CANTERLOT; 15 YEARS LATER
“Woo yeah, go Pinkie!” Rainbow Dash shouted to Pinkie while sitting at the open bar and holding a mug of cider in her hoof; a blush forming on her face due to all the alcohol she’d already consumed tonight.
“Thanks Dashie!” Pinkie shouted back as she somehow managed to break dance despite her frilly light pink dress.
Ordinarily the Grand Galloping Gala would be a pretty boring affair for the average pony. It was really an exclusive event moreso fitted to the taste of Equestria’s elite than anypony else. Recently though, with the attendance of Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends things had changed…for better or for worse. The last few Galas have had some disasters occur that put the event into nothing short of chaos, sure, but at the very least one could not call them boring.
And tonight, if Pinkie’s momentum kept up, it would appear that this year would follow the trend. Because tonight, the mare was in full party animal mode. She looked like she’d had no less than fifteen cupcakes before arriving tonight as she bounced all around the dance floor in the energetic and cheerful manner one would usually expect from Pinkie. She’d acted similarly the first time she’d ever been to the Gala, but by now she and her friends had saved the kingdom so many times that none of the nobles had the nerve to scold her like they did back then. The mare had simply accrued too much clout.
Eventually, Pinkie managed to tire herself out and she decided to take a quick rest, bowing to the ponies watching her. Knowing better than to correct Pinkie’s etiquette by now, all the ponies clapped their hooves as she trotted off. Pinkie then made her way to the bar where Rainbow sat and took the stool next to her, wiping some sweat from her brow.
“Phew. Gosh, I’m really going at it super DUPER hard tonight. This is fun!” Pinkie said with a big smile, despite her exhaustion.
“I’ll say. I haven’t seen you turn it up that hard in a while. You were killing it,” Dash said as she took a sip of her cider.
“Heehee. I guess the last few times we’ve been to the Gala I haven’t REALLY gotten to enjoy myself, so I wanted to make it count. And look, everypony’s seeming way nicer this time around!” Pinkie said, waving at the various noble ponies that were watching her earlier, who all gave her a sheepish grin as they waved at her.
“Heh. Guess that’s a way of lookin’ at it,” Rainbow said, knowing the real reason behind their lack of hostility but not wanting to ruin Pinkie’s fun.
“Heeeey!” Pinkie said, turning back to Rainbow. “You wanna come out there and dance with me? Pleaaaaaase?” she asked with a wide-eyed and grinned expression.
“Aaagh, y’know I would Pinkie but…not gonna lie, I’ve already had so much to drink I feel like I’m gonna start sweating cider,” Rainbow said, leaning to the side so Pinkie could more clearly see the twelve empty mugs on the bar next to her. “Feeling a buzz coming and you don’t wanna see my drunk dancing. It’s not pretty and I got a rep to keep here,”
“Awww,” Pinkie pouted. “Well…I GUESS I can go it alone,”
“Well now you’re just making me feel bad. Sorry Pinkie,” Rainbow rolled her eyes a bit and chugged down the last bit of cider in her mug, turning it upside down and adding it to the twelve empty ones at her side.
Just then, another mug of cider slid down the bar right into Pinkie’s hooves, confusing Pinkie a bit. She looked up at Applejack who was manning the bar from behind the counter. She had been on the other end but began to trot Pinkie and Rainbow’s way.
“Oh um, Applejack, I didn’t ask for any-“
Applejack put her hoof up. “Yeah, yeah, ah know ya didn’t. That’s from the mare on the other end there. An’ don’t look now but she’s been eyein’ ya up like ya were the sweetest darn apple fritter she’s ever seen all night. And uh…well…”
“Huh?” Pinkie looked past Applejack and like she said, there was indeed a mare sitting on the other end, and her appearance almost immediately caught Pinkie’s attention.
There were some instances in the past where Pinkie’s emotional state was incredibly dour, and during those times, her ordinarily poofy mane would completely deflate and straighten out. The mare she was seeing sitting across the bar was almost a dead ringer in appearance for her when Pinkie was in that state. There were a few differences though. That straight, pink mane of hers was tied in the back forming a long ponytail that draped over her shoulder. The dress she wore was a long black evening gown that covered her cutie mark and stuck tightly to her chest so only a small tuft of her chest fluff was able to poke out from under it. Her outfit was completed by matching black stockings on all four of her legs and dark purple eyeshadow around her eyes.
