"Relax, Silver. Everything is going to be fine; we're just throwing a party for you. It will be just like the last one, except a little bit bigger. Everypony will be perfectly nice and kind; you just have to trust me, okay?" Pinkie whispered to the distraught pony next to her. It didn't seem to be helping much, but it didn't stop Pinkie from trying to assure her every few minutes. The gray pegasus was refusing to stray much more than half a pony's width apart from Pinkie while she checked up on the party setup.
The rest of Pinkie's friends were here as well, and they were helping to decorate one of Applejack's lesser used barns. It was a good thing she had help too, because she was having to spend a lot more time trying to calm down the guest of honor than she had anticipated. Thankfully, Twilight appeared with a checklist and everything was progressing as orderly as anypony would have expected for something so closely related to Pinkie Pie.
"Listen, Silver, sweetheart, I'm not just going to up and leave you during the party; I'm not going to disappear randomly, or leave you alone suddenly. So please, just relax; you're supposed to have fun, but that's not going to happen if you keep worrying your feathers out, okay?" Pinkie asserted firmly as she put a hoof to Silver's face and looked directly into the lavender eyes. She let her hoof gently stroke across the side of the gray face and rubbed her nose against Silver's gently. Pinkie pulled back after a moment and grinned as she was rewarded with a hesitant smile and then a nod.
Pinkie was having to spend yet even more energy to make a point of ignoring the curious looks that Applejack and Rarity were sending her from across the room as the pegasus followed her around like a lost puppy. The rest of her friends were guilty of the occasional questioning glance, but Applejack seemed to be spending more time trying to interrogate Pinkie with pointed glances than actually setting up the party. Pinkie couldn't decide if she wanted them to just come out and ask what she knew they were dying to or not. She still hadn't talked to Silver about the nature of their relationship and a slight rumbling in her tummy reminded her that she really needed to get on with that. On the other hoof, perhaps one of her friends breaching the subject would give her an easy way to talk to Silver about it as well as stopping the accursed glances.
Pinkie was having a hard time even denying to herself that she had developed strong feelings for the pegasus following her around. She just wasn't entirely certain if they stemmed from the urge to protect her, or if it was something else. Their relationship seemed so fragile, as well. They'd had enough mishaps that she really didn't want to start a blowout by bringing it up at a bad time. Now that her friends kept giving her those looks, she really wished that she had just ponied up and talked to Silver about it, already.
Now was definitely not the time, her friends would just have to live with it and wait until sometime after the party to interrogate her about it. She suspected that their silence was mostly due to Rarity's pointed glances that were often being directed at the rest of her friends rather than Pinkie herself. Upon coming to that realization, Pinkie decided that she did in fact appreciate the lack of active questioning and resolved to throw Rarity a party sometime soon. Finally as she stopped brooding over the problems at hoof, she turned to see Silver's apprehensive face right next to her and let out a dramatic sigh.
"Sweetheart... I told you everything is going to be fine. You just have to trust me. Smile for me, please?" Pinkie pleaded desperately and put a hoof around Silver's neck. She decided that she couldn't afford to hold back, it didn't matter if her friends would bombard her with questions over it or not. What was more important was comforting the nervous pegasus, if she didn't then Silver wouldn't have any fun at the party. With that in mind, she planted an affectionate kiss on Silver's cheek and then nuzzled their faces together for a long moment. She closed her eyes to block out the sight of her friends' glances intensifying in curiosity and just held the pegasus for a minute or two.
When she finally withdrew her face and smiled brightly, it seemed that she had finally gotten through to the pegasus. Silver was beaming the smile that Pinkie knew and loved so well, which only made her grin widen in response. She nodded to the pegasus happily before she started to bounce around the barn to check on the party. This time, it wasn't as hard for her to focus on making sure that everything was perfect; now that her gray shadow was smiling instead of sulking.
Pinkie laughed loudly as she danced with Silver in the middle of the barn. Everypony had parted and given them space when Pinkie had declared that it was time to dance. Some of the ponies had started to cheer the two of them on as they watched, and soon they were surrounded by plenty of dancing and laughing ponies. She had started the dance as an excuse to keep Silver from getting mobbed after the introductions once again, but this time she wasn't in a hurry to end the dancing. Pinkie fully intended to enjoy the opportunity and the pegasus seemed happy to dance with Pinkie until she could barely stand.
