Chapter 11
The Long Road
Pinkie hopped off the bed almost immediately after opening her eyes. It was her way of not falling asleep again. She would never tell her friends this, but she’s the type of pony that will lie in bed for another couple of hours if need be. Being Pinkie was hard! Even she deserved a long rest once in a while. But today was not a day for one of those rests. A friend was in trouble, and she needed to be in top form.
And this of course meant coffee, but that was for later.
Pinkie hopped toward the door to her bathroom, and being ever as jovial as she was, started humming a tune that she couldn’t place the name of. Washing her face and brushing her teeth was the only routine that she needed for the day. When she finished, she hopped out of the bathroom and toward the door to her room. Reaching for the knob, she paused, thinking for a moment, frowned, then giggled to herself.
‘Silly Pinkie,’ she thought, ‘Marble is still asleep! I can’t wake him up yet.’
Quietly, she opened the door, and trotted out, making bearly a sound on the hard wood floor. For Pinkie, surprise parties were some of her favorite parties to plan and execute. It was a party and a prank all rolled up into one. So in order for the surprise to go off without a hitch, it was an essential for her to learn the skill of sneaking around. Moving to to the kitchen, she searched the cupboards for any sign of coffee.
Pinkie searched for a couple of minutes, Looking in all of the drawers and cupboards, even the tall, hard to reach ones, but to no avail. The glorious morning drink was nowhere to be found. Frowning, she thought of what to do. She didn’t really know the area, only coming to Canterlot a couple of times in her life, but there had to be a coffee shop somewhere near.
She turned to leave the apartment, before doubling back and making a bee line for Marble’s door. Being as silent as possible, she places an ear against the door. Its a little difficult to hear, but the faint rise and fall of breathing tells Pinkie that Marble is sleeping soundly. Turning back toward the door, she hops out, grabbing the keys that were on the hook next to the knob, hoping they were to the apartment.
Pinkie woke early that morning, even before Celestia rose the sun in the sky. As such the streets were mostly empty, save for the few that woke as early as Pinkie, and those that never went to sleep. Looking around, Pinkie decided that left was the best direction to go. No particular reason, just a good feeling, and Pinkie always trusted her feelings.
It was only a couple minutes into her walk when she perked up. Her nose caught a scent that was very familiar to her. Muffins, doughnuts, bread, bagels and coffee. Somewhere nearby, there was a bakery, and Pinkie would find it.
Pinkie got back to Marble’s apartment just after Celestia’s sun rose, hoping that she was able to get everything she needed for the coming days. She would do her best to get Marble back to being himself, anyway she could. She slowly opened the door, making sure that Marble wasn’t awake yet. The apartment was still as quiet as ever. Smiling to herself, she hopped into the kitchen, setting her early morning plan into motion.
Opening the apartment’s only window, she set out to get rid of all of the creepy carvings on the wall. Upon inspection, they were just chipped paint, meaning they were easy to paint over. Pulling out the small can of paint that she bought, miraculously finding a bunch of stores open during her time out. She chalked it up to Canterlot’s never sleeping tendancies.
After the images were successfully painted over to Pinkie’s satisfaction, she began phase two of her plan. Pulling out all of the ingredients, she began to bake her signature morning muffins, a special blend of cinnamon, butter and fluffiness, they were the best muffins that anypony could ask for in the morning.
Sliding them in the oven, she pulled out a black and white lace costume from her mane. She Rarity had a lot of these in a closet in her house for some reason. When Pinkie found them, totally by accident its not like she was snooping, Rarity started acting weird, saying they weren’t hers. Which was silly, cause Pinkie could tell she made them. When Pinkie asked for one, Rarity got acted even more weird, telling her not to show it to anypony.
Pinkie started cleaning here and there, making sure everything was in its right place, or at least where she thought the right place was. The apartment was tidy, but still held a few characteristics of a bachelor pad. Plates and cups here and there, dust on almost every surface, and a slight smell of, something. Pinkie couldn’t quite place the smell.
She moved past Marble’s desk. Messy, much like Twilight’s, with papers and large books strewn about. She dared not clean this though, she remembers the time that she helped clean Twilight’s house and her desk in the process. She could tell Twilight was really really angry, but keeping it all inside. She swore she would never clean a desk again. EVER.
She was in the middle of cleaning under the couch when a thud and groan came from Marble’s room. Almost jumping to the door, Pinkie was quick to knock.
“Ugg...” a voice came from inside.
“Everything okie-dokie in there?” Pinkie asked.
“Yea...” came a faint reply, “s’all good.”
