//------------------------------//
// The park 
// Story: Popping her balloons. 
// by FinnPony 
//------------------------------//


Popping her balloons, Chapter 5
By FinnPony


“What’s happening over there?” Twilight asked from four other mares that were pressed up against a door.
“Aww... They are hugging..” Fluttershy said while peeking through the keyhole of the door..
“Aww...” the five other mares joined her. Then Applejack pushed the yellow pegasus from the door gently. Fluttershy let out a small eep, but Applejack hushed her, and said quietly, “Shh Sugarcube, I’ll take just a quick look.”
“Why..” White unicorn with purple mane started to slur, but a hiccup stopped her. “Why can’t I have a look?”
“Because you can’t even stand up straight Rarity,” Rainbow Dash chuckled while playfully nuzzling closer to Applejack, so she could look through the keyhole too. Applejack chuckled and threw her hoof over Rainbow’s shoulder. Meanwhile Rarity let out a small hmph and started to slur with her drunken voice again, “Its not my fault that.. *hic* ..that Pinkie made the punch too strong.”
“Thunderlane had as many as you did, and he’s just fine,” Rainbow continued quietly while looking through the keyhole with Applejack. Rarity leaned against the wall next to the door and said loudly, “I am a mare.. And he is a sat.. stallo.. Stallion!”
Others chuckled amusedly, but then they heard hoofsteps coming closer on the other side of the door.
“Quick, hide!” Fluttershy ‘shouted’ and everypony started to rush towards the stairs, squealing like teenager foals. Even Twilight, who considered herself more mature than her other friends.

Door opened and embarrassed looking Pokey Pierce and happily gleeing Pinkie Pie came from the room. They were holding each other’s front legs and could still hear the playful shrieks from the stairs. Music from the shop was now a little bit quieter than before.
“Were they watching us all the time?” Pokey asked, sounding nervous. Pinkie Pie just giggled and held Pokey’s leg a bit tighter.
“They are a bit silly,” she said and bounced besides Pokey towards the stairs. Pokey chuckled nervously, and said, “I hope they didn’t get a wrong idea about us.”
Pinkie gave him a strange look and blinked her eyes like she always did when she was confused or didn’t understand something.
“What do you mean?” she asked while walking down the stairs with Pokey. He shrugged and muttered, “Well you know.. They might think that..” he chuckled nervously again. “That we are.. t-together?”

Pinkie Pie saw that Pokey was blushing, and that he tried to look away from her. She pulled Pokey from his hoof and pressed her side against his. Pinkie wore her trademark ear to ear smile when she asked, “We aren’t?”
“Are we?” Pokey asked, trying to sound calm, but his voice broke down into a high pitched squeak. Pinkie looked at him with a warm gaze and she said quietly, “I think we are.”


* * *


It was a partly cloudy sunday afternoon in Ponyville.  
Sugarcube Corner was closed on sundays, but it was still full of life that day. There was six mares sitting around one extremely over over-decorated room. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were laying on Pinkie’s bed, snuggling with each other. Rarity was brushing through Fluttershy’s long pink mane, and Twilight was sitting on a couch with Pinkie Pie.

