It was late in the day and the coldness of winter seemed to be consuming the land of the three pony races. Dark storm clouds covered the sky, blocking the earth ponies and their crops from some much needed sun. The clouds had long since burst forth with a thick snowfall, burying the fields of the earth ponies in a blanket of snow and shrouding the lands in a dense winter storm.

A pink earth pony appeared from behind a well-crafted igloo with a kind smile spread across her face. Her bright cyan-coloured eyes peered down over the cliff of Everfree mountain at the small village. She saw dozens of earth ponies labouring to pick the last of their harvest before it became too cold to grow anything at all.

The small happy smile she pretended to mimic, along with the long lost feelings it used to bring her, faded slowly into a mournful expression she wore almost every other day. As her eyes caught sight of a rather small house with a silo just outside the frozen-over village, tears began to form in the pink pony’s beautiful eyes. She turned her head away and sighed at the igloo she was currently building.

“I wonder if Applejack will come today?” Pinkie mused softly to herself. She slowly frowned.
“I wonder what it would have been like if I was more like my sisters...."

***
“PINKAMENA DIANE PIE! GET UP THIS INSTANT!”

Pinkie awoke with a start, her mother’s voice ringing loudly in her ears. She quickly scrambled out of her fluffy bed and rushed down to the kitchen; confused about the harshness in her mother’s voice.

She hopped down the last step and saw her Mother staring impatiently back at her. Being the cheerful pony she was, Pinkie only returned her Mother’s glare with a wide grin. “Hey mom, sorry I took so long, I must have been super tired from yesterdays party I threw! It was a doozy!” She bounced in place happily with her pink hair following quickly after.

Her mother frowned, shaking her head in disapproval. “Pinkamena! You must get this ridiculous notion of parties out of your head, there is far more important matters to attend to.”

Pinkie felt herself deflate at her mother’s scolding and her bouncing became less eratic, “Aww, but Mom, my talent is cheering everypony up. How am I suppose to bring joy when I’m forced to be a big Saddie Pie all the time?” She turned her head and her smile upside down quizzically to await her Mother’s response with a confused look covering her bright pink face.

Pinkie’s mother sighed irritably and stared at her grimly, “You aren’t taking your work seriously Pinkamena.”

The earth pony gasped dramatically and raised her hoof with a super shocked and offended expression covering her face, “Of course I take my work seriously! Look at how hard I work at planning my parties!” Pinkie started bouncing cheerfully as a bright smile bounded across her face once again.

“That’s not the kind of work I am talking about young filly!” Pinkie’s mother spoke sharply. “You need to work harder on the farm.”

“OHHHH, that kind of work. Don’t worry mom! Your auntie Pinkie Pie will work loads harder!” Pinkie saluted with a serious look on her face before bouncing out of the house, giggling.

“Pinkamena, I am your mother.” A flat look crossing the older mare’s face.

Pinkie stops hopping at the door and looked back with a fore-hoof to her chin in thought, but then she smiled brightly as her bouncing resumed. “Oh yeah!” She bounded joyfully out of the house and into the fields.

Pinkie diligently grabbed a bag of carrot seed and carefully plants them in a balloon formation before exclaiming excitedly, “Look! I made a balloon!”

Her father looked over and groaned in disbelief at his daughters shenanigans.

The pink pony looks over at her father and waves with a bright smile spread across her face, “HI DADDY!” Pinkie bounced off happily to plant more seeds.

“Pinkamena, how many times have we told you that you need to plant the seeds in a strait row?” Her father’s gruff voice carrying annoyance as he spoke.

Pinkie pauses with a hoof to her chin, “About five thousand four hundred and seventy two times!” Her bright blue eyes closed cheerfully and she raised her head proudly, with a smile gracing her pink face.

The old stallion stares at her blankly, “Then why don’t you at least plant it in straight rows?”

“Because it’s more fun this way!” Pinkie smiles brightly before continuing her ‘work’.

