Pinkie had to squint her eyes to stare past the bright sunlight shining in through her bedroom window. She looked around the sky for any sign of Silver Wings while she pondered what had happened last night. Silver had stayed around and helped around the kitchen until Pinkie was done with her shift. When Pinkie went to bed soon after, though, Silver simply hugged her and flew off. Pinkie still wasn’t quite certain how she felt about that. Part of her was definitely disappointed, and she was still fighting the urge to pout like a school filly about it.

The other part of her pointed out that Silver was currently asleep on the closest cloud to her window. It continued to reason that she probably shouldn't have expected Silver to take her up on that particular offer right away, anyway. Pinkie couldn't stop the smile that spread across her face as she watched Silver continue to sleep peacefully on the cloud. She certainly looked comfortable enough, but it was hard to believe it matched up to a real bed. Pinkie didn’t know why she kept dwelling on that thought as she would see Silver soon anyway. The pegasus would have to come in to check the calendar today and then she would probably have to stay with Pinkie during the overnight rains later in the week, as well.

Pinkie’s smile brightened as she realized that she would definitely be seeing more of her friend and soon started to make her way down the stairs to Sugarcube Corner proper. She took a long whiff of the wonderful bakery smells already starting to fill up the shop; the smell always did wonderful things to cheer her up. She bounced into the kitchen to start her early morning preparations for the breakfast rush.

Pinkie considered the pan of cupcakes in front of her. The red velvet cupcakes were perfectly baked, but she couldn't decide on what kind of frosting to put on them. She was having a hard time deciding which of the flavors laid out in front of her would be perfect for today. Pinkie slowly reached out to pick up the butter cream icing, but stopped when heard the tinkling of the bell over the front door. Reaching out and dabbing a bit on her hoof, she licked it and called out that she'd be right with them.

Pinkie set the icing aside with an emphatic nod, and then bounced into the front of the shop. She started to move her way behind the counter when she was stopped in her tracks by Silver’s beaming face. Pinkie gave her friend a hug before she started to wander back towards the kitchen.

“Hey, Silver. What’s up?” she asked as she picked up the icing knife in hoof and started to carefully spread it across the cupcakes. Pinkie turned her head slightly when Silver failed to appear in front of her to give an answer. She was greeted with the sight of Silver holding the same chef’s hat from last night and tilting her head at Pinkie.

“You don’t have to help out silly, but you can if you really want to,” Pinkie said through a quiet giggle.

Silver’s smile remained on her face as she carefully perched the hat on her head and walked up to the counter. Pinkie bounced around the kitchen and set up a baking station for Silver. Once she had Silver making some cinnamon rolls, Pinkie finished the cupcakes and ran them out to the display case.

“Hey Pinkie, what’s Silver doing in the kitchen?” Mrs. Cake asked as she wandered by the ovens to check on the supplies for the lunch rush.

“Hey Mrs. Cake! We haven’t found her a job yet, and she keeps offering to help me bake since she has nothing else to do. I told her that she doesn’t need to, but she’s just so stubborn about it!” Pinkie said and gave an airy laugh. She reached out and threatened to ruffle a flour covered hoof through Silver’s mane, causing Silver to laugh silently and cower away. She held up her own flour covered hooves in defense and tried to keep Pinkie’s hoof at bay.

Mrs. Cake shook her head for a moment and gave them a moment before she coughed politely and continued. “Well, we can’t really afford to be hiring anypony else right now Pinkie. So, as long as she’s just helping you out…”

“Yeah, I told her that. Don’t you worry about it! Do you want help with anything?” she asked with a bright smile as she ceased her playful wrestling with Silver.

“Not really, you two seem to be doing quite fine on your own. Keep up the good work,” Mrs. Cake added with a knowing grin and then shot them both a wink before she retreated back into the office.

“You know, Silver, I could give you some bits for all the help you’ve been giving me the last two days. It only seems fair since we haven’t found you a job yet, but you've been doing a lot around the shop. It obviously wouldn't be much, but maybe you could go out and get some good food or something,” Pinkie offered as she finished preparing a pan of rolls and stored them into a cupboard queue next to one of the ovens. When she turned back around she saw Silver shaking her head at Pinkie and wearing a grim face, her eyebrows furrowed and her ears tucked down.

