All in all the meal ate up about an hour and a half. By the end of it Twilight was uncomfortably full and sleepy, her hooves dragging slightly with each step. Spike hadn’t ridden on her back on the way back into town, which slowed them even further.
“Food's all taken care of, next is weather.”
Twilight winced and stifled a burp, pausing to rub her stomach. “Ugh... I ate too much pie…”
Spike glanced over the itinerary sheet a little closer, squinting. “Hmm, there's supposed to be a Pegasus pony named Rainbow Dash clearing the clouds. Forecast is for clear skies all the way until Sunrise tomorrow, and then a light sprinkle.”
Twilight’s full belly was making her a little grouchy. She glanced upward at the clouds dotting the sky around them and raised an eyebrow. “Well, she's not doing a very good job, is she?”
Spike suddenly hopped back and waved at her, about half a second before a blue blur bodily slammed her into a mud puddle.
The pony rose to her hooves and shook herself off, chuckling sheepishly. “Uh… Excuse me…”
Twilight slowly rolled onto her hooves and struggled to rise. Whelp, not full anymore. Ew.
The pegasus laughed softly and reached out, pulling her onto her hooves. “Lemme help you.”
She tapped her chin thoughtfully for a few seconds, before taking off and sprinting into the sky. She returned within seconds dragging a cloud pregnant with rain, positioning it directly over Twilight, who managed to just barely begin to shape the words ‘don’t you dare’ before she kicked the cloud and the water rushed out to sluice the mud from her coat.
The rainbow-maned pegasus landed next to her, chuckling to herself as she took in Twilight looking like a drowned rat. “Oops, I guess I overdid it. Um, uh, how about this? My very own patented Rain-Blow Dry!”
As she chattered, she took to wing again and soared tight circles around Twilight, wind whipping in a cyclone and practically tearing the water off her body. As well as shredding her dress, and tousling her mane in all directions. The mare landed and rested a hoof against her chest, puffing up proudly. “No no. Don't thank me. You're quite welcome.”
She finally settled on the ground, fidgeting with signature pegasus nervous energy. When rose-colored eyes opened and took in the ragged mess of Twilight's mane and the dress hanging in tatters, the prismatic suddenly burst out into raucous cackling. This sent Spike over the edge, who had been barely restraining his own laughter.
Twilight rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Let me guess. You're Rainbow Dash.”
This put a lid on the other mare's composure, and the pegasus snapped upward and took to wing, puffing her chest out proudly. “The one and only! Why, you heard of me?”
Twilight glanced at the clearly clouded sky and back at Dash, raising an eyebrow. “I heard you were supposed to be keeping the sky clear. I'm Twilight Sparkle, and I'm in charge of the preparations for the Princess’ Sunraising tomorrow.”
Rainbow shook herself and settled down on one of the clouds, stretching out as if she were about to nap. “Yeah, yeah, that'll be a snap. I'll do it in a jiffy. Just as soon as I'm done practicing.”
Twilight raised a single eyebrow. “Practicing for what?”
“The Wonderbolts! They're gonna perform at the Celebration tomorrow, and I'm gonna show 'em my stuff!”
Twilight chuckled darkly. “The most talented flyers in all of Equestria?”
“That's them!”
Twilight smirked and shook her head. “Pfft! Please. Captain Spitfire would never accept a Pegasus who can't even keep the sky clear for one measly day.”
At the clear challenge, Dash suddenly snapped bolt upright, wings flared in an aggressive display. “Hey, I could clear this sky in ten seconds flat.”
Twilight's smirk grew, and her eyes narrowed. “Prove it.”
Half a second of staredown later, Dash erupted from her perch and burst the cloud in the process. The air shrieked shrilly but allowed her to pass. Twilight's jaw slowly dropped as the prismatic mare blasted through cloud after cloud faster and faster by the second.
