> The sugar tears
>  by TwiwnB
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The sugar tears
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Don’t ask, don’t tell. 


“I wonder how old Rarity really is…” said Spike, bored after having watched Twilight read three books in a row.

“Spike” replied the purple unicorn, “There are things that are never asked and that will never be told. Just like Rarity’s age. You understand?”

The dragon didn’t answer. The capacity of Twilight to use the simplest remark as an opportunity to lecture was still surprising him. In a way, it was almost scaring him a little, as he thought that it was his duty as her number one assistant to care about Twilight sociability and mental state. And he knew very well that not only nopony liked to be lectured, but also that too much lecture could be the sign of a problem. 
And he hated that kind of problem. He decided to ignore the idea of Twilight having a problem, because it was too painful to have that thought in his mind. It just wouldn’t happen and everything would be fine.

“Hear that Spike!” suddenly said Twilight, very excited, “This book says that a hyperactive behavior can be triggered by the absorption of a large amount of carbohydrates, like monosaccharide.”

“You mean sugar?” replied Spike, weary of the complicated ways of saying simple things.

“Yes, exactly. Doesn’t that remind you of somepony?” asked Twilight.

She was obviously referring to Pinkie Pie and her way to never stop moving while eating more sweets than probably all the ponies in Ponyville together. For fun, Spike answered “You?” and enjoyed the upset reaction.
Why would he take that seriously? He liked Pinkie Pie the way she was. If the sugar was what made her that way, he would only try to feed her a little more with it.

But Twilight had kept on reading and discovered that the ingestion of a large quantity of glucose, fructose or galactose could cause tooth decay, cardiovascular dysfunction and potentially macular degeneration. Horrified, she decided that she had to help her friend no matter what.

Quickly, she closed her book and ran to Sugarcubecorner, leaving Spike to go napping, and finally found Pinkie Pie who was baking her “Secret sugary sugar pile of sugar” whose name was because she always added a secret ingredient in it. The secret ingredient was sugar.

Twilight took Pinkie outside and, after the pink pony had stopped having fun complaining, she explained to her all the dangers of eating sugar. And I mean sugar, as Twilight thought that, in Pinkie Pie’s case, it had already gone so far that she had to take extreme measures. To be precise, not allow her friend to ingest the slightest molecule of sugar whatsoever.

Pinkie Pie objected. She said that Twilight was worrying about nothing, that everything was fine and that she should relax and enjoy the good aspects of life, which were, in her opinion, all the aspects of life.

But Twilight didn’t give up that easily. She went into town and told all of her friends that Pinkie Pie had to stop eating sugar or their hyperactive friend would finish in the hospital, if not worse. She knew she was exaggerating things a little, at least in her opinion it was just a little, but it was worth the goal she had set herself. And it worked.

Together, they convinced the mayor to edict a law forbidding Pinkie Pie to eat anything containing sugar and they went to the pink pony and announced her they would make sure she would be cured from her illness.

That’s when Pinkie Pie realized she wouldn’t be eating all the sugar she was used to anymore. And for a very little moment, her smile disappeared. She didn’t look angry. She looked worried. Very worried.
But her smile came back almost immediately and she just said that she had to go write a letter. When she came back, her friends asked her who the letter was addressed to, but Pinkie didn’t know what letter they were talking about and told them she was going to play at the lake and that they should come with her because it was going to be fun. And she had, in fact, taken her giant inflatable octopus.

They all agreed to come with her, for fun and to make sure it wasn’t a trick to go eat sweets, but Rarity, being very curious, stayed behind and saw mister Cake with a letter. She asked him about it, but all he knew about it was the address.
It was for miss Inkie Pie, at the rock farm.

Two days passed before Pinkie Pie’s sister came into town. That wasn’t her first time around. She had already come see her sister several times and had had the opportunity to meet her best friends – as meeting all of Pinkie Pie’s friends is really hard. So she went directly to the library and found Twilight.

“I received a letter from Pinkie Pie.” answered Inkie when asked what she was doing there.

