//------------------------------// // Intermission Part III, Pink Conversation // Story: Dreams of a Dragon // by jh 8 //------------------------------// Intermission Part III: Pink Conversation Using the moonlight and after having adjusted my eyes to the darkness present in the Everfree Forest, I could clearly see the bruised and damaged pink party pony. She looked even worse than the last time I saw her, which was a few days ago. Her front legs were covered in now bloody and old bandages which looked like they needed to be changed days ago. A very similar bandage covered her forehead and one of her eyes. The rest of her body looked pretty ravaged, bruised, and small shallow cuts were present everywhere. “Pinkie, you are supposed to be in the hospital, what are you doing here?” I exclaimed in wonder. Well at least some of my emotions returned. “I came to see you silly” was the response from the normally so happy looking pink party pony. Well that doesn’t explain anything. At least her voice was happy sounding, even though it sounded tired and a bit weak compared to normal circumstances. I felt my emotions returning rapidly for the first time since I stared my journey toward the Everfree Forest with Twilight. Curiosity apparently took over: Why was she really here? And How did she find me after her situation for the past few days? “What?” that was the sad excuse for response to her explanation, but it was the only one I could think off right now. “I said that I came to help you, off course” “Help me, what are you talking about, and when did you get out the hospital?” Pinkie gave kind of a pained expression, like she was suffering from a severe case of migraine before she started explaining, it could be her head injury. At least that was what I thought, I couldn’t really make out any facial expressions. “Well Spike, I don’t know how long it has been since Ponyville has been attacked.” The pink mare stared to explain in a more happy sounding voice “I don’t even know how long I have been unconscious, but…” “It has been a few days” I interrupted her a bit impatiently. My stance of annoyance from a few moments ago seemed to have returned, beating out my newly found emotions. Maybe it was the mention of that damn village. I was so tired of this whole situation. It could also be her happiness that caused annoyance. Pinkie always has a tendency to jump from manic-depressed to insanely happy looking. “Ah ok, thanks Spike” Pinkie spoke like I didn’t interrupt her. “I don’t know how I ended up at the hospital, or how I ended up unconscious.” “You really don’t remember what happened” “nopidope” Pinkie said. “I mean I know what happened. I remember that I was at Sugar Cube Corner. You know, watching the cake Twins while Mr. and Mrs. Cake were away. They take off a lot together since the twins are born, I sometimes wonder why. Well I asked Mrs. Cake once, and she says that they need some alone time now and then, but I don’t really know what she means by that. But it is the same explanation Cranky and Matilda gave when they kicked me out of their house at night. But I don’t think Mr. and Mrs Cake have returned yet. They would probably get a heart attack or something if they saw Sugar Cube Corner now” I let out a silent sigh while Pinkie continued talking. If I had a watch I would probably check the time right about now. “Suddenly I heard a loud Crash from downstairs” Pinkie apparently decided to get back on track. “the Twins started crying, and as a good babysitter I took the foals with me to look what happened. If it was something threatening I could get them to safety through the backdoor. You know sometimes I wish I was a Pegasus, then I could just fly through a window..” She really started to sound happy again, like her wound were nothing and nothing had happened the past few days. “you are digressing again” I tried not to sound too annoyed. Even though I don’t know why I should hid my current emotions. “Oh sorry Mr grumpy dragon. I know Ponyville has just been attacked, but you should get some sleep” I gave her a stare that could literally beam out annoyance, I didn’t know if it was effective. It was still dark after all. Pinkie continued. “Well after I came down stairs with the twins, I saw that green Monster that looked like….oh why am I telling you this? You were there from that point.” She then looked at me with one eye, staring for a little bit before she spoke again. “Have you lost your memory too?” Pinkie asked while staring at me. “No” My voice sounded almost angry, with a slight hint of impatience “Whoa Spike, again with the grumpiness. It is not my fault that Ponyville was attacked and that we are here” She was right, this situation was not her fault. She didn’t even know what happened to me. “You are right, Sorry” “it doesn’t matter Spike. Now where was I?” “let’s just say at the point where I left you” It looked like even my voice decided to cut her a break. It’s sounded more patient and dare I even say happy now, even though it was a bit forced. Like the old saying goes: Smile and nod, smile and nod. “Well, after you left I decided to take your advice and ran toward the forest, with the foals on my back of course. It was not going really fast because my legs