“And after that, we never gave Pinkie coffee again,” Twilight said and shivered slightly, “It took all of Ponyville a week to clean that up.”
Twilight was enjoying some private time with princess Celestia. She enjoyed these rare moments of talking about her experiences with her friends and what she learned. This particular story gave rise to a laugh from Celestia.
“Well, my faithful student, I’m glad to know that you’re enjoying your time in Ponyville. Although, I can’t help but feel that something is bothering you,” Celestia said and gave Twilight a concerned look, “Is there something wrong?”
Twilight got nervous under her teacher’s gaze and waved a hoof in the air.
“Of course not, there’s nothing wrong,” she said and gave her best smile to the princess, who didn’t change her expression. Twilight dropped the smile and sighed, wondering why she even bothered trying to hide it. “I’ve just been feeling really nauseous lately. I don’t even know why, it just comes out of nowhere,” Twilight said and felt such a feeling washing over her. She closed her eyes and put forth everything she had to not throw up.
“Twilight, are you alright?” She heard Celestia ask. She was about to answer when another voice spoke up.
“Yes, are you alright?”
Twilight opened her eyes to find herself no longer in Princess Celestia’s personal study, but instead sitting alone in a pool of light in a dark room. She stood up and looked around, trying to get her bearings.
“Ah, so you’re finally aware of me. Good, I’ve been trying to talk to you for a while.” The voice came from behind her, but when she turned there was only darkness.
“Who’s there? Show yourself!” Twilight called out, and in the darkness a pair of orange eyes opened with a sinister smile underneath.
“In due time Twilight, but for now this will suffice,” the face said and started moving around, “And I have to say, it’s so nice to finally meet you face to face. I’ve been dying to meet you.”
“Who are you? Where am I?” Twilight asked.
“Questions that will have answers in time, but for now I have something to tell you.” The face disappeared and reappeared to Twilight's right. “The tides of your world are changing Twilight, and soon you and your friends will have to learn to swim to survive.”
“What are you talking about? You’re not making any sense!”
“Alright how about this; you and your friends are in danger and yet here you are in dreamland.” It disappeared and reappeared to the left. “You best hurry; Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie are going to drown soon. Now wake up!”
With that last sentence, the floor underneath Twilight crumbled and she fell. She screamed and hit something solid, only to scream as she fell out of her bed. Twilight looked around in a panic to find she was in her room and it was raining outside. Spike burst through the door.
“Twilight, are you alright? I heard a scream.” Spike ran up to Twilight, who managed to get herself untangled from her sheets.
“I’m alright Spike; I just had a bad dream.” Twilight said, still trying to sort the dream out. Then a thought hit her. “Spike, what time is it?”
Spike thought for a moment. “About two or three in the afternoon,” he said.
Twilight’s eyes widened. “Oh no, I’m going to be late for Pinkie’s party!” Twilight rushed downstairs with Spike following not far behind.
“Pinkie’s having a party in this weather?” Spike asked.
“I don’t get it either, but its Pinkie Pie so who really knows,” Twilight answered as she put on a rain coat, “Besides, I think it’s just going to be me, Rainbow Dash , and Pinkie there, so it shouldn’t take too long. Can you hold the fort until I get back?”
“Well, yeah but-“
“Great, I’ll be back soon,” Twilight said and opened the door and launched herself into the storm. Spike huffed a little before closing the door.
“At least let me see what the party’s going to be like.”
The world started to slip back into focus and Rainbow Dash let out a groan. Her head hurt and when she tried to move a hoof to rub it, she found it strapped down. She couldn’t move any of her legs due to the tight straps. She looked around the dark room, hoping to find something she recognized. She was met with a familiar face.
“Oh, you’re awake! That’s great because we can get started now!” Pinkie said.
“Pinkie, what’s going on? Why am I tied down?” Dash asked with panic evident in her voice.
“Well duh, if you weren’t tied down you would squirm and make a mess,” Pinkie said and giggled, only for that to stop with a nasty twitch.
“Pinkie, if this is a prank, ha-ha, you got me; you can let me down now.” Dash said.
Pinkie rubbed a hoof against Dash’s face. “Aw Dashie, that’s nice of you to say, but I can’t let you go yet. The fun hasn’t started yet.” Dash tried her best to pull away from Pinkie, who smiled and disappeared from her sight.
