Episode 8
"It's Time to Stop"
Surprise after surprise. It seems that Pinkie Pie just isn't getting enough of making people excited over the end of a grading quarter. Can't really blame her, she's been a bit hyperactive since...who knows how long ago.
But, while she's excited, the rest of the students doesn't seem to be caring about the end of first quarter. And Pinkie, for some reason, doesn't catch why. Applejack and Rarity have dealt with her before, but now it's really time to teach her when it's appropriate to make a celebration. Because she really needs to stop.
[Beginning of Episode]
Rainbow bursts through the door of her first period class, with the teacher yet to arrive. It is 7:49, plenty of time to do whatever she likes to do.
"Alright! I am early to school today," Rainbow said as she opens the door. She then inspects her watch to look at the time. "And it looks like I'm 11 minutes early. Phew! Thank goodness I took that jog. I feel like I'm becoming a bit faster every day. Am I talking to myself here? Well, I don't have to worry. I'll have plenty of time to work on...whatever I have shortly before the school day starts." Rainbow then takes a deep breath and takes a step into the classroom. To her surprise, she hears a suspicious clicking sound as soon as she steps into the room.
"What the-" Rainbow said as she looks down at her feet. Then, out from the ground, streamers and confetti pop up from the ground, startling Rainbow and making her fall back. "Ow..." Rainbow said as se rubbed her bottom. "What was that? Confetti being secretly planted into the floor? How did I not notice that? Who did that?"
"Surprise!" Pinkie said, yelling into Rainbow's ears and startling her further.
"Gah!" Rainbow shrieked.
"Hey, do you know what's coming to an end?" Pinkie asks.
Rainbow gets up and wipes the dust off of her arms. "What's about to end?" she asks. "Let's hope that it's not the world that's ending. That was so last millennia.
"First Quarter is about to end in a few days!" Pinkie said with excitement. "Are you excited? Because I'm planning a party at my house the weekend of the date! Hey, do you want to come?"
Rainbow glared at Pinkie with suspicious. "A party? For a simple day?" she asks before stepping into the classroom. "Please! My parents are very enthusiastic about me and I don't see them giving me a celebration after every single achievement that I made. No really, though. They did do that at one point."
"Oh! I almost forgot!" Pinkie said as something popped into her head. "I also planted confetti launchers at all of your friend's classrooms!"
This made Rainbow stop in her tracks. She looks back at Pinkie with a shocked look on her face. "What did you day?" she asks.
Thunder and Applejack are just about to enter the cooking class after a few minutes of conversation. They too were a bit early.
"So when are you considering joining Rainbow's team?" Applejack asks. "You and Rainbow seem to be close friends. Why aren't you a member?"
"Oh, please!" Thunder replies. "That was the proto-Rainboom days. The three of us don't actually consider ourselves a team. More of a...hangout group. Still, me hanging out with a bunch of girls? That looks a bit more awkward than last year. So unless Rainbow personally invites me, I'm not joining in. Okay?"
"Uhh, I understand Mr. Lane," Applejack replies.
Thunder then opens the door leading into the classroom. To his surprise, the door is unlocked and there's not a party cannon waiting to fire upon him.
"Huh? No party cannons?" Thunder observes. "Strange. Those confetti poppers are usually behind this door waiting to pop on either of us. Guess it's one of those days where she decides not to." He then takes a stop forward, activating a hidden plate which makes a click sound. Then, the ground explodes into a wall of confetti, creating a noise that startles them both.
"Aww, what's her plan this time?" Applejack said, looking at the mess on the floor. "Ah, she decided to go for throwing confetti at us again! But not in the way that we'd expect."
"Cleaning this place up will be a chore," Thunder comments. "Might take a while before the class even gets a chance to start."
Fluttershy walks up to her locker and opens it up. To her surprise, several small confetti bombs explode and sends a stream of confetti coupled with white smoke. Fluttershy is startled and runs down the hallway. Soon after, an unaware student walks by and slips on the confetti on the ground.
Rarity opens the door to her first classroom and steps in, only to be greeted with a wall of confetti flying at her.
"Ahh! My hair!' Rarity cried, touching her hair only to discover that some of the confetti has stick to her hair. "It's tarnished!" Knowing that this is confetti, she knew exactly who to blame. "Pinkie! How dare you do this to me?"
