Day 5: Hide and Seek
"Alright everypony!" cried Diamond Tiara as she pounded to frying pans together. "Wake up!"
There were complaints from around the room as fillies and colts were involuntarily pulled from their dreams.
"Di-amond!" groaned Silver Spoon.
"What are you, our mom?" complained Sweetie Belle.
"No, I'm your gracious host!" shot Diamond. "Apple Bloom and Applejack and I are making pancakes for breakfast and we need to figure out how much to make."
"Oh," said Sweetie Belle.
"Is everypony awake yet?" asked Diamond. "No," she immediately answered herself. "Pipsqueak and Rumble are still out. Wake up, you two!" She began rapidly bashing the pans together again as she approached the two sleeping colts.
"Maybe we should just leave them alone," suggested Twilight.
"Ugh," said Diamond Tiara. "Fine."
"Rainbow Dash!" exclaimed Twilight, now seated on a couch with her plate of pancakes (Diamond Tiara had made it clear that she would not be cleaning up any syrupy messes). "Don't just hork it all down!"
"Look," responded Rainbow, "you let me eat the way I want and I'll let you eat the way you want. I want as early a start on the clouds today as possible so I don't miss out on whatever we're doing today."
"What are we doing today, anyway?" asked Rarity.
"I don't know," said Sweetie Belle. "What do you want to do today?" she directed back to Rarity.
"I don't know!" repeated Rarity. "What do you want to do today?"
"I don't know!" said Sweetie Belle. "What do you want to do today, Scoot?"
"I don't know. What do you want to do today, Bloom?"
"I dunno-"
"Will you all cut it out!" screamed Diamond Tiara.
"So..." said Apple Bloom. "What do you want to do today, Diamond?"
"Gah!"
"Oh, oh!" said Pinkie excitedly. "Let's play a game!"
"So you want to do the same stuff we've been doing for the past two days?" asked Diamond.
"Nah! I mean, let's play a really big game, something that we can do all over Ponyville! With everypony!"
"What did you have in mind...?"
"How about hide and seek?"
"Hide and seek," repeated Diamond Tiara. "You want to play a little foals game?"
"It's not a little foals game," interjected Apple Bloom. "We like to play it sometimes."
"Well, okay, but it doesn't matter!" said Diamond Tiara in frustration. "We can't hide all over Ponyville! It would take forever to find everypony!"
"Actually," said Twilight, "I think it could work. If we make a rule that says nopony is allowed to hide outside."
"There's still way too much area to cover," said Diamond.
"What if we reduced the area even more then?" offered Featherweight. "Nopony is allowed to hide... in a house! They have to hide in a public building!"
"Does that mean that my library, Rarity's boutique, and Sugar Cube Corner are off limits?" asked Twilight uncertainly. Those were the only places in town that she was familiar with yet.
"Yeah," said Featherweight. "No homes."
"You all actually want to do this?" asked Diamond.
"Sure," said Rarity. "If you don't want to hide, you could always seek instead."
"No thank you!"
"Well," said Apple Bloom. "We need to figure out who is going to seek then."
"Hold on," said Diamond Tiara. "I actually have an idea. Let's get Pipsqueak and Rumble to be the 'seekers'."
"Aren't they still asleep?" asked Twilight, confused.
"Yeah," said Diamond. She grinned. "So everypony has plenty of time to scatter before they wake up."
"Oh," said Rainbow. "Well, gosh, I better hurry up then!"
She abandoned her plate and rushed out the front door.
"Rarity!" cried Sweetie Belle. "Hide with me!"
"Okay!"
"Applejack?" said Apple Bloom.
"Sure."
"I'm going to hide with Rainbow Dash then," said Scootaloo. "As soon as she's done with the clouds, of course."
"Ooooh!" said Pinkie. "Are we playing pairs? Who wants to be my partner?"
Say that you do! Twilight thought to herself.
"I do!" cried Featherweight.
"Hey, Twilight," said Spike. "Hide with me, okay? I have a great spot!"
