> Vantage Point > by Thunderous > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > 1. Twilight Sparkle > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5:00 p.m The party at Twilight's Friendship School is booming with ponies and creatures alike. Twilight and her friends are enjoying the party like everypony else, celebrating the 200th day since the opening - well, re-opening - of the Friendship School, the school she and her friends opened for ponies and creatures to learn friendship. "Is everypony having fun or what?" Pinkie Pie squealed in delight, hugging Twilight and the others in her hooves. She was the most excited out of the group of course, since she's the party hoster. "Best. Party. Ever! You're the best, Pinkie!" Rainbow Dash manages to flap her way out by of Pinkie Pie's hug, now flying above them, punching her hooves in the air. Twilight chuckles, as she successfully squiggles out of Pinkie Pie's tight hug, "Well, we all appreciate it and all, but Pinkie -" She stops chuckling, raising an eyebrow, "- who's going to clean this place up after the party's finished...? Don't tell me I have to take care of the cleaning, just because I'm the headmare of this school..." "Oh, Twilight... you know I got that covered already, right?" - Pinkie Pie nudges Twillight, winking at her - "Just enjoy the party! You- We deserve this!" Just then, Starlight approaches the Mane 6, carrying a checklist in her magic. "Hey, everypony! Are you all enjoying the party?" "Starlight! Can you believe that Pinkie Pie had almost everypony from Ponyville comin to this party!? I still can't believe that Spitfire and the rest came to the party!" Rainbow Dash lands in front of Starlight, making Starlight flinch a little. "Oh...haha, yeah...by the way, Pinkie Pie... the surprise is good to go... should we bring it out now?" She looks up at Pinkie Pie, clearly helping out with some of the party planning still. "Sure! Go ahead, the sooner, the better!" Pinkie Pie nods, letting go of her friends, as she goes to Starlight's side, looking at the checklist. "Surprise? What do you mean surprise, Pinkie?" Rarity asks, confused. "I thought all the surprises you had for us were done by now..." Starlight had already walked away, heading somewhere else. "Well...I never did say my tricks up my sleeves were used up, did I? Just give me and Starlight some time to take care of it, dont worry a thing!" She smiled cheerfully, before hopping up and down into the crowd of ponies dancing about. Applejack sighs, as she shrugs, "That's Pinkie for ya'... well, like she said, maybe we should'a just relax and enjoy the party? Whad'ya say, girls?" The others nodded in agreement, before Twilight sighs, and nods as well. "Well, alright...let's get partyin' then, girls!" Twilight and the others walked onto the dance floor to dance their hearts out. The party went on for several more minutes, before the light was switched off abruptly. Twilight was the first to react to the sudden disruption. "What the buck!? Who turned off the lights?" Several more ponies seemed to start panic a bit, before a spotlight appeared in the middle of the room, with Pinkie Pie and Starlight Glimmer standing there next to a humongous cake, with a sign saying 'Happy Birthday, Twilight Sparkle!'. "Surprise! Happy birthday, Twilight!" Pinkie Pie squealed in delight, as she blew party streamers into the air with her party cannon. "This is the special surprise I had for you! Is it good or what?" "Oh my Celestia! M-My birthday was today, and I forgot all about it!" Twilight approaches the two, mouth wide open. "H-How did you two..." She starts trailing off, before Pinkie Pie places a hoof on her mouth. "Don't you worry a thing now, Twilight! So... let's celebrate this surprise birthday party with a cut of the cake from the birthday mare, Twilight Sparkle!" Pinkie Pie places a hoof around Twilight, smiling cheerfully. "T-Thank you... both of you... this is the best day ever!" Twilight hugs Starlight and Pinkie, smiling happily with the thought of her friends throwing this surprise birthday party for her. Twilight grabs a knife in her magic, handed from Starlight, and starts to walk towards the cake, accompanied by everypony and creature singing 'Happy Birthday' to her. As she cuts the cake, a wave of "Woohoo!" and "Yay!" were heard, with the sound of hooves clopping the ground... Though suddenly, a feminine voice could be heard yelling something but was muffled by the cheering, before a beam of magic struck the cake, causing the cake to explode, surprising and knocking a few ponies back whoever stood near the cake, especially Twilight herself knocking back into her friends nearby. Everypony and creature starts to scream out in panic, running away from the scene, some leaving through the front door of the school. Twilight soon recovered from the recoil of the cake explosion from the help of her