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// Juice, robot, justice 
// Story: Three Words On Your Birthday - Anthology 
// by Duplex Fields 
//------------------------------//

The punch bowl wobbled and nearly tipped over, but Pinkie Pie kept it on her back with some nimble hoofwork. Gently she nudged it onto the counter, then reared up and tipped the juice into the sink. While she watched it swirl away, she let out a great big yawn. The party had been over for all of ten minutes, but she still had work to do before she could go to sleep. After all, Sugarcube Corner's dishwasher was a hard worker.

Pinkie smiled as she scrubbed the lipstick from Rarity's cup. Even if someone invented some crazy robot to wash dishes, it probably wouldn't get the lipstick as clean as Pinkie's washcloths.

Some days, she wished she was more than a dishwasher. Out of the entire Elements of Harmony Super Squad (as she called her friends in her mind), both AJ and Rarity were business owners, Rainbow was the head of the weather team, Fluttershy was a groomer and kennel keeper, and Twilight had her family's money to supplement her librarian wages.

Pinkie thought back to that very first day, when she'd seen Twilight and Spike coming into town. She'd gotten a tingle, an itch up her back that meant she was going to be meeting someone new. Back then, she'd made friends with every other pony in town just so she could entice them to hold parties at Sugarcube Corner. Knowing birthdays was just her hook for getting them in the door. And when the Cakes were making money, Pinkie could work longer hours.

But then they'd gone out to the forest, and Pinkie had made the scary trees less scary, and they'd crossed that bridge to the ruined palace. The mad dash to the old throne room had winded her. (She'd gotten a little pudgy eating the leftovers while doing the dishes.) Twilight had made that speech about being friends, and it was the first time in a long time someone had called Pinkie a friend and meant it; just because she was annoying and bubbly didn't mean she was blind to others' reactions to her.

Then the Elements had become necklaces, and poured forth a rainbow of justice at Nightmare Moon.

In that amazing moment, their hearts touched. They had become lifelong friends in the blink of an eye. Pinkie could still hardly believe it, even now while cleaning up a party for the five ponies she knew as well as her own sisters. That moment permeated her existence thence forward. She didn't know what paths the future held, except that she would not walk alone ever again.

She smiled.  For a rock farmer's daughter, such riches were immeasurable.