If it were not for those few differences, especially the mare’s choice of attire, Pinkie could have sworn she was looking into a mirror. The shade of her fur and mane, her bright blue eyes, the ever so slightly pudgy figure, all of it was the same.
The mare was looking directly at her, with one foreleg resting on the bar holding her head up. If her intentions hadn’t been made clear already by buying Pinkie’s drink, they were more than confirmed from the flirtatious smile and wink she sent Pinkie’s direction.
This stirred up some feelings in Pinkie she didn’t quite understand, and her cheeks blushed a little. “M-Mmm…she looks…a LOT like me,”
“Ah noticed. Ya don’t think Twilight mighta missed one of those clones from the Mirror Pool do ya?” Applejack asked.
“Mmm, COULD be but…if she was a clone that’s anything like me, I don’t think she’d be wearing…um…that. It’s not Pinkie-style,” Pinkie said, glancing back up at the smiling mare in a bashful manner.
“No kidding, I mean…dang,” Rainbow gawked, a bit floored at the mare’s looks. “Well…either way, she’s definitely checking you out. You want me and AJ to go let her down for ya?” Rainbow asked, already knowing Pinkie well enough to know she only liked guys that way.
“Oh no, I can do it!” Pinkie replied, steeling her resolve. “Besides, I should probably thank her for the cider myself anyway,” she then downed the entire mug in one go and making her way to the mare’s side.
“Well, okay if you’re…sure,” Rainbow trailed off as Pinkie had already left them behind. She shrugged and looked at Applejack. “Hey AJ, can ya get me another cider?”
Applejack deadpanned. “How about ya look at the thirteen ya already put in yer face and ask me that again,”
Rainbow’s eyes glanced over at her mug pile and she awkwardly played with the skirt of her gala dress, not really knowing how to follow up. “…Pretty please?”
“No,” Applejack facehoofed.
Pinkie Pie was able to chalk up the mare’s voice as another difference between the two of them, as the mare spoke first when Pinkie approached her.
“Finally worked up the nerve to talk to me, hm?” the mare asked with a flirty smile. While her voice still had a somewhat high pitch to it, it was nowhere near as much as Pinkie’s and was more reigned-in. If her voice and choice of gala dress was any indication, this mare likely carried herself with similar elegance to other mares usually in attendance here.
Pinkie blushed a little bit and took the seat next to her but didn’t show signs of nervousness on her face as she smiled back in her usual, friendly and excitable manner. “I was just coming to say thanks for the cider. It’s nice to meet a new friendly face! I’m Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie said, holding out her hoof for the mare to shake it.
“Oh, I know ALL about you,” The mare said as she shook pinkie’s hoof with her own stockinged hoof, not letting up on that flirtatious smile of hers. “Pink Diamond. I’m a jeweler from out of town,” she replied with her name. She then took Pinkie by surprise by kissing her hoof instead of just letting go right away and looking at her with her blue eyes half-lidded. “But you can just call me Diamond, sugar,”
The butterflies came back into Pinkie’s stomach, and she could feel her face getting hotter. She didn’t understand why this mare made her so nervous, but she was feeling it even more than before now. Inwardly she was a bit flattered; ponies wouldn’t usually give her this sort of attention. Rarity and Fluttershy maybe, not usually her. So, she did appreciate it a bit.
Nevertheless, she pulled her hoof away, a bit of laughter escaping her mouth as she tried her best to make it not sound awkward.
“E-Eheh…I um…I don’t wanna disappoint you Diamond, but I only like stallions that way,” Pinkie said, the blush still visible on her face.
“Awww, seems like all the good ones do,” Diamond said still wearing her smile and feigning disappointment. It occurred to Pinkie that Diamond could see how badly she was blushing at the moment and concluded that she wasn’t buying it. “But I get it. Guys can be quite the lookers too,”
Pinkie quickly decided to change the topic before her heart could explode. “S-So um…I just wanted to ask…how do you feel about…weird questions?”
