A birthday for Fluttershy, and this time, Twilight Sparkle is the hostess
A Life to share
Chapter 1- Preparations
It was a bright day in the town of Ponyville, and an even brighter day in the home a young sorceress. At the front of a large tree house, an oak door opened to reveal the young woman standing in the door way, holding a blue cake in her hands. The girl walked out wearing a long purple blouse, white shorts, and purple shoes over her feet. Her long purple hair, a hot pink steak running along it's side, flowed behind her as she walked out, closing the door and showing off her left arm, a horn piercing out from her tricep and strectching along her wrist. Farther up her arms, an image of a purple, six-pointed star was seen on both of her visible shoulders.
"Perfect," she said, as she looked upon the cake. "This is definitely the perfect cake for Fluttershy's birthday." The girl started to walk from the house and head deeper into the town.
"Hey Twilight, wait up," said the voice of a young boy running out of the house after Twilight.
"Come on Spike, we have to hurry," Twilight responded as the boy ran to her side.
Spike was a short boy with short spiky green hair to match. He wore a green and purple button down shirt, grey cargo pants and dark purple boots.
"Me? You're the one that spent three hours deciding which cake looked the best for the party. Do you even know what flavor you chose?" Spike asked.
"Of course, it's a blue raspberry-apple crumb cake." Responded Twilight. "I just know that every-pony is going to love it."
"If you say so, well bye." Spike started to walk away.
"Hey, Spike, where are you going?"
"I…uh... just thought that Rarity could use some help... um..."
"Getting the statue?" Twilight finished for the boy.
"Right, getting the statue. That thing is pretty heavy, so i figured that she could use a little muscle." Spike flexed to show of his non-existent muscles.
"Hmm… alright. Make sure to meet me back at Ponyville hall before the party starts, and make sure Fluttershy doesn't catch on."
"Right, no problem." Spike headed off to find Rarity while Twilight continued to Ponyville Town hall.
As Twilight arrived to the town hall, she wound up stopping suddenly, and loooking around in shock to see the Town Hall, which was suppose to be decorated for the party by now, was still only a group of empty tables and chairs.
"What in Equestria," she said. "What's going on, the decorating should have been done a long time ago. Pinkie!" Twilight yelled. "Pinkie, where are…?"
"SUPRISE!" a loud shout came from directly in front of Twilight, causing her to jump and fling the cake into the air.
"Oh no!" she threw out her left hand as the horn attached began to glow with a strong indigo aura. The same aura appeared around the cake as it halted in mid-air and floated back to her hands.
Twilight let out a sigh of relief as she looked towards the source of the 'surprise:' a girl who looked about Twilight's age and had a similar small build. She had curly hot-pink hair, a matching pink shirt with the picture of three balloons on it and rolled up sleeves showing off the same mark on her shoulders, tan short pants, and white slippers over long blue and white stripped socks.
"Pinkie!? What are you doing!?" Twilight shouted.
"Well duh, I'm practicing my SUPRISE…!" she yelled again, "…for the party today."
"(This again) Pinkie, I thought that you were going to decorate the town hall for the party? Don't you think that that is a little more important right now?"
"Of course, but I have plenty of time for that."
"Pinkie," Twilight looked at the clock over the hall's front door, "the party starts in five hours."
"Really? Time really flies when you're SURPRISE-ing"
"Since when do you forget a party?"
"What party is that?"
Twilight didn't bother answering again, in fears of her going crazy if she tried.
"Yo, Pinkie Pie," another voice came from farther in the Town hall.
A thin girl with a medium build came out of the back door and flew up to the girls. She had rainbow colored hair with brown goggles over it, a white under shirt, jean pants and a jean jacket with tares on the shoulders showing her mark of a cloud with rainbow lightning-bolts shooting from it. She didn't wear shoes, but instead had a small, but strong, set of wings on both of her ankles, allowing her to fly just over the ground.
"I think I have a better job for you," the girl said as she hovered next to Pinkie.
"Oh, hey Dashie. Do you have something that you need me to do too. If you do, just say the word and I'm there. I guarantee that you are not going to find a pony more ready for this than me. I'll be all-like…" Pinkie's word were halted by Dash's hand covering her mouth.
"Alright Pinkie, now this job is really important, so listen closely," the rainbow girl urged. "I need you to go find Fluttershy and make sure that she doesn't come to the Ponyville Town Hall for anything until we are ready for the party. Can you do that?"
"I'm on it," Pinkie stood at attention. "Now I just need to find her."
"That's the easy part, because she's right out there." Dash Pointed to one of the windows, revealing that there was another girl just outside.
