I awoke to the sounds of birds singing and… I turned my ears towards the window.

…Manual labour?!

I sprang out of my bed and rushed to the window, instantly regretting it because of the huge ache in my back. Quickly glancing over my shoulder, I could see that a massive purple bruise had developed all over my back. “I’ll have to take it easy today…” I mumbled to myself as I opened the curtains. As the morning light flooded into the room, I opened the window and poked my head out.

There were ponies all over the place, and the air buzzed with activity. Some ponies were sweeping, some were gardening, and some were pruning the trees.

I later learned that everypony was cleaning up Ponyville because there was going to be a storm soon, so they were tidying up to reduce the risk of things getting damaged.

Everypony was grouped with other ponies of the same type, and since I was an Earth pony, I joined a group of other Earth ponies to get rid of rubbish and branches that had been stripped from the trees.

While I was searching for things to clear away, I found a key on the ground that had a cupcake keyring attached to it. Assuming it belonged to Pinkie Pie, I went to her house to return it.

The bouncy pink pony greeted me warmly as she opened the door. “Hi Ellz! What’s up?”

“Hi Pinkie.” I said. I got out the keyring and held it out in my hoof. “I found this key, is it yours?”

Pinkie Pie looked the key over. “Nope, that’s not mine. I’ve never even seen that key before.”

“Oh, okay then. Later, Pinkie.” I waved a goodbye to her.“I guess I’ll hang onto this for a little while longer then.” I thought to myself as I trotted away.

That morning Ditzy had told me that I would need somewhere else to stay for the night as she and Dinky were going to visit relatives, and she would rather I wasn’t all alone in her house.

I went around town and asked my friends if I could stay at their houses. Twilight said that she was having a sleepover with Applejack and Rarity, and that she didn’t have another spare bed. Fluttershy said something about eagles and mountains so I couldn’t stay over, and Rainbow Dash’s house was in the sky, so staying there was completely out of the question.

I hadn’t asked Pinkie Pie yet, so I returned to her house to ask her. She said that I could stay for the night, but only if I helped her with some jobs the next day.

Later on in the day, just as I’d been told there would be, there was a massive storm. Everypony rushed back into their houses, and I made my way back to Pinkie Pie’s, as I had been wandering around Ponyville trying to clean stuff up.

When I got back to Pinkie’s house,  she was waiting for me with the door open. When I stepped into the house, the warmth inside washed over me, and I instantly felt relaxed. “Make yourself at home!” Pinkie Pie smiled as she closed the door.

“Hey, Pinkie.” I started as I looked around. “What do you do for a living, anyway?”

“I work in the bakery downstairs, and Mr and Mrs Cake let me stay up here.” She replied.

“What kinds of things do you bake?”

“Oh, all sorts of yummy treats! But most of the time, I like to make cupcakes!”

“Cupcakes, huh? Have you got any cupcakes I could have?”

“Yeah! I’ll go and get some!” She then rushed off downstairs, only to return a minute later with a tray with an assortment of various different cupcakes on it of seemingly every flavour imaginable.

While we were eating our cupcakes, we sat down and talked about each other. “Have you got any pets, Pinkie?” I asked, picking up another cupcake.

“Yes, I do. His name’s Gummy.” She suddenly grinned and pointed towards me. “There’s my little Gummy!” I looked round to see the little toothless alligator attempting to eat my cupcake, but failing miserably due to his lack of teeth. I broke a piece off of my cupcake and gave it to Gummy, and then I grabbed the alligator and handed him to Pinkie, who fussed over him like he was a puppy.

“So, what does your cutie mark represent?” She asked me as she tickled Gummy’s tummy.

“I’m good at playing the violin, so I guess that’s what it means.” I said, looking at the violin on my flank. I then told her about how the dragon from the other day had burned my tail and violin.

It turned out that Pinkie had a musical instrument as well: A guitar. She got it out and played a song called “Kung Fu Ponies”, and it rocked!

She asked me to go into the basement to fetch and old drum kit so I could join in with the music. When I got down there, I was met with a giant, snarling… Franken-Muffin? It growled and tried to eat me, when Pinkie Pie jumped in the way and smacked it in the face. “No! Bad muffin! No snack for you tonight!” At that, the Franken-Muffin shank into the corner and whimpered.

“What is that thing?” I asked as Pinkie helped me to look for the drums. She then told me that about two years ago, she had tried to make an new flavour of muffin by charging it with electricity, and the muffin had grown into a giant muffin and had come to life, so she’s been keeping it in the basement ever since.

After we had finished playing with the instruments, we tried out a cake that Pinkie had made. She said that it was experimental, and that made me nervous, but I decided to eat the cake anyway.

It turns out that the cake was so sugary and sweet, that it actually made my eyes see everything in rainbow colours. Pinkie Pie had ended up on her back, and she thought that she was on the ceiling.

I thought that it was safe to say that Pinkie’s not going to make another one of those again anytime soon.