Chapter 4: Stress and Games
At the game section of the park, Falling Star and Twilight Sparkle are looking around to see what they want to play. Among the gaming booths is a ring toss where Flim and Flam are at.
Flim calls out, "Step right up! Don't be shy!"
"You like prizes? We got prizes!" Flam adds.
Curious, Twilight walks to the booth to see what it is.
Then Flim says, "Toss this ring onto any one of these bottles! Easiest game in the park!" as he toss a ring on to one of the bottles.
Twilight seems interested in the game, "Wow! This game does look easy!"
Flim and Flam smiles to see Twilight wanting to play the game.
"Would ya lookee here? Somebody who knows a thing or two about a thing or two!" Flim happily says.
Twilight reaches into her pocket to bring out tickets
Falling Star sighs, and says to Twilight, "Twilight, they're just giving ya the old bump-and-tingle to lure you in. These games are rigged."
Flim dramatically says, "Slanderous!"
"Libelous!" Flam adds.
But Twilight says, Do you know what's not rigged? The laws of physics. Assuming no air resistance and a vertical displacement of zero, horizontal displacement equals initial projectile velocity squared times the sine of twice the launch angle divided by the acceleration due to gravity."
"In other words, you think you can win a prize," Falling Star suspects rolling her eyes.
"Yep," Twilight answers.
Twilight walks to the booth and hands the men the tickets. Then they give her the ring. Twilight holds the ring in front of her and position the ring to where she wants to throw. Once she knows where the ring to show, she throws it. The ring is tossed to one of the jaws and spins around the rim.
Flim surprisingly says, "Oh, the suspense!"
"The drama!" Flam adds.
"I can't watch!" Flim surprisingly says, covering his eyes.
And then Flam screams, "Hold me!"
The ring begins to slow down, and about to come to a stop, but the ring pops right out.
"Errgh!" Twilight grunts in defeat.
Falling Star puts her hand on Twilight's shoulder, and says, "You were pretty close, though. Maybe we should try one more time?"
She then brings out her tickets. Flim and Flam are interested to see the two girls are going to play.
Walking back to the warehouse of the parade, Applejack, Aria, and Sonata are bringing out food drinks for themselves and for Rarity and Adagio. They both walk inside to see the two girls are working with the cowboy float.
Rarity is finishing working on the touching on the cowboy's outfit.
"Finished!" Rarity happily says in relief.
She brings out the plug, and happily shouts, "Let there be light!"
Rarity plugs in, and the lights on the cowboy outfit lights up.
Rarity sighs in relief, "Maybe tonight won't be a disaster after all."
Suddenly, the clothes' lights short out. Rarity is in shock with her pupils small. Then she shows a weak smile and twitches her eyes.
With a calm tone, Rarity says, "Will you, uh, excuse me for a moment?"
She then walks away as the cowboy is fanning out the smoke from the costume.
Once she reaches to the pile of clothes, she lands on it, and screams, "Of all the outlandish circumstances in the universe, why are all the wretched things happening to me?!"
Adagio walks to Rarity to see her having a tantrum. Applejack, Aria, and Sonata saw them, and walk over to the two with a smile
Applejack happily asks, "Hey, Rarity. How's…"
But Rarity panics and screams like she is going to snap, "I wasn't having a meltdown! Who said I was having a meltdown?! I am not having a meltdown!"
The four look at Rarity with a surprised expression.
Sonata nervously asks, "So, uh, how is the float doing?"
"We just finished it. We just need to get your costumes ready for tonight," Adagio answers with a concern tone.
Then Applejack calmly asks Rarity, "Have you seen Fluttershy? See, she went wanderin' off with Vignette and then just disappeared."
"Are you honestly asking me this right now?" Rarity asks, looking stressed.
"Well, we were wondering if you have seen her. We asked Vignette, but all she did is types on her phone, and bluntly answers no," Aria replies.
"And it's not like we don't trust Vignette, is that what you're thinkin'" Applejack adds.
Rarity says."We're in a giant fun park with fifty thousand people. 'Course you can't find her."
She gasp, and says, "Fifty thousand people!"
Then gasp again, "All looking at my costumes!"
"Uh Rarity, are you sure you or Adagio haven't seen Sonata around," Sonata asks, looking confused.
But Rarity quietly says in fright, "That's a hundred thousand individual eyeballs, girls."
The four girls blink their eyes with confused looks on their faces.
Adagio answers, "Honestly, Rarity and I haven't seen Fluttershy either. I don't think she even came here."
"Thanks Adagio. At least someone is concern about our friends," Adagio says firmly staring at Rarity.
Then Rarity screams, "Somebody get me a bigger pile of clothes to scream into!"
