It never really got easier being on The Rock Farm.
After Pinkie left, Limestone had convinced herself growing up that she would eventually get used to how depressing everything on the farm was. That the anguish embedded into her soul would become less like a boulder weighing her down, and closer to a fly on the wall that she'd learned to ignore.
Instead, she was somewhere in the middle.
When doing nothing—a rarity on the farm where something always needed doing—that nagging anxiety consumed her, making her wallow in the content misery she had to keep swallowing.
However, keeping herself busy—a much easier goal—left her distracted enough to be in a tolerable state of neutralness.
Limestone found herself much more busy than usual lately.
She never got to see The Skeleton, not even when it was wrapped up and extracted to be taken to Manehatten. It didn't particularly surprise her that a corpse was hiding deep under the farm. The farm itself was older than sin, with dozens, if not hundreds, of families having lived on it previously. Not to mention all the travelers who tend to pass through, one of which like an annoying stage-magician sticking around for pay.
Maybe that was just what she was telling herself to feel better about the entire ordeal.
It didn’t matter. Not really.
She was much more hung-up on how Pinkie was taking it. She was down there for around fifteen minutes by herself, and she wasn’t as hardened as Limestone was. Just being in the dark with it for that long must have bothered her, judging from how unsettled she looked once she climbed out of that pit
And it was her fault.
She asked Pinkie to come back to the farm to 'help', even though Limestone could have easily handled it all herself—like she tended to anyway. Really, she just wanted that taste of the outside world Pinkie always brought with her. Telling her little things, like how Pinkie's friends were doing or how her last party went, gave Limestone a flicker of joy.
Thanks to her indulgence, Pinkie fell down a hole and was alone.
Pinkie hated being alone.
If she hadn't asked her to come, it wouldn't have happened. Limestone would have fallen down that hole instead, if at all. She would hav—
"Stop that."
Limestone smacked herself in her head, inhaling through her teeth. Being able to ruminate and linger on her guilt meant she wasn't working hard enough. She got up early today specifically so she could think less.
That was what she'd been doing since Pinkie left, made worse by the fact that she was not a morning pony.
Regardless, it meant she could get more done and spend less time sitting in her bed getting annoyed and angry at herself.
The sun had just barely poked its head over the horizon. Not that the light it provided did very much, with the clouds deciding today to gang up and block out as much of it as their bodies could. Which resulted in a sort of dusty filter covering the farm.
It was depressing, but that was just how it was usually.
Father and Mother hadn't gotten up yet, though they would soon. Marble always woke up when Limestone did, despite how quiet she tried to be. After the fourth day, Marble didn't try to stop her anymore and just went back to sleep soon after she left.
Her morning work didn't comprise a lot, really. She checked the rocks on all four fields of the farm, seeing if any gems had sprouted up or any interesting formations had, well, formed. That didn't happen often on their unchanging land, making it something she slightly hoped would happen every day when she woke up.
Only to be disappointed when her near-impossible expectations weren't met.
None of the rocks proved fruitful, either. They hadn't the past four days, and that likely wouldn't change the next four.
"Because why would anything work out for me?"
She sighed to herself, kicking a random pebble to the side. The east field had always been the most barren of the four, yet it was the one she always found herself spending the most time in. Must have had something to do with it being the field she was always assigned to when she was younger, certainly. Back when there were four of them, and they were each responsible for their own field.
'Nostalgic' wasn't quite the word she'd use for those times. Still, she found herself thinking back on them a lot, for better or worse.
With a shake of her head, she marched on to the rest.
It was always so quiet. Even though there was a forest on the outskirts, Limestone couldn't recall the last time she'd even heard an animal, much less seen one. The lack of flora would have been her guess as to why. You can't eat rocks after all.
Well, unless you were a Pie. Then you can eat rocks.
The lack of light or life led to Limestone developing a sort of tunnel vision when she worked, anything going on around her taking a backseat in her perception. All that mattered was her work. The more she got done, the less Marble would have to strain herself doing.
This focus was why she didn't notice something was barreling towards her until it was too late.
Something tackled her right into the ground, skidding a few feet into gravel and hitting a particularly big rock. Limestone stifled a yelp, tensing her body as she pushed away whatever it was. She watched it tumble from her as Limestone got to her hooves.