“So how is he like?” Rarity asked while running a brush down Fluttershy’s mane with her magic. 
“Oh, I thought that you knew Pokey?” Pinkie asked from her while lazing on the couch. Twilight chuckled next to her, and said, “I think Rarity meant that how is he like as a coltfriend.”
Pinkie rubbed her chin with her hoof while answering, “I don’t know yet.”
That made other five mares gave her confused looks.
“How can’t you know yet?” Rainbow asked from Pinkie while Applejack was playing with her tail. Pinkie shrugged and said calmly, “Well we haven’t really spent any time together yet.”
“Well maybe you should Sugarcube,” Applejack said, instantly followed by loud slap and Applejack grunting. Everypony turned towards the sound, and they saw her rubbing her snout from the spot where Rainbow’s tail had hit her. Others chuckled at them but then their interest went back to the pink mare laying on the couch.
“Yeah. Maybe I should,” she said and smiled to her friends mysteriously. They didn’t notice it though, and continued their non-stop bombardment of questions. 
“Have you anything planned with him?” Twilight asked from the happily smiling mare, who turned towards her and said cheerily, “Nah. Planning is more like your thing Twilight. I just go with the flow.”
“So you two don’t plan anything together?” Fluttershy asked, sounding shocked. “I can’t do anything with Big Mac if we don’t plan everything carefully.
Pinkie let out a small ‘pfft’ and flopped down from the couch. 
“You girls always think too much,” she told her friends as she was walking towards the door of her room.  I always trust that everything will go just fine by itself.”

Others looked at her confusedly, as she made her way towards the door. She took a hold of the handle, and swung the door open. All of her friends’ mouth opened in surprise when they saw a blue unicorn with frizzled white mane. He had surprised, almost scared expression on his face and a bouquet of pink flowers in his other hoof. He blinked and stared at Pinkie with his ears folded backwards.
“Hi Pokey!” Pinkie said and hugged the surprised stallion. “Whatcha doing here?”
“I-I thought that m-maybe you wanted to go out with me today?” he muttered. Pinkie let go of him and turned towards her friends.
“See girls? I told you!” she said to the five dumbfounded mares in her room. Pokey looked happier, but still confused. He looked at smiling Pinkie, and asked, “How did you know that I was just behind the door?”
“I didn’t!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed happily. “I just felt like I should open the door.”
Pokey looked at her strangely for a second before shaking his head. He then presented the bouquet of flowers to the mare in front of him.
“I remember Thunderlane saying that mares like flowers so I bought some for you,” Pokey said. He could hear Rarity sighing behind Pinkie.
“Oh yes. They look really yummy,” Pinkie said. Pokey chuckled and started, “Glad you lik.. Wait. What?”
Before he could do anything Pinkie grasped the flowers from his hoof and was already munching them before Pokey even realized what was going on. He and Pinkie’s five other friends stared at the flower eating pony with confused looks on their faces.
“Mmh.. Oh yeah. the pink ones are the best,” she said while swallowing down the rest of the flowers. She swept couple of pink petals from her  finished with a small girly burp and a giggle. Her friends looked at her with strange expressions on their faces. She frowned and said, “What? We eat daisies all the time!” 
Pokey stared at her blankly, but a smile appeared on his face when Pinkie Pie nuzzled his chin and thanked him sweetly.

“So are we going?” Pinkie asked with enthusiasm in her voice. Pokey nodded to her and Pinkie quickly turned towards her friends and said, “Okay girls, gotta go! You can stay here as long as you like. There’s some cake downstairs!”
She then pressed herself against blushing Pokey and closed the door behind her.

As the pair walked out from the room, five mares sat on their places, mouth open and eyes wide from confusion. Applejack was first to snap away from the confused trance they were in. She looked at others and she asked, “How does she do it?”
“Don’t try to figure it out. You’ll just get a headache,” Twilight said with a voice of experience.


* * *


“Did they buy it?” Pinkie asked while trying to hold a giggle. 
“Yeah. They really think that you knew I was coming,” Pokey said as he was looking through the keyhole in the door to Pinkie’s room.
“Well I did know you were coming. It was pretty much the idea of our prank,” Pinkie said while rubbing the top of Pokey’s head. He grunted and turned to look at her.
“You know what I mean,” he said with slightly annoyed tone. Pinkie giggled and pulled 
Pokey up from his hoof. She then started to drag him downstairs with her.
“Eating those flowers was pretty nice extra to the prank too,” Pokey said while they walked down the stairs. “The look on their faces were priceless.”
Pinkie looked at him with a small smile and raised eyebrow.
“Extra?” Pinkie asked, making Pokey look at her with confused smile on his face. He chuckled and asked, “You actually ate those flowers because they tasted good?”
“Yeah!” Pinkie exclaimed. “I can’t see why ponies won’t eat flowers more often. Everypony eats daffodils and daisies, so why not roses and dandelions?”

