Pinkie Pie sat down at a table in the lobby of Ponyville’s Starbits coffee shop. She carefully set her latte on the table before slouching into her chair. Fluttershy delicately landed on a second chair, and placed her iced latte on the table. Rarity arrived last, a pumpkin spice latte in her magic.

     “Pinkie Pie, are you alright?” Rarity asked, bringing Pinkie’s attention back to reality.

     “Y-yeah. Sure,” she replied gloomily.

     “Um, Pinkie? This doesn’t have anything to do with what happened last night, does it?” Fluttershy inquired.

     “No. Yes. I don’t know.”

     “Oh, Pinkie,” said Fluttershy, “nopony really meant any of those awful things they said about you last night. You know that.”

     “She’s right, darling,” added Rarity. “You know how those two can get when they’ve had too much cider.”

     “But everything they said was true!” Pinkie lamented. “My parties [i]do[/i] suck and I [i]am[/i] weird and I [i]don’t [/i]fit in with everypony else—I never have! Not here in Ponyville, not with my family; my whole life, I’ve been trying to find the impossible balance between who I am and who I want to be! [i]This[/i] is who I am,” she said, pulling at her straight pink hair, “and I [i]hate[/i] it! I hate Pinkamena! I want to be Pinkie Pie!”

     “Please, calm down,” Rarity stressed. “They were inebriated. They would never say those things they said last night to your or to each other’s faces.”

     “And besides that,” Fluttershy added, “they were yelling at each other twice as much as they were yelling at you. If—if that helps any.”

     “If you so terribly hate who you are, then why not just be who you want to be?”

     “Because,” Pinkie began, sinking back into her chair, “they don’t like Pinkie Pie. They don’t like the mare I’ve pretended to be ever since I saw that rainboom when I was a filly. They don’t like her or her parties, or anything else she tries to do, even when it’s [i]for them.[/i] All I ever wanted to do was make everypony happy. I—I thought they were my friends.” Pinkie crossed her forelegs on the table and rested her head on them. She looked as if she were about to cry.

     “But you still have us,” Fluttershy replied. “I sought out Rarity when Applejack and Rainbow Dash started yelling at each other. I was right next to her by the time you tried to break them up. When you bolted out of the room, and my and Rarity’s cutie marks vibrated, we didn’t even need the map to know what our friendship problem was.”

     “And our cutie marks haven’t gone off again just yet,” Rarity continued. “We’ve talked with the others, and they’re quite apologetic for their behavior last night.”

     “That doesn’t make it hurt any less. The things they said are still true.”

     “Are they, Pinkie? Are they really?”

     “I’m not Pinkie, Rarity. I’m just Pinkamena.”

     “Ok, well then why [i]aren’t[/i] you Pinkie Pie?” Pinkie raised her head and stared quizzically at Rarity, but gave her no answer. “If there’s somepony you want to be, and that’s not who you are right now, why aren’t you that pony?” Rarity reiterated.

     “I—I don’t know,” 

     “Listen to me, Pinkie. Your friends were in the heat of the moment. They were intoxicated. They were already arguing with each other even before you tried to intervene. You were simply unfortunate enough to get caught in the crossfire. You’re ready to base your entire future off a hooffull of drunken remarks?”

     “We still want to be friends with you,” Fluttershy said. “We’re worried we won’t ever see Pinkie Pie again. That’s who you want to be, right? You want to make us happy? Well, nothing would make us happier right now than to have Pinkie Pie back.”

     “Aw. You really mean that?”

     “Of course, darling.”

     The corners of Pinkamena’s mouth rose, forming a smile. As her smile grew, Pinkie’s hair curled up again to the same degree. Rarity and Fluttershy glanced down to their now-vibrating cutie marks.

     “Now, Pinkie Pie,” Rarity began, “I trust you’ll be better about letting things and circumstances define who you are, won’t you?”

     “Of course, Rarity. But that’s kind of a hard statement to take coming from a white unicorn holding a pumpkin spice latte.”

     “Oh. Yes. My one weakness,” she replied as the trio shared a round of laughter.

     [i]See? Hardly ten seconds into being Pinkie Pie again, and they’re already laughing! You can do this, Pinkie![/i]