The Gift of Pinkie Pie
In the middle of a stormy night in an unknown city, Dusk ran at full speed. He had been running so long that he didn’t know what he was running from, he just knew that he needed to keep running. The night was getting darker and darker, and Dusk kept on running through the gloomy streets without an apparent direction until he turned a corner, he saw the shadow of a mare. Then Dusk recoiled in fright and ran back down the street, to another corner, where this time another shadow of a mare appeared. Dusk fled from the place again until he turned into another corner, where this time the shadow of a tall alicorn appeared. It was so that Dusk kept running away, and every time he turned a corner, he backed away scared to see a new shadowy figure. The fear was so much that Dusk didn’t even give himself a fraction of a second to analyze those shadows, the shadows of all his fears and worries, the shadows of his friends, his teacher, his brother, his first ever friend, of all the problems that Dusk had always tried to run away from.
Then Dusk turned into one last corner, finding himself facing the only shadow he could recognize, his own shadow, or at least a shadow that resembled him, only difference was that his eyes were red full of fury.
While Dusk froze at what he saw, suddenly the shadow of Dusk became the fashion critic he had met two days ago, Hoity Toity, and without giving him any chances to escape again, Hoity's shadow fiercely raised his hoof and hit Dusk with all his strength, causing the poor unicorn to finally wake up from his nightmare.
"Waaah! Ah...! Huff...!" Dusk yelled, waking up suddenly and partially getting up from the bed, breathing hard. "What... What a horrible dream..." Dusk added speaking to himself as he slowly calmed down.
"Did you have a nightmare?" A sweet voice asked.
"Yeah... I... I don't remember how it started..." Dusk said still drowsy, answering the question calmly. "I just remember that last night I was uneasy, thinking about the kiss I had, the fashion show, the task the princess gave me, and then... Arrrh! I don't remember, all I remember was that in the end, I was in a kind of labyrinth, until the all those critic fashions of Rarity's fashion show hit me... "
"Wow, it sounds very weird... and terrible." The same sweet voice answered.
"Yes, it was." Dusk said sighing and finally leaning back on his bed while closing his eyes to go back to sleep. "I wish somepony could come and help ponies like me not have these horrible nightmares..."
It was at that moment, when Dusk was finally about to fall asleep again, that his brain gave him a mental kick to react. Then Dusk suddenly opened his eyes, only to find another pair of eyes, big blue eyes that stared back at him and were so close to him so that they were the only thing he could see.
Dusk jumped as if he was structed by lightning, sitting on the bed in an instant.
"P-P-Pinkie Pie! Why am I sleeping next to you!? And I'm sorry!" Dusk said quickly, embarrassed to be so cheeky to go to bed with a mare. Then Dusk stopped and looked around. "Wait a second... This is my room! What are you doing in my room...? And what are you doing in my bed!?" Dusk added almost shouting, not knowing if he was upset or embarrassed.
Pinkie Pie got up and sat on the bed as if it were just another regular morning in her daily life.
"Yawn... Well, I came in because Spike let me in." Pinkie Pie answered yawning. "I needed to ask him something, but Spike seemed lost in his own thoughts, so I decided to go up, and I saw that you were asleep, and your bed seemed so comfortable... So I decided to lie down with you for a while, after all, it was an exhausting morning, you know, it's that ‘time’ of the month..."
"'That ‘time’ of the month?" Dusk repeated confused before blushing as he remembered his sex education and female biology classes.
"Yes, it's that ‘time’ of the month, the time where I have an overload of pinkie senses." Pinkie Pie said nodding.
"Oh, well, I'm not very familiar with the period of... wait, what did you say?" Dusk asked, going from discomfort to confusion.
"It's my pinkie sense overload day!" Pinkie Pie repeated anxiously, suddenly realizing the confusion of Dusk. "Oh... I forgot that you don't know about that... Well, what happens is that my pinkie sense sometimes gives me signals about what is about to happen, but once a month it becomes a lot more frequent! Making my pinkie senses go crazy! "
When she finished speaking, Pinkie Pie stared at Dusk with a smile while the unicorn only kept a confused face, as if Pinkie had spoken to him in another language. Then Pinkie Pie suddenly trembled as she blinked rapidly, and her tail turned like a propeller.
"You see? There it goes again!" Pinkie Pie said after shaking. "Normally I wouldn’t have that signal, but since today is the day my pinkie senses are more sharper, it gave me this strange signal, the same signal that it’s been giving me all morning! Flashing, teeth trembling and tail turning to the left, it means... 'Gummy is with a friend'!"
Again, Pinkie Pie continued talking while Dusk continued with the same face of total disbelief and confusion.
"Oh, I guess you don't know, Gummy is my pet, he got lost this morning, and I've been looking for him, that's why I came here." Pinkie Pie said, keeping her smile while Dusk kept his face from seeing a weirdo. "By the way, Gummy is an alligator."
“PINKIE! One crazy at a time!" Dusk said holding Pinkie Pie. Reaching its oddity quota for a day.
Dusk had a lot to say, starting with the absurdity of all that talk about pinkie senses, and he also had a big question on whether Pinkie was serious when she said that she had a pet alligator, it would’ve been very unlikely if anyone else would’ve told him, but in Pinkie Pies case, there was always the possibility of making something absurd real. However, Dusk finally decided to leave with his doubts in order.
"First, Pinkie, don’t you find it strange lying down next to me?" Dusk asked with a slight blush on his cheeks.
"No why?" Pinkie Pie asked innocently. "I've already slept with my other friends, it's not strange, or do you want me to act differently with you?"
