We'll Go Down Together

by Petrichord

They'll say that I was clever

Pinkie’s jaw dropped.

Shining Armor caught the expression on her face, subconsciously reflecting it with a wry smile. “I hope it’s good enough, then?”

Pinkie couldn’t decide what she wanted to rub her hooves over first, but she needed to make sure it was real, that her eyes weren’t tricking her. So she settled for the polished countertop in the kitchen area; there was no way that it could have been as smooth and cool to the touch as it looked.

It was.

“Shiny, this is granite!” Pinkie gasped as she flitted from the counter to drawers crammed full of silverware to a window so big and a view so picturesque that it felt like Pinkie was looking at a magnificent painting of a landscape, instead of the real deal.

“Of course it is! You’d expect anything less from a kitchenette?” Shining Armor followed her footsteps, gait locked evenly on her skittering hoofsteps as if tracking an excitable quarry. “That’s oak on the cabinets, too. It should be fully stocked, in case we wanted to throw a party.”

“I...Okay!” Pinkie chirped, praying that Shining Armor was as oblivious as he often seemed. “I mean, I guess I could still do some baking for that, right? Everypony likes home-baked goods at parties!”

“I can’t really argue with that.” The chuckle that followed was devoid of any actual mirth, as if it was an obligation that he wanted to get out of the way as fast as possible. “We should probably clean up a bit, you know. Don’t want our manes to get all tacky from the saltwater.”

“Of course not! Right! I’ll go...I’ll go do that first. Um.”

“Second door on the left.” Shining Armor pointed to a hallway leading towards the sea. “Take your time. Bedroom’s the third door to the left, in case you wanted to take a nap or something. You’re probably exhausted from the trip to the ocean, right?”

Pinkie nodded, humming a nervous ditty as she ambled down the hallway. “Take your time,” of course, meant “hurry up.” The bit after that, well…

It was a nice enough bathroom. Pinkie made a mental note to take a real bath the next time she was here, with bubbles and rubber ducks and all the other bath time necessities. Here, it was more mechanical than anything: Soap, shampoo, rinse, done. Step out of the shower, towel body, towel mane, hang up the towel on the door hook for later, done. Bracing herself a little, Pinkie opened the door.

There was Shining Armor, just as she expected. Big grin on his face. Big, toned muscles barely hidden beneath his coat. Big-

Ugh.

Shining Armor stepped aside, and Pinkie made her way to the bedroom.

It was just to relax. That’s all they were really doing: relaxing. Getting away from everything else, the two of them, after a long day of playing by the ocean and basking in the beautiful weather and going on a breathtaking walk. Spending a day at the beach was supposed to be tiring, and she was supposed to be tired. And there wouldn’t be anything wrong with relaxing, right?

Pinkie didn’t really pay attention to the bedroom, except for the bed. It looked comfy enough, the sort of thing she could spread herself out on and relax and think about anything and everything else. Maybe she’d even enjoy sleeping on it tonight. Maybe.

****************************************

Pinkie stood on the balcony, looking at the sunset and wishing that she had a pipe.

Not that she actually wanted to smoke one. That would taste gross, and also make her lungs look like wrinkly prunes and probably kill her. But it seemed like the sort of thing that she should be holding onto, so she could look like one of those characters from a really thoughtful novel and stuff.

There wasn’t really anything to eat or drink that she shouldn’t use later to prepare for a party, anyway. And if juice and dessert were off-limits, that kind of left milk and water, and…

And she was a bit done with white for a while, honestly.

Pinkie tried to sip her glass of water like a thoughtful pony. It wasn’t the same. But at least she could think thoughtful thoughts if she wanted to, and maybe that’d be similar.

Pinkie wished her mind would go to different places. They weren’t doing much good, sticking around the house like this.

“Or were they?” Pinkie muttered to herself, taking another sip.

I mean, it wasn’t like they were bad thoughts, right? It wasn’t like anypony was doing anything bad, not really. She got to be treated like a princess, and that was a good thing. Shiny got to relax, and that was a good thing.

Princess Cadance didn’t need to know about that. That’d just make things not-good, and things were already good enough for her, right? She was happy enough. She had to be happy enough. She was a princess. Pinkie only got to be a princess some of the time, but she could be okay with that. And if Shiny wanted…

It wasn’t like what he wanted was bad. It wasn’t like anything was bad. He was happy, and she was happy, and everypony was happy, right?

