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// Chapter 9. A Pinkie Party 
// Story: A New Teacher 
// by Sparky Brony 
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I turned from Dash to look in my new house. Some pony has been very busy, the furnishings had disappeared and the entire living room was taken up with several tables laden with food. Every kind of baked goods I could think of were making every one of these tables groan under their weight. A huge punch bowl was surrounded by cups. A complete anachronism, a wound up record player was sitting in the edge of the room, somehow filling the room with sound. And the ponies. My God, all the ponies. Over three dozen of them were there. I saw Twilight there, she was sipping punch with some other ponies, Pinkie Pie was there, so was Fluttershy. I followed Rainbow Dash over to her friends.

"Hi Dashie, hi Nick," Pinkie Pie said as she continued bouncing.

"Hi Pinkie, how do you keep bouncing? I would run out of energy in ten minutes if I tried to do what I watch you do."

She pulled me aside and whispered in my ear, "Sugar, and lots of it." She popped a cupcake into my mouth. I could swear that her hooves were empty just a second ago. I had to close my eyes as sugary bliss spread across my tongue. I was full from my meal, I looked at Pinkie Pie, or more accurately I looked at the space she had occupied half a second before. I looked around, she was across the room bouncing in front of a gray mare with eyes that went in different directions, she was picking up a small pale purple unicorn filly and spinning her around. I opened my mouth to speak.

"I know that look dude, it's Pinkie Pie." Rainbow Dash saved me from my brain exploding.

"Uhhh." I'm really quick on the uptake, aren't I?

I turned to Rainbow Dash, and accidentally tripped over another pony. I profusely apologized and helped her up. This was a pinkish purple unicorn mare, her cutie mark was three diamonds.

"It's my fault," I said.

"No, it's mine. I got in the way as you started to move. I was just grabbing some punch for my mom and sister."

I sat down, well, this is my new home, I had better get to know these ponies. "I'm Nick." I held out a hoof.

She smiled. "Sparkler." I helped her pour a few cups of the punch, I took a sip. Wow, Pinkie Pie needs to devote her entire life to cooking, she can bake the best cupcakes, and whipping up punch, Oh My God! I shook myself from the reverie as I partially extended my wing to take the cups of punch. Only to have them levitate towards Sparkler. She smiled at me and I followed her towards the gray mare.

"Here ya go mom. This is Nick."

"Yeah, he's the new pony here." I somehow found myself being lifted onto Pinkie Pie's back and was bouncing as she was bouncing up and down. She then grabbed me and set me on my hooves. "He has absolutely huge wings, and he works for Rainbow Dash." I felt my eyes bounce up and down after the rude treatment from Pinkie. I turned to the gray mare.

"I'm Derpy, you've met my older daughter, Sparkler, this is my little one, Dinky." That caused a bit of a mess in my head.

"You are a pegasus, they are unicorns."

"You've got it right." The gray mare said, looking questioningly at Pinkie.

Pinkie whispered in my ear, "My employers, the Cakes, are two earth ponies, they had two foals, a unicorn, and a pegasus. This type of thing is normal." My eyes went wide. I don't think I'm even going to get into the specifics of pony genetics.

"One of those times to roll with the punches?" I whispered in Pinkies ear.

"You silly, no pony is punching you, now you are drinking punch, but I'm not certain how you would roll with that punch." She then took a cup from Sparklers telekinesis, and then proceeded to roll on the floor a few times, somehow not spilling a drop. "Turns out, it's not easy, but you can roll with punch!" Pinkie jumped up. I turned to look at the family of a pegasus and two unicorns. I looked at Pinkie, then back at Derpy and family, then I sighed. I don't think I will ever understand that mare. I focused on Derpy.

"Pleased to meet you, Derpy, and your fine family. Welcome to my home, though I was unaware of the party until a few minutes ago." I looked out at the crowd. "Wow, there are a lot of ponies here."

Derpy smiled at me, "Of course there are, it's a Pinkie party,everypony wants to go to one of those."

I laughed, "And of course, I'm the last to know."

