“So let me get this straight.” Twilight’s voice had taken on a strained quality thanks to her bulging stomach — at least, that’s what Pinkie was telling herself. “You’re looping through time and trying to stop Nightmare Moon from returning—”
“I don’t think that’s actually possible,” said Pinkie. “You told me once that there would be no stopping the stars from moving into position.”
“But I’ve never seen you before.”
“It was in another loop. I was talking to Apple Cinnamon in that one — he caters for the astronomy department in Las Pegasus — and he made me so curious about the astronomical part of all this that we spent the night looking for more information about the stars. Apparently you were able to actually read the book we found, because that’s what you told me. Whatever they are, you can’t stop the stars.”
“Mhm.” Twilight stared forward, ears neutral.
“But Twilight,” Spike cut in, “this is great! You don’t have to try to convince her about Nightmare Moon!”
“You should listen to him,” said Pinkie. “He’s smart for his age.”
Twilight grumbled.
“Where are we going next?” There was a little spring in her step, Pinkie realized, and she forced herself to calm down. “Checking up on the next preparation for the celebration on the list, I mean.”
“Spike and I are looking for the weather manager now. We need to check on how the weather is doing.”
“Well, that’s easy!” Pinkie swept a hoof at the sky. “Just look at the clouds up there.”
Twilight looked. “The clouds aren’t cleared. Well, we just need to find her and let her know she needs to step it up.”
Something slammed into Pinkie. Her breath warped into a desperate bid for air at the impact, with bones and organs collapsing at the force of the blow. Too stunned to think, too broken to care, she could only dimly hear the panicked shouts of the blue thing above her, grasping her head in hooves she couldn’t feel. In time, even that faded.
∞
“Well, that’s easy!” Pinkie swept a hoof at the sky. “Just look at the clouds up there.”
Twilight looked. “The clouds aren’t cleared. Well, we just need to find her and let her know she needs to step it up.”
Pinkie leapt to the side. Twilight’s grunt of confusion turned to a cry of surprise as the blue blur barreled into her, sending her toppling to the mud. She lay there, unharmed but growling a little at this turn of events, while the blue pegasus chuckled awkwardly.
“That really isn’t fair,” Pinkie mumbled. She looked up, as if some cosmic interloper could hear her complaint, but only clouds and sky met her gaze.
The pegasus’s grin was lopsided, carefree. “Whoops. Sorry about that. I wasn’t looking where I was flying.”
“That had better be true,” said Twilight. She picked herself up, sending the pegasus sprawling at her hooves. With her horn glowing, she quickly removed the mud that threatened to stain her coat, sending it spattering around her without ceremony.
The pegasus leapt to her hooves with a flutter of wings, shaking herself clean. “Hey, I said I’m sorry.” She puffed her chest out, making her look quite the opposite of sorry. “The name’s Rainbow Dash, and I’m the fastest pegasus in Equestria. You could probably tell from the way I crashed into you. I don’t think I’ve seen you guys in town before.”
“That’s because we’re new!” Spike grinned. “This is Twilight Sparkle, and I’m Spike. We’re looking at how preparations are going for the Summer Sun Celebration.”
“Yeah? Well, you’ve come to the right place. I was just about to get these clouds taken care of.”
Twilight eyed her. “By ‘just about to,’ you mean ‘sometime today,’ don’t you.”
“Pretty much.”
Pinkie watched Rainbow Dash as Dash went back and forth with Twilight. Despite Pinkie’s scrutiny, Dash kept her eyes trained on Twilight, with the occasional glance at Spike thrown in. On a whim, Pinkie waved at Dash, hooves flailing in the air. Dash eyes didn’t so much as flit toward her.
“Oh yeah?” Dash was saying. She puffed her chest out even further. “I can get this sky cleared in ten seconds flat.”
Twilight smirked. “Prove it.”
Dash’s eyes narrowed. Her wings flared, and then there was a blast of air marking the spot where she had stood milliseconds ago. Above them, a streak of blue zipped from cloud to cloud, leaving only clear sky in her wake. A continuous whooshing sound followed her, leaving an almost visible trail in the air.
Before anypony could say something stupid like “Wow, she’s fast,” Dash had touched down again, wings rustling back into a resting position.
“What’d I tell ya?” She grinned. “Ten seconds flat.”
“Actually, that was nine seconds.” Pinkie wore a grin of her own. “I counted.”
“Really?” The pegasus’s eyes, lighting up, settled on Pinkie for the first time. It was only for a moment, as she quickly averted her gaze again, but it was there. “I mean, of course I did. It’s very Dashian for me to break my own record like it’s nothing.”
“‘Dashian’?” Spike stared. “You have your own adjective?”
“Is that what that is? I just needed something to describe me.”
“That’s what an adjective does.” Twilight had shaken off her surprise. “So you needed a word to describe yourself … and you decided to describe yourself using yourself as a descriptor.”
