Celestia’s sun shined bright across the sky. The air was warm and nice, making for a perfect day in Manehatten. Most of the ponies wandering the streets were plain, simple Earth pony folk. Well, some looked like high-class ponies with proper mannerisms and such.
But not like any of that mattered. Looking past that, the train coming in from Canterlot had rolled in. The ponies lined up at the boarding platform of the station waited as the train pulled up from the tracks, slowing to a halt. A loud screeching sound was heard as the train’s brakes slowed down the rotation of the wheels.
The screech was enough to wake up the sleeping Pinkie clone from the back of the train. She yawned quietly and stretched herself upwards from the seat.
Nopony else seemed to be sitting in the car, so she was more or less alone. It was basically a guess that nopony even noticed she was on the train in the first place. That, or if anypony did see her, they just decided to ignore it.
She hopped off from the seat and proceeded to the back of the car, the same sound of her hooves clopping on the floor making its sound. When she opened the door, the sudden brightness of the sunlight stung her eyes. She immediately brought a hoof over them to shade them from the ultraviolet rays as she looked around the outside of the train.
The first thing she noticed upon looking to the right was a sign that read: WELCOME TO MANEHATTEN.
Looking above that, she saw the tall building of the city. Most were five to eight story apartment buildings and hotels, and others were fancy-looking houses, though those were more outside the left side of the city in the point of view she was looking in.
Wanting to check out the city, as she intended to do, the Pinkie clone happily bounced out the train with a wide grin.
As she entered the city, some of the ponies around her gave her some strange looks. It was as if the behavior of a grown mare being similar to that of a young filly was the most abnormal thing they’ve seen. That was the behavior of the hyperactive pink mare anyway, and she didn’t really care for the looks. She just carried on with her business of hopping endlessly towards no particular direction.
After some time, she ended up entering a park in the west side of the city. Flowers bloomed and trees decorated the landscape nicely. Fillies and colts were running around and playing, some others were simply having a conversation, and some relaxed on benches. Others were having a picnic with friends, and one mare was even reading a book. It was overall a calming atmosphere.
“Ooh, lots of fun to be had here! Oh, but what should I do first? Should I talk to her, or play with him, or... or...” Her eyes darted back and forth at all the groups of ponies as she pointed a hoof to every one of them she was referring to.
The clones didn’t have much common sense, and this clone wasn’t any different. In less than a second, she appeared behind one of the little fillies that were playing with another filly and a colt. She flashed a wide grin as she stood before the small group of three.
“Hey! Whatcha playing? Is it a game? Can I play? Is it fun? What is it? How do you play?”
As soon as she started talking, the yellow Earth pony filly she stood directly behind jumped in surprise and fell on her back in front of the other two children. The other two stared in confusion at the sudden pink mare that just intruded on their little game, though all they were doing was rolling a ball around to each other.
“Umm, who are you?” asked the tan pegasus colt.
“Me? I’m Pinkie Pie!”
“Pinkie Pie? What kind of a name is that?”
“It’s my kind of a name, silly! I’m a Pinkie Pie, and I like to have fun!”
The filly that was startled earlier rose to her hooves and regained her composure. “If anything, your name should be Surprise. You really surprised me...”
Regardless of the filly’s well-being, the Pinkie clone kept her wide grin. “Call me whatever you want. Do you have anything fun to do? I like fun! Is this ball fun?”
She picked up the ball, and bounced it up and down on her hoof. The three children exchanged awkward glances before looking back at Pinkie. “I... suppose you want to play with us?”
The Pinkie clone gasped, and leaped high into the air at a surprisingly high altitude. She performed five backflips before she swung her hooves out and confetti appeared out of nowhere.
“Yay! Let’s have fun! Fun! Fun!”
The young fillies and colt started to chatter quietly among themselves while the Pinkie clone was busy enjoying her enthusiastic moment.
“What is with this mare?”
“I don’t know, but she sure is crazy and weird.”
“She’s more hyper than my elder sister after six cups of latte.”
“Who’s more hyper than latte?”
Suddenly, she reappeared behind them. The startled filly from before once again fell back onto her rump in surprise. It was pretty obvious she was easily scared. The colt sighed from seeing that.
“Jitters, you really should stop being such a scaredy-cat.”
“Hey, it wasn’t my fault! That Pinkie lady scared me.”
The Pinkie clone frowned in response. It was apparent to her that she was making her presence a problem to them. “I think I’m ruining the fun. Am I ruining the fun?”
The other filly, a light green unicorn, walked closer to her. “No, not at all. Look, if you want, we can have some fun.”
The colt brought his head closer and whispered in her ear. “Filla, what are you doing? You’re just going to let some random lady play with us? We don’t know her.”
Filla scoffed. “Relax, Aero. She doesn’t seem so bad. I mean, look at her. She’s basically a kid like us.”