Dusk opened his mouth to argue what was said by his friend, but he realized that Pinkie Pie was right, after all, Dusk wanted to be part his group of friends, that meant that everyone should be treated equally, regardless of whether it was a colt or a mare. But was that really a good thing to do? That is, a colt and a mare are different physically and mentally, things, like taking a bath together or sleeping together, was another matter... or was it? Dusk couldn’t be sure since this was his first experience with a group of friends and being the only colt within a group of mares, Dusk could not imagine if friendship between different genders should be the same as that of a single gender.
At these confused thoughts, Dusk closed one eye while a sudden migraine hit his head. His horn gave a faint spark until just then Pinkie spoke and distracted him.
"What’s this?" Pinkie Pie asked, lifting a book that was on the bed.
"What, oh, that's a spell book.” Dusk answered, putting a hoof on his temple while the fleeting migraine disappeared. "Last night I couldn’t sleep, so I used a spell to put me to sleep. It's a somewhat complex spell, but very effective in making me relax and rest quietly for twelve hours."
"Quietly, but then, why did you wake up with a nightmare?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"W-Well... I guess it's not infallible, mental spells are not my forte... But at least yesterday worked well!" Dusk responded defensively, a little hurt in his pride.
"'It only works for unicorns...' 'Your horn will shine, and then...' 'Only use it in case of extreme fatigue...' Hmm... Isn’t that something extreme? You could’ve used the spell you used to put us to sleep when we were going after Nightmare Moon." Pinkie Pie said as she read part of how the spell worked, including the warnings section, looking at the book with a slight look of displeasure. "I thought that spells that alter the mind were dangerous and forbidden."
"Wow, I'm amazed you know that... But not to worry, there's no problem, it's not as invasive as it seems, it just relaxes the mind to help you rest, it's not like it's a memory alteration spell or something like that, that would be illegal." Dusk said wanting to lower the profile because Pinkie Pie was right again, but Dusk had or at least believed he had, the knowledge and ability to apply a spell of that caliber. "Besides, it only lasted twelve hours, there's nothing to worry about."
"Oh, good!" Pinkie Pie said, smiling again. "So... Do you want to go back to bed?" Pinkie added, reclining on the bed again.
"Yes, I think we can still- By Celestia! No!" Dusk said in a scream, totally blushed after realizing what Pinkie Pie said, reaching only to lean slightly to lie down next to her. "I-It isn’t right for a colt and a mare to sleep alone in a bed if they are not together!"
"Mmm... Well, that can be solveeeeed..." Pinkie Pie said with a cunning smile, before being interrupted by herself, again beginning to tremble, while her right ear moved, and her mane stood up.
"What's wrong!?" Dusk asked, scared.
"I already told you, it's my pinkie sense." Pinkie Pie answered with a thoughtful face. "Let's see... I think this means... 'Something is going to hit you.'" Pinkie Pie said, pointing to Dusk.
"What? Wait, doesn’t it your pinkie sense only work for you?" Dusk asked, confused.
"That's right, but when I have 'pinkie sense overload' I can prevent certain incidents from happening to my friends." Pinkie Pie said with a small smile.
"Oh... I see... What a convenient gift..." Dusk said, moving his eyes up sarcastically, since he, as a good logical pony, couldn’t believe in such barbarity.
"It's not a gift..." Pinkie Pie said in a whisper, for a second she stopped smiling and looking to the side. Then she looked at Dusk again, this time more seriously. "Dusk, you have to take it seriously."
"So you’re saying something is going to hit me? So what's that supposed to-" Dusk said with a disbelieving smile, stretching his hooves to get out of bed, however, he had forgotten that by getting away from Pinkie Pie, he was almost on the edge of the bed, so Dusk miscalculated, didn’t rest his hoof on the bed, and fell face down on the floor.
"Ouch!" Dusk yelled after hitting his face.
"See, I told you." Pinkie Pie said, approaching the edge of the bed to see Dusk rise from the floor. "Something was going to hit you, and it was the floor."
"First of all, the floor didn’t hit me, it was me who hit the floor! Secondly, this was just a coincidence, or maybe you saw that I was on the edge of the bed and you planned everything." Dusk said in a bad mood, touching his aching nose.
"Do you really think I would do something like that to you?" Pinkie Pie asked surprised.
"Well no, I know you wouldn’t... although now that I think about it, you have already hit me other times." Dusk said, looking sideways at his friend, but deep down knowing that Pinkie would not hurt him without reason. "Anyway, look, it was just a coincidence, okay?"
"It wasn’t, I’m telling you it was my pinkie sense." Pinkie Pie said looking more serious at Dusk. Then she shook again in the same way as before. "There it is again! My pinkie sense tells me that 'something else is going to hit you again.'"
Dusk remained quiet and silent for a few seconds, then he looked in all directions and then saw Pinkie Pie with a face of arrogance.
"See, I told you, nothing happened." Dusk Shine said victoriously.
Then Dusk took a step, and the board on the floor he had fallen on collapsed, causing the opposite end to rise quickly and hit Dusk's face squarely.
"Told you." Pinkie Pie said, covering her face and regretting that her friend didn’t pay attention to her.
"It was just a coincidence!" Dusk said, annoyed, rubbing his nose.
"I’m tell you it's one hundred percent real, I'll show you." Pinkie Pie said jumping off the bed and facing Dusk. Then she shook her head, then her hooves, and finally her tail, until she stood still as a statue.
"Uhm... Are you waiting for something?" Dusk asked, confused after seeing that Pinkie didn’t move after a while.
"I thought it would work... It's just that I can’t control it." Pinkie Pie thought going back to normal, giving up until her right ear went down quickly twice and returned to normal. "There it is! Although it was quite small."
"And what does that warning mean? Is the sky going to fall?" Dusk asked with irony.
"No it’s not a warning, sometimes it's just a signal." Pinkie Pie said with a smile. "That sign means you recently discovered somepony's big secret."
Dusk looked at Pinkie Pie confused until suddenly he remembered that only a few days ago Rarity had told him his secret about her first coltfriend.
