//------------------------------// // 9. Changes // Story: Pinkamena's Tribulation // by TheAccidentalBrony //------------------------------// Pinkie flicked her flipper with her hoof.   Again.   For what must have been the umpteen-millionth time.  After she'd gotten over the omigosh-freaking-out-what-the-hay stage—which really hadn't taken so long, considering—it didn't take long for the huh-that's-really-neat aspects of it to get old. After all, she had experienced stranger things before (when Twilight said being turned into a breezy would feel funny, she wasn't kidding).  This...whatever-it-was body was, well, really pretty normal by comparison. So now, she really was just in the man-I'm-really-bored-and-could-use-a-cranberry-and-white-chocolate-muffin-right-now stage, as she’d swam around the bubble that encased her too many times to count.  Certainly too many times to count on her hooves, especially now that she only had two of them.   Even poking at the weird rubbery flipper had gotten boring after long enough.   Even if it was weird.  And rubbery. And flippery. Pinkie frowned.  There had to be ponies here, right?  Or at least, ponies-like-whatever-she-was-now.   Which was, well...she wasn’t sure, exactly. There was one time Twilight had shown her pictures in a book of “sea ponies”, but Twilight had told her that they were just stories made up by superstitious ponies a long time ago. Besides, they hadn't really looked anything like she did, anyway. For one thing, their bodies tapered off into cute little curly tails, but she had a giant flipper, kind of like a whale's or a shark's. Oooh! A shark!  Pinkie pulled her lips up in a menacing grimace, the whites of her teeth fully bared. Wriggling her torso in anticipation, she plunged her streamlined body forward...and slammed snout-first into the transparent shell that surrounded her. Bringing her hoof up, she rubbed her nose tenderly. “Ah, you’re awake,” a voice suddenly burst into her mind from everywhere and nowhere all at once. “Blurb!?” Pinkie burbled. “Blurb...blurblurblur, blurblurble blur.” Try as she might to reply to the voice, though, all her throat could summon were unrecognizable burbles. Waving her forelegs around spastically, an opening appeared to her right and a white...unicorn….merpony came through the opening, his eyes fixed directly on her.  Her heart jumped to her throat, her hair springing up as much as it could under the circumstances. He, like her, looked like a pony from the withers forward, but the fur blended into scales near the top of where his barrel would have been. The remainder of his body was more fish-like, ending with that same tail that she found reminiscent of a dolphin’s.  A white coat was draped over his body, bulging awkwardly as he swam and water got trapped between his body and the clothing. It occurred to her that wearing clothing underwater seemed like a very silly thing to do. She opened her mouth to tell him this, only pausing when she noticed the beginnings of a smile take root on his face. “Hehehe,” the disembodied chuckle resonated around her, “yes...there are some things you’ll need to adapt to.  Now that you’re awake, though, we won’t be needing that containment bubble anymore.” His horn lit and a focused beam shot from it, dissipating the bubble around her. “Now, what is your name?” the white-coated pony asked procedurally, bringing the tip of a pencil to something that looked a lot like paper. Pinkie knew it couldn’t be paper, though, because she’d tried writing on paper underwater before and all that got her was a big gloppy mess in her bathtub. “Blurb.” “Hm,” the doctor nodded slowly, “Try to notice the way I am speaking with you.  It seems that you are trying to communicate with me using your muzzle, but it doesn’t work like that here.  Instead, I’d like you to think the words in your mind.” Uh, what? she thought, but stared at the doctor soundlessly anyway. “Good.  Now, I want you to try to push those thoughts to me.” He fluttered his tail, looking directly into her eyes, pointing one of his hooves at Pinkie, and then at himself.  Her mouth drew into a tight line, throwing her hooves up in confusion.  Suddenly, he broke eye contact, and another one of the pony-phins swam into view.  Then they just faced each other silently for what seemed like forever.  Quickly finding the soundless clicking of her tongue to be somewhat lacking in the entertainment department, Pinkie turned away from them, swimming over to the nearby counter. Even if the doctor’s office was just a doctor’s office, that didn’t mean there was nothing fun to do. After all, most doctors at least had a little drawer where they kept the lollipops and coloring books, and she had a hunch the one in front of her was that very drawer.  She’d been eyeing it carefully for the last 910,230,421,205 nanoseconds—she’d kept count!  As she reached her hoof out for the notched handle of the drawer in front of her, she caught the steady gaze of the pony pictured in the calendar hanging on the wall. She turned and eye up towards him, his blonde mane standing in stark relief to the gray scales of his tail.  He held a small, pick-like instrument against them, the dialog bubble emerging from his broadly-smiling mouth urging young fillies to “scrape your scales every day—and under once a week!” She cast a glance back at her own scaly tail, wondering what would actually happen if she didn’t the happy pony's instructions. Meh. Shrugging, she threw a wink to the cheerful paper pony and got back to work, gently sliding open the top drawer with greedy eyes. Her heart clattered to the seafloor as the drawer revealed its contents to her, her hopes of fun and mischief: seven nondescript, graphite-colored instruments, each locked in place by small metal clasps. Crossing her arms, she was about to turn away when a sparkling gem caught her eye. Closer investigation revealed that each clip was itself decorated by a small, shiny, bright-colored bauble—each slightly different than the next—that appeared firmly affixed to the clasp's center. Glancing back at the other ponies in the room, who were still playing their weird creepy-staring-silently game, she decided it wouldn't hurt to take a poke. Maybe the mystery drawer wasn't a lost cause after all. Clamping her tongue gently between her lips, she pointed her hoof at a purple stone, behind which a thin smoke-colored rod was held, the metal separating to form small hoop at one end. She knew she’d have to be careful, or she’d blow it and ruin everything. Millimeter by millimeter, her hoof drew closer to the stone. And closer. Until….sproing—with just the lightest of touches, the stone slid aside, allowing whatever mechanism was underneath to plunge the instrument directly towards Pinkie’s face. Where it was caught by a sudden gray hoof. "We're sorry."  