Hustle your Bustles

Pinkie jolted upright in her bed, her brow damp with sweat. Her panting was heavy and her heartbeat was fast, she had just gone through another nightmare. Pinkie took a deep breath; she gently wiped the sweat from her pink forehead as she sighed. All she could remember from the dream was the sight of herself in a coffin, most definitely a vision. Pinkie looked around the brightly lit room, the clock read 8am. Pinkie took another sigh of relief before swinging her hooves out of bed and onto the chilled tiled floor, she looked down to see the rash had come back and was seriously irritating her.

Pinkie slowly made her way out the door; she could smell delicious food being cooked right out her door. As Pinkie swung the door open, she immediately collided with a lavender unicorn. Twilight tumbled over top of Pinkie yet managed to keep the tray floating and balanced perfectly; she then had to focus on getting off of Pinkie.

As Pinkie looked up to her friend, in a large glowing smile she squeaked, “Morning Twilight!”

Twilight gently blushed as she responded, “Good morning Pinkie, we made you breakfast.”

Pinkie continued to stare into her best friend’s eyes. She would simply lay there for the rest of the day if it meant she could be with Twilight, yet she had a list that needed filling. Pinkie shook her head a bit, “Oh, thanks again girls,” she called out over Twilight’s shoulder and into the kitchen. Pinkie returned to looking at Twilight as she continued, “so do you mind if I eat in my room?”

Twilight smiled brightly as she said, “Oh well don’t worry we already had our breakfasts.” Twilight quickly backed off of her friend, she didn’t want to keep her pink pal from her delicious pancakes any longer. As soon as Twilight lifted herself from Pinkie, she noticed how Pinkie would continue to stare into Twilight’s eyes and not on the food.

Pinkie began rubbing her hoof on the back of her head as she said with rosy cheeks, “Would you like to join me?”

Twilight was a little surprised by this, yet was somehow expecting her to ask that. Twilight simply smiled as she replied in her kind voice, “I’d love to.”

*****

A good fifteen minutes had gone by, Pinkie and Twilight simply sat on the bed as the pink partyholic nomed on her breakfast. As Pinkie gobbled her breakfast, Twilight spoke calmly, “So,” she began while she thought of a topic, “what’s next on your list?”

Pinkie wiped the syrup from her mouth, leaving a long smear of sticky syrup across her face, she hopped down from the bed and pulled out the list from her drawer and began to read aloud, “See a Micolt Jackson concert…” Pinkie looked up from her sheet of paper as she continued in a slightly disappointed look, “His next concert is on the other side of Equestria.”

Twilight simply winked, “That’s nothing to worry about, Pinkie,” said Twilight Sparkle, “with this certificate to free stuff, we can go wherever we want and buy whatever we want. Do you know when his next concert is?”

Pinkie opened up her saddlebag; she pulled out her old celebrity magazine with Fluttershy on the cover. She quickly flipped through the pages as her eyes rolled from left to right and back, quickly flipping pages until she landed on the concert schedule. Pinkie planted her hoof in victory upon the page, causing it to wrinkle slightly as she announced proudly, “The next concert is tomorrow night at Trottingham Palace, apparently it’s to welcome Shining Armor and Cadence on their honeymoon.”

Twilight quickly gathered all the cutlery and dishes from Pinkie’s bed, using her magic to swiftly lift them into the air as she insisted, “Well then we better hurry,” began Twilight, “the ride there will take half a day or so, plus all the stops along the way will put us closer to arriving at night.”

Twilight quickly trotted out of the room, Pinkie bouncing behind her as she squeaked with excitement causing her headache to slightly hurt, “This is going to be so much fun! I can’t wait to see Micolt for real!”

Twilight entered the kitchen, a look of determination as she announced, “Alright girls, we’ve tackled a few things on Pinkie’s list so far, but two checkmarks isn’t enough to make it a complete list. We are heading to Trottingham Palace!”

Applejack’s eyes widened with fear as she uttered nervously, “Trottingham? You mean one of the most froo-frooy places on the planet?”

Rarity’s eyes widened with surprize as she stuttered, “Trottingham? You mean one of the most sophisticated places on the planet?”

As the two finished their obvious questions, the two joined in union, “What’re we going there for?”

Twilight pulled from Pinkie’s mouth the copy of the concert dates as she answered, “The Micolt Jackson Concert.”

The room filled with silence, nopony said anything about how excited they were. Not even Rainbow Dash, she simply kept her head on the windowsill as she glared out the window towards the busy streets below. Pinkie Pie approached Dash, “Micolt Jackson, Dash,” Pinkie began, “shouldn’t you be excited for that?”

Dash shook her head as she continued staring out the window, “I don’t have to jump for joy at everything I like,” she said without so much as even looking towards her friends, “can we just go already so we don’t miss anything?”

Pinkie backed away slightly, she had a sense of confusion envelop her as questions filled her mind, yet all she said was, “Alright, let’s go girls!”

*****

Once the packing had finished, Pinkie along with Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity made their ways towards the elevators. Twilight looked their way from the hotel room as she called out, “We’ll just be a few seconds, meet us down there.” The girls simply nodded and closed the elevator doors behind them before making their way to the ground floor. Once Twilight had reassured herself that nopony else was there but Rainbow Dash and her, she turned around and asked the cyan pegasus in a stern voice, “Alright, Dash, what’s going on?”

Dash turned towards Twilight with a look as though she had no idea what was going on, “What are you talking about?”

“You know darn well what I’m talking about,” said the well-educated unicorn, “your attitude towards Pinkie and the rest of the group lately. Have you no knowledge on what you might be doing to Pinkie emotionally?”

Dash simply cocked her head back in an exasperated manner as she sighed, “Look, Twilight, nothing is going on. I’m just having a bad week, that’s all. Now let’s get out of here.” Dash then grabbed her bags in her mouth to throw over her flank and began to flutter out of the room, leaving a confused Twilight alone.

Twilight looked towards the hallway as she spoke to herself, “She says it’s nothing,” she then turned to the mirror to see herself as she continued, “but what if she’s hiding something bigger than I can imagine?”