Dissociative

by Strawberry Jelly

Chapter 2 - Oops

Maud watched the landscape pass by from her seat on the train, taking mental notes of the likely origins of the various rocks and boulders that she had the luck of seeing. It seemed that most of the rocks around Ponyville were sedimentary with a handful of metamorphic tossed in like a pinch of pepper in a salt shaker. Her studies on becoming a geologist were proving fruitious as she was already the top of her class. She was going to become a geologist, no matter how much Pinkie insisted that it was a 'Rocktorate'.

Even though she loved the subject that she was studying to fervently, it was admittedly nice to take a week break and go see her family. Marble and Limestone mentioned meeting up with her in Ponyville, but seemed unsure if they could take the time off. Marble went on to become a writer in Manehattan, while Limestone continued to work on the farm with their parents. Knowing Pinkie though, she was going to be ecstatic to see both her twin sister and her little sister coming by for a visit in addition to Maud.

“We'll be arriving in Ponyville in five minutes; if it's your stop, make sure that you have your bags and personal belongings!” A voice called from the hallway, not pulling Maud's gaze from the far more interesting landscape, but eliciting a casual nod in response.

Maud was admittedly a little excited to see her other sisters as well, but Pinkie was the one that she really came back for. She had received a letter not all too long ago involving her friends becoming a little suspicious of Pinkies 'condition', so admittedly it wasn't going to just be a visit for fun and games. Not that Maud really liked games anyway, save for camouflage and a few others that she used to play as a filly with her sisters.

“Are you ready to go, Boulder?” She asked the rock, knowing that she wasn't going to get an answer. After all, Boulder was just a rock; a special rock, but a rock no less.

She picked up the small rock and pocketed it. Maud was always practical when it came to traveling; she didn't see the purpose to drag half of your belongings with you where ever you went. As such, she grabbed her single bag and pulled it onto her back effortlessly. It was a good thing that she didn't pack any of the heavier rocks to study over break; she only packed a dozen smaller boulders and a few geodes.

The train began to squeal after another moment and came slowing to a crawl before stopping at the Ponyville Train Station. It was strange to her how Ponyville was a small town but had such large crowds come and go each day. Maybe it was the relatively new crowned princess, or maybe it was the beautiful sights, but it was something that would've made a lesser mare pry in curiosity.

Maud however, didn't really care too much about the business of ponies she didn't know. She wasn't like her sister; she didn't really care to socialize outside of who she already knew and she was perfectly content with just that. Not that it stopped Pinkie and Inkie from going overboard in trying to bring her friends and Maud together. As usual though, Inkie's plans worked out in a bizarre and round-about way; Maud actually liked her sister's friends, although they were still on more of a passive mutual understanding versus a true friendship.

With a loud whistle from the train, Maud found her way out into the warm daylight that Ponyville springtime was known for. Her cool gaze browsed over the large crowd of multicolored ponies, trying to settle on finding the vibrant pink that her sister was known for, but to no avail. It was hard to miss the party pony, so it was pretty apparent that she wasn't there to pick her sister up as of yet.

“Sorry I'm late,” A voice called from behind a few ponies, finally showing that vibrant pink coat that was trademarked by her sister, “We had a bit of a snare this morning.”

Maud eyed over her sister for a moment, taking in all of the subtleties in her sister's pose and tone of voice before nodding, “Hello Pinkamena; it's a surprise to see you here.”

Pinkamena understood the meaning behind Maud's words and nodded. Maud was honestly Pinkamena's favorite sister; they could actually have a calm conversation without her being questioned as to why she was 'depressed' or 'upset'. If only she could come out and be herself with Pinkie's friends... Life would honestly improve a lot for the black coated mare if that were the case. It was just a dream for her though, knowing that if her secret was let out yet again then it would only cause the same problems all over.

“My friends are starting to get a little curious, so I had to cover our flank,” Pinkamena let out a soft sigh, trying to keep her rage in check, “I'm worried that Twilight's going to start prying after the display that Surprise put on earlier.”

