“Phewee! Am ah glad that’s over,” said an exhausted Applejack as she collapsed on the ground, having removed the last apple pie from the oven and placed it on the counter, “ah don’t know how much more a’ that ah could take!” The Cakes, also upon Sugarcube Corner’s floorboards, nodded to show they felt the same, too burned out to voice a reply. The apple farmer looked up from the spot where she lay to scan the rest of the kitchen. It looked like a baking bomb had gone off. There were pieces of confectionary strewn about all over the place, cake mix was plastered to almost every surface, crumbs from freshly baked allsorts were scattered randomly around the trio; all in all, it was messier than last year’s apple family reunion, even after the apple family food fight.
“Since we all don’t have much time right now, how ‘bout ah come back here after the party t’help with the cleanin’?”  Applejack asked sitting up from her current lying position, not wanting to leave the Cakes alone with such a monumental task. 
“Oh no dearie, you’ve already done so much for us; we couldn’t possibly ask for any more!” Answered Mrs Cake quickly as she herself sat up, clearly worried about overworking the farmpony. Applejack persisted. 
“You ain’t askin’ – ah’m offerin’. Ah’d be glad t’help, bein’ the one that caused a large part’a this mess.” Responded the orange cowpony as she sat up straighter. 
“No really dear, it’s fine, we’ll be able to manage on our own. Besides, by then Pinkie’s ‘doozy’ as she calls it, will have happened, so she’ll be able to help us.” Mr Cake replied, getting up from the ground, helping his other half up as well. 
“Listen, ah want to help – even if you say ah don’t have to. Won’t sit right with me if ah left y’all t’clean up mah mess.” Said the straw-haired pony adamantly as she stood up herself, “besides, with four of us cleanin’, it’ll be done lickity split!”
“Alright then, if you insist dearie, just don’t overwork yourself again.” Sighed the blue baker, knowing it was useless to argue her point any further after several times of working with the proud orange mare.
“Don’t worry yerself ‘bout me! Ah learned mah lesson in regards t’that last applebuck season!” Applejack replied cheerfully as she picked up a pie, glad that she had successfully persuaded the Cakes to let her help them. She wasn’t about to let nopony think of her as less than the hardworking mare she had been raised to be. With their dispute settled, the master bakers and the farm pony all silently agreed that it was high time they began to load the food cart. The ‘soiree’, as Rarity had called it, was going to begin in less than an hour and they promised to arrive at the Boutique with all the food at least thirty minutes prior to the beginning. As the trio carefully navigated the doughy bombsite that was Sugarcube corner, carefully transporting all the pies, cakes and various other treats they had spent the whole day baking, a thought struck them all simultaneously.

“Uh Honey bun…where is Pinkie Pie? I haven’t seen her since this morning when she sent the red velvet mix shooting in all directions.” The yellow baker inquired slightly worriedly. Applejack couldn’t help but worry as well. What if they had hurt her feelings by getting rid of her this morning? The freckled farmpony began to feel guilty…
“Hey guys! What’s happening?” Exclaimed the pony in question cheerfully from right behind the guilt-ridden orange mare, almost causing her to drop the four-tiered chocolate and vanilla cake she had been balancing on her back. 
“Oh Celestia…Pinkie! Where in the hay did you come from! You scared me half t’death there!” Said the Stetson-donning mare angrily, clutching at her chest. 
“Hey, do you guys have any cakes you aren’t using?” The pink party pony asked, seemingly oblivious to the surprise painted on everypony’s face. 
“Not really Pinkie; you do remember what’s happenin’ this evenin’, don’t you?” The still shaking cowpony queried with disbelief and a touch of sarcasm in her tone. The bouncy pink mare just shuddered and giggled in response.
“Well duh! It’s Rarity’s special party! How could I forget something as super-duper, fantasteriffic as that? Why, I mean that would be like forgetting your own birthday!”
“Pinkie. You have forgotten your own birthday before…just last year in fact.” The apple-flanked mare responded. 
“Dearie, why do you need cake? Also, where have you been all afternoon? We didn’t hurt your feelings earlier, did we?” Mrs Cake asked, obviously being affected by the same guilt that had been wracking Applejack; right before she got the fright of her life that is.
“Well I’ve been in the backroom all afternoon! Or since about twelve minutes past three anyway.” The pink coated riddle replied as if it were obvious.
“…What?” A rather dumbfounded Applejack said stupidly.
“Well I’ve been in the backroom since twelve minutes past three!” The effervescent pony explained again, speaking quite obviously slower than before. “And I didn’t mind leaving you guys! I couldn’t exactly help much if I was putting more ingredients on the walls than in the bowl could I?” The party pony said and as if to prove her point she began to tremble again. “So then, I went all around Ponyville to try and tell somepony about my doozy, but everypony was suuuuper busy, so then I thought about what I could do to help everypony; that made me think about making drinks, so I came back here!”
All three other ponies just stood and stared at the beaming pink oddity in front of them, not quite sure how to respond.
“Soooo…you came back here, without even one of us noticin’ your return, and began t’make…drinks in the back?” The green-eyed farmer said, still pretty confused by Pinkie’s explanation.
“Yep,” replied the cheerful pink baker.
“And you were gonna make a drink out of...cake?” Applejack queried further.
“Uuu-uuu-uu-h-huuuu-uu-uh!” The cotton-candy mare replied as she was assaulted by another fit of shuddering, “I thought I’d make a bunch of shake-em-up drinks for everypony at the party tonight! Although now that I know you guys don’t have any cake, I guess I will just have to use applesauce instead!” With that, the hyper oddity sprung out the room, still shaking ever so slightly. At this point the three non-Pinkies could do nothing but shrug their shoulders and tell themselves that the bizarre pink mare was ‘just being Pinkie Pie’. They knew better than to question her madness much further than they already had.
***
   Twenty minutes later, Applejack and the Cakes left Sugarcube Corner, all pulling the cart that held their precious cargo and began to make their way to Rarity’s…closely followed by Pinkie Pie and her drinkable concoctions of course. Applejack craned her neck back to look over the top of the cart her and the cakes were pulling, to try and catch a glimpse of whatever the pink party pony had spent half the afternoon making, but to no avail. The mountain of baked goods in the cart was just too high to see over. Cursing herself for not being as tall as the princess, she gave up on her attempts to find out just what strange concoctions the bouncing oddball had in tow and simply trundled on toward Carousel Boutique.