Pinkie could hear some shuffling from inside, more groaning, some yawning, and finally hoofsteps approaching the door.
“It’s ok,” Marble said popping his head out of the door, “I just fell out of...”
He fell silent, giving Pinkie a wide eyed stare. Pinkie stared back, a smile on her face.
“Fell out of what?” She asked, “The ceiling? The sky? The world?”
Pinkie gasped.
“Did you fall out of another World?!”
“N-no,” Marble said, cheeks turning pink, “Bed, I fell out of bed.”
“Oh! Psssshh!” Pinkie replied, “I do that all the time.”
“Pinkie?”
“Yeppers?”
“What are you wearing?” He asked, finally averting his eyes.
“Oh, this?” Pinkie said, “Rarity calls it a Prench Maid outfit. Is something wrong? Your acting just like Mr. Cake did when he first saw it. Mrs. Cake said I shouldn’t wear it anymore. But I still use it when I clean my room. I mean, whats the point of having a maid outfit if you don’t use it for cleaning, right? Anyway, don’t tell Rarity I told you about it. OH! Forget I said Rarity, OH, that too!”
“I’ll be right out,” Marble said, still looking away, “I’m going to take a cold shower first.”
Pinkie giggled, “That’s what Mr. Cake said too! Then Mrs. Cake slapped him. It was funny, cause after he went up, she asked where I had gotten it from, I told her I got it from Rarity and, OH! Forget I said that too! Again!”
Marble gulped, face now turning red.
“I-I’ll be out soon,” he shut the door rather quickly.
“Okie-Dokie-Lokie!”
When Marble finally wondered out of the bathroom, Pinkie had already made the rest of breakfast, including some extra coffee, hash browns, some chopped fruit, all laid out on the coffee table in the living room. He also noticed something was different, something was a little off. He looked around, trying to place this odd feeling, Pinkie was nowhere to be found.
‘That must be it,’ he thought.
Marble walked over to the table, finding everything laid out, still hot, and smelling really good. Pinkie had made it before he woke up.
‘Dang,’ he thought ,’I wanted to make something for her. There is always tomorrow.’
Marble’s stomach started to growl, and he let a small grin on his muzzle. He didn’t really have much dinner last night, so of course he was hungry in the morning. He sat down on the couch and grabbed the silverware. He decided to start with the hash, as that smelled the best, but paused before actually eating.
‘I should really wait until Pinkie gets here.’
He set down his utensils and moved toward his guestroom door.
“Pinkie?” he called, “Are you there?
Silence.
“Pinkie?” he called once more.
Still silence. Somehow more deafening than before.
Marble moved toward Pinkie’s door and reached for the knob.
“Marble?”
“Gahhhh!”
Marble whirled around to face Pinkie, who was looking at him quizzically, and had thankfully taken of her ‘cleaning’ outfit.
“I was just in the kitchen,” Pinkie said, smiling, “You must not have seen me!”
“Y-yea! Yea,” Marble replied, “I guess I didn’t.”
“That’s OK!” Pinkie said, smiling even wider than before and begins moving toward the table, “Lets eat before any of this gets cold!”
Marble starts after Pinkie to the coffee table to eat their breakfasts. Pinkie opts for downing almost her entire cup of coffee before digging into one of her muffins. Marble once again went for the hash, tasting as good as he thought it would. After a couple of bites, he took a few out of the muffin, then a sip of coffee.
“Any good?” Pinkie asked, “I’ve been working on breakfast food for a while now. Well besides muffins. Muffins are like cupcakes, just less sweet, so those are really easy to make. Derby says that I make them wrong, and her muffins are super tasty! I’m gunna have to ask her how she makes them. Oh! I also need to ask Applejack how Granny Smith makes her fritters. There not really breakfasty enough, but some ponies will eat them early anyways, so its good to make them too!”
“It’s good,” Marble said, “I’m not sure these muffins could get tastier.”
“Then you need to try Derpy’s!” Pinkie replied, ‘”They’re loads better than mine!”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“It’s true! I lost a baking competition to them!”
“Wow,” Marble said, a little taken aback, “they must be great then.”
“They are!”
The two go back to eating for a brief few seconds, before Pinkie cries, “Hey!'
Marble started a bit.
“You should come back to Ponyville with me! You can meet all my friends! There’s Twilight and Applejack and Rarity and Rainbow and Fluttershy and Lyra and Bon-Bon and Time Turner and the Cakes and the rest of the apples and Derpy- OH! And you can try her muffins too!”
Marble hums, thinking on the idea a little longer.
“Y-yea,” he says finally “I think I would like that.”
