“Oh wow!” Four of the ponies cried in awe at the restaurant. High ceilings and decorations that had no use were everywhere here. “I can’t believe it,” noted Rarity, “this place seems just as grand as the dining halls in Canterlot.” The rest of the group nodded slowly in agreement with a small “Eeyup” from Big Mac. No one bothered asking how he would know considering he never went whenever the girls had gone before.
“I have to admit Pinkie,” said Twilight gazing around her, “This place is far higher class than I would normally think you’d be up for. Every other time you took us out it was to a rave or some weird celebration most people wouldn’t here of outside some small town.”
“I have to agree,” Said Rarity, “this all seems a bit too un-Pinkie of you for lack of a better term. Sorry if that hurts your feelings darling, but you must admit this place doesn’t exactly scream a good old fashioned Ponyville style of fun.”
Pinkie Pie frowned at this. “I may be a party pony, but that doesn’t include one kind you know. After the incident at the Gala and Rarity’s birthday I decided to look into why so many high class ponies were into this boring stuff. Turns out its only boring because for them it’s like a Ponyville party is to us, fun and everyone wants to be there. But in return every now and then you have to go to one from the other side just for some variety. How else do you think I got everything set up so well for your brother’s wedding?”
Pinkie had said all of this without getting angry, depressed, or even talking fast. Twilight was taken aback by all of it. Pinkie somehow even gave off a completely different demeanor here. She wasn’t acting like she normally did. Both of her friends were not sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing because of this.
“Well come along my friends,” said Pinkie starting to trot, “and Big Mac.”
“If it’s alright with you, can Rarity and I hang back a bit,” questioned the muffled voice of Wishful in his little magic bubble. “I’m already getting a few people eyeing me now and I wanted to talk about something with her before me get too many curious looks and approaches at the table.”
Pinkie nodded and Big Mac and Twilight joined her as she trotted carefully to their table. Rarity watched them carefully before saying simply, “Was Pinkie affected by this curse of yours darling?”
Wishful blinked. “Now that you mention it she has. But from what Twilight told me, and the little time I’ve known her, that can’t be possible. Unless…”
“Something is causing her to waver on her feelings for Big Macintosh,” Rarity said with a frown. “She’s been under some stress lately ever since she heard someone in her family was killed. Apparently she was close to that pony and instead of going to the funeral she just up and stayed here to continue our small partnership. Now we have all the free time in the world and she still doesn’t bother with dealing with it. I’m not sure what to do since there isn’t really a way we could convince her to see a psychotherapist and Big Macintosh doesn’t see it at all. The poor guy is so in love he’s too blind to Pinkie’s needs still.”
“You could just talk to him about it thought,” suggested Wishful. “He likely should be able to convince Pinkie to do something at least. Big Mac doesn’t strike me as the sort of guy who would let this fly if he knew about it. Talking about things is always the best way to handle it you know.”
“Perhaps,” said Rarity, “but we should at least wait till tomorrow so we don’t spoil what happiness she may get out of tonight. It’s so funny sometimes watching her nearly melt when they have any physical contact.” Then she remembered Wishful’s talk last night and sighed, “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you earlier, it was all so outlandish. But when Twilight showed up with you and you told her about that double wake spell I was convinced.”
“Yeah about that,” said Wishful carefully, “Don’t go too far tonight without Twilight or Pinkie. That spell is pretty good but it comes at a price. You’re up for half a day longer than you should be but in return you sleep for twice as long as normal without any way of waking up. And the effect only compounds the more it’s used. Heck after last night Spike and I will be out for a full day I dare say.”
That got Rarity’s attention, “Why would Spike need such a spell?”
Wishful just smiled and tried to imitate a character from one of Spikes comics they used to read together. “It’s all part of the plan. But that need not concern you for now. Let’s go join the others before Pinkie starts trying to hook me up with Twilight again.”
“You mean you’re not going out with Twilight now?”
“Nah, last night she still acted like she was in love with me when I got in without this bubble. That means she has no mixed or confused feelings about anypony, least of all me. Her intentions with me are purely platonic. I admit a part of me is disappointed in that, but there isn’t anything else I can do about it.”
“You’re pretty honest are you not?”
“Partly, but most of this is because Spike’s watching us from that window over there and Twilight put and honesty charm on me before we entered.” He inclined his head to the glass wall where it was clear the purple colt was pressing his face to get a better look inside. “He still thinks he has to do something besides apologize at this point. I even got him all tired from my magic so he’s the only reason he’s still moving around now because he thought I tricked him.”
Rarity giggled, “Well I dare say this is a decent sort of revenge if he thinks you are my date. He’s so cute when he’s jealous.” She entered Wishful’s bubble with little effort and rubbed up against him pretending not to see Spike. Both laughed at seeing his reaction which involved him banging on the glass enough for security to have to take him away. “I’ll have to go see him after this little dinner thing Pinkie dragged us to then.”
