Solace in Silence

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Pinkie was, for once, at a loss for words. She had been presented with a problem that she had never faced before, but she was determined to find a way through. She glanced around the town square quickly. Several ponies had gathered to gawk at the rapidly unfolding scene. Nervous energy was quickly overtaking her usual happy mood, and she had to figure out how to fix what she had done.

It had started out so simple, her attention had been attracted by the sight of an unfamiliar gray pegasus nervously glancing around. She took a second to verify that it was indeed a new face, and then immediately jumped at the opportunity to introduce herself.

Everything had been going so well, the welcome wagon was a huge success and the new mare was smiling brightly as she silently giggled through the entire welcome song. Pinkie had even remembered to load the cake and confetti into the correct compartments this time. Right when everything had seemed to be in the bag, and Pinkie was preparing to have a new bestest friend, the mare burst into tears.

Okay Pinkie, let’s review: meet somepony new, introduce myself, sing welcome song, smiles everywhere, but no instant best friends? Was it something I said, or sang? Again? What could I have said wrong? All I really asked was her name… several times.

Pinkie halted at that point, mulling over the last thought a bit. That had seemed strange at the time, the mare had refused to give a name, even though she had been smiling and shaking with silent laughter. She couldn’t understand why somepony would be so stubborn about their name that they would start crying when they were asked for it. Pinkie had to know the pegasus' name if they were going to be best friends, and she was best friends with everypony in Ponyville.

Pinkie was having a hard time wrapping her mind around the concept, it made absolutely no sense. Not even in the “Oh Pinkie, you’re so random” way of making no sense either. It was the frustrating “Somepony new is super sad, and refusing to smile, despite all of her best tricks” making no sense. That was the kind of making no sense that frustrated Pinkie to no end. She couldn’t stand to see somepony so visibly upset, especially if it was her fault. Her ears flattened against her head as she came to the realization that it could be all her fault.

Pinkie thoughtfully gazed back at the gray coated pegasus. She was lying down on the ground with her face buried in her hooves and her purple mane was falling over her face to completely hide her expression. The only sounds ocming from the pony were the light sounds of sniffling. So, at least she she had at least stopped crying for now. After a few more moments of watching curiously and trying to figure out how to fix things, she was interrupted by the pegasus sitting up on her haunches and wiping away the last few remnants of tears with a hoof.

There was absolutely no way she could allow this pony to be so sad today. Pinkie gazed up at the sky, Rainbow had cleared out the clouds less than an hour ago, there were only the lightest wisps of clouds visible high up in the sky, and the sun was shining brightly down upon everypony around. The gentlest of breezes was lightly brushing through her coat in that way that made her just want to giggle for no reason. Today was, frankly, a perfect day.

“Hey, I’m sorry… I’m not sure what I said to make you so upset, but I certainly didn’t mean to. I was just trying to greet you and be all friendly like. I really don’t like seeing other ponies sad. So, if you could just tell me what I did wrong… I’ll make sure to never ever do it again! Cross my heart, and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” she added emphatically.

To Pinkie’s dismay, though, the pegasus immediately broke into a fresh round of tears. She threw herself down onto her hooves as she wept and tried to hide her face behind her purple mane once more. Pinkie could clearly see the tears running freely down her cheeks despite the pegasus' best efforts to hide it, though. Something was clearly different this time, but she was having a hard time placing what exactly. The pegasus lifted her head up, with the tears still streaming down her face, and then stamped her front hooves on the ground a few times. Finally, the gray mare tensed her entire body into a pose that Pinkie could recognize anywhere. Pinkie winced and shut her eyes tight, bracing herself for the incoming yelling with the tiniest of grins spreading across her face.

After a long moment of stark silence, Pinkie cracked her eyes open curiously. The smile left her face as she saw the pegasus tensed up in the pose like she was trying to scream. Her mouth was still wide open, but absolutely no sound was coming out. The gray mare eventually relaxed and opened her eyes slowly. After a few deep breaths, the tears seemed to abate once again, but Pinkie was still thoroughly confused. She pondered the possibilities for a long moment.

Why didn’t she yell? She was definitely about to… She should have screamed at me. That way she could get all angry and grumbly, and then I would know what was wrong. Once I knew what was wrong I could easily make up and we would be best friends. Why does she insist on making no sense?

“Umm... I’m sorry, but can you say that again? I think I missed it…” she asked sheepishly, trying her best to ignore the still growing crowd gawking at the unusual scene.

The sorrowful mare got an even more frustrated look on her face. She and silently planted her face into her hooves and then curled herself up into a ball, assuming the fetal position as her body lightly shook from the quiet sobs. Pinkie stamped her own hooves on the ground several times before doing anything else. She couldn’t stop a sniffle of her own from escaping her nose. Pinkie wiped away the budding tears with a hoof, desperately trying to keep her composure.

“Why do you keep crying? I don’t get it! All I’ve been trying to do is make you smile, but you keep crying. I’ve never met somepony so determined to be upset before. I said I was sorry. So, if it was something I did, you just have to tell me!” Pinkie choked out in a strangled voice, finally failing to prevent the tears from running down her cheeks freely.

Pinkie had seen such a beautiful smile gracing the gray mare’s face when they had first met, and Celestia-be-damned if she was going to be denied of it further. She knew that the pegasus couldn’t hold out on her forever; she would just have to bring out the big guns. Well, the cannon specifically, she mentally amended with a grin. She stood up with a mischievous grin quickly spreading across her face, causing several of the gawking ponies to quickly turn and run for the safety of their homes. A hoof on her shoulder interrupted her plans, though.

“Pinkie…” started a familiar voice from behind her in a tentative tone. “I don’t think she can talk.”

“WHAT? Really?” Pinkie gasped dramatically, and then whirled in place to see Twilight Sparkle’s super serious “No, I’m not pulling your leg. When do I ever pull your leg? I'm a serious pony that doesn't put up with any of that kind of guff” face. Pinkie quickly returned her gaze to the other pony. The despondent pegasus had curiously picked her head up and had temporarily halted her crying. Pinkie blinked with amazement as she observed the pegasus apparently watching the interaction with interest.

“Well, she stopped crying, that’s a good start, but how did you figure that out, Twilight?” Pinkie asked earnestly.

“Well, it sounds like she hasn’t said a word to you, right? I saw her try to yell at you; which by the way, yes, it looked like she was actually trying quite hard to yell. Except, no sound came out at all, which is really odd. Even when Fluttershy gets frustrated and tries to let it out, we usually hear a quiet squeak. It almost seemed like she was trying to mouth the words at you while trying to yell… I think they were “I can’t?”” Twilight concluded seriously.

Pinkie froze in place, the entire world seemed to halt around her. She felt an unfamiliar sense of spinning overcome her, and then she ceased to hear any of the noise from the surrounding ponies. The truth of Twilight’s words shot through her body like a lightning bolt. It explained so much, but she still had to be sure.

"Pinkie?" came the ghost of Twilight's voice as it seem to echo all around her.

“Is it true?” Pinkie demanded loudly to the gray mare while tears streamed down her face. She stepped closer, her face stricken with guilt, and the pegaus quailed visibly at the forcefulness of the question. Eventually the shaking mare responded with a timid nod.

“Oh my gosh, I am so sorry! I was being a big old meanie-Pinkie-pants, wasn’t I? I kept asking you to talk to me when you couldn’t. I really didn’t know, I promise. I wasn’t trying to be a meanie-pants at all,” Pinkie proclaimed loudly, as the tears kept streaming down her face.

The more she thought about how mean she had been, the more she couldn’t stop the tears, despite how much she tried. She shuffled closer, and threw her hooves around the surprised pony’s neck and sniffled quietly. Pinkie put all of her emotions into the hug, trying to convey how sorry she was without words. After a long moment, and a few more sniffles, she withdrew her face and contorted it into an adorable pout.

“Can you ever forgive me?” she pleaded desperately. Pinkie dropped her to haunches in front of the newcomer. She lowered her head, so that the mare wouldn’t have to crane her neck to look up at her face. The gray pegasus stared at her for a long moment, sniffling a few times and rubbing her own eyes free of the few remaining tears with a hoof. Finally, she gave Pinkie a hesitant nod, with her ears still flat against the sides of her head.

“Yay! I know the best way to make it up to you too… A PARTY! It can be your welcome to Ponyville party, as well as an “I’m sorry I made you cry, by being a big old meanie-Pinkie-pants” party. That is, if you’re staying in Ponyville, you are, aren’t you? Oooh, I have the bestest ide—“ Pinkie stopped dead in her tracks, ceasing her excited bouncing as she stared at the pony in front of her. The gray pegasus was shooting her a look of abject terror, while at the same time, shaking her head back and forth vehemently. The pony's purple mane flung wildly out in front of her, quickly making a mess of her mane and nearly flipping it into Pinkies face as she flailed her head back and forth.

“What? I don’t get it, what’s wrong this time? I thought everypony likes parties… Twilight?” she asked as she turned to her friend. The welcome wagon had elicited such a positive response that Pinkie was baffled at the reaction to a party proposal.

“Well…” Twilight started diplomatically. “I suppose it could be because she can’t talk. Think about it for a second, I’m not sure a party is the best idea. If you throw her a welcome party, then everypony will want to meet her. I imagine that social gatherings have been rather difficult for her in the past. A welcome party might make her to have to sit through a bunch of awkward situations. I'm not sure that a huge party would be as friendly of an atmosphere as you would like for her."

Pinkie gazed questioningly at the newcomer; she had ceased her alarmed flailing and was giving Pinkie a sad nod of assent.

Okay Pinkie, new plan then. I need to make up for making her cry, so I have to do the bestest thing possible. She needs to laugh, giggle, and grin until she’s exhausted. She needs to be so happy that she forgets all about my insensitivity… That means only one possible thing will work.

“Oh, good point Twilight, you’re so smart. I think I have the perfect idea now, though. A SMALLER PARTY!” Pinkie exclaimed proudly, then zipped around the square happily. Twilight slammed a hoof into her face dramatically, and the gray mare tilted her head at Twilight with a slight look of worry after trying to follow the pink blur for a moment.

“Don’t you worry, you two. I’ll only invite the very bestest of my best friends, and I’ll make sure they’ll all be super nice and kind. Nopony will be mean at all, and we can have a bunch of fun without any of the uncomfortablyness!”

“Just don’t go over the top okay, Pinkie?” Twilight asked through a heavy sigh, and then walked over to the gray pegasus to see how she was doing.

“You got it Twilight! You’ll see, parties are my specialty,” Pinkie exclaimed putting special emphasis on the last word. “They don’t always have to be big and raucous. We’ll throw her a nice, small, and comfortable party that has all the fun still jam packed inside it! Anyway, I gotta go prepare, it was nice meeting you. Sorry again about being a big ole meanie-Pinkie-pants, come by Sugarcube Corner tonight at seven, okay? I’ll make you smile again, I guarantee it!” Pinkie positively beamed at the pegasus, and then zipped off happily towards the confectionery shop.

“Are you sure that you’re okay?” Twilight asked kindly, as she offered the mare a hoof up. She received a nod in response, and then the pegasus attempted to shake the dirt off the underside of her body.

“Pinkie means well, she just... gets a tad over-excited at times. She has a good heart, though. You should stop by if you can. She wasn’t lying when she said that she knows parties. I’ve seen her cobble together a party for the strangest of reasons while still managing to make it fun. If her goal is to make you smile, then I’m sure you’ll have fun,” Twilight concluded with a smile, and shifted in place as she glanced back to her tree home.

“I should get back to the library now, okay? If you need anything, feel free to stop by, it’s the big tree over that way. Hopefully we’ll see you later.” She turned and gave the new pony a wave of her hoof, then trotted off towards her home.

As Twilight left, most of the curious ponies that had remained watching the scene unfold finally started to disperse. The mare stood there for a long time, eventually finding her way over to a bench next to a pleasantly babbling fountain. She stared at the flowing water for a long time as she tried to fully process everything that had just happened.

Chapter 3

Pinkie let her head rest on the windowsill as she peered out into the gloomy night. Her gaze was not focused on anything in particular, just idly staring through the storm. Her eyes slipped in and out of focus a few times, but she didn’t really care; she couldn’t really see anything through the stormy haze, anyways. What was important was the sounds of the storm that raged all around her. The rain falling heavily on the roof was creating a soothing cacophony all around her, and the pitter patter of the rain against her window blended perfectly with the sound, creating a symphony of rain all around her.

The melodious sounds of the storm were interrupted only by the occasional room-shaking clap of thunder. Every time the room shook around her, she could feel it reverberate through her coat and then she couldn’t stop a quiet giggle from escaping her lips. After a few more minutes, she let her eyes slip shut and just listened to the collection of sounds. She reached out with her hooves, and cracked her eyes open as she opened the window just a hair. She was careful to raise it only about a centimeter, allowing for more sounds of the storm to reach her, but without the rain splashing on her face.

Pinkie took in a deep breath through her nose, letting the unique stormy smell fill her nostrils. She placed her hooves up on the windowsill, then rested her head on top of them gently. She kept her eyes open this time, watching the random patterns of the rain as it streamed down the window in front of her. She could almost feel herself drifting through the clouds, getting carried away by the sounds of the storm, so that she was out in the storm itself. Pinkie knew that if she closed her eyes now, she’d be fast asleep. So, she resisted the temptation and, instead, let out another quiet giggle as a massive clap of thunder shook her.

Pinkie stood up with her ears twitching, and looked around. She thought that she had heard a sound from downstairs, but it was gone now. She couldn’t tell if she had started to drift off to sleep or not, so she stood stock still waiting to hear if it would repeat itself. After a few moments, there was a series of quiet knocks at the front door, barely audible over the storm. She turned towards the stairwell and hung her jaw open wide. She couldn’t help but wonder what kind of silly filly would be out in this storm. Despite how much she wanted to go out and frolic in the rain, even Pinkie knew better than to actually go out into a storm this strong.

“I’ll get it!” she called out quietly, and then started to trot down the stairs with a curious look on her face. The store closed hours ago, so she figured whoever it was must be looking for her.

Pinkie pulled the door open and then stood aside to let whoever it was inside the building. She opened her mouth to berate whichever one of her friends had trekked through the storm just to see her, but stopped short. The purple mane in front of her was soaked and dripped freely down the miserable looking gray face. Silver let out a quiet sneeze, and looked apologetic as she saw Pinkie’s shocked face. Pinkie jumped back further, and then had to reach out to tug at Silver in order to get her to follow inside.

“Silver! What are you doing out in the rain? You knew there was a storm scheduled didn’t you?” Pinkie demanded with concern. If Silver’s face wasn’t so miserable looking, she probably would be giggling at how completely soaked the pegasus was.

Silver shook her head shyly, and hung her head low to avoid Pinkie’s gaze. She hesitated on the mat inside the doorway, looking at the freshly cleaned floors, and refused to step off it. She was so sopping wet that there was already a large oval of water all over the mat, and the edges were starting to ooze water out onto the floor around it. The silence was broken as she sneezed again violently, and started to shiver visibly in front of Pinkie.

“Silver! You silly filly, come inside! Don’t worry about it, we can clean up the water later, but you need to dry off now before you get sick,” Pinkie stated firmly. She tugged gently at Silver to get her to step off the mat, then led her back into the living areas of the building.

Pinkie nudged a nearby closet open with her nose and tossed several towels out onto the floor. She grabbed a fluffy, blue pony-sized blanket and set that aside as well. She grabbed the first towel in her mouth and tossed it over Silver’s head with a giggle at the indignant reaction it elicited. She vigorously ruffled the soft cloth through the dripping mare’s mane with her hooves. It was quickly tossed aside with a wet splat and then Pinkie had to pick up a fresh towel. Pinkie rubbed it across Silver’s back, focusing merely on trying to get the majority of the water out as she cycled through the stack of towels quickly.

“Wow, you were soaked. What were you doing silly? Sleeping in the rain?” Pinkie teased, trying not to laugh as she looked at Silver’s ruffled coat. Pinkie let the towel she was rubbing over Silver's back fall to the floor with a wet thud when Silver actually gave her a hesitant nod.

“WHAT? Why were you sleeping outside silly head? Don’t you have a house yet?” she demanded, then picked up another towel to continue gently drying off her friend.

Pinkie quickly finished with that one as well, and picked up the last towel from the stack. She focused on rubbing it a bit more slowly through the gray coat, getting the last few bits of water out. Once that was done, she picked up the fluffy blue blanket in her mouth, and tossed it over Silver’s back. Pinkie leaned down and gathered up the load of soaked towels. She tossed them into a nearby laundry bin, and then came back with a fresh towel in her mouth. She gently nudged Silver aside, and dropped it to the floor so she could dry the floor where Silver had been standing. Pinkie slowly worked her way back towards the entrance of the store, carefully mopping up the trail of water that Silver had left behind.

“Well? Have you really been in Ponyville for almost a week without managing to find somewhere to stay?” Pinkie asked seriously, as she picked up the wet towel and trotted back to toss it in the bin as well. She stared intently at her friend, waiting for some kind of a response.

Pinkie frowned slightly and let her ears droop as Silver merely looked down at her hooves with a frightened look on her face. Pinkie edged closer, giving her a serious stare that finally made Silver give up. She backed up a few steps and held out a hoof. She turned her head back to nuzzle under the blanket, only to reappear a moment later with a pouch of bits in her mouth. She blushed slightly, hesitating for a moment, and then let it drop to the floor between them. Pinkie couldn’t help but gasp audibly; there had been barely an audible clink from inside when it hit the floor.

“Why didn’t you come to me? I told you to let me know if you needed anything…” Pinkie questioned sadly, hanging her head slightly.

“Where are you sleeping? If you’ve been sleeping on a bench somewhere, so help me Celestia…” Pinkie growled with playful menace as she stepped closer. Silver immediately backed away a few steps and shook her head vehemently, defensively holding out a hoof.

“Well? Where then?” she demanded, and walked over to the front window. She waited for Silver to come stand next to her and pointed out with a hoof. “Show me.”

Silver was clearly having a hard time maintaining eye contact with Pinkie, but eventually looked out the window. Silver peered around for a moment before she finally seemed to figure it out. Pinkie felt a nudge at her side, and Silver pointed a hoof up towards the dark clouds hanging overhead.

“Wait, you sleep on a cloud?” Pinkie asked after a long moment, her face wrinkling thoughtfully.

“That’s not so bad I guess… Rainbow takes naps on clouds all the time, but you need somewhere to live Silver. A home, somewhere you can come back to and feel safe,” Pinkie insisted, looking towards her friend with a concerned expression.

"Wait, if you sleep on a cloud, then how did you get so wet?" Pinkie questioned with a confused expression.

Silver had to stop and think for a long moment before she could figure out how to answer. The gray pegasus mimed pushing some clouds around for Pinkie, and then pretended to nudge one with an irritable expression. She turned her face into a glower and pointed at the 'cloud' a few times then off into the distance. Once the theatrics were done she pushed that cloud over towards the others.

"The weather pegasi kicked you off your cloud? Didn't you have somewhere to go? Don't you have a job Silver? I can’t let you stay homeless…” Pinkie kept up the pressure, leaning closer and putting on her best meanie-Pinkie-pants face. Silver shied away, trying to step backwards, but was soon backed up against the window. Pinkie kept glowering at the pegasus, using all her self-control to keep herself from giggling audibly as she did so. Silver slowly shook her head again and then stared down at her hooves looking ashamed.

“What am I going to do with you, Silver?” Pinkie asked through a heavy sigh. She backed away and sat down on her haunches. Her face wrinkled in thought as she kept glancing back and forth from down at her hooves and back at Silver. After a few moments, she got up and tugged at Silver with a hoof. She marched Silver into the kitchen, not even looking back as she tugged the pegasus with her, and pointed a hoof forcefully to a chair next to a small table.

