Chapters Luna's stars hung high in the sky as the lights of ponyville slowly flickered off one by one. Soon, only a handful of buildings still held movement, the largest of which being Sugarcube Corner. With the Cakes going away with their children on a weekend family trip, Pinkie had thrown a large 'We'll miss you and make sure to come back soon and bring back lots of treats and be safe!' party at the spur of the moment and it was, shortly after midnight, drawing to a close. Pinkie, a pink mare with a large poofy tail and mane similiar in consistency to a cotton candy cloud, was saying goodbye to her last guests and attempting to convince them to stay just a little longer.
"I'm sorry dear, but I really must get home and work on my fall lineup. I've already procrastinated so long as it is. It truly was a delightful soiree though." Rarity, a white coated unicorn with a perfectly curled indigo mane and eyelashes, told the pink pony as she trotted out the door. It truly had been a marvelous party, so marvelous in fact that she had long forgotten her hat on the counter of the small shop.
"I would if I could, Pinkie. But Spike really needs to get into bed." Twilight, a purple-maned unicorn with a dark blue mane holding streaks of red and violet, told the her friend as she stifled a yawn. On her back was a very small dragon with purple scales and green spikes down its back, curled into a ball and snoring loudly. "Are you sure you don't want any help with the cleanup?"
"No no, don't be silly! It'll all be done in a lickety split! Hee hee, have you ever licked a split? Not a ban-" But she trailed off as her friend trotted out before the pink pony could get into one of her rants. Pinkie slowly moved to the doorway and watched the two ponies disappear from sight as she began to feel lonely. Quickly she shook her head as she got to work. "No time for moping Pinkie! You got a shop to clean!" And indeed she did.
She started with the front lobby, gathering all the bowls, cups, and utensils from her party guests. Carefully storing the leftover food in the fridge, she took a glance out the window. A chill went down her side as she slowly moved to look out it. All the other homes were locked up tight for the night, lights out. Everypony was asleep with their loved ones. Except her. The darkness made her feel isolated, as if it was closing her off from the rest of the world. Trapped...
She quickly shook her head as she moved back to the entrance of the shop, using a mop to clean the floor. The store was going to be perfectly clean when the Cakes got home! They would be so happy! Soon the entrance was completely clean, it even sparkled, as she moved to the dishes, singing as she went to work. "Come on everypony smile smile smile... Fill my..." Her voice trailed off. In the sun with an audience of her friends to sing with her, the song was beautiful. But in the large empty shop, with no random music behind, it just drove even deeper how alone she was right now.
A little tiny voice in the back of her head chuckled darkly. "Alone again? Of course you are. Just the pink party pony of ponyville...The only pony so utterly useless she has to throw hundreds of parties to keep anypony around her. " Pinkie dropped a cup with a little shriek. She hadn't heard that voice in her head since her last birthday, when she had thought all her friends hated her.
"I can't hear you. Lah lah lah lah. Giggle at the ghostly, guffaw at the grossly..." As she finished up her impromtu song, the voice seemed to have died down. Soon the only sound was her soapy hoofs washing dishes. Besides! Everypony loved her parties! Her punch was a hit this time! Not like... That one time... She began to scrub a fork so hard it bent. If only she hadn't put lemon in the punch then Rarity would have never spit it out! Stupid stupid! Why lemons? She should have added a touch more strawberry, or maybe some kiwi. But never lemons! She was just thankful her friends were willing to forgive her for it, they even threw her a party the very next day!
"So whiny. You know the only reason they even come to your parties is because you practically beg them with your silly antics. If it wasn't for guilt they'd never come and see you at all." The voice mocked her again.
"That's... That's not true at all. They love my parties! I make them as exciting and fun as I can..." Pinkie argued weakly as her hair deflated slightly.
"Oh please. If it wasn't for your constant parties no pony would even know you except as the loud crazy pony who makes lousy cupcakes. Instead you're just the loud crazy pony who throws horrible parties. Wasting your life away with them, just like your friend said."
Pinkie snapped a bowl in half, cringing. "It's not true... My friends don't think I'm wasting my life away... They even threw me a party... You're just a silly voice, you don't know anything." She feebly tried to put the bowl back together.
"Says the pony talking to herself. The only reason they even threw you that party was so they didn't have to deal with your incessant whining. I mean who has a break down because they have to spend one day alone? What kind of pony is so needy they need to have attention every single second or they- "
"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!" Pinkie screamed as her mane fully deflated. "You're just a bad voice in my head who-"
"Pinkie?" A soft voice said from behind the pink mare.
Her head whipped around and she saw who interrupted her personal argument. Rarity. Quickly she stuck a soapy hoof in her mouth and blew, her mane reinflating. "Rarity, when did you get all sneaky-weaky?" She asked as she hopped around. Ugh, the soap tasted terrible, but she tried to ignore it.
"I forgot my hat and I heard you yelling. The door was unlocked and... Pinkie, have you been crying?"
"What? No! I was ummm... I got something in my eye. See?" She quickly rubbed one of them, getting it covered in soap. She then ran to the sink to rinse it out as her eyes watered. "See! I'm not crying at all! Just soap!" She tried to keep the whining out of her voice.
The white unicorn stood there for a long while, watching her friend in silence as the pink mare hopped around, pretending everything was fine. "She's going to leave, you know. Nopony wants a friend who's sad and whiny. She'll tell the others and none of them will want to be around such a crybaby." The voice started up again as she tried to ignore it.
"Pinkie, is something wrong? You're acting strange. Stranger than normal." Rarity said softly as she moved closer, placing a hoof on her friends forehead.
"See? She thinks your weird. Not the good kind either. She's going to tell everypony."
"I'm fine! Really! I was just doing the dishes and got soap in my eyes! Well you said you have some fashion to get to fashioning so you should go now!" She quickly moved behind the unicorn and quickly steered her out the kitchen's door. But before she could get her to the entranceway, Rarity dug both her hooves into the ground.
"Pinkie please. I'm your friend, you can tell me anything. Is something upsetting you? Are you mad at me?"
"What? No! I could never ever be mad at you Rarity! You're the most generous and giving pony I know! For me to be mad at you I'd need to become a real silly goofy angry muffin hating head! With extra muffin hates!" Pinkie said as she hopped around some more.
"She's going to figure it out. She won't want to be your friend any more."
"I see... Well then... Pinkie." Rarity said as she stood up to walk back into the kitchen. "While I'm here, why don't I help you clean the dishes?"
"NO!" Pinkie said firmly. "You said you have things to work on, I can do the dishes, really. I don't want you to have to-"
"And then how about we have a little slumber party, okay?" Rarity interrupted, watching the sugar fueled mare.
"A... Slumber party?"
"Yes. The Cakes are going to be out for a few days anyway, so why don't you come and stay with me until they return? You can even bring Gummy."
"That... That would be awesome!" Pinkie shrieked as she jumped to her hooves, her hair fully inflated again. The voice was ignored as she darted into the kitchen after Rarity. They were going to have the best time! Rarity's was her number one place to sleep at! With a only twenty-seven way tie with all her other favorite place to sleep at! With the two of them working on the dishes they were done in a fraction of the time, leaving Pinkie to prepare for the trip. She packed all the necessities such as invitations, balloons, streamers, tinsel(because you never know when tinsel will save your life), gummy chew toy, Gummy's non gummy chew toy, and a rubber ducky. Soon the jumpy pony was by the door, hopping up and down in excitement as she locked the place up behind them. "This is going to be so so so so much fun!"
"Of course it will dear. Of course it will." Rarity said as she forced a smile. Oh how she was already beginning to regret this... No! Her friend obviously needed her and she would not abandon her. Besides, what's the worst that... Best not to tempt the fates.
