My Most Faithful Mortifer

by hamishwarfare

Chapter. 25 – The Woes of a Pinkamena Pie

Author's Note:

Ok, never edit a story when you are under the weather; even by my questionable standards this chapter was in dire need of revision. I'm just glad I re-read previous chapters before uploading new ones.

Nothing really has changed in this chapter plot wise, I believe; but I hope it is easier to read now, and if not I give you permission to harass me. There is only one true way to improve with spelling and grammar; and that is by doing. And clearly I want/need to improve.

Chapter. 25 – The Woes of a Pinkamena Pie

Spring had finally come to Equestria and was ramping up nicely; the sun was warming, the air was filled with bird song, and delicate new leaves and fresh flowers could be seen blooming.

Ponyville was no exception to this; and everypony in town could not help up smile that little bit more, say hi to that extra face, or just generally feel that little bit happier.

All except for one pony.

Sugarcube Corner was as busy as ever, customers were coming and going with the fresh baked goods the store was renowned for. Coming out of the kitchen was a tall and lanky earth pony making his way to the front counter, carrying a trey of freshly baked cookies. Standing there already and waiting to arrange the cookies was a short and stocky earth pony mare.

The tall golden sand coloured stallion looked adoringly into the eyes of the short sea blue mare waiting for him; his eyes clearly saying what his mouth was unable to at the moment.

The mare returned the loving gaze and was just about to relieve her husband of his cargo when the stores front door was slammed open and a pony marched in.

The burst of noise startled the two behind the counter, causing the cookies to leap into the air and be scattered all around the counter. Mr and Mrs Cake looked over to the other pony in the room and jointly let out a worried sigh.

The sad earth pony was a mare with a pink coat and a mane only a few shades darker. It was a worrying sight, her pace was slow, aimless, and there was an edge of trepidation and frustration about it, like each step could cause a problem.

Then, after only making a partially into the building, the problem happened.

It started with almost a sharp jerk of her left ear, as if something was actually trying to rip it off; it was powerful enough to shift her head and make her stumble. While this happened a shiver started at the base of her tail and could be clearly seen travelling along her body like ripples in a pond. The shiver travelled all over her frame; to each and every hoof, all the way up to the tip of the ears, trying to rip themselves off of their host. The last noticeable thing that could be seen happening to the poor mare was both of her eyelids started to violently open and close in something that could almost be called a pattern.

All this happened in a fraction of a second, and the effect it had on its host was instant and worrying.

The moment it passed she leapt into the air, appearing to defy gravity for more than a second or two, all the while screaming. Her eyes grew wild and a vein throbbed on her forehead.

The instant she returned to solid ground, the distressed girl sprinted up the stairs towards the residential section of the store, leaving a smoke trail behind her. The thunder of pounding hooves could clearly be made out before the sound of a door slamming shut; the silence was deafening in the wake of it all.

The two owners of the bakery sighed yet again, before the mare started gathering up the scattered cookies while the stallion went back into the kitchen, resigned to make another batch.

The bell over the door tinkled and a unicorn mare walked into the store with a look of worry in her eyes.

“Excuse me, Mrs Cake?”

“Hmm, oh. How may I help you today Rarity?”

The porcelain white unicorn was nervously playing with her purple mane while looking around the stores main area. “I was hoping you could tell me what is wrong with Pinkie Pie? The girls and I have noticed she has not been her normal self over the past few days. Or week. We’ve tried to offer our assistance in whatever is wrong, but she simply refuses to tell us what it is.”

“I wish I could help you Rarity, but neither myself nor my husband know for sure what’s wrong with her. We know she’s not been sleeping very well, we can hear her cry out in frustration in the middle of the night. Once I think I heard her say something about forgetting, but I’m not certain about that.”

“I heard her muttering about her Pinkie Sense yesterday.” Came the voice of Mr Cake as his head appeared from the kitchen. “Do you think something’s wrong with her?”

