The Hugquest
Chapter One: The Chapter
Load Full StoryThe Day.
What Day?
The day Pinkie had set aside.
Set aside for what?
Who knows, it's Pinkie Pie! That's what makes it so fun!
Anyway, it was The Day. And as we all know, Days are made to be seized!
Pinkie sat up in her bed, and rubbed the sleep and cupcake crumbs out of her eyes. She looked at the checklist on her bedside table that Twilight had helped her make. When she found today, her mane shot out in all directions, returning to its normally and impossibly sproingy state.
The pink mare flew out of bed, down the stairs past an unnoticing Mr. and Mrs. Cake, out the door, and down the street at speeds Rainbow Dash would’ve been impressed with if she had been awake, before realizing she had turned the wrong way and spinning around, heading in the other direction.
As Pinkie approached Sweet Apple Acres mere seconds later, she slowed to a casual trot. Applejack was already up and bucking apple trees, as Pinkie had anticipated.
“Hi Applejack!” Pinkie shouted, covering the last hundred metres in the blink of an eye.
“Howdy Pinkie Pie,” Applejack said, stopping to buck another tree, “What brings you here so early?”
“Well,” Pinkie took a deep breath, before talking almost too fast for Applejack to understand. “I was going to say something sooner, but I got soooo busy that I didn’t really have any time that I was alone with you, mostly cause I was usually either planning a party, having a party, or cleaning up from a party, but then the other day Twilight helped me write a checklist so I could get organized while Rainbow Dash was calling us eggheads from across the room as a she was reading Daring Do and the Expedition for the Superfluous Sequel, which really is a good book, though not as good as the first, which was much better. Anyway, Twilight made me a checklist, and for this morning, ‘plan a party’, ‘have a party’, and ‘clean up a party’ weren’t on the checklist, so I didn’t do any of them, so after I left the library I decided to add a little something of my own, and so today I’m going to tell my five best friends how much I love them by giving them all hugs!”
Applejack blinked several times, then shook the confused look from her face and stared at Pinkie’s unnaturally large smile. Just as she was about to reply, the pink mare launched herself at Applejack and gave her the biggest, most tightest, most loveably flufferiffic hug in Equestria, as only Pinkie Pie could do.
After Pinkie loosened up her deathgrip and let Applejack stand up, AJ dusted herself off and removed a cupcake crumb that had somehow inserted itself into her eye.
“That’s… awfully thoughtful of ya, sugarcube. But Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Twilight are all out of town today.”
Pinkie frowned and cocked her head.
“What do you mean, out of town? I didn’t know they were going anywhere.”
“They all left this mornin’ on emergency business, and stopped by to let me know. You musta still been sleepin’.”
“What?!?! But I Pinkie Promised myself! I can’t break a Pinkie Promise to myself! Where are they? I have to find them all today!”
“Well, I don’t know if that’s such a good idea, sugarcube. I wouldn’t want ya to hurt yerself, or get carried away.
“A Pinkie Promise is a Pinkie Promise Applejack, I can't go back on it!”
“If you insist…”
* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *
Several minutes later, Pinkie Pie was trotting away from Sweet Apple Acres, armed with a slip of paper Applejack had provided her with, listing the locations of her four missing comrades, and her usual enthusiasm. It was still early in the day, she would have plenty of time to visit and hug all her friends by the end of it.
She peeked at the list for the first time. Rainbow Dash was at the top.
“Wow, Dashie must have woken up reeeally early. I wonder where she had to be that was so important?”
Her perplexation was halted when she read the words ‘Ghastly Gorge’ on the page.
“Ghastly Gorge? Pfft, that isn’t that far away. AJ shouldn’t have been so worried.”
Pinkie slipped the paper back into her mane and continued trotting at a leisurely pace towards the gorge. The way she saw it, she had all the time in the world. Get carried away, indeed! Maybe she’d give Applejack a piece of her mind. Playfully, of course. The absolute last thing Pinkie wanted was to hurt anypony’s feelings.
Before long, our pink protagonist had Ghastly Gorge in her sights. She sped along the rest of the path, and was very excited to finally give Rainbow her hug. As she approached the edge of the gorge, she caught a rainbow blur on the edge of her vision, flying along towards her end of the gorge.
Pinkie opened her saddlebag, and removed one of the cupcakes she had packed on her way from Sweet Apple Acres, and held it out strait in between her and Rainbow Dash. She closed her eyes, put on the widest smile she could muster, and felt the cyan body of a pony going at supersonic speeds hitting her full force.
