//------------------------------//
// 13: Pinkie Uses Sweet Talk 
// Story: Bring the Thunder 
// by Ze Guest 
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Everybody was starting to look worried again, wondering who was going to be next to be tested. But I had a plenty good feeling that I won't have to do these things. Let's face it, they aren't my elements, they'er their's. I can tell that sooner or later, though, I'm going to feel guilty being the only one who didn't have to do that. 

Astheno was swooping around today so we didn't know whether to turn or keep going straight.  

"Hay! Would it kill ya to fly a bit straighter?" I said to her.

Astheno looked back at me for a bit. I can see now that she's got a sense of humor. Astheno made started go a little wider, then a little more so. Her movements were getting slower and wider by the second. Everybody giggled, except me, of course.

"Yeah, yeah, that's real cute, Miss, but we have somewhere to be. You don't want to come back to Canterlot to find out it doesn't even exist anymore, would you?"

Astheno slowly started to get faster, but not straighter. Before I could say anymore, I realized I had lost the battle, so I said nothing more. I wondered if this thing was battery powered because she kept going on and on.

"OW!" Pinkie Pie shouted. It was so loud you could probably hear it all over the world. 

"Pinkie! Are you okay? What happened?" Twilight said, alarmed.

"Oh, I just stepped on a rock, no biggie!" she said in a happy-go-lucky way.

Twilight let out a breath she was holding in. "Okay, good. Just, please don't be so loud if you do it again."

"Okay!" Pinkie said. 

As for me, well, I wish I knew where I was going because there was a huge explosion. I flew back, shouting in pain. My back left hoof, Dear Celestia! I couldn't believe it. The worst pain I had ever experienced. What could be worse than getting stabbed, beaten, water torture and kicked in the balls, all at once? And I'll tell you. Stubbing... your... hoof. And on a boulder stuck to the ground. I rolled on the floor in blistering pain of the unexpected shock of one's subbing of the hoof. It felt like there was a whole civil war on my hoof as everybody stared down at me, completely unimpressed. 

"Volt, what happened?" Applejack said in the most monotone voice I had ever heard.

"I stubbed my hoof!" I shouted.

They looked at each other, still looking bored out of there minds. 

" Volt," Rainbow Dash said." You're being a baby. Get up and walk it off."

I slowly got up. "Okay, I'll try." I said.

"You stubbed your hoof, not had your leg cut off." Rainbow Dash said.

I stood up, my hoof still killing me. Luckily, though, I was able to walk. And I can't be sure, but I think I lost some respect on this day.

"What is with all these rocks? And it only looks like it's getting thicker." Twilight said.

She was right, and who knows, maybe, due to an accident, someone else might feel my pain. That might just happen. He he he. As we walked farther and farther, more rocks were coming out of nowhere. After a little while of this, Astheno just stopped. She sat on a boulder and did nothing except stare at us.

"Rocks, rocks, rocks, rocks, rocks, rocks, rocks! Reminds me of a young fellow I used to know..."

There he was again, that ghost. He was just walking through the fields, picking up rocks and throwing them behind his back. Then he turned to look at us. "Oh! Hello again. Rainbow Dash." he said, possibly looking at Rainbow Dash.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Well, to do another test with one of your friends, why else?" 

He picked up another rock. It was covered in moss and he started to peel it away. "Now, I- I know at least one of you have something to do with rocks, but I just can't place my hoof on it. Who was it?"

Pinkie Pie started to back up slowly. Hoping no one would see her. Ironically, it drew all the attention to her.

"You!" he shouted happily. "Your the one I've been looking for!" He pulled something out of the ground. "Than this must be yours!" It was another element. Unlike the last one that had a bolt of lightning on it, this one... I don't know, a balloon maybe? He laid it down on the ground.

"Uh..." Was all Pinkie could make out.

"You remember these, don't you?" the ghost said with a hoof-full of rocks and pebbles.

"Y-Yeah." she said.

"I can already see the sadness of your memories rushing back to you. But this test should be easy for you! You've already done it before. Let us see if you can do it again!"

Pinkie looked at him confused. "What do you mean?"

"What do I mean? The one event that started your legacy is what I mean! Remember the time when you gifted your family to that wonderful party. Their very first one?"

Pinkie Pie grew a little smile on her face. That must have been quite a day. "Yeah, I remember that." her face looked proud for a few more seconds, but started to shrink back down again. "So what do I do?" she asked.

"Just like what you did to your family, you will be bringing joy to the sullen and unfortunate," The ghost cocked his head to the rest of us. "Oh! I almost forgot." and quickly, we were in another blue force field.

Now, instead of some guy just popping out of nowhere, we seemed to magically appear in a casino. It was spacious and nice-looking. It even had a waterfall in it, a small one that is. There were ponies playing Poker and Black Jack and a bar with a guy sitting there, lonely and quiet. Nobody seemed to notice us, though.

"Where are we?" Pinkie Pie asked the ghost.

"Oh, I don't know, some casino in the middle of nowhere." He said. "Now you see that poor fellow over there?" He asked, pointing a hoof to the stallion sitting alone at the bar. "He's been facing some tough times. His daughter was just brutally murdered and his wife left him. All he can do now is sit down and drink his problems away. Unless, that is, you could bring a smile to his still young face. If your good at making ponies laugh, this won't be too hard." 

Pinkie Pie look unsure. I mean, if I were that guy, I would want space. Pinkie Pie put a smile on her face and walked over. "Hello sir!" She said in a perky tone. "How are you?" she asked.