"You chose the wrong day to mess with—"
She didn't recognize it at first, vision still blurry from being knocked on her flank. It was drained of any color, resembling the farm itself. Its coat matted, covered in speckles of dirt and grime. Mane a complete mess, splayed, split, and straight down the sides being just as messy as its coat. Dried blood in a trail from its ears down to its chin.
It dawned on her too late what she was looking at. It'd been so long since she'd seen her sister like that it was almost unrecognizable.
"Pinkie? What are you…" Her eyes fell to Pinkie's hooves, covered in patches of mud hardened and wet. "Did you run all the way here?"
Pinkie slowly got up, mouth ajar as she took loud, heaving breaths. Her eyes were barely visible through the drapes of her mane, but prominent for how bloodshot they were.
There was something behind Pinkie's eyes that Limestone didn't recognize. It made them tremble with intensity, concentrated entirely in her direction. Not a single other thing in the world had a fraction of Pinkie's attention.
It unsettled Limestone in a way nothing she'd seen on the farm ever had. The taste of fear perched on her tongue.
"Are you alright? You look…" Limestone sucked on her teeth. It wasn't often she found herself lacking something to say. "...rustled. I thought this place made you miserable? What was so important that you ran here instead of waiting for the trains in the morning?"
That ferocity never left her eyes. Not once did Pinkie so much as glance as anything else, tunnel visioned on Limestone. Seeing only her, in front of her, before her, just her. Surrounded by gray.
"Limestone, sleep with me."
"What?"
"I'm tired, Sis." Pinkie extended a hoof, other hooves wobbling as she struggled to keep balance. "I haven't been sleeping well since I saw that Skeleton. We used to sleep a lot together, bundled up in one bed." There was a quiver in her words. She brought her hoof to her chest, then back to the ground. "I missed that. I didn't realize how much until recently."
"You ran all the way here overnight because..." Limestone scratched her cheek, uncertainty creeping its way into her voice. "You haven't been sleeping well recently? And you think taking a nap with me like when we were kids will help?"
Pinkie flinched, chewing on her tongue. Opening her mouth to say something else, making a gasping sound as it never left her throat.
"Nah, I'm not buying it. You're an awful liar." Limestone narrowed her eyes, digging her hooves into the ground. "I can't help you if you don't talk to me, Pinkie. What's this about?"
Silence.
The wind whistled in Limestone's ears, leaving her stiff in tight tension. Pinkie hung her head, hiding her face in the vines of her mane. She breathed with her mouth open, heaving like each inhale was a huge effort.
Eventually, she took one sharp and audible breath, holding it in her chest until just as loudly exhaling.
"I've had a lot of time recently." Pinkie's voice was a brittle whisper. Hoarse and just barely loud enough to make out. If the farm hadn't been so quiet all the time, and Limestone didn't have another sister who talked with just as much mildness, she wouldn't be able to make out a word. "Time to think about me, about us, about this farm. What we talked about before I fell down, what we talk about every time you ask me to come over."
She took a few steps closer. Her hooves dragged against the ground like weights with each one. Something about the way she moved was deeply unsettling, leaving Limestone with a desire to take one step back for every one forward Pinkie took. If only a rock wasn't in her way.
"The same questions, the same expressions you make when I answer them. All the excuses you make when I ask you to come visit. You haven't changed at all since we were fillies."
For a solid minute, Pinkie just stood there and took heavy breaths. On occasion, her head would drop and her eyes would close. Only to just as quickly shoot back up.
"Y-you've always—" Pinkie's voice didn't sound right as she raised it. Croaky, guttural and broken up in between spats of coughing and stuttering. "You've always hated—" She went into a coughing fit, slapping her hoof against her chest. "You've always hated me. Even when we were little, you could barely look at me. I didn't blend in, I wasn't gray like you, and you couldn't stand that!"
Pinkie took a wobbling step forward, hoof pressing firmly into the ground as she tried to stay standing. It was hard for her just to move, clenching her jaw in strained effort. Every few seconds, she would twitch her head, making an uncomfortable cracking noise with her neck.
"What are you talking about? I never—"
"Liar!"
Her brittle scream echoed on the empty farm, ringing in Limestone’s mind long after it’d left.
