"What took ya so long, Scoots?" Applebloom asked. She, along with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, were heading to school. Scootaloo had taken an extra fifteen minutes to get ready.
"I had to spend some extra time brushing my teeth this morning," the orange filly replied.
"Why?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"The regret settled in this morning." The yellow and white fillies gave their friend confused looks. "Don't worry about it and don't ask."
"And if we do?" Applebloom said with a smile.
"I'll bribe Peanut Butter to tickle both of you until Pinkie decides to stop throwing parties." Speaking of the blob, he had slithered ahead of the trio, hugging, chasing, and tickling other fillies and colts headed towards school.
Applebloom and Sweetie Belle rolled their eyes. "Fine," they said in unison.
Nearby, Rumble was threatening Pipsqueak and Featherweight in a similar way.
As fillies and colts started to enter the school, Peanut Butter slithered over to the crusaders. "Sorry we can't play with you right now," Sweetie Belle began, "but we promise we'll play with you after school get's out." They all gave Peanut Butter a very squishy hug which he happily returned. The girls entered the school before leaving Peanut Butter outside.
Alone.
Where he couldn't possibly cause any trouble.
Right?
...
"Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! Where everything is super-yummy-extra-suberbly-amazingly delicious! May I take your order?" Pinkie said with her usual enthusiasm to the mare on the other side of the counter.
Golden Harvest giggled. "Just the usual, Pinkie."
"Okey-dokey-lokie!" Pinkie grabbed a pair of tongs and grabbed a couple of maple donuts from the display case and putting them in a paper bag. "That'll be six bits."
Golden Harvest reached into her saddlebags and hoofed Pinkie the bits. "So where are the Cakes?" she inquired. "Don't they usually manage the register?"
Pinkie nodded while ringing up the bits. "Usually, but last night, Gummy got into the twin's room." Harvest winced at that. "The Cakes had to spend all night trying to comfort them. I told them that I could manage the morning without them so they could sleep in."
Harvest smiled, "That was certainly nice of you."
"Yep!" Pinkie said cheerfully before frowning. "I just get it, though. Why are the twins scared of Gummy? He's harmless!"
Golden Harvest chose to not make eye contact with Pinkie at that moment. While it was never openly discussed, everypony who had seen Gummy had always been a bit frightened by him. He always stared with an intensity that they didn't quite like. The fact nopony really knew why they were scared of him terrified them even more. They didn't know whether Pinkie didn't notice and was just oblivious or chose to ignore it.
"Well, I have to get going now; I still need to set up my stall for the day," Harvest said before grabbing the paper bag with her mouth. "Have a nice day, Pinkie," she said through the bag.
"You too, Carrot Top!" Golden Harvest rolled her eyes at her nickname, though it got a smile out of her.
Shortly after Harvest left, Pinkie went back into the kitchen to prepare some more orders. Before she could start, she heard some terrified yelps from some of her customers. Trotting back inside she saw that Peanut Butter had entered the building, startling some of the customers.
"Peanut Butter!" she said excitedly before spreading her forelegs for a hug. Peanut Butter did not disappoint. He leapt at Pinkie and wrapped her in a hug. Pinkie giggled at the sensation she was getting from the hug. After a few minutes she (reluntantly) ended the hug before grabbing a cupcake from out of her mane and giving it to Peanut Butter.
"I believe that hug was worth a cupcake." Or several. Peanut Butter happily ate the delicious treat while Pinkie helped the customer who had been patiently waiting for their hug to end.
Just as the customer left, Mr. and Mrs. Cake came down the stairs looking a little disheveled with bags under their eyes. Pinkie smiled when she saw them. "Morning Mr. and Mrs. Cake!" greeting them cheerfully.
Mrs. Cake managed to smile, "Morning deary, how has your morning been so far?"
"Well, at first it was super good, then it got super-duper-awesome good after Peanut Butter gave me a hug." She pointed to the blob who had just finished dissolving his cupcake. When he saw the Cakes, he paused for a second. Out of nowhere, he pounced at them eliciting startled yelps from the two of them.
After ten minutes of affectionate hugging and tickling, the Cakes were feeling immensely better.
