“My friends don't like my parties and don't want to be my friends anymore. My friends don't like my parties and don't want to be my friends anymore. My friends don't like my parties and don't want to be my friends anymore,” Pinkie mumbled to herself, slumped in front of the balcony door on the upper floor of her room. She had run out of tears after a few hours of crying on her bed, but sleep had never come to take the pain away. The sun was setting, casting golden rays across a pastel pink face stained by stale tear streaks. Her tired eyes were framed by an unusually flat cascade of bright pink hair, while an uncommonly joyless atmosphere permeated the room.
“This is it, Gummy. If nopony likes my parties here, then... then we might as well leave.”
It was spoken as an empty threat, but the truth of it struck her before she had even finished the sentence. Gummy lay on the floor just behind Pinkie, looking up at her silhouette against the picturesque view of Ponyville's skyline. His head sunk, not understanding the specifics of the situation, but grasping the tone nonetheless.
“But where will you go?” Mr. Turnip chimed in from the floor below.
“The only place I can go, Mr. Turnip,” she replied, forlornly staring at Ponyville's town centre. “Back to the farm.”
'Mr. Turnip' was a metal pail filled with—wait for it—turnips; one of two bought for Gummy's birthday party and kept for the after-birthday party. He had started talking to Pinkie at some point during the last few hours of her existential breakdown, and the two had since become best friends. It is worth mentioning that in a world filled with talking pastel ponies, this was not normal.
There came a muffled rapping from downstairs. Somepony at the cake shop this late was quite unusual. A familiar “Just a moment~” rang out from below as Mrs. Cake answered the door.
“Who could zat be?” Madame le Flour asked, despite being an inanimate bag of flour slumped against the bedroom wall. Pinkie stood and turned to face the stairwell.
“Pinkie, your friends are here to see you,” Mrs. Cake, co-owner of Sugarcube Corner and Pinkie Pie's landlady, called up in her typically melodic voice.
With a scowl on her face and frustration to her step, Pinkie marched down the two flights of stairs to meet her recently-ex friends. Stopping halfway down the ground floor's staircase, in full view of the room, she glared at the gathering below. Had they come to apologise for their horrible behaviour? Part of her still hoped this was a bad practical joke, but that didn't seem to be where today was going...
“What do you want?” she spat.
“Come now, Pinkie, that's no way to speak to your friends.” Mrs. Cake replied, as frustratingly positive as ever. Her husband, Mr. Cake, was standing next to her with an equally annoying smile on his face, just to the right of the five familiar intruders.
“Nice hair.” Rainbow Dash sneered as she flew a few hooves above the others.
“We know it's a mite rude coming into your home like this, Pinkie Pie; what with it being so late and all, but we- ah... uh-” Applejack shifted restlessly, scratching the back of her neck.
“We needed to make sure you were leaving,” Twilight finished for her, looking up at Pinkie with that same steely stare from before. Pinkie's scowl intensified.
“I'm sorry it's come to this Pinkie,” Mrs. Cake spoke up again, “But you really do need to leave.”
Pinkie's expression melted from anger to shock. She had expected this sort of display from her ex-best friends, but to hear Mrs. Cake agree with them so readily... The whole town really was against her. She collected her thoughts for just a moment before slipping back into her mask of anger.
“I'll go get my stuff,” Pinkie forced out from behind gritted teeth. She turned and stomped her way back up the stairs. If she'd had a door, she'd have slammed it.
“And make it snappy, we don't have all day.” Rainbow Dash called up after her.
Pinkie was breathing heavily as she threw a red and white-dot cloth onto her bed next to Gummy. She leaned over the fabric, legs trembling and bitter eyes filling with tears once more. There were no words; her mind was too busy screaming.
After a moment to steady herself, she walked over to the fireplace and swept the contents of the mantle into her hooves, depositing a hoof mirror, two framed photographs, and an assortment of loose confetti onto the cloth. Moving over to a set of drawers, she pulled out a comb, Gummy's outdoor collar and leash, a number of loose, wrapped sweets, and a hoof-sized rainbow lollipop, all of which were dumped with the other items. She looked down at the collection of haphazardly selected objects. Was this what she had been reduced to? Was this her sum worth?
Pinkie took a moment to brush the sweets and confetti off one of the framed images, slowly running her hoof down the family photo from last Hearth's Warming Day. It had been so good to see her sisters—Maud, Limestone, and Marble—and her parents back on the stone farm.
