Chapter 31: May 2-3, Party of One
Yet Another Human in Equestria Story
By: Bardic Knowledge
Chapter 31: May 2-3, Party of One
Pinkie had gotten used to the way I acted at parties. She didn't understand, but she was used to it. I had a tendency to simply sit off to the side, watching everyone else and occasionally speaking up when I had something to add to a conversation, or when someone struck up a conversation with me. I would have a glass of drink and a plate with either food or crumbs on it, depending on how far into the party we were.
Anyways, it was Gummy's birthday party, and I was putting an only mildly faked smile on my face as Pinkie, Fluttershy, Twilight, and Trixie danced (Shy and Twi being flung into walls by Pinkie's exuberance). About a week and a half ago, only a few days after Winter Wrap-Up, Rarity gathered everyone but Pinkie to the Boutique to speak about arranging a surprise party for Pinkie.
(Flashback time!)
”It's not often we get to plan a party for Pinkie, after all,” said Rarity. “And considering her uncanny ability to find ponies when they don't want her to...”
“We'd need to be super careful about everything,” agreed Dash.
I took a deep breath. “I have a slightly prophetic objection.” That got everyone's attention. “You all know about my non-interference policy when it comes to this sort of thing, but this is one time I can't. Because this lesson would be learned from the pain of one of my friends. And I've learned enough empathy over the years that it would hurt me, too.”
“What are ya talkin' about? Why would a surprise party hurt Pinkie? She loves parties!” said AJ.
“The day before Pinkie's birthday, she's planning a birthday party for Gummy. She then plans to invite everyone to an after-birthday party for Gummy the next day. But with everyone busy making sure her surprise party is going to happen...”
“What?” asked Twilight. Apparently, she still didn't quite get it.
“Pinkie lives for others and making them happy through her parties. If she thinks no one's enjoying her parties, then one of her fundamental values is... broken. Which breaks her. And she goes a little nuts, too, replacing you with inanimate objects. Andrew Joshua Talon called it 'Cutie Mark Failure Insanity Syndrome.'”
That got a few curious looks.
“What's your plan, then?”
“Exclude me, and maybe Trixie if she's amenable, from your plans. We'll go to the after-birthday party while the rest of you work, keep her happy and distracted. Once you're done, send a letter or something to tell us so and we'll figure out a way to persuade Pinkie to your party.” There was a general murmur of assent, then the planning got fully under way.
(End Flashback!)
Gummy's birthday party was alright, the best part in my eyes being Rarity's spit-take on seeing Gummy in the punchbowl. I dined by the idea of “if it tastes good, but the ingredients are weird, eat it anyway because it still tastes good.” So, as long as Gummy was clean (which he usually was, because Pinkie is at least meticulous about that) the punch would be fine.
As we headed out the door, Applejack stumbled slightly, “Hoo-wee! I am beat! I haven't danced that much since... Well, since your last party. Thanks again for the invite!”
Dash waved to Gummy, who was just staring blankly into space. “See ya later, birthday alligator!”
Rarity looked back towards Pinkie, “Bravo for hosting yet another delightful soiree.”
“It's been lovely,” Fluttershy agreed.
Pinkie giggled, “You sure you don't wanna stay? There's still some cake left.”
Twilight, who was lagging behind slightly, answered, “Uh, I think I'm gonna pass. Great party though. We should do this again soon.”
As we continued away, I leaned over and whispered conspiratorially to Twilight, “Guess what? Tomorrow is soon.” As Twilight looked at me sardonically, I chuckled and walked away, following Trixie back home.
The next morning, I woke up to find an envelope on my chest. A glance at my door confirmed that it was still locked.
“Pinkie...” I muttered in exasperation. I had lost count of how many times I had told not to enter my room without my permission. Still, the note in the envelope confirmed that Pinkie was hosting Gummy's after-birthday party at three this afternoon (yes, this afternoon this afternoon). That gave me about an hour to get ready.
Even with all that time, I got dressed and checked to see if Trixie was awake. She was, and she confirmed that Pinkie had woken her when she visited. On top of that, she told Pinkie that we'd be able to make it. We were also her first stop, judging by her basket full of envelopes.
“All righty. The surprise party is planned for around three-thirty/four-ish, right? That means we'll have to distract Pinkie for at least an hour. I certainly hope my poor small-talk skills are up for it.”
“Don't worry too much about that,” Trixie said, patting me on the hand. “I have enough conversation for the both of us. I just have to keep things going until Spike sends us his flame-mail. It shouldn't be hard to entertain her or Gummy, even if that little alligator is... odd.”
I couldn't argue with that, so we went off to Pinkie's with fifteen minutes until we were supposed to be there. It was only a five-ish minute walk, but I liked to be early.
