> The Ponyville Petty Plunderer
>  by blanie
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The First Hustle
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Petty Ponyville Plunderer


Pinkie woke up feeling great. 
Well she always felt great, but today she was feeling extra great. Super, duper, special, awesome great. She bounced out of bed in her usual fashion, she smelt the deliciously scrumptious aroma of bread, cakes and pastries being cooked by the Cakes on the floor below.
It was quite early. But Pinkie always woke up early, all bakers did. Although even before she started to help out at Sugarcube Corner she woke up early. It was difficult for a pony such as herself to stay still, even in bed.
The vibrant pony bounded down the stairs her bright pink coloured tail just about keeping up with her, swaying side to side as she went through the door to pick up some early morning cupcake supplies from the market.
As she passed other ponies in the street she gave a smile and a wave her beaming grin stretching from one ear to another.
She hummed a merry tune as she walked. Each step light with a bounce which gave the impression she was floating.
Out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw a small indigo coloured patch of flowers move. She put it down to her imagination and she bounded on down the high street.
A great day for a party wait we're having a party tonight. With streamers and cake... Ohhhhh cake.
“Mmmmmm I would kill for some cake.”
A few ponies turned their heads with worried expressions etched onto their faces. But when they saw who it was they nodded and return to their business.
Then suddenly a scream cut the air. It was high and had a slight high class tone to it. Then sure enough as she rounded the corner to Rarity's boutique the white and purple unicorn was sobbing slightly dramatically and shaking her fist at the sky. She was on her knees as if cursing some high up entity. 
As Pinkie drew nearer the unicorn looked up and composed herself almost immediately.
“Oh hi Pinkie.”
“Hiya what's up,” the lively earth pony replied.
“Oh nothing darling... It's all fine.”
“But you screamed.” She was now bounding in circles around the flustered unicorn while continuing the interrogation.
“Okay don't tell anyone but I've lost my um...”
“What, what, what, what, what. Your cat? No, no your lace? Sweetie Bell? How could you lose your own sist...”
Rarity stuffed her hoof in the pink blur's muzzle but it was soon shaken free.
“I've lost my... Can you stop bouncing? You're making me dizzy.” The pink whirlwind which had previously been orbiting Rarity stopped suddenly and she continued her narrative. At a whisper she said. “I've lost my... my My Little Human merchandise.”
“Oooooh you watch that show.” Pinkie shouted this and all of the small crowd of ponies which had gathered heard it and promptly started giggling. As the unicorn turned from white to ruby red.”
“Oooops.” The earth pony added rather sheepishly.
Coming after Pinkie was Twilight who had a confused look on her face. Then soon afterwards came Spike who was panting slightly. It looked like he had run here to be Rarity's knight in shining armour. His eyes were filled with worry but as soon as he saw Rarity was fine he relaxed, but before he could arrive to comfort the unicorn, Rarity's eyes locked on the crowd of people. She seemed to shrink down slightly. “Can we talk about this inside?” she mumbled.
“Okie dokie lokie.” Pinkie replied excruciatingly loud in contrast.

Once they were securely inside (Pinkie firmly sat down) the unicorn began to speak.
“As you... And apparently now everyone in Ponyville knows, I am a fan of My Little Human. But moving on. Someone has stolen my stupendously rare signed poster.” She ended this with a shocked look with her eyeballs looking like they could roll out at any moment.
“Stolen?.” The little pink pony said with a gasp her, eyes as far out as Rarity's
“Yes, Stolen”
“Stolen? Like stolen stolen.” Her voice becoming increasingly higher and eyes popping out further.
“Yes, Pinkie Stolen.”
“Like taken from your room in the dark of the night stolen.”
There was a pause in which the pink pony seemed to be considering this. She grew a more and more shocked expression and then...
“Nah, you probably just lost it.”
She leapt up from her chair and bounded happily out of the door humming to herself as she went. Rarity could only stare after her mouth agape.



It had been two days since Rarity had had her fan girl merchandise “stolen”. And in those two days Pinkie had hosted two parties, a picnic and was arranging yet another one of her famous Pinkie Pie birthday parties for Cheerilee for tonight. Some ponies would describe her schedule as hectic but she enjoyed the planning, cooking even sending the invites for parties, just as long as they made other ponies happy. She was already buzzing with excitement for the party and seeing all the other ponies maybe she would meet a new pony... Squeeee it was always sooooo exciting when she had a party. She felt herself beginning to shake with excitement and forced herself to calm down. Breathe.. Breathe... Okay. Wait now she had to think about each breath she took. This was not good.
Oh Celestia this is how I die

Before Pinkie knew it the party was upon them. The food was cooked, the music was playing and the ponies were making merry. Then she realised a key part of the party was missing. Cheerilee was not here! Pinkie remembered inviting her and she had definitely said yes. Anyway, who said no to one of Pinkie's parties? 
She came to the realisation that the teacher would only have not come to the party if some kind of terrible accident had happened. Maybe a large piano which had been precariously placed had fallen on her. So she decided to go seek out the birthday-mare herself.