Twilight knew it. Pinkie Pie had one trick in reserve that she wanted to use to eat sugar. Why her sister, she would have to discover it. She asked to see the letter and, surprisingly, Inkie accepted to show it.

But it didn’t reveal anything about Pinkie Pie’s plan. In fact, it didn’t reveal anything at all.

It was just a blank piece of paper.

“That’s the letter?” asked Twilight.

“Yes.” answered Inkie.

“That doesn’t make any sense. Why… I mean… how did you even know that she wanted you to come? There is nothing written on it.” said Twilight, a little upset.

“That’s why I came.” Told her Inkie. “I know of only one reason why Pinkie would forget to write the letter she wanted to send me. But I have to be sure. Has something happened? Something unusual involving my sister?”

“Why?” asked Twilight, suspicious, “What is it all about?”

“Please.” said Inkie, “It’s very important. Have you noticed anything different?”

“Like what?” asked Twilight.

“Well… like in her behavior. Has she behaved strangely lately? Has she done things that didn’t make sense or that you felt were weird?” answered Inkie, a little faster as it was beginning to look very obvious that there was something that she didn’t want to talk about.

Asking if somepony has seen something strange in Pinkie Pie’s behavior is a sure way to receive any kind of answer but the one you seek. Twilight would have enjoyed the irony, but she was losing patience:

“Look, I don’t understand a thing about all that. Couldn’t you just tell me what’s happening so I can help you?” she asked Pinkie Pie’s sister.

“No I can’t. There are things that shouldn’t be asked and should never been told.” replied the sister. “Just tell me what’s going on and I’ll be out of your hair.”

“But nothing’s happening. Pinkie Pie is still the same as she ever has been since I’ve known her.” told her Twilight. 

“Then why did she send me that blank letter? Something very grave has happened and I need to know what.”

“Everything is fine. She was just being Pinkie Pie. She sent you that letter after we put her on the sugar diet. I don’t know why.” said Twilight.

“A sugar diet? What sugar diet?” asked Inkie, suddenly very concerned.

“Well, we figured that Pinkie was eating way too much sugar and that it was going to hurt her health, so we made sure that she wouldn’t be allowed to eat any sugar anymore, that’s all.” answered Twilight.

“You WHAT?” shouted Inkie, suddenly as pale as she was dead.


Sweet memories 


“Oh come on, why are reacting like that?” asked Twilight, as she was trying to catch her breath following Inkie in the streets.

“I told you, you can’t forbid her to eat sweets. I’ll make sure she eats some right away.” answered Inkie.

“You can’t. We made a law to make sure Pinkie wouldn’t cheat.” gave in Twilight.

Inkie stopped running and turned back to Twilight. She understood the situation was even worse than she had imagined and that she would have to convince, one way or the other, her sister’s friends to help her solve it. She asked Twilight to repeal the law, but the unicorn didn’t agree until Inkie had told her what reason she had to overreact like that. They had a doctor following Pinkie Pie’s health, and there was no medical reason to stop the diet.

It took time, but Inkie finally explained the problem. Twilight hadn’t imagined. She felt sorry and… something else. But mostly sorry. She agreed to help, but she asked that Inkie would tell the family secret to her friends too. She could convince the mayor by herself, but the others would probably stop her and ask questions. It was better to just tell them already and solve it all together as they had begun it in the first place.

Inkie refused at first, but eventually agreed. And so Twilight, the very same day, asked Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy to come to the library about Pinkie Pie. Inkie had refused that her sister was asked to come too.

Then, when they were all reunited in the middle of the books, as the sun was already disappearing on the horizon, Inkie began to tell her story:

“What I’m going to tell you is a secret among the Pie’s family. We kept it secret for Pinkie’s sake and I wouldn’t tell you if it wasn’t for your stupid idea that is now threatening my sister.”