"You think I don't see the way you s-scowl when I'm talking about my friends? Or how grouchy you always are when you come over to Ponville for the holidays? Marble told me about how you always shut her down the second she tries to tell you about what I told her in my letter, that you 'don't want to hear it'."
"I'm not..." Limestone broke eye contact, stepping back and trying to recall if she really said that to Marble. Was she that dismissive? That angry about it? All the times she'd visited, was she really that upset? She could have sworn she smiled at least once or twice. Limestone thought of those few times fondly, so she must have enjoyed them.
Right?
"I might have done that," Limestone admitted, the gruffness of her voice waning. "But I don't hate you, I think. It's just, I don't..." She fumbled over her words. Stuff like this had always hovered in her head, never to leave her mouth.
Just like Mother and Father.
"Then you're jealous."
Pinkie said it with such piercing certainty, lifting her head and taking a firm step forward.
"I left the farm, but you never did. I made friends, but you never did. I saved the world, but you never did. I..." She placed a hoof on her chest, eyes dropping to the ground as she panted. "Was happy, but you never were. Even Maud had the resolve to leave this place. You stayed with Marble, and I'm grateful for the company you've given her, but you won't even try to make friends or be anything but miserable."
"What? You think I like being miserable?" Limestone scoffed, sneering as she rubbed some of the dirt off her face. "I've never tried to hide how much I fucking hate this shithole. What the shit makes you think I wouldn't drop this place for something better the second I could?"
"Because you've always had that opportunity, and you've never taken it." Pinkie pounded the ground, her voice cracking. "All you had to do is ask and I would have let you and Marble live with me until you could get on your own hooves. We'd share my bed just like we did growing up, and you'd actually smile sincerely for once in your life!" She got in Limestone's face, frustration coloring every word. "But no, you can't bring yourself to leave here. You're so dead set on suffering in this place that you're thinking about having foals just so you can put them through what we did!"
"We're the ponies we are because of what we went through!"
"And you're ok with that?!" Pinkie shouted back, unrelenting in her anger.
Limestone held her tongue, the rock she'd been slammed into keeping her from moving an inch backwards. She tried to stammer out a response, to tell Pinkie she was wrong in every way. To have some rebuke that would stop this confrontation in its place.
Of course, that wasn't possible. Pinkie was completely right. She was too perceptive not to be.
It was stupid for Limestone to think Pinkie didn't notice any of that. More so that she'd never bring it up.
"Then..."
Limestone felt something she hadn't in an exceedingly long time. Not since she was young, feeble, and didn't even know what a 'party' was.
She felt small.
"What am I supposed to do?" Limestone hung her head, sinking her body into itself as she closed her eyes. Her own words hardly felt like her own, almost as meek as anything Marble tried to say. "Just leave Father and Mother alone? Trying to keep this farm going by themselves would kill them, you know. They're too old to have foals now, and there are at least a dozen places that rely on our gems and rock shipments. If this farm stops working, they'll have to find somewhere else to get them, and who knows how long that would take and how bad things would get before they do! They might not have been the best parents, and maybe a lot of our shit could be blamed on them. But they're still..."
She dropped her trembling chin to her chest, eyes half-lidded.
"They're still our parents. Our family. I can't just leave them to die like that. They don't deserve it no matter how I look at it. Especially Marble. She..." The anger quickly dissipated from Limestone's face, contorting into a rigid grimace. "Couldn't function outside of the farm for long. It's your fault she's so scared of anypony outside of the family, you know? You were the only one who knew how to get her out of her shell and try new things. When you left..."
Pinkie winced at Marble's name, eyes flickered to their home on the farm .
"She completely shut down. Wouldn't talk to anypony, wouldn't talk to me. She missed you so much; your letters are the only thing she looks forward to anymore. I can't help her."
Limestone squeezed her eyes shut, her chin trembling as she sucked air through her teeth.
"I…" Pinkie glanced away, just listening to the wind of the farm. It was quiet, so terribly noiseless. It used to be something that constantly crushed her, made it impossible for her to speak.
Now, with just a few seconds of that silence, she found herself missing it.
Creaking.
Whispering.
Dripping.
Screech.
Marble.
She'd forgotten about Marble, maybe on purpose.