The soft, feminine voice floated into her mind as if whispered directly in her ear. The pony it seemed to belong to had barely glanced in her direction, though, carefully restoring the device to its proper place and sliding the drawer closed.  "It's just, well, nopony alive here has witnessed someone...from above…join us." With a flick of her tail, Pinkie performed a backwards somersault in the water, spinning as she did to face her companions.  Sure enough, they'd both stopped their...whatever they were doing, and we're both gazing in her direction with wide, sparkling eyes.   "I know this doesn’t come naturally for you, but perhaps, with some help, you might understand." Her horn sparked to life, a steel hue engulfing it as her head lunged deeply towards Pinkie.  Pinkie's eyes widened as the magic licked near her forelock, but she was not deft enough to move out of the way.  "It'll be alright," the voice cooed comfortingly, "This won’t hurt a bit.  It just seems you need some...extra encouragement to unlock the right part of your mind." Pinkie blew a solid stream of bubbles out her mouth in response. The white pony-phin-thing moved closer, gently tapping Pinkie’s shoulder with his hoof.  "What Petra means is that she will help you learn to speak our way with her magic.  It shouldn't hurt, though the spell itself hasn't been cast in centuries, so we can't be sure." Swallowing a gulp of salty sea water, Pinkie turned to the doctor, pleading with saucer-shaped eyes to him.  But, she held still, the horn driving near enough that its flames brushed against her fur.  Her eyes crossed dizzily as they followed its point, now only millimeters from her own forehead, about where she might have had a horn, were she a unicorn. As she watched, a bright spark flew from the swirled tip, a shiver like biting into ice blasting down her spine. “Huh,” she chirped, shaking her head to loosen its fragments, “that wasn’t so bad.” And then, the train hit. At least, it seemed like she’d been hit by a train, based on the overwhelming explosion of sound in her head. Millions of voices seemed to layer over each other, spreading themselves across her consciousness and wiping out any thought before she could even have it.  Her hooves slammed to her ears, the crack against her skull reverberating painfully, but the wall of sound enveloping her brain seemed only to increase in volume. "Pinkie," a deep voice rumbled through the chaotic soundscape, somehow rising above the rest, "you must push away from them.  Try to visualize yourself trapped on land, with a thin rope of seaweed as the only way to pull yourself to safety.  With your mind, grab the rope, and drag yourself away from that." Screwing her eyes shut, Pinkie forced herself to imagine the scene. The smell of the salty sea water. The bright, cheerful sun beaming its warmth to her from its high place in the cerulean sky, where no doubt Rainbow Dash was darting about. A thin smile crept to her face as a strange warmth blanketed her body, protecting her from the cool water all around. And beneath her hooves, the crisp crunch of dry beach sand. Wonderful, amazing, funtastic sand! She could make sand castles or sand angels or sand Angel Bunnies—anything she wanted! In front of her, though, twitched a thick, fibrous cord that was clearly woven of seaweed, its tip barely able to crest the ocean’s pristine, sparkling surface. Leave this behind?  Never! And then there was the sea of voices all around her, threatening to wash her away into their somehow-comforting drone.  They shouted and whispered, but somehow the myriad of voices managed to combine into the tune of a sweet song that seemed to be sung to the very fibers of her being.   Somewhere in there, she imagined that the voices of her friends were buried, as if she only had to climb the imaginary hill in her vision to get to them. Maybe they’d even have cupcakes for her! She found herself drawn closer to the mass, which she could picture in her mind only as a vague blob of light, allowing its hum to flow through her being. "PULL!”  A shout suddenly blew through her, warping the figures she she'd surrounded herself by inside her mind with its force.  She could feel the grip of panic suddenly wrap itself around her through, and her mind raced as she attempted to determine what exactly she’d been told to do. Nevertheless, she felt a lurch inside her gut, and the voices receded to a corner of her mind--still there, but just a buzz in the background.  Cold reality returned, and the harsh white of the artificial lighting in the hospital once again replaced the warmth of the sun that was just so comforting to her in her vision. "W-what was that?" Pinkie asked, unable to hide the edge of fear in her voice.   "That," the doctor said, a full but trembling grin spreading across his muzzle, "is what we call The Unity.  And, I feel that some congratulations are in order," he added with a clop of his hooves.  "It worked." "It worked?" Pinkie tapped her unmoving muzzle with a hoof. "Oh yeah, I guess it did!" “Now that we can actually communicate with each other,” the doctor said to the bouncing pony, “I suppose I should begin by introducing myself.  