“Sheesh, you don’t have to make it sound so complicated.”
Twilight snorted. “Well, thanks for clearing the clouds. Even though that was your job … Come on, Spike. We have to go look at decorations.”
“Okay.” Spike grinned back as the two of them set off. “See you, Rainbow Dash! That was really cool of you.”
“Yeah, it was.” Dash polished a hoof on her chest. “He’s all right, that kid. He knows radicalness when he sees it.”
“Where are you off to now?” Pinkie asked, eyes bright. “Maybe I could tag along and give you something to do.”
“Yeah … about that.” A rainbow mane flipped across Dash’s face as she gave Pinkie a sideways look. “I’m mostly gonna be hanging out with other pegasi at my house.”
Pinkie frowned. “What’s wrong with non-pegasi?”
“Oh, nothing!” Dash lifted her hooves, fending off the accusation. “Don’t get me wrong here. It’s just that I live in a cloud house, and it’s hard for earth ponies to get in places like that.”
“That makes sense,” Pinkie said, conceding the point. She rubbed her chin, wondering how to get on the pegasus’s good side. “Still, I’ve never talked to somepony as cool as you.”
“You’ve been missing out.” The corner of Dash’s mouth lifted in a smirk. “You’ve lived here in Ponyville, right? I swear I’ve seen you before.” She had stopped looking at Pinkie, instead inspecting a wing.
“I have. I’m Pinkie Pie, and I work at Sugarcube Corner with the Cakes. You must have dropped by at some point.”
“Sugarcube Corner, huh? Good to know.” Dash tensed a little as she prepared to take off. “Well, it’s been nice talking to you, but I gotta fly now—”
“There you are, Dash!” A dark gray stallion swooped down from above, followed by a pair of lavender mares. They landed in unison, and the mares giggled at something unspoken. “We’ve been looking everywhere for you! Are we still on for this evening?”
“You know it!”
The stallion paused as he noticed Pinkie. “Hey, I know you! Pinkie Pie, right?”
“Yes.” Pinkie considered her recently expanded list of ponies she knew. “And you’re … Boltpath?”
“Thunderlane. And these are my friends, Cloudchaser and Flitter.”
Pinkie and the sisters exchanged smiles.
“Hey!” Thunderlane’s eyes lit up. “You’re not doing anything, are you? We’re looking for ponies to come to our pre-Summer Sun party! It’ll be great!”
“Would that work?” Pinkie glanced at Dash, who glared dully at Thunderlane. “I heard it was in a cloud house.”
“We can have it under the cloud instead. It’s not that important that it’s inside. Unless your house is about to rain sometime … Is it, Dash?”
Dash exhaled sharply. “It should be fine.”
“Great! Let’s head over there!”
The ponies made their way through Ponyville. Dash’s forelegs were folded the entire way, something the other three pegasi seemed completely oblivious to. When Pinkie stared at her in curiosity, Dash’s tail flicked in impatience.
What’s her deal?
The cloud house was a loud creation, at least visually — the vivid rainbow waterfalls pouring here and there trickled quietly. Underneath was a large area covered in grass, though not as thickly as the surrounding earth. It was here that the ponies sat, shaded from the sun and feeling a little conspicuous without any others to keep them company.
“We have parties occasionally,” Thunderlane explained, noticing Pinkie’s consternation at their situation. “I’m usually in charge of them ... that’s probably why nopony’s here yet.”
“You don’t sound like you like to be in charge.”
“It’s gotta be done. Ponies need parties. We never noticed a lot of them happening in Ponyville, since it’s usually a pretty quiet place. Kind of a shame, I thought.” He shrugged. “If nopony else helps to bring ponies together, I might as well take a swing at it.”
Pinkie thought of balloons and streamers. She thought of confetti bursting from nowhere, scattering across a room full of cheering ponies. She thought of cake nearly breaking a table with its weight, and the little flutter in the stomach that came when a pony expresses thanks for such a good time. Then she thought of her room, decorated in its inoffensive pink, with only books and an alligator for company.
She looked at her flank. Her cutie mark met her gaze, asking a wordless question.
“Ugh!” Dash threw her hooves in the air. “Didn’t you give anypony a time, Thunderlane?”
“I just said ‘this evening.’” He frowned. “You’d think I’d have learned not to do that by now.”
“Don’t worry about it, guys.” Flitter pointed at something moving over the hills. “See? Here come a couple of them now.”
The huge white shape resolved into a figure recognizable as a pony, though the connection was a little tenuous. He was a stallion bulging with muscles, which stood in sharp contrast to his tiny, buzzing wings. On his back stood a thin foal, who displayed his buckteeth in a wide grin.
“Bulk Biceps!” Cloudchaser exclaimed. “Featherweight! You guys having a great pre-Summer Sun day?”
