Pinkie Pie bounced along the street in the early morning, feeling as chipper as ever. She paused in her skipping feeling a sudden twitch up her leg as the fair appeared. She shuddered “wow, I’ve never had a pinkie sense like that before.” She stared in awe at the Fair and all its colourful sections spread throughout. “Ooh, looks like a blast.” She squeed, making her way toward the front gate. As she got closer, Top Hat slid out from behind the big welcome sign and approached her, tipping his hat. “Why hello Pinkie Pie, welcome to my Fair of Wonders. Would you care to join in on the fun?”
“Oh, what do you mean? I love having fun.” Pinkie beamed.
“Oh well, since you’re so good with children's parties, I was wondering if you would want to help entertain a few families while we set up the fair further.”
“Sounds great lead the way.” She hummed as she bounced after the brown stallion up to the cardboard cutout castle. Pinkie stared and giggled, “Wow, that is a lot of pink.”
As they got backstage, Pinkie could hear the laughter coming from the nearby stage. Top Hat moved next to her. “So, Pinkie, do you like marionettes?” He asked, showing off the puppet theatre currently closed off by the red curtain.
Pinkie Pie bounced up and down in excitement. “I love puppets!”
Top hat smirked, ”Oh, I bet you do, and as they say, we are what we love.” Then as soon as he said that, strings came down from the ceiling to attach themselves to Pinkie's limbs. She squealed, seeing her body transform into wooden joints. She struggled as weird clown clothes appeared on her frame. They were purple with big pink pom poms going down her front. A big red clown nose sat on her muzzle. Her jaw dropped as her body bounced, being moved by the strings into the puppet stage. There was a crudely drawn Ponyville as the backdrop. The curtain opened soon enough as she saw all the eyes on her. Suddenly, her limbs began to move, dancing about the stage. “Heya, kiddies,” she said without any control over her body. She would have blushed if not for being made of wood. “Who’s ready to have fun?” The crowd giggled and cheered as the puppet Pinkie raised a mallet and booped rabbits on the head as if defending a vegetable cart.
A puppet looking like Applejack popped out from behind the cart, waving her hat around. “Yay, get them, Pinkie Pie.” The voice sounded very similar to Top Hat but pitched up a bit.
“Gah, make it stop.” Pinkie commented, blushing as she walked the toy bunnies a few more times before they swarmed her, knocking her back.
The fake Applejack got up and laughed, “Why? If we do that, then the bunnies will eat all our crops.”
Pinkie rolled her eyes and mumbled. “Not what I was talking about.”
The Applejack puppet pointed off stage suddenly as it smiled. “Ooh, look! Here comes Rarity. Ain't she pretty.”
The white puppet clopped onto the stage wearing a red cloth to represent a dress. “Oh, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, you simply must help me.” Puppet Rarity flung her head back dramatically, the crowd giggling when her horn fell off. A hoof was seen lifting from below and reattaching it before the puppet moved again. ‘This is the worst possible thing!”
“What's wrong, R\rity,” Pinkie asked, bouncing over limbs flopping about by the strings.
“Why is my cutie mark missing? How dreadful!” She pointed to the slot where the cutie mark should be, but it was hollow. “Who would ever do such a thing?” Her head swayed back once more as Pinkie rolled her eyes again.
“Let me guess, Starlight Glimmer?” Pinkie muttered, her hooves raised into the air. “Oh no, we must find out who has done this to you, Rarity.” The puppet stepped forward, only to slip on a banana peel falling onto her bottom. Her pratfall got the foals laughing and pointing at her embarrassing the wooden party pony more.
Applejack spoke next, bouncing over. “Well, where did you put it last?”
“I didn’t put it down. It's attached to my butt!” Rarity gestured to her wood form, clacking around with each move she made.
Pinkie rolled her eyes once more, clicking her way over to Rarity. “Don’t you worry, Rarity. We’ll help you find your lost mark!”
The Puppet Rarity gasped and hugged Pinkie as the curtains lowered. The party pony turned her head long enough to watch the backdrop change to a marketplace. The simplistically drawn artwork was cute in a way. In no time, the performance resumed, Applejack leading the group to her cart with Big Mac standing by it.
“Why howdy, Rarity,” Mac greeted, his voice oddly close to the real thing.
Rarity sighed, leaning against the big stallion and acting just as dramatic as Pinkos knew she would. “You simply must help me, Big Mac. Some rascal has made off with my cutie mark, and I must find it. Who knows what they might do? “
“ I’d be happy to help one so pretty.“ The doll said, lifting Rarity’s hoof and kissing it. Despite being made of wood, Rarity had a blush on her cheeks.
