The Night Janitor

by Knox Locke

Chapter 11: Broken Smile

As Knox stepped off the Friendship Express back in Ponyville, there were only two things on his mind: a friend trapped in a stone prison, and another friend in dire need of cheering up. One of these things he could do nothing about, but he could at least try his best to fix the latter of the two. The first of Pinkie's friends he was able to find was Rainbow Dash.

According to Rainbow, something had really upset Pinkie Pie, and she'd holed herself up in her secret party planning cave.

'Pinkie has a secret party planning cave? Why am I surprised," he thought to himself as he made his way over to Sugar Cube Corner. He went up to Pinkie's loft above the bakery and pressed the secret switch hidden within a cupcake decoration. The floor opened up beneath his feet, and he was sent careening down a slide into the darkness below.

He skid to a halt as he reached the bottom of the slide. As he looked into the party planning treasure trove before him, he did not feel the aura of happiness he'd expected the room to radiate. Instead, the scene was darkened by the figure laying dejectedly in the center of the floor. Pinkie Pie no longer looked like herself. Her vibrant coloration seemed to have dulled, much like her spirit. Her big, poofy mane now lay perfectly straightened on the sides of her head. She was not smiling.

"Pinkie?" said Knox softly as he reached down and comfortingly stroked her mane, "Are you OK? What's wrong?"

"You're what's wrong," she said bluntly.

Knox stopped stroking the mare's mane as he sorrowfully waited for her to continue.

"No matter what I do," she said in a melancholy tone, "I can't seem to get you to smile."

Knox sighed heavily as he sat gently beside the pony he adored. He couldn't stand that he'd accidentally hurt her like this.

"Pinkie," he started, "me not smiling has nothing to do with you. In fact, you're the first pony who could make me happy in a long, long time."

"You're just saying that to try and cheer me up," said the depressed Pinkie.

"No, Pinkie. It's true. I guess, ever since I lost Cozy, I've been locking away my emotions. I was afraid that I'd make more friends only to have them taken away, too."

Pinkie's head perked up slightly.

"Cozy? As in Cozy Glow? What's she got to do with anything?"

"Well..." This was the moment he'd been dreading. Pinkie Pie was finally going to learn the reason Knox was so broken.

He sighed deeply. 'Here we go.'

He sat there in the dimly-lit party planning cave and told Pinkie the truth. He told her about Cozy Glow. He told her about the nightmare. He told her about the statue and the incident with the princess. He told her about everything.

As he concluded his tale of woe, Pinkie had begun to tear up. She lifted herself off the floor, and she began to cry profusely as she pulled Knox into a tight embrace.

A few hours later, the two ponies walked casually out of the bakery together. One was a poofy-maned earth pony who would stop at nothing to make her friends happy, and the other was a graphite-colored unicorn who couldn't have cared less that he'd missed that day's therapy session. And as they walked the streets of Ponyville with no secrets between them, they both had a smile on their face.