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// 　　　　　　　　　　 
// Story: 　　　　　　　　　　 
// by PseudoBob Delightus 
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Pinkie Pie found herself wandering around Ponyville, dismayed at its abandoned appearance. It was almost as if everypony had become as invisible as her - but really, they were just hiding from a ghost. She could see the ruffling of curtains, hear the battening of doors and windows, and eyes peering through cracks, which, upon noticing her hoofprints, hid away even further.

Or maybe they were noticing her hat. Applejack's hat. It would have been mean to leave it in the dirt, so she wore it, if only be for a little while. It made her laugh - how silly it must have looked! A hat just floating there! But it couldn't quite cheer her up. Even her own laughing was silent to her.

Here and there, she remembered where she was going: up to the Apple farm, to give the hat back, or at least leave it on a fence-post where Applejack might find it later. It was just hard to get around such an empty place. She navigated not by landmarks, but smiles.

Eventually, she did find the path out to the countryside, and followed it for long enough that her mind started to wander elsewhere.

Would she ever find a cure for her invisibility? Or was Pinkie doomed to forever go unseen, unheard, and unnoticed? 

The line of thought really ruined her mood, which had not at all been in a need for ruining lately. If she remained invisible forever, how could she make ponies laugh? Perhaps, if she kept herself from tripping ponies and knocking things over and doing all those other rude poltergeist-y things, the ponies of Ponyville would gradually come to appreciate the local "ghost". And maybe she could even make ponies laugh, still, by doing things that an invisible, silent pony could still do. Like... juggling! Or playing pranks! Maybe if she did the right variety of these things, ponies would even remember that it was her, and that would - if she dared imagine it - break the curse!

That did it! Pinkie was starting to feel much better about her predicament. All she had to do was focus on what made her special, and help other ponies see the fun in things, and everything would be al-

WOOSH! A multi-coloured streak blew past her, nearly knocking her hat off. What the hay?

In the distance, towards where the streak had flown, Pinkie spotted a blue pegasus - well, of course! It was one of her ultra super-duper friends Rainbow Dash!

She didn't have much in the way of preparation, but now was as good a time as any to try out her plan. She picked a rock out of the ground, found an errant pine cone, and dug up a clod of dirt, and started trying to juggle all of it - but she was hit again by another blast of wind as Rainbow flew past her, even closer this time. 

"Hey, what gives!?" she shouted on reflex, knowing all the same that it wouldn't be heard. And Rainbow didn't hear it. She just reared up for another pass.

It seemed, as she approached, that Rainbow was trying to snatch the hat, but the way she was heading, she'd crash into Pinkie as well. It was all she could do to dodge and hold on tight, but the passes kept getting lower, and closer, and tighter, and faster, and eventually Pinkie was surrounded by a kaleidoscopic tornado.

"What's going on!?" Rainbow Dash asked, to the hat, mainly.

"I could ask you the same question!" Pinkie replied - unheard.

Rainbow was already continuing, "Some magic or something, I bet. Well, you ain't seen nothin' yet! I'm not leaving without my friend's hat!"

The chaotic attempts to capture the hat, and injure Pinkie Pie, redoubled, beyond the point where Pinkie could consistently avoid the charges. In a desperate last measure, Pinkie retrieved her 32-pounder party cannon and fired it into the whirlwind. It wouldn't harm her friend - maybe another pegasus, but not Rainbow, she was sure of that - but it wouldn't have done her much good either.

At this caliber, and at this range, anything was a direct hit. Rainbow, blasted away by an invisible and silent force of confetti, carved a crater into the ground where she landed. She emerged angry, but dazed and confused, and quite far away. 

Now was Pinkie's chance! She dove into the grass surrounding the field, and galloped into the forest, and hid under a ball of roots for a while, until she was fairly sure that Rainbow wouldn't find her again.

She finally let out a shuddering breath. She'd had tough crowds, but this was ridiculous!

With Rainbow Dash patrolling the skies, the Apple farm didn't seem like such a good destination anymore, even though all she really wanted was to deliver the hat. Oh, she should have just dropped it on the ground and let Rainbow have it! But, under attack, she hadn't had the time to think clearly.

What next? Well, she needed to find another ultra super-duper friend, one who wasn't hiding from ghosts or hunting a magical hat-thief. That left two options.

The nearest was Fluttershy. Oh Fluttershy! She would fright easily, but was still relatively calm, and maybe wouldn't right away think a ghost was haunting her.

But... that just didn't sit right with her. All of her ideas had gone wrong so far, in spectacular fashion, and she didn't want to bring this mess on Fluttershy as well.

That left Twilight. Of course! That should have been her first idea! Twilight wasn't afraid of ghosts, or magic, or maybe anything. And she was certainly smart enough to figure things out and have her own ideas on how to cure this problem, or at least stop it from getting much worse. 

So she snuck off, back to Ponyville, avoiding flat and open areas, but making a line straight to the library. If she could just get a hold of Twilight her troubles would soon be at an end.