Two employees brings more clothes making a bigger pile then leaves. Rarity lays her front body at front and screams into the clothes. That cause the others look at her with disturbed looks.
"It's official. Rarity has totally lost it," Aria says.
"Yeah. She acts like she got a really bad hair day," Sonata agrees.
"I know. I never seen Rarity this stressed before," Adagio adds.
"But she doesn't seem all that concern about Fluttershy," Adagio says.
Then mutters, "She seems to be fine with Vignette."
"Uh Applejack, are you feeling alright? You've been acting very strange since you saw me, Sun and I with Vignette in the park," Adagio asks.
"It's nothin'. I'll go find Fluttershy my self," Applejack says with a serious and angry look on her face. Then marches off.
The Dazzlings look at Applejack with confused look in their faces.
Aria turns to Adagio, "Honestly Adagio, I think Applejack has a problem with Vignette. And to be honest, something about her has me bugged."
"How so?" Adagio asks, arching her eyebrow.
"She's one of those types who is so caught up in the media world than the real world. She's like Sonata with her tacos," Aria answers.
"I do admit. She does seem nice, but she seems to be only interested with our following. She doesn't talk to us much, and won't listen to us. In fact, I'm not even sure if she likes us," Sonata explains.
Adagio thinks about it, "Hmm, that does seem strange. But I'm sure if you give Vignette another chance, I'm sure she'll brighten up to you guys."
Aria and Sonata look at each other. Then turn back to their sister.
Aria sighs, "Alright, but just one chance."
"Okay," Sonata replies.
At the gaming area, Falling Star and Twilight are still trying to get a ring on the bottle. Falling Star throws the ring to the bottle, and it lands… but jumps out.
Frustrated, Falling Star screams, "Come on!"
Then slams her face on the stand. Twilight groans and take notes on how to beat the game. Flim and Flam takes the pile of tickets from the table and puts them inside the booth.
Falling Star lifts her head up with a glare of frustration, "All right! What's next? What are we doing? How are we going to win this?!"
After writing her notices, and with a grin explains while showing the notices to everyone, "Guess who just mapped out a perfect projectile trajectory taking into account propulsion, gravity, and aerodynamic drag! This gal! Betcha thought I forgot about friction, air drag, and veering initial velocities. Well, guess what. I didn't!"
"What she said!" Falling Star quickly adds.
Flim and Flam kind of don't understand all that talk
Flim says, "You know what they say…"
"Hundredth time's the charm," Flam adds.
After paying the tickets, Twilight adjust Falling Star possession to where it needs to go. Falling Star prepares herself to throw it to the bottle.
But Applejack comes over, and happily shouts, "Howdy, y'all!"
That cause Falling Star to lose her aim, and throws it somewhere else. First it hits the bell on the strength bell. Then hits a stuffed animal. Finally, it hits an ice cream sundae, and covers a little boy with it.
Both girls turns around, and angrily schools."Applejack!"
Applejack leans back a little, and apologize, "Oh. Sorry."
Then asks, Have you seen Fluttershy? Nobody's seen her all afternoon. Her phone's goin' straight to voicemail. I keep thinkin' somethin' real bad mighta happened.
Falling Star chuckles, and says, "Lighten up, Applejack. There's not always a villain with Equestrian magic out to get us."
Twilight writes a quick note in her notebook, and asks, "On a side note, do you have tickets we could borrow? Kinda used 'em all."
Applejack rolls her eyes, and gives them her tickets. Falling Star grabs them, and rings them over a bit.
She mutters in a serious tone, "I don't like to lose."
At the roller coaster, Rainbow is still nervous about getting back on. She turns to see Applejack walking towards her.
Rainbow says in a nervous tone, "Applejack! Hey! I was just about to ride this thing for, like, the tenth time already!"
A little girls fake coughs, knowing that is not true.
Rainbow shushes her, "Shhh! Nothin' outta you!"
"Uh, have you seen Fluttershy anywhere?" Applejack asks.
"Oh, she was with me, super scared of this ride, but I think she went off with Vignette," Rainbow answers as she lies about the roller coaster experience.
"Okay. Thanks," Applejack replies, then leaves the scene.
As Applejack leaves, Rainbow calls out, "If you see her, tell her she still owes me a rollercoaster ride!"
She then looks around with a fright.
Applejack then arrives at the bumper car ride. She looks over the map, and wonders where else she can look for Fluttershy.
Suddenly one one whistle, and a familiar hand pulls down the map to reveal Pinkie's face.
Pinkie screams, "No frowning allowed! Hmmm…"
Applejack looks to see Pinkie is wearing a weird looking outfits that is covered in dirt and old food.
"As Fun Inspector, I'm a little concerned about what I'm seeing here," Pinkie says, throwing the map away.
