• Published 20th Apr 2014
  • 7,172 Views, 175 Comments

Insufficient - Subsolar Drift



Twilight just hasn't felt right for the last couple of weeks, and Pinkie wants to help.

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Being

Warmth radiated out from the ovens, filling the kitchen with a pleasant heat in the crisp morning. Pinkie hummed quietly as she baked Sugarcube Corner's treats for the day. She moved with practiced ease, enjoying the familiar work. It didn't take long until the morning's baking was done and the aroma of freshly baked bread was hanging the air.

Pinkie was just finishing restocking the display case when Mr. and Mrs. Cake came downstairs. The couple blinked groggily, both still worn out from their late night.

"Good morning," Pinkie said with a smile as she closed the display. "Did you two enjoy your date last night?"

"Very much so," Mrs. Cake yawned. "Thanks for staying home and watching the foals last night, Pinkie."

"Don't worry about it. It's never a problem," Pinkie replied. "Anytime you ever need anything just ask. Especially if it's foalsitting. I love to look after the twins. They're so cute and it's always fun to play with them. Last night, Pound was playing when Pumkin came over--"

"Would you like a cup, Pinkie?" Mr. Cake asked, interrupting the pink pony as he turned on the coffee pot. He yawned heavily again and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"Umm, sure," Pinkie replied with a small frown. The shop fell quiet, only the drip of the coffee maker breaking the silence. Pinkie sat down at one of the tables as her body tensed, a shiver ran down her spine and her left foreleg began to itch. She fiddled with her hooves until the feeling passed, a frown still on her face.

Soon a steaming cup was sitting between Pinkie's hooves. She sipped her coffee slowly and stared out the window, watching the sun rise over the rooftops. The Cakes talked quietly as they checked everything again before the shop opened. Pinkie shook her head and sighed, trying to bring a smile back to her face.

After a few minutes, Pinkie finished the dregs of her coffee and got up, heading back into the kitchen. She washed her mug and set it aside. Opening one of the cupboards, she grabbed a basket and filled it with an assortment of bread and treats she'd made extra that morning. At last she smiled as she closed the basket.

"See you later, Mr. and Mrs. Cake," she called before opening the back door and heading out into the alley.

A minute later, Pinkie was trotting through Ponyville with the basket on her back as the town began to stir. Signs flipped from closed to open as shopkeepers readied themselves for the first customers of the day. The smells of baking and strands of conversation floated through open windows as the population of Ponyville got ready to start the day.

Pinkie rounded the last corner and the library came into view. As she approached the door however, she paused noticing the closed sign. A momentary frown came over her face before she took a deep breath and planted a smile back firmly in place, only a little bit of her unease showing. She knocked on the oak door and waited.

When there was no response, Pinkie bit her lip and knocked again.

"You silly filly," she muttered under her breath after a few more moments of silence. "Twilight probably isn't even up yet, and here you are disturbing her. You should know by now, ponies don't like to be pestered in the morning," she berated herself, struggling to keep any semblance of a smile on her face.

Just as she began to turn away, the sound of somepony rushing towards the door echoed from inside, and an instant later, the door swung open revealing Twilight with a uncharacteristically unkempt mane and confused expression. As her eyes met Pinkie's however, the confusion was replaced with an expression of pleasant surprise.

"Pinkie?" Twilight asked. "I wasn't expecting any guests today, let alone this early. What brings you around?" She opened the door wide and beckoned the earth pony in.

"Oh, nothing much. I just thought maybe I'd swing by with some treats," Pinkie replied, gesturing towards the basket as she followed Twilight inside.

"Mmm," Twilight sighed as she inhaled deeply, taking in the aroma of the bread and pastries. "Those smell great. I can't wait to try them." She lead Pinkie to the kitchen and took a seat at the table.

Pinkie smiled as she sat down, letting out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "I didn't know what you'd like the most so I made a couple of different things I thought you might enjoy."

A purple glow brought a pair of plates to the table and opened up the basket. "I bet they all taste great," Twilight reassured her as she looked over the selection, deciding what she wanted to sample first. She'd had plenty of opportunities to try Pinkie's treats before but had never really found a favorite.

Pinkie quickly chose a snickerdoodle for herself and watched as Twilight ummed and ahhed over her choice, finally settling with a chocolate croissant.

"Well, these aren't exactly the only reason I'm here," Pinkie confessed. "I was wondering if I could hang out with you today, seeing as I have the day off and don't really have any plans."

