• Published 11th Sep 2013
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The Wheel and the Butterfly A Dan X Pinkie Pie Saga - Justice3442



Pinkie Pie finds herself adjusting to a new, hostile world, with a new hostile friend. Can they make it through this new misadventure together, or is it the universe that needs to watch out for them?

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Part 14 Pinkie Vs. N.A.R.F.: Chapter 125 Dan & Pinkie Vs. Cupboards

The Wheel and the Butterfly
A Dan X Pinkie Pie saga
Part 14 Pinkie Vs. N.A.R.F.
Chapter 125 Dan & Pinkie Vs. Cupboards

-ooooooo-

“Is she still out there?” Pinkie whispered.

“Are we assuming the bear has the ability to just teleport away?!” Dan replied harshly, but quietly.

The pair sat huddled close together in a confined space. Dan peered through a thin crack of light, the only light that kept the area he and Pinkie were in from being completely dark.

“Well d’uuuh!” Pinkie replied. “I know there’s a bear still out there somewhere, but I mean… I thought it was pretty obvious that I was asking if the bear was, like… rightie-outsidie out there, out there…”

I thought that was pretty clear, myself,” a masculine voice called out.

There was a brief silence.

“Alright, who the heck is that?!” Dan cried. “Is that one of the old guys?”

“… Maybe…” the voice replied.

Pinkie giggled. “It’s the one who’s named after a ghost!”

“That’s Casper you’re thinking of, Goofball!” Dan said in an annoyed tone. “Caspar is one of the three magi!”

“… What’s a Magi…?” Pinkie asked.

A young man’s voice spoke up, “One of the three super computers that run NERV’s systems in Evangelion.”

Dan paused. “… Alright, first of all: NEERRRRRRD! Secondly, you’re dumb for saying that. Thirdly, Sarge, hit mouthy teen with your bell again!” Dan commanded.

“Wait,” Gibson said, “how do you know he’s even—”

“Sir, yes sir!”

THUD!’

‘RING!’

“OW!”

“Finally,” Dan continued, “Now that I know we seem to be in the clown car of cupboards, I need to ask who is touching my butt?”

Pinkie giggled. “Who do you think?”

“Just making sure,” Dan said.

“…On that note,” Gibson said, “I apologize to whoever’s butt I’m touching.”

Pinkie attempted to stifle a laugh and failed. “PFFFFFFFT—AHAHAHAHAHA, you’re apologizing to the butt?!”

“Huh? No, I meant—”

“That’s not my butt!” Amber huffed out.

“It’s not?” Gibson replied. “But it’s so soft and…” He paused. “Oh…” he said flatly. This was quickly followed by a fluctuating and happy-sounding “OoOoOoOoOh~…”

‘SMACK!’

“OW!” Gibson cried.

Hrmph…” A grumpy, elderly voice called out. “Remind me to make some sort of ‘no groping’ policy for the cupboards…”

“Wait!” Dan cried. “There’s another old guy in here?! Are all the old guys in here?!”

A voice hissed out, “The darkness recognizess and welcomess one of itss own.”

“A simple ‘yes’ would have worked,” Dan replied.

“Your group is clever… trying to hide from our watchful eyes by hiding, but we see everything!”

“Oh don’t even start!” Dan cried. “I know you just rushed in here to get away from the bear too!”

Melchior paused briefly then continued, “ I must know, is the pink-haired one still eating cookies?”

Eeeep…” Pinkie said in a worried tone.

“Wait!” Ninja Dave cried from within the darkness. “I’ve got her covered.”

“… You’re in here too?!” Dan cried.

“I was following you two ever since Pinkie yelled out she needed another cookie,” Dave explained as he crawled through the cupboard towards Pinkie.

“Is everyone in this stupid cupboard?!” Dan cried.

“Becky isn’t,” Ninja Dave informed as he handed Pinkie her cookie.

“Or Elise,” Chris added.

“Hey! Chris ol’ buddy!” Dan said in a happy tone. “How you doing?”

“Well, it’s a little cramped in here, but—”

“WHY THE HECK HAVEN’T YOU TALKED TO THE BEAR YET?!” Dan cried.

“Uh… considering how upset she was, I figured I’d give her time to calm down,” Chris replied.

“Why don’t you, oh I don’t know… just transform into a bear and take her out?!” Dan cried.

“I don’t know, why don’t you punch her through a window?!” Chris replied in an irritated tone.

“Because, we’re underground, nimrod!” Dan shot back.

“You know what I meant!” Chris replied.

“Look, I haven’t quite figured my powers out yet, but I know I can’t just turn them off and on!” Dan cried.

“Well it’s the same thing for me!” Chris replied. “I mean… If I somehow could just turn into a bear whenever I felt like it, don’t you think I’d do it more often with all the trouble you and I get into?!”

