Whatever Happened to Pinkie?

AJ walks with a heavy wrinkle on her head, her body slumped over. They aren't there yet, but with each step they get closer to the darkness. The sound of Fluttershy's birds sweetly singing slowly fades. Meanwhile, Pinkie hops, her usual self.

"How do you do it, Pinke?"

Pinkie stops. "Do what, AJ?"

"How do you stay positive...even after all this?"

"Simple," Pinkie beams a smile. "I think of all my friends. I think of how much all of you still care about me. I think that even though bad things happen, good things happen too, and if you focus on the bad, you can forget about the good. So...I just don't let that happen."

"Hmm," AJ's shoulders lighten slightly, but the lightness does not stay. "I suppose you're right," She looks at the ground in front of her. "Not far from the forest now."

"Something wrong?"

AJ nods toward the forest.

"Oh..." She giggles. "That. Of course that."

"It just bothers me, Pinkie. That body was not fully decomposed, so whichever pony died there had to have died probably less than a year ago, but Ponyville hasn't had anyone missing since around that time, no missing fillies, no stallions, nothin' as far as I know. Nopony 'cept for you. Can you think of anypony else that body could be?"

Pinkie shrugs. "I dunno, AJ, but the way things have been going, I don't think there's a way it can make sense. Also, I've been gone for six months. I tried to catch up with everypony since I got back, but haven't gotten to everypony yet. Haven't seen anypony missing so far." She shrugs again.

"I...really don't want to go back here."

AJ stares Pinkie in the eyes. Pinkie looks back at her. AJ's face is weak and contorted. She almost has tears in her eyes.

"Hey...hey it's okay, alright?"

"Ah don't cry!" She practically yells it with the tears streaming further.

Pinkie holds AJ in her hooves. "Hey, we're cousins. You can cry to me." She smiles down to AJ.

"Applebloom is right. Ah...gave up too quick. Winona was a good dog. She was a good, good dog, and I left her when she needed me, Pinkie. We gave up too quick on you, too. Ah should have been like Twilight. Ah should've kept lookin' fer you. But I didn't. I closed up because it was the least painful thing to do. I'm sorry, Pinkie."

"Silly, we didn't give up. It's why we're here! I mean, you thought I was a goner. I would have done the same thing."

"Really?"

Pinkie snorts the notion away. "Yeah. I mean, I was gone for six months. No sane pony would come looking for me for that long, and I wouldn't want you to."

"Heh." AJ smiles. "Nopony except for Twilight."

Pinkie looks up to the last of the sky before they enter the forest, her mind focused elsewhere. "She really kept looking for me that whole time, hunh?"

"Yup. Thought she'd never stop, too. Glad yer back, if for that reason alone."

"Happy to be back." She tilts her head sideways and beams a smile.

The ponies walk further and the darkness of the forest befalls them. The birds are all but impossible to hear now, replaced by ambiguous noises. The two ponies tread softly, never quite sure if the sounds of their feet are really their feet or the sound of a nearby timberwolf. Various animals make their calls, different birds, wild birds. Their screeches attack the ears of the ponies intermittently. Very little light falls in the section of forest AJ and Pinkie travel, and their view is further blinded by a dull fog that seems to permeate everything.

"So...do you remember where it is, AJ?"

"Yeah, hard to forget anything after having that image of Winona burned into my skull."

"What...happened to her, Applejack? Why does it bother you so much?"

AJ freezes in place. She sighs. "Pinkie...she...I can't say it. It's too hard. It's awful, Pinkie. You don't want to hear it."

"I do if it makes you feel better, but it's okay. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

AJ moves forward a few more steps and stops herself. "No. I...I think I do. I think it will help," Once more AJ sighs. "She killed herself, Pinkie. She bashed her own head into a tree over and over again until she was dead. What kind of animal does that, Pinkie? She had all her shots. Weren't like it were rabies or nuthin'. She came out here, found that body, dug it up, howled like a blasted Banshee and she went and killed herself. It don't make a lick o' sense."

Pinkie stares at AJ, her pupils dilated. "Oh my Celestia. I'm sorry AJ. I...didn't know."

"Ah know. I feel better tho." AJ smiles at Pinkie. Pinkie returns an understanding lip curl. "We have to stop this thang. Whatever's doing this. Whatever's causing this, we have to stop it."

Pinkie nods sharply.

"There. Not much further. I think I see it up ahead."

A jolt runs through Pinkie. A fragment of a memory dragged loose from her subconscious. "This place...looks familiar..." she murmurs.

"How's that now?"

"I'm not sure why, but I really, really don't like it here." Sickness runs across her body. She shivers.

"You okay, Pinkie?"

"Yeah...." her voice trails off. "I'm gonna sit down, if that's okay."

"What, you mean right here when we're so close?"

"I don't want to get any closer right now."

"Pinkie, if ya got a reason now, you better spill it."

"I don't. I don't know why, AJ. I just don't want to get closer right now. I don't understand it. I just really, really, really don't want to go there right now. Can you please go over there instead, please?" Pinkie's face pales. She goes quiet and holds herself. She looks ahead of herself, but not toward the clearing. Her eyes are focused away, elsewhere.