"I-It's crazy, you're just saying things randomly, you're using the same tricks those scammers use, reading cards and predicting the future.” Dusk said defensively.
"Oh! Looks like my pinkie sense didn’t fail! Tell me! What secret did you discover!?" Pinkie said, looking through Dusk, excited to discover a secret.
Dusk took a step back when he saw that Pinkie Pie was approaching him, eager to discover the secret that Dusk had.
"It's... it's a secret about Rarity's past." Dusk said slowly after thinking that telling the truth was best against Pinkie Pie. "But I can’t tell you more since she told me in confidence."
"Oh, okay!" Pinkie Pie said with a sympathetic smile, leaving Dusk a little surprised, as he thought she would insist more. "We all have our secrets, and if Rarity thought she wanted to tell you hers, then good for her." Added Pinkie with a smile.
"Uhm... Do you also have a secret?" Dusk asked cautiously.
At Dusk's question, Pinkie Pie lowered her head, so that the shadow of her mane hid her face.
"I... I was born in a circus, my family was very poor, so we all acted in the function to entertain the audience, I was afraid of heights, but in the same way, my dad forced me to go up loose rope and juggle... "Pinkie Pie said in a sad voice.
"Pinkie... I... I didn’t know-" Dusk started talking, worried, approaching his friend, until he was interrupted by Pinkie herself.
"Boop! It was a joke! Hahaha." Pinkie Pie said with a big smile after pressing Dusk's nose as if it were a button. "Hahaha, did you really believe that I was born in a circus?
"Y-You shouldn't joke with those kind of stories." Dusk said blushing, embarrassed to believe his crazy friend while she continued mocking him.
"Not everypony has a dark past, hehe." Pinkie Pie said smiling, then tilting her head and looking at Dusk with more dreamy eyes. "I won’t tell you about my past, but if everything goes well, you will soon find out another of my secrets, a secret related to you."
"Then you do have a secret to tell me.” Dusk said, as clumsy as ever to not realize what Pinkie was referring to what she had just said. "You know, I already know some secrets of Fluttershy and Rarity, maybe it would be good if you will also tell me some of your secrets as well, not because it’s related to me and or about friendship? But so we can trust each other"
"You can’t really say that you have told us everything about your past. So maybe you tell me something and I’ll do the same." Pinkie Pie said holding her smile but looking more penetratingly at Dusk.
Dusk was surprised at Pinkie Pie's words, and then he lowered his head with a worried look.
"I-I guess you're right..." Dusk said after a while, realizing that Pinkie Pie had a good point. "I guess I should tell you a secret before I demand you tell me one of yours... Okay then, what do you want to know?"
"Hmm... How about your childhood friend, I'm really curious." Pinkie said, sitting on Dusk's bed and looking at him with a smile.
"Huff... okay." Dusk said after breathing heavily, deciding it was time to explain the cause why he didn’t believe in friendship, even before arriving in Ponyville. "I was just a young colt back then, I had recently been accepted into Canterlot's magic school, and-"
Suddenly Dusk fell silent, as he began to remember, he realized that he could not fully concentrate on his past, as there was something that had unconsciously been bothering him, a word, just a word that Pinkie Pie had said and that subconsciously Dusk I had not missed it.
"Another..." Dusk said with his head down, thinking aloud as he concentrated on understanding what his subconscious was telling him. "When I asked you about your past... you told me: 'I will not tell you about my past, but if everything goes well, you will soon find out another of my secrets' Another, then that means... That you do have a secret from your past!"
When finally deducting what had been bothering him, Dusk raised his head to look directly at Pinkie Pie, but for some reason, Pinkie Pie was no longer there.
"That Pinkie is a lot like a ninja, one moment she appears and then the next she disappears out of nowhere without anypony noticing..." Dusk thought as he walked down the library stairs, shortly after looking around his room and seeing that Pinkie Pie was no longer there. "Maybe I'm over thinking things a bit, after all, she said it herself: Not everypony has a dark past."
When Dusk went down to the first floor, the first thing he did was to go to the kitchen, where his little brother Spike was found sitting at the table, eating a small bowl of sapphires with milk while holding his head and having a silly and lost look on his face.
"What's happened to you? Looks like your head’s in the clouds." Dusk said, looking at his brother as he sat at the table and poured himself a glass of orange juice.
"Rarity... that's what happened..." Spike replied with a silly smile, while Dusk for a second was startled to hear the name of his friend.
"W-What's wrong with Rarity?" Dusk asked, feigning disinterestedness as he retook his juice.
"I just can’t get it out of my head... I think we're the perfect couple..." Spike said as his eyes seemed to shine. "Also, I finally got to third base with her."
"Pffft!! You what!?" Dusk asked almost in a cry, after spitting all the juice he was drinking.
"I got to the third base with Rarity.” Spike replied with a smile. "You know that kiss on the cheek she gave me at the fashion show, that was the third kiss she gave me, the first one was when we met, and the second was when I invited her to the Gran Galloping Gala... Three kisses mean that we’ve gotten to third base, right?" Spike asked naively.
"Uhhh... well..." Dusk said scratching his head while blushing, embarrassed to have thought that Spike could have really reached third base with Rarity. Then Dusk thought about how to explain to his little brother what the jargon of reaching third base really meant, but he decided that it was not the time and chose to explain it to him when he is older. "Yes... that's what it means to get to third base... But don’t go around saying it out loud!"
"Of course not, I'm a gentleman!" Spike said quickly, emerging from his daydreams and becoming serious for a second. "Anyway, I think it's time to go to the Café, today the girls gather for their breakfast, and I'll be able to see the most beautiful pony of all..." Spike added again, giving him a reckless look.
Then the little dragon got up from the table and headed for the lobby to exit through the front door. However, he stopped suddenly and looked back.
