//------------------------------// // The Performer // Story: The Soul of a Pony // by Gizogin //------------------------------// The Soul of a Pony Chapter 3: The Performer "Twilight? Are you okay?" The unicorn in question found herself back in the Ponyville library, a concerned Pinkie Pie standing over her. It took Twilight several moments to pull her thoughts back together, muddled as they'd been from the journey into Pinkie's mind. She was still reeling from the experience. It wasn't often that one had a chance to walk around in another pony's mind, after all. Twilight got to her feet, noting idly that she must have collapsed at some point, before answering, "Yeah, I'm fine." "Oh, good!" Pinkie exclaimed. "You were just standing there looking into space for, like, a whole minute! Then you fell over! Did you mess up your spell?" "No, no, the spell worked," she replied. "At least, I think it did. It was... really strange." Looking at Pinkie then, Twilight was suddenly hit with a new understanding of the pink pony. Standing before her was a pony who took pleasure in simply being alive. To her, every day was a celebration, every moment a gift. What point was there in being sad, when she could be happy instead? All of the silliness, all the little quirks and foibles, were just her ways of expressing the boundless joy she felt. More than that, though, Pinkie wanted others to be happy as well. After all, she knew how good it felt to smile, and it just wouldn't be fair if she didn't show everypony else. Pinkie did the things she did not out of hope for a reward, but for the satisfaction of knowing that she'd made a positive impact in somepony's life. Then there were the less obvious sides to Pinkie's personality. She didn't take rejection well; Twilight had seen firsthoof what had happened when she'd become convinced that all her friends were sick of her. There was quite a lot of intelligence hidden underneath the bubbly exterior, as well. All this knowledge came to Twilight in a rush, unbidden. The experience was rather disconcerting, somewhat akin to looking at a candle flame after sitting in the dark for several minutes. How did I know all that? she wondered. Was that all from the soulgaze? "Uhh, Twilight? You're doing the staring thing again." Pinkie's voice snapped Twilight out of her reverie, and she pushed aside the bizarre sensation, resolving to deal with it in full later. "Sorry," she apologized, "I guess I'm a little distracted." Pinkie giggled, saying, "Wow, did my brain freak you out that much?" "Actually, it was more of a representation of your consciousness than your brain," Twilight corrected automatically, before the implications of that question could sink in. "Hang on," she began, a grin forming on her face. "You were paying attention!" Of course, her discussion with Pinkie's Knowledge should have confirmed as much, but Twilight still took satisfaction in knowing that her lecture hadn't gone to waste. "Duh," Pinkie said, as though it should have been obvious. "So, what was my brain like? Was it full of dream-zombies?" As she said this, she reared up on her hind legs and rolled her eyes up into her head. "Braaaaaaains," she moaned, "We live in braaaaaaaains." "No, there were no dream-zombies," Twilight said, rolling her eyes at the performance. "It was a party. A party with more than a hundred Pinkie Pies in it." Somehow, she felt very awkward explaining what she'd seen. Why? she thought. It's her own mind. She has a right to know. Pinkie fell over backwards out of excitement. "Ohmygosh! A hundred of me? In a party? That would be the most funnest party ever!" she declared, before shooting off a rapid-fire list of all the fun party games she could play with all those Pinkies. Fortunately for both Twilight and the world of grammar, she was spared from having to hear an explanation of how one could create an ideal rotation system for a hundred-pony game of pin-the-tail-on-the-pony (apparently, rubber snakes were involved) by a timely announcement from Spike. "Hey, Twilight, Pinkie, lunch is ready!" he called from the kitchen. It was as though somepony had run a current through Pinkie. She leapt into the air, all four legs perfectly straight, and let out a gasp. "Oh no, how long have I been here?" "About half an hour," came Twilight's confused reply. "Why?" "I'm running late!" Pinkie cried, as she began to trot agitatedly in place. "I have work to do!" That just increased Twilight's confusion. "I thought you said you were done with work for today?" "Not work work!" she said, exasperated. Without elaborating any further, she ran for the door. "I'll see you later, Twilight!" she called. "Um, bye?" This turn of events had thrown Twilight slightly, and she wasn't entirely sure what had just happened. Then, not a minute after she'd left, Pinkie stuck her head back in through the door and said, "Hey, you should try that brain-looking spell on Rainbow Dash! I bet it'd be totally cool! Bye again!" Then she was gone. "C'mon, Twilight!" Spike yelled again. "Lunch is getting cold!" Where are you hiding, Rainbow? Twilight walked around the market, her eyes scanning the skies for any trace of Rainbow Dash. After lunch, which had consisted of a toasted dandelion-and-cheese sandwich and a salad, she'd decided to act on Pinkie's suggestion. She hadn't been planning on using the soulgaze more than once. In fact, she hadn't really planned to use it at all; the only reason she'd developed the spell was to see if it were possible. Pinkie's arrival had just come at a convenient time, and Twilight had acted on the spur of the moment. After seeing Pinkie's mind (despite the name, Twilight didn't put much stock in the spell's ability to see a pony's "soul"; that idea struck her as characteristic of pseudomagic), however, Twilight had been overcome by curiosity. What would the spell show of her other friends? There was so much she could learn about them, and likely about friendship as well. There's probably a friendship report in here somewhere, Twilight mused. Let's see... "Dear Princess Celestia, Today I learned that there is so much more to a pony than what you see." Nah, it sounds too much like the one about Zecora... As she worked on composing the letter, Twilight continued her search for Rainbow Dash. On summer afternoons like this, when there often wasn't a great deal of weather work to be done, the brash pegasus could often be found napping on a cloud or in a tree. Unless, of course, she was practicing her trick flying. Not