Much to Silver's credit, she let herself get overtaken by the music much quicker this time, and she was having a much easier time having fun while she danced in a slightly silly manner. Pinkie tried to keep her face from showing too much of the "I told you so" that was burning to escape from her lips. She apparently was only having minimal success, though, as Silver reacted by sticking her tongue out at Pinkie with a playful pout between songs before shaking with a silent giggle. Pinkie laughed heartily and leaned forward, threatening to nibble at the offered tongue. Silver withdrew herself immediately with a look of complete shock plastered across her face, but it quickly faded to a smile and that gave way to a silent laugh as the next song started.
Pinkie quickly lost herself to the new song as well, but she still managed to giggle as she watched Silver's attempts to keep up with the wild dancing. Silver's dancing had certainly improved, but she had a long way to go before she could match Pinkie Pie. The next song that came on was a much slower, sedate tune. Silver started to look over towards the snack table that housed the punchbowl and gestured with her head to Pinkie, only to receive a shake of the head in response.
Pinkie snaked a foreleg around Silver's neck and pulled the pegasus right up in front of her. Silver tilted her head, not entirely certain what Pinkie was up to since most of the ponies had left the dance floor for this song. There were a few scattered couples still moving about, most of them choosing to balance delicately on their hind legs as they held each other close for the slow song. Pinkie on the other hoof seemed to have a different plan, she pulled Silver even closer and hooked her face around Silver's neck and let her chin rest in the purple mane.
Silver's reaction of surprise was so adorable that Pinkie couldn't help but let out a quiet squeak of a giggle, but she soon felt the pegasus' face come to rest against her own neck moments later. Pinkie ignored the even more pointed look from Applejack and turned her face inwards to rub her snout into the purple mane as they danced. Pinkie smiled brightly into the straight purple hairs and enjoyed the slow dancing as she let herself get carried away by the tune.
Pinkie reached up with her hooves and clutched at Silver as the song started to fade away, holding the pegasus close for a long moment before she let the hoof fall. She nuzzled her snout into Silver's neck with a smile before she brought her face up to look directly into the blushing gray face. She laughed at the cute reaction and then tugged at Silver with a hoof, directing her over towards the food-laden table.
Silver trotted to catch up to Pinkie and wrapped her wing comfortably around Pinkie's back as they walked. Her face was still clearly flushing with heat, and she tried to avoid any eye contact with the ponies around them. Pinkie hesitated when they arrived at the table and glanced over the many sweets spread out before them. She wanted to say something, but couldn't decide on the right words while the feelings from their dance still swam in her head. Her brooding was shortly interrupted when Applejack appeared in front of them with an inquisitive look that was starting to give way to a bright smile.
"So, ya'll seem close, Pinkie..." Applejack stated in a leading manner and slowly looked between the two of them. Silver shook with a silent giggle and attempted to hide her face in Pinkie's neck as the wing clutched tighter at Pinkie.
"Listen, Applejack... I know what you've been dying to ask me and I can't really answer it right now, okay? Silver and I haven't had a proper talk about what our relationship is and this is supposed to be a party for Silver. So now really isn't the time, alright?"
"Either way, you two seem happy together," Applejack insisted with a smile. "I'm happy for the two of ya, or that is I will be when you finally get around to talking about it," she added with a conspiratorial wink and then walked off.
Pinkie shook her head in disbelief as she watched Applejack wander away; she pulled herself away from the wing and turned so that she could rub her face affectionately against Silver's for a moment. "Don't worry about her, sweetie; let's just have fun at your party, okay?"
Silver more than happily accepted the act of affection and rubbed her face back into Pinkie's without any hesitation. She gave the earth pony an inscrutable look in response to the words, though. She tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes slightly as she peered at Pinkie questioningly.
"Oh, nonono, I'm not trying to avoid talking to you about it. If you want to talk about it now we could... Do you want to? I'm sure we could find somewhere to sit and talk," Pinkie offered as she scanned the room for a suitable spot.
Silver took a long moment to respond as her face once again fell blank and she just stared at Pinkie. She started to nibble on her lower lip and the returning blush became more intense the longer she hesitated. Pinkie's pulse started to quicken as she waited for the pegasus to indicate her thoughts, and she started to shift her weight from hoof to hoof as she watched. Finally, Silver shook her head with a serene smile and leaned closer to nuzzle her snout against Pinkies. then tilted head forward and used the closeness of the affectionate act to hide from anypony watching that she stole a quick kiss from Pinkie.
