Part 15: A Chat With Pinkie
She ran.
She didn’t know where to…
She didn’t know when she’d stop...
All she knew…
Is she had to get as far away from them as possible.
Away from her former friends.
‘Former’…
Her tears stained her vision.
Everything around her was a blur.
She passed other ponies.
Some stopped to stare at her…
Some walked on by…
She didn’t care.
She just ran…
Ran and ran…
“Hey, you!!”
What was that?
A male voice...
That she didn’t recognise.
It sounded angry.
It came from behind her.
Was she being chased?
She had no idea.
She was suddenly afraid.
Now, her aimless gallop…
Was turning into an escape from danger.
She saw a colourful building up ahead through the haze.
Somewhere, in the recesses of her memory…
The term ‘sanctuary’ appeared.
Instinctively, she headed towards the entrance…
And burst right in.
After all, if she wanted to get away from Mr “Hey you!!”…
It’s not like she had many other options.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It had been a quiet morning for Pinkie Pie at Sugarcube Corner. With the Cakes having a well deserved break in Manehattan with their young children visiting the new 'Foal Funland' that had just opened, the manic party pony was enjoying a rare moment of peace by engaging in an exhilirating staring contest with her somewhat lifeless pet baby alligator Gummy...
…Which had been going on for four hours.
“I’ll get you this time Gummy, I can feel it in my tail! You’re going to snap any second now…” Pinkie seemed certain of her victory, even though her tiny reptile had not shown any indication of moving an inch, let alone flickering it’s eyelids.
Alas, the epic contest was about to come to an abrupt halt. For, just as Pinkie thought she had her alligator friend on the ropes, the telltale sound of the bell rung as the door was thrown open, and almost by instinct the party mare turned to greet the customer(s) with the warmest of smiles.
“Hello, and welcome, welcome, welcome to our humble little shop! Muffins are our speciality, along with milkshakes, pastries, candies, chocolates... Anything with sugar in, we got it! Hence the name…” The party pony stopped in the middle of her spiel, and realised she’d blinked at least twice during her extended sales pitch.
She glanced ruefully at her triumphant pet, who stayed as lifeless as a stuffed toy even in the midst of it's glorious win. “Gummy, you old rascal! How did you know, we were going to get somepony through our door at that exact moment to distract me?! Sometimes, I think you’ve got a better Pinkie Sense than me! I’ll get you next time…”
The pink mare decided the champion deserved a bit of rest after his hard-fought victory, and so returned to her preassigned role of store vendor for the day. “Sorry about that… You see I was in the middle of an amazing competition with Gummy here, and…”
For the second time in as many minutes, the party pony was halted before she could finish her sentence. This was in itself a minor miracle, because once Pinkie got chattering away, short of shoving Equestria’s biggest cork in her cakehole, nothing could curb her from almost literally talking the poor listener to death.
But then again, there hadn’t been a more miserable, wretched-looking figure to stumble through the entrance to this usually joyful place in many a day. The filly Pinkie observed had an interesting colour scheme. A white bandage on her foot, pink fur with large patches of brown, and a dark red ribbon to match the scarlet rings around her blue eyes.
But what really stood out was the expression on her face. It was so sad and downcast to observe, Pinkie’s mane almost lost it’s curl and straightened out there and then. This was the look of somepony who’d given up on everything. There wasn’t a single trace of happiness or cheer anywhere on the filly's morose features, and she staggered into the eatery like a zombie on autopilot.
Confronted with such a depressing sight, Pinkie immediately sprung into action. She had long rehearsed protocols in such dire cases, and it was time to put them into effect.
“Emergency, Emergency!! Sourpuss on the horizon!!!!” The pink mare then did a very passable impersonation of a siren, before turning to her toothless pet. “Gummy, I’m going to need you to take over for me for a bit. I know it’s a tough ask, but I have faith in you. Now, I must go and do my good deed for the day. Remember, keep smiling!”