Hearing Limestone blame her for Marble should have made her angry. Instead, it hurt. It hurt because it was true and Pinkie knew it. Every time she saw her twin sister shrink away from others and struggle to speak above a whisper was a reminder of that.
"I know that, ok? I'm sorry. I'm so sorry about Marble. I shouldn't have left you to take my place like that, expecting you to make everything work. I just—" Pinkie pushed her hooves into the ground, trying so desperately to push back the screeching. It only bounced back louder. "You didn't have to keep bringing me back here. I got out! I made friends, I was happy! I could move past this place, I could forget if you just didn't..." Her voice rose with every word, scratching the inside of her throat. "Drag me back. Being here hurts, no matter why. It chips at me, and it makes it hard to smile. When you brought me here a few days ago, I..."
Pinkie lurched back, bringing her hooves to her ears and slapping them against her face a few times for the blinks of quietness that came with it. The pain helped her focus too, if only a bit.
"I'm cursed, Limestone." She traced the outline of her face, leading up to her temples as she pushed up her mane. "This place cursed me. Now yo—"
"You're cursed? What horseshit!" Limestone cut her off, waving her hoof. "If anything you're blessed. I didn't get to see that magical rainboom you keep talking about, I didn't get Father's permission to abandon us so you can go throw parties with strangers! You became a fucking Element of Harmony for fuck's sake!" Limestone gritted her teeth, walking forward out of her corner. "You have friends who would die for you, a second family who gave you a place to live just because they love you that much. And you have the gall to say you're cursed? You didn't even go through half the shit we did when you were here."
Pinkie tried to interrupt her, to clarify what she meant, but she couldn't get in even a syllable. The screeching was getting worse with every few seconds she let Limestone speak. Sooner or later, Pinkie would have no choice but to scream.
"We didn't have Granny Pie doting on us, giving us songs to make all of our fears go away. Telling us stories about the Mirror Pool or whatever other fairy tale sh—"
The Mirror Pool.
It was so obvious to her now. So much so that it was something she would have expected Twilight to suggest days ago. If so, she wouldn't have run from Ponyville to The Rock Farm in one piece.
"I-I don't have to—" Relief spread from her chest to the rest of her body, leaving her hooves trembling as they fell out from under her. The ground was hard and unforgiving, scraping her skin and dirtying her coat more than it already was. "I need to get back to Ponyville."
"What?" Limestone tilted her head, furrowing her eyebrows into a half scowl. "You ran all the way here, and now you need to go back? So, what, you came here just to tell me off and now you want to fucking dip as soon as I—"
"Limey, please." Pinkie managed to get back up, unable to bring herself to look at her sister whom she was ranting to just moments prior. "I'll explain everything later, I promise. Right now I'm running on five days of no sleep and I need to get back to Ponyville to fix that. Just help me get there."
"Five days?! What the shit, Pinkie?!" Limestone rushed forward, letting Pinkie lean on her as she shifted her in a different direction. "Alright, sure. Trains should be running soon, I've got enough to get you there and me back. But five days? Really? I thought you took care of yourself better than that."
"I usually do." Pinkie couldn't help but rest her entire body against Limestone's, barely putting any effort into moving at all and letting her guide them.
Right now, Limestone was her rock.
"I love you, Sis."
There was a falter in her next step, a sharp inhale as she opened her mouth to say something. Limestone didn't stop moving, but her trotting became more tense and slow. She swallowed so intensely Pinkie could see it.
"I love you too."
It was muttered, like a secret not meant to be told.
Pinkie chose to believe it.
She needed to.
__________
The train ride back to Ponyville was abundant in awkward silence.
Limestone couldn't stay still for longer than a few seconds, fidgeting in her seat and glancing at Pinkie. It couldn't be more obvious the string of questions she was leaving tied up in her mind. The only thing stopping her from unknotting them on Pinkie was Pinkie pretending to be asleep.
Once she got to the cave, Maud and Mudbriar were conveniently not present. They nearly never left. For once, something was going Pinkie's way.
She saw her reflection in the pool, as clear as any mirror. There was no color left in her mane at all, having given way to a complete gray. Most of her coat matched, or at least what could be seen beneath the layer of dirt that she was wearing. Along the trail of blood down her ears, and the mud on her hooves.
She was ugly.
