Heart of Gold 2: Date Night
(Another Hearts and Hooves Day Special)
by Golden Flare
It's a beautiful day in Ponyville, ponies are going about their business, trotting along with big smiles on their faces. The birds' chirping were in perfect harmony today, and not because Fluttershy was conducting them, it's because today is Hearts and Hooves Day, the most romantic time of the year. It's also the reason why everpony was more happy than usual today.
Out of all of Ponyville, there are two ponies who are the happiest: Golden Flare, who had a hard time with Hearts and Hooves Day last year, but a lovable pink pony helped him out immensely. Which brings us to the second pony: Pinkie Pie, yes, I know what you're thinking, she's always happy, but not like this, no, she's even happier today than any other day, because of a well-known fact between the two lovebirds...
Today's their one year anniversary.
Golden was trotting down the path with a huge smile and a little spring in his step, excited for his special day with his special somepony. Pinkie was bouncing in his direction with a large smile of her own, hardly containing her excitement over today. The two crossed paths and gave each other friendly greetings.
"Hey, Pinks!" Golden said.
"Hi Goldie!" Pinkie said, pulling him into one of her bone-crushing hugs.
Golden got used to her powerful hugs, but it hurt every time, just ask anypony in Ponyville. Eventually she let go of Golden, allowing him to breathe.
"I think you cracked a rib." Golden croaked.
Pinkie giggled, "Sorry! I'm just SOOOOO happy!"
Golden chuckled, "So am I."
They continued their walk (bounce, in Pinkie's case) through town as they conversed, chatting away about several different topics; partying, sweets, and friends with Pinkie, and reading, writing, novels with Golden, until he finally decided to talk about his big plan.
"So, Pinkie, you know today's our one year anniversary, right?"
"Of course! How could I forget?"
"Just making sure. I actually had an idea, why don't we go on a date? You know, to celebrate?"
Pinkie gasped loudly, "Really!? A date!?"
"Yeah, we haven't really been going on dates before, so why not start now?"
Pinkie bounced around Golden, "YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES!"
"Okay, Pinkie, take it easy!"
She stopped and stood in front of him, "Yes, Goldie?" Fluttering her eyelashes as she spoke.
"I know you're excited, but don't go crazy happy on me, that comes later."
"Okie dokie lokie! So what are we doing for our date?"
Golden tensed visibly, "Uhh-"
"Oh, don't worry! I've already got the day planned!"
"Y-You have? But how did-"
"I figured you've never gone on a date before, so you wouldn't exactly what to do, sooooo I took initiative and planned out a huge party just for us!"
Golden was speechless for a while, how did she know that he never went on a date before? Well, it IS Pinkie Pie we're talking about, she knows everypony else better than they do themselves.
He shook himself out of his stupor and replied, "Thanks, Pinks."
"Yoooooooou're welcome!"
The two laughed as walked to Sugarcube Corner, ready to enjoy the fun that Pinkie has in store for them. At that moment, everything seemed perfect...
Well, almost.
Just at the entrance of the park, three certain fillies stared at the two love-struck ponies trotting away; Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, but the latter showed more malice in her stare than other two.
"Look at those two, prancing around like there's not a care in the world." Scootaloo scowled, "Why don't they date ponies of their own kind?"
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle glanced at each other for a moment and turned to Scootaloo.
"This wouldn't have anythang ta do with last year's Hearts and Hooves Day, would it?" Apple Bloom accused.
"NO!" Scootaloo screamed, but recomposed herself, "I-I mean, no, not at all! It's just that their relationship doesn't seem right to me, Golden should be dating a Pegasus and Pinkie should be dating an Earth Pony!"
"Geez, Scoots, Ah never pegged ya for a racist."
"I'M NOT A RACIST!!"
"Okay, okay! Yer not Ah racist!"
"Hmph." Scootaloo huffed and turned back in the direction where Golden and Pinkie once were and scowled again.