“'The only place I can go'...” she wistfully repeated from earlier, her eyes dry and anger waned, leaving only a profound tiredness in their stead. She walked over to the bedside table and picked up a small square of paper: the photograph of Gummy and her she had taken on his birthday.
“It was a good party... right, Gummy?” She looked back at pet, who sat up and almost seemed to nod as he slowly blinked one eye after the other. Pinkie weakly smiled back before adding the photograph to the collection. Reaching under her bed, she pulled out a half-full box of confetti, streamers and fresh balloons, and dumped them all onto the pile. “You never know, right?” she weakly joked.
The inanimate 'friends' she had made earlier seemed to have gone silent; not that they could have contributed much to the situation anyway, being a bag and a bucket. She looked up from the bed and walked over to her wardrobe, where she kept her party cannon, among other things.
“I know I can't exactly bring you with me, but I'd rather give up sugar for a year than let them have you.” She closed the doors to her wardrobe and turned a small brass key that was already in the lock, sealing it shut.
“C'mon, Pinkie Pie, time's a-wastin'.” Applejack's voice called up from below, immediately souring Pinkie's mood once more.
“Just- a- minute!” she half-screamed back through gritted teeth, spiking the small brass key into the already overflowing pile of objects, kicking up a plume of confetti as it impacted. She grunted in frustration, though her face softened as she looked down at Gummy.
“Well, looks like this is it. Just you and me against the world, little guy. Are you ready?”
Gummy slowly blinked one eye after the other.
“Yeah, me neither.”
Pinkie Pie tied the edges of her red and white spotted cloth together into a bindle, which was then hooked over the end of a long stick she kept next to her wardrobe—Gummy's favourite. She made her way back downstairs with Gummy on her back; confetti spilling from the top of her newly created bag with each step. The room turned to face Pinkie as she descended, who glanced back at them briefly before turning her attention to the staircase, doing her best to conceal the pain-fuelled rage boiling inside.
“It's about time, darling,” chastised Rarity with her usual sass, pampering her hair while doing so.
“Like you're one to talk.” Rainbow Dash retorted, forelegs crossed, still hovering slightly above the others.
Pinkie made it to the bottom of the stairs and the group took a few steps back, allowing her to pass. A bitter scowl was chiselled across her face as she focused solely on the door ahead of her, beginning her spiteful march towards it. As she passed Twilight, who was standing in the middle of the group, there came an authoritative voice from behind her;
“I'm afraid we can't let you take Gummy with you.”
Pinkie froze. A moment passed before she slowly turned back to face the speaker with a piercing glare.
“What?” she hissed.
“Come on Pinkie, look at you, you're a mess.” Twilight took two steps forward, immediately reminding Pinkie Pie of the confrontation in the barn earlier. “Do you really think you're capable of looking after an animal, when you lose yourself in a single day like this?”
“Wha-?! I-!” Pinkie turned to face her accuser, her mouth agape and anger replaced by disbelief.
“She's right, Pinkie Pie. You do look a mite... forlorn.” Applejack spoke up, spouting more of her 'southern wisdom'.
“Forlorn? Forlorn?” Pinkie couldn't even begin to express what an understatement this was.
AJ took a step closer.
“D'ya really think you're in a state to be looking after something? You can barely look after yourself, sugarcube”
“I- I...”
Pinkie was lost for words. Were they doing this just to get under her skin? To buck her while she's down? … Or was there some truth to what they were saying? She hadn't packed any food for Gummy, and it was a long trip to the rock farm... Would it really be fair on him? … Was she bringing him along for his sake... or hers?
“I...”
Her objections were becoming less assertive with each thought. Would Gummy have a better life with Fluttershy here? Everypony was turning on her... They couldn't all be wrong, could they? There had to be something wrong with her, right? She was the 'common denominator', as Twilight might say. Maybe something had changed... Maybe she had changed and never realised it?
“Look, sugarcube, Fluttershy here can take care of Gummy. He'll have a good life—with all her other critters. You got nothing to worry about.”
There seemed to be sincerity in Applejack's voice, but it was hard to tell through the tears clouding Pinkie's eyes and mind. She twisted her head the best she could to look back at Gummy, his face as expressionless as ever, then faced the group once more.
“You- You really mean it?” she asked, almost pleading.
“Would I lie to you, Pinkie Pie?” Applejack replied with what she expected was a rhetorical question, though Pinkie wasn't so sure anymore.
