//------------------------------// // 32: Closing the Loop // Story: Space Captain Pinkie Pie // by terrycloth //------------------------------// Everypony who was anypony was crammed into Canterlot’s gardens and ball room for Princess Pinkie Pie’s Premiere Party, and many ponies who weren’t anypony in particular were there too, since she’d explicitly invited everypony in Equestria. “And the zebras and donkeys and mules, but not the diamond dogs or dragons or griffons, because they’re mean.” Twilight had seen an unusual number of griffons lurking about Canterlot before the party, though, so the lack of invitation probably hadn’t stopped them. And knowing Pinkie Pie, she’d probably welcomed them as warmly as anypony, once they were there. Still, when Twilight came downstairs from her very late bath, she was flabbergasted – and a bit dismayed – to see the party spilling into the castle, up as far as the third floor, which was well beyond the normal visitor area. Her original plan of wandering around until she found somepony she knew was right out – the crowd was too dense for her to move through quickly, or even see over everypony’s head. She had no idea where Luna or Rainbow Dash or even Pinkie Pie would be by now – surely they weren’t still near the stage, not that she even knew where the stage was! She had no idea where to even start. She was just about to turn around and call it a miss when Pinkie Pie appeared. “Hi Twilight!” she said, pushing her way out of the crowd. She stood a head taller than she’d used to, and shouldn’t have been able to sneak up on anypony, but nopony in the crowd seemed surprised to see her there, so maybe it was just Twilight being oblivious. “You look a little lost!” “Pinkie!” Twilight said, rushing forwards to give her a quick hug. “Wow, this party is certainly… big. But everypony seems to be enjoying themselves, at least.” Which was true enough. There were tables with snacks scattered around, and assorted party games set up, even up here, all of them in use. Most of the ponies were just standing around in small groups and talking, but that was true of any party, and the conversations seemed lively enough even if Twilight couldn’t make anything out over the general din. Pinkie Pie giggled. “Well of course they’re having fun! I wouldn’t be much of a host if I neglected my guests!” “Well, that seems unavoidable with a crowd this large,” Twilight said. Somepony tapped her on the shoulder, and looking over she saw that he was offering her a drink. She took it in her hooves, looked around for a place to set it, and eventually settled for balancing it on her head, to Pinkie Pie’s vast amusement. “I mean,” Twilight continued, waving off an offered plate full of snacks, “Celestia spends the first two hours of the Grand Galloping Gala just greeting everypony a few seconds at a time, and –“ “Twilight!” Pinkie Pie said, shocked. “You aren’t seriously comparing the gee-gee-gee to a Pinkie Party, are you? Now come on, Applejack is asking about you over on the lower terrace.” With that, she plunged back into the crowd, effortlessly parting it around her, leaving just enough of a gap for Twilight to squeeze in after her if she hurried. What followed was a scene from a nightmare – loud voices from all around, ponies pressed tight enough to rub against her on either side, tight enough that she couldn’t tell where she was or which way she was going – all she could do was follow the flashing pink tail that kept slipping out of sight. Each time she lost sight of it, she’d press on ahead as best she could – which wasn’t very well, honestly. Politely asking one pony at a time did work, but only one pony at a time. Then Pinkie Pie would call out her name, and wave above the crowd, and it would part just enough for her to almost catch up, and the whole thing would start all over again. Somehow, she found herself pressed up against the balcony railing, watching a pair of pink wings vanish into the dense crowd of pegasi filling the air. She looked down and saw a two-story drop to a large dance floor, where ponies in fancy dresses were dancing to music she couldn’t honestly hear over the babble of voices. “Now what?” she asked, looking around for a stairway. “Alley oop!” came Pinkie Pie’s voice from behind her, and a warm muzzle poked its way rudely under her tail, and lifted her up and over the edge, flinging her to her doom! Fortunately, the pegasi were packed almost as tightly as the ponies on the ground, and she didn’t even have time to scream before landing unsteadily on somepony’s back. Overbalanced, she was about to fall, but managed to push off with her hind legs and leap to another fluttering perch. The pegasi who weren’t being stepped on noticed her antics, and laughed and cheered, and one a few feet below her held out her forehooves and motioned for her to jump. So she did, making her way from pegasus to pegasus like