Both ponies went tumbling backwards, with yelps of surprise from both sides. Luckily, Pinkie’s cupcake had been fluffy enough to prevent any harm from coming to either pony. Dash sat up, and blinked cupcake crumbs out of here eyes, which she then preceded to eat hungrily.
“Mmmph.. Fanks for birngign me a shmack Phinkie Phie! Itsh delishush!” Rainbow swallowed. “Wait, what are you doing here anyway?”
“Well,” Pinkie took a deep breath, “You remember the other day when Twilight helped me write a checklist so I could get organized while You were calling us eggheads from across the room as you read Daring Do and the Expedition for the Superfluous Sequel? Well, I didn’t have anything to do on the checklist today, so I decided to go give all my friends hugs to tell them how much I love them, but after I gave Applejack her hug she told me everyone else had gone out of town, so I’m going to find everyone and give them hugs because I Pinkie Promised myself, and I couldn’t break a Pinkie Promise!”
“Mmm, sounds good Pinks,” Dash said, chewing on more cupcake pieces.
Pinkie waited for Dash to be done chewing, then gave her the biggest, most tightest, most loveably flufferiffic hug in Equestria, as only Pinkie Pie could do.
“Alright Pinkie,” The chromatic-maned mare said, shaking herself out, “you don’t get made a Wonderbolt by sitting around eating cupcakes! I gotta get back to practicing!” Rainbow took off lightning-fast and flew through the gorge.
“Good luck!” Pinkie shouted, and started in the opposite way, to find her next friend.
* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *
Rarity was next on the list. Next to her name was scribbled ‘Canterlot’.
“Canterlot, huh? She’s probably got some important business thing going on. Ooh, I should take the train to Canterlot! Trains are sooooooo fun!”
Pinkie whipped into the Ponyville train station, inhaling the scintillating scent that welcomed her as her mane quivered to a stop. She walked up to the stallion selling the tickets, and introduced herself while flipping her head completely upside down.
“Hello there! My name is Pinkie Pie, and I need to get to Canterlot so I can see a friend of mine!”
“One for Canterlot? That’ll be five bits.”
“Five bits, huh? Okay!”
Pinkie tossed some moneys on the counter, grabbed her ticket from the stallion, and hopped towards the train with a cheerful farewell.
Conveniently enough, the train rolled into the station mere moments after Pinkie Pie had jumped out onto the platform. She boarded the train, and was whizzing along towards Canterlot fast as the train would go.
About an hour later, Pinkie jumped jovially out of the train, and into the Canterlot station. The pony in the fancy dress who had been sitting next to her all the way and had been a very good listener, thought Pinkie Pie, walked out after her, looking rather exasperated for some unknown reason. Pinkie decided to leave her to whatever important business she had (it seemed all business in Canterlot was important) and search for Rarity. She wasn’t sure quite where to start, but Donut Joe’s Donut Shop seemed like as good a place as any.
[later]
“Ah, haha ha!” Donut Joe’s gruff voice echoed through the shop as he wiped a tear from his eye, taking a cupcake crumb from earlier he had missed with it.
“Pinkie Pie, you are the funniest mare I know. Now, what was that question you needed to ask me?”
Pinkie thought for a moment.
“Oh, right! Have you seen Rarity today?”
“Rarity? Yeah, she came past here earlier and said hello. Got a bunch of fancy high-falooters come in right after that, dunno what that was about. I overheard some of ‘em say something about a fashion show in the Canterlot Gardens.”
“Oh, so Rarity might be there! Thanks Donut Joe!”
Pinkie Pie was out the door when she heard Joe’s ‘You’re Welcome’, and was in the gardens moments later. She jumped up and down, scanning the crowd for Rarity.
As she descended from one of her hops, she full upon something that felt like the form of a pony.
“Oh my! I'm so sorry, I seem to have run into you, my apologies.” Said a familiar voice.
“Rarity!” Pinkie shouted, “I found you!”
“Pinkie Pie?” Rarity was utterly bewildered. “What are you doing here?”
“Well, the other day Twilight was making me a checklist so I could be more organized while Rainbow Dash was calling us eggheads from across the room as she read Daring Do and the Expedition for the Superfluous Sequel, and I didn’t have anything to do on the checklist today, and so I decided to tell all my friends how much I love them by giving them hugs, but after I gave AJ hers, she told me everyone else was out of town, so I went and found Rainbow Dash at Ghastly Gorge and hugger her, and then I took the train here and stopped by Donut Joe’s, and now I’m here!”
