//------------------------------//
// The reason why you shouldn't go to Pinkie's at lunch time. 
// Story: The Pink's Healthiest Secret 
// by Midday Giggle 
//------------------------------//

'I just want you to ask them if they will come' were Twilight's words. As if it was needed to ask her best friends if they would go to the dinner taking place in the Friendship Castle, to celebrate the School of Friendship's great re-opening. It was just for the six of them, but it was a dinner anyway. Yet, she still thought it was useless: like they would say no!

Regardless, Starlight did this little favour to her mentor, because that was what pupils did, right? It wasn't like it was a hard task. She just had to go to each of the girls' places and ask them if they would go; then she could go back to the Castle and finish reading her latest spell book.

Obviously, following a clear path, she first had to go to Fluttershy's, then Rarity's, next Applejack's, Rainbow Dash's and, finally, Pinkie Pie's. Getting to Dash's home was the hardest part, her living in the sky and all, but in the end she managed to ask the Wonderbolt mare if she would go.

As the other girls, she said yes. Even promised to be there before seven.

As she landed again in the grass below Dash's cloud home, she thought that all that was left was asking Pinkie Pie. She purposely left the pink mare to the end because she knew that if she told her she had spell books to study, she would let her go without much chatter. Surely, if she went there first, she would stick with her all along her journey and probably that would make the whole thing take longer that she desired it to.

All that was left was going to Sugar Cube Corner and ask her, then she would be home-free to go back to her studying.

As soon as the bakery was in her field of vision, she smiled at the colorful walls and cupcake-like roof. She always wondered how long have the Cakes lived there (though she never dared asking) and how they managed to keep the whole building always so colorful and spotless, specially in the higher parts of the it. They never seemed to stop their business to paint the place or something like that.

The little bell ringed above Starlight's head, and she braced for impact. It was an usual thing of Pinkie to tackle ponies she was friends with in bear hugs when they crossed that door, and the party pony had been doing it more and more lately with Starlight.

But there was no choking bear hug, only the bump with somepony who was leaving as she entered. She stumbled and mumbled apologies to the stallion, who brushed off the bump and left the bakery with a snicker.

Once she recovered from the encounter, she tried to find Pinkie in the bakery, but she was nowhere to be seen. Actually, the place was kinda empty for lunch time, save for some ponies eating near a window, and the Cakes, busy at the counter with stacks of cupcake's boxes.

Approaching the counter, she looked around. "Not much movement today, Mrs. Cake?"

Mrs. Cake smiled. "Oh, no, there's been a lot. But by this time of the day ponies go to the restaurant instead of the bakery. It's actually pretty normal for it to be so empty."

"I see."

"What can I help you with, Starlight?"

"I actually was looking for Pinkie Pie, is she around?"

Mrs. Cake nodded. "She's upstairs, lunching at her room."

"She doesn't lunch with you two?"

"Not very often, she comes for breakfast and dinner", explained Mrs. Cake, folding a cupcake box. "But she lunches alone in her room."

Starlight frowned. "Why?"

"I have no idea, sweetie," Mrs. Cake put some cupcakes inside the box. "But it's nothing weird for us. She's been like that since she arrived Ponyville."

Starlight sighed. "Might as well come later, she surely doesn't want anyone to interrup her at lunchtime then." Mentally, she cursed for not finishing Twilight's task early.

Mrs. Cake shook a hoof in the air. "Oh, don't worry. She won't mind if it's important." She showed her the stairs leading to Pinkie's room. "Go ahead, she just climbed a few minutes ago."

Starlight was about to decline again, but once she considered how much time she would save by asking right away, despite that it would look kinda rude, she decided to accept. So, thanking Mrs. Cake for her time, she climbed the stairs and met with the sight of Pinkie's door.

She was about to knock when she heard a cackle.

A sinister sounding cackle, coming from the inside of Pinkie's room.

A chill ran through her backbone, freezing her there. She stayed there for agonizing seconds, just staring blankly at the door.

Don't fret, must be nothing. When she snapped back to reality, she almost screamed out of fright as the cackle came again. It's definitely something!

She had heard stories of Pinkie Pie, and not pleasant ones. She always brushed them off because she knew Pinkie Pie... or she thought she knew her. One never knew with that mare.

Gulping, she cracked open the door and thanked Celestia, Luna and all the divine beings that it made no sound at all. She barely left it ajar, and holding her breath, she peeked inside.

Pinkie Pie was sitting in the middle of the room, hunched over something barely out of Starlight's sight.

The pink mare cackled again. "Finally, we are all alone..." she reached for the thing in front of her. "It's time of your doom!"

She raised the thing.

Starlight expected everything she could imagine: a monster, a torture artifact, or maybe even a pony.

But what she got was even worst.

Pinkie Pie raised a salad bowl.

Starlight gasped dramatically, shocked. Pinkie's head turned almost a 180 degrees as she heard her and, terrified, Starlight climbed down the stairs fast as lighting before the pink mare could catch her. She heard Mrs. Cake calling her, but she ignored her and ran back towards Twilight's Castle.



Since the very beginning it was very awkward for Starlight.

Twilight's friends, Twilight, Spike and herself were in the Castle's dining room. Some cooks Twilight hired for the occasion were passing over the food to the table as everyone chattered and laughed, everyone except Starlight, who could barely focus on the chat between them.

Twilight lifted her glass of fizzy apple cider and toasted for their brand new School of Friendship, but Starlight could barely focus on the Princess' short speech.