As the lively pony reached Cheerilee's schoolhouse which was near the centre of Ponyville she heard a quiet sobbing coming from the inside of the old building. She stepped inside through the slightly open door. 
“Hello?”
She ambled into the living room. The floor was littered with used tissues and as Pinkie tried to avoid the small piles of paper (like a child avoiding cracks on the floor) Cheerilee came into sight. “Heya Cheer' what's wrong? You didn't turn up for the party.” Her pink hair deflated slightly.
As Cheerilee was distraught and highly troubled it took a looooong time for Pinkie to ease what had happened out of the frantic teacher.
It transpired that the teacher had had her favourite photo of her deceased father taken. 
She also said that she wasn't really up to going to the party. This disappointed Pinkie but as she bounced back to the party she thought to herself. Two things lost in a few days. Coincidence I think not. Maybe there was a thief on the loose after all. Anyways party time! At least nopony had been crushed by any pianos. 
> The plot... Um changes slightly
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After the party Pinkie was beat.
Why do they say beat? I mean nopony had actually beaten her. Unless you counted Big Mac. Not that he had beaten her, he had just been slightly heavy handedly flirting with her after ingesting a little too much cider at the drinks counter.

Anyway the party was over and Pinkie was beat.
She was heading to bed and was now pondering about the events of the last few days. Rarity and her hidden fanmare-ism, the educator whose sentimental photo had been “stolen”. As Pinkie was on the edge of sleep she thought maybe there's a connection...

That night the earth pony slept fitfully. In her dreams there were disturbing images of cupcakes chasing her around the bakery but they had the faces of Twilight. One thing she did remember about her crazy dreams was that all the cupcakes were blueberry flavoured and delicious.

She woke up wondering what Crazy Twilight-confectionery dream could mean. She thought harder but ended up coming at a blank.

She was still drowsy after the party- it had carried on well into the night.
As she dragged herself out of bed she felt a tingle go down her spine a be a shake rattle her back left hoof. It was obviously one of her Pinkie senses but she had never felt this one before. Oh well there was work to do she could just send a letter to her crazy, zany aunt in Stalliongrad. That woman was always hyper and a bit weird. The last time Pinkie had seen her, her grey hair had been all over the place and she had been bouncing the whole day. I'm glad I'm not like that.
Anyway, she was the only other pony in their family who Pinkie still had contact with who had the Pinkie senses as strongly as its namesake did. That was decided then she would find that mailmare with bubbles as her cutie mark and ask her to send a letter to Stalliongrad.

As she was bouncing around Ponyville she saw lots of ponies cantering about with suspicious glints in their eyes. It seemed that the previous events had left the ponies unsure and worried. Oh well Pinkie thought to herself if anything was happening then it would be dealt with soon enough.
On her way to Applejack's farm the earth pony saw a lilac unicorn with some kind of dough. Wow, Twilight baking I've never seen that before, better help her. Just in case.
As Pinkie got closer she saw that it wasn't dough it was some kind of grey putty. "Twi what're ya doing old buddy , old pal?"
"Oh I'm just making... A vase for the princess out of clay."
She smiled sheepishly as if ashamed to be making a present for her beloved mentor.
"Oh, ok. Hey remember when I made a vase?"
"Um, no sorry Pinkie I don't."
"Yeah me neither, maybe it didn't happen. What if none of this is happening and we're just characters in a TV show."
"Now that Pinkie is the most stupid thing you have ever said."
She giggled slightly at the thought.
"Yeah I guess you're right Twi. Silly me.” She said in a conspiratorial manner. “Anyways I have to go to Applejack's to get some ingredients, see ya... You crazy foal."
She said the last part under her breath as she walked away. But the shocked look on Twilight's face was enough to know she had heard. She cantered away a little faster without turning.

On the way to Applejack's she met several ponies and made sure to personally greet all of them.
By the time she finally reached the farm it was getting dark and all the Apple family were inside eating supper.

Pinkie rapped her hoof on the door so fast all that could be heard was a low buzz. She heard footsteps nearing the door as the hard-working earth pony came to answer the knock.
When she opened the door she saw a pink blur chasing her tail in a circle
“Uh, Sugarcube?” She inquired apprehensively.
The blur continued to spin round and round. But after a few more revolutions she saw the orange pony and ceased her speedy orbit.
“Oh hiya there A.J.” She replied brightly. “When did it get so dark? So what do I need to do. Oh hey A.J how long have you been there?”
Applejack just stared in response as if contemplating what had just happened. She was seeemingly unable to create a reply but what she did do however was to quickly fix up a basket of apple-based ingredients for Pinkie give them to her and close the door.
The pink earth pony seemed to snap back to reality. “Whoa where did this basket come from? A.J where are you? Oh well back to the bakery.”
Applejack who had been watching from the window breathed a sigh of relief and headed back to her family. “Thank celestia she didn't want to come in.”