“Well, have you seen anything out of the ordinary?” Rarity asked, peering out at the audience, the kids seeming entertained enough for the time being.
Mac tapped the floor for a moment watching as Pinkie rushed over to a prop pie and attempted to eat it, only to smash her face into it each time. Mac soon replied, nodding his wooden head. “I did see Spike come through here with something in his grasp. He seemed to be in a hurry.”
“Was he carrying something white and round?” Rarity asked, showing the missing slot in her rump.
“Now that you mention it, I think I did see him with something like that,” Mac said, nodding before looking at Pinkie. “Hey, you gotta pay for that.”
Pinkie beamed, suddenly shoving a toy pie into Big Mac’s face, which oddly made a splot sound. She giggles happily. “Come on, Rarity, we need to catch Spike before he eats your cutie mark and you’ll be left blank forever.”
The crowd gasped as they skipped along the backdrop sliding behind them to show movement. After passing the same tree about five times, Pinkie pointed with a giggle. “Hey, look! We are going in circles.”
Rarity scoffed. “I feel like we are just hopping in place.”
Pinkie laughed a bit. “Yeah, but don’t ruin the magic.” She stopped as a treehouse came into the frame. A puppet Spike peeked out from the small window from it. “Oh, hello there, girls,” He said, waving his claw.
“Hey Spie, I heard you have a cutie mark.” Pinkie quipped, peering up.
“What, don't be silly. Dragons don’t get cutie marks.” Spike scoffed idly, waving his claw around.
“Really? Because Big Mac said that you had something that looked like a cutie mark. “
“No, uh, why would I have it?”
Rarity gasped, “So you do have it! Give it back!” Her puppet form jumped about, trying to leap up and grab Spike from the tree.
Spike eeped and pointed the other way. “Look over there, a gemstone!”
“Where!” Rarity turned her head to look, letting Spike have the chance to run across the stage.
“Hey! Get back here with that!” Pinkie said, beginning to chase after him. The puppets darted across the stage over and over a few times, the little ones laughing while further kids in the back just looked bored. The party pony even saw Cheerilee and her class there for some reason. Weren’t they supposed to be in school? As they chased Spike, she heard a little odd tune playing like a guitar riff. After a few more passes, they managed to pin Spike down, Rarity picking up her cutie mark.
“I’ll take that, bad dragon,” she scolded as she slid her mark back into the empty slot on her rump, shaking it a little. “Perfect fit.” She stared down at Spike. “Why did you do it?”
“Because it looked so tasty!!” he said, flailing his claws around.
The kids laugh at the curtain close. Pinkie felt a sudden pulling sensation as she felt herself falling backwards. Moments later, she opened her eyes to find she was back to normal. Checking herself over, she blinked. “Well, that was odd but sorta fun.” She giggled happily, skipping out to enjoy the rest of the fair.
Big Macintosh exited the tent after the puppet show walking along the aisle of activities lining the row of tents. He stopped at one game stand, spotting an odd rag doll that reminded him of Smarty Pants that he kept sitting on the top shelf as a prize. Approaching the stand for a closer look, Top Hat spoke from behind the counter. ”Hello there, wish to try your luck?” he laughed joyfully.
Big Mac blushed. “Sorry, I didn’t bring any bits. I only came by to see some things.”
Top Hat smiled, waving his hoof around. ”Don’t worry. I shall give your first try for free with no strings attached.”
Big Mac eyed him and asked, “what do I have to do?”
Top Hat chuckled, pointing behind him. “That’s Easy. You just throw these balls at the target. If you get a bullseye, you get a prize.”
“Eeyup,” Mac said, picking up the blue foam ball in his hoof and lining up a shot. Focusing, the stallion stuck his tongue out before hurtling the ball at the target, confident he would hit dead center. Moments later, there was a soft bell chime as he indeed landed his mark. There was a bright flash from nowhere as Big Mac had to cover his eyes. His whole body tingled as he felt himself falling, landing with barely a sound. He noticed something wasn’t right almost immediately. His body felt lighter inside, his limbs hanging on his sides. Upon opening his eyes, his head slumped down, showing off the soft red cloth body he had become with cute button eyes. He was also sitting on the top shelf of the booth he had been playing.
Top Hat laughed as he looked up at the Mac Plushie. “Ah, you are perfect. Hope you have fun being passed around.“ With that, the mysterious stallion vanished, leaving the plush to his fate as a sharing plush.
Meanwhile, across the fairground, an elegant white mare strolled her way past a sign towards a large tent. The inscription read, “Dog show, free admission!“