"Well, okay," agreed Twilight, slightly disappointed that the opportunity to become closer to Pinkie had been snatched away from her.
Look on the bright side, she thought to herself. You get to get to know Spike instead! I ought to become friends with him too!
"Snails will be my partner!" announced Snips.
"So..." said Dinky. She looked toward Fluttershy. "You wanna team?"
"I guess so?"
"So," said Pinkie as she bounced down the street, looking at Featherweight. "Where you wanna hide? Huh?"
"I don't know," answered Featherweight. "Let's just keep running and see if anywhere looks good?"
"Okay!"
Featherweight considered the many shops and services as they passed through the heart of the town. Nothing particularly stood out. He eventually decided to pick one at random.
"Let's see if we can find good spots in 'Quills and Sofas' ?"
"Oooh!" responded Pinkie. "Sounds great!"
"It does?"
"Yeah! Let's go!"
Featherweight walked into the store and considered hiding places. Most of the store was dedicated to housing numerous sofas, which were way bigger than the quills, which only had a couple of displays dedicated to their sale in the entire store.
Featherweight wandered through the store, hoping to find a good spot. Finally, he found a place that would be sufficient.
"What do you think, Pinkie?" asked Featherweight. "You think I should hide here?"
Pinkie didn't answer.
Featherweight turned all the way around and realized that the pink filly had already managed to disappear.
"Pinkie?" he called out.
"I'm right here!" called out Pinkie's voice. Featherweight looked out into the sea of couches. Pinkie was nowhere to be seen.
"Where is 'here' ?"
"Right here!" repeated Pinkie. "Follow the sound of my voice! La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la,"
Featherweight walked toward the sound. It sounded as though Pinkie was near a particular couch, but a peek behind it failed to reveal the pink pony.
Featherweight listened to Pinkie's silly song and crept closer to her voice.
"Pinkie?" he asked in shock.
"Yeah?"
"That's your hiding place?"
"You'd better believe it!"
"Holy cow, Pinkie! That has to be the best hiding spot ever!"
"Alright, Twilight," said Spike. "This is the place."
"This is where you had in mind?" asked Twilight in disbelief.
"Trust me on this one, Twilight," Spike answered. "We're going to win this! I have a spot where nopony will ever find us!"
"Okay?" said Twilight doubtfully.
"I've been dying to show you this," continued Spike. "This is going to be amazing!"
"If you say so?"
"Here!" said Spike happily, stopping in front of a shelf and reaching toward it. "This is it! This thing is going to win us the game!"
"Spike," said Twilight in deadpan. "That's a graphic novel."
"I know! These things are actually made in Canterlot, which means we're really lucky that this place has a few! Just watch!"
"Spike," continued Twilight in protest. "We're in a comic book shop! How is a comic book supposed to help us?"
Suddenly the comic book in Spike's hands began to glow with an eerie green light.
"Told you!" he announced happily.
"What did you do?" asked Twilight in confusion.
"Just wait," said Spike. "This is going to be awesome."
Suddenly, sparks began shooting out of the book. Twilight backed away.
"What's it doing?" she cried in fear.
"It's... not supposed to do that!" said Spike.
The sparks ceased, and then the green light sputtered and died.
"What happened?" cried Spike in despair. "Why didn't it work?"
Suddenly, Discord popped into existence next to the dragon and pony.
"Whoa now!" cried Discord in alarm. "What in Equestria was that?"
"The Power Pony comic books aren't working!" complained Spike, holding up the one in his claws. "Why aren't they working?"
"Comic books?" cried Discord. He swiped the book from Spike materialized his monocle again to examine it. After only a moment, he dismissed the monocle again.
"Oh!" he cried in relief. "It was just one of these things! I thought something was really wrong! Silly Spike! Don't you know that you can't open a portal into a simulated universe when you are already in a simulated universe?"
"What?" cried Spike in disappointment. "I can't?"
"Of course not! It would be fake universe inception!"
