//------------------------------//
// Pinkie's Promise 
// Story: United We Stand! 
// by pinkudesuu 
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Techno Trolls

“Sooooo you’re like, a King?” Pinkie Pie confirmed.

After bonding really really well with their song, they’ve come to understand each other deeply. It was like looking at yourself! But, with a different person! Troll? Different Troll? Pinkie Pie is still a bit confused, but Trollex assures her that it’s the same thing.

“Of the Techno Kingdom, specifically,” King Trollex nods, showing her his crown that he wears only on occasions outside of Rave Nights. It can be pretty crazy and he found himself having lost the crown on a few occasions, so he decided to keep it off only when raving. 

“So there’s Pop Trolls, Rock Trolls, Funk Trolls, Classical Trolls, Country Trolls, and Techno Trolls which is what we are, huh?” Pinkie Pie recounted. Excited in learning about this new world. It’s much crazier than Canterlot High! “And for each tribe of Trolls, they have one of each musical strings with a much crazier backstory! Which brings me to the question…

… Can I see it?!” Pinkie Pie swam close to him with a huge grin.

“Well I have it right here—” Trollex’s eyes widened upon realisation. “Oh no. Techno Beat Drop Button! I forgot about him!”

“Oh no!” Pinkie Pie panics along with him and goes looking around Trollex’s LED Castle panicking, but then again… “Who’s that?”

“My beat drop button! He’s this all green looking button that I use as storage for the—”

“Is that the one crying over there?” Pinkie Pie points outside a window. And sure enough, Beat Drop Button is outside crying around, muttering ‘King Trollex’.

“It is!” Trollex said with relief as he swam out the window, meeting the green button as it swam fast to him after getting a glimpse of his owner.

“King Trollex! Where did you go?! You suddenly left after the rave and left me! Did you get tired of me?! Have you found a new fresh button?! Is that why you left me?” Beat Drop Button cried in Trollex’s embrace as they went back inside his castle. “I’m sorry– I’ll be a better Beat Drop Button! I’ll drop sicker beats next time and —”

“Aww, he’s like a puppy! All cute and huggy,” Pinkie cooed. Her sudden unfamiliar voice made Beat Drop Button look her way and to Trollex. Suddenly not sure if his master became a girl and changed colours, or if there’s an unknown family member he hadn’t heard about.

“Who– what— King Trollex? Queen Trollex? Two highnesses? Huh?” Beat Drop Button was close to short circuiting when the blue and pink trolls laughed at his reaction.

Even their laugh was almost the same!

“No silly!” Pinkie Pie said in between laughs, “I’m Pinkie Pie!” 

“She’s my soul twin for another world!” Trollex said as though having a twin from a different world was normal, much less meeting someone from another world.

“What?!” Beat Drop Button reacted naturally. “So we have a Queen now? No, you’re King. So a Princess?! We have a Princess?!”

“Pfft, nah, I’m no Princess silly!” Pinkie blew raspberries at the thought, “I already have a friend who’s a princess! And if we compare myself to her, I’m far from being a princess!!”

“But, you’re- you’re King Trollex’s twin! You’re royalty!” Beat Drop insisted, “Well, technically you’ll only be royalty in this world and not in your original world but! In here, you’re royalty!”

Trollex unhelpfully left Pinkie to converse with Beat Drop Button on the topic. Pinkie Pie sent him looks for help, but he was busy arranging Pinkie Pie’s new room in his LED Castle. It was a room just across from his.

“There’s really no need to be all serious about it and make it complicaty,” Pinkie said, “I’ll be just Pinkie Pie! The Pink… troll that creates the craziest party for everyone! Spreading laughter in my wake!”

“But–But we must make it all serious! And official! For King Trollex!” Beat Drop shouted in his most hushed tone.

Pinkie stilled. Confused, she asked “For Trollex? Why?”

Beat Drop Button glanced at his owner to confirm if he’s still busy. Trollex was now placing a pink clam bed himself inside the room for Pinkie. Now assured he won’t be paying attention to them, the button led Pinkie farther from Trollex before speaking normally, but still quietly.

“King Trollex has been our king for a majority of his life now,” The green button started, “No one knows what happened to the other Royal Family. No one can really remember now, with how long ago it was. King Trollex just suddenly became King and led the Techno Tribe as a troll. That was all we knew. Synth was known to be his long distant cousin, but outside of being one of King Trollex’s delegates, they don’t really interact much.”

“Synth? Oh yeah, Trollex mentioned him to me,” Pinkie recounts, “His distant relative who lives far from his castle.”

“Yeah. So do you see my point now? My King has no one else by his side. Except for me of course!” Beat Drop said with a proud grin but soon deflates, “Except for guards, there’s no one else inside this shiny castle that King Trollex can be himself with. I’ve never seen King Trollex look so genuinely happy outside of being a DJ, so I would be really glad if you just accept all the formality stuff!”

So he really had been so lonely, that Trollex. No one to talk to, no one that can understand him. Like… like her…

“But… I’m really no princess,” Pinkie Pie relents, insecure. She can’t be someone like Twilight. All she can do is be a great party planner! That’s a lot different to being a princess.

