//------------------------------// // 3.f.) A housewarming party(Pinkie) // Story: Civilization: Beyond Equestria // by May I Cut In //------------------------------// Author: May I Cut In Co-Author: Architect, Brother Malachai “Come on everypony! Shake off your sadness and have some fun! It’s a new world and a brand new day!”- Princess Pinkie Pie’s impromptu speech to her crew immediately after landing. The message Twilight sent earlier on let Pinkie Pie knew her other five friends had already landed, so that left a bunch of icky butterflies in her stomach. But everything was fine. It was a brand new day, they were about to land in a new world and her Pinkie sense told her nothing is going to be wrong. “Hi Maud, how was the sleep?” Pinkie Pie asked as she entered her sister’s room. “It was fine Pinkie,” Maud yawned in reply, “I dreamt of finding a whole new kind of rock on the planet.” The sleepiness from the induced static sleep was something that affected everypony. To a normal outsider, Maud would seem like she did not care at all. But Pinkie, being her sister, knew how excited she was about the landing. Hence for the energetic hug she gave to her sister. Maud did flinch a little at the hug. Pinkie Pie being an alicorn now meant her hugs can actually hurt now. ‘Pinkie Pie, I think you can stop now. It’s a little awkward for a princess to be hugging others.” “You’re my sister! It doesn't matter.” Pinkie happily replied. “However, I really think I should be going. We’re landing soon! Get ready, Maud, it’s a new world out there.” After meeting her sister, she went over to the command center. The odd occasion glance she got from skipping over to the command center was nothing short of the occasional glances she got back in Ponyville when she was still the party planner there. Granted, being an alicorn she should worry about her public figure. But after some thought, she decided to keep her old habits. Being herself cheered up so many ponies hence Pinkie decided to still be herself. Everypony she passed were preparing for the landing in someway. Some were cataloguing the building materials they had while others prepared the tools and did last minute checks on the machinery. Her section of the royal guards were in the armory, checking their weapons. The doors to the command center opened. Her second-in charge Vinyl Scratch was already directing the final maneuvers before planetfall. While Pinkie Pie was a bit more 'random' as her friends put her, the former DJ was able to focus on the task and manage them effectively. Her past experiences running a nightclub no doubt helped a bit, but Vinyl will always say it is was her fussy roommate that taught her how to organise everything decently. She wasn’t wearing her trademark shades at the time thus allowing most ponies to see her red irises (or were they actually purple? Did she wear contacts? She always liked to keep the others guessing, even Octy). Pinkie Pie’s group were the last to arrive. Twilight and the others had landed before them and set up their own starting cities, Celestia, Cloudsdale, Everfree, Radiant and Ponyville. Twilight and the others were waiting at her arranged landing site. Well after being away for so long from each other, Pinkie Pie planned to throw a party. A “We -are-on-a-new-world-and-we-are-back-together” party, hence for her spending the whole day earlier on setting up her trademark party ordinances with the help of Cheese Sandwitch. With the preparations all done, even for the party, all Pinkie can do now is to wait and see. …… The other 5 friends waited at a nearby hill, Rainbow, AJ, Fluttershy and Rarity were all looking to the sky, scanning for any signs of Pinkie’s ship landing. Twilight Sparkle opting instead to look at her tablet which was connected to a portable radar system set up right next to her. The radar picked up Pinkie’s ship descend and Twilight let out a delighted cheer. “Any second now girls. We may be able to see her ship at any moment, she just started re-entry.” They looked to the sky. Initially, they saw nothing. But as the seconds pass, they saw a small streak of light coming down. Relieved that the most dangerous part of the journey is done, they began speaking in excitement on what do they do next. That was until the tablet beeped and Twilight looked at the data before saying: “Girls? I think there is something wrong.” The other 4 friends did not reply. Instead they looked at the sky with a sense of dread as several unknown objects broke away from the now visible landing ship. …… “Ok Princess Pinkie. We have completed the initial phases of re-entry. It should be safe now to do whatever you have planned.” Vinyl Scratch announced. “Great” Pinkie Pie said. Taking the walkie talkie, she switched it on and said into it. “Ok Party Favour, release the party packages!” “Yes ma’am!” came the reply from the two-way radio. …… “Erm, girls. I think we should get going…” Fluttershy was the first to say. Looking around, she noticed that everypony were still in a state of shock. It was at that moment where she remembered Princess Luna’s favourite method to command attention. “I said. Girls, we better get moving!” Fluttershy said using the Royal Canterlot Voice. That had the desired effect as it snapped the other four shocked alicorns out of their trance. “Wha… what?” they said. Looking up, they can now see that one of the ‘parts’ of the ship was heading clearly right for them. “Oh, horseapples,” was all that AJ could say before they started running away from it. The object however managed to land in front of them, as if it had predicted where they were going to be and aimed a few strides in front of them. The thing instead of just being jammed into the ground like any old debris, it exploded with pink smoke everywhere. The next thing they knew, there were party hats on them with a table set up with some party food nearby, the whole floor littered with confetti. Around them, the other detached objects also exploded with pink smoke, leaving completely set-up party food and games everywhere. In the middle of the now set up tables and party games, a large banner that read “Welcome to our new planet and being back together party”. Twilight realising what just happened, facehooved, filing it in her memory as yet another (How many was it now? 5,202? 