First Lessons
Just as Pinkie's hoof reached the door, she felt a tap on her shoulder.
When she turned around, she jumped in surprise, for standing in front of her, was another Pinkie Pie! She leaned forward curiously. The other Pinkie Pie leaned forward too. She studied the doppelganger closely. Everything was precisely the same. Her eyes, her eyelashes, her mane, even her nose! She leaned her head to the side, and so did the copycat. Even her Cutie Mark was the same! The next few minutes were spent by Pinkie Pie checking out Pinkie Pie. It was almost like looking in a mirror. Every move the real Pinkie Pie made was exactly replicated by the other Pinkie Pie.
The constant mirroring gave Pinkie Pie an idea. She quickly stuck her tongue out. The fake Pinkie did the same. In a matter of five seconds, Pinkie Pie danced on her rear hooves, performed a hoofstand and several cartwheels. She landed back in front of herself. This time, she got the best of the replica. She still had her tongue sticking out. The other Pinkie Pie noticed and started giggling.
"Okay, Pink! You win!" she said in Strings' voice.
"Aha!" Pinkie Pie shouted, "There's only enough room in this town for one Pinkie Pie!"
"You got that right." Pinkie Pie's body slowly faded away from over his. "Not even I can copy you all the way!"
"How'd you do that?" Pinkie Pie asked. "Twilight told me that unicorns can't transform into other ponies without getting stuck that way."
He grinned. In a small flash of light emanating from his horn, Strings changed into Twilight herself. "I bet she also said that the laws of transmutation magic forbid a unicorn from changing his or her cells."
"Hey, she did!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed. "How did you know that?"
"That's what everypony says", Strings chuckled. "But I found a way around that."
"How?"
"Easy." His—well, Twilight's—horn glowed. He explained, "I don't change myself. But I put a picture around me. It's like a real life picture." Now standing in front of her was Applejack. He held out his now long mane to Pinkie Pie. "You can even feel what really isn't there."
Pinkie Pie gave the mane a touch. It felt like the real thing!
"Impressed?" Strings asked boastingly.
She nodded, "But maybe a little more if you can sound like them too! Too bad you can't."
Strings gave her a gloating look. "Oh, no", he said in her voice, "And who says I can't do that?"
"Wow! That's so cool!" She bounced in the air with her rising excitement. "Now do Rainbow Dash!"
He laughed. "Come on, Pink", he said in Rainbow's voice. "It's not that cool." He grinned widely.
Pinkie Pie squealed. "I just got the perfect idea for a prank!"
"What's that?" He dropped the illusion and reverted back to his normal body.
She stepped forward and whispered a long and elaborate Pinkie Pie plan. When she was done, he nodded respectfully.
"Not bad, Pink. Not bad at all."
He opened the door to Sugarcube Corner, letting out all of the sweet and inviting smells. "After you", he said, once again mimicking her voice. After she passed him, he threw another Pinkie Pie picture over himself.
In the kitchen, Mr. and Mrs. Cake were busy making batters and pulling sweets from their many ovens. The demand for treats and cakes in Ponyville had recently taken a huge rise and they were often finding themselves overwhelmed between their jobs and tending to the twins.
"Here you go, Honeybun!" Mrs. Cake called as she slid a freshly baked cake across the counter for him to set aside to cool.
"I think it's about time we hired a little more help around here", Mr. Cake said as he splattered a spatula full of icing onto a chocolate cake. "Business is booming and it's getting hard to keep up with everything. Even with Pinkie Pie around."
"But who could we trust with our recipes?"
Pinkie Pie walked in just as she said that. "I know who!"
"Who dear?" Mrs. Cake asked, throwing another pan into an oven.
"Hang on, I'll be right back!" She flew right back out of the kitchen.
As soon as her tail disappeared, Strings entered through the opposite door. "Hiya, Mr. and Mrs. Cake! How's business today?" Strings did his best to mimic Pinkie's excited and sporadic personality, and was sure he had crashed and burned in his attempt.
"Well, that was fast", said Mr. Cake.
"What was?" The fake Pinkie Pie cocked her head to the side.