You may call me Doctor Ark, and my assistant here is Petra Longfins.  It is her you have to thank for your life.”   “Really?” Pinkie squealed, her eyes set on the gray mare.  After a moment of appropriate adoration, she plunged forward, flinging her arms around Petra’s torso and pulling her tightly against her own.  Her eyebrow twitched as their long, cold, slick tail-y areas touched...it was just kinda creepy. Her eyes wide, Pinkie grasped the other pony’s muzzle and brought her snout within inches of her own. “Awwwww! Thank you soooooo much!” “Uh,” Petra said, tucking her forelegs against Pinkie’s chest and pushing away, squirming from her grasp.  “Thanks.  I guess.” “If it wasn’t for Petra’s sharp eye—and mouth—there’s no doubt you would have just been another skeleton on the seafloor.” Pinkie’s eyes narrowed.  “Huh, that’s funny,” she said, leaning towards the already-hesitant mare, “her mouth doesn’t look sharp to me.” “What he means is that I’m a good debater.” “De-baiter?” The doctor’s eyes spiraled in their sockets.  “Yes.  Though, not enough so to convince me to join her little cult.” Now it was Petra’s turn to roll her eyes, but she said nothing. Suddenly, Pinkie’s mouth snapped into a tight ring.  “Oh—I almost forgot!” Instantly, she had the other two ponies’ hooves in her grasp.  “My name’s Pinkie Pie!  I guess you two are my very first friends down here in...uh...waterland!” The two eyed each other uncertainly.   “Uh, yes, Pinkie,” Ark chuckled, his voice thin, “I suppose you could say that.” Pinkie frowned.  “Aw, don’t tell me you guys don’t have friends down here.  I mean, I know you’re only kinda-sorta ponies and all, but everypony needs a friend.”   The chuckle sounded a little more confident this time.  “Yes Pinkie, we do indeed have friends ‘down here’.  Many of us, myself included, are blessed with many good friends indeed.” “That’s super-duper!  Well, I’m a really, really good friend.”  She paused, her eyes turning downward.  “Or at least, I used to be.” She paused, rubbing her hooves together as the two ponies looked on at her curiously. “Sooooo….I mean, I could just keep calling this ‘down here’ or ‘water world’ or whatever, but I’m sure there’s something better to call it, right?” Petra nodded, smirking at the goofy smile Pinkie had pushed to her muzzle.  “Yes, Pinkie, there is.  The place we live in is called the Kingdom of Marelantis.  I know you haven’t seen much of it yet—” “Oooooh, a kingdom!  Does that mean you have a king?” “Um,” Petra began, swishing her tail sharply, “no.  We have a democratic form of government—” “A kingdom with no king!?” Pinkie’s thoughts screeched from her mind, causing the others to cringe as she rubbed her boggling eyes.  “That’s like a chocolate cake without the key lime filling!” The two merponies blinked, mouths slightly unhinged as they bobbed in place. “Or,” Pinkie muttered, “was that key lime cake without the chocolate filling?  Or perhaps….” “Blurb!” she said suddenly, causing Ark and Petra to bounce backward.  Instantly recognizing her mistake, the blood rushed to Pinkie’s cheeks, and she tittered quietly with embarrassment.  “Oops.  I guess I forgot to talk ‘your way’.  Anyway, there’s just so many things to ask!  After all,” she leaned forward as if to whisper in their ear, “I’ve never left Equestria before.” “Right, yes, well—” “Oh yeah!  Back in Equestria, they call ponies like me—or at least, ponies like I used to be—earth ponies.”  Pinkie bit her lip, a hint of sadness flooding into her eyes.  Squeezing her eyes shut, she swallowed the tears that had begun to well in her eyelids, the corners of her mouth pushing upwards once more.  “I’m sure you have a name for, well, whatever this kind of pony is.”   Pinkie twirled around, her tailfin slamming firmly into the doctor’s muzzle.  Rubbing his cheek with a hoof, he turned slowly, regarding her with a dark and unwavering gaze. “I suppose,” he said with a wave of his hoof, his eyes distant, “that we’ve simply never had the need.” Blinking, Pinkie tried to give him her best I-don’t-know-what-you-mean look. “Ark, you know that’s not entirely true.” With another roll of his eyes, Pinkie saw him give Petra the same flat look he had earlier.   “Petra, I don’t care what you want to believe, but—” Nodding her head in Pinkie’s direction, Petra smiled.  “I don’t have to believe.  I’ve got her now.” “Well, I—” “Hey!” Pinkie pushed between the two. “Do balloons still float down here?” Petra blinked.  “Balloons?” “Oh boy,” Pinkie waved her hoof through silvery strands of mane that floated in front of her, “do I have a lot to teach you.” “Indeed, Pinkie, that may be true.  And that is why,” the doctor tapped his clipboard with a hoof, “the Council has requested to see you immediately.” “Okie dokie loki.”  She nodded fervently for a moment, then quirked an eyebrow.  “Who are they?” “The Council of Elders rule over all of us.  They ensure that order is maintained and that all is done in service of Unity.” Scrunching her muzzle tightly, Pinkie’s brow knit together as she considered the new information.  “Order.  Unity.  Council.  Elders.  Hmm...I hate to say it, but that sounds...boring.” “Yes, Pinkie, I suppose it would,” Petra laughed. Pinkie tapped her hoof against her head, her smile still evading her.  Something just didn’t feel right… “Unity,” she wondered aloud, “Is that anything like ‘Harmony’?” “Can’t say I’ve heard of it,” Ark grumbled, continuing to look somewhat perturbed by the conversation. Blinking, Pinkie was, by now, considerably perplexed.  “Huh.  That’s weird.  I thought everypony knew about harmony.”   “Well, I’m sorry,” Petra said more gently, “but I guess we don’t.” “Hmm.  