Ponyville Daydream

by Kyrin_Sylver

Pink Mares and Dreamscapes 03

Daydream blinked again as he shook his head slightly, dark brown mane momentarily flipping back and forth.

“No, of course not, Pinkie Pie.”

He quickly answered her question, the look of almost fearful concern on her face standing out from her normally bright, if chaotic demeanor.

“How can I help you?”

Daydream lowered his head in a quick, polite bow as he wondered what brought her here. He usually managed to avoid her on his way back from work, the first “interactive routine” he had ever made. He had managed to track various situations that occurred throughout the work week by day, combined with the occasional quick trip through the surprisingly clean alleyways of Ponyville to keep her overabundance of peppiness from really depressing him.

“Oh...Well...No, wait.”

Pinkie's face went from questioning to strangely focused in a matter of seconds before she straightened up with a strong inhale.

“Before that, can I talk to you about something?”

Daydream watched her shift back her head as she asked, as though she were expecting something she was worried about.

“Of course, Pinkie.”

Daydream looked down slightly, not at all sure where this would go or what she was so worried about speaking to him about. Could she be in trouble?

Before he could follow that particular idea he noticed Pinkie wasn't starting to talk. Looking back up he saw her lean her head toward the open doorway behind him with a questioning expression on her face.

“Oh...Yes!”

Realization suddenly struck that she was waiting to be invited in to speak with him, as warmth crept over his dark gray cheeks at his own apparent social cluelessness.

“Please come inside.”

Daydream stepped back and to the side, sweeping his front leg across in a welcoming gesture.

“Ohhh.”

Pinkie Pie's entire body tensed like a spring before she paused, took a deep breath, then simply stepped across the threshold into his house with slow, deliberate motion that must have seemed like a snails pace compared to her usual bouncing.

“Thank you, Daydream.”

Pinkie made a short but very cute curtsey before continuing all the way into the living room before Daydream closed the door and walked past her.

“Please make yourself at home. Can I get you anything? I have milk, apple juice and soda.”

Daydream knew which one she would choose, though considering he had been headed to the kitchen for a soda himself before the “cookie wish delusion” struck him it didn't seem like he could really blame her for anything.

“Oh, a soda, please.”

Pinkie's voice had returned to its normal, bubbly sound.

“As you wish. I have green apple, yellow pineapple, red strawberry, orange and grape.”

Daydream paused at the end and stared at the racks of bottles again before speaking.

“You would think they would be “orange orange and purple grape,” huh?”

“Oh, you're right. It kind of flows weird at the end, doesn't it.”

Daydream smirked. It had been so long since he actually heard more then a “Hi, Day” or “Hello, Daydream” from her with his sneaking around her every afternoon that he had forgot how fun she was to talk with. He always seemed to get weird ideas and see things a little differently when she was around.

“So, what flavor will it be today?”

“Oh, right. Let's see...”

Daydream could see her seated back on her haunches, one hoof under her under her chin as she thought through her choices in his mind. “The Thinker”...Or perhaps “The Pinker.” He grinned at the image.

“Which one do you like?”

“Oh, the green apple is my favorite.”

“Okay, I'll have a...Grape?”

The pitch of Pinkie's voice turned the answer into a question at the end, causing Daydream's face to immediately lower as his eyes squinted in concentration.

“You don't have to choose the one I like the least, Pinkie. I have way more soda then any healthy pony should in here.”

Daydream suddenly felt strangely annoyed. He would be the first to admit he wasn't a great host, even without the scene on the doorway only a minute or so ago, and yet. He shook his head.

“Would you like a green apple soda, Pinkie?”

“That sounds great, thanks Day.”

Pinkie's voice went back to bubbly, though as random as she always seemed to be this was an entirely different kind of weird. Maybe that strange town of “equal-marked” ponies really had left a mark on her.

Daydream returned to the living room with the bottles of sour, green sugar water between his right front leg and chest only to immediately stop and look down to the containers.

“Umm. I didn't have any sodas in the fridge.” He felt is already abysmal “host rating” taking another hit. “I think I have some ice in cubes...Maybe.” He was more and more sure he didn't as he thought about it, though it seemed like something that should have been said regardless.

“Oh, that's alright. They taste better warm anyway.”

If there was ever a time Day had wanted to have Pinkie's randomness play into his favor this had to have been it. He didn't particularly care if sodas were warm or cold, though he didn't like ice since he rarely drank anything quickly enough to keep it from watering down.

“Oh, really?”

Day considered her response, then threw in his two bits.

“I suppose any evaporating water would help concentrate the flavor.”

Score strange thought number two for Pinkie, Day smirked toward the floor before turning toward her and extending one of the bottles to her.