The croissant froze in mid air, halfway to Twilight's open mouth. The unicorn blinked, closing her mouth after a moment. She regarded the earth pony with surprise, not quite sure what to make of the request. Pinkie looked back with a hopeful expression on her face.

Twilight weighed the idea for a moment. If Pinkie wanted to help, who was she to tell her no. She was a little worried Pinkie might make things worse than they already were, but if she did, Twilight could always let her know and that would be that.

Twilight shrugged. "Sure, I guess, but I'm not sure if you'll enjoy it. All I'm doing today is reorganizing the non-fiction and some other basic chores," she warned. "It'll probably be pretty boring."

To Twilight's surprise, Pinkie didn't even hesitate before she smiled and replied, "Sounds great." With that off her chest, Pinkie took a bite of her snickerdoodle and sighed.

Twilight's eyebrow rose skeptically, but she decided to ignore it and returned her attention to her croissant. She took a bite, and let out a mumble of satisfaction as she chewed.

"I'm glad you like it," Pinkie chuckled, her cookie already devoured.

Twilight swallowed, licking her lips in satisfaction. "You sure know how to bake, Pinkie. This is really good, maybe better than those treats from your last party."

"Thanks!" the earth pony giggled. "Baking always tastes better when it's made specially for someone close to you!" Pinkie helped herself to another snickerdoodle, a warm feeling in her chest at Twilight's praise.

Twilight blushed, quickly finishing her croissant. "We can have some more of these later," Twilight said as she wiped away some leftover crumbs from her mouth. "We should probably get started just in case somepony shows up."
Pinkie nodded and the two headed back into the main part of the library.

"So why are we reorganizing the non-fiction section?F" Pinkie asked.

Twilight sighed. "Cheerilee assigned a research paper for her classes yesterday and all the fillies and colts came and got their books. As you can probably guess, most of the books are now out of order."

Pinkie giggled. "At least it's better than Dash crashing again and knocking them all off the shelves."

"I guess you're right," Twilight chuckled. "These are the non-fiction shelves." She gestured to the bookcases beside the stairs. "We'll have to take them all off the shelves and arrange them by topic so we can reshelf them properly."

Pinkie nodded and the two set to work, Twilight's magic quickly getting all the books off the shelves and Pinkie arranging them by subject. The library was quiet, the two only occasionally speaking if they wanted the other's opinion on which category a book should be placed or some humorous thing popped into their head.

To Twilight's surprise Pinkie worked diligently, only pausing every now and then to leaf through a book which caught her interest, then resuming the task. Not only that, but she was almost disturbingly quiet. Normally Twilight would've expected a constant chatter from her talkative friend, if not a song about organizing books, but Pinkie was oddly reserved.

Twilight's brow furrowed. This wasn't the Pinkie she was familiar with. She wasn't complaining, as this quieter Pinkie was still fun to be around, but she had the nagging feeling something wasn't quite right.

With all the books resting in piles of varying heights on the floor, Twilight grabbed a feather duster with her magic and began to dust the shelves. She finished the first shelf quickly and turned to start the next, but stopped in her tracks. She stood and stared for a moment before she burst out laughing.

Pinkie was facing away from the shelves using her tail as a duster. Her brow was furrowed in concentration and her tongue was poking out of the side of her mouth in concentration. At Twilight's laughter she stopped and looked over.

"What?" Pinkie asked. "I couldn't find another duster, so I improvised." After a moment's deadpan, Pinkie too began to laugh.

They quickly resumed dusting, still both chuckling, and they made quick work of the shelves. That done, Twilight's horn began to glow and each pile of books quickly lifted into the air and onto the shelves once again, this time in correct order.

"Well, that's that," Twilight said with a smile as the last book slid into place.

"Thanks for letting me help, Twilight," Pinkie said as went over to the small trash can and shook the dust out of her tail.

"I'm the one who should be thanking you," Twilight replied. "You helped me work, and brought treats."

"It's no big deal," Pinkie giggled. "Helping you out was a lot of fun."

"Then I don't suppose you'd want to help me with a couple of other things I had to do today, would you?" Twilight asked.

"I'd love to," Pinkie answered, grinning from ear to ear.


"But the acting was so cheesy!" Twilight groaned, covering her face with a hoof.

"But that was what made it so good!" Pinkie shot back, barely holding back her laughter.

"Are you kidding?" Twilight asked. "The cheese factor doesn't make a movie good, it just makes it unrealistic."

