HEART OF STONE
Chapter Seventy One: Pinkie’s Despair
Written by TheCrimsonDM
When Trixie and Maud arrived at Sugarcube Corner they had been expecting a lot of noise to be coming from Pinkie’s room, but they had expected loud music and a bunch of cheerful ponies. Instead they were treated to shouting and five very upset ponies along with one terrified looking Pinkie Pie. After seeing the magazine that was being held in Fluttershy’s mouth it became clear that Pinkie’s little secret had come back to haunt her, and this was all Trixie’s fault.
The Cake’s stood just outside Pinkie’s room glancing nervously inside her room. They wanted to say something but obviously they weren’t sure what to say. Trixie gave them each a small smile before saying quietly, “You two are going to have enough on your plate after we’re done here, why don’t you let me and Maud fix this current problem?”
“You’d do that for us?” Misses Cake asked.
“Do you even know what they are accusing her of? I don’t know if this can be fixed,” Mr. Cake added.
“I know exactly what’s going on, and to be fair this might be partially my fault. I’ll fix this, don’t worry,” Trixie said, though she wasn’t sure if she really could fix the situation.
Before Trixie walked in she analyzed the situation. Fluttershy stood in front of her other friends with the shameful magazine held tightly in her mouth. Rainbow Dash was hovering in the air with her forelegs crossed. Twilight stood proudly above the other ponies, well except for Fluttershy who at this very moment was standing slightly taller than even the alicorn princess. There was a look of disgust on Rarity’s face and a confused one on Applejack’s. Finally there was Pinkie who was cowering in front of them with a fearful expression the likes of which Trixie had never seen the pink pony wear before.
Fluttershy spat out the magazine onto the floor and growled. “One last chance, Pinkie. Tell me why you have this!”
“I-I-I don’t know,” Pinkie claimed.
“Right now before I start breaking things!” Fluttershy demanded.
The only thing that Pinkie seemed capable of right now was shaking on the floor and whimpering. Trixie began to wonder just how long this had been going on, hopefully not too long. Fluttershy walked over to Pinkie’s closet and using her hooves she threw open the closet’s door.
“And why do you have that thing?” Fluttershy asked while pointing at the costume of herself.
“Please tell us what’s going on, sugarcube,” Applejack offered kindly.
“NO!” Fluttershy screamed. “No being nice to her, she is nothing but a degenerate pervert who needs to be punished.”
This was when Trixie noticed the dark look that was held in Fluttershy’s eyes. There was something that she had never seen before in those eyes; an unrestrained hatred that only wanted to destroy everything in her path. The other ponies began looking at Fluttershy with fear threaded into their expressions.
“Darling, please do calm down. There is no need for violence here,” Rarity offered.
“I am sick of being pushed around by that pink jerk. She has had this magazine of me for two years now, and that means she has been pleasuring herself to shameful images of me that entire time. I want nothing more than to throw up at the mere thought of it. But now that I know about her obsession with me, I am afraid of what kinds of horrible things she has done with this costume as well,” Fluttershy explained.
“We all know that, but I’m sure that Pinkie didn’t mean to hurt you,” Twilight offered.
Slowly Pinkie stood up and asked, “Did this really hurt you?”
The room was silent for the longest moment as everypony looked at one another in contemplation. Finally while Fluttershy was growling Applejack asked, “Sugarcube, didn’t’ it occur to you that Fluttershy’s feelings would be hurt?”
“I thought she would be a little upset with me, but only because I wasn’t brave enough to ask her out…” Pinkie Pie admitted.
“Ask me out?” Fluttershy hissed. “You think that I would ever go out with you, especially after this?”
Pinkie lowered her head and sniffled. “I was scared. I know that you hate me already, but I didn’t think that you would be so mad at me for this. It’s just a few pictures, it’s not like you even did anything to naughty in them, you didn’t even masturbate.”
Rainbow Dash face hoofed and said, “Celestia darn it, Pinkie. The reason she doesn’t like them is because Photo Finish forced her to take these pictures.”
Suddenly Pinkie looked up at her flying friend and clear horror was seen across her face. “What?”
“What did you think these were?” Fluttershy asked, her anger quickly giving way to her repressed feelings of shame.
Pinkie Pie began shaking even harder. “I-I-I thought that you did this for fun. I’ve done things like this before, of course I only let friends see them but… did she really make you do these?”
A soft sound escaped Fluttershy’s lips and suddenly Pinkie gave up on standing and fell to the floor. She closed her eyes and said as sternly as she could, “Burn it!”
“What?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“I said burn it. I can’t stand the thought of somepony… hurting Fluttershy. So I want you to take that stupid magazine and drop it into a volcano, and while you’re at it toss that stupid meanie head Photo Finish in with it,” Pinkie said lowly. After a moment she added, “If I ever see that monster of a pony again I’m going to hurt her.”
For a moment nopony spoke and when Twilight’s horn lit up and the book was lifted into the air everypony watched. Suddenly the book was vaporized before everyponies sight and a collective sigh filled the room. Pinkie laid her head down and shuddered.
“You honestly thought that Fluttershy wanted to make those magazines didn’t you?” Twilight asked.
