"This might work! This might actually work!" Twilight said with excitement as she finished reading an ancient tome about the Elements of Harmony that Celestia had loaned to her. "If this tome is correct, there might be a way to revert the Hulk back to Banner without hurting or killing him! I might get my friend back!...But the only problem will be convincing Pinkie to go along with it." Twilight shook her head as she looked out her window at the sun that was high in the sky, not letting her fears get the better of her. The plan would work and Banner would be back. So with a happy smile, she hopped out of her chair and raced out the door.
---=-=----
"Thanks for allowing me to throw the party in your barn Applejack," Pinkie said happily as she hung the last of the streamers from the rafter--before she did a back-flip off of the ladder she was on. She landed on all fours, happily hopping over to AJ, who was moving the snacks for the ponies over to the table they had set up. "With all the chaos that has gone on recently, I hope that the ponies really enjoy my party."
"No pony has ever not enjoyed one of yer parties," Applejack reminded her, while she counted the number of cups to make sure they had enough. "And yer right about with all the weird things that have happened, the ponies could use a little party to help them feel better."
"Now all of the town's ponies should be showing up in about an hour, so get ready for them," Pinkie said as she looked down at her watch, figuring it was time. "I need to go get the guest of honor." She started to hop out of the barn, but AJ put a hoof on her shoulder and looked into her eyes.
"Pinkie, ah need to know...is yer special guest...Hulk?" AJ asked in concern. All Pinkie did was smile as she hopped away from AJ and out of the barn, leaving the farm pony to sigh and gather the tools that would help her to rebuild the barn when the time came. Pinkie hopped down the street, humming a happy tune to herself as she headed in the Hulk's direction. No matter where he went, she knew where he was, simply because she could feel negativity and pain, and that was something that Hulk reeked of. Her trek took her to the farthest reaches of the Everfree Forest, where she came across a massive cliff. She looked over the edge into the canyon as the ground shook. There below was the Hulk at the bottom, smashing boulders with his fists.
"What is he up to now?" Pinkie said with a shake of her head as she jumped off the cliff, sailing all the way down and landing on all her hooves with no problem. "And just what are you doing?" Pinkie asked him while Hulk continued to crush boulders, looking down at her with a frown.
"Hulk mad about robot attacking pony, so Hulk take out frustration on rock!" Hulk yelled as he punched the rock, shattering it into pebbles. "And since Hulk can no smash ponies or ponies' homes, Hulk go smash rocks instead!" Pinkie rolled her eyes at the sight, wondering if Hulk was smashing to let out his rage or if he just found it fun. But she didn't ponder that long, as she put on a party hat and placed Hulk's invitation in her mouth. She tapped Hulk's leg once and smiled at him as he looked down at the invite. "Hulk can't pick that up."
"Oh, right," Pinkie muttered to herself as she took the invite out of her mouth, and she cleared her throat before reading it aloud. "Dear Mr. Hulk, you have been invited to the greatest, awesomest, most explosive party around--where you will be the guest of honor! There will be cake, fun, dancing, fun, games and more fun! Today at ten in Applejack's barn!" When Pinkie finished reading she looked up at the confused Hulk with a smile, waiting to see his reaction. "Well?"
"Puny pony want Hulk to go to party?" Hulk asked her, to which she nodded excitedly in response. Hulk looked down at her with a raised eyebrow before he started to laugh, sending his laugh echoing throughout the canyon. Pinkie looked confused as Hulk shook his head and started to walk away.
"What? What's so funny?" Pinkie asked him as she ran up beside the still chuckling Hulk.
"Hulk no go to party," Hulk said as his laugh turned to a growl. "Hulk hate parties. All parties do is give others chance to hurt Hulk. Or make Hulk mad."
"But how could you turn down a party?" Pinkie asked in disbelief. "Parties are so much fun! You get to hang out with friends and just have a great time! How can you say no?!"
"Hulk only have one friend. And Hulk no like to be in cramped area with smashable ponies," Hulk reminded her as he started to climb out of the canyon. Pinkie hopped onto his shoulders and sighed.
"Well, since I'm your only friend and I'll be at the party, would you consider going just for me?" Pinkie asked with her pleading eyes. Hulk chuckled again and her pleading turned into another frown. "Fine, I guess I can't make you. Well if you were a pony I could, but I can't force you. But I would really appreciate it if you did." Hulk frowned as he heard the pleading in her voice, considering it for a minute. When he got to the top of the canyon, Pinkie hopped off his shoulders and looked up at him again. "Well, you don't have to come if you don't want to, but there will be a special seat reserved just for you if you do decide to show. Bye!" And with that she hopped away, leaving Hulk alone again. He frowned as she left, wondering why'd she even bother to invite him if she already knew all of this.