“Pinkie, you’re really starting to scare me. If I did something wrong, just let me know, you don’t have to strap me down,” Dash said trying to see Pinkie.
“Aw Dashie, don’t be silly. You didn’t do anything wrong, I just want you to enjoy your party,” Pinkie said and the lights turned on. Dash was momentarily blinded and when her eyes adjusted, she wished she had stayed blind.
The room was decorated much like one of Pinkie’s usual parties, except the prominent color was red. Red balloons dripping red, streamers strewn about also dripping red, and a punch bowl filled with red. Dash hoped that all the red wasn’t what she thought it was. It got worse when Pinkie stepped back into view.
“I mean, do you know how long it took to set all this up? The better part of a week, and most of that was spent making this dress,” Pinkie said as she showed off said dress, made out of cutie marks with three pairs of Pegasus wings attached to the back and a necklace made of unicorn horns. Dash stared in horror at the ensemble and a single thought crossed her mind.
'She’s insane. She’s completely mad and going to kill me.’ Pinkie noticed the look on Dash’s face and smiled her cheerful smile.
“Aw, don’t be like that Dashie, we haven’t started yet. The activities I have planned are sure to put a smile on your face!” Pinkie said and then she got hit with another twitch and when it passed Pinkie’s cheer was replaced with pure horror. “It’s so dark, I can’t see anything,” she said and then twitched again bringing the cheer back. Pinkie cleared her throat before saying, “Excuse me, I didn’t mean to let that slip.”
‘Completely mad,’ Dash thought now even more horrified than before. She could only watch as Pinkie cheerfully trotted to the table.
“Aw come on Dashie, you know I can’t stand you like this. I guess it’s time to put a smile on your face.” She twitched, “So dark,” another twitch, “Oops, sorry, bad gas.” Pinkie then walked over to a cart with tools on it that Dash hadn’t noticed until now. Pinkie started digging through the tray and produced a scalpel and walked back to Dash.
“You know, the hardest part of this is figuring out where to start. You can’t start where a lot of blood and organs are; they bleed out before the fun really starts.” Another twitch, “So cold,” another twitch and Pinkie was looking over Rainbow’s body and poked her cutie mark with a hoof. “Here’s a good place,” Pinkie said and raised the scalpel, “Take a deep breath, it’ll be over before you know it.”
She starts to lower the blade…
“Hello, is anypony here?”
Pinkie jumped in shock, the scalpel flying off somewhere, and looked up at the ceiling.
“What’s she doing here?” Pinkie said angrily. Before Dash could get over her shock and yell something, Pinkie shoved a cupcake in her mouth. “Don’t talk,” she said and then switched back to cheery mode, “Oh right, you can’t because I just gagged you. Silly me,” Pinkie giggled, but the giggling overed quickly and she went back to staring at the ceiling. (I am so sorry.)
Twilight hanged up her raincoat and looked around the empty Sugarcube Corner. Her first call had gone unanswered, so Twilight called again and looked around the bakery.
“Hello, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow dash, are you here?” The kitchen was empty and from what she could tell so was the area upstairs. She was about to call out again when she stepped on a section of floor that creaked. Upon closer inspection, she found it to be part of a trap door.
‘I didn’t know Sugarcube Corner had a basement. It must be a storeroom or something,’ Twilight thought as she used her magic to lift the door open and revealed a set of stairs.
Pinkie cursed under her breath when the trap door opened and quickly flipped the switch for the lights off.
“Pinkie Pie, Rainbow dash are you down there?” Twilight called down.
“Nope, noponies home,” Pinkie called back.
‘Crap, this might be my only chance to get out of here and I can’t talk because of this cup…cake…’ Dash mentally kicked herself, ‘What the hay am I doing?’Dash thought as she started chewing the cupcake.
“Pinkie I don’t have time for your games,” Twilight said, “Is Dash down there with you?”
“Nope, she went home. We had a wonderful party and she was so tired she shot straight home.”
“Really, she probably would have told me if the party ended early,” Twilight said and started down the stairs, “What do you have down here anyway?”
