Sugarcube Corner was silent and dark. Where sounds of children laughing and friends chatting in familiar comfort usually dwelt, there was only the gentle breathing of ponies at rest. Where joyful lights and bright ponies would dance about the store, only the flicker of a street lamp filled the empty foyer. Where smells of cakes and pies being baked usually wafted, now there was only the lingering scent of a dying fire.
This was to be expected, of course, as it was the middle of the night and every building in Ponyville was in a similar state of rest and quiet.
Eventually, however, a sound that did not fit into the nighttime hush pierced the silence around the bakery. The echo of hoofsteps and the jingle of keys, muffled somewhat by the wooden door, announced the arrival of another pony to the humble shop and, with a creak that would have been undetectable in the day but echoed with ringing clarity so late at night, the door swung open.
The moonlight streaming in through the door, creating a silhouette of a small frame and a poofy mane, made the arriving pony easy to identify as she fumbled around for a light.
“Pinkie Pie.”
Pinkie let out a startled yelp and caught the lightswitch with her flailing hoof. Light flooded into the store and Maud blinked a few times to make her eyes adjust.
“Maud?” Pinkie breathed, staring at her sister. Maud was sitting comfortably at one of the many tables around Sugarcube Corner. She hadn’t moved in hours, so much was her stillness that she had as much presence as the chair she sat upon.
“Hello,” Maud greeted, finally finishing her last blink and locking eyes with her sister, “I’m glad that you’re home.”
Pinkie blinked back, panting hard to regain her breath from her sudden fright and most likely searching her mind for words. In those quiet moments, Maud took in her sister’s appearance.
Pinkie was a mess. In fact, ‘pink’ was a long stretch to describe her at the moment. Her coat was filthy; dirt covered it in almost a complete blanket and a splattering of mud caused it to matt badly in places. Maud could even see a few nicks and bruises where the dirt wasn’t fully embedded into her fur. Her mane, no longer in its usual tight curls, was instead a rat’s nest atop her head, with twigs and leaves sticking out of it in random intervals, the tail in even worse condition. Her sister looked like she had just been dragged through the forest by her ears.
“Maud, what are you doing sitting all alone in the dark?”
Maud mentally shook herself out of her thoughts and turned to indicate the sign on the door. “The shop is closed.”
Pinkie giggled and snorted. “No one’s going to come in this late at night. At least, I don’t think any tourists are in town today.” She shook her head, a little harder than needed. “But what are you doing here in the dark, silly? Shouldn’t you be at your cool cave place outside of town? It’s...” she searched around for a clock and when none presented itself, shrugged noncommittally, “...really late.”
“Your letter said you’d be home tonight.” Maud replied, adjusting said letter from its place on the table. “I was waiting for you.”
“Aw Maud, you didn’t have to do that.” A huge yawn broke her train of thought and she swayed gently on her hooves. “Oh wow, am I tired. It was super sweet that you stayed up for me but I got a bath and bed with my name on it.”
“Pinkie…” Maud said as her sister made to trot past her. “Pinkie, you’re bleeding.”
“Huh?” Pinkie stopped and followed Maud’s eyes down to her own left hind leg. Sure enough, a thin trail of blood snaked down her leg and onto the floor.
Pinkie grimaced. “Oh shoot. I’m going to have to clean that up before I go to bed. Blood is super hard to get out once- ack!”
She was cut off as her leg was yanked out from under her and she tumbled to the floor.
“You’re bleeding,” Maud repeated, scrutinizing the wound, “How did this happen?”
“I don’t know,” Pinkie grunted from the floor, “there were a lot of slashy things and thorns and sharp tree branches. It could have been anything.”
“It looks like a knife cut.”
“Well then that was probably it.” Pinkie confirmed, yawning again, “Like I said, lots of slashy things.”
Maud was still a moment, just staring at the blood running down her sister’s leg and processing what she said. “I need to clean this.”
Pinkie looked like she was about to protest, and Maud expected her to, but instead she just slumped into a more relaxed position and nodded. “Okie dokie, the emergency kit is in the broom closet. Top shelf.”
Maud got up and fetched the first aid kit, one ear turned towards her sister even as she left the room. But Pinkie didn’t move in the entire time she was gone. She just laid there on the floor, breathing slow with her head resting on her forelegs and her eyes half closed.
“Pinkie?” Maud called when she sat back down next to her. “Are you sure you’re alright?”
“Yeah, of course,” Pinkie mumbled into her hooves, “I’m so tired though, like I said. Just gonna… maybe fall asleep.”
