One by one, Pinkie Pie was greeting the guests that were arriving at the party. At this point, most of the guests had arrived in the spacious room of Sugarcube Corner. The room was decorated with streamers and balloons all over and there were refreshments available on numerous tables and a table coated in presents for the trio of guests.
After Twilight had finished asking Fluttershy about Gilda, only to not get an answer on how Gilda was, she returned her attention to Keith and Lancelot, "So, as you can see, Pinkie's parties are a great place to unwind and have some fun. In addition, it is also a great environment to start making friends with others."
"Sounds great," Lancelot responded. Meanwhile, Keith stayed quiet as he prepared to pick up some sweets on a plate he had picked out.
Before Twilight could become disappointed, Rainbow Dash showed up, "Hey Twilight. How is it going?"
"Well, it could be worse," Twilight groaned out.
"Um, what's the matter Twilight? You doing OK?" Rainbow Dash asked out of concern for her friend.
"Oh, nothing. It's just that there are two guests, who are kinda the guests of honor along with Gilda, that I am supposed to help understand friendship and so far things are not working out for one of them," Twilight said as she gestured to Keith.
"No problem, Twilight. I'll just get Gilda over here and between the two of us and our awesomeness we can probably get this guy's shell to break. Speaking of Gilda, you two totally have to meet. She is just the coolest griffon ever," Rainbow Dash offered.
Twilight's mood started to lift upon hearing her friend's offer for help. After all, maybe her friend can open up Keith's seemingly impenetrable shell. However, before Rainbow Dash could make do on her offer, Pinkie Pie suddenly called out, "Everyone, I'd like you all to meet Gilda, a long-time, dear friend of Rainbow Dash. Let's honor her and welcome her to Ponyville." At this, numerous ponies cheered out in happiness, willing to greet the griffon with open arms. Pinkie Pie also introduced, "Oh, and I would also like you all to meet Keith the pegasus and Lancelot the hippogriff, who are also new guests to Ponyville." Pinkie Pie offered vanilla lemon drops to the three guests, "Please help yourself."
"Vanilla lemon drops. Don't mind if I do," Gilda accepted the lemon drops. At the same time, Keith also walked towards Pinkie to accept one of the drops, with both the pony and griffon gulping down their drops at the same time. However, instead of having a sweet taste to them, both of them felt extreme heat coming from the lemon drops. In fact, they were so hot that they both breathed fire, with Pinkie Pie grabbing and holding a marshmallow on a stick up to the flames. "HOT!" the griffon yelled out in agony.
"G, the punch." Rainbow Dash pointed out to the griffon so that she could quell her burning mouth, laughing all the while. Keith got the picture and drank his glass of punch to quell the flames. Gilda, on the other hand, went to drink a random glass of punch near the punch bowl only for the liquid to pour out halfway up the cup, much to Gilda's confusion and anger
"Well, whaddya know, pepper in the vanilla lemon drops, and the punch served in a dribble glass," Pinkie Pie pointed out.
"Ha. Priceless. Priceless." Rainbow Dash laughed out in response to the prank.
Meanwhile, Gilda found another coconut cup to drink from, finally quelling the burning heat in her mouth. "Yeah, hilarious," Gilda gasped out, far from pleased with the prank that was pulled on her.
"Hey G, look, presents." Rainbow Dash pointed out.
Gilda was very pleased to see that there was a table of gifts left out for her, not noticing that there were labels for Keith and Lancelot as well. Picking one that was shaped like a cylinder, she opened it only to be met with a flurry of toy snakes popping out of the container. "Ha ha. I bet I know who that was," Gilda sarcastically growled.
"You do?" Pinkie innocently asked.
Before anything else could happen, Rainbow Dash approached Gilda and asked her, " So, G, a friend of mine needs help with getting somepony to be more open to others. You game to help them out?"
"Oh, I would love to Dash, but I wanted to get to meet some of your other friends on my own, if that was OK." Gilda claimed, not wanting to come off as mean in front of the pegasus.