The corner of Maud's lips turned downward in the slightest fashion. She couldn't help but become so expressive when it came to her sister, “What did surprise do?”

Pinkamena took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to explain her alter's error without yelling, “Twilight caught her talking out loud with D.”

“I thought we figured out you don't have to talk out loud?” Maud stood up straight, feeling a slight uneasiness settle over her.

“Her and Pinkie still have a tendency to forget every now and then,” Pinkamena sighed and shook her head, “Never mind that though, we can talk about how I'm going to fix this later. Right now we should get you to Sugarcube Corner and settled in; I want to hear about how you're doing in college, sis.”

Although Pinkamena didn't really have memories where she was related to the Pie family, it was hard to not feel kinship with the only pony that not only cared to understand what they were going through, but accepted it like if it were something perfectly normal. At the same time, Maud truly loved her sister, and all of the mares trapped in Pinkie's body loved Maud in return; although, D and Inkie favored Marble for reasons that Pinkamena would never really understand.

“You're always such a conversationalist,” Maud replied as the two mares started to head to Sugarcube Corner. She truly did enjoy the rare occasions that her and Pinkamena could talk; it always had a different pacing than how one-sided the other girls tended to make conversations. Not that Maud didn't love all of her sister's personalities, but it was nice to spend time with each of them every now and again.

Twilight stared at the book in front of her, rereading the same line over for the fourth time yet again. No matter how hard she tried to forget about it, that face that Pinkie had made earlier was one of rage. Not that getting mad wouldn't have been a proper response to Twilgiht's prying, but it was still so shocking to see Pinkie actually snap at her like that.

She was obviously something genuinely wrong with her friend, though, and Twilight was going to try and figure it out. Pinkie would never turn her back on any of the girls if they had something wrong, so what kind of friend would Twilight be if she did just that?

“Should I tell the others what I saw?” Twilight pondered aloud for a moment before shaking her head at the very notion. “No, that just seems like the wrong thing to do. After all, as the old saying goes: Loose lips sink ships.”

Look at her, talking to herself just as Pinkie had been earlier. This was different though, and Twilight knew it; Pinkie wasn't just talking and answering herself, but she was acting like she was genuinely in a conversation with another pony all together. She wasn't just wanting to help her friend at this point though; her scientific mind was absolutely curious as to what was going on in her friend's head at that very moment as well. Not that she was putting her own curiosity before her friend's need, but it would be a lie if she said that it wasn't there at all.

“Let's see, psychology, psychology,” She mumbled to herself while skimming over the shelves for the dustiest section that the library had to offer. The thought of reading into psychology had never even came across the librarian's mind; she was always so serious and more interested in what she considered the 'real world'. A notion that she had realized in hind sight was an extremely inconsiderate view of other ponies with such conditions. Twilight was always just more preoccupied with how the world worked versus how ponies worked; thus why she never really cared to make any friends in the past.

“I really need to take better care of this section,” Twilight reprimanded herself for the neglect on even the most under-appreciated parts of her library. She blew onto the books, creating a cloud of dust that even Rainbow Dash would've had trouble controlling, sending the lavender alicorn into a coughing and sneezing fit that lasted a good three minutes.

“What kind of librarian am I?” She frowned wryly at the realization of just how poorly tended to the section really was.

With the dust clearing though, she looked over the numerous titles to settle on a thick medical encyclopedia of psychological and neurological disorders. It was only around a decade old, so she figured that its information couldn't be too terribly out of date. Twilight levitated the book over to the table and slammed it down with another cloud of dust exploding from the pages. Thankfully she was halfway across the room for this one, but it caused the unfortunate baby dragon to cough and sneeze out flames, vaporizing the various scrolls and books that he had been carrying.

“Jeeze Twilight, what was that for?” Spike huffed angrily as he rubbed his eyes clean of the dust, still spitting and coughing up fire for another moment.

