//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 - With One More // Story: Dissociative // by Strawberry Jelly //------------------------------// Dissociative By Strawberry Jelly Chapter 5 - With One More "Okay!" Pinke flopped down onto her flank, looking over the checklist in front of her. Making the Shattered Igneous, Snowcream, Confetti, and Geode Cake Supreme was an endeavor that she hadn't prepared for; as such, she had two of her sisters already out collecting the necessary ingredients. When Limestone appeared, she was planning on having her youngest sister help make the snowcream icing; that was always the mare's specialty. Pinkie closed her eyes and focused, "Okay girls, I need your help!" Slowly she imagined the world fading way into blackness around her; the sounds echoing from downstairs slowly withered into nothing more than a soft background noise for the pink mare. This wasn't the first time that she had done this, but it always came with mixed results; sometimes being more helpful and sometimes only causing problems. With Pinkie now being alone in the world, she began to visualize another pony sitting a few feet in front of her. Slowly the hazy, colorless blob started to take shape of a lithe white mare with a wonderfully bouncy yellow mane that was only a little longer than Pinkie's. Her eyes were also closed as she looked down, sitting lifelessly in her forced daydream. Her wings that were standing out on either side fell and naturally folded at her sides; her cutie mark was a familiar three balloons, but instead were all a uniform purple. She was the mare that Pinkie had known as surprise, and was among the first personalities that she had met. Next came another hazy and colorless blob that slowly formed into a slightly pudgy mare with a coat almost as black as a moonless night sky; her mane was a rather bland style that was almost like Maud's, but had two long strands that came down on either side of her bangs, creating a framing for her face. It was a deep midnight blue as well, but a lighter blue more akin to Luna's fur color and had a single silver streak running through it. Her cutie mark was an old style lock that had the classic key hole in the center of it; akin to one that you would find on old prison cells. She assumed the same position as surprise in only a moment; save, instead of two wings, she had a long spiraling horn. Her name was Pinkamena and she came around the same time that Surprise had. Originally she didn't really have a name, but Pinkie decided that Pinkamena kind of suited her sometimes grumpy personality better than it suited herself. The third for her to focus on was a filly that's fur was a pale pink that actually almost bordered on white. Her mane was a curly indigo style that bore reminiscence to Pinkie and Surprise, but was instead pulled back into two pigtails. She was easily the youngest of the group, being barely old enough to have her cutie mark; which was an image of a slice of Shattered Igneous, Snowcream, Confetti, and Geode Cake Supreme. It was a memento that she had earned when she came up with the recipe for the gargantuan cake. While Pinkie was considered an amazing baker, nobody could compare to the talent that D really had. Although she went by that nickname, she had initially decided that she wanted a full name too, to which she lovingly named herself Diana Artemis Pie. It wasn't until later that she had realized just how much of a mouthful that would end up being if everyone had to say it. The final mare took a little longer for her to create an image of, but eventually it came together into a light gray earth pony with a perfectly matching mane. Her cutie mark was a pair of rounded glasses with a quill and inkwell behind them. She was the pony named Inkril, but far preferred the nickname of Inkie. Although she rarely came out, she was easily the most outspoken and proactive of the alters; even somehow more so than Pinkamena. Not that she was as grumpy as the protective mare, but she certainly was the most manipulative. She never used it maliciously mind you, but she knew just what to say and do to make a plan come together. With all four of the mares present, Pinkie finally spoke up, “Is anyone here?” There was dead silence for a moment and so Pinkie called out again, “Hello?” Again there was no response, but after a moment the filly started to stir and looked up at Pinkie with those two deep emerald eyes, “Hi hi!” Pinkie giggled and nodded, “Hi there, D! You're just the pony I wanted to talk to!” “Why? Did I do something bad?” D took a nervous step back, looking over Pinkie nervously. “Oh no, silly filly; I do have a surprise for you, though!” Pinkie giggled. “I thought that was Surprise's job,” The filly joked and poked her tongue out playfully. “Not when we're making Shattered Igneous, Snowcream, Confetti, and Geode Cake Supreme!" Pinkie cheered and opened her eyes, dispelling the illusion on accident, "Uhm... oops?" "I'm still here," D said, to which Pinkie had a mental image of the filly pouting, "But it's supposed to be special! Who are we making it for?" "Well, our sisters of course!" Pinkie smiled and hopped in place, "Maud and Marble are already getting the rocks! I need your help to make the batter though, and we need to