“What? Why not? I don’t mind, really. I have enough to be able to help you out,” Pinkie tried to insist with a pout spreading across her face. Silver stood firm, shaking her head once more and pulled out her small pouch of bits. She attempted to thrust it towards Pinkie with a slight frown.

“What? You think you owe me? Silver… why would you think that? I just want to make sure that you’re able to eat properly! Plus, you worked really hard yesterday, it’s not like I’m giving you a handout or anything,” Pinkie said with a hint of frustration leaking into her voice.

“Please? I just want to know that you’re not going to go hungry again…” Pinkie pleaded, but was met by another firm shake of the head by Silver.

“Fine, I can’t force it on you, but if you run out and need food you better come to me. If I find out that you’re skipping meals…” Pinkie said with a fierce look as she leaned in close with a meaningful glare. Silver gulped noticeably at the fierce look and then nodded reluctantly.

“Great!” Pinkie exclaimed and hugged Silver again. She laughed and then started to pat off Silver’s back after realizing that she left behind a few flour hoof prints on the gray coat.

“Anyways, we tore through most of what we needed to cook for lunch. Thanks for the help. The rest of my shift is going to be pretty boring just watching the counter. Why don’t you go out and have some fun?” Pinkie suggested with a smile, and then started to file everything away into the cupboards and dumped dirty bowls into the sink. Silver hesitated for a long moment, giving Pinkie a piercing gaze before she finally nodded. She gave Pinkie a light hug of her own before she trotted out of the shop, leaving Pinkie to the rest of her shift.

Pinkie smiled as she watched Silver leave, even with the edges of frustration still tearing at her. She really didn’t understand why Silver resisted help like that; something about that pegasus was just so stubborn. She let out a quiet sigh and went back to start cleaning up the dishes. As long as Silver had somewhere safe to sleep and was eating alright, then she couldn’t really complain too much. The smile on Pinkie’s face slowly turned more genuine as she found herself pondering more jobs that they could go checking on later.

Pinkie kept pondering ideas for the rest of the day, but was unable to come up with anything really solid by the time she trudged upstairs for bed. She reclined on the bed with her eyes open trying in vain to force them to shut. She couldn't get the niggling worry that Silver would skip more meals, or that they wouldn’t find a job, to go away. Pinkie heaved a long sigh and wandered over towards the window looking out towards Ponyville again. She quickly glanced between all of the nearby clouds for any sign of the purple and gray pegasus but couldn’t find anything.

She kept looking for a long moment until it was clear that she wasn't going to find Silver anywhere and then flopped back into bed. She crawled under the blankets and once again tried to calm herself so that she could fall asleep. She found her eyes wandering around the room aimlessly. After an indeterminate amount of time, Pinkie became aware of the fact that she was staring at the hoof of the bed where Silver had slept the other night. The blanket that Silver had curled up under was still laying there on top of her own blankets.

Pinkie looked at it curiously for a moment and then, without being entirely sure why she was doing it, she sat up and grasped it in her hoof. Pinkie pulled the blanket up towards the pillow with her and turned on her side. She found herself gently nuzzling her face into the blanket and could just barely imagine the faintest hints of Silver’s scent lingering on the fabric. A gentle smile spread across her face and she nuzzled her face deeper into the fabric, the smell slowly relaxing her enough that she finally fell asleep.

Pinkie bustled around the kitchen in an energetic manner. In fact she bounced around even more actively than usual, trying her best to keep herself busy so that the worry wouldn’t overwhelm her. It was well past noon and she had seen neither sight nor sound of Silver for the last three days. She hadn’t appeared to look at the calendar, or to stubbornly insist on helping Pinkie with her baking. After the earlier stretch of two days in a row, Pinkie found that she had been looking forward to it. Pinkie wasn’t generally a worrier, but something just felt wrong about the situation.

The only positive that Pinkie could come up with was the lack of any twitches or shakes. Instead, she merely had an uneasy feeling stemming from the pit of her stomach. She desperately tried to convince herself that the lack of Pinkie Sense was a good thing, but when that didn’t work, she made herself even busier to avoid worrying about it. For the first time in a long time Pinkie found herself questioning her Pinkie Sense. She barely knew Silver, yet, she felt a connection to the gray pegasus. She kept wondering if she would even get any strong reactions to anything happening to Silver.

