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// Day 28: The Art Of Making Ponies Smile (A Tribute to Pinkie Pie's Smile Song) 
// Story: NaPoWriMo 2014: A Compilation of Pony Tales 
// by Fluttercheer 
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	It was morning in Ponyville. The sun had just risen and Pinkie Pie was about to make her daily morning walk. As she wanted to head out of the door of Sugarcube Corner, she saw a cow that was heading towards the entrance.
Pinkie stuck her head out of the door to greet her, which startled the cow a little, because she hadn't seen the hyperactive mare coming. “Morning, Daisy Jo! You here to pick up some cookies to go with your milk?”, she welcomed her.
“Oh ya, Pinkie, don't cha know?”, Daisy Jo answered, happy to see the cheerful mare.
Pinkie jumped on her, slid over her back and her tail and landed behind her. “Well, Mrs. Cake just baked a fresh batch of your favorite oatmeal”, she said before she trotted away jolly.
Daisy Jo looked after her. “Mooo, sounds delightful!”, she joyfully exclaimed then.
Smiling, Pinkie began her way through the town. She came across a flower stall that was built up by Rose and full of lilies. As Pinkie noticed the stall, she looked admiringly at the flowers. “Oh, Rose, your Calla lilies look even better than last year! I bet you'll take first prize at the flower show again.”
“Thanks, Pinkie!”, Rose answered flattered, a broad grin on her face. “Would you like one?”
“Absolutely!”, Pinkie answered energetically. Rose lifted up one of the flowers with her mouth and threw it in Pinkie's direction, where it got caught by the pink mare, with her mouth as well.
Pinkie continued her way and chomped on the flower, then she did a happy jump in the air and threw her backhooves together with a loud clonk. It was a beautiful day and Pinkie Pie felt like the happiest mare in Ponyville, which was a feeling that she wanted to share with everypony she would meet today.
An old stallion from the Ponyville retirement home came into her direction. “Looking fit as a fiddle, Mr. Waddle, and you're wearing my favorite tie!”, she said charmingly and winked at him with her right eye.
“Aw, shucks, Miss Pinkie, you flatterer you”, he answered, his cheeks turning red.
A satisfying smile on her face, she bounced past him on her hooves. She looked back at him and then she saw Cheerilee who was on her way to the schoolhouse. Pinkie stopped for a moment. “Well, happy birthday, Cheerilee”, she congratulated her.
“Thank you, Pinkie.” Cheerilee emphasized on “you” as she answered. Pinkie Pie remembered her birthday every time, she had not forgotten it once since she came to Ponyville, and this made her happy every year anew.
As Pinkie had continued her way and was barely past Cheerilee, Zecora came her way. “Happy day-after-your-birthday, Zecora!”, the pink mare said while she continued to bounce happily.
“What a lovely hi, Miss Pinkie Pie!” As always, Zecora's answer was a perfect rhyme.
After Zecora had went past her, she looked to the left because Mathilda stood there. “And Miss Matilda, happy birthday to you.....”, she congratulated her as she did with Cheerilee seconds earlier. But unlike the teacher, the female donkey just gave her a confused and weird glance. “.....in one hundred and thirty two days!”, Pinkie finished her sentence, slightly embarrassed as she realized that she ended her sentence too late.
“Pinkie Pie! How do you remember everything about everypony?”, Mathilda asked her astounded.
“'Cause everypony's my friend and I love to see my friends smile!”, she answered cheerfully while bouncing ahead and finished her sentence with a wide grin.
Then she made her way further through the street. Twinkleshine went past her and Pinkie waved at her. “Hello!” Twinkleshine smiled back at her. A few steps ahead, she saw Bon Bon heading in the same direction she just came from. She gave her a wave too. “How ya doin'?”, she asked for her mood, earning a happy smile by the mare as she went past her.
After another few steps Pinkie Pie stopped her happy bouncing because she had noticed something in front of her.
