It was about three in the morning and the last of Pinkie Pie's guests were leaving what had been her latest party. "Wow, that sure was some party, Pinkie Pie! I don't know how ya do it! Where do you get yer energy?" an exhausted but happy Applejack exclaimed as she wobbled down the road back to Sweet Apple Acres.

"Oh, I don't know...I guess I just have a party going on in my veins!" Pinkie cheerily replied. The blonde maned pony looked up at her friend and started giggling. "Gee, I dunno Pinkie, maybe it's because of all those sweets you eat. It sure can't hurt that your apartment resides over a bakery." Pinkie Pie started to giggle along with her friend. "Oh, you silly pony, that's just the way I am! I'm always filled with Pinkie Pie party energy!" As if to emphasize her point, the pink pony stood back on her hind legs and with a flourish of her bouncing pink mane, shook confetti all over Applejack. "Heh heh, good one Pinkie. See ya in the mornin'!" The two friends said their farewells and Pinkie Pie bounded up the stairs to her abode, picking up stray confetti and deflated balloons as she went.

She reached her door and closed it, turning the lock and then leaning heavily against her door with a sigh.

That feeling again. Heaviness.

Pinkie Pie's eyes looked around her room and her gaze fell upon what was left of the food. Pangs of guilt made her feel sick to her stomach as what Applejack had said resonated through her thoughts. "Gee, I dunno, maybe it's because of all those sweets you eat..."

Pinkie Pie shook her head in an attempt to make the bad thoughts go away. She didn't like when the bad thoughts wouldn't leave.

The pink pony slowly walked up to her table and began to clean up the mess, throwing dirty plates and napkins into a trash bag. She went around the table piling more and more trash into the bag until all that was left to be cleaned up was the food. Pinkie Pie nervously looked down upon what was resting on the table. This was what she loved and hated most about her parties; the food.

With a shaking hoof, the pony hesitantly picked up a tray of cookies and began to turn towards her refrigerator to put them away. It was as if her hooves were glued to the floor; she couldn't take one step towards her refrigerator at all.

Pinkie looked down at the tray of cookies again. Chocolate chip, her favorite kind. The chocolate chips seemed to glisten in the dim light of her room. The longer Pinkie looked at them, the more agitated she became. Her hoof grabbed a cookie and raised it to her mouth. "Maybe just one wouldn't hurt...I mean...they do look pretty good, and I can't just let them go to waste..." She bit into the cookie and chewed guiltily. She savored the taste for as long as she could and then sadly swallowed.

She looked back down at the tray and reached for another...and another...and another. It was as if she was no longer in control of her body. Tears ran down her face as she cleaned the tray of what was left on it. The same went for what was left of the other snacks. She shoved her face into what was left of the chocolate cake and chomped uncontrollably, a slave to her own insatiable gluttony.

It went on and on until at last, Pinkie's stomach could take no more, and her abused stomach emptied its contents over her table.

Her body heaved and emptied itself uncontrollably as all Pinkie could do was close her eyes and wait for the vomiting to subside. After what seemed like hours, the fatigued pony curled herself into a ball and began to cry.

This always happened. Every single time she had a party she couldn't help but serve cookies, cakes, pies, every delectable sweet that anypony had thought up, Pinkie had baked at least once. Pinkie Pie loved baking. She loved putting together ingredients to create delicious sweets. It was one of her greatest joys. Something about the process of baking just seemed to fulfill her and make her happy.

The pony opened her eyes and sadly looked around her now filthy floor. "But I'm not happy now..." she thought and clenched her eyes tight, bringing back her memories of how this had all begun.

It was several months after she had seen the sonic rainboom and had discovered her love of partying. As much as her family had loved her, her partying ways perturbed them after several weeks of the little pink filly throwing a party almost every other day. Her parents were also slightly frightened at how energetic their daughter had become, and how their little filly no longer wanted to push rocks all day.

"It isn't natural," her father had said. "Ponies are meant to work hard, not spend all day...having fun. Your work should be what matters most."

"What if I don't want to spend the rest of my life pushing rocks?" Pinkie Pie retorted before running out of the house and into the rock fields where she could be alone. Her mother sadly watched her leave and sighed.

Eventually Pinkie had to make a choice, and she chose to not spend the rest of her days pushing around stones. One night, after writing an apologetic letter explaining what she was doing, the pink filly walked out of her childhood home and never looked back.

The first couple of days were the hardest. How can you party if you're all alone? How can you party if you don't even have a bit to your name?

Her luck turned around one day when she was walking through the city looking for a bite to eat and found the Sugarcube Corner. The building looked so different. So foreign. So strange...so...delicious? Tilting her head in confusion, Pinkie lifted her nose in the air and sniffed. What was that intoxicating smell? Pinkie Pie's stomach growled angrily; she had run out of food days ago. Pinkie was about to try and lick the wall of the building when all of a sudden she heard a loud gasp and felt the warm embrace of a large and matronly pony.