friends, groaning. "Nggh...what the buck just happened...?" "Somepony blasted magic onto the cake to blow it up! Uggh, I'm going to find that pony and I'm gonna do something horrible to her! She just ruined my best cake yet!" Pinkie Pie was furious, stomping her hoof onto the ground. "Calm down, Pinkie... we'll find whoever did this mess, that's for sure!" Starlight tries to calm Pinkie down, but to no avail, Pinkie Pie still furious, ran into the crowd to try and find the mysterious party pooper. "Well, there goes Pinkie Pie..." Rarity looked into the crowd, looking for the furious Pinkie Pie in it, "Though, I do wonder... who in Equestria would dare to ruin such an exquisite birthday party? Fluttershy, did Discord plan on ruining somepony's activity today?" "It wasn't Discord... it was a unicorn..." Twilight quickly cuts Fluttershy before she could answer back, "... like Pinkie said earlier, somepony blasted the cake with a magic spell...though, I'm not even sure who would that be..." Just then, Scootaloo gallopped towards Twilight and the others through the crowd of ponies and creatures panicking, who are still running in fear from the cake explosion. "T-Twilight! You gotta hear me out! I got something to tell you!" Twilight approaches Scootaloo, as she stopped gallopping, panting hard. "What is it, Scootaloo? We're trying to find out who blew the cake up just now, so be quick with it." Scootaloo, still panting, looks up at Twilight, screaming. "That's just it! I think I just saw who did it! The one that blew your cake up!" > 2. Scootaloo > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5:00 p.m The party at Twilight's Friendship School is booming with ponies and creatures alike. Scootaloo, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle are walking about in the school yard, exploring the school, even though they've checked everywhere for the fifth time. The three of them were there to congratulate Twilight and the others for their 200th day since the opening of the Friendship School. "Y'know, this place is really huge... Ah' sometimes wonder how long it took to build this school..." Applebloom looked around, still amazed at how big the school is. "Ah' even wonder how the students don't get lost in this place... One time, mah' sis' Applejack told me that she got to her class late cuz' she kept going through the wrong hall leading to her class... Can you believe that?" All three of them laughed out loud, grabbing some attention from nearby ponies and creatures. Scootaloo stopped laughing first, looking around, feeling a bit embarrassed, as she knocks Applebloom with her flank. "Well, where is Applejack anyways? Wasn't she supposed to be here at the school by now?" They walked into one of the doorways the school had, where a couple ponies and creatures were walking about, carrying drinks and foods in their hooves - or claws. The area of the school they were in seemed as though it wasn't used for the party, as it isn't decorated as much as the other areas of the school they've been at. It also feels a bit deserted, not counting a few of the ponies and creatures staying here to get away from the noisiness of the party. Sweetie Belle answered her before Applebloom could, "Well, she's with Twilight and the others, including my sis', Rarity, at the dance floor. It really is crazy that it's been more than half a year since they all opened this school -" Sweetie Belle sighed, rolling her eyes, "- well, technically, since they re-opened the school, after that jerk unicorn what's-his-name closed it down, just because a couple of the students were 'endangering' the other students... Can you believe him? Students who were having fun, were harming other students?" "Yeah! Ah' didn't believe it at first, but sure enough, it was real! Ah' don't like that unicorn one bit! " Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle nodded in agreement to Applebloom's statement. "You know... I think we should head back to the party... We've been exploring the whole school more than five times... Besides, I want to grab some more of that apple cider your sis' made for the party, Applebloom!" Scootaloo started walking in the general direction of where the party is located at, but turned around to see Applebloom and Sweetie Belle looking at each other, then back to her. "Well... you go on ahead, we still want to explore the place out..." Sweetie Belle said with her ears flopped down, with Applebloom nodding to her statement at Scootaloo, "We'll be right behind you! Don't you worry!" "Well... okay then, crusaders! See you later at the party!" Scootaloo said as she gallopped down the hallway leading to the party room. As Scootaloo enters the doorway to the party room, the light suddenly switches off, accompanied with some panicked gasps, including Scootaloo gasping at the sudden darkness. Though, a few seconds later, Scootaloo could see a spotlight in the middle of the room, with the pink mane mare, Pinkie Pie and the magenta mane mare, Starlight Glimmer, standing there with a humongous cake there, with a sign saying... 