The sun burned overhead as Pinkie walked through a forest of scarce trees. Leaves covered the ground and crunched under her hooves as she walked. Birds sang sad elegies as she passed, as if in mourning, and animals skittered out of sight. The whole forest seemed melancholy and grim around her.
Pinkie failed to notice any of this. Her head was low, her eyes glued to the ground, and the wind had long since blown her mane in front of her face, an impediment which she deigned to ignore. She had little interest in what lie ahead on her path. The ground was a much simpler sight, and her own mutterings were a far easier sound.
“Stupid Dashie,” she was murmuring under her breath. “Stupid… Applejack. And Twilight.” She huffed indignantly. “What’s the point of being friends with Princesses if they don’t even care about me when I’m gone?”
She’d been walking for several hours now, and had seen no trace of other ponies since leaving Ponyville. Of course, this was largely because she wasn’t using roads or pathways, instead just making a beeline in the general direction of Trotsylvania, but still it dug away at her. She was sure Twilight could find her, if she really wanted to. So, obviously, she didn’t.
“Of course they don’t care,” she went on. “I mean, I wouldn’t care about a pony like me. It’s not like I actually do anything. Sure, I pretend I’m making them happier, but they’re ponies. They’re probably only unhappy in the first place because I showed up.”
And so had it gone, a day of Pinkie wandering and muttering and spiraling, floating constantly on the edge between despair and anger. She tried to stay angry. It was easier. It hurt less. Try as she might, though, she couldn’t hold onto it. Not like she used to. Being angry at her friends had just gotten so much harder since then, and when it faltered she hated herself for having been angry at all. So, back into despair she slid.
For the moment though, as the sunlight seared into her neck and ears, she was managing to stay angry.
“I bet they’re having a party,” she said to herself. “Whatever kind of party they have whenever I go back to the farm. A ‘good riddance’ party. I bet they’re having a great time, playing pin the dumb tail on the dumb Pinkie. Wish I could be there. I’d love to—”
Pinkie let out a pained “oof” as she ran head first into a tree.
“Oww…” She sat on the ground and rubbed her sore head. “Who would put a tree there? Stupid nature, getting in my way. I just wanna see Fluttershy, why can’t I… Hmph.” She picked up a sizable rock and chucked it up into the branches. “How do you like it?”
“It cannot feel pain,” came a voice from nearby.
“Huh?” Pinkie shook her mane out of her eyes and looked around, although she didn’t bother to get up. Her eyes quickly settled on a strange sculpture to the side of the tree, a mass of branches and leaves bundled and twisted into the shape of a small pony. “Oh,” Pinkie said, “hey Bramble.”
“Hello, Pinkamena,” the wind whistled. “Are you alright?”
“Mm-hm.” Pinkie pushed herself to her hooves and started off on her way again, walking right past Bramble, who just watched as she passed.
After a few more trees, Bramble was standing in Pinkie’s path again. “You do not look alright.”
“Sorry,” Pinkie grumbled as she side-stepped around the mass of vines in her way.
“Is there anything you would like me to do?” They asked as she walked by.
“You can leave me alone.”
There was a gust of wind, and then silence. Pinkie walked for several minutes, and as she did her frown got deeper and deeper.
“I wasn’t… You didn’t…” Pinkie was hardly whispering, and kept cutting herself off as she muttered. Her voice got deeper with every sentence, though, and became more of a growl than a string of words. Soon she was just baring her teeth at the world, grumbling as thoughts raced through her mind.
It wasn’t long before it all boiled over, and it did so with sudden, explosive force. Pinkie let out a guttural scream and kicked fruitlessly at the plants coating the forest floor. All she accomplished was sending a few leaves into the air, which the wind quickly carried away to a safer home. She stared at them with burning eyes as they left, and just before they were out of sight she yelled “Good! Stay gone, then!”
“I do not think I should leave you alone,” Bramble said from behind Pinkie.
She wheeled around and stared daggers into the holes Bramble used to give the impression of eyes. “You’re so frustrating,” she yelled with an accusatory point. “I can’t even be mad at you! At least with Dashie I know she’s not sitting around listening to me be mad, but you are!”
“You can be angry with me if you wish,” Bramble told her. “My feelings will not be hurt.”
“Augh!” Pinkie growled. “That’s not the point! Every time I’m sad you just sit there and listen and don’t do anything because you don’t care. Nopony ever cares!”
“I do care,” Bramble said, “I simply do not know how to help. My attempts to do so in the past have only made things worse.”
“You don’t! You don’t have feelings, you can’t care.” Pinkie huffed and started walking away again. “You just pretend like all the others.”
“I have feelings,” Bramble said, “just not in the same way that you do. I do care, Pinkamena.”
“Hmph.” Pinkie ignored them and kept walking.
Bramble was back in front of her again before long. “Tell me what I can do, Pinkamena.”
“I told you,” Pinkie said, “you can leave me alone.”
“I do not think I should,” Bramble repeated.
“Then what do you want?”
“I wish to help you.”
“That’s not true,” Pinkie said. “You wouldn’t have shown up if you didn’t want something.”
“Ah, right.” Bramble waited for a moment, until they were in front of Pinkie again. “I came to give you an update on Fluttershy’s wellbeing.”
Pinkie stopped walking and looked at Bramble. “Huh?”
“She is settling in,” Bramble said, “though she misses you a great deal. She has instructed those in the castle to bring you to her.”
“Really?” Pinkie brightened up for just a moment, but then a realization hit her. “Wait, but… I’m not home.”
“I am aware.”
“They can’t find me if I’m not home,” Pinkie said. Her face sank. “Great. Now I’m just gonna worry Fluttershy on top of everything else. She doesn’t need that.”
“Is there anything I can do?”
“Just…” Pinkie sighed and started walking again. “Just leave me alone.”
“I could travel with you,” Bramble suggested.
“No you can’t,” Pinkie said. “You don’t ‘travel.’ You’re just there.”
There was a long pause.
“I think I will travel with you.”
They didn’t talk much after that, but Bramble made themselves a constant presence along Pinkie’s path. Their effigies seemed to appear wherever Pinkie wasn’t looking, so that they were already fully formed when she glanced over.
Pinkie didn’t try to talk to Bramble, but she did stop most of her muttering as she walked.