June 15th (Wednesday)

I woke up much the same as I did yesterday and managed the same routine, although I was a little worn out from the party.

I showered, dressed myself, and packed a lunch in case I was hungry later.

I left at eight thirty like yesterday and arrived about the same time. I was glad. Getting used to this schedule wasn't going to be as painful as I had originally thought.

As I walked among the workers, I began thinking about that party mare and what she did. I just couldn't get her out of my head it seemed. Something about her both intrigued me and terrified me, I just couldn't figure out what. Due to this, I was almost smacked in the head by a stallion carrying a beam. I moved my head just in time to avoid being nicked by the metal girder.

I recognized it as piece twenty seven dash CB. Meant to be one of the main floor beams for a food factory's employee lounge.

I continued my path to the control building. Today, I would begin drawing up and testing designs for more buildings. I had found out that some of the companies and private people we were working for had some odd tastes for their buildings. I remembered one wanted a trapazoid to be a big part of the design. Even though that was high risk, potentially structurally unsound and just, well, stupid to say the least. And that was just one of many oddities.

I arrived at the control building and worked my way to my office past several other project leaders who were busy with their own tasks.

I walked in and started the somewhat grueling process of my job for the next seven hours. Sure, I only worked four days a week, and I was paid fairly well, but after almost ten years of the same job? It becomes exhausting very quickly.

I never really had as much fun as I used to. I didn't get that same rush as I used to when I made a breakthrough in a design. Work had become, well, work.

As I toiled away on dumb ideas for designs for buildings, I thought about what I would be doing afterward, and when lunch rolled around, I was jarred out of my thoughts and job by Oak.

"Hey buddy. It's lunch time. I want to know how your time with that freaky pony went." He said with a laugh.

"She isn't freaky, Oak. I actually think she's rather kind. So I'd prefer if you didn't call her 'freaky'." I scolded him. I stood up and grabbed my lunch box.

"Jeez, sorry dude. I didn't know you were in love with her." He teased me after his apology.

I walked past him out the door.

"I don't like her like that." I told him calmly. "I see her as a friend, at best, since I don't know her that well."

"Alright then. Moving past that, I see you brought a lunch today. That's so unlike you." He said.

"The party she threw kind of wore me out so I decided to bring one in case I was hungry. It turns out, I kind of am." I said while patting my stomach.

We walked over to the lunch table and sat down across from each other.

"So, how was the party?" He asked.

"It was fun. There weren't many ponies there and I didn't know any of them, but that didn't matter to me." I explained.

"Did you go when she invited you for one?" I asked him.

"No, she creeped me out. I wasn't going to get within ten feet of her. Still not going to." He said.

"I don't think that way, but that's your business. Not mine."

The rest of lunch saw us talking about what the other had been doing in the past few years we hadn't seen the other.

Lunch concluded and we went back to work. A few hours later, I finished my day and went home.

I realized I still didn't have much food, so I grabbed my bank card and headed out.

I asked a few ponies where all the stores that sold food were and they looked at me like I was crazy. Apparently, regular food was sold at stalls here. They pointed me in the right direction and I thanked them.

I worked my way over to them. I thought about what I would need to get. I would need some vegetables, fruit, and some meat for tonight. I didn't really have a sweet tooth so that was all I needed.

I soon found a stall selling some fruit and got in line for it.

After a moment, I realized who was in front of me.

"Pinkie?" I asked, shocked that I would run into her here.

She turned around. "Hi!" She didn't seemed surprised at all.

"You're picking up fruit?" I asked. She nodded.

"I'm planning another party and I know not everypony likes sweets so I thought 'what does everypony love without a doubt?' then it came to me, fruit! By the way, do you want to come? It's tomorrow."

"Uh...sure." I said. I remembered the way to sugar cube corner although it was just the tiniest bit foggy in my mind.

"Fantastic!" She said. As the line slowly but surely moved up, we talked, well, Pinkie talked about the party and what she was going to do for it.

Eventually we were at the fruit stall and bought our fruit and went our seperate ways. Me to go find some other groceries, and Pinkie to pick up more things for her party.

June 16th (Thursday)

I had my same routine today as I had yesterday. Woke up, went to work, talked with Oak during lunch, then went home.

However, when I got home, I got ready for the party. I changed out of my work clothes and put on some clothes that would be suitable for a party.

I left the house and arrived at sugar cube corner. Before I could walk in, Pinkie flew out of the door and grabbed me, pulling me inside.

"Hi! You actually made it. That's fantastic." She said happily.

I looked around to see that not everything seemed to be in the proper place yet.