Instead of slowing, the mare simply plummeted back towards Earth, snapping her wings out. She lifted herself in a few tight loops, bleeding off speed as quickly as it had been picked up. “Loop-de-loop around, and wham! What'd I say? Ten. Seconds. Flat. I'd never leave Ponyville hanging.”
Twilight blinked, her mouth hanging open dumbly as her brain clocked overtime working over the physics of what she'd just seen.
Rainbow laughed and gently closed her mouth, causing the unicorn to blush at the contact. “You should see the look on your face. Ha! You're a laugh, Twilight Dapple. I can't wait to hang out some more.”
Without another word, she tore back off into the sky and left a ripple of tortured air behind her.
Spike blinked slowly and peered at his older sister, who seemed locked in place. “Wow, she's amazing!”
He maintained his composure for all of three seconds, before reaching out a talon to bat at Twilight's windblown curls, stifling childish giggles. Twilight grunted and lifted the itinerary from him, trotting off in the direction of town hall. Spike chased after her.
“Wait! It's kinda pretty once you get used to it!”
They made good time to the town hall, and Twilight shoved the doors open with a frustrated burst of telekinetic might. They both stopped short at what they saw within.
Somepony with an exacting taste and eye for detail had attacked the gathering space. Silk was very much in evidence, and ribbons festooned wherever bunting didn't stretch. In short, it looked perfectly ready for the arrival of the Princess and the catering tables.
Spike broke the silence with a dreamy “Decorations. Beautiful…”
Twilight swallowed and glanced around. She didn't think anything in this town could compare to Sparkle Manor back in Canterlot, or the actual castle spaces she'd seen, but somepony surprised her by bringing a little of that royal opulence here and meshing it with smalltown charm.
“Yes, the décor is coming along nicely. This ought'a be quick. I'll be at the library in no time. Beautiful indeed.”
Spike shook his head and patted her shoulder, pointing at a mare murmuring to herself as she compared samples of ribbon. “Not the décor, her!”
Twilight froze. Her legs locked together, and she trembled. Spike said something to her that she didn't quite catch, and she slid him forward and tilted her chin up to inspect the ceiling. She dropped to her haunches to try and hide the dappling along her hindlegs.
Spike cleared his throat and mustered all ten years of manly courage he could muster. “E-Excuse me. My sister and I-”
The vision of pure beauty tutted. “Just a moment, please! I'm 'in the zone', as it were. Oh, yes!”
She selected one length of shimmering ribbon and tied it carefully into place. “Sparkle always does the trick, does it not? Why, Rarity, you are a talent. Now, um, how can I help yo-”
In speaking, she turned to face the pair. She noticed Spike, but her eyes slid right off him as she fixated upon Twilight with a yelp as if a rat had wandered in. “Oh my stars, darling! Whatever happened to your coiffure?!”
Twilight trembled and blushed helplessly as she was put in the spotlight. “Oh, you mean my mane? Well, it's a long story. I'm just here to check on the decorations, and then I'll be out of your, hah hah, hair!”
Rarity beatboxed briefly and snagged Twilight in an aura of telekinesis, dragging her along behind her as she made for the door. Her voice was still shrieky, as if Twilight had suggested that they scatter moldy hay over her hard work.
“Out of my hair? What about your hair?!”
Spike snickered to himself as he followed the pair at high speed back out into Ponyville.
“Wait! Where are we going?! Help!” Twilight struggled, but in her mild panic she couldn't quite break Rarity's grip.
Rarity's morning had started off normally enough. She'd risen, partaken in a light breakfast, and had cantered over to the town hall to begin her decorations. Naturally right when she was in the middle of a rather tetchy placement, the doors had burst open to admit Pinkie Pie.
At the best of times the younger mare was a rambunctious hoofful that reminded her sometimes of her frequently demonic younger sister. Today she was extra-excited and babbling rapidly about something. Five years of friendship had however taught Rarity how to handle the Pink.
