Chapters High above Equestria, where only the pegasi could see them, six ponies were making the return trip from Canterlot to Ponyville. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were towing the balloon back home, while their four friends chatted in the gondola, enjoying the rare opportunity to see Equestria the way their pegasus friends did.
"Ah can't wait t'get back home," Applejack sighed as she stretched her legs. "Canterlot's nice an' all, but Ah've got to make sure everythin's back to normal on the farm."
"And fill in the holes Big Mac was digging," Twilight agreed with a giggle. "I'm just glad we're all back to normal again."
"And I'm glad I'm done burping up parchment," Spike added. "Wake me up when we get home?" He asked, tucking himself under the flap of Twilight's saddlebag to take a desperately needed nap.
Pinkie felt her right front hoof start tingling, and cocked her head as she looked at it. That meant she was forgetting something important... what could it be?
Had she forgotten to feed Gummy? No, she'd asked the Cakes to take care of him when she had to go to Canterlot, that couldn't be it. It had something to do with home though, that's what had started her hoof tingling.
"Of course, Spike." Rarity smiled. "Personally, I wouldn't have minded staying at the castle for a few days more. Everything was so delightfully regal!"
"And it means you'd have longer before y'have to go hirin' somepony to haul that rock away?" Applejack grinned.
"Actually," Rarity mused, "I've been thinking about that. I might be able to turn T- the rock into a delightful birdbath, with a little help. Oh, Fluttershy!" She called out to the pale yellow pegasus pony. "Do you think your little feathered friends would like a little spa of their own?"
Pinkie, for her part, was only half-listening to her friends, if that. She was still trying to think of what it was she'd forgotten. Snippets of conversation were coming back to her as she thought about it.
"Pinkie, honey, what happened to you?" Cup had been worried when she'd gotten back from Canterlot... of course, she'd been all grey and grouchy then, so who could blame her? Of course, being grey and grouchy, Pinkie knew she hadn't taken the concern so well.
"I don't want to talk about it!" She remembered snapping at them, and stomping into the big freezer in the kitchen. Her tummy felt like it was twisting into a knot... maybe she'd left the door open after she'd grabbed her ice cream? That wouldn't be too bad, even if she'd been grouchy Cup or Carrot would have closed it.
No, that couldn't be it. They would have closed it. It wouldn't be big enough that her Pinkie Sense would be telling her she'd forgotten about it; that would be like her tail twitching during the Running of the Leaves!
"Well, I wouldn't want you to go to any trouble," Fluttershy told Rarity, having briefly flown back to the balloon to answer, letting Rainbow pick up the speed for a little while. The other five fillies were completely oblivious to Pinkie's concentration behind them, chatting with each other like everything was right with the world. "I mean, it would be wonderful, but...."
"Pinkie, please, tell us what's wrong? Are your friends all right?"
"What 'friends?'"
"Well, Twilight and the others, of course!"
"Don't know, and don't care!"
"Oh, no trouble at all, dear!" Rarity beamed. "You'd be doing me a favor! I would get rid of T- that dreadful rock, and get a chance to redeem myself in the bargain! All it would take is a little carving, perhaps some nice silk drapes, just for effect of course, round out a basin in the middle, maybe a few small gems in the top... oh, I could even make it look like a miniature version of the spa itself, if the Sisters don't mind!" She clopped her hooves together enthusiastically, already picturing a delightful work of art coming out of her moment of Discord-induced weakness.
"Pinkie! Stop it, this isn't like you!"
"Oh? What's the matter, Cup? Don't like good ol' Pinkie when she's not just there for a laugh?"
"Pinkie! Don't you talk to Cup like -"
"Well, in that case, if you really don't mind, it would be nice." Fluttershy beamed before adding a condition. "But I want to help with it. I mean, if that's okay with you," she blurted out, blushing a bit.
"Oh, shut up! I'll talk to you two any way I like! I'm not a foal, and at least I'm not -"
"After all, I have to make up for all the horrible, mean things that I did, too!"
