Pinkie Pie put her mail carefully behind her ear, since she didn’t have her bag with her, this seemed to be the most effective way to carry her letter.
“Thanks for the mail Derpy!” Pinkie Pie called to the ascending Pegasus.
“You’re welcome Pinkie Pie!” Derpy replied with a smile and a wave, but in doing so, she had turned her head around and, in not seeing where she was going, flew into town square.
“DERPY!!”
“Sorry, Rainbow Dash!”
Pinkie had already started on her way back towards Sugar Cube Corner by the time Derpy had crashed into town hall.
“Mail today, hooray hooray! Pinkie got some mail today!” The mare sang as she bounded her way towards home, taking her time to greet anypony she happened to pass on the way there.
When Pinkie entered the Cake’s store Mrs. Cake was setting out some cupcakes to cool. Noticing the letter behind Pinkie’s ear, Mrs. Cake said,
“Oh hello there Pinkie, I see you got a letter, did we happen to get any mail?”
“No, not today Mrs. Cake,” Pinkie replied “but I could write you a letter, the n you would get some mail, but it wouldn’t come until tomorrow, so it wouldn’t be today’s mail, but I could give you the letter personally, but I’m not the mailpony so would it still be mail? Speaking of mailponys, Derpy and I were looking at this flower the other day and…”
Mrs. Cake jumped in to stop Pinkies train of thought before it went too far.
“No, Pinkie, that’s quite alright, thank you.”
“Okay!” Pinkie beamed at Mrs. Cake “I’m gonna go read my letter now.” She said as she climbed the steps and walked towards her room.
After Pinkie got to her room she removed the letter from behind her ear and laid it on the floor to examine it. It was quite a strange letter, for many reasons. First of all the letter was pink, a very similar pink to the color of Pinkie’s mane. Not only was it pink, it smelled different too. Not like a regular paper, but a very good smell. What is it exactly? She couldn’t quite put her hoof on it. It was similar to flowers, or candy, it just smelled good. Who would send her this? Was it hearts and hooves day? She glanced at her calendar, no, not hearts and hooves day. But whoever sent this letter to her obviously wanted it to stand out. With extreme curiosity and excitement, she opened the letter.
Pinkie’s eyes read the letter, going back and forth, but with each movement from one side to the other, the smile and happiness drained from her expression. She collapsed on the floor next to the letter. Muffled by her face against the floor she sobbed,
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Not her! Not her!”
Pinkie lie on the ground for some time, making sure not to sob to loud, as she didn’t want the Cakes to worry. When she got back her composure she picked the letter back up. She re-read it, and then re-re-read it. But the words on the page didn’t change. The message was always the same. The letter was from her cousin, Strawberry Turnover. In the letter Strawberry explained how she is traveling to Canterlot and would pass through Ponyville and be able to stay for a while.
“Not cousin Strawberry!”
She was crying now, she remembered to when they were little, when Strawberry came to visit. Strawberry may be a few years younger than her, but that didn’t stop her from trying to steal Pinkie’s friends. But now she was prepared, she knew Strawberry was coming, and she could prevent this thievery of friendship.
“What do I do? What Do I do?”
She paced back and forth in her room, puzzled in thought.
“Do I tell my friends about her? What would I tell them? I could say she’s insane. Maybe I could find a way for us to leave Ponyville for a while, maybe a camp-out? Maybe I could just leave for a few days, she can’t know who my friends are if I’m not here to tell her.”
Pinkie kept pacing back and forth frantically, until Mrs. Cake knocked on her door.
“Pinkie? Are you in there?” Mrs. Cake asks as she opens the door slightly and peaks in.
Pinkie immediately pulls herself together, rushes to the door and opens it all the way.
“Hi Mrs. Cake, what can I do for you?” Pinkie puts on a fake smile while her brain is still running thought ideas about what to do with the Strawberry situation.
“Oh, nothing Pinkie, I just came up to tell you somepony is here to see you.”
“Good,” She thought. Spending time with her friends will let her clear her head of all this Strawberryness for a little bit. But before she could respond to Mrs. Cake, a red and light brown blur runs through the doorway, into Pinkie’s room. It heads straight towards Pinkie and tackles her. Before Pinkie can even react, the pony that was just a blur milliseconds ago starts talking immensely fast.
“Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh! PINKIE! It has been forever since I’ve soon you!! Well, not really forever, because forever is like, forever, you know?! I mean it’s FOREVER, forward and backward, right?! But seriously, the last time I saw you was when we were little fillies! And now we’re both all grown-up! It’s so great to see you! We can go have parties, hang out with all your friends; it’ll be the most fun-tast-a-rific time ever!”
Strawberry was bounding around Pinkie in circles, smiling so wide and vividly that it made Pinkie’s jaw hurt.
“Hi Strawberry.” Pinkie replied in monotone.
Strawberry is a very vibrant pony, quite similar to Pinkie with her stamina, excitement and love for parties. Her tail and mane, although being red, are extremely similar to Pinkie’s, except that Strawberry has one eye covered with her mane and her tail was shorter. Her coat is light brown, heavily contributing to her name. Her cutie mark is an oven, her special talent being cooking and baking. She’s great at it, almost as good as Mrs. Cake. But the thing that annoys Pinkie isn’t the color of her mane or her coat. It’s not her cutie mark or her special talent. In fact, Pinkie liked all those things about Strawberry. It isn’t even Strawberry that annoyed Pinkie, but a memory from the past that haunted her view.
“Do you remember how much we were able to hand out when we were little? It’ll be just like old times, this is gonna be AWESOME!”
“Yeah, great.” Pinkie said, putting weight in her voice.
Pinkie did indeed remember back to when they were little. She would usually go to the town where Strawberry lives when they wanted to hang out. But the one time that Strawberry came to visit Pinkie and Granny Pie, right before they moved to Ponyville, was the one time that would stay cemented into Pinkie’s memory forever.
“Pinkie!” Granny Pie’s voice echoed throughout the house, “Pinkie come here! Strawberry Turnover is here!”
“Coming!” Pinkie called back.
She couldn’t wait. After going to Strawberry’s house for so many years she was finally coming to Pinkie’s house to spend the night. Usually Pinkie would go over to Strawberry’s when Granny Pie went out with her friends on weekends, but now, Strawberry’s parents were spending a few nights alone in honor of their 10th wedding anniversary.
Pinkie rushed down the stairs, excitement influencing every step.
“Strawberry!”
“Pinkie!”
“Eeeeeeee!” They squealed happily in unison, jumping up and down.
“This is gonna be great!” Pinkie exclaimed. “I can introduce you to all my friends, we can camp outside,” Pinkie took a gasp of excitement, “we could have a PARTY!” Pinkie smiled immensely showing her happiness. “I’m really good at throwing parties, see, look at my cutie mark!” Pinkie turned around to show Strawberry that her flank was no longer bare.
“I got my cutie mark too!” Strawberry squealed and turned to show her cutie mark, which was an oven.
“We can make tons of food!”
Pinkie and Strawberry ran off, Pinkie started introducing Strawberry to the house, where everything was, what everything did, occasionally breaking out into song.
The first night was wonderful, they spent their time baking, playing games, and talking about other subjects, such as school, or what’s happened at home. Sometime in the night, Pinkie mentioned her friends from school, and Strawberry seamed intrigued, so Pinkie began to tell Strawberry about her two best friends from school.
“Well, there are two ponies that I spend the most time with.” Pinkie said, “There’s Billy Gallop, he’s really athletic, one of the fastest runners I’ve ever seen!”
Strawberry beamed after being told about Pinkie’s friends, her smile influenced Pinkie to go on, and tell her about her other best friend.
“And then there’s Sweet Hymn, she’s an amazing singer! She won the talent show at school recently for her singing, it was awesome!”
The fillies spent the rest of their waking hours making jokes and small chit-chat, until eventually they both fell asleep
***
When Pinkie awoke, she found that Strawberry wasn’t in her room. That wasn’t unusual, Strawberry is a morning pony, and she always got up early when Pinkie would spend the night at her house.
Pinkie began her normal morning routine, shower, breakfast, get pumped up with a few songs, and face the day.
“Granny Pie!” Pinkie called
“Over here Pinkie,” Granny called living room, “Strawberry went over to Billy’s house, and she said something about a race.”
This was good, Pinkie thought. Her cousin becoming friends with her friends! Then they could all have fun together!
“Thanks Granny!” Pinkie called as she exited the house.
***
Pinkie trotter her way towards Billy’s house, smiling with the thought of her cousin and one of her best friends becoming friends themselves.
