Pinkie crouched, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. Discord had told her he'd need extra time to set up today's lesson, which left her with a few hours or so to burn after work. Her target was Rainbow Dash. Pinkie had come up with a new trick and wanted to surprise her, and what better way than-oh, wait here she comes! Just a little closer and-
Pinkie blew a party popper right in Rainbow's face just as she was about to settle into the cloud, causing her to yelp and fall several yards before righting herself. "Pinkie, what the hay?" asked Rainbow, her annoyance plain on her face and clear in her voice. Then she saw Pinkie, or rather Pinkie's back, and her brain stopped working, which caused her wings to stop flapping, which caused her to crash into the ground at high velocity. Pinkie glided down to check on her, her newly conjured pegasus wings flashing in the sun.
Rainbow was muttering to herself as Pinkie drew within hearing range, "Pinkie. Wings. How. Not. Possible." she gasped.
"Of course it's possible, silly." Pinkie said, bouncing in place. "Saying something is not possible is a silly thing to say, especially when I'm involved."
Rainbow glared up at her. "Even you can't grow wings, Pinkie. Or at least, you, couldn't..." She trailed off, staring at Pinkie's new appendages. "Just how powerful are you, Pinkie?"
"I have no idea!" Pinkie shouted with joy, causing Rainbow to shrink back in alarm.
"Well, once you do, come see me. I want to see how those bad boys handle in a race."
"Okie-dokie-lokie." Pinkie replied cheerfully. Rainbow stood up, dusted herself off, and flew up to the cloud Pinkie had been lurking in, where she curled up and started snoring.
Rainbow Dash, check, Pinkie thought. Next, Rarity. She trotted off, discarding the now unneeded wings behind her, which turned to ice, shattered, then burst into flames and vanished.
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"IDEA!" Rarity sang. She'd been looking through the latest fashion magazines, and had found the inspiration she needed for her newest designs. She gathered up her cloth and thread and set to work, quickly covering half a dozen ponequins in fresh fabric. As she turned to hunt for exactly the right shade of yellow to use to balance some dark blue, she heard, "Wow! These are some fancy dresses, Rarity!" Typical Pinkie, thought Rarity, she never knocks.
"Well, I'm glad you like" she turned around, "them. Pinkie, I don't mean to sound a tad slow, but, where are you?" Her shop was empty, save for herself and the ponequins.
"I'm over here!" said one of the dress forms, now sporting Pinkie's head. "Are you sure you've got the right fabric on this one? It feels pretty scratchy."
Rarity tried to process what she was seeing, failed, and reacted the only way a drama queen could in such a situation. She fainted, pulling her couch underneath her to catch her as she fell.
"Aww," Pinkie said, popping out of the ponequin and reappearing as her normal self in the center of the room. "I was hoping she'd say something. Oh, well. Applejack's turn!" She pranced out, humming to herself, as the face of the dummy she'd possessed turned to slag behind her.
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Applejack kicked, and apples showered down around her. She'd put in a good day's bucking today, and was ready to start making dinner. She just needed to clear this tree first. She checked the baskets to make sure none of the apples had missed, and looked up into the tree. The branches were still full, hung low with ripe, juicy apples. Confused, Applejack shrugged, swapped the full buckets for empty ones, and kicked again. Fresh, scrumptious fruit fell like rain, filling the buckets to the brim. Wiping her brow, Applejack looked back at the tree. It was. Still. Full.
"Ok, what the everyflyin' hay is goin' on 'round here?" She heard a giggle, one that sounded like it came from the branches on the other side of the trunk. Trotting around, Applejack spotted Pinkie Pie shaking in silent laughter hanging from one of the boughs. "Pinkie, why is this tree not running out of apples?"
"Because I made it that way!" Pinkie cackled from her spot in the crown, a sound that raised hairs all along Applejack's spine. "It's a bottomless tree!"