Pinkie's hoof stopped tingling. But instead of relief, the sensation was replaced with a horrible clenching in her chest.
Suddenly, the conversation up front was interrupted by a sound like a balloon deflating. Startled by the audible pop and wheeze, everypony spun around to look at Pinkie. The mare, who had been as upbeat as ever moments before, was sitting in the back with an expression of horror on her face, her mane perfectly straight, dangling down around her face as tears welled up in her eyes. Her coat was dull, not the grey that they'd seen when Discord had infected her with his magic, but just... not Pinkie Pie pink.
"Pinkie, darling, what happened?" Rarity asked, eyes wide as saucers at the shocking change in the normally unmanageable coiffure of her perky friend.
"I-I have to get home," she whispered, pulling her legs up and curling her front hooves around them. "If I still have a home to go back to...."
Pinkie jumped out of the basket of the balloon almost before Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy could haul it to the ground. She took off at a gallop, the hairs of her mane straight as razors, crying hard as she rushed towards Sugarcube Corner.
She could remember everything now. She could remember everything, and she hated herself for it.
The door to Sugarcube Corner slammed open, Pinkie's grey-coated, grey-maned form stomping through resolutely. Carrot and Cup looked at her, horrified by her appearance. They had just finished putting Gummy's afternoon bowl of miscellaneous ground meat out for the vacantly staring pet.
"Pinkie, honey, what happened to you?" Cup was the first to break out of the shock, but it didn't save her from Pinkie's ire.
"I don't want to talk about it!" The party pony had snarled at her, throwing open the freezer and grabbing a bucket of ice cream, intentionally leaving the freezer door open as she grabbed a spoon and stormed up to her room to sulk and gorge on frozen, sugary goodness. Carrot and Cup were right behind her, though Carrot did stop long enough to close the freezer so Gummy couldn't walk in.
"Pinkie, please, tell us what's wrong? Are your friends all right?" Cup begged, opening the door to Pinkie's room and stepping inside, her husband right behind her.
Tears speckled the cobblestones as Pinkie rushed home, remembering the horrible, awful things she'd said and done.
"What 'friends?'" Pinkie snarled, stuffing her face with ice cream. She could still hear the laughing, the horrible, horrible laughing, all around her, echoing in her head just loudly enough that she couldn't ignore it. She was hoping that a good case of brain freeze might drown them out.
"Well, Twilight and the others, of course!"
"Don't know, and don't care!" Pinkie shot through a mouthful of rocky road. "Now buck off!"
"Pinkie! Stop it, this isn't like you!" Cup snatched the ice cream from her, crying as she glared at Pinkie, confusion and fear in her expression. Pathetic, soft, a look that was just begging for the old Pinkie back. Oh, sure, now she missed the old Pinkie.
"Oh? What's the matter, Cup? Don't like good ol' Pinkie when she's not just there for a laugh and a lay?" Pinkie sneered at the middle-aged blue mare. "Sorry, I'm not your pudgy pink sex toy!"
Pinkie skidded to a stop at the door to Sugarcube Corner. The lights were on, but the sign on the window said 'closed.' She could see them inside though, and she felt her stomach lurch as she looked at Cup, crying as she swept up, and Carrot, trying to comfort her. She couldn't go in there, not after that. Especially... especially not after what she'd said next .
"Pinkie!" Carrot stormed into the room as his wife staggered back, shocked at what Pinkie had said. "Don't you talk to Cup like -" Pinkie cut him off sharply, her fury building. The words were pouring out of her, but she was picking them very, very carefully to cut as deeply as possible with the minimum amount of effort.
"Oh, shut up, carrot-stick! I'll talk to you two any way I like! I'm not a foal, and at least I'm not a limp-dicked gelding whose wife has to look for a filly to get off with!"
Pinkie was sent reeling as Cup brought a hoof across her face, stunning all three of them, herself most of all. Pinkie pressed her own hoof against her face, feeling a loosened tooth with her tongue, and the rage boiled over. She sprang forward....