Shaking his head, the old stallion trotted briskly into the house to speak to his wife about his eccentric pink daughter.

“What are we going to do about Pinkamena, Sue? We can’t let her continue to ruin the farm.” The couple watched their daughter throw seeds in the air like confetti before bursting into a fit of giggles as they dropped to the floor.

“I have an idea Clyde.” The old mare began seriously.

***
Sighing sadly, Pinkie shook her head, “I haven’t been home since...” The glum party pony gulped sadly and turned away from her parent’s home, tears forming in her eyes. “... If I had just worked harder... none of this would have happened.”

Sniffing miserably, Pinkie continued to build her igloo; pausing long enough to look back at the village, “ I miss you Mom and Dad.”

***
After she left home, things went down hill for Pinkie Pie. Her cheerful attitude had never sat well with the residents of the earth pony’s land and now that she was trying to spread her always happy demeanour to the grumpy-pants ponies of the village, they found it even more annoying.

Applejack was a very kind pony and became her first and only friend. All the other ponies in the village disliked her carefree party attitude and would groan in annoyance and continue on with their boring, earth pony farmer work.

She had attempted to bond with the other pony villagers in vain. Once Pinkie had zoomed down a rather large chimney into a house that held a rather huuuge family. Landing heavily on her rump, she burst out of the fire place in full party gear and waved around at her unsuspecting party guests ecstatically.

“Hey everypony it’s PARTY TIME!!” She exclaimed, quickly bouncing up and throwing confetti and streamers everywhere. Some of the brightly coloured streamers landed on the angry pony’s heads, covering their tired and confused and just plain grouchy faces with pink and blue and yellow party decorations.

Moments later would the happily dressed pink pony found herself thrown out into the streets. “Okie dokey guys! Maybe later then!” She shouted cheerfully as she looked back at the straw-roofed house. The ponies slammed the door loudly and the noise it created seemed to vibrate over to and through the pink pony, causing her mane to deflate and fade to a duller magenta shade.

Each rejection she experienced would cause her to deflate a little bit more into a depressed state. Every failed attempt at bringing cheer to the grey-coloured residents caused Pinkie’s overly joyful stride to lessen and become less and less bouncy.

The last family she had tried to cheer up was the Apple family. She found herself in a familiar situation, thrown out into the streets on her flank. This time she just couldn't maintain her upbeat attitude; she sat on her haunches with tears forming in her eyes, a forlorn expression plastered onto her face. Suddenly, she felt a foreleg wrap around her shoulders.

An orange earth pony, Applejack, sat next to her with apologetic eyes and a freshly baked apple pie balanced carefully on her head. Pinkie stared at the apple pie with a confused look on her face before a humongous grin was bounding back onto her pink face and her eyes brightened up again. She eagerly accepted the gift which they shared in quiet, friendly companionship.

Fall arrived, bringing representatives from the unicorn and pegasi tribes to collect the food promised to them. Both tribes brought their respective leaders along with their second in command with several lower ranking ponies in tow. The two higher ranking ponies would observe the exchange, to avoid sabotage.

Pinkie, whom had never seen a pegasi or unicorn before, was extremely curious of both. The unicorns were dressed in purple-coloured regal flowing apparel, while the pegasi wore heavy black plate armor.

Pinkie leaped forwards, through the large crowds of grumpy looking earth ponies to land in front of the unicorn leader, throwing her remaining confetti everywhere, “Hi I’m Pinkie Pie! Welcome to our village! Wanna party?” Her pink head tilted to the side questioningly and waited cheerfully for the unicorn’s response.

The unicorns stared at her disapprovingly, “No, we do not wish to… 'party'. Now if you’ll excuse me, we have some business to attend to.” She replied as she brushed a fore-hoof dismissively at the super excited bouncing pink party pony in an attempt to make the pony step aside. This attempt was completely lost in Pinkie’s beautiful blue eyes and her Pinkie Pie-mind.