Pokey just chuckled at her again and thought that maybe she was right.

After they got out from Sugarcube Corner, Pokey asked from the mare next to him, “So what do you wanna do?”
“I did some planning actually...” Pinkie started but was interrupted by Pokey saying, “I heard you saying that thinking wasn’t your thing”
“Crazy, right?” Pinkie giggled and continued to brief Pokey about their date, “Well I thought we could do something fun,”

“What a surprise.”

“Really? I thought that you would have guessed that.”

Pokey rolled his eyes but was still smiling though. Something in Pinkie just wouldn’t let him frown at her. Pinkie didn’t notice Pokey rolling his eyes so she continued, “And do you know what is fun?”
“Well, tell me,” Pokey said, and Pinkie took a deep breath. She started to whisper, “There’s fun in…”


* * *


“...an amusement park!” Pinkie exclaimed and threw her hooves in the air in front of the gates that lead to the theme park full of roller-coasters, ferris wheels, water and train rides and unfortunately for Pokey a ghost train too. There was also all different kind of places where to eat.
“I was getting a bit nervous when you didn’t speak for the whole time we were walking here. It was like thirty minutes,” Pokey said, looking at stupidly grinning Pinkie Pie.
“Hehe.. Sorry about that,” she said and gave Pokey a small smile. He smiled back at her and asked, “Shall we?”

Pinkie nodded happily and reached her hoof towards Pokey’s. He took a hold of it and they proceeded to the ticket booth. Pokey bought two bracelets so they could spent the whole day in there, because he knew that with Pinkie as his companion that would be highly possible.
“Have a nice day,” the mare in the ticket booth said with a smile when Pokey had bought the bracelets.  He helped Pinkie with her own, which was hard because she was jumping on her place, eager to get to the park already.
“Stay put for a second,” he said while trying to attach the bracelet to Pinkie’s foreleg. She stopped jumping but kept bobbing on her place and whined, “I wanna go alreadyyy...”
“Just a second… There!” Pokey said when he finally managed to tighten the bracelet around Pinkie’s ankle. He didn’t manage to say anything else because Pinkie rocketed into the park in pink blur. Pokey quickly trotted after her.

The park was pretty crowded that day. There were lots of foals running around with their nervous and tired looking parents after them. Pokey looked around himself, trying to spot his pink companion. He didn’t see Pinkie anywhere for a while and kept walking forward. Just as Pokey was starting to think that he would probably spent the rest of the day in the park alone, he heard a bright voice calling him from behind.

Pokey turned around and jumped a little when he saw a pony sized, brown teddy bear standing behind him. He took couple of steps backwards before Pinkie Pie peeked from behind the teddy bear, giggling happily.
“Look what I won!” she said and wiggled the big stuffed toy in front of Pokey. Pokey was confused. Pinkie had been away for less than five minutes, and she had already won gigantic teddy bear from one of the game stall.
“Wow Pinkie,” was all Pokey could say while he examined the bear. Pinkie giggled and threw the toy to Pokey while saying, “You can have it.”
Pokey almost fell to his back when he catched the gigantic toy. Luckily he was unicorn, so he could lift the bear with his magic. Pokey placed the toy to his back and said, “Thanks Pinkie.”
“No problemo! I thought that it was almost as cute as you, so you should have it!” Pinkie chirped, making Pokey blush.
It was then, when Pokey noticed that Pinkie was pulling a cart behind herself. Pokey had no idea where she had gotten it, but it was full of toys. He blinked confusedly couple of times before he asked, “Where did you get those?”
“I won them!” Pinkie exclaimed, smiling widely. Pokey stared at the cart full of toys stupidly for a minute before he realized that it was Pinkie Pie who he was talking with.

