Pink

The last thing Pinkie remembered before drifting off to sleep was the warm sensation of Twilight’s breath against her cheeks, as well as the gentle rocking of the hammock they rested in. Throughout the night, Pinkie would often wake up from nightmares only to sigh with relief for Twilight was still beneath her (she really liked Twilight as a purple pillow). While it may have been the rocking of the hammock and Twilight’s breathing that put Pinkie to sleep, it was the soft fur of a friend that kept Pinkie sleeping. When dawn arrived, the warmth of summer’s day slowly began to bathe the entire city of Manehattan in warmth. The common city sounds began to make themselves heard as time moved on, the city night lights turning off to make way for day’s activities.

Pinkie slowly awoke from her sleep, her brow was damp with sweat despite being slightly chilled throughout the night. Quickly dismissing it, Pinkie gently pressed the side of her face into Twilight’s abdomen. The soft and short fur brushed against her face, reminding her of how generous Twilight was to offer her to join. She slowly made her way up to Twilight’s snout, her eyes still droopy with sleep. As she stared at the still sleeping face of Twilight, thoughts of all kinds ran through her head, thoughts that she immediately regretted.

Pinkie continued to stare down at her lavender friend, her face still at peace in the world of dreams. Pinkie began to think of how wonderful it would be to gently wake her friend, to see her rub her eyes before smiling innocently like a foal on the morning of his or her birthday. Pinkie brought her nose closer to Twilight’s, nearly pressing it against hers as she whispered, “Good morning sleepy head.”

What came out of Twilight was a yawn, innocent and adorable at first, but then the smell hit Pinkie. Pinkie’s nostrils began to burn with the smell of morning breath, her eyes nearly watering as she jerked her head back with a giggle.

Twilight began to blink, her left eye blinking slightly after her right as she groggily mumbled, “Morning Pinkie,” Twilight began, “ready to go play tourist in Manehattan?”

Pinkie hopped out of bed, she noticed that her rash wasn’t as bad as usual and her headache wasn’t pounding like a guido’s fist. She smiled with glee, “Woah, woah, woah, Twilight, we need to get some breakfast first.”

Twilight began to climb out of the hammock, she rubbed her nose with her hooves as she grumbled, “I’m sure the restaurant downstairs is serving breakfast.”

Once Twilight had managed to get onto her hooves, the two ponies opened the sliding balcony door to the kitchen. The two jumped in shock as the other four chanted with glee, “Good morning!” Pinkie was already on the floor, clutching her heart as she breathlessly laughed and smiled with surprized joy.

Applejack pulled her chef’s hat from her head, “Rarity, Fluttershy, and I decided that we’d make some breakfast fer y’all. Ah made some good Coltamalan coffee as well as some blueberry pancakes.” Applejack quickly noticed how everypony in the room was looking at her with eyes of confusion, their minds all questioning whether they heard right. Applejack sighed, “Just cause I’m part of the Apple family does not mean Ah hate every other fruit out there. In fact, despite being an Apple lover, Ah also support Blackberry production.”

Rainbow Dash trotted up next to Applejack as she interjected, “But aren’t Apples and Blackberries completely different product chains?”

The orange farmer rolled her eyes as she replied, “Yes… in the big cities they are top competitors for similar audiences, but since Blackberries have begun to drop in sales ever since their CEO backed out Ah’ve decided to help to my best to keep their sales going.”

Twilight quickly raised her hoof to quiet the two ponies, “Well thank you Applejack for the delicious looking breakfast.”

*****

Once breakfast had been eaten, Rarity had already prettied herself up for their outing of the day as she announced, “Alright everypony, let’s not dilly dally today. We want to get the most out of this day as possible.”

Dash shrugged, “Alright, well thanks for the grub AJ.” The cyan pegasus then proceeded to quickly wipe her mouth and leave the table, it seemed as though something was off about the way she said it. Pinkie noticed how Rainbow wasn’t looking in her direction often as though she wasn’t there, yet the idea of such a thing didn’t deserve a second thought so Pinkie immediately dismissed it.

Pinkie looked over to Twilight and the rest as she said with a smile, “Hold on, I need to clean up a bit. I may be a party pony, but even I need some class.” She said as she pointed towards her messy bed-mane. Twilight and Shy both figured they might as well clean up before the outing, despite knowing how much Rarity hated waiting.

