Under Pressure

Big Macintosh opened his eyes, once more. The sun had risen higher into the sky, and the darkness had been chased further down into the trench. His body had begun to warm very slightly as the beams from the sun kissed his dirt-ridden red coat. His heart felt heavy as he reflected upon Twilight’s send-off. He had always watched as the six ponies went on adventure after adventure, together. They cared so deeply for one another, they’d journey all the way to the far reaches of Equestria and back if any one of them ever needed help. Forever loyal and always smiling. They had shared so many laughs, together. Big Mac had imagined how hard it would be on his little sister, Applejack, but he never knew it would lead to the rest of the group breaking up.

Twilight never sent any letters. Her six friends in Ponyville wrote to her every day, but they never received anything back. In fact, as Big Mac recalled, he never heard even Spike mention anything about hearing from her. He had expected Spike to react the worst to her absence, but he was doing surprisingly well by Rarity’s side, who just as much needed Spike.

After a solid month of not hearing from her, however, the friends began to feel a sense of hopelessness. Losing their feelings of belonging, they started to drift. They stopped visiting each other, stopped having tea-time together, stopped having pet play dates, and even stopped greeting each other as they passed by one another. All except for Pinkie pie. Pinkie pie was always trying to keep the group together. She would host party after party for her friends, but after the first three big blowouts, none but Fluttershy continued to show up. Pinkie was on the brink of losing it.

***

Big Macintosh and Cheerilee had been on one of their afternoon walks through the town. Big Mac always loved spending time with Cheerilee. He didn’t say much, for such is his nature, but he was always eager to hear her stories. Her ever-sunny disposition was endearing. She had just been finishing up with a story of one of her students overcoming their fear of social rejection. Of course, being the family-pony Big Mac was, he held great respect for the teacher who always went that extra mile to help her students. She really looked out for them.

He pondered over her words for a moment, then responded with an approving, “eeyup”. Cherrilee giggled at his simple yet hearty response. Big Mac stopped walking, taking a moment to smile at her. When Cheerilee realized he was no longer beside her, she turned back, and gave Big Mac a cheerful grin in return. They simply smiled at each other for a long moment, enjoying one-another’s company.

SLAM!

Big Mac hadn’t realized they were standing in front of sugarcube corner until Pinkie pie came bursting out from the front door in a cheerful frenzy, snapping the two admiring ponies out of their trance. The pink mare bounced whimsically around them. “You came! You came! I knew somepony would show up! I had a feeling this one was going to be the real deal!” Big macintosh and Cheerilee glanced quizzically at one another, as if one of them might have the answer as to what in Equestria Pinkie pie was talking about. Cheerilee decided to break the short silence.

“Pinkie pie, we’re not sure what you’re speaking of. Were you expecting us?” Pinkie replied with a simple nod, the grin on her face seeming to grow wider than her face. She placed her head firmly upon Cheerilee’s flank and pushed her into the bakery. Big Mac shrugged and followed suite. He was legitimately curious what Pinkie had going on. Though it was difficult to take her in more than small doses, Pinkie’s shenanigans always led to something at least interesting, and always unique.

As they stepped through the threshold, Fluttershy waved at them. She was wearing a cone-shaped party hat and had streamers caught in her mane. “Hello, Big Macintosh. How are you, Cheerilee?”

“Oh, we’re doing perfectly well! How have you been, Fluttershy? It’s been a while!” Fluttershy forced a smile. She gave a neutral shrug and looked downward, pawing at the ground with her hoof. Again, Big Mac and Cheerilee shared a quick glance of confusion at one-another.

There was a record player to the right against the wall. It was playing festive party music. The lively tunes didn’t quite fit the lonely, drab scene of the ‘party’. Pinkie hopped to the turntable and raised the volume, making the floors shutter under the heavy bass. “Let’s get this party started!”, she shouted, eagerly.

Though it seemed forced off the get-go, the fun began to flow more fluidly as the night went on. It started with simple dancing. Pinkie, naturally, was the first on the dance floor, bouncing playfully, cutting a rug, and a poppinand a lockin. Soon after, cheerilee joined in, mimicking Pinkie’s new dance as she got into the swing of it. With an encouraging smile from Big Mac, Fluttershy accompanied him to the dance floor. The four danced straight through five songs.

They played party games like pin the tail on the donkey and truth or dare. Nothing too over-the-top. Everypony learned of Cheerilee’s unusual obsession with underground Pony Buck-Boxing competitions and revealed several cuts and bruises hidden behind her makeup. Big Mac tried to squeeze into one of Pinkie pie’s candy-themed dresses, but quickly ceased when the back tore wide open, causing an explosive giggle-fit from Pinkie. Fluttershy confessed an embarrassing story from her early days of flight school, and Pinkie had to stop talking for five whole minutes. That was quite a laugh.

After the games, they had a conga-line. A more classy song played finally on Pinkie’s playlist, so Big Mac and cheerilee waltzed, together. Around midnight, the random party died down. Cheerilee yawned in an exaggerated manner. “I really must be getting home, soon. I have class in the morning”, she said, groggily. Pinkie’s shoulders grew heavy. All the pep and excitement she’d carried throughout the night had waded. Big Macintosh, just then, realized that her hair was still deflated.