"Well, there goes my big idea..." muttered Spike.
"Ready Silver Spoon?"
"Ready, Diamond Tiara!"
The couch that Rumble and Pipsqueal were sleeping on suddenly tipped forward, dumping the two colts into the floor.
"AAAARGH!" they both screamed in shock. They scrambled to get to their hooves, but found that they were tangled in their blankets.
"Diamond?" asked Pipsqueak in alarm as he noticed her.
"It's time to wake up you two!"
"Where is everypony else at?"
"Well, you see, they are all out hiding throughout Ponyville! And you two have been nominated seekers!"
"Huh?" cried both colts.
"It's not hard to understand," said Diamond. "Everypony is playing hide and seek. And you two have to find everypony! Got it?"
"We do?" asked Rumble.
"Yes, you do. Everypony else has already found a spot while you two were snoozing. Silver Spoon and I will go find some place after you leave."
"Um... Okay..." said Pipsqueak. "So... Do we go then?"
"First," said Diamond. "Let me explain the rules. First of all, nopony is allowed to hide outside or in somepony's house. They're all in public buildings, so don't even bother looking elsewhere. Second, everypony is in groups of two. If you find somepony, their partner is also somewhere at the same location."
"Do we have to stick together?" asked Pipsqueak, indicating Rumble.
"Not if you don't want to. In fact, I'm ordering you to not do that. It will take forever if you do that. Now get going! Time is wasting!"
"Hello?" asked Pipsqueak as he opened the door of the comic shop. "Anypony in here?"
Of course, there was no answer.
Pipsqueak wandered through the shop, wondering if anypony had actually chosen to hide in the building.
He stopped in front of a rotating comic book rack in interest.
And immediately noticed something was wrong.
"I can see you, Twilight!" he announced.
"Gah," moaned Twilight. She carefully crouched down and crawled out from under the rack. "I told Spike we should have moved someplace else."
"So Spike's your partner?"
"Yeah..."
"Hmm..." said Pipsqueak.
"ACHOOO!"
Green fire suddenly enveloped an entire shelf consumed it in seconds.
Leaving Spike exposed.
"Spike!" cried Twilight in annoyance.
"Sorry," said Spike. "Gosh, I was really hoping we would last longer than that!"
"So," said Twilight to Pipsqueak. "Spike and I are the first one's you've found?"
"Yeah," Pipsqueak confirmed. "You want to come with me and help me find the others?"
"Sure," said Twilight. "I guess even though I was found first, I'll at least get a tour of Ponyville."
"Come in!"
The door opened.
"Ah!" said Discord. "Rumble! What can I do for you?"
"Well, we're playing hide and seek..." said Rumble.
"Really?" said Discord, perhaps too enthusiastically.
"And this is a place where somepony might be hiding," continued Rumble. "So... have you seen anypony else around here lately?"
"I can neither confirm or deny that I have."
"Okay," said Rumble immediately. "Somepony's here then."
"Why would you think that?"
"If there wasn't anypony here, you would have just said so," answered Rumble.
"Not nessasarily," said Discord vaguely.
Rumble didn't answer. He looked around the room. The mayor's office was fairy small. Other than filing cabinets lining a wall, the only furnishings were two chairs that sat in front of the mayor's large wooden desk, as well as the chair behind the desk which Discord was sitting in.
There was also a door on the wall behind Discord.
"What the hay?" said Rumble, walking around the desk and approaching the door. "Why doesn't this door have a handle? They're in here, arn't they?"
"Don't go in there," said Discord. "There's nopony in there. That's my room."
"Your room?" cried Rumble in suprise.
"I have needs too you know," responded Discord. "And no, you can't go in. I promise you, there's nopony in there."
"Okayyy..."
Rumble stopped to think.
From this side of the desk, he could see that there were two cabinets in the desk at each end.
"How about in here?" Rumble said as he opened one.
There was nothing inside.
Discord said nothing.
"Then... How about this one?" asked Rumble as he moved toward the opposite side.