By the time that Pinkie finished her shift she had worked herself up to the point of nearly exploding with nervous energy. She practically burst out into the street, looking around frantically. Pinkie quickly glanced across the sky for any sign of the purple tail hanging from an overhead cloud. She had already considered that Silver merely slept in the first day and that she might have found a job the day after that, but three days in a row was too much for Pinkie to ignore.

Pinkie let out another sigh as the sour feeling in the pit of her stomach intensified. She really wished that something would twitch or shake, just to tell her something. The horrible feeling of worry that was making her feel almost ill was difficult to deal with. While she knew where she stood with twitches and shakes, uneasy feelings and nervous energy were uncharted grounds for her. She took to wandering Ponyville, glancing inside the shops to see if Silver was anywhere to be seen. She even wandered into the weather patrol building to ask if Silver had been there to no avail.

Pinkie slowly trudged back towards town center as she forlornly shook her head, her eyes focusing in on the area that the town market was usually set up. Several ponies were still cleaning up after whatever it was that had happened in the marketplace a few days ago. There were still a few small stacks of lumber in various states of disrepair near the edges as the ponies worked to finish disassembling the broken carts and build new ones. She watched the strange activity with interest for a moment before she trudged onward.

She still had no shakes or twitches, just that overwhelming sensation deep in her stomach. Part of her began to wonder if it was a new kind of Pinkie Sense. It was different from the actual nausea she had suffered from the baked bads incident, certainly. She supposed it was possible it was just something different she had not encountered before.

Pinkie sat down near the point where she had first welcomed Silver to Ponyville and looked around the square with a frown. She watched a pair of guards march around the square once before they started to turn around and go back down the street they had appeared from. Right when they were walking past Pinkie she had an idea flash into her head and she stood straight up. The guards stepped back as she bounded towards them suddenly. She stopped a few steps away as the earth pony on the left was taking up a defensive posture and the unicorn with him was starting to focus in on his horn.

“Hi! I just want to ask you a question if that’s okay,” she said simply trying to sound friendly.

“I guess that’s okay…” the unicorn responded as his eyes flashed in recognition of Pinkie.

“Have you seen my friend at all today? Her name is Silver Wings; she’s new in town. Gray pegasus, purple mane, the brightest lavender eyes?” Pinkie asked simply. Two the guards shared a glance and Pinkie had to fight the urge to gag as the awful feeling in her stomach intensified.

“Yes, you should go to Town Hall. They can tell you about it. In fact, you should probably talk to Mayor. She would probably like to hear from you,” the unicorn replied and then turned around with his partner to continue their patrol.

Pinkie opened her mouth to try to stop them but didn't find her voice before they were too far down the street. She had to take several slow breaths of the early evening air to calm herself down as she turned to look towards Town Hall. Every step she took seemed to make the horrible feeling worse. Pinkie was fighting back tears as she stepped inside with her head hung low without the usual bounce in her step.

Her demeanor clearly caught the attention of a few of the straggling ponies in the lobby, but she ignored them. After one glance at the serious look on her face, the receptionist didn’t even question why she wanted to see Mayor and was shown immediately into the office.

“One moment Pinkie,” Mayor called out as she sighed and shuffled some papers. There was an audible thud followed by the sound of shifting papers as Pinkie looked up and saw Mayor struggling to catch the scattered papers that represented the pile of papers that just fell to the floor. Mayor was wearing a look of deep concern as she stared at the morose look on Pinkie’s face.

“Oh my Celestia, whatever could have happened to give you that look Pinkie?” Mayor asked seriously, abandoning the papers for the moment.

“I’m looking for my friend. Some guards said I should talk to you about it. Her name is Silver Wings. I haven’t seen her in about three days and I can’t shake the awful feeling that something happened,” Pinkie explained sadly.

“Silver Wings? I’m sorry, but I’m not familiar with that name.”

“She’s new in town. She’s a gray pegasus, purple hair, really quiet?” Pinkie pleaded.

