The moon was starting to take over as Dash made her way back into the cloudhouse. She had spent the whole day with Pinkie: first they went to eat something, and then watched movies over at her place. Sure it was fun, but regardless the pegasus could not wait to get back home. She was eager to find out what the book Pinkie gave her was about. With one last dash she gently landed in front of her cloudhouse, pushing the door open to enter.
Immediately the fresh air filled her lungs, and calmed her heartbeat down. She didn't realize how exhausting the flight was, being too excited about reading Pinkies book. Dash stood there for a second to wait until her breathing normalized before she let herself fall onto the couch. Carefully opening the book Pinkie gave her, she began to read it.
"Day #3..."
====
Pinkie was now back in her room, all alone in the bakery she had time to think. "Was it really a good Idea to give Dash that book?" she asked herself, as she thought about how this all started...
"Hm, wonder why we haven't seen Rainbow Dash or Rarity yet, the competition is almost over" Applejack wondered while watching the best young flier's competition come to an end. A couple of seconds passed before the announcer spoke up once again "And now for our final competitors of the day Number 15! Ehm... and contestant number 4?"
“This is it! This is Dashie's turn" Pinkie thought and started to cheer for her, bouncing up and down while screaming out her name.
Rarity started with her show, Dash hesitated for a second before also starting. She did some basic flight moves at first and failed. Nopony paid any attention to her as their focus was on Rarity's gorgeous wings. The unicorn flew up to the sun, but suddenly her wings evaporated and nothing was keeping her airborne any longer. She proceeded to fall to the ground. Dash realized this and went after her, picking up as much speed as possible. She reached the speed barrier but did not stop, instead she proceeded to speed up further, breaking it and releasing a huge ring. The colours resembled those of a rainbow and were so vibrant that the whole crowd just watched in awe. Everypony thought that the Rainboom was just a legend, everypony except Pinkie. She had seen it before, but she could not figure out where.
Later that same day, when everypony was back at home, Pinkie thought about where she seen the sonic rainboom before. She kept thinking and thinking, rummaging around in the depths of her mind. When she suddenly remembered where she had seen it: It was back at her home, in the old rock farm she worked on.
"That was when the first time 'her' voice resounded in my head" Pinkie muttered before continuing to recap what has happened so far.
She continued to recall what had happened back then. All of a sudden she broke down and started to hyperventilate as images of her father, standing before her with a knife, manifested in her mind. Once she started to remember her eyes were filled with tears.
"Why did he have to scare me like that...? It was for my own good he said, but why..." Pinkie stammered while shredding tears as more and more memories forcefully made their way into the mind of the pink pony. It continued until Pinkie could not handle it anymore, closing her eyes and covering her ears with her hooves she started to scream, hoping that it will end. "So much for happiness, so much for Pinkie!" A voice echoed inside of her head, it sounded like herself but with a more depressive tone into it. "You cannot trust anypony, keep that in mind. Soon they will all prove to be disloyal towards you." with those words chiding inside of her head she cried herself to sleep.
Pinkie found herself waking up on the ground; her eyes were puffy and red from the dried tears. She carefully lifted herself up and trotted towards her bed, laying on it. "My friends would never betray me" she thought before drifting back into her dreams.
"Yes, they would never do such a thing" Pinkie murmured.
Several days after this incident nothing mentionable occurred, and Pinkie carried on as if that night never happened. She hid behind her fake happy demeanor, being careful not to make her friends worry any more than necessary about her. Pinkie's assumption, that her friends would never betray her, validated. Her friends never showed any sign of disloyalty. At least until her birthday. On that fateful day the pink pony, in an attempt to make herself feel better, threw a party, in this instance celebrating the birthday of her pet alligator. The party went swell and Pinkie was happy, but she still felt a void inside of her which she tried to fill with another party. This time however none of her friends seemed able, or for that matter, willing to attend.
That's when the voice inside of her head resounded once again "I told you they are not trustworthy, they just wait for the best moments to hurt you! Its all secret and lies with those ponies, you call friends!"
"No, its not! They must have a reason for avoiding me..." she struggled with herself, even though she knew that inner voice of her was right.
"Oh really? This is the time to find out, the cyan pegasus, which you call "Dashie", is flying right above us" With those words resounding inside of her mind she lifted up her head and locked on to Dash with her eyes.
"WAIT!" she screamed out before following her. Rainbow however sped up upon seeing that the Pinkie was right behind her. A long chase ensued, and ended up with Dash flying inside of Applejacks barn, Pinkie demanded admittance. Applejack but refused to let her in and told her that there was nothing interesting going on, however the farmer pony was probably the worst liar in all of Equestria, so it was easy for Pinkie to figure out that she was lying. After realizing that she was getting nowhere, she trotted back towards her home.
"I told you they're all just playing with you, waiting to betray and hurt you the most."
This time Pinkie did no attempt in trying to stand up for her friends. The evidence was just too overwhelming. She concluded that the voice inside of her was right. There was no pony she could trust. That was the moment when Pinkie became tainted; her mind was not able to function properly as it normally did. Everything she thought about had a dark intonation to it, always assuming the worst of her friends.
Later that same night, despite learning that her friends had good reason for keeping her in the dark, Pinkie still found herself being paranoid about the ones around her. She was confused, she was lost and what was most important, she was alone.
The earth pony made her way up into the room, having a bad case of headache she immediately laid down onto her bed. "Stop being stupid Pinkie! Your friends love you; they never did and never will betray you. They would never want to see you hurt" she commanded herself, trying to believe in what she just thought as hard as she could. It worked; she persuaded herself that her friends would never deliberately hurt her. Happy that she was able to suppress the paranoia, Pinkie drifted into her dreams, hoping that she could find peace and rest there.
She was wrong...