Rarity shook her head. “I do not believe so. Just moments ago Sunset Shimmer bluntly went up to her and asked what was wrong, before she started to cast a spell; a diagnostic one she assured me. Well Pinkie just yelled at her that she was fine, before apologising and running off.”

“Oh dear, that really isn’t like her at all. I’ll go and see if she’s willing to talk to me; if I know her she’ll be upset at yelling at a friend.”

“Thank you Mrs Cake. The girls and I are simply worried about her. Oh but look at the time, I am expected to be in a meeting with the Mayor right now for a third finalising of the decorations for the festival.”

“It’s all right Rarity. Run along and I’ll speak to you later if I can get anything out of her.”

The unicorn smiled before quickly dashing out of the bakery.

“Oh dear, I feel like a mother.”

“Well, think of it as practice.”

The mare rolled her eyes, before giving her husband a look. “You’ve not given me any children.”

His response was quick, almost as if this was a common accusation. “You’ll wish I hadn’t when I give you twins.”

Mrs Cake chuckled and shook her head. “Not likely,” before she walked off to the stairs where a distressed pony had recently gone up.

---

Pinkie was lying on her bed, face down with her muzzle buried deep within the white puffy marshmallow like pillow. Her breathing was shallow and ragged, and there was an occasional hiccup that managed to escape the noise muffler.

The self-pity party was disrupted by three precise knocks that were applied to the door, “Pinkie? Pinkie, I’m coming in.” The brown portal opened to reveal Mrs Cake carrying a tray on her back; it held a glass of milk and a small pile of cookies.

The room was small and round with a tall ceiling that ended in the point of the towers roof. Wooden crossbeams supported a simple iron chandelier, its candles currently unlit.

The older mare walked over to the single bed, where the upset pony lay on a chocolate covered duvet.

“I brought you some warm milk, would you like any?” The standing mare had to strain her eyes to see that Pinkie had shaken her head, no. Mrs Cake hesitated before noticing the side table was empty, “Well I’ll just leave it here then. Better drink it before it gets cold.”

Now free of her burden, the teal coloured mare let out a quiet sigh, before she turned and started to make her way towards the door; silently counting down as she went.

“Wait.” Came the muffled reply before the sixth step had been taken, and right when Mrs Cake had reached number one.

“Would you like some milk?” Mrs Cake asked the pony lying down on the bed, who still refused to meet her gaze. The reply was another minute shake of the head. The older mare sighed again before bringing over a nearby chair and sitting down on it.

For a time there was only silence, then a different intake of breath was noticed, one that sounded a little more nasally than before. It happened a few more times in slightly quicker successions; before finally the pony lying on the bed rolled over and looked at her boss, “you brought me cookies as well?”

“They fell on the floor I’m afraid. They’re still good, but we can’t sell them now.”

“Floor cookies are still cookies.” The young earth pony replied before reaching over and taking one from the plate.

For pinkie the bite was slow and delicate, feeling and savouring the sweet crumbly texture with just the slightest hint of a chew; before indulging in the smooth, rich and wonderfully creamy chocolate pieces that were scattered throughout.

Mrs Cake saw pinkie eat the cookie in a single bite and swallowed it within the blink of an eye. It did have the desired effect though, as Pinkie was looking at least a little better.

“Rarity followed you into the bakery, saying all of your friends were worried about you. She also said you shouted at Sunset Shimmer who, while being brash and upfront, was only trying to see what was wrong.”

Pinkie’s voice held a little more life than before, but its tone was still far too sombre. “I did, and she was, but this is something that no one can fix. Either I figure it out, or it’ll go away on its own, once the event it’s telling me about passes. I had similar events happen to me when I grew into my Pinkie Sense; it’s just never been this strong or long before.”

Mrs Cake blinked, not fully knowing how to handle the information; but still she accepted the answer and gave a warm motherly smile. “Well what do you think your sense is trying to tell you?”