AJ stares at Pinkie for a few moments, flicks her eyes back to the clearing, then back to Pinkie. She tilts her head aside and raises her eyebrow. Finally, she turns her full self over to face the clearing and approaches it.

The screeches, skittles and wild sounds of the forest are quiet here, just like last time. Unnaturally quiet. The last time, AJ didn't get a good look at the body. She was too freaked out by Winona, too scared of what would happen to Applebloom. Now, she has time. It is definitely the body of a pony, most likely a mare from the bone structure. No signs of wear on the bones, so not likely old. Too large to be a filly. It would have to be a mare around Pinkie's age.

She stops herself. "It's not Pinkie," Nopony is there to say it to, but she says it aloud. "She repeats herself. "It's not Pinkie. It can't be Pinkie, because Pinkie is over there huddled in a corner, and Pinkie ain't a ghost. I hugged her. I touched her. She's there, alright." She looks back to make sure. Pinkie remains huddled. "See? Not dead. Now AJ, get ahold of yerself and look at the apple-bucking body."

She looks closer. While the cutie mark has rotted away, there is still plenty of flesh on the corpse. The face has cuts on it, starting from each side of the mouth up the cheeks in a wicked looking smile. The cuts are uneven. It wasn't from a knife. It was done with something similar to a saw. A glimpse of light catches on something on the body, and AJ looks closer.

"What is that?" Again nopony is around to hear her wonder out loud. The glimmer seems to come from the pony's ear. She pulls out a small metallic, brass colored object, cylinder shaped. "What the hay?" She checks the other ear and sees the same thing. "What in the name of Celestia's rump are these things?"

AJ gets up and runs back toward Pinkie. "Hey Pinkie! I found something! Check these out and tell me what ya think they are."

Pinkie doesn't get up. She continues to hold herself, shivering.

"Pinkie!"

She says nothing. AJ snorts loudly.

"Pinkie!" AJ waits a few moments, staring at her. "Pinkie Pie!"

Finally she looks up. "Wha? Oh hi Applejack. Sorry I spaced out there..."

"What is with you, anyway?" AJ keeps looking at Pinkie.

"I...I don't know AJ."

"You don't space out. Well you do, but usually ya ain't quiet when ya do it."

"Sorry." Her lip turns up slightly into a half smile. "I'm feeling a little better now, though. So...what did you find?"

"Well...can't tell much by the body. Definitely a mare. Definitely our age. Can't see the cutie mark. The face was messed up though."

Pinkie furrows her eyebrows. "What do you mean? What's wrong with it?"

"It's got a cut on both sides of the mouth, all the way up to the cheeks. Looks like it was done by a saw or somethin'."

Pinkie gasps. "What? Why is that?"

"Ya ain't gonna freak out on me again, are ya?"

She pauses. "No...no...anything else?"

"Jest these," AJ shows Pinkie the metal objects.

"What?" Pinkie stumbles backward. "H-how? Where? Where did you get those?"

"I found them on the body."

"Show me."

"Hold on, now. Jest a minute ago you said ya didn't-"

"Now." Pinkie's face is wild, like Winona's was. She catches herself and takes a deep breath. "Please, Applejack, show me the body. I have to know."

The two jog back over to the body. "Have to know what?"

"Alright, AJ, where is it?"

AJ stops and looks around. "Well, that don't make no sense."

"Where is it, AJ?"

"I...I don't know."

"AJ, it was here a minute ago. You took these metal things from it. Where is it?"

"Ah said I don't know!"

"Whadya mean you don't know? It was here a second ago. I mean it AJ. Where is the body? WHERE IS IT?"

"I'm not playin' round, and Ah'm tellin' you, I don't know." The two lock eyes in a desperate stare.

Tears flood Pinkie's eyes. "AJ. Please. Please tell me this whole thing has just been an elaborate trick. Please..."

"Pinkie, I swear to ya...I...I...I don't understand it. Please...jest tell me what ya remember."

"I can't AJ. Not right now. I just...I just can't."

"Pinkie..."

"I want to be left alone for a while, okay? Just, don't follow me. I want to be alone."

More tears flood her face, as Pinkie runs out of the forest in the direction that she came.

A few moments alone, and Applejack stomps her hoof straight down. "Ahm gettin' REALLY tired of this!" She shouts as loud as she possible can. "Will somepony please tell me what's going on? Somepony, anypony. Any thing! Spirit, monster, I don't even care anymore!"

She pants from her tirade, her whole body shakes, her face red with fury. She looks over at the tree and breathes. She sees something. The word 'smile' is carved into the tree. She stares at it a few moments longer.

"Hunh. Guess I better get back and go tell Twilight what happened to Pinkie. Not sure I know myself." She spits on the ground. "Apple-pickin' forest. I hate it here."

Pinkie runs back to the cakes, runs up to her room and slams the door. She covers herself with the blanket and shudders.

"I remember now..." She mutters. "But it doesn't make any sense. I'm not dead. I'm not. It didn't happen. It couldn't have happened. It was a dream. It was always a dream." She opens her hoof, looks at the metal pins. She shudders and tosses them away. She knows exactly what they were for.