At a carnival, there were ponies trotting around, having fun chatting with their friends, riding some rides, or buying some snacks from food vendors. The sight of smiling ponies, the sounds of ponies’ hoofsteps on the ground, their screams and laughter, and the taste and smell of cotton candy, snacks, and sweets made the place a cornucopia of the senses. Everything was peaceful.
“Step right up, step right up! Try and dunk this stallion into the dunk tank for only 5 Bits!” announced a female voice.
Over where the voice was coming from, there was a mare with a megaphone that was floating around in a magical aura.
Meanwhile, her friend, a unicorn stallion, was sitting on the seat that was connected to the bullseye. Instead of water, the dunk tank was filled entirely with cotton candy. There was even a sign next to the dunk tank that said: ‘No magic or flying’.
“Um, are you sure about this, Calliope? Won’t we get in trouble?” he asked.
Calliope nodded. “I’m sure of it, Indigo. We won’t,” she confirmed.
Indigo Sand was only asking this since the two friends have been doing crazy, illogical stuff at the carnival for an entire week. Today, they were doing a dunk tank filled with cotton candy. If Indigo fell in, then they would burst out and a plethora of cotton candy would soar out the top of the basic and shower the crowds with sugary goodness As they had done before, after their day at magic school ended, the two would go to the carnival and set the entire thing up with permission from the carnival owner, and before the carnival, there were those times with the circus too. There was even a special surprise that the enthusiastic mare put at the end that will only happen the moment somepony manages to hit the target and dunk the stallion.
She cleared her throat. “Step right up and dunk my friend into this vat of cotton candy!” announced Calliope.
There were some ponies who looked interested, while others only passed them by.
“I’ll give it a try,” said a female voice.
The two saw that it belonged to the pegasus mare, Snowfall Diamond, who was being flanked by two of her friends, Emerald Petunia, an earth pony mare, while the other was Pearl Luminescence, a unicorn mare. The three had trotted over.
“That’ll be 5 Bits for one throw,” the mare informed.
Calliope smiled when she got the money, gave a ball to the Snowfall, then stepped away. The pegasus tossed it up and down a few times before bringing her hoof back and throwing it. Everypony watched with much attention as the ball was heading right for the target. The unicorn was shaking with worry. The projectile was getting closer and closer to its intended destination, then…The ball hit a little to the right, missing the target by mere centimeters. It seemed that the ball skewed slightly.
The mare was shocked that she missed the target. “What?!” exclaimed the pegasus. Then, Snowfall Diamond became angry. “Let me try that again!”
Calliope held out a hoof. “5 Bits,” said the enthusiastic mare.
The pegasus gave five more bits to her, who in turn gave Snowfall Diamond another ball. She threw the ball again at the target. The ball had sailed upwards, missing the target again.
“Aaaugh!” groaned Snowfall Diamond, frustrated. “Another!”
After that, the pegasus started wasting Bits throwing balls, trying to hit the target, but missed every time. Ponies were either starting to laugh, were already laughing, or feeling bad for her. Snowfall Diamond’s friends were starting to feel either embarrassed or annoyed, or both as the pegasus hasn’t stopped not even once and is making a fool of herself trying to dunk the stallion.
The enthusiastic mare was also feeling bad for Snowfall Diamond. “Maybe you should stop? There are other ponies behind you that want to have a turn too,” said Calliope. “That, and you came here to have fun with your friends, not be addicted to one game that you’re trying to win at.”
The pegasus panted, hooves feeling tired from all the pitching she did. “Not yet. I can still go on!” said Snowfall Diamond, determined. She reached into her saddlebags to get another five bits. “Huh?! It can’t be!”
The pegasus’ saddlebags were empty of bits. It seems that Snowfall Diamond had spent every last one on the game.
“Wait! One more game!” she said, begging. “Please!”
Suddenly, the pegasus’ entire body was encased in magic before being lifted up into the air.
Snowfall Diamond was surprised. “W-What’s going on?! Who’s doing this?!” she exclaimed. Then, the pegasus became angry. “Put me down!”
“That’s enough, Snowfall,” said a female voice.
They looked to see that the source of the voice was Pearl Luminescence, whose horn was glowing with magic.
The unicorn mare looked up at her friend with an annoyed stare. “You’ve already spent all of your bits and you’re holding up the line. Let’s go check out the other attractions,” said Pearl Luminescence. “I’ll buy you something to eat afterwards.”
The unicorn mare started trotting away while carrying the pegasus in her magic. Snowfall Diamond started shouting at Pearl Luminescence to let her go, but the unicorn mare wasn’t listening.