stepping stones in a stream, all eyes on her as the ponies below waited to see if she’d miss a jump and crash. Unfortunately, the last ‘stone’ was a griffon, who was too busy shouting at his neighbors to notice what was going on around him. His head swiveled around to glare angrily at the earth pony who’d just landed on his back, and before she could apologize, the ill-tempered creature had his claws around her neck, and she was tossed helplessly into a fountain full of liquid chocolate – a soft landing, at least, but extremely gooey. As she struggled to clear her eyes, somepony started ‘helping’ her by licking her face all over like a giant dog, and of course it was Pinkie Pie. Or was it? Something about her looked… off. Tired and frazzled, where just a few seconds before she’d been fresh and excited. “I watched your descent! You were so close!” she said, snatching Twilight out of the fountain in her bluish magical aura, which in the oddly colored 'festive' lighting of this part of party was faded to a sickly green. “Hey, everypony! Free chocolate, fresh on the hoof!” “Pinkie!” Twilight shouted desperately, as the ponies around her advanced with hooves and tongues outstretched. “Just kidding!” Pinkie Pie said, laughing and lifting her up out of reach. The melted chocolate coating Twilight hardened, then shattered off her as a rain of candy shards, onto the hungry crowd below. “What’s wrong with you!” Twilight shouted, as Pinkie Pie plopped her onto her back, between her wings. She started bounce-fluttering over the crowd at speed, thirty feet at a time, easily clearing the heads of the ponies below, scattering the pegasi ahead, and somehow always finding a landing spot. Twilight was jostled and disoriented – they were moving too fast for her to really be sure of anything she was seeing – but as she ducked under a swinging chandelier that Pinkie just barely avoided, she could have sworn she saw another Pinkie Pie watching her from the crowd below with alarm. “This is madness!” “Madness? No! This is a Party!” Pinkie Pie shouted gleefully, leaping out into the garden and landing on top of a statue of herself made of ice. “With a capital P! Five of them! This is the P-5, Twilight! The pinnacle of pony parties! It will never get better than this!” With that, she bucked Twilight off her back, flinging her over the edge of the city. Twilight squealed in surprise, but didn’t fall far before Canterlot’s ancient magical enchantments caught her and slowed her to a crawl, finally leaving her floating in midair – air with the consistency of jelly – next to a large, open balcony under the main garden level. There, the elements of harmony, and a few other friends, were having a relatively quiet get together. Rainbow Dash was over with Trixie in one corner, chatting up Spitfire and Soarin’, while Applejack, Fluttershy, and some pink and blonde earth pony that, judging by her cutie mark, was probably named Cherry-something were lounging on a nest of pillows nibbling on a pile of cupcakes. Rarity was over at the balcony’s edge, staring at the stars, and Twilight’s scream slowly faded as she bobbed up and down in front of the melancholy unicorn. She smiled and waved haplessly, ten feet out of reach of the railing. “Rainbow,” Rarity said, turning back towards the others, “Be a dear and fetch Twilight from the safety field, would you?” Rainbow Dash gave an exaggerated sigh. “How come I have to be the one to do all the flying around? Can’t you just drag her in with your magic?” “Oh, for pony’s sake,” Applejack said, standing up and trotting over to the edge. She pulled a lasso out from under her hat, and tossed it to Twilight, who got a good grip and then nodded to her friend. With a sudden yank, she was out of the jelly-field and back on solid ground, a bit wobbly but able to keep her feet. “Glad you could make it, sugarcube. Rainbow Dash said you were in a bad place earlier.” Twilight laughed. “I was doing some gardening and getting a bit frustrated,” she admitted. “The literature is useless, but one way or another, I’m going to figure out this earth pony magic. Magic is my special talent, after all.” Applejack looked at her uncertainly. “Uh huh. Look, Twi, I appreciate that you want to make the best of being one of us dirt-ponies and all, but wouldn’t your time be better spent figurin’ out some way to get your horn back?” Twilight looked at her friend, shocked at the tribal slur. “Dirt-ponies? Is that how you think I see you?” “Well…” Applejack said, scraping at the floor with a forehoof. “Nah, not you. You think we’ve got magic, after all, don’cha.” She grimaced. “We ain’t got no magic, Twilight, and if you keep thinking like we do, you’re never going to get anywhere.” “I saw you grow leaves on a tree in winter,” Twilight said. “You wanted it to happen, and you concentrated on the tree, pressed your hooves against the bark, and poof! Leaves.” “T’wasn’t