Party of One

Party of One is the twenty-fifth episode of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, season one. Pinkie Pie invites her friends to a party, but grows suspicious and investigates when none of her friends can attend.

Singing telegram
The episode opens with a brief shot of Ponyville and of Twilight at her library, who answers the door for Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie starts singing, and fades through a montage of Pinkie delivering singing telegrams to her friends and inviting them to Gummy's one-year birthday party. By the time she delivers the singing telegram to Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, she is visibly strained and her voice is gravelly. After the montage she slumps her way back to her party-decoration-filled room at Sugarcube Corner, and tells Gummy in a raspy voice "next time I think I'll just pass out written invitations."

Gummy's birthday party
At Pinkie's room in Sugarcube Corner, the party is in progress with Pinkie and her five friends. Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle dance, Rainbow Dash and Applejack bob for apples, and Rarity and Fluttershy chat. Pinkie tells Dash and Applejack that she's happy they made it to the party, and both of them concur they'd never miss it. Pinkie moves on and Dash and Applejack bob for apples again, but Applejack retrieves a false spring-loaded apple that pulls her back into the vat, and Dash ends up with Gummy clinging to her face with his gums. Over at the punch bowl, Rarity compliments Pinkie Pie about the punch, but spits it out all over Pinkie's face when she sees Gummy dipping in the punch bowl. She smiles awkwardly at Pinkie and hesitantly sips more punch, then spits it out into a potted plant once Pinkie goes dancing. Pinkie joins Twilight and Fluttershy, who compliment her on her party. Pinkie dances wildly and knocks Twilight and Fluttershy into the wall, but afterwards they join her again with Gummy and the rest of the ponies for more dancing.

The scene cross-fades a shot of Sugarcube Corner underneath the full moon, with the ponies leaving the party and complimenting Pinkie on her party. Twilight suggests that they "do this again soon", and Pinkie excitedly concurs.

It's soon
Twilight wakes up to a knock on the door, with the sunrise visible through her window. She answers the door, and it's Pinkie Pie, who gives her a party invitation that reads "you're invited to Gummy's after-birthday party this afternoon at 3 o'clock". Twilight asks, "This afternoon? As in, "this afternoon" this afternoon?" and when Pinkie confirms, she says she's gotten behind in her studies and uses her magic to make pile books on the library floor. Pinkie Pie cheerfully accepts Twilight's pass on the offer and moves on.

At Sweet Apple Acres, Pinkie gives Applejack a party invitation. When Applejack learns the party is "this afternoon", she asks "This afternoon? As in, "this afternoon" this afternoon?" and Pinkie mentions that it's just what Twilight said. Applejack fumbles for words and eventually says she can't make it because she has to pick apples. She gives a big, forced smile and swallows hard, and Pinkie looks at her intensely for a short while but then smiles and cheerfully says "okie dokie lokie" and goes on her way.

Outside the Carousel Boutique, Spike is taking out the trash for Rarity. Spike fawns over Rarity and literally floats in the air with little pink hearts bubbling from him. Rarity gives him a little nudge and he floats away, then Pinkie Pie joins her and invites her to Gummy's after-birthday party "this afternoon". Rarity asks "The party is this afternoon? As in, "this afternoon" this afternoon?" and Pinkie comments that it's strange that everypony keeps saying that. Rarity declines and says she has to wash her hair, but Pinkie Pie says her hair doesn't look dirty, so Rarity darts over to the trashcan and dips her head in the trash then gallops into the boutique. Pinkie Pie tells herself "a party is still a party even with only two guests", and the scene wipes to the ouside of Fluttershy's cottage.

Dash questions, "This afternoon?" and Fluttershy begins "As in–", and Pinkie interrupts with "Yes, as in "this afternoon" this afternoon." Dash says they'd love to but they're house-sitting this afternoon, and the two of them start to fly away. Pinkie stops them and offers to bring them after-birthday cake and ice cream, and asks for whom they're house-sitting. Dash and Fluttershy say they're house-sitting for a bear and he'd be upset if they don't get there soon, and start to fly away again. Pinkie stops them again and asks "There's a bear around here who lives in a house?" The two start piling on more details, adding to each other's fabrication, until they eventually just zoom off.

Something strange is going on
The scene cross-fades to Pinkie and Gummy at Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie wonders how all of her friends have plans this afternoon. She walks over to the window and sees Twilight sneaking around on her way to Sugarcube Corner. Twilight enters the shop and asks Mrs. Cake if Pinkie Pie is around and says she doesn't want her to know "anything about this." Pinkie listens to the conversation through a tin can telephone and wonders what Twilight wouldn't want her to know about.