“Ooooh, what kinda business?” Pinkie tilted her head again, even more curious to hear what this new pony had to say.

The unicorns frowned, “Food business, now please-”

Pinkie gasped and bounded forth, invading the unicorn leader’s personal space, “Food? Ooh, I brought a cake with me just in case somepony was hungry. Here.” She brought a cake to the pony’s face from seemingly out of nowhere, with a widening grin spread across her face.

“Eww, what is that?” The colourfully dressed unicorn asked, undisguised disgust covering the her face.

Pinkie tilted her head, a blank look covering her face, “This? It’s a cake. I just told you that silly!”

“It looks disgusting. Get it away from me!” The disgruntled unicorn shoved Pinkie away with her magic before turning on Chancellor Pudding-head and began complaining loudly.

Pinkie flew backward from the push, colliding with a solid figure; forcing it to tumble with her in a huuuge pink and blue blur before landing uncomfortably on the floor, behind the ranks of the pegasi leader.

Pinkie, picking herself up as if nothing painful had happened in the last couple seconds, noticed quite a few super pointy metallic blades sticking up from underneath her. Looking closer she saw that the blades were attached to cyan-coloured wings and forelegs. With the realisation that she had nearly avoided injury, she stared down at the owner of the wings and her eyes locked with the magenta-coloured eyes of the pegasus.

The two ponies looked speechlessly at each other with confusion and shock spread across their faces. A few moments passed between them before the pegasus shook her head, snapping out of her daze and quickly tossing Pinkie off of her, careful not to injure the pink pony in the process.

Leaping to her hooves, Pinkie witnessed as the cyan pegasus rushed into the unicorns face.

“You unicorns better watch where you throw things, or you might find yourselves in a whole lot of trouble!”

“Then you better hope that the trash around here leaves us alone.” The unicorn leader gave the pegasus a dismissive look.

Pinkie watched as the cyan pegasus flew back to her leader. Halfway there, she turned her head and locked eyes with Pinkie; an annoyed expression set on her face before quickly continuing on her way. Pinkie’s eyes never shifted from the heavily armoured pegasus pony, that she had just recently been pushed into. The cyan mare then settled next to her leader, where they held a quiet, yet forceful, discussion.

Suddenly Pinkie heard the angry voices of the unicorns demand double the amount of food to compensate for the “indignation they suffered”.

“If we give you double the amount we won’t have enough to make it through the winter!” Several of the earth ponies shouted in protest.

Sniffing hauntingly, the unicorns snidely responded. “That’s not our problem. You should have grown more for yourselves as well as learn to control your more.... excitable dirt ponies.”

Pinkie smiled awkwardly, feeling several pairs of angry eyes glare hatefully at her.

Outraged by the snide insults from the unicorns, a shouting match erupted between the unicorns and the earth ponies.

Suddenly, the pegasi leader rushed in between the quarreling tribes. “How dare you earth ponies cause such problems and how dare you snobby unicorns dishonor us by throwing dirt at the second in command! We demand twice the amount of food to make up for this disgrace!”

“How dare you, Commander Hurricane! I have already commanded that these dirt ponies pay us twice the promised supplies.” The unicorn leader snapped.

“So? That doesn’t mean you own it, Princess Platinum!” The cyan mare shouted, wings spread aggressively.

Pointedly ignoring the cyan mare, Platinum turned to address the earth ponies with a sharp edge in her voice. “ Earth ponies! If you do not give us our rightful supplies we will cause night to arise here for as long as it takes for you to retrieve what we ask.”

Leaping into the air, the cyan mare flew above the two opposing tribes with her forelegs crossed. “And if you don’t fork over our food, we’ll cause a drought for as long as it takes to get what we want!”

