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// 5 - You're Fabulous! 
// Story: Prince of Errors 
// by David Silver 
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He heard a key going into a lock, and the door opened a moment later, the married couple entering, looking pleased enough if also tired. They saw not-Pinkie and smiled. Carrot Cake nodded towards him. "The tykes asleep?"

"Out like a light," he replied with Pinkie's voice. "They were wonderful." Being able to play at being Pinkie a while was also fun. "How did things go?"

Carrot Cake waved for the door. "Well, you're off the hook. Thank you again, Pinkie."

"Oh, yes, thank you very much, dear."

They both looked happy. They were also not paying him. That's when he realized, Pinkie might not normally be paid. She was paid in room and board and... "I was hoping to get a little something." He wobbled his hooves in a vague motion. "You know how it is."

Misses Cake laughed at that. "We never know exactly how it is with you, Pinkie, but certainly." She coiled on herself and pulled out a bag of bits, soon producing a small pile that she surrendered towards the prince. "I'm sorry we ever doubted you. You've really become something of an aunt for them."

He wasn't sure how to reply to that. "I... sometimes think of it more like a big sister." He accepted the bits with a smile so wide his cheeks squeaked. "Thanks! You two get some sleep, you look tired."

With shared waves, he departed. The moment the door closed behind him, the color fled him as if the sound of it clicking shut sent a shockwave that blew the pink right off of him. He was dull grey once more, an alicorn of no power. He was also a stallion again, for what that mattered.

He couldn't teleport, or whatever Pinkie did. He couldn't reach off-camera and grab things, and trying to unzipper himself only resulted in him lightly bonking himself on the noggin. "Ah well..." He would miss the sticky hooves the most, he decided. Having perfectly selectively sticky hooves was a really nice creature comfort.

Well, that was over, and Pinkie was busy. He could just--

"How'd it go?" Pinkie was just beside him, grinning like the loon she was. "Were they good?"

"Just fine," he sighed out, turning to face her. "I asked for a few bits. I don't usually have to."

Pinkie tilted her head a little. "Oh, I woulda paid you. The Cakes usually don't pay me for the twins. They're too cute! How much did they give?"

He held up the small pile and her eye swept over them critically. "I'll pay them back. Were they good?"

"I said they were fine." He raised a brow at the repeated question.

"Just fine?" She leaned in a little.

"They were cute."

"Just cute?" She leaned in further, their noses almost touching.

See, the kids he could get. What did Pinkie want exactly? "They were alright! We played some games. They colored. Pound knocked some things over but I picked them up, no big deal. They went to sleep, happy ending."

"Yay!" She threw her forehooves wide in celebration. "So... I had a silly question."

"Yeah?" He had a hard time imagining most of Pinkie's questions were less than silly.

"Are you alright, you know, flipping back and forth? I mean..." She wobbled her hooves a bit oddly, as if her arms were made of jello. "Stallion, mare, stallion, back and forth like that? I mean, I know Bon Bon, so changing voices, I got that down."

He took a half-step back. He had stopped thinking about it. "I, well... it's... just part of the package. Not like I do anything with it."

She leaned dangerously close once more, her brows waggling. "Nothing?"

"Nothing," he repeated gruffly.

"Noootttthing?" Her brows were attempting to fly away from her face with the waggling they were doing. "Not even a little?"

"I don't even know what you're talking about. I change to do a job, and I do the job." He gestured broadly to the left, then the right as he spoke, "There's not a lot of time for other stuff. At least today I got to try out some of your powers."

"I have powers?" She tilted her head with genuine confusion.

He peered at her. How could she not be aware? "Being able to grab things, even if they weren't there before? The whole unzipper thing, the ignoring of casual physics thing? Teleporting?"

"Don't be silly." She blew a ripe raspberry. "Unicorns teleport, not earth ponies, really, teleporting." She laughed at the idea as if it was ridiculous.

"Seeing past the fourth wall," he added with a raised brow. "What are those th--"

She slapped a hoof right over his mouth. "That's quite enough of that. Next mission!"

He grunted into her hoof. Already? He pulled back sharply. "How do you keep finding them so quickly?"

"I'm the friend of everypony!" she chimed with a smile. "I keep notes on everycreature in Ponyville and I know when something's amiss. I've been extra diligent with you here, since I can do something about it now. Tomorrow you're going to save Rarity."

Rarity? He thought back to when he briefly was Rarity, or wearing a Rarity suit. It was hard to know for sure with Pinkie's powers. "Is she in trouble?"

"She won't be, with your help." She thrust a hoof forward, poking him right on the chest. "A photographer was supposed to come take some pictures of her and her outfits, but he's all sick and sad. Worst part,  he forgot to send a letter to her so she'd know, so she's gonna be all super excited and no one will show up."

He could feel the color returning to him. He was becoming a new pony. His curse had eagerly accepted her task, which meant he would not be fleeing Ponyville, not yet. With a soft weight, a camera landed against him just above her poking hoof. It wasn't the first time his disguise came with accessories, but it still made him jump when it happened.