“Well then let’s go and see if we can’t help Pinkie out.”
As Twilight had guessed, this dinner was totally boring. She wasn’t used to dinner being this quite. Sure she had grown up in Canterlot, but the only times she didn’t eat alone before coming to Ponyville were when she ate with Princess Celestia and her family. In the former case it was due to being with the Princess that she was so excited and nervous that she couldn’t see it as boring. In the latter it was so rare that she had lots to talk about, especially with Shining Armor.
“You know Twiliy. If I didn’t know any better I’d say you had a crush on the poor guy. You’ve done nothing but talk about him nonstop since you came to visit.”
Wait a minute. What was that? That memory didn’t make any sense. “The only guy I even interacted with while studying were my brothers,” she thought. “But wait, then why do I only remember times I spent with Shining? Wouldn’t all three of us have hung out too? What’s going on here?”
As her mind tried to make sense of this, she found herself looking at her other four companions. Indeed, it looked more like she was the extra wheel then Rarity in this group date. Wishful and her were talking up a storm about Spike, but still having fun because of it. Wishful really had barely said a single word to her at all since they had picked up Rarity. She found it, odd. There was this pulling in her from seeing this when normally she’d just be happy that Wishful found someone to interact with that his magic aura wasn’t effecting. All of this didn’t add up, and the focus of all of this was Wishful Thinking.
“So,” said Pinkie finally getting her attention off Big Mac to ask, “What are the two of you so cheery about?”
Wishful stopped for a moment and thought before replying. “I have a story I can tell all of you. It has a purpose but you have to be willing to hear it. Everyone interested?”
Even Rarity seemed to be taken aback by this, meaning she wasn’t talking about this story with Wishful. That got both of the other mares interested as well. They all agreed with Big Mac giving his usual Eeyup.
“Very well then,” said Wishful clearing his throat. Pinkie, being a bit more like herself, shoveled the rest of her food into her mouth so she wouldn’t be eating during. He did his best to imitate an old narrator as he began:
“This story starts out with a very simple start. A young pony, trapped in a boring life with little to no fun things to do. This pony had few friends growing up, and only truly found her call when she got her cutie mark. I’ll let you all decide what that mark was because in the grand scheme it only matters that because of this mark the family she had found they had to send their child away to pursue her dream. For a long time the mare did, with many ups and downs along the way. But then one day something happened to a family member most dear to her. Her relative had died, and had been slowly dying for years now and she never knew.”
At hearing this story Pinkie’s eye narrowed. Big Mac noticed this and kept his eyes on her as Wishful continued.
“The mare knew it was best to just deal with the issue head on. But she couldn’t, I mean how could she? True she did have friends, but to her they were too far away to ever talk about it. So she spent her days making everyone else around her happy instead, granting every pony’s wish to the best of her ability one by one. And to this day I’ve no idea if she will ever come to terms with what she is hiding from-“
Pinkie rose and Big Mac held her back. Wishful cocked and eyebrow with a smirk, “Something wrong Pinkie? I know I’m not very good at telling stories, but I think you should like me finish. Because the story is one most ponies, myself included had at some point. Why else would I have been so broad about it? That is unless there is something YOU wish to tell someone?”
Pinkie didn’t respond to that and instead trotted away, her boyfriend following. Twilight rose to follow as well but Rarity stopped her. “Let them be Darling. Wishful was just helping her in an odd way, at my request of course.”
“You wanted him to get her mad?”
“Not exactly,” replied the unicorn. “But we can hardly do anything about that now. We can talk to her later. Right now it’s best for Big Mac to help however he can first. I can’t say the ends justify the means though.”
Both mares looked at Wishful who was had gone back to eating. Twilight banged the table hard to get his attention. He didn’t bother to look up. “Is that how you treat my friends? What kind of Stallion are you?”
“Well if you could recall you’d know,” he said simply. “Not that it will matter soon. I’ll be out of you and Spikes hair in the morning. Just trust me. I know what I’m doing.”
“Okay,” said Twilight, “Now you’re really not making any sense.” She pressed herself into the bubble not caring what the magic aura did to get him to look her in the eye. Rarity or Wishful would push her away if anything happened anyway. “Despite what you may think, I’m your friend too Wishful. Otherwise I would never have let you stay in my house last night. So explain to me everything right here and now.”
Wishful would have likely would have told her, what was eating at him needed to be said. Unfortunately two things stopped him. The first was Pinkie running out which caught attention away from Twilight for a second as Big Mac pursued. The other was that he was knocked clean out by Twilight’s hoof bucking his face and sending him sprawled onto the floor. Angry like he had never seen in her before in her eyes.