Rarity was terrified. As a matter of fact she didn't think she'd ever seen anything so scary in her life. Even the queen of the changelings paled in comparison to this. Once they had arrived at her boutique Rarity had helped Pinkie unpack and then told the pink mare that she needed to take care of some things before they could get to the slumber party. Rarity did have to at least begin her fall line up if she was going to have them ready on time. Her friend had offered to help and she had grudgingly accepted it. And now the pink mare was there. Watching her. Waiting. Staring. She had never seen Pinkie so unmoving! It felt like going to a fancy gala with a dress with a stain and a small tear along the cutie mark. You just know no matter how good it may seem now eventually somepony is going to notice and then BANG, the universe will implode on itself! Or you'll be shamed and humiliated in front of the nobles of equestria, same thing really.
Those pink sugar filled eyes just kept watching her... She couldn't take it any more! By Celestia's mane she would not be the cause of the world's destruction due to a Pinkie Pie explosion! Besides she had managed to get started... Okay, she'd set up that mannequin. That was a start! "So Pinkie Pie, what would you-" Her mane blew in the breeze as her friend darted off before she even finished her sentence, the reaction caused by the earth pony not moving for a whole two point seventy-six minutes creating a chemical reaction of sugar, earth pony, and pink atoms to swirl and build up and allow the pink mare to move at speeds that would have made Rainbow Dash jealous.
Back at Twilight's library, books were suddenly blown off the shelves as the door to the library closed and opened in a fraction of a second, leaving the purple mare confused and buried in books. "What, what was that?!" She asked in shock as she slowly unburried herself.
Back at the boutique, Pinkie suddenly appeared in front of Rarity with a sonic pink boom, sending the white unicorn sprawling on the ground. "Pinkie! What in equestria are you... Oh no. Not that. Anything but that..." Clasped in the sugary earth ponies mouth was... 'Slumber 101: All you ever wanted to know about slumber parties but were afraid to ask.' "Where did you get that?"
"Mmmfff a mfrll rfff a dnnmmfff bfff!" The pony spat the book out. "From Twilight silly! She told me about all the fun you and Applejack had when you used this book and now we can have all the fun too and besides Twilight told me it's the very very best book in existence for party going mares but I told her that was kinda silly because the best book for a party going mare was-" Rarity placed a hoof to the earth ponies mouth to temporarily silence her.
"Ok. Understood, of course. Now darling I believe the first thing in that book was... Make overs." Surely it couldn't be that bad. After all she was the foremost fashion expert in Ponyville, and she had always had a strange desire to do something with Pinkie's hair. She had tried once! But this time she'd go about different methods. Ribbon! Bows! Within fifteen minutes she gave up. The hair was alive. It was the only explanation. She had tried tieing it up, it untied itself. She tried using ribbons and bows, she ended up hogtied on the ground. She had even gone at it with scissors. It had stolen them from her and she had spent fifteen minutes in a equestrian stand off with hair! It wasn't until she conceded that the pink mare's hair was fine that it had given them back. She was beginning to wonder if maybe Twilight's theory about earth pony magic was possibly true.
Abandoning the hair Rarity went on to the face masks. At least, she would have, except... "Pinkie. Did you eat ALL of it?"
"Uh huh it was really yummy and tasty and we should put some on cupcakes!"
"It... It was a strawberry... Nevermind, we'll just-"
"My turn my turn!"
"What?" Rarity froze in fear. Oh dear Celestia she hadn't thought this out. "I... I suppose so." Well... Surely she... She could just take a shower after. Ofcourse. Oh by Luna's star gazed cutie mark what was going to happen to her? She tightly closed her eyes as Pinkie went at her mane. With every touch she imagined the most horrible things happening to her once beautiful hair, cotton candy mixed in, dyed hot pink, or what if... No. She wouldn't. What if, what if she cut it? A few tears formed in her eyes as she awaited the inevitable heart break.
"All done!" The pink mare said as she began to hop around some more.
Rarity quickly opened her eyes and ran to the nearest mirror, not a hard task in the boutique, and stared in horror. Which... Slowly turned to relief. Then actual joy. Her mane hadn't been mangled! In fact it was done in a way she would have done. Wait a moment. It was done in a way she HAD done! "Pinkie, how did you know to do this?" She slowly asked in confusion.
"Oh well I don't really know anything about doing up hair or face masks or any of that stuff. But you know everything about it and are the smartest pony I know for that kind of stuff! You're like Twilight with less books and more fancy schmancy stuff! So I thought about all the ways you've done your hair. First I was going to do the one with the trash since I thought that one was silly and funny but then I remembered you had to wash your hair right after! Then I was going to do the wet hair look from when we met the sea serpent! But then I remembered you cut your tail then and I'm not sure if short tails are in now or not and I think that's supposed to be important. But then I remembered how you did your hair up for the gala and I realized you spent a long long long long long time working on that so it must have been really really good!"
"Pinkie... That was... Very sweet of you." She was stunned by her friends thoughtfulness. She had been expecting another fiasco like the dress. But as she slowly posed in front of the mirror she couldn't help but enjoy the sight. It really was one of her better looks.
"So, what's next, what's next?" The energetic pony asked as she hopped around Rarity with all the excitement of a wind up firecracker.
"Ah... I believe it was ghost stories?" The unicorn then had a wicked grin flash across her face. "I do have a particular scary one in mind. It's called the last cupcake..." Her horn glowed as a flashlight flew from one of her shelves and the lights turned off. Soon the flashlight was alight under her face. "It was a day like any other in a sweet shop much like Sugarcube corner..."
Pinkie already liked this story! It had cupcake in the name and no story with cupcakes could possibly be scary! She laid down in front of the silly unicorn. Silly Rarity, trying to make a scary story with the bestest pastry of them all. Except maybe pie.
"And as he watched helplessly the last cupcake fell into the abyss to be swallowed up in darkness. Never to be seen again." Rarity grinned as she flipped off the flashlight and turned on the room's lights. Pinkie was trembling on the ground, her hair deflated.
"W-what about cake? They still had cake, right?"
"Nope. No more ingredients."
"Pies? Donuts? M-muffins?"
"None. All gone. Forever! Mwa hah hah hah!" She realized a moment later she may have gotten a little too in character during that story as Pinkie trembled on the floor. "Don't worry Pinkie, it was just a story..." She said as she hugged her friend tightly. "They aren't ever ever going to run out of sugar. I promise."
"O-Okay..." Pinkie said softly as she sniffled just a tiny bit. She would never ever ever take a cupcake for granted again! Not even a muffin! She hugged Rarity right back.
The unicorn blushed a bit then. As the hug went on she began to worry, originally she had started to hug her to help calm the mare down. But now the hug had already gone a few seconds beyond socially acceptable. With each second she was commiting a major social faux pas, but if she broke it away she might end up hurting the poor dear's feelings and... Oh what on equestria was she thinking? She doubted Pinkie even understood what a social faux pas was let alone understand a time limit on hugs. After all how does one explain something like that to a pony who's every friend is their very best friend in the whole wide world? After a few more moments her patience was rewarded as the pink earth pony disappeared from her grasp... And losing her support the white unicorn fell over on the floor.
"Ok, next is smores! We can-"
"Ummm, Pinkie? It's three in the morning. We should get to bed." The unicorn said with a light yawn. All she had to do
"Huh? Why? Am... I in the way?"
"See Pinkie? You're always in the way. Here your friend comes and gives you a place to stay, and what do you do? You steal her bed and make her abandon her dress work. All so you can have a little attention. Has there ever been a pony as selfish as you?" The voice had returned.
Rarity stared at her friend in confusion. Pinkie's eyes had lost that glitter and she seemed to almost shrink in the bed, her hair even deflating. The unicorn couldn't bear to see her friend like this as she moved to the bed. "No no. This is fine, really." Atleast the pink mare was better than Applejack, she thought as she climbed into the bed. No mud on her hooves and she didn't hog the covers. Or bring a massive branch down through the window and get them covered in dirt. Pinkie also smelt better, while Applejack smelt like dirt and apples this guest smelt kind of like cinnamon and why in equestria was she thinking about how her friend smelt?
Shaking her head the unicorn tried to relax. It was fine, really. Now she just had to slee- Her eyes shot open as she felt something warm against her side. "Umm, Pinkie?" The only response she got were soft snores. By Celestia's sun. Her friend was a sleep snuggler...
