Pinkie Pie is laying on her bed. Draped on her back across that sleepy space, on top of that famous checkered balloon blanket. Looking up at the surroundings in front of her; the surroundings of her bedroom.
Is it bedtime?
...Uh, actually, no, believe it or not. As Pinkie lays nearly motionless on the soft mattresses and blankets, the room is coated in blue-sky afternoon light. So, what gives?
What gives is that a rare event has decided to make an appearance today. The event of Pinkie Pie being bored.
"Pinkie Pie being bored?" Those words don't even seem to go together!
Since when does this ever happen? I always have something to do! I have throughout my whole life! I can't remember what was the last day to have an empty spot! Why does today have one?
Pinkie Pie did try to bake up a new activity, but no matter how far she turned up the heat, success did not come. All of her primary Pinkie activities did not have availability right now. Baking; nope. Sugarcube Corner was having a quiet day, and the Cakes were getting along with it just fine by themselves. Babysitting; nope. The twins are asleep.
The Cakes told Pinkie "Looks like you get a day off today!", and Pinkie liked the sound of that at first. But... look how it turned out! The number of non-work activities Pinkie found to do in this bakery displayed a big "0".
What about something beyond the boundaries of Sugarcube Corner, then? The Pinkie special of making other ponies happy, with a fruit-smoothie case-by-case blend of Pinkie techniques? Well, she tried for that. She did go hopping around town earlier in search for frowny faces in need of being turned upside down. But she found none. The entirety of Ponyville was having a happy day, it seemed.
How ironic is this? Ponyville having a happy day renders the happiness pony's services useless!
What about one of her side hobbies? Music, maybe? Well, that one had an unlucky alignment with regards to the position of Pinkie's mood today. She'd rather not play music alone; a solo activity she knew was not in the cards. And a Ponyville song-break was nowhere in sight. Not the greatest idea to wait for external factors to hand you out something, but Pinkie's brain disagreed.
Ugh! There's nothing to do!
Pinkie flops herself back to her original position, laying backside on her bed in frustration, after having sat up for a while during brainstorming of potential activities.
But after taking a deep breath, she is successful at getting that outburst where it needed to go. Flushing out the fire and regaining her normal-temperature thinking, Pinkie decides to not give up yet.
Okay, so every "present-day" activity is out of the cards. So how about something she hasn't done in a while?
What could that be?
Well, I could go prank Rainbow Dash! I haven't done that in a while! I could go to the lake! I could go to a dance club! I could visit my family!
!
That last one, my mates. As soon as that #4 idea finds itself in Pinkie's head, suddenly the cloud hovering over this day appears to have been blown away at Wonderbolt speed.
Yes! I must go see my family! Goodness, why haven't I been back there in so long? They have to be missing me!
Pinkie dashes downstairs to inform the Cakes, who graciously accept, noting the time frame and the fact that they have bakery operations under control right now. With nothing obstructing the way, Pinkie sets out for Rockville, in a time period of less than five minutes since she first got the idea.
Pinkie does absolutely wield enough power and enough energy to hoof-bounce herself to her family's home, but she decides on taking the train, thinking it would get her to her destination faster.
Little did she know today would be the first day in over a year that she'd return to her old home, but on her way to the train station, Pinkie can feel today becoming one of the most special in this modern era.
Pinkie is so darn ready to see her family again that she couldn't keep her body still at the train station. She also lacked the ability to resist announcing to the ponies around her what she was about to do, especially after they had been asking questions about why she was hopping around so much.
When the train to Rockville finally arrives, Pinkie kicks back at a solo seat and, through Rockville being a ways away, receives a good deal of time to think about how this trip would go. She, in her mind, jotted down plans for specific games to play with her sisters, life topics to bring up with her dad, chowing on an old family dinner she used to eat, etc.
Yep, today should be perfect.
Pinkie, with her smiling face having been active the whole time she was on the train, finally has the Rockville station in her sights. Here it is; her cue to step off.
Eee! Here comes the best day ever!
For as much as the culture in Rockville considered it stare-able, Pinkie had no care about hopping her way off the train. For her, the joy of seeing her family was immune to social awkwardness.