Diamond giggled. “Heheh. Love them. How weird are we talking?”
Pinkie then got in a bit closer and somewhat loudly whispered. “You’re not a mirror pool clone of me, are you? You don’t remember Twilight making you watch paint dry and maybe…running away? Because we look…a LOT A LOT alike,”
Diamond blinked in confusion and said nothing for a few moments, looking like she didn’t know how to respond. “Uh…no? I’m sure I’d remember something like that if that happened. But you’re right, that question is strange,”
Pinkie breathed a bit of a sigh of relief. “Phew. I didn’t think so. I don’t think a Pinkie Pie would be wearing what you’re wearing,”
Diamond pouted a little bit, now seemingly feigning hurt. “What? Don’t like my dress?”
Pinkie inwardly smacked herself and stammered over her words. “O-Oh no no, it’s…very pretty! You’re wearing it great!”
Diamond smirked a little, as if Pinkie had played right into her hooves. “Glad to hear it, sugar. Your dress looks lovely too. Really brings out those baby blues of yours~” Diamond said looking right into Pinkie’s eyes.
Pinkie could feel several beads of sweat forming on her head. “E-Eheheh…thanks…ANYWAY,” she coughed. “So…why do you think we look so similar then?” Pinkie then thought of one possibility and gasped. “You don’t think we’re long-lost sisters do you?! Gosh my parents have some real explaining to do if that’s it,”
Diamond giggled again, not seeming to put much stock into this theory either. “Well with how much I’ve been coming onto you, I’d certainly hope not. Look, you’re letting that big, beautiful imagination of yours run wild. Think about it. Is it really so strange that two ponies in this big, wonderful kingdom of ours could turn out looking very similar with no relation? Equestria is a big place after all. Unlikely sure, but not impossible,”
“Well…it’s reaaaal weird…But I’ve seen weirder,” Pinkie said, thinking back to a select few cases where such a thing occurred, such as Twilight’s friend Moon Dancer looking a lot like Twilight with different colors and clothes, or Daring Do having the same similarity with Rainbow Dash.
“There you go. No need to think about it too hard; we just happen to be very similar, very attractive ponies, that’s all,” Diamond said, taking a sip of her own cider. “So listen, I have a previous engagement tonight. I can only remain at the Gala for so long, and I have yet to have a proper dance tonight. I suppose the ponies here are a bit too…intimidated. But I saw you ‘breaking it down’ as it were on the dance floor over there. If you still have it in you, maybe you and I might share a dance, hmm?~”
“Oh! That could be fun! I actually did want a dance partner!” Pinkie said excitedly. Considering how this mare had made her feel thus far, Pinkie would have thought this would make her more nervous. However, she did just give the same offer to Rainbow not but a few minutes ago. It was just dancing; it wasn’t a big deal.
“Oh goodie!~” Diamond said with glee as she downed the rest of her drink. “Best we not waste any time, lets go!”
Diamond excitedly held Pinkie’s hoof and rushed down to the dance floor with her, managing to take even the pink party pony by surprise as she began to wonder what she had really just agreed to. The moment the two of them stepped down, Diamond wasted no time in getting the band’s attention, specifically the grey mare with the bowtie playing the cello that Pinkie recognized as Octavia.
“Hi, yes, excuse me. Could you perhaps play something a tad…spicier?” Diamond asked, handing her a small bag of bits she had pulled seemingly out of nowhere. Octavia simply stared at it for a moment, unsure before glancing at the rest of the band. Their silent communication seemed to indicate they didn’t mind switching it up a bit, so she nodded at Diamond and turned a couple of pages in her book of sheet music to find a proper song.
Seeing this, Pinkie was reminded of so many instances in the past where she would pull objects out of thin air that seemingly didn’t exist mere moments before, usually to make some kind of point or make her friends laugh. And here this mare was that was somehow doing the same thing but for a more practical purpose like hiding her money.
Pinkie was pulled out of inwardly theorizing who in the world this mare really was by the band changing songs. Whereas the previous one was more so background music, this one was much harsher, louder and more deliberate with a bit more space between notes. Diamond stood on her hind legs and helped Pinkie to do the same. Their bodies pressed up against each other with Diamond putting one foreleg around Pinkie’s waist and the other dedicated to holding her hoof.
