Perfect Moment was a mare who lived in Manehattan, in an apartment suite numbered A113; she shared it with her marefriend, Floral Print, who was an interior designer.
Perfect was a “party planner” ponies would hire her to plan and organize events for them, she would arrange everything from parties to formal get together, and on one occasion even a funeral. She knew everything there was to planning social gatherings, it was her talent. It was her talent because it was “her” talent.
Perfect Moment would sit in a small office room every day, it had originally been a walk in closet that belonged to the previous owner before She and her marefriend had moved in. everything in this office was arranged specifically in the way she felt was right and perfect for her to have it in. and if everything was right then she wouldn't feel wrong, she wouldn't feel...like she used to.
The Mare would sit in her office, working where she would occasionally brush her hoof through a salon straightened, dyed deep purple mane. As she would work Perfect Moment would sit with her window open and wait for the mail pegasus to fly by and deliver her mail that would more often than not contain a request letter for her services.
Today was no different than any other day.
“Perfect?” the cheerful voice of Floral Print rang through the apartment as the earth pony’s eyes opened in response.
“I'm in the office” She said getting out of the chair she'd been sitting in to lean out from the doorway that lead into the bedroom they shared “You're home early”
“Only by thirty minutes.” The blue unicorn smiled as she walked in “I know how you are about that, but I thought I would come home early and surprise you with-” she reached into her saddle bags a moment before pulling out a cookie speckled with white chocolate chips. The motion sweeping her light pink mane to the side a bit as the cookie floated in air.
“Eehee!” The almost frown that had formed on Perfects face immediately lifted as she snatched the cookie with her hooves, taking a bite immediately “you are amazing!” she said after swallowing the first bite, then following that with a second. “Thank you, thank you”
“I figured after the rough sleep you had last night you deserve something sweet to eat, and your favorite sweet shop is on the way over” Floral said pulling a few more things out of her saddle bags “tonight's gonna be nearly unbearable” her muzzle scrunched at the sight of the paper she'd held up in front of her “a client wants me to conceptualise a design for a 7 room house using dark colors and wants to keep the budget under ten thousand and also wants it all in two days”
“Sounds a bit on the drab side” Perfect commented as she moved to look at the floor plans her marefriend held up. “Should I clear out the office and set up your cork board?”
“That might be best, I just hope I'm not interfering with any of your stuff”
“I'll be fine, we do have the island in the kitchen for me to use” she smiled a bit forced. She didn't exactly like that she'd need to completely undo the hard organizing she'd done to the desktop area that day. but for Floral she would do anything, even if it set off her ticks. “I only got one party request today anyway, and I don't need to put any work into it until midway through the week anyhow.
“what's the format?”
“Formal....a sort of ballroom get together, masquerade theme” She hummed a moment “I'm going to have to contact the client for the more minute details, but I can manage”
“oooh~ Masquerade, like how we first met” Florals voice teased as she smiled “ you were far more shy back then” the giggle in her voice put butterflies in Perfects belly, the memory of that evening being almost terrifying.
“yeah...gosh that seemed so long ago” Perfect responded as she recalled. “Gosh...” she shivered noticeably as the memories made her nervous. She had been in manehattan for three months when they first met, she was a mess, somewhere between her old identity and her current one.
“Are you okay Perfect?” Floral asked “you're shaking a little”
She'd realized what was going on “yeah...just, dehydrated I think” she said quietly “do you want a drink?”
“I could use a water or a lemonade” she smiled and then closed the few feet between them to give her a kiss on the cheek “are your ticks acting up?”
Perfect sighed a bit and nodded, Floral was good about picking up on her attempts to shake off her panic attacks. “I'll get us some water...think you'd mind setting in bed and relaxing for a while before going to work on your project?”
“You know I'd do anything for you, Perfect” she assured her “I love you, you know that?”
a small smile crept along Perfect's face “I know. You're amazing”
“only cause you were amazing first”
A few minutes passed as Perfect quietly worked on two mugs of hot cocoa, her desire changing from water to a the calming sensation she knew chocolate could give to her anxiety. The past year she'd battled with anxiety and she'd worked hard to find herself at a spot where everything felt manageable, Her anxiety developed from a fear of slipping into old habits; she worried about becoming a form of herself that she now very much resented, but knew she could very easily slip back into if she wasn't careful, especially if she had too much fun.