“I'm sorry Spike, I don't even know how a closed book gathered dust inside of its pages like that,” Twilight gave her assistant a nervous laugh and helped fan the cloud away with her wings.

“I'd be more worried about apologizing to the princess. You just sent her four books worth of Rainbow Dash's Daring Do fanfiction,” Spike shook his head solemnly, only imagining the nightmares that the princess was about to endure if she read those pages.

“I... I'll send her a letter later; spike, reschedule my 'pre order quills three months in advance' for tomorrow and replace it with the apology letter,” Twilight felt herself break out into a blush at imagining her teacher reading such perverse stories about 'Mainbow Smash' and Daring Do.

With that settled, she turned back to the colossal book in front of her and opening it to the first page, “Actually Spike, clear off the next three hours as well. I have to read about a thousand pages, so let's give me an extra hour just in case.”

“Alrighty, do you want me to push the 'Maud Coming to Ponyville Party' back as well?” Spike asked while brushing the quill against his chin in thought.

“Wait, that's today?! When?” Twilight pulled away from her book to look at her assistant.

“In two hours,” Spike replied.

“No, I'll just have to read it even faster,” Twilight grinned at the challenge and turned back to the thick book, “Spike, can you also bring me a quill, ink, and a scroll? I may have to jot down a few notes.”

“Sure thing, Twilight,” Spike shrugged and cleared off the parts of the list that he was ordered to and headed for the requested supplies.

“Top of your class? I really wasn't expecting anything less,” Pinkamena smiled towards Maud as they unpacked the bags, placing the several rocks and geodes that Maud had brought in Pinkie's table.

“It's a little boring right now though. They're still going over common knowledge; like how rubies are red because of the chromium in them and how Agates are usually found around volcanos and metamorphic rocks.” Maud spoke as flatly as usual, but Pinkamena could pick up on the disappointment that her sister was clearly feeling. College clearly wasn't as exciting as she had been expecting, but she still seemed to genuinely be enjoying it at least.

“Wait... is this...” Pinkamena stared at the small box and fell silent for and closed her eyes. After a good ten seconds, her eyes fluttered open with her pupils wide as dinner plates and her voice jumping in pitch, “Is this rock candy?!”

She squealed and hugged the box to her, kicking her hind legs excitedly as she fell onto her back, “Can I, can I, can I?”

Maud nodded a little, feeling a little relieved that she had found the box of loose rock candy instead of the necklaces, “Sure, D. Only one though; we still have to make necklaces.”

D squealed wildly and dug around in the box excitedly, trying to find the biggest piece that she could. Her flank swayed from side to side playfully before she settled on a large pink rock buried at the bottom of the chest. The pink ones were always her favorite flavor; no matter how much Pinkamena said they tasted like cheap hearts and hooves day candy.

Maud only offered the smallest of smiles as she watched the filly lick and bite wildly at the sugary treat that she loved so much. If it weren't for D, then the whole tradition probably wouldn't have ever came to fruition. Sure, Pinkie liked rock candy, but Pinkie loved all kinds of sweets; she probably would've been happy settling on baking each other a cake. D was the one that actually suggested that they do something with the rock candy because of how special the rocks were to make it.

She looked down at boulder who was resting by her side and felt a certain warmth at that memory; it was the day that she won D over into trusting her. Not that she was particularly hard to convince, but she was the very first personality other than Pinkie that accepted Maud as a sister.

Suddenly a knock came from the door and the sound of a slightly aggravated Rainbow Dash came from the other side, “Hey Pinkie, why'd you ditch me today?!”

With that, D stopped and looked over worriedly at the door. It's not that she wasn't excited to hear from Rainbow Dash, but what in particular did she ditch? That's when it hit her; Surprise mentioned something about pranking, so it may have had something to do with that. She was horrible at pranking ponies though! Maybe Rainbow would understand if she came up with some silly excuse.

Her panicked train of thought was abruptly ended by Maud placing a gentle hoof on her sister's shoulder, "Let me talk to her for you."