A Day in Ponyville
“Let’s see now…” Strings hummed as he examined the examined board outside Ponyville’s Town Hall.
Pinkie Pie bounced in place beside him. She watched him carefully scan the job notices. She wanted to try and help him out, so she did her best to think of a way to get him work. Then, she got an idea. “Why don’t you come help me and the Cakes at Sugarcube Corner?”
Strings chuckled. “Heh, no thank you. I would love to, but cakes burn to a crisp if I even look at a kitchen.” He thought back to a time when he could actually swim through the smoke that filled his mother’s kitchen.
Pinkie Pie tried to think of something else. Her second idea got her very excited. “Ooh, I know! I can teach you how to bake! I wasn’t so good at it at first either, but I had a good teacher, and I think I’m a good teacher so…”
As Strings listened to her proposal and several explanations, he couldn’t help but smile. Pinkie Pie’s happiness seemed to radiate from her. He never thought that he could feel happiness on the outside like that. Then, he knew that a job could wait a while. He wanted to become real good friends with her fast, first.
“Pinkie Pie”, he stated.
She stopped, ready to hear what he had to say.
“Maybe you can help me out. Why don’t you show me around so I don’t get lost?”
Pinkie Pie flew into the air. “Yes! Where do you want to go first? You can meet my friends! Then we can go to my favorite prank shop, and then we can get a cook book at the library so I can teach you to bake. And I’ll show you my favorite party spots!”
Strings smiled wider. “Lead the way, Pink.”
Pinkie Pie cheered again and tore off in the direction of Rainbow Dash’s home.
Strings dashed after her, glad that he used to run cross country. As soon as he caught up to her, she stopped without even slowing down, causing him to flinch and stumble forward. He came to a rolling stop ahead of her. On his back, he looked back to see Pinkie Pie laughing upside down.
“Do you like being upside down or something”, Strings called. He smiled widely as Pinkie Pie bounced up to him.
“No, you must really like being upside down! You do it all the time!” Pinkie Pie trotted over and put her face directly above his.
The way the light bordered Pinkie Pie made Strings gasp inwardly. It lit up her mane and coat as if she were in a real-life golden picture frame. Over and over again, he kept thinking: She’s so pretty…
“Your face is turning red. It looks silly!” Pinkie Pie giggled.
Strings quickly flipped over and took a few silent deep breaths to force his blush to go away. He smiled brightly at Pinkie Pie. She smiled back.
“Weren’t we going somewhere?” He asked, before the silence grew awkward.
She nodded and then started to hop—more slowly—to Rainbow Dash’s. “We’re going to see my bestest friend Rainbow Dash! She’s the best flyer in all of Equestria!”
“Rainbow Dash?” Strings quietly echoed. “Why does that name ring a bell? Was that the pony I met back in—”
“She also loves to prank, just like me! Do you like to prank?” Pinkie continued, interrupting his thoughts.
“I like a good laugh, yeah. I can’t do it by myself, but I can if I have the stuff to do it, like a squirting flower”, he answered.
“That’s why we’re going to the prank shop later!” Pinkie Pie rang.
Strings decided to change topics. He really needed to know something. “Pink, do you really think you can teach me to bake?” he asked. He was hoping she could; he liked to eat sweets, and if she could teach him, then he could do something very special for them both.
“Absolutely! I can teach you, and then we can have a party to celebrate it! You can even bake the cake!”
“That’s great. And maybe I can teach you how to play the guitar. I’ve taught plenty of ponies, and you can be my—”
“I would love to! I don’t know how to play the guitar, and I really want to know how! I can play a banjo, but it’s really different from a guitar! I know some ponies that know, but I never thought that I could do it just like them!” she interrupted. As it stood, Pinkie Pie would walk through the Everfree Forest if it was on fire to just spend time with him. It was really confusing her. She really liked to be around him. More than she liked to be around anypony else. Strings was just so nice, and he enjoyed being around her too.