like that at all,” Applejack said. “Look, you want to learn how to grow plants? Start by readin’ up on how to grow plants. Put all that thought of magic out of your mind and just… grow plants. Start a garden. In the spring, I mean – nothin’ wants to grow in the middle of winter.” “It’s not like every earth pony is a farmer anyway,” said Cherry-whatever. “I mean, my special talent is apparently turning unicorns into earth ponies.” “You didn’t turn me into an earth pony,” Twilight said. “Oh, didn’t I?” she said, grinning. “Watch out, Rarity – you’re next!” Rarity sighed, and continued to not look Twilight or any of the others in the eye. Applejack rolled her eyes. “Just ignore her. Her special somepony’s too busy hobnobbin’ to spend time with her.” Twilight nodded slightly, and walked across the balcony to settle herself next to the pile of cupcakes. She reached a hoof towards the pile, then paused and pulled it back, carefully taking one in her mouth instead, making sure not to touch any of the others. Cherry-something and Fluttershy watched her quietly, while Applejack stood next to Rarity and discussed something with her in low tones, and the quartet in the corner talked amongst themselves with the occasional bit of raucous laughter that Twilight told herself over and over was not about her. “I know I’m not one of the elements of harmony anymore,” she said, quietly, “but we’re still friends, right?” “Of course we’re friends, Twilight,” came Pinkie Pie’s voice from behind her, as a heavy, warm weight settled onto her back, giving her a quick hug before hopping back just ahead of her startled squeak. Everypony else was suddenly silent, staring at the alicorn who’d suddenly appeared in their midst. “We’re all friends, right?” she asked, looking around at everypony with a grin plastered on her face. “I sure hope so,” Applejack said. “I’m a bit worried about ya, princess. Ever since this party started, you’ve been… kind of…” “Super duper extra creepy,” Rainbow Dash said. “What gives, Pinkie Pie?” Pinky Pie giggled, bouncing in circles around the big pile of cushions that Fluttershy and Twilight and Cherry-whatever were sitting on, and said, “No no no the question is what does Pinkie Pie give? And she gives smiles and parties! And cheerfulness and invitations! To everypony and donkey and griffon no wait not the griffons they just showed up and cake! She gives cake. Do you want some cake?” “I could use some punch…” Twilight said, around the cupcake she’d stuffed in her mouth to keep from panicking. For some reason Pinkie Pie was still really freaking her out, even if she no longer looked quite as insane as she had a few minutes ago. Maybe it was the wild mood swings, the way she constantly appeared out of nowhere, or maybe that she’d tossed Twilight over a thousand-foot drop? Yes, probably the tossing. “Wish granted!” Pinkie Pie said, stopping in midbounce and delicately lifting a cup full of punch off of Twilight’s head in her hooves, then levitating it over to her in a faint blue aura, matching balloons in her cutie mark. Twilight reached up and felt around her mane with the base of her hoof. It was cold, like a cup of punch had been sitting there for a while. “Was that up there the whole time? How could that still be up there? I’ve been rushing through a crowd, surfing on pegasi, assaulted by a griffon, dunked in a fountain and tossed off the edge of the city! How was it possibly still there? And full?” “I bet it’s a Fluttershy cup,” Pinkie Pie said. “You forgot it was there, and it was too shy to get your attention by spilling down your back!” Fluttershy covered her mouth as she stifled a giggle, and Pinkie Pie continued, “Really, it’s not that hard to balance things on your head, Twilight. You probably just did it without thinking. Most things come easier if you don’t think about them.” “I wonder…” Twilight said, staring into the bright red liquid in the cup. “Was that earth pony magic at work? Is it activated by not thinking? Because there’s a technical term for making yourself not think. Meditation! I have a dozen books on meditation.” She frowned. “Oh, but I was never any good at meditation. Does that mean I’ll never be any good at earth pony –“ “There’s no such thing as earth pony magic!” Applejack snapped. “But there is unicorn magic, and you still remember how to do unicorn magic, right?” Pinkie Pie asked. “Because I think I did something really really stupid a few hours from now, and I’m going to need your help figuring out how.” “I don’t like the way you phrased that,” Twilight said, ears flat against her skull. Pinkie Pie’s were perky. “Are my tenses making you tense?” “Intensely.” “Does that mean you aren’t going to help me?” Pinkie Pie asked. “Because if you don’t, that means –“ she gasped. “Changelings! You have to help me, Twilight, or the changelings win!” Rainbow Dash looked over at them, and asked, “Do I even