Experimental Senses

by Victoria_the_dragoness

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

“Woohoo! Off to have some fun!” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing around the outside of the treehouse excitedly.
The sudden noise caused several ponies to look over at her, as Twilight locked her door. She had her saddlebags full of paper and gear for her studies. The unicorn chuckled nervously at the odd stares she and Pinkie were getting. After a few moments, though, the ponies returned to their business, shrugging the outburst off as whatever it was Pinkie was doing at the time.
“Phew,” Said Twilight, hanging her head, “Yes, I’m sure it will be.” I hope. Twilight gritted her teeth nervously.
On her fifth lap around the house, Pinkie hopped up in front of Twilight to ask, “Well whatcha waiting for?” She picked up a saddlebag in her mouth and continued, “Come on.”
Pausing for a moment to speculate on just what she was waiting for, Twilight began to trot forward. “Right. Let’s get going then.”
Without another word, save for Pinkie’s “Hooray!” directly after the unicorn’s reply, the two ponies got going.
*****
“Hey, Twilight?” Pinkie said as they walked (or in Pinkie’s case, bounced) along the path to Sweet Apple Acres. Every now and then, she would wave to a passing pony and wish them a good day, but her attention stayed with Twilight it seemed. “What are we going to do once we get to Applejack? Are we going to say “Hello, we’re here to do research on you, so just act like normal and do whatever it is you do. We’ll figure out the rest”? Because I really can’t figure out how this will work.”
Twilight giggled at the confusion covering Pinkie’s face. “We have to find a spot where we can see what Applejack is doing, but one that is also hidden from view. And no, we won’t be saying that to her.”
Realization seemed to hit Pinkie, as she shifted to a swift trot to keep pace with Twilight. “Ohhhhh! You mean we’ll be like ninjas. Cool! I didn’t know ninjas were part scientist.”
“Well, sort of,” Said Twilight, another giggle escaping her lips. “We can’t let our subject know that we are there. We need to view them in nature; in this case, as Applejack works around the farm. If we were to reveal ourselves to her, she wouldn’t be doing what she normally would and our research would be inconclusive.”
Pinkie’s head tilted to the side, but she didn’t say anything.
“Of course this way of explaining is more for bunnies and other wild animals and not really ponies, but it is more or less true.”
The little pony smiled, suddenly. “It’s okay, Twilight. I get it. We have to be secretive and sneaky.”
“Yeah, sort of.” Well, I think she understands, The lavender unicorn thought with a smile.
Pinkie then turned her head back to watch where she was going (which Twilight thought now was extremely hard not to do, at least for her) and resumed her bouncing.
“Oh wow!” Pinkie said, tilting her head over to the right of the path. She jumped up and ran over to the side of the road, with Twilight following out of curiosity.
“What is it, Pinkie?” She said, trying to spot what Pinkie was staring at.
“Oh,” The mare explained, “it’s this flower. It’s really pretty.”
Pinkie stepped to the side to let the unicorn see, and Twilight smiled at the sight. “Oh. A lilium.”
“A lily-what?”
“A lilium,” Twilight repeated, gesturing to the plant. “It’s the genus and species name for the type of flower this is: A lilium lancifolium, or tiger lily.”
“This flower’s a genius?” Pinkie said, pointing a hoof at the polka dotted, and bright red plant.
Twilight shook her head, and said, “Genus. It’s part of the classification for species. Each species on this planet has a scientific name, named by the pony that found and studied it. The pony who found this one named it after the color pattern of the flower petals.”
“That makes sense. It doesn’t look too much like a tiger though.”
Twilight giggled. “No, it doesn’t.”
Pinkie scrunched her nose up in thought, and said, “So what about studying flowers? Does that have a funny name?”
She actually seems interested in this sort of thing now, Twilight thought. Maybe I’m not giving her enough credit. “Yes, it’s called floriculture. I remembered you like flowers.”
“You did?” The pink pony’s eyes lit up when she said that, Twilight couldn’t help but smile at her curiosity.
“Yes, you were always sniffing the flowers along the path when I was studying your Pinkie sense; of course I didn’t really think about that until after. I wrote down everything that day.” But…I was only interested in disproving your sense. Twilight hung her head sadly.