As for Emerald Petunia, she followed after her friends, but then the earth pony mare stopped and turned to look at the enthusiastic mare and Indigo Sand. “Sorry about that,” said the earth pony mare. She then galloped after her friends.
Seeing as how the pegasus mare was finally pulled away, Calliope then smiled at the crowd. “Anypony want to try next?” she asked.
A Few Minutes Later
After those three had left, there were other ponies who had come to try out the attraction: stallions, mares, colts, fillies, and a few ponies from their school. So far, nopony has been able to hit the target. Some ponies stayed in line wanting to give it a try, while others who were watching had left, bored since nopony had been able to hit the target.
He felt bored. “I’d hate to say this, but I really wish somepony would dunk me already,” muttered Indigo Sand.
The enthusiastic mare yawned. “Next,” said Calliope.
A unicorn mare dressed as a fashion model approached with a buff-looking earth pony stallion.
She was starting to get tired of saying the same words over and over again. “5 Bits for one throw,” said the enthusiastic mare.
The beautiful mare hoofed over five bits, silently. As soon as Calliope brought up a ball, the unicorn had looked over and nodded over at the buff stallion, who responded with a nod of his own. The earth pony trotted over and grabbed the ball from the enthusiastic mare’s hoof, pulled his foreleg back, and launched the ball at the target. It sailed towards the target with great speed. Everypony watched with bated breaths as the ball was getting closer and closer…Then, the ball connected with the target, causing it to release the seat, making the unicorn stallion fall into the cotton candy.
Everypony was about to cheer, when suddenly, the dunk tank exploded, sending cotton candy flying everywhere, even towards the ponies too. Some were able to avoid it, but others got covered in it. The earth pony stallion quickly galloped over and stood in front of the beautiful mare, protecting her from the cotton candy, and became the one who got covered in it instead. Those who were covered in cotton candy, seeing as how it was edible despite them being covered in it, started either removing it or eating it.
Calliope didn’t avoid the cotton candy and had gotten some on her, but the enthusiastic mare was okay with it. “That…Was so awesome,” she said, excited. “It was so” A strange word came to the front of her mind. “So…illogical, that…that…”
A voice sounded off next to the enthusiastic mare.
“That it could knock hats off ponies’ heads?” continued a male voice, a weird tone in their voice.
Calliope almost agreed with the analogy, but she was still pumped. “Something like that, but I do like the analogy,” said the enthusiastic mare. Calliope turned to face the stallion, but was shocked.
The voice belonged to a pony she’d seen and heard of back when the enthusiastic mare was human. It was the pony from the World of Illogic. He seemed to have a bit of cotton candy on him as well. His presence must've been what Calliope sensed. This explains the weird feeling that made her feel like he was both there and wasn't at the same time.
“My name’s Psycho the Psychopath. I saw everything, and what you did before. Lots of fun! And I love ponies that have fun like you do!” said the illogical pony. “A dunk tank full of cotton candy that exploooodes with candy everywhere when somepony gets dunked into it, coating ponies in cotton candy. A fun and tasty prank!”
Psychopath then took off his hat and reached in before pulling out a plate that had two slices of buttered toast on it. After that, the illogical pony grabbed some cotton candy, placed it on top of one of the buttered toast, and smooshed the two together. He turned the plate upside-down, causing the sandwich to fall into his hat. Once Psychopath put the hat back on, the illogical pony then burped.
“Yum,” he said. “Would you like to come to the World of the Illogic? You can be as illogical as you want. You can be somepony who can bring the carnival to ponies, or even be a ringmaster where the spotlight shines on you. Many many many things! What do you say?” The illogical pony asked with an ever-growing smile.
Calliope was shocked that Psychopath was recruiting her to join the World of the Illogic. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity. After all, he might not return back again.
The enthusiastic mare ishared his smile and nodded. “I accept, but first, before we leave, I want to at least say goodbye to Indigo,” said Calliope. She didn’t want to leave him alone without saying anything first.
Over where the dunk tank originally remained, there was a big mass of cotton candy. It had started to move as it parted away as Indigo Sand came out, unscathed, while there were some cotton candy coating parts of him. The unicorn stallion was okay thanks to a protection and shielding spell cast on the lower half of the cotton. That way, before the explosion happened, the cotton candy imbued with the magic would surround him and activate the moment he fell in.
The unicorn stallion trotted over to the two. “Looks like the attraction was a success,” said Indigo Sand. The unicorn stallion became confused when he saw Psychopath. “Who’s this?”