want to know?” “No,” Twilight said, burying her head under a large pillow. “I don’t even want to know.” === Twilight was dressed in her cat-suit again – not because she thought she needed it, but because Pinkie Pie had insisted. They were planning to break into the Star-Swirl the Bearded wing again, after all, and there were traditions to uphold. “Are you just bringing me along because you think it’ll be fun?” Twilight asked, as they darted from bush to bush. “I mean, you seemed to have a pretty good grasp of magic at the trial.” Pinkie Pie shushed her, then said in a very loud whisper, “That was party magic, Twilight – all lights and mirrors and confetti only without the confetti. If I want to cast serious magic I need to follow the rules, and I don’t even know the rules except what I’ve picked up watching you.” “I’m not even sure I still have access,” Twilight hissed back. Pinkie Pie giggled. “Good thing we’re sneaking then! At least we won’t have to worry about any of the guards. The ones who didn’t join the party are all worn out from guarding the party! So nopony will stand in our way!” The two of them stopped short, nearly running right into Shining Armor, who was standing guard by the front door to the restricted wing of the library. He was a little out of it, but not too out of it to look down, and ask, “Twilie?” “Shiny!” Twilight said quickly, looking around – Pinkie Pie had somehow vanished, abandoning her there. “Can, um, can you let me into the Star-Swirl the Bearded Wing? I need to check on some, er, some historical documents. Since I can’t use magic anymore and obviously wouldn’t be interested in any of the restricted spells.” “Twilie…” he said. “You’re dressed up as a ninja again. You only do that when you think you’re trying to get away with something.” “Okay, okay,” she said, looking down. “I was hoping to get a chance to read through the unabridged version of Star-Swirl’s Amniomorphics, to see if the spells relating to earth-pony transformation have any clues as to what exactly happened to me. I’ve been having trouble with earth pony magic –“ “Earth ponies have magic?” Shining Armor asked, looking confused. “That’s what I’m going to figure out!” Twilight said enthusiastically. Her brother didn’t look particularly convinced. “Why don’t you wait here,” he said, unlocking the door, “and I’ll go get your book.” “Shiiiiiiny,” came Cadance’s voice from down the corridor. “Um…” he said to Twilight, glancing back and forth between her and his wife’s voice from down the hall. “Shining Armor, I neeeeeed you! Now!” She didn’t sound angry, but she did sound fairly desperate. “Go ahead,” Twilight said. “I’ll just wait here until you get back. It’s not like I have anything else to do until Celestia decides I’m safe to leave the castle.” “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he said. “And don’t let anypony else in!” With that, he cantered down the hall, shouting, “Coming, Cadance!” Pinkie Pie’s giggle sounded from behind her as soon as Shining Armor was out of sight. “Note to self: when I go back in time, recruit Cadance as a distraction.” Twilight glanced behind her to see Pinkie Pie looming over her. “It works better if you actually write down the notes,” Twilight noted, as she nosed open the door Shining Armor had left unlocked. “Perhaps as some sort of list with a little box that you can check off as you complete each task.” “Okay!” Pinkie Pie said. “I’ll imagine it as a checklist.” === It didn’t take them long to find the time-travel spell Twilight had once used to go back in time and confuse herself, but it wasn’t suitable for Pinkie’s purposes. “No, this spell is perfect,” Twilight said, after Pinkie Pie turned her nose up at it. “Judging by that scene at the trial, your ability to mess with your mirror-pinkies without magic seems to have translated into an instinctive understanding of mirror magic in general –“ Pinkie Pie tilted her head. “Does it count as instinctive if I learned it by watching you failing over and over?” “Yes,” Twilight insisted. “With your instinctive talent for mirror magic, and this admittedly limited time-travel spell, you can go back in time and, during its brief duration, create however many Pinkie clones you think you need by pulling them out of mirrors with the standard Emergence spell. Cast it with just enough power for a few hours’ lifespan, and when the party ends, they vanish. No paradox, no loose ends, no changeling invasion.” “But isn’t that sort of… not nice?” Pinkie Pie said, looking uncomfortable. “I mean, making all those Pinkie Pies real just to have them die a few hours later? I know we were kind of careless about killing off copies that were still in the mirrors, but once they’re real…” “They’re not dying,” Twilight said. “They’re just… um… expiring. Like milk!” “You mean… they turn into stinking rotten spoiled Pinkies?” Pinkie Pie asked. “Because that doesn’t sound