"What's wrong, you’re not coming to have breakfast with the girls?" Asked Spike confused to see that his older brother was sitting in the kitchen, not moving.
"Huh!? I-I... I think I'll not go this time..." Dusk said, trying to hide that he was nervous. "After all, I need to re-order the library, since lately we’ve had many visitors."
"Oh, well, I'll let the girls know, see you!" Spike said without giving it any importance, thinking again about seeing his true love again.
"Huff...!" Dusk sighed after Spike left, closing his eyes and turning his head back on the chair while covering his face with a hoof.
Dusk didn’t understand why he decided to lie to Spike. Normally he would be happy to go and have breakfast with his friends, but as soon as Spike started talking about the kiss on the cheek that Rarity gave him and how anxious he was to see her again; all his nerves began to take over. Since it had happened last night, it was another concern that had made its way into Dusk’s mind: how to deal with Rarity after the kiss, as well as how to tell Spike what had happened... besides almost ruining the fashion show and his friend's career... and Fluttershy's kiss... the important task that his teacher entrusted... the punch he gave Hoity Toity...
Suddenly another strong migraine crossed Dusk's head, causing him to close one eye in pain and, without realizing it, his horn released a few sparks.
"Again... Am I catching a cold or something?" Dusk said without understanding why these sudden headaches kept on emerging.
After thinking about it for a few seconds, Dusk decided to not think too much into the pain, and only finish his breakfast and take a long bath, as if deep down he knew that the best thing for his body at that time was to relax, even if it was just for a moment.
"This is much better..." Dusk said after finally entering and relaxing in the small bathtub that was in his bathroom. Remarkably far from the comfort provided by the huge Ponyville Spa tub, but enough to allow him some relaxation, and to feel in complete solitude.
While Dusk let the tension in his body diminish little by little, a slight noise made Dusk need to open his eyes and leave the semi-trance of relaxation in which he almost fell into. When he opened his eyes, Dusk gave a look of confusion when he saw that in the water, near his back hooves, there was something green and apparently scaly floating. For a second Dusk thought it was one of Spike's scales, but he immediately realized that it was something else entirely, rather it looked like it had a small tail, a tail that began to slowly move towards Dusk's head.
As the strange tail approached Dusk's face, the young unicorn saw, emerging from the water, appeared next to the tail, appeared to be the backside of an animal, then two huge purple eyes popped up, followed by a long snout, allowing Dusk to fully recognize what the mysterious creature was.
"CROCODILE!" Dusk screamed, totally scared, giving a strong jump that almost made him jump out of the bathtub.
"Gummy!" Pinkie Pie yelled suddenly, suddenly appearing from the bathroom window and jumping towards the bathtub.
"P-Pinkie, be careful! It's a crocodile!" Dusk said nervously, so scared that for a second he ignored the fact that Pinkie had appeared out of nowhere from the window.
"It's a alligator, silly, didn’t I tell you already, it's Gummy, my pet." Pinkie said, smiling while holding the alligator, which only now Dusk saw with less fear and realized that the alligator looked more like a small lizard.
"Be careful, he can bite you.” Dusk said nervously, realizing that although that alligator was small, it was still a dangerous animal.
"Of course not, look!" Pinkie Pie said opening the mouth of the little alligator, showing that it had no teeth. Then the little alligator jumped and began to bite Pinkie Pie in various parts of her body, causing no harm.
"I-I see..." Dusk said slowly. Then both ponies were watching in silence while Dusk felt that yesterday morning was repeating itself, having too many questions to choose from.
"Pinkie... How do you suddenly appear like that?" Dusk asked finally, because Pinkie Pie arrived here without any warning through the window of his bathroom.
"Well, my pinkie sense warned me that Gummy would be in a bathtub, and you were the only one of my best friends who would surely be taking a bath, so I took a party cannon and shot myself here, you know, before Gummy could escape again. " Pinkie Pie answered quietly as if everything she had said was out of the ordinary in the world. "I have to be quick when Gummy runs away, he's very unpredictable, you never know where he'll appear next."
"Suuuure... I guess he’s very much like his owner..." Dusk replied, trying to get used to the follies of Pinkie Pie. "By the way, weren’t you supposed to be having breakfast with the girls?"
"We finished, it wasn’t very long, but it wasn’t just you, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were also missing, so we decided to have breakfast all together another day." Pinkie Pie answered while making a soap bubble with the soap that was in her mane after jumping into the bathtub. "Anyway, Applejack and Rarity said they would come later to see if you needed help ordering the library."
"Oh, I see... Hmm... Okay, one last question, why are you still in my bathtub?" Dusk asked, blushing, with a tired look, after realizing that both ponies have had a long conversation together in the bathtub.
"I don’t know, I thought maybe you wanted to take a relaxing bath with me." Pinkie Pie smiled mischievously.
"Believe me, whenever you’re around relaxation is pretty much gone.” Dusk responded by giving up on Pinkie Pie's follies and grabbing a towel while getting out of the tub.
Pinkie Pie had already broken that little moment of peace that Dusk had managed to get, and not only that but she also told him that Applejack and Rarity would soon be there, which made Dusk get a little anxious again.
"It's not that I don’t want to see my friends, but after what happened yesterday... for some reason I get nervous every time I think about meeting them together..." Dusk thought as he finished drying and walking to the door to leave the bathroom. "Maybe... it would be better not to see them, at least for today."
"Dusk! It's the signal!" Pinkie Pie suddenly said still in the bathtub, as she trembled and her mane stood on end. "Something is going to hit you."
"What?" was the only thing that Dusk managed to say, without being able to turn around to see Pinkie Pie, as the bathroom door burst open, slamming into Dusk's face.
"Pinkie Pie, are you okay?" Spike asked once he entered the bathroom, only then realizing that he had hit his brother with the door. "Oops, sorry."