“So what do you want to do next?” Pokey asked from her, totally ignoring the cart which she was pulling. Pinkie quickly looked around herself and then gasped. Pokey looked where she was looking and saw probably the biggest roller-coaster in whole park. It’s name was ‘Super twister 9000”. Her eyes glimmered and she exclaimed, “I want to go there!”
“Oh boy..” Pokey sighed.


* * *


“Whee! That was fun!” Pinkie giggled as she bounced away from the ’Super twister 9000’. She was followed by Pokey, whose normally blue coat was now almost white. He shook a little and his mane was all messed up.
“Wanna go again?” Pinkie asked from him, not noticing his scared expression.
“M-maybe l-later,” he muttered and started to shape his mane with his shaky hooves. Pinkie seemed a bit disappointed, so Pokey quickly added, “Would you like to go to that log ride over there?”
Pinkie’s eyes started to shimmer and she nodded happily. Pokey sighed from relief. It was one of the more calmer rides the park had. He could gather more courage there, before going again to that hellish roller-coaster that almost had stopped his heart.
Pinkie Pie and Pokey walked to the cart Pinkie had with her. Pokey lifted the teddy bear back to his back with his magic, while Pinkie attached herself back to the cart. They started to walk through the park. 

Pokey soon noticed that Pinkie was looking at him with a bit concerned look in her eyes. Before he could ask what was wrong, Pinkie asked with serious tone, “Are you sure that you are having fun?”
Pokey was confused by that question, and answered, “Of course I’m having fun. What makes you think that I’m not having fun?”
“You didn’t sound like you were having fun while we were up there,” Pinkie said and pointed at the top of the roller-coaster they had been couple of minutes ago. Pokey could see a set of trains going down the rails in high speed. He gulped and said, “Well… I’m not a big fan of heights.”
Pinkie Pie gasped and stopped.
“Why didn’t you say so?” she asked. “If I’d known that you are afraid of heights…”
“It’s okay Pinkie.” Pokey said to her, smiling warmly. She smiled a little too, but then asked, “Is there anything else you don’t like?”
Pokey thought for a second and looked unsure. Pinkie gave him a assuring look and said, “You can tell me.”
Pokey sighed and lowered his ears. He looked at Pinkie and said, “I don’t like the ghost-train or any spinning things and roller-coasters.”
Pinkie looked sadly at him and said, holding her hoof on Pokey’s shoulder, “It’s okay Pokey. You don’t need to go if you don’t want to.”
“But then you would be sad,” Pokey said and sat on the ground, placing the teddy bear next to him. He was surprised by Pinkie chuckling. She sat down next to him and said, “I’m sad only when you are.”
That made Pokey smile.
“Well I can’t let her be sad now can I?” Pokey thought and smiled at Pinkie, who smiled back at him. She quickly leaned closer to Pokey and hugged him. Pokey chuckled and hugged her back while saying, “Thanks Pinkey. You sure know how to cheer up others.”
“That’s my thing,” she said while nuzzling her snout against Pokey’s neck.

Their hug was interrupted by a young foals voice behind them, “Wow. You got so many toys.”
They turned their heads towards the voice, and saw three foals standing around Pinkie’s cart. One of them was a blue filly with deeper blue mane and violet eyes. Other two were colts. They were probably brothers, because they shared the same coat color and looked pretty much the same in general. They had admiring look in their eyes as they looked at the small mountain of all the plushies, robots and everything else in the cart.
“Where did you get all these?” the other colt asked from Pinkie.
“I won them from that booth over there,” Pinkie said and pointed at a booth with ‘ring tossing’ sign over it. The filly looked at the booth with his mouth open.
“I tried it, but it was too hard for me. I didn’t win anything,” she said with sad pout on her face. Pinkie patted the filly on the back and said cheerily, “Aww. Don’t be sad. You can take one from the cart.”
“Really!?” the filly asked with her eyes wide as plates.
“Really!” Pinkie confirmed. Then she looked at the two colts, who were now staring at her with wide eyes too. She giggled and said, “You two can take one too.”
The foals looked at each other for a second, before starting to smile broadly.
“Thanks Pinkie!” they all exclaimed at the same time and started to go through the cart. The filly took a cute plushie that resembled Princess Celestia. Other colt took a pack of green toy royal guards, while the other one took a small plastic chariot with two small pegasuses flying it. They then started to run towards their parents while giggling happily.

