MLP: The Prank of the Century. Part 1
April Fool's Day had come once again to the city of Ponyville, and the typically quiet streets were fraught with chaotic activities. Ponies, pegasi and unicorns alike were running rampant through the streets, stalking upon thatch rooftops and lurking behind street corners, each with the intent to victimize others and laugh at their misfortune.
All citizens within Ponyville were having the time of their lives enacting humiliating practical jokes on their rivals, only for the rivals to eventually exact their revenge. However, as malicious in nature as these jokes and pranks seemed, as well as the resulting misfortune, the heart of the holiday remained in its rightful place.
But of all the ponies that took pride in their devious deeds during this holiday, two had managed to indirectly create the April Fools annual competition. The first was Rainbow Dash, the competitive and athletic pegasus with her eye on competing against the greatest pranksters in Ponyville for the title.
Her greatest rival, Pinkie Pie, was a pony with an undying sense of joy, even in her lowest of moments. Her love of all things both comedic and peculiar has made her the bane of many pranksters who would challenge her. This pair had juggled the title for years, as both seems evenly matched.
This particular year, Rainbow Dash had gained the allegiance of the tomboy pony Applejack and the deliberate unicorn Twilight in her current feud against Pinkie Pie. The power-hungry pegasus was currently over-watching the streets from the air, while remaining unseen from sight of pedestrians.
Applejack was sneaking within alleyways with a similar intent, lurking in the shadows with an array of practical tools holstered in her possession. Twilight, for her part, had finally spotted Pinkie Pie, and the rest of the group joined her to oversee the situation. They watched from a rooftop as to remain unseen by their rival.
The excitable Pinkie Pie and the deliberate Fluttershy were walking together along the market streets, Pinkie Pie gazing constantly around for any prying eyes. She was aware of Rainbow Dash's alliance and had become even more cautious. Fluttershy on the other hand, had grown paranoid from the quiet atmosphere, expectant of a sudden ambush from the blue pegasus.
Pinkie jumped and hid behind a corner and Fluttershy quickly followed her, watching Pinkie Pie emerge from behind a lamppost. Fluttershy considered this anomaly Pinkie Pie had performed, thinking "I have to ask her how she does that later".
Suddenly, before the duo could react, the trio of spies had already sprung their ambush. Rainbow Dash soared down from the air and prepared to dump a bucket of ice water upon Pinkie Pie. The pink party-animal turned to her and shouted "I knew it! I knew we were being followed!" before retrieving a pie and tossing at the pegasus with great accuracy.
Rainbow was hit square in the face with the pastry, before she immediately removed it and yelled "Ugh! What the heck was in that?! It tastes like dirt". Pinkie Pie yelled "There's a good reason for that, Dashie!" and Rainbow Dash's cheeks flushed red with frustration.
For the following ten minutes, a series of chaotic events occurred.
Rainbow dropped her bucket of ice water when she was hit by Pinkie Pie's mud pie, causing the bucket and its contents to accidentally fall and land on Applejack, who was paralyzed from the intense cold as a result. Rarity managed to find the fine and joined the fray, splashing a can of yellow paint on Rainbow Dash's entire body. In a panic, Twilight spotted Rainbow and doused her with a pair of powder bombs, mistaking her for Fluttershy in a fit of impulse.
Eventually, the dust settled and all six girls were completely exhausted from their skirmish, either laying in the streets or attempting to clean themselves off. Fluttershy, Rarity and Applejack rested along the road catching their breath, or in Applejack's case, recuperating from the ice cold water under the sun's heat.
Rainbow Dash spent was cleaning the powder and paint off her body, using the water from a nearby tap to aid her. Pinkie Pie, during the madness, had attempted to grab Rainbow Dash's firecrackers, but the latter took what remained of her mud pie and threw it back, covering much of Pinkie Pie head and soaking into her hair.