Pinkie’s face turned nearly as red as an apple; was looking to be a lot more intimate than what she’d had in mind and wasn’t sure she even knew how to do it right. “D-Diamond, I don’t know about this,”
“Shh, don’t be nervous sugar. Just follow my lead and you’ll do fine~,” Diamond assured her.
Just as Pinkie suspected going off the music and close contact, Diamond started up a tango with her leading and Pinkie meant to be following. It wasn’t a dance Pinkie was familiar with, but with Diamond doing most of the work, she managed. Following the short and quick strides the two of them took, their dresses flapped slightly in the breeze they created.
Diamond spun Pinkie around a few times, eventually pulling her back toward her and holding her from behind. “See? Nothing to it right?” Diamond whispered in her ear.
Pinkie knew she was trying to be reassuring but Diamond’s voice whispering right in her ear like that caused Pinkie to feel like her whole body was going to melt.
As the two of them kept up their dance, eventually they caught the attention of the nobles in attendance who all stopped what they were doing to watch. That crowd that began to form looked on in amazement, both at the grace of the two mares and also being impressed that somepony seemingly managed to tame Pinkie Pie.
Also keeping a close watch on them were the friends she’d left behind at the bar, which now included Fluttershy and Rarity sitting with them to watch.
“Gosh, I didn’t think Pinkie knew how to dance like that,” Fluttershy said, looking impressed with the two mare’s form.
“Indeed, our dear Pinkie is full of surprises. The other mare she’s with is quite graceful as well; who is she?” Rarity asked, turning to Rainbow and Applejack.
“Can’t say. Just some mare who was over here giving Pinkie the eyes if you know what I mean,” Rainbow said leaning against the bar. “Funny. Didn’t think Pinkie was into mares like that. Maybe I don’t know her as good as I thought,”
“Ah don’ know about that Sugarcube. You see the look on er’ face? Never seen the girl so flustered. Don’ think even she knew before just now,” Applejack said, almost being so mesmerized by the two’s dancing that she accidentally overfilled a cider mug she’d been filling for a customer, flinching when she realized her mistake. “Ah son of a mother,”
Eventually, Pinkie and Diamond’s dance ended as the music came to a halt with Diamond dipping Pinkie, only slightly holding her head up so she didn’t touch the ground. The crowd cheered much more genuinely than earlier, clapping their hooves and a few of them even getting rowdy enough to whistle. Pinkie though didn’t hear any of it though as the sound of her heart raging in her ears from Diamond looking her directly in the eyes drowned out everything else.
Diamond briefly glanced up at the crowd before turning her attention back to Pinkie. “Heh. Guess we’ll be the talk of the party tonight. So…” Diamond began as she helped Pinkie back up onto all four hooves. “Was it good for you?”
“A…Aaah….nnn…”Pinkie’s mouth failed to form words, too flustered to form even anything resembling a coherent thought.
Diamond giggled. “YOU have nothing to say? Goodness, what did I do to you?” She then glanced over at a clock on the wall signaling that it was close to midnight and frowned a little. She sighed a bit before looking back at Pinkie. “Alas, it is as I said. As much as I’d like to have some more fun with you here, I have other places to be tonight,”
“O-Oh that’s…that’s okay!” Pinkie said, her thoughts catching up to her. “I’m sure we’ll see each other again soon!”
“Indeed,” Diamond said turning toward the crowd to leave, but not before running her long, straight, pink tail against Pinkie’s neck and under her chin in a flirtatious manner. “Don’t be a stranger, cutie,” Diamond winked at her and hastily made her way out of the ballroom, producing a fan from seemingly nowhere to somewhat hide her face behind.
Her blush having been spurred on again by Diamond’s last display of affection, Pinkie just stood there for several seconds staring at the mare’s backside as she left, and once she had disappeared into the crowd, staring at nothing in particular. Pinkie was totally lost in her own head. She’d come into the Gala tonight very confident in her sexuality. She only liked stallions that way, that was it. But after THAT…well, that confidence had very much been shaken.
Not even knowing what else to do after that, Pinkie simply returned back to the bar with her friends, still wearing that same thousand-yard stare as she took a seat.