"Would you like some help? It doesn't look like everything is done." I offered.

She beamed at me and nodded.

"You try and get done what you can out here while I finish the cake." She said. She turned around and rushed into the kitchen.

I looked around and took a quick look at the room and the party supplies that were left. There were some streamers, birthday cards, ballons and even a disco ball. That kind of threw me through a loop.

Yet, I raised up my hands and closed my eyes, envisioning the decorations all in their rightful places. I felt my horn heat up with the familiar burn of magic. It didn't feel bad, it actually felt great. And my magic was a golden color that just wasn't as lustreous as Princess Celestia's.

Within a minute or two, all the decorations were set up and I was done.

I lowered my hands and waited for Pinkie.

I didn't have to wait long as she came running out of the door. She pushed me backward and then leaped backwards herself as the disco ball came crashing down.

I quickly threw my hands up and put a bubble around the flying debris, making sure it didn't hurt either of us or go any farther.

When I had stopped the last piece. I lowered my hands and looked up at Pinkie, the pieces of the ball coming to rest on the floor. "How did you know it was going to fall?"

She just giggled and held up her tail. "It's my Pinkie sense. When my tail shakes, something is going to fall. So, when my tail shook, I remembered the disco ball and came galloping out here."

I felt kind of bad for breaking her disco ball. "Sorry about not setting it up right." I told her.

"Oh that's fine. I got a dozen more up in my room." She said.

I just chuckled and then stopped. "Wait, what?"

She turned around and threw her head back to look at me. "Nothing." She said in a singsong voice.

I was left speechless while she walked back into the kitchen.

Pinkie sense? I didn't understand that at all. Was she psychic? No, she was only an earth mare. This didn't make anymore sense, and that just made my fascination and terror of her all the more evident. And strong.

A moment later, she walked back out with the cake. On it was a message that said 'Welcome to Ponyville!'.

"How many other ponies are coming?" I asked her.

"Don't know. We'll just have to wait and see." She turned around and started walking over to one of the booths. "Most of them will show up in the next few minutes. And the mare the party is for will be here a little while after that." She explained as she and I sat down.

"So-" I started while I looked around. "What is this place? What do you do here besides parties?" I asked her.

"This is a bakery. Everything under the sun that's sweet and delicious I make here." She said.

"So, did you open this place yourself, or do you have a partner?"

"Well, this wasn't mine to begin with. It used to belong to this family, Mr. and Mrs. Cake and their foals, but they left it to me when they left about a year ago. They went to help out Mr. Cake's brother when he opened his own bakery shop. Now, the whole family lives there, running the bakery. So, now it's all mine." She said. It was the first time I had heard her even the least bit sad.

"Do you miss them?"

She sighed. "Yeah, I miss them a lot. Especially Pumpkin and Pound cake. They used to call me auntie Pinkie. I'd play with them all the time when I wasn't with my friends or helping out here. Now, it's just me."

She gestured with her arms to the inside of the building. "All just me."

We didn't talk much after that. Just waited. And waited.

Nopony came.

Eventually Pinkie stood up and walked over to the food. She started by grabbing things that would have to be put in a refrigerator so they wouldn't spoil.

I got up and went after her. I put my hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"Pinkie, are you okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah I'm fine." She didn't sound fine. But I didn't know her well enough to pry. I might just get on her nerves.

I went back to the table and grabbed some more things that would have to go into the fridge.

I passed Pinkie on the way and she looked almost distraught. I had no idea these parties were so important to her.

I worked my way to the kitchen and found there were multiple freezers and fridges. While I was deciding on which one to put the stuff in, Pinkie walked in.

"Here, I was putting them in this one." She opened the door to the third fridge and we placed our things in.

For the next ten minutes, I helped her put away food that was meant to entertain somewhere up to twenty plus guests. And the more we put away, the sadder Pinkie became. I helped her take down the party decorations and was ready to leave about twenty minutes later.

"Are you going to be alright?" I asked her. I was facing her from outside her door. Her head was looking down and her hand was clasped around her wrist.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." She said.

"Alright." I turned around and started walking home. She was not alright, but what could I do? I was barely an acquantience to her. It's not like we were old friends. I didn't know how to cheer her up and make her happy again. I guess time would have to do that.

A/N: So my goal for this story is ten chapters. It took me a few hours, but I drafted up an outline (which is only the second time I've ever done that) and have actually implemented it into this chapter. The bad thing? I've already deviated from it. Pinkie wasn't supposed to be sad. Oops. It's not very detailed, only having important plot points, but it will do. See ya on the flip side.