On her next revolution, she caught the mare in a haze of aura and brought her close. She gently rested hooves on either of her cheeks, and gently applied nose to nose. Two pairs of sapphire-blue eyes peered into one another, until Pinkie's breathing matched that of the unicorn and she finally calmed down.
“Now, darling, please. Tell me what you need. Slowly.”
Pinkie took a deep breath and tapped her hooves together. “Okay so this morning I was at the station watching trains and I noticed that there was an extra red-eye from Canterlot coming in at six. I waited and it came on time and two ponies and a dragon got off and went towards the library and I went home but Missus Cake told me that I should go see if the book on thaumic physics I requested came in so I went to the library and I got there just as the younger one was coming out and it was her! The Duchess Everfree herself (the younger not the elder sadly passed these five years and not the Regent Sunset Shimmer either although she got off the train too) and RARITY SHE'S SO CUTE and she looks really really sad and lonely so I want to do something really really nice for her like show her all the ponies of her demesne like her and want her to be here and not just because she's here representing her name and the Princess so I. Hatched. A. Plot.”
Rarity stared for several seconds and blinked, until her train of thought caught up to Pinkie's. She mentally inserted pauses and excised excessive information- it was a consequence that one's own mind tended to run a little strangely and quicker than normal within the vicinity of the Pink. “Alright darling. What's the plan.”
Pinkie took another deep breath. “Okay so I zoomed super fast to the Acres and told Applejack to be right out close to the road because it'll be about brunch time when she gets there but Granny Smith'll be able to con her into eating with them since nopony can resist her fried chicken salad and then I told Rainbow Dash to do something and I left Fluttershy alone since she'll stall her by being Fluttershy but I need you to tie her up at your boutique until about four or so so that by the time she's done with Fluttershy it'll be getting dark and when she gets back to the library I'll have it all set up and ready and everypony in town will be there and we'll throw her the best Night Vigil party she's ever seen and she'll make lots and lots of friends and want to move into the library and be our best friend and we'll go on a ton of adventures!”
That was then. This was now.
The mare had arrived with the uncanny accuracy of a Pinkie prediction, just as Rarity was finishing up. Just as told, she was an absolute darling if a little shy. A lovely lavender shade of coat, with deeper spots sprayed across her snout and down the back of her neck. She rather looked like she'd sat in paint; splotches of near-black covered her haunches down almost to her knees on either side. She'd put on a rather theatrical fuss in ushering Twilight out of the hall and to her own boutique.
Armed with a near infinite number of failed and simply darling outfits, enough cosmetics and beauty equipment for a ballet company, Rarity could stall Twilight indefinitely. She led her around with a rapidfire patois, from the mirror dais back to makeup and mane stations, outfit after outfit, and found something ill-suiting with each one. Enough of a detriment to justify starting completely over from scratch.
“No, no, uh-uh. Too green. Too yellow. Too poofy. Not poofy enough. Too frilly. Too... shiny.”
Finally she settled Twilight into what she felt would be a decent replacement for the Amareni dress that had been hanging in rags off her when she’d entered. Her mane had been put back into perfect order, with a razor-straight fringe just millimeters off from those gorgeously expressive eyes of hers. Now that she was examining her more closely, Rarity noticed that what she had taken to be makeup was actually coat pattern- Twilight had rather fetching splotches around each eye that reached to her cheekbones and appeared as natural eyeshadow. Rather than cover up the dappling of the smaller mare’s coat, Rarity had chosen a simple blue and white dress set with a scandalously low number of gemstones with a matching necklace and bracelet.
“Now go on, my dear. You were telling me where you're from.”
Truthfully, Twilight hadn’t been able to get a word in edgewise and had endured the constant attention with what was either good humor or just plain shyness. She managed to squeak out something about Canterlot as Rarity was pulling the cords of the dress’ corset tight, and was taken by surprise when Rarity released them with a sudden gasp.
