//------------------------------//
// A good Book 
// Story: Diana's Reflection 
// by BattleCat311 
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I don’t really remember all that much from before. It wasn’t really anything like being alive. No breathing, no walking, no sight. Just a strange feeling of…. Being. I had no concept of Time, space or even self. Like a never-ending sleep. Then suddenly one day it was like an explosion of sensations. Sights, sounds, feelings. They were all so incredibly new and exciting. 

I opened my new eyes to an ocean of Pink. Pink mains where everywhere, bobbing and hopping around the room like a set of Cotton candy. The whole cavern was filled to the Brim with Pinkie Pies. 

You see the Mirror pool. The place that spawned us. It is an interesting little display of wild magic. I don’t know how it was made but all Clone born from it do still feel it. Right in the back of our minds we always know where we came from. The way it works is that one pony says a little rhyme and then another you pops out. 

Their reflection. 

It is called the Mirror pool for a reason. 

It was like having an endless supply of Friends! 

Well enough with the boring history lesson. You wanted to hear about me. Well, it all started when one of the Pinky Pies stood up onto the ramp and screamed out. “HEY, Every Pie. Let all have FUN!” it was like a wave crashed over everyone in the cave. Suddenly the cave shook with the number of Pinkie Pies bouncing around. Crashing against each other and causing a few stalactites to fall. 

With that one word, the whole group bounced out of the cavern and into the sunlight. 

I’ll admit that I was still like a minute old and I followed everyone out of the cave as well to experience this FUN. It was new and exciting and seemed to consume the entire being of myself and the others. It was my one and only direction. 

And just the word was so exhilaration. FUN. Just thinking about it made me all warm and giddy. FUN, FUN, FUN! It was the most important thing in the world. 

I do remember that I walked and ran instead of bounced around like all the other Pinkies. I don’t know why but Running seemed more FUN to me then bouncing. All the other Pinkies looked like they had so much FUN bouncing around. But I thought that Running was more FUN. 

We jumped, ran and bounced all around the town. We were in the fields and woods in your houses and your pantries. Anything and everything that looked like it was remotely fun was being used and abused by a Pinky. I remember that I was part of a group of pinkies that we're riding a cart down the street only to be stopped by a bucket in the way. Flinging us like rubber ragdolls into the air. 

I soured into the air and came crashing down into the bookcase of some pony’s house. Whoever owned the house had probably either run away when all the strangeness started or locked themselves in their cellar. I like cellar’s they have very good wines. 

Once I slammed into the bookshelf I must have hurt my leg because when I tried to get up and find more FUN. I felt a burning and aching pain in my hind leg. It was all out of place and looked terrible but all I knew at the time was that standing was NOT FUN. So, I sat back down and looked for something FUN to do. 

The only thing within reach was a few rectangular objects. I had a faint memory that these were called books and that they were usually not fun. But also, some of them could be fun. It confused me so much back then that something could both be fun and boring at the same time. In my head, I had this image of long dusty tomes with thousands of pages and small boring words that would make your brain hurt just from looking at them. At the time I thought. “What’s a brain?”. I puzzled on that for a moment and then realized I had a thought. A Thought. I was an hour old and I had my very first thought that wasn’t FUN. It was like the most magical thing in the world. 

After a moment I went back to looking at the books. Because the books were not matching what was in my head. Even if I didn’t know why a book was in my head I knew that they were boring. But these books were small and colorful. They had pictures of little babies on them surrounded my little baby animals. 

I stared at the book really, hard before picking it up and opening it. “The Tales of Baby Gump.” I opened that book and smiled at the little pictures. It was a funny little tale about a baby getting lost and using his wits and smarty pants to pass all the other little baby animals that wanted to eat him. It wasn’t a long book and before I knew it I had another one in my hoofs. 

I read all the ones that I could reach and then stood up and grabbed another one. “Haye, I stood up,” I said before looking at the leg I hurt. It was still a little achy, but I could walk again. 

“This is great. Oh, I should show others these great books!” I rushed out of the window and flopped around with a happy grin before wincing at my hoof. “Ok, so it’s not ALL better. Where is everyone?” 

I looked around one way then the other but could not see any pinks anywhere. 

“POP” Her head whipped around at the strange noise. It came from a big round building in the center of town. It didn’t look all that fun and looked a bit boring. But then another pop Sounded, and I walked closer to the open window. 

The room was filled with all the Pinkies that were missing and I smiled again in happiness. It felt like forever since I had seen them, and I wanted to show them all the books I got. One of the Pinkies by the window spotted me and turned to wave our cute hoofsies. 

My hind leg spasmed again and I had to stop myself from jumping into the room because a sore hoof was a boo-boo and you had to be careful with boo-boos. Or at least that’s what Gump said. 

That boo-boo probably saved my life. Because just as I righted myself to try and jump in any way the Pinky exploded into a fine mist and disappeared. 

I stood frozen and shocked in place. My head no longer the comfortable blank of five minutes ago. Nope, I was stricken with complete terror. Just from the side, I could see that a group of Ponies that were Not Pink was standing behind all the Pinkies that were staring at a wall, for some reason. 

As I Shivered in place my blank frozen mind just watched as Pinky after pinky ‘” POP”” POP” “Popped.” Away. 

I couldn’t understand it. What had they done wrong? Where they not having enough fun? That’s what we were made for weren’t we? To have as much fun as possible. That’s all we knew how to do. 

“POP” 

“no,” I said softly. I’m sure if I screamed that I would have joined the other Pinkies in oblivion. I didn’t know what to do. Was I supposed to hop in there and save every pink? Was I supposed to run? Hide? Scurry?

Finally, there were only two pinkies left. Both looking at the blank wall before the Rainbow pony flew up to them both. She looked very scary and I hid further down the window. 

“This is taking too long, Look balloon animals?” she pointed her hoof out of the window. 

“Where?” my head jerked around looking around for the FUN balloon animals. “Pop” my ears flattened, and I stopped. Slowly I peeked into the window again and saw only one pinky left. 

Soon she would be gone like all the others. I didn’t want to be the only pink. That would be… Not FUN.

I listened as the other ponies congratulated the last Pinkie for not being sent into the mirror pool. 

That felt…Wrong. I didn’t know what I was feeling at the time. All I knew was that there was a deep cold feeling when I looked at this group and I just wanted to get far away.

“What would Gump do?”. That book was the only reference I had for…. well everything. “Ok, Gump would first find a disguise. Fool the predator and run away.” Quickly looking for a disguise I grabbed a saddlebag by the door, a hat from an abandoned stool.

Since I was moving so quickly I accidentally fell into a tub full of some pony’s laundry, I coughed but the foul-tasting water and then ran past the train station. Not realizing at the time that the wash had been full of high strength bleach. 

Stopping in my tracks I stared at the Train station I realized I had no idea what to do. 

That wired feeling in my head that kind of hurt but also felt good came back until “Eureka” I got my Second ever idea. I quickly bought a ticket with the shiny coins I saw everypony use to board the evening train to Canterlot. 

Only vaguely having an idea how money worked I just gave the Stallion conductor the number of bits he asked for. The stallion that asked for the bits was so bored and dull that he just handed me a ticket and shooed me on the train without questioning why I was a mess.  

I boarded the train and found the only cart on the train that did not have any pony in it. Not wanting to see anypony at all right now.