PENNYWISE
CHAPTER 8
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Noir Shade's Journal
Day 39
Strange occurrence today...
I found officers barging into Sweet Apple Acres, and dragging Caramel Apple out. The only thing I forgave about this was the fact he was wearing clown make-up. It was obviously not him, as we've established Pennywise assumes multiple forms. I tried to reason with the officers taking him, but they seemed to disregard me, except for one who pushed me away. I was able to commandeer their prison chariot and take them to headquarters. When I looked inside the confinement section of the chariot, everypony except for Caramel had not a clear idea where they were or what they were doing.
Now that I think of it, I didn't recognize any of them as employed officers. I questioned Caramel about what he was doing in clown make-up. He claimed that there was some sort of balloon in his face before it happened. He couldn't explain the part of how he put the actual baggy suit on, however. It seems Pennywise may be capable of influencing others somehow... in any case, I let him go. Today, I got three balloons at the same time, the entire message reading,
'I'm sure you've noticed,
I look good in another one's skin,
Haven't tried yours'
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Pinkie glumly walked across Ponyville. She heard about what happened to Pipsqueak. As she wanted to try to make the others smile again, she decided to pay him a visit. She took a look at his old house. It was sealed off for further investigation. She looked to his current residence, the house belonging to local clown Happy Days. She sighed, and walked to it, knocking on the door.
After a while, Happy Days answered the door. At least, she thought it was him. He'd washed his clown make-up off.
"Oh. Hello, Pinkie Pie," He greeted, "Bit surprised to have a visitor..."
"Yeah... err... I know it sounds weird, but... is it okay if I see Pipsqueak?" She asked.
"Well... not sure, he's a bit uneasy at the moment... and how do I know you're n-"
"If you're not sure about me, you can be in the same room. I understand."
Happy thought for a moment. Nowadays, nopony was trustworthy. But if she's fine with him being in the same room...
"...Okay. He's upstairs." He said, widening the door, "Come in."
"Thanks..." Pinkie thanked, walking in. The interior looked rather clean, the sort of clean you find in a house that was recently cleaned... he did only come back some days ago. There were hardly any pictures, and despite the cleanliness, most of the interior seemed empty and dull.
"Err... your mane looks good..." He offered.
"Really...? I don't like it... thanks, though..." She replied, "Uh... you look nice without your make-up... less unfamiliar." She nodded, before going upstairs. Happy followed after.
Pinkie opened the door to Pipsqueak's room. He was tucked in a bed, wide awake, looking at a televisional device that was paused at the opening titles. The title read 'The Snowpony.' Pinkie smiled a little. One of her favourite films, despite being 26 minutes long. She remembered what she came here for soon enough, and looked to Pipsqueak, who was now looking at her, curious as to why she was here.
"...Hi, Pip," Pinkie said, "How you doin'?"
"...Well, I've been better, but... I feel safe during the day, at least," He replied with his Trottingham accent.
"Understandable," Pinkie said, now noticing Pip was kind of curious as to why she's now using big words that aren't made up, and continued, "Given what's going on... I'm not feeling my usual self. I'm sure you can tell by the way my mane is..." Pip nodded, even though he thought it was rather nice himself.
"So, Miss Pie," Pip began, "What can I do for you?"
"Well... I know it wasn't a pleasant experience, but... could you tell me what happened when It visited?" She asked.
"...You mean The Clown?"
"Yeah... The Clown..."
He sighed, and looked thoughtful. Pinkie thought he wasn't going to go through with it for a moment.
"...Well..." He began, "He came around at my house, after placing a record player on the ground, and then inserting a record with circus music in it... the music was cheery... but eerily haunting... I thought of the music that made me happy... and almost as if he could hear it too, he went in my house... I think he noticed my fear..."
"He started walking over to my house rather slowly... and assumed the form and voice of Sweetie Belle in order to trick me to open the door... he got in anyway, though... and my parents came in to stop him... that's when my father made me run, and I never saw them after that..."
Pinkie thought for a little bit... "Did It say anything to you or your parents that was a little... interesting?" She asked.
"Well... something he said that was a little confusing was when he said that usually, not a lot of adults have usually believed in him..." He replied.
Pinkie looked thoughtful for a moment. That was very confusing. She thought back to her encounter with It...
She remembered how, for some reason, Mrs. Cake, who was practically her aunt, had ignored the fact there was blood all over the place, and even held up a beating heart, thinking it was bread... and the first thing It ate was a child...
And considering the town has seen a lot of creatures other than themselves, also finding the Nightmare Moon story to be real, most of them probably believe in the impossible... but some don't...
"...I think I have it figured out, a little..." Pinkie said.
"What is it?" Happy Days asked.
"Well..." Pinkie began, before looking back at Pipsqueak, "I think we should discuss it outside Pip's hearing..."
Happy gave her a questioning look, but she went out of the door, and he followed.
"Well?" He asked, "What have you figured out?"
Pinkie nodded, before speaking, "It seems that It takes the form of what scares the others so that they're afraid when they're eaten... but it's one of the things that has to be seen to be believed... and the ones who don't believe it can't see it anyway... this is usually what happens with adults. It could eat adults, but usually, hardly any of them would believe it. This isn't a problem with children. This, combined with the knowledge that everypony tastes better to it when afraid, and children are usually more afraid of things than older ponies, tells us that It prefers to eat the youngest foals it can find. It's only a preference, though."