“You understand me, coffee mug” she mumbled to the dark purple cup with the pink smiley face on the side she'd hold out while drinking. The mug had in fact been the very first thing she'd purchased when she'd found Manehattan and they had been through quite a bit; from shelter homes to group therapy. If it weren't for Floral, this mug would be the one companion she could consider the most important she knew. It didn't judge, it didn't hate, it didn't get jealous; It was faithful and true to her.
She turned off the burner on the stove and quickly tapped the surface of the chocolate, observing the ripples that echoed outward from the point of contact.
“Ripples”
She looked at the ripples in the pot before quickly pouring them into the two mugs, putting those mugs on a tray, and then carefully carrying them back to the bedroom.
Each Ripple was its own individually existing ripple, and each ripple that existed was identical to the last. Ripples always caused deep contemplation in the pony, ripples had created her very existence. A pool of water was her birthplace. The cause of all her issues was because she herself was very much like a ripple. A perfect copy of a less than perfect pony named; Pinkie Pie.
She barely remembered anything before the first few hours after she'd bounced away from Ponyville. The time blurred as she continued to bounce and skip along the path, in that time she remembered her main directive, having fun. She knew she was a clone then just as much as she knew now, but she hadn't “developed” that much yet, she'd skip and hum and across every little town she'd find would make a temporary friend, an act of fun occasionally earning her a few spare bits, mostly just telling jokes to sad people, helping someone in need(specifically people who looked like they weren't having fun) somehow the “oh I'm not sure where I'm going!” followed by a smile and a wave would provoke a “please let me give you a little something for your trip.” being the only thing she'd tell people when they asked where she was hopping along to.
Several days had passed and the pony who'd nearly forgotten her own name at this point found her way into Manehattan; a city of light, and opportunity, Opportunity for what? She didn't know, but there could be fun...even though the past several days had had her questioning fun, something had itched in her head asking her a few questions: Who was she exactly? Was fun as important as she thought it was? Well...she knew she had a name of pinkie pie, but it wasn't HER name, it was the original ponies name, who'd brought her out of the mirror pool. And fun WAS important, she knew that, but her travels had made her aware that other things did exist in life that were just as important.
She had noticed though,when she had fun she always got..well a little carried away, the past few places she'd found herself at nearly ran her out of town with how much excitement she'd caused, she didn't know fires could start when she got one thing too close to another, she did apologize.
A loud and angry stallion pulled her out of the fog of heavy thinking, bringing her to the reality that she was in fact standing in the middle of an intersection, with at least five or six other stallions yelling her down as well.
Somehow she thought it had been a good idea to try and start a dance party in the middle of the street.
Three days later, a night spent in holding in the local police station and one spent in a motel room she realised the biggest problem in her life. Manehattan did not like fun. And she was starting to question how much fun, her style of fun was. Which had been making things hard since she seemed to have these spontaneous outburst where she'd lose control and only be interested in having- “FUN!” The pink pony shot up about four feet into the air, her mane and tail bouncing and puff out enthusiastically . She immediately clapped a hoof to her mouth as she landed, realising this could lead to more problems...she'd already had strangers looking at her funny, and the nice police stallion had told her if he had to have her in again she'd probably have to go see court...she didn't know what that meant, but she sure didn't want to find out, that definitely didn't sound fun at all!
But...even though she knew she still felt that tickling sensation...that urge to bounce around and make everyone be as happy as she was, to have-
“FU-” she slapped her hoof over her mouth again and panicked, running into a nearby store, she shut the door behind her and held herself against it, sliding to the floor as she was hit with a new emotion she'd never known before....but the word formed in her head 'Scared.” Scared, and anxious...and panicky. This was new, this was scary, this was not FUN.
“Are you gonna buy something or sit in my floor all day?” the haggard voice of the mare called to her, looking down from a store counter with a very judgmental eye.
She nodded and got up, pacing the store floor nervously, trying to make her breathing level out as she looked over everything, grabbing a purple saddle bag and then...Aha! She grabbed a purple mug that had a bright pink smile painted onto it, it was perfect,she didn't know how but it was perfect for her.
twenty bits exactly. She walked out of the building with the mug in bag and the bag secured to her body as she inhaled deeply, she felt somewhat better for that.
