The Silver Pony Slippers

by Nocturn Dreamwrite

Chapter 7: Pinkie Pie

The Silver Pony Slippers

Chapter 7: Pinkie Pie

Pinkie Pie hopped all the way from Rarity’s Boutique to her home at Sugar Cube Corners. Hopping on all four hooves was her usual gait, especially when she was happy, which was practically all the time. In any case, she had a good reason to be happy today. Today, or rather tonight, she was hosting Mayor Mare’s birthday celebration.

It was half an hour till six (dark) when Pinkie arrived at sugar cube corners she found Gummy, her toothless pet alligator sitting on the coffee table next to the front door, exactly where she had left him three hours ago.

“Hey Gummy,” said Pinkie as she threw her saddle bag in a corner, “I got a fancy dress and stuff from Rarity’s and now I just have to collect all the party supplies and I’m ready to go throw Mayor Mare’s bash. Whoa wait just a second. I just realized something. Mayor Mare rhymes. Both words sound exactly alike, you know, mayor and mare. Cool huh?” she asked Gummy who just blinked his eyes.

Pinkie smiled and set to her work. Parties were a lot of fun, but planning them, preparing them, and running them were a lot of work, and Pinkie took her job seriously, but still found ways to make the work fun. She went into her closet and reappeared five seconds later carrying and covered with all kinds of party materials and a long list in her mouth.

“Now let’s see,” said Pinkie as she took the list out of her mouth and studied it in her hooves. “Balloons, check, bubbles, check, table cloths, check, confetti, check, cupcakes, check, party cannon, check, streamers, check, party favors, check, and…”, Pinkie paused to take a quick look into the kitchen. Mr. and Mrs. Cake were just putting the finishing touches on Mayor Mare’s birthday cake. They would be on their way to deliver it within the next five minutes. “Cake, check,” finished Pinkie with a triumphant smile. She collected everything she was bringing and was just about to leave when she realized something.

“Oh, wait,” said Pinkie, “I almost forgot to put my new party dress on.” She quickly set everything on the coffee table next to Gummy (the balloons she tied to a chair), and trotted over to the corner where she had left her saddle bag. What she did then, some ponies would have called gymnastics with style, but to others including Pinkie herself, it was just Pinkie being Pinkie Pie. Pinkie pulled out the silver and white dress, tiara and silver pony slippers from her bag. She placed the pony slippers on the floor exactly where she wanted them, and then threw the tiara and dress into the air. Pinkie then jumped up, completed a successful front flip into the dress (head and hooves through the sleeves), landed on the floor with each hoof sliding perfectly into the waiting pony slippers, and simply stood still while waiting for the tiara to land in exactly the right spot on top of her head, between her ears.

“There we are,” said Pinkie, “Now we’re ready. Wait, who exactly is ‘we’? I mean there’s only one of me. Am I talking to myself? I thought I decided to stop doing that.” Pinkie paused for a moment to muse the thought, but only for a moment. “Oh, well,” she said, “It’s time to go throw a par-ty!” With that she picked up her party supplies again, and hopped merrily out the door with the balloons trailing behind her. Gummy remained standing where he was, still staring straight ahead.

Pinkie hopped down the road singing to herself as she went. Of course, everypony saw her, she was after all covered in party supplies, but they didn’t mind. Everypony liked Pinkie Pie, and besides everypony knew what she was doing and where she was going. All the ponies in Ponyville had been invited to Mayor Mare’s birthday party at the town hall ballroom. Pinkie had passed out the written invitations to everypony herself all that day. Guests would start arriving at 6:00 p.m. just as the sun was setting, and the moon was rising. That gave Pinkie only twenty minutes to prepare the whole party, but for Pinkie Pie, twenty minutes was all the time in the world.

Twenty minutes later Pinkie was just straitening the finishing touches (table centerpieces) of her work and the party was ready to begin. Tables, streamers, balloons and the like were all set, and live music was playing from the band that she had hired. Since the mayor’s party was more-than-less a formal occasion, most of the guests arrived at 6:00 p.m. sharp to show punctuality and most of them were dressed in their finest. On the other hoof, it was after all a birthday party, so Pinkie was able to bring some of her usual party gear and a few surprises to make the evening more eventful. One of the first ponies to enter the town hall was Pinkie’s friend, Princess Twilight Sparkle, who was always on time for everything. Pinkie and Twilight exchanged greetings and smiles before Pinkie directed her friend to the guest of honor’s table. Yet as all the guests begin to settle into their seats or mingle in open conversation Pinkie couldn’t help but look among the crowd and miss the four faces she couldn’t see. Where were the rest of her friends? Not that there wasn’t a pony, dragon, or donkey in Ponyville that wasn’t her friend, but she had five best friends that she would go to the ends of the world for, and she knew they would do the same for her. One of them Twilight Sparkle was here, but the other four were strangely missing. She knew she had delivered an invitation to each of them they should have been here by now. Pinkie scanned the room again with a slow passing turn of her head from where she stood on the stage, but then quickly snapped back when she noticed a latecomer slowly enter through the front door. The latecomer was a yellow pegasus with a light pink mane and tail.