"Oh, you poor thing! You look like you haven't eaten in days! Come in, come in!"

The tiny filly was ushered into the building and her senses were immediately overloaded. Everything was so bright and colorful. Everything was so loud. Everything smelled delicious. It was perfect. The blue pony who had brought Pinkie Pie into the store seemed to disappear into thin air and re-emerge with a tray loaded high with colorful and wonderful things that Pinkie Pie had never seen before.

The mare that had brought her into the store set the tray down in front of Pinkie with a smile. She was wearing a pink frilly apron and her striped pink hair was put up into a bun. "These are my favorite things to bake," she said, pointing to a specific item on the tray. "In fact, I'm even named after them!" Pinkie gingerly picked up one of the items that the pony had pointed to on the tray and bit into it. It was so unlike anything that she had ever had before. The top was sweet and creamy while the bottom was rich and filling. "This is amazing! What are they called?" The pony in front of her laughed. "Those are cupcakes, and I am Mrs. Cake. My husband, Mr. Cake, specializes in carrot cakes. We run this bakery together and-oh, here he is now."

A yellow stallion with a short orange mane walked out from behind the counter and smiled. "So, who is this little filly eating all of my merchandise, eh?" Pinkie turned around, her face smeared with chocolate and sprinkles. "Hello, and thank you ever so much for letting me eat here! My name is Pinkie Pie. I'm sorry that I can't pay...I...don't have any money..." Both of the older ponies looked at her with some confusion. "Where are your parents, Pinkie Pie?"

Pinkie looked at the ground. "They weren't happy with me. I just love parties and having fun, but...they thought it was dangerous. They said it wasn't natural. So...I ran away."

Mrs. Cake looked at the pink filly seated at the table, and then looked down at her feet. "You know...we wouldn't mind if you stayed here. To be honest, Mr. Cake and I have been very lonely and we never were able to have children of our own. If you want, you could even work here and we could teach you how to bake."

There were a couple seconds of silence, and then Pinkie Pie seemed to explode out of her chair with joy. She bounded over to Mr. and Mrs. Cake and hugged them with tears running down her face. "Do you mean it? Do you really mean it? Oh, thank you! Thank you thank you!"

The two bakers looked at each other and smiled as the filly trotted back to the table. Pinkie Pie's hooves delved back into the contents of the tray and grabbed something else. "What's this?"

"That's a cookie."

"Whoa! What's this?"

"That would be a brownie. I like them a lot, too."

Pinkie Pie stuffed another brownie into her mouth and had a smile on her face as large as when she had seen the sonic rainboom and received her cutie mark. She had never tasted food this good before. She had never felt so accepted before. She was in paradise.

Her paradise was bittersweet.

Before she had the fortune to be more or less adopted by the Cake family, the food Pinkie had eaten was what most ponies would turn their noses at. Stone soup with stale bread and a few berries for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Dessert? No such thing. Pinkie had never before had sweets, and suddenly she was living in an ocean of them.

As if making up for the years of not being able to eat these sugary treats, Pinkie couldn't stop eating them. She had cupcakes and cookies for breakfast, ice cream and fudge for lunch, pie and cake for dinner. After several months, it all caught up with her. Before she knew it, she had gained back all the weight she had lost and then some.

One day during lunch at school, Pinkie was chowing down into another block of fudge and chewing happily when she heard a few whispers a couple seats behind her. Pinkie was curious, and so she stopped chewing and listened in.

"I know, right? That's like, all she ever eats!"

"You can tell, too. Geez, at this rate she will never lose her foalfat."

"Pinkie Pie, ha. They should call her Porky Pie!"

As the ponies behind her began to squeal and snort into laughter, Pinkie looked down at her half eaten lunch and stopped eating. Was she really fatter than the other ponies?

She now worked for Mr. and Mrs. Cake and rented the apartment above the bakery. The Cakes regarded her as their daughter, and were proud to teach her all of their secret recipes. They even mentioned now and then about leaving Sugarcube Corner to her in their will. She felt more at home than she ever had, and every day felt like a blessing. That is...until she was all alone. And looking at herself in her mirror.

She had worked off most of her excess fat and it was now barely noticeable that she was slightly wider than normal ponies.

Pinkie Pie's voracious appetite was well known. She had even devoured an entire cake in one bite on several occasions, much to the amusement and delight of her friends. To her friends, Pinkie's seemingly bottomless stomach just seemed...well, normal as far as Pinkie Pie goes.

Pinkie Pie got up off of her now filthy floor and, legs trembling, got to her feet.

"The only reason they think that my stomach is bottomless is because I empty it when they aren't looking..."

Pinkie's hooves shook as they moved towards her stomach. She suddenly gripped the skin there tightly and cried.

"I'm not happy..."