Rarity wanted to object that they had always only cared about Pinkie Pie’s best interest, but a look from Twilight prevented her to. So Inkie continued her story:

“My sister has always acted a bit weird, for as long as I can remember. Way before she had gotten her cutie mark, she would already talk with the sun, to herself or some imaginary friend or even the rocks we were harvesting. And at the time, we all found that very cute, even if my dad thought that it still was a bit too weird for a filly, but all his effort to make her stop had failed and he had just gave up. Pinkie was just playing, it was all in good fun, or so we thought.

You have to understand that we don’t eat many sweets at the rock farm. It’s the way we have chosen to live. Pinkie wouldn’t eat much sugar too, as everyone of us.

As the time passed, my sister would begin to do things instead of just talking. One day, she drew a wheel on a wall of the farm and told my dad that he was the one who had asked her to do it. Another day, she took all the eggs from the fridge and buried them very carefully around the house. I saw her doing it and when I asked, she told me she was protecting us. At the time, I helped her burry the eggs, as I thought it was only a game.

She kept on doing weird stuff, but it was harmless and I personally didn’t care as I was amused by it. My mother and father were, them, very concerned but still convinced themselves it was all just some filly’s plays. But one day, I found my two dolls ripped open and Pinkie in one corner of my room. She told me that the dolls had tried to attack her and that she had just defended herself. That’s when I began to figure out it was more than just fun and plays. She looked so scared, and she had tears in her eyes. 

At the time, I ran away from her. I was scared, I couldn’t understand. But she was my sister and when she came to apologize about the dolls, I forgave her. She was sincerely sorry. And I felt like I wanted to help her. More than anything, I swore I would never run away from her ever again.

Two days after, she lit the barn on fire. She was the one that warned us. She was crying, telling us she was sorry. We watched the barn burn down to ashes, with the thought that it could have been the farm instead, with us inside. She said she had fought and trapped a shadow that had been hunting her the past two days.

My parents found a doctor, who couldn’t find what was wrong. He told us that the safest thing to do was to bring Pinkie to a hospital where they could take care of her. I was surprised that my parents accepted, and they tried more test on my sister, without being able to find out the cause of her behavior. She was just in perfect health.

We came back to the farm and decided to watch over her at every time. At the beginning, it was only my parents, but the two of them became tired too quickly and they asked me and Blinkie to help too. We accepted.

One night, Blinkie woke me up. She told me that Pinkie had gone blind and that she didn’t know what to do. Pinkie was on the floor, speaking nonsense and sweeping the floor with her hooves to try and figure out where she was and what was surrounding her.
I tried to hug her to comfort her, but she screamed, which woke up my parents. They couldn’t do anything either. We all spent the night watching over her, hoping that our presence at her side would help her get better.

The worst thing was that she would always forget about what had happened, or act as she had forgotten, as soon as she had gone better. At the beginning, she was talking about it, but the more the time passed, the less she would speak about it until she finally stopped and just decided it wasn’t real. Just sometimes I could find her, when she thought that she was alone, cry in a corner of the farm as the memories were coming back, or as she wasn’t able to suppress them anymore. I remember that she had told me, at the very beginning, that she was feeling guilty for being the way she was and causing so much trouble. I didn’t find the words then, I still haven’t yet.

But finally, after all that time and all the suffering we had went through, something amazing happened. Pinkie had seen the sonic rainboom in the sky and she threw us a party. She was so happy, it was just incredible. And we found out she had ceased to act strangely. Well, not totally, but she wouldn’t do anything scary anymore. Her behavior was harmless again.
She only had a relapse once. It wasn’t solved with a party, but with sugar. It seemed the sugar, in large quantity, was some sort of cure from her illness.

She had been eating a lot of it since. Until you guy decided to prevent her to.

Do you understand now why you’ve got to act fast and allow my sister to eat whatever she wants the way she wants?”

Inkie had finished speaking. The words had burnt her throat as she hated to have to remember that part of her youth. But if it could help her sister, it was still worth it. And those ponies were her sister’s best friends. It was already as good as solved.

Or not.