Well, you at least must have a princess who does—” She was stopped mid-sentence by a rash of fire that spread across her mind, her thoughts evaporated in an instant. The raw, red, heated sensation lined up uncannily with the anger that was clearly written all over Petra’s face. It was almost as if she could feel it herself. “If you know what’s good for you, you won’t mention that again around here.” An icy lump settled in her stomach, her head still aching from...whatever had just happened. It still stung, as if the gray unicorn had just slapped her in the face. Even so, one thing was clear: this place was anything but her home. Sure, there were sure to be nice ponies here, just like the two she'd already met. But her heart longed for the delectable smells of fresh-baked goods at Sugarcube Corner, for Rainbow Dash to swoop in her bedroom window and carry her into the night. Nopony back home would have shown such hatred for the princesses, no siree. “Petra, please. Can't you see that you’re frightening her?” the doctor murmured quietly as he darted between the two mares. “I apologize, Pinkie.” Huffing, Petra crossed her arms and turned away from Pinkie. “I must admit that I don’t really get what all the fuss is about,” he said, waving in the direction of the bristling mare. “It would seem that this ‘society’ she’s a part of happens to obsess over a bunch of old fables—it's all quite silly, in my opinion. Anyway, one of their stories tells of a dark princess we had long ago, who did terrible things to our ponies.  Very dark stories indeed….but they are just that, stories…” Pinkie’s eyes lit up.  “Ooooooh...I love that kind of story!  We have a story about one of our princesses turning into a black snooty princess called Nightmare Moon— Continuing to tell her story absentmindedly, she began to plan a strategy, propelling herself forward in a tight loop in front of the doctor. Admittedly, though there were plenty of things about this new world that had taken her by surprise, cutting through the water in her new body was pretty dang awesome. Rainbow Dash would have loved it. In fact, she was willing to bet that this was probably how Rainbow felt any time she pulled off one of her signature moves. Twisting through the water, Pinkie closed her eyes, imagining herself on Rainbow's back, the cyan mare cutting through the sky like a hot knife through buttercream frosting. Banking tightly, she opened her eyes just as she popped up inches from Ark’s snout, pretending for just a moment it was bright cyan instead of eggshell white. “—and so we fixed her with the Elements of Harmony and got rid of the black snooty and there’s a holiday for her and everything with lots of candy and games and—” She jumped, her story cut off by a cold, electric pulse that drove clear through the rest of her train of thought. Hmm, she wondered, where was that train going again, anyway? Unable to help herself, Pinkie met the doctor’s cold stare with a light giggle-snort, bubbles leaking from the corners of her mouth.  He sighed, speaking to her in a somewhat subdued tone.  “To answer your question, then….no, we do not have a princess. We are led by a quorum of twelve of our most respected and distinguished elder-ponies, and a council of dozens more who are elected by their peers—which is to say, by the rest of us.  They make sure that any decisions made are taken with the well-being of all Marelantians, and with Unity, having been first considered.” He paused, seeming to huff in a deep breath of water. “That’s why they want to see you, Pinkie. Your presence here complicates matters for our people, and the Council must ascertain what effect it might have for the well-being of the ponies already here.” Pinkie tapped her hooves together, a familiar weight back upon her shoulders. “Oh,” she squeaked, her bottom lip trembling, “I understand.” “I don’t think you do.  It’s not just a simple spell that brought you here; the ritual we used on you to bind you to Unity and with it, grant you our form, is typically reserved for unborn foals.  Honestly, we didn’t even know it would work on you as a full-grown mare.  And the ramifications of introducing a foreign consciousness into our own, well—” A gentle hoof landed on her shoulder.  “Don’t worry about Doctor Stinkyhooves here, Pinkie.  Nopony’s seen a land pony in so long that, well, quite frankly, they’ve all disappeared but for myth and legend.” “Yes, enough so that, well, nopony knows you’re here yet,” Ark’s words growled out of his mind as he coughed into a hoof. “Outside of a few key hospital administrators and the members of the Council, that is, who've ordered this entire wing closed...for repairs.” “Oh!  Is it broken?” The doctor rubbed his forehead slowly. “It’s...fine, Pinkie.”   “Just keep your head down; I’m sure everything will work out fine,” Petra said with a nod.  “Some ponies might be scared for a little while, but—” “Scared of me?” Pinkie bit her lip, her eyes welling with tears that washed away with the ocean current.  “Oh...yeah.  I guess I’d be pretty scared of me too.” “Hm,” the doctor mumbled as he quirked an eyebrow, “is that so?” Instinctively, her lungs began to pull harder, even if they now drew in water instead of air, her mind swimming momentarily.  “Well, you—you saw me, right?” She swallowed, her tongue inexplicably dry even though her mouth was constantly full of water. Ark nodded slowly. “Indeed, when we found you, I have to admit that your condition was quite concerning. You were severely injured, both outside and in, and there were clear indications you had recently benefited from some amount of magical healing, too." He raised a hoof, indicating the raised, scarred lumps on her foreleg. "Absent that intervention, I am positive your wounds would have been your end, so you should thank your lucky starfish for your anonymous intercessor. Even with the healing, though, it was quite obvious that you had been in some manner of physical altercation. I must admit, it was unclear to us if you were the aggressor.” Pinkie swallowed.  