"Why did you come in so suddenly without even touching the door!?" Dusk asked, annoyed, rubbing his sore nose.
"Well... after finishing breakfast, I was making my way back until I saw Pinkie Pie shooting herself straight from a canyon and crashing into the bathroom window, so I hurried to see if she was okay." Spike responded looking at his brother and then at Pinkie Pie, who finally came out of the tub with his little pet lizard. "Pinkie, did you come because your pinkie sense warned you?"
"Yep, it's just like I told you at breakfast, my pinkie sense never fails." Pinkie Pie said with a big smile. "This time it warned me that Gummy was here, and then it warned me that Dusk would get hit by something."
"Oh... Really, that's very useful..." Spike said, looking in amazement at his pink friend.
"Enough is enough, it's just coincidences!" Dusk shouted, who was already in a bad mood after the blow, and even more after hearing all that absurd conversation.
"I don’t know... the girls seemed to take the pinkie signs very seriously.” Spike said, scratching his head. Then Spike widened his eyes as he remembered something important. "Oh right, they've already vacated the bathroom, I need to use it to get ready for my date."
"...Huh?" Dusk asked totally confused while his brother put on a gallant face.
"That's right, I'm going on a date... With Rarity!" Spike said in ecstasy, almost ready to scream. "She invited me to a picnic in the park! She said she would pick me up later, so I have to start grooming now!"
"Rarity invited you... To a picnic?" Dusk repeated, doubting what his little brother was saying.
"Yes, although... well, not only will I go, but she also said... that she wanted to invite you to... But that doesn’t matter! You will be my co-pilot to love! You will help me look good before Rarity arrives!" Said Spike, bringing to light the plan he had been planning since Rarity made the invitation for the picnic.
Upon hearing that from the picnic, Dusk remembered that Pinkie Pie had told him that Rarity and Applejack were coming here, which made Dusk nervous again.
"I-I don’t know if I can accompany you... I have important tasks to do." Dusk said with a nervous face.
"Oh... Really! That's even better! Then I can go alone with Rarity to the picnic!" Spike said, moving quickly from disappointment to joy. Finally entering the bathroom and closing the door behind him, leaving Dusk and Pinkie Pie alone in the hall.
"So... Do you have any important tasks to do?" Pinkie Pie asked, looking with interest at Dusk Shine. "Anything at all?"
"Huh!?" Dusk answered without knowing what to say since that had been an excuse not to meet with his friends. "W-Well, it's... I... I-I decided I wanted to investigate your pinkie sense!" Dusk added, thinking quickly of something.
"Ohhh... That will be fun!" Pinkie Pie said with a big smile, started jumping for joy.
"Y-Yeah... Sure..." Dusk answered, scratching his head, as he thought about how to escape the new situation he had gotten into.
However, the more he thought about it, Dusk began to conclude that it really was a good opportunity to learn a little more about his friend and about her bizarre 'skills,' and thus having an opportunity to show that science could prove that everything was false.
"Very well, I guess I'll have to do several tests to see how that pinkie sense works for you, some tests, motor tests..." Dusk began as he began to walk towards the bottom of the stairs, getting a little excited to let his scientific side shine.
"Oh, so you want to do some tests? Then I'll give you some tests too!" Pinkie Pie said with a big smile as she followed Dusk.
"Wait, you want to test me?" Dusk asked, confused.
"Sure, I want to learn more about you too." Pinkie Pie answered, then blushing slightly. "So maybe I can also find out who you prefer out of all of us."
"Who do I prefer from all of you? Do you mean the other girls?" Dusk asked with a smile of disbelief. "Did you want to know if I have a best friend? I don’t prefer any friend before another."
"Yes... I want to discover... who is your best friend..." Pinkie Pie said with a slight tone of irony, realizing that Dusk misunderstood what she was referring to when she said she wanted to find out who he preferred more. "I think that’s going to be easier to guess than you trying to understand how my pinkie sense works."
"Hehe, believe me, I'll find out, With the power of science!" Dusk said, finally stopping at the foot of the stairs, next to Pinkie Pie. "To the secret lab!"
With those last words, Dusk pulled out a small candelabrum, which turned out to be a lever, which opened a small hidden door beneath his feet. Then Dusk and Pinkie Pie slide down a small slide, crossing a screen as they slid, and finally landing in the basement of the library, both now in white coats and huge lab lenses.
"What was that? It was really fun!" Pinkie Pie said amazed and excited by the surprise of the hidden door and the slide.
"A few days after arriving at the library, I discovered that there was a small basement in disuse, so with time I cleaned it and installed that secret door.” Dusk said, smiling proudly. "I always wanted to have a secret laboratory, not even Spike knows this place."
While Dusk was talking, Pinkie looked around and watched as that small room had several scientific instruments, totally unusual to her. She could only recognize a few chemical specimens among many other instruments.
"Science is the observation, identification, description, experimental research, and theoretical explanation of all phenomena." Dusk began speaking formally, adjusting his scientific lenses and speaking as if he were a teacher in class. "Many ponies think that science is the opposite of magic, but in fact, both are very much the same. Magic is just another process that has a logical explanation, not everything can be explained with magic, and that's where science comes in! Now, there are many different types of- Hey! Don’t touch that!"
Dusk came out of his 'teacher mode' when he saw that Pinkie Pie was not even paying attention to him and just began to play with a magnifying glass over her mouth, looking at her reflection and laughing at herself. Dusk just facepalmed himself thinking about who looked more foolish, his friend playing with a magnifying glass, or him thinking that Pinkie would be interested in anything science related.
"Anyway... let's begin..." Dusk finally said, giving up. Approaching one end of the basement and dragging a slate that was there. "Now, let’s begin the study... Name of the investigation..."
Then Dusk noted on his blackboard, 'Investigation: The truth about the Pinkie sense - Reality or simply superstition?'