Before Rarity had time to react, Pinkie threw the biggest, most tightest, most loveably flufferiffic hug in Equestria, as only Pinkie Pie could do, and ran away after shouting a
“Lots of ponies left to find, no time to chat!”
Rarity sat there, stunned. She heard somepony whisper to another:
“Are those cupcake crumbs in her eyes? It looks absolutely fabulous!”
And her partner whisper back
“I hear that was the mare who popularized cake icing behind the ears!”
* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *
Only two names left on the list! Halfway done, and that was good news, because the sun was nearly setting.
“Nearly setting? Where’d all that time go? Pesky time, it shouldn’t run away like that without telling me where it’s going.”
Fluttershy was next on the list, according to which she was currently located in Froggy Bottom Bog.
“Probably doing some stuff with cute, fluffy, animals! Fluttershy does things that are fluffy and cute a lot.”
Turning a corner, Pinkie looked out upon the bog. Conveniently placed right in front of her, she also noticed the presence of her timid friend.
“Oh, hi Fluttershy!”
Pinkie turned around, and faced the tree Fluttershy was now clinging too for dear life.
“Oh, Pinkie Pie, you startled me.” Fluttershy floated gracefully down from the tree to land in front of Pinkie. “What are you doing here?”
“Well,” Pinkie took a deep breath, “The other day Twilight was helping me make a checklist to get more organized better, while Rainbow Dash was calling us eggheads from across the room when she was reading Daring Do and the Expedition for the Superfluous Sequel, and I had a blank spot for today on my checklist, so I decided to give all my friends hugs to show them how much I love them, but after I went to Applejack she told me everypony else had gone out of town, so I went to Rainbow Dash and hugged her, and then I took the train to Canterlot and hugged Rarity and also possibly popularized cupcake mascara, and now I'm here!”
Pinkie Pie ended this sentence by standing up on her hind legs dramatically and holding out a friendly cupcake to Fluttershy, only causing her to trip on a tree root and fall cupcake-first on top of the other mare.
“Oops, sorry, clumsy me! Oh, wow, cupcake mascara really does look good!”
Pinkie then gave Fluttershy the biggest, most tightest, most loveably flufferiffic hug in Equestria, as only Pinkie Pie could do, and rushed back around the corner that had taken her there.
* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *
Pinkie read the last name and place on the list by the light of the moon.
“So, Twilight in Cloudsdale? How in the name of all things partyrific am I supposed to get there? Oooh, I know, I’ll borrow a hot air balloon!”
Pinkie found the balloon stand, but nopony was around.
“Must be after hours. I’m sure they won’t mind if I just take it out for a quick spin.”
Pinkie untied the balloon and hopped in the basket, setting her course for Cloudsdale. She was a master balloon flyer, and could easily navigate even in the dark. Of course, having Pinkie sense helped her dodge obstacles that would otherwise have cause problems, but it’s all in a day’s work for Pinkie Pie!
Arriving in Cloudsdale, she floated up towards the weather factory.
“The most likely reason Twilight would be here,” she reasoned, “is to study the weather. So that’s where I’ll go first!”
She bobbed near walls, and stuck her head through the clouds, looking for Twilight and ignoring the surprised yelps from the workers. After only a few tries, she spotted somepony without wings, purple, and slightly less surprised than everypony else in the room.
“Pinkie Pie? By Celestia’s beard, what are you doing here?”
“Well,-"
“No, wait, never mind, I redact my question!” Twilight spurted, acting quickly.
Wording her next question much more carefully, she asked, “In as few words as possible, why are you here?”
“To give you a hug, silly. Duh!”
“Right. Of course. Silly me. Why do you need to give me a hug?”
“Because I Pinkie Promised to myself that I would give my five best friends hugs today, but after I hugged Applejack, she told me that everypony else was out of town, and so I… err… I can skip this part,” She said, on a glare from Twilight, “So, um, I found everypony else and hugged them, and you’re the last one!”
“So if I let you hug me, you’ll leave?”
“Yup!” Pinkie pulled Twilight into the basket and gave her the biggest, most tightest, most loveably flufferiffic hug in all Equestria.
As only Pinkie Pie could do.
Author's Note
...
That came out of my brain..?
...
Makes sense, I guess.