5,203?) “It’s just Pinkie Pie” incident. …… The ship finally landed after a few minutes. Twilight and the others stood in front of the exit ports, waiting to welcome Pinkie Pie. They were also rather relieved that their near death incident did not end up with any injury of whatsoever apart from the initial mental shock of nearly being crushed by a giant party bomb. Pinkie Pie however appeared right behind them. With an energetic sound she said: " What you waiting for friends?" The other 5 turned jumped in fright as Pinkie Pie had managed to yet again suddenly appear right behind them, just like her popping out of nowhere back in Ponyville. "What are you doing down here Pinkie?" Rainbow Dash asked wearliy. "I'm waiting for the show! Duh," Pinkie said. "What show?" Rarity asked. The ship's hatches in response opened up, revealing Pinkie's whole crew. Vinyl Scratch was behind everypony at a hastily set up DJ booth. The music started playing with the crew breaking out into a musical. Somehow, stage lights had been set up which now dimmed. Somehow, within each of the ponies that were in the area they knew they were going to start an old tradition anew on this new planet. That of the traditional pony singalong. Musical Lyrics: (*Winter Wrap Up Tune) Ten years of hard work; our survival on the line. Our glorious princesses lay down the wire, to ensure that we can thrive. The journey now complete, and a new world awaits us too. The road ahead will be hard; there's just so much for us to doooo! It’s time for us to make a new home and make new history. But we must also say goodbye to the old life we leave. What shall we do? It’s time to plan you see. What shall everypony do? This world lacks magic. And how this planet works-we haven’t got a clue! Landing Wrap-Up! Landing Wrap-Up! Let’s celebrate landing here! Landing Wrap-Up! Landing Wrap-Up! Because tomorrow we’ll work here! Because tomorrow we’ll work here! Time to gather some hard rain. We’ll do the best we can. Our flight is very weakened, but we can get it done! With hard work and technology at our side the pegasi will once again flyyy! Chorus Ponies no longer hibernate. It's time to start anew. We need to rebuild our world. We have all the things we need. To help us build new homes and grow crops here below. All we need's a little teamwork and life will grow! Chorus It’s not easy plowing the earth and planting tiny seeds. With water and sunshine it will provide our needs. Apples, carrots, and celery stalks. Other crops too. We must do our very best. And, work our hardest too! Chorus Now that we landed here and found a new place. I will do my very best with every task I face. How will I do with weakened magic? Doing things the Earth Pony Way? My Kingdom needs me, so I’ll do my best today! Do my best today! Chorus The musical then ended as abruptly as it started. Twilight and her friends (even though they still sung along) were still partially in disbelief that they just participated in a musical number. Then again, they did it multiple times in Equestria (except for the more cranky amongst the griffins and donkeys for some reason), so why would it be different here? The ponies who followed the five friends along found the musical quite enjoyable. It reminded them a bit of home afterall-even if it was a tad bit bittersweet in the memories that came back up. Octavia in particular was surprised that her former roommate knew how to play music that was not (yet again) another form of dubstep. Pinkie Pie was sitting there clapping in applause. She stopped clapping and looked to her friends, who were shooting confused looks at her. "What? I can enjoy the show from up here, right?" she innocently replied. Her reply was met with several facehooves. ...... Despite the dose of Pinkie randomness, the party went on without a hitch. It was safe to say that that was the first time they had fun in a long time. It was also the first time that some of them meet up again after years. ...... "Wow Vinyl, this is the first time I seen you play something other that dubstep." Octavia said with a slight mock. "Really Tavi? I may have been the world famous DJ-PON3, but I can still do normal, boring songs. Best part, I can take them and wubify them." Vinyl replied. "Not that I look down on you, but you doing normal songs seem... out of place" Octavia commented "Hey, remember the wedding back in Ponyville a long time ago? I managed to do a great job with the music" Vinyl pointed out "Touché." ...... " Bon Bon!" Lyra called out in excitement. "Lyra! It is so good to see my best friend again" Bon Bon replied with delight. “So how has it been my best of friends?” “Oh nothing much. Apart from some interesting research on the fauna, there isn’t much. My job spying on