A few more seconds of silence.
“What have you been doing in Canterlot?”
“Hmm.” Marble said, swallowing his bite, “Nothing much, I’ve been working for a small group that helps farmers. The non-industrial kind.”
“Oh! Like the Apples?”
“Not really. The Apple Acres is a little to big for our company. We help with families who grow to feed themselves and a few others.”
“Those must be super small then!”
“Yea, they are.”
More silence. This time, lasting for a couple of minutes. Marble was able to finish all of his breakfast, while Pinkie watched, she had finished well before him. It wasn’t terribly unnerving, she was looking around at the apartment, but always seemed to find her gaze was back on him.
“How was it?” Pinkie asked with a smile.
“Really good,” Marble answered, “You’re an amazing chef.”
Pinkie giggled, “Thanks! I wanna cook more for the Cakes, but they won’t let me. They say I do enough already!”
“I can imagine you do. What did they think of you dropping everything to come help me?”
“Oh this?” Pinkie said, still smiling, “I have a LOT of unused vacation days.'
“Your using vacation time to help me?”
“Yeppers! Why wouldn’t I? I mean, I haven’t seen you since the family reunion a couple of years ago! It’s great to see you again!” She finished giving Marble a hug.
“Thank you...” Marble said, returning it.
They held there for a couple of seconds, before Pinkie pulled away.
“I need to go unpack.” she said, “I’ll be back soon!”
“OK Pinkie,” Marble said, a small smile on his face.
He is glad that Pinkie is here. It may not seem like much, but somepony just being there for you helps in so many ways. Somepony there to take away the feeling of loneliness, they really don’t need to do anything. All that needed to happen to take the edge off loneliness was to have someone to share it with.
The door shutting to the guest room shook Marble out of his thoughts. He grabbed the breakfast plates and took them to the sink for cleaning. With a guest in the house, he should actually clean these, he thought, and made his way over to the sink.
Pinkie walked over to her bag in the corner and pulled out a small book. Twilight, being the friend and pony that she was, made sure that Pinkie would be OK on her trip. The letter was quite distressing one from Marble himself, which sounded like a fairly normal request for help. Twilight said the script was written by a unicorn in distress as she recognized the jitters and shakes in the strokes from when she was stressing in Celestia’s school. The note from Joe was just “the proverbial icing on the cake” as Twilight would, though Pinkie thought that was a terrible analogy. Cake should be good, Not something to dread!
The book was from Twilight, and whatever Pinkie wrote in it, Twilight would see. She told Pinkie to write in it any chance she got and update them on the situation. Twilight seemed a little spooked after Pinkie said the name “Marble Grain”, and immediately gave her the book after that. She said something about Luna and a lamb, said she couldn’t tell her more than that.
Setting the book on the bed Pinkie went back to her bag to pull out one of Twilight’s never ending quills. She found it in the bottom of one of the inside pockets, underneath some of her other items. With quill in mouth, she hopped onto the bed to begin writing.
There was a crashing in the main part of the apartment. Pinkie perked her ears up at it.
“Marble?” she asked, a little worried.
When he didn’t reply, Pinkie jumped of the bed and to the door.
“Marble, is everything alright?” she said as she opened the door and peered out.
“Marble!” she shouted.
Marble was just in the kitchen area of his apartment shattered dishes lying around him. He was cowering from something and sobbing to himself.
Pinkie rushed over, careful not to step on the shards or to startle Marble.
“Marble?” she asked in a Fluttershy like voice.
He jolted upright, a small amount of recognition in his eyes.
“P-Pinkie?” he wispered, “W-what just...”
Pinkie moved closer to Marble, careful not to scare him.
“It’s me Marble,” she said, “I’m right here.”
Marble just stared at her still crying a little and shaking like a leaf.
“What happened?'
“I-I...” he faltered, “I thought I...”
Pinkie put a hoof on Marble’s shoulder. When he didn’t flinch, she pulled him into a hug, holding him close.
“It’s OK now,” she said quietly, “I’m here.”
“I thought I s-saw...” Marble said, burying his head in Pinkies mane.
“Shhh,” she said, “Just relax, your safe.”
“I saw them again...” Marble said.
“It’s alright, I’m here.”
“I saw them...”
“Shh...”
Marble and Pinkie stayed like that for quite some time. Pinkie didn’t check, but it could have easily been a couple of hours, and she wouldn’t have thought any different. All the while, she only thought of two things. Keeping Marble safe was on the forefront of her mind. But in the back, she new that Twilight needed to hear this, and possibly get more help than just her.