“Sit, have you eaten recently? Have you eaten at all?” Pinkie asked with an air of disappointment, then started nosing open cabinets to see what they had leftover from the day. She pulled out two bottles of apple juice and then plonked them down heavily in front of Silver. Pinkie went back to the cabinets, pulling out a few sweets and pastries. She loaded up her forelegs with as much as she could carry, and tottered over on her hindlegs. Pinkie dumped the spread of cupcakes, muffins, and other assorted pastries out onto the table in front of Silver.

“Eat,” she commanded simply, before she picked up a cupcake for herself. She took a few big bites of it while she watched Silver closely.

“Sorry if I’m being mean, Silver… You’re just making me worry about you,” Pinkie added as an afterthought.

Silver nodded slowly and gave Pinkie a hesitant smile. The way that her ears remained drooped, and only just the corners of her mouth turned up, reminded Pinkie of a foal who wasn’t sure if she was still in trouble or not. Pinkie smiled, and then pointed at the food with a hoof. Silver laughed silently, her smile slowly turning more genuine as she picked up a cupcake. She munched on it tentatively and then started eating it with a little more gusto. They remained in silence for a long moment. Pinkie couldn’t help but feel a little bad for yelling so much. So, she gave the pegasus a kind smile and then tossed the rest of the cupcake down her throat.

“Good girl,” Pinkie said with a playful smile when Silver finished her cupcake and reached for a bagel. She let out a quiet laugh as Silver stopped holding back and started tearing into the food ravenously. Pinkie satisfied herself with watching Silver eat, pushing the second bottle of apple juice towards her as well, and then waited until she was satisfied. Pinkie cleared away the mess on the table and then carried the two empty bottles over to the sink in the corner.

“Better now?” Pinkie asked with a knowing grin. She laughed at the bashful nod she received from Silver and started to walk over towards the door. Pinkie hesitated for a moment, then stopped halfway out the kitchen. She pointed with a hoof to a sheet of paper tacked up on a cabinet door, and motioned with her head for Silver to come over next to her.

“This is our weather calendar. You obviously don’t have one… So you’re going to come here every day and look at it. I’ll let Mr. and Mrs. Cake know so they won’t give you a hard time,” Pinkie stated matter-of-factly, leaving no room for objections from Silver.

“If there’s really bad weather, and you still haven’t found somewhere to sleep. You come to Auntie Pinkie Pie’s place, alright? No more soaking wet friends showing up at my doorstep. For now, though, let’s just pretend it’s a sleepover,” Pinkie concluded and lead Silver back out of the kitchen and towards the stairs.

“Except, everyone is already asleep, so we have to be quiet…” she added in a hushed whisper and then held a hoof up to her face. Pinkie made a show of sneaking up the stairs, holding back a quiet giggle as she did. She stepped aside to let Silver into her room, and then closed the door after them. She finally let out the giggle she was holding back, and walked over to close the window she had left open earlier.

“What do you do on a sleepover with two ponies anyways? I’ve never been to one this small, I guess it’s like a small party, but we can’t make much noise. So that means no dancing, or music. We already ate as well… Oh, I know! You wanted to know about that whole element of laughter thing right?” Pinkie asked excitedly and climbed up onto her bed. She spread out on top of the blankets, and turned her head to watch Silver.

The gray mare eventually followed suit, climbing up to the bed and curling up under her blanket in front of Pinkie. She smiled happily and nodded as she nuzzled the soft blanket, tugging at it with her mouth so it was curled more tightly around her.

“Oh my gosh, are you warm enough? I didn’t even think to ask, you haven’t been shivering have you? I can get you another blanket if you need it,” Pinkie asked fretfully, looking around for another blanket. Silver merely shook her head with a smile, and settled back down looking content. She perked her head up after a few moments and looked at Pinkie expectantly.

“Oh, right, the element of laughter thing. Well, it all started when Twilight first moved into town. I decided to throw her a big welcome party. Big surprise, huh?” Pinkie commented with a laugh, then turned back to face Silver, resting her head on her front hooves.

“Well, at the party she seemed really distracted. I didn’t know it at the time, but she apparently had a good reason…”

Chapter 4

Pinkie’s eyes protested heavily as she tried her best to wrench them open. She let out a quiet yawn, stretching her mouth wide open, and rubbed her eyes with her front hooves. She glanced over towards the clock next to her bed, and let out a quiet groan. It was already seven, but her body was still behaving like it was four. She didn’t actually need to get up yet, since she had the morning off, but she always felt off if she slept in too much.

Another quiet yawn was accompanied by the realization that she probably should not have stayed up so late talking to Silver. She once again tried to get her eyes to finish opening up, but couldn’t quite manage it. Something about Silver made it even more fun to ramble on about nothing in particular than usual. She sat up in bed slowly and tried to think of why that was. The only sensible thought that came to her mind was that Silver was the best listener she had ever met. Pinkie let out a quiet giggle at the irony of the thought and then pondered the conclusion a little bit more. The more she thought about it, the more she couldn’t think of a better way to describe it.

Silver had listened to the entire story of the rise and fall of Nightmare Moon, even with all the extra bits and side stories added in the retelling. Then after that, she’d listened to more stories about Pinkie’s adventures in helping The Cakes run Sugarcube Corner. More important than just merely listening to all of her stories, Silver’s face lit up at all the appropriate times. She cowered away whenever Pinkie got to the scary parts, and she had even caught Silver leaning in apprehensively during the tense moments.

The more she thought about it, she couldn’t remember actually ever seeing Silver yawn or look tired until Pinkie had declared that they should probably sleep. She certainly couldn’t remember the pegasus ever looking disinterested. Her lavender eyes had been firmly locked on Pinkie as she absorbed every word. Silver had even seemed genuinely disappointed when Pinkie had told her that story time had to come to an end for the night.

Pinkie finally managed to struggle into a sitting position, the thoughts whirring through her head finally allowing her to open her eyes slowly. She gave them a quick rub for good measure and saw Silver still fast asleep at the hoof of her bed. Pinkie smiled at the sight; she had found it rather odd that Silver had elected to sleep down there in the first place. It was hard to say anything against it, though. She looked frankly adorable curled up under the blanket Pinkie had given her. Silver’s snout was just barely peeking out from the blanket and her purple trail protruded from the other end, twitching very lightly every now and then.

She barely managed to fight back a giggle in an attempt to not wake up Silver. It was difficult, though, watching her sleep made something inside of Pinkie just want to burst into the biggest smile she could. She watched for a few moments as Silver’s blanketed chest slowly rose and fell. Pinkie couldn't stop the comparison in her mind between the sleeping pegasus in front of her and Rainbow Dash. They both slept on clouds, but Rainbow always seemed to have her limbs splayed out in every direction. Pinkie took notice of the silent breaths coming from Silver as well, those would definitely have been loud snores from Rainbow.

Pinkie reluctantly crawled out from under the warm covers, wincing as her hooves landed on the floor with a much louder clatter than she had intended. She glanced nervously over towards Silver, but she was still sound asleep. Pinkie’s worried expression quickly returned to a smile and then she carefully crept away towards the door. Clouds were fine, but Silver deserved to sleep in a real bed for once. She pulled the door to the frame to avoid the sound of it latching, and quietly stepped down the stairs.

Pinkie stopped right at the hoof of the stairs, taking in a huge breath through her nose. She absolutely adored the wonderfully sweet aroma of baked goodies that filled up the entire first floor in the mornings. Pinkie’s smile solidified as she imagined all of the wonderful treats that the Cakes were preparing for breakfast. She took another long sniff, and then bounced towards the kitchen happily stopping at the counter.

“Good morning, Pinkie. You certainly seem to have some extra bounce today, what happened?” Mrs. Cake asked as she trotted by to place a pan of cinnamon rolls in the display case.

“Good morning! Not much really, I’m just really happy. I didn’t even really sleep well last night. Those smell super duper good by the way,” Pinkie added, before looking through the doorway towards the ovens cooking an array of tasty treats. She couldn’t stop her mouth from watering and let out an audible giggle.

“Really now, didn’t sleep that well huh?” Mrs. Cake teased and glanced obviously over Pinkie’s shoulder with a nod.

Pinkie stopped and looked confused for a moment, causing Mrs. Cake to gesture behind her again. She turned around slowly, wondering what was going on, only to see Silver standing at the hoof of the stairs looked ruffled. She wore a curious expression on her face and her mane was rather disheveled from last night. The furs on her coat were in even worse shape, pointing in opposite directions. Pinkie immediate burst into a fit of giggles at Silver’s odd appearance and bounced over happily. She reached out with a hoof to straighten out the purple mane the best she could, then ran a roof across Silver’s back attempting to fix her up.

“So are you going to introduce us Pinkie?” Mrs. Cake asked from over her shoulder with a knowing grin directed at the two of them.

Pinkie opened her mouth to start explaining when she suddenly realized what was being implied. Her shoulders shook a few times, and then she fell to the floor and rolled on her back as she giggled loudly. She waggled her legs in the air madly and let out a few cute snorts between hysteric giggles. She stopped for a moment and seemed to regain her composure long enough to point a hoof at Mrs. Cake, only to immediately burst back into a fresh bout of laughter.

“You thought that she and I— and I said that I didn’t sleep— and she never got to brush herself… Too funny!” Pinkie gasped out between laughs after continuing the absurd giggling for several minutes. She finally pulled herself up onto her hooves and wiped the tears from her eyes.

“Okay, okay, this is Silver Wings. She moved to Ponyville almost a week ago and doesn’t have anywhere to stay yet. She got caught in the storm last night and needed somewhere to sleep, so I let her stay over,” Pinkie explained, still giggling under her breath after she concluded.

“Silver, this is Mrs. Cake, she runs Sugarcube Corner with her husband like I told you before. They let me stay with them since I help them with the shop,” she said through another giggle. She started to laugh in earnest again, but was interrupted by a loud hiccup. This only seemed to cause her to laugh even harder, and she fell to the ground again as she laughed like a mad mare, occasionally interrupted by a loud hiccup.

“She’s awfully quiet isn’t she?” Mrs. Cake finally inquired after a long several moments of putting up with Pinkie’s antics.

“Oh! That’s right, sorry. I should have said so earlier, she can’t talk. I threw her a party, but she didn’t want the usual, everypony in Ponyville party since she was scared of how it would go. I would have invited you two, but you had plans that night and said it was okay for me to throw a party, remember?” Pinkie glanced back towards Silver as she realized that she hadn’t paid her any attention in a few minutes. Silver was wearing an amused smile on her face, and appeared to be giggling silently as she watched Pinkie talk to Mrs. Cake.

“I told her to come here to check our weather calendar every day since she doesn’t have one. So, if she wanders back into the kitchen when I’m not around that’s why, okay?” Pinkie asked as she attempted to stop her sides from shaking.

“Certainly Pinkie, you know your friends are welcome here.”

“Thanks! We’re going to head out for a bit. Well, after we brush Silver’s coat,” Pinkie amended with a giggle. “I’ll be back later to help out.”

“Okay, see you later Pinkie. It was nice meeting you, Silver.”

Pinkie waved a hoof at Mrs. Cake, and then Pinkie gently pushed at Silver’s side directing her back up the stairs. She followed behind the pegasus as the two of them trotted back up to her bedroom and Pinkie fetched a brush to fix Silver’s ruffled coat.

“We should have done this last night before it dried, sorry about that Silver. I was just having so much fun telling you stories,” Pinkie said as she ran the brush down Silver’s neck and across her back and sides a few times with her mouth.

Silver responded with a calm smile that Pinkie was learning to recognize as the “everything is fine” smile. Pinkie laughed again once more before she went back to brushing her friend down and attempting to fix her wild hair. It took several minutes, but eventually Silver was looking groomed again and Pinkie bounced over to replace the brush in the drawer it came from.

“Okay! Now you look presentable! Do you want to know where we’re going?” Pinkie questioned as she started to bounce down the stairs in front of Silver. She waited at the bottom for her friend to appear and smiled brightly. Silver stopped at the hoof of the steps once again and tilted her head to the side slightly, wearing a bemused look as she did.

“Is that a yes?” Pinkie asked with a giggle and then turned to walk out of the shop. She stopped at the door to wave a hoof to Mrs. Cake before bouncing out into the bright sunshine. Silver followed her, walking up beside Pinkie and then nodded her head in assent.

“We’re going to find you a job!” Pinkie explained brightly. “That’s why we had to be extra sure your coat and mane were fixed before we went out! I haven’t figured out where yet, but I figure if you have a friend to help explain, then things might go a bit better.”

“What are you good at, anyway?” Pinkie turned and walked around to Silver’s side to look at her flank. She opened her eyes wide and blinked a few times as she realized that it was blank. Silver winced visibly, and lowered her head slightly. Her eyes kept flicking back towards Pinkie, then darting back away as she stood stock still.

“Huh… how did I not notice that before?” Pinkie mused with a giggle at her own silliness after a long delay. “Don’t you worry, we’ll figure something out. Hey, maybe we’ll find your special talent while looking for a job!”

Pinkie turned her attention to the different buildings around town and glanced at them thoughtfully. She turned back towards Silver to see her hanging her mouth open slightly, and staring at Pinkie.

“What?” Pinkie questioned, and it was her turn to give a bemused look at the strange behavior.

Silver, opened and closed her mouth a few times as if she was trying to find her voice. She shook her head lightly a few times, then turned and stared at her flank for a moment and then back towards Pinkie. She repeated this twice more, then just stood there with a shocked look on her face.

“Oh, you expected me to freak out about you not having a cutie mark?” Pinkie questioned, and received a timid nod in response. “Don’t be silly, Silver. There’s nothing wrong with not finding your special talent yet. Besides, I figure you’ve had a hard time finding yourself when you can’t communicate. So, logically you must not have tried out a lot of things, right?”

Silver nodded again slowly, her mouth still slightly agape. She took another moment to stare at Pinkie before she finally shook her head lightly and composed herself. Pinkie laughed quietly at Silver’s antics, and then returned to thoughtfully looking around the buildings around her.

Pinkie was struck with a sudden idea and started to bounce off. She paused to make sure that Silver was still close behind and made her way over towards the gigantic tree that housed Golden Oaks Library. As Pinkie arrived at the doorway, she heard the swish of wings only to see Silver landing behind her when she turned, the pegasus breaking into a trot to catch up.

“Why didn’t I think of this before? It’s perfect!” Pinkie exclaimed as she walked into the library with a curious look on her face.

“Heeey, Twilight? Twilight!” Pinkie called out loudly, and started to look around for her friend.”

“Hey Pinkie, what’s wrong?” Twilight asked as she emerged from the kitchen, with her mane askance and her eyes barely open.

“Oh, I came to ask if you needed any help around the library. Silver really needs a job, and then I remembered how annoyed you always get when I start getting loud in the library. So, then I thought to myself “Pinkie that’s perfect! Silver can’t talk so she can’t annoy Twilight by being loud!” So, I brought her here to check,” Pinkie concluded excitedly. She bounced in place a few times happily as she wore a proud expression on her face.

“While that line of thought is… surprisingly sound, I already have two assistants remember? I don’t really need any more help around the library between Spike and Owlowiscious,” Twilight said gently, trying her best to put on an understanding face.

“Aww, that’s too bad. Do you have any ideas on where else we could check? I’m helping since she probably has a hard time getting interviews, and you were the first idea I had.”

“Did you check with the weather patrol? Rainbow seems to always comment on them trying to get more help, what with having to keep a good watch on the Everfree Forest and all the weird weather it generates,” Twilight suggested through a yawn.

“Ooh! That’s a great idea, thanks Twi!” Pinkie exclaimed, and bounced over to give Twilight a hug. Twilight let out a quiet laugh, returning the hug before she shunted Pinkie away tiredly.

“We’ll see you later Twi! Come on, Silver.” Pinkie bounced out the door and then turned to wait for her friend. She saw Silver wave a hoof to Twilight before she stepped out the doorway.

Pinkie happily bounced along the main road towards the edge of town. She checked a few times to make sure that Silver was still keeping up with her. The few times that Silver fell behind, she took to the skies and swooped back down next to Pinkie to try and keep up with the energetic pony. There weren’t that many ponies out, but the few that they passed called out to Pinkie as they went by, and Pinkie returned the favor wishing them all a good morning by name.

Finally, they came to a small, squat structure at the edge of town. It seemed to have been put together by somepony who really didn’t know how to work with wood. The result was a plain looking box sitting alone amongst all the other finely crafted structures of Ponyville. There was a simple, utilitarian white paint on it, and the outside was completely unadorned except for the logo of a winged cloud over the doorway. Pinkie curiously peered through the window on the door before she opened it slowly. She had seen the building before, and she had certainly seen Rainbow coming in and out of it as well, but she’d never actually been inside.

The interior was a bit more brightly decorated, but really only because of the posters that seemed to be everywhere. The walls were a plain white, and there were posters with safety slogans were plastered all over them. Near the doorway was an array of posters bearing ponies striking dramatic poses, with a few pointing a hoof at the viewer beckoning the viewer to join their cause.

“Hi!” Pinkie called out brightly to the receptionist, as she walked up to the desk.

“Hello, please sign in on the clipboard. Put down your name and the purpose of your visit, please,” the blue earth pony intoned blankly, barely even deigning to look up from the book she was reading.

“Okay, but what do we write if she’s here for a job?” Pinkie questioned, and then peered at the list of names curiously.

“If you’re here for a job please take these and fill them out. Bring them back when you’re done and somepony will be out to see you shortly,” the receptionist stated flatly. She hoofed a surprisingly large stack of papers on a clipboard over the desk to them.

Pinkie eyed the stack of papers with surprise before passing them over to Silver. The two of them retreated over to the seating area, and Silver placed the clipboard down on one of the tables before grabbing the quill carefully in her mouth. She wrote very slowly, making sure her marks were clearly legible and took quite a long time to move through just the first piece of paper.

“Wow, that’s a lot of paperwork isn’t it? I wonder why they need that much information,” Pinkie mused out loud as she peered over the forms. Her eyes widened slightly as she lowered her head down to the table level in an attempt to count the stack of papers. Silver nodded at her and then went back to carefully filling everything out.

After what seemed like an eternity to Pinkie, Silver glanced over her hoofwork carefully to make sure she hadn't missed anything. She flipped through the pages a few times and then grasped the clipboard in her mouth to walk it back up to the desk. She placed it gently in front of the receptionist and waited a few moments for a response.

“Thank you, somepony will be out to see you in a few minutes,” the receptionist said automatically, not even glancing up from her book this time as she reached up and moved the clipboard over to a shelf behind her.

Pinkie and Silver went back to sit in the waiting area and sat next to each other as they glanced around the room at all of the posters. Pinkie tapped her hoof impatiently on the floor a few times before she caught sight of the receptionist glaring at her and stifled it. After what seemed like fifteen minutes later, a large brown pegasus stallion walked out holding what Pinkie assumed to be the same clipboard.

“Silver Wings?” he called out questioningly, ignoring the fact that they were the only two in the waiting area. They both got up and started to walk over towards him, but he stuck a hoof out trying to halt Pinkie’s advance.

“I’m sorry, but you’ll have to wait here while we conduct the interview,” he said gruffly.

“But you can’t have the interview without me silly!” Pinkie said brightly and smiled over at Silver who nodded in agreement. The stallion flipped through the pages of paper in front of him a few times, and then looked back at them with a confused expression.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t see anything about that here. Why exactly is that?”

“She can’t talk; I’m helping her look for a job. So obviously, if you want to interview her, then you can’t without me since she’s mute,” Pinkie explained simply, but hung her mouth open slightly at the response she got. The stallion let out an audible sigh and put the clipboard back onto the reception desk next to him. He then directed an annoyed expression at the two of them.

“If that’s the case, then I don’t think the interview is even necessary…” he finally said and started to pull the papers from the clipboard, making to toss them in the trash.

“Wait a minute buster! You’re not even going to talk to her first?” Pinkie demanded, causing him to hesitate for a moment.