***The next morning***
Rarity was truly having the most delightful dream. She was walking through fields of sunflowers wearing a yellow sun dress, along with a wide yellow sun hat. Her only real complaint was how hot it was. But despite the extra warmth she could still admire the fields of cinnamon as she- Wait, cinnamon? Where did the sunflowers go? She eeked as she felt something biting her ear, swatting at it with a hoof. "Get off! Get-" Her eyes opened as she awoke.
It took a few seconds to realize what was going on. Across her neck there was a delicate pink hoof which smelt delectably of cinnamon. Well that was one mystery solved. The next one took a few more seconds before she realized Pinkie was nibbling and drooling on her ear while mumbling something about cupcakes. "Pinkie!" The normally refined unicorn growled as annoyance shot through her.
"Mmm... Yes Rarity?" The sugar fueled mare asked as she continued to nibble on her cupcake, still not awake.
"STOP BITING MY EAR!" She yelled as she pulled away from the pink mare as hard as she could... And fell off the bed in a heap, the blanket fluttering down on her. "Ow."
A few moments later an apoligetic pink head looked out from the edge of the bed. "Ummm... Rarity? Are you okay? I'm sorry..."
Rarity glared up at her friend. "No I'm not..." But she trailed off as she looked at her friend. Pinkie was obviously sorry and not only that, she seemed aware of what she had done. Now that might not seem strange, and for any other pony it wouldn't be, but this was Pinkie! Her realizing one of her antics had messed up was nothing short of a miracle! "I'm fine. Come on dear." Slowly the designer got to her feet and began to walk towards her bathroom. "I'm going to go freshen up and then we can start breakfast, okay?" She shut the door behind her, leaving the cinnamon smelling mare alone with her thoughts.
"She's mad at you. Again. See what you did? This is the reason you never get invited over for sleep overs. " The voice mocked. "She thinks you're disgusting. Cuddling up and- Hey! What are you doing? Stop it! Slow down!"
"I'm going to make her breakfast! Then she won't be mad at all." Pinkie assured the voice as she darted into Rarity's kitchen. Soon she was at work, the stove on its highest temperature. Eggs flew through the air to land on the counter and crack open, and then continue flying into the bowl she had out. She even grilled up some hay bacon using her own special ingredient! She happily hummed as she worked, darting to and fro as she made the best breakfast EVER! She was moving so fast she failed to notice the egg shells until her hoof found them. With a shriek she went tumbling across the ground before slamming into the counter. With a loud crash plates and cups began to fall out on top of her, burying her under shattered dining materials.
"Can't even make breakfast without destroying all her dishes? How does she even put up with a mare like you?" The voice mocked as Pinkie slowly pulled herself free from the mess, cringing as she heard the broken dishes crunch under each hoofstep. She had to clean this up, maybe she could say aliens did it! No, Discord! No, yellow giraffes with lazer eyes! Yes, that! She'd believe-
"My goodness Pinkie Pie!" Uh oh. "What have you done? Just look at this mess!" Rarity stormed into the kitchen, mouth agape. She hadn't even finished brushing her hair the required one hundred times, having only gotten to seventy-three before the smashing sound startled her.
"I... Didn't... Giraffes. Lazer eyes..." The earth pony said gently as she hung her head. "I made breakfast?" She offered before pointing a feeble hoof at the stove.
"Pinkie I'm dis..." Rarity stopped as she watched Pinkie shuffle her hooves. "Are you feeling well? Come on Pinkie, let's get you clean." Her horn glowed as she turned off the stove and knocked the chunks of dinnerware out of the earth pony's mane.
"But what about breakfast? It'll get cold. I'm fine, really! Nothing a good old song and-" She was silenced as a hoof was put to her mouth.
"Darling shush. It's okay. We can eat breakfast after you go and get yourself cleaned up. Now move along." Slowly the pink mare hopped off towards the bathroom. Rarity looked around the room at the mess as her horn glowed. "It's like Sweetie Belle all over again. Can I have just one house guest who doesn't ransack and destroy my home?" She grumbled as she tossed most of her broken dishes in the trash. "As if it's not hard enough affording all my expenses without having to buy all new dishes."
Outside the room Pinkie sighed sadly as she pulled her head back around the corner and sadly walked up the stairs to Rarity's room. "She hates you. See? All you ever do is cause problems and grief. " Pinkie grumbled her objections at the voice, but was to hurt to put up a real fight. She had to make this up to Rarity! She just had too! Of course! She knew what she'd do... Just as soon as she cleaned up.
Meanwhile on the bottom floor the designer grumbled as she cleaned. She swore sometimes Pinkie was just like Sweetie Belle, both had such talent for destroying everything. Soon she heard hoof steps behind her and she turned quickly. "Ah, Pinkie. You look much better. I have a wonderful idea."
"Oh oh! Does it have to do with a monkey? Are we going to get a monkey?" The pony began to hop around in excitement. "Or maybe-"
"No! Pinkie. I've been thinking about uhhh... How selfish I've been."
"Selfish?"
"Yes! Keeping you all to myself." Rarity moved up behind her friend and began... Pushing her. Out the door. "Since I've had you all night and will have you tonight it would be selfish of me to keep you! So how about you go and play with all our other friends while I clean this up, okay?" As she pushed the objectioning earth pony out the door and closed it behind her.
"But Rarity!" Pinkie objected, this wasn't part of her mega super awesome plan to get Rarity happy with her at all!
"Can't hear you dear! Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I'll see you tonight!" The unicorn said through the door as she listened to the sound of hooves walking away. Letting out a sigh of relief she headed to the kitchen. Now to clean up the mess. She scrubbed and cleaned as best she could as well as being forced to take most of her broken dishes out to the trash can. Once she had cleaned up the mess she looked at the remains of what Pinkie had cooked. Slowly taking a sprinkle covered piece of hay bacon out of a pan she sniffed it once before grimacing and tossing it along with its brethren into the trash. She then looked at the mixing bowl filled with eggs and... Chocolate, whipped cream, flour, and quite a few other ingredients she feared to name. It soon joined its cousin in the trash as she began to prepare a new meal for herself.
After a delightful breakfast of eggs and milk she walked to her inspiration room, taking a seat before one of her mannequins. Glancing at the clock she cringed at how late it was already, far past noon. If she wanted any chance of getting these done she'd need to concentrate. Fortunately with Pinkie off playing with Twilight or one of their other friends she would be more than capable of getting some work done.
Then a voice spoke from behind her, making her jump. "Everypony was busy so I came back!"
"AHHH! Pinkie! How did you, I locked the door! How did... No. Nevermind. Everypony? Are you sure?" Her horn glowed as some of her pens hovered over to her, and she got to work on a piece of paper. She could do this even with her here. Surely she wouldn't allow something as simple as a talk with her friend distract her from her work. She was a professional.
"Well first I went to Twilight and she said she was studying and then I went to Rainbow and she said she had to practice for the upcoming wonderbolt tryouts and then I went to Fluttershy but she was apparently busy baking biscuits for a buncha bouncing baby bunnies! Ok not biscuits but I really like saying busy baking buscuits for bunchs of bouncing baby bunnies even when I change the not B words! Applejack and Big Mac were busy doing all the apple thingies with the kicking and stuff and even the cutie mark crusaders were busy which is strange because they almost always have time for me but they said they were busy trying to get their 'homework done' cutie marks which I thought was silly since I don't think any pony ever got a cutie mark like that except maybe Twilight might and-" Oh dear Celestia didn't she ever stop to breath? "even she got the star things oh and then I went to Cheerilee and she was busy grading paperwork and then I went to... Wow, how would the pony speak with that and wouldn't the spikes make it really uncomfortable and what about..." As Pinkie went on Rarity just sat there, confused. What on equestra was she...
And then she saw what she had been drawing. She had been fantasizing about gagging Pinkie Pie for a while but ummm... She hadn't realized she was so good at drawing them so well. The outfit also had a large number of tiny spikes that pointed inwards rather than outward. Rarity threw herself over the picture as she glared at Pinkie. "Out out out! You saw nothing!" Her blush was so widespread even her ears were red.