Rarity glanced briefly at the clock on one wall of the boutique, and took a gamble. Canterlot ponies came basically in three types. Actual titled nobility tended towards humility, thoroughbreds tended to lean on their names and fortunes in an attempt to emulate nobility, and the nouveaux riche tended to be uptight snobs. What little she’d gleaned from the society pages and Canterlot’s Whom’s Whom had told her that Twilight would be solidly in the first type. She took a deep breath as she prepared to send her on her way without appearing to do so.
“Canterlot?! Oh, I am so envious! The glamour, the sophistication! I have always dreamed of living there! I can't wait to hear all about it! We are gonna be the best of friends, you and I…”
She draped herself dramatically against Twilight’s side, and allowed her eyes to fall naturally upon the gemstone sewn at her throat. “Emeralds?! What was I thinking? Let me get you some rubies!”
Rarity chuckled to herself as she heard the sound of cloth being flicked away and the adorable little mare saying something to the rather charming drake as they sprinted out of her shop. She smiled softly as she began to clean up the detritus of the repeated makeovers.
Poor Spike he is going to be having some competition for Rarity it seems. Unless I read into all of that wrong.
9361416
The difference is Spike can actually talk to her.
I am really curious to see what Pinkie’s interactions with Sunset are like, or an explanation as to how she ninja decorated the place without her noticing.
I'm presuming this is supposed to be "cloud."
Nice to see Rarity's thought process here.
9361424
Shit you right.
9361423
Honestly can't say which is beer
9361429
Well if they interact Sunset will know that she messed up by designating Cadence as “the pink one”, when Pinkie is far more deserving of an ominous but silly title.
All Hail the Pinkness!
9361442
Ia ia ry'leh pinku ftaghn
Oh is this gonna be a main six more then friends type of story
9361460
Do what
9361462
Where the main six all end up being speacial someponies
9361468
I really have a hard time parsing whenever you comment my dude
9361471
THEY END UP IN A MASSIVE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE KISSING AND THE DATING
9361474
No? Why would that be a thing?
9361475
Because of the blushing that they are all doing
9361480
??? Only Twilight has blushed so far and she's a shy nerd who has spent several hours getting fussed over by a pretty pony of her preferred gender and complimented. Nothing outside the norm here.
9361482
Applejack blushed
9361484
No she didn't?
9361486
Curse my piss poor memory. I'm sorry
I absolutely love how you have put the thoughts behind the first episodes actions . Pinkie pie putting the other 3 to delaying her for a party is just perfect and now headcanon for first episode
9361491
Thanks!
Unless Twilight threw up, of which there is no indication, there's no reason she should not still be full.
Like the new chapter!
9361519
That's the implication there. In the episode she's suddenly not full after being slammed into a mud puddle that wasn't there before...
Not going to lie at all, I rather like the idea that the reason Twilight keeps getting held up by Applejack, Rarity, et al. is because it was a cunning Pinkie Plot to buy time to get the party set up.
It is a straight-forward and simple but still elegant explanation.
9361562
Honestly, the whole "Pinkie Plan" is one of the best "work-around-the-episode" explanations for all the crazy I've seen. I'm definitely enjoying the results.
9361519
In one end, out the other (and mud colored, but also thankfully very much rinsed away).
9361441
Pinkie will be known as THAT pink one.
i don't think I've read a story where all the hubbub of Twilight's first day is actually Pinkie recruiting the others for stalling tactics. I'm liking it so far.
Eight years later and Twilight getting abducted to Rarity's still makes me laugh
Behind the scenes of the series premiere, finally explained!!!
9361712
Nah. It's already only single spaced.
9361562
It totally was.
9361604
If you've read Starlight Glimmer Fixes Everything you'd know I'm rather good at writing around episodes.
9361765
It makes a lot of sense and is really fun. I love writing Pinkbabble.
9361801
Me too.
9362005
Thanks!
That is a rather odd way to describe family. Makes me wonder what possibly led to it. Is it some normal antics being more common like using Rarity’s dress supplies for arts and crafts, or the most likely is unholy things Sweetie Belle has done to toast?