Pokey looked at the happy foals and then turned towards the smiling Pinkie Pie.
“Pinkie..” he started. “That was really kind.”
“I know. I just love to see ponies happy. And I have lots of toys of my own, so I don’t need these,” she explained and then turned towards Pokey, who was starting to think how much he cared about that pink mare in front of him.
“She’s kind and funny. I feel great while I’m with her...” Pokey thought. A small wry smile appeared on his face as he thought, “And she’s really beautiful.”
“Pokey...” Pinkie suddenly said and started to lean closer to him.
“Yes?” Pokey asked, perking up  and staring right into her eyes. Pinkie too looked into his eyes as she started, “Would you like to…”
“Yes?” Pokey asked again and almost started to purse his lips. Pinkie leaned closer and Pokey closed his eyes.
“...Help me to give these toys to the foals in here?” Pinkie finished his sentence, snapping Pokey out of his trance. He blushed scarlet red and muttered nervously, “Uhh... Yeah! Sure…”
Pinkie smiled to him and stood up. Pokey too stood up, thinking how embarrassed he felt.


* * *


Couple of hours and almost two hundred toys later Pinkie Pie and Pokey were walking towards the main gates of the amusement park. It was getting darker but there was still couple of hours more daytime left.
Pinkie had only one more toy in her cart anymore. It was a small puppy dog plush toy. She walked happily next to Pokey, who was still carrying his gigantic teddy bear on his back.
Pinkie Pie sighed quietly while looking at Pokey. He smiled to himself while thinking something. She didn’t know what it was but Pinkie was glad that her companion was enjoying himself. She kept looking at Pokey for a while.
“Umm.. hello,” she heard from behind her. Pinkie turned around and saw a little filly with brown coat and red mane behind her. She smiled and bend over towards the filly.
“Hello there. Are you looking for a toy?” she asked. The filly nodded shyly and said with a 
small voice, “Coconut said that you had some.”
“I sure do!” Pinkie said and took the puppy plushie from the cart. She presented the toy to the filly, who immediately started to smile.
“I hope you like puppy dogs, because I only have this one left,” Pinkie said. The filly nodded eagerly and reached towards the toy. Pinkie gave it to her and rubbed her head. The filly pressed the dog to his chest and exclaimed, “Thanks Pinkie!”
“You’re welcome!” she said happily and watched the filly trot towards her family.

Pinkie Pie watched the filly run, and soon felt a hoof on her shoulder. She turned around and saw Pokey standing next to her with that teddy bear still on his back. He had a warm smile on his lips as he pulled Pinkie closer to himself. Pinkie Pie giggled and pressed herself against Pokey so that her head was leaning against his neck.
“You know Pinkie… I really had fun today,” Pokey said while looking down at her. She looked back at Pokey and said, “Me too.”
Pokey smiled and for a second it looked like he was going to say something. He opened his mouth, but closed it as his eyes fixated onto something in front of him. 

Pinkie looked where he was looking and saw a unicorn mare and earth pony stallion standing in front of a skee ball booth with their little filly. The filly couldn’t be more than five years old. She was standing in front of the ramp and had a ball in her hooves. Pinkie saw that it was her last ball. Her score was presented on a small screen next to the machine. She had forty points in total. Not a bad score, but it wasn’t enough for the smallest prize. She needed to get at least twenty points.
The filly focused to the twenty points hole, and pushed the ball towards the ramp. Pinkie Pie and Pokey were holding their breaths as the ball flew towards the hole. It hit the edge of it, and fell to the ten points hole.