Dan paused and thought about this. “… You know what Chris? Shut up.”

Everyone went silent for a moment.

“… Omn… Swo!” Pinkie spoke up before she swallowed the bit of cookie in her mouth. “Anyone have anything interesting to talk about?”

“…”

Crunchy spoke up. “Has anyone really looked at darkness? I mean really looked at it?”

“…”

Melchior spoke up, “I have.”

Dan sighed heavily, “Can we have someone who doesn’t consider Cheetos a food group pick our topic?”

Wally spoke up, “… Is anyone here Native American or from India?”

“…”

“What the heck does that have to do with anything?!” Dan cried.

Wally sighed. “I wanted to make a joke about being stuck in a cupboard, but I couldn’t figure out how to make it work with the group we have…”

“…”

“Oh!” Chris exclaimed. He chuckled to himself. “I got it…”

Dan began to growl in irritation. “Grrrr… Anyone else have something we can talk about?!”

Amber spoke up, “…Can we can talk about how massive this cupboard is?”

“I know, right!” D.H. replied. “Talk about dimensional transcendence! There’s like… 13 people in here!”

“…”

“… You might say there’s a baker’s dozen!” Balthazar cried.

A series of groans and chuckles erupted in the cupboard.

“Puns aside, there seems to be an absurd amount of space in here forthe simple task of holding kitchen supplies,” Amber reasoned.

“I know, right!” Pinkie said excitedly. “Maybe we don’t ever have to leave and risk being eaten by a bear! We can start our own clan as cupboard people!”

“Well, we can’t just stay here forever,” Gibson said.

That doesn’t sound like a positive attitude a member of the Cupboard Clan should have!” Pinkie replied.

“It’s just that while we’re sitting here in the pitch-black, we’re likely to be eaten by a grue…”

There was a beat of silence, followed by an annoyed Dan uttering, “What the heck are you even talking about, you weirdo?!”

“Seriously, no one got that?!” Gibson cried. “You guys are honestly making me miss my brother… he would have got it,” Gibson said sullenly.

Pinkie gasped. “Maybe he could join us in the cupboard!”

“Pretty sure my mom’s not going to let my brother come to a shadowy underground headquarters of a group that have people killed where there’s also an angry bear on the loose…” Gibson replied.

Pinkie paused. “I got it! We’ll tunnel our way out, then your brother could join us!”

Dan groaned. “Goofball, if we could tunnel our way out, why would we stay in the cupboard?”

“Well how else do you propose we get Gibson’s brother to join us in the cupboard?!”

“THAT’S NOT EVEN THE PROBLEM!” Dan cried. “BESIDES, everything around us seems to be made out of solid stone! HOW ARE WE GOING TO DIG OUT?!”

There was a beat of silence.

“I got it!” Pinkie cried. “We need a pickaxe, 10 pounds of onions, a straw, half a kumquat, and a really good blender!”

“… Right, I’m not going to ask why because it doesn’t matter… We’re stuck in a cupboard!” Dan cried. “How are we going to get all this stuff?! Don’t tell me you have it all in your hair!”

Pinkie sighed. “I wish! I mean… who has the foresight to keep half a kumquat on them?!”

Dan paused. “… Wait, so you have…”

I keep half a kumquat on me!” Caspar spoke up.

“… What?” Dan asked flatly.

“Awesome!” Pinkie cried. “How many onions do you have?”

Caspar sighed. “Just the three…”

“That’s too bad,” Pinkie said. “We’re a few pounds short, still… Guess we’ll have to go to the store…”

Still stuck in a cupboard,” Dan reminded.

“Well, what do you think I need the onions for?!” Pinkie shot back. “We’ll just have to go out and figure some other way to get the onions!”

Dan sighed. “So when I say, ‘stuck in the cupboard’, what do you hear?”

“WAIT! I THINK WE CAN STILL MAKE THIS WORK,” Pinkie cried excitedly. “We just need to pick up some mason jars to fill with maple syrup!”

GAH!” Dan cried angrily. “WHAT PART ABOUT BEING STUCK IN A CUPBOARD DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND!?”

“Wait! Hear me out!” Pinkie said. “Now, first we go to the pet store, and—”

GRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!

-o~ Much arguing later ~o-

“… HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO EXPLAIN IT!?” Dan cried. “‘Because we’d be out of the cupboard!’”

“Ooooo….” Pinkie uttered. “Ooooooooo…”

“…”

“…So anyways,” Pinkie said, “we use the plunger we just acquired from the supply closet to barter for the prerequisite onions we need…”

“THAT’S IT!” Dan cried. “I’m feeding myself to the bear!”

