Pinkie's Secret

by Winter_Solstice

A Lesson in Friendship

In an expensive hotel suite, rented under an assumed name, Spindle and Porter were making up for all the lost opportunities under which they’d suffered. They ate whenever and whatever they choose, their massive closets were bursting with new Canterlot fashions, and they had lost count of the pleasant curvaceous company they’d entertained. But somehow, for Spindle, it wasn’t enough. Something was missing.

As Porter was stuffing himself with yet another banquet from room service, Spindle gazed thoughtfully out the balcony. Below, the streets were still teeming with many ponies going to and fro about their business, as the sun was just being lowered for the early evening. Its last rays shone in the balcony windows and illuminated the room. Spindle turned and silently watched Porter for a few moments.

“You’re going to be as big as a house soon, you keep eating like that,” he finally said. Porter just grinned, and kept eating. Spindle turned away in disgust. After a few more moments of the evening air being filled with the sounds of Porter’s chewing, Spindle at last said, “It’s not enough.”

Coming up for air, Porter asked, “What’s ‘not enough’?”

Spindle gestured around them. “All this. It’s not enough.”

Burping, Porter said, “What are you talking about? What more do we need?” Picking up some carrots out of a bowl, he laid them one by one out on a clear spot on the table. “One: we have more bits than the two of us can spend. Two: we don’t have to take orders from anypony. Three: we got back at that jerk for his humiliating us all those years and Five: we made him look like a fool in front of his old dad.” Popping the last carrot in his mouth he added, “That’s the sweetest part of all.”

Spindle shook his head. “You skipped ‘four.’”

Porter looked down at his example, counted the carrots, and then felt around in his mouth with his tongue for the last one.

“Oh yeah…I did. Okay, four then. Four points is good enough for me.”

Spindle turned back to the window. “It’s not enough for me. We just humiliated him. I want to hurt him, really hurt him, in a way he won’t recover from.”

Finally growing serious, Porter asked, “But why? We can move on and forget him and his father. We’re set, we haven’t really broken any laws, and we don’t need to do any more to them.”

Spindle turned on him. “Don’t you see?! Ponies like him and his dad look down their noses at ponies like us. Even though we have bits, we’ll never be seen as good as them! Once our money runs out, we’re back where we were, only WORSE, because we got a taste of the good life!” He turned back to the window once more, and spoke in an intense whisper, “We have to make them really pay…”

Porter gazed at his friend, and then grabbed a bottle of hard cider and brought it over to him. Placing a hoof over his shoulder, he said, “I think you need a drink worse than I do.” Spindle at first did nothing, then took the bottle from him and finished it in several deep swallows.

“Better?”

“A little. But the problem still remains.”

Giving his shoulders a hug, Porter said, “Why don’t you give your demons a rest for the night? I can get us some company; I think Mandi and Kandi can be up here within the hour if I still have their numbers.”

Spindle gave him a wistful look, then gently disengaged himself from his hoof. “That might be good.” He sighed. “I wish I had your outlook. I hate being this way.”

Playfully punching him on the shoulder, Porter added, “You’ll be alright. Good food, pleasant company, and a good night’s sleep, you’ll be as right as rain.”

Spindle said nothing.

*****

“…and then she took me to the orphanage, and made me give all those bits to the mare I thought was the Headmaster,” Spencer said.

“When was the last time you saw Porter and Spindle?” asked Pinkie.

“That evening. Since then, I’ve only gotten a note from them, which I tried to show you, Dad!”

Spencer Sr. waved this away. “How was I supposed to know any such note was real? I still don’t know, for that matter.”

“Please show us the note,” said Pinkie.

Giving his father a sour look, Spencer got up to go get it. In his absence, Pinkie turned to Spencer Sr. and asked, “How well do you know those two?”

Drawing himself up he replied, “I make it my business to know everything about everypony around me. Those two were and are just a couple of streetponies, not worth a second look. Which is why I don’t believe my son: either they’re smarter than they appear, or he’s abysmally stupid.”

Pinkie couldn’t hide the look of disappointment she gave him.