Maud extracted the disinfectant cloth from the first aid kit and… hesitated.
“This is going to sting.”
Pinkie Pie giggled. “I know that silly filly. Just hurry up so I can get all this dirt off my coat.”
Maud nodded and set to work cleaning the cut. Pinkie, for her part, didn’t even flinch as the disinfectant went to work, she just started humming quietly to herself. The cut wasn’t that bad, once it was cleaned up. It was longer than a nick but quite shallow. Almost like the baker had just gotten too enthusiastic chopping food.
Except it hadn’t been an accident.
Good thing her sister’s reflexes where on par with a Pegasus. Pinkie was the quickest pony Maud knew besides Pinkie’s Wonderbolt friend.
Except that it nearly hadn’t been enough.
What if next time it wasn’t enough?
“Done,” Maud said after she had bandaged the leg. Pinkie rose to her hooves and Maud couldn’t help but stare as her sister slowly, slowly, stretched out every muscle. “Are you alright?”
Pinkie blinked at her. “Are you alright? You keep asking that same question a whole bunch tonight.”
“Sorry, I’m just…” Maud paused, what was she feeling? “...worried…” But the word seemed so inadequate.
Pinkie giggled again. “Well, don’t be silly filly. I’m home now, right?”
Maud nodded slowly as Pinkie headed once again to the stairs.
“Okie dokie, I’m going to go take a bath now. I’ll be down real soon okay?”
“Do you need anything?” Maud asked, a little quicker than usual.
Pinkie paused and visibly thought about it. “Hmmm, well you can make me a sandwich or something if you want. I’m actually super duper hungry.” She stuck out her tongue. “We had to graze the last little bit and let me tell you, wild grass is mega gross.”
“I’ll make you something,” Maud promised as she watched her sister’s tail disappear up the stairs.
Maud stared after her a few moments until she heard the water start to run. She then, reluctantly, headed into the kitchen and started on a simple peanut butter and honey sandwich. She would have made something more, or even gotten a pastry she knew her sister liked, but this wasn’t her food to mess with and she had never been that at ease in a kitchen anyway.
She made three sandwiches in as many minutes and then sat back and listened to the water run above her.
And run.
And run.
And ru-
Maud was up the stairs in a under a second. There were many kinds of precognition in the world. Pinkie Sense, scrying, whatever it was Discord did so he could always bother you at the worst times. But none were stronger than a Big Sister Sense.
Maud opened the bathroom door in, what for her was a panic, but for others might be a brisk trot. She could hear the running water more clearly now but it was mixed in with the sound of gentle snoring.
Pinkie was draped over the edge of the tub, fast asleep as the water rose nearer and nearer the lip, threatening to overflow and slip the sleeping pony under the water.
“Pinkie,” Maud cried, a shift in pitch being clearly displayed, as she rushed over and shut off the water.
“W-wha?” Pinkie murmured, blinking her eyes drowsily, “What happen…”
“You fell asleep,” Maud replied evenly, draining some of the water and giving her sister a long look, “That is very dangerous.”
Pinkie blinked at her, wide eyed, before bursting into a fit of giggles. “Oh how silly would that have been! I just saved the world and then I drown in the tub. Dashie would have a fit at how lame that would be.”
Maud didn’t say anything. She had to keep herself from clenching her jaw.
“Thanks for the save Maudy,” Pinkie said after the giggles had subsided, “But I really gotta take this bath and go to bed. So shoo, shoo!”
“Pinkie…” Maud protested as Pinkie tried to nudge her to the door, “Can’t I…”
“You are not helping me.” It was practically a proclamation and even though there was still humor in Pinkie’s voice, the steely gaze she bore made it clear there wasn’t going to be any other arrangement. “I’ll be fine Maud, I’m not a little filly.”
Maud reluctantly nodded her head and left the room, shutting the door behind her.
She didn’t go far though. She sat down right outside the bathroom door and listened carefully.
She sat and listened as Pinkie splashed the water gently, as she hummed an improvised tune to herself, as she constructed an epic adventure featuring Dr. Quackers and Gummy. Maud sat there until she heard the bath water drain away and only then did she get up and go back downstairs.
Pinkie appeared not a minute later, her coat sparkling and her voluminous mane and tail wrapped in towels. She took one look at the sandwiches Maud had laid out and practically started drooling. “Oh boy PB&H my favorite!”
Maud felt her mouth go dry as she got a better look at Pinkie. All the dirt, mud, and… and blood had been cleaned off but there were still speckles of dark spots underneath the pink coat. It wasn’t until Pinkie was sitting right next to her, happily munching on a sandwich, that Maud realized they were bruises.