“NO DAN!” Pinkie cried. “IF YOU DIE, WHO WILL CARRY THE TOTE BAG FULL OF HUMMUS?!”

Speaking of the bear,” Chris said, “has anybody noticed she hasn’t tried to break into the cupboards despite all of Dan’s yelling?”

“I noticed,” Wally said, “but I didn’t say anything because I’ve already gotten enough flack for bringing up the bear today.”

Dan spoke up, “I vote we send Wally out to check on the bear!”

“See, this is exactly why I didn’t bring up the bear!” Wally said.

Without warning, light began to flow into the darkness as one of the cupboard doors began to slowly open.

Pinkie gasped. “New citizens!” she cried excitedly.

“SHHHHHHHHHHHH!” The group shushed out.

“What the heck are you guys doing?” Elise asked as she looked into the cupboard.

“Elise!” Pinkie exclaimed. “You can join the Cupboard Clan!” she said excitedly.

“Cupboard clan?” Becky asked from behind Elise.

“Becky too!” Pinkie said.

Dan rolled his eyes. “Goofball, I don’t think we’re going to establish some sort of society of people who live in a cupboard.”

“Well not with that attitude, we’re not!”

“Beautiful,” Chris exclaimed, “you must have subdued the bear and came to rescue us!”

“If by ‘subdued the bear’ you mean ‘Hung out with Becky in an out of the way place in this huge underground complex until the bear got sleepy and decided to take a nap with its cubs’, then yes, that’s exactly what I did.”

Elise motioned out and up as everyone began to crawl out of the cupboard into the kitchen area that was littered with mixing bowls, spatulas of various types, and other baking tools.

The group looked up at where Elise had motioned out to.

“HAH!” Dan exclaimed derisively. “I guess the bears run this place now.”

“Oh, poo…” Caspar uttered.

“Well that was unexpected,” Balthazar added.

“No!” Melchior half cried, half croaked out. “Noo! Nooo! Nooo! Nooooo!

Caspar and Balthazar narrowed their eyes and turned towards Melchior.

What?!” Melchior said in a gravelly voice.

Caspar folded his arms in front of his chest. “Must you throw a tantrum every time things don’t go your way?”

Melchior raised a withered hand and pointed an index finger at Caspar. “You are in no position to judge! You whine whenever the kitchen runs out of chocolate milk!”

“Well, we’re an organization built around the foodservice industry, are we not?” Caspar said as he rolled his palm upwards. “How difficult is it to keep a kitchen stocked with a single item?”

“Enough!” Balthazar barked out. “We’ll just have to get the bears away from our chairs…”

High above the group, the mother bear and her cubs slept curled up together on the highest platform in front of the chairs the three men had been sitting on prior.

Dan chuckled to himself. “I think you three got what you deserved!”

The three men turned and glowered at him.

Melchior spoke up, “We’re leaders of a dark group where deadly force is often times expected to be carried out by its members! Were you expecting things to be easy and free of peril?”

Dan motioned to Pinkie. “I just want to make it so my girlfriend and I can eat out at restaurants without fear of her being killed by the kitchen staff! You’re lucky I didn’t just swear vengeance on this place and try to take it out.”

Chris nodded in agreement. “You really are.”

Melchior raised an index finger at Chris. “You there, the tall one. Go talk to the bears and ask them to leave.”

“… Does this count as passing the test?” Chris asked.

Balthazar nodded. “Absolutely.”

“What?!” Dan cried. “We can just walk to the other room at this point! Leave the stupid bears up there!”

Chris turned to Dan. “You know the bears could wake up and start wandering around. I mean… you saw some of the other testing rooms. I don’t think we want to have to worry about random bear attacks on top of everything else.”

Dan raised a hand and began flapping his fingers up and down with a goofy expression on his face. “Manaha, manahah… My name is Chris and I can talk to bears, but only when I’m not being a big, whiny ba—OW!

Pinkie retracted the hand she had just used to swat the back of Dan’s head with. She looked at Chris and smiled. “Chris, we’d all very much appreciate it if you would ask the bears to leave. Omn…”

Chris smiled. “Sure Pinkie.” He turned to the three men. “Uh… Where should I direct them?”

Sarge suddenly stepped forward. “Oh! I know of the perfect place!”

Chris smiled. “Well, lead the way.” He and Sarge walked off towards the raised platform.

Dan rubbed the back of his head and turned to Pinkie. “Why’d you hit me?” he asked Pinkie in an irritated tone.

Pinkie shot Dan a sideways smirk. “‘Cause you were being a butt!”

“I thought you liked my butt!” Dan replied.

Pinkie’s eyes went wide. “I do, but I meant… I… uhhh… I mean… I don’t think I want you to be… erm…a butt… but…butt? Butts…? ” Pinkie simply trailed off as she stared vacantly into open space.