'Happy Birthday, Twilight Sparkle!'? "Huh... didn't know today was Twilight's birthday..." She mutters under her breath, as she starts walking at the edge of the room, hugging the wall, as she made her way to the foods and drinks table, dehydrated from exploring the school with her best friends. Though, before she could make it to the table, she noticed a mysterious light green coat unicorn with an orange striped mane standing at the corner of the room, wearing a dark robe over her. Her expression on her face... looked as if she was planning to do something... Scootaloo got rid of that thought out of her head, as she looked to the middle of the room, now noticing Twilight cutting the humongous birthday cake, accompanied with a loud clopping noise on the floor... Though, before Twilight could finish cutting the cake, a feminine voice could be heard through the cheering, yelling “EVERYPONY GET DOWN!” and suddenly, a beam of green magic struck the birthday cake, causing it to explode. "What the hay!? What happened!?" She looked back to where the green magic beam had came from, and it was no doubt, came from the mysterious unicorn mare she saw earlier, who was now trying to blend into the crowd of panicking ponies and creatures, running away. She shook her head, frustrated, as she made up her mind, and gallopped to the middle of the room where the cake had exploded. As soon as Scootaloo saw Twilight, who was with her friends, still covered with bits of the cake left, she shouted at the top of her lungs to overcome the sound of panicked screams of the ponies and creatures around her. "T-Twilight! You gotta hear me out! I got something to tell you!" Twilight immedietely turned around to face her, walking towards her. As she stops galloping, panting, Twilight asked, "What is it, Scootaloo? We're trying to find out who blew the cake up just now, so be quick with it." Scootaloo, who is still panting, looks up at Twilight with wide eyes, shouting. "That's just it! I think I just saw who did it! The one that blew your cake up!" Twilight, now wide eyed, looks a bit speechless, before shaking her head, "Woah woah woah, hold on... you saw who did it? Who was it!?" Twilight's other friends, except Pinkie Pie, now by her side, are looking at Scootaloo, wondering the same thing. "I-I don't know who she is, but she had a light green coat, with an orange striped mane... s-she was a unicorn... though, I never saw her before in Ponyville... she ran away through the crowd, from over there!" Scootaloo, still breathless, pointed to where she last saw the mysterious unicorn. "Well, come on, girls! We've got to catch her, before she gets away! Scootaloo, if you can, follow us quickly!" Twilight and the rest gallopped towards the direction of where Scootaloo had pointed, with herself gallopping after them. Once they exited the place, they scanned the area to see where this mysterious unicorn had gone, but can't seem to find her in the midst of the crowd... Though, something did catch Twilight's eye; a light green coat earth pony with a green mane, lying down at the end of the corridor, panting hard. "Over there! Come on!" They all make their way to where the pony is, now realising who the pony is. "Sandbar! Are you alright?" Twilight quickly stopped in front of Sandbar, helping him up. "What happened?" Sandbar, still panting, looks at Twilight and her friends, including Scootaloo.. "I-I tried to chase the pony who blew your cake up, Professor Twilight! I-I was chasing her, when she had tackled me down!" > 3. Sandbar > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5:00 p.m The party at Twilight's Friendship School is booming with ponies and creatures alike. Sandbar and the rest of his friends are chatting about at the foods and drinks table, enjoying the party as well as everypony and creature is. "Yona like this party! Party is loud and fun! Like back home!" Yona smiles brightly as she dances about in place, making her other friends laugh. Smolder stops laughing first, as she goes to grab a piece of ruby from a bowl filled with them by the table, eating it. "Okay, this party is pretty cool and all, but it's not that cool than the activities we dragons like to do back home. I'd give this party... maybe a seven out of ten score?" She shrugs, as she grabs another ruby, looking at her friends, who had stopped laughing at her dancing yak friend, now glaring at her. "What? I mean, we dragons like to do awesome and crazy stuffs! This party's pretty awesome, but it's not that crazy..." Sandbar shook his head, as he walks over to the table, grabbing a cup of apple cider. "Well, sorry to break it to you, but it's an awesome and crazy party! Like, almost all of Ponyville