Pinkie’s head swam as she felt the effects of the farmer’s words reverberate through her body. The words seemed to echo slightly in her head, and she had to stare at him for a long moment just to be sure. In case she had any doubt as to his intent, he started to direct a fierce glare at the two of them and looked expectantly over towards Mayor shortly afterward.

Pinkie couldn’t stop the foalish reaction of shaking her head a few times as she observed the guards clearly hesitate before they started to step closer. Each one of their steps seemed to echo throughout the hall to pound on her ears like a massive drum. She could have sworn that she could feel the deep bass note vibrating through her coat as she kept observing them with morbid curiosity.

The sound of a muffled thump distracted Pinkie from the bizarre sight of watching the guards step closer in seeming slow motion. She turned to see Silver Wings on the floor, cowering with her head buried beneath her hooves. Pinkie stared at the sight for a moment and the curious expression that she turned back towards the guards seemed to cause them all to take a step backwards involuntarily. Pinkie could swear that she felt a switch flip in her head as she was suddenly aware of being furious.

She returned her gaze to the guards, holding her gaze on each for a few seconds before her eyes shot to the next, and she couldn’t stop the quiet growl that left her lips. The guards took another step back as Pinkie interposed herself between them and Silver Wings the only way she could. She planted her hooves solidly around the pegasus’ frame and dropped into a low stance. She had promised Silver that everything would be alright, and she would make everything alright if she had to.

The guards all seemed to glance back towards Mayor in unison. This really wasn’t fair to them; ponies were supposed to take this kind of thing in stride. They weren’t trained for dealing with situations like this. Sure, ponies might resist a little bit, but they would give in when outnumbered. Arrangements were usually made between the two parties, and the guards really just existed to make sure everypony behaved along the way. They were trained with using force, but suddenly upon glancing at an enraged Pinkie Pie, they realized how little help that would offer them in this situation.

It wasn’t that they weren’t confident in their ability to take a pony down. It was more that everypony knew that Pinkie was, at best, chaotic at times. She used this trait to her advantage when trying to make ponies smile, or during one of her random outbursts of song. A guard faced with trying to arrest Pinkie Pie, though, was suddenly forced to reconsider the implications of all of the various feats of the impossible they had witnessed her perform over the years. There was also the reputation of what happened to anypony who broke a Pinkie Promise. As if that was not enough, there was also the knowledge that she had been confirmed to have helped save Equestria on at least two separate occasions, not including countless feats in defense of Ponyville itself. All of this made for there really being no proper training to prepare for dealing with the prospect of trying to arrest a pony that currently had an enraged Pinkie pie hunched over them.

The scene carried on like this for a long while, Pinkie shooting her glance between the advancing ponies and causing them to subsequently take several steps backwards while Silver cowered under her occasionally peeking out from under her hooves. The voice that broke the silence was the last that almost any pony present would have expected it to be. The guards, Mayor, Pinkie and even Silver all slowly turned their eyes up to glance towards the farmpony with looks of confusion as to why he was the one calling an end to this.

"Why in the name of Celestia are you going after her? The one you want is outside!" he nearly yelled as he once again pointed a hoof a shaking hoof towards the window behind Pinkie and Silver.

A dangerous silence hung in the air as everypony turned in place to look out the indicated window. Just outside was the large mailbox for town hall, and right next to that was a mailmare trying desperately to stuff way too many letters into the poor receptacle. She was so consumed with her task that she hadn't noticed any of the dramatic events going on inside the building. Everypony watched the gray pegasus put her whole body into the effort, she tried first with her mouth, then a hoof, both hooves, and then finally tried to wedge them into the opening and shove them in with her shoulder. The pegasus had decidedly blonde hair and a cutie mark consisting of several bubbles, but the color of her coat was remarkably similar to Silver's.

"What, Derpy?" Pinkie asked, her voice returning to the normal bright tone.

The farmpony gaped at the reaction he was receiving from the ponies present. The guards all huffed and stopped standing at attention, Pinkie was struggling not to giggle, Silver was looking downright confused, and Mayor seemed likely to clobber him with a hoof if he wasn't trying to shuffle away nonchalantly. They weren't supposed to be looking at him like he was an idiot, they were supposed to be arresting the wretched hooligan that wrecked the market. He gathered the shreds of his pride as he took a careful step backwards and nodded his head.

"Yes! Aren't you going to arrest her? She ruined the market!' he cried wildly, stamping his hooves in frustration.

"My good sir, if it really was Derpy that knocked over your stall, then why in the name of the royal sisters did you make such a fuss?" Mayor asked with the hint of ice behind her words.

"What do you mean? She wrecked my cart!" he nearly yelled.