Pinkie sprang forward, practically knocking the door off its hinges as she raced to Cup, hugging her and sobbing into the older mare's shoulder.
"I'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorry!" She wept, clinging to Cup with all her might. "Oh Celestia, I'm so sorry!" She felt Cup's forelegs wrap around her, and she just broke down into tears.
"Shh, shh, it's all right," Cup crooned, stroking Pinkie's mane gently. She didn't know what to think. The last time she'd seen Pinkie, the filly had been screaming about how much she hated them both. Now, she was apologizing just as fervently. But she looked at the dull pink coat beneath her hooves, and she knew.
This was their Pinkie again. Everything was going to be all right.
It took the Cakes almost fifteen minutes of gently soothing Pinkie and stroking her distressingly straight mane to get her to sit down. Neither of them could remember seeing her like this since she'd arrived years before, homeless and hungry and eager to help in any way she could. Once they had gotten her to calm down, and gotten a cup of tea in her hooves, it was time for what Cup and Carrot had been dreading most.
Figuring out what the buck had happened. Fortunately, Pinkie was willing to talk about it now.
"I really am sorry for what I said... all of it," she said, looking between the two older ponies, still blinking back tears as she sipped her tea. "I don't... I didn't... it wasn't me !" She said, trying to put it into words. "But it was me, I just...." She swallowed hard, and explained everything. The Princess' summons, her flippant disregard of Discord's threat, the labyrinth, the balloons, the laughing....
"I just... it wouldn't stop !" She whimpered. "I never wanted anypony to stop laughing before! But when it was all I could hear, I never wanted to hear it again! And I said all those mean, horrible, nasty things, and you just wanted to help, but I didn't care and -" A loud snap cut her off as Gummy latched onto her tail. She looked back at him, dangling from her rump, and smiled softly. Those vacant purple eyes gazed up at her, blinking out of synch, seeming to say 'it's okay' in a way that nopony, nobody whatever the species, could.
"It's all right, honey," Cup said gently. The blue earth pony set her cup down, and slid over to hug Pinkie. She could tell that Carrot was still upset. She couldn't blame him, but it wasn't going to help. "We both know you didn't mean it," she said, glancing up at her husband firmly. He sighed and nodded.
"That's right, Pinkie. It was just the magic making you say all that. We forgive you," he said, smiling faintly.
"B-but that's the worst part," Pinkie whispered. "I... I did mean it. I didn't mean to say it like that!" She added quickly, looking up and between both of them fearfully. "But well...." She swallowed hard, then drained the rest of her tea to buy a moment to steel herself.
"It's all right, sweetie-pie," Carrot said, somehow feeling relieved that she was admitting there was something behind her words. It didn't make any sense; a part of him felt like he should be angry with her again. Instead, knowing that she'd meant it, but still regretted what she'd said.... It took some of the sting out of the idea that she'd just throw out something she had to know would hurt that much.
He got off of his own cushion, moving to her other side, and leaning against her gently, nuzzling her cheek gently. Pinkie pressed into the contact, closing her eyes tightly.
"I-I'm sorry," she whispered. "I know you two are married to each other, not me. I know we have to keep it secret, and I don't want to make things harder for anypony. But sometimes it really does feel like...."
"Like we only want you around for the happy parts?" Cup asked her softly, pressing up close, remembering Pinkie's words from before all too well. "Pinkie, honey, we never felt like that. We just... didn't know there were other parts," she explained. "You've always seemed so happy , since you came here, especially since you became part of the family."
The blue mare tipped Pinkie's face towards her, and kissed her tenderly.
"You are part of the family, Pinkie. And that means that if you're not happy with something, you have to tell us, okay?"
"I didn't want to make you mad... either of you," she added apologetically, glancing over at Carrot.
"I might get a little jealous once in a while, sweetie, but that just means I can understand you getting that way too," he chuckled. The three ponies sat together for a few minutes. Pinkie's breathing became slower, steadier as she soaked in the warmth, affection, and forgiveness.
