Chapter 5: Returned
The light of the sun illuminated the land starting the day for all the ponies of Equestria, one pony in particular who was waiting for the train station to open. Because she couldn't sleep, Twilight Sparkle pack things she might need in her quest looking for Pinkie Pie. Once the sun was about to be raise by Celestia she went to the station to wait, however the train station opened at 6 A.M so she had to wait for a few hours. One by one, her friends started to gather on the agreed spot, very optimistic and keeping a positive mood, but none of their happy thoughts would make Twilight smile. She just stared at the station entrance waiting for it to be opened.
After quite some time, the conductor finally opened the gates. In a quick move, the leader of the group jumped into the building and ordered the one in charge "Five tickets to Canterlot, now!"
The conductor pony wasn't happy "First, please be a little more gentle ma'am, is still too early. Second, something is blocking the rail tracks from Manehattan to here. We don't know what's blocking it but a group of specialist had already gone there to investigate. There won't be trains until further notice" A pegasus arrived and called the conductor's attention, they moved to a room to talk in private before anypony could say something.
Twilight frustration in her mane as it starts to catch fire. As she yells hysterically "Hold on there, sugarcube. Calm down" Applejack jumped and hold her trying to calm her down, then all the other did it as well. After awhile she started to be herself again. "I can't believe this, am I destined to not find her?!"
"Darling, please. We'll just have to wait, remember that is the fastest way to get her" Rarity using logic as always.
Twilight didn't reply to anyone, she moved to a nearby bench that led in front of the train rails and sat there. The others did the same and avoid telling her anything at all, thinking she might would freak out again. The sat next to her, they talked about what might had happen keeping a low voice to not disturb her purple friend. But no matter what they would have said, she was focused on her mission, she stared at the train rails observing every inch of it waiting for the train to take her where Pinkie Pie was.
They sat there and time seemed to be going by slower and slower, on top of that there were no signs of the train yet and the conductor pony didn't bring any new information of it's current state. Everypony started to get desperate, especially Rainbow Dash who staying in one spot was like a death sentence. The only one who stayed still and didn't make a sound was Twilight, nothing seemed to make her focused on anything else.
Six hours had passed and for the first time the ponies started to feel like there was no point of being there
"Um... Maybe there will be no train today?" Fluttershy said.
"Maybe we' should come back later, sugarcube" Applejack seemed tire of being here.
"You can go, I'll wait for the train"
"Please, Twi, you have to eat smothin'"
"I'll be fine. You go." Twilight face was expressionless. She just stared at the nothing giving sighs every once in a while.
"We'll go for somethin' to eat and come back, please. Whaddya say?" Applejack, as always, tried to keep a smile and look happy to make everypony feel better.
She finally gave up, if going with them would let her wait for the train she would do it "Okay, but once I'm done I'll come back immediately"
Suddenly a hard noise was heard, the floor shaking, and rumbling sound broke the calm and the quiet of the train station. Everypony turned in their surprise watching now that the train had finally arrived "Come on everypony! Time to go!" Said Twilight galloping towards the entrance of the train.
When the doors were about to open the conductor pony interrupted the way "That'd be 25 bits for 5 tickets, if you don't mind"
Twilight was fed up with all of this "Yeah, what ever take it!" She took her purse and threw the bits to his face, not even taking the ticket. She ran up to the closed doors impatiently trotting in place, finally good news for her.
When the doors opened a single pony was standing there, her pink fur was all covered with dirt, her curly pink mane was all a mess, her faced demonstrate that she was pretty tired. Once she stepped out of the she was assaulted by a group of five ponies who jumped and hugged her at the same time making her losing balance and fell down. Pinkie had jumped and hugged ponies making them fall too, but it was the first time somepony else did to her. Her back hurt but it felt nice.
"Pinkie! Here you are, thank Celestia" Twilight hugged her tighter than she had ever hugged anypony.
"Hi, everyone. What gives?" Pinkie loved the surprise, but she was confused
"What gives?! You disappeared all of the sudden and tell no pony where you were going?! Why the hay did you go in the first place anyway?!" Rainbow Dash broke the hug first and began the interrogation.
"Oh, that... I... I bought this for you, Twilight" Pinkie was wearing a saddle bag, not her usual one that was still in Twilight's house. It was a brown saddle bag with a pick drawn on the sides. She took the saddle bag and brought out a package inside it, then she handed it to Twi "Here. Sorry, I didn't have time to wrap it up properly"
Twilight took it with her magic, shecarefully opened it. It was a copy of the book she had, The Filly Princess, it was the very first edition but it looked new and well preserved "Pinkie... Why did you... How did you...?" She didn't even know what to ask first.
"I went to Canterlot to see your parents, they told me what bookstore they went and bought the book. When I got there they told me the editorial was discontinued and there were no copies left of the book, but they did told me the name of the author:
Ernest Heminghoof and he lived in Manehattan. I took the train to Manehattan and knock every single door until I found somepony who told me where he lives. I went to him and asked him if he had another copy, luckily he had one from the very first time he published it but he wouldn't sell it, however he needed quartzite... a type of rock, to a construction on his new house and we made a deal to exchange the book for a good amount of quartzite. I took the train to my parent's rock farm and told them the whole situation, they agreed to help and gathered all the rock we could..."
"Wait Pinkie, you gathered rocks and took it from a town to another in one day?!" Rarity interrupted the story
"My family has years of experience on rock farming, also all my family helped which made the work much easier" she continued "I took the train back to Manehattan with all the rocks and made the deal with Mr. Heminghoof. It took me a day and a half, or maybe even more, but here it is. Do you like it?"
Twilight couldn't hold back her crying, all the feelings came to her and hit her at the very same time "Twilight, what's wrong what did I do?" Pinkie asked thinking she had hurt her friend again. Her eyes looked down and then she covered her face preventing anypony to see her "I messed it up again" she thought
"What did you do? You did everything you could to give something special to me, you went all across Equestria and doing something other would consider impossible in one day for me. It's... it's... I can even describe how incredible this is. And you did all for me" Twilight hugged her friend once again, Pinkie hugged back and nuzzled on her. All their friends looked and stepped back a little giving them enough space for them. Twilight kissed her on the cheek, this made Pinkie blush and think that everything was worth it. She wanted to kiss back but her nervousness at what her friend would think didn't let her.
They took Pinkie to the Sugarcube Corner and throw a small party to her. The whole Cake family had missed her a lot. Everypony enjoyed having her back again, especially Twilight who didn't let her be too far away from her; Pinkie really enjoyed this attention.