“Thank you, Day.”

She sure had thanked him a lot, Daydream began to think about the last couple minutes and what this was leading to. Muscle memory sat him back on his haunches as his left hoof caught the ridges of the bottle cap on a perfectly shaped groove for cap removal and popped the metal lip from the glass container with almost no effort.

“Wow.”

Pinkie's commentary yanked Daydream from his thoughts immediately before he looked down to his uncapped soda bottle and over toward his guest and her still covered drink.

“You've got a pretty good technique there.”

“Oh, wow. I'm sorry, Pinkie.”

Daydream fell into a near full-panic mode.

“I know I've got a bottle opener.”

He was already backing toward the kitchen as he struggled to remember where the most likely never used utensil must have been tossed when he first put the dishes into his kitchen. Knife drawer? With the measuring cups that he hasn't used a dozen times yet? Probably not with the dish cloths.

“Oh, don't worry. I've got this.”

Pinkie Pie held the bottle out at her near full, forelegs reach and then circled her left hoof over the cap a couple times. She then lowered her hoof flat over the metal seal before twisting her hoof with a quick snap of the ankle.

The cap flipped up into the air at least a half dozen hooves over her head before coming down squarely between her ears.

“Tah Dah!”

Pinkie immediately bow, the ridges of the cap making no motion to release the cap from the top of her head.

Daydream began to smirk, then his lips rose up into a full smile as he began to laugh.

“That...Was...Amazing!”

Gasping between laughs, not even exactly sure what about that strange spectacle was so overwhelmingly entertaining, and yet he took at least a full minute to contain himself.

“Oh. Oh. Did the bottle cap land rough side down. I'm supposed to look like a Pinkie shaped bottle of Pinkie soda.”

She made sure to bow again, though Daydream had already noticed it had.

“Did you really have to plan that part at well? That's incredible...”

He couldn't even think of a way to finish the compliment. Even at a fifty-fifty chance, that would still be some impressive odds to have it work when you had an audience.

“It did. Be sure to uncap yourself responsibly.”

Pinkie saw his smile and smiled back even brighter.

Noticing her smiling stare, Daydream felt his face warm and he looked down toward the bottom shelf of the nearest bookcase. The nice, consistent sized books were an encyclopedia set he found that had the right colored covers to match the living room furniture. At least according to the book he had read, when he realized he needed a décor to match the suits of armor, so he didn't look like some kind of weirdo with suits of armors and weapons for no reason.

He also realized he couldn't remember so much as opening any of their covers.

A deep breath or two later Daydream took a drink of soda, the warm, bubbly tartness causing him to raise his shoulders as his mouth puckered.

She was probably right about the “more flavor” thing.

Looking back toward his guest, Pinkie took what had to have been the slowest, smallest sip he had ever seen. This was especially weird considering he had watched her down an entire bottle of soda in a swallow at his “Welcome to Ponyville” party.

She then politely lowered the bottle and started to place it on the table, before suddenly catching herself.

“Oh, can't forget these.”

A pair of pink, cupcake shaped coasters appeared in her other hoof and she placed one down on the coffee table next to herself and another at the edge closest to Daydream.

Daydream stared at the coaster, perfectly detailed from the sprinkles on the frosting to the ridges of the cupcake paper before slowly lowering his own bottle onto it.

“So...”

Daydream began to speak, remembering she had wanted to talk about something when this had started.

“Well...Day. You know tomorrow is the fourth anniversary of you arriving here in Ponyville.”

Pinkie's voice was back to being more somber, if a little fearful, like she had been when he first met her at the door.

“And...And I thought.”

Pinkie took a deep breath.

“I thought maybe since you didn't have to get up so early for work tomorrow, since you have the day off, that maybe you could come to a party we are having tonight.”

Daydream's expression fell before he had even realized what Pinkie was asking, his sigh strangely loud in the sudden silence.

“Pinkie.”

Her bright blue eyes went wide. She was a rabbit trembling at the edge of a clearing, prepared to sprint away at any moment. Only her eyes were gleaming so much more then usual, causing Daydream routine “I just don't think I can” excuse to catch in his throat.

Was she...?

Daydream had no clue what was wrong, though something was so different from all those times before she had tried to invite him to something after...His situation had changed.

Was she...upset?

“Daydream...”

Pinkie's voice quivered and Daydream felt his chest lurch.

“I...I know you have been focusing on your job.”

Pinkie Pie drew a shuddering breath, her bouncy pink mane dropping down the back of her head and neck almost as though it was...Weakening?

“And you do a really, really, really great job at it, too.”

A tear tumbled down her soft, pink cheek and suddenly everything became wobbly as Daydream's eyes began to water.