She saw two immediate and unexpected reactions.
First, Rarity decided she wouldn’t let Pinkie Pie alone with such a burden and took Fluttershy with her to go seek Pinkie and comfort her.
Inkie tried to stop them, but was prevented by Rainbow Dash. The pegasus looked angry. Really angry.

“You knew that Pinkie Pie was a threat all along and you never told us?” shouted the rainbow pony.

She didn’t even let Inkie say more than a “Well…” and continued to ask:

“It never occurred to you that we would have a right to know that an arsonist could be living in the middle of us? You never thought that we would like to know that your sister is downright crazy and dangerous?”

“How dare you!?!” shouted Inkie, suddenly all worked up too, “I won’t allow you to speak about my sister like that.”

They were ready to fight each other, but Applejack prevented them to. Nonetheless, Rainbow Dash left, after she said that she wouldn’t just close her eyes when all of Ponyville was threatened.

Inkie didn’t know how to react. She had hoped to receive help and now the situation was worse than before. If Rainbow Dash was to gather ponies and tell them that Pinkie Pie was a threat, it could end very badly. It was too much to handle on her own.

By chance, Applejack told her that she was going to do her best to stop Rainbow Dash.

“I’m not sure I understand it well.” said the orange pony, “In fact, I’m worried that Rainbow Dash might be right to be honest. But I’ll go and do my best so that your secret stays safe until we figure the whole thing out.”

Inkie felt reassured by Applejack’s honesty and nodded. She just added before the orange pony left:

“Applejack, what would you do it it wasn’t Pinkie Pie, but your own sister?”

She never received an answer, but her hopes were back. At least, she had an ally. Two counting Twilight.


Let’s do it… for guilt and science 


“Don’t worry.” said Twilight. “I’m sure she will be able to convince Rainbow Dash to come back. It’s just going to take some time…”

Inkie didn’t answer, but she obviously appreciated Twilight’s support.
But the unicorn had something else in mind. Another little thing she had been growing in her since she had heard about it all and was devouring all her thoughts. It was burning her on the inside to ask Inkie about it. It wasn’t bad at all, in fact she could even see it as another help that she could provide.
She just couldn’t take it anymore and asked Inkie:

“Say… if it’s going to take a little more time than we thought for the situation to come back to normal… Maybe…”

Inkie had turned back and was looking at her. There was hope in those eyes. So much hope. She was clearly counting on Twilight to help her through the challenge of the situation. And Twilight knew, on the inside, that she was going to crush those hopes in one little sentence that she just had to say.

“Maybe” Twilight pursued, “I could try to study Pinkie Pie myself. I may be able to find out what’s wrong with her.”

Inkie’s face became pale again.

“I thought you wanted to help my sister…” she painfully said.

“I want to, I swear.” replied Twilight, convinced that she had to defend her case, “And I think that I might be able to help even more if you allowed me to make some test on Pinkie Pie. I might cure her.”

Maybe her words alone would have make enough sense that she would be allowed to do what she wanted. But the sparkle of mad curiosity in her eyes was betraying her real motives.

“No, you can’t.” told her Inkie. “My sister isn’t some guinea-pig for you to experiment on. We are through with that thank you very much!”

And Pinkie Pie’s sister ran away just as she had pronounced those last words. Twilight didn’t see the stream of tears on her angry face.
Left all alone, she decided to take it in her own hooves to try and fix things. And maybe still gather some information on Pinkie Pie’s strange illness. She woke up Spike and, when he asked what was going on, she answered:

“We are going out to observe a new experiment subject.”

The experiment subject she was talking about was drinking some tea at Fluttershy’s cottage with both Fluttershy and Rarity. The two ponies had found their pink friend and convinced her to let them comfort her. To be exact, Pinkie Pie had just accepted to come with them as she said it would obviously be fun to spend some time with her friends.

But it wasn’t going as Rarity had expected and as Fluttershy could have hoped for. Both just wanted to tell Pinkie Pie that they knew and that they would support her whatever the cost. Rarity’s idea was to convince Pinkie not to rely on sugar anymore and find a real cure together. Fluttershy’s idea was just to comfort Pinkie Pie as she would do for any of her critters friends.

