Pinkie giggled and pushed Peter back down into the chair, pressing a hoof to his chest, “If you wanna do super special bedroom party 37 tonight, you have to give me at least one page! Anything you think of! It’ll be good for you and everypony will wanna read it someday! Now go write! Mama wants her nookie cookie!”
Peter made a playful grumble, eyeing his ever excitable wife of over twenty years as she strolled off to the kitchen to do some baking for tomorrow’s party, now that they’d finished dinner. She’d been pestering him for months about this. Now that she’d even dragged their five closest friends into things, he was losing the battle and realizing he wasn’t going to get out of it.
He’d been a little lost this past year, ever since their youngest daughter, Sunshine Sprinkles Pie, had moved off to Baltimare for college. His last remaining little girl had been a huge part of his day and now that she was grown up and starting her life beyond her parents, he hadn’t quite figured out what to do with his time since.
And they still couldn’t figure out how she’d come out a unicorn.
Or why the other three had been two earth ponies and a pegasus.
He loved his four daughters like crazy, but not even Twilight, or even the Princesses for that matter, had been able to figure out in the slightest how it had happened. Like usual, they all just blamed it on Pinkie in the end. Even Pinkie blamed it on herself, though he wasn’t never quite sure how much she really knew and just didn’t say because it was more fun that way. And she had snuck in well-timed reveals of a few things now and then over their years together, although it had been for different subjects than the curious nature of their foals.
At least, though they were full ponies, his daughters all had some of his personality, features or colors each time.
Pinkie had let him deal with Sunshine’s departure for a time, then started hinting he should do something new. As days went by and grew to months, she’d been more and more insistent he take on the task she suggested. Now that their closest friends were involved, he was reluctant to say it out loud, but Pinkie had just given him a smug smile the instant he’d caved, even though he hadn’t said a word. She teased him as he made only token resistance after that and now here he was, about to start a long project.
A memoir.
Peter had to admit, it would be fun to look back over the strangeness of his life since he was dragged to Equestria that day, many years ago now. The things he’d experienced were hard to believe most of the time, and he’d actually lived them!
Being around Pinkie was also never boring. Whether spontaneous outbursts and gleeful antics, or the dreaded twitchy tail events, or being her partner in party planning and other surprises, there was always something going on.
Peter had to smile to himself, remembering how much Pinkie had done to help him through making the adjustment after first losing his home on Earth. And helping him find a way to accept the situation when he learned he he was trapped in Equestria for life. He’d never have gone through that so well without her help every step and always finding a way to make him let out a genuine laugh. It had been a life full of joy ever since.
Though there had been some moments now and then, now frowning to himself at different memories. With her being the Element of Laughter and a protector of Equestria, he’d watched her head off to parts unknown and far away at times. Most of the time, she came back safe and sound. Sometimes, not so much. After she’d been hospitalized for over a week after one particularly hard adventure, he’d almost been unable to let her out of his sight for weeks. He was going was out of his mind the next time she’d had to leave, only to tackle her at the train station when she came back safe once more.
It didn’t matter that those times were rare. She was everything to him.
Shaking himself out of that kind of thinking, he picked up the pen as he found himself recalling the memory of describing them, then helping Twilight invent them here. Holy heck had she been excited about something so simple.
He looked at the blank page his wife had left in front of him as he began to think of where to start. There were just so many memories to put down. He was sure that once he got started, he might never be able to stop writing because more craziness was always happening. Of course, with so many options, the trick was starting.
It was probably ten minutes before he had scratched out a general plan on paper for how he wanted to do this. Twilight was sure to help him ensure he kept his writing nice and professional, when he had enough to do a first collection that is. Liking the idea of keeping things shorter, he figured, assuming Twilight agreed and he wasn’t being silly about things, smaller volumes would let him share what he’d seen and done more often.
Now that he had a place to start approaching the writing, having decided it would be best to just go chronologically for now, he stared at the fresh page. Thinking back to the day he’d woken up on an alien pony’s couch, in an alien pony’s house, on an alien pony planet, lots of things came to mind.
And he stared at the blank page, unable to figure out the words to begin.
By the time several more minutes had gone by, Peter was frustrated and was about to get up to do something else for a few minutes. Then one of those moments happened that he both loved and also felt were going to be the end of him someday.
Pinkie happened.
“Om nom nom nom!” came her voice as she appeared behind him, catching him in her forelegs for a hug as she buried her muzzle against his neck to make playful nibbles out of nowhere. She hadn’t made a sound as she snuck up on him. One moment nothing. The next, she was teasing his neck as the smell of flour and baked treats filled the air.
Peter gave a rather unmanly yelp like usual, his heart racing as he tried to shoot out off the stool he’d been sitting on, but Pinkie’s hooves kept him from doing much more than falling over and sending them both to the floor. For all the times she had done it, somehow always at just the right time to both break him out of a funk and somehow making him laugh, he never could get used to it. He could also never figure out how she always wound up perched on his chest afterwards. Now he was staring at his crazy pink wife, wearing that wide grin she so often had, as he started to chuckle.
“Well, Pink Ninja, you got me again! Perfect timing as always! Any suggestions on how to start? I’m suffering writer’s block right now and can’t come up with anything…,” Peter told her, seeing her give him a smug, half-lidded gaze when he admitted her success before she gave him a peck on the lips and got off his chest so he could get back up.
Pinkie hummed to herself, moving in for another hug when Peter had sat up, “Weeeellll…. I think you could try writing like you’re talking to yourself. That way, you already know the words! And when you have a question, you’ll already know the answer because you’re talking to yourself and know what you’re going to ask and already know all the questions you would want to know and their answers too!”
Chuckling, Peter shook his head and gave her a kiss as he returned the hug with a squeeze, then moved to get back onto the stool after he’d picked it up, “I can give it a try. Thanks for snapping me out of the frownies. I suppose I have to go back and edit it at some point anyway, so it doesn’t matter how it comes out for now. Love you, Squeaky.”
Pinkie giggled, heading back towards the kitchen now that her distraction attack was complete, “Love you too, Hunky Monkey. I know you’ll do super duperriffic!”
Peter grinned at hearing her nickname for him again. Even after this long, he still found it hilarious that she called him that. His memory flashed to the first time Rarity and Rainbow Dash heard her say it, remembering the shocked look they both wore before Dash fell apart in roaring laughter and Rarity had struggled to control her polite giggles as she eyed him with mirth. It took three weeks before Dash could control herself every time she saw him.
Peter didn’t care how silly it sounded in the slightest though. It was Pinkie calling him that. She could call him Potato and he’d still love it. Heck, she did just that for a week when he’d said as much to her. And as long as it was her, he loved it.
Turning his attention to the page before him again, he felt relaxed and ready now.
On a whim as he began writing, he decided to try approaching it like he was regaling some random curious pony with the story of that first day like he had done many times before. It felt like the right idea as words began to flow from his mind and out onto the page as the pen scratched away.
It’s hard to describe how you feel, when you suddenly wake up on an alien’s couch on another planet. I was half glued to the cushions and covered in dried red velvet cake batter after an alien had appeared in your bedroom just before you woke up and wound up leading to your getting dragged to a whole new world. And if that wasn’t enough, I woke up surrounded by brightly colored aliens wearing jewelry!
I mean really, how do you even begin to process that chain of events?
Strange as it sounds though, that’s how my first day in Equestria started...