Apple Cobbler lied on a beach chair in the front yard of her house. She held a sun reflector with her hooves and was apparently trying to catch the rays of the early morning sun for a quick sun bath. But she did not look happy. The mare moved around her sun reflector and desperately tried to find the right angle to catch the sunlight, but it was useless. A tree was behind her that blocked the light of the sun. It was only a very small tree, his trunk was thin and his crown not nearly as big as the crown of other trees, but it was enough to rob her off of the sunlight she needed. Pinkie could see that Apple Cobbler slowly lost her patience. On her face were already signs to be seen that she would get angry soon. Which was of course something that Pinkie wouldn't let happen.
She trotted ahead and quickened her speed to a fast gallop and then she jumped on the tree as she was only a meters away. His thin and flexible trunk bent down under her weight, so wide that his crown almost touched the ground, and he gave way for the sunlight.
A confused look appeared on Apple Cobbler's face as the shadow on her body suddenly vanished and she turned around. Noticing Pinkie on the tree, she smiled and then they shared a grin. “Thank you, Pinkie Pie!”, she said relieved. “Without you, I couldn't have a sunbath today!”
“Oh, that's nothing!”, Pinkie Pie answered modestly. “I just saw that you will get angry soon and I don't want anypony to be angry, especially not on such a beautiful day!”
And Pinkie's good deed for the sun-hungry mare did not end here. She had nothing to fixate the tree on the ground and so she just stayed until Apple Cobbler had finished her sunbath half an hour later. An overwhelming thank-you by Apple Cobbler, who almost couldn't believe it that Pinkie really waited the whole thirty minutes, later, Pinkie Pie continued her walk through Ponyville.
Her next destination was the schoolhouse. It was part of her daily routine to went there before Cheerilee began with her first lesson. She just loved it to play with the fillies and colts there, on the school's playground, before the bell rung! And since she waited so long to assist Apple Cobbler in her sunbath, it was already time to go there if she wanted to be there soon enough to get some playtime with the foals. She trotted on and after some meters, she turned into the street that led to the schoolhouse.
In some distance, a yellow filly, with a slightly darker yellow mane and tail, and a blue filly, whose mane and tail where a mix of a lighter blue and white, sat in front of a building. Both of them seemed to be gloomy because of something. As Pinkie came closer to them she could see that the blue one had turned her back at the yellow fillly, a disappointed and cold expression on her face. The yellow filly looked over to her sadly, her glance clearly full of regret over something. The two of them looked like they just had a serious dispute going on between them.
“Hi, Noi and Bloo!”, Pinkie cheered happily over to the two fillies as she had reached them. “What's up?”, she asked then. But the fillies gave her no answer. She sneaked past them and suddenly appeared between them, motivated to cheer them up. “Howdy!”, she bursted out. But the fillies still didn't answer. They just looked sceptically and sad at her. The usual thing did not seem to work this time. There was something big that troubled the fillies. But Pinkie did never give up so easily.
“Doesn't matter”, the happy pink mare said confidently. “I will cheer you up my friends, 'cause that's why I'm here!” She grabbed the two fillies and dragged them behind her as she went for an archway in a wall some meters ahead. A long staircase with a stone balustrade, that had a very smooth surface, was leading down behind it and so Pinkie knew exactly what she had to do. One ofter another, first Bloo, then Noi, she threw the sad foals through the archway, causing shocked reactions of them. Then she darted out of the archway behind them and catched them with her back before they could fall down on the hard stairs. She jumped on the balustrade, turned round and slid down on it backwards. And that was the right thing to make Bloo and Noi a little happier. They threw their hooves into the air and cheered like the happy little fillies they usually were. A naughty expression in her eyes, she looked back at them and watched how they cheered. She felt happy that her tactic to make ponies happy had success once again.