"What?!" Pinkie cried in mock outrage, barely managing to suppress her smile. "Cheese is what makes everything good! How else do you explain pizza? Mozzarella sticks? Cheese curds? You could add cheese to anything and it'd be great," she declared, lightly slamming her hoof on the table.

"Oh, really?" Twilight asked skeptically. "What about cheese and cupcakes? Or even cheese and icecream?" Pinkie began to open her mouth, but Twilight cut her off. "And I won't accept cheesecake as a viable answer."

To Pinkie's merit, she only hesitated for a fraction of a second before continuing. "I still stand by my statement," she said, if somewhat less convincingly. Pinkie managed to hold her stoicism for three whole seconds before breaking down into peals of laughter, Twilight quickly joining her.

The last few hours had passed in a blur of conversation and chores. Twilight and Pinkie had cleaned nearly the whole library, and were now sitting in the kitchen enjoying more of the treats Pinkie had brought.

Once the laughter had died down a little, Twilight took another bite of her cinnamon muffin, closing her eyes and savouring the taste. "You're going to have to teach me how to make these, Pinkie," she said as she swallowed. "These are quite literally the best muffins I've ever had."

Pinkie laughed, "I thought you hated cooking, Twilight?"

"I do," Twilight replied, her mouth half full. "But these muffins are worth it." Twilight paused, eyeing Pinkie suspiciously. "You didn't put a Want-it-Need it spell on these, did you?"

Pinkie's laughter returned with a vengeance, her whole body shaking and her precariously balanced chair shaking with her. Unable to control herself, Pinkie snorted in the midst of her laughter losing her balance and toppling backwards off her chair and onto the floor, guffawing even harder. That was the last straw, and soon Twilight was laughing so hard she struggling for breath.

Once the laughter had become manageable once again, Twilight sighed and wiped the tears away from her eyes. "Thanks for coming over today, Pinkie," she said. "It was a lot of fun." She paused, her mouth open as if she wanted to say more. No words came out however, so after a second or two, she closed it.

"Don't worry about it, Twilight," Pinkie replied softly with a warm smile for Twilight. "We definitely need to do this more often. The two of us haven't really hung out much by ourselves. " The two held eye contact for a moment before Twilight looked away. Pinkie frowned, her brow furrowing.

The kitchen fell into an uncomfortable silence as Twilight finished her muffin. Pinkie stared out the window, the puzzled expression still present. She sighed, and her body sunk a little in the chair.

"Pinkie?" Twilight asked quietly, watching the pink mare intently. "Is everything okay?"

Pinkie seemed almost to catch herself, quickly turning towards Twilight and sitting up perfectly straight. "Of course it is, silly filly!" she giggled, managing to hide the shiver that ran down her spine. "Everything's just great! I got to spend the day with my friend, I live in the best town in Equestria, and I can have all the cupcakes I want!" She laughed again, absentmindedly rubbing her left foreleg.

Twilight look taken aback, the sudden change in the earth pony's demeanor surprising her. She opened her mouth to say something, but changed her mind, simply managing, "O-okay."

"I'm super sorry, Twilight, but I gotta go now," Pinkie said in her usual, hyper manor. She got to her hooves and gave Twilight a hug as she continued, seemingly without breath, "I have to pick up some medicine for Gummy. Wouldn't want him to get sick. Everypony knows its never good to have a sick alligator! The whole town would be in trouble, and I can't let that happen. What kind of pony would that make me? Some sort of evil animal abuser? Fluttershy would never forgive me, not to mention nopony wants to clean up the mess! Anywho I'll see you later." She left in a blur of pink leaving a very confused Twilight in her wake.

Twilight sat for a while, staring out the window and going over Pinkie's visit in her mind. The earth pony had seemed grounded in reality for once, and it had been an enjoyable change of pace. Pinkie had still been herself, funny, energetic and unique, just not as hyper as she seemed to be on an otherwise daily basis. Twilight frowned, wondering if it was something she'd said.

Twilight sighed, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples. "Why am I just so clueless?" she muttered under her breath. Eyes downcast, she stood and quickly washed off the dishes and headed upstairs. Her eyes didn't move towards the desk, but she could distinctly picture the letter sitting there, almost like it was mocking her.

Letting out another heavy sigh, she pulled a book from the shelf and flopped onto her bed. She opened the book and began to read, but before she was even halfway through the page she was bored. With a groan she closed the book and set it aside. Instead, she pulled up her covers to her chin, turned onto her side, and stared out the window.

Author's Note:

Sorry this took so long. Life's busy.