Pinkie didn't recognize herself.
But she didn't have any more tears to shed. They were all on her face.
As she stared into the reflection of the cave, she saw what she should have expected: The Skeleton hanging from the ceiling. Pinkie froze at its appearance, stuck in place and unable to do anything but watch as its reflection collapsed to the ground.
This time, it didn't remain disconnected bones or even a broken body on the ground. It actually landed on its hooves, moving towards her with some macabre purpose. The convolution of whispers poisoned her ears again, this time much more concentrated but somehow still just as indistinguishable.
Even after closing her eyes, she could make out each step it made as it got closer. Pinkie shuddered, waiting for it to stop her however it intended to. She was hoping she could clone herself before it had a chance to try to stop her.
Unfortunately, she wasn't fast enough.
Soon, it was right behind her. Moving to her side and just standing there. Judging by the increasing volume of the whispers, it was craning its neck and moving to her ear. The sounds it made became easier to make out, yet Pinkie couldn't make out anything at all. It was nothing but almost-words. Gibberish that vaguely resembled a language.
Then it all stopped once its teeth were inches away from touching her, she could tell by the growing closeness of its chattering. The vile stench made her thankful she hadn't eaten anything recently.
"You will not be the last."
It didn't talk. It had no voice, no timbre, no sound. It was more like the words had been inserted into her mind and formed in her memory, rattling her entire being.
She shrieked, opening her eyes and preparing to jump as far away from it as her fatigued body would allow.
Except it wasn't there, reflection or no.
The Skeleton had vanished. Hopefully, for the final time.
Pinkie stared at her own reflection, taking loud breaths as she teetered on the edge. Its words repeated in her mind over and over, a feeble attempt to decipher the meaning. That single line held so many implications, so many questions. She could stand in front of the pool all day trying to figure it out and never come close.
Or she could pass the curse on. Dispelling it from her mind.
The simple rhyme hovered in her mind, burned deep in her foalhood brain. It stayed right on her tongue as she leaned forward, poking the water that carried her reflection. The ripples did little to mess with her reflection, stagnant despite the water around it changing.
"And into her reflection she stared, yearning for one whose reflection she shared, and solemnly sweared not to be scared." It was such an odd feeling to walk into the pool. There was an instance before it of her brain telling her dropping headfirst into a body of water would result in nothing but a watery demise. Then she passed through, which was a sensation like being doused in water and drying in that same second.
"At the prospect of being doubly mared."
There she was.
Upon opening her eyes, the other her was there.
But it wasn't her, not exactly. A Not-Her.
It was a perfect clone of her, when she was happy. A poofy, perfectly pink mane vibrant with life; not a speck of gray to be seen. Bright blue eyes with no dark circles, and a smile so sincere it was borderline contagious.
It was like she was being mocked.
"Hiya other me!" Not-Her stated with an exuberance to every word. "Oh! What should we call each other? Pinkie two? Pinkie the second? Pinkie squared? Though I don—"
"No." Pinkie put a hoof against the Not-Her's mouth. "We're not doing this; I don't have the patience." She retracted her hoof, seeing that Not-Her's muzzle had been pushed in and then bounced back out like it was made of rubber.
Pinkie snorted, shaking her head and turning around as she made her way to the entrance.
"Follow me. We're going to go visit Twilight."
Without having to look, she could hear Not-Her begin to bounce on the ground. Practically exploding with how much energy she had.
"Oh, who's Twilight? Does she have fun?"
"Loads," Pinkie deadpanned.
"Okie Dokie Lokie!"
Every single bounce was audible. She could count each one if she really wanted to. It was a constant in a sea of noise, sticking out to an annoying degree. The joy she radiated just behind Pinkie stood out from anything else, and would have spread to her if she wasn't so deeply sapped.
Was this how Limestone felt like every time Pinkie came to help?
The stares from the townsfolk were there as usual, though this time many of them weren't focused on her. Attention was grabbed by the clone pursuing right behind her, waving to the ponies despite not knowing any of their names.
A few times on the way to Twilight's castle, Pinkie had to stop Not-Her from blasting off to the nearest thing that looked 'fun' to her, taking whatever bits of willpower she had left just to ensure Not-Her was following.