Briefly before they reached the end of the balustrade, she jumped off of it with the fillies on her back and landed on a cart that was filled with hay. It was harnessed to Big Mac. The stallion turned around surprised as he felt the sudden eruption in his cart and looked confused at Pinkie and the two fillies who just landed on it. But after seeing Pinkie with them, he quickly realized what was going on and his face changed to a determined expression. It was not the first time that something like this happened and so he knew what this was all about. It was just Pinkie cheering up some sad foals again. Wanting to contribute something to cheer up the fillies on his own now, he threw his hooves into the air in a spectacular way and then he dashed ahead in full speed.
On their way through the town in the cart, they were seen by Cherry Berry, Berry Pinch and Cotton Cloudy. Berry Pinch, who had just come to Cotton Cloudy's house to catch her up and to went with her friend to school, looked happy and a little jealously after them. Getting transported to school in this way was something they would have liked too. And Cherry Berry was not any less fascinated. Inspired by Pinkie's cheerfulness, her face turned into a big grin as she looked after the cart.
Noticing that Noi and Bloo still smiled happily, Pinkie turned round to use the opportunity to talk with them and to solve the problem they had with each other. Otherwise, they would just getting sad again soon, Pinkie knew.
“So, why were you so sad earlier? What happened?”, she asked the two little fillies.
As they heard this question, their ears dropped immediately again. And Bloo gave no answer. Instead, she crossed her hooves and turned away from Noi again.
Noi sighed sadly. “It was all just because of that discussion we had on the way to school. Miss Cheerilee gave us a difficult homework yesterday. I couldn't solve it. But Bloo said she had found the solution and explained it to me after we met to go to school together. We talked a while about it, because I couldn't believe that her solution was the right one. And then.....” The yellow filly stopped.
“And then?”, Pinkie repeated her words.
“Then..... I got angry suddenly and called her an..... an..... an idiotic girl.....” Noi's voice became quieter with every word, the last two words of her sentence nothing more than a silent whisper. “And now she doesn't want to talk to me anymore.....” The yellow filly closed her eyes. Some tears rolled over her cheeks.
“She's right, that wasn't very nice from you. But why don't you apologize to her? She is your best friend, I'm sure she forgives you!”
The eyes of the filly shot open again. “But I already did!”, she bursted out. “First, I just went on after I said that to her. She wasn't following me and I wondered about that, so I turned around. I saw that she had stopped and then that she cried a little. She sat down then and was too sad to continue our way to school. I was so sorry as I saw that. I apologized for saying this, but Bloo didn't answer. I tried it a few times more, but she just ignored me. Then I sat down at her side, because I didn't wanted to go without her. And that was shortly before you found us.” Noi lowered her eyes and looked sad down on the hay. “She doesn't forgive me”, she said, her voice full of sadness.
“Hmm, I guess you hurt her feelings very much then.....”, Pinkie said thoughtfully, a hoof on her chin. “But she can't always be mad with you. You're best friends”, she pointed out after having put her hoof down again.
“Not anymore!”, it came from Bloo suddenly.
Noi looked at her, her eyes full of tears now. “But Bloo..... We are best friends.....”, she said in her tear-filled voice and put a hoof on the shoulder of her friend, who was still turning her back at her.
But Bloo was shaking it off. “Don't touch me, I am not your friend anymore!”
After getting rejected like this, Noi broke out in tears completely.
Pinkie looked at the scenery and realized that there must be more behind the conflict that was between them. “Why have you even said that?”, she asked the crying little filly. “You don't wanted to insult here, right?”
Noi shook her head slowly. “No, I'm not.” The filly sniffled. “But I felt so stupid after I heard that Bloo had found the right answer.”
The ears of Bloo pricked up suddenly.
“Why stupid?”, Pinkie Pie asked. Noi rubbed with a hoof over her nose and sniffled again.
“Bloo always solves the hard tasks. But I never do..... And as she told me today that she had again found a solution for something, I just couldn't hear it anymore, so I doubted it and started to argue against her. And as she defended her solution and explained it over and over again, I got so angry that I just snapped at her..... But I didn't wanted to. I just feel always so useless when Bloo solves something that I can't.....” The filly continued to cry silently, as she had stopped explaining her reaction.