Pinkie's family home is one of the closest Rockville homes to the train station, if not the closest, so she can bounce over there in about two minutes.
The interesting thing is, Pinkie never informed her sisters and parents that she would be visiting today. There was no time for it; sending a letter would take far too long for Pinkie's ready mood.
So they're getting a surprise!
The surprise comes to them as her beloved childhood home appears closer and closer in her sights, and vice versa for a sister who is currently in the front yard.
Limestone, while sorting out piles of rocks based on color, becomes the first to notice Pinkie. She moves her head up to the distance in front, and upon seeing that hopping pack of pink and immediately recognizing the living treasure whom it was, Limestone breaks out into an uncharacteristic giggly attitude. That's what seeing your long-gone sister will do!
"Pinkie?! Is that you?!"
"It is me! The one and only Pinkie Pie, your dear sister who is finally back here!", Pinkie says, jumping out at Limestone and giving her a big hug. Limestone isn't a hugger, but a moment like this creates an exception. She reciprocates the greeting.
To add to the loveliness, right during the embrace, Marble shows up to join it.
"We have been waiting for you!", she says, gripping into the sister-love moment and making it a three-way group hug.
"I love you girls!", Pinkie says.
That statement only increases the tightness of the hug.
Inside the house, Cloudy and Igneous, the parents, who had no notice of what was going on at first, took a periodic look out the window to check on how Limestone and Marble were doing with the rock work. But rock work, they did not see. Rather, they were gifted with the most beautiful sight.
Cloudy and Igneous let out a gasp and sprint over to the front door.
"Pinkie?! You came to visit?!", Cloudy says loudly.
"I thought I'd never see the day!", Igneous exclaims.
"I did come to visit! The day has come, mom and dad!", Pinkie says. She goes up to her beloved parents and hugs them too, rather tightly.
"A visit from Pinkie is our rare sunbeam that finally got a chance to come out.", Limestone says.
"Yes! Absolutely!", Marble exclaims.
Not too much later, Maud joins the party. Despite being far away in her Rockville home when this sunny event began, here she was.
"My Maud sense always lets me know when Pinkie Pie is back in town.", she says.
"You can always count on the Pie sense!", Pinkie says, trotting up to Maud and continuing the hug routine.
Inside her old house, Pinkie explains that her visit came about because she had been hit with boredom and wanted to try filling the space with an activity she hadn't done in a while. What could be the better option for that than going to see her family again?
"Well, we are so honored, Pinkie.", Cloudy says.
"If there's a best thing to get surprised by, it's a visit from your precious daughter!", Igneous says, rubbing Pinkie on the head.
The sisters then chime in.
"So, what are you going to do while you're here?", Marble asks.
Thanks to the travel time, Pinkie needs no delay in answering that question.
"I already know the entire schedule, and the first thing I say we do is bring back an old game!", Pinkie exclaims. "Let's play Pinkie Says!"
The other sisters agree and they head back out into the front yard. Memories, here we come.
So here they are, having sister time in a session of the classic known as Pinkie Says.
"Pinkie says... jump all at the same time!"
On such a short notice, Maud and Marble were able to carry out the task, but Pinkie did not fail to catch that Limestone was late.
"You were late! You didn't jump all at the same time", Pinkie says to Limestone.
Limestone only smiles.
"Pinkie says... give each other hoof-bumps!"
Maud, on the left, performs a hoof-bump with Limestone in the middle, who then gives one to Marble on the right.
"Good! You all accomplished that one, perfectly!", Pinkie exclaims.
"Pinkie says... break into 10 pieces!" She demonstrates this action herself.
Breaking herself into pieces was a comedic act that Maud, being the pony she is, found rather embarrassing to do. But today was sister day. It had been far too long since she had seen Pinkie; this was the day for her to let her inner silliness go. Maud takes the plunge and snaps herself into exactly 10 pieces, per her sister's challenge.
Limestone and Marble, though... not a single broken-up piece to be found. They remain standing with their bodies in full form.
"We can't do that.", Marble says in response to the challenge.
"Right. You and I... we can't. I'm trying right now. It won't happen.", Limestone responds.
