Pinkie pie bounced down the stairs with wild abandon, and soon found herself in twilight's laboratory. Quite a bit had changed since last Pinkie had been here, having her Pinkie sense questioned. The results had been inconclusive, and the thought that Twilight had found nothing before seemed to fill Pinkie with doubts that anything more would come of these tests.
“Not true!!!....entirely....” Pinkie shouted at the ceiling. Her friends had waited a few moments before descending after her.
Twilight was getting out that device Pinkie had seen her use before to measure her Pinkie Sense, and was hooking sinister looking wires through it, and into a separate machine that made the sound of a bellowing monster. Pinkie did her best to not look nervous, both at being tested and finding out that there was really nothing mystically wrong with her.
“Twilight will find something! And then it's hasta lasagna, you big meanie!” Pinkie said defiantly to the ceiling. It wasn't unusual that all she could think about was food, after all it had probably been five whole minutes since she last ate, possibly a new record. Pinkie just shook her head and began to grumble.
“Alright Pinkie,” Twilight was speaking while working on the machine, dressing herself in a lab coat and goggles, and taking notes. Pinkie didn't know whether to be impressed, or slightly offended that Twilight was taking this so leisurely. “I'm going to hook these sensors up to you, and then I'm going to ask you some questions, OK?”
“Okie Dokie Loki!” Pinkie was smiling. A little bit of hope had returned to her, however small it may be, that the voice she continued to hear would be gone. She still wasn't able to comprehend that the voice wasn't some outside entity, not some mystical ailment. The voice was just Pinkie Pie's inner thoughts, just her sanity slowly slipping away.
“Alright, now, before we begin with the tests, there are some preliminary questions I'd like to ask you, if that's OK.” Pinkie nodded in recognition, and Twilight continued. “Alright, well, Rarity told me that you started hearing this....voice, about a week ago, is that right? Can you remember what happened right before you started hearing it? Do you have any Idea what caused it?”
Pinkie didn't like the way that Twilight had said voice, it sounded a bit to much like an accusation. Pinkie was still feeling a bit on the nervous side, she really didn't want to tell Twilight about her secrets. She looked sheepishly down to her hooves before she replied.
“....Twilight,” Pinkie said Tentatively. “are you sure that you need to know?”
“...Yes, Pinkie,” Twilight said slowly with a raised eyebrow. “If we're to find a way to stop these voices-,”
“Voice, there's only one,” Pinkie mumbled under her breath,
“ -then we're going to need to know what caused them in the first place.”
Pinkie was visibly uncomfortable with the whole event, and her friends picked up on it almost immediately. Eventually, however, she nodded, and her resolve hardened. After all these were her friends. If anypony would believe her, they would,....though that was the problem. Would anypony believe her?
“...Ok,” Pinkie said, staring once again defiantly at the wooden ceiling. One would think this mare would live in a house without ceilings considering how much she seemed to hate them. “I'll tell you, but, well.....I'm gonna need you to just keep an open mind, ok?”
Twilight's eyebrow reached new heights, and she looked to Rarity for support. Rarity shook her head and shrugged, unsure herself what to think. “Alright, I promise.”
“Alright,” Pinkie sighed with some relief. “OK,...So, you know how I sometimes inexplicably seem to find things that we need faster then I should be able to, and go places that I have no business reasonably being able to go to?”
Twilight nodded cautiously, then her eyes lite up in realization. This was one of the mysteries that she'd been trying to figure out since the day she came to Ponyville, and Pinkie had always bee acting ignorant of the real reason. But here she was, willing to tell her secret. Twilight's look changed from concerned to hungry for the knowledg-
“WELL,” Pinkie Said Loudly, trying to drown out the voice that only she could hear. “I, sort of....cheat, a little bit.”
“You...cheat?” Twilight's head tilted in confusion. “What do you mean you,...cheat? How do you cheat exactly?”
“I'm getting to that!” Pinkie waved her hoof, telling Twilight to calm down. “Well, firstly, you need to realize that I'm not exactly sure how I do it personally, but I know that it's connected to my pinkie sense. Whenever I get a twitch or an itch that tells me that somepony needs me, I just sort of,...go there. I...I take a shortcut.”
“What do you mean you take a shortcut?” Twilight said coming as close as she could to the pink mare. Their muzzles were almost touching, and it was making Pinkie a little uncomfortable. Not being close to somepony, she was fine with that. It was the look that Twilight was giving her, the look of a mad mare on a mission.
“Look, maybe it'll be better If I demonstrate,” Pinkie said taking a cautious step away from her intellectual friend. Pinkie Pointed behind Twilight, whose gaze was unwavering. “Just, could you hand me that book over there behind you Twi?”