I could see other things as well like Sweetie Belle Somehow becomes the new bully Sunset for some cosmic reasoning. She could have found the Alicorn amulet a re-enact another fanfic that I reed long ago, early. Some sort of Nightmare Belle, King Sombra as her shadow/ farther figure(?), secretly/ unknowingly a changeling or robot. There actually quite a few fan plots that has cast Sweetie Belle in a ‘demonic’ light I can’t remember quite reason why it’s her like that.
Granny? Is there something you're not telling us?
(I know equines can eat meat, but I'd more be asking why, considering Fluttershy and her chickens.)
9361742
Rarity already refers to her as The Pink. So we’ve got The Pink One and just The Pink.
This story had me hooked at first. I generally enjoy alternate universe stories. But with these new chapters feeling so like the show, I personally am losing some interest. I'll most likely see where the next few chapters go but Im not sure i will continue to read past those. Thats just my opinion and despite not liking it as much as when i first read it, it's still very well written. Overall good story and i will leave a like for sure.
Was Twilight always dappled in this fic? Never saw it in any fics or fanart before a few months ago but now it seems to be popping up a lot. Kind of weird since there aren't any ponies like that in the show (at least that I can recall).
And now, all that's left is Fluttershy
9362810
I mean it's been mentioned a couple times that Twilight and fam visited Ponyville at least once a year when she was a lil nugget.
As for Pinkie... She has other ways.
9362534
Whelp. I never claimed that it wouldn't hew closeish to canon? Just that it would be changed due to Sunset's presence and the alterations in the early game.
9362254
Probably everything. We see a pattern of behavior in Sweetie Belle, and there's a well established meme of the Crusaders being and having always been absolute hellions.
9362956
Yeah and im not saying thats bad just not my personal taste. Overall though it is a great story.
9363808
Fair point
.....Pinkie you damn scary with how you plan. Rarity played this well too.
9363808
Well orphanage but you get the idea.
Two guesses as to where Scoota lives.
9364612
She at least uses her mental powers for good.
Wow how bad is Twi's dapple that she has black on her hind quarters? I mean is that some that runs in the Sparkle family? Does Shiny have bits of grey on him in places?
Together, Pinkie and Twilight could probably take over the world. Heck, that's what they're doing in canon.
In any case, Twilight will just have to grin and bear her dappling. Everyone in town's going to know the truth by tonight.
9365152
One's a genius, the other's insane...
True to the fanon that Pinky is the genius one, Twilight has a Beautiful Minds wall of crazy back in the tower, and Pinkie casually reads books on magical particle physics and comes up with intricate plans at the drop of a hat.
9365092
It's probably a family thing
led, in this case.
Dammit, you're one-upping one of the possible intros for the story I'm wanting to write. Not only have you snuck in more pony puns than I'd have ever thought of, but you have perfectly played both the personalities and many of the things I had wanted to hint at in the intro.
That little hinting of their individual high intelligence and magical aptitude is something I want to point out somewhere in my story, since that's rather important for the later events. (They need to discover the real origins of their world. If you've ever read Safehold or the last book of the Mutineer's Moon trilogy (the anthology is FREE from the BaenCD collection under the name Empire From The Ashes), with which I plan a crossover, you may get a bit of a hint as to what I mean.)
9365344
Agh. Pitfalls of sprint-writing I'm afraid.
I'm not sure what to make of the rest of the comment but thank you!
9368215
I have my own dedicated group of haters / downvote brigaders that thumb everything I say and do. They don't organize on-site and there's factions that think I deserve it, so there's not much moderation can do about it sadly.
Well well, it looks like Twilight and Spike are smitten with Rarity
Everyone should now seek cover.
Pinkie can see the future!
Initially, I was going to complain about this degenerating into a bog-standard retelling of the series premiere...
Until Pinkie revealed she'd arranged everything. Well done, sir. Well done.