Twilight, the first to recover from their encounter, approached the others and announced "Well, since the party seems to be over, you wanna go get something to eat?" After removing the last of the mud from her hair, Pinkie Pie smiled and replied "Oh, great! I'm starving!"
She then turned to Rainbow Dash with an expectant gaze, asking "What do you say, Dash? Truce?" The pegasus sighed indifferently and answered "Okay, we can have a truce. I think this was all a tie anyway" before the six of them made their way to the café.
As they walked, Rainbow Dash walked alongside Applejack and asked, "Do the others know about it yet?" Applejack shook her head, prompting Rainbow Dash to sigh and conclude "We'll tell them after Pinkie Pie has headed home".
After ten minutes of feasting in the café, the group left and prepared to part ways. "Seeya tomorrow night, girls!" Pinkie called to them as she took her leave, Rainbow dash turning to say, "Sure thing! I bet you more will vote for me as winner!" Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes and retorted "Fat chance!" before she bounded her way around the street corner.
Once Pinkie Pie was out of their line of sight, Applejack and Rainbow Dash called Rarity and Fluttershy outside and Twilight informed the delinquent pair "We've thought about it, Rainbow. We'd love to help!" Rainbow clapped her hooves together and smiled mischievously, "Perfect. Everypony in Ponyville is willing to help. We can pull this off easily!"
"And best of all, she doesn't suspect as thing" Applejack added before each of them waved goodbye to eachother. Rainbow Dash remained outside the café, a smug grin stretching across her cheeks. "You may have high hopes now, Pinkie Pie. But come tomorrow…" she muttered to herself.
"You'll be the punchline to the Prank of the Century!"
The next day, Pinkie Pie felt unwilling to leave her bed, having been greatly fatigued from yesterday's events.
She thought to herself "It's not like I have anything to do today, anyway…" before furrowing her eyebrows and grimacing, "Wow. Listen to yourself, Pinkie. We can't just lounge around like this for a whole morning!"
From this encouragement, she dragged herself from her bed and fell to the floor with a 'Thud!', before she stumbled her way down her staircase. "I might just get something to eat at the café for this morning" she considered, "Maybe I can just be a little lazy for today".
By this time, she'd pushed her way through her front door and inhaled the surrounding air, instantly intoxicated by the aroma of sweets from her Pastry Shop on Sugarcube Corner. She thought of Mr. and Mrs. Cake, her employers and guardians, and how they had left Sugarcube Corner under her surveillance whilst they were on their business trip.
She could not remember how long they'd be gone or when they'd be returning, though she felt a sense of honor in maintaining their pastry shop on their lengthy behalf. With a smile, she bounded her way down the street and made her way for the café.
"I'll bet the others will be there too!" she thought to herself giddily as she bounded her way through the streets without a care, determined to enjoy her morning before it would inevitably pass. Finally, she had the café in her sights, her mouth practically watering with anticipation.
However, as she approached the main entrance, she was confused as to find the café completely vacant, despite the lack of a 'Closed' sign. She peered into the nearby window and was to confirm her suspicions, finding no customers or staff in sight. "Weird…" she muttered, "They're always open on weekends".
By this time, realization finally dawned on her.
She looked over the streets and through the windows of the nearby homes and buildings; try as she may, she couldn't find anypony where they would normally reside. All shops seemed devoid of workers or customers, all homes were emptied of their residences, and the streets had been cleared of pedestrians; this place had become nothing more than a ghost town.
Pinkie Pie, taken aback by the ominous qualities that Ponyville now possessed, wondered what this discovery could mean. "Did I miss a memo or something? Maybe their meeting at the Town Hall" she thought to herself.
After a short journey, she arrived at the Town Hall, already offset by the lack of guards at the main entrance. From outside, she could see no commotion, nor could she hear any emanating from within the Town Hall itself. Overwhelmed with curiosity, she peered through the main entrances glass window, and could see nothing but darkness.
Nopony. No staff, no form of security personnel; everypony appeared to have vanished into thin air, leaving no evidence or clue of their existence. Her ears lowered as she turned away to take her leave, her list of possible explanations for this anomaly slowly dwindling.