“Mr. Rich is always saying how you are his best employee. You make sure every bit is counted every day before you leave.”

A large, gleaming tear tumbled from her other eye and Daydream felt his chest starting to seize up. He couldn't seem to get any air into his lungs as his eyes began filling.

“And I know everyone will really want to see you there, like you were when you first came to town.”

Pinkie's eyes blinked and streams of sparkling emotion rained from her eyes.

“I remember when you used to tell stories about Prince Kyrin to the school colts and fillies. And helping everypony all the time. You would...Laugh and joke and talk with everypony and it was so much fun. You would smile and it was so bright and caring.”

Pinkie broke into a bawl for several shaky breathes as he felt the first tears start to tumble down.

“And...And...I'm sorry. I'm so sorry...”

Pinkie was trembling, her forelegs down over her stomach as she seemed to shrink down into her self.

“Sorry? Why?”

Daydream couldn't even recognize his own voice as he croaked out his question. What could she have ever done that would need an apology?

“Be...Because. I...I know I was annoying you when you first stopped coming to all the parties and playing with all of us after work.”

Pinkie Pie took a shaky breath before continuing.

“But you looked so sad. Even when you smiled to the ponies you saw, it looked like something you...You had to do. It was so lonely and sad that I had to try and help.”

“I wanted to help but I didn't know what to do. So I just thought if I asked you the right way you would come back and we could all have fun again.”

Something in his thoughts was rumbling as Daydream started to pant softly through his mouth when his nose began to stuff up. He didn't know what it was, but it would be something terrible and even knowing now wouldn't stop it from coming.

“But I couldn't think of the right way to ask, so...So I stopped.”

Pinkie broke into crying again and it was everything Daydream could do not to simply join her.

She was blaming herself for his actions.

“I...I was happy we could still play sometimes.”

Her sad smile somehow made her tear streaked face even sadder.

“I looked forward to playing hide-and-seek with you after work. You're a really good hider.”

The rumbling in Day's head suddenly exploded as the cold, blinding light of realization washed out every other thought in his head.

“Remember that time two summers ago when I got you three times in one week.”

Pinkie's quivering attempt to chuckle shattered Daydream's heart.

The “interactive routine” wouldn't look like avoiding places Pinkie Pie could show up. It had looked like he had been avoiding Pinkie Pie.

The ridiculousness that he hadn't seen that as the most obvious answer of what he was doing was galling in a way he could not even completely comprehend. He had been avoiding someone that wanted to make him feel better, that saw that he was hurt even when he tried so hard to keep from letting anyone else know.

He had always made sure to keep smiling and acknowledging the ponies around him, even if he couldn't be as open with them as he wanted to be. He liked smiling to them and showing that he noticed them, because it meant for that single moment they were doing the same to him.

And yet, not only had she known, but she went out of her way daily to try help and he hid from her.

“If...If you want...”

Pinkie's sad, quivering voice drew him from even the darkest thoughts immediately.

“I...I can make sure not to bother you-”

“No!”

He hadn't even realized he was going to speak, but suddenly his voice boomed through the open, usually lonely room.

“Pinkie Pie...I am so sorry.”

Daydream felt a release of feelings he didn't even know he had been keeping within himself.

“I wasn't annoyed or angry or anything like that.”

He paused to draw a shuddering breath of his own.

“You are the warmest, friendliest, nicest pony in Equestria. You were the first pony to actually talk to me when I came off the train. You showed me where Mr. Rich's store was, and then you had a party for me at Sugar Cube Corner just because I had arrived.”

With every admission there was a weight that lifted from his mind.

“You're fun and clever and interesting.”

“I'm so, so sorry I had hurt your feelings. I never meant-”

Suddenly the warm sensation of a winter comforter was wrapped around him, safe and shielded from every bad thing in the entire world. Pinkie squeezed around his chest and even amidst all the tingling energy he could feel the tears that fell on his shoulder.

“It's alright.”

The happy wobble was back in her voice as the sadness started to dissipate.

“I know you wouldn't have meant it.”

We hugged for a long time. It was strange how natural it felt, despite how rarely he could remember it happening anymore. At the start and end of each trip to see his parents, when his little brother and his family would show up.

He finally, regretfully pulled back, shame looming over his thoughts as he made eye contact with her and saw all the tears he had caused.

Pinkie Pie's smile, however, glowed like the sun.

“So...You said there was a party tonight?”

“Uh-huh.”

Pinkie nodded, her hair bouncing up and down like it always had.

Author's Note:

A lot of dialog in this chapter, sorry if that makes it a little hard to follow.

As always, I'm anxiously anticipating constructive criticism so I can improve my writing.

Thank you all for your time and attention.