Suddenly, an entire shelf of comic books materialized in front of Discord and fell into the floor with a 'thud'.
"What in the hay was that!?" cried Rumble in alarm. "Discord! Stop trying to keep me from finding whoever you're hiding!"
"It wasn't me," said Discord in his innocent voice. "It must have been Spike accidently sending me a whole book shelf by accident! Everything that he breaths his green fire on comes to me in this world, you know."
Rumble gave Discord a disbelieving look before looking back at the desk cabinet.
He opened it.
"Aw," cried Snips and Snails together. Snips was crammed into a corner while Snails was bending his head over.
"Good grief!" said Rumble in concern. "That doesn't look comfortable! Come outta there!"
"Yeah," said Snips as Snails climbed out first. "But we didn't think you'd look in here!"
"You two do know that you could have hid in different spots, right?"
"Oh," said Snips in realization. "Well, I guess it's too late now."
"Well," said Discord. "At least I didn't give your position away."
"There you are!" said Twilight, standing in front of a storage closet.
"How'd you find me?" asked Scootaloo from the top of a shelf of boxes.
"Because you two can't keep your mouth's shut!"
"You two?"
"I know Rainbow Dash is in here," said Twilight. "I heard her."
"If you say so."
Twilight shoved a stack of boxes aside and found nothing. She tried again. And again.
Then she started opening the boxes, just in case Rainbow had hidden inside.
"I know she's in here," said Twilight. She grabbed a column of boxes and set it outside in the hallway. She repeated this until the entire shelf was clear.
"Come out, Rainbow," said Twilight in frustration. "I know you're in here."
"Hey, Twilight!"
Twilight dropped the next stack of boxes and turned to look at Pipsqueak.
Her jaw dropped when she realized that Rainbow Dash was accompanying him.
"What?" shouted Twilight. "But I heard you in this closet! You were talking to Scootaloo!"
"Yeah," said Rainbow. "We heard you coming at the last minute though. The instant you opened the door, I bailed. I would have gotten away too, if Pipsqueak hadn't seen me flying down the hall."
"Why did the two of you decide to hide in the hospital, of all places?" asked Twilight.
"Scoot and I found that closet when we were looking for something to carry back all those snacks," answered Rainbow Dash. "Sorry if you had to walk around what was left of the drink machine."
"What?" asked Twilight in confusion.
"Oh...!" said Pipsqueak in realization. "I was wondering what all that... stuff was!"
"We've found you, Fluttershy!" said Snips happily.
Fluttershy looked past her makeshift wall of flower pots at the colts.
"Oh. So you have."
"Are you coloring?" asked Snails in surprise.
"Mmm-hmm!"
"Where did you get a coloring book?"
"I found it in my... my future self's house," informed Fluttershy. "I guess I must have foals over sometimes?"
"Hmm," said Rumble.
"I like the butterflies the best."
"So," said Rumble, deciding to change the subject. "Who are you hiding with?"
"Dinky," answered Fluttershy. "I'm afraid that she found a rather better hiding spot than I."
Fluttershy let a small smirk form.
"How many places to hide could there be in a flower shop?" asked Rumble.
"Okay, I was wrong," admitted Rumble. "Where ever she is, Dinky found a good spot."
"Eyah!" cried a voice.
Rumble turned around and looked toward Snails, who was pulling his hoof out of a flowery bush in surprise.
"I found her!" he announced.
"She was in the bush the whole time?" cried Rumble.
"Yep," said Dinky from within the bush.
"How did you get in there?"
"It wasn't easy. Help me out? There's little sticks everywhere in here."
"Let's check here," said Scootaloo, pointing toward the spa.
"The spa?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Do you really think anypony would hide in there?"
"I do," said Scootaloo. "Because once she found out that it existed, Rarity was begging Sweetie Belle to show her this place."
Rarity watched as the door to the towel closet that she was hiding in opened.
"I was not begging", she muttered.
"We found you, Rarity," said Twilight. "Come out."