“This is Psycho the Psychopath. He came to recruit me to the World of the Illogic,” explained Calliope. “I wanted to say goodbye before I leave.”
Indigo Sand was both confused and worried. “Goodbye? So you’re leaving forever?” questioned the unicorn stallion.
“Don’t worry, Indigo. It’s not forever,” she reassured. “I’ll be back to visit soon, and I’ll visit every few months so that you won’t be lonely. I promise.”
The enthusiastic mare held out a hoof for a hoofbump. He stared at the hoof for a few seconds before the unicorn stallion bumped his hoof against Calliope’s.
“You better hold that promise, or else I’ll join my cousin Anonymous’ band,” said Indigo Sand, jokingly. “I’ll be the backup singer.”
The enthusiastic mare chuckled as she knew the unicorn stallion was joking. They both knew he wouldn't be able to join the band because Indigo Sand was tone deaf.
“Yeah, sure. I will,” said Calliope. The enthusiastic mare looked at the mess of cotton candy. “We should clean this up first before we leave. With this mess, a vacuum…is needed.” She had an idea and looked at the illogical pony. “Psychopath, you think you could do something illogical like act like a vacuum that could suck up only the cotton candy?”
“I’ll do one better!” the stallion declared.
The stallion reached into his hat, pulled out an eraser, then focused it in front of his face while focusing on the ‘battlefield’ in front of him. He kept one eye closed and let his tongue loll out of his mouth while he mumbled to himself. Indigo became concerned and was about to speak up when the stallion started swiping left and right, erasing the cotton candy from every surface.
Indigo bounced, startled, causing some of the bits he was holding to fly onto the floor. “What the?!” he shouted.
Psycho snuck up on the young stallion who started to pick the bits up and erupted from the ground. “It’s done!” he bellowed as loudly as possible.
Indigo stumbled backwards while Psycho laughed and picked the bits up himself to give back to the stallion.
Indigo looked around, panting heavily, when he noticed that only the ponies hadn’t been…‘cleaned’.
He was amazed. “Whoa,” said the unicorn stallion.
She smiled. “Yeah,” said the enthusiastic mare.
Finally done, the illogical pony sneezed, excused himself, and wiped the ground with a handkerchief he pulled from his hat, revealing a strange, colorful hole.
“See you later, Indigo,” said Calliope.
Indigo Sand nodded. “You too, Calliope,” he said.
The enthusiastic mare jumped through the portal and was gone. As for Psychopath, he had randomly pulled out some snorkels from out of his hat and put them on. Then, the illogical pony turned away from the portal, stood on his hindlegs and joined his hindlegs together. He slammed his chest in a salute and shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces like glass. Said pieces splashed against the portal surface, causing rippling along the surface with every hit, like the colorful hole was made of water, before they were audibly ‘flushed’ by the portal. Calliope, although hesitant thanks to the sound the hole made, followed after. Everypony was shocked to see the two disappear through the portal, except for the unicorn stallion, who had trotted away, heading for home and ready to sleep.
A Few Months Later
During the time that had passed by, Indigo Sand had been focusing on his studies as part of the unicorn stallion’s parents’ order. They even told him to ‘not look for or interact with Calliope’ as they saw her as a distraction to their son’s studies and grades. Indigo Sand didn’t need to look for the enthusiastic mare since he knew that Calliope would return soon, so he sat down in the circus stands amongst the other students, teachers, and faculty members of his school. Apparently, the entire school was invited to attend some sort of circus all of a sudden. Some of the students were happy either because they were getting away from school for a while or that they liked the circus, while other students weren’t happy that they’ll be missing some of their classes.
“I wonder how Calliope’s doing? Ever since she left, school just isn’t the same anymore,” thought Indigo Sand. “She would’ve liked to see the circus. I wish she was here.”
As soon as the unicorn stallion thought that an explosion of confetti happened in the middle of the ring, surprising everypony. After all of the confetti fell to the ground, everyone was shocked to see performers of different races, and circus animals appear out of nowhere. As for him, Indigo Sand’s face was a different kind of shock in the form of happiness as amongst the performers, there was one the unicorn stallion recognized.
The mare smiled at his happy shocked face.
“Hello, everypony. It’s great to be back home,” she announced. “For all of you who don’t recognize me, except-” The mare points her staff at Indigo Sand. “-for my friend there, I used to go to your school. I’m Calliope, Ringmaster/Carnival Owner, and one of the Heralds of the World of the Illogic. Welcome to my circus.” Calliope grinned. “Are you all ready for our first performance?”