//------------------------------// // Pinkie Pie Says... Hi! // Story: A Tale of the Pinkie Pied Piper and the Pastel Pestilence // by Pacific Penguin //------------------------------// Pinkie attempted to stand, only to slip on something and have her legs fall out from under her again. “Hey, wait, let us try to get that cello off your head first.” Guy said. “Prim? Oh.” He made a face. “I can see you’re still preoccupied.” Her giggles were slowly subsiding. Guy tried pulling off the cello with limited success. He kept pulling at from different angles to no avail, eventually resorting to just breaking the poor instrument into pieces and removing it. When he was done, Pinkie Pie just gave him a great big smile. Then, she stood. “Hey… what is this…?” she said. Her hoof had caught something. She stamped her hoof at the floor. “It’s a bit bumpy here! Feel it!” Guy put his hoof down to feel the floor where Pinkie indicated as Prim Amber moved in behind him to observe. Sure enough, there was a spot on the hardwood floor where the wood planks were clearly uneven. “Odd…” He rubbed at the spot. Then he rubbed harder, and there appeared… there appeared to be a deep cut in the wood. He continued uncovering the split in the floor, until it changed direction - a corner. Revealing more and more of it, he discovered that the cuts formed a perfect square in the floor. “What… what is this? Seen anything like this, Prim?” “Looks like some sort of panel to a basement, sir. I think most people just have stairs though. Might be worth looking into, maybe some shady operation has been taking place here.” “Can I open it?!” Pinkie exclaimed. “I should say no, but why not, have a go at it. I’m sure whoever was using it has g-“ At this point, Pinkie had already opened the trapdoor and peeked inside, and then slammed it shut once she had gotten a good look. She managed a “weshouldgolikenowkay!” while darting off and trying to pull Guy and Prim with her. “What’s going-?” Guy said while being led somewhat unwillingly off. He glanced back in time to see a large column of parasprites coming out of the trapdoor before letting Pinkie lead him off. He shared a completely clueless look with Prim as they trotted after Pinkie. Having rushed out the front door into the street, Pinkie muttered something along of the lines of “hivemind – totally not awesome needtoleave!” before beginning to play her customary polka. Guy didn’t remember seeing her pick up the banjo inside before they left. They had gathered outside in such a way that they had a good view of Steedivarius’s storefront and the street. As Pinkie began to play, a furious buzzing sound grew progressively louder. All eyes were on the store, where the sound seemed to originate. In the windows, more and more parasprites could be seen. A distinct wood splintering sound could be heard from within. Then the whole storefront smashed open. A huge parasprite lay before them. Only, it wasn’t a single entity. The parasprite form was actually comprised of many individual parasprites tightly packed together. The various colors of parasprite dotted the creature’s body in no particular order, except for its eyes. From its eyes, the tiny eyes of only the very light colored parasprites peered out, making the eyes look like that of a fly’s. “Music! Stop… the music. Assimilation not complete! The… pony!” It somehow said, its lips moving strangely as it spoke. Pinkie briefly stopped playing instruments with her mouth – but continuing to play with the rest of her limbs as much as possible – to speak. “I have to keep playing to stop this hivemind-thing, try to keep it away from me!” “Okay Pinkie!” “Roger!” As if on cue, the hivemind parasprite lunged forward and slammed one of its limbs down towards Pinkie. The creature had combined what had been four stubby limbs into a single large one, like a long tentacle. It missed, but not by much, and some of the stonework of the road split from the blow. A few buildings nearby screeched uneasily. That got the party moving. Pinkie galloped down the street, which was much wider here than it was closer to the city center. Guy and Prim were not far behind. “All right Pinkie – Prim and I will do what we can to keep THAT at bay, but this plan of yours had better work! Have at it, Prim!” “Oh, I didn’t skip magic kindergarten and go straight to the academy for nothin’. Hah!” she said with a dangerous smile. The creature took another shot at Pinkie. Guy jumped out of the way. Prim tried to throw up a magical shield against the blow. It waned and disintegrated under the blow, slightly redirecting the blow instead of stopping it. Instead of hitting the pink pony, the tentacle barely hit her tail (which was still in the process of twitching), causing her to hit a foul note, since she was in the middle of playing her harmonica. With Pinkie’s tune as their soundtrack, they all kept running. Before the creature’s next move, Prim tried employing a new strategy. Casting a spell, she quickly made five mirror images of Pinkie Pie around said pony. Once that was done, she swapped Pinkie with one of her false images by teleportation. Instead of masking the tell-tale flash designating a teleporting pony’s beginning and ending position, she magnified the flash so that any viewer would be momentarily blinded by the flash. The sound was magnified in much the same way, but Prim instead made the sound come from each of the Pinkie Pies. The hivemind looked irritated at this new development. Prim watched as it threw its tentacle down at one of the copies, the lead, where Pinkie had been. It disappeared along with the copy behind it. But the hivemind wasn’t stupid. It began to listen for which one of the Pinkie Pies was playing music, a flaw in the plan. Prim Amber realized her mistake. She prided herself on masking the teleportation sound, but she had overlooked this. Mentally scolding herself, she immediately cast a spell broadcasting Pinkie’s music from each of the remaining clones, then swapped Pinkie Pie around again for good measure. A few beads of sweat began to form on her pale orange brow. Still, they galloped down the street. The giddy sound of Pinkie’s polka seemed to be taking its toll on the hivemind. A few parasprites began to disassociate from the collective, and draw towards the