“Oh…” Mayor said quietly in a serious tone that made Pinkie’s stomach almost revolt against her. “I have seen her, but I don’t think you’re going to like why…”

“Where!” Pinkie demanded, and jumped closer to the desk leaning her head across it dramatically.

Mayor covered her mouth with a hoof and then let out a long sigh as she looked down at the papers on the floor. She didn’t reach for any of them, instead, she chose to make her way around the desk to gently place a hoof on Pinkie’s side. She gave a gentle little push and then started to direct Pinkie out into the lobby. Mayor took the lead once they were outside and slowly walked Pinkie towards a small door tucked into a corner and down a small staircase. At the bottom was a guarded door that Pinkie couldn’t remember ever seeing before. In fact, she couldn’t even remember there being a lower level to Town Hall at all. Finally, Mayor led her through another door and down a small hallway. When they turned through another guarded doorway a small hallway of cells came into view. Pinkie gasped audibly and stopped dead in her tracks a step through the doorway.

“No…” she said shaking her head stubbornly, a few tears slowly leaking down her face. “NO!”

“I’m sorry Pinkie, but I think we can help each other out here. We haven’t been able to get any solid information on what happened. She apparently caused some major havoc in the marketplace the other day. In fact, they’re still trying to clean it up. The puzzling part is that she’s refused to say a single word to us. Please believe me, we don’t like using these cells, but given her lack of cooperation we had no choice.”

“Let me see her…” Pinkie responded quietly.

"Certainly, but can you help us figure things out in exchange?” Mayor asked again and received a sad nod in response.

Pinkie took several more slow breaths as she sniffled and tried to stop the tears. After a long moment she let Mayor lead her down the hallway. She couldn’t stop her gaze from wandering into the empty cells as they passed by. Each one was completely disgusting, thick layers of dirt and grime resting in plain sight in most of them. The cell they walked up to had a few buckets sitting out in front with a mop resting against the opposite wall leaving evidence that they had at least tried to make it habitable. She reluctantly stepped closer and immediately saw Silver Wings curled up in the corner. Silver’s sides were heaving slowly and Pinkie could hear the audible sniffling every so often indicating that her friend was sobbing.

Pinkie’s heart shattered and she felt as if she could hear a quiet tinkling as the pieces fell down all around her. More tears ran freely down her cheeks as she let out strangled sob herself. The only thing she wanted was to burst into the cell and gather Silver up into her forelegs. The tears started to turn into a solid stream down her face as all sorts of terrible thoughts ran through her mind. She eventually turned towards Mayor with a pleading gaze, and after a nod from Mayor, the stallion opened the door and allowed Pinkie inside.

“Silver!” she cried out loudly, not caring about the volume in the tight cell. She nearly threw herself into the corner and fell to the floor next to Silver. Silver immediately turned around and buried her face into Pinkie’s neck giving Pinkie a brief view of the normally adorable face wrecked by lines of dried tears. Pinkie winced and pulled Silver into her forelegs as she cried along with the distraught pegasus. Silver kept sobbing silently and a fresh wave of tears started to drench the fur on Pinkie’s neck.

“Hush now…” Pinkie whispered and gently ran a hoof across the back of Silver’s neck. Her own tears continued to flow down her face, splashing gently onto the purple mane below her.

“Everything is going to be alright, sweetie. I promise. Pinkie’s here now, everything’s going to be okay…” she added softly as much for her own comfort as Silver’s. Pinkie kept trying to console Silver to no avail and gently started to nuzzle her face into Silver’s mane. After a long moment of Pinkie attempting to calm Silver down Mayor finally approached them from behind and cleared her throat.

“What happened?” Pinkie asked turning her face towards Mayor desperately.

“I told you Pinkie, there were witnesses. We just don’t know why she did it,” Mayor stated calmly in an attempt to keep her voice gentle. Pinkie shook her head vehemently in response, cradling Silver in closer as she refused to believe it.

“No, it couldn’t have been Silver. Please, are you sure it was her? When did it happen?” Pinkie pleaded with desperation. “She was with me at Sugarcube Corner for a while.”