likely, Twilight thought to herself. Had she said those words aloud, they would have been dripping with sarcasm. She would have crashed into my window by now. Twilight's search eventually brought her to the outskirts of Ponyville. Though she'd seen a few promising patches of cloud along the way, none of them had been concealing the daredevil flyer. She wouldn't have taken her nap so close to the town center anyway, the librarian conceded. Out here, it was much quieter. She looked up once more, and spotted a single, tiny cloud in the distance. There you are, she thought, angling straight for it. "Rainbow! Rainbow! Are you up there?" Rainbow Dash was indeed "up there". Until about two seconds ago, she had also been asleep. Napping was, behind flying, her favorite activity. She'd find a nice, puffy cloud and just curl up on it. The one she'd chosen for this particular afternoon had been a real treat: a fresh cumulus, with just the right amount of give. Rainbow had positioned it outside Ponyville, in one of her favorite spots. Up until the rude interruption, it had been absolutely perfect. She groaned, loudly. Maybe the intruder would take the hint, and leave her to her nap. "Oh, good, I finally found you. I need your help with something." Rainbow let out another groan. Not only would she not be able to finish her nap, she'd have to actually do something too. She toyed with the idea of simply ignoring the trespasser, or else just flying away and finding another place to finish sleeping. The idea was rejected almost immediately; whoever this pony was, it wasn't likely that he or she would give up so easily. Finally, with monumental effort, she opened her eyes and looked down at the pony who'd ruined her perfect moment. "Twilight?" she asked, her voice sounding more annoyed than she really meant it to. "What do you want?" "I have this new spell I've been working on, to let me-" Twilight began, but Rainbow cut her off. "How long's it gonna take?" She definitely didn't need to hear another of the egghead's boring explanations. To her mind, the sooner this was done, the sooner she could get back to sleep. Twilight, slightly put out at having her lecture interrupted, nonetheless gave her answer: "It should only be a couple minutes. I'd hate to keep you from something as important as your nap." If there was sarcasm in her words, it failed to impact Rainbow. "Great," she replied. "Let's get this over with." As Rainbow Dash stretched her wings for the short flight to the ground below, Twilight began to prepare the spell that would let her see into the pegasus's consciousness. It was easier the second time; after using it on Pinkie, Twilight already knew exactly what to do. Rainbow alighted on the ground in front of Twilight just as she was ready to cast the spell. "Are you ready?" she asked, her voice slightly strained by the concentration the magic required. Her horn was awash with a bright magenta light. "Yeah, yeah," came the bored reply. "What do I need to do?" "Nothing, just stand there. Here goes!" This time, Twilight knew what to expect as she released the magic. It started exactly as before: the feeling of falling forwards, Rainbow's eyes expanding to swallow her. Then, blackness. When Twilight could see again, she couldn't believe her eyes. Her first thought was that she was back in Cloudsdale, in the Cloudiseum. Certainly, with its cloud-stands and stark white pillars, the stadium of Rainbow's mind bore more than a passing resemblance to that venue of flying sports. Twilight quickly spotted a number of differences, however. The most obvious difference was the lack of a royal box. The Cloudsdale arena had had a special section set aside for the rare visit from the Princess. Rainbow's stadium, however, did not. In fact, there did not seem to be any differentiation whatsoever in the seating. There weren't even separate spectator stands for supporters and opponents, usually a staple in any sports venue. Every seat was exactly the same, evenly spaced around the circular arena. Another difference was the lack of embellishment or decoration. Gone were the engravings on the walls and pillars; every surface in the stadium was plain and unmarked. Flags and banners of every color had flown in the Cloudiseum during the Best Young Flyers Competition, but the only such consideration here were a few small pennants of red, blue, and yellow. Overall, the effect was completely boring. It seemed to Twilight that the stadium was merely an afterthought; the show was the important part, and any detail in the surroundings would have been an unnecessary distraction. Twilight, her examination of the stands complete, turned to the center of the stadium to see what sort of event was taking place. When she spotted it, it took her breath away. Rainbow Dash was the only thing in the stadium. By all rights, the sheer size of it should have swallowed her up, making her seem no more than an insignificant dot. She obviously disagreed. She was flying around the arena at top speed, a rainbow blur against the white backdrop. She performed stunt after stunt, acrobatic flips and spins interspersed with swooping dives and hairpin turns. It was a love letter to speed and adrenaline, written in the sweat soaking her coat and the strain in her muscles. Twilight was in awe. Somehow, the rest of the audience weren't moved. They watched the show with complete apathy, no expression whatsoever on their faces. Twilight managed to break away from the enthralling spectacle before her, and turned around to get a better look at her fellow spectators. She wanted to yell at them, to demand that they applaud the amazing stunts being performed just for them. Upon seeing their faces in detail, however, the words died in her throat. The ponies in the audience looked... wrong. There was something fundamentally off about them, and it set Twilight's teeth on edge. Maybe it was the way their bodies never moved, except to keep their stares on the cyan pegasus. Perhaps it was the crowd-wide lack of a single cutie mark, or any distinguishing feature for that matter. More than that, though, they seemed unfinished. There wasn't nearly enough detail in those ponies; they were just rough images. But their eyes, those were the worst. They never blinked, ever. They just watched, and it seemed to Twilight that they were silently judging. It was horrible. The unicorn decided she'd had enough. With a final glance at the speeding form of Rainbow Dash, she ended the spell, and the stadium faded into blackness.