Pinkie wanted to talk to Bloo about it, but then she noticed that she don't needed to anymore.
Now it was Bloo who hung her head sadly. Slowly, she turned around to face Noi again. She looked down for a moment, but then she reached out to her and gently stroke with a hoof over the mane of her crying friend. “Noi.....”, she began. “Please don't cry anymore. I forgive you.”
Noi looked up at her, her eyes red from crying. “You do?”, she asked her unbelievingly.
“Mhm. I didn't know that you always felt like this. I'm sorry. I don't wanted to make you feel stupid.....” Bloo felt guilty too now.
Noi looked for a moment at her friend, without saying something. Then she approached her all of a sudden and hugged her. “I'm sorry”, she said under tears. “I don't wanted to hurt you.”
Bloo put her hooves on the back of her friend comfortingly. “I know. And I don't wanted to make you feel so bad about it that you couldn't solve our homework.” Even Bloo broke out in tears now.
The fillies just sat there in this position, crying for a minute, then they released each other and dried their tears.
“Are we friends again?”, Noi asked, a shy smile on her face.
“We were always friends!”, Bloo assured her.
The fillies looked at each other with adorable smiles and then shared a happy laugh.
Pinkie Pie, who watched the whole scene silently, smiled too. Bringing two friends together again was really the best way to spread happiness.
Big McIntosh stopped the cart suddenly. The mare and the two fillies looked down and saw that they were at the schoolhouse. Having listened to their conversation, Big Mac had decided to bring them directly to school. Happy about being reunited as friends, the blue and the yellow filly jumped down the cart and headed towards the other fillies who already occupied the playground of the school.
A lot of fillies and colts were there already, including Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. It was still half an hour before the first lesson began and so enough time for Pinkie to play with the foals a little before school began. She jumped off the cart too and Big Mac left, finally heading back to the farm now.
As Pinkie approached the playing foals, she saw that Berry Pinch and Cotton Cloudy, who were so fascinated about them getting transported on the cart a short time earlier, were there too. The eyes of the foals lit up brightly as they saw their familiar playmate. Every time Pinkie Pie was there to play with them, it was even more fun as when they just played with each other, so she was always welcome amidst them.
Two fillies approached Pinkie as soon as they saw here. “Hi, Piña Colada and Tornado Bolt!”, she greeted the two fillies.
“Good Morning, Pinkie!”, they chimed out together.
“Do you want to play rope skipping with us?”,  Piña Colada asked her.
“Well, d'uh! You know that I love this game!”, Pinkie stated the obvious. “How could I say no?”
The fillies grinned and excitedly, they enrolled the rope and hold it at the ends. As Pinkie Pie was in position, they began to swing the rope. Only slightly first, but they swung it stronger slowly. That was no problem for Pinkie Pie. She played rope skipping since she was just a little filly and always unbeaten in it. The fillies around her watched her fascinatedly as she jumped over the rope that Piña Colada and Tornado Bolt swung for her.
“I want to jump with you too!”, Scootaloo bursted out suddenly. Carefully she approached the swinging rope and began to jump together with Pinkie.
“Awesome!”, Pinkie commented on it that Scootaloo joined her.
A moment later, Dinky followed Scootaloo's example.
“Rock on!”, Pinkie said enthusiastically to the little unicorn.
After the two fillies had joined her, Pinkie stretched out her hooves and pulled Tornado Bolt and Piña Colada closer to them, making them join in into the fun. The five of them were jumping together now and laughed happily over the fun they had. The rope just moved by itself to make that possible, which was strange, but the fillies did not think about it. They knew Pinkie and were used to it that things like that happened when she was around. Pinkie had so much fun that she would have loved it to gather around even more foals to jump over the rope, but unfortunately, their rope only allowed for five ponies to jump together.
After jumping a while with the fillies, Pinkie Pie noticed that Apple Bloom was leaving the group of fillies who were watching them. She left the four fillies and looked after her surprised.
