//------------------------------// // 2 - The Vaguely Unlikely But Still Pretty Possible Story Of How Pinkie Was Saved By A Hair's Length, Literally // Story: Fairly Hairy! // by sunnypack //------------------------------// Chapter 2: The Vaguely Unlikely But Still Pretty Possible Story Of How Pinkie Was Saved By A Hair's Length, Literally You know when you get excited and the hairs on the back of your neck start to stand up? That's not the vasoconstrictive effects of adrenaline, that's your hair standing up trying to get a closer look on whatever has gotten you hooked. They love a good watch and cheer as you go about your business, looking about at your surroundings. You don’t hear it, but if you could, your ears would flatten against your skull as countless hairs all cheer and shout. It’s a little like attending a football match at a stadium. Loud, proud and they’re rooting for the home team. In which case it is you. Of course, they’re a little biased. You feed them, give them a place to live and sometimes, if you’re nice, you brush them. I know what you’re thinking. Why do hairs like being brushed? Hairs don’t like to be tangled with other hairs. I mean, how would you like it if somestrand wrapped itself around you and started hugging you? And that you couldn’t move away because you were physically incapable of doing that. Also, being brushed felt a little like a massage. And who doesn’t like massages? The one exception of this general rule was Pinkie’s mane. I mean look at it. It’s a disaster! But among the occasionally disgruntled hairs on Pinkie’s body, there was one that was never upset with her circumstances. This a story about a hair on Pinkie’s head. Froopy Fromp chose Pinkie as the favourite pony host for hairs living in Ponyville. Froopy likes the fact that Pinkie lets the hairs grow out all crazy and long (hairs don’t like to be cut). Froopy also likes the fact that she eats lots of gelatinous foods, which makes for good keratin. Also, it’s nice to finally talk to somestrand, err, somepony other than your next door neighbour strands. Thank the All-Hair for somepony that can finally talk to hair! Froopy Fromp was an excitable hair strand. Froopy was always making jokes, laughing inanely and throwing glitter all over the place. Sometimes, when Pinkie suddenly rains confetti, that’s not really Pinkie, that was Froopy, and Froopy loves the confused reactions someponies have when confetti pops out of nowhere. Hilarious. Froopy was having a particularly good day. No strand had been flattened, Pinkie had somehow managed to get the last bits of flour out of her thick mane from the last time the Cake twins had started crying, and Pinkie didn’t forget to use conditioner this time. Froopy was positively shining, literally. Along Pinkie’s jaunt out of Sugarcube Corner, Froopy had decided to engage Pinkie in some casual conversation. In between dodging a few accidents and disasters around Ponyville through some involved and coordinated signalling via Pinkie’s hair, Froopy talked to Pinkie about finally visiting Twilight for that meeting. Pinkie giggled and pronked on the spot. “Oh yeah!” she laughed, bounding along. The others strands luxuriated in the sudden wild movements of Pinkie’s stotting. They shuffled around, trying to talk to some other strands. “Thanks!” Someponies that had the unfortunate luck to be looking in Pinkie’s direction would have seen a mass of Pinkie’s hair wave at the same time in response as a shower of confetti rained down. In order for them to keep their sanity, they simply put it down to Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie. Froopy was beside herself in excitement. Zipping around as far as her roots let her, she wound herself up only to spring herself back into shape. Pinkie stopped mid-leap and cocked her head. “Aww, Froopy is just as excited as I am to see Twilight?!” A gentle tug. “No?” A sly tug. “Oooh! A hair on Twilight?” Another sly tug. “Is it Fuzzy?” A sharp tug. “Fluffy?” A soft tug. “Oh! You two are like sister hair strands, let’s get going then!” Pinkie stopped suddenly as a shuddering explosion rippled through the earth underneath her hooves. The hairs all over Pinkie shivered and sent Pinkie into a fit of movements. “Something big has happened! It’s a doozy!” Pinkie exclaimed and picked up her pace. In barely a hooful of minutes, Pinkie had arrived at the front of the library. Without wasting a second, she shot over to the door of the library and barely got it open before whipping down the steps to the basement. Froopy could only watch in apprehension as Pinkie trotted into the lab, only to spot the horrifying bald spot on Twilight’s shoulder. “Twilight!” Pinkie gasped. “Twilight! My Pinkie Sense told me something big was going to happen here- woah! What happened to your coat?” “Oh it was just a lab accident,” Twilight replied, smiling despite herself.  “My hair started talking," she continued, sighing. "Do you know everypony has hair that’s alive? They keep tabs on us all the time!” Twilight laughed hard. “I must sound absolutely crazy to you now.” Pinkie responded immediately, in a tone that suggested that Twilight should have figured this out years ago, like in Magic Kindergarten, or something. “Duh, that’s how my Pinkie Sense works. My hair is super, super smart! I just listen to it all the time! We even worked out a code for talking! Twitchy twitch!” Twilight stared at Pinkie, her jaw agape. Froopy chuckled at her expression. She threw up some confetti to confuse the purple unicorn further. It worked. “Hey,” Fluffy called out. “It’s the number one ranker! Yooooooo wassup?” Pinkie gave Twilight a sidelong look as the small voice called out from Twilight’s bald spot. “Ooh, Twilight, your hair can talk too! Only, it can talk much more directly.” Her eyes widened as she inspected the small strand with a massive eyeball. “How did you do that?” Froopy felt a shiver of relief flow through her that Fluffy was safe. Nostrand liked it when they had to wait another cycle. She felt a little sad. Fluffy would be all alone. Pinkie shivered a little. “Aww Froopy, don’t be sad! Your friend’s here at least!” Pinkie sidled up to Twilight and pressed her head against her shoulder. “Here you go!” she chirped happily as Twilight looked both confused and uncomfortable. “Uuh Pinkie, what are you doing?” Twilight asked apprehensively. Pinkie didn’t say anything as they both heard a one sided conversation between two hairs. “Yeah I know, weird right? Mhmm. Mm. Yeah. Nah. Yeah. Magic kindergarten. Freaked out. I know! Wouldn’t trade it for the world.” A pause. “Yeah I’m sad he’s gone, a little annoying but it’s not like he was intolerable… kind of… yeah. Yep. Always the next cycle. Okay. Yep. See you then!” Pinkie removed herself from Twilight’s shoulder. Twilight seemed really drawn out. Pinkie gave her a pat on the back. “Froopy told me someponies react differently when they find out hairs can talk. It’s okay. I was a bit shocked when I found out, but then I thought: I can hold a party for everystrand I meet! It’s like hundreds of parties and I’m never alone! Isn’t that great?!” At this point, Twilight was basically catatonic. Froopy gave Pinkie an insistent tug. Pinkie made a helpless gesture. Before Froopy could pop out of her roots in frustration, Fluffy piped up. “Ahem, well the potion was only intended to be of a short-term duration,” she started but paused. She continued hesitantly. “It’s unlikely that I will be able to speak for long, though it’s not a one hundred per cent a certainty that the effect won’t be permanent.” There was a short laugh. “Oh well, I’m nearing the end of my cycle, that’s why Froopy wanted to talk. I won’t be around for much longer. I just...” A longer pause. “I didn’t know that I would be able to talk to you Twilight and truth be told, I like you, you’re a pretty cool pony. I’m a hair of science actually and I wanted to know what your thoughts were on The Principles of Thaumic Diversions and Convergences by Star Swirl…” The strand fell silent, she coughed sheepishly. “Oh well, I’ll be out of your mane in a few hours, give or take.” The room fell silent again. Suddenly, a bout of laughter surprised everystrand and Pinkie. Twilight shook her head and smiled warmly. “I just remembered a time when I was about to add that acid to a potion, five years ago. I felt my hair raise all over my body. I stopped just in time. Back then, I was sure that it was intuition that had stopped me. When Princess Celestia found out, she told me I would have been seriously hurt if I had added the acid at that time.” Twilight craned her neck to smile at her shoulder. “But if it weren’t for you and all the other hairs, I wouldn’t have survived.” “Thank you,” she ended simply and Twilight felt a prickling wave run through her coat. If Fluffy had a mouth she would have smiled. She elected to speak in her magical voice instead. “I think you’ve raised yourself a rank because of that. I’ve never been thanked by a pony before,” Fluffy commented wryly. They all laughed at that. Pinkie headed towards the stairs. “See ya, Twilight!” she called back. “I gotta run. Froopy told me I need to pick up ingredients for a cake to bake!” In her mad dash to exit the building, Pinkie slammed the door to the library, one strand in her mane, getting caught between the door and the frame. Pinkie felt the painful tug of the strand being pulled free of its roots. She doubled back, gasping. Moments later, a piano, an anvil and several tonnes of hoof-clippings (don’t ask), landed right in the space where Pinkie was about to gallop off to. “I just don’t know what went wrong,” a sad voice called out, it was followed by a sigh. “Anypony hurt down there?!” Pinkie shook her head, she felt the strands on her mane deflating slowly. “No,” she called back sadly. “Nopony was hurt.” "Nopony..."