“Stop following me,” Tempest Shadow grumbled irritably, Pinkie doing her absolute best not to giggle in response.
“I’m not following you,” Pinkie said as she bounced down the streets of Canterlot’s Sun District alongside Tempest. “We’re just going in the same direction, that’s all.”
“Hm,” Tempest growled, her eyes flickering toward Pinkie just for half a sec to give her a cold glare, but Pinkie just smiled and waved back.
Tempest Shadow wasn’t nearly as scary as Pinkie first thought she was, once Pinkie realized that Tempest’s whole tough girl shtick was just an act. There’s a big difference between acting tough and being tough, and Pinkie could see through the former like a pane of untouched glass.
“I’m going to visit my mom,” Pinkie giggled; thinking about her family always made her so happy. “She’s here for the Grand Galloping Gala, you know! It’s her first time! She was invited by like this super rich lady that she’s dating. I dunno anything about her, cuz my mom said she wanted to introduce me in person, but I bet she’s super-duper nice and cool if my mom likes her! What are you doing?”
Tempest was silent. If she had listened to Pinkie’s rambles, or even heard them, she didn’t show it.
Which was reason enough for Pinkie to just keep talking, she supposed.
“So,” Pinkie said casually, resting her hands behind her head as she kept walkin’, “how come you’re jealous of Rarity?”
“I am not jealous!” Tempest snapped, turning on her hooves to snarl at Pinkie, who just puffed up her cheeks, completely unfazed.
“Is that right?” Pinkie hummed, continuing to walk. “Could’ve fooled me.”
Pinkie briefly wondered if perhaps it wasn’t a great idea to antagonize this woman; one of Celestia’s personal students, a professional Slayer, and also just physically large enough to probably pick Pinkie up off the ground and rip her in half with her bare hands.
But then again, Pinkie had faced off against a dragon and lived. She fought a dragon one on one for stars’ sake!
She had nothing to be afraid of anymore.
“It’s okay to be jealous, y’know,” Pinkie said, looking back to make sure that she and Tempest were indeed still headed in the same direction. “And if you are jealous, but you try to act like you’re not, you’re just gonna end up being angry all the time and never know why.”
“I’m not jealous,” Tempest said, and it almost looked like she was pouting the way she clenched her fists and looked all sullen at the ground. “I just— I wish that Queen Celestia would give me the kind of praise that she’s so often giving to Rarity instead.”
That sounds pretty much exactly like jealousy to me actually.
That’s what Pinkie was thinking, but she wasn’t gonna say that. She wasn’t gonna reward Tempest opening up and being honest to her with pedantry.
“I think I know how you feel,” Pinkie nodded sagely. “And it’s a tough nut to crack, when you care about someone so much, and you see them expressing their feelings for someone else. It’s tough!”
“Is it,” Tempest scoffed, and Pinkie arched an eyebrow cuz she was a little taken aback by that kinda flippant response to Pinkie’s sincerity; the exact thing Pinkie was trying not to do!
“Yeah, it is,” Pinkie said dryly, giving Tempest a real ‘why are you acting this way’ kinda look.
“Oh, I apologize,” Tempest cleared her throat and looked away bashfully from Pinkie, which actually made her look kinda cute? “I didn’t mean to be rude. I appreciate your sentiment.”
“Oh! Well, uhm, thank you!” Pinkie giggled, feeling quite bashful herself. No matter how much it happened, she’d never quite get used to being complimented by hot girls. “I appreciate your apology!”
Tempest nodded. Just nodded, she didn’t say anything else. That was no good, Pinkie really wanted to keep this conversation going now! It was starting to get interesting!
“It’s tough cuz like—”
Pinkie bit her lip and paused to give herself a sec to think about what to say, but she decided to just let her feelings bubble up from her heart and outta her mouth without giving her brain a chance to think better of it.
“You wanna be happy for ‘em,” Pinkie said, looking down at her own hooves and kicking away at the marble pavement. “You wanna be happy for the folks you care about when they’re happy, but sometimes it’s hard not to feel like the people you’re jealous of are ‘taking’ something from you, even though they’re super not.
“You’re not entitled to anyone’s feelings, y’know? But knowing that doesn’t always make you feel better either… y’know?” Pinkie was hoping by adding a question at the end, it’d prompt Tempest into continuing the conversation.
“I do.”
Well it… kinda worked.
“It’s like…” Pinkie stopped in her tracks, crossed her arms and really pondered for a sec. “If love is like a bottle of love juice, then viewing relationships in this like zero sum game kinda way, where there’s only so much love to go around and you have to compete for it, that doesn’t mean the other person is taking your juice, you’re just taking your own juice and pouring it all over the ground.”
“What if your bottle is just empty in the first place though…” Tempest sighed, and Pinkie turned to look at her. She could tell by the way Tempest’s cold eyes looked lost in thought that she wasn’t just trying to bait for sympathy or anything, she just let that honest thought slip out of her mouth. And there was only one thing to do about that.
“So!” Pinkie loudly cleared her throat to get Tempest’s attention. “This is my bottle-” Pinkie held her left hand around an invisible bottle “-and this is your bottle-” Pinkie held her right hand around another invisible bottle, and then poured some of the contents of the left hand bottle into the right hand bottle, and smiled sincerely at Tempest.
Tempest didn’t say anything, but she did smile awkwardly and rub the back of her neck, her cheeks being tinted a faint pink.
“Thanks.”
Oh wait she did say something!
Pinkie flashed a big huge bright smile, and it made Tempest’s smile grow just an inch, but that was enough.
The rest of the way to the inn where Pinkie’s mom was staying at was totally quiet; Tempest had opened up quite a bit to Pinkie, and she wanted to respect that by not burying Tempest in Pinkie’s rambling—and HOO BOY WAS IT HARD!!! Pinkie just wanted to talk and talk all day long, especially once she started to figure that Tempest was actually pretty nice! And hot. She was big and buff and unf.
“So, hey, this is my stop,” Pinkie mumbled, kicking at the ground as she stood in front of the lavish inn. “Do you wanna come in? My mom makes really good tea! And coffee! You should have some!”
“Uhm, another time perhaps,” Tempest said softly, rubbing her forearm. “I appreciate the gesture, but I do have important work to attend to.”
“That’s fair,” Pinkie said, trying not to sound, or be, too disappointed. “See you around?”
“Maybe at the Gala,” Tempest said. “You mentioned your mom was going to be there, so I just assumed that you—”
“Yeah! I’ll totally be there!” Pinkie cheered, stars in her eyes. “I’ll see you there! It’s a date!”
“It’s a date,” Tempest said, turning to walk away with an ever so slight smile on her face. She only walked a few steps before turning to look back at Pinkie. “I’m looking forward to it.”
“Me too, Tempest,” Pinkie beamed, her tummy bubbling up like soda pop. “I can’t wait!”