"Okie dokey lokey!" She hopped out of the room... And then a moment later popped her head in. "You know there isn't anything wrong if you like that sort of thing Rarity. I mean I already figured you made some outfits like-"
"OUT!" Rarity shrieked as she crumbled up the picture and tossed it in the trash. Okay time to restart and rethink her work. No matter how annoying her little pink friend may be, gagging, hog tieing, and then lightly torturing her friend was not an answer. Okay it was an answer but it was not THE answer.
Sadly now all she could think about were those sorts of... Things. All her designs seemed to go back to methods of silencing the wearer, sometimes by rather exotic means. This would have been fine except she was NOT that kind of designer. She created fashion trends! Not... Not fetish toys! As more and more paper littered the ground she moved to her
It wasn't long before she found Pinkie, curled up in a little ball on Rarity's bed. She seemed to almost be asleep, if it wasn't for her shivering the pony would have been completely still. "Is everything alright dear? You don't look well."
The mare jumped from the bed and was in front of her in a moment, hopping up and down excitedly. "Are you done now? Wanna do something? Wanna play a game? Oh oh! We can do the rest of the things in the book, right?"
"I... suppose so. I believe smores is next. But I think we should wait until night for that. Doing it now would overheat the house and it really is not the proper atmosphere for smores." A lightbulb went off in her head. "I know! How about you and I go to the spa? Fluttershy and I usually go once a week and I'm sure you'll enjoy it just as much as us. And when we get back
"Okey dokey lokey!" Pinkie said as she hopped down the stairs. Rarity watched her in confustion... How in equestria did she hop down them without leaning forward? They weren't big enough to... She needs to stop questioning such things. It was just Pinkie being Pinkie. After a few hours at the spa she knew she'd feel relaxed and ready to take the day! Well, the night by then. But surely she would be able to design something truly spectacular and awe inspiring. Placing her sun hat on her head she followed down the stairs. Yes, this was just what the doctor ordered.
At the spa everything went wonderfully... At first. Rarity and Pinkie were greeted by two radiant mares as they entered the spa. One had a glistening blue coat with a pristine and shiny pink mane and tail that seemed to almost sparkle in the light, and a white lotus blossom as her cutie mark. Her name was Lotus Blossom. Her sister was named Aloe and they were obviously twins, though Aloe's colors were inverted of her sister's. They both wore a small band around their necks and foreheads to help keep their manes out of their eyes.
Rarity had been coming here for years so she knew exactly how the trip would go. It started out with the steam room. "So Pinkie are you enjoying yourself?"
"Uhhhhh. Sure! This is... Nice? But why don't they use colored water! Then the rooms could be all pretty instead of just boring old normal steam. Ohhhh, or instead of using water using juice! That way you could smell them while they steam you and it would be all red or orange or yellow!"
"That isn't how it works Pinkie... What are you doing? Darling, no, stop! Don't!" But alas, it was to late. Color flooded the room as the mist quickly turned a full spectrum of radiant colors. "Oh dear..."
"Yay! See now it's not just a steam room it's a rainbow room! Oh oh if we had a disco ball we could-" She was cut off as the door opened, revealing Aloe, she took one look in the room before placing a hoof over her forehead and fainting. Lotus was there in a moment, fanning her sister with a towel while giving the ponies in the room an angry glare.
"Errr... M-maybe we should move onto the face masks? Eh... Heh heh..." Rarity asked as she smiled nervously. Surely that couldn't go wrong? NO! She didn't say it! She just thought it! It didn't count!
"Blehhhh. This mask is horrible. It doesn't taste nearly as good as yours and it's not even scary or anything. I wanted to have a Nightmare Moon mask, not a green sludge monster mask!" Pinkie complained before gasping and taking the face mask concoction! "Oh Rarity I got an idea!" As she began to paint on her friends face with it... Soon Rarity had big green sludge glasses and a large green sludge mustache. "Do me do me!"
"Pinkie it is not that kind of mask. Give it back to Aloe right this moment." Rarity snapped angrily at her friend before she shook her head. "Let's just move on to the massage, shall we?" She grumbled as Lotus wiped the stuff from her face. This was turning out horribly wrong, even worse than that time she brought Rainbow here! She was even planning to skip her horn filing just to get it over with.
The massage went well atleast, even Pinkie managing to remain still long enough for the masseuse to get to work. Rarity was already feeling better and after a few minutes at the hooves of her personal masseuse, Quake, the stress left her body and she couldn't help but let out a content sigh. In fact she was so relaxed that she failed to realize anything was wrong until they came to the mud baths, and she heard one large word that would haunt her forever.
"CANNONBALL!"
"What? PINKIE!" But it was to late. She had no choice but to watch as the pink ball of a pony flew through the air and then hit the mud. A tidal wave of dark sludge exploded out, covering Rarity and the two spa ponies. The designer unicorn slowly looked towards the owners of the establishment and let out a nervous gulp. "M-maybe we should just go..." The two echoed her words with nods, their glares making her feel only two inches tall.
"That was so much fun Rarity! We should do that again sometime. Oh oh but next time we should cannonball together that way we make a even bigger splash! Hee hee!" Pinkie hopped around excitedly as they walked down the dark streets. The sun had finally dipped behind the horizon during their massages. "And when we get home we can make smores! This is going to be the best sleep over ever! Well except maybe last night but last night was so awesome what could possibly top that?"
"Of course." Rarity grumbled as they walked. She was just thankful that she had been allowed to quickly shower off before leaving the spa. "Tonight though let's try to keep it a little more controlled than your normal sleepovers, okay?"
"Oh I've never had any other sleepovers silly billy." Pinkie said as she kept hopping.
That comment made the unicorn nearly fall over. "What? You've never had any other sleepovers? But you..."
"Well I've thrown parties that went all night and I guess I sleep over at the Cake's. But I've never really slept over at another pony's house."
"Probably never gone to a spa before either..." Rarity grumbled.
"Only once and nothing like this! It was so much fun though! Well except the massage that was kinda boring. Why just lay there all still when there's so many things you can do? But you seemed to really be into it so I guess it can't be all bad."
"Of... Of course." Rarity shook her head. Was there even any point to being mad at her? It was like being mad at a bunny for hopping or a duck for floating. With a sad sigh she unlocked the door to the boutique and walked inside. Next time she'd just stick to the hot tub, she knew Pinkie understood how that worked.
"Smore time!" Pinkie yelled as she darted off, running past Rarity so fast that the unicorn spun in place for a few moments before righting herself.
"Ah... Yes. Of course. Smores. Let's get this over with." Rarity said as soon the pink mare returned with bundles of graham crackers, chocolates, and marshmellows.
Slowly unpackaging the ingredients the unicorn used her magic to place a single piece of graham cracker on the counter. "Now. You need to make sure that both the chocolate piece and the graham cracker are exactly the same size otherwise you'll end up with to much or to little chocolate. Then you put the marshmallow on top of the chocolate, make sure it's centered that's critical, and then put a perfectly square graham cracker on the top. And done! Tah dah!" She motioned to her perfect smore with a flourish. "Now Pinkie you try. Remember square, square, centered, square."
"Okey dokey lokey!" The pink pony was a blur as she stacked cracker on top of marshmellow on top of chocolate on top of cracker on top of marshmellow on top of chocolate on top of... Oh dear.
Rarity could not deny that for almost all intents and purposes the smore WAS perfect. Each marshmellow was perfectly in the center, each cracker and piece of chocolate was perfectly square and the correst size. The problem was that it practically touched the roof by the time she finished, teetering dangerously. "I think you may have made it a little to big. I don't think even you could eat- PINKIE NO!"
Alas It was to late. Pinkie took a single bite out of the side and the tower slowly began to teeter... Before crashing down on top of the two, covering the ponies as well as a small portion of the room in smore.
"Oh... Uhhh, oops?" The apoligetic mare said as her friend just glared.