Pinkie looked thrilled. "Ooo, that's useful. I was worried about that. So, you just have to show up and take pictures. Easy peasy."

"Lemon squeezie," he sighed out with a new voice. "What about tonight?" It was far from the next day.

"Duh, you sleep with me." She threw a leg over his withers, pulling him close. "It's the least I can do for a pony that's saving my friend from certain disaster. I bet you know how she can cry when things don't go the right way."

"You ask a man--"

"Ask a what?"

He shook his head quickly. "Stallion about that sort of thing, then we sleep together?"

She rolled her eyes. "If you saw what I saw, you know that's not a problem."

He hadn't seen whatever it was she had referred to before. He silently bemoaned that he hadn't thought of looking for it. Then again, considering what he had found, maybe it was better he hadn't. "Alright." Not like he planned to do anything odd with Pinkie. "So we just go right back in?" He pointed towards Sugarcube Corner.

"Righty-roonie." She began pronking gayly, clearly seeing no issues at all. He followed behind her with a little smirk. What was it like to know what people around him were thinking or might react? A super power, he quietly decided, and one Pinkie had more often than not, when she wasn't failing at it too, but it never bothered her when that happened.

"Pinkie," came a male voice, Carrot Cake perking up as they entered. "Already back?" He didn't notice nor care about the prince's presence, even as he walked in behind her. "Changed your mind?"

"I have a lot to do," she agreed. "Better get some shuteye, oh yeah, here." She produced a small pile of bits. "I changed my mind. I miscounted my bits before. How silly of me."

"It's not a problem," he assured as he accepted the bits. "You do a lot for us, a few bits isn't out of the question."

"You guys are the bestest." She hugged him tightly around the neck. "See you in the morning."

"Goodnight, Pinkie."

The prince walked past Carrot Cake. When he was being ignored, he could go anywhere he wanted, for the most part, so long as he had a reason to be there or it wasn't expressly forbidden. He couldn't wander into the back of a bank for instance. He could follow Pinkie, since she had told him to do just that. Provided he did nothing outrageous, ponies would just ignore him. He was a background pony, to be casually looked past until he stepped fully into his new role.

When he approached Rarity, he knew, that would be when he'd pop right into the part and he'd step out of the background for a little while. He followed Pinkie up the stairs to her room. For just a moment, a fraction of an instant, she moved as if she were going to close her door right in his face, but it snapped back to her before she did that. "Come on in," she invited, throwing the door open instead of closed.

He nodded to her on the way past. It hadn't changed since the night before. There were pictures of Pinkie being happy with happy ponies she knew. The other Mane 5 were there, smiling in the pictures or caught in the middle of silly situations. He stopped in front of one, a new one. It showed Pinkie looking at Pinkie, but the other pinkie had a little nub of a pink horn. "How did you get this one?" He tapped at it with his borrowed hoof.

"I took it before you left, duh." She bounced over and grabbed the picture. "Isn't it nice?! You were right though, nopony noticed I had a horn while I was foalsitting. That's kinda silly." She snorted in amusement, setting the picture back down. "So... What did you do?"

"I foalsat the twins?" Duh? He boggled at the question, raising a brow at her.

"No. You talked like you tried a few things." She hopped up onto the bed, bouncing lightly. "What did you do?"

"Oh." Right. "I made some food, te--skipped from one place to another, however you call it."

Pinkie clopped her forehooves together, coming down from mid-jump on her haunches. "You skipped? Neat! Isn't that a lot of fun? Not sure what's special about cooking though. Anypony can cook if they want to."

He reached dramatically to his right and pulled back the hoof. "Now imagine there's suddenly a slice of pizza there."

Pinkie tilted her head. "That would be silly. There's no pizza there."

He let out a little sigh. Did she just not see her own magic? She got skipping... "Well, I did that. It was good pizza even, just the way I like it. Then there's the zippering."

"Zippering?" Her brows went up as one. "Like this?" She drew a hoof over her snout, zipping her lips shut casually. "Mmf?"

"That looks... painful." He hopped onto the bed beside her and sank down on the soft bedding. "I mean unzipping your whole body to reveal another body."

"Neat! You were wearing a Pinkie costume that whole time?" She tilted her head at the curled form of her bed-mate. "I didn't even notice. I mean, that sorta makes sense if you think about it. You were disguised as me and all, why not a costume?"

He had lost the will to argue it any further that night. "Kinda cool," he agreed tiredly. "Gonna go to sleep."

"Good night," she sang before curling up herself. With a puff of air, all the lights went out and her snores filled the room in simple contentment.

He was sleeping beside a dreadful and terrible goddess that could destroy him at a whim. She was also a kind and caring goddess that would much rather get him to smile. She was also entirely unaware of being anymore than an earth pony. He shook his head, burying his snout under a foreleg. 

He had a new day and a new job to look forward to.