safe.” “Maybe there’s a spell to let them put themselves back into the mirror…” Twilight mused, frowning. “Besides,” Pinkie Pie said. “I don’t just want to avoid accidentally destroying the world with a horde of evil Princess Pinkies. I want to see my party! All of it! All the ponies and games and griffons and everything! I can’t do that if I leave everything up to my Mirror-Pinkies. That’s what I need you for, Twilight – you need to fix the spell so it’s not so useless.” “So let me get this straight,” Twilight said. “You want me to take a spell dangerous enough to be kept in a restricted section of the library, and break some of its safety features, so that you can attend a party that you already went to once.” “It’s not just ‘a party’,” Pinkie Pie said. “It was the Princess Pinkie Pie Premiere Party! Celestia let me invite whoever I wanted –“ “Which you used to invite everypony,” Twilight said, wincing. Pinkie Pie nodded cheerfully. “Twilight, it was the Best Party Ever! With capital letters on every word! If you were me, wouldn’t you want to go live it a few more times?” Twilight opened her mouth, then closed it again, and thought it over. “Is this me in your body, with my own personality? Or me in my own body with your personality?” “That’s not important!” Pinkie Pie said, slamming a hoof on the table. “Just fix the spell. Please?” “Break,” Twilight said. “You want me to break the spell.” “Pleeeeeease?” “Fine,” Twilight sighed, defeated by Pinkie Pie’s sad kitten face. === “You know,” Twilight Sparkle mumbled around the quill in her mouth, as she sketched out notes and diagrams in her admittedly awful mouthwriting, “I think we might actually be able to do this.” There was no response from her companion. A quick glance to the side showed Pinkie Pie face down in a book she’d been trying to read, drooling over the ancient ink and parchment. “Pinkie!” Pinkie shot awake and flailed around before realizing where she was. “Ahh! Twilight, it was horrible! I dreamed I was reading a really really boring book and no matter how many pages I turned there were always more pages!” “Well, pay attention,” Twilight said. “I haven’t tested it, obviously, but I’ve made a couple of alterations to Star-Swirl’s spell that I think might make it more useful.” Pinkie Pie’s wings unfolded halfway, and her ears perked expectantly. “Star Swirl the Bearded was a genius, but magical theory has come a long way since his time. The cipher he used to encrypt the spell and prevent alteration is very outdated, trivial to solve really. Once I’d done that I was able to disassemble the spell matrix into its component parts, and –“ Pinkie Pie’s wings and eyelids were starting to droop. “Okay, I’ll get to the point. The time-limit on the travel to the past is based on the maximum duration that Star Swirl could coax out of the temporal beacon that brings you home. By removing the ‘go home’ part of the spell entirely, you can stay in the past as long as you want.” Pinkie Pie blinked. “So how do I get home? I mean, it was an awesome party but I don’t want to be stuck in it forever.” “The normal way,” Twilight said. “One second per second. Since you’re only going back a few hours, that shouldn’t be a big problem.” Pinkie Pie nodded, cautiously. Twilight continued, “Now, the limitation on only using the spell once was because of certain dangerous, cumulative effects of being hurled through time. Apparently, Star-Swirl nearly lost one of his assistants, so he added the restriction to keep anypony from accidentally hurting themself. I took it out. Instead, we’ll try to shield you against the effects of time travel, so that you can use the spell repeatedly without dying horribly.” “Not dying horribly is good,” Pinkie Pie agreed. “Although I might be able to not die horribly just because I’m a princess now.” Twilight grinned. “Consider that ‘plan B’. What I’d really like is for you to use the ‘block everything’ spell my brother can do,” she said. “I’m sure that would work. If you can’t,” Pinkie Pie shook her head. “Then you might be able to make do with an ordinary force field combined with one of those phantom mirrors you summoned before? Mirrors seemed to be proof against the poisonous light from the moon pony reactor. I’m not sure this will work, and I’d really like to be able to test it, but I’m not sure how other than to try it. The good news is that when Star-Swirl’s assistant overused the spell it wasn’t instantly fatal – but if you feel sick at all, you have to stop using the spell and go to the doctor right away.” “What if I feel sick because I ate too much cake at the party after looping through it twenty times?” Pinkie Pie asked. Twilight gave her a look. “Then you’re a changeling and this is all a trick.” Pinkie Pie grinned, and leaned over Twilight’s shoulder to look at the spell. “So it’s – how do I read this? You’ve got little squiggles going everywhere!” “Oh, for