P3 Project Episode 1: The Emergency

by Bookish Delight

The Emergency

---
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
Pony Permutation Project!: Episode 1
"The Emergency"
by Bookish Delight, 2010-2011
All characters and referred properties belong to Hasbro.
---

Days in Ponyville were usually idyllic and beautiful, and this was no exception. The sun shone, the clouds were light and fluffy, the breeze was just right, and everypony was in the best spirits ever since that night would be the Summer Sun Celebration!

Truly, this would be one of those days that absolutely nothing could spoil.

Early in the afternoon, Applejack trotted along the town's main clearing, taking a break from her extended family's preparatory baking session. She looked around, taking note of her friends as she did so.

So far, situation normal. She could see Fluttershy conducting music with the local animals in the distance. She could see sparkles coming from Rarity's house every few seconds--clearly her unicorn magic was working overtime as she tended to the decorations. Even Rainbow Dash was behaving as expected: napping in the sky, waiting for the very last minute to go on cloud-clearing duty. Super-speed sure could spoil a pony, that was for danged sure.

That was four down... which left only one. Applejack wasn't a big fan of not being able to take total stock of things. Especially when the issue involved the least predictable of her circle of friends.

Perhaps she was at Sugarcube Corner. It was a favorite hotspot of hers, not to mention she was... currently obligated to it, to a degree. Applejack decided to check there.

Just as she got to its doors, however, she heard a faint high-pitched squealing sound behind her.

"...eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..."

She kept walking, but it kept getting louder. She was clearly putting no ground between it and herself.

"...eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..."

Applejack stopped, fearing the worst, but finaly decided to turn around-

"...eeeeeeeeeEEEEEEE-YOW! OOF!"

-and found herself tackled by a pink blur moving so fast, she momentarily wondered if Rainbow Dash had accidentally flown into a vat of icing again.

Applejack and the blur rolled halfway across town, end over end, clutching each other to prevent being thrown clear, until they finally came to an abrupt crash into a tree trunk some distance from the main square.

---

When Applejack came to, she found herself lying at the base of the tree. A pink pony--the very pink pony she'd expected--stood directly over her, visibly no worse for wear. Applejack would have groaned if she remembered how.

"Applejack! I'm so totally glad I caught you!" Pinkie Pie said, her mouth movements easily matching Rainbow Dash's flight speed.

"Wasn't all that hard, since I was just mindin' my own business!" was what Applejack wanted to say. Instead, all that came out was a weak, "Wha... whassis...?"

Pinkie Pie remained oblivious. "You'll never believe what I just saw! Come on, guess."

"'Kay, I'll bite," Applejack said, her vision finally clearing. "What?"

"No, no, nooooooooo!" Pinkie Pie jumped up and down. "It's no fun if I just tell you! You need to gueeeeeess!"

"Listen, ponygirl, I dunno if you've noticed, but you just tackled me into a tree from halfway across town! So y'all're gonna hafta gimme the benefit of the doubt on this one, 'kay? Just tell me what you saw."

With a gigantic sigh, Pinkie Pie relented. "All right..." Two seconds later, she perked back up. "There's a new Pony in Ponyville! And she's a unicorn! And she's all purple with more purple with a little bit of violet and then some more purple and when I saw her I totally went (GAAAAAAAAAAAAASP) 'cause not only is she a new pony and a unicorn but I've never seen anypony look quite like her 'cause since she's so purple she really stands out though I personally think that's awesome and--(GLMPH!)"

Applejack reached up and put a hoof to Pinkie's mouth. It was a reflex she'd developed for when she'd had enough of hearing it, and the two had come to an understanding about it months ago. She kept it there until the pink pony calmed down.

"Huh. I'll admit unicorns ain't something you see every day round these parts." Applejack paused in realization. "Now that I think about it, I saw some crazy chariot overhead flyin' overhead a little earlier today. Think that was her?"

Pinkie Pie jumped up and down again, completely unminding of the fact that she technically was still standing over somepony. "It was, it was! And you know what this means, right?"

"Uh, 'fraid I don't-" Applejack froze, as she suddenly did. "-...oh no."

