//------------------------------//
// Reunion - Laughter 
// Story: The Mare who knew too much 
// by Cynical 
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Reunion - Laughter

It was after a good five minutes before she actually started thinking about the task ahead of her. Somehow, she needed to find all five of her estranged friends, convince them to come to a common meeting ground with a common purpose, repair their friendship so that the elements would work again, then go and confront the princess about what had happened, oh, and picking her element up somewhere along the way. Suddenly, what she'd set out to do seemed to be as far away as the moon was now. What was her plan? She always had a plan, but then again, her only plan on the moon had been to get back into Ponyville, and then plan from there. That kind of went out the window when she had found Spike.

Spike.

The shock of the last hour suddenly caught up with her. She was back, yes, but she was alone, with not a single friend, or advisor. Her number one assistant was gone. Her mentor was apparently evil, and her friends were refusing to call themselves her friends anymore.
Everything just kept getting better didn't it. She let a dark laugh pass her lips, and started thinking of the logical way to do things, it seemed that not even a decade on the moon could alter her organisational talents.

Firstly, she'd start with Pinkie, that seemed like the most pressing case to resolve, and she could really do with cheering up at the moment. Although she had no idea about how to reform the element, but she had a nagging thought that she should try to cheer up the pink party pony first, that was what AJ had said after all, that Pinkie had forgotten how to laugh.

Next on her list would be Fluttershy. That should be relatively easy all considering, in fact, the pegasus would most likely be ecstatic with seeing her alive and well, that the only problem would be getting away from her onto the next pony.

Rarity. And from that, she'd have to do numerous things, mainly, find out where Rarity had put the element of magic. Although, while she was there, she might as well try to persuade her to forgive AppleJack for something that was out of her control, but again, that was a secondary objective. The primary one, being convincing Rarity to come back to Ponyville to talk to her old friends and try to fix the current mess that they were all in. But then again, that was Rarity, always overcomplicating everything, even indirectly.

That just left Rainbow, and if Twilight was honest, she had no idea where to start with that particular time bomb, for one thing, she had no idea where to find her. She could easily remember what happened to Rainbow those long years ago when she'd lost her element before, and had shunned everypony. It had taken every member of the other 4 to take care of her that time, and Twilight was under no illusions that it would probably take another intervention to take care of her this time. Then she could take care of AppleJack, and start laying out a plan for talking to the Princesses, and in particular, how far they would have to run in order to be rid of her.

Finally pleased that something had order on the planet now, she started towards Sugarcube corner to talk to the Pink Party pony who had lost so much.

The shop was closed, that was the first thing that was wrong. The shop was never shut when the sun was up, she could remember the cakes motto like it had been told to her yesterday. 'As long as there's a pony with a sweet tooth, Sugarcube corner will be open, ready and waiting to serve said sweet tooth.'

The shop itself looked like it had seen better days. The windows were boarded up from the inside, refusing to allow anypony to glance in from outside. And the door had rusted on it's hinges so that it sat crooked in it's frame, and upon closer inspection, she found that it was connected even less than she thought as she breathed upon it lightly, and it simply fell into the shop, spraying up a sheet of dust into the sunlight which was pouring through the derelict shop.

The counters were empty. Where once there had been a selection of baked delicacies, there was now an empty space, giving the shop a much more eerie feel than the appearance would have merited. And yet, what made the shop truly scary was not the cobwebs hanging from the ceiling, nor was it the various creaks and groans from the floorboards beneath her. No, what made it scary was the absence of the pony that ran the shop, Twilight hadn't realised how much character Pinkie had, or indeed, how much the shop didn't have. It made her feel truly alone, in one of the places where she had ever felt happy.

Twilight went into the back room, and saw the stairs, each with a perfect layer of unbroken dust on them. It looked like Pinkie had been in her imposed isolation up here for a while, it even had the obligatory flickering light bulb at the top of the stairs, giving the stairs a much more sinister appearance. So much for a cheerful welcome.

At the top of the stairs, there was the familiar landing of the house, with the upstairs storage room on the left, the cake's foals bedroom directly opposite the stairs, and Pinkie's room on the right. Deciding to look around the house first, she opened the left door, and looked at the completely empty room within. Even the shelves were gone, and all that was left inside the room was the other side of another boarded up window to the outside world. Twilight remembered the Pinkie Party incident ten years ago, and wondered how badly Pinkie had taken the news. Obviously pretty badly by the current state of things.