The fact that a guaranteed sleep awaited Pinkie at the end of this trek was what encouraged her to take the next step, and the next one, and the next one, until finally Twilight's castle was in sight.
Poor Spike jumped when she opened the door, yelping as his eyes darted between Pinkie and Not-Her. He stammered something as Pinkie shut the door behind them, Not-Her walking up to him and asking if he was Twilight and where the 'fun' was.
"That's not Twilight." Pinkie placed her hoof on Not-Her's shoulder, tilting her in the direction of the library. "She's in there with all the fun."
"Yipee!"
She shot off, leaving only a smoky outline of her likeness. Pinkie exchanged a stare with Spike, dozens of things going through her mind: an apology, something dismissive, a smile. All of which stayed ideas. They would be empty gestures if she bothered.
So she didn't say anything to him at all.
Twilight was in her library, which was much more organized than when she last saw it. Not-Her was zooming around the room, searching every nook and cranny for 'fun'. Twilight was smiling for a few seconds, under the impression that the Not-Her was Pinkie who had somehow cured her curse.
That illusion vanished as soon as she laid eyes on Pinkie.
"Pinkie? What did you—" Her eyes widened. "You cloned yourself with the Mirror Pool? Why?"
"To sleep with myself." Pinkie sat on the ground, rubbing her eyes and trying not to groan at how gross she felt. Her desire to take a bath was second only to the deep yearning for sleep. "If the curse has to be passed by sleeping with another pony, then it can be a clone of myself."
Twilight's gaze was locked on to Not-Her, who was rapidly making the library into an even worse mess than what Pinkie saw the day prior. With a narrowing of her eyes and a tsking noise, Twilight lit her horn up in an aura of magic and shot to the clone, trapping it in a sort-of cloud of magic that stopped her from zooming around.
"I don't want to undersell how good of a solution that is, but there's a reason I never came up with it myself." As usual, Twilight brought over a seemingly random book from the shelves, flipping it open and skimming through the pages. "Using magic paraphernalia, especially something related to the Everfree Forest, is a terrible idea. There hasn't been a single time in recorded history that's gone well, and that's been with artifacts we understood. There's next to nothing known about the Mirror Pond aside from the rhyme and this spell that sends them back to the pool."
She closed the book, setting it on her desk and shaking her head. Taking a few steps over to Not-Her, who was blinking rapidly and bouncing her eyes back and forth like ping-pong balls, evidently trying to convey a message in some code.
"I don't know anything about the pool aside from that. How it works exactly, if the clone is really a clone of whoever uses it, if the spell really sends them back to the pond or if it just—" Twilight cut herself off, wings tightly hugging her sides as she hung her head. "There's just so many unknowns. It might be riskier than trying to pass it between us."
"So you don't think it'll work?"
"Oh no, odds are it will." Twilight turned to face her, rubbing her hooves against her face. "I'm worried what the consequences might be. What if every clone afterwards has it? What if it causes the pool to dry up? Curses are tricky, getting rid of them with mysterious magic is asking for something to go horrifically wrong."
"Then we'll deal with it!"
She didn't mean to scream, but she did.
It stopped Not-Her from trying to move, coiling into a rigid stiffness. Twilight took a single step back, leaving a hoof just a few inches off the ground.
There was silence. No noise of any kind, and it was awful. The Skeleton had been quiet ever since the Mirror Pool, not making a single sound all the way here. It was odd and without reason. Leaving her only with what it told her, and nothing more. Making no attempt to stop what she was trying to do.
That terrified her.
"I can't wait anymore, Twilight. Last night, I told The Skeleton that I wouldn't pass it on to someone else, and then it started screeching until I..." Her lips trembled. Anxiety pierced Pinkie's heart and began to spread in her body like a poison. Speaking of it may just bring the noise forth. "Selected somepony. Then it forced me to move towards them until I almost—" A tinge of sour flavored her mouth, leaving a disgusting quivering in the back of her throat that made her want to vomit. "Twilight, I nearly gave it to Limestone: I convinced myself she deserved it. If she hadn't brought up the Mirror Pool…"
She would have done it.
Pinkie would have passed it on to her own sister.
So much shame filled her at that realization she couldn't bring herself to utter it.
