But…
BY: cleverpun
It had been three days since Twilight had found Pinkie’s journal. She had gone through a dozen sheets of parchment, making pro/con lists about why she should or shouldn’t tell everypony, and she still wasn’t sure… But one thing was certain; she had to confront Pinkie. The truth had already begun to eat at Twilight, she had no idea how Pinkie must feel. And that journal wasn’t dated, but Twilight’s birthday was a while ago… Pinkie had been living with this for so long, Twilight couldn’t let her suffer, not now that she knew, no matter how uncomfortable it might be.
As she stood there helping Pinkie bake cupcakes, however, it wasn’t so easy.
“Something wrong Twilight? You’re getting that spacey look again…”
“Oh, uhm, sorry.”
“C’mon Twilight, you said you wanted a cooking lesson, you’re not even paying attention! You may be good but you’re not that good haha!”
Pinkie juggled some eggs, and tossed them one at a time into a bowl on the counter. Somehow, they all hit the rim and broke neatly, the shells flying out of the bowl and the yolks settling at the bottom.
“Tada! Took me a while to get that one down, y’know. Not strictly necessary for baking cupcakes, but I like to think the more fun you have when you make them, the better they taste! You should be writing this down!”
Pinkie hopped over to the bowl and began to whisk said eggs. Twilight continued to stand there, crippled by indecision.
Come on Twilight, just tell her, just say it. Better to get it over with. Just say something, just blurt it out, just… do something. Do anything. Do something!
“Pinkie?”
“Yeah?”
“I know.”
“Know what?”
“I know about… the thing…”
Pinkie stopped whisking and checked her rear hooves.
“Nah, it’s okay, I didn’t step in anything today, thanks for letting me know though!” She went back to the whisk.
“No, Pinkie… I know about… what happened to you.”
“Twilight, there were a lot of ponies at that party, everyone saw me trip into the cake. It’s okay, it was pretty funny!” Pinkie let out a sharp giggle, and then continued whisking.
“No, Pinkie…”
Just spit it out already!
“Pinkie, I… I read your journal.”
“Which one?”
“The one where you confessed that you were a changeling.”
Pinkie froze for a few moments, and then continued whisking.
“So, you were snooping around my room?”
“I-I’m sorry, but I was looking for those streamers at Rarity’s party, and I just happened upon it… But Pinkie, this isn’t about me, this is about you; How could you not have told anypony about this!”
“It’s alright Twilight, I forgive you for being a nosy nelly, it’s really not a big deal.”
“Not a big deal! Pinkie how can you say that!”
Pinkie finally put down her whisk, even though the eggs had been quite well-beaten for several minutes now, and turned slowly towards Twilight.
“Because, I can say that because… I wrote that for my creative writing class!”
“What.”
“Yeah, I was taking one at the Adult Ponycation Center. They were having this deal on night classes, and…”
“Pinkie that’s the worst lie ever! I’ve never seen you go there, and you never mentioned it before, and I volunteer as their secretary every Tuesday night and I never saw your name on any class registries!”
“Oh, uh, that’s because I kind of… got kicked out, for being disruptive. That’s why that’s the only story in that journal, hehe.”
“Pinkie…”
“No, really, I’m flattered Twilight, the fact you got so worked up just means my story was that good, haha!”
“Well, if it was just a story, then you wouldn’t mind saying so with a Pinkie Promise?”
Pinkie eyes darted to the right before she answered. “Gee… seems a silly thing to use a Pinkie Promise on Twilight…”
“That’s what I thought…” Twilight turned to leave.
“Ok, ok, grab your griffons Twi. I’ll Pinkie Promise it was just a story.” She stared at her hoof for a moment before saying the words. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” She did the motions and then put her hoof over her eye. “See, just a story, Pinkie Promise.” Pinkie let out a weak smile, and then turned back to the bowl of eggs.
“Now, if you want to finish this baking lesson, stop yakking and watch carefully! This next step is really important.”
Twilight indecision had been replaced with embarrassment, and she remained where she was standing.
“I’m really sorry Pinkie, I wasted your time over a silly story.”
“Twilight, really don’t…”
But Twilight had already left.
As soon as Pinkie heard the door close, she finally let herself breathe. She rushed up to her room, went straight to her nightstand and pulled out the journal.
“You couldn’t keep a secret at all, could you!?” She accused the book. When it failed to answer she opened it and ripped out the two pages she had written with her teeth, and walked over to her bathroom and flushed them down the toilet.
Later that night, Twilight was still mortified by her faux pas. She had tried finishing her book about Morgan le Foal, but she just couldn’t get her mind off of her so-called confrontation.
All that time I spent thinking of what to say, worrying about it, and instead of some climactic conflict, it was just a silly creative writing exercise. I feel like such a fool, I can’t imagine how Pinkie feels, what she thinks of me…
As Twilight sat there thinking, she suddenly heard a knock on the door.
“Huh, awful late for any checkouts or returns…”
She got up to answer the door, but before she could, Applejack had forced it open.
“AJ? What’s wrong?”
“It’s Rainbow Dash; she’s in the hospital!”