"Well, I don't think there's anything wrong with them, I think they look cute together!" Sweetie Belle voiced her opinion.
"It's a good thing I didn't ask you what you think." The scornful filly muttered.
"Did you say something?"
"Yeah, I said I have a plan."
"Plan? What plan?" Apple Bloom asked.
"To wreck their relationship!"
"WHAT!?" The two less-hateful fillies screeched.
"And rebuild it! With ponies like each other!" Scootaloo reassured, "Let me finish next time!"
"Scootaloo, Ah think this is a bad idea!"
"Me too!"
"Then it's settled! We're gonna set those two right! CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS RELATIONSHIP WRECKERS AND REBUILDERS!"
And with that, Scootaloo rushed on to the path toward Sugarcube Corner on a mission to ruin something beautiful for her own selfish needs, not even paying attention to her friends' cries of refusal.
"We gotta go after Scoots! We gotta stop her!"
"Yeah! Imagine what our sisters would say if we tried to help Scootaloo ruin their love!"
"Wait a minute! That's it! We gotta go find our sisters! And Rainbow Dash!"
"But what about Scootaloo?"
"If Ah know Scootaloo, all her plans'll fail before we git there."
With a plan in mind, the two fillies ran in the opposite direction to save the romance of Ponyville's party pony and newest storywriter.
Golden and Pinkie reached Sugarcube Corner and waltzed inside, the shop abuzz with ponies enjoying the romantic holiday.
"Hi, Mrs. Cake!" Pinkie called.
"Hello there, Pinkie, and you too, Golden." Mrs. Cake replied.
"Hello." Golden said.
"I'm gonna take Goldie upstairs with me, he and I have plans." Pinkie said.
"Okay dearie, you two have fun...but not too much fun." Mrs. Cake winked at Golden, making him blush.
"Huh? What do you mean by that?"
"Uh, Pinkie, I think we should just go upstairs now." Golden quickly suggested.
"But I don't under-"
"Let's go!" Golden picked her and flew up the stairs, leaving a giggling Mrs. Cake at the counter.
The bedroom door slammed with Golden panting from exhaustion while Pinkie was just smiling at him like nothing was wrong.
"Never been so embarrassed..." Golden muttered.
"Aw, cheer up Goldie! Whatever it was, you can't let it get you down! Besides, today's a special day, remember?"
Golden took a deep breath. "Yeah, you're right."
"Great! Let's go over my checklist!"
Pinkie pulled out a list from her mane, describing all of the ideas she had for their anniversary. Golden chuckled, knowing that Pinkie could possibly fit all of Ponyville in that mane of hers, but he never told her that, he didn't want her getting any ideas.
"Here you go!" She hoofs him the checklist, "What should we do first?"
Golden looks over the list and weighs his options;
Pinkie's Super Duper Checklist
[ ] Baking cupcakes together
[ ] Dancing to my jam!
[ ] Confetti popper fight
[ ] Dinner for two
"These are all good ideas, Pinks, why don't we start from top to bottom?"
Pinkie gasped loudly for the second time today, "Of course! Why didn't I think of that?"
Golden chuckled because he was about to say most cheesiest thing he ever spoke, "Anything we do is okay as long as it's with you."
She giggled, "Wow, Goldie, I never knew you could be so cheesy!"
"Only when I'm with you."
At that moment, Golden couldn't sworn he heard a gagging sound, but it didn't come Pinkie, he shrugged it off as just hearing things. He and Pinkie left the room and made their way to the kitchen, not knowing that a certain orange Pegasus looked over the list and made a mental note of it.
"Alright, let's end this lovey-dovey fest!"
Downstairs, Golden was helping Pinkie make Hearts and Hooves Day cupcakes for themselves. Right now, Pinkie was looking for the flour to put in the mix. Scootaloo took that opportunity and found the yeast in the cabinet below the sink, which she taped the word, "FLouR" over its original name. She ducked into a different cabinet when Pinkie came and found the false flour.