“What’s the matter, Twilight?” Pinkie asked, placing a forehoof on Twilight’s shoulder. Her eyes were knitted with worry.
“N-nothing. Come on, let’s go.” The unicorn stuttered, turning back onto the path.
“Okie dokey lokie!” Pinkie shouted, less enthusiastically than usual. Twilight noticed and clenched her teeth, but didn’t turn around to say anything. “So, what’s the study of ponies?” Pinkie asked, trotting up next to the bookworm pony.
“Oh, it’s hippology.” Just then a few brightly colored birds fluttered through the trees on the path, back the way they had come. They were whistling a tune, not unlike the ones that Pinkie so often sang when she was off in her own little world. Twilight wondered whether or not she had heard these birds singing before, and made her songs from their calls.
“Hippos? We don’t look like hippos.” She giggled, probably because she was thinking of how silly the pony must have been who came up with that name.
Twilight really wished Pinkie would stop talking right now. She seemed less cheerful now and it was all her fault. Now she just wanted for the both of them to be spending their days in their normal fashions (well, as normal as Pinkie could get anyway).
You know, Thought Twilight suddenly, on second thought it might be easier to understand her if we go by what she does every day. Where she goes and what comes of all her ventures could give me a clearer sense of how her Pinkie sense functions.
Twilight nodded to herself and watched in amusement at Pinkie. She was probably thinking of how ponies could be mistaken for hippos; most likely that line of thinking wasn’t making any clear sense. “Pinkie,” The unicorn said.
“Hmm?” Said Pinkie, seemingly shaken from whatever it was that she was thinking.
“I’ve changed my mind on what we’ll be researching.” Twilight stopped and nodded, having made up her mind at last.
Pinkie tilted her head to the side curiously, as she stopped and turned to face the unicorn properly. “Oh? Then what will we be ‘researching’?”
“Um…well…I thought, since it’s your first time doing anything scientific, maybe you would like to pick what we look at. Just from what you look at during your day, maybe?”
“Oh? Oh. Ohhhhh! Okay, I gotcha. Well, hmm. I already smelled the flowers…what else do I do all day?” Pinkie rubbed her nose in concentration as she thought of her daily activities. “I do like looking at butterflies.”
“Perfect. We’ll have to go to a place with tons of flowers. Butterflies drink nectar from the flowers and pollen from them becomes stuck to their legs. When they carry on to the next flower, it is pollinated with the spores of the last plants it visited.”
“Ooooh, you’re so smart Twilight. I don’t know how you can remember all that neat information.”
Twilight cheeks turned bright red. “Well, I guess I just practice. Research was one of my favourite past times. I had a fascination with flowers when I was younger and I poured over every book I found that related to their life cycle. Did you know that butterflies have five types of color vision? That’s two more than we can even imagine. Just think about what they see when looking at a flower like this.”
“Wow! That’s amazing!” Pinkie glanced down at the colorful flower, as if she was trying to imagine what it would look like from a butterfly’s perspective anyway. Of course it was just a guess from Twilight, but it made her giggle softly all the same. Eventually, Pinkie looked back at the unicorn and began to hop backward, keeping her bright, round eyes focussed on Twilight. “Come on, I know a great place full of flowers, it’s right near Sweet Apple Acres actually!”
Twilight Sparkle smiled, and followed soon after her pink friend. “Lead the way, Pinkie Pie.”

Author's Note:

Here's another chapter folks! I know, it's about time right? I sort of forgot that I already created this chapter long ago, but I'm glad I didn't post it yet. I edited a little bit in chapter 3 and now this chapter makes more sense.

I think it'll be one more chapter before thinking of interesting, funny plot lines will be much easier. I know this is probably everyone's favourite story of mine on here, so I'll try to write the next one quickly.

Also, thanks to Kaii-Leiko, my official proofreader, I'm fairly certain that the grammar errors are at a minimum. Still, if anyone notices something, please let me know. I hate grammar errors, so I know how you feel when one comes up. Ruins the story, no matter how great it is. xD

Alright, enjoy the new chapter and I hope it was worth the long wait. ^^

Comments

[FluffyPinks]

Hiya! I was wondering when, or if there was going to be a next chapter.