“It was late afternoon, right before the ponies were about to close up their stalls,” Mayor said simply, causing Pinkie’s heart to sink once more. She turned her head down and nuzzled Silver’s mane lightly, taking in the scent that she had imagined on the blanket the previous night. That was late enough that it could have been Silver and Pinkie’s head started to spin as she couldn’t stop herself from thinking about all of the terrible things that could happen. She raised her head and stubbornly shook her head.

“No! Please, Mayor. Did the pony who did it say anything? This is really really important,” Pinkie asked desperately.

“Well, yes. That’s why we’re so confused as to why she’s refusing to say anything to us.”

“Then it couldn’t have been her, Mayor. Please, what was the exact description of the pegasus?” Pinkie asked fighting back the hints of a smile as she could see the figurative sliver of hope shining in front of her.

“They said it was a gray pegasus, she was moving so quickly that they had a hard time catching much else. Then we found her hiding under a bench in the park nearby once we finally got some pegasus guards on hand. It seemed like a pretty obvious connection,” Mayor responded calmly, but Pinkie just shook her head again.

“What exactly did the pegasus say? Please, this is extremely important,” Pinkie restated emphatically.

“To tell the truth, I’m not entirely sure. I was looking over the files when you came in. I can fetch the documents and come back in a bit. Feel free to stay here with her okay? It should only take a few minutes,” Mayor said with some uncertainty showing on her face. Pinkie nodded as she went back to cradling Silver comfortingly in her hooves and whispering for her to hush. Silver winced visibly and jumped deeper into Pinkie’s grasp when the cell door slammed shut behind Mayor.

Pinkie kept cooing softly to Silver, trying to get the pegasus to calm down. Pinkie was trying her best, but Silver seemed completely inconsolable. She lifted her head up and stared silently down at Silver for a long moment while she considered something that might work. Silver had an initial reaction to the withdrawal, but immediately went back to sobbing. However, she froze when Pinkie placed a hoof under her chin. Pinkie lifted Silver's face up and smiled into the lavender eyes. She then leaned in and planted a soft kiss on Silver’s forehead, softly whispering that everything was going to be okay once again.

Silver sniffled a few more times, but the tears seemed to have momentarily halted. She stared up at Pinkie with an inscrutable look on her face, and Pinkie felt herself get trapped by the shimmering eyes. They stared at each other silently for a long moment before Silver finally cracked a reluctant smile and put her face back into Pinkie’s neck. Pinkie laughed quietly in response and cradled Silver gently as she was filled with relief by Silver finally calming down. A few moments later Silver jumped deeper into Pinkie’s embrace once more when the cell door rattled open and Mayor walked inside.

“Ahem, I’m sorry for the delay… It took a while to straighten out the papers,” Mayor started awkwardly as she very clearly took in the pose of the two ponies in front of her. Pinkie refused to let Silver go as she turned her head to listen to what Mayor had to say.

“According to the witnesses, the pegasus had crashed into a vegetable stall. She caused quite a mess and was heard arguing loudly with the stall owner over whose fault it was. They started to yell louder and the pegasus attempted to fly off only to crash into more carts. She then yelled that none of it was her fault and flew off leaving us unable to send anyone after her with no pegasus guards on hand.”

“You see Silver? I told you everything would be fine,” Pinkie said giggling quietly as her tears started to splash down onto Silver once again.

“I’m sorry, Pinkie I don’t understand. How does that help?”

“Those statements prove it couldn’t have been Silver,” Pinkie said brightly as she smiled down at Silver with tears still falling down her cheeks. Silver was laughing silently back up to her and hugged Pinkie close.

“How though, Pinkie? It’s going to be tough to let her off the hook if she won’t even say anything to defend herself,” Mayor stated seriously.

“That’s the point Mayor. She can’t. She’s mute, and that’s exactly why it couldn’t have been Silver,” Pinkie said simply as she got her tears back under control. She giggled again quietly as she cradled Silver in her hooves and nuzzled her face into the purple mane.

“Didn’t you find it odd?” Pinkie continued as she kept her gaze turned towards Silver. “I guarantee you that she hasn’t said a single word the entire time you've had her in custody. Also, when we came in she was sobbing but the only sound was her sniffling. Did any of the guards even hear a single squeak from her?” Pinkie asked through a choked out laugh. She placed another happy kiss on the top of Silver’s head. Silver broke into a bright smile even as she reached up with a hoof and tried to wipe the tears away.

