My Little Background Pony: Party Hardly

by comicfan616

Running Into Time

Turner walked slowly up to Derpy’s house. He was still unsure of what to say to her, how his apology should sound. He was coming up on the door soon, though, so he didn’t have much more time to put together a full speech. In the end, he decided to forgo the longwinded approach and just say what he meant. It would have to do.

Turner breathed in and knocked three times. The door didn’t open right away, though. After a minute or two of nothing, he considered knocking again, but he was stopped by a grunting sound, like somepony was straining herself. Is it really that hard for her to open a door? he thought.

Finally, the grunting turned into a heavy exhale and the door opened. On the other side was not Derpy, as Turner had hoped, but a young filly who, with the exception of a horn instead of wings, looked almost like Derpy in every way. She was so young, she didn’t even have a cutie mark. Turner recognized the filly as Dinky Doo, Derpy’s daughter.

“Hi, Mr. Turner,” she said. She sounded tired. “Sorry I didn’t open sooner, but I was trying to use my magic.”

Ah, that explains it. “Not to worry, kid,” Turner said. “I can understand. We all need to practice whenever we can.” Goodness knows I had trouble piloting the TARDIS at first. “Anyway, I was hoping to speak with your mother. Is she in?”

Dinky shook her head. “She’s still out.”

Turner look surprised, not at Derpy’s absence, but at the fact that her daughter was left alone. “And she just leaves you here? By yourself?”

“I’m a big filly now!” Dinky said, almost offended. “Mom trusts me to be by myself when she’s gone.”

Well, she’s certainly not the type to get into trouble, Turner reasoned to himself. And Derpy wouldn’t leave her child alone if she didn’t think she could handle it.

“Okay, well, thanks anyway, Dinky,” he said. “Do you have any idea where she might be?”

“Got me,” she replied. “She’ll probably be in town, but that’s the best I got.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Turner moved to leave.

“Why do you want to see Mom, anyway?” Dinky asked him.

Turner paused for a brief moment, never turning around, and said, “I just want to talk to her. Just as friends.”

“Okay,” Dinky said, seemingly content with that answer. “See you.” Turner heard the door close behind him. He sighed at his current setback and walked back into the town square.

---

Derpy slipped the carrots into Vinyl’s saddlebags. So far, she managed to get some apples, celery stalks, daisy petals, crackers, and some cookies (After all, what sort of party doesn’t have some unhealthier options?). She had been all over the market square looking for this stuff, but she was practically done now.

She turned to see if there was anything else she could use; she still had several bits left over. However, she stopped and did a double take at the sight of a certain stallion. Turner was standing around, shifting his head around as though looking for something; Derpy could make a reasonable assumption that he was looking for her.

Can’t let him see me, she thought to herself. She looked around and saw a suitable exit: an alleyway. She slowly walked toward it, hoping to escape Turner’s notice.

---

Turner stared into the crowd, trying to separate the individual ponies in his mind. Even with her all-but-unique coloration, Derpy wasn’t easy to find when most of the crowd had a similar build. And that was assuming she was even here; Turner had no reason to believe she was actually in the market square. But he didn’t know anywhere else she’d be at the moment.

He turned to scan another part of the crowd when something caught his eye. Against the myriad of colors of all the ponies, he was able to make out the combination of gray and blonde. He focused toward the direction he was looking and finally found her.

Derpy was walking to the outer area of the crowd. She appeared to have a casual look about her, but Turner could tell she was feeling uneasy. The incident in the TARDIS must still be affecting her, he thought. He moved his way through the crowd, trying to keep his gaze on Derpy.

She finally got out of the thickest part and started walking faster. Turner took a bit longer, but eventually, he managed to escape the crowd. He lost track of Derpy for a few seconds, but quickly found her again, heading for an alley between two houses.

“Derpy! Wait up!” he called out. Derpy stopped suddenly, her wing flared out in surprise. But instead of turning around, she galloped into the alley.

Turner was in shock for a second; whatever he thought the response would be, this wasn’t even last on the list. He regained himself and ran into the alley after her. There wasn’t much room to maneuver and few places to hide, so Derpy wouldn’t have been able to escape for long.

He came to a fork in the path. I’ll admit, this is something of a pickle, he thought to himself. He looked down and saw hoofmarks leading to the left. Good thing the roads here are dirt. He followed the trail down the alleys.

But suddenly, the trail stopped. There was no turning point, and Derpy was nowhere to be seen. The hoofprints just disappeared at a certain point. Turner stood there in surprise and, after thinking for a bit, hit his forehead with his hoof. Come on, Turner, you should know better than to think you could catch up with a pegasus! Ugh, why couldn’t I be something other than an earth pony this time around? He concluded his self-berating and focused on what just happened.

Derpy heard me calling to her, and the first thing she does is run? What sense does that make? Turner thought about the possible implications of Derpy’s actions, but only came up with one. Does she…? Is she so shaken up that she thinks I’m…?