"EMERGENCY PARTY!" Pinkie Pie screamed to the heavens. "Applejack, I need your help! I need balloons, and streamers, and a roundup of every pony we can find, and most importantly, food! I need your apple... food... things!"

"Wha...?" Applejack blinked in confusion. "Why don't you just go to Sugarcube Corner for that stuff? Why do y'all need the grub I'm makin'? That's for Summer Sun!"

"Well, I'm..." For a short while, Pinkie Pie's voice went uncommonly soft. "...still working off my tab. It'll be another week before I'm clear. Oooh, but I can't wait until that happens. I'm going to pig out like nopony has ever seen..." She shook her head to clear it of invading dreams of ice cream cake. "But that's then. This is now! Come ooooooooooon, you're my only hope for this! No one can put together a feast like you!"

"But I..." Applejack started, "there's no way..."

Pinkie Pie leaned in closer, widening her eyes as much as possible in accompaniment to the cutest pony pout imaginable.

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease? Sugar frosting on top? I'll totally love you forever..."

Applejack tried to resist. She truly did. Unfortunately, a Pinkie Pie Pout(tm) is a dangerous weapon, especially when fired at point-blank range. With a long sigh of her own, she finally said, "All right, all right. I'll see what I can do."

"YAY!" was Pinkie Pie's immediate response, followed by her outright tackling Applejack yet again, this time leading into a gigantic hug. "Gosh, you're just, like, the bestest most awesome most super-helpful pony I've ever known, and since I know everypony in Ponyville that statement's not just whistlin' Dixie--to use a term you'd usually use--but that statement won't mean anything if I leave even one pony in our happy little town without friends!"

She stopped her speech just in time to avoid Applejack's hoof, opting to meet her eyes instead. "I mean, just look what happened after we met you," she said in a happy, sincere voice. "You used to be so into your work, and talk to us even less than Fluttershy does. But can you still imagine your life wthout the rest of us in it?" She fluttered her eyes, sending a silent message that they both understood. "Without me?..."

Applejack managed to fight off her blush exactly one second after it happened, but for the two of them, it was enough. "N-no, I suppose I can't." She got up, looked at Pinkie, rolled her eyes, and patted her mane. "'Cept when I gotta help throw emergency parties," she said, a quick grin forming at the corner of her mouth. "Then I reckon things seem a mite brighter..."

"Hey!"

"Just joshin' you, Pinkie. Go get things started--I'll meet up with 'ya, soon as I can."

"Woo-hoo! Thanks! See you soon!"

And thus, the first steps towards introducing a new pony into the fold were taken.

The rest, of course, is future history.

Comments

[Chip Unicorn]

This is a great story for just before the series started. You've got the characters down well.

DEEEEEEEEERP

[KnightMysterio]

Nice. :D

[The Incredible Werekitty]

You should really put these all in chapter format...

[Meandering Road]

Smell I the scent of a secret ship's scintillating substance?

Something strange sussurates...

Well-written, though.

[Smirkythread]

Cute, but were they really all close friends beforehand. I mean, Dash avoided Pinkie until she learned Pinkie also liked pranks.

[Portmeirion]

Very sweet. I like your balanced portrayal of Applejack. She stays sensible and practical, but she's patient with Pinkie and kind enough to humor her. You've got a real knack for showcasing complex characterizations in very short spaces.

[Bookish Delight]

2935939
I try.

This was actually me trying to write for the first time again after not doing so for about two years. Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised it holds up as well as it does.

Aaaaand other times I cringe.

[Craine]

EPIC SHIPPING-FUEL IS EPIC..

[Bookish Delight]

3316882

Clearly, to warrant such a commanding font size!

[flufflejake]

3316882 How does it feel after seeing the most recent episode?

[Craine]

3779779 You mean the cacophony of LIES?!?!?! I don't care how much Hasbro hints at it--Pinkie and Applejack CAN'T be related! I mean... They just... No.

[Bookish Delight]

3780201

I am laughing so hard right now.

(Mind you, even if they ended up being related, it'd be so far apart that shipping's still harmless. :D)

[Craine]

3780205 If you knew how much I told myself that when I finished the episode, you'd be crying with me.

*Hangs head and stands over a crumbling cliff*

[Alchemystudent]

Gahh so sweet, cute, and in perfct character!!!!