“No don’t come down!” Pinkie shouted which caused both Twilight and Rainbow to jump, the latter almost choking on the cupcake. “There’s super secret stuff down here, party stuff I’m still testing.” Pinkie sounded really nervous, which raised Twilight’s suspicions. Dash spit out the remains of the cupcake.
“Twilight help, Pinkie’s gone crazy!” In a second, Dash’s vision was filled with enraged pink pony.
“SHUT UP!”
“Dash, what’s going on down there?” Twilight called and hurried down the stairs. Pinkie gave Dash an angry look and slipped into the darkness. Dash looked around frantically for her.
“Ugh, it’s really dark down here. Dash where are you?” Twilight asked.
“Twilight careful, Pinkie’s down here somewhere!”
“Alright, I will. Where’s that light switch?” Twilight started searching the room with her magic, both for the switch and Pinkie. “What’s going on?”
“Oh we were just having a nice party, and I decided to take a nap WHILE STRAPPED TO A METAL BED!”
“Alright I get it, you don’t need to shout. Ah, here’s the switch!” The lights turned on and Dash saw Pinkie behind Twilight with a knife in her mouth.
“Twilight behind you,” Rainbow yelled. Twilight instinctively dove forward just as Pinkie swung the knife, hitting nothing but air. Pinkie took the knife in hoof and stabbed downward, but missed and stuck the knife in the floor when Twilight rolled to the side. Before Pinkie could pull the knife out, Twilight fired a concussive spell that hit Pinkie and caused her to fly across the room and into the table, breaking it.
“Don’t move Pinkie, I don’t want to hurt you!” Twilight said, staring at Pinkie and ready to fire another spell if she did something hostile. Pinkie sat up and shook the stars from her eyes.
“This isn’t right; your party isn’t until tomorrow!” She said. Pinkie twitched again. “I’m so cold, and it’s so dark.”
“Twilight, I don’t want to be rude, but can you please GET ME OUT OF THESE BUCKING STRAPS!” Dash shouted and struggled against the straps.
“Ok, there’s no need for that kind of language,” Twilight said and moved to the head of the bed, making sure to keep Pinkie in sight, and started to undo the straps. “What happened?”
One strap was released and Rainbow rubbed her forehead. “I showed up here after I finished the storm, then Pinkie drugged me, dragged me down here, and was about to cut off my cutie mark when you showed up,” Dash explained and hopped off the bed when the last strap was off. She shook the soreness from her ankles and glared at Pinkie, “What is your problem?”
“This isn’t how it’s supposed to be,” Pinkie said and glared at Twilight, “You ruined my party, Twilight!” She twitched and lay on her belly, “So dark.”
“And she’s been doing that the entire time,” Dash said and gestured with a hoof.
“Pinkie, why would you do this?” Twilight asked, “You could have hurt or even killed Rainbow Dash.”
Pinkie twitched again, “I just wanted to show her how much I loved her.” another twitch, “Not like this. Not like this!”
The next twitch brought a more drastic change, with Pinkie’s coat darkening and her mane and tail straightening. “She’s resisting! She’s fighting back!”
Another twitch brought back the light colors and poofy hair. “What, No!” Pinkie shouted and held her head. “She’s mine!” Pinkie then started convulsing.
“What’s going on?” Dash asked and took a few steps away from Pinkie.
“I don’t know,” was all Twilight could say. Pinkie stood up and, still twitching, charged into a wall headfirst. The impact stopped the twitching and the dark colors and straight hair returned. Pinkie turned to Twilight and Rainbow with a pleading look.
“I can’t keep control for long, so listen! You need to use that spell you used when we were under Discord’s control. It brings clarity which is what we need. Hurry!” Pinkie shouted, and started twitching again; when it stopped her colors brightened and her mane and tail poofed up.
“She shouldn’t have said that.” Pinkies eyes opened to show they were red. She looked at Twilight, and then Rainbow Dash, and back to Twilight. Pinkie smiled a familiar grin.
Dash and Twilight said the same thing at the same time. “Oh no.”
------------------------------------
I wish I could tell Pinkie that I don’t blame her. Neither Dash nor I do. I wish I could tell her it wasn’t her fault.
And yet, I still left without telling her that. I hope we can see each other again so I can tell her that.