This one was a slender girl with a large build and very long light-pink hair. She was wearing a pail yellow dress with a frilled top and no sleeves, showing off her three butterfly mark, and a long, short-cut bottom skirt. Just like Dash, she had no shoes and a set of wings around her ankles, but they looked much weaker than Dash's. She looked like she was looking for something.
"Dear Celestia, what is she doing here," Twilight said.
"Well Pinkie, you have your mission," said Dash.
"I'm on it," Pinkie responded as she headed out the door while the other two just waved her off. Pinkie quickly appeared in front of Fluttershy, spoke a few words and dragged her away.
"Well that should keep her busy for a while."
"But Rainbow Dash, how is the Town hall supposed to get decorated now?"
"Don't sweat it egghead, as soon as I'm done with my part, I'll get this place decorated in no time. After all, who could get this place done faster than me?"
"(The pony you just sent out to stall Fluttershy, that's who) Alright then," Twilight put the cake down on one of the nearby tables. "But wait, what about the food? Why is that not here yet?"
"Hey, don't look at me. Go check with AJ about that." Rainbow started to fly back through where she came. "I had better get back to work, good luck." She flew out of the room.
"(I told her to get our present, what work is she talking about?)" Twilight pushed the thought to the back of her head as she left herself to find her next friend, AJ.
A few moments later, Twilight arrived to a large farm, Home to apple trees as far as the eye could see. Near the core of the farm, where a large-red barn stood, a single female farm worker could be seen near one of the trees. She was a slender girl with a large build, similar to Fluttershy's, and arms and legs that were extremely toned. She wore a white tangtop under her tan vest that showed off her three-apples mark, a tan short-skirt and boots, and of course, a brown cow-girl hat over her long-blond hair, tied into a ponytail.
The farm girl kicking at the side of one of the trees, causing all the apples to fall into a group of bins waiting underneath with a freakish amount of precision, when she spotted her good friend walk up to her.
"Well howdy Twi'. What's up," the farmer said in a western accent.
"Howdy, Applejack. I need to ask you something." Twilight spoke back as she approached her friend.
"Yeah…" Applejack hit the tree with the back of her fist causing one more apple to fall right into her open hand, "…'bout what?" she took a bite.
"Well… by any chance do you remember the big party for Fluttershy? You know the one that's today?" Twilight urged the question.
"Can't wait for it."
"Right, by any chance, do you have the food, that I asked you to prepare, ready yet. We should probably get it to the hall soon."
"Shoot Twi', no worries. Ah got the food started early today, just take a look."
Applejack pointed to an area just outside of the barn house where a small red-haired girl and a well built orange-haired man were setting up a small table of food.
"We got your apple pies, apple fritters, the works," Applejack said with a sort of pride in her voice.
"Good, so the rest is inside right?" Twilight said while starting to calm down a bit.
"Nope, that's all I got for now." AJ's face hadn't changed.
"What!? Applejack there are going to be a lot of ponies at this party. We'll need a lot more food than just one table full."
"No worries, I'll get to makein' the rest as soon as I finish with the apple-bucking."
"AJ, couldn't the work wait until after the party?"
"Sorry Twilight, but we're behind now as is. If we don't get this done today, a lot of these apples could go bad before we even get a chance to get them off of the trees. No worries, I'll have plenty of time after words."
Twilight looked up at the sun and noticed that it was already in the center of the sky. There was really not that much time left before the promised time.
"Alright, I'll leave it to you then, just don't forget when the party is, alright," Twilight said with noticeable worry.
"Don't sweat it Twi', I'll remember. Hey Big Mac! Applebloom!" Applejack yelled over to her bother and sister near the table of food. "Get that food over to the Town Hall for me will ya, the rest should be ready by the time you get back."
"Yep," Big Mac answered back as he lifted the table of food up with little Applebloom grabbing the end and getting lifted with it as Big Mac started to walk toward the Town Hall.
Twilight was still worried that Applejack might not be ready when she said she would be. "(Is she trying to bite off more than she can chew?)" she thought. "(I hope this isn't apple bucking season all over again)." As she looked back up toward the sun, she noticed that the time was still ticking away. "(I'll just have to trust her.)" Twilight left to check on the rest of her friends.
Deep within Ponyville, a loud crash, like shattering glass, could be heard from the center of town. Twilight had been able to hear the sound from where she was in town and decided to head to the source. With the way things had been going today, Twilight was already assuming the worst had happened, and her fears were realived when she arrived to the designated area and found her young assistant, Spike, at the side of an older women and standing infront of a large pile of broken glass.