"I found it, Goldie!"
"Good, 'cause I was about to go buy some more if we couldn't."
They wasted no time pouring and stirring it. They poured the batter into each indent of the cupcake tray and slid it in the oven. Golden patiently waited for it to finish, but Pinkie wanted to take a quick peak.
"Uhh, Goldie? I think something's wrong."
"Why? What do you-"
BOOM!
The "cupcakes" exploded out of the oven and all over the kitchen, splattering everything in the room, especially Golden and Pinkie. She turned to the storywriter, who had an unamused glare on his face.
"Oh my gosh, Goldie, I'm so, so sorry! I don't know how I mixed up the flour with the yeast! It just said 'Flour' on it, so I thought-"
Pinkie rant was cut off she heard snickering, it started out small, but then grew into chuckles, and into an uproarious laughter.
"So, you're not mad?"
"Mad? Why would I be mad? This is funny!" Golden said, continuing his laughter afterwards, which Pinkie found contagious as she laughed, too, "Come on, let's get this mess cleaned up."
Pinkie hugged him, "Love you, Goldie."
"Love you too, Pinks."
"Grrr!" Scootaloo growled under her breath.
After cleaning the kitchen, and a massive explanation to Mr. and Mrs. Cake, the two lovebirds made their way back to Pinkie's bedroom, where she set up her record player and her favorite song, or as she put it, "her jam".
"C'mon, Goldie, let's dance!"
They began to randomly pull off some dance moves, giggling when one's dancing looked funny to the other. Scootaloo appeared from behind the record player, swiftly flipped over the record, and ducked back down before she got caught. They quickly noticed that the music was now playing in reverse.
"Huh? What happened to my jam?"
The air soon became awkward really fast as neither knew what to do at this point, but Golden had an idea.
"Um...Maybe we could skip the danc-"
She stopped herself when she saw Golden doing the moonwalk in reverse, his wings helped him stand on his hind legs.
"Goldie?"
"If the music's backwards, why don't we dance backwards?"
Pinkie smiled brightly at his idea and did the worm in reverse, as well as the rest of their dancing.
"Grrrrr!" Scootaloo growled a little louder this time, but not enough for them to hear.
When they finished their dance session, Pinkie discovered that her record was somehow flipped upside-down.
"Wonder how that happened?" Pinkie asked.
"Don't know, I didn't hear anypony come in."
They dismissed the topic for now, but Golden mentally decided to keep an eye open. The two were getting ready for their confetti popper fight by preparing the confetti poppers and rearranging the bedroom for a battlefield like appearance. Pinkie left the confetti poppers on the table to help Golden for a bit, but she didn't notice that Scootaloo appeared from under the table and jammed a cork in Golden's popper and jumped under Pinkie's bed. When Golden and Pinkie finished the final touches on the bedroom, she walked back over to the table and hoofed him his popper.
"Who loaded my popper?" Golden asked.
"I did," Pinkie answers, "What? You don't trust me?"
"Are we gonna fight, or are we gonna keep arguing?"
Pinkie narrowed her eyes, "Bring it." but softened up for a brief moment, "Nice movie reference, by the way."
"Thanks, it's a little something I picked up from you."
They gave each other looks of determination and spoke simultaneously, "1-2-3, GO!"
Pinkie jumped behind her flipped-over table while Golden his in her Party Cannon, both of them awaiting either's attack.
Golden immediately realized where he was and quietly crawled out. Well, that was none too bright. He thought.
He snuck around the room, shifting from hiding spot to hiding spot, ready to avoid Pinkie's near-predictable oncoming confetti attack. Fortunately, luck was on his side as he slowly made his way to Pinkie's area, but surprisingly, she hasn't made her move yet. Was she waiting for him to strike first?