“Oh wait, there’s Fluttershy,” said Pinkie to herself as her serious gaze broke out into a grin again. She quickly bonded over to greet her friend.

“Hey Fluttershy,” said Pinkie, “Glad to see you could make it. I’m so happy to see you.”

“Oh, hi Pinkie Pie,” said Fluttershy. “I’m sorry I’m a little late, but I had to help Mr. Bear find his honey pot first. He can get just a teeny bit cranky when he can’t find his favorite snack.”

“Well, that’s OK,” said Pinkie, “I’m just so glad that you’ll get to join in the fun. Oh did you see Applejack, Rarity, or Rainbow Dash on your way here?” she asked.

“No I’m afraid I didn’t.” said Fluttershy, “But… Oh my… Pinkie Pie that is a lovely dress you’re wearing.”

“Yeah, I know,” said Pinkie, “But since this is supposed to be a fancy-shmancy party, I thought it would be a good idea to wear a fancy-shmancy get-up; so I did. I can’t help but wonder where everypony else is thought. I wish they were here, they’re going to be sorry that they missed this.” At that moment Pinkie’s pony slippers glowed.

“I was in such a hurry to get here that I wasn’t able to put a dress on, or anything,” said Fluttershy. As she looked around the room she noticed that she was one of the very few ponies that hadn’t bothered to wear anything fancy. She looked down at her hooves, beginning to feel shy, and a little embarrassed.

“Ah, don’t worry about it,” said Pinkie encouragingly, “You always make everything lovelier by simply being there.”

This made Fluttershy feel better. She smiled and glanced from her own hooves to Pinkies. Suddenly something occurred to her.

“Um Pinkie Pie,” began Fluttershy, “Where did you get those…?” She unfortunately didn’t get to finish because at that moment, the band played Pinkie’s queue to alert her that the Mayor was about to make her grand entrance and she was needed at the front.

“Oh, sorry Fluttershy,” said Pinkie, “Gotta run, see you later.” With that Pinkie spun around and dashed back to the stage at the front of the ballroom, but stopped briefly to open one of the ballroom’s tall windows.

“Strange,” said Fluttershy aloud to herself, “Those pony slippers she was wearing look just like the one I found and gave to Rarity.” At that moment there was a soft, lady-like knock on the door behind her, and Fluttershy turned to answer it.

Once Pinkie was back on stage she nodded to the band to begin playing the mayor’s into music, and tapped the microphone to get everyone’s attention.

“All right everypony, here she is, the filly of the hour, who’s birthday we are here to celebrate, Mayor Mare!” With that Mayor Mare walked calmly onto the stage next to Pinkie wearing a beaming smile as the audience of ponies gave her thunderous applause by stomping their fore-hooves on the ground.

Pinkie then led the crowd in singing ‘Happy Birthday’ while Mr. and Mrs. Cake brought out the birthday cake they had prepared onto the stage with candles already lit. Just as the song was coming to its conclusion, Pinkie quickly reached back behind the stage and brought out her party cannon. She then climbed into the cannon and lit the fuse. While she was doing this, she thought for a moment that she heard someone call her name, but over the singing crowd, she really couldn’t tell. None-the-less, everything for the party’s climax happened exactly how Pinkie had planned it. The song ended. The crowd cheered. Mayor Mare blew out the candles. And right at that moment, the canon fired with a roar showing confetti on the audience and sending Pinkie soaring through the air, above the crowd and out the window she had carefully prepared.

Pinkie landed outside the town hall with a somersault and gently rolled to a stop. She did this all the time at parties so she wasn’t hurt at all. She was soon standing again and walking back to the town hall to re-join the celebration. Although she wasn’t hurt, her dress was. In fact it was ruined. The blast from the cannon had taken its toll on Pinkie’s dress. It was now all ripped and tattered with popped seams and a few burn marks. The once emasculate ball gown was now rags. Her hooves were bare. Another result of the blast was that it had knocked Pinkie’s silver pony slippers right off her hooves. They had fallen somewhere in the crowd. Amazingly the tiara was still in place on Pinkie’s head. Pinkie didn’t mind any of this. It was after all just a dress to her, and she was having fun at a party. She would go back, find her pony slippers, and re-join the party for some of that cake as if nothing had happened.

Pinkie soon returned to the town hall and pushed the door open. The party was still in full swing. There were more ponies standing than sitting. Many were waiting for their turn to get a piece of the cake. Pinkie crouched down to the floor to locate her pony slippers.

“There they are,” she said when she noticed them lying close to each other just off-centered from the room’s midpoint in the middle of the crowd. “No problem-o.”

Pinkie squeezed her way through the crowd until she was just able to reach the first of the four silver pony slippers. She was about to reach out for the other three when they were suddenly all snatched up by three different hooves. The hooves belonged to none other than Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity.