Basic and Beige :AKA: The Only Chapter.
Pinkie’s step was bouncy, carrying her across the ground like a rubber ball. She smiled and nodded to the ponies she passed by, her careful, watchful eyes not missing a single friend and hoping she might perhaps improve or create someone's good mood. When they smiled back, it made Pinkie’s own good mood soar ever higher as well, happy that someone else was getting some enjoyment out of the day.
She was going to the market for the special purchase of some pineapples, an ingredient for one of the Cake’s cakes. Pinkie smiled at the rhythm of the repeating words and her bounce faded away slowly until she was simply walking on the street, though she retained a certain jump to her steps. She had worn off the energy from her latest sugar rush and was easily content with the basic rhythm of her steps. Front left and back right, front right and back left. Simple, easy, and utterly amazing in how effective it was.
Pinkie turned around the next corner and let her ecstatic steps move her body over the cobblestone with the practiced ease of a lifetime. She looked up and closed her eyes, letting the sun beat against her face in rays of warming sunlight. It was like a slow sugar rush, a warming aura that filled her body with a pure, calm energy. When she opened her eyes, she had to quickly move aside to avoid a collision.
She smiled and waved at the pony as they passed by her side with a stack of boxes threatening to fall over at any moment. He nodded in appreciation, but was forced back to trying to look around the boxes in front of him. And without a second thought, Pinkie set back to her errand, back on track for the marketplace, making a mental note to relax in the sun of the clear day sometime later when she wouldn’t risk hurting a passerby.
Of course, it wasn’t very far now to the market proper. Ponyville, after all, was pony ’ville’, and it stayed true to the name, the town not very large by itself. In fact, you could see the other end of the city from the steps of the library, even on some foggy days. So, it was maybe a block or two now, and Pinkie was steadily closing that distance, sometimes passing greetings and well wishes to her fellow townsfolk, each of which seemed to brighten up as they saw her pass.
She walked into the town plaza barely a moment later, eagerly looking at the offered wares of the surrounding stalls. Near the edge, she spotted her dear friend Applejack appreciating a rare break in customers, and Pinkie decided to have a chat with her while they could both spare a moment. She made her way over, giving a bounce or two to use the burst in energy that spotting a close friend had brought to her.
It was always a pleasant refrain from the mundane work of life to spend some time with one of the other elements. Because even though EVERYPONY was her friend, the other five elements were a step beyond that, like between siblings and friends, an idea that Pinkie was still trying to find a word for, because ‘best friends’ didn’t quite do it.
Applejack spotted her approach and waved a welcoming hoof to her, showing she too was happy for the familiar company. “How ya doin’, sugarcube,” was the simple greeting Applejack offered.
“I’m doing great, Applejack!” Pinkie exclaimed, prancing in place for a moment. “How are you doing? Oh, and all the other apples too, of course.”
“I’m doin’ pretty good, Pinkie.” Applejack said with a grin. “We got that health care grant for Granny’s new hip; Macintosh’s back from Appaloosa, says Braeburn’s got it all sorted out now; and Applebloom’s been behaving herself… at least as far as I know.” Applejack raised a hoof to her chin and glanced over her shoulder back towards the farm. “I hope, anyway.”
Pinkie giggled. “I’m sure she’s being good. They never seem to get into too much trouble, anyway. I’m sure they’ll be able to handle anything when they grow up.” Pinkie realized that the last sentence was beginning a tangent and shook her head to focus. “The cakes just sent me down to buy some pineapples for their cake. Any idea who I should ask first?”
“Tropica over there would be able to help ya, I think. She usually deals in those kind of fruits.” Applejack tilted her head and Pinkie turned to look in the indicated direction. At the other end of the plaza stood a light green–haired pony with a yellow coat, her flank adorned by an island with a coconut tree.
Pinkie, after a few brief moments, remembered throwing the welcoming party for her a few days ago. She had been shy at first, but eventually warmed up to it all and was quick to talk about what she wanted to accomplish with some of the more market-minded mares and stallions who had been invited, ponies who were more than happy to assist her in getting the papers she would need.
So, after a happy adieu to Applejack, Pinkie made her way towards Tropica, a smile on her face. When Tropica spotted her, she waved her over with a grin of pride, causing her current customer to look around in confusion.
When Pinkie at last arrived, Tropica was quick to introduce the customer as her best customer, and she was quick to thank Pinkie for helping Tropica get in touch with the right ponies so the market could get the addition of such unique flavors. Because while bananas and pineapples had been buyable before, it was usually only in small amounts, and of course Tropica had brought even more flavors with her when she opened shop.
Pinkie happily took the thanks, and even more happily returned the smiles that both the mares had shared with her. She fell into some happy idle chit chat for a moment, not wanting to ruin the moment for these two ponies right now. Unfortunately, after a few minutes passed and they didn’t seem to slow down, Pinkie was forced to interrupt them and ask for the fruit that had brought her to the market in the first place.
After buying the pineapples, at a discount no less, she began to make her way back to Sugar Cube Corner, the spiky and citrusy foodstuffs balanced in her saddlebags. She looked at her shadow and realized it was all but a dot beneath her, and began to pick up her pace, worried she would be late and cause the cakes needless worry about her well-being and the well-being of their creation that was due to the next town over by morning.
It was a warm greeting when she returned, a still steaming bowl of soup resting on the kitchen table to thank her, a considerate lunch to be certain. And the cakes were happy to relieve her of her burdens, a manic case about their beings as there always was when they were working on a deadline. She didn’t mind as they took her saddlebags with nary a word and emptied them of the pineapples.
She didn’t acknowledge it at all and sat down at the table, looking over at Pound and Pumpkin Cake, who were enjoying their own pureed lunches through small, little bowls. Pinkie blew a raspberry at them and they clapped their hooves together in glee. When she didn’t follow it up though, they went back to eating their food with smiles on their faces as Pinkie sipped through her soup.
All in all, it had been a rather wonderful day.
Author's Note
If you read this story actually thinking that something would happen, I don't know what to tell you.
It really is just about Pinkie going to get a pineapple.