    “Oh thank heavens you’re all finally here! I was starting to get terribly worried you weren’t going to show!” Said Rarity as the four ponies from the bakery arrived at her front step. 
“Starting to get worried? You were having a complete meltdown not seconds ago!” Twilight said, looking more than a bit exasperated. The ivory fashionista either chose to ignore this comment or didn’t hear it over her near-feverish rambling. Applejack tried to listen, but was just too tired to make out a word the infamous drama queen was saying. The cakes seemed to be listening anyway. As she helped unload the cart and lay out the various cakes, pies and other baked goods she saw Pinkie hopping in with her own contributions to the party. She had to stifle a chuckle as she caught a glimpse of Rarity’s face as the unpredictable pink mare bounced across the room with a jug filled to the brim with a mysterious bright green liquid. This was probably exactly why the high maintenance unicorn hadn’t asked for the party pony’s own contributions. As the horrified white mare went over to speak with the currently shuddering pink mare, Applejack decided to go over and have a taste of whatever the drink was. No matter how strange it looked, she knew she could trust Pinkie’s cooking. She took a small sip from the side of the jug; hoping no-one would notice her lack of etiquette. It was pretty tasty and whilst she may not have known what exactly the beverage was, she did know one thing: it had apple sauce in it.

An hour and eight meltdowns later (all from Rarity), the Cakes had left to relieve Fluttershy of babysitting duties and the party was beginning to get into full swing. Berry Punch was beside the table holding the cider and other beverages of that nature, starting to become pretty tipsy, as was the norm at any event she got invited to. Pinkie Pie was pretty much constantly vibrating like a hummingbird now, yet somehow still managed to remain a part of the party and everypony was having a great time. Applejack stood to the side of the room and observed the goings on, unable to make herself mingle since she was still too dog tired to move. She began to doze off on her hooves, despite the cacophony of noises that was blaring out around the boutique…

“Are you okay Applejack?” Asked a familiar voice, slightly too loudly, startling the earth pony into total alertness. Her eyes shot open and she couldn’t help but allow a shout of surprise to escape her mouth. She blinked blearily a couple of times and then noticed Twilight standing in front of her looking concerned, clearly the source of the sudden disturbance. The groggy orange mare yawned and nodded her head.
“Ah’m fine Twi…just a lil’ sleepy, that’s all. Had t’work darn hard t’day to make that huge order that Rarity made,” replied the heavy-eyed farmpony, “ah may be a decent baker, but ah’m no Pinkie. A whole day of it tends t’tire me out somethin’ fierce.” The purple unicorn mare looked even more worried than before at this statement. Applejack rolled her eyes at this. She was a grown mare for pete's sake!  She had misjudged her capabilities that one time and learned from it.
“Seriously Twilight ah’m fine. If it makes you feel better, ah’ll go sit on that couch over there. Then ah definitely won’t tire mahself out any more.” The exhausted apple farmer said exasperatedly. The violet bookworm gave a small smile at this.
“That would really help put my mind at ease. Thanks Applejack.” The librarian responded, relief painted on her face. If she wasn’t so spent, the apple flanked cowpony would have possibly argued against it, but the soft purple fabric of the seat called out to her like a siren song. She really had no choice in the matter. As Twilight’s attention was taken by some other pony, the weary orange earth pony plodded over past a group of ponies all dancing; including Pinkie Pie, who, despite the fact she was juddering harder than ever, was still dancing in a fairly co-ordinated manner, to the couch and sat her rump upon it. She instantly felt comfortable, the velvety fabric and the softness of the pillows were wonderful. Even if Rarity had probably spent an unhealthy amount of money to get this piece of furniture, Applejack didn’t care right now. She was too frazzled and the comfort and warmth of the couch just enveloped her, making her forget everything. It wasn’t long before she drifted off again…

Applejack was woken suddenly by a loud pop, followed by a noise like a balloon deflating. The music that had been playing before seemed to have been silenced by this as well and the sudden stillness bounced and reverberated off the walls of the boutique. All the guests at the party turned to look for the source of the strangely disconcerting sound and saw something far more unbearable. Beside the door to the dress shop, stood a dull pink mare, with hair so straight and limp it looked as if it had been ironed and a hoof frozen in the air.
To her right, a letter was floating to the ground. In front of her was the town’s wall-eyed mail mare, clearly the messenger as she had her mail bag open, looking worriedly at the mare; clearly unsure what to do. Throughout the boutique, now thick with silence, not a single pony spoke. Everypony just stared at the pink pony, knowing who she was, but hardly able to believe it. The apple farmer and four of her friends moved slowly and silently toward the stillest pony in the room, unable to avert their eyes, all united by the same concern. They all reached her together; all chancing a look at their uncharacteristically still party pony’s face; all seeing the empty despair in her baby blue eyes. Tears slowly began to flow down her face.
The silence was broken. 
“…Granny Pie…?” Pinkie Pie said hoarsely.