//------------------------------// // Insight Into Insanity // Story: Human Nature // by Dragonfire2lm //------------------------------// “Just you wait Manaquire, Twilight Sparkle and her friends will prevail and defeat you” Princess Celestia declared. Manaquire was laughing his head off, not because he thought it was a ridiculous idea, but because the entire statement had come from the mouth of Filly Celestia. “Aha! That’s cute Princess, but it will take more than six children with ‘the magic of friendship’ to stop me” he replied, patting the small white alicorn on the head. “Now then, with you as a filly, your sister trapped on the moon fighting her darker self Nightmare Moon, the only major power left is the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony, I think I’ll deal with him now..” Manaquire declared. Five minutes later “Shut up Tia” the infant Draconequus snapped at the giggling sun princess. “Now you two behave while uncle Manaquire goes to work” Manaquire mocked as he left the two children to continue his plans. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunset was having a mini break down. “I need to get a job, I need to find a place to stay…I need…a lot…of….stuff….SHIIITTT!” The reason for this was obvious; this was the first time in several hours that she had been given a chance to think about the situation, she came to these conclusions- One- she was not going home any time soon Two- she was a Pony Three- she had no clothing, no possessions and nothing of her own to use/ sell/ live with. Four- she was completely and utterly broke. Hence Twilight and Applejack watched with raised eyebrows as the orange maned Pegasus rambled in a state of panic, with the occasional swear. Fluttershy was hiding under a table, Rarity was watching with a look akin to annoyance on her face due to the swearing and Rainbow was laughing hysterically. “Hey girls come check this out!” Pinkie called out. The other occupants of the room turned to look over at the pink party pony, she had unwrapped the package Manaquire had presented Sunset with. In her hooves was a long black two tailed trench coat. Sunset walked over to Pinkie, took the coat from her and inspected it. “This is...my coat, my decade old trench coat…” “That thing belongs to you? Darling you must let me make you something more stylish” Rarity declared. Sunset slipped it on, Manaquire had somehow modified it to fit a pony, including holes for her wings. It fit perfectly, it was so long that the end covered her flank and left just enough room to have her tail fit through the gap between the coat’s tails. “I knew he was good with his psychic abilities, but this is just wow..” Sunset stated in awe. “There’s a note too!” Pinkie shoved a yellow sticky note into Sunset’s hooves. “Rule one: insane not evil, rule two: the world is gray, remember that ponies, signed Manaquire” Sunset read. “What in the hay does that mean?” Applejack asked. “And why would such a ruffian be nice to you?” Rarity queried. “Ooh! Maybe he likes you!” suggested Pinkie. “It’s not that Pinkie” Sunset chuckled. “But you saw what he did to Cloudsdale, and how he treated us! So what else could it?” Rainbow dash reasoned. “RD is right Sunset, logically speaking what else could it be?” Twilight stated. “Do you ponies even know the definition on the word ‘insane’?” Sunset almost deadpanned. “Crazy” “Coco in the loco” “Evil” “Ok that’s not entirely the case” Sunset explained. “Insanity, to my knowledge, is acting, saying and generally behaving in a way that is against the way the rest of society works” “Pardon?” this came from a confused Applejack. “Manaquire does things..that…well would seem to evil to whatever civilisation he comes across, he has varying levels o insanity, that range from Discord style pranks to full blown evil mastermind-“ the dark blue Pegasus continued. “If that’s the case the why is he being nice to you?” Twilight interjected. “He said he was here to teach you a lesson right?” Sunset asked, receiving nods all around she continued. “I’m not the pony he’s teaching it too, I already know the lesson, also it could be a case of he’s the problem and I’m somehow the solution or something, I don’t really know everything that he’s thinking” “But you created him!” Twilight stated. “If any pony has a chance of figuring him out it’s you” “That may be true, but there could be a hundred different things I think he could do, but I have no way of knowing just which one out of a hundred things he would do” Sunset replied. “Hey there’s a bag in here as well!” Pinkie had returned to going through the package and placed a black satchel on a nearby table, un-zipped it and began rummaging through its contents. “Wow! There sure is a lot of stuff in here!” the pink pony giggled as the front half of her body went deeper into the bag, much to every pony’s surprise, as the bag itself was about as large as two saddle bags being put side-by-side. Curious, Twilight walked over to the bag, with Pinkie’s rear end sticking out of it, and waved a hoof above it, she felt no strings or wires. She looked underneath the table it was on and waved a hoof in the empty space, there was no hidden trap door or secret compartment. “How is that possible?” she asked, perplexed as Pinkie finally pulled herself out from the satchel, her mane wasn’t even showing the slightest hair out of place, even though she had stuck herself face first into a bag barely large enough to fit her head. “It’s bigger on the inside!” Pinkie laughed, and fell down giggling. “Huh so it is…” Sunset inspected the bag herself. “But that shouldn’t even be-“Twilight began. “Some things are better left alone Sugar cube” Applejack interrupted before the purple unicorn got worked up over it. “Not everything has an explanation” “So…Sunset now that you’re, you know hanging with us and all, what are you going to do?” Rainbow asked. “I dunno, hey Pinkie any ideas for that new name yet?” “Um…Oh! There’s Stellaris!” Pinkie offered. “Hm…cool” “Since you’re so fixated on finding a new name, I have ideas” Twilight offered. “How about Moonfire? Or Ember? Maybe Eclipse?” “Those are some really good ideas! Stellaris is the only reviewer submission though” Pinkie replied. “What’s a reviewer?” Rainbow asked “Eclipse sounds good Twilight...but too cliché, Ember is also Cliché, Moonfire is a good one though, but I think I’ll wait and see if any pony else has some ideas” Sunset stated. “Well it is your name after all” Twilight replied. Rarity sighed at the coat Sunset was still wearing. “Are you sure you don’t want me to make you anything?” she asked Sunset. “I’m cool with my coat, but if you really want to, a necklace or a hat will be fine, just nothing too girly or extravagant ok?” she replied. “You guys go do that, I’m going to check the weather patrol” Rainbow Dash stated. “Hey Fluttershy?” Sunset walked over to the yellow Pegasus. “Yes?” “Since Dash is busy, do you think maybe you could teach me how to fly?” “I don’t know, Rainbow is a much better flyer than me, I’m sure she’d be happy to teach you” Fluttershy replied. “And I do not want to learn how to fly fast or do fancy tricks” Sunset deadpanned. “I just want to learn how to fly casually, you know like a bird” “Oh then…Alright, we can go to my cottage, I know a few birds who could help us out with teaching you” Fluttershy offered. “Great!” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Manaquire watched from afar as Pegasi all over the country side flew about trying to tame the huge storm that was rumbling towards the rock farms dotted throughout the land. “And so it begins” he muttered and vanished.