When one awakens to a feeling of crushing despair, like there is no hope left in our world, it is best advised to roll over and fall asleep again, hoping that when you awaken, the world will have somehow miraculously become a better, nicer, and more appealing place.
This was how the day began when Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes one Tuesday morning. Nothing particularly bad had happened the previous day, yet she felt as though somepony close to her had left. Wanting to simply roll over, she reminded herself about her duties to the princess and forced herself to the kitchen. Perhaps some tea would lighten her mood.
Upon entering the kitchen, she saw Spike sitting on the floor, head hung beneath his knees.
“What’s wrong, Spike?” the purple mare asked. Spike sighed, and lifted his head. His red eyes suggested he had been crying.
“Nothing, I guess... or really, I don’t know. I woke up feeling so hopeless...” Spike’s eyes began to tear up. “Rarity will never love me like I do... do you know how that feels, Twilight?”
It hadn’t occurred to Twilight yet today, but something about Spike’s words, and the general atmosphere of the whole area set it into her mind. She knew how that felt, with Princess Celestia...
Twilight’s depression swelled, seemingly feeding on the idea of her unrequited love for her teacher and Princess. A single tear fell from her eye as she thought of the imaginary scenarios in which she and the Princess were together. A sadness like never felt before filled her entire being, and she wished to just slip away from life entirely.
This sorrow was staved off for the time being when Spike produced a letter from the Princess through his usual manner: A burp. Green magic swirled into the air from the tiny dragon’s mouth, and a scroll of parchment was conjured forth. Using her own magic, Twilight levitated the letter over to her and read its contents aloud.
“To my faithful student, Twilight Sparkle,
A strange darkness has overcome us. A sorrow, a pain my sister and I hoped to never feel again, something akin to an “Infinite Sadness,” as foretold by the prophet Corgan. I request your assistance at once, my faithful student. Take your hot air balloon, for I fear the train will take far too long, and none of my royal transporters feel up to par due to current circumstance.
-Princess Celestia”
Twilight looked over at Spike, who was moping on the floor. He obviously wouldn’t be able to make it. She wasn’t sure if she was going to be able to, either. If the sadness was affecting the Princesses, then she knew that there was the distinct possibility of her sadness consuming her.
Then, it occurred to her. Twilight had to stop herself from slapping herself for not thinking of it earlier. Of course, what better pony then the Element of Laughter to help her through this? Hopefully, this “infinite sadness” would have not affected the pink party pony. Rushing outside, Twilight forced her sorrows aside for the time being (no easy task as the thoughts of her and Celestia never to be kept creeping to the forefront of her mind), and dashed to Sugarcube Corner.
Even the weather was gloomy, the sky filled with dark grey rain clouds. The pegasi must have decided to let the weather reflect their mood. She assumed that Pinkie would be as bright and happy as ever, though.
Her assumptions were correct. Upon opening the bakery door, she saw Pinkie Pie bouncing about, as happy as ever. Even the Cakes seemed not to be affected by the sorrow that plagued the rest of the world.
“Hello, Twilight! Why the long face? Did your face get stuck in the face-elonger again? I remember that time, it was so funny! Except for when you yelled at me for trying to throw a ‘yay, Twilight’s face is longer’ party! But come on, that would have been the best party EVER! I even got special long faced Twilight Balloons!” Twilight Sparkle couldn’t help but smile at Pinkie Pie’s monolog.
“So, deary, what brings you here?” Mrs. Cake said with a smile. Sugarcube Corner seemed like the only island in a sea of sorrows. Twilight felt warm and happy just by being near Pinkie Pie. The gloomy thought from before slowly receded, and once Twilight got over the euphoria of being happy once more, confronted Pinkie Pie about the situation on hoof.
“Pinkie Pie, I need your expertise.” Pinkie Pie’s smile stretched further than Twilight thought possible.
“Yay! What do you need me for? Cupcakes? Frosting? Scones?” Pinkie Pie gasped, and lowered her voice while still maintaining an air of excitement. “Crescents?”