But Pinkie Pie wasn’t making any sense. And by that I mean less than ever before. She was speaking a lot. In fact so much that Rarity and Fluttershy had stopped answering.

“You were right.” said Pinkie Pie, “I’m way better without sugar. I can see things I couldn’t before. Like your bear, it’s a bee with a beard, not a bear. She is wearing a costume so that we won’t recognize her.”

Twilight arrived at that moment, but stayed in the bushes to observe and take notes. From away, she was able to see Pinkie Pie’s behavior without having to watch her in the eyes and so she quickly understood how mad she really was.

“I’ll tell you a secret” told Pinkie Pie, “Rarity doesn’t want you to know…” and she didn’t even care if Rarity was listening to her at that very moment, “… but she isn’t quite the pony you would think she is. In reality, she is waiting for the good moment to hurt us. She just hasn’t had the opportunity yet, because I’ve got my eyes on her since the very beginning, but if she finds it, she will cut off your throat with her scissors. That’s how she proceeds.”

Rarity tried to defend herself from the accusation, but Pinkie Pie told her that she wouldn’t know about those things. She laughed when Rarity told her that she was Rarity, which logically meant that she was in the best position to know about herself.

“You’re not Rarity, you’re a rock. Don’t worry, I know rocks can talk, you don’t have to hide yourself from me.” said Pinkie Pie with a big smile.

“Well, I’m sorry, but… uh, she is Rarity.” said Fluttershy.

“No she isn’t!” shouted Pinkie Pie, suddenly angry, “I know she isn’t, why would you want to convince me that she is? Are you trying to lire to me? Do you intend to betray me? You think she might be an agent of the shadows? She very well might be…”

Fluttershy was already hiding under the bench and Pinkie Pie was talking to some invisible pony about preventing Fluttershy to betray her and how she didn’t want to harm anypony.

Inkie, all sweaty, came at that moment. She had thought she would find her sister at the carrousel boutique, but, once there, figured out they had went to another place and had ran to Fluttershy’s cottage where she was relieved to finally have found her sister.

The joy didn’t last long as Pinkie Pie jumped on her in a rage and lift her right hoof into the air to hit Inkie.

“It’s me, it’s me, it’s me, it’s me…” said Inkie very fast while covering her face the best she could awaiting the blow to come hit her.

It never came. At the sound of the voice of her sister, Pinkie Pie had stopped, then lowered her hoof and looked at it, and then at her surroundings. She moved away from Inkie, scared from herself, and heard the voices of Rarity and Fluttershy behind her:

“It’s okay, it’s finished. We are here to help you.” they said.

“We will find a way to cure you.” added Rarity.

“Stay away!” shouted Pinkie Pie, in a panic, “It’s not okay. I was going to hit my sister. Why would I hit my sister?”

“Please, let us help you” said Fluttershy.

“I don’t want your help, I don’t want your pity!” shouted Pinkie Pie. “Leave me alone. I don’t want to see anypony.”

And she ran away, leaving her sister, Rarity, Fluttershy, as well as Twilight and Spike who had come out of the bushes as soon as they had seen Pinkie assault Inkie. None of them could prevent the pink pony to flee.

Inkie looked at Rarity and Fluttershy, who were looking down. Then she looked at Twilight and Spike, who still had his quill and paper between his claws.

“I thought you were her friends. She had faith in you.” said Pinkie Pie’s sister.

The three ponies felt ashamed. 

“I’m sorry.” said Twilight genuinely.

“We just wanted to help.” Said Rarity.

“Some big help you’ve been!” replied Inkie furiously.

The three ponies looked at each other, as Spike was still trying to figure out what was going on, and Twilight told Inkie:

“Look, just tell us what to do, and we will do it. We won’t fail you another time.”

“I’m telling you from the very beginning. All we have to do is give my sister some sugar and everything should come back to normal, I hope.” replied Inkie with what patience left she had.

