Bryson stirred in his bed. If there was one thing good about living in Ponyville, there hasn’t been anything important to do.
“Ahh, being lazy is great.” He stretched his arms with a loud yawn. “I think I might get used to living here.”
“Really, that’d be great.” A bubbly voice said right next to him. Looking over his eyes were met with Pinkie Pie’s blue eyes, the surprise startle him and he fell off the bed. “Oh I’m sorry, did I scare you.” Pinkie was having a hard time suppressing her giggling.
“Ugh.” Bryson just rolled his eyes.
***
“Why was Pinkie in my bed?” An agitated Bryson asked at the table. “I thought we locked our door when we head to bed.”
“That’s actually a good question.” Zack giving a semblance of an answer. “Then again, she is Pinkie and I’ve been told not to question it.”
“That explain to me why she keeps bugging me though.”
“Well I don’t know, it might have something to do with the fact that you’re her guardian!” Will said. “Last time I check you haven’t been giving your best efforts with getting to know her.”
“Oh come on, it’s only been a week. Give me some time.”
“Yea, well in that one week, I was Fluttershy’s servant for a day, Timmy nearly got himself killed with Twilight, and Zack bucked trees with Applejack.”
“Look. To be honest she seems really crazy.” Bryson pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t think I could survive her for even a day.”
“Ok first off, she silly and random, not crazy.” Andrew defended. “And secondly, you barely know her. Maybe she has something more to her than that at least.”
“It’s just so annoying though. I mean I don’t dislike people like her, but those more eccentric types always rub me the wrong way.”
“Fine, how about this. 20 doll… I mean bits says you can’t hang out with her for the whole day.”
“Really? You’re going to challenge me to a bet.” Bryson was known around the school as someone always up for a challenge. He stayed nights at “haunted houses”, and took on the biggest foes. At least, that’s what he told the guys. Even then, Andrew was quite aware of Bryson pride and knew that this would be easy.
“Yea I am. Given with what you tell us this should be right up you alley.”
“I should know better than this. This is an obvious ploy to get me to get to know Pinkie, but I won’t just sit here and not accept your offer.” He extended his hand, which met Andrew’s. “You have a deal.” Bryson got out of his chair and headed out the door. “By tonight, you owe me 20 doll… ah, bits.” He shut the door mumbling to himself.
“You know he’s right.” Will said. “Aside from how easy this should be. No one’s more tenacious then him, except maybe Timmy.”
“Yea and your point? You heard what he said, I never concealed my real intentions. I just think he should try something outside his comfort zone when it comes to people.”
“That’s odd. Considering what I know about you, I don’t think you’d be one to hang out with Pinkie all that often.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I’m perfectly fine with Hanging out with someone like her. It’s just that you won’t see me at parties all that often.”
“Alright then, I just hope you’re right about this.”
“Trust me, when am I ever wrong?”
“Well there was that one time…” Zack began to list out the very many times Andrew has ever been wrong about something.
***
Bryson made his way to Sugarcube Corner. While walking he saw many different ponies, like the Pegasus clearing out the clouds, or unicorns using magic to levitate objects with little to no effort. At one point he swore that he ran into the same pony twice. Once he made it there he sat down at one of the tables and searched on the service counter for something to eat.
“Well it looks like most of their goods are bakery treats. Not that I should be surprised.” He scanned the room, but didn’t see Pinkie or either of the Cakes. “That’s odd, where is everybody?” The place wasn’t empty, there were a decent amount of ponies sitting at the tables enjoying pie, cakes, and muffins.
“I’m right here silly!” He looked to his right to Pinkie Pie sitting beside him. The surprise sent him flying off his seat.
“Ahh!” He landed right on his back. Getting up he remarked, “Is this going to be a normal thing?”
“Only sometimes.” She was giggling at his misfortune before helping him up. “You must be hungry! Let me get you something to eat!” Before Bryson had a chance to decline, Pinkie had already rushed off and returned with a slice of pie.
“Thanks, I guess.” He really wasn’t that hungry, but he still ate the pie given to him.
“So what brings you here at Sugarcube Corner?” Pinkie asked him after he finished wolfing down his treat.
“Well I was just thinking, maybe we should hang out with each other. I mean, I’ve been here a week now and I don’t believe we’ve had a chance to spend time.”
“That’s great!” Pinkie got really excited. “There’s so many thing we can do today like fly kites or maybe we can have a party!” She quickly grabbed him and ran out the door.
“Whoa! Wait, don’t you have work or something.”
“Not today, it’s usually slow business so the Cake’s don’t need me that much.”
“I guess, I picked a good day to be social with you then.” She continued to pull him along the ground. “Uh, you know I can walk, right?”