"Puny Banner would know answer to crazy pony," Hulk muttered to himself. "He crazy as well." Then Hulk caught what he had just said. He realized that he had just said that Banner would know something that he didn't. Hulk snarled at himself, reminding himself that he had just gotten rid of Banner and didn't want him back. He despised Banner and considered him an annoyance, like Pinkie sometimes was. But as much as Pinkie annoyed him, he still considered her a friend because she wouldn't try to hurt or lie to him...and she had been willing to deal with him for the sake of their friendship. So shouldn't he try to do the same?
"Ugh, Hulk hate having to do right thing," he muttered to himself as he started to head back to Ponyville, bracing himself for what was sure to be quite the experience. A quick leap towards the town allowed him to arrive within seconds, having the added bonus of scaring one of the ponies as he landed and sent her running away screaming. Hulk chuckled to himself at the sight as he headed for the Apple farm, where he thought Pinkie had told him the party was. He wasn't sure, sometimes he just tuned her out when she started talking. Since he was thinking more about where he was going than actually looking, he accidently smacked his head on a low-hanging roof and knocked the roof right off. "Hulk need to pay more attention. Hulk forgot how weak pony buildings are." The more Hulk walked, the more ponies he noticed who gave him looks filled with fear or suspicion. These were the looks he was used to, but for some reason when the ponies made them, Hulk felt a little sadder.
"Hulk wasting time," he muttered as he leapt off again and landed right outside the Apple's gate, shaking almost all the apples of the trees as he landed. The sound of music and laughter as well as lights coming from the barn met his ears and eyes as he pulled himself out of the new crater he'd made. Hulk walked over to the barn door and placed his hand on the door before stopping. The first impression would be important if he hoped to win back the ponies' trust--not for him, but because Pinkie asked him to be there. So he inhaled deeply and pulled on the door to enter...only to rip it off its hinges and send it flying off into the distance. The music came to a stop as all of the ponies turned to look at Hulk, none of them knowing what to expect. Even the Elements of Harmony were quietly watching him, each of them waiting for him to do something. The only pony that seemed remotely glad to see him was Pinkie, as she bounded over to him with a massive smile on her face.
"You made it!" she yelled as she leapt up to hug him, once again getting caught by the Hulk's hand and placed back down onto the floor. "I'm sooooo glad that you could make it! After what you said I thought that you weren't going to come but I actually knew you would although I was scared there for a second but all of my doubts-"
"Hulk made it," he said to cut her off before she could build up any real speed. He walked into the barn as the ponies parted in front of him, each of them looking at him with either fear or suspicion, although he did see one or two that smiled at him. Pinkie hopped in front of him, walking him over to a chair that had been set up in the back of the barn--a chair that had been especially designed just for him. He lumbered over to it and sat down...only to have it break under his weight. Pinkie stifled a laugh while Hulk growled in rage, causing all the ponies in the room to back away from him in fear. Twilight got her magic ready in case he tried anything, but all Hulk did was stand back up and walk to one of the barn corners. He leaned himself up against it and closed his eyes, feeling all the eyes upon him.
"Okay everypony, I invited you to a party, not who can stare at the Hulk the most," Pinkie said into a microphone as she started the music back up. "Now I wanna see some ponies dancing and I want to see some fun! Come on!" Pinkie kicked up a weird beat that got the ponies moving a bit, none of them able to resist its rhythms. She looked over at Hulk hoping that it had got him too, but he stayed in the corner with his head down. She frowned and told the music to keep playing itself as she walked over to Hulk, kicking him twice in the leg to get his attention. "Why aren't you partying? It's really silly to come to a party and not...party."
"Hulk came to party, that all pony asked," Hulk reminded her with a huff, crossing his arms as he did so. Pinkie opened her mouth to respond, but his logic was sound and all she could do was frown.
"Fine, but me and the Cakes made a cake for you to thank you for helping us out through all those weird incidents and for saving their lives," Pinkie said over her shoulder as she walked away. "Speaking of cakes, the two foals are here and I bet that they'd like to say hi to you. Alright everypony, time for cake!" The ponies all stopped dancing and headed over to the giant table in the center where Pinkie brought over the cake. It was massive and covered with green frosting. It had a crudely drawn version of Hulk's face on top of it. The two foals saw the massive cake and started reaching towards it with outstretched hooves, but their parents held them back. "Hey Hulk, want to come cut the cake?" Pinkie's eyes told him that he had no choice, so with a grunt Hulk walked over to the cake as all the ponies backed away from him. But as Hulk walked over to the table, one of the floorboards cracked under his weight, causing Hulk's right leg to shoot through the floor as it snapped. His hand reached out for something to steady himself, and he caught the edge of the table, flipping the table and the cake into the air. Hulk looked up just in time to see a green projectile heading his way.