Afterwards, Twilight sneaks around Ponyville carrying a package, with Pinkie Pie secretly following her. At first Pinkie puts on Groucho Marx glasses, but she thinks her "cover's been blown" and decides to put on a new disguise. Twilight delivers the package to Rarity, who says she'd hate for Pinkie to "ruin everything". Pinkie spies on her through her new disguise, a bale of hay with Groucho Marx glasses. Rarity meets Fluttershy and they discuss how they avoided Gummy's after-birthday party and that they need to keep Pinkie Pie from finding out about something. Rarity gives the package to Fluttershy while Pinkie watches from around the corner, now with a trenchcoat and a baseball hat on top of the bale of hay. When Fluttershy starts walking towards Pinkie she tries to hop away, but ends up bumping into Fluttershy who gets startled by the costume and flies away.

Pinkie Pie gloomily says to herself "I thought everypony loved my parties" and right then Rainbow Dash passes by and says "Hi Pinkie Pie... uh oh" then darts off. Dash flies arond the corner, into a bell-tower, and onto a mountaintop, but each time finds that Pinkie Pie is already there, asking her "where are you going", "what's the real reason you didn't want to come to Gummy's party", and "what's in that bag?" Dash eventually flies to Applejack's barn with Pinkie in hot pursuit, but Applejack manages to close the barn door before Pinkie gets to it. Pinkie asks to take a look inside the barn, but Applejack tells her there's construction going on in the barn and she can't come in. Pinkie Pie leaves in anger, and Applejack and the others sigh in relief.

Tell me all about it big time
Pinkie tells Gummy her friends are up to something, and she's going to know about it big time, and she knows just who's going to tell her all about it big time. The scene cuts to Spike in front of a table with a spread of gems. Pinkie brings over a desk lamp and shines it in Spike's face while Gummy secures him to the chair by pulling at his tail. She asks him to talk, then to talk about their friends, then to confess, but each time he tells Pinkie things that are irrelevant to what's going on with the sneaky behavior of her friends. Pinkie gets more and more aggressive, and Spike eventually asks her to tell her what she wants him to say. Pinkie tracks down Spike, believing he will reveal what the other ponies are hiding from her, and brings him back to the snack shop, bribing him with a bowl of gems. She tells him that he can have them all, provided he tells her what she needs to know. However, through a series of miscommunications, Spike tells Pinkie that her friends dislike her parties and no longer want to be her friends. Upon coming to the realization that her friends really do not want her around, Pinkie's despair causes her curly mane to literally deflate into the more straight and plain hairstyle of her formerly miserable childhood. As promised, she hands Spike the gems.

Pinkie loses it
Pinkie proceeds with Gummy's after-birthday party as scheduled, replacing her allegedly former friends with inanimate objects: a pile of rocks named Rocky, a bucket of turnips named Mr. Turnip, a clump of lint named Sir Lints-a-lot, and a bag of flour named Madame LaFlour. Throughout the party, Pinkie's feelings of anger and betrayal manifest themselves in sudden and violent twitches. Pinkie Pie animates the makeshift "friends" and provides voices for them, until a cinematic shift to Pinkie's perspective reveals that she may not be aware that she is doing so—her mental state has degraded such that she is not separating fantasy from reality, if she ever was to begin with. Amidst some harsh comments from Rocky regarding the ponies, Pinkie attempts to defend her past friends. However, the other party guests convince her that what the ponies have supposedly done to her is unforgivable. Presented with this injustice, Pinkie vows never to speak to the ponies again, nor invite them to her future parties.

She soon hears a knock on the door and Rainbow Dash enters, apologizing for her earlier appointment, and says she wants the pink pony to come with her to Sweet Apple Acres. However, Pinkie refuses, preferring to hang out with her "new friends." Creeped out and annoyed by her attitude, and realizing she's letting herself be dragged into Pinkie's fantasy, Dash has no choice but to drag the stubborn Pinkie all the way back to the barn.

As Dash pushes the depressed pony inside the barn, the other four ponies jump out and reveal that the barn has been decorated for a party. An awkward silence follows, and Fluttershy says they'd expected Pinkie Pie to be more excited. Instead, Pinkie finally snaps at them and laments how her friends had avoided her all this time just to set up, what she assumes at first glance is, a farewell party. The ponies confess that they had to avoid Gummy's party so they could set up a surprise party for Pinkie's own birthday.

Realizing the other ponies are telling the truth, Pinkie explodes with happiness and returns to her former appearance and sincerely apologizes to her friends, realizing and admitting she doubted them and acted really silly; they all forgive her. Everyone then proceeds to party.

Twilight's letter to the Princess, narrated over a montage of the six ponies partying, says that Twilight (and Pinkie) learned to expect the best of her friends, as a true friend will always have your best interests at heart. Pinkie Pie tells everyone about Gummy's postponed "after birthday", and they all promise to celebrate it.

