//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: School Day of Scares // Story: Paranoid Pink // by Scholarly-Cimmerian //------------------------------// Monday morning came, and despite it being the start of a new school week Rainbow Dash was feeling pretty good. Having started the day with a nice hot shower, a delicious home-cooked breakfast, and having made the run to school with plenty of time to spare (this was one of those times where magic superpowers came in handy) the athlete was feeling pretty on-top of things. She met up with Applejack in the foyer of Canterlot High, and the two of them set off down the hall to first period biology, chatting amiably about the weekend and plans for the days ahead. As they drew nearer to the classroom, Applejack noticed Pinkie Pie bent over and rummaging in her locker. “Heya Pinkie!” she called out, “Have a good weekend?” “How’s it go—whoa!” Rainbow’s own greeting died in her throat as Pinkie Pie yelped shrilly, jumped up and banged her head on the locker, before pulling out and whipping around to look at them. And speaking of looks… Pinkie Pie could often be described in a lot of ways. But right now, the best word that could be used to describe her in that moment would have to be “disturbed.” Her eyes were wide and staring, reddened as though she had barely gotten any sleep. Her smile was also wide, clearly forced, not reaching her eyes. And her hair was a frankly spectacular mess of curls and tangles, more like a mass of pink razor wire than anything else. “H-hi Rainbow Dash! You too, Applejack!” Pinkie let out a rather nervous, tense giggle. “Whatcha doing?” “Uhh. Just on our way t’ class.” Applejack answered cautiously, before adding in a gentle tone, “Everything okay, hon?” “Yeah, because you look *awful*!” Rainbow stated bluntly. “Bad night, huh?” she asked with sympathy. A second later, she backed up, gagging at the overwhelming stench of coffee breath, as Pinkie nearly shoved her face right up against hers. “Why do you ask? Who told you I had a bad night, huh? Was it Limestone? I bet it was Limestone! So maybe I stayed up late to watch a scary movie, and maybe I had horrible awful nightmares from it, and maaaaybe I’ve had a dozen-plus cups of coffee to get me through it all, THAT DOESN’T MEAN ANYTHING!!” Pinkie babbled, before sucking in a loud deep breath and reeling back, swaying a little on her feet. Then she giggled again, a worryingly manic sound. “Whoopsie. Pretend I didn’t say anything, okay? Don’t want anyone to get—suspicious…” “Suspicious? About what?” Applejack asked. Now it was her turn to flinch back as Pinkie rounded on her. “Nothing! There’s nothing to be suspicious about, what are you talking about Applejack, nothing suspicious at all! Hehe…” Pinkie was breathing rapidly now, and her eyes darted back and forth as though frantic that something would come oozing out of the surrounding lockers at any moment. “Oh-kay…” Applejack blinked, trying not to wave a hand in front of her face at the smell of the other girl’s breath. “Look… can’t believe ah’m saying this, but maybe y’oughta try and catch a nap in class today or somethin’.” “Yeah, seriously Pinkie,” Rainbow nodded swiftly. “You just chill out a bit. We’ll take care of you, alright?” “Hmm…” Pinkie’s eyes narrowed at them, and both Rainbow and Applejack were taken aback to realize that Pinkie Pie of all people was giving them a look of deepest suspicion! “We’ll see about that, Rainbow Dash… we’ll see…” Pinkie backed away from the two of them, never breaking eye contact – at least until she bumped into another student, shrieked “Changeling oh my gosh!!” and zoomed into the classroom, slamming the door hard behind her. Silence reigned in the hallway for a long moment, until Rainbow Dash looked to Applejack in confusion. “Uhh, did *any* of that make sense to you?” Applejack just sighed and put a hand to her forehead. “An’ here I thought that this was gonna be a good start to the week,” she groaned. “Good morning, class!” Mr. Time Turner cheerfully greeted the assembled students of first period biology. “This week we’ll be starting a new chapter, but I thought we’d begin a little easy, with a short film on the topic at hand.” With a bit of a flourish, he pulled down a projection screen over the blackboard, before nodding to Rainbow Dash, who was closest to the door, to switch the lights off. “Now of course, heads up and off the desks,” he added as he