The Cakes exchanged confused glances. Cupcake asked, "Didn't you just leave to show us who we could trust to hire?"
"What are you talking about? I just got here!" Strings bounced into the kitchen. "You're not working too hard again are you?"
"It has been busy today", Mr. Cake admitted. He reached for an icing pack to detail his cake. He noticed that it was nearly empty. "Pinkie Pie, could you go into the pantry and fetch a tub of coconut icing for me?"
"I sure can!" Strings bounced to the back of the kitchen. As he disappeared into it, Pinkie Pie bounced through the front door of the kitchen.
"I'm back", she chimed. "He wasn't home, so I'll have to bring him later." She grabbed her apron from the hook by the door and hurriedly tied it around her. She assumed her position at the far counter opposite the wall of the pantry. She grabbed a bowl and some nearby ingredients.
Now the Cakes were very confused, and almost scared that they were going crazy. Mrs. Cake completely stopped what she was doing. "Pinkie Pie weren't you getting icing?"
Taking that as his cue, Strings poked his head out of the pantry. "I am."
The air in the room thickened with terror. The two non-pink ponies looked from one Pinkie Pie to the other, in total disbelief at what their eyes were telling them.
Strings smiled, and walked over to take his place next to the real Pinkie Pie. Simultaneously, they burst into laughter. After a few seconds, they calmed down a bit. Slowly, Strings returned to his original form.
"Mr. and Mrs. Cake", Pinkie Pie announced, "This is Bass Strings! Make sure to call him only Strings though! He's a guitar player who wants to bake and I'm going to teach him how!"
The pressure in the room eased with the sighs of the bakers in relief that the universe hadn't just delivered them another Pinkie Pie.
Mr. Cake liked the looks of this young stallion. If Pinkie Pie wanted to teach him how to bake, then that meant she trusted him. "It's nice to meet you, Strings." Mr. Cake stepped forward. "I take it you are the colt Pinkie Pie was telling us about?"
"Huh?" Strings frowned in confusion. He didn't hear Pinkie Pie tell them about him. And there was no way she could have. He was with her all day.
"For the job, Dear." Mrs. Cake clarified.
"I thought that was part of the prank", he said honestly. He turned his eyes to Pinkie Pie for assistance. "I don't know about a job. Music's more me. And I can't bake to save my life. That's why Pink's teaching me."
"We could always have you work part-time." Mrs. Cake suggested. "That way Pinkie Pie can teach you in your spare time."
"Starting now!" Pinkie Pie grabbed Strings and dragged him into the next room.
"Pinkie Pie, what—"
She interrupted him by slipping a tan apron over his head and tying it around him.
"Pinkie!" he shouted with a blush. "What're you doing?!"
"The cakes just offered you a job and I'm your trainer!" She replied happily. She pulled the cookbooks she got from Twilight from their hiding places and set them all up on the counter.
"Pinkie Pie I said I wanted to learn how to bake", he said, struggling to undo the knot she tied into the apron's strings. "Not that I wanted a job baking."
She stopped setting up for his lesson. With a hurt expression, she asked, "You don't want to work with me?"
His fidgeting with the knot ceased. Her tone was a direct hit to his stomach. He quickly came up with an idea. "No it's not that. I'm a music pony, and this whole job thing's kinda sudden. I need a little time to think about it."
"Oh, okay!" Pinkie hid the rest of her disappointment by turning around to put away the supplies.
"Hey, Pink."
She turned to see him levitating a bag of flour in front of him. "I thought it over." He was grinning. "I'll take the job."
The grin stuck to Strings' flour and icing covered face reflected his pride. He lifted the face towel to his face and wiped off all of what was left of his first baking lesson. He didn't actually get to bake anything; Pinkie Pie only taught him how to mix ingredients and taught him which said ingredients were best for the different kinds of baked goods. Besides the unexplainable batter explosion he caused, the session went by, in his opinion, pretty awesome. He wiped the rest of the flour from his nose and left the bathroom. Pinkie Pie was still cleaning up the kitchen when he got back. She worked a lot faster than he thought; all of the batter had disappeared from the walls and ceiling. Pinkie was now putting the dishes and books away now.
