9. Plagiarize Something Old
Pinkie hopped into her room and flicked on the light.
She glanced around. “Ah, there you are, Goomi!” She scooped up the alligator and held him in midair. “Wanna hear about my super-amazing, friend-filled day?”
Gummy blinked slowly.
“I know I was worried earlier about making friends, but it turns out I was just being a silly filly! I have so many amazing friends already, I don’t need to panic about making more. And once everypony gets out of their weird mood I’ll have even more friends to make!”
Pinkie placed her pet on the bed. “Oh where do I even start? I got a present from Fluttershy, I had lunch with Rainbow Dash, and I had three baking lessons with Applejack and Twilight! Well, more like two and a tenth, but might as well round up since I’m sure we’ll do it again later! My friends are so amazing, spending all that time with me!” Pinkie rubbed her chin. “And then I also had a talk with Rarity, and another talk with Rarity and Twilight. They were really nice to explain everything for me. I just wish there was something I could do about Fluttershy’s pet and all those little things that Rarity mentioned.”
Gummy blinked slowly.
Pinkie laughed quietly. “You’re right! I’ll figure something out eventually!” Pinkie bounced over to her bed and settled under the covers, Gummy still curled up at the other end.
Pinkie stared up at the ceiling. “You know, I’m so excited, I’m not sure I’ll be able to sleep!”
There was a moment of silence.
“You’re right! Some reading might help!” Pinkie twisted around and saw the large journal on her nightstand. “Perfect!” She grabbed it with her teeth, and then pushed the pillows against the backboard. She scooted backward, wiggling her flank until she had settled into a sitting position. It took a few moments to figure out how to hold the book, but eventually it flipped it open.
The page seemed to be in-progress song lyrics. It was arranged in stanzas and there were a lot of crossed-out words and corrections littering the entire thing.
Pinkie flipped the page a few times, her eyes scanning each one. Journal entries. Jokes. A short story. Poetry. More song lyrics. She flipped the page again and stopped.
Pony Party Preferences
Pinkie raised an eyebrow and flipped the page.
Rarity; Dislikes balloons, piñatas, and other threats to mane. Loves punch and cake. No preferred party size.
She flipped the page again. There was an entry for all her friends, and even more for all her tentative friends.
She smacked herself in the face. “Oh, Goomi, I can’t believe how oblivious I’ve been! Here the entire town is upset over something, and one of my best friends lost a pet, and I’m just sitting here doing nothing!” Pinkie shook her head. “I can’t believe how selfish I am.”
Pinkie scrunched her eyes shut for a few moments, and then popped them open again. “No! This is no time to be depressed!” She flung aside her covers and leapt out of bed. “Everypony needs me! My friends need me! And there's only one thing I can do to help them!” Pinkie grabbed the journal and waltzed over to her work table. She gave it a once-over, and a huge smile grew on her face.
“I've gotta throw a party!”
Oh dear, this will probably end badly. This version of Pinkie is so cute though, she thinks the best of everypony and she tries so hard to make them happy, I hope she does well at this party.
Hrmph, irritatingly short.
Moar please.
I kinda like these short chapters, they're always straight to the point
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Me too. I love when chapters are short or even have a single scene. It really helps with reading during long gaming sessions.
But long ones are good too. Even if they are scary in a way that they eat all of attention and it's hard to stop reading.
...
(quietly grabs a bucket of popcorn)
So... yeah, Wham Chapter's coming up I believe.
(eats some)
Interestin'.
I kind of wish we could have seen the other entries. Would have been funny. :D
Twilight really needs some closure in all this (maybe opening up a scrying spell?) It's not like the pond has been sealed yet, so there's nothing stopping her from going over there physically to bring Pinkie back. Maybe Twilight could team up with her alternates (enough power to overwhelm her wards then).
2759033 At least it's not tagged tragedy.
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Too Many Pinkie Pies was, to me, a rather frightening episode, as well as a dark one, because of the implications. I feel this story accurately describes a big portion of what bothered me so much about that episode: primarily, the wanton murder of the Pinkie clones.
