The Grand Galloping Gala had been bad, but fortunately it had not been 'sneak out of town under cover of darkness' bad.
It had, however, been 'get on the train while wearing concealing clothing to mask your identity' bad, which explained why the five girls were wearing sunglasses, large hats and trenchcoats. The disguises were, unfortunately, entirely ineffective because:
A) Applejack was still wearing her stetson.
B) Rarity's idea of 'disguise' was a hoof-crafted ensemble primarily made of silk and carefully studded with gems for maximum fabulousness at the cost of actually blending in. And
C) Pinkie Pie was not in disguise and was, in fact, currently swarming another nearby pony with the tenacity of a hungry parasprite.
The last one was admittedly the greatest problem, particularly once the others noticed that she was hopping around and talking to and hugging the worst possible pony she could be: one of the musicians she had harassed during the Gala the night before. And apparently hadn't stopped harassing.
Twilight groaned in agony that it was continuing and almost certainly making things worse. But there was nothing she could really do to stop it.
Fortunately, the train to Ponyville blew its whistle, finally forcing Pinkie to disengage or risk being left behind. Perhaps strangely, the musician she was attacking - a grey earth pony who had been playing the cello the night before - gave Pinkie a hesitant hug back before they split apart.
But that was largely lost to the rest of the girls. They merely sighed with relief and relaxed when the train pulled out of the station and they escaped further Gala-related problems.
"I," Rarity pronounced with her usual drama, "Shall never be able to show my face in Canterlot again. Truly, my career is ruined!" She mock-fainted on the bench, overwhelmed by the demise of her fashion empire before it could even begin.
Fluttershy tilted her head. "But I thought you said Manehatten was where fashion careers were made, not Canterlot."
"RUINED," Rarity reiterated.
With a grumble, Applejack voiced her own side of things. "At least Princess Celestia took all those apple treats off my hooves. Didn't make a profit but at least Ah didn't lose bits after that debacle."
Twilight grabbed hold of the conversation before it could go deeper into their collective frustrations. "Well, we all had a good time in the end. And Pinkie Pie made a new friend!"
"I did?"
Twilight nodded. "I don't think that you would have gotten a hug from that musician on the train platform if you weren't her friend."
Pinkie Pie waved it off. "Oh no, she's not a new friend. She's my sister!"
All five of the others rounded on her at once. "Sister?!"
Twilight was the one who continued the questioning. "You never told us you had a sister."
Rolling her eyes, Pinkie utterly dismissed their surprise. "Pft! Well yeah. I've got four! And nopony ever asked. If you'd paid attention when I was telling the Crusaders about my cutie mark story while we were riding Scootaloo's scooter across town, you'd have known that."
That just got a confused blink from the unicorn, having not been anywhere near that conversation.
Pinkie continued on heedlessly. "That was my sister Octavia! I haven't seen her in forever either! She left home a really long time ago."
"So that's why you got so excited about the music and went up to, um, talk to her." Fluttershy grasped it faster than the others, a placid smile coming to her face at the idea of the reunion.
"Yep!" Pinkie bounced excitedly in her seat. "The moment I recognized her, I knew that fate had brought us back together again! And there was no way she wouldn't play a song we could do together." She paused slightly, the barest hint of a frown crossing her lips. "Though I guess I came on a little strong at first. She wasn't expecting me there and I guess she was more surprised and worried than excited."
Reaching over, Fluttershy put a gentle hoof on the party planner's shoulder. "But it worked out in the end, right?"
Instantly, Pinkie was all smiles again. "It really really did! That's what we were doing just now - we got to talk and catch up and we made up. Everything's fine again and I even have her address so we can write each other!" She let out a long, happy sigh. "My family's coming back together again."
"I'm really happy for you, Pinkie Pie." Twilight beamed at her friend. "This sounds like the perfect opportunity to learn more about the rest of your family, too!"
Glee was too subtle a descriptor for Pinkie Pie's expression as she scrambled to pull out her wallet. A long string of photographs uncoiled, showing off one after another after another of Pinkie's wide circle of friends. But the one at the top - the first photo - was what she wanted.