Pinkie arrived at Billy’s and she heard the two in the back yard talking. She decided to pull a little prank, wait until they come over by the fence, and then jump out and spook them. She giggled slightly as she looked in through a hole in one of the posts that made up Billy’s fence.
The two ponies had apparently finished some type of race that they were now talking about.
“Wow Strawberry, you’re a pretty fast runner.” Billy said
“I guess I am” Strawberry giggled.
“Pinkie doesn’t usually want to run with me.”
“Well, I’m not Pinkie, you silly!”
The fillies laughed at Strawberry’s statement.
It was true, Pinkie wasn’t really an athletic pony, and she was made for parties, not running. But for some reason, Pinkie felt strange from that statement.
“Does Billy not like me because I don’t run with him?” Pinkie wondered.
“How long are you gonna be in town?” Billy asked,
“I have to go home today, so I thought I should meet somepony before I had to go!” she beamed at Billy.
“You should see if you can come more often, I could use a running buddy.”
“I thought I was his buddy,” Pinkie thought to herself.
The strange feeling Pinkie had had intensified, it wasn’t a good feeling, like eating something sweet, and it wasn’t a funny feeling, like eating a lemon, it was a bad feeling. A horrible, sad, mopey feeling.
“Well, I’ve gotta go now, maybe I’ll see ya again sometime!” Strawberry called to Billy.
“Ok, see ya later Strawberry.”
Pinkie’s heart sank. “She wasn’t even going to wait for me?” She began to tear up.
She left Billy’s house and started walking toward the playground, maybe the merry-go-round will help get her mind off of Billy and Strawberry
***
They merry-go-round helped, but not enough. Pinkie lay down on the edge of the park equipment with one leg hanging off, slow pushing the ground to make it the merry-go-round spin.
“Billy knows I don’t like to run. Does it really bother him that much that I don’t run with him?” She thought aloud. “Does he really only wanna be friends with him and not me?” Pinkie stared at the slowly spinning ground and sighed, she began to tear up with the thought of losing a friend. But suddenly, a thought struck her, and a look of realization came across her face.
“Sweet Hymn, I’ll go talk to her about it, she always knows what to do in these situations!”
Pinkie set off in a gallop straight for Sweet’s house.
***
When Pinkie got to Sweet’s house she opened the door and was immediately greeted by Mrs. Hymn. The town that she lived in with Granny Pie was very small, and anypony was welcome in anypony else’s home.
“Well hello Pinkie, Sweet is upstairs in her room, good to see you.” Mrs. Hymn voice was very uplifting.
Mrs. Hymn could always tell why Pinkie would be at their house, she was very good at sensing things, she didn’t always exactly know why Pinkie would be there, but this time, she could probably tell from the look of sadness and maybe some fear in Pinkie’s expression.
“Thank you Mrs. Hymn.” Pinkie started her way up stairs, she could hear Sweet singing, and she was a wonderful singer, but when Pinkie got to the top of the steps, she heard another voice singing that immediately made her heart drop into her stomach.
“Wow Strawberry!” Sweet exclaimed, “You’re an amazing singer!”
“Why, thank you Sweet.”
“I mean, Pinkie is a good singer too, but you’re amazing!”
“It must… run in the family, but, I have a lot of time to practice.” Strawberry replied
“You know, I’m going to Manehattin soon to sing for an audition, you should try out too, I mean, if you’re staying long enough the-“
Pinkie stopped paying attention to the conversation, for she was overwhelmed with thought. Why hadn’t Sweet told her about this audition? Did she not want Pinkie to come? Why would she tell Strawberry, a Pony she just met and not Pinkie, one of her best friends?
Pinkie silently walked down the steps and out the front door, if Mrs. Hymn saw her, she didn’t acknowledge it. Pinkie sulked her way back to Granny Pie’s house and went straight to her room. When she was inside she shut the door behind her, lay down on her bed, and cried.
***
Author’s Notes
I really disliked this chapter when I first wrote it, it was simply horrid, I still don’t necessarily like the state it’s in right now, but the following chapters should be better, considering they’re going to involve “current day” ponies and not past ones, so maybe they will be easier for me to convey… wait… is that a spoiler… oops…
Anyway, let me know what you thought was good/bad/horrid about this chapter, all views are appreciated, whether they are good bad, or Klingon (but I can’t read Klingon, so please refrain from using it). But most of all, thank you for reading, it means the world to me. <3