While it can be easy to see the Pinkie clones as... well, clones, I think the writers forgot that they were also ponies. I mean, take a look at the first clone! She displayed a range of emotions from joy to despair, excitement and panic in just a short time. Any flaws in her personality can be chalked up to the fact that she was only a few hours old, and her personality template was that of a "fun seeker" when she was created. Was it really her fault that she turned out so annoying, or ended up creating more clones? In a way, it's only to be expected of her, because it's literally all she knows. Who's to say that, given time, she wouldn't develop her own, unique personality?
And yet, Twilight casually banishes them, one after the other, as they fail her ridiculous test (the test being another weak/disturbing point in the episode, btw). Twilight never once considers what she might be banishing them to. Is there life on the other side of the pool? Or will they simply be obliterated? Twilight is a very smart pony, and I find it hard to believe that she wouldn't have considered the ethical ramifications of her actions.
As I mentioned, the test itself bothered me as well. Watching paint dry? THAT was her brilliant plan? Not "Ask a question only the real Pinkie would know" Or, I dunno... use your understanding of friendship, and your own friends' psyche, to eventually figure out which was the real pinkie? Here's a hint... Only one seemed to be emotionally affected by what was going on. Likely, this would imply that said Pinkie understood on some level the complexity of the situation, and felt remorse that even she couldn't determine who the real Pinkie was. Since the others were all created within a few hours of the test, they not only lack the cognitive ability to consider the concept of identity, but also lack the life experience to understand identity. Therefor, logic states that the one Pinkie who demonstrated remorse is almost definitely the real Pinkie.
But, even assuming that this is not enough, I was also perturbed by Twilight's lack of regard for Pinkie's feelings. Actually... this in and of itself hit me the hardest. Because, even if Twilight was unsure which Pinkie Pie was real, this one was clearly distraught. Twilight is supposed to represent the element of Magic, which itself is characterized in the show as being synonymous with Friendship. So... where was Twilight's legendary friendship in the face of a crying mare who, for all intents and purposes, looked exactly like Pinkie Pie, one of her closest friends?
Incidentally... none of these points I made are really points against the writing itself. In fact... I think Twilight's actions and reactions are very natural, and that's what makes this episode so dark to me. In the heat of the crisis, Twilight didn't think rationally about things at all, and this strongly shows her huma- err... pony nature. What's scary is that Twilight really did try her best, and while things worked out (relatively speaking), it was more by chance then actual planning. But, despite her efforts, Twilight made several worrisome mistakes, and worse, she didn't seem to learn from them. The lesson at the end was about time management, and was learned by Pinkie, not Twilight. Because the Pinkie Clones were out of sight, and therefor, out of mind.
Gah. Seriously, this episode gives me nightmares sometimes, and the author mentioning Twilight hearing Pinkie 'screaming' when she cast the spell makes me wonder... are the clones screaming as well?
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If Pinkie Pie and her duplicates have the same voice, how could Twilight tell the difference between the screams of the original and the screams of a clone in the first place?
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She couldn't... that's part of why it bothers me so much. I can tell you're building the Pinkie clone to have her own personality, skewed by how she believes she is supposed to act. So imagine all those individuals, carelessly zapped away.
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How can you say she's a 'sub pony'? Because she's only existed for a few days, and hasn't had the opportunity to develop her own personality? Really, none of the Pinkie's should have been zapped. Frankly, it isn't fair.
2764604 This sums the episode up rather nicely for me. It was dark, and the test just made me slap my forehead.
2764604 I'm quite reminded of the old Goosebumps story "Let's Get Invisible!" Whereupon characters get swapped with their mirror alternates. The beings in the mirror are their own selves prior to escaping. If the show took this interpretation, then the other side of the mirror pond is an actual place, and it was banishment, rather than destruction. "Let's Get Invisible!" creeped me out as a kid, and the implications in this story are similarly haunting.
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Oh man, I remember that story. Nostalgia explosion.