Pinkie's face felt hot as she couldn't help but gape at Silver's boldness. Her mouth fell open slightly as she struggled to process what had just happened. Silver Wings, the shy and demure pegasus had just leaned forward and kissed her right in the middle of the party and was now giggling with a massive grin as she watched Pinkie's reaction. Pinkie's face slowly turned to a mischievous expression that caused Silver to cease her giggling. She reached out a hoof towards the gray pegasus who opened her eyes wide with a look of concern, but was tugged closer by the pink foreleg. Silver then let her eyes slowly fall shut when she realized what Pinkie was up to and started to shiver nervously from anticipation.
"If you think that I'm going to let our first kiss end that simply, then you're much sillier than I thought, sweetheart..." she whispered into one of the gray ears.
Silver gave a tiny nod of the head in response. Her eyes remained firmly shut, and Pinkie could feel the pegasus' fluttering breath brushing across her face as she leaned closer. The pink foreleg wrapped tighter around the back of the gray neck and pulled Silver into contact with her as she kissed the pegasus deeply. Pinkie locked her lips with Silver's and held her there as she attempted to pour out all of her swirling emotions into the powerful kiss. Silver quavered slightly in the embrace and Pinkie had to shift her hoof to help support the pegasus as she drew the kiss out and refused to let it end. She started to draw back just so that they could both suck in a deep breath after a long while of breathing through their noses and then renewed the kiss fervently. Pinkie stubbornly dragged the moment out until they both pulled back at the same time and took deep gasping breaths.
Pinkie giggled madly as she could barely believe that she had just done that right in plain sight of anypony who might have cared to look in their direction. She laughed even harder at the shocked expression painted on Silver's face. The poor pegasus looked like Pinkie had just punched her, her mouth hanging open in a dumb grin even as her eyes remained locked in the shocked expression. They both giggled and Pinkie placed a quick peck on Silver's lips to snap her out of the stupor, but the moment was interrupted by a loud wolf-whistle before Pinkie could say anything. The two of them jumped and turned to see a good portion of the party watching them with beaming smiles while Rainbow Dash hovered above and whistled again loudly as she pumped a hoof in the air excitedly.
Pinkie giggled madly and pulled Silver closer so that she could bury her face in the gray neck. Pinkie couldn't even begin to formulate any words in response to the group of ponies who had stopped what they were doing to watch them, and she continued to laugh wildly while clinging to the pegasus. When she finally dared to glance back up towards where the small crowd, she saw Rarity shoving ponies back towards the dance floor and urging them to give the two a moment. Pinkie was immediately flooded with another surge of gratitude towards her friend and mouthed a "thank you," which elicited a sly wink in response from the unicorn.
Pinkie's gaze continued to wander around the room, even as she clutched at Silver as if she was afraid to let go. Her eyes finally caught Applejack's and the earth pony giggled at the two of them. She pointed a hoof towards Silver and gave a shooing gesture before shooting Pinkie a wink. Pinkie nodded in understanding and returned her gaze to Silver as her smile finally started to calm down but showed no less happiness.
"Okay, after that you are going to come sit down with me, at the very least," she stated through another giggle and tugged Silver over towards the rear corner of the barn away from the main partying. "Even if you don't want to talk now, you're not avoiding the cuddling you're getting after that kiss," Pinkie asserted and pulled the pegasus down onto one of the small haystacks scattered about the barn with her. Pinkie wrapped her forelegs around Silver and pulled the gray mare's head down to rest against her chest. Silver more than willingly nuzzled her face into the pink coat, and Pinkie watched the rest of the ponies party as she ran one forehoof through the purple mane and used the other to hold Silver close.
Pinkie was giggling uncontrollably again; most of the ponies had left the party already, but she had positioned herself at the doors to wish them all goodnight as they had started to leave. Silver was still stubbornly refusing to leave her side, and she was currently leaning comfortably against Pinkie while her eyes occasionally drooped. That wasn't why she was giggling, though; every pony that left had made a point of shooting them a wink or offering congratulatory words to the two ponies. The overwhelming amount of positive energy from everypony was too much. Pinkie had expected that she would have spent most of the party introducing Silver to the ponies, but she definitely didn't mind the way things had turned out in the slightest.