Twilight shook her head. “No, none of that... I need you to accompany me to Canterlot on royal business.”
Pinkie Pie began to bounce up and down again. “OOH! What for? Are we planning Princess Luna’s birthday party? I know her birthday isn’t for another sixty-seven and a half days, but it’s never too early to start planning a party! Let’s make it moon themed! Or is it too soon to be doing that? I wouldn’t think so, since she raises the moon every night, but who knows, she might get offended by-”
“Pinkie!” Pinkie Pie stopped talking immediately.
Twilight shook her head. “No, we’re heading to Canterlot to go and talk to Princess Celestia about-”
“Your secret love for her?” Pinkie Pie said innocently.
Twilight Sparkle’s heart skipped a beat. “How did you know about that?”
“It’s kinda obvious, the way you write your letter to her,” Pinkie Pie said dismissively, focusing her attention on frosting a tray of Cupcakes Mrs. Cake had just set down.
“But I’m always very professional in the way I write to her!”
Pinkie Pie smiled and shook her head. “Silly filly, not your words you use, but the writing style! I can tell when you’re writing to a friend, an adversary, somepony you’ve never met, or a love, like Celestia!”
Twilight was astonished by her friend’s words. “What? How can you do that?”
“By looking at the way you write, not the words you write. You’re always very formal and concise with everypony you write to, but when you’re angry at somepony, your writing is harder, and more rigid. When you write to Celestia, it’s flighty and soft, full of love you’d never be able to tell her about.”
Twilight was astounded by Pinkie Pie’s ability. She decided not to even question how she had even gotten a hold of one of her letters to the Princess.
“Well, anyway Pinkie, we need to talk to her about the abnormal sorrow that had befallen Ponyville, right away! Your cheery disposition is the exact reason I need you along. Come on, we have to hurry!”
Pinkie Pie nodded her head happily. “Oki doki loki! Let’s go!”
The two mares headed off back to the library, where Twilight kept the Hot Air Balloon moored. “Pinkie, stay here while I get Spike.” Pinkie Pie nodded, and Twilight rushed inside. Immediately after leaving Pinkie’s presence, she felt a wave of unexplained sadness crest over her, smashing her down and nearly drowning the lilac unicorn. Metaphorically holding her breath, Twilight looked around for Spike. He wasn’t anywhere in the Library.
“Oh no. I hope he hasn’t done anything drastic!” Twilight debated whether or not to spend time looking for her assistant. After a moment of thought, she reasoned by heading to Princess Celestia faster, she could help everypony faster.
“Where’s Spike?” Pinkie Pie, who was in the hot air balloon’s basket, asked upon Twilight’s return to the flying apparatus.
“I couldn’t find him. Come on Pinkie, let’s hurry!”
“Woah, woah, woah...” Pinkie held her front hooves up and shook them in an “x” pattern multiple times. “You’re just going to leave Spike? Without even looking anywhere else but the Library?”
Twilight groaned. She didn’t have time for this!
“Pinkie, the faster we get to Celestia, the faster we can help everypony, Spike included!”
“Even though he’s a dragon...” Twilight facehoofed.
“Pinkie Pie, we’re leaving, NOW.” Twilight jumped into the basket, and used her magic to untie the rope that kept the balloon from drifting away. Pinkie Pie did her share of the work by dropping the sandbags. Soon, the hot air balloon was drifting off towards Canterlot. Twilight used several small wind spells to control where the balloon was heading.
“So,” Pinkie Pie said, after staring off the side of the basket and making funny faces at the weather pegasi they passed, who couldn’t help but feel a little better after that, “what’s this all about?”
Twilight sighed. “Where do I begin? Well, some time ago, like, almost twenty years ago-”
Pinkie Pie’s eyes widened. “Woah! That’s three years older than I am!” Pinkie held up three hooves to affirm this fact. Twilight blinked quickly, saw that Pinkie’s third hoof had disappeared, and continued on.
