//------------------------------// // Angry Thoughts // Story: Introspection // by -Hidden Identity- //------------------------------// Darkness can be a dreaded enemy. The night allies itself with stars and the moon to reveal what obstacles may lay ahead, but deep within the ground lay an abyss of eternity without dawn. It was this darkness that Pinkie Pie found herself consumed by. Her lamp had been cast down, by what appeared to be herself, becoming quite unusable. "Hey! You could at least have turned on a light or something. I can't see anything!" Her hoof found the remains of the lamp, the oil sticking to her coat as she rummaged around in the gloom for her bearings. After finding where the muddy slope was located, she turned around and bounced off, only to find that the ceiling was far lower than previously anticipated. Trading out bouncing for walking, Pinkie shuffled her way through the cave. While nothing alive, or at least close enough to perhaps be considered alive, crossed her path, she soon discovered other inhabitants of the cave: water, dust, shallow pits, and all manner of hidden rocks and protrusions, which her hooves seemed to have a knack for finding. After she managed to discover what she assumed to be a particularly dusty hole in the floor, she scrambled out. "Alright you! You're not being very nice! Somepony could poke her eye out on something in here! Or even I could!" It was in this moment that Pinkie noticed something strange, the speleothems, walls, pits, and all manner of formations around her became slightly visible. As the darkness continued to melt away, the room became recognizable in the way that she had never seen it before. The cave behind her looked strange, as did that which lay in front of her. The room itself was small, with three different passages branching off from it. She stood alongside a small pit, with a larger depression alongside one of the walls. "Oh...that's much better." Pinkie grinned. She peered into the various passages, shrugged and moved away, only to become reacquainted with the dusty pit. She climbed out and moved over to look into the larger depression, and froze. She was looking at herself, except it wasn't her. Her coat was a wonderfully presentable pink, not that musty brown color. She cocked her head, and watched the other mimic the movement. "Ok, you can't scare me. I found you! I know this game you're trying to play! It's called: Pinkie gets lost in a cave and doesn't get out! Well, it won't work. I'm on to you!" "Who are you talking to?" came a rather irritated voice from behind her. "I'm talking to me, who isn't me, but can and could be me. See? She's rather rude too, talking at the same time as me. I wouldn't do that. Stop it!" "Are you blind?" "Nope, but I think I was supposed to be until this light came along. I didn't know caves just had lights in random rooms. WOAH!" Pinkie gasped as she broke the surface, jumping out from the pool. "Better?" "Did she pull me in?" "Oh for the love of...look in." Through the ripples Pinkie could make out her reflection, with bits of mud still clinging to her mane. "Heh! I look silly! I bet Rarity would faint if she saw me like this." "Pssh, Rarity." aired a rather impatient reply. "Yeah, she doesn't like dirt too much, or leaves, or rain, or mud, or-" "I get it!" "Or really anything dirty. But she's still great. Say, when did you get here? Are you one of those things that..." The sentence ran dry. Pinkie was found herself in company with...another version of herself. This was getting rather tedious, trying to keep up with yourself, when you keep meeting another you. "Who are you? Besides me?" "I am not you. Who would want to be you? Don't assume!" the other yelled back, released and audible sigh, and glowered. "I am Anger." "You're angry?" "Anger." "Hungry?" "Anger!" "Angler! I don't like fishing too much." "NO! I am Anger! The conscious mindset of irritable thoughts and enragement!" "I thought that Grump was my angry side." "GRUMP? Grump is not Anger. Discord injected him into our body's mind, and now he has taken my place. I will see him gone." Anger hissed. "He sent me down here." "Why?" "To find some colors. A bunch of them." "What are you doing in this state of mind anyway? Why not stay over in yours and leave me alone?" "I'm trying to get out. My friends must miss me." Pinkie said somberly. The look Anger now gave Pinkie made ever her back up slightly. Never had she seen a pony look so enraged by the comment of another. As Pinkie backed up, Anger took slow, deliberate steps towards her. "Your friends? Do you think that just because you get to actually live in the waking world, you get to claim them as your friends. News flash, Pinkie! They are not just yours! I am as much a part of this mind as you are. Just because they prefer to see us happy does not mean that you can just claim everything! WHY ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR STATE OF MIND?" "Because I didn't know that's what I am, so I'm trying to get out. I was told by Rocky that I needed to get out or I would be trapped in there forever." "What? I...no. Rocky doesn't know anything. He's over with Pinkamena. Wait. You saw Grump outside the cave, right?" "Yep." "Then who's in control right now?" "Pinkamena?" "I hope not." Anger shuddered. "Stupid thing gives me the creeps." "Who is Pinkamena?" asked Pinkie. "The one after this. The part of the mind that everypony has, but nopony wants." "Aw. That's sad. Maybe she just needs a friend." "She has plenty of friends." The conversation fell away as the two stood looking at each other. The sound of water droplets could be heard vaguely. Pinkie began to shiver, forgetting that she was still soaked. Anger seemed to look everywhere except at her joyous brethren. She wore a mask of disdain for the present company. Underneath her glare the shadows moved away, allowing the light to gleefully fill the void. "So you're causing the light?" "This is my mind. What, you don't think I would be able to control my own mind?" Pinkie smiled and shrugged. Anger's eyes flashed, but subsided. "I can't do much because Grump is here. I made this cave to hold angry the angry thoughts. I would wait to be released when the time was right and what I did out there would show up here. I put them in the cave so they could be together, and I could be alone. Now I'm down here with them." "Them? You mean we're not alone?" Pinkie gasped. "You seriously haven't seen them yet?" "Oh, the things that found pools in the sound of voices or something?" "Yeah, them. All they are are angry thoughts that I came up with. I hate company, so I put them in here. Then when Grump showed up he did the same to me. That's not too fair is it?" Anger asked moodily. "Say, how about if we help each other?" "Ooh! I can help!" "If we find these colors, I can get rid of Grump and be alone again!" "How does that help me?" Pinkie frowned. "Alone again. That means you're not here either!" "Oh...I don't get it." "We get the colors, you get to leave." "Oh. Sounds good to me!" "No smiling!"