By and by

by Bysen

Pinkie Promise

To this day, Pinkie didn’t know if she had remembered the gun only held two bullets or if she had truly intended to kill her father that day. She lived with Blinkie now… or rather Elliot. She’d finally gotten her Cutie Mark. Though Elliot wished she had gotten it through different means. But she at least felt good she could help someone that meant so much to her sister.

A red heart, with a gold ring around it, that Elliot swore was actually brown like Pinkie's band. It symbolized her caring for all those all around the world. She’d always loved learning about other cultures and had learnt a lot about the buffalo. She had given Bysen a buffalo burial. Every tribe had their own customs for funerals so they couldn’t be sure which was his, but they took every step to come as close as possible. Wrapping in him in cloth, burying him in his brave regalia and phoenix feather headdress.

All of his clothes, except for one piece. Pinkie took his wedding band, and her own and put them in a small lock box. That box went inside another lock box and that went inside another. She made sure that she smiled when she touched them. They absorbed emotions Bysen had told her so she didn’t want any of what she was feeling now to ever seep into them. Ever.

“Are you doing to at least see me off Pinkie?” Elliot asked. She and JD where leaving today for Zebfrica to aid those who needed it there, leaving their house here in Ponyville to her sisters. Elliot had learnt the language and the customs and was ready to go. “How long are you going to mourn him? It’s almost been a year.”

“One year today. And yesterday was our anniversary.” Pinkie commented. Her tone cold and pained. Her mane was puffy once more and she’d smiled a lot in the last year, but she’d never been truly happy since then.

“Oh… I didn’t kno… actually I did, I just didn’t check the calendar and I’ve been so obsessed with my own stuff and I didn’t even think of you and I’m so sorry, for all of that, it’s just that I, I mean me and JD have been so busy lately and…” she stopped realizing Pinkie didn’t need excuses, or to deal with her neurotic-ness-ism. “Look, Pinkie Pie, promise me you’ll try to be happy while I’m gone. Ok?”

“Don’t make a girl a promise you can’t keep.” Pinkie told her sister, paraphrasing something Bysen had once said. But was telling it to herself too. “Promises are made to be broken.”

“No they’re not. And I’ve never known you to break one.”

“I didn’t… Bysen did.” Pinkie said as she began to cry. Not because she missed him this time, but because she blamed him for this. “He promised he’d never leave. We made a special promise between us and he broke it.”

“You know he didn’t do that. He… he loved you Pinkie. As much as I do. Don’t… he loved you because you were so happy and joyful, he wouldn’t want to see you so sad.” Elliot told her sister, for the honestly-who-knows-how-many-th time. “He never left really. He’s still there; Dad said he wouldn’t move him.”

“I don’t believe that promise either…” Pinkie sighed. She hadn’t said a word to her father other than ‘goodbye’ since then. And didn’t plan to. “I’ll never know someone like him again. I loved him, he made me happy and I made him happy. He was my friend… my only friend.” Pinkie sighed. She’d said that a few hundred times too. Of course she had her sisters but… even they had other friends like Lyra and Vinyl or Mootilda.

“Pinkie, will you make me a promise?”

“I don’t see the point.”

“Just… promise me, you’ll try and make some friends while I’m gone.”

“Promises mean nothing.”

“Then why was his promise to you so important?”

“Because… I don’t know. It was special. We made up this little joke thing with it.” Pinkie said while half-mimicking the routine she’d created. “It was silly.”

“Tell me about it.” Elliot said putting a hoof on her sister’s shoulder. This was the first time she’d heard about this ‘silly promise’ thing. And despite Pinkie’s words, her tone show it was indeed important to her.

“Well, it goes like this. ‘I Pinkie Promise to… um, try and make some friends. Cross my heart,” she said as she ran a hoof across her chest. And it felt… weird. But not bad. “hope to fly,” she went on as she flapped her hooves… and she felt a breeze that wasn’t from her flailing. She looked around slightly, before continuing. “stick a cupcake in my…” she felt something. Like a warm hoof on the side of her face. She placed her own hoof to it. “eye…”’

She began to cry. She could feel something. Him? It couldn’t be. But it was. But it wasn’t… maybe it was her imagination. But it made her... happy.

To gives one's name is to gives one's soul.

She grabbed Elliot and hugged her tightly. Elliot returned the hug, fearing she’d only made things worse. But when Pinkie finally pulled away, she wore a smile that quickly spread to Elliot too.

“Thank you. I’ll make friends. Lot of friends! And every single one will be as important to me as Bysen was… still is.” she said before turning and looking out the window. Taking a look outside, she saw two pegasi. One yellow with a pink mane and one blue with a rainbowed mane.

“I’m going to go make some friends right now.”

The End.

Author's Note:

Closing Credits Music

Side note: buffalo are actually from Africa, the ones in the show are actually bison.

The plan for this story was to hit three points.
1: Explain the origins of the Pinkie Promise.
2: Explain why Pinkie wasn't scared of the buffalo in Appleloosa
3: Explain Pinkie's Pinkie Senses and forth wall powers. Kinda failed on this one seems she already had them in this story. The original plan was for them to come from Bysen's soul.
Oh, also the wedding bands. That was planned from the very start.

This will become it's own stand alone story at some point in the future, along with an added chapter or two revolving around Pinkie's rebellion of her parents and Bonnie's death.
Edit: nope.
Note: the above was a quote from the notes of the original story that was a single [though longest] chapter of.

As for why I killed off Bonnie? She wasn't really doing much and wasn't really that important to the story. In fact in the original draft she wasn't even named 'Bonnie' and was just 'Pinkie's mother'.

I was tempted to link the these when I used the word 'Rock-Lobster' [and did on the first one in the revision] but if you've ever heard the song before I bet it go into your head the second you read it anyway.
Original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szhJzX0UgDM
Better version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDR_xbUZ4tM
Best version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f31mB6apCoE

The origin of Pinkie's family's fanon names of Inkie, Blinkie and Clyde are from the names of the ghosts in Pacman: Inky Blinky, Pinky and Clyde. As for Bonnie, well... Bonnie and Clyde. And if you don't know where the reference is from... get out!
Note: remember, written pre-Muad

And seems the theme of these notes seems to be linking songs from the 80's: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-MONIvP6kI

That last clip from Halo... it fit so perfectly for Bysen and Pinkie.
I'm surprised no one had uploaded that video before so I had to upload it myself. I mean sure it was up there but the only version I could find wasn't 'clean'. It had gamespot water marks and a bumper at the start of it.
And though it's completely irrelevant to the story, since I over think everything, Clyde is still alive in the 'present timeline' of the story, still living and working on the rock farm with his new love interest The Great and Powerful Trixie... just, don't ask ok?