"That is it. Darling it is time for bed. I am going to go set up the guest bedroom and then I will clean this mess up."
"But what about-"
"This is not up for discussion! Come along and just don't. Touch. Anything." Rarity snapped as she stormed off. It took every fiber of her willpower to avoid screaming at Pinkie as she set up the guest bedroom, but she managed to do it, tucking her friend into bed. "Now just go to sleep, we can talk in the morning." Rarity said as she headed out the room, lightly closing the door behind her. This was such a horrible idea! She should have just let her stay at the Cakes while they were gone, but no, she had to see her friend upset and then invite her over. It probably was just soap in her eye like she said, there was no way a mare like that could even understand the concept of being sad.
Her annoyance only grew as she tried to get marshmellow out of the carpet, shaking her head in anger. That's it. Tomorrow she'll just send Pinkie home and tell her to spend the night back where she belonged. The Cakes would be back the morning after anyway, and spending one night alone wouldn't hurt the annoying pony who was more energetic than a barrel of cotton candy. After an hour of cleaning she finally managed to get her carpet back to pristine condition and headed up the stairs to bed. She did decide to peep in on Pinkie though, just to make sure she hadn't destroyed or ruined anything else.
The pink mare was curled up around a pillow, holding it tight, with her mane deflated and soft tears in her eyes. The pillow had a soft damp spot that could be seen even from the moonlight coming in from the window, near her face. Rarity slowly brought a hoof to her own face before backing up and closing the door. Could it be? Was Pinkie actually... Sorry for what she had done? Sad? She rarely ever saw the party crazed pony upset about anything, and as guilt leaked inside her she realized how easy it was to forget that Pinkie could be anything but wild and excited.
As Rarity walked to her room she made a decision. She could let Pinkie stay one more night, it wouldn't be so bad. A grin formed over her face as she saw the book on the floor in her room. She slowly pulled Slumber 101 into her hooves. Oh yes. She knew exactly what she could do.
Pinkie crawled across the ground, a massive grin on her face. Hee hee, her plans may have been ruined yesterday, but not anymore! Now she would start off before Rarity had a chance to sidetrack her with things like spas! She slowly nudged open the door to the fashionista's bedroom and watched the sleeping mare. The bedside clock said it was eight a.m. So she was absolutely positively no chance at all of being wrong no matter what any pony said sure that Rarity would be getting up soon! Pinkie pushed the gong into the room and slowly closed the door behind her, before doing a quick check to make sure all the instruments were there. Kazoo, check. Confetti cannon, check. Drums, check. Bells, check. Rattler, check. Balloons, check. Okay!
She gripped a mallet firmly in her teeth, and then slammed it into the gong.
"This is your singing wake up call it's time to get out of bed!"
Rarity screamed and flew out of the bed, the cucumber slices flying from her face as her sleeping face mask was smeared on the ground where she landed.
"We woke you up cause light is burning and we think you're a sleepy head!"
Rarity struggled to get free from the covers that fell on her, she was under attack! By a marching band! It was the only explanation! She needed a weapon, any kind of weapon!
"It's time for breakfast I made it this time and it's really swell!"
Rarity grabbed a pen. Let them come get her! Just let them try to get her, so help them she will ruin their outfits so bad they would never get a chance of winning any band competitions!
"I even cleaned up all the mess so there isn't even a bad smell!"
Wait, was that... Pinkie? Holy Celestia what was wrong with that mare?!
"I have the whole day planned out so we can do all these neato things!"
Rarity slowly crawled from out of the blanket, glaring at her wake up call.
"So get up and let's do stuff and you'll see the fun it brings!"
Pinkie finished the song by banging on the gong one last time, as confetti shot across the room.
Rarity eeked as a particulary strong chunk of confetti hit her in the stomach, knocking her over and exploding into a burst of colors. "Pinkie?" She groaned.
"Yes Rarity?"
"Next time... Just poke me and say good morning."
"Okie dokey lokey! Breakfast is downstairs when you're ready!" Pinkie hopped off, leaving the gong behind but thankfully taking the other instruments with her.
"... Maybe a gag would be the answer. And slight bondage..." She cringed as she heard the sounds of drums from the stairs. "Or every piece of rope in town." She glanced to the clock, wondering what Celestia-forsaken hour it... Oh. Well. Apparently she had slept in quite a bit longer than she should have. Slowly she got to her hooves and walked towards the bathroom. At least last night she had been able to perform her nightly rituals, even if she hadn't been able to remove them properly. Soon she was clean, combed, and had her face on perfectly as she stepped out of the bathroom and posed for a moment. She. Was. Fabulous! Now time for breakfast.
Soon she entered the kitchen and her eyes quickly scanned the area. There were exactly... Two smudges on the floor, the sink needed to be cleaned, and one minor spill on the counter. All in all it would only take her a good ten minutes to clean up the mess, so a very large improvement from yesterday. She moved to the table and cringed. Rainbow hay bacon, oatmeal that was more sugar, whipped cream, and candy than oats. And in the very center of the table. It stood there. Toast. Toast that she could only guess was crafted out of a block of cotton candy. Which she found a tad impressive since she didn't know that cotton candy could be bought by the loaf.
"Eat up! I made it all myself!" Pinkie said as she popped some of the multi-spectrum bacon into her mouth.
"I can see that..." Rarity slowly levitated a piece of the bacon over. Closing her eyes, she took a bite of it and... Even her taste buds were sent into a wave of confusion. She couldn't tell if it tasted horrible or if it tasted good, the flavor unable to fully settle. Gingerly she tried a bite of the oatmeal and then finally a piece of the toast. She sighed as she slowly pushed the meal away. "I'm uhhh... Stuffed Pinkie."
"But you only had a few bites. That's not even a real breakfast for a filly! If you don't eat a good breakfast you'll be all skinny and blow away in a windy day!"
"... I'm not worried about that darling. Besides, unicorns opperate... Differently than earth ponies." Her eyes glanced over her friend. While Pinkie was more than able to pull off the slightly larger girth, she was also an earth pony. The extra girth allowed her pink friend to look quite fetching, but on a unicorn like her? It would- why was she examining her friend's body in such a manner? Red flooded her cheeks as she rose from the table. "No, I'm afraid I positively could not eat another bite. However while it is morning perhaps we could-"
"Oh oh! I got a great idea Rarity! I've got a whole day of fun and excitement planned out for us!" Pinkie hopped around as she began taking care of the left overs, devouring more than a few pieces of bacon and slices of toast as she went.
"Oh... O-of course Pinkie. What exactly did you have in mind?"
"It's a surprise!" Pinkie dropped a small blindfold onto the table, though she didn't understand why it made Rarity blush. "Put this on and I'll show you! We're going to have the best day ever!" She began hopping around again.
"Very well darling." Slowly Rarity put the blindfold on and was led around. She tried to focus and determine where they were going, but the moment they left the boutique her sense of direction was quickly lost and she had no choice but to follow blindly. Fortunately, Pinkie managed to keep her from tripping over anything. The air was cool today and it didn't feel nearly as warm as the day before, perhaps she should have brought a scarf.
"We're here!" The blind fold was ripped away, and... Rarity just stared.
"Where are we?" They were in the middle of a empty field, well almost empty. Six colored wires of plastic had been positioned around the ground, bent to form hoops. A small pink ball and a small white ball were besides similiarly colored wooden mallets. The field had large pits dug into them which some of the hoops skirted around. "Is... This a croquet course? I don't remember Ponyville having anything like this..." It did look quite... Uncouth. For a croquet course.
"They don't! I made one! It's like fancy miniature golf, right? Look! I even made sand traps! Well, minus the sand and more dirt. But they're similiar, right?" Pinkie smiled at Rarity as she hopped around. "I know you like fancy things so I got up extra early and set all these things up. I had to borrow some stuff from some ponies though so we need to be extra careful and not break anything."
"Pinkie darling? Have you ever actually played croquet?"
"Nope! But you just hit the ball through all the hoops and then yah win, right?"
"Ah... Well, yes. I suppose that is one manner it can be played. Very well. As I clearly have the advantage I will allow you to go first."