...Now that you mention it, there's several similarities between Let's Get Invisible! and I Forgot I Was There. I feel original.
2776542 Like axis flips and fears of replacement? The main difference between IFIWT and LGI though was that LGI had malicious dopplegangers as a scary thing to defeat, while IFIWT has an extra Twilight as a platform for learning about and overcoming some very dangerous neuroses. Similar base concept I guess, in a "summon your reflection" stance, but people have been asking questions of life beyond the mirror for quite some time. eighty20focus.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/calvin-reflection-puddle.gif
It's what you choose to do with the idea that counts. :D
She is very considerate of everypony, which is the complete opposite of the clones in the episode. It can be mildly justified if one thinks that's what the paint test was supposed to look for, but that's a long shot.
I'm intrigued, I wonder who of the other 5 will let go of their idiot ball first.
Really liking this so far, gotta say. That offhanded "other side of the pond" comment was a particular stand-out. Really kinda chilling.
And I might be a minority if the rest of the comments are anything to go by, but I never thought of the clones as being alive, merely sufficiently good at imitating life, if only for the reason that Twilight's banishing of the clones was pretty morally questionable and that I don't think she would have done it if she had reason to believe that they were anything more than magically animated constructs of a kind.
Not got any complaints with the story direction you've taken. Just saying, if it were me, I'd have banished the surviving clone too. It's really not Pinkie, no matter how much it or others try to make it be, and keeping it around is just going to cause uncomfortableness, because ponies will always be remembering that fact. The story so far has demonstrated that. And frankly if they ever forgot it and started really treating the clone as if it really were the original, then I'd think they were terrible people for their disrespect to the actual Pinkie who did for all intents and purposes die.
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Fair enough. It's been ages since I read any Goosebumps stories so I may be conflating them more than I should.
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I like to think that the test taught the clones how to be more patient. Of course, that assumes the clones can learn, and as other commenters pointed out they are patient as soon as the test starts, so it might be a skill they already had and didn't use.
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But that's problem, isn't it? Where does one draw the line between "imitating life" and "alive"? What is it based on? The comments on this very story are a prime example of how thin that line can be (and both sides have made good points).
Even if one can quantify it, grief is not conducive to rational behavior. It distorts perspective in so many ways, and it is much worse when one has never experienced real grief before (say, Twilight, for instance).
Glad you're enjoying it so far
Cool! I love how you're not shying away from the moral ambiguity of the whole thing. Keep up the good work. :)
I really like what you've done with this story. The way you have given the clone Pinkie a personality, but also one that is different to the original Pinkie's is an interesting part of this. I also like how if he mane 6 are going to accept that the clone is a unique individual and that it would be wrong to send her to the pool, then they also have to accept that the same was true for the others it was wrong to send them back into the pool as well.
I like how the mane 6 are all dealing with the situation in a different way, and how clone Pinkie is completely oblivious to everything that's going on. Personally, I think he best way to deal with this would be to let the Pinkie clone stay, but also to encourage them to develop their own personality and not to try and be Pinkie.
The song 'from the other side of the pond' is an interesting concept, as it means that there is something on the other side, and also that the clones had some form of existence before they were brought into Equestria, so it would be interesting to see if this is where Pinkie is now, and also what form their existence took before they were brought through the pond.
I really don't think that this party can end well. To say that the citizens of Ponyville are still getting used to the situation would be an understatement, and most of them are blaming clone Pinkie for what happened, even there is really no way in which it's her fault.
I keep getting caught up in stories about horrible circumstances with no clearly good solution. I think this is the best example of that, so far.
It's beautiful...
So is Twilight not going to write to Celestia? At all?
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"Dear Princess Celestia,
I murdered one of my best friends.
Your ex-student,
Twilight Sparkle"
Yeah, no. That sounds like a terrible letter.
Pinkie clone to throw party. Prediction: total bomb. Yet there may be a silver lining in that she'll finally stop being so completely clueless. Well, as much of a silver lining that would be, I suppose.
Why the heck wasn't this chapter tacked on to the last one?
Oh my sweet summer child