“Listen, it’s nothing against your friend. It’s just that being a weather pegasus is more dangerous than most anypony seems to realize. A large part of the training is learning to recognize the dangerous situations before they happen, and then subsequently alerting other ponies to that danger,” he explained slowly, putting on his best menacing glare. “When ponies are careless, or when they don’t call out in time, that’s when somepony gets hurt. If your friend can’t talk, then she can’t follow our protocols about warning other ponies about danger. I’m sorry, but if she can’t do that then she doesn’t have a place in the weather patrol. Good luck on your job hunt,” he concluded and then retreated into the back room before they could respond.

“That seemed like such a good idea too,” Pinkie said with a frown asshe retreated from the building with Silver. She glanced around town thoughtfully for a moment before she made up her mind.

“Let’s get some breakfast. That took a bit longer than I expected. Ooh, what about a job in a restaurant!” Pinkie exclaimed and immediately bounced off again. She burst into a bright smile, not letting the setbacks deter her. She heard the swish of wings as Silver had to once again take flight to catch up to her as she made her way back into town.

“Well, that could have gone better… They didn’t need to be so mean about it, either. All I did was ask why a waitmare needed to be able to speak,” Pinkie grumbled with an adorable pout.

“I think I’m starting to realize why you keep to yourself, Silver,” she added with her ears drooping slightly.

Pinkie continued to take Silver around town, checking in almost every business she could think of. Their luck only seemed to get worse as they went, though, most of the ponies just flat out saying no before they could even get anywhere. The only place that didn’t seem to mind Silver’s muteness was a carpenter that seemed to barely speak a word himself. Silver, however, was clearly terrified of the shop as she backed slowly out the doorway after eyeing all of the sharp tools and woodcutting machines. She shook her head vehemently at the prospect, and it took five minutes for Pinkie to coax her out from behind the bush she had retreated to.

“I don’t know Silver… I’m out of ideas. We’re not giving up, but I have to get back to Sugarcube Corner to help the Cakes soon,” Pinkie admitted with an air of defeat as she walked slowly back home, all of the bounce gone from her step. She couldn’t understand it; nopony seemed to even want to give Silver a chance. She had heard such a huge range of excuses that it made her sad that all of these ponies, her friends, could be so mean.

She was startled from her dark thoughts as she felt Silver’s hooves wrap around her neck, followed by the gentle pressure of Silver leaning against her side. Pinkie immediately broke into a bright smile as Silver hugged her tightly, and she nuzzled her head back into the pegasus. She picked her head up after Silver broke from the embrace and looked straight back to her friend.

“Thanks Silver, I needed that. I tried, I really did. We really aren’t giving up, okay? I promise,” Pinkie said seriously. Silver nodded and reached out with a hoof to tickle Pinkie’s side playfully. She burst out laughing immediately, and Silver stopped shortly afterwards giving her a wide smile and a meaningful glare.

“Okay, okay, you’re right. I won’t make sad faces anymore. Why don’t you come back and check the weather calendar? After that, though, I have to actually work at the shop,” Pinkie said and resumed her normal bouncing as she made her way home. She heard yet another swish of wings as Silver trotted up next to her with a bright smile on her face.

“Tonight is clear, but apparently there’s going to be some more showers later in the week. So, you can come over again, alright? You don’t need to actually wait for the bad weather by the way, you’re free to come over anytime you want a bed to sleep in,” Pinkie added brightly as she glanced back towards Silver who nodded with understanding and a happy smile.

“I’ll see you later, okay Silver?” Pinkie asked and gave a light hug to her friend. She started to bustle around the kitchen, checking up on the supplies of everything, seeing what she needed to get started on. She turned around to check the display case and saw Silver standing there with a chef’s hat perched on her head, a smile plastered across her face.

“What, you want to help? I’m not sure if the Cakes are looking to hire anypony…” Pinkie stated, trying to hold back a giggle at how silly Silver looked wearing the hat. Silver kept smiling, and walked over next to Pinkie, looking down at the ingredients expectantly.

“Well, if you have nothing else to do, I don’t see why not. Just let me check out front real quick!”

Pinkie reappeared a moment later with a bright smile on her face, and stood next to Silver for a moment. She then started to zoom around the kitchen gathering up more supplies and placing them onto the counter top so that their setups were mirrored.

“Did I tell you about the time Fluttershy made a dragon cry?” Pinkie asked suddenly, and Silver shook her head, watching Pinkie with rapt attention.

“Well, these rolls are super easy to make, so just watch what I do. It all started when this big black cloud started spreading over Ponyville from a nearby mountain…” Pinkie started off, as she mixed up the dough slowly and deliberately so that Silver could mimic what she was doing.

“So, Princess Celestia sent Twilight a letter telling us that we needed to find a way to get the dragon to sleep somewhere else. If we didn’t, then all of Equestria would have been covered in black smoke for a hundred years! Fluttershy was super scared, because she doesn’t like dragons. Well, she doesn’t like adult dragons. She’s fine with Spike for some reason, but Rainbow wanted to leave her behind because she was being super scaredy about it. Twilight insisted that we should all come, though, and that was good because without Fluttershy…”

Chapter 5

Pinkie had to squint her eyes to stare past the bright sunlight shining in through her bedroom window. She looked around the sky for any sign of Silver Wings while she pondered what had happened last night. Silver had stayed around and helped around the kitchen until Pinkie was done with her shift. When Pinkie went to bed soon after, though, Silver simply hugged her and flew off. Pinkie still wasn’t quite certain how she felt about that. Part of her was definitely disappointed, and she was still fighting the urge to pout like a school filly about it.

The other part of her pointed out that Silver was currently asleep on the closest cloud to her window. It continued to reason that she probably shouldn't have expected Silver to take her up on that particular offer right away, anyway. Pinkie couldn't stop the smile that spread across her face as she watched Silver continue to sleep peacefully on the cloud. She certainly looked comfortable enough, but it was hard to believe it matched up to a real bed. Pinkie didn’t know why she kept dwelling on that thought as she would see Silver soon anyway. The pegasus would have to come in to check the calendar today and then she would probably have to stay with Pinkie during the overnight rains later in the week, as well.

Pinkie’s smile brightened as she realized that she would definitely be seeing more of her friend and soon started to make her way down the stairs to Sugarcube Corner proper. She took a long whiff of the wonderful bakery smells already starting to fill up the shop; the smell always did wonderful things to cheer her up. She bounced into the kitchen to start her early morning preparations for the breakfast rush.

Pinkie considered the pan of cupcakes in front of her. The red velvet cupcakes were perfectly baked, but she couldn't decide on what kind of frosting to put on them. She was having a hard time deciding which of the flavors laid out in front of her would be perfect for today. Pinkie slowly reached out to pick up the butter cream icing, but stopped when heard the tinkling of the bell over the front door. Reaching out and dabbing a bit on her hoof, she licked it and called out that she'd be right with them.

Pinkie set the icing aside with an emphatic nod, and then bounced into the front of the shop. She started to move her way behind the counter when she was stopped in her tracks by Silver’s beaming face. Pinkie gave her friend a hug before she started to wander back towards the kitchen.

“Hey, Silver. What’s up?” she asked as she picked up the icing knife in hoof and started to carefully spread it across the cupcakes. Pinkie turned her head slightly when Silver failed to appear in front of her to give an answer. She was greeted with the sight of Silver holding the same chef’s hat from last night and tilting her head at Pinkie.

“You don’t have to help out silly, but you can if you really want to,” Pinkie said through a quiet giggle.

Silver’s smile remained on her face as she carefully perched the hat on her head and walked up to the counter. Pinkie bounced around the kitchen and set up a baking station for Silver. Once she had Silver making some cinnamon rolls, Pinkie finished the cupcakes and ran them out to the display case.

“Hey Pinkie, what’s Silver doing in the kitchen?” Mrs. Cake asked as she wandered by the ovens to check on the supplies for the lunch rush.

“Hey Mrs. Cake! We haven’t found her a job yet, and she keeps offering to help me bake since she has nothing else to do. I told her that she doesn’t need to, but she’s just so stubborn about it!” Pinkie said and gave an airy laugh. She reached out and threatened to ruffle a flour covered hoof through Silver’s mane, causing Silver to laugh silently and cower away. She held up her own flour covered hooves in defense and tried to keep Pinkie’s hoof at bay.

Mrs. Cake shook her head for a moment and gave them a moment before she coughed politely and continued. “Well, we can’t really afford to be hiring anypony else right now Pinkie. So, as long as she’s just helping you out…”

“Yeah, I told her that. Don’t you worry about it! Do you want help with anything?” she asked with a bright smile as she ceased her playful wrestling with Silver.

“Not really, you two seem to be doing quite fine on your own. Keep up the good work,” Mrs. Cake added with a knowing grin and then shot them both a wink before she retreated back into the office.

“You know, Silver, I could give you some bits for all the help you’ve been giving me the last two days. It only seems fair since we haven’t found you a job yet, but you've been doing a lot around the shop. It obviously wouldn't be much, but maybe you could go out and get some good food or something,” Pinkie offered as she finished preparing a pan of rolls and stored them into a cupboard queue next to one of the ovens. When she turned back around she saw Silver shaking her head at Pinkie and wearing a grim face, her eyebrows furrowed and her ears tucked down.

“What? Why not? I don’t mind, really. I have enough to be able to help you out,” Pinkie tried to insist with a pout spreading across her face. Silver stood firm, shaking her head once more and pulled out her small pouch of bits. She attempted to thrust it towards Pinkie with a slight frown.

“What? You think you owe me? Silver… why would you think that? I just want to make sure that you’re able to eat properly! Plus, you worked really hard yesterday, it’s not like I’m giving you a handout or anything,” Pinkie said with a hint of frustration leaking into her voice.

“Please? I just want to know that you’re not going to go hungry again…” Pinkie pleaded, but was met by another firm shake of the head by Silver.

“Fine, I can’t force it on you, but if you run out and need food you better come to me. If I find out that you’re skipping meals…” Pinkie said with a fierce look as she leaned in close with a meaningful glare. Silver gulped noticeably at the fierce look and then nodded reluctantly.

“Great!” Pinkie exclaimed and hugged Silver again. She laughed and then started to pat off Silver’s back after realizing that she left behind a few flour hoof prints on the gray coat.

“Anyways, we tore through most of what we needed to cook for lunch. Thanks for the help. The rest of my shift is going to be pretty boring just watching the counter. Why don’t you go out and have some fun?” Pinkie suggested with a smile, and then started to file everything away into the cupboards and dumped dirty bowls into the sink. Silver hesitated for a long moment, giving Pinkie a piercing gaze before she finally nodded. She gave Pinkie a light hug of her own before she trotted out of the shop, leaving Pinkie to the rest of her shift.

Pinkie smiled as she watched Silver leave, even with the edges of frustration still tearing at her. She really didn’t understand why Silver resisted help like that; something about that pegasus was just so stubborn. She let out a quiet sigh and went back to start cleaning up the dishes. As long as Silver had somewhere safe to sleep and was eating alright, then she couldn’t really complain too much. The smile on Pinkie’s face slowly turned more genuine as she found herself pondering more jobs that they could go checking on later.

Pinkie kept pondering ideas for the rest of the day, but was unable to come up with anything really solid by the time she trudged upstairs for bed. She reclined on the bed with her eyes open trying in vain to force them to shut. She couldn't get the niggling worry that Silver would skip more meals, or that they wouldn’t find a job, to go away. Pinkie heaved a long sigh and wandered over towards the window looking out towards Ponyville again. She quickly glanced between all of the nearby clouds for any sign of the purple and gray pegasus but couldn’t find anything.

She kept looking for a long moment until it was clear that she wasn't going to find Silver anywhere and then flopped back into bed. She crawled under the blankets and once again tried to calm herself so that she could fall asleep. She found her eyes wandering around the room aimlessly. After an indeterminate amount of time, Pinkie became aware of the fact that she was staring at the hoof of the bed where Silver had slept the other night. The blanket that Silver had curled up under was still laying there on top of her own blankets.

Pinkie looked at it curiously for a moment and then, without being entirely sure why she was doing it, she sat up and grasped it in her hoof. Pinkie pulled the blanket up towards the pillow with her and turned on her side. She found herself gently nuzzling her face into the blanket and could just barely imagine the faintest hints of Silver’s scent lingering on the fabric. A gentle smile spread across her face and she nuzzled her face deeper into the fabric, the smell slowly relaxing her enough that she finally fell asleep.

Pinkie bustled around the kitchen in an energetic manner. In fact she bounced around even more actively than usual, trying her best to keep herself busy so that the worry wouldn’t overwhelm her. It was well past noon and she had seen neither sight nor sound of Silver for the last three days. She hadn’t appeared to look at the calendar, or to stubbornly insist on helping Pinkie with her baking. After the earlier stretch of two days in a row, Pinkie found that she had been looking forward to it. Pinkie wasn’t generally a worrier, but something just felt wrong about the situation.

The only positive that Pinkie could come up with was the lack of any twitches or shakes. Instead, she merely had an uneasy feeling stemming from the pit of her stomach. She desperately tried to convince herself that the lack of Pinkie Sense was a good thing, but when that didn’t work, she made herself even busier to avoid worrying about it. For the first time in a long time Pinkie found herself questioning her Pinkie Sense. She barely knew Silver, yet, she felt a connection to the gray pegasus. She kept wondering if she would even get any strong reactions to anything happening to Silver.

By the time that Pinkie finished her shift she had worked herself up to the point of nearly exploding with nervous energy. She practically burst out into the street, looking around frantically. Pinkie quickly glanced across the sky for any sign of the purple tail hanging from an overhead cloud. She had already considered that Silver merely slept in the first day and that she might have found a job the day after that, but three days in a row was too much for Pinkie to ignore.

Pinkie let out another sigh as the sour feeling in the pit of her stomach intensified. She really wished that something would twitch or shake, just to tell her something. The horrible feeling of worry that was making her feel almost ill was difficult to deal with. While she knew where she stood with twitches and shakes, uneasy feelings and nervous energy were uncharted grounds for her. She took to wandering Ponyville, glancing inside the shops to see if Silver was anywhere to be seen. She even wandered into the weather patrol building to ask if Silver had been there to no avail.

Pinkie slowly trudged back towards town center as she forlornly shook her head, her eyes focusing in on the area that the town market was usually set up. Several ponies were still cleaning up after whatever it was that had happened in the marketplace a few days ago. There were still a few small stacks of lumber in various states of disrepair near the edges as the ponies worked to finish disassembling the broken carts and build new ones. She watched the strange activity with interest for a moment before she trudged onward.

She still had no shakes or twitches, just that overwhelming sensation deep in her stomach. Part of her began to wonder if it was a new kind of Pinkie Sense. It was different from the actual nausea she had suffered from the baked bads incident, certainly. She supposed it was possible it was just something different she had not encountered before.

Pinkie sat down near the point where she had first welcomed Silver to Ponyville and looked around the square with a frown. She watched a pair of guards march around the square once before they started to turn around and go back down the street they had appeared from. Right when they were walking past Pinkie she had an idea flash into her head and she stood straight up. The guards stepped back as she bounded towards them suddenly. She stopped a few steps away as the earth pony on the left was taking up a defensive posture and the unicorn with him was starting to focus in on his horn.

“Hi! I just want to ask you a question if that’s okay,” she said simply trying to sound friendly.

“I guess that’s okay…” the unicorn responded as his eyes flashed in recognition of Pinkie.

“Have you seen my friend at all today? Her name is Silver Wings; she’s new in town. Gray pegasus, purple mane, the brightest lavender eyes?” Pinkie asked simply. Two the guards shared a glance and Pinkie had to fight the urge to gag as the awful feeling in her stomach intensified.

“Yes, you should go to Town Hall. They can tell you about it. In fact, you should probably talk to Mayor. She would probably like to hear from you,” the unicorn replied and then turned around with his partner to continue their patrol.

Pinkie opened her mouth to try to stop them but didn't find her voice before they were too far down the street. She had to take several slow breaths of the early evening air to calm herself down as she turned to look towards Town Hall. Every step she took seemed to make the horrible feeling worse. Pinkie was fighting back tears as she stepped inside with her head hung low without the usual bounce in her step.

Her demeanor clearly caught the attention of a few of the straggling ponies in the lobby, but she ignored them. After one glance at the serious look on her face, the receptionist didn’t even question why she wanted to see Mayor and was shown immediately into the office.

“One moment Pinkie,” Mayor called out as she sighed and shuffled some papers. There was an audible thud followed by the sound of shifting papers as Pinkie looked up and saw Mayor struggling to catch the scattered papers that represented the pile of papers that just fell to the floor. Mayor was wearing a look of deep concern as she stared at the morose look on Pinkie’s face.

“Oh my Celestia, whatever could have happened to give you that look Pinkie?” Mayor asked seriously, abandoning the papers for the moment.

“I’m looking for my friend. Some guards said I should talk to you about it. Her name is Silver Wings. I haven’t seen her in about three days and I can’t shake the awful feeling that something happened,” Pinkie explained sadly.

“Silver Wings? I’m sorry, but I’m not familiar with that name.”

“She’s new in town. She’s a gray pegasus, purple hair, really quiet?” Pinkie pleaded.

“Oh…” Mayor said quietly in a serious tone that made Pinkie’s stomach almost revolt against her. “I have seen her, but I don’t think you’re going to like why…”

“Where!” Pinkie demanded, and jumped closer to the desk leaning her head across it dramatically.

Mayor covered her mouth with a hoof and then let out a long sigh as she looked down at the papers on the floor. She didn’t reach for any of them, instead, she chose to make her way around the desk to gently place a hoof on Pinkie’s side. She gave a gentle little push and then started to direct Pinkie out into the lobby. Mayor took the lead once they were outside and slowly walked Pinkie towards a small door tucked into a corner and down a small staircase. At the bottom was a guarded door that Pinkie couldn’t remember ever seeing before. In fact, she couldn’t even remember there being a lower level to Town Hall at all. Finally, Mayor led her through another door and down a small hallway. When they turned through another guarded doorway a small hallway of cells came into view. Pinkie gasped audibly and stopped dead in her tracks a step through the doorway.

“No…” she said shaking her head stubbornly, a few tears slowly leaking down her face. “NO!”

“I’m sorry Pinkie, but I think we can help each other out here. We haven’t been able to get any solid information on what happened. She apparently caused some major havoc in the marketplace the other day. In fact, they’re still trying to clean it up. The puzzling part is that she’s refused to say a single word to us. Please believe me, we don’t like using these cells, but given her lack of cooperation we had no choice.”

“Let me see her…” Pinkie responded quietly.

"Certainly, but can you help us figure things out in exchange?” Mayor asked again and received a sad nod in response.

Pinkie took several more slow breaths as she sniffled and tried to stop the tears. After a long moment she let Mayor lead her down the hallway. She couldn’t stop her gaze from wandering into the empty cells as they passed by. Each one was completely disgusting, thick layers of dirt and grime resting in plain sight in most of them. The cell they walked up to had a few buckets sitting out in front with a mop resting against the opposite wall leaving evidence that they had at least tried to make it habitable. She reluctantly stepped closer and immediately saw Silver Wings curled up in the corner. Silver’s sides were heaving slowly and Pinkie could hear the audible sniffling every so often indicating that her friend was sobbing.

Pinkie’s heart shattered and she felt as if she could hear a quiet tinkling as the pieces fell down all around her. More tears ran freely down her cheeks as she let out strangled sob herself. The only thing she wanted was to burst into the cell and gather Silver up into her forelegs. The tears started to turn into a solid stream down her face as all sorts of terrible thoughts ran through her mind. She eventually turned towards Mayor with a pleading gaze, and after a nod from Mayor, the stallion opened the door and allowed Pinkie inside.

“Silver!” she cried out loudly, not caring about the volume in the tight cell. She nearly threw herself into the corner and fell to the floor next to Silver. Silver immediately turned around and buried her face into Pinkie’s neck giving Pinkie a brief view of the normally adorable face wrecked by lines of dried tears. Pinkie winced and pulled Silver into her forelegs as she cried along with the distraught pegasus. Silver kept sobbing silently and a fresh wave of tears started to drench the fur on Pinkie’s neck.