"How long have you lived in Ponyville?" Mayor asked in that leading tone that only a teacher or a mother was capable of using. The tone of voice that made the subject feel stupid, simply for having to answer the offered question, yet left no room to wriggle out of having to answer it. He hesitated for a moment and looked down at his hooves before answering.

"My whole life..."

"And you've been coming to the market, since you were a little colt to help your dad haven't you?"

"Yes, Ma'am..."

"So, it stands to reason that you should know by now that when Derpy breaks something, all you need to do is file a report. Screaming at her in the middle of the marketplace so that she panics and causes more destruction, isn't exactly the approved method... In fact! I'm tempted to send the guards after you instead!," Mayor growled in the manner of a pony barely keeping her temper as she stared down her spectacles at the quaking earth pony.

"Umm, Mayor? Can we go now?" Pinkie piped up brightly while she helped Silver back up onto her hooves.

"I don't see why not... Sorry about all of this, Pinkie. I wish the two of you the best of luck in your relationship," Mayor added politely, then immediately went back to glaring at the farmpony next to her.

"No problemo!" Pinkie called out, tactfully avoiding Silver's gaze as her face suddenly felt rather hot. She pulled Silver with her out into the street and left the guardponies to deal with the rest of the situation. She let out a quiet giggle and snuck a glance at Silver, only to see the pegasus staring at her expression rather intently. When Pinkie started to bounce along as if nothing had happened, Silver stumbled and nearly fell on her face in an effort to keep up.

"Hi, Derpy! Nice day, isn't it?" Pinkie called out to the still struggling mailmare who was standing on her rear hooves and leaning her entire weight into the mailbox in an attempt to force all of the envelopes inside.

"Here! Let me; you gotta do it like this," Pinkie said and grabbed the letters in her hoof. She took a deep breath before shoving her entire foreleg into the mailbox. Her hoof came back empty and suddenly the mailbox was nearly bursting at the seams from the huge load of letters. She smiled at the mailmare and waved goodbye before she walked off with Silver.

"I still don't know how you do that Pinkie..." Derpy said with an amazed look plastered across her face.

"See? I told you that everything would be alright, Silver!" Pinkie exclaimed happily as they neared Sugarcube Corner. Silver stopped in her tracks and shot Pinkie a look of pure disbelief, her eyes wide open and her entire body shaking slightly as she struggled to not collapse in the street from the overload of stress. She stumbled sideways and fell into a sitting position against the side of Sugarcube Corner before heaving a few breaths in an attempt to let her heart rate calm down.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" Pinkie asked as she sat down next to the other mare with a concerned look on her face. She leaned against Silver's side comfortably and giggled when the pegasus put a wing around her without seeming to realize it.

Silver blinked and looked sideways at Pinkie with a surprised expression at the betrayal of her wing. She let out a quiet sigh and fell back to just looking overwhelmed as she pulled Pinkie closer with the gray appendage. She shook her head and then let it hang slightly as she shivered from head to hooves. Pinkie pouted and stared at Silver for a long moment before sneaking a hoof around behind Silver's back and pulling her into a gentle hug while she rested her head on top of Silver's.

"You know, you should let me throw you that party," Pinkie stated simply after a long moment of letting Silver take solace in her presence. She turned her glance more directly towards Silver and smiled as she saw Silver appearing at least a little calmer. Silver looked blankly upwards at the pink pony as her expression turned to confusion. She tilted her head to the side when Pinkie didn't respond immediately.

"You know, the party! The one I wanted to throw for you when we first met. I'd invite everypony in Ponyville and introduce you to them. The other one went so well that you really should let me throw you the one I wanted to," Pinkie explained excitedly, but frowned when she saw Silver's eyes shoot wide open. The pegasus shook her head and drew closer to Pinkie, pulling her wing back to her side as she buried her face into the pink coat.

"Come on, Silver... Beyond being fun, it's just a good idea. We need to tell everypony that you can't talk. I can't exactly go around the town hanging flyers: "attention everypony, this pony can't talk!" You could find out how nice every pony is, and avoid confusion about all of this in the future," Pinkie tried to reason as she held the pegasus close, but frowned slightly when Silver merely shook her head against her chest.

"Everything will be alright, sweetie. Just trust me, okay? Everypony here is really nice and understanding. If I start off the party like I did the last one, then I'm sure nopony will make you feel uncomfortable..." Pinkie said soothingly as she ran a hoof through the pegasus' mane. Silver kept shaking her head stubbornly, increasing the speed insistently as Pinkie continued. Finally, she lifted her head up and looked at Pinkie with her face wrinkled into a hurt pout and her eyes filled with confusion. Her eyes watered slightly as she stared at Pinkie in disbelief as if the earth pony had just kicked a puppy in front of her.

"I'm serious, Silver!" Pinkie nearly yelled in as tears started to bud at the edges of her eyes. She let go of Silver and found herself on her hooves without fully realizing she had stood up.

