MLP: So Say All of Us. Part 1

May the 3rd.

This specific date had almost brought the whole of Equestria to a complete standstill. Many had already been informed of its relevance towards a specific occasion, though none could possibly predict what forthcoming events would occur on the day itself. The cause for this uncertainty among the public stemmed from the fact that the 3rd of May was the date of birth of one Pinkamena 'Pinkie' Diane Pie.

As of this day, however, it was May the 2nd; the day before the aforementioned celebratory event. That morning, Pinkie Pie herself stumbled clumsily out her front door and wandered through the streets, having decided to dine upon a morning takeaway meal to suffice as her breakfast. However, she remained of two minds, in a figurative sense, of what to eat. As she pondered her variety of choices, she eventually found herself outside her favourite place in the world to eat.

She entered the café and ordered herself a large strawberry flavoured, choc coated, coconut sprinkled, flake sticked milkshake, before settling in a nearby table and eagerly awaiting to be served. She leaned her shoulder against the wall-side armrest and sighed in satisfaction, remarking the blissful peace and quiet of the past few weeks.

"HEY, Pinkie Pie!"

Pinkie Pie's heart practically leapt from her chest as she turned to learn the identity of her unknown acquaintance, sighing in relief to find a surprised Maud Pie sitting beside her. "Sorry, Pinkie Pie. I-I didn't mean-" Maud stammered before pausing and turning away guiltily, Pinkie Pie giggling to herself all the while. "What are you doing here, si-" Pinkie Pie began before noticing here best friend Rainbow Dash walking by, prompting her to jump up and wave her over.

Rainbow Dash sat and greeted the sisters with "What are you two doing here? It's pretty early in the morning, after all". Pinkie Pie considered the coincidence of her question before answering "Oh… well… I couldn't sleep last night. So I thought-" and stopping abruptly, inadvertently drawing Maud's attention. Maud tilted her head curiously and asked "Really? Why not?" Pinkie Pie tried to wave it off by stating "Nevermind. It's not a big deal"; however, Maud and Rainbow Dash didn't seem convinced by this answer, briefly looking at eachother in denial.

Maud lay her hoof on her lamenting sibling's shoulder and reassured "Pinkie Pie, are you sure? You can tell us anything, y'know". Pinkie Pie pursed her lips and mumbled "Don't worry about it; it's fine", slowly losing her patience for the current subject and hoping for it to magically end. Maud didn't get the message and persevered, continuing to question the matter and asking "Was it a bad dream? Pinkie P-".

"Alright! Yes! It was a bad dream! It was about Pinkamena! She burned down all of Ponyville and tied you all up in the Town Hall! I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep afterwards! But I don't want to talk about it, because I want to have a good day today after such a bad sleep!"

Pinkie Pie lay her head against the table after her ungracious meltdown as her observers watched in pity. Maud scooted closer to her sister and whispered "I'm sorry, Pinkie… I shouldn't have kept asking you" Maud glumly apologised. Pinkie Pie shook her head and shakily sobbed "No, I'm sorry. I'm just not in a good mood today". Pinkie Pie sighed as Maud wrapped her arm around her sister and leaned her head against Pinkie Pie's shoulder.

"I don't blame you. I can't even imagine the things you go through" Maud whispered calmingly. Rainbow Dash was enjoying this heart-warming scene before they broke away upon seeing the waitress approach them, a platter of drinks balanced upon her head. "Oh, finally" the trio thought, although keeping it to themselves, as each began downing their beverages.

Pinkie Pie leaned back in her seat for comfort and lazily listened as the nearby patrons conversed amongst the crowd. The typical conversations, "Where's your friend going?", "No thanks; I'm trying to quit", "I'm just heading there, myself", "Hey, there she is!", "Who?", "Pinkamena!"

