At a table outside a cafe in Ponyville, Maud Pie sipped her tea while her sister Pinkie continued to ramble on about the latest party she’d thrown. She went into detail about all the different decorations and types of snacks she’d made, and so on.
“Ah, you should have been there!” Pinkie squealed. “Maud, it was just the most fun ever!”
“I’m glad you had fun,” Maud said, her voice even and calm as always. “I was exploring some more of the caverns near my home when I found a vein of cobalt. It was pretty intense.”
“Cobalt, that’s… the blue one right?”
Maud gave a half-smile. “Right,” she said. “It’s a really uncommon mineral. I’d like to study it, maybe sell some samples so I can buy a new pickaxe. Mine is getting kind of beat up.”
“Orrrr, you could wait a little longer until your birthday,” Pinkie said slyly. “Who knows… maybe somepony - possibly a Best Sister Friend Forever - already picked out one as a present.”
Maud blinked. “So, you bought me one alrea—”
“Ah ah ah!” Pinkie said, shaking her head as she shut her eyes and covered her ears. “I didn’t hear that! You’ll just have to wait for your birthday to be surprised!”
Maud blinked. “Okay then,” she said evenly. “I’ll wait.” She took another sip of her tea. “So, you said you had something else you wanted to talk to me about?”
Pinkie nodded eagerly. She brought out a small vial (seemingly from nowhere) and set it on the table.
Maud peered at it closely.
“Wanna know what this is?” Pinkie asked.
Maud glanced up at her. “It’s a vial.”
“Right, right, but the surprise is what’s inside the vial!”
Maud looked back at the vial. She pulled out the stopper and took a sniff. There was some vague scent of herbs and a strange, burning aroma she couldn’t quite place.
“Is this a potion?” she asked.
“Ding ding ding!” Pinkie exclaimed, clapping her hooves together. “Zecora whipped it up for me! But actually, not for me; it’s for you!”
Maud raised an eyebrow but kept her usual deadpan expression.
“See, I can read you like an open cookbook, Maud,” Pinkie explained, “but this potion will make it so everypony else can too!”
“What?” Maud asked.
“Well, it’s just that I know it bothers you that some ponies don’t exactly get you,” Pinkie said. “So, I talked to Zecora, compared some notes with Twilight, did a bunch of talking about magical theory and psychology and stuff that I totally did not sleep through... and then she came up with this potion that will let you express yourself just like everypony else!”
Maud’s eyes widened slightly. “So I’d be a little more…” She paused, considering the word. “Expressive?”
“Right!” Pinkie said. “So, what do you think? Wouldn’t that be great?!”
As Maud stared intently at the bottle, Pinkie’s smile slowly vanished. She recognized that intense stare, gauging her sister’s subtle body language. Though she gave no outward hint of her mental state, Pinkie could tell that her heart was racing, her mind in a tumult of thoughts and emotions.
“Are you okay, Maud?” Pinkie asked hesitantly. “I thought this would make you happy, but if I was wrong…”
Maud shut her eyes. “I need to think about this,” she said, picking up the potion and pocketing it. “Do you mind if I get back to you about it?”
“S-sure,” Pinkie said uneasily. “Maud, I didn’t mean to upset you—”
“I’m not,” Maud said, and indeed, from her outward appearance, she seemed perfectly calm.
But Pinkie, and few besides her, could guess what lay beneath her stoic expression.
Maud pushed her seat back and got up. “I need to think about this,” she repeated. “Can I talk to you later?”
Pinkie nodded, then watched as Maud walked away.
I could be… normal.
That one thought had stuck in her brain ever since Pinkie had explained what the potion was. But as she lay on her back, looking up at the ceiling of her personal cavern as she listened to the calm gurgling of the underground stream nearby, she found herself unable to think about anything else.
I’d be able to laugh at Pinkie’s jokes, she thought. I find them funny, and she knows that, but it’s all I can do to give her a tiny smile, and I know that’s not what she really wants.
She thought back to all the times she’d met somepony and, despite saying exactly what she thought, they’d looked at her like some kind of alien creature. She remembered all the things they’d said...
Uh, are you joking, miss?
Oh, I guess you don’t like it… wait, you do? Well, you don’t act like it.
There’s no need to be snobby about it! If you’re going to talk to me like that, then just get out of here!
Fine, be that way, sourpuss. You could have just said you don’t want to dance, you didn’t have to be so sarcastic...
She sighed. "But I really did want to dance..."
She rolled over and looked at the row of pictures she’d placed on a shelf she’d carved out of the rock wall. She looked at the familiar faces looking back at her: Pinkie, Starlight, Trixie, and Mud Briar.
Would Starlight still be friends with me if I wasn’t “weird?” Would she still get me if I just made all the right faces?
Would Trixie mind it if I actually let her know how annoying I think her boasting is? Wait, would Pinkie be upset if I told her off for being so pushy?
...Would… would Mud Briar still want to be with me if I was a little more… “normal?” Maybe I could get a potion for him, and then he’d be… he’d be…
Maud sat up. “He’d be less like himself,” she said aloud. But would he be happier that way? Would we be happy with the ponies we became?
She glanced over at the potion Pinkie had given her. It stood there, glowing blue as it sat in its vial on a flat stone she’d used as a nightstand.
“Normal,” she whispered, her face deadpan, but her mind swirling with the possibilities of what could be, and what, once taken out, could never be put back.
She held up the potion, pulled out the stopper, taking another long smell of the tantalizing aroma, even teasingly drag the rim of the vial across her lips.
She shut her eyes and made her choice.
“Well, unlike last time,” Starlight said as she made her way through the tunnel that led to Maud’s cavern, “I’m glad I was able to help bake the cake this time!”
“It was much easier when Trixie didn’t have to do all the work,” Trixie added, smirking when Starlight shot her a look.
“I just know that Maud is going to love her presents!” Pinkie exclaimed as she bounced in a circle around her friends (and Mud Briar).
“Technically, you don’t know that she will love them,” Mud Briar said. “You only have a probable guess that she will.”
“Riiiight,” Pinkie said, forcing herself to smile. “Anyway, we’re here!”
The group arrived at the entrance to Maud’s cavern. Standing before them was Maud, her head lowered as she scooped her pet rock Bolder into her pocket.
Pinkie’s breath caught in her throat as Maud raised her head.
“I’m glad you’re all here,” Maud said flatly, her expression as stoic as usual.
Pinkie stared back at her.
“I’ve got a spot for the cake,” Maud said, walking over to Mud Briar, planting a quick peck on his cheek. “I also put out some plates I made from marble. Sorry if they’re a little heavy.”
As the others went to set up for the party and to lay out their presents, Pinkie tapped Maud on the shoulder.
“Psst, Maud!” she hissed. “Listen, I’m sorry for surprising you with that potion the other day. I should have thought about it a little harder… but I guess it doesn’t matter since you didn’t take it anyway.”
Maud froze and turned back to Pinkie. She smirked. “How do you know that I didn’t?” she asked.
Pinkie looked on, wide-eyed, as Maud walked away to join the party.