The curtains were closed, and only a faint light filtered into Pinkie Pie's bathroom. She didn't want to see anypony, and just as importantly didn't want anypony to see her. She didn't know what to hope for. She could certainly hide until nopony even remembered that she existed, but it would never happen. Somepony would find out. Somepony would come knocking at her door. Somepony would come asking questions. However, none of those worries in her mind compared to the sickness in her stomach and the pain in her heart. In the bathtub, she tried to wash the guilt away, but it was pointless. Despite the guilt being strong enough for her to feel tingling on her skin, there was no way to alleviate it. Despite the bathwater starting off almost unbearably warm, she still felt cold. She still felt alone. And it was her fault.
Pinkie was so caught in her distress that she was already shivering before she noticed the bath had grown frigid. She slowly reached towards the front of the tub and tugged on a chain, releasing the rubber stopper and the water it held back. She continued to sit in the tub as the water slowly drained, revealing her pet alligator staring blankly back at her. Despite Gummy's usual lack of expression, he seemed cognizant of the pink pony's sorrow and fear. He blinked once and led out a quiet squeak. Pinkie just stared downward, mostly unaware of Gummy's presence.
A forceful knocking snapped Pinkie out of her daze and into additional panic. She whipped her head around to locate the noise. It came again, and she realized it was coming from the door on her balcony. No! Only Pegasi can reach that door… no… Alicorns can reach that door too! Did Princess Celestia already know? Is she here to banish me? Or… something worse…. Then again, that would be preferable to facing the other ponies who would be most hurt by her deed.
"Pinkie! Are you home?" a tomboyish voice echoed from outside. Pinkie's mind derailed. No… anypony else… Not Rainbow… anypony else…
Rainbow Dash knocked again. "Pinkie? You didn't show up at the spa. Are you okay?"
Desperate, Pinkie shouted back, "Nopony's home! I'm not here!" Immediately she noted the stupidity of this move.
"That hasn't worked on me in years! Please open the door." Rainbow called, chuckling.
Outside, Dash stood in the warm sunlight. She was surprised to find Pinkie at home, with all the curtains closed. Then again, she never expected to have to go looking for Pinkie today. "Come on, Pinkie," she said loudly. "You've been talking nonstop about spa day since Rarity invited us all last week!"
The door opened before Rainbow Dash, who blinked in an effort to see better in the stark contrast between the brightness inside and outside. Quickly she noticed her friend's mane was pointing straight downward, as straight as a mane could be. Pinkie was soaking wet, still dripping onto the floor just inside the doorway.
"Oh. That was today wasn't it? I… I forgot. Sorry I can't make it. Go have fun without me." Pinkie couldn't look Rainbow in the eyes, and couldn't look anywhere else outside without hurting her eyes after being in the dark so long, so she just squinted at the floor in front of her hooves. She attempted to close the door, but the cyan Pegasus placed her front hoof just inside the doorway.
"What's wrong?" Rainbow said bluntly.
"What? Nothing… Nothing's wrong." Pinkie's eyes shifted down and to the left.
"Pinkie… You were bouncing off the walls yesterday. There's still hoof prints on Twilight's ceiling. There's something wrong."
Pinkie replied in a sullen tone. "I don't want to talk about it." As the words echoed in her own ears, she let out a soft "eep."
Rainbow pushed the door open again the moment Pinkie stopped holding it. "Something's really bothering you. Come on, you've been looking forward to meeting us all at the spa. Maybe it'll take your mind off of it?" She then looked at the small puddle under Pinkie's drenched self. "Then again, maybe not." Silence drew between the two friends, and finally Rainbow tilted her head slightly and spoke again. "Can I come in?"
Pinkie had given up on getting rid of Rainbow at that point. She dropped herself to a seat on the floor and looked down. "Fine." This has already been the worst day ever… Everypony will know sooner or later.
"So what's bothering you?" Rainbow walked in, sat directly across from Pinkie Pie, and stared at her, hoping for eye contact.
"I…" she started, still staring at the floor. "I…" She slowly lifted her head just enough that she could see Rainbow's concerned expression along the upper edge of her vision. "I did something… terrible." Rainbow just looked at her, the concern in her eyes growing. "Never mind… I can't…"
"Pinkie? What did you do?" Rainbow saw Pinkie briefly return eye contact before letting gravity take control of her head. "No matter what you did, I'll still be your friend." Rainbow watched as Pinkie slowly gave up on sitting and instead lay on the cold hardwood. "Come on, Pinkie," Rainbow said with a careful smile. "It's not like you killed somepony."