Twilight reached behind her while keeping her gaze on Pinkie Pie, but realized that she couldn't get the book.
“Here ya go Twilight!” A voice said from behind her. Twilight turned, and took her gaze off of Pinkie Pie for half a second, to get the book from Pinkie Pie to hand it to Pinkie Pie.
“Thanks Twilight,” Pinkie said with a smile.
“No problem Pinkie, now when are you going to show me....”Twilight stopped in mid sentence and her mouth opened up in apprehension. She looked back behind her, then to Rarity whose eyes were wide as Twilight's then back to Pinkie.
“How...how....just how!?!” Twilight said with wide eyes. It didn't help that Pinkie was smiling like a deviant.
“I just told you, I'm not entirely sure, but,....I'm taking a shortcut.” Pinkie said, as if she found some of the right words. “I'm able to do things when they're funny, for instance.”
“When it's funny?” Twilight said incredulously. “What do you mean, when its funny?”
“Just like I said,” Pinke said with a shrug. “I don't know why, but hey, it seems to work out that way.”
“Ok, well, how are you doing it? What are you doing? Where do you go to travel?”
“Well, It's hard to explain, but I'll try,” Pinkie said as she began to tug on her own mane in nervousness. “Ok, so it's like to each and every pony can see in three dimensions right?”
Twilight nodded, and Pinkie Continued. “Well, it's like there's a secret fourth type of dimension, but to most ponies it's less like a dimension and more like a, limitation. It keeps you from just moving foreward. I don't know what I'd call it, but Most ponies can't even see it, it's like a.. barrier, a border...a...”
“A wall?” Twilight suggested.
“No, that's not it.” Pinkie waved her away and kept thinking. “Oh I know, it's like a wall!”
Twilight raised her eyebrow. “But that was-”
“Yeah, it's like most ponies don't even notice that there's this fourth wall holding them back, and it holds me back to. But sometimes, when it's funny, or when I try, I can sort of, sort of..... break the fourth wall!” Pinkie said with a smile as she dramatically stood on only her back hooves. Unfortunately for her, she didn't seem to notice that the book she'd asked for was under hoof, and she fell down onto the table in front of her, smashing her head against a book.
“Pinkie!” Twilight said with concern. Pinkie raised her hoof at Twilight.
“It's alright, Twilight,” Pinkie said with a groan, as she glared back at the ceiling. “He just Get's super angry when I do that..”
“Wait,...are you implying that this,....this voice, can actually hurt you?” Twilight said helping Pinkie to her hooves.
“Well, Not a lot, at least I think not a lot,” Pinkie said. “He doesn't like, constantly do it or anything, but sometimes, especially right after I break the fourth wall, he does stuff like that, you know, to try and get back at me maybe?”
“Pinkie, I don't know,” Twilight said backing away and sitting down. “What you're saying is....well....”
“Harder to swallow then a maple syrup and gummy-bear milkshake?”
“Well, yeah, no offense. But still,” Twilight bite her bottom lip. Pinkie had displayed some extraordinary abilities just now, and her story wasn't completely without merit. “Ok, you might be onto something.”
Pinkie's face brightened to a point where Celestia's own sun would have paled in comparison.
“But let's hold off on theories until we've run some tests, ok?” Pinkie nodded enthuisiastically.
“Alright, I'm going to put these sensors on you, and then I want you to tell me when the voice starts talking and exactly what the voice is saying, ok Pinkie?”
“Okie Dokie Twi!” Pinkie said giving the purple princess pony a salute. Twilight sighed and attached the helmet and other deviced to Pinkie Pie. Then She went over to her machine, flipped a few switches and began to wait as the hum of electricity filled the machine.
“....”
“....”
“...”
“...”
“....uh pinkie?”
“Yeah Twilight?”
“Anytime you're ready,”
“Okay!”
“....”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“I said, anytime you're ready Pinkie,”
“Okay Twi, I know!”
“....”
“.....”
“....”
“.....”
“Pinkie! We've been sitting here for two hours, what's the matter!?”
“Well he's not saying anything!”
“....are you joking?”
“No, he's just gone completely silent the moment you turned on the machine!”
“What, are you sure?”
“Yeah, like, the one time I want him to be talking my ear off and he's just gone completely silent!”
“Oh Geez,”
“I know right?”
“Well, let's keep going for a while longer, then we'll stop and...and try something else.”
“Ok, you're the boss miss science lady!”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“Okay, I think that that's enough of that,” Twilight said powering down the machine. It had been hours since the two had started trying to over explain the simple case of insanity that-
“Twilight he's talking again! Flip it back on, flip it back on!”
“....Well? Is it working?”
“Patooie,”
“I'll take that as a no then.”