"Okie dokey lokey!" Pinkie hopped off and grabbed the pink mallet. "FORE!" She yelled before swinging the mallet as hard as she could, holding it firmly in her mouth, and hitting the ball with a loud crack. It flew through the air as Rarity watched in dread. It hit a large stone, bounced off it and came back towards them. It hit the ground long before it came too close however, and then went through one of the hoops. It then rolled along the edges of one of the 'sand traps' before spinning off to hit a second hoop, but it wasn't finished yet! It kept rolling along before hurtling into one of the pits and then rolling out the other side and a few feet in the air, the last of its momentum spent as it landed directly in the center of a third hoop. "Wow! This game is easier than I thought it would be!"
"..." Rarity just stared, her mouth agape. Had any other pony made a shot like that she would have thought they cheated. Any other pony. She gripped her own croquet hammer with magic. "A very nice shot Pinkie." She would need to work hard if she wished to win. However she was confident. Her little pink friend definitely had luck on her side, but Rarity had been playing this game for years even if she only rarely got to practice. After all what high class lady couldn't play a simple game of croquet? She lightly hit her ball with all the poise and decorum of a true noble pony.
"Woo hoo I win again!" Pinkie said as her ball went through the last hoop once again. The skies were filled with clouds and rain was now pouring down, but she wouldn't allow a little water to dampen her spirits. Besides, Rarity seemed to be having fun!
The fashionista ground her teeth as she clenched her mallet firmly in her magic. "That's thirteen games in a row... Best of twenty-seven?" She had never in all her years suffered such defeats in this noble sport! Even during her brief stay in Canterlot she had managed to hold her own against the lords and ladies, and they likely played this game a few times a week! She had to win at least once! She magically set up the balls once again before grinning. It worked for Pinkie, so surely it must work for her. "Fore!" She hit the ball as hard as she could, sending it flying through the air. Aaaaaand curved right into one of the 'sand traps', now deep muddy pits from which no ball would return.
The two mares moved to the edge and looked at the pit. The white ball was laying in the very center, like a pearl trapped inside a dark muddy clam. "Are you going to try and hit it out?"
"I don't think I can Pinkie. I'll take the penalty shots."
"Oh you can do it Rarity! You're awesome!" Pinkie patted her friend on the back firmly. The motion sent her flying forward, the ground under her wet and slippery as she flew into the pit of mud, rolling down to the bottom. "RARITY! Oh my gosh are you okay? I'm so so sorry do you need help?" Oh Celestia what had she done? She never meant to do that! She let out a sigh of relief as her friend picked herself up and made her way up the mud pit. "Are you okay? I'm so sorry!" She held out a hoof to help her up.
"Pinkie? You missed my sister's little visit recently, didn't you?" Rarity asked as she gripped the pink hoof firmly.
"Huh? Which time?"
"Nevermind." A grin formed on the Fashionista's face. No. She wouldn't. She couldn't.
She did. Pinkie shrieked as she was yanked into the pit, the two ponies tumbling down into a small muddy abyss.
Soon the two were at the bottom of the pit and Rarity lunged on top of her pink friend, pinning her down. "Why, I do believe I have won this round. You should know better than to push somepony in the mud Pinkie." She tut tutted. "Now normally I wouldn't resort to such measures of vengence. However I am afraid you have forced my hoof darling." Her hoofs reached down as she began to enact her justice on the poor mare!
"Bwa ha ha ha ha hee hee stop! Mercy! I give! Hee hee!" Pinkie shrieked and giggled as she was mercilessly tickled, thrashing about in the mud.
"Oh dear, what was that?" Rarity asked as she continued her little tickle assault.
"I GIVE! Hee hee hee! You win! I surrender!" She squealed as the tickling slowed but didn't quite stop.
"Are you going to knock me into the mud again?"
"No no never ever ever! Pinkie promise! I Pinkie promise!" She giggled and gasped for breath as the tickling stopped.
"Very well." Rarity smiled as she hovered her mallet and ball over, tossing them out of the pit. She gazed down at her friend for a moment. My she was quite a comfortable chair, even when covered in mud, her slightly pudgy body was quite soft and... Okay she had best not think those thoughts, as a bit of pink coated her cheeks. She soon jumped from the pit, the mud melting from her body to leave her clean and pristine despite the fact that she was still soaking wet.
"Wow. How did you do that?" Pinkie asked as she climbed out, shaking like a dog but still quite muddy.
".... A spell I learnt recently. I used it during the social. If I had to spend a whole race covered in mud I wasn't going to let it stay on a second after and this makes every drop just fall right off. Now stand still so I can use it on you..." In a few moments, Pinkie was devoid of mud as well.
"Coooool. Does it work for other things too? This could be really good when I babysit and need to use flour!"
"Uhhh... What? Nevermind. Let's gather our things and head back inside. It's dreadfully cold in this rain and I think we'd best warm up before we catch our death of cold." Besides, she thought proudly, I did win one... Even if it was a tiny bit unconventional.
The rain began to pick up as they arrived back at the boutique, the two ponies drenched to the bone. "I'm going to get Rainbow Dash for this..." Rarity grumbled as she walked into the building. "She was supposed to warn me if we were going to have any more rain storms. STOP!" She lunged and grabbed Pinkie, who was about to perform another wild dog shake. "You'll get water everywhere. Come along, we'll take a bath."
"Okie dokey lokey!" The water logged pink mare happily hopped up the stairs, leaving splashes all across the floor as she went.
Rarity cringed and followed behind her, gliding a towel around to clean up the messes as they were made. At least it was only a little bit of mud from walking through the streets. Mostly just water. Oh dear her beautiful carpet... She focused on the carpet until she heard a sound that made her heart jump. Loud hissing. And a very low, dangerous growl. Opalescence! She ran through the house ignoring her dripping water as she skidded past the bathroom, and then ran back to peer inside. Pinkie was giggling in the tub, and petting her kitty. Who was growling in a low threatening manner, drenched to the bone and wearing a foamy bubble beard. Despite her angry growls, the splashy mare didn't seem to notice the kitty's obvious anger, rage as well as the threat she posed.
"Pinkie... Perhaps you should..." Gummy skidded by on a bar of soap, making Rarity cringe. "Let Opalescence go. I don't think she is a... Very big fan of the bath."
"But we're having so much fun! I was even going to do her hair like yours." Pinkie pulled out a comb and brush, momentarily releasing the kitty. Opal did not hesitate, darting from the tub and escaping through the door. "Awww..."
"Now Pinkie, the tub is not for playing around in. It is for getting clean. And where did you get bubble bath from?"
"I always carry a bottle around in case of emergencies. Oh oh!" She then pulled out a parcel and tossed it into the air. It exploded into a puff of glitter and streamers.
"... An invitation?" Rarity facehoofed and walked towards the tub, shaking her head. She plopped down inside and began to rinse the cold water out of her hair, quickly warming herself in the steamy water. At least she wouldn't have to worry about catching a cold now.
"Rarity?"
"Yes Pinkie?"
"Tickle fight!"
"What? Pinkie! EEEEEK!" Rarity shrieked as she was pounced by her friend, splashing around as she was tickled relentlessly. "Wah hah hah! S-stop!"
"Hee hee. Are you going to tickle me in the mud again?" The tormenting mare asked as she sat on her friend and tickled with no signs of relenting.
"No! Never again! Wah hah hah! I promise! I Pinkie promise! You win!" She shrieked, thrashing about as she tried to escape the evil hooves. She laid there panting once the tickles stopped, blowing into the water so it bubbled. "This is not what a tub is for Pinkie." She grumbled as she slowly got up. "No more games, time to wash up."
"There's always time for games!" She cringed at the glare she received. "A-although ummm, not this time."
"Very good." Rarity grabbed a loofah and a bottle of shampoo... Soon the two mares exited the bathroom, sparkly clean and even Pinkie's hair had a fabulous blue bow in it. "There. Now let's clean up the mess and then we..." She glanced towards the slumber 101 book. "We can play a little game."
