The sound of happy humming was coming from Mrs. Cakes cupboard. Luckily she wasn't worried, she knew exactly what, or rather who, was in there.
"Pinkie Pie dear, could you be a sweetie and make three batches of the rainbow cupcakes everypony loves so much?"
Pinkie's head burst from the cupboard and the rest of her came flying out after, a chocolate deluxe sprinkles special ordered from Hallow Land held carefully in her mane.
"Sure! I was just about to make a butter sprinkle sandwich though, want one?"
Pinkie had learned fast that those sprinkles were very expensive and only made one butter sprinkle sandwich a month.
"No thank you Pinkie but please make sure you put everything right back where you found it."
"No problem Missus Cake! everything will be right were it should be."
Mrs. Cake walked out of her kitchen, she was going to set up a stand in the park because of how beautiful the day was so she closed up Sugar Cube Corner.
As she walks through the hall on the way to get the foals she notices the calender.
"Hm, Pinkie doesn't normally make one of those until the third Tuesday of every month, I hope nothings wrong."
~*~
Pinkie Pie was making cupcakes and muffins in the kitchen humming smile smile smile, her own smile a little forced. She woke up with a sense of foreboding, that something will happen today that will change her life in a bad way.
So to deal with this she made her special sandwich a few days early and focused all she could at baking several things at once.
The chime rang out from the front door.
"I wonder who that could be? I thought Mrs. Cake closed up shop?"
Bouncing out of the kitchen after turning off all the kitchen stuff, she didn't want the food to make itself! It normally turned out yucky if she did.
Sitting in front of the counter, one golden eye looking off to the side, the other focused on the muffin shaped bell.
"Hya Ditzy! Whats up?"
"The bell looks so good but I know its fake..."
Pinkie smiled, pulling a fresh baked chocolate and banana muffin from behind her back, Ditzy's eyes locking on target."
"Here you go! Oh and is there anything you needed to drop off?"
"Oh yeah! Some mare gave me a letter to give to you" She said as she riffled through her letter bags finally holding the letter up in the air like a hoofball trophy. "She reminded me of you so I said sure first thing!"
Pinkie took the letter with her tail, placing it in her mane for latter.
"See you soon Ditzy!"
Ditzy had started walking out the door, muffin on her outstretched wing. "Bye Pinkie!"
~*~
It took Pinkie a while before she could hop up to her room to read the letter.
She smiled as she looked around her room, photos of her best parties hung on the wall, balloons were everywhere but to top everything, her bed was massive.
*Squee* "Ahahahaha!"
Pinkie laughed and giggled as she jumped on her bed, before settling down to read her letter from the mysterious pony.
Come to the Ponyville Lake at midnight.
Salutations
P
"Huh?"
Pinkie was pretty confused, she could faintly recognize the way it was worded but this mystery could be solved by simply showing up at midnight. And she did.
~*~
"Hello? Anypony out here?"
Pinkie was a bit nervous, now that she thought about it she was never alone outside at this time of night before.
Walking over to the lake she started making funny faces, cracking up at some of the sillier ones.
*Chuckle* "It's good to see you haven't changed much Pinkie Sprite."
Pinkie was frozen. She knew that chuckle, that voice, that name.
"M-Mena? Is that you?" She turned around to be graced by the sight of herself, no not herself, Pinkamena Diane Pie. Straight mane, perpetual frown with just a hint of an upturn in her lips, Darker colored.
"Mena. N-no, you shouldn't be here, the doctor said you shouldn't be here!"
Pinkie was starting to hyperventilate. "Is Surprise here too?"
Pinkamena's face turned dark. "No, she couldn't come, and you know why. How could you abandon us Pinkie? After all those promises and times the three of us shared, you got rid of us when sompony else said too."
"Bu-but I had to! They gave me medicine that made you guys go away, I didn't want you to have to live with a crazy pony!"
Pinkie was backing up slowly, tears running down her cheeks.
Pinkamena stepped foreword. "I didn't care, Surprise didn't care. We loved you more then anything and then you started-" She took a deep breath and her breath started to shake." You started those medicines it became painful for us, and harder and harder for you to notice us... Did you just give up? Forget our promise?"
"No! But the doctor said I was sick and needed lotsa help... lots and lots..."
Pinkie tripped into the lake, flailing about, due to her backing up. She looked up at Pinkamena silhouetted by Luna's moon, tears running down their faces as Pinkie shivered in the cold night air, drenched to the bone.
