Last time on 'Break Your Foot Doing Something Stupid' Quest:
>Pinkie went off to get another party started.
>Went to the Apples farm to see how everyone was doing after the spider attack and maybe get a place to stay.
>Talked with Applejack and Big Mac.
>Everyone is OK, although Applebloom is clearly in big trouble.
>Worked out a deal to do some more work at the farm for a place to sleep.
>Loaded some heavy barrels into a cart, dropped one your foot.
>Ate some of those special leafs Zecora gave you and felt better.
>Loaded the rest of the barrels with AJ's help.
>On the way to town, talked with AJ about the dire situation Ponyville is in.
>The Applefarm isn’t doing well, everyone is town is scared, the mane 6's friend ship is wearing thin, there’s still no word from Canterlot and more problems on top of all that.
>Decided to later go to the mayor with Applejack and bring up the idea of forming some type of militia.
>Went to Sugar Cube Corner to unload the heavy barrels.
>Got some help from Pinkie, who is setting up a party there.
You are Rusty Shackleford, a human with no memory who has found himself in Equestria. For the last few days, you have been living in Ponyville, trying to make a living and deal with your TERRIBLE LUCK.
Currently, you are with Applejack as she's selling her apple wares to Mr. Cake. They both seem unhappy, but they shake hooves and Applejack walks back to the cart.
"Come on Rusty," Applejack says as she puts the harness back on. "We got a few more stops."
You follow along with Applejack.
"What was all that about?" You ask, looking back at Sugar Cube Corner. Mr. Cake is rolling some of the barrels inside. "The two of you seem... upset."
"What? Oh, that," Applejack lets out another sign. You're afraid this is becoming a regular thing with her. "Business. No pony is doing very well right now."
"Oh."
The two of you walk together quietly. Applejack leads you over to the market area with lots shops and outdoor stalls. There’s a few ponies about there, hocking their goods or looking to buy. But not many. You get more then a few looks and hushed whispers as you walk past with Applejack.
She stops by a few places. You unload a barrel or two at each place, while Applejack talks business. You try not to eavesdrop but Applejack's mood doesn’t improve much as the day goes on.
Eventually you unload the last of the good at one final stall, when Pinky Pie hopes over, carrying a basket full of pink envelops in her mouth.
"Erro Usty!" She says with it still in her teeth. "O ineted o eh arry!"
"Oh thank you Pinkie," You say, accepting a little pink invitation from the basket. "But me and Applejack are going to speak with the mayor after this. I might be a while."
"Eyt k!" Pinkie says happily, still holding the basket in her mouth. "Eh s eking a o eve hat a boofay ack et ews be a be to hab ow!"
"Uhh... thanks." You didn’t catch any of that. Pinkie smiles and walks over to Applejack near by and mumbles out another invitation.
You open up the invitation and read it.
"You're invited to a birthday!"
Under the bold lettering is a bunch of crude crayon drawings of ponies, balloons and cake. And in the middle of them is a kinda stick figure of, you assume, yourself. Everything is smiling.
You take the invitation, fold it and put it in you pocket, adding it to your INVENTORY. Applejack walks over to you, puts her own invitation in the cart and gets back into the harness.
"You ready?" She asks, pulling the now empty cart back the way you came. "Let's go and give the mayor a piece of our minds."
"Alright. So, you gunna go to this party?"
"Uhh," Applejack stalls, thinking about the question. "I guess I can stop by for a little while. With your help, I made good time today."
"Thanks. By the way, who's birthday is it?"
"Ah don't know." Applejack says, clearly trying to think. "I'm usually good about that sorta thing. I know it's not Pinkie's..."
You and Applejack walk for a while as she lists off birthdays, trying to think who's it could possibly be. But soon enough, the two of you are at the town hall. It's been a while since you were here; back on your first day, you tried to run here with the CMC's to escape a giant jelly cube. Nothing much has changed. There’s no ponies wander around out here at all.
Applejack unhitches her self from the cart after parking it near by and goes over to the front door. She gives it a good hard couple of knocks with her hoof and its answered by a smallish white pony with black hair and big glasses.
"Yes?" She asks, looking between you and Applejack. "Can I... help you?"
"Yes, we would like to speak with the mayor." Applejack says.
"Oh um," The white pony bites her lip and looks over her shoulder. "The mayor is very busy. You will have to come back another time."
