Getting the Band Back Together

by Betsy

Chapter 4- No More Laughts pt. 2

As soon as Pinkie was out of sight and earshot she ran to her office and shut the door behind her. She clutched her hand against her chest and felt her heavy breathing and rapid heartbeat. They’re here? AJ, Rarity, Sunset, and… who was that girl again? Did they say? “Whatever it doesn’t matter, as long as I don’t have to see them again.”

Pinkie went to a cabinet towards the back of the room and opened it. There was a box and she rifled through it. Pinkie began to wonder out loud. “Ugh!” she couldn’t find them. “Where are they, where are they?! I- I need my antide-” but her hand touched something rubber and familiar. Pinkie hoped it wasn’t what she thought but she squeezed and a squeak came from the object.

No. no no no no no no NO! “I didn’t know this was still here…” Pinkie said trembling. Why? WHY WHY WHY? Pinkie knew what it was and couldn’t bear to pull it out. To look at it. “But why?” she asked herself as she retracted from the object. She knew the reason, she just needed to say it. “Because it’s a reminder. All of this is. Of you Cheesy”

Her vision blurred and Pinkie felt something wet on her face, it was chilling and burned at the same time. She was crying and it took her only a fraction of a second to realize why. That was the first time she’d said his name since… No, this isn’t right.

“UGH, Pinkamina what are you doing? Stop it, you’ve wasted enough time on this. You have work do to, orders to fill, dates to set, party to plan.” That was that, no more tears. Pinkie put away her feelings and went to work like she’s done so many times now. Just work, because, it can’t hurt you, you’re in charge of it, you control the outcome. Just work.

---

“This place is a maze!” Sunset declared upon finally seeing the lobby. “That took like 20 minutes!”

“I haven’t been that lost since that time Big Mac tried t’ explain Ogers and… whatever that game was.”

“Ladies, before we go in there I suggest we devise a plan. We all saw how Pinkie was. She’s not the same”

“She’s also hidin’ something. Her kids told us that she’s been closed off, an’ ah mean… ya’ll saw her.”

“She’s gonna resist and deny it. She pulled away from our hug and practically ran out of there.” Sunset pointed out. “How should we approach this? Obviously, we’re gonna have to push but we haven’t seen her for so long. How do we even go about that?”

After a moment Rarity spoke up. “She’s fragile and we need to be understanding, stern too. Like you said darling, we need to push. For one we have to tell her about the geodes, and I know we promised the kids that we’d try to get her to warm up but,” she paused and looked at the other two. “I don’t believe we should get that personal just yet.”

“Ya got a point Rares. Right now we’re just people, who she hasn’t seen in years, suddenly bargin' into her life. We shouldn’t go askin’ all these personal questions and telling her how to be a mom.”

“ Welp! Sounds like a plan, and I'm tired of waiting, so let’s go!” Sunset said enthusiastically

“Uhm Sunset that really wasn’t a plan,” Rarity told Sunset with a nervous laugh.

“Geodes,” Sunset held up her index finger, “no personal stuff” she added her middle finger, “and push back” she raised her ring finger, and with that Sunset walked up the stairs where she saw Pinkie come from when they first arrived.

“Sunset, that still ain’t a plan” Applejack attempted to tell her while trying to catch up. “Those are objectives”

“Yes darling, a plan is a set of actions you’d take to-”

“Ok, I think that’s her door.” Sunset ignored the couple and pointed at a grey door as she reached the top of the stairs. It was the first door to the left and had three faded balloons that looked like they had been painted a lifetime ago.

The girls went quiet and walked up to the door. They didn’t hear any noise from the other side of the door so Rarity put her ear up to the door to see if Pinkie was in there. Nothing at first but then she managed to make out the familiar sound of pencil on paper. Then came the fast clicks of a computer keyboard.

“So?” Sunset asked.

“It sounds like she’s in there.”

“Ok, soooo…” The girls looked at each other and Sunset rolled her eyes and signaled for Rarity to step aside. Deciding to take the first step, she knocked on the door. Nothing. Sunset waited and knocked again, this time a little less patient.

“Kids if this is one of you then you know my rule about interrupting my work. Whatever it is will have to wait till after I’m finished planning.” Pinkie said from the other side.

Sunset wanted to get to the point and stop messing around. “Ugh Pinkie Pie it’s us! Open the door, we need to talk.”

The door quickly opened and Sunset and Pinkie were face to face. Both glaring at the other with discontent.

Pinkie looked at three of her oldest and dearest friends standing before her and sharpened her glare.

“Why are you still here? I’m assuming the tour is over, you may leave now.”

“Listen Pinkie Pie, somethin's goin’ on and we need yer help.”

“No.”

The door began to close but Applejack stopped it. Her strength kept it open against Pinkies will.

“It’s about the geodes and Equestria. Just hear us out. Please?” AJ pleaded.

“If I let you talk will you leave? I have a lot of work that needs to be done and I can tell you won’t let me get back to it unless I humor you. So yes come on in.”

---

Pinkie Pie looked at the group and pointed to some chairs in front of her desk. Applejack and Rarity sat down but there were only two chairs. Pinkie took her seat and motioned to a couch behind the chairs for Sunset to sit at.

“I’ll stand.”

They sat in silence, it was one minute at most but might as well have been an hour.

Sunset spoke. “Do you remember us?”

"Of course, I remember you girls, we all used to be the best of friends! Oh, you don’t know how much I’ve missed you, I need someone right now. I’m so sad and alone, it’s been so hard without you. I’ve been keeping it all in and I don’t even feel like the same Pinkie anymore. What is it you need? I’ll do whatever I can to help."

