“Are any of you as excited as I am? Are you? I’m sure you’re close, but probably not exactly!”

Pinkie Pie was bouncing up and down animatedly as she walked along the solitary path, leading to the
Apple family’s farm. Above her were Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, flying as they normally did. Rarity
was walking beside her, trying her best to not get her coat and mane dirty.

Twilight had been at the farm for most of the day, seeing as she didn’t have much of anything to do
besides help Applejack and the family set up for the party.

Rainbow laughed softly as Pinkie went into her latest party-related monologue. Truthfully, they were all
happy for the diversion. Things in Ponyville had been so hectic as of late, it had seemed like nopony had
the time to relax and enjoy life.

They all hoped this party would change that for them.

“I am quite sure that everypony is as excited as you are,” Rarity replied, prim and proper as always.
“Though they most certainly will not be showing it as… exuberantly as you are.”

“Well, duh! Nopony ever gets as excited as me about anything!”

“Not true!” Rainbow countered. “I get that excited every time I get to show off my flying skills! We all
just don’t show our excitement as easily as you do.”

The banter continued as they walked along the path. They had all met up at Fluttershy’s house and had
taken the woodsy way over there. This was mostly Fluttershy’s idea, as she had wanted to take a nature
walk while getting there.

“I haven’t done this in awhile…” she’d said. “I really miss it…”

Of course, not wanting their friend to feel left out, they’d whole-heartedly agreed to it. And it wasn’t like
they weren’t enjoying it. They liked being outside in nature just as much as any other pony.

A few minutes later, they found themselves walking up to the rear of the Apple family barn, where the
majority of the partying was supposed to take place. As they walked up, the door seemed to open by
itself. When it was opened fully, though, a smiling Big Macintosh was revealed to be the one who’d
opened it.

“Come on in,” he said in his usual slow cadence. “Everypony’s here.”

Pinkie Pie let out a shrill excited shriek as she bunny-hopped her way inside. She was so excited, she
went right past Applejack, who was walking towards the group.

“Hey y’all,” she said smiling. “I got a question for ya. Y’all didn’t happen to see Applebloom on the way
over here, did ya?”

Rarity’s smile faltered a bit. “We sure didn’t… Why, is she missing?”

Applejack nodded. “Nopony’s been able to find her all day… We thought that if we started the party,
she’d just show back up. So far, though… Nothin’.”

Dash and Fluttershy looked at each other warily. Could something have happened to the younger Apple
sister?

They barely registered Pinkie’s exclamation: “Ooh, you all even brought in fire barrels! Nice touch!”
Applejack was about to continue when Pinkie’s remark set in, and she looked at the party pony oddly.

“Um, Pinkie darlin’…?”

“Yep?” she asked, looking up at Applejack with a grin.

“We… weren’t supposed to be havin’ fire barrels here…”

“Huh?” Pinkie asked, confused. “But they’re right out here! They’re already lit and everything! Ooh, it’s
so warm!”

Applejack walked outside, Rarity following closely behind her. As they neared the barrels that contained
the small blazes, Rarity noticed a note that was taped to one of the barrels. She pointed it out to
Applejack, and she went over to it and read it.

To my dearest friend, the note said, the one you love is safe and sound. She is in a warm place. You need
not worry about coming to get her; she is already there beside you.

“What in the hay is that supposed to mean?” Applejack wondered aloud.

“Well, if you ask me… It sounds like our dear Crusaders are playing a prank on you.”

Applejack thought about it for a second. “Ya know, come ta think about it… Sweetie Belle did say
something yesterday about doin’ somethin’ to play a joke on somepony. This might’ve been what they
were talkin’ about.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t worry about it,” Rainbow said, flying above them still. “Now come on, let’s party!”

“You took the words right out of my mouth!” Pinkie said with a grin as she made her way back into the
barn. The other ponies followed her in.

The party seemed to be a rousing success, especially for one that wasn’t orchestrated by Pinkie Pie or
had Vinyl Scratch DJ’ing for it. Inevitably, Pinkie got into the cider, and drank a bit too much of it. She
managed to control herself well, though, aside from her usual drunken raving about how much she’d
love to get with Rarity- and of course, Rarity put on her usual affronted look.

It was almost a regular party… until Sweetie Belle showed up.

“Hey, Applejack!” Sweetie said, worming her way through the crowd. “You haven’t seen Applebloom
around, have you?”

Applejack smiled at the younger Belle sister. “No, Ah haven’t. Doesn’t this kinda defeat the purpose of a
prank, though? Or is this just part of it?”

Sweetie looked at her confusedly. “Prank? What on earth are you talking about?”

“Oh come on, you know just what I’m talkin’ about. You and Scootaloo pretend that Applebloom’s
missin’, and then when everypony starts raisin’ hay, she pops out and reveals she wasn’t missin’ at all.”

The look on Sweetie’s face betrayed her confusion. “I really don’t know what you’re talking about,
Applejack. We haven’t seen Applebloom all day.”

Just then, an orange-furred form fell down from the rafters and landed with a “pomf” on Rainbow
Dash’s back.

“She’s telling the truth!” Scootaloo exclaimed. “We really haven’t seen her all day! The last time we saw
her was last night, when she went out into the woods to go get some firewood for tonight’s party-“

“Wait,” Applejack cut her off. “You mean to tell me that you let her go out into the woods all by herself?
Knowing how she gets when she’s alone out there?”

“But she wasn’t alone!” Scootaloo protested. “We went with her! She just was lagging behind a bit.
She’s the one who told us to go on ahead of her and come back when we’d dropped off our loads of
firewood.”

“Yeah, but when we went to go get here after we’d done that, we couldn’t find her at all.”

At that moment, the heavens opened up and the rain started to pour down in torrents.

“Ah, hell…” Applejack muttered. “The forecast was supposed to be good for today…” All of the ponies
who were outside flocked into the barn, and Applejack shut the front gate while Big Macintosh took care
of the back gate.

As the party continued, Applejack pulled Scootaloo and Sweetie aside. “Now, I want you to look me in
the eyes and tell me the truth: are you trying to pull a prank on us, or not?”

“No, we swear!” Scootaloo replied defensively. “We had nothing to do with this!”

“Yeah, and if we were to pull a prank, we sure wouldn’t do this! We know how much Applebloom means
to everypony!”

Her words rang true to Applejack. This really didn’t sound like something they would do. She was about
to respond when Pinkie gave the all-clear that it had stopped raining. As a few ponies filed outside,
Applejack saw that the fire in the barrels had gone out.

She went and got a few pieces of firewood and took them outside to the barrels. The party had just hit a
lull, and Rarity was about to say something to Rainbow Dash, when they heard a blood-curdling scream
from outside.

Rainbow looked outside just in time to see Applejack fall to the ground in a dead faint. Immediately, she
rushed outside to check on her. Twilight raced outside as well.

“What happened?” Twilight asked.

“I don’t know!” Rainbow exclaimed. Twilight looked into the first barrel, out of curiosity, and had to turn
away to avoid retching all over the place.

“Oh god…” she uttered. Rainbow looked into the barrel and reacted much similarly to Twilight.

The other ponies crowded around, looking in horror at what they saw in the barrel: a charred, lifeless
form, identifiable only by a few strands of red hair that had somehow survived the fire.