“Then if you need sugar, just go to Sugarcubecorner” said Spike, not understanding why it was taking so long for the others to solve such an easy problem. Even if he wasn’t sure he had understood the problem correctly.

But it was true. Not only they would find a lot of sugar there, but there was a high chance that Pinkie Pie would be there too.

So they all went together, not knowing what would await them there.


That’s why they call me loyalty 


When they saw Sugarcubecorner, they all felt something terrible was going to happen. Even Spike, who had no real reason to feel worried but the behavior of his friends, thought he had a bad feeling about it.
It was dark, the streets were empty and even if it was their best hope, the shop in the night looked like a terrible monster with his glowing eyes, as there was light in the windows.

Thinking about Pinkie Pie and how they had to help her, the four ponies and the dragon entered the shop with precaution.

They were welcomed by Applejack’s face who was looking at them with an amused smile.

“You took your time you all.” said the orange pony.

Inkie was about to ask about her sister, when she saw Pinkie Pie in front of a table devouring a cake that was even bigger than her.

“You did it! You did it!” said Inkie, while hugging Applejack so hard that she almost suffocated her. “Oh thank you!”

Applejack was happy to see Pinkie Pie’s sister happy. But she couldn’t let Inkie give her all the credit.

“I’m not the one you have to thank.” She told Inkie, “In fact, the one you’ve got to thank will need your help in a little moment. But right now, I think your sister would appreciate if you went to say hello to her.”

Inkie didn’t understand it all, but she was way too happy and went to Pinkie Pie who was happy to see her too. She was acting as nothing had ever happened and as if it was the first time she had seen Inkie lately. But even so, it was obvious, for whoever was observing, that her behavior was a little less serious than normally. As if she knew that she couldn’t just go back to her normal self like that without hurting her sister’s feelings too much.

After Inkie had hugged her sister, it was the turn for Fluttershy, Rarity and finally Twilight to go and have a big hug, not only for Pinkie Pie, but mostly for themselves as they felt like they needed some comfort too. And Pinkie Pie wasn’t against more hugging anyway.

Finally, after all the ponies, and the dragon as they took Spike in their hugging circle, had shown how happy they were to be together, Applejack asked them to come with her.

“Rainbow Dash need some help right now.” she said.

And as the other ponies wanted to know what had happened, she explained it all.

She had went after Rainbow Dash to stop her from telling everypony about the Pie’s secret and even more to stop her from harming Pinkie Pie, if it were to come to that. But after a while, she had found Rainbow Dash crying in a little backstreet.

It took some time, but the pegasus finally confesses that she was totally lost. A part of her wanted to help the majority of ponies and was certain that Pinkie Pie was a threat that had to be dealt with before it was too late. Another part of her wanted to protect her friend from every possible threat. The two feeling were impossible to conciliate as protecting the ponies meant to lock up Pinkie Pie, and protecting Pinkie Pie meant to accept to jeopardize the safety of all of Ponyville.

Maybe another pony than Applejack could have tried to convince her that the chance of Pinkie Pie hurting anypony was very low as she had lived in Ponyville for years without any accident whatsoever. But unlike another pony, Applejack could understand what logic Rainbow Dash’s mind was following. That will to defend everypony, that feeling of responsibility. In fact, if they had debated the question, Applejack would have probably been for locking up Pinkie Pie to ensure everypony’s safety. By chance, they didn’t debate it. All that Applejack said was that, at the time being, they needed to find some sugar and give it to Pinkie Pie. In a short term, that objective covered both of Rainbow Dash’s wish.

So they both went to Sugarcubecorner and as Rainbow Dash was the fastest, she had already found Pinkie Pie, given her the sugar she needed and brought her back to the sweets shop before Applejack had even finished harvesting the sugar she thought she could need.
But rainbow Dash didn’t stay. Pinkie Pie was back to normal, but the pegasus told Applejack she wanted to think about all that. The orange pony could see in Rainbow Dash’s eyes that she was back to the inner conflict. The impossible choice between one of her best friends and the potential safety of everypony.