*****

A few hours had passed, those few hours being very well spent. Pinkie managed to see an actual Broadway musical; she even got to see the large statue that represented liberty in Equestria. To Pinkie, it wasn’t an option to not pose in a photo with
the mare of liberty. After a while they began to get hungry, noon had recently passed and the sun was high in the sky. Pinkie began to lead the group around the busier parts of the city, looking for any form of restaurant to feed them.

After what felt like an eternity, Pinkie managed to find an authentic Manehattan restaurant. As she stared at the building, she squeaked with glee, “Girls, we have to eat at this restaurant!”

Rarity gave off a look of disgust as she scoffed, “But why would you ever want to eat at this… thing?”

Pinkie grinned from ear to ear, her eyes as wide as saucers as she stated, “Because it’s a generic Manehattan restaurant, in Manehattan! It’s not like the other ones in Ponyville where they pretend to be grouchy, the ponies here really are sweaty and greasy and they really do hat it when you cant decide!”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes as she sighed, “Fine… lets go and get something.” With that, Dash along with the rest of the group trotted through the ringing doors as the smell of deep fryers blasted out in a cloud of heat. The restaurant had red faux-leather seats and black and white tiles on the floor, the jukebox still kicking rock and roll from thirty years ago. The tables were well rounded and were surrounded by bench like seats on one end and stools on the other end of the table, boxes of tissues in metal containers rested on the tables along with paper menus. The inside smelled of smoke that was unfamiliar to Pinkie, it wasn’t the kind of smoke one smelled when food was burning and it kind of choked you unless you had an open window next to you.

Pinkie sat down at the largest bench along with the rest of her friends, she spun her head around in amazement at all the beautiful pictures of classic chariots with inappropriate statements about mares. As she watched her friends join her, she eagerly picked up a menu into her hooves as she squeaked, “This is soo much fun!”

Fluttershy seemed rather frightened by her new surroundings, yet she managed a smile onto her face as she whispered,
“Whatever makes you happy, Pinkie.”

Applejack looked outside the window next to their seat as she said with her face pressed against the glass, “Ah can’t understand why you’d want to come to a place like this, Pinkie.”

The sudden clearing of a mare’s throat caught their attention, they all turned to see a young mare still in her adolescence say in an exasperated tone, “Welcome to Filthy Mc. Nasty, my name is Flare and I’ll be serving you tonight. Now are you going to order or what?”

Pinkie turned to her friends as she pointed at the mare and whispered from behind her menu, “See girls? She’s actually annoyed by us.” Pinkie then raised her head from the menu and said with a grin, “I’ll have the sloppy veggie burger with a milkshake.”

Twilight looked at her menu before reading aloud, “I’ll have the… legit salad?”

Rarity nodded her head towards Twilight, “I’ll have what she’s having.”

Applejack gave a quick glance over the pretty pictures, she didn’t bother to read the names and instead turned the menu to face the mare as she said, “I’ll have whatever that is.”

The dull grey unicorn’s horn lit up, a pen floated upwards and scribbled onto her note as she mumbled to herself, “One… spaghetti.”

Fluttershy hid behind her menu, she barely peeked her eyes over the paper as she squeaked, “I’ll just have a salad, please?”

Rainbow Dash looked down at the menu, her eyes fixated on one specific image. Dash looked at the rest of the group with a look of triumph as she said, “I… am going to have an order of hay fries in a… super-duper-rally-ooper-ultra-mega-uber large format?”

Flare looked at the pegasus with a fake look of impression before writing it down and saying in a bland and annoyed voice, “Thank you for coming to Filthy Mc. Nasty’s, your orders will be here whenever.” With that, the unhappy unicorn trotted off to post the order in front of the chef.

The group sat there, looks of confusion on their faces. All of them seemed confused except for Pinkie, Twilight forced a smile onto her face as she broke the silence, “Well… that was…”

Dash sat there, her hooves crossed as she said with a look of disappointment, “Dumb?”

Pinkie nearly jumped onto the table when she heard Dash say that, all the reasons why she chose this rushed to her brain as she exclaimed, “Uh, no! That was awesome! I’ve always wanted to be scolded at by someone who was self centered and considered their life to be the worst!”

Dash looked towards Pinkie, “I thought you wanted everypony to be your friend, why are you so okay with her being like that towards you?”

Pinkie winked at her rainbow friend, “Just watch,” she said with a smile in the corner of her mouth. As the waitress came back, food floating close behind her, Pinkie looked up at her as she said with a very calm tone, “so… Flare right?”

Flare simply stared at Pinkie, her jaw slacking every time her mouth opened as she chewed her gum, “Yeah.”