“Dang Pinkie, you had the whole place going wild. You dance awesome!” Rainbow said, trying to help Pinkie out of her funk.
It was to no avail though as Pinkie did not respond.
“Goodness, Pinkie are you okay?” Fluttershy asked with concern.
Pinkie finally blinked for the first time in the past five minutes. “I…don’t...know…” she muttered.
“Ah heck. Ah think that mare went and broke er’,” Applejack said, still wiping up the mess she’d made earlier.
“Well, I for one happen to think it’s just splendid Pinkie’s discovering herself tonight,” Rarity said with a smile as she patted Pinkie’s back. “Congratulations darling,”
Pinkie didn’t respond to this either, but eventually did speak up. “I never thought I’d say this but…I think I wanna leave the party now. I need to thi-“
Pinkie would not be allowed to finish that sentence as Twilight quickly came barreling out of the crowd carrying a brown book with her mane in a frenzy and a frantic look on her face. “Pinkie, Pinkie, PINKIE!” She yelled.
“Huh?” Pinkie completely snapped out of her trance and rotated her stool in Twilight’s direction.
Having made it to the bar with the rest of her friends, Twilight slammed the book down on the bar and looked Pinkie dead in the face. “Pinkie, that mare you were dancing with, what was her name?!”
“Woah Twilight, easy girl. Where’s the fire?” Applejack interjected, trying to calm her down.
“Gracious, you look positively stressed right now, whatever is the matter?” Rarity also asked.
“I don’t care how I look right now, I’m dealing with a potential crisis!” Twilight retorted, looking back at Pinkie again. “Pinkie! Mare’s name, now!”
“S-She said her name was Pink Diamond. W-Why, what’s wrong?” Pinkie asked, looking nervous.
In her haste, Twilight didn’t respond to Pinkie and instead flipped through the book, only stopping when she reached a page marked with the letter ‘P’. Her eyes quickly scanned over it several times over. Eventually she sighed in resignation and shut the book. “It’s just as I thought,” Twilight muttered, putting a hoof to her forehead, clearly in distress.
“Twilight, I know this is gonna sound weird coming from me but slow the heck down. What. Is. Happening?” Rainbow asked sternly.
Twilight took a moment to try and calm herself down, proceeding to inhale and exhale just as Cadance taught her. “Okay…I was having a conversation with Prince Blueblood about maybe 15 minutes ago. Just friendly conversation, nothing serious. So, he gets us glasses of wine, I guess maybe in an attempt to be courteous, you know? Maybe he’s gotten better?”
“Doubtful, but continue,” Rarity said with a deadpanned expression, clearly remembering the last time she met Blueblood.
“Anyway, RIGHT as I’m about to take a sip, that Pink Diamond mare bumps into me and makes me spill my wine all over Blueblood’s fur and everything. She tried to play it off like it was just an accident and her being clumsy, but I could have sworn I’d seen her kind of speed-walking our way, almost as if she was TRYING to bump into me. The whole interaction was very strange,” Twilight continued.
“That IS weird. But…why would she do that?” Fluttershy asked.
“I still haven’t figured that out. But anyhow, Blueblood leaves to go clean himself up; was REALLY angry, fuming. Before I can get another word out of the mare she’s already gone. But the thing that really nagged at me was when I was greeting all the guests as they came in, not once did I see that mare arrive. And I’m fairly certain I would remember speaking to somepony that looks almost exactly like one of my best friends, so I’m not mistaken, there’s just no way,” Twilight continued shaking her head.
“So…what? Celestia’s usually greeting ponies as they come in too, maybe she saw her?” Rainbow Dash said with a cocked eyebrow.
“See that’s what I thought, so I went to ask her, and guess what? SHE hadn’t seen her either. Princess Celestia’s been at the entrance all night, there’s no way she could have missed her. So, finally at this point I’m just really freaking out because there’s a mare who’s a dead ringer for Pinkie I’d never seen before here acting really weird, which brings us to this,” Twilight said, pulling up the cover of the book for them to see. “The guest book. This catalogues everypony that received a ticket to the Gala. And now what do I find?”
A collective nervousness fell over Twilight’s friends, as they had already put together where this was headed.