Finally, as the last couple of ponies filed past with a series of winks and even a playful whistle, Pinkie smiled and leaned back against Silver for a moment when her friends all started to surround them. This time, it seemed as if Rarity was taking the lead, and Pinkie couldn't think of a way to wriggle out of it. Pinkie gave a guilty grin and a nervous laugh as they all gave her expectant stares, even as the corners of their mouths were twitching.
"I for one, was all for giving you two more time, but after the display that you two put on... I simply must demand details about what is going on between you two, my dear," Rarity stated in a manner that left no room for argument and glanced between the two of them.
"I don't supposed you would give us some more time, would you?" Pinkie asked nervously, but was met with a deadly silence from all of her friends. It seemed as if they had planned this in advance and they all refused to even give the slightest acknowledgement of the comment.
"Okay okay, I'll talk," Pinkie burst out with a laugh.
"So, we haven't really talked much about... us, but Silver seems to like spending a lot of time around me. After the mishap when we met, I guess I kept thinking that I owed it to her to try and make it up some way. I've been going out of my way to make her smile, and I started to notice that I was going even further out of my way with her," Pinkie replied with a smile and kept leaning back against Silver.
"Pinkie, darling, if you think that you can wriggle out of this by just telling us things that we already saw for ourselves, then you obviously are underestimating our intelligence. So, why don't you give us the details," Rarity insisted with a grin.
"Caught me..." Pinkie said and started to laugh even harder when Silver stood up straight only to pull the pink pony closer with a wing around her back. "Okay, so this one likes to cuddle... a lot," Pinkie said with a gesture of her head towards the gray pegasus. "I was asking her about some things after Applejack stopped by and she nuzzled me to assure me that everything was okay-"
"Wait, Applejack? You went and pestered them? After we agreed to give them until the end of the party?" Rarity demanded with a look of shock spread across her face.
"I didn't agree to nuthi-" Applejack started, but was cut off by Rarity.
"We are going to have words later, you, but I believe you were giving us the juicy details, Pinkie?" Rarity prompted with a devious smile.
"Well, she used the nuzzle as a way to steal a kiss from me. You've seen that I've kissed her before, but usually just in a soothing way to calm her down. This though, was different, and all I could think of was that such a simple little peck was going to be our first kiss..." Pinkie's cheeks started to get hot as she remembered the events that followed afterwards. She giggled and tried to hide her face in Silver's neck so that she wouldn't have to look at Rarity's face as it lit up in immediately understanding.
"I couldn't get that thought out of my head; I still can't believe that I did it right in the middle of the party, but I just couldn't let it end so simply," she stated after Silver hugged her tight with the gray wing and then turned to look down at Pinkie expectantly.
"So... I grabbed her and kissed her," Pinkie explained, barely able to contain the bubbling laughter. "We still haven't really talked about us, or what our relationship is, even though the topic has come up a few times. So, I guess the kiss got rather heated as we kind of just said everything... nonverbally," Pinkie ventured and hesitated before going back to the explanation. "It was... intense, far more than I had initially thought it would have been."
"Well, we are all happy for the two of you Pinkie. I think that is more than enough details to satisfy our curiosity, for now. Oh, and I am planning the engagement party whenever that may be," Rarity added with a teasing wink.
"Rarity!" Pinkie nearly yelled even as her face flushed with heat..
"You did not disagree with me... You two are serious aren't you?" Rarity concluded with a grin.
"Wha- You tricked me!" Pinkie exclaimed with a childish pout as everypony around laughed. "Thank you though, girls. Your support means a lot, but we should go. We have things that we should apparently talk about, even though this one seems to like just cuddling instead of actually getting around to it," Pinkie added and turned to stick her tongue out at Silver. She laughed in surprise when Silver reacted by shifting away from Pinkie so that she could turn to face the pink pony and kissed the offered tongue before shaking with a silent giggle.
Pinkie and Silver strode outside the barn, walking less than half a pony's width apart as they went slow and kept brushing their sides together as they went. They kept a relaxed pace and made their way back to Sugarcube Corner in happy silence. It seemed to Pinkie that Luna had paid extra attention to the stars tonight, every time she glanced upwards they seemed to be twinkling more than usual.
