The Little Seapony

Cheese Sandwich led her around town, showing her all the best sites on the island, and introducing her to almost everypony. Pinkie couldn’t help but notice how different things were here from Aquastria. Here, almost nopony was sad or even the least bit unhappy. Whenever they did happen to chance upon somepony who looked a bit down in the dumps, Cheese was quick to cheer the mare or stallion up with a gag or joke that always got them laughing until they could no longer remember why they were sad. The cheerfulness of the town was the exact opposite from what she was used to, and Pinkie couldn’t help but be refreshed by it. It was exactly what she had been wanting and searching for for so long. And Cheese Sandwich, well, he was something else entirely. She had never been around anypony like him before. He radiated joy and happiness in every step. Every sound he made caused at least seven ponies around him to laugh. It was if he was born to make ponies happy, and he embraced that destiny with every fiber of his being. Watching how he interacted with the other ponies in the town Pinkie couldn’t help but idolize him. He brought so much happiness to everypony and they all adored him. Would that ever happen to her? she wondered. Would she ever be able to bring as much happiness to ponies as Cheese Sandwich did? Would she ever be that loved?

She was brought out of those thoughts by the sight of a strange pink thing that Cheese held in front of her. “Here!” he said, cheerily. “I thought you might be hungry so I bought you a cupcake!” He lowered his voice to a stage whisper and leaned closer to her ear. “I’m not usually one to brag, but our cupcakes are the best in all of Equestria. Don’t tell anyone though! It’s a secret! Can’t have everypony comin’ here and stealin’ our cupcakes now can we?” Pinkie nodded seriously at him, as if that was the most logical thing in the world, and dutifully zipped her lips with her hoof using an actual zipper. Much to her confusion, however, Cheese immediately unzipped them.

“You don’t have to keep that closed lipped about it now, Candy,” he said. “You’re going to need those to eat your cupcake!” He waved the cupcake in front of her face temptingly. Pinkie wasn’t sure of what to think of the strange confectionery, but Cheese had bought it for her, and she had never been one to turn down a gift. Especially a gift from a handsome stallion that she was currently trying to woo. Not that she had ever tried to woo a stallion before. How does one even go about wooing a stallion? Do you scream ‘woo!’ at him until he decides to love you? Nah, that couldn’t be it. She didn’t even have a voice, so she couldn’t do that. There had to be some other way to...Pinkie stopped that train of thought. Cheese Sandwich was staring at her expectantly with those beautiful seagreen eyes of his. She needed to do something before things got weird. What was he wanting to do again? Oh right. The pink thing, the cupcake, she thought he’d called it. He wanted her to eat it.

The dessert didn’t look particularly tasty, and she doubted it tasted as good as kelp berries (which was by far the best dessert under the sea no matter what Maud said), but if Cheesie said it was good, then it must be good. No ands, ifs, or whaddoyameans about it. Gingerly, she took the dessert from him, stared at it suspiciously for a moment, and then stuck the whole thing in her mouth. It was as if somepony had taken all of the joy in the world and put it in concentrated form in this one tiny dessert, Pinkie thought. Sweet, creamy, spongy goodness sent her tastebuds on a tropical vacation somewhere where there were no worries or cares, just cupcakes and happiness. Drool pooled at the corner of her mouth as her eyes rolled to the back of her head in a sugar-induced state of bliss.

“See? Told ya they were good!” Cheese said with a grin as if Pinkie’s response to the vanilla cupcake was totally reasonable and in no way strange whatsoever. “Want another one?” Pinkie immediately snapped back to reality at his words, and nodded enthusiastically. Cheese chuckled. “Tell you what, why don’t I buy a dozen of them and we can go on a picnic somewhere? It’s almost dinnertime anyway, and what could be any better than cupcakes for dinner? Nothing, that’s what!”

