//------------------------------// // Filli Vanilli // Story: Two Background Ponies Revisit Season Four // by Piccolo Sky //------------------------------// Filli Vanilli Carl didn't exactly look to be that well at ease today. He seemed rather jittery, constantly looking around, quivering like a leaf, and not indulging in cookies for once. Instead, he had settled for a cup of coffee and was struggling to drink it. However, most of it was getting on the table as he struggled to bring it to his lips. Just before he could take a sip, however, the voice of Sam, who was approaching from behind him, called out. "Hey Carl." Immediately, the green stallion spat out his coffee and dropped the cup, snapping to Sam in fear. However, on seeing him, and seeing Sam recoil in surprise from this, he let out a groan instead. "Don't do that!" He retorted. "I'm scared to death enough as it is!" Sam blinked in response, but then noticed Carl's appearance. A bit confused, he turned and moved over to the chair opposite him. "Come to think of it...you do look pretty bad..." "Of course I look bad." Carl answered as he set his coffee cup back up. "I haven't slept in days...and I'm constantly on the lookout for..." He paused and swallowed. "...her." Sam looked puzzled. "...Her who?" "Who do you think?! The pink one!" "...Pinkie Pie, Carl. And...why are you trying to look out for her, of all ponies?" "Because she's freaking me out!" The green stallion shot back. "You know how my birthday is in three days, right?" Sam nodded. "Yeah. In fact, I was going to ask you what you wanted..." "How about a restraining order?" Carl answered. "I know she likes to throw parties, but...this is getting insane... This is what my week has been like..." --- Carl let out a sigh as he undid his tie...which wasn't easy, even if it was a clip-on, for someone with hooves. He was tired from work and trying to enjoy his last few moments before his sister and nephews got home, when he heard a knock on the door. Letting out a groan, he forgot the tie, moved to it, and opened it up. He soon saw a pink pony with poofy hair grinning at him. "Hello, Incarlsistency!" She cheered. "I heard your birthday's in a week! Want me to plan the party for you?" Carl stared back blankly. "...Not really. I'm turning 30 and the thought just depresses me." "Are you suuuuure?" She grinned in response. "Yes." Carl dully answered. "Good day." He shut the door in her face and turned to go back to getting out of his work clothes. --- The next day, Carl was walking down one of the dirt roads trying to get to town, needing to get some new light bulbs after Farrah had used the last ones and not told him about it. As he did, he muttered while passing the quills and couches store. Did they really sell only those? How many ponies in town burned through quills and couches? However, as he went by a hedge, he suddenly froze. A bit to his surprise, the leaves slowly rustled...as the grinning, happy form of Pinkie Pie slowly pulled out of them and into the road as if she was "melting" through them, and she turned with a grin ear-to-ear toward Carl. "Hey Carl!" She announced. "You sure you don't want me to plan your party? I'll make it the best birthday ever!" Carl paused for a moment. "Uh...no. Like I said, I'm not eager to celebrate." She kept grinned. "Oooook..." Slowly, she seemed to "melt" back into the hedge and vanish. Carl blinked a few times, then kept on his way...a bit uneasily now. --- On coming home later that day, Carl decided to check his mail first. As he went up to the boxes, and went about the arduous process of trying to get his key, which wasn't easy because of his hooves, he suddenly heard a motor chugging behind him...and then whirring at full speed. He reacted a bit in surprise, and spun around...then gasped as he saw a pony wielding a pink chainsaw and having a pig facemask run right up to him. He soon screamed in terror... When the pony stopped right in front of him and pushed up the mask while the chainsaw was still running, revealing Pinkie's monstrous grin. "Hey Carl! Look at my new cake-cutter! You can use it at the party! And I'll wear my new pig mask too!" Carl swallowed a bit uncomfortably, still sweating and recoiling. "Uh...I'm not a big cake eater...I prefer cookies..." He turned and bolted into the house. --- The next day, Carl looked a bit uneasy when he went to Sugarcube Corner. He wasn't meeting Sam this time...just stopping by for a bite on the way home from work. However, his head was frequently turning around, looking for signs of Pinkie Pie jumping out at him. After