"Hey, my pinkie sense is not a superstition." Pinkie Pie replied, making a pout.
"It's just the name of the investigation, it’s not something to be offended by." Dusk answered with a superior look. "Although in fact, I already know what the result will be..." Dusk thought, confident that the pinkie sense was nothing but a series of coincidences.
"Hmm... And I also have to name my investigation?" Pinkie Pie asked, wrinkling her lip.
"Your what? Oh, yeah, of course, as you wish..." Dusk replied confused, then remembering that his friend had told her that she would also do an investigation.
Then Pinkie took another piece of chalk and wrote, 'Investigation: The truth about Dusk Shine, Is he gay?'
An uncomfortable silence remained in the small room while Dusk carefully read word to word again and again to process in his head what his friend had written.
"WHAT!? Why do you think I'm gay? Is it because of my purple fur!? I did not have say in the matter!" Dusk screamed in fright, reliving for a second the mockery he had received from other colts for his lavender coat and his less rough facial features.
"It's just the name of the investigation, it’s not something to be offended by." Pinkie Pie answered with an annoyed smile, hinting that it had bothered her knowing that Dusk doubted her pinkie so much. "Well, actually I just wrote it to mess with you, but maybe it's a good subject to study..." Pinkie Pie added, putting a more thoughtful face.
"Do you really think that I may not like mares?" Dusk asked, afraid of what his friend might be thinking about him.
"I don’t know, but when you woke up this morning you said you dreamed of a kiss... and then you mentioned Hoity Toity... That's enough to suspect." Pinkie Pie said remembering what happened that morning.
"They were different dreams, the kiss I dreamt about was when I kissed Rarity!" Dusk responded quickly, as he wanted to clear up that misunderstanding immediately.
"Huh? You... you kissed Rarity?" Pinkie Pie asked, looking with a penetrating look at Dusk as if she was analyzing each movement he made carefully.
"Uh!? I... W-Well... yes, I suppose so." Dusk began to respond slowly, realizing that he had talked more about the account. "It was yesterday... after the fashion show, I guess that a lot of things happened that day and... and that's why I dreamt-"
Dusk stopped speaking suddenly when again, a fleeting headache made him close his eyes.
"It doesn’t matter, I don’t want to talk about that now.” Dusk added after shaking his head slightly to clear his mind.
"What was that? Was it my imagination or did Dusk's horn just spark?" Pinkie Pie thought confused, not sure what she saw. In the end, she finally decided that it must have been her imagination.
"The important thing is that you know they were different dreams! I would never dream of kissing Hoity Toity or any other colt!" Dusk said determined so that Pinkie had no doubt about his sexuality. "You know, I support the LGBT community, but I'm not like that." He added quickly so that Pinkie didn’t think he was an intolerant either.
"Hmm... Well, if you like mares, maybe there's a way to prove it." Pinkie finally said after thinking for a moment and putting a fleeting mischievous smile.
Then Pinkie Pie had Dusk sit in a chair while she stood in front of him, not too far away, staring at him.
"Tell me, which of your senses do you want me to test?" Pinkie Pie asked with a flirtatious look, slowly approaching Dusk.
"What? I-I don’t understand." Dusk said, blushing slightly when he saw Pinkie Pie with that mischievous look.
"What I mean is, that the colts react very easily to the touch of a mare." Pinkie said, stopping and slowly touching her own neck with one of her hooves. "Tell me, would you like me to touch you... somewhere special?"
"Huh!?" Dusk said as he blushed heavily.
"Although the colts are also very visual, unlike the mares, sometimes it’s enough to see a mare in a certain position to get them…. excited." Pinkie Pie said continuing her slow and provocative walk, already in front of Dusk. "Is there a pose you would like to look?"
"W-What are you talking about?" Dusk said totally blushed and nervous.
"We mares are more emotionally expressive, the colts can even get excited with just the smell or sound of a mare." Continued Pinkie Pie, walking around Dusk while he was still sitting, motionless, with his face completely red while involuntarily smelled the soft and sweet aroma that emanated the mane of Pinkie Pie as it passed by him, and her soft voice, which in that precise moment, made it seemed sexier than usual.
While Dusk was lost in his thoughts, fighting against his crazy fantasies due to Pinkie Pie's speech. She approached Dusk from behind and without warning, she softly blew one of his ears.
"Waaah!" Dusk screamed with a start, jumping and falling to the floor while touching the ear that Pinkie Pie had blown and trying in vain to calm down so that his face would stop blushing due to the mixture of nerves and excitement.
"What happened?" Pinkie Pie asked innocently, with her usual smile.
"Y-You... you were... you were going to..." Dusk said blushing to the ears, trying to think of something, although the truth was that Pinkie Pie had not even touched him.
"I just went up to you and told you how colts like different types of mares, what did you think, did you think I would go and touch you, or what would make a sexy pose in front of you? Wow, what an imagination you have!" Pinkie Pie said mocking Dusk while the colt began to blush no more. "But now, I guess that proves my point, you definitely are attracted to mares, only stallions have that perverted imagination." Pinkie Pie added with a smile, gently tapping Dusk's forehead.
After Pinkie's words, Dusk just closed his mouth loudly and let out a small snort of embarrassment, for he knew perfectly well that Pinkie Pie had provoked him, but he couldn’t say it out loud since she was right, she didn’t. He was teased the entire time. All of that caused Dusk to feel embarrassed, but also a little relieved, as it seemed that Pinkie had only been making fun of him and she never truly believed that he was an effeminate pony, despite his purple fur; Even though the latter was only in Dusk's mind and Pinkie never said it.
"Dusk always blushes like this in these situations... He definitely feels something, but... maybe he doesn’t want to, or worse, he can’t admit it..." Pinkie Pie thought, putting a doubt face on her face. "Maybe... I should be more direct."
