I was flabbergasted. The bouncy girl that I had only a passing familiarity with was hugging me.
And what's more, part of me didn't want her to let go. And I wasn't one for unwarranted physical contact, even now.
"What...what're you doing?" I asked numbly.
"You looked like you needed a hug," she said, still holding me. I felt my arms lift of their own volition and almost wrap around her as well. "You're hurting."
But before they could, she pulled away, ending the embrace and sat down beside me on the steps of CHS.
"You have a lot of pain in there, Ari," she said. Her smile seemed at odds with her choice of words.
"How do you do that?" I asked.
"Do what?" She seemed honestly confused.
"How do you find it so easy to smile all the time?" I whispered. "Even after what we just went through. My sister is nursing a wound we can't heal and Sunset is gone! How can you be so happy? Don't you even feel anything?"
"Oh, Ari," she said, shocked. "I do feel, a lot. I feel that Sunset isn't gone. I feel sad that Twilight is crying. I'm upset that Dagi is hurt and glad that she's all right. I'm worried that you seem so depressed all the time. It's all on the Inside, but if I don't smile, none of my friends can find a reason to, either. So I smile through the pain, to show that it can't get me down. That it can't win so easily."
I stared at her. Her smile was an act of defiance? Then what she had said about me clicked.
"Depressed?" I squawked. "I'm not depressed."
"I can tell," she said. "You were having some dark thoughts and needed a distraction."
"And a hug was your go to choice?"
"Of course!" she said brightly. "Everyone likes hugs, and besides, I've wanted to do that for a while."
My cheeks burned. Huh?
I must have said it out loud because she tilted her head and grinned.
"You're cute, Ari," she said. "And maybe, just maybe, I can get you to smile."
She leaned in close, her smile changing slightly as she did. It was a smile I knew well, one so similar to the ones we had smiled when trying to take over the school not too long ago.
"Have any ideas on how?" She whispered.
I blinked, mind whirling. She liked me? I wasn't ready for this!
"We could try coffee, maybe?" I whispered hesitantly.
The smile blossomed into a megawatt grin.
"That actually sounds good right now!" she chirped and hugged me again. "This is going to be so much fun!"
She said more, but at the moment, I didn't care. I was hugging someone that cared.
I had proof that people other than my sisters cared about me.
So that's how it started. I've always wanted to know.
I put a "I like" this story and put it in my favorites. Do I have to add more?
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Not if you don't want to
Glad you're enjoying it though!
Nice work!
8405011
The only thing I can add is: This story has finally been published. I'll explain. Since I started to visit this site as an anonymous user about one or two years ago, unfortunately I do not remember well, I read several stories, including homecoming that is my favorite of this continuity, where Pinkie had a relationship with Sunset, with Fluttershy, with Sonata (which together with SciSet is my favorite pairing) and with other characters I'm not listing. But I had never read a story with PinkieXAria and this honestly made me curious. That's why I could not wait for this story to go out, because I wanted to see how you would have made the threads of this unusual pairing and so far I have not been disappointed.
Wait wait wait! SUNSET'S DEAD?!?!?!?! WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN? *searches through the continuity but finds nothing* AAAGH!!! *confused screeching*
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At the end of Chaos Theory she was believed dead when the portal exploded.
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Chaos Theory? Is that a past story you wrote or part of a canon comic arc?
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A past fic. This is part of a series.