[PresentPerfect]

So my question is, what's the idea behind this here project? :O

[Bookish Delight]

7963831

Seven years ago MLP inspired me to start writing fanfic again after being burnt out of the game for ~5ish years.

The aim of the Project, back in 2010, was to make more pony because it wasn't coming out fast enough while also (hopefully) capturing the show's innocent heartwarming potential (again, Season 1 days ^^;). The end product... is honestly just a buncha slice of life stuff... and quite frankly, very "early work".

These days P3 is either crushingly obsolete, or refreshingly nostalgic, in the face of of what the show has become. I've heard both. YMMV?

[PresentPerfect]

7963911
This one, at least, is more nostalgic with just a dash of obsolescence. :) (The bit about Pinkie having a tab at Sugarcube Corner struck me as odd.)

[Bookish Delight]

7964045

:D I completely forgot about that. P3 #1 was ~Christmas 2010, so...

Now that you mention it, I'm pretty sure I long ago headcannnoned that Pinkie started living and working there just to cut out the middlemare, as it were.

And to clear off a million-bit tab. THE DEBT SHALL LAST FOREVER

[CapNTilfy]

"...eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..."

She kept walking, but it kept getting louder. She was clearly putting no ground between it and herself.

"...eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..."

I just pictured Pinkie with a HUGE freaking grin and vibrating like crazy. Kinda like she did in "Rock Solid Friendship" before Maud tells her and Starlight about her accidental dooming of cutie marks. XD

Just wanted to see how you started things off here.

[Bookish Delight]

9017223

I claim zero liability for any damages incurred by you going back this far in time.

[CapNTilfy]

9017234
What are you talking about? I feel just fine.

[PaulAsaran]

You can has review!

[Tranquil Serenity]

This was a cute little read.

"EMERGENCY PARTY!" Pinkie Pie screamed to the heavens.

Loved the way you put that.

You did a really good job with both Pinkie and Applejack's characterization - they felt very natural here. This was fun. Thanks for sharing!

[Nali]

I keep saying I should go back and reread your entire catalogue, and here I am.

it's 4 in the morning what am I doing reading fanfic

Let's see how long I can trawl the archives and come up with meaningfully different pieces of mind before I start rephrasing the same sentiments over and over.

---

Fimfic's timestamp reads late 2011, but I was there not too long after when these were originally going up, this one on *checks* December 18th, 2010, in the prehistoric days when the show was only a couple months old and everyone was raving about Gilda and Trixie and The Stare and writing woobie Luna fic, but before Winter Wrap Up and Sonic Rainboom sent the whole thing nuclear.

And there you were, writing things like this that pretty much felt like cut scenes from the show. That never was something I saw a whole lot of over the years; it takes a specific combination of tone and brevity to feel properly show accurate, and while adventure epics are exactly the sort of transformative work fanfiction exists as a concept to enable, there's something nice about getting what amounts to a peek behind the curtain, too. If the dialogue isn't spot on, the characterizations are, which is especially nice in hindsight for Pinkie, whose inner warmth is something the show itself never kept a firm grasp on.

But being accurate was the whole point of the PPP, so :applause:

She stopped her speech just in time to avoid Applejack's hoof, opting to meet her eyes instead. "I mean, just look what happened after we met you," she said in a happy, sincere voice. "You used to be so into your work, and talk to us even less than Fluttershy does. But can you still imagine your life wthout the rest of us in it?" She fluttered her eyes, sending a silent message that they both understood. "Without me?..."

Applejack managed to fight off her blush exactly one second after it happened, but for the two of them, it was enough. "N-no, I suppose I can't." She got up, looked at Pinkie, rolled her eyes, and patted her mane. "'Cept when I gotta help throw emergency parties," she said, a quick grin forming at the corner of her mouth. "Then I reckon things seem a mite brighter..."

And then there's this, which is where it takes a turn from "feels like the show" to "Bookish as all hell". Some of the turns of phrase in this story don't feel like something you'd write anymore and some of them still do, but I'm glad to see these heart-to-heart moments were around making people wonder if it was shipping from literally day one.