get Limestone to make the snowcream icing when she arrives!" "Limestone's coming too?! Okay, okay, so... So, we're going to need at least five cups of brown sugar, four cups of confectioners, and 6 cups of granulated sugar. We're also going to need two bags of waffles, seventy-five pellets of tic tacs, five sheets of candy buttons, a saltshaker half-full of cinnamon, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, streamers, colors... Also, a quart of ice cream, a quart of corn syrup, a case of rock cider, a pint of french vanilla creamer, and two dozen doughnuts. Not that we need all that for the cake, but once you get locked into a serious sweets collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can. The only thing that has me worried is the french vanilla creamer. You know there is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a pony in the depths of a creamer binge, and I know we're going to get into that rotten stuff pretty soon." D spilled off her entire list of goods that she needed and some that she just wanted, but it was enough to give Pinkie a strange sense of deja vu. ~~~ Twilight smiled as she slammed the book shut, taking a deep breath that was finally clear of any dust. It had taken her all two hours for her to have read the entire book from beginning to end, but she had finally compiled a list of things that Pinkie could easily be afflicted with. Not that she was a therapist by any stretch of the means, but her curiosity made it all too difficult for her to refrain from forming hypotheses. "Alright, so considering what I know about Pinkie, I have selected four plausible issues that she might have, I think-" She was cut off by the baby dragon that nonchalantly threw in his feelings on the matter. “Why don't you just ask her?” “Because she yelled at me the last time that I had!” Twilight sighed and pressed her hooves against her face, sighing deeply into them. “Well, didn't you ask her when she was clearly freaking out? Maybe ask her when she's calm?” He said again, laying a tray of dandelion and daffodil sandwiches that he had made for her, “Why do you always get so worked up over Pinkie though? You did the same thing when you learned about her Pinkie Sense.” “This is different though! She might genuinely have something wrong with her!” She half-shouted before she went silent at the realization that her library door had just slammed shut. Quickly turning around, she came face to face with two turquoise eyes only a few inches away from her own. “Wrong with who?” She said slowly and calmly. Maud already knew the answer though, which is why she was already at the library. Twilight was getting dangerously close to hurting Pinkie, and she wanted to see to it that it was not going to happen. “O-Oh hi, Maud,” Twilight said with a nervous smile, clacking her forehooves together and uneasily shifting her eyes away from the mare's gaze. “Pinkie told me what happened,” Maud said flatly, sitting down next to the princess with her expression as unreadable as ever. There was a thick and uneasy feeling that weighed the air down, almost to the point that it was crushing Twilight. She wasn't sure if she should come out and just admit it, lest she end up upsetting Maud. Then she remembered that she was talking to the most stoic mare in the history of Equestria. “I didn't mean to upset her, but.. I'm worried about her,” Twilight frowned, actually receiving a very small smile from her surprise guest. “I'm going to go... uh... clean the room,” Spike ran upstairs to escape the uneasiness that he could almost see settling over the room. “You're a good friend,” Maud said flatly and shook her head, “But please don't ask her. She needs to tell you on her own terms.” Her voice was serious, but in a different way than her usual deadpan; to the point that even Twilight had noticed the shift in her tone. With that, the princess sat up straight and replied, “Can you at least tell me if she's okay?!” “She's not in any danger. I can promise you that it's something different, but not bad,” Maud obliged, but was unwilling to tell the mare on her sister's behalf, “I've told you what I wanted, so I must return to Pinkie and help her make the cake.” Before Twilight could pry any farther, the mare stood up and walked out of the library without another word, leaving Twilight sitting on her flanks with her mouth halfway open and only having more questions that needed answered. Pinkie was keeping a secret from her friends, but if it wasn't bad like Maud said, then why would she be hiding it? On that note too, how was having a conversation with yourself considered 'good'? That nagging feeling only grew worse from Maud's visit rather than helping to settle it. Where questions were answered, only more appeared in their place and Twilight truly wanted nothing more than to settle it once and for all. She was curious beyond repair, and a curious Twilight Sparkle is as relentless as the hydras of Froggy Bottom Bog. “I'll find out without asking Pinkie,” She declared to herself. If she wasn't allowed to ask her friend, then she would simply have to observe and record everything about her. Answers were bound to follow if she only paid close enough attention to her friend; after all, hallucinating ponies to talk to isn't