"Is something wrong?" Dusk asked, curious to see what Pinkie was thinking about.
"I just thought that maybe I should bet everything in a whole or nothing..." Pinkie Pie said looking at the ceiling while maintaining that pensive look, while Dusk looked at her with a doubtful face, without understanding what his friend was referring to.
"Do you like to bet?" Dusk asked curiously for the bad habit that his friend could have.
"No, because I always win." Pinkie Pie answered with a smile. "Anyway, how about we continue with your investigation?" Pinkie Pie added suddenly changing the subject.
"My what? Oh, yes! My investigation." Dusk said, remembering the real reason why both were in the basement of the library. Returning quickly to his professor mode and getting excited to have his lab coat on again.
After that, Dusk ordered the basement a bit to make more space and accommodated some rare instruments to start with his study of pinkie sense, happy to finally be able to release some of those little valued scientific instruments.
"I'll show the princess that this was worth it." Dusk thought with a smile as he remembered how Princess Celestia had told him how unnecessary those machines were. "I'll show you that science will one day rival magic in utility for ponies."
"First I’ll use this.” Dusk said, dragging a large machine that was throwing rolls of paper with a zigzag line drawn on it. This machine was tied by a cable to a strange helmet in the form of a strainer, with several lights on it, which Dusk tied over Pinkie Pie's head.
"What is this?" Pinkie Pie said with her eyes wide open with curiosity, laughing a little at the strange device above her head.
"This is a polygraph, it measures the variation of pulse, breathing, and other nervous stimuli in you.” Dusk said proudly. "This will measure your response when those supposed predictions of your pinkie sense occur to you, and they will tell me if something supernatural happens to your body or not."
"Ooooooh... Oki-Doki." Pinkie Pie answered with a big smile.
Time goes by, as Dusk still looked at the polygraph from time to time, and Pinkie Pie who’s been standing like a statue for what felt hours, with a face that showed that she was trying to concentrate strongly.
"Come on, what are you waiting for? Take one of those attacks of yours." Dusk said, frustrated after seeing that nothing happened.
"I don’t know how to do it, I told you, they just come and go." Pinkie Pie answered with a shrug.
"Ugh, it's okay, let's try another device, no, wait! It won’t work because it won’t do anything if you don’t have one of your capricious pinkie senses!" Dusk said, annoyed.
Dusk's frustration grew rapidly as at first he was thrilled to finally occupy all the equipment to go use, so for a second Dusk had really wanted to find something extraordinary about his friends “pinkie sense”, something to be able to investigate, whatever it was! But the only thing that Dusk was beginning to think was that he was making a fool of himself and that his teacher was right, and in fact Dusk could already imagine the mocking face of his teacher laughing while telling him how useless science was in a world of magic, and how absurd it was to have bought those crazy scientific devices.
"Every week, I send letters telling the princess about my friends and our adventures, just stories, nothing that deserves to be called a real study, and when I finally think I can do a real investigation, it doesn’t work!" Dusk thought. Annoyed with himself, remembering how his letters to the princess explaining his advances in the magic of friendship had gone from quasi-scientific explanations to mere accounts of his misadventures. Something that the princess congratulated him for, but still feeling unsatisfied with himself, like the good scientific pony he was.
"Maybe we can wait a bit longer to see if something happens." Pinkie Pie said, a little surprised to notice Dusk's sudden frustration.
"I don’t plan to be here all day waiting for something that may never happen.” Dusk answered, annoyed.
Then the ears of both ponies rose when they heard footsteps on the floor above them, then, hearing some voices, which was unfortunately difficult to distinguish from the basement.
"Maybe it's Applejack and Rarity, perhaps they’ve already arrived." Pinkie Pie said with a smile.
"That's all I needed!” Dusk muttered, thinking aloud without meaning to, even with a look of annoyance, but this time mixed with worry.
Again, Dusk closed an eye for a fleeting migraine.
"I'll go see." Pinkie Pie said approaching the stairs.
"I don’t want you to go, I want you to stay here so we can once and for all solve the very thing we came here for!" Dusk said seriously, touching his head because of his headache.
Pinkie Pie looked at Dusk for a few seconds, without any expression, but with a deep look, as if she was analyzing him from tail to head.
"Hey, I don’t even know how my pinkie sense works, sometimes you just have to believe in things, even if you can’t decipher them." Pinkie Pie said with a small, calm smile.
"You can’t expect me to believe that you have a strange magical sense that nopony else has, I’m not believing in anything that cannot be explained." Dusk replied, annoyed, irritated by the headache that seemed to only increase.
"What about love?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"Huh?" Dusk said, surprised. Setting aside his thoughts on the pinkie sense, his friends on the top floor and the teasing of his teacher, and by immediate coincidence, also ending his headache to stop thinking about everything that concerned him.
"Love can’t be seen, but if you can believe in it, maybe there’s no need for an explanation, right?" Pinkie Pie asked with a smile.
"I-I... I don’t know..." Dusk said, looking down a little confused while wondering if he was capable of answering that, since... Has he ever experienced true love? Maybe the answer would be...
"Or in friendship, you can’t see it either, but it exists without any sort of explanation." Pinkie Pie said, noticing the confused expression on Dusk's face and helping him understand.
"Hmm... Oh, yeah, I guess so." Dusk responded, much faster than before after immediately thinking about his beloved friends.
"Can I start with my research?" Pinkie Pie asked suddenly, as always smiling as she approached the blackboard.
"Your research?" Dusk repeated confused, a little dizzy by the sudden changes of the topic that his friend was talking about.
"Yes, remember, you said that you would do some tests on me, and I would do some on you. The research on if you like mares or not was just to bother you." Pinkie Pie said deleting the title she had written on the board as her research, and writing 'Investigation: Dusk's Disasters.'