“Think about somepony other than yourself for once,” Twilight casually added, her words venomous and precise like a snake's bite. It was hard to tell if she was simply being heartless, or merely firm in her belief that this was the right thing to do. This was his home, after all. Would it really be fair to take him away from all his other animal friends? Nothing brought a smile to his face quite like their regular pony-pet playdates. Thinking about it that way, there was a lot more to his life here than just her...
Broken, miserable, and only wanting the best for one of the last few things she loved, Pinkie Pie turned and picked up Gummy by the scruff of his neck with her teeth. She turned back to the group; a look of weary, tortured compliance on her face. Fluttershy stepped forward and hesitantly took him in her hooves; stepping back with him snugly held against her shoulder.
“You're doing the right thing, sugarcube,” Applejack nodded.
Pinkie stared vacantly at the back of Gummy's head as Fluttershy held him, like he was already miles away.
“I- I'll take good care of him,” Fluttershy stammered, having sat down and now looking up at Pinkie Pie. “But you mustn't ever return, it'll only make Gummy's transition to his new home harder on him.”
Pinkie just stared, once more abandoned by helpful thoughts. She was losing everything she loved. Yesterday she couldn't have been happier—not a care in the world beyond planning parties and what to have for supper, but this day... this day has been the worst day in the history of forever. First her best friends, then her home, and now her pet! She'd had Gummy since he was only one day old, and now he was being taken away from her the- the day after his first birthday...
Gummy had been a birthday gift from Fluttershy last year. She said Pinkie could pick any animal in her cottage as a pet, and the moment she laid eyes on the newborn alligator, Pinkie knew that he was the one, despite Fluttershy's reservations. She named him Gummy, after his lack of teeth—a rare birth defect that caused his mother to abandon him, landing him in Fluttershy's care—and the very next day he was Pinkie's pet. A gift. On her birthday. Which means...
“Today is my birthday...” her voice was soft, like a whisper; her empty eyes still locked on Gummy's cradled form.
“Wha- What's that, sugarcube?” Applejack leaned in, barely hearing the utterance.
“After all the fuss today, it completely slipped my mind.” Pinkie's voice began quiet and monotone, not even intending to out loud, but slowly raised in volume and vitriol. “Today is my birthday, and you are ruining my life!Was this all on purpose? Was it planned?!”
The herd looked at each other and murmured under their breaths, half shifting around uncomfortably, half... wryly smiling? This was too much.
“Give me back Gummy, right now!” Pinkie's furious gaze shot up to meet Fluttershy's eyes, immediately causing her to panic.
“You know we can't do that, Pinkie.” Twilight subtly spread her hooves apart into a more defensive stance. Was she going to start a fight over this? Was Pinkie?
“I swear to you, Gummy, this isn't the end,” she growled through her teeth. “I'll make arrangements at the farm and have you shipped over soon.” Pinkie's intense stare shot from Gummy to Twilight as she continued; “You've got no reason to stop me if I do that.”
“If you say so, Pinkie.” Twilight's stance relaxed as she returned to her previous state of arrogant incredulity.
How could Pinkie have ever been friends with this pony? Was this... Was this what hate felt like? This deep, burning sensation in her chest that grew every time their eyes met? She had never felt like this before. She had never wanted bad things to happen to somepony before, but this...
“It's time to leave.” Twilight's voice remained emotionless, controlling, and cold. The dominance of her form was more like a military commander than that of a librarian. This wasn't the Twilight that Pinkie knew... or did she not know?
Twilight Sparkle had arrived in Ponyville only a few months ago, punctuated by the appearance of—and showdown with—Nightmare Moon, an event which irrevocably changed the group's lives by bonding them to the Elements of Harmony. Pinkie was suddenly much closer with four of her old friends, and now a fifth one that had unexpectedly brought them all together. Everything seemed great—destined, even—despite her surprise at becoming a Bearer of Harmony, but since then... since then it's been one disaster after another: ursa minors, dragons, freak storms, parasprites, twitchy-twitches out the wazoo, and now this... Everypony was acting so strangely. Was it... mind control? Were they possessed by angry ghosts? Maybe they all had a bad night's sleep and are just super grouchy today? … No, none of those would affect all of them at once... So what changed? Maybe nothing... Maybe this had been bubbling under the surface since Nightmare Moon and she just hadn't noticed. Fake smiles hiding a growing disdain. Maybe she was the one who changed? Or maybe they just didn't like her to begin with. She silently scoffed. Element of Laughter, huh? That was the only funny thing right now.
