//------------------------------// // Chapter Seventeen: A Night with Pinkie Pie // Story: The Equestrian Venture // by TheCrimsonDM //------------------------------// THE EQUESTRIAN VENTURE Chapter Seventeen: A Night with Pinkie Pie Written by TheCrimsonDM The morning sun shone through the windows and into the kitchen lighting up the little room. Birds were chirping their songs outside of Fluttershy’s cottage and the fresh smell of morning air filled the kitchen. Rita leaned back in the wooden chair, the chair being balanced on its rear legs. Rita rested her legs across the table with her hands behind her head she stared at the window. Fluttershy was working on breakfast quietly while Rita thought to herself about the night before. It was nice to finally have someone to help her when she was feeling down, someone who would make all the pain go away. Rita hadn’t had anyone to help her like this in years, but finally she had found a true friend. This brought a small smile to Rita’s lips as she thought more about how nice Fluttershy was to her. “Hey,” Rita said, “Fluttershy, I just wanted to say thank you for last night. It really does mean a lot to me to know how much you care.” Fluttershy was quiet as she finished making the sandwiches. Fluttershy flew over to the table and set the plates down gently. Fluttershy sat down after that and began eating in peace while looking around nervously. Even Rita could tell that something was bothering the butter yellow pegasus. “What’s up?” Rita asked. Rita waited for a moment but after seeing that she wasn’t going to get a reply she added, “I was thinking about fighting a dragon, want to join me?” “WHAT!” Fluttershy exclaimed. “Just kidding, I won’t ever see that thing again. So tell me what’s eating you up?” Rita said. “Oh… it’s, um, nothing. I just… would you mind staying with Pinkie Pie tonight?” Fluttershy asked her voice a little shaky. Rita leaned forward, the chair slammed against the floor, and Rita nearly shouted, “What did you say? Are you kicking me out? Did I do something wrong?” “No no no, it’s nothing like that. I just need some alone time tonight, it’s been a while since you moved in, and I’ve been needing to do something… please don’t be upset,” Fluttershy said in a timid voice. Rita’s heart was pumping fast and hot. She was still worried that something was wrong but at the same time she didn’t want to upset Fluttershy any further. Rita closed her eyes and after breathing slowly for a moment she said calmly, “It’s okay, I just want to make sure that I didn’t do anything wrong. If you just need some alone time, then I guess I don’t mind staying a night at Pinkie’s house,” Rita wanted to add ‘but it will be lonely without you’. Fluttershy smiled a little cheesy grin at Rita, and Rita thought she saw something wrong with one of Fluttershy’s teeth, but the smile faded to quickly for her to get a good look. It was probably just some food that was stuck on her tooth or something. Fluttershy looked towards the wall and said, “You know Pinkie will be so happy that you are willing to spend the night with her. She’s wanted to have a sleep over since you came into town, but I’ve told her no. I didn’t think you were ready until now. I believe that you will be just fine, and you will really enjoy getting to know her more.” “Yeah, I guess,” Rita said lamely. She loved hanging out with the pink party pony as much as anypony did, but she didn’t want to stay away from Fluttershy for too long. One night couldn’t do that much harm, could it? *** That afternoon Fluttershy and Rita arrived at the Sugarcube Corner’s front door. Fluttershy was carrying a saddlebag full of various things for Rita that night, while Rita stood next to her looking uncomfortable. The front door swung open and Applejack stepped out of the store, she gave Fluttershy a friendly smile, and a stern look to Rita. “Ah’ll be bringing them apples over in a bit,” Applejack said while avoiding Rita’s glare. “Thank you, AJ. You’re help means a lot to me,” Fluttershy said kindly. “No problem, were friends after all. Is Rainbow gonna be there tonight?” Applejack asked. “Oh, um, yes,” Fluttershy admitted timidly. Rita looked at Fluttershy hoping to get an answer as to what exactly was going on tonight, she did not receive one however. Applejack got out of the doorway as another pony walked in past her. Applejack gave another friendly smile to Fluttershy before saying, “Ah hope you two have fun.” “Not too much fun, I hope. I don’t want be rough on her by accident,” Fluttershy said while her cheeks began reddening. “Ya’ll will be fine fer tonight, so long as Rainbow Dash doesn’t try to do what she did last time,” Applejack said. “Oh, it will be fine. Rita here is going to be staying the night with Pinkie though, I want to be alone with Rainbow Dash tonight… you know,” Fluttershy said her cheeks growing even more red. At this point Rita was sure that Fluttershy was intending on being intimate with Rainbow Dash, and she found herself trying not to imagine what that was going to look like, she failed. Rita crossed her arms and in a big showy motion she walked through the front door while saying, “I’m going to talk to Pinkie. You two can do whatever