The women at Spike's side was a very thin figured women, with a medium build, and curled purple hair. Covering her pail body was a white, open-backed, long sleeved top with open shoulders (to show he diamonds mark) coated in jewels. Her legs were partly covered by a long white, slashed-skirt, with short black tights underneath. Her feet were covered by purple heels, and like Twilight, she had a small horn piercing through her left arm.
Twilight was looking grimly at the pieces of glass that littered the ground around their feet. She really didn't want to admit it, but she already knew what it was, and she knew she had to say it.
"Rarity, Spike," she said in dismay, "by any chance, is this pile of broken glass pieces, what's left of the glass statue I asked you two to pick up for the party?"
"Well…" Spike was scared to answer.
"I'm ashamed to say that it is Twilight, or at least it was, if you could call it such." Rarity said with an elegant demeanor, not even sounding sorry about what happened.
"What happened? Did you drop it?" Twilight asked.
"Not really," Spike said.
"This was no accident Twilight," Rarity admitted. "I put the poor thing out of its misery."
"What!? What do you mean put it out of it's misery?"
"See here Twilight, an event such as this is far too important to be sullied with such an atrocity. The poor thing seemed as though its arms were where its leg should have been."
"Spike?" Twilight looked towards her assistant.
"Well… I have to agree with Rarity."
"(Of course he does) Well what about the party?"
"Fear not Twilight, I shall handle it. I shall create a sculpture far superior to whatever you would call what we were carrying."
"Exactly, Rarity can fix this. Don't sweat it Twilight," Spike said as Twilight began looking increasingly worried again.
"Come now Spike, I will require your assistance." Rarity started to walk off and Spike quickly followed after her.
"Can she really finish in time." Twilight looked at the two as they walked out of sight. "Small chance of that, 'sigh' (okay, I guess we don't really need a glass statue. I just hope Rainbow finished decorating the hall, I better go check.)" She headed back towards Ponyville Town Hall.
As Twilight headed for the Town Hall again, she had run into possibly the last person that she wanted to see at the moment.
"Huh… oh, Fluttershy, nice to see you," she lied.
"Twilight, I'm happy that I finally found you," Fluttershy admitted in a quiet tone that was normal for her. "I have something very important that I have to tell you."
"Oh really, that's really interesting, well bye."
Twilight tried to get away from her as fast as she could. Fluttershy quickly flew in front of her to stop her from walking away.
"Twilight, where are you going?" she asked
"Well… you know, I have something's I have to do, and... some other things... I have to do... somewhere else." Twilight wasn't in anyway being sneaky.
Fluttershy wondered what was up with her, but before she could ask, someone found her again.
"Fluttershy, there you are, I've been looking all over for you silly," said Pinkie Pie.
"Oh look its Pinkie Pie, you two should hang out; you never get to do that with her anymore." Twilight tried to sneak away again.
"But Twilight," Fluttershy said, "I really have to tell you something,"
"Well why don't you just tell me then?" Pinkie answered
"Well… okay, earlier today, me and…" Fluttershy was stopped by Pinkie's hand over her mouth.
"Hold that thought. You'll have plenty of time to tell me on our way, we still have a lot of stuff to do birthday girl."
"What! But Pinkie, I really don't think I can handle anymore of those activities. Besides, I really have to talk to Twilight."
"There will be time for that later, but first lets have some fun." Pinkie started to drag Fluttershy to Celestia knows where to do Luna knows what. Fluttershy looked back towards Twilight, who was a good while away by now and got worried.
When Twilight opened the door to the Town Hall, she simple could not believe what she saw, again.
"No freakin' way…" The hall had still not been decorated, apart from a few lone streamers on the wall. "She hasn't done anything. How long can it possible take to pick up a present, especially for Rainbow Dash?" She thought back to when Dash had said that she was getting back to work. "What did she mean when she said that?"
Twilight quickly headed to the door she remembered Rainbow Dash had gone through. Once she got outside, she was able to find Dash pretty easily, messing with some large contraption in the middle of the Hall's courtyard. She was a little, actually alot, annoyed to see her working on it instead of doing what she promised and went over to see what was up.
"Rainbow Dash!" she screamed, with no response. "Rainbow!"
Rainbow Dash finally heard her and started to head her way. "Oh, hey Twilight, what's up?"
"Rainbow Dash, what are you doing? What is this thing?"
"This is none other than my 'Rainbow-Course Extreme'"
"You're what?"
"It's an obstacle course that I made for the party. When I was inside, I got to thinking, 'Fluttershy never seems to do anything exciting in her life,' so what better way to celebrate her birthday than giving her a little excitement? That's exactly what this will do."