When they made their way inside the building, Pinkie automatically made her way towards the stairs that lead the way up to her room. Words weren't quite needed yet, and she stopped inside the doorway to close the door after Silver. She immediately leaned down and nudged the pegasus towards the bed with her face, laughing quietly the entire time. Pinkie climbed her way into bed and laid herself down behind Silver as they snuggled their way under the covers. Silver wriggled in place struggling to turn around in the grasp of the pink hooves but was having a hard time of it. Pinkie giggled and buried her face into the purple mane in front of her before letting Silver twist around to face her.
Pinkie giggled at the frown that Silver was shooting at her, but it faded when Pinkie pulled her closer and let the pegasus nuzzle into her neck. Pinkie smiled and took in the wonderful scent that always seemed to do so much to relax her. She opened and closed her mouth several times as the words that she'd struggled to try and say several times already seemed to falter before they could leave her mouth. She wanted to just say it and not have to worry about it anymore, but her body seemed to be following a different plan. Her eyes started to weigh her down and she had a hard time fighting the urge to just fall asleep cuddled up with Silver. She struggled desperately, the words making their way to the tip of her tongue, but let out a quiet sigh as she resigned defeat. Her eyes slowly fell shut, and she adjusted her grasp on Silver, moving into a more comfortable position.
"Goodnight, sweetheart..."
Pinkie wasn't entirely certain what caused her to start awake; the only thing she could pinpoint as she stared groggily up at the ceiling was that something was out of place. She turned her tired eyes towards the window and saw that the sun was just barely peeking over the horizon. She was usually an early riser, but this seemed early even for her. Her breath hitched slightly as she rolled over and suddenly became aware of what was so wrong.
Pinkie's heart skipped so many beats that she thought it was going to stop from shock. Panic filled her and she felt tears starting to run down her cheeks as she assumed the worst. Even though she had just felt it, she had to make sure. She gulped painfully through the tears and turned her gaze towards the spot where Silver had been asleep. She dragged her eyes forcefully over the covers, the entire process a battle of will to force herself to look at the sight that she didn't want to see: an empty bed.
Suddenly awake, Pinkie sat straight up and darted her gaze around the room for any sign of where the pegasus had gone. She forced herself to calm down as she took several slow breaths, clearly it wasn't as bad as she had initially assumed. It was still quite early, maybe Silver had gotten up to use the bathroom. That would make sense, maybe she had been stirred awake by Silver wriggling free and getting out of bed.
Pinkie sniffled and rubbed her face with a hoof before venturing out of her bedroom. A quick trip to the bathroom found it empty and the sink clearly unused in a while. She barely managed to choke back a heart-wrenching sob as she stumbled back to her room and closed the door before letting out the pained noise.
That awful feeling in the pit of her stomach returned as she threw herself onto the bed and cried. It made no sense. Silver had been so happy, and Pinkie realized with a lancing pain in her chest that she had been too. All of the uncertainty that had been there before was suddenly gone, she couldn't even pretend about the way she now felt about the pegasus. That seemingly silly saying about not understanding how much you loved something until it was gone suddenly seemed to make a lot more sense to Pinkie.
She sniffled and rubbed her hooves across her face again only for her to notice a small piece of parchment on her nightstand. The paper caught Pinkie off-guard, and she stared at it for a long moment as the gears in her head started to turn. Silver had been stubborn about not relying on writing to communicate, and she had even frowned at the suggestion that she could ask Twilight about some way to be able to easily write her words for other ponies. The note seemed out of place in context with Silver's adamant refusal to rely on anything or anypony at all, choosing to instead use that wonderfully expressive face to say all the words that she needed to.
Pinkie shuffled closer and pulled the note off the table and laid back on the bed. It took a long while before she was able to force herself to hold it up over her head and read it. The writing was wobbly and clearly rushed as a few mistakes were harshly crossed out before being rewritten.
Pinkie,
I can't
I'm sorry,
I need to fix myself before I
I'll be back
Hopefully it will only take a few days, but I'll
I'll miss you.
-Silver Wings
Pinkie stared at it for a long while before she let her hooves drop. She rolled over and buried her face into the pillow as she sobbed to herself over the implications of the message. The thought that it was all her fault stubbornly refused to go away, and the last thing she thought before crying herself back to sleep was that she should have just spoken her mind while she had the chance last night.