“Hush now…” Pinkie whispered and gently ran a hoof across the back of Silver’s neck. Her own tears continued to flow down her face, splashing gently onto the purple mane below her.

“Everything is going to be alright, sweetie. I promise. Pinkie’s here now, everything’s going to be okay…” she added softly as much for her own comfort as Silver’s. Pinkie kept trying to console Silver to no avail and gently started to nuzzle her face into Silver’s mane. After a long moment of Pinkie attempting to calm Silver down Mayor finally approached them from behind and cleared her throat.

“What happened?” Pinkie asked turning her face towards Mayor desperately.

“I told you Pinkie, there were witnesses. We just don’t know why she did it,” Mayor stated calmly in an attempt to keep her voice gentle. Pinkie shook her head vehemently in response, cradling Silver in closer as she refused to believe it.

“No, it couldn’t have been Silver. Please, are you sure it was her? When did it happen?” Pinkie pleaded with desperation. “She was with me at Sugarcube Corner for a while.”

“It was late afternoon, right before the ponies were about to close up their stalls,” Mayor said simply, causing Pinkie’s heart to sink once more. She turned her head down and nuzzled Silver’s mane lightly, taking in the scent that she had imagined on the blanket the previous night. That was late enough that it could have been Silver and Pinkie’s head started to spin as she couldn’t stop herself from thinking about all of the terrible things that could happen. She raised her head and stubbornly shook her head.

“No! Please, Mayor. Did the pony who did it say anything? This is really really important,” Pinkie asked desperately.

“Well, yes. That’s why we’re so confused as to why she’s refusing to say anything to us.”

“Then it couldn’t have been her, Mayor. Please, what was the exact description of the pegasus?” Pinkie asked fighting back the hints of a smile as she could see the figurative sliver of hope shining in front of her.

“They said it was a gray pegasus, she was moving so quickly that they had a hard time catching much else. Then we found her hiding under a bench in the park nearby once we finally got some pegasus guards on hand. It seemed like a pretty obvious connection,” Mayor responded calmly, but Pinkie just shook her head again.

“What exactly did the pegasus say? Please, this is extremely important,” Pinkie restated emphatically.

“To tell the truth, I’m not entirely sure. I was looking over the files when you came in. I can fetch the documents and come back in a bit. Feel free to stay here with her okay? It should only take a few minutes,” Mayor said with some uncertainty showing on her face. Pinkie nodded as she went back to cradling Silver comfortingly in her hooves and whispering for her to hush. Silver winced visibly and jumped deeper into Pinkie’s grasp when the cell door slammed shut behind Mayor.

Pinkie kept cooing softly to Silver, trying to get the pegasus to calm down. Pinkie was trying her best, but Silver seemed completely inconsolable. She lifted her head up and stared silently down at Silver for a long moment while she considered something that might work. Silver had an initial reaction to the withdrawal, but immediately went back to sobbing. However, she froze when Pinkie placed a hoof under her chin. Pinkie lifted Silver's face up and smiled into the lavender eyes. She then leaned in and planted a soft kiss on Silver’s forehead, softly whispering that everything was going to be okay once again.

Silver sniffled a few more times, but the tears seemed to have momentarily halted. She stared up at Pinkie with an inscrutable look on her face, and Pinkie felt herself get trapped by the shimmering eyes. They stared at each other silently for a long moment before Silver finally cracked a reluctant smile and put her face back into Pinkie’s neck. Pinkie laughed quietly in response and cradled Silver gently as she was filled with relief by Silver finally calming down. A few moments later Silver jumped deeper into Pinkie’s embrace once more when the cell door rattled open and Mayor walked inside.

“Ahem, I’m sorry for the delay… It took a while to straighten out the papers,” Mayor started awkwardly as she very clearly took in the pose of the two ponies in front of her. Pinkie refused to let Silver go as she turned her head to listen to what Mayor had to say.

“According to the witnesses, the pegasus had crashed into a vegetable stall. She caused quite a mess and was heard arguing loudly with the stall owner over whose fault it was. They started to yell louder and the pegasus attempted to fly off only to crash into more carts. She then yelled that none of it was her fault and flew off leaving us unable to send anyone after her with no pegasus guards on hand.”

“You see Silver? I told you everything would be fine,” Pinkie said giggling quietly as her tears started to splash down onto Silver once again.

“I’m sorry, Pinkie I don’t understand. How does that help?”

“Those statements prove it couldn’t have been Silver,” Pinkie said brightly as she smiled down at Silver with tears still falling down her cheeks. Silver was laughing silently back up to her and hugged Pinkie close.

“How though, Pinkie? It’s going to be tough to let her off the hook if she won’t even say anything to defend herself,” Mayor stated seriously.

“That’s the point Mayor. She can’t. She’s mute, and that’s exactly why it couldn’t have been Silver,” Pinkie said simply as she got her tears back under control. She giggled again quietly as she cradled Silver in her hooves and nuzzled her face into the purple mane.

“Didn’t you find it odd?” Pinkie continued as she kept her gaze turned towards Silver. “I guarantee you that she hasn’t said a single word the entire time you've had her in custody. Also, when we came in she was sobbing but the only sound was her sniffling. Did any of the guards even hear a single squeak from her?” Pinkie asked through a choked out laugh. She placed another happy kiss on the top of Silver’s head. Silver broke into a bright smile even as she reached up with a hoof and tried to wipe the tears away.

Mayor simply stared at the two of them in shock, and then retreated out into the hallway. Pinkie laughed quietly like a pony that was certain she was going to drown, only to find herself crawling up onto a sandbar right as her strength gave out. Silver was mostly calm in her grasp as well, but kept her hooves wrapped gently around Pinkie as she kept her face hidden. A few moments later, they heard the clatter of Mayor’s hooves walking back into the cell.

“So far you are correct. The guard just told me that he never heard her speak a single word nor make a single sound beyond the sniffling. You may be correct, but I’m going to need some time to look into the incident. She is the only pony we have on hoof and she hasn’t defended herself,” Mayor said seriously.

“Can I please take her home Mayor? You can’t leave her in here…” Pinkie pleaded as she turned towards Mayor.

“Well… normally we would need to keep her confined here since she's refused to say anything, but the town does owe you and your friends quite a lot. I suppose we could let her stay in your custody,” Mayor said quietly and Pinkie and Silver clutched at each other happily.

“That’s not everything. Please hold on. We can only do this if you give us your word that you’ll make sure your marefriend won’t leave Ponyville. We need to make sure that we will be able to contact her until we resolve this situation,” Mayor said seriously and Pinkie’s smile was interrupted by a blush.

“M-my what?” Pinkie asked through a choking breath. She started to open her mouth again but hesitated visibly. She turned down to look at Silver as if thoughtfully considering the statement. Silver was for the first time in a while looking back up at her with a blush mirroring Pinkie’s. Instead of looking startled like Pinkie had been, her ears had perked up and she was watching Pinkie’s expression intently.

“I’m sorry if I… presumed falsely, but it seemed a given.”

“N-no… I mean, I don’t know. Don’t worry about it. I guess we should talk about it…” Pinkie said softly, directing that last part down towards Silver with a hesitant smile. Silver’s cheeks started to stream with tears again, but her face was split by a gigantic smile.

“Pinkie, we still need to resolve this. Like I said, normally we would need to keep her here. So please give me your word that you will be responsible for her or else she will have to remain in our custody,” Mayor insisted gently.

“I promise that I won’t let her out of my sight,” Pinkie said seriously with a smile still spread across her face.

“We shall leave you alone then, take all the time you need on the way out. If this truly was a misunderstanding then please take my sincerest apologies in advance. I assume we will be able to find you two at Sugarcube Corner?” Mayor asked only to receive a nod from the two ponies in response. Pinkie heard Mayor and the guard pony retreat down the hallway but chose to remain there with Silver for quite some time until they could both calm down.

“Come on, Silver. Let’s go home,” Pinkie said quietly some time later and placed another kiss onto Silver’s forehead with a smile. It took a moment for Pinkie to get Silver to willingly release the hug she had Pinkie in, but once she stood up Silver followed shortly afterwards. Silver wobbled slightly on her legs and reached over to Pinkie with a wing to steady herself.

“You alright, sweetie?” Pinkie asked softly as she stood up straighter to let Silver lean against her. Silver nodded lightly and after a few steps had herself under control enough to walk without Pinkie’s support. Pinkie couldn’t help but notice that Silver’s wing was still gently resting across her back and that she didn’t necessarily find herself averse to the idea. Silver shot a nervous glance up the stairwell and shrank back slightly as they neared the lobby, pulling her wings back to her side as she did.

“Come on Silver, we’ll do this together,” Pinkie said as she stepped closer nuzzling her face into Silver’s gently. Silver took another moment and nuzzled back before she stood up straight and nodded again. The rest of the way out Pinkie refused to let Silver stray more than half a pony’s width apart from her and felt Silver brush up against her a few times as they walked.

“Also, I thought I told you that I better not find out you were sleeping under a bench somewhere,” Pinkie added in a menacing voice. She turned to glare at Silver as they stepped outside into the early evening air. Silver gulped noticeably and backed away a few steps before Pinkie laughed loudly and nuzzled Silver’s face gently with hers.

“I’m kidding Silver… Don’t think I won’t have words to say about that later, though…”

Chapter 6

Pinkie wrinkled her face in an attempt to shut her eyes tighter against the first few beams of sunlight flaring through her bedroom window. She started to roll over to bury her face into one of the pillows, but was stopped by a strange feeling around her back. It took a few soft rubs of her hooves to open her eyes, but what she saw made her breath hitch slightly. Silver was fast asleep next to her, with her face tucked in towards her body and her hooves resting gently around Pinkie’s chest. Pinkie let out a quiet giggle and very carefully turned back to her previous position in an attempt to avoid disturbing Silver. Pinkie smiled when Silver reacted by nuzzling her face back into Pinkie’s neck and chest.

Pinkie kept beaming at Silver as she silently watched the sleeping pegasus next to her for some time and thought about their position. They hadn’t actually gotten around to talking about their relationship, both of them having been too tired to really get into a serious discussion after returning home from that ordeal. So instead, Pinkie had led Silver up to bed and they had settled down for sleep. Pinkie had been forced to playfully admonish Silver when she tried to curl up at the hoof of the bed again. She had let it slide the first time, but especially after the words left unspoken in the cell, she had no problem with Silver sleeping up next to her.

Still, Pinkie hadn’t quite expected to wake up with Silver cuddling her so affectionately, even after the way that Silver had behaved in the cell. At the very least, Silver’s reaction to being told to sleep up next to her made more sense now. Pinkie had been a little surprised by how fast the bright smile spread across her friend’s face when it was offered, and then Silver had nearly bounded up the bed and wriggled under the covers next to Pinkie. They definitely had not been this close when she had fallen asleep, but Pinkie didn’t really care. It hardly even really matter to her if Silver had done so on purpose. Silver looked happy, and that was enough to make the smile on Pinkie’s face broaden considerably.

Pinkie found herself rubbing her face into into Silver’s mane as she thought and took a few deep breaths. She still couldn’t figure out why Silver’s scent was so nice. The scent itself was difficult to describe as it was barely there. It almost smelled like the lingering smell of roses, but it was as if they were sitting in a well ventilated room so only the barest hints of the smell reached her nose. Something about the sensation did a lot to soothe Pinkie. Pinkie found her eyes fluttering slightly as she laid there and took it in. She struggled for a moment to try and keep them open, but eventually gave in. Pinkie wrapped her own forelegs around Silver and nuzzled the purple mane closer.

A more sedate smile spread across Pinkie’s face as she felt Silver react again and nuzzle back a little bit more. She started to relax and let herself drift away with a contented sigh when she felt Silver start to stir in her grasp. Silver gave a few slow wriggles as she pulled herself out of Pinkie’s grasp with a confused look on her face.

“Hey, sleepyhead,” Pinkie whispered with an airy giggle that masked her disappointment.

Silver let out a silent yawn and wriggled again as she struggled to free her hooves to rub at her eyes, and then suddenly stopped. Her eyes shot open and she glanced down at the position that they were in. Her face immediately flushed as she observed her own legs wrapped around Pinkie’s midsection, with Pinkie’s hooves still resting on her sides. Silver immediately tucked her face in towards her chest and tried to hide it in the soft fuzzy hairs on Pinkie’s chest.

Pinkie merely laughed and waited for Silver to peek back up only to see Pinkie wearing a serene smile. Silver’s blush eventually faded and she started to mirror the smile. Pinkie let out a quiet giggle, and smiled even brighter when Silver put her hooves back around her chest and went back to gently rubbing her face into Pinkie’s neck.

A swell of happiness surged from deep within Pinkie when Silver willingly returned to the tender embrace. She wrapped her hooves back around the pegasus as she rested her head gently on the top of Silver’s and shut her eyes. The sleepiness didn’t seem to be threatening to overtake her this time. She was able to lay there silently with Silver for a long time before she cracked her eyes open again.

“Are you ready to face the day now, sweetie?” Pinkie asked with a little hesitation. Silver buried her face deeper into Pinkie’s neck and shook her head, causing Pinkie to laugh quietly. She nuzzled Silver a little bit more tenderly, turning her face down to rub her mouth across the top of Silver’s head before she responded.

“Don’t worry, everything will be okay. They’re sorting it all out, remember?” Pinkie whispered into the purple mane and gently kissed it. Silver shook her head again in response and tightened her grip around Pinkie’s midsection.

“We can stay here a little bit longer if you want, but you’re going to have to get up eventually,” Pinkie said with a slight grin. Silver shook her head again vehemently, and Pinkie giggled as the motion made the purple mane lightly whip across her face.

“Oh? You’re going to stay in bed all day?” Pinkie teased with a slight grin and received a nod in response.

“Well, you know that at least I have to get up eventually, right?” Pinkie asked through a quiet giggle. Silver shook her head again and pulled Pinkie even closer in response, causing Pinkie to outright laugh.

“What? You’re not going to let me?” Pinkie asked incredulously and gently ran her hooves across Silver’s back. Silver didn’t respond as clearly this time, instead choosing to entangle her rear legs with Pinkie’s and placing a light kiss on Pinkie’s neck as she refused to let up her tight grip.

“Fine,” Pinkie said after a quiet sigh. “You win for now, but you are going to have to get out of bed eventually. Okay?”

Silver withdrew and looked up at Pinkie with a triumphant grin plastered across her face. Pinkie couldn’t stop another laugh from escaping her lips and then shook her head as Silver relaxed her grip and they nuzzled back into a comfortable position together. Pinkie tilted her head up a little as Silver went to put her face back into the pink neck, and then gently rested her head on top of Silver’s once more. She blinked a few times, trying to fight back the weariness with a yawn, but had a hard time keeping it out. Giving up for now, she tilted her head down and placed another soft kiss on top of Silver’s head before she pulled the pegasus so close that their hind legs had to entangle once again to not get in each other's way. With that, Pinkie let her eyes flutter shut and she slipped back to sleep.

“Wake up, sleepyhead,” Pinkie softly called out to the mare in her grasp a few hours later. Silver stirred slightly, but shook her head stubbornly once again. She clutched tightly onto Pinkie and burrowed her face deeper into the pink coat. Pinkie laughed, gently placing a hoof under Silver’s chin to lift the gray face up towards her. A curious expression flitted across Silver’s face and she blinked a few times as her eyebrows furrowed slightly.

“If you don’t get up, I’ll have to use my secret weapon…” Pinkie softly called out with a teasing grin. Silver stubbornly shook her head again, flicking her mane across Pinkie’s face again before she tried to bury her face back into Pinkie’s neck. Pinkie gently pulled Silver’s face back up to meet hers and smiled.

“Okay, well don’t say that I didn’t warn you…” she said in her best attempt an ominous voice.

Silver’s face started to noticeably flush, and her breath fluttered as Pinkie leaned in closer. Pinkie could feel Silver’s breath lightly brushing across her face as she drew herself almost nose to nose with the pegasus. Silver’s eyes slowly shut and Pinkie swore that she could hear the heartbeat echoing up Silver’s throat. Silver’s face drew in closer, with her lips spreading slightly in anticipation.

Pinkie let her face twist into a slight grin that she knew Silver couldn’t see, and then swooped her face down past Silver’s and right into the gray neck. She immediately started to blow into it loudly, making Silver squirm wildly and let out a series of silent yet frantic giggles. Pinkie repeated her actions several times, and then slowly drew her face back up level with Silver’s with a grin.

“What? All’s fair in love and cupcakes, sweetheart,” Pinkie said as her devious grin widened in response to the look of utter shock on Silver’s face. Finally, after a long moment of letting her mouth hang wide open, and her lower lip trembling slightly, Silver stuck her tongue out at Pinkie and pouted like a school filly.

“Come on, let’s get up. We’ve lounged around enough,” Pinkie said as she leaned forward and playfully planted a soft kiss on Silver’s nose. She let out a quiet giggle at the way it made Silver’s nose twitch and her face crinkle up in irritation.

Silver gave a reluctant nod, though, only after squeezing Pinkie tighter for a long moment and rubbing her face into the pink fur. Pinkie smiled and tightened her embrace around Silver one last time, and then slipped herself out of the pegasus’ grasp. She reached down and suddenly tugged the covers out from over Silver and giggled at the reaction that it caused. Silver shivered for a second and scrunched her face into a gigantic pout. She curled herself up into the closest approximation of a ball that she could and then tried to snuggle into the warm spot in the bed left by Pinkie.

“Come on! Get up!’ Pinkie exclaimed happily and then bounced around the bed. She tugged at Silver with a hoof, but she refused to budge. Pinkie had to nearly drag Silver off the bed, and the two of them landed in a jumbled heap on the floor, laughing the entire way.

“Oof! It’s not going to be like this every day, is it, Silver?” Pinkie teased playfully. She did her best to wriggle away from Silver who had taken this as an excuse to try and go back to cuddling Pinkie.

The question was enough to get Silver to relax her grasp for a moment, allowing Pinkie to extract herself. Pinkie stood up and Silver rolled onto her back, tilting her head upwards to look at Pinkie upside-down with her head turned to the side. When Pinkie didn’t say anything, she eventually stood up face to face with Pinkie and kept the curious expression on her face.

“What? Did you honestly think I was going to let you go back to sleeping outside after what happened? No way Jose!” Pinkie exclaimed happily, and grinned mischievously at Silver. She blinked a few times with a blank expression on her face and just stared at Pinkie.

“I’m not taking no for an answer, Silver. You’re staying with me,” Pinkie said more seriously and leaned in closer. Silver lightly nodded after a moment’s hesitation, and then apparently realized the way she had been reacting as she shook her head a few times. She looked back up at Pinkie with a smile slowly spreading across her face and got up gently to throw her hooves around Pinkie’s neck.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it. I caught you off guard. Are you ready to face the day now? I promise everything will be fine,” Pinkie said gently and nuzzled her face into Silver’s to emphasize the statement. Silver took a long deep breath, and then slowly nodded again in response. She eventually let go of Pinkie, but had the slightest hints of a smile creeping across her face as the corners of her mouth twitched slightly. The happy look was soon replaced with another look of worry as Silver went back in and hugged Pinkie tightly, and then withdrew with a questioning look on her face.

“Don’t worry, I’ll stay with you. We’ll get through this together; I promise. Come on, let’s go,” Pinkie concluded and trotted over towards the door. She stopped on the top step to make sure she still had Silver with her, and then they descended into Sugarcube Corner together. Once they finally made their way towards the front, they were met by yet another knowing grin and a wink from Mrs. Cake.

“Well, look who decided to rejoin society. Welcome back to the land of the living, you two,” she teased with her grin widening.

“Good morning Mrs. Cake!” Pinkie piped up happily.

“There was a guardpony here earlier. He wanted to know where the two of you where. I told him that you were still asleep, so he requested that you stop by town hall when you had a chance,” Mrs. Cake said seriously, her grin dropping away as she looked at them with concern.