Entire hours passed by as Pinkie continued her search for sentient life within this ghost town, finally exhausting every possible location the citizens of Ponyville could reside. From this realization, Pinkie Pie had begun to develop a deep sense of loneliness from solitude, unable to fathom the reasoning behind their disappearance.
One by one, she visited each of her friends' houses in search for them, only to find each abode entirely vacant with no trace of inhabitance. Finding herself in the center of the market district once again, Pinkie Pie attempted to think of any plausible explanation for this phenomenon, only to be left clueless upon every attempt.
Within the early afternoon, she eventually ceased searching and simply wandered through the streets, feeling incredibly lonely and stranded, hoping to herself that somepony may happen to find her and explain this bizarre occurrence. "ARRGH! WHAT IS GOING ON?!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, frustration and fear welling and clouding rational thought.
"IS ANYPONY OUT THERE!" she called out, her voice echoing thought the vacant and otherwise silent streets of the ghost town. She turned and stopped in the middle of the street, gasping and panting heavily for control of her senses. She swung her head in different directions and ran towards the first building she could see, flinging the door open and yelling "Hello?! Is anypony here!?"
As she should've expected, no form of response could be heard. Pinkie Pie was undoubtedly panicking by this point, trembling fearfully at the thought of solitude, even abandonment. She spun around and staggered through the exit before she halted in the center of the street, her panting only having grown heavier and more desperate as time passed. Finally, in a final fit of hysteria, she stared upwards to the sky and raised her arms dramatically.
"WHERE IS EVERYPONY!?"
Silence. Nothing but silence had answered.
All at once, Pinkie lost all hope and began to ponder the worst possibilities for this terrifying situation. Pinkie's arms dropped to her sides as her head lowered miserably, her mind reeling with questions. She closed her eyes as tears began welling from her morbid thoughts.
Why did everypony leave? Why was she the only pony here? Did they leave to go somewhere? Why wouldn't they tell her? Did they leave her by herself on purpose? Did she do something wrong? Was there something wrong with her?
"Is there something wrong… with me?" she whispered to herself.
Unbeknownst to her, two pairs of observing eyes viewed this degrading scene, each widened in awe of its unbelievable outcome. Upon a nearby rooftop, hidden within the thatch roof, where Applejack's sister Applebloom and her friend Scootaloo.
"Well… I wasn't expecting that" Scootaloo whispered as she observed Pinkie Pie's weeping. "No kidding. I didn't think she'd take it so seriously" Applebloom replied, before considering her statement and asking "But then again, how else would anypony have reacted to something like this?"
After lowering the lifted section of the roof, Applebloom grimaced "I don't think we thought this through enough".
By nightfall, Pinkie Pie slowly staggered her way through the streets towards the front door of her home. By this time, she had all but accepted her solitude and was prepared to spend the rest of her life alone. Despite this, she still remained baffled as to why this would happen to begin with, but believed that she would never uncover the reason.
Suddenly, as she approached her front door and twisted the doorknob, she heard a sound that was incredibly familiar to her, but was definitely the last sound she expected to hear. The very rhythm of it sent chills up and down Pinkie Pie's spine.
Laughter.
She flung the door open and raced upstairs to her bedroom, the sound of laughter growing ever louder all the while. She twisted the knob on her door and it slowly creaked open, and the sight she was met with was too much for her to comprehend.
All of her friends were giggling to themselves, before they all noticed her an all shouted "Surprise!" in unison. Pinkie Pie's heart skipped a beat from this revelation, "You… Where did you all go? Where did everypony go?" she exclaimed. Rainbow Dash stepped forward and answered "We were hiding of course, silly! Everypony in Ponyville was!"
Pinkie Pie was left speechless, and all of her friends laughed at her expression. "I'm gonna have that prize for sure! This was the greatest prank of all time" Rainbow Dash smugly declared, "What did you think, Pinkie? Did we get you?"