moved to ready the projector, “This is still science class after all… ahh, Pinkie Pie?” Mr. Turner’s usual easygoing smile faded slightly as he passed by the pink girl’s desk, and noticed her wide, red-rimmed eyes and extra frizzled hairdo. “Yeeees?” Pinkie Pie turned her head, giving him an innocent smile that looked horribly jarring next to her wild hair and exhausted eyes. Time Turner looked searchingly at her for a moment, clearly trying to think of the best way to phrase what he had to say. “…If you’d like to put your head down, that’s fine,” he told her gently. “Had a rough night, eh?” “Who told you that?” Pinkie’s eyes widened, her curls jostling dangerously as she looked around at her classmates as though trying to find out who’d betrayed her trust. Then she caught herself, giggled reluctantly, and said to the teacher, “No no, it’s okay Mister Turner. I’m all right! The last thing I need right now is to go to sleep, I super-duper swear it!” Time Turner looked like he rather wanted to press the matter further, but he chose to relent. “All right then,” he said softly, “Well if you’re sure…” And with that, he started the film, and the screen lit up. Pinkie turned her eyes to face the screen, and her eyes lit up as she recognized the opening notes from the theme of a somewhat old series of British educational films. “Ooh!” she cooed, bobbing her head slightly as the camera moved through the halls of a museum, panning over footage of various animals and exhibits as the theme music played. As she watched a brilliant red parrot flutter by the skeleton of a dinosaur, Pinkie was smiling a little more naturally, and her hair had begun to lose some of its… frantic, quality. As the logo of the video series displayed across the screen for a moment, the party planner felt something like relief begin to steal over her. …That lasted just a few seconds though, as a skinny, angular shadow with long arms fell over the emblem, and a large praying mantis slowly scuttled into view of the camera. Even the background music took on a rather sinister turn, as the insect tilted its head in the eerie way that only a mantis could to look *right at* the lens. Pinkie’s eyes widened until they almost seemed in danger of popping out of her face, and her jaw fell open in the utmost shock as the narrator began to speak. Unable to look away, she watched with a kind of helpless disbelief and dread as the mantis scuttled out of sight, and other insects began to appear on screen. “These fascinating creatures are known as insects, and they have been around since before even the dinosaurs. They are some of the most varied species known to man. For every one of us, there are roughly two hundred million of them…” The narrator continued with the documentary, cheerfully oblivious to Pinkie’s anguish. The film went on to discuss the origins of insects and how they had evolved to adapt with the passage of time. In particular, how they had gone on to adapt to the evolution of humans, whether it was the example of locusts plaguing crops, or fleas and lice and other parasites feeding on human… “Every year, insects destroy as much as fifteen percent of the world’s food supply. This competition for limited resources has led to an ongoing war between humans and insects… a war that we sometimes seem to be losing…” Pinkie barked out an oddly nervous laugh at that, drawing a couple surprised, concerned looks from her nearby classmates. (The documentary followed up on this by also pointing out the beneficial impact of insects too, in the form of pollinating fruit and bees making honey, but Pinkie could only focus on the footage of a cockroach feeding that had preceded this announcement.) Unable to tear her eyes away from the screen, Pinkie Pie continued to numbly watch as the film continued. “Insects can reproduce in massive numbers. Aphids, for example can reproduce asexually, creating as many as fifty genetically identical offspring in the course of a single week. However, most insects reproduce sexually, creating a number of genetically different offspring, which carries the potential for different specimens having a better chance of survival. In a process called ‘complete metamorphosis,’ some insect species give birth to larvae, which look nothing like their parents. The larva grows, and molts several times, eventually becoming a pupa. Inside the pupa, the body is completely transformed, and an all-new adult