(The missing lines here are Rusty trying to act authoritative to the assistant, and fails horribly. The assistant slams the door shut on Rusty and Applejack.)
"What the hay was that?" Applejack asks you, clearly not happy.
"I uh... I don’t" You stammer, trying to apologize.
"Rusty, this is important!" Applejack stats rubbing her face with her hoof. "We can't afford to be making trouble, especially with the mayor."
"I'm sorry." You say, looking down at your feet.
"It's fine," Applejack lets out yet another long sigh. he shakes her head. "What are we gunna do with your Rusty?"
The two of you just stand there, enduring the tense, awkward silence. You feel like a real jerk.
"So," You say, trying to break the tension. "Want to go to Pinkie's party now?"
"I guess," Applejack says, going back over to the cart and putting the harness back on. You follow along behind the cart as she heads back to Sugar Cube Corner.
You run up alongside Applejack.
"So," You decide to change the subject. "All these monsters that have attacked the town, have any been intelligent? Like, did any of them talk?"
"Nope," Applejack says shortly. "Just a lot of wild animals."
"Huh," You try to think of anything to say. "So, Pinkie's parties. They... sure are fun, yeah?"
"Yes."
You're pretty sure Applejack is in a bad mood, so you stay quiet for the rest of the walk. Thankfully, you arrive with her at Sugar Cube Corner pretty soon.
It's starting to get on into the evening, so some torches have been set up outside to give some extra light. You were just here an hour or so ago, but Pinkie has set up even more tables covered with treats, including an impressive looking pink cake, balloon tied everywhere and a big banner spanning the street that says HAPPY BIRTHDAY in big bold letters.
There are a few ponies here already, some you recognize and some you don't. Pinkie is near the shop entrance, talking with Mrs. Cake, but as soon as she sees you she runs over to you.
"Rusty! Applejack!" She says, bubbling with energy. "You came! Hurray!"
"Thank ya kindly for the invitation Pinkie," Applejack says and goes off to park her cart.
"Who's birthday is this anyways, Pinkie?" You ask the pink pony.
"Rusty, you're so silly!" She giggles. "It's yours of course. I told you so earlier at the market when I gave you invitation."
"Wait. I don’t understand. What do you mean my birthday?"
"Come on, I'll show ya!" Pinkie bites your sleeve and drags you over to the table with the big pink cake. Now that you're looking at it from this angle, you can see that the cake is kinda shaped like a human. It has clothes frosting, flower eyes and a big smile.
“I thought that since you don't remember anything, you wouldn’t know when your birthday was. So I decided I'd throw you a birthday party today. Better now then later!"
"Oh, Pinkie," You say, lost for words. "I... thank you."
"Hey everyone!" Pinkie calls out and gets the attention of all the party goers. "Gather over here!"
All the ponies come and gather around the table with the big human cake. You see Applejack decided to stay for little bit and is smiling. You also recognize Rainbow Dash, as well as some of the other ponies from the party from before; Lyra, Bon Bon, Berry and Derpy. There’s also some new ponies you don't recognize. The Cakes are also here, along with with their babies.
"Ahem!" Pinkie says, getting everyone's attention. "I'm so happy you all could come! Today we're here to celebrate my newest, bestest and all around good friend Rusty's birthday!"
All of the ponies cheer and stomp their hooves in the dirt in applause. You feel your face blush hotly and are overcome with emotion. You lean down and give Pinkie a big hug.
"Thank you Pinkie," You whisper to her, feeling tears in you eyes. You brush them away. She hugs you back.
"Come on Rusty, blow out the candles and make a wish!"
You let go of Pinkie and look over the cake. You close you eyes and silently make a wish.
"I wish Ponyville would go back to normal."
You take a deep breath and blow out all the candles in one go. All of the ponies cheer and stomp their hooves again. The Cakes then start cutting into and handing out pieces of cake for everyone. You're given a big piece from the head, including a big eye made of frosting. Everyone enjoys the cake and talks happily together.
"Hit it!" Pinky shouts and suddenly music starts playing. All the ponies who finished with their cake start to mingle with each other, some even dancing.
You decide to mingle with the ponies like you last time. Seeing your friends from the last party, you talk with them.
"Hi Rusty," Lyra says as you walk up to her and Bon Bon.
"Hi Lyra, Bon Bon. How are you two doing?"
