with her trademark trigger word.
“A party? Eh, Rares, care to explain?”
“Princess Celestia decided to visit Sunset, along with little Twilight and Luna. We wanted to have a small get-together at Sweet Apple Acres, and enjoy the afternoon sun while eating the wonderful cuisine of Applejack and her family,” Rarity explained with a little flourish.
“Uhh, so… a party?” Rainbow asked, for the most part ignoring Rarity’s superfluous explanation, making the unicorn pout indignantly. “Count me in, I’m tired of dealing with the newbies. So, Sweet Apple Acres?”
“Yep! Alright Dash, but we need to get going, as in right now!” To both mares’ surprise, Pinkie Pie grabbed Rainbow over her back, and fiercely galloped towards Applejack’s farm.
“Woah! Pinkie— wait! Ouch!” From her spot over Pinkie’s back, Rainbow couldn’t form more than disjointed phrases to voice her discomfort. She couldn’t even use her wings due to the shock of the unexpected movement. She did, however, have the opportunity to notice that Fluttershy wasn’t lying after all: Pinkie’s fur really was as soft as cotton candy.
Once again, Rarity’s magic ran interference, grabbing one of Pinkie’s legs with an ethereal lasso, which was—much to Applejack’s pride—impeccably controlled by the ivory unicorn.
What happened next could be easily explained by Neighton’s first law of motion. Physics was one of the many sciences that Pinkie usually ignored, but today, sadly, it forced itself upon the situation. Inertia took hold of Rainbow’s body, sending her flying over the earth pony’s shoulder in a description of parabolic movement better than that of any school teacher.
Rarity couldn’t help but giggle at the circus-like spectacle, and while she didn’t enjoy seeing her friends get hurt, Rainbow Dash’s crashes were something common among Ponyvillians. Not a single week went by that everybody’s favorite pegasus wasn’t involved in some sort of accident. It seemed to be a world record.
Rarity walked up to her friends with concern, but she didn’t expect they would suffer any major injuries. With Rainbow Dash so used to hitting the ground, and Pinkie Pie’s remarkably fast healing factor, it was highly improbable, but nevertheless, Rarity played the role of the caring friend well.
“Uh… sorry, Dashie,” Pinkie said, helping the blue pegasus up while Rarity cleaned out the dirt that had managed to affix itself to her curly mane.
“It’s okay, Pinks. I kinda expected something like that to happen,” Rainbow confessed, brushing the dust off her shoulders as she hovered a couple of feet in the air above her friends, where she felt more comfortable. “And Rarity, that rope— it was awesome! I haven’t seen you use that thing before.”
Rarity smiled, grooming herself with a comb that appeared seemingly out of nowhere. “Please, Rainbow, a lady always has tricks up her sleeves.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes— typical Rarity. Likewise, Pinkie Pie…
“Sleeves? What sleeves? You don’t even have a hat!” Pinkie cried, completing her quota of random exclamations for the day. Rarity and Rainbow Dash shared a concerned look, followed by corresponding face-hooves, refusing to ask about their friend’s antics.
“So… Acres?”
“Acres indeed,” Rarity confirmed. Nothing good ever came from questioning Pinkie Pie. The last time someone tried to understand the party pony, a hydra ended up as a sizable pile of ashes.
“Okie dokie lokie, girls! Follow my lead!” Pinkie said as she bounced off.
“Pinkie… Sweet Apple Acres is that way,” Rarity deadpanned, pointing in the opposite direction.
“Whoops!” Pinkie zipped to Rarity’s other side and continued her pronking. “Right! Follow my lead! Again!” Pinkie laughed, now bouncing in the right direction while humming a simple, yet catchy melody.
An idea had already taken form inside Pinkie’s head. A classic— simple but effective. It never failed to cheer her friends up, and while it wasn’t by any means a sumptuous gala like the ones the Princess must be used to, it was the opportunity she really needed to really bond with her daughters, without the pressure that royal environments required.
Bonding was—according to Pinkie Pie—the only thing the Princess needed to alleviate all her concerns, problems, regrets, heartache… Anyways, it was what she needed most.