It was time to tell them. “I—” “Ark,” Petra’s voice slid through the gap between Pinkie's words, “don’t you think we should get Pinkie some food before she meets with the council. Although I know that they don’t want to wait any longer, who knows how long it's been since the poor thing had something to eat.” Pinkie nodded eagerly, a rumble in her stomach sealing the matter. Ark's nostrils flared, but he nodded sharply, his mouth an inscrutable flat line. “I suppose you are right. I’ll be right back.” With a sharp flap of his tail, Ark disappeared through the sliding door, turning into the corridor beyond. As soon as it clicked shut, Petra swam directly up to Pinkie’s face, staring at her with eyes full of purpose. “Hey!” Pinkie grinned. “What’s up?” Wordlessly, Petra slammed their hooves together, immediately floating back a foot or so without once taking her eyes off the pink mare. Lifting her foreleg, she saw that Petra had left her a small card, barely larger than her hoof. This, at least, she could be sure wasn't paper, as it was thick and inflexible. She flipped it over, and finding no words, flipped it again. Biting her tongue, she repeated this pattern several times. Flip, flip. Flip, flip. I don't want her to think I'm a dumb pony, Pinkie thought to herself as she flipped the card faster, the pressure of the unicorn's gaze making her skin crawl. Biting her lip, she turned the card one final time, sadness welling up in her chest. Looking absently at its surface, her eyes finally fell on the image emblazoned on both sides: a very familiar impression of a swirling yellow sun. “Wait, that’s—” she started, tucking her ears back instantly at the withering look Petra gave her. “I hope,” Petra said, her words crisp and carefully weighted, “that you can manage to hide that.” “Oh, sure—I’ll just put it where I keep my hammers!” Reaching back, Pinkie shoved the card in her mane.  “So what was it?” Petra’s eyes darted to the door, which hadn’t moved since Ark left.  “Think of it as….an invitation.” “Like a party invitation!?” Pinkie’s heart leaped, and for the first time in weeks she felt a spark of joy beneath her breast, like she’d just eaten 20 chocolate-pistachio cupcakes.  “Oh, I am the best at parties, you’ll see—” Like bouncing straight into a brick wall, the same searing pain as before cut her bliss short. “Pinkie—please!  It’s, well, kind of a secret party…” Eyes opening even wider, Pinkie’s excitement only doubled itself. “Like a surprise party!? Those are the best!” “Yes, Pinkie….a surprise party.” Unflinching, Pinkie stared at the gray mare. “...what?” “Well, if it’s a surprise party, it’s gotta be someone.  So, who?” Petra’s teeth set together in a way that should have cracked them all to pieces, but somehow they held.  “For...everypony.  So you can’t tell anyone.  Even Ark.  Got it?” Secrets.  Pinkie was good at these.  Giving a sharp nod, Pinkie extended her forelegs to demonstrate just how good she was. After a minute of staring with her mouth slightly agape, Petra found her voice again.  “Um...so you do?” “Do what?” “Agggh!” A stream of bubbles fled from Petra’s muzzle like minnows from a shark. “Understand that you can’t tell anypony!” “Of course, silly! That's why I zipped my mouth closed, then locked it with a key, then dug a hole, then buried the key, then built a house up top the hole where I buried the key, then moved into the house on top of the hole.” She tapped her chin with a hoof, the poor mermare only appearing even more confused.  “I guess it works better on land.  So...when’s the party?” “You’ll know when it’s time,” Petra said hurriedly.  “You’ll feel it.  Just don’t lose the...invitation.” “Okie dokie lokie!” After that, Petra fell silent, swimming back and forth.  Pinkie decided to fill the time by seeing how big she could blow a bubble with her lips, but after only a couple of minutes, Ark returned, carefully balancing a large ivory clamshell on his hooves.   “Um….what exactly is that?” “Your lunch,” he muttered with more than a hint of resignation, thrusting the platter towards her.  “The cafeteria food here isn’t the best, but—” “No, I mean—that!” Pinkie’s hoof shot out as if from her party cannon, directing their eyes toward the nondescript white lump that sat directly in the middle of her meal. “Um, well, that’s flounder, Pinkie.”  Petra rubbed her hooves together uncertainly, occasionally glancing back to the doctor, who was quite engaged with a large purple stallion with a tall white hat perched uncertainly on his head. “Hmmm….flounder.  Flounder, rounder, bounder, pounder—aha!” Pinkie thrust a hoof towards Ark, his ivory muzzle wrinkling back and away from the pointed tip. “Aha….what?” he asked as innocently as he could muster. Pinkie grinned.  “Well, isn’t it obvious?  Flounder tells me everything! Flounder is….” “A fish, Pinkie,”  Petra whispered, her skull pinned between her hooves. “Fish. Yes, of course! Which means….” Pinkie stopped, tapping her chin, her suspicious frown carving a deep, ugly canyon across her face. Finally, her eyes lit again, but her angry posture remained unrelieved. “It’s meat!” Pinkie shouted, grazing the dish with a wild hoof, its contents sliding towards the edge without escaping them. “I knew it! I—I just don’t know where you ponies get off calling yourself ponies, but nopony who’s worth a pony’s pony eats meat! No pony!” “Uh…” Pinkie pushed the platter away with both hooves, knocking it from the doctor’s grasp.  She watched with notable unease as the opaque lump slid across its surface once more, leaving a glistening smear in its wake.  With a gentle tinkle, the shell settled against the smooth stone floor, and Pinkie turned her blazing eyes back to the ponies. “Meat.  Is.  Murder!” The words dripped from her mind as her chest heaved aggressively, drilling a hole in the gray unicorn by the power of her stare. It was just...inconceivable! These ponies, who had only minutes before seemed just as friendly and pleasant as any pony she'd ever met...were nothing more than disgusting predators! It wasn't as though she'd never seen meat before, of course.  After all, Opalescence and Winona had to eat, and that wasn't to mention the number of Fluttershy's pets that ate meat.  