Pushing that thought out of his mind, Golden slowly inched himself closer to Pinkie, he readied his popper as he neared and took aim-
His approach came to a complete halt when he saw a popper barrel pointed in between his eyes and Pinkie behind it, ready to pull the trigger.
"Shoot." Golden cursed.
Pinkie smirked, "If you insist."
Golden went wide-eyed at his poor choice of words.
POP!
He barely even registered the onslaught of confetti that rocketed into his face. The next thing he knew was that he was picking himself off the floor while he was slightly dizzy. When he got to his hooves, he shook himself out dazed state and put on his best determined face, pointed his popper at his opponent and pulled his own trigger.
CLICK
...
Nothing.
"Huh?" He uttered.
CLICK
Still nothing.
"That's funny, I could've sworn I checked it." Pinkie said.
Golden got a little frustrated at this, his target was right in front of him and he couldn't blast her, so he did the only logical thing he could think of in his agitation: he growled slightly and took aim while furiously snapping the trigger.
CLICK CLICK CLICK-POP!
Only to have it backfire on him. Literally. It literally shot him out of the back of the popper. His mane was comically blown back and his face was covered in confetti as he coughed once and some glitter came out. He checked the popper to see if there was something wrong with it.
And there it was.
A cork was wedged into the barrel, he mentally cursed himself for not seeing that firsthoof. Pinkie came up to him and saw the corked popper.
"Goldie, I swear, I did not put that little cork in there!" Pinkie pleaded.
Golden was angry, but he simmered down a little to think about the situation; the date so far had been funny, but somewhat rigged. He knew how much of a prankster Pinkie was, but she would've been laughing her flank by now, not trying to making herself look innocent. Something's not right. Then an idea forged inside his head. He kept his ears pricked for any sound, and noticed that he and his girlfriend have been completely silent. Thinking quickly, he reassured her that everything was fine by giving her a peck on the muzzle.
"It's okay, Pinkie," he smiled, "it's just a game, it's all in good fun."
Pinkie visibly calmed down, "Thanks, Goldie."
"GRRRRR!" Scootaloo growled louder, but this time he heard it.
"Who's there!?"
"Eep!" Scootaloo rushed out of Pinkie's bedroom door.
"What was that?" Pinkie asked.
Golden narrowed his eyes at the door, "Somepony's messing with us."
"A tuft of cloud, a bright rainbow's glow, stir with a Pegasus feather, fast not slow..." Scootaloo read off the ingredients as she did so, creating four of the concoction, "Okay, Goldie and Pinks, you wanna play hard ball? Fine. We'll play hard ball."
"SCOOTS, HAVE YA LOST YER MIND!?!"
She swiftly turned around to see Apple Bloom screaming at her, with Sweetie Belle, Rarity, Applejack, and surprisingly, Rainbow Dash right behind her. She internally grinned at her luck, she knew exactly who to use the first two of her concoctions on.
"Haven't ya learned yer lesson th' las' time!?"
Scootaloo completely ignored her and went to Rainbow with a big smile, "Heeeeeey, Rainbow Dash! I just made you a drink! Ya wanna taste?"
"Nice try, kid, I know all about the whole love poison thing." Rainbow rebuffed.
"Wha!?"
"Big Mac told us everything last year; about Miss Cheerilee, the accidental love poison, all of it."
"Which reminds me," Rarity began, "Twilight wants her book back."
"Now are ya gonna me the real reason why you're doing this, squirt?"
Scootaloo didn't want to tell her anything and just keep going, but she knew her; she wasn't going to give this up. With tears threatening to leak, she spoke, "Last year...on Hearts and Hooves Day...when we cured Big Mac and Miss Cheerilee, they punished us by doing all of Big Mac's work..." She sniffled, "They told us that they were going on a date, and started to call each other baby names again...we thought they were still poisoned and panicked...then we found out the truth..." She suddenly became angry, "...They were faking! Just to mess with us! Do you know how that made me feel!?" She screamed as tears now flowed freely from her face, "Every day at school, I wanted to walk up to Miss Cheerilee and punch her right in the face! I WAS SO MAD!!" She took deep breaths before continuing, "...But I had a better idea: don't get mad, get even. So I decided that if I'm not happy, nopony deserves to be happy! THAT'S why I'm doing this! THAT'S WHY I HATE HEARTS AND HOOVES DAY!!!"