Twilight then slammed the book back down. “There is no Pink Diamond in this guest book. Nopony under that name should be at this Gala,”
Pinkie’s ears fell to her head and she very much looked to be in distress from this revelation. “T-Twilight, a-are you saying that…” she couldn’t finish that sentence.
Twilight shut her eyes and sighed. “Pinkie, I know you looked very entranced by her and I’m really sorry but…that mare is not who she says she is,“
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!”
Just then, as if on some sick cue by the will of the universe, the entire ballroom could hear a scream of a stallion echo throughout practically the entire castle from how loud it was. Pinkie and her friends tore themselves away from their conversation to look in the direction of the source. Barging back into the ballroom was none other than Prince Blueblood, mane in a mess and the faint stains of red wine on his fur coat, a look of pure, violent anger on his face.
Celestia, who was at the entrance, quickly tried to calm her nephew down. “Blueblood, what in Equestria is wrong?!”
Blueblood looked up at Celestia, his pupils having shrunk down to pin pricks from his rage. “AUNTIE LOCK DOWN THE CASTLE, MOBILIZE THE GUARDS! ALL OF MY TREASURE IS GONE FROM MY BEDROOM, I’VE BEEN ROBBED!”
Everyone was transfixed on the screaming Blueblood, that nopony seemed to notice or care when Rainbow simply reached behind the bar and filled herself up another mug of cider, taking a swig of it, a deadpanned expression on her face. “Yep. I knew this Gala was going just a little too normally,”
Just outside the castle, a carriage being pulled by an enormous mass of fur and muscle awaited for the pink mare to make her exit. It was parked off to the side where nopony would be looking for it. The moment she was sure nopony was watching, she jumped in the carriage.
“Fluffy, book it, they probably noticed all Blueball’s shit’s gone by now,” Slinky said as she pulled her hair out of the ponytail she’d had her mane done up in.
Fluffy, the eight foot tall, muscular Diamond Dog attached to the carriage, looked in the window behind him and nodded at her before taking off down the road out of Canterlot.
Meanwhile, the adult changeling with glasses in the back seat of the carriage had his forelegs crossed. “You took a lot longer than we would’ve liked, you know. Had us worried you got caught,”
Meanwhile, Slinky was quickly pulling off her evening gown and stockings as she was sitting down. “Plan went off without a hitch, Jade. Screw up Blueball’s plan to poison Princess Twilight and steal all his stuff to add insult to injury. No biggie,” she said as she pulled an enormous bag of loot out of thin air and sitting it next to her. “Gosh, the hammerspace is useful,” she said with a smirk.
“Is that right?” Jade said sarcastically, not looking convinced. “So…what DID take you so long then?”
Slinky had just finished changing clothes, now wearing a skin-tight black jumpsuit made out of some kind of fake leather. “Heh, I uh…” Slinky said bashfully as she rubbed the back of her head. “…I mighta tried shooting my shot with the Element of Laughter, that’s all,”
Jade practically jumped forward, gripping the seat in front of him. “SHOOTING YOUR WHAT WITH WHO NOW?!?!” Jade nearly screamed.
“Hey, gimme a break, hot ponies are like my one vice, lemme have this,” Slinky said, pouting a little.
“She looks almost exactly like you, you know. Not judging but…” Fluffy said with a hint of a growl in his voice as he ran.
Slinky reclined in her seat. “Yeah yeah, the ultimate form of narcissism, shut up. The mare’s a knockout, can you blame me?” Slinky said, waving it off.
“Oh my shit, Pinkie Pie is practically a national treasure are you TRYING to give me a heart attack? This is NOT playing it safe Slinky,” Jade muttered in distress, holding both sides of his head.
“Look will you stop fretting about it?” Slinky asked, looking back at him from her seat. “It’s done. I’m probably not gonna ever see her again. We got all the prince’s shit and that ricin he had in his bedroom’s about to come into the hooves of ponies that will take care of it from there. We’re outta Canterlot, at least for a while and no worse for wear. Okay?”
“Nnngh…skirt-chasing on the job, and with a fuckin’ Element, why are you the way that you are?” Jade asked, still looking worried.
Slinky could not give a solid answer besides shrugging.