“We don't want you here anymore,” Rainbow Dash impatiently exclaimed, yanking Pinkie Pie's wandering mind back to reality with a painful jolt.
“Quite,” Rarity agreed.
Fluttershy simply looked up at Pinkie with her doe-eyes, still holding Gummy close to her chest.
There was nothing left for her here. Pinkie turned, shooting one last angry glance back at the group before storming out the door. As the group broke rank to speak among themselves, Gummy was given a view of the open door and Pinkie's barely moonlit silhouette, feeling as much despair as a baby alligator could. The sky-blue pegasus flew over to the exit as murmurs and snickering began to fill the room.
“Good riddance.” And with that, Rainbow Dash slammed the door shut.
Pinkie winced. She stood still for a moment, her teeth grit in anger, her mind clouded by the deafening thoughts of what just happened, and her eyes glaring straight ahead at nothing. A cold breeze blew past as Celestia laid the sun to rest and Luna took control of the skies over in Canterlot. The evening chill tempered the cacophony in her mind, shining an all-too-real light on the situation she was in. She looked down at her hooves; what was once anger had become hopelessness. What was she going to do now? She had felt some semblance of hope thinking she would be in this together with Gummy, but now that she was alone, what was the point?
The rock farm... The rock farm was her only hope of being reunited with Gummy. All she needed to do was get there and make some changes; a nice bed, some alligator food, carve a few toys—easy! Twilight wouldn't be able to stop her. Oh, but Gummy's animal-friends are still here... Well, she could always come back to Ponyville for the pony-pet playdates. She wouldn't have to talk to the others, just let Gummy play around for a bit then go home, just like before, only much, much further.
She looked to her left, down the road leading south. It was getting too late to catch a train that would take her to her parents' rock farm... She had to hoof it. Thinking about the journey ahead of her, her stomach let out an audible growl. Gosh, when was the last time she ate? She looked down at her belly, then back up to see a fully-stocked food cart across the street. Strange it hadn't been cleared up at the end of the day. There wasn't anypony attending it, but she could always take something and leave some bits behind. She reached up to root around in her hair, where she often kept various knickknacks for moments like these, but found her locks lacking. Did her last few bits fall out when her bouffant lost its bouf? What was she going to do now? She couldn't go back to her room, and she couldn't steal them... could she? It was an emergency situation... she was sure the salespony would understand... and she would definitely come back to repay them... but it just felt so wrong.
Her cramping stomach made the decision for her.
With a look of great discomfort and regret in her eyes, Pinkie made her way over to the apple barrel and quickly scanned the area for witnesses. The coast was clear. She stuffed her mouth with as many apples as she could fit in it—a surprisingly large amount—and threw a few more in her bindle for later, displacing even more confetti, before galloping away like the thief she was.
Twenty minutes later and Pinkie was at the southern outskirts of Ponyville. Running with a mouth full of food hadn't been her best idea, and though her stomach had found peace, her conscience had taken its place. She looked up at a nearby signpost; its mossy, warped wooden arrows pointed in three directions: north-west to Ponyville, east to Rambling Rock Ridge, and south to the Everfree Forest and Ghastly Gorge. Appleloosa was the next town along from Ponyville and far closer to the rock farm, but being days away by hoof, unsurprisingly it wasn't signposted. This is why everypony uses the train.
Well, this was it. It had been a long time since Pinkie had been alone—really alone. Even her formative years on the rock farm had been surrounded by family, then she'd moved in with the Cakes as a filly, and every day since then had been filled with meeting everypony in town, learning their likes and dislikes, planning their celebrations... Had she ever been alone? Even when she moved to Ponyville, Maud had been there to make sure she arrived safely. Well, now was the time to find out what being alone felt like. She didn't expect to like it.
With a short sigh and bindle-stick in hoof, she began trotting south towards the looming wall of vegetation that was the Everfree Forest. This was not her first time here. The last time had been to get help from Zecora—the local zebra herbalist—during the poison joke fiasco; but her hut isn't that deep within the forest's boundaries, and it was a rather embarrassing series of events she'd rather not dwell on any longer. As the dark greens of the canopy began to blot out the moonlit sky, Pinkie's mind wandered back over the day's events: the expectations, the rejections, the scheming, the sneaking, the barn, the crying, the eviction. Today had been a very long day.