That’s why she wanted everypony to come with her and go see how Rainbow Dash was doing. She didn’t add that she wanted to take a decision about Pinkie Pie at the same time, but Inkie felt that it was also the case.

“You think that my sister is a threat to all of Ponyville, don’t you?” asked Pinkie Pie’s sister.

“Yes, I do.” honestly answered Applejack. “I’m sorry, I really am, but it’s the truth, I can’t ignore the danger.”

But she saw how sad it had made Inkie and she added:

“I didn’t say I want to lock her up or anything. I just haven’t decided yet. I think that, if it was up to me, I would just miss Pinkie Pie way too much and I wouldn’t be able to watch myself in a mirror anymore. But it’s not only my choice to make.”

Pinkie Pie was walking with them, but didn’t seem to notice that it was all about her. She was hopping around without saying a word, but with a big smile. Her eternal big smile.

They finally arrived beneath Rainbow Dash’s house. They shouted for the pegasus, but Rainbow Dash didn’t answer. Suddenly, Pinkie Pie said that she had an idea and took out some balloons that she filled with air and used them, in an affront to the laws of physic, to ascend to Rainbow Dash’s house and enter it.

“It’s going to be okay!” said Pinkie Pie to the others, “I’m on the case.”

For a moment, they thought of going up with her, or at least to send Fluttershy watch over the both of them, but they all felt that it was better to leave Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie solve the situation by themselves. In a way, they were all showing that they were ready to believe in Pinkie Pie no matter what.

Almost one hour passed. Nopony had talked, except Spike who asked what was going on and was finally told the whole story about Pinkie Pie as he had seen her almost harm Inkie anyway.

“So, what’s the problem? As long as she gets the sugar, everything is fine, right?” Spike said, when he had heard the whole story.

“Well, it isn’t that easy.” Answered Applejack, not knowing exactly how to explain what was obvious to her.

“Yes it is.” said Spike. “This is stupid, this is Pinkie Pie we are talking about.”

Applejack smiled. She wouldn’t be able to explain it to Spike. He wasn’t ready to understand what was at stake. He was only seeing what he wanted to see and, in a way, Applejack was envying him.

Finally, they saw Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie leaving the house together. Pinkie Pie was joking and laughing, and Rainbow Dash was smiling.

“Well, sorry for having made you wait so long.” said Pinkie Pie, “But it so happened that we had a lot to discuss together.”

“Yes.” said Rainbow Dash. “We figured out that Pinkie Pie has given a welcome party to everypony since she has come to Ponyville, but that we have never given one to her.”

“You were the one to point it out Dashie.” replied Pinkie Pie, “I said it was okay, because I’m the one throwing parties and I wasn’t in Ponyville to throw myself a party when I came, even if I could maybe have done it just after I had put a hoof in Ponyville, so that I would have theoretically been in Ponyville to welcome myself, but I still wouldn’t have been there when at the exact same time as I came in…”

Rainbow Dash interrupted her:

“It doesn’t matter, does it?” she said. “I propose we throw a big welcome party for Pinkie Pie and have a lot of fun together. You all agree? Oh, and I think we have a law to repeal…”

They all agreed, knowing what it meant. But when they had finished enjoying the idea of the party in advance, they figured out they should better go to bed, as it was very late, or soon to be exact as the sun would rise in less than one or two hours, and they began to go back home.

But before she left, Inkie went to Rainbow Dash and asked her:

“I would like to know. What made you choose my sister in the end?”

Applejack, who hadn’t left yet and heard it, came and added:

“You know, I would like to hear it too. To be honest, I thought you wouldn’t accept to take the risk.”

Rainbow Dash looked at them, thought about it and finally accepted to give her reason.

“It’s stupid when you think about it, it’s just a detail, but I’m not sure why, it makes all the difference in my mind.” She said.

The two other ponies waited in silence for her to tell about the detail.

“It’s just…” began Rainbow Dash, “Pinkie Pie’s tears aren’t salty: they are actually sweet.”


THE END