"Thank you, Peanut Butter," Mr. Cake said while petting the blob, "I don't think a cup of coffee would have helped us today." Mrs. Cake was to busy giggling to respond. Mr. Cake continued, "Do you think you can look after Pound and Pumpkin today for us? They had a terrible fright last night and it took us a while to get them back to sleep. They could use a friendly... face?" Peanut Butter girgled happily making Mr. Cake smile. "I'll take that as a yes. Their room is upstairs, first door to the right." Peanut Butter headed upstairs before Mr. Cake turned to his wife, who was still giggling.
Mr. Cake rolled his eyes. "Come on, dear, you're going to need to pull yourself together at some point," he said.
Mrs. Cake took a few deep breaths before responding, "Sorry, I just couldn't help myself. I haven't laughed that hard in ages." They both headed to the kitchen with a slight spring in their steps. "Do you think Peanut Butter will be able to handle the twins? They can be a hoofful at times."
Mr. Cake smiled, nuzzling his wife, "I'm sure he can handle them just fine." He turned to head head towards the kitchen-
*SQUISH.*
Mr. Cake looked down and noticed the slime trail leading all the way from the front door to the top of the stairs. A few of the customers poked at the trail experimentally.
"I'll go get the mop," Mrs. Cake said with a sigh.
...
Pound and Pumpkin Cake were sitting in their room playing with their blocks. Although if anypony were to look at the two, they would say they looked distant. Last night had really rattled the two. The two of them had been sleeping peacefully in their crib before they felt something shift the weight of the small matress. They both blearily woke up trying to see what had disturbed their slumber. When their eyes finally focused, they found that they were staring into the eyes of Gummy who had a look of such malice than Sombra would cringe at the sight of it. They both immediately started bawling causing their parents and Pinkie to wake up and run to their bedroom.
This wasn't the first time that it's happened to them either. Whenever there weren't any big ponies around Gummy would approach them with that face. They didn't know why Gummy always approached them when they were alone, but they always started crying to make the big ponies come, afraid of what would happen.
Suddenly, their door began to open slowly. Both their heads turned so quickly that they nearly fell over. They stared, eyes wide with fear, ready to cry at a moments notice. When the door opened fully, their fear turned into confusion upon seeing a strange bean bag shaped blob. During Pinkie's welcome party for Peanut Butter it had been naptime for them, so they hadn't gotten a chance to meet, much less see, the blob.
They continued to stare as the strange creature entered their room and closed the door behind it. They continued to watch it as it slithered towards them before stopping directly in front of them. Being more adventurous, Pumpkin decided to poke Peanut Butter to see if he would react.
Unfortunately for her, it initiated tickle mode.
Peanut Butter immediately started tickling Pumpkin's belly with one of his tentacles, making her burst out into high pitched laughter. She flailed her hooves in a futile attempt to get him to stop, but Peanut was unrelenting in his attacks. Pound, trying to be the protective brother, flew at the tickle monster that was torturing his sister. He clyded with the orange menace, but bounced off its gelatinous body and was about to introduce his face to the floor.
Before he injured himself, Peanut Butter grabbed one of his hind legs and saved him from a world of hurt. Pound let out a sigh of relief, until the fear returned when Peanut Butter brought him closer so he could give Pound the same treatment as his twin.
Downstairs, Pinkie, the Cakes, and the customers could hear the twins' laughter from upstairs and were trying their best to contain their own laughter.
After a few minutes of tickle torture, Peanut Butter decided that the two had had enough. He set both of them on the ground letting the catch their breath, watching as their little chests rose and fell and bursting into giggle fits here and there. Once the twins recovered, they sat up looking at Peanut with large smiles on their faces. They both felt immensely better no longer feeling tired and completely forgetting their fear from the night before. They went over and hugged Peanut who happily hugged them back.
...
For the next few hours, Peanut Butter kept the twins entertained the twins by going on various adventures with them. On one adventure, they set sail on their ship (crib) to find the Dread Pirate Rubber Neck's (a rubber chicken) buried treasure (a jar of cookies). On another adventure, they had to stop a giant (stuffed) lizard from destroying a city (of blocks). Peanut Butter wrestled the monster into submission before scaring it off by threatening to tickle it. Their most epic adventure, however, was when they went to the moon to help Princess Woona stop an evil filly who was being a big meanie-pants to the moons inhabitants.