Pinkie began to quiver and whimpered loudly. Rainbow responded with a look of shock and disbelief that Pinkie couldn't see with her face buried in her front hooves. "You… You didn't… Right?" Rainbow whispered. The pink pony shook some more. What if Rainbow left right now? Would that be better or worse than her staying? A moment later, Pinkie heard the balcony door shut. Convinced she had her answer, she opened her eyes and lifted her head up, tears dripping and joining the puddle of bathwater underneath her. To her surprise, she saw Rainbow latching the lock from the inside.
"This is terrible," Dash exclaimed. She then cleared her throat and spoke again more softly. "Who?" She returned to the space directly in front of Pinkie and lay down so her eyes were level with her friend's. "Who did… Who was it?"
Pinkie once again buried her face between her front hooves. I'm acting just like her…
"Pinkie, you've already told me the hardest part. Who was it?"
Pinkie tried, but had difficulty just mumbling the name without sobbing.
"Who?"
Pinkie tried again. The name left her lips as a loud sob. "Fluttershy!"
Rainbow shot upright at the mention of the name. She couldn't believe what she just heard. She repeated the name; she was certain she was mistaken. Her fears were confirmed by Pinkie curling herself defensively.
Pinkie couldn't bear to open her eyes. Now Rainbow's going to leave for sure… Fluttershy's been her best friend since before either of them came to Ponyville. No… Rainbow's not going to just leave. She can't. It'll be worse than that.
"FLUTTERSHY?" Rainbow cried, and Pinkie curled up tighter.
This is it. Rainbow's going to kill me for killing Fluttershy. That's the best I can hope for. Pinkie winced as she felt something touch her back, but it wasn't the hard hoof she was expecting. It was soft, and it spread evenly across her back. Puzzled, she finally opened her eyes again and looked beside her. She saw a cyan wing gently draped across her back, and its owner sitting next to her. Rainbow looked angry, but not like Pinkie was expecting.
Rainbow's brow furrowed, and her mouth sat agape, but her eyes were wide with worry. Tears collected along the edges of her eyes. When she blinked, several drops parted from her eyes and dripped down her muzzle before falling to the floor. "She didn't show up either… Rarity went to get her…" Several longer than natural moments passed.
"What happened?" Rainbow asked louder than she intended.
"It… I… It was an accident…" Pinkie stammered.
"I know. It had to be," Dash comforted Pinkie. "You could never kill anypony on purpose. Especially not a friend." Dash let a few more tears fall before continuing. "I… I mean look at me. I have a short fuse, right? Even I haven't ever gotten angry enough to think about doing something like that." Pinkie looked back at Dash, and then rested her chin in her hooves, staring nowhere. "I have to know," Rainbow continued. "How did it happen?"
Pinkie winced. "Look, Pinkie. We're both sad. And I know you're scared. I'm scared too – "
Pinkie interrupted, "If you're scared that I'm going to hurt you too then just leave!"
"Pinkie, I'm not scared of you. I'm scared for you. I want to help you but I have to know. It was an accident, right? Maybe you'll catch a break. But I have to know to help." Rainbow was unsure of her emotions at this point. She definitely wanted to be furious at Pinkie, but as sad as she was to hear about Fluttershy, she couldn't stand the thought of losing two friends.
"I… I heard a knock at the door earlier. I thought it was you… Nopony else ever comes to the balcony," Pinkie sobbed. "I wanted to scare you, so I went to the door very quietly, opened it fast and yelled 'boo'… I was expecting you to stand there and that look on your face would be the funniest thing ever…" Pinkie stopped to cry again.
"But… it wasn't me… you scared Fluttershy?" Rainbow nudged.
"Yes," Pinkie muttered, her voice affected by a runny nose now. "She shrieked, and tripped… she… tripped off the balcony." She began to shout involuntarily, and gripped her Pegasus friend tightly. "That sound… and then what I saw… She was just lying there… and she… she wouldn't wake up! Oh, Dashie, what have I done?"
Rainbow gulped at the mental image of her lifeless fillyhood friend. "It… It was an accident…" Rainbow began to shiver and her eyes grew impossibly wide. Her mouth, conversely, was much smaller, shaped in a very frightened frown. "What… What did you do then?"
"I panicked… Mr. and Mrs. Cake are gone today, and I didn't think anypony saw me, but I was so scared somepony would see… I wasn't thinking… I… I hid her… in the cellar… Since nopony else ever goes down there… I have the only keys…" A sob separated every few words.
"What? You didn't go get HELP?" Rainbow growled. She had trouble with the news before when it was just an accident. "You just HID her and IGNORED what happened? You dragged her into the cellar like a sack of flour?"
"I'm sorry! I wasn't thinking! I should have run to get somepony, but I didn't. I was so scared and I didn't know what to do!"