The Pink Pony continued to look around town, trying to keep quiet as she periodically would run her hoof through her mane in a futile attempt at smoothing it out, the way it puffed out making her feel strangely self aware of how much she stood out.
She'd never known the feeling of being alone in the crowd before, so when she'd set hoof into the crowd in the loud dance club, she felt wrong. There was voice in her head that kept saying she should be happy, excited and bouncing around. And she wanted to, but then the time in the police station had still made her nervous, made her feel small.
She didn't feel comfortable here..but she couldn't think of anywhere to go to for now. It was late and she didn't have anywhere to stay, so she'd hide there. The Pink Pony didn't know about homeless shelters or anything like that either, but she'd managed to keep a hiding spot in a store closet in an employee lounge. A lost blanket (no clue how it got there) kept her warm on cold city evenings, she would wake up before opening hours, sneak out in the morning, then sneak back in before closing the same evening, if the employees knew, they never let on.
She avoided the club during it's business hours. Too scary, too crowded, too much risk at blowing up. No, Pink Pony would often mil around at the park doing simple dances and letting song melodies around the area. It was a good way to make some spare bits.
Those few months were good; hard, but good all the same.
And then 'she' came along.
That night there was a long, long, long, long, Looooong line to the club, she inhaled nervously...maybe she could see what was happening in the club, just this once...just this once.
Pink Pony dropped 50 bits into the doormares cup and she was handed a bright green mask that covered the majority of the top half of her face, a series of swirling patterns in the shape of flowers decorating the mask as she covered herself with it, the line from the elastic mask strap appearing quite visibly in her fluffy mane as she hesitantly walked into the dance floor, the music some strange combination of the usual thumping rhythm while interlaced with delicate string music keeping the same intense and fast rhythm, the music felt disorienting, but in a good way. Pink Pony's body swayed gently at first, a tingling in her body as she kept with the motions of the dancing crowd she'd found herself buried into.
She spun and she swirled around in the mass of pony bodies, everything moving with the music, her thoughts blurring and swirling, worries slipping away when suddenly she bumped face first into something-someone. She looked up, adjusting her mask as she saw a blue pony with a pink mane sitting in front of her, the pony herself having an equally surprised look on her face as the both of them spent a few seconds looking at each other, blue eyes meeting yellow. Another new feeling...another new-
“Fun!” the pink pony yelped before slapping her hoof against her muzzle, eyes wide as she stumbled up to her hooves and trotted as fast as she could toward the nearest exit way. “fun!” another uncontrolled blurt as she shoved past bodies. No no no” her breath was coming out in a panic as she.
She'd finally found open air as she panted and breathed heavily, short sharply exhaled 'funs' escaping her lips as she tried to keep them in.
“Are you okay?” The concern she heard made her nearly jump as she turned around, it was the blue pony again
Pink Pony Swallowed and gasped out a “y-yes! I mean no. I mean..oh Luna” she shivered pulling the mask from her face, the snap of the string sting the side of her cheek
“Hey” the other mare walked up giving her a hug “you're gonna be fine. You look like you're having a panic attack” she said keeping her tone calm as possible, keeping a gentle hold on her “My names Floral print. What's yours?”
The pony in Florals forelegs shuddered a little, a name? Did she have a name? Yes...no? No. not yet she didn't have a name “I'm scared” she mumbled
“Do you have an apartment?” Floral asked, that calm friendly tone persistent
“No.”
“Well...would you like to come stay the night at my place?”
–-
The two mares leaned against each other, a smile on their faces watching the sun slowly descend below the highest buildings “do you ever wonder about that night?” Perfect asked
“When we first met?” the unicorn would ask in return, her own question being met with a nod from Perfect “what do you mean?”
Perfect glanced to the floor, then back up to her “well, ever think it was...more than just a random accident that I bumped into you like I had?”
“hmmm, I've considered it, but I'm not really somepony who believes in that kind of idea, you know?” Perfect would nod at the answer “but...I don't think I could be the pony I am now with anyone other than you” the added answer made the earth pony smile and lean up to kiss Floral on the cheek
“You wanna go out to eat tonight or order in?”
“Let's go out to eat”
“Wanna hit that oriental place we went to that time last month?”