“I couldn’t help but notice that the corners of your eyes are rather reddish pink and your wrist is showing a ring of pale fur from being covered by a bracelet. What happened to him?”

Flare simply stared at Pinkie, she was absolutely dumbfounded by this level of intelligence in what appeared to be a less than average pony. Her olive green eyes began to fill with tears as she said with a strong look, “Nothing happened, lady.”

Pinkie gave a warm smile as she continued to work her magic, “I know the difference between ‘nothing’ and ‘nothing’. He left you didn’t he?”

Flare’s eyes widened with surprize even more than before, she began to clutch the wrist that once held the bracelet as she said, “It was supposed to be our anniversary tomorrow. Turns out I wasn’t the right type of mare for him.”

Pinkie began to scooch over, she made room for Flare to sit down next to her as she said, “You know what? I don’t think that he deserved you.”

“Beg pardon?” said the teary eyed unicorn.

“So Mr. Dumpy grumpy broke up with you because he has no taste, from the look of your cutie mark I’d say you have a talent in dance.” Pinkie made a quick glance at the tap dancing cutie mark on her flank; she knew that this mare had talent.

“Yeah, but where in the wide world of Equestria am I going to find a job out of dance? Where am I going to find anything in life out of dancing in this day of age?”

Pinkie motioned her head towards the outside sidewalk as she said, “A cutie mark doesn’t mean what your job is; it means what you’re good at. It’s what makes you special. You can keep working this job here, but after hours you should be out on the streets dancing your heart out. As for the job in dancing, you must be loco in the coco not to think of Broadway as your future.”

Flare rolled her eyes in the adolescent manner as she said with a sigh, “But I don’t do that specific kind of dance. My dance is more... rave.”

Pinkie raised an eyebrow, she became interested as she said curiously, “Well… what kind of dance would that be?”

Flare smirked, “You really wanna see?”

*****

Flare managed to talk her boss into letting her off work early, he wasn’t too happy about it of course. As soon as they exited the street, Flare looked around at the towering buildings as she said, “Alright so lets look for the nearest rave and”

Pinkie quickly interjected, “Oh no, no, no, you’re gonna do it right here!”

Flare’s eyes widened with surprize as she said whilst looking at her surrounding area, “I can’t dance here!” Flare suddenly began to buckle at the knees, she began to feel extremely nervous about dancing in front of everypony.

Pinkie nodded her head with a look of dedication as she said, “Yeah, don’t worry about a radio, I already have one.” Pinkie then pulled from a trashcan a large silver box with two slots one being half the length of the other one, Pinkie looked at her group as she said, “I have radios stashed around the country, in case of a musical emergency.” Pinkie dropped it onto the ground, causing a loud thud as she said, “What’ll it be, CD or vinyl?”

Flare’s horn sprung to life, she pulled from her saddlebag a small CD case that read “Hardstyle/Jumpstyle.”

Flare looked at it as she whispered to herself, “Please don’t let me down.” With that done, Flare pulled the disc from its case and inserted it into Pinkie’s machine. A heavy beat began to play, it was rhythmic and heavy with bass that almost destroyed the speakers. The music was very similar to DJ P0N-3’s music, yet this style seemed rather repetitive and was better suited for rave’s that didn’t require singing.

Flare skipped through her songs until reaching one particular song. As soon as the beat started, Flare was already on her hind hooves and was shuffling as best as she could. Pinkie watched in awe as she exclaimed, “Wow so this is the kind of dance kids are into these days?”

Flare turned around as she stopped shuffling, “Yeah not many ponies on this side of the country know about it, it’s mostly an eastern thing.” With that, Flare resumed her shuffling. As she slid from side to side, her face appearing to be in a trance, passers-by began to watch as she appeared to simply glide across the hard pavement in nothing but her shoes. As the beat quickly finished, Flare crouched down and twisted her forelegs around before spinning 900 degrees and simply trotting off.

As she trotted off, a colt emerged from the crowd as he announced, “Hardstyle eh? I thought I was the only one!”

Flare turned around, her face struck with bewilderment and her mouth cracked a smile, “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

The dark brown colt stood on his hind legs, his unicorn magic sprung to life and transformed his color pattern into a rave suited style. His brown coat quickly turned jet black, neon greens, yellows, and whites surrounded his forelegs as well as his hind legs. The colt quickly burst into the very same kind of dance, he jumped into the air as he spun three times around before landing perfectly and appearing to run in place. The crowd watched in awe as the colt glided even more smoothly across the pavement, never breaking his eye contact with the now blushing Flare. Once the beat took a break once more, the colt trotted off to meet her as he said, “By the way, the name’s Silver Step, what’s yours?”