"Cool. Later," Rainbow Dash zoomed off, looking for Keith. She was quick to find him walking up to the presents with Lancelot. Lancelot opened up one of the gifts and, unlike Gilda's, was completely prank free. Rainbow Dash was a bit disappointed by this, especially after all the effort she put into leaving behind some gag presents. Her disappointment wouldn't last for long, however, as Keith opened a present that contained a music box. Upon being opened, the box played a reel of high pitched laughter which quickly upset Keith's much more sensitive hearing. In fact, Keith was quick to destroy the box so that he wouldn't have to deal with the audio agony anymore. Rainbow Dash was a bit annoyed at this, seeing as how her hearing wasn't affected the same way Keith's was. In spite of this, Rainbow Dash decided to approach the duo in hopes of helping Twilight. "Good afternoon. The name's Rainbow Dash. You've probably heard of me."
"Not really," Keith responded, being unfamiliar with the cyan pegasus in front of him.
"Oh," Rainbow nervously laughed, awkward at how he didn't seem to know who she was. "Well, I helped with defeating Nightmare Moon a few weeks ago. That help you any?"
"Now that you mention it, I do kinda recognize you," Keith said, starting to recognize the cyan mare as being among the mares that defeated Nightmare Moon. Rainbow Dash looked very pleased with herself for being recognized by the pegasus. "So, what do you want?"
"You see, I am friends with Twilight Sparkle and she says that you are having trouble with wanting to make friends," Rainbow Dash explained. "So I figured that maybe you would be more willing to talk to someone like me rather than an egghead like Twilight. So, Keith, into any sports?"
"Not really. However, I do train to fight," Keith answered.
"Me too. See? We already have some things in common. All right, do you like to fly?"
"Personally, I don't really care much either way."
At this, Rainbow Dash started to get a bit frustrated with the pegasus. However, Rainbow Dash wasn't ready to give up just yet. "What about pranks? Do you like pranks? Because I sure do. In fact, just between you and me, I've set up a few pranks throughout the party for anyone to be affected by if they aren't careful."
Up until this point, Keith wasn't very interested in the conversation and was barely interested in talking to the cyan mare. However, upon hearing that the mare had set up pranks at the party had gotten him into a sour mood, especially once he remembered that he had been harshly pranked earlier during the party. "So, wait," Keith started to realize. "The pepper in the vanilla lemon drops and the high pitched music box were your doing?"
"Yep. They were all mine. No need to thank me for the jokes," Rainbow Dash bragged, not noticing how insensitive she was being to the pegasus stallion's feelings.
"Thank you?! Why would I thank you after you tormented me with your jokes?!"
"Tormented?" the cyan mare was confused. "Come on. I wasn't that harsh. Besides, they are just jokes. Everyone enjoys a good prank."
"Yeah, everyone but me and your griffon friend," Keith countered. "You may think those pranks of yours are all fun and games, but in reality they can do real damage to friendships."
"Hey!" Rainbow Dash cried out, offended at having her pranks and her friendship with Gilda criticized. "My friendship with Gilda is strong. We've been on great terms since we were young. Do you really believe my pranks are breaking my friendship? Besides, if she wasn't taking my pranks well she would have told me."
"Maybe," Keith groaned, "Or maybe she is being bothered by them and is just not saying anything. You would be better off checking before you assume." At this Keith turned around to leave this conversation. However, before he left he couldn't help but add in one final barb "But, even then, your friendship is unlikely to survive for much longer," Keith muttered under his breath.
"What did you say?!" Rainbow Dash intercepted Keith leaving, outraged at what was being implied. "We won't stop being friends just because of a few pranks, trust me!"
"If you are so sure, then why do you need to defend your friendship?"
"How do you think you can make friends if you are unwilling to look on the bright side of anything?!" Rainbow Dash countered.
"Who said that I wanted to make friends?!" Keith yelled back.
Both ponies growled in anger, their noses touching each other as the two were looking ready to erupt into aimless bickering. However, before the two pegasi could fight any further, Lancelot and Twilight arrived to drag the two away from each other. "Okay, that's enough friend making with her for one day," Lancelot said as he dragged Keith away.
"Yeah, why don't we just take a break," Twilight said with the biggest fake smile she could muster as she dragged away Rainbow Dash. After the two pegasi were separated, Twilight whispered in aggravation to Rainbow Dash, "Rainbow Dash, why did you lose your cool? That was a very esteemed pony that Celestia sent for me to help."
