The Little Seapony

Pinkie awoke that morning to discover that Discord was a bit of a bed hog.  His habit of sprawling across the majority of the bed wasn’t necessarily a problem for Pinkie, since she was small and didn’t need much space. The large and heavy lion arm welding her down to the bed, however, was a problem. At some point in the night, Discord had rolled onto his stomach, entrapping her under his outstretched left arm. Very carefully, so as not to wake the draconequus, she attempted to wriggle out of his grasp. The moment she moved, however, Discord stirred, mumbled something incoherent, and clutched her tighter to his side. Pinkie frowned. As much as she enjoyed cuddling, she did really need to get up so she could meet up with Cheesie. She had promised to meet up with him that morning and she was kind of hoping for some breakfast before she left. Being stuck in bed underneath Discord’s arm was not part of the plan. After a bit of thought, she pulled a large pink plush of herself from her mane. She wasn’t entirely sure why there was a stuffed plush of herself in her mane or how exactly she knew it was there, but she had learned not to question these things too much. Sometimes things just appeared when she needed them.

Very carefully, she gently coaxed the plush into Discord’s arms while at the same time wriggling herself out of his grasp. There was a tense moment where Discord jerked and grumbled something about chocolate cake just as Pinkie slipped out of the bed, but he quickly settled back down again, clutching the decoy plush with a smile on his face. Pinkie breathed a sigh of relief. After a quick breakfast of a couple of bananas from Discord’s cupboard, Pinkie made her way to town.

It didn’t take long for her to find Cheese Sandwich. He was wearing a bright yellow hard hat over his curly mane, overseeing a group of builders on the erection huge wooden stage. He turned towards her as she neared and smiled. “Hey, Candy! You’re just in time! Come with me,” he ordered, trotting off in the opposite direction from the stage.”We’ve got tons to do!” Pinkie followed without hesitation.

They spent the entire day going from booth to booth, checking on all of the various decorations, games, and treats that each booth exhibited. There was the animal balloon booth, the caramel apple booth, the horseshoe toss booth, and even a fried seaweed booth that sported a myriad of exotic flavors such as nacho cheese and jalapeño pepper. Each booth was more fantastic and amazing than the last, showing off the talents of practically every pony on the island. Everything was so wonderful that Pinkie could hardly contain her excitement. At least, that would be the case, if she wasn’t so preoccupied with seducing the handsome and completely clueless stallion next to her.

“You only have two flavors offered for the funnel cakes?” Cheese Sandwich asked a particularly grumpy looking pony. The stallion carny glared at Cheese with demon-like red eyes under large bushy black eyebrows.

“Is there something wrong with having only two flavors?” he challenged.

“Of course there is!” Cheese exclaimed. “Ponies need variety! You should have at least ten!”

“Ten! That’s ridiculous!”

As they argued, Pinkie tried to remember all the things Discord had taught her last night. They had been so busy that morning that half the day had already passed without her realizing it. She needed to getting movin’ on the woovin’ (Woovin’! Teehee!) if she was going to get anything accomplished before the day ended. As she thought, a vision of Discord’s face entered her mind’s eye. “You need to be constantly near him,” she remember him saying. “Be as close to him as possible.” She glanced over at the still arguing Cheese, and surreptitiously sidled up a bit closer to him. He didn’t even notice. She moved closer.  Still no response. Gathering her courage, she moved so close to him that their coats were almost, but not quite touching. No reaction whatsoever came forth from the yellow stallion. She frowned.

“Ten flavors!”

“Two!”

“Ten!”

“Two!”

“Two!”

“Ten!”

“Oh okay. If you insist, ten flavors it is then!” Cheese said with a grin. The other stallion looked pleased for a moment, until he realized what Cheese had just said.

“Hey, wait a sec-”

“On to the next booth, Candy!” Cheese interrupted, quickly turning away from the angry stallion and trotting towards the next booth. He didn’t looked at Pinkie even once. Undeterred, Pinkie decided she needed to move onto the next step. Obviously, this one wasn’t going to get her anywhere.

Now what was it again? Pinkie wondered as she followed Cheese to another booth. This one seemed to be for some kind of archery game, but Pinkie was thinking so hard that she didn’t pay it much attention to it. Oh yeah! she thought, suddenly remembering the next thing Discord told her to do; laugh at everything he says. That should be easy peasy seaweed squeezy! Laughing was the easiest and most fantastic thing ever, after all!

“You’ve had how many deaths with this game?” Cheese said incredulously, startling Pinkie from her thoughts.

“Well, we don’t really keep track of the exact number but it’s definitely under a hundred,” the red-coated stallion behind the game booth replied cheerfully.

“Definitely under a hundred?” Cheese repeated, horrified.

