Rainbow Dash watched as her friend Pinkie Pie pranced about Sugarcube Corner. The little locally owned bakery was mostly silent since it was past closing time. Rainbow Dash's eyes pursued the pink party mare as she broke out into a random song, and Rainbow Dash decided that she had to speak up.
"Pinkie Pie, why are you singing?", Rainbow Dash asked.
"Because I'm so happy!", Pinkie Pie shouted as she bounced in the air.
"But you're always happy. Why?", Dash continued.
"Why what?", Pinkie asked making it obvious that she was confused.
"Why are you always happy?", Dash asked in a tone that showed that her patience was wearing thin.
Pinkie Pie froze mid-bounce, and gently floated back down to the ground. She stared at her friend for a moment before opening her mouth and raising her hoof as if to point something out, before closing it again instantly and placing her hoof back down on the ground.
"Oh Dash you've heard that story before.", Pinkie said in a slightly lower tone than the one she was using before and moving her gaze to the floor.
Dash stared intently at her friend and realized something.
"You're lying Pinkie, aren't you?"
Pinkie Pie's eyes lifted up from the floor and resettled on her rainbow maned friend.
"Seeing the rainbow waves that day on the rock farm really did make me super happy," Pinkie said with a smile, but then it faded and she continued, "but only for a little while. They came and went by so fast that... that..."
Pinkie's voice trailed off as her gaze slowly returned to the floor. She walked over to the front door, opened it, and looked up at Rainbow Dash and said quietly, "I think maybe you should leave."
Rainbow Dash walked over to her pink friend and asked in a caring voice, "Pinkie what's wrong? If it was something I said I'm sorry, okay? I really want to hang out with you tonight."
Pinkie Pie's gaze slowly returned to her friend's eyes, and Dash could see something there. For the first time ever, she could could see sadness in her eyes, but Pinkie's mouth was in the form of her signature large beaming smile.
"Oh goodie! What should we do first?", Pinkie asked.
"Well I guess... we could play some... games?", Dash asked, unsure what to think of Pinkie Pie.
Pinkie Pie hopped over to the door of the stair case that led upstairs to the apartments, and beagn assending the stairs with Rainbow Dash walking behind her. As they reached the top of the stairs they turned right and went into the first room on the left. Pinkie Pie switched on the light and instantly Dash was almost blinded by all the bright colors, which mostly consisted of pink.
She blinked a few times before thinking to herself, 'I'll never get used to that.' She waited for her eyes to stop hurting and saw Pinkie digging through a cabinet and pulling out many board games. Pinkie Pie spread them out on the floor and displayed each of them with her hoof like she was show casing a fancy diamond.
"Which one would you like to play?"
Dash walked over and eyed the games on the floor. Chutes and Ladders, Candy Land, Trouble, and Sorry.
"Let's play Candy Land, I haven't played it for awhile."
Pinkie Pie pulled the top off of the box and removed the board game and all of its pieces. As Pinkie Pie started setting up the game Rainbow Dash looked into Pinkie Pie's eyes again, and there it was, the sadness, it was still there.
"Rainbow Dash?"
"Huh? What is it Pinkie Pie?"
"Which color filly do you want?"
Rainbow Dash picked the red one and Pinkie chose the green one, and they put them on the start point. After playing for a little while Rainbow Dash decided to chance talking about earlier with Pinkie.
"So Pinkie, is something wrong?", Rainbow asked.
"What do you mean?", Pinkie asked with a small smile.
"I don't know what it is, but something tells me you're forcing yourself to smile. Seriously Pinkie, is something wrong?"
Pinkie's smile faded away and she started staring at the wall in front of her. Rainbow Dash felt like she should say something, but she didn't know what. She opened her mouth apollogize, but she was cut short by Pinkie Pie.
"It's all my fault.", Pinkie stated glumly.
"What's all your fault Pinkie?", Rainbow Dash asked with some concern in her voice.
Pinkie Pie drew in an uneasy breathe and began exhaling slowly.
"The day I threw the first party for my family at the rock farm was one of the best and worst days of my life.", Pinkie said as a tear formed in her eye.
"What happened Pinkie?", Rainbow asked as she closed the distance between her and Pinkie, and placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder.
"While we partied for the first time ever, we didn't notice that Granny Pie wasn't there. My father was the first to realise that she was missing, and he went to find her.", Pinkie's breath started to become more ragged as the tears that swelled up in her eyes burst forth and cascaded down her cheeks. "He found her in her room on the floor, with her hoof clutching her chest. The doctors said that she had had a heart attack.", Pinkie hid her face in her hooves and fell over into Rainbow Dash's lap sobbing uncontrollably.
Rainbow Dash started petting Pinkie Pie's mane and whispering, "It's not your fault Pinkie. It's not your fault."
Dash helped Pinkie Pie up to her haunches and wrapped her up in a hug. All the while continuing to tell Pinkie that it wasn't her fault.
"But Dash, that's not the worst part!", Pinkie exclaimed through her sobs.
"Then... what is the worst part Pinkie Pie?", Rainbow Dash asked with an arched eye brow.
Pinkie Pie looked down at the floor and wiped away the tears, "Well, the worst part is that during her funeral... I... I kept smiling. I didn't want to feel all sad and depressed again like everyponyelse there. I wanted to be happy. I wanted everyponyelse to be happy. No matter what."
Rainbow Dash stared at her friend and said, "Pinkie I don't think I'm following you."
"I THREW A PARTY AT HER FUNERAL!", Pinkie screamed at the top of her lungs.
Rainbow Dash's eyes went wide after she heard this, "Oh... okay then." was all she could say.
"My family sent me to a doctor. They told me I had to talk to her, and answer all of her questions honestly, so I did.", Pinkie stopped talking and stared into her friend's eyes, "Dashie do you know what manic depression is?", Rainbow Dash shook her head no, for she was still at a loss for words, "It means that a pony can be extremely happy one moment and then extremely sad the next. It's also known as bipolar disorder, but then the doctor said she thinks that I had schizophrenia. She said that I was crazy." Pinkie Pie chuckled a little, "Just because I wanted to be happy after my grandmother's death I had to be crazy."
Rainbow Dash suddenly found her voice, "Pinkie, you're not crazy, random yes, but crazy, no."
Pinkie Pie looked up at her friend again with a small smile on her face, "Do you really mean that Dashie?"
"Of course I do Pinkie Pie. You're not crazy, some ponies just handle things differently than others."
Pinkie hugged Rainbow Dash tightly and whispered in her ear, "Thanks Dashie, you're a good friend."
"Of course I am! I'm Rainbow Dash!", Rainbow Dash said with pride filling her voice, which caused Pinkie to giggle a little, and then Dash began giggling.
Soon the entire room was filled with uproarious laughter. Pinkie Pie stopped laughing first and looked at Rainbow Dash with a sad grin on her face.
"Did you mean what you said earlier Dashie?", Pinkie asked.
"Of course I did. I'm Rainbow Dash. I'm the most awesome friend ever!", Dash said with a smile.
"No Dashie, I meant when you said it wasn't my fault.", Painkie asked with pleading eyes.
"Of course Pinkie.", Dash said while filling a little silly, "It wasn't your fault."
"C... could you say it again?", Pinkie asked quietly.
Rainbow Dash smiled lightly, "Pinkie it wasn't your fault. You shouldn't blame yourself. It wasn't your fault."
Author's Note
Hope you enjoyed the story, it was stuck in my head for a while so I had to share it. I do however have more that I could add, but I wanted to know if it would be a good idea first. So please leave a comment or PM me if you'd like. Critiques are very much welcome regardless of negative it maybe for it can only make me a better writer.