Pinkie jumped out the window, and landed on the hard ground with a thud. Running away, she noticed a forest near the farm. She decided it would be a good place to start. Pinkie had come to the conclusion that what she had done in the past week or so had been meaningless. She wanted her old life back. All of her old friends, her old job at Sugarcube Corner, and her crystal chair at Twilight’s castle, with her cutie mark at the top. She wanted to see Gummy, and the Cakes again. It just wasn’t fun anymore.
Pinkie didn’t go straight to the rock farm. She had gone from town to town, before deciding on the farm, and sending a letter to Canterlot addressed to Princess Celestia. True, she didn’t exactly know her way back to Ponyville. She thought she had recognized the forest from her earlier travels. Now, deep into the forest, Pinkie was even more unsure of where to go. She searched about for some kind of landmark, but didn’t see any.
Eventually, she made her way to a small town in the middle of the forest. She knew the place; Applejack had told her about it once. Applejack & Applebloom made a pie delivery here.
“Do you know where I can get to Ponyville from here?”, Pinkie asked one of the locals.
“Yeeup.”, he said. “Down that path, on the left. Be careful, though!”.
“I will. Thank you!”, Pinkie replied.
Sparked with new hope, Pinkie trotted down the path, ready to say hello to her friends once more.
Then she realized how dangerous the path actually was.
Pinkie took a double take. There wasn’t another path. “Alright.”, she said, and warily walked along. Fire jets shot up from the ground, and she heard growls and hissing off to her right, and occasionally behind her. She kept on the path, though, as she knew it was the only way back home. The noises were getting closer, and closer. Pinkie started walking a bit faster, out of nervousness. Turning back just wasn’t an option anymore. If Pinkie did, she would most certainly run across whatever monster was making those noises.
Most search teams from Ponyville had already returned in defeat. But there was one search team that decided to set off yet again. This team consisted of Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Cheese Sandwich, and Fluttershy, even if it did take a bit of coaxing to get her on board. Now, they had arrived at Pinkie’s family’s rock farm, hoping to follow a trail to where Pinkie could be. They searched her room, this time being extra careful not to miss anything.
They found the notepad, behind the curtain, on the windowsill. Twilight read through it before anypony else, and found some startling results. She showed everypony else on the team what was in the notepad.
“We let Pinkie down, didn’t we?”, asked Fluttershy, even though she already knew the answer.
“Unfortunately, yes.”, answered Twilight. “We need to find Pinkie, and apologize for it.”.
“Are you sure apologizing will be enough?”, Rainbow questioned. “By the looks of it, she’s been through some pretty deep stuff.”.
“I’m not sure, Rainbow.”, replied Twilight. “All we can do now, is hope.”.
Cheese Sandwich took a slightly drawn-out sigh. “I wish I would’ve been there on time. None of this would’ve ever happened.”.
“Why were you late, anyway, Cheese?”, asked Rainbow.
Cheese seemed reluctant to answer, but after a few seconds, started talking. “I didn’t tell Pinkie, but somepony in Las Pegasus decided to invite me to a party for me, on my birthday. Since I was already in Las Pegasus at the time, I had to stay for it. Then I got a letter from Pinkie, inviting me to her party. I had two parties, both on the same date. I tried to attend both, but as you know, I was very late to Pinkie’s party in Ponyville.”
“There’s no use dwelling on it now.”, said Twilight, in a commanding tone. “We have to keep moving.”
They left the house, and looked for somewhere Pinkie would’ve gone. If she had left through the front entrance, they probably would’ve have seen her by now. Rarity suggested the forest to their left, but Applejack strongly disagreed.
“This is the forest where me and Applebloom made that pie delivery a while back. The really dangerous one. Applebloom almost got eaten by a chimera there.”
“Well, it’s our best bet.”, argued Rarity. “If she’s not in here, then I just don’t know where Pinkie could be.”
“I’ve already checked here.”, Cheese stated. “Then again, it was quite a while ago. Alright, I suppose. Let’s go”.