Twilight didn't react, at least not in any obvious way. She nodded her head, stepping over to the clone and craning her neck upward. Not-Her met Twilight's gaze with a colorful intensity, bouncing her pupils up and down like she was trying to wave with her eyes.
"The problem, Pinkie, is that we might not be the ones who have to deal with the consequences of this. Curses do not like being cheated." A beam of magic shot to the clone, lowering it to the ground as the field of raspberry vanished.
"Hiya!" Not-Her began to bounce. "You're Twilight, right? Where's the fu—"
Twilight shot her with another spell.
This one caused the clone to go cross-eyed, pursing her lips together in an 'o' shape as her tail went limp.
"Well that's not fun at all."
She collapsed to the ground, eyes closing as she took deep breaths. Twilight carefully lifted her, floating alongside her and curling comfortably in the air.
"You can sleep in one of the dozens of guest rooms we have. After I send the clone back, I'll drain the pond; it's probably what I should have done in the first place."
Pinkie dragged herself to her hooves, finding getting up was harder each time she had to. Even with her best efforts, her exhausted body limping along like a wounded animal. Twilight noticed over her shoulder, pulling back to where they were side by side.
"Thanks, Twilight, for everything."
"You don't have to thank me, Pinkie." Twilight shook her head, wearing a solemn smirk. "I barely did anything."
"That's not true. You've been here for me." Pinkie bumped her flank against Twilight's. "That's what friendship is all about, isn't it?"
"Doesn't always feel like enough." She sighed, tilting her head to the right. "Hey, I think Rainbow's still going to be in town for the next few days. It's not too late to throw that party for her."
"Really?" Pinkie's voice went up a pitch as they entered a room. "I'd like that a lot."
Twilight laid the clone on the bed, adjusting the blanket to where Pinkie could easily slip under it. Pinkie approached it, placing a shaking hoof on the bed and applying pressure on the mattress. Its shape morphed to match, and was beyond soft to the touch—must have been Echo Stratus.
"So I just..." Pinkie swallowed repeatedly as she rubbed her hoof. "Go to sleep like I normally would? And I'll just be able to?"
"That's how the shaman described it, yes. There shouldn't be any hallucinations or such. I can cast a sleep spell on you to help if you need it."
Pinkie made a droning noise, climbing the bed and just trying to relax under the blanket. Her clone was unbothered, sleeping peacefully with a chest that rose and fell. She could feel Not-Her's warm breath with every exhale, lacking any smell or sensation.
It was peaceful.
"No, I don't—" She interrupted herself with a yawn. How odd, she hadn't yawned a single time since she'd become cursed and she hadn't noticed that until now. "Think so. Thank you."
"Again, you don't need to thank me. The bathroom is right across the hall if you need it." Twilight walked to the door, opening it and standing in the doorway. "Sleep as long as you need, Pinkie. You deserve it."
As soon as that door was shut, she was left alone with Not-Her. No sound other than its breathing, and the distant chirps of birds.
No creaking.
No whispering.
No dripping.
No screech.
Pinkie closed her eyes inch by inch, the darkness encroaching on the vision of her own cheerful face. Second by second, it became less visible. Until all she could see was that same unpierceable black.
This time, there was no Skeleton.
_____________________
Eleven years had passed since that day. To date, Pinkie considered it the best sleep she'd ever had. Every night since she looked forward to nightfall, when before she used to dread it. Those days without being able to sleep garnered an appreciation for it she likely never would have gotten otherwise.
In retrospect, her suffering only resulted in things getting better for her long-term.
Because of the argument she had with Limestone, they ended up sitting down and having a genuine talk for the first time in their life. It didn't 'fix' their relationship by any stretched definition, but it got them to start talking and resemble something of a functional sibling relationship.
With Marble too there was improvement. Pinkie convinced Marble to visit more, and with every visit Pinkie helped her be less scared of everything. Talk to more ponies, be less shy. Even to this day she hadn't gotten over all of her problems, but she was much better and would keep improving still.
'Happier' wasn't what she'd describe it as. 'At peace' fell much closer.
"Pinkie, are you alright?" Cheese asked as he trotted up to her bed, wrapping his hoof around hers. "You've been awfully quiet after all that screaming. Feels like a joke's been told but I'm still waiting on the punchline."