They were just reaching the final confrontation before the door opened with no prompting. The twins, thinking it was their parents, rushed over to the door to meet them only to give startled yelps when they saw who it actually was. Gummy was standing before them, glaring at the two of them. The twins stood stock still to afraid to move. As Gummy started to approach them, the two backpedaled as fast as they could until they were both under the crib. Gummy kept moving forward, tail swinging side-to-side as if in anticipation.
When he was only a few feet from the crib, he heard a gurgling sound eminate from his right. He turned his head to see the cause...
...and let out a terrified growl.
Peanut Butter immediately descended upon the green menace, tickling it and elicting squeaky noises that one could call laughing. The twins stared at the scene in disbelief before bursting into giggles at the sight of their tormentor being tickled into submission.
After several minutes, Gummy passed out with a smile on his face. As soon as Peanut Butter released him, a burst of energy was released from the green reptile.
...
"Here you go, Mrs. Cake, five bits!" A blue pony with a messy black mane and tale hoofed over the bits to Mrs. Cake.
"Thank you, enjoy the rest of your day, Bl-" Mrs. Cake didn't get a chance to finish before a wave of energy washed over them. The effects were immediate. Everypony within a quarter mile radius of the building found themselves in crippling fits of laughter. Ponies who were outside the effected area looked at the victims with concern before approaching them and trying to calm them down.
"Somepony go get Princess Twilight!" one of the ponies yelled.
...
1 hour later
For the past 45 minutes, Twilight had tried to reproduce the effects of what became known as the 'laughter wave.' She was in the twins' room looking for any clues as to what had happened. She tried playing with him, tickling him, and feeding him excessive amounts of junk food, which only caused more slime secretion much to the Cakes' chagrin.
"Ugh! Why can't I reproduce the effects!" Twilight shouted in annoyance.
"Maybe he needs more cake?" Pinkie suggested, bouncing into the room with a cake on her back that somehow managed to stay in one piece. She set it down in front of Peanut Butter who absorbed the cake into his mass.
*sigh* "I doubt it, Pinkie." Twilight turned to look at Peanut Butter. "There's just so little I know about him."
"Well why don't you just keep him at your place until you figure out what happened?"
"Because I know that I wouldn't come out for days until I had answers." At Pinkie's look she continued. "Don't give that look, Pinkie. You know that would happen."
"I know. I'm just surprised that you admitted to it yourself!"
Twilight rolled her eyes, "I've been trying to tone it down the research at Spike's suggestion that I need to get out more."
"How's that been working out for you?"
"...I don't want to talk about it." the purple alicorn said in a quiet voice. Pinkie gave a quizzical look before shrugging. "I guess I'll send a letter to the Pri- er, Celestia and see if she knows anything."
"Okie-Dokie-Lokie! Tell her I said hi and that she needs to come over to Ponyville so I can throw her a party and that she needs to let me host the next Grand Galloping Gala because all those rich ponies are so boring and I can add some spice to their lives by-" Twilight shoved a hoof in her friends mouth.
"Okay Pinkie! I'll let the Princess know!" Twilight said before removing her hoof and wiping it on the floor. "I'll see you later, Pinkie."
"Alrighty then, see ya later Princess Twilight," Pinkie said teasingly. Twilight rolled her eyes, although she smiled. After Twilight with Peanut Butter, Pinkie trotted up the stairs and into her room. On the bed was Gummy, who stared at her with a blank expression. Closing the door, Pinkie turned to look at Gummy with a serious expression.
"I told you to leave Pound and Pumpkin alone, Gummy. I've tried to be nice and I've tried to help you, but you just don't seem to be willing to let go of your hatred." Gummy continued to stare at her. Pinkie let out a sigh before pulling out a rope. "It looks like you've given me no choice but to dish out some punishment."
Gummy eyes narrowed, as if daring her to try.
...
"Pinkie, dear, is everything alright?" Mrs. Cake asked as Pinkie came the stairs.
"Yeppers! Everything is A-okay. Now let's get back to baking!" she said merrily before zooming into the kitchen. Mrs. Cake followed behind shaking her head.
Upstairs in Pinkie's closet, Gummy hanged by his tail, suspended in the dark, struggling to get free.
The blood was rushing to his eyes after all.