"Let me in there NOW! Maybe she was just unconscious! She might be alive! You have to let me in there!" Rainbow increased in volume until her words were painful to Pinkie in both inflection and loudness.
"But…"
"Get the keys. Meet me downstairs." Rainbow took to the air despite the low clearance and shot down the nearby staircase.
Pinkie couldn't get out of it now. There was nothing she could do. She would have to open that door. She would have to follow Rainbow Dash down the stairs. They would both have to see their gentlest friend dead in the corner. Everything's over. I can't fight it. She slowly stood and made her way to a peg on the wall from which her keychain was hanging. "Hurry, Pinkie!" came Rainbow's voice from downstairs. Pinkie grabbed the keychain reluctantly between her teeth and made her way down the stairs. She set the keys down on the ground to nose through them, separating the correct key from the rest.
"Please, Pinkie…" Rainbow was no longer yelling. Tears fell from her face again. "Get it open. Let me see her."
Pinkie located the correct key and gripped it in her mouth, carrying it to what looked like a closet door in the kitchen, Rainbow following close behind. She inserted the key into the lock, and turned it carefully. The click of the lock reverberated through the key and through Pinkie's jaw, into her ears. She then let go of the keys, leaving them in the lock, and pulled the door open. Rainbow went through the narrow doorway first, and Pinkie followed like an inmate on the way to her final punishment.
"Where is she?" Rainbow cried. Pinkie finally reached the bottom of the stairs, reluctantly flicked on a light, and realized she couldn't see Fluttershy either.
"She was… over there…" Pinkie shook as she stared at the empty space before her. A nearly unidentifiable sound came from behind and froze the two ponies like stone. Were those... wings?
"Boo," a soft voice came from the corner behind the two ponies. Both screamed. Pinkie jumped a few inches. Rainbow, with the help of her wings, hit her head against the high ceiling.
"Oh… did I… I didn't scare you too much, did I?" the voice came again. Pinkie and Rainbow turned around to see a bruised and scraped, but very much alive Fluttershy. Pinkie and Rainbow both ran and squeezed Fluttershy in a tight embrace. When the group hug broke, Rainbow turned to Pinkie, with annoyance in her eyes.
"That was not cool, Pinkie. Don't ever prank me like that again."
"Actually… Dash… It was… it was my idea."
The cyan Pegasus and pink earth pony turned to Fluttershy. Simultaneously they asked, "What?"
"I fell down the stairs this morning," she said, pointing to a bruise on her face, "and I thought, maybe I could prank you two… since you two are the ones who usually do the pranking… I wanted to give it a try." She looked at the two ponies staring at her in disbelief. "Too much?"
"Yeah," Dash said. "I guess you could say that. That's really… not like you."
"I know… I just wanted… to… make a joke. I'm sorry it was so scary."
"It's okay. Just don't do that again. If you want to pull a prank, stick to lighter stuff like plastic wrap over the sink." Rainbow scolded carefully.
"Oh…" Fluttershy's eyes drifted over to Pinkie Pie, who was still damp. "Is that what happened to you?"
Rainbow laughed. "Well, I'm going to go find Rarity and let her know I found you both. Meet us at the spa, OK?"
Pinkie and Fluttershy both nodded, and Rainbow ran up the stairs.
Pinkie looked at Fluttershy with an unsure expression. "You really came up with that… as a prank?"
"Well… um… no… not really," Fluttershy stumbled over her words. "I did wake up down here. But I knew you didn't mean to hurt me. And I have good hearing, and I heard you and Rainbow upstairs, so I hid." Fluttershy turned her head away from Pinkie slightly, but maintained eye contact. "I didn't want her to hate you. I'd rather she think I did something creepy than let her be that mad at you."
Pinkie gave Fluttershy another hug, and smiled. "Thank you. I think you kinda saved my life." As she let go, she added, "and I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it. I'm sure you'll be more careful about who you try to scare." Fluttershy smiled. "Now, let's go meet everypony at the spa. That'll cheer us both up, right?"
"Okie-dokie-lokie!"
Author's Notes
This intentionally quick story is something I came up with while planning two other stories. If you've been waiting for something from me, this probably isn't it, but it's something, right? Anyway, I'm still working on a much longer story that I plan to publish in chapters (still all at once though). I'm also planning out another long story that I have high hopes for.
As far as this one, there's not much to say about what motivated me to write this. I just wanted to do something dramatic, focusing on Pinkie, but without turning her into a psycho like perhaps the most infamous stories in the MLP fandom. I tried to paint out motivations and characterizations a little more this time, describing actions and feelings in a bit more detail. Most of all, I hit a little bit of writer's block on another story and needed to let it sit a day or two, but I still wanted to write.
Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you're looking forward to another story or two soon.
-TuxRug