The party pony removed her chef’s hat and apron, before depositing the items of clothing on Gummy’s motionless, cold form so that they almost completely covered him. She then gave him a little good luck kiss on the cheek (the only part of him now that wasn’t enveloped in fabric) before scampering over to her sad-sack customer.
“Hey there, sweetheart. Shouldn’t you be in school? I know our treats are super-delicious, but they shouldn’t come at the expense of you getting a decent education! It's not nice to play truant!” Pinkie was quickly in the filly’s face, trying out this new skill Twilight was teaching her of being concerned, but also responsible at the same time.
The child looked at her questioner for a second, before scoffing and sitting down on one of the many empty chairs. “Why should I want to go to school?! Everypony there hates me… And who can blame them? I’ve been a horrible pony for so many years… It’s only what I deserve. Just leave me alone, please.”
The filly turned away from Pinkie, who hadn’t got off to the best of starts. Momentarily discouraged, the party pony decided to find out the root of the problem to see if she could help.
“I’m sure that’s not true. And even if it is, everypony can change. I mean, who’d thought Trixie, Discord, Princess Luna… Or should I say Nightmare Moon, could be redeemed? You just have to figure out what you’re doing wrong, and stop doing it! You may not know this… But I happen to know something about friendship. Me and my five friends are…” The pink mare was desperate to prove her credentials.
“Yes, yes, I know all about the amazing 'Elements Of Harmony.' “ The filly sarcastically remarked, waving her hoof in the air. “You travel all over Equestria, spreading love, rainbows and sunshine wherever you go. Good for you! But I’m afraid you’ve never come up against a case as hopeless as mine before. I tried, I really, really tried to be a better pony, but it didn’t work. And now, I don’t know… What to do…" *sniffle*
The strange filly then started blubbing uncontrollably, causing Pinkie’s big heart to almost break in two. Maybe she didn’t have the answer for everything. The poor child seemed so despondent, that perhaps there really was nothing the party pony could do for her.
Pinkie was about to slump off dejectedly back to the counter in defeat, when…
The crying filly’s tears happen to dribble down her fur, cleaning off the mud that had amassed there. Some of the muck to get washed away was covering the youngster’s cutie mark, and Pinkie happened to notice it just as she was turning away. All at once, the party pony knew who she was dealing with, and a loud exclamation left her mouth.
“Wait just a bucking second. Are you by any chance… Diamond Tiara?” Pinkie’s attention suddenly became physical, as she grasped the sobbing child by the shoulders.
Tiara stopped crying for a second, and wiped her eyes. “Y-yes. Y-you must have heard of me, and w-what a rotten pony I am. D-do you see now, w-why nopony wants me, a-and why I merit b-being by myself for the rest of my l-life, where I can’t p-pick on anypony, or hurt anypony else with my e-evil ways?”
But Pinkie wasn’t listening, and had redecorated her face with quite the gigantic grin. “Diamond Tiara!! Of course I know you… I never forget the face of somepony I organise a cute-cenera for! I especially remember your cutie-mark because you spent half the party showing it off to everypony else, instead of trying to have a good time! Then, you just disappeared upstairs… And I didn’t see you for the rest of the party. I always wondered what happened…”
If Diamond was feeling lousy before, she felt even more dismal now at being reminded of how her own haughty attitude turned what should have been one of the best days of her young life into one of her worst. “Look, I don’t want to talk about it, okay? Can’t you just get me a shake, or something?”
“A shake! That reminds me of another occasion I saw you recently, just before my good friend Cheese Sandwich came to town. You were with that friend of yours, Silver-something? You tried to take her drink off of her because she had more than you? But then, you got distracted by my beautiful voice, and she ended up getting it back. Gee, isn’t it funny the things you remember!” Pinkie continued to beam, as if she was sharing a good memory with an old chum.
Only in Tiara’s case, it was more of a greatest hits compilation of all her misdemeanors.
“I thought you were supposed to be in the business of making other ponies feel better…” Diamond groaned, her head in her hooves. “All you’re doing is reminding me what a horrible little bully I am, to the extent that even my best friend in all of Equestria couldn’t tolerate me any longer."