Bouncing toward the airborne mare, Pinkie flails her forelegs erratically attempting to get everypony’s attention. “Hey, wait a minute you guys! How about we just all cheer up and have a party instead? Then we could have tons of food and snacks and we’d have a bunch of fun.” She punctuated her statement by grabbing everypony near her into a biiiig breath-taking group hug.

Princess Platinum screeched in disgust. “GET THESE DIRTY EARTH PONIES AND THESE PEGASI BARBARIANS AWAY FROM ME!”

“You aren’t so perfect yourself, Princess Pinhead.” Growling indignantly, the cyan pegasus retorted.

Everypony in Pinkie’s grasp ripped themselves away from her as fast as they possibly could, in various states of anger.

Princess Platinum pointed at Pinkie with an enraged expression. “Forget the first demand; I WANT THAT PINK PARASITE OUT OF HERE!”

Commander Hurricane nodded in agreement. “I never want to see that pink pony here ever again; she is nothing but trouble.”

Chancellor Pudding-head nodded as well in agreement. “That pony has been nothing but trouble since she arrived.”

All the earth ponies nodded in agreement while eyeing Pinkie with distaste. Pinkie felt herself deflate into a depressive state similar to before she earned her cutie mark. Pinkie fled from the village, feeling the leering stares bore into her retreating form.

Before she was able to leave the village, Applejack had managed to stop her with a forlorn expression on her face.

“Sugarcube wait, don’t go! There’s an abandoned house about half a day’s walk away from 'ere in the mountains. Ah'll still be yer friend... Ah'll visit y'all every two weeks and ah will bring yeh any supplies y'all may need, a'raght? Go on now Pinkie, before they try to force you out.”
Reaching into her saddlebag, Applejack gives Pinkie a crudely drawn map leading to the house.

Smiling sadly, Pinkie hugged Applejack as a goodbye and left, running as fast as she could.

***
“It just *sniff* isn’t fair...”

Cold tears splashed onto the partially made snow block. Pinkie trembled in her saddened state. All she ever wanted was to have somepony be there for her no matter what and like her for who she was...

******
A large rabid manticore drew in a strangled breath before collapsing in a bloody heap on the cold ground, staining the snow further with it’s crimson blood. A lone figure hovered above the body, an icy smile slowly creeps across her face. The manticores’ blood dripped slowly off her razor sharp blades that are fastened to her forelegs and wings. Her armor was dented and marred from many vicious battles.

“Here I thought I was going to have a challenge...” Her cold magenta eyes bore into the lifeless form, disappointment shining through.

Turning to leave, a sudden snapping noise alerted her to another animals presence. Her curiosity piked, she begins searching around for the source of the noise. Pushing some branches aside she was shocked to see a lone baby bunny attempting to hop away. Watching the poor innocent creature, she felt a stirring within her heart and memories.

***
Rainbow felt herself slam into the ground from a violent shove from behind. Cruel laughter filled the air as three young colts surrounded her.

“Nice going Rainbow Crash!” Leaping up and flaring her wings aggressively, she stares down the tall brown colt.

“Why don’t you say that to my face!” She snorted angrily.

“What are you going to do about it, Rainbow CRASH!” He jabbed at her roughly, a snide expression covering his face.

Howling in rage, Rainbow felt her hoof collide with the colts vulnerable eye. Within moments, an all out brawl broke out in the middle of the school playground. Several teachers rushed out to separate the four battered foals. Each were in various bruised and bloody states. Rainbow snorted angrily toward her bullies, disregarding her injuries, itching to continue fighting.

Rainbow was sent back to the orphanage early that day with a note to her foster mother hanging around her neck, advising her to enroll Rainbow as quickly as possible into the Military Academy.

Upon arriving she was smacked across the face for being sent home early; her foster mother assuming she had gotten in trouble again. Tearing the note from her neck, the bitter mare quickly read the letter.

Giving Dash a sharp look she pointed to her room, “Pack up all your belongings; you’re going to military school.”