Pinkie greeted us with an extra-tight hug that made our ribs creak (and did some lovely chiropractic work on my spine). In fact, she seemed extra cheery, which is saying something when it comes to Pinkie Pie, being the Element of Laughter and all. That should have been my first clue.
Things went rather swimmingly. We sang “Happy Birthday Yesterday” to Gummy (a Pinkie Pie original composition), and Pinkie brought out the cake, punch, and snacks. As it was an after-birthday party, presents were not required, and we just dug right in to the food. Trixie did her best to keep up the small talk, while I chimed in every once in a while, sipping from my cup of punch.
I even demonstrated, upon Pinkie asking, how one could “play seashells” by attempting a ball-and-cup game (or whatever the game is called. The one with the three cups/shells/cards and you have to find the ball/right card), telling her to pretend the cups were seashells.
And the whole time, I didn't notice how strained Pinkie's smiles and laughs were.
Eventually, I went to get some more punch, only to find that we had apparently emptied it in the meantime. Pinkie immediately jumped to her hooves and offered to get more, dashing out of the room.
I glanced at my pocket watch. Quarter to four. “How much longer do you think they're going to take?” I asked Trixie. “I like eating well enough, but I can't take much more.”
Trixie glanced at my watch, too. “Give them another fifteen minutes, maybe. It needs to be perfect, and if Pinkie catches on-”
“If I catch on?” came a voice from behind the door. Which swung open to reveal Pinkie in all her Pinkamena “glory.” “I thought something suspicious was going on. Why would only you two be available to come to my party. Especially when Joe doesn't like parties. What about everyone else? I thought they loved my party yesterday. So why didn't they come?” her eyes grew big and teary. “Don't they love me anymore?” And without giving either of us a chance to answer, Pinkie vanished from the doorway.
“Continuous fire,” I muttered.
“What?” said a shell-shocked Trixie.
“Nevermind. Look, Twilight's been teaching you higher level spells, right?” She nodded. “Including teleportation?” She nodded again. “Then zap over to the barn and tell them things have gone wrong! Instant Transmission is the only thing that could possibly be faster than Pinkie in this situation.”
“But, what about you?”
“If you feel that you can carry me with you, then go ahead. Otherwise send Twi back to grab me as soon as you can.” I kissed her at the base of her horn. “Go.”
She snapped out of the minor stupor the closest thing to a first kiss between us had brought on her, then concentrated on a spell, popping away a few moments later. I brushed the soot off my coat and face, then hurried up the stairs to Pinkie's balcony.
Hopefully, I'd be able to see her if she's still somewhere in town. My attention was stolen by a rainbow contrail rising from Sweet Apple Acres, which quickly started buzzing the skies. And with a pop and flash of purple light, Twilight appeared in front of Pinkie's house. I rushed down to the front door to meet her.
“I see Dash is looking for her from the sky,” I said. “Do we have any way of narrowing down the search radius?”
“Not really, no. And since Pinkie isn't the only pink pony in Ponyville, she's got plenty of camouflage to make her way to wherever she's going.”
“Argh. Maybe you guys should have gone to the after-birthday thing while I did the errands. She said that she was suspicious because I'm not a party person and still decided to show up.” I shook my head. “Nevermind. Hindsight is twenty-twenty after all.”
While Dash was scanning in the air, Twilight and I (and the others, I presume) were looking everywhere at ground level. Even if Pinkie didn't have to stick to normal physics, we were going to cover all of our bases. I even asked some of the animals (squirrels and birds and the like) that were hanging around to help with the search, and to find Fluttershy if they found Pinkie.
Every animal in Ponyville knew Fluttershy, just as Pinkie knew every pony and non-pony resident.
That thought prompted me to ask the Ponyvillians if they had seen Pinkie. To my consternation, the answer was usually “no” or “not recently.”
Salvation came when a robin flew down in front of us, chirped a few times, and started guiding us through the streets, stopping every once in a while to make sure we were close behind.
We arrived at the Ponyville Train Station at the same time as everyone else. We rushed in as one big crowd and just barely managed to tackle-hug Pinkie from buying a ticket.
My everything was sore at that point.
Twilight then showed her magical prowess by casting a Mass Teleport that deposited the whole group back at the Sweet Apple Acres barn.
“Let me go!” cried Pinkie. “You don't want me anymore, so let me leave!”
“Pinkie, why do you think we don't want you?” asked Twilight.
“You sent Joe and Trixie to distract me just so you could do something behind my back, huh? I should have seen right through those flimsy excuses the moment you gave them!”
Especially Rarity's, I didn't say.
“And now you've brought me here to this farewell party, and I'm supposed to believe you don't want me?!”