Flushing with anger he said, “You don’t approve of me, do you Ms. Pie? Well, that’s too bad, because my being this way has made me immensely rich and powerful! I have everything I need, except it seems, a worthy heir.”

Pinkie sadly shook her head. “No, Mr. Fortune, you don’t have everything. I come from a rich family myself, but if I had to I’d trade everything to get what I already have: true friends.”

He scoffed. “'Friendship'! It’s a myth, Ms. Pie! There’s only two kinds of ponies: those that have, and those that don’t. The ones that don’t, they want what you have, be it money, time, or self-serving relationships. That’s it.”

As Spencer Jr. returned, Pinkie saw it was a losing battle, so she only replied, “Alright then, Mr. Fortune.” Turning to Spencer Jr. she held out a hoof for the note, which he wordlessly passed to her. She read it quickly.

“It says here they’ll give you the letter if you give them ten million bits.”

Spencer Sr. laughed without mirth. “That’s a joke, because they know I’ll never agree to such a sum! It’s all a ruse to further humiliate my son and myself.”

Ignoring this, Pinkie said, “I already asked your father this, so let me ask you: how well do you know these two. What are they like?”

Spencer Jr. scowled. “Why is that important? What does it matter?”

“It matters because the more we know about them, the easier it will be to figure out their motivations.”

Now it was Spencer Jr.’s turn to scoff. “That’s easy! They want money, pure and simple.”

“Maybe,” said Pinkie. “This seems personal to me, far beyond just a few bits.”

“Ten million isn’t just “a few bits”, Ms. Pie! Your family may be well off, but I doubt they could laugh off that much,” said Sr.

She shook her head. “No we couldn’t, but that’s beside the point. You said it yourself, Mr. Fortune: they’re trying to humiliate you. I don’t need to ask why they hate you and your son, but maybe we can make this right. It’s time I head back to Ponyville, and involve my friends.”

“And what good would THAT do?” asked Sr.

Pinkie looked at him. “You say you know everything about everypony that you need to. Then you know the deeds my friends and I have accomplished. We can help.”

“Why would they help me?”

“Because that’s what we do.”

Comments

[Mother3Forever]

IT LIVES!!!!

[Winter_Solstice]

5097845
Lol...yes it does.

[Winter_Solstice]

5097893
That's what I thought, until I saw her do that to Rarity when she was cowering behind Twilight's tail during the episode Simple Ways. I know she did it at least one other time to Pinkie to get her to calm down in Filli Vanilli, so I thought it wasn't too much of a stretch for her to do so to an arrogant bully who sorely needed correcting.

[Velvet_Divan]

One typo, “Princess Twilight? Why she should believe you?” but largely, good job proofreading.

I suggest showing more through body language, more showing and less telling, and work on Pinkie's 'voice.' She doesn't sound much like herself. I realize this may be intentional in the latter chapters when she's in a frame of mind we haven't seen on the show, but I don't think a different frame of mind should mean a complete change of personality, word-choice, etc. If you do want to go that route, I'd like to see some exposition about it.

By and large it's entertaining. I hadn't read a MLP con-job story before, and it looks like you could take it in an interesting direction.

[Winter_Solstice]

5379457
Thank you for catching that; I'll correct it immediately.

As for Pinkie's voice, I do have trouble with it, as comedy is not my fortè. I mentioned in my blog how I'm going to make sure she's more like herself in subsequent chapters, I just have to work on it. She's one of my favorites!

Also, before I forget: thanks for reading!

[Velvet_Divan]

5379477 Writing Pinkie is as hard as you make it, really. Don't ever be afraid to make up words or jam them together if it gets her meaning across any better, since she's never afraid to do that on the show. She can be childish, sure, but then you get these glimpses through the giggling that she understands more about the basic nature of equine-kind than a baker has any right to. It's this kind of insight that allows her to be such a perfect party-planner, and a great friend, when others can get past her boundless energy.

I do like that you're trying to show us that her energy *isn't* endless, that all the work done behind the scenes doesn't happen magically. She's an earth pony after all, and if she wants something done she's using nothing but her muscle to do it. I'd like to see that angle expanded on, since it shows us more depth to the character than we get in the show.