Mayor simply stared at the two of them in shock, and then retreated out into the hallway. Pinkie laughed quietly like a pony that was certain she was going to drown, only to find herself crawling up onto a sandbar right as her strength gave out. Silver was mostly calm in her grasp as well, but kept her hooves wrapped gently around Pinkie as she kept her face hidden. A few moments later, they heard the clatter of Mayor’s hooves walking back into the cell.

“So far you are correct. The guard just told me that he never heard her speak a single word nor make a single sound beyond the sniffling. You may be correct, but I’m going to need some time to look into the incident. She is the only pony we have on hoof and she hasn’t defended herself,” Mayor said seriously.

“Can I please take her home Mayor? You can’t leave her in here…” Pinkie pleaded as she turned towards Mayor.

“Well… normally we would need to keep her confined here since she's refused to say anything, but the town does owe you and your friends quite a lot. I suppose we could let her stay in your custody,” Mayor said quietly and Pinkie and Silver clutched at each other happily.

“That’s not everything. Please hold on. We can only do this if you give us your word that you’ll make sure your marefriend won’t leave Ponyville. We need to make sure that we will be able to contact her until we resolve this situation,” Mayor said seriously and Pinkie’s smile was interrupted by a blush.

“M-my what?” Pinkie asked through a choking breath. She started to open her mouth again but hesitated visibly. She turned down to look at Silver as if thoughtfully considering the statement. Silver was for the first time in a while looking back up at her with a blush mirroring Pinkie’s. Instead of looking startled like Pinkie had been, her ears had perked up and she was watching Pinkie’s expression intently.

“I’m sorry if I… presumed falsely, but it seemed a given.”

“N-no… I mean, I don’t know. Don’t worry about it. I guess we should talk about it…” Pinkie said softly, directing that last part down towards Silver with a hesitant smile. Silver’s cheeks started to stream with tears again, but her face was split by a gigantic smile.

“Pinkie, we still need to resolve this. Like I said, normally we would need to keep her here. So please give me your word that you will be responsible for her or else she will have to remain in our custody,” Mayor insisted gently.

“I promise that I won’t let her out of my sight,” Pinkie said seriously with a smile still spread across her face.

“We shall leave you alone then, take all the time you need on the way out. If this truly was a misunderstanding then please take my sincerest apologies in advance. I assume we will be able to find you two at Sugarcube Corner?” Mayor asked only to receive a nod from the two ponies in response. Pinkie heard Mayor and the guard pony retreat down the hallway but chose to remain there with Silver for quite some time until they could both calm down.

“Come on, Silver. Let’s go home,” Pinkie said quietly some time later and placed another kiss onto Silver’s forehead with a smile. It took a moment for Pinkie to get Silver to willingly release the hug she had Pinkie in, but once she stood up Silver followed shortly afterwards. Silver wobbled slightly on her legs and reached over to Pinkie with a wing to steady herself.

“You alright, sweetie?” Pinkie asked softly as she stood up straighter to let Silver lean against her. Silver nodded lightly and after a few steps had herself under control enough to walk without Pinkie’s support. Pinkie couldn’t help but notice that Silver’s wing was still gently resting across her back and that she didn’t necessarily find herself averse to the idea. Silver shot a nervous glance up the stairwell and shrank back slightly as they neared the lobby, pulling her wings back to her side as she did.

“Come on Silver, we’ll do this together,” Pinkie said as she stepped closer nuzzling her face into Silver’s gently. Silver took another moment and nuzzled back before she stood up straight and nodded again. The rest of the way out Pinkie refused to let Silver stray more than half a pony’s width apart from her and felt Silver brush up against her a few times as they walked.

“Also, I thought I told you that I better not find out you were sleeping under a bench somewhere,” Pinkie added in a menacing voice. She turned to glare at Silver as they stepped outside into the early evening air. Silver gulped noticeably and backed away a few steps before Pinkie laughed loudly and nuzzled Silver’s face gently with hers.

“I’m kidding Silver… Don’t think I won’t have words to say about that later, though…”