“Then that will be my third returning favor”, Strings said. He decided to add a cool effect and used his magic to create the number three with sparkling magic dust in front of them.
As pretty and exciting as the numerical symbol was, Pinkie Pie was more curious about this “favor”. “‘Third returning favor’?”
“Yep”, Strings said, popping the word cheerfully. “Whenever a pony shows me an act of radical kindness, I give him or her six very special returning favors. The first one you got was me being your friend. The second was the sleep spell. And now the third is guitar lessons! Each favor gets more and more special as the number gets bigger, so the sixth is the most awesome! I can’t wait!” The sheer thought of the favors made him ecstatic. He had always loved the policy and the fun he had with them was a new experience every time.
Pinkie Pie looked at him. “You don’t have to do that. I didn’t mind letting you rest.”
He chuckled, “Heh, you aren’t the first that’s told me that. I have a simple statement for you: These special favors are like wishes, except these are sure to come true every time. I wouldn’t want you to miss out on a wish.” He sighed happily.
“Well, I really don’t need wishes. I have everything I want already. Thanks anyways though!” Pinkie Pie continued to bounce down the path.
Bass Strings smiled. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Soon, she’ll see that she’s missing something. Everypony else has, he thought.
“We’re here!” Pinkie Pie cheered. She quickly bounced up to Rainbow Dash’s cloud fortress of a home. “Rainbow Dash! Hey! Rainbow Dash are you home!?”
“Yo! Rainbow Dash!” Strings called.
After two minutes of hearing their calls, the rainbow-maned Pegasus burst from the clouds and backflipped her way down to them. She landed softly, and the look she wore on her face boasted her skills.
“Wow! That was super-duper spectacularmazing!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed at Rainbow’s ten backflips.
Strings remained silent, even though he was amazed. He decided not to bring attention to himself just yet. He completely remembered Rainbow Dash. He wondered if she remembered him.
“Thanks, Pinkie Pie. That was just something new that I decided to try”, Rainbow Dash replied.
“Rainbow Dash, I have a new friend I want you to meet!” Pinkie Pie moved to the side and presented Strings. “This is Bass Strings. He came to Sugarcube Corner in the middle of the night last night and needed a place to rest. I know what it’s like to be tired, so I let him come in and sleep. He also plays the guitar and he’s gonna teach me soon! He likes to prank just like us and—”
Rainbow Dash interrupted her, “Pinkie Pie, if you tell me everything right now, I won’t have anything left to learn.”
“Oh, good idea! I didn’t think about that”, the pink ball of energy stated.
Strings chuckled and grabbed Rainbow’s awaiting hoof. “Nice to see ya again, Rainbow Dash.”
Confused, Rainbow Dash asked, “Do I know you?”
Strings smirked. “You should. Manehattan’s thirteenth annual Battle of the Bands contest? Remember, I was the runner up?”
Rainbow Dash tried her best to rob her memory banks. Then, it clicked. “Oh, yeah! How can I forget such an awesome bass player?”
“You already know each other?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“Well, sorta. You see, Rainbow Dash and I both played in a big music contest a few years back. She played guitar and vocals so good that she was just one point away from a perfect score on her first run.”
“The next few judges had it in for me I tell ya”, Dash continued, “I had to play my hardest just to get a barely decent score.”
“They weren’t so easy on me either. I had to pull my best solos to get to the finals”, Strings explained.
“After that it was just me, him, and a rookie drummer”, Rainbow Dash told Pinkie Pie.
“Who won?” Pinkie Pie asked, astonished.
Rainbow Dash and Bass Strings looked at each other, then at the ground, smiling sheepishly.
“The rookie drummer”, they said in unison.
“Oh, well, I’m sure he just got lucky. I bet that he couldn’t beat you two now even if he tried”, Pinkie Pie said.
“And I still think it was rigged…” Rainbow Dash grumbled.