The next room along kept the same theme of being completely empty, all bar the dust that had steadily accumulated over the long years, Twilight remembered the two foals that had shared the room, Pumpkin, and Pound, both of whom would have just celebrated their 10th birthdays, that is, if they were even still around. 10 years is a long time for anything to happen, and it would have explained the steady decline in the amount of parties that the shop had played host to.

The last room was now before her, and she could hear the steady noise of breathing from the keyhole, meaning that Pinkie must be there. She turned the handle, and pushed the door. And walked straight into the face of the ex-Party Pony herself.

To say that Pinkie had changed was a minor understatement. Her formerly cotton candy pink hair was now straight, and a dull shade of grey. Her coat was tufted in places, and worn in others, also bearing that same shade of grey as her hair. In fact, the only colour that was on Pinkie at the moment, were here sky blue eyes, and they were staring daggers into Twilight, daring her to make the first move.

Twilight complied uncertainly.
"Pinkie..?"
The party pony raised an eyebrow momentarily, but quickly went back to starting straight into Twilights soul. It was quite uncomfortable truth be told.
"It's your friend, Twilight Sparkle?"
She attempted to jog the Pony's memories, and even succeeded… sort of.
"You're not my friend Twilight Sparkle."
The shadow's voice was just that, a shadow of it's former self. There was no hint of humour about it, or any emotion whatsoever, instead there seemed to be a sense of finality about the words, making sure that they were understood, and an understanding could be reached as to not bother trying to change her mind.
Twilight remembered a lesson that her mentor had once taught her before all this. 'A simple question unlocks best.'
"Why?"

It certainly gave a response from Pinkie, sadly, the response was quite negative, and involved a lot of shouting.
"You ABANDONED us, you LEFT us here on our own without so much as a by-your-leave. YOU made my friends not be my friends anymore, YOU made Rarity abandon us, YOU made Fluttershy the pony she is today, YOU even managed to make Dashie truly sad. YOU. UPSET. DASHIE. THAT'S EVEN WORSE THAN BREAKING A PINKIE PROMISE, AND NOW YOU'RE JUST STANDING THERE, ASKING WHY WE AREN'T FRIENDS ANYMORE!?"
Well, that certainly cleared a few things up, although it did leave her with a very mad Pinkie to deal with, and that wasn't something that she wanted to deal with in the first place. She desperately tried to think of a way to get Pinkie back to being Pinkie, and to step into the light for once in a while. Wait, maybe that was what she needed, a reminder of the real world.

"I can understand why you hate me Pinkie" At which point the Pony scoffed, but the unicorn continued in steady tones, and an even voice.
"But just let me finish. You may be angry at me, but what was the reason you stopped your parties, what made you close the shop, for heavens sake Pinkie, how in Equestria did you forget how to laugh."

Twilight had raised her voice steadily throughout that last sentence, increasing the volume slightly each time as she ticked off each individual point on her internal checklist, until she'd checked off every single one of her items and she resumed gazing at the pony in question, who was now quivering slightly. Giving off a single sign every few seconds. Namely, her whole body seemed to vibrate on the spot for a few seconds until she became still again for a few seconds, until the trembles took her again. It had been so long since Twilight had even considered Pinkie's 'Pinkie sense' that she'd forgotten the individual combos that they all formed. All she hoped was that it was going to end up well for her.

Pinkie had paused to contemplate her question, even while the jitters were continuing, the pony looked thoughtful, until finally the pony spoke again.
"I Stopped partying because there was no longer anypony to throw a party for, even at the parties that I threw, all the other ponies were no longer happy, they weren't laughing or smiling, and it made me too sad to continue. The shop is shut because the Cakes moved away around 4 years ago, when I stopped throwing parties I suppose, they simply upped and left one morning, with both the foals, and train tickets to Canterlot. It seemed that somepony had finally talked to them about setting up a business deal after the stir that the MMM caused in Canterlot a long time ago. They left, saying that I had free reign of the shop until they came the next year. They never came back. They simply stayed in Canterlot, they forgot about me, and I suppose that's sort of how I forgot to laugh, everypony forgot about me, and I found that I had no reason to cheer up those people who didn't notice me, which, between one thing and another leads to this situation here."