out here, I don’t care.” Fluttershy quickly followed while saying, “I’m sorry, we’ll continue this conversation later, if you still want to.” Applejack just glared at Rita for a moment before leaving. Rita wasn’t sure what Applejack’s problem with her was, but she was beginning to get upset about it. Once inside Fluttershy and Rita were greeted by Pinkie Pie who smiled brightly at them, Rita always enjoyed how one smile from Pinkie would light up an entire room. Now smiling Rita waved at Pinkie and Fluttershy said, “Thank you so much for watching her tonight, Pinkie.” “Hey,” Rita interrupted, “I’m not a child, I just need a place to stay for the night… not a pony to watch over me.” Fluttershy gave a kind smile to Rita and said, “Of course, I’m sorry.” Rita looked away and huffed. Pinkie Pie giggled before saying, “It’s going to be a slumber party, just for us fillies.” Fluttershy gave the saddlebags over to Pinkie before explaining, “She has a particular diet, so ask her what she can eat before cooking for her. And she needs a bath at seven, so that you can brush her mane before bed time. Also don’t forget that she has night terrors, so she might need cuddles to make them all better.” Rita stared at Fluttershy in astonishment, she was not some child and yet here was Fluttershy acting like she was. Rita stomped her foot down hard, effectively grabbing the attention of the two ponies. “I am not a child. I’ll eat whatever I feel like, bathe if I feel like, and I have nightmare’s not ‘night terrors’.” Fluttershy looked taken aback for a moment before looking down and apologizing quietly. Pinkie Pie laughed and said, “It’s fine, we’re going to have so much fun tonight. I’ve been wanting to do this since you came to Ponyville.” There was a little more awkward conversation before Fluttershy finally left. Pinkie brought Rita up to her bedroom, located on the top most floor of Sugarcube Corner. Once inside Rita couldn’t wait for the night to be over already, it was bad enough to have Applejack acting like she had some sort of grudge, it was even worse to have Fluttershy acting like Rita was some sort of child. Rita could already tell that it was going to be a long night. *** A few hours later Rita found herself sitting quietly on the floor. Although Pinkie had tried to make a conversation start a few times, Rita had just not felt like talking much. The awkward silence filled the little room to the brim, until Pinkie Pie left downstairs quietly. Rita was upset about Fluttershy’s behavior, but that wasn’t the real problem here, Applejack’s attitude was. Rita was trying her hardest to figure out exactly what was wrong with Applejack; it wasn’t like Rita had done anything to her. Rita gave up for a moment and looked around at the room she was in. Pinkie’s room was small, with a balcony just outside letting her see the night sky along with the full moon. The room was lit up by a lantern and the fire light cast strange shadows all over the room. She didn’t like being up here all alone. The room was round, and had only one rather large bed that took up most of the space the little room had to offer. The longer she stared at the shadows in the room, the more unnerved she became. All she wanted to do was go home to Fluttershy and cuddle up next to the yellow pegasus. “Pinkie Pie,” Rita called out. The door opened slowly, and Pinkie Pie walked in with a tin plate balanced on her head. Pinkie Pie looked off balanced as she walked awkwardly towards Rita and nearly fell before reaching her. Rita smiled at the silly pony as the plate was set down on the floor next to her. Rita looked at the plate and after seeing the chocolate cake sitting there her smile grew wider. “So did anypony want cake?” Pinkie Pie said while leaning in far too close for Rita’s comfort. Rita raised her hand and warned Pinkie Pie away from her face while saying, “Hey, not so close… I’m still a little nervous around ponies… and the weird shadows aren’t helping.” Pinkie Pie looked around the room and then her smile faded a little bit as she said, “Oh, you don’t like it here do you?” “It’s nice, it’s just not home. Fluttershy’s house is my home, and this place is new,” Rita said quietly. Pinkie Pie sat down next to Rita and picked up a slice of cake with her hooves. Pinkie opened her mouth wide and shoved the whole slice of cake into her mouth in one bite, swallowed and licked her lips clean. “Mmm, cake. I’m sorry that you’re scared. It’s nice here though, I promise.” There was a pause and then Pinkie Pie said, “Oh, I know what will help. Let’s talk about stallions, or mares, whatever you like.” “Stallions are kinda tall, so they scare me a little. I like mares though,” Rita said thankful for Pinkie’s presence, just having somepony to talk to made her feel safer about being in a strange place for the night. It dawned on her then that she had actually found a home for the first time in years, and the feeling although strange, was wonderful. “Awesome, I like mare’s too. So is there any mare that you like in particular?” Pinkie asked her voice getting a little higher pitched at the end. Rita thought about it for a moment, she liked a few ponies, Fluttershy, Twilight, Granny Smith. There