“Oooh” Perfects memory stirred up an attempt to replicate the taste of the noodles they had a month back “oh yes please”
“I'll get our jackets” Floral smiled walking off
Perfect smiled turning to follow after her, humming and feeling a fluttering sensation at the word 'our' the word making her feel fulfilled, she could spend her life with floral. She entertained such a thought before shaking the thought out realising how silly it was. They'd only been together half a year or so, to jump to that kind of an idea would perhaps be a bit silly.
--
The pink pony would do very little in the next few days after they had arrived at Florals apartment; help around the house, clean, grocery shop. Floral never asked for her name, which was all fine by her accounts. “Pinkie” The name sounded...used, foreign, unright when she thought of herself using it. It wasn't her name, it belonged to someone else. It wasn't just her name though every bit about her had this feeling of not rightly being 'her' which, when she was alone, would cause her to contemplate deeply 'who was she?'
“are you sure it's okay that I'm here with you?” She asked floral as they both walked into the large empty building.
“You're gonna be fine, Pink” the unicorn replied warmly using the placeholder nickname she'd given her unlikely roommate.
The Pink Pony would turn and watch as boxes and plastic tubs would follow them in, all glowing a pale yellow of florals magic, each one gently settling upon the floor as all manner of decorative decal, stencil, and painting tool would soon be arrayed across the floor acting almost as an attention pulling focal point for the mostly white unpainted walls and ceiling of the room.
“So this is what I do.” Floral smiled as she arranged paint tins, opening cans of pinks and yellows and blues “This building is gonna be used as a sort of kids center. So lots of vibrant and warm colors have to be used and once we're done painting the furnishers are gonna come in, put play equipment, then we decorate around that” as she spoke the cans of paint were tipped and slowly poured into a respective pan for each color
The Pink Pony looked at each color slowly feeling herself blush
Floral giggles “I see you noticed” a roller pressed into the yellow paint “I hope you don't mind me using some of your color as inspiration for the room”
Pink Pony fidgeted with her hooves and tail a moment “That..that's fine” her cheeks still heated at the idea. She inspired someone.
At this point floral had been letting her live here for a week and a half now, it was strange how she just accepted her and how nebulous her existence was before meeting her. The fact that she hadn't even once thought about asking for money in exchange for letting her stay had her dumbfounded.
And then there were the feelings. There were moments, where she would interact with
Floral. When the Pink Pony would look at her, her heart would skip a beat, and her chest would feel heavy with the way it would beat, where all her attention would completely zero in on her and how she acted and moved and talked with her. It scared her.
It made her doubt also.
As the Pink Pony would paint, she would wonder, as she glanced toward her friend every so often; Did she like this mare, as herself? Did she like mares? Or did 'She' like mare. Did 'Pinkie' Like mares? And she was only acting as the original version of herself would?
The Pink Pony did not like these thoughts.
Hours passed as they both would hum and occasionally sing along whatever nonsense would play on the radio that floral had turned on shortly after they had started.
“It looks good!” Floral grinned.
They had managed to get a first coat of paint up on the wall, and they were now waiting on the paint to dry.
“How are you feeling?”
The Pink Pony heard the question “I’m still working that out.”
“Well Pink, we just gotta keep working on the walls, stencil on the designs which should be easy enough, then we’ll be good to go.”
“Floral!” the voice of a stallion suddenly piped in “we need you, the furnishing company is loosing their mind, saying we’re trying to rip them off! I only asked if we could negotiate with the building owner!”
“Ack!” Floral recoiled like she’d be struck across the shoulders, turning to the doorway “I’m coming!” She turned to Pink “This could take a while..saddlearabian furniture sales is murder, just keep painting and I’ll be back soon.”
Pink stared as Floral sped out of the room and down the hallway, she let out a quiet sigh, not liking being left alone with her thoughts. She sighed, and went back to painting.
Thirty minutes passed before the sounds of hooves on the floor clacked toward her, she silently thanked the princesses as she turned around. She was surprised to not find floral, but a white pony with a silvered mane holding a clip board with in the confines of shimmering orange magic.
“Are you Floral Print?”
Pink just shook her head “Uhm, no, but she’ll be back in a little while if you just wait a whil-”
“I’m Cuff Links adviser, he’s the owner of this building. He’s gonna need this room to be cleared out and decorated.” As she spoke a group of stallions walked in dropping a large crate down on the floor before turning and leaving. “His sons birthday is today, and he’s chosen to have the party here.”