Pinkie took in a sharp breath and felt Silver draw right up against her side with a noticeable shiver. Pinkie managed to recover herself after a quick moment and turned to gently nuzzle Silver’s mane. She ignored the fact that a few of the ponies in the shop were watching them, including Mrs. Cake. After a long moment, she pulled away and smiled at Silver.

“Don’t worry. They probably just want to tell us that you’re being let off. I told you that everything is going to be okay. We’ll get through this together, okay?” Pinkie said, trying her best to keep her own worry from seeping into her voice.

“Come on, let’s go,” Pinkie gently urged and started to walk towards the door. She turned halfway there to make sure Silver was still behind her and saw the pegasus hesitating. Silver gulped as she stared out the doorway. Her ears drooped close to the sides of her head, but she eventually trudged forward at a slow pace. Pinkie fell in step beside Silver as they passed out the doorway and Pinkie just walked next to Silver instead of bouncing along as per usual.

As they neared town center, Pinkie nervously gazed over towards Silver to see how she was holding up. Silver’s pace had been steadily slowing the closer they got to town hall, and now it seemed like she was about to come to a full stop. Pinkie could just see the entrance, but Silver shook her head vehemently as she stood firm. She blinked her eyes several times, forcing out a few tears before they could fully form and caused them to bud at the edges of her eyes.

“Come on, sweetheart. It’ll be fine; I promise,” Pinkie tried to say calmly, but Silver remained adamant. She shook her head again and backed away slowly with her eyes open wide.

“Silver…” Pinkie started gently. “If we don’t do this now, then they’ll just come back tomorrow. And if they do that, then they won’t be as nice about it. I know it’s tough to go back in there, but how much worse would it be if the guards dragged you here?”

“It’s fine. We can wait a few minutes. We do need to go in eventually, though. Okay?” Pinkie tried, but Silver was still stubbornly shaking her head. She sank to the ground and covered her head in her hooves as the look of panic seemed to be nowhere near abating. Pinkie let out a quiet sigh as she walked over next to Silver and dropped to the ground next to her. Pinkie attempted to comfort Silver by just being there next to her and nuzzled Silver’s neck gently. When that failed, Pinkie withdrew and thought about it for a moment.

“I have the bestest idea! You just need to… SMILE!” Pinkie exclaimed happily and buried her face into Silver’s neck again so she could blow loudly into it. Silver immediately shuddered away and tried to wriggle free, but Pinkie didn’t relent. Pinkie laughed and wrestled with Silver to hold her in place as she repeated the assault several times. She didn’t care that several ponies were staring at them. Pinkie decided to add in a tickling hoof at Silver’s side when just the blowing didn't seem to be doing the trick on its own. Silver’s sides heaved with silent laughter until she finally managed to push Pinkie off with an exhausted smile on her face.

“Ready now?” Pinkie asked brightly, as she stood and offered Silver a hoof up. Silver glared at her for a moment, but wasn’t able to hold it for long as she broke back into a smile with a silent giggle. She accepted Pinkie’s assistance, and then took a few slow, deep breaths. Finally, she nodded her head grimly and closed her eyes to gather herself for what was to come.

“Tell me when you’re ready…”

"Okay then!” Pinkie exclaimed when Silver stepped up next to her and directed her gaze towards town hall.

The two of them strode forward, as Pinkie beamed over at Silver. She was so proud of Silver right now; there was no possible way she could get her smile to fade. She kept happily glancing over at Silver, ready to finally end this silly fiasco. She drew a little closer as they walked up to the entrance. Silver hesitated for a moment, but started walking forward again with the help of a soft nuzzle to her face from Pinkie. With that, they finally stepped through the doorway together.

When two of them stepped into the entryway, Pinkie noticed a few things immediately. Firstly, Mayor was standing at the far end of the grand hall talking to a farmpony. Secondly, there were more guards around than usual. Most of all, there was a strange tension in the room. She looked around and observed for a moment how any worker who had to pass through the lobby rushed to their objective as if they were afraid they were going to get caught up in something. She also noticed how several of the guards kept shifting on their hooves and glancing around more often than usual.

After a few moments of watching this curiously and stepping a little bit closer with Silver, the farmpony turned towards them. His eyes opened wide, and his jaw dropped slightly before he did anything. His next action, though, caused Pinkie’s mouth to widen with shock.

“That’s her…” he growled just loud enough that it could be heard through the entire chamber. Pinkie glanced around nervously, her breath sticking in her throat. There had to be some explanation, he couldn’t possibly mean them. When she looked back towards the farmpony, she was shocked to see him lift a hoof up and point it in their direction.

Chapter 7

Pinkie’s head swam as she felt the effects of the farmer’s words reverberate through her body. The words seemed to echo slightly in her head, and she had to stare at him for a long moment just to be sure. In case she had any doubt as to his intent, he started to direct a fierce glare at the two of them and looked expectantly over towards Mayor shortly afterward.

Pinkie couldn’t stop the foalish reaction of shaking her head a few times as she observed the guards clearly hesitate before they started to step closer. Each one of their steps seemed to echo throughout the hall to pound on her ears like a massive drum. She could have sworn that she could feel the deep bass note vibrating through her coat as she kept observing them with morbid curiosity.

The sound of a muffled thump distracted Pinkie from the bizarre sight of watching the guards step closer in seeming slow motion. She turned to see Silver Wings on the floor, cowering with her head buried beneath her hooves. Pinkie stared at the sight for a moment and the curious expression that she turned back towards the guards seemed to cause them all to take a step backwards involuntarily. Pinkie could swear that she felt a switch flip in her head as she was suddenly aware of being furious.

She returned her gaze to the guards, holding her gaze on each for a few seconds before her eyes shot to the next, and she couldn’t stop the quiet growl that left her lips. The guards took another step back as Pinkie interposed herself between them and Silver Wings the only way she could. She planted her hooves solidly around the pegasus’ frame and dropped into a low stance. She had promised Silver that everything would be alright, and she would make everything alright if she had to.

The guards all seemed to glance back towards Mayor in unison. This really wasn’t fair to them; ponies were supposed to take this kind of thing in stride. They weren’t trained for dealing with situations like this. Sure, ponies might resist a little bit, but they would give in when outnumbered. Arrangements were usually made between the two parties, and the guards really just existed to make sure everypony behaved along the way. They were trained with using force, but suddenly upon glancing at an enraged Pinkie Pie, they realized how little help that would offer them in this situation.

It wasn’t that they weren’t confident in their ability to take a pony down. It was more that everypony knew that Pinkie was, at best, chaotic at times. She used this trait to her advantage when trying to make ponies smile, or during one of her random outbursts of song. A guard faced with trying to arrest Pinkie Pie, though, was suddenly forced to reconsider the implications of all of the various feats of the impossible they had witnessed her perform over the years. There was also the reputation of what happened to anypony who broke a Pinkie Promise. As if that was not enough, there was also the knowledge that she had been confirmed to have helped save Equestria on at least two separate occasions, not including countless feats in defense of Ponyville itself. All of this made for there really being no proper training to prepare for dealing with the prospect of trying to arrest a pony that currently had an enraged Pinkie pie hunched over them.

The scene carried on like this for a long while, Pinkie shooting her glance between the advancing ponies and causing them to subsequently take several steps backwards while Silver cowered under her occasionally peeking out from under her hooves. The voice that broke the silence was the last that almost any pony present would have expected it to be. The guards, Mayor, Pinkie and even Silver all slowly turned their eyes up to glance towards the farmpony with looks of confusion as to why he was the one calling an end to this.

"Why in the name of Celestia are you going after her? The one you want is outside!" he nearly yelled as he once again pointed a hoof a shaking hoof towards the window behind Pinkie and Silver.

A dangerous silence hung in the air as everypony turned in place to look out the indicated window. Just outside was the large mailbox for town hall, and right next to that was a mailmare trying desperately to stuff way too many letters into the poor receptacle. She was so consumed with her task that she hadn't noticed any of the dramatic events going on inside the building. Everypony watched the gray pegasus put her whole body into the effort, she tried first with her mouth, then a hoof, both hooves, and then finally tried to wedge them into the opening and shove them in with her shoulder. The pegasus had decidedly blonde hair and a cutie mark consisting of several bubbles, but the color of her coat was remarkably similar to Silver's.

"What, Derpy?" Pinkie asked, her voice returning to the normal bright tone.

The farmpony gaped at the reaction he was receiving from the ponies present. The guards all huffed and stopped standing at attention, Pinkie was struggling not to giggle, Silver was looking downright confused, and Mayor seemed likely to clobber him with a hoof if he wasn't trying to shuffle away nonchalantly. They weren't supposed to be looking at him like he was an idiot, they were supposed to be arresting the wretched hooligan that wrecked the market. He gathered the shreds of his pride as he took a careful step backwards and nodded his head.

"Yes! Aren't you going to arrest her? She ruined the market!' he cried wildly, stamping his hooves in frustration.

"My good sir, if it really was Derpy that knocked over your stall, then why in the name of the royal sisters did you make such a fuss?" Mayor asked with the hint of ice behind her words.

"What do you mean? She wrecked my cart!" he nearly yelled.

"How long have you lived in Ponyville?" Mayor asked in that leading tone that only a teacher or a mother was capable of using. The tone of voice that made the subject feel stupid, simply for having to answer the offered question, yet left no room to wriggle out of having to answer it. He hesitated for a moment and looked down at his hooves before answering.

"My whole life..."

"And you've been coming to the market, since you were a little colt to help your dad haven't you?"

"Yes, Ma'am..."

"So, it stands to reason that you should know by now that when Derpy breaks something, all you need to do is file a report. Screaming at her in the middle of the marketplace so that she panics and causes more destruction, isn't exactly the approved method... In fact! I'm tempted to send the guards after you instead!," Mayor growled in the manner of a pony barely keeping her temper as she stared down her spectacles at the quaking earth pony.

"Umm, Mayor? Can we go now?" Pinkie piped up brightly while she helped Silver back up onto her hooves.

"I don't see why not... Sorry about all of this, Pinkie. I wish the two of you the best of luck in your relationship," Mayor added politely, then immediately went back to glaring at the farmpony next to her.

"No problemo!" Pinkie called out, tactfully avoiding Silver's gaze as her face suddenly felt rather hot. She pulled Silver with her out into the street and left the guardponies to deal with the rest of the situation. She let out a quiet giggle and snuck a glance at Silver, only to see the pegasus staring at her expression rather intently. When Pinkie started to bounce along as if nothing had happened, Silver stumbled and nearly fell on her face in an effort to keep up.

"Hi, Derpy! Nice day, isn't it?" Pinkie called out to the still struggling mailmare who was standing on her rear hooves and leaning her entire weight into the mailbox in an attempt to force all of the envelopes inside.

"Here! Let me; you gotta do it like this," Pinkie said and grabbed the letters in her hoof. She took a deep breath before shoving her entire foreleg into the mailbox. Her hoof came back empty and suddenly the mailbox was nearly bursting at the seams from the huge load of letters. She smiled at the mailmare and waved goodbye before she walked off with Silver.

"I still don't know how you do that Pinkie..." Derpy said with an amazed look plastered across her face.

"See? I told you that everything would be alright, Silver!" Pinkie exclaimed happily as they neared Sugarcube Corner. Silver stopped in her tracks and shot Pinkie a look of pure disbelief, her eyes wide open and her entire body shaking slightly as she struggled to not collapse in the street from the overload of stress. She stumbled sideways and fell into a sitting position against the side of Sugarcube Corner before heaving a few breaths in an attempt to let her heart rate calm down.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" Pinkie asked as she sat down next to the other mare with a concerned look on her face. She leaned against Silver's side comfortably and giggled when the pegasus put a wing around her without seeming to realize it.

Silver blinked and looked sideways at Pinkie with a surprised expression at the betrayal of her wing. She let out a quiet sigh and fell back to just looking overwhelmed as she pulled Pinkie closer with the gray appendage. She shook her head and then let it hang slightly as she shivered from head to hooves. Pinkie pouted and stared at Silver for a long moment before sneaking a hoof around behind Silver's back and pulling her into a gentle hug while she rested her head on top of Silver's.

"You know, you should let me throw you that party," Pinkie stated simply after a long moment of letting Silver take solace in her presence. She turned her glance more directly towards Silver and smiled as she saw Silver appearing at least a little calmer. Silver looked blankly upwards at the pink pony as her expression turned to confusion. She tilted her head to the side when Pinkie didn't respond immediately.

"You know, the party! The one I wanted to throw for you when we first met. I'd invite everypony in Ponyville and introduce you to them. The other one went so well that you really should let me throw you the one I wanted to," Pinkie explained excitedly, but frowned when she saw Silver's eyes shoot wide open. The pegasus shook her head and drew closer to Pinkie, pulling her wing back to her side as she buried her face into the pink coat.

"Come on, Silver... Beyond being fun, it's just a good idea. We need to tell everypony that you can't talk. I can't exactly go around the town hanging flyers: "attention everypony, this pony can't talk!" You could find out how nice every pony is, and avoid confusion about all of this in the future," Pinkie tried to reason as she held the pegasus close, but frowned slightly when Silver merely shook her head against her chest.

"Everything will be alright, sweetie. Just trust me, okay? Everypony here is really nice and understanding. If I start off the party like I did the last one, then I'm sure nopony will make you feel uncomfortable..." Pinkie said soothingly as she ran a hoof through the pegasus' mane. Silver kept shaking her head stubbornly, increasing the speed insistently as Pinkie continued. Finally, she lifted her head up and looked at Pinkie with her face wrinkled into a hurt pout and her eyes filled with confusion. Her eyes watered slightly as she stared at Pinkie in disbelief as if the earth pony had just kicked a puppy in front of her.

"I'm serious, Silver!" Pinkie nearly yelled in as tears started to bud at the edges of her eyes. She let go of Silver and found herself on her hooves without fully realizing she had stood up.

"Why do you always refuse my help? I kept asking you to just trust me during this entire thing and it worked out didn't it? So why is this so different? Do you not want ponies pitying you? I can understand that sentiment, just realize... That I don't!" Pinkie yelled at the top of her voice as she stamped at the ground and the tears started to leak down her face.

"Why can't you trust me? The party would only help you..." Pinkie mumbled sadly as she looked down at Silver and stared deep into the lavender eyes. All the unspoken words that had been left between them the previous night seemed to hang between them as she looked pleadingly at Silver for a moment longer and then turned away.

"Do you like it when we have these misunderstandings about why you don't talk? We have to find some way to tell everypony... You can't just keep it to yourself, that much is clear after the last few days. I'm not really sure what you're so afraid of that means that you can't trust me..." Pinkie said just loudly enough so that Silver could hear over her shoulder and then slowly turned back around.

"I just want to help... I thought that after last night you'd realize that," Pinkie mumbled as she attempted to cease the flow of tears down her face. She rubbed her eyes with one of her hooves and looked desperately at the pegasus. Silver remained there on the ground looking up at Pinkie with an unreadable expression, her eyes drooped slightly and her mouth hung open as it trembled. She kept starting to raise a hoof towards Pinkie, but withdrew it uncertainly each time before it could reach. Finally, Silver turned her face down and tucked her legs under her chest.

"I should go to work now, Silver... I'll talk to you later," Pinkie choked out as she blinked rapidly in an attempt to keep the tears from forming in her eyes. She turned around with that horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach returning as she walked past Mrs. Cake and tried her best to ignore the concerned expression on the older mare's face.

"Pinkie... is everything—"

"Fine!" Pinkie exclaimed curtly and went back into the kitchen with the tears running down her face once she had her back turned. She tried to push everything out of her mind as she checked on the supplies, but no matter how much she sniffled she couldn't quite get the tears to stop. She started mixing up a batch of dough despite there being no real need for it and had to keep her head leaned back to keep any of her tears from falling into the mix.

"Pinkie..." Mrs. Cake insisted quietly from the doorway.

"I really don't want to talk about it right now, Mrs. Cake," Pinkie barely managed to reply as she dumped out the ball of dough onto a pile of flour and started to pound her hooves into it much harder than was necessary.

"Honey, the whole bakery heard you outside—"

"I know!" she nearly yelled as she picked up the dough and slammed it back down on the other side, pounding all of her frustration into the helpless ball in front of her.

"I every time I try to help her, she refuses. It doesn't matter what it is I try to do for her, or how simple it is. It's always an uphill battle. The only way I can help her is if I don't give her a choice, but this isn't something I can just do without asking... She should realize that I care about her. And that I only want to help because I worry about her," Pinkie barely managed to finish as her voice trailed off and she stopped pounding the dough.

"Pinkie, anyone can tell that you care for her just by watching you two together. I'm pretty certain she knows the way you feel given the types of smiles she gives you. There's probably other factors involved, so, please just take the rest of the day off. You're more than welcome to it; you've had a hard day we understand."

Pinkie choked back a quiet sob and put her head down onto the counter-top with a dull thud and poof of flour. Mrs. Cake walked over and put a hoof around Pinkie. She uttered some quiet hushing sounds as she gently tugged at Pinkie and maneuvered her out of the kitchen. Pinkie tried to fight it at first, but gave in rather quickly to the gentle insistence of the hoof around her. She let herself get directed towards the stairs and started to walk up them slowly after a gentle nudge from the older mare.

"Wipe your face off too, honey..."

Pinkie threw herself onto her bed and sprawled across it, a couple more tears streaking down the flour before stopping as suddenly as they had come. Pinkie sniffled as she laid there feeling more confused than anything as she pondered the strong wave of emotions that had overtaken her. More than anything else, she felt tired, but despite that she was too worked up to possibly get any sleep. She glanced around the covers idly before she suddenly had an idea. Her expression melted away to panic as she scrabbled with the covers, tearing them off the bed as she searched for something.

She poked her head down over each side as she looked all around the bed for the object, before finally crawling off the bed to look under it. Finally, her eyes fell upon the soft blue blanket. She grasped it in her hooves and clutched it tight as she sprawled back across the bed. She kicked the messy covers aside, not caring for anything except holding the blanket close as she slowly calmed down and slipped into a light sleep.

Pinkie stirred at the soft knock on her door. She groggily lifted her head and kept the blanket clutched close to her chest, even as she rolled over to peek at the source of the noise. The knock repeated itself before the door cracked open and Pinkie could see a gray face peeking back at her through the opening. The lavender eyes were set in a worried expression as the pegasus stood there waited outside as if she wasn't certain if she was welcome.

Pinkie was shocked the rest of the way awake upon realizing who it was outside of her door. She immediately released the blanket, and reached a hoof out towards the gray mare barely peeking into the room. Silver responded to the gesture by pushing the door open and starting to step inside with a clear look of hesitation. The pegasus took slow shuffling steps as she avoided Pinkie's gaze and hung her head in a sullen manner.

"Hey, sweetie..." Pinkie said with the traditional nickname before she realized it and thought about the statement. When Silver's expression didn't change, Pinkie made up her mind and slipped off the bed with a quiet clatter of hooves. She walked over to Silver and pulled the pegasus into a warm hug. She let her face nuzzle into the side of the gray neck in front of her and then pulled out of the hug to gently rub her cheek up against Silver's.

"I'm sorry about yelling at you before... I shouldn't hav—" she started but was interrupted by Silver's hoof pressing gently to her mouth. Pinkie's face lit up into a surprised expression as her eyes focused inwards on the hoof pressing gently against her face. The pegasus merely shook her head softly, before leaning in to rub her nose across Pinkie's face affectionately. She pulled back and hung her head sullenly and pouted, waiting for Pinkie's reaction.

"Was that an apology?" Pinkie asked with uncertainty, and received a small nod in response. Silver stepped back and ventured a shy smile as her eyes locked on Pinkie's face, desperate for any clues. Silver started to visibly chew on her lip as the silence hung between them for a long moment.

"Aww, sweetheart... It's fine, I'm sorry too. I should have known better than to push the issue so soon after you were scared like that. I wasn't thinking about it, I'm sorry. But, if you're apologizing, does that mean you're letting me throw you a party?" Pinkie ventured carefully as she let the smallest smile start to spread across her face. "I still think that it would help you a lot..."

