MLP: Rainbow Favored. Part 1

The day was a relatively peaceful one, as most of the town's population had decided to remain indoors for the majority the weekend. Their excuse for such behaviour was for the abominable weather they were currently enduring, as the entire town was relentlessly bombarded with a boiling heat. Any that weren't held up in their homes were searching for any means to cool themselves off, such as relaxing in the swimming pool or buying cold desserts from the café.

And on this day, six of the occupants of the abnormally crowded café were the band of misfits known as Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity and Applejack. Each pony was attempting to survive the heat with a variety of different drinks, each having strange flavours and effects on their consumers.

Soon, as the group had spent around 10 minutes drowning their thirsts, a loud stamping sound emitted from the main entry, prompting the melancholic misfits to identify the source. They found that the overly competitive Rainbow Dash ungraciously burst through the main entrance and grudgingly stomped her way to their table, taking a seat for herself and slamming her head against the table in a fit of rage.

"What's the matter with you?" Twilight asked smugly, a smile creeping across her cheeks. "Greaah! I almost had it! And I would've, if not for this stupid heat wave!" the pegasus complained, and then she hung her head in shame and sighed; "Long story short… the demonstration was a disaster" she groaned under her breath. Despite the intended pity this confession was supposed to provide her, her companions couldn't help but stifle their contained laughter from her rather unsophisticated outburst.

However, as she and her friends laughed at this misfortune, Pinkie Pie's attention was suddenly diverted by a strange sensation. A light buzzing sound filled her ears and she felt her head begin to throb. She gently laid her temple against her hooves in an attempt to quell the irritation, though such an act was utterly futile. Was it a headache? Whatever it was, it was slowly getting was the first to notice Pinkie Pie's behaviour and asked curiously "Hey… Is somethin' wrong, Pinkie Pie?"

This question went unnoticed by her obviously pained colleague, as the irritating buzzing noise soon became the only sound she could hear. She sat against the backrest of her seat in silence, pressing her hooves against her forehead as hard as she could; this agony she was in was so completely unbearable, it had begun impairing her connection to reality. Her chest began unleashing bombarding waves of pain and her forehead was drenched in flowing sweat, while the rest of her body felt numb and lifeless.

However, after a few moments, she heard another faint sound in her ears, resembling some mismatched hybrid between an echo and a whisper. This rather alienating sound was rather distant and hushed, as if the source of the noise was vocally restrained in some manner. From within the random jumble of chittering and scraping that rang in her ears, the faint whisper of "Pinkie Pie… Hello… Pinkie Pie…" Echoed in a repetitive fashion.

Pinkie Pie could think about nothing else but this foreign whisper, as it had increase in volume to the point of blaring within her head, growing louder and more excruciating by the enough though, the horrendous throbbing began to fade, and Pinkie Pie slowly began regaining her original composure. Her hearing was first to return in full, only to be bombarded by panicked screams and shouts from her long neglected observers. "Pinkie Pie?! Hello?! Pinkie Pie!?"

"Pinkie Pie, Wake Up!" "Pinkie Pie, are you okay?!" all rang deeply into her eardrums, almost as painfully as the prior sound that had done so. Nevertheless, she had to end this auditory onslaught. "Ugh… I'm…" she managed to force from her strained lungs. She soon regained her sense of touch, and soon realised she was still seated in the café.

She leaned back against the backrest and groaned in discomfort, attempting to find the most comfortable position to aid in regaining her prior status. "Oh my- Are you alright, Pinkie Pie!?" yelled an agitated Rainbow Dash frantically. Pinkie Pie slowly leaned forward, soon feeling two pairs of arms supporting her form from both sides. "Yeah, uh… I… don't know. What happened?" she muttered breathlessly.

"Uh, well… You kinda went weird on us. Twilight thought you were having a fit" Fluttershy explained. "Ack! Don't tell her that!" Twilight shouted, slapping Fluttershy's mouth shut to keep her from continuing this explanation. This reaction was quickly forgotten by all and redirected towards subject material, her eyes opening slightly to regain her vision. She then said "Uh… Well, it's fine now. I think it was just a bit of a heada-".

Everything went black.

---

Blackness had consumed. Her mind was clouded. She couldn't think properly. She couldn't move, she couldn't hear or see anything. This purgatory she was engulfed in had taken her from the real world for what felt like an eternity.

