Pinkie Has Coping Issues

Choosing to walk to Sweet Apple Acres was a good choice, Twilight felt, arriving at the gate Twilight saw Granny Smith, Applebloom and Big Mac by the barn.  Beginning to trot over to the gaggling group she smiled warmly and then they all exchanged greetings.  “Say Twi, how is everypony out there doing?  Applejack said she wasn’t talkin’ to any of y’all ‘til ya got your senses back,” chirped Applebloom.

“Well, we’re all good.  I haven’t seen Applejack since the…  Incident.  Pinkie is baking a lot and looking as happy as normal.  Rarity is recovering nicely, albeit grumpy,” replied Twilight, rubbing her shoulder lightly in an uncomfortable way,  “So, where’s Applejack?”

“Ya know, I ain’t seen her since last night.  Granny Smith an’ me were just talkin’ about where she could be, she got a cupcake from Pinkie and its in her room, I wanna eat it but it ain’t right takin her stuff, so if you see her can you ask her if I can eat it?” stated Applebloom without concern, starting to walk around looking at the ground, following a trail of ants.

“Yup,” simply said Big Ma with a smile.

Granny Smith nodded in agreement but didn’t say anything, sipping on a large cup of cider, she was a bit inebriated and was ready to sleep it off.

“Okay, so…” Twilight awkwardly mused, out of things to talk about since now Applejack is missing.  “I’m going to go and catch up on my reading, I’ll see you later.”  Smiling Twilight turned and trotted back into town.  Thinking to herself, ‘I guess I have two missing ponies now, I hope everything is okay.  I’m going to talk to Rarity and apologize for earlier, I was kind of mean and I can’t leave her all alone while she’s recovering.’

The sun was getting low in the sky as she headed for Rarity’s boutique, not stopping to make pleasantries with the townsfolk.  Arriving at the boutique Twilight discovered the yard empty and quickly presumed the injured pony had gone inside to wallow in self-pity.  ‘That poor cat,’ twilight thought with a smile as she entered the shop.

“Hello, Rarity.  It’s Twilight.  I’m here to talk to you and, apologize, for my attitude earlier, I was wrong to act so rude to you and I’m here to keep you company.”  Walking through the halls as she apologized she found no pony anywhere.  Opalescence was sitting on a royal throw pillow by Rarity’s bed licking her paws.

“I guess, maybe she’s out?” questioned twilight, as she turned to leave.  Walking to the door twilight noticed a cupcake with rainbow frosting sitting on a display shelf, “Oh, she must have been visited by Pinkie!  I guess I’ll check Sugarcube Corner.”

Quickly walking out twilight opened her wings and took to the skies, going several hundred feet up and circling, she slowly descended to the bakery, landing softly in front and went inside.  “Hello?”

Mr. Cake peeked out from the kitchen and smiled, “Hi Princess Twilight, what can I do for you?  Would you like a slice of cake?  Three bits.”  Twilight quickly replied as he was finishing his sale, “No, I’m ok.  I was hoping to find Rarity here, or Pinkie.  I’ve been looking for them for a while.”

Lowering his head, Mr. Cake said, “Ah, I see.  Ever since Rarity got hurt Pinkie hasn’t been the same.  She’s quiet, won’t talk to us and she looks different; her mane is flat and her coat is dark.  We’ve never seen her so depressed,” rubbing his hooves together as he sat in front of Twilight, “She doesn’t bake as much, either.  She should be back in a while, the sun is getting low and she’s never out too long after Luna raises the moon.”

“Okay,” replied twilight, her chin in her hoof as she thought about how things weren’t adding up with her energetic friend.  ‘If she is depressed at home why is she still full of energy out in public.  It’s not uncommon for people to hide their feelings, but Pinkie?  She can’t keep her feelings under control even under the best circumstances.’

“Can I go to her room to wait, Mr. Cake?”  Asked twilight, he nodded as he stood up and walked back to the kitchen.  Twilight saw Mrs. Cake and the twins playing in the kitchen as food was cooking on the stove: it smelled great.