Pinkie put her hoof to her chin, as if in deep contemplation. “Well that’s funny, because I’m sure I saw the pair of you getting on yesterday, at the biggest cute cenera ever.…” She sighed with pleasure at the memory.
Tiara rolled her eyes. “Well, yeah. We’d made up, but when she hears what I said about one of the Crusaders this morning, she’s going to realise I’ve returned to my old ways, and not want anything else to do with me again. It’s like I have this jagged thing in me that can’t stop insulting and being mean to others, no matter how hard I try. I’m just… A hopeless case…” The pink filly felt the tears return.
Suddenly, she was grabbed by the face, and found herself eye to eye with Pinkie, who bore an uncommonly serious expression on her usually jolly face.
“Now, I’m not having any of that. Tell me… What you said this morning… Was it bad?” The party pony demanded.
“Yes…” Choked Diamond, unable to tear herself away.
“Was it really, really bad?” Pinkie’s eyes narrowed to slits.
“Yes!!” Tiara answered, emphatically.
“Was it super, duper, duper bad, with a giant cherry on top?” Pinkie continued to press, a hint of malice in her words.
“Yes, Yes!! It was the worst thing I possibly could have said!!” Diamond replied, utterly shamefaced.
“And do you feel really, really, super, duper, duper bad for having said it… With a cherry on top?” The party pony was really ratcheting up the pressure now.
“Yes!! Yes!! Yes!!” Diamond almost screamed out her response. “It’s eating away at my brain! It’s making me ill inside! I feel more guilty about it than anything I’ve ever done! I just wish… I’d never said anything...”
Tiara continued to sweat, as Pinkie’s glare didn’t leave the youngster's eyes for a second. The party pony may have been bested by her pet in the earlier staring contest, but when it came to a rematch against this opponent, then there really would only be one winner.
And it wasn’t the sad filly.
Fortunately, another random competition wasn’t on Pinkie’s agenda at that specific time. Without warning, the party pony suddenly pulled away from Tiara’s personal space, with a large smile returning to her lips. “There you go. Told you there was nothing to worry about!”
Diamond reacted with shock at this announcement. “What?!” she spluttered. “You’ve just made me feel worse than ever with that little interrogation stunt you just pulled. How exactly was that meant to make me feel better?!”
Pinkie merely laughed, as if the answer was obvious. “Oh, silly! Think about it. If you feel that bad now after what you’ve done, then it shows you sincerely regret whatever you’ve said. If you were that beyond redemption, then I don’t think you’d feel as guilty as you do right now. I’m sure if you go back and sincerely apologise, whichever pony you’ve insulted will realise that, too.”
Tiara was about to tell the party pony she was wrong, that she was rotten to the core and couldn’t be helped.
But then, without requesting it, a flashback started in her mind.
It was during the CMC's rehearsal of their ultimately successful routine to be one of the acts during the ceremony of the Equestria Games, which had even impressed a secretly watching Diamond Tiara.
Unsure of how to counter the Crusaders brilliant display, she’d resorted to the most underhanded of tactics: Demoralising Scootaloo by insulting her disability, so that the pegasus filly was so cut up by her inferiority complex, she wouldn’t even journey to the Crystal Empire where the try-outs were taking place.
Luckily, thanks to a last-gasp stop, and an inspiring pep-talk by Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo was able to overcome her mental blocks and deservedly clinch first place with her friends, way in front of Tiara and Silver Spoon’s (now, she admits) hopeless display.
All that was in the past, but what was Diamond's mindset at the time while she was perpetuating this dastardly deed?
She was proud. She was pleased. She was utterly without remorse.
Now, when she’d just done something similar, what were her feelings?
She felt sad. She felt depressed. Her head was swimming with guilt.
And, there was the difference.
A change.
A big change.
She wasn’t the same, ruthless bully that she was before.
She had empathy.
She had a conscience.