"What does that mean?" Dusk asked, confused, pointing to what Pinkie Pie had just written.
"It's what it says there." Pinkie Pie said removing the strange helmet that Dusk had put on her head, and holding a rope, putting a big and slightly disturbing smile. "Now it's my turn to do some tests."
What followed was really strange, because not even Dusk could understand how he agreed to what was happening. Now Dusk was sitting in a chair, his four hooves tied to the chair, while Pinkie Pie was staring at him with a big smile.
"W-What do you plan to do? What experiment involves me being tied up?" Asked Dusk worried while Pinkie Pie put a hoof in her mane and took out an object.
As soon as Dusk saw what Pinkie pulled out of her mane, he began to have cold sweats with a worried face as he moved his hooves trying to break free.
"Nothing good, fufufu..." Pinkie Pie laughed sinisterly, lifting the object she had pulled out of her mane and swiftly stabbing Dusk in the ribs.
"HAHAHA! NO! STOP! Hahaha!" Dusk started laughing without control after Pinkie 'stabbed' him with the object she had brought. A feather, with which she began to tickle Dusk everywhere.
Pinkie Pie began to tickle Dusk with a feather, then with two, and so she continued stroking the feathers on various parts of his body, trying to locate the ‘break points’ and get more laughter out of him, all while the unicorn lavender couldn’t stop laughing, since he was extremely ticklish
"Stop! Hahaha! P-pleas stop! Hahaha! T-This is not- haha! It has nothing to do with your experiment! Hahaha!" Dusk managed to say with laughter, trying to get Pinkie Pie to stop.
Then Pinkie Pie stopped and looked at the blackboard.
"Oh, you're right, I was wrong." Pinkie Pie said approaching the board and changing some letters. "There we go."
Then Dusk read the board again, where Pinkie Pie changed some letters, seeing the title now called 'Investigation: Dusk's de-stress.'
"De-stress? Do you think I'm stressed?" Dusk asked, surprised.
"I think so." Pinkie Pie said with a shrug. "Yesterday you couldn’t sleep, you had to use a spell that is only used in extreme cases of stress, today you’ve been having several headaches, and you seem to get irritated very easily." Pinkie Pie added with a smile, this time she was the one who put on the glasses and spoke in 'teacher mode.'
Dusk looked at Pinkie Pie in surprise and then lowered his head with a look of concern because what Pinkie Pie was saying was correct, it seemed that all those worries that he’s been having made him stress to the point that his friend had noticed.
"I'm not sure what the cause is." Pinkie Pie added, raising the feather again and looking at Dusk with a wicked smile. "But more importantly, I want to solve the problem, and you already know what the best medicine is."
Then Pinkie Pie launched another attack and began to tickle Dusk again. Laughter again exploded in the basement while Dusk seemed to laugh even more eagerly after Pinkie explained the true meaning of her actions. Although the tickle didn’t let him concentrate completely, though there was something that Dusk was clear on, and that he really appreciated having a friend like Pinkie Pie to help him even against his will, and to notice things that he didn’t even notice in himself.
While Pinkie Pie continued with her tickling session, for a second Dusk's gaze met his friend's, and the colt blushed when he saw that not only he was laughing, but also Pinkie Pie, both playing and enjoying each other as if they a foal and a filly playing together, without any worries. It was at that moment that Dusk remembered his conversation with Pinkie that morning, and how she lay next to him because she treated him the same way she treated her other friends.
"If Spike was doing this to me, what would I do?" Dusk thought as a sinister smile formed on his face.
With a 'Puff' Dusk used his teleportation to get out of the chair and appear behind Pinkie Pie. Then Dusk's horn shone, and five magical feathers appeared in front of him, while Dusk smiled vengefully and Pinkie Pie just watched with a nervous smile, knowing what was coming.
Both ponies attacked each other, both using their feathers to tickle each other, jumping and hovering over each other as they moved their feathers and made the other laugh as much as they can.
"Haha... Okay... Enough... hehe..." Dusk finally said as his ribs could no longer endure the pain of laughing so much. Falling on his belly while Pinkie Pie fell on Dusk in the same way.
"Heh... hehe... So, you give up?" Pinkie Pie said with a huge smile, also having trouble breathing because of her laughter.
"Yes, I give up.” Dusk said smiling, feeling the warm body of his friend on his back, but without seeing her face, because both were positioned across one another with Pinkie being on top of Dusk. Then Dusk put on a calmer smile and closed his eyes. "Thanks, I guess I needed that, by the way, what you did is still not an investigation, since you have to discover something after the experiment, but you already knew what I needed even before you did it."
"That isn’t true, I discovered something." Pinkie Pie said, moving a little, so her head was on Dusk's, and then she bit him gently on her left ear. "I discovered your weak point."
As soon as Pinkie Pie bit Dusk's ear, the colt fell asleep, as if all his muscles had stopped him from paying attention, leaving him in a state of complete relaxation.
"Hehe." Pinkie Pie laughed sweetly, blushing to see Dusk finally with a natural and relaxed smile on his face.
As if someone had ordered them, both ponies got up at the same time and sat on the floor, as if they both understood that this was the right time for both of them to be on top of each other without another more intimate desire surfacing, but still thus they both remained seated supporting their backs with the other, without seeing the others face but still feeling the comforting heat of the other on their fur.
"You're amazing, it seems like you always know what I need even if I don’t know it myself.” Dusk said, looking towards the wall, laughing while blushing a little for what he said.
"It's because we make a good couple, you know, like peas and carrots." Pinkie Pie responded with the same smile and the same blush as Dusk.
"Hehe, you got that right” Dusk said with a smile.
"Got that right..." Pinkie Pie repeated in her mind before closing her eyes and sighing slowly.
"Dusk."
"Yes?"
"Do you want to be my coltfriend?"
# End of chapter 35