“Oh! Sorry.” She let go of him. “I’m just so excited, I got carried away.”
“Yeah, literally for me.” He dusted himself off. “What’s first on this list of fun you got?”
Oh I just got the greatest idea ever!” A look of pure joy appeared on her face. “But first, you have to help me get some stuff.” She took him all over Ponyville. First, there was the Quilt and sofas store, which Bryson couldn’t understand why such a combo for a store existed. Second, was a practical jokes shop filled with toys like invisible ink, candles that can’t be blown out, and electric hoof-shakers. Then she picked up some pies from the bakery and placed them in special boxes.
“Man what’s up with all this stuff?” He was carrying all of the toys, jokes, and pies Pinkie picked up. “And why do I have to carry all this?”
“Shh!’ Pinkie silenced him. She then pointed out a sleeping Rainbow Dash.
“Oh I get it now.” A look of realization came over his face. “I didn’t know you were the prank-pulling type. Looking at the collected items he wondered what they were going to do. “Why do we need all this stuff though?”
“Silly, we’re not going to use all of this on her.” Pinkie picked up pink food coloring and a jug of chocolate milk. She then tied balloons on her torso and floated above Rainbow’s position. Above her was another cloud left because Pinkie had earlier asked the weather crew to leave behind. First she used the food coloring to make it seemed as though it was a cloud made of cotton candy. Then, she poured the milk over it causing it to rain out chocolate rain. The drops fell on Rainbow Dash and when she looked up she saw the cloud.
“Ahh! Oh no Discord’s evil again.” Spotting Bryson on the ground she quickly flew down to him. “Quick get your guys together Discord…” She was interrupted by Pinkie Pie laughing in the sky.
“Got you, silly.” Pinkie Pie couldn’t contain her laughter as she laid on top of the cloud. ”You should see the look on your face.” The look of grimace from Rainbow melted into happiness as she joined in the laughter.
“Ok, that was pretty good.” The three laughed it off before Pinkie and Bryson left for their next victim. Pinkie lead them to Twilight’s library, where she got out the quill and invisible ink they picked up earlier. She dropped them off at the front door and knocked on it before running to one of the side windows where Bryson was also hiding.
“So what the plan here?”
“Shh, just wait and see.” Twilight answered the door and saw that somepony had left quills and ink for her.
“Well I guess somepony was nice enough to send me a gift.” Upon closer inspection she didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, except that there was no name to identify whoever gave this to her. “It’s a good thing too, I just found that I don’t have any ink left and I need to send a letter to Princess Celestia.” She grabbed a letter and began writing her news to the Princess. “Spike! Can you send this letter?”
“No problem Twilight.” He quickly wrapped up the parchment and blew his magical fire, disintegrating it out the window.
“Wow!” Bryson quietly whispered “He can do that?”
“Yes, it’s one of his many talents.”
Twilight and Spike resumed their regular business when Spike spat out Celestia’s quick response.
“Uh? I didn’t expect such a quick response from her. The news isn’t that important.” She opened up the letter where it read:
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
I don’t know if you were trying to send me a letter or if Spike has the case of the hiccups again, but I just got an empty letter from you.
“What?! I don’t understand.” She got another parchment paper, quickly wrote down her news and handed it to Spike. “Maybe the letter was damaged or something.” Spike sent the letter with his flame and the two received a quick response from her.
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
Is this a joke or something? While I’m fine with princesses having fun and all, but I don’t expect this from you. If there really is a problem, maybe you shouldn’t use Spike’s mailing service.”
“What?” Twilight picked up the ink to give it another close look. Seeing the label she saw that it was actually a cover over the real one. The covered label show that it was invisible ink. “Pinkie!” Outside, Twilight heard laughing, went outside and chased them off.
“That was great!” Bryson said “I think I’ve got some great ideas.” The two spent the rest of the day pranking their friends. Fooling Rarity that her dresses all of a sudden could talk, giving Timmy an explosive Pie, and painting a joke on Applejack’s barn. Finally they found themselves stalking Will.
“What are we going to do to him?” Pinkie asked. She was using a pair of binoculars to spy on him, while he was sleeping on the couch in the house.
“Oh we’re not going to get him. Trust me, back home I think I’ve given him enough of that.”
“Wait then why are we here?”
“Take a look in this mirror.” He lifted up a mirror to her face, revealing that the binoculars had black paint on them, leaving it around Pinkie’s eyes. She giggled at the sight.
“Ok, you got me.” Looking at the sun they saw that it was almost nighttime. “Look at the time. I guess you we should head home now.” Remembering her face she asked, “You don’t mind if I use your bathroom to clean this up. The Cakes wouldn’t like it if they knew I was pranking ponies all day.”
