Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Part 1: What's the Use of Crying?

by brokenimage321

Introduction

It was a strange day for all of us when Pinkie Pie left Ponyville.

She left for good reason, of course—she was going to Canterlot for an extended dessert-making competition as a representative of Sugarcube Corner, and, to some extent, of all of us—of every citizen here in Ponyville. But it was still strange knowing that she, the one who wanted nothing more than to see all of us smile, was going to leave be leaving us for a week. Maybe longer. We saw her off at the train station, sending her with our best hopes and wishes, and we waved until the train pulled out of sight.

She won the first round, of course; by the time she’d won the second, and the third, and the fourth, we were so happy for her that we hardly noticed she’d been already been gone several weeks.

When Pinkie finally won the whole thing, we waited eagerly for her return. Every new whistle of the train was a new occasion for hope. But, every time, we were disappointed: for all our hoping, she never arrived.

It didn’t take long for us to start asking the Cakes when Pinkie would be coming back. They were as confused as the rest of us: they had expected her a few days before we had, in fact. Though, they added, it would be like her to suddenly turn a business trip into a vacation.

Soon, we started to get worried. We sent letters to the hotel she was staying at, but none of them came back—except for those marked “Recipient Moved.” One or two of us even considered writing the police, or even the Princesses, to make sure she was okay.

But, before we could, Rarity came back to Ponyville. She had moved to Canterlot a while ago, not long after opening her boutique there, and was just in town to check on things—but, while she was here, she mentioned, almost offhandedly, that she had met Pinkie Pie.

“Met?”

Yes, she said with a little sigh, “met” was the right word: she’d run into her one day, purely by accident, out in the streets. Rarity was so surprised she barely knew what to say; they chatted for just a moment, but, before she could ask Pinkie what she was doing in Canterlot, how long she would be staying, or any of the important details like that, Pinkie had bounced away. She seemed healthy and happy enough, Rarity said—but, beyond that, she had nothing to add.

And so, though we were worried, we contented ourselves with the knowledge that Pinkie was, apparently, okay—regardless of the reason she had decided to stay away.

Soon, weeks turned to months, and spring turned to summer, and, almost before we knew it, half a year had passed. Suddenly, the Cakes received a letter: Pinkie Pie was coming back to Ponyville! We were ecstatic—we had missed her so, and it would be so great to have her back again.

We pulled together a little welcome-home party for her. Nothing big; just a little banner, some punch, and some cookies. It wasn’t much—we didn’t have her to help out, after all—but it was something, and we were sure she’d appreciate it. We were all waiting for her when the train pulled up, all of us so excited to see her again, after so long. A few of us almost rushed the train as soon as it stopped, in fact.

After a moment, the compartment door slid open. Pinkie, holding her suitcase in her teeth, poked her head out. Her eyes were bright and shining, though her smile was strained. We saw her, and started to cheer: here was our pink party pony, back once again!

She smiled and waved a little, and stepped off the train. As she stepped into the light, our smiles froze. And we knew, suddenly, that everything in Ponyville was soon going to be very, very different.

Pinkie Pie was pregnant.