Quotes

 * Pinkie Pie: You said we should have another party soon, and… it’s soon! Here’s your invitation!


 * Pinkie Pie: Oh! And Twilight, you shouldn’t hit the books. You should really just read them.
 * Twilight Sparkle: I’ll keep that in mind.


 * Applejack: Um... well... I don't think I can make it because... I have to... You know what? Pick apples! Yep! Apples! That's what we do. With... uh... apples. ...We.. uh... pick 'em.


 * Rarity: [sniff] [whimper] Hmm… perhaps you could take a bath. How do I put this delicately? You smell like a rotten apple core that’s been wrapped in moldy hay, and dipped in dragon perspiration.


 * Pinkie Pie: Something strange is definitely going on around here, Gummy. Sure Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had to house-sit for that vacationing bear, but what are the chances all my other friends would have plans this afternoon too? Rarity has to wash her hair? Applejack has to pick apples? Twilight is behind on her studies, and has to hit the books? The more I think about it, the more those are starting to sound like… [gasp] excuses!


 * [low string instrument whine]
 * Rocky: Not so bad? Please! They’re a buncha losers!
 * Pinkie Pie: Oh, c’mon now. “Losers” might be a little strong, don’cha think?
 * Sir Lintsalot: After the way they treated you? I say “losers” isn’t strong enough.
 * Pinkie Pie: Well, it was pretty rude...
 * Madame LeFlour: Pretty rude? It was down right deeespicable!
 * Pinkie Pie: It was, wasn’t it?
 * Mr. Turnip: If I were you, I wouldn’t speak to them ever again.
 * Pinkie Pie: You know what? I’m not gonna speak to them ever again. And I’m not gonna invite them to another party as long as I live! They don’t deserve to be invited to my parties. [plink] Not after the way they’ve been acting.
 * Madame LeFlour: [clapping] Deeespicable!
 * Sir Lintsalot: Such losers!
 * Madame LeFlour: Yes, zat’s right.
 * Pinkie Pie [as Mr. Turnip]: Well done.
 * Pinkie Pie [as Sir Lintsalot]: Yeah!
 * Pinkie Pie [as Rocky]: You show ’em!


 * Pinkie Pie [as Rocky]: You heard the lady! She ain’t goin’ nowheres, chump!
 * Rainbow Dash: Who you calling a chump, chump?

Gallery



 * Party of One image gallery

Trivia

 * The title is a reference to the phrase "party of one", which is used when booking a reservation for a single person at a restaurant or hosting establishment. The phrase "army of one" is meant to convey the notion of a strong and resourceful individual. In this sense, Pinkie Pie is a "party of one". It could also refer to the classic short film "Dinner for One", in which an elderly lady dines with her (deceased) friends, impersonated by her butler.
 * This is the second episode when Rainbow Dash unsuccessfully tries to hide from Pinkie Pie, the other being Griffon the Brush Off.
 * The music playing during the party was the same as in Call of the Cutie and The Show Stoppers.
 * In this episode, Pinkie's shift in personality is visually emphasized by her hair and shading of her color. During the time of her depression, her hair "deflates" into a more normal and straighter style while her color is set in a dimmer shade, which mirrors her appearance when she was younger on her parents' rock farm, back when she never smiled. When she becomes happy again, she regains her poofy hair and brighter shade.
 * Pinkie Pie's chant to Gummy: "Go Gummy! It's your birthday! Go Gummy! It's your birthday!" is a paraphrase of hip-hop artist 50 Cent's "In Da Club."
 * The Treehouse TV airing of this episode mutes out all occurrences of the word "losers".
 * Counting every movie, episode, and special from previous generations, Party of One is the 100th animated My Little Pony story.
 * When the party for Pinkie Pie is thrown, Fluttershy, Applejack, Twilight and Rarity wear party hats decorated with symbols similar to their cutie marks.
 * When Pinkie Pie is inviting Rainbow Dash to the "after-birthday" party, the far shot of Rainbow's cloud-house shows bits of other cloud-houses in the foreground. A bit of a cloud-house could also be seen very briefly in Dragonshy.
 * A pile of rocks similar to Rocky appears in A Bird in the Hoof at 11:15, with the top and middle rocks' position switched.
 * At the party near the end of the episode, when Spike tries to dance with Rarity, he does the famous dance moves from the 1977-movie Saturday Night Fever.
 * This is the first episode in which it celebrates one of the birthdays of the leading characters, in this case Pinkie Pie.
 * Rocky is a possible parody of Sylvester Stalone's Rocky Balboa character from the "Rocky" movie series. The mannerisms and Bronx accent Pinkie gives Rocky share many of Balboa's traits.
 * The episode was #6 in the We Heart Ponies Fan Favorite Mare-a-thon, in the leadup to Hearts and Hooves Day.