//------------------------------// // Pinkie Pie's "Inkie Pie's Pinkie Pie" // Story: Pinkie Pie's "Why?" // by InkSparrow //------------------------------// “Can I open them? Can I open them? Can I open them?” “Not yet, wait a bit more.” “Now? Now?” “No.” “And now?” “Mmm… Yes, now you can.” Little filly Pinkamena Diane Pie opened her eyes abruptly. It was her birthday. Since she got her Cutie Mark with the very first party in Pie family’s rock farm, every occasion was good for a party. Pinkie’s father, Clyde, was still a little reluctant about it, but he (secretly) enjoyed every celebration. This time, her sister Inkie had prepared a gift for her older sister. A gift! There were almost no gifts in the family! Why would anypony give a present? It was a waste of time! Or at least that was what Clyde and Sue thought, until Pinkie gave them a new hat and a new collar. “They’re good. Sometimes” he said when her daughters asked him about presents now. “Oh my gosh! A bucket! Now I can put my stuff in something!” “What? It’s not… Look inside, Pinkie!” The joy Pinkamena had brought to the farm didn’t go unnoticed at all. Yes, maybe the Pies worked as hard as they always did; and maybe Clyde Pie was as stern as always. But now there were smiles. Smiles that came up with the Good morning and Good night. Smiles and Happy birthday! each year. Smiles with I love you, daddy, mommy! that really surprised the earth ponies. Inside the half-filled bucket, swimming awkwardly, there was a tiny alligator. It looked up to Pinkie and opened its mouth as saying “Hello, may I eat you?” “Whoooooaaa! …what’s this?” “It’s a pet!” Inkie said with a smile. It was an expression difficult to make sometimes “You know… Some ponies have companion animals and… well, they’re called ‘pets’. I thought you might want one, so… Do you like him? He was born just yesterday, so you almost share birthdays!” Pinkie put her hoof in the bucket, trying to slowly reach the reptile. But it jumped and bit her. For an instant, the filly thought it was going to hurt, but it felt funny instead. “In the store they said he has some kind of… disease. But don’t worry! He’s ok” she corrected herself as soon as she saw Pinkie’s sad face “The only problem is he has no teeth, though I consider it’s more a good thing than…” “How cuuute!” She took the alligator and hugged it along with her sister “Thank you Inkie! It’s the best gift eveeeer!” “Pinkamena! Inkadelle! What are you doing there?!” “It’s dad! Run!” Amongst the rest of the family, it was Inkadelle Joanne Pie who was affected the most by Pinkie’s new happiness spirit. She often disappeared at morning, just to go to the limits of the farm and spend a whole hour smelling some flowers. Sometimes she quitted working early just to watch sunset. No one seemed to notice that but Pinkie, who would go and play with her most of the times. Nevertheless, there was a reason for the growing smile in Inkie’s own spirit, and even before she started feeling bad, she knew there was something wrong with her body. And smiles made her feel a lot better. Inkie became weaker than her sisters, making his father mad about her “lack of true effort” and his mother worried. Pinkie helped her whenever she couldn’t move the heavier rocks and Blinkie, who had developed some skill at kitchen, baked her some food she called cupcakes (although her older pink sister insisted in calling them duper-mini-cakes-in-a-cup). “Thank you… And I’m sorry…” she said once, panting, at nightfall. “You don’t have to… to help me that much…I’ll get better soon and… and I’ll make you something nice…” She didn’t wake up the next morning. Clyde and Sue took her to Ponyvile Hospital as soon as they could. They didn’t actually understand what their daughter suffered; just that it was something in her blood. Inkie finally opened her eyes at late night. “You’re sick? Sick like Gummy?” Pinkie said, standing aside of her bed, the next day. There was a speck of sadness in her face, but she smiled anyway. “That means you’re gonna lose your teeth?!” “Of course not, Pinkie!” Blinkie answered, leaning over her gray sister and hugging her. “But she would look tooootally funny! Imagine her like that!” “S-stop, Pinkie! You’re scaring her!” But she was not scaring the pony. Inkie was, in fact, laughing. Her mane had become grayish and started falling apart; her face was paler, and she had rings under her eyes almost all day. But she could smile even wider. She could laugh at all those hilarious faces Pinkie did, imitating her pet Gummy, with no teeth. She could taste the sweetness of the pastries Blinkie baked, when she could smuggle them into the Hospital. She could sleep with a huge smile when Sue read her a bedtime story. She must smile, for all the tears her family shed. However, Pinkie was the only one who seemed had never cried, and her face shone with even more light than ever every time she went visiting her sister. “You don’t need to try that hard…” the younger one said once, when the pink pony was changing the flowers in the room for two pairs of giant bouquets with several balloons attached to each jar. “What? But the room looks a lot nicer with them!” Pinkie said, pointing the recently placed ornaments. “I didn’t mean th…” She coughed several times. Pinkie Pie approached, worried “I… I’m fine…” For a moment, they just stared into each other’s eyes. “It’s just… You don’t cry.” It felt like an hour, though it was just