"Oh we're getting by," Bon Bon says. "But how about you? We've heard all sorts of crazy things about and that spider attack."
"Oh yeah, that. Well, you see what happened was, I was at Applejack's farm when..."
You relate the whole story to the two ponies. But after awhile, other ponies begin to gravitate towards you, all engrossed in you tale with the spider. You end up repeating the whole thing two more times so that all the ponies got the whole story. Before you know it, you're the center of the party!
"And then Zecora gave me this bag of magic leafs and I made my way back to Ponyville, where Dash and Pinkie found me.
"Wow, Rusty, you sure are brave!" Pipes up one of the ponies you aren’t familiar with. Someone told you her name was Junebug.
"Oh I don't know, I DID spend the whole time running away." You say, modestly. A couple ponies laugh.
"Yeah. See if it was ME, what I would have done was..." Dash says, detracting the attention of the other ponies and saying again what she would have done in your situation.
"Come on Rusty," Pinkie says, tugging at your sleeve again. "Let's play a game! I just set up the pinata!"
"OK everyone, keep back! I don’t want to end up hitting someone!
You continue to try and hit the pinata hopelessly. You join in the good nature laughter at your expense.
"Haha, OK Rusty that’s enough," Pinkie giggles, coming up behind you. She takes the blind fold off you. You were no where near the Pinata!
"My turn, my turn!" Dash says, flying over. Pinkie puts the blind fold on the blue pony and you spin her around to make her dizzy. You think you might have over done it, cause when Dash goes up to swing with the stick in her mouth, she misses it by a mile and falls over!
"Ahaha, she just as bad as Rusty!"
Dash gets up quickly, flies up a little and tries again, swinging in a leap. She strikes the pinata with full force and the head breaks off, spilling individual wrapped candies everywhere.
"OK Dash, stop stop, you killed it!"
Rainbow Dash takes off the blindfold, sees her handiwork and does a fist pump in the air with a cheer! A bunch of ponies go over and start picking up candies. You go over too, taking a handful and stuffing it in your pocket. You think Applebloom would like some of these.
You continue to party with your pony friends. Everything is going great, even better then the last one. You see Applejack again and she seems in a much better mood. In fact, everyone seems to be having a good time. You party on well when it gets dark.
"Hey, look everyone!" Derpy says, pointing directly up at the sky. "Shooting stars!"
You and the other ponies all look up at the night sky. There’s a lot of bright starts out and the weather is very clear, not a single cloud in the sky. As you watch, a few yellow streaks of light shoot past against the black.
"Woooow," Pinkie says. She nudges you in the side. "Come on, make a wish Rusty."
"Pinkie, I already made a birthday wish."
"So?"
"Can't hurt making lots of wishes." Applejack says, at your other side.
"OK..." You look back up at the night sky. "I wish... wait, are those stars... getting closer?"
As you watch, some of the shooting streaks make impossible tight turns, spirals and some even seems to be getting closer! Some of the ponies watching beginning to panic, but perspective become apparent; these aren’t comets or anything. They're little things that are much more closer.
A couple of bright yellow illuminated orbs, roughly the size of your fist, bob and weave down towards the party. All of the ponies back up, giving them very wide births to move around. They don't seem to be attracted to any one thing, just fluttering around aimlessly. All of the ponies look scared.
Except for Applejack, who is brave.
And Pinkie, who's walking up to one.
"Pinkie. Pinkie!" You whisper loudly, putting your hand on the pink pony's back to stop her. You grab the pinata stick with your other hand. "Hold back."
"What'cha gunna do, Rusty?" She asks, letting you get in front of her.
"I'm going to poke it with a stick."
Slowly, cautiously, you take the pinata stick and hold it up, inching it closer to the nearest floating light bobbing around. As you get nearer, you can hear its making some subtle, crackling sound. You hold the stick out in front of you as far as you can.
The closest light, moving on its own, comes in contact with the pinata stick. The place where it touched the stick, a brilliant red flame covers the wood.
The little lights then all suddenly shoot off at once in separate directions. They shoot past you, the party ponies, the tables and everything else. Everything they come in contact with bursts in to flames. Ponies scream as they touch them, burning them. They all start running in a panic, knocking over tables and each other.
The lights are moving quickly, zipping every which way. Some come in contact with the nearby houses and Sugar Cube Corner, setting off even more fires!