was also one other pony that Rita liked as a good friend. “I like you, Pinkie.” Pinkie’s mouth dropped and she stared with wide eyes for a long moment before shaking her head and asking in a quiet tone, “You, like, me?” Rita nodded and said, “Of course I do. After all you carried me on your back when I was injured, and you saved my life from a timberwolf, and you give me free chocolate cake all the time. How could I not like you a whole lot.” Pinkie’s eyes began to water up, and her smile turned soft as she stared into Rita’s eyes. Pinkie quietly said, “But nopony like’s me that way. I’m too childish, or too crazy. A lot of ponies don’t really trust me because of that… but you actually like me?” “Yeah, I do. And if that’s how everypony see’s you then I’ll just have to like you even more,” Rita said proudly while pointing a thumb at herself, she then gave Pinkie a happy grin. Pinkie Pie wiped the tears away from her eyes before giving Rita a hug and saying, “Thank you, Rita. I… maybe it won’t make me popular but I’d like to be marefriends with you… I mean that’s what you want isn’t it?” Rita thought about it before, she had a couple of girlfriends in the past. She didn’t like the term girlfriend too much, considering she was actually into girls it had the possibility to make things confusing. That being said Pinkie was a pony and she knew that there was no way that she could fall in love with one, so being girlfriends with her, or marefriends as Pinkie put it, would be just fine. Rita returned the hug and said, “Sure, I’ve never had a marefriend before. Maybe we could do each other’s manes or something… girly.” She said the last word with a sickening taste in her mouth, but at least she said it. Pinkie Pie pulled back and she was wearing a goofy looking smile, one that Rita had never seen the pink pony wear before. Rita had to admit that Pinkie did look kinda cute with that smile on though. After that the two of them finished off the cake before Rita and Pinkie went to finding something to do. After a few minutes Rita found herself in a very comfortable position that she needed to try with Fluttershy at some point. Pinkie Pie laid down on her side with her legs sticking out to one side while using her mouth to draw in a sketch book. Rita laid in between Pinkie’s legs while propped up against Pinkie’s belly. Pinkie’s soft round belly made for an awesome pillow in Rita’s opinion. Rita was reading one of the history books that Twilight had lent her, something about a famous wizard named Starswirl. She was pleasantly surprised to see that things were looking nice for her tonight. *** Later that night Rita found herself lying on the floor wrapped up in a sleeping bag unable to sleep. She stared out the window watching the full moon feeling exhausted, but she was missing something. Suddenly Rita saw a pegasus silhouette fly past the moon at a threateningly fast pace, followed by another pegasus. Fear raced down her spine and Rita found herself beginning to shake. She tried to tell herself that it was just some night flyer’s but being in a new location at the dead of night was not helping her feel safe. “Fluttershy, I just saw something outside,” Rita said instinctively. After a moment of silence she remembered that Fluttershy wasn’t there to hold her. Rita closed her eyes and whimpered as the feeling of loneliness joined her fear. “Rita, are you okay?” Pinkie asked drowsily from the bed. Rita tried to calm herself as she said, “I-I-I’m fine.” Pinkie Pie yawned before saying, “If you want to, you can join me up here. My bed is really soft.” Without hesitation Rita jumped off the floor and climbed into Pinkie’s bed. She wrapped the covers over herself and cuddled into Pinkie’s back still shaking a little. This room was dark, it was different, and she saw shadows moving outside. There was no way that she was going to get to sleep like this, but Pinkie Pie somehow made her feel safer. Pinkie Pie rolled over and stared into Rita’s eyes, Pinkie had her hooves wrapped around a teddy bear and she looked concerned. Rita looked down at the teddy and smiled. Rita’s shaking began to slow down a little bit as she asked, “Who’s that?” Pinkie looked down at the teddy and smiled before saying, “His name is Mr. Cuddles, he keeps me safe at night, but I’m sure that he is willing to offer the same protection for you tonight.” Rita smiled wider at the gesture and said, “Thank you Mr. Cuddles, that means a lot to me.” After a short pause Rita added, “But it might also help if you were holding me too…” Pinkie Pie yawned again before saying, “Okay.” Rita rolled over and Pinkie Pie scooted closer before wrapping her legs around Rita’s waist. Rita made herself comfy before she closed her eyes and began drifting off to sleep. Pinkie Pie whispered, “Thanks for being my marefriend, Rita. I’ve never actually had one before… this means the world to me.” Rita felt far too tired to actually respond but she thought to herself, ‘Your welcome, Pinkie. Being awesome friends with you will be cool. Doing each other’s hair, and make up, and stuff like that sounds fun, maybe we can talk about the ponies you have a crush on too, so long as it’s not weird.’ Rita fell asleep after that.