"I-I never wanted to abandon you two! You were my first friends, the two ponies I loved more then anypony else, I wanted you guys to be my first and- and everything. But Mom, Dad and the doctor said I had... um..." Pinkie was at a lose of words, not being able to remember everything.
Pinkamena wrapped her arms around her, hold Pinkie tightly, filling in the blanks with her dark and comforting voice that Pinkie could never get enough of.
"Dual-Psychopersonality, ADD, ADHD, Elthersime and Crono degradation."
"Ye-yeah those. Do you and Surprise hate me now?"
Pinkie couldn't look into Mena's eyes, she just couldn't.
"No, we still love you no matter what."
She looked up at the moon, crossing the horizon.
"Time for me to go."
Pinkie's eyes snapped open and her head whipped around to look at Pinkamena. "No! I just got you back please don't go!"
She looked down at her brighter self, the ever happy and preppy friend Surprise and her adored and loved. For the first time a thin smile graced those lips of her's just as she started to fade away. "I'm sorry my love, can I come home?"
Pinkie's eyes widened and she gripped as tight as she could as she begged "No, don't go! I'll do anything, please come back!"
But by this time Pinkie was alone in the lake, sopping wet and with a heart heavy as lead.
"Alone. I can't deal with being alone right now."
~*~
A quite knock came from the front door of the library, and if Twilight hadn't been up getting a midnight tea she would never have heard it.
Still, she contemplated ignoring it and going back to bed. But the only pony she knew that knocked like that was Fluttershy so Twilight answered the door, rubbing her eye trying to wake up a little more.
"Don't you know what time it is- Pinkie are you alright?!"
Pinkie Pie sat on the ground in front of the door, her eyes slightly glazed and her mane completely straight, shivering in the chilly fall night air completely soaked, a hoof raised to knock again.
Pinkie looked at her friend and stretched out her arms for a hug, a wavering smile that looked fake plastered on, ears laid completely back.
"I don't wanna be alone right now."
~*~
Less then an hour latter Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash found themselves in a semi circle around Pinkie and Twilight who was still in a hug, a blanket wrapped around the now dry mare and a cup of warm hot chocolate sitting on the ground next to her.
Rarity was the first to break to silence. "Pinkie darling, do you want to tell us what happened?" She asked as gently as she could.
"No... Maybe... I don't wanna be alone."
"Your not alone we are all right here" Twilight started rocking her pink friend back and forth.
Rarity moved Pinkie's hot chocolate to a nearby desk, the dark room making the atmosphere a little worse.
Once the cup was out of the way everypony moved in to hold and hug her, making sure she knew she wasn't alone.
"Hey, Pinks," Rainbow said quietly "We're here for you alright? just talk to us."
"K..."
The subdued response was lackluster but better then the friends thought.
"I got a letter today, from a really old friend."
Nopony spoke up, not wanting Pinkie to stop.
"It said she wanted to meet me at the lake tonight at midnight."
Twilight's mind offhandedly noted that midnight was a powerful time for passive magic.
"It-it was Mena... she wanted to come home" Pinkie had started to shake again as emotions rolled over her but still managed to hang on.
Fluttershy asked quietly "Who's Mena?"
"She a-and Surprise were my friends. I-I love them, I miss them so much."
"What happened to them Sugercube? Did they run away?" Applejack said gently, placing her hoof on Pinkie's shoulder.
"The doctor told me to take medicine to make them go away..."
Twilight locked up. "Schizophrenia?"
Pinkie shook her head, her muzzle still berried in Twilight's neck.
"Dual-Psychopersonalaty... The doctor said it was bad, that they had to go away because they were hurting me, that- that they-"
Pinkie broke off, sobbing, clinching her arms tight around her friend. "They shouldn't live with a d-damaged pony, a crazy pony. That I needed lots and lots of help and I- I took those medicines. Mena told me they hurt, but I didn't notice, I haven't thought of them and years and now... Now they're dead..."
Five pairs of eyes snapped to Pinkie, who was shaking and sobbing. Finally she wailed at the ceiling, the realization too much for her to handle.
"I killed them! They're dead because of me!"
Author's Note
I wrote this when a idea popped into my head, that ponies while they act like us may have different mental issues and problems. Also that when they are "Resolved" in a magic world some issues may expand or not be issues to begin with. Also this is the first time I've written a story like this so it didn't read the way I hoped, so any criticism would be great!