A Pony a Day

by OfTheIronwilled

Deflated (5/13/2020)

Pinkie Pie had a party to plan today. It was going to be a big shebang with all the works, and she'd even gotten hold of that super delicious chocolate fountain for an extra special surprise! There was going to be singing and dancing and the liveliest music to ever grace Ponyvilian ears and everything was going to be so supertastically fun! Pinkie knew that. But today...

Well, you see, usually when Pinkie planned her super big parties she would pump herself up, make sure she was full of vim and vigor and vinegar and all sorts of other "v" words, so that everypony who attended would have the greatest time in the world. And usually it was so easy to do that, because she would think about those smiling faces, and the way the birthday foal's eyes would light up when the streamers popped from the ceiling and turned the floor into more of a confetti ocean, and she would be so super-duper excited. But today she wasn't. Today she felt... well, pretty terrible, actually.

Pinkie hummed into her crossed hooves, smooshed her head further into her fluffy pillow. Everything felt heavy. Her hooves were bricks, tying down the party balloon in her heart, or something like that. Twilight always was better at those metaphor thingies than she was. The point, though, is that Pinkie felt awful and sad and hollow, and she shouldn't. She couldn't! Because she was the element of laughter and little Toola was counting on her to throw this big bash with a smile on her face and a skip in her step. But Pinkie.... she just-- she didn't--

There wasn't even a reason! There was no reason for her to feel this way, right? So it was just silly that she had cried so much in the last hour. Except not the fun ha-ha type of silly. Stupid silly. "You're letting everypony down and now they'll know you're broken and won't love you or want to be your friends anymore" kind of silly.

It felt like a boulder to the chest. Pinkie would know. It hurt so bad and weighed her down, this invisible anchor with no name. And yet the apathy wouldn't let her care enough to try to fix it. So instead Pinkie Pie had shut the lights off and closed the blinds and pretended that she was just doing super secret planning, when in reality she'd just laid here feeling like a blob of wet flour for the last little while.

Pinkie sighed. Then she sighed again, her chest pinching so tight, when she saw Gummy toddle up to her bedside because -- no! Nopony, and certainly no gators, were supposed to see her like this. Now Gummy would either think she was being a dummy, or he'd feel guilty, or-- or--

Gummy hopped up onto the bed. Pinkie didn't have the energy to shove him away.

He gently, gently, chomped down on her cheek. And by chomped she meant more "placed his tiny gator gums so softly to her face and squeezed in a little baby nibble". It was like a cute little kiss.

He nibbled and nommed on her cheek some more. It was drooly, but warm. When Pinkie held her hooves out, Gummy curled into a scaly ball at her chest, and then gave a nip to her muzzle. Right on her little pony nose.

"Oh, Gummy," Pinkie wavered. A few tears crawled down her face and dripped onto his hide. He just kissed/chewed on her more in response.

She snuggled into his touch, and gave her first smile of the day. It was tired, and heavy, and looked broken under those tears, but it was a smile.

Maybe Pinkie Pie could get through today, after all.