"All done!" she chimed as he walked in. She placed the last bowl in a cabinet. "You get an "A" for the day Strings!"
"Awesome!"
"Now it's your turn!"
"Huh?" Strings raised an eyebrow.
"Aren'tcha going to give me those guitar lessons?"
"Oh, right!"
The look Pinkie Pie was giving him made his hair stand on end. It took only a single second before both ponies were tripping over each other as they attempted to get out of the kitchen and up the stairs. They wrestled up the staircase, with Strings trying his best to hold the mare down. Pinkie Pie eventually managed to get out from under Strings as they both crawled up the last step. The Earth Pony flew down the hallway and was almost in her room before Strings grabbed her tail with his magic. He lightly tickled her nose as he walked passed her and victoriously into her room.
He set her down gently. "My first win!"
"Victory hug!"
Strings didn't get to react. Pinkie Pie already had him in a near bone crushing embrace. To the unicorn, though, it was the softest and warmest hug he ever got. He put his hooves right back around Pinkie Pie and savored it, completely unaware that she had lifted him up and was spinning him around.
Pinkie Pie was enjoying it just as much if not more. Of all of the ponies that had ever hugged her, Strings was by far the best hugger ever. The feeling in her tummy spread so that her entire body was feeling tickly. In her mind, there was nothing but him with her. There was no room, no floor, nothing. Just Strings.
Neither pony knew how long they were spinning, but eventually it did stop, to their dismay. Pinkie Pie put Strings back on the floor and when the room stopped spinning, bounced over to grab his guitar, which he leaned against the wall next to the window.
"Just a sec, Pink", Strings said, levitating it from her hooves and into his. He closed his eyes and concentrated on a special spell.
Pinkie Pie watched in awe as both his horn and guitar glowed. Two of the strings disappeared and the other four changed in size. The bridge and neck shrunk slightly as he resized it. When he was done altering it, he handed the instrument back to the pink mare. "I had to change'er back to a bass", he explained, "I was practicing with her as a six string for a while, and I forgot to change it back. Can't exactly teach you on a guitar I can't play."
Pinkie Pie nodded. "What do I learn first?"
"If you can learn fast you might get to learn a couple awesome beginners." He motioned for Pinkie Pie to sit on her bed and he sat beside her.
She turned so that they were now facing each other. His guitar sat in her lap.
"First thing's first", he said, "You have to know which string is which."
He pointed to the top one. "This one is the 'E' string. Then 'A', then 'D', then 'G'."
"E, A, D, G got it!" Pinkie Pie recited seriously. "Every Apple Does Good!"
"Nice", he complimented. He moved his hoof farther up the guitar. "Up here's the neck and these little bumps are frets. You put the hoof you don't strum with up here to make the notes you play make different sounds." Boy, was he glad his parents made him go to music school. He probably wouldn't even know where to begin without it! He grabbed Pinkie Pie's left hoof and placed it at one of the top frets and placed her right hoof in strumming position.
Pinkie Pie felt awkward sitting like that. Strings must've noticed.
"Yeah, that's how felt when I first held a guitar, too", he sighed, "Bummer, I know, but you get used to it."
"When do I get to play?" Pinkie Pie asked anxiously.
"Just a sec." He focused a bit of energy into his horn. It glowed at a constant rate. "Okay, go ahead and give it a try."
Pinkie Pie pushed her right hoof downward into the strings and a low "waaah" sound echoed in the room. "That sounded so cool!"
"Sure did", he agreed, "Do it again."
She plucked a different string, and got a different noise.
"Good."
Pinkie Pie's guitar lesson lasted for another hour, and ended when she mastered a simple, fretless song. She wore the proudest of looks when she gave his guitar back. During her lesson she learned the different ways to strum, and how to rotate her hoof to play single strings.
"You're a natural, Pink. Totally radical!" He put his bass back against the wall.
"Really?"
"You better believe it!" He hopped off the bed. He really wanted to show her how proud he was. "I think we should go celebrate!"
"Ooh ooh! I know where we can go!"
Strings didn't bother to ask, he only stuck his hoof out, allowed her to grab it and let her drag him out of Sugarcube Corner and into the cool, evening filled town.