But that was different....they didn't know any better.  Ponies were civilized, intelligent creatures... “Pinkie,” Ark’s gruff voice broke in, “I don’t know what you ate where you come from, but here, fish is the most nutritious food we can get. Luckily, it happens to be amongst the easiest for us to obtain.” “Carnivore!  Traitor!” Shaking his head, Ark closed his eyes in a vain attempt to cut off the barrage of senseless accusations being fired by the pink chaos engine before him.  “We send regular scouting parties to the Brightwaters to harvest kelp for the nutrients we can't get any other way, but maintaining their populations means we cannot collect all that we find. We've tried to farm various seagrasses, but either we lack the necessary skills or it just doesn’t take well to the basin, as we’ve had little success growing more than a peasant's portion. In any case, neither of those are sufficient to sustain us for any period of time.” “Hurk!” Pinkie’s muzzle turned green, and she plugged her mouth with her hoof up to the fetlock.   Turning away, she heaved several times, but she managed to keep the contents of her stomach where they belonged. Finally, she turned back to him—and all the other ponies that had gathered. “So, I guess that means I’m going to have to eat fish, too?” “If you stay down here for any length of time,” the doctor sighed, his face grim, “then yes, you will.  There is simply no choice.” Pinkie looked down at the floor again. “What about cupcakes?  Any chance I could bake some of those?” Ark and Petra turned towards each other, casting their opposite a worried look. “I think...you’re just going to have to get used to a few more changes, okay,” Petra said with a nod, Pinkie hanging her bottom lip to its furthest extent in response. Instantly, the nurse moved closer to her, her deep cobalt eyes no longer filled with agitation, but instead wide and full of concern.  When she spoke, Pinkie felt a cold tingle trickle down her spine, and somehow feel the words were only for her. “I know you’re probably a bit frightened, but I think you’ll come to find that it’s not bad here at all.” “Oh, I-I can tell.  It’s just…” she swallowed thickly, her eyes sinking.  “I really really really really really need to get back to my friends.” The stone-grey mare looked like she was about to respond, but Pinkie plowed ahead with verve.  “I know they probably don’t want to be my friends anymore, and I don’t blame them for that, but I need to at least see them again.  I need to make sure they’re going to be okay.  I…” “Pinkie,” the doctor interrupted, wrinkling his brow, “I understand that there are many things that you remember that are important to you, but for now, maybe it’d be best if you just tried to adapt to your...current state.” Her face fell again.  “Well...you said that this council of yours is really super-duper powerful, right?  They could probably at least send my friends a message, right?  Something to let them know where I am, or at least that I’m okay?  Back home, my friend Twilight had a dragon that—” “Um...I don’t know if the council….I don’t think that would work out,” Petra’s voice wavered as her glance drifted between Pinkie and the doctor.  “But I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to ask.” “Asking never hurts!” Pinkie clopped her hooves together determinedly.  “Unless you’re asking a doctor for a shot, and then that kinda hurts.  But that’s a good kind of hurt, I guess, and you usually get a cute bandage and a lollipop afterward.” Pinkie’s grin broke, and her hoof shortly met her forehead.  “And besides, look who I’m telling about getting a shot?  Two doctor-ponies!  Or at least, two kinda-doctor kinda-ponies.  But, no time to waste; my friends have got to know that I’m at least okay!” Turning away from the two astonished ponies, Pinkie flicked her tail sharply and swam through the darkened doorway, which slid shut behind her. “Pinkie,” Petra groaned, slowly bringing her hoof to her forehead, “that’s the bathroom.” The sound of clanging metal could be heard, causing the two merponies to hold their breath for a moment, hoping they wouldn’t have their pay docked for the damages.   “Heeeeeeeeelp!” Pinkie shouted, shaking the door with her pounding hooves.  “How do you open this darn thing?” With a sigh, Ark grunted, “You have to use your….oh.” “My ‘o’?” The pounding stopped, replaced by a bubbling giggle.  “Um...are you sure about that?” The doctor shot his assistant a knowing look, who nodded in return.  “Right.  Pinkie, I’ll come help, just hold on.” Pinkie’s giggles cut off, replaced by a too-innocently inquisitive tone. “Maybe the doctor should come too?  Mare, are you ponies accommodating or what?” Shaking her head, Petra’s horn flared, and after a moment of intense concentration, the word ‘OVERRIDE’ faded into view above the bathroom door.  After a moment, it opened obediently with a flood of bubbles, a streak of pink flying out from its center.  Lunging out, Ark caught the speeding pony in his forelegs, his chest heaving. “Pinkie,” he panted, “you must be careful.  Many of our buildings—like this one—have doors that can only be opened by magic, to prevent unauthorized access to certain areas or provide appropriate degrees of privacy.  Not having any magic of your own, you must be careful to always have an escort when you travel in our realm, or you may find yourself unexpectedly trapped in a closet—or a bathroom.” “Okie dokie!” “Now, I really think we should go,” he said, waving towards the room’s exit. The next fifteen minutes passed relatively uneventfully as Ark guided them through what seemed like an unending series of corridors and shafts, never once seeing another pony, until finally they reached the side entrance to the hospital.   Lighting his horn, a panel beside the exit began to emit a greenish glow, and the door slid open.  Pinkie tried to swim out first, but Ark held out his foreleg warningly, stretching his neck outside the gate.  