They looked back at the Pinkie clone, who was smiling back before getting distracted by a passing butterfly. She hopped after it, chasing it while admiring its beautiful wings.
“I suppose you have a point. Go ahead and tell her.”
Filla nodded, and turned to Pinkie, who looked to be about a few feet away. “Hey, Pinkie lady!”
Upon hearing that, Pinkie literally paused in midair and looked back at the group. “It’s Pinkie Pie, not Pinkie Lady!” She landed back on the ground and trotted back towards them.
“Yeah, do you want to play with us?”
Pinkie gasped, and suddenly hugged Filla. “Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes! We’re gonna have so much fun, just you wait and see!”
Jitters was watching the whole time. She could only facehoof and sigh. “I just know this isn’t going to end well...”
The sun shone through the open window of the carriage, lighting up the room with bright sunlight. The warm rays rested upon the closed eyelids of a sleeping Trixie, who moaned a bit from the sudden light beaming through. She made a yawn while awaking up from her slumber.
“Hmm, another day. Another excruciating day ahead for Trixie. Couldn’t the sun wait for a few more minutes? The Great and Powerful Trixie needed her beauty sleep.”
She rose up from her bed. Her mane and tail were a mess, though that could just be bed hair. She walked over to the mirror she had next to one of the walls and looked at her reflection. Messy mane, messy tail, small bags under her eyes... what a horrible image.
Trixie’s horn glowed a light purple hue, and the brush in front of her levitated up to her face. She brought it up to just over her withers, and stroked it down her mane. She made long, clean strokes until it was nice and straight. She did the same to the top part of her mane until it looked as natural as ever.
“Even on the bleakest of days, Trixie has to look her best. Now then, what is there to do today? Yesterday, I entertained the masses of Manehatten. Too bad they did not enjoy the awesome magic of Trixie. What sort of different approach can I do?”
She walked over to the window and peeked her head out of the carriage. The streets of the city were a small distance away, about roughly half a mile away.
“Perhaps Trixie can seek an opportunity in the city. But from what? Nopony will speak to Trixie after that show yesterday. Everything was going perfect... until that mindless pegasus ruined my trick and ruined my show!”
Her face scowled in remembrance of the end of last night’s show. “There I was, the Great and Powerful Trixie, about to perform an amazing feat of disintegrating cards-- a simple yet effective card trick if I do say so myself-- until that pegasus flew by and ruined my concentration! Ended up nearly making myself bald. Does he lack control of his wings? If one was not mistaken, they’d say he was comparable to that confused mailmare in Ponyville... except for the eyes. Either way, it ended my show in humiliation yet again. But I shall try again. Trixie will not quit!”
She was interrupted by a feeling in her stomach, telling her she was hungry. “Trixie requires food. I wonder if Manehatten has a good place to eat.”
She walked over to the door and pushed it open. She inhaled deeply as the fresh air from the outdoors filled her nostrils. She stepped out and walked down the path towards the city.
The inside of the city was bustling with activity, as Trixie had seen in pretty much every city and town she had traveled to. This one wasn’t much different. Ponies were walking about, some were entering certain business buildings and others were simply having a conversation.
She stepped into the city, almost already running into a couple of ponies. She made sure to watch her step, but expected everypony else to do the same, as if they weren’t smart enough to watch their own steps. But it was nothing the Great and Powerful Trixie should fret over.
Right now, she was only focused on the growl of her stomach indicating her hunger. “Trixie is very hungry. Is there anypony here who knows a fine place to eat in? A small breakfast is all Trixie needs.”
She was hoping somepony would hear, or at least notice her. The joys of having to walk to somepony herself, creating effort which a certain blue unicorn was too lazy to do.
Trixie breathed a deep sigh and turned to the closest stallion to her position. “Excuse me, do you know any restaurant that can serve the Great and Powerful Trixie some breakfast?”
She was face-to-face with a rather tall brown Earth pony stallion with a grey coiffed mane. He was sporting a handsome tuxedo around as if it was normal everyday clothing, though by looking around, one would notice the citizens of Manehatten did possess some sense of fashion.
“Why, yes my dear. There is an exquisite breakfast eatery just five blocks due North. You’ll want to head in that direction.” The stallion turned and pointed a hoof to the North.
“Thank you for the directions, Mr...”
“Arc. You may simply refer to me as Arc. Everypony does.”
“Thank you, Arc. You are quite a gentlecolt.”
“For a nice mare such as yourself, certainly.” He nodded towards Trixie before turning his back to her and proceeded to walk away. For a small moment there, a small smile began to form on her face from the generous sentiment. It appeared not everypony saw her as any less of a pony just because of her attitude, even if she did not express it enough there.
“Yes, well... Trixie must be on her way.”
She turned to the North, and walked forward. She wondered if there were going to be other surprises that would come to her this day.