“Stand back everypony,” Pinkie announced—but the guide saw what she was going to do.
“Miss, you’re not allowed to— please don’t— NO!”
But it was too late, and Pinkie Pie jumped off the elevator into the lava chamber of the volcano. “WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH!” The wind surged through her ears and she flattened them, sticking out her forelegs in a point to achieve maximum speed. Her eyes were narrowed, and her lips quavered because of the air resistance. The G-forces stretched her body out. Pinkie was all in for the thrill. She could see the cold lava floor coming in closer, and closer, and closer.
But then there was a twanging sound, and the bungee cord pulled tight. Pinkie Pie slowed down and then jolted to a halt, before bouncing into the air once more. Despite feeling as if her stomach had moved to an entirely different place, Pinkie Pie was still able to laugh. She giggled loudly as she bounced up and down on her elastic bungee jumping rope. “Haha! I knew this was gonna be way more fun than waiting for that silly elevator.” Pinkie turned her head. “Right Maud?”
But her sister wasn’t dangling right beside her, as Pinkie Pie expected. In fact, she hadn’t jumped at all. When Pinkie Pie stopped bouncing and came to a halt, she looked up—or down, actually—and saw that the elevator was only halfway down, with her sister standing on it. Maud seemed to be looking in an entirely different direction: at the walls. Maud Pie knew her sister well, and knew about Pinkie’s bungee jumping skills—she wasn’t all too worried. Pinkie had often performed bungee jumps on top of their rock-silo when they were little fillies.
Pinkie’s adrenaline-filled smile faded to a thin one, which almost looked like a grin as she was dangling upside-down. “I guess she isn’t up for bungee jumping today,” Pinkie said to herself. She started swinging back and forth until she could reach a rocky ridge, sticking out from the volcano wall. Then she used her tail to cut the rope and scrambled up the dusty rocks.
Pinkie Pie was standing alone to the far right side of the magma chamber of Fillyfjall, a dormant volcano now open for tourism. The ridge she was standing on led back and spiraled up against the uneven wall behind her; all the way to a large plateau where the elevator would arrive. Pinkie gazed around the enormous, empty magma chamber and breathed in deeply. “ECHO! CHO! HO! O!” Bouncing from the cavern walls, her echo faded away; but to Pinkie’s surprise, it returned: O! No! No! NO!”
“Huh? That’s not how echo’s work,” Pinkie said, then she turned her ears around, trying to pinpoint where the other cry had come from—which was hard to do in such a vast space. She listened to the right, to the left, straight ahead, but she had no idea. Suddenly it resounded again, but different this time: “Enough! Nough! Ough! Ugh!” It came from straight ahead, so Pinkie stopped tweaking her ears and instead primed her eyes, which were still adjusting to the gloomily-lit volcano.
About a hundred yards further stood two ponies, their colored outlines faintly visible in the dim light. One had a yellow coat with a long, orange mane and the other was light-brown with a bit of a bowl cut. They were standing opposite of each other, clearly in conversation—probably tourists of the group before Pinkie Pie’s.
Pinkie jumped off her ridge and trotted in the direction of the two ponies to say hi—because why not? The clip-clop of her hoofsteps reverberated through the magma chamber, and when she came in closer, she could see that one of the ponies was a roughly-built pegasus mare and the other an earth-pony stallion, both with a frown on their faces. They were talking to each other.
“… done with these trips of you!” The mare said. “It’s not my thing and you know that!”
The stallion eyed her and adjusted his glasses. “But, honey, volcanoes are amazing, why can’t you just see that?”
“Because the only thing I see are stones, stones and stones! Why can’t we just do something exciting? Something adventurous!”
“But… you know… adventurous things are so, well… dangerous,” the stallion said shakily, making his glasses tremble to the tip of his nose.
“That’s why they’re called adventures!” The mare countered.
“P-please, can’t we just visit one more volcano? I promise I will treat you on dinner after that, my little gemstone.”
“No! No! No! No more stones!” the mare cried out, stomping her booted front hoof on the ground.
“But I didn’t mean eating gemstones, I—”
“I know what you mean, and I mean to have some fun! For the both of us. You know, that’s how vacations work!”
Pinkie Pie, meanwhile, decided very tactically not to interfere with this little fight. She did a few steps back until she was sure they couldn’t see her and kept on listening. Later she would find a way to fix this and make them smile again, she thought.
The stallion slid his glasses up on his nose and continued, “B-but I am having fun, and you can have some fun too, if you would just open your eyes for this.” He crouched down and picked up a large black rock in his mouth. “These wolcanic wocks whave a vewy intewesting chemical composition and—” but the stallion didn’t get an opportunity to finish his sentence, as his love smacked him hard across the cheek. Pinkie Pie winched and looked around uneasily as the slapping sound echoed awkwardly through the chamber. When she looked at the couple again she could see that the stone was gone, and instead there was a big lump in the brown stallion’s throat.