Pinkie leaned forward and rubbed her snout across Silver's gently. She barely managed to suppress a quiet giggle at the cute reaction it elicited from the the pegasus. Silver froze at the action, and slowly raised her head to look directly into Pinkie's blue eyes. Finally, after staring there stock still for a moment, Silver let her eyes close and gave the smallest rub back. Pinkie barely managed to keep herself from pulling Silver into a gigantic bear hug, the happiness that Silver wasn't angry at her was piercing through all of the uncertainty that had been looming over her. Finally, Silver gave another small nod and burst into her own bright smile in response to Pinkie's excited reaction. Silver barely managed to suppress her own silent laughs as the two of them rubbed their faces together affectionately in the doorway. Pinkie beamed from ear to ear as she saw the smile return to Silver's face.

"You have the most beautiful smile, have I ever told you that?" Pinkie asked in a hushed voice as she smiled back at the pegasus. "That's why I was so upset when you started to cry when we first met. Your bright smile is so wonderful that I don't ever want to see you sad."

Silver shook with silent giggles and averted her gaze as her face flushed. She kept giggling and squirming away as Pinkie tried to use a hoof to force the pegasus to look at her, but was unsuccessful. Pinkie laughed as she kept up with the game and eventually wound up tackling Silver to the floor in a playful hug before succeeding in her efforts.

"Your party is going to be the best party ever, don't you worry," Pinkie whispered with excitement as she nuzzled the mare in her hooves. "Let's go for a walk, okay? The party planning can wait."

Silver smiled at bit more earnestly and surprised Pinkie with an affectionate kiss on the nose before she nodded. Pinkie froze in place, hovering over the pegasus and wiggling her nose cutely as she tried to process what just happened. Sure, she had kissed Silver before, but that was a soothing gesture that had never been returned. She hadn't really even considered those actual kisses. Even amongst all the affectionate cuddling from earlier in the day, Silver had stopped short of such actions. Even though it wasn't really a proper kiss, it took Pinkie completely off-guard and it took her a long moment to realize that she was just staring down at Silver. When she did come to her sense, she noticed Silver looking apprehensive again, her face wrinkling in worry as she watched Pinkie's reaction.

Pinkie shook her head and then pulled Silver close to her again. She didn't say anything, even though she could easily just say everything that was floating through her mind; instead, she rubbed her nose up against Silver's affectionately one more time. She let her face break into a bright smile as she gazed into Silver's lavender eyes. Silver's face immediately perked up in response, and soon the two of them were giggling like two school fillies.

Moments later, Pinkie bounced down the stairs with Silver trotting happily behind. When they reached the bottom they were once again greeted by Mrs. Cake, but this time the smile on her face was clearly different. It wasn't the teasing grin that they had become accustomed to, there was no playful wink to accompany the smile either, this time it was a genuine smile breaking across the older mare's face as she watched the two happy mares. She waved a hoof at them, and then gave them the familiar wink before she went back into the kitchen and returned to baking. Pinkie understood fully, no words were required for Mrs. Cake to send her message. The shop owner was merely pleased to see them two of them happy once again.

Chapter 8

"Relax, Silver. Everything is going to be fine; we're just throwing a party for you. It will be just like the last one, except a little bit bigger. Everypony will be perfectly nice and kind; you just have to trust me, okay?" Pinkie whispered to the distraught pony next to her. It didn't seem to be helping much, but it didn't stop Pinkie from trying to assure her every few minutes. The gray pegasus was refusing to stray much more than half a pony's width apart from Pinkie while she checked up on the party setup.

The rest of Pinkie's friends were here as well, and they were helping to decorate one of Applejack's lesser used barns. It was a good thing she had help too, because she was having to spend a lot more time trying to calm down the guest of honor than she had anticipated. Thankfully, Twilight appeared with a checklist and everything was progressing as orderly as anypony would have expected for something so closely related to Pinkie Pie.

"Listen, Silver, sweetheart, I'm not just going to up and leave you during the party; I'm not going to disappear randomly, or leave you alone suddenly. So please, just relax; you're supposed to have fun, but that's not going to happen if you keep worrying your feathers out, okay?" Pinkie asserted firmly as she put a hoof to Silver's face and looked directly into the lavender eyes. She let her hoof gently stroke across the side of the gray face and rubbed her nose against Silver's gently. Pinkie pulled back after a moment and grinned as she was rewarded with a hesitant smile and then a nod.

Pinkie was having to spend yet even more energy to make a point of ignoring the curious looks that Applejack and Rarity were sending her from across the room as the pegasus followed her around like a lost puppy. The rest of her friends were guilty of the occasional questioning glance, but Applejack seemed to be spending more time trying to interrogate Pinkie with pointed glances than actually setting up the party. Pinkie couldn't decide if she wanted them to just come out and ask what she knew they were dying to or not. She still hadn't talked to Silver about the nature of their relationship and a slight rumbling in her tummy reminded her that she really needed to get on with that. On the other hoof, perhaps one of her friends breaching the subject would give her an easy way to talk to Silver about it as well as stopping the accursed glances.

Pinkie was having a hard time even denying to herself that she had developed strong feelings for the pegasus following her around. She just wasn't entirely certain if they stemmed from the urge to protect her, or if it was something else. Their relationship seemed so fragile, as well. They'd had enough mishaps that she really didn't want to start a blowout by bringing it up at a bad time. Now that her friends kept giving her those looks, she really wished that she had just ponied up and talked to Silver about it, already.

Now was definitely not the time, her friends would just have to live with it and wait until sometime after the party to interrogate her about it. She suspected that their silence was mostly due to Rarity's pointed glances that were often being directed at the rest of her friends rather than Pinkie herself. Upon coming to that realization, Pinkie decided that she did in fact appreciate the lack of active questioning and resolved to throw Rarity a party sometime soon. Finally as she stopped brooding over the problems at hoof, she turned to see Silver's apprehensive face right next to her and let out a dramatic sigh.

"Sweetheart... I told you everything is going to be fine. You just have to trust me. Smile for me, please?" Pinkie pleaded desperately and put a hoof around Silver's neck. She decided that she couldn't afford to hold back, it didn't matter if her friends would bombard her with questions over it or not. What was more important was comforting the nervous pegasus, if she didn't then Silver wouldn't have any fun at the party. With that in mind, she planted an affectionate kiss on Silver's cheek and then nuzzled their faces together for a long moment. She closed her eyes to block out the sight of her friends' glances intensifying in curiosity and just held the pegasus for a minute or two.

When she finally withdrew her face and smiled brightly, it seemed that she had finally gotten through to the pegasus. Silver was beaming the smile that Pinkie knew and loved so well, which only made her grin widen in response. She nodded to the pegasus happily before she started to bounce around the barn to check on the party. This time, it wasn't as hard for her to focus on making sure that everything was perfect; now that her gray shadow was smiling instead of sulking.

Pinkie laughed loudly as she danced with Silver in the middle of the barn. Everypony had parted and given them space when Pinkie had declared that it was time to dance. Some of the ponies had started to cheer the two of them on as they watched, and soon they were surrounded by plenty of dancing and laughing ponies. She had started the dance as an excuse to keep Silver from getting mobbed after the introductions once again, but this time she wasn't in a hurry to end the dancing. Pinkie fully intended to enjoy the opportunity and the pegasus seemed happy to dance with Pinkie until she could barely stand.

Much to Silver's credit, she let herself get overtaken by the music much quicker this time, and she was having a much easier time having fun while she danced in a slightly silly manner. Pinkie tried to keep her face from showing too much of the "I told you so" that was burning to escape from her lips. She apparently was only having minimal success, though, as Silver reacted by sticking her tongue out at Pinkie with a playful pout between songs before shaking with a silent giggle. Pinkie laughed heartily and leaned forward, threatening to nibble at the offered tongue. Silver withdrew herself immediately with a look of complete shock plastered across her face, but it quickly faded to a smile and that gave way to a silent laugh as the next song started.

Pinkie quickly lost herself to the new song as well, but she still managed to giggle as she watched Silver's attempts to keep up with the wild dancing. Silver's dancing had certainly improved, but she had a long way to go before she could match Pinkie Pie. The next song that came on was a much slower, sedate tune. Silver started to look over towards the snack table that housed the punchbowl and gestured with her head to Pinkie, only to receive a shake of the head in response.

Pinkie snaked a foreleg around Silver's neck and pulled the pegasus right up in front of her. Silver tilted her head, not entirely certain what Pinkie was up to since most of the ponies had left the dance floor for this song. There were a few scattered couples still moving about, most of them choosing to balance delicately on their hind legs as they held each other close for the slow song. Pinkie on the other hoof seemed to have a different plan, she pulled Silver even closer and hooked her face around Silver's neck and let her chin rest in the purple mane.

Silver's reaction of surprise was so adorable that Pinkie couldn't help but let out a quiet squeak of a giggle, but she soon felt the pegasus' face come to rest against her own neck moments later. Pinkie ignored the even more pointed look from Applejack and turned her face inwards to rub her snout into the purple mane as they danced. Pinkie smiled brightly into the straight purple hairs and enjoyed the slow dancing as she let herself get carried away by the tune.

Pinkie reached up with her hooves and clutched at Silver as the song started to fade away, holding the pegasus close for a long moment before she let the hoof fall. She nuzzled her snout into Silver's neck with a smile before she brought her face up to look directly into the blushing gray face. She laughed at the cute reaction and then tugged at Silver with a hoof, directing her over towards the food-laden table.

Silver trotted to catch up to Pinkie and wrapped her wing comfortably around Pinkie's back as they walked. Her face was still clearly flushing with heat, and she tried to avoid any eye contact with the ponies around them. Pinkie hesitated when they arrived at the table and glanced over the many sweets spread out before them. She wanted to say something, but couldn't decide on the right words while the feelings from their dance still swam in her head. Her brooding was shortly interrupted when Applejack appeared in front of them with an inquisitive look that was starting to give way to a bright smile.

"So, ya'll seem close, Pinkie..." Applejack stated in a leading manner and slowly looked between the two of them. Silver shook with a silent giggle and attempted to hide her face in Pinkie's neck as the wing clutched tighter at Pinkie.

"Listen, Applejack... I know what you've been dying to ask me and I can't really answer it right now, okay? Silver and I haven't had a proper talk about what our relationship is and this is supposed to be a party for Silver. So now really isn't the time, alright?"

"Either way, you two seem happy together," Applejack insisted with a smile. "I'm happy for the two of ya, or that is I will be when you finally get around to talking about it," she added with a conspiratorial wink and then walked off.

Pinkie shook her head in disbelief as she watched Applejack wander away; she pulled herself away from the wing and turned so that she could rub her face affectionately against Silver's for a moment. "Don't worry about her, sweetie; let's just have fun at your party, okay?"

Silver more than happily accepted the act of affection and rubbed her face back into Pinkie's without any hesitation. She gave the earth pony an inscrutable look in response to the words, though. She tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes slightly as she peered at Pinkie questioningly.

"Oh, nonono, I'm not trying to avoid talking to you about it. If you want to talk about it now we could... Do you want to? I'm sure we could find somewhere to sit and talk," Pinkie offered as she scanned the room for a suitable spot.

Silver took a long moment to respond as her face once again fell blank and she just stared at Pinkie. She started to nibble on her lower lip and the returning blush became more intense the longer she hesitated. Pinkie's pulse started to quicken as she waited for the pegasus to indicate her thoughts, and she started to shift her weight from hoof to hoof as she watched. Finally, Silver shook her head with a serene smile and leaned closer to nuzzle her snout against Pinkies. then tilted head forward and used the closeness of the affectionate act to hide from anypony watching that she stole a quick kiss from Pinkie.

Pinkie's face felt hot as she couldn't help but gape at Silver's boldness. Her mouth fell open slightly as she struggled to process what had just happened. Silver Wings, the shy and demure pegasus had just leaned forward and kissed her right in the middle of the party and was now giggling with a massive grin as she watched Pinkie's reaction. Pinkie's face slowly turned to a mischievous expression that caused Silver to cease her giggling. She reached out a hoof towards the gray pegasus who opened her eyes wide with a look of concern, but was tugged closer by the pink foreleg. Silver then let her eyes slowly fall shut when she realized what Pinkie was up to and started to shiver nervously from anticipation.

"If you think that I'm going to let our first kiss end that simply, then you're much sillier than I thought, sweetheart..." she whispered into one of the gray ears.

Silver gave a tiny nod of the head in response. Her eyes remained firmly shut, and Pinkie could feel the pegasus' fluttering breath brushing across her face as she leaned closer. The pink foreleg wrapped tighter around the back of the gray neck and pulled Silver into contact with her as she kissed the pegasus deeply. Pinkie locked her lips with Silver's and held her there as she attempted to pour out all of her swirling emotions into the powerful kiss. Silver quavered slightly in the embrace and Pinkie had to shift her hoof to help support the pegasus as she drew the kiss out and refused to let it end. She started to draw back just so that they could both suck in a deep breath after a long while of breathing through their noses and then renewed the kiss fervently. Pinkie stubbornly dragged the moment out until they both pulled back at the same time and took deep gasping breaths.

Pinkie giggled madly as she could barely believe that she had just done that right in plain sight of anypony who might have cared to look in their direction. She laughed even harder at the shocked expression painted on Silver's face. The poor pegasus looked like Pinkie had just punched her, her mouth hanging open in a dumb grin even as her eyes remained locked in the shocked expression. They both giggled and Pinkie placed a quick peck on Silver's lips to snap her out of the stupor, but the moment was interrupted by a loud wolf-whistle before Pinkie could say anything. The two of them jumped and turned to see a good portion of the party watching them with beaming smiles while Rainbow Dash hovered above and whistled again loudly as she pumped a hoof in the air excitedly.

Pinkie giggled madly and pulled Silver closer so that she could bury her face in the gray neck. Pinkie couldn't even begin to formulate any words in response to the group of ponies who had stopped what they were doing to watch them, and she continued to laugh wildly while clinging to the pegasus. When she finally dared to glance back up towards where the small crowd, she saw Rarity shoving ponies back towards the dance floor and urging them to give the two a moment. Pinkie was immediately flooded with another surge of gratitude towards her friend and mouthed a "thank you," which elicited a sly wink in response from the unicorn.

Pinkie's gaze continued to wander around the room, even as she clutched at Silver as if she was afraid to let go. Her eyes finally caught Applejack's and the earth pony giggled at the two of them. She pointed a hoof towards Silver and gave a shooing gesture before shooting Pinkie a wink. Pinkie nodded in understanding and returned her gaze to Silver as her smile finally started to calm down but showed no less happiness.

"Okay, after that you are going to come sit down with me, at the very least," she stated through another giggle and tugged Silver over towards the rear corner of the barn away from the main partying. "Even if you don't want to talk now, you're not avoiding the cuddling you're getting after that kiss," Pinkie asserted and pulled the pegasus down onto one of the small haystacks scattered about the barn with her. Pinkie wrapped her forelegs around Silver and pulled the gray mare's head down to rest against her chest. Silver more than willingly nuzzled her face into the pink coat, and Pinkie watched the rest of the ponies party as she ran one forehoof through the purple mane and used the other to hold Silver close.

Pinkie was giggling uncontrollably again; most of the ponies had left the party already, but she had positioned herself at the doors to wish them all goodnight as they had started to leave. Silver was still stubbornly refusing to leave her side, and she was currently leaning comfortably against Pinkie while her eyes occasionally drooped. That wasn't why she was giggling, though; every pony that left had made a point of shooting them a wink or offering congratulatory words to the two ponies. The overwhelming amount of positive energy from everypony was too much. Pinkie had expected that she would have spent most of the party introducing Silver to the ponies, but she definitely didn't mind the way things had turned out in the slightest.

Finally, as the last couple of ponies filed past with a series of winks and even a playful whistle, Pinkie smiled and leaned back against Silver for a moment when her friends all started to surround them. This time, it seemed as if Rarity was taking the lead, and Pinkie couldn't think of a way to wriggle out of it. Pinkie gave a guilty grin and a nervous laugh as they all gave her expectant stares, even as the corners of their mouths were twitching.

"I for one, was all for giving you two more time, but after the display that you two put on... I simply must demand details about what is going on between you two, my dear," Rarity stated in a manner that left no room for argument and glanced between the two of them.

"I don't supposed you would give us some more time, would you?" Pinkie asked nervously, but was met with a deadly silence from all of her friends. It seemed as if they had planned this in advance and they all refused to even give the slightest acknowledgement of the comment.

"Okay okay, I'll talk," Pinkie burst out with a laugh.

"So, we haven't really talked much about... us, but Silver seems to like spending a lot of time around me. After the mishap when we met, I guess I kept thinking that I owed it to her to try and make it up some way. I've been going out of my way to make her smile, and I started to notice that I was going even further out of my way with her," Pinkie replied with a smile and kept leaning back against Silver.

"Pinkie, darling, if you think that you can wriggle out of this by just telling us things that we already saw for ourselves, then you obviously are underestimating our intelligence. So, why don't you give us the details," Rarity insisted with a grin.

"Caught me..." Pinkie said and started to laugh even harder when Silver stood up straight only to pull the pink pony closer with a wing around her back. "Okay, so this one likes to cuddle... a lot," Pinkie said with a gesture of her head towards the gray pegasus. "I was asking her about some things after Applejack stopped by and she nuzzled me to assure me that everything was okay-"

"Wait, Applejack? You went and pestered them? After we agreed to give them until the end of the party?" Rarity demanded with a look of shock spread across her face.

"I didn't agree to nuthi-" Applejack started, but was cut off by Rarity.

"We are going to have words later, you, but I believe you were giving us the juicy details, Pinkie?" Rarity prompted with a devious smile.

"Well, she used the nuzzle as a way to steal a kiss from me. You've seen that I've kissed her before, but usually just in a soothing way to calm her down. This though, was different, and all I could think of was that such a simple little peck was going to be our first kiss..." Pinkie's cheeks started to get hot as she remembered the events that followed afterwards. She giggled and tried to hide her face in Silver's neck so that she wouldn't have to look at Rarity's face as it lit up in immediately understanding.

"I couldn't get that thought out of my head; I still can't believe that I did it right in the middle of the party, but I just couldn't let it end so simply," she stated after Silver hugged her tight with the gray wing and then turned to look down at Pinkie expectantly.

"So... I grabbed her and kissed her," Pinkie explained, barely able to contain the bubbling laughter. "We still haven't really talked about us, or what our relationship is, even though the topic has come up a few times. So, I guess the kiss got rather heated as we kind of just said everything... nonverbally," Pinkie ventured and hesitated before going back to the explanation. "It was... intense, far more than I had initially thought it would have been."

"Well, we are all happy for the two of you Pinkie. I think that is more than enough details to satisfy our curiosity, for now. Oh, and I am planning the engagement party whenever that may be," Rarity added with a teasing wink.

"Rarity!" Pinkie nearly yelled even as her face flushed with heat..

"You did not disagree with me... You two are serious aren't you?" Rarity concluded with a grin.

"Wha- You tricked me!" Pinkie exclaimed with a childish pout as everypony around laughed. "Thank you though, girls. Your support means a lot, but we should go. We have things that we should apparently talk about, even though this one seems to like just cuddling instead of actually getting around to it," Pinkie added and turned to stick her tongue out at Silver. She laughed in surprise when Silver reacted by shifting away from Pinkie so that she could turn to face the pink pony and kissed the offered tongue before shaking with a silent giggle.

Pinkie and Silver strode outside the barn, walking less than half a pony's width apart as they went slow and kept brushing their sides together as they went. They kept a relaxed pace and made their way back to Sugarcube Corner in happy silence. It seemed to Pinkie that Luna had paid extra attention to the stars tonight, every time she glanced upwards they seemed to be twinkling more than usual.

When they made their way inside the building, Pinkie automatically made her way towards the stairs that lead the way up to her room. Words weren't quite needed yet, and she stopped inside the doorway to close the door after Silver. She immediately leaned down and nudged the pegasus towards the bed with her face, laughing quietly the entire time. Pinkie climbed her way into bed and laid herself down behind Silver as they snuggled their way under the covers. Silver wriggled in place struggling to turn around in the grasp of the pink hooves but was having a hard time of it. Pinkie giggled and buried her face into the purple mane in front of her before letting Silver twist around to face her.