She was 'somepony else'.
Somepony who’d made a big mistake…
But nopony was perfect.
They all do things they regret sometimes…
But part of living was to learn from them…
And make sure they never happen again.
All at once, Tiara knew what she had to do.
She had to go back at once...
To explain things.
Hopefully, her friends would see the sincerity in her eyes...
And take her back.
If they could only give her another chance...
She could...
No, would prove…
That she was a better pony.
She was sure of that now.
Hopefully, everypony else would soon come to see that, too.
All at once, Pinkie Pie, who was used to dishing out hugs by the bucket-load, was the surprise victim of a crushing embrace herself, as an extremely grateful Diamond flung herself at the party mare.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, Pinkie Pie!!” Tiara snuggled against Pinkie’s forelegs, feeling like the weight of Equestria was off her shoulders.
The filly was also accidentally wiping the last of her mud onto the party pony’s fur, but Pinkie was willing to let it slide. (Rarity would have been a different story) “No problem at all, Miss Tiara, anything for a member of my extended family!”
This last statement was so confusing, that even in the middle of her rapture, Diamond glanced up in confusion. “I’m sorry, what? I know we’re more or less the same colour, but I don’t think…”
“You’re Applejack’s kid now, aren’t you? Well if you’re related to her, that possibly, maybe, almost definitely, makes you my third cousin twice removed! Or my great, great niece. Or my sister’s, auntie’s, mother’s...” Pinkie stared at the wall, as if trying to calculate a weighty equation.
Tiara had absolutely no idea what the pink mare was waffling on about.
But then again, this was Pinkie Pie.
Logic had no place in her chaotic world.
Suddenly remembering what she had to do, Diamond realised she couldn’t waste another moment listening to the ramblings of her new… Great, great third auntie twice removed.
Or, something.
“Look, I’d love to stay and chat… But have three friends to catch up with, before they get to school. Thanks again, for your help, Pinkie… I won’t forget this!” Tiara told the party mare gratefully, as she uncoiled herself from the older mare’s leg.
“Okey-Dokey, see you later! And while you’re gone… I’ll figure out exactly what you are to me in my little family tree. Hmm… Perhaps Gummy might know…” Pinkie continued to rack her brains.
Diamond sighed. “I wonder how she can be so in tune one minute… And so off-the-wall the next…” she said to herself, looking back as she approached the door…
Which was flung open almost in front of her.
For the second time that day, Tiara showed unnatural ability in being able to avoid a sudden obstacle in her path. She stopped at the last minute, to avoid a rather nasty collision.
Ready to give whatever careless pony it was who wasn’t looking a piece of her mind, she squinted against the sunlight…
And saw three foal shaped silhouettes.
The one that looked like Apple Bloom stood in front, looking determined and resolute.
The other two, that resembled Scootaloo and Sweetie looked a little more uneasy, like naughty foals outside a headmaster’s office.
Diamond wasn’t expecting them to show up there, but the Crusaders didn’t seem surprised to see her at all.
In fact, it was Apple Bloom who spoke first.
“Diamond Tiara, we need to talk…”
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REJOICE EVERYPONY, I HAVE RETURNED!! After my completely voluntary long weekend away. I've topped up my tan, I've sampled the local cuisine, and I'm ready to answer your no doubt fascinating posts waiting for me on my doormat.
Bear in mine, I only accept fan-mail...
Why else would I have a shredder?
LET THE ANSWERING... COMMENCE!!
6721260 I still don't like you very much... but is it just my imagination that you've... Mellowed somewhat? Anyway, I hardly think what I said falls under 'personal attacks', unless you're the most thin-skinned individual around. I read all your criticism, and while you're entitled to your opinion, I disagree with it almost entirely, am VERY happy with the direction this story is going in and pretty much everyone else seems to be enjoying it so... Yeah. Let's hope for a more... Peaceful future in the comments section, eh? I'm not saying we should go steady or anything, but a uneasy truce would be nice :)
6722699 Well, we've all gotta start somewhere. Stick with me babe, I might just surprise you. Or, maybe not.
6724725 Psst, I ain't going anywhere ever again. THIS STORY IS MY BABY. NO-ONE IS GOING TO RAISE HIM BUT ME. ALL PROSPECTIVE ADOPTERS... YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
6726471 Hee-Hee
So, that's me caught up with current events. Now, on to the next batch. See you all soon. :)
Oh and...