emerges…” Pinkie’s mouth twitched as she watched footage of a dark-colored insect pushing its way out of the shell of its cocoon. The sight of the bug’s frantic, twitchy movements was setting off a variety of memories from the previous night, none of them remotely pleasant… Lyra Heartstrings frowned sympathetically as she noticed her classmate’s obvious distress. She leaned in slightly, whispering softly, “Everything okay, Pinkie?” “’m fine,” Pinkie answered in a strangled voice, not taking her eyes off of the screen, “J-just fine…” The other girl didn’t look at all convinced, and reached over to give her hand a reassuring squeeze. Pinkie managed to tear her gaze away for a second to offer Lyra a tentative smile. By now, the documentary had moved on to discuss the feeding habits of insects. Butterflies had long tubular mouthparts to reach into flowers and drink nectar, compared to the scissor-like mouthparts that caterpillars used to chop through leaves… “Of course, there are many predatory species of insect. Some of them even use their prey as a tool to assist in reproduction. The tarantula hawk wasp, for example, is so named because it uses live tarantulas as both food and shelter for its larvae. Paralyzing the spider with its sting, the tarantula hawk then drags it back to its nest, where it deposits its egg; upon hatching, the larva burrows into the host, and carefully devours it from the inside out.” Pinkie’s jaw dropped open once more, and a faint wheeze slipped out of her mouth, that sounded oddly like a strangled scream. Admittedly, she wasn’t alone in that regard; Rainbow Dash had loudly muttered “Gross!” and more than a few people were wincing or looking disturbed. Bulk Biceps nearly burst into tears as the wasp was shown in the act of stinging a tarantula and dragging it away. “Once the larva has eaten its fill, it pupates, and when it has reached adulthood, exits the spider’s body through the abdomen to continue the next phase of its life cycle. This metamorphosis makes the tarantula hawk wasp a fascinating, if unsettling, member of the insect kingdom.” As she watched the image of the wasp scuttle out and across the ground, Pinkie’s face drained of color, until she was nearly as white as Bulk Biceps. She slumped down face-first onto her desk and, were it not for the groan she made, one might have thought that the party planner had just fainted. When the bell rang for the end of first period, Pinkie Pie trudged out of the classroom and made straight for the girls’ bathroom. Once inside, she went to the sink, turned it on, and filled her hands with water before splashing her face. “Gahh!” she squealed at the unexpected coldness, and then gripped the sides of the sink as she shook her head rapidly. Her hair whipped around like a pink whirlwind, if anything becoming even more tangled than it was already; an outcome that Pinkie dejectedly noticed when she glanced at her reflection. “Aww…” the party animal sighed at her image in the glass. She fixed her reflection with a determined stare. “Get it *together*, Pinkie!" she barked, smacking her hands on the sink counter, "It was only a bad dream… in a long, cold, sleepless night filled to the brim with bad dreams…” Her face fell, and she drooped at the utter failure of her attempted pep-talk, before she suddenly felt a deep groaning from her stomach, followed by a profound sense of emptiness. “Oh, no…” Pinkie whimpered. After a night filled with attempts to sleep – and a variety of nightmares where people she knew turned into hissing, slime-drooling bug-people out to eat her alive – Pinkie Pie had done the unthinkable for someone of her usual appetite, and forgotten to eat breakfast. Not even so much as a doughnut to go with the coffee she’d guzzled that morning had passed her lips. And now, finally, she was starting to really feel the effects of skipping her morning meal. “Oh, my tum-tum…” Pinkie clutched her midsection with a groan. “Why didn’t Maud tell me to eat something?!” “Pinkie, you should eat something,” Maud Pie stated, unflappably watching as Pinkie aggressively poured her eighth cup of coffee, before mixing in enough sugar to make any normal person choke. “No time Maud! Gotta have coffee! Gotta stay awake!!” Pinkie blinked at the sudden burst of memory. “…Oh. Right.” She sighed loudly, and gave her image in the mirror a forlorn look. There was just one more class period to go until lunch… she could make it until