“Pinkie,” I sighed. “This isn't a farewell party. You're so concerned with everyone else, you forgot about you.”
“And what's that supposed to mean?” she growled. I responded by patting her head.
“Happy Birthday, Pinks. This is your surprise party.”
Pinkie paused. Twitched. Then exploded with happiness and confetti (ow, my hand) as she started bouncing around the barn, before landing in the middle of the mini-herd and gathering us all into another rib-creaking hug.
“I'm so sorry I doubted you guys. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
“We're your friends. And friends are always there for each other.”
“Wow, that was sappy,” snarked Twilight.
“I nicked it from Digimon: the Movie, so blame Bob Bucholtz, or Jeff Nimoy, or whoever it was that did the script. Anyways, we gots a party to enjoy!”
A party I spent sitting on a hay bale, digesting cake, while everyone else danced. I did have some ice cream, though.
There's always room for ice cream.
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In all, this chapter feels a little rushed or incomplete. I was expecting a couple more paragraphs regarding Joe's reaction to seeing Pinkamena before he was rescued.
4721528 or at least a HOLY *BUY SOME APPLES*
Ah, Tomodachi Life. So many hours well wasted on that game.
Anway, this was a great chapter. I really liked the reveal scene. Good job.
recaption.com/uploads/31095510a1145f164e.jpg
Good chapter, by the way.
4721528
Considering Joe was never actually trapped by Pinkie whilst she was in Pinkamena mode, plus his knowledge that the most Pinkamena ever did was throw a party with inanimate objects, there wasn't really any major reaction to be had.
Cupcakes!Pinkie still looked like regular, poofy-maned Pinkie, after all
Thanks for the chapter!
Happy birthday yesterday,
You're mighty swell and okay.
It's been a year and a da~ay.
Now if only all of my other friends loved me enough to actually come to the party.
It's a work in progress.
In any case, excellent work with a fairly major deviation. Story!your heart was in the right place, but alas, none can predict the pink.
I look forward to more.
4734621
Um, not like what? Anyways, glad you enjoy.
U wut m8? Since when does Pinkie have her own house? This is the first I'm hearing of this.
4723592 I wouldn't consider this a major story deviation. The only thing different was that Pinkie tried to leave instead of having her own pity party.
4744382
At first I thought she lived with Cakes, because it seemed like she lived on the second floor of Sugarcube Corner. But watching Pinkie Pride and Maud Pie, you can clearly see that the first floor of where she lives is not Sugarcube Corner (and though it's difficult to tell, in Party of One Rainbow Dash is on the ground floor when she opens the door (17:49 into the episode) and, again, that is not Sugarcube Corner).
So, I made corrections based on in-show evidence.
4745393 Yet we also see her having a bedroom on the second floor of Sugarcube Corner in other episodes.
4746074
Which episodes and at what times in those episodes? Considering how most houses in Ponyville look exactly the same save maybe a roof colour or two, how do we know that Sugarcube Corner doesn't just have the same design as Pinkie's house on the outside?
4746795 Well I want to say Party of One at the very beginning during when Pinkie was throwing Gummy's party. That room and the room she was having her pity party in, to me at least, looked like two separate rooms. Not to mention that, if I'm remembering correctly, some time during the beginning of Season One (I don't remember much besides some major events, so don't quote me) Pinkie held a party that was on the second story of SCC, because that was where the ponies who were attending (Mane 6 and Spike I think) entered to have the party.
Also, Pinkie looked after the Cake twins, even at night I believe, during the episode where they were introduced. How else could she look after them if she didn't live there?
4746955
Well, since Pinkie works at SCC practically every day, she would see the Cakes every day, and they can't close their business to take care of the twins or they wouldn't have the money to take care of their family. And Pinkie was only there for the afternoon, not all night, as seen in this quote:
The darkness during that section could be attributed to the increased drama, as you can still see the light pink of the evening sky out of the windows. Mr. and Mrs. Cake get back after night has fallen, because the delivery they had to make was for that day, as mentioned here:
And, in season one the only parties Pinkie throws are: Twilight's Welcome party (in the library, where Twilight was staying), Diamond Tiara's cute-ceañera (public gathering, so she wouldn't have it in her own house), and Gummy's birthday and after-birthday parties (which would be in her house, likely both on the ground floor).
4748715 When is update ?
4988091
Had some issues with my computer, which required it to be sent to a shop for a while. I have it back now and will be continuing soon. I'll hopefully have the next chapter up by the end of next week, but I can't really promise anything.
Great chapter! Can't wait to see more!
So in Tomodachi Life, which Doctor is Twilight dating?
5021448
None, actually. She was briefly dating my Mii (and my dad's Mii is interested in dating her), but when I last played she was single.