“You know what I think, Soot Rain?” the mare said, “I think that I’m done with this vacation, done with volcanoes and done with YOU!”
The stallion said nothing back as he was struggling to breathe with the rock in his throat.
The mare continued in a softer voice, “You know, why don’t you go and find somepony who does like volcanoes and stuff like that. Then you can both have some fun on vacation.”
Only a panicky gurgle came from Soot Rain; his tail flew around spastically.
“We’ve been to three volcanoes already, not including this one. I’ve tried your stuff now, but you have never tried mine. I had planned to go parasailing, skiing, doing a balloon ride, but you wouldn’t even look at the things I organized for us two.”
The stallion’s brown head started coloring purple.
The mare sighed and looked at the ground. “I know you love me, and I love you, but it’s just that you’re forgetting to look at somepony else, when you’re together.” She sighed again. “Well, I guess this is goodbye. I hope you understand,” she said softly.
Soot Rain wobbled on his knees.
Then the mare stepped closer and, just before the stallion would fall down, caught him in a bear hug. Soot Rain’s bones cracked, and the lump of rock flew out of his mouth with a gargle. When the mare let him go he fell down on the ground, face first. The swish of wings echoed through the volcano as the mare took off; up towards the vent, into the daylight.
Pinkie Pie followed her circle through the volcano until she was just a tiny yellow dot against the gray sky, then she quickly trotted over to the stallion, who was still lying on the ground. “Are you ok?” Pinkie asked.
Soot Rain coughed a few times, spitting black dust in the air. “Yes, I’m fine… I think,” he said, as he got up unsteadily. He looked slowly at Pinkie Pie. “Did you just heard all of that?”
“Eh…” Pinkie didn’t know what to say.
“Never mind,” Soot Rain said. He picked up his glasses from the ground and started cleaning them with his tail. He sighed. “I guess she wasn’t my type anyway.”
Pinkie felt a bit sorry for him and stepped next to Soot Rain to put a hoof on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, Mister, I’m sure you’ll find another special somepony someday.”
But then Soot Rain jolted at the sudden touch of yet another embrace and he dropped his glasses; they fell down on the ground with a loud tinkle.
“Oops, sorry,” Pinkie said.
“Ach… it doesn’t matter,” Soot Rainl murmured sadly. “Eh, would you be so kind as to put me in the direction of the elevator, Miss?”
“It’s right there—oh! It’s finally down!” Pinkie forgot about Soot Rain, dropped to all fours and zipped in the direction of the elevator to go and greet her sister.
“W-where?” Soot Rain’s voice echoed behind her, but Pinkie Pie was too caught up in her excitement to hear it.
Maud Pie had stepped out of the elevator and was looking around the lava chamber, while the other tourists were way ahead. Pinkie Pie rushed to a halt beside her. “Maud! Why didn’t you jump? It was so much fun!”
“I was looking at the volcano,” Maud said. “The plutonic rock is composed of magma, solidified against the inside of the magma chamber. I think it’s interesting.”
Pinkie Pie smiled broadly, and once again her heart jumped in delight at seeing her sister enjoy their first PSSSD excursion so much. She couldn’t wait at the rest of the activities she had planned, as she guessed their PSSSD would be more than just one day—with the crashed hot air balloon and all. They would visit a comedy show tomorrow, go on an exciting sleigh ride the day after tomorrow, and on the last day they would go to Canterklúbb, one of Iceland’s hottest nightclubs. Especially the last one made Pinkie really excited, and she already got goosebumps at the thought—she’d heard that Vinyl Scratch would be spinning that evening, of whom Pinkie was a big fan.
Suddenly another thought crossed Pinkie’s mind, Would Maud have noticed that fight a few minutes ago? she wondered. But just before Pinkie had the opportunity to ask her, the face of the guide popped up from behind Maud’s shoulder. He held up Pinkie’s bungee cord and looked straight at her—he was not amused.
“Eh… let’s go and explore the big cave, Maud,” Pinkie said, grinning uneasily, “there is way more to see there.” Then she pushed her sister forward, down the slope as fast as she could.
At last they both stood in the middle of the vast magma chamber; the heart of the volcano. Above them, four hundred feet higher, a pale, blue-gray light slid through the volcanic vent. The long-stretched crack allowed only a little light through, but it was enough to illuminate most of the conduit and magma chamber of the volcano with a dim beam. Pinkie and Maud gazed around and were awestruck by the vibrant colors, flowing against the walls and ceiling of the cave. There was red, green, yellow, orange and black all interweaved with each other; remnants of the cooled-down magma long ago. The colors glinted with small silvery drops of water, which made them look even more magical. It was like looking at the aurora of the Crystal Empire, floating in the air. The longer the ponies looked, the more the colors seemed to shift and move before their eyes. The air around them smelled dusty and damp, and despite being in a vast underground space, they felt like they were in a tiny and cozy room. Softly, the sound of dripping water filled their ears, only adding more to the surreal landscape. They both breathed timidly, trying their best not to disturb the serenity of the moment.
