//------------------------------// // Two's company, three's a crowd, so what does that make a whole town? // Story: Good Morning, Beautiful // by scoots2 //------------------------------// “I got here last night,” Cheese Sandwich said, as he and Pinkie Pie trotted up the main street of Ponyville, “but I thought it was too late, so I decided I’d come back this morning.” “Silly Cheesie,” said Pinkie Pie. “You should have come inside!” Of course she’d known he was coming, and the whole reason there were lights on in the kitchen at Sugarcube Corner was because she knew when he’d get there and she thought she’d try baking a few dozen Rainbow Funfetti Chocolate Cotton Candy cupcakes she’d just thought up while she was waiting, but nopony could predict a silly pony who stands around in front of a building where one of his bestest friends was waiting for him with cupcakes and a big hug and then decides to go away and come back later, and in the meantime gets into BIG TROUBLE. It had all turned out ok, of course, except that Cheesie really needed a bath afterwards, but that had happened before and Gummy didn’t mind sharing the bathtub. It was always nice when Cheesie came to Ponyville, but this time was extra especially nice because he said he was coming just to see her. He’d come just to see her before, of course, but he didn’t usually say so. “Hi, Matilda!” she said, waving at the lady mule crossing the street. “Howdy, Roseluck! Happy week and a half before your birthday, Mr. Breezy!” All of them waved back with giant grins almost as big as hers. Gosh, there sure were a lot of ponies out this morning, and they all seemed super-happy. That was great! Cheesie was easy to be with. Easy-Cheesie, she thought, and giggled. He understood that funny was serious business, and he never said “oh, Pinkie” in that tone her other friends sometimes used. “Oh, Pinkie, you’re so random.” “Oh, that’s just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie.” He didn’t expect her to explain things all the time. He instinctively knew when it was time for a piñata, when it was a four-alarm emergency laughter situation, and when it was time for a hug. It just proved that she was right to want to make friends with him from the beginning, before they both started being stupidy McStupidheads and challenging each other, but then he’d been her friend before they’d really even met, like all of her bestest best friends. “Hiya, Pinkie!” said Matilda’s companion. “Hiya back, Cranky!” Pinkie replied without thinking about it, and then thought, Cranky? Cranky actually said “Hi” first? She glanced over her shoulder, and there was Cranky, grinning an enormous grin, almost as though his face were stuck that way. And he and Matilda seemed to be going in their direction, too. Huh. Wow, there sure are a lot of ponies going our direction! But Cheesie didn’t seem to have noticed yet. In fact, he was smiling and looking at her as though she were the only other pony on the whole street, and his green eyes were sparkling as though they were lit from inside by a dozen Roman candles, and she couldn’t have helped smiling back even if she’d been the saddest Pinkie that had ever Pinked, so she bounced just a little bit higher as she pronked along beside Cheese because her friend was here now and they were going to have SO. MUCH. FUN! Behind them, heads began popping out of houses and shop windows. Ponies started piling into the street and joining what was becoming a small parade. “I missed you a lot,” thought Cheese. “I missed you, too,” she said. Cheese came to an abrupt halt and swung his head around to look at her. “What?” Pinkie sighed. Cheesie thought the nicest things about her, and she really enjoyed hearing some of the things he didn’t say, but sometimes she goofed up and responded to something he was thinking instead of what he was saying. Like now. And she wasn’t really sure she should let him know about that. “I . . . missed you?” she said hopefully. “Oh!” said Cheese, and she heard, “whew!” “Well,” he said, removing his “I am a serious pony” black hat and pawing the dirt, “I . . . kind of . . .” He was interrupted by a small herd of fillies and colts, headed by Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle, coming over a rise and stampeding directly towards them. Then she noticed the crowd behind them, too, and wondered, is there a circus or a carnival going on? “Hot diggety!” cried Apple Bloom. “We got Cheese Sandwich AND Pinkie! Now there’ll be a party!” “An EPIC party!” agreed Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle squealed. “Party! Party! Party!” chanted the other fillies and colts, and if she didn’t know all of them and play with them all the time, she would have thought it was a little bit spooky. Oh, thought Pinkie, we’re the circus. She remembered once before, on Hearts and Hooves Day, Cheesie had just happened to be free, and had just happened by Sugarcube Corner, and asked if she wanted to spend some time with him if she didn’t have anything else to do, and she didn’t, so she’d grabbed a box of cupcakes and trotted off with him, and she’d been so happy that her