"Why do you always refuse my help? I kept asking you to just trust me during this entire thing and it worked out didn't it? So why is this so different? Do you not want ponies pitying you? I can understand that sentiment, just realize... That I don't!" Pinkie yelled at the top of her voice as she stamped at the ground and the tears started to leak down her face.

"Why can't you trust me? The party would only help you..." Pinkie mumbled sadly as she looked down at Silver and stared deep into the lavender eyes. All the unspoken words that had been left between them the previous night seemed to hang between them as she looked pleadingly at Silver for a moment longer and then turned away.

"Do you like it when we have these misunderstandings about why you don't talk? We have to find some way to tell everypony... You can't just keep it to yourself, that much is clear after the last few days. I'm not really sure what you're so afraid of that means that you can't trust me..." Pinkie said just loudly enough so that Silver could hear over her shoulder and then slowly turned back around.

"I just want to help... I thought that after last night you'd realize that," Pinkie mumbled as she attempted to cease the flow of tears down her face. She rubbed her eyes with one of her hooves and looked desperately at the pegasus. Silver remained there on the ground looking up at Pinkie with an unreadable expression, her eyes drooped slightly and her mouth hung open as it trembled. She kept starting to raise a hoof towards Pinkie, but withdrew it uncertainly each time before it could reach. Finally, Silver turned her face down and tucked her legs under her chest.

"I should go to work now, Silver... I'll talk to you later," Pinkie choked out as she blinked rapidly in an attempt to keep the tears from forming in her eyes. She turned around with that horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach returning as she walked past Mrs. Cake and tried her best to ignore the concerned expression on the older mare's face.

"Pinkie... is everything—"

"Fine!" Pinkie exclaimed curtly and went back into the kitchen with the tears running down her face once she had her back turned. She tried to push everything out of her mind as she checked on the supplies, but no matter how much she sniffled she couldn't quite get the tears to stop. She started mixing up a batch of dough despite there being no real need for it and had to keep her head leaned back to keep any of her tears from falling into the mix.

"Pinkie..." Mrs. Cake insisted quietly from the doorway.

"I really don't want to talk about it right now, Mrs. Cake," Pinkie barely managed to reply as she dumped out the ball of dough onto a pile of flour and started to pound her hooves into it much harder than was necessary.

"Honey, the whole bakery heard you outside—"

"I know!" she nearly yelled as she picked up the dough and slammed it back down on the other side, pounding all of her frustration into the helpless ball in front of her.

"I every time I try to help her, she refuses. It doesn't matter what it is I try to do for her, or how simple it is. It's always an uphill battle. The only way I can help her is if I don't give her a choice, but this isn't something I can just do without asking... She should realize that I care about her. And that I only want to help because I worry about her," Pinkie barely managed to finish as her voice trailed off and she stopped pounding the dough.

"Pinkie, anyone can tell that you care for her just by watching you two together. I'm pretty certain she knows the way you feel given the types of smiles she gives you. There's probably other factors involved, so, please just take the rest of the day off. You're more than welcome to it; you've had a hard day we understand."

Pinkie choked back a quiet sob and put her head down onto the counter-top with a dull thud and poof of flour. Mrs. Cake walked over and put a hoof around Pinkie. She uttered some quiet hushing sounds as she gently tugged at Pinkie and maneuvered her out of the kitchen. Pinkie tried to fight it at first, but gave in rather quickly to the gentle insistence of the hoof around her. She let herself get directed towards the stairs and started to walk up them slowly after a gentle nudge from the older mare.

"Wipe your face off too, honey..."

Pinkie threw herself onto her bed and sprawled across it, a couple more tears streaking down the flour before stopping as suddenly as they had come. Pinkie sniffled as she laid there feeling more confused than anything as she pondered the strong wave of emotions that had overtaken her. More than anything else, she felt tired, but despite that she was too worked up to possibly get any sleep. She glanced around the covers idly before she suddenly had an idea. Her expression melted away to panic as she scrabbled with the covers, tearing them off the bed as she searched for something.

She poked her head down over each side as she looked all around the bed for the object, before finally crawling off the bed to look under it. Finally, her eyes fell upon the soft blue blanket. She grasped it in her hooves and clutched it tight as she sprawled back across the bed. She kicked the messy covers aside, not caring for anything except holding the blanket close as she slowly calmed down and slipped into a light sleep.

Pinkie stirred at the soft knock on her door. She groggily lifted her head and kept the blanket clutched close to her chest, even as she rolled over to peek at the source of the noise. The knock repeated itself before the door cracked open and Pinkie could see a gray face peeking back at her through the opening. The lavender eyes were set in a worried expression as the pegasus stood there waited outside as if she wasn't certain if she was welcome.