"…ie…"

A sound; at long last, a sound.

"…ake u…"

Again, the sound of a voice filled her ears; but unfortunately, she couldn't recognise it.

"…re you awa…"

By this time, she felt her body begin regaining its former strength, and her eyes slowly opened, only to be met with bright, blinding light. On instinct, she shut them immediately.

"WAKE UP!"

"Grrgh…" she groaned as slowly opened her eyes again; this time, to be met with multiple spinning colours. Eventually though, her eyesight adjusted to this foreign environment and she found herself in a white room, as well as lying in what seemed to be a bed. She looked around briefly, finding more beds aligned in a synchronised order against the wall. This could only mean one thing, it was the Hospital.

"Pinkie Pie's awake!" yelled a voice from across the room; Pinkie Pie turned to face the source, remembering that she wasn't alone in this room. She found Fluttershy standing halfway in the doorway at the end of the ward, all but confirming Pinkie Pie's suspicion, calling out into the hallway for what she guessed was her friends. Sure enough, four more ponies burst into the room, nearly trampling Fluttershy, and came to her bedside.

"PINKIE PIE, ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?" shouted Applejack in a panic. "Ugh… What… happened to me this time?" Pinkie Pie asked weakly, barely able to turn her head to face them. "We don't know! You fainted in the café and you wouldn't wake up!" Rainbow Dash answered, "Twilight said we should take you here". Pinkie Pie fixed her single open eye on Twilight and smiled weakly at her, who blushed from this unforseen attention. "W-well it seemed like the best idea" Twilight stammered nervously. Pinkie Pie laid her head on the pillow and sighed comfortably.

"Well… I think that's enough excitement for me today" Pinkie Pie teased jokingly, clearly an attempt to steer the topic away from its negative aspects. Her colleagues looked at eachother in surprise from her misplaced humour, before giggling to themselves simultaneously. "Enough excitement? That's about as excitin' as it's ever gonna get this week!" Applejack exclaimed. Pinkie Pie looked towards her and raised an eyebrow, "What does that mean?! So you want me to faint again? Because in not go-".

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie's eyes flutter shut as her head fell back against the pillow, ceasing all movement thereafter. Her friends were no less than mortified; "AAH! Not again!" shrieked a frightened Rarity. Rainbow Dash was preparing to rush off and find a doctor, but was distracted by the sound of laughter emanating from behind her. She turned to face the bed, discovering that Pinkie Pie was smiling giggling giddily to herself.

All in her presence were dumbfounded; "Heheheheh! Sorry, I couldn't help myself" Pinkie Pie admitted, attempting to justify herself before supressing a newly conjured snicker. Applejack tilted her head downward and gave a faux angry expression, "Yes ya could've!" before smiling, "But still, ya got us real good!"

After Pinkie Pie left her bed and exited the hospital with the others, they were courteous enough to describe the events of the day to her during the trip home. "So let me get this straight" She began "While I was passed out, completely out cold, I was talking!?" Rarity answered "Yeah, it was totally weird. You were just saying you own name, over and over".

Pinkie Pie was silent, wondering why this would happen and searching for any logical reason for this supposedly impossible behaviour. But suddenly, she came to a rather worrying conclusion of what was responsible, but decided not to elaborate to the others. She chose to keep it to herself, desiring not to invoke any unnecessary fear. At some time during the trip, they all parted ways and Pinkie Pie made her way home in peace.

Pinkie Pie pushed through her front door and raced upstairs, carelessly stumbling into her bedroom and laying down on the bed. She lay there quietly, thinking about what happened in the diner earlier this morning. How did that happen? What would've caused it? It was apparently serious enough to have her taken to the hospital, so it was vital to understand the cause. She was so happy that her friends took care of her when she needed help, but was still pondering as to why she needed it in the first place.

"Hmm… perhaps it was heat stroke, and I passed out to cool down!" she assumed. It made the most sense to her; logically, it's the most likely cause, since the weather this morning was among the hottest she had ever experienced. Thankfully, in the time that's passed, and at the time of leaving the café, the humidity had died. Pinkie Pie was pleased that she could come to a conclusion that was legitimately plausible.