"How can you two ever forgive me for what I said earlier?" She asked them with a sigh, letting out the last of the tension from before.
Carrot glanced over at Cup, rolling his eyes towards the stairs. Cup giggled and nodded, covering her mouth with a hoof.
"Well, whenever we have a fight, there's always one thing that helps us feel better afterwards...." Cup grinned at Pinkie, who looked back at her with a blank expression.
"A... party?" She guessed.
"You might call it that," Cup winked at her.
"Think you're up to giving this old 'gelding' a chance to prove you wrong?" Carrot asked Pinkie with a grin and a wink of his own. Pinkie giggled, her hair getting back a little of its bounce.
"Always up for that!" She grinned, letting herself be herded up the stairs by the Cakes.
"Thank you soooo super much for taking care of Gummy on such short notice, Twilight!" Pinkie grinned, hugging her lavender friend tightly after she'd put Gummy down on the floor of the library. The toothless alligator looked around, his eyes blinking one at a time, and then he saw Spike walking down the stairs. A flash of green and a loud snapping sound later, the baby dragon was screaming and running around the library, Gummy holding tightly to his head and trying in vain to twist his tiny body into a roll.
"I'm blind!" Spike yelled down Gummy's throat. "Wait... aaaaah!" He ran into the kitchen door, which swung open and gave the two reptiles a new room to run around in. Twilight studiously ignored the display, and the sound of crashing pots and pans in the other room.
"No problem at all, Pinkie," she smiled back. "I'm just glad to see you're back to your old self! Well... at least getting there," she said, cocking her head as she looked at the remarkably tame curls in Pinkie's mane. "Are you trying a new look?"
"Well, it's... complicated," Pinkie said, reaching up with a hoof to primp it a little bit. "I know that when I get all bouncy and happy and hyper-Pinkie, it perks right back up again! But I just haven't gotten back to there from being so worried about the Cakes yet," she admitted. "At least I'm not being all Grumpy Pie anymore!" She shuddered.
"Seconded," Twilight agreed with a grin. "So, you've talked with them, and everything's forgiven?"
"Oh, Twilight, everything's better than ever," Pinkie sighed happily. "There were a few things I was upset about, but I didn't want to say anything so I wouldn't seem like a Grouchy McGroucherson," she explained. "But then when Discord made me into one, it all came out in the worst way it could! But it's all forgiven now, and we're gonna try to change things a little bit so the things I was worried about will be all better!" Pinkie bounced up and down on her rear legs, clapping her front hooves together excitedly. "And it's all starting with this vacation! Boy, I never thought I'd be so happy to get out of Sugarcube Corner, but after everything that's happened we all kinda need to get out," she giggled.
"He's gnawing on my ears!" Spike wailed from the kitchen, to the sound of a frying pan banging against something. "How can he do that, I don't even have ears!"
"And that's why I need you to watch Gummy while we're gone," Pinky concluded. "I'd love to take him with me, but... well, he wouldn't like going out to Burning Colt in the desert," she explained.
"I'm still not sure why you'd want to go out to a big survivalist gathering, but I hope you all have a good time," Twilight smiled. "Oh, and be sure to get plenty to drink, too!"
"Because it's one of the biggest, most funnest parties out there, and this time, I've checked! It's not gonna be some stuffy Gala thing. I've heard that most ponies even go naked!" Pinkie gasped in shock that Twilight wasn't entirely sure was faked.
"Pinkie... you're naked most of the time," Twilight pointed out. "You're naked right now , and so am I. So is almost every pony in Ponyville!"
"Which just means our whole lives are a big party!" Pinkie grinned. "I wonder if we could get the Mayor to let us burn a giant wooden pony every day to celebrate?" She pondered.
Normally, Twilight would have been a little exasperated with Pinkie's randomness, but... it felt right, the way entirely too few things had since the whole Discord situation had started. Maybe she wasn't back up to full 'bounce' yet, but there was time for that later.