seconds. And horrible and stupid thought crossed Inkie’s mind. “What if she doesn’t really like me?” she imagined “That’s the reason she doesn’t cry, she’s happy because I’m sick and I… And I won’t be here soon.” She had heard the doctor speaking to her parents about her disease, her leusomething “Her condition has gone worse… She doesn’t have much time” he had said, making the ponies cry. “Well, duh! Of course I don’t cry!” Pinkie hugged her sister “If I cry you would be sad, wouldn’t you? So I try to make you happy!” The older one smiled broadly while playing with the younger one’s cheeks “Maybe you’ll want to stay a bit more if I make you laugh!” Inkie smiled. She smiled wider than ever, although she cried a bit as well. “I-I-I’m sorry! I didn’t want to…!” “It’s ok, Pinkie.” She hugged her back “These are tears of happiness! You’re doing a great job!” In a merciful world, that hug would have lasted a whole day. “I… I really really don’t want to go.” Inkie’s voice broke and her smile bended. Melancholy filled the room. “Oh, I know!” the pink pony stepped away from her little sister. “I’m gonna throw a party! Right here! The bestest party eveeer!” she raised her legs up to the ceiling, imagining all that she could do to make that hospital room look partier. “Pinkie… the nurses won’t let you…” “Well, I won’t let them not letting me have a party” She said. Inkie wished she couldn’t stop smiling. In a merciful world, her cough would let her do that. In a perfect world she would regain strength just from the laughing and soon she would be dancing and singing, baking and eating with her sisters. “You… You’ll see! There will be so many balloons you would float among them! And there will be cake inside the balloons! And then… I’ll tie punch glasses to each balloon’s string so everypony would drink something with their cake! And…!” “Sis!” she stopped; her hooves mid-air and her lips just about to pronounce something else. Inkie thought a lot what she wanted to say. Tears slipped over her pale but blushed cheeks. That was the right spirit; that was the right thing she could do. Smile until the very end. Smile aside her sister, her Pinkie party sister. “Thank you for being Pinkie Pie for me.” “Hahah! Of course, silly Inkie Linkie! I’ll always be Pinkie Pie for you! You would never be sad with me!” “Heh… I surely won’t!” In a merciful world both sisters, along with their parents, would have walked out of the hospital next morning, laughing and being scolded by their father for not working hard enough. In a merciful world, maybe, the nurses would have allowed Pinkie to put all those balloons inside the room, and not just a quarter of them. In a merciful world, at least, Inkie Pie would have been alive when Pinkie arrived the next day. But she wasn’t. “Oh… Oh, dear, I’m so sorry…” Rariry said, wiping her tears with a very fine handkerchief. Somehow, they all felt stupid. Not even Rainbow Dash would have dared say something about a “dark past” anymore. “It’s ok, don’t worry.” Pinkie had smiled almost during the whole story, but the sadness in her eyes seemed like permanent. “It’s not ok, Pinkie” Twilight Sparkle said, leaning her head “We shouldn’t have been so meddlesome with your past… We are truly sorry for making you remember that…” “So... I was right!” Rainbow Dash stepped forward. She could barely make that triumphal grin she was planning to do with a loud I told you!. “Don’t be so rude Rainbow.” Applejack said, pocking her side with an elbow. However, the pink pony laughed loudly. Bewildered, everypony looked at her. Pinkie, as the wielder of the Element of Laughter, had the ability of laugh at everything, if that was an ability. But the ponies didn’t expect she could laugh at the memory of her dead sister. “Do-don’t worry, haha, I told you I’m ok” Pinkie said when she stopped laughing. “Why do you keep looking weird at me?” “Sorry, Pinkie, but… It’s weird laughing at a sad memory such as… a sister’s death.” Twilight said, turning her voice softer. If the one dead would have been Shining Armor, she would probably burst in tears every time she remembered. But the pink mare seemed immune to that kind of sadness; at first sight, at least. Everypony remembered Pinkie Pie’s next words because it was one of the few moments she had spoken seriously, as impossible as it sounds. The smile remained, but the tone of her short speech was not Pinkie. “She wanted to smile always; and I wanted to keep her smiling always too. There’s nothing wrong in smiling, even if you smile at somepony who’s not here anymore. She’s not a reason, Rainbow.” Pinkie looked at her “She’s a ‘Why not keep smiling?’ I don’t have to be sad for her. I rather be happy! That’s not a bad thing at all, is it?” They looked at each other, silently. They all grinned then, Rarity nodding. “Yes. You’re right, darling.” “Ah guess. And Rainbow, ya’ owe Pinkie an apology.” “Yeah… I’m… I’m sorry” She said slowly, scratching the back of her head. Right now she still thought she was right, but also that the idea was some kind of stupid “I shouldn’t have suspected those silly things about you…” “It’s ok, Rainbow! Look, everypony!” She quickly went to the kitchen and brought a tray with five cupcakes, each one decorated with each one of her friend’s colors and cutie mark icings “I made these to look like you!” For some reason, the blue pegasus was the only one who seemed to step back at the sight of the pastries.