and eye. On my way I passed a lot a chaos, and not the fun kind like a party gone wild. I heard ponies screaming about a green Monster while they fled their burning homes. Maybe there are more of them running around” Pinkie stopped to think for a second. I always wondered how it worked inside her mind to be honest. Twilight once thought it was filled with cotton candy. Pinkie suddenly continued “that is about the last thing I noticed before I was hid in the head with something hard. That really is the last thing I can think off. It might have been a rock, at least it felt like one. My sister and I played rock-throw when we were younger, and let’s just say she has got a pretty strong throwing hoof. The next thing I know is waking up in the hospital this evening with Pound and Pumpkin laying in a bed next to me, sound asleep” “Are they alright?” I asked semi-interested. Just a question to keep the conversation going. Not that I didn’t care for their safety. “they are doing fine, as far as I can tell” “Alright, good. But Pinkie, your story doesn’t explain how you got here” “I was getting to that, I was getting to that, take it easy.” She said in her usual Pinkie-like style.” So I wake up and start walking. I didn’t know where I was until I saw a nurse passing by. She wasn’t too happy looking, but I decided to follow her. She was the first person I saw in 10 minutes, there were no doctors or anything. It was that nurse Redheart, you know her right?. Well the point is that she doesn’t like me very much, so I kept my distance. About ten minutes later she came across another nurse, and they started to talk about stuff” “What did they talk about pinkie?” I asked, wanting to get to the point. “Oh you know, just stuff. They talked about a mass meeting that was happening that evening. They were kind of mad about the fact that they couldn’t come because they had to take care of the people in the hospital, but apparently the doctors were going. I first thought that they were talking about a party, so I almost wanted to go right away. After I had checked on Pound and Pumpkin off course.” It was not like she needed to explain herself to me, I knew that she was a good foal sitter. “But it was a good thing I didn’t, because it turned out that it wasn’t a party at all. They said that Twilight was going to do her royal duty by banishing the monster that attacked Ponyville. I thought that there were more than one. Oh well, after that the nurses went their separate ways because one pony, that sounded like a dog, came running down the hallway” It finally began to make sense to me. “I used that chance to get out of the hospital, and looked for Twilight, which wasn’t hard. Who else would use a purple glowing light while walking toward the Everfree Forest. I wanted to help her, because it seemed like no one was following her. It is dangerous in the forest even for a Princess. I could also help identifying the monsters. So I followed her, and suddenly saw that you were walking behind her. You were not looking to happy. I figured that you were going to help Twilight with banishing these monsters. But Twilight suddenly turned back after a few minutes of standing still. I was almost tempted to speak to her first, but I wanted to thank you for what you had done” “Ah” was the only thing that came out of my mouth. This explained a lot. Pinkie really didn’t know about the whole ordeal that happened the past few days. Was that the reason for her ignorant happiness? “Silly me, I forgot the one thing I was going to do here” No surprise to me, I was accustomed to being forgotten. “Come here Spike” And the pink mare suddenly jumped forward to hug me, which was quite a feat because of her damaged legs. “Thank you” I was surprised and simply said nothing. By opening my mouth I was sure to ruin this moment. It might even be the last moment of happiness I experience while being here. Even though I didn’t know what to make of all of this. How would she have reacted when she was conscious during all of this? Pinkie finally decided let me go after a minute or so. For the first time during this conversation I felt genuine Emotion. It felt like concern. Was it wise to tell Pinkie the truth? It probably was because she would find out anyway. It was probably for the best that I ease her into it. I choose to leave my doubts be, at least for now. “So when is twilight going to be back” the Pink mare asked curiously. This was going to be harder than I thought. She looked so happy in the reality she currently lived in. It made me almost feel sorry for her. She had been through a lot, even if she didn’t realize it herself yet. “That is just it Pinkie, Twilight is not coming back” my voice sounded as calm and smooth as possible. That took a lot out of me, and I realized how tired I was. Pinkie’s expression almost turned to a shocked one. “what she left you all alone the banish these Monsters, that isn’t fulfilling her princess duties” it sounded like somepony had personally offended her. “No pinkie, that is not true” I now had Pinkie’s undivided attention, her one eye staring me straight in the eyes. “She thinks she has fulfilled her duties by banishing me, the monster who supposedly did all of this” to be continued