“Always with a smile on their faces too!” the pony continued with a grin. “In fact, that’s our motto! Fun to die for! We promise you’ll have fun or die tryin’!”

“Well, as, um, ‘fun’ as this game sounds, I don’t really think this is the right kind of game for this particular shindig,” Cheese said. “We need something a bit more family friendly, and less deadly. Right Candy?” He turned to Pinkie who merely smiled and giggled at him.  For a moment Cheese just stared at her with a raised eyebrow, confused by her reply, but then he turned back to the carny and his face morphed into friendly mode once more. “You can take that as a yes,” he told the stallion. “Maybe try doing a nice, safe ring toss game instead.” Pink laughed again at the suggestion. The stallions ignored her.

“Well,” the carny grumbled. “This game is more exciting, but I guess you’re right. Ring toss it is then.”

“Great!” As the carny stared at his archery supplies despondently, Cheese checked the time on his wristwatch. He whistled. “Lunchtime already? Well, I guess it’s time for a break.” He turned to Pinkie. “Wanna get lunch together Candy? I’ll pay.” She nodded enthusiastically. “Great! I know the perfect place!”

He led her to a small outdoor cafe on the edge of town. The restaurant was very quaint, with small, circular white tables and a sky blue awning that protected the customers from both rain and sun. A dark blue unicorn with a silver mane greeted the pair upon their arrival and showed them to a table. Pinkie beamed. Finally, things seemed to be going the way they were supposed to! Obviously, Discord’s tips must be working if Cheese had already asked her out to lunch. Now all she had to do was get him to kiss her. Surely, after they shared something so deeply romantic as that, there was no way he wouldn’t fall in love with her! She just had to make sure it was the right moment.

The moment came after they had finished eating and were making their way back to the fair preparations. All through lunch, Pinkie had been sure to laugh at everything he said, even if she didn’t find it particularly funny. Sometimes Cheese would give her a cute little confused look when she laughed, but he seemed more amused than anything. Now, Pinkie felt like it was time she made her move. They were halfway back to the fairgrounds, in a darker, less crowded part of the village. If she didn’t do it now, she didn’t know if she’d get another chance before her three days were up. Cheese was telling her a joke about flapjacks when Pinkie stopped walking.

“And then he said, ‘What the hay did Jack ever do to you?’” Cheese laughed, turning to find that Pinkie was now several steps behind him. He stared back at her curiously. “What’s up Candy?” he asked, backtracking until he was next to her.

Here goes everything, Pinkie thought. Ducking her head a little, she stared up at Cheese with half-lidded eyes and licked her lips. Cheese responded by raising a confused eyebrow. “Are you feeling alright, Candy?” he said. “You’ve been acting a bit...strange today. And coming from me that’s sayin’ something.”

Pinkie nodded coyly in reply. As she leaned towards him and pursed her lips, Cheese nervously leaned away from her. “Well if you’re sure you’re fine, then we better hurry back,” he said, his normally sure voice quivering slightly as a faint sheen of sweat shined on his yellow coat. He quickly cantered to the side and out of Pinkie’s reach. “Lots of work still to do, you know.” He gave a weak chuckle and trotted down the street, leaving Pinkie no choice but to follow sullenly behind him.

When they reached the fairgrounds, Cheese sent her to work on decorations while he left to help put on the final touches on the stage. To be honest, Pinkie did not put her whole, one hundred percent effort into blowing up balloons and hanging up crepe paper. Mostly she pouted. Granted, she was fairly justified in this. She knew she had somehow botched the whole seduction scheme she had been working at with Cheese, although she was not completely sure how. Rejection hurt. Her chest felt heavy and her hair wasn’t quite as poofy as usual. A part of her hoped that she was wrong and Cheese actually did like her. Perhaps he was just shy about these sorts of things and didn’t know how to react to her forwardness. Another, larger part of herself told the other part to stop being stupid. Instead of keeping her near him, she had shoved her into this little corner of the fairgrounds as far away from him as he possibly could without being rude. If that didn’t say, “You trying to kiss me was terribly awkward and please do not try it again, ‘cause I don’t really like you like that. We should really just be friends because friends are good and all that stuff,” she didn’t know what did! Of course Cheese wasn’t interested in her. He was handsome, funny, and adventurous. She couldn’t even talk! Talking was her best feature! How was supposed to catch someone like Cheese if she couldn’t even do something as simple as tell a joke?

Frustrated, she blew up a balloon she was working on a little too much. It popped with a loud bang making her and everyone around her jump in fright. She smiled apologetically at the other decorators’ disapproving faces, and threw the mutilated balloon into the trash. Sitting by herself while the other ponies worked and gossiped happily around her, Pinkie, for perhaps what was the first time since arriving to the island, really and truly missed her home under the sea.