"Okie dokey lokey!" Pinkie grabbed a towel but stopped when she suddenly heard a rumbling. "What was that?"
"Nothing! I didn't hear anything." Rarity said quickly as she used her magic to grab another towel and begin to dry up their water. The noise occured again.
"Is that your stomach?" Pinkie asked as she was suddenly besides the unicorn, head pushed against her stomach.
"NO! It is not! A lady's stomach does not growl. It's... The plumbing. It must be-" She was cut off again as another rumble occured, louder than the previous ones. Her cheeks burned with embarressment as she looked to the side. "I ummm... Am... A tad hungry."
Pinkie just giggled. "Of course you are, silly, you barely touched your breakfast. Want more hay bacon?"
"What? No I ummm... How about I go prepare supper while you finish cleaning up here, okay darling?" Before objections could be raised, Rarity ran out the doorway, trotting down the stairs and into the kitchen.
Soon, she stood in the kitchen with her refrigerator open, looking into its contents. She needed to make something filling yet appetizing. Also something quick and easy... Well at least easy. Ah! She pulled a small package from the fridge. A nice dandelion and grass steak would do the trick, cooked in some apple cider she had kept for a special occasion after apple cider season had ended. And perhaps with a side of... Color flooded her cheeks as she pushed the steak back into the fridge. Making a meal like that was reserved for a more special occasion, something along the lines of Hearts and Hooves day... On the other hoof...
She slowly hovered the steak out again. Her friend was important, and it wasn't every day she had sleepovers. According to Pinkie, this was her very first. Surely it would do the dear good to get one nice meal that wasn't filled to the brim with sugar. She flicked the stove on as she pulled out a pan. Yes, that's all it was. Just a nice meal between friends. While the steak cooked, she grabbed a small rag and began to clean the kitchen, humming as she cleaned the small traces of mess Pinkie had left from her earlier breakfast-making experience.
After the kitchen had been cleaned and the steaks were about done, Pinkie came trotting into the kitchen. "Ohhhh, what smells so good?" she asked as she sniffed the air.
"Pinkie, did you finish cleaning the water up?" She waggled a spoon at her... And then quickly put it away. She couldn't believe she just did that, she was far far too young to be doing that.
"Yup! As dry as a cupcake! So what's cookin'?" She moved to the stove and sniffed.
"Alfalfa steaks. What?" Pinkie made a face at those words.
"But alfalfa taste horrible..."
"Well obviously you've never had me cook it." Rarity tutted, "now run along and wash up for supper. It will be done soon."
"But I just took a bath... You were there."
"Do it anyway after cleaning up the floor. You always wash your hooves." Rarity said firmly as she shut the stove off and placed the steaks on the table over two of her surviving plates. "After this, how about we go upstairs and play some truth or dare, okay? I believe that was the last thing on the slumber party list."
"What? But we haven't had a pillow fight or gone camping or sung karaoke!"
"Oh. Right, I suppose we can do some of those after we do truth or dare." Rarity said as she began to eat her steak. She wondered if maybe she should light a candle or... No. It wasn't that kind of dinner.
"Can we start now?" Pinkie asked as she chewed her steak. "Hey it doesn't taste icky!"
"Of course it doesn't! I'll have you know I am a marvelous cook. Also talk with your mouth empty. And I suppose we can start now." She placed her fork down. "Shall I go first?"
"Okay! I choose dare!"
"... Excuse me?"
"Well if you go first you ask me truth or dare and then I choose! And I choose dare! So dare me!"
"Oh... Twilight had left that part out. Though I suppose it makes sense... Okay then. Pinkie, I dare you to ummm... Ah. I know. You were always a fan of the pranks, correct? I dare you to play a large prank on Rainbow Dash the next time you see her. Is that satisfactory?" Rarity asked before she began to chew her steak again until she swallowed and continued, "and I choose truth."
"Okay! Ummmm... Oh! Rarity, why don't you ever have sales?" Rarity choked on her steak then, nearly falling out of her chair as she tried to, well... not die.
"Grrk... Hack... Grkchah!" The remains shot on the floor as she gasped for air. Shame flooded her cheeks as she scooped it up with a rag and tossed it in the trash. "Pinkie, what would ever possess you to ask such a question?!"
"Ummm well I heard some ponies talking about it and I was thinking since you're the most generous pony I know it seemed odd that you were never super duper generous and holding sales and stuff!"
"Well you see Pinkie there is a good reason for that. Most of my outfits are hoof crafted and then the designs themselves are sold to other ponies who may mass produce them. On occasion, I will make custom wares for ponies, but I don't have enough materials to mass produce dresses and host extravegant sales like some of the more major shops. I also charge a rather low fee for the dresses I do create and for the rights to my dresses, so slashing the prices any further would likely make it near impossible for me to afford my payments on my shop. Now, truth or dare?"
"Dare!"
Rarity let out a sigh as the game proceeded as such. Pinkie just kept choosing dare over and over, no matter what Rarity picked! Finally she just snapped. "I DARE YOU TO CHOOSE TRUTH NEXT TIME!"
The earth pony stared in shock, and then giggled. "If you wanted to ask me a question why didn't you just say so? Hee hee. Dares are so much more fun! Go ahead then, truth."
"I... It... Argh." She facehoofed once more, though a grin formed on her face. Finally she could get some answers. "Darling, is everything okay?"
"... Wow that's a silly question. Of course everything is okay. Why wouldn't it be?"
"Well... I..." She had envisioned this going differently in her head. "You've just seemed more... Easily upset lately. And when I saw you the night before last you seemed so upset. You know if anything is upsetting you, you can tell me." Her hoof reached out to take Pinkie's. "That's what friends are for. To look after each other."
Pinkie smiled at her. "I-I'm not upset at all! Not at all, really! Why would I ever be upset? Let's play a new game!" She tried to pull her hoof back, but Rarity held onto it tightly.
"Something is upsetting you! Darling, come on tell me. We're friends." She put on her winning smile, and eeked as she lost her grip on her friend's hoof.
"Nothings wrong! Nothing at all. Let's do the pillow fight, okay? I'll... I'll go get the pillows!" She quickly darted towards the stairs, but froze as her tail was gripped by Rarity's magic.
"Pinkie. I'm not sure what has you so upset but you don't have to hide it. There is no need to-"
"I'M NOT UPSET!" She screamed at the top of her lungs before covering her mouth. "I-I'm sorry. I just... I... I should go."
Rarity was so stunned by the outburst she lost her grip on the tail, standing in shock as her friend ran out the door. After a few moments, she ran to the window to watch Pinkie's destination. Down the street and into sugarcube corner. Rarity began to walk around the table, what should she do? If she pushed too hard she might upset Pinkie to much. On the other hoof, if her friend needed her but just wasn't willing to admit it, would it be okay for her to leave her alone? She slammed a hoof down. "No. Pinkie Pie is my friend. And I will not abandon her!" She posed dramatically, hoof in the air before running outside... and then running back in a moment later to grab her umbrella and fabulous poncho, and returning outside again.
She ran through the pouring rain and soon came to sugarcube corner. All the lights were out and the door was slightly ajar, which she pushed open as she entered. "Pinkie? Where are you? Come out." She closed the door behind her and hung the umbrella and poncho up. "Darling?" She began to walk through the shop, first checking the bedrooms but finding nothing. Next she checked the kitchen, and aside from a few used cupcake holders, it was empty as well.
There was only one more place for her to look. Slowly she positioned herself in front of it, and swung the door open! "I'm a mop." An oddly pink mop said from the back.
"... Pinkie. Come out here right this instance. We need to talk." Her horn glowed as she emptied the closet of brooms, mops, buckets, towels, and other cleaning supplies until only the pink mare remained. Taking Pinkie's hoof, Rarity pulled her out of the kitchen and into the entryway of the store, motioning to some chairs. "I want you to tell me everything that's been upsetting you lately. Everything." She held her friend's hoof comfortingly, smiling at her.
"I... I can't."
"And why not?" She asked as she made Pinkie sit in one of the chairs.