“Pretty…” Pinkie Pie said slowly. Maud said nothing, but her eyes gleamed.
After a few minutes, Pinkie had seen enough of the volcano, and turned her attention to the rest of the tourists around them, of whom there were none left. The Pie sisters were the only ones left in the volcano; the rest of their group had already departed with the elevator. It seemed that the guide, unsurprisingly, hadn’t waited for them, so now they had to wait for the next elevator down.
“Hey Maud, the rest is already gone, do you see—”
“Rocks. Black and soulless. Children of the violent earth.
Cool. Once blazing. A far cry from their distant past.
Colors. Unexpected. Each rock another character.
Shining. Moving. The Sulphur shimmering.
Different. Yet all the same. Rocks.”
“WHOA!” Pinkie Pie yelled, filling the cave with sound. “I never heard that poem before!” She jumped up and down in excitement. “When did you make it?”
Maud turned her gaze level, staring in the distance. “I just composed it.”
“Wow! This volcano is really doing something to you, huh?” Pinkie said, and nudged her sister playfully.
“It speaks to me.” Maud bent down and placed an ear on the ground, listening intently. “I think I… like it.”
Never before had Pinkie Pie heard such an extensive opinion from the heart of her closest sister. She jumped with delight. “Haha! Just wait after we’re done with this! We’re still going to do the comedy show tomorrow and the sleigh ride after that, and of course don’t forget the party! I’m sure we’ll have just as much fun with those as with the volcano.”
Maud Pie stood up slowly, but kept her gaze at the ground; there was some dust waving in the air. Her expression was unreadable and she blinked once. Then she breathed out. “Uh-huh,” Maud hummed softly, then turned her head to Pinkie.
Pinkie Pie looked back and smiled heartily. They stood like that for a moment, seemingly idle, but Pinkie’s head was actually full of thoughts. She hadn’t really expected a full-blown ‘yeah!’ or even a timid ‘yes’ from Maud. But still, there was something strange about her reaction and Pinkie saw it, because she knew her sister through and through. That’s weird… Maud never says ‘uh-huh,’ Pinkie thought to herself, that’s what Marble Pie always says. And that breath—was it… a sigh? But why would she sigh? Was that because of the dust—Pinkie Pie frowned—or is she... not looking forward to my PSSSD planning?’
“Pinkie, are you ok?” Maud said suddenly, interrupting her sister’s thoughts.
Pinkie Pie shook her head. “Eh, yeah, I’m fine. Fit as a fiddling filly, hehe.”
Another silence fell. A heavy one, for they were still the only ponies in the cave. Maud blinked.
See, Pinkie thought, you’re just imagining things, Pinkamena. Maud is as normal as Maud can be. Of course she’ll like my activities. If she would be disappointed she would say so—Pinkie furrowed her brown once more—or actually, she wouldn’t…
A heavy, metallic clang echoed through the cave. Pinkie jumped, and turned her head at the source of it; it was the elevator.
“Oh! It seems the guide won’t leave us here after all,” Pinkie said. She grinned, “I should probably say sorry to him for giving him such a scare. Shall we go, Maud?”
Maud nodded and together they walked out of the magma chamber, up the spiraling ridge and to the elevator platform. There the guide stood, and his smile faded to a frown as he noticed the pink pony walking towards him. “You nearly gave me a heart attack back there!” he said. “Why did you do such an insane thing?!”
“Because it’s fun!” Pinkie said with a smile, but then continued more seriously, “but I’m really very sorry to have scared you, sir. I promise, next time I’ll warn you before I jump.”
The guide slapped his hoof against his head. “B-but that’s not… that’s not what it’s about, it’s about—” but upon seeing Pinkie’s childish smile he stopped and sighed heavily. “You know, never mind; just DON’T jump this time, alright?”
Pinkie nodded.
“Good. Now come on in—the rest is already here. We’re going up.”
Pinkie skipped inside the elevator, but noticed that Maud was still behind her, facing the opposite way. “Hey Maud! Are you coming, or do you want to live in this volcano?” Pinkie called.
Maud sighed, barely audible, and stepped slowly next to her sister in the metal elevator.
As the machine slowly crept towards the surface again, everypony inside huddled together at the railing and looked down in awe. Everypony, except Pinkie Pie, who was thinking about just one thing: I knew it! Maud IS disappointed…