Twilight waited for a moment or two to make sure that her friend had truly finished speaking, and then began to speak herself again.
"But obviously not everypony had forgotten you, or else how do you thing I got here. I need you Pinkie, I need you back as an element of harmony, as the element of laughter. Could  you do that for me Pinkie, could you be my guide through the dark times ahead?"
Her speech had seemed much  more effective in her head, but nevertheless, it seemed to have done it's job adequately.
Well, sort of.

Pinkie's face lifted slightly, the ghost of a ghost of a smile playing around her lips, before her eyes narrowed again, and she resumed her glare into Twilight.
"Prove to me that you mean what you said. Make me believe that you really want me back."
Twilight let out a small sigh, she'd guessed that thing's wouldn't have been this easy, and had had a number of back-ups in waiting for if this particular episode didn't go down well. Still, could be worse, all she'd have to do would be to remind Pinkie about who she was, make Pinkie remember how to smile.

Sadly, it didn't look like Pinkie was going to let her anywhere near her for her to perform her memory spell, so it looked like it was going to have to be a matter of making the Pony laugh. One way or another.

To say that the hours trudged by would be a gross understatement, joke after joke Twilight attempted, and not a one produced a single smirk from the Pony in front of her. But then again, maybe what Pinkie needed wasn't a good laugh, maybe it was simply cheering up that she needed. Twilight recalled the old story that Pinkie had told them all long ago, about how she'd discovered her cutie mark, and what make her the happiest Pony around. Then again, it was going to have to be an uber surprise to make up for lost time, and to prove to Pinkie that she was back.

Preparing for the event was easy, it seemed that Pinkie had kept her normal supplies locked in the basement, which was now full of a multitude of flour, eggs (all be it slightly suspect eggs), and a whole host of party supplies. A whole corner was taken up by the infamous party cannon, and various pranking equipment littered the floor everywhere. Twilight breathed a heavy sigh, and got to work.

It worked in the end. The party was small, and the only food there was a burnt cake, and some water. But there were balloons, streamers, and guests, which apparently counted as a party in Pinkies books. The moment Pinkie saw the 'party' that Twilight had prepared, her hair had poofed up halfway, so that the top of her head was covered in straight hair, while every other part of her hair was now curly, airy, and Pink again. The real change came when she saw the cake, and Twilight could see that it wouldn't have mattered if she'd burnt the cake to cinders, Pinkie would have still been touched by the thought, and would probably be doing exactly the same thing.

Slowly, her coat was returning to it's usual pink colour, her mane and tail were now fully poofy, and were almost free-standing, but most importantly, she was smiling.
Pinkie was smiling, Pinkie was laughing, Pinkie was happy, Pinkie was pointing a cannon at her.

Wait. What?

The force from the party cannon knocked her backwards into the balloons, to a cacophony of bangs and crashes, while all the while, the element of laughter made up for lost time. It could have been Twilight's imagination, but the Party Pony seemed to be glowing slightly as she went around the house causing various whirlwinds, and leaving a streak of memories in their wake. The whole store was free of dust in two minutes, and everything was back in its rightful place within a further 3.

But then, Pinkie just froze in place, and truly began to shine. Her four hooves were lifted clear from the ground, and her eyes were shining an opaque sky blue, as the dust that had once littered the floor began to reform itself around Pinkie, creating a necklace. First, the ornamental golden chain, and then onto the jewel within. And throughout this, Pinkie laughed. Pinkie laughed loud and long, fulfilling her element to the fullest extent, until finally, the glow subsided, and Pinkie was back on solid ground, plus one new pendant around her neck.

"So you'll help me?" Twilight asked tentatively.
"aha!" Came the reply, as Pinkie started bouncing again.
Up and down and up and down and up and down and.
Twilight shook herself, trying and failing to not get distracted with her constant bouncing.
"Thank you Pinkie, I'll meet you and the girls in the Library in 24 hours."
"Okie Doki Loki."
And with that, things were back to normal on the Pinkie front.
One down, Three to go.