After a moment, he released her, waving them forward. As they exited, the light from inside struck the water, sparkling like stars against the midnight sky.  Behind her, the hospital loomed over them, like three domes stacked one atop the other.  The whole thing was at least twice as tall as the hospital in Ponyville, and not a crack or seam visible in the whole thing.  About ten feet below them, Pinkie could barely make out the outlines of the small pebbles that covered the sea floor, which seemed to dip downward ahead of them.  And if she looked away from the hospital, all she could see was water.  As the light faded, it created bands of color in the sea, like a multi-layered teal-blue cake that stretched on forever. Awestruck, she hardly noticed the sound of the dense panel woosh closed behind them. And just as quickly, everything went dark. “Heyyyyy,” she screeched, spinning around before she could realize she didn’t know which way ‘around’ was anymore, “who turned out the lights!” On either side of her, a crackling sound broke the water's stillness. Turning to her right, a small point of light cracked through the darkness, slowly extending in a thin, conical shape. The light continued to grow in intensity until finally the outline of Ark’s body was fully illuminated, giving the water around the merpony a golden sheen. Turning to the other side, Petra had managed to conjure a silvery glow equal in intensity to the doctor's, the combined light of which managed to brighten a tight oval around the three of them. “We apologize, Pinkie, to have frightened you.  Unfortunately—” “Oh, that’s alright,” Pinkie giggled, “I wasn’t scared.” The doctor drove a snort through his nostrils.  “Hm, right.  In any case, I was trying to inform you that light is a resource that, to us, is regarded as an uncommon and expensive luxury.  Aside from burning one’s own supply of magic to provide necessary illumination for travel, much of our lives are spent in the dark.”   “Really?” Pinkie asked with a shudder.  “I can’t imagine living in the dark like that.”   Yep, we’ll just keep giggling at the ghosties, I think.  No problem. “It’s not so bad, Pinkie. You get used to it." Petra's 'voice' made Pinkie smile, as her speech tended to lilt in a manner that reminded Pinkie of Rarity's accent. “Sometimes," Petra added, "we manage to capture a manglerfish. Now, they're sharp-toothed, good-for-nothing beasties if you ask me. If you happen on one and don't have a powerful unicorn with you, my suggestion would be to avoid them if you can and swim like hell if you can’t. But they do happen to possess a magical bauble that glows in the dark; they use it for hunting, but it can be taken and repurposed for fashioning lanterns and the like.” Fluttershy must never know of these ponies, Pinkie thought as she covered her mouth in horror. “You mean—you kill the fish for its light?” Sucking on her lip hesitantly, Petra nodded.  “You must realize, ponies have given much more than that for light.” Ark nodded sharply, his brow furrowed. “Certain facilities, such as the hospital, must be well-lit due to the important or precise work is done there. Although this lighting is primarily provided by enchanted crystal fragments….” He paused, rolling his tongue along his teeth. “Sometimes, we must supplement these with more direct methods, as well.” No longer looking in the direction of her companions, Pinkie had instead taken to squinting at her hoof, which she was frantically waving in front of her face.  “Hmmmmmm….well, as interesting as that all is,” Pinkie finally commented, “I’ve got just one question—how the hay can you ponies see where we’re going!?” Petra’s titter seemed warm enough, and Pinkie smile grew a little more for it. “We’re used to it, I suppose. We’ve lived all our lives down here; we don’t know anything else.” She paused to suck a deep draft of water through her mouth, forcing it back out her nostrils. “Assuming you are with us longer, there are certain deepwater spells that our explorers use in the darkest caves that we could cast on you to help with that.” “Hmmm…” Pinkie tapped her chin.  “Okie dokie loki!” After the echo of those words subsided, an uncanny quiet fell between the members of the group. Pinkie knew that all she had to do was reach out, though, and all the voices in the back of her mind would overwhelm her and all her negative emotions once more. In fact, she yearned to be with them; the notion of being able to make so many friends at once was intoxicating to her. But, she had to remind herself, they weren’t really there. Try as she might to pick out, well, anything of interest in the murky environs she was passing through, the scarce light beside her failed to illuminate anything but the water in front of them. Occasionally, the current would seem to shift, prompting waves of icy water to brush through her fur. It was almost as if somepony—or something—had passed by above her, but none was visible through the darkness. A sudden ache struck Pinkie directly in her gut. It was a somber, solitary feeling that snaked through her insides and made her feel all quivery and shivery. She could feel the silence, the unimaginable size of the ocean depths fold in on her, and swallowed as she felt gripped by a sudden unexplainable terror. Strangely, she felt at that moment as though she was the only pony in the world, even though she knew she was flanked by two others. Even so, it didn't matter. All she needed was to be surrounded by the warmth of her friends, to feel the plushness of their fur against her own, to smell their sweet smells again. Well, okay, Applejack smelled more like sweat than sugar, but still. Her eyes widened as the terror turned to panic: she couldn't even remember which order Twilight's mane stripes went in. Choking on her tears silently, she was at once grateful and disappointed that the seawater carried them away without drama, even though it granted her no relief from having cried them. “Brr,” she finally squeaked at the other two, swallowing a cold lump of emotion, “is it just me, or did somepony turn down the heat?” The two unicorns she swam with nodded gently.  “Yes, Pinkie.  Unlike the Brightwater, which is warmed by the light that strikes it, the only heat we have is that which comes from cracks in the earth below.  We have pipes that lead from the vents to our homes and buildings, bringing the heated water through the walls and ceilings to keep the places we spend the most time warm enough.  As you noticed, the open water is indeed quite frigid.  We can only be outside for short periods...and that’s not just because of the heat…” Pinkie slowed her pace, quirking an eyebrow at the others. “It’s not as bad as she makes it sound,” Ark croaked, rubbing his chin uncertainly. “Certainly you have monsters of your own?” “Oh yes!” Pinkie nodded excitedly.  “We’ve taken care of all kinds—hydras, dragons, cockatreeceses, timberwolves…” A white hoof thumped gently on her muzzle.  “Yes, well, we have such creatures too.  Sea dragons, giant squid, great sea serpents….and many others.  So yes, there are things to watch out for in the open….and it is, as you might have guessed, challenging to guard against things you cannot see.  You will find, again, that we have certain ways of dealing with such threats.  But, it is no matter: we are here.” He waved his free hoof in front of them, his horn flaring more brilliantly. As it did, its beams fell on an expanse of sharp, pitch black mountain peaks that rose more quickly than Canterlot Mountain. Turning her head both left and right, she found that the light died long before the mountains did, an unbroken line representing the edge of the world. A gentle tap on her shoulder brought Pinkie's gaze to the immediate topology, namely, the quickly-climbing mountain directly in front of them. She hadn't noticed it at first, being too awed by the scene in general, but this particular mountain had a smooth, circular indentation carved directly into its surface. Craggy mountains rose up on either side of the unpolished stone, thin spires that made the place seem naturally foreboding. That single indentation and a smaller, rectangular one a few feet above it, were the only things differentiating this particular mountain from any other, but Ark and Petra seemed positive that this was the place. Noticing that, unlike the unadorned circle, the rectangular shape seemed to be ridged with detail, Pinkie swam a few strokes nearer to get a closer look at its decoration. What Pinkie saw there made her jaw slack. In bas-relief, engraved directly into the mountain's looming basalt cliffs, was an unmistakable impression of an alicorn. "Oh my gosh! You guys....this is totally a...." Her jaw clamped shut just in time. Pinkie's heart drummed loudly in her ears, her mind spinning at just how close she'd gotten to already disobeying Petra's quite pointed command. It was too late to avoid drawing attention, though, as her companions had already turned their full attention to her, their faces full of intrigue. "Oh...nevermind," she giggled uncertainly, swimming away from the mysterious plaque. "It was nothing." Mysteries on top of mysteries....and it's only my first day!  Shrugging his shoulders, Ark's horn flared brighter. As she had suspected, the polished circular stone indentation was indeed the entrance to a massive building inside the hollowed building. Harsh light streamed out from the portal, stabbed Pinkie's retinas like millions of tiny pins. Instinctively, her eyelids slammed shut as her pupils attempted to readjust to the brightness. Eventually, the stream of bubbles that spewed around her from inside the building slowed, and she hesitantly cracked her eyes open once more. At first, her vision swam, but the shape of an auditorium gradually formed from the blur. Along with it, she found that many of the voices that'd been whispering in the back of her head suddenly snapped much nearer, and she shook her head rapidly to try to clear her mind. The Council room (or so she presumed) itself was rather uninteresting. There were three or four rows of ponies arranged in a semicircle, each of whom bobbed relatively motionlessly, a small podium or desk positioned in front of him or her. These, she could tell, were the owners of the voices now so near to her. And they all felt annoyed. It was a disconcerting sensation, a tingling wave of cold aggravation that danced down her spine, an ocean of purple splashing all around her. It wasn't just that she was sensing things outside of what was 'normal'; her Pinkie Sense had accommodated her to that long ago. But the sensations it provided were nothing like what the things she'd felt since her change. The open door before her stood like the gaping maw of a dragon, spires of jagged rock framing the beams of light that shot out of the building like flame. Except, she thought, giggling, it’s still just a cave, not a dragon! Inside, it was clear the entire audience had shifted their attention from the center of the dome to the now-opened doorway. In the middle of the room, a much larger desk was affixed to the floor, adorned with several small instruments which she'd have to ask the purpose of later. Floating behind it was a teal pony with a braided white mane and more wrinkles than Granny Smith. “Ah, so you must be the one we have been waiting for,” the new voice jabbed into her consciousness, and she could feel it scratching around in her brain a little bit. She bit her lip—it tickled!—trying to stifle a giggle.  The mare cocked an eyebrow in her direction, her smirk extending as she approached. “Interesting...well, do come in, please—we have much to talk about.” Pinkie flicked her tail, bounding inside with what appeared to be her normal, perfect rhythm. She couldn't help but feel something sinister from this place, though, and her breath caught as she passed through the opening. The door thudding solidly behind her, Pinkie's heart stopped as she realized that Ark and Petra were not beside her: she was alone with the Council.