Some of them had a very distinct horseshoe shape.
Maud opened her mouth… and then closed it when no words volunteered themselves. Pinkie was just sitting there. Eating a sandwich with a tired little smile like she didn’t look like she had just climbed out of a war. She wasn’t saying anything, and Maud couldn’t bring herself to break the silence either.
She desperately wished their positions were switched. Not only because she would have given anything to be the one hurt instead of her little sister, but because Pinkie was just so much better at… feelings… and words.
She would know right away how to cheer her up and make everything, not better per say, but a little brighter. That was who she was and even what her cutie mark depicted, but Maud knew that her little sister couldn’t very well comfort herself.
And Pinkie obviously needed to be comforted.
Maud wished anyone was in her place instead. Absolutely anyone would have a better time… not just sitting there. For the first time in a very long while, Maud wished her own older sister was there so she didn’t have to be.
That thought... was actually a little amusing.
“Imagine what Limestone would do if she saw you.”
Maud hadn’t meant to say that, it just slipped out.
Pinkie swallowed her bite of sandwich and grinned at her. “Oh, she would flip out! Remember when I tripped over a rock and she beat it up for making me scrap my knee?” Pinkie sat up a little straighter and growled her next words in a hilariously poor intimidation of the oldest Pie sister. “If she was here she’d be all like ‘Pinkie, who did this to you? I’ll beat them up. I swear I will make them pay. I will do it just watch. What do you mean I can’t do that? Princess of what? Friendship? Friendship doesn’t beat things up idiot!’”
Pinkie giggled loudly and rocked back in her chair. “If only she knew! Oh, I can just see her trying to hunt down the scary cult leaders that ‘dared hurt her little sister.’” Pinkie’s laughter trailed off and she looked down at her hooves with a pensive expression. “Maud? Can you pretty please not tell her. She might actually do that and I don’t want her getting caught up in some magical mishap thingy and getting hurt.”
Maud wanted to yell and she couldn’t keep her next words from slipping out. “But it’s alright if you get hurt?”
Pinkie cocked her head to the side and scrunched her muzzle in bemusement. “Well duh, it’s kinda my job.”
“Your job,” Maud said, in a tone that could even be classified as a snap, “is to make cakes. You’re a pastry chef, not a… soldier...”
Pinkie rolled her eyes and finished off her sandwiches. “Well, I have two jobs then. I can’t just not save the world.”
“Why not?” Maud demanded, her tone earning her, a concerned glance from her sister. “Why can’t somepony else? Why do you have to?”
Pinkie thought about that question. Her small smile turned into a frown as she stared down at her hooves. “Because… I did. When something super scary and bad was happening me, and my friends didn’t run away, we ran towards the danger and saved the day.” She nodded and turned back to Maud, smile returning. “I have to save the world because I will save the world.”
“Well… you shouldn’t,” Maud declared, pressing her hoof down on her chair quick enough for it to make a clicking sound, “You shouldn’t be allowed to put yourself in danger just because you can. I...I should have never let you come to Ponyville.”
That was the wrong thing to say.
Pinkie froze and slowly turned to face her sister. “You… you shouldn’t have let me? You should have what? Just… forced me to stay back on the farm? Against my will? So I couldn’t save the world? How would you have done that? Lock me in the silo?”
Maud didn’t flinch. “You would have been safe. You wouldn’t be in danger all the time. When I first visited... you almost got crushed, was that normal, too?”
Pinkie grew red, but from anger or embarrassment, Maud couldn’t tell. “Well, what if it was? That still doesn’t give you any right to try to tell me what to do.”
“You could have died. How is that okay?”
Hooves were thrown into the air. “Everypony could have been killed! If I hadn’t gone to stop these guys they would have destroyed the world.”
“Why can’t someone else stop them?” Maud protested, “Other ponies must like running blindly into danger. You’re barely an adult, you can’t-”
“I am an adult!” Pinkie was shouting now, “And I’ve been doing this. For. Years! I don’t need you to tell me how to live my life!”
“I want to keep you safe.”
“You want to baby me! You know, if I knew this was going to happen I wouldn’t have let you move to Ponyville!”
Maud drew back slightly, but her stupid mouth wasn’t letting her sister get the last say. “Well maybe we should have both just stayed home where we belong.”
“I. Belong. Here! With ponies who actually trust me!” Pinkie shouted, and then wobbled, almost pitching over on her hooves.