Normally, Pinkie pie’s hair is wild, curly, crazy, and all over the place. There was one incident, however, a few months back in which Pinkie thought her friends were abandoning her. Her hair had deflated just as it was, at the moment. He’d heard from Applejack that Pinkie was talking to pots and plants like she’d gone off the deep end. Big Mac wanted to do something to console her. With the way the group had drifted, he knew Pinkie must be feeling lonely, which would explain the sudden, and somewhat forced invitation. He wanted to console her, but wasn’t very good with words. He looked pleadingly at Cheerilee, who, seeming to understand, nodded and directed her attention to Pinkie pie.

“You don’t seem like you’re doing too well, Pinkie”, she said warmly, as if she were talking to one of her foal students. “Come on, sweaty, let’s go for a little walk, outside.” At that, the two departed out the front door. Big Macintosh couldn’t help but wonder if Applejack knew about Pinkie’s party. He had a hard time believing that she would just ignore one of her closest friends when she was in such need of companionship. It wasn’t like her at all.

He pondered for a moment until he realized Fluttershy still in the room. She was sitting on the floor behind him, looking downward and rubbing her foreleg with her hoof. She sensed his eyes on her, and spoke quietly. “Things haven’t been the same since twilight left.”

Big Mac had noticed so many changes in his sister since the day twilight left. He, too, wondered what happened to everypony. It seemed as though they all simply lost the desire to remain friends. Though he was never a good conversationalist, he found it easy to talk to the one pony who appeared more shy than himself. “What happened, Fluttershy?” His voice was deep and gruffly, and he spoke sternly, making Fluttershy look up to make eye contact.

“well...”, she began, “After she left, though we were sad, we were very happy for her. We wrote her all the time. We sent care packages, and Spike sent letter after letter telling her of his days. After a week’s time, she still hadn’t responded, and her care packages had all been sent back.” She carried a sincere and worried expression upon her face. “We were so scared she was in trouble, we all headed out to Canterlot to go visit her. Princess Celestia said she wouldn’t mind when they left Ponyville, so we went ahead. The gaurds wouldn’t let us through, though. They said Princess Twilight specifically requested that she be left alone while she worked.

“We knew she was probably just too busy, but after more time passed, we all began to fear the worst; that Twilight didn’t want to be our friend, anymore. After a while, everypony just started getting sad, and we all drifted apart. Pinkie pie has been throwing parties every other day, inviting the whole group, hoping that we could all come together again, but lately, nopony else has been showing up.”

She stared at Big Macintosh, waiting for a response, but he didn’t know what to say. She was feeling abandoned by her friends and worried for the one pony who still included her in anything. Should I try ta console her? Tell er it’s goin ta be okay? Maybe hug `er? I’m not too good at that. Maybe I should just nod… Reaching a decision, the red stallion nodded and replied with yet another, “eeyup”.

Fluttershy cocked an eyebrow and tilted her head as she look at him, questioningly. “Yup? Yup to what?” Big Mac felt a bead of sweat roll down the side of his brow. His heart quickening, and his temperature rising, slightly, he struggled to find a response. Why am I gettin’ so nervous, all of a sudden?

Searching desperately for a response to appease the yellow mare, he spoke in a slurred hurry before he even had time to think about it. “I promise I won’t leave ya, Fluttershy. We'll always be tugether.” He felt like a complete tool. He expected to find her wearing a look of skeptic criticism. He was quite surprised however, to see her lips trembling and her face turning beat-red. Though she tried to fight it, she blushed, intensely. She hid her face behind her light-pink mane and faced away, leaving Big Macintosh staring at her, slack-jawed. What was that?

As if beckoned by father-time, himself, Cheerilee and Pinkie pie returned through the front door, Pinkie looking slightly more resolved than before. “okay, everypony, I guess it’s time for bed”, she said with defeat. “Big Macintosh, Cheerilee, can you come back, and hang out with me, again, soon? Promise me you will!” Her puppy-dog eyes bore a hole through Big Mac’s heart. He was too sympathetic to the puppy-eyes. An unfortunate fact that Applebloom never failed to take advantage of. Thank Celestia for Applejack.

“Eeyup”, he said with a nod.

Cheerilee giggled, again, and repeated. “Eeyup”, she said, nodding her head, decisively. The three mares laughed together as Big Macintosh blushed.

The ponies bid each other goodnight, and separated to their respective homes. He felt good having helped boost Pinkie pie’s mood, but his mind was too preoccupied to let him feel happy. His thoughts were stuck on Fluttershy. What was that back there? Did I say somethinwrong? Why do I feel so strange? The stallion questioned himself, though he had no answers. Cheerilee seemed more attached today than usual, too. Pinkie pie seemed so out of character. Why’s everypony actin so crazy? Alone, Big Macintosh pondered as he made his way back to his home at Apple Acres.