sound. The street ahead began to narrow. The hivemind was growing more desperate as more parasprites deviated towards the music. It lunged its tentacle towards a Pinkie Pie… Another illusion. It disintegrated. Irate, it thrashed again. The music stopped unceremoniously. This time, the real Pinkie Pie was sent sprawling. Some of her instruments clattered to the ground. “Pinkie Pie!” Guy shouted. Prim let the illusion spell drop, and her horn ceased to glow. Guy leaped forward towards the tentacle, spun around, and bucked it for all he was worth. This sent a few parasprites hurtling off of the tentacle appendage. The hivemind reacted quickly, and appeared to command these detached parasprites, and a few others from its body, toward Pinkie’s instruments. The deviant parasprites that had been going towards the tune, sluggishly stopped moving and looked around, confused. The commanded parasprites rushed the instruments hungrily. One took a chomp out of the banjo. Except, its jaws would not close around it. It opened its eyes wide, confused. A peachy glow emanated from around the banjo. A few parasprites nearby were similarly confused by identical glows surrounding two tambourines they were trying to eat. “Pinkie!” Prim cried out, horn aglow. “Retrieve your instruments! Before it eats them!” The pink pony was slowly getting to her feet. Then the urgency of the situation hit her again, and she lunged for the banjo. Guy and Pinkie were ready by the time the creature raised up for another attack. It shifted the parasprites in its tentacle to a more stable configuration before it lashed out… …and struck Prim instead of the other two. “Guh!” She had managed to jump partially out of the way, avoiding the brunt of the blow. She felt much more drained from all this spellcasting than she had anticipated, delaying her reactions. In any case, she was still flung a short ways through the air, though she somehow managed to stay on her hooves before skidding to a stop on the cobblestone road. Her shielding on the instruments briefly flickered, but she refocused her spells, fighting her fatigue. After seeing Prim struck, Guy went back on the offensive, jumping at the tentacle and giving it another flurry of backleg. This time however, no parasprites flew off. Pinkie had retrieved the banjo, and had one of the tambourines in hoof. She equipped it and galloped to the next one. The hivemind now had its attention on Guy and Prim. Guy jumped back from his attack on the tentacle as it raised up. In an attempt to hit both of them at once, it attacked in a wide sweeping motion. This time, both Prim and Guy successfully jumped out of reach. Behind them, Pinkie retrieved the other tambourine after shaking it free of sprites, and resumed playing. The dazed sprites that had succumbed to the music earlier fell back into rhythm after her. A few more parasprites began to disassociate from the creature , forming a line from it to Pinkie Pie. Furious, it made a “scowl” of sorts. Adjusting itself, it formed another tentacle out of its body and shot a small swarm of parasprites at Pinkie. Prim shot up a protective barrier around Pinkie, and ducked to avoid a raging swipe. Guy rolled out of the way of an equally angry strike. They were ready to dance now. “Pinkie,” Guy spoke, another tentacle attack barely grazing his side, “You’d better have a real good plan – and fast. This thing is getting kinda pissed!” “Auntie Pinkie Pie’s got this covered!” she called back. She pulled some sort of vial out of her tuba and threw at it the ground before the hivemind, causing a purple mist to quickly envelop the creature. Parasprites began to disassociate from it even faster, which enraged the hivemind further, giving it a sudden burst of strength to drive its lunge forward. Prim focused on her spell, sweat really building on her forehead as Guy gave a tentacle another good kick. Pinkie began to gallop backwards (a certain talent of hers). A tentacle slammed Guy out of the way as it tried to force itself toward Pinkie. Prim was not in its immediate path, and was ignored. It began to look dire for the hivemind. There were holes forming throughout its body where parasprites had left it. It rushed forward, hole-riddled maw open, towards Pinkie. There was a sudden flash of light, and the mist disappeared. The hivemind had stopped a few inches from Pinkie Pie’s face. It was still moving, although very slowly. It seemed to have reached a certain critical mass of sorts, and parasprites no longer stirred in rebellion from it. The positively pink pony, undaunted by the gaping maw in front of her, began to slow her tune down. Gradually, she worked her polka down to long, drawn out notes. Then, she switched to very short notes, so that there were long periods of time when she didn’t have to touch her instruments. The parasprites didn’t seem to mind, and continued to follow her, creating a circle around her and up into the sky, bobbing up and down, albeit slowly. In this way, she was able to walk forward and examine the hivemind. She narrowed her eyes and put a hoof to her chin. She circled it a couple times, and even stopped to stick her tongue out at it. Satisfied with her examination, she waited for a particularly long pause in her music, then carefully pulled out three parasprites from the hivemind. One from the left eye, one from the right eye, and for the last one, she reached deep into the fairly still mass, and she pulled out a dull white parasprite. It was very faintly spotted with all the colors of parasprite. She stood on her hind legs, arranged them in a horizontal triangle in front of her, its left “eye” on her right, right “eye” on her left, and the multicolored sprite as the top of the triangle, each one foot apart from each other. She took this last one’s face, stretched it out, scrunched it up, then rotated it forward for three rotations. Next, she stood on one leg, and spread her forelegs straight out to her sides. She held this pose for a moment, and compacted the triangle before tending to her song. She gracefully returned the beat to its normal tempo and measure. The rest of what had been the hivemind disbanded, and took to the air after Pinkie Pie. It was a wonder to behold, especially to Guy and Prim, who had watched this strange ritual with the utmost awe.