Dash felt excitement well up inside her. Finally she was she to gain the respect that she never had and desperately wanted.

***
Dash flew quickly back to her tribes base, the bunny cupped carefully against her. Passing by several pegasi, they all saluted her with deep respect before carrying on with their duties. Avoiding distractions, she quickly began searching for the home of the only pegasi she had ever become close friends with.

***
Rainbow trotted around the academy, in awe at her surroundings. Excitement welled up inside her as she spotted a grand statue of their leader, Commander Hurricane. Pulling herself up into a proud position she saluted the statue.

“I am going to be the greatest military officer that ever lived!” A sudden loud commotion tore her attention away from the statue.

A lanky yellow pegasus with a light pink mane was being shoved around by several sneering bullies.

“What’s the matter FlutterCRY! Are you going to run off and cry to your little dirt animals?” Tears welled up in the bullied ponies eyes when suddenly Dash appeared between her and her tormentors.

“Why don’t you ponies just leave her alone!?”

Snorting in amusement, the lead bully stalks up to Dash, “What are YOU doing here? Only REAL pegasi get to come here!” Flaring her wings aggressively, Dash began to retort when a large shadow fell across her.

“What seems to be going on here young foals?” A smooth authoritative voice inquires.

Shuffling backward, the bully leader meekly replies, “W-well, that rainbow maned filly is not suppose to be here. She’s way too young to be in the military academy!”

Smirking, the large figure rested a large grey fore hoof on Dash’s shoulder, “I’m afraid you are mistaken, she does indeed belong here.”

Shock seemed to radiate from each of the young bullies. Looking up, Dash saw none other than Commander Hurricane herself stare down at her with approving sapphire blue eyes, her electric yellow mane falling slightly in her face.

“Come with me, Rainbow Dash. Let me give you the tour of your new home.” Hurricane carefully led Dash away from the dumbstruck bullies.

***

Fluttershy cautiously opened her door, coming face to face with the intense gaze of Rainbow Dash.

“Oh, hello Rainbow Dash. What can I help you with?” Rainbow gave Fluttershy a friendly smile before holding up the small baby rabbit she brought with her. Squealing in delight, Fluttershy scoops the little rabbit into her forelegs and cuddled him carefully.

“Oh you poor thing! You are freezing! Aw you must be starving too!” Rushing into her house she grabs a small carrot for the little bunny to munch on. Dash shook her head with a small smile on her face before inviting herself in. Watching Fluttershy carefully feed the little rabbit, yet another memory surfaced within her mind.

***
Rainbow and Commander Hurricane left early in the morning, along with several other Pegasi whom were each carrying baskets for the food they were to be collecting. The strict silence was thick with gloom at the thought of having to deal with the snobby unicorns and the dirty earth ponies. They landed in the small village just before the unicorns had arrived.

While uninterestedly observing the exchange of food, Rainbow noticed a bright pink earth pony bouncing along happily through the crowd of bitter villagers.

Intrigued by the ponies odd behavior, Dash secretly watched her interact with the ponies around her. As she continued forward, the pony said hello to all of the villagers, and receiving agitated looks and grumbles in return for her efforts.

To Dash though, it seemed like the pink pony didn’t even notice the agitated ponies apathetic and irritated replies. She seemed to be more interested in the whole boring food exchange thing between the three tribes. Rainbow saw her rush towards the unicorn tribe with a rather large smile spreading across her face.

A small bemused smirk crossed her cyan blue face from the interesting interaction between the pink pony and Princess Platinum. The animated earth pony bounce up and down cheerfully as she spoke to the unicorn Princess. The next thing she knew the pink pony was thrown backwards at her; a magical aura surrounding the pony. The small earth pony slammed into her chest, forcing her to tumble along with the pony until landing in a huge heap on the ground.

