Forced Smiles

by Scootaleuz

Broken and Defeated

Cheese Sandwich set off, for what seemed like the last time. He had searched near and far. He had visited Las Pegasus, the Everfree Forests, the Badlands, San Palomino Desert, and even places like the Unicorn Range and Ghastly Gorge. After weeks of searching, Cheese Sandwich had decided to go back to Ponyville, and stay there. “Where else?”, Cheese asked himself. Once he arrived, he was surprised. Ponies shoved each other around, and stomped around, not talking to each other. That is, the few ponies that went outside. Shops were closed, and houses boarded up. First, Cheese tried Princess Twilight’s castle, for more information. Locked. Next, he went to Sugarcube Corner. The door was open, but nopony was home. The final place Cheese looked was Sweet Apple Acres, for it was the only other place he knew around Ponyville.

Unsurprisingly, there was nopony around. Cheese was about to leave the farm, when he noticed somepony bucking apples across from where he was. Before he could say hello, the pony came up to him, without introducing herself.

“Where have you been, sugarcube?”, asked Applejack. “You left quite a while ago. Are you alright?”

“Yea, I’m fine.”, replied Cheese.

“You don’t look fine. Come on. There’s somepony who wants to see you.”

Cheese was immediately excited by this. “Is it Pinkie””, he asked.

Applejack sighed. “No, Cheese.”, she said. “Pinkie Pie hasn’t come back yet.”

You could tell Cheese Sandwich was disappointed. He followed Applejack, dragging his hooves on the ground. He had lost any and all shreds of hope at this point. Applejack led him to a bench by the side of the road, where the Cake family was sitting. The twins were crying, and Mr. and Mrs. Cake were trying their best to calm them down. The Cakes almost immediately started talking.

“Where have you been?”, they asked. “Ponyville is a mess.”, they said.

Cheese wasn’t really listening too much to what the Cakes were saying. He was too busy thinking.

Twilight ran back to Ponyville, tired from the trip to the rock farm, which yielded no success. “I don’t understand why Igneous told us Pinkie was up there, when she wasn’t. We hadn’t met Igneous before, have we? Why would he lie to us?”

“I’m sorry Spike,”, Twilight said. “But I don’t think he was intentionally lying. Maybe Pinkie left through the open window.”.

Ponyville didn’t exactly welcome Twilight and Spike with open hooves, but rather with questions. “Did you find Pinkie?” was a relatively frequent one.

“No.”, Twilight told everypony, with a saddened expression. She trotted back to her castle, and sat down. Rarity, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were also there, moping about.

“Applejack is out with Cheese Sandwich”, they told Twilight.

Twilight jumped a bit. She had no idea Cheese Sandwich was back. “Did he find Pinkie Pie?”, she asked.

“No, sadly.”, said Rarity. “Don’t worry, darling. I’m sure we’ll find her.”.