"But Rainbow Dash, what about…?"
"I just got the finishing touches on it. Why don't you give it a try?"
"What? Not a chance, that doesn't look…"
"Oh don't be a wimp. I'll time you. Ready, go!" Rainbow Dash pushed Twilight across the starting line, causing the course to start.
At first Twilight just stood there.
"Look Rainbow, I'm not going to…"
Before Twilight could finish, she noticed a large shadow at her feet. When she looked up, she noticed a large hay stack about to fall right on top of her, and quickly dodged back to avoid it. Before she could get her footing back, more hay stacks began to fall and she was forced to run farther into the course to avoid them. The hay stopped falling after a while only for her to step between two walls that started flinging fruit at her once she did. She ran out as quickly as she could only to start slipping on a long wet mud slide which slid her in a crescent path to the next part.
"Rainbow Dash! this is starting to get a little…,"as she stepped forward, she noticed that the ground under her felt extremely loss and she knew what that meant. "Damn."
The ground gave out from under her as a trap door opened up, but she jumped out of the way before she fell in, only for more trap doors to open with every jump she made until she finally got to the end of the course and face planted across the line.
"Time, 5:28; not bad Twilight." Dash spoke to the downed girl. "Nothing to write home about, but not bad. So what did you think?"
Twilight looked up at her friend with a hateful stare. "What did I think? I think it was…"
"I know, it's still just too easy. Maybe I should add more hay, or maybe more pits." Rainbow pondered.
"Rainbow...," Twilight tried calming herself "...Are you trying to kill Fluttershy for her birthday?"
"Oh come on. if you can get through that course, I'm sure that she can do the same."
Twilight ignored the obvious insult, because she was already too annoyed. "Rainbow, what does this course have to do with the party? I thought that you said that you were going to decorate the Hall?"
"I am. Now that I'm done with my course, I'll be able to finish that hall in no time at all. No worries."
"By any chance did you remember to get the present we got Fluttershy at least?"
"Huh… oh the present, I knew I forgot something. I'll just pick up the present before going back to the Hall, no sweat."
"(No sweat, yeah right.)" Twilight started to walk away."
"Well, now I have to go pick up a present, cook the party's food, and re-order an expensive glass statue before the party starts in…" Twilight looked at the sun again," 1-hour."
"Why would you do all that?"
"Because every-pony else is apparently too busy with their own things to help me with them, that's why. Now I'm just going to have to do this on my own. It's no big deal, I'm sure I can get it done, I just have to hurry." Rainbow started to look at Twilight in confusion. "At least Fluttershy is still distracted. That will make things easier. Now first I should probably head to…"
"SURPRISE!" Pinkie popped up in front of Twilight again, knocking her back to the ground.
"Pinkie!" Twilight said, annoyed, again.
"Did I surprise you, cool, my surprise is ready. Wow, what happened to you?" Pinkie looked at Twilight, still covered in mud and fruit stains all over her body and clothing.
"It's a long story." Twilight looked over towards Rainbow for a second. "Pinkie, aren't you suppose to be stalling Fluttershy?"
"I was, but then I saw all of them." Pinkie pointed over towards a group of people heading for the town hall, waiting for the party to start. "They reminded me that I still had something important to do. My SURPRISE still needed a lot of work, so I needed to get back to that."
Twilight looked on at all of the party guests and got extremely worried. She wasted no more time and started to her first new task.
"I'm out of time," Twilight cried, "I have to do something right… ahhhh!" While she began running she had accidentally fallen into one of Rainbow Dash's pit falls.
Rainbow Dash looked down the pit to see if she was okay. "Twilight?" She shouted. "Are you okay down there?"
Twilight quickly teleported herself back to the top of the pit, startling Rainbow Dash into the air. "Rainbow, how in the wide world of Equestria did you make such a deep hole in such a short time?"
"Hard work and determination." Rainbow joked.
Twilight had no response. She looked around and asked, "Where'd Pinkie Pie go?"
"She went back to the Town Hall; she said that she still had something important to do."
"Probably more surprise practice." Twilight collapsed into a sitting position onto the ground. "'Sigh' this isn't going the way that I had planed at all."
"Calm down egghead, soon everyone will get here and we can celebrate Fluttershy's birthday right, party or not."
"I guess so, I just hope that nothing else goes wrong." As Twilight said that, the ground beneath the girls started to shake intensely. The quake was felt through the whole town and the source seemed to be within the hole by the girl's feet. "Why did I have to say something?"
To Be Continued