Pinkie Pie opened her eyes upon hearing this and scanned her field of vision across the various occupied tables, only to find no visibly prying eyes. Maud raised an eyebrow and asked "Hey Pinkie Pie, are you okay". Pinkie Pie fell back in her seat and held her arm nervously, muttering "I thought I heard…" before shaking her head indifferently and shrugging "Nevermind".

The next 2 minutes went by undisturbed, but also uncomfortably quietly. Maud desperately wanted to ask her sister if something was wrong, but had considered the likely price of such actions and chose to keep it to herself. Rainbow Dash not only felt the awkward atmosphere, but practically suffered at its hands, and wanted to leave in equal desperation.

However, all Pinkie Pie could think about was that one name she overheard. Who was it that said it? How did they know? Did somepony tell them? Pinkie Pie squirmed uncomfortably as horrific memories flooded her mind, distracting her from her physical actions.

"Pinkie Pie! What's wrong!?"

Pinkie Pie returned to the realm of reality and her focus shifted upon her sister, the latter shaking her by her shoulders to break her free from her internal struggle. Pinkie Pie rubbed her cheeks and found her wrists dampening from the contact, before she pulled them away and cringed to herself. "What is wrong with me?" she muttered under her breath, thankfully remaining unheard by her companions.

She could hear the patrons murmuring amongst themselves from the surrounding tables, but couldn't bring herself to listen. However, multiple conversations were overheard that caught her attention immediately, primarily from their coincidental subject matter. Maud furrowed her eyebrows as Pinkie Pie shrank into herself for a second time. She had no clue of how to approach this situation, nor did Rainbow Dash, and decided to wait for Pinkie Pie to speak first.

"They'r…" Pinkie Pie grunted, "They're all talking about me". Maud Pie tilted her head and asked "Who?" Pinkie Pie shook her head and tensed with fear and faced towards her sister, revealing a pair of glistening, tearstained eyes. "All of them. They know about Pinkamena! How could they possibly know about her?!"

From Pinkie Pie's point of view, the whole café had disregarded their meals and turned to face her, staring with lifeless eyes as she tried her hardest to ignore them. "She's gonna change again", "She's freaking out", "Stay away from her! She'll hurt you", "She's dangerous", "Pinkamena's coming back", "She ruins everything", "I'm getting out of here", "I don't wanna be around her anymore"; "She's a monster".

Pinkie Pie could take this anymore.

She suddenly turned to Maud and exclaimed "I need to go home, right now! Please move!" Maud furrowed her eyebrows and asked "Why? Pinkie Pie, what's going on?" Rainbow Dash, for her part, checked around the café for anypony watching, sighing in relief from their miraculous ignorance. Maud hastily shifted out of her seat to make way for her panicking sibling, the latter stumbling her way out from the narrow gap and preparing to dart for the exit; failing to consider her lack of balance and quickly losing it.

Many of the surrounding table-members unfortunately took notice of the loud series of clatters followed by a loud 'Thud!' and all stared towards its general direction, destined to be surprised by the source laying motionlessly on the floor. Contrary to belief, Pinkie Pie was not injured; nor did she remain still from any physical hindrance, but from sheer embarrassment. Pinkie Pie couldn't move a single muscle, but she could feel the whole café staring at her, their eyes digging painfully into her soul as her body remained unaltered in its position.

Pinkie Pie could feel herself being lifted from the ground by an unknown pair of arms, but suspected them to belong to Maud, not that was in the right state of mind to care. As she was dragged towards the entrance, she couldn't help but remember how before all of this happened, she would have shrugged this little predicament off without a second thought. She barely had any comprehension of humiliation back then, and simply took anything of a negative impact as a mere trifle in her ever joyful life.

These memories only helped to remind her of how ignorant and stupid she was in those days.

She managed to stand by herself, but was guided all the way back home by what she assumed was her sister. She didn't dare open her eyes, imagining everypony around her staring at her as she attempted in vain to remain unnoticed; although the mere thought of this was unbearable to comprehend in and of itself. However, finally, she felt herself being taken upwards along the steps to her front door and heard a loud creaking sound, before finally finding herself in the main corridor.