pony’s sake, Pinkie…“ === One impromptu session of ‘reading magic scrolls 101’ later, Pinkie Pie hovered up off the floor and surrounded herself in a blue-tinged mirrored sphere. “Twilight!” came Pinkie Pie’s voice from the doorway, and Twilight turned to see a frazzled-looking Pinkie Pie running right for her. “Save me!” “Twilight! Stop her!” shouted Shining Armor, chasing after the new Pinkie Pie with Cadance on his heels. “Pinkie Pie, wait!” Cadance shouted, running towards the mirrored sphere. She slammed her hooves against the field, but it was too late. It was already shrinking as it receded into the past, and vanished with a soft ‘pop’. Meanwhile, the fleeing Pinkie Pie had managed to get herself tangled up with Twilight, trying to hide behind her as Shining Armor charged up a spell. “Wait!” Twilight cried. “It’s okay! I know maybe I told a little teeny weeny white lie about what I was doing in here, but it was only to prevent a paradox! I already met a bunch of future Pinkies at the party, so we’re just closing the loop! She’s not a changeling!” “Luna’s left hoof she’s not,” Shining Armor snapped, and unleashed his spell. The energy flowed over Twilight harmlessly, but Pinkie Pie was engulfed in green flames, and fell to the ground as a changeling, knocked cold. Twilight looked down at it. “What?” “Twily – those weren’t future Pinkies at the party,” Shining Armor said. Twilight blinked. “What!?” “They were changelings,” Cadance said, her expression worried. “Pinkie Pie visited the dungeon just before the party and set them all free, as long as they Pinkie-promised to pretend to be her and keep the other guests happy, since she couldn’t be everywhere at once.” “We spent all night chasing them down,” Shining Armor said. “Most of them got away.” “Not all of them left the castle. We were just chasing down one that decided to impersonate one of my maids,” Cadance added. “She changed back into Pinkie Pie on the way here.” “But if she knew they were changelings, why did she have me helping her improve the time-travel spell?” Twilight asked, looking down at her notes. Cadance walked up beside her, and looked at the other book open on the table, the one Pinkie Pie had been reading. “Maybe this is a clue?” “Amniomorphics – Chapter 6: Pony Transformations,” Twilight read from the header at the top of the page. “Star-Swirl’s Shame – The Spell to turneth the Earth Pony into the Infant Corpse.” One ear flicked nervously as she skimmed through the abstract. “It looks like he was trying to figure out a way to prevent a war by uniting the best qualities of all three tribes in their children –“ Her eyes went wide. “He was trying to create alicorns! Oh, but it didn’t work – most of the foals died in the womb, and the few survivors were basically earth ponies with a few weird powers, because nopony had enough magical energy to infuse into the fetus to make it a fully developed alicorn...” She looked up at Cadance. “Tell me she didn’t.” “She did,” Cadance said, with a sigh. “She went back to visit her pregnant mother and turn herself into an alicorn – a latent alicorn, that is, until the Elements of Harmony gave her the power to fully ascend. I was hoping I could stop her. I mean, not stop her stop her, because I know she does it eventually, but she didn’t have to do it now. She could have spent another few years – or few decades -- with all of her friends before throwing herself into the past forever.” “So you’re saying she’s not about to walk around that bookshelf and say ‘hi, everypony, I’m back!’,” Twilight said, as it started to sink in that Pinkie Pie was gone. “I guess I already knew that, if she went back more than a few hours – I think we would have noticed if there was another pretty pink princess walking around Equestria for the last twenty years. I mean, you tried to keep a low profile, Cadance, but everypony at least knows you exist.” “It’s worse than that, Twilight,” Cadance said, looking down. “Once she’d cast the spell, she didn’t want to stick around her family’s farm, so she cast it again, and again, and again, going further and further back in time whenever she got bored. She went back 400 years, and then…” Cadance sighed. “Then it happened. The worst possible thing that could happen to a pony like Pinkie Pie.” Twilight winced. “Diabetes?” Cadance stared at her, then laughed. “No! No, Twilight. She grew up.” Then she winked. Twilight blinked, and Cadance winked again, so that Shining Armor, busy securing the changeling, couldn’t see. Twilight stared at Cadance. “Your face is kind of the same,” she said in a low voice, “but you are not Pinkie Pie. Your wings are purple on the tips – hers are a darker pink. You’ve got those yellow and purple stripes in your mane and tail, and of course you’ve got a completely different cutie mark.” “Did I ever tell you the story of how I got my cutie mark?” Cadance said, smiling. “It’s a gem.”