Pinkie pie drove her hooves into the murky brown puddle sending droplets of dirt and other substances splattering up her coat and across the ground, this in turn created more patterns in addition to the cacophony of the rain which pinkie pie found fascinating to no end.
More splashes were made as she tore her hooves out of the filthy pit, vaguely aware of the way the rain made streaks in the dirt covering her hide.
The shower was pleasantly warm for an autumn storm, she found that the occasional thunder strike and looming presence of the great black clouds above really added a sense of change and excitement in the air, things were different, new and exciting in a thunderstorm. There was always an element of randomness.
Pinkie never truly understood why nopony would leave the confines of their home under such circumstances. she looked upon the few ponies left scurrying indoors to avoid and seek shelter from the storm with mild disappointment and the sense that they were missing out on a good thing.
Oh well, she had the day off from work, nopony would come out in this to buy baked goods. But of course this left her with the dilemma of too much free time and nobody to spend it with, thus making the storm both a boon and a cure, a beautiful one at that. Loneliness was something pinkie was quick to take too, and so it did not take long for her to start arguing over where to go first, dashes place or twilight's library.
The library may have been faster but she had been aching to try out the gyrochopter- and then she spotted her. A pony she'd never seen before, she was a pudgy light brown earth pony with a dark brown mane. Her slow pace was accompanied by occasional blinking, her eyes scrunched against the wind and aimed at the ground in front of her feet without looking where she was going, yet stopping and awkwardly skirting around puddles whenever she came across them.
Pinkie wasted little time studying this new pony, with barely contain excitement she began trotting up to the stranger with a grin on her face and that spring in her step, oblivious to any puddles she trounced through.
The pony froze as pinkie obliviously began to near, shouting over the wind and rain, she asked "HEY, ARE YOU NEW IN TOWN? MY NAMES PINKIE, WELCOME TO PONYVILLE". Pinkie felt dismayed when the overweight pony did not respond, but rather kept her gaze centered at the ground without moving. Quickly she glanced up to make eye contact before shooting her gaze back to the floor.
An awkward silence stretched over 5 seconds with nothing but strands of dripping pink mane frequently hitting her neck in the winds grip. Pinkie's smile didn't falter despite the mild discomfort of the prolonged silence, but despite how her friends had drilled into her about waiting your tern to speak, she decided it had been to long and that it was up to her to take the prerogative.
"WELCOME TO PONYVILLE, WHAT'S YOUR NAME? ARE YOU GOING ANYWHERE, DO YOU NEED ANY HELP?"
The mare scowled and looked around as if to say 'are you addressing me?', it took a further 3 seconds for her to respond without making any eye contact which got pinkie thinking that she was clearly shy.
She opened her mouth to talk, Pinkie opened her mouth in mild anticipation, the stranger blinked and said nothing. pinkie almost tried to greet her again before the mare muttered "Hi" into the ground in an awkward voice. She beamed, progress was being made, and this mare was clearly going to be a challenge, but pinkie liked challenges, especially when it came to making someone feel welcome and accepted into a community. She couldn't wait to introduce this mare to other ponies and help ease her into one of the many social circles that ponyville housed, as she'd done many times before.
"HI" she expressed warmly, normally in her experience with dealing with socially awkward ponies, she had to explicitly state her intentions, as ponies with self esteem issues often had trouble accepting or picking up when a stranger wanted to be friends.
"My names pinkie pie and I'm friends with everyone in this town, and I'd like to be your friend too?"
The pudgy stranger looked up in a moment of confusion but then smiled in astonishment. Already comfortably close within person talking distance the mare took another step forward so that she was slightly under one foot away from the pink mare, pinkes smile faltered for a second as she felt the smiling ponies warm breath hit her lower jaw, the ponies eyes staring blankly into her own without breaking contact. The mare didn't seem aware of her discomfort.
Pinkie took a step back, the mare took a step forward, waiting for her new friend to talk to her. Pinkie shrugged off the invasion of personal space and happily asked "So what's you name", partly thankful that the storm had begun to die down so she no longer had to shout.
"M'nameth antiue thpool" The mare said in an annoying voice that broke halfway through.
Pinkie didn't understand what she just said "what? sorry I can't hear you over the rain?"
Still unable to break eye contact, the mare blinked and swallowed before repeating, her smile never faltered.
"thowwy, m'nam- MY. Name is antique thpool" The mare clenched her eyes shut again briefly before her ever present gaze returned to pinkies face. The unnerved pink pony quickly glanced to the side before maintaining unbearably close eye contact with the smiling freckle faced pony, this was starting to become off putting she had to admit.
She opened her mouth to say something but closed it when she got a mouthful of the brown ponies warm and damp exhale. If antique spool noticed pinkies scowl she made no indication of it. Pinkie tried again but this time ignored the disgust of having someone breath into your mouth whilst trying to speak "Okie dokie Lokie, welcome to ponyville antique, Wish you all the best, I'll see you around town sometime okay".
She began to turn around and head to the library before extending the friendly offer of "Oh and don't forget to visit sugar cube corner, we have all the best sweets there!" inwardly pinkie was glad to get away, there was something about that pony that had deeply unnerved her, something that was just wrong. OH well time to go meet twlig- she was being followed. Frowning but putting back on a strained smile as antique stopped just behind her with her brown head hovering over her pink flank, eyes no doubt drilling into the back of her head. She could sense them, they made her skin crawl, this pony was probably going to be bad news her pinkie sense was telling her.
"Okie dokie then?" She was at a loss as to how to respond to this situation, never before had she ever had the urge to turn another pony away, it was always the opposite.
Antique spoke up in her grinding monotone voice that was occasionally broken by high pitch "Where ar w'goin?"
The pink mare coughed awkwardly before turning, to her further dismay she found that the pony resumed it's invasion of her personal space by shuffling up next to her face and breathing down her neck with her mouth slack jawed, her crooked teeth clearly visible. Another clammy breath hit her nose directly and pinkies face scrunched. "Well I was just heading down to visit my friend twilight, she lives in a boring old library sooooo"
"oka" The pony was as incapable of taking a hint as pinkie was at turning other ponies away. But why would she want to do something like that, she hated being turned way or told to buzz off, what was wrong with her... Besides who was she to tell somepony to get lost, usually she was the pony ignoring others and invading personal space. Her face dropped 'Oh my gosh is this how I make other ponies feel, I- I, no It can't be, only some ponies, dash likes me, twiligh-'
Antiques face implied that she didn't register the various emotions pinkies face raced through. She just happily waited for the pink pone to respond.
Pinkies internal schizophrenic debate was cut short when she spotted rainbow dash racing towards twilight's library. Jumping in anticipation she started bouncing towards the residence, stopping once more when she remembered who was right behind her.
"Well ok then, I guess you can come too, but you'd better behave antique" she added jokingly. The pony just nodded.