came over to celebrate this party, even the Wonderbolts came!" Sandbar took a sip from the drink, and puts the cup on the edge of the table, as some of his other friends nodded in agreement. "Okay, okay... but I still think it's not that crazy..." She rolls her eyes, as she grabs hold of the bowl of rubies in her claws, still munching on bits of the rubies she had eaten just now. Gallus flapped his wings, as he hovers above the rest of them all. "Y'know, I might go head back to my room early. This party really tired me out, even though it's been about an hour ago since it started..." He yawned, covering his beak with one of his claws, as the rest of his friends looks up at him. Ocellus, Yona, and Silverstream, as if on cue, yawns afterwards. "Yeah... I think I need to lie down... this is really tiring me out..." Ocellus heads over to the exit first, followed by Yona and Silverstream. Gallus starts to fly after them, but stops, looking back at Smolder and Sandbar. "You guys coming? Or are you gonna hang around a little bit more?" Sandbar and Smolder looks at each other for a second, before looking back at Gallus, nodding at him. "Heh, I thought so. Well, see you two tomorrow then at classes. Don't stay up too long, Professor Egghead's gonna teach us some important Loyalty lessons tomorrow morning." He turns back to the rest of the now tired-looking friends, and flew after them, heading to the exit. Smolder glances at Gallus and the others leaving, making sure they're far enough, before letting out a long and exhausting yawn, causing Sandbar to snicker at Smolder. "What? I didn't want to show any signs of me getting tired just because of a lame party..." She rolled her eyes, tossing another ruby into her mouth, crunching on it. Sandbar walks over to Smolder and hits her in the shoulders with one of his hooves, not too hard, smirking. "So you were enjoying the party, huh? Just admit it, Smolder... this party is awesome and crazy, eh?” Smolder’s cheeks flushed with red, flustered, before shaking her head at Sandbar. “O-Of course not! Us dragons don’t -“ She yawns again, covering her mouth with her claw. “- don’t... Okay, fine! I’m tired! You happy, Sandbar? Sheesh!” She crosses her arms, pouting a bit. Sandbar laughs out loud, placing his hoof around Smolder’s shoulders, standing on his hind legs barely. “It’s alright, I won’t tell no pony.” Smolder, now smirking, nudged Sandbar off her shoulders. “Oh, you sure...? How about a... oh, I don’t know... a Pinkie Promise?” She starts chuckling, as Sandbar stops laughing, glaring at her. “Oh, horseapples. You’re kidding me, right...?” He sighed, as Smolder shook her head, still chuckling. “Fine... Cross my heart and hope to fly -“ Sandbar flaps his arms around, mimicking flapping wings, “- stick a cupcake in my eye...” He places a hoof on one of his closed eyes, and sighed, rolling his eyes. “There. You happy now, Smolder?” Smolder stops chuckling, nodding at him. “Very. Now, I’m gonna head on outside and probably sleep in a tree or something. See you later, Sandbar.” Smolder starts flapping her wings, waving goodbye at Sandbar, as she flew over to the exit. He chuckles, as he grabs his cup of apple cider on the table, and chugs it down. “I hate that dragon sometimes...” He shook his head, as he refills the cup with apple cider, looking around at the party room, seeing ponies and creatures dancing and chatting with each other. He smiles as he saw Professor Twilight and the rest of his teachers at the middle of the room, dancing on the dance floor, having fun. "It's good to hang back and relax instead of studying... my mind needs some rest from learning too much..." He chuckles to himself, as he took another sip from the cup of apple cider. Though, suddenly, the lights in the room suddenly cuts off, panicking most ponies who were beside Sandbar. "What they hay? What's with the lights?" He looks up, not panicked, but confused as to why the lights suddenly switches off. Then, a few seconds later, a beam of light - a spotlight, is seen in the middle of the room. Sandbar looks at the spotlight, seeing Guidance Counselor Starlight Glimmer and Professor Pinkie Pie standing in the spotlight with a humongous cake with a sign saying 'Happy Birthday, Twilight Sparkle!'