Pinkie let out a tired, frustrated sigh; before grabbing another cookie and savoured it in a single bite once again. “I think its saying I’m forgetting something important, something super party worthy important. But there is nothing right now that it could be.” Pinkie grumbled and hit her bed with a forehoof before grabbing another cookie.

“Well, try thinking about it another way. Clearly this must be something important; something that you should know, but don’t. So it must be something that you should know and that you haven’t done before.” The sitting pony tapped her chin before her eyes opened wide. “You’ve made quite a few new friends recently; do they have an event coming up? A birthday, or a special occasion perhaps?”

“No. Trixie’s birthday is in September and doesn’t have any party worthy assignments coming up any time soon. Spike’s birthday is in May and again doesn’t have anything noteworthy happening any time soon.”

“…and what about Sunset Shimmer?” Mrs Cake pressed when Pinkie Pie went quiet.

“Sunset? That’s the easiest one; since there’s nothing happening in Ponyville so that’s out. As far as I can tell nothing is happening with herself back in Vanhoover; and her birthday is in…?”

To Mrs Cake the silence was deafening. Looking down at the young mare lying on the bed was a worrying sight; Pinkie’s eyes were widening to an alarming degree, and her face was shifting through so many different emotions it was almost scary to watch.

“…Is when, Dear?”

Pinkie bolted upright into a sitting position so quickly, her hair kept going past her as her upper body stopped moving. “THAT’S IT!” Was all that managed to escape her now smiling mouth.

The older mare sitting next to the bed was even more confused, “what is it Pinkie?”

“I DON’T KNOW!” Pinkie couldn’t help shouting in glee.

Mrs. Cake had become completely lost, however. “…What?”

Pinkie scooted her legs to the side of the bed and hugged her boss in thanks before hopping over to a nearby window, jumped out of it and onto the street.

Mrs Cake just sat there for a few moments wondering what had happened right then. She glanced over to the plate and glass, hoping to find a distraction; but all that was there was an empty plate where just a second ago, before Pinkie had hugged her, there were four cookies. Beside it was also a glass that had once contained warm milk, now only a faint trace of the white substance was left.

It was clear that Pinkie was feeling better now and had managed to work through her problems; or at least found the source of it. Getting up off the wooden chair, Mrs Cake gathered up the empty plates and headed out the room with a small proud smile, her mission here a complete success.

---

Sunset Shimmer had her muzzle deep within the pages of a book of runes, a very old and advanced book that actually required permission from Princess Celestia to receive. She was allowed to keep the tome for another twenty four hours before a royal guard would come and retrieve it from her.

But having the book came with rules. She was not allowed to magically copy pages, nor was she allowed to make notes from it while she was reading. The book could only be touched by cotton gloves, or manipulated by magic under the influence of an archivists ring. These restrictions were a nuisance but considering how old the book was they were understandable ones.

The library was deserted, the whole day was like this; the ponies of the community were still helping out the farming families of the town, sewing seeds or preparing the fields.

The Mayor had said this might continue for another few days to a week, but she should still have the library open in case ponies needed a book, or for the children when school finishes.

So with this free time, Sunset was working on some projects. Not her more secure ones down in the basement, those remained too delicate for her to bring up from below. This one was more of a scholars curiosity than anything.

Using her mage sight on the Golden Oak itself, Sunset had stumbled across runes within the very mana lines of the tree, runes she had never seen before.

Vague familiarity registered with quite literally one or two of the many dozens she had been able to find within the flow of magic of the tree. And considering the few that she could recognise were the oldest runes she knew; Sunset had no option but to ask for help.

The book was fascinating, and it did contain some of the runes she had discovered within the very magic of her library tree. ‘Though how has it managed to get Laguz not to cause a feedback loop with Inguz? I won-‘

…

Something wasn’t right. Sunset couldn’t quite put her hoof on what, but something had definitely changed within her domain.

Concentrating a little more, Sunset could make out the barest hint of an echo from her breathing. This was new; she had never heard her own breathing echo before…in fact she had never heard of quiet breathing ever echoing before.