SPLAT!
All of the ponies gasped as the cake landed on the Hulk's head, covering his entire upper body in frosting. The cake's foals saw both the cake and their friend together and just had to get over there. Pumpkin teleported herself out her mother's grasp while Pound flew out of his father's embrace, and both of them landed on top of the Hulk, beginning to eat while laughing. The ponies' eyes all looked to Hulk's face, which had gritted its teeth, and his eyes were filled with a look of rage at being embarrassed. No pony dared to make a sound, save for one pony.
"ppppffffftttttttt....BWAHAHAHAHAHA!" Pinkie laughed out loud as she pounded on the floor, rolling onto her back and clutching her stomach as she laughed. Tears streamed down her face as she tried to breath but found herself unable to do so, so she simply continued to point and laugh at Hulk. "Y-you should...see how you look! Hold on, I'll grab a mirror!" The ponies once again looked at her like she was crazy as she ran out of the barn, only to return a second later with a mirror in tow. She held it in front of Hulk while still doing her best not to laugh, while Hulk looked into the mirror. What he saw was a cake on top of a green monster with two fillies happily eating away at said cake. For the longest moment in the history of Equestria, none of the ponies moved or spoke. Hulk was about to snap, gritting his teeth with enough force to crack diamonds as the rage began to build.
"Hulky funny," Pumpkin said as she ate more of the cake. And those two words brought him back to reality.
"Heh," he chuckled to himself, admitting that he did look slightly funny. And all together, the ponies all let out a breath of relief and started to talk as well as mingle again. Hulk's small laugh had broken the ice and told them that he wasn't going to rampage and that he could laugh things off. The main reason that he had managed to do so this time, was the fact that Pinkie turned the whole thing into a joke instead of Hulk screwing up. Hulk pulled himself out of the hole in the floor and gently reached up to take the foals off his head, walking over to their terrified parents as he put them on the table. They both held their hooves up to him with sad looks, wanting back up. Hulk then reached up and grabbed some of the cake, placing it in front of the foals. Pinkie waved him over to join her and her friends. He walked over to them while AJ stared at the hole in her barn floor.
"Glad ah got the repair tools out early," she muttered to herself, while Hulk stopped in front of their table. Twilight looked past him at all the smiling ponies who were singing and dancing together now, all of the previous tension gone.
"So why didn't you 'Hulk out' on us and destroy the barn?" Twilight asked, shrinking back a bit as Hulk growled at her, never liking the term 'Hulking out'. "I mean, you get angry if we so much as look at you the wrong way. What stopped you here?"
"Hulk no felt like smashing barn," Hulk replied, allowing AJ to sigh in relief. "Puny pony wanted Hulk to have fun, not smash barn."
"It's alright, the party will probably bring down the house any way," Pinkie said with a smile that gained her a glare from Applejack. "But first I have something to give you," Pinkie said as she pulled out a wrapped present.
"What pony give Hulk?" Hulk asked her as he reached for it, but she moved it away from him.
"No peeking. Now close your eyes." Hulk grumbled but did as she requested, hearing the sounds of his present being opened. "Okay, you can look now." Hulk opened his eyes to see that Pinkie was holding...a stuffed version of herself. Hulk picked the stuffed pony up and looked at it with an incredulous look, while Pinkie looked up at him with a huge smile. "Do you love it?"
"Hulk...Hulk appreciate it," Hulk grumbled as he put the stuffed animal in one of his pockets. Pinkie squealed with delight at the simple fact that he didn't tear it in half and threw herself onto him for as big a hug as she could manage. Hulk didn't know what to do, so he simply waited until she let go.
"Thanks for coming," she said with a smile. "I didn't think you would come with all your trust issues."
"Hulk trust puny pony, pony never hurt Hulk," Hulk said. Pinkie smiled and looked around at the ponies, most of whom were calling it a night.
"Alright, we should probably wrap it up soon. I just wanted you to show up and I don't feel like pushing our luck. I got you to laugh, so we can call this a successful party!" Hulk stayed until almost all the ponies had left, but left himself when Pinkie and AJ started to clean up. As he walked outside into the clean night air, he found himself feeling weaker than usual. Was it because he hadn't changed into Banner in so long...or that he hadn't really been that angry since Pinkie had sorta become his friend? Either way, Hulk needed to keep watch on his rage. So he forced himself to think about the earthlings and what they did to him as he leapt across the sky, heading back to his cave. Twilight watched him go, thanking Celestia that he had taken that little incident so well. But what if he hadn't, would AJ's barn still be standing or would any of those ponies still be alive?
'That settles it. Tomorrow, we use the Elements on him,' Twilight thought to herself as she started her teleportation spell. 'Don't worry Banner, I'll get you out if there.'