“I’m so stupid,” Pinkie Pie said. “Of course there are ponies out there that would try to hurt Fluttershy. She’s too beautiful, somepony was bound to be mean to her.” Pinkie covered her head with her hooves and gave out a short scream. After screaming she said softly, “Fluttershy, you don’t have to pretend to be my friend anymore. I hurt you in such a horrible way that you could never forgive me… I’m sorry.”
For a moment it looked like Fluttershy might start crying but she seemed to toughen up and say, “Yes you did hurt me. You hurt me so badly that I might never trust you again… but it does look like you did it out of ignorance. Maybe we… maybe we can still be friends?”
“No, Fluttershy. We can’t, after what I did I can’t be your friend anymore. I can’t ever hurt you by mistake again, just because I worship the ground you walk on doesn’t mean that I’m fit enough to be your friend. Leave me, Fluttershy, leave me and go be happy somewhere safe,” Pinkie said, her voice was cracking.
“You worship the ground I walk on? What does that mean?” Fluttershy asked.
Pinkie Pie let out a soft cry before saying, “You already hate so I guess it doesn’t matter now. It means that I’m in love with you. I have been for a long time now… I’ve just been too much of a cowered to tell you.”
The room was deftly silent again. This was when Trixie decided to walk in with Maud hot on her fetlocks. “Hello everypony, I just wanted to say that I’m so glad that everypony is still alive after this. Um… Pinkie, I’m sorry that I told Fluttershy about this.”
“You were right to, it was wretched of me to have kept it in the first place,” Pinkie Pie said. “She’s just so beautiful…”
Fluttershy looked at Trixie, then she looked at Pinkie, and finally she settled on staring at Trixie. “I’m sorry.”
“What?” Trixie asked.
“What?” Pinkie asked.
“I got so angry at you, Pinkie,” Fluttershy she said while staring at the pink pony again. “I often forget that you are a child inside. The fact that you don’t read minds on purpose also hurt your chances at understanding how I felt about this whole thing.” She was quiet for a moment before adding, “So I would like to make things up to you. Maybe, I mean since it’s still early, and if it’s not too much trouble, could we go get something to drink?”
“Alright,” Pinkie said excitedly as she jumped off the floor almost completely rejuvenated. Although Trixie could tell that Pinkie’s energy was just a mask for how hurt she was feeling right now. “The six of us should go and-“
“Just you, and um, me,” Fluttershy interrupted.
“Just the two of us… like by ourselves… totally alone?” Pinkie Pie asked in complete shock. “Like a date?”
Fluttershy’s cheeks began turning a cute shade of red and she looked away saying, “Not like that. I just thought that if we could talk in private it would be easier to… connect with you. If you’re going to make it weird I’ll bring Rarity along too.”
“No that’s okay, I can do a friendly drink as friends, because that’s exactly what we are, friends,” Pinkie quickly said in an attempt to make things a little less awkward. Pinkie Pie turned around and quickly asked, “So what brings you two here, I know that I was trying to get everypony together for a welcome home party for Maud but you two shouldn’t have shown up for a couple of days…”
Maud stared flatly at Pinkie and said, “I have to talk to you.”
“Oh what about, is it about rocks, or candy, or rock candy. I really like rock candy, it’s delicious,” Pinkie rambled on cheerfully.
Maud was quiet for a moment before saying, “The fact that you have not acted out yet means that you haven’t been reading my mind. Thank you for that, Pinkie.”
It was clear to Trixie that Pinkie might not handle this new information so well. Maud was about to rock her world after all, no pun intended.
“You’re adopted,” Maud said flatly.
Pinkie gave a laugh before saying, “That’s funny. I’m glad that you took my joke training classes seriously, I thought that you might have been ignoring me because you fell asleep in the middle of one of them.”
“I wasn’t telling a joke,” Maud stated.
“Oh yeah,” Pinkie Pie said as her pupils began to shrink and her ears folded back, “And if I were to go along with your hypothesis, then who would my ‘real’ parents be?”
“The Cake’s,” Maud explained.
Pinkie Pie laughed again and said, “That’s a cool story. Now me and Fluttershy really have to go, and she promised drinks. I think I’m going to try some everclear.”
“That’s hard liquor. You’ll get drunk,” Maud said. “Is knowing the truth really that bad?”
“Ha ha ha,” Pinkie said frantically as she walked out her bedroom door. “Maud, why don’t you go buck Trixie or something, before you actually convince me about this. I’ll even let you use my bedroom.”
As Pinkie left Fluttershy followed behind her looking nervously at her friends. “Oh no, please don’t let her get drunk, please don’t make me take care of a drunk Pinkie alone.”
The others quickly followed behind Fluttershy each of them giving a worried look to Maud and Trixie on their way out. Finally when the room was empty Trixie just looked at Maud and said, “Well that went better than expected.”
“She’s mad at me,” Maud stated. “I don’t like it when she’s mad at me.”
“She’ll get over it, maybe we can work on a plan to get her and Fluttershy together and she will forgive you?” Trixie offered.
“Let’s go home before she comes back and yells at me. I don’t want that to happen,” Maud said.
“I don’t think she will yell at you… but we should probably leave her room before she comes back drunk off her flank,” Trixie said. As they left Sugarcube Corner Trixie caught the terrified looks on The Cake’s faces, and she just knew that this was going to come and bite her in the flank.