A Happy Accident

by ScriptScrolls

First Intermission

First Intermission

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A Happy Accident

by ScriptScrolls

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Pinkie Pie stood at the counter of Sugarcube Corner with her “elbows” on the display glass. She hadn’t expected many customers to walk by today, not with the recent frigid weather, but not even one customer? Pinkie was beginning to feel terribly lonely, something the extroverted earth pony detested intensely. The Cakes had taken their first family holiday, charging the pink mare with responsibility for the shop during their absence. Had she known it would prove so dull, Pinkie might not have shown half the enthusiasm she did.

She felt overwhelmed with joy when the bells on the door jingled from opening. She bounced behind the counter, eagerly awaiting the entrance of her customer.

“Howdy, Pinkie! Ooh!” Applejack exclaimed, shivering from the cold. “It’s colder than a Windigo’s breath out there!”

Pinkie giggled at the the old cliché. Such sayings must have been as old as the Apple family itself, which some thought older than Equestria and the Alicorns. Granny Smith claimed she could trace her lineage all the way back to Orchard the Great -- the first pony to harvest fruit from trees -- although every time she tried, she would end up dozing off after a few generations.

“Hey, Applejack! What can I do ya for?” Pinkie said, laughing jubilantly.

“Well, ah’d like a chimicherrichonga, if yah got one.”

The food’s name made Pinkie Pie reminisce about Applejack’s disappearance and their quest to find her. She sighed a bit as she moved around in the kitchen, looking for the proper tools and ingredients.

“There aren’t any ready right now, so I’ll have to make you a fresh one!”

“Gee Pinks, yah don’t have to go through that for me. I’ll just order something else,” Applejack said, feeling guilty for making her friend work to make just one pastry.

“No, no,” the energetic mare insisted. “I’ll make you a nice, fresh one. Besides, I’ve been really lonely all day, and this’ll be a great opportunity for us to catch up. And besides,” she paused, “you still haven’t apologized for that whole ordeal three years ago.” Pinkie added a wink to the smirk plastered on her face.

“Pinkie, we’ve gone over this b’fore. Ah didn’t break mah promise.”

“Well you kinda did, but that’s not what I’m talking about... I’m talking about how you ran away in the first place...” Pinkie Pie stared at the ground in front of her hooves, pawing at the floor in the best Fluttershy impersonation Applejack had ever witnessed from the pink pony.

“Ah did say sorry; ah said it to the whole town!” she said, perplexed.

“... Y-You never said it to me. You never apologized to me,” Pinkie whispered. Applejack frowned at the mare in front of her, wondering what could be occurring in that chaotic mind of hers. Pinkie always cheered AJ up when she fell into a depressed state, but it appeared the roles had been reversed this time around, leaving it up to her to rekindle the party-mare’s spirit.

“Ah am sorry, Pinkie. Ah know it must’ve been hard for yah when ah left, what with us bein’ such good friends an’ all... What’s happened, Pie? Yah never seem quite the same any more. Every time ah see yah, yah don’t seem quite as happy, and it’s botherin’ the hey outta me!”

“I-I can’t tell you.” Pinkie said flatly. She looked more distraught than when she had lost use of her tongue four years back. Applejack recalled the whole “curse” issue from years ago and chuckled quietly.

“Heck, yah remember when we all got ‘hexed’ by the Poison Joke, and yah couldn’t talk for beans?”

“Yeah, why do you ask?”

“Yah remember how yah kinda used charades to talk to us? Well... if yah can’t tell me what’s on your mind, Pink, then show me, and maybe I’ll guess.”

Pinkie froze for a moment. How could she put into words, much less charades, what she wanted to communicate? Applejack could never comprehend how lonely she truly was. Sure, the pink-maned mare had all her friends who cared for her, but she constantly had to stay happy around them lest they worry about her. She merely wanted somepony to confide in: one who she didn’t always have to act silly and joyful around. Pinkie needed somepony to be honest with, and who better than the Element of Honesty herself? It only helped that she loved... loved...?

Did she really love Applejack? She took a moment to rattle the question around in her brain. True, she liked AJ best out of all her friends, but that surely didn’t constitute love. Pinkie thought about how the tough mare gave her goosebumps and butterflies often, but still concluded it was insufficient. She tried to reason a way of determining her feelings, and thought of an incredibly risky test.

‘No, no, no, NO!’ she mentally scolded to herself. There was no way in Equestria she could do that! What would Applejack say? Pinkie was reasonably sure the farmer was straight anyway. If she followed her own feelings, they could lead to the end of her friendship with Applejack. But if she didn’t, she could be forever haunted by what might have been had she shown courage. Pinkie shook her head violently and stood up straight, pure determination on her face.

She slowly walked towards Applejack, who began nervously backing away. Eventually the orange mare’s flanks hit the wall, but Pinkie showed no signs of slowing down. Instinctively, Applejack sat on her haunches and leaned back up against the wall to avoid collision with the pink pony’s face. ‘Perfect,’ Pinkie Pie thought, grinning slightly.

“Hey, Pinkie what’re ya--?!”

Pinkie lunged forward and locked lips with AJ, savoring the sweet, apple-like flavor of her lips. The pink mare’s sudden advance had knocked the air straight out of Applejack’s lungs and onto her rose-colored cheeks, sending Pie’s heart a-flutter. It seemed to Pinkie that her risk had paid off, as the other earth pony offered little resistance to the tugging of her lips. When she attempted to slip her tongue into the farmer-pony’s mouth however, the entire situation exploded in her face like a clogged party canon.

“Pinkie!” Applejack yelled after violently pulling away from the mare who had just kissed her. “W-what was that?! Why did you do that?! I-I... I gotta go, okay? I’m sorry, but I-I just...” With that, Applejack bolted out the door like a bat out of an aqueduct, leaving the Pink mare alone once more. Pinkie sighed and plopped her face on the counter. She heard the door close... and after few seconds re-open. She jerked her head up hopefully, only to meet her eyes with a pair of sympathetic, magenta ones. Rainbow sighed and put a hoof on the party pony’s shoulders.

“Pinkie... you are so random.”