“YEAH!” the muscled pegasus bellowed, loud enough to send everypony’s manes fluttering. His companion simply nodded in agreement.
“And there’s Blossomforth!” Thunderlane waved at another approaching pony. His attention was quickly diverted by yet another. “And Ditzy Doo! I guess this is gonna work after all!”
Before long, a veritable flock of pegasi had arrived, all enjoying the growing shade as the sun made its way westward. The occasional earth pony and unicorn could be seen among the mass of wings, presumably having tagged along out of curiosity or boredom. Most of them were ponies Pinkie had seen at various points in Sugarcube Corner, though again she couldn’t quite place their names.
“Well,” she said to herself, “this is working out better than I could hope for.” She noticed Rainbow Dash, who was reluctantly smiling as she discussed something with another pegasus. “... Mostly. It should be fine though. What are the odds that Dash is one of the ponies I’m looking for?”
∞
Loops passed. Most of the deaths over this time occurred from choking on the food that had been brought, but despite the horrifying desperation that came from trying and failing to pull in one more breath, she kept coming back for more. Whoever made those cheese puffs was a genius.
Like the Apple Family, these ponies all had stories to tell. Cloud Kicker had apparently ventured into Everfree and back, though nopony would believe her. Merry May had broken up with one of the Wonderbolts some time ago, and now she was back to searching for a steady coltfriend or fillyfriend. Raindrops was on the Ponyville debate team, though she sometimes struggled with keeping her aggressiveness to just her words. With every anecdote, Pinkie found her perception of Ponyville grow a little wider, turn at a new angle, take on a new color, until the result was something new and wonderful.
It was a job well done, she decided, but it wasn’t quite done yet.
“Now there’s Scootaloo,” she said to herself, watching as the other ponies separated into their little, familiar groups. “Maybe she can tell me more about her family … Wait, I already asked her that. I guess that’s everypony, then.” She smiled. “That went faster than expected. Well, maybe I can still catch up with Twilight and Spike and see where they go next. Anything to get through this crazy looping thing.” She turned to leave—
“Augh! Watch it!”
—and collided face-first with Rainbow Dash, who reeled back farther than would have made sense. Pinkie, bolstered by earth pony magic, stood a little firmer; nevertheless, she also wobbled in place from the impact.
“Geez!” Dash rubbed her forehead, wincing. “Just attack me out of nowhere, why don’t you?”
“Sorry.” Pinkie considered what had just happened. “But weren’t you the one sneaking up on me? Have you just been hovering there?”
Dash looked to her wings, which kept her just off the ground. “... No.”
How many loops has she been just behind, watching? Pinkie’s skin crawled. “I have to go.”
“Hey, wait.” Dash paused, looking sheepish at her sudden reversal in attitude. “I mean, I didn’t mean to freak you out. You just looked suspicious, that’s all.”
Pinkie was beginning to understand what it felt like to be Twilight. “Why do I look suspicious?”
“I don’t know … I guess you look like you know something, maybe? It weirds me out.”
“Is that all?”
Dash said nothing.
“Okay. Sorry to bother you.” Pinkie started away. “I’d better find Twilight—”
She had a split second to register the fork, waving about carelessly as a pegasus approached some heated point in his conversation. Then, in a sharp upward motion, the fork tore through the softness under Pinkie’s chin, sweeping up to pin her tongue to the roof of her mouth. Overwhelmed by shock, she collapsed where she stood; the fork, smashing against the grass, was driven further into her skull.
“Horseapples!” Somehow Pinkie could hear Dash’s voice over the screams. “Say something! Wait, no, don’t. I’ll call an ambulance! Thunderlane, where …? What?”
Pinkie’s mouth had jerked upward at the corner. “Auh … she ishn’ hoo ba’ affer aw!”
Blood spattered Dash’s hooves, but she didn’t seem to care. In a flash, she was elsewhere, barking orders to the other pegasi and mobilizing them into action.
Then the pain ripped through her, and Pinkie, never one to disappoint, screamed. She screamed even as the blood drained down her throat, and she screamed as the world was drowned in red.
∞
“Oh my! You’ve certainly been productive, haven’t you?”
“You could put it that way, I guess.” Pinkie was poking at the area around her throat, searching for the ghost of agony that had brought her back to this point. “I met them, and Dash isn’t completely horrible, so it’s progress.” Her tongue waggled, enjoying its hitherto unappreciated ability to move.
“... Are you okay, Pinkie? You look a little pale.”
“It’s fine, Mrs. Cake. If anything, I feel a little hoarse!”
Pinkie giggled, guffawed, and dissolved into cackles, rolling on the floor until tears came to her eyes. She heaved with laughter, and when she eventually ran out of breath she still shook as her chest struggled to pull in air. Only when Mrs. Cake had cautiously made her way closer did she realize that Pinkie, now lying on her side, had begun to sob.