The look on filly’s face made Pinkie Pie’s heart break in two. She lifted her hoof to her mouth when the salespony in the booth told the small filly that she hadn’t won anything. Her parents looked at each other, and the mare knelt in front of her foal, trying to cheer her up. The filly hung her head and drooped her ears, looking just downright sorrowful. Pinkie could see her eyes getting wetter.
“Oh no.. I have to give her one of..” she started but then remembered that she had no more toys left in her cart. She gasped and turned back towards the sad foal. She didn’t know what to do. 
Suddenly she felt how Pokey took his hoof away from her shoulder. She saw Pokey walking towards the family.
“What is he up to?” Pinkie thought and walked after him.

Pokey walked towards the now crying filly. He lifted the teddy bear from his back with his magic and levitated it towards the filly. He wiggled it close to her in his golden magical aura. The filly and her parents turned towards the teddy bear and Pokey.
“That was mighty fine throw there young lady,” Pokey started and smiled to the filly. “You earned yourself the grand prize!”
The filly and her parents looked at smiling Pokey. She had stopped crying, and was staring at the stuffed toy that was twice her size. Pokey made the toy dance with his magic, and to his joy the filly started to giggle. She reached her hooves towards the stuffed toy and Pokey released it from his magical grasp. The small filly giggled and hugged the teddy bear. She then turned towards her parents and exclaimed with her clear and excited voice, “Look what I won!”
“Oh that’s wonderful dear,” filly’s mother said happily while her husband patted Pokey on the back. He silently thanked Pokey for what he had done. The filly too looked at Pokey with happy smile on her face. 
“Thanks mister,” she chirped as his mother lifted the teddy bear with her magic. She placed it onto her husbands back and then lifted her foal to her back. She then smiled at Pokey and said, “You just made her day.”
Pokey nodded and then the family started to move towards the gates. The filly turned around one last time and waved at Pokey, who waved back at her with smile on his lips.

After he didn’t see the family anymore, he turned around and saw Pinkie Pie with watery eyes.
“Are you okay Pinkie?” Pokey asked from Pinkie Pie, who sobbed, “I.. I.. That was just so nice and kind and..”
She didn’t say anything else, or let Pokey say anything. She just threw her hooves around Pokey’s neck and pressed her lips to Pokey’s. It got Pokey completely by surprise. His eyes shot wide open and she looked at the crying mare who was kissing him. He glanced around himself while still having Pinkie’s lips locked to his. Many other ponies around them were looking at them with interested looks and some of the mares were even giggling.
Pokey felt how Pinkie tightened her hold around his neck. He looked back at her and saw that her eyes were now open. When he stared into those blue eyes, he started to wonder why he was so nervous. Pinkie blinked her watery eyes, making her eyelashes flutter cutely.
He leaned into the kiss, making Pinkie let out a small squeak. Pokey placed his other foreleg to back of Pinkie’s head, sinking his hoof into her fluffy pink mane. Pinkie Pie giggled into his mouth a little when Pokey leaned even more forward. She was now holding herself from falling onto her back, still sunken into the bliss of the kiss. 

Soon they both got an urge to breath, so they broke the kiss. They heard somepony laughing and cheering. Both of them were blushing hard and snickering while rubbing their muzzles together. Pokey kept leaning forward so that Pinkie had to keep her forelegs around Pokey’s neck.
“That... That was fun,” Pinkie said shyly.
“Yeah..” Pokey said before lifting Pinkie up. “Actually it was so fun that maybe we can do it again sometime?”
Pinkie Pie giggled and hugged Pokey. She nuzzled her muzzle to Pokey’s chin and said with sultry voice, “We surely can.”