“Uh, boss man?” Crunchy said. “I think you broke her...”

Amber walked up and examined Pinkie carefully. “Wow, she’s like... really out of it!” She moved a finger back and forth in front of Pinkie’s face. “I’m not sure she’s even aware of her surroundings anymore!”

“Dan!” Elise said in an irritated voice.

Dan raised an eyebrow. “What?! I barely did anything!” Dan cried as he motioned to himself. “Are you really blaming me just because Pinkie is so easy to confuse?!”

“Confused is one thing,” Elise replied, “but Pinkie looks like she just slipped into a coma standing up!”

“Oh, keep your shirt on! She just can’t wrap her mind around the joy she has at touching my butt with the disdain she has at me being a metaphorical butt. Personally, I think it’s simply that the word ‘metaphysical’ trips her up.”

Elise scrunched her lips up to one side of her face. “Well… can you get her out of it?”

“Of course!” Dan cried. He pulled his hand back and gave Pinkie’s rear end a hard swat.

Pinkie’s eyes widened as she let out a small squeak and she jumped slightly. “What happened?!” she cried as she rubbed her posterior. “Where’d I go just now!?” Pinkie frowned. “Wherever it was, it was crowded and full of butts… kinda like being stuck in a full bus, except everyone’s twerking.”

Dan cocked an eyebrow slightly. “I presented you with some sort of butt conundrum and your brain couldn’t process it so you went into a catatonic state.”

“Not a buttnundrum!” Pinkie cried. “Boy are my cheeks red… You know how that assassinates my thinking ability.”

Dan narrowed his eyes. “Did you just—”

Pinkie continued, “What I’m saying is that my brain tends to get the tail end of that bum deal and gets left far behind to sit upon its keister.”

Balthazar and Caspar broke into a hysterical fit of laughter.

Dan scowled at Pinkie. “Finished?” he asked.

Pinkie grinned. “I think I just hit the end of my list. Omn…”

Dan groaned as the laughter increased.

“Are we done talking about butts?” Wally asked. “I think we’ve all heard more talk about butts in one day than we usually do in an entire month…”

“Not me!” D.H. said happily.

Everyone paused and stared at her.

Ooookay…” Dan uttered. “Moving right along…”

Balthazar’s voice rang up from high above the group. “Congratulations on completing the dreaded bear test!”

Everyone looked up.

“Huh, they got up there fast…” Becky muttered out.

“What the heck was that test even for?!” Dan cried. “What does sneaking past bears have to do with working at a bakery?!”

Balthazar smiled. “How you dealt with the bear demonstrated us your ability to assess and properly deal with a particularly unruly and difficult customer.”

The group stared up blankly at Balthazar for a moment.

Dan replied, “… I don’t think sitting around and arguing until we get chased into a cupboard demonstrated any of that, but okay.”

Chris and Sarge began to walk back down into the kitchen area.

“Well, I think I did pretty well,” Chris declared.

“There you are!” Dan cried. “We’ve been waiting for you for hours, or whatever!”

“Dan!” Chris replied. “I was only gone a few minutes.”

Dan folded his arms across his chest. “Hence why I said, ‘or whatever’.”

Uh, do you all need a moment?” Balthazar asked.

“That depends, are we done with animals?” Dan cried in an irritated tone.

Balthazar nodded. “No more wild animals for the tests.”

“We better be!” Dan cried. “Fine, what’s the next potentially deadly test that barely has any relevance to running a bakery?”

Pinkie chuckled. “Hehehe… barely…

Dan wheeled on her and pointed an angry index finger at her. “Don’t even start!”

Balthazar stroked his beard. “Well, it’s usually left as a surprise that everyone has to overcome when they get through that last room…” He looked down and smiled. “But I’ll admit our time together has left me feeling a bit closer to this group than most others... Maybe it was all that time stuck in a cupboard together…”

“Cupboard buddies!” Pinkie said happily.

Balthazar continued. “Your next test will check your team’s endurance and dexterity as they carry baked goods through a simple obstacle course.”

The group let out a series of relieved sounding exhales.

Dan frowned. “And by ‘simple obstacle course’ do you mean the room with all the spikes and fire and such?”

Balthazar nodded. “Yes, I do.”

The group’s relaxed state quickly turned to vapor and dissipated as the realization of the danger they were still in evaporated.

Dan smacked a hand against his face. “Oooooh, good,” he said sarcastically.

Author's Note:

To everyone waiting for the main story or some similarly important arc to kick in: Thank you very much for being patient. :twilightblush:

To everyone who is enjoying the comedy of this arc. Glad you’re happy! :pinkiehappy:

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