Meanwhile, Pinkie happily skips around the hallways, smiling over the party she's about to throw at the end of the grading quarter. "Hahaha!" she gleefully chuckles. "This party is going to be so exciting! I'll bet all of my friends will come!"
She approaches her locker, opens it up, and is greeted with a bunch of confetti flying at her face. "I just pranked myself," she said in a not-happy tone.
As the day progresses, the students keep on getting themselves being blasted by confetti. Some even got invitations to a party being hosted at Pinkie's house. Naturally, since nobody sees the last day of first quarter as a significant date (they experience this four times a school year, with the last having the added bonus of being the last day of school), they just toss the invitations to the nearest recycling bin.
The confetti problem was so bad that Rainbow pretty much spent the entirety of her gym class cleaning up the hallways of the school of confetti. People kept on slipping on them, it's getting distracting, and it'll be a nightmare for the custodians that clean up the school every evening. She pretty much did this for the sake of everyone. And it was a tiring process.
Rainbow took a break a few minutes in and leans on a nearby wall, wiping the sweat off of her face. As she tries to cool off...
"Hey, Rainbow!" Pinkie said, startling her friend.
"Gah!" Rainbow yelped as she fell on her side at the surprise appearance of Pinkie. She then gets up, clamping on the arm that she fell on. Then, she looks at Pinkie. "Oh, it's you Pinkie. You startled me again. Hey, what are you doing out here in the hallway? Aren't you supposed to be in class? Also, mind if you get out of my way? I'm trying to clean up the hallways that are a mess because of what you did!"
"Do you want to join my first quarter party?" Pinkie asked. "Come on, it'll be fun! I know you want too!"
"Tsk," Rainbow replied. "A party? For a day like that?" She then begins to step away from Pinkie. "I'm not coming to a party for a day as unmemorable as the end of a grading quarter. No one in the school is excited."
"What?" Pinkie asked, confused by this. "Why not?"
Rainbow then turns around. "Well, then, just look around you," she answers. "Did you see anyone else excited for a day like that?"
"Yes, I-" Pinkie began to answer, but then stop herself to think. Who in this school is really that excited for a day as mundane as the end of a quarter.
"Exactly," Rainbow replies, taking Pinkie's silence as a no. "Forget the party, Pinkie. No one is going to attend your party today. No one is going to care about a day that they've experienced several times in their lives. And listen, if you're going to host a party every other week, who's going to care about any of them? Parties are supposed to be special, so don't waste them on such...mundane days such as the end of the first quarter. And don't even think about blasting confetti at everyone's face. It's annoying, it creates a mess, and not everyone finds it funny. Face it, Pinkie. No one is going to attend your party."
As Rainbow spoke, Pinkie began to tear up, more and more as the words hit her. She transformed from her cheerful, happy self into a whimpering crybaby that just can't get over it.
"You're...you're a meanie!" Pinkie cried. "How dare you insult my party planning skills? Face it Rainbow. People will attend my party. I will have an audience. And you will not stop me from doing it!" She then stomps away.
"Pinkie! Come back!" Rainbow yelled. No response came from Pinkie. Rainbow lets out a sigh. "Oh, the joys of being the leader of a team where half of your members are your new friends." After a while, Rainbow continued to clean up the hallways. She really needs to put come of the effort of the custodians so that the hallways will be devoid of confetti the next day.
Later in the day, something unusual happened during lunch: Rainbow was not sitting with the rest of her teammates. Instead, she decided to sit next to Thunder, who appears to be having trouble doing...something. They're not sure.
"Hey, why isn't Rainbow here?" Fluttershy notices as she sits down next to her friends.
"She looks grumpy when she walked into the cafeteria," Applejack replied. "She won't reveal why."
This causes Pinkie to threw a fitting rage. "Why? WHY?" she screams. "I'll tell you why! I encountered Rainbow earlier today as asked her if she wanted to come. She said no, and proceed to insult my party making abilities!"
"What?" Rainbow yelled as she walked up to them. "I didn't say that you are bad at throwing parties. I'm saying that you do not pick great times to throw a party!"
"What?" Pinkie yelled back. "But...everyone loves parties, right?" Then she turns to her long time friends. "Applejack, Rarity, do you two attend my parties?"
The two girls thought about it for a while.