then, right? ...Right? Her stomach gurgled again, and Pinkie ducked her head down to focus on giving her hands a wash. After scrubbing thoroughly and rinsing them off, she looked up one more time at the mirror – And then her eyes popped, jaw dropping as she saw, big as life and a hundred times scarier, the tall and inhumanly thin form of a Changeling, reflected right behind her! Chitin glistening, dull blue eyes filled with malice, the insect alien opened its slime-dripping jaws and said-- “Pinkie, darling!” The party planner yipped in surprise, before her brain caught up with her ears. She shut her eyes, counted to three, and opened them, and gave a guilty smile to the person she now saw before her. “Ohhh. Hi Rarity!” The fashionista gave Pinkie a polite, if puzzled and also somewhat tired, smile. She had just come from her Monday morning class, P.E. and was clearly still a bit winded. “Good morning, Pinkie,” her eyes drifted to Pinkie’s hair, and Rarity drew back with a gasp of fright. “Oh, my, goodness! What on earth has happened to your hair, Pinkie Pie? You didn’t get it caught in a mixer again, did you?” “What? No!” Pinkie shook her head, curls and tangles jangling chaotically, “I’m f-fine, Rarity! Really!” The other girl clearly was not buying Pinkie’s claim, but Rarity ultimately decided not to press the matter further just yet. She considered herself a lady, after all, and ladies as a rule were not supposed to be busybodies. “If you say so, dear,” Rarity said carefully, and then turned her attention to her own face in the mirror. Her hair was windswept and ruffled from having to run laps for most of gym, and she definitely needed a touchup. Opening up her cosmetics kit, Rarity sighed and then began to tweak and fix her appearance. “I swear,” she murmured to herself, concentrating on plucking a stray eyelash, “I simply *have* to fix my face!” Pinkie, who had been scrubbing her own face again, let out a strange yip of surprise and then looked at Rarity with something a lot like suspicion. “Pinkie?” Rarity carefully put down her eyeliner, “What’s the matter?” “Nothiiiing…” Pinkie drew out the word, her expression hard to read. They finished up without further fuss and left the girls’ bathroom. Pinkie Pie trailed a step or two behind Rarity as they set off down the hall for second period math class. When her stomach gurgled loudly again, Pinkie responded to Rarity’s questioning stare with a nervous giggle, and then suddenly stopped at the nearest water fountain. Maybe a good long drink would help quench her appetite a little… “Hi girls!” Rarity looked over, beaming, to who had just called. “Twilight darling! Hello-ohh!” The last syllable of her greeting morphed into an ecstatic trill of the utmost excitement, as though a stunning gem display had just caught her eye. Twilight Sparkle smiled bashfully at the fashionista’s squeal. She was dressed in her usual everyday outfit, with the addition of a brand-new light jacket over her top, that was from a certain designer brand. “Sunset and I went shopping on Saturday, and well, she talked me into buying this,” she explained, both a little discomfited and amused at how Rarity’s eyes were almost dancing with excitement. “Well! It was a choice very well made, dear,” Rarity said proudly, as she nearly zoomed in on Twilight, “You look so adorable in that jacket, oooh!!” She let out another squeal of delight as she took Twilight by the shoulders and declared, “I could just eat you up right now!” *Pfffpptt!* There was a noise uncannily like the air being released from a large balloon as Pinkie Pie choked loudly and spewed out the mouthful of water she’d been gulping down. Rarity recoiled, even though she and Twilight were well out of the splash zone. When she’d recovered her composure, the young lady put a hand on her hip and fixed Pinkie Pie with a most disapproving look. “Really, Pinkie Pie. What in the world has gotten into you this morning?” “Uhh, hehe…” Pinkie’s cheeks were bright red, and her eyes were darting around, looking everywhere but at Rarity and Twilight as she scrambled to come up with some sort of answer. Then she was saved by the ringing of the bell, and all three of them rushed to get to class. As she apologized to Mr. Cranky Doodle for the delay, Rarity swore to herself that – as soon as lunchtime came around – she was going to set Pinkie down and find out just *what* had her friend acting so unlike herself…