~Pinkieviduality~
Chapter 1.1 – Through the eyes of another Pinkie
This story is also available as a "synthesized" audio book. MP3-downloads are available on chapter-release.
> [click here] - Chapter 1, no background music
> [click here] - Chapter 1, with ambient music loop
To say it was a peaceful day in Ponyville would be akin to saying that Tartarus was a great spot for summer vacation, if one just were to choose the proper travel-agency.
The town was in peril, overrun, some would even dare to say plagued! The cause for chaos and widespread concern was a multitude of identical, happily bouncing pink ponies.
A group of decidedly less happy, less bouncy, and, for the most part, not particularly pink ponies had taken on the task of herding the pink variant of the pony-populace into a single building. They were thorough in their search, making sure to gather them all in a single spot so as to determine a solution to the pink-pony-problem.
They missed one.
~ ~ ~
The lone pink pony excitedly followed the tiny blue butterfly, all the while loudly proclaiming her merriment for all the world to hear.
Upon entering a field of wild flowers she abandoned her pursuit, instead examining the various plants with wide, curious eyes. Diving head-first into a bed of flowers, the happy pony enjoyed the scent of the plants as she swam through the colorful sea. A particularly funny-looking flower got her attention as the top of its stem carried a white spherical shape. Closer examination revealed the sphere to consist of lots and lots of small fluffy bits, each with a stem of its own connected to the center of the sphere.
The pink pony scrutinized the plant for several seconds, her eyes darting between the miniscule white hairs of the plant and the pink ones she saw on her own coat.
She had never seen anything like it. This wasn't very surprising – the plant was older than her.
A flower with fur? Or was she a pony-shaped flower? Were ponies actually plants? Should she go get a watering-can so she could grow into a strong and healthy plant?
...Oh, that cloud looked like a balloon! One could fill balloons with water, which was just as good as using a watering-can, if not better!
And that was enough of a reason for the pink pony to follow the cloud in a mix of gallop, dance, and jumping.
After a while the pony noticed the ground beneath her hooves had changed. She was standing on a dirt-path, stretching on into the distance, until it curved and disappeared behind the tall grass.
The pony paused. Did it lead back to Ponyville? Well, either that or it led back to the water-mirror. Not that she knew of any other places where it could possibly lead to.
Ponyville was fun, so it was worth a shot following the path.
However, not too much time had passed on her trek until she saw something of interest – a procession of wagons, resting next to the road.
The pink pony was eager to investigate what undoubtedly would be a new source of fun.
~ ~ ~
“Wheeeeee!”
She certainly wasn't disappointed! The wagons were brightly colored, and showcased various images.
What had instantly captured her eye had been the depiction of a smiling pony's head with a white face, red cheeks, and a funny ball on its muzzle.
“Woohoo!”
Words had been written above the smiling face, but they had had too many letters and were too long to hold the pony's attention. All but one: “Circus”.
She didn't know what a “circus” was, but it sure sounded fun!
Of course, the pink bundle of energy couldn't stay put for long, and she quickly moved on to the other wagons.
“Yipeee!”
Following an entirely logical sequence of events she was holding on to the wildly swinging tail of the silly-looking scorpion-kitty she had booped on the nose after squeezing through the metal sticks at the side of one of the wagons.
“Wahoo!”
She was having the time of her life, whooping and hollering in joy for every second of the ride.
Shouts off from the side caught her attention. There, outside the cage, stood three distinct figures with varying facial expressions.
“That one on the left is called an earth-pony,” her brain told her. “You're an earth-pony too.” But that sounded boring and she resolved to come up with a better name. Earth-ponies were often good buddies with plants, right? Perhaps her assumptions that she was a plant-pony had not been too far off.
The next one was a big bird with the paws and tail of a large cat – a cat-bird? No, its head was that of a bird, so it undoubtedly must've been a bird-cat!
Pinkie smiled at her accomplishment in deductive reasoning. Her brain was so useful! It was full of words, and it kept telling her the names of all the new things she saw, and that was so much fun! Like – that thing up there was the “sky”, and the stuff she'd been bouncing on was the “ground!” The ground had “grass” and other stuff on it, and grass was “green.” She was “pink!” And “green” and “pink” were called “colors!” It was all so very exciting!
The pony on the right, however, presented an entirely new challenge. Was she another plant-pony? If so, she had the most peculiar coat, covered in black and white stripes all over. Or was it white with black stripes? Or the other way around? Or a third color underneath?
They were making gestures, all waving and shouting at once, making it impossible for her to understand anything being said.
Her attention-span of about five seconds long since passed, she jumped off the scorpion-kitty's back and cartwheeled right through the metal bars of the cage.
The fact that the metal bars were barely a hoof apart did not bother her in the slightest. She continued to cartwheel around and throughout the group in several rounds, which in turn blurred everything in her vision into colorful concentric circles. When she got dizzy, she let herself roll out and flopped onto her belly, shaking with giggles. This was fun!
-/-
The circus cast watched the crazed mare's antics with stunned reactions. Startled, Tight Rope jumped to the side, just barely avoiding getting hit by the blur of pink in their midst.
Her initial shock at seeing the pony messing around with the manticore had soon been substituted with an entirely different set of thoughts.
About three to five rotations per second, able to keep it going for at least half a minute. Run-time could use some work, but she doesn't look exhausted. Extraordinary aim hitting that gap between the bars, avoiding collisions at moderate speeds with high precision even with moving obstacles. Excellent hoof-eye coordination.
...And she seems to have springs in her legs.
Out loud she said “Land sakes, that's some talent!”
Briefly, Tight shot a worried glance at the manticore cage – but Geoffrey had flown over to her and was already calming her down.
The pony in question was all over Zenya, leaving the poor zebra barely an inch of personal space – literally. As Tight approached, the pink bundle of energy closed the last inch of distance and shoved her face straight into the zebra's side, who jumped in surprise.
“Hey.” Tight paused, briefly stumped by what the appropriate response should be. The situation resolved itself – to the flummoxed zebra's relief – when the mare looked up, made eye-contact with Tight and jumped right over Zenya's back to give her a massive, infectious grin.
There was an overwhelming list of inquiries, observations, or simple statements Tight Rope could've made at that point, such as “Who are you?” or “What were you doing in the manticore cage?” or “Why would you do that?”
Out of all of those, she chose the most practical one: “Do you have any more acrobatic skills you could show me?”
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