Rainbow Dash grumpilly whispered, "Well, then you should tell him that making friends requires actually trying to make them rather than being bitter and judgemental of everypony."
"Are you kidding me?!" Twilight harshly whispered. "We are all supposed to help Keith make friends, and I need for things to succeed otherwise Celestia will think I am slacking on my friendship lessons."
"Yeah, because failing to make the child of the mean and snarky friends will totally mean bad things for you," Rainbow Dash sarcastically said. "Seriously, Twilight. You shouldn't worry about how this stallion does at friendship stuff. He is not worth it."
"Friendship should be important for anypony, Rainbow Dash, not just for us. Even outside of pleasing Celestia, I still want for Keith to want to have more friends," Twilight explained herself.
At this, Rainbow Dash's expression softened a bit, having gained some perspective as to why Twilight wanted to do this. However, that didn't mean she wanted to help, "Okay, fine," Rainbow Dash relented. "I'll help you, but for you not for Keith. I don't care what you think, but I will not think about him differently anytime soon."
"Thanks Rainbow Dash." Twilight thanked her loyal friend.
As the party went on, things were mostly pretty calm at the party. Gilda and Keith were met with very few pranks, if any, and were able to go back to having an okay okay time at the party. Keith and Rainbow Dash didn't interact much at all during this time, still not happy with how their previous interaction went. Rainbow, however, was willing to at least try to give Keith a second chance for Twilight's sake if Keith was willing to want one.
Eventually, the calmness of the party eventually started to waver once the cake was brought out. While Spike wanted to blow out the candles on the cake, Twilight insisted that Gilda do so as she was one of the guests of honor and also as she figured it would be best to leave Keith and Lancelot to their own devices for now. Gilda blew out the candles only for them to reignite. She tried again and again only for each of the multiple attempts resulting in the candles reigniting. Gilda was not pleased, believing that Pinkie Pie was responsible for the prank. Rainbow Dash checked with her to make sure she was okay, though Gilda denied having any problems with the prank.
Shortly after this, it was time for pin the tail on the pony. Gilda forcibly made herself the first one to go. When Pinkie tried to get Gilda ready for the game, Gilda assumed that Pinkie was going to prank her again and ended up making a fool of herself when she slipped on cake icing. When she was met with laughter as the toy tail was on her beak, she roared out in anger, having had enough of the pranks and the ponies' laughter.
"This is your idea of a good time? I've never met a lamer bunch of dweebs in all my life." Gilda yelled as she flew above the guests, finally fed up with the pranks she has had to deal with. "And Pinkie Pie, you! You are queen lame-o with your weak little party pranks." She pointed to said pink pony as she moved closer to said pony, who was only meeting the griffon with a nervous smile. "Did you really think you could make me lose my cool? Well, Dash and I have ten times as much cool as the rest of you put together." She yelled as she settled onto the ground. "Come on Dash, we're bailing on this pathetic scene. Come on Rainbow Dash. I said, we're leaving," she yelled as she was turning to walk away.
"You know Gilda, I was the one who set up all those weak pranks at this party," Rainbow Dash admitted to the griffon, much to the griffon's shock.
"What?" the griffon muttered in confusion.
"Ooh," the pink pony uttered.
"So I guess I'm queen lame-o," Rainbow Dash countered, angry at how her griffon friend had treated Pinkie and the others.
"Come on, Dash, you're joshing me," Gilda tried to believe that the pranks were not Dash's doing.
"They weren't all meant for you specifically, it was just dumb luck that you set them all off, and Keith for one of them," Rainbow Dash calmly explained.
"I shoulda known, that dribble cup had Rainbow Dash written all over it," Pinkie Pie said aside to Spike.
"No way. It was Pinkie Pie. She set up this party to trip me up, to make a fool of me," Gilda tried to defend herself, unwilling to believe that the party was thrown for any other reason.
"Me? I threw this party to improve your attitude. I thought a good party might turn that frown upside down," Pinkie Pie said and, at this, turned her head upside down.
