Twilight knocked on Pinkie's bedroom door. All of her friends, except the pink pony, were with her. It had been two days since anypony had last seen Pinkie. Two days ago, Pinkie also accidentally received a popcorn machine from the mailpony. Now, Twilight and her friends were beginning to worry. Pinkie Pie always hangs out with her friends every single day. So, now that Pinkie was ignoring everypony, staying in her room, and not even opening her widow to let sunshine in, everypony in Ponyville was worried about the party pony.
"Pinkie? Are you in there?" Twilight said after a little while.
"Oh my, what if she isn't here? Maybe she got lost somewhere!" Fluttershy said worriedly.
"I'm sure she's fine, sugarcube." said Applejack.
"I do hope she's okay!" replied Rarity.
Twilight knocked again. Still no answer.
"Ughhhh, forget it!" Rainbow Dash said as she flew at the door.
"Rainbow, wait!" yelled Twilight, but she was too late. Rainbow hit the door, making fly open, and landed in Pinkie's room.
"Pinkie Pie?" Rainbow said, her expression changing from annoyed to confused in an instant.
Everypony else ran into the room, and looked at the pink pony sitting happily in a beanbag chair. They heard popping sounds, and eating sounds. They spotted the popcorn machine in the corner, making some popcorn. Pinkie was eating out of a popcorn bowl, with a large mountain of empty ones next to her.
"Oh, hi guys!" said Pinkie Pie with her mouth full. She didn't say anything else like everypony had expected.
"Pinkie Pie, what are you doing? We haven't seen you in two whole days! All of Ponyville was getting seriously worried about you!" Twilight said, confused.
Pinkie Pie didn't respond. She just kept eating the popcorn.
"Pinkie Pie, have you just been sitting here doing nothing but eating popcorn and-"
"Don't talk about popcorn that way!" Pinkie snapped, interrupting Rainbow Dash. Rainbow was shocked at the way Pinkie had just spoken to her.
"Pinkie Pie! Rainbow Dash was worried about you, and you reward her with rudeness?" Rarity said.
"She was saying mean things about popcorn!" Pinkie said as she grabbed another hoof-full of popcorn and ate it. "You can't just be mean to popcorn! Popcorn is better than friendship!"
"What?!" Twilight said, surprised and a little bit angry at Pinkie Pie. "What do you mean, 'popcorn is better than friendship'!?"
"See? You guys are all so rude to popcorn!" Pinkie said. "I always thought that friendship was happiness. Then, I got this machine delivered to me! I had no idea what it was, only that Mrs. Cake said something about it making popcorn! I put some kernels in, and watched it pop, and ate some, and I realized it! Happiness is Popcorn!"
Everypony was seriously confused. How could a pony like Pinkie decide that friendship was worse than popcorn?
"I... I don't understand, Pinkie." said Applejack,"You're trying to say that this is better than your friends?"
"Eat some and see!" Pinkie said, tipping her bowl over on top of her snout, eating the last of the popcorn inside. She grabbed a couple bowls and hoped over to the machine. It had just finished popping. She refilled the two bowls, and tossed one to Applejack, who caught it perfectly. When she looked back at Pinkie, she had already eaten half of her popcorn bowl, and was refilling the popcorn machine with kernels.
Applejack stared at her popcorn bowl. She took a bite out of some of the popcorn inside. "Not bad, but I still don't think it's better than friendship."
"I can't believe you think that popcorn is better than friendship!" Twilight said. "Don't you miss your friends? Think about it! All the parties you've thrown, adventures you've had, all the fun and happiness you've gotten, all from friendship! You even got your cutie mark from friendship!"
Pinkie Pie almost had tears in her eyes. She was remembering all of the fun she had. The party she threw the day she got her cutie mark was a blast! And then there was Twilight's 'Welcome to Ponyville' party. They truly partied all night, until all the Nightmare Moon things happened! Reminding herself of the Nightmare Moon adventure, there was her song as she giggled and laughed at all the 'scary' trees, and the whole adventure was exciting and fun! That was the day she became the element of Laughter, and became one of Twilight's best friends as well! She remembered the Canterlot Wedding, and how exciting it became, with the changeling attack in it. It was even better that the changelings were removed, otherwise that wouldn't have been a very fun party. She remembered how both Cadence's seemed to like her music and party ideas, even if one of them was an evil changeling queen! She remembered Dashie's Birthaversary Party with Cheese Sandwich! That was super-duper fun, even with the Goof-Off! And...
"I... Yeah... Friendship is amazing." she said as she realized she had dropped her popcorn bowl on the floor. She decided she would leave it there. She didn't want it anymore. "I was getting pretty full anyways." she said as hugged all of her friends.
They began to walk out the door when Pinkie said, "Wait a minute! I Pinkie Promised the popcorn that I would never stop eating it! That it would always be better than friendship! I BROKE A PINKIE PROMISE!" Pinkie was freaking out.
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Lets say it didn't count because you promised an inanimate object." she suggested.
Pinkie stopped panicking. "Yeah, I guess that'll work." She smiled a huge smile, and they left Sugarcube Corner to hang out for the first time in two days.