Maud instinctively reached out but Pinkie pushed her away as she regained her footing. “I… am fine Maud. I’m going to bed now.” She stormed past her sister and up the stairs, not looking back.
“Pinkie…” Maud followed her sister up the stairs, practically on her tail as Pinkie stomped to her room, but a door shutting in her face was the only response Maud received. Maud reached for the handle but stopped as a voice spoke up from behind her.
“Leave her be, deary, she needs some time alone, I think.”
Maud turned to Mrs. Cake, who was just closing the door to her own bedroom. One of Maud’s ears twitched and she lowered her head apologetically. “I’m sorry that we woke you, Mrs. Cake.”
The older mare waved her hoof dismissively, “Oh you didn’t wake me dear, I’ve been up for hours.”
Maud blinked at her. “Why?”
Mrs. Cake gave her a small, sympathetic smile. “You can’t think you’re the only one worried about Pinkie, can you?” If Maud had anything to say in response to that, she didn’t get the chance. Mrs. Cake walked past her, back down the stairs, and gestured for Maud to follow. “Come along, deary, I think you and me need to have a little talk.”
Maud took one last look behind her at Pinkie’s door before obediently following the other mare.
Mrs. Cake took a seat in the chair Maud had been using and patted the one next to her. “Do you need some food deary? Or something to drink?”
“No, thank you,” Maud replied, sitting next to the older mare, her gaze wandering back to the stairs. “You’ve been awake this whole time?”
Mrs. Cake nodded. “Oh yes, I always stay up on the nights Pinkie says she’s going to be home.”
Maud frowned. “Why didn’t you come down?”
“Although she doesn’t say so, I know Pinkie usually needs some alone time after one of her adventures.”
Maud shifted in her seat and turned to face the older pony. “She was hurt.”
Mrs. Cake lowered her head, her eyes chasing the lines in the wooden floor, she brought it back up a few seconds later and Maud realized that the gesture was meant to be a nod. “She usually is.”
Maud felt a twinge of some very negative emotion. “Then why not do something? She’s out there risking her life.”
Mrs. Cake raised a brow at her. “What would you suggest I do, deary? Keep her from going? The Princess asks them to go on these missions, I can’t just lock Pinkie in her room and tell Celestia no. And Pinkie certainly wouldn’t listen to me if I told her to stay home.”
Maud didn’t have a good answer and opted to stare at her hooves while she thought. “But she could have... died…”
There was a shuddering sigh beside her. “I know. Trust me, I lay awake at night thinking that exact thought. But she’s right, if she doesn’t go, the world could end, and we all could.”
“It’s not fair…” Maud protested lamely, unable to come up with any sort of counterpoint, “Why does it have to be her?”
“I don’t know deary,” Mrs. Cake sighed, reaching over and pulling Maud into a warm embrace, “Fate maybe? Bad luck? It doesn’t change that it is her and we have to help in the small ways we can.”
“How?” Maud whispered into the older mare’s shoulder. “She doesn’t want my help.”
“Yes she does. She needs our help but just… not in the way you’re thinking. We can’t be there to protect her, you’re right, so we just have to be there afterwards.” Mrs. Cake pulled away and looked Maud in the eye, a small smile on her face. “We can help her by showing her we’re here and we care about her no matter what. That’s something she desperately needs to know.”
Maud sat in silence for a few minutes, thinking. “I wish I had found out about this sooner. I wish she had told me.”
“Well you know heroes, they don’t want anyone hurting over them.”
***
A few minutes later, Maud cracked open the door to Pinkie’s room. It was dark and silent but she could see the rise of fall of the covers on her sister’s bed. She slipped into the room and moved over to the bed, stepping lightly and slowly.
“Pinkie?” she whispered when she was close enough, running a hoof through the poofy mane.
Pinkie groaned and pulled her blankets up higher. “Why can’t you just let me sleep?”
“I wanted to apologize.”
Pinkie rolled over to stare up at Maud, her eyes weighed down with fatigue but wide with curiosity. “Really?”
Maud nodded. “I overreacted when I saw you hurt. I can’t tell you what to do and…” She reached over and wrapped Pinkie in a hug, being mindful to avoid any of the fresh bruises. “I’m proud of you for being so courageous. I wish I was as brave as you.”
Pinkie didn’t move for a few moments, and worry built in Maud’s chest, but then her baby sister hugged her back. “Thanks Maud… I… I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have yelled at you, and I should have told you about my adventures sooner. I didn’t mean to worry you.”
“You’ll always worry me. But that’s how I know I love you.”