In some distance, Apple Bloom sat down on the ground, a rope in her hoof, and looked sadly back to the rope skipping fillies. Pinkie Pie followed her to see what was wrong. Depressed, Apple Bloom threw the end of the rope that she was holding away after she saw Pinkie hurrying over to her.
“Hey, what is it? Don't you want to play with us too?”, Pinkie asked her concerned.
“Ah would like to play rope skipping with you”, the filly said in a resignated voice. “But ah can't. Ah was never good at it. Ah always trip over the rope at the first try.....” She hung her head and closed her eyes sadly. All of a sudden, she felt lifted up into the air. A small scream escaped her mouth. She looked down surprised and found herself sitting on Pinkie's head suddenly. The rope was in Pinkie's hooves now and she jumped over it while she let Apple Bloom sit on her head, giving her the feeling how it was to do successful rope jumps. “Wow, ya'll a stunner, Pinkie!”, she burst out happily now. Then she closed her eyes and enjoyed what Pinkie did for her, a satisfied and happy smile on her face, while the other fillies watched them fascinatedly again.
In that way, Pinkie Pie continued to play with the foals until the ringing of the school bell marked the beginning of the first lesson for them today. Before she left, Apple Bloom thanked her for cheering her up with a crushing hug. “Thanks!”, she said. “Ya really know how to make ponies happy!”
“Aww, shucks,” the pink earth pony answered. “I just want to see my friends happy, that's nothing special!”
They released their hug. “There is a pony that could really need it right now”, Apple Bloom said then.
“Oh, yeah? Who is it?”, Pinkie answered curiously.
“It's mah sister. She has to paint a wall of the barn today, because the old paint has already crumbled away. But she really hates doing that. She's in a bad mood since she got up today, because she has to do that.”
“That really doesn't sound good, but I'll take care of this!”, Pinkie exclaimed happily. She stroked the mane of Applejack's little sister and said goodbye to her and the other foals, then she bounced away into the direction of Sweet Apple Acres.
And she arrived there exactly at the right moment. Applejack had just begun with painting the wall, as Pinkie came to her. “Hi, Applejack!”, she greeted her friend.
“Mornin', Pinkie”, Applejack replied moody, while she brushed the red paint on the wall. With a sigh, Applejack looked up the wall at all the surface she had to brush the paint on before she was finished.
Pinkie Pie followed her glance and since she came to make Applejack happy again, she took the paintbrush out of the bucket with the yellow paint and set herself to work. And if she was already at it to help Applejack painting the barn wall, why not drawing something cheerful instead of just boring red color? These were her thoughts and she put them into operation.
In a tempo that only Pinkie Pie could reach she painted the wall for Applejack and even drew a picture of herself and a laughing sun on it to cheer her up even more.
And it worked. She looked down at Applejack, the paintbrush still in her mouth, and Applejack answered her glance with a happy and thankful smile. Having finished her work, Pinkie jumped down the ladder and put the paintbrush she had used last back into the bucket.
“Thanks, Pinkie! Sometimes ah wouldn't know what to do without ya!”, she exclaimed, enthusiastically over Pinkie's masterly performance. Pinkie wasn't replying anything and just grinned broadly at the farm mare. “How about ah invite ya to breakfast in town for helpin' me?”, Applejack asked her then.
“Oh, no, that's not necessary!”, Pinkie chimed gleefully. “I just wanted to make you happy 'cause Apple Bloom told me about it how unhappy you were about having to paint the barn when I was at the schoolhouse earlier. That you're happy again is enough thanks for me!”
“Ah see”, Applejack answered. “But what if inviting ya would make me even more happy?”
Pinkie put a hoof to her chin and thought about the question for a moment. “Well, I guess saying no, even when it would make you happy so much, would make you unhappy again probably, so.....” She put down her hoof again. “.....let's go!”, she finished her sentence. Not waiting for an answer, Pinkie bounced ahead, back to Ponyville.
Applejack chuckled and then she followed her back to the town.