Pinkie giggled at the frown that Silver was shooting at her, but it faded when Pinkie pulled her closer and let the pegasus nuzzle into her neck. Pinkie smiled and took in the wonderful scent that always seemed to do so much to relax her. She opened and closed her mouth several times as the words that she'd struggled to try and say several times already seemed to falter before they could leave her mouth. She wanted to just say it and not have to worry about it anymore, but her body seemed to be following a different plan. Her eyes started to weigh her down and she had a hard time fighting the urge to just fall asleep cuddled up with Silver. She struggled desperately, the words making their way to the tip of her tongue, but let out a quiet sigh as she resigned defeat. Her eyes slowly fell shut, and she adjusted her grasp on Silver, moving into a more comfortable position.

"Goodnight, sweetheart..."

Pinkie wasn't entirely certain what caused her to start awake; the only thing she could pinpoint as she stared groggily up at the ceiling was that something was out of place. She turned her tired eyes towards the window and saw that the sun was just barely peeking over the horizon. She was usually an early riser, but this seemed early even for her. Her breath hitched slightly as she rolled over and suddenly became aware of what was so wrong.

Pinkie's heart skipped so many beats that she thought it was going to stop from shock. Panic filled her and she felt tears starting to run down her cheeks as she assumed the worst. Even though she had just felt it, she had to make sure. She gulped painfully through the tears and turned her gaze towards the spot where Silver had been asleep. She dragged her eyes forcefully over the covers, the entire process a battle of will to force herself to look at the sight that she didn't want to see: an empty bed.

Suddenly awake, Pinkie sat straight up and darted her gaze around the room for any sign of where the pegasus had gone. She forced herself to calm down as she took several slow breaths, clearly it wasn't as bad as she had initially assumed. It was still quite early, maybe Silver had gotten up to use the bathroom. That would make sense, maybe she had been stirred awake by Silver wriggling free and getting out of bed.

Pinkie sniffled and rubbed her face with a hoof before venturing out of her bedroom. A quick trip to the bathroom found it empty and the sink clearly unused in a while. She barely managed to choke back a heart-wrenching sob as she stumbled back to her room and closed the door before letting out the pained noise.

That awful feeling in the pit of her stomach returned as she threw herself onto the bed and cried. It made no sense. Silver had been so happy, and Pinkie realized with a lancing pain in her chest that she had been too. All of the uncertainty that had been there before was suddenly gone, she couldn't even pretend about the way she now felt about the pegasus. That seemingly silly saying about not understanding how much you loved something until it was gone suddenly seemed to make a lot more sense to Pinkie.

She sniffled and rubbed her hooves across her face again only for her to notice a small piece of parchment on her nightstand. The paper caught Pinkie off-guard, and she stared at it for a long moment as the gears in her head started to turn. Silver had been stubborn about not relying on writing to communicate, and she had even frowned at the suggestion that she could ask Twilight about some way to be able to easily write her words for other ponies. The note seemed out of place in context with Silver's adamant refusal to rely on anything or anypony at all, choosing to instead use that wonderfully expressive face to say all the words that she needed to.

Pinkie shuffled closer and pulled the note off the table and laid back on the bed. It took a long while before she was able to force herself to hold it up over her head and read it. The writing was wobbly and clearly rushed as a few mistakes were harshly crossed out before being rewritten.

Pinkie,

I can't
I'm sorry,
I need to fix myself before I
I'll be back
Hopefully it will only take a few days, but I'll
I'll miss you.

-Silver Wings

Pinkie stared at it for a long while before she let her hooves drop. She rolled over and buried her face into the pillow as she sobbed to herself over the implications of the message. The thought that it was all her fault stubbornly refused to go away, and the last thing she thought before crying herself back to sleep was that she should have just spoken her mind while she had the chance last night.

Chapter 9

Pinkie let out and inward groan as she was rousted from her nap by the sound of voices coming up the stairs behind her door. She rolled over and pulled the fluffy blue blanket in her hooves closer to her body before she curled up around it and burrowed further under the covers. The tears had dried for now, but she knew that it wouldn't take much for them to start again. It was difficult for her to stop berating herself over what had happened last night. She could have easily just spit it out, but she let herself put it off yet again. Maybe if she had just ponied up and said it, then Silver would still be here instead of the, admittedly soft, blanket with only the faintest hints of Silver's scent left on it. It didn't matter that she was probably just imagining it at this point, the blanket had become associated with the pegasus to her and it was the only thing she had left to cling to besides the note. When the voices kept coming closer, her ears perked up slightly; they twitched a few times as she froze in place and listened to the conversation that was now clearly audible.

"I just don't know what to do, Twilight. She refuses to leave her room; she won't even talk to me. Please, just do something."

"I can try, Mrs. Cake..." the second voice replied in a soft tone before a set of hooves retreated back down the stairs and was soon no longer audible. Pinkie nuzzled her face into the blanket and then shut her eyes tight as she prepared to ignore what she knew was coming. Try as she might, she couldn't will herself to not hear the gentle tapping of a hoof on her door, but she did keep quiet as she tugged the covers tightly around herself.

"Pinkie, I'm coming in," Twilight stated simply followed by the soft shimmer of magic as the door slowly swung inwards. Her eyes watered slightly as she cuddled the precious object and continued to pretend that she wasn't there. The light shimmering noise filled her ears as the blanket that she was hiding under was slowly pulled away. "Pinkie, what happened to your mane..." Twilight asked as she reached out with a hoof to lift a lock of the straight pink hair that was revealed well before Pinkie was.

"It's all my fault..." pinkied whimpered from deep under the blankets.

"What is your fault, Pinkie?" Twilight asked in a soft voice as Pinkie felt her bed get weighted down beside her.

"She's gone, and it's all my fault," Pinkie replied with a quiet sniffle as she tried to keep the tears from starting again, but was only delaying things at this point.

"Who is gone? Silver?" Twilight asked insistently and tried to run a hoof against Pinkie's form through the blanket a few times.

Pinkie recoiled away from the hoof before crying out louder than she intended. "YES! She's gone..." she trailed off with a quiet sob as the tears started to flow again and she tugged herself deeper under the covers so that her pink mane disappeared from Twilight's sight.

"Why would she be gone? You two seemed so happily last night, what happened, Pinkie?"

"Because I'm a big dummy!" Pinkie shouted from under the covers while her body started to shake softly from the tears running freely down her cheeks.

"You are not a dummy, Pinkie. Silver obviously cares about you, so just tell me what happened, alright?" Twilight insisted and then started soothingly run her hoof across the lump in the blankets.

"W-we came back here..." Pinkie started but had to pause as she sniffed several times before continuing, "I was gonna tell her, Twilight. I really wanted to tell her, but my voice stopped working and she was already falling asleep. I was tired too and I nearly fell asleep while trying to tell her. So, I thought it would be okay. I could just tell her in the morning... but I woke up and she was gone. She was just gone, Twi... and it's my fault!" Pinkie slammed a hoof into the mattress in frustration before curling up tighter around the fluffy blue blanket.

"Did she leave a note?" Twilight asked simply after a long moment of running her hoof across Pinkie through the blankets.

"I-it's on the dresser..."

"You should look for her, Pinkie. You can't just stay in here," Twilight insisted with a light nudge towards the pony under the blankets.

"What if she doesn't want to see me?" Pinkie asked in a barely audible whisper.

"From what I've seen of the two of you, I can't think of an instance in which she would not want to see you, Pinkie," Twilight answered kindly.

"Are you sure?"

"Do you think that she needs to fix herself? Do you want her to change herself for you?" Twilight asked after glancing back at the note again.

"No!" Pinkie yelled back, her face poking out from under the blankets for the first time since the conversation started. The sight of Pinkie's face streaked with tears made Twilight lean back for a second before she went back to lightly running her hoof across her friend's barrel. "I don't care if she can't talk, she doesn't need to change anything..."

"Then go tell her that, Pinkie. But you have to get out of bed to do that. There has to be an explanation, but it sounded like she wanted to do something to make herself worthy of being with you. I know that's not what you want, so I'll help you look for her if you want," Twilight offered with a friendly smile.

"Okay..."

"Then, get up!" Twilight nearly yelled before yanking the blankets down to the bottom of the bed with her magic to reveal the rest of Pinkie as she remained clutching to the fluffy blue blanket. "Come on, Pinkie. We'll go look in town and see if anypony has seen her, okay?"

Pinkie mumbled something unintelligible into the blanket as she clutched it for a long moment. Her mane was still resolutely flat when she relinquished her grasp on the blanket to slide herself off the bed.

"Okay, so that should just about cover most of the ponies that might have seen her, so now we just need to go around and look for her. Let's check Town Hall first and see if any of the guards saw her!" Twilight exclaimed with a bright smile while she rolled up her checklist with her magic and tucked it into her saddlebag.

Twilight prodded her friend with a hoof a couple of times to get the pink pony started walking. They were several houses down the street when Twilight spoke up again. "Cheer up, Pinkie. I'm sure we'll be able to find her."

Pinkie trudged her way behind Twilight as they left the library and kept her head tilted slightly downwards. She looked up enough to make sure that she could see where Twilight was leading her, but stubbornly ignored everything else. She wasn't entirely certain if she believed that everything would work itself out, but trusted Twilight enough that she was willing to hold off on vocalizing such thoughts. She also knew that Twilight wouldn't give up on it until they'd walked around town and knocked on some doors. She didn't think they'd actually find Silver if the pegasus didn't want to be found. Pinkie barely paid attention as they strode right into town hall. She was barely alert enough to take notice that Twilight strode right past the receptionist and into Mayor's office.

"What can I do for you two?" Mayor asked in a slightly surprised tone when the two of them strode into her office unannounced. She started to speak again but was halted by the seriousness of Pinkie's expression and appearance. A pile of papers slid off the desk unnoticed as she jumped up to her hooves to make sure that Pinkie was alright.

'Hi, Mayor," Twilight said simply in response to the question. "We were wondering if anypony has seen Silver Wings recently?"

"I haven't heard any reports about her, so I don't think we arrested her this time. I can check with the guards, though, if you want."

"A-arrested?" Twilight demanded and then rounded her gaze to stare at Pinkie in disbelief.

"Pinkie didn't tell you? It was all a big misunderstanding. Thanks again for helping us figure that all out by the way, Pinkie. We wouldn't have managed to clear everything up without your help, so let's see if we can find anything on your marefriend, okay?" Mayor asked in a tentative voice as she looked to see if Pinkie gave any reaction to the usage of the word marefriend. Twilight opened her mouth and raised a hoof as if she was about to interrupt but halted when Pinkie gave a sad little nod. Twilight merely looked confused as she followed the other two ponies out of the office while trying rather unsuccessfully to question PInkie nonverbally.

Pinkie was having a hard time trying to ignore the regular worried glances that were being sent in her direction by Mayor and Twilight. She wasn't really concerned about them, but she wished that they would focus on what was more important right now. She didn't really think that Silver would be with the guards, but she couldn't really think of anywhere better to look. There were a few places that she hoped Silver wasn't, but that wasn't quite the same thing.

She kept her head down and only paid half attention to the conversation going on between Mayor, Twilight and the palomino earth pony sitting behind a desk. She didn't even really need to listen to the words to know that she was right. Just the way their voices were shifting around was enough to tell her that Silver hadn't drawn any attention from the guards. She let out a quiet sigh and turned to make her way out of town hall only to have Twilight rush up behind her while apologizing profusely. "Sorry, Pinkie. We won't give up, though."

"Okay, so number seven on the list is Ponyv—" Twilight started to say as she referred to her list, but was interrupted by Pinkie walking past her without saying a word. "Hey! Where are you going?"

"To see Nurse Redheart," Pinkie answered quietly.

"But that's not until number fourteen!" Twilight yelled to the retreating pony before shoving the list back into her saddlebag.

"She said she wanted to fix herself, there's only a few places she could do that," Pinkie said flatly as she kept trudging over towards the small clinic. "Even if she's not there, maybe Nurse Redheart will know where to find her."

"Are you sure you don't want to check the Weather Patrol offices? It's next on the list!" Twilight suggested desperately from behind the pink pony.

"She wouldn't go there, they told her that she didn't have a place with them. Until she's "fixed herself" there's no point for her to go there, " Pinkie reasoned out as her destination came into sight.

"What about the Ponyville Agricultural Musuem?" Twilight suggested desperately as she kept finding herself falling behind Pinkie despite the lack of usual bouncing. That one didn't even garner a response, though, so it was with a defeated sigh that she followed Pinkie into the building. "Okay, just this once Pinkie, but after this we'll go back to the list!"

"Hey, Pinkie, what can I do for y—" Nurse Redheart started to ask as she came out from her office and into the waiting room where Pinkie and Twilight were waiting. She stopped suddenly when she got a clearer look at Pinkie's appearance. "Pinkie? What's wrong?"

Pinkie let out a quiet sigh, clearly having gotten tired of the same reaction from everypony that they had visited today. "Have you seen Silver?" she asked simply without getting up out of her chair.

"Silver? The gray pegasus you've been hanging around with? She hasn't come into the clinic, but we can check with the hospital if you want. Come on," Nurse Redheart responded and, after some polite prodding from Twilight to get Pinkie up out of the chair, led them to the hospital proper.

Pinkie looked up from her stupor when Nurse Redheart came walking back out to the waiting room that she had left them in with a serious expression on her face. Pinkie’s heart skipped when she saw the way that the nurse’s eyebrows furrowed as she approached. She turned to Nurse Redheart with a pleading expression, silently asking for her to just dump the news on her.

“Good news is that she’s here. The bad news is that she didn't list anyone under who to disclose her information to, so unless you have a solid reason to see her, then I really shouldn’t tell you where. Give me a good reason, Pinkie. Are you two officially involved yet? Can I categorize you as her special somepony?” the nurse asked in a leading tone, only to get a sad little shake of the head in response.

“We haven’t made anything official…” Pinkie said sadly and directed her gaze down to her hooves.

“Please, Pinkie, I don’t like seeing you like this, just give me a reason to tell you,” Redheart insisted.

“She left me a note saying she was going to go off to try and “fix herself…” and I’m worried that she might do something drastic,” Pinkie answered after a long moment.

The words gave Redheart enough pause to glance back towards the doorway that she had come from as she was clearly considering if that was enough of a reason. “And she’s trying to do this because of you?”

“That’s what she made it sound like in the note… Please, nurse, let me go see her,” Pinkie pleaded as she stared down at her hooves while trying not to cry.

“Good enough,” Redheart said with a slight smile. “She’s in room 221, go make sure that everything is alright, Pinkie.”

“I’m sure that there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation, Pinkie…” Twilight started to say weakly, but Pinkie ignored her and turned towards the stairs. She hesitated for a moment, her foreleg raised in the air as she kept making motions as if she was going to start walking forward, but was having a hard time of it. Once Twilight walked up beside the pink pony, she was able to start herself in motion, taking the first few steps cautiously like a foal’s first wobbly steps. After the first couple of steps, she seemed to get her momentum back and began to ascend the stairs at a reasonable rate, leaving the surprised unicorn behind for a moment.

Pinkie’s eyes swept across the numbers on the walls as she searched frantically for her destination. Several tears splashed from her face down onto her hooves as she walked as she was unable to keep horrible thoughts from racing through her mind. What if, Silver had been horribly injured trying to do whatever it was to try and fix herself. It would be all Pinkie’s fault, and she didn’t know if she’d ever be able to say sorry enough. Finally, she found the room she was seeking and knocked softly on the door a few times after wiping her eyes. She peeked her head through the entrance with a cautious air, not sure what she’d find inside.

A tan unicorn in medical scrubs holding a clipboard in his magic as he looked over Silver Wings wasn’t quite what she expected. Neither was the friendly manner in which he smiled at her and motioned for her to come closer. “Oh, hello, it’s good that you’re here Pinkie. We were just about to go over some test results, and given what she’s told us you might be interested to hear them as well if she allows it,” he said calmly.

“She what? How? Is she okay?” Pinkie demanded as her eyes started to tear up again. She stepped closer to the side of the bed where she found Silver lying in bed with a hospital gown as she gave a shy smile to Pinkie. The way that Silver’s eyes wavered and kept looking down at her hooves made her seem like a foal that had been caught with her hoof in the cookie jar.

“Is it okay if I discuss your results with Pinkie here, Silver?” the nurse asked again in a gentle tone. Silver gave a light little nod as she curled up a little bit on the bed with a frightened expression, trying to reach out to Pinkie for support.

Pinkie didn’t hesitate to sit herself down on the edge of the bed and let the gray pegasus wrap her hooves around her barrel. Pinkie reached down and ran a soothing hoof over Silver’s mane. “Why is she even here?” Pinkie asked after a somewhat awkward moment of the nurse trying to pretend that he wasn’t watching the two of them.

“Well, I guess I should explain from the start,” the nurse said hesitantly, trying to ignore Pinkie as she leaned down to place a soft kiss on the top of Silver’s head and then whispered into her ear. “Silver tried to check herself into the mental ward. It was somewhat difficult finding out why since she can’t talk, but we did an evaluation and after having her sit down to write out what was wrong, we determined that her concern was most likely physiological. We checked her in here and have been running some tests for most of the day.”

“What?” Pinkie asked with a loud gasp as she turned her gaze down to the now extremely guilty looking Silver Wings next to her. The pegasus reached a hoof out and touched it to Pinkie’s mane with a slightly worried expression on her face. The pink hair had developed a few small curls near the tips, but was still resolutely straight and flat looking. Pinkie shook her head at Silver and gestured towards the nurse for him to continue as she scooted a little further onto the bed.

“Well, when we determined that she was mute and got her to write out her concerns, she expressed that she wished to find out why she couldn’t talk. Apparently she was worried that it was something mental and not physical since she had never really questioned it. I believe her words were… hang on, I have them here somewhere,” the nurse said as he flipped through the papers on his clipboard and then stopped to read one of them out slowly and clearly. “She hadn’t really questioned her condition much before, but was recently overcome with a strong desire to be able to express herself more clearly.”

“Really, Silver? Is that why you ran off this morning? I’m so sorry… I wanted to talk more last night, but I just couldn’t get the words to come out and it seemed like you were ready to sleep,” Pinkie explained as tears started to run down her face. She pressed her face up against Silver’s and nuzzled their faces together for a moment until Silver wriggled her face away and shook her head. Silver looked up at Pinkie with her face crinkled slightly before she nuzzled the tears away from Pinkie’s cheeks with her nose. She then reached up with her forelegs to pull Pinkie down into a warm hug.

“But I made you feel that you weren’t good enough and you had to fix yourself… how can you say it’s not my fau—” Pinkie started to ask until Silver pressed a hoof gently against her mouth to stop the apology. She pulled Pinkie back down and nuzzled the earth pony until the nurse cleared his throat awkwardly.

“Umm, I have the test results here… Remember?” the nurse finally asked as he turned away from the affectionate display. “The cause is indeed physiological, it seems like Silver Wings’ vocal chords never formed properly when she was a foal. As such, we cannot do anything for her magically. There’s nothing to regenerate since it never existed in a complete state to begin with. The procedures that we do have can be rather dangerous in a fully grown mare, so even if we had something to help her situation it would not be something that we would undertake lightly.”

“Were you really ready to go through with something like that, Silver?” Pinkie asked quietly as she started to clutch at the pegasus in return. “Why would you risk something like that? You’re just fine the way you are,” Pinkie said in a shaky voice, her volume pitching up and down uncontrollably as tears started to stream down her face. “I couldn’t possibly bear it if something happened to you, sweetheart…”

“Um, I’ll just go get her discharge in order, okay?” the nurse asked awkwardly and let out a quiet sigh when he didn’t even get a response. He walked out of the room with a quiet huff, glad to not have to stay in that situation any longer.