Yeah, a small part of Pinkie wanted to say that, deep down. She did remember them and she was happy they were here, but then those memories came back… She couldn’t let them, she wouldn’t remember. So instead she pushed that response out of her mind faster than it came.

“Vaguely.” She paused “I know that we went to the same high school. Did we have classes together?”

“You could say that.” Applejack scoffed.

"We used to be the best of friends. We went on so many adventures and learned so much from each other." As Sunset went on, she, Rarity, and Applejack explained to Pinkie who they were and who the others of their old group were. They told her about all the adventures they went on and how they all loved and learned from each other.

Throughout all this storytelling Pinkie listened and even began to warm up. The others could tell they were getting through to her and kept going. To tell the truth, she had forgotten some of their adventures and hearing all the things they used to do together and how close they were, Pinkie missed that. She just didn’t know it yet.

Some of the stories even got a chuckle out of her. This was the first time she really enjoyed anything since well... I think you know by now.

Finally, they got to Camp Everfree and told her about the geodes. This adventure was one of those Pinkie was a little fuzzy on. She remembered the big things like Gloriosa Daisy, and getting powers, but she had completely forgotten about the geodes.

“Do you still have yours? It should look like these?” Rarity pulled a jewelry pouch from her purse and took out three similar-looking necklaces except for the symbol in the middle. They were glowing in a pulsating rhythm. “Yours would be pink with three balloons.”

Now they explained why they were there. Sunset showed her the messages from Princess Twilight and told her why the geodes were acting the way they were and what they needed from her.

Remember when I said this was her first time really enjoying anything? Well, I meant it. Yes, all this reminiscing was making Pinkie smile but you have to realize that you can't make up for years of not laughing in just 40 minutes. Pinkie was still hurting, that's why she said what she said next.

“I haven’t gotten rid of most things from high school but it’s all been stored away. I don’t want to go digging up old memories but you all are welcome to if you’d like. Anything I had from high school would be in a storage unit near Fetlock Haven. I can give you directions if you’d like-”

Rarity cut Pinkie off. “Darling I don’t think you truly understand why we came here. We needed to warn you of all this but we also need your help. This won’t work unless all of us are there to stop the evil that’s coming. Please Pinkie Pie, come with us, help us find your geode, and gather the others.”

“Look you three, I listened to what you had to say and I even guided you to what you need. I’m not going to join you. My life is here, I can’t go run off on an adventure with you. I have my work, my kids, my…”

My thoughts I want to keep back.

“My life is here. I’m sorry but I just can’t”

It’ll hurt too much.

“Now you listen here sugar cube!” AJ was putting her foot down. “This not only affects the four of us, it affects our children as well! Do ya’ll want some almighty mystical thing comin’ after yer family? Cause that’s what’s gonna happen if ya don’t help us defeat it! Don’t you wanna protect them?”

“APPLEJACK! I AM NOT GOING TO HELP YOU!

“WHY NOT?!”

“BECAUSE I CAN’T OK! I CAN’T I just- “Pinkie’s voice cracked ”I- I can’t”

Something in Pinkie broke, of course, it was Applejack who took down the wall Pinkie had been putting up for years. She always did have a way of forcing others to stop lying to themselves or others.

Pinkie sat down and put her face in her hands as she began to cry. I mean really cry, for the first time in years. When AJ said that part about her kids, Pinkie realized how alone she’d left them. Ever since her husband died Pinkie had just disappeared. The thing she realized now that she failed to so long ago was that it wasn’t just her husband that died. Bubbly, Curveball, Sunshine, and Laughter had lost their father… and they might as well have lost their mother too. What was she doing?

“Come here hon” Applejack whispered, sitting down to comfort her old friend.

“Oh darling, We know it had to be hard, but we’re here now.”

“Pinkie Pie” Sunset lifted her head to look at her “I’ve missed you.”

Pinkie lunged forward and gave Sunset a big hug and continued crying. After all these years, she could still rely on her friends to be a shoulder to cry on. Even after all the time spent apart and how rude she was to them, they came back and wouldn’t let go.

The four of them sat there for a while embracing Pinkie in a much-needed hug.

“Thank you.” Pinkie squeaked out.

“Always.”

Author's Note:

OK SO. This one took a while as usual but now it's summer and hopefully, I'll have more time to focus on this fic and get chapters out faster.
Also, I'm rereading this chapter and it felt like it went too fast, did you guys feel like it was all happening too quickly? Let me know in the comments!
ALSO ALSO, I don't exactly know how to spell AJ's name so usually I'll just abbreviate but in past chapters I just alternated how I spelt it but I think I finally got it "Applejack"?

TLDR: ik I take forever to get chapters out but hopefully it'll get better. I should get better at writing. How do you spell AJ's name?

Comments

[Pete100]

As soon as Pinkie was out of sight and earshot she ran to her office and shut the door behind her. She clutched her hand against her chest and felt her heavy breathing and rapid heartbeat. They’re here? AJ, Rarity, Sunset, and… who was that girl again? Did they say? “Whatever it doesn’t matter, as long as I don’t have to see them again.”

I’m not seeing the problem.

“Geodes,” Sunset held up her index finger, “no personal stuff” she added her middle finger, “and push back” she raised her ring finger, and with that Sunset walked up the stairs where she saw Pinkie come from when they first arrived.

If she thinks that’s a plan, then she must’ve not used her brain since she left CHS.