Happy looked uncomfortable with the thought, but nodded to show he understood. "Would explain his attack patterns so far..." He said, "I wonder why he was torturing everypony else, though..."
"Probably so we'd be afraid. And I think everypony's brave enough to admit it's working..." Pinkie replied.
Happy nodded. "Should we tell the authorities about this?" He asked.
"Yeah. Would be best," Pinkie said, "...Can we wait for a moment though?"
"Why?"
"Well, Pip's watching something I haven't seen in a while... I'd like to see it too. It always used to make me happy if things went wrong."
"Well..." Happy thought for a moment, "Okay then."
Pinkie grinned as much as she could (Only a little), and walked into the room, with Happy following. Pinkie walked over to Pip.
"Hey, Pip... are you watching The Snowpony?" She asked.
"Well... I might... not sure if I want to, though..." He replied.
"It's one of my favourite films... you wouldn't mind un-pausing that, would you?"
Pip took a look at the screen, still at the titles, then back to Pinkie. "Alright then." He reached for his film player's remote, which was connected to it with a wire, and pressed the play button. The film started up, and Pinkie sat on the floor, looking directly at the televisional device's screen.
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A family sat at a lake, watching the birds fly freely, the fishes swim swiftly, and the sky's colours reflecting off the water. The sun glowed brightly.
The family consisted of a mother, father, daughter and son. This was a thing they'd do on the weekends. Enjoy the outdoors. They loved the outdoors.
"Alright, time to take a picture!" Dad said.
"Alright!" The Son said. He, his sister and his mother ran to the edge of the lake. The Dad placed a stand on the ground, placed the camera on it, and set it to take a picture in 5 seconds. He then ran next to the group. The photo clicked.
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Pinkie watched as the Snowpony took off to fly with the little colt. She loved that scene, it reminded her of how nice it would be to fly, or at least have some sort of golem of snowy awesomeness that could fly without wings, just with pure magic. Her coat began to have a brighter saturation of pink, and her straight mane began to have strands of hair sticking out. As well as that, her grin had gotten a lot bigger. She was humming to the song.
After the flight sequence, she grinned happily when Pony Claus appeared, and giggled as the group of snowponies danced, memories flooding back to her. She went back to a happy smile as the colt and the snowpony hugged each other after they'd flown home. And she shed a tear as morning came, and the snowpony had melted, the colt gradually realizing that it wasn't a dream, when he looked at the scarf Pony Claus had given him. Her mane and tail was now all frizzy and messy, as usual.
She sighed. "I love this little cartoon," She said. She looked to Pip, "Thanks for letting me watch it again."
"No problem, Miss Pinkie. Glad to see you're your usual self again!" He replied.
"Yeah, probably won't last, but we'll see!" Pinkie said. "Well, see ya, Pip!" She said, bouncing out of the room. Happy followed.
"So, you gonna be okay?" He asked.
"For a while. Still pretty bummed about you-know-what, but as long as nothing gets thrown at my face too soon, I'll be fine long enough to make others happy! Not sure if I should throw a party, though. It could ruin anything!" She replied.
"I guess. Should I tell Noir about the thing you thought up and you can do what you do best?"
"Good idea! See you around, Happy!" She said, before out the door. Happy sighed.
Pinkie Pie then came back, walking through the door.
"By the way," she began, "I don't know your real name, just your clown name. Wanna share?"
"It's Funny Bones." He replied.
"Hm... that could be a clown name too. Anyway, why do you wanna be called Happy Days instead of your real name?"
"Ehh... Funny Bones reminds me too much of my heritage. Won't talk about it."
"Okie-dokie-lokie! But really, you should use your real name more often. Everypony will like you for who you really are! Well, I better go now. Bye!" She said, before zipping out of sight. Happy looked confused for a moment, wondering where she went, then shrugged.
Pipsqueak sighed, moving his hoof to turn the film player off via the remote. Then, the film started rewinding... he hadn't mis-pressed anything... or pressed anything at all.
It rewinded to the Trotting In The Air scene. As they were flying in the snow, a large bird suddenly appeared on screen, and grabbed the two of them, taking them elsewhere... this never happened before. He heard familiar cackling after that... the televisional device turned off after that. Pip looked to his left. There was a blue balloon, that just floated... floated.
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After their picture, they went over to the camera, taking it to a seat, and inspecting the picture they had taken.
The picture was of them, The Father and Daughter smiling, the Mother and Son grinning, and the Clown cheerily waving to the camera, with an equally cheery expression on his face.
...Clown?
"...I don't remember a clown being near us..." The Father said...
"Neither do I..."
The two looked around. Their children were nowhere to be found.
"...Kids?" The Father asked. "Where are you?"
The Mother stood up and trotted off to go look for them, calling their names.
The Father looked at the photo with a horrified expression on his face.
The picture's background was the same, except it was at night, the Mother and Father had indifferent expressions on their faces... their children were nowhere to be found. There were lines on the grass that looked like somepony had dragged something... or somepony somewhere, and bits of the grass were also reddened. And the clown was still there... but he was now grinning viciously, and holding balloons too.
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End of Chapter...
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&list=ULj5GIHITJnFE&v=zNM_WS-rcOc&feature=endscreen]