Scootaloo was hyperventilating when she finished, leaving everypony shocked; could Big Mac and Cheerilee have gone too far with their little stunt? Rainbow Dash was the first to snap out of it and wrap her forehooves around Scootaloo, the latter beginning to sob in her chest.
"It's okay, kid. It's okay." Rainbow cooed.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle came up to them and joined them in the hug.
"Then it's settled, tomorrow, I am going straight to Miss Cheerilee about this!" Rarity declared.
"An' Ah'm gunna give Big Mac a stern talkin' to!" Applejack added.
The four broke out of their embrace to look at the two older ponies.
"See, Scoots? Everything's gonna be okay."
Scootaloo smiled for the first time that day, "Thanks, Rainbow Dash." Then she had a look of guilt, "Um, I should probably go apologize to-"
"Don't worry about it, kid, you can do it tomorrow." Rainbow raises one of the love poison glasses, "Now c'mon! Let's dump this gunk!"
Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo picked up a glass and together with Rainbow and poured out love poison onto the ground.
"Come along, Sweetie Belle, the sun is beginning to set." Rarity said.
"Yeah, we gotta git home too, c'mon, Apple Bloom, Granny's cookin' dinner tonight!" Applejack said.
The five ponies went on their way to their respective homes, preparing for a new beginning and letting go of the past. Rainbow turned her head to face the top floor window of Sugarcube Corner and saluted with a smile to the two occupants who saw and heard the entire thing.
"I'm glad Scoots finally got that out of her system." Pinkie said.
Golden smiled, "Yeah, me too."
"Okie dokie lokie! What's left on the list?"
Golden looked over the list one more time:
Pinkie's Super Duper Checklist
[X] Baking cupcakes together
[X] Dancing to my jam!
[X] Confetti popper fight
[ ] Dinner for two
"The last thing on the list is a dinner for two."
"Way ahead of ya!"
You turned around to see what she was talking about and saw a table covered in pink cloth with two bowls of daffodil salad on either end of it and a lit candelabra in the center.
Golden chuckled, expecting this from Pinkie herself, "You've really outdone yourself, Pinks."
Pinkie giggled, "Only the best for you, Goldie."
They took their places around the table and began to dig in while looking into each other's eyes. For these two, this was the best Hearts and Hooves Day ever.
Just outside of Sugarcube Corner, a chicken and a squirrel walked above the disposed-of love poison and proceeded to lick it up. When they stopped looked up from it, they looked into each other's eyes and pink and purple swirls appeared in them, the love poison has taken affect. The squirrel held his arm out and the chicken wrapped its wing around it, the two began skipping as they left the area, happy as can be.
"Fluttershy, slow down! What's the problem!?" Rainbow exclaimed.
Rainbow's yellow Pegasus friend, Fluttershy, has led her and Scootaloo to her cottage when the two were spending the day together, for some reason, Fluttershy was a lot more anxious than ever before. She swung the door open to reveal a certain squirrel and chicken, nestled with one another while looking into each other's eyes.
"THIS is the problem!" Fluttershy screamed, "I don't know what to do! I've tried everything!"
Rainbow and Scootaloo took a good look at the two animals and visibly tensed up when they saw their eyes.
"What!? What is it!?"
"Uhh, Scoots..." Rainbow began, "You do remember the cure for love poison, right?"
THE END
Author's Note
Happy Valentine's Day, everypony! 
EDIT: Yeah, I know it's late, but I was busy
