//------------------------------// // Facing her fear. // Story: Taking a chance on love // by Starlitomega //------------------------------// “Pinkie, I don’t think we can do this. I don’t think it’s going to work out.” “What are you talking about? We always have fun together! What can’t we work out?” “It just takes up a lot of time, hanging out with you.” “But we always have fun….. don’t we?” “I dunno, this is getting way out of hand. We should stop before one of us gets hurt.” ~ Pinkie’s eyes shot open, her heart fluttered wildly in her chest and her head pounded with an extremely powerful headache. The pink pony threw her covers to the side and hopped off the bed making for the window overlooking Ponyville. Looking out she could tell by the sun she woke up later than usual. All night she fought that dream of endless rejection in her head. No, not a dream, nightmare. She briefly pondered cleaning up for a moment taking a stray glance at the vacant bathroom, but she couldn’t bring herself to care about how she looked. Instead, she pushed open the door to her room and slowly trotted down the staircase into the sweetshop’s lobby. “Pinkie, we need ta talk.” At the counter stood Applejack and Fluttershy, neither of them looking very pleased at the moment. The pink pony simply turned her nose into the air, “I really don’t have time for this right now, I have to get baking. I'm already late getting started so we’ll talk abo- WOAH! “ Pinkie never finished her sentence thanks to the lasso around her neck. “I already talked to tha Cakes, they’ll be fine for the day. Now I’m not takin no fer an answer, we’re goin for a walk!” Applejack snarled through the rope in her mouth. The pink pony resisted against the farmers pull, intent on staying put, but the struggle was in vain thanks to the blonde pony’s superior strength. She reluctantly followed her friends out the door and into town. The uncomfortable silence and unwillingly roped pony caused passerbys to stare as the trio walked through town. Every few moments Fluttershy glanced back at Pinkie, an apologetic look plain on her face. A few minutes later they found themselves in the outskirts of the apple orchard. Applejack came to an abrupt stop and loosened the rope from Pinkie’s neck. “Ok, now talk.” The farmer ordered. “What about?” Pinkie asked turning her nose in the air. Her eyes filled with the unfortunate sight of Fluttershy staring her down. Her ears fell to the side of her head at the horrific gaze being administered to her. “Don’t you dare lie to me or Applejack, Pinkamena Diane Pie! We both know there was something wrong about the way you acted last night!” Stabbing pain entered her heart again. Though she wanted to keep up her facade, her face betrayed her. “It wasn’t about Twilight last night, was it sugarcube?” questioned the blonde pony. Pinkie looked toward Applejack, glad to have something other than the stare looking back at her. She sadly shook her head, “I don’t know where to begin.” She flinched as the earth pony softly touched her shoulders. Two sets of worried eyes stared back at her. “Ummm, please tell us, we’re your friends.” Pinkie sighed, “I can’t do it again.” Applejack nodded, “This is about you and Dash isn’t it?” The earth pony nodded again. “It still hurts.” Pinkie hesitated. “Pleeeease?” begged Fluttershy. The pink pony drew in a deep breath,”Ok. Before Twilight came here, Dash and I were kind of together and it was great. We would have slumber parties and I would visit her on her practice sessions, we had all sorts of fun together. Then, one day she… she broke up with me.” Pinkie strained through tears. “We stopped talking and even avoided each other. Then Twilight appeared and suddenly we couldn’t avoid each other. We both became friends again because we had to, but it still hurts.” Pinkie’s voice tightened, the tears coming on even stronger. “When…when Twilight asked me out I was happy, finally somepony else wanted to be with me again… But then I thought of Dash again. I can’t handle going through that… Not again.” Fluttershy pulled Pinkie close to her chest giving the pink pony a warm shoulder to let it all out, “So those awful things you said to her?” “I didn’t mean It.” she sobbed, “I just thought if she was mad at me she might give up and then we could have a fight, I could say I’m sorry, and just go back to being friends.” Applejack shook her head, “Pinkie, you didn’t think about her did you? How she might feel when the one she cares about the most jus hauls off and insults her.” “I'm sorry. I just couldn’t take going through that again.” Applejack gave a soft smile, “Oh sugar, I know ya mean well, but we ain’t the ones ya need to go apologizing to.” The pink pony lowered her head in shame. Fluttershy grabbed her face with her hooves looking into her blue eyes. “Do you regret dating rainbow?” Pinkie shook her head slowly. “Then why can’t you give Twilight a shot?” “It…. it hurt so much when she broke up.” “But you don’t regret it. That means the good has to outweigh the bad, right?” Pinkie nodded. Then I think you should give her a chance, no matter what though, you have to talk to her.” The poofy tailed pony wiped the remaining tears away, clearing her vision. “I’ve been a really bad friend…. Haven’t I?” Applejack threw a hoof over her shoulder, “We all are at some point or another, and its how we fix our mistakes that show tha real measure of a pony. C’mon, let’s go talk to her together.”