Concepts & Creations – TvE: The Many Lives of Pinkie Pie · 2:03am Feb 10th, 2020
Here's your warning, folks. For the next few weeks, I will be exploring some Trixie vs. Equestria stories that take place after all the existing ones in that timeline. The catch is that there is one story that I still intend to finish in said timeline, Order of Shadows, and these WILL spoil that story's ending. I wish I could write all this without doing that, but for some of them it's outright impossible. Keep reading at your own risk, as I won't be spoilertexting anything.
Alright, still with me? Good.
We'll start the series with the first story I'd planned to write, The Many Lives of Pinkie Pie. This would have been the beginning of a six-part series, one for each of the Mane Six. Before I get started, a little background to get everyone up to speed.
In the Trixie vs. Equestria timeline, Pinkie is a Bloodmane (as she is/was in all timelines of this universe). For those of you not knowing, the simple explanation is that she's literally addicted to murder, to the point that not committing murder after so long makes her suffer from a very painful withdrawal. This was originally envisioned as my nod to the ever-popular Pinkamena trope, and the affect got added to the character of my OC, Fine Crime, to give it more credibility in the overarching universe. In the No Heroes timeline, Pinkie was cured of the Bloodmane very early on.
Her fate was very different in the Trixie vs. Equestria timeline. In that one she ended up killing her family, then got captured by the authorities. Celestia decided to use her as a test subject; utilizing the Mirror Pool, she literally pulled the Bloodmane essence from Pinkie to create a new, pegasus variant named Surprise. Surprise, pure Bloodmane, would go on to become one of the Order of Shadows under Fine Crime, whereas Pinkie was allowed to go on with her life. But there were consequences; Pinkie lost a lot of her memories, including everything related to the Bloodmane, and spent her existence not knowing where she came from or why.
During the final battle at the end of Trixie vs. Equestria, Pinkie went one-on-one against Surprise. Rather than a reality-breaking, no-holds-barred brawl, the two... spoke. Instinctively drawn to one another their whole lives, the two finally get a chance to connect and realize just what they are to one another. In the end, they unintentionally undo Celestia's magic and re-merge as a single Pinkie Pie.
This story begins one year later. Pinkie, now going as Pinkamena, is at a loss for what to do with herself. She seems to be free of the Bloodmane, but all Surprise's memories are in her head, and she can't get rid of the enormous guilt behind the reality of what she is and was. When she begins having hallucinations of ghostly Pinkie Pies, she fears she's losing her mind. Luckily, there are a couple ponies in the world who might have an idea of what she's going through, so she arranges to have a private audience with Princesses Celestia and Luna. The talks prove... underwhelming.
While in Canterlot, Pinkie is approached by none other than Fleur de Lis, the current Mane Archon. Fleur reveals to Pinkie that not all Pinkie Clones (which make a significant appearance in TvE) were sent back to the Mirror Pool by Luna and Trixie. A small number – four or five – escaped and, fearing what might happen to them if found, fled to various parts of Equestria.
Pinkie decides to pursue the clones. She's not sure if doing so will help her situation, but she would like to meet and at least apologize to them regarding how she treated them in the past.
This is the primary point of the story: Pinkie traveling to various parts of Equestria meeting her clones. This story is partially worldbuilding, allowing us to see how various parts of Equestria have been altered by the new timeline. More importantly, it's about Pinkie learning more about herself by seeing how her various clones have spent the last year of their lives. She meets one who has started a successful confectionery, another who is happily engaged, and so on. Listening to their stories, seeing what they've gone through and what they're planning for their individual futures, Pinkie begins to regain her confidence and figure out her own place in life. It is, ultimately, a 'rediscover your cutie mark' story.
Things only change with the last Pinkie Clone she meets. This one isn't happy. She's a bitter, unpleasant, sometimes downright mean individual with a skewed sense of right and wrong created not by being a clone, but by how her life turned out for her since she ran away from Canterlot a year ago. With this in mind, this Pinkie Clone is working together with like-minded malcontents, mostly earth ponies to create a rebellion against what they see as an abruptly weakened government.
Pinkie, realizing these ponies are going to cause trouble for the princesses, tries to reason with them. Seeing her as a threat, they try to capture her. The story concludes with Pinkie escaping their clutches and rushing back to central Equestria to warn the princesses of their plans. Of course, a small group like this couldn't really topple Equestria as a nation, but that's not the point; they could do a lot of harm to a lot of innocents before they are stopped, and Pinkie can't let that happen.
In case you're wondering, yes, that ending was designed entirely for the purpose of leading into later events. We'll get to them in another C&C later.
Of course, the story has two goals: first and foremost, to expand upon this version of Pinkie. Her background, her world views, her traumas, and especially her recovery and overcoming Surprise's past. It runs on themes of fate and how our choices define us, an important point for later. When the story begins she's a depressed Pinkamena uncertain of her future and her worth in the world. By the end of it she's back to being the chipper, happy Pinkie Pie we all know and love, albeit with a lot more maturity in her thanks to her experiences with the clones. The second goal was, as mentioned before, to do some worldbuilding for the nation of Equestria, bringing us to various long-established locations like Appleloosa, Los Pegasus, Baltimare, etc.
The third, less obvious objective has to do with those hallucinations, which never get explained in the scope of this story. This is all leading to something much bigger, and the hallucinations play directly into that. Alas, now's not the time to go into detail about those.
This is only the first of the TvE Tales. Stay tuned next week to see which of the Mane 6 comes up next.
Hmm, not sure I like this Pinkie Pie. I know Trixie vs Equestria grew darker and darker as it went on, but I may have started jumping off at this point. And this coming from a guy that read Twilight's Inferno and enjoyed it. I guess it would have come down to the execution (the writing, not the murder).
Till next time!
After Life of Pie, I feel like this would have just been retreading old ground, honestly. There are other characters to explore besides previously homicidal Pinkie, you know.
5200367
Oh, the murders and whatnot have already happened by the time this story starts. This one would begin right before the meeting with Celestia and Luna. This would have been entirely a 'help Pinkie get better' story.
5200436
True, although this is an entirely different Pinkie Pie with an entirely different outlook on life and an entirely unique history.
But the reality is that there are a lot of unknowns in this alternate timeline to No Heroes that I wanted to resolve. Pinkie was chosen to be first because at the time people were asking for more info related to her, especially compared to the rest of the Mane 6. More importantly, a future story would be dependent on the readers already knowing the history of the characters, and that includes Pinkie Pie. This isn't clear at the moment, but as we move along and more things happen the reason for this should become apparent.