the humans to understand their technology is done. I just mostly help out in the lab if anypony needs help with their project.” Lyra said with a shrug. ‘Well than Lyra, I hope you can find something useful to do.” Bon Bon said. “It was the best way to keep you distracted from your weird humans phrase.” “Don’t remind me about it. But it was good to see my theories turning out to be correct.” Lyra returned the answer with a smile ...... “My my Derpy. Look at how the time that has passed since we were last together,” Time Turner commented as he placed a foreleg over Derpy as they sat at one of the tables loaded with muffins. “I know Doc,” Derpy said dreamily as she looked at the evening sky while eating a chocolate chip muffin, “I really wish that we could have stayed back in Equestria to settle down though” “Don’t worry my dear sweetheart,” Time Turner replied, “We have all the time in the world now.” …… While the party went on, the six friends gathered at a nearby table. Being away from each other so long, they were looking forward to chat when they were finally face to face. “Well, looks like everypony landed safely at last,” Twilight started. “Yup,” replied Applejack “I agree,” confirmed Rarity. “Things are moving along just fine so far. Everything is on schedule,” Twilight continued, “Only problem I see is the miasma fogs that pops up every now and then that hinders our transports. But I should be able to build another repulsor satellite as soon as the mining equipment that AJ brought along arrives for my group to mine up the needed resources ” “Erm, Twilight?” Fluttershy spoke up. “I don’t want to be rude, but won’t that affect the native fauna? Maybe we should understand what the fog does before we do anything drastic? Just like when the vampire fruit bats invaded Sweet Apple Acres.” “Yeahhhh...no,” Rainbow Dash spoke up. “That fog had left Derpy unconscious for a few days. I don’t want anypony to be knocked out by that fog.” “I agree. That green fog will impede our progress,” Rarity continued on, “Also Fluttershy, as a friend, my opinion is that we should focus on rebuilding our homes first before we pursue other ventures.” “But what is the point of rebuilding if we don’t understand the local fauna. We just came to this world and start claiming land from them. I feel it is right to seek their understanding, not shoot every single alien you see,” Fluttershy rebutted. “Ah kind of agree with you there Fluttershy. It just ain’t right to come and steal all their land from them by force,” Applejack agreed. Oh noes! This is bad! They are arguing about something! Quick change the topic! "So, girls" Pinkie started, "Maybe we should try some of the games I set up earlier on?" Unfortunately, the others did not hear her attempt to change the topic and continued on... “I did not shoot that alien Fluttershy, it came up of nowhere and gave my guards a good shock when they saw a giant creature. The beetle incident was because it was trying to attack dear Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. They were acting in self-defense,” Rarity countered. “I still don’t think you should have just empty the entire gun into one critter. We should also have buried it like it deserves. Not to cut open to study it” Fluttershy said as she looked at Twilight. “The alien was already dead,” Twilight said defensively, “I just wanted it’s corpse so that we could study it to see if they have any helpful use to us.” “Oh, Fluttershy do let bygones be bygones. What’s done has been done darling. The thing to do now is to move on,” Rarity said. “I still feel that isn’t the way to go in our new world…,” Fluttershy ended. "What are we even talking about this little incident for? Don't we have better things to talk about," Rainbow Dash interrupted. That comment ended the little argument they had there, much to Pinkie's relief. After a brief round of apologies they started discussing their plans, co-ordinating the resources that they had and sharing what brief experiences that they had with the wildlife. The party lasted throughout the night. Apparently, Pinkie Pie had done some slight changes to her ship that allowed it to auto-assemble into a respectable outpost so there wasn’t any dismantling needed. Twilight seemed interested in the feature, so Pinkie Pie gave her the schematics of the modifications she had done. Twilight’s reaction to it were along the lines of “No way… How can this be done? This breaks everything!” If she recalled correctly. It wasn’t really that difficult to build it in, she had done even more complex things. A pedal-powered helicopter, Portable compact party cannons, Two-way slides, the list goes on. Admittedly, the auto-build feature was done on a much larger scale than her other unique creations, it was still much less complex than her seemingly ‘Physics-breaking’ inventions. No one really understood her back in Equestria; they just assumed everything she made as another ‘It’s just Pinkie’ moment. That comment did hurt initially but she has learned to ignore it over the times. It actually lead to fun moments like when Twilight tried to study her Pinkie Sense... …... The next day came. As Pinkie Pie watched her friends go back home, her body suddenly started shuddering involuntarily. That’s odd, my Pinkie Sense hasn’t acted up in such a long time. And a doozy? What is the unexpected thing that is going to happen? She looked at the slowly vanishing convoys in the distance. I hope nothing bad is going to happen. This twitchy-twitch feels really, really bad.