Flare tried to look away, she couldn’t help but smile as she said shyly, “My name’s Flare. Do you wanna…” Flare paused for a couple of seconds; she began to shy away until something appeared to click inside her head. She slowly turned around to face her fears and said bravely, “You wanna do a duet?”

Step looked towards the empty dance space; the beat was beginning once more at the heaviest part. Step quickly made his way to the center along with Flare where they simply stood together. The beat quickly resumed and they jumped together, it was almost as though the two were reading each other’s minds as they shuffled in perfect synchronization.

Pinkie watched in joy as the new couple danced together in harmony, they spun around each other until the very end of the song where they joined together in a hug. The crowd appeared to have enjoyed the free performance before slowly resuming their original businesses and trotting along, leaving Flare and Silver Step to look at each other with smiles across their faces.

Pinkie leaned over towards Dash as she whispered, “See? Your old auntie Pinkie has everything planned out.” Pinkie looked over her shoulder to see Dash, her mouth agape with awe. Pinkie giggled as she looked at the new couple, “Now that wasn't so bad, was it?”

Flare giggled with joy, she quickly looked towards the pink pony and said with a look of gratitude, “Thanks, if it weren’t for you, I wouldn't have been able to have the best day of my life.”

Pinkie winked, “All in a day’s work,” she began, “now don’t you two have a talent show to get on or something?”

*****

Nightfall had come once more, the girls had returned to their villa with shopping bags filled with goodies. Twilight didn’t seem to have bought anything other than books and supplies for her library while Dash had bought more Wonderbolts posters. Applejack had bought herself a new pair of boots and a book on recipes while Rarity had her truckload bags of slippers and shoes of all kinds. Fluttershy had with her some pet toys for when she returned while Pinkie decided to buy herself some party hats to stack on her head.

As they all made their way into the room, Twilight looked over to Pinkie as she said with a look of wonder in her eyes, “That was something, Pinkie,” the lavender unicorn began, “Not only did you give her a career, a day of happiness, but you also gave her what appeared to be a crush.”

Pinkie rolled her eyes and shrugged, “Like I said, all in a day’s work.”

Rarity began to yawn, she looked over to the clock before saying in a surprized tone, “Goodness look at the time, we better be heading off to bed.”

Dash stretched out her limbs before saying to the group, “Good night girls, see you in the morning.” With that, she dragged herself to her room and shut the door behind her.

Applejack approached Pinkie and hugged her, Applejack made sure to remember every last hug given and received as she said, “Good night, Pinkie, tomorrow morning will be just as fun.”

Pinkie winked, “You bet!”

Rarity cooed from her room, “Goodnight everypony.”

Fluttershy quickly responded through a yawn, “Goodnight, sweet dreams.”

Only Twilight and Pinkie remained, the two remained silent for a bit. Neither talked for they had nothing to talk about, they simply stared at the walls for a few awkward minutes. Twilight looked over to Pinkie and gave her a hug, she noticed how Pinkie’s forehead felt rather warmer than usual and her rash had slightly reseeded. Twilight brushed her nose through Pinkie’s pink mane as she mumbled, “Goodnight, Pinkie. Sweet dreams.” With that, Twilight trotted off, she looked towards the party pony as she closed her doors, a smile from ear to ear until the door was shut.

Pinkie simply sat in the room, alone. She couldn’t get the image of Flare and her potential boyfriend out of her head. She couldn't forget the way they looked at each other when they realized that they clicked, and the more she thought about it only made her wish she would fall in love sooner. Pinkie sighed as she quietly whispered to herself, “Goodnight girls, especially Twilight.” With that, Pinkie looked around the room one last time. It was rather depressing knowing that this was the last night she might have in Manehattan, but nowhere near as depressing as the fact that her days were growing shorter and she needed everypony to know sooner or later about who she truly was.

Pinkie looked out the window only to see her reflection, her pink mane beginning to darken and straighten out as she continued to think of depressing thoughts. After what felt like an eternity, Pinkie pushed a tear out of her eye as she began to cry silently. As she inhaled and exhaled, she began to cough. Being the polite pony she needed to be, she covered her mouth with her hoof. Something about this cough was odd though, when she moved her hoof away she noticed blood on her hoof. Pinkie quickly washed it off and mumbled to herself, “You have two months, then it’s all over.”