“Oh my gosh, that’s amazing!” Coco yelled with her hooves to her cheeks.
“I know, I know! I was stumped, completely clueless for several minutes. After no one seemed to have noticed, I thought to myself, I must be going crazy, but then I remembered! I remembered the night I had the other flash when the last balloon popped, so I looked down, almost afraid of what would be there, and I saw this!”
“I can’t believe it! What happened? Did something make you realize it? Did it just kind of come to you?”
“Well, in a way, I suppose so. Here’s what happened after I left...” I told her all about the diner, and the real Pinkie in the booth behind me, and the jazz number that held time still, and I found myself getting really excited as I went on.
“Wow, right behind Pinkie, huh? That must have been surreal.” “Exactly what I thought! But that was what really did it, you know?”
“What do you mean?”
“When I was sitting behind her, looking at her, listening to her talk, it suddenly hit me: I am a completely different pony. This pony called Pinkie Pie is not me. It’s a little hard to explain, but finally seeing her made me feel like my own self for the first time.”
“That’s fantastic! So, you feel like your own pony, like you really are Mina Pearl, and no pony else?”
“Well, not quite. I think my cutie mark means something. You see how it’s arranged?” She considered it for a moment.
“I see how it’s three daffodils. You mean how it’s like the fact that you had three balloons?”
“Exactly. I think it means that, while I’m distinct and separate from Pinkie Pie, I also still have many parts of her in me, and I always will.”
“Hmm...okay, I see what you mean.”
“I’ve realized that the most important thing Pinkie and I share is wanting to see other ponies smile; I think we just have different strategies of going about it. She makes ponies smile by throwing parties, baking cakes and pies, and being her crazy Pinkie self. I like to make ponies smile by talking to them when they need somepony to talk to, comforting them when they need it, and giving advice and tough love. I think you were right Coco. The best times I’ve had here were talking with you, and I really liked to work with you through your problems. I like the challenge of figuring out how to make somepony happy.”
“That’s so great! Does that mean you’re going to study psychology?”
“Of course! Can’t get too far as a counselor or therapist without education and training. I’ll need to start looking at schools and see if I can get in.”
“You’ll definitely get in, I believe in you Mina!”
“Thanks Coco, and thanks for helping me figure it out.”
“That’s what friends are for.”
I smiled at her and we continued talking excitedly into the wee hours of the morning about my future, about Coco’s fashion ventures, about pretty much anything and everything until we couldn’t even see straight and nearly collapsed on the spot. As we were stumbling to our rooms, still giggling a little from the high of the evening, Coco stopped and said:
“Hey, can I ask you something?”
“Yeah, what?”
“Do you think you’ll ever want to meet her?”
“Meet who? Oh, you mean Pinkie Pie?”
“Yeah, you think you’ll want to meet her someday, now that you have everything figured out? I’m sure they wouldn’t actually expect you to go back in the mirror pond.”
I pondered her question for a few moments, and then I looked at her and said, “Yeah, maybe someday. Not too soon, I don’t think I’m ready to meet her head-on just yet. But yes, sometime when I’m just a bit more settled in life, I think it would be a splendid thing to meet her, to let her know that I exist, to live proudly and openly as the Pie that got away and became her own pony.”
“Yeah, that sounds nice.......the Lost Pie.”
“Hm, the ‘Lost Pie’. That has a nice ring to it.”
“Yeah, it does, doesn’t it?
END