His touch was far off, just barely registering on the precipice of her perception. She tried to blink away the blurriness in her vision, her memory just as hard to comprehend. The lights above her were dulled, yet still hurt to stare at directly. She shuffled in the bed, so sedated by the medicine they gave her it was hard to recall where she even was.
Maybe that was why she was thinking back to eleven years ago when it was something she tried not to think about. Pinkie had never been even close to that tired until this.
She had given birth.
"I'm..." Pinkie attempted to pull herself higher up on the bed, halted by a dull pain in her everything. Medication made it much more tolerable, but moving still hurt more than even the roughest hug piles she'd been in. "Super. Nurse Redheart said the worst parts are over and that I did great. Best birth she's seen in—" She stifled a groan. "Years. I should be up and partying again in a few days."
The forced enthusiasm in her voice was nearly as painful as the throbbing in her legs. Cheese awkwardly held Boneless Two in his arms, a festival of balloons tied to his elbow in a rainbow of colors.
"I know, I was there when she told you. It's just, well..." He frequently glanced at the doorway, clicking his hooves together. "I'm worried about the baby. Healthy birth or not, there's so many things that could go wrong: something didn't form properly, or maybe the brain didn't develop well or something happened with the chromosomes or—"
"Cheesy, stop."
"Sorry." He hung his head. "I'm just scared."
"I know, me too. But the baby's been born, we talked about all of this every other month. How much you care means a lot to me, just not right now. The nurses have done this before time and time again and I'm sure they're doing their best."
"I'd hope so. That's what they'ye being paid for," Doctor Horse stated as he walked into Pinkie's room, shutting the door behind him and skimming something on a clipboard.
"Doctor! Is everything alright?"
"Yes, I'm doing quite fine. Thank you for asking," he said nonchalantly as he wandered over, wearing a patient smile with a glance. "Oh, you meant about the baby. Yes, everything's healthy with it, I believe. Let me check my..." His eyes descended as he read the board, flickering wider as his mouth half opened. Staring first at Pinkie, then at Cheese, then back to Pinkie.
"Mrs. Pie, do you have any relatives with a silver mane?"
"S-silver mane? Um..." She narrowed her eyes. "My father Igneous has a silver-ish mane."
"Ah. Then it's likely recessive. Very well. In that case, everything looks dandy." He began to flip through the pages on the clipboard, whistling a tune to himself. "Blood's fine, heart's good, senses are good. And it—oh."
"Oh?" Cheese repeated.
"How peculiar. Did they double-check for—yes they did. Huh."
"What is it? Is something wrong with the baby?"
Cheese's voice quivered as he spoke; She'd never heard him so incredibly afraid. It was infectious. Pinkie tried not to let it get to her, but she soon found herself hanging more on the doctor's next words than her own heartbeat.
"Well, on paper, no. It passed every test with flying colors. It's just it hasn't..." A blob of magic grabbed the clipboard, floating it over to the front of the bed. "Slept yet."
"The baby hasn't slept?"
This time, it was Pinkie who asked. Something cold dragged itself up her spine, leaving her to shudder in her bed.
"Not yet, anyway. Which is odd but not unheard of. Heard about some cases of babies being born and not sleeping for a few days after birth back in medical school, something about the babies being particularly choleric? Or was it the opposite? I might have to do some cramming."
"Wait, wait, wait. So, the baby hasn't slept, but they should soon?"
"Absolutely. I just wish there was more I could tell you. Actually, any minute now one of the nurses should—"
With a knock, Nurse Redheart came in with the baby in question. Holding it in her hooves while it was wrapped up in a pink cloth, unmoving and not making a sound. That in itself came with a certain wrongness to Pinkie, as it was a stark contrast to every newborn she'd ever been around.
Redheart brought the baby to Pinkie, gently giving it to her who took it with rigid hooves. She carefully lifted the cloth around its face, revealing to her what she so desperately didn't want to see.
"Wow, I thought it'd be more… loud and crying? Look at them, their eyes so big and moving around."
Pinkie was looking, but not at its eyes. She stared at its mane, incapable of caring about anything else at that moment. The pain had become distant and forgotten, numb under the realization that gutted her to her core. Grip so tight around the baby she couldn't let go even if she wanted to.
It was gray.
Her baby's mane was gray.