"I'd... wait until after your vacation to ask her," the unicorn suggested. "You know, when you'll be fully rested. Are you sure the Cakes will enjoy the trip?" She asked, hoping to turn her friend's attention back to the nearest non-flammable shiny thing available.
"Oh yeah!" Pinkie nodded cheerfully. "Actually, they're the ones who suggested it! Apparently, they used be friends with the ponies who started it, and they're looking forward to seeing some of them again!"
"Pinkie, dearie, we're all packed and ready to go!" Cup Cake called out, stepping into the library. Twilight's jaw dropped as she stared at Cup, wearing a tie-dyed apron, dark glasses, and a headband in a variety of garish colors, all obviously very well-worn and well-loved.
"Okay, Mrs. Cake, I'll be right out!" Pinkie said, giggling at her expression. "You should see Mr. Cake," she whispered with a wink. "Would you believe that he actually kept his old mane and beard as a wig in case he ever got the chance to go back?"
"Somehow... I think I would, now," Twilight murmured, staring at the completely mind-boggling blend of hippie aesthetic and the sedate, cheerful baker she knew.
"All right, dearie, we'll be warming up the balloon while we wait," Cup grinned, turning to trot back out to where she and her husband were preparing for their trip.
"I've gotta get going," Pinkie grinned as she gave Twilight a final good-bye hug.
"Twilight, help! " Spike shouted from the kitchen, the sounds increasingly muffled.
"And I've got to go rescue Spike from the fearsome toothless baby alligator," Twilight chuckled indulgently, rolling her eyes. "Have a good time, Pinkie, and don't worry about Gummy. I'll be sure to feed him just like you told me," she said, holding up the note pad she'd written the directions down on.
"Okay!" Pinkie nodded, turning to dash on out.
Spike managed to blunder back into the main room of the library. As Twilight turned to look at him, with Gummy perched with jaws neatly snapped over Spike's head, the alligator's violet eyes blinked at her. She shook her head, and levitated a feather duster over, which Gummy promptly latched on to.
"No eating Spike, Gummy, you'll ruin your dinner," she chided him, setting him onto the desk.
"I'm never eating meat ever again," Spike shuddered, curling up into a ball on the floor.
"Take a letter, Spike," Twilight said casually, looking out the window at the balloon as it inflated with hot air.
"I just got gummed , Twilight! Gummed! "
"He doesn't have any teeth, Spike, he doesn't have any other options," she pointed out.
"That doesn't make it better," Spike muttered, though he did dutifully retrieve his quill and parchment.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Today, my dear friend Pinkie Pie helped me learn that you shouldn't keep your issues bottled up inside you. You might be worried about what somepony else will think, but if you don't do something about your feelings then they might come out at just the wrong moment. But even if you do make that mistake, apologizing and addressing the issue head on can save your friendship, and sometimes even make it stronger.
Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle
"Send the letter, Spike," Twilight concluded, turning around to continue her work on pasting the pages back into The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide . Spike, watching Gummy warily, walked over to the window and opened it up. He breathed fire on the letter, sending it off to Canterlot, and then realized what was happening in the balloon. His eyes grew wide, and he turned towards Twilight.
"Twilight, Pinkie Pie and the Cakes are mak- mmph!" With another snapping sound, Gummy latched onto Spike's short muzzle, vacant purple eyes staring into Spike's own fear-filled pupils. A moment passed that felt like an eternity. Two young reptiles, each with their own older mammalian 'sisters.' Each willing to do whatever it took to make sure their caretakers were happy.
The alligator blinked his out-of-synch blink, and Spike nodded in understanding.
"What was that, Spike?" Twilight asked distractedly.
"Uhm... Pinkie Pie and the Cakes are... taking off!" Spike called out, pulling Gummy off his face. "Just wanted to let you know that everything was going great!" He put the alligator back on the desk, pointed to his eyes, and then to Gummy. Gummy just blinked, before turning to attack a passing dust bunny.
Meanwhile, high above Equestria, where nopony could see them unless they just happened to look out the window of a tree at the exact wrong moment, three earth ponies dedicated themselves to the task of renewing their bonds.