‘Not only are they amazing bakers, they can cook too.  They should just open a restaurant, how much harder could that be, and it would be so much fun to taste their food all day,’ mused Twilight.

Walking up the stairs as twilight finished her thought she arrived at Pinkies room and heard voices from inside, smiling she pressed her ear to the door to eaves drop on Rarity and Pinkies conversation, but she only heard various muffled voices.  It sounded like a few different ponies were holding a meeting, so twilight knocked softly on the door.

“Pinkie, can I come in,” asked twilight.

Slowly the door creaked open and Pinkie peered out the cracked door, only showing part of her eye, “Yes, how can I help you, Twilight?”  Pinkie hissed out the door.

Curious, twilight cocked her head at her friends’ odd mannerism and said, “Yes Pinkie, I’m just checking on you.  I’m looking for Rarity and…” Pinkie slammed the door to twilight’s surprise.  “Pinkie, what’s going on?  Open the door, please.   I need to talk to you about everything.”

After a moment twilight used her magic to open the door and smiled at what she saw.  A table set up with a mock tea party with various inanimate objects wearing party hats and confetti.  Twilight chucked as Pinkie was helping a bag of sugar balance on a chair while glaring at Twilight.

Her mane was flat as was her tail, her fur was dark pink and her eyes were almost sinister, with a sneer on her mouth she growled in a lower flat voice devoid of her humor and charm, “What are you doing in here.  Are you laughing at me?  First you unfriend me and now you laugh at me and my new best friends?”  Starting to walk towards Twilight, who was slowly backing up and out the door, ears pulled back.

‘Dash talked about Pinkie going all crazy when we threw her that surprise party, but I didn’t know she was serious.  This is just weird and creepy,’ thought Twilight as she tried to keep a distance between she and her friend.

Pinkie continued to walk towards twilight and continued, “You never liked me, did you?  You just wanted to laugh at me.  You tried to keep it a secret among yourselves and I found out when Rarity got hurt.  You showed me who you all really are.”  She was backing twilight down the hall now, into a wall with an open window.

“You, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity.  Liars, all of you are LIARS,” her eyes twitched and misaligned briefly, “You can’t know what it’s like to be alone for years and then to finally be made happy by ponies who laugh at you behind your back.”  Pinkies eyes were terrifying now.  Twilight began to cower in the corner.

“Pinkie,” Twilight whimpered, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, we’re your friends still, we just got mad, I’m here to apologize and I want to be your friend again.  We were all going to apologize and go back to the way things were in a couple days.  We didn’t mean to hurt you like this, we don’t laugh at you behind your back, we…”

“SHUT. UP.” Screamed pinkie, making twilight shriek in shock, rarely having heard Pinkie upset, she was mad now, “You’re liars and meanies and you wouldn’t care if I was dead, and I won’t care if you all died too,”  Screamed Pinkie with murderous eyes.

All joy and humor was gone from the pink mare and only intent to hurt Twilight filled the air.

“What’s going on up here? Pinkie, what are you saying?” chimed Mr. Cake from behind.  As Pinkie turned twilight used the moment to fly out the open window, tears in her eyes as she flew higher and higher, thinking of how quickly Pinkie had changed and how nothing made sense all of a sudden.

‘Dead?  What is going on here? ’ Twilight thought as she soared.

Stopping her ascent she sobbed and began gliding steadily high above the town, above the clouds, trying unsuccessfully to understand what was happening and where her friends were.  Three were missing and one was going insane.  ‘Wait, no it couldn’t have been.  I thought I saw the bag of sugar wearing Rarity’s butterfly pin.  I must have been seeing things while she was yelling at me.

It’s a bag of sugar wearing a party hat.  It could be have been anything.’  Smiling a little twilight turned and headed for Fluttershys cottage.  Landing quickly, startling some birds and critters causing them to scurry and fly away, twilight knocked on the door roughly and opened the door, jumping in almost head butting the shy yellow Pegasus pony.