The spell of a new mystery gripped her conscious and figuring it would be a quick deduction, Sunset chose to look into this latest phenomenon.

The book lowered, clearing her view to observe what her reception desk could see.

Bright blue eyes surrounded by pink were looking right into her own eyes; as in exactly straight on. A hair of curly pink was sitting to the right and had separated from a bigger body of the stuff that Sunset just could not see at the moment.

The eyes glimmered with frustration and happiness in what had to be equal measures, but there was a frown interfering with the sight of those eyes.

“Sunset.” The voice was soft but blunt, and had a familiarity that for the tiniest of seconds Sunset could not place.

“Pinkie.” That was who the voice belonged to, but Sunset had never heard the happy go lucky pony sound like this before.

“Is there something you’ve been meaning to tell me? Something that is coming up soon? Something that is very important to every, single, pony?”

The eyes were not blinking, and somehow made it impossible for Sunset’s own eyes to do the action either, let alone move away.

“Uh, in the near future? No, I don’t believe so.”

Another pink curly hair fell out of place and was now visible to Sunset’s vision. The blue eyes narrowed ever so slightly, the pupil shrank just as imperceptionally.

“…Sunset, you know I like to throw parties right? Welcome to Ponyville parties, congratulation parties, parties for just about every occasion really.” The eyes intensity grew exponentially without changing in the slightest. Sunset felt like she was facing down an Ancient Dragon.

“So when a pony, a friend no less, hides a reason for me to celebrate with them, for them; well I get a little mad.” The voice never wavered, never changed from the soft tone it had been using this whole time, but the edge behind it was clear to hear.

“Sunset. When is your birthday?”

“Umm, the fourteenth of July?”

“Wait, WHAT?!” that was not the reaction Sunset was expecting, but then again she didn’t know what to expect.

“No, no, no, NO, NO, NO! That’s got to be it!” Pinkie Pie had leaped back and was now pacing back and forth in front of the reception desk.

“Its all that’s left! And when Mrs Cake said it, it all clicked! I felt relief!” Pinkie faced Sunset again. “My Pinkie Sense does not lie! Are you certain your birthday’s in July?”

“Well, no. As I said I don’t know anything of my early childhood, not my birthday, not even how old I am, really. So when my masters took me in they made that date my birthday, a complete fresh start.”

Pinkie’s eye twitched and a few more hairs escaped the confines of the curly mass of hair. “Sunset. I am going to ask you a favour, and in return I shall forgive you not telling me when you thought your birthday was; and even allowed it to pass without us celebrating it.”

By now every single strand of hair was out of place and her whole head twitched along with the eye. “You will believe me when I tell you that your birthday is in two days’ time; meaning the Twentieth of March.” The crazed earth pony was slowly walking back towards Sunset; climbing over the reception desk without ever taking her eyes off of the only other pony in the whole world.

“You will allow me to give you a birthday party. You will be there, as well as all of our friends here in Ponyville; where we will have presents, and cake, and play games.

“It will be fun, you will feel joy, and you will remember for the rest of your life that that day is your birthday, and you will celebrate that fact every, single, year.” Pinkie Pie had moved Sunset so far back that she was now sitting on her rump and still trying to lean back; all the while her eyes were kept locked onto the party ponies gaze. “Doesn’t that sound fun?” The last few words were said in a whisper as she leaned over the wide eyes mare on the verge of losing her balance and collapsing onto her back.

Sunset did the only rational thing possible; she nodded her head in complete agreement.

A force allowed Sunset to blink her eyes, and in that time Pinkie was gone. “Great! You’ll receive your invitation some time tomorrow. Ooh, I’ve never given one of my friends a ‘Congratulations on Celebrating your Birthday on the Right Day for the First Time in Ten Years’ party before.” Pinkie was back on the other side of the reception desk and was now happily skipping out of the library like there was nothing wrong in the world. Even her hair was set exactly as it is normally found.