Just then, the doorbell rang; but whoever rang it had already come into her house, as the sound of creaking hinges had been noticed. She left her bedroom and rushed downstairs to uncover the intruder's identity, discovering four ponies whom thankfully turned out to be Twilight, Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy. "Hey, Pinkie Pie. How are ya feeling?" Applejack asked, concerned for Pinkie Pie's health yet again.

"Better now" she replied, then adding "Actually, I think it was the heat that made me faint". The four guests considered this and agreed, "That does make sense, actually" Twilight stated thoughtfully. Pinkie Pie then frowned and deflatedly said "Sorry for scaring you all like that, but it's not that big of a deal anymore". Applejack laughed loudly, before pulling a rather conniving expression.

"Well, ya can be a real freak, sometimes".

What? What did she say? What's that meant to mean? Why would Applejack say something like that to her? That's the rudest thing she had ever heard. "No kidding, that whole Pinkamena thing was pretty disturbing. Let's hope that never happens again" Fluttershy added, rather insensitively. "I can't understand why you'd let her do those horrible things without stopping her.

What's wrong with you, Pinkie Pie?!" Twilight maliciously questioned. They all stared and cackled sadistically at her, whilst she sat silently with her jaw hanging open in a state of disbelief. This was incredibly confusing for Pinkie Pie, but shocking nonetheless. The fact that they would say those things to her, especially in her presence, was truly unbelievable.

And why would they laugh from such putrid humour? Inevitably, a sense of pride gained control; Pinkie Pie felt her body tense with rage, finding herself increasingly aggravated by this degrading situation. Applejack sneered "Oh look! Somepony's getting cranky!" and all of her friends sporadically burst into laughter, howling and cackling at Pinkie Pie's expense.

This was mind-blowing. How did it come to this? Her friends were treating her with the utmost respect earlier, but are now verbally assaulting her with such vile insults, and it was tipping her over the edge. By this point, Pinkie Pie's teeth were gritted and her eyes were burning with frustration. She was half-ready to do something extreme, and lacked any intention of restraining herself.

Her hair began sweating and her eyelids twitched constantly, but she quickly regained her composure. She simply sighed and wandered to a nearby seat, settling down and remaining silent. A smile emerged on her face and she shut her eyes gently; "Yeah… sure thing" she whispered weakly, having apparently cooled from her increasing stress.

"Hey, Pinkie Pie?" Applejack asked curiously. Pinkie Pie rose from her seat and slowly wandered towards Applejack, until she stood in front of her. "Sorry, Applejack…" Pinkie Pie's eyes suddenly shot open and her wide smile spread across her cheeks. She stared intensely into Applejack's eyes, who shivered nervously.

"…but now you've really crossed the line".

---

Rainbow Dash was grumpily stomping her way through the streets. As of late, everything had been going wrong for her, and she could barely comprehend the outrageous circumstances of each misfortune that befell her. "Well, that is just perfect. I botch my flight presentation, I'm ridiculed for it in front of my friends, and now one of them was sent to the hospital". She grumbled to herself for these unfortunate events, her eyes teeming with frustration. She shouted to herself "How could things get any worse!?"

"Get outta my way!" yelled a voice from behind her. Before Rainbow Dash could react in any fashion, however, she was suddenly pushed to the ground by an unnoticed passerby. She simply laid in the dirt for a few seconds, before sporadically jumping to her hooves and snarling angrily through her clenched teeth. "Right! That's it!" Rainbow Dash had finally lost her sense of rationality; and without another thought, she rocketed into the air and raced after the culprit, with an intent to give them what was due.

After a short search, she eventually spotted the perpetrator and descended from the air, halting when she was only several feet away from them. Intending to gain their attention, she shouted "Hey you, chump! Who do you think you're butting heads with!? If you ever do that again, I'm gonna-" before abruptly losing her voice. Her heart ceased its natural rhythm as she finally identified who she had confronted. The culprit turned to face Rainbow Dash, revealing herself to be Pinkie Pie, although there were several noticeable differences about her appearance.

Pinkie Pie's hair was hanging downwards over her shoulders, the left of her fringe covering the left half of her face. Her skin was somewhat paler than it's more natural healthy glow. But her face was the most diverting aspect of her features. Her eyes were wide open and her pupils had shrunken to disturbing measures. Her grin covered a majority of her cheeks, showing a large, white smile.