“Of course, come with me.” The two headed inside the house and Bryson saw Andrew cooking up some dinner.
“Oh hey guys.” Andrew set down the pan. “The others aren’t here yet, except for Will sleeping that couch over there. I swear nothing ever wakes him up. I heard about some prankster that’s been going around and pranking everyone.”
“Gee, that’s so crazy.” Pinkie excused herself to the bathroom to wash up.
“So I see you had fun today. And if it isn’t too much a stretch, I’d say you were responsibly for everything with the others?”
“Yea, it was a blast. Of course you’re not wrong about that.”
“Well seeing as you not only survived Pinkie for one day, but thrived under that circumstance you win. Here”-He threw a bad of 20 bits in it to Bryson-“A bets a bet.” Unfortunately, Pinkie overheard him saying that and opened the door with a sad look on her face.
“Pinkie?” Bryson say that her mane had become deflated, even though that made no sense to him. “Are you ok?”
“You mean you only played with me because of a bet?”
“Well sure but.”
“You don’t really like me?” Tears were forming in her eyes.
“No, I do it’s just that…” Before he could finish his sentence Pinkie bolted out the house, crying loudly until they could hear her anymore. “Wait!” he tried running after her before Andrew stopped him.
“Stop.” He said in a melancholy tone. “Let me come with you.”
“What? But why?
“It’s my fault too. Just wait a moment, I need to set the oven.” Bryson waited shortly for him to take care of things before the two of them left the house. When they reached Sugarcube Corner the cakes gave them a nasty look. “Look we’re sorry, just give a chance.” Despite them not initially trusting the two, they still let them come upstairs to Pinkie’s room. There they saw the sad pony.
“What are you doing here? Are you getting paid for this too?” Her deflated mane have them an odd feeling about this, but Bryson was determined to fix things.
“No I’m not. Please, I’m sorry about that.” He sat down beside her in her bed. “I’ll admit your personality turned me off from giving you a fair chance.”
“I’m in the wrong too. I’m the one who even made do the stupid bet in the first place.”
“But, you didn’t want to be my friend, until after he gave that bet.” Pinkie was still sad, but she was willing to give him a chance. “You really didn’t like me?”
“At first, no.” Bryson didn’t like to admit it, but that was true. “I really should have just done it, with that stipulation. But the day we had was great. I never realized how much fun you really were until then.”
“Really?” Pinkie whipped the tears off her face “Did I really give that?”
“Of course! The pranks on our friends were great. The invisible ink, the clouds, and pie, that was all just awesome. I genuinely like you as a friend. Do you have it in your heart to forgive me?” There was a short pause before a large smile lit up Pinkie’s face.
“Of course I forgive you!” She hugged extremely tightly, “Today was amazing! I loved every minute of it.”
“That’s great.” He was struggling to talk with her grip on him. “Maybe you can loosen that hug a bit.”
“Oh sorry.”
“Well now with that taken care of, maybe we should go home.”
“Hey Pinkie, maybe you should join us at the dinner table. The others would love to get to know you.” Bryson offered.
“Really! Now we can have a party!” When she said that the three found themselves at the house.
“Whoa, when’d we get here?!” Andrew said.
“No clue.” Bryson, awestricken, answered. The smell of burning casserole entered their noses.
“Oh no, my casserole!” He swiftly opened the oven to see the burnt results of his cooking. “Oh, now what are we going to eat for dinner!”
“Don’t worry, I got this.” Before they knew it Pinkie had a ton of food on the table. “Tada!”
“That was inhumanly quick.” Andrew responded.
“Well, I guess it’s a good thing she a pony then.” Then the front door opened and the three other guys came in grumbling.
“I honestly have no clue who did all that.” Timmy quipped. “I suppose I’ll never find out who pied me in the face.” Seeing the table and Pinkie, Andrew, and Bryson instantly made him forget his troubles. “Wow, Andrew you really outdid yourself!”
“Yea, well I had some help from some friends.” After waking Will, the six guys and Pinkie Pie sat down at the table, exchanging stories about the hunt for the prankster. Eventually Pinkie revealed to them that she and Bryson were the mysterious prankster.
“You what? That would have been helpful to know before we spent all evening looking for it.”
“What can I say? I’m a master at the craft.” Bryson excused himself from the table and headed into the bedroom. Opening the door a bucket placed above fell and splashed him with water.
“Gotcha!” Pinkie yelled as everyone began to laugh, even Bryson.
Today was a great day! I never would have figured that hanging out with Pinkie Pie would have been so much fun. I also learned that I should give people and ponies a chance even if their personalities aren’t what I prefer. Taking money to spend time with her was wrong. Because at the end of the day, friends are more important than all the money in the world.