“Right, anyway, some stallion named Corgan predicted that ‘An Infinite Sadness, one akin to the sorrow of one’s greatest heartache or regrets will befall all of Equestria.’ It’s all in a book called ‘The Smashing of Pumpkins’.”
Pinkie Pie nodded, and said “That would explain why everypony we pass looks so moody... But I don’t feel sad! I’m just as happy as ever! The Cakes were a bit grumpy at first, but they’re always like that when I wake them up with my one mare band.”
“Right,” Twilight continued “The reason you don’t feel the Infinite Sadness is because you’re the Element of Laughter. Except for personal reasons, like when you thought we didn’t want to be your friends anymore, you're not affected by sadness. An abstract force like this wouldn’t affect you. In addition, you project your happiness into others. normally, when you use too much, they’d get annoyed, but on a day like today... they welcome it. It repels the sadness... I really should do more of an in depth study on your psyche one day...”
“OOH!” Pinkie Pie clopped her hooves together in excitement. “What’s a psyche? Is it like a psyduck?”
“What’s a- oh look!” The hot air balloon nearly crashed into the side of Canterlot Palace. Twilight brought their mode of transportation to the ground, and tied it to a small tree. The two mares trotted quickly to the Palace entry, where the two guards stationed there wore melancholy expressions. As the two passed them, Pinkie Pie grinned at the two, who perked up almost immediately. Twilight hurried down the hall, with Pinkie Pie bouncing behind her the whole way.
Upon entering the throne room, the two Elements saw Princess Celestia sitting on her throne. Twilight’s heart began to beat faster, but having practise when being around her mentor, slowed it down. Celestia’s head was down, her mane covering her face.
“Um... Princess Celestia? You ok over there?” Pinkie Pie walked over to the Princess, ready to cheer her up. Celestia rose her head slowly. Her mane flowed away from her face, giving the two a good look. The Princesses cheeks were stained, and her eyes were shut tight, and a single tear was fighting to escape her left eye.
“I’m so sorry, Luna...” Celestia opened her eyes, and looked at the two ponies before her. “Ah good, Twilight. You’ve come quicker than I thought. I see you’ve brought a friend.” She smiled, albeit sadly, at Pinkie Pie, and turned back to her student. “But, may I ask, where is Spike?”
Twilight looked away. “Oh, he... couldn’t make it.”
“I see.” The Sun Princess turned to look at Pinkie Pie. “Hello, Pinkie Pie. I hope it’s not too much trouble for you that Twilight Sparkle dragged you along.”
“Oh, no, it wasn’t any trouble! I wanted Twilight to bring me along! If there’s one thing I want to do, it’s make ponies smile! And Twilight said coming along would keep everypony from being all sady sad faces!” Pinkie Pie’s happy energy filled the room. Twilight felt elated, and the guards at the doorway smiled.
Princess Celestia laughed. Genuinely. “Well, that’s certainly a part of this... but I must warn you, it’s not going to be an easy journey. You two will be put through several harrowing situation, and at the very end, will have to confront the Infinite Sadness at its source.”
“So, who’s causing all this sadness? Discord? Chrysalis? Trixie?”
Princess Celestia shook her head at the pink earth pony. “So, I’m afraid I do not know who’s causing the Infinite Sadness to spring forth. If you were to find Corgan, then maybe he could shed some light on the situation... I may be a princess, but in no way does that mean I know everything.” Turning to the unicorn present, Celestia addressed Twilight. “I will put a spell on you both that will drain me considerably. I would use it myself, but it would weaken me to the point of unconsciousness for me to maintain the spell while I search for the source. I feel like I can trust you, and if you trust Pinkie, that’s good enough for me. Once I cast the spell upon you two, head look for anything that might lead you to Corgan, understand?” The two nodded. “Good. I’m glad I can count on you.”
Celestia’s horn glowed, and a grey light covered everything. There was a flash, and Twilight and Pinkie Pie were gone. Celestia furrowed her brow in concentration, then stabilized the magic. She felt herself growing weaker with each passing moment. “Hurry, my little ponies.”