“But I’m not sure-”
The mare carried on unabated not even looking up from the clipboard. “These are the decorations he is providing, Floral won’t be charged additional fees, Cuff Links and his son will be here in two hours.” She said before turning and walking off Shutting the door behind her, leaving The Pink Pony confused and now dreadfully worried.
She quietly sat there standing at the crate, a short horizontal monolith staring back at her unflinchingly.
Her breath caught in her throat as she approached it, opening the lid and seeing the colorful party decoration and streamers in piled with in.
Parties, streamers, lights, dancing!
She felt like she was going to lose her lunch over all of it.
Music, glitter, cake!
She shuddered as the word stumbled forward “F-fun...no...no!” she shook her head and stared at the bags of confetti, the streamers, the banners.
She turned back looking over the room and felt it, flashes of ideas and inspiration.
She felt a drive to try this. To do this to help Floral.
She bucked tabled back across the room. Her legs carrying her quickly across the floor as she pressed banners against the wall. Jumping with a spring like agility as she strung streamers up from the ceiling.
She sprinted from end to end, making sure the tables formed a tidy set of lines underneat the colorful displays. Feeling a buzz of energy as she moved. Soon eventually closing her eyes as she’d found nearly an hour and a half spent making the room look orderly and properly party like.
"okay so we got, 30 minutes we gotta over haul this place for a par..ty." The Pink Ponies eyes snapped open as she heard the door opening, turning just in time to see her friend staring at the whole room “No-no, I’m sorry. I got carried awa-”
“It’s Perfect!” Floral exclaimed happily looking around the whole room.
The Pink Pony was shocked at that, not realising how big of a deal this had been to Floral“It is?”
“It’s Perfect! You’re perfect!” Floral Suddenly picked her up, the both of them spinning around for a moment in a wave of dizzying speed before she found herself on all fours again.
And then Pink Pony felt something new.
Florals lips pressed against hers for just a moment, a moment that sent tingles all the way down to the bottoms of her hoofs and...
It clicked.
Perfect faded back into the conversation as she heard Floral going into a panic as she tried to explain “I-I slipped and you’re really pretty and you did all this for me and, I’ve kind of and oh I look ridiculous”
“I’m Perfect!” she said smiling to Floral, leaning across the space between them and returning “Perfect Moment.”
“Your name?”
“Yep!” Perfect declared with a smile, feeling...for the moment, perfectly comfortable with in herself
Floral smiled back a bit, her cheeks blushing from the kiss “Well..Perfect, pleasure to meet you...Now that the decorating is done, would you like to go get some coffee?”
Perfect nodded with a smile“I’d love to.”
She’d been reborn then, Perfect’s identity had grown and developed a bit from that point, having figured out what she liked, trying less to think on whether they were hers or not. Getting a therapist to figure out everything about her. She still hadn’t figured out how to address talking about her origins to her marefriend
“And they want us to come up to Canterlot and visit sometime, and I’m still trying to think of the best way to tell them we just can’t find the time, and they won’t accept that we have more room in our-”
As Perfect reflected while sitting in the booth, she realized just how long it had been since they had that kiss.
They sat in the restaurant, smiling. Perfect felt at ease, she didn’t worry about the bits of
memories of that pink pony when she was with Floral. This was where she was meant to be, as though this was where destiny had lead her, and she was going to enjoy every moment of it no matter what
And then, the worst possible thing happened.
The waitress sat their drinks down on the table and smiled, Perfect looked up to ask if they had extra napkins..
Everything in her body and mind locked up as she saw herself as she had been all that time ago.
She Saw pinkie pie.
And Pinkie Pie Saw her.
Author's Note
This story is a labor of love.
I've never seen this premise executed and when I originally thought about it during season 4 of the show, it wouldn't leave my head and when I began I had hoped to have all of it written out but then life got in the way, and before I knew it season 5 had happened, and then season 6 had happened and had it's own take on my idea albeit as a throwaway. I kept going with this idea though calling it my Passion Project. Eventually though someone told me "You need to know the difference between perfect, and good enough." followed by "Done is better than perfect."
Done is better than Perfect. So I decided to split the story into parts, and we'll see where the ride takes us. Thank you for permitting me this ramble at the end, I hope you've liked the Story of Perfect Moment so far.