. Sandbar pondered for a moment, before stomping his hoof on the ground, gasping. "Oh yeah! Today's Professor Twilight's birthday! I forgot all about it!" He looks back at the cake, as he notices Professor Twilight now hugging both Guidance Counselor Starlight Glimmer and Professor Pinkie Pie. He chugs the apple cider he was still holding in his hooves, and places the cup back on the table, as he sings along the 'Happy Birthday' song with the rest of the crowd, accompanying Professor Twilight approaching her birthday cake. As she cuts the cake, Sandbar stomped his hooves following the rest of the crowd as well, excited for attending Professor Twilight's birthday. "Gosh, Gallus and the rest are totally missing out on this awesome special event! This is gonna be a crazy story I can share with them tomorrow morning!" Though, as he was talking to himself, he could hear a feminine voice yelling overhead in an alerting tone. “EVERYPONY GET DOWN!” Suddenly, a beam of green magic beam passed by next to him, and hits the birthday cake, causing it to explode and surprising everypony and creature in the room, making them run in panic. Sandbar looks back at where the magic beam came from, and he sees a mysterious unicorn mare wearing a dark robe trying to make her way out of the room. He pointed at the unicorn, shouting at the top of his lungs. "Hey! Get back here!" The unicorn turned back to him in surprise, looking at him directly. The mare had a light green coat with green eyes and have an orange striped mane drooping over her face. The unicorn immediately turned to the door, shoving ponies and creatures away, as she breaks into a gallop out of the room. Sandbar took off after her, carefully galloping over the shoved ponies and creatures, and gave chase. As he exits the room, he sees the robed unicorn mare running down the hall, and galloped after her, passing by ponies and creatures who were still panicking from the explosion. The hallway splits into two, and the mare turned hard left, and continues galloping. Though, as Sandbar turned hard left as well at the split, the unicorn mare stood in the middle of the hallway, blasting a magic beam at Sandbar. Luckily, Sandbar was quick on his hooves, and managed to jump over the beam. Though, he was suddenly tackled mid-air by the mare, knocking him back onto his back, painfully. The mare slowly approached Sandbar, smirking at him. "Stay away from me. You ponies don't want to mess with me." She turned around, as she broke into a gallop and turned another corner down the hallway they were in. Sandbar tried to stand up, but he was too tired to stand up. "Gotta... chase after her..." Panting, he still struggled to stand up. Though, he then heard a familiar voice from the hallway he came from. "Sandbar!" He turned his head to the hallway, and he sees the professors galloping towards him, followed by Scootaloo. "Are you alright?" Professor Twilight helps Sandbar up, who was still panting hard. Sandbar looks up at the rest of them, then back to Professor Twilight. "I-I tried to chase the pony who blew your cake up, Professor Twilight! I-I was chasing her, when she had tackled me down!" Professor Twilight gasped, surprised by the fact the unicorn mare tried to harm one of her students. "Okay, this is getting too out of hoof." She turned back to the rest of the professors, not including Professor Pinkie Pie, as she finishes helping Sandbar up. "Applejack, Fluttershy, you two go back to the party hall and try to calm everypony and creature down, while the rest of you search for students throughout the school and maybe try to find clues to where this mysterious unicorn had gone to. This is getting worse every second, so go now!" The other professors nodded, as Applejack and Fluttershy galloped back to the party room, whilst the others split up and went their separate directions to go find the students. Professor Twilight, still worried about her injured student, went back to help Sandbar, as Scootaloo walks up to him. "It's alright, Professor Twilight. I'm alright... I managed to evade her magic beam, but she tackled me as I evaded it. Though... something was amiss about that unicorn mare, Professor..." Scootaloo titled her head, a bit confused. "What do you mean? I mean, she's just a wicked unicorn mare who had ruined Twilight's birthday cake. What's amiss about that?" Professor Twilight lets go of Sandbar, and walks over to Scootaloo, wondering the same thing. Sandbar shook his head, as he sat on his flank. "No no... it wasn't how she acted... it was what she said... She said 'You ponies'... Professor Twilight, why did that mare say that...?" Professor Twilight placed her hoof on her chin, pondering about that thought. "Hmm... I have no idea, Sandbar... though, what's important at the moment is catching that mare..." Suddenly, a loud knock came from a window, accompanied with a muffled voice that can be heard, a mare shouting from outside. "Hey, Princess Twilight! Over here!" Professor Twilight looked over to the window, and saw a blue-mint coat unicorn standing outside the window. She immediately recognizes who the mare is. "Lyra? What're you doing out there?" She walks over to the window, pressing her hooves against it. Lyra pointed over to the second floor of the school, and as Professor Twilight turned her head to where she had pointed, she saw the mysterious mare gallop across the hallway on the second floor. "The mysterious mare is over there! I've been spying where she was heading to! Now, let's go chase after her!"