I Lost My Laughter

Chapter 3: Weakness

What was the pendant made Pinkie gasp, and filled her with dread, not knowing how else to respond. It was a picture of her, Inkie, and Blinkie. The picture was taken two or three years ago before they disappeared. This was the necklace Inky always wore because if she ever was sad or scared, she could look down and see the smiling faces of her sisters. It’s been so long since she’s seen them, she forgot all about it, which filled her with guilt. The picture was taken during her sixteenth birthday, the necklace was a present from Blinkie, she swore she’d never take it off, and she didn’t. If something this important to her was here, that either meant she lost it, and some bird picked it up, or she was dead.

“ No! I can’t think like that! I have to stay positive, thinking like that isn’t going to get me anywhere.”

She shook her head and quickly stood up, not wanting to feel the worry and dread that was creeping up on her, she hated feeling like that, feelings like those made people do the opposite of smile.

“ Just because this is here, doesn’t mean she’s dead! She can’t be, she just can’t! But, it does mean she’s been here, maybe she’s still in these woods somewhere!”

Pinkie said to herself, not really having anyone to talk to like usual, she has no other choice, she never was an inside thinker, she preferred to voice her thoughts. She closed the pendant and put the necklace around her neck, after all, someone has to give it back to her. She looked down at the heart-shaped pendant, the water glistening as it slowly rolled off of it, she was filled with determination.

She had to see them; she just had to. It’s been years since she’s ever even had contact with her sisters, she nearly jumped in joy at a chance to see them. She couldn’t wait to catch up with them, tell her about new and old friends, about the Elements of Harmony and magic, all the drama in her life, all sorts of things.

Pinkie smiled at the idea of what her sister's reaction would be if she told her sisters her and her friends had sprouted ears, ponytails, horns, and wings, and used magic to defeat a demon who was now their friend, it would take a lot of convincing, but she was more than happy to try, and had plenty of time to.

Then, suddenly, her stomach loudly rumbled, reminding Pinkie she’s had nothing to eat but a few berries every now and again. She blushed in embarrassment at that, glad no one was around to hear that. Then, she looked over to how many rocks were left, and there were just enough to make a campfire. She gathered some nearby wood and the rocks she left in a pile and started to put the rocks in a small circle. It was just small enough to cook something decently sized, but not big enough to make a lot of smoke, as that would attract unwanted attention from nearby animals, be predator or prey.

After she was done making the circle of rocks, she put a bunch of twigs and such into the middle, making enough fuel to last a fire a couple of hours. Now all she needed was food, not necessarily a big animal; it could be a frog or a snake or something, Pinkie was sure Fluttershy wouldn’t have minded that considering how many of her animals snakes have eaten. She understood it was the laws of nature for predators to eat prey, which didn’t make it any less tragic. She hated to admit it, but she needed to kill and eat an animal. It was starting to get too late to go out for berries, plus, she was too tired from making her shelter to go too far. She had no choice.

She began to look in and near the pond, hoping she might see something she could catch with her hands. Like a frog or a fish, just something she didn’t necessarily have to kill to catch. Usually, you would have to make a spear to catch fish or a makeshift fishing rod. The basic spear is a long piece of wood with a sharpened rock taped with lots of grass to keep it there. But, considering how much she had already gotten done today, and that it was an hour or so away from being night, she was both too tired and too scared to do any more work like that today.