Confused, Applejack asks, "Pinkie Pie? Don't tell me you're workin' for the park now, too."
Pinkie laughs, and explains, "No, silly! Fun Inspectors are freelance! And don't get paid! And totally made up by me earlier today when I saw a little girl crying because she dropped her ice cream, and I said to myself, 'Pinkie Pie, this place isn't as fun as it could be!'"
Then she says, showing off her outfit, "Do you like the uniform? I made it out of things I found in the trash, but you can't even tell!"
Pinkie takes the lollipop that is sticking from her shirt, and about to eat it.
Apple just is disgusted to see Pinkie about to eat the lollipop, "Geh, uhhh…"
She takes the lollipop away, and asks, "So, have you seen Fluttershy anywhere?"
"Nope. But I have seen my Deputy Fun Inspector!" Pinkie answers, and puts a pink pin with a star on it attached to a ribbon on Applejack.
She gives Applejack a hug, and happily says, "Ta-da! Now you have all access to the entire park, Deputy Fun Inspector!"
Pinkie grabs a piece of candy from her hair and licks it. Applejack is kind of disgusted by it.
At the Hearts and Hooves Tunnel of Love, Sun and Wire Wolf walk out of the ride with smiles on their faces.
"That was a really nice ride," Sun complements.
"Yeah. It was relaxing, and… I'm glad I get to be with you," Wire Wolf says.
Sun blushes, "And I too, Wire Wolf."
The two give each other a hug.
Applejack walks to see the two brining their romantic relationship up a little.
Applejack walks to the two, and asks, "Hey you two, how was your ride?"
"It was nice," Sun answers with her cheeks blush.
"The ride sure have some nice music, and robot people falling in love," Wire Wolf adds.
"Glad to see you two are having a good time, but I can't find Fluttershy. Have you seen her?" Applejack asks.
"Sorry Applejack, we just got off the ride so we haven't seen her," Sun answers.
"Have you asked the others?" Wire Wolf questions.
"Falling Star and Twilight are too busy playing a ring toss game. Adagio and Rarity are too busy working. Rainbow is busy riding a roller coaster. And Pinkie is being a Fun Inspector, and apparently made me her deputy," Applejack answers.
Sun giggles, "That's Pinkie Pie."
Then she asks, "Have you asked Vignette?"
"Aria and Sonata asked, but she is pretty useless. She kept calling away on her phone, and barely look at us," Applejack answers, sounding annoyed.
Then mutters, "Don't know what Rarity sees in that girl."
"Applejack, are you alright? You look upset," Sun asks.
"No! I'm just fine," Applejack angrily stomps off with a scowl look on her face.
Close to the swings ride, Aria and Sonata are looking for Fluttershy. So far, they have not seen her at all.
"Where is she?" Sonata asks.
"I have no clue," Aria answers.
"Hi girls," A familiar voice says.
The two sisters look to see Vignette walking towards her.
"Hi Vignette," Sonata happily waves.
"Hey," Aria mutters.
Vignette happily says, "I was just looking for you. I just come up with a way for you to B.Y.B.B, Be Yourself But Better. I picture Aria as a cute girl. You will get to wear a frilly skirt, an adorable blouse, slip on shoes, white tights, and wearing pink ribbons on your pigtails. As for Sonata, she will be a gothic girl. Wearing a black dress with white laces, frills on the dress and laces, striped stockings with mary janes, and a borrett."
Aria and Sonata look at Vignette with disturbed and confused expressions on her face.
"Uh, I… I don't like to be goth," Sonata replies.
Aria angrily glares at Vignette, "And I so do not want to wear ribbons on my hair. How old do you think I am, five years old."
"Fine. you girls can be yourself, or whatever you like. I just want to take a picture of you two," Vignette says, doesn't seem pleased.
She holds out the phone, and says, "Say 'cheese'"
Before the girls can respond, Vignette presses the button on her phone, and digitalized the two sisters into her phone.
Aria and Sonata find themselves in some kind of white void.
"What just happen?" Sonata asks in shock.
"I think that rotten social media star trapped us in her phone," Aria angrily answers.
"Aria? Sonata?" A familiar shy voice questions.
The two girls turn to see Fluttershy who is in the void with them, and a bowl of salad.
"Fluttershy, we found you?" Sonata happily cheers.
"Yeah. Except we're trapped in here," Aria sternly replies.
"Seems like it," Fluttershy worriedly replies.
"But how?" Sonata asks.
"Her phone must have Equestrian Magic, and who knows what she can use with it," Aria answers.
"I don't want to know what it can do, but I'm sure that it's going to be really bad. And since we're trapped in here," Fluttershy scaredly adds.
Sonata looks at the salad, and asks, "Are you going to eat that? I could really use a stress salad right now."
Aria facepalm her face in reply.