She opened her eyes and lifted her head to see her surroundings, enveloping herself within the solitary atmosphere. Never had she imagined that she would ever crave for seclusion from the outside world and any time in her life; however, this was a mere droplet within the ocean of unexpected occurrences for her in the past year. Without a word to her company, she stumbled her way up the stairs and stopped once inside her bedroom.

Maud immediately followed her inside and asked "What happened, sis?!" in an attempt to understand the situation. Pinkie Pie merely hung her head in shame and replied "Nothing. It's nothing to-". "Pinkie Pie! Please, stop saying that it's nothing to worry about!" Maud cried out. Pinkie Pie turned to her and sternly remarked "Well, I'll rephrase. It's nothing for you to worry about" before stopping to consider her own comment.

Even Maud found herself bewildered by the bitterness behind these words, and found herself backing away towards the door. "No! Wait! Don't go! I'm sorry! I didn't mean that!" Pinkie Pie cried out in a panic, and Maud stopped to listen. Pinkie Pie sat on the floor and sniffed meekly over her lack of control over her own emotions, "I don't like getting angry at anypony, but I can't control it anymore".

Maud sat beside her as she continued "I like it when everypony is happy, and I always tried my best to help them stay happy". Pinkie Pie felt the tears in her eyes begin to re-emerge and pour down her cheeks, but hadn't the will to wipe them away, "But all I ever did was make it worse, and everypony knew it. Nopony really wants me around, cuz I'll just mess everything up". "Pinkie Pie, that is not true at all!" Maud desperately intervened, but Pinkie Pie took no notice.

She continued "Anypony in town will tell you the exact same thing. 'That Pinkie Pie girl? Oh, Nah. She's too weird, and she always causes trouble'. 'As if things couldn't get any worse, Pinkie Pie comes by to try and help'. I really am just an irritating pest". Maud couldn't comprehend that her sister was saying these things, and neither could Rainbow Dash, who had been listening to the whole conversation from behind the bedroom wall. Pinkie than muttered "And thanks to Pinkamena, I truly have no control over when a ruin things for anypony else. Am I just destined to be hated?!"

Pinkie Pie had gone too far, and the overwhelming emotional pain she had been containing had begun to take its toll; her body felt as if it would tear apart at any moment. Maud was left entirely powerless, doomed to fail her sister once again and was forced to leave her sister by herself. Nothing she would say now would make a difference, and they both knew this fact. Maud arose from the floor and made her way downstairs, neglecting the eavesdropping Rainbow Dash's presence, who glumly followed suit.

A few hours later, there was a knock on the door, though no guests had been expected. Maud came to the door and opened it to find Twilight Sparkle, who nodded in greeting before stepping inside. "Twilight, what are you doing here?" Maud asked curiously, to which Twilight answered "I heard about what happened in the café. Is Pinkie Pie okay?" Maud wanted not to concern others on this matter, nor to draw attention to Pinkie Pie after her humiliating experience; however, she believed that lying about it to her friends would only worsen the case.

"I don't really know; but… I think it was another hallucination". Twilight than asked "Where is she now?" Rainbow Dash intervened and replied for Maud, "She's in her room now, but I think we should leave her alone for now". Maud then turned to face the nearby clock, currently displaying 6:30, and added "Not to mention she'd probably have fallen asleep by now. She hasn't left her room all day".

Twilight thought for a second and asked her final question, "What do you have planned for tomorrow?" Maud and Rainbow Dash looked at eachother in unison and frowned. Twilight rubbed the back of her neck and confessed "Neither do I". However, unknown to eachother, each of the trio had the exact same thought on their mind, a thought that they each wanted to ask, but chose against it.

If this is how today went for Pinkie Pie, what would happen tomorrow?

To be continued…