"Well, could you turn it back?" Applejack asked, carefully keeping the annoyance out of her voice. "I've enough trees to buck without havin' one that's never empty."
Pinkie sighed, and oozed onto the ground in a puddle of pink slime. "Fine," said the puddle. Pinkie reformed, and as she did so, the tree released its crop, depositing the fruit into a nearby barrel.
"Well, I'm just 'bout done for the day. How 'bout you come have dinner with us and make those apple cupcakes of yours?"
"Ooooooooh, that sounds fun! Sure!" She bounced back towards the farmhouse. Applejack rolled her eyes and chuckled before following, noting that Pinkie needed to wash her tail, since its tip had split into five.
Once they were out of sight, the tree uprooted itself and started flailing its way towards the Everfree forest. "I'm getting too old for this," it growled.
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"Aaaargh! Why isn't it working?" Twilight all but shouted.
"Beats me," said Spike and Flash in unison, before staring at each other for a second. "You're the expert here, Princess." Flash finally finished. He'd gotten everything straightened out once Twilight woke up. She'd said her distress had been caused by one of her friends "practical jokes," but Flash had gotten the idea she was hiding something. However, when he'd gently pressed her on the subject, she'd turned an alarming and alarmingly cute shade of pink, and he decided it might be wisest to drop the issue. He didn't want a repeat of what had gotten him shipped off to military school after all.
She'd spent the entire day sneaking glances at him before going into what Spike had called Study Mode. She was now completely oblivious to his presence, which both relieved and slightly disappointed him. At least now he could concentrate on his job, and maybe do something to earn his rank. He knew he'd only gotten this position because the Princess liked him, and it stung that he didn't have any other qualifying attributes. He wanted to get a promotion because he'd earned it, not because his boss was sweet on him!
Twilight, totally unaware of Flash's naval contemplation, groaned and slammed her face into the table. They were in one of the libraries (Twilight's new digs had six), where Twilight was trying to crack chaos magic with Flash and Spike as her spotters. So far the most she'd gotten was a stray thread of cotton candy, and her companions had gone from hyper alertness to just plain bored. "How can I claim my special talent is magic if I can't do one simple spell!?" She bemoaned, her face still pressed against the crystal surface.
"Twilight, relax," Spike soothed, "Of course you're good at magic, this one's just giving a you lot of trouble, that's all. Maybe you should ask Pinkie to come over again."
"Pinkie?" Twilight sat up sharply. "Pinkie, right. I need more data. Flash, where's Pinkie?"
Flash tapped the headset in his ear. They were a new addition to the Royal guards arsenal, and a simple spell allowed for two-way communication between any number of devices as long as they were tuned to each other. "Squad member #5, where's Element L?" he listened for a moment, then said, "She just went through that weird door on the side of Sugarcube Corner. I don't think we're going to see her again today."
"Horseapples," Twilight muttered, "Well, I'll just have to ask her tomorrow. Spike, where did you put those books on Discord?"
"Over here Twilight," Spike pointed to a single tome, which contained Ponykind's collective knowledge on the chaos entity. Twilight stared in disbelief at the lonely looking book, then shrugged and yanked it in front of her with her magic. Flash pulled out a deck of cards. Going from Spike's past experiences they'd be here all night, and he'd come prepared.
"Dragon poker?" asked Spike.
"Sure. It's a new moon, ponies get to treat the 10 as a face card."
Twilight didn't even glance up to give them a dirty look.
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"It's worse than I thought," Discord said to himself, watching Pinkie tuck into apple pastries with a vengeance. "She's destabilizing by the hour. I'll have to implement this sooner than I expected. At least it's ready," He glanced down at the object in his hand. "I hope it is anyway."
He wrote a quick note telling Pinkie he was ready and sent it via mane-mail. He watched Pinkie read it, say her goodbyes to the Apple family, and head back to town. Discord knew she'd take a few minutes to arrive, and went over everything one last time. "Well, here goes," he said.