Pinkie Pie was sitting directly across of her, smiling brightly while listening to Twilight's toast. Starlight narrowed her eyes at the pink mare. You are like a puzzle... Quite hard to read, I must say. But I'll figure you out.

It took her a few moments to clang her glass against the other's.

Silence followed as they ate, but short chats kept on between the presents, and almost every time it was Pinkie who started them.

When a waitress mare handed Starlight a bowl of a delicious-looking salad, she flinched hard and almost fell off her chair.

Everyone turned to her.

Starlight blushed and gave a slightly embarrassed smile. "Sorry for that, it's just... Nothing... Sorry", she mumbled, using her magic to pick up the salad that she accidentally made the mare spill. The mare looked confused, but she quickly took the remaining of the salad and went back to the kitchen to bring Starlight a brand new bowl.

Twilight tipped her head to the side. "Do you wanna talk about the elephant on the room, Starlight?"

Starlight started sweating cold. "What elephant?"

"You've been acting weird since yesterday", mentioned Spike, chewing a spoonful of salad. Twilight shot him a glare for eating with his mouth full, but went back to Starlight quickly.

"Is there something you want to share?"

All the eyes were on Starlight, but none burned her more than Pinkie's, which she found incredibly naive to the situation. Like she had nothing to do and was just as curious as the rest to Starlight's odd behavior.

How can she go around so normally despite what I saw?

Starlight gulped and offered a nervous smile. "I-It's nothing, I-"

She found herself gaping at Pinkie again, this time because the mare had just stolen some cupcakes from Rainbow Dash's dessert plate, stuffing them all at once in her mouth. With another context, it would be a normal thing, but right now Starlight was between confused and shocked: Pinkie was deliberately ignoring her salad bowl.

She exploded. "I can't take it anymore!" she yelled, raining on her back hoof while slamming her front hooves on the table. She pointed to Pinkie. "She eats vegetables!"

A dead silence fell over the table, and even the cooks, waitresses and waiters stared at her like she had just grown a second head.

Twilight looked utterly confused. "Is... That all?"

Starlight's head was running in circles. "Don't you get it?! Pinkie Pie! Eating vegetables! Isn't she supposed to feed only on sugar!? Ain't that her trademark?!"

"Um... No?" Fluttershy replied, and Starlight turned to her, making her hide behind a curtain of her mane with an 'eep'. She had a panicked look in her eyes.

"Isn't she now!? She never eats salad in front of us! But I found her eating salad yesterday when I went to ask her if she would come, and I got so panicked I ran off before we could even talk."

"You told me yo-"

"IF I ASKED HER IF SHE WOULD COME IS BESIDES THE POINT!" Starlight yelled. The ponies serving started slowly backing off at her outburst, and even Rarity and Spike, sitting to both of her sides, reclined backwards.

"Is she alright?" asked Rarity in a whisper towards Applejack, sitting next to her, who shrugged.

"PINKIE WAS EATING VEGETABLES!" Starlight kept going. "IT'S LIKE IF RAINBOW DASH LIKED SOFT MASSAGES AND GO TO THE SPA!"

Dash cringed. "Yeah, about that..."

"Not because somepony seems a way or another means that they can't have traits outside of their character", calmly told Twilight to her pupil. "Everypony is unique and singular, even when they like or do things you wouldn't expect of them."

"Besides, silly," Pinkie finally spoke up, smiling. She didn't seem offended or alike. She actually looked like she was trying hard not to laugh. "I need vegetables. I would get super duper extra sick if I didn't eat them."

"In that she's right, sugarcube." Applejack spoke up. "If she just ate candies an' pastries, she would be weak an' with no energy."

"And fat." Dash let out bluntly. "She would be very fat."

"Rainbow Dash!"

"Tell me I'm wrong, Twi! I dare you!"

"The point is, darling," Rarity went on, laying a hoof on Starlight's shoulder. "That if Pinkie likes vegetables, that's totally fine. She is still our Pinkie, with or without salads."

Starlight fell to her chair. "I'm still having problems to process it..."

"Okay, I think I can help with that." Pinkie took her salad bowl between her hoof and started eating it. She finished her whole bowl in three seconds flat. Once done, she raised her head and looked at Starlight, a lettuce stuck to her poofy mane. 

She also had one stuck between her teeth.

"Better now?"

Starlight chuckled. "Sure, Pinkie... Better now."



"It's still kinda hard to think about, though." Starlight said. Rarity, Twilight and she were walking towards Ponyville's spa to have a nice relax day, suggested by Rarity, of course. "I mean, it's Pinkie. She loves cupcakes and parties and that kind of stuff. She just doesn't seems like the kind that would eat a bowl of salad."

"Oh, get over it, darling", Rarity suggested, opening the spa's door. "You'll make a mess of your head that way. She likes salads. End of story."

"I'm with Rarity." Twilight declared, following her two friends into the spa. "It's not like it's something unusual on ponies."

Starlight smiled and was about to reply, but she stopped when she saw Rainbow Dash in the spa's waiting room. All three mares turned to Dash, who was just being approached by one of the spa mares.

"Ready for your soft massage, Miss Dash?" asked the mare.

Dash smiled and stretched out her arms and wings. "Yup! I definitely need it right now! The Wonderbolts have me wrecked, I need some nice and quiet relaxing."

Something in Starlight's brain stopped working.

"WHAT IN THE-?!"