a moment, Mrs. Cake came by and set down his order of six gingersnaps. He looked to them for a moment as she left, and then began to put them away... "Oooooh....Caaaaaarl..." The green stallion looked up a bit, and soon expressed considerable shock. On the stairs in the back of the room, Pinkie Pie was crawling down...only not traditionally. More like she was bent over backward like an estranged crab...and the grin on her face bigger than ever as she descended rapidly to the ground level, and stared at him upside down. "We can have a competition of who can come down stairs like an upside-down crab the fastest!" Carl didn't answer. He got up and bolted for the door...although a moment later he came back and seized his cookies first before fleeing. --- The next day, Carl looked rather fearful as he messed around a bit in the garage that the complex had allowed him to have. His wagon still lay in disrepair from the disastrous trip to Manehattan, but currently he was trying to clean off his lawnmower a bit. Unfortunately, the garage currently had a leak in the roof and it seemed to be dripping down from the rain outside, over a bunch of chains that had been put up to hang tools or other things from the ceiling. As he used a screwdriver to try and jam out some crud from the spokes...a pink, poofy tail suddenly unfurled behind him. Moments later, a pink pony seemed to silently descend behind him. It touched the ground lightly, but he suddenly sat upright, managing to hear it none the less...or perhaps realizing it was there. Slowly, he turned around...and was stricken in panic as the shadow of a hoof fell over his face. He saw a pony muzzle slowly pull back its lips and open wide...before a smaller Pinkie Pie head came out of it with that same grin...wider than ever, and her pupils now "wall-eyed". "We can play a new game! I call it 'Hang from Dripping Chains from the Ceiling and Drop Down Behind Ponies!'" Carl gave a long, echoing cry of fear. --- Carl swallowed as he finished recounting the last story. Sam looked likewise uneasy. "...This has been one of those bad weeks for her, I guess. One where she's crawling up the walls... Anyway...why don't you just let her plan the party? That'll put an end to this madness." Carl groaned in response as he looked up to Sam. "I can't do that, Sam." "...Why not?" "I already hired somepony else in town who was doing it for cheaper." Sam's eyes immediately went wide. He sat there still as a statute. Carl raised an eyebrow at this. He looked up slightly. "Uh...Sam? Something wrong?" Sam didn't answer. Instead, he began to shudder violently all over and abnormally. After a moment, it made Carl look uncomfortable. "Um...Sam...what's...what's going on...?" Sam only shook more violently, until, to Carl's shock, it looked like he was literally "boiling" underneath his skin. Not only that, but parts of his face began to twist, distort, and peel back. So did the rest of him...as his hide split and revealed a pink tail coming out which soon thrashed about like a whip-like tentacle. Carl, realizing what was going on, suddenly gaped in fear...before the front of Sam split open all together, and pink hooves thrashed about like more tentacles from inside. Suddenly...there was an eruption as Pinkie Pie exploded out from inside of "Sam" and attached to the ceiling, glaring down at Carl with her eyes spastic and an angry scowl far worse than her grin. "You...got...somepony...else?!" She held out one of her hooves...which immediately sprouted claws made of cake slices, which shot down for Carl as he screamed louder than ever... --- ...and suddenly shot up in bed, covered in sweat and still screaming. Carl continued to panic and shout for a moment...before he suddenly realized where he was. He was at home and in bed. He fearfully looked around a moment, gasping and panting...until he realized nopony was there. No monstrous Pinkie. No claws of cake. It had all been a nightmare. Sighing in relief, he leaned back in bed and exhaled, slowly relaxing. Yet as he calmed down, his brows twitched again. He felt something. He looked down to the covers in front of him. After a moment, he pulled them up... ...and revealed his nightshirt had been torn open in four places, and he now had slash marks of frosting across his torso. --- Yeah…where was Princess Luna on that one? Remind me never to cross Pinkie Pie… I think she’s gotten crazier this year… Seriously…those of you reading this. Haven’t you noticed how many of her scenes have her pupils unusually small like it was in that episode where she went insane?