Pinkie's mouth hangs open, and both of Maud's eyelids refuse to make herself look normal. The two mares come to the notice that today may have brought them a shocking family discovery. Sure, they had never directly seen Limestone and Marble do these kinds of things, but they always assumed that they must have the abilities, since it's supposed to stretch across all the branches of the family tree.
Pinkie goes for a double-check on this with Limestone and Marble. "But we can!", she says, performing the action again. "So, why can't you?"
"I don't know. We just can't.", Marble says. "No idea why you two can."
"Huh. That's odd.", Pinkie says, highly confused. "I thought it was a Pie family specialty to do these weird things!"
"Me too. Just like she has Pinkie sense, I have Maud sense.", Maud responds. "You two don't have Limestone sense and Marble sense?"
"No. I've never had my tail randomly twitch or my ears suddenly flop, much less have those things tell me something is about to fall or you're about to need a bath.", Limestone says.
"Neither have I.", Marble adds.
Pinkie and Maud look at each other in silent but understandable communication. Something's not right here. If it is true that these powers run in the Pie family, which they appear to, then why can only two out of the four sisters perform them?
"I could have sworn I said this runs in the family!", Pinkie says.
"You did, and it should.", Maud responds. "I have it too, so that's the only explanation. But know we need explanation on why only we can do them, and not these girls."
"Our parents would probably be a good source.", Marble suggests.
"Oh yeah!", Pinkie says, loving her sister's idea. "Let's go in there!"
All four of them retreat to the family house, where an impromptu meeting with their parents comes along.
"Mom and Dad, we just found out something really weird while playing Pinkie Says. So I challenged the girls to break up their bodies into pieces, like this, and while Maud and I were able to do it, Limestone and Marble apparently can't. They said they don't have the ability. But I thought this was a Pie family thing; why would it only get to two of us?"
Cloudy and Igneous' eyes instantly shoot wide, wide open at the asking of this question. Even blinking could be tough. This was the question they had been desperately trying to swat away like a fly since the beginning of Pinkie and Maud's lives, and had successfully done so... until this fateful moment.
All throughout their lives, Pinkie and Maud have never dedicated more than a tiny bit of thought as to why they can do things like break into pieces, or twist their necks around, or know when something is falling based on a tail twitch. They just did them. Never bothered to try and go on a hunt for the source. And it hadn't been until today that the inability of Limestone and Marble to do them would put itself on display.
But today... things just so happened to align in a way where their daughters are asking this terrifying question.
Desperate to continue the swatting-away pattern, Cloudy and Igneous go into whispering mode and try to come up with a way of getting around this. But to no avail at all. Every possible method, no matter how good at surface level, always showed a gaping hole. Cloudy and Igneous have no choice but to cross off the entirety of all they could think of.
Welp. Today was it. It had to be the day they would break this news. The news that would almost certainly ruin today's planned fun family schedule and change Pinkie and Maud's outlook on their lives forever.
Comprehending the magnitude of this, they try to avoid it again, but still to no avail.
"What's the matter, Mom and Dad? Why the frowny faces?", Pinkie Pie asks.
Looks like the time has now come. The clock hands took over 20 years to reach this point, but now is when they have finished their journey. Cloudy Quartz takes a deep breath, slow inhale and exhale, and begins to roll out what will become the staple of this fateful day.
"All four of you, but Pinkie and Maud especially, we have to tell you something. It's something that separates you two, Pinkie and Maud, from Limestone and Marble, and that we've been regretfully hiding from you your whole lives."
News that separates two sisters from the other two, and it's been swept under the rug their whole lives? Goodness, what kind of news was this?
"Say it.", Pinkie requests. "There's no use turning back now."
Both Cloudy and Igneous sigh. She's right; the time is now. They had already traveled too far down the road with the statement about separation. Their daughters were ready to hear it. No matter how hard it is, they're going to have to push the words out of their mouths.
After a spell of silence that did not include any talk of this decision, Igneous becomes the one to break the giant ice.
"Pinkie and Maud, you..."
He had to say it.
"...you are not our biological children."
...
The viewpoint goes to a mode where the background would be burning red and feature a sea of gasping faces plus screams, which, the latter, it already does.
"What?!", all four Pie sisters exclaim simultaneously and loudly.