…

There was a polite cough. Sunset turned her head to face the lone pony standing off to the side, next to the public rest rooms, holding a book within her magic. “Yeah, Pinkie is that passionate about parties. Birthday parties especially.”

Sunset blinked again before finally focusing on the mint green unicorn mare standing there. “It certainly seems so,” what else could Sunset say? “I guess I’ve learnt when my actual birthday is.”

---

Rarity was silently grumbling to herself as she walked through the door to her precious boutique; being dragged behind her held within a pale turquoise magical aura was a bundle of papers. The mayor had apparently forgotten about their scheduled meeting and was in the process of clearing out old files from a decade ago.

Spring cleaning indeed!

The token gesture of a look the mayor gave to her designs was almost an insult. This was the Summer Sun Celebration! and she was in charge of the decorations! This was to be her Magnus Opus! Her latest and greatest masterpiece!

It must be perfect.

The kitchen within the boutique was her destination; a place where she could throw the papers onto a flat surface, and where she could have something that would calm her down.

Beverage secured, Rarity unceremoniously dropped down onto one of the chairs surrounding the kitchens table; making sure there was no one around to see her acting in such an unlady like manner.

A deep inhale and the release of a sigh did its work and calmed the throbbing vein on her forehead. She closed her eyes and savoured the taste of her drink, her mind was given permission to drift and forget about the world for a moment.

For a small eternity there was only her breathing and the mug in front of her. The building was quiet and undisturbed; the world could remain in limbo for just a moment longer.

Rarity opened her eyes again and finally looked over to the pieces of paper once more.

While to the untrained eye the designs looked much the same as they had done previously. However the subtle changes in angles of the triangles, as well as the artistic shading to help bring out a 3D appearance; these details would make all the difference with the nobles and their cultured eyes.

Then came pieces of paper that were not known to her, they were a lot more discoloured and brittle than her own sheets she had looked over. Clearly she had accidently taken some of the pieces that the mayor was clearing out.

“Well, the Mayor did say she was throwing these out, so there is no harm in me having a small look now is there?

“Hmm, these look like they’re old flyers that a pony would find on a notice board. Oh, the grand opening of Sugarcube Corner? My I thought it had always been here. Ah, and it was Mr Cake who started it? I would never have guessed that it was him who designed it.

“Oh, a circus came to town for the fifth year running; I wonder why they stopped coming? Chuckle oh it looks fun, though I do hope the tiger was well treated.”

Several other pieces were quickly passed as nothing interesting, before she came across one that was familiar.

“Oh, I remember this, goodness did it not terrify my parents; I wasn’t allowed out of their sight for months. I suppose it’s no wonder a flyer found its way here; it is only two hours away by train, but still not a pleasant thing to have around.”

They flyer was faded but anypony could see it was of a missing filly the same age as her sister Sweetie Belle. She was lavender in colour and her mane was a deep bluish purple with a purple and pink stripe in the centre.

She was bright eyed and smiling in the picture, showing off her cutie mark; clearly with how she was showing it off, the cutie mark was a recent addition. The picture had clearly been cropped to show the young filly in greater detail, but there were several small green fins coming from a purple scaled back.

“‘Any information to be reported to the guard, being forwarded to first lieutenant Shining Armour.’ Oh, I do wonder whatever happened to Twilight Sparkle? Hmm,” she peered closer to the flyer, a few things catching her attention. “Shining Armour, well clearly that’s Prince Shining Armour now. And when I met him after that Violent Rose business he let slip how important Spike was to him. Oh, oh dear; this must be his little sister. Purple scales and green fins; that could easily be a baby Spike.”

A shudder went through Rarity as she slowly put the missing pony flyer down onto the table. She suddenly had a very large desire to make sure Sweetie Belle was ok; which may or may not involve a reassuring hug.

It was with a quick trot that she left her kitchen, being chased out by the ghosts of the past and a shared pain from one elder sibling to another.

Comments

[Cold Philosophy]

Hmm. The threads are coming together.