6726219 Don't worry... No repeats. :)
At first I was getting kind of angry at Pinkie but...she turned around and the chapter ended on a great note! Great chapter!
I do hope this is an apology from the other two CMC members, diamond may have snapped but lets be frank here she was goaded.
More tomorrow please
6730719 HEY I TOLDS YA I JUST GOT BACK FROM ME HOLIDAY... I NEEDS MY REST YA KNOW...
(We'll see)
I think there's supposed to be a space between would and prove
6730775 Fixed.
Who needs a spellchecker when I have readers like you.
Not sure how much sense the title makes since the focus is on Diamond living the Apples more so than Diamond Tiara's relationship with her mother.
6730830 I'm metaphorically comparing the love DT has from her old mother to her 'new' one.
Is it a bit clearer now?
Nice to see you return, anyway... I thought judging by your previous comments you'd given up on the story.
Loving this story. Keep up the awesome work!
6731019 I ALWAYS try my best... But results can vary.
Glad you're enjoying it, though. More soon.
Something tells me that Diamond Tiara is going to spend a very, very long time being convinced by those who truly care for her that she is worthy of love and isn't a hopeless case.
On a lighter note, I suspect that Scoots and Sweetie are going to set records for 'cute' in the apology they're going to offer Diamond.
6730633 I was on mobile when i made my comment, so let me explain a bit further.
I stopped 10 chapters in mostly because the pacing of the story was at a snail's crawl. More specifically, the passage of time. I did the same thing on my first fic, where every chapter had to pick up immediately from the next, and there were scenes where i had to describe pretty much everything and everyone's thoughts/feelings. It really drags down the story. I want to know what happens next. What happens the next day? What happens at school? It felt like it wasn't even going to show up at that rate.
Don't get me wrong, I love the story idea. It's just how you executed it that it gets on a reader's nerves. Gotta write how you read. Don't be afraid to skip ahead a few hours or a day or two with a summary. Have you read any books lately? how many can you think of that spend every page detailing each second? not much, huh?
There was something else, but that was my biggest concern with the story. It was probably just minor stuff. Anyways, this is something to think about.
6731393 Well, you can't please everyone... If I was going any faster, I've have complaints that I was going too quickly. I'm actually enjoying going at a casual pace, so perhaps if you find yourself getting bored, you could take a break and return to the story later. Just a suggestion.
6730733 i know
Hahahah, bravo, good chapter well done, well done!
Loving how this came out, hehehe, let's hope things go better next chapter!
Well, glad to see you back.
As for this chapter, only Pinkie would have a sourpuss emergency protocol. I will say this. If they take too much longer to get to school, Mrs. Rich will have more fuel to stoke the fire for her defense.
6734951 Rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.
You know what those lousy British tabloids are like...
Anti-gravity tears... Was you playing Binding of Isaac right before writing this?
Dude. Seriously. This one sentence things? They have got to go. You can do simple, almost broken sentences in the same paragraph. What you're doing is a technique that can be effective if done right. The best way to do it wrong? To overuse it. Heck, that'll kill any technique, especially in writing. I know habits are hard to break, but this is one you're gonna have to deal with. At least one it down or something.
That said, great job on Pinkie.
Aw man... Ya made me tear up! That's hard to make this rock do. Nice writing.
I am fairly certain this comment will go unread as this story has been on hiatus for over 2 years, but I have to say I hope that given the circumstances Rarity would be less concerned about mud than normal, kind of like how she willingly got muddy for the sake of her relationship with Sweetie Belle in that one episode.
SO TRUE