In it, her family was posed against the backdrop of the Pie rock farm - a bleak place, devoid of anything green or joyful. The only thing that broke up the grey sky and the grey land was a farmhouse that was only not grey because wood and thatch went no blander than dull brown. The ponies in the picture were little different - two parents and five children. All various shades of grey, brown and more grey. Except Pinkie Pie, who stood out like a lit firecracker in a barrel of gunpowder.
"These are my parents!" Pinkie joyfully pointed to the picture as her friends crowded around. "And there's my sisters - Limestone and Maud and Octavia and Marble."
For a very long moment, there was silence.
Rarity was the one to say it. "Ah, darling? I'm fairly sure that's a colt."
Without missing a beat, Pinkie enthusiastically nodded. "Yep! Octavia was back then. But that was a long time ago - before she left the rock farm!"
The others peered closer at the photo and things started to take shape. There were similarities between the colt in the picture and the cellist they'd seen at the Gala: while her mane had been dyed black, they both had the same grey coat; both wore an expression of haughty disdain; while the colt's face bore a bit of chubby baby fat from his age, they had much the same structure; and of course there was the tie that each wore as a spot of color amidst all the drab.
"You know," Rarity ventured, "Looking at it I would have guessed they were cousins or such. I'm surprised you recognized her so readily."
Packing the wallet and photos back up, Pinkie Pie nodded rapidly. "I know, right? I actually almost didn't, but when she saw me, there was this expression on her face that she always used to make when we were foals and that made my memory go all tingly!"
Up until this point, Rainbow Dash had been silent. Silent and uncharacteristically thoughtful - a dangerous combination. Finally, she ventured a question. "And you're cool with all of this?" There was no malice in her voice - merely tentative confusion. "I mean, that's a really big change. Is she even the same pony?"
"She's still family, though," Applejack pointed out from the side.
Pinkie nodded. "She is! And I don't think she is the same pony. But that's kind of a good thing? When we were foals, Octavia was always really kinda angry. But not like Limestone angry, mean angry. And she was always super competitive about everything, too! She kept trying to turn everything into a fight and beat us." Her smile wavered - Pinkie bolstered it back up again, but for a brief moment her frown came through. "I think it's because our parents always gave her a hard time. They just couldn't accept who Octavia was."
Twilight hugged Pinkie tightly. "It's okay. Sometimes parents have a hard time accepting things like that. It's a pretty radical change and it's a lot to take in. They can--"
Her impassioned speech was interrupted as Pinkie Pie looked at Twilight in confusion. "Huh? What's a lot to take in?"
"About being a colt or a filly," Twilight elaborated.
And she got as far as opening her mouth to start again before Pinkie once more cut her off. "Oh no no no, that wasn't the issue. But there was no way my parents would ever accept a musician in the house! That's a dead end profession for wastrels and hobos who can't get a real job." The utter seriousness she said that with stunned the others to silence. "But now that she's famous and established and has a steady paycheque, they might listen to reason and she can come home again."
The implications of that made Applejack scowl angrily. "They threw her out?"
Just as swiftly, Pinkie corrected her. "No, but they didn't approve of her being a musician. So Octavia left to prove them wrong, find her own way in life, change the last letter of her name, probably a bunch of other things we didn't have time to talk about, play at the Grand Galloping Gala, get really surprised and worried that I showed up then--"
"Pinkie." Applejack put a hoof over the mare's mouth. "We get it."
"I'm just glad the two of you are reunited," Fluttershy added. "And that hopefully we'll have a chance to meet her, too."
Pinkie bounced out of her seat joyfully. "Of course you will! She promised to visit Ponyville soon, and then I'm going to make abso-tively sure to introduce her to everypony! After all, I would never try to conceal a close family relation from your girls until the last possible moment, setting off a chain of events full of suspicion and confusion that results in nearly toppling a kingdom!"
Twilight shiftily looked around. "...Pinkie, why are you looking directly at me?"
"No reason!" Pinkie said, smiling broadly as she continued to look directly at Twilight.
Author's Note
This handles a bit of a FIM/Pony Life canon gap neatly, I figure.