Pinkie was shocked the rest of the way awake upon realizing who it was outside of her door. She immediately released the blanket, and reached a hoof out towards the gray mare barely peeking into the room. Silver responded to the gesture by pushing the door open and starting to step inside with a clear look of hesitation. The pegasus took slow shuffling steps as she avoided Pinkie's gaze and hung her head in a sullen manner.

"Hey, sweetie..." Pinkie said with the traditional nickname before she realized it and thought about the statement. When Silver's expression didn't change, Pinkie made up her mind and slipped off the bed with a quiet clatter of hooves. She walked over to Silver and pulled the pegasus into a warm hug. She let her face nuzzle into the side of the gray neck in front of her and then pulled out of the hug to gently rub her cheek up against Silver's.

"I'm sorry about yelling at you before... I shouldn't hav—" she started but was interrupted by Silver's hoof pressing gently to her mouth. Pinkie's face lit up into a surprised expression as her eyes focused inwards on the hoof pressing gently against her face. The pegasus merely shook her head softly, before leaning in to rub her nose across Pinkie's face affectionately. She pulled back and hung her head sullenly and pouted, waiting for Pinkie's reaction.

"Was that an apology?" Pinkie asked with uncertainty, and received a small nod in response. Silver stepped back and ventured a shy smile as her eyes locked on Pinkie's face, desperate for any clues. Silver started to visibly chew on her lip as the silence hung between them for a long moment.

"Aww, sweetheart... It's fine, I'm sorry too. I should have known better than to push the issue so soon after you were scared like that. I wasn't thinking about it, I'm sorry. But, if you're apologizing, does that mean you're letting me throw you a party?" Pinkie ventured carefully as she let the smallest smile start to spread across her face. "I still think that it would help you a lot..."

Pinkie leaned forward and rubbed her snout across Silver's gently. She barely managed to suppress a quiet giggle at the cute reaction it elicited from the the pegasus. Silver froze at the action, and slowly raised her head to look directly into Pinkie's blue eyes. Finally, after staring there stock still for a moment, Silver let her eyes close and gave the smallest rub back. Pinkie barely managed to keep herself from pulling Silver into a gigantic bear hug, the happiness that Silver wasn't angry at her was piercing through all of the uncertainty that had been looming over her. Finally, Silver gave another small nod and burst into her own bright smile in response to Pinkie's excited reaction. Silver barely managed to suppress her own silent laughs as the two of them rubbed their faces together affectionately in the doorway. Pinkie beamed from ear to ear as she saw the smile return to Silver's face.

"You have the most beautiful smile, have I ever told you that?" Pinkie asked in a hushed voice as she smiled back at the pegasus. "That's why I was so upset when you started to cry when we first met. Your bright smile is so wonderful that I don't ever want to see you sad."

Silver shook with silent giggles and averted her gaze as her face flushed. She kept giggling and squirming away as Pinkie tried to use a hoof to force the pegasus to look at her, but was unsuccessful. Pinkie laughed as she kept up with the game and eventually wound up tackling Silver to the floor in a playful hug before succeeding in her efforts.

"Your party is going to be the best party ever, don't you worry," Pinkie whispered with excitement as she nuzzled the mare in her hooves. "Let's go for a walk, okay? The party planning can wait."

Silver smiled at bit more earnestly and surprised Pinkie with an affectionate kiss on the nose before she nodded. Pinkie froze in place, hovering over the pegasus and wiggling her nose cutely as she tried to process what just happened. Sure, she had kissed Silver before, but that was a soothing gesture that had never been returned. She hadn't really even considered those actual kisses. Even amongst all the affectionate cuddling from earlier in the day, Silver had stopped short of such actions. Even though it wasn't really a proper kiss, it took Pinkie completely off-guard and it took her a long moment to realize that she was just staring down at Silver. When she did come to her sense, she noticed Silver looking apprehensive again, her face wrinkling in worry as she watched Pinkie's reaction.

Pinkie shook her head and then pulled Silver close to her again. She didn't say anything, even though she could easily just say everything that was floating through her mind; instead, she rubbed her nose up against Silver's affectionately one more time. She let her face break into a bright smile as she gazed into Silver's lavender eyes. Silver's face immediately perked up in response, and soon the two of them were giggling like two school fillies.

Moments later, Pinkie bounced down the stairs with Silver trotting happily behind. When they reached the bottom they were once again greeted by Mrs. Cake, but this time the smile on her face was clearly different. It wasn't the teasing grin that they had become accustomed to, there was no playful wink to accompany the smile either, this time it was a genuine smile breaking across the older mare's face as she watched the two happy mares. She waved a hoof at them, and then gave them the familiar wink before she went back into the kitchen and returned to baking. Pinkie understood fully, no words were required for Mrs. Cake to send her message. The shop owner was merely pleased to see them two of them happy once again.