I chatted with Derpy for a few minutes, finding out she was my age, Sparkler was adopted and Dinky was natural, but both were hers. Watching her with them, I understood. The reason I had decided to go over to Derpy was because of Dinky. A good friend many years ago had a daughter that acted just like Dinky, so full of energy. And an extra dose of cuteness. I found this family hard to resist. I've always wanted kids, though I never found the one to make me want to settle down. No woman could compare to flying. I sighed. There were times I regretted my decisions in life. After a few more minutes I told Derpy she was welcome to visit any time she wanted to, and sincerely meant it, then I turned and made my way through the crowd. Keeping my eyes open for another Pinkie Pie encounter, I ended up back at the punch table. I was looking back at the crowd as I reached for the punch bowl, just as my hoof picked up the ladle, another hoof touched my hoof, causing me to yelp and pull my foreleg back while turning my head in that direction. I ended up muzzle to muzzle with Twilight Sparkle.

"Oh crap!" I said, way too loudly as I tumbled end over end backwards. I ended up with a ladle of punch all over my chest. I felt my face heating up.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Twilight said as she rushed over to help me to my hooves. I looked down and tried to brush off the sugary liquid. After a moment I declared it a lost cause in my head and looked up. Bumping the top of my head into Twilight's chin. I again yelped and stumbled back. This time knocking over the wind up record player. With a crash the room fell silent. Dozens of eyes were on me. I felt my face heating up even further. I swear it must have been on fire. I looked at all the assembled ponies. I looked at Twilight, her expression was utterly shocked, and, to my surprise, she was blushing.

"I'm so sorry." I moaned as I did the only thing I could think of, I rushed at a full gallop to the hallway to my bedroom and slammed the door.

Once inside the room I turned and looked at my room. "Oh, can this get any worse?" I laid down on the bed and tried to get control of myself. Everything started crashing down on me. Losing my home, my career, my life. I put my head down on the bed and sobbed. I missed the Nimitz, I missed Moose, my few friends back on Earth. I missed hands, I missed the feeling of getting in an F-18, the exhilaration of a catapult launch. I missed the little comforts of life as a human.

"Damn you, Luna, it would have been better if I had died," I sobbed into the pillows.

I have no idea how long it was that I lay on the bed, wallowing in misery, when a soft knock came from my bedroom door. "Go away!"

"Nick. It's Twilight. Can I come in?"

I froze. I sincerely liked the alicorn mare. But I was in no mood to do anything that Luna wanted at this moment. I wanted to send her away, I wanted her to come in, I really didn't know what I wanted at all.

"Please, Nick. I know you can be stubborn, but I can be more stubborn. Please let me come in."

I sighed, she hadn't even tried the handle. Though that showed how courteous she was. "Door's not locked, Twilight." My voice came out as a croak.

I heard the door open softly, I heard her hoofsteps muffled on the carpet. My eyes went wide as I felt the bed shift as she got on. I was expecting her to maybe stand at the edge of the bed and talk to me. To my surprise, she gathered me into a hug, guiding my head onto her shoulder, her wing enveloped me. The comforting touch only destroyed any semblance of order in my mind, the walls I had tried to rebuild to regain control of my emotions.

"I'm sorry Twilight for slamming my head into you. I'm sorry for making a scene. I'm so sorry," I sobbed into her soft fur. I felt myself grabbing tighter onto her as all my mental barriers crumbled. "I miss my life, I miss what little family I have left, I miss home." I was beyond words as I continued to sob. Twilight just held me as I cried myself out.

After time immeasurable I was finally able to compose myself. I finally let go of my death grip on Twilight. I pulled back and looked at her. "Thank you, my friend." I reached forward and hugged her. "I don't know what I would have done without you."
She smiled at me as I pulled back again. "How's the top of your head? You got it pretty good on my chin."

"My head is fine, I hope your chin is okay. I'm so sorry for being such a klutz with you."

She smiled and laughed at me, "I'm stronger than you think Nick."