He quickly bought a dozen cupcakes from the vendor, and they trotted off. He led her out of town to a large outcropping of rock overlooking the ocean. “Too bad I didn’t think to bring a blanket up here,” he said, setting the box of cupcakes on the ground. “That would have been much nicer to eat on than this rock.” Pawing at the hard ground with her hoof, Pinkie couldn’t help but agree. Good thing she thought to bring a blanket with her before she and Discord left this morning. While Cheese was busy opening up the box of cupcakes, Pinkie pulled a checkered blanket from her curly mane and laid it neatly on the ground. Cheese handed her a cupcake and after he grabbed himself one, they settled themselves comfortably next to each other on the blanket.

“Wait a second,” Cheese said, his cupcake halfway to his mouth. He looked down. “Where did this blanket come from?”

Pinkie’s eyes widened in panic. She had forgotten that not everypony could pull things out of their mane like she did. She had been doing it for so long that the other seaponies usually ignored her. What if he thought she was weird or something? She didn’t want to scare him off, already. They’d only known each other for a day! Need to think of an excuse, she thought. She looked around and spied a small palm tree. The large green leaves of the palm were just low enough to the ground that a pony could reach it easily. Perfect. She pointed at the palm.

“You found it in the tree?” Cheese asked. At Pinkie’s nod, Cheese stood and walked over to the tree. He stared at it suspiciously for a moment, poked it cautiously with his forehoof, and then his face broke out in a huge grin. “What a fantastic idea! I should totally start hiding party supplies in random places around town. You never know when streamers or balloons could come in handy.” Pinkie gave a relieved sigh as he sat back down.

They sat in companionable silence for a while after that. Pinkie ate her share of the cupcakes heartily, yet quietly, as Cheese stared out at the sea, his cupcake hardly touched. “This is my favorite spot on the whole island,” he said after a while. Surprised by the serious tone in his voice, Pinkie froze, mouth wide open and seconds away from chomping down on her last cupcake. Slowly, she closed her mouth and turned to look at him. “I’ve spent my whole life on this island,” he continued. “I love it with all my heart, but it’s very small. Sometimes I can’t help but feel trapped by it. Ever since I was a colt, I’ve had this dream of travelling the world, throwing parties and making ponies happy wherever I went.” He chuckled softly. “I used to have this friend when I was younger. She wanted to be a world famous fashion designer. We used to say we would travel the world together. She would give ponies makeovers and I would throw them parties. Then once we cheered up everyone in the town that we possibly could, we would ride off into the sunset. We would move onto a new town with new ponies who needed some joy in their lives.” He gave a sad sigh. “She’s long gone now, though. I doubt I’ll ever see her again.” He gave Pinkie a half smile. “I don’t know why I’m telling you all of this,” he said. “I guess you’re just real easy to talk to.” Pinkie blushed at the compliment.

“Anyway,” he continued, his expression brightening. “That’s why the Summer Sun Festival on Friday is so important! If it goes well, then I can earn up enough bits to get off this island and start journeying around the world.” Suddenly, he turned to Pinkie with an excited grin. “Say! You’re party pony, right Candy? That’s what your balloon cutie mark means?” Pinkie tilted her head in confusion. She had heard of cutie marks before from her Nana Pinkie, but as far as she knew, seaponies didn’t have cutie marks. But then, she wasn’t a seapony anymore, was she? Curious, Pinkie looked back at her flank. Three balloons, two blue and one yellow, stood out starkly against her pink fur. Huh, she thought. Well whadoyaknow? A cutie mark. Wonder how long that’s been there.

“Would you mind helping me out with the festival?” Cheese asked hopefully, causing Pinkie to turn her attention back to him. “There aren’t many party ponies on the island, and I could really use an extra set of hooves.” He was trying to play it cool, just in case she said no, but Pinkie could see the pleading look in his green eyes. He really wanted her help. How could she possibly say no? As soon as her head lowered for a nod, Cheese bounced up in excited leaps and jumps, even going so far as to do a backflip or two, cheering from the top of his lungs. “And you’re from the mainland too!” he squealed. “I bet you’ve been to all sorts of places and learned all kinds of tricks!” Before Pinkie could react, he tackled her in a tight hug, spinning her around and making her giggle. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! This is going to be the best festival ever!”