Pinkie crawled up onto the bed when Silver shuffled over to make room for her and stopped her nuzzling long enough to plant an affectionate kiss on the pegasus’ lips. When she withdrew moments later, she couldn’t help but giggle quietly as she saw Silver’s eyes still firmly shut from the kiss. Pinkie smiled while she waited for the pegasus to meet her gaze.

“Please promise me that you won’t try anything dangerous to try and be able to talk. I don’t think I could handle you getting seriously hurt because of me,” Pinkie pleaded quietly as her hair started to slowly curl up the rest of the way into its normal bouncy shape. She laughed when Silver reached up to pull her down for another kiss after giving a nod in response. Pinkie managed to stifle the giggles that she was releasing into the pegasus’ face long enough to return the kiss.

“Silver… about what I wanted to say last night,” Pinkie said quietly as her face hovered inches above Silver’s. “I don’t want to hesitate anymore when ponies ask me about us. I want to be able to smile when ponies assume that we’re dating. I don’t want to worry about where you’re sleeping anymore…”

Silver patted the bed next to her and gave Pinkie a happy smile, her own eyes watering slightly before she nodded and snuggled up next to the earth pony. Pinkie beamed a huge smile and her mane and tail immediately sprung the rest of the way back to their usual volume. The bed wasn’t designed to hold two ponies, but with how close Silver had nuzzled up against Pinkie to wrap her hooves around the earth pony, it was just enough to hold them. Silver wriggled away from the grasp a few moments later so that she could press her face into Pinkie’s chest like she loved to do. This time, she turned her head to press her ear against it and listen to the thumping sound coming from her marefriend’s chest.

Pinkie giggled quietly at the action, but they soon fell into a comfortable silence as the two of them cuddled on the bed and waited for the nurse to return. When he did, he hesitated in the doorway and stuttered out a few unintelligible words before floating the stack of papers over onto the bedside table. He flushed red as he excused himself and mumbled something about not needing to sign anything.

“Thanks!” Pinkie called out after him and then ran a hoof through the purple mane in front of her. They kept lying there for a few minutes before Pinkie was the first one to pull away and thrust herself into a sitting position. She stole a quick kiss from Silver before giggling as she helped the pegasus out of her gown and strode out into the hallway with her. They found Twilight resting against the opposite wall with her head nodding slightly as she hovered right on the edge of sleep.

Pinkie reached out and gave Twilight a gentle nudge to gain her friend’s attention before piping up with a bright smile. “Hey Twilight! You’re a good friend, thanks.” Pinkie crouched down and pulled the unicorn into a friendly hug before she trotted back to Silver with a huge smile. “Hey, sweetheart, let’s go home,” Pinkie declared before bouncing off happily.

Silver let out a silent giggle and then had to, once again, flutter her wings and swoop forward to catch up with the pink pony. She fell into a canter next to her marefriend and refused to stray more than half a pony’s width apart as they went home.

Author's Note

This probably needs more editing but I'm tired of staring at it.

Chapter 2

Pinkie was surrounded by a wall of sound. She could feel the beat surging through her body as she stood in the center of the party. The volume was perfect, just enough bass to make her coat resonate to the beat music. All of the ponies around her were enjoying the music, and as she looked around she realized that all of her closest friends were here enjoying the party. Several ponies were dancing all around her, laughing and reveling in the party she had thrown together.

The sound of their laughter was enough to make sure there was a smile on her face, but she wasn’t really feeling the smile. Everypony was here, sure, except for one pony. She bounced off to the edge of the party, and then as she walked out to the front of the shop, her pace dropped to a slow walk. She apprehensively peered out the window of Sugarcube Corner , her ears drooping slightly as she scanned the skies. Her eyes flicked all around the clouds for any sign of the bright purple mane or gray coat nearby.

“Relax, Pinkie. I’m sure that she’s on her way,” Twilight said gently, and then Pinkie felt a comforting hoof rest against her side.

“I know, it seemed like she was going to come, but what if she doesn’t? I made her cry, Twilight. I made her cry… That’s not like me, I like making ponies smile, and laugh. What kind of crummy friend am I if I make her cry instead?” Pinkie sulked, emphasizing the last bit with an exaggerated pout.

“Pinkie, no matter what happens, I’m sure you’ll find a way to make it up to her. Even if she doesn’t come to the party, you’ll find a way. For now, though, we’re at a party with your friends. So come back and have some fun, okay?” Twilight asked in her best assuring voice, and gently tugged Pinkie back towards the party with a hoof.

Pinkie shot one more glance out the front window, and then nodded sadly with her eyes closed. She stopped on the edge of the party and took a deep breath. Slowly, a smile spread from the corners of her mouth to the edges of her face until she was beaming her usual happy smile. It was difficult, she wasn’t really very smiley right now, but Twilight was right. She couldn’t stop herself from worrying about it, her worry would affect her friends as well. So with that thought and the realization that other ponies relied upon her smiles, she bounced back into the party sporting the biggest smile she could manage. She would keep smiling for her friends, not bring them down with her.

“Heya everypony, are you all enjoying yourselves so far? Our guest of honor doesn’t seem to be here yet, but she should be here soon!” Pinkie exclaimed loudly as all the guests turned to look at her.

She jumped back into the center of the room, right into the center of the thrumming music and started dancing wildly. A few ponies who knew her well stared at her for a few moments, but soon, everything was back to the previous merriment. She managed to keep her smile across her face, with some effort, but her mind kept returning to the thoughts of the what if situations and the implications of the gray mare not showing up.

"What if she doesn’t show up?”

“I already apologized; does that mean she didn’t accept it?”

"But she said that she accepted my apology. Well, she nodded, but that's the same thing right?"

“I was hoping that a party would seal the deal, but I didn’t think she wouldn’t show up. Do I need to apologize again? Was the first one not enough? Does she hate me? What else can I do to show her how sorry I am?”

Pinkie may have let her smile falter a teensy amount, as Rainbow Dash and Rarity were shooting her concerned glances, but she kept bouncing around the dance floor. When the song ended, the dark thoughts started to overwhelm her again. She turned her back to the dance floor and then trotted over to the music setup, taking the excuse to drop the mask temporarily. Her face fell as she was hidden behind the turntables to rifle through the records she had on hoof. She kept her expression hidden from sight, taking a quick opportunity to peek her eyes around the table towards the entrance.

Pinkie’s ears suddenly snapped straight back up and twitched a few times as she thought she heard the front door open. She quickly slammed a new record onto the turntable and then got the music started before she zipped out of the room. She ran right up to the front door, skidding to a stop a few feet away. Her face broke into a genuine smile as she saw a bit of a bright purple mane peeking through the door, followed shortly there afterwards by a shy looking gray face and a pair of lavender eyes.

“You came!” Pinkie nearly yelled in excitement, as she bounced closer to the door. The gray mare’s eyes shot open wider and then her face quickly disappeared behind the open door.

“Oh come on, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m just happy you’re here. Come inside, the party has already started!” Pinkie exclaimed, pulling the door wide open. She stood aside so the gray mare could see, and Pinkie saw her leaning backwards with her ears flat against her head.

The pegasus hesitated visibly, but after a moment, she cautiously stepped through the doorway. Her ears perked up slowly, as she looked around at the welcoming atmosphere. Her eyes slowly passed over the balloons, the streamers, and the large banner over the entrance to the back room. Pinkie couldn’t stop the quiet laugh that escaped her mouth as she shut the door after the pegasus took a few slow steps inside and then watched as her new friend glanced around the room with curious wonder.

“This is Sugarcube Corner; The Cakes run it as a pastry shop. I live here with them and help with the business. They even let me have parties here too!” Pinkie added happily, stepping around to the gray pegasus’ side as the mare continued to look around.

“Oh, by the way…” Pinkie said with a hushed, almost conspiratorial voice.

“Can you write down your name for me? I wanted to introduce you, so that nopony would make the same mistake I did, but then I realized I still don’t know your name,” Pinkie whispered, the smallest hints of concern leaking into her voice.

“I can get you paper and a quill…” Pinkie offered, and looked around the shop quickly for the appropriate instruments.

The gray mare shook her head and, instead, curiously looked around the room herself. Finally, her eyes spied her objective, and then she walked over towards the counter-top next to the register. She raised a fork in her hoof, and gestured with it towards Pinkie.

“A fork? I don’t understand… Oh! Is this about your name?” Pinkie asked excitedly. The pegasus nodded again with a smile, then gestured with the fork again.

“Fork? I still don’t get it. Your name isn’t fork is it? No? Thought so, that’d be kind of a silly name, who would name their foal Fo—“ Pinkie was cut off by another gesture of the fork and giggled happily.

“Sorry, uhh, Fork? I said that already. Cutlery? Tines?” Pinkie asked wildly, and the gray mare shook her head vehemently. The gray mare turned back to the counter-top and lightly chewed on her lower lip as she looked for something else to help her out. She picked up another fork, a spoon, as well as a knife, and then she turned back to show the collection to Pinkie.

“Huh? Silverware?” she guessed, eliciting an excited nod from the pegasus. She gestured with the silverware grasped in her hoof again, then put them back down on the counter-top. She stepped in front of Pinkie’s gaze and tilted her head expectantly.

“What? I don’t get it. Your name isn’t Silverware right? So, why are you shoving silverware in my face?” Pinkie asked looking extremely confused. The pegasus covered her face with one of her hooves, and then slowly dragged it over her features, stretching her face out slowly. She shook her head again, and then with a new look of determination gestured towards the silverware again with a hoof.

“Yeah, I get that part, Silvewa—“ Pinkie started, but was cut off by the gentle pressure of a hoof being applied to her mouth.

“Silverwa? Silver?” she asked with a giggle. Pinkie beamed a bright smile and started to bounce in place, enjoying the way her new friend was making a game out of it.

The gray mare happily nodded back, her mane flipping out wildly from her enthusiasm, and then turned in place. She very clearly showed her side off to Pinkie and then flapped her wings a few times, extremely slowly and theatrically.

“Pegasus? Feather! Ooh, ooh Wing!” Pinkie exclaimed happily. The other mare shook her head a few times, and then nodded excitedly. She pointed at the wing she was offering to Pinkie with a hoof, then turned around and pointed towards the other one as well.

“Both of them? Wings?” Pinkie asked, causing the mare to giggle and nod excitedly. She pointed back towards the pile of silverware, then flapped her wings again with a bright smile.

“Silverw— Oops, silver… wings? Silver Wings? Your name is Silver Wings!” Pinkie concluded excitedly. She bounced around the gray mare in a small circle as she laughed happily. She was certain that she had figured it out, but she stopped after a moment just long enough to check. Her new friend was still smiling and gave her a happy nod of the head.

“Yay! That’s a nice name, can I call you Silver?” Pinkie asked politely and bounced in place happily once more when Silver nodded again emphatically. Silver Wings kept the bright smile plastered across her face, looking even happier than when Pinkie had been singing the welcome song.

“Yay! Ready for your party now?” Pinkie asked, slightly more seriously. She received another quick nod in response, and then bounced in place a few times before she started to lead the pegasus back towards the music.

“Okay then, Silver! Your party awaits!” Pinkie exclaimed.

The moment the two of them entered the room, everypony stopped what they were doing. The dancing stopped, all of the sounds of happy chattering died away, and somehow the music stopped immediately as well. Pinkie and Silver saw all the faces in the room turn towards them expectantly, and the ponies slowly turned the rest of the way towards the doorway. They waited patiently, nopony said anything, all of them waiting and watching Pinkie in particular.

“Alright, listen up everypony!” she exclaimed with a giggle after she realized how unnecessary it was.

“This is Silver Wings. She’s new in town, and well, this party is for her! It’s kind of a welcome party, but there’s a reason it’s smaller than usual. I kind of messed up…” Pinkie admitted bashfully. She turned her gaze down towards her hooves for a moment. She was startled slightly when she felt a hoof rest on her side comfortingly. When she turned up to see who it was, she found that it wasn’t Twilight, but Silver giving her a kind smile.

“Well, long story short, I accidentally made her cry when we first met. I still feel really bad about it, so I decided to throw her a party! This party is to say sorry, and to make her feel welcome to Ponyville. Now, you all are probably thinking “Well, Pinkie, that doesn’t explain why you didn’t invite the entire town like usual!” and you’re right.” Pinkie said excitedly, glancing with a smile back towards Silver. She waited for the gray mare to give her a slight nod before she continued.

“You see, the thing is she can’t talk. Like, not she’s shy, or she’s really quiet. She actually can’t talk. That’s why I messed up you see? I was introducing myself, and rolled out the welcome wagon when I kept asking her for her name. Well she didn’t tell me her name, then I kept asking her questions, and I had no idea what was wrong. I was just so sad that she wasn’t being my friend! So I overreacted a teensy bit, and maybe got slightly frustrated, then she got frustrated because she couldn’t tell me why she was upset!” Pinkie exclaimed, and paused for a big breath.

“Anyway, you’re all here because Silver didn’t want a trademark everyone in town is invited Pinkie party. My wonderfully smart friend Twilight Sparkl— Hi Twilight! Glad you could make it by the way… Oh, right. Twilight helped me figure out the reason she didn’t want a big party. Since she can’t talk, parties are kind of tough for her. So keeping that in mind, I decided to throw her a smaller party! So now you all can be nice and friendly, and make her feel welcome, without overwhelming her. So, just don’t swarm her okay?” Pinkie asked with a bright smile, then turned back towards Silver.

“Make her feel welcome, but keep in mind that I don’t want things to be awkward for her. This should be warm and welcoming, without any of the awkward questions about why she can’t talk," Pinkie concluded seriously, her smile temporarily dropping as she swept her gaze across the room. After making sure that everypony understood and receiving nods from most everypony in attendance, Pinkie burst back into a vibrant smile.

“Okay then, is everypony ready to get this Pinkie party back on the road? Come on Silver let’s dance!” she nearly yelled to room at large and then happily dragged Silver with her to the center of the room. Pinkie started to dance in place wildly, encouraging the gray pegasus to join her. Finally, after a moment’s hesitation, Silver awkwardly joined in. As the rest of the ponies around them started dancing as well and the music kicked back in suddenly Silver’s dancing slowly became more natural and the smile playing across her face widened.

The corners of Pinkie’s face hurt slightly from the, even wider than normal, grin that had burst across her face. She was delighted that things were going according to plan. She checked around the room, then back to Silver. Her new friend was dancing a little bit more enthusiastically, but she still wasn’t into the groove of the music. Pinkie giggled at the silly filly, and started bouncing closer, dancing even more excitedly. Pinkie started getting sillier, trying to make Silver laugh, flinging her limbs around more and more wildly.

Finally, after a minute or so, Pinkie’s goal was achieved. Silver stopped dancing and laughed silently at Pinkie’s antics. With that, the pegasus started dancing again, but this time she danced more freely. She clearly started to enjoy the music more, and danced with Pinkie more in time with the music. Pinkie ceased her exaggerated antics, and returned to a normal level of flailing, clearly glad her friend was enjoying herself now. The two of them continued to dance as the ponies around them cycled in and out of the dance floor for a few songs.

“That was great Silver! You did way better after you started laughing and having fun; you just gotta relax and enjoy it. Let’s get some punch though, I’m thirsty,” she said and then made a path through the dancing ponies towards the refreshments. Pinkie poured out a glass of punch for Silver and then one for herself before she glanced back towards the party. All the rest of the ponies were having fun, and a gentle smile was still stretched across Silver’s face. Everything, so far, was absolutely perfect.

“Hello Silver, hi Pinkie,” Twilight called out from behind them, as she stepped closer.

“Hey Twilight, you having fun?” Pinkie asked excitedly, and poured out a drink for Twilight as well.

“Yeah, I am Pinkie, thanks. It’s nice to meet you properly by the way, Silver. I’m Twilight Sparkle, I don’t remember if I told you that earlier. I’m glad to see you’re smiling now, and it’s clear Pinkie is too. We’re all glad that you decided to come,” Twilight added with a friendly smile.

“Oh, Twilight thanks again so much for your help earlier. I don’t think I would have figured out why everything was going wrong in time without you. We really appreciate it, right Silver?” Pinkie asked happily, and turned to see the pegasus nodding.

“Don’t worry about it, you both looked so upset that I’m just glad I was able to help out. It’s a great thing you’re doing here Pinkie. Also…” Twilight dropped her voice, and looked back at the party conspiratorially. “That was really smart, the way you prevented everypony from swarming her by dragging her out to dance like that.”

“You picked up on that? Yeah, I thought after what we had talked about, it would be bad if everyone swarmed towards the doorway to say hello. Plus, the dancing was fun, right, Silver?” Pinkie asked happily, and received another nod in response as Silver gave a silent giggle as well.

“Anyways, I’ll leave you in Pinkie’s capable hooves, Silver. I’ve had a ton of fun, but I’ll probably be heading out soon, Pinkie. I need to get up and re-shelve the books books tomorrow morning, so I can't really stay too late," Twilight said, and then downed the rest of her punch. She put the glass down, before giving the two of them a wave of the hoof and a playful wink. She then trotted off into the party to say good-bye to the rest of their friends.

Pinkie took her goal of throwing the best possible party for Silver that she could seriously. She stayed with the pegasus for the rest of the party. She made sure that the guests were having fun, but did so with Silver next to her the entire time. Every time things started to get slightly awkward, Pinkie was there to brighten things up and steer the conversation to something else. Each awkward beginning, turned instead to a bright smile from all parties involved. After all the rest of the ponies had met Silver, and another long dance session, the rest of the ponies seemed partied out.

Upon closer inspection, so did Silver, as well. Pinkie could see that past the smile, there was a slight weariness to Silver’s gait. She saw Silver’s ears drooping slightly whenever she didn’t think that Pinkie was watching. Also, Pinkie caught Silver sneaking a few moments to shut her eyes and take a few deep breaths. Pinkie walked with Silver over towards the music and waited for the song to end. Once it did, she turned the next song down, and then looked out towards the remaining partygoers.

“Hey everypony, sorry but we’re pretty much out of time. I think we’ve successfully worn out our guest of honor, and I have to be up to help Mr. and Mrs. Cake in the morning. Thanks everypony for coming and being so nice to Silver. I’m sure she feels much more welcome in Ponyville now, right?” she asked, turning to the pony next to her. Everypony laughed at the emphatic nod Silver gave and at how her ears perked up as she did so.

“Hang on, Silver,” Pinkie said softly, and stuck a hoof out to keep her friend from leaving with the rest of the ponies. Everypony else eventually filed out, each of them wishing a final goodnight to Silver and Pinkie before they did.

“Thanks a ton for coming, I just wanted to say sorry once again…” Pinkie said seriously once they were alone. Her smile dropped away, and her ears drooped slightly as she scuffed her hoof against the floor lightly.

“I’m supposed to be the embodiment of laughter, but I made you cry. I’m really sorry, and I’ll do my best to never ever do it again okay?” she said sadly. Silver tilted her head to the side, looking bemused and pointed a hoof at Pinkie questioningly.

“Oh, the laughter thing? Long story, I’ll tell you about it some other time. Anyways, I’m glad you were able to forgive me enough to come to the party. I hope that you consider me your friend now? And I guess I just wanted to tell you, if you need anything just let me know, okay? Because that’s what friends are for, right?” Pinkie finished, and broke into a hesitant smile. Silver stared at Pinkie for a long moment, and then her face broke into the biggest, brightest smile Pinkie had seen from her the entire night. She punctuated the smile by leaning forward and tossing her hooves around Pinkie’s neck in a gentle hug.

“Stay safe alright? I’ll see you around.” Pinkie hugged Silver back gently, then withdrew and started to walk with Silver towards the door. She saw a few happy tears forming on the edges of Silver’s eyes, but the pegasus rubbed them away quickly with a hoof. When they got to the doorway, Silver looked around the room once more and pulled Pinkie back into a gentle hug.

“Aww, you’re welcome…” Pinkie said with a giggle, then waved a hoof goodbye. She sat on her haunches in the doorway, and watched as Silver flapped her wings a few times before disappearing off into the night.