"Come to think of it, I do feel a little sick of attending your parties pretty much every other week," Applejack admits. "Most of them are birthday parties, which for most of them I do not care about who is aging up enough to really bother with it."
"WHAT?" Pinkie yelled.
"Yes," Rarity recalled. "You seem to have more friends than any of us combined. You're very busy, aren't you?"
Pinkie went up the faces of her long time friends. "Well, of course I'm busy!" she said. "I need to know a lot of people for anyone to have any enjoyment in my parties!"
"Yes," Applejack agrees, "but did you take note of how many people are attending each of your parties for the past several times that you did?"
Pinkie was lest speechless.
"Well, I'll tell yah how many!" Applejack continued. "The number is going down on each and every party that you've thrown! I know. Shocking. And I've talked to those who once attended your parties. They're outright tired of your parties simply because of how often you throw them!"
"What?" Pinkie yelled. "But...but that can't be true. Everyone loves parties!"
"True," Rainbow replied, "but because of how many parties you've thrown, and how many of them are over such mundane events from what I can tell, the effects of those parties start to wear down your attendants. Not everyone has as much time on their hands as you, Pinkie. So, cool down on those parties, and throw them whenever a significant date comes up. Who knows. Maybe more people will attend your parties."
Pinkie was left tearing up when she heard her friends said that. "But...when is it appropriate to throw parties?" she asked.
Fluttershy tugs on her bangs as she speak. "Well, I'm not a very social person," she stated, "I do care about holidays. In fact, I'd bet that a lot of people celebrate at least one holiday. Maybe you can throw a celebration on that date!"
"You know, you've made a lot of friends here in school," Rainbow pondered. "But have you wondered how much you care about any of them? As far as I know, we are your closest friends. We are a team. Maybe you can celebrate their birthday whenever they occur."
"Or maybe you can celebrate your family members and relative's birthday whenever they came," Applejack suggested. "Just make sure that it's the immediate family that you're celebrating. Aunts, uncles, siblings, parents, whatever you choose. I know I have a huge family and have a lot of close cousins. It feels like every week its someone's birthday. It's embarrassing."
"Well, well, well," they heard Principal Celestia said. "Look what we have here. A group of friends teaching a lesson to one of their friends."
The team, and most of the nearby students, turned towards Celestia as she approached the Rainbooms.
"Oh, hey there Principal Celestia," Rainbow greeted. "What brings you here?"
"Rainbow, I've heard that you sacrifice you gym time to clean up the hallways of the piles of confetti caused by Pinkie's antics," Celestia told one of the friends. "I know. It's a pain cleaning up the entire hallway of confetti. In fact, it took so long that you've missed a few spots in the eastern wing."
"Yep," Rainbow replied. "I think Pinkie's got a bit too much confetti. A bit too much. A bit excessive on the confetti and celebration."
"Well, at least we spare ourselves from another of her ridiculous celebrations," Rarity commented, prompting a giggle from the entire team.
The team plus Celestia heard some thuds and punches coming from the table that Rainbow had just sat at before coming to her usual table. Upon gazing to said table, they discovered that Thunder is being stacked by some of the bullies. He'd already finished his lunch and is about to leave when he is stopped by those bullies.
"Hey," one of them said. "You're not trying to hang out with those girls, are you?" He yanks on Thunder's arm.
"Hey, cut it out!" Thunder yelled. "I'm trying to clean up after myself! Get your stinking hands off me. Ow!" He gets a punch from one of the bullies.
The team stared in awkwardness as Thunder wrestles with the bullies.
"I think I'll be considering enforcing the school's policy of a comfortable and welcoming environment someday," Celestia suggested to herself. "We are seeing a bit of a tick in the amount of student attacks we're experiencing today."
[End of Episode]
From the Author:
Sometimes you have to calm down on doing something that should be significant, and Pinkie is no exception. According to the research that I did, Pinkie throws parties at seemingly the most random of occasions. Such occasions would include ringing a bell, for some odd reason that only Pinkie knows.
This is so far the least wordy off all the episodes, due to the rather lack of non-dialogue words used in this episode. There are also a rather lengthy montage of the students getting blasted by confetti. Might explain the rather low word count on this one.
Written by TheAPPstore
My Little Pony characters/franchise property of Hasbro.
Inspired by Super Sentai, property of Toei Company.