The stallion turned to face her. He had red fur. "Can I help you?" he asked quietly. He quickly jumped back in shock.

Pinkie Pie turned to look at us, he had a very realistic-looking mustache on. I snorted at the absurdity of it. "I'm here to put a smile on your cute little face!" She said.

"Please, not now. I-I've got a lot going on." the stallion said, and he took a sip of his, what I believed to be, Scotch.

"Nonsense!" Pinkie said pulling off the mustache. "All I want to do is see you smile." She said." What could I do for you?"

The stallion shook his head. "Are you a prostitute of something? Because if you are, you picked a bad time."

Pinkie Pie didn't look to flattered by the remark, but pressed on. "No, I'm not. I just want to help." she said.

"Well, if you want to help then leave, now." 

"I won't leave until I see a smile." Pinkie Pie said.

She pulled some kind of... cannon? I've never seen it before, and with its size, I probably should have. Pinkie pulled a string and confetti shot into the air. The pressure seemed to hit the stallion hard both physically and emotionally. He got up and punched Pinkie Pie in the throat. "Hay! You prick!" I shouted. That bastard just punched a friend of mine. Well, the feeling might not be mutual, but I consider her a friend.

"You want to see a smile!?" He boomed at Pinkie Pie. He make a fake smile and danced around in a silly way. "There ya go! Now get the hell out of here!"

I raised a hoof and I was going to break out of this thing and slap his face. But the ghost stopped me. "Not yet." he said.

"What do you mean not yet?' I asked. But the ghost ignored me and walked out of the force field.

The room was dead quiet. Everybody was looking at Pinkie Pie and the stallion. He slumped back in his seat and started to sob. "Dear Celestia, look at me." he said to himself.

As for Pinkie Pie, she had tears in her eyes and she could hardly breath. The ghost knelt next to her. "Don't worry. It's not over until you want it to." 

Pinkie Pie wiped the tears from her eyes and got up. She sat down next to the red stallion. Pinkie Pie had just blown my mind. "I'm sorry," she said. "I've had a hard life myself and- and I just wanted to make you and me both forget for a little while." she said with her head hung low.

The stallion slightly turned his head to Pinkie Pie. "You don't know when to quit, do you?" he asked. He swiveled his chair towards her. "Your nose, it's bleeding." he picked up a napkin from the table.

"No, no. It's alright, I got it," she said. "I have weak skin, I bled a lot on the rock farm." and wiped the blood off her nose with her foreleg. 

The stallion raised an eyebrow. "Rock farm? No, you seem to carefree to have worked on a rock farm." he said.

"Oh no, not just worked. I was born and raised." 

"Really?" 

"Yep! Sometimes when I would bleed, my mom would tell me to go get a jar and pour some of it in there to donate to the hemophiliacs and get some money."

And to our surprise, the stallion started to laugh.

"I guess your mother was a hardy one, huh?" the stallion asked.

"Yeah. And my father didn't stand a chance against her, when she'd scowl at you it would be worse than having a gun to your head." Pinkie Pie said.

The stallion was laughing a little harder.

"Whenever you would disagree with her she would say: "Don't you dare say no! If you want to live a free life, live in the streets. And I'll tell you this, you will beg and cry for mercy and I will do nothing help you!" And we would always listen to her." Pinkie said, mimicking her mother's voice.

"Well my mother was never like that," the stallion said with a smile on his face." She was always so kind and sweet. My father was the one you would have to be afraid of. He was always yelling and you could never even tell what he was saying! My friends made up this game where every time he would yell at us, we would try to make out as many words as possible. When he finished, we would huddle together and tell each other how many words we got." 

They were both laughing hysterically now. The ghost popped up next to me. "So, how are you?" he asked.

I didn't know what to say, I just shrugged.

"Well, you hold a lot of secrets, don't you?" he asked.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I'll tell you later. Take good care of Twilight for me, will you?" 

"What?" I turned around to face him, but he was back outside, watching Pinkie Pie and the stallion talk.

"Look," the stallion said, rubbing the back of his neck,"I'm sorry about before." 

"Oh don't worry about it, I forgive you!" Pinkie Pie said, smiling widely.

"I'm Wind Rush." the stallion said with a hoof out.

"I'm Pinkie Pie." And they shook.

And we were back in the field of rocks. Pinkie Pie looked around in hope of finding Wind Rush, but it was no use. "What happened?" she asked.

"That's it, you're done!" the ghost said. "You did what you had to and this is your reward." He tossed her the element to Pinkie Pie.

"But what about-" Pinkie choked up. I could tell she liked Wind Rush.

"Oh, him? I don't know where he is, he's somewhere. But you made him a little happier today."

"Oh..." Pinkie looked down seeming a little upset.

"Cheer up," The ghost said, "You helped your friends get farther into there adventure! You did a good thing!" 

The force-field went down, but we stood still. We didn't know what to do.

"So we just go now?" Pinkie asked, sadly.

The ghost nodded.

"Will I ever see him again?" she asked.

"That's your choice." he said.

Pinkie Pie stood there for a few seconds and she turned around. "Let's go." she said.

"Oh! wait!" The ghost came running back. "I forgot to give you this." He handed her a rock.

"What am I gonna do with this?" Pinkie asked, looking down at it.

"Keep it," he said. "Maybe not in your lifetime, but someday, that rock will become a beautiful thing, much like that gem on your necklace there," He pointed at the element. " That was once a rock, too. Even ugly things can become wonderful." And the ghost vanished. As for Pinkie Pie, she smiled a little and put the rock in her bag.