Eyes spinning, Rainbow shook her head to reorient herself and attempted to sit up. Finding herself unable to easily move into an upright position, Dash blinked in confusion and looked up to find herself locking her magenta-coloured eyes with brilliantly coloured cyan blue ones. Several moments passed as the two ponies stared at each other in a daze of shock and confusion.

Suddenly realizing what had happened and where she was, Dash shook her head rapidly and shoved the earth pony off of her, careful to avoid cutting the pink pony with her blades strapped to her forelegs and wings.

Launching herself in the air, she sped into the face of Princess Platinum, annoyance clearly displayed on her face. “You unicorns better watch where you throw things, or you might find yourselves in a whole lot of trouble!”

Princess Platinum gave Rainbow a dismissive look. “Then you had better hope that the trash around here leaves us alone.”

Scowling angrily, Dash turned away from the unicorn leader and began flying back to her tribe. Halfway there, she felt a set of eyes staring at her intensely. Turning her head to find out who it was, she ended up locking eyes with the pink pony yet again.

Annoyance sparked within her, ‘why is she staring at me?’ She furiously questioned herself.

Turning away, she quickly settled herself next to Hurricane.

“Why didn’t you teach that dirt pony a lesson for knocking you over like that?!” Hurricane muttered quietly with a subtle edge in her voice.

“It was all that snobby unicorn’s fault that she slammed into me. I’m not going to hurt something just because it was thrown at me.” Hurricane snorted in annoyance before turning back to the food exchange.

Suddenly the bellowing voice of Princess Platinum permeated the area with her demand for double the amount of food. Angry shouts soon quickly filled the area from many disgruntled earth ponies. An evil smirk slowly inched it’s way onto Commander Hurricane’s face. She suddenly rushed forward and demanded that the pegasi deserved the double rations of food. Princess Platinum retorted angrily to Commander Hurricane, making Dash’s mane stand on end in fury.

“So? That doesn’t mean you own it, Princess Platinum!” Rainbow Dash shouted, wings spread aggressively.

Princess Platinum pointedly ignores Dash, and demands that the earth ponies comply with them otherwise they would suffer eternal night.

Leaping into the air, Rainbow Dash flew above the earth and unicorn ponies with her forelegs crossed, “And if you don’t fork over our food we’ll cause a drought for as long as it takes to get what we want.”

Out of Dash’s peripheral she notices the pink pony from earlier bounce energetically toward the center of the commotion flailing her forelegs around erratically. “Hey, wait a minute you guys! How about we just all cheer up and have a party instead? Then we could have tons of food and snacks and we’d have a bunch of fun.” Suddenly Dash found herself being pulled into an involuntary group hug by the joyful pony.

“GET THESE DIRTY EARTH PONIES AND THESE PEGASI BARBARIANS AWAY FROM ME!” Princess Platinum screeched.

Wincing from the irritatingly loud voice pouring directly into her ears, she growled back a retort, “You aren’t so perfect yourself, Princess Pinhead.” Dash tore herself out of the pink ponies grasp snorting indignantly.

“Forget the first demand; I WANT THAT PINK PARASITE OUT OF HERE!” Princess Platinum pointed accusingly toward the pink earth pony; an enraged expression covering her face.

Commander Hurricane nodded her head in agreement. “I never want to see that pink pony here ever again; she is nothing but trouble.”

Dash noticed a devious micro expression flash across Hurricane’s face as she said those words.

Chancellor Pudding-head nodded as well, “That pony has been nothing but trouble since she arrived.”

Every earth pony in the area seemed to turn on the pink pony. The pink pony figuratively and literally deflated right in front of everypony. Dash watched the pink pony turn and sprint away from the leering glares of the crowd.

“Good riddance!” Princess Platinum snorted.
***
One thing’s for certain, nothing that interesting will happen again during the annual food collection. Dash smirked in amusement: the enraged look that crossed Princess Platinum’s face was the most entertaining thing she had ever seen and definitely would not be forgetting it any time soon.