"And you sure didn't need any help making a fool of yourself. You know, this is not how I thought my old friends would treat my new friends. If being cool is all you care about, maybe you should go find some new cool friends someplace else," Rainbow Dash defended her Ponyville friends, both of her wings flaring out.
Rather than try and make up with her friend, Gilda instead replied with, "Rrgh. Yeah? Well you, you, you are such a, a flip-flop: cool one minute and lame the next. When you decide not to be lame anymore, gimme a call." As Gilda left, she let out a loud eagle shriek.
"Not cool," Rainbow Dash simply said, unhappy with how her friendship had sourly ended. After this, many of the ponies present started talking about Gilda and how rude she was. Before Rainbow Dash could say anything else, Keith suddenly jumped into the conversation.
"Well, it looks as if what I said earlier was right. Your friendship with Gilda did end after all," Keith butted in.
At this, Rainbow Dash was beyond furious. "What did you say?!" Rainbow Dash fought back. "Did you see how mean she just was?! She dissed everyone here, especially Pinkie Pie, and wanted me to give up on all my new friends here!"
"Or she was frustrated because she got pranked constantly and believed that she was being met with revenge," Keith countered.
"Well she wasn't. My pranks were just bad luck and coincidences. Besides, that doesn't excuse her behavior at all!"
"I know that. I am just thinking that there is more to her behavior than her just being a jerk," Keith explained. "Of course, though, I won't be getting much sense from someone as rage filled as you."
"I AM NOT RAGE FILLED!" Rainbow Dash screamed at the top of her lungs. Before either of the two could continue, Lancelot grabbed Keith and pulled him away.
"Well, we must get going. Thanks everyone, the party was great," Lancelot thanked everyone as he dragged Keith out of Sugarcube Corner, trying to be nice and trying to downplay how Keith was just saying in front of everyone else.
After the duo left, Twilight sighed to herself, disappointed in how she failed to help Keith make friends. Spike noticed how Twilight had become sad and wanted to try and comfort her. "Twilight? Are you okay?"
"No, Spike. I was supposed to help Keith make friends, but instead all that happened was a complete mess," Twilight said, hanging her head down in shame.
"Hey, it's not your fault. Things just went bad, that's all," Spike tried to comfort. Upon seeing that Twilight's mood was failing to lift, he then added, "Besides, maybe Celestia will send them back and you can do better next time."
At this, Twilight's mood started to lift. "You're right. Thanks Spike. I will make sure that things will work out better the next time they are here. Besides, it looks like at least one friendship is working out," at this Twilight gestured to Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.
"I'm sorry everypony, for bringing Gilda here," Rainbow Dash began. "I didn't know how rude she was. And Pinkie Pie, I'm really sorry she ruined that awesome party you put on for her."
"Hey, if you want to hang out with party poopers, that's your business," Pinkie Pie replied.
"I'd rather hang out with you. No hard feelings?" Rainbow Dash offered her hoof
"No hard feelings." At this, both of the ponies shook hooves only to be mildly electrocuted as a result. As it turned, both ponies had hoof buzzers on their hoof that they had set off. Both the ponies gave out a laugh at their prank on each other, proving that there truly was no hard feelings.
"Hey Pinkie. Sorry I accused you of misjudging Gilda. Looks like I'm the one who misjudged you," Twilight apologized for not trusting Pinkie earlier.
"It's okay Twilight, even you can't be a super smart smarty smart-pants all the time. Come on everypony, there's still a whole lotta party to finish," Pinkie Pie accepted the apology, as many of the ponies present cheered at the mention of the party continuing.
When Keith and Lancelot returned to the castle, Celestia was there to greet them. "Hello, you two. I trust that you both had a good time in Ponyville?"
"Well, there were… complications," Lancelot simply answered as Keith grumpilly entered.
"So, did you two learn anything while you were there?" Celestia questioned as she got out Twilight's letter.
"Yeah," Keith bitterly responded, "I learned that pranks are absolutely terrible and so are the ponies that pull them on others." Keith followed this up by walking away to his room as Lancelot followed. Once the two were gone, Celestia sighed to herself as she left to return to her study to read the letter on her own.