exactly a subtle issue. ~~~ “Whoops!” Pinkie shouted as the batter literally exploded all over the kitchen the moment that she had taken it from the oven. The pop rocks that she had placed into the batter was clearly a terrible idea from both of the chefs. “Maybe if we put them into the icing instead?” D suggested, feeling that changing the recipe might have been a bad idea. “I think Mr. Cake will want us to clean this first,” Pinkie lamented, looking around the room at the scorching hot batter and cake that coated the counters, stove top, and even her mane. “We can just do that later! We have to make the cake, silly!” D shouted excitedly, “Besides, isn't it more important to have the party ready first, then we can worry about chores?” “Fine, we can clean up while the next cake is baking, okay?” Pinkie offered, to which D accepted with a mental nod. “H-Hello, I was told Pinkamena Diane Pie was back here?” She heard an unfamiliar voice call from behind her; turning though, she saw a single gray mare with a black mane looking back. “Ooh, you got her!” Pinkie said dumbly back, feeling a certain ticking of an internal clock start to go off for a moment before her eyes widened in shock, “... Octavia?!” “Tavi?!” A third voice chimed in, jarring the pink mare and filly. “Oh my gosh, I knew you sent her letters but she's actually here?!” The white pegasus squealed in excitement, almost ready to take control and tackle the mare at full force, but Pinkie had beaten her to the punch. “P-Pinkie?!” Octavia shrieked at the sudden physical contact, almost immediately causing her to want to pull away and vomit on the spot from the uneasiness that shot throughout her gray body. She jerked away and held a hoof over her rapid beating heart, gasping for air. “O-Octavia? I-I'm sorry,” Pinkie frowned and took a cautious step back. Had she been too forward? Was it too soon to hug her own sister?! What if she just left and went back to Canterlot because of that hug? What if- “N-No, I'm sorry... I-I'm just still not big on being touched,” Octavia said and took a deep breath to try and calm her nerves. She should have expected no less from her sister to suddenly tackle her like that, but something kept her from mentally preparing herself from it. It took everything she could to stop the anxiety attack that was threatening her. “It really is good to see you though, it really, really is...” “What's wrong with her? She's acting like Pinkamena when she eats a stale muffin,” D commented uneasily. “No, I don't think that's the problem,” Surprise clarified with a wry frown. “Maybe I should say something?” Pinkie frowned. “Can I try?! I give the best hugs and you know it,” D said hopefully, being the only party involved that was oblivious to her sister's panic. “Maybe tell her a joke?” Surprise offered, choosing to ignore D's comment. “I don't think it's the time for jokes, but maybe candy?” Pinkie offered. “Pinkie? Are you okay?” Octavia looked back up at her sister with those two violet eyes, “You seem a bit distant. Well, more so than I expected.” Snapped back to reality, Pinkie nodded, “Sorry, I was just worried about you...” Octavia smiled and offered her sister an uneasy hug this time, to which the pink mare obliged with a little less enthusiasm this time around. She still felt like she was going to go into a panic attack, but she stomached that agony as best she could in order to show her sister that she really had returned to see her. No matter what had happened all of those years ago, she truly did love Pinkie and just wanted what was best for her. Not that she had ever particularly had proven is since the incident, but she still really did care. “Do our other sisters know you're here yet?!” Pinkie grinned widely, not yet realizing that she was going to have to make a quadra-party. “I... I hadn't run into them yet,” Octavia lied. She knew good and well that Limestone had seen her, but she didn't want to admit it to Pinkie that she hadn't made amends yet. “Then we gotta tell them!” Pinkie bounced in place excitedly, “I'll have to make the cake bigger, and it'll be amazing!” “No!” Octavia half-shrieked, having her cheeks flush a little at her outburst before shaking her head, “I-I mean, shouldn't we make it a surprise for the party?” Pinkie paused for a second in thought, “What do you girls think?” “I think it's a great idea! Ooh, we should totally put some pranks in the different drinks and the cake too!” Surprise derailed from the initial question, but Pinkie couldn't help but giggle at that idea. The last time she put that many pranks in her party though, Gilda had gotten more than just upset. Sadly the Pegasus really had a tendency to go too far with her pranks if nobody was there to keep her in check. “I guess...” D agreed, not really sure what was going on. “I think that's a great idea!” Pinkie cheered, accepting the unanimous vote for the party, “Oooh, I just had another iea! Can you do me a super duper big favor?!” “D-Depends,” Octavia asked with a raised brow. “Can you help me make the pop rocks? Do you remember the recipe?” Pinkie grinned widely in anticipation, only getting a cautious nod from her wayward sister. “I-I think so...” Octavia couldn't have been far more wrong. At least the rock candy tasted good, though.