We were interrupted by the sound of a pony clearing her throat. I looked over at Rainbow Dash, I never noticed her enter the room. With a yelp I jumped back from Twilight, momentarily forgetting the bed wasn't that wide. I tumbled to the floor. I stood up in a rush. "I'm sorry Twilight."

She smiled from the bed as she slowly climbed out of the bed. "This is your bed, Nick, I was just comforting you." She turned to Rainbow Dash. Rainbow was chewing on her bottom lip, her look was of concern, and more than a little anger, "What is it Rainbow?"

Rainbow turned to me, "Somepony is very insistent that she apologize for how your surprise party turned out, Nick." She turned her head and I saw a pink head slowly emerge into the room. With a shock I saw it was Pinkie Pie. Her hair wasn't the tangled, poufy mess that I had always seen it before. It was long and straight, and she had lost a couple of shades of her pink color. She looked as though she had a much worse time than I had.

With a big sigh, the pink mare started, "Nick, I'm super sorry that I messed up with your welcome party. I wanted you to have a fun time, and then you end up in here crying. I asked all the ponies to go home. It's all my fault and I wanted to tell you how sorry I am."

"Pinkie!" I galloped across the room and grabbed her. Oh my god she was solidly built, but I used all of my strength to pull her into a hug. "Pinkie, it's not your fault. It's mine. I'm still trying to adjust to this huge change. And I was upset that I had accidentally hurt Twilight. I've never been much for surprise parties, but I'll tell you right now, yours was the best."

Her eyes were listless as she didn't respond at all to my hug. "Nick, I should have waited until you were ready for a party. You didn't like my party."

I used my hoof to pull her muzzle to face mine, I looked into her eyes. "Pinkie, I'm trying to tell you I did like your party, I only got to meet a couple of ponies, but I need to get to know the ponies here. And you did it perfectly." I saw a spark of… something… in her eyes. "Pinkie, please. I promise you, you did nothing wrong." I stopped and smiled at her as big as I could, pouring every bit of sincerity I could muster into the smile. "In fact, you let me know any time you plan on a party, I want an invitation." I smiled even bigger. "Please?"

I watched the most amazing transformation happen right in front of me. As I was speaking, Pinkie's color became even more pink. "Promise?" she whispered to me.

"Yes, Pinkie, I swear on all that is holy, I would happily go to any Pinkie party." With those words there was an odd sound, and her hair suddenly regained all the curls it had previously. Then I was suddenly being hugged by the pink mare, and did I mention she's about as strong as three ponies?"Air, I need air, Pinkie. Please."

"You silly, air is for other ponies," Pinkie said, her voice had regained all of its previous energy. She released me anyway though and bounced out the door. I took a moment to just breathe, I'm glad Pegasi are pretty resilient, I think my human body would have had a few broken ribs from that hug.

I looked at Rainbow Dash and Twilight. "I meant it, I'm sorry Twilight for hurting you."

Two smiles beamed at me. Rainbow Dash moved up next to me and put her wing over my back and semi-hugged me with it. "Dude, I didn't think anypony could help Pinkie recover like that. You better have meant it."

I nodded enthusiastically, "I really am trying to adjust to all this. And my bumbling idiocy is what caused me to get upset. She didn't do anything wrong. I didn't know what to think of Pinkie Pie at first, but I can see that all she wants is to make her friends happy. That is always a noble goal. I like her."

Twilight laughed, "We all love Pinkie Pie, Nick. You will never find a friend more true than her."

Rainbow Dash huffed.

Another laugh from Twilight, damn that mare has a pretty laugh, "You are as true a friend as Pinkie is, Rainbow Dash." Rainbow laughs as we exit my room and head down the hall. Once in the living room I stop in shock.

"What the hell?" I look around. The tables are gone, all the furniture was back exactly where it was when I had left the house with the realtor a few hours previously. The floors were spotless, the house looked as though it had never had a party, much less one that had just ended.

I turned and looked back at Twilight and Rainbow Dash. "What the hell happened? I was expecting hours of cleanup after that party."

Rainbow Dash answered, "Dude, it's Pinkie Pie."