“There’s no rule on how to be a proper Princess!” Beat Drop encourages her, smiling. “You just have to be you! Besides, you have King Trollex with you, too! For sure with you two together, everything’ll be easy! And we haven’t got 2 DJs at the same time before! Who knows what kind of sick beat drops you can come up with?!”

“Aww, thank you Beat Drop!” Pinkie says, pulling the green button with a crushing hug, “King Trollex must be suuuper happy to have you with him!”

“Heh, I doubt that,” Beat Drop says.

“Don’t be!” Pinkie says, “You’re the best Beat Drop there is! Nothing can contest you, I’m sure of it!”

“Pinkie? Beat Drop? There you are, you two!”

The two turned to Trollex exiting the hall from their rooms. He had probably just finished decorating.

“I’ve just finished decorating your room, Pinkie!” Trollex says, “Come on! I’m so excited to show you your new room!”

Grabbing Beat Drop and Pinkie’s hand, he led them to the new room.

The previously empty room had turned so bright in just a few minutes of Trollex designing it. Blue, yellow, and Pink neon lines are all around the coral room. Colourful pufferlloons (Pufferfish Balloons), neon lights, a fish resembling a blue cannon, everything Pinkie Pie is familiar with is seen all around the room nicely decorated! A pink clam bed in the middle of it all by the side.

“This. Is. So amazing!” Pinkie Pie squeals as she swims around the place, taking in everything that looks familiar and interesting. She can already tell most of the item uses, but it’s all fish styles. It's amazing! “This looks so cool and oh my gosh is that a canon!? A canon fish!? With CONFETTIS?!”

“I take it you like it?” Trollex said with pride laced in his tone. He worked really hard to think of the design Pinkie would love from their conversations.

“Like it? I love it!” Pinkie says as she engulfs Trollex in a sudden hug, but welcomed nonetheless, “Thank you, thank you!”

“You’re welcome, sis,” Trollex laughs. And then, remembering Pinkie’s earlier request, “Oh right! Let me show you this now.”

Trollex then got something from the green button’s back. It was a shiny blue string.

“This is the Techno String,” Trollex said. He extended the string with Beat Drop’s help and plucked it. The string created a beep and boop sound, the string turning into pixels as it was plucked. “It is the source of our music. Without it, Techno music cannot exist.”

“Whoah,” Pinkie says, astonished. How can a single string become such a powerhouse? It will be really dangerous for it to end up in the wrong hands.

“I keep it inside Beat Drop Button all the time,” Trollex said, letting Pinkie hold the important string with such trust. “And as my sister, I trust you with this information with all my heart.”

Pinkie was at a loss for a moment. It was rare for someone to reaaaaally trust Pinkie with such a serious task and secret. But then she felt flutters of balloons and confetti on her stomach at the thought. She was trusted with a royal secret! 

“I promise!” Pinkie said with eager excitement, genuinely serious. “I Pinkie Pie Promise! Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!”

“Great!” Trollex said, happy to have heard of Pinkie’s own version of a promise phrase. It just shows how serious she is. “Let’s rest for the night now! You’ll know it’s morning when this Sand hourglass tilts.”

Trollex placed an hourglass filled with colourful sands by her bedside.

“Thank you, Trollex! For… everything.” Pinkie Pie says. She has a lot to thank him for, and so does he.

“Thank you, too, for appearing in front of me,” Trollex said. “Good night! Have a fun dream!”

With that, Trollex closed Pinkie’s door. She could hear him softly swim to his room as well before everything became really quiet and dim.

The neon lights in her room slowly dims as there are no music and activity sources it could base its light show with. It’s a cute feature. 

Pinkie Pie turns to the hourglass Trollex gave her to tell time. It still had a quarter fill of rainbow sands before it could tilt again. Still a lot time for Pinkie to get a shut eye.

She tries. She really tried to sleep. She’d tried to watch the sand softly fall to let it lull her to sleep, but the colours in the sands reminded her of everyone now that everything is quiet and still. The perfect moment to overthink stuff.

Is this alright? To be having fun even when she’s alone in this new world? To be so content and happy that she’s not even worrying about how to get back home?

Her pinkie senses aren't getting any bad tingles. Nothing bad is happening. She’s learning a lot and… Having a lot of fun. Waking up tomorrow means getting to meet more friends. It means another party where Trollex teaches her around the DJ booth like he promised.

It sounds like a lot of fun and Pinkie can hardly wait for tomorrow to come.

But then…

Is this okay? Is everyone also having fun? Is Pinkie Pie becoming selfish and too self-absorbed again? 

A deep part of Pinkie which she refuses to acknowledge tells her to focus on herself. To have fun more and not think about her friends who are probably in their own different tribes just like she is. 

So Pinkie assures herself that after learning all about Techno Reef, she’ll ask Trollex how to find her friends. She knows… even if it was hard to think about, she knows she can’t stay here for long. The Cutie Mark sent them here for a mission, a Friendship Quest. And if they want to finish their mission, she must find her friends first. 

Because if they’re all together, nothing can stand in their way, right? Even when Discord managed to reverse their elements, they were still able to defeat him because they were all together in the end. Discord only managed to succeed because they were separated. 

But this is different! Pinkie tries to assure herself again.

This is entirely different. There’s no Discord here. They don’t need anyone else’s help but each other. They just need to find each other, and solve the friendship problem so they can go back home again.

Home…