Pinkie peered over the balcony and gasped. The sunset hit that one moment of perfection, the bit where the sun caught the edge of the horizon just so and the sky flushed with everything from the richest of reds to the softness of pink and purple, the imminently indigo nightfall casting the water by the sun in a golden aureole.

Artists would pay dearly to see this sublime moment. Writers would empty their wallets if their savings could let them replicate the transcendental moment. But Pinkie wasn’t an artist, wasn’t a writer. She was just…

Just herself. Just the pony Shining Armor wanted her to be. Just the secret nopony else needed to know about.

And that was fine. These were the moments that would stay with her forever. They were the happiest moments she’d had in years. And that was a good thing. Everypony deserved to be happy.

Everything wasn't fine.

Comments

[forrest yuchnitz]

i dont get it are you saying that shining is cheating on candance with pinkie and that pinkie wants more but cant or is just an outlet for shining

[fallen starr]

Wow man. Just wow. Normally Shiny and Casey are a 'canr be touched' couple for me, as in, there is no splitting them up, but this story could probably change my mind. It seemed interesting from the summary although I sorta guessed what was going to happen.

I'm sad for Pinkie. Looking beyond the wrongness of cheating, I'm sad she isn't happy and she doesn't feel like she can talk about it. It makes me wonder how this started, how Shiny feels and if he likes her or is using her, and just

I have a lot of thoughts on this. Very good story, great description, good characterization...just a good story on the whole. The party thing confused me a little, bc why would they throw a party if their time is meant to be secret, but beyond that, I'd say it's near perfect.

[forrest yuchnitz]

8703150
i didnt get the story could you explain it to me since you seem t understand it

[Petrichord]

8703150
The "evening beach party" is another one of those informal constructs where you don't really invite people you know, there aren't really any invitations and there isn't really a schedule; someone gets a bonfire set up and passes along word of mouth, and a couple of hours later there's a small gaggle of people standing around and doing shit (in my experience, a lot of drinking tends to be involved.) Though I'll admit that the assumption's more of a "personal experience" thing than anything else, and I'll accept fault if it feels like a misfit.

As for the details of the situation, without really wanting to put anything down in hard writing, I'll point out that relationships built on secrecy and distrust don't tend to end well and don't tend to be entirely happy. This doesn't mean that the opposite's automatically true, though, where everything's a loveless matter of convenience and use. This particular situation falls somewhere near the middle of that scale, but whether it lies closer to one end or the other is more up for you to decide than anything else.

In any case, I'm glad that you liked the story.

8703114 Even if it doesn't spoil things overtly, explaining the details of a story in the comments kind of ruins the "vibe" of it; I leave the interpretation of events in your hands.

[FanOfMostEverything]

I read this to see if you could successfully pull off what's usually one of my pet peeves... and I'm sorry to say you didn't. I just don't buy this, from skipping over how they got here to Shining doing this to Pinkie agreeing to it to... well, any of it. I just can't see this coming about based on what I know about the characters.

Don't get me wrong, this was a beautifully atmospheric piece and a fantastic presentation of the emotional costs of infidelity, but I just couldn't accept the premise you've presented. Thank you for your effort; here's hoping a better audience enjoys the story.

[Hap]

I'm just not convinced that Pinkie would do something she didn't want to. I get that the story isn't about how they got here, but I can only imagine (because you didn't tell us) that, at least the first time, Pinkie wanted this. You implied that Pinkie knew what was coming because it had happened enough times that the event itself was a foregone conclusion. She is stuck doing something she doesn't enjoy because she feels that it's something other ponies need?

It really feels like this story is not about what it seems to be about. I just can't quite nail it down.

[Random Bits]

This is delightfully atmospheric. The story gives just enough detail to pain an emotional picture, an impression, and strips away everything that's not important to that. Except that last line which felt kinda blunt.

However, I feel this would have worked better as an original story. FIM just doesn't have fitting characters for this situation. Not even in a dark AU I could see Shining and Pinkie in this. Pinkie especially.

It's not even the first or second story in recent memory that would have worked better as an original. What's it with writers and ponies?

[Moproblems Moharmoney]

9173816
Weirdly I feel this set up would work better with Rarity