The sight they witnessed instead grinded their party to a shocking halt.
Pinkie Pie sat on the floor, her eyes welling with tears as she stared at the ground, clearly in a state of shock. Her friends stared in surprise before Applejack approached her, asking "Hey Pinkie, ya feelin' alright?"
Pinkie's eyes suddenly shot open and her cheeks flushed red with rage.
"AM I ALRIGHT!?" she screamed as she leapt to her hooves, "YOU ALL ALMOST SCARED ME TO DEATH! WHY WOULD YOU DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT TO ME!?"
Her friends stood dumbfounded by this unexpected turn of events.
"THAT WAS HORRIBLE! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW HORRIBLE THAT WAS! I THOUGHT THAT EVERYPONY LEFT ME HERE ALONE!"
Pinkie's meltdown was soon replaced with sorrow, as her tears could be seen dripping from her cheeks. "You thought this would be funny to me? There is never anything funny about losing your friends!" she sniffed distraughtly, her eyes glistening with misery. Unable to bare this scene, Applejack suddenly intervened, "But ya didn't lose us, Pinkie! We're right here for ya!".
Pinkie Pie tilted her head up towards her friends with her eyes fixed upon them.
"Get out" she sneered, having sucked the party dry of its original intended joy by this point.
"Pinkie Pie?" Rainbow Dash whispered under her breath.
"I said get out! Now!" she snarled, gritting her teeth tightly, "I've had enough of my 'friends' for one day".
An ominous silence lingered within the bedroom. But, not wanting to upset her any further, her friends reluctantly obliged and left one by one, swiftly descending to the first floor and exiting through the front door. All the while, Pinkie Pie followed from behind for reassurance of their departure.
Rainbow Dash was the last to leave; but before doing so, she turned to Pinkie Pie and said "Hey… Pinkie Pie. Their having the final vote in the Town Hall… But you don't have to come if you don't want to".
With that, she lay an invitation letter on the floor, before stepping outside and shutting the door behind her.
Pinkie Pie stared at the letter before picking it up to examine it. It was addressed to her, and the envelope was a promising colour of pink. Her smile began to return for the first time today as she curiously pealed the seel open and pulled the note out to read it.
'BOOM!'
Confetti and powder immediately flew in random directions, covering both Pinkie Pie and the furniture around her. She stared down at the letter in utter disbelief; a simple text reading 'This message will self-destruct before you'll be able to read it!' and an expended wick could be seen.
Just another joke. Was this all just one big joke?
Her friends witnessed this from outside the window, before turning to stare angrily at Rainbow Dash. "What was that!?" Applejack questioned sternly. Rainbow Dash backed away sheepishly before answering "I… thought it would cheer her up". Applejack then lectured "It was bad enough with that prank of yars, but that there was just mean".
The argument was suddenly interrupted by a piercing scream from within the house.
Suddenly, before they could react, something came flying through the air and crashed through the window, before landing a fair distance from the store.
"Should we go back inside ta-" Applejack began, before Twilight interrupted "No. If she was angry with us before, she'll really not want to see us now" before turning to glare viciously at the blue pegasus, who squirmed nervously.
"I think we should go" Rarity offered before backing away from the store. A chilling atmosphere had enveloped the air around them as they regrettably followed Rarity's advice and quickly departed from the scene.
Meanwhile, from within the pastry shop, Pinkie Pie simply sat on the floor of her bedroom, unmoving as her eyes watered relentlessly. She was no longer simply crying and was openly sobbing, bawling over all the misfortune she had been exposed to. She could not fathom the reasons for such a cruel joke.
Why would her own fiends do something so mean to her? Is it really so funny to see her so miserable when bad things happened to her? Did they really think she was that useless?
This last thought was what started it, as it set off a chain reaction that altered Pinkie Pie's outlook on the world entirely.
Her hair fell over her shoulders, becoming lank.
To be continued…