friend Cheese was there and that they were going to do something fun. And she was happy because he was happy and then he seemed even happier, and then somehow everypony had come out to follow them, as though she and Cheese were two pony magnets. She guessed it had something to do with them both being party ponies and being extra especially happy. It had turned into the best Hearts and Hooves Day party ever, but even then, she’d wondered whether Cheesie was just a tiny bit disappointed. She looked over at Cheese, who now had Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and a few other fillies and colts hanging onto him. She didn’t need any special ability to know what he was thinking then. His eyes screamed, Help me. Cheerilee galloped over the same rise her students had come from and slid to a stop, blowing hard. “Oh, my goodness!” she gasped. “All of a sudden my students ran out of the classroom. I am so sorry. Back to class, young fillies and gentlecolts! We’re drawing maps of the Griffon Kingdom this afternoon. You won’t want to miss that!” She stopped, noticing the crowd of grown ponies standing behind Pinkie Pie, Cheese, and her students. “Is this a party?” she said, looking from Pinkie to Cheese in confusion. Pinkie made a snap decision. “Yes! It’s a party! Woo hoo!” She jumped straight up in an explosion of streamers and confetti and landed on Cheese’s back in a sort of two-pony pyramid. “YAY!” cheered the crowd. “TOMORROW!” she added, and blew on a rollup noisemaker. “Y—yay?” said the other ponies. Cheese clearly knew a cue when he heard it. “C’mon, who here likes to party?” he said, rearing up as Pinkie balanced on his shoulders. “Me me me!” “Then you’ll like it TOMORROW!” he whooped. “After school,” Cheerilee added. “Aw,” said her students. “Is Cheese still going to be here?” asked Apple Bloom, who had borrowed Cheese’s hat. It looked pretty good on her. “Yeah,” insisted Scootaloo. “We want an epic party. Like Rainbow Dash’s!” “Yes?” said Cheese hesitantly, and Pinkie knew he was checking in with his Cheesy Sense. “Yes!” he added. “Yes, I’ll be there! But tomorrow.” “AFTER school,” Cheerilee added firmly. “AW,” her students said, but they obediently turned back to follow their teacher, and the adult ponies, embarrassed that mere fillies and colts were going back to their responsibilities, also turned to go back to their own, until Sweetie Belle asked, “at Sugarcube Corner?” “No!” said Pinkie, thinking quickly again, “at Twilight’s castle! Castles are great for big parties! And everypony’s invited! Tomorrow! After school! Or maybe the day after that!” Cheerilee trotted off to the schoolhouse with her students, and everypony else quietly withdrew, just as though they hadn’t run down the street mid-morning hoping for a party. “It’s gonna be abso-tootly-lootly awesometastic!” she called after them. “We’ll let you know!” “Wow,” said Cheese slowly, watching Cheerilee disappear, “that was amazing.” “Yup!” Pinkie said, as she slid off his back. “Cheerilee’s a fantabulous teacher. They’ll really like drawing maps this afternoon. They won’t mind waiting for the party. At least, not much.” “I mean you, too,” Cheese insisted. “How did you get them to leave? They really wanted us to throw them a party. I thought we’d have to for sure.” “We do have to for sure,” she said, poking him in his cutie mark. “Right? But nopony said it had to be today. And anyhoo, Twilight said you had to stay and help, remember? She said she thought she should have a castle warming, so she wants a party. Or maybe she just thinks everypony else will want to have a party and she’ll do it because she thinks she should. Princesses are funny like that. But she’ll probably want to know there’s a party tomorrow, and we should go tell her, ‘cause she won’t know the way we do.” Cheese hesitated again, and she wished she could do something about the jumbled mess of thoughts and feelings she was getting from him. He wanted to, he thought maybe he shouldn’t because he wanted to, there was probably another party he was supposed to plan because he wouldn’t be needed if Pinkie were here, and anyway he really, really wanted to, and that was probably a bad thing, and it went on and on. It was awful to listen to, but Pinkie knew she had to sit on her hooves and not interfere, even though all the confusion was muddying his Cheesy Sense, until finally it took matters into its own hooves. Cheese’s hind leg snapped straight out like a piston and thrust him several feet into the air, the accordion on his flank squealing like mad. He floated slowly back to earth, his flank still quivering, but with a peaceful expression on his face. “Yep,” he said, smiling. “It’s tomorrow, all right. Are we going to Twilight’s castle right now?” “Kinda,” said Pinkie. “We’re going the long way.” She turned, he turned with her, and off they went, his long strides perfectly matching two of her bounces. Her tail reached out and started interlacing its curls with his. It did that all on its own, and she didn’t know why, but she and her tail went way back and she trusted it. Her tail, she thought, knew what it was doing.