Turner walked out of the alley with his head low.

---

Derpy was thankful she saw the cloud she was now resting on. If she hadn’t, Turner might have caught up with her and forced her to answer some questions that she didn’t really want to answer. Admittedly, her actions back at the market were less than appropriate, but it was a spur-of-the-moment decision.

For now, though, she decided to stay on that cloud for a few more minutes. After that, she would head back to Vinyl’s house, taking the back roads to avoid being seen by Turner until it was the right time.

---

Octavia was not an impatient pony. She understood that not everything could come right away. She respected other ponies and did not demand too much of their time just because she had some task to complete.

Knowing that didn’t make waiting for the cake any easier, however.

“Bon Bon,” she said, trying to sound as gentle as possible, “not to pressure you or anything, but are you almost done?”

“Just a few more finishing touches on the frosting,” Bon Bon said from the work station behind the counter. She held a frosting dispenser in her hooves, pointing it at a regular-sized cake; the entire cake was covered in blue frosting. “You know, balloons, lettering, all that good stuff. And could you try not to worry so much?”

Octavia sighed. “Sorry,” she said. “It’s just that this is supposed to be a surprise, and I can’t help but feel that any minute now, Turner will walk through that door, see the cake, and know what we’re doing, and then everything we’ve done will be for naught.”

“You really think he’ll be depressed if he finds out?” Bon Bon argued.

“Of course not, but the way I see it, if he knows we’re throwing him a party, he’ll just feel like we did this because of him.”

“We are doing this because of him,” Bon Bon quipped.

“You know what I mean,” Octavia said, trying not to snap.

“And done!” Bon Bon took the dispenser away from the cake. She picked it up from platter it was sitting on and carefully placed it in the center of an unfolded box on the main counter. Octavia was already there. “What do you think?” Bon Bon asked.

Octavia looked at the cake. The edges were styled with ribbons of blue frosting. There were a few green and yellow balloons along either side, as well as thin, white words saying, “Cheer up, Turner!”

“I think it looks perfect,” Octavia said. Bon Bon smiled and folded the sides of the box, tying it all with string to keep it together. Octavia turned to the side and let Bon Bon slide the box off the counter and onto her back. “I shall take this to Vinyl’s posthaste,” she said. “Thank you, Bon Bon.”

“No problem. I’ll be along after my shift.”

Octavia smiled and turned to the door. As soon as she opened it, however, she immediately closed it. A worried look crossed her face.

“Something wrong?” Bon Bon asked.

“Turner’s out there,” Octavia said. “And he’s coming this way.”

“Oh, um…” Bon Bon started thinking quickly. “Well, you can’t use the back door; it’s against company policy, and the Cakes are back there working.”

“So what do we do?” Octavia asked frantically.

Bon Bon took a few more seconds to think and finally settled her gaze on the stairs to the upper floor. She turned back to Octavia and said, “I guess we have no other choice. Go upstairs. Pinkie’s already up there; she can help you get out.”

“Why do you make it sound like the worst kind of last resort?” Octavia asked nervously.

“Long story,” Bon Bon waved. “I’ll try to keep Turner here as long as I can. When you’re ready, have Lyra get in touch with me.”

“Get in touch?” Octavia repeated.

“Just trust me on this. Just tell her to call me and she’ll know what to do.” Octavia wanted to ask more about what Bon Bon was planning, but Turner was coming and her sense of urgency took over. Without another word she moved as quickly as the cake balancing on her back could allow.

Bon Bon, meanwhile, continued standing behind the counter and acted as though nothing had happened. She stood there for a half minute until Turner walked into the shop. “Hi, Turner!” she said, trying to sound as natural as possible.

“Oh, hello, Bon Bon.” Turner’s voice showed little emotion, but Bon Bon could still make out a hint of sadness within it.

“Hey, uh,” she started, “are you feeling okay?” She already knew that he was supposed to be depressed, but thought it better to pretend otherwise.

Turner just sighed. “Is it that obvious?” he asked.

“Um, not really,” Bon Bon tried to assure him. “But I can still tell these things.” There was a small pause. “You wanna talk about it over a milkshake? On the house.”

“No thanks,” Turner said softly. “I don’t want any favors.”

“Okay, fine,” Bon Bon replied. “Friends-and-family discount, but that’s my final offer.”

Turner sighed again. “I guess a drink would do me some good.”

“HAVE YOU GONE MAD?!” a shrill voice yelled from outside. There was a very long and awkward pause between the two ponies.

“What was that?” Turner asked.

Bon Bon had a good idea. “I… wish I could tell you,” she said, hoping that didn’t sound too suspicious. I just hope Octavia will forgive me. She went to make Turner’s milkshake.

Author's Note:

What happened to Octavia?

Can you keep a secret?

So can I.

Comments

[Songdrawn]

Dear author
That is messed up man