"If... If I do, you won't want to be my friend any more."
"Pinkie, that is the silliest thing I have ever heard you say. I would never want to stop being your friend. Okay, let's start small. Why were you crying that night?"
"I was lonely..." Pinkie mumbled as she hung her head in shame.
"..." Rarity moved up behind her friend, hugging her tightly. "Oh Pinkie, that's nothing to be ashamed of. If you were feeling like that why didn't you come to one of us and tell us?"
"Because you were all busy and had stuff to do and nopony likes a friend who's clingy and sulky. I don't wanna be that kind of friend. I want to be the kind of friend you're happy to see and throws parties and is fun and you don't avoid because I'm too clingy..." She poked her hooves together nervously.
"Oh darling... There is nothing wrong with you being a little clingy. And you make lots of ponies happy. Anypony would be happy to spend time with you."
"What if one day I can't?" Pinkie asked as she shivered just a little bit.
"Excuse me?"
"What about when I'm old and wrinkly and my hip falls off like Granny Smith's and I can't throw parties any more and you've ran away and married prince Blueflank in Canterlot and Twilight's busy with her own students and Rainbow Dash is in the wonderbolts and far away and Applejack will be to busy to leave the farm and Fluttershy is to busy with her animals and I'm alone at home all the time and no pony will want to be near me anymore because I won't be the party pony any more I'll be the pony who used to throw parties?!" Pinkie was shaking then, little tears in her eyes.
"Oh Pinkie..." Rarity grabbed her friends face and made her look her in the eye. "A few things. Granny Smith's hip did not fall off and neither will yours. His name is Blueblood and I would rather be dragged kicking and screaming through the everfree swamps, yes all of them, by a pack of rampaging hydras than marry him. And..." a hoof gently went out to stroke her friend's hair. "Even if all that happens... I promise no matter what. If you ever feel lonely, or scared, or worried that no pony will want to be near you... You can always come to me. No matter where I am. And if you can't, I will come to you."
"Pinkie promise?" She asked with a soft little sniffle, staring up at Rarity with big pink eyes. Which was quite impressive
"Pinkie promise." And she leaned in, sealing the promise with a kiss as she pulled Pinkie in for a tight hug. After a few seconds the kiss ended, leaving Rarity with red cheeks.
"That... That wasn't a friend kiss."
"No..."
"That wasn't even a best friend kiss."
"No, ummm, not quite..."
"That wasn't even a best friend who just threw the best surprise party ever while also bringing in the best dessert cake ever while leading a whole marching band kiss!"
"Pinkie!"
"Okay, it kinda was... But I didn't do any of those things."
"Well... I just thought... What better way to make sure I keep the promise than to ahhhh... Make sure I'm with you forever?" She pulled her even tighter.
And then the door swung open, revealing two earth ponies and a baby unicorn and pegasus. One of the earth ponies was a male with a bright orange coat and darker orange mane, with green eyes and wearing a bowtie, white apron and circular bakers hat. His cutie mark was three slices of cake. The other was a blue coated mare with light red eyes and mane, wearing a yellow apron. Her cutie mark was three cupcakes. The pegasus was a small colt with a brown mane and light brownish gray coat, with dark brown eyes. The unicorn was a small filly with a orange mane and light yellow coat, with blue eyes. They were the Cakes. Owner's of sugar cube corner and Pinkie's landlords.
"Pinkie, we got out early, and we..." The male earth pony said as he walked inside, carrying luggage on his back. He froze at the sight of the two ponies, Pinkie in Rarity's arms.
"I-It's not what it looks like!" Rarity shrieked frantically. "We were just, we weren't, we..." Her face was so red she could almost have passed for a strawberry. "Pinkie, say something!"
"No take backsies, sister!" Pinkie said as she pushed forward, pushing her lips to Raritys... While the grown up Cakes tried to hide the sight from their children!
Rarity struggled to keep her eyes open as she created her newest masterpiece. The past week had been a marvelous but tiring struggle. The Cakes had been more than willing to give them alone time after the uhh... incident in the shop. Well, the adults had, the children thought it was a new form of peekaboo. However, after that night the parties had started. First the 'our first kiss' party. Then the 'we're an item' party. Explaining had at least been simple, most of her friends seemed to think she already went that way, though Twilight's request to write a research paper on all effects of friendship and... Well, that party had been the longest. Of course she had tried to attend every party Pinkie threw after that point, but how does one keep up with a pony that must have a built in sugar factory? She must have gained a good five pounds from the confectionaries alone, and her hooves ached from all the dancing.
Of course the worst thing was easily the wakeups. Four times in the last week she had woken up with Pinkie snuggled up to her in bed, usually in some strange contraption like a confetti shooting hat or an alarm clock wrist watch. One time she had stood in front of the window wearing fake pegasus wings. With the sun at her back she looked like the grim reaper... Fortunately she had just giggled at being tossed across the room wrapped in all Rarity's pillows, blankets, and top mattress. She really wouldn't have minded the wake ups, except she had laid traps so she wouldn't be started. She'd laid rattlers by the door, placed beads of string by all the windows, even covered every entrance with tape! And yet everytime, not a single trap had been triggered and yet the pink mare still got into her house!
It was... Well okay she did kind of enjoy waking up with the extra warmth, despite the excentric devices. But trying to explain to Pinkie why it was unrefined for the pink mare to keep sneaking into her bed at such a early point in the relationship was an exercise in futility. No matter how warm and snuggly she was.
Rarity quickly shook her head before staring at the blank tapestry. No! She needed to focus! She had a job to do, she'd even managed to get the night alone for some peace and quiet. And quiet was all she needed! She gently picked up the pen and began to draw once again... And soon crumbled the picture of Pinkie and tossed it away.
She was a professional. She had a job to do and she couldn't keep allowing herself to be distracted. She couldn't keep thinking of the way Pinkie's soft body felt molded to hers when they cuddled, or the way her lips moved when she was pouting, or the way her tail poofed up whenever Rarity showed her a new dessert that was all the rage in Canterlot, or the way she twitched and shuffled whenever she lied, or the way her eyes sparkled when- NO! Bad Rarity, bad!
She picked up the pen and stared at her work. Her blank work. She just needed some inspiration. That was all! Something to... Ah who was she kidding... She was lonely. She wanted her cotton candy mare... Maybe she should EEEK! "EEEK!" She nearly jumped out of her skin as something latched onto her from behind. "Pinkie! Where did you come from?"
"Pinkie sense." The cotton candy mare said as she nuzzled Rarity, nestling in close.
"I... I see. I was just... I have a lot of work to do and ummm..." She was never going to get her deadline filled...
"I'll be quiet! I don't mind as long as neither of us has to be lonely." Pinkie plopped down on the ground, nestled besides Rarity.
"Okay. That's fair..." She plopped down to nestle close to Pinkie as well. A small grin formed on her face. She did think this was quite nice. Her eyes went wide as inspiration struck, glancing at the mare besides her. The still, bottled energy, so alive... Her pens danced across the tapestry, pink, blue, even a little black. Soon the image was done and slid into a small folder. She would take it to canterlot tomorrow... But for now, she rested her head on her friend. Now she was kind of tired... And she had the perfect cushion.
"Rarity?"
"Yes, Pinkie?"
"When you go to Canterlot, can you drop off a letter to the princess?"
"Of course dear..." Rarity mumbled as she closed her eyes, listening to the heartbeat of her friend. It was quickly becoming her favorite way to drift off...
******
Dear Princess Celestia,
This week I learned that even if you have something you're afraid other ponies won't like about you, you can always tell your friends. Even if you're scared or worried or upset and think they won't like you if you're not always feeling the same. Cause being a friend is about accepting all thingies that make you, you. And nothing will help make you yourself again, quite as well as a good friend.
PS. Also never wake any pony up with big pegasus wings outstretched. Apparently it can look pretty scary.
Celestia grinned as she read the note for the third time, sitting at her sister's bedside. It was about time for her to wake up anyway, and it wouldn't do for the moon to rise late. Slowly she spread her wings out...