Rarity walked out of the towel closet and shut the door.
"You were teamed up with Sweetie Belle," said Twilight. "Where is she?"
"I'm not telling you that," protested Rarity. "I will help you find the others, but not Sweetie Belle. After all, I already know where she is."
"Alright," said Twilight. "We'll find her eventually."
"Maybe we won't," Twilight said in a defeated tone. "We've searched this place from top to bottom, and no Sweetie Belle."
"Yeah," said Rainbow Dash, annoyed. "But I have learned the names of, like twelve brands of lotion while we've been here."
"Where is she?" asked Twilight.
"I can't tell you," said Rarity with a smile. "Perhaps you skipped over her?"
"How could we have skipped over Sweetie Belle?" asked Twilight. "We've been thorough!"
"I don't know..." said Rarity mischievously.
Suddenly, a suspicion formed in Twilight's brain. She ran toward the towel closet and threw the door open.
"Took you long enough!" cried Sweetie Belle from within. She burst out laughing.
"When you opened the door and found Rarity," said Sweetie Belle between laughs, "you all didn't even notice that I was standing right behind her! She shut the door before anypony could notice!" Sweetie Belle's laughter grew even stronger.
"We sure pulled a fast one on you, didn't we?" said Rarity with a smile. "But next time, you're going to be the martyr, Sweetie."
"Found you, Diamond Tiara!" cried Dinky.
"Ugh," complained Diamond as she crawled out of a large basket. "It's no fair that we didn't get as much time as everypony else."
"So, Silver Spoon is somewhere around here?" asked Rumble.
"Yeah."
"We found Apple Bloom!" declared Snips
"What?" cried Diamond Tiara in shock. "Apple Bloom?"
"Yeah," said Snails. "She was hiding behind a shelf in the dining ware section."
"Hey," said Apple Bloom as she walked into view.
"What are you doing in my daddy's store?" demanded Diamond Tiara.
"Same thing you as you?" said Apple Bloom. "Hiding!"
"Is Applejack with you?"
"Yeah, she's somewhere around here."
"Are you kidding me?" cried a new voice.
Everypony looked toward the direction of Silver Spoon's voice and saw her emerge from under an expensive looking table with several chairs surrounding it, obstructing the view underneath.
"Those two were here the whole time and we didn't even know it?"
A guffaw of laughter suddenly emanated from a nearby box. The lid popped open and Applejack popped out, laughing uncontrollably.
"Applejack!" said Apple Bloom in annoyance.
"It's too funny!" protested Applejack. "We were already here watching you two fret over finding a spot, and you two didn't even know!"
"Aha!" declared Rainbow Dash in triumph. "You thought you were safe behind this curvy couch, did you?"
Featherweight climbed over the top of the strange sofa. Halfway across, it had a ninety degree curve. It sat up against the corner of the 'Quills and Sofas' store. As a result, there was a small triangular space behind the curved part where Featherweight had decided to hide.
"It was the best place I could find," said Featherweight.
"So, who were you paired up with, again?" asked Rainbow.
"Pinkie Pie. You're never going to find her."
"Oh, great!" cried Scootaloo. "Not Pinkie Pie!"
"You don't think we can find Pinkie Pie?" asked Rainbow. "Just watch us!"
"This is Pinkie Pie we're talking about," explained Scootaloo. "Featherweight isn't kidding. We're never going to find her."
"We know that she is in the building somewhere," pointed out Twilight. "She can't stay hidden forever."
"Hello everypony," said Diamond Tiara loudly as she opened the front door to 'Quills and Sofas'. "We didn't find anypony at the post office, so we decided to come here next."
"Oh my goodness!" cried Fluttershy as she took in the scene around her. The sofas had all been stripped of cushions, and the cushions were in random places on the floor everywhere. "This place is a mess!"
"I know," said Twilight in frustration. "But we found Featherweight in here already, which means we know for a fact that Pinkie Pie is in here somewhere. We just can't figure out where!"
