Chapter 2: In Which Pinkie Pie Meets New Friends
Now, Tigger knew very well where Kanga’s house was, having visited there many times before. His very good friend, Roo, lived there after all. They also spent quite a bit of time bouncing together.
However, in his excitement at having a new friend to bounce with, who seemed oh so very good at it, he had somehow gotten himself, and by association, Pinkie Pie, very well lost. Or, at least, rather far from where they had originally set off to be. For, after bouncing, and pouncing, for quite some time, they came across a rather large and well-tended farm.
Tigger came to a halt at the bridge in front of Rabbit’s house. “Oh, well, that’s not right. This doesn’t look anything like Kanga’s house. Unless Bunny-boy’s done moved his farm clear across the forest, which I doubt, then we musta got twisty-turned arounded,” he reasoned. He looked to Pinkie Pie. “Well, while we’re here, mind if I say ‘hi’ to old long-ears?”
Pinkie Pie stopped and thought about this for a moment. But only a moment. “Okie Dokie! Say, what’s a ‘Long-Ears’?”
As if to answer her question, Tigger smiled a great big smile, and crept up behind a patch of cabbages. Peering over them, he saw Rabbit lovingly tending to his rows of carrots with a gardening hoe. Pinkie Pie watched curiously as Tigger stalked the strange-looking (at least to her) rabbit doing his chores. Then, all of a sudden, he pounced.
Jumping over the vegetables, Tigger flew into Rabbit, and the two tumbled over and over, making a great big mess of things and generally getting dirt and carrots everywhere. Eventually, they came to a stop, and, as was often the case, Rabbit found himself looking up with a Tigger on his stomach. “Oof, Tigger! Look at all the work you just undid!”
“Hoo hoo hoo, nice to see you too, Bunny-Boy. Say, lemme introduce you to my friend here,” he said, helping Rabbit to his feet. He waved a very big wave at Pinkie Pie, who hopped carefully through the rows of carrots, cabbages, and tomatoes. “Say hello to... uh, to... Pinkie Pie! Yeah, that’s it!”
The bright pink pony came to a stop, or rather, stopped moving forward, in front of Rabbit. She still bounced up and down as she introduced herself. “Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie! So you’re a ‘Long-ears’! Nice to meet you! Say, you look a lot like a rabbit, except you’re really tall for a rabbit, aren’t you? You’re even taller than me! Like, those ears are huuuuuuge wheredyaget’em?” she asked excitedly. In fact, she said all of this rather quickly, and Rabbit was soon very confused.
“I... uh, well, that is to say... my name’s not ‘Long Ears’,” he said grumpily. He gave Tigger a disapproving look, who seemed to disregard it with a smile and a bounce in place. “My name is Rabbit. It’s nice to meet you... Pinkie Pie?” he asked, rather confused. Which was to be expected, as he had never seen anything quite like the pink pony before in his life. Christopher Robin’s friends usually weren’t so... colorful.
“Yup, that’s me! I’m from Ponyville! I just blew in here on a reaaaaalllly strong wind, and flew right into Tigger’s house! I even lost my cake on the way! So we’re going over to Kanga’s house to get some new cakes! Cause I can’t go home without cakes, cause I’m supposd to be bringing cake back from the Cakes’, but I figured if I’m here I might as well get some cakes to bring back!” Again, she spoke so quickly and with such enthusiasm that both Tigger and Rabbit looked at each other, both expecting the other to have an answer.
Rabbit sighed, and leaned his gardening hoe on his shoulder. “Well, Pinkie Pie, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not Kanga and I don’t have any cakes. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a great deal of work to do. All of that wind earlier made a great big mess of my garden,” again, he stared disapprovingly at Tigger, “and being bounced while I’m working hasn’t been of any help.” Without another word, he went back to work, taking his hoe to the dirt and straightening the lines between the carrots, picking them up as he went along.
Pinkie Pie was about to say something when Tigger gave her a friendly smack on the back. “Ah, don’t worry about ol’ bunny-boy. He always gets like that when he’s a-workin’. Come on! Kanga’s house isn’t that far away from here!”
Pinkie looked back and forth between Tigger, currently bouncing away, and Rabbit, hard at work. She considered going back to help Rabbit out, when she caught wind of the hard-working bunny talking to his carrots. “It’s ok, little ones. Daddy will take care of you. There, there,” Rabbit said encouragingly. He then replanted the stray carrot, and went back to work, smiling as he did so. Pinkie Pie smiled to herself, and turned to follow Tigger.
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They bounced past a great many trees, rivers, and quite beautiful scenery. Pinkie Pie “oohed” and “ahhhed” at all of it, looking everywhere except where she was going. Tigger wasn’t any better, pointing out all the places of interest he thought Pinkie Pie would find interesting. “And over that-a-way is Owl’s house. Ol’ fluffbrains always got a story to tell. And over there is where I first met Piglet! And somewhere around here is Gopher’s house. Gotta watch out for that, though. Folks’re always dropping in unexpected-like.”
Pinkie Pie looked at Tigger, and then looked behind Tigger. “You mean like that?” she asked, pointing a hoof behind him mid-bounce.
“Like whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-oof,” Tigger said, as he disappeared down Gopher’s front door.
Pinkie Pie stopped at the edge of the hole, and looked down. Moments later, Tigger flew out of the hole, and landed on his belly on the ground. Followed shortly by what Pinkie Pie assumed to be “Gopher”. “Mmmnnn, what’sss the big idea, sonny? Don’t you know I got lotssss of work to do?” His s’s came out in long whistles as he spoke, something Pinkie Pie found very funny.
“Heeheehee*snort*heeheehee,” she giggled. “You’re funny!” said Pinkie Pie.
Gopher looked at the pink pony curiously. “Ssssayyy, what do we got here? Haven’t ssseen you around thessse partss before.”
“Well, she just blew into town,” Tigger exclaimed, with a big laugh. Pinkie, getting the joke, followed suit and giggled and snorted.
Gopher looked back and forth between the two, confused. “Well, while you two are lolly-gaggin’ around, I got work to do! Gotta rebuild a whole bunch of tunnels that got filled in durin’ the storm! There’ssss a lot of work to be done,” he said slyly. Gopher then slapped on his hard hat and went back to digging, disappearing beneath the dirt.
Pinkie Pie watched with a smile as the busy animal burrowed away, amused by the trail of upturned dirt he left behind. “Heehee, I like him!”
Tigger chuckled. “Haha, yeah. Gopher’s always like that. Nobody better for diggin’ holes, tho’! Now come on, we’re almost there!” he said cheerfully, bouncing away on his tail.
The pink pony smiled and bounced after him, eager to see what other new friends she would make while she was here.