Suddenly realising who it was that she was prepared to relieve her welling stress upon, Rainbow Dash became utterly petrified and quickly attempted to avoid a drastic confrontation between the two of them. "Oh… uh… y-you're not who I was l-looking for. It must have been somepony else" she nervously mumbled. Pinkamena stared at the impulsive pegasus with cold eyes and a disgusted sneer, clearly unconvinced by this poorly executed statement.

"Get outta there!" Rainbow Dash's long absent rationality screamed within her mind; "Gotta go!" she screamed before rocketing off into the sky. Before soaring away, she looked back for a quick second to see if any altered events had occurred below. She found that Pinkamena was still standing motionless, staring with burning eyes at Rainbow Dash.

The latter soon understood the reason why; no matter how far she flew away, or where she would hide, Pinkamena would outrun her and beat her to her desired destination. Despite this, the tension became overwhelming for her, resulting in her soaring off as fast as she could in a fit of impulse. Rainbow Dash couldn't believe her luck could descend to such a level, nor that it would result in what she had just encountered.

"That was Pinkamena! I can't believe it!" she stammered nervously. This was the first time in a long while that she was truly scared her own health, and from an understandably threatening predicament. Soon enough, a thick overgrowth of woodland entered her field of view and she immediately dove into a small gap within the treetops. She dug her way through the swaying branches and landed among the wilderness of vegetation and plant-life. The trees blocking the sunlight coated her surroundings in an atmospheric darkness.

She quietly looked around for any sign of Pinkamena's presence, pleased to find naught but the sound of birds and the rustling of the branches overhead. She leaned against a nearby tree and sighed with relief; "That was way too close!" she exclaimed, catching her breath "I just hope she doesn't find me h-".

"Guess again!"

Rainbow Dash shrieked in fright, though nopony would have heard her whilst in this environment, and jumped away from the voice behind her. Pinkamena stepped out from behind the tree and approached her, before she slowly stood upright and folded her arms, flashing a wicked grin. "Now, what was that you were saying earlier? You were gonna what?" she asked, her facial expression remaining unaltered.

"Well- I- You- I- Uh..." Rainbow Dash stuttered incoherently. There was no real excuse for her outburst other than her short temper, and Pinkamena seemed to understand this fact. Rainbow Dash soon found a suitable reply, "Look, I've just had a bad day and I'm really tired because it's almost dark and I was angry and-".

"I hope you weren't gonna take out your frustration on me; that would have been... hehe… impolite". Pinkamena cackled madly. "That's exactly right, heh…" Rainbow nervously chuckled, in a rather poor attempt to win Pinkamena's good side, though an existence of such a side was debatable. "M-maybe I can make it up to you!" the pegasus pleaded.

Pinkamena thought about this statement for a moment, rubbing the bottom of her chin with her ankle, before smiling again. "Well, maybe you can make up for this little… miscommunication we've had. Maybe you could… do something for me. Eh Heheheheh…" Pinkamena snickered malevolently. Rainbow Dash stared curiously and pondered this offer, before asking "What do you want, then?"

"HOW SHOULD I KNOW?!" Pinkamena suddenly shouted hysterically, before calming herself with a deep breath. After regaining her composure, she then muttered through her clenched teeth "I haven't thought of it yet, so you're fine for now". "For now? What in the heck does that mean?" Rainbow Dash thought to herself. "You can go back home. But when I need you for that- Hehehehe… favor…" she continued, before staggering away with a cheerful smile.

Before taking her leave, however, she turned to stare at Rainbow Dash one last time and finished her sentence, "…I know where to find you". Afterwards, she disappeared into the darkness, leaving Rainbow Dash to consider her situation. Rainbow Dash pondered what had occurred, and realised that despite learning of Pinkamena's return, she couldn't fathom what would have triggered the anomaly's reappearance.

At no point during the week did Pinkie Pie behave strangely, neither was she wronged in any way that would prompt Pinkamena's return. But then, the whole 'Pinkamena formula' was something that none, not even Twilight, were able to understand properly. The only clue she had for this outcome was this morning's incident in the café.

Perhaps there was more to that than she realised.

To be continued…