"Did you look inside the cash register?" asked Sweetie Belle, earning an incredulous look from Twilight.
"Yep," answered Scootaloo.
"Did you check the ventilation?"
"Good idea!" said Rainbow Dash. "I'll check!"
"Featherweight," said Twilight in frustration. "For goodness sake, tell us where Pinkie Pie is hiding!"
"No!" cried the Colt. "Not unless you give up!"
"We've completely stripped these sofas!" cried Twilight. "And we've searched underneath every single one! And then we put all the cushions back to make sure Pinkie didn't decide to change spots while we were looking around! We've checked in the bathrooms, we've checked in the ventilation, we've checked in the cash register for pony's sake! We've searched everywhere three times over, and no Pinkie Pie!"
"So do you give up?"
Twilight sighed. "Not my decision," she said. "Pipsqueak is in charge."
Pipsqueak hesitated. He turned to the rest of the colts and fillies.
"I told you. We're never going to find her," said Scootaloo.
"Agreed," said Diamond Tiara in frustration. "I'm ready to be done with this game! Let's just give up and get this over with!"
"Okay," said Pipsqueak, slightly disappointed. "We give up."
"We give up, Pinkie!" shouted Diamond, loud enough that she could be heard from across the store. "Now where the hay are you?"
"I'm over here!" cried Pinkie's voice.
"Where?" shouted Twilight, moving toward Pinkie.
"There once was a little filly, who was rather silly, and really loved to bake," sang Pinkie. "When she throws parties, they were very good indeed, but when she gets hungry, she goes for giant cake!"
"Pinkie?" said Twilight, magically lifting a sofa off of the ground and checking underneath. There was nopony there.
"Where are you, Pinkie!"
"You're almost there!"
Twilight set the sofa back on the ground again and threw the cushions off for a second time.
There was no Pinkie Pie, but something did catch her eye.
Twilight's magic engulfed a metal handle that was now exposed and she pulled up. The sofa's interior unfolded outward, revealing a hide-a-bed. Twilight released the handle and pulled up on the top section with her hooves, pulling the portion intended for resting one's head up and locking it into place.
There was still no sign of Pinkie.
"Pinkie?" cried Twilight. She stuck her head into the gap that she created and into the now empty heart of the sofa.
"You've finally found me!" declared Pinkie happily.
Twilight stared at Pinkie's upside-down form in astonishment.
"You were inside the HOOF REST this entire time?"
Stats
Page generated in 0.016 seconds
Total duration
1,014 users online
1,828,636 hits today, 2,244,100 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Too bad Discord decided to mess with time, ARing the mane six and had them completely vulnerable to childish impulses would have been more fun.
6700142 They are subject to childish impulses. They are actual foals. They don't have any of their adult memories. Twilight in particular acts somewhat more mature since I expect she would be, since she has special responsibilities for a filly, like being Celestia's student and helping to raise Spike. If you are talking about anyone else, though, I'm confused. I thought the rest of the mane six have been displaying their foalhood satisfactorily.
I'm going to experimentally change my upload schedule to about twelve hours earlier/later than I have been uploading these, since I think I've been updating this at one of the most inactive times on the site. So, as a result, the next chapter will actually come about twenty four hours from now. On the upside, the day of the chapter title should be synchronous with the actual day of the month in real life from here out, if I don't do another two chapter day over the course of two days, so that's neat.
I can't imagine anything cuter than adult fluttershy coloring in her spare time
I actually hid in a hide-a-bed like that once. Kind of dangerous, with all those pinchy rotating metal joints around. I didn't manage to squeeze all the way into the armrest though.
You wrote Ditsy a bunch of times where you actually meant Dinky.
7138592
Can't believe that mistake has been there for so long. Thank you for pointing it out.
That was just to gosh darn cute.
7156928 but hay that's just a theory a gem game theory thanks for watching
i like to think she did by breaking physics, or because she is made of rubber.
This is actually REALLY good.
I was not expecting it to be so good, to be honest.
Nice.