“I told ya back then, and I’ll say it again, Rainbow: I didn’t deserve second place. I messed up so many times that I should have gotten third”, Strings said to Rainbow Dash. He didn’t realize that he had just proved her point.
She huffed, and changed the subject. “I’m on weather patrol detail as of five minutes ago. I have to fly before I lose my job.”
She quickly spread her wings and rocketed into the sky, heading for the Weather Watch Post.
Strings looked at Pinkie Pie. She opened her mouth to say something, but suddenly, her tail started to twitch violently. Instinctively, she grabbed him, and jerked him aside.
Caught off guard, Strings lost his balance and fell to the ground, flat on his face.
Pinkie Pie giggled, “Sorry, but you almost got squished!”
Strings looked up to see a gray Pegasus scrambling to her hooves. She brushed herself off and reached into her mailbag and presented a letter to Strings. “Got a letter for ya!” Derpy Hooves announced.
Strings levitated the letter over to him. “Uh, thanks”, he said uneasily.
“Heya, Pinkie Pie!” Derpy greeted, walking over and hugging the Element of Laughter.
“Hi, Derpy! So, what happened this time?” Pinkie Pie replied cheerfully. She pointed to the Pegasus-shaped imprint in the dust of the path.
“Oh, I think I miscalculated the wind speed as I landed.” Derpy stated. She stretched her legs, “Sorry, I don’t have time to chat! Lots more letters to deliver!”
With that, she bolted into the air as Rainbow Dash had done a few minutes ago. Pinkie Pie bounced over to Strings, who had yet to open his letter.
“How’d you know she was going to land on me?” he asked, uninterested in the paper he was levitating.
“Oh, that was just my Pinkie Sense!” she simply responded.
“Pinkie Sense?” he asked, “That sounds so cool! What is it?”
“Well”, Pinkie Pie began, “it works like this. I get little, different feelings that mean different things.”
“What kinds of feelings?” Strings leaned closer to her.
“Well, when my tail gets twitchy, that means something’s gonna fall. If my ears starts flopping, that means somepony’s gonna get dirty! There’s a lot more too.”
“Whoa! That is some radical power. Can I learn how to do that?” Strings was nose to nose with her now.
He was making her tummy getting tickly again, but she still answered, “I don’t think I can teach you. The feelings come and go randomly. I don’t control it.” She shrugged and changed the subject, “What’s the letter say?”
Strings snapped back out of his thoughts. “Oh, yeah. Let’s take a look-see.”
He peeled the envelope open and levitated the letter out. In his mother’s hoofwriting, were the words:
To my Dearest Bass Strings:
I hope you are doing well on your journey. I write to you now to inform you that a very important pony has asked for you by name. I don’t know, but it would seem as if he is looking for your musical talents. I know that you will most likely turn him down, but I thought you may have wanted to know anyway. I sent his card with this letter for you to look at later.
I am feeling fine, so please do not worry. The main reason I am writing is to tell you that Snare and Bass have both come back to Melodyville. They came right to me and they wanted to apologize for what happened. I know how much you want to apologize to them too, but I told them you were still searching for Harmony. They have both already apologized to Sise, and she has done the same. Bass spoke for all of them when he said that he wanted to get the five of you back together.
Good luck in your search, Sweetheart. Don’t forget to stop by soon!
With lots of love,
Harp Strings A.K.A.: Your Mother
“It’s a letter from Mom”, Strings said, trying to conceal the mixture of feelings inside him. He teleported the letter to Pinkie Pie’s room where he could read over it again later.
Pinkie Pie jumped up, “Ooh, what’s it say, what’s it say!?”
“She wrote to tell me mom stuff”, Strings half-lied. His belly growled. “Oh, jeez. I can’t believe I didn’t eat breakfast.”
“Ooh! I know just the place to go for lunch!” Eagerly, Pinkie Pie grabbed his hoof and dragged him across Ponyville.
Strings didn’t even try to resist.